A Dog Named Taro
My grandfather had a dog named Taro.
He was a great dog. A mutt to be sure. My grandfather got him from the pound and it was pretty tough to tell exactly what kind of dog he was. Maybe part retriever, part beagle? I mean, who knows? He was mostly black with some white and tan spots. He was medium height and had short hair. And he was smart. Super smart. That was the best way I could describe him. My grandfather gave him a peanut jar once back when they were made of glass. He would put just three peanuts at the bottom of the jar and gave it to him. First, Taro tried to stick his nose inside the jar to get the peanuts out, but that didn’t work. He knocked it down, pushed it around with his nose, pawed at it, but nothing got those peanuts out. Finally, he stared at the jar for a while and then lay down next to it. He put his snout into the opening and placed his paws on either side of the jar and then rolled onto his back so the peanuts would fall into his mouth. Like I said, smart. When he wanted to go outside, he would get up, go to the door, bark once and wait. When he wanted to come back in, he would do the same thing. Such a good boy.
When my grandfather died, we took Taro in.
He quickly became part of the family and he seemed really happy. We already had a dog, a super cute Shetland Sheepdog named Ms. and the two of them got along great. One morning though, after we let Taro out to do his business, he didn’t come back to the door. Sure, sometimes he took longer than other times, but this was long even for him. I went out to the back to see what he was doing. I called his name out loud and he didn’t respond. Puzzled, I looked around and saw that the back gate was wide open! I ran out to the street, calling his name over and over, but he was nowhere to be found. I was heartbroken. We all were. Turns out the water meter guy didn’t close the gate behind him and Taro escaped. I kept a look out for him every day for a long time, hoping he would find his way home. A part of me thinks he did. I think he went looking for my grandfather and was trying to get back to where he used to live. I’m pretty sure my dad even went back there to see if he had done that, but we never found him. In my mind, I imagined he had found another home where he could be happier. At least I hope so. This was over 40 years ago so I’m sure Taro has since long ago passed away, but I guess there’s a part of me that still wonders what happened to him.
I imagine this is a smidgen of how God feels when one of us runs away.
The analogy isn’t perfect, but God loves us so much I imagine if we ran away, God would continue to look out the window and wander outside from time to time to see if we’re coming home. Much like the story of the Prodigal Son we will share from today. This is a classic story, and even if you never stepped foot in a church, you likely heard of it. But if you hadn’t heard it, it’s a story of a man with two sons. One of them wanted to leave home, so he asked his father to give him his inheritance in advance and the father did. The father wasn’t sick or about to die or anything. The son just wanted the money to leave home and make it on his own. He sold everything his father gave him, left his home, and squandered his money and soon had nothing. He had fallen so low he was reduced to working as a pig feeder and he was so hungry he envied what the pigs were eating. And this is where we pick up in our reading this morning.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. – Luke 15:17-24
It is never too late to come back to God.
This might seem obvious to you, but it isn’t to everyone and we need to be reminded that no matter how far we’ve fallen, God is always waiting for us to make the choice to come back. I had a friend who felt like God could never forgive her for falling away. She felt like she had done too much wrong for God to forgive, but that just isn’t the case. As Methodists, we believe people can fall from grace. Because God gives us free will and because we are human beings who are flawed we can and do at times turn our backs on him. And even though God doesn’t want us to do that, he loves us so much he gives us the choice to stay or go. But it also means that by the grace of God, we can come back.
Some believe it is impossible to truly fall away from God.
It’s a doctrine we colloquially call “Once Saved, Always Saved.” It’s the idea that once we invite Christ into our lives, we can never lose our salvation. No matter what we do God has claimed us and we can’t be drawn away. That’s what our earlier reading this morning highlighted, this idea that nothing on this earth can separate us away from God. But being separated from God forcefully is different from being separated from God willingly and most of us know at least one person who left their faith behind. People who saw a loved one die or lose their job or have their home destroyed. People who hear about the atrocities happening both at home and abroad and think to themselves there must not be a God who would allow such horrible things. These people choose to stop following him. They leave the church. They stop praying. They don’t read their Bibles. In every practical way, they abandon their faith.
It’s what John Wesley referred to as backsliding.
In his sermon, “A Call to Backsliders,” he wrote, “Indeed, it is so far from being an uncommon thing for a believer to fall and be restored, that it is rather uncommon to find any believers who are not conscious of having been backsliders from God, in a higher or lower degree, and perhaps more than once, before they were established in faith.”[1] Backsliding is the term Wesley used for when we fall away from God’s grace. I once asked a Baptist friend of mine about this and he said Baptists don’t believe you can fall away. Most Baptists subscribe to the “Once Saved, Always Saved” doctrine, so I asked him, “What if a guy who gives his life to Christ later decides to go and murder a bunch of people, declares himself an atheist, and denounces the Holy Spirit? How would you explain that?” He told me, “Well, we would say he was never saved in the first place.” That was way too convenient so I asked, “What do you mean?” And he said, “If he could live a life like that after giving his life to Christ, deep down he never really meant it.” But aren’t there times when you honestly believe one thing and later believe something completely different? When I was a kid, I hated Sloppy Joes. If you don’t know what that is, it’s just ground beef, mixed with tomato sauce and spices and served on a hamburger bun. Most of my friends loved it, but not me. I hated it. But something happened over the years. My tastes changed or my experience changed and one day I found myself face-to-face with a Sloppy Joe and decided to try it – and found I really liked it! I wasn’t lying when I said before I hated it, and I wasn’t lying when I said I liked it. Simply, I changed. I think we all have that capacity to change.
And God’s counting on it.
God’s intention is for us all to come to him and want to be with him. God’s hope is that we realize that he truly is Lord and Savior. And God is waiting to welcome us with open arms. But God loves us so much that he gives us the freedom to choose. And even if we choose to come to him and later walk away, God will welcome us back. And even if we choose to come to him and walk away and never come back, God will honor that, but I think like it was for me and Taro, you’ll find God keeping an eye out for you, looking to see if maybe you just lost your way trying to come home, and hoping one day you’ll just show up on his doorstep. God would like that. I know I would.
[1] http://www.umc.org/what-we-believe/do-united-methodists-believe-once-saved-always-saved
Big “C,” Little “c”
Big “C,” little “c” – capitalization counts people!
The Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed are two of the most important declarations of our faith. In these short passages, we sum up the entirety of our belief in God through Christ and the Holy Spirit. And although most churches recite at least one of these frequently, I have never been to a church where someone didn’t ask why we believe in the Catholic church. I mean, the whole point of the Reformation was to break away from the Catholic church, so why do we use these creeds? In these moments, I point to the little asterisk in our hymnals next to the word catholic and if you look down below it says “universal.” The word “catholic” is derived from the Greek katholikos meaning “according to the whole” or “universal” and was first used by St. Ignatius of Antioch in 110 AD.[1] Since at the time there was only one body of Christ (and even then with different beliefs), it made sense that eventually the name would stick and it would go from little “c” to big “C.”
But as with anything run by humans, even the church would become corrupt.
In 1095, Pope Urban II was the first to sell salvation. He offered forgiveness of sins to anyone who participated in the first crusades, but those who did not participate could still be forgiven for a sum of money to help fund the effort.[2] From there it only got worse. By the 1500’s, salvation was being sold to raise money for different church projects.[3] They called these indulgences. It became like the money changers in the temple who had their tables overturned by an angry Jesus.[4] For the right price, you could buy a “Get Out of Hell Free” card. What the church would do would be to write a document on your behalf saying that you no longer had to confess your sins because you’ve already been absolved of them now and in the future. A priest by the name of Martin Luther thought there was something wrong with this.[5] Jesus had already paid for our sins, why were we paying again? He also objected to the church discouraging people from going to confession. If there wasn’t a need to repent of our sins, why did we need Jesus? On October 31, 1517, Luther sent a letter outlining his questions to the church, which came to be known as The Ninety-Five Theses. The church refused to change and over time a split occurred between the church in Rome and those who protested against the church’s actions. Those protesters became known as Protestants and that’s how the Protestant Reformation began. Now there was a big “C” and a little “c.”
As you can imagine, huge differences developed between the two.
