Lay Servant Scribblings

I'm a certified lay servant in the United Methodist Church. Occasionally I am invited to fill in for pastors who must be away from their church. I am often asked to share my sermons with people who can't be there in person - I'm happy to do so. Sometimes I share bits and pieces from other authors. I have made every effort to acknowledge those instances. If I have missed any, please send me a note. Remember that these are the "scribblings" of a lay person. Be kind in your critique!

Cornerstone

This message was first delivered at St. James United Methodist Church in Gladstone, Virginia and Monroe United Methodist Church in Monroe, Virginia on October 8, 2017. It is based on the lectionary text of Matthew 21:33-46.

Cornerstone

“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

Jesus and his parables. Sometimes the meaning is very subtle but in this case, he is blunt enough that the chief priests and Pharisees are scared. They are stuck between a cornerstone and a hard place. They would love to arrest him but they fear the crowds who have come to know Jesus as a prophet. I think their fear is misplaced...I think I'd be more worried about the Stone in verse 44. it will crush anyone on whom it falls.

When people in authority challenged Jesus, he often responded to their challenges with a parable. If those challenging him didn't get the first parable, he'd give them a second one. Today's Gospel lesson is just such a second parable. The first was the parable of the two sons in verses 28-32 which addressed the challenge posed by the chief priests and elders about the source of Jesus' authority. They wanted to know by WHOSE authority he was doing things like healing, tossing the tables in the temple, and teaching in the temple. Jesus tells them he'll answer their question if they can answer one for him – then he asks who authorized the baptism of John, heaven or humans? Knowing that they are trapped – that if they say it was from heaven then Jesus will want to know why they didn't believe what John preached OR if they say it was authorized by humans then the crowds will be angry because they respect John as a prophet. So they use every student's favorite answer “I don't know.” I love Jesus' response to that – you got no answer for me, I got no answer for you! Then he tells the first parable, as paraphrased here by Eugene Peterson's The Message, “A man had two sons. He went up to the first and said, ‘Son, go out for the day and work in the vineyard.’ “The son answered, ‘I don’t want to.’ Later on he thought better of it and went.

“The father gave the same command to the second son. He answered, ‘Sure, glad to.’ But he never went. “Which of the two sons did what the father asked?” They said, “The first.”

And the Pharisees scratched their heads. What did this have to do with authority? Jesus tries to clarify – you knuckleheads heard what John was saying. He was pointing out the right pathway and you chose to continue doing what you wanted. You give great lip service to loving God but fall real short on the execution of the plan.

So he tried with the second parable that we began with today – the ungrateful, unruly tenants of the vineyard. It begins with a situation that was business as usual in Roman-occupied Palestine. A landowner established a vineyard complete with a fence, a winepress, and even a watchtower. He then became an absentee landowner, returning to his own country as often happened in the far-flung territories of the Roman Empire. Tenants were in charge of overseeing the productivity of the vineyard and paying their rent to the owner at harvest time, in the form of a share of the produce. So far, so good: business was working as usual. Then everything came apart!

When the owner's slaves arrived to collect his share of the produce, the tenants attacked them, even beating one and killing another. The owner of the vineyard then simply sent another delegation of slaves to collect the rent. Hmm... this is not normal!

Those slaves were treated even worse than the first. Surely by now the owner would send in troops or some form of armed enforcement of his rights! But no, instead he sends his son, thinking by some logic that the thugs who have abused two delegations of slaves will respect the owner's son and heir. How foolish! In parallel folly the tenants reason that if they kill the son, they will get his inheritance. Apparently unaware of how ridiculous their notion is, they kill the son.

Are you still playing along with the parable? I hope so, because the punch line is almost here. Jesus asks his audience, "Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" The answer is obvious, and the chief priests and Pharisees offer it: "He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time".

Whether the answer is given in a gloating voice or as a lament in fear and trembling depends on where those listening see themselves -- us -- in the story, and therein lays the catch. The chief priests and elders probably see themselves in the role of the landowner, caught in his own merciful response to those in his charge. They would be able to actually own land, and to have others manage it for them while they were busy with their administrative tasks in Jerusalem. They would see the servants as their subordinates and themselves as the real victims of the unscrupulous tenants, and they would be ready and even eager to pronounce judgment on them.

Ah, not so fast boys...maybe you'd better examine who is playing who in this little scenario. I'm not sure that you can cast yourselves as the owner. Maybe (as usual) you are missing the point. So Jesus spells it out, tells them to look it up in their Bibles – and quotes scripture to them. Psalm 118:22-23 to be exact. Psalm 118 is the last of the Psalms that make up the Great Hallel which Jews sang at the end of Passover. This is a passage with great cultural significance. It was probably written by David and is known as a Song of Victory. The 29 verses tell a story of one who overcame battles and storms and who is thanking and praising God for answering prayers and providing salvation. These would have been familiar words but Jesus is giving them a new frame of reference.

The stone the masons discarded as flawed is now the capstone!
This is God’s work. We rub our eyes—we can hardly believe it!

