Sidney UMC - Eighth Sunday after Pentecost - 08/04/19 - Sermon - “Put to death, whatever in you is earthly"

Sunday 08/04/19 - Sidney UMC

Sermon Title: “Put to death, whatever in you is earthly”

Old Testament Scripture: Psalm 107:1-9, 43

                                            

New Testament Scripture: Colossians 3:1-11

                                                   

Gospel Lesson: Luke 12:13-21

          Dear friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, welcome once again on this the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost. Eight Sundays after the Holy Spirit moved on the day of Pentecost, in Jerusalem nearly two-thousand years ago. On that day the Christian Church was born, and we are who are here today are part of this great faith, this legacy, and this tradition.

          The founder of the Methodist Movement, Rev. John Wesley had phrase about becoming like God, becoming like Jesus. This phrase is, that we are going or “Moving on to perfection”. The scriptures tell us that forgiveness, transformation, and eternal life are free gifts from God, through Jesus Christ, with the power of the Holy Spirit. If we repent of our sins and our wrong doings to God, and if we ask Christ to be the Lord of our lives, we have then received the free, the awesome, and the tremendous gift of eternal life with Christ in heaven.

          For many people, millions and millions of people in fact, the spiritual transformation through Christ has been powerful. I have seen grown men fall to the floor in accepting the realization that Christ came to earth to love, heal, forgive, and to die for them. I have seen grown men and women break down into tears, in accepting the incredible grace of God offered only through Jesus Christ.

          The gift of forgiveness, redemption, and eternal life is offered to us 24-hours a day, and 7-days a week. The power of a transformation in Christ is something that can and does change us forever. While it is the beginning of our walks with Christ, and while it isn’t the end of our journey, we are called to continue to walk with Christ daily.

          I remember when I was 13-years old in a youth group, and we watched a video about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In that video, as I was watching it, something stirred in my heart and in my soul. I felt great warmth and love fill me, and I accepted what Christ had done for me. I repented of my sins, asked God for forgiveness, accepted Christ, and I felt free as a bird.

          Since that time, my life has been perfect, I have never had a bad day, never been angry, never made a mistake, and have always, I mean always, been the perfect husband. If you believe all of that, I have some swamp land that I want to sell you! Sure it’s a swamp, but boy it has potential!

          What is my point? Well let me give you an example. Has anyone here ever got a new bike for your birthday or for Christmas? You were so excited to have this bike, and you were going to ride that bike until the wheels feel off.

          Imagine though, if when you received this amazing gift, you didn’t know how to ride a bike. Anyone here remember learning how to ride a bike? Remember the training wheels, and times you feel? Remember that first time you “soloed” without some holding onto your bike seat, and you simultaneous were thrilled and terrified?

          Accepting the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, is like getting an amazing gift of a bike. If we received a new bike, we are thrilled, we are excited, but it doesn’t mean that every moment on that bike will be great. In fact, we are going to skin our knees, do some stupid jumps that involve left over two by fours and milk crates, and incorrectly think we are Evel Knievel.

          Do I believe that newness of life, hope, salvation, grace, and love beyond our wildest comprehension is ours, if we repent of sins, ask Christ into our hearts, and call upon the Holy Spirit to fill us? I do, and not just because the Bible tells us this, because it happened to me. It has happened to millions. Some of us call these moments a “Mountain Top Experience”. Just like Moses on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten-Commandments though, we must come down from the mountain.

          I also believe that in addition to our initial conversion, that like the shedding layers of an onion that we continue to have mini-conversions in Christ throughout our life.

          Is it a hallmark and part of the tradition of the Methodist Movement to believe in personal conversion in Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit? Yes, it happened to me, and it has happened to millions the world over. Since I was thirteen and I first accepted Christ, I have had many mini-conversions, where I grew closer and closer to Christ.

          Accepting the free gift of Jesus Christ, the new bike, is the gift, the gift that is offered to everyone. Imagine though, that on your birthday, on that Christmas morning, when that bike was under your Christmas tree, there was a catch. What was the catch? The bike is free, it is indeed a free gift, but you must never take it outside of the house. You see you have accepted the free gift, but you are to do nothing with it. In fact, your parents tell you to not tell anyone about this free gift that you have received. It can stay in the house, you can admire it, love it, but never ever will anyone know about it.

          Friends, our faith in Christ is similar in this way to receiving the free gift of a new bike. What good is an amazing and a free gift, if we never do anything with it? Imagine at the end of this service if were going to give you a new cherry red Corvette, with leather seats. Would anyone here be interest in this gift? It’s yours, but with a catch. You must keep in your garage, or a place of storage, always. You can visit it, sit in it, but you can never drive it, or tell anyone about it. What good is an amazing and free gift, if we do nothing with it?

