God's Kingdom

Jesus is telling another story, a parable, about God's Kingdom. This isn't exactly a feel good story as Matthew writes it.

A king is throwing a wedding banquet, a lavish gala, for his son. He has invited all of his friends. But they aren't interested. They have better things to do than to get dressed up and go to a party. So, instead they mistreat the servants who brought the invitations. Some they beat up and some they killed

Of course the king didn't take this too well so he sent his soldiers to wipe them off the face of the earth. He didn't want to leave any trace of their existence.

Since the table was set and everything was ready he instructed his servants to go out to the busiest intersections and invited everyone they saw to the party.

That's what they did and the room was soon filled with happy voices. These weren't the beautiful people; these were the commoners who labored hard every day to provide for their families.

Here they were enjoying the best cuisine prepared by the greatest chefs wearing the latest designer fashions. Who would have ever imagined that they would be allowed to attend the wedding banquet for the king's son?

And yet, there was one who sneaked in with the others just to enjoy the meal but not wanting to get dressed in the finery provided by the king. There's always someone who thinks they can participate in the festivities without abiding by the rules.

So, what is this parable saying for us as we listen to God's word? Who is this king who annihilates those who refuse to come to his party? Who are those who refuse to attend? Who are those who are invited from the streets? Who is the one who isn't wearing the right clothes?

Matthew wrote this gospel for the Jewish people, those who'd rejected Jesus. He wrote to show them how Jesus the Christ was the fulfillment of the prophecies written of in the Hebrew Bible.

The “king” is God. His son is Jesus the Christ. Those who refused to attend the banquet are the religious leaders who refused to repent and believe in Jesus as the Messiah.

They are the ones who mistreated and killed God's servants, his prophets who came preaching God's words of love, God's warnings, God's forgiveness, and the prophecy of the One who would come and save them from themselves and their sin.

Those who were finally invited to the banquet when the chosen ones refused to come were the Gentiles, the tax collectors, the s, the fishermen, and carpenters. Because the chosen ones rejected the invitation God chose to call everyone to the banquet table. He chose to call you and me.

The final decision is ours. God has called us. God has given us his grace and we must decide whether we will choose to answer his call. We must choose whether we will clothe ourselves in Christ and come to the banquet table. The choice is ours to make. God calls. He doesn't force us or coerce us into making this decision.

So, how will we answer his call today? Will be repent and put on Christ and join our sisters and brothers at the Table?

Friends, God has given us his grace, his love, in Jesus Christ. He loves us and calls us to join him. God loves you my friends and so do I. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Knowing God

If we want to know about something or some place or someone, where’s the first place we go to get the knowledge we’re seeking? Some of us will go to our computers and “Google” our question. Others will go to their encyclopedias or dictionaries or one of the other books in their libraries.

If any of us want to know God, really know Him, where do we go? Again some will go to their computer and “Google” God. Others will go to their Bibles and maybe use the concordance to help them find scriptures that will help them know Him.

Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, said that nothing compared to knowing Christ Jesus the Lord. The most important thing in Paul’s life was knowing Jesus.

Shouldn’t that be the most important thing for everyone? The question is, how can we know Jesus; how can we know God? Can we know God by “googling” him? Can we know God by reading our Bibles?

Remember the television program Newly Weds? The MC would ask each of the men and then each of the women the same questions about their spouses. Then they would come back together and we’d all get to see how well they really knew each other. It was soon very apparent that most of them didn’t really know their life partner.

So, what if there were a game show that partnered us with God and we were asked questions about God and he was asked questions about us. I wonder what kind of insights that would give us? Who do you suppose would know the most about the other? How well do you think we’d know God?

I, for one, don’t think I know God well enough. I read the Bible. I read commentaries. I read books about spirituality. I read quite a few books about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in an attempt to get to that point where I can say that I really know God. But none of them have taken me to the place where I can honestly say that I know God.

But I do believe that God knows me. And, like Paul, all I can do is to continue to keep trying to know him better.

To be honest with all of you I did go to the concordance in my study Bible and looked up knowing and knowledge. There are a number of scripture passages that talk about God knowing us and us knowing Him.

Exodus is the first place I found written that the people will know that I am the LORD. They would know God because he revealed himself in the plagues in Egypt and in the miracles like parting the water of the Red Sea and the drowning of the Egyptians who pursued them and in providing manna and quail and water from a rock.

