Encouraging One Another

 

Text: Hebrews 10:19-25

Focus: Perseverance

Function: To remind us of our calling to good works.

¹⁹Therefore, my brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), ²¹and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²²let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ²³Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. ²⁴And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, ²⁵not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Good morning!

We are going to focus on verses 24-25 this morning. But before we get there, look at the introduction to these verses. The author summarizes the deep theology that the book of Hebrews gives about the atonement and the sacrifice of the Christ and he reminds us of the privilege we have as those who trust Christ. We have direct access to God.

In the Church of the Brethren, we call the the priesthood of all believers. And verses 24-25 tell us something about how to apply the idea that we are also priests in the family of God.

And I just have to mention something neat about our recent baptism. Verse 23 mentions the two different forms of baptism, sprinkled clean and washed. Both are valid. I think it is kind of cool.

Now on to the meat of the message, how we as Priests of God are called to do good works.

I wonder at times if verse 24 describes of the emphasis of my ministry. The verse says: “Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.”

I go back and forth in my ministry and calling between being a pastor and being a prophet. There is a difference. The term pastor comes from the root word we use for a field, a pasture, where we keep the domesticated animals. And the idea behind it is we are shepherding a flock.

The beginning of Psalm 23 struck me during my meditation yesterday morning. I never really paid attention to it. But it is a pastoral scene as well. The Lord is the Shepherd. And it is close and personal: My Shepherd. He goes on to describe all the benefits we have from having such a loving, caring and thorough shepherd.

I was reminded of that while reading in Ezekiel about the tyrant shepherds of Israel who only served to gratify their own desires.

And David shows the love and care that God has for us in Psalm 23. It is comforting to have a pastor who places the concerns of the flock over their own.

That is what a good shepherd does. And although I am only human and very weak, sometimes by the grace of God and the power of the Spirit I find God reaching out to people through me to give them the love and care they need for the moment.

Christ still shepherds people through us, the church.

I served for a while as a police chaplain. And my main job was to do death notifications of people who were either murdered, committed suicide or died in an automobile accident.

It sounds horrific, but every single time, regardless of the spiritual condition of the people I was ministering to, I saw God move in deep and loving ways to comfort the grieving.

I think my greatest proof, to me, of the reality of God is the way I always find God to be faithful during a funeral or a time of suffering. God is near the suffering.

Jesus suffered on the cross and knows what pain is like and I find in his love I am beginning to find that peace he promises because he shepherds us to love.

So, because of the Spirit of God inside of us, we also get to shepherd and comfort people in times of pain and sorrow.

That is the pastor part of us.

The prophet part of us wants to focus on what the Holy Spirit is doing spur people to love and good works.

A prophet speaks to the culture and either blesses or exposes the spiritual condition.

Jeremiah was a prophet who felt like God’s words inside of him were a burning fire and he couldn’t help but vent them to the public. It was the move, or unction of God’s Spirit inside of him.

Sometimes, and I hope, I believe you have felt it, we also are called to speak out against evil and injustice when we see it happening.

One of the thoughts that comes to my mind in the presence of evil and injustice is that our silence is a form of consent.

The problem I find is trying to remember that along with my words is the hope that God’s Spirit is also working and leading. What I mean is that God loves the people we are addressing and God wants the best for them as well. And God is faithful to lead them. God doesn’t want us condemning them even though we are called to provoke. Provoke is a powerful word. It means to stimulate. And for us who believe in God’s love for the other, it sometimes involves gentle, loving confrontation.

The prophet has to remember to reflect the love and power of God to do the transformation.

Let me go back and read verses 23-25: ²³Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. ²⁴And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, ²⁵not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

So, 1): God is faithful, rest in God. Don’t fear. 2): provoke each other, we talked about that and that leaves us with 3): do it together.

This verse is the New Testament command to go to church on a regular basis.

And there is a purpose for your gathering together, to encourage each other. When we encourage each other, we stimulate and provoke each other.

