More Than Words

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 4/26/15

Read 1 John 3:16-24

Image Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library

Love, Love, Love.  Sometimes 1 John can start to feel a lot like the beginning of that classic Beatles song, “All You Need is Love.”  It seems as though every other word or thought that comes from the author of this text is about love. Of course, that is not a bad thing, but in today’s society we can become so inundated with the word love, that we can begin to lose sight of what it really means. Today, when we talk about love the first thing we usually start talking about is romance. We talk about finding the love of our lives. We watch shows and movies and read books about different love stories. We even call the most intimate act of a romantic relationship “making love.” But if we branch out of the romantic love we might begin to talk about love for family, or love for a friend, or even love for our pet. Still we use this word love in other different ways. We say we love something when we are passionate about it or when we enjoy. We say I love my job, or I love hiking, and sometimes we water the word down so much that we say I love frappacinos from Starbucks or that we love a show on T.V. When we hear the word love used in so many different ways almost every day,  it is easy for us to overlook  or shrug off it use here in 1 John.

            The love that 1 John is talking about here in our scripture for this morning is radical. It is not just another word or thought, it is the essence of our relationship with God and with others. In fact, this scripture echoes the Great Commandments of that Jesus gave, “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your mind, and all of your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Our relationship with God  and our relationship with others is through love; a love that consumes all of our heart, that consumes all of our being. When we hear this commandment many of us think to ourselves, “I already love God and my neighbor, so I guess I’m good.” Apparently this was the mentality of the community that this letter was written to as well. The whole community confessed to loving God, they confessed to loving each other, and yet there was so much division amongst themselves that you would never know it. There were so many in the community suffering while those with the means to help just seemed to ignore it. And so our author writes to this community and says, “ Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”  How often do we claim to love but only express it in words, but God calls for more than words.

            And it begs the question, How do we know what love is, and when we are loved?  In 1990 the group Extreme put out a song called “More Than Words.” The song is a love ballad like many songs, but in the song the artist pleas for an expression of love that I believe translates well into Christian love. The song begs for, “More than words to show you feel That your love for me is real What would you say if I took those words away? Then you couldn't make things new
Just by saying I love you.” The song speaks to the fact that love is more than a verbal assent to an ideal. Love is more than words, love is action. As Christians, when we speak about love for God and love for neighbor we are talking about more than words. Love for God is not just saying that we believe. Love for neighbor is not just saying that we recognize that they are of sacred value. Love is action. ““ Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”

            So what does this love in action look like? Well, the Bible makes it pretty easy for us, it looks it Christ. Our scripture for this morning even begins saying, “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us--and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.”  We know love because of God. This is a theme that we will look at in more detail next week, but for the moment notice that the greatest example for us of love, is that Christ was will to lay down his life for us. And so we ought to love likewise, we should be willing to lay down our lives for one another. What does it mean to lay our lives down for one another. Usually when we hear this phrase we hear it as we talk about the heroic actions of our soldier putting their life on the line for our country. We hear it when we talk about our first responders, those police officers and fire fighters who risk their lives in order to protect the lives of others. Lay down one’s life as we know it is a grand and heroic act. We would expect that for a Christian to lay down their life it would require a grand heroic act as well. Certainly through the history of Christianity we have seen faith and love lived out this way through the lives of what we call martyrs. This goes back as far as early Christianity with people like Justin Martyr. Justin was a philosopher who was converted to Christianity in the time when the Roman Empire was still hostile to Christianity. After his conversion, Justin spend most of his time defending Christianity and even started a school to teach the next wave of Christian thinkers. After and debate that he had with one man, Justin was tried, convicted and killed for his beliefs.

            We see a similar passion and willingness to lay down one’s life from some more recent figures as well. In the 1930s during the rise of Nazi Germany as many Christians were being swept up into the Anti-Jewish anger, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and renowned theologian refused to go along with the Nazi regime. He openly spoke out against the Nazi’s treatment of Jews, especially the concentration camps, and for it he was arrested in 1943. He himself was sent to a concentration camp and in 1945,  just weeks before Nazi Germany crumbled, Bonhoeffer was killed. Finally, no one can forget the actions of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Channeling his faith in the one who willing died on the cross for us, King helped to lead a Non-violent resistance to the unjust and oppressive laws in society toward African Americans. Though he often faced ridicule, violence against him, and even imprisonment, King fought on for the rights of millions around the country. That fight cost him his life as he was killed in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968. These are just a few examples of those who were willing to lay down their lives for others and for their faith. While these are often extreme examples I do believe that our faith calls us to act accordingly if we were ever to find ourselves in a similar circumstance.

            Laying down our lives for one another is more than just martyrdom. It doesn’t necessarily mean dying for our beliefs, but it does mean risking ourselves and our livelihood for others. It means putting others before ourselves, even when that might affect us negatively. And it doesn’t always have to be some grand gesture. Let me tell you a story, it’s one that I have not shared with many people, mostly because it is a little embarrassing personally, but I believe it shows the little ways in which we can lay our lives down for others.

            When my parents divorced, my Mom kind of bounced around from house to house trying to find a place that was right for us. Most of the times this was out of the school district that I grew up in and that my dad still lived in so Mom would have to take me to school on weeks that she had me. My freshman year of high school we moved into a place that was in the same school district so I could finally ride the bus to get to school. Though it was in the same district, the high school I went to was made up of two different middle school, and where my mom lived was where the kids from the other Middle school lived.  In essence, when I rode the bus from her place, I had no friends on the bus because I hadn’t gone to middle school with the kids. As you can imagine I was a pretty quiet kid, so I didn’t go out of my way to make new friends, since I would just see my old ones once I got to school. One day, however I remember two of the older boys in front of me turned around and started picking on me. I tried to ignore them, but they wouldn’t let up. As I started to get frustrated, out of nowhere the girl behind me said, “Leave him alone.” It was girl that was in some of my classes, but I didn’t really know, I think her name was Jessica. She was your typical pretty blonde cheerleader, but here she was defending me, someone she hardly knew, to people who could have turned on her. She certainly wasn’t risking her life defending me, but as someone who was already kind of popular but still just a Freshman, still with four years of that social pressure ahead of her, she did risk her reputation to stand up. I never got to thank her, I was too embarrassed to be defended against bullies by a pretty girl, and I doubt she even remembers the encounter, but I sure do.

