Help! Who Should I Help?

Am I a sheep or a goat? How do I know? What if I’m a goat? Maybe I’m a sheep, no I’m a goat. I walked by that guy on the street the other day with his cardboard sign asking for some money so he could buy food for his family.
But I brought cans of food for the food pantry. And I brought some of my old coats to give to the Open Door Mission. Does that count?
How many of us have fed someone who’s been without food, or given a drink of water to someone who was dying of thirst, or gave clothes to someone who didn’t have any, or visited someone in prison? If we have then we’re sheep. On the other hand how many of us have walked by a hungry person on the street, failed to clothe a naked person, or not visited someone in prison? If we’ve done this then we must be goats. I suppose we could be good goats.
You know what the real problem with all this is? We’re trying to figure out whether we’re sheep or goats and that’s not the point. The whole point of this parable is not about “doing” but about “being.” We’re looking at this parable and trying to understand what it is that Jesus wants us to do. And that’s not the way to look at it. We should be reading this parable and asking the Spirit to show us how we need to change our being in order to be more like Jesus.
Friends, I believe it’s all about love. Paul reminds us right away in 1 Corinthians 13, “If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.”
This parable is not so much about what the sheep did as their attitude while they were caring for those who had needs. What they did was out of genuine love and compassion without any thought of getting anything back. They were just helping out a fellow human being.
It’s even possible that while they were preparing food or handing out clothes or wiping noses they might not have even felt close to God at that particular moment. Or maybe even for days on end or weeks on end they may not have felt the presence of God. They may have even been wondering if he even really cared what these folks were going through just to survive from one day to the next.
Mother Teresa wrote about such feelings in her book “Come Be My Light.” She struggled with her faith but she kept on doing what she felt God had called her to do, be His light to the people.
I believe that’s what our lesson from the gospel is about. It’s not whether we are sheep or goats. It’s about our attitude. It’s about our attitude and our reasons for doing this work as we feed the poor, care for the sick, clothe the naked, and visit the prisoners. If we’re doing with the idea that it’s going to earn us a spot in heaven then I’m afraid that we’re going to be very disappointed.
Not one of us does it perfect every day. We’re going to walk by someone sometime. Sometimes we feel like we don’t have anything left to give and so we don’t. But other times we hear God’s voice, we feel his presence, and we just do it because we know it needs to be done. And we may be the only ones who notice that it needs doing.
This winter may be a hard winter in more ways than one for a great many folks. The Food Pantries and the shelters are going to need our help as their supplies of food and clothes dwindle.
We have many members who aren’t able to worship with us any longer and they miss it. That’s why it’s so important to give them a call, stop in for coffee, or send them a letter. They need to know that we haven’t forgotten all about them just because they aren’t here with us any longer.
Food, clothes, and fellowship are what everyone needs. And there are many who are missing one or two or all three of these. God gave us a directive that we should care for the poor, the sick, and the lonely. If we help these folks and love them as much as Jesus loves us then we all benefit. As John told us God is love and those who do these things in love are born in the love of God and experience a closer relationship with Him.
God made a sacrifice for all of us when he sent his Son to die on the cross for our sins and the damage they have done to our relationship with Him. That’s the kind of love Jesus was talking about in the gospel, sacrificial love. It’s not our love for God but his love for us and what he’s done for us.
If He loves us so much we certainly ought to love each other enough to help our sisters and brothers out when they need a hand.
Friends, this is hard work, caring for all those in need. It’s difficult to know how much help to give and who to give it too. If we give all we have can we trust in God to provide for us in our need? I have been reminded that if I give it all away then I will be the one looking for a friend to help me.
I would leave you with this thought this morning. Jesus is the King. He is our intercessor before the Father. He took all our sins upon himself so that we could receive the assurance of forgiveness. He loves us because we are his brothers and sisters. He made us who and what we are. He is coming back and we will be judged for what we have done with what he has given us. May God find us faithful.
Thanks be to God for the gift of his precious Son, Christ the King. Amen.

Risk

To laugh, is to risk playing the fool.To weep, is to risk appearing sentimental.To reach out to another, is to risk involvement.To expose feelings, is to risk exposing our true selves.To put your ideas, your dreams, before the crowd is to risk loss.To love, is to risk not being loved in return.To live, is to risk dying.To hope, is to risk despair.To try at all, is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken,Because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they simply cannot learn, change, feel, grow, love, live…Chained by their attitudes they are slaves.
ONLY THE PERSON WHO RISKS IS FREE.

