The Brave Work

 

The Brave Work

1 John 1.5-10

 

 

Forgiveness is in our sights as we finish the rest of chapter 1 from 1 John this morning.

 

 Fundamental Theology

As we jump into this next section, the door is opened to the subject of forgiveness and what that means to us as Christian people. Right off the bat, I think it is worth making some distinctions between what people believe in different groups and, maybe more importantly, why people believe what they do. There is a notion within some well meaning churches we need to be very fundamental about what is taught about the Christian faith. What does it means to be fundamental? You will find in groups that bear words and title as such to be very rigid about what they put into practice. Baptism has be done exactly as Jesus would have done it. Jesus went down into the river, fully immersed under the water. "That's how it has to be for everybody. Because Jesus did it that way." Well, some groups put you all the way down in the water. Some pour a pitcher of water over your head. Some sprinkle. The really is no specific and preferred way to do it. The day of Pentecost can be a tricky subject to jump into with Charismatic, Pentecostal and Apostolic groups. We see twelve guys up on a balcony speaking and a whole audience down on the ground hearing their own languages and even their own dialects. It is a truly misunderstood moment in Christian history. From it has come so much rhetoric about what a Christian has to have in their life and on display for others to see and hear. So much of fundamental theology goes straight to some form of practice that we are supposed to be doing in front of others to show that we are truly people of Jesus. Very little of what I have read and studied from fundamental groups actually and simply lies in the basics about what we are to believe.  

Forgiveness is about as basic and fundamental as it gets when we are speaking about what we believe as Christians. What people really mean to say when they want to speak about the fundamentals of learning something is that "this is what we need to know in order to grow and understand something". Preschool and kindergarten teachers know this better than anyone. In order to send their students on to the next grade, they need to be able to understand and perform with certain basic forms of learning under their belt. We've been familiar with those since many of us were in grade school. Reading. Writing. Arithmetic. If you have the big three down, then you have a great chance of moving on to the next grade. If there was a big three in the religion of Christianity, then forgiveness would certain be a part of that. "The disciple whom Jesus loved" would have seen and felt the power of such mercy and giving from the Savior himself. Here is another reason John's opening words are so moving. Those beginning years of walking with Jesus culminated with a great extension of forgiveness. The washing of feet. A meal around a table. Being with him at the garden. It wouldn't be until later that they would look down at those feet and remember. When they did, boy it had to be a game changer for all of them. Such fundamentals are the building blocks where a foundation can be laid and then built upon.

Get in the Booth

How does it work? How do we obtain forgiveness? If there was a fundamental inside of a fundamental it might be considered a character trait. That one item here would be called confession. If we are to be people that know what forgiveness is in our hearts, then we are people who are not afraid to share with God (or with others. when needed) what needs to be forgiven. "If we confess out sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins". There are some who I would like to show this to and say, "If you want to get fundamental about something, how about this?" This only one way for salvation. In the person and name of Jesus Christ. There is one thing that makes Christianity distinct from many other world religions. That is forgiveness. You can't work your way into this. There is no amount of good work that can be done to make up for our sin. There is forgiveness and that is it. There is only one way to obtain that forgiveness. Confess your sins. Tell God all about it. Drag that stuff out into the light. Don't hide anything. Don't think that you can keep some stuff hidden or out of sight and no one, especially God, needs to know about it. "If we walk in the light as He is in the light" It's all part of walking with Jesus. The Christian faith is about following and doing what we know is the right thing to do. 

Confession has been a long standing part of our practice that has taken a very literal means in the way of Catholic branch of the Christian world. Frank McCourt was an Irish-American teacher and writer who passed away in 2009. McCourt tells the story of the day that lead up to his first Communion. It can be a very serious and nerve-racking experience depending on the strictness of your particular Catholic priest. Frank shares the experience in his memoir. He was late for the service that morning. He wound up coming home and throwing up in the backyard. Because of the very literal way Catholics view communion as the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ, Frank's grand-mom is worried that she now has Jesus all over her backyard. As part of his baptismal weekend, he went to confession the day before the service. Now it's Sunday and his grandmother wants to know how she should handle cleaning up the mess. So, off Frank goes to the confessional booth. "Forgive me father. It has ben one day since my last confession." To which the priest replies, "One day?? What could a boy your age have possibly done in one day?" Frank recalls the events to the priest. "My grandma wants to know how she should clean it up." His priest, rubbing his forehead, suggest that she simply "clean God off with some water." As Frank arrives back home, his grandma wants to know if it should be "holy water or regular water?" Franks soon finds himself back in the confessional booth. "Forgive me father. It has been about an hour since my last confession." The priest can't believe it. "An hour? What in the world?" To which McCourt relays the message from his grandma about how to "clean up God". The priest gruffly suggest that "regular water will be fine" with a stern suggestion to "tell your grandmother to quit bothering me!" 

