In the Name of Jesus, Walk!

IN THE NAME OF JESUS, WALK

A SERMON FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME—C

Sunday, June 2, 2013

by William F. Thomas II

THE TEXT:  Acts 3:1-8

¹Peter and John went up into the Temple at the hour of prayer, around 3:00 o’clock.  ²There was a man who had been lame from birth who was carried every day and placed by the gate of the Temple called Beautiful to beg for charity from those who were entering the Temple.  ³He saw Peter and John about to enter the Temple, and he asked for charity from them. 

⁴Peter stared at him, with John, and said, “Look at us.” 

⁵He looked at them, expecting to receive something from them. 

⁶Peter said to them, “I don’t have any money, but I will give you what I have:  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk around.” 

⁷He grabbed his right hand and lifted him up.  Immediately his feet and ankles were totally healed.  ⁸He sprang up, stood, walked around, and entered the Temple with them, walking around, jumping up and down, and praising God.

            A few years ago, Winnie and I had the privilege of attending a class taught by a fine Christian man who has built a huge business that helps people.  In the process, he has earned a lot of money and built a nice estate, so much so that American Express invited him to have their very exclusive black card, the card that is supposed to have no limit. Ronnie gave the card to his mother, and told her, “Mama, this is your living for the rest of your life.  Buy your groceries with this.  Put your utilities on this.  Pay your doctors with this.  If you see a house you like, buy it with this.”  And when he said this, I got tears in my eyes.  I want to give my mother that card!  You can’t apply for this card.  You have to be invited to carry this card. The average black card holder has a net worth of $16.3 million, and an annual income of $1.3 million.  For the record, I haven’t been invited to carry one this year.

            Before Jesus died, knowing that he was leaving a lot of work for them to do, he gave them his American Express Black card—his name.  He said, “Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you” (John 16:23).  He died, he was resurrected, he ascended, and a few days later, Peter and John had occasion to try out that black card.  They were entering the Temple, and a lame beggar asked for help.  Peter groped for his wallet before he remembered it was about A. D. 33 and the billfold hadn’t been invented yet.  He said to the poor beggar, “Man, I’m sorry!  I don’t have any money.”  That didn’t faze the beggar.  He heard that dozens of time every day.  Then Peter added, “But I’ll give you what I’ve got!

            “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk.”

            On Pentecost, when Peter preached that first sermon to the crowd, 3,000 people were baptized and joined the new church.  About 5,000 came on board that day!  In the next little while, people came by droves.  They would place their sick outside on the sidewalks, hoping Peter would come by and his shadow would touch them.  In later years, people would bring handkerchiefs to Paul.  After he had touched them, they would take them to their sick, and the sick would be healed.

 

           Well, the Apostles died.  Then their disciples (the Apostolic Fathers) died.  That’s been nearly 2,000 years ago.  Did anybody see who ended up with Jesus’ black card?

            What if it turns out that you have it?  Your pastor seems to think you might!  He asked me to preach this weekend by email.  He told me the text he had chosen, the sermon title he had composed, and he told me what he wanted this sermon to say.  He said

As you know, we're in the midst of the Pentecost-themed sermon series. I had planned to use Acts 3:6 as text. Title has already been publicized: "In the Name of Jesus, Walk." Here's what I was working toward: early in the apostolic age there was convincing demonstration that the power which was availble to Jesus was transferred to the Apostles. They went about saying things like, "In the name of Jesus, walk" and "I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!"(Acts 16:16-24), etc. Actually DOING what they had been empowered to do. Imagine...

He wants you to realize that every human being ever born, Jesus died for; every human being who ever walked this planet, Jesus loved; every child God planned, shaped by hand, placed the gifts and graces he chose, and placed on the earth at the time and place he willed!  EVERY BABY EVER BORN IS GOD’S GIFT TO THE WORLD.

            YOU are God’s gift to the world.

            You have Jesus’ Black Card.  So does everybody else.  But how many souls squander the precious gift God has given them hurting people?  Some will wake up one day, disillusioned at last.  On that day, they will know NOT that they grabbed for all the gusto, but that they were cheated, that they missed out, that they could have known real joy, real life!

But maybe worse, how many of us fritter away the gift of God, not causing any great harm, nor doing any great good.  Getting by.  Just making it through.  As if we believed harmlessness equals virtue.  As if Jesus had given us his American Express Black Card, and we had used it to buy a couple of hundred dollars’ worth of junk at Wal-mart!

