6.6.08--Undeserving and Unfathomable Love

**I have the weekend off from preaching this week, so I thought that I would treat those few people who read my blog to a sermon from the past. This is a sermon that I preached to FUMC New Braunfels while working there as the youth director. I hope you enjoy!**

I really lucked out, because I get the opportunity here to speak on my favorite Scripture text! Now, I do have to admit, as I’m sure the youth are telling their parents and everyone around them right now, that pretty much every time that I preach I say that something or other is my favorite thing… be it Scripture, story, song, whatever… But this truly is my favorite Scripture passage, and later you’ll find out why.

Enough senseless talking, though. Let’s jump into the text.

I’m going to focus on Romans 5:1-8 today. We’ll start by breaking up the text into two different parts. The first section is Romans 5:1-5. Let’s re-read it. 

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith in into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering leads to perseverance, perseverance leads to character, and character leads to hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

I heard a story on KLOVE the other day that I want to share with ya’ll. The story is about a young Muslim man named Hajib who, after speaking with a Christian missionary, converted to Christianity and gave his life to Christ. Excited about his new-found faith, Hajib ran from the clandestine home of the missionary to his town about 5 miles away. Upon arriving at the town square, he began to tell any and everyone he could about Jesus and about how his life was changed because of this talk with the missionary. The people were enraged at his audacity in speaking out against Mohammed and their religion. They were so upset that a group of women attacked him and beat him within an inch of his life, leaving him for dead. His family came to him, picked him up, and took him home to heal. When he was able to get up and move around again, he left his house and went back to the center of his town and began again to share the Gospel to any and everyone who passed by him. Again, a group of angry women attacked him and again left him for dead. And again, his family came to pick him up and take him home to recover. When he was well enough, he went out for a third time to proclaim the name of Jesus. This time, the group of women came to him weeping and asked him why he kept coming back to them over and over, knowing that they were just going to attack him. His answer was simple. He said, “I have learned an amazing truth about Jesus the Christ, and I know that everyone will want to hear about it. I obviously wasn’t sharing him the right way, so I decided to try again and again until you came to know and love Him like I do.”

Even through suffering, Hajib persevered, and because of that, his village came to know Christ. This is the story I think of when I read the first few verse of Romans 5. Because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are able to persevere through many different hardships and are better off because of it!

I just got through doing a translation and in-depth exegetical analysis of the book of Romans, and upon compiling my first draft, I sent it to my mom to proof read for me. She’s a high school English teacher and she has edited my papers for grammar and spelling mistakes since I started writing, so I didn’t hesitate in sending this 150+ page translation and exegesis to her to read through and proof read. She started by reading my translation of the Epistle to get in the right mindset for what she was doing. When she reached this section of Romans 5, she called me crying, saying that everything it says is true, and that she was so greatly encouraged by it that she finally felt hopeful about things.

You see, my mom has been in and out of the hospital multiple times this past year and a half. She has been battling some health problems that don’t seem to want to leave her alone. So far, she has had three different surgical procedures, had her appendix and left ovary removed, and is about to undergo a hysterectomy. This in and of itself would probably still be bearable for my mom. She’s a pretty strong person. But at the same time that all of this has happened, my dad, who is a tech-sergeant in the Air Force, has been away more than he’s been home. Most of his assignments are to places like South Carolina and Florida where he took part in a couple training exercises, but he has also served a 6 month tour in Iraq and is heading overseas to Afghanistan in the fall. The stress level at home has been through the roof.

When my mom read the first 5 verses of Romans 5, though, she saw exactly what it was that Paul was talking about and was able to look back and see Christ’s work and presence in her life even in the midst of sorrow and pain. She now has these five verses written all over her house and classroom so that she can always be reminded of how God is still present in a very real and very loving way.

I think this message is one that is very much so applicable in all of our lives. We’ve all gone through hard times. We have all dealt with suffering, and we’ve all seen difficult situations that we’ve had to pull through. And just as the saying goes, “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” That might be a harsh truth, but it is a strong truth. If life were a walk in the park, we wouldn’t be the people that we are today. I wish that for all of us life could be one fun party after another, and I know that there are many people in the world who spend their entire lives and everything that they have on reaching that next high in life. The truth of it is, though, that no matter how much we love those mountain-top experiences, it is in the valleys of life, in the dirt of suffering, that we grow the most.

Now let’s jump into the second half of the Scripture:

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrated and demonstrates still His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This is the part of the Scripture that is my favorite. In fact, this Scripture is so important to me that I had it tattooed onto my arm. How amazing is this? While we were still sinners, Christ died for us!

I must admit, though, that as much as I love these three verses and as often as I have read them, it was not until this past semester that I began to truly understand what it was saying, especially the seventh verse. When I began working on my studies in Romans in January, I knew that this was going to be one of those verses that I would struggle with a little more than others. You see, I did not know what it was saying! Verse seven says, Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. Why would someone dare to die for a good man, yet only rarely die for a righteous man? What is the difference? Knowing my problem with this verse, I looked forward to see what I would find when I translated it from the original Greek. What I found confused me even more, partly because I was looking at Greek words. I found that because of the way that the Greek sentence was worded, the verse could also be translated as, Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for the sake of good someone might dare to die. Now, this I understood. For one man, even a good man, it was not a common thing for people to lay down their lives. But for the good of everyone, some might just give up their life. This makes the next verse make sense too! God showed His love by doing just this! Jesus died for the sake of the good of the people.

