Are You In?

Sermon as Preached at Lambs UMC 8/26/12

Scripture- John 6: 56-69



The all-in moment, it’s the most exciting moment in a game of poker. It is when a player believes that their hand is so good, that they are willing to risk everything that they have on it. If you win, you double your money, but if you lose, you lose it all. The all-in is one of the riskiest, gutsiest, and boldest moves in poker. You see, it is possible to have a good hand yet bet much more conservatively. You good bet the minimum, you could raise the minimum, you could even risk half of your chips; all of these options if you won would still increase your earnings and if you lost you would still have the opportunity to win it back. Not with the all-in, if you lose, its over. So why would someone ever risk going all-in? Well, some people are just that bold, others are completely bluffing and hoping that by going all-in they would scare everyone else into folding, but as is the case in many instances, some are forced into making that tough decision. Another player may bet all that you have and you have to as Kenny Rogers says, “Know when to hold ém and know when to fold ém. At that moment you must decide what is best for you. At that moment, you must answer the question, are you in?

            In our passage today, the disciples are faced with a similar all-in moment. About a month ago we talked about the miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand with only five loaves of bread and two fish. So many people had witnessed this and were amazed, and after the feast the disciples got into their boat and went to the other side of the sea. During all of this we also see the miracle of Jesus walking on water out to the disciples; joining them as they crossed to the other side. Our passage today picks up right after this event, in fact it was the very next morning. The crowd that had been fed the previous day went to look for Jesus, knowing that the disciples had took the only boat across the sea, but when they could not find him, they realized another miracle had taken place, so they got into their own boats and went across the sea in search of Jesus. When they got to the other side, they found Jesus with his disciples, and Jesus began to teach both the crowd as well as his disciples.

            So far this seems like a rather peaceful story, a story that does not involve much drama, however as Jesus began to teach, or preach may be a more accurate word, the crowd began to grow a little restless. Jesus started to make some bold statements that some in the crowd did not want to hear. His preaching was  controversial, and it began to anger many of the people who were listening. So what was Jesus preaching about? Was it sex, or money, or politics? No, Jesus’s message was about bread. Bread?! Bread, how can bread be controversial, how could bread make so many people so mad, how could bread lead to an all-in moment? Let us dive into what Jesus was really saying.

            By talking about bread, Jesus was hitting on the critical topic of life. Let’s not forget, that there were no grocery stores that you could drive down the road and buy whatever food you wanted when you needed it; no this was a time where wondering where your next meal would come from was a common worry for many of the people. Bread was then almost analogous with life, because when Jesus spoke about bread, the people would have been thinking about nourishment and sustenance.

The crowd that he was speaking to would have also had another image pop into their heads. Most of the people in the crowd were probably Jewish, since after all the whole reason for the miraculous feeding of the 5000, was so that they could celebrate a Passover meal. So when this crowd heard stories of bread, they would quickly be reminded of the Exodus story. While Moses and the Israelites were wandering the desert after escaping from Egypt, many of the people became hungry and began grumbling and complaining about the hunger, so much so that many even question whether or not they would have been better off as slaves in Egypt. The Lord heard their cries and provided for them, with Manna, holy bread that fell from heaven and fed the Israelites in the desert. As Jesus talked about bread, there is no doubt that the most of the crowd had this story floating to their head.

As this was going through their minds, they heard Jesus saying, “I am the bread of life., Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.³⁶But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. He continued to say, “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away;³⁸for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.³⁹And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.⁴⁰This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.” When the crowd heard this, they were like wait a second, isn’t this the son of Joseph of Nazareth, you know the carpenter, and now he has the nerve to say that he is the bread of life, that he is the Son of God? Jesus just continues to preach and saying, “⁴⁷Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.⁴⁸I am the bread of life.⁴⁹Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.⁵⁰This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

So here you have the crowd, listening to all of this from Jesus, and I can imagine that there are two common responses. First there are those who are angered and offended about what Jesus has said. He had taken a story that they loved and cherished, that is the story of the manna from heaven, a story that is very important to their religious beliefs, and he has hijacked it to say that he is the new bread from heaven! Not only that but he talks about how our ancestors who ate the manna still died, but he claims that he brings eternal life! This man is a heretic and a blasphemer, and deserves to be punished for the atrocities that he is speaking against the Lord. You can almost feel and understand their rage at hearing Jesus ‘proclamation.