The psalmist says if we know his name we will trust in him. The same psalmist also tells us to …be still and know that I am God. In the book of Jeremiah we read that God knew us before we were formed in the womb. Also in Jeremiah God says that now everyone will know him…for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. And Ezekiel repeats what we read in Exodus when he says…they shall know that I am the LORD.

It sounds like God makes himself known to us through his actions in our lives. We read in the Bible that even if there were no prophets or teachers to tell us about God the very stones would cry out. God’s creation helps people know Him. People have come to believe and trust in God through what they’ve seen in this world we live in.

Jesus said in John’s gospel…I have made you known to them. He also told those surrounding him…I know my sheep and my sheep know me.

So, has the question been answered? How do we get to know God? I believe it ultimately depends on God’s grace. God calls us. And then we choose whether we will believe and answer His call. Only then will we begin to know him.

God said, and Jesus repeated it, if we keep his commandments we will be his. We will be known by him.

We struggle with keeping the commandments and we struggle to live like Jesus so will we ever know God? We fail almost every day to keep God’s commandments. So, that’s the unknown quantity.

God tells us we are forgiven for our sins through Jesus. Jesus said that he would send an advocate who would tell us Jesus’ words. All this has taken place and now it’s up to us.

Do we believe? Do we trust God’s word to us? Friends, none of us knows for sure but Jesus said all we have to do is believe.

The Israelites in the wilderness were afraid to talk to God. God tells us we can go directly to him with our prayers. Jesus told us of God’s love and forgiveness.

All these help us to know God better. There’s still the mystery surrounding Him but God knows us and by spending time in prayer and study we begin to know God.

We’ll never know everything until we get to the New Jerusalem. Until then we just have to trust in what God reveals to us in the Word and His creation.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

The World's A Mess. We're A Mess. Where's God?

The Israelites are grumbling because they're thirsty, really thirsty. The Philippians are apparently not practicing humility and neither do they seem to be getting along with each other to well. And then we have the high priest and leaders of the Temple questioning Jesus' authority.


As we listen to these readings we hear what sounds like a whole lot of discord in people's lives. When we listen to our local and national news on the television or listen to the radio or read the World Herald or the Register we soon discover that nothing has changed. There's still a whole lot of discord in people's lives.

People still grumble. This year it hasn't been because they didn't have enough water to drink but that there was too much water. There are still folks who aren't very humble and have trouble getting along. Just as an example notice how many people are getting married and then notice how many of them are filing for divorce. And the authority thing, people are questioning that all the time. None of our elected officials can agree on the steps to take to correct any of the problems facing them or who should be responsible for doing it.

So, what's the answer? Fire the lot of them and start over. That may sound like a good idea but it still doesn't solve the problem with our stiff necks, hard hearts, and our inability to get along with our neighbors. So, what should we do?

Today I think we should go to Paul's letter to the people of Philippi. They were disagreeing on how to get things done. Apparently there were two ladies who weren't acting very humble and so Paul was giving them his best counsel.

The gist of his Message was everyone should live and act like Jesus Christ. That sounds easy enough until we try it.

Have you ever tried to imitate someone you admired and looked up to? That's exactly what Paul is advocating. He's telling this church they need to change and he begins by asking them some really hard questions. He says, “1 Does your life in Christ give you strength? Does his love comfort you? Do we share together in the spirit? Do you have mercy and kindness?”

Paul packed a whole lot into those first 4 verses. Maybe we need to listen to the rest of them again. Paul said, “2 If so, make me very happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and having one mind and purpose.3 When you do things, do not let selfishness or pride be your guide. Instead, be humble and give more honor to others than to yourselves.4 Do not be interested only in your own life, but be interested in the lives of others.”

Again, it sounds kind of easy until we try to live it. It's not so easy trying to reach consensus, doing it all with loving hearts and minds, and working toward the same goal with the same determination. And the other part of trying to keep our work from being selfish and full of pride. It's hard to be humble as the country western song says.

So, does anyone have the answer? If what we are called to do is so hard what chance do any of us have of ever living like Jesus? Should we just pack it all up and quit trying? Paul didn't think we should.

He said, “Keep on working to complete your salvation with fear and trembling,13 because God is working in you to help you want to do and be able to do what pleases him.” Notice what Paul says here. We are to keep trying but he reminds us that we aren't alone in this work. God is working in us to help us to do what we want to do and enable us to do what is pleasing to him. We need to be reminded of this every day. We keep trying to do it all by our own strength and will without asking God to help. We are really slow learners. Not any better than those Israelites traveling through the wilderness with Moses and and Aaron.

