Ordained Love

 

Text: Romans 8:26-39

Focus: faith

Function: to help people understand that God is for them.

²⁶Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. ²⁷And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

²⁸We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. ³⁰And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

³¹What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³²He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else? ³³Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is to condemn? It is Christ who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. ³⁵Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? ³⁶As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
    we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Wow. This is a passage punched through with powerful phrases that we can hold on to during times of stress, pain and suffering.

Nothing can separate us from the Love of Christ.

I love that verse and if you don’t mind, instead of preaching the passage, I am going to do a quick rundown of the verses in this passage, a sort of short bible study.

He starts out speaking mysteriously in verses 26 and 27 about what I call the gift of a prayer language. It is one of the ways the Spirit manifests her power in the life of a believer and it is talked about in a few places in the New Testament.

There are times when I am deep in prayer and concerned about a problem or a situation and I break out into these groanings that are too deep for words. And according to the scripture, it is a mysterious thing whereby the Holy Spirit is directing us to pray the will of God in a situation that we do not understand, or one that troubles us deeply.

According to other scriptures in the New Testament, it might be an angelic or unknown to me human tongue. I don’t know if it is that or just gibberish, but I have seen some powerful answers to some prayers and when I pray with these groanings, I believe that somehow I have connected with the divine and I have a mysterious peace come over me.

It is one of the ways the Spirit moves. I don’t talk about it much because it is the least of the Spiritual gifts, but has been one of the most divisive.

Then in verses 29-30, he talks about how God has always been at work in our lives, even before we came to a place where we acknowledged our faith in Christ to lead us to that faith.

He speaks of how the Spirit was moving to lead us toward Christ and the life that Christ has given us to live.

I see this in my own life as the Lord from a very early age prepared me for a preaching ministry as I was the student representative my Freshman year of High School who introduced all the guests at the convocations and special events at my school and a regular basis. God had given me a public speaking voice even when I was a child. Those who God knew would choose to serve God can be lead by God even from their childhoods, predestined, as he says, to fulfill that ministry.

It brings us comfort in doing what God has called us to do because we know that God is the one who is behind the work and the outcome belongs to God, not us.

Some of us are simply prophets who will finally be understood on the day of judgment as they, like the OT prophets of years gone by called the people to repent of their selfish ways and love their neighbor as much as they love themselves.

But that whole passage about being predestined to God’s glory is wrapped up in the comforting promise that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

The promise is based on the condition of loving God and being called out by God.

I suppose that is the importance of our confession, whether it be by voice or by baptism, we confess that we are called out by God to do God’s service. In the baptism ceremony, we celebrate that we are born to a new life that we are living for God instead of ourselves and I think those are the people Paul is referring to in this passage. Those who confess that Jesus is the way to the peace they have that gives them the strength to love others, even their enemies.

All things work out somehow to our good when we place our trust in God.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a promise of a picture perfect life. The life we live will include trials, temptations and suffering. And in those things, God promises to bring us the Father’s peace. We are called to rest in God’s love for us.

He explains how this happens from the scripture in verses 31-34 and he proves that God is the one who is in charge.

I love the concept that God gives us here. God tells us that if the Father invested the life of His son for our salvation, if he went that far, won’t he complete the work that he did?

And of course, the answer is yes.

So we worry about being separated from God’s love and we don’t have to be worried.

He admits that we will have suffering, but then he tells us that in Christ, even in suffering, we are going to be victorious. It might mean that even if it is our death, somehow God is going to use it for God’s good purpose. And we live by faith resting in the fact that God is sovereign over the world and has called us to live our lives by faith in God.

He acknowledges sufferings to a great extent and then tells us that in all of these sufferings, we are victorious through Jesus who loved us.

God ordained love for us through Christ and Christ is the example of God’s love for us.

God symbolically gave God’s own self so that the revenge we feel is needed when it comes to sin and evil can be transferred on to God’s own self. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says he that knew no sin became sin for us that we might be the just followers of Christ.