Confession should be thought of as a moment of accountability. Accountability is big deal in Wesleyan circles. It is a major emphasis behind why John Wesley began meeting like The Holy Club, where pastors and elders could come together and share. The cluster groups we still have to this day are meant to be historical models of that kind of way to stay in touch and be supportive to each other in the clergy ranks. I am a part of the Baltimore-Lancaster group where I have been for the last 18 years. For the most part, it has been a good place to find help and prayer and a shoulder to lean on. Elsewhere in Paul's epistles to the church eh has visited, the Apostle would suggest to his audience that if they come into a situation where sin is evident that his readers should restore one with gentleness and meekness.

Here's the flip side to that coin. The way of confession requires a person to open up and share what is on their plate, what is in their darkness. There is a necessity to not hide anything. The consequences of our sin can make life difficult. Sometimes there are situations that require us to be verbal about what has happened in our lives. Sadly, with the way our society views certain crimes and matters, it might wind up being something that follows a person for the rest of our lives. Staying in the light can be something that becomes less than trivial. Depending on what sins have been committed, the idea of confession will be a practice that goes with us a long way into the future. I recall the first time I met my biological father. I was 30 years old in May of 2001. Oh, the stories I had heard. I wanted more than just stories, though. I wanted confession. I wanted honesty. All I heard for more than an hour were just wild ponderings and items that had no way of being authenticated. From being in some back alley in a gunfight in Florida to working for the government and being one of three operatives in a room just a few feet from Saddam Hussein. I got nothing that I wanted out of that evening. I struggle with the whole conversation still. Was it important that he confess his sins to me? Did he actually make peace with God? Truly, it is God he needed to confess his sins to and make things right, not me. I found out a year ago that he passed in 2013. Thought he was still alive. So many unanswered questions. So much left in the darkness. There is a need for truth and honesty. There is much to be desired from such openness and sharing. If we want God to be open with us then we need to be open with Him. We need to put our souls out there and share what we need to confess. It is the only way to find true forgiveness.

Dealing with the Crazies

My biological father was the son of a backwoods, truck-driving preacher man. My biological grandfather made his living early on driving truck for the Teamsters during the 50's and 60's. If you've ever seen the Netflix movie The Irishman, then you might be familiar with what I am referencing. You might also see my desire to have so many questions answered. The Teamsters were right in the middle of the long detailed history with the Mob. My grandfather drove truck for them. As far as I know, my biological grandmother is still alive and from what I understand, she still gets a retirement check from her husband's account. It's mind boggling to think where all that money came from and how the events during that time period would have gone down. I've got family lines that went right into it. 

My grandpa, My Poppaw, (My mom's dad) would tell me stories of growing up in that world. When my mom met my biological father, there were experiences to see that kind of church they were starting. My Poppaw would relay to me events of wild services and lots of tongue speaking and shouting and hollering. People down on the altar yelling as they prayed. My grandpa never had much of a stomach for church and religion. I know he believed. I witnessed it late in his life as he struggled with ALS - Lou Gehrig's Disease. It had taken his voice and his speaking. But, I saw him in the emergency ward at the VA in Cleveland with his arms lifted up, praying for all he was worth. I do feel he made his peace with God before he was gone. But, all the stories of my biological crazies still stick with me. So much weird thinking and personal inflection into what they did and believed. It was pretty crazy for people like John who is writing these scriptures we read. We made mention of the world in which he is crafting these letters when we opened this up last week. Yes, there were those who would suggest that they had some higher form of understanding about God than what these twelve men had who actually walked with Jesus. Usually, the explanation behind why they felt they had this higher and bolder way of knowledge came with some pretty weird teachings. The people doing this in the time of the Apostle John were suggesting that they had no sin. Usually, the way around the teachings of Christianity will take the course of finding a way to do without Jesus. These strange teachers are suggesting that they do have any sin. If they don't have any sin, then what did Jesus die for? Their silly attempt to suggest they don't need God's mercy and forgiveness is just one of many teaching our ears will hear when we jump into the world of trying to share this message of Jesus Christ with other people. 

The context here opens the door to it, so I'm going there. Dealing with strange teachings and a world that doesn't understand free forgiveness is one I don't mind walking around in. In fact, I find it engrossing, sometimes hilarious. I love talking with Jehovah's Witnesses. If you ever have some show up at your house and you don't want to talk to them, feel free to give me a call. I'll be right over. Here is simply another example of what happens when people try to eliminate Jesus Christ from the equation of salvation. It's the late 1790s and a Congregationalist preacher name Charles Taze Russell had developed a bad taste in his mouth for the teachings judgment and damnation. What he seeks to do about it is to eliminate those teachings and find a way to work around them. The number one thing they do is to find a way to eliminate Jesus Christ from any need or worth to their religious outlook. Even though they are walking around with a King James bible in their hands, what they are trying to offer is a different explanation about what happens in the scriptures. Jesus doesn't actually die on a cross for our sins. They was just a spiritual mirage for our eyes. It was actually the arch angel Michael with a spiritual shroud of sort over him for people to witness. If there explanation stands up, then the next step to focus everyone's attention on the name Jehovah from the Old Testament will hold because we never actually take the step into this New Testament salvation presented about Jesus. Jesus holds the keys of judgment and damnation in his hands, according to what we read in the scriptures. Jesus is presented as The Way, The Truth and The Life. If he is not actually who we believe him to be, then he doesn't actually have the power we say that he has. Out the window goes forgiveness. The group formed as The Watchtower Society now has the power to inflict whatever kinds of works and practice they want on the people who choose to follow their teachings. And, it only gets worse from there. 