God was standing right in front of them but the only one who ever saw him and talked with him was Moses. They were too afraid of God to talk to him personally.

Friends, the good news is that God knew this and that's one reason he sent Jesus here to live like us, with us. It was so he could be our advocate and intercessor before God.

But friends, we have to bend our knees and talk to God and listen for his voice. We aren't in this alone. God loves us and is right here this very moment working in us to transform our hard hearts and soften our stiff necks.

So, which son are we? The one who said he wouldn't but then changed his mind and went to the vineyard or the one who said he would but then didn't show up. Again the choice is up to each one of us.

Remember God is with us and he loves us even when we stumble, even when we don't get along too well. Thanks be to God for his loving grace. Amen.

God's Kingdom

What is God's kingdom like? What do we expect to find in God's kingdom? Jesus told his disciples in this parable in Matthew 20 that God's kingdom was like this estate manager who went to the labor center in town to hire laborers for his harvest.

Is that the way you think of God's kingdom? Jesus said that this estate manager was looking for those who would be willing to work for him to bring in the harvest. He began hiring as soon as the harvest was ready. As the day progressed he kept going back to recruit more laborers. Even when there was only one hour of daylight left he called all who were left and willing to work. How is that like God's kingdom?

Think of it this way. When did you answer the call to work for the Lord? Was it seventy years ago? Was it fifty years ago? Or was it 2 days ago? Do those who answered first receive more of a reward than those who answered yesterday?

Answer me this. What does God guarantee any of us if we give our hearts to him? Did he tell us that the first ones who came to him would receive greater rewards than those who came to him yesterday? Did he say anywhere that those who begin early to work for him and work really, really hard will be of a higher status that those who begin work later and maybe don't work as hard?

This is the Great Reversal Jesus talked about, “...many of the first ending up last, and the last first.” God has never done things the way we would do them and it just doesn't seem fair.
We think that if we give all of our time and all our labor working for God that we should be rewarded more than those who don't give as much time or don't work at all. Some think that way. We've been taught by the world that we get what we work for and we deserve it.

But God gives the same gift to the last as he gives to those first committed followers, eternal life in God's kingdom. That may not seem fair but grace and forgiveness are God's gifts to give and it's not up to us.

The Israelites traveling through the wilderness didn't think life was fair either. They wanted everything they had back in Egypt. They grumbled at Moses and Aaron. God heard their complaints and he fed them manna and quail.

Remember when God revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush. Remember when Moses asked him who should he tell the Israelites had sent him to lead them out of Egypt. He said, “I am who I am,” or as some translations put it, “I will be who I will be.”

For the Israelites in the wilderness he was their Bread. They didn't know what it was he was giving them and so they asked, “What is it?”

In Egypt God was their salvation; in the wilderness he was their sustenance, their Bread. For Paul He was the Good News and for the disciples of Jesus he was their Teacher. What will God be for us and is he calling us to labor in the harvest? How will we answer? What do we expect?

Paul was torn between staying here and working for the Lord and going to be with Jesus. He
decided if this was where God wanted him them he would continue his work.

He didn't expect anymore than what God provided him as he lived and worked for the Lord. Sometimes he lived in the lap of luxury and other times he had nothing. Wherever and whatever Paul lived for the Lord.

So, what are we to do with this Good News? God leaves the choice up to us. Will we answer his call to join the harvesters? Will we be willing to give everything to serve him? Will we suffer for him? Will we lovingly accept those who come to the harvest with nothing more than their love for Jesus, the homeless, the addicts, the unemployed, and the unloved? God does and will.

God's kingdom is like nothing we've ever seen or could ever imagine. It is filled with God's love and grace. He accepts all who answer the call. The first and the last receive the same pay, eternal life. It may not seem fair to us but it is God's gift to give.

Thanks be to God for his extravagant grace. Amen.

Judgment & Forgiveness

Judging whether something is right or wrong or whether someone is right or wrong is, I think, so easy for all of us to do. We read the newspaper or listen to the evening news and, without realizing what we're doing, judge whether that person or country or government or corporation made a decision that was good, in our opinion, or bad, or right or wrong. I believe we do it so often that it has become a habit.

