What must I do

Sermon given at Grace UMC 5/29/16

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Scripture Reading:

^NRS  John 3:1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ² He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." ³ Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." ⁴ Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" ⁵ Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ⁶ What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' ⁸ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." ⁹ Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" ¹⁰ Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? ¹¹ "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴ And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. ¹⁶ "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ¹⁷ "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹ And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹ But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."

A grandfather found his grandson, jumping up and down in his playpen, crying at the top of his voice. When Johnnie saw his grandfather, he reached up his little chubby hands and said, “Out, Gramp, out.” It was only natural for Grandfather to reach down to lift the little fellow out of his predicament; but as he did, the mother of the child stepped up and said, “No, Johnnie, you are being punished, so you must stay in.” The grandfather was at a loss to know what to do. The child’s tears and chubby hands reached deep into his heart, but the mother’s firmness in correcting her son for misbehavior must not be lightly taken. Here was a problem of love versus law, but love found a way. The grandfather could not take the youngster out of the playpen, so he crawled in with him. God did not spare Paul and Silas the suffering and imprisonment, but He did come down into the prison with them. God did not keep the three Hebrew children out of the fiery furnace, but He went into the furnace with them. God will not always deliver us from trouble and heartache, but He has promised grace for every situation of life.—By Fred W. Parsons, These Times, March 1969.

This morning I want to talk to you about salvation. Now everyone in here has probably heard a message of salvation at least once in their life or you wouldn’t be here in the first place. I believe that there is one message that concerns all of us in regards to what God is offering through Jesus. But because there are many people who interpret the scriptures, there are as many interpretations of those scriptures as well. There are those who believe that from birth you are predestined to be saved or not saved and that salvation is God’s decision on you before you are born. If that were the case I wonder what would be the point in me being here offering a message of hope if in fact it has already been decided for you anyway? Then there are those that believe that once you give your life to Jesus, offer Him your heart and confess your sins, then the rest of your life you are good. In other words, nothing really has to change because your future is secured. I guess in a sense that means that you could then go out and commit murder and still assure that you have a place in heaven. Finally there is the Methodist understanding. Now I say Methodist even though a great many Protestants believe what we believe. That salvation is about God’s grace. Plain and simple, God loves you and God was willing to come into the world in the flesh and sacrifice His life on the cross so that you can be free of the consequences of sin. But that in in of itself is not enough. We must ask God to fill us with the Holy Spirit, to be baptized in the power of that spirit so that we can become a new creation within the Kingdom of God. What is old becomes new and what is new is different than what was before.

In order to receive this infusion of God called the Holy Spirit, we must believe in Christ. Simple really, God loves us beyond measure and we must love God back with all that we are and then we are to love our neighbor in the same way. That is the message of the Gospel that was conveyed to Nicodemus and then through that message to us. It is simple and yet it is important that we hear the message over and over again. It is not enough to believe in Jesus as the Son of God, even demons know that Jesus is that. The question comes whether or not you have Jesus in your heart and you have allowed the Holy Spirit to indwell in you and make you a new creation. If we continue to act like the folks we see in the streets every day and no change takes place, we folks who are called Methodist begin to question whether or not salvation has happened. You see when you give your life to Christ, when you open your heart to Jesus, you cannot stay the same. Suddenly the world looks different and you act different. Why? Because your heart now belongs to God and you have a love for one another that is unwavering, unconditional and non-judgmental.

When we give our lives to Christ we are forever changed to be the people of God that shares that love in the world. Think for a moment what the world would be like without the people we call followers of Jesus. There would be no love in the world except for love of self. We see a lot of that in the world around us. Those who have would continue to strive to have more and those less fortunate would continue to starve, be homeless and ill. That was the world of Jesus day and I believe it to be the world of today. We have lots of work to do. In order to assure our salvation continues until the day we pass over, we need to renew our commitment to God daily through prayer, through connecting to God and through our love. God gives us gifts and talents to be used to change those in the world around us into a better place. What we do matters and what we do is driven by what we believe. Jesus said to Nicodemus, ¹⁹ And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹ But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."