We all need it. And in community, we do it together.

I started out with the mention of the priesthood of all believers. 1 Peter 2:9 speaks of it this way: ^9-10But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.

Praise God we when we encourage each other, the Spirit comes alongside and bless them also.

Let us be a blessing to others.

A Tale of Two Rewards

Text: Mark 12:38-44

Focus: Sincere faith

Function: a contrast between Pretense and worship through giving.

³⁸As he taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces ³⁹and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! ⁴⁰They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

⁴¹He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. ⁴²A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. ⁴³Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. ⁴⁴For all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Good morning everyone!

The focus of this morning’s message is on having a sincere or genuine faith.

I want to be cautious about how we apply this message. Jesus is teaching us by example how to discern for ourselves whether or not our actions are from a pure heart or selfish conceit.

And there are two cautions I want to mention:

Don’t beat yourself up. Don’t judge others.

Now in this passage, Jesus is indeed judging between two different people. He can do it since God is the ultimate, and fair, and merciful, judge.

He wants the disciples to understand the difference between pretense and sincere worship.

Again, don’t beat yourself up about whether or not your worship is sincere. You came here with a sincere heart. But more than that, it is the Holy Spirit who leads, empowers and draws us back to God. It is the Spirit’s job to keep us vital in the faith.

So, as we judge ourselves, we examine where our hearts are without beating ourselves up

After condemning the hypocrisy of insincere worshipers, he illustrates sincerity with an example of giving money.

Now, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells the disciples to give secretly, metaphorically he says, “Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”

The idea is to not brag about it or make a show of our charity. One of my pastoral colleagues posted a meme on her Facebook wall as a practical application to this teaching. It said: “When you give to the poor, don’t bring a camera.”

The idea is that we keep our charity between us and God. I’ll tell you an uplifting story about this:

I pastored a church in Pennsylvania. And we had an undocumented family worshiping with us that we helped through the process of becoming citizens.

Sadly, but not unexpected, a very few people in the church resented giving aid to what they called illegals. As I talked with them, I found out that they were afraid of them. Fear is not from God. God has given us the victory to overcome our fears through the Spirit. I am convinced that it was divine providence that sent this family to us because God knew that we would take care of them.

The children had no choice in the move to the US from Columbia. And like all children, they needed to grow and to develop. So, I found out later from the family that when it came time for them to go to college and they couldn’t apply for any student aid because of their immigration status, a few members of the church quietly, without telling me, paid for 4 years of tuition for two children.

I still weep at the awesomeness of the charity given by men whose politics aligned with the side that calls still calls them illegal But because of the teachings of the Christ, they gave sacrificially and quietly. By the way in dealing with the border crisis, I have to remind myself that using Jesus’ term, “Neighbor” for those refugees instead of illegals changes my heart to line up with Jesus’ command to love the least of these.

It just goes to show that when we practice love for our neighbor, even if they are our enemy, or someone we have been taught to despise, our faith goes beyond the divisive politics of the kingdoms of humanity to enact Christian love fueled by the Holy Spirit inside of us.

Praise God our faith rises above the divisiveness of politics.

So, as Jesus contrasts the two groups of peoples for us to understand sincerity in our devotion to God, he points out the trusting faith of the woman who gave all that she had.

It is easy to give out of abundance because it doesn’t take a sacrifice. And I would never ask you to give until you lack. Giving should be done willingly. For the Lord loves a generous giver. I am convinced that the Holy Spirit will tug at you in just the right amount at the right time. Listen for the voice of God.

When we give to the poor, the scriptures say that we lend to the Lord and God will pay us back.

This woman demonstrates what it means to rest in the fact that we belong to God and that God promises to give to us our daily bread.

Rest, or trust in God’s provision is what this woman offered God. She was living by faith.

God will repay our love for others when we give it.

We are living by faith when we rest in the fact that God will provide for us when we are generous.

And while I hate going negative in my sermons, Jesus does give a description of what I think it means to take the name of the Lord in vain.

