Who Was Jesus? And Where are the Sermons?

I am catching up on posting the sermons for the "Who Was Jesus?" series. Week three is now up in text form. The audio should follow tomorrow.

"Who Was Jesus?" week three - Jesus the Rule Breaker

peace,

will

Will Rice - "Who Was Jesus?" Series - Sermon #3 - Jesus the Rule Breaker

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

Luke 6:1-11

“Jesus the Rule Breaker”

Before I start into this text, let me ask you a few questions. You won’t have to answer aloud, just sort of let the answers float around in your head. All the questions start with, “Can you still be a good Christian if…”

you don’t go to church every Sunday?
you don’t go to church at all?
you don’t pray?
you don’t give money to the church?
you don’t observe the sabbath?
you don’t read the Bible?
you are divorced?
you steal?
you drink beer?
you drink lots of beer?
you’re pro-choice?
you’re gay?

In case you are waiting for the answers, keep waiting. This is a fun exercise to do without anyone talking. If I let you answer out loud, this would take the rest of our time together. I think it is likely that many of you have an opinion or two on these two topics.

Let’s look at today’s text. As always, when trying to understand Jesus, it really helps us to know what is going on in the background.

1One sabbath while Jesus was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. 2But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?”

There is a whole Bible study right here. Let’s look at their question, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” I grew up in a farm town. When I worked on a farm and my boss, Bill Henry caught someone is his fields, helping themselves to corn, tomatoes, green peppers or melons, Bill called that stealing. But that is not what is going on here. The law of Moses, the book of Deuteronomy, to be specific, said that it was quite ok to do this: Chapter 23:

25If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.

So what Jesus’ disciples are doing is perfectly legal. As long as they weren’t using a sickle, they could pluck all the wanted to eat. The Law of Moses was very clear about the fact that everything was a gift from God. Ownership was only a limited concept. If people were hungry, they could eat some of your crops.

So their question, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” is not about stealing. It is not about what they are doing, it is about when they are doing it. Sabbath, the fourth and longest of the Ten Commandments.

8Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

There is a reference within a reference here, we are looking back to Genesis 2:

2And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 3So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

This is my favorite commandment. It is my favorite because it is the one that many Christians flagrantly break while looking down their noses at others for not keeping the other nine. Whenever I point out this fact, people tend to either ignore me or get into their own sort of legalism, asking me for help defining what is or isn’t allowed on the Sabbath.

“Who decides what work is?” “Is it ok to go shopping?” “What about gardening? Is it ok if I really like gardening?” “What about fishing?” “What if my job required me to work?”

Now the original Law of Moses was quite clear on this. Numbers 15:

32When the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day. 33Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses, Aaron, and to the whole congregation. 34They put him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. 35Then the LORD said to Moses, "The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him outside the camp."

But we are not the first ones to come up with questions about the sabbath. There were a lot of different religious people running around in Jesus’ day. The Pharisees, for reasons that are sort of beyond the scope of this sermon, seem to get picked on an awful lot. The gospels often make them out to be almost laughable in their legalism. But I contend that they were just doing their best to be faithful to God, to follow God in the best way they knew how and to lead others in following God.

The Pharisees were trying to clearly define Judaism against other competing faiths and ideologies. They, like Jesus, believed that God’s promise was spelled out in the Torah or Law of Moses. However, the Pharisees became legalists, wanting everyone to follow the letter of the law. Therefore, they had to take the ancient laws of Moses and apply them to modern situations. They were doing the ancient equivalent of case law.

The example for today is the Sabbath. The law is clear, no work on the Sabbath. But the interpretation is not so clear. What is work? When exactly does the Sabbath start? Can you work if it is an emergency? What if it is kind of an emergency, like you are out of milk?

Modern Rabbis are still thinking about this stuff. Let me give you a modern example. Would it be ok for an orthodox Jew to go running on the Sabbath?

One Rabbi writes that one can not run to exercise, but could run if that was part of one’s normal travel. Another Rabbi says that it is actually an issue of whether or not you sweat. Another says that light exercise in general is ok unless it makes you sweat but heavy exercise of any kind if forbidden even if you don’t sweat. Another Rabbi says that it is “why” you are running or exercising in general. If you enjoy it you are ok but if you are doing it because your doctor told you to or to lose weight then it is work so it would be breaking the sabbath.[1]

Part of the reason I point this all out is to say that Jesus, as a good Jew, and perhaps a Rabbi, was arguing this out in the same terms that the question was asked. “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” Jesus is saying, “let me explain.” And he explains use their common book.

3Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4He entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and gave some to his companions?”

Jesus knew his scripture pretty well, as did the Pharisees, but not all of us do, so let’s review. He is talking about a passage from 1 Samuel 21. David, who we know as King David, the second King of Israel, is on the run from Saul, the somewhat crazy first King of Israel, who is trying to kill him. On the run, David stops in to see the priest Ahimelech and asks him for some food for the road. The priest tells him that the only bread he has is the bread of the Presence, the Holy Bread that had been offered to the Lord. This bread could be eaten by the priests, but the priest offers an exception in this case.

Jesus is saying, “I know the law and I know there are exceptions.” You see Jesus is not just purposefully breaking the rules, he is arguing about them from scripture[2] So Jesus is doing this really normal Rabbi thing, arguing the finer points of the law and then he completely shifts gears in way that still throws me.

5Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath”

He is arguing about the law and then says something akin to “I am the law!” People often read this as Jesus first move in tossing out the law completely. But is that were the case he would have just said that and not bothered with that whole scripture lesson about King David.

In case you haven’t heard me make my case, I am in favor of people taking Sabbath seriously. In most courses I teach, at some point you can count on me veering off to a place where I will talk about our need for disciplined and holy rest, our need to take time, to stop and be in God’s presence and rest and be re-created. And I am not talking about for an hour on Sunday. Whenever I talk about that, I often have this line thrown back at me:

“The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath”

Or even the more provocative line from Mark’s gospel that is part of this same exchange:

27Then he said to them, "The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; 28so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."

