Blessed Are The Imperfect -- A Message for February 26, 2023

 

On Wednesday, we officially entered the season of Lent. Lent is our 40 day journey to Easter, mirrored on the forty days Jesus spent in the Wilderness. On Wednesday, we celebrated the day of Ashes, when we were marked on our foreheads or hands and were reminded that we were made from Dust and will return to Dust.  Now we are in the process of walking with Jesus to the cross. In this season, we focus on Jesus’ sacrificial love for the people of God. And, we consider what we must sacrifice in turn.

            Since this season is based on Jesus’ time in the Desert, it is appropriate that we turn to his desert journey for our scripture reading this morning. Please turn with me to Matthew chapter 4 verses one through eleven:

Proclamation of the Scripture            Matthew 4:1-11                 

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 

After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 

The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 

“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
    and they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 

“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. Amen

            One of the big questions that young people and old people alike ask is “Why does God let bad things happen?” There is a whole branch of theology, called Theodicy that works to study this question – Why does God permit evil?

            I am more of an armchair theologian than one of the great thinkers of our world, but my answer when this comes up is that we are not androids. We are not clones. We are not robots. If God didn’t permit free-will, and allow us to have a variety of life experiences both good and bad, and God didn’t allow us to make choices for ourselves, then we would all be perfectly perfect and perfectly bland.

            But, when our world is falling apart and everything is broken, it is natural to want God to fix our problems and restore what was destroyed.

            When Jesus was in the wilderness, he was tempted by Satan. Satan is an entity from the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehood. In Judaism, “the Satan” is a heavenly prosecutor who is subordinate to God and tests the loyalty of God’s followers in the heavenly court. When Satan visited Jesus in the wilderness, he was testing to make sure Jesus remained loyal to God and to the mission he was sent to accomplish. We believe Jesus had both human attributes and Godly attributes – Satan was testing Jesus to make sure the Godly attributes were keeping Jesus’ human nature in check. Satan used the temptations to confirm Jesus was resilient and ready for his future work.

            The three temptations were all things that would have created a “perfect” life for Jesus. Jesus was hungry; Satan tempted him to turn stones into bread. If you don’t want to feel hungry or ill or craving, then instantly make food to feed yourself. Jesus responded no – “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

            Satan tempted Jesus to throw himself off of a tall building, to let the angels protect him from going “splat.” Jesus could command the angels to wrap him in the 1^st century equivalent of bubble wrap and protect him from fear. But Jesus responded no to Satan and said: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

            Satan showed Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world. He tempted Jesus to never experience shame and have the opportunity to rule the world, but only if Jesus bowed down and worshipped Satan. Jesus could have all the political power in the world. But, no – in response Jesus said “Worship the Lord your God, and serve God only.”

            Jesus could have attained perfection – but he chose to fulfill God’s plan for him, which was anything but perfect: Jesus experienced pain, encountered broken and smelly people, felt hunger and thirst, became overwhelmed when people asked him to do too much, got irritated and angry, and suffered a death in the cross that was agonizing and harsh. Jesus could have attained perfection, but instead chose to be like us – broken and vulnerable.

            We will never attain perfection. We try to arrange our lives in ways that are happy and healthy. We work to make good choices for our health and our diet. We work to include among our friends people who are loving and supportive. We try to find fulfilling careers and fun activities. But, no matter what choices we make, many things happen to us that are not under our control. Our bodies do things that surprise us. We have accidents. People we love become ill. Sometimes our best laid out plains are missing a key detail that make everything go awry. No matter what we accomplish, we can’t make our lives perfect.

            When Jesus faced temptation, he chose to go with imperfection. At Satan’s bidding, Jesus actually had the power to make his life perfect. But, he chose to live out his calling and not turn his life into a little bubble of perfection. Jesus told Satan to go away, that Jesus decided to trust God.  Jesus knew his limitations – perfection was not possible. Instead of striving for perfection, we are reminded in this story that we need God. We need God’s grace. After his 40 days of struggle, Jesus was sent angels to comfort him in his weariness, to comfort him in his loneliness and pain….he wasn’t sent angels with bubble wrap to protect him from all future wrongs, but to tend to Jesus in the midst of his fatigue and hunger. God didn’t leave Jesus, his beloved child, to figure everything out on his own. After Jesus overcame the temptations flung at him, Jesus accepted God’s love and help.