Jesus’ condemnation is that their acts of piety will not save them when their greed compels them to kick widows out of their homes. Sure, it was legal for them to foreclose and profit off the sale of her home, leaving them homeless, but it wasn’t moral.

Their religious acts will not save them if they do not love their neighbor as much as they love themselves. They would not foreclose on themselves or their own family, so they can’t foreclose on others.

Jesus says their condemnation is greater.

I hope I am not getting confusing. But the scriptures give over 1,100 references to the way we use our money and treat the poor.

But beyond that, Jesus shows how we can care for others in this lesson by praising the widow. Our confidence needs to be in God who gives us the ability to provide instead of ourselves. When we recognize that if God has blessed us, even by giving us the mental and physical strength to work hard, then God has given us the responsibility to be a blessing to others.

The reward for the greed is condemnation. The reward for the faithful is provision.

Refreshment

 

Text: Revelation 21:1-6

Focus: renewal

Function: to see how God continually renews us

21:¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ²And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them and be their God;
⁴he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”

⁵And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” ⁶Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.

Good morning! Today’s scripture lesson is taken from the text that would have been used if we had a worship service November 1, all Saints Day. I wasn’t raised in what is called a high church tradition. The only thing we celebrated was Halloween, and that was just for the fun of it. We didn’t place any religious significance to the celebration.

But All Saints Day is a day when we remember those who have gone on before us. Or as the Encyclopedia Britannica says, “Those who have obtained heaven.”

I love that concept. Instead of focusing on our loss of the loved one who is no longer with us and we will certainly miss, we focus on their gift, or their reward, in heaven.

All Saints Day is a day of faith in the fact that we believe in the resurrection of the dead. Hope!

I want to look at the passage with a little bit of Bible Study. It comes in two parts: A description of the setting and the voice from heaven.

The description is what I call the threshold of time. God promises to make a new heaven and a new earth. I believe this is symbolic. I believe the symbolism is identified in the fact that now the throne of God is no longer separated from humanity in the heavens, but is now right in the midst of humanity.

His vision of the future is God showing their self plainly in the presence of humankind. He says the original system of God’s interaction with humanity changes.

Revelations is a highly symbolic book and the end of the book warns us not to make up doctrine or theology based on it. Historically, scholars understand it to be a book written to help the Jewish people during the atrocities committed against them during the Roman Occupation. And symbolically, the prophetic message is that God will in the end judge wickedness and evil.

Do you remember how I have been explaining the the word translated in John 3:16 as eternal life is literally a life without boundaries?

This passage is clearly a description of heaven given to us so that we do not lose hope in this world while we are doing good for our redeemer.

But it goes much more than just the concept of getting to heaven for a reward when we die.

Which draws us to the second part of the passage: The Words spoken from heaven to the prophet.

The voice is God whom God names God’s self as “The Alpha and Omega.” The common alphabet used that day had Alpha as the first letter and Omega as the last letter. In our terms, it would be A-Z, a metaphor for the beginning and the end.

And God describes God’s mothering, or nurturing qualities to them as a benefit of the fact that God is now dwelling in their presence in heaven. Or, maybe to be precise, heaven comes down to earth.

It is referred to as the City of God. And symbolically, that city of God is also referred to as the Church.

The message is that God is going to continue to dwell with humanity through us, the church. God empowers all of us to be part of God’s healing for this world.

I don’t believe that God is speaking of this healing only for the future for us. But that God, through the Spirit of God, is present now healing and restoring us.

And I love the promises to us through this majestic voice that the prophet hears.

They are promises of healing and restoration. God will:

• Wipe away every tear

• End the separation of death

• Eliminate mourning and crying.

This is our picture of heaven, a place where we cease from struggle and rest in God.

But again, it isn’t just heaven, or the afterlife that God is talking about here for us.

The passage says that it is already done, already accomplished, already begun, already here.

At the end of the passage, he changes the description he uses for God from “the A-Z” to “The One sitting on the Throne.”

