God Is Love -- A Message for July 14, 2024

1 John 4:7-21 

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.   

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.  

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.  

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. 

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.  

This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.  

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 

We love because he first loved us.  

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.  

And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. 

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

Let us pray.... 

Sermon God Is Love 

If you look up the origin of the phrase “put your money where your mouth is” there are explanations going back to 17th century England and con men. Con-men would tell people they had medicinal toads who would cure them of every ailment under the sun. The victims of the con men just had to buy the exorbitantly priced toads, eat them, and they would be cured. The con men would demonstrate how safe their products were by pretending to swallow the toads whole – but they used sleight of hand tricks and secreted the toads away. The victims would eat the toads and then become ill – not so ill they would die, but certainly ill enough to be extremely uncomfortable. The putting your money where your mouth is phrase came about because of the sleight of hand maneuver – the toads were the source of the money, and they pretended to put them in their mouths. 

When we tell someone to “put their money where their mouth is,” we mean that instead of just talking about doing something, it is time for them to act. This theme – that we must act instead of just talking about something – permeates the letter of 1st John. The Elder who wrote this letter wants Christians to “live out” their love for their neighbors.  Show up with a bag of groceries when a neighbor is hungry; bring a bottle of water to the exhausted landscaper in your neighbor’s yard; pay your friend’s electric bill when the cut-off notice arrives in the mailbox. Although the Elder wrote this letter in the 2nd century, there words have 21st century implications. We must always be on the lookout for people who are in need and people who are hurting, so that we can exemplify Christian love in our kind actions towards them. 

The Elder emphasized the loving nature of God. Love emanates from God and is showered upon Christians, the children of God. Love emanates out of us, the Christians, to other people. Just as God loves us and fills us with the Holy Spirit of God, we must be loving to the people we meet. 

The Elder states that God has expressed God’s love for us in two specific ways. First -- God shared Jesus with us – he died to atone for our sins – he was resurrected to remind us that nothing is more powerful than God and God’s love. And second -- On the first Pentecost, God filled God’s followers with God’s Holy Spirit – the active living spirit of God that gives us strength and power to live out our Christain faith in the world. As followers of God, the Holy Spirit flows into us. We are strengthened and comforted by God’s Spirit supporting us.  

We are entering a strange and stressful time in the life of our country. Our attention will become more and more focused on politics over the next few months. People will take sides and will take personally attacks on “their” candidate. Mothers will disagree with daughters, grandsons will disagree with grandfathers, brothers will disagree with each other, neighbors will have conflicting yard signs and messages on their lawns. People’s stress levels will rise when they defend their candidate and party against the opposition. 

Although we all have “feelings” about our political ideals, it is important for us to remember that we are first and foremost Christians. Our family is the people we join with as brothers and sisters in Christ. So, no matter how much we differ in our political views, we must remember we love each other, and we value each other and our relationships with one another. So, we must be mindful of our words, strive to be kind and compassionate, and work to listen to each other even when we do not agree with each other about everything. We are ultimately on the same team – God's team. And, as the Elder emphasizes in their writing, God loves us and encourages us to love each other and work together.  

When we find ourselves disagreeing or preparing to argue, remember the message of the 1960s hymn “They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love.” We will work together and walk together and they will recognize us by our love for each other.  “And we'll guard each one's dignity and save each one's pride, and they will know we are Christians by our love.” No matter how difficult it is, we must remember that God loves us and we are called to love each other.  
Amen. 

Loving Each Other -- A Message for July 7, 2024

 

Scripture 1 John 3:16-24 

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.  

If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?  

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 

This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence:  

If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before. God  

and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.  

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.  

The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. 

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

Let us pray.... 

Sermon                                           Loving Each Other 

Over the past few weeks in our worship services, we have been working our way through the First letter of John from the New Testament. This letter is not a part of the Bible that most of us are uber-familiar-with – in our worship services, we are more likely to hear stories from Jesus’ life or the stories from the Old Testament about Abraham and Sarah’s travels, David’s trials, or the prophesies of Isaiah. Each week, most of us only set-aside one hour to worship God and we are more likely to read the lesser-known stories and letters in the Bible on our own time. 

