Author: PastorPartridge

Can You See?

PastorPartridge Sermon , , , , , , , , ,

“Can You See?”

March 26, 2017

By John Partridge*

 

1 Samuel 16:1-13                   John 9:1-41                            Ephesians 5:8-14

 

What is it that you are good at?

Each of us is good at something.

With the possible exception of the very young, most people have invested enough time and effort into one or more subjects to have become reasonably good at them, and knowledgeable about them.  It might not be rocket science, but just about everyone knows a lot about something.  It might be engineering, or law, or medicine, but it might also be homeschooling, or auto repair, antique tractors, hair, jewelry, video games, coin collecting, home repair, or negotiating the convoluted steps of government grant writing.  Whatever it is that you are good at, we all recognize that there is a difference between knowing a little, knowing a lot, and being an expert.  We all know a little about filing our taxes, but if we’re smart, we know when it’s time to get our questions answered by an expert.  Many of us can do basic home repairs, but we still keep the phone number of a good plumber handy.

With that in mind, think about those times when, you, as a person who knows a little, or even a lot, about one particular subject, have had a conversation with someone who was truly an expert.  Wow.  Sometimes these experts give speeches, and we go to large arenas and concert halls just to hear them talk about the things we are interested in.  I follow Buzz Aldrin on Twitter and I read the blog written by Ben Witherington III.  Why? Because Buzz Aldrin has forgotten more about space, astronauts, and astrophysics than I can ever hope to know, and Ben Witherington has forgotten more about the New Testament scholarship and proper Greek translation than I am likely to ever learn.  When experts look at a problem, they see things that non-experts might not ever notice.  The efforts of people like me and other fans or novices are not likely to impress the experts.  What will impress the experts are not the things that might impress the rest of us and as a result, we sometimes notice that experts will make surprising choices because they can see and anticipate things that we cannot.

Not surprisingly, we see the same thing in scripture and we also see that when compared to God, even the experts are put to shame.

We begin this morning in 1 Samuel 16:1-13, where we hear the story of when God sent the prophet Samuel to anoint David as the king of Israel in place of King Saul.

16:1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”

2 But Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.”

The Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.”

4 Samuel did what the Lord said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, “Do you come in peace?”

5 Samuel replied, “Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.”

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” 9 Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, “Nor has the Lord chosen this one.”10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The Lord has not chosen these.” 11 So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”

“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.”

Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.”

12 So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features.

Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.”

13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah.

 

Throughout this story, everyone thinks and reacts only within the limits of what they know and of course, this is only natural.  We can only use the tools that we have.  We can’t use knowledge that we don’t have.  And so what we see is town elders who are afraid of God’s prophet because in the past they have witnessed him only as the bearer of bad news.  We have Jesse, the father of many sons, and the resident expert on what his children are capable of doing, who fails to call the youngest because someone has to watch the sheep, and who would imagine that the youngest would be of any value for anything that the prophet of God would want?  And finally, we have Samuel, the prophet of God, who is indisputably the expert on God, but who is utterly wrong about what God is looking for in a new king.

 

The town elders were wrong about why Samuel had come because they thought of him only as a messenger of doom.  Jesse was wrong because he assumed that David was too small and too young to be of any value.  And Samuel was wrong because he was only capable of looking at the superficial realities of how men appeared on the outside.  They were wrong because none of their expertise and knowledge came close to the expertise and knowledge of God.  Because God knows everything that is know-able, his expertise rises to levels that exceed even our imagination.  And because God’s expertise and knowledge so far exceeds our own, God sees differently than humans do.  What impresses God is not what impresses human beings, and God’s choices are often not what we would expect.

 

 

And that brings us to this week’s gospel lesson from John 9:1-41.  This is, as we noted last week, another story that is longer than usual, because it is one of the great stories of scripture.  It is the story of Jesus healing a man that had been born blind and it is a story that deserves to be read as a whole and not broken up and studied in pieces.


9:1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some claimed that he was.

Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”

But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”

10 “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.

11 He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”

12 “Where is this man?” they asked him.

“I don’t know,” he said.

 

13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”

16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”

But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.

17 Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”

The man replied, “He is a prophet.”

18 They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. 19 “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”

20 “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. 21 But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

24 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”

25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

27 He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”

28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”

30 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.

 

35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

 

The Pharisees, despite being experts in the Jewish scriptures and writings, were baffled by the healing of the blind man.  Their understanding led them to believe, just as the disciples had, that the man’s blindness, because blindness was bad, must have been a punishment from God.  And, at the same time, they had never seen, nor heard, of anyone being healed after being born blind.

 

But God’s understanding goes far beyond that of the religious experts, and Jesus explains that this blindness had not been caused by the sin of the man, nor of his parents, but that sometimes God allows bad things to happen “so that the works of God might be displayed.”  What Jesus is saying is hard for us to grasp.  But in this passage he tells us that sometimes God allows bad things to happen because, somehow, in ways that we cannot understand or comprehend, these things pave the way for something better to happen later.  Somehow, accidents, and even evil, are allowed by God because they fit into, and are a part of, the larger tapestry of God’s plan for the universe.  Now I’m not going to even try to tell you that this is much comfort when children die or when the innocent suffer.  It is impossible for us to even imagine what good could possibly be accomplished by such things.  But somehow, even in our suffering, even in our hurt, even in our disbelief, we must trust that God knows and understands more than we are capable of understanding and far more than we are even able to imagine.  Because God is all knowing, but also because God is loving, kind, and just, we must find a way to trust that these things are, somehow, a critical part of the plan of God because anything less would require us to believe that God is capricious and cruel instead of thoughtful and good.

 

But all of that brings us to the “So what?” part of the message.  What difference does knowing these things make to me?  And for that we arrive at Ephesians 5:8-14 where we hear these words:

 

8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14 This is why it is said:

“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

 

Paul says that because we believe, we have stepped out of darkness and into the light of God and as such we must live and act as if we are.  We must be agents of light, goodness, righteousness and truth.  Since God is the expert in everything, we must study the word of God to discover what things are pleasing to him and which of those things we can do.  Paul says that we must not only avoid darkness and evil but we must work to make the world better, and we must fight against immorality and evil.  We must not pass through the world as if we are asleep at the wheel.  We must wake up, rise from the dead, and do those things that God has commanded because he is the expert, and our job… is to change the world.

