Telling Jesus to Shut Up

Shut up and Trouble were walking down a path one day. All of a sudden Trouble got lost. So, Shut up went to the police officer’s station to report the missing person. When he arrived there a police officer asked, “What’s your name?” He answered, “Shut up.” The police officer asked again, “What’s your name?” He once again replied, “Shut up.” The police officer, beginning to get angry, asked, “Boy, are you looking for trouble?” To which Shut up responded, “Yeah, I lost him down a path about two miles ago!”
The phrase, “Shut up!” dates back to 1814. It is a verb that according to Webster’s Dictionary means, “to cause a person to stop talking or to cease writing or speaking.” Wikipedia, the Internet information tool, says that “shut up” is a colloquial phrase meaning “be quiet” and referring to “close your mouth.” It is usually considered to be rude and often said from someone in a state of anger. Despite the fact that it is not a nice thing to say, a lot of people seem to be saying it these days. In fact, if you type the phrase “shut up” on the Internet, you will receive over 45 million results.
Now although Jesus is never recorded in the Gospels as telling anyone to “shut up,” it is the case that throughout the book of Matthew Jesus keeps giving explicit orders for people to keep quiet whenever they discover His true identity. If you have your Bible, feel free to turn to some of these examples: Matthew 8:4 – Jesus cures a man with leprosy and says to him to see that he does not tell anyone. Matthew 9:30 – Jesus heals two blind men and sternly says to see that no one knows about this. In Matthew 16:20 after Peter has confessed that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of the living God, Jesus sternly charges the disciples to tell no one that He is the Messiah.
This is not just the case in Matthew but in the other Gospel accounts as well. Take Mark for example. Mark 1:25 – Jesus drives out an evil spirit and sternly orders it to be quiet. Mark 1:34 – Jesus drives out many demons and would not let them speak because they knew who He was. Mark 3:12 – Jesus gives strict orders to the evil spirits not to tell who He was. Mark 5:43 – Jesus raises to life a dead girl and gives strict orders not to let anyone know about this. Mark 7:36 – Jesus heals a deaf and mute man and commands them not to tell anyone. This particular text also remarks that, of course, the more Jesus did so and tried to get people to shut up, the more they kept talking about it. Mark 8:26 – Jesus heals a blind man at Bethsaida and tells him not to go tell anyone in the village.
Up until this point Jesus has kept His true identity as secret as possible. However, the story that takes place at Caesarea Philippi is a turning point in the ministry of Jesus. Many of you remember this tale. Jesus asks His disciples, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” They give various answers: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. Then Jesus asks them, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter blurts out, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” Jesus tells Peter that he is correct and that this was revealed to him by their heavenly Father. Simon becomes Peter, the rock upon whom the Church will be built.
Peter’s confession of Christ is significant because from that time on Jesus starts to talk about His future. Jesus tells His disciples that He must travel to Jerusalem where He will go through great suffering, be killed, and be raised from the dead. With our Scripture passage for today Jesus takes the muzzle off the disciples’ mouths. He lets the cat out of the bag. The command from Jesus to shut up and be quiet has come to an end.
The only problem is that Jesus’ conception of what Messiah will be did not jive with what the disciples had been expecting. Peter cannot take the words that Jesus is sharing. He rejects this notion of Messiahship outright. Peter is not ready for such a message to be out in the open for all to hear. He is unable to fathom that Jesus will be defeated by the elders and the chief priests, who with the assistance of the authorities in Rome, will put Jesus to death. So he takes Jesus aside and starts to rebukes Him. When Peter says, “Never Lord,” in effect Peter is telling Jesus to, “Shut up.”
It is important that we not miss the irony in this account from Matthew’s Gospel. Throughout the first half of this book at various points people, and even demons and evil spirits, have made some sort of confession that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the son of the Living God. And every time this happens Jesus commands them to, in essence, “Shut up” and keep quiet. Now, at long last Peter has confessed that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus has not only told Peter that he is correct but has also called an end to the silence and elaborated upon what being the Messiah entails so that they can now share it with everyone, and what does Peter do? He tells Jesus, “Shut up.”
Jesus does not back down but, in turn, tells Peter to “Get behind me Satan,” for Peter was a stumbling block to Jesus because he did not have in mind the things of God, but instead was focused upon human, earthly things. Now we know why Jesus had to tell people to “shut up” and keep his being the Messiah under wraps for so long, because they would not get it. They would not understand that if anyone would come after Him, they must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him. They were not able to grasp that whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever is willing to lose their life for Jesus Christ will find it.
Jesus has now made it abundantly clear that the conditions of discipleship are anything but easy. Following Jesus is not all fun and games, glory and power. Being a Christian actually entails sharing in the sufferings of Jesus. We are called to deny ourselves, take up our own cross, and follow Him wherever He leads. Accepting this way of life means being willing to deny one’s self to the point of losing your life altogether.
Just like the original disciples, though, for many of us this call to follow Jesus is too troublesome. We would rather have Jesus get on board with what we believe He should think, say or do. We may even say things like, “Okay, Jesus, I will follow you, but here are some rules I would like to lay down before I do.” We place conditions on our relationship with Him, making it clear that we will follow Him as long as He does not say this or ask us to do that. After all, we do not want Jesus to disturb or disrupt the routine and comfort of our everyday existence.
And so when we hear Jesus say something we do not appreciate, we join Peter in telling Jesus to “shut up.” We, just like him, say “Never Lord” to a whole host of things: Never Lord will I worship in a church where they play the guitar, beat the drums, or still use the organ; Never Lord will I become a tither and give 10 percent of my income over to You and Your church; Never Lord will I answer that call when Pastor Robin and the church leadership invites me to be on that particular church committee or team; Never Lord will I consider teaching Sunday school, being a youth group leader, going on a mission trip, singing in the choir, or joining a small group; Never Lord will I dare to speak your name in public; Never Lord will I give to you whatever it is that is keeping me from following you completely and totally.
Please do not hear me wrong. I am not judging you, at least anymore than I am judging anyone of us, including myself. Remember that every time a preacher like me points a finger at you (which I try not to do since who wants to be pointed at), I have three fingers pointing right back at me. This may not apply to you, but as for me, I know that everyday there is some moment where I tell Jesus to “shut up” because I do not want to hear what He has to say. Everyday there is something that Christ calls me to do that I perceive to be too difficult and so I say, “Never Lord.”
When I make such mistakes, I take comfort in the fact not only that God loves me and sent Jesus Christ on the cross to die for my sins, but also that I am not the first person to fall into this trap. Pride is the root of all sins. Think about it: Sin is missing the mark, disobeying God, choosing our own way over the way of Christ. The sin of pride has been around since the beginning of sin itself. It was Satan who first said, “It is better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.” Adam and Eve went down that same path when they ate the forbidden fruit, figuring that they knew better than God. This is why Peter is identified with Satan: because he makes the same mistake Satan, Adam, and Eve do, choosing his will over God’s. And down through the ages, we have all made the same error as Satan, Adam, Eve, and Peter, presuming to know better than God what God desires, so that when we begin to hear the radical, demanding call of Jesus on our life, we too presume to know better than God, take Him aside, rebuke Him, and say, “Never Lord.”
This is why the Christian life is not to be entered into lightly because once we go down that road, “Never Lord” is not an option. We should first count the cost because Jesus does not want us to only give Him part of our life. Being a Christian is like being pregnant. Now I have never been pregnant but my wife Erin just was and I know from her experience that you are either pregnant or you are not pregnant, but no one is a little bit pregnant. Jesus wants all of us.
In his book on essential Christian teaching titled Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis puts it this way: “The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says, ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there. I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.’” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great German theologian and preacher who was martyred after becoming part of the assassination attempt to kill Adolf Hitler during World War II, says it like this in his book The Cost of Discipleship: When Christ bids someone to come and follow, Christ calls that person to come and die.
As I said before, this is anything but easy. Giving up control of our lives is hard to do. But as the saying goes, “If God is your co-pilot, it is time to switch seats.” Doing this is easier when we, like Peter, also learn that it is not our job to make sure things turn out all right, for this is to be just like Peter in setting our mind on human things; instead, our task is to witness to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of the living God.Shut up. It is a nasty phrase that we should all try to eliminate from our vocabulary. The good news is that God is willing to forgive us for the times in our lives when we may have told Jesus to “shut up,” those moments when we might have been willing to follow Jesus only up to a certain point, saying “Never Lord” when He asks us to do things outside of our own comfort zones. But there is no need to presume to know better than God what God desires. God wants what is best for each one of us. Jesus Christ offers us the gift of life if we will only deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him, for it is in losing our lives that we find the One who is the Resurrection and the Life. Amen.