Somehow, this line is handed back to me as proof that Jesus abolished the sabbath, and in some people’s opinions the rest of the law with it, but that is just not what is going on here. Jesus is not throwing out the law, he is just helping them and us to refocus, to see what is actually important. He is helping them and us to remember that the laws of Moses were meant as a gift for humanity not as an onerous duty.[3]

We have to consider what he says in Matthew chapter 5:

17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Before I start to sound like a Rabbi, arguing the finer points of the law, I think all of this has a lot to say to us all today. As Christians, we have this really strange relationship with religious law. We sort of pick and choose which parts of the law are important or let religious leaders or radio talk show hosts decide for us. We might decide that we think it is not ok to be gay, (forbidden in Leviticus 20:13 - If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.) but ok to eat lobster (clearly forbidden in Leviticus 10:10 ), We may think that adultery is bad (Exodus 20:14 - You shall not commit adultery), but the Sabbath is not important (Exodus 20:8-11 - Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy). Stealing is considered clearly bad (Exodus 20:15 - You shall not steal), well unless you are stealing music off the internet, while really our whole consumer economy is based on coveting (Exodus 20:17 - You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor) (i.e., I know you have a nice pickup truck in your driveway, but don’t you really need this brand new four wheel drive with the biggest engine ever?) Bearing false witness is out (Exodus 20:16 - You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor), except little while lies, while honoring your mother and father (Exodus 20:12 - Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you) is a day by day thing.
We have this weird relationship with rules and laws, because sometimes we just use them to decide how others should live while missing the gift that they are and totally missing the point that none of us are saved or made righteous and brought closer to God by keeping them.

Even though we stand in this place called Grace, even though we are good, protestant, United Methodists, when we talk about the law, we forget what puts us right with God. Romans 3:

22bFor there is no distinction, 23since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

The question I started the sermon with, “Can you be a Christian if?” is really an invalid question because our redemption, or salvation, our relationship with God, our very Christianity is not based in rules but in Grace. You may ask me, “Wouldn’t someone who really has faith and has accepted the Grace of Christ do things like go to church, pray, read the Bible, refrain from stealing etc?” Maybe, but that is not the point.

Galatians 2:16:

we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.

Let me be as clear as Jesus was when he said:

17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.

I am not suggesting that the commandments, the laws of God, be thrown out, but we need to be continually reminded of our relationship to them, that we never, ever, let our selective enforcement of the rules get in the way of God’s amazing Grace.

Think about this passage as a whole. Those Pharisees, in their effort to keep the law intact, would rather those disciples go hungry than violate the law.

6On another sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. 7The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him.

They would rather that man suffer than the law be violated. The law had become the most important thing, to the point that

11But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

And in case you think they were thinking they might just get him in trouble or steal his sandals, remember what happened last time the people got all mad at Jesus, from the text I preached on just a couple of weeks ago: Luke 4:

28When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.
Jesus was a rule breaker. And the punishment was pretty severe. But Jesus was pretty clear in his message, the rules and ordinances of God are not God, they are not what saves us and they should never, every get in the way of the amazing Grace of God. Now saying that too loud led Jesus to an ugly death. But Jesus is the rule breaker and he broke even that rule about death being permanent. He was resurrected to make perfectly clear, that nothing, nothing we do, nothing we fail to do, nothing any one else does or fails to do to or for us can ever separate us from the love of God. Amen.

[1] This summary of the argument is taken from “Working Out on Shabbos” a weblog article on Israel Forum’s Blog Central, available at http://www.israelforum.com/blog_article.php?aid=510198, accessed 3 February 2007; internet
[2] R. Alan Culpepper, “Luke” in Leander Keck, et. al, eds., The New Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995) 133
[3] ibid. 134

"Jesus the Troublemaker"

Week 1 of "Who Was Jesus Series" - Luke 4:14-30. Sermon for Sunday, January 21, 2007, Grace United Methodist Church, Corpus Christi, Texas




MP3 File

Will Rice - "Who Was Jesus?" Series - Sermon #1 - Jesus the Troublemaker

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

Welcome to week one of a five week series on “Who Was Jesus? A Look at the Person of Jesus.” I think that one of the biggest gifts and challenges of our Christian faith and belief is the incredible depth and richness of Jesus Christ, a figure so complex that we stumble over our words when trying to explain him. We refer to Jesus Christ as being fully human and fully divine.

Fully human and fully divine is and always has been difficult for Christians. Frankly, it can be difficult to speak in human terms about God. We tend to take Jesus’ human side and pretty it up as much as possible. It can sound almost blasphemous to talk about God shoving food in his mouth or going to the bathroom, but those are things fully human creatures do.

I was even worried about the title. “Who Was Jesus?” raises the question, “Are you implying that Jesus is only historical? Are you saying that Jesus isn’t around anymore?” But, if you asked that question, you are getting my point. My point, for the purpose of this series, is to look specifically at Jesus as he was when he lived and breathed and walked around the Middle-East. Today, we will look at the fact that he caused a bit of trouble.

Luke 4:14-30

“Jesus the Troublemaker”

In the small group study that some of you are doing in conjunction with this sermon series, one of the first activities you will do is to name some images of Jesus. Some will say, “Son of God” others “Good Shepherd” others “Lord.” Few will jump in with “troublemaker.” But I have to tell you, Jesus got in trouble a lot.

Our scripture today tells us the story of the equivalent of a new pastor’s first time preaching at a new church. However, instead, we have a young Jewish Rabbi and a synagogue.

¹⁵He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

So Jesus is gaining a reputation.

¹⁶When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom.

So far, this is all perfectly normal. The sabbath day was Saturday and all good Jews went to the synagogue. A little bit about the synagogue. Synagogue is from the Greek, συναγωγή – to gather together. Historically, the temple in Jerusalem was the place the people gathered to worship and sacrifice to God, but after major catastrophic events like the captivity of the Jewish people in Babylon and then destruction of the temple, the Jews needed a new way to worship and maintain their faith away from the temple. Thus, the synagogue system was formed. We are basically talking about weekly gatherings of people to read the Torah, what we would call the Old Testament, hear it interpreted and pray.

Exactly why Jesus was called to speak is not clear. It sounds like he was gaining some reputation as a Rabbi or teacher.

