If It's To Be, it's Up to WHO?!?

THE TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME—C

September 22, 2013

THE OLD TESTAMENT

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

^18.         My cheerfulness is turned to depression.  My heart is languishing.   

^19.         Behold, the sound of the cry for help of the daughter of my people from a far land!

            “Is there no Lord in Zion?  Is there no king there?

                        Why do they vex me with their idols, in their stupid useless things?

^20.         The harvest is passed, the summer is done, and we are not saved!

^21.         On the shattering of the daughter of my people I am shattered!  My grief has taken me.

^22.         Is there no medicine in Gilead?  Are there no doctors there?

                        Why is the healing of the daughter of my people not arisen?

^23.         I wish my head were made of water and my eyes a fountain of tears.

              Then I could cry day and night for the sufferings of the daughter of my people.

^9:1.        I wish I had a place to stay in the wilderness, a hotel.

              Then I would desert my people and leave them alone;

                        for all of them are adulterers, a congregation of traitors.

THE PSALTER

Psalm 79:1-9

^1.          A Psalm of Asaph

            God, the nations have invaded your heritage.  They have defiled your holy temple.

                        They have turned Jerusalem into a junkpile.

^2.          They have given the corpses of your servants to the birds of the skies to eat,

                        the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth.

^3.          They have poured out blood like water all around Jerusalem, with no one to bury!

^4.          We have become a joke to our neighbors,

a laughingstock and an insult to those around us.

^5.             How long, Lord?  Will you be angry forever?  Will your indignation burn like fire?

^6.          Pour out your rage on the nations who do not know you,

                        and on kingdoms where they do not call on your name.

^7.          They have consumed Jacob, and laid waste his pastures.

^8.          Do not hold our first iniquities against us.  Let your mercies go before us quickly,

                        for we are terribly weakened.

^9.          Remember us, God of our salvation, according to the fame of the glory of your name.

            Deliver us and forgive our sins, for the sake of your name.

 or

Psalm 4

^1.          To the Music Director, on Strings, a Psalm of David:

^2.          When I call, answer me, God of Jacob.

            When I am in a tight place, enlarge it for me.  Be gracious and hear my prayer.

^3.          Human children, how long will you abase my glory, love useless things, and seek lies? 

Selah.

^4.          Know that the Lord’s saints are precious to him.  The Lord will hear when I cry to him.

^5.          Be angry and do not sin.  Speak in your heart in your bed and be silent. 

Selah.

^6.          Sacrifice righteous sacrifices and trust in the Lord.

^7.          There are many who will say, “Who will show us any good?”

            Turn the light of your face on us, Lord.

^8.          You have put more joy in my heart than in the time of plentiful grain and new wine.

^9.          In complete peace I will lie down and I will sleep, for you alone, Lord, keep me safe.

THE EPISTLE

I Timothy 2:1-7

            ^2.1I insist therefore first of all that there be requests, prayers, intercessions, thanksgiving for all people, ²for kings and all in authority, that we might lead quiet, peaceful lives in all godliness and sobriety.  ³This is excellent and acceptable before our Savior God, ⁴who wants everyone to be saved and to come into the knowledge of truth.  ⁵For God is one, and there is one mediator between God and humanity, the man Jesus Christ, ⁶who gave himself a sacrifice for all, the witness to his own times.  ⁷I was made a preacher and apostle for this (I tell the truth.  I do not lie) a teacher of nations in faith and truth.

THE GOSPEL

Luke 16:1-13

            ¹He said to his disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager who, he learned, was embezzling.  ²He summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you?  Hand in your ledgers.  You’re fired!’

            ³“The manager said to himself, ‘What can I do?  My boss has fired me!  I’m not healthy enough to dig ditches, and I’m too ashamed to go on welfare.  ⁴I know what I’ll do, so that somebody else will hire me!’

            ^5“He called everyone who owed his company anything, and he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my company?’

            ⁶“He said, ‘Six hundred gallons of oil.’

            “He said to him, ‘Take your contract, tear it up, and write 300.’

            ⁷“He said to the next one, ‘How much do you owe?’

            “He said, ‘Six hundred bushels of wheat.’

            He said to him, ‘Take your contract and write one for 500.’

            ⁸“His boss commended the dishonest manager for being clever.  The children of this realm are better at conducting themselves in this world than the children of the Light are.

            ⁹“I tell you, make friends for yourselves with the mammon of unrighteousness, so that, when they fail, they may receive you into their homes.