I felt a little bit better about things then. I understood what it was saying now. The story doesn’t end there, though. You see, as part of the work that I did in Romans, I had the opportunity to interview some amazing and Godly people who knew their Bible better than I ever will. One of these interviews was with one of my professors Texas Lutheran. He is a Romans scholar, and I was greatly looking forward to some clarification on a few things, including this verse to which I had unearthed a new way of translating. When I presented my version to Dr. Russell for his thoughts, he urged me to re-think it and look at it again in the original context. So together we poured over this verse and the following verse, trying to make sense of it. Through this study, I realized that I was wrong in changing the translation. What Paul is saying in this section is not that for the good of humanity someone might give his/her life. What he is saying that it is a very rare occasion for someone to lay down their life for a righteous person. People value their lives to the point that even for a deserving person, it is a rare occurrence that someone would sacrifice their life for another. That being said, it does happen. For a good person, someone might just dare to die. Maybe. But God showed His love by sending Jesus to die for us when we were completely undeserving, something that no human would do for another who didn’t deserve it.

I have a wonderful friend named Bethany. Bethany is a wonderful girl who loves God more than anything or anyone else and is following His call that He placed on her heart to do missions ministry. Bethany has a legacy of mission work in her past. Her parents were missionaries in China. They worked there for almost ten years undercover, knowing that if the wrong people found out where they were, they would be dead. When Bethany was a few months old, a good friend of her parents who was there in China with them was found and arrested, his execution harsh and public. When this happened, Bethany’s parents fled China and came back to Texas, settling down and finding work in my hometown, Burnet. Bethany grew up in Burnet because her parents did not want her to grow up around the terrors that they faced in China. As she was growing up, though, Bethany felt a strong call to ministry, specifically missions work. Her parents greatly discouraged this, though, because they were terrified at what would happen if something were to go wrong over there. They knew that life, had lived that life, and didn’t want her to live that life.

Bethany stuck with it, though and is now overseas at a place that cannot be named doing work that she could literally be arrested and killed for doing. When her parents saw her determination, they- albeit grudgingly –began to support her whole-heartedly.

She’s doing God’s work. So why is it that her parents were so upset? The answer is simple. They felt that they were losing their daughter to undeserving people who would most likely kill her.

I tell this story to you because I think that it, in a microcosm of a way, parallels what Paul is talking about in these three verses. You see, just as in this story, there are two sacrifices that are evident in this Romans text. The first is the amazing sacrifice made by Bethany. The second is the even more amazing sacrifice made by Bethany’s parents. In the same way, Paul speaks here of two sacrifices that were made: The amazing sacrifice of Christ, God the Son, and the even more amazing sacrifice of God the Father.

How many of you here are parents?

Ok. How many of you parents would have no problem sacrificing everything you have, even your own life, for your children?

I know that my parents would, without thinking twice, give their lives for my siblings or me. I’m sure that there isn’t a soul in this congregation that would have any hesitations about giving his/her life for another.

Now I’m going to ask a question much harder to answer. I don’t want to you answer this out loud or anything. Just think about it and answer it for yourself. Would you be able to offer your child’s life for another’s? You know what, let’s make it a little bit harder. Would you be able to sacrifice your child for someone whom you love but who had rejected and turned away from your love?

Now, I don’t have a child and don’t really want one anytime soon, but if I was asked to give the life of a loved one as ransom for someone else, I wouldn’t do it. I don’t care if this person was the next president or whether they were just some bum on the street. I would not do it. My own life, maybe, but not a loved one’s.

This is exactly what God did for us, though! He gave all that He had, His most prized possession, His very own Son for us!

Very rarely will someone die for a righteous person, but for a good person, someone might jut dare to die. But God demonstrated and demonstrates still His love to us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We weren’t worth it. We were completely undeserving. Christ still died for us because He loved us that much! Even more so, though, God sacrificed His one and only Son because He loved us that much! There’s a reason that John 3:16 is so popular. It, like this section of Romans, is a banner that we as broken and sinful sinners can rally behind.

So what do we do with this love? We can’t simply hold it to ourselves. Christ died for us all, and we have to let everyone know it! Paul speaks of this very thing in Romans 10:14-15: How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of Whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the Good News!”

Christ is calling us to share the knowledge of God’s undeserving and unfathomable love with all. How else will they come to truly know Christ? So go and share God’s love, a love that didn’t come when it was convenient, but came when it was needed the most.

Let us pray!

3.20.11--Emmanuel, The God Suffering with Us (Sermon on Psalm 88)

I’m taking a class right now on African tribal religions and the impact that Christian missionary work had upon them. So far, this is one of the most interesting subjects that I’ve had the opportunity to study at Princeton. Our work has focused on one specific area of Africa and one specific people: the Ibo people of western Nigeria. We’ve been reading both historical fiction novels written by a descendant of an Ibo family as well as different academic articles and studies that try to explain why Christianity spread so quickly and so powerfully through these people and their tribes.

One of the most interesting things that I have learned so far in this class is that the Judeo-Christian God is the only deity from any area of the world that would allow suffering to happen to it’s people as a way to bring growth. A person’s hardship might not have been seen as a curse from God, but a gift from God that would bring about a blessing in the end. Now, this is not always the case in the Old and New Testaments. Sometimes we read about God unleashing his wrath upon the Israelites for turning against Him, or how God afflicted an entire nation with sores because they stole the Ark of the Covenant. These are hard stories to swallow a lot of the time, and they are stories we are not even able to begin to understand. That is all right, though. Sometimes, we are called to simply sit with these stories; hold them close to us and pray that God will some day help us understand them. There are other times in the Old and New Testaments, though, where we read that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart so that His glory might be known, or Jesus might say to His disciples that a man’s blindness was not due to a sin committed, but so that the glory of God might be known in the healing of his blindness. God is seemingly allowing hardship to happen out of love, not out of anger.