            It was my high privilege to have a course under that magnificent Christian gentleman Bishop Mack Stokes.  I got to spend some time with him, not nearly as much as some, and not nearly enough.  But I learned to imitate his voice! 

            Every time he preached, he would refer to [in Bishop Stokes’s voice] “my wife Rose—I call her that because that’s her name.” 

            He would tell wonderful stories in the third person, and I am so sure they are really autobiographical.  He told the story of [in Bishop Stokes’s voice] “a little boy who came home with a black eye.  His mother said, ‘Son, who gave that to you?’ and the little boy responded, ‘Mother, you don’t understand:  they don’t give you these things, you have to FIGHT for them!’”  I would bet you money five-year-old Mack Stokes came home with a black eye from the missionary school in Korea where he was born.

            I don’t know how many times I heard him say the statement I think was the theme of his life:  [in Bishop Stokes’s voice] “The Lord Jesus did not die for you for the purposes of mediocrity!”

            Another fine Christian businessman I admire gave a class Winnie and I attended.  He also turned out to be an American Express Black Card holder.  His mother died a few years ago, so he has his card.  Driving home one night he stopped for gas and managed to leave his wallet in the men’s room.  By the time he had noticed, somebody had found his wallet, and that pretty black card.  They decided they were going to do some damage to that card!  So they took it to WAL-MART!  They ran up a bill for two-three hundred dollars!

            Bill tells this story with a laugh and a head-shake, saying, “Those poor dumb fools had no idea what they had!”

            Do you have any idea what you have?

            There are lame to be made to walk, dead to be raised, souls to be saved, joy to be had!  And some of those souls will never know Jesus’ power unless YOU bring it to them. 

            It was my 34^th birthday, June 13, 1990, that I was ordained Elder.  I knelt on a kneeler at the Augusta Civic Center, they placed a Bible before me, I put my hand on the open book, Bishop Ernest A. Fitzgerald put his hands back on my head, and commanded me, “William Franklin Thomas II, take thou authority, as an Elder in the Church, to preach the Word of God, and to administer the Sacraments in the congregation.”

            Take thou authority as Apostles of God to administer the Name of Jesus, wherever it is needed, as often as you can.

            Take thou authority.

            In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

(Delivered at Jonesboro United Methodist Church, Jonesboro, Georgia, Sunday, June 2, 2013.  Many thanks for the honor and trust Dr. George Freeman gave me in allowing me to fill his pulpit while he was on vacation!)

What if you couldn't fail?

THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT—C

February 17, 2013

THE PSALTER

Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16

^1. If you sit in the secret place of the Almighty,

you will abide in the shadow of the Most High.

^2. Call the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”…

^9. For you, Lord, are my refuge. You have made the Most High your safe place.

^10. Evil will not approach you. The stroke will not come close to your tent!

^11. For he will command his angel about you to keep you in all your ways.

^12. He will carry you in his hands so that you don’t stump your toe on a rock.

^13. You will tread on scorpion and serpent. You will stomp on lions and dragons!

^14. He relies on me and I will deliver him. I will shield him, for he knows my name.

^15. He will call me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble.

I will save him and I will glorify him.

^16. I will fill him up with long life, and I will show him my salvation.

THE OLD TESTAMENT

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

¹When you come to the land which the Lordyour God is giving you for an inheritance, and you possess it and live in it, ²you will take from the first of all the fruit of the ground which you will bring from your land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you will place it in a basket and go to the place which the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling place for his name. ³You will come to the priest who will be in those days, and you will say to him, “I confess today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land which the Lordswore to our ancestors to give to us.” ⁴The priest will take the basket from your hand and wave it before the altar of the Lord your God, ⁵and you will answer and say before the Lord your God, “My ancestor was a lost Aramaean who came down to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a great, strong, numerous nation. ⁶The Egyptians treated us evilly and afflicted us and placed hard labor on us. ⁷We cried to the Lord the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our voices and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression. ⁸The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and a raised arm, with great fearful things and signs and wonders. ⁹He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰Now, look, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground which the Lordgave me.” You will rest it before the Lord your God, and you will confess before the Lord your God. ¹¹You will rejoice over all the good which the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you and the Levite and the migrant who is in your town.