I believe he is emphasizing God’s power and authority. And he reinforces the words with the promise that they are trustworthy and true.

And he says two things. First: I am making all things new.

I have to remind myself of this, especially when I am facing a difficulty with my perspective, or the perspective of someone who is close to me but is different and is causing conflict. I have to remind myself to rest in God and look for the way that God is making this situation new. Even in conflict.

I try to hang on to that promise and have a positive perspective about outcomes because God is still making all things new. Praise God. God forgets and heals the mistakes of the past as God restores us. Praise God!

And then he ends with a common theme throughout the scriptures repeated by the prophets: “To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of life.”

And to us, God promises to continually refresh us through their Spirit.

All Cleaned Up

 

Text: Hebrews 9:11-14

Focus: Cleansing

Function: To celebrate our new life in Christ

¹¹But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), ¹²he entered once for all into the holy place, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. ¹³For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, ¹⁴how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!

Praise God and Good morning!

Today, we are celebrating our new life in Christ.

At first, I thought that the scripture that I chose to read, which is actually next week’s lectionary text, was a little bit heavy, or heady, for us to wrap our heads around as a means to celebrate the baptism and power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of 5 people today. Praise God!

The book of Hebrews is a pretty deep book of theology that talks a lot about the way Jesus’ allowed himself to die. He was killed for his message of loving the other regardless of whom and what they are. He embodied the love and selfless generosity that stands in the face of greed and selfishness, so they killed him to silence him.

But he did it as the Priest of God and through his death and resurrection, he proved that living the in what the early church called “The Way” is living the way of God. And God gives us the hope we need through the fact the Christ rose from the dead. I believe that we will as well.

And here is a simple thing that the book of Hebrews is trying to address: What were they supposed to do with all that ancient religion that they knew for generations.

He speaks of the sacrificial system built up around the Ancient Jewish religion and how those sacrifices ended now that we have Christ.

The sacrificial system had to do with the way they butchered meat and didn’t use the blood and expressed gratitude to God. It was a constant reminder that they were dependent on God.

It was a visual system. It was highly symbolic.

The author, is talking about Jesus when we come to the last verse of our text. It reads: “who through the eternal Spirit… ...(to) purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God.”

Praise God that we are free from dead works!

We are free from trying to earn God’s favor.

Now, We are all cleaned up and forgiven by trusting in Jesus.

He promises that the Spirit of God will cleanse and restore our conscience to God.

Some call it salvation. I call it restoration. Because the Spirit of God restores us to God through our conscience.

Our baptism symbolizes a both a death, or an end to selfishness, and a birth to the new life in love. Through Christ’s love and forgiveness, we are healed and restored.

We rest in the leading of God’s Spirit to help us follow Christ as he leads us. Through the Spirit of Christ, we follow God.

Servanthood

Text: Mark 10:35-37,41-45

Focus: Servanthood

Function: to help people lead by serving

³⁵James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” ³⁶And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” ³⁷And they said to him, “Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

⁴¹When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. ⁴²So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. ⁴³But it is not so among you; instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. ⁴⁵For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Good morning beloved church family!

First, and as an introduction to my sermon, I want to commend you all for leaving politics out of our worship services.

We are diverse here and I recognize that we are of different minds when it comes to the way we vote.

But we are of one mind when it comes to the desire that we have to live lives that reflect the love of Jesus to the world around us.

I encourage you to vote your faith, I try to vote according to the teachings of Jesus.

However, I want us to understand that the problems we face are Spiritual and they are not going to be solved merely by voting. I believe they are going to be solved when the Church takes on its responsibility to teach the unconditional love that Jesus demonstrated.