This does not happen with any other god of any other culture or people. In fact, most cultures and societies—like the Ibo people about whom I’m learning—will desert or banish a deity for bringing hardship upon a people. The job of the god is to protect and uplift a people, not allow suffering to happen. So why would our God be any different? Why have people continued to worship God even after He allows suffering to grip hold of the people? Why have the Jewish people continued to worship YHWH even after an event so terrible as the Holocaust?

The answer is simple, yet great in depth: because our God suffers with us. From as early as Adam all the way through to today, God has desired to walk with us through life and experience life alongside of His creation. In Exodus 3, we hear about a God who sees the misery of His people, who hears their cries of torment, and feels their sufferings. The psalmists expound on the wondrousness of a God who knows them completely and who walks with them in life. And in Matthew, we learn His name: Emmanuel. God with us. God who walks beside us. God who rejoices among us. God who suffers alongside us. Emmanuel.

And what is more, Emmanuel, God with us, suffers every kind of torment that we might suffer. He spends time alone in the wilderness, he is tempted by sin and pride, he is beaten, yelled at, and abused. And then he dies on a cross, one of the more horrible forms of death that humanity has ever beheld. And while on that cross, he experiences the suffering of feeling totally alone and completely abandoned. God with us, Jesus Christ, feels what it is like to be abandoned by God Himself. And so He cries out, “Eloi! Eloi, lama sabachthami!” My God! My God, why have You forsaken me? Emmanuel, God with us, Jesus Christ, knows our sufferings intimately because He suffered through them Himself and suffers through them with us.

I remember the first time that I truly began to grasp the enormity of this. The first time that my dad was deployed overseas for the war was the summer before my junior year of high school. I was at a two-week summer camp at TLU, where I would later complete my undergraduate work. Dad was supposed to leave on the last day of camp, so I was planning on returning home a couple daya early to see him off. The day before I was supposed to leave for home, Dad showed up on campus at dinnertime with a bag of ribs and two large sweet teas. We found a picnic table outside and ate dinner together, and as we finished up, Dad told me that he wanted me to stay at camp and enjoy my last couple days with my new friends. He said that all I’d be doing otherwise is riding in the car with him and driving away since they were leaving from a closed airport. He told me to stay here where I would be having fun and could be around happy people. I tried to tell him that I didn’t want to stay, that I wanted to be with him and the family, but he said that this was best and that he wanted me there at TLU.

I remember thinking that I was completely alone the next few days. I didn’t want to do anything or be around anybody as I sat there thinking about my dad and wondering if I’d ever see him again. He was going to war. People die in war. My dad could die! I was scared, I was lost, and I was alone.

Dad of course made it home no problem. The fool even came home a month early, and surprised my mom and us kids. I will never forget the day that he walked into my physics class, still wearing his dress uniform, and told my teacher that he needed to borrow me for a little bit. I didn’t even wait for a reply before grabbing all of my things and running to the door. The hug that we then shared held in it six months of fear, worry, and anxiety. It took away all of those feelings, leaving me feeling relieved and comforted.

When Dad told me he wanted me to stay at camp instead of coming to the airport to see him off, I felt alone and abandoned. I felt like he did not want me there, and I felt like I had been cast aside. When I saw him there in that school hallway, though, I realized that he probably felt just as alone and tormented because he had asked me to stay at camp and not send him off. I bet he wondered to himself if he had missed out on an opportunity to see his son one last time. I bet he wondered the entire time if he had made the right choice, or if he should have let me come with him.

Our Scripture lesson today is a psalm that I read over and over again while Dad was deployed. It is one that I read with tears in my eyes, and one that I read with anger in my heart. I felt like God had let this happen to me, God had allowed my dad to be taken away, and God had lowered me into this pit of despair. I have realized since, though, that this psalm only shows one side of the story. It only shows the pain, suffering, and torment that the person is fighting. It does not show the pain, suffering, and torment with which God is dealing. But, like I had to learn that my dad went through just as much as I did in his decision to make me stay at camp, we have to learn that God sees our pain, hears our cries, and shares in our sufferings.

Especially during this time of Lent, I hope that you can remember that our God is Emmanuel, God with us. Our God is a God that walks with us, rejoices when we rejoice, and suffers when we suffer. We are not alone in our sufferings. God is with us. You are not alone in your suffering. God is with you.

Let us pray.

3.13.11--The Sons and Daughters of Korah (Sermon on Psalm 84)

When my family and I lived on Air Force bases, I was always known as Wes’ son. My dad was involved in so much, both in and outside of work, that everyone knew him or knew of him. Everywhere we went, it was always Wes Cain and his family. Then, when we moved back to Burnet, where my mom’s family has lived for years, things changed. We became known as Mary Bird’s family. This drove my dad crazy, not because he had to be the center of attention or anything of the sort, but because we were not by our actual names anymore. We were identified by Mom’s maiden name, not by our family name. People would stop me in the store and ask if I was Mary Bird’s son, and I’d usually answer that I was Wes and Mary Cain’s son, just to be a little insolent.

But that identity just would not leave us. Even in our church, where Dad was lay leader and we were all so active, we were always “Mary Bird’s family.” It was how people recognized us. It was how we were tied into their memory and how they placed us in the community. How were you known growing up? Was there a certain type of identity by which everyone placed you? How are you known now? Has that identifying trait changed over the years? Have you grown into your own identity that has out-shined your older one? Or have you found that you have grown into an identity you have had all these years?