The first letter of John is attributed to an author Biblical scholars call “The Elder.” Their letters were intended to be passed from little church congregation to little church congregation in the Roman region of Asia – modern day Türkiye. So, the letters were not written to a specific group of people but were intended to be a more general letters of encouragement to many little groups of people. 

The Elder was concerned that the stresses of being little groups of Christians living amongst a larger population of people with other beliefs and religious practices would cause so much stress to the Christians their churches would break apart. He or she cautioned them against falling away from their shared faith. They worried about the people within the churches having good relationships with each other – she was afraid that conflict would lead to church members feeling demoralized and discouraged. The people within the churches needed to remain united because they had to support each other against the outside pressure on their group...the governing authorities and their neighbors were becoming more and more hostile to Christians. Christians were being arrested and killed by the Roman authorities who ruled over this region. 

The portion of the letter we are focusing on this morning encourages Christians to look out for each other. The Elder writes that all Christians are adopted into the family of God – men or women, wealthy people & slaves, Greek or Turkish or Israeli or Egyptian -- no matter our backgrounds, we are all brothers and sisters in the family of God.  

The Elder writes it is our responsibility to care for one another. We are supposed to share our resources with brothers and sisters who are struggling. The Elder was focused on cohesion and unity within the group.... if people within the group were in need, it was the responsibility of the others in the group to help alleviate those needs. 

When this letter was written, Christians were a little group living surrounded by neighbors who were not Christians. Fast-forward 19 hundred years or so, Christians are a bigger group living surrounded by neighbors who are a variety of faiths or not. We have churches and Christian communities scattered throughout the world. In our country, most churches are like ours – a smaller group of people who worship together in a place that was designed for a bigger crowd. We are becoming more and more like the churches the First Letter of John was written for – small congregations that are under stress from the outside world and from within. 

Therefore, we need to listen to the advice of the Elder. It is important for us to remember we are all brothers and sisters and who have been adopted by God. We must strive to have unity among ourselves – just as biological brothers and sisters disagree, so do Christian brothers and sisters. As much as possible, we must work to have a good relationship with each other and remember we are in this together. When people within our congregation suffer, we must join together to support each other. I have witnessed members of Trinity excel at this. If someone is struggling to find a new job or is looking for a new home to rent, we are called to put our personal feelers out among our social networks and help. When one of us is recovering from surgery or undergoing cancer treatments, we are called to bring them soup and good books to read. When our young people are applying for college or volunteer jobs, it is our work to write them letters of recommendation.  Whatever struggles we face, we are called to work together on behalf of each other.  

Each day, we are called to work to be faithful Christians in the world. In this portion of 1^st John, the Elder reminds us that we are called to believe in Jesus and to love one another as Jesus loved us. Let us strive to be loving in our thoughts, words and deeds towards each other and as we live our lives out in the world.  

Amen.  

See What Kind of Love -- A Message for June 30, 2024

Scripture Reading: 1 John 3:1-7 

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  

All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. 

Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.  

But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.  

No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. 

Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 

 

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

 

Let us pray.... 

 

Sermon

 See What Kind of Love

 

The Christian concept of Grace means that we receive salvation and blessings from God freely and without merit. So, no matter what we do, not matter how good we are or how many mistakes we make, God loves us, blesses us and forgives us. 

Paul wrote a lot about grace in his letters. He believed that we do not do anything to earn God’s grace – we cannot do anything to earn God’s grace. It is freely given to us, and we cannot do anything in exchange for it – it is so wonderful, and God is so generous that humans are not capable of earning it. No matter how many good works, no matter how many altruistic actions we take, we cannot do enough to earn God’s grace. God freely gives it to us. 

The New Testament letter we are focusing on over the next few weeks, the First Letter of John, was written by someone other than Paul – the author is often referred to by scholars as “the Elder.” This author was a knowledgeable encourager of the people of the growing Christian church – he was wise and wanted to share his wisdom with the baby Christians who were forming the first churches.  