THE EPISTLE

Romans 10:8b-13

⁸…this is the word of faith which we preach: ⁹that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For in the heart is belief unto righteousness, and in the mouth is confession unto salvation. ¹¹For the scripture says everyone “who believes on him will not be ashamed.” ¹²For there is no difference between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord of all is rich to all who call on him. ¹³For“everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

THE GOSPEL

Luke 4:1-13

¹Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led in the spirit in the wilderness ²40 days tempted by the devil, and he ate nothing in those days, and when they were finished he was hungry. ³The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘People will not live on bread alone.’”

⁵He took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, ⁶and the devil said to him, “I will give you authority over all these and their glory, because it is mine and I may give it to whomever I wish; ⁷so you, if you will bow down before me, all will be yours.”

⁸Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘You will bow down to the Lord your God, and him alone will you serve.”

⁹He led him into Jerusalem and stood him on the highest point of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here; ¹⁰for it is written ‘He will command his angels about you to save you,’ ¹¹and‘On their hands they will carry you so that you will not stump your toe on a rock.’”

¹²Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You will not tempt the Lord your God.’”

¹³When the devil had finished tempting him, he left him alone for a time.

 

On Sunday, October 13, 1974, sitting in the choir balconey at Jefferson First United Methodist Church, it seemed as if the heavens opened up and filled my  heart with light and joy.  I was born again, and I knew immediately that God wanted me to change my major (I was a first-quarter freshman at The University of Georgia) to music education.

 

There were few people who ever had the gall to apply to the Department of Music with less preparation than me.  I had two years in a small high school band, no piano, no music theory, no music history, no music literature.  I spent the rest of that year taking all the music courses they would let me take without admitting me to the program, before somebody messed up and let me in.  I spent the next four years battling the worst uphill battle of my life up to that date.  Every quarter one faculty member or the other would comment that I was unwise to consider continuing in music.  And they were right!  I was awful!  At first.  And for a long time. 

 

Every quarter, I watched students more talented than me drop out.  Out of the 20 who started with me, two of us graduated.  And it wasn't talent.  It was cussed, mule-headed stubbornness.  I knew that God wanted me to earn that degree.  Therefore I knew that I would. 

 

What if you knew you couldn't fail?  What would you dare to try?

 

In my private devotional reading, I'm in the Acts of the Apostles.  Here's Paul, swinging into town, preaching converting a few, then there's a riot and he has to run for his life.  The next town, he converts a few, then the disciples find out they're planning to kill Paul and they make him leave.  The next town, he converts a few before they drag him out of town and try to stone him to death!  Now, I know that Paul wasn't going from riot to riot in the serene saint-like confidence that all of this was planned by God from the beginning.  I know he had to be saying, at least in a small measure, "Maybe I could have done that better.  Maybe I should have been a little less firm in that point, or a little more firm in that one."  He wasn't omniscient.  He didn't know how it was going to come out!

 

But he also knew that Jesus was going to build his church, that it would catch on sooner or later.  And it really didn't catch on until after he died!  But he kept on.  He believed.

 

That believing is not any kind of emotion.  It's not any serenity.  It's not an unquestioned assurance.  You will feel doubt.  But you keep going as if it were true.  It's cussed, mule-headed stubbornness!  The other word for that is faith.

The Children of Israel had been living in tents and wandering the desert for 40 years, and Moses told them, "WHEN you come into the land..."  Can't you hear the wandering Israelites scoff?  "WHEN?  Don't you mean IF?"  "...and WHEN you bring in a harvest..."  (Insert sound of Israelites scoffing).

Moses couldn't see it.  And he wouldn't live to see it.  But stubbornly, mule-headedly, cussedly, he insisted.  That, My Christian Family, is called faith.  It's not easy.  It's hard.  It takes determination.  It takes stubbornness.  It takes strength.  God makes it as easy as he possibly can so we can make it.  And he makes it as hard as it has to be so we can grow strong.