Jesus gets right to the point. Verses 43 and 44 from The Message: “This is the way it is with you. God’s kingdom will be taken back from you and handed over to a people who will live out a kingdom life. Whoever stumbles on this Stone gets shattered; whoever the Stone falls on gets smashed.”

Wait, what? When you said “YOU” did you mean us? God's kingdom will be taken back and given over to someone else? And they got it – the chief priests and Pharisees KNEW this was about them and couldn't get back at Jesus without inciting the crowd.

Now we just need to figure out where WE are in the parable. I think most of us get that we aren't the landowner. If you think you might be the landowner then we'll have to address that in a different sermon. We could be one of the groups of slaves that tries to collect the rent. And maybe that is a noble place to be – approaching those who are misusing their position of power. We can be those people who stand up to the status quo and work to correct injustice. But I see those groups as more aligned with the prophets including John the Baptist – sent to convey a message but found themselves abused, ridiculed and murdered.

And I don't think that I'm the son. I think we know that Jesus is talking about himself here. And once again foreshadowing his death at the hands of those in power.

So that just leaves the current tenants and the future tenants. Which group are we in there? Are we part of the establishment so wrapped up in our way of doing things that we don't see how far away we've gotten from God's purpose or are we willing to do God's will and offer back to him his portion of the harvest? Are we the son who said, “sure I'll go do the work...but never showed up” or are we the one who said, “I don't really want to. But then thought better and DID show up”

I know who Jesus wants us to be. He wants us to be the ones that show up. Because there is a lot of work to be done.

We are living in a world that needs to know the miracle of grace. People who feel disconnected and searching so hard for a place to belong that they don't know where to turn. We can point them to the one who loves them so much that he knows them by name, can count the hairs on their head – who longs to be in a deep and abiding relationship with them. We need to show up and tell them God loves them. God is crazy about us!

Take one more look at the parable from today with that knowledge – the landowner is crazy. First of all – he creates the excellent vineyard with fences and a winepress and even a watchtower. As someone who has worked in Virginia's wine industry I can tell you, vines do not produce wine the first year. Or the year after that. Most landowners of that time would have planted, then dug the winepress a couple years later and a watchtower wouldn't have been needed until after that! But he builds a top-notch facility from the start.

Then he goes to another country leaving it in the hands of the tenants. That's a normal arrangement. And he sent some servants to collect the rent. But things don't go smoothly. At all. But when he hears that his servants have been abused and murdered – he does something strange. He sends more servants.

He doesn't send soldiers or guards – he sends another batch of servants. That doesn't make sense. What he does next is right on the edge of lunacy. He decides that they'll have to respect his son. But we know what happens to him. They crucify him. But why does the owner do something so risky? So crazy? I found one answer in a children's sermon based on today's Gospel lesson – a story about a light bulb.

When Thomas Edison was working to invent this crazy contraption called a "light bulb" it took a whole team of men working for twenty-four hours to put just one light bulb together. The story is told that when Edison's team was finished with one light bulb, he gave it to a young boy to carry upstairs. Step by step he carefully carried it, afraid that he might drop this priceless piece of work. You can probably guess what happened; the poor boy dropped the bulb at the top of the stairs. It took the team of men twenty-four more hours to make another bulb. Finally, tired and ready for a break, Edison was ready to have his bulb carried upstairs. He gave it to the same young boy who dropped the first one.

That's true forgiveness. Mr. Edison gave the boy another chance!

God offers that same kind of forgiveness. He offers man a second chance — and a third! In this story that Jesus told, the landowner was God. God first sent men such as Noah, Moses, David, the prophet Isaiah, John the Baptist and others to tell the people of his love for them and to call them to turn from their wicked ways, but many would not listen. Finally, he sent His own Son, Jesus. You know what they did to him, don't you? That's right, they crucified him. God gave them a chance. He even gave them a second chance — and a third. It may seem crazy on the outside – but that is what unfathomable love is all about. God love isn't like any other but maybe this will give a glimpse.

This story is from Tattoos on the Heart, a book by Jesuit Gregory Boyle who began Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, a gang intervention program in the gang capital of the world. Pastor G, as the homies call him, spends a great deal of time visiting with incarcerated youth – conducting services and just sitting and talking with these kids on the margins of society. In this instance he is at Camp Paige, a detention facility and is meeting with Rigo, a fifteen year old about to make his first communion. They have about ten minutes to kill and Pastor G asks him about his life and family. He gets around to asking about Rigo's father.

“Oh,” Rigo says, “he's a heroin addict and never really been in my life. Used to always beat me. Fact, he's in prison right now, barely ever lived with us.” Then something seemed to snap in him, an image brings him to attention.

Rigo continues, “I think I was in the fourth grade...I came home one day, sent home in the middle of the day. Got into some trouble at school Can't remember what. When I got home, my jefito was there. He was hardly ever there. My dad says, “Why they send you home?” And cuz my dad always beat me, I said. “If I tell you, promise you won't hit me?” He just said, “I'm your father. 'course I'm not gonna hit you.” So I told him.

