Month: July 2016

GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM CHRIST, WHO GIVES TO US THE RICHES OF THE UNIVERSE AND BEYOND!

TEXT: Luke 12: 13-21

Dearly Beloved By Christ:

Some of my ancient relatives fought in the Crusades. So did a few of yours. America’s founding fathers agreed to die rather than submit their liberty to the tyrannical English crown. Abraham Lincoln waged war in order to “Protect and preserve the Union.” Massachusetts Yankees died in that war to abolish slavery. And after Pearl Harbor, our fathers and grandfathers lined up in droves to fight the Axis powers because they truly believed in freedom. These folks all stood for something more than money. They were willing to risk their lives for something more than money.

Some of you have relatives in Europe. I don’t know what they think about the appalling ISIS war that is currently being waged against them. But I do know Europe as a whole has been losing that war for quite some time. Why? Our NATO allies in Europe have professional armies, fighters and bombers, tanks, ships, and even nuclear weapons. On paper, they cannot be defeated by a rag-tag group of fanatics armed with a few knives, guns, and home-made bombs. And yet, they are losing. Why? Why do they seem so powerless against such a demonic foe? The answer is: If you give up on God and don’t have Godly principles to live and die by, you have nothing. Europe gave up on God a long time ago. Today all they have is Western wealth and the do-dads that go with it. Money doesn’t give people a backbone, but noble principles do. Europe today is a living example of the old adage: “If you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing.” And money, the modern god, is actually nothing because you can never take it with you.

I

Make no mistake, money is what makes our world go round—at least on a superficial level. But, does it inspire hearts to willingly die in order to attain it? Does it make our conscience clean? Should it define our lives? Is it what we want to be remembered for 100 years from now when we lay in our graves?

I recall a conversation I had with another about 40 years ago. It was about money, specifically, the American dollar. I reminded that person that money is nothing more than a promise. A promise from a government to you. A promise that is only as good as the people making it. Do human governments ever renege on their promises? You know the answer. So, why do people “believe in money” but disbelieve in God Almighty, Who has kept every promise He’s ever made and proved it by promising and then delivering His own Son to death on a cross in order to save us? America, who or what is your God today?—The Trinity or money?

Of course, money buys us emotional “highs” and makes our physical lives externally easier. In this, money is a siren’s song which breeds complacency. In our lesson a rich young man heeded that siren’s song of an easy life. So, he asks Christ to intercede on his behalf and cut through the red tape of having an inheritance with his brother finalized. Basically, he was greedy. “I want mine and I want it now!” Christ addresses that greediness this way: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” The soldiers at Valley Forge knew that. The Union army knew that at Gettysburg when Pickett’s charge came at them. My best friend’s uncle Beryl knew that when he fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

II

Jesus goes on to tell a parable to make His point. Money, in that day, was defined by food stocks. If you had a lot of food, you were rich. Remember, it was an agrarian society. Today, wealth is defined by stock portfolios, art collections, real estate, or possessing the newest technology. In this parable, the man has so much new grain from the harvest that he’s worried what to do with it. (Note: giving it away to feed hungry souls never enters his mind, which reveals his greed.) Instead, he decides to build new barns to store it, after tearing down the old ones! And then, fat and happy, he decides to take his leisure and wile- away the rest of his life doing nothing! “Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.”

ISIS and its allies are winning in Europe today because that same attitude permeates modern Western culture. If life is only about acquiring wealth, if it is all about money, then once you have a bit of it, what else is there? You basically become your own idol—driven by greed. But God says: “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

III

Right now, Europe is bankrupt toward God. That’s why evil is winning. The cathedrals are empty. God is passe to the masses. And I fear America is being lured into the same complacency by relying upon money and technology to provide us with a purpose, with a backbone, instead of relying upon God.

Whatever happened to the wisdom of Solomon: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”? Whatever happened to: “We walk by faith and not by sight” (or the money on our bank statement.? Whatever happened to: “Godliness with contentment is great gain; for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out; so having food and clothing, let us be content with that.”?

Christ’s point here is that loving money more than God, trusting in money more than God’s promises, and having money define the worth of your life instead of having God’s grace define it—all that is a fool’s errand.