Our Scripture reading today is a psalm that was written by a group of people who stepped into a previous identity, grounding themselves in the stories of the past, the stories of their people. This is a psalm written by the “Sons of Korah.” Now, we do not know much about this group. I searched commentary after commentary to see if I could glean some knowledge of who they were or when they lived. I had no luck, though. The only way that we have to identify them is through the name they adopted for their group. It is a name that shares so much of who these people were, even if we cannot find any other information on them.

Now do any of you know who Korah is, or why it is so important that they have taken the title as a child of this person? With a name like Korah, I imagine that this person is a war hero or something; a master warrior who helped deliver his people from captivity. Or maybe one of the great prophets of old, someone who was so in tune with God that people likened him to Moses. Let’s look at Korah’s story in Scripture. Turn with me in your Bibles to Numbers 16. We’re going to read verses 1-11 and then jump ahead a little and read verses 19-33.

Korah was not the kind of person that I was expecting. He was a rebel, someone who “became insolent” and led a group of 250 Levites against Moses and Aaron, the two people that God had appointed to lead the Israelites. God had set these Levites, including Aaron, aside for a special purpose. They were the priests of the people of God. They worked in the Tabernacle, the place of worship, God’s dwelling place among the Israelites. Korah did not like that Moses and Aaron were running the show. Pride got the better of him and he sparked a rebellion. He tried in this way to wrench the leadership of the Israelite peoples out of Moses and Aaron’s hands. As punishment for rising up against God, God opens up the ground under the tents of Korah, and he along with his entire household are swallowed up, never to be seen again.

So what does it mean, then, to be a son or daughter of Korah? It does not mean that these people are the descendants of the man, for his entire family died that night, completely cutting off his bloodline. No, these people were not related to Korah in any way. Instead, they were a group of people who saw themselves falling prey to the same sin that gripped Korah—pride. To be a son or daughter of Korah, then, is to be one who realizes one’s sin and then repents of it. It is to be one who humbles him- or herself before God and others. It is to be one who accepts the burden of one’s actions and owns up to one’s past wrongdoings. To be a son or daughter of Korah is to recognize that you have allowed pride to infest your life and to fall before the Almighty and beg forgiveness for your sins.

Now, what does this have to do with Psalm 84, today’s Scripture lesson? What does it mean for us if the Sons of Korah wrote and sang this psalm? If you would, turn back in your Bibles to Psalm 84. Let’s take a closer look at verse 10: “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”

The Psalmist is humbling himself, taking up his rightful place as a servant of the Lord. No longer will he dwell in Korah’s tents, in his father’s tents, and aspire to take more than God gives him; he will serve as the Levites were called to serve: as priests in the Tabernacle, God’s holy house.

This psalm and the identification as a son of Korah was generated after the writer spent some intentional time looking at himself and his sins. After this time of introspection, he is able to truly own up to himself and own up to his God. Friends, this is what the time of Lent is truly about: coming to better know yourself and your God. Owning up to yourself, presenting yourself broken and sinful before God and exposing your hidden self and hidden sins to the world.

And here is the amazing thing: like this psalmist, we receive grace before our God and are loved and accepted just as we are. With all of our brokenness and sins laid bare, God wraps us in a big hug and whispers words of love and comfort into our hearts.

So are you ready to accept the title of a son or daughter of Korah? Are you ready to expose your sinful self, your broken self, to God and lay it all at His feet? Are you ready to be amazed at the grace and love that falls upon you at the very moment that this happens? I hope so. And I pray that God changes your identity again during this season of Lent from a son or daughter of Korah, a broken, sinful identity, to a son or daughter of God, a whole, grace-filled identity.

Let us pray.

3.6.11--Joining in the Symphony

I love music. I was one of those babies that could sing before I could talk and was dancing not long after entering this world. Growing up, I was always singing along with something: either the radio, or my walkman, or even just the song was that was stuck in my head. I didn’t ever really need to hear music to sing a long, music was pretty much perpetually playing over and over in my head. As Jess will probably attest, this has not changed at all as I’ve grown older.

Even now, as I’m sure y’all have come to realize, I love to sing, and I love to sing loud. Especially when the songs are praises to God, I sing out, and I sing strong. As I’m sure you’ve also come to realize, this does not always mean that I sound good while singing. I am just about tone-deaf, I sing a little through my nose, and I still do not really know what “pitch” is. Luckily for me, Holy Scripture does not say sing pretty. Instead, as our Scripture today attests, we are called to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. A loud and joyful noise, not necessarily a pretty one. God hears our praises and is please by them, no matter the musical quality. My brother once made the comment that if God is pleased by my singing, God must be extremely tone-deaf. But that’s okay. That does not stop me from singing loud and singing proud for my God.

This has always been the case, but I have not always been as comfortable with it as I am now. During services at FUMC Burnet, as I was growing up, people used to turn around and look at me when I sang in worship. I hated it. I felt like a spectacle, when all I was trying to  do was sing to my Lord. So, I moved seats, and moved my family with me. Our “designated pew” went from being the back row to the front row. I figured this way, the people behind me could stare all they wanted but I did not have to see them. My worship could continue uninterrupted.

But you know, I have always wanted to be able to do more than just sing along in worship. I have always wanted to make the music that accompanied peoples’ worship, to engage in some way in the leading of worship. So I started working up different songs on my saxophone during the breaks in HS band. At first, I stuck to Christmas songs because they are easy, catchy, and everyone knows them. Yeah, I was that kid in high school that would play Christmas songs in October. Then, to the excitement of everyone in band with me, I moved on to other hymns and praise songs that people knew.