At night no one would see him (Nicodemus). At night he would avoid awkward questions from the other religious leaders. At night he could spend time with Jesus without anyone knowing. If he could speak with Jesus at night when no one was around, maybe he could begin a relationship with Jesus without having to make any real changes. He could follow Jesus without it impacting his job. In fact, his friends and family wouldn’t even have to know. He could talk to Jesus at night and quietly make a decision in his heart to believe in Jesus; that way it wouldn’t disrupt his comfortable and established life. That sounds like a lot of fans I know. Fans are happy to follow Jesus as long as that doesn’t require any significant changes or have negative implications. Here is the reality that Nicodemus is about ready to have impressed on him: There is no way to follow Jesus without him interfering with your life. Following Jesus will cost you something. Following Jesus will always cost you something. Kyle Idleman, "Not a Fan" (p. 30)

Are you truly in a place where your life belongs to God? If your actions, deeds and words do not tell the world that you are different then is the Holy Spirit in you and has your heart been changed? God is love, pure and simple. So let us love God and love one another and go out and change the world. 

The Great Mystery

Sermon given at Grace UMC 5/23/16

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Scripture Reading:

^NRS  John 14:15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. ¹⁷ This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. ¹⁸ "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. ¹⁹ In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. ²¹ They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them… ²⁵ "I have said these things to you while I am still with you. ²⁶ But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. ²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. ²⁸ You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and I am coming to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.

Did you hear the story about the Three Stooges? It seems that Moe, Larry and Curly had been selected as candidates for an intelligence test. They were examined by a whole battery of doctors, educators, psychiatrists and psychologists. It came to the math section of the test and the chief mathematician asked Curly, “What is three times three?” Curly did calculations on his hand and in the air Rubbing out a portion and starting over. Finally tallying up the answer, Curly proudly announced, “274.” The doctor shot him one of those astonished looks, wrote down the answer and then turned to Larry. “OK, it’s your turn. What is three times three?” Larry had gone into one of his daydream states and didn’t really hear the question. When the doctor nudged him and said, “You can answer, today, if you’d like,” Larry smiled and said, “Tuesday.” The doctor shot Larry one of those astonished, what tree you fell from looks, wrote down the answer and then turned to Moe. Moe of course had been watching all of this and called his partners “Imbecile, numbskull” and all those other Stooge words of endearment. The doctor asked Moe, “OK, let’s get it over with, it’s your turn. What’s three times three?” Moe smiles real big and says, “Ah, that’s easy. Nine.” “That’s great,” says the doctor. “How did you get that?” Moe says, “It was simple? I subtracted 274 from Tuesday.”

The Trinity is a fundamental foundation of our Christian doctrine, something that we repeat each week and invoke often in prayer. But do we really know or understand where the concept of the Trinity came from and why Father, Son and Holy Spirit are important to us as Christians? What is the historical background for the concept of three, yet one? What is the Trinity and where does it find itself revealed to us? These are the questions that as Christians we should be asking ourselves and others more knowledgeable until we ourselves have a firm foundation in doctrine we accept as fact, while others still debate its validity.

"Where does the doctrine of the Trinity originate?" We know that Christian faith is centered on the revelation of God through Jesus Christ. The early Christian church fathers understood this as well as the concept that Christ was the son of God and that the Holy Spirit exists. The Nicene Creed, one of the tenets of our United Methodist doctrine defines the language of the Trinity as "…God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made…he came down from heaven…” We know historically that the Nicene Creed developed out of the understanding of the church at a time when doctrine and theological writings were becoming a part of the church. More importantly to this however is the use of Trinitarian language by the Christian movement immediately following the death of Christ in the baptism of new converts. We see the use of Trinitarian language before the Gospel’s are put into written form. We believe that this comes directly from Jesus teaching to the Disciples, especially from the Great Commission where Jesus invoked the power of three, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Dr. Jason Vickers initiates that the concept of the Trinity is much simpler than all of this argument and theological discussion suggests. If we review the words of Christ from Matthew 28: 18-19, often referred to as the Great Commission, Jesus uses the Trinitarian language.

"¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," (NRSV) When Jesus uses this language, he prefaces it by saying, "…in the name of…" and this is the language used by the early church movement before the written account of the Gospel appears. Vickers says, "…what is the Trinity in the baptismal context? … It is the NAME for God. In this sense the Trinity is much simpler than most people think. The Trinity is the divine personal name for the Christian God." "The early church understood this. They understood that a name is a very powerful thing." So if we believe that God reveals God through the works of the Holy Spirit and the works are often scriptural, then this would suggest that we have received a revelation of God's name as God wants us to know God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit then are interwoven into the very fabric of who God believes God to be, three in one. Three separate characters of one being who each give to us different aspects of the whole. "They cannot be understood in the absence of one another: the Word must be spoken by someone, the spirit must be the spirit of someone … they are not endpoints, between whom there are relations, they are, simply, relationships."

           

So we come to the foundation of this message, why do need to know this, or in other words, why is this concept important to me? If we believe that Jesus is the incarnation of God, brought through the birth to Mary and his life is the perfect image of God in this world, then we have been given an understanding of who God is because of that. For you and I, what is fundamentally important about the Trinity is that it identifies for us who it is we are interacting with at any given moment in time. Father and son are united in their love for the world and this result is a communion of will that is expressed both in the life, death and resurrection of the Son, but also in the works of the Holy Spirit who is in the world we live in. The Trinity then is all about God's relationship with us and how we should be in relationship with each other. The incarnation taught us in human terms how to be like the Father, while the death and resurrection illuminates for us the love of God through atonement and ultimately through revelation that Christ is God. So it comes to very simple explanations for you and me to glean an understanding of all of this. By Jesus own words, he identifies the Trinity as the divine name for God. God tells us who God is in a way that we can understand and know God. When you know someone's name, you are given insight into who they are by the identification that is made to the name. In this case, the ceremony of baptism or the invoking of the name in prayer identifies that we are talking to God.

           

I had said earlier that I felt that a reference to the Trinitarian language exists early in our biblical understanding of God. Let me refer back to the passage in Genesis 1: 26.

26 Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." (NRSV) The plurality of the identification of God in this account in Genesis suggests that God wanted us to know that God views God as not one, but as the plural suggests, more than one. In this account we interpret that God was deciding among the three how to make humankind and what their purpose would be.

There are numerous accounts of the works of the spirit and "The Angel of the Lord" in the Old Testament where we may be seeing the three in action in events that were recorded for our knowledge. For us, the importance comes not from the theological argument, but the significance of knowing the name of who we are praying to, learning from and trying to imitate. You cannot have a relationship with another without knowing their name and in that simple statement God gives us the desire by God to have a relationship with us. The account of God's interaction with the world, from beginning to today, is the history of relationships, of love and grace that God wishes to share with you and me. What is significant about this concept of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is that we have been given an awesome gift, centered on the life, death and resurrection of the Son, and continued by the works of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It helps us when we talk about Jesus, God or the Holy Spirit to know that they are real and then to be able to know who we are talking about. That is the beauty of knowing God's name, being able to have a personal relationship with God, by knowing who God is.

That brings us to back to our math problem. 1 + 1 + 1 DOES equal 1. One God, in three persons. One God in three natures. One God: Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. But the truth is we've only scratched the surface. It's still one of those mysteries of faith. This is one of the concepts that define us as Christians and as Methodists. We believe in a triune God. We believe that there is God. And God is creator, redeemer and sustainer. We encounter God in different personifications. We encounter God the creator each time we pay attention to the world around us. God is often compared to the Potter and we are the clay (see Jeremiah 18: 1-6; Isaiah 45:9). There is scientific evidence that we humans are pre-disposed to believe in God. If we look at our world, how is it possible that shear chance brought about this creation we call the universe, the earth and of course, us? The second personification is of course, Jesus. Jesus is the human interacting force of God that walked the earth, to teach us and show us by example what it means to walk as one of God’s children. And then we have the Holy Spirit who interacts with us in our daily lives. Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer! Father, Son and Holy Spirit! Our belief is that God exists as three personifications in one being or one essence. There are some that believe that Jesus was simply a man, a prophet who walked the earth. But we believe differently. Some might teach this concept by using water as an example. At one point in temperature water exists simultaneously in three states, liquid, solid and gas. I like the idea of personification of God in three states.