Although the Elder did not write about Grace as a named concept, he wrote about grace. He wrote that God lavishes love on us – that we are called children of God and are the recipients of God’s love. And, as God children, Jesus came to take away our sins. So, we have everything covered, because God loves us, forgives us, and calls us God’s children. 

The Elder was worried about the corrosive nature of sin. He wanted Christians to lead exemplary lives and to become sin-free once we convert to Christianity. 

As we consider our own lives as Christians and consider the 2000 plus years of people throughout the world embracing Christianity, we know that the idealism of the Elder, is unfortunately impossible. As much as we work to be sinless and perfectly follow God, we still fall short and make mistakes – we sin. 

If only it was as simple as deciding to follow Jesus and then sinning no more. 

Jesus even addressed this. In the Gospel of John chapter 8, it is recorded that a group of Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus who had been caught committing adultery. We do not know the details.... what exactly she had done, how they had caught her, where the other adulter was – although different rules applied to men than women, so maybe he was not considered a sinner like her. The Pharisees brought the woman to Jesus and said the law of Moses commanded them to stone the woman. They asked Jesus what he had to say about following the law? 

Jesus responded by leaning down and writing on the dirt of the ground with his finger. Then, he stood up, said, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” After Jesus made his statement, he leaned forward and continued writing on the ground without looking at the men. Gradually, the men walked away. Again, these were Pharisees – faithful men, religious scholars who had devoted their lives to following God. They were faithful, and yet they were not sin-free. After all the men walked away, Jesus stood up and talked to the terrified woman. He said that the men did not condemn her to death, he did not condemn her to death, and that she should go and sin no more. 

Jesus realized that no human being is capable of being sinless. But, as followers of God and Jesus, we still must strive to sin no more. We are constantly working on practicing our faith and working to not make mistakes that harm ourselves and others. We are not hardwired to be perfect – even little children struggle to avoid sinning – I got mad and hit my brother; I got frustrated and threw my sandwich off the table; I am tired and instead of going to sleep, I crawled out of bed and am playing with legos....even little children struggle to do the right thing and be obedient to parents and teachers and God.  

As we grow older, the possibilities of how to sin multiply. We must work on self-control, to be mature and thoughtful. We must strive to not intentionally make mistakes and avoid doing things that are harmful for ourselves, for others, and for the world. 

Fortunately, we are the beneficiaries of God’s love and God’s grace. God loves and forgives us even when we fail. Jesus came to earth to help us – to welcome all people to follow God, to help us understand how to be loving to each other, and to give of himself so that we know we are forgiven for our transgressions. We will make mistakes, but it is our challenge to work every day to be a little bit better.  

We are will do so because of God’s love and God’s grace. Thanks be to God. Amen.  

 

Our Joy Can Be Complete -- A Message for June 23, 2024

 

    Every once in a while, I have made jokes to the Lunch Bunch that we should focus on a book of the Bible no one knows anything about instead of our tried-and-true Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. When I made those quips, I suggested we study First John. I am not sure why it pops into my mind – perhaps the Holy Spirit has been sending me a message. 

    So, over the next six weeks, we are going to look at the First Letter of John. It is a book of the Bible I have read my way through in my annual practice of reading the Bible, but I have never studied deeply or preached about this book. So, this is a new portion of the Bible for all of us to study, unless there are scholars in the congregation who are holding out on me.  

The authorship of the First letter of John is anonymous. Many scholars believe it was written by a Christian who was part of the church that used the Gospel of John as their primary source of information about Jesus. It is thought to be written around the year 100 AD, so was composed about 70 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.  

    First John was a letter to fellow Christians. Unlike some of Paul’s letters, it was not written to a specific church to address their unique problems – it was instead intended to be passed along to many fledging Christian churches to encourage them as they worked for Christ and on behalf of God among their non-believing neighbors. 