Christ’s earthly life was defined by what He did with it. He laid down His life to save our souls. I like to think, in fact I know, that my life is defined by who I can touch with God’s grace thus creating a new saint for heaven. It’s defined by standing up for Godly principles: right vs. wrong; good vs. evil; or as Paul says so well: “Whatever is true, whatever is right, whatever is noble, whatever is pure, whatever is praiseworthy—think about such things and the God of peace will be with you.” So, don’t worry so much about being rich in money—be rich in the Lord and His mercy and grace. Amen

GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM CHRIST, WHO IS ALWAYS READY TO HEAR AND ANSWER OUR PRAYERS!

TEXT: Luke 11: 1-13

Dearly Beloved By Christ:

I Googled this question: “How much time does a person spend on social media?” Various sites popped up and the answer is: 42.1 minutes on average for Facebook and it goes down from there from Snapchat to others with Linkedin bringing up the rear. In terms of all electronic media including TV it amounts to around 11 hours per day! Quick! Go buy LensCrafters stock! Next I searched out this query: “How time does a person spend praying each day?” The answer is: Christians spend between 3 to 7 minutes per day praying—including meal prayers! Of course, unbelievers don’t pray, so as a percentage of the population, those figures are even lower when compared to social media.

Isn’t that sad? Doesn’t it speak volumes about where we are as a nation? Obviously, people really like talking, or communicating with others about themselves, but when it comes to talking with God they basically don’t care. So, I ask you this question:

IS PRAYER PASSE?

I

On the top of big Equinox mountain outside of Manchester, VT is a Carthusian monastery. I’ve read that that order of monks take a vow of silence and basically don’t talk much, if at all, with each other. Instead, they talk to God in prayer. That sounds quite noble, especially in view of the figures I just gave you. The old medieval images of men and women on their knees, often with rosaries in their hands, spending hours each day in prayer seems very pious and holy. Is that what we should all shoot to attain?

Scripture says that God “made us in His image.” That means He made us perfect and without sin. It doesn’t mean that God has a nose and eyes exactly like us or that He thinks and feels in exactly the same way that we do. That being said, we’re also told that God “loves,” that God “forgives,” that God can get “angry,” and that God feels “anguish” over our alienation from Him. So, I would submit that many of our feelings and qualities, including the need for inter-person communication, come from God. Recall those references in the Bible to the Trinity talking among themselves about creation and this need to “talk things out” by God becomes apparent. And so, prayer is a natural outgrowth of our creation which makes real our talking things out with God. Prayer is Not Passe! God created us with this need and it’s as vital to our well-being as our heartbeat or drawing a breath.

II

The disciples asked what seeming was a very simple question one day: “Lord, teach us to pray.” Apparently, John the Baptist had taught his followers some specifics on prayer and now they wanted to learn more, too. And so, Christ then launches in to The Lord’s Prayer, in abbreviated form in this lesson.

If you break it down, you clearly see a few aspects of true prayer which should always be present. One, address it to the only God there is: The Triune God. In this case, it’s the first person of the Trinity, the Father. Two, God is to be praised in prayer. After all, the chief attribute of God is love, or as St. John writes: “God is love.” And who can ever be against honoring pure love? Third, spiritual blessings should predominate, for remember: “A man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” We often forget that our spiritual side, our soul, is far more important to our over-all well-being than our physical state. One is eternal the other is transitory. Fourth, daily bread or physical stuff should also be remembered, but it should not be our chief focus. And five, forgiveness is what makes life bearable, so we need to ask for it and also practice it like God, without conditions. Never forget, God didn’t put conditions upon us for sending us Christ Who won forgiveness for us on the cross. He just did it! That’s pure love. That’s grace.

III

The sixth point here revolves around: “And lead us not into temptation.” Asking God to keep us from evil is vital for our well-being. It’s akin to the old prayer: “Lord, protect me from myself.” And after that comes a couple of stories to ram the point home.

The first example treats of the persistence of prayer. When talking to God Who is the Maker of heaven and earth—never, never give up! Yes, God hears each of our prayers and sometimes says: “Wait a while” before granting them. But that’s a way of testing and strengthening our faith in Him. The last example is about showing us that God our Creator knows what we really need better than we, His creation, does. He sees the total picture, we don’t. And because He loves us dearly in Christ, He will grant us the best!—Better than we can imagine in our minds or formulate in our prayers.

This all presupposes faith on our part. Christians are really the only group on this planet who have the awesome power to talk directly to God! That’s because we have faith. And true faith is grounded in Jesus Christ. Faith is our modem link to God’s internet. Without it we’re just whistling “Dixie.” Or, in the case of the disciples, the tune might have been: “Judah.”

