You, O Lord, Are Our Hope!
Psalms 71:1-6 (NRSV) 1 In you, O Lord, I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me and save me.
3 Be to me a rock of refuge,
a strong fortress, to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
5 For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
6 Upon you I have leaned from my birth;
it was you who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of you.
This morning I awoke to news of one policeman and two policewomen slain in the line of duty over the last several days. My heart hurts. My tears freely flowed, partially because of the senseless loss of life, partially because the lives of the officers’ families will never be the same, and partially because there seems to be no spiritual or moral restraint left to prevent this type of atrocity.
Psalm 71 was written by David during his old age. David was not a perfect man, but he served a perfect God. David knew where his hope lay, and his faith never wavered. We, too, serve a perfect God, and regardless of the cruelties of this world, our faith must remain strong.
But how do we accomplish such a feat? First, keep a notebook and enter the times your faith was tested, but God proved stronger than your opposition. Trust me, doing this is a faith-builder.
Secondly, stay in touch with God through prayer, scripture reading, and attending a Bible believing church regularly. Can your faith be built up without going to church? Let me put it this way…when you are hungry all you need to satisfy your hunger is to go to the table. If we are spiritually hungry, or our faith is growing weak, one of the best things we can do is go to the Church’s table, where we will find grace, faith, and other Christ followers who will lift us up with their prayers and friendship.
Sometimes we may feel we are on this journey alone, but we are not.
5 For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
6 Upon you I have leaned from my birth;
it was you who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of you.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen
Father God, today we call on You for strength. May our faith be bolstered by You and by those You place within our lives. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
The Bible is either God’s Word, or it is not
John 1:1-5 (NRSV) 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
The United Methodist Church has reached the point in time when we are neither united, nor are we truly Methodist. In six weeks, delegates from all over the world will meet in St. Louis to decide basically upon whether we will follow God’s Word, or we will modify His Word to reflect the current world culture.
Three plans will be presented for a vote. Plan one, the Traditional Church plan, states we will continue to adhere to our Book of Discipline. Actually, it purports to give legs to the Discipline which will begin to be enforced. The Discipline includes the questionable paragraph that states “a homosexual lifestyle is not compatible with Christian teaching.”
Why do I call the paragraph regarding homosexuality questionable? Well, for me it has always seemed odd that this one sin is singled out in our Discipline. Is homosexuality the unforgiveable sin? No. But the problem with homosexuality is that those who practice it will not admit it is a sin. If we refuse to admit our sin, we will not repent of it nor turn away from it. If we fail to repent, can there be forgiveness of that sin?
Those who want to exit our churches if the Traditional Church Plan passes will be allowed to do so, and will be able to take their property and all assets with them.
The second plan is termed the One Church Plan. In this plan, the Book of Discipline will be changed to eliminate talk of homosexuality, and those practicing this lifestyle can now be ordained to preach and homosexual marriages can now be performed by our pastors in our churches. Supposedly, churches within the different Conferences can choose to either accept this practice, or they can refuse to perform homosexual unions or receive a homosexual pastor. But, if both the state and the church says it is legal to marry people of the same sex, and a pastor and/or church refuses to do so, does that open the parties up to legal action? Very likely it will. If churches who can not tolerate these changes decide to exit the United Methodist denomination, they may do so but must forfeit their churches and assets under the “Trust Clause.”
The third plan, termed the Simple Plan, offers a way for all of the churches to remain loosely connected. The churches can choose how they want to interpret the Bible, but they would be connected by continuing to pay their tithes to the Conference and remaining under the Episcopal system of government.
For those of us who do not endorse the One church plan, we have been accused of failing to love our fellow Christians, and worshipping the Bible rather than the God who in essence wrote the Bible. We have been told the Bible is archaic and does not reflect the culture in which we now live.
