Are We Truly Thankful?

^{Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC on November 16th and 17th, 2019}

^NRS Matthew 6:19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰ but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ²² "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; ²³ but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! ²⁴ "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Have you ever asked yourself the question, what have I to be thankful for? In this world we live in today, we are bombarded with so much stuff that we often struggle to keep from being deeply depressed. I spent the week last week playing golf, which in today’s terms meaning I am spending time with my lovely wife trying to help her become proficient at the game. I have to keep reminding her and me that she is just beginning and that I need to cut her some slack and she needs to do the same with herself. She on the other hand likes to get under my skin. The other morning I was doing my medical assistant role that, she requires at least every five days and I remembered all the stuff we have gone through to get to this point. That she is playing golf is an incredible journey of doctors, nurses, hospitals and operations. So yes, there is much to be thankful for in the Jamison house these days.

I find that I am serving a wonderful loving savior who pushes me in ways that are sometimes euphoric and sometimes downright depressing and painful. Each day I start anew with a reminder that we are to be thankful for all that God is giving us, even the pruning that each of us must endure from time to time. I listened to a good sermon at a very nice church but I want to tell you, no one talked with us as we sat in the pew and no one invited us to the hospitality time between services, even though their announcements said they had one. Now maybe it is because they have so many visitors that they have become immune to how to reach out to them. Or maybe they, like most churches, have become so inner focused they have forgotten what it is like to be a stranger in the land. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the service and left to go explore more golf. It was not our original intention on that day, but the Outer Banks in November is more closed than open and the temperature was in the 60’s, outdoors seemed to be the place to be. We got to finish eighteen holes of golf just as the sun went down and saw the glory of God in a beautiful sunset. We have much to be thankful for in the Jamison house these days.

So what about you? I invited you to make a list of things you are thankful for. How are you doing with that? Why do I ask, glad that you asked me that question. Because the truth is that, we can be so bogged down in the world around us that we forget to look up, smell the flowers and be thankful. God is shining the light of salvation upon us and we have a future in a place where pain and suffering will be lost in our memories forever. That is not what Jesus wants us to know. Jesus said the Kingdom of God is nearby, close at hand, available for the reaching out and taking hold of it kind of understanding. Surprisingly, the term Kingdom or Kingdom of God/ Heaven is found 63 times in the Old and New Testament. Jesus talks about almost constantly in His teachings and I believe that He wants us to understand what it means. The Kingdom of God is all around us, every moment of every day. The Kingdom of God is not just the promise of eternal paradise, but the promise of salvation that is offered to everyone every moment from the moment you are conceived. We talk about grace, but that grace is the greatest gift that God has to offer us. We are moving rapidly, sometimes faster than I want to go, into the Advent and Christmas season when the Kingdom seems ever closer than any other time of the year.

Can’t you feel it? We seem to be nicer to each other, seem to reach out in mission more rapidly and with open arms unlike any other time of the year. We hear Christmas music, yes, Virginia, Christmas music is real and it comes to you earlier and earlier each year. But when you hear it do you imitate the Grinch or do you have that wicked little hidden smile start to form within you? Come on now, fess up. It opens up that memory place, you start to think about Christmas long past when time was simpler, and life seemed easier. I do, how about you? Or we remember loved ones that are no longer here and begin to think about how much fun they were to be around. Christmas I think, is a glimpse into the promised place. We get to experience the mystery and even some might say magic of the power of love, given by a God of grace, mercy and love.

I wonder though, have you considered how thankful you are and then because you begin to be thankful, how fortunate you are and how beautiful the world really is? Jesus talks about the Kingdom because He wants us to experience the Kingdom every day of our lives. He wants us to find the joy in life that is missing from most of us. I read the other day the 12 things that lead to depression in Pastors. Oh my. What it did not say is the immeasurable number of things that bring a pastor joy. The baptism of a baby, the profession of a new believer, the love of a congregation, all of these things keep us going each day. At Sydenstricker, we have great love and I know that a visitor in our doors is going to be greeted not just at the door but also in the pews and welcomed. If they are at the 8:30 AM service, they are going to be invited to come to the hospitality time or to visit your Sunday school class. Why do I know that? Because we have been working hard to be a loving, welcoming church and it would crush me to hear otherwise.

