Sunday
03/31/19 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “Questioned and Challenged”
(“The road to
the cross” Series – Part 4 of 7)
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 32
New Testament
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Gospel Lesson:
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Welcome again on
this the Fourth Sunday in this the season of Lent. This season that we are called
to prepare our hearts and our minds for the trial, the crucifixion, and the death
of Jesus Christ our Lord. Be of good cheer though, for a resurrection will come
on Easter!
This Sunday is also a Special Giving Sunday in the life of
the United Methodist Church. This Sunday used to be called “One Great Hour of
Sharing,” but it was changed to be called “UMCOR” Sunday at one of our General
Conferences. I know that there are a lot of charitable organizations out there
that many of us give to. Sometimes we wonder how much of our giving actually
helps those in need. UMCOR, or the United Methodist Committee on Relief has an
excellent track record for helping those in need. In fact, when a disaster
occurs, UMCOR often has what are called “Advances”. These “Advances” are set up
so that 100% of those funds get to the people that need them the most.
When there are earthquakes, we are there. When there are
hurricanes, monsoons, or tornadoes, we are there. UMCOR has boots on the ground
in natural disasters and troubled situations all over the world. A friend of
mine went to an UMCOR training a couple of years ago, and he told me that he
learned there that there are two church organizations that are known for
responding the quickest to natural disasters. What are these two church organizations?
UMCOR and the Mormon Church’s relief agency. I am very proud of our relief agency,
and the wonderful work that do each and every day!
In your bulletin for this morning, there is an envelope to
give to this special “UMCOR” giving Sunday. Feel free to put your funds in the
envelope in your bulletin, and then put this envelope in the collection plate for
this morning. We will then make sure that these funds get to UMCOR and to the
people that so desperately need it.
With all of this said, has anyone here ever had to deal
with someone or more than one person that constantly sought to undermine you?
You know that person at work that when you were in a meeting would always try
to outdo whatever you had just said. You had a great idea, but then they came
up with an even better idea. You were doing your job, and they then let you
know that you really weren’t doing your job so well. They constantly challenged
everything that you did. You were questioned, criticized, and never just allowed
to do what you were supposed to do. Has anyone ever experienced anything like
this before?
Or maybe it was a neighbor or someone in town that you were
determined to make your friend. Yet, everything you did, everything you tried,
was challenged, was questioned. This is why I would never run for elected
office, as I know that I would be “Questioned and Challenged” about everything.
I wonder what it would feel it be “Questioned and Challenged” constantly?
Imagine everywhere that you went that you were “Questioned and Challenged”?
Instead of people just allowing you to be you, they instead challenge you. They
don’t seem to like you. They want to put you in your place, and they are hoping
that you mess up and have a fall from grace. Sometimes we have just encountered
people in our lives that for whatever reason just want us to go away and not be
around them anymore.
Well let me illustrate to you what it’s like to be “Questioned
and Challenged” with a joke. Here is the joke:
“A scientist went to God and said triumphantly, "We've
worked out how to make a man without you." God laughed and said,
"Okay then, show me. Go ahead..." So the scientist bent down and
picked up a handful of dirt but God stopped him. "Oh no you don't. "
said God. "Get your own dirt" (http://laffgaff.com/funny-christian-jokes-and-humor/).
As
many of you know I started a sermon series a few weeks ago, called “The Road
the cross”. In this sermon series, I am seeking to connect the human part of
Jesus to us. While the historical Christian belief is that Jesus was fully God
and fully human on earth, how can we connect to Jesus’ human half? Further,
does Jesus understand us and our lives?
What
I have been attempting to lay out in this sermon series, is just how much we
can truly identify with the human part of Jesus. Why? The answer is, because
Jesus has went through all the highs and the lows we do, but he suffered well
beyond what we will ever suffer. Jesus gets us, because he came down from to
become one of us.
In
the first week of this sermon series, I talked about how Jesus was “Tempted and
Tried” by the devil in the wilderness for 40-days (Lk. 4:1-3, NRSV). Jesus was
also “Tempted and Tried” at other times and places, as well. When we have been
or feel tempted or tried by this world, or the people in it, Jesus has experienced
what we do. He gets us.
In
the second week of this study, I talked about how Jesus was “Persecuted”. Specifically,
how people, like King Herod wanted to kill Jesus (Lk. 13:31-35, NRSV). In some
areas of the world, if you are a Christian you could be putting your life on
the line. Maybe some of us have felt “Persecuted,” marginalized, or threatened.
Well guess what, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ knows all about that, because
he was “Persecuted” to. Jesus is described in the Bible as a suffering servant,
and he knows what life is like, because he lived it. Jesus became one of us.
Last
week, while I didn’t preach, as we had the 150th anniversary of the
Methodist Women, I would have talked about how Jesus, “Came for the sins of all”.
Last Sunday Jesus was also “Questioned and Challenged,” but through it all he
said we must repent and have faith (Lk. 13:1-9, NRSV).
Not
only did Jesus suffer we have suffered, and even worse, he also came for each
and every one of us. Even though we all have or will suffer differently, and
even though Jesus understands our suffering, he still came for us all. All of
us are sinners, all of us are incapable of doing right all the time on our own.
As a result, Jesus came, lived, taught, healed, forgave, loved, was tried,
crucified, and died, for all of us. He came for our sins. He lived, breathed,
suffered, and died, so that we wouldn’t have to. He came to live like one of
us, be like one us, and to die for all of us.
