The Devil in the IF’s

I will spend all of my life learning how to be a better husband.  I thought I was all prepared for Valentine’s Day.  I had a few gifts.  As I purchased a Valentine’s card, the cashier directed me to a carousel stand with all the Valentines.  Many cards did not fit.  The one I bought was nice.  It was red on the outside and hearts.  So I got it.  Obviously when I signed it, I did not look at it carefully because it said…Happy Birthday.   I am in trouble.

            If I had just taken more time.   If I had just gone to the other store. 

            If I had just not listened to what the store employee told me.

            If I had just read it more carefully.

I will be the first to admit that I am still learning and I am glad Penny is forgiving.

I am convinced that we all have much to learn, especially in this journey called faith.  We all have to face tests and challenges…at work, in our families, and among our friends.  Should we take a shortcut at work?  Can we stay on our exercise plan and stay with our diet?    If I fudge or cheat a bit….will it really matter.  If, if, if.

A LIFE IN FAITH IS A JOURNEY WITH MANY TESTS

In Jesus, we have one of God’s best invitations to become a mature disciple.   The season of Lent invites us to make our discipleship deeper and broader. 

One does not become a Christian by intellectually studying of the facts of Jesus’ life…though that helps.  One does not become a Christian by agreeing to a set of beliefs or ethical standards.  One becomes a Christian by being changed by some experience of the Holy Spirit.  Something happens which draws us to God.  It can happen in so many different ways, there is no way to count them.  It could happen in prayer, in worship, on a retreat or at summer camp, helping with Vacation Bible School, or on a mission trip.  Something fundamental changes when we follow Jesus. 

What is given to us as a gift is a new start, a new focus, a new joy.  A new quality of life (called eternal life) is given and we become more alive.  I believe that it is an action of God in the life of that person.

But that is just the beginning.  A human baby fresh from a mother’s womb is a person, but so much of life is yet to come…so many adventures yet to reveal who that person is to become.  The many twists and turns, the many paths taken and the others not taken, bring us to places where our faith is tested and changed.

I am still learning daily.   But most of all I am thankful for the overwhelming sense of joy and peace know that I am a child of God and that God loves me more than I deserve and more than I can discover in a lifetime.  And there is great joy in knowing that I am part of a sacred marriage that means more to me than any of the other of God’s gifts.  And I am always amazed at the blessing of living in an every growing community of faith that helps me and others grow spiritually.  And finally, the hope of heaven gives my life comfort and anticipation.

JESUS, NEWLY BAPTIZED, IS TESTED IN THE WILDERNESS

Jesus is just about to take people into a new kingdom and he knows he will play the main role.  He must figure it out finding his relationship with God and people.  What kind of king will he be and what kind of kingdom?   What is he going to do with his amazing power?  We will use them selfishly or for others.  Wisdom is knowing what to do at the right time.  Skill is knowing how to do it.  Maturity is doing it.

He decides in this test that to take the quick and easy is not, for him the right way.

To me, the Devil is a description of the forces that separate us from God and others. It is what drives us away from cooperation, community, peace, dialogue, and true understanding.  It is what keeps afraid of love and forgiveness and boldness.  It is what holds us back from becoming what God intends.  It is what makes us think we are better, smarter, and morally superior than others. 

I am certain there are many ways that evil works through IF.  “If” is a conditional term that offers excuses, outs, loopholes, and evasions of responsibility.   It places the responsibility with the other person. 

IF#1

            If you are really the Son of God…change stones into bread

            If you really loved hungry people…you could feed them all with your power.

            If you did that…you will be their hero.

            If you just did that, no one would have to share their own bread with others.

            If you follow the evil you will take a fake identity shortcut…the quick fix. 

            You do not have to wait for God to tell you when….do it now and you will have it all.

                    

Jesus did not take the easy, quick fix.  And in that decision he will become a bread of heaven…so that we, you and me, might feed on him in their hearts by faith.

Years ago the Mayor of Mexico City invited Mother Teresa to form a mission center to feed people.  After she set up the program she and the sisters went out among the poor and homeless, they wanted to know about Jesus.  That hunger was even stronger than their physical hunger.

           

IF#2

Jesus….if you just become the king of all these kingdoms of the world.

                        You will have to kill some people to beat the other kings.

                        But you will be the most popular king on earth and you can do for

                        do so much good.