            Maya Angelou once said, ““I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” I have not forgotten how that act made me feel that day. 14 years from that day, if that were to have never happened Jessica honestly would be another name and face that I would have forgotten, but because of one simple, yet brave selfless act, I remember her as a caring and loving person. As Christians we are called to lay our lives down in similar ways. Not always in grandiose acts of martyrdom like Justin, or Bonheoffer, or King, but also in the everyday simple actions like Jessica.  We are called as Christians daily to put our wants and our desires behind us and to first lift up our neighbors in need; to truly show them the love of God through the ways in which we love them.

            As Christians we can talk, and preach, and read, and pray, and sing about love until our faces turn blue, but it won’t mean a heap of good if we do not live and act in love. We cannot talk about our love for God, and yet fail to go to God in prayer, to join in Worship whenever possible. We cannot talk about our love for this Earth that he has created while we destroy with chemical spills in our water, or the overuse of Styrofoam which will sit in landfills for centuries. We cannot say that we love God’s creatures, and allow pets to be abused or neglected, or Rhinos in Africa to become nearly extinct just because some people around the world believe their horn to be an aphrodisiac. We certainly cannot say that we love our neighbor when there are those who are hungry, homeless, or sick in our own communities that we ignore as we go back to our own homes, cook plentiful meals that we sometimes even let go to waste, and enjoy our little pleasures that we have, however meager they may be.  If we speak about love but do not act, then we have no right to speak about love at all. “Let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” Love requires more than words.

            Yesterday I was able to witness love in action. Some of us went yesterday morning and prepared breakfast for men and women who came to help build a house for a veteran in need though Habitat for Humanity. To see so many people from the community come out to help someone in need was a greater sermon than I could ever preach here in the pulpit. Later that day I was privileged to attend the baptism of the daughter of two friends ours. They are a clergy couple that wouldn’t both be able to be at the same church for Sunday worship, so they had their baptism yesterday, and because of that I was able to be part of the service. As I watch this beautiful girl being baptized, claimed as a child of God like we talked about last week, I as thought about the Habitat community that I had just seen hours earlier. The same love and community that those builders had shown for the veteran in need, was the same love and community that this beautiful girl was being brought into, and in fact was the same love that she will be called to show. The connection to me couldn’t have been more striking; these vows, these words said in this sacred moment of baptism are more than words they are a declaration of Love. A declaration to love like the men and women of Habitat for Humanity. A declaration to love like Jessica did on that bus over a decade ago. And yes, when necessary a declaration to love when necessary to the point of giving our lives like Justin, Bonhoeffer, and King; because Christ showed us the greatest love on the cross. These words at baptism are a declaration of love, first and foremost from God to us, but also from us, to live and act in love towards God and towards our neighbor, because love is more than words. 

Children of God

Sermon as Preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 4/19/15

Read 1 John 3:1-7

Has anyone here ever tried to research their family tree? I remember in Middle School one of our assignments was to do just that, trace our family as far as we could and then too present it to the class as a family tree. This involved sitting and talking to my parents and my grandparents to get a collection of names and dates if they remembered them. As a middle school assignment, my tree wasn’t all that intensive, mostly a collection of Aunts, Uncles, and cousins, and a history that stretched as far as my great-grandparents. Still, displayed on a huge poster board it was impressive to see all of the branches that could stretch just from the family members I knew. On Ancestry.com you can go into even more detail with. You start by putting in yourself and your parents, and maybe your grandparents and then usually a little leaf will appear. It takes you to information like birth, death, or marriage certificates, and from there you usually find information about their parents or aunts or uncles and cousins, and as it all adds up you start to see a massive family tree. James is the child of so and so and his cousin is the daughter of Gertrude. I think there is something in finding out who our family truly is, and traditionally this has been with the analogy of a tree.

             When we think about family we tend to immediately go to that genetic nuclear family. Whose child am I? Who is my sibling? We think first of our parents and grandparents, our brothers and our sisters. For many of us it is natural to frame our understanding of family around genetics because we have been privileged to grow up in an environment where we belong. But this concept of family is different for almost everyone. The other day apparently was National sibling and to celebrate many people on Facebook including myself, changed their pictures to a picture of them and their siblings. After a while I began to notice many only children make many statements about not having a sibling, some even put up pictures of cousins or just best friends and called them brother or sister. It got me thinking, for an only child who is their brother or sister? For the child who was adopted genetics is not the best indicator of who their family is. For those whose ancestors were brought here by force not choice; a family tree can only go so far, and may stir up some pain. Family is not as cut and dry as we sometimes make it out to be.

            As Christians we have taken on a new understanding of family. When Jesus asks his disciples “who are my mother and my brothers” it became apparent that family is more than just genetics. Those who follow Christ are Christ’s family, and are each other’s brother and sister. It is through the water and Spirit of Baptism that we are claimed as children of God and enter into this family, the family of God. As Baptism challenges our understanding of family, maybe it can also challenge our typical means of tracing our family history. Maybe we can move from a family tree towards a family stream. Think for a moment about your baptism and who baptized you. That same person who baptized you by water and the Spirit in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, where you were claimed as a child of God; was themselves a child of God and baptized. And they were baptized and brought into the family of God by someone who was also baptized. And if we begin to trace not the branches of our family tree, but these streams of Baptismal waters we find ourselves connected to the early believers baptized on that day of Pentecost. We find ourselves connected to the Ethiopian Eunuch baptized by Philip. If we follow those streams of baptism far enough we even find ourselves connected to Jesus Christ himself. And as we hear the words from heaven proclaiming, “This is my son with whom I am well pleased” we realize that through that same water and Spirit we too are children of God.

            The author of 1 John understands the importance of being children of God. Despite its name this book of the Bible was most likely not written by the same evangelist as the Gospel of John. Instead this book is much more like one of the letters we find from Paul written to a specific community for a specific purpose. The community this letter was written to, was one that was probably highly influenced by the Gospel of John, hence the name 1 John. Like almost every letter to a community we have in the Bible, this letter seems to address a conflict in the community. There seems to be a lack of understanding of what it means to follow Christ, and there seems to be many false teachers leading the members of the community astray. As we will see in the next few weeks, the author of 1 John settles these conflicts through exploring love, and in particular God’s love.  In our scripture for this morning the author begins by describing our relationship to God as being children of God.

            What does it mean to be a child of God?  It means we belong to God. It means we are able to hear the words of God spoken to us through the prophet Isaiah saying, “Do not fear for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine.” You are mine. It is in these words that we are able to find comfort, a comfort the world cannot give to us. It is a promise from God that there is nowhere we can go, or anything we can do that will leave us deserted from our heavenly Father. It is a promise that in our times of fear or grief, like a mother God will be there to nurture us. Being children of God means that our connection to the Holy of Holies, is through an intimate, familial relationship. Therefore when God’s children are out in the community helping those in need, when they are studying they are studying the Word, when they are comforting those who are sick or grieving we can almost hear the words of a proud parent crying that’s my son, that’s my daughter. But though there are certainly things we do that please our Father above, noting can earn or take away God’s love. So even when we fail, when we do what we know we shouldn’t, when we have failed to be an obedient church, when we have not love our neighbors, God still cries out, “You are mine” you are a child of God. It’s like have you ever been a parent or family at a large gathering where there are a bunch of kids playing. You are talking to the parents, when all of the sudden your kid comes around all covered in mud or paint, or they broke a nice piece of art and that dreaded question is asked, “Whose kid is this?” Unlike some of us would, God doesn’t hesitate, they are mine, they are a child of God.

            Being a child of God means we belong to God, but this is not a select family, it is a place where all belong. Being God’s children is a word of hope for so many in the world. There are so many who feel worthless, so many who feel abandoned, so many who feel ridiculed or despised; and so in a world in which they feel rejected, in God they can find a place where they belong, you can find a place where you belong. Because as a child of God you are family, you are a son or daughter of God, and likewise you are a brother or sister to many.

            As we hear the good news today that we are children of God, that God has claimed us and that we belong, we must also wrestle with what it means for us to be a child of God.  How does the world know we are God’s children?  Often it is easy for the world to tell whose child we are. About a month ago I talked about how messy and unorganized I was and how I always needed Heather to find things. When it comes to space, this is true I am as unorganized as they come, but when it comes to time the same cannot be said. I am a meticulous planner of time. Each day I plan out what I plan to do and when, I’m such a planner that I even account in my day to day plans, time for unexpected, unplanned events! And because of this I hate to be late. If I say we are leaving at 10, we aren’t leaving at 10:05 we are leaving at 10. It reminds me of Dad and I sitting in the car on Sunday morning waiting for the girls to be ready to leave. When I get into one of these tizzies about time those close to my family will often say, “You are definitely Wayne’s son.” We tend to resemble members of our family.  I am told often that not only did I get my red hair from my Papa, but also many similar personality traits, including the call to ministry.

            Is the same case true for our Heavenly Father?  Do we share in the likeness of God?  Sadly, often the answer is no. Our scripture tells says, “ Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is” Here we find really the paradox of faith, the paradox of being a Christian. We are children of God, but still we must become children of God. We are children of God in that God has claimed us, there is nothing that we can do that will either earn us that title or cause God to take it away. It is the gift of grace, freely given, that we are children of God. And yet though we are God’s children we do not act like children of God. We do not love as God loves, we do not serve as God serves, we do not adequately reflect our kinship to the Lord of Lords. What we will be has not yet been revealed, but when God is fully revealed we will be like him; and yet God has already been revealed through Jesus Christ and so we are called to be like him. We are called to be the children of God.

            But how do we do that? If we are already God’s children, how do we become God’s children? First and foremost it starts with us realizing that we are in fact children. No matter how old we are or how much we think we know or have experienced, we are God’s children, not God. This seems like a pretty simple concept to grasp but Christians seem to fail at it over and over again. We tend to act and to speak as if we have all of the answers. We tend to judge other as if we ourselves are the judge siting on the throne. We tend to ignore our daily prayer life because we think that we can handle it, and only turn to God when things get out of our control. In our daily lives and in the life of the Church we act as though we make the rules, we set the tone, we make the decisions; but how quickly we forget that we are not the Father, we are but children of God.

            And as children we have a lot of growing up to do.  Too often we act as though Baptism; that water that connects us to each other through that family stream, it the end of the story. We act as though because we are saved we can just wipe off our hands and walk away. The truth is however, that baptism is not the end, but is just the beginning of the journey. Jesus told Nicodemus that we must be born again. We love this term, “born again Christians” but if we are born again that means that we are infants, and we have a lot of growing to do. We must allow God to be like our father, instructing us in the way to go, and disciplining us when we go astray. We must allow Got to be like our mother, nurturing us when we fall, feeding us with the spiritual nutrients we need to survive. In order for us to become a reflection of our Heavenly parent, we must be will to submit to the guidance and nurture of God. We must be willing to turn away from our sin and turn towards God. We must be willing to journey.

            And as we journey, as we grow as children of God remember those words of comfort from God  “You are mine.”  You are God’s when you feed the homeless, visit the sick and those who are imprisoned. You are God’s when you stand up for justice and have compassion for the marginalized of our society. But you are also God’s when you fail. When you put yourself above others, when you scorn a friend or talk bad about a neighbor you are still God’s. Because God has claimed you as one of the children of God, when you fail and when you succeed you belong to God. And so in our journey in which we are but infants, may we strive to live in a way that reflects the love that God has shown for us, so that when someone looks at us they may say, “Surely they are a child of God.”

Harvest and Spring

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 3/22/15



Read John 12:20-33

Image Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library

It is that time in the calendar when spring is finally here! This week we have already had some beautiful days, and even though we have seen some rainy ones as well, at least it is not snow, right? As spring begins to roll in there is so much that I look forward to. There is March Madness of course, but I really look forward to hikes in the mountains, grilling some hot dogs and hamburgers with friends, and just so many other activities of enjoying the beauty of creation as it begins to sprout from its hibernation in the dark cold days of winter. Although spring is here and all the joys that seem to go with it, our scripture from the lectionary this morning seems to miss this memo. In our scripture today Jesus does not talk about the joys of spring, but rather speaks about the time of harvest, and the death of plants. In particular Jesus speaks about wheat saying, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” At the time of harvest in the fall, what is called “Winter Wheat” dies leaving it seeds in the ground to grow throughout the winter and be ready for spring. Still growing up in the suburbs of Richmond not really growing up around farming, I have to admit when I think of harvest season, I don’t think of wheat, or any other produce for a matter fact but one; pumpkins.

            To me nothing signals harvest time like Pumpkins. This is probably because it coincides with Halloween and the tradition of making Jack-O- Lanterns. For our family, going to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins to carve was one of the highlights of the season. It was so much fun to bring them home, cut them open, and to cut crazy faces in to the side of them, and then light them up at night for all the neighborhood to see. I remember one year as mom was cleaning out the pumpkin and saving the seeds in order to roast them, I asked if I could have a seed or two to plant. Now no one in my family is known for their green thumb. We did not have a garden, but rather just patches of soil around the house for flowers. I asked if I could plant one of the seeds on the side of the house where there weren’t many flowers, and my mom said sure, probably thinking nothing of it. So I took that seed and planted it, and every other day I would come out and water it and check on it. To everyone’s surprise, a few weeks later a huge vine started to grow in the soil. Weeks later to the dismay of my mother that vine continued to grow, choking out the flowers all around it. Finally a little lump began to grow. Unfortunately the story does not have a happy ending for me; the exterminator came and sprayed for pest which I think ended up killing my pumpkin; but the joy that it brought me to see a pumpkin grow out of something that we had carved up and killed, stuck with me for a long time.

            And that was just from one seed. Imagine what would have happened if instead of roasting the rest of those seeds we planted them in a large garden. That one pumpkin, that was now dead, could produce a whole patch of new pumpkins. I think about my pumpkin as I read our scripture for today, and it begins to make so much more sense to me. For although the calendar on our walls may say that it is spring, time for new life, our Christian calendar tells us it is still this season of Lent. Whereas Easter, like spring, is the celebration of new life, in particular the new life Jesus Christ bring through his own resurrection; Lent is the time that prepares us for that new life. It is no coincidence that in the Northern Hemisphere then that Easter takes place in the joy of Spring, while Lent for the most part takes place in the dead of winter.  For us to understand the joy of Easter and new life, we must first grapple with the reality of death.

            As Jesus approached the end of his own life, this is the reality that he tried to share with those who would listen; that in order for there to be new life, there must first be death. Our scripture starts with some Greek Gentiles coming to Jesus. This is an extraordinary event in its own right since Jesus was Jewish. We know that Jesus came to save the whole world, but that wasn’t as obvious to the Jewish believers at that time. And so Phillip and Andrew go and tell Jesus of the Gentiles request. To this Jesus responds to the disciples in such a typical Jesus way. He tells stories and analogies of his own death and how the hour has come. In essence he tells the disciples that the gentiles, in fact all the world will get a chance to see him when he is lifted up; that is when he is killed, lifted up on the cross. This message of Christ’s redemption through death would seem totally unheard of for the disciples except for that short parable about the grain of wheat. Jesus uses something that the disciples are familiar with, and through it Christ’s death begins to make sense. For me it makes more sense in terms of my pumpkin. Unless that pumpkin is killed, taken of the vine and carved open, it will not bear the seeds needed for new life. Likewise Jesus can come and live and teach us about God, but through his death we are able to receive new life.

            This must have been a difficult message for the disciples to hear. This man that they loved so much, the one that they are following and learning from is telling them that he must die in order for there to be new life. This is even a tough message for Jesus himself. He prays, “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say--' Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.” Jesus was scared; it is not like he wanted to die. Scripture says that his soul was troubled, but Jesus knew what needed to be done. He knew that in fear he would want to ask God the Father to spare him, but that his whole reason for coming was in order to be lifted up. Lifted up on the cross for all to see, so that whoever sees and follows may have new life. That by being lifted up in his death, he may be lifted up and exalted for the life that he brings through his resurrection. As we prepare for Easter, for the resurrection of Christ, for new life, we are first confronted with death. We are confronted with the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and at the same time we are also confronted with the reality of our own death.

            Recognizing that Jesus brings us new life, reminds us of why we need new life in the first place. We are sinners and have fallen away from God, and we will die. More than this however, is that in our scripture Jesus tells us that if we are to inherit this new life, then we must like Jesus lose our lives. He says, “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Now this sounds a little backwards, if Jesus died so that we can have eternal life, why must we lose our lives as well? Paul explains this conundrum in the sixth chapter of his letter to the Romans, “ The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.”  In other words we must to die to sin in order to have new life. This is both literal and metaphorical. The result of sin ever since the Fall from the garden of Eden is death. This means that because of sin we will die, and in our death sin no more. But just as Jesus if died to sin and rose again, then through Christ we too can expect eternal life after death. This is the literal understanding of dying to death. Metaphorically, through Christ we are able to die to sin, to shred away it’s  hold over us and start a life anew with Christ. This is much like the conversation Jesus has with Nicodemous about being born again. Nicodemous was thinking literally, He couldn’t figure how one could physically be born again. But Jesus was speaking metaphorically, that one must start a new life with Christ through water and Spirit. And just as eternal life is brought through death, so too is New Life brought through death to sin. As Jesus says, we must be willing to lose our lives in order to save them.

            This again reminds me of my pumpkin. As we brought that pumpkin home to be carved, long before I even had the idea of planting a seed, there was first a messy job that had to be done. After cutting the top off of a pumpkin, are all of the seeds just right there for you to easily grab? No, especially in bigger pumpkins those seeds are mangled and intertwined in the goopy, stringy, nasty innards of the pumpkin. You have to scoop all of that nastiness out and then somehow separate the seeds from the goop. This is neither a fun, nor an easy task. Maybe we are a lot like those pumpkins. We have the potential for new life that Christ has given us, we have the potential to share it with others so that they too may grow, but our seeds of new life are surrounded, entangled in our stringy, goopy, messy sin. In order for those seeds to be planted, in order for that New Life to begin in and through us, we must allow God to hollow us out. To strip us of that nasty sin that entangles us and separates us from God.

            While this may sound easy, it is something that all of us struggle with. For some reason we love our stringy mess. We have become comfortable with the goop inside of us, and are afraid to let it go. It has become a part of us, just as the stringy innards are part of the pumpkin. But though they are part of the pumpkin, it is not usually what we need. We need the seeds. When cooking we need flesh of pumpkin so we can make pumpkin pie, and pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup and many other delicious foods. The innards are part of the pumpkin, but it is not what makes the pumpkin good. Sin is the same for us. Sin is part of us. There is no human on Earth that is without sin, if there were, then Jesus’s challenge of “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,” might have gone a little differently. But just because sin is part of who we are does not mean that it is what makes us good. It is not part of humanity that God created, looked at and called good.  But we have become so used to sin being a part of us, that to give up those things that separate us from God, to have our sin scooped away by God makes us feel empty. And we hate to be empty.

            We as humans desire to be full. We gorge ourselves at all you can eat buffets so we can get that painful satisfaction of fullness. We pack our schedules so full that there is no time for anyone, especially God, and we celebrate this and call it a productive day. We pack our houses and pockets with whatever it is that television tells us we need, and then we go back out next we to get more, striving to have our lives feel full. We love to be full, in fact in our consumeristic society today it feels like we worship being full. We worship having everything, doing everything, consuming everything. It has become a ruler over us because we are so afraid of being empty. But Jesus says, “Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.”  Our need to be full, our desire to consume, our want to hold onto our sin will now be driven out and it is time for us to be emptied. And this is only possible through the God who emptied himself, taking on the form of a human,  humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

            In order to experience New Life we must like Christ be willing to empty ourselves and die to sin. We must be willing to let God hollow us out, to remove all of the messy strings of sin that somehow make us feel full, and in doing so reveal the seeds of eternal that once were hidden. As the sin is slowly scooped out of us, we may actually find that there is comfort in the emptiness. For the first time in our lives we may actually find peace and stillness. For the first time in our lives we may have allowed room for the Spirit to dwell within our very beings. Like a plant that must first die in order to bear fruit, we must be willing to die to sin, so that the seed of life may be revealed.

If It Was a Snake

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 3/15/15


Read Numbers 21:4-9

Read John 3:14-21

Image Courtesy of Hermanoleon Clipart

“Snakes, Why did it have to be snakes?” This famous line from Indiana Jones perfectly sums up the fear of snakes that we as humans have had for centuries. This adventurous archeologist who had already been chased by a tribe of indigenous people with spears, who had already outrun that huge rolling boulder as a Temple collapsed around him, is now petrified of snakes. Studies have shown that the fear of snakes is one of the most common fears that humans have today. Even though I never really thought I was much afraid of snakes, I had even held some at the zoo when I was younger; seeing one about a year ago just outside of the parsonage stirred up something. I was looking out of the great big bay window and looked down into the shrubs and noticed they were moving. Finally I was able to trace the curled body of great big black snake. Even though I know they aren’t poisonous and are actually good for keeping rodents away, there was still something a little off putting about this massive snake right in front of the parsonage. That fear grew even more a few weeks later as I was cutting the grass. If you have been to the parsonage you know the back yard has a small narrow hill on the side of the house. On the riding mower the best way to cut it is do drive up it, throw it in reverse, and the go up again. As I reached the top of the hill near the gate, my little friend started to poke its head up out of nowhere in a not very friendly way just a few feet from my shin. You better believe I got down that hill real quick which isn’t really that easy to do, because before you can reverse you have to pull up the blade, and then throw it into reverse and then hit the peddle, but you better believe it did it the fastest I had ever done before. Even without a real fear of snakes, snakes can still be pretty terrifying.

            The Israelites in the desert can attest to that.  After being freed from slavery in Egypt the Israelites wandered in the desert for years and years. It seems that throughout the time they were complaining, almost like kids on a long trip crying,  “Are we there yet.” They were hungry and so they complained and God gave them Manna, bread from heaven to eat. The people got tired of eating Manna and complained again, and God provided quails for them to eat. Again the people complained this time that they were thirsty, and God provided water to them from a rock of all places. Finally the people were complaining again. Why is this taking so long? Why did you lead us out of Egypt just so we could die out here? I want to go back. This time their complaints were not met with appeasement from God as had been the case before. This time, matters got worse giving the Israelites something to really complain about it. For as they wandered, down from the hills came poisonous snakes, that began to bite the people killing them. The Bible these snakes as snakes of fire, probably describing the burning pain they felt from where they were bit. In the midst of this panic, the people returned to Moses repenting and asking for help.

            The way in which God works in saving the Israelites in this story is fascinating. God tells Moses to make a serpent statue out of bronze and to put it on a stick. Moses then tells the people that whoever gaze upon the serpent statue will be safe, and whoever has been bitten by a snake and looks at the statue will be healed. It is strange that the very thing that heals the people and prevents them from dying, is the very thing that is killing them in the first place. I have to imagine however that looking at the snake statue was not easy. If had lost loved ones to the snakes, it would be a painful reminder of your loss. Staring at that snake statue would be terrifying. You know that looking at it will bring you healing, but it certainly hard to look at a fake bronze serpent, when there are snakes of fire all around you nipping at your ankles. The fear of your circumstance around makes it difficult to focus on what is right in front of you; the thing you need more than anything.

            Personally I’m bad at looking at what it is that I need. Most of that comes because I am quite an unorganized person. My desk is lined with papers and books and still it seems the ones that I need are not there when I need them. Heather on the other hand is a very organized person. She has tried to help me with my organization skills, giving me folders and boxes designed to put specific things in. Still, when I need that one book or that one paper it is nowhere to be found. I call out, “Heather, have you seen my book?” “Did you look on the shelf.”  “I’m looking right now and I don’t see it.” Then Heather will come in, and in a matter of seconds will pull the book I need right of the shelf. “If it was a snake it would have bit you” she says.

            If it were a snake it would have bit you. Often this is how it is for us in our matters of faith. We look for God and God is right there in front of us and yet we still don’t see. In light of our scripture from Numbers, this phrase takes on a new meaning as well. In John, Jesus compares himself to this serpent on a stick saying, “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Just as the Israelites looked upon the snake and were saved, those who look upon Jesus are too saved. And then we get what is probably the most famous Christian verse, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whomever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. This is the classic bumper sticker, bookmark, coffee cup verse. It is usually the first verse that we learn in Sunday school. This verse is so popular that a decade or so ago it was commonplace to see a John 3:16 sign in the stands of a baseball or football stadium. As Christians we love this verse as it seems to sum up perfectly God’s love for us and message of salvation, but the truth is that when it is taken out of context we lose a little bit of Jesus’s message. Because in John 3:16 we hear about God’s love, we hear about the promise of eternal life, but we really don’t get the full picture of what our response to that grace looks like.

            We hear in this popular verse about God’s love for us, we hear that Jesus died for the whole world, that all who believe in him shall have eternal life. This verse speaks about God’s grace freely given for us, but it leaves us wondering, if salvation is available for all the world then why wouldn’t everyone want it? Both of our scriptures shed light on this question. Jesus says that in like the serpent  held by Moses, the Son of man must be lifted up. This phrase “lifted up” means two things. The first thing it tells us is that the Son of Man, that is Jesus, must be exalted. Jesus must be held above everything else in our lives; our jobs, our family, our nation, our hopes, our dreams. Jesus must be lifted up above these things. It means we must turn our focus, turn our gaze upon the one that is saving us. Like the serpent on a pole, if we do not look, if we do not follow, then we are not saved.

            So whereas salvation is available for all, we have to accept. Jesus says, “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God ” Jesus did not come to condemn, Jesus came to save. In Christianity we like to view Jesus as a judge, and rightfully so. In fact in the Apostle Creed we even say, “From whence he shall judge the quick and the dead.” We read Matthew 25 and Jesus separating the sheep from the goat, and we get this vision of Jesus the judge. But just because Jesus is judge, does not mean that Jesus came to condemn, Jesus came to save. Jesus has given us the opportunity to follow him; that through faith we may be saved. This is the opposite of condemnation, this is salvation. With this free gift right in front of us, it is we then who condemn ourselves. It is we as our scripture tells us to stay in the dark rather than walk in the light of the Lord.  When we refuse God’s grace, we heap condemnation on ourselves.

            But why would anyone choose that, why would anyone choose their own condemnation? Sometimes something so obvious that is right in front of us, can be the hardest thing to see. Like the saying goes, “If it was a snake, it would have bit you.” It can be hard to see the snake right in front of you when you are worried about all the others around you. Just like I am sure it was hard for the Israelites to trust in looking at the bronze snake, when all the other serpents were biting at their heels. When the snakes bite in our lives, we too can get distracted. We too can take our gaze off of the one who saves us. When those bills pile up, when there is trouble at home, when we are fighting health risks or have lost a loved one, those things bite. When we battle our own demons, whether its addiction, or anger, or depression, or apathy or whatever it may be, our instinct becomes to look away. Our instinct is to focus on the darkness we are in, instead of lifting up Jesus Christ.

            Jesus knew a little something about darkness. Jesus took on our humanity, felt our pain, our hurt our fears, and for it he bore our sins on the cross. Jesus felt the physical pains of the whip, the nails, the crown of thorns, and the pain of asphyxiation on the cross. He also felt the emotional pains of being betrayed by one of his disciples, denied by another, and the pain of having his mother and loved ones watch him as he died. Jesus bore our humanity. A little while ago I mentioned that scripture said that like the serpent, Jesus must be lifted up. I said that lifted up meant to things, and the first is that Jesus must be exalted, put above everything else in our lives. The second meaning of Jesus being lifted up is more literal, it is talking about the  cross. Like the serpent, Jesus must be put lifted up on the cross for all to see. But why?

            Well, as you have heard the story of the Israelites in desert did you ever stop to think it was a bit odd? That as the people are being attacked and killed by snakes, God tells Moses to hold a statue of a snake of all things up for all to see. The people had to gaze upon the very thing that was killing them in order for them to be saved. The same is true with Jesus on the cross. Humans are plagued with the disease of sin and death. This is not what was intended for us. We were supposed to live long and prosper in the garden with God until another serpent entered in and tricked us into following our own desires. From then one we have continued to strive not for Godly desires but for our own, and the consequence of these actions which we call sin, is death. But now, God has come to Earth, as a human, as one of us, and was lifted up on the cross for all to see. Like the serpent in the wilderness, when we gaze upon Jesus on the cross, when we gaze upon God incarnate, we gaze upon that which is killing us, ourselves.

            Looking at God as human, suffering on the cross, convicts us of our own sin. It reminds us that without God we are slaves to sin and death. It reminds us that we are the ones who are killing ourselves. It is our sin, our desire to follow what we want that leads to our own condemnation. And maybe this is why we are afraid to gaze at the cross, maybe this is why we are afraid to lift Jesus up. Maybe this is why we choose condemnation over salvation. Because staring at the cross, lifting Jesus up is painful. It convicts us of our own flaws and faults. It calls for us to repent and to change our lives. It calls us to let go of trust in ourselves and put it the hands of Jesus.  It calls us out of the darkness that we are comfortable with, and into the unknown of the light. And when we step into the light all of our flaws become visible for others to see as well. We’d rather hide, we’d rather heap condemnation on ourselves than face the fear and the uncertainty of lifting up Christ. Lifting up Christ makes our pain and our troubles all too real, and in our fear we get distracted from the fact the gift of salvation is right there for us, if we would only trust in the Lord, if we would only turn our eyes upon Jesus.  God’s unmerited grace is right there in front of you, inviting you towards salvation if you would just allow yourself to accept it…. If it was a snake it would have bit you.  

A Taste of God

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 3/8/15




Read Psalm 19


As a kid growing up I went through two big phases of things that piqued my interests. First came my love for dinosaurs, but next came my love for space.  This probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to most of you, it’s no secret that I am a huge fan of Star Wars, but my love for space went much further than just the movies. In my room at home I taped planets to the top of my wall and had little glow in the dark stars to admire as I went to sleep. I had the order of the planets in our solar system memorized and loved when we would get to make models of it in class. My mom often took me to the Science Museum of Virginia, and there my love for space grew even more. There were experiments dealing with gravity, with air pressure, and even a model moon landing capsule that you could climb into. If you were really lucky, the IMAX theater would be showing a movie about space.

            As I grew older my passion for space may have waned a little, but I am still at times find myself amazed by it. Nothing beats a meteor shower that lights up the night sky. Nothing can put your rough day in perspective like coming home at night to a sky lit up, and where the constellations are so bright you have no trouble finding them. Even in college when space was the last thing on my mind, I remember being sad the day scientists decided that Pluto wasn’t really a planet.

