Embracing God

How many here today have given God a hug? Nobody? Well, how many of you have hugged a grandchild or a great grandchild? Then friends, you have had your arms around God.
Jesus told his disciples that, “Whoever embraces one of these children as I do embraces me, and far more than me—God who sent me." So I understand that to mean that every time I welcome a child whoever it is into my arms then I am welcoming God into my arms. Wow, hugging God. I’ve never picked up on that before have you?
It gives everything a whole new perspective. If I welcome kids into my arms then maybe I could welcome strangers. And if I could welcome strangers then I just might be welcoming God into my house, into my life, into my heart.
But sometimes these little ones are all covered with yucky stuff and I’m afraid that they will get my clothes all sticky or it might get in my beard. Isn’t that the way we feel about someone we don’t know too well who wants to get close to us or talk with us and we just don’t feel like talking to them. Maybe they don’t smell very good. Maybe they didn’t brush their teeth today. Maybe they just have a way of making everything yucky. And we’re afraid they might get some of that on us. Right?
But Jesus tells us that we should welcome them like little children. And James, what does he tell us. He say, “18Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor.”
So Jesus tells us that we should live lives of service and James is telling us that we should work really hard at being gentle and reasonable and be full of mercy and blessings. And he says he knows it’s really hard work but it is worthwhile.
So good friends, welcome those around you who are kind of prickly and hard to love just like you would welcome your children and grandchildren, with open arms and full of happiness to see them. Get along and be gentle and kind to everyone treating each other with dignity and honor. It’s not easy. God knows that but it is good for us and it will bring us closer to God. And friends, that’s a good thing. Who doesn’t want to be close to our creator?
So when you have the wonderful privilege of holding a child in your arms or on your lap think about the fact that you are holding God close to your breast.
Friends, God loves you and so do I. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Where Does Wisdom Start?

Do you crave wisdom? Have you ever wished that you were wise so people would come to you for your sage advice? Have you ever thought about what it is that makes people wise? Is it the number of our years here that makes us wiser than those who are many years younger and haven’t experienced the things we have?
Wisdom speaks to us from the first chapter of Proverbs and is a little miffed that no one pays any attention to her. Can you understand what that feels like? It’s a little bit like when we used to try and teach our children by telling them what they should and shouldn’t do and they didn’t seem to hear what we were saying. They went ahead and did the very things we warned them against. It was pretty frustrating. So you can understand why Wisdom is so perturbed that no one is paying her any attention as she tries to warn people about what they’re doing with their lives. It’s as if their ears were plugged up like the deaf man in last week’s gospel lesson.
I suppose God feels that way most of the time with us. We let his words of wisdom go in one ear and out the other. We do what he wants as long as it fits into our plans. God must be pretty frustrated with us. Doesn’t that worry you, just a little? It does me and I think it should everyone else.
There quite a few folks in the world today who have a very high opinion of themselves. They spout words of wisdom all over the place, in newspapers, on television, on the radio, and now on the internet in blogs, live videos, you tube, Tangle, twitter, Facebook, and text messages on cell phones. Wisdom is just zipping through the Ethernet. With so much wisdom flying through the air we should all be so stinking wise that we could solve all the issues in the world just like that. Right?
I don’t think it works that way but there are quite a number of people who think they have all the answers to the problems of the world.
There is power in language. And that’s what James is warning people about in his third chapter. He’s talking about the tongue but words are what the tongue creates. It puts the words together to make sentences and puts sentences together to make paragraphs and paragraphs create books, and voila, words of wisdom are right there in front of our eyes.
But is it really wisdom. Is everything heard and read true? Even if it’s true is it always necessary for everyone to hear it or read it? Some would have you think so.
James urges his readers to use caution. For something as small and seemingly as useless looking as our tongue it’s amazing how much trouble and grief it can cause. When used without restraint it can do more damage than the fires in California.
I imagine there are many of you sitting here this morning who could give examples of how words have hurt or destroyed you. Or maybe you have never been hurt but you could give us examples of how words have lifted you back up from the pit you had fallen into. These simple letters that are put together to make words are way more powerful than many people imagine.
Jesus is called the Word, Logos, by John. God created everything when he spoke the Word. The sun, moon, stars, planets, the whole universe was created out of the chaos when God spoke the word.
Jesus used words to teach the disciples who walked with him in Galilee. He used words to tell stories, to ask questions, and to heal people.
The question is do we use words to build up or to destroy human lives? Do we share the powerful wisdom of the good news of Jesus Christ with our family and friends and neighbors? How do we use our tongues?
When folks hear us speak can they tell that we are Christians? What do our tongues say about us? Do they tell people who Jesus is? Do they show love to others by the words that roll off them? Are the words that come from our tongues words of wisdom or are they the sparks that ignite fires that cause catastrophic damage before they can be extinguished?
Friends, there is so much to chew on in these words from scripture today, wisdom, language, the Messiah. What do people say about you? Who are you?
Who do you say Jesus is? How do you speak about him to those you meet? Peter got it right when he said Jesus was the Messiah but in the next instant he spoke words that caused doubt within the group of disciples. And Jesus rebuked him.
Our words can do so much good one minute and cause so much harm the next. If we would always keep that thought in our minds we would save ourselves so much grief.
There is wisdom and power in words. That’s the reason we all need to be very careful how we use them.
As technology continues to progress faster than thought we move further into an age of disinformation as well as information. Think about how many different emails you receive warning you about one thing or another that prove not to be true. They are just works of fiction that people send out there to cause people to worry and fret.
Everything that’s written is not the gospel. Everything you hear spoken is not the gospel. The good news is God loved us enough to send his Son, Jesus, to die for us and defeat death by rising from the grave. The good news is God still cares. Jesus is our intercessor who prays for us and stands in for us with all the right words all the time. The good news is we are forgiven for all the sins we have committed and for those we will commit through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
The true power is in Jesus, the Word that gives life to all who hear it and believe. There is wisdom in the living Word.
You are wise if you hear, read, pray, and live the Word every day. And share that wisdom with those God sends your way everyday.
Thanks be to God for his gracious inspiring Words. Amen.