He stood up to read, ¹⁷and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

Whatever the reason, it was perfectly normal for a visiting Rabbi or a lay person to be asked to stand up and read from the Law, or as in this case, the prophets. Jesus was handed the scroll that contained the prophet Isaiah:

¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, ¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

He actually reads a little bit from Isaiah 61, verse one. Then he seems to jump back to Isaiah 58, verse 6 and then back to verse two of Isaiah 61. What is interesting is that the crowd knew their Torah much better than we do so they probably knew what he was doing.

²⁰And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.

Still fairly normal. Now he sits down for some interpretation. Historically, this isn’t saying, “here is what I think this means.” For most it would be sharing how other Rabbis had interpreted, saying “Rabbi Micah Bar-Dan” has said…”

Jesus does something slightly different:

²¹Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” ²²All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.”

Let me give you a really rough picture of why they were pleased so far. The Jews, Israel, are God’s chosen people. However, when Jesus was walking around, they were still living under the oppression of the Roman Empire and they were awaiting a Messiah, an anointed one of God to come and save them. In this moment, it is unlikely that they thought that Jesus, the boy who they watched grow up was this Messiah. However, they heard his words and his interpretation as comfort for their affliction. Isaiah’s words, if you think they are for you, can be very comforting.

¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, ¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

I can bet they are hearing this as “He has anointed me to bring good news to us” and “He has sent me to proclaim release to us” to “let us go free.” The whole year of the Lord’s favor thing you will have to sort out in small groups, but it has to do with liberty and freedom and release and they are thinking that is all for them.

But then he does something that causes some trouble:

They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”²³He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’”

We have to consider these lines together to get what was going on. “Is not this Joseph’s son?” is actually a statement about community. In this context, it may be a way of saying, “Isn’t he one of us?” So when Jesus says “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’” the “yourself” is more communal, “Doctor cure your family, your people.” And when Jesus says “And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” he is speaking what they are thinking that Jesus ought to take care of his own family and community first.

If you try to back up in Luke’s Gospel to find out what happened in Capernaum, you are going to have a tough time. Luke, in deciding how to order the events of Jesus’ life, puts this story first and leaves us sort of hanging. However, Mark’s Gospel tells this story after some other stories of Jesus’ exploits. In, Luke, we have to jump forward to see what they are talking about. In Capernaum, Jesus heals and casts out demons. Look real quick a little later in chapter four of Luke, starting with verse 38:

³⁸After leaving the synagogue he entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him about her. ³⁹Then he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and began to serve them.

Back to today’s text.

And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’”

Jesus knows what they are thinking, “we are your kin, your hometown, let’s get some of that healing going.” No offense, but think about it. If you all found out that I was heading up to Robstown on Sunday nights and people who were sick or injured were coming and I was laying hands on them and they were getting better, you would say, “Excuse me, why aren’t you doing that here? We have plenty of sick people and hurting people.”

Now, if I weren’t a troublemaker, I would say something in response to make you feel better, like, “Oh sorry, I didn’t know you were interested,” or “The Bishop made me go to Robstown.” But Jesus is trying to make trouble:

²⁴And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. ²⁵But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; ²⁶yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.

I know to us this sounds more confusing than enraging, but trust me, this is a Jerry Springer moment. If you have a Bible with you, open it to 1 Kings 17 as I remind us of the story of Elijah the Tishbite. What you have to remember was that we can assume that the people in the synagogue that day knew this story very well.

God calls Elijah to tell King Ahab that there will be a drought for three years. God then tells Elijah to go see the widow Zaraephath in the land of Sidon and God miraculously keeps Elijah, the widow, and the widow’s son alive on a handful of flower and a little jar of oil through the whole 3 year drought and famine. At first glance, this is just nice and miraculous, but dig a little deeper and you can see why they might get mad. Sidon is outside of the land of the people of Israel in a territory where people did not worship the one true God but worshipped other Gods. God decided to miraculously keep alive an outsider while many other insiders died. Jesus is not pointing out the miracle, he is pointing out that it happened to outsiders.

In case they missed the jab, he comes in again:

²⁷There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

Now he is telling them how the prophet Elisha heals another outsider, this time a Syrian named Naaman. You can read this story in 2 Kings, chapter 5.

Let me go back to my example. Say I am going and doing miraculous healings in Robstown and you call me on it and in response, I tell you a miraculous story of God healing atheists in Budapest. If you didn’t get confused you would be likely to get aggravated. If I really wanted to make you mad, I would tell you of a miraculous healing of the member of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Perhaps, I wouldn’t. I don’t have the guts, but that is what is going on here.

²⁸When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. ²⁹They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. ³⁰But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

Jesus has just turned a quaint moment in his home town into an angry mob. Jesus is a troublemaker.

There are a ton of stories in the gospels of Jesus saying the most contentious things, knowing full well that they are going to really dig deep. He throws out these little troublemaking daggers and if we don’t read carefully we miss them. There is this great little line in Matthew’s gospel, in chapter 8:

¹⁰When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, “Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.

It sounds so nice, but you have to notice who he is saying it to.

⁵When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him

A centurion, a guy who worked for the Roman empire, the ones occupying and oppressing the Jewish people, not a favored person for the “insiders” for God’s chosen ones. This is one of the guys they want God to come and get rid of.

⁵When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him ⁶and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible distress.” ⁷And he said to him, “I will come and cure him.”

Already, the people are annoyed. Jesus needs to be healing them.

⁸The centurion answered, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does it.” ¹⁰When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him,

Get ready, here’s the line again:

“Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.”

This outsider, this pagan, this worshiper of other Gods has more faith than you chosen people. Ouch! And then he keeps going:

¹¹I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,

In other words, outsiders will inherit the promise of God.

¹²while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

And the chosen ones are in trouble.

¹³And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you according to your faith.” And the servant was healed in that hour.

Now Pastor John spoke a couple of weeks ago about the outsiders and the insiders so I am not going to go too far down that road. The point today is that Jesus was a troublemaker. The same Jesus who brings us so much comfort, who tells us through his death and resurrection that we are all beloved children of God and that there is nothing that we can do that can finally separate us from the love of God, that same Jesus did not and will not let us ever get away with being agents of limiting the grace and power of God.

Jesus causes trouble on a number of subjects but the one argument he keeps engaging over and over is this issue of insider verses outsider. He is hanging out among people who think that God’s grace and power are limited to a certain group of people who are specially selected by God and/or live in such a way as to earn God’s love. Jesus keeps responding to their limitation of God by saying “No, no, no! God’s love is for everybody and if you can’t get that, maybe it is not for you.”