Here’s the problem with the saxophone, though: You have to keep it in tune. And since we all know that I do not have an ear for tune or pitch, it is probably not the ideal instrument with which for me to be leading worship. I have tried guitar and piano, and even though I love them both I just did not have the time or patience to devote to learning them. So I was stuck with singing, to many peoples’ detriment.

Then, in college, I was introduced to the djembe. I fell in love instantly. The simplicity of this drum paired with its dynamic uses drew me in. I bought my own as soon as I was able and I jumped at every chance that I could to play with any and everyone in worship. I had found my instrument to play my part in the song of life.

The Psalms are full of calls to take up instruments and raise your voice in praise to God. The final handful especially are replete with this language, urging everyone to respond to God through whatever musical and worshipful means available: cymbal, gong, horn, clapping, lyre, flute, harp, drum, voices… they’re all here. We are called to raise up praise to God on these and more, as if we were putting on a show for the Audience of One.

But God is more than just an audience in this. He is the Director as well. Did you know that over a third of the Psalms are dedicated to the “Director of Music?” the psalmist understood our lives as symphonies devoted to God: musical numbers counted off by the beat of the Almighty’s heart; melodies developed to carry His love and grace up into the air; harmonies to fill the space of eternity with a message of His mercy. We are the musicians; God is the Director.

So what part do you play in this cosmic song? Do you help carry the melody like a flute, producing beautifully crafted phrases that brighten even the darkest day? Are part of the harmony, adding complexity and depth to the song? Or are you part of the rhythm, pushing the tune forward and causing everyone to clap their hands and tap their heels?

I pray that we might all take up our instruments in the symphony of life, and I pray that our praises will bring a smile to our Director of Music, our Audience of One. 

2.13.11--Learning the Lyrics

As I am sure Jessica will attest to, I am horrible about remembering the lyrics to songs. Now, I maintain that part of this is not my fault but the fault of the artist. If they cannot enunciate well enough for me to understand what they are saying, then how can I be held responsible for learning the correct words? So I will, on occasion, make up the lyrics for a song. If it sounds close enough, who is going to be able to tell the difference, right?

There is one song by Brad Paisley, one of Jessica’s and my favorite country artists, that includes the phrase “and we’re lost but holding hands.” But right as he sings the line, the music picks up and he kind of runs the words together. So, for the longest time, I had no idea what this phrase actually was, so I would sing the phrase that I thought it was—“and we’re lost before we ask” every time the song came on the radio. It does not make any sense, I know, but it worked with the rhyme scheme… sort of… and it fit the tune of the song, so if I sang it with enough confidence, hopefully no one would ever realize I did not actually know the words!

Well, one day I was driving a friend of a friend on an errand and the song came on the radio. We were both singing along, and when we got to that line, I sang what always had sung. Now this girl was one of the people with whom I was really more of an acquaintance than anything else, and honestly, she annoyed me to no end. This particular occasion is one example of why. When she heard what I had sung, she turned to me and said “Umm… those are not the words. It’s ‘and we’re lost but holding hands.’ You really shouldn’t sing songs if you don’t know the words.”

            Now, this took me aback for two reasons. The first was because I was I was doing her a favor by giving her a ride and here she was actually critically evaluating my singing! Only Jess is allowed to do that. The second reason was because she was right. I had been unknowingly singing this song wrong for years. I felt like her little quip had shaken me to the core. I really didn’t know the words to this song that I’ve loved for years? If I was wrong about that, what else in life am I wrong about?

Now, obviously, I might have over-reacted about the implications of not knowing a line from a song. I mean, it is just a song, right? The world would have continued turning, my life would probably be exactly the same, even if that song had never been written. So what if I had a line wrong. But none of like to hear that something that we know to be true is in fact false. None of us like to hear that we’ve been doing something wrong for years—maybe our whole lives—without ever actually knowing it. It’s embarrassing. It’s humiliating. It can even sometimes truly hurt to hear.

And yet this is exactly what Jesus is doing in the Sermon on the Mount. He is taking laws given from God and recorded by Moses and He is reinterpreting them for the people of God, showing them that over the years they had greatly skewed their understanding of the Law. The Jewish people had strayed far from their covenantal relationship with God, had lost the ability to see the truth of the Torah and the real message behind God’s laws. They had been singing the wrong lyrics for centuries, millennia. And Jesus comes in and corrects them, saying to God’s people that they had been singing the wrong words all along and then working to teach them the right ones.

Today, I want to focus with you on the first topic that Jesus discusses with His listeners. The first thing that Christ brings up is murder. Now, “thou shalt not kill” is one of the ten big ones, right? And it sounds pretty straightforward. Don’t kill. But you see, Jesus knew his target audience. He knew their hearts. I mean, He was one of them, and He was the Creator of all of them. Jesus knew that the Jewish people were an actively oppressed people under Roman rule. And before that they were under Greek rule. And before that Persian. And before that Babylonian. And let us not forget about all of the years they were slaves in Egypt! They longed for freedom, and many of them wanted it no matter the cost. How many of them had looked at a Roman centurion, sitting so proudly on top of his war horse, and thought “If only God hadn’t forbidden it, I would kill you now where you sit”? And so Jesus throws down the truth: even the malicious thought towards your neighbor is a sin. Holding that grudge, carrying that anger, should be seen as just as bad a sin, for it keeps the individual from being able to truly minister to that neighbor and it mars the individual’s soul. That anger and hatred go so far as to interfere with one’s relationship with God, for how can you love the Creator and yet hate something fearfully and wonderfully made in His image? Therefore, get right with your neighbor before you come to the Lord’s table, otherwise you won’t be able to get right with God.