          Further, what happens if you got a little to Evel Knievel on your bike or in your corvette? Assuming for a minute, your take this free gift out the world, would every day with this free gift be perfect? Would your bike or your corvette never need repair? Would you never get into an accident, or fall, or crash?

          The gift is free, but just because the gift is free, it doesn’t mean that every minute of every day with this free gift will be perfect. Friends, I believe that Jesus Christ and his gospel are the hope of the world, and is the most transformative thing that has ever crossed the horizon of this world. Yet, after I came to Christ, like you, I still struggled and suffered sometimes. I still have moments of frustrations, moments of weakness, where I might do something foolish like becoming a Yankees fan. Sometimes like the rest of you, I worry about things that I shouldn’t worry about, I stress over things that I shouldn’t, and struggle with temptations.

          Friends, hear me, the gift of new life in Jesus Christ is a free gift, but we still live in a broken, sinful, and a hurting world. Salvation, or new life in Christ is free for the taking, but becoming like Christ, well that is a process that is lifelong. Salvation is a free gift through the blood and the cross of Christ, but Sanctification, becoming like Jesus, this is a process that we go through our whole lives long.

          I remember when I was in my early twenties, I was extremely sensitive, and I would worry about the littlest things. Sometimes I would lose sleep thinking I had done something wrong, or I just couldn’t let things go. At a ripe old 37-years old now, am I perfect at this now, no, but I am much better than I used to be. I believe that I am holier than I was 10-15 years ago, but with God’s grace, through prayer, love, the reading of scripture, service, and following Christ, I pray that I might continue to become more and more holy. Less of me, and more of Him.

          The scripture refers to this as a refiner’s fire, where the silversmith continues to burn away our sins and our impurities little by little over time, as to perfect us. So is eternal life in Christ a free gift? Yes. Is becoming like Christ something that happens to us instantly? Well maybe for Billy Graham, but for me it’s a lifelong process. I know Christ, he is my savior, my Lord, but I am still human, still susceptible to sin, but am continuing to be made purer, holier, and more righteous through Christ.

          The founder of the Methodist Movement, Rev. John Wesley, as said a few minutes ago, famously said that we are going or “Moving on to perfection”. Christ is a free gift, but we must pursue him every day. Some days will be great, some will be awful, but he is with us. He is moving in us, purifying us, and sanctifying us.

          All of this, brings us to our amazing scripture for this morning, from the Apostle Paul’s letter to Colossians. In this scripture reading for this morning, once again, the Apostle Paul is telling us what do after we have received salvation in Jesus Christ. We have repented our sins to God, and we accepted the love of Christ into our hearts. So how then do we become like Christ? Well let’s look again at what the scripture says. It says once again first speaking of our salvation in Christ:

“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory” (Col. 3:1-4, NRSV).

How many of us here love Jesus? How many of us still sin though? How many of us sin less than we used to? You see, the Apostle Paul is not talking about the free gift of salvation, new life, and eternity if Jesus Christ, he is talking about what we do with that free gift. Do we keep the bike in the house and tell no one? Do we keep the cherry red Corvette in the garage and tell no one? Is our faith nothing more than a “Fire Insurance” policy in our safes at home that guarantees that we will see heaven and not fire?

Friends, conversion and accepting Christ as our Lord and savior matters, but what we do from that to our last day on earth matters to! How we live, and what we do matters! Salvation, eternity is free, but Christ wants us to live for him every day. As we do this, we are becoming sanctified, or as John Wesley said, “Moving on to perfection”.

So what are some of the ways that the Apostle Paul tells us that we can do this? Well first, he just told us once again to focus on Christ, and not the things of this world. The scripture says that the things of this world will rust and be eaten by moths. All that is eternal, is God, and as such, we should focus on him. In helping us along on this process, the Apostle Paul tells us in this reading from Colossians once again to:

^“Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!”                       (Col. 3:5-11, NRSV)

          Now let’s all be honest for a moment, when I re-read this what I like to call a “Vice List,” how many of us can say, “Yeah I struggle with one or two of those?” As brothers and sisters in Christ, as a church, we follow Christ, and both individually and together, God moves in us and through us, so that we may grow closer to Christ and one another. It’s not about saying that we are perfect, it is about admitting that we are not perfect, so that God can perfect us and sanctify us through Jesus Christ. This church is not a museum of the perfect, rather it is a hospital for the spiritually sick. Some of us are almost completely healed, some of us are sicker. We will continue to improve, and hopefully one day, we will reach the goal of full spiritual health and entire sanctification. Through God’s abundant grace.