The Catholic Church was convinced only they had the corner on faith, while the Protestants felt the church had strayed and given in to human temptation. They felt the Catholic Church held too tightly to human tradition and not enough to the essentials of faith, so they emphasized a return to the basics and went back to the Bible. The Protestants moved away from intercessory prayer where you prayed to the saints to speak on your behalf to Christ. Instead, they believed you could pray directly to God without someone having to intervene. In the Catholic tradition, only Catholics are allowed to take communion. It goes back to the belief that the Catholic Church holds the true faith so only those who believe as they believe are worthy of communion. In the Methodist tradition, we believe in what they call an “open table” (and if you’ve been with us before for communion, you probably know what that means). We believe God is calling all of us to the table of Christ and so it doesn’t matter if you’re Methodist or not, you are welcome at God’s table. You don’t even have to be Christian to come to our table because we believe in the mysterious power of Christ in communion to work in and through us. If someone is compelled to come up and receive the elements, we believe it is God working in them and we are not to get in the way of God’s work.
But perhaps the biggest difference between us is our belief in faith alone.
Sola Fide. It is one of the pillars of our faith. We believe we are justified before God by faith alone. This morning we will take a look at a passage from James to illustrate that point. If you have a Bible or Bible app on your phone, would you please go to the letter of James, chapter 2? We will be reading from James 2:14-26. Justification means God forgives our sins when we accept Christ as Lord and Savior.[6] He doesn’t forget, but instead he chooses to cover them up kind of like when you paint over graffiti. It isn’t gone, but we no longer see it. And while our Catholic friends believe in faith as an essential part of justification, they take it one step further and say we need to prove our righteousness before God will forgive us completely. We must prove our faith through works, something we call “works righteousness.” So even though we both believe in the power of faith, we look at what happens afterward differently. And that’s where we approach our passage today. If you’ll please rise as we read from James 2:14-26. Hear now the Word of the Lord.
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless[d]? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”[e] and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. – James 2:14-26
Reading this passage it seems to prove the Catholic interpretation of justification.
James clearly says, “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.” He even says, “faith without deeds is useless.” But what James is talking about here is not faith by deeds, but rather deeds prove your faith. And that’s all the difference in the world. We believe when we turn to Christ and repent of our sins, God forgives. There are no conditions and we don’t have to prove it by our deeds. Rather, what James is talking about here is that a person who gives their life to Christ and who honestly asks for forgiveness will naturally do good deeds. They can’t help it. Deeds are the proof, not the condition of a forgiven life. It’s a small but important difference.
One thing I feel we need to be reminded of is that despite our differences, we both love God.
Jesus himself said in Mark 9:38-41, “whoever is not against us is for us.” And while we disagree on a lot of things, both Catholics and Methodists agree in the divinity of Jesus Christ. We believe him to be the Lord and Savior of us all. And we believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Catholics like all who believe in Christ, come in all sorts of packages. They have varying beliefs. And they are sinful people trying to come into a better relationship with God. We are exploring the differences in our faith not to throw stones at fellow believers, but to help us better understand why we believe what we believe. And in the understanding, hopefully come to terms with our own faith in a deeper and richer way.
[1] As referenced in Wikipedia.
[2] From the UMKC School of Law page, “Questions & Answers Concerning Indulgences.”
[3] The interesting thing here is that it’s all based on a very secular understanding of finances. The church believed it had a “treasury of indulgences” based at first on the “merits of Christ and the saints” but then on the number of relics it had from the time of Jesus. The idea that material items could give you the power of forgiveness (a power only granted to Christ in our belief) would be ridiculous today.
[5] Notes on the reformation come from the Wikipedia entry “Ninety-five Theses” and from Adam Hamilton’s book Christianity’s Family Tree.
[6] For a deeper explanation of this sophisticated argument, R.C. Sproul has a great summary.
If The Game Was Rigged
The fix was in.[1]
In the late 1950’s there was a television game show called Twenty-One? The goal of the game was to score 21 points or as close to 21 when the game ended. There were two contestants, a champion and a challenger and they were placed in isolation booths so they couldn’t see or hear each other or the audience. Each round they were given a choice as to how many points they wanted to play for, between 1 and 11. The more points, the tougher the questions. After the first two rounds, both contestants were given the chance to end the game without knowing the other’s score. It sounded pretty intense. On November 28, 1956, a contestant by the name of Charles Van Doren came on the show. He battled reigning champion Herbert Stempel over four grueling shows, each ending in a 21-21 tie. It was only in the 5th show when Van Doren called the game did he triumph over Stempel with a score of 18 points, enough to beat his opponent. Van Doren went on to win continuously until March 11, 1957 when he finally lost – after three straight ties – to contestant Vivienne Wax Nearing. In all, Van Doren won $143,000. Pretty good for a few months work – even by today’s standards. But that wasn’t it for Van Doren. He became so popular that he was signed to a contract with NBC for $150,000 over three years to appear on the Today show, on Steve Allen’s show as a guest, and he even appeared on the cover of Time magazine! But two years later, his world came tumbling down. He confessed to a House investigation committee that he had participated in a lie. He told the committee, “I was involved, deeply involved, in a deception. I had deceived my friends and I had a million of them.” What the committee uncovered was Twenty One had been rigged. All the white knuckle tension, all the drama, all of it had been staged. Both the winners AND the losers had been selected beforehand. Each one knew what his or her role was before walking into the limelight. And each one was even coached on how to react in different situations. The extent to which they manipulated the drama even went so far as turning off the air conditioning in the contestants’ booths to make them appear to be sweating due to the drama. When the news broke, the American public was outraged and the producers, the emcee, and even Van Doren were publicly ostracized.
But why? Why did people care so much that the show was rigged?
It provided great entertainment which is what we all hope for when we watch TV, and at the time, it wasn’t even illegal to do it. So why do we care? Because the show at its essence was not about the game. Sure, they played a game, but the show was really about hope, the hope that an average, ordinary person could make it! That you or I could have a better future. And that hope was destroyed the moment the people found out it was rigged. What’s the point in playing a game if the outcome is already determined? If the “little guy who makes it big” was chosen beforehand to win, then he really didn’t win anything. He really didn’t triumph against the odds. It was a stacked deck. And that’s why I can’t understand the Calvinist concept of predestination.
Predestination is the idea God has already chosen those who will be saved and those who won’t.
It strikes me as being completely against the nature of God because it seems downright mean. We’re promised by Jesus that he has prepared a place for us in Heaven – each and every one of us; it even says so in John 14. But if predestination is true, then Jesus was lying. And who could follow a God like that? But there are many. Among the major denominations in America, Presbyterians follow this thinking. Dr. Petersen was my one of my professors in seminar and he was Presbyterian and told us they like to call themselves the “Frozen Chosen” because they were preselected before they even existed to either go to Heaven or not. Nothing they could do or not do would change that. Its based on five core beliefs that form the acronym TULIP and it stands for “Total depravity” – meaning human beings are so utterly steeped in sin they can’t even choose to follow God; “Unconditional election” – meaning that God chooses who is saved; “Limited atonement” – meaning that Jesus died for some and not for all; “Irresistible grace” – meaning that if you are chosen you cannot resist it; and “Perseverance of the saints” – meaning once elected you cannot ever fall from grace.[2] TULIP stands for “Total depravity,” “Unconditional election,” “Limited atonement,” “Irresistible grace,” and “Perseverance of the saints.”
To be sure, people who believe in this doctrine didn’t pull it out of a hat.
The Bible makes many references to predestination, sometimes literally such as the one right before our passage where it says in verses 4-5, “In love, he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will…” It sounds very straight-forward, doesn’t it? No debate there. Or is there? We’re going to finish this passage by reading as Paul Harvey used to say on his radio program, “the rest of the story.”[3]
1 In him we were also chosen,having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. – Ephesians 1:11-14
One key word can change our understanding of this passage.
“When.” “When” doesn’t fit into the idea of predestination. “When” supposes there is a time before and a time after and if its predestined there is no such thing because you were ALWAYS going to do it or not do it. There is no turning point in your life. It seems like such a small word to hinge the debate on, but it can be a big deal. Paul uses that word twice in this passage: “When you heard the message of truth” and “When you believed” meaning that what followed hinged on what the people did. It meant that you were not predestined but that you had agency, a choice. And that is an important aspect of what we believe. We believe in free will. We believe that God allows us to choose.