One of the basic tenets of Christianity is that God is the force and the energy behind everything that is, was or ever will be. Without God there would be nothing. Who would believe that a butterfly can fly for 2,000 miles to escape the winter? That's exactly what the Monarch Butterfly does. Even though people have been skeptical, it's been documented and it is true. It is absolutely amazing that a little caterpillar weaves a cocoon and then becomes a beautiful butterfly which flies through the air with the greatest of ease. And then will migrate 2,000 miles to avoid winter. There are so many things in nature that are absolutely amazing. Science and technology fascinate me as they continue to do and create amazing things. But what is even more amazing is looking at a herd of Dairy Cattle and realizing that no matter what we have accomplished, the greatest scientists in the world have not yet figured out how to turn grass into milk.

We are never more like God or show the nature of the love of God more than when we give and share with others unselfishly. We may never understand the fullness of God or the revelation of God in the Trinitarian Natures of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But we CAN show the nature of God and God's love for us and the world. We can show that nature and carry out Christ's Great Commission.

The Great Beginning

Sermon given at Grace UMC 5/15/16

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Scripture Reading:

^NRS  Acts 19:1 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the interior regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples. ² He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?" They replied, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." ³ Then he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They answered, "Into John's baptism." ⁴ Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus." ⁵ On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied-- ⁷ altogether there were about twelve of them.

Today we come to explore the day we celebrate Pentecost, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Disciples. What does it mean? Isn’t the reason that we get baptized in order to allow the Holy Spirit in? Or is that confirmation? So what’s the difference? So often, we ignore the answers to make up our own that are more acceptable than the ones we heard. What if the answer is one that causes us to have to rethink who we are and how we live our lives? Is that an acceptable answer to the question? Or do we just face that answer with indifference or refuse to ask the question in order to avoid the answer? So often we come to this doctrine of faith with our own preconceived ideas of what it means.

I have to tell you that the question of baptism is one of the most asked questions during the period of grieving when someone dies. Maybe the person who has passed away was never baptized. Does that mean they are not going to get into heaven? This is especially true of parents who are Catholic and their children have never been baptized. So what does it mean? Is baptism the source of salvation? Is baptism required for entrance into heaven? Once I am baptized, am I saved forever? Sometimes we have a tendency to water down the salvation story so that anyone can get in. Dr. J. Ellsworth Kalas writes about doctrine, “So often we preach and we teach the gospel in order to win people to a relationship with God from the perspective that if we teach it the way it is written, no one would want a relationship with God. So we water it down, dilute it once or twice with worldly things and then present it with ice cream and fudge toppings.” Have we done this with baptism and faith so that we no longer offend anyone?

Three women die and enter into a long line to enter heaven. St. Peter meets the first one and tells her to enter into heaven she must answer two questions successfully. The first is did she mind the long wait in line. Her reply was that she had spent her whole life anticipating this moment; a few moments in line did not change the anticipation. St. Peter asked her then to spell God. She said capital GOD. Good said St. Peter, you may enter. To the next woman he told the same thing and asked her about the wait in line. She said that a moment of waiting was a small price to pay for eternal salvation. She also was asked to spell God. Capital God she said. St. Peter opened the gate and welcomed her in. The third woman was also asked the waiting question. She complained bitterly. I’ve waited in line my whole life she said. At the grocery story, at the gas station, to vote, everywhere I went I had to wait in line. St. Peter asked her to spell Czechoslovakia.

