The Power of Hope

 

Text: Matthew 24:36-44

Focus: Hope

Function: First Sunday of Advent, Hope

³⁶“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³⁷For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, ³⁹and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so, too, will be the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰Then two will be in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. ⁴¹Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken, and one will be left. ⁴²Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. ⁴³But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Good morning and welcome to Advent as we spend the next 4-5 Sunday’s celebrating and understanding the meaning of Christmas and the belief that God saw the struggling of humanity, clothed Himself in an human body, walked among us and showed to us, a different and a better way of living.

As we focus on advent, we focus on 4 constant themes to remind us of different parts of our spirituality that keeps us centered in the purposes to which God has called us.

Those themes are Hope, Peace, Love and Joy.

Today, the first Sunday in Advent, we focus on hope.

Our text to illustrate the need and power of hope comes from the apocalyptic teachings of Jesus where He predicts the destruction of Jerusalem.

It is a passage about being watchful and waiting. I guess one of the sins that we have to overcome is dissipation. Or specifically to this sermon, dissipation as Spiritual Laziness.

And to me, that is why the constant, year after year reminder of the same themes are important. They keep us focused on the most important things. Advent helps us focus on the love Jesus wants us to express for others.

We speak of the Christmas Spirit and celebrate a time when people stop the business of life to examine the importance of relationship and community as they give gifts and celebrate together.

We light lights to give to us a sense that the darkness can be overcome by light. It is a beautiful metaphor against the dark cold of winter. It gives to us a sense of security and warmth as we take time for the extravagance of decorating, meals, cards, gifts and worship services.

Without hope, it seems to me, that none of this is possible.

I suppose, in the context of Advent, that hope relates to us as faith. The passage that we looked at reminded us to have faith even when it seems like nothing spectacular is happening.

We have faith that the King of peace, who will bring justice to the oppressed, is indeed coming. And we don’t give up that hope.

To have hope in the coming of Jesus, to me, is to have hope in power of the Holy Spirit to transform me into someone who does not feel the need to pay back evil with evil, but like, Jesus can forgive those who have harmed me.

To have hope in the coming of Jesus, to me, is to have hope in humanity and Jesus’ purpose to transform society into a caring and nurturing environment instead of a dog eat dog environment where only the toughest thrive.

Jesus came that we might thrive. In another passage where Jesus speaks of the thief who tries to rob us from God’s blessings in our lives, He said, I come that they might have abundant life.

But hope and faith are different. Faith is trust. Hope is believing in the possibilities and searching for them in the way that we live our lives before God.

Believe in the possibilities. That is a powerful statement. When we look at the world as it actually is, we can lose hope.

It is a violent place. It is a jungle out there. It is an every person for themselves environment and Christ Jesus came along to help us see that there is a better way of comporting ourselves.

Our business practices, for example, I don’t believe, should be dog eat dog, but win win so that everyone prospers.

Hope leads us to being the kind of people who aid and and assist others because Jesus lived His life in a sacrificial way on behalf of others.

Hope helps us to overcome the despair that we can sometimes feel when the darkness seems to be closing in.

Hope is us lighting a candle in the darkness instead of cursing it. Hope is us not giving up despite what we see.

I remember the Sunday sermon that I preached 24 years ago after the Columbine massacre.

I stood up and assured the people that in the end, good will triumph and that we should not lose hope.

This has been another particularly shocking week. I am so tired of the mass shootings that we are experiencing. I don’t have anything to preach anymore about it. Back then, 24 years ago, I was an angry preacher and I vented the communities anger and outrage against the senseless loss of life. And now, it is commonplace. I need hope to overcome the despair that it causes. The passage reminds us to keep focusing on the coming of Christ no matter what we see in the world around us.

We, as people, need to find someone to blame. We blame mental illness. I lay partial blame on the NRA’s marketing campaign of fear and freedom that has kept us from limiting access to weapons from people who are not fit to carry them. We can blame the politicians for their gridlock on the situation when 80% of us want some sanity in our gun laws. And then there is the frustration with access to mental health for these people. The list of blame can go on and on.