My friends, what would happen if we ascribed to this in our lives? What if, before we came to the communion table each month we took the necessary time to seek out those whom we had wronged or who had wronged us and we worked to seek reconciliation with them? I know that this is obviously not an easy thing to do all the time, and yet our Savior requires it of us.

One of the times that I really struggled with this was my last semester at TLU. Someone that I considered to be a friend turned his back on Jess and me over a misunderstanding that led to Jess having to find someplace to live for a couple of months and me feeling guilty and betrayed. I wanted to confront him. I wanted to yell at him. I wanted him to feel the emotional pain he had caused me. And after feeling angry and bitter about it for a month or so, I talked to a pastor friend of mine about it, asking if he thought I should confront the guy. My friend read this section of Matthew to me and asked what I thought I should do to get right with God about it?

So I ended up writing my estranged friend an email, apologizing to him and asking if we could meet up to patch things up. And even though his response was unkind and not what I had hoped for, I felt much better about it. I had done everything I could to clear things up, and my heart was finally right with myself and with my God.

So is your heart right with God in this way? Is there anyone with whom God is telling you that you should seek reconciliation before you come again to the table?

Jess and I now play a little game in the car when we listen to music. When one of us sings the wrong lyrics or messes up the song in some way, we start the song over and sing it until we both get the entire song right. I remember one car ride that we started a certain song over 15 times before we sang it right! It was extremely annoying, but I must say that we sure do know all of the words to that song now!

I think that sometimes following the teachings of Christ requires the same process. We have to be ready to try and try again until we get is right, rejoicing in the fact that Christ is urging us onward. I pray that we will answer the call to follow Jesus’ true interpretation of the Law. I pray that we seek true reconciliation with our neighbors. And I pray that we will keep trying to be better and more faithful followers of Christ, no matter how long it takes us to learn the lyrics.

Amen. 

11/12/2010--By Our Love

By Our Love: A Call to Renewed Identity and Renewed Purpose

Let us open with a word of prayer. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be found pleasing and acceptable to You, our Rock and our redeemer. Speak to me and through this day, oh God, so that the message we hear would not be my own, but would be Your word for Your people. This we ask and pray in Your Son’s holy name. Amen.

            Our story begins at the Roman Coliseum. The gladiator games are in full swing, and the event has once again led to a packed stadium. A sold out crowd fills the seats, everyone jumpy and excited as the anticipation for the awaiting carnage reaches untold levels. They have all come out to witness the ultimate spectacle—a fight to the death. The electrically charged crowd takes in a collective breath as the gladiators enter the sand-covered arena and, after saluting to Caesar, begin to fight. The air rings with the sound of sword clashing against sword, and every eye is glued to the center of the ring as the battle continues. It is shortly evident that our warriors are evenly matched, neither able to secure an advantage over the other.

And so, the battle continues. Until one of the gladiators slips on a small rock and his concentration is broken for a split second. The other fighter sees his opening and strikes, knocking away his opponent’s sword and quickly bringing him to his knees. He does not kill his opponent, though. Instead, he looks up to Caesar, as protocol dictates, and awaits his command. You see, if one gladiator managed to best the other without first inflicting mortal damage, one of two things would happen: Caesar would either stretch out his hand and put his thumb up in the air, signifying that the loser had fought a good fight and that mercy was to be shown to him, or Caesar would stretch out his hand and put his thumb down, commanding the victor to take his due reward and kill the gladiator because he had not shown the bravery and skills needed to earn salvation.

So Caesar stood from his throne and stretched his arm out, leaving it hanging in front of him as he listened to the shouts from the crowd. He knew that all eyes were on him, and he was going to milk this moment for all it was worth. The crowd seemed torn. Half were yelling for thumbs up, shouting things like “He fought well! Show mercy!” while others were succumbing to their carnal natures and shouting for blood. Whichever stance they had taken, all of the spectators were on their feet, yelling at the top of their lungs.

Everyone, that is, except for a little monk named Telemachus who was sitting on the very top row of seating. If there were a nosebleed section at the Coliseum, he would be sitting in it. Telemachus had been praying during the match, and while everyone around him was shouting, he finished his prayer and rose to his feet. Then, in his quiet voice, he said six words: “In the name of God, stop.”

Now, everyone was yelling, so not many people heard him. In fact, only the people on either side of him caught what he had said. But he took a step down and said again, “In the name of God, stop.” The people around him were nudging those next to them and pointing to the little monk. Soon more and more people had stopped yelling and were staring wondrously at Telemachus, watching as he made his way down the steps of the Coliseum and saying in his quiet voice every few steps, “In the name of God, stop.”

Finally, the entire stadium was completely silent as they watched this little monk make his way onto the sandy arena, move right in between the two bewildered gladiators, and say one final time, “In the name of God, stop.” Now, no one knew what to do about this, least of all the gladiators. So they did what they always to when they were in an uncertain situation: they looked up to Caesar for guidance. And Caesar, still standing in his box, stretched out his arm… and put his thumb down. Seeing this, the gladiators ran Telemachus through.

A man who had been sitting by the monk gathered his family and left the stadium. On the other side of the stands, a group of businessmen grabbed their things and left as well. Here a group of fifty left, there a hundred. Soon, the only people left in the Coliseum were Caesar, his guards, and the gladiators still standing on either side of the dead body of Telemachus.

