God Makes the Impossible Possible

23rd Sunday after Pentecost

God Makes the Impossible Possible

Text:  Luke 18:18-27

Intro

How long did it take you to realize it?  Probably too long before you could get out safely.  You walked in this morning.  You greeted a few people.  You smiled.  You shook hands.  You quickly downed a cookie and a coffee and rushed in to your seat in church before we started (or maybe a little after we started).  By that time it was about 10:03.  You opened up the service folder and you heard me introduce the service.  Then it dawned on you.  “Oh boy!  Another service about money.  Are you kidding me?  Haven’t we heard about that enough lately?  Is it too late for me to leave without making a scene?”

If you think we have been hearing a lot about money and possessions lately, then you are actually right.  I thought the same thing about the Scripture readings this week.  So I went back and checked.  By my count, about nine of our last 22 services have had something to do with wealth or money or using wealth and money wisely or something similar.  If you feel like it has been a frequent topic, then you are absolutely right.

But before you get up to throw offering plates at my head, some of you may not know this:  I actually do not pick the readings for each Sunday.  The Christian Church has had a cycle of lessons that it uses every year on a rotational basis for hundreds of years.  I simply open up the schedule and insert the lessons selected for a given day.  If you’ve been really astute and observant, you’ve also noticed that all we have been doing this year is marching our way each Sunday through the gospel of Luke.  This week we are in chapter 18.

So I have nothing to do with all of these services about money and wealth.  It was our ancient church fathers who chose to have all these lessons about money.  Or more to the point, since we have only been hearing from Luke each Sunday, it was Luke who recorded all these stories about money.  Or even more to the point, Luke was simply recording what Jesus said and did.  So it was Jesus who talked so much about money and wealth and possessions.  In fact, somewhere I heard once that around one third of everything Jesus says in the Bible has to do with money or wealth or possessions.

This begs an important question.  Why?  Why do we need to keep hearing in church about worldly things?  Why do we need to keep hearing from Jesus about worldly things?  We got it, OK!  Isn’t enough enough?

Quite simply, NO.  Each of us has a part of our selves that the Bible calls a sinful nature.  It is something we are born with.  It is something we have to live with and struggle against every day this side of heaven.  And our sinful nature absolutely loves to hold on to a sinful world.  It will do everything in its power to pursue worldly things and not heavenly things.  Ever since Adam and Eve wanted to taste that fruit instead of obeying God, we all have a desire down deep to put something worldly above our God.  Even the most outwardly devout struggle with this.  Just look at the story today.

What Does Humility Look Like?

15th Sunday after Pentecost

What Does Humility Look Like?

Text: James 2:1-13

What Does Humility Look Like?  Does humility look like the Pharisees in the gospel today?  They would go to dinner parties and feasts and sit down at the places and positions of honor.  If it was a dinner party, they would have sat at the head of the table.  If it was a wedding, they would have sat at the head table with the wedding party.  If it was a king’s feast, they would have sat down at the royal table.  After all, they were Pharisees!  Is that humility?

Does humility look like our American celebrities?  They scratch and claw for millions of dollars to act in a movie or perform at a concert or simply endorse perfume.  They have houses in the most prominent positions.  When you drive over that bridge to South Beach or weave through Beverly Hills, you can’t miss their mansions.  They fight to have their faces on magazines and billboards.  They Tweet foolish comments to get publicity, or they make stupid choices like naming their child North West (yes, Kim Kardashian actually did that).  Anything they can do to gain recognition, fame, or money.  Is that humility?

Find Meaning Under the SON

11th Sunday after Pentecost

Find Meaning Under the SON

Text: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:18-26

What would you do if you were the richest person in the world?  Bill Gates is the second richest person in the world.  His net worth is around $67 billion.  How would you feel if you had that much money?

What would you do if you were the smartest person in the world?  Most people in the world have an IQ in the 90-110 range.  Some are below, some are above.  One half of one percent of people are considered geniuses with an IQ over 140.  Then there is Terrence Tao, who had a Ph.D from Princeton University by the age of 20 and may have the highest IQ in the world with a score of 230.  How would you feel if you were that smart?

Or, what would you do if you were the richest person in the world and the smartest, wisest person in the world at the same time?  Well then you would know what it was like to be king Solomon.

Follow Christ and Live By Faith

8th Sunday after Pentecost

Follow Christ and Live By Faith

Text: Hebrews 11:24-26

Intro

Are you a value shopper?  I’m sure you are.  The U.S. economy, and perhaps even the Flagler County economy, are both plateauing a bit after rising for a while.  Yet how much America recovers remains to be seen.  The cost of gas is still skyrocketing.  The cost of cheese in Florida is ridiculous.  If I weren’t from Wisconsin I would almost think twice about how necessary it is.  In these uncertain times then, it’s important to be a value shopper.

Clip your coupons.  Go to stores like Walmart or Best Buy that honor coupons from other stores.  Shop the best deals.  Get the “But 1, Get 1” deals at Winn Dixie.  Buy in bulk at Sam’s Club or Costco.  Wait for the Black Friday super discount deals.

These days we are trained to find great value buys.  These are the deals where it will never cost that low again.  These are the deals when Mr. Loberger walks into Besty Buy to buy a TV, finds all school supplies on sale, and buys literally every school supply in the store—$3,000 worth of supplies for $300 (true story).  That’s value!

There’s another use of the word value in our culture though.  That’s when something is valuable.  It might be small.  It might be expensive.  But that doesn’t matter if it’s valuable.  The personally autographed photo my dad got from Mickey Mantle when my aunt was in the hospital at the same time is priceless and valuable.  The copy of the red pew hymnal my family has signed by my grandfather who was on the hymnal production committee is priceless and valuable for a different reason.  My wedding ring is modestly pricey, yet still priceless and valuable.  The look on the kids’ faces when they found out we were going to Disney World a few weeks ago cost nothing but was priceless and valuable.

Almost everything we have we discuss in terms of value.  We have Zillow and other web sites or appraisers to value our homes.  Kelly Blue Book tells us how much our car is worth.  The Antique Road Show on PBS tells us how much the ancient garbage in our garage is worth.  The dollars flying out of our wallet tell us how much our spouse or our children are worth.  We love things that are either a bargain value or things that are valuable.