The man Jesus stumbles through the baking Judean wilderness, hungry, thirsty, hot, tired, dizzy, his vision blurred, in pain, in doubt.  Yes, Jesus felt doubt.  He was "tempted in all ways we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).  That means he felt the same doubts, he just didn't succumb to them as we do.  And he felt doubt.  He felt pain.  And he felt the presence of the Evil One.  He can turn stones into bread and feed the hungry.  He can make a great showy spash in Jerusalem.  He can have royal power over the whole world and MAKE them do what they should!  Nobody will have to be betrayed, nobody will have to be crucified!  It would be so easy.  Imagine being so painfully uncomfortable, and being shown an open door to instant ease.  What agony to say no!  The pain itself is less torturous than accepting its continuance.  And the man Jesus couldn't see the end any more than Moses could, any more than Paul could, any more than we can!  But he was as assured of success as Paul, as Moses, and as we are. 

Jesus had the same assurance from God that we do.  And he took the chance.  He took the painful risk of doing the right thing, even in the face of certain pain, and, in his case, literally, certain death.  And he would never see the fruit of his work before he died either.

As long as we follow Jesus, we cannot fail.  We will hurt, we will mess up, we will try things that don't work, we will lose.

But we will win.  We will prevail.

Courage is not never feeling fear.  Courage is feeling fear and doing the right thing anyway.

Faith is not perfect confidence.  It is the cussed, mule-headed stubbornness to keep doing what you know you should.

And it always works.

What a difference a compliment makes.

Once upon a time, I thought my nose too big.  Then, one night on a date, the young lady told me how much she liked my nose.  Immediately I decided it a fine nose, worthy of a king.  I have not disliked my nose from that day.  Amazing what a compliment can do.

I love paying compliments.  I love paying compliments because I know how much I love receiving them.  I never lie.  I don't even exaggerate.  I do have a tendency to enjoy things more than most people do.  I'm kind of proud of that.  And it gives me pleasure to tell people they have given me pleasure.  Good work.  Nice dress.  Sharp shoes.  Usually two words will do.  Someone has said people always believe you when you say nice things about them.  That's not always true.  Sometimes it is.

So the other day another of those life-changing, self-image-resetting compliments came my way.

Lately, when I grope in the silverware drawer for a fork, I want a small fork.  And when I make myself a cup of coffee, I go for the small cup, and the most delicate of the cups in the cabinet.  Not the 12-ounce mug, but the 6-ounce cup.  The china, not the melmac.  The one I need to be a bit careful about.  I'm not sure why.

I married the wisest, smartest person I have ever known.  Someone once asked, if she's so smart, why did she marry me.  I grinned and said that I can be very persuasive when I want to be.  Anyway, it's her opinion that means most to me.  I fear her displeasure more than I fear anyone else's.  And her approval means more to me than anyone else's.  Some men laugh at me, but I think that is a wise attitude for a husband.  And I think her opinion of my opinion is somewhere near mine of hers.

We were talking, the trivial things husbands and wives discuss, and I mentioned that lately I have preferred the smallest fork and the most delicate cup.  She smiled, a little slyly, and said, "I know that.  I've always knows that."  (Funny thing.  I haven't always known that.)  "It's one of the reasons I married you."  (I bet she doesn't even know it was a compliment.)

The heavens opened and the angels sang. 

Well, not exactly.

But the world seemed a bit sweeter.  The woman I love loves me for me, and always have.  I never tried to come across like He-Man.  But I've always felt a bit of inferiority because I'm not.  Suddenly that doesn't matter.  She loves me.  ME! 

How strange to be told something surprising and new, and realize it's something you've always known.

What a joy to have married so well.

Thank You, Governor Romney

Not long ago, my wife and I worked in a few local political campaigns. Most of what we did was phone work. One of our candidates won, the rest didn't.

At the election night party for our candidate for the US House of Representatives, an insight struck me. The candidate, fine man I had known for many years came to the party knowing he had lost. He was brave, he smiled, he conversed gamely with these many people who had worked so hard to elect him. It reminded me of the wife of one of the other candidates, the one who won. When her husband lost an election for another office, a state-wide office, I wanted to encourage them to run again, and she looked warningly at me and said, "NO! I'm never going through that again!"

 

It's hard work running for office. It's grueling. It's putting your guts through a meat grinder.

 

And that night I realized that it's absolutely necessary for the continuance of democracy. People have to run for office. Somebody has to lose. There has to be a choice, or there is no democracy.

 

I've always thought Mitt Romney a good man with the ability to serve. I think he did a pretty good job as Governor or Massachussetts. I thought his dad a good man. I remember his abortive run for the Presidency in 1968. I never had doubts that George Romney was a good and capable man.

