What good is a fruitless fruit tree?

Sermon given at Grace UMC 6/14/15

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^NRS James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? ¹⁷ So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

Many years ago a great craftsman had a vision of the perfect violin. In his mind he could hear the beautiful sound and the incredible music that would come from this instrument. So he set about building the violin. He took the finest pieces of maple and shaped them into the ribs of the instrument. He spent months on gluing the joints together and often would start over when he was not satisfied with his work. It took him two years but he finished and he stood back and looked upon his creation. And he was satisfied that it was the best that he could do. Many musicians had learned of his work and though he himself could not play, he had built some of the best instruments for musicians throughout the world. The musicians all desired to play this work of art that he had built. But his fear that something would go wrong prevented him from allowing anyone to pick it up and play it. So throughout his life, the perfect violin stayed in its case and the only music from it came in the craftsman’s head. When he died, the violin could not be found. Musicians the world over commented on how the world would have been a better place if only he had allowed someone to play the perfect instrument. You see, the craftsman might have created the perfect violin. But without it ever having been played, the world cannot be sure whether it was as good as the craftsman said it was. We are left wondering what kind of beautiful music the violin would have made and left with never knowing.

James is considered by many as the misunderstood apostle. Did he get it wrong or do we read into his scripture on works from the wrong point of view? Is he in fact saying that faith is not the answer in direct contradiction to Paul? Is he saying that it is truly what we do that creates salvation? There are many in the world that believe that and preach and teach it as the road to heaven. Day in and day out, they do good works and believe that as long as they are good people that God will look down with favor upon them. Now I for one believe that God is bigger than anything that I can understand. But I also know that the God of the Bible, Old and New Testament is a God who works hard to make us understand not what we want, but what God wants from us. God utilized the prophets and the apostles to help us to understand the most basic of concepts of life in accordance with God’s point of view. And of course when all else failed, God came down to earth as Jesus the Son, to assure that those who would listen would finally understand. Jesus himself spoke on this many times in his teaching. ^NRS Matthew 19:16 “Then someone came to him and said, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?’” And Jesus tells the rich young man that he must obey the commandments. And then if he desires to be perfect, that he must give up all that he has to the poor and follow Jesus. We know the story. And for many of us, this story has become the mantra of our lives, the words we live by as we follow a risen Christ. But for many, it is the story that stands as a barrier between them and becoming the Christian in their hearts they desire to be.

So what is James saying in this scripture? Let us explore the scripture this morning and see if we can figure out what James is saying and what we need to do as a result of it. James begins with a question. He asks us what good is faith if we do not have works. If someone lacks food and you have the ability to feed them and do not, what good have you done? That is a question that we need to ask ourselves every day of our lives. If we have the money or the hands or the food that can provide someone who is hungry from starving, then it seems the only answer is we must feed them. Makes sense doesn’t it? If we have the ability to provide clothing for the poor, or housing for those who are homeless or education for those who need re-training then this scripture sounds like we have an obligation to do something. If we truly believe that being a Christian means being more than simply that we are baptized and have confessed our belief, then we believe that we have an obligation to do good works in the world around us. But is it works that gets us ultimately in good grace with God or faith? Is James saying something contradictory to what we profess or embracing it?

Let me see if I can explain it in a different way. The early Methodist were focused on living their lives in the perfect imitation of Christ. I say early Methodist, because it was a requirement of those early Methodist to make their fruits of their spirit public to one another. And when you are making something public to one another then you had better be doing the things you say you are doing or someone would surely call you on it. And fruitless living could be grounds to be expelled from the group. Each time they met they would ask each other, “How have the fruits of your spirit made themselves known this week?” I wonder what our world might be like if we began our worship service each week with that question to each other. You claim to be a Christian. Well I am from Missouri and I want you to prove it! What is the proof of your Christianity? And what are the fruits of the spirit if not the things that make us different from the world around us. Patience, kindness, grace, and love to name a few. And if in fact we abide by the commandments that Jesus has given us to love God with all that we are and love our neighbors as ourselves, then how can we not reach out to each other in kindness and with love? How can we not clothe the cold, feed the hungry and house the homeless? And if we are not doing these things, then isn’t it possible that our Christianity might be suspect to those watching. John Wesley believed that. Our early brothers and sisters in Christ believed that. And this scripture tells us that James believed that. In other words, we who claim to be Christians must in fact be in the world doing the things of Christ, helping, healing and teaching, or our own salvation may very well be questioned by those around us. Maybe more importantly, James is suggesting that God may question our belief.