I listened intently as the Pastor of the church talked with us about sin. Now I thought for a moment he wanted us to hear that we are saved and beyond sin, but that was not his message. What he did say was that Jesus wants us all to know how much we are loved and then to become Jesus to the world. That resonates with me because it is my message, today, tomorrow and forever. If we really want to be thankful, then we must learn to love one another regardless. We cannot say that we love this person but not that one. I hear a lot of hate, anger, fear and non-love in the world around us every moment. We have to love our enemies, isn’t that what Jesus taught us? We have to love the alien in our land, isn’t that the message God tells us in the Old Testament? We have to learn to love one another.

What I want you to get out of this message today is this. Each of us has much to be thankful for. Each of us has an abundance. Now maybe you have much more debt than you want, right there with you. Maybe you have more illness than you want to deal with, been there too. Maybe you feel like the world is against you at times, yep, that one too. But I promise you with all that I am if you will go to the Bible, if you will read it every day, you will find that there are plenty of stories of folks just like us. And yet, when we worship a loving, caring and nurturing God who loves us back unconditionally, nothing is impossible. There will always be enough; there will always be a light at the end of the tunnel. That is what the Kingdom is. It is not something to hope for at the end of your life, but something to strive to enjoy and experience in the time of your life. Right now, right here. But it requires some effort on your part to look, to listen, to taste and to feel the love of God that is all around you.

Today we celebrate life. Today we celebrate the abundance of it that we have within us. Even though we cannot know how many hours we have left, we can have an attitude to enjoy them. That is what Jesus wants us to experience. When we learn to love one another, life becomes different. Jesus is calling us to discipleship. That means that He is calling us to become students of His teachings, to learn to imitate Him in our everyday lives and to change the world around us through that love. We may not stop the insanity that is our world today, but we can create a pocket of love, a safe haven for those who are broken and healing for those who are sick. That is what Jesus is calling you and me to do and to be. Jesus did not say we would be perfect, rather that in our imperfection we can be instruments of healing for those who are broken. I am thankful every day for what God has given me. Somedays I need to be reminded of that. We have much to be thankful for in the Jamison household today. How about you?

Facing our Giants

^{Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC on November 2nd and 3rd, 2019}

^NIV 1 Samuel 17:1 Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh and Azekah. ² Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. ³ The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them. ⁴ A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. ⁵ He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; ⁶ on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. ⁷ His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him. ⁸ Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. ⁹ If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us."

Are you facing giants in your life today? Many of us are. We face financial crisis, living from paycheck to paycheck, we face emotional giants, we face cultural and societal giants and we face fear, anxiety and concern every single day. God wants us to know that God is with us as we face those giants. So I pray that today you will find the strength, courage and armor to face the giants in your life.

One of the things that each of us must face are the obstacles, the adversities and the challenges of life. They are always there and we cannot sometimes seem to find ways to get beyond where we are to get to where we want to be. We may not think of those things as giants, but the Bible shares with us that our fears, our anxieties and the things that keep us from achieving what God wants for us are just that. I love the story of the spies that are sent into Canaan by Moses to see the land that God wants them to have. They come back all fearful and convinced that they cannot achieve what God intends for them and so they share the stories of the giants. By the way, a neat nuance about the exodus story. The spies enter the land of Canaan we believe around 11 days into the journey from Egypt. 11 days! So if it were not for their fear and anxiety that causes them to not be willing to follow God they are forced to wander in the wilderness for 40 long years. When was the last time you did not do something because of the fear and anxiety of failing and it caused you to prolong or even miss out on something incredible and wonderful?

God gives us instructions in the form of stories to help us along the way. David is the youngest of sons of Jesse. David has spent his life as the person responsible for tending the sheep. Now in those days, a shepherd had a difficult responsibility. His job put him in danger often, protecting his sheep from wolves and other wild animals. He had to learn who to nurture and care for them when they were wounded and nurse them back to health. He would teach them to come when he called their name and was constantly looking for the lost sheep that had wandered away from the flock. So David had grown up learning how to defend himself and his flock from danger. But David had a weapon more powerful than the stones in his sling. David had learned to rely on God and to trust that God was going to bring him through whatever storm the world threw at him. So it happens that David arrives on the scene bringing supplies from his father to his three brothers when he encounters the fear that Goliath is causing the forces of Israel. This story is given to us to show us how trust in God can lead us to victory in so many struggles.

