Faith and Fear

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was  Matthew 28:16-20 and the movie was Star Wars.

It’s said that there are two types of people in the world: Those who love Star Wars and those who are wrong. That’s a joke. I know that Star Wars is not for everyone, and that’s fine. But, someone told me they weren’t really into Star Wars, and when I asked if they had seen Star Wars on the big screen, and they said no, and I said “well there’s your problem” because the opening scene of the original movie, after the crawl explaining what’s happening, when the imperial star destroyer comes from the top of the screen into the scene is one of the greatest moments in cinema history and changed movies forever. Like what can be said of the most influential films, there is a pre-Star Wars and there is after Star Wars. Even if it had not been anywhere as close to as successful as it was, it still would have given us the special effects company of Industrial Light and Magic and Skywalker Sound, which are monumental. Pixar Animation also comes out of Lucas Films, although that’s a few years later. And while the movies are noted for their stilted language, it’s said that Alec Guinness, who plays Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenobi asked to be killed off early so that he wouldn’t have to keep saying more lines. But we also tend to forget that it was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, won six of them, and was given two additional awards for sound editing and for the creation of a new motion picture camera. What Lucas did was truly revolutionary which we forget form a distance because so much of what he did is now so common, and also noting that what we see as Star Wars now is not what was released in 1977, because Lucas upgraded then in the 90s, and the originals are no longer available, and apparently will never be released again as they originally were.

And so, with that long-winded introduction, we move onto our new series the gospel in Star Wars. And I say this every year in our movie series, but please note that it is not the gospel according to Star Wars, because we have four gospels, and George Lucas did not write any of them, but instead we will look for what we can see in the movies that can help us in our faith, and there is so much. And I will warn you that my Star Wars geek will come out and so some of you may think to yourselves, “I have a bad feeling about this, “ but let me just say that “this is the worship series you are looking for.” And if you don’t know Star Wars you have no idea what I just said.

State of the Church

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was 1 John 3:1-3:

It has been my practice for most of my years in ministry as the end of an appointment year comes to and end and a new one begins to take the time to look back at what we did in the past year and more importantly where we were going in the next year which I have called the state of the church message. Now I didn’t do that the first two years here, I think it was, because of what was happening it was too hard to plan for the next month, let alone the next year. But we did do it last year, and we do it again as I complete my fourth year serving this congregation, and I’ll be honest that sometimes it feels like it hasn’t been that long, and other times it feels like it’s been at least a decade here. But today we’re not looking back, even though we have some great things we have accomplished but I want to spend the looking at where we are going as a congregation, how we might get there and what all of us, as the body of Christ, need to do to do that work. But let me give just a little context for everything.

In 2008, Phyllis Tickle published a book entitled The Great Emergence, which we have a copy of in the church library, and the Los Alamos Library has a digital copy. But one of the arguments that she has in the book is that every five hundred years or so the church faces a great upheaval, that there are tectonic shifts that happen and, in her words, the church “cleans house” and holds a great rummage sale in which it decides what to keep, what to get rid of and what new things to introduce. And while I’m not going to go into all the details, and there is certainly room for debate in her argument, it think it’s largely correct. And the last time the church went through this major disruption was at the Protestant Reformation. Does anyone know what year the reformation is said to have begun? 1517, so basically 500 years ago. And of course, it didn’t actually begin that year and it didn’t end that year, it went on for a while, as did the other turmoil she cites.

Do Not Hold On

Here is my message for Sunday. The text was John 20:11-18 and it was also a recap of Annual Conference.

Bill Belichick, who is the head coach and general manager for the New England Patriots football team is widely regarded as one of, if not the best football coach of all time. What he is also known for is the ruthlessness in how he treats even his star players when it comes to the end of their careers. He has said that he would much rather cut a player a year too soon and still have them perform for another team, then to keep them a year too late and have them underperform for him. It’s like the disclaimer we hear on investment commercials that tells us that past performance is not indicative of future performance. But all too many people, us probably included, even if we also have a what have you done for me lately mentality, do look backward at what was and hold onto it for the present and want to forecast it into the future. Sometimes we do it because it’s what makes us feel comfortable, sometimes it’s because it’s all that we know and therefore cannot imagine something else, sometimes it’s because we are afraid of change and sometimes its because whatever it is worked for us and therefore it has to be the same for others and the same path forward.