Sin was transferred to him and then was killed on the cross so that we can be free from its power.

I don’t believe that God needed to do it that way, but that God did, symbolically, so that we can learn to live without fear of clinging to our own lives, but sacrificially for the glory of God that we too might show the love of Christ to a world that needs loving.

If God ordained for us to be loved, and God is all powerful, then in Christ, we are indeed loved.

In that love we love others.

Do No Be Distracted

 

Text: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Focus: Doing justice

Function: to help people see that others may not be following and don’t be distracted.

²⁴He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field, ²⁵but while everybody was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then went away. ²⁶So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. ²⁷And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ ²⁸He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ ²⁹But he replied, ‘No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. ³⁰Let both of them grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”

³⁶Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” ³⁷He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; ³⁸the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, ³⁹and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. ⁴⁰Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. ⁴¹The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, ⁴²and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!

I like these verses in relationship to judging others. It informs me that I am not the one to judge between the wheat and the weeds, that is a spiritual decision that will be carried out by the angels, I believe, at the direction of God.

The servants wanted to know if they should go through the fields and pull up the weeds because the weeds choke out the wheat, or the good seeds, the intended crop, and make them less productive. That is what I think about the weeds that have infiltrated the church.

I just came from our Annual conference and in it, we had the continual debate about whether or not to accept into leadership the LBTQIA community. And sadly, exactly what Jesus said would happen has happened. The innocent plants get destroyed when we weed the plant to closely.

The master told us to leave the ones alone, even if they are harming the others, who are not exhibiting the behaviors that people of the kingdom of God should demonstrate. And of course, those behaviors have to do with Jesus’s new commandment, Love One Another. I don’t know about you, but as I unwrap the meaning of this parable, I realize that I have a lot of repenting to do for my attitude toward those with whom I disagree.

During our last Kairos weekend’s forgiveness ceremony, I was able to forgive a group of people that I held in contempt for the way that they had treated me in the past because of my changing theological views.

God set me free through that forgiveness and opened up a new time of mystical experiences for me that have confirmed God’s love for me.

In other words, I thought it was my job to pull up the weeds from among the wheat in order to let the wheat thrive. I hated the weeds because they destroyed the ability of the wheat to further God’s kingdom on earth. And again, that is the kingdom of love and mercy.

And the irony is that during my career as preacher in the Church of the Brethren, I have been a vocal voice on both sides of the issue.

God is patient and I believe that God is patiently helping the church overcome its prejudice toward people who are Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, and Intersex.

I used to be one of the loudest voices against approving “those” (show quote marks) people for leadership until I realized something. At the time, depictions of same sex displays of affection make me skittish.

I wondered: why? Was I questioning my own sexual identity? Or, was it simply that I didn’t have a same sex attraction and the idea grossed me out? As I researched that question I realized that our society is homophobic.

Please do not mis-hear me. I am not saying that you, me, we or any individual here is homophobic. What I am saying is that the culture still is still afraid of homosexual persons and judges them.

Let me use scripture to show our homophobia.. There are two scriptures that have a very distinct double entendre about same sex love. The first has to do with David and Jonathan. In David’s lament at Jonathan’s death, he said that his love was greater than that of a woman. (2 Samuel 1:26) And then, in the book of John we read that apparently John was the apostle that Jesus loved and was reclining on Jesus breast (John 13:23) when Jesus said that someone would betray him.

I do not believe these passages have any indication that there was same sex union between Jesus and John, but there was clearly love between David and Jonathan. It could be that he meant he was a better friend than any woman can be. And I have always taken it that way.

However, if any of these statements, “a man reclining at the breast of another man,” “the one that Jesus loved” (as opposed to the general love he has for everyone, it was indeed a special kind of love, or bond), and finally, “your love is greater than that of a woman” were said in a locker room at Junior high when I was growing up, the name calling and relentless attacks would happen.