            Jesus chose instead to become the king of every heart. 

                        This kingdom of love will not be any one country in particular

                        But bridge every country…a kingdom without borders

                        Instead of walking as a king where everyone is his servant,

                        Jesus will walk about the poor and marginalized and

                        He will serve his people. 

                        Where people are excluded and violence is the way….that is

                        Not God’s kingdom.

IF#3

            If you are really the son of God you can sacrifice yourself…jump…do it

                        Now.  You will show everyone that God will save you. 

            You can show us right now how good and great God is and how much he

                        Loves you.  Show us.  Right now!

Jesus knew there is no rushing God.  God is God.  It will happen when God is ready. 

Jesus does not get caught in the traps:

            It’s about me, here and now, power for me.

            It’s about fear and scarcity.

            It’s about grabbing power and rushing God.

Jesus chose to trust God, God’s timing, God’s abundance.

            It’s about trusting God that there will be enough.           

Jesus walked in very dry, dark, and scary places so we could learn.

Howard Johnson, our District Superintendent, recently told about a Native American pastor who gave the sermon at his seminary.  He gave this idea:  I hope white men and women can live in long enough that they will learn to know they do not own the earth, the earth owns us all.  I hope they learn to love the earth before they destroy it in selfishness.   It is possible that we live for a misguided “if” and destroy so much of what God created for us.

Jesus shows us how to live with, with God’s will, in God’s time, and in love without the “if’s.”

I think the most amazing things I ever saw in my life are the cathedrals of Europe.  I was blown away and often ponder how they could have made them so high, so ornate, so beautiful, so magnificent!  The stone carvers were amazing.  And one of the most amazing things ever is that the stone carvers did not sign their work.  It was only for the glory of God. 

Our life journey is one of spiritual growth to become who God make us to be.  It helps to leave behind the “if’s” and “but’s” for love.  Jesus did.

Call, Covenant and Mission - I Corinthians 13

Last Wednesday was the 59^th Wedding Anniversary of Jim and Pat Tubach and this week I got to hear a little more about their romance.  While students at K-State, Pat lived in Clovia House.  I asked Jim how many times he visited that place.  He said, “Just once.”  She looked at Jim and rolled her eyes and smiled, as if to say: “It was a lot longer than that.  She told about their first date.  She had phone duty at Clovia so he had to wait around until her shift was over and then they could go on a coffee date.  They were married at Danforth Chapel and proceeded to the Wesley Foundation Building for their reception.  Campus ministry was very much a part of their covenants.

Some years back a small Christian college made an announcement in compulsory chapel.  “On this campus, there is to be absolutely no physical contact between male and female students.  There is only one exception to this rule.  If a student happens to see a member of the opposite sex about to fall, it is permissible to touch them to break the fall.”  The announcement continued, “The college staff will not tolerate any deliberate falling or the practice thereof.”

It’s almost Valentine’s Day, And the store are filled with cards, candy, and balloons. The diamond commercials and florist commercials have doubled or tripled on television. 

Though not about romantic love, Paul’s ideas can apply to all kinds of love.  He has in mind a very cantankerous church in Corinth.  If they did not have something to fight about, they invented it. 

If there is anything that should mark our church, our lives, our families…it is love.  Tuesday morning Bible study remembered that the very name of God in Hebrew is a phrase with a verb: “I am.”  And God’s name includes “I was, and will be forever.”  The existence and love of God is permanent and absolute.  With the name for God more than a noun, we remember that love is to be more of a verb than a noun. 

I am convinced that the capacity of our church to flourish and grow is closely tied to how we can live in the love of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.   When we are envious, boastful, arrogant, rude, irritable, resentful, our church diminishes.  To be a member of this church is to be an agent of God’s love in the world. 

LEIGH’S BAKE SALE

I wish you could have been part of a conversation I had last Wednesday evening.  Leigh Adams, who is in Marlatt School, 2^nd or 3^rd grade, had sent me an email.  Her school held an International Week where each student learned a great deal about different countries.  She was really fascinated with Haiti and as she learned she listened with a heart of love and compassion.  She decided the children of Haiti needed some help.  I think we would all agree.  380,000 people are still living in tents and unemployment is at 90%.  Dawn and Phil Anderson from our church worked in Haiti a couple of years ago.    Leigh and her friends had decided to hold a bake sale here on February 17 after church and before our church night meetings.  As she prepared to tell me her shyness took over so she whispered to her mother and her mother forwarded the message.  I am excited about this too.  I told her if she needed more, Penny and I would provide some goodies to sell.  She told me “no!”.  She had it already planned.  But of course I could buy things.  Leigh, I plan to, and thank you for doing something.