But the problem with blame is that it merely leads us to anger and frustration. For me, it leads me away from hope.

Let me beg a line from my favorite Christmas hymn, O Holy Night. “A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new an glorious morn…”

I love the imagery, the thrill of hope. Beyond faith, or trust, there is an emotion aspect to hope.

Hope is less of a cognitive decision as it is a feeling. So, the author uses the term, the thrill of hope.

But it is also a cognitive decision. I believe that it is something that we allow to happen.

I have been taking the time to speak with the homeless on the street corners when the traffic lights are long enough.

I make sure I look them in the eye, ask them how their day is going and try to give them the dignity of being human. Instead of a condescending look of derision as I give them a dollar, it is important to lift up their spirits and give to them a sense a worth.

That is another line from the hymn, O Holy Night.
“And the soul felt its worth.”

Sometimes you can see a spark of hope in their eyes as someone else treats them like they have worth. We, brothers and sisters, are Jesus in this world today and it is up to us to share the good news with everyone we meet. I don’t mean preach at them, but I do mean love them as much as you love yourself. Even the homeless.

Our text today leads us to ponder the meaning of the coming of Jesus. It very much leads us to allow ourselves to have hope for the future and spread that hope in any way we can.

Loving Mercy

Text: Luke 23:33-43

Focus: Mercy

Function: to help people be happy about undeserved grace.

³³When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. ³⁴Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his clothing. ³⁵And the people stood by watching, but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” ³⁶The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine ³⁷and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” ³⁸There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”

³⁹One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” ⁴⁰But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? ⁴¹And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” ⁴²Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.” ⁴³He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

One of the hot political topics of the day is the idea of forgiving people of massive college debt.

I promise that I am not getting political. As a Christian, I find the discourse fascinating.

Those who have known me a while know that one of my life verses in scripture is Micah 6:8. He has shown you, mortal man, what the Lord requires of you. Three things: the first is an action verb of doing. Do justice. Be active participants in joining Jesus and standing against the systems that perpetuate poverty and oppression. The second is not so much an action verb as it is a passion. Love Mercy. Be happy about mercy, in other words. Seek mercy for yourself and for others as part of your religious expression. And the third command is a principle to walk by, walk in humility before God. In other words. Acknowledge that God exists and will lovingly judge God’s children fairly. So, lovingly care for your neighbor and put aside the pride that keeps us from loving each other.

We see a lot of pride in this passage when we look at the people who were mocking Jesus.

Today, my objective is to help us celebrate the mercy shown to this condemned man.

I suppose that I would be remiss if I didn’t pause for the first paragraph of our text. You could title the whole passage, “Jesus on the cross” but it is actually two stories.

The first, again, the pride of those who murdered Jesus and the way that they were insulting a man who was enduring probably the worse kind of torture that humanity has ever fomented against people.

The Romans had a terrible way of enforcing their justice. If you didn’t follow, not only did you lose your life, but you lost it in an incredibly painful way.

The other two men who were crucified with Jesus were not particularly evil men. They were thieves, not murderers or terrorists or something profoundly evil in the way it treated others.

As a matter of fact, thievery, to provide for a starving family, is the only forgivable transgression of the OT law.

But not according to the Romans. Their rule was an iron fist and they tolerated no division.

And the Jewish rulers sold their souls when they allowed the transcription, “The King of the Jews” to be placed upon His cross. It was proof of their domination over the people.

Jesus was judiciously murdered to silence His message of universal love, sharing and brotherhood. The idea of the rich giving up their wealth in order to live this new Kingdom flew in the face of the established system. And they killed Jesus because of that message.

They set Him up, had Him murdered by the Romans. It was evil. He was innocent of any wrongdoing. He brought hope to thousands and healed them.

And Jesus forgives these killers with unconditional love.