We focus on Discipleship in the church as the answer to this question of faith. Truth is we spend more time talking about works issues, feeding, clothing, etc. But true Discipleship means that we spend out lives in imitation of Jesus as we follow His example and His teaching. The things that James is taking about and the things we tend to focus our efforts on are fruits of the spirit that comes through true Discipleship. Our faith life is built around the concept that we believe what God has told us through the story of the Bible, through the prophets, and through Jesus and the Apostles. And if throughout the story, we constantly hear God calling us to reach out to the poor, to overcome social injustice wherever we see it, to teach those who need to be taught, and to provide housing for the homeless, then how is it that the church of today fails in many of these things? Is it possible that like the rich young man, we can do the things that cause us little compromise or pain, but digging into our pockets or taking our time is more than we can bear? Or maybe our concept of church is, “as long as nothing else is happening today then we can go.”

What James is saying to us,

What Jesus is saying to us,

What our ancestors in faith are saying to us, is that without the viewable works that a true faith life brings, how is it that anyone, including God, can know that you truly believe.

Now that may seem harsh or unfair. But just like the perfect violin that is never played, how can we know how good something is if it is never played, never acted out and never worked with? And what James is trying to tell us is that if we truly believe and have faith, then we must see transformation. And when we are transformed, we must act. Once transformed it is impossible to walk by a starving child or a homeless person or watch someone abused without acting. And when we act, the world will see our fruit through those actions as we allow the works of the spirit within us to interact with the world around us.

If there are no works, then there must be no spirit.

If there is no spirit, then there is no faith.

If there is no faith, then what exactly is it that you believe?

Get the picture?

So if we call ourselves Disciples, then our actions, words and deeds will set us apart from the world around us for all to see.  

I planted an apple tree once. I prepared the ground for it by putting in the best soil, fertilizer and dug a hole just the right size. I planted the tree and watered it, pruned it and gave it all that I had to offer it. As it grew I nurtured it, loved it and cared for it. It grew into a great tree. But it never bore any fruit. I checked with those that knew a lot about apple trees and they said that I have done all the right things. But the fact is the tree never grew the first apple. Well let me ask you a question. What good is an apple tree that grows no apples? What good is a fruitless fruit tree? Is the tree of your faith life bearing fruit?  

A Mother's Touch

Sermon given at Grace UMC 5/10/15

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^NRS  Isaiah 66:13 As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

^NRS  1 Timothy 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, ² To Timothy, my loyal child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. ³ I urge you, as I did when I was on my way to Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach any different doctrine, ⁴ and not to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies that promote speculations rather than the divine training that is known by faith. ⁵ But the aim of such instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.

Good morning and welcome to Mother’s Day. Today is the day we celebrate those special gifts given only to the women of the world. It is a day when we celebrate the personalities of God that are reflected in the women, young and old of the world. I wanted to take a few moments this morning and walk through the Bible. There we ffind some very interesting women who gave of themselves What are interesting are the sacrifices that have been given by women who show up in the Bible stories.