 

 

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* You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted on the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry Heights in Massillon, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646.  These messages are available to anyone regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org.  To subscribe to the electronic version sign up at http://eepurl.com/vAlYn.   These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

 

Proof

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Miracle

Sometimes we are witnesses to proof of God’s existence.

On Sunday (March 19th) I mentioned in both my message, and children’s message, that sometimes, when we pay attention, God provides evidence of his existence through answered prayers and miracles both large and small.  We are witnesses to many “everyday” miracles like the birth of a baby, sunrises, sunsets, and spring flowers but we also see and experience other things that are scarier, bigger, and sometimes simply impossible.  Our family all remembers the near miss that we had on interstate I-70 when a tractor trailer tire bounced across the median, missed our car by only a few feet, struck the cab of the tractor trailer we were passing and absolutely destroyed the left front wheel well like an explosion.  Only the sharp eye of our son Noah and the grace of God brought us home that day instead of to a helicopter trip to a hospital in Columbus.

As I said on Sunday, just in the ten or twelve years that I have been a pastor, I have met several people who ought to be dead, people of whom the doctors said, “We can’t explain why you are alive.”

In our Johnsville church, our lay leader was a dairy farmer by named Jim McWilliams.  One Sunday morning we interrupted our worship service to lay hands on Jim and pray for his brother.  That week, Jim’s brother was as work and was asked to use a cutting torch to cut the stuck lid off of a 55 gallon steel drum.  The labels on the drum and its documentation assured everyone that the contents of the drum were inert.

They weren’t.

Somehow, the documentation was all wrong and the contents of the drum, in reality, were highly volatile.  When Jim’s brother began to cut the lid off of the drum, it exploded and he was rushed to the hospital.  During the investigation they eventually found the lid of the drum.  It had been thrown by the explosion, went through the roof of the building and was found about a half-mile away.  The next week we heard that Jim’s brother, despite standing within inches of the explosion, received only bumps, bruises and minor burns to his face and hands.  When the doctors heard what had happened, both they, and the explosion investigators from OSHA said that they couldn’t understand why he wasn’t dead.

Many of you can tell the same kinds of stories and since that sermon, some of you have shared your stories with me.

This is an invitation.

I would like to share your stories.  I can help you write them and edit them if necessary.  After they are written and edited, I will post them on my blog so that others can be blessed, uplifted, and have their faith reaffirmed through our collective, eyewitness testimony.

Please, even if you don’t think that you are a good writer, put your story on paper (or email) and share it with me.

And together, we’ll share it with the world.

“Prove It!”

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“Prove It!”

March 19, 2017

By John Partridge*

 

Exodus 17:1-7                        John 4:5-42                            Romans 5:1-11

All of us want proof.

All of us have been asked to do a lot of things by a lot of people.  But while it’s easy to do the simple things, we often need a little more information and support for the bigger things.  For example, in any of my previous secular jobs, if my boss asked me to go down to the accounting department and pick up some paperwork, it wouldn’t be a problem.  I could just leave my desk, walk over to the accounting department, and, even if I had no other information, I could ask around until I found what it was that my boss needed.  In the worse possible case, I might have to call her, or walk back to her office, and ask for more information before returning to accounting to find the paperwork.

But if my boss asked me to go to pick up that same paperwork, personally, from one of our clients in Italy, then I would need a lot more information up front.  Why me?  Why can’t it be mailed or faxed?  Are we combining this trip with a regular business trip when we would normally visit this client?  When do I leave?  How long will I be gone?  How are my expenses being handled?  For big jobs, you need more information.  Similarly, the more that you are asked to do, the more informed you like to be and the less you know, the more you worry about the things that you don’t know.  This is true even in environments where trust is assumed and where people are accustomed to following orders.  It isn’t hard to imagine that when the 101st Airborne division was first surrounded at Bastogne during WW2, that soldiers wanted to know when they were going to get more food, and ammunition, and when they might, or if they might, expect to be reinforced or relieved.

It is exactly that sort of desperation, and that sort of questioning, that we see in our first scripture this morning from Exodus 17:1-7.

17:1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”

3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

 

We often criticize the people of Israel for a lack of faith, but I honestly believe that most of us, and most normal people, would behave almost exactly the same way.  Granted, they were escaping from slavery, but they were being led by a man that few of them knew other than from old stories and legends and they had left behind a place where water was abundant and they were wandering in a place that was, quite literally, a desert with no water at all.  And as they got thirsty, and as they worried about their children and their livestock, and they began to complain and to ask questions about when they might see water again.  In the end, the people were demanding proof that if God was indeed with them, then Moses, or God, or somebody, should prove it.

 

And God does.

 

Moses strikes the rock, in front of all the leaders of Israel and water came out of the rock and provided all of the people, and all of their livestock, enough to drink.

 

Now we know that this is not always how God operates.  In fact, most of the time God simply allows events to play out and chooses not to get actively involved.  But on those occasions when God chooses to get involved, things get interesting in a real hurry.

 

Our scripture passage from the gospels this morning is a long one.  It is probably among the longest passages that we find during the course of the year, but during the seasons of Lent and Advent, as we prepare ourselves for the celebrations of Easter and Christmas, the lectionary uses these longer passages to help us remember the great stories of scripture.  For a few weeks we stop sipping from scripture and pause to drink deeply.  And so, this morning we read from the gospel of John and we remember the time when Jesus met with a Samaritan woman (John 4:5-42).

 

5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband.  18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.  Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

34 “My food,” said Jesus “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.

42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

 

The Jews and the Samaritans disagreed on a great many things.  In fact, they hated each other so much that it was only the presence of the Roman army that kept them from violent attacks on one another.  But the Samaritans knew that one day the Messiah would come and explain everything, and they knew that when he came, that the Messiah would belong to them as well as to the Jews.

 

And Jesus simply says, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

 

And for them, the world literally changed in an instant.

 

The Samaritans were waiting for proof that the Messiah had come.  The woman at the well knew a lot about men and she demanded proof that Jesus was more than just another man.  The people in town didn’t take her at her word, they came to meet Jesus in person and get proof.

 

And Jesus gave them the proof that they wanted.

 

And, “many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.”  They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

 

We aren’t so very different.

 

The claims of the Bible and of Jesus are incredible and we often find ourselves thinking and acting just like the Israelites or the Samaritans.

 

We want proof.