The first thing we must do is have a willingness to do the work that needs to be done. In first Samuel 17: 34-35, David tells Saul, I have fought the bear and the lion and with God’s strength, I have saved my sheep from the slaughter and killed the bear and the lion. Is Goliath any different? David tells Saul, my trust is in God and if it be God’s will I will prevail no matter the size or strength of the enemy. When we are facing our fears and anxieties, we must be willing to show ready to trust God with the power to overcome. It may be the illness, which has caused us to be set back, or the need to have financial balance so that we can live or the emotions to get through a difficult life event. All of them require that we trust God to get us through. God never says that God will not give us more than we can handle. That is a myth. What God says is that God will gives the strength, courage and tools to get through.

We must believe that God will restore what we have lost or had taken from us. I love the story of Job that reminds us that faith is not about what we have in the good times, but what believe in the worst of times. When we build our faith around God, we find that when the storms come, we have a peace and calm that often makes little sense. Proverbs tells us that God will restore sevenfold what we have lost. I have seen person after person who has struggled with illness find peace and restoration in the power of God.

We must learn to stay in the game. We cannot run every time the battle gets a little tense or we think we might not prevail. Being a great disciple of Jesus Christ, a follower of His teaching and His message of hope and love is not an easy thing to do. But when we truly work on building our trust and faith in Him in the good times, we can weather the rough times. But only if we stay in the battle. I think about the anxieties and fears that many have about the future. We cannot know what tomorrow will bring so Jesus teaches us not to worry. Is not the smallest of birds and the most beautiful plants taken care of by God and if God will do that for them, will God not do so for you and me. I think about the residue of a forest fire. During the storm of the fire, things do perish and there is great destruction. But after the fire, God’s wonderful creation begins to return and blossom in wonderful ways. So too, our lives when facing the giants of illness, tragedy and even death, can then blossom into great ministries of courage and faith.

God reminds us that during the storm, we are not to be afraid. The term, “be not afraid” is in the Bible 365 times. Interestingly, that is one time for every day of the year. God tells us that God has got this. No matter what we are facing, no matter what we have to deal with, God wants us to know that God has us in the palm of God’s hand. So we have nothing to fear. Now that is easy to say and hard to convince ourselves when faced with illness, crisis and even death. But it is true that time after time, God has gotten us through these events and when we come out on the other side, we are stronger.

God is with us every step of every day. Our giants are simply the growth of our own fears. God has this. Now I am not saying that we will not face our own Goliath’s in our lives. There is cancer, job loss, emotional heartbreak and even death that all of us must deal with on this journey we are on. But what I am saying is that God is with us every step of the way. God has our back. If we trust in the power of God, we can overcome every obstacle and though we may suffer along the way, the promise is that we will be lifted up by the power of the one who created us.

“When the night has been too lonely and the road has been too long
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love in the spring becomes the rose”

One God or Many

^{Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC on October 26th and 27th, 2019}

^NRS Deuteronomy 32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not God, to deities they had never known, to new ones recently arrived, whom your ancestors had not feared. (Deut. 32:17 NRS)

^NRS Exodus 20:1 Then God spoke all these words: ² I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; ³ you shall have no other gods before me. ⁴ You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, (Exod. 20:1-5 NRS)

Today we are going to explore the question that was asked, is there more than one God? Or put in another way, are the God’s of the ancient world the same as the God of Israel, the God the Christian church worships? I had youth years ago, that came back from an English class where the teacher had told them that the Christian God was no different than the Greek and Roman mythological Gods and was not real. So today, we are going to explore that concept and light of the scripture that you heard today.

So is there more than one God? The Bible certainly indicates that God believes that we think so. God does not say, I am the only God. Rather what we glean from the scripture is that God is acknowledging that we have other God’s. Therefore, God says to us that we are not to set any of them as more important than the God of Israel, Abraham and each of us. That God is a jealous God and will not have us worshiping these other deities. If God acknowledges other God’s, then who might they be and where did they come from?