Rigo is caught short in the telling. He bgins to cry, and in moments he's wailing and rocking back and forth. Father Greg put his arms around him. He was inconsolable. When Rigo is able to speak, and barely so, he says only, “He beat me with a pipe...with...a pipe.” When Rigo composes himself, Father Greg asked, “and your mother?” He points some distance across the room at a tiny woman standing by the gym's entrance.

“That's her over there.” He pauses for a beat. “There's no one like her.” Again, some image appears in his mind and a thought occurs to him. “I've been locked up for more than a year and a half. She comes to see me every Sunday. You know how many buses she takes to come here? To see my sorry self?”

Then he sobs again with the same ferocity as before. When he reclaims breath he gasps through his tears. “Seven buses. She takes... seven...buses. Imagine.”

Imagine. The expansive heart of this God – greater than God – who takes seven buses, just to arrive at us. Who sent his Son to be our Savior.

Embrace that God and there's no question of what role we will take in the parable. We will show up. We will introduce everyone we meet to this God. We will be so full of gratitude that we will be ready to turn over God's portion of the harvest to him without complaint, without abusing his messengers. We will be the new tenants in the new kingdom built on the solid foundation of our cornerstone.

When Jesus asks, which son will we be? The one that says, “sure, I'll do the job” but doesn't show up? Let our story be of the one who – although reluctant at first, thinks better of it...and gets into the vineyard!

How to Get Along

This message was first delivered at Chestnut Hill United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia on September 10, 2017. It is based on the lectionary texts of Matthew 18:15-20 and Romans 13:8-14.

How to Get Along

“If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

Years ago, a large statue of Christ was erected high in the Andes on the border between Argentina and Chile. Called "Christ of the Andes," the statue symbolizes a pledge between the two countries that as long as the statue stands, there will be peace between Chile and Argentina. Shortly after the statue was erected, the Chileans began to protest that they had been slighted -- the statue had its back turned to Chile. Just when tempers were at their highest in Chile, a Chilean newspaperman saved the day. In an editorial that not only satisfied the people but made them laugh, he simply said, "The people of Argentina need more watching over than the Chileans.”

Arguments. They are a part of life. We are humans and we will inevitably rub each other the wrong way at times and end up in a disagreement. It happens in families, at school, work...and yes, even in church. But today's scriptures give us a blueprint on how to get along. The challenge is following the plan!

This lesson from Matthew is, first and foremost, about how we live as Christians in community with one another, particularly when someone from our community has sinned against us or wronged us in some way.

Most people, when they hear the word “sin,” think about things they have personally done that are wrong. That is because we think in terms of me, myself, and I: My personal relationship with Jesus, My desires, my needs, my values, My sin as a private matter between ME and GOD

In this way of thinking, sin involves only individual confession: I confess my sin, God forgives me, and I am saved and can move on. Jesus strikes at the very heart of our individualism when he says we are wrong about this. He says that if we are one of his followers, then it can no longer be all about ME; because the moment that we enter in to his fellowship, our lives change, and it becomes all about US. Remember he taught us to pray OUR Father, not MY father. Living in community is a challenging thing!

It’s not just about sharing living space or stuff. At some very core level, we don’t like to have others knowing our business. We don’t want to air our dirty laundry or let others see our mistakes and weaknesses. We don’t want to be held accountable for our actions.

Jesus says that sin is very clearly a community matter. He suggests that living in Christian community requires both accountability and forgiveness. And the way we live out our faith in relationship with one another affects our relationship with God. The way we treat one another has everything to do with our relationship with God. When we live in a spirit of Christian love and commit to accountability and forgiveness a way of life, Jesus says that’s when God is there, present among us.

Jesus offers a model of accountability that we as brothers and sisters in Christ might live by. In his model, there are three steps: From Eugene Peterson's The Message, Matthew 18:15-17: “If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you’ve made a friend. If he won’t listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won’t listen, tell the church. If he won’t listen to the church, you’ll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s forgiving love.”

Now don't take this as an invitation to launch an attack on every person that you disagree with! This is about people in the community of faith. This is about people who have entered into an agreement to be a part of community. Just like we do every time we share the Lord's Supper. In the United Methodist Church's liturgy for the sacrament of Holy Communion, we say that the invitation from Christ our Lord is for all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another. We then confess our sins, hear words of absolution, and share the peace with one another before sharing the bread and cup. It is time that we take that promise seriously...because it is important that we show unity in the church. We live in a hurting world that needs to hear about God's love...but it will be hard to trust in that love, if we don't show it within the church. You see? They'll Know...They are going to know we are Christians by our love.

I love that hymn and I'm so grateful that your congregation has the Faith We Sing so that we could share that hymn together. It is a wonderful reminder of what we can accomplish when we are all pulling in the same direction!

Sure, we have to exemplify God's love in every aspect of our lives, but it is critical that we show love within the church. This story was related to me and it hit so close to home, it felt like a story I could have told it myself. Sara wrote, “I became a Christian as a teenager, and I immediately wanted to be involved in my church. Hoping to channel that enthusiasm, the church leaders put me on the committee which was planning the promotion for the church's building fund. The adults were working on a brochure, which I was supposed to help them write. It was exciting to be performing an important service, and to be working along side a group of mature Christians-or so Sara thought.