 

And so, in Romans 5:1-11, Paul says this:

 

5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

 

Paul says that the proof we want is to be found in the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Jesus didn’t wait for us to “get good” or even to “get better” before he was willing to give up his life and die in our place.  Jesus died for us while we were still sinners, while we were still the enemies of God, so that we would have the chance to be rescued.

 

We no longer have the opportunity to demand proof from Moses or from Jesus in person.  We have to rely upon eyewitness testimony, but many of us also have personal experiences that testify to the presence and the providence of God.  Just in the ten or twelve years that I have been a pastor, I have met several people who ought to be dead, people of whom the doctors said, “We can’t explain why you are alive.”  Many of you can tell the same kinds of stories.

 

Jesus is not dead.

 

He died, he was buried, he rose from the dead after three days, and he lives and reigns still today.  He knows our thoughts and he hears our prayers.  And, if we pay attention, he still offers proof through answered prayer and through our lives, and the lives around us.

 

Every day, God offers us proof… in our lives, in our friend’s lives, and in the world around us.

 

All we need to do is pay attention.

 

 

 

 

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* You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted on the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry Heights in Massillon, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646.  These messages are available to anyone regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org.  To subscribe to the electronic version sign up at http://eepurl.com/vAlYn.   These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

 

Life is More than Living

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“Life is More Than Living”

March 12, 2017

By John Partridge*

 

Genesis 12:1-4a                      John 3:1-17                            Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

 

Are there people in your life that you trust?

We probably all have someone that we trust.  And, depending on how long we’ve known them, and the history that we have between us, our trust varies.

So I guess the question is, “How much do you trust?”

As an illustration, I want to remind you about Charles Blondin, also known as “The Great Blondin,” or just “Blondin,” whom I have used as a sermon illustration before.  Blondin was a tightrope walker and daredevil in the 19th century.  In June and July of 1855 he strung a tightrope across Niagara Falls near where the Rainbow Bridge now stands.  The crossing was 1100 feet long on a rope 3.25” in diameter, and 160 feet above the water.  During those two months, Blondin made as many as 17 crossings between the United States and Canada, but his own personal drive was such that after the first time, just crossing wasn’t enough.  On each trip he did something to make that crossing more spectacular than the last.  He once crossed blindfolded, once with his legs in a sack, then on stilts, and once with both his hands and his feet in manacles.  He stopped in the middle to do tricks; he did backflips, lowered a rope to the Maid of the Mist on the river below, hoisted a bottled beverage from the boat, drank it, and then continued on.  He once carried a stove with him on his back, stopped in the middle, cooked, and then ate an omelet.  Once he carried a chair, stopped in the middle, balanced the chair on one leg, and stood on it. He crossed once on a bicycle, once crossed backward, and returned pushing a wheelbarrow.  Afterward, he reportedly asked the crowd if they thought he could do it again, and they all shouted “Yes.”  He then asked if they thought he could do it again with a man in the wheelbarrow, and again they shouted “Yes.”  But when he asked if any of them would volunteer to sit in the wheelbarrow, not one of them volunteered.  The crowd believed that he could do it, you might even say that they even trusted that he could do it, but there are limits to our trust.  On the other hand, at least once, if not twice, Blondin made the crossing with a man on his back.  Once he crossed with his manager, Harry Colcord, and possibly once more with his assistant.

And so again, we return to the question of how much do we trust.  Do you trust your boss, or your employees, or coworkers, or anyone, enough to put your life in their hands?

It’s that kind of trust that we need to think about this morning as we begin in Genesis 12:1-4a with the story of Abram.

12:1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

 

At the age of seventy-five, Abram makes a new beginning, leaves behind everything that he knew, and sets out for a country that he’s never been to, and in fact toward a destination that he didn’t even know when the trip started.

 

God said “Go,” and Abram went.

 

God did not lay out a map, pass out lots of charts and graphs, and give a PowerPoint presentation to show Abram where he was going, what was going to happen when he got there, and what his standard of living would look like.

 

God said “Go,” and Abram went.

 

And to be totally fair, so did Sarai.

 

Because he trusted God, and because he went where, and when, God told him to go, Abram was honored and revered as the patriarch and founder of the nation of Israel for generation after generation.  But what was it that made Abram and Sarai honorable?  Should they be respected because of their actions or because of their faith and trust in God?  And that is exactly the question that Paul answers for us in Romans 4:1-5, 13-17.

 

4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

 

13 It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15 because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

 

Paul reminds us that Abraham was described in Genesis 15 as being “credited with righteousness” because of his faith and belief in God.  For Paul, wages are paid to someone who works and wages are therefore owed to the worker as an obligation of the employer.  But on the other hand, for someone who simply trusts God for their justification, it is their faith that results in God crediting them with righteousness.  In Paul’s equation, work equals pay, but trust equals faith.

 

Paul continues by pointing out that since the laws of Moses had not yet been written, it was not the law that saved Abraham either.  For Paul, even though he was a Pharisee and a devout Jew, it was not the rules that brought about salvation.  Instead, it is our faith, and the grace of God, that brings about our salvation.

 

All that means that Abram and Sarai weren’t saved because they answered God’s call to “Go,” they went because they had faith and trust in God and believed that God would be faithful in return.  It is their faith that makes them admirable.

 

After all that, I guess the next question is this: Just how important is faith in God and in his son Jesus?

 

In John 3:1-17, we remember this meeting between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus:

 

3:1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, [Note: “lifted up” means “exalted,” but also hints at the coming crucifixion] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

 

First, it is important to note that although we often hear stories about how the Pharisees made attempts to trick or trap Jesus, and how Jesus often criticized the Pharisees in return, Nicodemus was a Pharisee.  Not only that, he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council, and we know that he came to Jesus as a representative of others because he begins his talk with Jesus with a statement in the plural saying, ““Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God.”  This tells us that at least some of the Pharisees and the members of the Sanhedrin knew that Jesus was a teacher that had been sent by God and they agreed that the signs and miracles that Jesus had performed were certain evidence of this.  But Jesus replies that simply knowing, academically, that Jesus had been sent by God was not enough.  In order to be credited with God’s righteousness, you must not only be born physically, but also be born of the Spirit of God.  In order to go to heaven, you must have faith and trust in God and in his son Jesus Christ.

