Rewards

  

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

Focus: Judgment

Function: to help people see that God is fair in the end

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 just will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!

Good morning to the beloved Children of God.

I love the way this passage helps us see the difference between letting God be the judge or trying to do the judging ourselves.

And in the process, it gives us the comfort that God will indeed be a fair judge at the end of the age.

He speaks of how in the end, our own sense of justice will shine like the sun as it is exposed as the loving response given to us by spirit’s power.

Jesus spoke in parables so that we can take the time to ponder the meaning of his statement and apply them to our lives. Oftentimes he speaks mysteriously and it confuses people who are not interested in learning from him but are listening in order to judge his words.

Remember, Jesus came preaching a radical message that appealed to the poor and the downtrodden and was despised by the rich and powerful because he condemned their selfish greed. The gospel writers explains it this way: “They loved money more than God or people.” Because of this, Luke 16:14 tells us they sneered at his teaching about giving up greed. Apparently, they spread ridicule about Jesus loving response to others. They mocked the idea of empathy. Mocking empathy is a worldly value and is not consistent with the love of God. God rewards those who care for the least of these.

And I want us to understand that this passage is about reward. Hence, the title. But the reason I emphasize this is because one might think that it isn’t so much about rewards as it is about punishment since the verses mention the angels collecting the evil deeds and burning them up in the fire.

So, let me segue into grace a little bit. Grace is the gift of God’s forgiveness for us without us being able to earn it. It is a gift from God and it is given to everyone by God unconditionally.

We receive it for ourselves by simply trusting God to love, heal and restore us by God’s gift of love for us.

We trust God by following the leading of the Spirit in our lives as she leads us to give up selfishness and see the needs of the world that is hurting around us.

God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others.

And all of this is inspired and led by the Spirit of God inside of us, the church, the body of Christ here on earth.

Grace means that God loves and forgives.

Grace means that God will not punish.

So what is he talking about here with the fire that burns up evil deeds? Well, clearly he is not speaking of people being burnt up. That isn’t love for them.

God is not the God of revenge but of restoration.

And God’s restoring process is to burn up our evil deeds, or our not loving habits and replace them with the peace and love of God’s presence in our lives.

God rewards good deeds and forgives our sins.

The Apostle Paul picks up this theme in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15: ¹²If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ¹³their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. ¹⁴If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. ¹⁵If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

I am not particularly fond of marketing Christianity as an investment in heaven. We should do good deeds in order to gain a better eternity because we do good out of response to the love inspired by the Spirit inside of us, not for selfish purposes.

We are motivated by love, but it does appear to be true that every person will be judged by the quality of our works.

Here is the grace part of it: The bad deeds are forgiven and burnt away while the good deeds are purified and brought to light.

Our sins are forgiven and our good deeds are remembered.

The one who forgives even though the person never repented will get their heavenly reward. They forgave in faith.

The one who sacrificed their self and their health to keep their family going did so in faith and God will certainly reward.

The one who gave their life for the good of the many will certainly get a reward.

The one who works and serves and never gets any recognition here on earth does indeed have an heavenly reward and the good news is that they will get recognition for it.

I introduced the message with the thought that it is God who does the judging and not we ourselves.

The Lord will separate the good from the evil and the Lord will let the two grow up together.

I used to think that it was my job to pull up the weeds because they inhibit the health of the good plants.

But I realize that I am full of weeds as well as good seed. I am far from perfect and I need God’s Spirit to remind me.

I believe he isn’t talking about people, but he is talking about our habits and perspectives.

Sometimes God frustrates us, I call it trips us in order to pick us up. God does it to heal us from our selfish ways.

It happened to me a few months ago in a profound way.

I was at the car wash behind a car that was having difficulty, so I changed to the other lane. As I changed lanes, the gate opened before I could get up to the bar code reader. I didn’t know what to do so I sped up to go through because, you know, the gate was open.

When the manager stepped in my path. I stopped my car and he cussed me out. When I calmly told he the gate was open and I thought I was to go through.

He was relentless in his attack on me so I did something bad. I rolled up my window and raised my middle finger at him.

So he decided to somehow stop the car wash from washing my car. I went though again, and we had another confrontation where I tried to explain that the gate was open and I was confused.

And he stopped the car wash again.

My anger got the best of me and I couldn’t let it go.

But what I couldn’t let go was the fact that my response to him was not Christlike

I was convicted by the Spirit of letting my anger rule my heart instead of the Spirit of God.