This was the last time in history that there was ever a fight to the death in Rome’s Coliseum. Telemachus changed the world by standing up for what he believed was right. He saw injustice around him, and he refused to sit idly back while the world around him sank farther and farther into sin and carnage. And, friends, we are called to do the same. We are all called to change the world, just as this little monk did so long ago. And like Telemacus, we are called to change the world through a very special medium: love.

Our first Gospel lesson today was Luke 10:25-37. In this story, we heard Jesus’ response to the question “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus turns the question back on the questioner, and we learn that the Law (which we know today as the first five books of the Old Testament) holds that above all else you must “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love is the key. We are to love God with our absolute everything and love everyone else as well as we love ourselves.

In our second Gospel reading from John 13:34-35, Jesus is speaking to His disciples, and He gives them a commandment: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Once again, we are called to love. We are even told that our love is the standard by which the world will know that we are Christ’s disciples. Love is absolutely crucial for the faithful follower of Jesus. Our purpose in life, therefore, is to show everyone we meet the love of Jesus Christ so that they might know that we are Christians and so that they might some day come to know Christ as we do. We do this by living our lives in a way that reminds the entire world who we are and Who’s we are.

The truth, though, as scary as it may be to admit, is that the church as a whole is not good about this. Time and again throughout history we fall into sins of pride as individuals and people, raising ourselves up while at the same time beating others down. Whether we speak of the crusades, the inquisition, the treatment of slaves, or any other myriad of topics, it is easy to see that the command to love is sometimes lost on the people who should be upholding it.

And, sadly, this is something with which we as the church still struggle today. We have groups here in America that preach a gospel of hate across the nation, so caught up in their personal piety and so high up on their personal soap boxes that they either cannot see or refuse to see how their actions are widening the schism that forms between the church and the world. We have actual churches that will picket soldiers’ funerals to speak out against the war, disrupting an event already hard for many to bear to push their ideals at people who are hurting and struggling with the loss of a loved one. We have actual churches with websites such as godhatesfags.com that are so entrenched in getting their point across they do not see how they are hurting, alienating, and humiliating people that already struggle with their identity in a world that has constantly marginalized them. We have actual churches that will crowd around the sidewalks of abortion clinics, yelling until they are red in the face at young women entering and exiting the building, many of whom are drowning in shame already and do not need anyone else telling them that they are evil and that they are murderers. We have actual churches that would rather burn another religion’s holy book than work hand in hand with them to strive for peace in a war-torn world.

We as a church—and I do not simply mean this local congregation, I mean the body of Christ throughout the world—we as a church must come to understand that above all else we must act out of love. We cannot try to impact and change the world by hate or by violence or by any other means but love, because to do so would be to abandon the very thing for which Christ stood. Please don’t think this has anything to do with my political views or your political views.  This is about how we choose to represent our God and our faith. Nothing more. Are we answering God’s call to change the world through love? Or are we trying to change it some other way?

We must find a way to act out of a place of love. Then and only then can we start changing the world as Telemachus did.  And when this happens, we will also be better able to see the injustices around us, for God would not have called us to go out and change the world if there were not reason for it and if God were not going to open our eyes to the needs of the world. Like the Good Samaritan, we will see the stranger lying battered and bruised on the road and actively seek to help him, for we see in him a need that can be filled and a person who needs love. No longer will we be able to walk ignorantly through life like the priest and Levite in Jesus’ parable, for God has opened our eyes to the injustices around us and expects us to act accordingly.

So what are the injustices around us? I would like to share one with you today that has been all over the news recently: the tragic suicides of so many young people around the nation. Friends, there are so many people around us who struggle with their identity in society and how others view them. Some, feeling lost and alone simply because they are different, have chosen to end their lives rather than face these towering giants. One such person was Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University, not thirty minutes from here. We get in a mindset of “these problems are other peoples’ problems and don’t apply to me,” but, friends, this happened right down the road! I’d like to share some of Tyler’s story with you. What follows are sections from a Yahoo! News article from September 30^th of this year:

The death of a Rutgers University freshman stirred outrage and remorse among classmates who said they wished they could have stopped the teen from jumping off a bridge after secret video of his sexual encounter with a man was streamed online.

Tyler Clementi, 18, jumped off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River last week.

"Had he been in bed with a woman, this would not have happened," said Rutgers student Lauren Felton, 21, of Warren. "He wouldn't have been outed via an online broadcast, and his privacy would have been respected and he might still have his life."

Clementi had just started at Rutgers… and was a talented violinist whose life revolved around music, friends and mentors said.

Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi, and fellow Rutgers freshman Molly Wei… used a webcam to surreptitiously transmit a live image of Clementi having sex Sept. 19 and…  tried to webcast a second encounter on Sept. 21, the day before Clementi's suicide.

Gov. Chris Christie… sent a warning to students who taunt or pull pranks on others.

"You don't know the feelings of the people on the receiving end of that," he said. "You can't possibly know. There might be some people who could take that type of treatment and deal with it, and there might be others, as this young man obviously was, who are much more greatly affected by it."

His death also stirred outrage at his new school.

"The notion that video of Tyler doing what he was doing can be considered a spectacle is just heinous," said Jordan Gochman, 19, of Jackson, who didn't know Clementi. "It's intolerant, it's upsetting, it makes it seem that being gay is something that is wrong and can be considered laughable."

Other students who knew Clement were upset that they didn't do more to help him.

"I wish I could have been more of an ally," said Georges Richa, a freshman from neighboring New Brunswick.

