This year, our season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, on March 2nd.
But what will that look like?
Lent is a time to remember and to reflect. Spring is coming. And with its arrival, we will celebrate Jesus’ resurrection at Easter. Ordinarily, we see Lent as a time to prepare. A time to give up a favorite treat, food, or activity to remind ourselves of Jesus’ sacrifice and to reflect on him whenever we think about our abstinence from the thing that we “gave up” for Lent. But over the past two years we’ve all given up so many things, my heart almost breaks when I think about giving up anything else.
Our hearts ache for the return of “normal.”
And isn’t that sort of the point?
And so, let’s think about Lent, and our preparation for Easter with that in mind. Last year, we couldn’t be together for Lent. We held Ash Wednesday online, but in dispensing own ashes, and marking our own foreheads, we missed out on pieces that felt crucial to our sense of belonging and normalcy. This year we are worshipping in person and this year we will hold Ash Wednesday in person (and since we noticed that our attendance at our virtual Ash Wednesday far exceeded our regular in-person service, we will also have a livestream).
As we walk through the scriptures of preparation during Lent, you will notice that then, like now, the disciples were passing through a season of radical change. Their routines were disrupted. They were separated from their families, from Jesus, and often from one another. By Easter morning they were heartbroken, frustrated, grieving, and longing for a return to normal. And while our circumstances are vastly different, our own experiences over the last two years certainly make us appreciate what they were going through.
And, assuming the progress of the pandemic continues the downward trend that we’ve been seeing, let’s plan to be together on Easter. Let us use this time to start breaking the habits of the pandemic. Rather than “giving up” for Lent, let’s start “adding back.” Let’s try to attend church on Sunday rather than on Monday or Tuesday (remember YouTube tells me when you’re watching), try to get back in the habit of watching “live” at 10:15 instead of watching in the afternoon and try to attend weekly instead of skipping weeks.
In short, let us use this season of lent hopefully, and prepare ourselves for a return to as “normal” and Easter as we can muster.
Let us commit to a season of preparation so that we will arrive on Easter morning renewed, refreshed, equipped, expectant, and joyful.
My hope is that we can journey together during this season of anticipation and arrive, together, joyfully on Easter morning.
We would never dream of putting up a sign that said, “Unvaccinated? Keep OUT.”
But that’s exactly what we’re doing.
It’s become a cliché to ask, “What Would Jesus Do?” But this week, I’ve been thinking church should be asking itself what Paul would do. Of course, anyone who has spent any time in church or Vacation Bible School has heard about Paul the Apostle. Paul was born in Tarsus which was a part of what is now the nation of Turkey. But despite being born far from Rome, Paul was born to parents who were both Jews and Roman citizens.
There were privileges that came with being a Roman citizen. It was as if the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights only applied to citizens, and you carried those rights wherever you went, anywhere in the Roman world. Non-citizens didn’t have the same rights and slaves certainly did not have them. Romans could not be beaten or treated harshly, and while they could be arrested, they couldn’t be tried in any court outside of Rome but had to be returned to Rome, or to a Roman court, for trial. In modern language, citizens were privileged.
But Paul didn’t always use that privilege. Paul found that sometimes his privilege, his rights, his citizenship, and even his freedom, was a disadvantage when sharing the message of Jesus with the people around him. In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Paul said:
19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
Even though Paul was not a slave, he sometimes gave up the rights that he had so that he could be heard by the slaves and share the message of Jesus with them. Even though Paul knew that following Jesus released him from some of the dietary restrictions and rules of the Jewish faith, he would follow those customs when he was with the Jews so that they would be able to hear his words when he shared the gospel. But when Paul was living among the Greeks and other people who were not Jewish, he would follow their customs for the same reason.
Wherever Paul went, he did whatever he could to allow people to hear his message. And that often meant giving up something important. Paul found that his rights, his privileges, and even his freedom, got in the way of people hearing the good news of Jesus Christ. Slaves wouldn’t hear a message that was preached by someone who used their citizenship and their freedom to act better than them. Jews wouldn’t listen to someone who was an outsider and violated their religious laws. And people everywhere feel more comfortable around a person who respects their customs.
But what does that mean to us? What would Paul do if he lived among us today?
As we near what we hope is the end of this pandemic crisis in the United States, we are hearing a lot about rights and privileges. We have a right to move about freely. We are free to choose whether we will wear a mask. And those persons who are vaccinated are being granted special rights and additional freedoms.
But is exercising those freedoms the right thing to do?