          So, the Apostle Paul is telling us not to buy into the lie that the things on this earth can save us or can ultimately fulfill us. Why? Well that bike that you got, is probably now rusty and laying in a junk yard. The cherry red Corvette, a distant memory, but God, eternal, and ever present.

          In our gospel lesson for this morning, Jesus tells us what to focus on. We are following him, so what do we do then for the rest of our earthly lives? Once again our gospel of Luke reading says of someone speaking to Jesus:

“Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God” (Lk. 12:13-21, NRSV).

          In this gospel lesson, Jesus becomes a “Judge Judy” or sorts, and he is asked to decide who gets a family’s inheritance. One brother is getting everything, and the other brother tells Jesus to tell that brother to split it with him. Jesus dismisses the request, and tells the man who does not inherit to guard against greed and the desire for riches. The wealth isn’t the problem, it’s doing anything you have to acquire the wealth. It’s the love of the wealth. Jesus does not advocate wealth redistribution here, he says trust me, and if financial wealth finds you, still be focused on me.

          Jesus then tells the “Parable of the Rich Fool”. In this parable, a rich man has immense wealth and provision. So much so, that he tears down his barns, and builds larger ones. He will then have infinite wealth, possessions, and everything he needs for the rest of his life. He will trust in himself, and help no one. Once the rich fool has everything set for the rest of his life, God visits him and says, you are going to die tonight, and none of these things can save you. Jesus says if we focus on money only, treasure only, and ourselves only, then how can we follow him?

          If we work hard though, and if we accumulate wealth, while trusting God, well then what do we do? We become extraordinarily generous! Do we still have a barn filled with what we need? Sure, but we give generously. To become like Christ, we must follow him. We will be given different earthly gifts, but these gifts cannot consume us, as we must be focused on Christ. Our earthly gifts are not ours then, we are just there caretakers.

          As my sermon title for this morning says, quoting our reading from Colossians “Put to death, whatever in you is earthly”. Now who would be a good example for us of someone who has done this well? Well I only knew him for a year, but the more I learn, the more I believe that Ernie Bartz did his best to live like this. Sometimes things were tight, and he trusted God, sometimes not as tight, and he trusted God.

          I hope, number one, to live to 90-years old like Ernie Bartz did, but I also hope for a funeral like his. A funeral were my family and friends will say I loved my family, I served, I gave, I cared, I loved Jesus, I spread his gospel, and I was focused on these things, and not on the things of this world.

          Friends, in my young life I have learned this, your health can be good one minute and terrible the next. You can have great financial wealth and lose it, but God is eternal. My prayer for you, and for me, is that we can continue to “Put to death, whatever in” us “is earthly”. May we be in this world, but not of this world! Amen.

Sidney UMC - Seventh Sunday after Pentecost - 07/28/19 - Sermon - “The Our Father vs. The Lord's Prayer”

Sunday 07/28/19 - Sidney UMC

Sermon Title: “The Our Father vs. The Lord’s Prayer”

Old Testament Scripture: Psalm 85

                                            

New Testament Scripture: Colossians 2:6-19

                                                   

Gospel Lesson: Luke 11:1-13

          My friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, welcome once again on this the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. Seven Sundays after the Holy Spirit moved in Jerusalem nearly two-thousand years ago, and the Christian Church was born.

          Before the day of Pentecost arrived, and even before Jesus had been crucified, resurrected, and had ascended into heaven, Jesus loved, taught, healed, forgave, and did all of the amazing things that we read about in the gospels. One of the many things that Jesus gave us was “The Lord’s Prayer,” or as our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters call it, “The Our Father”. This prayer is very much a hallmark prayer of the Christian faith, and it has been central to Christians both personally and in worship for nearly two-thousand years. This is a prayer that is said at funerals, maybe in your homes, and it is a prayer that every Christian that I have ever known seems to know. Some call it “The Our Father,” and some people call it “The Lord’s Prayer”. Well what does Jesus tell us in this prayer? Further, why do we have two different names for this prayer, “The Our Father,” and “The Lord’s Prayer”? Also, did you know that “The Our Father” is shorter than “The Lord’s Prayer”? We have two examples of “The Lord’s Prayer,” or “The Our Father” in the gospels. This morning in our gospel of Luke reading, we have one version of “The Lord’s Prayer”. Let’s look at what the gospel of Luke says once again for this morning. Once again Jesus says starting in Luke 11:1-4:

“He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial” (Lk. 11:1-4, NRSV).