I want to start with Sarah, spouse of Abraham. This is what we know about Sara. When we first meet Sarah, she is ninety years old and barren, never having had a child. In the day and age of Abraham and Sarah, this would have been considered to be a shameful situation. For a woman to be barren, she was thought to have committed some terrible sin. Now understand, they did not have the knowledge of modern medicine about disease and genetic malfunction. Now that we do, we know that the physical makeup of some woman prevents them from having children. And certainly by the age of ninety, at least in this day and age, it would be an irreversible issue. But God promised her a child. More importantly, Sarah was asked to give up all she had in terms of her home and probably much of her possessions at the age of ninety to go. She had no idea where or why, other than God is directly her to go. Could you, would you make such a sacrifice for God? My wife has and she is my Sarah whom I love dearly. Especially knowing what the sacrifice is for a woman to give up her nesting instinct to follow her husband in the service of God.

The next woman is Deborah from the book of Judges. What makes Deborah’s story so significant is that in the time of Judges, women were basically considered property. And yet, here we have a strong willed woman who was both judge and warrior who led her Hebrew followers to victory. That it is included in the earliest of traditions is significant to me.

The next woman is Esther. Esther represents everything we think of when we think of a woman who is with God. She has physical beauty such that the King finds favor with her and brings her into his domain. Now consider that would mean that compared to hundreds if not thousands of women, she alone is chosen. But she is faithful and upon learning of a plot to kill off the Jewish people, she finds a way to tell the King. In that regard she enters into the inner sanctum of the court, an offense that is punishable by death. So in order to protect her race and culture, she puts her life in danger. Here she has achieved the life of luxury and means that many envy, she lays it all on the line for people she likely does not even know. Would you have done this?

The next woman is Lydia, who we find in Acts. She provides Paul the means to form the first church in refined world beyond the Middle East. Here we get some insight into the role of woman in the Roman Empire. They often had the ability to rise into positions of power and influence. And we know that women who rose to power influenced the way of the world. In fact, we know that Constantine’s mother was a Christian. And it is through her Christianity that the Catholic Church is formed and given favor. Without that, the Christian movement would likely have been isolated to the Middle Eastern part of the world.

I want to talk now about two Mary’s, Mary mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Now we know that Mary who gave birth to Jesus was around 14 years of age at the time of his birth. We know that she was from a small town in Galilee and was to be married to Joseph who was a carpenter by trade. What that tells us is that she had a future of what we would consider middle class in our world today. Carpenters were considered to be a trade that brought respect and moderate means. We know that Mary follows Jesus during his ministry by the several instances of her appearing where he is. And we believe from the story that Mary was there when Jesus was crucified and buried.

We do not know a lot about Mary Magdalene. What we do know is that at the end, she was one of the followers of Jesus and within his inner circle. Now if you happen to see the movie, The DaVinci Code of read the book, Dan Brown suggests that she and Jesus were married and that she is in fact the mother of his child. Now in all the writings of the Gnostic and Christian movement, there is not a single document that suggests this. In fact, we can reasonably be assured that Mary was nothing more than one of the close followers of Jesus. But we also know some things she is not. She is not the prostitute that Pope Gregory suggested in 550 AD. Why did he suggest that, we may never know completely, but we do know that he was concerned about the role of women in the church and this was a way of discounting the primary leader of this movement, those who followed the image of Mary, the first Apostle. We also know from scripture, that Mary is the first to see the resurrected Lord and she is the first to be told to go and tell. From that we can find important significance in that.

But in all of this, we need to ask some important questions about women in the kingdom? With the exception of Jesus, we find no other significant accounts of sacrificial behavior like that shown by the woman of the bible. Most give up their homes and all of them sacrificed themselves in order to fulfill the promise for someone else. 

Being female is not something you do, it is something you are. You can choose to allow the world to tell you who you are and what you are to be. Or you can look to the one who created you and become the person you were meant to be. You can spend your time in bitterness, despair and live life oppressed and beaten down. Or you can look to the one who created you and find your path. A number of years back I was honored to officiate at the funeral of Lucy Clyde Blanton. Lucy was a member of the church I served. She had been born in the 1920’s at a time when woman were expected to be seen but not heard. Lucy felt the call of God to be a missionary. The fact that she was a woman was not an issue in her life.