God's Calling You

(This is the Message I gave to the folks at Peace Haven Retirement Home last evening. Listen for God's Word)

Don’t you just love the Old Testament stories? This week at morning prayers I have been reading the stories of the kings of Judah and Israel. After David and his son Solomon’s rule the nations were led by some kings who were just plain evil. Ahab, the king in today’s scripture reading, was one of the worst. And to top it off he married Jezebel who was about as evil as he was. She may have been worse.
Ahab was so bad that God had told the prophet Elijah to go to Ahab and tell him that the nation was going to experience a severe drought. There wasn’t going to be any rain until God said so. And then he told Elijah to run far away from there to the Kerith canyon and He, God, would have the ravens bring him his meals and he would have water from the brook.
Eventually the brook dried up because there hadn’t been any rain and so God told Elijah to go Zarephath and there he would meet a widow and her son. He was to live with them and God would provide for them so they wouldn’t want for food.
And God did what he promised and Elijah did what God told him to do. Today God called Elijah to go to Ahab and he would send rain on the land.
Now we will fast forward to the gospel according to Matthew, chapter 2. An angel of God appeared to Joseph in a dream and warned him that Herod was coming to Bethlehem to kill his son, Jesus. So he got up, took the child and his mother, went to Egypt and remained there.
When the danger had passed, Herod died, the angel of God appeared again to Joseph in a dream and told him it was safe to return to his home. And so he got up, took the child and his mother, and returned to Israel. But he heard as he was traveling that Herod’s son, who was also pretty evil was in charge of things so he was directed in a dream by God to go to the Galilean countryside to the town of Nazareth. And that’s exactly what he did.
Have you noticed that there were no questions asked, there was no discussion about any of the little details of the trip. Both Elijah and Joseph just packed it up and went on the way that God showed them?
Friends, God is calling each of us. I wonder if we are hearing his call. I wonder how we are each responding to his call to us. I wonder what it is that he is calling us to do or be. Are there any folks left with ears to hear God’s call to ministry, to mission, to love and care for the least and the lost?
I’m the only one who can answer for me and you’re the only one who can answer for you. And that’s all that really matters. It’s really no one else’s business if we hear His voice and how we answer his call.
I believe that what is important is to open our ears, our hearts and minds, to God’s voice. From what I’ve observed in my few years here on earth I think that people don’t really believe that God can speak to them. It seems to me that there are quite a few cynical people living in the world today.
Maybe God’s voice is silent, maybe we are in a drought of sorts from hearing God’s voice because we’ve angered God by the way we live our lives. What do you think?
I think it’s more likely that people are spending time daily in God’s word and therefore they aren’t getting the Message he has for them. It’s kind of like going on vacation and forgetting to let the newspaper person know. The newspapers keep piling up outside your door until you finally get back home. The news was there it just couldn’t find a way in. You weren’t there so you could read the news and learn. You have to pick the paper up, open it, put on your glasses if you need them, and read the news in order to learn what’s going on in the world.
Email’s the same way. We have to open our email software, open the message, and read them before we can know what the sender wanted us to know.
Friends, God calls us and he has a Message for us. But we aren’t going to get his call unless we pick up the Bible, open it, read it, meditate on it, and then live it.
God sent an angel to Joseph. He sent the ravens to feed Elijah. He spoke to Elijah and Elijah heard because he was alone most times. The noise pollution of the world didn’t compete with God’s voice. God personally spoke to Paul who sent Epaphroditus to Philippi in his place since he was in prison.
I believe that God spoke to these people and there heard his voice. I believe that he speaks to us today but our hearts and ears are plugged and we don’t hear so well. I pray that God puts his fingers in our ears, as Jesus did with the deaf man, and that our ears would be opened up so we can hear God’s beautiful voice speaking to us.
We can’t know what he has called us to do or be unless we can hear. We can’t hear unless we go to the Message and read it. We can’t understand what it’s saying to us unless we have someone teach it.
Friends, there are so many who give the excuse that they’re too busy to do daily devotions. We have time to do other things like watch movies on TV or go to ball games or go to music concerts but we don’t have time for God. And we wonder why the world is in the mess that it’s in.
God is calling us. He calls to us every day. Do we have ears to hear his call? Are we listening for his voice? Pick up the word, read it with a friend, discuss its message. Meditate, pray, and live the word and you will hear God’s voice loud and clear calling you to the particular ministry he has prepared just for you. Who knows maybe you’ll be calling fire down from heaven like Elijah. God wants you to answer his call. May you be blessed by God this evening.
Thanks be to God for his gracious Message for us through his son, Jesus. Amen.

