What's Important?

This is the Message I delivered at our Thanksgiving Eve worship service.

As you heard the scriptures read what did you think about? How did they speak to you this evening? How did you hear God talking to you in his Message?
As I read the lessons from The Message I was struck by the words. They just seemed to jump out at me, almost like they were saying, “Hey, this is important. Pay attention to what's being said here.” It may be because of the present condition of the world around at this time that they seemed particularly profound to me. At any rate I think there is a Message here for all of us in this season of thanksgiving.
The OT reading from the prophet Joel says in so many words that we, the children of God, should celebrate. Be glad in our God...full of praises to our God, the God who has set us back on our heels in wonder. Don't you get the feeling of awe sometimes as you walk about or travel about in this wonderful place God has placed us? Doesn't it just make you want to “celebrate” as Joel puts it?
The psalmist continues this when he says, “...it seemed like a dream, too good to be true...we laughed, we sang, we couldn't believe our good fortune...God do it again.” Have you ever thought to yourself, “This must be a dream. This is too good to be actually happening to me?” That's what the psalmist is feeling.
So, I know, sometimes our lives aren't really so good and we just don't feel like celebrating or singing or laughing. What do we do then, crawl in a hole, stick our heads in the sand like an ostrich? That doesn't fix anything but sometimes we are just too overwhelmed by what the world is doing to us.
Good friends, I believe it's then we need to remember Paul's words to Timothy, “The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.” Have you ever got up in the middle of the night and then went back to bed and couldn't fall back to sleep? What do you do? Get up for a snack or maybe something hot to drink? How does that work for you? Have you ever tried praying for everyone you can think of? Have you ever thought of praying for the people on your block or your neighbors when you couldn't get back to sleep? It may be that God is telling you to pray not because he needs your prayers but because you need prayer, you need to take your mind off yourself and consider others. Who knows, it's got to be better than tossing and turning and trying to count sheep or goats or ceiling tile.
Have you noticed how every time the television goes to commercial it's an advertisement about something every person should have in their kitchen, their bathroom, their living room, entertainment room or their workshop? We just have to have it. If we don't how could we possibly live? The world continually tells us we have to own this or that. We just can't be complete with it, whatever it may be.
Matthew gives us Jesus' answer in chapter 6 that we heard read this evening. I don't believe he's telling us its wrong to possess “things.” I think he's telling us we need to decide where our priorities are. If we are the Christians we profess to be then we must realize we need to make a commitment to follow Jesus. When we do that then the focus is no longer on us it's on others. After all it's not about us but it's about what God is doing in and around us, that's what's important.
Making the commitment to serve Jesus and trust him to provide for us is certainly scary for us but as God grows our faith we are able to do so much more than we ever imagined we could do.
God is telling us that excessive worry and anxiety will get us nowhere. It only serves to separate us from God. In the verses that precede this passage we are told that we can't serve two masters. That's what Jesus continues to elaborate here. He wants us to think about where our priorities are, where are our values. The world would have us think that God comes after our jobs, after our homes, after our retirement accounts, you can fill in the blank with many other things we worry about.
Friends, where is our allegiance, where do we place our loyalty? Jesus told us we only have two commandments to concern ourselves with and the first is to love God with our hearts, our souls, and our minds. That should be our number one priority. And then we are told to love our neighbors as we ourselves want to be loved. It's still not about us. It's all about God and others and serving them.
So this thanksgiving season as you sit down to tables overflowing with delicious meals prepared with loving hands remember why we're all here, what our work is as children of God. We are called to serve and we all need to decide what that means.
Friends, God loves you and so do I. Thanks be to God for his many blessings. Amen.