On the other hand I can imagine that there was another group that heard what Jesus said and simply responded with, “say what?” Did this guy really just  say that he was bread from heaven? No way, now he says that we must eat this flesh. This guy is sick, are we supposed to become cannibals, does he want us to kill him.” Even if he being metaphorical, he is still claiming to be God.  This guy has a few too many screws loose for me, He’s crazy and whoever listens to this and believes it must be crazy as well. Putting yourself in their shoes it is also easy to see how many could have heard Jesus and simply believed that he was crazy.

            Because of all of this many of those who heard Jesus began to question Jesus. Some said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”⁶¹But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you?⁶²Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?⁶³It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.⁶⁴But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him.⁶⁵And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”  Jesus did not only answer the question of his followers, he made his stance stronger. Jesus laid out an ultimatum to those who listened, either follow me and have eternal life, or reject me, don’t believe me and die like your ancestors. Choose my flesh, the flesh full of spirit and life, or chose you own flesh which will wither and rot. Many heard this statement and left, this great crowd who had just yesterday saw Jesus feed five thousand with 5 loaves and two fish, left because they were not willing to follow him, they were not willing to abide with Jesus.

And so now Jesus turns to his disciples, knowing that even amongst the twelve of them there had been complaining and unbelief, and asks them, “Do you also wish to go away?” Do you also wish to go away, this is it, this is one of those defining moments of the disciples of Christ, Jesus has just laid before them the option of following him, of partaking of the bread of life, a difficult and confusing option, an option that had already caused a large crowd to leave Jesus, and now they can either join the crowd and leave or they can follow Christ. This is that all in moment. They must now decide whether we should stay or should we go?

Finally Peter answers with a meager but powerful response saying, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.⁶⁹We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” All in. Peter’s response is powerful in the fact it does not come out of a well of confidence, it is not a triumphant declaration of the divinity of Christ, but instead Peter’s response comes in the midst of despair, of fear, and of doubt. Peter recognizes the state of his life and the state of his soul, he understands that he is a broken and sinful person, he recognizes that death has a stranglehold upon his life, and yet here is this man who is offering me freedom from sin and death, if I follow him and abide with him. I have seen the love and justice of this man as I have journeyed with him, and I have seen many miraculous things done by him. I really have no choice but to believe that this man is God, and therefore I have nowhere to go other than where he leads me.  To whom can I go? You have the words of eternal life. Peter avoided the temptation to leave, Peter overcame his fear and doubt, simply by acknowledging that there is nowhere else to go.

            So this morning I will ask you all the same question. Are you in? Do you also wish to go away? Are we going to see the massive crowds leaving the word of God and join in with them? When the word of God speaks to us in a way that is painful or says something to us that we don’t want to hear, are we going to ignore it and turn around and leave. Are we going to refuse the flesh of Christ, the bread of life, that bread that we here at Lambs get to partake of monthly? Are we going to say no to that feast, that holy food that nourishes our souls? Are we going to feast on the word of God, or will we deny the invitation to let Christ into our hearts? If we do, I have one simple question, to whom will we go? Who can give us what Christ has given us. Who can give us the bread of life? Who else will give up their flesh, for the sake of our souls? It’s that all-in moment, you can feast on the bread of life, or you can you can fold. It’s your call, Are you in?

My Wish

Sermon as preached at Lambs UMC and Evington UMC.  8/19/12

Scripture- 1 Kings 3:3-14

Close your eyes, make a wish, no that’s not just the opening line to a Boys II Men song, but it is also something we are used to saying at our birthday parties. We light candles on the cake, close our eyes, make a wish, and then blow out the candles and supposedly our wish will come true.  This idea of making wishes and having them granted is nothing new. We are all familiar with the stories of Genies in a lamp that grants three wishes. My favorite rendition of this story is of course Disney’s remake of the classic Aladdin story. Who couldn’t love the big blue Genie with the voice of Robin Williams, it’s just hilarious. And in the movie there is that classic scene where Aladdin is first introduced to the Genie through the wonderful song, “Never had a friend like me.” In the song the Genie is telling Aladdin of his own power, and is showing him all the amazing things that he could wish for. He shows him that he can offer Aladdin protect from the thieves that are after him, or that he could give Aladdin super strength to be able to defend for himself. He entices Aladdin with the possibility of endless exotic food, and of course more gold than he could imagine. He tempts Aladdin with the appeal of beautiful women, or the appeal of being a suave, important, well respected member of society. All of these things can be Aladdin’s with just one simple wish. We all know the greed that is behind all of these desires, and we have heard other stories of greed in making wishes. There are countless number of stories where characters try to gain more wishes so that they could have even more. There is something so appealing to us about having our wishes granted.