Judging is such a common occurrence in our lives that we judge people we see on the street or see in the bakery or McDonald's or walking down the street. As we observe them we make judgments as to what kind of people they are. We do all that in about the first couple of minutes.

That spur of the moment decision will stay with us until we become acquainted with them. It's impossible for our judgment of them to be changed until we discover for ourselves that maybe we were wrong. Never the less, if we're honest, we have to admit we are pretty judgmental.

Apparently in Paul's day people were making judgments about whether it was right or wrong to eat just about anything or whether there should be dietary rules that all should abide by. So, if some thought that in order to be a “true” follower you couldn't eat any meat anyone who did eat meat was considered an outsider and couldn't be a member of the elite group or vice versa. Or, as Paul said, it may have been that one group thought that one particular day of the week was more important than the other days of the week and others believed that they were all equal in importance.

One group believed the other group was wrong. And they couldn't, or wouldn't, change their minds. Each group felt that they were absolutely right and there was no way to resolve the issue. Each group was stubbornly set in their way of thinking.

Paul was counseling them that none of these things really made any difference when it came to being a follower of the Way. But if someone did believe one way or the other and it was in contradiction to our way of thinking they were instructed by Paul to let it go. Don't judge them good or bad, right or wrong. In the greater scheme of things it just wasn't important. Let it go.

That was radical thinking in Paul's day and still would be thought of as radical, by some, today. We might think that we're immune to that way of thinking but ask yourself this question, “What would we think if someone joined this congregation who was from a Pentecostal church and every time they agreed strongly with some part of the worship they'd shout, 'Amen!'” Or what if someone stood up in worship some Sunday and just started giving their testimony; and they thought you couldn't be part of the community of faith unless you shared your faith openly with everyone. How would we judge these folks? How would they judge us? Would we pass the test of whether we were judgmental or not?

Judging folks doesn't seem to be harmful to anyone or that big of a deal until we stop and realize that someone could be judging us. Then it doesn't feel so good.

The other part that we often don't notice is or we forget about is what Matthew wrote in the gospel today. Jesus said, “ ...that's exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn't forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy.”

Judging and forgiving are very closely related. By not forgiving we are rendering judgment against the person or persons we felt has done some wrong against us. And what we have done is put ourselves under God's judgment.

We judge those who are different as not being acceptable. So, we are different. How will we be judged by God? Will we be found acceptable by Him?

Good friends, God has forgiven us. We have been found to be acceptable by Him through the sacrifice and resurrection of his Son, Jesus the Messiah. As God has forgiven us we are asked to forgive others.

It's our choice to make. As we judge so will be judged. As we forgive so will we be forgiven. God loved us so much that He died for our sins Himself and rose again to show that has been defeated. As Paul said, If we live we live for the LORD and if we die we die for the LORD, so whether we live or whether we die we are the LORD'S. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Loving Confrontation

Loving confrontation, that almost sounds like an oxymoron. Is it possible to confront anyone lovingly? Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, says it all hinges on love. The whole Law revolves around love.

It begins with loving our neighbors like we love ourselves. The real problem we might have with that is sometimes we don't love ourselves very much.

If people don't even like themselves it's no wonder they don't treat their neighbors with love, is it? Therein lies one of humanity's problems. People don't think they're worthy of love, theirs or anyone's. Maybe they haven't learned how to love or maybe they've been hurt so deeply that it's impossible for them to even consider loving anyone. How to solve that is a whole other can of worms. That's not to say it's not important but today Jesus is talking about how to lovingly confront a brother or sister who has hurt us. Please note that he is talking about someone who is a member of our community of faith.

Jesus says, if someone hurts us we are to go to them and try to work it out. The first problem is, what if they refuse to even listen to one word? Or, what if they listen but don't believe they're in the wrong? Either way Jesus tells us to go get 2 or 3 friends who know about the issue or wrong or hurt and all together go and lovingly bring it to their attention again. But they still won't listen.

Now this is where it gets really difficult. In Jesus' words he says to get the whole church involved and all together, you and the church, lovingly confront them, again. If they still won't listen we aren't allowed to give up and drop it but we're to start the process all over and lovingly confront our neighbor.

Peter heard this and wondered, out loud, how many times he should start all over, seven times? You know Jesus' answer. It was seventy times seven. In other words as long as it takes or forever. We aren't supposed to ever give up trying to heal the hurts. The other thing is we are, the whole time, to lovingly address our neighbor. Why?