True Confessions of the New Pastor and Proud Papa

The young pastor was quite nervous. Oh, he had preached many sermons in his life, but now he was the new associate pastor at The First United Methodist Church in town. Having labored over his manuscript for many hours, he walked out of the restroom to face the task at hand. Right before he entered the sanctuary, however, he was stopped by a rather large, intimidating looking fellow, presumably one of the church’s elder statesman. Before the young preacher could say a word, the man looked him right in the eye and said, “Preacher, remember one thing: Sermons should be like a woman’s dress: long enough to cover the subject but short enough to be interesting!”
Now before you ask, the answer is no, this event did not actually happen to me. Nevertheless, this joke does communicate the truth that a pastor’s first sermon in their new appointment can be both an exciting and anxious experience. It is a preacher’s first opportunity to introduce herself or himself to their entire congregation. What words are appropriate for such a moment as this? Well, on the occasion of my initial chance to meditate upon the Word of God with you, I thought I might use this message to share with you some true confessions so to speak, my passions as one of your new pastors.
So, here it goes. My first true confession: My name is Jimmy Cooper, and I love Jesus. I grew up in the Church, and therefore there is not a time where I was unaware of Christ’s love for me. I believe that Jesus Christ is the solution to the deepest longings of the human heart. He is the answer to the problems that plague our society.
Moreover, I want you to know that I am convinced that Jesus Christ has sent me and my family to you, the people at First United Methodist Church in St. Charles. I have been sent here to give you a very urgent message, to tell you a story. It is the greatest love story ever told. The simple and yet life changing message is this: God loves you. God loves you so much that God decided that He would rather die for you than lose you. If you were the only human being who had ever been born, if you were the only one who had ever sinned, if you were the only person on the planet in need of forgiveness, Jesus Christ still would have went to the cross and died just for you.
As your pastor, it is my mission to remind you of two things: (1) God loves you and (2) The fact that God loves you should make some kind of visible and apparent difference in your life! Actually, don’t tell Pastor Robin and the staff parish committee, but I figure my job here is fairly simple. W.T. Handy, a former bishop of the Missouri Conference of The United Methodist Church, used to say that pastors have two tasks: Preach Jesus and love the people. He was persuaded that if you did those two things as a pastor, you would succeed. So, let me tell you right from the start that I am not here to play church. I am here to preach Jesus and love you to the best of my ability. In addition, let me say that I think those two things are intimately related. After all, those of you who have known this person Jesus of Nazareth and have been following Him for a while do not need to be told that Jesus said and did some odd and strange things while He was with us. Sometimes He says and does odd things even today! Therefore, if I am going to preach this Jesus to you in all His oddness and strangeness, you will first have to know that I love you, which I will do all in my power to show you. At the same time, though, if I do truly love you, I cannot water Jesus down and offer you Jesus lite. Rather, I must preach Jesus to you, with all His oddness and strangeness intact.
To put it another way, I am persuaded that my job here is to be another John the Baptist. This is why we read the Scripture passage this morning from the Gospel according to St. John. For when it comes to oddness and strangeness in the Bible, it does not get any more odd and strange than John the Baptist. He lived in the dessert, ate locusts and wild honey. Now that is odd and strange. Plus, if today is about getting to know the new pastor, I figured I might as well include my favorite Bible verse, which is John 3:30 – “He must become greater, I must become less,” or from another translation, “He must increase, I must decrease.” Of course, this verse has taken on all new meaning for me these days. With the recent birth of my son Noah James, it appears as if there are a couple of different He’s now in my life who must become greater, who must increase as I become less, as I decrease. If it ever was, it is certainly no longer about what Jimmy wants.
This is why I want to be more like John the Baptist, for he was not all that concerned about his own status, prestige, or recognition. He was not, as some United Methodist pastors are, always on the lookout for the next great appointment. Our story for today illustrates this point. His disciples came to him with the complaint that now that Jesus was baptizing on the other side of the Jordan, everyone was leaving John and going to Jesus. But this did not worry John in the least. His mantra was simple: “He must become greater, I must become less.” “He must increase, I must decrease.” You see, John knew that his job was simply to testify to what he had seen and what he had heard. John became known as the pointer, the one who showed the way to Jesus Christ. In that sense all of us are called to follow in the footsteps of John the Baptist, pointing the way to Jesus the Messiah, insisting that He must become greater, He must increase, even if this means that we must become less, that we have to decrease. The Church is at her best when she remembers that she exists for the sake of her bridegroom, Jesus Christ.
This leads into my second true confession: My name is Jimmy Cooper, and I love the Church. Now this is not always a popular thing to utter in polite company these days. We live in a world where people are spiritual, but not religious. Organized religion is something to be suspicious of, not celebrated. I must admit that I have always wondered: Those people who are against organized religion, what do they want exactly, unorganized religion? That doesn’t sound any better to me…
Of course, on the one hand Jesus was certainly critical of the organized religion of His day. He was tough on them all, whether it was the Pharisees, Saducees or the Zealots. Jesus was constantly questioning the religious status quo of His day. However, this did not drive Him away from the synagogue but in fact led him right into it. He was regularly interacting with the chief priests and the religious rulers of His day, yes calling into question the structures of His day but doing it from within the confines of organized religion itself. His response to the corruption of His organized religion was not to abandon it but to engage it even more so.
Moreover, do not forget that it was Jesus who intentionally founded the Church. If He was so against organized religion, why would He have deliberately called twelve disciples, a clear sign referring to the twelve tribes of Israel. Why would He have sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to give birth to the Church? No, far from being opposed to organized religion, Jesus was the One behind the Church from the beginning. To this day, no one has greater faith in the Church than Jesus Christ. After all, He maintained that upon the rock of Peter Jesus would found the Church that would be so strong that the gates of Hell would not prevail against it!
The problem is that the Church has not always been faithful, which is why most of us know people who are spiritual but not religious, suspicious of organized religion. It is such people who are the subject of my last true confession: My name is Jimmy Cooper, and I love the lost. I will get to speak more to this particular passion next week, but let me say a bit about it now because it relates to my previous confession concerning the Church. You know, the Church is a unique organization in that it exists primarily for those who are not a part of it. If anything frustrates me, it is when congregations merely want to play church, forgetting that our primary task is not to take care of the ones who are already inside; instead, it is to go out into the world, making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Obviously, this requires a humble spirit, a generous heart, a commitment to self-sacrifice, a recognition that it is not all about me, and most importantly, a willingness to follow in the footsteps of John the Baptist as we point the way to Jesus Christ and say, “He must become greater, I must become less,” “He must increase, “I must decrease.”
Now that I have confessed that I love Jesus Christ, His Church and those He and we are still trying to reach, I would like to offer some brief petitions and heartfelt pleas to you all, just in case you are wondering what you can do for me during my first days at First Church.
Pray for me and my family. My wife Erin, my son Noah and I would be delighted to know that we have been added to your prayer list and devotional life. Recently my family has undergone a lot of transitions: my wife’s pregnancy, the birth of Noah, leaving Chicago, moving to St. Charles, our last Sunday at Friendship United Methodist Church, our arrival here at First Church, ending my doctoral coursework, and beginning preparation to complete my foreign language requirements, take my qualifying exams, and write my doctoral dissertation. We praise God that this has gone rather smoothly, but we would nevertheless welcome your intercessions on our behalf. And we promise to do the same for you.
Be here. This may be as obvious as my request for you to pray for us, and as an associate pastor I am used to preaching Sundays when everyone, including the senior pastor, has the tendency to go on vacation. You know, the Sunday after Christmas, the Sunday after Easter, and the month of July. I am not telling you to not go on vacation this summer or to come to church when you are ill. I am simply reminding you that God does not go on vacation from us, and neither should we go on vacation from God. If you go out of town, terrific, have a great time, and feel free to visit another church. Who knows, you just may come back with a great idea for us? Next week, Pastor Robin and I are going to start a new sermon series based on our mission here at First UMC, which is that, “For the love of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we gather people to Christ, grow in Christ, and go for Christ!” Do all you can to be here as we recall the mission of our Church?
How many of you have seen the movie Jerry Maguire? Well, if you have, you will know that my next request comes from one of the most famous lines that Tom Cruise utters in that film. It is, “Help me, help you.” You may be surprised to learn that just because I have been appointed to First UMC does not mean that God has automatically downloaded into my brain all of the history of this church, all of the background information I need to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ, or all of the wisdom about how we can best reach the people of our community with the love of God. I know you may find this hard to believe, but as members of the body of Christ we actually need each other. If I am going to do things like lead our small group ministry and assimilate new members, which by the way is just a fancy way of saying that once people join our church it is my mission to make sure our church helps them to connect with God and our congregation, I am going to need your help. We as your pastoral staff may not know what group to offer unless you tell us what kind of small group you would desperately want to join, not to mention your ideas for who could lead such a group. If I am going to work to ensure that all of our members are a part of one group where they are growing spiritually and another where they are serving others (which by the way is my goal, I like to call it the worship +2 model), then it would assist me greatly to have conversations with you regarding what experiences best communicate God’s grace to you, as well as what passions you have for mission and ministry in the church and world.
Be open to the new things that God is doing in our midst. One of my favorite religious movies of all time is The Blues Brothers. In that classic two great modern theologians, Jake and Elwood Blues, remind us that the Lord works in mysterious ways. Allow me the chance to offer one brief example: just over forty-five years ago a young adult Sunday school class from First United Methodist Church felt compelled to start another Methodist Church in St. Charles. The next year the church was commissioned with sixteen members. This church came to be Faith UMC in St. Charles, my home congregation. Back then, no one probably imagined that someday the church that First UMC planted would then produce one of its future pastors, and yet, forty-six years later, I present myself to you as a small return on that investment, only a portion of the great things that God has done through the willingness of those original First UMC missionaries who went on to plant Faith UMC. Who knows? If First Church had not done this, I may not be standing before you today.
Indeed, the Lord works in mysterious ways. God wants to do a new thing in our midst. Alas, too many churches get in the way of what God wants to do. They say things like, “We’ve never done it that way before.” Instead, I invite us to dream God’s dreams for this place, to jump on board with what God is already doing, to enjoy the ride He wants to give us! I think you can tell but just in case you can’t, my last confession is simply that I am thrilled to be here. I am honored to be one of your associate pastors. I covenant with you that I will preach Jesus and love you until God calls me somewhere else. Until then, let’s enjoy the ride. Hopefully, not only will my sermons be long enough to cover the subject and short enough to be interesting, but I also hope that First Church can continue to be faithful as we fulfill the tasks that God has called us to, that this community will be a living witness that the last can become first, that we are willing to say with our lips and our lives, “He must become greater, I must become less.” “He must increase, I must decrease.” Amen.