I have to say that, to me, the issue surrounding the One Church Plan has little to nothing to do with love, and I do not even think it is about human sexuality. Loving people is not difficult when we pray that God will help us love people the same way He loves them. Human sexuality is a complex issue. I personally do not believe sexuality is a choice, but it is something we are born into. When I was a teenager, there was a saying that “God don’t make no junk.” What happened to believing God creates each of us in our own unique way?
Am I conflicted about homosexuality? I admit that I am. I am not sure why sexuality plays such a huge part in the way we live out our faith. Is a homosexual lifestyle sinful? The Bible says it is, just like the Bible says adultery is sinful, gluttony is sinful, and gossip is sinful. Am I so perfect that I can pick up the stone to shatter someone’s life and their faith? I think not.
While Jesus addresses divorce in the scriptures he says nothing about homosexuality. Does the absence of Jesus’ speaking of homosexuality somehow validate such a practice? Personally, I do not base my theology on what is not in the Bible, rather what is clearly stated therein. Both Moses and Paul said that laying with some of the same sex is a sin. Why didn’t Jesus either validate Moses or correct his understanding? When you look at Jesus’ teaching, you will see that He only corrected those laws that were misinterpreted. “You have heard it said…but I say…” were the familiar words spoken by Jesus when he corrected the misunderstanding of the law. He never did so with homosexuality.
The issue is, and always has been, holiness.
The One Church plan removes the onus upon us to strive for holiness. When God said “be thou holy” it was not a suggestion. Yet, men and women have knowingly lied about their sexuality in order to receive ordination. Such action should make them unfit to serve, yet the conferences prefer to focus on whether local pastors are allowed to wear stoles. Shameful.
Whether or not the One Church Plan passes, our Church has become Humpty Dumpty, never to be put together again. I mourn for our Church and for those whose ill-advised mission has torn our Church apart.
For those of you who believe God will step in and heal the deep divisions within the Church, I remind you of Heb 6 which says if we are enlightened, but then turn away, it is impossible to be restored. We have traded God’s wisdom for our own understanding, and in doing so we have destroyed Methodism. We have made an issue of homosexuality, when the true issue is do we believe the Bible or not? We need to acknowledge that regardless of the culture, the Holy Spirit will not contradict God’s Word. If we believe He will, then God help us.
When Jesus told us in Matthew 28 to go make disciples, He did not qualify the type of disciples to whom we should minister and invite into the fold. Instead of living out our purpose of letting people know who Jesus is and what He can do in our lives, we have become distracted. As a pastor, it has been my job to proclaim the Word. It is not my job to monitor the way people live out their faith. Perhaps the answer is to pray for people, minister to people, love people, and let God sort out our differences.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Father God, the world in which we live has begun to impact our Church and our beliefs. We know we are charged with loving You and loving others, and we have. We pray that during this time you would give us direction and understanding. We pray for guidance covered by love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Truth
John 5:16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. 17 Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” 18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.
24″I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. 25 I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. 30By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
The truth is a strange phenomenon. Take the truth of God, for instance. The truth is that God exists. If we do not accept the truth of His existence, neither the truth nor His existence is changed. He still exists and that is the truth.
In this passage, Jesus tells the truth of who He is and why He has come. To some, the truth was like a soothing balm, to others it was iodine poured into an open wound.
The Jews who did not believe began by faulting Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, because He was breaking the Jewish Law. Then, they were offended because Jesus said His Father was working even to this day, and therefore, so was He. Jesus came not to do His own works but the works of God, who sent Him. “How can this be?” they must have thought. How can Jesus call God His Father? Is this heresy or is it truth?
Have you ever anticipated something, perhaps a vacation destination, but when you finally arrived it was not all you had hope it would be? I think this is the predicament in which the Jewish leaders found themselves. They knew the Scripture, they knew Isaiah had foretold a Messiah, they saw it in the Psalms, yet when He came He was not what they expected.
If only they had believed in spirit and in truth. If only they had the faith to bridge the gap of disbelief. If only they could have walked across the bridge from death to life.