A humorous story but one that may change the way we look at life, at baptism, confirmation and what it means to be a Christian. When we accept Christ into our life, do we allow Christ to change us or do we sit back on our belief that we are promised salvation and isn’t that what baptism was for? You have heard me say that one must give themselves totally to God just as God gave of Himself totally for us on the cross. Anything less is unacceptable. So let us explore the concept of baptism by the Holy Spirit. Jesus sat in a discussion with the great Nicodemus. Now Nicodemus was a great scholar in Jesus day and it is likely that Jesus teaching were causing him so consternation, a big word for what in the world is He talking about. So Nicodemus comes to Jesus to ask Him, what does it take to get into heaven. Jesus looks at him and says one must be reborn from above, born again is the collective phrase we so often use. Born again he asks, how can someone reenter the womb and be born again. See, even Nicodemus did not get it. 

If we explore baptism itself, we must of course explore it from a denominational perspective. I myself was baptized as an infant in the Methodist church, then at age 11 in the Baptist church through immersion, and then again at age 15 in another Baptist church through immersion. Somewhere along the line the two Baptist ministers felt that the baptism did not take I guess. So why do we get baptized? We do that in order to receive the cleansing power of God in our lives. Through the power of God and the cleansing power of water, God cleanses us of the taint of original sin. In other words, Jesus died for our sins on the cross in order that we could claim the promise of eternal life through our faith. Now many of you equate sin with the list that you have of sins, some stronger than others or higher on the list. But the truth is that Jesus died to allow us to be claimed for the one sin and one sin only. Original sin is the act of denying the will of God in our lives. 

Theologians are convinced that Jesus came to the river Jordan in order to have the taint of original sin cleansed so that he might begin his important ministry here on earth. And since the act of baptism is an act of God, it does not matter when it happens or how it happens. Now I have discussed with you previously the idea that we all need to be baptized and I believe that it is important to our lives. During baptism God claims us by name and we enter into the kingdom of God here on earth where we are in communion with others who have also been baptized and claimed. And we believe that what God does is perfect, in other words, those Baptist ministers, though well intentioned, missed the fundamental question and by requiring me to be re-baptized, caused me to question God. What God does is sacred and perfect and does not need to be re-done. Once baptized, forever baptized and no need for re-baptism.

What Paul is trying to tell us is that there is something even more important than baptism. That is our faith, our belief in Jesus the Christ as the salvation of the world! And it is that faith that sets us free from death and allows us to receive the promise of eternal life. God forgives us for that denial through the cross and then simply asks us to accept the offer. We do this through confirmation or our public statement of faith when we accept Christ in our hearts. NOT THROUGH BAPTISM! In fact, we could argue effectively and biblically that a person could die, never having been baptized, having confessed of their sins and asked for forgiveness and believing in Jesus as the Son of God, salvation of the world and Lord of all and that person would gain admittance into heaven. In early Methodism they even put a seat in the front of the congregation where you could sit if you felt so remorse in your sin that you thought you needed special prayer. Maybe we all need to sit in this seat of humility every once in a while.

But here’s the thing. If you believe that God does not make mistakes, then you know that baptism in any form is an act of God and it is good. So don’t let anyone or any doctrine cause you to believe that your baptism is bad, or it did not take or it needs redoing. And that is what Paul is talking about here. Paul is talking about faith. Paul is talking about what we believe. Paul is telling us that our world is upside down from the expectations of this world when we believe in Jesus. In a way, Paul is reminding us that something is missing if you have come to this place believing that you’ve been baptized and your soul is saved and redeemed for eternity and nothing else is required of you. A missing element can make a world of difference. When something crucial is missing it can have devastating effects.

If you don’t believe that ask:
a. A Chemist
b. Your mother when she is trying to make bread and discovers that the recipe calls for yeast and she has none. The missing element can be crucial.
c. The person who has worked for hours on the jig saw puzzle only to discover that the last piece is missing.
d. Or ask a student on test day when there is a 25 point question and you don’t have the answer.

