Sunday
09/03/17 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “Don’t question the Lord”
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c
New Testament
Scripture: Romans 12:9-21
Gospel Lesson:
Matthew 16:21-28
My brothers and sisters, again it is so good to be back
with you all this morning. My time away was anything but fun, and was anything
but enjoyable, but it is good to be back with you this morning. There were
points during my time off that I felt like I would never get back here, and now
that it has come, I am so thankful to be here. I almost can’t believe that I am
standing here this morning.
Having suffered from depression and anxiety, know that
these are serious and real medical disorders, and they can knock you down quick.
They also can temporarily take away your joy and your ability to live your life
normally. Yet millions of people in this country and many millions more around
the world suffer daily from these and other conditions. I am not ashamed that I
suffered from these medical conditions, as many of us suffer from various
medical and physical conditions.
As your pastor, and as the church, I believe that we need
let all people know that the doors and the ministries of this church are open
to them. It is important that we let all people know that they are loved and
welcomed here, and that Jesus Christ died for them.
For those of you that have heard of the book, the “Purpose
Driven Life” by Pastor Rick Warren, you might hold Pastor Warren in very high
regard. What you might not know though, is that not too many years ago, one of
Pastor Warren’s sons committed suicide. Rick Warren is by association a
Southern Baptist, and someone who is known for being very conservative. Yet,
Pastor Warren told his church, the Saddleback Church in California, shortly after
his son died, that it is time to break the stigma of mental health. The
Saddleback Church has since started a suicide prevention program, and is taking
mental health very very seriously. In fact, a dear friend of Melissa’s and I,
committed suicide in July of this year.
Pastor Warren also said if we had a broken bone, we would
get a cast and get it healed. If we had an organ in our body that wasn’t
working, we would get surgery or medical care to get it healed. If we had
diabetes, we would take insulin to keep us healthy. He then said, but for many of
us, if our brains are not working right, well we might just ignore that.
Friends, we live in a country where every 12-minutes
someone commits suicide, and in many cases there are mental health connections
to these suicides. Presently as many as 19-million Americans, near the total population
of New York State, and around 400-million people world-wide being treat for
depression. Those numbers don’t even include anxiety disorders, which is more
like 40-million in America.
This means then that the number of people getting treated
for depression world-wide exceeds the entire population of both the United
States and Canada put together.
While someone in the United States commits suicide every
twelve minutes, the world-wide statistic is far worse than this.
So what do we do as people, as Christians, and as a church about
this reality? My sisters and brothers, we have to break the stigma of mental
health. As Methodist are we people of “Do no harm, Do good, and Stay in love
with God.” This doesn’t mean that we are supposed to be harmed by people that
are having mental health struggles, but that we are supposed to be open to
them, and to love them. In the gospels Jesus healed all kinds of ailments,
including mental health.
Maybe someone here this morning, or maybe one of your
family members or friends has a mental health struggle. Perhaps God can use you
to help that person. The reality though my friends, my sisters and brothers, is
that you are not alone.
In the gospel of Matthew 4:23-25, it says:
“Jesus went throughout
Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the
kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his
fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those
who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and
paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the
Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan” (Mt. 4:23-25, NRSV).
It doesn’t necessarily
say it directly in the gospels, but I think that among many other things that
Jesus, our savior, cured mental health illnesses. I also think that we are
called to be healers. We will call on God for healing, but we can also connect
people with doctors and counselors who have the knowledge and modern day means
to heal them. So we are called brothers and sisters, to love, heal, and
forgive.
This morning in our gospel of Matthew reading, Jesus
predicts his own crucifixion and resurrection. This is to say, Jesus is
proclaiming that he will soon suffer and die for the sins of humanity.
Now, the Apostle Peter, or Saint Peter, who was the first
Roman Catholic Church Pope, does not like this proclamation from the Jesus.
The gospel says:
“From that time on, Jesus began to
show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at
the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on
the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him,
saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and
said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you
are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things” (Mt.
16:21-23, NRSV).
The title of
my sermon for this morning, centers around, in part, Peter’s challenge of
Jesus. This is why my sermon is called, “Don’t question the Lord”.
You see, when God,
when Jesus tells us something, we are supposed to listen, and not challenge it,
right? How many of us have been sick, and have not heeded the reality that our
body needed to heal? Instead we wanted to keep working and being busy, when our
bodies needed rest and healing. How many of us have not listened when God said,
you need to rest and recover? How many of us have been spoken to by God in a
different context, and just didn’t listen?
There is a
really good story around a reality like this. This story is about a man who was
dangling off a cliff for dear life. In this story, “A man was walking along a narrow
path, not paying much attention to where he was going. Suddenly he slipped over
the edge of a cliff. As he fell, he grabbed a branch growing from the side of
the cliff. Realizing that he couldn’t hang on for long, he called for help. The
man said: Man: Is anybody up there? God said: Voice: Yes, I’m here! Man:
Who’s that? Voice: The Lord. Man: Lord, help me! Voice: Do you trust me? Man: I
trust you completely, Lord. Voice: Good. Let go of the branch. Man: What??? Voice:
I said, let go of the branch. Man: [After a long pause] Is anybody else up
there?”
This morning, Jesus Christ, the savior
of the world tells the Apostle Peter, that he is going to be crucified and
resurrected soon, and Peter says, no you won’t.
So what I have learned through my
summer experience of illness, is don’t question the Lord. I have to admit that
I questioned the Lord a lot this summer, I pleaded with the Lord, and finally had
to accept that I was sick and needed to heal. Maybe some of you understand what
I am talking about, when you are struggling, and God tells you to just let go
of the branch, and you say “[After
a long pause] Is anybody else up there?”