 

What Jesus is saying, is that simply being born is not enough.  Depending on your Jewish heritage and the covenant of God with Israel was not enough.  Following the Law of Moses, the Commandments, and the rules of the Pharisees, was not enough.  Living a “good” life and being a “good” person is not enough.  Simply being alive is not enough.

 

There is more to life than living.

 

Real life is more than living.

 

Of all the people that gathered to watch the Great Blondin cross the chasm at Niagara Falls, only two had real faith in his ability.  It wasn’t enough to believe that Blondin was capable of crossing the chasm at Niagara Falls.  Simply believing that he could do it didn’t demonstrate faith or trust.  The two that had real faith were willing to get into the wheelbarrow or climb up on his back.

 

Likewise, it isn’t enough to simply believe that Jesus has been sent by God.  It isn’t enough to know, academically, that Jesus has been sent by God.  It isn’t enough to believe, academically, that Jesus is the Son of God, and the savior and rescuer of all humanity.

 

We have to be willing to trust him enough to get in the wheelbarrow.  We have to be willing to trust Jesus with our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

 

There is more to life than living.

 

Real life, which is eternal life, is lived by trusting Jesus with everything that we are, everything that we have, and everything that we hope for the future.  We have to put our faith and trust in him and be willing to answer his call to “Go” wherever he sends us.

 

And so we return to the question that we started with.

 

How much do you trust?

 

Do you trust Jesus enough; do you have faith enough, to get in the wheelbarrow?

 

 

 

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* You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted on the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry Heights in Massillon, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646.  These messages are available to anyone regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org.  To subscribe to the electronic version sign up at http://eepurl.com/vAlYn.   These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

 

Sin, Judgement, Rescue

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“Sin, Judgement, Rescue”

March 05, 2017

By John Partridge*

 

 Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7               Matthew 4:1-11                      Romans 5:12-19

Have you ever done something that seemed like a good idea when you started, but turned out to be a really bad idea once you were finished?

There’s an old saying, “When you’re up to your armpits in alligators, it’s hard to remember that the original plan was to drain the swamp.”  This sort of funny saying simply reminds us that when we’re in the middle of the mess we created, it’s hard to remember that we thought the original plan was a good idea.  But once we are through to the other side of the swamp, or at least far enough removed from the alligators to gain a little perspective, it is useful, and wise, to think about the thought processes and circumstances that led us into the swamp in the first place.

And so, along those lines, as we begin the season of Lent, a time that we set aside each year to consider our sinfulness and our need for repentance, it is useful to begin by remembering how sin came into our lives at the beginning of humanity’s story.  We begin at the beginning, in Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7.

2:15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

 

3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

 

First, the enemy of God undermines God’s message in much the same way that he does today, by telling Eve that God was wrong, and that wonderful things will come to her if she disobeys God.  We hear that same message from our culture and from our enemy today. We’re told that sex isn’t wrong, gambling isn’t wrong, greed isn’t wrong, all these things are really good and you’ve just gotten confused about what God really meant.  But Eve considers what the serpent said, and thinks about how good the fruit looks, and how good it must taste, and how food, generally, is good for you, and she decides to disobey God and eat it.  Having done so, she offers it to Adam, who has surely noticed by now that Eve didn’t just fall over dead when she ate it, and so he tries it.  For what it’s worth, when I read that this week, I noticed that while Eve considers what the serpent said, and that food is good for you, and that she would learn the difference between good and evil, Adam not described that way.  The story we have about Adam is that he watches Eve try it, and then blindly follows her example and tries it for himself.  Either way, in both cases, with only a little encouragement from the serpent, both Adam and Eve make deliberate, conscious, decisions to disobey a specific and direct instruction from God for their own, personal, benefit.

 

And “boom,” sin enters the world.

 

For the first time in history, human beings, created by God, say “What I want is more important than what God wants.”  And that, by definition, is sin because in that moment, we set ourselves ahead of God and make gods of our own desires.

 

At that moment, humanity was infected with an almost irresistible desire to do as we please and to worship our own selfishness.  And that was the situation for thousands of years.  Until the arrival of Jesus Christ, who was the one human being who did what no other had ever been capable of doing before.  (Matthew 4:1-11)

 

1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

 

First, Satan offers Jesus the easy way out.  To satisfy his desire and his hunger for food by transforming stones into bread.  Second, he tempts Jesus with ego and fame, because surely people would notice that Jesus had been rescued by God in such a public spectacle.  And third, Jesus is tempted by power as Satan offers to let him rule over all the nations of the earth.  But in each case, Jesus refuses Satan and replies by clearly stating what it is that God wants for humanity and in doing so emphasizes that this is more important than what Jesus might want for himself.  Throughout his entire life, even during the events leading up to his death, Jesus continued to choose what God wanted and continued to put the desires of God ahead of his own.

 

In doing so, Jesus did what no other human being in all of human history had ever done.  And because he did, Jesus was able to rescue all of humanity from the judgement that it had faced since the time of Adam.  In Romans 5:12-19, Paul explained it this way:

 

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—

13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law.14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.

15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

 

What Paul says is that Adam’s sin corrupted all of humanity and that even those people who lived in a time between Adam and Moses, a time in which the Law and the Commandments had not yet been written, even they suffered from the death brought about by sin.  Paul’s argument is that even though they could not be condemned under the law, they would still have been judged by God, who is the righteous judge, for their actions.  But the gift of Jesus Christ is different than the sin of Adam, even if it follows a similar pattern.  While the sin of Adam and Eve corrupted all of humanity, the sinless life and sacrificial death of Jesus allows the rescue of all who believe.  Since the time of Adam, every human being has been called into judgement, not for the sins of Adam, but for the selfishness and sinful acts that they themselves have committed.  But through the grace of God and the sinless obedience of Jesus Christ, we all have the opportunity to be made righteous before God.

 

A great many of the things that we do seemed like a good idea when we started, but in the end we realize just how selfish we’ve become and how far we’ve drifted from God’s plan for our lives.  Since the time of Adam and Eve we, and all of humanity, have been drawn to sin like a moth to a flame, and just as surely that temptation leads us to stand in judgement before God.  The good news is that Jesus was not like us.  He was, and is, the one human being in all of creation that was able to live an entirely sinless life and to do what God wanted instead of what he might have wanted for himself.  Because Jesus was able to do what no one else, before or since, was able to do, he is, through God’s grace, able to offer us the one thing we could never find for ourselves… rescue from sin and death.