After the first meeting it was clear that these "mature" believers were more concerned about whether or not to have an air conditioner in the new sanctuary than they were about spiritual matters (in my church it was about round tables vs. rectangular tables and red carpet runners vs. blue). They argued and fought through the entire meeting. Sara got her eyes off the creator and onto the creation, and it was discouraging. For 6 years after that day she refused to go to church, read the Bible or even consider anything relating to Christianity. "If that's what Christians are like, why would I want to be one?" Sara reasoned.”

You see? They'll know! They will figure it out before we even get the chance to tell them about Jesus and the unfathomable love he has for every single person.

If we are going to be a Christian community, we must commit ourselves to working through our differences in healthy ways. I can’t make it work by myself, no matter how much I want it to. I can’t do it alone. None of you can do it alone either.

It takes all of us, speaking and listening and then speaking and listening some more, over and over, for as long as it takes. Every one of us has to be willing to listen and to learn from one another and from our differences. That’s the only path to true community.

Scripture reminds us that this love thing is tricky and that we, as humans, will take this simple command and screw it up. We will carelessly call our brother 'idiot' and thoughtlessly yell 'stupid' at a sister. Even in the church.

We can be reassured by the fact that the difficulties we face as members of the body of Christ are not so different than those difficulties faced by the early church. In Colossians 3:13-14 Paul tells that church (and us) that we need to “be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.” After listing all the ways we can bless each other, Paul wrote these words because he recognizes that sometimes we fall short. We're going to irritate each other, so we'll need to put up with each other.

How many of you have had times in family or romantic relationships when you just needed to put up with each other? Church relationships are no different. Accepting each other is an important key to making this “marriage” work. At some point you say to yourself, you know what? I love him, I love her even though he/she is not perfect. There are things that cause pain and require a measure of grace to be dealt with. If we are to move beyond those things, we have to remember there are six words that are as important as any spoken in a marriage or relationship: Those six words are “I am sorry” and “I forgive you.” If you're unable to say those words, you have no chance of making a friendship, a family relationship, a marriage or a church last. It's that simple.

The key is love. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, is talking about love not as a feeling, but as an action. Love is what we owe our neighbors. Love is the fulfillment of the law. Love is not doing things in the dark that we don’t want others to see, but rather putting on the honor of light and living honorably as in the day. Living in a way that nothing needs to be hidden.

Love is not a feeling here. It is something that we do. Let's shift our attention for a minute to the passage from Romans we heard – and bring out three key points. 1. Believers should be "debt-free" in relation to others, except with regard to love. The Message states verse 8 in this way: “Don’t run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along.” The law was a very big deal to the people of Israel. Often, the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) is referred to as the Law. More literally it means instruction or guide. This was the center of Jewish teaching, culture and practice. The Torah consists of the origin of the Jewish people: their call into being by God, their trials and tribulations, and their covenant with God, which involves following a way of life embodied in a set of moral and religious obligations and civil laws. Paul knew his audience and THEY knew the law. He's turning it into something personal: When you love others, you complete what the law intended to accomplish. That takes us the point 2. The commandments can be summarized and fulfilled in one statement, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Or as one of the members of my youth Sunday school class puts it: Don't be a jerk. He's a real philosopher! But Paul is right...if you take all the don'ts...don't kill, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't covet...they can all be covered by “love your neighbor as yourself.” You don't want any of these things being done unto you...don't do them unto anybody else! I could wander off on a tangent here about maybe people DON'T love themselves much – and how that might cause them to BE jerks. But I'll save that for another visit.

Point 3. Christians should be motivated to goodness because of agape and the approaching Second Coming of Christ. Agape. A different kind of love. That is a love that comes from compassion. God looks on us with compassion and despite our human-ness, loves us more fully than we can comprehend. Why else would he send his son to die on a cross for us?

God can get tiny if we're not careful. Too often we fall into the trap of God being made in our image – instead of the other way around. We relate to God in our human understanding, putting God in a box that he simply can't be contained in! But God is bigger than that. This wild, untamed God has a deep and abiding love for us.

I'd like to read a story for you from Tattoos on the Heart, a book by Jesuit Gregory Boyle who began Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, a gang intervention program in the gang capital of the world. Pastor G, as the homies call him, spends a great deal of time visiting with incarcerated youth – conducting services and just sitting and talking with these kids on the margins of society (you don't get much more “They” than that. In this instance he is at Camp Paige, a detention facility and is meeting with Rigo, a fifteen year old about to make his first communion. They have about ten minutes to kill and Pastor G asks him about his life and family. He gets around to asking about Rigo's father.

Rigo is caught short in the telling. He begins to cry, and in moments he's wailing and rocking back and forth. Father Greg put his arms around him. He was inconsolable. When Rigo is able to speak, and barely so, he says only, “He beat me with a pipe...with...a pipe.” When Rigo composes himself, Father Greg asked, “and your mother?” He points some distance across the room at a tiny woman standing by the gym's entrance.