            But having our wishes granted is not always a horrible and greedy thing, we have seen times that even when a wish is for oneself, that sometimes there is still an innocence and a grace in having that wish granted. In particular I think of the make a wish foundation, foundation that listens to the wishes of children with life threatening conditions, and tries to make those dreams come true. Recently this summer ESPN has been airing what they call “My wish” which are short documentary segments, showing athletes such as Lebron James and Kyle Bush, participating with the make a wish foundation to bring joy to the children, and bring joy to the family. Another show that grants the wishes of many people in tough situations, is Extreme Makeover Home Edition. I remember one special episode in particular where former recipients of a house wanted to help out others, in this case it was a group of kids that had a rare disease that made it dangerous for them to be exposed to any sunlight at all. Because of these conditions, none of these kids had ever been able to go to Disney World, but the people at ABC pulled some strings and they opened up Disney at midnight until 4 in the morning just for these kids. When you hear about wishes like these being granted, it is hard not to well up with emotions of joy. So we now have a view of wishes being granted that makes you feel warm in your heart, and yet we also have the other view of greed and lust that comes with making wishes. All of it leads us to ask ourselves, what should we wish for?

            In our passage today this is the dilemma presented to King Solomon, what should he wish for? You see, the Lord came to Solomon in a dream and told him, “Ask what I should give you.” Can you imagine that!! This is greater than any foundation, this is even greater than a genie in a bottle, The Lord, has come to you and tells you “ask what I should give you.” Now you know that the Lord is capable of anything, and so now anything can be yours. So what do you wish for? King Solomon knew of many things that he could have wished for. He was a new King, with very little experience. He is also the son of David, the great King of Israel, his whole life he has had a shadow cast over him by his father. They say in sports, that one of the hardest things as a new coach is to follow in the footsteps of a legend, but here is Solomon; he’s not following in the footsteps of Don Shula, or Bear Bryant, or Phil Jackson, or Mike Krzyzewski, no Solomon is following in the footsteps of King David!! I don’t know about you, but one of the first things I would have asked for from the Lord, was for the same power and respect that David had; but this is not what Solomon asked for.

            Solomon could have also asked for riches; sure he was already King and well to do, but we don’t see that stopping many of the wealthiest people in our society today from doing whatever they can to earn more. Solomon is known for the way he extended  the Kingdom of Israel, building a new palace, large walls, and a new Temple. More riches could have been used by Solomon to make even more extravagant buildings in Jerusalem, yet Solomon did not ask for riches.

            Maybe most importantly, Solomon could have asked for protection, because at this time he sure could have used it.  Solomon’s reign as King got off to quite a rocky start, to say the least.  Even as his father David was dying there was still debate in the Kingdom of who the next King would be. You see Solomon was not actually David’s oldest son, his oldest son was Adonijah. Now as the oldest Adonijah believed that he should be the rightful heir to the throne, yet God had appointed Solomon as king. There were also many others who throughout the reign of David, had tried to overthrow his reign, and many of these people and their followers were also still alive. So Solomon takes reign as King of Israel with both his brother and countless others trying to take his place. Solomon didn’t do much to make these people like him either, one of his first acts as king was to consolidate his kingdom, which is a nice way of saying he killed off those who he suspected of coming for his throne, including killing his own brother. With all of this turmoil right in the beginning of his reign, it would have made so much sense for him to ask for protection, or better yet ask for the death of all of his enemies, yet still this is not what Solomon asked for from the Lord.