          Some of you might have heard me say some Sundays paraphrasing Jesus, when I say, “The disciples said to Jesus how should we pray, and Jesus said when you pray, pray like this…” Then as a church we all say “The Lord’s Prayer” together. You may have noticed in this gospel of Luke version that of the famous prayer that Jesus taught the disciples that I just read, that it does not included the sentence:

“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen”.

          So when we say “The Lord’s Prayer,” why does our prayer include the line that I just read, but in the Roman Catholic Church and some others, “The Our Father” prayer does not include that line?

          Well I am going to get to that. Before touching on that though, I want to read to you the other gospel that includes “The Our Father,” or “The Lord’s Prayer”. There are only two places in the four gospels where Jesus gives us this most recited and most famous prayer in the world. This morning once again, we have a version of it from the gospel of Luke 11:1-4, and the second place that we find “The Our Father,” or “The Lord’s Prayer” is in Matthew 6:9-13. The Matthew version is more complete, and this is what it says:

“Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one” (Mt. 6:9-13, NRSV).

          Now in the gospel of Luke version of this prayer is says, “And forgive us our sins,” while the Matthew version of this prayer says, “And forgive us our debts”. Some translations say, “And forgive us our trespasses,” if you have ever been to a different church and heard this prayer in a different way. Each church or denomination seems to have a preference. In most United Methodist Churches that I have been to, they say: “And forgive us our trespasses”.

          Also, if you didn’t pick up on it, the prayer that Jesus taught from the gospel of Matthew version, also has this ending line missing:

“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen”.

          My sermon title for this morning is a little tongue and check, in the sense that it is called “The Our Father vs. The Lord’s Prayer”. I am not having them compete to see which is one is better, but I am saying that the famous prayer that Jesus taught us nearly two-thousand years ago has an extra line in it, that the “The Our Father” that is said in the Roman Catholic Church does not. Outside of small translation differences, like forgive our sins, forgive us our debts, or forgive us our transgressions, why some like us Methodists add an entire extra line at the end of this prayer? Anyone here ever been to a Roman Catholic Mass, funeral, or a wedding, and heard “The Our Father”? Did you notice that it was shorter than “The Lord’s Prayer”? Did you notice that it did not end with:

“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen”?

          So the question I want to look at this morning, is why did churches like ours add a line to the prayer that Jesus taught us?

          When I am performing funerals and I know that there are a lot of Roman Catholic brothers and sisters in attendance, I will invite folks to say “The Lord’s Prayer” with me. I will then also jokingly say to my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters let’s say “The Our Father with a little extra”.

          So why the little extra in some churches? The answer is, is because we include the doxology after “The Our Father”. A doxology is a hymn, or an act or praise and worship. So after Jesus’ version of “The Lord’s Prayer” in the gospel of Matthew, which most churches use, as it is the most complete version, we have once again:

“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen”.

This statement once again, is called the “doxology”. We sing a doxology every Sunday when we take the collection in church, and we have added this doxology to “The Our Father” prayer. Here is a research source that helps explain this a little bit. It says:

“The doxology of the prayer is not contained in Luke's version, nor is it present in the earliest manuscripts of Matthew, representative of the Alexandrian text, although it is present in the manuscripts representative of the later Byzantine text. Most scholars do not consider it part of the original text of Matthew. New translations generally omit it. The first known use of the doxology, in a less lengthy form ("for yours is the power and the glory forever"), as a conclusion for the Lord's Prayer (in a version slightly different from that of Matthew) is in the Didache, 8:2. It has similarities with 1 Chronicles—"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all." In the Byzantine Rite, a similar doxology is sung within the context of the Divine Liturgy. Following the last line of the prayer, the priest sings "For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages."

Latin Church Roman Catholics do not use the doxology when reciting the Lord's Prayer, because it is not part of their received liturgical tradition and is not found in the Latin Vulgate of St. Jerome. Since 1970 it is included in the Roman Rite Mass as an independent item, not as part of the Lord's Prayer. The Anglican Book of Common Prayer sometimes gives the Lord's Prayer with the doxology, sometimes without. Most Protestants append it to the Lord's Prayer” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Prayer).