I know. I was close to my twin brother and believed in Christian love. When asked in Junior high if I loved him, I of course, naively, said "yes," and was hounded for being gay the rest of Junior High.

I am not bitter, but I just use this to illustrate that we still live in a homophobic society.

Why is that important? Because the bible is not homophobic. It has no problem describing some sort of same sex attraction without judgment. And it wasn’t until the 1,800’s that the word pederasty was replaced with homosexual. Until then, the word homosexual in that context did not appear.

And the uses and condemnations of pederasty have to do with the way sex was used to dominate other people, such as slaves. It was still used today symbolically in the 20^th century in Uganda.

The passage is telling us to not be distracted by judgment of others. God is the one who does the judging and will use angels to do it. We are called to care for everyone, even the children of the enemy who walk among us.

In the past, I have been guilty of that judgment. And I want to confess it as sin to you.

Today, I believe that love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and it is not a sin to marry the person that you love, regardless of their sexual identity. I believe that it is a move of the Holy Spirit to allow people who do not identify as heterosexual equality in our society, including our churches.

Sadly, I believe that I pulled up too much wheat when I fought against it. And I have had to repent to God and toward my siblings of different sexual persuasions. It is time to give them justice.

But God is patient. God keeps reminding me of the times and the passion with which I fought on the other side. It was my zeal for God.

But in this passage, God is saying: “in your zeal, don’t hurt my children.” I find that if I remember that the great commandment is to love others as much as I love myself, I will ensure that their personal, civil and spiritual rights are given to them.

Let us love others unconditionally, regardless of what we have been taught to think of them.

Mindsets

 

Text: Romans 8:1-11

Focus: The Spirit of God

Function: To help people see that a good conscience is a result of the Holy Spirit

8:¹Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ²For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. ³For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed, it cannot, ⁸and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is alive because we do justice.* ¹¹If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

Without a doubt, this is one of my favorite passages in the writings of the Apostle Paul.

At the end of the chapter is the great comfort passage for times of grief and loss where we read that nothing, not even death, can separate us from God’s love.

God’s love is everywhere and in everything. And brother Paul speaks of being in tune with the Holy Spirit in our lives so that we can experience God and God’s loving presence in everything we do.

He speaks of the joy of living the Spirit filled life.

But the passage starts with the great assurance we have because we have been born anew by the Spirit of God.

In the preceding chapter, Brother Paul speaks of his own struggles against his own will compared to living the will of God for him in his life.

He cries out in despair until he focuses his hope on Jesus who has given to us His Spirit in order that we might learn the way of peace and love for our neighbors that makes the kingdom of God a spiritual kingdom.

And because of Jesus, we are cleansed by the Spirit in the eyes of God. When we make the decision to trust in Jesus, my experience is, just like baptism symbolizes, our conscience is washed clean and we sense that God has forgiven us.

For me, it was and is a mystical experience, it is something that I sense deep down inside of my gut. And I can’t describe it any different than I sensed that God set me free from my guilt.

However, I was raised with a ton of shame, and that is something that I have to overcome on a daily basis.

And that is why this is one of my favorite passages.

When I read that first verse, actually, I like to do what is called “Lectio Divina,” whereby we read through the scripture in a prayerful way.

To myself, I hear the Spirit of God whispering in my ear, “My child, there is therefore no condemnation for you who are in Christ Jesus. For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.”

In Christ, we are free and forgiven. I think of that when I am sitting in the circle at Kairos with my brothers in Christ at Warren Correctional Institute.

There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

None.

There are guys who because of the power and abuse system that dominates the prison are victims of sexual abuse and have now formed a bond with their oppressor. Instead of making them feel shame for something for which other Christians might condemn, I tell them, there is No Condemnation for those in Christ. None.

Because their crimes were violent and innocent people were harmed, and now they have come to Christ and see those acts as evil because the Spirit of God has changed their hearts, some have a hard time forgiving themselves.