So what did Solomon ask for?  ““You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today.⁷And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.⁸And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted.⁹Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?” Wow, for all of the downfalls and wrong actions throughout the reign of Solomon, he sure did get it right this time. Solomon didn’t ask for power, Solomon didn’t ask for riches, Solomon didn’t ask for protection, Solomon recognized the way the Lord had been faithful to his father David, understood that Israel was far less his kingdom, than it was the Lord’s kingdom, and so Solomon simply asks for an understanding mind and the ability to discern between good and evil.” What an amazing and humble wish.

            But what does it mean to wish for an understanding mind, and the ability to discern between good and evil? Well it seems obvious that Solomon is asking for the ability to know right from wrong, to ability to make the right decision, but is that really all that he is asking for? You see the phrase “understanding mind” in the Hebrew literally means “listening heart.” This is important because in the time of Solomon, the heart was seen as one of the most central aspects of a person. It was not only where they believed all intellect came from, they also believed that it was an organ of perception. That means they say that God spoke to their hearts, they meant it literally. So to have a listening heart, means to have a heart that was always open, ready, and receptive to hear the word of God. Solomon is not just asking to know the difference between good and evil, that’s the folly that Adam and Eve made; by eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve were trying to make themselves like gods. This is why Solomon asks for a listening heart, an understanding mind, because what he is really asking for is God’s guidance. He is saying, “Lord I am a mere human, and a new king at that, If I try to lead your kingdom from my own knowledge I will fail, so let me hear what you will have me do.

            So was the Lord pleased with Solomon’s response? I’ll let you decide for yourself. The Lords says, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right,¹²I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. ¹³I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you.”  We see that by asking for God’s guidance in his life; a selfless humble wish, Solomon not only has his wish given unto him, but is given all of that which he didn’t even ask for.

            So is our wish the same as Solomon’s wish? Is our desire to have an understanding mind and a listening heart? Is our one wish for our lives, for us to have the ability to follow God?  There are some who may read this passage and say absolutely! Solomon asked for this ability and because he did he got riches and power, but that’s not really how it works. Too often we have this mentality of what’s in it for me. How will the benefit me? Brothers and Sisters this is not the approach to take when asking for God to direct your life. We do not love God because we expect something in return. We do not ask for God to guide our lives because we anticipate God repaying the favor later on. We ask for a listening heart and understanding mind, we ask for God to lead our lives, because God is God, and we are not.

            This concept becomes quite apparent when you start to think about it.  Say you’re on an airplane, thousands of feet in the air, who do you want flying the plane, you or the pilot? Or say a loved one is in critical condition in the hospital,  do you want to be in there working on them, or would you rather have the doctor? So in our own lives, whose guidance do we want to listen to, our own, or the all-knowing, all powerful, all-loving, Lord of all creation? Seems like an easy choice to me.

            And when we put our lives in the hand of the father, when we accept Jesus into hearts, when we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, then of course there will be some blessings that come our way. Some may instead be blessed in the same way that Solomon was, yet others on the other hand will actually face many more hardships on earth because they follow Christ. You see we have such a limited understanding of good and evil, we can’t fully grasp the many wonderful ways that God in working in our lives and in the world. The one thing we do know that through the good times and the bad, what we do have is grace. We have the love and mercy of God,  we have Emmanuel, God with us. This grace is there before we even know it leading us towards making that wish, for God to guide or lives, and that grace is there with  us always, through our successes, and when we fall, a grace to lead us on towards perfection, and when time on earth comes to its end, a grace to lead us home. So now I invite us now into a time of prayer, the altar is open to anyone or you may pray in there in your pew, but I invite you take this time to go to the Lord, close your eyes, and make a wish, a wish for a understanding mind and a listening heart.

Sticks & Stones

Sermon as preached August 12, 2012 at Lambs UMC & Evington UMC

Scripture: Ephesians 4:25-5:2

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” How many of us remember saying this phrase as a kid? I know I did. This saying claims that words have no power to hurt us. That we can feel pain from the beatings of sticks and stones, but that words cause us no pain. As we grow up we realize that this little children’s rhyme is absolutely wrong. Words can and do hurt us. It hurts when someone completely disrespects us, it hurts when words are used to embarrass us in front of others, and it really hurts when words of hate and anger are flung in our direction. That’s not the only way that words hurt us. Words that come from our own lips have a way of hurting us as well. How many times have you said something only to immediately regret it, or to think about it a few days later and wish that you had never said it at all? How many times has something flown loosely from your tongue and damaged a relationship with someone that you truly cared about? If someone who didn’t know you listened to what you said on a daily basis, what would they think about you? Would they hear God’s love in your words, or would they hear something else? Unlike what our familiar children’s rhyme tells us, words have a great deal of power. After all there is another famous saying which says, “ The pen is mightier than the sword.” Words can do more damage than physical attacks. I think that the children’s rhyme should instead go something like this, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words cut even deeper.