          So long story short, the “doxology” at the end of “The Our Father” was first used in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire, what is mostly the Eastern Orthodox Church today. Some translations of the gospel of Matthew had it, or it was just adapted and added in. Basically then, some churches have adopted this, and some haven’t. This part of the reason that Roman Catholics and some others say “The Our Father,” and we say “The Lord’s Prayer”. Let me read one other source that I found from a Roman Catholic website that explains this a little more. This source says that adding the doxology to “The Lord’s Prayer” more formally and institutionally was first looked into under the rule of English king Henry VIII, who reigned in the early to mid-1500’s. It then went back and forth for a little while in England, and this source then says:

However, during the reign of Elizabeth I and a resurgence to rid the Church of England from any Catholic vestiges, the Lord’s Prayer was changed to include the doxology, and this version became the standard for English-speaking Protestants (http://catholicstraightanswers.com/why-does-the-catholic-our-father-have-a-different-ending-than-the-protestant-one/).

Queen Elizabeth I, lived from 1533-1603. Sometime, during her over 40-year reign of the British Empire, it became standard to say “The Lord’s Prayer” instead of “The Our Father”. So this brothers and sisters, is why we add the doxology of:

“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen”

          Our gospel lesson concludes for this morning, with Jesus telling us to trust him, to pray, and to be persistent in seeking him, like some asking a friend for food at the inconvenient time of midnight.         

          I would like to close with a funny story about “The Lord’s Prayer,” and “The Our Father”. Here it is:

          Over ten years ago, Melissa’s sister Christine got married to her now husband Brian. Brian’s family is very predominately Roman Catholic, while Melissa/ her sister Christine’s family is much more Protestant oriented. Interestingly enough, many of the groom’s Roman Catholic family sat on one side of the wedding service, and much of the bride’s family sat on the other side of the wedding service. I think that this was just a coincidence, and not denominational segregation.

          My step-father, Mike, who is now a retired US Air Force Chaplain’s Assistant was asked to help with part of this service. He then reached the part of service for “The Lord’s Prayer,” or “The Our Father”. In all of us reciting this ancient prayer from Jesus together at this wedding, after saying the word evil in the prayer, almost the entire side that included the groom’s Roman Catholic family stopped talking, and the bride’s mostly Protestant side said:

“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen”.

          Well, this was pre-seminary Pastor Paul, and I didn’t even realize that we say this prayer differently. So I turned to Melissa speaking of the groom’s side of the wedding service and I said to her, “Boy those people are rude”!

          Turns out they weren’t rude, they were saying “The Our Father,” and we were saying “The Lord’s Prayer”.

          Friends, the different expressions or traditions of the Christian faith have some differences, but I think that we often share much more in common than we might realize. Sure in many Protestant and on some level Orthodox churches we often include the doxology of “The Our Father,” of:

 “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen,”

 but we say the same prayer otherwise. There might be some small translation differences, but we say the same prayer. We praise the same Triune God, of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We all love and follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. While we are all brothers and sisters in Christ though, some of us say “The Our Father,” and some of us say “The Lord’s Prayer”. Amen.

Sidney UMC - Sixth Sunday after Pentecost - 07/21/19 - Sermon - “Trusting in God Alone”

Sunday 07/21/19 - Sidney UMC

Sermon Title: “Trusting in God Alone”

Old Testament Scripture: Psalm 52

                                            

New Testament Scripture: Colossians 1:15-28

                                                   

Gospel Lesson: Luke 10:38-42

          Welcome again, friends, dear brothers and sisters, on this the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost. Six Sundays after the Holy Spirit moved in that Upper Room in Jerusalem on Pentecost nearly two-thousand years ago, and the Christian Church was born. For nearly Two-Thousand years as Christians, we have gone forth loving, healing, forgiving, preaching the gospel, and baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. Christianity is the largest faith in the world, and there are many denominations and expressions of our faith.

          Historically speaking though, what unites us as Christians across space and time, is our faith in the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The God who creates, the God who came among us as Jesus Christ, and the God who fills and guides us, that is the Holy Spirit.

          We are called to have faith and trust in God. We are called to trust and follow the Triune God in all things. This morning, my sermon, as you may have read in our bulletin for this morning, is called, “Trusting in God Alone”. I took this title from our reading from Psalm 52 for this morning.

          In this Psalm, King David has had a falling out with Saul, and some experts think that this Psalm is reflective in part of that. Once again Psalm 52 says:

“Why do you boast, O mighty one, of mischief done against the godly? All day long you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery. You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth. Selah You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.

But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah The righteous will see, and fear, and will laugh at the evildoer, saying, “See the one who would not take refuge in God, but trusted in abundant riches, and sought refuge in wealth!” (Ps. 52:1-7, NRSV).