As I shared, they are walking around with a King James bible in their hands. They don't have a definitive book of their own that they think they can pull their teachings from. Any Christian with a bit of faith and scriptural knowledge in their hearts can take that KJV and open it and share exactly what needs to be shared in order to refute what it is that a Jehovah's Witness is presenting. Until 1950. It is during this year that the Watchtower takes the KJV and makes their first word change. 

While we lived in Baltimore, we had many a JW stop by our house. I always welcomed them at the front porch. I have stood and talked with solo speakers and with duo pairings. It amazes me how insistent they are about the validity of what they are presenting. A big piece of me wants to believe that they already know the lie they are presenting. But, maybe their eyes are not open to it. Human beings are easily deceived. We are like sheep being led astray. And, so often we follow. This first change made by The Watchtower Society shows just how easily it can be done and then accepted. The Greek word for GOD is theos. Our JW friends have conveniently changed capital G - GOD -  to a lesser, small g - "a god". When someone comes to my front door to speak with me, I have no problem taking that NWT book right out of their hands and going straight to this verse. Every single person I have spoken with wants to tell me that the Greek word in this verse is logos. Logos means Word. The verse is supposed to read "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the word was God." They have tried to call him "a god". Not only have they complicated matters by creating another god, the word there is clearly theos. If we are to believe our Watchtower translators, then the verse would read, "The Word was The Word" instead of "The Word was a god". And I have looked back into plenty of blank stares from JW folks who can't get it through their heads the inconsistency they just created. It takes a lot of grace to keep it together and to try to restore a person gently as Paul would tell us to do in Ephesians. Its real easy to get bent out of shape and lose it arguing about theology with someone who is blinded from the truth. 

Confessing our sins is brave work. Trying to make things right with God and with other people is some the hardest work there is to do. Standing up for Jesus and trying to help people see the truth is even braver work, indeed. Forgiveness is not just something we should expect or even demand. It is something that is sensitive and empathetic. We open our hearts and we allow others to bear their souls, just like God would do for us. Trying to direct people to Jesus takes the same kind of grace. Many will not want to hear. Many will not want to be shown where they have gotten off track. We still have do the ministry of meeting their needs - whether they see the need for forgiveness, or not.

In The Beginning

 

 

 A Walk Through the epistles of The Apostle John

July 24,2002

In The Beginning
1 John 1.1-5

If you grew up in church hearing the name of Jesus frequently, then its hard to fathom dealing with someone who has not heard the name or doesn't believe. 

If there is one thing people in the church are out of touch with it is the fact that there are people all around us who have no idea what we are talking about when we mention anything having to with Jesus, or asking for forgiveness for our sins, or turning one's life over to God to let Him call the shots and let Him lead the way. (That latter part is something many folks in the church have not acquainted themselves with either. We'll see if we can remedy that.) In order to properly understand a letter like John has written here, we need to understand the world in which John is writing and speaking in. 

We have new Christians. This whole thing is something brand new on the face and scope of the earth. This Jesus was only here around 33 years and society only truly got a taste of him for about 3 and a half of those years before he dies, rises up from being dead and goes back to being with the Father in Heaven. You should read that and hear that exactly as I have put it into words. Because it might seem like I'm using some sarcasm or some jocularity as I say it. And, that;s exactly how some people will take the message of Jesus. It's hard to believe. It's hard to fathom. It's difficult to wrap the heart and brain around. This Jesus, born of a virgin girl, out of wedlock, created and filled with the Holy Spirit ("what's that?" someone might say) grows up in obscurity in Israel, of all places, and senses around the age of 30 that God has called Him to be the Messiah who will save the world from their sins. Not only that, He will tick off most of the people he is talking to, end up getting Himself killed by those masses and religious leaders only to rise from a tomb 3 days after being brutally beaten and hung on a cross. You want more? After rising from the grave, he tells those who will follow Him to prepare because the Holy Spirit is coming and will be poured out on them and they will be the ones to carry on the message and the work that began during his three and a half year ministry. And, you are being told to believe all this and put your trust and faith in the person of Jesus Christ for salvation from sin and promised a place in heaven when Jesus returns. Oh yea. He's coming back. And, it's going to be amazing. Bloodshed. War. Famine. (If we are to believe writings like the Book of Revelation, which John wrote based on a dream/vision he had while in prison on the Isle of Patmos) People giving their lives for this message about salvation in the name and person of Jesus Christ all because this salvation means more than anything else you can buy or find in this great big small world we live and die in. 