And if we for a moment start thinking, oh those silly Israelites, they just didn’t get it, we are missing Jesus stirring up the same trouble in our hearts, because everyone of us, me included, has a barrier set somewhere that we believe God won’t cross. We love to categorize and something about our humanity needs for someone else to be out for us to be in. Who do we think is beyond God’s love and what trouble might Jesus stir up in our hearts about that?

And if we can’t get at that, nearly all of us have been caught, at least for a moment considering how we, at least deserve some amount of special treatment from God for being faithful, even if that is just a free ticket to heaven. What kind of trouble might Jesus be stirring in our hearts to make us think of not our benefits, but of our calling?

When we find ourselves trying to limit the grace of God or allowing ourselves to feel special because we are the insiders while not taking the time to feel love and compassion for those who don’t attend our church or look like us or seem to worship in the same way, when we find ourselves there and Jesus starts stirring up trouble in our hearts, do we let him or do we try to throw him off the nearest cliff.

If reading the gospels does not stir up trouble in our hearts, if the historical Jesus talking to us in our context today doesn’t cause us to get a little nervous as we consider the limits of our own love and compassion, if it doesn’t cause us to consider where we need to grow, if it doesn’t make us uncomfortable, then we are not paying attention and if we aren’t paying attention, then we are missing the opportunity to live as true children of God.

Jesus was, is and will always be a trouble maker. But this is a good kind of trouble, a trouble that calls us to account and makes us better people.

---

Sermon 33 Audio

Semon Preached by Rev. Will Rice at Grace United Methodist Church, Corpus Christi, Texas on Sunday, November 26, 2006. The text is John 18:33-37


MP3 File

Will Rice - Sermon #33 - "What King of King?"

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

John 18:33-37

“What Kind of King”

I was hesitant to celebrate Christ the King Sunday today. I can’t imagine that I would have gotten a lot of letters of complaint. Not that people dislike Christ the King Sunday, it is just that they don’t often think about it. I always figured that with a name like Christ the King Sunday, this must be a pretty old celebration. But although it has some ancient roots, it actually only dates back to 1925. It wasn’t until 1969 that it was appointed as a festival for the last Sunday of the Christian year which is today. How odd that a celebration recognizing Christ as a King would have been created in a time when Kings aren’t what they used to be.

What the heck is a king? When we talk about Christ as King, what is our point of reference? Unfortunately for me, a child of the 70s and 80s, when you say king, I hear Burger King. Most of us have some mental image of a king. For kids, it may be the Lion King. Some of our images are of the fairly tale variety. Many of us get our images of royalty from Great Britain where the Queen rules from a historic palace, rich in history and tradition. And from her throne she makes important decisions about… wait, what does the Queen of England do?

Today’s reading picks up sort of mid stream in the narrative that we usually read around Easter. Jesus has been arrested and now he is in front of Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea.

³³Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

We just don’t get what a provocative and inflammatory question this is. This is one of those questions that would have made everyone in the room stop and say, “He did not just ask him if he was the King of the Jews! Did he?”

There are two things that make that question inflammatory. One is political, the other historical. First, politically, this was taking place in a remote part of the Roman Empire, known as Judea. The Israelite people were living under the rule of the Roman Empire, as was just about everyone in this time period. Caesar was the emperor and to this particular area Pontius Pilate had been appointed governor. Rome had once allowed there to be a King of the Jews, Herod the Great, who was only sort of Jewish and a loyal puppet of the empire. But Rome withheld the title “King of the Jews” from his somewhat bumbling heirs. So, there was currently no King of the Jews and to proclaim yourself as King of the Jews would really annoy the Roman Empire and no one needs to annoy the Roman Empire. For you Star Wars fans, it was sort of like making Darth Vader angry. Bad idea.

So the first problem is political, the second, historical. Israel has had kings before.

As I tell my Disciple Bible Study students, we miss so much in the New Testament if we don’t read the Old Testament, and frankly we just don’t read the Old Testament.

There are lots of kings in the Old Testament. However, most of them are from foreign lands and they are always beating up on God’s people Israel.

After the people of Israel escaped Pharaoh’s Egypt, and then received God’s law at Sinai, after they spent forty years wandering around in the wilderness, they crossed over into the promise land. Leaving Egypt and wandering around in the desert God had appointed Moses to lead them. To get them into the land God promised them and to begin settling it, they had Joshua.

But then Joshua dies. Judges 2:7-10:

The people worshiped the Lord all the days of Joshua … Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred ten years. …another generation grew up after them, who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

They went through this period of Judges. Judges 2:11-16:

Then the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord…and they abandoned the Lord… So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers…and he sold them into the power of their enemies all around, Then the Lord raised up judges, who delivered them out of the power of those who plundered them.

You may have heard of some of these judges, especially Samson, the guy with the hair that got messed up with Delilah. We think of judges as people in black robes who rule in court cases but these judges were men and women raised up to deliver Israel out of the muck that they had created for themselves.

These people of Israel without proper supervision just kept messing up. They wouldn’t listen to God through the prophets or the priests not even the judges God appointed to help them.

Judges 2:17:

¹⁷Yet they did not listen even to their judges; for they lusted after other gods and bowed down to them.

Because of this, they also kept getting beat up by the surrounding nations whose militaries seemed much stronger and more organized. The Philistines in particular were beating the tar out of them.

1 Samuel 4:10-11:

¹⁰So the Philistines fought; Israel was defeated, and they fled, everyone to his home. There was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. ¹¹The ark of God was captured; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

They looked to the other nations around them to see what was keeping them going. They went to Samuel who had been appointed by God to help them and said in 1 Samuel 8:

⁴Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, ⁵and said to him, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.”

They wanted a king of their own. A king of the Jews.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a king, they thought? What a great way to take the problems of the world off our shoulders and place them on someone else’s shoulders. Samuel wasn’t really happy about this and tells God so:

⁶But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the Lord,

But watch what God says:

⁷and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.

And Israel gets a king, the first one was named Saul.

1 Samuel 10:1:

¹⁰Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it on Saul’s head, and kissed him; he said, “The Lord has anointed you ruler over his people Israel. You shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hand of their enemies all around.