I love just quoting over and over against objections or the “what about’s?” and the “What If’s?” of the human condition of brokenness I read this verse over all objections and say, but. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

You know how daily affirmations are good for our mental health? Well, this is a daily spiritual affirmation that we can tell ourselves, There is no condemnation for me, because I am in Christ Jesus.

Praise God!

There is a caveat, however. And it might be either small or huge. It comes with laying aside our selfish desires and living with the commitment to love our neighbor and treat others as well as we treat ourselves.

As a matter of fact, in order to get it right, the Apostle instructs is that the honorable thing to do is to prefer above ourselves. Love them as much as or even more than we love ourselves.

It has to do with the principles from Micah 6:8. God commands us what it good and what God requires from us. Do justice. Do the right thing for everyone. Love mercy. I take that as being happy about mercy given to people that others don’t think deserve it. And relevant to this cause, walking humbly before God. It is hard to claim that we are humble since that would be the antithesis of humility. But the attitude, the mindset, is to set our minds on what the Spirit of God inside of us wants for us and for others. How does God love me and how does God want me to love others? That idea of honoring them over ourselves keeps us in a mindset of ensuring that we love them as much as we love ourselves.

And again, I go back to the first verse before I finish this train of thought about our mindsets.

Loving ourselves is important. God loves us so much that God have God’s self for us. For me and for you. God gave himself to redeem the course of humanity through the loving influence of the Church, the body of Christ.

And that verse, there is no condemnation rebukes the shame that Satan himself would whisper in our ears about all the times that we refused to love others and chose self over what the Spirit of God was leading us to do for others.

And the passage tells us that Christ forgives those times and by his Spirit empowers us to do what the Spirit prompts us to do in our lives.

It all comes from living by the Spirit instead of the flesh, or selfish desires.

The instinct of the world around us is to be selfish and greedy. We honor as heroes the wealthy who have hoarded wealth at the expense of the livelihoods of their employees. The scripture says that for eternity, they have had their reward squandered here on earth.

But the Spirit of God gives us a different mindset. He tells us to set our minds on the Spirit of God.

That, I believe, is why our Christian fellowship is so important. I remind myself that I get 15 minutes a week and whatever bent your politics are, you get a 24 hour news cycle that does not represent the teaching of Christ.

God has a lot of competition for your mindset. So, our fellowship together here, and I got to add the little spiritual reminders I get every morning from my Church family remind me to set my mind of the Spirit of Christ.

*my translation based on diakonos meaning justice.

Wisdom is Obvious

 

Text: Matthew 11:16-30

Focus: Humble attitudes

Function: to help people see the value in humble living.

¹⁶“But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,

¹⁷‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
    we wailed, and you did not mourn.’

¹⁸“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; ¹⁹the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

²⁰Then he began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done because they did not repent. ²¹“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. ²²But I tell you, on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. ²³And you, Capernaum,
will you be exalted to heaven?
    No, you will be brought down to Hades.

“For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. ²⁴But I tell you that on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.”

²⁵At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; ²⁶yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. ²⁷All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

²⁸“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Good morning Painter Creek. I want to thank you for sending me to Annual Conference last week in Cincinnati, Ohio.

It was an inspiring and moving conference. And one of the main reasons I attend conference is to attend the Pastoral Training event that occurs the two days before conference.

This year we did a seminar based on the book “Healing Racial Trauma” by Sheila Wise Rowe. She told us the story of trauma from racism as she grew up in Boston when the busing started and the girl on the bus seat beside her got a shard of glass wedged in her eye when the bus window shattered from the brick thrown by the crowd shouting the N word at her and her friend.

She became a Christian and through her faith and relationship with Christ, has been able to find significant healing.

She taught us as pastors and caregivers how we can recognize signs of abuse and trauma in both ourselves, so that we can become better healers, and in those whom God has given to us to be agents of healing.