I’ve seen churches advertising that they are “Open and Mask-less.” Vendors are selling signs saying that vaccinated persons are welcome in their church. And I’ve seen churches that say things like, “All are welcome. Unvaccinated persons must wear masks.” I understand that these are the rights that are given to us under the United States Constitution, and the privileges of having access to the Covid-19 vaccine. But will exercising these rights prevent us from sharing the message of the gospel?
It was once common for churches to ask visitors to stand up and introduce themselves. That custom made me so uncomfortable that I vowed never to return to any church that made me do it. And so, I worry that requiring unvaccinated persons to wear masks will make them feel unwelcome. We would never dream of putting up a sign that said, “Unvaccinated? Keep OUT.” But that’s exactly what these signs are saying. Anything that draws a line between “us” and “them” is exactly what Paul spent his life trying to avoid.
If Paul were writing today, I wonder if his words wouldn’t be, “Though I am vaccinated, and am free to do as I wish, I have made myself to be unvaccinated, to win as many as possible. To the unvaccinated, I have become unvaccinated to win the unvaccinated. With the mask wearers, I have worn masks, to win those that wear masks.” I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
We have rights. But what if using them turns people away? In the twenty-first century, like Paul, we must be careful that our rights, privileges, and freedoms do not get in the way of people hearing the good news of Jesus Christ.
People who always think that they are right can be annoying but sometimes we need them. Although we’re likely to call them egotists, there are situations where it is good to think that you’re always right. Officers in combat don’t have the luxury of doubting themselves. They must be decisive.
General George Patton once said that, “All very successful commanders are prima donnas and must be so treated.” Patton himself was often accused of not only being a prima donna but of being egotistical and overconfident. He was so sure of himself that he once said, “I am a soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.”
In combat, leaders have to believe that they are making good decisions so that they aren’t paralyzed by doubt. But, at the same time, if someone cannot recognize and admit when they were wrong, they become unable to learn, adapt, and move forward. We see many of those same characteristics in the Apostle Paul, but first, let’s begin with a parable that Jesus told in Matthew 21:33-46, about a powerful landowner and his relationship with the people who rented it from him. Jesus said…
33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.
35 “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
38 “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, people who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.
Jesus told this parable at least in part because the church leaders of his day, the chief priests and the Pharisees, were in the audience and his description could easily be understood to be a story about how Israel had treated God’s prophets as well as pointing to himself as God’s own son and how they would, ultimately treat him as well. But the point of the story was to tell the people, the leaders, the nation, and the church that God expects us to not only care for the things that he has given to us, but to give credit to him for giving us the gift, and to use them to produce fruit for the kingdom and not just to enrich ourselves. If we don’t use what we have been given to grow God’s kingdom then, Jesus says, God can easily take away the gifts that he has given to us, and give them to someone else that will.
That’s harsh. The chief priests and the Pharisees knew exactly what Jesus was talking about, and they knew that he was talking about them. And they didn’t like it one bit.
In contrast, we can look at the Apostle Paul who, at one time, counted himself as one of the Pharisees and leaders of Israel. But, with God’s help, Paul had a change of heart and the explains what that change meant in Philippians 3:4b-14 where he says…
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith inChrist—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Do you remember the phrase, “Float like a butterfly sting like a Bee?” Muhammad Ali was known for his style of trash talk and self-promotion and Paul begins by using that same style of self-promotion. When Paul says, “If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more,” he is saying the same thing that Ali did when he would say, “I am the greatest.” Paul is using that same style of self-promotion and the same egotistical, self-confidence that we saw in General Patton and other leaders, but with an important exception. Paul not only says why he is the greatest, he explains why. He explains that he was born in the right family, went to the right schools, had the best teachers, did all the right rituals, and he did them perfectly.
But he discovered that he was wrong.
On the road to Damascus, on one of his journeys to find arrest and torture, if necessary, Jews who had been deceived into following Jesus, Paul is confronted, and blinded by, the risen Jesus. And after that, Paul says, everything in which he once took pride, his pedigree, his education, his position, his importance, the rituals, and even his perfection, he now sees as being worth nothing… unless they are used to promote the cause of Jesus Christ and to grow God’s kingdom. Paul casts aside everything that he once thought was valuable, everything that he once intended for himself, and everything that he once built his life upon, because he is now pursuing something new, better, and truly perfect. He says that he has surrendered all the prizes that his old life once offered and now pursues only the prize that God intends for him.
Although Paul still has the same kind of egotism and self-confidence that he always had, he has taken to heart Jesus’ parable of the rich landowner. Paul realized that he was wrong, learned, adapted, and is now moving forward by working for God instead of against him. Paul realizes that the prize that God intends for his life must be far better, and far greater, than any prize that he might have ever intended for himself.