Jesus calls us to the same level of forgiveness. It isn’t easy. It takes faith. Jesus had faith, being God and all, He knew He would reappear, risen with victory over death. So, He died in faith, forgiving those who treated Him so badly.

I find that to be an incredible example of love.

And that kind of love is extended to the thief on the cross.

Initially, they were both mocking Jesus.

And we do not know what happened. I imagine it this way. Jesus, praying out loud forgives His oppressors and the thief sees it and realizes that this is certainly someone special.

I can picture Jesus, right after the prayer, right after forgiving the people who are mocking Him looking over at the other thief with that look of love and invitation in His eyes that conveys to him, the thief, who is dying on the cross, that he too, has value and his soul is worth saving. Jesus’ forgiveness, without anyone asking for it, because Jesus’ love and forgiveness are unconditional, is given freely to this thief and he, by pausing for a moment and looking at Jesus for who Jesus is, realizes that his soul too has found its worth, if I may beg a line from the Christmas hymn, O Holy Night.

Jesus gives several parables about loving mercy and being happy about mercy extended to others.

We looked a few weeks ago at the salvation of Zacchaeus, who by virtue of Jesus’ request to dine with him, man to man, human to human, person of worth to the God who redeems, is saved by the mercy and kindness of Jesus.

And yet, people complained about it.

I want to be careful to be a person who, regardless of the hardship that I have experienced, am happy about the mercy given to others.

There is the parable of the prodigal son. It really was given to help people understand the mercy given to us by God. The story is about how the elder brother resents the forgiveness given to his younger brother who didn’t deserve it and had proven so by the way he squandered his inheritance.

Then there is Matthew 20 and the story of the 11^th hour. It is a parable about workers hired the first hour of the day were paid the same as workers who were hired the 11^th hour of the day. They resented the master’s generosity because they didn’t get it for themselves.

It doesn’t seem fair. For the workers who bore the brunt of the days sun, heat and exhaustion to be paid the same as those who barely contributed seems out of balance to us.

And that is one of the “problems” with mercy.

And yet, the command from God is for us to love mercy.

The command from God is for us to be happy, not envious when others get undeserved favors.

Matthew 20 tells us that they were jealous of the generosity given to others.

He reminds them that they were paid a fair day’s wage and it wasn’t that they were cheated, it just so happens that the master was generous.

But we get jealous because it doesn’t seem fair.

And that is why God asks us to live by faith and rest in God’s provision for us. And don;t compare ourselves with others.

I suppose that is part of what is meant for us to be humble in our relationship with God and others.

Is it pride that makes us think that we deserve more than others? Can we be happy about their success? What if they get their success by less than honorable means?

Living by faith is an attitude that gets hard at times because it calls us to be content in God and with what God has provided for us.

And, let us be part of God’s kingdom by loving the mercy that God freely gives.

Resurrection!

 

Text: Luke 20:27-38

Focus: Resurrection

Function: To comfort us in the hope of eternal life

²⁷Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him ²⁸and asked him a question: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. ²⁹Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman and died childless; ³⁰then the second ³¹and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. ³²Finally the woman also died. ³³In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”

³⁴Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage, ³⁵but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. ³⁶Indeed, they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. ³⁷And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. ³⁸Now he is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all of them are alive.”

I love that line, God is the God of the living. I love it that it speaks of those whose spirits have left this world and have joined the family of God in heaven.

It gives to us the hope of resurrection.

Remember, hell is not mentioned in the Old Testament and many NT scholars believe that the references to hell in the NT are references to the current apocalyptic literature of the time when Jesus was walking around on planet earth.

Hell is not mentioned, but heaven is.

Now the text mentions that there was a sect of the Jewish religious leaders who denied the hope of the resurrection. In another gospel it also mentions that they denied pretty much everything that was supernatural. They were religious, but they were practical materialists. I mean, they essentially believed the same thing that atheists believe, that matter is eternal and the concept of God is there to explain away what we do not understand.

There have always been rational skeptics to religion and the existence of God.