I remember all the way back in 2008 when President Obama was running for office, and I was at the prison getting ready to go in for my first Kairos weekend. And I parked next to a man who had hinted that his vote was not the same as mine. And his bumper sticker read “I vote the Bible” and didn’t name a party. And my bumper sticker listed a party and I told him I wanted one just like his to put above mine because we both were passionate about our faith. And instead of it being a disagreement, we both just laughed because we knew that in the prison, we were there to give hope to people who are oftentimes without hope and that was much more important than our political differences. I thank God that it is true here as well. We have a deeper purpose than human politics.

Jesus loves both Democrats and Republicans and all of us, both Republicans and Democrats bear the image of Christ and we should respect that in the other person. Respect is important. When we feel the patriotic passions that might keep us divided even though we have a bond that is much more important because it is eternal, formed in the heavens by God’s own hand through the sacrifice of Christ.

We are first members of the family, or the kingdom, of God through Jesus Christ.

And this bond of Christian love is indeed possible through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Today’s passage is about leadership, specifically Servant leadership. And I find the subject relevant since we are a few weeks away from an election.

In today’s passage we read of a power squabble between the apostles. And Jesus gives us some spiritual teaching about leadership in the passage.

These disciples were a diverse group of men. Notably so, is the contrast between Simon the Jewish Zealot and Matthew the Tax Collector for the Romans. They were mortal enemies in the political realm. Matthew was seen by Simon to be a collaborator with the Roman Occupation and Simon would have been seen by Matthew as a terrorist. Both sides considered the other as worthy of death.

And yet in Christ’s love and presence there is never a mention of any rivalry or disunity between the two men in the scriptures. They found something more important.

Jesus told Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world. Our kingdom is divine, spiritual and eternal.

So, here is this group of guys following the master and they get led into a petty squabble about their own power and prestige.

So Jesus tells them what a true leader looks like.

A true leader, a godly leader, is a servant leader.

And Jesus does say something about politicians in the passage. He explains that the politicians of the world find it to their advantage to lord their power over others.

Without criticizing the notion, he states the reality that we still see in politicians today.

It is almost as if Jesus is stating the necessary evil that it is.

But in God’s kingdom, in the place where eternity matters, we have a different standard to follow. Praise God!

We don’t have to lord our power and authority over others. We recognize that it is worldly to do so. That is one of the reasons for a hundred years or so that us plain folk didn’t participate in the elections because they saw both sides as worldly.

Jesus is refocusing the disciples in this lesson into what it takes follow him.

And Jesus tells them that to follow him is to serve others.

And the last symbolic act that Jesus did was Last Supper, the upper room, where they celebrated the Passover and the emphasis was on Jesus washing the disciples feet.

Let me read from John 13 in the Message:

13^1-2Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that the time had come to leave this world to go to the Father. Having loved his dear companions, he continued to love them right to the end. It was suppertime. The Devil by now had Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, firmly in his grip, all set for the betrayal.

^3-6Jesus knew that the Father had put him in complete charge of everything, that he came from God and was on his way back to God. So he got up from the supper table, set aside his robe, and put on an apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with his apron. When he got to Simon Peter, Peter said, “Master, you wash my feet?”

⁷Jesus answered, “You don’t understand now what I’m doing, but it will be clear enough to you later.”

⁸Peter persisted, “You’re not going to wash my feet—ever!”

Jesus said, “If I don’t wash you, you can’t be part of what I’m doing.”

⁹ “Master!” said Peter. “Not only my feet, then. Wash my hands! Wash my head!”

¹¹After he had finished washing their feet, he took his robe, put it back on, and went back to his place at the table.

In obedience to Christ, we wash feet once a year. So I am just going to end with the rest of that scripture:

^12-17Then he said, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master,’ and rightly so. That is what I am. So if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet. I’ve laid down a pattern for you. What I’ve done, you do. I’m only pointing out the obvious. A servant is not ranked above his master; an employee doesn’t give orders to the employer. If you understand what I’m telling you, act like it—and live a blessed life.