 

We are all doomed because of our selfishness and sin.

 

We will all be judged by God for the things that we have done.

 

We have all sinned and the punishment for sin is death.

 

But we have the opportunity to be rescued from death simply by accepting the gift of life that is offered to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

 

And so, as we begin this season of Lent, let us prayerfully consider how we have fallen short of what God wants for us and how we can change for the better.

 

But let us also make sure that we have accepted the gift of indescribable value that Jesus has offered to us.

 

If you have not accepted that gift, I urge you to do so as soon as possible.  Today, before you leave this room, if possible.  And if you have already accepted his gift, and have accepted Jesus Christ as your rescuer and savior, give thanks for what he has done and, particularly during this season of Lent, recommit yourselves to living the life that God has called you to live.

 

 

 

 

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* You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted on the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry Heights in Massillon, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646.  These messages are available to anyone regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org.  To subscribe to the electronic version sign up at http://eepurl.com/vAlYn.   These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

 

The Surrender of Self

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“The Surrender of Self”

March 01, 2017

(Ash Wednesday)

By John Partridge*

 

 

Deuteronomy 30:15-20             Matthew 5:21-37                 1 Corinthians 3:1-9

It happens every Sunday morning in practically every church in the United States, Canada, North America, Africa, Asia, and everywhere.  It isn’t peculiar to the United Methodist Church but happens in Baptist Churches, and Presbyterian churches, Catholic churches, independent churches and every other denominational and non-denominational church you can find.  In fact, it happens in Christian churches, Islamic mosques, Jewish synagogues, and Buddhist temples.  This thing that happens is the offering.  At some point before, during, or after their services of worship, there will be an opportunity for the worshipers and visitors to make some contribution toward the religion, for the poor, or at least toward the upkeep of the building.  Despite the fact that there are sometimes enormous differences between us, one of the things that make us all the same is that no matter where you are, or who you worship, it costs money to maintain the property and keep the lights on.  And so, everywhere we go, even sometimes for secular events, we are asked to sacrifice a little of our hard earned cash.  It’s so ordinary that we most often don’t give it a second thought if the American Legion needs to run a raffle, or the band boosters sell candy bars.

 

But suddenly we arrive at the season of Lent, and something changes.

 

Because although we will probably still be collecting offerings on Sunday mornings during Lent, an entirely different sort of giving and surrendering becomes the central focus as we spend time preparing our hearts for the resurrection of Jesus.  That change in focus is found today in Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 where we hear these words:

 

2:1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill.

Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming.
It is close at hand—
2     a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness.
Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes,
such as never was in ancient times nor ever will be in ages to come.

12 “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

13 Rend your heart and not your garments.  Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.
14 Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing—
grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.

15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly.
16 Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children,
those nursing at the breast.  Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.
17 Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the portico and the altar.
Let them say, “Spare your people, Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
a byword among the nations.  Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

Through Joel, God warns his people that the day of judgement will be a day of darkness and despair.  But on the day of judgement, no one is going to be looking at your tax statements or your church giving receipts, and no one is really going to care very much how much you put in the offering plate.  God said, “Rend your heart and not your garments.”  In reading this, we understand that tearing one’s shirt, or robe, or other garment was a sign of mourning, repentance, and humility, but God declares that even these outward signs are not enough.  Instead, what God really wants, is a broken heart.  God doesn’t want us to show the world how much we’re sorry.  God doesn’t want us to make grand gestures to show him how sorry we are.  What God really wants, is for us to be genuinely sorry. What God wants, is for us to be so sorry that our hearts are broken so badly that we become changed people who live life differently.  So important is this that God wants us to declare a fast, call a sacred assembly, gather the people, and call together all of God’s people in ways that symbolize a meeting of the utmost importance, even bridegrooms and priests serving in the temple will not be excused.  Everyone is needed, because this change of heart is of utmost importance for the continued existence of God’s people and our inheritance from God.

Paul emphasizes this same level of importance in 2 Corinthians 5:20b – 6:10 where he says:

We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.


6:1 As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.2 For he says,

“In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.”

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.

3 We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Paul encourages us to be reconciled with God, to be forgiven through the power of Jesus Christ and to become co-workers with God, working toward the same goals and objectives as God himself.  More than that, Paul says that as servants of God we surrender ourselves, through trouble, hardship, distress, beatings, hard work, sleepless nights, hunger, purity, understanding, patience, through dishonor, bad reports, and in many other ways.  Few of the things on Paul’s list are situations that we would ordinarily, on our own, seek out, but he encourages us to set aside our own desires, to surrender ourselves, in order to pursue the goals and objectives of the Kingdom of God.

And finally, in Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21, we hear Jesus as he challenges his followers to do good, not just for the sake of doing good, but to do good for the right reasons.

6:1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 

16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Much of what Jesus has to say in this passage is an encouragement to have our hearts in the right place, to do good, not for the sake of doing good, and certainly not to do good because it is of benefit to us, but simply to do good for the sake of the Kingdom of God.  This is sometimes a little weird, but we are not called to be righteous so that we can go to heaven, we are called to be righteous in order to for God to be glorified.  Our motives are everything because the condition of our hearts is everything.  Our motives for everything that we do should be God’s motives.  We are called to work, to volunteer, to donate money, to live lives of purity and righteousness, even suffer and sometimes die, not because we have any expectation that our lives will be wonderful, or even that there will be some earthly benefit to us.  We simply do these things because our goals have come in line with God’s goals, our desires are becoming the same as God’s desires, and so we live our lives in ways that are of benefit to the Kingdom of God and not in ways that are necessarily of any benefit to us.

This is the call of the season of Lent, to “Rend your heart and not your garments,” to remember that the gift, the offering, that God truly desires, is not money, or time, or sacrifice, although it might look like any of those.  The gift that God truly desires is for us to surrender ourselves, to surrender our desires, and to replace them with the goals and desires of God.

These are the things that we must think upon as we prepare our hearts for Easter.

This is what it means to surrender self.