I had several Jewish friends growing up. And Rabbi Gebhart’s daughter was a friend of mine. I was talking with her mother one day about life after the birth of a baby and she said spoke of the circle of life. We live, we have children, we pass on our genes and in our children we live again.

She was one of those without the hope of the resurrection.

I mention the resurrection this morning because we celebrated Halloween last Monday and then on the 1^st, All Saints Day.

All Saints Day is a day when we remember those who have gone before us who have set the example for us so that we too can be found faithful when Jesus gives us our reward.

And all of that is based on the hope that we have of the resurrection.

It was proven to us by the resurrection of Jesus.

He died in faith, trusting God to give Him justice and God did in a miraculous way, according to the sacred text.

In 1 Corinthians 15, brother Paul speaks of the resurrection. He mentions that many, many people saw Jesus alive after His death. Including himself in a vision given to him by God.

He staked his faith on what he believed to be the historical fact of the resurrection.

And apparently there was also those at the time who were skeptics. And Paul addresses that quandary with them. Look at verses 12-15: ^12-15Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? If there’s no resurrection, there’s no living Christ. And face it—if there’s no resurrection for Christ, everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you’ve staked your life on is smoke and mirrors. Not only that, but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God, all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying that God raised up Christ—sheer fabrications, if there’s no resurrection.

He pleads with them to remember why they came to faith in the first place. He is troubled by the fact that there are skeptics.

In our text this morning, Jesus faces some skeptics and gives them a comforting answer to help them see the fact of the resurrection.

He tells them the story of Moses at the burning bush and how God was speaking to Moses about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the present tense, as if they were still alive. And they are in the presence of God.

Paul believed it because he saw it.

I too, have seen, briefly for a moment, in a vision that came to me from God, the glory of heaven and the hope that we have in eternal life.

Apparently it is important to witness to this hope because it gives to us the power to live sacrificial lives in obedience to the command of Christ to be His witnesses to His peace in the hearts of all of humanity through the power of the Holy Spirit that comes when we trust in Christ.

I love the hope of the resurrection.

Look at this scripture from Hebrews 12. It is a passage about mercy and God’s grace, but it gives us a glimpse into heaven. First, he speaks of the terror of God the Israelites faced when God spoke to them from the mountain and then he speaks of the invitation of God in the New Covenant:

^23-24You’ve come to Mount Zion, the city where the living God resides. The invisible Jerusalem is populated by throngs of festive angels and Christian citizens. It is the city where God is Judge, with judgments that make us just. You’ve come to Jesus, who presents us with a new covenant, a fresh charter from God. He is the Mediator of this covenant. The murder of Jesus, unlike Abel’s—a homicide that cried out for vengeance—became a proclamation of grace.

We are referred to as the citizens of heaven having a party with the angels.

Last year I lost my mom, and I think of my mom and my dad reunited because she pined away for him so strongly. They are reunited in a different way because there is no marriage in heaven according to our text for today.

So, I think of them rejoicing together and hoping and praying for us, their children, so that we too can enjoy the rewards of eternal life.

And that last phrase might be the salient phrase for us to focus on as we end the sermon.

The rewards of eternal life. Many have said, and I believe it, that eternal life is a reward in itself.

And I am convinced that eventually, all will obtain it since Jesus died for the sins of the world entire.

But then, what is the advantage of living a sacrificial Christian life if we all are going to make it anyway?

Jesus Himself answers that question in the Sermon on the Mount. Look at Matthew 6 ¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, ²⁰but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The promise that we have of eternal life in the presence of God, knowing pure love in an unveiled format, again, will be treasure enough. But Jesus tells us that living by faith, as difficult as it is to live sacrificially for others instead of merely for ourselves is worth it since in heaven, God will certainly reward us.

We live in such an affluent land that it is hard for us to live for the eternal reward. But treasure in heaven is eternal, treasure on this earth is merely temporary.

Let us live by faith.

Repentance or Salvation?