But will we learn the same lesson?
Are we willing to give up on our dreams, let go of the personal goals to which we have held so tightly, so that we can grab hold of the dreams and goals that God intends for us? Are we willing, as individuals, and as a church, to use what we have been given to grow God’s kingdom?
Or will we hold too tightly to the control, the power, the influence, the dreams, and the goals that we had in mind for ourselves, and risk that God will take it all away and give our gifts to someone else?
May we instead, forget what is behind us, strain toward what is ahead, and press on toward the prize for which God has called us through his Son Jesus Christ.
Click here to visit Pastor John’s YouTube channel.
*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, 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 or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.
There is an old joke that says, “Many people want to serve God, but only in an advisory capacity.”
We’re good at telling God what we think that he should be doing and how he should be doing it rather than accepting the God is God and we are not. We get stuck in our understanding of scripture, and in our interpretation of modern culture, all because we expect God to do, and to say, what we think God ought to be saying rather than conforming our lives to the things that God actually said. But as discouraging as that might be, we are comforted, at least a little, by knowing that we are not the first people to do that.
In the story of Genesis, more than once, Abraham trusted God in a limited capacity. What I mean is, despite God’s promises to care for, and protect Abraham and Sarah, on several occasions, not least of which was when he made a baby with his servant, Abraham tried to use his own resources and ingenuity to fix God’s problems rather than fully trusting that God would fulfill his promises. And although God is omniscient, which means all-knowing, perhaps it is this habit of “helping God out” and not fully trusting that makes God test Abraham’s faith in Genesis 22:1-14.
22:1 Sometime later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
For most of his life, God has asked Abraham to trust him and we remember Abraham because of his great faith and trust, except that despite his trust in God, too often Abraham tried to stack the deck and help God out. But now, God wants to know, maybe God wants Abraham to know, or God wants future generations, us, to know that Abraham has finally put his whole faith and trust in God… without holding back. God asks Abraham to sacrifice the one son that he has left, the one son that would be the father of God’s people, the son of Sarah, who was now even five or six years older than she was when Isaac was born. In asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, God is really asking him to sacrifice everything. Every hope, every promise, everything. We can only imagine what was going through Abraham’s mind. It was against God’s own law to sacrifice another human being. Sarah was now older than she was when we knew that she was old and “far past the age of childbearing” and Abraham was probably now over one hundred years old. How was God going to keep his promises if Isaac was dead? How could Isaac become the father of God’s people? None of it made any sense.
But Abraham trusted.
Abraham did what God told him to do and God worked it all out. And in the end, the thing that Abraham sacrificed on that mountain wasn’t Isaac, but it was his own, last, tight grip on control. Abraham finally let go of himself, his need to be sure, and his need to have a backup plan. Abraham sacrificed an offering of self, and finally put his whole faith and trust in God.
If we’re honest, we will admit that we’re like Abraham. We like to be sure. Trusting God is unsettling because there is too much that we don’t know. But that’s kind of the point of trust, isn’t it? But the thing is, human beings always seem to want to put their faith in something and trust in something, even if that something isn’t God. And it is that habit of ours that makes the story of Abraham real and relevant to us three thousand years later. In Romans 6:12-23, Paul explains it this way:
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We all have a choice.
Paul says that every human being eventually chooses to enslave themselves to someone or to something and our natural desires, given free reign over us, will drive us into slavery to our own selfishness, greed, pleasure, and wickedness. But, like Abraham, God is asking us to make a sacrifice, to offer ourselves, to offer our desires, dreams, hopes, our everything, to him in exchange for our rescue from death, our second chance, and the new life that we have been given. Rather than choosing to be slaves to greed, or slaves to selfishness, or slaves to greed, money, and pleasure, God calls us to choose different kind of slavery altogether. God calls us to give ourselves to him, to put our whole faith and our whole trust in him, so that we become slaves to righteousness, slaves to doing what is right, rather than slaves to wickedness and sin.
The sacrifice in the Genesis story was never really about Isaac. It was all about Abraham’s stubborn grip on control.
We are all confronted with the same question that confronted Abraham. Like Abraham, God is asking each of us where our ultimate allegiance lies. Is our allegiance on self-reliance and control? Do we swear our allegiance to the security of our bank and investment balances? Have we put our faith and trust in politicians, political parties, nations, and powerful armies, and overwhelming weaponry? Will we enslave ourselves to selfishness and sin? Will we keep our grip on control and hold too tightly to our doubts?