Mary expected to be the wife of a carpenter. God expected her to be the mother of the only son. As women, you can allow the world to tell you that you are insubstantional, insignificant, and become subservient to the world. Or you can look to the one who created you and realize that you gave birth to the ones who are trying to tell you what you are. The ones who you gave birth to would not be here if not for you. Never let them dictate who you are. You are a creation of the almighty God who loves you with all the love that comes from the creator. As God created your life, so to you become the instrument to create life.

When I was growing up, I used to think my mother was superwomen, able to see through walls, hear discussions from hundreds of feet away, and be able to read my mind.  There wasn’t anything that I couldn’t do, say, or even think that she wasn’t one step ahead of me.  You see God grants women intuition, so that they are prepared for raising us when we are young.  We men do not possess this thing.  It is in the female genes.  Why they possess it from birth.  My wife scares me at times, “Are you really going to wear those clothes?  And I haven’t even put them on yet.  And let it get quiet in the house.  You women know what I am talking about don’t you.  When silence descends on the house it is always a sign that the children are up to something. And usually that something is not a good something.  We men just shrug and think, finally some peace.  But not mother’s, oh no, not mothers.  They immediately tune all of the senses, turn on the x-ray vision, the super hearing, because in the hearts they know, those kids are up to no good.

I think that we all have to mature before we ever really appreciate what mothers do for us.  You see, it wasn’t until adulthood, that I realized that my mother had so much expertise and training.  Let see, she was a bus driver, the local laundry service, maid service, resident cook, nurse, teacher, and conscience and the list goes on.  You see, we men come home, take out the trash, usually on the third reminder, mow the lawn, at least until our sons and daughters get to that useful age, and that’s about it.  But through mothers we truly learn about what sacrifice means.  What does it take to be a mother?  Everything and they gladly give it every single day.

On this mother’s day, remember that through their love, we learned about life, through their love we learned to overcome the struggles, through their love we learned to walk and then run and through their love we learned how to interact with others. If not for women, we would not be here and we would not have the skills to overcome the adversities of life. I have a message for you today. For the women, do not let the world dictate your life. For those who think they have all the answers, do not let your feeble thoughts on life oppress and cause harm to God’s creation. God created each of us, unique and special. But God created women in order that God’s creation could see the face of God.

Passover

Sermon given at Grace UMC 3/29/15

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Scripture Reading

^NRS  Exodus 12:1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: ² This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. ³ Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. ⁴ If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. ⁵ Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶ You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. ⁷ They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. ⁸ They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ⁹ Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. ¹⁰ You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. ¹¹ This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the LORD. ¹² For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. ¹³ The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

As I began to work on this sermon this week many thoughts and emotions went through my mind. The connection we all have to Passover and the mercy of God that lives within us. The lives we live that require God to intervene on our behalf because we alone are not worthy to overcome the obstacles of our humanness. The need to be ready to go wherever and whenever God says go which should play a central part of our daily lives. The obvious parallels or foretaste of this first Passover to the events of the Passion Week cannot be overlooked or discarded.

So let us look at the events of the first Passover and then propel ourselves forward to the events of the second Passover. The Hebrew calendar has been with us a long time. It is an accurate calendar based on lunar movements, with the first sliver of the moon following the dark or new moon dictating the beginning of the month. With modern science we have an ever increasingly accurate determination of this event. The first month of the Hebrew year is Nissan, determined by this text we have just read. Sometime in antiquity, I like the sound of that word, it reminds me that we are a collection of older, wiser remembrances; the rabbi’s determined the beginning of the calendar based on working backwards in time through the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. Now some of that calculation unfortunately is simply an estimate. The exact dating of the Exodus still is at best a guess by the best of the wise. Nissan follows the Spring Equinox, that moment when we begin to slip towards warmer weather and the growing season. Adjustments are made based on the 29 ½ day lunar month and what we now know as the additional ¼ day each year due to the earth’s rotation. All that to say, Passover happens in the spring of the year.

