Year C, Pentecost 8, Luke 12:13-21, Now you have it, now you don’t

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

Money can’t buy you happiness, but it beats poverty.

A pastor friend of mine and I were talking to each other about his daughter and my sister’s college friend.

This friend was from a very wealthy family.

They were rich enough that she and her mother would go cruising every summer, simply going from one ship to another all summer long.

Not only that, but they’d bring one of the girls friends along as a “personal secretary”, an opportunity that both my sister and this pastor’s daughter had enjoyed.

That afternoon, Darryl and I were talking about this and we remarked that money doesn’t buy you happiness, and we really wouldn’t want to be all that rich, and so on and so forth.

Then Darryl turned to me and said, “But if we are honest, we may say we don’t want to be rich, but in truth, we’d all like to give it a try for a while.”

Today’s lessons are not the most uplifting passages of scripture.

Quite frankly, if someone spoke like this today we might put them on an antidepressant. 

And the scripture passages are fairly negative toward wealth.

From Ecclesiastes:

Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me—and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.

Then in Psalm 49 we read:

For we see that the wise die also; like the dull and stupid they perish and leave their wealth to those who come after them. Their graves shall be their homes forever, their dwelling places from generation to generation, though they had named lands after themselves.

In Colossians we are warned to “Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient.”

And finally, in the Gospel we hear the parable of the rich man who built larger barns to store his great wealth, only to die an untimely death:

“And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

When we read the Bible, there are two contrasting messages regarding wealth.

In the Old Testament, wealth was considered a sign of God’s special blessing. 

There were three signs that God’s favor was shining down upon you.  First, if you had plenty of children.  Second, if your flocks flourished.  And thirdly, if the crops were bountiful.

And all three of these things were the measure of one’s wealth, and God’s favor.

But then when we turn to the prophetic writings, and the New Testament, all of a sudden there are all sorts of warnings and judgments rendered regarding wealth.

Greed is idolatry. 

Greed is to desire more of something than you need.

Karla and I are at the point in our lives that we are thinking about retirement and the future.

The number one question that almost everyone asks as they approach their retirement years is what???

Have we saved enough to be financially secure throughout the remainder of our lives?

We want to have enough money so that we can be confident that we will never run out, no matter how long we live. 

The thing is, though, that there is a fine line between “wanting enough so that you’ll never run out” and “desiring more that you need”.  Right?

Desiring more than you need is greed and idolatry.

Wanting enough so that you don’t run out is considered being responsible. 

Again, it’s a fine line between the two.

In Timothy Paul writes:

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

And then in Hebrews it is written:

Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, "I will never leave you or forsake you."

These two verses get to the heart of the matter.

What really is at stake is a matter of faith.

To put our trust in money and to seek security from the balance in our bank account is to turn away from faith in God and the security only God offers.

Be content with what you have, for "I will never leave you or forsake you."

Be content with what you have, for "I will never leave you or forsake you."

I can say all this, but I remain concerned about the future.

I would like to build larger barns, as the man in Jesus’ parable did.

I’d like to feel secure.

That’s the bottom line for me.

I’d like to feel secure.

One of the things I grieve as time passes by is the loss of a collective memory of our history.

Specifically, my parents and grandparents lived through and remembered the Great Depression.

The collective memory of them was “we may not have had much during that time, but we had enough”.  “There was always love, and food on the table.”

Do we have faith in God, sufficient to feel secure, trusting only in him even when our own resources might fail us?

That, you see, is the issue with money.

It will one day fail us.

This happens in two ways.

First, one thing we know, if we pay attention, is that the economic prosperity we are currently enjoying will one day give way to a recession.  It’s an inevitable part of the economic cycle.

One of the things I am humored by is the way politicians like to take credit for a good economy and blame others for a bad economy. 

My belief is that the economy will have its ups and downs regardless who is in charge and it’s all just a matter of time.

And so today, I might have plenty in my retirement account, but who knows what I’ll have tomorrow.  Easy come, easy go.

Take my house, for example.  By some estimates it has appreciated by about 40% in the 7 years I’ve owned it.  That’s real good.

But the housing market could collapse tomorrow, and its value could tank.

But you know what?  It’s still the same house.

Back to the point:  Investments fail us at times because of the ups and downs of the market, and the risks inherent in them. 