Then he sobs again with the same ferocity as before. When he reclaims breath he gasps through his tears. “Seven buses. She takes... seven...buses. Imagine.”

Imagine. The expansive heart of this God – greater than God – who takes seven buses, just to arrive at us. It is that agape love and the promise of Jesus' return that Paul says should move us to goodness.

Jerome, in his commentary on Galatians, tells that St. John continued preaching in Ephesus even when he was in his 90s. Even when he was so enfeebled that he had to be carried in on a stretcher, he would lean up on one elbow and deliver his message, “Little children, love one another.” Then he would lie back down and be carried out. One day, the story goes, someone asked him why he said the same thing week after week. John replied, “Because it is enough.” It is Christianity in a nutshell.

We are called to love one another. To show that we are Christians by our love. Because They'll know. And they are going to know we are Christians by the love we show to them. But who are THEY? Who is my neighbor?

With storms and natural disasters or even human-caused crises, I often hear about neighbors taking care of each other. People shoveling each others' walks in snow storms, giving rides to people, checking on each other to be sure they are okay. These neighbors are important. But we know from scripture that our neighbor is more than the guy who lives next door with the chainsaw when wind takes down a chunk of tree. The whole world is our neighborhood!

Suddenly – They and them are more clearly defined. They are the people on the outside who are just waiting to be invited in. In another part of Tattoos on the Heart, Father Greg tells about the instance in scripture where Jesus is in a house so packed that no one can come through the door anymore. So the people open the roof and lower this paralytic down through it so Jesus can heal him. Although the focus of the story is, understandably, the healing of the paralytic...there is something more significant happening. They're ripping the roof off the place, and those outside are being let in.

We need to rip some roofs off. We need to go outside and see the people who are hurting and need Jesus. We need to find every way possible to get them connected to the one who loves them – and let them know that he does. We are tasked with showing God's love to the world. Are we doing our job? And are we doing it with a Christ-like attitude?

There are people who are hurting out there. People who need to see the love of God. We have neighbors who don't have enough to eat, who need a listening ear, who need a helping hand to get back on their feet, neighbors who face barriers that we can dismantle. They are counting on us. But they will experience God's love through the love we show. And they will be able to tell if it is genuine. They will know if we are helping them out of a sense of obligation or if our helping them is just an extension of the joy we have in being loved so much by God.

Let our story be about how we ripped off roofs to introduce a hurting world to the love of the one who knows our name. Who can't wait to see us face to face. Because when we dive into the depths of that unfathomable love, then we start to see the people around us differently. And this love thing starts to spread. And this just might catch on.

You're Not in the Driver's Seat

This message was first delivered at Cove United Methodist Church in Coleman Falls, Virginia on September 3, 2017. It is based on the lectionary texts of Matthew 16:21-28 and Romans 12:9-21.

You're Not in the Driver's Seat

From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

“For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Just a few verses before this – Peter is praised by Jesus for his response to the question “Who do YOU say that I am?” When Peter proclaims without hesitation that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God...Jesus blesses him. He says that he knows he didn't learn that from books or from teachers, but that knowledge came straight from God. He declares that Simon is Peter – the rock that his church will be built on.

Now we find Peter with his foot in his mouth again. When Jesus gets serious and begins to make it clear to the disciples what is ahead for him: going to Jerusalem, being tried by the religious leaders, death...but then resurrection – well, Peter is his usual passionate self. He protests and swears that this is impossible, that this should never happen to Jesus. I can almost hear Jesus banging his head quietly on a nearby wall... “Peter, Peter, Peter...I thought you had it for a minute there.” And he starts laying out what being the Messiah means. And what following the Messiah is going to mean for Peter and the rest of the disciples.

It's going to mean getting out of the driver's seat. Letting the Lord take the lead. If you're going to follow Jesus he wants to be perfectly clear about the expectations...“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” Deny themselves. Let go of self and open yourself up to whatever God has in store.

That is a tall order for a control freak like me. I am used to being in the driver's seat. I like relying on my own understanding. I am stubbornly independent. I'm the first to say, “it's okay God, I got this. You've got more serious things to worry about.” Let go of self? Perish the thought. But that is what we have to do in order to be a follower of Jesus. I've got to let go of my plans and be ready to accept God's plan. That isn't easy but we are promised that he'll be with us and show us how.

The second sentence is the twist – those who want to save their life will lose it, those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For a long time I read that passage quite literally. Perhaps because I know what happens in Jerusalem or can picture the oppression of the Roman occupation – or maybe I've seen the movie Gladiator one too many times...I've always thought about that verse as LIFE or DEATH. Breathing vs. not. And that's not something I relate to, thank God. Probably few of us have had our life threatened for Jesus' sake. We live in a society where we can freely worship. So when I read that “those who lose their life for my sake will find it” - I don't feel a personal call to sacrifice my mortal life.