Let me point out something real quick that you will need to know later. “The Lord has anointed you.”

anoint = xvm – mashah

Remember that.

Israel gets a king, and I have to tell you, historically, this did not go very well.

This is a very cursory overview. Saul was the first King anointed by Samuel. Saul starts out fine, wins lots of military battles, but gets into a little disagreement with Samuel who anointed him, loses his anointing, and then sort of goes crazy.

At least that never happens with those we elevate to rule over us.

Somewhere in there Samuel anoints another King, David, you may have heard of him. He is the one that killed the giant with a slingshot. But Saul still thinks he is King and David doesn’t really care so he works in the King’s house playing music for Saul until Saul tries to kill him. (Remember Saul is the crazy one.) Fortunately the people we elevate to rule over us never get into power plays. Eventually David really becomes King, but has a scandalous affair of the type that would take up several weeks of coverage on CNN. I tell you, you really ought to read this stuff. David gets things back together with God, has a bunch of trouble with his kids, gets dethroned for a while by one of them. Eventually his son Solomon gets to the throne, decides to build this terribly elaborate temple for God, overtaxes and enslaves his people so much to do it that they revolt splitting the kingdom in two. These two kingdoms have a number of other kings, but things are never quite the same and eventually both Kingdoms get worn down fighting their enemies and are eventually overrun by another kingdom thus forcing the Israelites into a time of captivity we refer to as the exile, perhaps the darkest time in the history of God’s people Israel.

That went well.

³³Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

This is a loaded question.

I would want some clarification. You see to the original audience, there are two questions here. Rome wants to know if Jesus is messing with the political order, i.e. is he a revolutionary. This is how the people who aren’t very fond of Jesus are trying to get him executed, as a revolutionary. But, other people are trying to see if what Jesus’ followers say is true. They are listening to hear if Jesus might be a king to rescue them from the current oppressor, Rome.

The original kings of Israel were anointed king by prophets.

Let me read again a passage I read earlier:

1 Samuel 10:1

Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it on his head, and kissed him; he said, “The Lord has anointed you ruler over his people Israel. You shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hand of their enemies all around.

Remember I already said this - anoint = xvm – mashah

anointed one = x;yvim; - meshiah

meshiah = messiah

x;yvim; = meshiha = messiah translate that into Greek and you get Cristou (Christo) = Christ = anointed one.

³³Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

Two questions. For Rome it is, “Are you here to cause trouble?” For some Jews, it is “Are you here to save us?” Jesus responds as one should when the question being asked is much more complicated the questioner believes it to be, he asks a question back:

³⁴Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?”

Pilate responds as people do when their question has not been answered:

³⁵Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?”

Jesus again does not answer the question, but while seemingly staying on topic, changes the subject completely.

³⁶Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”

This is sort of a yes and no to both questions:

• Yes, I am here to cause trouble, but not like you think.
• Yes, I am here to save you, but not like you think.

This is not the first time this king thing has come up for Jesus. In John, chapter 6:

¹⁴ When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world." ¹⁵When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

But now, Pilate thinks he has him.

³⁷Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

Perhaps, Jesus is simply saying, “Yes I am a king, but not that kind of king.”

As we reflect on this Christ the King Sunday on what we mean when we say Christ is King, as we celebrate the last Sunday of the Christian year and prepare for the season of anticipation called advent, let’s not forget the history of God’s people and what a king has meant for them. Christ has always been King as God has always been King. But we don’t always like the kind of king God is. We do not always like the kind of king that Jesus is.

⁷and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.

On this Christ the King Sunday, oddly, I want to warn us about making Christ our king. The danger is, and I believe that this passage points to it, is that we will make Christ a king in our image of a king. We will place Jesus and God in the role of earthly king, complete with the inherit limitations and failings, complete with our human desires and misunderstandings. Jesus is asking for something much bigger of us. Yes Jesus is sovereign, in that he reigns over all things all places and times. But Jesus is a king that is pointing us to his kingdom, the kingdom of God, which is not a place that we earn admittance to by simply being faithful to the King, but a state of being that we are empowered to help God create. Jesus is a king that requires personal responsibility and requires action. Jesus is the kind of king that won’t let us sit back and let the king take care of it but requires us to serve and be part of the Kingdom of God that he rules over.

And Jesus is also the kind of king who won’t be confused with regular old royalty. Because as King of the kingdom of God, Jesus is about saving us from the enemies that plague us. Not the Philistines, not some national aggressor, not from culture, but the enemies that fight us inside, like despair and hatred and depression and anger.

And Jesus made sure that we understood this by acting like a king of that sort of kingdom would, by living down in the muck with the sick and the outcast and then dying a humiliating death on the cross to say, “I love you more than you could ever hate me.”

On this Christ the King Sunday, oddly, I want to warn us about making Christ our king, because if we choose Christ as the ruler of our lives, he might lead us to some places that we don’t want to go. A king who hangs out with the sick and the outcast, the least, the last and the lost will force us to hang out with the outcast, the least, the last and the lost and ask unpopular questions like who nearly two million children die each year just because they don’t have access to clean water.[1] People always get upset and me when I bring stuff like that up in church, but if Christ is my king, why wouldn’t I?

On this Christ the King Sunday, oddly, I want to warn us about making Christ our king, because if we are not careful, Jesus will not be the kind of king we expect and we will elevate someone else into that role. Will pick a president, congressman, justice, pastor, government, church, philosophy, economic system, or something else and make that king.

⁷and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.

On this Christ the King Sunday, let us celebrate the ruler of the Universe, the sovereign God made very real and present to us in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. As we prepare for advent, let us begin to look for this mighty king, waiting for us, among the lowly animals in the manger.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

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[1] “Clean water, hygiene could save countless lives around the world”, Corpus Christi Caller Times, November 16, 2006. Accessed online at: URL: http://www.caller.com/ccct/editorials/article/0,1641,CCCT_840_5148057,00.html on 25 November 2006; internet.

Will Rice - Sermon #32 - What Do You Want?

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

Every four years here in America we go the polls to elect or reelect a president. In the weeks and months leading up to such an event there are countless opportunities in debates and interviews for those seeking such a high office to be asked deeply pertinent questions like, “What is your favorite book?” I have never heard this answered any other way than, “The Bible.” What a cop out! The Bible is a collection of books. If I were asking the question, I would want a follow up question, “which book of the Bible?”

