Priorities

I would like all of us today to use this time during worship to consider the priorities of our lives. Jesus tells us in the gospel lesson that we shouldn’t worry about food, clothes or tomorrow but that we should make the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness our priorities. Only you know where your priorities are but I can tell you honestly in these economic times I worry some about food, clothes, and tomorrow. It’s not that I don’t trust in God’s providence it’s that I don’t have a lot of faith in humanity to hold up its end and look out for their neighbors.
So how about it, are you worrying about tomorrow? Do you worry about where you’re going to get the next meal or if you’re going to have a clean set of clothes to put on in the morning? I’m not worrying about the food or the clothes but I do spend some time thinking about what tomorrow will be like.
After all that’s been in the news lately, especially all the weather related catastrophes that have occurred all over the world, an earthquake in China, a cyclone in Myanmar, and that humongous tornado in Colorado. Now those are things I do worry about some. But you know, there’s not one thing I can do to keep them from happening. I really do have to trust in God to provide the protection and the resources to rebuild if one of these weather events should happen to me.
The Prophet Isaiah told the people that after a period of time, in fact he said, “In the right time…,” he would bring his chosen ones back to their own country and restore everything back the way it was. And it goes right along with the gospel lesson, if we believe what we profess then we shouldn’t be worrying one minute about anything in our lives. Our minds should be filled with service issues. Who are we going to help next? What needs to be fixed now? Where do we need to go tomorrow to share the good news of God’s love for all people?
Did you hear what the psalmist said? Do you think our feet are on the ground? Do you think we are quietly waiting for God to show us and tell us what we should be doing? Or do you think we want to rule our own roost? Are we trying to control our destinies? And is that wrong?
I don’t think Jesus was saying that it is wrong to acquire wealth and possessions. But he was trying to get us to think about the why and the what of it. Why are we acquiring things and what are we going to do with the wealth we gain? And whose is it anyway?
What do you think would happen if everyone gave a certain percentage of their gross income to be used for the mission of the church? Every time that we received compensation for our work we would give a set percentage of the gross toward serving the mission of the church. Would we notice that we had fewer resources for food and clothes and rent or house payments? Would it make any difference to the amount of food that we put on our tables or the clothes that we wore? I wonder how many really trust enough in God to try it.
Priorities, where are our priorities? Jesus said we can’t serve two gods. Who are we serving, ourselves or God?
Paul told the Corinthians that what they should be concerned with was being a servant for Christ. They weren’t to be worrying about what anyone else was doing; they were to just be focused on the work they were called to by Christ.
I wonder what the world would be like if that were the norm. That we all looked out for each other and we made sure that there was absolutely no one who had any needs. Everyone everywhere had a roof over their head, clean clothes on their backs and nutritious food on their tables for every meal. What would that kind of world be like? Could we make that happen?
We can if we would change our priorities. But it won’t happen if all we think about is taking care of ourselves. As I’ve said before there is no early retirement from doing the work of the Lord. We are to make disciples, teach people, and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are to love God and love our neighbors.
There are people in need all around us. Our priorities as the body of Christ are to care for those around us. The prophet Micah said, “…And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Paul says we should be servants, the prophet Isaiah is telling us to trust in God to make everything right again, and the psalmist tells us to wait patiently with hope. And Christ tells us we can’t serve two masters.
I believe in order to make that happen we have to set priorities. And I believe that those priorities are not about you and me but about everyone else. I believe that means that I need to be focused on everyone else’s needs, not mine. I believe that Jesus is telling us to wake up and change our priorities. He will take care of us and we are to take care of each other, without judging. Leave that to God.
Friends, it’s not easy trying to be like Jesus. I was visiting with a neighbor this week and we both expressed our concerns with the state of the world. We both decided that it’s too big for us and we couldn’t change it anyway. What we could do is look out for our neighbors and see to their needs. By doing those simple things we might be able to change the priorities of the world.
As we are taught in the scriptures, we are to be in the world but not of the world. Our priorities are different than the world’s priorities.
Life has always been tough. Today it’s the price of a gallon of gas, a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread and tomorrow it may be something else. Hope in the Lord will make the difference and help all of us to look at life a little differently, to change our priorities. Trust in the Lord my friends and he will make it all happen.
Someday it will all be made right. Someday Christ will return and there will be a new world, a new Jerusalem, a new heaven. What a wonderful day that will be. In the meantime our priorities must be to look out for our neighbors here in our community and in all parts of the world as God gives us the resources.
Priorities, what are yours and are they the same as God’s? I pray that God gives us hope for the future and that we are all able to turn our lives around and change our focus to serving God and our neighbors.
Thanks be to God for his abundant grace. Amen.

What's It All Mean?