WEDDINGS AND THIS TEXT

Love is an action thing…not just a heart thing.  I would imagine that 99% of church-related weddings have this text as part of the worship.   I enjoy hearing about how couples first met.  I get stories about how one was not too interested at first. Many couples meet through mutual friends or family and then the rest of their married lives they can blame things on this person.

I Corinthians 13 is not the best scripture for weddings but it works because it about the primacy of love, the nature of love, the strength of love.  Paul is writing to a conflicted church full of behavior that is very human but less than Christian. 

The call to get married, the call to be a Christian, the call to be a church, the call to build on to a church begins with God.  Couples have a physical and social attraction.  They learn they share guiding values.  They begin to form a covenant with agreements, promises, and commitments that form the bond of love.  This covenant is something that has God as a partner.  And couples learn that they share a common purpose: to help each become all God intended.  This mission might to be to give birth and guide children.  This mission truly includes serving others in the world.

DO UNTO OTHERS

When Jesus outlined the best way to act, he used simple words with a proactive twist.  He urged us all to “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”  That is: you do the kind thing first, before they have a chance to do good things for you. 

IMAGE OF PAYING IT FORWARD WAS PRESENTED IN A MOVIE SOME OF US REMEMBER

A teacher gave a seventh grade social studies class an assignment of how they might change the world.  As we think about call/covenant/mission we can see all three in this one clip.  The call was the teacher’s challenge.  The covenant was the commitment made by several in this movie to “Pay It Forward” based on love.  You will notice that some of the students like it and some do not. The teacher questions him at the end asking if it is “too utopian?”.   I love the boy’s answer….”SO?”

CALL/COVENANT/MISSION

I so hope you had a chance to read the other lectionary texts for today.  Jeremiah receives a call from God and his first thought is that he is too young, too inexperienced, inadequate.  Jeremiah has not traveled very much, he is perhaps short and not good at communication.  He comes up with all the excuses.  But he finally realized that God will guide him.  Not all things that change the world are giant things…they can be simple things of love.

For example: Patience.  So many movies and television shows show how someone get’s revenge.  I think there was a whole TV series called just that.  But not to take revenge in this kind of love can be a way to victory.  I was reading a little more about Lincoln after I saw the movie.  No one treated Lincoln with more contempt than did Edwin Stanton.  He called Lincoln terrible names.  Lincoln had opportunities to give it back to him but did not take them.  He made Stanton his war ministers because he know of his incredible gifts of organization.  Lincoln treated him with courtesy even when Stanton went around the President’s back.  But as they worked together Stanton changed and when Lincoln was killed Stanton he was there and said with tears in his eyes, “There lies the greatest ruler the world has ever seen.”  The patience of love had conquered in the end.

Peter Cameron, is the priest at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Newtown, Connecticut.  He addressed worshippers after a gunman killed 26 at Sandy Hook Elementary.  “All the world’s eyes are fixated on us, and they must see the faith keeps us alive.  The certainty of joy is that evil does not have the last word…that love wins.  The most reasonable thing we can do is live that love in faith.”

 

THE NATURE OF LOVE

Everything comes to an end.  All the monuments we construct crumble sometime.  Even every human life comes to an end. 

No matter what else matters in life…the most important is love.

Love is the one thing that is closest to heavenly things.

SO?

So listen to the call of God, for what can be done for God.

Celebrate all the gifts we have.

Remember now is the time we have to love.

Strengthen the covenants that empower us to love.

Without love everything we have is zero.  You can take the biggest number you know…and multiply it by an even bigger number and multiply it all by zero.  You get zero.  It does not matter what is on the left side of your equation…it becomes zero.  Paul is saying that life without love is zero.  We can pile all of the good deeds, all the education, all the spiritual gifts.  Without love, we do win, no matter how many touchdowns we can make.

God so loved the world…and that includes you and me.

We love because God first loved us. 

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love and the greatest of these is love!        SO?