          So King David is not happy with Saul, and says that his evil and his treachery will be his undoing. He says that God will judge Saul accordingly. Once again, Psalm 52 ends with King David saying this:

“But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever. I will thank you forever, because of what you have done. In the presence of the faithful I will proclaim your name, for it is good” (Ps. 52:8-9, NRSV).

          Even though King David is having a falling out with Saul, he says that he trusts God, that he is thankful to God, and that he will proclaim the name and the goodness of God.

          I planned this sermon topic for this morning, and I read our lectionary scriptures for this morning over weeks ago. At the time, my plan didn’t include a baptism, but now I see why God had me focus in a little bit on Psalm 52 for this morning.

          I hear so often as a pastor that people are worried about the world that they are leaving to their children, their grand-children, and even their great-grand-children. We live in a broken and a sinful world that is so full of hurt, violence, and pain. This is the world that we are giving over to the next generations. Some people even lose faith, because the world is not what they think it should be. Some people lose faith because life has not turned out the way they had planned it.

          Some young Methodist pastors think that they know what God wants them to preach on, on July 21, 2019, and then God says, “Nice try kid!”

          When I read Psalm 52 and all the Psalms, I see King David at his best and at his absolute worst. Yet I see him trusting God through it all. I worry that some Christians in this Post-Modern Era are living and are teaching and spreading a version of Christian faith that is what I like to call “the candy gospel”. They are teaching and spreading the love of God, which is great, but they are neglecting to talk about the full realities of this world. The brokenness, the sin, and the hurt all around us.

          This morning, I have had the great pleasure and the honor of baptizing Quinn into our universal two-thousand year faith, and we pray blessings over her. We pray that she would feel God’s presence every day of her life, that God would use her to do great things, and that one day she will stand at an alter rail like this one and confirm her own faith in Jesus Christ. That she will love her neighbor, and do her part to change the world.

          This is our historic faith, and as part of this faith, we get the great gift of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Yet, we have trials and tribulations at times. Sometimes we struggle, sometimes we suffer. Through all of this though, God is with us. Jesus is still risen, and he is still coming back one day.

          As the community of faith, we are called to love God, to love each other, to serve, to heal, to preach the gospel, and to forgive. In doing this, sometimes we are strong, and sometimes we are weak. “Trusting in God Alone” doesn’t mean that every day of our lives will be perfect, but it means that a perfect God is with us through our struggles. King David certainly had his struggles, but he trusted God. Do we trust God with our lives, knowing that they won’t always be perfect?

          Some of the great heroes of the Christian faith that I love and admire, are people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Their lives were far from easy, but they knew God was with them. Did they struggle, did have doubts at times? Sure they did. In Mother Teresa’s personal letters she had great struggles with her faith and her life, but ultimately she trusted God. The love of God is with us, through thick and thin, and Jesus gave us the gift of the church so that we can love each other, care for each other, pray with each other, and share the love that we have for God with each other. “Trusting in God Alone” is not always easy, but we have the promise that God is with us. When we get baptized, God it with us. When things are good, God is with us. When things are bad, God is with us.

I really love our reading for this morning from the Apostle Paul’s epistle or letter to the Colossians, and in it, we hear about who Jesus is, how great he is, how loving he is, how full of grace he is, and how he is the supreme Lord over all of creation. Once again this scripture says of Jesus:

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:15-20, NRSV).

          The Apostle Paul is saying that through Christ and his cross, we have truth, salvation, love, hope, and faith. That God is with us. When things are hard, he is with us, and he is with us when things are great. As the church, we are called to love each other, care for each other, and to seek God in all things. Our faith is alive and is abundant, through the highs and the lows of life.

          When looking at the gospel of Luke reading once again for this morning, we have a great example of trusting God. The reading from Luke for this morning, once again, is the story of Mary and Martha. Once again it says:

“Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her”                     (Lk. 10:38-42, NRSV).

          Martha was working hard, but took her full focus and trust off of Jesus, off of God. God is with us.

          My mother Susan, my step-father Mike, my brother, his wife, and their two sons just recently spent a week in Wisconsin. My little nephew Everett told my mom one night that he was worried about the monsters in his bedroom. My mom told Everett, but God is here with you. Everett said really grandma? She said yes, he is. She said he is all around you, everywhere, all the time, and he loves you so much. My mom then said that Everett began asking questions, such as, “Is God in the drapes”. “Yes he is she said. Is God here in the bedroom? There in the bedroom? Yes he is, she said. She then said that the next morning she asked little Everett how he slept, and he told my mother Susan that he slept great. It’s not that things will always be perfect, even though we wish they would be. It’s that God is with us through it all.