Maybe the reason you have been baptized and maybe even confirmed and still feel like something is missing is because you’ve been filled with the wrong things. Maybe the cleansing power of water cleansed you of original sin and yet you refuse to acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is knocking at your door and you don’t want to let the spirit in. Is it possible that you have come here today missing something important and you have no idea how to connect with it, text it, or get it on Face book. What Paul is trying to tell us is that until we allow the Holy Spirit into our lives, we are not going where we want to go and when we do get there; we are going to be asked to spell something we have no earthly idea how to spell. And at that moment, we are going to know we’re missing something. But the good news is that we don’t need to leave that up to chance, nor do we need to wait for than moment to find our we’re missing it. Accept Christ in your hearts and invite the Holy Spirit to come in. That is what the Disciples did on this day that we celebrate. It is what Jesus meant when He told Nicodemus that he must be born from above. It is what Paul meant when he laid hands on the twelve. They had a great beginning that day. Why not start your new beginning today?  

Mothers and Sons

Sermon given at Grace UMC 5/8/16

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Scripture Reading:

^NRS  John 2:1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ² Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³ When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." ⁴ And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come." ⁵ His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." ⁶ Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷ Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸ He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it. ⁹ When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom ¹⁰ and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now." ¹¹ Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

Now I hope that you remembered that today is Mother’s Day and that you at the very least sent your mother a card. I read of a husband who was feeling guilty because he had not been very attentive to his wife. He decided to change. On his way home from work he bought a box of candy and some flowers to surprise his wife. He walks up to the door and rings the doorbell. She opens it, and there he stands candy in one hand, flowers in the other, singing, "Have I told you lately that I love you?" Instantly she starts crying, big old tears just gushing out of her eyes. She sobs, "Oh, Harry! Everything went wrong today. We had a leak in the plumbing. The kids were terrible. The house is a wreck. And now you come home drunk!" Apparently his behavior was so out of the norm she couldn’t accept that he would do such a thing.

Today is the day when we celebrate our mother’s. It is a time honored tradition that began in West Virginia. Mother's Day in its present form began with a special service in May 1907 at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia. The service was organized by a Methodist Laywoman; Anna Jarvis, to honor her mother who died on May 9, 1905. By 1908 Anna Jarvis was advocating that all mothers be honored on the 2^nd Sunday in May. She wore a white carnation to honor her mother and soon after the tradition of wearing a red carnation to honor a living mother and a white carnation to honor a mother that had died began. In 1910, West Virginia adopted a formal holiday honoring mothers. From 1911 to 1914, most states recognized Mother's Day and in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson officially proclaimed Mother's Day as a national holiday to be held the second Sunday of May. Anna died in 1948 at the age of 84. So we have English tradition and more importantly, Anna Jarvis for setting aside a day that we can gather to celebrate a special person in our lives

I think there is a special bond between a mother and her son. I know that for me, much of what I am is a result of what my mother instilled in me at an early age. Mom taught me how to read so well in fact that I got in trouble at school because the teacher did not believe that I had read a book beyond my age ability and made me do a book report just to prove that I had read it. In my teenage years mom decided that if I wanted to be in a cadet corps that required ironed shirts and pants and patches sewn on uniforms, that I could learn how to do all those things. By the time I graduated I could do laundry, iron and shine shoes better than most, but I never did learn how to do windows. She used to tell me that you can be anything you want to be if you work at it hard enough. I believe that tenacity that mom instilled in me is still being put to good use today.

Mother’s and sons have a very special relationship. Now I don’t want to intrude on those of you who have great mother daughter relationship but I can tell you, we men who had great mothers will tell you that we are what we are because of them. Ask many of the athletes we hold up high today about their mothers and they will tell you great things that their mothers taught them and that their mothers are why they have succeeded. Mother’s believe in their children and expect the best out of them. I remember growing up when I did something wrong, mom’s grimace or facial expression could bring the kind of guilt and shame within me that no one else could. In fact she used to say if you were doing something wrong frogs would tickle your throat. Still works today.

So we come to this story of Jesus and His mother. Now we glean pretty clearly that He was not ready to reveal Himself to the world yet. Yet, His mother asked Him to take care of a problem, a huge problem by the way. In the ancient world of Jesus, weddings would typically last for several days. To run out of wine would have been an insult to the guests and brought shame upon the family. What Mary was asking Jesus to do was to save the families honor and name. Jesus does what she asks of Him. But it goes deeper than that. Jesus changes bath water, which is what is meant when the scripture says ...the jugs were for the purification rites, into the best wines. But Jesus was not in the place or at the time when God had shared with Him to reveal Himself to the world. So what is a son to do when your mother asks of you something you are not ready to do, you do it anyway.