So, for example, we had annual conference this past week, and we’ll talk more about that in a little bit, but in the opening message the Bishop talked about how important VBS was for him as a child in forming his faith that led him into the ministry and then to his current position. Now he did note that this was sixty years ago, but simultaneously seemed to emphasize how important doing that same thing now, because of how it might impact a young person today in the same way. Now I am not discounting the need to engage children and youth, although the number one indicator of whether a child will be engaged in faith as an adult has nothing to do with these things, but instead with the religiosity of their parents. But I do have an issue of saying that because something worked sixty years ago means that it is still going to work today, or should even be taking place. And that’s why I chose the passage I did for today as we think about the church and the events of Annual Conference while also concluding our series on the nots of Jesus by jumping back to the Easter story. We originally started this be looking at just a week after Easter when Jesus tells Thomas do not doubt, but today we go back to the original resurrection appearance.

Do Not Store Up Treasure

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Matthew 6:19-21:

I was having a conversation with a member of a United Methodist Church that was going through the disaffiliation process, which means they were talking about leaving the United Methodist Church, and he supported that movement. And he said that he was doing so because he took the Bible seriously and followed every injunction. And since he was then trying to imply that I therefore didn’t take the Bible seriously and didn’t know what I was talking about, I decided to challenge him a little bit. And so, I asked if he gave to everyone who asked for him for money, to which he said no, and then wanted to make a statement about “those” people.  But I told him that Jesus explicitly says that we are to give to anyone who begs of us (Luke 6:30) And then I asked him if he wore clothing that had mixed fibers, which he did. He also had a tattoo, which is forbidden in Leviticus. He also had fruit trees, and he didn’t leave some of the fruit for people to glean from his trees. And I, of course, could have gone on and one about the things that he apparently didn’t take very seriously, largely I think because they applied directly to him, rather than only applying to others, and as conversation was deteriorating, I decided to leave it there. And yes, I will totally admit to my culpability in this, especially since we just talked about last week that we should put away anger and malice and that our words should build up and convey God’s grace. But all of that leads us up to what is Rev. Adam Hamilton, who is the pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in the country, often counters this same issue by asking the other person, often to clergy, if they have a retirement plan and are contributing to it. And when they invariably say yes. He then says, to quote today’s passage, “so what part of do not store up treasure’s in heaven do you not understand?”

And so that’s where we find ourselves today in our series on the nots of Jesus, the things that Jesus tells us not to do. So far, we have looked at the injunctions not to doubt, fear, judge, worry, sin, stop children from coming, and complain, and now do not store up for yourself treasure here on earth. And just a funny aside, Julie pointed out that in the preparation for this service that I had written do not store up for yourselves treasurers, which we actually want to do, and to thank Kim for her service as our treasurer, and this has nothing to do with her. So, there are several things here. First is that this isn’t all about treasure being bad. There is a place where Jesus specifically says that we are to store up treasure, and where is that? In heaven, where, we are told, moth and rust and thieves won’t be able to get to it. But the problem is, Jesus does not tell us here how to do that, although in my research those who wanted to try and tackle this seemingly were arguing for a sense of works righteousness. that is do good things in the world in order to build up this treasure in your account for when the judgment comes. I don’t know that those who were arguing would necessarily see it that way, but that’s how I interpreted what they were saying. And so, this is a reminder that we are saved by faith alone, and one of the reasons, as Paul tells us, is because otherwise we would brag about it and what we had done, and there is definitely some of that that plays in role as we think about our treasurers. And so, when it comes to that, I have some good news and some bad news.