The only way to coherently hold on to Calvinist theology is to say that EVERYTHING is God’s will.
The good, the bad, and the ugly – and there’s a lot of ugly in the world. Cancer in children, hurricanes and earthquakes that devastate thousands, murder of innocent people, the Holocaust – all of it is according to God’s plan. To hold on to that system of belief, you have to buy into the idea that ALL of existence is basically one well-choreographed show like Twenty One and since it’s God’s show and his salvation to give, then that’s the way it is. But if God would not only force us to live in a world with such cruelty AND design the cruelty himself, then can we really say that God is love as it does in the Bible many, many times? Or is it perhaps that there is a different way to interpret predestination? We choose to believe when the Bible says we are “predestined” it simply means God knows us so well, he knows what we will choose and the path in life we will lead. That’s called determinism which is different. Determinism is God’s foreknowledge of future events, not his will to make them happen. He wants all of us to follow his path. He wants to extend salvation to all. God’s nature is to shepherd which means God will do all within God’s power to bring home his sheep short of forcing them to come home.
We believe as Methodists that our lives are not predetermined.
It may very well be that God is omniscient and knows our path, but not because God chooses it for us, but because we choose it for ourselves. And because we have that choice, both to follow God and not follow God, we eternally have hope – for ourselves, for our loved ones, for the world – that we can make this world a better place. We have hope that we can create a world that will eventually turn to God. We have hope that God wants us and loves us and will save us if we only turn toward him. That is the hope we cling on to! I am reminded of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” The game of life is not rigged my friends. The outcome has not been determined. Our hope is still alive.
[1] Information about the scandal was derived from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/quizshow/peopleevents/pande02.html, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/opinion/21iht-edbeam.1.14660467.html?_r=0, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_One_%28game_show%29
[2] Although found in many places, I referenced Adam Hamilton’s Christianity’s Family Tree, p. 64.
What Makes a Christian a Christian?
What makes a Christian a Christian?
It’s not coming to church. And I’m sure you already know what I’m going to say. “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than being in a garage makes you a car.” It’s about the life we live. What makes someone a Christian is love, compassion, humility, forgiveness, and a servant’s heart. I would argue that there are Christians out there who don’t call themselves Christian, but they are following the call of Christ in their life. And there are people out there who call themselves Christian who are Christian in name only. It goes back to something Shakespeare wrote in one of his most famous plays, “Romeo and Juliet.” When I was in high school, we had to memorize either Romeo’s soliloquy or Juliet’s and even though I did Romeo’s (“Hark! What light through yonder window breaks?”) it is in Juliet’s that we hear a word that mirrors this exact thought. She says to Romeo, “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Being a Christian is much more than simply calling yourself one. It’s about proving it through the life you live.
But it IS useful to know about our beliefs as a Christian.
If we don’t know what we believe, how can we know the life we are to live? Traditionally, most Christian traditions have defined Christianity by a few simple beliefs. John Wesley summed them up in his essay “The Character of a Methodist.”[2] He wrote Scripture is the inspired Word of God, Scripture was sufficient to “equip us for a life of faith and service,”[3] and Christ is both fully human and fully divine. Everything else Wesley said we should “think and let think,” meaning we can discuss and disagree with each other, but it shouldn’t drive a wedge between us. Obviously, with 47,000+ denominations worldwide, we have horribly failed at this.[4] Which says more about us than about these basic concepts which we find supported in Scripture. In fact, on our way back from visiting my parents, I saw a billboard that said “Jesus is not God” which is completely and 100% false. So, it’s important to know what we believe and why. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy about the sufficient and inspired nature of Scripture and our Scripture this morning is about the divinity of Christ.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. – John 1:1-5, 14
It always confused me to hear Jesus being called “the Word of God.”
What did that really mean? I kind of just assumed it was just another name for God like Immanuel or Prince of Peace. But there is more to it than just a name. The “Word” was something both Jews and Gentiles would have been familiar with. The Jewish people would recognize this description of Jesus meaning Christ was the “instrument for the execution of God’s will.”[5] Throughout the Old Testament, God’s will was often made manifest by his “word” and so Jesus would have been seen as the personification of God’s will on Earth. On the other hand, the Greek interpretation of “word” was Logos which would have meant in Greek philosophy that he was the bridge or the intermediary between God and Earth.[6] So in the Old Testament you have the “Word” as the manifestation of God’s will, and in Greek the “Word” would have been understood as the bridge between God and Earth. To use this description of Jesus as the “Word” would have meaning for everyone in trying to understand what role Jesus played in God’s creation. Explaining that the Word was there at the beginning, the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God establishes Jesus as divine, on equal terms with God.
But not all people who claim to be Christian believe this.
From my reading and understanding of both the Jehovah’s Witness belief and Mormon belief, neither one of them think Jesus was God in the sense we traditionally understand it. In the faith of the Jehovah’s Witness, Jesus was not God, but a creation of God. He was also known as the Archangel Michael and did not die on a cross but on a stake. When Jesus did die, he was not resurrected but existed only in spirit form. The Jehovah’s Witness were taught only 144,000 people would be taken to Heaven and the rest of humanity would remain dead. Not that they would go to hell but would simply cease to exist. They revised that interpretation to say that true believers after 1935 would be resurrected to a new Earth but that 144,000 who were chosen prior to 1914 would still be the only ones to go to Heaven.[7] My question is what happened to those “true believers” between 1914 and 1935? Mormons similarly don’t believe Jesus is actually God. Instead, they believe God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are different and distinct beings that act in unison with one another. It seems like a very subtle difference, but it denies that Christ is God and instead one of many gods. The Mormon faith also teaches we can eventually become God or at least as God is. They believe God and Jesus both have physical, perfected bodies, that God is made of flesh and bone so when we are created in his image that is a literal interpretation.[8] But then in what image is that? An answer to that isn’t offered. Mormons believe in a Heavenly Mother although not much more is said about this divine being. They don’t believe in hell but instead on three levels of Heaven. My roommate in college, Wayne, was Mormon and he described it to me this way. There are three levels of Heaven. The first level is occupied by true followers of the faith, the Mormons, who get to dwell with God. The second level is for all Christians who are not Mormon. They come close to accepting the truth, but are not quite on the Mormon level and they get to dwell with Jesus. And while they are happy, they are always looking up and wishing they could be with God the Father. The third Heaven is for everyone else. They get to live with the Holy Spirit. And while they too are happy, they are always looking up at the first and second Heavens and wishing they got to be there. Now, while the official version of the levels of Heaven or what is called the “degrees of glory”[9] is a little more complicated, Wayne’s version was a good summary of what is taught.
As for the sufficiency of Scripture and Scripture as the inspired Word of God, there are also differences.
The Jehovah’s Witness faith believes in the Bible as the inspired Word of God, but they use a translation of the Bible that conforms to Jehovah’s Witness beliefs.[10] As mentioned before, they don’t believe Jesus died on a cross so they changed the translation of the word to “murder stake.” They don’t believe Jesus was God but instead a creation of God so they changed the verse we read that distinctly said, “The Word was God” to instead say “The Word was A god.” And because they believe Christ already returned in 1914, they changed the translation of the word “coming” to “presence.”[11] In contrast, the Mormons do not believe in the sufficiency of Scripture – not because they doubt God but because they believe mistakes were made and the Book of Mormon corrects those mistakes.[12] They also turn to two other books written primarily by Joseph Smith based on his interpretation of the Bible and by a series of golden plates he claims revealed to him God’s teachings. Because they hold these revelations as equal to the Bible and in some cases supersede the Bible (although not the Bible’s fault), they don’t truly believe in the sufficiency of Scripture.
That isn’t to say that members of either church are not good people.