And, we wonder why people scoff at the idea.

It's More Than Just a Story

So, the year is 1996. I'm in my hometown of Shelby, OH. I am going to school at Mt Vernon Nazarene College and I think I have a pretty good grip on the message of Jesus Christ. The one thing I want to do is share that message with someone. The target audience I have in mind at that time is my own brother. We don't see much of each other. I decide I am going to stop by one day and talk to him. I walk over to his apartment to have this 'Jesus conversation' with him. When I arrive, I automatically think my brother has moved, because the person who answers the door cannot be my brother. It's 1996, as I mentioned. But, the person answering the door looks like something out of an Elton John music video. Striped shirt. Polka dot paints. Big glasses and wild hair. I'm looking right at him and I had to ask if he knew where my brother had moved to. This was the last address I knew where he lived. Then the voice coming from this person helps me realize it is my brother! I look him up and down and think I have time traveled back to the 1970s. He invites me in and we sit to chat for a bit. My brother has always been one to be a bit eccentric and carefree. He wonders what I'm up to and I tell him I wanted a chance to apologize. We have spoken about Jesus before. But, I really felt like maybe I was too pushy or demanding in my delivery. I can't apologize for the message of Jesus. He is Lord. He is the Savior. What he has done for everyone is the truth. What I could apologize for is the way I have delivered that message before. What my brother says to me that day will stay with me forever. "You know man, it's just story. It's like a fairy-tale. Like a lot of other stories we heard growing up." Whew. Had to take a deep breath on that. I have sat with other Christians at McDonald's and argued other theology, pounding the table and getting loud. I have spoken with some downright belligerent non-believers and wanted to shout and holler about some of the comments made. That day I had a different approach. This passage from 1 John is where I went. 

John is writing to a world where people are new to faith and they are in a world where people are hearing this message for the first time. It's a pill to swallow. He has to know that. It's hard to hang on to a message like that and trust in it when you see people around you being treated cruel, being hurt for the faith they want to believe in. John's word are meant to encourage these new believers living in a tough world as well as challenge those who would defy the message of salvation in Jesus. Last week, as we covered the overview of John's 1st letter, I mentioned something about 'starting at the beginning'. The beginning can be different for everyone. The beginning I think John is think about here is not Creation or anything to do with Jesus, per se, but the beginning of where it all started for the disciples. The first time Jesus spoke to them, calls their names, commanded them to follow. The beginning for this context is those three and a half years they spent walking and hearing and see first hand for themselves who Jesus is. They saw it with their own eyes. They touched it with their own hands. They were there. They were witnesses to it. When I have dealt with people like my brother who have their doubts and have a hard time believing this message, I take them here to 1 John 1 and share why I believe in this "story" of Jesus. It's not like any other story we have ever been told. It's the story that really matters. It's the one you can hold on to and trust with all your soul.

Other Options

Of course, there are other options than Jesus. Which is a main component of the historical background of why John writes these three epistle. It doesn't take long for other options to pop up and offer alternatives to believing in Jesus. There have always been other saviors to turn to. From the earliest times of Old Testament history, from the earliest times of mankind's beginnings, people have been crying out for salvation. They've just been calling on stone statues or metal contraptions. Sometimes they have been calling on other humans beings who would pose as "god". There are no shortages when it comes to false messiahs in our world. Got the update just a week or so ago about a guy in the Columbus area who has been going around disrupting churches on Sunday mornings. He'll claim he is the Messiah. Then he'll went an offering taken up for himself. He will demand to speak to the congregation and want an audience. Things really haven't changed much since John was writing working with new believers in the church. One of the matters the Apostle has to deal with is a group of people who would later be known as The Gnostics. They don't have that title quite yet, but this is certainly where it all begins. It seems there were others who would start popping up after Jesus is gone and claim to have some greater, stronger, bigger idea of what it means to know God. These early mystics would even claim to have more understanding and knowledge than these disciples/apostles who claim that they actually walked and talked with this Jesus. 

Take to Google and search "strange stories about messiahs" and you'll come across one about a man named Arnold Potter. Arnold Potter, a self-declared messiah who referred to himself as "Potter Christ", was a leader of a schismatic sect in the Latter Day Saint movement during the 1850s. On a mission to Australia in 1856, Potter claimed that he underwent a “purifying, quickening change,” whereby the spirit of Jesus Christ had entered his body causing him to become, “Potter Christ, Son of the living God.”