Or will we trust God?
Completely.
May God grant us the grace, and the courage, to surrender ourselves and become slaves to doing right.
Click here to visit Pastor John’s YouTube channel.
*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, 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 or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17Matthew 6:1-6, 16-212 Corinthians 5:20b – 6:10
It happens every Sunday morning, and it happens in practically every church in the world. It isn’t peculiar to the United Methodist Church. It happens in Baptist Churches, Presbyterian churches, Catholic churches, independent churches, and every other denominational and non-denominational church you can find. 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 worshipers and visitors to make some contribution toward the organization, for the poor, or at least toward the upkeep of the building. Despite there being 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 don’t think twice if the American Legion needs to hold 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, for the next few weeks 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 how much you put in the offering plate. God said, “Rend your heart and not your garments.” As we read 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 these outward signs are not enough. Instead, what God really wants, is a broken heart. God doesn’t want us to put on a show. God doesn’t want us to make grand gestures. What God really wants, is for us to be genuinely sorry. What God wants, is for us to be so sorry, and our hearts broken so badly, that we become changed people who live life differently. This is so important that God calls for us to declare a fast, call a sacred assembly, gather the people, and call together God’s people to a meeting of the utmost importance. Even bridegrooms and priests serving in the temple, people who were ordinarily excused from most everything, will not be excused. Everyone is needed, because this change of heart is vitally important 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.
6:1As 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.
Jesus says that we need to have our hearts in the right place. We must 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 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 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 are to do these things because our goals are becoming God’s goals, our desires are becoming God’s desires, and so we begin to live our lives in ways that benefit to the Kingdom of God and not necessarily in ways that benefit 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 desires, is not money, or time, or sacrifice, although it might look like any of those. The gift that God desires is for us to surrender ourselves, to surrender our desires, and to adopt, in their place, 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.
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*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, 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 or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.
Have you ever gotten gifts that were more exciting to unwrap than to receive?
You know what I mean. You’ve opened gifts, and been all excited, and the gift turned out to be an ugly sweater. Our kids would occasionally get gifts from relatives that were things that they really liked… three years before. A Dora the Explorer backpack would’ve been welcome in elementary school, but it just wasn’t what our junior high daughter had in mind. Over the years, I’ve seen a number of those kinds of things in all degrees of severity. Lovely gifts of wine or scotch whiskey… to friends that don’t drink, hair coloring to people who prefer natural color, a white sweater to a platinum blonde that never, ever wears white, a Bible for an atheist, and so on. But the next level is when your boss tries to do you a favor and gives you a raise and a promotion, but it means that you must sell your house and move. You interview for a new job, get hired, and move to a new city, only to discover that the company that just hired you has declared bankruptcy and your new job is gone.
Some gifts are not what we wanted and others, that we thought we wanted, turn out to be much less valuable or pleasurable than we thought they would be when we asked for them. And the stories that we find in scripture often reflect this same idea, and sometimes we find that the gifts that God wants to give us, are the kinds of gifts that make us run screaming from the room. We begin in the story of Job. An honest, upright, and faithful man of God, to whom horrible things would happen, for no apparent reason. (Job 1:1; 2:1-10)
1:1In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.
2:1 On another day the angel came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
3 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”
4 “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. 5 But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
6 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.”
7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. 8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.
9 His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!”
10 He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
For the record, I understand that it was Satan who afflicted Job and not God, but God knew about it, God knew what Satan intended, and not only did God allow it, God seemed to invite it. And, while a study of the book of Job can, and has, result in volumes of sermons with a great many valuable lessons, the takeaway here is Job’s rhetorical question, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
If we trust God, and if we trust that God cares about us, knows everything about us, and knows everything that happens to us, then do we demonstrate a lack of faith when we wonder if God is aware, or if God cares, when we go through times of trouble? Job’s question is as relevant to us as it was to his wife, if we accept good from God how can we not accept trouble as a gift from God when it comes? Trouble, pain, suffering, difficulty, and trials are not gifts that we ask for, and are sometimes gifts that cause us to run screaming from the room, but many times, not always, but many times, these difficult situations are indeed gifts from God that are intended for a higher purpose.
In Mark 10:2-16 we find a story that may give us some insight into how we accept difficulty in our lives.
10:1 Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again, crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.
2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
3 “What did Moses command you?” he replied.