Many of them are living a more dedicated, Christ-like life than “mainline” Christians. That’s also not to say that we can’t learn from them as much as we hope they learn from us. Both have a dedication to evangelism that mainline Christianity has struggled with. Whether or not they are effective is something we can debate, but they take the Great Commission seriously in a way most churches do not, even though God commands it. As we explore our faith deeper and seek to define what we believe, it is important to point out that not every Christian faith is in fact Christian. Or at the very least when we seek to understand our faith, there are some very fundamental beliefs we believe come from God and the Bible that define who we are. We should always seek to love those who are different than us. We should always seek to understand without ridicule people who honestly adhere to their faith. And by understanding our own faith better we can be as Peter said “prepared to give an answer…for the hope that you have (1 Peter 3:15).”
[2] http://www.umcmission.org/Find-Resources/John-Wesley-Sermons/The-Wesleys-and-Their-Times/The-Character-of-a-Methodist
[3] http://www.gotquestions.org/sufficiency-of-Scripture.html
[4] https://omsc.ptsem.edu/the-annual-statistical-table/
[5] http://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-Word-God.html
[6] http://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-Word-God.html
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses and http://www.equip.org/article/are-jehovahs-witnesses-christian-3/
[8] https://carm.org/is-mormonism-christian and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormonism
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrees_of_glory
[10] http://www.gotquestions.org/New-World-Translation.html and http://www.equip.org/article/are-jehovahs-witnesses-christian-3/
[11] http://www.gotquestions.org/New-World-Translation.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschatology_of_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses
[12] http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/mormons-and-the-bible/?_r=0 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormonism_and_Christianity
If We Are the Body
Everyone say “cheeks!”
In today’s selfie generation it’s important to know how to maximize your smile and the word “cheese” just doesn’t do it anymore. The word “cheeks” gives you a better smile in pictures. It’s true.[1] Not only that, but a “cheeks” smile is more likely to make you feel happier as well. Studies have found that the more we use our upper facial muscles to make a smile, the kind that produces crow’s feet around our eyes, the more likely we are to feel happy. Researchers also did a study where they had people hold a pen in their mouth while looking at some cartoons.[2] The people who held the pen with their teeth, making them smile with their upper facial muscles, thought the cartoons were funnier than the people who held it with their lips, making them pout. Smiling has a positive reaction on our mood. It also makes us less stressed. It’s like the concept “fake it ‘til you make it” – the idea being that faking happiness can help lead us to happiness or at least alleviate us from stress and depression. Are there limits to this superpower though? Sure.[3] But overall, smiling has proven to give us added health benefits and can help “turn that frown upside down.”
John Wesley did the same thing with his faith.
He went through a period of doubt in his own life on his passage back to England from America. The ship he was on went through a heavy storm and his heart was gripped with fear, but a group of Moravians who were also on the ship weathered the storm joyfully. They sang songs and had such a positive attitude John wondered what their secret was; how were they able to face a crisis like this without fear. They told him their faith gave them strength. He admitted to them there were times when his own faith was in doubt and the Moravians told John to simply continue practicing his faith until he felt it again. In essence, to “fake it ‘til you make it.” John was convicted by their words and he continued preaching and teaching and helping others until one day at Aldersgate, John wrote that he “felt his heart strangely warmed.” And in that moment, the solidity of his faith returned and he felt renewed in the Spirit. That’s why John preached so feverently on the means of grace. He felt that the means of grace helped us to stay IN God’s grace. For John, the means of grace were simply the ordinary ways God worked in our lives and he divided them into works of piety and works of mercy.[4] Works of mercy are things like doing good works and seeking justice for the oppressed and addressing the needs of the poor. Works of piety were more personal tasks; reading the Bible, praying, fasting, attending worship, going to Bible study, taking communion, and sharing our faith. Both were essential to stay in the grace of God. Both were important to develop our faith.
The passage we are going to share this morning is what inspired Wesley’s ideas about works of mercy.
Jesus reveals to his followers that eventually everything will come to an end. He points to their holiest of temples and says, “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down (Matt 24).” The disciples come up to Jesus privately and ask him, “Psst. Tell us Jesus, when is this going to happen?” I don’t know if the disciples were simply curious or scared or trying to get a heads up, but Jesus tells them only that it WILL happen, and says that only God knows the details of when. Instead he encourages them to live a life of readiness – to act as if every day might be the last so that when he DOES return for them, they will be found to be ready. He tells them that on that day when he returns, all of the people of the world will be divided into two groups, the sheep and the goats with the sheep on his right and the goats on his left and the passage we are reading this morning describes what Christ will say to them.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” – Matthew 25:34-46
Jesus makes it clear there is a right way and a wrong way of doing things.
The right way is helping those in need. Whether they are hungry or thirsty or needing shelter, we have an obligation as God’s people to help them out. It shouldn’t be conditional on whether or not they share our faith or vote the same way we do. It doesn’t matter if they are righteous Dodgers fans or misguided Giants fans, we are supposed to help everyone who needs it. When we ignore them, we are doing the exact opposite of God’s will and we distance ourselves from God. We become selfish and self-absorbed. We become so focused on the here and now that we forget all about the hereafter. Jesus is telling us in this passage that our faith is more than just words. It’s more than simply showing up. Our faith becomes evident in how we live our lives. And God is watching.
In the book of Acts, Jesus commands us to witness to those all over the world.
He tells us, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).” It’s interesting that Jesus chose those exact locations, and like many of Jesus’ teachings, these words were carefully chosen. They weren’t random places to make a point. Jerusalem represented those who are like us, those who lived in our communities, those who shared our values, if not our beliefs. Judea was far from Jerusalem and represented those who might be like us but who lived far away. For us that might be the people of our state or maybe even our country. You know the story of the Samaritan woman. She lived close to the Jewish community. They were neighbors but considered outcasts to the Israeli people. But Jesus commanded us to bear witness to them, to the disenfranchised, to the outcasts, to the people on the fringes. Because they were his children, too. And to make sure everyone was covered, Jesus commanded us to take his Word to the ends of the earth. That we weren’t supposed to stop at just the people we knew, the people who were like us, or even the people on the fringes of our society. But we were supposed to take it everywhere else too. That meant we were supposed to be missionaries to the entire world. It doesn’t mean we are all meant to leave our homes and live in a grass hut in some far-off country. Sometimes our mission field is right in our backyard. What it does mean is that you need to find that mission field for yourself and contribute what you can to the mission.
Whenever we do what God wants us to do, our lives get better.
That isn’t an hypothesis, it’s a fact. Scientific study backs us up those claims time and time again. Being grateful helps our marriage.[5] Volunteering makes us feel more satisfied in life. Praying reduces stress. Keeping a gratitude journal makes us happier.[6] So when Wesley proposed works of mercy as part of the means of grace he may have been on to something without even realizing it. Because among the things that cause the most happiness in our lives or give our lives a “happiness” boost, are also means of grace he talked about.[7] I don’t think that’s a coincidence that what God wants us to do not only makes our lives better but brings us closer to him. And that is certainly something worth smiling about. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/dec/22/smiling-wellcome-trust-science-writing-prize
[2] Ibid
[3] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-smiling-can-backfire/
[4] http://www.umc.org/how-we-serve/the-wesleyan-means-of-grace
[5] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3283713/The-secret-happy-marriage-Saying-thank-Study-finds-gratitude-predict-couple-remains-together.html
[6] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/07/boost-happiness_n_4532848.html
[7] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/07/boost-happiness_n_4532848.html
Milk…It Does a Body Good.
Milk…It does a body good.
I believed that phrase whole-heartedly my entire life. But I learned that as you get older, the benefits of milk aren’t so obvious. The New York Times posted an article asking the question, “does milk do a body good?” And it turns out…it doesn’t seem so. I long prided myself on my milk drinking. I may not always eat properly, but I would easily drink a glass of milk (and often more) once a day. Then Cassie came up to me one day and said drinking milk might actually be CAUSING me some problems. I have to admit, as smart as Cassie is, I thought she got this one all wrong. My entire life, doctors have been telling me to drink milk. Even as an adult. But in 2011, the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research did a study of over 200,000 women and could find no correlation between milk drinking and lower rates of bone fracture.[1] Another study of over 100,000 men and women could find no correlation between drinking milk as a teenager and incidents of bone fractures. And one study published in the British Medical Journal showed men and women who drank high quantities of milk had a higher death rate and women actually had MORE bone fractures than those who didn’t drink as much milk.[2] While they couldn’t prove milk actually caused those deaths, it’s pretty clear that it doesn’t seem to be doing much for us as we once thought.