The following year, Potter returned from Australia and moved to California, where he quickly began to gather followers. Over the next year, Potter, along with his family and followers, moved throughout the country from California to Missouri to Iowa, where he would roam the streets in a white robe, preaching that he was the chosen one. Every week, “Potter Christ” would lead his devoted group in prayer sessions, and in 1872, he declared that the time had come for his ascension to Heaven.

Potter rode a donkey to the edge of a cliff, and with his followers watching in awe, he claimed that he would jump off only to ascend into Heaven, ultimately proving that he was indeed Christ, the Chosen One. While saying so, Potter turned around and leaped from the cliff. To everyone’s surprise, he did not ascend to heavens above; instead, he plummeted to his death. His bewildered and faithful followers ended up collecting their messiah’s mangled body and buried it, along with their shattered dreams and any form of logic.

Sharing In The Message

 One other item of note that we see in John's opening words is an emphatic plea for fellowship. When we all share in this message of Jesus, together, there is unity. Division happens when we get side tracked by matters than don't have to do with what we are supposed to be having unity in. It happens. Why do we have so many church denominations and groups across this country and around the world? People have to get sidetracked on something. At the core of many of these distinguished groups and churches is a similar message of Jesus Christ saving us from our sins. So, why all the division? Why so many different churches? Because someone thought this piece of theology, or that kind of church government, or a more exuberant worship style, was pretty important. John says he writes to his readers so that could hear that message about what was seen and heard so they could all have joy. The kind of joy John is focused on is where we all embrace the simplicity of knowing this story about who Jesus is. It's really that simple. "Do you believe in Jesus?" Yep! "Fantastic! Come on in." Jesus even prayed a prayer along those lines that we read back in John 17 before he gets to the cross. Jesus prayed that his followers would all be one. That they could all get on the same page. At that time they weren't. These twelve guys have argued about who was the greatest among them. A couple of them have asked if they could sit on his right and left hands in glory. They aren't focused on the person of Jesus. They are focused on themselves. If they could put all the talk about other matters asisde and just see Jesus as the most important item, they could have unity.

I stood at my niece's birthday party yesterday under a canopy outback while it was raining talking with her grandparents (her mom's parents). My niece's mother was raised Lutheran. Missouri Synod, to be exact. Pretty strict form of Lutheranism. The kind of church where you can't take communion unless you have joined the church through their group and denomination. We were down there at that church a few years ago for one of the kids baptism. They happened to be serving communion that day. I approached the minister to suggest and idea about having some bread and juice handy so that, maybe, I could serve all my Methodist folks who were present in the service. The Lutheran folks could go to their pastor and I could be "over here" with some items for the other people who weren't Lutheran. Oh, that idea did not fly. You do not take communion in a Missouri Synod church unless you were put through catechism in a Missouri Synod church. I found myself sitting next to my wife growling under my breath from the tongue lashing I had received. We laughed about that as we talked yesterday. My niece's grandmother had been raised Catholic. She married into a Lutheran family. She rolled her eyes at the mention of so much division and separatism. The two of them are now in a church with no on young people. No one under the age of 18 attends their church. They have seen so many leave and never come back. They wish people could just get together in the same room if they believe in Jesus. 

Depending on the manuscript that translators of the New Testament are working with, they might translate it "our" or "your". Either way works for the context of the passage. Because the focus is on the joy. And we only find that joy when we make it about something bigger than ourselves. Our joy is complete when we get together and put the person of Jesus between us. Your joy is complete when we find ourselves in the same room with people of like mindedness about Jesus. 

It doesn't get much better than that.

 Life In The Blind Spot

 An Overview of the Epistle of 1st John

Today I begin a new venture with a new theme. 

Those of you who had followed in the past have seen me use comfort food as an inspiration to write from using that inspiration for my messages. This time, the inspiration comes from some of the therapy I have been doing over the last couple of years. The notion that there are things we cannot see, or have not simply turned our heads to realize that they are there, is what I want to focus upon as we move forward. Walking in the Light is a major component of the 1st Epistle of John, the disciple whom Jesus loved and the Apostle who is a major component of a Gospel and whom three letters have been attributed. Revelation, his largest and most scrutinized message stands alone as a tribute to seeing and hearing the Lord. The Light of the World was his best friend. Jesus was his Lord and Master. Jesus is everything to us and meets our needs in a plethora of ways. With that in mind, with Jesus at the center of the message, we want to follow into John's letters over the next several weeks and months taking some chunks and bites of the words. (I might never fully loose that food inspiration from my messages.) Hey, this is the Word of God, the Bread of Life. It feeds our souls and nourishes our spirits. We need this like we need a good breakfast in the morning. We need this like we need someone to sit down with and talk things through. Whether that person is a friend and colleague or your parents or a counselor and therapist, the need to take the time to look and see and understand what it is we are dealing with in life is of utmost importance. 

John and the other disciples would have had all of this at their disposal. If Jesus is our All in All, if He is our everything, then he would have been the greatest counselor of all. We ascribe that name to Him, especially at Christmas time when we are hearing words from Handel's Messiah. The inspiration taken from Isaiah Chap 9 says to it's listeners...