If we listen clearly we see that what we are hearing is that the Kingdom of God is a place where the ordinary, dirty, downtrodden and least can become the best. God can transform us into the deepest, richest and blest of the world. Jesus does not only change the water into wine, but the wine is of the best quality that wine can be. All of this to show the glory of God through Jesus and it tells us that the disciples believed in Him. Is that what it takes to believe? Must we see miracles performed to believe and have faith?

Today we celebrate the women who gave us life. In ancient times woman were revered because it was there that life came into the world. I often wonder if God gave them that ability in order that we could realize how important they are to our lives. Mother’s teach us most of what we define as values by the age of seven. Mother’s typically are the ones who were responsible for bringing us to church and allowing us to learn about Jesus and God. Mothers are the ones who shared with us when we had our first failures, our first successes and our first loves. My mother never was one to say you can’t do something; she would always push us to do better than we thought we were able of doing. I want to share this final thought with you this morning:

We share our life with the one who brought us into this world,

Have we shared our joy with her?

Have we taken the time to thank her for her unselfishness in our youth?

Have we given her time to reflect on what we have accomplished because of what she taught us?

Have we acknowledged the heartache we caused her?

If we had ten more minutes with our mothers, what would we say to her?

For some of us, we wish we had those ten minutes to share our love one more time.

For some of us, we have the opportunity to do that and so we need to take those moments while we have them.

Mothers are special and unique.

A familiar mother’s day poem written in the early 1900’s is:

M is for the Many things she gave me,
O means only that she's growing Old.
T is for the Tears she shed to save me,
H is for her Heart of purest gold.
E is for her Eyes with love light shining,
R means Right and Right she'll always be.

Put them all together, they spell MOTHER.

Receiving like a child

Sermon given at Grace UMC 5/1/16

Click here for audio

Scripture Reading:

^NRS  Mark 10:13 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. ¹⁵ Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it."

A Year 5 teacher was giving her Primary pupils a lesson in developing logical thinking.

'This is the scene', said the teacher.

'A man is standing up in a boat in the middle of a river, fishing. He loses his balance, falls in, and begins splashing and yelling for help.

His wife hears the commotion, knows he can't swim, and runs down to the bank. Why do you think she ran to the bank?'

A little girl raised her hand and asked, 'To draw out all his savings?'

The young couple invited their aged Vicar for Sunday lunch.  While they were in the kitchen preparing the meal, the minister asked their son, what they were having.

'Goat, 'the little boy replied.

'Goat?' replied the startled man of the cloth, 'Are you sure about that?' 

'Yep', said the youngster. 'I definitely heard Dad say to Mum, we might as well have the old goat for dinner today as any other day.'

This morning I want to talk with you about children. Children are our future and are an important part of our task as adults, teachers and Christian people. Jesus rebuked the disciples who were intent on keeping the little children from him. That reminds me of a story I read the other day.

A preacher wanted to show off his garden to a man who wouldn’t let his children attend church … he wanted them to wait until they were old enough to decide for themselves. When they walked into the garden, it was full of weeds, which were choking out his squash, beans & okra. The man said: “This is a pitiful excuse for a garden!” To which the preacher replied: “I just wanted to wait until the vegetables had a chance to decide for themselves what they wanted to do!”

How many times in the recent past in churches across the country have people complained about the little children. Yes, they can be disruptive and they can be loud, but we were all little children once. Some of us can remember that better than others and some of us have never completely grown out of that stage of our lives. Ask Bonnie, she will tell you I’m just a big kid at times. I believe it is what makes life around here fun and adventuring. I have served churches where children were not wanted in the sanctuary during worship service. In fact I remember once when a young mother stood up to leave because the child had gotten fussy. I stopped the service, got her a rocker to use and soon the child was resting in her arms and everyone was happy. At least until the matriarch of the church gave me the what for up one side and down the other about getting that rocker. But you know what, that mother came back the next week and the week after and came to Christ I believe in part as a result of getting that rocker.