 

Text: Luke 19:1-10

Focus: Repentance

Function: to help us see the nature of repentance and salvation.

19:¹He entered Jericho and was passing through it. ²A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. ³He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. ⁴So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. ⁵When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” ⁶So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. ⁷All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” ⁸Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” ⁹Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

My mom and grandmothers were big on Child Evangelism. Mom ran a good news club after school on Wednesday and it was there that I got exposed to a lot more of my Christian heritage.

I loved singing the songs used to teach us bible stories. And I vividly remember the son attached to this story. Zacchaeus, was a wee little man and a wee little man was he…. It included all kinds of body actions, the song could not be sung sitting down and it was a good way for us to burn off some of out childish energy while we were learning.

And the song taught a valuable lesson to us, Jesus loves short people!

I am being silly when I say that. But the story is packed with a whole lot more than a person who was so anxious to see Jesus that he climbed a tree.

The song did call us to a certain amount of zeal when it came to the way that we received Jesus. But it misses the entire point of the passage.

I titled the sermon “Salvation OR Repentance” but I hope that we understand at the end of the message that repentance is the key to salvation for this man.

In the first century, Common Era, there was a big class distinction in the Jewish culture. There were rich landowners who generally went along with the Romans and profited off the exploitive rents that they could charge the poor and there were the poor.

Most of the people were poor. The Tax collectors came from the elite class since it generally took a substantial bribe to gain the position.

The tax collector evaluated the property and charged accordingly. He could charge extra and pocket the graft since no one would stop him and he had an armed Roman soldier there collecting the tax with him.

Zacchaeus was already wealthy and now he was making tons of money off the backs of the poor.

But something drew him to Jesus. The text does not really tell us what the attraction is, except that he just wanted to see. He wasn’t ill and demanding a healing from some disease. And since he was wealthy, he really didn’t need anything. Simply speaking, he was curious.

And, something drew Jesus to him.

Jesus said that He came to seek and save the lost.

I don’t know if Zacchaeus knew it or not, but he was lost and Jesus loved him enough to call him out of his sin and set him free.

We do not know what kind of conversation takes place at his house that day. We don’t know if Jesus’ presence with the man is so overwhelming that the man repents in order to gain salvation, or if Jesus tells him that his riches are getting in the way of his salvation.

We can compare this story to the story of the rich young ruler. He was asked by Jesus to give away his riches and he refused, went away sad, because he was not willing to part with the physical things of this world in order to gain the hope of eternal life.

He decided to place his trust in his wealth instead of God.

But Zacchaeus has a completely different reaction to Jesus.

Let me throw out a very provocative statement: Zaccheaus repents from being rich.

He confesses that he has cheated people, as was the custom of tax collectors, but not enough to have made a fortune off of it since he has the means to pay back 4 times what he took.

I always wondered about this story, if he pays back the ones he cheated 4 times, where does he get the money? Then I realized like I introduced the story with, he was already rich when he became a tax collector.

He didn’t impoverish himself, by the way. He didn’t give it ALL away, but he gave away enough to prove that his confidence was truly in the salvation that Jesus has to offer compared with the false security that riches can make us feel.

Money is not the root of evil, the love of money is the root of evil. We have to remember the difference. We need money to survive, but if our confidence is in our wealth and we are stingy with it, if we hoard it, then it seems to me that we are not living by faith in our prayer that we only need to be concerned for today, God has tomorrow in God’s hand.

We live by faith and trust God to provide, that way, we can be generous with what God has given us.

Let me go back to that provocative statement, he repented from being rich.

I am guessing that his giving away half and then paying back 4 times what he cheated would have left him with enough money to survive, but no longer be considered rich.

I wonder also, if he, when the early church in Jerusalem began to put into practice these teachings of Jesus and started a commune, if he gave the rest of that money to the kitty.

We don’t know, except we know that that is what the church did. It seems that they all, in some way or another, repented of their confidence in their wealth and choose to live by faith.