Jesus could have made the point that the rich man who built larger barns could have woken up the next morning to a devastating fire and lost everything.  Many have.

But the point Jesus does make, is that no matter how much we have in this life, we leave this world the same way we enter it, naked and without a penny to our name. 

When we look toward our own deaths and our security then, no amount of money will help us. 

“So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

Underlying this is what I believe is the most profound question of faith.

Faith is to trust in someone else.  Not ourselves.

We live so much of our lives trusting only in ourselves that sometimes it is a challenge to trust someone else.

I really learned this lesson when I had heart surgery.

I couldn’t help myself.

I couldn’t do anything.

I simply had to trust, first of all, in the medical team to care for me, and most importantly to trust in God that whatever happened I’d be ok.

But in that moment I was out of control.  I needed to trust another.

Remember the story of manna in the wilderness?

That was one of the most important lessons God tried to teach the people during that time.

If you remember they were instructed to gather only as much as they needed for that day.  If they gathered more, it would rot.

What God wanted them to learn was that he would take care of them tomorrow, just as he had today.

That’s the faith question.

God has provided me with what I needed every day of my life, thus far, can I trust in him to continue to provide for me in the future?

Faith.

To have faith is to believe God when he says "I will never leave you or forsake you."

Amen

From Remembrance to Hope, Year C, Easter 4, Psalm 23,

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

Life is an ever changing journey.

As we walk along life’s way, there will be times of tranquility and contentedness.

And there will be times of trial and conflict that test our souls.

For some, this journey through times of darkness and light seems to be a daily experience, a constant companion that shapes life.

For others, life is more predictable.  More stable.  And hardship rarely shows itself.

Still for others, each day is marked by almost constant struggles for life itself.

Psalm 23 speaks to this journey of life.

It is in three parts.

First it speaks of trust, recalling God’s care for us.

1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;

he leads me beside still waters;

3 he restores my soul.

He leads me in right paths

for his name's sake.

These are words of assurance, in which the Psalmist, David, speaks about God, and all that God has done for us.

The purpose of these words is to encourage us to trust in the Lord for the time is coming when we will need to have such faith.

In the next section of the Psalm, the grammar itself changes.

No longer does David speak about the Lord, he is speaking to the Lord.

It is a prayer in time of need.

4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley,

I fear no evil;

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff—

they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

We are more familiar with the older version which speaks of “the valley of the shadow of death”.

David also lifts up the concern about our enemies, those adversaries that would undo us and the evil that threatens us.

It is here that each of our experiences of life may be quite unique, and yet common to one another as well.

We all will face our challenges in life.  That we have in common.

But each of our journeys will be different.

For some the challenges of life may come early, even in childhood, with the various forces of evil that assail us, from poverty to abuse or deprivation.

And for others, we may escape many of life’s challenges until the end, when we must face the final foe, death itself, and from that there is no escape.

And the prayer is this:  “I fear no evil; for you are with me; “

Having prayed to the Lord during his time of trial, David concludes with hope and assurance.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord

my whole life long.

This is the journey of faith.

We begin by remembering all that the Lord has done for us.

Then we call out to the Lord during our times of trial.

And we look forward in hope to the end of our suffering.

The constant throughout all of this is the assurance that God is by our side, present with us at all times, in all places.

Throughout my past, the Lord has been with me.

The Lord is with me now.

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord, forever.

And nothing else matters.

Remember.

Pray.

And Hope.

This is the journey of faith.

One of the things I experience at this time in my life is a certain degree of anxiety with respect to our financial security.

I have just a few more years until I hope to retire.

I envision retiring from the cabinet shop first, and then, when the time is right retiring from ministry down the road a bit.

The anxiety is quite simple.  Am I adequately prepared for retirement?  Adding to that anxiety is the simple fact that there is very little time left to make any substantial changes in my retirement portfolio.  Sure, I hope to build up a bit more savings, but my pensions are pretty much what they will be.  Will it be enough?

Faced with that uncertainty, we begin by remembering.

Karla and I started out our marriage during college.

We didn’t have much. 

Looking back at it, I remember a number of things.

One of our wedding gifts was a collection of coffee mugs, and bless them, also a three pound can of coffee.  I say bless them because coffee was expensive for us.