Do Not Complain

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was John 6:35-48:

I’ve mentioned it before, I can be a little vocal towards others when driving. Not like rolling down the window and yelling at them, but yelling at them in the car. A little while back I was driving with Lizzie, and I yelled “come on you idiot” to someone in front of me, and so Lizzie asked what was wrong, and I said that this driver doesn’t know what they are doing. And she responded, “so that’s why they’re an idiot?” Proud parental moment right there, and that’s sarcasm by the way. As every parent knows our children are much more likely to do as we do, rather than do what we say, especially if they don’t correspond. But how we act also says much more about who we are then anything that we say we believe. And so, with that, we definitely have to think about the power of our words, and how they not only affect the world but also how the affect us, and so we move onto the not that I have been worried about the most, even though one of the things we are not supposed to do is to worry, but today we tackle the injunction not to complain.

Now while I think this not is a generally good idea, while noting there are times when complaints are important, and we’ll get back to that idea, there is a very specific context in which this injunction, and the complaining he is pointing out are made. As Cathy said in the introduction, before this interchange, Jesus has just fed the 5000 on a mountain, and this is a section of John which is known as book of signs as Jesus does things that to John prove he is the Messiah, or that John wants to give than meaning. Then while Jesus walks on the sea of Galilee, a little more impressive than simply parting waters, the people also go around the sea to the other side, and there they ask Jesus what sign it is that he will do so they will believe, after all God gave their ancestors manna, or bread, in the wilderness. Hopefully then you are seeing the clear illusions to the Exodus taking place here, and then Jesus says that he is the bread of life, which is one of his I am statements, and remembering that the name of God given to Moses is I am. But this causes the religious leaders to begin to complain as we heard this morning, or to grumble as the NIV translates it. So, two important points here.

Do Not Stop Them

Here is my sermon from Sunday. The text was Matthew 19:13-15:

As I’ve mentioned before, in our staff meeting each week, we read and talk about the scripture passage that is being preached on for that week. As we looked at this week, someone wondered if we were sort of getting a mention of an ordinary activity that has totally lost its context for us. I mean we’re certainly used to people coming to Jesus to seek healings, or to question him, or sometimes to challenge him, but in today’s passage we have something unique. We have people, presumably parents, bringing children to him so that, as it says “he might lay his hands on them and pray.” It seems like perhaps this is as an act of blessing, although that is not specifically stated. Now the laying on of hands is found throughout scripture, and there is a special meaning and purpose, and the person who does the laying on of hands is a person of significance. But it’s not done with children, but here it is. So, was there a tradition of bringing children to teachers or rabbis to receive special blessings? Perhaps. And again, that might be what we’re seeing and it was just sort of so ordinary that it’s not explained as to what’s happening, and so we’re not sure exactly what’s taking place. But, it is clear that the disciples seem to understand what’s going on, because they try to stop it, and speak “sternly” to those who are bringing the children.

I always imagine the disciples that Jesus doesn’t have the time to be wasting to do these blessings, he’s way too important for something so mundane, so please go away and leave him alone to focus on the critical things that occupy his time. And one more piece of information may be helpful to thinking about what’s taking place here, and that is the involvement of children in ancient Judaism, and that is there wasn’t much, if any. Our knowledge about what happened in first century synagogues is extremely limited, much more so than you might think. While we do know that there was some involvement of adult women in worship, boys did not participate in synagogue until after age 12 and girls and young women didn’t participate at all. And so,  with that in mind, perhaps the disciple’s response isn’t all that surprising, but Jesus’ response definitely is.

Do Not Sin

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Matthew 5:38-48:

As are making our way through the nots of Jesus, or the things Jesus told us not to do, and so far, we have looked at the injunction do not doubt, do not fear, do not judge and do not worry, I’m guessing, or really hoping, that as you are hearing the gospel passage that you’re listening for the not that we might be covered today. But while there are a lot of instructions on things we should do, like turn the other cheek and love our enemy and to pray for those who persecute us. But there is only one do not, which is do not resist an evildoer. And perhaps I should have addressed that as a not, and maybe in reconsidering this series for the future I might add that in. But that is not the do not we’re looking at today. Instead the injunction is do not sin. It’s an injunction that’s in there, but not directly, and that is Jesus telling us to be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect, and we’ll come back to why that’s the passage I chose in just a few moments.