Opening Our Eyes to Jesus Incognito

The captain of the ship looked into the dark night and saw faint lights in the distance. Immediately he told his signalman to send a message: “Alter your course 10 degrees south.” Promptly a return message was received: “Alter your course 10 degrees north.” The captain was angered; his command had been ignored. So he sent a second message: “Alter your course 10 degrees south—I am the captain!” Soon another message was received: “Alter your course 10 degrees north—I am seaman third class Jones.” Immediately the captain sent a third message, knowing the fear it would evoke: “Alter your course 10 degrees south—I am a battleship.” Then the reply came: “Alter your course 10 degrees north—I am a lighthouse.”

The captain from the illustration I have just shared was suffering from impaired vision. The dark night had blinded him to the lighthouse that laid before him. It remained hidden, incognito from him, even though he was on a collision course with it, heading straight for it. It took seaman third class Jones three times to open the captain’s eyes so that he could see the lighthouse that had until then remained undiscovered to him.

Today’s Gospel lesson records the narrative of two disciples who eyes were also in need of being opened to what or whom, though hidden, was right in front of them. The story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is one of, if not the most, dramatic resurrection stories in all of the New Testament. It is found only in the Gospel of Luke though there is a brief reference to it in Mark’s account. Luke says that this occurrence took place on that very day of the first Easter morning. Interestingly, the city of Emmaus has never been positively identified. In fact, at least four modern towns have been considered as possible cites for the ancient location of Emmaus.

According to Luke’s account, two disciples are making the journey from Jerusalem to this unknown place called Emmaus. One of them is identified as Cleopas, who is sometimes acknowledged as Clopas, the father of Simeon who followed James the brother of Jesus as the leader of the Jerusalem church.

As they walk along discussing the recent events that have taken place in Jerusalem, they are joined by the risen Jesus, but they do not recognize Him. We are told that their eyes were kept from identifying Him. What does this mean? Some have suggested that some miracle of blinding occurred to them; however, I would instead contend that what it might suggest is that a special opening of the eyes is necessary for observing the risen Christ. We can see this in the way that although all see an empty tomb, the risen Jesus is not visible to everyone.