The story, of course, is different for infants and children.
Especially for babies. Babies NEED milk – specifically mother’s milk. It strengthens the immune system, decreases disease, and helps to protect children from developing allergies.[3] Later in life, these babies have fewer cavities, are less likely to be obese, tend to have fewer problems related to blood pressure, and tend to be more mature and assertive.[4] The evidence is so strong for all the different benefits of baby milk that there are even milk banks where mothers can donate so mothers who have difficulty producing their own still have a source for their babies. Virtually everyone agrees that milk is essential for young developing infants.
And just as we need milk to grow physically, we need spiritual milk to grow spiritually.
Milk in the Old Testament largely referred to God’s promise of a land overflowing in abundance, but in the New Testament, milk is seen as spiritual sustenance. It’s the building block for a strong spiritual life. Just like milk is a necessity for babies who grow up to be adults, spiritual milk is needed to help our faith life develop into something strong and robust and in terms of faith, most of us if not all of us are spiritual newborns. Our passage this morning is just one that refers to spiritual milk but its one that sheds light on what that milk will do for us.
Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. – 1 Peter 1:13-16, 2:1-3
Crave pure spiritual milk.
“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” Spiritual milk is essential for our faith and protects us from malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. But what is this magical spiritual milk? It’s those things that keep us connected to God. It’s the everyday aspects of life that keep us grounded in how life is supposed to be instead of these awful things that lead us to our worst selves. And this is where John Wesley’s ideas about the means of grace come in. The means of grace are the spiritual milk that grounds us in faith and he called these works of piety. Works of piety are the personal practices that help us grow closer to God. Things like prayer, reading the Bible, going to worship, taking communion, taking part in Bible study, sharing our faith and fasting; these are the practices Wesley felt would connect us to our faith. But they must be done regularly. They need to become part of our everyday life, like brushing your teeth or taking a shower.
In our seemingly time-crunched world, how can we add in another thing?
We don’t have time for Bible study. We don’t have time for worship. We don’t have time for prayer. But is it we don’t HAVE time or we don’t MAKE time? Like with taking a shower or brushing your teeth, you could skip these things if you were seriously short on time. In the long run, you’d be able to do more if you stopped wasting time on hygiene. Think about it. The average shower lasts 8.2 minutes.[5] Assuming you take one every day, you could save yourself nearly 3,000 minutes a year. That’s more than 2 full days of time! But we don’t really think about skipping it normally because it’s become part of what we do every day. Plus, it probably keeps us from getting a divorce. Doing those everyday things might take a little bit of time here and there, but in the long run make our life better. We are healthier and happier and better to be around because of them. Now apply that to these works of piety. Almost all of these things – prayer, worship, Bible study, communion – take less than or about the same amount of time as taking a shower every day. Doing them makes us more spiritually healthy, gives us peace in our hearts, and also makes us better people to be around, so how can we make them part of who we are?
Stephen Covey had some great advice about this.
As you know, he’s the author of the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and he writes, “The key is to keep the main thing the main thing.” You’ve probably heard that before. The key is to keep the main thing the main thing. We know this intellectually, but we don’t always do a great job of executing it. He says, “Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.” We’re so busy with whatever is in front of us that we don’t look at things long term. So how do we get around that? Covey says, “The key is not to prioritize what is on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” If you believe God is important then carve out time for God. It’s as simple as that. It’s just a matter of priorities.
As we approach the new year, pray about this.
Pray about how you can grow deeper in your faith. Pray about drinking the spiritual milk that Peter encourages us to do. If you’re already deep in prayer, reading your Bible, and joining a small group, then keep going. My guess is you’re already feeling that connection Peter talks about. But if you feel you need more of something in your life, consider these things, these types of spiritual milk. Commit to making one of these a new spiritual habit in 2026 and see if God won’t bless you for it. It is in the common, ordinary, everyday types of things that God gives us to help us tackle everyday life. These things that take very little time or money to do – prayer, Bible study, worship, communion. At times they might seem boring. At times they might even seem meaningless. At times we may not feel the working of the Holy Spirit within us. But it is. The Spirit is at work even if we don’t “feel” it all the time. And keep going. When babies drink milk, they don’t say to themselves, “Hey look! My leg just grew a quarter of an inch!” But slowly, over time, as they keep taking the nourishment they need they grow. Sure and steady they grow. And the same is true of our faith. Take time out to drink your spiritual milk. It does a body good.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/18/upshot/got-milk-might-not-be-doing-you-much-good.html
[2] https://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g6015?etoc=
[3] http://www.nrdc.org/breastmilk/benefits.asp
[4] Ibid.
The Greatest Need
For the longest time, I didn’t think I needed God.
I believed in God since I was about eight years old, but I don’t think you could say he was really part of my life. Often I would talk to God late at night before I went to sleep. I had this old clock radio – I think it was my dad’s or my grandfather’s – and when I talked to God, I would always talk to him through it, kind of like a ham radio or CB. In those days, God was who I turned to when I needed to talk things out, but I never really thought about listening. God was there when I wanted him, but I wasn’t really in the business of being there for God. I guess at that age, and for many years thereafter, I didn’t think God needed very much from me. And at the time, I didn’t know how or why I should rely on God. When I was successful at something, I didn’t thank God for the gifts he gave me to do it. At mealtime, I didn’t give thanks to God for making it possible for this food to be on my table. When I was making important decisions, I wasn’t thinking about the path God was hoping I would choose. Pretty much it was all about me.
And I was fine with that.
I mean, it was nice to have God around, but I felt pretty self-sufficient. Still, there was this piece of myself that was missing. I couldn’t identify it at the time, but there were deep questions about life and purpose and existence that kept rattling around in my head. There were times when I wondered if life was just this phenomenally random event or if there was meaning and purpose behind it. I would wake up once in a while in sheer panic, anxious if there was anything more or if I would just be buried in some hole in the ground. I think I worried most that I would never know because I would just cease to exist. My life just a big “fade to black.” These questions, these worries, were persistent. They would come back to the surface out of nowhere, because the truth is I never dealt with them. It wasn’t until I went through a real spiritual crisis, when I went into a period of deep reflection that I understood just how much I needed God. Really NEEDED God. It was then I realized all those times I thought I had picked myself up off the ground and dusted myself off, God was there with me and cleaned up those parts I didn’t even notice were dirty. God was with me in my success. God was with me in my struggles. And it dawned on me that God never demanded anything from me in return. But now, having realized the impact God had on my entire life, I wanted to give something back. I wanted to share this amazing story of God’s work in me with anyone who would listen. And in that moment I decided to do what I have the privilege to do now.
It was in the NEXT moment that I realized I’d have to tell Cassie.
How would she react? I knew this is what God was calling me to do, but when you hear people say stuff like that, don’t you wonder for a moment about their sanity? Are they hearing voices? How do they know it was God? Plus, going into the ministry not only meant a big cut in pay, but three more years of school. And a pretty big life change, too. It was with all these things on my mind that I walked into the bedroom to tell Cassie about this revelation God had placed on my heart. And when I did, the most surprising thing happened. Cassie said, “I knew it. I could see it in you, but I wanted you to say it for yourself so you never thought I pressured you into it.” Wow. It was amazing to me that God had been working in Cassie’s heart just as he had in mine. He had been preparing her for this next step in our journey just as he had been preparing me. It was only one of several “God-incidences” that kept happening as I followed where God was leading.
My life had changed.
And it will always be different now that I know how much I need God and how God has always been there for me. I look at life differently and I see God in places I never noticed before. A skeptic would say I was making it up or I was reading too much into it. But these “God-incidences” occur past the point of coincidence, and I can see as I’ve looked back how God is present in my life. Now, are there times I have doubts about my faith? Yes. Are there times I wonder where God is in this mess we call life? Sure. Are there times I make mistakes? Pretty much every day. But my life is different now, and in ways I could never have imagined. I want your life to be different too if it isn’t already. It’s the reason I became a pastor, to help others have this same kind of experience. Because I know what it’s like to live a life without God at its center. I know what it’s like to feel completely alone in the world when you don’t have to be. And I don’t want that for anyone. I have also found that simply going to church is no guarantee you have really experienced the life-changing power of God in your life. There are people who come to church regularly who are about as far from God as any atheist. Until you realize how much you need God, your life will remain essentially the same. Like me, you’ll have this hole in your heart like a donut hole, and you’ll try and fill it with whatever you can. But until you find God, that hole will always be there. Because the one thing you need more than anything else is God. Only God can fill that hole.