In order to minimize the cost we used to percolate the coffee.  Then, instead of dumping the grounds out before the making the next pot, we’d simply refresh them, putting in another tablespoon or so, and making another pot.  We’d do this until the basket was full of grounds, and then, we’d empty them and start over again. 

I also remember the struggles during seminary. 

Karla got paid twice a month, and as a secretary those wages were not great. 

One of her paychecks was not sufficient to pay the rent.  Rent cost us more than half of what our monthly income was.  And so life was a constant scramble.

The one thing I’ll say about those four years was that tax time was a delight, because Minnesota had rent subsidies.  The landlord would pay the property taxes, and then the renter would receive a refund based on your income level.  It was support like this that sustained us.

Remember.

What I remember now is that throughout all the uncertainty, we never were in want.  We had what we needed. 

Throughout our life together those experiences of our youth continue to provide us with a reason to trust in the Lord regarding our current situation.

Another memory.

When I received my first call to be the pastor of Our Savior’s Lutheran in Thompson Falls, I thought that finally, after the years struggling in seminary, we’d have a degree of financial security.

Then I saw the offerings on Sunday morning.

I ran the numbers through my head and quickly realized that they were not giving enough to pay my salary.  And yet, we survived. 

Somehow we survived once again.

Throughout our lives we’ve experienced a variety of financial challenges.  Major expenses.  A time of disability.  Changes in vocation.  You name it.

We remembered how we made it through in the past.

We prayed.

And we hoped.

The journey of faith.

And so now, I face the uncertainty of retirement with the conviction that if we could make it through those early years of our marriage when we had nothing, we’ll make it through our later years as well, because God will be with us.

It’s that simple.

And if God is with us, nothing else will matter.

Ok, well, I do hope that I’ll never have to go back to reusing coffee grounds to brew a pot of coffee. 

I actually hope that I’ll be able to afford a Mocha now and then, as well. 

And I hope that I’ll be able to make our mortgage payments.  I’ll be paying on the house until I’m 85, part of the problem of having lived in a parsonage most of my career.

But regardless what happens, we have the assurance that God will be with us throughout our time on this earth, that he will never forsake us, and that even if we experience hardship or peril, he will see us through.

Remember how God has been with you in the past.

Pray for his support today.

And look forward in hope to the goodness and mercy of God that will follow you all the days of your life.

This is the life of faith.

Amen

Year C, Easter 2, John 20.19-31, My Lord and my God

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Risen Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

Faith and Believing is not something we do with our minds, but the state of our hearts and souls.

In fact, it is when doubts assail us that faith and belief are often the strongest, for to have faith, to believe, is to trust in another when nothing whatsoever is certain.

Faith and belief are concepts that have multiple layers of meaning, and because of that, we are often left to struggle with what is meant in a particular situation. 

Back in 2002, on the occasion of Karla and my 25^th wedding anniversary, I became ill.  After a wonderful dinner out with friends and family, it was like a bomb went off in my gut, so severe that I asked Karla to take me into the hospital.

They treated me for a variety of symptoms, and after a few hours, had me settled down.

However, the Dr. said one thing that would have significant consequences.

“Has anyone ever told you that you have a heart murmur?” 

Subsequent tests in the coming weeks and months revealed that I had a mitral valve failure, and needed open heart surgery.

For me that experience became the best example of faith and belief.

There were three things going on.

First, the doctor explained that I had pulmonary hypertension, that is, an elevated blood pressure in my lungs, which is an indication that the mitral valve was not functioning, allowing blood to be pumped back into the lungs instead of just forward into the body.

When the doctor explained that to me, the first issue was did I understand what he was saying? 

This first level, understanding, is one of the dimensions of faith and belief. 

When we say “We believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth” do you understand what that means?  This is a question of intelligence and knowledge.

One of the things that I had to deal with during my treatment is that, aside from that one night, I was symptom free.  There had been no shortness of breath or uncomfortableness that would lead me to think that I had a problem.

So when the doctor told me about my mitral valve and what was wrong, I had to decide whether I would accept what he was saying as being the truth.

This dimension of faith, believing something is actually true, is a matter of conviction.  Not intelligence.

Some very intelligent people may not agree about what is true.  For example, two people may understand quite well what we mean when we say that God created the heavens and the earth, but disagree on whether that is a true statement.

Back to my surgery.