There is some evidence to back up the notion of the inward character of this blindness. For even when the two disciples stand still they do not know the identity of the other pilgrim, who we know to be Jesus. When Jesus acts as if He is ignorant of the recent events that have taken place Cleopas is shocked. While his response is open to slightly different translations, the meaning is apparent: the event of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is widely known throughout Jerusalem. Where has this stranger been?

To answer Jesus’ lack of information the two disciples tell the main parts of the story of Jesus. It is clear that they had accepted Him as a prophet. The chief priests and rules of Jerusalem had Jesus put to death. The disciples had hoped that He was the Messiah but their hopes had now been dashed, shattered, and obliterated. Their reference to the 3rd day is a hint to apparent knowledge of Jesus’ prediction of His resurrection. To be sure, women were unable to find Jesus’ body and claimed that they had seen a vision, while others had tested the validity of their hypothesis. Still, for all the proof of an empty tomb no one had seen the risen Christ.

In certain respects it may be easy for us to relate to the situation described on this first Easter Sunday. Here we are, Easter is only a week old, and yet for many of us the warm fuzzy feelings of the Empty Tomb have already worn off. We proclaim “Christ is risen,” but the lack of impact it has made upon our daily lives may cause us to question, “Is He risen indeed?” Or we may have heard from others who caught a glimpse of the empty tomb and yet we have personally been unable to see the risen Christ. Like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the risen Jesus could be right in our midst and still we remain blinded to His presence. How can we open our eyes and see the risen Christ, the Jesus who is right beside us but remains hidden, incognito? The two disciples on their way to Emmaus provide a picture of how our eyes too can be opened.

One way that these two disciples opened their eyes to the incognito Jesus in their midst was through the reading and relearning of Scripture. You see, like the Jews of Jesus’ day, these two disciples thought that they knew how the story was going to go. They had preconceived notions of what Messiah would look like. However, God had something different, something far greater, prepared. They did not understand the design and works of God. They were slow of heart, unready to believe what the prophets had already spoken. And so Jesus explained to them what was said in the Scriptures concerning Himself. Of course, it would have been nice if Luke had written down what Jesus had said to those two disciples on the road to Emmaus. What we do know is that Jesus criticized their lack of faith, using the entirety of the Old Testament to prove that the Christ should suffer and then enter into His glory. The specific texts that make these points are not mentioned, but Luke clearly believes that the total witness of Moses and all the prophets is that the Messiah’s role includes a suffering that will lead to ultimate victory.

Like those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, we may think we know how the story should go. We might have preconceived ideas as to how God should operate. If we are to avoid such pitfalls, we need to relearn the story as well, letting Jesus interpret the Scriptures for us. This helps us to open our eyes to new ways of hearing the story.

Hearing the story in a new way allows us to open our eyes and see that Jesus has been forced to explain Himself, who He is, and what He is doing from the very beginning. This is attested to by the similarities between how Luke’s story ends and how it began. Today we have heard the story of two disciples on the road to Emmaus. But this is not the first time we have heard the tale of two people going away from Jerusalem and running back again. Remember the story in Luke 2 where Mary and Joseph lose sight of Jesus. They discover that He is not there with them. They, like the two on the road to Emmaus, have a moment of sorrow and grief, head back to Jerusalem, and then when they find him in the temple he says, “Didn’t you know I must be about my Father’s business?”

The closer we examine it, the more we see how the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is strikingly similar to Mary and Joseph’s voyage. It consists of two people on a journey who have lost the Jesus they have known. When they do encounter Jesus they are surprised as to how it takes place. He explains to them that this is how it had to be. For the two disciples on the road to Emmaus Jesus opened the Scriptures to them and elaborated upon how it was necessary that the Messiah should suffer those things. It was almost as if He was saying again, “Didn’t you know that I must be about my Father’s business?”

The second mode of unveiling for these disciples occurs in the breaking of the bread. Jesus is unveiled and manifested in the breaking of the bread. When they arrive at the home of the travelers, Jesus is invited to share in their hospitality. All of a sudden the stranger assumes the role of the host. Taking bread, Jesus blesses it and breaks it, and the disciples eyes were opened. The breaking of the bread is reminiscent of the feeding of the 5,000 from Luke 9:16 and the Last Supper from Luke 22:19.

Luke does not tell us these stories to remind us of something miraculous that happened long ago in a land far, far away; instead, Luke attempts to persuade his readers that just as Jesus was revealed to those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, this is a pattern in which we can now live and move and have our own being. The miracle of seeing the risen Christ can occur even today in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Of course this is not to suggest that Christ’s reality is to be found only there or that the fellowship of the church somehow creates the resurrection faith. It is simply observed that in this event of the church’s worship, in the breaking of the bread, the risen Christ is made known (v. 35). This is why we in the United Methodist Church practice open Communion because Mr. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, believed that taking Communion could be a converting ordinance. From reading stories like the one of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Wesley came to understand that in the breaking of the bread people who do not know the saving love of Jesus Christ can have their eyes opened to God’s love for them.

In fact, we see this pattern of the importance of the teaching of the Scriptures and the breaking of the bread throughout Scripture. In Acts 2, the early church devoted themselves to the apostles teachings and the breaking of the bread. Those two practices are intertwined. Even in this story, when the two disciples exclaim, “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the road?” they confess that their experience of the risen Christ through the breaking of the bread illuminates their whole past, including their reading of Scripture. The Scriptures that had once been so unclear are now opened through the risen Christ and the breaking of the bread. Likewise, the Scriptures attest to the importance of practices like Holy Communion, reminding us that Christ invited us to do this and remember Him.

The third way of opening our eyes to the Jesus incognito occurs when we recognize that is through the learning of the Scriptures and the breaking of the bread that we are made ready to help others open their eyes to the Jesus incognito in their lives. After Jesus opened the Scriptures to them and was revealed to them in the breaking of the bread, the two disciples ran back and said, “The Lord is risen indeed.” When the pilgrims returned to Jerusalem to witness they found out that the eleven had already heard the good news. The report that the Lord had appeared to Simon confirmed that their account of the Resurrection is true. Jesus then appeared in the Upper Room and commissioned them to go into all the world with the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins.

It is through hearing the word of God together and knowing the Lord in the breaking of the bread that we are energized for the mission out into the world. It is through means of grace like searching the Scriptures and the Lord’s Supper that we receive God’s grace and are empowered to share the good news of Easter hope. As we say in our Holy Communion liturgy, “Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we might be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by His blood.” Through practices like Scripture reading and partaking in Holy Communion, we are transformed into people who go out into the world as the body of Christ, telling others that Jesus, though incognito, is ready to be seen by them as well.

The story of the resurrected Jesus is not a simple one. His resurrected body defies logic. He walks through walls and eats fish…what is up with that? The Christ who is at first invisible, who then appears at places removed in distance, who appears again and vanishes, is hardly an ordinary person. Back then everyone seemed to be able to recognize the historical fact of the empty tomb, but for many their eyes remained closed to the Jesus incognito standing right before them.

