Sunday 10/27/13 Freeville/Homer Ave
UMC’s
Sermon Title:
“Who gets the glory?”
Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Psalm 65
New Testament Scripture Lesson: 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Gospel Lesson: Luke 18:9-14
Good morning
and welcome again, my brothers and sisters! Welcome on this, the twenty-third
Sunday after the holiday of Pentecost. The holiday of Pentecost, that day that
so long that the Holy Spirit moved and the Christian Church was born. At this
point the Apostles and the early Christians went forth, and they preached to
gospel of Jesus Christ. They preached a message of hope, to people who had
known only suffering.
You see the
early Christian Church saw amazing things happen. They saw their numbers increase
like never before, they saw people’s lives and hearts changed forever. They baptized,
healed, and some even raised the dead with the power of the Holy Spirit.
With doing all
of this though, I wonder if sometimes some of these Apostles or early
Christians started to think very highly of themselves. Instead of talking about
God’s church, instead of talking about the people that came to Jesus, they
might have said, that it was “their church.” They might have said, “I led this
many people to Jesus.” They might have said, “Look what I have done!” “Look at
how great I do things!”
I remember at
our Upper New York UMC annual conference a couple of years ago, we had a great
speaker, who preached to the soon to be ordained clergy in our conference of
the United Methodist Church. He told these soon to be ordained clergypersons “to
watch your usage of pronouns.” Pronouns of course, are words that take the
place of nouns, like we, you, or us. When I heard this, I first thought, well
this is an odd piece of advice to give to the soon to be ordained clergy on their
day of ordination. Watch your usage of pronouns, weird!
You see this speaker encouraged these
soon to be ordained clergy to watch how they speak of their ministry. He said, “Don’t
say my church.” He said, “Don’t say my ministry.” He then said, “Don’t say what
I did to build the kingdom of God.”
Rather he
said, we are nothing without the Lord. He said that God gave us everything that
we have. So all of our gifts and all of our
graces, all of our abilities, all of our possessions and wealth are all from
God. Yet so often don’t we forget this? Don’t we so often say “look what I have
done?” “Look at how great I am?”
Then we watch
a video like the “Operation Christmas Child” video from this morning, and we
realize how big the world is. We realize how blessed we are in this country,
and how a shoe box full of toys and other things can change the very life of
Child. That the Holy Spirit of God moves through a child receiving a shoe box,
and that they hear amidst this that the God of the universe loves them. That there
fear and hopelessness can end, because they are a child of God, and Jesus died
for them.
So often in
the busyness of our lives, we can start to think pretty highly of ourselves,
yet what are we without God? I think that this reality comes to us, not in the
best of times, but often in the worst of times. You see sometimes in our lives,
we feel that we are on the mountain top, but other times we feel like that we are
in the valley. I find that when we are broken, that we rely on God much more.
Now nobody wants to be in the valley, but so often when things are going great
for us, we sometimes forget about God altogether. We sometimes forget who we
are, and who’s we are. When we are flying high in life, we so often give
ourselves the glory.
In same way an
NFL quarterback might be in the lime light and might be beloved by everyone one
year, the next year they might suddenly be injured, and then be done playing
professional football. As such, the lime light goes away for that now former
NFL quarterback, and eventually less and less people know who this quarterback even
is. When the quarterback was on top of the world though, they might have thought
that they were hot stuff, yet in an instant they were brought to their knees.
You see there are no guarantees in this life, and in this world, but one. This
one guarantee is that there is a loving God that is always faithful, and who
will never fail us.
You see there
is no perfect church, there is no perfect pastor, there is no perfect
Christian, but there is a perfect God. On last day of this world, when all of
this is gone and nothing remains but God, who will get the glory on that day? Today, on this day, there are so many people
in the world who feel that have great glory, but all glory is God’s glory.
Since God is the very source of everything, we must always give God all the
glory in all that we do. For if we are gifted and successful, if we are an NFL quarterback,
we are so because God has allowed us to do so.