 

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* You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted on the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry Heights in Massillon, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646.  These messages are available to anyone regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org.  To subscribe to the electronic version sign up at http://eepurl.com/vAlYn.   These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

 

Aim Carefully

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“Aim Carefully”

February 26, 2017

By John Partridge*

 

Isaiah 49:8-16a                      Matthew 6:24-34                  1 Corinthians 4:1-5

During the American Civil War, as General John Sedgwick’s troops were preparing for battle, they were being harassed by Confederate snipers.  General Sedgwick argued with his men that there was no need to duck because, as he put it, “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.”  Seconds later, General Sedgwick was shot in the head and killed by one of those snipers.

 

If you’ve ever watched some of the television shows about military snipers or Hollywood movies like “Shooter” filmed in 2007 with Mark Wahlberg, or if you’ve ever done any shooting of your own, you will know that there are a number of factors that can come into play if you want to hit your target.  Wind, gravity, bullet spin, even the curvature of the earth can be a factor, but one thing that is absolutely essential in hitting your target is where you are aiming.  If you aren’t aiming at the target, then your chances of hitting go down tremendously.

 

I say these things because, outside of shooting with guns, there is a principle that applies here that can also be applied in other places.  The principle that I refer to is this: You hit what you aim at.  Or also the contrary, you can’t hit what you’re not aiming at.  We begin this morning in Isaiah 49:8-16a, where we hear these words from God that speak about the coming messiah and about God’s love for his people.


8 This is what the Lord says:

“In the time of my favor I will answer you,
and in the day of salvation I will help you;
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people,
to restore the land
and to reassign its desolate inheritances,
9 to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’
and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’

“They will feed beside the roads
and find pasture on every barren hill.
10 They will neither hunger nor thirst,
nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them.
He who has compassion on them will guide them
and lead them beside springs of water.
11 I will turn all my mountains into roads,
and my highways will be raised up.
12 See, they will come from afar—
some from the north, some from the west,
some from the region of Aswan.”

13 Shout for joy, you heavens;
rejoice, you earth;
burst into song, you mountains!
For the Lord comforts his people
and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me.”

15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.

God swears that he will keep watch over his people, that he will not give them away to anyone else, that he will make a covenant contract with them, and will restore them to the land that he had given to them.  In the end, God swears that he will never forget his people, so strong is his love for them, that it is more likely that a nursing mother would forget her baby, than it would be for God to forget his people.

 

But the warning that comes from God’s words in Isaiah is that the necessity of this promise comes out of the tendency of human beings to forget their promises and break their contracts.  God goes to great lengths to declare his love for his people and to remind the world how he always remembers and never breaks his promises, simply because Israel has regularly, and repeatedly, throughout history, broken its promises to God.

 

And then, as we move into the more modern era, in Matthew 6:24-34, we hear Jesus say this:

 

24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

 

Jesus reminds us that we are still prone to the same forgetfulness as the people of Israel.  We still try to split our allegiances, to cover our bases, and play both sides against the middle.  God knows that money is important, but so is food, and so is mathematics, but all of these are just tools for us to use.  The danger for us is in allowing any tool to become so dominant, that it becomes more important to us than God.  Jesus encourages us to trust God completely, to trust him with our money, to trust him with our well-being, to trust him with our health, and allow him to give us the things that he knows that we need.

 

Where we most often go wrong is in aiming for the wrong things.  If we truly want to have a relationship with God and if we truly want God to hold the most important place in our lives, then that is what we ought to be aiming for.  But when we take our eye off the ball, when we shift our aim, and we make the accumulation of money, or power, or sex, or pleasure, or something else to be the target, then our aim has drifted and we’re no longer aiming for God.  But what many of us will try to argue is that what we really want is God and money, or God and success, but what Jesus is very clear about is that we cannot aim at two things at the same time.  You are either aiming for God and a relationship with him… or you aren’t.  If you’re aiming for “God and” then you are no longer aiming for God at all.

 

In 1 Corinthians 4:1-5, the Apostle Paul offers this description of how we might think of ourselves:

4:1 This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. 2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.

 

Paul says that we are servants of Jesus Christ and people who are entrusted with the truth that has been revealed in scripture.  Because of the trust that God has placed in us, we must be faithful to him in return.  In the end, when Jesus returns to earth to judge humanity, he will shine light into the darkness and he will reveal the motives of every human heart.

 

On the one hand we have God, who has declared that his love for his people will never end and that he is constantly thinking of our well-being.  God has entrusted us with the great riches of the mysteries of God and the Good News of Jesus Christ and we will be judged by the motives of our hearts.  But on the other hand are the fickle and ever changing hearts of humanity.  We are constantly adrift, constantly tossed this way and that by the people around us, by our culture, and by our circumstances.  We are constantly tempted to put our trust in places that are not trustworthy.  We are constantly tempted to aim at the wrong things.
But God won’t share first place.

 

You just can’t aim at two things at once.

 

Aim carefully.

 

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* You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted on the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry Heights in Massillon, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646.  These messages are available to anyone regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org.  To subscribe to the electronic version sign up at http://eepurl.com/vAlYn.   These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

 

Called Over the Top

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crazy

Be Outrageous. Be stupid.

Jesus said so.

Your friends are supposed to think that you’re crazy.

Seriously.

If you were here, I mentioned this on Sunday, but it’s worth saying again.  In Matthew (5:38-48) Jesus makes a series of statements that often begin with “You have heard it said, but…” in which he tells his listeners that the conventional wisdom, the ordinary assumptions of daily life, were just plain wrong.  Everyone assumed that the best defense against violence was to fight back, taking an eye for an eye, but Jesus says that the only way to reduce violence is to refuse to participate in it, to “turn the other cheek.”

Most of us have heard that before, but that was just the beginning.  He also says that” if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.”  This is extraordinary.  In our litigious, twenty-first century society most of us make two errors in reading this.  First, we incorrectly assume that Jesus means for us to give a shirt to someone who won a lawsuit, but that isn’t it at all.  Jesus said, “If anyone wants to sue you…” so his instruction is to do an end run around the legal system, call it a loss, and just give it to them.  Our second mistake comes from our relative wealth and our expectation of the same on the Biblical story.   But Jesus was talking to people who lived in an entirely different world, most of them probably only owned one coat.  And so, Jesus’ instruction to “hand over your coat” is not only one of generosity, but one that is over-the-top, crazy, and disturbingly generous.  This is generosity that expensive and costly, and not just giving that is comfortable and comes from our excess.