            We are also called to remember to learn to accept God’s love and help. God blesses us through our imperfections. God did not make us perfect to begin with. God made us all different. God doesn’t expect us to have everything in our lives perfectly figured out and perfectly under control. God knows things will go off the rails. And, when they do, and messiness happens, and life happens, it is our calling to turn to each other for support and to turn to God for love and help.

            Let us trust in the Lord our God, who blesses us in our imperfection. Amen. 

Dazzling Reign -- A Message for February 19, 2023

 

            Every year, we focus on the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration on the final Sunday before Ash Wednesday, the day when Lent begins. In a way, we conclude the season of Epiphany in the same manner it began.  In the beginning of our season, we remember Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist. When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit of God came down to fill Jesus and the voice of God cried out “This is my son, the beloved. With him I am well-pleased. Listen to him.” As we read the story of the Transfiguration today, we will hear that again God says the same thing as Jesus was transfigured – “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him.”  The witnesses to Jesus baptism were different individuals that the witnesses to Jesus’ transfiguration, but God had the same message – this is God’s son, the Messiah, who is loved by God. Listen to him!

            Hear now the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus as it is recorded in Matthew, chapter 17, verses one through nine:

Proclamation of the Scripture            Matthew 17:1-9

After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 

There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 

Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 

But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 

When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Message                                          Dazzling Reign      

            The Transfiguration is a mysterious event. It appears in the middle of the book of Matthew, and is a glimpse into the supernatural nature of Jesus. Most of us will not encounter the Holy Spirit in the manner of Jesus – Jesus was transfigured before his friends, he metamorphosed and became visibly “more” than a regular person. His face shone like the sun and his clothes became whiter than anything on earth can be. Super mysterious and magical. And, then, to top it off, as Jesus and his friends were coming down the mountain, after the three disciples had witnessed a strange miracle, Jesus told them to keep quiet and not tell anyone what they saw until after his resurrection.

            Sigh.

            Why?

            Although the transfiguration is a mysterious event in general, the most troubling part for many of us is that Jesus wanted the disciples to keep it quiet.

            There are many theories about why this is…maybe Jesus didn’t want to be mobbed by bigger crowds than he was already drawing. Perhaps the crowds wanting him to heal ill people were distracting from his message. Also, Jewish people in the first century seemed to have many preconceived beliefs that the Messiah would act as a military ruler and lead them to repeal the Romans – Jesus did not come to earth to be a king in the way human kings operate. So, keeping his true nature quiet offered several advantages for Jesus’ mission to teach us about God’s love and to invite us to live out that love in how we relate to our fellow human beings.

            For us, our take-away from the story of the Transfiguration is that Jesus was both fully-God and fully-man. This is a mysterious concept for us and a reminder that many of our beliefs fall into the “mystery” part of our faith. Some of the things we believe are intangible. Some of the things we believe are un-provable according to our current understandings of science and biological possibilities. Even if Jesus climbed into a Cat-Scan machine had a body scan or had his blood drawn and had a full DNA check-up, our scientific advances would not help us understand his nature as both human and God.

            As rational Americans who live in the 21^st century, we don’t allow for a lot of mystery in our lives. We are suspicious of things that seem supernatural – people may whisper to their pastor about the signs they see after a loved one dies or feeling like they have a guardian angel watching over them, but we are often reluctant to talk about these things in public or professional settings. We are afraid when we tell others about these things they will dismiss us as having a mental health problem. We are very private about the mysterious things we observe and experience.

            But, there are many parts of our faith that are mysterious. We can’t deny this reality or apologize about it. And, we shouldn’t. People who aren’t Christians “yet” are often seeking mystery. People have experiences we can’t explain and want to be reassured that we are not alone in having these experiences. People find it comforting to discover that it normal and ok to not have an explanation for everything that happens to us.

            On Wednesday, we will enter the Christian season of Lent. In this season, we are invited to slow down, to pray more, to fast or do without things that distract us from God, and to refocus on our faith. Our faith is mysterious – we are invited to lean into the mystery.  We are invited to experience the mystery and to acknowledge we don’t have everything in this life figured out – we don’t need to have everything in this life figured out.  Instead, we can let go of needing to be completely in-control of everything in our lives and remember that we don’t have to be in-control because we believe in God. God has everything under control. There are a lot of things about God we are incapable of understanding -- we don’t know how God works. We don’t know God’s long-range plan for us – But, we do know that Jesus came to share with us that ultimately God loves us and God’s plan for us and humanity is good. God is the embodiment of love. God loves us and wants us to live out that love in our interactions with each other and our planet. And, although we will never fully understand all of God’s plan, we can trust it is Good.