    This letter would have been read aloud to the gathered congregations. We assume most of Christians were illiterate in the 2^nd century.... Therefore, the letter would have been read aloud repeatedly, just as we read scripture over and over again.  The people would have listened to it intensely, so that many of the phrases stated in the letter would be memorized. As I read the scripture, listen for phrases we still have memorized – many of the lines in this letter are found in hymns and Vacation Bible School songs we know from our childhoods. 

The letter of First John starts off as many letters do – with a greeting. Then, the author invites the readers and listeners to walk in the light of Jesus.  

Listen as we read the words of 1^st John, chapter 1 through chapter two, verse two, aloud: 

 

Scripture Reading: 1 John 1:1-2:2 

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.  

The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.  

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.  

We write this to make our joy complete. 

Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness 

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  

If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.  

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  

If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. 

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.  

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. 

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

LET US PRAY.... 

Sermon Our Joy Can Be Complete 

The author of the letter of 1^st John starts with saying a few lines about God – God is light, and those who believe in God Walk in the light. Then, the author launches into a message about sin and forgiveness. Most of this letter concerns sin – our sins separate us from healthy relationship with God and with each other. Our sins cause our Christian communities to become fractured.  

To summarize chapter one of this letter: We all sin. If we deny that we sin, we are lying. If we lie and say we are sinless, we make Jesus out to be a liar, because Jesus came to advocate for us and atone for our sins and the sins of the people of the world. When we confess our sins, God is faithful and forgives us. 

“Sin” is a heavy word. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “a sin is an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.” It is “an act regarded as a serious or regrettable fault, offense, or omission.” We can knowingly sin by intentionally hurting someone or something. Sometimes, we unknowingly commit sins and later learn we have made a mistake. If you google “list of sins in the Bible,” a list of 82 sins appears. The list includes coveting, adultery, boasting, blasphemy, murder, false worship, stealing, and envy. Sins can be big acts like murdering someone or little acts like jesting. A rule of thumb to remember is that a sin is an act that causes you to harm someone else or yourself. Sin is wrong because it produces suffering and pain; leads to broken relationships, violence, and misery; and cuts us off from God. As much as we can, we must work to avoid sinning.  

The author of 1^st John was concerned that when we sin, we cause divisions and hurt within the community of the church. He or she was right to worry about this. As we have scanned the headlines in the news this week, we read stories of Christian’s whose sins have created disasters of their lives and the lives of other people – ministers admitting to infidelity in their marriages, Christians guilty of abusing children in orphanages, and Christians advocating for bigotry against people of other religions...stories about these situations and more are headlines this week. Every time a Christian or a group of Christians does something weird, it makes all of us look bad. People who are not Christians do not differentiate between types of Christians. Denominational backgrounds, evangelical verses mainline, prosperity gospel, Pentecostal, pietistic, pacifistic – none of the ways we organize ourselves and separate ourselves mean anything to people who are just learning about Christians from their news feed on their phone or tv. We are all lumped together – and when we sin and make mistakes, we all look bad. 

Sin also harms us within our individual Christian community. We all know of churches who have split apart because of disagreements. Churches can have bullies. Churches can have members who say mean and hurtful things to other members. Churches can have members who have trouble sharing spaces and responsibilities. Churches can have groups of friends who seem cliquish to those outside of the groups. Sin can harm and destroy churches

. 

The writer of the First letter of John wanted the members of the church to be reminded that we have both a privilege and a responsibility as Christians. We are privileged to be able to tell God everything – to tell God the good news of our lives and to also confess everything we do wrong. And God forgives us. But we are responsible to confess. And we are also responsible to work on ourselves and to try to refrain from making mistakes, from hurting each other, and from hurting the people of God’s church. Working together with other Christians, we work to create families, communities, and churches that are becoming the blessed communities God wants them to be.  

Let us do so with love in our hearts today and all days. Amen.  

Our Needs -- A Message for June 16, 2024

The Scripture Luke 11:2-4 

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 

He said to them, “When you pray, say:    

“‘Father, 
hallowed be your name, 
your kingdom come. 
Give us each day our daily bread. 
Forgive us our sins, 
    for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. 
And lead us not into temptation.’” 