 

Several years ago, The United Methodist Church commissioned a study of a controversial topic. After some years of work the commission concluded it couldn't come up with a definite conclusion. The report was derided by people on both sides of the issue (usually a pretty good indicator that you've done a good job, by the way). The introduction to the report had a phrase that changed my life: It said, "people of good will on both sides of this issue..." People of good will on both sides. I realized that nobody on either side wanted to destroy United Methodism. People on each side sincerely wanted to help. They all believe themselves to be fighting for God's will, and for the benefit of our denomination.

 

Fundamentally, nobody on either side of this ugly political chasm wants to see the United States of America destroyed. Fundamentally, we all want what is best for the nation we love. Fundamentally, we disagree on what is best, and we disagree on how to achieve her ultimate best welfare. But we are not traitors. We are not disloyal. We are Americans. We are patriots.

 

And this morning, the morning after this awful, acrimonious election, I honor Governor Mitt Romney. He fought hard. He endured much. No one will ever know how much this election cost him, and I am not talking about money. Today he joins a list of honorable people, dating back to Thomas Jefferson's loss to John Adams in 1796. This list includes such remarkable public servants as John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Gen. Winfield Scott, Stephen A. Douglas, William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, Al Smith, and Adlai Stevenson. Some would come back to win another day. Some never ran again. But all labored with unimaginable toil to promote democracy. Good, bad, right or wrong, they have made our democracy possible.

 

I honor them all. Thank you, Governor Romney.

"I can't believe in a god who..."

Job 1:1; 2:1-10

¹There was a man in the land of Uz named Job, a man of integrity who feared God and turned from evil….  ^2:1One day the children of God came to stand before the Lord.  The Accuser also came to stand before God.  ²The Lord said to the Accuser, “Where have you been?”

 The Accuser said, “All over the earth."

 ³The Lord said to the Accuser, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is no one like him on the earth, a man of integrity and uprightness, fearing God and turning from evil?  He still maintains his integrity, though you got me to do evil to him for nothing.”

⁴The Accuser answered the Lord, “Skin for skin!  People will do anything to save their lives!  ⁵Put forth your hand and afflict his flesh and bone, and he will curse you to your face!”

⁶The Lord said to the Accuser, “He is in your power.  Only preserve his life.”

⁷The Accuser went out from before the Lord and he struck Job with a terrible case of boils, from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head.  ⁸Job took a shard of pottery to scrape himself, and he began to live in a trash pile. 

⁹His wife said to him, “Do you still hang on to your integrity?  Curse God and die!”

¹⁰He said to her, “You talk like a fool.  Will we receive good from God and not receive evil?” 

In all this, Job did not sin with his mouth.  (my translation)

 

All my Christian life, I've heard people repulse my attempts to convert them, "I can't believe in a God who...."  "If there really were a God, he would never allow..."

 

The other day, on my way to work, I was trying to explain to God (as if I could explain anything to God!) that their point isn't totally invalid.  Bad, awful things happen, horrible things, things that are impossible to explain when you believe in a God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, AND all-loving.  Logically, you can posit three of those things AND admit evil; but not all of them.  I haven't endured the worst of calamities, but I have hurt enough that I do sympathize.

 

A great Christian couple I know buried a 16-month-old son after suffering several miscarriages and bringing this child to term only after having this lovely wife stay in bed six months.  Then suddenly the child, this inhumanly beautiful boy, this sweet child, was dead.  I heard the grieving father was heard to say, "Why even bother to pray?"  And to this day I don't blame him  He was overcome with grief, and he was not as damning toward God as Job gets later on in the book.  To his credit, he got past his grief, he stayed strong on faith, and now he and his wife have grown children!

 

But what of those people who have lost their faith because tragedy has just destroyed them?  I knew a psychiatric nurse who would say, after an intake assessment in the hospital where she worked, "If everything that happened to her happened to me, I'd be in a psych hospital too!"

 

Job  lost all his children and all his wordly possessions in one day, and he only said, "I brought nothing into this world, and I can take nothing out.  The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away.  Blessed by the name of the Lord!"  (Job 1:21, my revision)  I'm 56 years old, and I still hope I grow up to be like Job.  I don't think I'm quite there yet!

 

That morning I was patiently trying to educate God, he dropped an insight on me:  that those who lose their faith after a devastating  loss (I'm not talking about deep grief from which you recover and continue patiently, trustingly, stubbornly followin God) then your god has let you down, but your God is not the Lord.  You have been trying to use the Lord as a means to an end, you have set up God as servant to something more important to you. 