4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”
5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. 6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife 8 and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
10 When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11 He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
13 People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.
This passage seems a little odd because it starts with a conversation about divorce, but if we take a moment to consider what it meant to the people in the story, it helps us to understand it better. The pharisees were having an argument over what criteria needed to be met in order to grant a divorce. Historically, some rabbis made the case that the slightest infraction, like burning your breakfast, was enough, but others argued for a much higher standard. Jesus rightly points out that all of this came about because Moses had said that it was okay for people to divorce and the rabbis throughout history had argued over how high a standard should be met before giving permission to do so. But Jesus wades into the dispute like a bull in a china chop and upsets every vested interest, by saying that God is never okay with divorce, that it is always a sin, and that Moses only allowed it because human beings, even faithful, churchgoing humans, are a miserable, stubborn, disobedient, hardhearted bunch and would disobey God no matter what he said.
Ouch.
Instead, Jesus says, we ought to be more like the children that came to meet them. The kingdom of God, Jesus says, belongs to people who are like children and, what’s more, if we don’t receive the kingdom like a little child, we can’t enter the kingdom at all.
So, what does that mean? Let’s unpack it a little bit.
Anyone who has spent any amount of time at all with children knows that children are both innocent and trusting. If you say come, they come. If you say go, they go. If tell them to do this, or don’t do that, they do what you tell them to do (certainly not always, but as a rule, they are far more trusting than adults). For our purposes today, it’s important to note that children accept teaching, rebuke, and correction from their teachers, mentors, and parents better than adults. In short, they are teachable and correctable and if we adults want to get into the kingdom of God, we need to be like them.
In this passage of scripture, Jesus contradicts the teaching of the pharisees on the subject of divorce, but this isn’t unique. Time after time, Jesus makes it clear, that we aren’t as good as we thought we were. The rules are stricter, and God’s standards are higher, than we thought they were. Over and over again, Jesus makes it clear that we aren’t as perfect as we thought we were or as good as we imagined ourselves to be.
But if God is so demanding, and we are so deeply flawed, shouldn’t we despair and give up even trying to be good? No. And in Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12, Paul explains why.
1:1In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways,2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
2:5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified:
“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
a son of man that you care for him? 7 You made them a little lower than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and honor 8 and put everything under their feet.”
In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. 9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. 12 He says,
“I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the assembly I will sing your praises.”
Paul reminds us that Jesus came to earth to provide purification of our sins before God. Jesus now rules over the angels in heaven because he suffered death for us, to pay the price for our sin and rebellion against God. Jesus was, and is, the pioneer of our salvation and rescue so that we could be made perfect through suffering.
But if we read Paul’s words carefully, it says, “10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.” Paul is reminding us that Jesus was the pioneer, the first, and through him God chose to make our salvation perfect through suffering. But by using the word “pioneer,” in this way, it seems as if Paul is also reminding us that suffering was not unique to Jesus. Jesus made us perfect, in the eyes of God, through suffering, but we face our own suffering and at times, God intends for our discomfort, our inconvenience, our pain, and our suffering to change us. Sometimes, pain and suffering cause us to leave our comfort zones and discover new truths, sometimes suffering leads us to new discoveries about ourselves, about others, about our world, and about God’s mercy, grace, and love. And sometimes, our pain and suffering are the means that God uses to move us toward perfection, toward a better version of ourselves, toward the person that God created us to be, and toward the person that God needs us to become.
Trouble, pain, suffering, difficulty, and trials are not gifts that we ask for, or gifts that we ever wanted. But rather than fight God tooth and nail, rather than demanding that God immediately rescue us, consider that we might want to be like little children before God and consider that God has indeed given these to us as a gift. Consider that God may intend for us to learn something from our pain. Remember that God loves us enough to sacrifice his own son, loves us enough to personally suffer the agony of persecution, flogging, crucifixion, and death. If we trust God, and if we trust that God cares about us, then we should consider that no matter what joy or sorrow, pleasure or pain, comfort or suffering, that God allows into our lives, each of them is a gift that is intended to shape us into something better.
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*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, 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 or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.
Have you ever watched a gigantic reversal in a game that you were watching? The Browns are losing but in the last seconds of the fourth quarter the Cardiac Kids would score two touchdowns and squeak out a win. There have been games when the Indians drive in several home runs, or one grand slam in the bottom of the ninth. Or some player on Jeopardy! Is in dead last, but then sweeps two or three entire categories, hits a daily double, bets everything, wins, and then put it all on the line in Final Jeopardy, and wins again, to come from behind and take home the prize money.
Hugh E. Keough once said, “The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; but that is the way to bet.”
But sometimes the betting pool is wrong. Sometimes, the unexpected happens. Sometimes the underdog wins. And that has everything to do with our stories from scripture today.