We’ve been talking about basic needs all throughout Advent.
Throughout the Christmas season, we’ve shared how people have needs and when those needs aren’t met, we’re held back from being our best selves. Maslow called this his Hierarchy of Needs, but long before Maslow, God outlined them for us through his prophet Isaiah. Clothes, food, and shelter are some of the basic physiological needs we have, but equally as important are things like compassion, kindness, love, and forgiveness. And when we have these in our lives, we can become the person God created us to be. But when we don’t have them, we become focused on whatever it is we are missing. We crave them and keep searching for ways to fill those empty holes in our lives. The same is true for our soul. Just as our bodies crave nourishment, protection, and comfort so does our spirit and God is the answer to it all.
This duality of spirit and body we see throughout Scripture.
Jesus feeds the 5,000 and meets their physical needs, but he also declares himself to be the Bread of Life (John 6:35) and the Living Water (John 4:13). Body and Spirit. In Leviticus and Isaiah, God tells us to give shelter to those in need, while King David tells us to dwell in the shelter of the Lord. Body and Spirit. Jesus tells us to love our neighbor and then the disciple John reveals that God IS love. Body and Spirit are often interwoven throughout the Bible because both are fundamental to life. That’s why we feel so unfulfilled even when we have everything the world says we should have. That’s why people who have all the money in the world still seek fame, power, and influence. It’s why they feel this need to leave their mark. But ultimately, only one thing can give you the peace that will put your soul at ease and that one thing is Christ.
If you believe this, then you know why it’s so important to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world.
When a person spends their life trying to fulfill the most basic needs like food, shelter, and clothing, it leaves little time to ponder on God. So, we do what we can. We give as we are able. Some can give more than others, and if you can’t give a lot, do not be discouraged or think that your contribution is less than someone else’s. Because to God what matters is your heart for giving. God loves a cheerful giver. Remember the story about the Widow’s mite? All these rich people are dropping handfuls of coins into the giving plate, making a loud noise so everyone knows they gave a lot. But the widow drops just two coins into the plate, and it is the widow Jesus praises, because she gave from her heart. She wasn’t seeking credit and she gave what she could while all those others who made a big scene could have given more. God wants people with a loving heart. Which reminds me of a certain passage from the New Testament. It’s one that keeps encouraging me to grow in my giving and grow in my loving of other people.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Christ came to us as the baby Jesus so many years ago.
He was born as we were born. He lived a life as we live our own – he ate, drank, and slept as we do. He experiences life as fully human and yet fully divine. When he returned to us, we knew he was exactly who he said he was, Immanuel – God with Us. One of the most important lessons he taught us in his short time on Earth is one that surrounds all that we do. It’s the one tenet that overrides all others and it’s how God wants us to live our life. Jesus said in John 13:34-35, 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” These were among the last words Christ said to us and the last command he gave. Love one another. This Christmas, let us remember these words and seek to live them out. Let us show our love for one another by doing all we can to help in the world today. Let us remember the words of the disciple John when he wrote, “18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” Merry Christmas!
The Year of Jubilee
Extraordinary kindness.
Love. Generosity. There are people in your life who go above and beyond what’s expected. People who impact you in an extraordinary way. I feel blessed to have more than my fair share of people like that in my own. My friend Lyn is one of those people. We worked at Disneyland together and would hang out often. She was one of the sweetest and nicest people I’ve known, but her kindness and love stood out on one particular day that I’ll never forget. During my time at UCLA, I had a serious crush on a girl at school and things weren’t going so well. I called Lyn up and just poured out my heart to her and as she listened to my frustration and sadness, she told me everything was going to be okay and then said, “Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right there.” I wasn’t sure what to expect since I was more than an hour away from Lyn while I was at school. Did she mean metaphorically? Nope. About 90 minutes later, I hear a knock at my door, and it was Lyn, holding this Pooh Bear she bought just for me. She gave me a hug, said “I thought you could use a friend,” and just sat with me for a while before heading back home. That act of kindness has stuck with me ever since. That was more than 30 years ago and it still feels fresh in my mind. Who does that? Not only did she make the long drive up from Anaheim to UCLA (no small feat in itself), but she made time to stop at Disneyland, get me a big Pooh Bear, brave the traffic, and find parking on a campus notorious for little to no parking. Not to mention we were both college students on a budget. Still she did all of that just for me.
In times of need, it’s good to know you have friends you can count on.
Back when I was in seminary, I had the extraordinary opportunity to attend a seminar in France about Methodism in Europe. We were going to stay for a week at a Christian retreat center in the small city of Sete on the French coast and would meet up with fellow pastors from all over Europe. To go would cost quite a bit of money and Cassie and I were not as well off then as we are now. It was a struggle just to send me to seminary. But Cassie agreed this was too good of an opportunity to pass up so we committed to figuring out the finances along the way. As part of the curriculum, the school had us send out ten letters to friends and family to ask for their help in deferring the cost. I did it to fulfill my obligation to the class, but I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to be a burden to family and friends or make them think I was abusing our relationship to get something out of it, so I also sent a separate note to everyone to explain all of that and let them know we weren’t expecting anything. But one of my friends did. My buddy Lance gave me $500. I was flabbergasted. Up to that point, I don’t think Cassie and I had given $500 in one lump sum to anyone or anything so to receive that gift was extraordinary. And it’s not like Lance was rich. He didn’t own a mansion. He was just making a living like everyone else so $500 was a very significant amount of money. But he said he wanted to help and knew this was important. It was. To this day, the things we saw and talked about during that week have impacted my life and my ministry. It was the first time ever I had the chance to travel abroad. It was the first time I had the chance to experience God in a different country through different eyes. It really was life changing and I have been so grateful for that opportunity.
When people show extraordinary love, it changes your life.
And you don’t have to travel across the world for it to have that kind of effect on you. Think back to a time when someone in your life did something like that for you. Think of a time when someone was there for you just when you needed them. Maybe they were there to comfort you when you were feeling like the world was coming to an end. Maybe they took care of you at the hospital and came to visit when you were scared or lonely. Maybe you were in need and someone reached out with a helping hand. That is humanity at its best, when we behave like the people God is hoping we will be. When we do that, we can change the world. Lance so generously helped me out about 20 years ago and Lyn came to my side over 30 years ago and I still remember both like they happened yesterday. When people show extraordinary love, you can’t help but have it affect you. It influences you. It changes you. And that’s exactly the way God planned it. God WANTS us to be extraordinary givers of compassion and kindness. God WANTS us to overwhelm people with our love and generosity. Because that’s how we are going to change the world.
8 “‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years.9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. – Leviticus 25:8-10
Every fiftieth year was proclaimed by God to be a Year of Jubilee!
It is a time of extraordinary forgiveness, compassion and kindness. God tells the Israelites, “proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.” But these aren’t just words. God tells the Israelites to set his people free. If someone was in debt, their debt was to be forgiven. If someone had to sell their land, their land was given back. If someone was a servant, they were released from service. It was complete freedom and forgiveness. God wanted his people to be free to serve only God. He knows when we are bound to someone else and could not take care of our basic needs, we could not truly devote ourselves to him. So just as we observe the Sabbath once a week to free ourselves for worship and rest, God wants us as a society to be restored and renewed. Restoration is important to God and thus it should be important to us. At the end of the chapter, God proclaims, “‘Even if someone is not redeemed in any of these ways, they and their children are to be released in the Year of Jubilee, 55 for the Israelites belong to me as servants. They are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” We are his people and we cannot be free to serve God when we are obliged to serve others. The key to free us to be God’s people is this form of radical forgiveness, compassion, and kindness.
We’ve been talking about basic needs, and how vital it is to have those needs met.