In closing this sermon for this morning, I want to tell you a story about the founder of the Methodist Movement, who was an Anglican or Episcopal Priest, named Rev. John Wesley. This is a story about John Wesley’s death. This story was taken from www.awesomestories.com, and this is what it says:

“Just before his death, John Wesley wrote a letter to William Wilberforce. Soon after, with friends gathered round him, Wesley died on the 2nd of March, 1791.  Grasping the hands of those who loved him, he repeatedly told them farewell. At the end, when nearly all his strength was gone, his reported last words were: 

“The best of all is, God is with us” (https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/John-Wesley-on-His-Deathbed).

          Friends, God is with us. May we “Trust in God Alone”. Amen.

Sidney UMC - Fifth Sunday after Pentecost - 07/14/19 - Sermon - “Bearing fruit”

Sunday 07/14/19 - Sidney UMC

Sermon Title: “Bearing fruit”

Old Testament Scripture: Psalm 82

                                            

New Testament Scripture: Colossians 1:1-14

                                                   

Gospel Lesson: Luke 10:25-37

          Friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, welcome once again on this the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost. Five Sundays after the Holy Spirit moved nearly two-thousand years ago, and the Christian Church was born. We who are here today, are part of that legacy and the faith that goes all the way back to Jesus Christ, and beyond.

          This morning, I want to talk about fruit. For some of us here, we love fruit. Especially this time of the year. Some of us love fresh watermelons, strawberries, peaches, and etc. Growing fruit, is not a new venture or vocation. In fact, having vineyards for wine is biblical, and it goes back far beyond even when Jesus walked the earth. Sometimes we can pick wild berries, or find fruits in nature, but often they are grown by us.

          Perhaps we grow them ourselves on a farm, in a garden, or perhaps buy them from a farm stand or a grocery store. Fruits are very important to many of us. In the gospel of John, Jesus even says in one of his “I Am” statements that:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit” (Jn. 15:1-2, NRSV).

          Jesus is the vine that connects us to God the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus also says that God removes the branches that bear no fruit, and that he prunes the branches so that they might yield more fruit.

          For any of us that have plants, or a garden, we know about pruning, weeding, and making sure that a plant is watered, healthy, and able to produce fruit.

          The scriptures talk about separating the wheat from the chaff, as Jesus tells us in Matthew 3:12. Jesus says the wheat, the good part is preserved, and that bad part, the chaff, is removed, pruned, or even burned.

Jesus tells us the parable or story of “The wheat and the tares: in Matthew 13:24-30, and how weeds or tares grew around the wheat. Jesus was using this a comparison to the righteous and wicked, but still a useful reference for this morning.

In the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus tells us the story or the parable of “The Fig Tree”. Jesus was of course using a fig tree (a fruit tree) to discuss the kingdom of God, and his second coming.

The Bible is full of agricultural references. We live in a culture nowadays however, where many kids are estranged from farms and from where there food comes from. As a result, some of the scriptures talking about agriculture, and some of the parables of Jesus talking about agriculture, might not make as much sense to some as they once did. Yet, there are lot of references to farming, growing, harvesting, and best practices for caring for plants and animals in the bible.

This morning, in our reading from the Apostle Paul’s Epistle or letter to the Colossians, the Apostle Paul talks about “Bearing fruit”. In fact, he says once again starting in 1:3:

^“In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God” (Col. 1:3-6, NRSV).

          The Apostle Paul tells the church in Colossae that the gospel of Jesus Christ is “Bearing fruit” in them and through them. This fruit is seen in growing faith, a growing church, understanding the grace of God, and the spreading of scriptural and social holiness. The fruit of their faith and works can be seen, like fruit on a fruit tree.

          This reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossians once again ends with:

“For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.  He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins”               (Col. 1:9-14, NRSV).

          So the idea of bearing fruit biblically speaking, usually has nothing to do directly with actually growing actual fruit. The references in the bible to growing fruit and producing fruit, having nothing to do, generally speaking, with actual farming or agriculture. Instead, these references have to do with us, with God, with Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Generally, the biblical references to “Bearing fruit” or other references to growing fruit and productivity in the growth of fruits, are examples designed to speak to us.