Then I thought about the definition of life in a different way. Instead of life as just not being dead – I thought about life in terms of how I live. The choices I make. The path I travel. Now the verse takes on a new meaning...if I sacrifice my selfish desires and instead focus on what God desires...I will find new life. A deeper and more meaningful life. BUT - If, instead, I hold onto the life that is focused on what is comfortable for ME...the things that I want...then I'll lose the prize. And that just doesn't compute! Jesus goes on to say, “what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?” To put it another way, What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?

I found a great illumination of that verse when I looked at a children's sermon – pretend you're kids...I won't even make you come down front and sit on the floor! “Have you ever wanted something so badly that you would give just about anything to have it? This morning I am going to tell you a story about a little boy and a whistle. The little boy in the story is named Ben. His full name was Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin Franklin later grew up to be one of the wisest men our world has ever known, but in our story today, he was a little boy who did something very foolish.

When Ben was seven years old some of his friends gave him some money. It was quite a bit of money for a small boy. As Ben told it, "They filled my pockets with coppers." That is what they used to call pennies. With his pockets full of money, Ben headed straight for a store where they sold toys. On the way to the store, he met a boy who had a whistle. When Ben heard the whistle, he liked the sound of it so much that he told the boy he would give him all of the money he had in his pockets if he would give him the whistle. The boy gave Ben the whistle and took the money.

Ben headed for home and when he got there, he went all around the house playing his whistle. His brothers, sisters, and cousins asked Ben where he got the whistle and he told them that he had bought it with the money he had been given. They all started to laugh at Ben and make fun of him. They told him that he had paid four times as much as the whistle was worth. Ben was so hurt and felt so foolish that he began to cry, but he learned a lesson that day that he would remember for the rest of his life. From then on, whenever he saw someone who had made a foolish choice in life, he would say, "That man paid too much for his whistle."

Some boys and girls (and men and women too) want to be popular with a certain group of kids at school (and work and the world). They may do things that they know are wrong because they think it will make them popular. They are paying too much for their whistle.

Some boys and girls want to be a winner more than anything. They are even willing to cheat if that's what it takes to win. They are paying too much for their whistle.

Some boys and girls think the most important thing in life is to have fun, so they spend all of their time playing and they never have time for God. They are paying too much for their whistle.

Is there something that you want so much that you are willing to do almost anything to get it? Jesus once asked the question, "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet loses his soul?" Are you paying too much for your whistle?

This is where I usually give the kids at Centenary a Hershey kiss. I hope you'll forgive me for not bringing any along.

We don't want to pay too much for our whistle. We want to have our minds on the things of God and not of men. We need to get out of the part-time follower business if we are going to follow Jesus. We need to embrace this new life in Christ, a God-focused life...

We have only to look to today's scripture from Romans to get some really good advice for living. Great examples of a life focused on God-things and away from Me-things. It is quite a list and it has an effect that I like to call the Chicken Soup Syndrome. How many of you have read any of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books? Did you know that there are over 250 of them?

I dearly love reading these real-life stories. The inspirational messages are truly touching...but you can only read so many of them in one sitting before it all begins to blur together. Goodness overload! I have the same challenge with Romans 12:9-21. So many powerful thoughts that they start running into each other and begin to sound like Chinese fortune cookies. I would challenge you to bookmark this passage and review just one or two each day for a couple of weeks. Find ones that really speak to you. Underline them, highlight them, put them on post-it notes and hang them on your bathroom mirror. Keep coming back to it from time to time and refresh your reflections.

You may connect in different ways to these verses depending on what you are going through in your life. Listen to these ways for living a God-focused life as paraphrased by Eugene Peterson's The Message:

Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it.
Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good.
Be good friends who love deeply;
Practice playing second fiddle.
Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame.
Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant.
Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder.
Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.
Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath.
Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down.
Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up.
Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.
Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone.
If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody.
Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”
if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or
if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness.
Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

How do you want to be remembered? What is the legacy, the impact you want to make on the world? How will your life be measured? Are you willing to lose your life for Jesus sake in order to find REAL life IN Jesus?

We ask ourselves the question that Jesus asked his disciples. Who do you say that I am? We, like Peter, are there with the right answer – you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. And, like Peter, we have to work to grasp how that knowledge changes us.

When Jesus started talking about the challenges that were ahead – Peter wanted to deny that such atrocities were even possible. After all, THIS is the Son of God! What could you be thinking, Jesus, to talk about going to Jerusalem to be condemned by the religious leaders and put to death? Inconceivable declares Peter!

In one of my favorite movies, The Princess Bride, the bandit Vizzini proclaims each unlikely event as “Inconceivable.” When he cuts the rope that the man in black is climbing and he still doesn't fall, Vizzini says “Inconceivable!” and his companion Inigo Montoya says, “I do not think you know what this word means.”

Jesus keeps trying to explain to his disciples the path ahead. He refers to the scriptures and prophecies that clearly spell out what is going to happen. And Peter either doesn't get it – or he doesn't want to embrace it. Who can blame him? If you are living in the presence of the Son of God...the thought of losing him in such a way is not a concept that Peter wants to face. But he's forgetting the promise of the resurrection. Forgetting what comes after.

Jesus isn't patient in this case. He tells Peter exactly what he told the devil at the end of the trial in the desert – get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block.