On the 10^th day of Nissan, the sacrificial lambs, either sheep or goats were set apart from the rest of the flock. Whether these lambs received special provisions or none is a matter of discussion still today. The number of lambs was determined by the number of faithful people who anticipated participating in this event. In others words, we are never clear whether all the Hebrew people followed the instructions of God or not, but suffice it to say that a large number did. On the evening of the 14^th day the lamb was slain, the blood of that lamb placed at the entranceway of the doors of the homes in which Hebrew people lived. Why? Certainly God knew which house had Hebrew people in them, did God not? Maybe we miss the point here. Maybe this was part of the test of the people to see if they were willing to be obedient to God. Next the lambs were placed in the fire, whole lambs with all their parts. Now most would miss this little detail. But it has significance if you stay with me for a while. The lambs were to be eaten and what was not consumed burned. But they were to eat them in their traveling clothes. All of this would have taken place in the dark of the night by the way. The slaying of the lambs at twilight and then cooking them which would take some time would place this probably in the middle of the night. Imagine the sounds that they would have heard as the Angel of Death passed among them during this meal. And that night as they gathered together in their homes, eating this strange meal of God, they received the gift of life. And so begins the true Exodus story. No wonder Passover is still the high celebration of Hebrew, now Jewish, life.

Which brings us to this moment in time. Today we celebrate the arrival of Jesus on a donkey of all things into Jerusalem. I would bet that you never made the connection to the fact that Jesus arrives on the day that the Hebrew people are selecting the lambs for Passover sacrifice. Now remember a day to a Hebrew begins at sunup and ends at sundown or if you are on a 24 hours calendar, begins at sundown and ends the following sundown. So if we are watching carefully we see that Jesus arrives on the 10^th day of Nissan into the town of Jerusalem. HMMMMM! We celebrate it on Sunday but it likely occurred on Monday morning of that week. Four days later on the 14^th day of Nissan the Lambs are slain and the Passover meal begins. Now I have read that the Lambs are slain around 3 PM in the afternoon of the 14^th day of Nissan. It is funny then that that also appears to be the exact time of Jesus death on the cross. Coincidence?

Here is where we need to make a connection that God wants us to make. Jesus is the continuation of a long story, a story that began with Adam, continued through Noah and Abraham, Joseph, Moses and David to this moment in time. What occurred in Egypt is the foretaste of life that we receive through the cross at Golgotha. When we take communion which we will do next week, we forget that connection all too often. That what God did for the Hebrew people in Egypt God does for the whole world at Golgotha. What God began in Egypt is fulfilled by Jesus on the cross. SO why is it significant that they had to eat the whole lamb? Accepting Jesus is not a part time or partial thing. We accept Jesus completely or not at all. There is no fence sitting allowed. God loves us so much that God sent us Jesus as the sacrificial lamb, His blood flowing down the cross to set us free from death. God’s love given to us in a service that allows us both to remember and then participate in the eating of and blood of the lamb.

Passover was not an end, but a beginning.  It meant that the Israelites were beginning a journey to the Promised Land.  It was in many ways the beginning of the nation of Israel.  It was for most of them the beginning of their relationship with God.  So it is with us.  The Lord’s Supper is not the end, but the beginning.  We acknowledge our sojourn in this world.  By it we are made one people, the people of God around the world.  By the sacrifice it represents we have fellowship with God. Passover was to be eaten in haste, dressed for a journey.  The Hebrew was to be ready to go out and follow the Lord wherever God might lead them, even though they were under a roof celebrating a feast.  They were to have their garments belted for a journey, their sandals on their feet.  Passover was to prepare them spiritually for the trip that would take them from their homes, into the wilderness and then into the land of promise.  So it is with us.  The Lord’s Supper should be taken as if preparation for spiritual combat -- for such it is.  We are not here to relax in angelic arms, but to tighten our belts, put on our combat boots and prepare for battle. God will be faithful and we who believe will take on immortality and spend eternity with God. But it requires sacrifice and choice. It requires obedience and struggle. Take, eat, this is my body! Take drink all of this for this is the new covenant between God and God’s people. We are on a journey that God is leading. Are you dressed to travel?