What’s it all mean? God, our God, the one we worship with all our being and are so grateful to for everything he gives us and who is the creator of this whole universe, is the great Three-in-One. What’s that mean? Who can explain how God can be the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?
If you have the rock solid answer that we can all understand come on up here and explain it. I’ll be the first one to tell you that it is a mystery to me. The more I read, the more I study, the more I realize that even the great theologians of the world can’t explain it any better than you and I can. Oh sure they can use some big words to try to get us all to understand the Trinity but the bottom line is it’s all a mystery.
God just is. He created everything around us, everything. There isn’t one thing that God didn’t make. Not one of us can take credit for even one atom of anything. Oh some may think they did it all by themselves but they’re just fooling themselves.
When I walk around in this marvelous world, especially in the spring, I realize how wonderful it all is. And the miracle is that in this part of the world everything dies in the fall and winter and miraculously comes back to life in the spring. And we are amazed every year that it happens. The same birds come back to find night crawlers in my yard, the same hostas come up in the same place every year, even when they get hammered into the ground by hail or chewed on by rabbits. They come back to life every year.
How can I not believe in God when all around I see so many beautiful and wondrous things? And each one is excitingly unique; no two are the same, like snowflakes for example. The intricacy of each cell, each atom, is beyond our comprehension.
Every time I think back to when Linda and I first discovered that we were going to be parents I am amazed at how God takes two people and from the love they have for each creates a new life. And when I think about the odds of it happening at all, well it’s all just a miracle. Each new life that we are blessed with is just a miracle. I don’t believe there’s any other way to explain it.
The only explanation I have is someone greater than all of us is responsible for the whole thing. I’ve seen some of the things I’ve tried to create and they don’t begin to compare to what God can do.
So what does it all mean? It means that God is in control and when he wants us to know everything he will reveal it to us. Until then I am just going to believe in the mystery that is God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
I think that the most important thing for us is to remember what Jesus told his disciples just before he ascended into heaven. The Great Commission he gave to them and us was that all the authority he had in heaven and earth that had been given to him he was giving to his disciples was to make more disciples of all the nations baptizing and teaching them in the name of the Trinity. And to not worry he would always be with them and us, to the very end of time.
So I’m not going to concern myself too much about who God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is or worry too much about trying to explain it. What I am going to do is to do my best to make disciples wherever God plants me. And in order to make disciples that means I have to teach, and in order to teach that means I have to study. What am I going to study? I’m going to read the Word and pray that the Holy Spirit grants me the wisdom and understanding necessary to teach all God’s children.
While I’m about it, I’m going to walk about, or maybe ride about, in this great place God has created. I’m going to enjoy visiting and talking with these little ones who are the best part of God’s creation, ever.
Today we are going to baptize one of God’s miracles. What’s it all mean? It means that John and Vickie and all of us gathered here today accept the responsibility, in fact we promise, to guide and nurture this young person by our words and our life’s examples, with love and prayer, encouraging them to know Jesus, the Son of God the Father through the working of the Holy Spirit. I believe it means that God blesses this new life and with Jesus and the Holy Spirit and the body of Christ, the church, train Matthew to be one of his disciples. Just how he accomplishes all of this is the mystery.
What’s it all mean? It means that God loves us so much that he put us here on this little spinning piece of space dust with just the right conditions to support life. And it’s up to us to take care of it and trust in Him to provide for our needs. Do we need to know how the Trinity fits into all of it? Do we really need to know the why’s, what’s, and wherefores of it? No, I don’t think so. I think we just have to know that God is and trust in his love and providence for us.
I don’t think I have many answers to the question of the Trinity but I do believe that there is a God and he sent his Son to show us what God was like, and before he ascended told us he would send an Advocate, a Counselor, to be with us, to pray for us, to help us understand and remember everything Jesus taught his disciples. I believe that God cares for all of his children and it’s through the body of Christ that God’s love is to be shared. That I believe.
Friends, God loves all of you and so do I. Amen.