Still, this incognito Jesus comes to us in surprising ways if we are merely willing to open our eyes like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Certain means of grace and Christian practices help us to remove those scales from our eyes. Opening our eyes to Him is possible through things like retelling the story of Scripture and breaking the bread. This is how we are to live on our journey as his disciples, to hear again the story of Scripture, to bring our little stories, our troubled worlds into the still moment of the Lord telling the story His way, and then to come with hearts burning to the Lord’s table. So, do you have such a story on your heart today? Has your vision been clouded, causing you to already lose sight of the Easter message from a week ago? If so, join the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Like them we can with Jesus read the Scriptures, break the bread, and be empowered for the mission of telling others about the risen Christ. Open your eyes…Jesus is here! Amen.

Unto Us? A Child is Born!

“We’re going to have a baby!” What did Joseph say when Mary first spoke these words to her soon to be husband? The short answer is that we have absolutely no idea. In fact, it is a bit ironic that though the Bible was produced in a male dominated world we know little of Joseph. He appears at the beginning of Matthew with this history altering dream and then essentially disappears, only showing up a couple of more times during Jesus’ childhood. Not one word from Joseph is recorded in the Bible. Even during Christmas Joseph is generally depicted as a murky background sort of character without any serious role, as even the shepherds and the wise men get more press.

Mary, on the other hand, is everywhere. When the angel visits Mary she responds by lifting her voice in song. Mary is much more than the mother of Jesus. She is a disciple, present throughout his earthly ministry, suffering with her Lord at the cross, visiting the empty tomb, and receiving the Spirit at Pentecost. In traditional Christian thought Mary is seen as an icon of the very church of Christ, the best that we have to offer, and a bundle of Christian energy. Mary is the Theotokos, the mother of God.

Now don’t get me wrong, Mary is more than deserving of all this attention given her role in the birth of the baby Jesus. And yet, this still does not explain why Jesus’ earthly father Joseph is mostly absent from the pages of Scripture. What we do know largely comes from the passage read this morning. Joseph was pledged to be married to his soon to be bride Mary when she was found to be with child. Since Joseph was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had decided to divorce her quietly. Before he could do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, telling Joseph that he should not be afraid to take Mary home as his wife because the child that was in her was actually from the Holy Spirit. Spoiling the surprise, the angel revealed that Mary was going to give birth to a son. Joseph would not have the honor of naming this firstborn since the angel told him that he was to name him Jesus because He would save his people from their sins.

Oh, the emotions that must have been swirling through Joseph’s mind at such a moment. He finds out that his teenage fiancé is going to have a baby that is not his. Quickly he moves from planning a wedding to looking for the divorce papers, while trying to be a gentleman so as not to shame his former bride to be. Then, he has a dream where he is visited by an angel who overwhelms him with the news that his Mary is pregnant via the Holy Spirit, ready to give birth to a son he will not get to name because somehow this Jesus is the Immanuel, God with us. Yes, that is right, Joseph is to be the earthly father of God himself. And unfortunately, we have little to no idea what was going through Joseph’s head once he found this out because the Scriptures largely ignore him after this incident.

Until recently I had no way to understand what was going through Joseph’s mind when Mary spoke this phrase to him. However, as many of you know, my wife Erin and I found out a couple of months ago that we are now expecting our first child, who is due to be born June 21st. Right now we are excited to say the least. But to be honest, at first I was less than overjoyed at this news. After all, I had plans. These plans included finishing my doctoral coursework, meeting my foreign language requirements, taking my qualifying exams, writing my doctoral dissertation, and staying in Chicago for another year or two while I pursued my dreams. Who did this child think he was, showing up totally unannounced, and even somewhat uninvited? And even worse, what kind of person was I to feel such feelings during what is supposed to be one of the happiest moments in my life?

After talking with a variety of friends and family, though, I quickly discovered that pregnancies often, if not always, involve a variety of emotional experiences. Sometimes we plan them; sometimes we don’t. Many pregnancies produce healthy babies; others have complications. We can be excited about a long awaited birth or scared about what an unexpected surprise might do to our previous plans. The fact is that the message that, “Unto us a child is born,” can make us feel excited, agitated, frantic, scared, terrified, worried, joyful, disappointed, frustrated, ecstatic, and afraid.

This is because babies, whether they be little Immanuel or Baby Cooper, are always a mix of good news and bad. Some of you may have heard people speak of life “BC” and “AD,” referring to our world “before children” and “after delivery.” You parents know exactly what that means. Babies are so cuddly and sweet, cute and demanding, expensive and relentless. No wonder we live in a culture where nearly a million babies are aborted every year. Even today our society wavers between sentimentalization of childhood and widespread child abuse. Babies are a threat. Sure, part of the good news is that babies are the future, but the bad news is that we decline as they increase. Babies are an ever present reminder that tomorrow belongs to them, not us, that the world isn’t all left up to us, isn’t just in our hands. So, if a baby is a sign that “God is with us,” Immanuel, then those of us who’ve had babies or will soon do so can testify that it is both good news and bad, for babies are always ambiguous. Blessings, yes, but also demanding responsibility.

No baby was ever more of a threat, more of the future, more of a sign that God is with us, more of a blessing, and more of a demanding responsibility than the one called Immanuel. King Herod may have been the only one to get the point of that baby. He knew that cooing, crying little baby in the manger was a sign, a threat to everything upon which his empire was based. That baby was a sign that Herod was not really King after all, that his ways of dealing with the world were false, that there is no hope for Israel or for anybody unless it be from God. This baby was a sign that God was going to take the government, the rule of the world off of Herod’s shoulders and put all authority on the back of a baby and call his name Immanuel.

This brings us back to Joseph, whom God had chosen along with Mary to raise this baby Immanuel, this God with us. It was Joseph who would later teach his son Jesus the Scriptures, reading him the stories of Genesis, teaching him the laws of the Torah, praying through the Psalms with him. Joseph would have also had hopes and dreams for what his life was going to be like. For young Jewish men at the time that meant taking part in the life of the synagogue, learning a good trade like carpentry, marrying a young woman, and raising children of his own. We know that all fathers have dreams for their children, dreams that they will live a long healthy life, get a good education, have a successful and fulfilling career, meet someone who will love them and care for them throughout their lives, and most importantly for those of us who know this Immanuel, that they will realize how much God loves them and respond to that love with a life of faithful discipleship.

But in one night, many of those dreams were shattered. Once the angel appeared to Joseph, his neatly ordered life was changed in an instant. What happened that night may have caused Joseph to begin to realize that many of the dreams he had for this child would not come true. Not only would the birth of this Immanuel come in the humblest of surroundings, in a manger that smelled of barnyard animals not to mention the things barnyard animals leave behind. Even more so, after fleeing their home to avoid Herod’s plot to kill his son, they would later return only so that Jesus’ three year career as an itinerant preacher would end with a cross. Joseph probably did not see all of this at the beginning, but he had no doubt started to surmise that his ways are not God ways. What he had hoped and dreamed for this child was not necessarily what God had planned for this Immanuel, this God with us.