            ¹⁰“If you are honest with little, you will be honest with much.  If you are dishonest with little, you will be dishonest with much. ¹¹If you are dishonest with the mammon of unrighteousness, who will trust you with real wealth?  ¹²If you are dishonest with others’ things, who will give you your own?  ¹³You cannot serve two masters.  You will either hate the one and love the other, or hold to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon.”

IF IT’S TO BE, IT’S UP TO…WHO?!?

A SERMON FOR THE 20^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME—C

September 22, 2013

by William F. Thomas II

            “The children of this realm are better at conducting themselves in this world than the children of the Light are.”—today’s Gospel reading, Luke 16:8.

            “The folly of my people is that they do not know me.  They are foolish children, without understanding.  They are skillful at doing evil, but they do not know how to do good.”—last Sundays Old Testament reading, Jeremiah 4:22.

            C. S. Lewis quoted Charles Kingsley:  “Be good, sweet maid, and let who can be clever.”  Then he rephrased it:

The proper motto is not Be good, sweet maid, and let who can be clever, but Be good sweet maid, and don't forget that this involves being as clever as you can. God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than any other slackers. (Mere Christianity )

It turns out when we give ourselves to God, we give all of ourselves to God, we place at his service our bodies, and our minds.  It turns out he wants us not to check our minds at the door, but to educate them, to exercise them, to hone them, to make them the best tools for his service that we can.

            It turns out being a Christian is not like joining the Kiwanis Club.  It’s more like joining the Marines.  That’s not intense enough.  It’s more like getting married!  God has expectations, like a newlywed.  And, like a good marriage, it’s hard work, it’s expensive, it’s time-consuming, and it’s worth all it takes and more.  If you don’t put much into it, you can expect to get about that much out of it.  

            God doesn’t want infants, at least, not past the time where infancy is appropriate.  God doesn’t want sheep.  God wants friends, loved ones, family.  He wants us to grow into his likeness and his image.  Which begs the question:  WHAT IS GOD LIKE?

            Is he a wimp?

            Is he a fool?

            Is he an ignoramus?

            Is he a king?

            Is he wise?

            How much does he know?

            Is he powerful?

            Back in my seminary days, I drove out to spend some time with my family, while my wife was taking some time with hers.  There my parents and I sat around the kitchen table, drank coffee together, and talked.  We must have gone through three pots of coffee!  It was the first conversation I ever had with them, not son-to-parents, but adult-to-adult!  And it was wonderful!  We got along so well!  We had so much in common!

            To the day my daddy died, he was my go-to guy, the guy who had been there and done that, the guy who understood what I was going through.  He was never a pastor, but he had been a supervisor in cotton mills, with people under his authority and under the authority of others.  What he understood about my situation was almost telepathic!

            Forever and ever, he will always be Daddy to me.  I can never imagine allowing myself to be his equal.  But the closest we came to being equals was one of the best things in my life.  And, I think, one of the best things in his.

            What if that’s what God wants?  What if he wants us to grow to be as much like him, as God-like, as we can be?  What if the King of kings and Lord of lords has chosen us to be the kings over whom he is King, the lords over whom he is Lord?  What if he wants us to be royal, divine, autonomous, powerful, wise, decisive?

            And what if it is a constant frustration to him that so many of his children will not put out one tenth the effort on his kingdom that they do to make it in the world?  What if it drives him nuts that the evils of this world perpetuate themselves and the evil-doers celebrate their pupils in finding newer and better ways to be evil?  Could it irritate God to tears that the very gifts and graces he put in us for the betterment of others and the promotion of the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Peace and Prosperity for All, get used to hurt people, the victimize people, the oppress people, the hold people down?

            How much does it hurt God that the Children of This World are wiser in their age than are the Children of Light?  How much does it hurt God that his followers are wise to do evil, but fools in doing good?

            God will not make us obey.  He will not make us love him.  He will not make us build his kingdom.  It turns out a vital part of the mission is for us to want it, and to figure out how best we can serve it.

            Furthermore, so many times when I pray for help, for knowledge, for wisdom, I get no answer whatsoever!  It turns out he has already given me everything I need to accomplish what he wants!  It’s almost like I’m sitting in a car, with the keys in it, gassed up and ready to go, and I’m praying for transportation!  God just looks at me, waiting for me to figure it out.

            “Make friends for yourselves with the mammon of unrighteousness…”  In other words, be wise with everything you have!  Seek every opportunity, watch out for every tool to use for God’s advantage!  How can your education advance the Kingdom of God?  How can your past advance the Kingdom of God?  How can what you have, or what you owe, advance the Kingdom of God?  What do you have?  What do you need?  What do you lack?