Wildfire

Ever seen a wildfire? A few years ago south of us, down by Oakland, a fire started and faster than anyone could imagine it raced across fields, jumping across road ditches burning everything in its path. It didn’t seem to matter whether part of a field was disked, the fire would hesitate for a moment and then leap the chasm to ignite the dry grass and cornstalks and race towards the next tree or building in its path.
Linda and I were listening to all of this on the radio scanner. Listening to the voices of the men and women who were trying to contain the fire we knew that this was a wildfire to be remembered for a long time. I know that those who lost homes and belongings will never forget how fast it moved and changed directions. It will be talked about for a long time.
So it was with the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The disciples were all gathered together in the room praying and waiting for the fulfillment of Christ’s promise and all of a sudden there was this sound of a wild rushing wind. They were looking around to see where the sound was coming from and then they noticed the tongues of flame that looked like fire standing over each other’s heads. And if that wasn’t enough when they were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit they began to speak, speak so that those who ran up outside to see what all the commotion was heard them speaking in their own native languages.
How was it possible for uneducated common people to speak so that every nation represented in Jerusalem could here the Message and understand it? It was an opportunity to preach the gospel, and being filled with the power, Peter was moved to preach the good news and explain what was happening.
Jews celebrated the day of Pentecost every year but this particular day was a day that was never to be forgotten. God’s Spirit came upon these disciples just as Jesus had promised and they were filled to overflowing; they were brimming over with the Spirit. It was spilling out from the depths of their souls like water bubbling up from an artesian well, like water overflowing the banks of rivers filled with the abundant snow melt from the mountains, like rivers filled with the recent rains passing through the Midwest.
That’s what happens when people give their lives to Jesus and are forgiven of their sins by God. They are baptized with and filled with God’s Spirit.
First, they can’t believe how they feel. A burden has been lifted from their shoulders. They know that God is working in them and has become one with them through the promise of Jesus, that anyone who believes in him will never be thirsty but will filled with rivers of living water from the Spirit. Their sins have been forgiven, they have been redeemed. Now what?
As they spend time in God’s Spirit they realize they have received gifts from God; they can do things that will bring glory to God. They can grow God’s kingdom when they use these gifts. Each of us has gifts, gifts God has given us to use to bring people to Jesus. And every one of us has different gifts; just as we all have different personalities and appearances, so we each have different and varied gifts. None of us is the same.
That’s why it’s so important that we share the Message of the good news with everyone we meet. Because that one person we talk with is the one God wants us to tell our story to. God has given you and me that one particular gift to enable us to communicate clearly the good news to those we meet on life’s journey.
God’s Spirit has been poured out on every kind of people, young and old, men and women, people of every ethnic background have been filled with the Spirit. Signs and wonders are happening everyday around us. Can you see what the Spirit is doing? Just look around you. God’s Spirit is in each person here today and he’s building a fire in hearts to spread the good news.
Are you feeling empty? Does something seem to be missing? Jesus said, “Come to me and drink. Anyone who believes in me will be filled with rivers of living water and they will spill out of the depths of them who believe, just as the Scripture says.” Let the breath of God fill you with new life. Feel the Spirit moving and let the Spirit move you to do things you never imagined doing. Maybe even speak to people you don’t understand and who probably don’t understand you, but with the Spirit’s help they will know what you are saying. Tell the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
God loves you my friends and so do I. Thanks be to God.

Witnesses and/or Witnessing

Have you ever been subpoenaed to testify at a hearing, to be a witness in a trial, or to give an account about something you observed in an accident or some such thing? How did that go for you? Was it a rewarding and/or enlightening experience or would you rather take a beating than do it again? How did you feel or how do you think you would feel if you were called to give your testimony about something?
The disciples wanted to know if this was the time Jesus was going to restore the kingdom to Israel. Did you hear how he responded? He said it wasn’t for them to know the time or the date because the Father has the authority to set those times. He told them they had other work to do; they would be receiving the power of the Holy Spirit and when he came upon them they would be witnesses to all the people in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth about all they had seen and witnessed while Jesus was with them. In others words don’t worry about things they had no control over and get to the work God had prepared them for, the business of testifying to the good news of Jesus Christ to the world.
You know what’s coming next don’t you? We, along with the disciples of Jesus Christ, have also been told to witness to the resurrection of our Lord. We are to testify about what God has done for us and what he can do for our sisters and brothers if they will just believe in him and accept the good news that the kingdom of God is here today. Our sins and their sins have been all been forgiven.
When someone tells us we have to go out and be evangelists for the Lord our toes curl into the concrete and darned near impossible for us to move outside of our comfort zone. We are so afraid of sharing the good news that we would just as soon get a beating than to tell our friends or even our family how much we love God and what he has done and is doing in our lives.
Yet Jesus told the disciples that they were to be witnesses…to the ends of the earth. You know what that means; it means that we also are to be witnesses to the ends of the earth. Someone has to be out there witnessing to what God is doing in the world. Friends, that someone is you and me.
No matter how you cut it, it all boils down to this; we are to be out there telling folks about Jesus. There’s no way to get around it. The words are pretty easy to understand, if the good news is going to get out we have to be the ones to do it. After all if we don’t who will? How else will people hear the good news?
Oh sure, you could leave it all to your pastor. But will he be able to tell it to your friends as well as you could? Actually you are the only one who can tell it in precisely the way God planned for you to do it; in words that only you know how to put together in exactly the right way so that they will understand and believe. Only you can do that, I can’t. My words wouldn’t be as sufficient as yours. It really is up to each of us to do our part to spread the good news.
That means that when we are sent out of these doors today we are sent into the world to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. We are to share the news that he died for our sins and they have all been forgiven, totally. He died but he also rose again from the grave and he ascended into heaven so that the Comforter he promised could come upon us and we would be filled with God’s Spirit.
That, my friends, is good news. So why is it so hard for us to get out there and tell the story? What are we afraid of? God has given us all these wonderful experiences and all we have to do is share them with our family and our friends. After we have let them be our guinea pigs then we will all find it easier to share the message with people we don’t even know yet.
Every one we meet is a child of God. The only way we will know if they know Jesus is to ask them or at the very least invite to come to worship with you some Sunday so they can hear the good news.
We can be witnesses to God’s glory by the example of our lives but at some point we are going to be asked the question about God, Jesus, the Bible and the church and why they are so important to us. And we will want to have an answer ready.
Friends, it doesn’t have to be perfect. It just needs to be from the heart. The Holy Spirit will provide you with all the right words at the right time, trust him to do what Jesus promised he would do for us.
Children, God loves you and so do I. Amen.