 

Your real god is that which is most important to you.  That is what you serve, that is what you worship, and that is the thing from which you expect to get your needs met. 

 

I used to say, "God won't play second fiddle in your orchestra.  He'll sit first violin, or he'll pack up his bow and his instrument and go home."  And that's not because he's an insecure weenie who constantly needs his ego stroked.

 

It's because if I place anything else in first place in my life, anything but God the Lord, I will expect more from that than it can perform, and I will do damage to that, as well as bring devastating pain into my own life!  It's because to praise and worship and serve any other God than the Lord is to hurt ourselves.  That means there can be no thing and no one who means more to me than he does.  That means he must be first, before my daughter, before my wife, before my job, before my country, before my health, before my life.  That means my relationship with him cannot be "I will worship you if".  It means "I will worship you PERIOD!"  If I win, if I lose, if I prosper, if I go down in flames, if I am loved, if I am hated, if my car falls apart and I can't afford another one, if the doctor says "cancer" to me, if the doctor says "cancer" to my wife.

 

Pain happens.  Not God's first choice, I think, but they happen.  So he uses them, because he uses everything available to him to help us grow, grow into his likeness and image.  He wants us to be like him.  And what's he like?  Is he ignorant?  Is  he weak?  Is he lazy?  Is he stupid?  Is he an infant?  Is he a sheep? 

 

He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!  And he wants you to grow to be like him!  Who are the kings over whom he is to be king?  Us!  Who are the lords over whom  he will be lord?  It's his will for us!  He wants us to be kings!  Why are we not yet?  Because each of us is born with a do-it-yourself kingdom kit.  He's waiting for us to build our kingdom! 

 

He doesn't make it easy, but he makes it possible.  From him we get salvation, we get peace, we get love; we also get that sense of accomplishment, of confidence, to grow into his likeness.  He helps.  We are to grow into helpers.  He gives.  We are to grow into givers.  And it's hard.  It takes work.  It takes time.  It takes courage.  It takes patience.  It takes cussed stubbornness.

 

Honestly, look back on your life.  Aren't the things you're most proud of now the things that were the most uncomfortable then?  Aren't the things of greatest value to you the things that were the hardest to get?

 

Jesus loves me.  But that doesn't mean I won't ever hurt.  In fact, if you read your church history, you'll see greatest heroes of our faith, the ones who seem to be God's greatest favorites, have actually suffered the most.  One day, I intend to meet them, and I'm going to ask them, "Was it worth it?"  I know what they're going to say.

 

And I'm going to greet Jesus.  I'll see the scars, still in his hands, the little prick marks still in his forehead from the crown of thorns.  And I'll say, "Lord, was it worth it?"

 

Do you know what I think he'll say?  I think he'll wrap his arms around me and say, "Will, you're here.  Yes, it was worth it."  That's what he'll say to you too.

Judas--My Brother

Tradition has it that Judas betrayed Jesus on Wednesday.  The Bible doesn't say it was Wednesday.  The Bible doesn't say it wasn't Wednesday.  Whatever.

I have fasted on Wednesdays for decades now.  Nothing extreme--just no food between midnight and noon.  When any discomfort comes on me, I remember to stop and pray.  It's been a good exercise.

Please understand--God doesn't command this.  Nor am I ingratiating myself to Him.  Any good parent understands God does not enjoy watching His children's discomfort.  I do this for me.  It is a religious exercise that reminds me how great a price was paid for me, how valuable I am to God. 

In the past several years, it has also brought me closer to humanity.

We believe Jesus died for sins, and if I had been the only one ever to have sinned, Jesus would have done it all for me.  Guess what!  If I had been the only sinner, I would have had to be the one to kill him!

And when Judas went to the Sanhedrin, he set in motion a series of events that has bought Eternal Life for me.  Brothers and Sisters, Friends and Family, Judas was my agent.  He acted on my behalf.

How can I despise him?  I wish he had repented before he died.  I can't believe Jesus would have put somebody worthless in His Inner Circle.  It seems to me that God had to find a Paul to replace Judas.  What if Judas had repented, and had gone on to be the peripatetic Apostle to the Gentiles?  What a story of grace that would have been!