Poor, Homeless, & Hungry Are Welcome Here

Last Sunday the Message was about what’s important to God. The theme of today’s scripture lessons continues along the same road.
James ended the first chapter by reminding his readers that what was important to God was reaching out to the homeless and the loveless and to guard against being corrupted by the world.
This morning the lessons from Proverbs, Psalms, James, and the gospel of Mark are more or less about the things that are priorities in God’s plan for his children. Ah, just who are God’s children? It seems like this question has been asked before.
In light of the Word you heard read this morning who would you say are the beloved children of God? Who are those who will inherit the kingdom of God, you and me?
It doesn’t sound like it to me. What I heard was it belongs to those who are down and out who have been chosen to be the first in the kingdom. Friends, I hate to burst your bubble, but that’s not you and me. To me it’s more likely to be someone who may be living on the street or very close to it. It’s more apt to be someone who is receiving federal assistance to pay their rent and buy the necessities of life like food and utilities. That’s not anyone I see sitting here this morning.
Now that sounds a little harsh to me and maybe does to you too. But think about who Jesus hung out with and the kind of people he ministered to. It wasn’t those who had everything they needed. No, it was those who were living the hard scrabble life on the edges of society, prostitutes, rebels against the oppressors, adulterers, thieves, fishermen, and tax collectors. Not anyone like I see sitting here today.
Do you know anyone who is poor? Do you know anyone who is struggling to make their rent every month? Do you know someone who needs help with just living? Do you know anyone who is almost homeless? Are any of your neighbors one of these people?
Friends, they’re living in Walnut. How do I know? I know because I talk to them. Sometimes they ask for help but most times they are too proud to ask. I only hear from them when they’ve exhausted every other avenue of help. And that’s really sad.
I wish they’d call the church first. Don’t you? It would be so much easier to help someone pay bills before the electricity is turned off and the gas shut off. But it doesn’t usually work that way.
There are poor, there are folks who don’t have much living here. They are most times too embarrassed to ask us for help. Maybe they think we’d think they weren’t worthy. Or maybe they think we think they should be able to pull themselves up by their boot straps, get themselves out of the pickle they’re in. It doesn’t always work that way though. Sometimes, in fact most times, they, we, need a hand, your hand, or my hand, any hand that reaches out to them in love, without judging or condemning them for being where they’re at right now.
What if we choose to do nothing? What if we walk on the other side of the street? What if we just shrug our shoulders and tell them we can’t help them today but, “Hey, God loves you and so do I?” What’s that get them? What’s that get us?
It doesn’t help them a bit and we get condemned because we did nothing, actually we did worse than that. We brought the Name into it.
What did Jesus say, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself?” So if we tell them God loves them how does that help? The truth is it doesn’t. And that’s the point James was making. The early church wasn’t treating the poor very well. In fact, they really wished they wouldn’t come into the meeting place to worship. They smelled bad and their clothes were rags. Shoot, our churches don’t always treat the poor very well either.
So how do we change our actions? What can we do to help those who need help but don’t always come forward and ask for it?
Tell them where they can go for aid. Tell them about the food pantry in Avoca open every Monday afternoon from 4-6. Tell them about the Good Guys who will help them pay their utilities at least once to help tide them over. Offer to help them any way you can. Give them a ride, take them a hot meal, visit with them, maybe they need help caring for children or a mom or a dad. Maybe they do just need to know there’s someone out there who isn’t judging them.
Remember, friends, God made us all, the rich and the poor, the have’s and the have not’s and we all depend on him for our needs.
We are all called to ministry to care for God’s children as he enables us. Today God has issued his call to care for his children. How are you going to answer?
September 20th there is a Walk-A-Thon in Omaha from Gallup University to the Open Door Mission, about a mile. The cost to walk is $19.20. And sure you have to walk a mile and it’s not quite the same as helping someone here at home but it may be just what we need to get us off to a different path of mission.
And then there’s the basket at the back of the church. It’s there to be filled with items for the food pantry. It’s been kind of empty for awhile.
Friends, these are only two things that came into my brain. Go to God and listen to him. This week one of the scriptures I read called us the road upon which God walks. Think about that. Where are we going to take God this week? Where does God want us to go? Who does he want us to help? Let those with ears, listen.
Friends, God loves you and so do I. Thanks be to God for his wondrous grace. Amen.