And so, it’s not that Jesus never says do not sin, because he does, and some of you I know where that is. But it’s the story of the woman found caught in adultery in the 7th chapter of John. If you remember the story,  Jesus is in the Temple teaching when a woman who has been caught in adultery is brought before him. now the first question you should ask is where is the man who was also caught? But they don’t ask it, and he is not there. Instead the ask Jesus what should be done with her, and it’s Jesus response that makes this such a famous story because he says “let those without sin cast the first stone.” And with that statement, all those who brought her, and were expecting a stoning, go away leaving just the woman.  Jesus then tells her that, just as those who have left have not condemned her, neither will he condemn her, and then says “Go your way, and, from now on, do not sin again.” And so, we do have an injunction not to sin and for us as Methodists that injunction in inherently tied up with the injunction to be perfect as God is perfect.

Do Not Worry

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Matthew 6:25-34:

I want everyone to close their eyes, and don’t worry, nothings going to happen. And I want everyone, as we recently sang, to take a deep breath and relax your shoulders and neck, let the tension start to flow out, and I want you to picture a calm nature scene. It could be the beach, or the mountains, or a rain forest, or a desert, or the ocean. Picture something peaceful. Got that in your mind? Now, don’t think of an elephant. And now of course what just happened? And you can open your eyes. Most of you instantly thought of an elephant. And the same thing might happen, and does for some people, if you start a statement with “now, I have to tell you something, but don’t worry…” what do we instantly do? We start to worry, and so as we have been making our way through the things Jesus tells us not to do, today we move onto the injunction do not worry. Now my beautiful wife, the mother of our wonderful three daughters, asked me what I was going to be preaching on after Easter and I told her that we were going to be looking at things Jesus told us not to do. She then asked what I was going to do for Mother’s Day, and when I told her she said “you can’t do that. Worrying is what mothers do. It’s who we are and what we’re known for. Do you think that’s a good idea to tell mothers not to worry?” and I told her I did, and I’ve been worried about it ever since. And so, if you think that I have made a terrible mistake with this injunction for this morning, please tell Linda that she was right and you will have given her the best Mother’s Day gift she could receive.

Now when we think about this command so not worry, it’s just like we talked about last week when we looked at the injunction not to judge, we treat that as if there’s a period that follows it. But that’s not the case here. There’s not even a comma, like there was after do not judge, but instead the thought simply continues strait on. Three times the phrase do not worry is used in this passage and none of the times does it stand by itself. And, just like with the other nots we have looked at, Jesus is not actually saying not to worry about anything. There are some things we should probably worry about, as Jesus says in the last line, “today’s trouble is enough for today.” so, moms, please know that some worrying, or some anxiety is okay. Those things are not sins, as some preachers might lead you to believe. It’s a matter of what we are worrying about and why. I had a mother at one of the churches I serve whose son was an army officer who was trained in defusing bombs who told me that when he was sent to Afghanistan that she finally understood the Apostle Paul’s injunction to pray without ceasing. And so, she worried about him, a lot, which is completely understandable, and that is related to today because there is a strong anti-war background to the creation of Mother’s Day as a holiday.

Do Not Judge

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Matthew 7:1-5:

Of all of the injunctions of things that Jesus tells us not to do, which is what we are currently spending our time doing, today’s injunction “do not judge,” is probably the most famous. And it’s well known not just amongst Christians, and we’re going to get to some more obscure injunctions in a few weeks, but it’s also well known amongst non-Christians as well. They might not know who said it, or where it’s found in the Bible, but the definitely know that Christians are not supposed to judge. and so, as rebuttals go, it might be one of the most popular to get thrown back to the church, or at Christians, and often, in my opinion, quite rightfully so. And we deserve it much of the time, and what often makes it worse then is how some respond to that accusation. I remember one public scandal in which that accusation was made, and a prominent religious leader of the time said, and I roughly quote, “What Jesus was saying was that we all judge, and we will all be judged, and so it’s okay to judge.” and I hope that your jaw hits the floor hearing that, as mine did when it was said, because that is not at all what Jesus was saying. And so, the way that Christians and non-Christians alike tend to use this passage shows that people don’t really understand what Jesus was saying here, or in Luke where it also appears as part of what is known there as the Sermon on the plain. So, what does Jesus mean when he tells us “Do not judge.”