That had to sting. To go from The Rock that the church will be built upon to stumbling block. If I were Peter – I'd probably be thinking “dude, that was harsh.” I might be thinking, “look...I was just pointing out how impossible it is that the Son of God would be made to suffer that way. I mean, it was really me honoring your power!”

But Jesus says to Peter – and to us – get your head in the game. I need you on board with the whole process! You need to get your mind off human things and onto divine things.

It isn't the first or the last time that Jesus tells his followers that the road ahead isn't easy. But the promise is – it's worth the effort. After the crucifixion, there is the resurrection!

New life. Are we willing to sacrifice self in order to embrace the new life, the potential within us? To live, truly LIVE – abundantly. To make an impact in the world around us.

How do you want to be remembered? When you stand before Jesus Christ, I believe that one of the first questions Jesus may ask is: “Did you love my children?”

Remember Jesus’ words, “all people will know that we are His disciples if we have love for one another.” Love was VERY important to Jesus; it compelled Him to give up His life for us! He wants us to imitate Him in how we love others.

Identify those relationships where you need to grow in love—it may be a family member, a co-worker, a neighbor, or a person at church. Target specific people, not just everyone in general. Then commit to begin loving those people as Christ has commanded. Love God, Love who and what God loves. And leave the rest up to Him.

God Is Bigger Than You Think

This message was first delivered at Centenary United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia on July 30, 2017. It is based on the lectionary texts of Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 and Romans 8:26-39.

God Is Bigger Than You Think

He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

“Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village today." They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, "Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway." All of them went where the elephant was. Everyone of them touched the elephant.

"Hey, the elephant is a pillar," said the first man who touched his leg. "Oh, no! it is like a rope," said the second man who touched the tail. "Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree," said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant. "It is like a big hand fan" said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant. "It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant. "It is like a solid pipe," Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.

They began to argue about the elephant and everyone of them insisted that he was right. It looked like they were getting agitated. A wise man was passing by and he saw this. He stopped and asked them, "What is the matter?" They said, "We cannot agree to what the elephant is like." Each one of them told what he thought the elephant was like. The wise man calmly explained to them, "All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features what you all said." "Oh!" everyone said. There was no more fight. They felt happy that they were all right.

You see, the way we know what things are like depends a lot on our experiences and point of view. And that changes from person to person and even can change over time as an individual has different life changes. When Jesus told these parables about what the kingdom of heaven is like – he knew that they would be relevant to the listener in different ways. He isn't describing seven different kingdoms – but approaching it from a variety of perspectives.

Matthew 13 begins with the parable of the sower that Pastor Doug preached on 2 weeks ago – you remember? Seeds on the path, seeds in rocky soil, seeds in thorns, good soil? The second parable has another farmer coping with weeds this time. The third is where we began with today's gospel reading. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. It's like yeast. It's a treasure hidden in a field. It's like a pearl of great value. No, it's like sorting fish?

When Pastor Doug asked me to speak today, one of the first things that I did was to look up the lectionary scriptures for today. And when I read the four passages, Matthew made me stop and stare at my computer screen. During a recent lay servant training session I elected to take a class called “Go, Preach.” It was described as a class that would help me, a lay person, prepare a message. There were seven lay people and one pastor teaching us. Although he said several times that he wasn't saying that his way was the only way – I still had the impression he considered his sermon preparation process to be the best way. And we did not always see eye-to-eye on the process. First he said that he rarely uses the lectionary – and I nearly always preach from the lectionary! It is the connected worship of many denominations. A great many pastors look to those four weekly scriptures to determine their message topic for the week. Of course, there are also a great many who choose other topics to "preach on."

If you think about it though...if even 1% of the Christian congregations in the world preach on the same set of scriptures...that is 37,000 congregations all focusing on a particular aspect of our relationship with God and with each other. That can be very powerful, especially if we are intentional in the way we communicate with God - and with each other.

Then our instructor said that he rarely writes his sermons out. And I ALWAYS do! I'm a pretty good extemporaneous speaker but I am not going to walk into the sanctuary on Sunday morning and just wing it. I take this opportunity seriously and want you to leave today with some food for thought or insight or interesting perspective. I'll even settle for healthy disagreement with my interpretation! You can see that I'm heading for some head butting with this pastor.

So...we get our class assignment. We are going to work as a group to illuminate this scripture: He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

I must warn you – if you are going to craft a message...doing it by committee is a BAD idea. But the brainstorming commenced. And the elephant touching began right away. “Who does the woman represent?” Is it God? Is it the church? Is it me? Am I mixing the bread? “What is the bread?” Is it my life? Is it the world? Is the yeast the Word? Is the yeast the outreach of disciples? Why THREE measures of flour? Is this a trinity reference? Over the course of about eight hours we came up with a couple dozen different permutations – if the woman is God and the yeast is the church's influence then the bread is the realization of the kingdom. On more than one occasion I was even told my somewhat out-of-the-box thoughts were wrong!