Following all the tests and the determination that I needed surgery, I was introduced to Dr. Sewick. 

Now the question was not about understanding, nor was it about truth, but rather it was about trust.  Specifically, would I trust this man to perform the surgery and fix my heart, knowing that he would stop and start the heart to do it?

Trust in this sense, is all about a relationship.

You can understand something all by yourself.

You can be convinced that something is true all by yourself.

But trust, in this sense, is always trust in another.

So when we talk about our Christian faith, we do so in three different ways.

We talk about our understanding of the Christian beliefs, namely that God created us all, that he has redeemed us, and that by the power of the Holy Spirit he leads us to believe and transforms our life.

We also talk about our Christian faith as a conviction that these things that have been revealed to us through the scriptures and proclamation are in fact true.

But the most important dimension of faith is whether we will trust in God with our whole life and soul.

There’s one other thing about these three dimensions of faith and belief that bears noting.

Only the third dimension that of trusting in the other really matters in the end.

Understanding what was wrong with my heart didn’t save me.

Believing I had a problem did not save me.

It was trusting in Dr. Sewick that saved me.

There’s a verse that I found very meaningful regarding the experience of Easter.

It comes from Luke 24: 41.

While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, .  .  .

What this says to me is that when the disciples experienced the Risen Christ, present in their midst, they didn’t understand what was happening, perhaps they couldn’t even believe that it was true, but nevertheless they were overcome with joy at being with Jesus once again.

Likewise in today’s Gospel reading.

When Jesus appeared among the disciples that Easter evening, they did not understand what was happening, and perhaps were wondering how it could possibly be true, but nevertheless they experienced Jesus, present and with them.

Thomas wasn’t there.

When the disciples shared with Thomas what had happened, Thomas responded “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

For Thomas, two things were extremely important.

First, he wanted to understand what happened.

And second, he needed to see proof that this was true.

When Jesus subsequently appeared also to Thomas Jesus offered to let him feel his wounds, but it was not necessary.

“My Lord and My God.”

My Lord.

My God.

What changed for Thomas was the relationship was reestablished. 

Thomas likely still did not understand.

He probably wondered how this could be true.

But there was his Lord and Savior, Jesus.

And that was all that mattered.

What matters to us?  Nearly two thousand years have passed.  What matters to us today?

We are at a different place than those first disciples of Jesus.

For thousands of years now we have confessed our faith.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and will come again to judge the living and the dead.

We understand these things that form the nucleus of the Christian teachings about Jesus.

They have become very familiar to us.

And in our country, even though many people are no longer active in the Church, most people will, when asked, say that they believe these things to be true.

But the real question is whether we will trust the Lord our God above all else.

Do we have a personal relationship with Jesus as our Lord and Savior?

Jesus’ disciples struggled to understand.

It was also difficult to believe that this could possibly be true.

But what they could not deny is the experience they had of the Risen Christ.

“My Lord and My God!” Thomas declared.

My Lord and My God!

That is about a relationship.  Not understanding or truth.  But a personal relationship with Jesus.

This can be a struggle.

And it’s easy to get distracted.

As a pastor a whole lot of my life has been devoted to the pursuit of Christian knowledge and understanding, and the convictions that arise out of that about what is true.

In this regard, we train our pastors well.

I have an undergraduate degree in Religion and Philosophy, and four years of seminary to get my Master of Divinity Degree. 

Pastors understand a lot.

And most of us have strong convictions about what is true and what is not.

The real issue though is whether we have encountered the risen Christ and experienced a saving relationship with Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

For us, as for many people, sometimes it is the challenges that we face in life, not our education or convictions that truly test our faith and lead us into a relationship with Jesus.

It is not what we know or believe to be true that saves us.

It is Jesus.

Jesus only.  Standing there in our midst, wounded for our sake, and saying “Peace be with you.”

Amen

Year B, Pentecost 5, Mark 4.35-41, Peace! Be Still!

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

“Peace!  Be Still!”  “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

“Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

In the Gospel of Mark there are two storms that the disciples encounter as they attempt to cross the Sea of Galilee.

Dr. Don Juel, the seminary professor under whom I studied the Gospel of Mark made the observation for us that these storms represent much more than just the arbitrary weather patterns of the day.  The storms that the disciples encounter are highly significant in Mark’s telling of the Gospel story, and they reflect the inner turmoil the disciples experienced, not merely a weather phenomenon.