This
Sunday I want to talk about how Jesus was “Questioned and Challenged.” Our
gospel of Luke reading for this morning begins once again by saying of Jesus:
“Now
all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the
Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes
sinners and eats with them”
(Lk. 15:1-2, NRSV).
Jesus
is teaching, loving, healing, and proclaiming the kingdom of God, as he did for
three years during his public ministry. In doing this, he was constantly “Questioned
and Challenged”. This happened in part for a couple of reasons I think. One,
Jesus was doing things that the religious leaders of his day didn’t like or
agree with. The religious leaders believed that Jesus was in error. Two, Jesus
was wildly popular, and I believe that the religious leaders, the Pharisees,
feared losing power to Jesus. If they could trick Jesus, discredit him, or make
him look foolish, then they would win. Yet they failed miserably.
Jesus
was “Tried and Tempted,” and never broke. Jesus was “Persecuted,” but never
caved in. Jesus “Came for the sins of all,” and he was “Questioned and
Challenged”. Yet every time that he was “Questioned and Challenged,” Jesus passed
the test.
In
this morning’s gospel lesson from Luke, Jesus is once again mocked a little,
but not fully “Questioned and Challenged”. So I am stretching our gospel lesson
from this morning a little bit. Let me give you but a few examples though of
how Jesus was “Questioned and Challenged” in the gospels.
In
Mark 8:11 it says speaking of Jesus:
“The
Pharisees came and began to argue with him, asking him for a sign from heaven,
to test him” (Mk. 8:11, NRSV).
In the gospel of Luke 20:1-2 it says
of Jesus:
“One
day, as he was teaching the people in the temple and telling the good news, the
chief priests and the scribes came with the elders and said to him, “Tell us, by what authority are you
doing these things? Who is it who gave you this authority?” (Lk. 20:1-2, NRSV).
A final example from the gospels of
Jesus being “Questioned and Challenged” is from the gospel of Matthew 22:33-36,
which says of Jesus:
“And when the crowd heard it, they were
astounded at his teaching. When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they
gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher,
which commandment in the law is the greatest?” (Mt.
22:33-36, NRSV).
So while our gospel of Luke reading
for this morning once again has more slander and some grumbling against Jesus
in the first two versus, Jesus was “Questioned and Challenged” just about
everywhere he went. If you have ever been “Questioned and Challenged,” Jesus
get it, and he gets you. He has been there, and he understands us.
After the two versus of slandering
Jesus in our gospel reading for this morning, Jesus then tells my favorite
parable or story that he tells in the gospels (Lk. 15:11b-32, NRSV). In this
parable or story, Jesus tells us the story that we often know as the story of “The
Prodigal Son”. Sometimes when Jesus was “Questioned and Challenged,” or
sometimes when he was just teaching the disciples, he would do so with parables
or stories. These include the parable of the Mustard Seed, and the parable of the
Fig Tree.
This morning, after being slandered,
or lightly “Questioned and Challenged” in our gospel lesson, Jesus then takes
his critics to school about the love of God. In this parable of “The Prodigal
Son,” a father who had wealth, land, a house, and servants had two sons. One
worked hard and stayed with his father at home, and never ask for anything. The
younger of the two sons though, went to his father and asked him for his
inheritance right then and there. This meant 50% of what the father had. The
father agreed.
The son then went off, and in a polite
way to say it, partied and frittered the money away. Where the younger son was
broke and hit rock bottom, a great famine hit, and he was penniless. This son
found work feeding pigs, an animal that Jews believe to be an unclean animal. So
hungry was this younger brother that he was willing to eat what he was feeding
the pigs.
After sucking up his pride, and
realizing that he squandered his inheritance, the younger son decided to go
home and ask if his father would make him one of his servants. The younger son
knew he had done wrong, and knew he was no longer worthy to be called his
father’s son. The younger son was embarrassed and had shamed the father and the
whole family with his behavior.
Yet Jesus goes on to say, but this is
the level of the love and grace that I am brining to earth. As the defeated,
shamed, starving, and broke younger son is heading home, and is at a decent distance
from the house, his father saw him. Remember that the younger son had shamed
the father and the family. The younger son blew half of the father’s wealth.
So what does the father of the younger
son do? He runs to his son. He puts a robe on him, sandals on his feet, and a
ring on his finger. The older brother is angry at the treatment of the shamed
younger brother. The older brother tells his father, but how can you treat him
this way after what he has done? How come you are going to kill the fatted calf
for a feast? The father tells the oldest son, you have always been with me and have
had the best of everything that I have had. Once again as the gospel lesson for
this morning ends in Luke 15:32, the father says:
“But
we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has
come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”
(Lk. 15:32, NRSV).
Jesus Christ,
God in the flesh came to earth to love, to heal, to forgive, to live, to die,
and to be raised to new life for us. He endured what do and so much more. Jesus
Christ, the God man, was “Tried and Tempted,” was “Persecuted,” “Came for the
sins of all,” and was “Questioned and Challenged” for us. He did all of this
for us.
So as we
journey on the road to the cross together, the road to Good Friday, remember
that Jesus has been where we have been. He is a personal savior that gets us,
forgives us, and loves us. Even if we have made a mess of our lives, Jesus will
run to us, put a robe on us, sandals on our feet, and a ring on our finger, and
he will prepare a feast for us. All we need to do is come to him and ask him forgiveness,
and he will say:
“But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was
dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’” (Lk.
15:32, NRSV).
Praise God, and amen.
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