Thirty words total. Hours of perspectives. Because we each brought to the discussion different points of view and experiences. I lost track of how many times I thought to myself - “oh, I hadn't considered it like that.” So it should be no surprise that Matthew 13 has seven stories of what the kingdom of heaven is like.

I don't think it is about a location, more about a belonging. Being part of something. Heaven is where “The King” reigns from, but His kingdom describes where His people live. It’s here and now –not somewhere that we go after we die.

The parables all begin with a phrase such as: “the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed…” They can be better understood by reading this as “The kingdom of heaven can be described by the story in which a man who sowed good seed…” It’s the entire story (told in seven different ways) that represents the kingdom. Each parable has a different context: a farmer, a gardener, a cook, a treasure seeker, a merchant, a fisherman. The intent is for the reader to identify himself with at least one of these so that the message is relevant to him.

The comparison to the mustard seed has always intrigued me. Just like our call to worship said today, why would something so tiny and insignificant be compared to the kingdom of God? But I've learned that there's a lot packed into the tiny seed. Tremendous potential.

As I showed the kids in the children's sermon – mustard seeds are little itty bitty things. But any of them who tasted the seeds can tell you, there is a burst of flavor when you chew them. Not quite like the potency of French's yellow mustard – because most of that tang comes from copious amounts of vinegar! But for such a small seed, it packs a punch. And the power doesn't stop there!

When I was working on a message based on Luke 17 – where Jesus tells the disciples that if they had faith the size of a mustard seed they could get a tree to go jump in the sea – I learned a great deal about mustard weed. Do you know what mustard weed was like in Jesus' day? It was like the kudzu of Palestine. It grew wild. Birds ate it but didn't entirely digest the seeds – and the seeds were dropped everywhere. It would take over fields and crops. You could pull it up but more birds would eat more mustard weed and it would be back. It was persistent, irritating and fast-spreading.

This tiny seed has potential! It grows into the greatest of shrubs according to Matthew 13:32. Becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. It can take over fields. It seems so insignificant in seed form – but given the basics of soil, sun and water...boom! It's now substantial!

Now – who or what is the mustard seed? Is it faith that grows to be substantial enough to protect? Is it the church reaching out and spreading the love of God like kudzu? Am I a mustard seed? Is Centenary a tiny powerhouse of potential just needing soil, sun and water to grow? Who is the sower and why in the world would he go and purposely sow a FIELD with mustard seed?

We could spend eight hours discussing and debating every possible meaning of every aspect of this very short parable. And just about any combination would hold meaning for someone in this room. And we could let it dissolve into an argument just like the blind villagers who touched the elephant. But I would invite you to listen to the wise man who told those villagers they all had a different perspective of the same animal – we come to our understanding of the kingdom in a multitude of ways. I am not qualified to judge that your pathway is right or wrong. I am just as blind as the next guy. I can only share how I've come to my conclusions and embrace the core truth – that God loves us and wants to be in direct relationship with each of us as individuals. And I can hope that we believers get to the same spirit that the six blind villagers came to – after the wise man explained that they were all right – they just had touched a different part of the elephant. "Oh!" everyone said. There was no more fight. They felt happy that they were all right. Even when we disagree, can we hear the other perspective? Can we still see what God sees in the other person?

God can get tiny if we're not careful. Too often we fall into the trap of God being made in our image – instead of the other way around. We relate to God in our human understanding, putting God in a box that he simply can't be contained in! The hope is that our sense of God will grow as expansive as our God is. Each tiny conception gets obliterated as we discover more and more the God who is always greater.

I'd like to read a story for you from Tattoos on the Heart, a book by Jesuit Gregory Boyle who began Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, a gang intervention program in the gang capital of the world. Pastor G, as the homies call him, spends a great deal of time visiting with incarcerated youth – conducting services and just sitting and talking with these kids on the margins of society. In this instance he is at Camp Paige, a detention facility and is meeting with Rigo, a fifteen year old about to make his first communion. They have about ten minutes to kill and Pastor G asks him about his life and family. He gets around to asking about Rigo's father.

Then he sobs again with the same ferocity as before. When he reclaims breath he gasps through his tears. “Seven buses. She takes... seven...buses. Imagine.”

Imagine. The expansive heart of this God – greater than God – who takes seven buses, just to arrive at us. Our image of who God is and what's on God's mind is limited to our understanding. Regardless, it doesn't change who God is – the wild, untamed God who created the universe can't be shut in our little box!

So when we feel discouraged or overwhelmed. When we feel at the end of our rope – God is there. Scripture promises that he will never leave us or forsake us. If we don't feel God's presence – it doesn't mean that he has left us to fend for ourselves. Usually it means we have fallen into the trap of humanity...and are relying on our understanding. We feel a distance that is not of God's making, but our own. All we have to do is turn back toward him, humble ourselves and recognize that we are not God.

I love the way the Eugene Peterson's The Message phrases Romans 8:26-27: Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our condition, and keeps us present before God.

The kingdom of heaven is like an elephant. And as I grow in understanding with every passing day help me to remember that there is one God – who loves us beyond measure – and I'm. Not. Him.