We’ve talked about physiological needs – food, shelter, clothing – but we’ve moved beyond those into what Maslow would refer to as higher needs. The need for security, the need for love, the need for kindness and acceptance. These are important needs also, every bit as important as the physical ones. Because like our physiological needs, when they aren’t filled we are inhibited from being the people God created us to be. And that’s why God demanded we celebrate this “Year of Jubilee,” to free us from whatever might be holding us back in this life. This idea of the Year of Jubilee is found embodied in the life of Christ. Christ came to liberate us from our sins, to free us from the shackles of rulers and teachers who stressed form and function over love and acceptance. Christ came not to tear down the law, but to free us from the yoke it had become and to help us realize the law was there to help us become our best selves. It wasn’t meant to be a tool of oppression as it had become. The Pharisees would use the law as a bludgeoning tool instead of a guide to right living. And we see that same attitude in our world today. People use the law to get what they want, to hurt those who aren’t like themselves, and justify their actions with “the law.” But they are not using the law as it was intended. Instead they are abusing the law for their own desires. Many of our leaders like to proclaim we are a Christian nation. Then how can we blatantly ignore God’s call on us to care for the alien in our midst? How can we ignore God’s call on us to take care of the poor and those in need and still say we are God’s children?
This is the actual Year of Jubilee.
The Catholic Church celebrates it every 25 years instead of 50. In fact, when needed, the Pope calls for special Jubilee years like in 2015 when Pope Francis declared the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. This year we celebrate and embody hope. Something we all need in this world today. Some need it much more than even we do. Red has shared with us about the devastating storms and the political corruption that has permeated the Philippines. We watch from afar as the people of Ukraine fight off an unprovoked and clearly colonial invasion from Russia. And at home, we are experiencing the erosion of democracy, and we feel so helpless in the midst of ongoing corruption and the use of force against our own citizens. But as Christians, we are not without hope. During the Christmas season as we are reminded of the great gift God bestowed upon the world through his son, Jesus, and the hope he provides for a better tomorrow. Let us remind the world that Christianity is founded on the ideas of forgiveness, mercy, and redemption and act accordingly. Do one extraordinary act this year. Just one. Ponder upon the ways you can do something to impact the life of another. It doesn’t have to be with money. Look at how my friend Lyn was there for me with her presence and her thoughtfulness and what a long-lasting impact that had on my life. You can do the same. You can offer to let someone stay in your home. You can forgive a debt someone owes you. You can forgive someone for something they did to you when you have every right to be upset. There are lots of ways to be an extraordinary person. Sometimes it’s in doing the little things without complaint and with a smile day after day. The idea that God loves a cheerful giver does not just mean with money, but with everything we do. Let’s make this year and every year a chance to show the extraordinary love of God. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No Room at the Inn
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. – Luke 2:1-7
How long does it take to become homeless?
We all need a place to call home. A home provides protection from the weather, a place to rest in relative safety, and a retreat from the outside world. But a home is more than that. A home is an anchor. A home gives us a sense of security. It is a place we make our own. Think about your own home for a moment. Imagine your favorite place to sit. Think about the comfort of your bed. Picture in your mind the inside of your refrigerator and where you keep your favorite things to eat. Now imagine all of that suddenly GONE. That’s what happened to my family about twelve years ago. We were living in Dinuba at the time serving two smaller churches in that quaint, rural town. One Sunday after worship while I was cooking in the kitchen, the oil in the pan burst into flame! Without realizing it, I had left the burner on high for too long in a shallow pan and it suddenly caught on fire. I tried turning off the stove or just moving the pan off the burner, but the flames kept attacking me like they were alive. I couldn’t get close enough without risking getting burned. I immediately opened the doors under the sink to grab the fire extinguisher, but in just those few seconds the flames had risen high enough to catch the wooden cabinets next to the stove and they caught on fire. The flames raced toward the ceiling and I knew it was moving too fast for me to stop it. Instead, I shouted out to Emma to get out of the house. I opened the back door for the dogs and rushed to Emma’s room to make sure she was safe outside. I went back inside, got my lockbox with our passports, and a watch Cassie gave me for my birthday a few years ago and threw them on the lawn. Then I asked Emma what her favorite stuffed animals were and grabbed what I could. But as I was leaving the house that second time, I knew I couldn’t go back in. The smoke, if you could call it that since it looked black as tar, had come down to head level and already I was having trouble breathing. I could hear a loud CRACK and something exploding which later I found out was the microwave. And within the space of five minutes, we went from having a home to not having a home. That’s how quick you can become homeless. Five minutes.
It’s scary to think about how many people are homeless in America today.
According to reports, more than three-quarter of a MILLION people are looking for a place to sleep every night.[1] What is sadder is nearly 150,000 of them are children and that number grew by 33% in one year.[2] When you include children living in other people’s homes, waiting for foster care placement, living in cars, parks, and bus stations, the number rises to more than a MILLION homeless children.[3] It’s a mistake to believe that a vast majority of homeless people are suffering from mental illness. In fact, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, nearly 80% of unhoused persons were NOT suffering from severe mental illness.[4] What astounds me is as many as 60% of homeless people have jobs, but according to the USICH a person making minimum wage would have to work 86 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom apartment.[5] It’s not for lack of trying, it’s for lack of affordable housing. California already has nearly a quarter of all homeless people in America, by far the most of any other state.[6] High rent, mortgage foreclosures, and lack of affordable housing are just some of the causes of this epidemic. And while we attempt to bandage up the problem, we seem to be doing little to address the root cause.
Homelessness is hardly an American problem.
As bad as it is here, I cannot even imagine what it’s like in places like Syria where over 14 million people are refugees either inside or outside of the country.[7] Over 6.6 million refugees fled Syria while 7.4 million are displaced inside the country, effectively homeless, but more than that they are often without food, medical care, or even drinkable water.[8] Sadly the United States has done little to help under the current administration. While millions suffer, the President has set a cap of 7,500 refugees in total, down from 125,000 in 2024; and of those 7,500 most of them are allocated for white South Africans who face little danger compared to Syrian refugees and refugees from other countries.[9] The United States used to be a world leader in refugee resettlement. We used to help more refugees than all other countries combined and did so for decades.[10] But that has all changed. We’ve told the world, “There’s no room at the inn.”
Fear has gripped our country.
But we aren’t the only ones. It’s a plague spreading around the world, mostly to nations who are rich and comparatively prosperous. Fear of the other. Fear of something different. Fear of the unknown. Fear of change. These are not new fears. These are fears we fight with every day on both an international scale and on a personal one, too. Fear is the lynchpin of evil. It drives us to do irrational and harmful things to one another. It creates an atmosphere of anger and rage. It causes separation from God and division within communities. And it seems to be growing under the banner of nationalism. So much hatred of “the other.” It is the exact opposite of what Christ challenges us to do – to love others. One of the apostles, Luke, records Christ sharing these thoughts, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:32-36).” We are not meant to only love the people who love us. We are not meant to only do good to those who first do good to us. And we are not supposed to expect payment for services rendered, but instead do it out of mercy and love. With the world in crisis, how can we call ourselves Christians if we don’t do something about it?
We are sometimes so sheltered from suffering we don’t realize how deep the need is.
Trevor Noah became host of The Daily Show after Jon Stewart left with Jon’s blessings, and Trevor tells the story about how they had to force him to move into Jon’s office. He said he was really happy with the little office he had been given. It was simple. There was a little brown desk with a skylight and he was good with it. But (I assume the producers) wanted him to move into Jon’s office which had exposed brick and he was not a fan of exposed brick. He said, “Exposed brick is a classic example of privilege in my world, because coming from South Africa (coming from any poor country to be honest) exposed brick displays that you do not have the ability to plaster your walls and paint them. You don’t have enough money to do that. So all we had growing up was exposed brick. And then you move to a place that says, ‘We have so much plaster and so much paint, in order for me to be different I’m going to expose the bricks in my walls.’ And everyone says, ‘That is so fantastic! I will pay more for that.’”[11] Many of us are fortunate NOT to know the hardships of long-term homelessness. Even for our family during that short bit of time where we lost almost everything, we had enough resources to recover, but even still that little window of time is something that haunts us to this day. It’s hard to imagine having that BE your existence and what kind of lifelong impact that has on a young child and a family. For millions of people around the world it is the reality they are living. How can we expect the world to know the love of God when they struggle with simply existing? But it is also an opportunity for us to show the love of God to a world that is hurting. We may not be able to help out everyone around the world, but we can certainly help those in our community. Because Mary and Joseph aren’t the only ones without a room during this Advent season.