            God has done everything for us that we could not do for ourselves in order that we might be saved.  God will do nothing for us that we can do for ourselves in order that we might be grow into his likeness.

Lost Sheep, Mad Bombers, and Me

L O S T   S H E E P,   M A D   B O M B E R S,  A N D   M E

THE NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME—C

September 15, 2013

THE OLD TESTAMENT

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28

^11.         At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem:

            “A scorching wind comes from the heights in the wilderness, toward of the daughter of my people,

                        not for refining and not to cleanse, ¹²a wind too strong for that will come from me.

            “And I will declare their sentence.

^22.         “The folly of my people is that they do not know me.

            “They are foolish children, without understanding.

            “They are skillful at doing evil, but they do not know how to do good.

^23.         “I have seen the land, and look! it is formless and void;

and to the skies, and they have no light.

^24.         “I have seen the mountains, and look! they are quaking, and all the hills are writhing.

^25.         “I have seen, and look! there is not a person, and all the birds of the skies have fled.

^26.         “I have seen, and look! the fertile wilderness and all its cities are torn down

                        because of the Lord, because of his fierce wrath.

^27.         For thus says the Lord:

            “All the earth will be desolate, but I will not destroy it completely.

^28.         “For this reason, the land will mourn, and the heavens above will wail:

                        because I have declared my plan,

and I will not repent, and I will not turn back from it.

THE PSALTER

Psalm 14

^1.          To the Music Director:  a Psalm of David

            Fools say in their hearts that there is no God.

            They have ruined themselves.  They have done awful things.  None of them does good.

^2.          The Lord looks down from the heavens on human children

                        to see if there are any wise, any who seeks God.

^3.          They all have turned away.  They are altogether defiled.

            There is no one who does good, not a single one.

^4.          Do they not know, they who do evil, who eat my people like they eat bread,

                        that the Lord will call them to account?

^5.          There they were terrified with great terror, for God is with the righteous generation.

^6.          They would frustrate the plans of the needs, but the LORD is their defender!

^7.          I wish that the salvation of Israel would come from Zion!

            When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people,

Jacob will dance for joy!  Israel will rejoice!

THE EPISTLE

I Timothy 1:12-17

            ¹²I thank our Lord Christ Jesus who empowered me, because he counted me faithful, placing my in ministry ¹³who at first was a blasphemer and persecutor and hurtful, but I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief; ¹⁴but the grace of our Lord, with the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus, superabounded.  ¹⁵Faithful is the word and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first.  ¹⁶But rather I was shown mercy for this:  that in me first Christ Jesus might show the example of the patience he has for all who were about to believe on him into eternal life.  ¹⁷To the eternal, immortal, invisible King, the only wise God be honor and glory forever and ever.  Amen.

THE GOSPEL

Luke 15:1-10

            ¹All the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to hear him.  ²The Pharisees and scribes would grumble, “This man receives sinners and eats with them!”  ³So he told them this parable:

            ⁴“Who among you who owns a hundred sheep and loses one will not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you find it?  ⁵And when you find it, you’ll put it on your shoulders rejoicing ⁶and go home and invite your friends and family, ‘Come have a party with me!  I have found my lost sheep!’  ⁷I tell you there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine who do not need to repent.

            ⁸“Or which woman of you who has ten drachmas and loses one will not light a lamp and sweep the house and look hard until she finds it?  ⁹And when she finds it, she calls her friends and family, “Come party with me!  I found the drachma I lost!’  ¹⁰Just like this, I tell you, there will be joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

L O S T   S H E E P,   M A D   B O M B E R S,  A N D   M E

A SERMON FOR THE 19^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME—C

September 15, 2013

by William F. Thomas II

            It was a Monday, May 15, 1972.  We met at the altar of Jefferson First United Methodist for prayer.  Virgil Adams led us.  Virgil was my spiritual father.  We mentioned what we wanted to pray for.  Finally, somebody asked, “Shouldn’t we pray for Governor Wallace?”  Virgil looked mystified.  “What happened?”  We told him Governor Wallace had been shot.  Virgil burst into tears, and we prayed.

            After everyone had left, I stayed with Virgil at the altar.  He said, “I’m not crying for Wallace.  I’m crying for the man who shot him.”