            Let us lean into the mystery. Let us lean into the good. And let us act out the love commandment in all our relationships and interactions with each other.

            May it be so. Amen. 

From the Heart -- A Message for February 12, 2023

 

            Over the past few weeks, we have been working our way through the Sermon on the Mount. Two weeks ago, we focused on the Beatitudes – statements where Jesus surprised his hearers to say that God loves people the world considers weak. Last week, we focused on Jesus’ call for us to be evangelists – to go out into the world and mix in with people who don’t follow Christianity and share the light of Christ with them. Today, we turn to the next segment of the sermon, where Jesus invites his people to live out the love commandment. Hear Jesus’ words as they are found in Matthew chapter 5 verses twenty-one through thirty-seven:

Proclamation of the Scripture                        Matthew 5:21-37  

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 

leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

“Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 

Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 

If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 

And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 

But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

“Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 

But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 

or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 

And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 

All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

 

Message                              From the Heart    

            Today’s reading from the Sermon on the Mount contains statements that seem harsh on the surface. Sometimes Jesus made extreme statements and gave exaggerated instructions to make his point, but didn’t expect to be taken literally… Jesus was not followed by a band of one-eyed pirates, so we know his disciples, regular men who may have glanced at a woman once or twice in their lives, were not gouging out their eyes.  Instead, Jesus used his words to encourage his followers to be conscious of how they treated other people and to live with their faith in the forefront of their lives.

            Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is all about love.  Each of the statements and teachings we read today are about relations between human beings, not with religious rituals that consider our relations with God. Jesus’ words emphasize the second part of the Greatest Commandment: We are to love our neighbor as ourselves.

In the section of the sermon when Jesus tells his followers to not act with anger and to reconcile with people to whom they are estranged,  Jesus was affirming that Love Shows No Hostility.  So, we shouldn’t kill other people, we shouldn’t hold grudges, we shouldn’t use hateful words when we talk to other people, and we should reconcile with people to whom we are in disagreements with. Realistically, we know that often we can’t instantaneously repair broken relationships, it takes hard work and time, but when we love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves, that love is true and is not tainted with hostility.

In the next portion of the sermon, Jesus talks about committing adultery. In that time period, adultery was considered a violation of a husband’s exclusive right to his wife – at that time women were considered their husband’s property.  Women were often considered the offending party when they were raped or when men sexually harassed them.  Jesus instructed his followers to not be lustful and in reaction to lust, to cut off our hands and gouge out our eyes. Jesus was exaggerating. In these statements, Jesus is blaming men for their lust and for their violation of women, not blaming women for tempting men. Jesus’ point is that Love is not Predatory. When we love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves, we don’t treat our neighbors as objects we can seize at will.

            The next section of Jesus’s sermon is about marriage. Jesus wants us to keep Love in Marriage. In the Torah of ancient Israel, men could divorce their wives for any reason they wanted. The wife was considered her husband’s property. The husband did not have to go to court or to religious authorities to receive a divorce, he just had to tell her and witnesses they were divorced. Divorces were easy for men to obtain and therefore their developed a lax attitude towards marriage.

            In the first century, divorce was a terrible outcome for women. If their husbands divorced them, and women had no immediate family to turn to, women would become destitute. Jesus wanted men to love their wives and take responsibility for them. If you love your wife as much as you love yourself, you won’t condemn her to a life of misery and will remain married to her.

            In the 21^st century, women in our country are no longer considered the property of their husbands. We don’t believe God wants people to remain in unhappy, abusive marriages. Women have a lot more options for self-sufficiency now than we did in the first century. But, God still wants us to work towards having loving marriages where we are kind and loyal to our spouses.

            The final portion of the Sermon on the Mount we read today is focused on our need to be honest. Jesus’ wanted us to understand that Love is Unconditionally Truthful. Jesus wants his followers to be true to their word. When we love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves, we don’t lie to them. We are truthful and authentic.