Now this happened all the way in Beavercreek, but I kept worrying about what would happen if the man saw me in my pastoral role and remembered my attitude towards him.

And God’s spirit kept haunting me. I was worried that God wanted me to go back there and shake his hand. But as I prayed, I realized that I was not in the wrong and the guy must have been having a bad day.

And then I remember we have a forgiveness ceremony at Kairos on Saturday night, and I have to get over this anger so that I can stand pure before God.

So, in the middle of the night, I get up to pray a lot in the middle of the night. I speak to God and I am asking God why this could have happened.

And it was like the Lord spoke to me these words: “I tripped you so that I could pick you up.”

In other words, God could have stopped that guy from being anal retentive but God didn’t. Instead, God let me go through it to expose to me a place where God wanted to heal me.

And it worked. By the Spirit, I find myself much less impatient when driving because God reminded me that God is in control of my life, even my failures.

God took a bad seed that sin planted in me and is replacing it with a peaceful response.

The good deeds surface to the top and God washes away the sin. Let God work.

Finding Joy

  

Text: Isaiah 55:10-13

Focus: Joy

Function: To see Christ as the source of Joy

¹⁰For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
¹¹so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose
    and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

¹²For you shall go out in joy
    and be led back in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
    shall burst into song,
    and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
¹³Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
    instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle,
and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial,
    for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

Good morning to the beloved children of God.

God is love, and God knows that love conquers our fears and gives us hope.

This passage, I believe, is talking about the hope we have in the Lord when we allow the joy of the Lord to wash over us.

So today we are going to look at some of the prophecies about Jesus in the book of Isaiah to paint a picture of what God is doing in the world through Jesus and us, his body.

Isaiah paints a picture of God’s provision for us in the rain and the snow as they give life to the planet and refresh us.

I get the picture of being in a warm summer shower and just letting the rain wash over me while I enjoy the feeling.

Isaiah, a prophet of the words of God speaks specifically of the Word of God coming from God and giving life to the earth.

In order to understand this passage, I want to take it in consideration with the first chapter of the book of John. John 1:1 says this: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God.

And then John 1:14, the word becomes flesh in Jesus.

Jesus is the word of God.

This is a prophecy about Jesus, the God’s word made flesh.

Isaiah speaks often of the hope of God’s restoration of humanity. He gives us prophecies about the coming of Christ and how Christ will bring hope and release to those who are bound up in brokenness and poverty.

The passage speaks to us of God’s healing power to restore.

Jesus heals and has come to restore the world as Bishop N. T. Wright says to the right place. He comes to bring a form of justice fomented in love and forgiveness. We read about it in Isaiah 61:1:

¹The spirit of the Lord God is upon me
    because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
    to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and release to the prisoners,

Jesus read those words in the synagogue in Jerusalem and then proclaimed that Isaiah was speaking about him in this passage.

The mission of Jesus, what God anointed Jesus for, was to set us free.

Paul said that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Jesus stands up and tells the crowd that his mission is to heal and restore people.

And Jesus calls us to do likewise and live for the healing and restoration of others.

Isaiah describes Jesus’ mission and then Jesus claims it for himself 400 years later.

And in our text for today, Isaiah says to us: Have hope, God’s plan for healing is going to work.

As the rain and snow refresh the earth, God’s plan with Jesus will work to restore all of humanity.

And it does work!

Look at 1 John 2:2. It says: He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

There are two groups mentioned in this passage who are saved by the cross: We believers and the rest of the world. Jesus paid it all for us on the cross.

But Jesus’ ministry was more than the cross. Jesus spent three years demonstrating God’s love for humanity, he taught us how to love others, he showed us how to love others and then he also spoke out loudly against the oppressive systems that were keeping the people in bondage.

He stood up to the greed of those who were profiting off of the people’s misery and they had him killed for it.

So the cross did two things:

He gave us salvation on the cross, and he gave us healing power through following his teachings.

This prophecy, we are studying today promises that Jesus’ mission will work and will indeed bring healing to the world. It is accomplished by following in the footsteps of Jesus, the Word of God who came to refresh and restore.

And I am a little bit different in my approach to the good news of Jesus’ healing power.

As I read that verse in 1 John 2:2, he speaks of how Jesus work for us saved not only US who call ourselves Christians but EVERYONE ELSE.

For me, the emphasis is on the fact that God did the work.

The word went forth from God and indeed accomplished its purpose.

On the cross, the last words of Jesus is “It is finished.”