Like Joseph, I worry about the life of my unborn child. You see, I have plans as well. These plans for my firstborn son and daughter include a variety of things, from a healthy birth to a nurturing childhood, a good education, a job that brings them happiness, a future wedding day, and a family of their own. But what if? What if my dreams and hopes for this child are not met? What if something goes wrong? I know this child is not my own but a gift from God that has been entrusted to my care, and yet, this does not lessen my anxiety, my worry, my fear. Some nights I lie awake, praying that my unborn child and my wife who carries Baby Cooper will be safe. Still, I feel helpless, knowing that I am not in control.

And yet, I think it is for this very reason that we must let the angels come to us as well so that we too, like Joseph, may hear those words, “Do not be afraid.” God is with us! When we accept Christ into our lives, nothing, not even death, can separate us from God and his love. It is what Christmas is about. God is with us. The great people of faith have always claimed that promise. Just think of it:

Moses, caught between the Pharoah and the deep Red Sea in a seemingly hopeless situation, believed that God was with him and he went forward and trusted God to open a way and He did.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego went into the fiery furnace into another seemingly hopeless situation and they trusted God to be with them and He was!

Little David stood before Goliath. What chance could a small boy with a slingshot have against this giant of a warrior? But David believed that God was with him and it made all the difference!

Now, it's interesting to note that when the writer of Matthew's gospel wanted to capture the meaning of Christmas, the meaning of the Christ event, the meaning of Jesus in a single word, he did a very wise thing. He reached back into the Old Testament, pulled out an old word, dusted it off, and used it to convey the message. The word was Emmanuel. That's what Jesus is about. "His name shall be called Emmanuel" which means, "God is with us." The impact of that Christmas promise is incredible. When you believe that, when you accept that, when you claim that promise it will absolutely change your life.

God does not desert us. I find it strange that God has never deserted me. I don't understand that kind of grace frankly. I do not deserve his eternal presence, nor do you. Yet, God has forever identified with the human dilemma. There may not be a soul in the world who truly understands your feelings. God understands. All in your life may fall away. God will never fall away. Our God is a good God. He does not desert us in our hour of need. He hears the cries of Israel. He hears the cries of the church. He hears the cries of His children. Christmas is about God's eternal identification with the human dilemma.

The great writer Max Lucado tells about his neighbor who was trying to teach his six-year-old son how to shoot a basketball. They were out in the backyard. The father shot a couple of times, saying, "Do it just like that, son; it's real easy." The little boy tried very hard but he couldn't get the ball ten feet into the air. The little fellow got more and more frustrated. Finally, after hearing his father talk about how easy it was for the tenth time, the boy said, "It's easy for you up there. You don't know how hard it is from down here."

You and I can never say that about God. When Jesus became man and lived among us, he walked where we walked, he suffered what we suffer, he was tempted as we are tempted. He was Emmanuel which means "God is with us."

Joseph, just in time, heard the angel’s voice, let go of his fears, and, most importantly, remembered that God is with him. Like Mary, he said yes to the Lord. He did not dismiss Mary quietly, but took on the scandal of this unwed teenager, running off to Bethlehem for Jesus’ birth, and then fleeing their homeland with his new family, becoming refugees in Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath. The witness of Joseph calls us to cooperate with God's work in today's world. It calls us to respond to God's action among us. Joseph, not having all of the evidence and knowledge of the future, decided to do more than law and custom required. He elected to do more than was expected of him. He let justice and compassion guide his decision about his pregnant fiance. He was pulled, not by the strength of custom, but by the law of love. Even when it was hard to do, Joseph listened and heard God's command. Then he had the courage to act, to obey, to do God's will.

“So, we’re going to have a baby!” If this scares you, you are not alone. I know it scares me. And in one sense it should scare us all, because all babies are a mix of good and bad news, especially this One called Immanuel, whose arrival is as surprising and threatening as any. At the same time, though, I invite you to join Joseph in hearing that angel say, “Do not be afraid.” For the message of this Advent season is that the best news of all is that no matter what, God is with us! Amen.

Wednesdays with Wesley: What Christian Perfection is...

What is Christian perfection then?

Wesley begins by saying that, "Indeed, it [Christian perfection] is only another term for holiness. They are two names for the same thing. Thus everyone that is perfect is holy, and everyone that is holy is, in the Scripture sense, perfect."

Part of this holiness was the restoration of our power not to sin. Christians do not continue in sin. They are freed from the power of sin. The power of sin has been destroyed and therefore no longer has dominion over them. Wesley does not mean that all Christians will not sin, but he does insist that "whosoever is tempted to any sin need not yield; for no man [or woman] is tempted above that he [or she] is able to bear." After all, what would it mean for God to give us a command and then not give us the power and grace to obey that command? Wesley refuses to believe in such a God and consequently takes seriously Jesus's words to go and sin no more. Of course, what does Wesley mean by sin? I do not mean to play with words; however, I do agree with Colin Williams who states:

It is clear that Wesley's view of perfection depends upon a distinction between two kinds of sin. In terms of sin in the absolute sense, as measured by the "perfect law," there is no such thing as perfection in believers. It is in terms of the sin of conscious separation from Christ that there can be perfection--a perfection of unbroken conscious dependence upon Christ.

This tension and twofold distinction of sin illustrates how Wesley could be asked if those who are entirely sanctified are sinners and respond, "Explain the term [sinner] one way, and I say, Yes; another, and I say, No."

Ultimately, Christian perfection is more a category of love than a category of sin. It involves an intense focus on the love of God and neighbor, these two being always linked for Wesley. Entire sanctification means a reordering of our desires where we participate in loving the right things, doing so only by the grace of the One who loved us first. Wesley said this love is "the love of God shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto them." This quote is from The Marks of the New Birth (1748). Eight years earlier Charles Wesley employed the exact same language when he wrote:

Jesus, thine all victorious love shed in my heart abroad; then shall my feet no longer rove, rooted and fixed in God. O that in me the sacred fire might now begin to glow; burn up the dross of base desire and make the mountains flow! O that it now from heaven might fall and all my sins consume! Come, Holy Ghost, for thee I call, Spirit of burning, come! Refining fire, go through my heart, illumine my soul; scatter they life through every part and sanctify the whole.

Christian perfection makes love of God and neighbor a natural response. The entirely sanctified are transformed in such a way "that whosoever desires may look into their hearts and see that only love and God are there." Needless to say, a heart that contains only love and God has no room for sin.

Christian perfection is a gift from God. Entire sanctification is something God does in us. Holiness "never becomes our possession." This is why it can happen either gradually or instantaneously if God decides to pull a Divine shortcut. Wesley comments that, "what God hath promised He [God] is able to perform and tht He [God] is able and willing to do it now." We, like God, have a role to play in Christian perfection. Christians are to "seek it earnestly so that they might find it speedily." When Wesley was asked if entire sanctification is ordinarily not given until a little before death he replied, "It is not to those who expect it no sooner nor probably ask for it." In other words, if you do not expect Christian perfection or ask for it, you will not get it. We are to be continually striving after it. Our waiting for Christian perfection is active, for "God does not, will not, give that faith, unless we seek it with all diligence."