No more can I despise any other sinner, even though their betrayal of Jesus is different from mine.  We are Family, Brother and Sister Sinners.  No murderer, no child abuser, no sex offender, no matter  how heinous or despicable the crime, no one is beneath me.  "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."  (Romans 3:23)  If I desire the damnation of anyone, how can I pray for my own forgiveness? 

Who is the worst sinner you can imagine?  Hitler?  Stalin?  Torquemada?  Jesus loved each one of them.  Jesus died for each one of them.  When God created each of them, just like He did for us, he was proud, and he had big BIG plans for them.  Not even a mother weeping at the news her child has been executed can know the bottomless grief God feels for all the babies he sent into the world just chock-full of gifts and graces, who used all those gifts and graces for evil.

One morning before sunrise I was driving to work and a car passed me recklessly.  I mumbled something that included the word "idiot".  Then I realized the idiotic things I had done in my rush to get out that very morning, and I realized that offensive driver was my Fellow Idiot.  We are idiots together.

Suddenly I felt solidarity with all sinners of all times and all places.  I wanted to spread my arms wide and embrace them all.

Then, in the next instant, I realized that's exactly what Jesus did when He spread His arms to be nailed to the cross.  He embraced us all, all of us sinners.

When we of the more liturgical Christian traditions receive Holy Communion, we pray a prayer of confession.  The one we use most commonly in my church says:

Merciful God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart.  We have failed to be an obedient people.  We have not done your will, we have broken Your law, we have rebelled against Your love, we have not loved our neighbor, and we have not heard the cry of the needy.

A good Methodist was once heard to proclaim, "Why should I have to pray that prayer every time?  I haven't done all that!"

Maybe you haven't, my precious Sister.  But We have. Maybe I'm not guilty of all that, but We are.

We are the Church.  We are the Church together.  Sinners united, saved by Grace.  One in the Spirit.  One in the Lord.

Thanks be to God, through the unbelievable gift of Jesus Christ, who with His dying breath prayed for forgiveness for Judas, for Annas and Caiaphas, for Pilate, for the Roman soldiers who crucified him!  And for me!

The Self-confidence Formula: Third

Third:  I know, through the principal of autosuggestion, that any desire I persistently hold in my mind will eventually seek expression through some practical means of obtaining the object back of it; therefore I will devote ten minutes daily to demanding of myself the development of self-confidence.(Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich)

In his book The Dreamgiver, Bruce Wilkinson says God gives each of us a dream at birth, that the dream doesn't belong to me, it is God's, I am merely the steward of the dream; and that, if I don't follow my dream, others will suffer.  I am now convinced this is true. 

God put in each of us a unique combination of gifts and graces, and he placed each of us where he placed us, and exactly when, not for a reason, but for a host of reasons.

You are God's gift to the world.

Each one of us is.

When any of us fails to achieve our dreams, something God wants for the world doesn't come to fruition.  If people don't suffer, they don't prosper as they should.  And frequently, people suffer.

You are that important to the world.  And your refusing to believe it isn't "humble".  It's shirking your duty.  It's abdicating your responsibility.  And it's short-circuiting your own greatest happiness.

So self-confidence isn't optional. It's necessary. We will never be of any use to anyone before we believe in our abilities.

This is where I think Satan has his greatest triumph:  in convincing us that we are no one of any significance, that nothing we ever do will make any difference, that the world would be no better off without us.  I think this is behind teenage pregnancy, drug addiction, obesity, a host of evils.  I think all of these things grow out of our failure to recognize ourselves for what we are:  nascent Children of God, royalty beyond anything the House of Windsor will ever reach, greater than all the greatest kings, emperors, caesars, czars, presidents, prime ministers, popes, prefects, patriarchs, premieres combined will ever be.

I demand of myself the development of self-confidence.

I'm not 100% sure what that means.  I don't really know how to do that.   But I have learned, from the few times I have acted, that when you really get into a part, you can become that part. 

I know what self-confidence looks like.  Self-confidence looks others squarely and forthrightly in the eyes.  Self confidence stands tall and erect.  Self confidence moves deliberately, and not too fast.  Self confidence speaks firmly, slowly enough to be understand, never shrilly.  I can do that.  I will do that.  I must do that.  The dream God has given me is so huge and so important and so necessary, the world suffers so without it, for the sake of the world, I demand of myself the development of self-confidence!