Did you notice the subtle change. They repented their confidence in their wealth and choose to live by faith.

It is so difficult these days, living in a land of such affluence, to remember that God is our provider and that we live by faith in what God provides for us. We, as believers, are called to rest in God’s provision.

So, it isn’t money, it is the love of money, or the fear of not having enough, that causes us to walk in our own power instead of by faith in Jesus.

There is another lesson to be learned from this story. The people grumbled when Jesus choose “the sinner” over them.

In their opinion, of all the people worthy of Jesus’ presence that day, this man was the least worthy. And Jesus, the progenitor of an upside down kingdom by human standards, chooses to show them the nature and the power of God’s mercy.

Romans 2 tells us that it is the kindness of God that leads people to change.

I use the word change, rather than the word repent. They interchange with each other. Repentance means literally to turn around and go a different direction.

Lazarus repented of being rich and decided to live by the standards of the new kingdom.

A huge change came to this man that day, and it was proven by the fact that he didn’t just make promises, but he followed through.

So, let us be happy at the power of God to transform selfish people.

The Power of Humility

Text: Luke 18:9-14

Focus: humility

Function: to foment humility.

⁹He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ¹⁰“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹²I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ ¹³But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other, for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

This parable addresses the sin of self-righteousness.

If we were to put a positive spin on the parable, we could say that it is a call for us to be humble. The power of humility is that it brings us to salvation.

Humility seems to me to be a difficult subject to preach on. I think it might be because I wrestle so much with my own pride. But I keep reminded you that that there are three things that God wants from us. God wants us to be active justice makers. God wants us to be happy about mercy shown to others, and God wants us to walk with God in humility.

Don’t be proud of yourself.

Specifically, don’t be proud of your own self-righteousness.

For some, theologically, this is a call to grace. Theologically, we were taught that since God is perfect, God is separate, or Holy and therefore, it is impossible for us to purchase our own redemption. The doctrine presupposes the concept of original sin. Somehow we have to reconcile that theological statement with the fact that when God finished creation, God called it good.

What I mean is this, God believes in us. God believes in humanity. God, we teach, created humanity specifically for the purpose of fellowship and companionship.

God, we teach, and I believe, is love.

Apparently, the Pharisee, a religious leader, believed that since he was as obedient as possible to all the commands of scripture, God must be forced to love him more.

The tax collector, instead, believed, or hoped for, our counts on, the mercy of God to save him.

He humbles himself. Instead of comparing himself to others and therefore justifying himself -in his own eyes- he acknowledges the fact that he is a sinner.

I call myself a liberal theologian. But one of the concepts from liberal theology that I reject is the idea that it is wrong to use the word sinner since when God created us God called us good.

And I understand the refusal to use that term, but then I come to this parable and I see the man who was justified before God, according to Jesus, was the person who self-identified as a sinner instead of as a righteous person.

“Self-identified” is the salient term here.

You have heard the statement, which I reject, Love the sinner, hate the sin.

But I would change it drastically to say, love the sinner -which includes myself since God loves me- and hate my own sin.

But, in order to keep it palatable to my liberal friends, I would say, Love everyone, hate my own sins. (But, forgive them since they are also chances for us to learn and to grow.)

The terms “Sin and sinners” seem pejorative and they aren’t mentioned in this passage. I attached the word sin to the concept of pride which makes us stumble and fall.

Sin is an ugly word to us. But the word actually means, to miss the mark. When we sin, we miss the mark.

It is important to understand this because our failures do not mean that God doesn’t help us. Our failures are opportunities for us to grow and to learn. If we stop growing and learning, we shrivel up and die.

The Pharisee missed the mark by trusting in his practices of piety to save him instead of having a heart that was humbly listening to its conscience and the leading of the Holy Spirit inside of him.

And the problem that I find is that pride often is used for me to justify myself, just like the Pharisee.

I love science and the mixture of religion and science. I can defend evolution and the Christian faith without any inconsistencies.