A survey was taken recently of people who are over 95. The people were asked one question. It was an open ended question they could answer any way they wished. The question was: If you could live your life over again, what would you do differently? Among all the different answers, these three answers came back most frequently:
1. If I could live my life over again, I would reflect more.
2. I would risk more.
3. I would do more things that would live on after I'm dead.

There are a few different ways in which this parable could be understood. I would like all of us to consider this parable in the light of taking risk.
In light of the current economic situation maybe that’s not something most of us would like to consider since we all feel like we have taken considerable risk with our finances. But that’s not the kind of risk that I’m thinking about this morning.
I want all of us to think about the questions that were asked of those folks who were older than 95 and the answers they gave. Why do we have to wait until it’s too late and then wish that we’d done things differently? Why don’t we do some of the things now that these folks wished they’d done? Why are we so afraid of doing things that some people would see as foolish?
We live in a relatively safe society, here in the United States of America. Granted some of us here may remember what it was like back in the 30’s when the drought came along with bugs and insurance companies foreclosed on quite a few farms. But for people my age who grew up in the 50’s and 60’s when times were more profitable and people didn’t worry as much about jobs we have a different perspective than our fathers and mothers who grew up during the Depression. That doesn’t seem to make much difference though when it comes to taking a risk for Jesus Christ. It doesn’t seem to matter what era you grew up in, people are just afraid to step out in faith and talk to their family or friends about Jesus.
Friends, following Jesus does involve taking risks, sometimes a very high risk. But when risks are taken higher rewards are possible, rewards that we can’t even imagine.
I’m not quite sure how I want to do this. What I want all of you to do is to think about things that you do well, things that you really love to do, or maybe even things that you wish you could do but haven’t quite developed the proficiency for doing them well yet. Now out of all these gifts which ones could be used to develop a welcoming church community? Which ones could be used that would lead someone to be involved with leading a worship service? Or, which gifts do we possess that would give us the courage to share God’s Good News out there in the wider community in which we live?
You all know each other’s gifts. You may not be as aware of your own gifts so much as you are pretty certain of the gifts of your neighbor. I would imagine that most of us here today could turn to our right or left and come up with two or three gifts that our pew neighbor does well. In fact they probably are so good that the gift could be used to accomplish one of the three things I mentioned.
The sad fact is we’re too afraid to take the risk. It’s not like someone is asking you to give some of your hard earned income. No, God has given us many blessings and gifts and some of us are just sitting on them. We keep them hid hoping no one will ask us to do something, like go talk to a neighbor about coming to church with us. Or sharing with someone we strike up a conversation with about how Jesus has enriched our life.
We’re all alike in this room. We’re all afraid to take the risk. What are the things that keep us from doing what those people surveyed thought were important? What are some of our excuses? What do we need to know or do so that we do grab the opportunities that God presents us with? What can we do to help each other?
Friends, the first thing is to realize that Jesus didn’t set us up to fail. He told us the truth. He is here with us. And God sent the Holy Spirit to interpret God’s Word to us and to speak for us when we don’t have the words to pray. God is love and the Good News is the kingdom of heaven is here today. The kingdom of God is right here today.
The thing is we just have to believe with all our hearts that these words are true. We have to believe what Jesus told us. We have to believe that God hears our prayers and answers our prayers. We really have to believe that God is real and cares what happens to us. We have to believe.
If we believe it in our hearts then we can take the risk and try doing something we’ve never done before, something we never in our wildest dreams imagined ourselves doing. And know that’s its all right if it isn’t perfect, because God’s the one who’s in control of the world. So whatever we do in Jesus’ name is just the way God planned it. So let’s go ahead and risk everything in Jesus’ name.
What have you got to lose if you try? The bigger question is, “What have you got to lose if you don’t risk everything?”
Friends, God asks us to take chances everyday. The one’s who take the risks are the ones who are bringing forth the kingdom of God. It’s kind of like the doctors have been telling us about our bodies, use it or lose it.
God has given all of us gifts. As Paul told the Thessalonians, “…speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you'll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind.”
Brothers and sisters in Jesus, close your eyes, say a prayer, and step out there trusting in Jesus to be the way, the truth, and the life. Trust in Him to never fail you. Thanks be to God for his grace. Amen.

Are You Prepared?