Specifically, it is when the disciples cross over the Sea to the other side that they encounter these storms and come face to face with their fears.

The Other Side.

The region beyond the Sea of Galilee, to the east and north, was a Gentile territory.  Not Jewish.  Foreign ground.

These words were especially relevant to the Church at the time the Gospel was written because Christians were struggling with the question of their mission to the Gentiles.

The message of the Gospel had largely been rejected by those in Israel, and the early Christian believers, following Paul, had to make the journey into the Gentile world of the greater Roman Empire.

They became sojourners in a foreign land.

And this journey, away from their home into the unknown, caused great fear.

“Peace!  Be Still!”  “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

“Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Fear is a theme throughout the Gospels.

From the angel’s greeting to Mary, to the disciple’s hiding behind the locked door on Easter evening, fear was their constant companion.

Fear is one of the most basic emotions of the human experience.  It produces within us either the desire to flee, or to fight.  It is part of our survival instinct. 

On the one hand it is our fears that keep us alive. 

But on the other hand, our fears can enslave us.

“Peace!  Be Still!”  “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

“Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Fear overcomes us when we feel threatened, when we leave our comfort zone, when we face the unknown, and especially when we are out of control.

We all have our fears, and sometimes those fears come to the surface and get the best of us.

One of our primary fears is of our own deaths.  Actually, I had one person tell me that it wasn’t death that made him afraid, it was dying.  There’s a difference. 

This fear of dying, not death, is most evident in one simple fact:  No one, I repeat, no one, wants to end up in a nursing home for the remainder of their life.  Maybe in senior housing.  If need be, perhaps even in assisted living.  But absolutely no one wants to end up spending their last years in a nursing home unable to care for themselves.

It is one of our greatest fears.

There is another type of fear that grips us.

This is like the fear that gripped the disciples as they crossed over the Sea to the other side, to the Gentile world.  It’s the fear of being a minority.

I’ve experienced that fear.

I grew up in South Dakota.  South Dakota is in fact two very separate and different states.  The first is in the East and is entirely white, and I mean entirely.  That’s where I grew up.

The other is primarily in the West, and it comprises 7 major Indian Reservations.  When, as a white boy, you find yourself on a Reservation where everyone else is native, fear is one response.

I felt the same fear when I first experienced an all black neighborhood.

It’s a fear of feeling displaced, of being the minority, of being out of control.

Such fears grip our nation.  They are causing storms to rage all around us.  They unsettle us. 

2043

That’s at the root of many of our fears that are front and center in our nation’s life.

2043

That is the year according to the United States census bureau that White people will cease to be the majority in our country.  At that point there will be more people of color, be it black, Hispanic, oriental, native, and other groups such as Arabs, or mixed race, than there are White people.  White people will remain for a time the largest ethnic and racial block, but no longer the majority.

2043, just twenty five years from now.

That produces fear within many in our country.  Real, palpable fear.

2043 looms on the horizon for two reasons:  First, because the bulk of immigration to our country is no longer from Europe, and second, because the minorities in our country are having far more children that white people.  This is especially true of Hispanic people who, in part because of their Roman Catholic background, have more babies than any other ethnic group in the United States.  And blacks are not far behind.

The birth rate is significant because even if we sealed the borders of our nation, built a wall, and kept all minorities from immigrating, we would only delay the day when whites become a minority.

This is what is driving the white supremacy movement in our country.

Fear.

If you want to understand why the issue of immigration has become such a major storm in American politics, specifically along our southern border, you need look no further than 2043.

Last week I mentioned the immigration crisis we are facing as a country, and specifically how troubled I have been about the policy of separating children from their parents as their status is reviewed.

This week I’m deeply grateful that President Trump has taken action to stop this practice.

One of the other things that happened is that when I posted my sermon on-line it generated more responses than any other sermon I’ve posted, by far.

One response in particular struck me:

“Never does He call us to welcome rapists, murderers, pedophiles, hate filled blood worshipping monsters into our homes.”

“hate filled blood worshipping monsters”

Can you hear the fear implicit in those words?

There are also other signs of fear in our country.

I’ve shared with you before that one of the troubling things I deal with at my other job is that a number of my co-workers come to work with loaded weapons.  They refuse to drive without a pistol loaded and ready to fire.