In case I ever run for such an office, I have my answer ready. “The Gospel according to Mark.” Even if you are not a big Jesus fan like me, this is a cool book. It is more like a Quentin Tarantino movie than part of the Bible. It’s got all the good stuff: demons, lepers, storms, herds of pigs. It is rough and down and dirty and shows a Jesus who lives in a world as harsh and unpredictable as the one we live in. That’s cool. I am preaching from Mark today. I hope, in it, you can see Jesus coming into your life.

Mark 10:46-52

⁴⁶They came to Jericho.

Jericho is the lowest city on Earth in terms of elevation, 750 feet below sea level. Not that it much matters, whatever Jesus and friends did there, Mark left out. You just have to fill in the blanks.

⁴⁶They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho,

Whatever happened there, a large crowd left with them.

As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside.

Bartimaeus is an interesting name in that it literally means, “Son of Timaeus.” So this actually says, son of Timaeus, son of Timaeus. Anyway, Bart is a blind beggar and here he is, talk about low, sitting on the side of the road, in the dust, outside the lowest city in the world, blind and begging. You ever been there?

⁴⁷When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

I wonder what Bart knew about Jesus? Jesus had been making quite a bit of noise as he traveled throughout the countryside healing and stirring up trouble. Maybe Bart didn’t know much about Jesus, but what did he have to lose?

“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

And the crowd reacts to all this yelling just like fine church folks do when someone disrupts their religious type activities just because they need God for something, they tell him to shut up!

⁴⁸Many sternly ordered him to be quiet,

But Bart doesn’t care. He’s got nothing to lose.

⁴⁸Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

And Jesus stops.

⁴⁹Jesus stood still

Now I grew up on television and movies, so I like to see this as a very dramatic moment. I see Jesus and the crowd scurrying along down the road making a bunch of noise and kicking up a bunch of dust. Then, I see Jesus stopping dead in his tracks, standing totally still and everyone around him, noticing that he isn’t moving, stops. And they all stand there for what seems like an eternity. Even Bart is like, “Oh crap!” And everyone is wondering what the heck Jesus is about to do.

In case you haven’t read the rest of Mark, it was just about five chapters ago that this Jesus character cast a bunch of demons into some pigs and watched as the pigs ran over a cliff to their death. Even Jesus’ friends have no idea what he might do.

The pause seems eternal and they all stand there outside the lowest city on earth in the dust until Jesus speaks:

⁴⁹Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.”

I think it may be very important to notice what Jesus says here. He actually says, “you call him.” He doesn’t say, “Bart, come here!” He tells the people around him, “You call him.” Bart is blind. He might need a little help getting through the crowd to Jesus. I wonder if other people ever have trouble finding their way to Jesus. I wonder if Jesus might still say, “You call him?”

Anyway, all those people who were just telling Bart to shut up have radically changed their tune.

And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.”

They say, “cheer up, don’t be afraid, Jesus is calling you. Jesus wants to see you.” Bart doesn’t need much encouragement.

⁵⁰So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.

It is interesting that Mark, the author of the shortest gospel, felt the need to tell us about Bart’s wardrobe choices when going to see Jesus. I wonder if Mark is making a point about the stuff we are carrying around and what we might need to do with it if we are really ready to have an encounter with Jesus.

⁵⁰So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.

My television and movie brain still sees this as a moment of high drama. Blind Bart is standing there, without his cloak, vulnerable, in the dust, just outside the lowest city on earth and everyone is waiting to see what Jesus will do.

⁵¹Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

I wonder if blind Bart, standing there, without his cloak, in the dust, just outside the lowest city on earth, got the impact of what was happening, God himself was asking him,

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Imagine you were Bart and here is God asking you:

“What do you want me to do for you?”

There is another way to translate this phrase.

ti, soi qe,leij poih,sw

”What are you ready for?”

Image you were Bart and here is God asking you:

“What do you want me to do for you?” “What are you actually ready for me to for you?”

Maybe Bart doesn’t realize the enormity of his situation because he doesn’t stumble all over himself. He was asked a question and he has an answer:

The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.”

The word for blind tuflo,j is used something like 50 times in the New Testament. I don’t think that means that blindness was the biggest problem in New Testament times. I think that blindness becomes representative of all those things that ail us, that hurt us, that burden us. But blindness in the New Testament also becomes representative of all those things that keep us from seeing, keep us from seeing the possibilities of life with God.

Jesus asks,

“What do you want me to do for you?” “What are you actually ready for me to for you?”

What do you say? What are you carrying around? What ails you, hurts you, burdens you? What keeps you from seeing the possibilities of living as a loved, healed and forgiven child of God?

I hazard a guess, and I am pretty sure I am right on with this one, that we are all carrying around a lot of stuff. Many of us have a lot of pain in us and, for some reason, this (the church) is the last place we think to bring it.

Where do you need Jesus’ healing?

I fear that as church people, we sit on the side of the road and watch Jesus walk by. I fear that something stops us from saying, “Jesus! Have Mercy on me!” Or of we do and Jesus stops, we are afraid to throw off the cloak the holds us back from going to him. Maybe it is a cloak of pride, or shame, or fear, or doubt. And if we do manage to throw off that cloak, and we get to Jesus and hear him say,

“What do you want me to do for you?”

We just aren’t bold enough to say,

Heal my marriage.

Help me get over the death of my parent.

Take away the shame of my past.

Help me stop taking drugs, drinking too much, smoking too much.

Take away my fear.

Take away my greed.

Help me not be angry.

Notice what happens when Bart trusts in Jesus and takes him up on his offer?

⁵¹Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” ⁵²Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

Your faith has made you well. One again, we miss something in the translation. It says your faith has sw,zw. Sozo is a wonderful word that means save in a physical sense and a spiritual sense. It conveys a lot more than just “make well.” It conveys healing, wholeness, redemption and connection with one’s creator. You faith has healed you physically and spiritually and reconnected you with the possibility of life with God. Your faith has indeed made you well

Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

And that healing of more than just his sight enabled him to see where he was going. Unburdened from what was holding him down, he was able to truly follow God.