Have you heard the truth? Do you have the faith to believe the truth? A man who brought his son possessed by an evil spirit to the disciples for healing left in the same predicament in which he arrived–his son was not healed. When he reported this to Jesus, Jesus answered by saying they were an unbelieving generation. The man answered, “I believe, help thou mine unbelief.” (Mark 9:24)
We are each given a measure of faith to help us believe. If your faith is not strong enough, ask for more. If that faith is still not strong enough, ask for yet more. God is not some cruel jokester dangling eternal life in front of us, always just out of reach. God is a loving father and Jesus is His son, and we must only ask and salvation is ours, we must only believe and we have crossed over the bridge from eternal damnation to eternal life. Ask…believe…live. Live in belief, live in faith, live into your salvation each and every day. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Father God, our faith comes through You and is strengthened by You. May we live out our faith each and every day. May our faith, like the tiny mustard seed, be planted, watered, tended to, and grow to mountain moving faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Choices
Today is the day to choose God.
What If ???
Hebrews 12:1-13 (NRSV) Chapter 12
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children—
“My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
or lose heart when you are punished by him;
6 for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves,
and chastises every child whom he accepts.”
7 Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? 8 If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. 9 Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. 11 Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
We have reached the end of the first week of 2019, and it occurred to me that if we continue to live this year with the same habits and activities as in previous years, nothing much will change. So, I thought we might seek guidance from this letter to the Hebrews as we embark on this new year.
It is not unusual in the New Testament to see the writers use an analogy of a physical race to explain a spiritual race. The readers of these letters were well acquainted with games for which one had to prepare if one expected to win.
For a physical race, the contestant was accustomed to removing anything that would weigh him down. In watching Track and Field events today, we see runners with short, light-weight clothing, shoes that likewise weigh a few ounces, with some competitors even shaving their bodies, hoping to “shave” time off of their race.
In running the race we call life, we could take some lessons from these contestants. First, to be successful we must be prepared. Just as we must cast aside anything that would slow us down in a physical race, success in the spiritual realm dictates that we do the same. We must turn away from sin and habits that would slow us down and look to Jesus, the One who gave us our faith and will help us to complete our faith. I love the spiritual aspect of these verses, as we are reminded that the people who have gone before us are now cheering us on!
Secondly, we must understand there is a discipline in anything that is done well. To succeed as an athlete, we must train our bodies. To reach a high plane spiritually, we must discipline our minds and our hearts. What if we decided that 2019 would be different that any previous year? What if we determined to be not just a people who accepted Jesus when we were eight years old, and then lived life as though being a Christ follower did not matter, but instead we made a commitment to live out our salvation each and every day?
What if when someone cuts us off in traffic we say, “God bless you,” and really mean it? What if we can ignore mean spirited comments made toward us or about us? What if we remember those gone before who finished their race and we decide to complete ours with the same grace and dignity they displayed? What if we consider all that Jesus did for each of us before we say an unkind word?
There is a new movement in the United States called, “WWRBGD.” Or, what would Ruth Bader Ginsberg do? God forbid!
I have nothing against Justice Ginsberg and holding her up as a role model is perfectly acceptable. But will asking the question, “What would Ruth Bader Ginsburg do?” really enable me to live out my Christian faith in a manner pleasing to God? Such action reminds me of Looney Tunes and Elmer Fudd as he proclaimed about Bugs Bunny, “Cwazy Wabbit!” Have we become so enamored of living, breathing human beings that we have traded our love and admiration of God for people whose bodies will one day turn to dust? Cwazy Humans!
Our scripture today ends by encouraging us to lift up drooping hands and strengthen weak knees. How do we accomplish this? We praise the God of the Universe with hands held high, and kneel before Him with humility. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Pastor Carol
Father God, as we bow before You we ask that you would strengthen our hearts and our resolve, that from this day forward we would purpose to change our outcome by changing our input, and that we would cease following earthly leaders to take up our cross and follow Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Seeking Holiness 