Jesus continues, saying “If anyone forces you to walk one mile, go with them two.”  And, while this seems relatively straightforward, most of us still don’t understand the root of his comment.  As I understand the history of it, under Roman occupation, one of the standing rules that the occupied nation lived under, was that if any Roman soldier asked, any citizen had to accompany them for one mile and carry their pack, or whatever else they demanded you to carry.  So remembering that most people really resented the presence of the Roman soldiers in the first place, Jesus is saying that you need treat your enemies and the people you despise, and here it is again, with… disturbing generosity.

Why should we do all this?

Jesus answered that by saying, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”  We are called to behave in these strange, unfamiliar, and unpopular ways because these are the things that God does.  This is how God behaves.  And if we have any desire to be associated with him, to be called “children of God” then we probably ought to act like God does.

But going this far still wasn’t enough.  Jesus pounds the point several more times to make sure that we really begin to understand just how crazy we’re supposed to be.  Jesus says, “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?”  That’s pretty plain, but if you need a modern translation, here it is.

It doesn’t impress anyone that your love is “just as good” as the tax collectors, or that you are “just as loving” as everyone else.  Being “just like everyone else” means that you are no different than everyone else and that your faith is no better than their lack of faith.  The followers of Jesus Christ have been called to be different; we are called to a higher standard.  Jesus said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

So get out there.  Go out into your neighborhoods, and your places of business.  Be willing to take a loss.  Go out into the world and be extravagantly, disturbingly, generous even when it is costly to you.  Be so generous that people think you’re crazy.  Be nice.  But be so nice that everyone thinks that you must be crazy… or stupid… or both.  Be friendly and outgoing.  Be loving.  But your friendliness and your love should be so over the top that it gets people talking about you.

Be outrageous.

Be stupid.

Your friends are supposed to think that you’re crazy.

Remember our goal isn’t to blend in; our goal is to stand out.

Our goal isn’t to be “just like everyone else,” our goal… is to be perfect.

 

 

 

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The Reason for Rules

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“The Reason for Rules”

February 19, 2017

By John Partridge*

 

 Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18                 Matthew 5:38-48                 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

Have you ever thought that there are just too many rules to remember?

 

We have rules about etiquette, culture, language, law, and religion.  There are rules and laws that govern the maintenance of our automobiles, how we drive, where we drive, what we drive, and who can ride in the car with us.  We have rules about what kind of gas we can buy, where we can buy it, and how they are allowed to sell it.  We have rules about who is allowed to drive, when they can drive, and what skills they have to have to get permission to drive.  We have rules about how the cars that we drive are made, what they look like, what safety features are required, which are allowed but not required, and even which safety features are not allowed.  We have rules about who is allowed to sell cars, how they can be sold, and who can’t sell cars and who is not allowed to sell them.  There are simply tons of rules about even the simplest things in our lives and we are prone to wonder why we have so many rules, if there is any real necessity for so many rules, and if there is a reason that we have so many of them.  But consider for a minute, what would happen if we encountered a stretch of highway where there were no rules.

 

I can assure you that in a very short amount of time, no one would want to go there.

 

What if you could drive as fast as you wanted, in any kind of vehicle you could imagine, and no one had to obey any traffic laws at all?  You could not have any expectation of road safety or regular maintenance.  The people around you might be riding bicycle, driving bulldozers, or drag racing jet powered semi-tractors.  People could be driving fast, or be parked in the middle of the highway.  Without rules, that stretch of road would be frighteningly dangerous and in a state of continuous chaos.

 

When you think about what driving would be like with no rules, we quickly realize that although there are some rules that might be questionable, there are generally good reasons that the rules exist.

 

That just seems to make sense to us, but at the same time, people ask the same sort of questions about our faith, Christianity, Judaism, and the Bible.

 

Why are there so many rules?

 

And as we read through scripture today, we discover that the answer is surprisingly simple.  We begin in Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18, where we hear these words, many of which we remember as a part of the Ten Commandments:

19:1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.

9 “‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.

11 “‘Do not steal.

“‘Do not lie.

“‘Do not deceive one another.

12 “‘Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

13 “‘Do not defraud or rob your neighbor.

“‘Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight.

14 “‘Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord.

15 “‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.

16 “‘Do not go about spreading slander among your people.

“‘Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the Lord.

17 “‘Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt.

Please note that this expands on the message that we heard last week.  Do not hate a brother or sister in Christ, but if you know that they are doing something wrong, neither should you simply ignore what they are doing nor cover it up.  If you knowingly ignore wrongdoing, or help to cover it up, you share the guilt of the people who are doing wrong.

18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

This list offers a slightly different slant than the Ten Commandments, but I think the most important words in this passage are found in the introduction.  God commands Moses to gather all of the people of Israel and it isn’t difficult to imagine that everyone’s first reaction, including Moses, would be to ask why.  And so God says, “Speak to the entire assembly and say to them, be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.”

What we almost always forget when we think about the Ten Commandments is this introduction.

Be holy, because God is holy.

God does not say that he is giving his people a list of instructions because he loves rules, or because he enjoys burdening people with lots of restrictions on their behavior.  What God says, is that he wants us to be like him, and then he gives us some examples of how we, imperfect and corrupt as we are, can do better.  God doesn’t give us rules to follow because he loves bureaucracy, but because he wants to point us in a direction that leads to life and holiness instead of suffering and death.

Imagine God’s frustration in this.  Imagine that someone comes to you, tells you that they are very sick, that they need to see a doctor, and asks for directions to the hospital.  And when you tell them how to get there, they complain bitterly that you are putting too many restrictions on their freedom and insist that they can go any direction that they want to.

Of course, that seems ridiculous, but that is exactly what it must seem like to God when we complain about there being too many rules restricting our freedom, when the entire purpose of the rules was to give us directions that would save our lives.

Jesus says something similar in Matthew 5:38-48, where we hear these words:

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus says, I know that you’ve all heard about “conventional wisdom,” but the conventional wisdom is wrong.  The only way to reduce violence is not to participate in it.  Be willing to take a loss, be willing to look foolish, be willing to be disturbingly generous, even when it is costly to you.  God has done good to you and has poured out his love upon you, even before you ever met him.  It doesn’t impress anyone that your love is “just as good” as the tax collectors, or that you are “just as loving” as everyone else.  Being “just like everyone else” means that you are no different than everyone else and that your faith is no better than their lack of faith.  The followers of Jesus Christ have been called to be different; we are called to a higher standard.  Our goal isn’t to be “just like everyone else,” our goal is to be perfect.