Start at the Beginning

I've been there. I go in to talk to someone, either for my own benefit or with a person who needs to unload in front of me, and the usual response is, "I don't even know where to begin." More than once I have been told or I have had to instruct the person I am speaking with, "How about we start at the beginning." For the Christian, Jesus is the beginning and the ending. The Alpha and the Omega, from the Greek. We look to him for all we have and without Him there is nothing at all. John was especially focused on the beginning. Creation and the splendor of all that God has done. John saw Jesus at the one by which God spoke all things into existence. We see that wording repeated as we work our way through the scriptures. 

As I work through those three scriptures, it seems as if each step take us back a little further trying explain where it all began. We know about creation. We know God created all things. How did God do that? We can see from Genesis that the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. John takes his understanding of Jesus a step further in the opening of the Gospel story. Jesus is the Word. God spoke and all things came into existence. Jesus is that life giving Word. He was with God in the beginning. Yes, Jesus is God. Jesus came from God and is God in the flesh. Fully God. Fully man. The Incarnation of God. If we are looking at this from the blind spot of our finite existence, it is hard to comprehend let alone believe.

If we could put ourselves in the shoes of a Hebrew person who was raised to believe that a Messiah would one day come and save their people from the hardships and trials they were facing, it might be hard to accept that this son of a Jewish carpenter was the person they were waiting on. Put oneself in the shoes of an everyday American, European, Russian person or any other ethnic or social climate where we are challenged to accept the idea that this One could be the person we need to make our lives complete and the problem of belief could be equally stifling. This is just one of the things we were cover in the weeks ahead as we move through John's words to Christian reading his letters. 

Bring It All Into The Light

This idea of light and darkness is one we see in the opening words of Creation from Genesis. The world is in darkness. There is nothing. Historically, it is thought that Moses complied the first five books of the Old Testament. If it was him, his wording there is intriguing. Chaos is a word we see in those first lines, depending on the translation we are reading from. Darkness. The face of the deep. It is an imagery that would stick with the Jewish mindset. The thought was that the deep was were the evil in life resided. When a person is baptized, the idea is suggested that they are lowered into the deep, being put down into the water. What we leave in the darkness, in the void, is our old self, What we raise up out of the water, back into the light, is our new self. We leave our sins behind. They are washed away. The illustration of light and darkness finds its way into what John wants to explain about our ethical and moral behavior as he shares about Christian conduct. Our blind spot can be a place that we do not see because the light has not been turned on. The Apostle will use wording like "walking in the light as He [Jesus] is in the light". Realizing we have a blind spot is a good place to begin. Understanding that there are places in our lives where the light does need to be turned on is of utmost importance. The are many issues and matters where we do need to look over our shoulder and see what's over there, back there, under there. Jesus would call himself "The Light of the World". He would then turn to his followers and tell them that they also were light. He described his church, his disciples as "a city on a hill". Not only do we need to allow the Light to shine through out our lives, bringing all things under his control; we also need to be light to the world around us so that others can find their way. 

A simple object lesson from a children's message could help make the point here. This is a flashlight. If you're going camping or for a walk in the woods and you think it might get dark, you probably want to bring one of these along. You might use a flashlight to see things where electric lights can't reach. Under a table or into the corner of a closet. If the power has ever gone out at your house, then you know how useful something like this could be. When you shine the light in darkness, what happens to the darkness? It disappears. The light takes over. Some people live in the darkness. They don't know how to have joy or goodness because they've been in the dark so long without Jesus Christ. But if you come near them and live life with them, you can act like this flashlight, and shine light into their darkness. Don't ever be afraid because God always provides the light.

Be Real. Love People. 

"The more things change, the more they stay the same" is an old adage we should be familiar with. Hate, strife and quarreling are ways of life they really haven't changed much over the years. John had to caution his readers as to what it meant to be a followers of Jesus in his time. It shouldn't be any surprise that 2000 years later people still have trouble figuring out how to get along. The matters that divide us truly haven't changed much either. Political issues. Financial struggles. People rising up and thinking they know more or quite certainly feeling superior to others. John was part of a group of twelve men who struggled with grasping the concept that servant-hood was the way to greatness instead of just stepping up and demanding a place of leadership. Throughout his Gospel and three letters, we see the emphasis repeatedly drawn out that a person needed to follow in the love that Jesus modeled for the people. The way people get walked all over in our modern world in this cat and dog fight to get ahead is truly no different than it would have been in the world in which the people were trying to hold on to that belief in Jesus. There was persecution. There were people who would turn on each other and drive others away. Sometimes people would divide over religious beliefs. I'm reminded of the stories of the history at Fairview United Methodist Church where I served from 2006 to 2012. The family church actually got started several hundred feet away, around the corner on Doty Road. The Fairview church is located on a piece of the old state route that runs along side 256 on the way to Pickerington. Apparently, some time in the early 1900s, there was a rift in the belief system of the congregation and some people at the mother church decided they needed to go around the corner and build their own building to worship in. This, of course, infuriated the mother church. I recall Nelson Deeter telling me stories that were relayed from his grandfather about having to put someone in the church at night time to make sure nobody from the original congregation came over and tried to burn the Fairview church down. And their story is not the only one like that. If you were of the German speaking persuasion back in the 1800s and you broke away from an original congregation over religious beliefs and the structure of the congregation's government in order to go plant a new church not far away (and that happened because people planted churches right in the area where they lived. So, the mother church was not far from the new church) the rhetoric that has shown in historical documents from such happenings shows vehement language. Words of passing judgement and condemning others to eternal damnation would ensue. All because one group thought themselves superior to the break away group. In the case of the Fairview church, all that remains of the original church on Doty Road are a few illegible grave stones where that building might have once stood. The Fairview congregation continues on to this day. 