Sometimes God gives us things, allows us
to suffer, and I don’t if I will ever fully understand why this is. I do know though,
that out of sufferings, out of struggles that God can be glorified, and people can
be served even better.
The gospel of Matthew continues this morning with:
“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If
any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their
cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and
those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit
them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they
give in return for their life?” (Mt. 16:24-26, NRSV).
Deny ourselves
and take up our cross. This means letting go of the branch. If we are honest
with ourselves though, how many of us don’t ever want to let go of the branch?
When we do let go of the branch, we then have to fully trust in God, and while
I do my best to do this, sometimes we are just so human aren’t we?
In addition to
all of this, I discovered through my illness, that I had more work to do in
removing the sin of pride. You see, I am honored to be with people who are sick
and suffering. I love to spend to time with our people, and to be there for
them when they really need me. I have been honored and privileged to be there
for you or your families when you were sick or struggling. I have been honored
to do funeral services for you loved ones. It has been one of the great honors
of my life to be allowed into those times of struggle, and to be there in those
very sensitive and intimate moments.
What I learned
in being sick though, is that I don’t like to be the one who is sick and in
need of having care. As I looked around the parsonage preparing to return, I
saw at least 60 get well cards. I have been brought food, given gifts, and
Melissa and I are just overwhelmed by the loved and the support that we have
been given. I believe that God has continued to root out of me the sin of
pride. As it has been my honor to serve you and your family, and I have been
honored by your service to Melissa and I.
My mother has
always said, “don’t deny me the blessing of being a blessing to you”. This is
so true, and last year when I was interviewing to become a Provisionally
Ordained Elder in our conference, I was asked how I allow my church members to
love and minister to me. I didn’t have much of answer last year, but when I
return for my Full Ordination Interviews next March, I have a whole lot to say
about this. That God is good, and so are His people.
The gospel of
Matthew reading for this morning ends with:
“For the Son of Man is to come with
his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what
has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not
taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Mt. 16:27-28,
NRSV).
Jesus tells of his second coming, that he will come with his
angels in the glory of God. Jesus tells us that we will be repaid for the love,
kindness, and faithfulness that we have shown each other and the world.
Don’t get me wrong, our salvation is through faith in Christ
alone, but I believe that God honors and blesses our goodness, and our good
deeds. The great reformer Martin Luther said, “God doesn’t need your good
deeds, but your neighbor does”.
Jesus tells us if we put our faith in him, and if we live
that faith out, that we will not taste death. That we will live in glory with
him.
Yet despite all of this, the Christian Church in the United
States and most of Western Culture, is not like it used to be. What I mean by
this, is more and more people don’t just go to church anymore out of religious
duty. Most people don’t just come to church because you are supposed to.
Instead many people this day in age, and especially young people, go to and are
part of the church, I believe, because they feel like they are part of an
extended family. People ask, do the people of this congregation really love me?
Do these people really care about me?
For all of these reasons, it’s vital that we welcome all
people into the life and the ministries of our churches. If someone with
depression, anxiety, PTSD, and etc. and etc., won’t come to or be part of a
church, because they feel like the church won’t love them and accept them, then
we have a problem. The future of the church depends our willingness to share
the gospel and the truths of Jesus Christ will all people, and to live this out
through loving, healing, and forgiving. Doing this, I believe will not only
grow us, and our faith, but I believe that it will also give the church a
bright and healthy future.
Regarding depression, in doing a little research I
discovered some very famous people who have, or do suffer from depression. I
made a list of many, just to explain how common this medical condition is. Here
are just some of them: Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, singer Jon Bon Jovi, actor and
comedian Drew Carey, singer Johnny Cash, actor Rodney Dangerfield, writer
Charles Dickens, actor Kelsey Grammer, wrestler Hulk Hogan, wrestler Dwayne
“the Rock” Johnson, singer Billy Joel, author Stephen King, singer Lady Gaga, President
Abraham Lincoln, Italian painter and sculptor Michelangelo, actor Bill Murray, British
physicist Isaac Newton, television personality Conan O’Brien, actor Brad Pitt, American
Industrialist John D. Rockefeller, singer Frank Sinatra, singer James Taylor,
artist Vincent van Gogh, actor and comedian Robin Williams, British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill, and former Russian Federation President, Boris
Yeltsin.
Sometimes, for reasons that I can’t always explain, God
allows us to walk through valleys, and have times of suffering. While these
times are never fun or enjoyable, I have found that we are stronger, and that
we grow more when we walk together. When we walk as the unified body of Christ.
I remember the first Sunday that I came back from
Nicaragua, I preached on Psalm 23. In preaching on this Psalm, it says in verse
4,
“Even though I walk through the
darkest valley, I fear no evil; for
you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me” (Ps. 23:4, NRSV).
I remember in this
sermon, I asked after seeing the great suffering and hardship that I saw in
Nicaragua, why we have to walk through the valley alone? Why can’t we walk it
together? After being sick this summer, this rings more true to me now than it
ever has before.
For Christ came to earth to love, heal, forgive, and to die
for the sins of humanity. Let us share those gifts with everyone, let offer the
hope of Christ to everyone, and let us go through the valleys of this life
together. As, for example, many of our brothers and sisters in Texas are
suffering. Remember also, that our valleys will not last forever, and remember
how this story ends. This sorry ends with Jesus winning, with love winning, and
goodness winning. For be of good of cheer my brothers and sisters, for we are
on the side of Jesus and the angels. Know that I love and pray for you all.
Amen.