So I get proud of the fact that I am not like those people who reject science. I do the same with climate change. And don’t let me get started on my politics. I am proud and deeply opinionated about my positions and don’t leave room for people to have opposing views.

Pride, when we use it to think that we are better than others, leads us to sin. It keeps us from loving them as God wants us to.

I grew up in an era when housing was red-lined and black people could not move into specific neighborhoods. I remember the show “All in the Family” doing an episode on it and my dad just casually explained it, as if it was a natural thing, “those kind of people lower the property value of our houses so we have to keep them out of our neighborhoods.”

My dad didn’t think anything was sinister about that kind of prejudice against a race of people.

So, I accepted it as natural myself. And then I learned why black people bought huge expensive cars when they lived in the ghetto. Part of it had to do with financing terms on luxury vehicles, but most of it was because they couldn’t use their homes as symbols of prestige, like we can be guilty of, so they used their cars.

And through that, I learned of the sin of red-lining.

And now, I feel l superior to those who don’t see it my way.

God, be merciful to me, a sinner, is the only thing I can pray when my mind, and my opinions get in the way of the fact that they person who holds a different view than me might simply be a person who has also missed the mark, just like me.

I hope that wasn’t political, because my point is just how arrogant and divisive political views can be. God has called us to humbly listen to and respect the viewpoints of others. It is only through that process that we can bear fruit as the kind of peacemakers and believers Jesus has asked us to be.

Here is the thing about humility. It leads us to honest self-examination. But don’t get proud of the fact that you can do it.

For me, honest self-examination is a result of my prayer life. Especially if I have a difficulty that I am praying about. God is often working on my own heart and my own attitudes to see of I will practice this principle of walking before God in humility.

I didn’t have a lot of success with conflict resolution during my 35 years of ministry. If someone came to me with a complaint about someone else, which was often, Instead of taking a side between two people, I would seek for them to see how their own pride might be contributing to the conflict.

Conflict resolution between two people as a preacher was a no win situation since I wont take sides and neither side is happy.

So, the only thing I can do in preaching against pride is to help guide people into a thoughtful prayer and contemplative life, I believe this places us in a spot where the Holy Spirit can temper our pride and get through to the new way of living to which Jesus calls us.

So practice self-examination. It leads us to humility and that can deliver us from pride.

But I caution you, when you practice self-examination, to be as gracious to yourself as you are to others.

Remember, Jesus loves us and is living inside of us. His Spirit is there to help is see our own arrogance and cause us to love others the way Jesus loves them.

So, let us practice humility, it brings us to the place where we hear the Holy Spirit speaking and that gives us the source of power to love others as we love ourselves.

For the Least of These

Text: Luke 18:1-8 The Message

Focus: justice

Function: to help people seek justice

^1-3Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit. He said, “There was once a judge in some city who never gave God a thought and cared nothing for people. A widow in that city kept after him: ‘My rights are being violated. Protect me!’

^4-5“He never gave her the time of day. But after this went on and on he said to himself, ‘I care nothing what God thinks, even less what people think. But because this widow won’t quit badgering me, I’d better do something and see that she gets justice—otherwise I’m going to end up beaten black-and-blue by her pounding.’”

^6-8Then the Master said, “Do you hear what that judge, corrupt as he is, is saying? So what makes you think God won’t step in and work justice for his chosen people, who continue to cry out for help? Won’t he stick up for them? I assure you, he will. He will not drag his feet. But how much of that kind of persistent faith will the Son of Man find on the earth when he returns?”

This is one of those parables that has two meanings and two applications.

It is introduced with a phrase about the fact that we shouldn’t give up in our prayer even though it seems as if God isn’t listening because it is taking a long time for an answer.

And, it is concluded with a thought provoking question, by Jesus, directed at perhaps even us, His disciples of 2,000 years later. The question reverts back to the introduction to the passage when He speaks of the need for consistent prayer with Jesus wondering out loud of when He return there will be that kind of faith in the disciples.