The need to love other people is central to what we believe as followers of Christ. In this day and age, the more troublesome our political or governmental climate becomes the more we need to hear about the Love of God rescuing us from all of it. A couple weeks ago we covered a deep subject about reputation. I hope we can make it clear to the world around in Thurston, OH that this church is about loving other people. We will also make it clear that immoral and outlandish behavior will not be tolerated. Most people have appreciate over that years that I shoot a straight arrow the pulpit. I'm a good ol boy at heart I can cut up with the best of them. But, sometimes, (frankly, most of the time) that kind of talk and language should be found down at Weidner's Corner or at the Fairfield County Fair. It shouldn't be in this church building, especially during this worship service. It shouldn't be heard during anything we are doing connected to the name of Thurston United Methodist Church. What we do in here and around here has to do with the name of Jesus Christ. Our behavior as Christian people has to do with modeling the same love we see in our Lord and Savior. I have put my foot right in the rear end of outlandish people in my congregation. And, I have loved them and endured them and prayed for them as they have worked through the blind spots in their own lives. The pendulum swings both ways. We need to call sin what it is. We need to love people and shine the light. If we do one and leave the other out, we become a lop-sided group. Some groups emphasize righteousness and holiness while never showing love to anyone. Some groups make love the priority while never curbing any behaviors or language. We have to find the middle ground between the two and make following Jesus the most important thing we do. 

These are the things we will see through John's letters.
I hope your ears will be open and your hearts attentive as we seek to learn what it means to live in the blind spot.

Loving The People You're Stuck With

 

How many animal lovers do we have out there?

Maybe you have been in the position of growing up receiving a new pet for the holidays or even as a birthday gift. I new puppy can be just the kind of responsibility a young child needs to learn about when growing up. There is nothing quite like the feel of little puppy teeth digging into your finger or the purr of a kitten circled up on your chest. What comes with the small gift is often the added need to learn how to pick up after and clean up after it. What starts out as a tiny "fun thing" becomes an every day way of life. Now, we have to follow that creature around with a bottle of Lysol and paper towels. We have to feed it, morning, noon and night. We have to fill up its water bowl constantly. Mom and Dad make it clear to us. "This is your dog." "This is your cat." It doesn't take long before the newness and joy of the gift wears off. Those moments bring to us an epiphany. We are stuck with this animal. 

Maybe you know the feeling. Maybe your have been there. Instead of hearing "This is your dog" you have heard "This is your husband" or "This is your wife". Or, “He is your child, parent, employee or boss or roommate” or any other relationship that requires loyalty for survival. 

Loving the people we are stuck with in life can be a panic inducing event. Who exactly are we talking about? Take a look around this morning. Some of the people have the same last name as you. Some of them have been in this church and with this congregation for as long as you have or longer. Maybe you know what it feels like to have to answer the question - "Am I going to have to look at this hairy, grumpy, flat nosed face for the rest of my life?" (Any wives out there now where I'm coming from?) Am I going to be barked at until the day I die? (Any kids making the connection out there?) Will they ever learn to clean up after themselves? (Any parents know what I'm talking about? Any church ladies thinking about youth groups kids?) 

The questions that were brought out before we read that passage of scripture from John 13 are the kind of things someone might be asking themselves if they feel stuck in a relationship. maybe you've been there with your spouse. Maybe you've been there with your pastor. Maybe you've been there at work with your boss or a fellow employee. How do we define such a feeling? Author and pastor Max Lucado would cover this subject in depth from his book "Just Like Jesus". Quoting Lucado from his book...
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There is a word for this condition. Upon consulting the one-word medical dictionary (which I wrote the day before I crafted this chapter), I discovered that this condition is a common malady known as stuckititis. (Stuck meaning “trapped.” Ititis being the six letters you tag on to any word you want to sound impressive. Read it out loud: stuckititis.) Max’s Manual of Medical Terms has this to say about the condition:

Attacks of stuckititis are limited to people who breathe and typically occur somewhere between birth and death. Stuckititis manifests itself in irritability, short fuses, and a mountain range of molehills. The common symptom of stuckititis victims is the repetition of questions beginning with who, what, and why. Who is this person? What was I thinking? Why didn’t I listen to my mother?