            Forty-one years later, finally I’m getting into the ballpark where Virgil lived.  Ariel Castro killed himself a couple of weeks ago.  I was horrified at what he did.  What he stole from those girls, ten years of their lives, no one can restore to them, ever!  They will carry those scars in their souls for the rest of their lives.  There is no punishment adequate for what he did, and no punishment can make it right for those three young women.  But when I learned he had killed himself, sadness seized me, hard!  I was so sad at the waste of life, of Ariel Castro’s life.

           

            You see, God created Ariel Castro.  But God didn’t create him to do that.  God created him in love, with gifts and graces the world needed.  God loved Ariel Castro.  Jesus died for Ariel Castro.  And God has waited and hoped all these years that Ariel would hear him, and repent, and finally grow into the joy God prepared for Ariel Castro, the fullness of life Jesus died to buy for Ariel Castro! 

            Ariel Castro was a lost coin, a lost sheep, Jesus wanted back.  Arthur Bremer, who shot George Wallace, was a lost coin, a lost sheep, Jesus wanted back.  “The saying is true and worthy of all acceptance,” Paul said to Timothy, “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” and the he added, “and I was the first of sinners, their chief.”  Paul was a lost coin, a lost sheep.  And he learned to rejoice when a lost sheep is found, when a lost coin is back safe.

            Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of that Baptist Church in Birmingham.  God created the men who did that, and he created them in love, with gifts and graces to share with the world.  God didn’t create them to throw bombs at babies.  And God grieved with those dead babies.  And God grieved with their families and friends.  What happened to them was indescribable, inexplicable, unconscionable, evil.  

            But God loved the bombers too. 

            The parable of the Lost Sheep and the parable of the Lost Coin are two tellings of the same parable.  And there is a third telling right next to them, you know.  The Parable of the Lost Son.  We call is The Prodigal.  Notice the difference?  The man ran all over the countryside looking for his lost sheep.  The woman turned her house upside down looking for her lost coin. 

            The father sat on his rear end, did nothing to bring his lost son home.  Why?  Because sheep are dumb and coins are inanimate.  But you can’t MAKE people love you.  You can only imprison them.  Like Arial Castro did to those girls.  That’s evil.  God doesn’t do evil.  Either people stay with you or they don’t.

            God wanted Ariel to come home.  God wanted those bombers to come home.  God wanted Arthur Bremer to come home.  God wanted Adolf Hitler to come home.

            So why are the two Old Testament readings so very grim?

When my daughter Emily was a baby, when she was not yet walking, one day she tried to climb a magazine rack.  Now I didn’t care about that silly magazine rack.  Seeing her explore her world was a delight.  But I was afraid she was going to hurt herself.

So I pulled her down.

She climbed back up.

I pulled her down again.

She climbed back up again.

I started telling her, “Baby, don’t climb that.  You might hurt yourself.  Don’t climb that!  Stop climbing that!  STOP CLIMBING THAT!”

Finally, I put my head down and I begged, knowing where we were going, “Baby. Please don’t make me spank you.”  Because I would rather she experience a slap on her bare leg than some worse injury.

She cried a few minutes after I spanked her, then she was all right.  But she never tried to climb that magazine rack again.

I couldn’t sleep that night.  Not even when I was sure I had done the right thing could I sleep any night I knew I had caused my baby to cry.  To this day!

God has been saying to his children for millennia now, “Please don’t make me spank you.”

Sin isn’t bad in God’s eyes because it offends his dignity or his ego.  Sin is sin in God’s eyes because it hurts his beloved children, us!

Please don’t hear me lessening the suffering of Ariel Castro’s victims, or of the young women killed when that bomb went off in Birmingham 50 years ago; or of their families.  What their families went through I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy!  But God took care of those babies.  It was awful what happened to them, but they’re all right now.  If their grieving families could fight their way through the anger and bitter hatred that I would feel if somebody did that to my daughter, they are all right. 

But what of the souls of those sinners, those lost sheep?  What about them?

There is not a sinner nor a sin in history who was ever beyond the power of the Blood of Jesus to cleanse, nor beyond the scope of the love of Jesus to want.

Not even you.

Not even me.

I was a lost sheep.  I was a lost coin.

Sometimes I wander off yet.  Do you?

How can I accept my salvation if I rejoice in the condemnation of any?

How do I hold any beyond the reach of Jesus’ love without standing outside there myself?  How do I hold anyone down in the sewer without staying in the sewer myself?  How do I ascend to glory and bar the way to others?

Thanks be to God, his grace is available to EVERYONE!

That means I can come in too!  Thanks be to God!

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.