Do we have a persistent faith? It appears that Jesus wants us to ask ourselves that question.

So, one meaning, and the reason why Jesus tells the story, is Jesus provoking us to a persistent faith.

But inside of that meaning is Jesus’ statement in verses 6-8 when he says that if unjust judges can get around to giving justice finally, then how much more will God, who actually cares about justice, do something about injustice on your behalf?

So, let us put the story in the context of the relevant Jewish experience in that time that marked the difference between the common era and before.

That being the incarnation of Jesus. But I use common era and before common era when I talk about times and dates since we are not the only religion on the planet. The prophet Micah said that God, while we love mercy and seek Justice also wants that kind of humility that respects other peoples and their cultures.

Jesus mentions injustices happening to this woman.

And all of a sudden, He gets the attention of the people because they are living in completely unfair and unjust circumstances. The Romans have a sword at their belly, the cross as punishment for rebellion and their boots on the necks of the people.

And not only that, but the wealthy landowners are collaborating with them and the whole system is designed to milk whatever profit and chance that the poor have to get a better life.

The people are living with injustices happening to them all the time.

And remember, Jesus told His disciples to preach the good news that a new kingdom, a new way of doing things was at hand.

Jesus was talking about people being filled with the Spirit of God and giving up their greed and selfish ambition.

And it was a radical message. And it was political. It was so political that the politicians had Him killed because He was upsetting the status quo.

Jesus, like many other times, speaks to the human condition that they are facing at the time and it appeals to their senses that there is a new way of doing things and they do not have to be oppressed by the wealthy any longer.

In the story, Jesus promises them that God is indeed listening, watching and will ultimately judge on behalf of the poor and the oppressed.

Please God, let us not be part of the oppressors, that is one of my consistent prayers.

I don’t know what the judgment for the oppressor will be. I have often said that Jesus is Lord of both the oppressed and the oppressor. But woe to the oppressor! Jesus promises that God will give justice on behalf of those who are abused.

And He opens and closes the story with the reminders that we are to keep on praying earnestly, and that we are to ponder if we have given up faith and hope, or if we are still seeking the justice that God has for the world.

He is asking us to live by faith. Live by faith in the justice and the mercy of God. Well, “the mercy” isn’t mentioned in this passage, except the assumption that God is always benevolent and merciful.

God calls us to persistently have faith in God’s justice for the world.

We sing the hymn, “This is my Father’s World” and there is a line in there that I love: “And tho the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.”

In the story, we are both called to persistent faith in prayer and reminded that God is also committed to the justice that we seek.

And the call to action that we have in this passage is to be consistent in prayer. God is faithful, Jesus tells us and God cares about the suffering of the oppressed. And God will indeed rule against the oppressor, if not now, then when it is time to get our reward in heaven.

And I hope that prayer is a beneficial process for you. James 5:17 says that Elijah was human, just like us. Nothing special about him, and God was faithful in answering his prayers. We should rest in God’s answer to ours.

So, I rest on God’s promise of justice. It is the promise of justice on behalf of all who call out to God for it. Oftentimes the ones who need justice are what Jesus refers to as the least of these. The prisoner. The refugee. The Aslymn seeker at our border, people of color who are abused by the system. We often think less, and are told to think less of these people. We hear some of them derogatorily called “illegal,” but God promises to answer their prayers. We need to be on the side of the oppressed, not the oppressor. But those who are marginalized are the least of these, and Jesus said that whenever we care for the least of these, we care for Him. And when we ignore them, we ignore Him and lose our reward. It is serious stuff we are talking about here.

I don’t understand how God can be love and forgive as He commands us to forgive. I don’t understand how God’s justice will and does work. But I believe that God can sort it all out and be fair to all of God’s children.

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus might help us understand. Lazarus’ never expresses faith in God, but is comforted in heaven while the rich man suffers. I don’t know how God will be and is fair.

I don’t know. But when I ponder it, it reminds me of my own call by God to do justice.

Let us seek the justice that God so desires.