Jesus wants us to know that we need to reach out inner child in order to fully accept and appreciate the offer that Jesus is making to us, to become part of the Kingdom of God. What is it about little children that Jesus wants us to know? Let’s take a walk into the life of little children and see if we can decipher what Jesus wants.

Little children are aware of everything that we do. We may never realize how much they pay attention to us until one day they do something that we did not realize they had been paying attention to. Remember those commercials about little children mimicking adult behavior, good and bad? Maybe what Jesus wants of us is to begin to mimic the behavior of Jesus in our own lives so that we can become the Body of Christ, disciples who focus on God first.

Little children are open to trying something new or meeting new people. I am told that little children see every new person as a potential playmate without judgment as to color of skin, language or even what they are wearing. I have shared with an experiment done some years ago where children were placed in a room with toys in the middle. Every child came from a different ethnic background and no two children spoke the same language. Within a matter of minutes the children were down in the floor playing together, finding ways to communicate. When that same experiment was done with adults, the adults turned their chairs face outward in a matter of moments. Maybe we have something to learn from children about reaching new people, about sharing our faith in places unfamiliar with our own cultures and sensibilities.

Little children are like sponges and absorb every new experience. We find that children start out as open books, whatever the truth is comes out and they don’t have the boundaries that we adults learn to share on certain things. Ask a child a question and you get the whole answer. Jesus I believe wants us to relearn that skill and come to God with the truth, the whole truth holding nothing back. God wants us to be transparent and authentic. I have found in ministry that churches that strive for transparency have fewer inner squabbles and conflict.

Little children are affectionate. I wonder what the world would be like if we spent more time loving one another instead of judging? Jesus taught us that we are to love God with our whole hearts, minds and souls and to love our neighbors. When a church loves its neighbors, it becomes the sanctuary it needs to be. When we love one another we find ways to work together instead of focusing on our differences. Like those little children in the circle, when we love one another, we can find ways to communicate even when the music we like is different, the language we speak is different and the way we dress and interact is different.

Jesus wants us to know how to be little children so that we can truly become the people that God wants us to be. Many of us still remember some of the skills and lessons we learned in elementary school. Things like sharing, keeping bad thoughts to ourselves and taking a nap in the middle of the afternoon. But how many of us realize that Jesus wants us to reach deep inside and touch that inner child? To become open to new things and new people, to absorb everything that Jesus is sharing with us, to speak the truth in our actions, words and deeds and to find that innocence and fun that we all shared in the school yard when we were young.

Our faith walk is meant to be that simple you know. It’s not complicated. We make it complicated. We choose to close ourselves to the lessons we can learn from little children. They see the world around us and focus on the beauty and wonder of it.

I read this story the other day. “Last week, I took my children to a restaurant. My six-year-old son asked if he could say grace. As we bowed our heads, he said, "God is good. God is great. Thank you for the food, and I would even thank you more if mom gets us ice cream for dessert. And liberty and justice for all! Amen!"

Along with the laughter from the other customers nearby, I heard a woman remark, "That's what's wrong with this country. Kids today don't even know how to pray. Asking God for ice cream! Why, I never!"

Hearing this, my son burst into tears and asked me, "Did I do it wrong? Is God mad at me?" As I held him and assured him that he had done a terrific job and God was certainly not mad at him, an elderly gentleman approached the table.

He winked at my son and said, "I happen to know that God thought that was a great prayer." "Really?" my son asked. "Cross my heart." Then, in a theatrical whisper he added (indicating the woman whose remark had started this whole thing), "Too bad she never asks God for ice cream. A little ice cream is good for the soul sometimes."

Naturally, I bought my kids ice cream at the end of the meal. My son stared at his for a moment and then did something I will remember the rest of my life. He picked up his sundae and, without a word, walked over and placed it in front of the woman. With a big smile, he told her, "Here, this is for you. Ice cream is good for the soul sometimes."

Maybe we need to learn to pray for a little ice cream and then share it with those who have forgotten how good the taste of it is. And then remind them how much God loves us all.