Generosity

 

Text: Mark 10:17-31

Focus: Greed

Function: to help people rest in God’s provision

¹⁷As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁸Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. ¹⁹You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not defraud. Honor your father and mother.’ ” ²⁰He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” ²¹Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” ²²When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

²³Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” ²⁴And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” ²⁶They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” ²⁷Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”

²⁸Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” ²⁹Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news ³⁰who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. ³¹But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

Good Morning!

The title Generosity might seem a little bit odd for this passage.

It might have served us just as well for me to title the sermon: “Where are you living for?” and talk about the way believers are people who are different because they believe that some day they will indeed meet God and will face God’s judgment for their own reward.

It might even be titled “Faith in the after life” because the thing that separates us believers while living for an eternal reward is actually believing that there is some sort of life after death.

Bible scholars see the underlying influence that living with respect to the fact that God will judge our actions someday is really the difference between the people of faith and what the book of Proverbs calls them: “Scoffers.”

I love the verse in Ecclesiastes that says that God has placed eternity in the hearts of humanity.

We sense that there is more to life than just this here on earth. The comfort that we feel when we know that someone is in a better place is real to me and spiritual. I mean, we feel it and we know it in our spirits. Faith in God springs from that sense of God inside of us, the Holy Spirit who draws us to God and leads us to follow Jesus.

So, we have the story of the rich young ruler who believed in life after death and was asking Jesus if his obeying the commandments that teach us to love each, which are six of the ten commandments, was good enough for him to get to heaven.

And Jesus’ answer is very disturbing to all of us. He asks a question that gets to the heart of whether or not he really believed in an heavenly reward. He asks him to give up his possessions to prove it.

And the man choose earthly reward over heavenly reward.

It is kind of a scary thought.

But God saved us through Jesus Christ. And we are not working anymore to escape the concept of eternal punishment, but we are living to be part of God’s kingdom here on earth. And Jesus comforts the disciples with the knowledge that even though it was difficult for that rich young man, it isn’t impossible with God.

Jesus said, do not work for earthy reward, but lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. For where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also.

By having confidence in God’s reward is one of thw ways that people find the passion to live sacrificially for others. One of my favorites saints is Saint Francis of Assisi. He was born to nobility and wealth. But through study of the scripture he gave it all away and lived among the poor and learned joy through suffering. He was a real man of peace and founded a movement that is still going strong and it reaches now beyond Roman Catholicism and is partnered with believers like us.

But the idea is not so much living for heaven as it is living for God. Because when we live in communion with the Holy Spirit, we are led to a life that serves others and loves others unconditionally and that brings to us an abundant spiritual life that brings peace.

We know this next truth, but the worldly influences around us deny the power of how it can bring us to a place of peace and joy regardless of the circumstances because we see the hand of God through the Spirit of God in our lives.

The truth weknow is that money cannot buy happiness. And yet, this poor soul, rich in money, but poor in his soul walked away from peace to hang on to what he believed would keep him safe.

Perhaps he was afraid to trust God to keep him and he believed that his money would.

And we believe that about money. The scripture even backs it up. In Ecclesiastes again we read that money along with wisdom protects us, but wisdom is better because it saves our souls.

We believe that if we have enough money we are safe and will be protected. The problem is fear.

Money itself isn’t evil. We need it. The Scripture says it is the love of money, or greed and hoarding that is the root of evil. And I believe it first comes from fear and then comes from pride.

The love of money is worldly. Having our confidence in our money is just as worldly.

What I mean is that faith in God is what we rest in here. We pray every week for the Lord to provide for us on a daily basis and we live by faith resting in God’s provision.

And when we rest in the fact that God will provide for us, we are no longer afraid to be generous.

We need money and would have to beg without it. We work, or worked hard for our provision and feel a sense of pride and accomplishment by getting there. God, we believe, has blessed and helped us. We thank God for that.

And in that thanksgiving, we know that God will provide for us. We rest in God.

And that gives us the faith to be generous instead of greedy. Greedy is evil, generous reflects the very nature of the love of God.

And it is the kindness of God that draws people to this new life in God.

We get to reflect that kindness.

May people see the love of Christ in us.