 

Paul emphasizes this difference in 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23, where he says…

 

10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care.11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.


16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 21 So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

Paul says that the foundation of everything that we do is Jesus Christ.  Because the Spirit of God has taken up residence inside of us, we are the temple of God.  This weekly gathering of fellow believers is sacred because this is God’s temple.  It isn’t the building, it’s the people.  Paul also echoes Jesus in fighting against the conventional wisdom or “the standards of the age,” and reminds the church that worldly wisdom is not the same as godly wisdom, and what God teaches is often ridiculed by conventional wisdom.

So what does this all mean?

In the end, what this means is that the foundation of everything that we do is Jesus Christ.  We are called to be different because we belong to Jesus and through Jesus, we belong to God.  We are called to be holy, not because God loves rules, or because God wants to take away your freedom, but because we want to be like God, and God is holy.  We want to live, and God has given us a prescription that can lead us to health and wellness.  We are moral free agents who are absolutely free to do whatever we choose, but God is abundantly clear that our choices can either lead us to God’s blessing and life, or to suffering and death.

You wouldn’t want to even try to drive on a highway that didn’t have any rules.  It is the rules that maintain order and keep us safe.  And so whenever we hear people complaining that God has too many rules, or that the church just wants to control your life, the question that you should ask is probably similar to the one you might ask someone who criticizes you for giving them directions to the hospital.

You can do whatever you want.

Do you want to get better?

Or not?

 

 

 

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* You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted on the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry Heights in Massillon, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646.  These messages are available to anyone regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org.  To subscribe to the electronic version sign up at http://eepurl.com/vAlYn.   These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

 

Responsibility, Immaturity, Blame

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“Responsibility, Immaturity, Blame”

February 12, 2017

By John Partridge*

 

 Deuteronomy 30:15-20                  Matthew 5:21-37                     1 Corinthians 3:1-9

 How many of you have ever had to make a choice?

It seems obvious that all of us have.  We make dozens, even hundreds, of choices every day.  We have to choose whether we want paper or plastic, cash or credit, Colgate or Crest, name brand or generic, roll-on or stick, toast or bagels, and on and on, and on, all day , every day.  But sometimes we are faced with bigger choices that have more importance and more impact on our daily lives and on our future.  Our own children at the age when they have to choose whether or not they are going to college, and what discipline they want to major in, where to go to school, how much they should study, whether they should be in a serious relationship or not, and so on.  After that they’ll have to decide weather they want to be married or not, to whom they want to be married, and whether, or when, they want to have children (let’s be clear, I’m not in a rush for that to happen).  As we go through life, some of our choices are clearer than others.  Some choices are simple, do I want ‘A’ or ‘B,’ apples or oranges, white or black, but others are a lot like being on “Let’s Make a Deal.”  Do I choose door number one, door number two, or door number three?  Sometimes we just do the best that we can and hope and pray for the best.

But imagine if we had a clear choice about one of the biggest, most important, decisions of our lives?

What if we had to choose between door number one and door number two, but both doors were already wide open and we could see everything inside of them?  It seems obvious that this kind of choice would be easy, but in Deuteronomy 30:15-20 we find that sometimes we make mistakes in even the most obvious of choices.  Moses declared to the people:


15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

We must choose responsibly.

The decision ought to be easy.

The choice is black or white, and literally life or death.  Choose to love God, to be obedient to him, and to keep his commands, and you will live and be blessed.  Or, turn away from God, be disobedient, and drift toward idolatry, and you will face death and destruction.  The choice ought to be easy, God equals life, but many people are so trapped by their addiction to selfishness, that they cannot break away and give their lives, devotion, and obedience to God.

But it isn’t just our obedience that is a part of our spiritual relationship with God.  In Matthew 5:21-37 Jesus is very clear that our relationships with our Christian brothers and sisters, and even our relationships with other human beings generally, is an important part of God’s judgement about us as well.

21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ [An Aramaic term of contempt] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

25 “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Being angry at each other, can bring about God’s judgement and even muttering that some other Christian is a “jerk” under your breath can land you in front of a judge.  Before God will accept your offerings and prayers, he wants you to be reconciled with one another because just like disobedience, your personal differences push you away from God.  This may be especially difficult in an era of political polarization.  But, regardless of our politics, we are called to be reconciled with one another.  Jesus then provides several examples that explain why keeping the commandments and obeying the law is even more difficult than we imagined.  Divorce is more harmful than we’d like to pretend it is.  Adultery is more than cheating on your spouse, it can happen as easily as your head turns to look at a pretty young thing on the beach.  Even breaking a promise can open the door to judgement so we are encouraged to always tell the truth and always follow through and do what we have said that we will do.  We are called to be so reliable, that people have faith that will do what we have said that we will, or won’t do.  There is no need to swear an oath if you are known to be a person of your word.

If we read this carefully, I think that there is another underlying message as well.  All of these things that Jesus said include the expectation that each of us are responsible for the things that we do.  We are cautioned not to do those things that might cause others to fall into sin, but in every case, the focus is on being responsible for what we have done, and not allowing us to blame someone else for our failures.

And finally, in 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 Paul encourages the church to grow and mature in their faith and the things that he holds up as examples of immaturity are some of the same ones that we just heard Jesus condemn.

Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Stop arguing with each other.  Stop trying to divide the body of Christ by claiming divisions that don’t really exist.  We aren’t different because we follow John Wesley, or Martin Luther, or Menno Simons, or John the Baptist, we are the same because we are all followers of Jesus Christ.  All of us are working together, or at least we should be, to work in the garden of God’s kingdom.

In all these things, from Deuteronomy, to Matthew, to Paul, to Jesus, we are encouraged to grow up.  To become mature followers of Jesus, we must become people who accept responsibility for our own actions, people who work to purify ourselves and are obedient to God, in our faith, in our personal relationships, and in every way so that we can work together and share our responsibility in growing the Kingdom of God.

It’s more complicated than we sometimes think, and it’s harder than we’d like to pretend it is, but in the end there are only two choices.

God is blessing.

God is life.

Without God is death.

Without obedience is death.

What will you choose?

 

 

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* You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted on the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry Heights in Massillon, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646.  These messages are available to anyone regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org.  To subscribe to the electronic version sign up at http://eepurl.com/vAlYn.   These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.