And so, it is to faith-filled believers that Jesus gives those amazingly comforting words: “Ask and it will be given, seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. For whoever asks, receives; he who seeks, will find; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

When was the last time you were chatting with someone on the internet, or sent an email or a text message asking them for something? Did they respond? Did they follow through? Or, was it met by dead air space? The fact is: people often talk a good game but follow through only if it’s convenient for them, as in: “What’s in it for me?” But God, our God, never does that! If you send in an order, He delivers. He’s better than Fed-Ex because He has instantaneous response time. He’s better than Big Brown in that He never loses a package. And He’s certainly more reliable than the Post Office for obvious reasons! Moreover, God doesn’t charge us anything for our prayers because Christ already paid the bill on the cross! Is Prayer Passe in an age of technology and text messages? I think not. So, He and I challenge you to pray—for more than 3-7 minutes each day! I wonder how many out-of-the-blue blessings will follow? Let’s do it and see! Amen

GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM CHRIST, OUR SAVIOR
TEXT: Luke 10: 25-37

Dearly Beloved By Christ:

I woke up on Friday morning to the awful news from Dallas about how police were targeted and gunned down by an evil man. It left me cold and very sad. I also thought: “Perhaps this Sunday I should free text it, or pick another lesson from the Bible which is pertinent to the moment at hand, and preach on that lesson. After all, God’s people need to be comforted and our balkanized nation needs to be healed by Godly truth.”

To be sure, the farther we creep away from the Christian influence upon our nation’s populace, the more evil, grotesque, and divided we become. However, Christianity doesn’t divide people, it unites them under God. It says that we’re all sinners who all need to repent, believe, and be saved. It says that no one escapes God’s judgment for their evil, and we’re all answerable to Him. It says that Godly order and sober judgement are far preferable to chaos and death. It says that although humans may look at the outward appearance, God always sees the heart. Because of all this, I decided we didn’t need a free text today; we as Americans need one of those “meat and potatoes” texts, like the one before us, to reorder our own hearts and thus help calm our nation. So, I challenge you and all your fellow citizens to heed Christ’s words here and to GO AND DO LIKEWISE.

I

The story of the Good Samaritan is known by all, or should be—especially today. It’s not a story of division, of playing favorites, of prejudice. It’s a tale of mercy and compassion. It’s a story of basic respect for all human beings regardless of race, creed, color, or socio-economic status. We all know that Jews and Samaritans didn’t get along. They basically hated each other, so much so that orthodox Jews would not even walk through the region of Samaria because they felt thereby they would be dirtied and made unclean before God. It was an ancient religious dispute, an ethnic dispute that had hardened over the centuries.

The road between Jerusalem and Jericho was notorious for bandits and outlaws. No one was surprised when Christ picked it for the background of His parable. This Jewish merchant is set upon by thieves on the road. No surprise there. They leave him in sorry shape—stripped, bleeding, penniless, and hurting. Next, two “Godly” men come along separately. One is a priest, one is a Levite, or a temple worker. Both ignore his plight and “pass by on the other side” of the road. They don’t want to get involved. They don’t want to take the time to help another in need. Finally, a Samaritan merchant also plods into view. He stops, helps, takes a day or two away from his job, and even foots the bill of providing lodging for this hurting soul. He knows the fellow he is helping is a Jew. He knows crossing this ethnic line is a no-no in that society. But, he does it anyway. Christ’s question to those in attendance, especially the “expert” in the law is quite poignant: “Which of these three was a neighbor to this man?”

II

Our nation needs to hear this story and take it to heart. It doesn’t matter if you’re black, white, Asian, rich or poor—everyone needs to take this lesson to heart. I submit to you that one of the main reasons Americans are tearing themselves apart today is that they have forgotten lessons like this one. They have forgotten that their neighbor is “everyone” under God’s definition. Put into context, police are your neighbors too who serve under God’s warrant.

Prejudice is hard to kill. We see that in this religious leader’s answer to Christ’s query. He could not bring himself to say: “The Samaritan.” That was too bitter a pill to swallow. Instead, he says: “The one who had mercy on him.” But now our Savior pins his attitude on the spear of these final words: “Go and do likewise.”

Those would be very hollow words if Christ hadn’t kept them Himself. But, He wasn’t like the modern rabble-rousers who go from confrontation to confrontation around our nation and whip up to the crowds to more violence. He wasn’t like the politicians who pander and use tragedies for political gain after giving a speech laced with crocodile tears. No, Jesus went and did likewise. God’s Son willingly went to the cross, suffered and died to pay for the sins of all humans. He died, He did “likewise,” thereby showing mercy upon even His enemies by paying for their sins. Christ forgave the unforgiveable, us, instead of passing by on the other side of the road, or getting in a few kicks of His own when we were down and bleeding.