"No person should have to endure such shame and humiliation," said Alcaro, who grew up with Clementi in Bergen County, west of New York City. "I'm disillusioned that in a generation that prides itself on acceptance and tolerance, people can still be so closed-minded and downright hateful."

Friends, this is absolutely unacceptable. There is no reason whatsoever that anyone should ever feel so lost and alone that the only way to find release is in death. No reason whatsoever. And this is not because, as many people far removed have remarked, that they should be stronger or they should not be as cowardly or anything like that. There is no way for us to place ourselves fully in their shoes, so we cannot know just how strong or weak they are. Besides, we as Christians are told that the right to judge and condemn is the Lord’s, not our own.

The reason, brothers and sisters, that it is unacceptable that anyone should ever feel so lost and alone that suicide is the only answer is that we as Christians should be working so hard to make sure that everyone feels accepted, included, and loved that there is no opportunity for anyone to feel otherwise. Whether we are referring to the most respectable member of the church or the homeless woman living under a bridge or the homosexual teenage boy attending the nearby school, we as the church should be showering any and everyone we can in the love of Christ. Everyone should know beyond a shadow of a doubt that even if the world marginalizes and oppresses, the church will always welcome and embrace with open arms.

Friends, our world is full of hate, and we have to stand up to it. It is easy to see these kinds of things as happening far away, and to tell ourselves that they don’t pertain to us and our world. But we could not be more wrong. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in one of his famous sermons, urges his listeners to actively engage the wrongdoings of the world. “We must learn that to passively accept injustice is to cooperate with it, and thereby become a participant in its evil.” Though Dr. King ‘s message was aimed at stopping the racial prejudice and injustice of his time, it is absolutely prevalent for us today. We cannot sit back while this kind of hate continues to spread. We cannot allow this apathy of the individual’s feelings to fester and grow. We as a church must stand up. We as a church must be God’s beacon of hope in this world. And we as a church must be the first to show love to those who only know hate.

This is just one instance where an injustice is prevalent in the world and we as the church have the opportunity to combat it in a very real way. We have the chance to be the forerunners of our nation in showing love and acceptance of everyone, no matter whom they are or what they have done.

So how is God calling you individually to change the world? As we saw with Telemachus, it does not take the entire body of Christ to usher in the Kingdom. It takes one person willing to stand up for what is right in a way that shines forth the love of Christ. So what is it that God is calling you to do or to stand up against? How will you begin or continue to change the world for your Lord? And how will we, the body of Christ in this community, begin and continue to change the world through love? What injustices do you see around you? How can the church through love right those wrongs? I pray that we would become a church that, though we meet here in this place for worship once a week, would be constantly at work together in the world around us, and I pray that you will boldly answer God’s call to change the world through love, so that everyone will know that we are disciples of Jesus the Christ.

I want to leave you with the first verse of a song that I have known for years. I grew up listening to this song, but I do not think that I fully grasped the meaning of it until much more recently. Listen to the words of this song, and then we will spend a moment in silent prayer and meditation, speaking with God about ways in which God is calling us to change the world and listening to what God says in response:

“We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. And we pray all unity may one day be restored. And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

           Lord, thank You for speaking Your word to us on this day. Allow Your Spirit to live within us, guiding us into action throughout our lives, so that we might truly begin to change the world around us through the love that Your Son first showed to us. We thank You and we love You. Amen.

Let's Get This Party Started

Aloha!

My name is Wes Cain and this is my blog. I am a follower of Christ with a lot to say about my God, and--at the urgings of some of my friends and family--I decided to put some of my sermons up on the interweb for everyone to read.

So, usually in these first blog posts, people tell a little bit about themselves and and share why they think you should read their blog. I'm not going to do this, though. I tend to write my sermons in a way that people learn about me through them. They tend to be personal and share different parts of my life and identity with the people who hear them (or who read them on this blog). So, instead of boring you with a mini-autobiography in this first blog, I thought it would be better to kind of go on a journey with you, sharing little insights about me each week.

I will say one word of explanation for the title of my blog. It is meant to serve two functions: to tell a little bit about me and to tell a little bit about my purpose. First of all, anyone who knows me knows that I am not comfortable in any type of shoe but my flip-flops. Even in the cold of winter, I will sometimes break them out just to remind my feet what true comfort and freedom is. My friends and family can attest that, if I had it my way, I wouldn't wear anything but flip-flops. I even tried (unsuccessfully) to wear flip-flops with my tux at my wedding. Now, my current church placement does not really allow me to dress the way I would like, and on Sundays you can find my in my suit and dress shoes, but I guarantee that, as soon as I am able, I will preach in my flip-flops every occasion I can manage. The second part of the blog title is a reminder for the world and myself that the message that God has given me to preach is not always one that is easy to digest. Sometimes God needs a word of challenge spoken, and word that pulls people out of their comfort zones and pushes them into action. Sometimes God needs a word spoken that calls people out on certain actions, not for the sake of placing blame and judgment, but for the sake of accountability and helping the Church be the Church. Just as we must always be ready to hear this type of message, we must always be ready to give this type of message as well, allowing God to use us as not only His hands and feet but also His mouth.

I read a pretty enlightening quote today that I hope will work as a summing up of what I'm trying to do with this blog (and, honestly, my ministry in general): "If the point of literature is to turn blood into ink, then the point of the sermon is to turn the ink back into blood." I hope that my sermons here serve as a way of bringing to life the Gospel message for you, not for my sake and not to see how many hits I can get on my blog, but so that the Living God might plant the Living Word in your hearts.

Thanks for reading, and God bless!