We begin in the book of Esther at the climax of her story. Prior to where we begin, Haman, a high-ranking advisor to King Xerxes (pronounced Zerk-sees), convinced the king to sign an edict that would allow everyone in his kingdom to kill any Jew that they found and take their wealth, whatever it may be, for their own. What Haman didn’t know, was that King Xerxes’ queen, Esther, was a Jew and she wasn’t about to sit idly by while this atrocity played itself out. And so, she invited both Haman and the king to dinner, but chickened out and couldn’t bring herself to make the big announcement. But then, she invited them both to a second dinner, and that is where we join the story. (Esther 7:1-10, 9:20-22)
7:1 So the king and Haman went to Queen Esther’s banquet, 2 and as they were drinking wine on the second day, the king again asked, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.”
3 Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. 4 For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.”
5 King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who is he? Where is he—the man who has dared to do such a thing?”
6 Esther said, “An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman!”
Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. 7 The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.
8 Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining.
The king exclaimed, “Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?”
As soon as the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. 9 Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, “A pole reaching to a height of fifty cubits [75 ft.] stands by Haman’s house. He had it set up for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.”
The king said, “Impale him on it!” 10 So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai. Then the king’s fury subsided.
20 Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, 21 to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar 22 as the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration. He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor.
Haman was descended from a tribe of people that had been almost wiped out by the people of Israel when they fought over, and settled into, the land that God had given them. His hatred was for Ester’s uncle, Mordecai specifically, but also for all Jews everywhere, and he allowed his hatred to propose something truly evil and make it sound palatable and convincing to the king. But God had put the right person, in the right place, at just the right moment. As Mordecai had said, Esther was chosen by God “for just such a time as this.” And suddenly the tables are turned, and the hunter becomes the hunted. To make matters worse, Haman throws himself on the feet of Queen Esther to beg for his life just as the king returns to the room and it looks as if he is attacking her. And before Haman leaves the room, they have already put a blindfold or a hangman’s hood over his face, and he is sentenced to die by being impaled on the same pole with which he had intended to kill Mordecai.
If you read the rest of the story, King Xerxes is unable to retract his earlier edict, but instead issues a second one that allows the Jews, wherever they are, to gather together and use whatever means necessary to defend themselves and, if anyone attacks them, the Jews get to keep the wealth of their attackers. The moment that Haman had intended to watch his enemies die, became the moment of his own death and he dies on the pole that he had built for his enemy. In the end, a day that was intended for the destruction of the Jews becomes a great victory instead. It was a great reversal of fortune. The unexpected happened, the underdog won.
This type of reversal of fortune is somewhat common in scripture because it is in the unlikely, the improbable, and the outright impossible that we most easily see the hand of God. But, as we read the stories of the New Testament and the Gospels, we also see moments when the unexpected is not found in the miracles of God, but in the unexpected and expansive grace of God. In Mark 9:38-50, the disciples come to Jesus because God has players on the field that aren’t on the team that the disciples thought they should be on.
38 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
39 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us. 41 Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.
42 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where
“‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.’
49 Everyone will be salted with fire.
50 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”
First off, Jesus does the unexpected when he tells the disciples that there are others who follow Jesus, and who perform miracles in Jesus’ name, but who are not among the twelve disciples or among those that they know. How can this be if Jesus told Peter that “on this rock I will build my church”? How can followers of Jesus not follow Jesus? But Jesus says that anyone who preaches the gospel is not their enemy. Moreover, anyone who does good in the name of Jesus will be rewarded by God.
Conversely, Jesus says that God will punish those who do things that cause others, even children, to go astray. We all know, many of us from painful experience, that it’s better to shut up, and be silent, than to say something stupid. And Jesus make the same sort of point. It’s better to lose a hand, or an eye, than to suffer in hell so even though doing the will of God and following the example and the teachings of Jesus may occasionally be inconvenient, or even painful, or costly, being inconvenienced is far better than being condemned to hell.
Jesus says, “everyone will be salted with fire.” And the best way to understand that is to remember that gifts to God, sacrifices made to God, were burned on the altar. And so, what Jesus is saying is that our inconveniences in following him, the sacrifices that we make, the trials that we endure, the pain that we suffer, in the name of Jesus are sacrifices that burn on the altar before God which ultimately purify us.
But what is that thing about salt losing its saltiness?
Remember that Matthew 5:13-16 says,
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Taken together these scriptures tell us that the sacrifices that we make, in order to follow Jesus, the inconveniences that we experience, the suffering that we endure, these are the things that make us different than the people around us. These are the things that reveal the works of God to the world around us. These are the things that make us the salt of the earth. And if we lose our saltiness, if we become just like everybody else, and look, and act, just like everyone else, then we also lose any ability that we had to change our culture, to change our world, for the better.