I mentioned earlier the first thing Bart said,

“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

The word he uses here, in Greek is evle,hso,n. (Elayson) If you hang around church much, you may have heard the Kyrie Eleison, Lord, have mercy or The church often sings this as a sort of a plea for forgiveness, but today, we are going to call out together, asking Christ to stop and ask us,

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Kyrie, Kyrie, Eleison
Kyrie, Kyrie, Eleison

We believe that Christ is very real and present to us at The Lord’s Table. As you come today, throw off your cloak and as you meet Christ in the bread and the wine, tell him. Tell him what you want him to do for you.

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Will Rice - Sermon #31 - Audio

"Deep Casting, Abundant Sowing" Sermon Preached on 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 at Grace United Methodist Church, Corpus Christi, Texas on October 15, 2006


MP3 File

Will Rice - Sermon #31 - Deep Casting, Abundant Sowing

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

2 Corinthians 9:6-15

“Deep Casting, Abundant Sowing"

I spent last week in South Padre Island with my wife Alisha and our foster son Joshua and the dogs. I got a chance to do some fishing as I always like to do when I have time. Here is the thing about where I was fishing: As I stood on the beach there was the water line, and then a little ways out a sandbar, and then a little further out another sandbar. The fish were on the other side of the second sandbar. So, I had two choices. I could stand on the beach and cast my line out to the spot between the two sandbars and catch no fish. Or, I could wade out chest deep, getting pounded by the waves, until I reached the second sandbar cast my line out and catch fish. Now I spent a lot of time on the beach, because I was on vacation and I didn’t want to work that hard. But when I waded out, got slammed in the face with some waves, got knocked over and swallowed some sea water, I caught fish.

⁶The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

I realize that as a church, we sow sparingly. I think many of us know that if we really put all of our heart and mind, more of our time and money into spreading the message of the gospel, it would have an amazing impact, but we don’t do that.

When we talk about stewardship here at Grace, throughout the year, we talk about our prayers, presence, gifts and service. But, sometimes we forget to talk about what is at the core of all this, our stewardship of our knowledge of the love of God through Jesus Christ. If we got that and thought about stewardship as our responsibility to share that message of Grace with the world, I think we would be more excited about stewardship. I think we would start to realize and be ok with the fact that sharing the message requires us to be generous with our material possessions.

I take the way the church gives personally, because I feel that when we are not giving as we ought, then perhaps I have failed to cast a vision. I know so many people who don’t give faithfully to the church who do give faithfully to the Sierra Club, the Ronald McDonald House, the Boys and Girls Club, The Republican Party, The Democratic Party, The Lions Club. I think people should give to organizations they believe in. I just take it to heart when they don’t give as faithfully to the church because I haven’t cast a vision, I haven’t given a reason to believe in the church. Yes, you can believe in God, but not believe in the church.

People believe in and therefore give financial support to The Lions Club and the Sierra Club, etc. because they have shown people how they can use their money to change lives. Just $1 a day can help save the spotted owl from extinction. Just the price of a cup of coffee a day can help a poor child in Africa get the medication she needs, your one time gift of $100 can help us get another kid off the streets and into an after school program.

Here at the church, I think we get part of it right, when we talk about our need to give to God to remind ourselves that all of life is a gift from God, but then we have trouble following through with what that generous giving can do.

I remember one year my Dad getting a phone call from the Salvation Army in Buffalo. “Mr. Rice, if you send us $50, five homeless people will get a nice hot Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings.” Now Thanksgiving in Buffalo is very cold. It snows sometimes. So the idea of five people getting to go inside and have a nice hot meal is a nice thought. Of course, he wrote a check and stuck it in the mail.

⁷Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Talk about a cheerful giver. He was happy to write that check. He probably would have written it for four times that if they had asked.

How about this, “Mr. Rice, I am calling from Grace United Methodist Church and we would like you to give some unspecified amount of money to help us pay our apportionments.” Or “Mr. Rice, we are having trouble meeting our budget this year. You see, while 55% of our pledged givers are current or ahead on their pledges, 65% are behind and although actual expenditures are below budgeted expenditures, we still anticipate a 13% shortfall. Could you help us out?”

I think Pastor John has done and continues to do an amazing job of helping us see why we give. We give because everything we have, every last thing, is a gift from an outrageously generous God who doesn’t owe us a thing, but lavishes gift upon gift on us. We give out of a grateful response to the generosity of God.

But his brilliant, authentic and heartfelt thoughts on the matter might not answer another question we might have. Why give to the church? We know why to give, but why give to the church? That is the question we do not answer very well. As a church, we are likely to show you a chart. We are likely to talk about fixed costs and apportionment dollars and payroll taxes. All that stuff is very important to keep the church running, but that is not the right answer.

We have all seen the television commercials for organizations like world vision or feed the children. These people know how to help us understand what they are doing. They don’t ever show pie charts or talk about operational expenditures or budget shortfalls. They say, “look at this child. She is hungry. Send us $100 and she can eat.” They say “We are in the life changing business and we need your help.”

A few months back Astria Smith from the Methodist Children’s Home in Waco came and spoke to us on a Sunday morning. She brought with her one of the girls from the home who, through the Children’s Home’s programs was able to leave a bad life situation, get back on track, and was ready to attend college. Astria told us of kids who left lives of poverty and drugs and were now successful college students. She told stories or changing lives and then asked for money, and you all gave her a lot of money. Of course you did, who doesn’t want to be a part of making someone’s life better?

I think what we fail to say enough at the church is that we are in the life changing business as well. Remember, I said at the beginning that at the core of our stewardship is our stewardship of our knowledge of the love of God through Jesus Christ and that is powerful, life changing stuff!

At Grace, God changes lives. And it happens in so many ways. Every Sunday, in worship, there is the opportunity for someone, for the first time to hear a message about how the creator of the universe wants nothing more than to be in relationship with them. Every Sunday, in worship, there is the opportunity for someone has heard that their whole lives finally go “Aha!” to finally really feel in their heart that God does love them, God does forgive them, God does accept them.

At Grace, God changes lives. Every Sunday, in Sunday school, patient and loving teachers begin to build the foundation of faith in our children, passing on the stories of scripture and beginning to help children see the love of God that surrounds them. Their lives are being changed even as they being formed as they are given an alternative to the world which tells them that their value is based on how they look or where they go to school or how much money they make. They have a place that tells them that their value is based solely on the fact that they are God’s children.