God saved the world entire and left the Spirit of God inside of us, filling us as believers, to keep up the work of God healing and restoring.

We look for ways to join in partnership with our brother Jesus so that we too can be faithful witnesses to the love that God has for us in Christ.

And the second paragraph speaks of how the Spirit will be with us prospering our ways and giving us joy and peace in our Christian vocations.

I picture it as us in the power of the Spirit resisting with the power of love. Thereby, we dance upon injustice.

Imagine

  

Text: Acts 2:17-18

Focus: Imagine

Function: To help people see the blessing we got from Annual conference worship.

¹⁷‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
    and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
    and your old men shall dream dreams.
¹⁸Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit,
        and they shall prophesy.

Good morning to the beloved children of God.

Today, we are looking at the theme passage from last week’s Annual Conference of the Church which Carol and I attended.

There were a total of 5 worship services and all of them were inspiring and were centered on the theme: Imagine.

I love the idea of Imagine because I believe that is one of the places the Holy Spirit lives inside of us to give us hope in the power of what is possible by faith.

We don’t just imagine that God exists, we imagine what is possible because we live by faith in what God can do.

Our text points us to what God can do through the Spirit.

The passage is Peter trying to explain to the crowd what has just happened when the mighty wind shook Jerusalem and the tongues of fire fell on the 120 believers who were gathered together.

Peter repeats a prophecy from Joel chapter 2 telling them that this was simply God fulfilling God’s promise to us.

And he promises that we will have visions and dreams and then we will speak and bring those things about.

Imagine a better world and then commit ourselves to prayer and action to make it happen.

The visions and the dreams given to us are the leading of God by the Spirit in the hearts of God’s people and they can be wild.

I am reminded of a sermon I preached based on a sign at a Lutheran Church I drive by while Ubering. The sign says: “God’s Work, Our Hands” and Jody made us all little signs to hang on the wall depicting that phrase. Mine hangs on the wall just to my right of me when I am writing my sermons.

When we look at the way the Spirit empowers us according to 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12 and Ephesians 4, we see that God is the one who is at work in us.

Does that mean we won’t fail?

I imagine what it would be like to never fail. I don’t believe that is what he is talking about. He is talking about how God is the one who opens the doors and sets the circumstances right for us to do God’s work in our lives.

But that idea of never failing is there because God is the one who picks us up when we fall. As a matter of fact, when you read the stories in the OT of the people of faith, you see that at times they seemed to go backwards on their quest and God was behind it because God wanted them to depend on God’s power and not their own resources.

God is looking for willing participants in God’s plan.

When I think of God’s work and Our hands, I think of the willingness that we have to listen and do what we are feeling God is leading us to do.

I think one of the things that helped me see God at work in our church was listening to the stories of pastors from other churches that are similar to ours.

One preacher told us that it isn’t sour grapes to look at our size and wonder about what it means when we see mega churches with programming that fits every niche of their constituents so that people’s felt needs are being met.

He didn’t, and I won’t criticize the faith of anyone else either, because I believe that God leads us.

But he went on to talk of the love and community given to us by God in our smaller churches. More than that, he pointed out that we are a different people and that uniqueness makes us who we are and we should be happy because God is faithful and is working and does have a plan for us.

The motto of the Church is “Following Jesus, simply, peaceably, and together.” Even our motto reflects our need for community and the help and aid that we get from each other.

When Paul speaks of the moving of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12, he gives to us a body image. Let me read verses 12-13 and verses 25-26 from the Message:

^12-13You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.

^25-26The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

Our community makes us grow.

And I believe God’s power is behind it.

And our text from the book of Acts is the prophecy about our power as a Church.

We dream of a better world and then we prophesy, or speak it into existence.

And in this day and age, the message of unconditional love for our neighbors doesn’t sit well when our neighbors are accused of being something different from us. We are told by the culture to hate the other side because they are destroying our values. We are told to hate those who while fleeing for their lives broke the law even though it was life and death for them. We are told it is okay to hate them.

But praise God it isn’t that way in our church. We are told to love those who are different from us. That is what community building is about and that is where the Spirit is moving and blessing churches.

The final message on Thursday, the speaker imagined Jesus washing Judas’s feet with both of them knowing that Judas was going to hand Jesus over to death. Jesus loved him till the end.

We are different from the culture, the world, around us.

The culture teaches us to arm ourselves and get revenge, that somehow more violence will stop violence. We have a better way, we love and forgive our enemies to the point of washing their feet.

I imagine the Spirit giving us that kind of power to love.