America, that’s us, needs to heed this parable of the Good Samaritan. We need to take it to heart. So, “Go and do likewise.” Yes, Godly truth is the only thing that will ever heal our nation and heal our souls. Amen

GRACE MERCY AND PEACE ARE YOURS FROM CHRIST, OUR SAVIOR
TEXT: Luke 10: 25-37

Dearly Beloved By Christ:

I woke up on Friday morning to the awful news from Dallas about how police were targeted and gunned down by an evil man. It left me cold and very sad. I also thought: “Perhaps this Sunday I should free text it, or pick another lesson from the Bible which is pertinent to the moment at hand, and preach on that lesson. After all, God’s people need to be comforted and our balkanized nation needs to be healed by Godly truth.”

To be sure, the farther we creep away from the Christian influence upon our nation’s populace, the more evil, grotesque, and divided we become. However, Christianity doesn’t divide people, it unites them under God. It says that we’re all sinners who all need to repent, believe, and be saved. It says that no one escapes God’s judgment for their evil, and we’re all answerable to Him. It says that Godly order and sober judgement are far preferable to chaos and death. It says that although humans may look at the outward appearance, God always sees the heart. Because of all this, I decided we didn’t need a free text today; we as Americans need one of those “meat and potatoes” texts, like the one before us, to reorder our own hearts and thus help calm our nation. So, I challenge you and all your fellow citizens to heed Christ’s words here and to GO AND DO LIKEWISE.

I

The story of the Good Samaritan is known by all, or should be—especially today. It’s not a story of division, of playing favorites, of prejudice. It’s a tale of mercy and compassion. It’s a story of basic respect for all human beings regardless of race, creed, color, or socio-economic status. We all know that Jews and Samaritans didn’t get along. They basically hated each other, so much so that orthodox Jews would not even walk through the region of Samaria because they felt thereby they would be dirtied and made unclean before God. It was an ancient religious dispute, an ethnic dispute that had hardened over the centuries.

The road between Jerusalem and Jericho was notorious for bandits and outlaws. No one was surprised when Christ picked it for the background of His parable. This Jewish merchant is set upon by thieves on the road. No surprise there. They leave him in sorry shape—stripped, bleeding, penniless, and hurting. Next, two “Godly” men come along separately. One is a priest, one is a Levite, or a temple worker. Both ignore his plight and “pass by on the other side” of the road. They don’t want to get involved. They don’t want to take the time to help another in need. Finally, a Samaritan merchant also plods into view. He stops, helps, takes a day or two away from his job, and even foots the bill of providing lodging for this hurting soul. He knows the fellow he is helping is a Jew. He knows crossing this ethnic line is a no-no in that society. But, he does it anyway. Christ’s question to those in attendance, especially the “expert” in the law is quite poignant: “Which of these three was a neighbor to this man?”

II

Our nation needs to hear this story and take it to heart. It doesn’t matter if you’re black, white, Asian, rich or poor—everyone needs to take this lesson to heart. I submit to you that one of the main reasons Americans are tearing themselves apart today is that they have forgotten lessons like this one. They have forgotten that their neighbor is “everyone” under God’s definition. Put into context, police are your neighbors too who serve under God’s warrant.

Prejudice is hard to kill. We see that in this religious leader’s answer to Christ’s query. He could not bring himself to say: “The Samaritan.” That was too bitter a pill to swallow. Instead, he says: “The one who had mercy on him.” But now our Savior pins his attitude on the spear of these final words: “Go and do likewise.”

Those would be very hollow words if Christ hadn’t kept them Himself. But, He wasn’t like the modern rabble-rousers who go from confrontation to confrontation around our nation and whip up to the crowds to more violence. He wasn’t like the politicians who pander and use tragedies for political gain after giving a speech laced with crocodile tears. No, Jesus went and did likewise. God’s Son willingly went to the cross, suffered and died to pay for the sins of all humans. He died, He did “likewise,” thereby showing mercy upon even His enemies by paying for their sins. Christ forgave the unforgiveable, us, instead of passing by on the other side of the road, or getting in a few kicks of His own when we were down and bleeding.

America, that’s us, needs to heed this parable of the Good Samaritan. We need to take it to heart. So, “Go and do likewise.” Yes, Godly truth is the only thing that will ever heal our nation and heal our souls. Amen