At Grace, God changes lives. Every Sunday, in Sunday school, the lives of our youth are touched as they have a place to come and be surrounded by love and support and scriptural teaching that can help them face the really trying, life changing decisions that they have to face every day that will affect every aspect of their future.

Every Sunday, in Sunday school, adult lives are changed as well, as adults have the opportunity to encounter God through scripture and through the lives and stories of each other.

Every weekday, Grace’s facilities become a place of safety and learning for children through the Early Childhood Development program, giving children a loving and nurturing environment that reflects the love of God that begins to teach them of their value and giving parents piece of mind that their children are in good hands so that they can concentrate on their jobs in a world where it is sometimes impossible for one parent to stay home with the children.

During the week, during the day and the evening, Grace’s facilities and staff are put to use teaching and leading, opening up the words of scripture to adults, children and youth.

I have told the stories in another sermon of Disciple Bible Study, where people start out in the fall, sometimes with no knowledge of the Bible and come out in the spring as different people, changed by the encounter with God through scripture.

At Grace, God changes lives. Every Wednesday evening, this church bursts at the seams with confirmation which teaches about our faith so that young adults can make the commitment to profess their faith for themselves plus Bible studies for younger and older youth, plus Bible studies for older children.

And the rest of the building is full with our mentoring program where children from our community have a chance to have a one on one relationship with an adult mentor who can give them love and support and a role model. Talking about God changing lives – some of these kids have no real stability in their lives, maybe no role model or someone who really has time to pay attention to them. Ask any of our mentors, you can see a change in these kids from the time they first come to mentoring and the end of the school year. This isn’t just a program, or a budget line, or a church thing, this is a way of spreading the love of God by positively affecting the lives of children in our community.

At Grace, God changes lives. We don’t always see it, but the changes that take place within the walls of the church affect the world outside the church. Children, youth and adults that are nurtured within the community of faith begin to sense God’s call on their lives and live that out in the world. Let me give you an example. Val Borhauer, a member of this congregation had her life changed by the grace of God and has taken that out into the world to Laverne, California where she serves as a United Methodist Missionary, using her education to teach girls who have been removed from their homes due to abuse and neglect.

At Grace, God changes lives. Val is just one example. There are a number of people who throughout the year, either in organized groups, or are their own head off to Mexico, Mississippi, downtown Corpus Christi and use their skills and their hands to listen to the call of God on their lives to share the Gospel by bringing some amount of comfort to people who need their home repaired, replaced, or even built for the first time. If you don’t think the church changes lives, you haven’t seen the look on the face who roof has just been repaired by a bunch of kids and volunteer adults in the middle of summer for no other reason than they just wanted to help.

At Grace, God changes lives. Sometimes in ways that we don’t even think much about. The monies that we give to the district and the conference and the national church, both through planned giving and special offerings change lives in ways we will never truly know, building churches in Russia, responding to worldwide disasters through The United Methodist Committee of Relief, try to give at risk children a shot at life through Methodist Children’s home, starting new churches here in the Southwest Texas Conference so that more lives may be changed through the Grace of God.

I think we have trouble sometimes because maybe sometimes we can’t see the change.

I think we have trouble sometimes because we don’t sit down and quantify things. Perhaps if I figured out how much it cost to change one life. I was adding up my conversion the other day, financed by committed Christians who sowed abundantly. How long did I go to church before I ever put something in an offering plate? How much did that cost the church in electricity and mortgage and interest and salary and benefits for pastors and staff? What was the expense that others undertook that there was a sanctuary and bibles and beautiful music and a thought-provoking sermon. What was the cost of that cup of coffee I was offered while I waited around? What was the cost of the classroom space where I started going to Sunday school?

⁶The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

It cost a pretty good chunk of change to take me from a place of not knowing God to a place to understanding God’s grace and claim on my life and committing my heart and life to God’s service. I don’t know how much it cost. But I know that most people who know me and know the change in my life that occurred through a relationship with God, if I could figure out the cost and duplicate it on someone else, would gladly write that check.

And that is what we do. We help God change lives. We are in the life changing business. When we think of ourselves as being in the church business we think about cutting costs. Is there a way to do this cheaper? When we are in the life-changing business, we just want to know how we can do more!

⁷Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.

A survey published this month in Time Magazine reports that 61% of American Christians believe that God wants them to be financially prosperous.[1] So, I am officially again in the minority. I believe that God wants us to be just and compassionate. I don’t think God wants us to be rich if it is at the expense of the rest of the world, including many other Christians who are living in poverty.

But, let’s face it, on a global scale, just be being Americans, we are rich. Even the poorest among us have electricity and microwave ovens and plenty to eat. Whether or not God has willed us to be rich, the fact of the matter is we are. And we have a chance to do some kingdom building with that wealth.

the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

We can sow bountifully with our prayer, our presence, our service, and our financial gifts. John has challenged us this year to take the 1% challenge, upping our giving to the church by 1%. The more I have thought about this over the last few weeks, the more excited I got about it.

If every household in the church did that, if those who already give just added 1% and those who haven’t made that commitment to give just started at 1%, I cannot even begin to imagine what God could do with that. I get excited because I do begin to imagine the number of lives that could be changed in this church, in this community and eventually around the world. Instead of spending the year thinking, “How can we get by, how can we keep these great programs going.” We could ask, “what else can we do to spread the Grace and love of God to the world?”

¹⁰He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; ¹²for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God.

Back to my fishing story. It was nice sitting on the beach with my fishing pole secured in its holder in the sand. I could sit and watch the waves and my pole swaying in the wind all day. But, to catch fish, I had to go deeper. I had to risk getting wet, falling down.

We have a gift. We know about something that can change lives, can change with world. We watch it every day in our children, youth and adults. We see lives changing. We see people changed in such a way that they go out to change the world.

We should be wading out into the deep water, casting far out, we should be sowing bountifully, that the harvest, those touched and moved and changed by the grace of God, may be bountiful.

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[1] David Van Biema, Jeff Chu, ”Does God Want You To Be Rich”, Time Magazine, September 10, 2006