Fear.

It goes beyond simply floundering in a boat amid a storm at sea. 

One of the things about fear is that it often breeds hate.

Fear is why we have ‘hate crimes’ in our country.

Fear.

“Peace!  Be Still!”  “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

“Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

“Then in their trouble they cried to the LORD, and you delivered them from their distress. You stilled the storm to a whisper and silenced the waves of the sea. Then were they glad when it grew calm, when you guided them to the harbor they desired.

Let them give thanks to you, LORD, for your steadfast love and your wonderful works for all people.”

These are the words from our Psalm today.

I encourage you to go home and read the entire Psalm 107 as it deals so beautifully with the fears we face.

Faced with all sorts of fear, time after time the Psalmist declares:

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,

and he delivered them from their distress;

Faith casts out fear.

That’s the first thing to bear in mind. 

“Why are you afraid?  Have you still no faith?”

Jesus is in control.

If we really believe that, there is no need to fear.  That’s why we hear so often the phrase, “Fear not!” in the Bible.  Jesus is in control.

Trust in Jesus, and you need not fear, not death, nor people different from ourselves, nor the threats that surround us like a great storm at sea.

A second thing is to have courage.  Courage is different than faith. 

“In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!"

We will have fears, and because our faith is often not yet perfect, those fears remain with us.

Courage, though, is the ability to act even in the face of our fears.  “Good courage”, is the willingness to love, even when doing so makes us vulnerable.

One experience I’ve had as a pastor was helping a woman who was being abused by her husband.  This is very risky, and violence is all too common.

“Are you afraid?” a colleague asked me.

“Yes, I responded, but I still need to do it.”

In that moment God had given me the courage to act even though I was afraid. 

And sometimes that is what we need.

“Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

How do we do that when we are afraid of our neighbor?  And, in some cases, for good reason.

It takes courage, and that is something God gives us, when we need it the most.

“Peace!  Be Still!”  “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

“Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Jesus is with us in the midst of the storm.  Take heart.  Have faith, and be of good courage.  Amen

Year A, Proper 19, Romans 14.1-12, Matthew 18.21-35 Just Let it Go!

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen

“What do you have to do to get to heaven?”

That’s a question many people ask.  And for some people that’s what Christianity is all about.  Everything we do, everything we believe is all focused on this one objective, getting to heaven.

Nothing else matters.

I had a youth director for whom this question was at the forefront of her concerns.  She saw her job as saving the souls of the youth of the congregation.

One Sunday during the children’s sermon she began with that question.

“What do you have to do to get to heaven?”

Immediately, one particularly feisty young boy blurted out:  “Die!”

I could hardly contain my laughter. 

He was right.  The only thing we have to do to get to heaven is die.  God has done the rest.

Faith is not a pathway we must follow to get to heaven, faith is to trust in God in all things, and let it go.  “Got you covered.”  God says.  “Got you covered.”

But does what we do in this life matter?

If it’s not about getting to heaven, what is it about?

What is the point of Christian Ethics?

And does it make sense to talk about Christian Ethics at all?

What we have too often done is to miss the point of Christian Ethics.  We think that Christian Ethics is all about earning a reward and avoiding a punishment.  It’s about heaven and hell.

The truth is much different.

Christian ethics is about our quality of life, not eternal life. 

It’s not about getting to heaven. 

It is about living well now.

What then are we called to do as God’s children?

Jesus was asked by a lawyer, “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest?”

Jesus answered him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

It is for this reason that God created us in the beginning.  God wanted, and still wants, only one thing.  And that is to be in a loving relationship with us.  And then, God also desires that we love each other as he first loved us. 

That is the good life that God imagined from the beginning. 

It’s all about creating a loving family.

That’s why we talk about God as our Father, and why we refer to each other as children of God. 

We are bound together by love.

So, you see, the question of Christian Ethics is not “How do I get to heaven?” but rather “What does it mean to love?”

Here’s where the books can and have been written. 

Love is situational.

What is loving in one situation may not be in the next. 

Parents often are faced with this.  Many parents start out with the conviction that they should treat all of their children the same.  And yet each child’s situation may require a different response. 

Love is not a ‘one size fits all’ proposition.

Love always takes into consideration the needs of the person we love, and those needs may vary.

For example, sometimes the most loving thing we can do is to challenge someone to do better.