 

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

 

Let us pray... 

 

The Message                                 Our Needs 

Give us today our daily bread. 

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 

And, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 

The portion of the Lord’s Prayer we are discussing this morning is summed up as the “our needs” section. Over the past month, we have looked at the Our Father part of the prayer, where we lifted up that we are praying to Our Gracious God, the mother and father of all people and all of creation. Then, we focused on the “hallowed be thy name” portion of the prayer, we remembered that God is the source of all that is Holy. Last week, we focused on the part of the prayer when we ask for God’s kingdom to come more fully on earth, as it is present in heaven. And, now we turn to the part of the prayer when we focus on asking God to take care of the things we need. 

We start with sustenance.... we ask God to “give us this day our daily bread.” Do you notice how simple this is? We do not ask God to give us our daily bread, diamonds, pearls, and riches. We ask God to give us just what we need. 

Food, shelter, water, clothing, healthcare...all people require these basics to sustain our lives. We invoke God to help us have the essentials human life depends upon. As Americans who are constantly bombarded with advertisements, we are sometimes a little confused between what we need and what we want. We ask God to give us what we need—it is our work as Christians to make sure other people also have access to what they need. This is why our work to support the Daily Bread Food pantry locally and support offerings through the national church that help distribute food to the hungry and relief after natural disasters is so important. We ask God to help us to have what we need; it is our work to help others to have what they need. 

The next part of the prayer is: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” This is another example of us saying a portion of the prayer using old-fashioned language. We mean to ask God to forgive us when we do things that are wrong and ask God to help us to forgive other people who wrong us. God knows that we are not perfect, and we make mistakes. But, that does not mean we have carte blanche to do things wrong on purpose. As people of faith, we must strive to do the right things in our actions and to say the right things when we talk to others. We ask God to forgive us when we fail to do and say the right things. 

We also ask God to help us forgive other people who have wronged us. This does not mean we have to forget what people have done. If others have crossed boundaries we are uncomfortable with, God does not demand we forget what they have done or open ourselves up to future violations. Forgiveness is important for our souls and our mental well-being. Sometimes, we carry our pain so tightly that we harm ourselves by obsessing about the past or the wounds of the past. As we pray, we are invited to talk to God about our feelings, our hurts, and our trials. Even if we do not feel safe opening up to other people about what we have experienced, we can talk to God about everything. We work to forgive others so that we are not burdened by the past. 

Part of forgiveness is also working to forgive ourselves. We all have experienced things that cause us to second-guess ourselves. We regret things we have said or things we did not say. We regret actions we have done and actions we wish we had done. I am guilty of waking up in the middle of the night and obsessing over things I said during conversations I had with co-workers when I was in high school. For the sake of our mental health and the well-being of our souls, we must work to forgive ourselves for our past mistakes.  

The next part of the prayer is a little tricky – what we say is “And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” Do we really think God is the one who leads people into temptation?  Again, we are using a version of the prayer that was translated into English hundreds of years ago, when we spoke differently than we do now. A more current translation from the Biblical Greek into English of this line would say: “And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.”  We are asking God to help us avoid temptation, to avoid things that are difficult for us to resist. We are asking God to protect us from evil. The evil could come from external sources – peer pressure, marketers, drug dealers, bartenders – and the evil can come from within us. I do not need an external tempter to invite me to eat a bar of chocolate or sleep through my alarm clock so that I do not get up and exercise – oftentimes, I am the source of my own problems.  When we ask God to help keep us from temptation and deliver us from evil, we are asking God to help us stay on the straight and narrow path, to help us be our best selves and avoid the things that cause us harm. 

When Jesus was asked how we should pray, he said a simple, succinct prayer in response to the question. His words cover the basics of how to begin our conversations with God. But they are just a beginning. In the hymn “What a Friend we have in Jesus,” we say that it is a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. When we pray, we can tell God everything.... our hopes, our struggles, our painful moments, our failures. When we talk to God, God encourages us, comforts us, and protects us. God listens to everything we say and helps us through everything we experience.  

For, God is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen.