Made in the Shade

Luke 12:13-21

August 3, 2025

            Up until this harvest, his barns had always been big enough.  He was a successful businessman.  Year in and year out his fields had produced their grain.  He sold some according to what the market had to offer, he retained that which he needed for himself, and he kept the rest stored up to prepare for a comfortable future.  But then this harvest happened, and all of a sudden, his barns weren’t big enough anymore.  So huge was this year’s crop that the expense of tearing down all of his barns and building bigger ones was actually going to be cost effective, given the amount of grain that he now had to store.  And that comfortable future for which he had been saving was now beginning to look like it was going to be just a bit more opulent.

            But I have a question this morning.  Why?  Why did our farmer friend suddenly have a bumper crop?  Did he discover a new fertilizer or figure out a way to more effectively irrigate his crops?  Probably not, he was a first-century farmer and it’s unlikely in the extreme that he had the expertise to accomplish things of that nature.  No, the abundance of his crop was almost certainly related to fortuitous weather, timely rain, and plenty of sunshine. 

            So, tell me, given the fact that his barns were always plenty big enough until this harvest, might it be fair to think that the abundance of this particular harvest was a gift from God?  For whatever reason, God choose to bless our farmer friend lavishly, and yet the farmer’s response to this bonanza is entirely selfish.  Somehow our farmer friend failed to recognize the depth of the blessing that had just been showered upon him; failed even to understand the fact that this harvest WAS a blessing and not just something that was born of his own efforts.

            So much of our world today lives under this same assumption that those who work the hardest are the ones who succeed and are the ones who earn more or accumulate more.  But let’s take this story one step further.  Given the fact that any harvest is just one late frost, one drought, or one pestilence away from failing, couldn’t we fairly think that EVERY harvest is a gift from God?

            It’s not really a popular thought in our twenty-first century world, you know – This idea that we read in Psalm 24 that the earth and all that is in it belongs to God.  Try telling that to the folks who are amassing fortunes in real estate or business or healthcare.  They scoff at the idea that what they possess doesn’t belong to them, and I suspect that some even scoff at the idea that that which they don’t possess doesn’t belong to them as well.  This whole idea that we are somehow masters of our own fate, that if we just work hard enough and long enough that we will find wealth, completely turns our backs on the idea that the abundance of the earth was created by God.  And He created that abundance for a reason, with that reason being that there would be enough for everyone. 

            And this is the whole point that Jesus is making in this parable today, to show us the blindness of this man to the fact that God has just blessed him abundantly.  Can we see this?  Can we see how his sudden need for new and bigger barns speaks to the extraordinary nature of this blessing?  But instead of gratitude, what is it that our farmer friend expresses?  Well, what did he say?  “I know what I will do.  I will pull down my barns.  I will build larger barns.  I will store my stuff in my new barns. I will relax. I will eat. I will drink. I will be merry.”

            In one short statement, I counted the words “I” or “my” twelve times.  At no point did his statement reference gratitude for God’s abundant blessing.  At no point did his statement reference gratitude to his workers for all the extra work they had to do to harvest and prepare this huge crop.  At no point did his statement indicate any intention or desire to share his bounty with his staff, who worked so hard to help him to accumulate this newfound wealth.  And at no point did his statement indicate any response to this blessing that would have entailed sharing it with those in need.  Because… why would he ever give up the fruits of all of his own hard work to others? 

Hmm… we’ve just kind of established that this bumper crop had little to do with the man’s efforts and everything to do with God’s supervision of the circumstances that produced that bumper crop.  But one has no need for gratitude when one believes that their success is a result of their own efforts.  Our farmer friend would not allow himself to consider the fact that this harvest wasn’t entirely HIS reward for HIS own hard work.  And what did Jesus have to say about this attitude?  Jesus said that he was a fool.

In one short night, all of his plans for the future were going to come to a crashing halt.  In one short night our farmer friend would forfeit his life and stand before God empty handed.  Empty handed, with nothing to show for his life, because all of his efforts were left behind overflowing from his too small barns.

            A lot of times when we study the Bible, I think it’s easy to dismiss the actions of those who are, shall we say, the poor examples… the actions that we think that we would never do ourselves.  And yet, how good are we at recognizing the blessings that are showered upon our lives?  How often do we attribute our successes not to our own skill or to our hard work but simply to the fact that God, in His great love for us, has chosen to bless us?

            When you get right down to it, today’s teaching embodies exactly what is meant when the Bible tells us that the wisdom of God is foolishness to this world.  Our farmer friend today represents the best of worldly wisdom.  Work hard at your job, take advantage of every opportunity to maximize your income, save what you can, and plan for the future.  And yet, the funny thing about all of this is, not only do these priorities fit perfectly into the world’s wisdom but that they fit perfectly into God’s wisdom also, with only one major difference.  The worldly version of these priorities is to do all of this for self.  No concern for others, just for self.  The kingdom version of these priorities is to do all of this for God’s glory.  Of course, the world will tell us that doing this for God’s glory means to totally give up any possibility of us having a comfortable life.  But how many times does the Bible tell us that God delights in providing for His beloved children?  We’re worth way more than sparrows He says, more important than the flowers of the field He says, worth enough for Him to have sent His only Son… for us!

            And so, the Christian rightly eschews the worldly wisdom that says “This is all for you”, and realizes that the call to love God means also to love those made in His image, and to truly love those made in His image means that for another of any of God’s beloved children to have less than what we have, is unacceptable.  And so, as Christians, we also work hard, we also take advantage of opportunities to maximize our incomes, we also save what we can, and we also plan for the future.  But we view our future not as our farmer friend did, expecting a long, prosperous, and comfortable life. But as those who realize that our future extends infinitely beyond this life, and that the planning that WE do for our future is about laying up treasures in heaven rather than laying up our treasures in incrementally bigger barns. 

And this philosophy of storing our treasure in heaven is one that is scoffed at by the secular world.  WHY?  Simply put, because for the secular world, God isn’t their God.  Oh, they may claim that He is, but in their acts of denying others to serve themselves they are showing the world that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is clearly far lower on their list of priorities than is their desire for comfortable living.  Now, don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with living comfortably, but for the Christian, comfortable living must be thoroughly balanced with seeing to the needs of those who God puts in our path.  When we are faithful, God will see to it that we are given opportunities to help others in need.  When our barns are full, it’s not time to build bigger barns, it’s time to build bigger communities of people who are fed, housed, clothed, educated, and have the healthcare that they need.  And each of us is capable of playing a small role in this kingdom construction project.  Each of us is capable of helping those one or two beloved children of God that He is going to put in our path and ask us to help.

God created a world of plenty.  Poverty, homelessness, hunger, preventable disease, these things are not the result of a lack of resources, they are the result of a lack of distribution.  Now, God is not asking you personally to solve the world’s problems.  What God is asking you personally to do is to be aware of those in your path who are in need and to help them according to your abilities and your resources. God will never ask any of us to give more than we are able, but to give what we ARE able is a big part of what it means to be faithful.  That’s what it means to store up treasures in heaven.  And when we do this, and we stand before God ourselves, we won’t be standing there empty handed.  Because, unlike the treasures that are stored in barns, this treasure will go with us, forever.

Last Sunday we sang a wonderful Stuart Townend song. It fit the week’s liturgy perfectly, which is why I chose it for last week.  But I almost wanted to sing the song two weeks in a row because there is one line from that song that fits today’s lesson perfectly as well.  And I would like to close with that line from the song: “Though riches come and riches go, don’t set your heart upon them.  The fields of hope in which I sow, are harvested in heaven”.  [1]

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[1] Psalm 62, Stuart Townend & Aaron Keys, Copyright © 2007 Thank You Music

Ask, Seek, Knock

July 27, 2025

Luke 11:1-13

            Way back when I was a member of the Methodist church in Eatontown, I was on the Administrative Council (That’s Session to Presbyterians).  We had a new pastor, and this new pastor decided to replace the traditional language of the Lord’s Prayer with a new ecumenical translation.  The reaction to this was seismic, and not in a good way.  Much of the congregation was up in arms over the change, and the matter ended up before the Administrative Council.  I had a dear friend in that church and he was on the Administrative Council also, and during the meeting, as the pastor was explaining his choice to use the modern translation, this gentleman stood up and said, “If the words were good enough for Jesus, they are good enough for me”.  I was sitting next to him and as he sat down, I whispered to him, “You know, Jesus spoke Aramaic”.  He just looked at me as if I had two heads.  I don’t know if the thought didn’t occur to him that Jesus never spoke English, or if he thought that somehow the traditional version was a word for word perfect translation, but clearly, he, and quite a few others, were under the impression that the traditional translation was somehow sacred.

            I loved this man, I sat next to him in choir for several years and he was a wonderful and faithful man.  But I still love to tell this story, not to disrespect him, but simply because I’ve always found the story to be funny.  But there is a truth in his outburst that needs to be understood.  As a general rule, humans like to keep things simple.  And this is something that we see over and over again in the actions of the Pharisees and truthfully, something that we see over and over again in the actions of the church, namely, that following a routine often seems to be much easier than forging a new path. 

As complicated as the first century Jewish religion seems with its myriad of rules and regulations, the first century Jews really did have a pretty complete roadmap for their faith: if such and such happens, always do this.  These rules that they followed were the exact reason that they ran into so much trouble with Jesus.  They had taken a faith with infinite shades of grey and tried to make every single bit of it black and white.  No, you can’t heal someone on the sabbath, it’s against the rules.  No, you can’t have dinner with a gentile, it’s against the rules.  No, you can’t pick grain on the sabbath, it’s against the rules.

            And we, in the 21^st century read these stories, and we think to ourselves, “Well, that’s a little silly, isn’t it? We know better than that”.  But do we?  When all is said and done, we are more like our first century counterparts than we are different from them, and we still tend to like to keep things simple.  And so, my friend’s tenacious grip on the specific wording of the Lord’s Prayer is indicative of this desire to have a roadmap, to have things planned out for us so that we don’t have to be forging a new path every time we do something… or every time we pray.

            In today’s reading, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray, and He obliges, giving us the words of the Lord’s prayer, but wait just a minute…  The story of the giving of the Lord’s prayer isn’t unique to the book of Luke because Matthew tells the same story, but guess what?  In Luke, the wording of the Lord’s Prayer is different from the wording of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew.  Why do we think that is?  There are some theologians who postulate that Luke and Matthew are reporting on different times that Jesus taught on the subject.  Or perhaps Luke and Matthew reconstructed their notes from the event and remembered things differently.  OR, perhaps Jesus never intended for the Lord’s Prayer to be memorized and repeated verbatim but instead intended it to be an outline for how we are to approach God in prayer.

            When we look closely at this prayer we find that it contains a remarkable opening and then five petitions.  Let’s take a look at these things one by one.

First, the opening.  Jewish prayer pretty much always begins with “Blessed are you Lord God, King of the universe”, but Jesus began His prayer by saying, “Daddy”.  James Laurence tells us that, “Jesus teaches us that when we pray, we can turn to God as any child would to a loving parent. God wants to hear from us, wants to be in a relationship with us, wants to help us live our lives. But God also does not want to interfere without our wanting Him to. He loves us too much to help us against our will. So, he waits for us to ask. And the way that we ask is through prayer.”  [1]  So, our remarkable opening is the revealing of the fact that God is every bit as approachable as a loving parent, probably even more. 

The first two petitions are directed towards God.  The first one being, “Hallowed be Thy name”.  In ancient times, names had an impact that was different from what they have now.  To know someone’s name then was to know a person completely, to know not just the person but to know their character; to know who they were on a deeply personal level.  To be “Hallowed” is to be made holy or to be reverenced.  And so, our first petition is, therefore, a request that we can be led to comprehend the majesty and the glory of God and to interact with Him accordingly.

The second petition says, “Thy Kingdom come”.  Which of us doesn’t deeply long for the day when evil is overthrown on earth and God’s kingdom of peace and love and compassion becomes our present and eternal reality?  Two weeks ago, I said, “When we abandon our prejudices and choose to be a neighbor to others, then the Kingdom of God is in our midst.”  Our desire, our request to God is not only that His kingdom will become a reality on earth, just as it is a reality in heaven, but that we will realize that His kingdom needs to become a reality in our hearts before it can become a reality on earth. 

The next three petitions are requests for us.  The first of these is to be given our daily bread.  Actually, in the original Greek, the word ἐπιούσιον (Epi-you-see-oon) means not daily bread but essential bread.  The request being such that God will provide for our essential needs.  Warren Wiersbe, in his own inimitable style, says, “We ask [God] to provide our needs, not our greeds, for today”.  [2]  While God certainly desires our happiness, and loves to fill us with good things, it’s also critical to realize that the real purpose of prayer is not to amass pleasures for ourselves, but rather to live to seek God’s glory.  My Army Chaplain friend Greg Monroe used to say, “Prayer is not us asking God to do our will, prayer is us asking God to incorporate us into His will”. 

The second personal petition is to be forgiven our sins, or debts, as we forgive the sins, or debts, of others.  Garland tells us that, “The Lord’s Prayer is to affect the distinctive way that disciples live and not just the distinctive way they pray.  It has an ethical thrust; we ought not to expect to receive from God what we are not prepared to bestow on others”. [3]  Forgiveness of our sins is essential, but here, Jesus tells us that for us to forgive others is essential also.  It’s not that God will refuse to forgive us, it’s just that an unforgiving heart will be equally unable to receive forgiveness.  In short, it’s not possible for us to be loving when our heart is burdened with animosity towards others.

The final petition is to be delivered from temptation…  Human free will is a cornerstone of God’s plan.  C. S. Lewis said, “If a thing is free to be good it’s also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible.  Why, then, did God give them free will?  Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.”  [4]  God, even with all of His power cannot create love.  Love must be given of one’s free will, and so, God gave humans the freedom to choose Him or to reject Him in order that those who do choose Him do so out of love and not out of fear or out of obligation.  Unfortunately, this has created a situation where, even those who have given their hearts to God are still capable of making wrong choices and indeed do so all the time.  Our prayer then, is that God steers us away from those temptations that may cause us to make those wrong choices or may cause us to harm our relationships with God, or with others.  We ask to be protected from the temptation of the evil one in order that we may enjoy uninterrupted fellowship with our God.

Luke follows this part of his story with Jesus telling two parables encouraging the disciples to pray.  The first parable Jesus tells depicts a person knocking on a friend’s door at midnight asking for some bread to feed an unexpected guest who had just arrived.  This parable is difficult for us to understand because our culture doesn’t share the first century deep obligation for hospitality, so please allow me to modernize this parable.  Your wife goes into labor and your car won’t start.  You knock on your neighbor’s door, desperately asking if you can borrow their car.  The point of this parable isn’t the audacity of the man waking his neighbor at midnight, the point is that the man doesn’t hesitate to ask his friend for help.  And so, neither should we hesitate to ask God for our needs.  We don’t need to convince God to help us, that is His desire right from the start, but God does ask us to make our needs known to Him. 

The parable about the father not giving his children bad things when they ask for good things is in the same vein.  If even a sinful human will give their child good things when they ask their father, then how much more will God joyfully give to His beloved children when they ask Him?

Luke concludes today’s story by telling us to ask, to seek, and to knock.  Leon Morris tells us that, “Jesus does not say, and does not mean that, if we pray, we will always get exactly what we ask for.  After all, “no” is just as definite an answer as “yes”.  He is saying that true prayer is neither unheard nor unheeded.  It is always answered in the way God sees is best”.  [5]  Luke teaches us that Jesus calls us to be faithful and persistent in prayer, with the ultimate result of our faithful prayers being that we are given the Holy Spirit, who leads us in our journey towards Christ-Likeness.

Michael K. Marsh said, “Here’s what strikes me about how Jesus teaches us to pray. It’s not about asking God to do or give particular things in specific circumstances. It’s bigger than that. It is about the future and our responsibility for bringing about that future.”  [6]  And so, I encourage us all to look beyond the familiar words of the Lord’s Prayer and instead, always, always pray what is in our hearts, because that is what God desires to hear.

At the risk of upsetting any for whom the words to the Lord’s Prayer are thought to be sacred, I’d like to give us all a little food for thought in reading Pastor Marsh’s translation of the Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father in heaven, regardless of what has and has not happened, through our words and actions we bless, hallow, and make holy your name before others.

We claim your ways, concerns, and desires as our own.

Each day give us bread for the day to nourish and strengthen us in body and soul for whatever lies ahead.

Free us from the past and forgive us our sins in the same way and to the same extent as we forgive others.

Save us from the temptation of turning away from ourselves, one another, and you.

To all these things we say yes, yes, amen.

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[1] James Laurence, WorkingPreacher.org, Commentary on Luke -111-13-5

[2] Warren Wiersbe, Be Compassionate, Pg. 147

[3] David E. Garland, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, Pg. 464

[4] C. S. Lewis, The Case for Christianity

[5] Leon Morris, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: Luke, Pg. 214

[6] Michael K. Marsh, InterruptingTheSilence.com, “Can I Get an Amen?” Sermon on Luke 11:1-13

The Days are Coming

July 20, 2025

Amos 8:1-12

            I love Amos!  It is absolutely one of my favorite books of the Bible, not only because Amos’ message really resonates with me, but because Amos was a man of extraordinary courage.  And what is even more remarkable is the fact that this courage came from a place of deep humility.  So, before we talk about Amos’ message, let’s talk for a little bit about Amos himself.  Amos did not come from a priestly family.  He wasn’t a priest or a scribe or a teacher of the law.  Amos was, by his own admission, a shepherd.  Now, we’ve talked about shepherds before, and we have recognized the fact that there wasn’t a job of lower status in all of ancient Israel.  The shepherd, by the nature of their job, was continually ritually unclean and so was excluded from temple worship.  Since much of Israel’s social structure was built around the temple community, shepherds were outcasts.  Also, shepherds shared a terrible reputation; so much so that shepherds were not permitted to testify in a court of law.  When I was a kid, my mom used to tell me that if I didn’t apply myself in school I would end up digging a ditch.  I actually ended up a musician, which is a story for another time.  But I would imagine that ancient Israelite mothers told their children that if they didn’t apply themselves that they would end up being shepherds.  And so, the first thing that we know about Amos is the fact that he didn’t exactly have a desirable job.

            During Amos’ time in the late 700’s BCE Israel and Judah were quite affluent.  When we look at a map we see that Israel is situated in a direct line between Egypt in the South and Assyria and Babylon to the North, and so Israel lay right in the middle of the trade routes, and trade routes have a way of making merchants extremely wealthy, so, at the times that Israel was not occupied by other nations, Israel flourished economically.  And this was one of those times.  But that flourishing took place mostly among the economic elite, and so, as a shepherd, Amos would have been pretty far from benefiting from the economic bonanza that was enriching Israel’s upper class.  Bearing in mind the extremely low social status that Amos bore, we can see a few things right away.  First, is the fact that this common shepherd nobody… stood up to kings and priests with a force that was unexpectedly fierce.  And second, we can imagine that Amos’ message about how the wealthy exploit the poor was probably deeply personal.

            With this in mind, let’s take a look at Amos’ message.  Prior to today’s reading, God had given Amos three visions.  In each vision God shows Amos something then asks Amos what he sees and after Amos replies, God explains the vision.  In each of the three instances God declared judgment on Israel for their sins.  And in each of these three instances, Amos intercedes for Israel so compassionately that God relents and tells Amos that the prophesied judgments will not take place.  Today’s reading starts out in the same way, with God showing Amos a basket of summer fruit.  After Amos correctly identifies the vision, God, in a play on words in the original Hebrew, declares Israel to be ripe for judgment.  In the Hebrew, the word for “summer fruit” is qayits, while the term for “end” is qets so, here God is telling Amos that the time for judgment is here and will no longer be delayed.  And this time, Amos does not intercede.

            The next part of this passage can be a little hard to read.  Amos’ prophesy essentially says that the nation of Assyria will soon conquer Israel.  For an archaeology nut such as myself, I’ve seen pictures of the reliefs on the walls of Ashurbanipal’s palace.  The Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal reigned during the time of the siege of Jerusalem and the carrying off of the people of Israel into captivity.  These reliefs depict in gruesome detail the horrific things done by the Assyrian armies to the people of Israel.  Suffice it to say that the Assyrian armies were among the most heartless and vicious armies that have ever existed on this planet.  Our text today tells us that the songs in the temple will turn to wailing and that dead bodies will be flung everywhere.  The results of this war will be catastrophic to the Israelites. 

            And it’s here that we run into the age-old question of how can a God of love allow this kind of violence to happen?  Well, Amos spends most of today’s reading, and indeed most of this book. explaining what the sins are, that have led to this impending judgment.  You see, the wealthy of Israel have become obsessed with their wealth.  They just can’t wait for the sabbath or the religious festival to be over so they can get back to making money.  These religious observances, intended to bring people closer to God are instead viewed as an inconvenience to their money-making enterprises. 

And it’s not enough that these merchants are obsessed with money, they are devising all manner of ways to increase their profits, most of which are contrary to the law.  Leviticus 19:35-36 says: “Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity.  Use honest scales and honest weights.”  In spite of this clear command to use honest weights and measures, the merchants boast about “skimping on the measure”.  Deuteronomy 25:13-16 says: “Do not have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy [and] one light.  You must have accurate and honest weights and measures.  For the Lord your God detests anyone who deals dishonestly.” And yet again, the merchants boast about “cheating with dishonest scales”. 

I love ice cream and I have always been loyal to a particular brand that I particularly like.  This ice cream used to come in half-gallon cartons.  One day, I wrote a letter to this company to complain when I noticed that the cartons were no longer a half-gallon but had become one and three quarters quarts.  I had one half-cup less ice cream, but I paid the same amount.  Now, I personally would have preferred to continue to get my full half-gallon of my favorite ice cream and wouldn’t have minded a price increase… it happens.  But it seemed to me that the diminishing of the quantity was underhanded.  The manufacturer never responded to the letter.  I guess they just don’t care if people know that they are being cheated.  And for those who are paying attention, their cartons are now one and a half quarts.  These Jewish merchants would measure out their grain in containers that didn’t hold quite as much as they were supposed to.  And the merchants were also including the inedible husks along with the grain that was being purchased, giving you even less for your money.  And then to top it all off, when you paid in silver, the scale measuring the weight of the silver said you were giving them less than you actually were.

Stan Mast tells us that, “The effect of this widespread deceit, says God, is that the poor and needy end up falling further and further behind, until they need a loan just to make it day to day.  They end up being a slave to a lender, even to the point of having to use their shabby sandals as pledge on the loan.  So, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The bottom line for Israel was that making money was more important than caring for neighbor.  The God of the prophets had been replaced by the god of profit.” [1]

One cannot read the Bible without coming to an understanding of the fact that the poor and the marginalized hold a place near to God’s heart.  Three times in the Book of Amos God declared judgment on Israel for the exploitation of His beloved children, and three times He relented, out of His great love even for those whose actions were hurting others.  God is patient, but God’s patience is not limitless, and in this, the fourth vision, God declares Israel to be ripe for judgment.

This question about God’s judgment has been a subject of difficulty and a stumbling block to potential believers for millennia.  How often do we hear (or ask) the question, “How could a loving God allow this to happen?”  Well, I would like to share a  quote from the Canadian theologian and pastor, Tim Challies, who explains this better than anyone I have ever heard. 

“Scripture says that God is love and that he has wrath. This means that love lies deeper than wrath in the character of God. Love is his essential perfection, without which he would not be who he is. Wrath is love’s response to sin. It is God’s voluntary gag reflex at anything that destroys his good creation. God is against sin because he is for us, and he will vent his fury on everything that damages us.”

“Love is at God’s very core. 1 John 4:8 says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Through all of eternity, God has been love; he has existed in a state of love of Father to Son, Son to Spirit, Spirit to Father. There has never been a time that God has not been expressing love; nor will there ever be. But God’s wrath is far different. God has not always been wrathful. He has not always had to express anger. His anger is a reaction to a lack of love–a lack of love for him or a lack of love [for] others. Wrath is a response to sin. Thus, wrath did not exist until sin existed. And as sin came to be, God had to respond to it in a way befitting his holy character. God’s response to sin is wrath. How could it be otherwise? Sin is cosmic treason against the Creator of the universe. He must respond.” [2]

Amos, the shepherd, who lived in the southern kingdom of Judah had come to the northern kingdom of Israel to prophesy because God had sent him there with a message.  When Amos declared judgment on Israel, on the high priest Amaziah, and on the king Jeroboam, Amaziah heard Amos’ oracle and reported back to Jeroboam.  Jeroboam commanded Amaziah to return to Amos and tell him “Go back to Judah”.  But Amos would not be intimidated, nor would he be silent.  Neither the high priest nor the king were willing to listen to Amos or to repent.  But within a short time, everything Amos prophesied happened.  Amaziah was assassinated.  Jeroboam’s children were all murdered, Jeroboam was carried off into captivity along with most of the inhabitants of Israel, leaving his wife behind, unsupported, to become a prostitute, and Jeroboam died in a foreign country.

Today our text tells us that, as difficulties began to overrun Israel and they turned to the Lord for answers, the word of the Lord was nowhere to be found.  There was a famine of God’s word, exactly as Amos had prophesied.  If one refuses to listen to God, there will come a time when God will no longer speak to that person.

And so, how are we to understand all of this?  Where do we find God’s grace in this story?  That is the big question for today, don’t you think?  We see God’s grace in the three times that He relented from bringing judgment.  In what is rapidly becoming one of my most quoted Bible verses, 2^nd Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.  And I think that the key word here is absolutely “repentance”. 

These Israelite merchants undoubtedly were faithful attendees at the temple, as was made clear back in chapter 5.  But their worship and songs were mere lip service.  The fact that their hearts were not inclined towards God was painfully evident in the lack of empathy expressed to the poor who they were exploiting.  In chapter 5, verse 4 God says directly to these merchants “Seek me and live”. 

That “Seek me and live” is an open invitation from the creator of the universe, issued to every single one of His beloved children that will hear Him and respond to His love.  God’s grace is showered upon the repentant heart.  But in the hearts of those who serve other gods like money or power there is no room for God Himself. 

God’s gift of forgiveness is free, but it is not a gift that comes without strings attached.  And those strings are found in God’s call to live justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.  And what does it mean to live justly?  Well, justice is what happens when love is put into action.

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[1] Stan Mast, CEPreaching.org, Amos 81-12-2

[2] Tim Challies, Challies.com, Wrath is Love’s Response to Sin

The Harvest

July 6, 2025

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

            You are not going to believe what’s about to happen!  I was just talking to Jesus and do you remember about a month ago when Jesus sent the 12 out to preach the Good News and He gave them the power to heal the sick and to cast out demons?  Well, now He’s going to send US!  All 72 of us, can you believe it?  We’re going to go out into the towns and villages and preach the word that the Kingdom of God is at hand.  We’ll probably get to heal the sick and cast out demons too!  How cool is that?  Jesus said that we are going to have a meeting early tomorrow morning when He will give us all the details.  I can’t wait!

            The next morning we were up at first light and went to the meeting place.  Jesus was already up, as usual.  Every day He gets up while it is still dark and finds a quiet place to pray.  The meeting started and after praying and the usual greetings, Jesus got right down to business.  I’m sending you out in groups of two to all of the towns and villages that I will soon be visiting.  “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” He said.  Always speaking in parables, you know?  But the parables are good because they make things easier to understand.  He said that we should pray that the Father sends more workers.  I suppose He’s hoping that some of the folks to whom we preach will join us and help us to spread the word.

            Then He told us that He is sending us out like lambs among the wolves.  And boy, do I ever believe that!  Because we are on our way to Jerusalem and we’re going straight through Samaria.  I would have assumed that we would go around Samaria like the normal people do, but if there is one thing about Jesus that is predictable, it’s the fact that He is never predictable.  So, Samaria it is.  I’m really glad that we are going to be going in pairs though.  I would hate to have to visit a Samaritan town on my own.  I suspect it will be hard enough with the two of us.

            And speaking of unpredictable, I can’t believe what I just heard Jesus say.  He just told us that we are to make this trip with just the clothes on our back.  Seriously Jesus?  Not even an extra shirt?  “Nope” Jesus said, no change of clothes, no purse, no bag, no extra pair of sandals, not even any money!  I mean, I know this is how He does things all the time, but most of us aren’t accustomed to such an austere lifestyle.  But you know what, if He asks us, we will do it.  I mean, who else can we follow?  There’s nobody else that has the words of life like He does. 

            I find it interesting that He has asked us not to greet anyone on the road.  Personally, I have never been a big fan of the Jewish customs with the elaborate rigmarole that you’re supposed to go through when you greet someone.  It’s time consuming, and, to tell you the truth, I find it a bit annoying.  Jesus says that our work is the priority and that we have so much to do that we really need to be focused on the task at hand.  He did say that we can be friendly, but friendly without getting mired in meaningless greeting traditions.  Fine by me!

            So, here’s how He says this is going to work.  When we enter a town or village, we go up to a house and greet the owner, saying shalom, shalom.  If they accept our offer of peace, we stay there.  If not, we simply move on to the next house until we find someone who will offer us hospitality.  I do have to say that there is one thing about all this that concerns me though.  We going to be in Samaria for at least part of the time; among Gentiles, and Jesus is telling us to eat and drink whatever they give us.  What if they serve swine?  Yuck!  But Jesus said that we need to be gracious guests and that means gratefully accepting the gift of their hospitality, no matter what they’re serving for dinner.  Jesus also said that, as workers, we are worth our wage, and He reminded us not to be self-conscious about the support that folks give us while we are on our mission.  That’s not going to be an easy one for me, but I’ll do my best.  I am also glad that Jesus told us to stay at only one house.  I won’t mention any names, but I suspect that there are a few among us who would shop around for the best accommodations; you know what I mean?  But part of being gracious guests is to be satisfied with our accommodations, no matter how elegant or how sparse.

            Now comes the good part!  Jesus said that we are to preach that the Kingdom of God is among us.  It was a little confusing at first the way He explained that.  But I think that I get it now.  He said that the Kingdom of God is not something that is just in our future, it’s also something that’s present now in His words and actions, and in the words and actions of His followers.  He said that when a person repents and believes, not only do they become a part of the kingdom right here and right now, but they become ambassadors of the kingdom, spreading the Good News of God’s salvation.  Hey!  That’s us!  That’s what WE’RE going to be doing!  This is so exciting!

            I think that Jesus is just about ready to wrap things up now.  But first He wants to talk to us about what happens if our witness is rejected.  Ooh, I didn’t even think of that.  He is telling us to follow the old Jewish custom of shaking the dust off of our feet when we leave the town.  For generations, Jew’s have shaken the dust off of their feet when they leave Gentile territory.  It’s a symbolic gesture that indicates the fact that we don’t want to carry even a trace of their land or their customs on our journey home. 

Since Jesus said that whoever listens to us listens to Him and that whoever listens to Him listens to the Father, I would imagine that shaking the dust off of our feet now is probably going to be more than just a tradition that expresses our desire to disassociate ourselves from the unclean, it’s probably also going to represent a judgment against them, don’t you think?  We’re going to have to try really hard to make sure that they are all hearing and understanding us.  I’m going to feel really bad for anyone who rejects our message.  Have you read what the Bible says about the judgment?  Phew!  I have, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, not even my worst enemy.  Hey, do you think that might be part of what Jesus is talking about when He tells us that we should love our enemies?  Saving them from the judgment is just about the most loving thing I think that I could do for them,

                        I hope you don’t mind my having taken a few liberties with today’s sermon.  I thought that it might be fun to shake things up a bit.  But there is something that I discovered in my studies this week that I would really like to share with you. 

            Last week we talked about how Jesus’ response to being rejected by the Samaritan village was just to move on.  “They went to a different village” Luke told us.  I quoted Chelsea Brooke-Yarborough who told us that allowing others the freedom to make their own choices, even if we disagree with them, is a loving act.  I was struck by the similarity of thought between the continuing on to another village is last week’s story and the shaking of the dust from your feet in this week’s story.  In both instances, we are validating another person’s right to make their own choices, but unlike last week, to reject Jesus in this week’s story has the potential to lead one to judgment.  And it’s here where we find a really valuable lesson.  As I said last week, it isn’t our place to judge.  It isn’t our place to call down fire from heaven on those who refuse to hear the Good News.  But what IS our responsibility is to recognize the importance of being a faithful witness; to understand how critically important our role is in sharing the Gospel -with a world that is in desperate need of hearing that Gospel.  And we need to understand what my fictional disciple this morning discovered.  That to save another from judgment is just about the most loving thing that we can do for them.  But this saving always must be done with compassion and grace, and forgiveness, and love in our hearts.  Otherwise, we run the risk of being dismissed as “just another one of those judgmental Christians”.

            St. Teresa of Avila was a Carmelite Nun who lived in the 1500’s.  She was the driving force behind a reform of the Carmelite order, advocating for deeper spiritual commitments from the nuns.  She is one of only four women in all of history who the Catholic church has declared to be a Doctor of the Church, the highest honor the church will give to an individual.  Today I share one of her best-known quotes:

“Christ has no body on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ looks out to the world.
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good.
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless others.”

            Jesus is sending us out just as surely as He sent the 72 disciples.  He calls us to bring the Good News that the Kingdom of God is at hand.  He calls us to bring the Good News that there is unending grace and forgiveness of sins for those whose hearts belong to God.  He calls us to share in the love that He has for each and every one of His beloved children.  And He calls us to reach out to them and let them see for themselves the love of God, reflected in us.  Today, let us echo the words of Isaiah who said, “Here I am Lord, send me”.

Follow Me, No, Really, Follow Me

June 29, 2025

Luke 9:51-62

            Josephus was the preeminent Jewish historian of the first century.  In his book Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus tells the story of how badly the Samaritans treated Galilean Jews who were traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem.  In Josephus’ account, so great was the animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans that not only were the Samaritans willing to accost and beat Jewish travelers on the road, but sometimes they would kill them.  As a result of the dangers of this trip, most Jews traveled around Samaria, more than doubling the time of the trip from 3 days to 7 days.  My guess would be that the hatred of these two groups of people towards each other is probably mirrored in the troubles that plague the Middle East today; a hatred that even 2,000 years ago was 1,000 years old. 

            And it is into this powder keg of hatred and bigotry that Jesus sends His disciples, asking them to arrange accommodations for Him and for His disciples as they travel through Samaria from Galilee to Jerusalem.  Luke describes the result of this endeavor as the Samaritans “not receiving them”.  That is probably a gross understatement, as I can’t imagine that the Disciples were not treated with derision and disrespect at best, and more likely with downright hostility.  The Disciples return to Jesus to report on their experience, and James and John ask Jesus if He wants them to call down fire from heaven to destroy the Samaritan village that had just rejected them.

            Now, let’s think about this, just for a minute.  In the beginning of this chapter of Luke, Jesus sent the disciples out on their own where the disciples were given the power not just to preach, but to perform miraculous healings.  They had witnessed the miraculous feeding of the 5,000.  James and John were on the mountain with Jesus during the Transfiguration, where they had seen the glorified Jesus speaking with Moses and Elijah.  It had been quite a week or so, don’t you think?  And so, having personally witnessed the power of God working through Jesus and working through THEM, I don’t find it at all surprising that James and John believed that they could use God’s power to smite the offending village.  Add to this the fact that James and John would have been aware off the fact that they were standing very near the site where Elijah had called down fire from heaven to incinerate not one, but two contingents of soldiers sent to him by the unfaithful king Ahaziah.

            But I guess this fire from heaven idea from the disciples comes under the heading of “it seemed like a good idea at the time”.  Luke doesn’t give any details at all, he simply reports to us that Jesus rebuked the brothers who made the offer.  And in this rebuke, sparse though it may be, is a lesson that speaks to us today with every bit as much relevance as it did when Jesus spoke it to James and John, because at the core of the disciples’ attitudes lies a deep misunderstanding about the way that God has chosen to work through Jesus.  A misunderstanding that is still very much in play today.

            Maybe the disciples temporarily forgot about the woman at the well.  Do we remember the story?  Jesus comes to a well, in Samaria, and asks a Samaritan woman to draw some water for him to drink.  This is a story that is confounding in several ways.  The woman at the well was there in the heat of the day, women typically came in the morning before it became hot, but this woman came later because she was shunned by the community and wasn’t welcomed by the other women.  Second, men did not just randomly speak to women that they did not know, and third, a Jew would not speak with, or even have any dealings with a Samaritan, but Jesus used this opportunity to identify Himself to the woman as the Messiah, and she became the first Samaritan evangelist.  (And did anyone happen to notice that she was a woman?  The modern church’s occasional reticence to place women in positions of authority didn’t come from Jesus.  He was just fine with it.  The church should be too!)

            Or possibly the disciples also forgot about the parable Jesus told where the hero of the story wasn’t a Jewish priest or a Jewish Levite, but rather a despised Samaritan.  If the disciples had taken the time to consider how Jesus had interacted with the Samaritans, they would have realized that, not only did Jesus not share their disdain for the Samaritans, but that Jesus was actively seeking to reach the Samaritans with the Good News that they also were loved by God. 

Anyabwile tells us that, “In sinful, fallen anger the disciples want to call down judgment on people who have refused Jesus. That is not the Christian spirit.  If people in the community reject Christ and us, we should not call for judgment.  Judgment will come soon enough [and] that will be a great and terrible day.  While it’s still day, our job is to announce the good news:  There is a way to escape the coming judgment through repentance and faith in Christ.  If they will not hear the good news, then in mercy we simply keep moving.  Luke says, ‘They went to another Village’.  They didn’t argue with the Samaritans.  They didn’t look to destroy them.  They left town.  That was the merciful thing to do.” [1]

            And so, here we have a cosmic shift in a very worldly attitude.  Justice is an important part of who God is.  And since we are made in God’s image, justice is an integral part of who we are as well.  Humans, for the most part, long for justice.  But as Jesus’ rebuke makes it clear, our vision of what constitutes justice doesn’t always necessarily align with God’s vision.  In other words we need to understand and share God’s priorities, and foremost among those priorities is for mercy always to temper justice.  Even though the Samaritans were spiteful and unwelcoming, they are STILL God’s beloved children, and it is still God’s desire to reconcile as many of them as will receive Him to Himself. 

            Unfortunately, we don’t have to look very far today to see the church of Jesus Christ calling down fire from heaven.  We see it in the treatment of those who think differently.  We see it in the treatment of those who worship differently.  We see it in the treatment of those who love differently, or who behave differently, or who respond to personal difficulties in ways with which we don’t agree.  And while it takes a little honesty on our parts, it doesn’t take much effort to see how those upon whom the fire is being called down can be easily hurt by it.

            And I believe that this is the essence of Jesus’ rebuke.  If the disciples had been permitted to destroy the village as they asked, the resulting fire would not just have consumed those who had been inhospitable, it would have affected the entire village, women, children, and even those who may have made the choice to BE hospitable had they been given the opportunity.  And worst of all, after Pentecost, when the gospel spread through Samaria like, well… wildfire, those who had perished would never have had the opportunity to hear the Gospel.  Priorities.

            Chelsea Harmon tells us, “Being Jesus’s disciple isn’t about the power you get to wield over people, it’s about having the powerful presence of Christ within you, empowering you to be more and more like him. With Jesus’s face set toward Jerusalem, the disciples will soon see—even without fully understanding—how Jesus uses his power and how he treats those who reject him.”  [2]

            Today’s Gospel lesson is a call to be merciful.  Today’s Gospel lesson is a call to be Christ-like; to follow His example and to adopt His priorities.  It’s a call to understand that judgement is not our job.  John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to”… What?  “To CONDEMN the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 

            If our calling as Christians is to be Christ-like, then we also have not been sent into the world to condemn the world.  We are here to bear witness to the one through whom the world will be saved.  Chelsea Yarborough tells us that, “Jesus reminds us that allowing [others the freedom to choose] is a crucial practice of love. [Jesus] wanted to [stay in that Samaritan town], and yet [the choice of the Samaritans] was honored and respected. ?What was not celebrated and seen as a good choice? The choice to punish, to harm, to destroy in the name of Jesus because the disciples were inconvenienced or thought another choice should have been made. Jesus shows us that allowing space for another to have [the freedom to choose] is crucial to a life of love.” [3]  My dear friends, we are not called to judge, we are called to love.

            Whenever we feel like we want to be calling down that fire we need to be asking ourselves “what will be the result of our actions?”  Our Epistle lesson today introduces us to the fruits of The Spirit.  Paul tells us that when we are being faithful our actions will result in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  These are the attributes around which God’s kingdom is built.  Someday judgment will come, we all know that.  But we also know that God, and God alone is able to judge rightly.  So, let’s leave that job to Him.

            Our text today ends with three short vignettes. In each one, someone professes their interest in following Jesus, and yet to each one Jesus calls out their reservation about following Him and is bluntly honest about what the call to discipleship means. 

            When I was a kid, growing up in Ohio, my family belonged to a pool club.  I was there pretty much every day that it didn’t rain and I loved the place.  They had a great concession stand, they had tennis courts and a miniature golf course, but probably the best feature was a huge slide that would send you skidding across the water.  And I mean, this slide was epic!  Can we show a picture of the slide?

            But there was one thing about this slide… once you took that first step up the ladder, that was it, there was no going back.  There was a long line to use that thing, so with every step you took there was another person getting on the ladder behind you, and they weren’t going to let you go back down, so once you start climbing, that’s it you’re going to go down that slide whether you want to or not.  And yes, for those who are wondering, I went down it A LOT.

            In the 2^nd half of our reading today we find Jesus telling His prospective disciples that once you truly choose to follow Him, you are committed.  No excuses, no trying to climb back down that ladder.  When we choose to follow Jesus our lives are filled with new meaning.  No longer are we only about ourselves.  We are now about bringing to others that which has been given to us.  The joy, the peace, the fellowship, the fulfillment of knowing that we are loved by God.  These are the things that we are called to share with the world.  THIS is our calling!  Not to bring judgment, not to be calling down fire, but to bring grace, healing, forgiveness, and yes, love.

            For those who share the heart of Jesus, for those for whom the Sprit has made us one with God, in Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit, there is no room for calling down fire from heaven.  There is no fruit of the Spirit that will result from that fire.  There is no heart that is likely to be turned towards God from that fire.  But do you know what will be heard?  Love.

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[1] Thabiti Anyabwile, Exalting Jesus in Luke, Pg. 171

[2] Chelsea Harmon, https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2025-06-23/luke-951-62-4/

[3] Chelsea Brooke Yarborough, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-13-3/commentary-on-luke-951-62-10

How Things Work

June 22, 2025

Ocean Grove

            I believe that there is this common idea that God is playing a big, cosmic game of Whack-a-Mole.  He’s standing there with this big mallet just waiting for one of those little sinners to pop his head up so He can give them a good whack.  But nothing could be further from the truth.  The Bible tells us, more than once, that God’s wish… His fondest desire… is that none of His beloved children should be lost, but that all of them should be saved.  God’s goal, God’s plan is to reconcile as many of His beloved children to Himself as He possibly can.

            You see, contrary to popular belief, God did not turn us away.  God has absolutely not rejected us.  But here is what happened.  God has a very specific way in which He wants us to live, and it is a way that He knows works.  It is a way that people would be able to live together without conflict, without hate, without hunger or homelessness, without people being disadvantaged, being marginalized, being neglected; It is a way of living that is based on the radical idea of loving each other. 

But unfortunately, humanity doesn’t like being told what to do, am I right?  We don’t want anyone to tell us what we can or can’t do, or how we should do things, or when we can do things.  And so, humanity rejected God’s plan for us.  That plan for living lives of compassion and grace and love? We passed on that.  And then instead we chose a path whereby we could do what we want, when we want, and in the way we want.  The only problem with this is, take a look around.  It doesn’t work.

This path that humanity has chosen, a path whereby each person seeks to do things as they choose, has, as one of its salient features, a capacity to create problems.  Hunger, homelessness, preventable illness, marginalization and exploitation of people, all of these things are a direct result of the self-centered nature of human behavior.  And while alleviating these things would be a great thing, and indeed, there are any number of human initiatives designed to remediate these issues, the biggest issue of all is the fact that our choice to go our own way has separated us from God.  C. S. Lewis says, “What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’ – could set up on their own as if they had created themselves – be their own masters – invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God.  And out of that hopeless attempt has come all that we call human history – money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery – the long terrible story of [humans] trying to find something other than God which will make [them] happy.” [1]  Not everyone sees it, but this turning from God is the one great tragedy of the human story.

The traditional evangelist will speak of how sin has separated us from God, and they are correct, but…  In our 21^st century world, there is a gross misunderstanding about the nature of Biblical sin.  We all tend to define sin as someone doing something terrible or evil, but the most commonly used Greek word in the Bible that we translate into the word “sin” is ἁμαρτία, and ἁμαρτία is a word that an archer would use if they shot their arrow and hit the target but missed the bullseye.  It is a word that literally means a missing of the mark or a failure to achieve a set standard.  And it is a word that could appropriately be translated as “imperfection”.  And it is this imperfection, this failure to live as God has called us to live that is the source of all of humanity’s problems, and the source of our estrangement from God.

Now, if I walk up to someone on the street and say to them “you’re a sinner” that will probably not go over too well, right?   But if I say, “nobody’s perfect”, I probably won’t get much of an argument.  And as we discuss this fact of sin separating us from God, it is not evil acts that we are talking about, we are simply referring to our choice to do things our own way, to the exclusion of the way that God has planned.  And so, our separation from God is not of God’s doing, but of our own doing.  God’s plan and purpose is not to bash those little sinners with His big mallet; His plan and purpose is to reconcile His beloved children to Himself.  The fact is, we do not serve a God of retribution, we serve a God of reconciliation. 

And there is one other misunderstanding today also. There is a broad conception that faith is about our behavior, about us “being good”, but that is incorrect also.  Faith, at least Christian faith, is about allowing God to restore the relationship with Him that we were intended to have from the very creation of the universe.  But as we permit God to heal our relationship with Him, as we commit ourselves to knowing God, through the witness of the Bible and through the witness of other believers, what happens is, God begins to change our hearts.  And because of this change, we begin to see the world differently. 

We begin to understand how God’s plan of living lives of grace and compassion and kindness and love really IS the best way to live; the right way to live.  And so, as God’s love fills the heart of the believer, hopefully, the believer will begin to reflect some of God’s love to the world.  The interesting part of this is the counterintuitive fact that goodness is not the goal.  A restored and right relationship with God is the goal.  Goodness is a by-product of the goal.  Quoting C. S. Lewis again, “The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” [2]

My dear sisters and brothers, God is not silent.  He is actively pursuing a restored relationship with every single one of us.  He calls to us through the words of the Bible and through the witness of the faithful.  He calls to us through acts of selfless love, through kindness, through grace and compassion, through inclusivity and acceptance.  He calls to us through the beauty of music and art and nature, through the joy of relationship and humor, and even through the majesty and power of these waves that are crashing just behind me.  He calls us to listen for His still, small, voice that begs us to taste and see that the Lord is good. 

And for those of us who have already embarked on that journey of allowing God to restore our relationship, then WE are called to be the ones exhibiting that selfless love, that kindness and grace and compassion, that inclusivity and acceptance.  For those of us who have already embarked on that journey of allowing God to restore our relationship, we need to always remember that our lives may be the only Bible that some folks may ever read.  Let us make every effort to make sure that the love of God shines through our lives for all of them to see.

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[1] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book 2 Section 3: The Shocking Alternative, Pg. 48-49

[2] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book 2 Section 5: The Practical Conclusion, Pg. 59

Legion

 

June 22, 2025

Luke 8:26-39

 

We live in a world where occasionally, some of the things in the Bible seem hopelessly out of date.  We may be tempted to write off what the Bible says as a relic of a bygone age; a time when human understanding of the sciences and the natural world were far less than what our understandings are today.  And perhaps we see one of these very issues in our text today as we discuss a man inhabited by a host of demons.  In today’s story, Jesus encounters a man who, we are told, is profoundly afflicted by demons.  Jesus asks the man’s name, but it is the demons who reply, saying our name is Legion because there are so many of us.  In the context of the time, a Roman Legion consisted of approximately 6,000 soldiers, so our text is telling us that the number of demons inhabiting this man is probably quite significant.

 

And I think that it’s easy for us to read today’s passage about a demon possessed man and maybe scoff a bit because, last time I checked, modern doctors do not routinely scan for demon possession.  But I would like to read something to you from one of the premier authors of Christian Literature, C. S. Lewis, who described his condition before his conversion as, “a zoo of lusts, a bedlam of ambitions, a nursery of fears, a harem of fondled hatreds.  My name was Legion”. [1]

 

So easily do we dismiss the idea of demon possession, that we may fail to consider the possibility that the source of un-Christ-like desires that plague everyone from time to time could possibly be demonic in origin.  If we believe in God and we believe in the Holy Spirit, why would we not believe God when He tells us that Satan is capable of having influence over us?

 

So, having gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about today’s story, and I would actually like to begin by talking about our Old Testament lesson today, because it relates to our Gospel lesson in an oblique, but compelling way.  Prior to today’s Old Testament reading, Elijah had confronted the prophets of the Canaanite God Baal, had set up a contest between Baal and God which of course, God won, and then Elijah killed the prophets of Baal with the sword.  And for the 2^nd time today, we run into one of those archaic ideas that seems out of place in our modern world.  This whole idea of people bending down to worship an idol just seems so silly to us.  I mean I don’t know ANYONE who would put a gold bull on their mantle at home and then worship it as if it was a god.  But let’s take a closer look at what is going on here.  A group of scholars spent a significant amount of time studying the culture of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in Ahab’s day.  They came to the conclusion that Israel of that day and most specifically, the economic elite of Israel of that day, had close ties to the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon.  In fact, Ahab’s queen, Jezebel, was a Princess of Sidon.

 

These two cities were trading cities, and in fact, Tyre was the world’s supplier of purple dye.  This purple dye was made from the mucus secretions of a specific species of snail that lived in the waters of the Mediterranean just off the coast of Tyre.  The dye could be obtained either by “milking” the snails, with the snails being returned to the sea, or by simply crushing the snails.  Either way, David Jacoby of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem tells us that “12,000 snails would make 1.4 grams of pure dye, enough to dye only the trim of one single garment.” [2]  The dye making process was laborious and time consuming and so purple dye was inordinately expensive, rendering purple cloth affordable by only the most affluent… and indeed, purple came to be associated with royalty as they were just about the only people who could afford it.  Needless to say, the trading of purple fabric made merchants fabulously wealthy and some of this affluence and its accompanying attitudes carried over into Ahab’s Israel.

 

And as is so often the case with the accumulation of wealth by the economic elite, this burgeoning wealth resulted in some of those elites exploiting the poor for financial gain.  And so, Elijah was not simply speaking out against the followers of Baal for their idolatry, he was speaking against the practices of the followers of Baal who were marginalizing and exploiting the people in their quest of profits.  I guess the prosperity gospel is older than we thought.  Anyway, it’s as common a theme as you will find among the prophets, and most certainly something that none of us would think of today as being outdated.

 

And so now, I’m sure that you are all thinking, what does all of this have to do with a demon possessed madman?  Well, there are actually two things that our stories today have in common.  First, when God, through Elijah, defeated the prophets of Baal, it was done in a most convincing manner.  Elijah, though he feared for his life, and as we read in today’s story, was pursued by Jezebel who intended to kill him, Elijah nevertheless acted with God’s authority, defeating the prophets of Baal.  And a powerful authority it was.  And as we shall soon see, Jesus acted with powerful authority also.

 

Here’s the story:  The demon possessed man lived among the tombs.  He wore no clothes and, while the townspeople had tried to bind him because of his strength and aggressiveness, he was so strong that he broke all of the bindings.  In short, this man was terribly afflicted, and dangerous.  And yet, at the approach of Jesus, the demons instantly recognized Him, saying, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.”  This legion of demons were no match for the authority of God expressed in Jesus.  And as Jesus commanded the demons to come out of the man, the demons begged Jesus to let them go into a heard of pigs that was nearby so they wouldn’t be sent into the Abyss, the place reserved for the Judgment of Satan and his demons.  Jesus consented to their request, the demons entered the pigs, and the pigs ran down the hill, into the lake, and drowned.  In the stories that surround today’s reading in Luke, Jesus displays His authority over nature (calming the storm), over disease (healing the woman with the issue of blood), over demons (with our demon possessed man today), and over death itself (with the raising of Jairus’ daughter).  And so, God’s authority, exhibited both in Isaiah and in Jesus, was indeed awesome!

 

But it is the second similarity between today’s stories that really speak to us.  Those who were herding the pigs went into the town to tell the people what had happened and to tell them how the entire herd of pigs had been lost.  The loss of this herd would almost certainly have created profound financial hardship for the owner, and possibly for the whole town.  As the town’s people came out to see for themselves what had happened, they found this very well-known demon possessed crazy man sitting at Jesus’ feet, clothed, and in his right mind.

 

One would have thought that they might see this as an opportunity to have Jesus come to their town and heal others in need, but that is not what happened.  Instead, the people asked Jesus to leave.  Now, it’s possible that they wanted Jesus to go away because He made them aware of their sinfulness, and this would not be the first time in the Gospels that this had happened.  But the way the story is constructed, it is more likely that the town’s people wanted Jesus to go away before He created any more financial hardship for them.  Warren Wiersbe says, “Apparently money was more important to them than mercy, and they asked Jesus to leave”. [3]

 

For Jesus, the emphasis was always on people and never on property.  The soul of one person was of deeply greater value than that of a herd of pigs.  And so, Jesus’ actions here mirror the work of Elijah and other prophets as He speaks out against the placing of wealth and its trappings ahead of the needs of God’s beloved children, most notably the poor and the needy.  And does anyone besides me find it fascinating that the demons recognized Jesus instantly, but the town’s people, blinded by their faith in material things, failed to recognize Him in spite of the obvious miracles that had just happened right under their noses?

 

And this brings me to the thing that I really wanted to talk about this morning.  And that is the fact that humans do have a strong tendency towards tunnel vision.  We get our minds set on something and tend to exclude even very important things that might get in the way of our pursuit of whatever.  I have been a retail manager for pretty much my entire adult life and a part of being a manager is constantly being hijacked from one task in order to address another.  I am one of those people who suffers from that “tunnel vision syndrome”, I tend to get very focused on the task at hand to the exclusion of pretty much everything else.  And so, I learned early on that when one of my staff comes to me with a question or a problem, I needed to drop what I was doing and give my full attention to that person because if I don’t do that, I may miss an important point from them or may not provide adequate direction or assistance.  It really becomes a matter of priorities, and I am NOT a multitasker, so shifting my focus is essential.

 

So very often our priorities are focused on material things, and not without reason.  There are bills to be paid, meals to prepare, family to care for, and we can easily become so focused on those daily necessities that we fail to see the bigger picture of our responsibilities as children of the Kingdom of God.

 

In both our Old and New Testament lessons today, we have groups of people who are so engrossed in their day to day lives; so intent on protecting their possessions, that they completely miss the message behind two absolutely mind boggling miracles that were performed by God, right in front of them.  I mean just completely missed it.  And on the one hand I can look at this and marvel at how someone could be so obtuse as to miss something so obvious, but on the other hand, I can see instances in my own life where I have been every bit as oblivious.  So, I really can’t judge, but what I can do is encourage all of us to stop, listen, and learn.  God is NOT silent.  He speaks to us in a myriad of ways because He knows us, and He knows that it may take time and repetition for His message of grace and forgiveness and love to break through our busyness and our preoccupations and to touch our hearts.

 

My dear friends, this is why it is SO important for us to live our faith and to speak of our faith when the opportunity is presented.  God is seeking to draw His beloved children to Himself and He has called us to be the instruments of that endeavor.  God is asking us to be a voice, a life, that breaks through the busyness of this world and touches the heart of others with the Good News of the Gospel.  And the good news for us is that as awesome as God is, and as much as He is capable of doing, He isn’t asking us to perform any miracles.  All He is asking us to do is to love others, that they may see His love, reflected in us.

[1] C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, Pg. 226

[2] Jacoby D (2004). “Silk economics and cross-cultural artistic interaction: Byzantium, the Muslim world, and the Christian west”. Dumbarton Oaks Papers. 58: 210, 197–240.

[3] Warren Wiersbe, Be Compassionate, Pg. 110

Guiding Us Into All Truth (Trinity Sunday)

June 15, 2025

            Last week I ended up in a conversation with a few dear friends of mine.  Our conversation was about The Trinity.  And this conversation was interesting; and also challenging, because I honestly believe that as this conversation began, the folks who were involved in it were assuming that I would explain the Trinity.  And the truth is I do understand The Trinity, and I also don’t understand it.  But it appears that – in that which I don’t understand, I am in good company.  Theologians for the last 2,000 years have tried to explain The Trinity, all the while referring to it as a great mystery.  N. T. Wright, one of the most influential theologians of our age asks the question, “How do you talk about things that are not just out of the ordinary, but that take you into a whole new world?” [1]  As we contemplate the mysteries of God, the counter intuitiveness of the idea of three persons being one, the perplexing questions of how the Holy Spirit who we cannot see or touch – can see us, hear us, speak to us, and guide us.  And how exactly it is that the Spirit dwells within us, empowered by Jesus, speaking only what the Father gives Him/Her to speak.   It is, without question, a Holy mystery, and something that none of us, not you, not me, and not even N. T. Wright, will fully understand until the day that our faith becomes sight.

            And yet, there is a part of this that we CAN understand, because as Christians, our personal experiences speak to us loudly and emphatically about God’s truth.  Mary Rathbone lives in England and is the Church of England equivalent of a CRE.  In other words, she is a Lay Pastor just like me.  And Pastor Rathbone speaks of the Trinity, saying, “Christians believe in a gracious and loving God revealed to us as one God that exists as three distinct persons. We experience God in a Trinity; God as the creator, Jesus as our Saviour, and the Holy Spirit to empower, strengthen and enlighten us.  This most profound mystery of eternity, The Trinity, is a communion of persons united in mutual self-giving and interacting with each other in the purest expression of love.”  [2]

So, while this concept of the Trinity, or at least part of it, may be beyond our comprehension, the impact of God, expressed in the three persons of the Trinity is deeply felt by every Christian who has experienced the grace of God, the love of Christ, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  And in our attempt to come to an understanding of these things as best we can, it is most instructive to turn to our own experiences, and to the experiences of our sisters and brothers in Christ, to help us to see how it is that the Triune God is working in our lives, and, more importantly, how we can cooperate with the work that God is doing in order that our lives may become an ever increasing witness to the love of God, in Christ, through the Holy Spirit.

In our reading today, Jesus tells the disciples that, “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth”.  And I think that one of the first hints about what The Trinity is all about is found in this verse.  Back in John 14, Jesus declared Himself to BE truth.  Not simply to be telling the truth, but to actually BE truth personified.  D. A. Carson tells us that, “Jesus is the truth, because he embodies the supreme revelation of God — He himself ‘narrates’ God; [saying] and [doing] exclusively what the Father gives him to say and do.  He is God’s gracious self-disclosure, [God’s] “Word,” made flesh.” [3]

This body of truth to which we are referring here is the complete and total body of the knowledge and experience of everything that exists; everything that is. –  God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit share one mind which encompasses this full truth of everything.

  And here is what we do know about how that works, the Father reveals Himself in His entirety to the Son.  The Son, having the same grasp of the complete body of truth as the Father, both taught and exhibited that truth to the disciples, and through the witness of the disciples to us; and then the Holy Spirit… also filled with the complete body of truth as revealed by the Son, then fills the disciples, and us with as much of that body of truth as we are able or willing to accept. 

Remember that I spoke last week about the paraclete, They who are “called alongside”.  The first Paraclete being Jesus and the second Paraclete being the Holy Spirit.  And these two… individuals… both united in common thought and mission, have been sent to US to become a part of our lives, both dwelling within us, and also accompanying us on our journey, teaching us, leading us, and guiding us.  One God, one mind, one mission, but three personalities, each interacting with us in different ways, all for the purpose of teaching us to love as Jesus loved with the Spirit as our indwelling teacher and guide.

Chelsea Harmon tells us that, the point that Jesus is trying to make to the disciples in today’s reading is this, “The Spirit is the one who makes us understand truth. The Spirit shares this same desire with the other persons of the Trinity to be known by their creations. The Spirit, the Father, and the Son have the same message for us, have the same ultimate purpose for us, and the same commitment as one another to see truth prevail.” [4]

And so, God has given us a grand invitation; an invitation the scope of which truly lies well beyond our understanding, because this invitation that we have been given is for US to become one with God. 

My girlfriend, Jennifer is a social butterfly, I mean a SERIOUS social butterfly, and I mean that in the most respectful and complimentary way.  We flew to Ohio together to attend my high school reunion.  (I went to school in Northfield, Ohio before my family moved to New Jersey).  Needless to say, Jennifer didn’t know anyone there except for me, but as I left her for just a moment to go and get something for us to drink, in the few moments that I was away from her, she had moved to another table and had become engrossed in a conversation with one of my Ohio friends.  In the hour or so that we ended up sitting and chatting with this friend, Jennifer and my friend talked about their lives, their jobs, their families, and generally got to know each other.  Before the end of the reunion, they had exchanged contact information and had friended each other on Facebook.  Jennifer basically just invited this person into her life, creating a friendship out of nothing, a friendship that is going on 2 years old now and a friendship that is based entirely on a choice that Jennifer made to become friends with this person. 

Most of my friendships tend to come about a little more organically, I meet a person and then we become friends after we get to know each other.  But Jennifer just kind of decides that, hey, I’m going to go and talk to this person and next thing you know they are exchanging email addresses.  This has happened more times than I can count, and I really wish that I had that skill set, but I don’t.  But you see, this is what God has chosen to do with us.  Through no effort of our own, God befriends us and invites us to become of part of His life; to share in His love, and as we get to know Him, to be led into a knowledge of the deep truths of the universe. And all of this happens for no reason other than the fact that God has chosen to seek to reconcile His beloved children to Himself… ALL of His beloved children who are willing to turn to Him.

The fact that we need reconciliation with God in the first place is not God’s fault.  God never abandoned us or rejected us.  It is humanity that made the choice to reject God’s wisdom and to seek to live our lives in our own way.  But in spite of this rejection God continues to pursue reconciliation with us.  And once reconciled, God seeks to draw us into His life.  He does this first by teaching us exactly who He is.  Through Jesus, God the Father has revealed Himself to us, showing us the true nature of His love, His grace, and His justice.  Everything that God the Father is, Jesus is.  Everything that Jesus has revealed to us has come directly from God the Father.  Two distinctly different personalities but one unified God.

Then, when God’s plan resulted in humanity rising up against God and Crucifying His only Son, God sent the Holy Spirit to continue the work that Jesus did revealing God to us.  Jesus empowered the Holy Spirit to teach us, guide us, inspire us, and lead us in exactly the same way that Jesus had done for the disciples, which was the exact way that was given to Him by the Father.  And so, now we have three distinctly different personalities but STILL one unified God.

Lucy Lind Hogan teaches us that, “The Holy Trinity is about relationship and indwelling. It is about collaboration and the self-communication of God. The Trinity is about the mutuality of God within the God-head, about our invitation into the God-head… by Jesus in the power of the [Holy Spirit] . And it is about our mutuality with each other, guiding, speaking, and declaring to one another the glory of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is our way of life made possible by God.” [5]

This whole idea of being made one with God is earth shattering. We are God’s beloved children, loved and accepted unconditionally, we share in His love, we share in His wisdom, we share in His glory, bringing glory to God as we show forth His love into the world.  And we share in the promise that we belong to God forever and ever.  How incredible are these promises?  We are undeserving, we are sinful, we are neglectful, and yet, for those who have received Him, none of this matters to God.  In Zecheriah 3 we have a story about Joshua the High Priest.  Joshua is standing before an angel of the Lord and he is wearing filthy and tattered clothes.  The angel commands that his filthy garments be removed and then the angel tells Joshua, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.”   This is how God works.  He is not waiting for us to get our act together.  He calls us as we are, He forgives us completely, and He places His Spirit within us that each of us may begin to become the person that He has always intended for us to be.

Today is Trinity Sunday.  Today is the day that the Church of Jesus Christ celebrates the work that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit together have done to draw a community of believers to themselves.  To reconcile us to God and to change our hearts so that we may become a people who love as God loves.  To change us into a people who learn what it means to live as members of God’s kingdom.  To make us ONE with God, in Christ, through the Holy Spirit.

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[1] N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, Pg. 59

[2] Mary Rathbone, The Holy Trinity: John 16:12-15, HopeInJesus.co.uk

[3] D. A. Carson, John, Pg. 127

[4] Chelsea Harmon, Center for Excellence in Preaching, Commentary 2025-06-09 John 1612-15-4

[5] Lucy Lind Hogan, WorkingPreacher.org, The Holy Trinity 3: Commentary on John 1612-15-2

Don’t You Know Me Philip?

June 8, 2025

            For the last few weeks, I have spent a lot of time talking about the Holy Spirit, and this is appropriate for the weeks leading up to Pentecost but now Pentecost is here!  The birthday of the church!  Yea! And the anniversary of the day when God poured out His spirit on the disciples in a very new and unprecedented way.  This morning’s reading from the second chapter of Acts is so dramatic, so sensational in its depiction of the events of the day; the rushing wind, the tongues of fire, the disciples speaking in other people’s languages, and of course, the remarkable transformation of the disciples from people who were scared and hiding in fear to people who instantly became courageous and eloquent ministers of the Gospel. 

            But while the works of the Spirit depicted in Acts can be seen as being rather flamboyant and attention-grabbing, the bulk of the work that the Spirit does is something that is accomplished more quietly and internally.  And as much fun as it might be to focus on the Acts passage today and talk about the grand revealing of God’s Spirit empowering the disciples and literally changing the world, our lesson from John presents the Spirit in a less ostentatious but somewhat deeper light; in a way that isn’t so much about changing the world as it is about changing individual hearts.  As Jesus introduces the idea of Him sending “another advocate” we get to see how the Spirit is going to impact the disciples, and eventually us, by showing us how the Sprit will provide ongoing guidance and instruction in our lives.

            Here, John again uses the word about which we spoke a few weeks ago, the Paraclete, and just as the last time John used this word it is not The Paraclete, but Another Paraclete, which we came to understand as the Spirit providing a continuation of the teaching and guidance of Jesus.  But there is something that I don’t think that I did explain in that sermon.  Though I spoke about The Paraclete being Counselor, Teacher, Comforter, Advocate, Helper, Reminderer?  (Is that a real word?  I don’t think so, my spell check underlined it with one of those squiggly red lines.)  And we spoke about how John refers to The Paraclete as another Paraclete, with Jesus being the original Paraclete, but I don’t think that I actually defined the word for you.  The Greek Παρακλητος is a compound word with “para” which means “alongside” or “accompanying” and “kletos” which means to be called, so the word literally means to be called alongside.  And so, originally Jesus and now the Spirit have been sent to be at our sides, teaching, guiding, and inspiring us to live in a way that honors and glorifies God. 

            Our reading today begins with Philip asking a question.  Jesus had just said in verses 6B and 7 that, “No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.  From now on you do know him and have seen him.”  And Philip, clearly not yet understanding exactly what it is that Jesus is teaching, asks, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”

            I can totally understand Philip’s question.  It seems like a reasonable one, doesn’t it?  For three years Philip and the disciples have constantly heard Jesus refer to “The Father”.  It’s understandable that the disciples would love to fill in what they perceived to be a void in their understanding by being able to, at last, see the Father.  But as it turned out, the void was not a result of not seeing, but a result of not understanding.  It’s here, in these very verses, that Jesus explains to the disciples what that which would eventually be called the Trinity is all about.  As I said a few weeks ago, the word “Trinity” does not appear anywhere in the Bible, but teaching about it abounds, especially here in the 14^th chapter of John. 

            In a reply that may possibly have carried with it a gentle rebuke, Jesus asks Philip “Don’t you know me, and after all the time that we have been together?”  (that’s my translation).  With the emphasis of repeating Himself, Jesus tells Philip that whoever has seen Him HAS seen the Father, then He tells Philip that He is in the Father and that the Father is in Him, even further reinforcing this idea by Jesus stating that He speaks not on His own authority but rather says only what the Father speaks through Him. 

Since the earliest days of Christianity, Christians have accepted the fact that there is only one God, but that God exists in three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Though this concept hadn’t yet been called the Trinity, the Didache, a list of Christian teachings reliably thought to have originated in the late aughts or early 100’s, cited scripture and baptismal liturgies to claim co-equality of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  This was the first extant statement that we have about the unity of the Godhead.  The Council of Nicaea in 325 confirmed the church’s Trinitarian view of the Godhead in the Nicene Creed which we will read together in just a little while.

This Council of Nicaea was called by the emperor Constantine himself and was attended by 300 Bishops and even more Presbyters and Deacons.  Constantine, who had declared himself the “Protector of the Church” called the council in order to resolve a controversy over the claim of a man named Arius that only The Father was God and that Jesus was secondary.  The council codified the idea of the Trinity in that Nicene Creed.  Their decision still reverberates today as the church faces the occasional heresy that denies the deity of Christ.  Speaking of today’s passage, Klink says, “The statement in 14:9 emphasized the manifestation of the Father by the Son, whereas here [in verse 10] the emphasis is centered upon the relational unity between the Father and the Son.  The twofold use of the preposition “εν” (in) speaks unavoidably of the mutuality of the Father and the Son, rooted in what the church has long expressed by its Trinitarian theology.” [1]

And so, as Reformed Christians, in concert with our Catholic sisters and brothers, we are Trinitarian; confident believers in the oneness of God in the three persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Next, Jesus talks briefly about prayer and the certainty of God answering prayer.  And I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this, but I want very much for us to understand that, in the first century Greco-Roman world to do something in someone’s name was to do that thing with the full authority and approval of the person in whose name you are acting.  This is important because Jesus is not promising here that my prayers for the Mets to win the World Series will be answered if I just pray hard enough.  What Jesus is teaching is that when our prayers ask to serve and to glorify God, that God will be faithful to answer those prayers in a way that will glorify Him.  Of course, those prayers may not always be answered in the way that we expect but they will always be answered in the way that best serves God’s purposes and glorifies Him.

Which finally brings us to today’s discussion about the Holy Spirit.  But first, I need to tell a joke.  A man walks into a store and asks the clerk where the Arnold Schwarzenegger dolls are.  The clerk replies, “Aisle B, back”.  I have spent almost my entire adult life working as a retail store manager.  One of the things that I have always taught my staff is that when a customer asks where an item is, you never tell them, you show them.  Walking the customer to the item is not only great customer service but it also gives an opportunity to show the customer exactly what they are looking for and to answer any questions that they may have.  And believe it or not, God is doing this exact same thing with us and the Holy Spirit.  Yes, we have the Bible to tell us the way, but the Holy Spirit is called alongside us to show us the way.  To walk with us, to lead us, to guide us to our destination, and to answer questions along the way.  Because it is a matter of great importance to KNOW God.  Jesus tells us today that if we love Him we will keep His commandments.  But how are we to know how to keep His commandments if we don’t know what those commandments are?  And so, we read the Bible, we study the Bible, we fellowship with other believers, and we abide in the Spirit, in order to learn how to apply Jesus’ teaching about loving God and loving others in our own lives. 

In the Greek, the word “Spirit” is πνεῦμα (pa-nome-a), but πνεῦμα doesn’t just mean “spirit”.  It can also mean “breath” or “wind”.  In my research for the sermon this week I was directed to Ecclesiastes 1:14 where Solomon is speaking about the pursuit of earthly goals.  Solomon commented on the folly of chasing after that which does not last, calling the pursuit of earthly treasures “chasing the wind”.   And so, we seek to know God in order that the πνεῦμα that we choose to follow is God’s Spirit and not just the wind.  We seek to know God in order that our love will be genuine and that our love will be lived in a way that glorifies God.  We seek to know God in order that we may be faithful, not being distracted or deceived by false gospels or being diverted from our path of service, instead choosing a path that fails to glorify God.

There is so much that we see in our world that fails to answer in the affirmative the question “does this glorify God”.  There is so much we see that is done in our world that is hurtful or that disadvantages people or that denies people dignity or opportunity.  There is so much in our world that runs contrary to the command to love our neighbors.  “If you love me you will keep my commandments”, Jesus said.  It is this to which we are called.  To be advocates for justice in a world ruled by expedience, to be advocates for fairness in a world ruled by selfishness, to be advocates for love in a world ruled by indifference, and to be advocates for mission in a world ruled by apathy.

Today our reading tells us that Jesus said, “whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will [they] do, because I am going to the Father.”  These “greater works” aren’t greater in substance.  I don’t expect any of us to walk on water or heal a paralytic anytime soon.  But they are greater in scope as the Church of Jesus Christ works together to bring the Gospel to the entire world.

My dear friends, let us become faithful followers of the truth, which IS Jesus Christ, that we may participate in these “greater works” that teach the world the truth of the Gospel, and show the world the truth of the extravagant love of God as we show forth HIS love in our own lives.

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[1] Edward W. Klink III, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: John, Pg. 620

That All of Them May Be One

June 1, 2025

            There’s a great book that I would often read to my son Joe when he was little.  If you are a parent, you may be familiar with this book.  It’s called “The Monster at the End of This Book”.  The book features the Muppet character, Grover and at the beginning of the book Grover just skips right by the title page, saying this page isn’t very interesting.  Then, after turning the page, Grover says WAIT!  WHAT DID THAT SAY?  Did that say that there is a monster at the end of this book?  I am so afraid of monsters.

            It’s not an uncommon thing, you know.  Very often people will read things without paying full attention to what they are reading, but then shortly thereafter, what they just skipped over suddenly comes into focus and they have to go back to see if what they read actually said what they think it did.  Pop culture even has an expression for this experience.  It’s “wait… what?”  Grover (I love Grover) just had one of those moments, stopping in his tracks to rethink what he just read, and then he spends the entire rest of the book trying to keep the reader from turning another page in order to keep them from getting to the end of the book, where a monster is ominously waiting.  And I won’t give away the ending; but if you have children in your life, make sure that you read this book to them.  It is an absolute delight, especially if you can read it in a Grover voice.

            Today’s lesson has two of those “wait… what?” moments and the first one is the very first verse.  Did you happen to catch it?  My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message”.  After telling the story about Jesus washing the disciple’s feet back in chapter 13, John spends the next four chapters telling us about Jesus’ final discourse; His final instructions to the disciples that He leaves with them because He knows that He is going to His crucifixion and death.  And yet, mixed in with the exhortations to His beloved disciples, mixed in with His instructions about continuing His work and promises to be with them through the Holy Spirit, Jesus concludes His instructions with a prayer to the Father.  At first, Jesus prays for those present; His disciples; those who have followed Him for the last three years.  But then, in the opening verse of today’s lesson, those for whom Jesus is praying changes.  Starting in verse 20 Jesus is praying for “those who will believe in me through [the disciples] message”.  In other words, Jesus is praying for us!  Have you ever noticed that before?  Or am I the only one here who had that “Wait… what?” moment with this passage?

            When we read this passage… this prayer, we need to give it special attention, because this is Jesus praying for us.  Through this prayer Jesus is telling US what our role in God’s plan is supposed to be.  This is Jesus, speaking through the millennia, helping us to understand who it is that we are called to be. 

And what is the very first thing that Jesus asks of us?  It is that we would be one; united with the same mind and the same mission.  I think that often this passage is interpreted as an exhortation to ecumenism; a command that believers in the church should all be unified.  And while there is value in that thought, I think that it misses the mark of what is being taught here.  Jesus says that we should be one just as Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in Jesus.  And so, I think that this oneness to which we are called is not so much an individual calling to unity with others as it is a calling for the church universal to be unified with the Father and Son, through the Spirit.  Next, Jesus tells us that there is a reason why we are called to this oneness.  Jesus prays to the Father that we may be one so that “the world may believe that [the Father has sent the Son.]”

            God’s ultimate purpose is the reconciliation of His beloved children to Himself.  And the avenue through which God will reconcile His children will be love.  Let’s take a closer look at verses 22 and 23. “I have given them (that would be all believers, including us) the glory that you gave me (that would be the glory that the Father has given to the Son), that they (that’s us again) may be one as we (Father and Son) are one.”  And then Jesus illuminates this thought saying, “I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.”  And then Jesus reveals the goal, “then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

            And it’s here where we have our second “Wait… what?” moment, What did that just say?  Let’s read it again, “then the world will know that you (The Father) sent me (Jesus) and have loved them (that’s us) even as you have loved me.”  This verse is telling us that the Father loves US in exactly the same way, with the same devotion and the same passion that He loves Jesus.  How can we even wrap our heads around that?  We, imperfect as we are, willful and stubborn, prone to turning away from God, not always listening to Him, seeking our own will instead of His own good and perfect will, occasionally refusing to love Him and often refusing to love others, are STILL loved by God as deeply and as completely as the Father loves the Son.  Wow.

            And it’s here that we get a peek into the internal relationship of the Godhead.  Tim Challies describes the Trinity this way, “Through all of eternity, God has been love; he has existed in a state of love of Father to Son, Son to Spirit, Spirit to Father. There has never been a time that God has not been expressing love; nor will there ever be.” [1]  Challies explains that if God is love, and if God has always and eternally BEEN love, then there has to have been someone FOR Him to love, and so this love of God has been eternally expressed in the love between Father, Son, and Spirit.  And it is into this eternal dance of love that we have been welcomed.  We are loved every bit as much as Father Son and Spirit have loved each other for eternity.

            And we who have found this incredible love of God, we who have been blessed by God’s magnanimous gift of welcome into the very center of the love of the Godhead, now are called to share that same exact love with the world, because God’s ultimate purpose is to reconcile as many of His beloved children to Himself as He possibly can.  1 Timothy 2:3-4 “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”  Warren Wiersbe tells us that, “The lost world cannot see God, but they can see Christians, and what they see in us is what they will believe about God.  If they see love and unity, they will believe that God is love.  If they see hatred and division, they will reject the message of the Gospel.” [2]

            My dear sisters and brothers, we have been given an extraordinarily important task.  And that task is to love one another so that when the world sees us, they see the glory of God eloquently expressed in that love; love for God, and love for one another.  Just a few weeks back we spoke about God’s glory and how glory results from doing something remarkable and doing it really well.  There is nothing more remarkable than God’s love.  And so, when Jesus said in today’s verse 22 that He is giving US the glory that the Father gave Him, what He means is that, through the Spirit, He is giving us the capacity to love, just exactly in the same way that He loves.  And again, all for the purpose of showing the world what God’s love looks like, so that the world can come to know and to love God also.

            Our calling as children of God is not about us individually, it is a calling about unity and oneness.  It is a calling first to join in the love that is shared within the Godhead, and then in so doing to become a part of a community that loves God and is loved by God, and then finally to be sent in mission, exactly in the same way that Jesus was sent, so that the message that Jesus gave his followers, becomes a message that His followers gave to others, that eventually becomes the message that was given to us, that ultimately becomes the message that we bring to the world.  And this message is that we are not only accepted by God, but that we are loved by God; deeply, thoroughly, and eternally.  The Presbyterian theologian and pastor R. C. Sproul tells us that “The greatest benefit of Christianity is not the forgiveness of sins; that is simply a means to an end.  The greatest benefit that we have is access to the presence of God and His Son.  That is where Jesus wants us to be.” [3] (In His presence).

            I said before that in this prayer, Jesus shows us what our role is to be in God’s plan.  The good news is, we simply have to love.  The bad news is, well, we have to love.  Loving others isn’t always easy.  As we all know, some folks can be really hard to love.  But the world REALLY needs for us to love the unlovable, because our witness is at its most effective when the love that we show is a love that is out of the ordinary.  Remember when I described US earlier?  Willful and stubborn, prone to turning away from God, well, you get the picture.  If God can love us so abundantly, even in our unlovable state, then we, bearing the love of God in our hearts, are called to learn to love even the unlovable, just as God loves us.  And the result of us loving in that manner, is that we exhibit the perfect and extravagant love that God has for us, as we share His love with others. 

            This unity to which God calls us means for us to have the same mind and the same mission as God; that of working towards the reconciliation of God’s beloved children to Himself.  It means living in the real world, loving real and imperfect people.  And how do we do this?  Carter and Wredberg tell us that, “The only way to draw closer to one another, the only way to grow in unity as Christians, is to become more like Jesus.  Our unity is based in, and empowered by, Jesus alone.” [4]

            It is our participation in that eternal dance of love of the Godhead that equips us to be the love that the world sees, and it is the Spirit, directed by Jesus that empowers us to love even when it is difficult to love.  Taylor comments, “This is the reason why our unity is so important to Jesus that he asks for it four times in two and a half verses. It isn’t just for our benefit. It isn’t just for Christ’s benefit. Christ’s prayer for unity has only one goal: that the world would know God has sent Jesus into the world.” [5]

            What a privilege it is to be a part of this mission; a mission that began with the apostles and will not end until that great feast takes place in heaven, where all believers from every time and place will together worship Jesus.  And what a privilege it is to bring the Good News to others; to show them the love of God by loving them in exactly the same way that Jesus loves us.  And what a privilege it is to be a part of the unity of the church; not just Hope Church in Tinton Falls, but the body of all believers of every time and place who glorify God and witness to the truth, which is Jesus Himself.  Let us not take these privileges lightly.  In fact, let us make these privileges our life’s work.

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[1] Tim Challies, Challies.com, God’s Gag Reflex

[2] Warren Wiersbe, Be Transformed, Pg. 99

[3] R. C. Sproul, John: An Expositional Commentary, Pg. 306

[4] Matt Carter & Josh Wredberg, Exalting Jesus in John, Pg. 345

[5] Jo Anne Taylor, PastorSings.com, Unanswered Prayer: Sermon on John 17:20-26