            This is the power of words, and Paul addresses this power in this passage to the Ephesians. If you remember a few weeks ago we looked at an earlier chapter of Ephesians. In that chapter Paul focused on the theological concept that the church neither belonged to Jews nor Gentiles, but instead belonged to God. That chapter focused on unity in the church, and the reconciliation between the Gentiles and Jews. Well here were are, two chapters later and this focus on the unity of the church is still front and center in Paul’s writings. Except now Paul is not talking about some broad theological reason for why the church is and should be one body, but instead he is diving into everyday, practical advice, including advice on how we use our words.

            Paul begins this passage by reminding us that we are all one members of Christ’s body. He says, “So then putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are all members of one another.” We are all members of one another. Paul is reminding us that the words that come out of our mouths do not only affect us, they do not only affect the person that we are talking to, but he reminds us that our words have a greater purpose. He reminds us that we are all one member of Christ’s body, and so our words affect the body of Christ. This is why Paul takes so much time to write about our speech in the church, because our speech directly affects the church. Words that are guided by anger, words that are spoken with malice or ill intent, and of course false or slanderous words are all like sticks and stones beating at the body of Christ. So often we don’t even know the damage we are doing. We tells stories about that we heard about someone else because we find them to be fascinating and full of drama. We speak out against someone else in the company of others, but do not speak these things to the person with whom we are displeased. We all like to think that gossip was something that we left back in high school, but the truth is that gossip happens with every age group.

            There is a wonderful play called Doubt, which a few years ago was made into a movie. In the movie the priest of the Catholic story, was giving a sermon and told a powerful story about gossip. He says that once there was a woman who went to confess her sins to the priest, as is custom in Catholic tradition. She tells the priest, “Father I have sinned because I have spread gossip around the church.” The father listens to her confession and is quiet for a moment but then tells the woman, “Tonight I want you to go home and cut into one of your feather pillows and leave it on the doorstep.” The woman did not understand how this would help her repent of her sin, but she went home and did what the priest had told her to do anyways. The next week she returned to the confessional very confused. She told the priest, “I have done what you said, I have cut the pillow and left it outside on my front steps, but I do not see how this helps my situation.” The priests replies, “Now I want you to go back and collect every feather from that pillow and bring them to me!” The woman was stunned, she replied, “But father, the pillow has been outside for a week, who knows where the wind has taken all of the feathers, there is no way I can get them back.” The priest boldly responded, “Words are like the feathers in the wind, once they are taken away you never know where they will go, and you can never get them all back.”

What a powerful story, that reminds of how words can take wings even when we don’t intend for them to.

            While Paul tells us about how words can hurt others through the use of malicious, angry, deceitful, and petty words, we must not forget that words are not always a bad thing. That the power of words can also build up the kingdom of God, through speaking truth, speaking with love, and speaking for and about God. After all, one of the most central elements of this worship service is the reading and the proclamation of the word of God. And within this Bible, this word of God, we can read about the awesome, amazing works of God. You can read the Magnificat, Mary’s beautiful prayer in which she praises God for giving her the honor of bearing Jesus. You can read David’s beautiful psalms expressing his pain and his joy and love for God through it all. We are able to of the day of Pentecost where words in different tongues were able to be understood by all, and we can read in Revelation about the great multitude around the throne of God praising the Lamb. We read about the heavenly choir singing, and we join with them during Communion saying Holy. Holy. Holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory, Hosanna in the highest, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest! There are so many powerful uses of words in the Bible, that lead us to celebrate and worship our Lord Jesus Christ. And let us not forget that our very existence is because of words. “And God said let us create mankind in our image.” There and in the rest of the creation story we see that pivotal phrase, and God said. And God said let there be light, And God said let the land produce vegetation, And God said, let the water teem with living creatures, Creation began through God speaking.