This prestigious manual identifies three ways to cope with stuckititis: flee, fight, or forgive. Some opt to flee: to get out of the relationship and start again elsewhere, though they are often surprised when the condition surfaces on the other side of the fence as well. Others fight. Houses become combat zones, and offices become boxing rings, and tension becomes a way of life. A few, however, discover another treatment: forgiveness. My manual has no model for how forgiveness occurs, but the Bible does.
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Comedian and gospel singer Mark Lowry would take on the idea of what it is like to love and to like someone. Back in the mid 1990's as he was hitting his stride as a comedian, he produced the well known program "Remotely Controlled" where he details some of his life growing up as a child diagnosed with ADD and ADHD. How were things handled back then? A child was given some ritalin to try and calm them down and send them back to class. That might work. That might not. In Mark's case, going into the third grade, he had a hard time sitting still and focusing. When he came home one day with finger nail marks in his arm from his teacher, his mother had him moved across the hall to the old teacher's room. His teacher here was Mrs. Holland. When Mark had moments where he got hyperactive, when he couldn't focus and do his work, she would put her teacher-aide in charge of the class and take Mark for a walk around the playground. It was here that Mark heard encouraging words. He heard that God liked hyperactive kids. He had never heard that before. His parents were always telling him that God was going to use him for something special one day. Mrs Holland reinforced that notion in him. Mark heard from his teacher that God didn't just "love him but that God "liked" him. That really stuck with him. To the crowd that night, he posed some thoughts...
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"She told me that God "liked" me. I had never heard that before. I love a lot of people that I don't necessarily like. I gotta go through Thanksgiving and Christmas too." (Slight chuckles from the crowd) What? Some of you sit there like a bunch of pious gasbags. You know exactly who I'm talking about. (Crowd begins to laugh harder.) You know who popped into your head! You know what I'm talking about. You'll cry at their graduation or their wedding but you don't want to go on vacation with them. You know exactly who I'm talking about!"
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Jesus made sure that those in his circle of followers and friends knew that he loved them. Repeatedly, we see not just his words, but his actions, showing them that truth.

 When Lazarus had passed, Jesus came to Mary and Martha and not only showed the power of God by raising his friend from the dead, but by crying and shedding tears with the family. 

When the disciples wanted to shoo the children away and keep them from coming to Him, he rebuked them and allowed the children to come to him anyway. He made sure we understood that we are all children and need to have access to God's Love whenever we need it. 

This moment in the Upper Room might be the best. These men who have followed Jesus for the last 3 years, very soon they will all desert him. They will all run and leave Him. Instead of chewing them out or being cold to them, he loves them. He washes their feet. A sign of forgiveness. The job of washing feet would fall to the lowest servant in the house. The moment here truly shows what selflessness means for the follower of Christ. There are pecking orders to any group of people. Even in the group walking with Jesus. There was the 12. And, then there was the inner three. And, then there were closer relationship between Jesus and Peter, and Jesus and John. These 12 men seemed to always be arguing about who was the greatest. We see it often throughout the Gospel record. During one of those arguments from Matthew Chap 20, Jesus says to them, "The greatest among you shall be your servant." In a group of servants within a household, there would be those who would set the table, and those who would take care of linens, and those who would wash things. And, then those who would get the job of washing everyone's tired and dirty feet once the guests were reclining at the table. 

It is this job that Jesus takes upon himself. 

The King of the Universe. The Savior of all mankind. The Prince of Peace. He was the one who should be served in the moment. Instead, he is the one serving. He isn't concerned about how great he is or whether any one is lifting him up. He knows what is going to happen in the next few hours, in the next day. Still he makes sure that these people who are with him know how much he loves them. 

I recall hearing about a couple who needed to work out some issues. After two years of marriage they were at a breaking point. They weren't even sure they wanted to stay married. Money always seems to be a problem for new couples. There were accusations and blame assigned by both parties. Like something out of a TV reality show, they decided to follow the advice of a counselor and go away for trip. They headed to a get away spot where they could think and talk and take care of it all. They had chances to sit together. They walked on the beach. They sat alone in separate rooms. They argued some. They gave each other the silent treatment. Finally on the last night of the trip, the husband came back to him room to find a small piece of paper left on his pillow. In nine words, his wife made her choice as to how to move forward. 

I love you.
I forgive you.
Lets move on. 

Her words were like a basin of water. The piece of paper was like a towel. When given the choice to fight or flee, she went another route. The route of forgiveness means a new chance. It means we get to start afresh. We get to turn a corner. Love is the chance we all need.