Still Waiting

Another church year has ended and a new one begins today with the first Sunday of Advent. Today’s Message from the Scriptures talks again about Christ’s coming again. When Luke wrote his gospel the people were waiting…and waiting…and waiting…and we are still waiting. Have people given up on Christ ever coming back? Have we become discouraged with all the waiting? I wonder.
How patient are you? Some days I’m very impatient and other times it doesn’t matter, but the world has been waiting a long time for Christ to return and bring with him the new heaven and earth and a New Jerusalem. Do you think we’re ready?
We have heard this Message so many times and he hasn’t come yet that I wonder if we haven’t been putting changing our lives or even thinking about changing that we may be in danger of not being ready. Friends, I’m speaking from experience here. I am the classic procrastinator who puts things off until they absolutely can’t be put off any longer. But this is something I shouldn’t put off and neither should you.
Jesus said that he is coming and we are to watch for the signs. When these signs appear that means that the kingdom of God is near. So, should we be watching for signs or preparing ourselves for Christ’s coming? What do you think?
I think if we spend our time watching for the signs and trying to interpret what we think they mean that we may be in danger of putting of the hard work of changing our lives and doing the work God has called us to do. It could easily happen. We get so involved with listening to the news that we forget that we are to telling the Good News and bringing people into the kingdom of God that is here right now.
Our prayer should be what Paul wrote in his letter to the Thessalonians, “13May God our Father himself and our Master Jesus clear the road to you! And may the Master pour on the love so it fills your lives and splashes over on everyone around you… May you be infused with strength and purity, filled with confidence in the presence of God our Father when our Master Jesus arrives with all his followers.”
Our goal for the new year should be to do what we know we should be doing so that we are ready for Christ’s return, reading Scripture, studying Scripture, praying to God and spending time in silence so we can hear what God has for us. And then sharing the Good News of God’s love with our friends and neighbors and people we don’t know yet whom God brings to us everyday.
That sounds like a full-time job, and it is, but once we have decided how we can get this discipline ingrained in our lives it ceases to be a chore and becomes as natural as breathing. It’s just part of our daily living and then we don’t have to be worrying or anxious about whether we’re ready or not. It doesn’t matter that we’re still waiting, because we’re ready for Christ to return.
Friends, I can’t empathize enough how important this is. What if Christ came today? Would we be ready? I didn’t use to think about this very much but when I read Luke’s Message to us I am reminded of the state of the world today. It looks to me like “all hell has broken loose—sun, moon, stars, earth, sea, in an uproar and everyone all over the world in a panic, the wind knocked out of them by the threat of doom, the powers-that-be quaking.” I’m not sure the leaders of the world powers are quaking or not but it sure looks to me like the things Luke talks about have begun. There’s war, there’s economic turmoil and uncertainty, there’s global warming, and who knows what else we’ll hear about in the news today. And so it’s even more important for us to make sure people are ready and not just biding their time waiting because they’ve been waiting so long and nothing’s happened yet.
So if God has set things right with Jesus coming into the world then I believe we should make the psalm reading today our prayer. Verses 5-7 speak to me in particular, “5 Take me by the hand; Lead me down the path of truth. You are my Savior, aren't you? 6 Mark the milestones of your mercy and love, GOD; Rebuild the ancient landmarks! 7 Forget that I sowed wild oats; Mark me with your sign of love. Plan only the best for me, GOD!”
Friends, I think we have our work cut out for us. We’ve put off doing the things we should have been doing and every day that we let slip by without changing is one more day wasted and maybe one more life that may be lost, never knowing that there is a God who loves and cares for all his children and doesn’t want to see even one of them lost to the Evil One.
So even though we are still waiting for Christ’s return we shouldn’t be sitting around watching the signs and waiting. There is work to be done. We are to be making disciples and loving and caring for neighbors. We are to be worshipping God and spending Sabbath time with Him. If we do these things we can be assured that we will be more ready when Christ does come with all his followers.
Friends, lets not wait any longer. Let’s make the commitment to give it all to God and do all he has called us to be and to do. Begin today by getting back in his Word and spending time with him. He misses you.
Sisters and brothers, God loves you and so do I. Thanks be to God. Amen.