Those are lessons that were unexpected.
But why is all of this important? Why do we want to be salted with fire? Why do we want to be the salt of the earth? Why do we want to change the world? And in James 5:13-20, we find the answer.
13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
19 My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, 20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.
This passage if full of the miraculous and the unexpected.
Saying a prayer to an invisible and unseen God, whose temple doesn’t even have an idol, and that prayer has the power to heal the sick. Expose yourself to potential pain and ridicule by confessing your sins in public, so that you can be healed. And, James says, we do all of these things so that one life might be changed. All of this is worthwhile, a multitude of sins can be erased, if just one person is rescued from death and returns to the ways of God.
This is the ultimate reversal of fortune.
The sinner, condemned to death, repents, returns to God, and is saved. Life comes from death. The world is changed for the better… one life at a time.
And all of that happens because the followers of Jesus Christ are willing to lay their comfort, convenience, pain, and suffering on the altar and give it to God. When we are willing to live our lives differently than the people and the culture around us, when we are willing to be salty, it is then that we can be seen. It is then that the world, and the people around us can see God at work in us. It is then that we are able to change the world, one life at a time, and be a part of God’s greatest reversal of fortune ever. Rescuing the lost, restoring the condemned, and literally bringing life out of death.
That is certainly worth a little inconvenience and suffering.
Our inconvenience, pain, and suffering, in the name of Jesus, is the salt that will change the world.
Don’t ever be afraid to be salty.
“Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”
Did you enjoy reading this?
Click here if you would like to subscribe to Pastor John’s weekly messages.
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*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, 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 or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67 Romans 7:15-25 Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
Have you ever felt like you were in too deep?
Have you ever felt like the things on your plate were too much for you? There was too much work, the situation demanded more emotional energy than you felt like you had to offer, or in some other way, what was demanded of you was just… too much?
We’ve all been there.
We’ve been buried in schoolwork, been given too much work, taken on too much responsibility, overwhelmed with family situations, been faced with health problems that seemed to be insurmountable, and a host of other things. At one time or another, we’ve all reached a point when we just throw up our hands, or collapse into a chair, and say to ourselves… I just can’t.
But for me, whenever I get to that place, one of the things that floats back in my memory, are the words of one of my mentors quite a few years ago. These seven words are often able to put my problems back into the right perspective.
I can’t. God can. I think… I’ll let him.
Say that with me.
I can’t. God can. I think… I’ll let him.
In our first scripture this morning we meet Abraham’s servant, we aren’t given his name, but we are told that he is the most trusted servant that Abraham had, and the man who ran the entire household. Abraham, by this time, was nearing the end of his life and he wants to insure that Isaac marries a woman from among his own people, and from his own faith, and not from among the Canaanite women. And so Abraham sends his servant back to his homeland, to find a bride.
But here’s the thing: This servant had never been to Abraham’s homeland before. He didn’t know anyone there. He wasn’t exactly sure where to go. He wasn’t exactly sure about the customs of the place or how they might have changed since Abraham left close to a hundred years earlier. In a time long before radio, television, or even the Pony Express, there was no way to send a message ahead to tell someone that he was coming. The mission that he had been given was almost completely impossible. He only vaguely knows where he is going, and has almost no idea what he is going to do once he gets there. But what follows is one of the most amazing stories of faith and answered prayer in all of scripture. I hope that you will open your Bibles this week and read the entire story, but in the interests of time this morning we will begin after he has already met Rebekah, sits down to dinner with her family, and explains his mission to them. (Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67)
34 So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. 35 The Lord has blessed my master abundantly, and he has become wealthy. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female servants, and camels and donkeys. 36 My master’s wife Sarah has borne him a son in her old age, and he has given him everything he owns. 37 And my master made me swear an oath, and said, ‘You must not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live, 38 but go to my father’s family and to my own clan, and get a wife for my son.’
42 “When I came to the spring today, I said, ‘Lord, God of my master Abraham, if you will, please grant success to the journey on which I have come. 43 See, I am standing beside this spring. If a young woman comes out to draw water and I say to her, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar,” 44 and if she says to me, “Drink, and I’ll draw water for your camels too,” let her be the one the Lord has chosen for my master’s son.’
45 “Before I finished praying in my heart, Rebekah came out, with her jar on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water, and I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’
46 “She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too.’ So I drank, and she watered the camels also.
47 “I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’
“She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milkah bore to him.’