Friends, look at it this way. What if a member of our family was doing something we knew was harmful to them? We may not like what they're doing but our love for them wouldn't changed. We'd go to them and ,in love, confront them, wouldn't we? Wouldn't we go to them over and over, maybe with other family members, until we knew they understood and changed their behavior? We wouldn't ever give up, would we. That's because we love them.

So, this family we're part of is no different. We are, each of us, part of this Body of Christ. If one part is doing something that is hurting them, or one of the other members, then it affects all the other parts of the Body and it has to be taken care of, otherwise the entire Body will be hurt. That might be why Jesus said that we shouldn't stop until the hurt is healed and the issue resolved.

The one thing we all struggle with and many times forget is that the whole process is be to done lovingly. Sometimes the hurt is such that we don't feel the love. That's when we must turn to God first, maybe with friends supporting us, in prayer and ask him to fill us with his love.

Why should we care? Why should we try to love ourselves and care what our brothers and sisters are doing? Well friends, it like Paul said today, “ Do this because we live in an important time. It is now time for you to wake up from your sleep, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.”

Jesus said that all of God's children were important to him and he didn't desire for any of them to be lost. That's why we should never give up.

Friends, we need to remind ourselves daily that God loves and he would like us to share that love with our brothers and sister in Christ. Everything we do we are to do in love and that's is a very difficult thing to do, alone. But with God all things are possible.

Thanks be to God for his loving grace. Amen.

Who Do "We" Say Jesus Is?

In Matthew’s gospel Jesus begins questioning the disciples, asking them who people think he is. They give him various answers, some may have been their own and some may have been what they heard in people's conversations as they mingled with the crowds.

He listened to their responses and then he posed the toughie, “Who do you say that I am?” As the rest pondered the question Simon said, “You're the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

To his answer Jesus tells Simon, son of John, that he is the “Rock” and this is the rock he'll build his church on. This impulsive, hard-headed, “willfully stupid” man is going to be used as the foundation for the Body of Christ here on earth.

But, not long after this Jesus calls him Satan and tells him he is thinking as the world thinks and not on God’s things. And then, later, Peter denies that he knows Jesus, three times.

What does Jesus see in him that we don't? Is it because Simon, now Peter, answered first, and answered correctly?

Jin S. Kim in Feasting on the Word said ...it wasn't Peter's strength or righteousness but rather it was his testimony that Jesus was responding to. Peter's words came from everything he had observed and experienced as he spent time with Jesus. It was his witness that Jesus was rewarding.

So, who do you say that Jesus is? How do you bear witness to the Messiah? That’s a question all of us should think about. When someone asks us who Jesus is how will we answer? Or maybe they won’t ask, they’ll just watch to see how we live and watch how we deal with pain and suffering in our lives.

Are we able to answer like Peter and say, Jesus is “… the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God,”? You know we’re probably not much different than Peter. One day we’re able proclaim that Jesus is the Messiah and the next we deny we ever knew him. And the next day Jesus is speaking to us saying, “…get out of my way. Satan, get lost. You have no idea how God works.”

You know what might be interesting? Ask folks we meet on the street who Jesus is, to them. It might surprise us to hear some of the responses. We really shouldn’t be since the disciples gave answers like John the Baptist, Elijah, and Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. Nobody in Jesus’ day really understood who he was.

And he didn’t want his disciples telling people he was the Messiah yet. It wasn’t the right time. But, friends, the time is right for us now.

When people ask us who Jesus is that’s a sign the time is just right for giving our testimony about who Jesus is to us. If we’re not sure how we’d answer then maybe we should go to the Word and pray for the Spirit to open our hearts to discover who this Messiah, Jesus, is to us.

Roddy Hamilton has thought about this and put this poem together to help us. It goes like this…

Jesus

Jesus
water walker and bread breaker
Jesus
baptiser and companion
Jesus
stranger and forsaken

Jesus
troublemaker and revolutionary
Jesus
resurrection and conspiracy of love
Jesus
light in darkness and breaker of silence

Jesus
friend of sinners and tax collectors
Jesus
friend of children and disturber of adults
Jesus
friend of the outcast and agitator of empire

Jesus…
Jesus…
how do you know Jesus?

So, maybe this helps us. This week as you spend time with God invite his Spirit to lead you to those words that you can use to describe Jesus to those you meet on your Journey.

Thanks be to God for his Grace. Amen.