But at other times, what is needed is the assurance that they are good enough, just the way they are.

Both are loving responses.

But within all the complexity of what is loving, and all of the varied situations that we are called to respond in a loving manner, Jesus does give us some guidance.

Two things stand out in our lessons for today.

Never judge.

Always forgive.

On the first one, Paul writes in Romans:

“Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.”

Why shouldn’t we judge our neighbor?

Because we are not their lord, we are not God, and oh, by the way, God has already judged and forgiven them, so let it go.  Just let it go.

Christians have a hard time with this.

We are quick to pass judgment on one another.

This is so much a part of our makeup, that it is almost impossible to avoid it.

In fact, if you think about what I just said, I’m guilty of it.

In saying Christians are often too judgmental I myself have rendered a judgment. 

Well, I can be judgmental.  You can be judgmental.  We all can be judgmental.  That’s a sin we are all guilty of in one way or another.

We form alliances based on our judgments.

Conservative Christians tend to make certain judgments.

Liberal Christians are equally judgmental, just on different issues.

I, for example, have a real hard time with racists, or abusers. 

If a white supremacist showed up at our door, I don’t know that I could welcome them.

And as for someone who sexually abuses children, for example, I’d like to string them up and kill them.  That’s kind of judgmental. 

That said, there is one judgment that we as Christians can rightfully make:

“For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”  (Romans 3:22-23)

If we must make a judgment let it be this:

That all have sinned, and there is no distinction, that is, no one’s sin is better or worse than another.

But having said that, we make the declaration that sinful though we all are, we are justified by God’s grace as a gift, through the redemption that is ours in Christ Jesus.

Are we sinners?

Yes, but sinners Christ has redeemed.

Never judge.

Always forgive.

Always forgive.  That’s the second key to living a loving life.  Always forgive.

“Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.”

This runs counter to our human nature.

“Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.”

Now that’s a statement that rings true to many of us.

When I was looking up that statement on the internet, just to get it right, I came across another:

“I’m a good enough person to forgive you, but not stupid enough to trust you again.”

I once had a couple come in for marital counseling.

They were there because the husband, while away on a business trip, had been drinking and hooked up with another woman at the bar.

What was interesting was that his wife was willing to forgive him, in part, because she reasoned that his drinking had played a major part in his lack of judgment in that situation.

But, for whatever reason, she desperately wanted to save their marriage and was willing to forgive him.

He wanted a divorce.

The reason he wanted a divorce was that though his wife promised to forgive him, he was convinced she would never again trust him.  And he couldn’t live with that.

Another example:

If someone has sexually abused a child, can we forgive them?  But even if we forgive them, can we ever trust them again to be alone with children?

And if we cannot trust them again, does that mean we have in fact never forgiven them?

This is where the ethics of love gets complicated.

Love entails forgiving.

But love also mandates that we protect the vulnerable from harm.

We have learned the hard way, that though forgiveness is available for all, trust can often never be restored in this life.

Underlying that is a fundamental question:  Is trust something that we give to another, or something that is earned.  And when someone violates that trust, is there anything they can do to restore it?

I do know this.  I would never entrust my children or grandchildren to the care of someone who has abused children before.  I love them too much to subject them to that risk.

And if that’s a sin, I guess all I can do is ask God’s forgiveness, because that’s a sin I’m willing to commit. 

There is another side to forgiveness, though, that is often overlooked.  And that is ‘just let it go.’

Harboring anger, or resentment toward another, bottling it up inside and being consumed by it, is more harmful to our selves than it is to the other person.

It is said that hanging onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

One of the reasons God wants us to forgive those who sin against us, is so that we ourselves will not be destroyed by our resentments and rage.

I learned this first hand five years ago.  Someone in my congregation did something that so enraged me that I turned to my bottle of Scotch and tried to drink the rage away. 

The person who almost died as a result was not the person who harmed me, but me.

Just let it go.

Forgive our sins as we forgive the sins of others.

How often must we forgive?

As often as you need to forgive.

God isn’t asking us to do the impossible.

God’s command to forgive is actually for our own sake.  Our failure to forgive will kill us in the end.  It will destroy the very fabric of our lives.

And that’s the last thing God wants for us.

And so God forgives us all our sins.

And for our sake, encourages us to do likewise.

Amen