            There is such a beauty, an awe and wonder that space presents. It is the final frontier. It is so vast and large and it is almost impossible to comprehend. In that awe and wonder, I feel as though something about God is being revealed. It was after all a star that led the way for the Magi to find Jesus. The psalmist for our scripture this morning certainly seemed to agree that space spoke to the wonders and glory of God. The psalm starts out, “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech,
    and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words;  their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth  and their words to the end of the world.” The psalmist recognizes that space, that nature itself proclaims the wonders of God. Space is so incomprehensible and yet it is something that God not only comprehends, but created. Without words the heavens proclaim God’s handiwork to the end of the world, the psalmist says. As we admire space, as we admire nature, we sometimes can catch a small piece of that song, we can get a small taste of God revealed to us, but it often leaves us wanting more. We want more answers, we want to understand this awesome and amazing God who can create such amazing things. In the vastness of space we feel so small, and even so distant from God, and we want something to draw us closer.

(Image Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

            As we stand in awe of God in the splendor of God’s creation, it may be surprising to us that what can draw us closer, what can give us a greater taste of God revelation is the Law; that is God’s commandments and precepts. When we think of beauty and awe and wonder we do not normally think of law. Law seems crude, crass, a means to and ends. The psalm describes the Law as perfect, reviving the soul, righteous, and causes rejoicing in the heart. This is probably not how we often think about the Law of God. The Law is not just a list of requirements to keep us and check and make us be “good.” That is where we in today’s society often get it so wrong. For the Israelites, the Law provided a way for the people to be in covenant with God. The laws were not arbitrary, and the laws were not just legalistic or moralistic, the Law was designed to bring you closer to God. Even in the Bible we see that over time this understanding was often lost. The Pharisees became staunch defenders of the Law and the letter of the Law. For them following the Law was the ends in and of itself. But Jesus reminds us of its true nature. The Pharisees get angry at Jesus because he breaks the command of not working on the Sabbath. But what was he doing, healing someone. The Pharisees had lost the intention of the Law.  It makes sense then when Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is he replies, “'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Loving God and loving People, isn’t that Thomas Road’s motto. It is not that Jesus says this replaces the Law, but that all of the Laws of God hang on this, loving God and loving people.”

            When I was in college I joined a fraternity, Kappa Sigma. Before I became a full-fledged brother there was a ten week period called pledging that I had to go through. During this pledging period, me and the other pledge brothers had many rules we had to follow. We had information about the history of our Fraternity and its principals that we had to memorize and would be tested on almost weekly. We had mandatory meetings with the brothers sometimes to discuss business, sometimes to do outreach, and sometimes just to hang out. We were assigned mentors that we called Big brothers to help us not just through the pledging period, but also throughout our time in the fraternity. We had mandatory study hall to make sure that as we were studying our materials for the Fraternity that we stayed on top of our school work as well. Finally we had this little book, the book with all of the information in it that we needed to know. This book was to be treasured and cherished, you did not lose this book, you did not let away from your side, and you didn’t come to a meeting without it.

            Now as I was going through all of this pledging it seemed kind of ridiculous. It was intense trying to memorize all of that information and to be at all of those mandatory meetings. The rules seemed overbearing and made life a lot harder at the time. As I went through the process however and when I was finally initiated it all began to make sense. All that we did, all of those rules, all of that studying made me learn more about the organization I was joining and love it even more. That mandatory time spent with brothers, and the times we sought out each other’s help on our own, helped us to bond with each other and grow together. That time we had together, though tough, was priceless and I came to love it.

            The Law of the Lord is in a way similar to this experience. As Jesus showed us, the laws were not arbitrary, they were designed in order to help us love God and love people. As we follow the Law, we don’t do it like a checklist that gets us to heaven; that misses the point entirely. And we certainly don’t follow the Law as a way to judge and call out others. The Law draws us closer to God, and draws us closer to each other. If this is the case, then like me and my experience in my fraternity, following the Law and the instructions leads to a greater love and appreciation for the One you are following. The Law makes us in fact fall more in love with God. It makes sense then why the psalmist would celebrate the Law, rejoicing in the heart and calling it perfect. It makes sense now that it is described as being more desired than gold and sweeter than honey. If nature and the wonders of space can give us just a taste of  God’s wonder, the Law can give us that sweet taste of honey. The Law can draw us closer in a relationship with God and with each other.

            As Christians following the Law of God can be quite confusing. Some may say, “Didn’t Jesus live and die so that we don’t have to follow the law anymore?  Others will point to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians where he says, “⁵ He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances.” Jesus Christ’s ministry to the world can make it seem as though the Law has become obsolete, but if we really read what Jesus and Paul and the other early writers were saying we find that this is not that case. . Through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, God established with us a new covenant by Water and the Spirit. By establishing this new covenant, Jesus did abolish the laws in the fact that the Laws do not save us, but Jesus’s ministry was not a rejection of the Laws, but rather a fulfilment of them. It goes back again to how and why we are reading them. If we are following the laws as a means to be saved, then we have missed the point of Jesus’s atonement for sins If on the other hand we are using the laws to better know God and to grow in a right relationship with God and with others then the Law is still sweeter than honey to our lips.

            In this season of Lent it is this sweetness that we desire to taste. This season is a time in which we remember that new covenant that we have entered into through our baptism, and we strive to honor and life out that commitment. It is the Law, or maybe it is easier for us to say the Scripture, that helps to convict us of our sins and lead us to the changes necessary for growing closer to God.  This is why for many Lent is such a bittersweet time. No one really wants to be convicted of their sin. No one really wants to admit their faults, and not many truly want to repent, especially if that means they have to change the lives they know and have grown comfortable with. For this reason Lent can be a difficult time, as we wrestle with our own faults. As we wrestle and as we are convicted however we begin to grow closer and closer to God. That which once hindrance to our relationship, is no longer a stumbling block. As we grow in closer relationship with God we realize that we were convicted not because we are worthless, but because we are precious in God’s sight and God wants more for us than the life we are living today. The Law, Scripture, the Word of God, whatever you want to call it in today’s context can help convict us, can help lead us through the Spirit’s discerning, and can be that sweet honey upon our lips.