[1] The actual number of homeless in 2024 according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness is 771,480 which was up 18% from 2023.
[2] From the report in 2024 from the Housing and Urban Development Department
[3] According to the Campaign for Children, when you include other factors, the number grows by a huge amount. This number is consistent with the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
[4] https://www.kff.org/medicaid/five-key-facts-about-people-experiencing-homelessness/
[5] United States Interagency Council on Homelessness produced this report and the number is actually 97 hours per week in 2025.
[6] According to CalMatters we also have 44% of all chronically homeless persons in the country.
[7] Latest update includes numbers for 2025 from the USA for UNHCR website.
[8] Ibid.
[9] From a report by the International Rescue Committee, but support by other documentation as well.
[10] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/10/07/key-facts-about-refugees-to-the-u-s/
[11] I wish I could remember where I heard this interview! I loved it so much I transcribed this section, but for some reason didn’t document it. I know it was around 2019 and I believe it was NPR but that’s about as far as I could trace it.
The Rice of Life
What does Jesus look like to you?
Close your eyes for a moment and imagine Jesus sitting next to you. What would he look like? Think about the color of his eyes, the color of his hair, the color of his skin. In your image, is Jesus wearing a robe or is he dressed in something more modern? Try to picture how tall he is, the size of his foot, the sandals on his feet. Take that in for a moment and then open your eyes. If each of you had a sketch artist sitting with you and brought those pictures of Jesus up to the front, there would likely be many different versions to see. That’s because each of us pictures Jesus in our own way. Sometimes those images are remarkably similar, sometimes wildly different, but all with our own unique perspective. I went to a conference on multi-cultural ministry and the pastor asked us something similar. He asked, “If we hung up a picture of Jesus in the church, what would Jesus look like?” I hadn’t thought of that before. I guess in my mind, I thought of the same white robe, brown hair, brown-eyed, bearded Jesus most of us have seen. But he noted when you asked different people from different cultural backgrounds about how they picture Jesus, they often saw Jesus as black or Asian or Hispanic and that in his church they celebrated that diversity by having lots of different images of Christ so people could find images they relate to. It reminds me of a story I heard when I took Alpha Course for the first time. A Japanese woman was explaining the difference between European culture and Japanese culture. She told the man she was talking to, “What most people don’t understand is that rice is central to the Japanese way of life. Japanese people have two stomachs – one for rice and one for regular food. Even if you filled the one with regular food all the way, a Japanese person would still be hungry if they didn’t have any rice.” She said, “If Jesus had come to the Japanese people first, I’m convinced he wouldn’t have said, ‘I am the Bread of Life.’ He would have said, ‘I am the Rice of Life.’”
It is important to understand that Jesus enters into our lives in different ways.
The way I’ve encountered Jesus won’t be the same as the way you encountered Jesus or even the same way your kids encounter Jesus. God seeks us out wherever we are in life. He reaches out to us through the people, places, and things that surround us and for everyone that’s different. One of the great rewards of being a pastor is getting the opportunity to hear how Christ has changed the lives of each person, how God has worked in and through that person’s life. I can’t tell you the number of different stories I’ve heard and yet how similar each one is. One man who came to Christ told me it was because of the time he spent with his grandmother driving around in her van. She used to pick him up from school as a child to help out his parents, and when she did, she would often be playing Christian music on the radio or talking to him about things happening at her church. Something about her and the life she led made him curious about who Jesus was and how he could be dead for thousands of years and still have this impact on her life. That curiosity stuck with him until he decided to give it a try and dedicate his life to Christ. Then there was the man who wandered away from God. For decades he just pushed Jesus out of his thoughts despite knowing how much his mother wanted him to accept Christ for himself. His mother prayed for him every day. The topic of God and Jesus kept cropping up over the years and one day when he was talking to a friend and trying to sort out where his life was going, she convinced him to pick up a Bible and start reading it, which he did. That set him on a journey toward a deeper faith until he felt he needed to dedicate his life to Christ. He was baptized in our church and only a few weeks later, his mother passed away. It’s as if she was holding on just long enough to see God working in his life.
I am convinced that more than anything this world needs God.
When you think of all that is happening around us with war, mass shootings, hate crimes, and all the chest thumping and power mongering in politics, you must wonder if people would do these horrible things to each other if they truly had Christ in their heart. This passage below goes to the heart of what people are truly craving in the world today. Despite all of the rhetoric, diatribe, and posturing, people are looking for purpose, hope, and meaning in the world – the kind that can only be given by God. We might substitute other things in place of it, but only in Jesus do we find the authentic source of what we need the most.
5 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” – John 6:35-40
When we think of hunger, we think of food.
But food isn’t the only thing we are hungry for. Sometimes we are hungry for attention. Sometimes we are hungry for knowledge. Sometimes we are hungry for affection. There was a study done by Harvard University testing the theory that parents should let their babies cry, and they found that doing so can create long-lasting traumatic effects on the baby’s life.[1] On the other extreme, Rene Spitz studied infants raised in hospital institutions compared to those raised by mothers who were imprisoned and the difference was shocking. More than a third of the babies in the hospital died while none in prison passed away. Another study showed that babies raised in orphanages compared to foster homes were 30% more likely to develop mental illness, had IQs nine points lower on average, and were less happy than their counterparts.[2] Food isn’t the only thing we are hungry for. Jesus addresses that in this passage. When he declares “I am the bread of life” he is telling us that he is as important to our health and well-being as any amount of food we consume. Just as we are hungry for food, we also have a spiritual hunger that simply cannot be fully satisfied in any other way than with Jesus in our lives. He promises that all who seek him will always be able to find him and will no longer suffer from spiritual hunger.
But how can we look for Jesus when we don’t even have the basics like food?
The USDA estimates that 13.5% of households experience some form of food insecurity, meaning they were “uncertain of having or unable to acquire enough food to meet the needs” of everyone living there either from lack of money or other resources.[3] Sadly, that number goes up to nearly 18% of households with children.[4] It only gets worse around the world. According to the World Health Organization, about 2.33 BILLION people are facing some level of food insecurity, and nearly half of all deaths among children under age 5 is due to undernutrition.[5] Do any of us really think any child should die from malnutrition? Should any person die from lack of food? If we want people to come to Christ it has to start by helping provide for the world’s needs. As we talked about last week with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, when our basic needs aren’t being filled, there is no room in our lives to contemplate matters of faith. We can’t become our best selves, ideally at the top of that pyramid, when we don’t have a firm foundation to begin with. Jesus tells the disciples, “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! (Matthew 18:6-7)” Meeting the needs of others is more than helping them physically and materially but is paving the way to open the door spiritually as well. How can we hear God’s call when the grumbling of our stomachs drowns out his words?
The point is YOU are the rice of life.
YOU are the rice of life. Or the cookie of life. Or the King’s Hawaiian Bread of life. Or whatever metaphor works for you. God is calling upon all of us to meet the needs of his people. Like he told Peter to feed his sheep, God is telling us all to feed his sheep. That might be a literal feeding of his sheep, or it might be a spiritual one. Pray for God to open your eyes for the opportunity to serve in whatever way you can with whatever gifts you have. You might be exactly who someone needs in their life at just that moment.
[1] They did an updated study that said letting them cry a little bit was okay. The technique is called “graduated extinction” and slowly lengthens the time you soothe the baby. In the previous studies it was all or none and prolonged crying can lead to negative consequences.
[2] Both studies were covered in Forbes magazine in an archived article, “It’s The Orphanages, Stupid!” by
[3] From the USDA’s data for 2023 which showed statistically significant increases in food insecurity from 2022.
[4] The actual number is 17.9%. Many parents sacrifice their own hunger to make sure their children have enough food, but even then almost half of those households had both adults and children who were food insecure.
[5] Data from WHO for food insecurity and malnutrition were released in 2024.
Craig's Corner 