Could this, expecting to be made perfect in love in this life, happen to the whole of creation? Eschatology might be the only thing harder to get agreement upon than Christian perfection. When the World Council of Churches met in Evanston they admitted that, "We are not agreed on the relationship between the Christian's hope here and now and his [and her] ultimate hope." For Wesley, Randy Maddox is convinced that, "a growing insistence on the redemption of all creation runs through Wesley's late writings." Williams agrees that"

The 'whole animated creation' will share in this new creation, being delivered from its present bondage to evil occasioned by the Fall, and sharing in 'the glorious liberty of the children of God' so that there shall be truly 'a new heaven and a new earth.'

Truly, Wesley envisioned a Christian world. Wesley saw the petition "Thy kingdom come" as:

Offered up for the whole intelligent creation, who are all interested in this grand event, the final renovation of all things by God's putting an end to misery and sin, to infirmity and death, taking all things into his own hands, and setting up the kingdom which endureth throughout all ages.

I have a hard time reconciling Wesley's eschatology where all of creation is made perfect in love with Wesley's belief in a real Hell with people in it. Wesley describes Hell as a place:

Where they [the wicked] will 'gnaw their tongues' for anguish and pain...there the dogs of hell--pride, malice, revenge, rage, horror, despair--continually devour them. There 'they have no rest day or night, but the smoke of their torment ascendeth for ever and ever.'

For Wesley, judgment is lasting. If some are punished forever, how then is all of creation redeemed? Despite a few possible inconsistencies such as the one just mentioned, Wesley held fast to his teaching that:

To crown all, there will be a deep, an intimate, an uninterrupted union with God; a constant communion with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, through the Spirit; a continual enjoyment of the Three-One God, and of all the creatures in him!

Wednesdays with Wesley: What Christian Perfection is Not...

"Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as God is, so are we in this world." - 1st Jn. 4:17

"Are you going on to perfection? Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life? Are you earnestly striving after it?" I find these questions unavoidable, for they are part of the historic examination that awaits any clergy person seeking admission into full connection within The United Methodist Church. This should not be taken as a monastic like move that limits perfection to an elite group of Christians called clergy, for Wesley came to think, "that propagation of this very teaching [Christian perfection] was the chief reason for which God had raised up the Methodists." Entire sanctification was both a consistent theme and a controversial doctrine for Wesley. It not only caused opponents of Wesley to argue that his ideas on Christian perfection were "confusing, erratic, or simply incompatible," but also was the subject of passionate debate within the early Methodist movement. In fact, the timing and attainment of entire sanctification even divided John and Charles Wesley. Being unable to dismiss Christian perfection as either unimportant or universally accepted, it seems fitting to explore the topics of entire sanctification and eschatology. What would it mean to "expect to be made perfect in love in this life" according to Wesley? Could this happen to the whole of creation?

Wesley approached the issue of Christian perfection with some caution. He believed, "That consequently it behooves us to speak almost continually of the state of justification, but rarely, at least in full and explicit terms, concerning entire sanctification." When Wesley was questioned about the practical task of preaching Christian perfection he said it should be done "scarce at all to those who are not pressing forward." Young preachers are to talk about entire sanctification "not too minutely or circumstantially, but rather in general and scriptural terms." Wesley was once asked if an entirely sanctified person would be capable of marriage. He responded, "We cannot well judge. But supposing he [or she] were not, the number of those in that state is so small, it would produce no inconvenience." Later Wesley added to his remarks on this matter by nothing that, "Marriage is honorable in all (Hebrews 13:4)." It is important to remember that Christian perfection is not one of the seven essentials for Wesley, at least according to Dr. Ted Campbell.

This is not to say that entire sanctification was unimportant for Wesley. Wesley firmly thought that Christian perfection was the intention of God. The Great Commandment lets believers know that what God desires is that we should love God entirely (Matthew 22:37-38). Wesley's belief in entire sanctification was also connected to his ideas on the power of God. He was willing to admit that you cannot perfect yourself, but vehemently questioned those who contended that God is not capable of accomplishing what God intends.

So, what is Christian perfection? Perhaps it is more appropriate to start with what Christian perfection is not. Kenneth J. Collins and Colin Williams make the same move. They may do this, as I do, in an intentional attempt to follow in the footsteps of John Wesley himself. His sermon Christian Perfection was written in 1741. Surprisingly, there is no account of Wesley actually preaching this sermon, which raises the question of if it can actually be called a sermon then. Whatever one's personal theology may be about what does and does not consitute a sermon, Christian Perfection as a written work does communicate Wesley's desire "to show, First, in what sense Christians are not, and Secondly, in what sense they are, perfect."

Wesley's first observation is that:

And both from experience and Scripture it appears, first, that they are not perfect in knowledge: they are not so perfect in this life as to be free from ignorance.

There are so many things for Wesley that Christians do not know. He lists examples of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and eschatology. Wesley's second point flows from his first. He writes:

Nor, secondly, from mistake, which indeed is almost an unavoidable consequence of it; seeing those who "know but in part" are ever liable to err touching the things which they know not. Tis true the children of God do not mistake as to the things essential to salvation...But in things unessential to salvation they do err, and that frequently.

Wesley continues, "It is a proof that we are no more to expect any living man [or woman] to be infallible than to be omniscient." Thirdly, Christian perfection does not mean freedom from infirmities. What are infirmities? Wesley wants us to "not give that soft title to known sins, as the manner of some is." He clarifies his view by stating:

But I mean hereby not only those which are properly termed "bodily infirmities," but all those inward or outward imperfections which are not of a moral nature.

Examples of these infirmities include slow understanding, ungraceful pronunciations, or incoherent thoughts. Fourthly, Christian perfection does not entail being wholly free from temptation. The fifth and last point Wesley makes about Christian perfection is this:

Yet we may, lastly, observe that neither in this respect is there any absolute perfection on earth. There is no "perfection of degrees," as it is termed; none which does not admit of a continual increase. So that how much soever any man [or woman] hath attained, or in how high a degree soever he [or she] is perfect, he [or she] hath still need to "grow in grace," and daily to advance in the knowledge and love of God his Saviour.

So, Wesley summarizes his discussion of what Christian perfection is not in this way:

Christian perfection therefore does not imply (as some men seem to have imagined) an exemption either from ignorance or mistake, or infirmities or temptations.

What is Christian perfection then? Tune in next time...

Lost and Found (Sermon for September 16, 2007)

Everyone has lost something at one time or another. Did you know that there is even a website now at www.lostandfound.com that acts as a global lost and found box? Users can report items missing and users can report items found. It is a good example of how technology can help people connect in a useful way. This is a gateway site for all of the physical things that can be retrieved and returned to their rightful owners. The problem is that according to their statistics, about twice as many objects have been reported lost as have been reported found in the United States alone. So, the site users are losing things at twice the rate that they are finding them.

Our world is a world of lostness. Haven’t we all had the experience of losing things that we know deep down we will never recover? It could be a loved one, a job, one of many things. Depending on the situation, we can feel disappointed, heartbroken, hopeless, or simply discouraged by our own inability to keep up with things.