            The question then becomes, how are we going to use our words? Are we going to use them to tear down others, through speaking with malice, through speaking with deceit, through speaking in anger and rage to each other? Will others hear the message and love of Christ through our speech, or will we as Paul puts it, “make room for the devil” through our words. Will we let the sun go down on our anger, or will our words be used to for reconciliation, amends, and healing? Paul is laying out two paths for us in our passage, one path in which our words are destructive and are attacks against the Kingdom of God, and the other path in which our words become mighty tools for building up the Kingdom of God. There is no doubt which path Paul prefers, he says, “ Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those to hear.”

            Paul’s message to us may sound like simple moral advice. Many of us probably hear his words with a harsher tone. His words can sound like condemnation for the way we live. All of this talk about how we shouldn’t lie to one another, or speak maliciously to each other, or how we shouldn’t let the sun go down on our anger, seems to at best be everyday advice, and at worst can make us feel utterly judged, condemned, vilified, and evil, and worthless. While Paul’s letter is advice on how we should and shouldn’t speak to each other, it is also a letter of hope. Hope? You may be wondering to yourself how this is a letter of hope, and if you are I completely understand. I felt the exact same way as I read through this passage over and over again until that hope, “jumped up and bit me” as Forrest Gump would say. In this whole passage Paul is telling us about the power of words, and the emotions that are behind. He tells us that power of words can be used to tear others down, but the hope lies in that passage that I read a little while ago, “but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those to hear.” Since words can hold so much power, so much can be done through them. Paul tells us that our words can help to build up each other and the body of Christ, and that our words, our words can give grace to those who hear.” What an awesome power is that! The way we talk to each other, the way we speak to the cashiers in grocery store, the servers in the restaurants, the way we speak to those we love and the way we speak to  those who we would rather not be around,  can be used to build up the Kingdom of God, and to help others hear the grace of God. This is why Paul spends this much time talking about how to use our words because there is so much power wielded in them. It’s like the classic Spiderman phrase goes, “With great power, comes great responsibility.” We have great power in our words, in with that we have a great responsibility with how we use them.

            I was once asked by a pastor who had been preaching for many years if I was nervous when I got up to preach, and I truthfully told him that I usually am. He just looked at me and said, “Good, me too. When you stop feeling nervous about proclaiming the word of God, then you shouldn’t be proclaiming the word at all.” It is difficult to carry the burden of using our words to show God to others. It is even harder because it is something that we do anytime we open our mouths. All of our interactions with others can either tear down or lift up Christ. With all of this pressure, it is difficult for us to even know at times how to go about using our words to build up the Kingdom, but Paul knew that and gives us the ultimate guideline for our speech. He says, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.” How do we use our speech to build up the body of Christ? We do it by following the example of Jesus Christ, by living, acting, and speaking in love. How do we use our words in love? By following the Word, the only Word that matters. Remember the introduction to the Gospel of John, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” Jesus is the Word, the Word who was  there at creation that spoke all beings into existence, and Jesus in the Word that became flesh, who sacrificed himself for us. How should we use our words?  Our words should imitate the Word made flesh, our words should imitate Christ.

Man in the Mirror

Sermon as Preached 8/5/12 at Lambs UMC & Evington UMC

Scripture: 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13

You are the man. You’re the Man! In our culture today, this is a phrase that you want to be said about you. The phrase can be used in many different ways, but it is almost always good. A friend can say that “you’re the man” and they may mean that they think you are fun to be around, or the life a party. If you helped someone to do something, they may say, “you’re the man” as an informal way of saying thank you. When applying for a job, the boss may tell you, “you’re the man” meaning that you are the man that they want for the job. Whenever we hear someone say that phrase about us, it makes us feel happy, appreciated, and respected. However, in our scripture today, “you’re the man” is the last thing that David wanted to hear come out of Nathan’s mouth.