On today’s calendar the Presbyterian Church, along with many others, makes their stewardship commitment to support the church for the next year. Some folks will have sat down, put a pencil or calculator to their income and made a decision about what percentage of their income they can commit to the church. Others will have given it some thought but still aren’t sure how much they can give because they are uncertain about the current economic situation. And there are some who just don’t want to put it down on paper. They know what they’re going to give and they want to keep it private. There’s not one thing wrong with any of these ways of making a commitment.
When members are willing to put it down in writing it helps the leadership of the church make more informed decisions when they work on the budget for the next year. Every year that I have been involved with forecasting the budget for the next year I have observed that the pledges come no where near to meeting the needs of the budget. Every year the budget is put together based on the best estimates of what the next year will bring and then we go on ahead trusting in God to provide what we need to enable us to do his will for his church.
This is the time of year that many businesses are looking at the results for the past year and the forecasts for the next year and making decisions about how to proceed with their business. The church isn’t much different. We look at what has been accomplished in the past year, what went well and what didn’t, and then after spending some time in prayer and discernment put together a financial budget for the next year.
I’ve never been one to tell someone how much they should give to the support of the church. I believe that is between individuals and God. That’s what makes it so difficult to plan programs for mission, outreach, and education. Everything anybody does seems to take money.
I think its all about being prepared. That’s what the gospel lesson is for us today. We need to be prepared because we don’t know when the Master will return. The question you may be asking is how do we make sure that we are prepared? How can we know or be assured that we have done everything we can do and are ready for whenever He returns?
Winter is coming. As I write this the wind is coming out of the northwest at about 25 miles per hour and the temperature is hovering at 32 degrees. There is a dusting of white snow flakes on the wet leaves in the yard. The thought goes through my mind, “Am I ready for what might be coming this winter?” Is the gas can full? Has the oil been changed in the snowblower? Do I remember where I put the snow shovels? Do I have ice melt in case we get some freezing rain instead of snow? Am I prepared? Are you prepared?
What do we need to do to be prepared for the return of the Master? Jesus told the disciples in the preceding verses that even He doesn’t know the hour or the day, only God knows the time of His return. So we need to be on watch and we need to be prepared. What do we need to do?
I think if someone asked me that question I would begin first by finding out if they are practicing regular daily devotions. One of the first things we should be doing is reading the Word every day and letting the Spirit interpret the Message to our hearts. Along with reading and studying God’s Word is to spend time in prayer with God. That’s not us petitioning God with our requests and interceding for our family and friends and neighbors but it’s coming to God in conversation all day, every day, and allowing quiet time in our closets for God to speak to us.
These two tasks, and they are tasks because they require discipline, are important because if we neglect them then the world rushes in like nature filling a vacuum. Our hearts become hardened. The more we turn our backs on God the easier it is to find something else to do that we deem as more important than spending time with God. My fear is that when this happens it’s possible that Jesus may return and we will find ourselves unprepared.
It is tough work. We are bombarded daily by things that tempt us and pull us away from the work of preparation. Sometimes its really grunt work to go to our quiet place and pray.
Friends, we live in a time when we expect our wants and needs to be met immediately and when they aren’t we look somewhere else to find fulfillment. The readers of Matthew’s gospel had been expecting Christ to return and he hadn’t yet. They began to think he wasn’t coming ever and so they were becoming disillusioned with the gospel news. That’s exactly what Paul was talking about in his letter to the Thessalonians. Some believers of the Way had died and they were worried that they might miss out on eternal life. Paul was reassuring them that if they died believers then they would be the first to be with the Lord when he returned.
Friends, its 2008 and a new year is fast approaching. The Master hasn’t returned yet. Are you prepared?
Maybe you are already doing study and prayer. Is there anything else we can do to be better prepared? What about our family, friends, neighbors and those we don’t know so well? Are they prepared? What’s our responsibility to them?
We can’t change them. That’s up to them and the grace of God, but we can share with them our story of how God has helped us prepare our lives for his return. We can’t give them more faith but we can share how our faith has been strengthened by being in God’s Word and spending time in prayer and contemplation.
It sounds kind of harsh but we can’t change how people are or how they act. We can only love them as God’s children, share his love with them, and pray for God’s will to be done in their lives. It’s all up to each individual to make the decision to turn their lives over to God trusting in his grace and love through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection from the grave.
Maybe you aren’t sure where you’re at today. Maybe you want to get prepared but don’t know where to start. Friends the good news is you are in the right place right now to make a start. God brought you here to hear his Word for you today. The next step is to give your heart to Jesus. Ask him to forgive you for the times you have turned away from God. Believe on Him and confess your need to have him in your life. He will show you where to go next.
Everyday we wake up and the sun rises is one day closer to Christ’s return. Are you prepared?
Keep reading and studying God’s word. Stay in conversation with God. Listen for his voice. Look for Jesus in every person you meet. And keep coming back to worship God, our Savior and our Friend.
I began this morning by talking about making a financial commitment to the support of the church and ended by talking about making a personal commitment to God through Jesus. Our lives are about making commitments. Choose today whom you will serve and then make a commitment. I choose to serve Jesus and commit myself to being prepared through study, prayer, and worship. Put your hope in God and he will show you the Way in Jesus. Thanks be to God. Amen.