That takes us to the last three verses of our text for this morning. Jesus calls out to us as well these words: “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

The context of these words are in a passage that was calling people to repentance. He lists several cities that he had recently been to, performing miracles in, where the people rejected him and his message of loving others without judgment and he issues a warning to those who refused to listen to his voice. In this passage, he compares himself to the OT prophets who were also killed because their message of love and justice just doesn’t sit well with those who want to maintain power and control over others.

He tells them they made up the excuse to not listen to John the Baptist, who came right before Jesus appeared, the first prophet after a 400 year period where there were no prophetic messages of guidance from God.

And he points out their duplicity by saying because John abstained from fancy food and alcohol, they said he was demon possessed. And because Jesus drank wine and celebrated with them at their feasts, he was merely a drunkard.

See, Jesus was telling them to love their enemies, even the Romans who were terribly oppressing them. Jesus was telling them to give up their wealth in exchange for generosity toward the poor. They liked the miracles, but they didn’t want to change and give up their selfish ways.

And although he was healing them and making life better for many, his message convicted them of their greed and selfishness and many places rejected him on an wholesale basis.

And he warns them again to repent and start loving others as much as they love themselves.

So, in the passage, we have a contrast between the followers of Christ and those who refuse to follow him.

And he told us something that our guest presenter at the Pastor’s conference told us: Jesus is near to the broken hearted and hurting. Or maybe, because of their pain and suffering, they are more empathetic and caring toward others. Maybe, because of Jesus, healing touch, they are willing to give that love to others. At least that is what the scriptures say: We love because he first loved us.

So, to shorten Jesus’s sermon so far. Jesus is in a public place, so I assume he is shouting so that everyone can hear him. And he first shouts out these woes to people who reject the ideas that he is presenting to them and the different way of living that Christianity became. It was know as “The Way” in the book of Acts.

It was the different way of living that Jesus espoused.

So, in the sermon so far, he is shouting out the woes and then in contrast he calls out to those whom are generally more disposed to hear him and respond in a positive way.

And that crowd, it appears, that are willing to receive his message are those who are broken and tired.

And I’m not just making this up. In the verses right after the woes, and right before the invitation to those who will respond is another description of those who do respond.

He cries out in a public prayer thanking God for people who are not proud and pretentious, but those who are tender hearted and willing to listen to the Spirit of God inside of them to love their neighbor as themselves.

The fact that God was among them was obvious by the miracles that Jesus was performing. And when we look at the miracles, they are all about the healing of those who are suffering and in distress.

Except, of course, the first miracle which was turning water into wine at a wedding party.

He did these miracles, I believe, to show them that God’s love is transforming.

And while doing them, because he had the people’s attention, he taught them just exactly what it means and looks like to love your neighbor as yourself.

And these places rejected him. Not the miracles, but because of his teaching about justice, love and compassion. Because he was a friend to those the religious folks despised in their pride and search for power.

Jesus also knows that those who have been through suffering and have been healed by the presence of the Christ, are now healers themselves.

It should have been obvious that Jesus was the Christ, and his message was true by the compassion that God showed them through Jesus.

So, come for God’s love and stay to be transformed by God’s love.

Rewards

 

Text: Matthew 10:40-42

Focus: Rewards

Function: to help people see the value in doing good works.

⁴⁰“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, ⁴²and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

Good morning!

I was looking through my notes over the last several years and I noticed something. The Lectionary has a 6 year cycle that brings us back around to the text that we might have looked at before. And I noticed that right after I came here to this Church, I preached on this passage a sermon titled “Welcome” about how we can envision a new future by extending our welcome.

I have an ongoing theological discussion going on with people from the tradition I was raised in about salvation and the nature of grace, works and what exactly obedience to Christ -loving others- actually means.

Loving our neighbor as much as we love ourselves is radical in nature. It means we share our resources with those who are less fortunate than us. It means that we forgive even when the person who offended us continues their behavior.

It means that we are different than the consumer economy that believes obtaining more and more wealth somehow makes a person morally superior.