            As we approach Scripture, and in particularly the Law, we should approach it with a certain preparation in our hearts. We should prepare ourselves for the power that it holds, and pray for God’s guidance that we may rightly speak and live out that which we read. It is why the psalmist ends with a line that you may have heard before. It is a line often used by pastors as a prayer before their sermon, but it should also be our prayer each and every day as we seek to be led and serve God. “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord my rock and my redeemer.”

            This should be our earnest prayer each and every day. We should pray that what we utter day to day is acceptable in God’s sight. We should pray that our hearts are stirred by the majesty of God, both through the wonders of nature but also through the wonders of his Word. The psalmist gets this. Thomas McGrath points out the uniqueness of this psalm that, “star gazers and tree huggers will welcome verses 1-6 while the Ten Commandments crowd will salute verses 7-13” But doesn’t the uniqueness of this psalm in a way sum up the majesty and wonder of God. That through different means, both nature and Scripture, God is revealed to us and draws a wide array of people into this wonderful new covenant.  And in this covenant, may it be our hearts desire to live out the commitments that we made before God and each other.  May we truly love God and love one another. May we pay attention to  nature’s declaration of God glory. May follow the Law of Lord in a way that draws us closer to Christ, making the precepts of the Lord more precious than gold, and sweeter than honey. But most of all as we strive to live as a covenant people, may the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts, by acceptable in in thy sight, O Lord,  our Rock, and our redeemer.

A Dream Deferred

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 3/1/15

Read Mark 8:31-38

Image Courtesy of Pitts Theology Library

Ever since I first read it in High School, Langston Hughes’ poem “A Dream Deferred”  has spoken to me and in a way haunted me.  “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore—And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags  like a heavy load.   Or does it explode?.” I absolutely love this poem; the heartbreak, the desperation, the lingering hope are all so powerful. I recently stumbled across this poem again and it got me thinking. What happens when we are called to intentionally defer our dreams?  You see, this poem speaks to the external circumstances that crushed or at least delayed dreams of many African Americans in the early part of the 20^th century. Issues such as segregation, unjust laws and even War forced many to postpone or delay their dreams. My question on the other hand is what if our dream was obtainable, but we were called to let it go? Would we do it?

            All of us have dreams. Many of us share in similar dreams. There would be no such thing as the American dream if it wasn’t something shared by so many. What is that American dream? To become successful in our jobs, To have a house to call our own, To have a spouse and children and be able to provide for them with the best education, best extra-curricular activities so that we may leave them in a better position than even we ourselves are in. The dream is to be able to be self-sufficient and not rely on anyone else.  Our religion sometimes even feeds into this dream that we have. Sadly God is viewed by many Christians around our country as a means to achieve our dream. If we pray hard enough, if we give enough to our churches, if we are there every Sunday in Worship then God is going to bless us. God is going to make sure we have the money we need and then some. God will make sure our children get into the school of their dreams. God will get us the job that we want or the dream house we have been saving for. God will take away any burden, any hardship, any suffering we may be facing. If we truly believe, then God will make our dreams a reality.

            Jesus however explicitly tells us that this is not the case. In our passage this morning from Mark Jesus talks about his own suffering that is to come. He openly declares that the chief priests and elders will reject him, and that he will be killed. Peter responded the same way I feel many Christians would today. Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes him. This word rebuke had already been used in the Gospel by Jesus usually when he was casting demons out of people. In essence, Peter is calling Jesus mad, saying that he is acting possessed. Peter believes that Jesus is the Messiah, but in his mind there is no way that the Messiah would be called to suffer; that’s not how the dream went. The Messiah would come and use the power that Jesus has already demonstrated that he has, and use it to destroy the enemies of Israel and return nation to its glory. In Peter’s mind the Messiah would not be called to suffer, for if that were true the Messiah’s followers would be called to suffer as well.

            But in fact that is exactly what Jesus is saying, and Jesus doesn’t say so lightly. “Get behind me Satan” Jesus cries out to Peter. Imagine the position Peter is in. Peter was bold enough to call out him leader and his boss, to practically call him possessed; and now he is the one who is being called Satan. Peter questioned whether Jesus knew what he was talking about, and Jesus makes it abundantly clear that what he said was no mistake. He tells Peter, “For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." He then calls out to the crowd, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?  

            A life of discipleship, a life of following the Messiah, is a life in which there will be suffering. As Christians we hear Jesus calling us to take up our cross and follow him. Unfortunately, this means at times we must put down our own dreams to lift up that cross. We must take our minds off of human things, off of those personal dreams, and set our minds upon the things of God. If we don’t believe this is true, If we still doubt that Jesus is really calling us to put aside the things of this Earth, then just look at the story of the man who just lost his father. When the man asks Jesus to let him first bury his father’s body before following him, Jesus replies, “Let the dead bury the dead.”

            Following Jesus is no joke. Jesus asks a lot of us, but it is nothing that he has not already done for us. Still I feel like many of us are today are just as bold as Peter was. We say to God, “ Um God, are you sure you know what you are talking about here? Instead of calling us to suffer with you, wouldn’t it be better if you showed people how great you were by making your followers dreams come true? Wouldn’t it be better if you just gave to us everything we ask if we ask hard enough and are good people?” Now we might not actually say that to God, but isn’t this often what our actions are saying. But Jesus calls us to set our minds not on our earthly dreams, but to set them upon Christ. We are not called to gather up things that make this world better for ourselves, in fact we are called to  lose our lives for Christ. Now this is certainly a difficult thing to ask, and please do not here me saying that I have gotten it right, but God knows I have failed. God knows that I have missed opportunities for ministry or service because it did not fit my plan, it was not part of my dream of schools, or jobs, or even ordination. God knows I have been quiet in the face of injustice because of the fear of how it might affect my dream, my status, or even what people thought about me. God knows I have failed, and God knows you have too, and so it is in fact such a blessing that we are able to gather together for Worship in this season of Lent, able to confess of our failures, confess that we have been earthly minded, and strive together to take up our cross, to intentionally put our dreams on hold, so that God may come first.

            So what happens to a dream intentionally deferred?  Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore—And then run. Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.   Or does it explode? I think it does explode, for when our dreams are put aside for the sake of Jesus, there is a power in it,  like an explosion, that cannot be contained.