God's True Word to You

Why are you here this morning? Why did you set your clocks back one hour, get dressed, comb your hair, and maybe put on some perfume and cologne and drive or walk to church?
Did you come here for the fellowship? Did you come out of habit? Are you here because Mom or Dad made you come? Did you come hoping that I would have some words of inspiration that would help you get through the next week? Did you come to worship God?
I don’t really care why you came today. I once worked with a man who just hated it when I’d say, “I don’t care.” He believe that it implied that whatever we were talking about wasn’t important to me; it didn’t really matter in the greater scheme of things.
I do care that you are all here. It just isn’t important to me why you came. The reason being is that I know you are here because God called you to be here today. There is something here in this sanctuary, among these folks in this community of faith, that God wants you to experience today. It may be just to hear the Word read or a song sung, or to put your hand on the shoulder of a friend or to have them give you a hug. Whatever it is you are here because God desired you to be here in these pews.
So that puts the burden on me to proclaim the Word today, to preach the Message from the Bible. Friends, in the gospel lesson for today from Matthew Jesus says that we have only one Master, there is only one Father and we have only one Teacher. The greatest among us will be our servant. And so I am conflicted today. Am I the one who can teach today?
God is who I call my Father and my Master and I do look to Jesus to teach me how I should live and work. And I trust in the Holy Spirit to guide me and help interpret God’s word to me.
You all have come to church today to be fed; fed by hearing God’s word read and then to hear your pastor proclaim the Message of God’s love to you and then to be fed at his table.
Friends, I pray that the Spirit of Jesus Christ enables me to speak the words that each of you came to hear this morning. This morning God has led me to talk about hope.
I began this morning by asking, “Why are here?” I imagine that quite a number of us come to church to be filled with hope. Work can be pretty stressful. Just turning on the news raises the level of anxiety in our lives. Everyone is concerned about the economy and war and who the next leader of our nation is going to be. And the stress level keeps going up.
And so we come here for sanctuary and a word of hope, even me. So not only did you come here today for a particular reason but so did I. Sure, I know that I am expected to preach and teach but I also came to receive a word of hope from God. How He will send that Message to me I don’t know yet. I just know that I came with the expectation that God has something for me here.
We have already heard in the Psalm that God is good and his love endures forever. But what else does God want us to know? The Psalms are one of the best places to go to be taught about hope.
The psalmist says, “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Hope in God because he will save you and he is your God. He also tells us to “Find rest…in God alone,” because your hope comes from him. He is your Rock and your salvation. He is your future.
Psalm 130:5, 7 “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. O Israel (First Presbyterian Church), put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.”
We are blessed when we put our hope in God when we turn to him for help as we find in Psalm 146:5. It gives God great delight when those who hold him in great reverence put their hope in his unfailing love (Psalm 147:11).
Why did you come here today? Did you come to be filled with hope? The prophet Isaiah says, “…but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on the wings like eagles; they will run and not get weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Friends, God gives you the stamina to keep at the work he has given you; the strength to fight against the forces of evil in the world.
Why are you here this morning? Maybe its to find out the plans God has for you. The prophet Jeremiah said, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Hope is a gift from God. In Lamentations it says, “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed for his compassions never fail.”
Friends, this word I’m preaching today aren’t my words but the words of God; they are God’s true words to you. They show us that God may be beginning some new work in you or may be continuing the good work he began in you a long time ago.
You came for sanctuary. I pray that you have been filled with hope. Hope in God and hope in the future. As Paul wrote to the Romans, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.”
Friends, be filled with hope and pray that God will strengthen your faith in the power of his word. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Giving Our All to God