Every ancient culture has its understanding of God. Whether we are talking about the Hindu people and Buddha, Krishna and Shiva, the Greeks with Zeus, Apollo, and Aphrodite, the Romans with Jupiter, Mars and Venus, the Egyptians with Osiris and Re and the Norse people with Odin and Thor, all of them have deities they revered as God. Some of the them, in fact, most of them were creatures with powers beyond that of humans, they reside in places not of the earth though they frequent the places where humans exist and they interact with humans in mostly malevolent or mischievous ways.

The Bible also shares the names of other God’s as we encounter the people who inhabit the land where the people of Israel go. There is Baal, the God of the Canaanites, Ashur, the God of the Assyrians, Marduk the God of the Babylonians and Moloch another one the Canaanite Gods. In fact, there are quite a number of God’s mentioned in the old and new testaments.

There are in the stories of the ancient world, numerous names for the supreme God, the one central figure often associated with creation itself. Ahone is the God creator of the Powhatan people who populated this part of the country long before Caucasian people arrived here. Makemake is the creator of the Polynesian people while Huracan not only created the Mayan people and all the earth but also called forth a flood when displeased with the people that Huracan created.

In Exodus, God, Yahweh, or Jehovah decrees that God will execute all the God’s of Egypt. Now some might suggest that God is talking about human beings since Pharaohs and then Caesar self-proclaimed themselves God’s. In this passage, God implies that God is not the only God but that God will conquer all the others. Since Human beings die, this clearly is an indication of some other type of being. In Isaiah, we are introduced to a cosmic battle that takes place before time itself and there is one who seems to be above the rest, the Shining One or the son of Dawn. We know this figure as Satan but we will return to this a little later.

So where does that leave us? Clearly the world has known God’s, whether they are deities that were created from their own minds trying to explain things they could not understand. Or as some say, all mythology is based on some basis of fact; there is in fact beings that we humans have interpreted as God’s that interact with human beings in the past and maybe in the present as well. Is there one more important than the others or are they all the same as the English teacher once told some of my youth?

Here is a matter of faith and then another theory. We believe in the one Trinitarian God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. As a matter of our historical interaction that we learn about through scripture, this One God, called Yahweh, Jehovah, Lord, etc. is in fact the God of creation. Why other cultures decidedly use other names might well be how their historical traditions received that information and from whom.

Which leads us to another theory that is biblically supported. If we were to meet an Angel, what would we think? In the Bible, when human beings interacted with angels they were in such awe that they bowed down to them only to be told to rise up, that they were not to be worshipped but simply messengers of God. So we then are to think that if we suddenly were in the presence of an angel that we would think them a God. What then about the peoples who populated the earth thousands of years ago. Is it possible that many of the God’s are simply angels that for whatever reason enjoyed the worship of human beings so much that they created different versions of creation, different understandings of God and yes, different cultures where humans worshipped them rather than the one True God? Is it not possible that all of the stories of different God’s are simply Angels of God’s creation that interacted with human beings?

In Genesis and Ezekiel, there are references to the Nephilim. These are the offspring of Angels and human beings. The scriptures indicate that they had powers that exceeded those of normal human beings. Here this from Genesis 6: “When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. Then the Lord said, "My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.” Is it possible that these are the giants that the spies that Moses sent into the Promised Land saw? In Ezekiel the word that is often translated into Nephilim is often also translated into fallen. So we would understand that the Sons of God would in fact be the fallen after the great cosmic battle of good and evil. If that were true, who are these angels? They are the angels, created by God that desired to be God. They follow the Son of Dawn, we know as Satan. And they were thrown down from heaven and given dominion or power and control of the world, we live in. They are a mischievous bunch who believe their role is to convince you and me that they are God, that their answers are true and that we are to ignore the Words of the One True God. Hmmmmm! Doesn’t this sound a lot like the Greek, Roman and Norse God’s of old.

My friends, I hope that I have given you much to think about today. God tells us that there are other God’s. Some of them are the things we worship like money and material things, idols in sports and entertainment. Some of them might well be the fallen who work in the world to subvert the efforts of God to bring love into fulfillment in your life and mine. But regardless of what you come to believe, there is only one True God of creation, redemption, sustaining power who gave of God to become human, went to the cross, and gave up that human life so that you and I may know love for eternity.