In chapter fifteen of Luke’s narrative Jesus tells us three separate but related stories that have to do with the issue of being lost: the story of a shepherd and his sheep, a widow and her coins, and a father and his two sons. While only Luke tells the story of the prodigal son, the parable of the lost sheep can be found in both Luke and Matthew.

Our Scripture reading today from the Gospel according to St. Luke begins with these words: “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the Scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them (Lk.15:1-2).” So, to paraphrase, Jesus had a bit of a reputation for attending some outrageous parties with somewhat shady company.

It reminds me of a moment elsewhere in the Gospels where Jesus’ critics come to Him and say, “The disciples of John the Baptist fast all the time and say really long prayers. But your disciples are always eating, drinking, and partying.” In other words, we can tell the disciples of John the Baptist are clearly religious because they look so miserable and act so boring. But as for your disciples, why are they always partying?

It would be easy to criticize the Scribes and forget our own Pharisaic tendencies. Are not the Pharisees the ones who rightly saw the dangers of too close an association with the “wrong crowd?” How many of you are parents? What parent has not worried about their child falling in with the wrong crowd? Although I do not have any children, I have quite a few youth in our youth group. On more than one occasion we have discussed peer pressure. I have stressed to them that if they are in a group of ten people and you hold to a higher level of morality than the other nine, what is most likely is not you elevating the other nine to your level but them bringing you down to their level. Isn’t this a legitimate concern?

In response to the inquisitions of the Pharisees and the Scribes, Jesus told two short stories. Jesus asked, “Which one of you, if you had one hundred sheep, and one strayed from the flock, would not leave the ninety-nine sheep in the wilderness (where they are vulnerable to wolves, wandering off, and all other manners of mischief) and go out and beat the bushes until you find your one lost sheep? And then would you not put that sheep on your shoulders, just as if you were carrying a newly found child, and when you see your friends, would you not cry out, ‘Come party with me! I have found my sheep!’” Now which one of you would not do that?

And which one of you, like a woman who has lost a quarter, would you not be like that woman and rip up all of the carpet in your living room, move all of the furniture out into the front yard, then move all of the heavy appliances out of the kitchen into the front yard, and search relentlessly until you have found that quarter? And when she has found that quarter, she comes running out into the yard, calling to everybody up and down the street, “Come party with me! I have found my quarter!” Now which one of you would not do that?

You know the answer. None of us would do that. None of us.

Of course, these two parties, when the shepherd celebrates after finding the lost sheep, and the woman parties after finding the lost coin, prepare us for the most outrageous party of all – the party which is thrown by the Father upon the return of his lost boy. When the older brother, working out in the field, hears all of the music up at the big house, he says to a servant, “What are you doing in that tux? And on a Wednesday?” The servant says, “Your brother has come home, and your father is throwing a big party for him. He has given everybody the night off.” “A party?” says the older brother. “How does that old fool expect me to keep slaving away doing my duty when he goes out and throws a party for this son of his who has blown all of his inheritance on booze and bad women? For these many years I have served you and you never threw a party for me and my friends,” says the older brother.

The Father, clearly meant to teach us something about who our God is, seems surprised by the actions of the older son. As far as the Father is concerned, they had to celebrate and be glad, because this son of his was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. All three of these parables consistently speak of a God who will literally turn this world upside down in his search for one human being. Jesus says when just one of these lost – the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost boy – come home to God, Heaven goes wild!

Now this language of lost and found can be hard language for us today. One reason for this is that many of us find ourselves somewhere in the middle. We are a curious combination of the lost and the found. Language of the lost and the found can seem so cut and dry, so absolute. Rarely are we completely lost. And rarely are we completely found. There is always a part of us that needs to be dragged into the light, and there is usually some part of us that is already there. Some more, some less, but always something.

Another explanation for why we struggle with the language of being lost is that it can sound arrogant to claim that we are found while others are lost. I would warn us, though, against the tendency to look for seemingly less offensive language. For example, I would not trade the language of lost for that of the “unchurched” because I believe that once you begin to use the word “unchurched” you subconsciously buy into a marketing strategy where the church becomes one of many competing options for church shoppers who are looking for the right church to meet their needs. Moreover, may I suggest perhaps a particular understanding of what it means for someone to be lost. I have many friends and family members who are not Christians. When I think of them as lost, I do not have front and center in my mind that they will spend eternity being tormented in Hell being poked by little red devils with pitchforks; rather, when I think about my friends from high school who do not know Christ they seem lost to me because they literally don’t know where they are going right now. As we speak, many of their lives have little direction, meaning or purpose. I don’t go up to them and tell them that they are lost, but I do pray for them and look for ways to witness to them about God’s love for them because I think if they came to know Jesus they would realize that He is the way, the truth and the life!

It’s a big universe to be lost in. And we sometimes do get lost – we get mixed up and turned around. We despair, we make mistakes, we do evil to each other. The truth is we deserve the wrath of God and that is what the Pharisees who criticized Jesus maintained. But Jesus understood God more. Jesus knew God as a Shepherd in search of the one lost sheep. Jesus knew God as a woman searching in the dark, in the crevasses, for that valuable coin.

There’s a strange paradox about the Christian life. Often, it’s more about being lost than found. It’s more about feeling incomplete than whole. We all get lost in the dessert, even when we’re part of the fold. And we all need someone out there, willing to go looking for us. We’re always in the process of trying to turn back, to find our way home again. Sometimes we’re the carrier, and sometimes we’re being carried. But all the time, it’s a movement toward wholeness, toward being included again, toward being under one roof again. A sheep. A coin. Two sons. Us.

Next week is FRAN Sunday. Maybe you have given it a lot of thought, or maybe you haven’t thought twice about it. I would invite you to close your eyes for a moment. Now spend a moment thinking about a lost friend, relative, associate or neighbor of yours, not someone you think you are better than because you would be in the same place if it were not for the grace of God but someone you know who you care about who seems lost, is unsure of where they are going, lacks purpose, meaning or direction. Take a moment right now to thank God for the ways that He has already been working in their life. Ask God to move in their life in a special way this week, making them particularly receptive to His invitation and calling upon them. Finally, pray that God would help you to overcome your fears and show you ways that you might encourage, bless and minister to this person by inviting them to be with us next week at Friendship United Methodist Church, where everyone can find friendship with God and with one another.

I love the parable of the prodigal son, but it also scares me. It troubles me because it ends with the older son outside the party, refusing to come in. Sometimes I worry the church is like the older son, wanting to keep God all to themselves, wishing that God would not be so forgiving to those who don’t deserve it, questioning whether they really want to follow a God who throws such outrageous parties. You see, the question is not whether or not God is seeking out and saving the lost right now in Bolingbrook. The Scripture testify to a God who is most assuredly seeking the lost in our midst right now, just as a shepherd looks for his lost sheep, just as a widow looks for her lost coin, just as a Father who runs to His son, throws His arms around him and kisses him. God may not have a lost and found website, but today God offers us the invitation to work at his lost and found booth, co-hosting his outrageous party, being like a shepherd who really cares for his sheep, like a poor widow who really values all her coins! The only question is: will we refuse to go in, or will we join the party? One thing is for sure: Heaven is waiting to go wild once again! Amen.