          We are then in biblical terms like fruit trees. Jesus and the Apostle Paul is not telling us to plant apple trees to bear fruit. Although we could. The Apostle is not telling the Colossians this morning that the orange trees that they have planted are growing well, rather he is talking about spiritual fruit. Generally, when the bible talks about bearing fruit, it is talking about spiritual fruit. This means, that if faith is growing, if people are coming to faith in Christ, if the church is growing, if the community and the world is being changed and transformed through the gospel of Christ working within us, then we are bearing fruit.

          If a pastor of church has served a church for years for example, and if no one has come to Christ, no one is growing in faith, and the community or the world is not being transformed, then that pastor is not bearing fruit. They may personally own many fruit trees that are bearing literal fruit, but they are not bearing spiritual fruit. The scriptures talks about God cutting branches from us and pruning us, as if we were actual trees. If we are not bearing fruit, then sometimes God has to come in like a master gardener and cut and prune us, so that we might produce spiritual fruit.

          I am sure that we all have went through times of cutting back and pruning in our lives, where God really took the pruning shears or the cutter to us. It was painful, we didn’t like it, but as a result of it all, God was able to grow us, so that we could better produce more spiritual fruit. If we allow God to do what he does best, sometimes he is going cut and prune us, like a fruit tree that has grown wild and to free. He will shape us, trim us, and while it might be painful, he then will be able to use us to bring forth new spiritual fruit.

          I would like to share a story with you briefly about “Bearing fruit”. This story is called “A lesson I learned about bearing fruit as a Christian,” by Katherine Kehler. This story, taken from www.thoughts-about-god.com, and begins with a scripture from Psalm 1 verse 3. Here is the story, beginning with the scripture:

“They (people who delight in everything God wants them to do) are like trees along a river bank bearing luscious fruit each season without fail” (Psalm 1:3)

“The timing couldn’t have been better. My husband was home for a few days between trips, the weather was great, the grandchildren were out of school an hour early and the apples were ripe and ready to be picked”.

“As Marvin started the tractor, our daughter and granddaughters stepped into the front scoop and they all headed off to the big old apple tree in the middle of our pasture. Picking apples from the elevated scoop is so much easier than using a ladder. I watched them for a while and then decided to join them. I couldn’t stay in the house working on the computer when they were having so much fun”.

“We were all laughing. The girls loved picking the apples and we ended up with a large container full. I was amazed at how many apples that old tree produced. It was old when we first moved to the property 14 years ago. The trunk of the tree was almost completely rotten. How did it get its nourishment to produce leaves and fruit, I wondered? I came to the conclusion that because it was so old, its roots had grown very deep into the soil and they nourished the tree”.

“Christians also produce fruit in season and out of season, not just when we look and feel good. My brother had Lou Gehrig’s disease and spent his last two years in a long-term care hospital. Even though he was confined to a wheelchair and couldn’t speak, he radiated Christ. People would come to see him just so they could sit in his presence. He prayed all the time. At his memorial, his nurses all came. They openly shared that they would come to his room and tell him more than they told their significant other. Several of these nurses came to faith in Christ. Even though Frank’s body was decaying, he was rooted and grounded in Christ”.

“How are you doing today? Feeling a little discouraged because you cannot “do” all the things you used to be able to do? Let me encourage you to “be.” Abide in Christ and He will produce the fruit in and through you. Rest in Him and He will cause you to bear much fruit”.

          The founder of the Methodism Movement, John Wesley, when he was looking at someone who wanted to be a pastor, or a current pastor, among other things, he always wanted to know if that person was “Bearing fruit”. It’s not a competition, but if we know Christ, if we are serving him, if we are allowing God to prune and to shape us, then we should be bearing fruit. Churches and pastors that are “Bearing fruit,” who are serving, loving, healing, forgiving, and caring for each other, are churches that I believe do and will have strong futures. We will because we are living our faith.

          In our gospel reading from the gospel of Luke for this morning, once again, Jesus tells us the parable or the story of the “Good Samaritan”. Once again this gospel of Luke lesson says:

“Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live” (Luke 10:25-28, NRSV).

          Jesus tell us, that we are to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. How does this “Bear fruit” though? I think that through living the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we will indeed “Bear fruit”.

          The gospel once again finishes by saying:

^“But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise” (Lk. 10:29-37, NRSV).

          We bear fruit, when we live, teach, love, and act like Jesus. You want this church to continue to grow, transform Sidney and the world, and “Bear fruit”? Then continue to allow Christ to work in you and through you.

          God still prunes and shapes me from time to time, but I pray, I hope, I strive, I labor, with God’s help, so that I might “Bear fruit” for the kingdom of God, through Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, may we “Bear fruit” for and through Jesus Christ. Amen.