            To better understand what exactly is happening in our scripture lesson today, we may need a little recap of what has happen just prior to this. We start with the beautiful Bathsheba, bathing naked on a roof, where David sees her and lusts over her. David uses his power as King, and sends a messenger to get her, and when she comes he sleeps with her, and Bathsheba becomes pregnant, and oh yeah did I forget to mention that Bathsheba was married, and that her husband was away fighting in King David’s army? So David invites Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband trying to convince him to sleep with his wife, but he refuses because he is a noble soldier and sleeps outside out of respect for all of his comrades who are still out in their tents fighting. David even tries to get Uriah drunk so that he will sleep with Bathsheba, but Uriah stays committed. So David, afraid that his deed will be found out, sends Uriah back out to battle, puts him on the front line, and tells his commander to pull back as they charge the enemy so that Uriah will be killed in battle. That is exactly what happened, and so David takes the new widow Bathsheba to be his  wife, and the child is then born in marriage.I don’t about you, but I don’t think that Jerry Springer has anything on this story right out of the Bible.

            And so that leads us to Nathan, a prophet of God and someone who was well respected by David, telling David a parable. He tells him that there was once a rich man who had a large amount of sheep and cattle, and a poor man who owned only one poor lamb.  One day a traveler came to town, and it was the custom to prepare a meal for the traveler out of hospitality, but the rich man refused to use one of the many sheep or cattle that he had. Instead, the rich man went to the poor man, took his only lamb, the lamb that the poor man loved so much, the only thing that he had, and gave it to the traveler.

            When David heard this story he was furious. He could not believe that a rich man who had so much would take the only lamb the poor man had. David was so angry he cried out, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” If there were ever a foot-in-mouth moment this was it, because Nathan simply looks at David and says, “You are the man!" Nathan goes on to tell him that the Lord will make his house be filled with calamity, his wives will be given to other men, for the whole nation to see, and now this child that he just had with Bathsheba, was going to die; A very tough, embarrassing and painful punishment.

            How did this happen, I mean this is David after all. This is the King of Israel, the boy who with a small stone killed the giant Goliath, the man who on multiple occasions was proclaimed to be favored by God, and anointed as the King of Israel. This is one of the most revered men in the Old Testament, still even to this very day, yet how could he do something like that?  As we read the story of Nathan confronting David, it becomes quickly evident that David was somehow blinded to the wrong that he was doing. That David so easily saw the despicable act of the of rich man in the parable, and even called for that man’s death, yet David was absolutely blind to the fact that he was that man. David was blind to his own sin

            If the great King David, the man appointed by God to lead all of Israel, can be blind to such an egregious sin, how much more likely are we to be blind to our own sins? I was a psychology major at Randolph-Macon, and I remember one of the things that we talked in one class, is how we perceive a person’s actions. We are as humans usually will see a wrong action of another person as something that is due to an internal character flaw. In other words if someone does something bad, it is because they are a bad person. If we were to do the same action however, we are far more likely to blame it on external factors. We may say that we were provoked, or I wouldn’t have normally done that, but because of __________  I had to. We try to rationalize our sins, we tell ourselves that they are ok, or that they weren’t that big of a deal, or we even ignore them so that we become blind to our sins. We see both of this in the story, first David is blind to his own sin, probably because he had rationalized it as being for love or some other excuse, but then we also see David calling the rich man out on his sin, viewing him as an evil man deserving of punishment.

            So what does this passage tell us about how we should live our own lives? It tells us two things. First, this warns us against pointing the finger at someone else. It is so easy to see the faults in someone else, and we love to tell people when they are wrong. We are quick to call for the punishment of someone else, yet we are so slow when it comes to looking in the mirror. The first thing that this Bible passage tells us, is that none of us are blameless. That we need to be aware that so often we are pointing to the faults and the sins of someone else, we are also pointing to our own faults and sins.

            That leads to the second to the second thing that this passage teaches us, and that is that we need to truly reflect upon our own sins. Instead of trying to hide from our faults, we need to stand in front of that mirror and truly recognize our sins. When Nathan revealed to David that the man in the story was David, David did not try to defend himself. He didn’t try to rationalize why he did what he did, he simply said, “I have sinned against the Lord.”  David accepted his sin, and accepted the punishment for his sin. When we look at ourselves in the mirror and recognize our sins, we like David must also take responsibility for the wrong that we have done, but at the same we do not look in the mirror to demean ourselves, to berate ourselves, or to belittle ourselves, after all when David confessed his sins Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sins.” We have a God of grace, so when we truly stand before our own sin, it so we may change and lead a life more like the life of Christ. In Christ there is forgiveness, in the Holy Spirit there is grace, but we must also do our part, we need to face the man in the mirror and say, “You are the man.”