            Sometimes Jesus used extreme examples to get people’s attention. Sometimes, shocking people wakes us up and we are ready to listen in a new way. Jesus was all about love. He wanted us to love other people, to love our neighbors, as much as we love ourselves. Love is kind, not hostile. Love is generous, not predatory. Love is truthful, not deceptive. Love is supposed to be present in the most important relationships of our lives. We benefit by being people of love. Let us live out Jesus’ teachings and love one another.

            Amen.  

Restoring Beauty -- A Message for February 5, 2023

 

                Last week, we began focusing on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount contains many of Jesus’ best known teachings. Last week, we heard the Beatitudes, the opening words of the sermon that say that the people who are perceived as weak by the people of the world are blessed by our God.

            We pick up where we left off last week, at Matthew chapter 5 verses thirteen through twenty:

Proclamation of the Scripture         Matthew 5:13-20              

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 

For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 

Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 

For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the People of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight. Amen.

            When I was working as a baby minister, I led the youth programs at the bigger church that I served. There were three youth groups – a group from 2^nd through 4^th graders, a group for 5^th and 8^th graders, and a group for senior high.  The youngest group mainly did crafts, played games, and ate snacks. We hit upon a week where we were doing crafts and we needed baby food jars. I was not a mom yet, and my exposure to baby food was very limited, so I had the bright idea that I would go to the grocery store, buy 6 jars of the mac and cheese baby food, eat the mac and cheese for lunch (I was thrifty), and then use the jars for our project.

            I proceeded with my plan.  I dumped all of the baby food into a bowl, microwaved it, and then dug in…..but guess what? Baby food apparently has no salt in it. And, it tastes terrible to adults who are used to salt in their food, even novice adults like I was at the time. I had to choke down the mac and cheese.

            Salt is important. Salt continues to be necessary for life in general, and one of our standard human tastes is saltiness. In ancient times, people didn’t always live in places that had ready access to salt. Salt was mined, salt was culled from salty seas, and ancient people boiled water to extract the salt. Ancient trade routes across the world were called “salt roads” – called this because salt was one of the first commodities imported around the world.  In the arid climate of ancient Israel, salt was used to preserve meat and fish so that they could consumed more than a few hours after they were butchered.  Salt was precious and valuable.

Jesus tells his followers to be the salt of the earth. What does he mean?  We are called to be essential for others. We are called to be integrated into everything. We are called to be present everywhere.

Sometimes, we as Christians, we have a tendency to rotate in very small social circles. Our social lives revolve around our church. Our friends are here. Our families are here. This tendency seems to exist in both smaller and larger Christian communities. But, in larger churches, you may be able to do everything at church – you worship at church, your gym is at your church, your coffee shop is at your church, your mom’s club is at your church, your kid’s soccer team is at your church. Some folks don’t have to mingle with non-Christians very much.

But, Jesus calls us to be salty.  We are supposed to be out in the world, mingling with all kinds of people. We are supposed to be telling other people about our faith in Christianity. We are called to share our faith with others, to tell other people why we believe in God, and to explain to others how our faith makes a difference in our lives. We are supposed to be salty.

The same goes for Jesus’ statement that we are supposed to be light to the world. We are supposed to let our light shine to others. We aren’t supposed to hide our faith, to keep our Christianity under wraps, to hide our light under a bushel basket….we are supposed to let it shine.  Our faith is something we should be excited about, not something we feel the need to hide.

Over the next week or so, we are going to see a lot of people wearing Eagles gear.  We already see a lot of Eagles-wear in our church, but I suspect we will all see people wearing combinations of midnight green, silver, black and white everywhere we go.  Even people who don’t really care about football will be supporting our local Eagles. I talked to someone the other day who was off to buy Eagles gear so they could join in.

When we have a winning team, everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon.

As we spend the week noting everyone in midnight green, I hope we will consider how this much enthusiasm would apply to our faith. What would it be like to live a community where everyone was excited about Jesus?  What would lie feel like if we were all rooting for Christianity to transform the world for the better? How it feel if everyone got on board – we all loved each other, even the people we used to see as enemies – we all give generously to help others in need – we all started repenting for our past failings and turned over a new leaf – We all took risks for our faith – we all invited others to develop a relationship with God – we all focused on prayer and talked to God all of the time.

Jesus calls us to get on board – to get out into the world and spread our faith – to tell people why we believe in God and how our faith makes a difference in our lives – to love God and to love other people. Jesus calls us to be salty, to get into the mix of regular people who don’t know about God and to let our light shine to them.

Let’s be brave and let’s share our faith. Amen.