The Apostle said that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. It can easily lead us into sin. And yet, somehow we value people who lie, cheat, steal and exploit their workers at less than a living wage as if they are the people who can show us how to live.

If I read the scriptures correctly, they have already gained their reward and heaven will be a desolate place for them, for eternity.

Jesus commanded us to be rich in the things of God by laying up for ourselves treasures in heaven. That requires the sacrificial giving of ourselves first to Christ and then we can easily give to others. It seems that when we give ourselves to Christ, we give ourselves to others. We are called to be a blessing to those around us.

I find it sad that to talk about living that way is almost considered un-American because the political rhetoric is so extreme that believers have left behind basic kindness in order to win the battle, as if winning is all that matters.

And yet Jesus, as his own trial said that he could defend himself with 10,000 angels, but instead choose to give his life sacrificially, knowing the resurrection was soon at hand for him. He lived and died in the faith that God is bringing a different kind of kingdom that does indeed share with and care about the least of these instead of the exalting the uber-wealthy.

Taking this passage literally, I would wonder if a person could be evil and wicked and then at the last minute find a prophet, or a righteous person, or a child and give to them the prescription in this passage, a drink of water, then that person could earn the same reward as them and get away with living an evil life.

But it is scripture and is not meant to be taken literally. Jesus is talking about an attitude of the heart, I believe, that is brought on by the Holy Spirit and is augmented by our faith in Christ.

An attitude of the heart.

The scripture sometimes refers to it as being born from above, or born again. It means that we have given ourselves over to God to live the way Jesus taught us to live and love. He says, all things become new to us.

Symbolically, Jesus is talking about the attitude of the heart that comes from the leading of the Spirit of God and he is talking in simple to understand terms. He is calling us to be merely the person who gives when someone is needing. The Bible says that when we give to the poor, we are lending to the Lord and God will pay us back. So, we are not out anything. And this is living by faith.

I confess that at times, when the lottery gets really big I dream of being uber-wealthy and wonder what I could do with the money.

It would be nice not to live from paycheck to paycheck. But then, we pray each day for our daily bread and trust in God’s provision.

Maybe I would pay to have all the Churches of the Brethren converted to solar, or start a chain of grocery stores in the food deserts of Dayton where the poor people are not even given a chance to buy that cup of water that the Lord wants us to give.

I could do good with the money.

But then I am reminded of the Apostle said about money and what it means to live generously by faith.

1 Timothy 6:⁹But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

¹¹But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. ¹²Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

The apostle contrasts Christian living with secular living. It has a lot to do with what we are against and what we are for. And it has nothing to do with the culture wars that are going on in politics that have to do with the rights of our LBGTQ+ brothers, sisters, and non-binaries, or complaining about learning the truth of how we grew into a wealthy nation on the backs of slave labor and we owe a lot to the people of color who bore the burden for us.

Don’t fall into the trap of the culture wars on TV. They distract us from the principles of living for others, and loving them as Jesus wants us to.

Paul says, “Take a stand against materialism, in your own life.” Jesus said, Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

By loving, sharing, giving, forgiving, and accepting others we are demonstrating the attitude of the heart that comes from the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

He is calling us to welcome others. And remember the potential that is inside of them.

I started out with an absurd logical argument that one could live any way they choose and then give this proverbial glass of water and escape judgment for living an evil life.

I explained that it was not literal but symbolic of our Christian attitude and the work of God inside of us.

I want to focus on my phrase, “Getting away with it.” Consider this: anyone wanting to get away with evil isn’t transformed. Or saying it differently: An evil life should not be an aspiration.

Paul said this to Timothy in our second text for today and he is talking about the rewards of the just when he says: Aspire to doing the right thing, always. Then you are a just man. Be different like God has called you to be. Trust God and rest in God’s promises. Love like Jesus loves. Endure because of heaven. Be gentle. Be courageous in your faith and remember that you are bound for an heavenly reward.