What does it mean to love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind? I guess I would want to understand what each of the words, heart, soul, and mind, are actually referring to. What is heart? As I studied I came across a number of definitions. The Hebrews believed that the heart, the place that was the center of their emotions, was their bowels. We westerners, when we speak of heart, put our hands on our chests in the approximate area of our heart. No matter where we believe that area is, heart is the center of our emotions, the place where we feel joy, happiness, sadness, peace, and all the rest of the feelings that make us who we are.
The soul is where our emotions meet the spiritual side of us. This, for me, is the hardest piece to get my mind around. The soul is who we are, who we have been shaped to be by our environment and by our God. I’m sure it is way more than I have described here but I picture my soul as that part of me that is at the very center of my being, the part of me that will never, ever, die.
And then there is the mind, the mind is the center of logical reasoning; the part that often times gets us into trouble or causes us pain and trouble. The mind, as the advertising folks remind us, is a terrible thing to waste.
Jesus said that the most important thing, the greatest commandment, was to love God. Now that sounds like an easy thing to do. God created everything; he provides, for me, everything I need. Loving him is easy. Oh, wait a minute. He put that little word all in there didn’t he. We are to give our all to him. Now that does make it a lot harder. All, our entire being, we are to love God with everything we are. And since most of us westerners are also shaped by the things we possess that means even what we call our possessions, everything.
How can we love God, that’s the real question? How many of us have had the opportunity, like Moses, to talk to God face to face? How many of us have come out of our little tent of meeting after talking with God and been seen with faces so radiant from the power of God that people were afraid to look at us? I haven’t met anyone, yet we are commanded to love God with our whole being. How are we to do that, love a God whom we’ve never seen?
It’s easy to say this is what we should do but to really do it, that’s the tough part. Isn’t it?
I believe part of the answer is in the second part of Jesus’ answer. Mother Teresa once said, “We love the God we can’t see by loving the neighbor who we can see.” Think about that. There’s quite a bit of truth in what she said. To love a neighbor as we love ourselves requires that we change. Most of us love ourselves, some of us love ourselves so much that we don’t want to share and that’s our selfish side showing. To love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves therefore means that the love we share with them must be selfless. And that’s hard.
And so we’re back where we started. In order for you and me to love our neighbors we first have to love our God with our total being. And we find that hard. So what are we to do? How do we give God our all?
Friends, God knew this wasn’t easy since we all live in sin. The world pulls so hard at us. It wants us to turn our backs on God and seek our own pleasures. It doesn’t want us to give God our all. That’s what sin is, turning our backs on God, living as if he doesn’t exist. And we all do that don’t we. Maybe not all the time but we do it. We can’t help it because we are imperfect people.
God made us perfect but we messed it up when we thought we knew better than God. And so he cast us out of the Garden of Eden. And oh how we want back in. God has given us a way, Jesus.
That’s the second part of the gospel lesson today. Jesus didn’t stop with just the answer to the greatest commandment question. He answered that question then he had a question for his questioners, “Who is the Messiah?” Well that’s easy; it’s the son of David. Good answer, but then Jesus makes it hard when he quotes Psalm 110:1 that says, “The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’ If David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” They couldn’t answer and so they walked away and asked him no more questions.
Jesus had answered all their questions but they still couldn’t, or wouldn’t, believe that he was the Messiah. They couldn’t believe that God’s kingdom was here on earth and so they couldn’t love God and they couldn’t love their neighbor. They loved themselves and their world too much.
What do we believe? Do we believe that Jesus is the Messiah, our Messiah? Are we ready to accept him as our Savior? Are we ready to trust him with all we are? If we are then we need to turn our backs on the world and give our all to God. We must change.
Friends, we must put our faith in God before we can do anything else. We must believe that God is the great I Am, the one who brought Moses to the Promised Land and let him see it before he died. We must dare to proclaim the gospel message, dare ourselves to take the risk to love God, to love others. We must sacrifice our all for God and others. And only then will we truly find the joy and peace that we have been searching for, longing for, and desiring our entire lives.
Loving God and neighbor is about living as a revolutionary in a broken world. It’s about reorienting our lives in radical ways. Are we ready to do that? Are we ready to make sacrifices for our God and our neighbors?