In Psalm 65
from this morning, the Psalm begins with, “Praise is due to you, O God, in
Zion; and to you shall vows be performed, O you who answer prayer!” Further in the Psalm, it says of God, “you are
the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.” “Who gets the
glory?” in our lives today?
In the Apostle
Paul’s second letter or epistle to his young friend Timothy, the Apostle Paul
was talking about how he would soon be departing from this earth, to be with Lord.
He told Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I
have kept the faith.” The Apostle Paul went on to tell Timothy that so many
have deserted him, yet “the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that
through me the message might be fully proclaimed.” So while the Apostle Paul’s
pronouns of running the race and keeping the faith were used with “I,” and could
be seen as somewhat focused on his strength and his glory, he then explained
this more. He then said “the Lord stood by me.” He said, the Lord “gave me
strength,” He said, “through me” the message was proclaimed. He then concluded
this portion of his second letter to Timothy by saying, “To him be the glory
forever and ever.”
You
know for me, it still catches my attention when high powered people attribute their
success and blessings to God. I still admire it when a high powered person who
wins an award, thanks God, and thanks Jesus Christ, the messiah. “Who gets the
glory?” Do we get the glory, or do we give the glory where it belongs, in the
hands of almighty God.
In
this morning’s reading from the gospel of Luke, Jesus told a story or a
parable. This parable was told “to some who trusted in themselves that they
were righteous and regarded other with contempt.” In this parable, Jesus said
that “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax
collector.” Jesus continued “The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying
thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers,
or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all
income.’ Yet Jesus said that the tax collector, “would not even look up to
heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God be merciful to me, a
sinner!” Jesus than said of the tax collector, “I tell you, this man went down
to his home justified rather than the other, for all who exalt themselves will
be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
So
Jesus, the Lord of life said, if we exalt ourselves, we will be humbled, but
all who humble themselves before God we will be exalted. Who then gets the
glory in our lives? Do we get the glory, or do we give the Lord of life of
Glory. Do we honestly go through life thinking that we did everything on our
own? That God didn’t create us that our families haven’t loved and supported
us? Do we forget ourselves and talk big talk, and try to be better than others?
Or do we fall on our knees before almighty God like the tax collector, and say,
‘God be merciful to me, a sinner!”
I
have found that sometimes for me as a pastor that I spend so much time trying
to do everything “right,” that if I am not careful, my focus on doing things “just
so,” will temporarily take me away from God. That sometimes I try so hard to do
things exactly right, that sometimes, I just need to be still and listen for God’s
voice. That I need to be still and give God the glory.
I would like to close this morning
with a story. This story is called, “Things aren’t always what they seem.” Here is how
it goes: Two traveling angels stopped to spend the night in the home of a
wealthy family. The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the
mansion’s guest room. Instead, the angels were given a space in the cold
basement. As they made their bedroom the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole
in the wall and repaired it. When the younger angel asked why, the older angel
replied…. “Things aren’t always what they seem.”
The next night the pair
came to rest at the house of a very poor, but very hospitable farmer and his
wife. After sharing what little food they had, the couple let the angels sleep
in their bed where they could have a good nights’ rest. When the sun came up
the next morning the angels found the farmer and his wife in tears. Their only
cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field.
The younger angel was
infuriated and asked the older angel “How could you have let this happen!? The
first man had everything, yet you helped him,” she accused. ”The second
family had so little, but was willing to share everything and you let their cow
die.” “Things aren’t always what they seem,” the older angel replied.”
“When we stayed in the
basement of the mansion, I noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the
wall. Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his
good fortune, I sealed the wall so he wouldn’t find it. Then last night as we
slept in the farmer’s bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I gave her the
cow instead. “Things aren’t always what they seem.”
When we glorify
ourselves, when we think that we are so great and that we are so awesome, we
miss the very thing that is needed, the love of God. When we cling to a love of
ourselves, we lose God. So “who gets the glory?” in our lives? Do we get the
glory, or does the God of the universe that gave us every good thing not get
the glory? My brothers and sisters I bring this message to you this morning in
the name of the one who deserves all glory, honor, and power, Jesus the Risen Christ,
our Lord. Amen.
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