“Then I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her arms, 48 and I bowed down and worshiped the Lord. I praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road to get the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son. 49 Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn.”
58 So they called Rebekah and asked her, “Will you go with this man?”
“I will go,” she said.
59 So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men. 60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,
“Our sister, may you increase to thousands upon thousands;
may your offspring possess the cities of their enemies.”
61 Then Rebekah and her attendants got ready and mounted the camels and went back with the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left.
62 Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. 63 He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching. 64 Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel 65 and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?”
“He is my master,” the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself.
66 Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. 67 Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
Abraham’s servant finds the general area where he was supposed to go, stops for a break at the well, and while there, prays to a god that he doesn’t even worship. Since he is on a mission for Abraham, he chooses to pray to Abraham’s God and asks that, if he is to be successful, that the woman he is seeking will come to him and will answer his questions in a specific and measurable way.
In essence, Abraham’s servant recognizes that he simply cannot do what he has been asked to do and in his prayer he says…
I can’t. God can. I think… I’ll let him.
And everything that he prayed happens only moments after he prayed. And so what we witness is not only God answering his prayer, but God was already in the process of answering before he even began to pray. Step by step, item by item, Rebekah says and does exactly what Abraham’s servant prayed that she would do. Even more than that, Rebekah’s family recognizes that God has made all of this happen and they give her the opportunity to choose for herself whether or not she wants to go. Rebekah is being asked, at a moment’s notice, to leave everything that she has known, to leave her family, her friends, her culture, and her nation. She is being asked to travel to a country she has never seen, to marry a man she has never met, and live with a family that she knows nothing about. But, much like Abraham, amid the confusion of the moment, she hears the call of God and consents to leave immediately to go to a new place, and join a new people, in order to do the will of God.
Rebekah too seems to say these same words.
I can’t. God can. I think… I’ll let him.
We also note that Paul struggled with his own humanity and his inability to be as good as God wants him to be. In Romans 7:15-25 he says this:
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Paul says that because his very nature is contaminated by sin, he is unable to do the good that he wants to do and often ends up doing the evil things he deliberately tried not to do. He thought about doing good, he intended to do good, he planned to do good, but in the end he failed to do it. At the same time he thought, intended, and planned not to do things that disappoint God, and yet, in the end, that’s exactly what he did. Paul believes that God’s law is good, but his sin interferes with his ability to follow it. But when he cries out in his need to be rescued from himself it is God who delivers him through the sacrifice, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Paul uses longer sentences, but what he is saying is this…
I can’t. God can. I think… I’ll let him.
And finally, in Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30, Jesus say this:
16 “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
17 “‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Jesus says that Israel’s leaders behaved like children. They make up their own games and they want us to play their games by the rules that they just made up. According to the rules they made up, no one can be good enough. John the Baptist refused to drink alcohol or to eat with the leaders of Israel and so they said he was possessed by a demon. Jesus came and he ate and he drank and they criticized him for drinking, eating, and making friends with outcasts. But Jesus tells us that he knows God, that he was sent by God, and that he has come to reveal God to everyone. Jesus invites the weary and the burdened to come to him and find rest. Jesus calls out to the people who are tired of falling short of the expectations of others, tired of falling short of their own goals, tired of trying to do good and failing, and tired of doing the very things they were trying so very hard not to do. To all of us who are overwhelmed and who are tempted to call ourselves a failure because of the burdens that have consumed us, Jesus calls and says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
God knew that human beings, infected by the corruption of sin, were incapable of being “perfect enough” or even “good enough” to make it on their own. And so he sent his son Jesus to do all the heavy lifting for us. Jesus has done all that needed to be done. Jesus sacrificed his own life in order to pay the debt that we owed to God. And Jesus invites us to surrender ourselves to him and allow him to be at work in our lives, transforming us into the people that God wants us to be.
Isn’t it time that we stopped beating ourselves up?
Isn’t it time that we stopped trying, and failing, to do it all on our own?
Isn’t it time that we realized that we can’t be perfect?
It’s time that we all said..
…I can’t. God can. I think… I’ll let him.
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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.
It happens every Sunday morning, and it happens in practically every church in the world. It isn’t peculiar to the United Methodist Church. It happens in Baptist Churches, Presbyterian churches, Catholic churches, independent churches, and every other denominational and non-denominational church you can find. 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 worshipers and visitors to make some contribution toward the organization, for the poor, or at least toward the upkeep of the building. Despite there being 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 don’t think twice if the American Legion needs to hold a raffle, or the band boosters sell candy bars. 
Pastor Partridge 