Now as I have said many times before, the entirety of the New Testament is written in Greek, while the Hebrew Bible is written in Hebrew. But in the Greek not only do all the words run together, and thus translators have to make decisions about what words are actually there. but there is also no punctuation and so they also have to make decisions about what punctuation to put in, and that matters here. Because we here this statement as do not judge period. Or even we could say exclamation point. And we could take that as the absolute, as we have done with do not be afraid or do not doubt. But that’s not what we actually have here. Instead, it says, do not doubt comma, which symbolizes a break or a pause, really, it’s where we take a breath when we are saying it out loud, and then it continues with some qualifiers. Do not judge, comma, so that you may not be judged. Now we could argue whether that comma is appropriate or not, although every translation I looked up had a comma so there seems to be consensus on it, and it makes sense within the context of what comes next. Because Jesus continues, “for with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.”  That means if you judge, which really is when you judge since we all do it to some degree, and we’ll come back to that, then God will use that same standard against you. And others can to as well. And so, just for a wild example, a hypothetical if you will, if you were to say make fun of the Boston Red Sox for being in last place in your division, but then your team starts playing terribly and they end up in last place, then what’s going to happen? Then they are going to make fun of you, and that’s only fair. Or we might say what goes around comes around, or that the chickens will come home to roost. So how we judge others is how others will then judge us, or could judge or, perhaps, should judge us. But even more importantly it’s how we will be judged by God as well.

Do Not Fear

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Matthew 14:22-33:

One of my earliest memories comes from when I was probably around 4. I was spending the day with my grandmother and we had gone to the store, and one the way back home we decided to stop at a tasty-freeze for some ice cream. I was sitting in the backseat of my grandparents 1966 Ford Galaxy 500, which was an aircraft carrier, especially when the top was down, but we had placed our order and I looked down and on my left arm was a tarantula. Now in my memory it was huge, although I don’t know if that is because I was small or because of the trauma, but I screamed and my grandmother turned around, saw it and swatted it off my arm. And this I definitely remember, but it then jumped onto the front seat, ran down it, then jumped onto the dashboard and squeezed into one of the air conditioning vents and disappeared. My grandmother used to comment that she never saw it again. And we drove off before we got our order. I happened to be wearing a bright yellow shirt that day, which had a puffy lion on the front, and at the top of the grocery bag was a bunch of bananas, and so best guess is it came out of the bananas saw more yellow and was coming over to check it out. But the moral of this story is that FDR was wrong in his first inaugural address when he said that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, but that we should fear fear itself and also spiders. We should fear spiders, although while I still can’t deal with tarantulas or any big spiders, I have gotten much better about regular spiders as I’ve aged.

And so, with that we move on in our series on the nots of Jesus, or the things that Jesus tells us not to do, by moving onto the injunction: “Do not be afraid.” Of the things we are not to do, and the things that cause us to get ourselves all into knots, this may be one of the harder ones because fear is hardwired into us. And living entirely without fear is not only unhealthy it can be downright dangerous. There is a reason why we have fear of snakes and spiders and tigers, because they can be life threatening. Fear is a primal urge that comes to us from the most primitive part of the brain known as the amygdala, and located close to the base of the brain at the spine. It’s what trigger the fight, flight or freeze response when we sense danger. And it’s played an important role in keeping us alive and uninjured over time, both as people and as a species. Fear in proper doses, or natural occurrences is healthy and productive. It teaches us to not touch hot stoves, to not play in traffic and to avoid spiders. And so fearing things is not a sin, and in fact not fearing, or living without fear, could just be plain and simple stupidity. And so, we start with that reality because I don’t think that’s what Jesus is talking about when he tells us not to be afraid. But it’s about the what and the why.