Sermon Video: Persistence in Prayer - Luke 11:5-13

Persistence is an interesting quality in people, it can be the making of our success, and it can be the cause of our destruction.  When persistence is combined with righteousness the result is saintly, when it is combined with vice, the result is grotesque.  In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus expounds upon his answer to the question from the disciples, “Lord, teach us to pray”, by talking to them about being persistent in prayer.  The Greek term used by Jesus could also be translated as: audacity, boldness, or even impudence.  The overall idea is that we must be actively seeking an answer from God to our prayers and never give up until we find it.  But what are we to be praying for?  What is the object and goal of our prayers?  To answer that question, Jesus first gives a parable illustrating the value of persistence, followed by the command to us that we are to ask, seek, and knock knowing that we will receive, find, and have the door opened for us.  Lastly, before answering the question of what it is we’re praying for, Jesus reminds us that even human fathers are wise enough, and good enough, despite the fallen state of humanity, to give their children good things that will benefit them.  If human fathers can do that much, imagine what our heavenly Father has in store for his adopted children.

                So, what is the object and goal of our prayers, that which Jesus has told us we will receive if we ask?  The Holy Spirit.  Jesus isn’t talking here about jobs, health concerns, money, family troubles, or even freedom or justice, all of which are legitimate things we need and the focus of many of our prayers.  The one thing that Jesus is telling us we must diligently seek from God in prayer, because by so doing we will find it, is the Holy Spirit.  Jesus isn’t talking about salvation, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is given eagerly by God to everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, and it is that single act of faith that makes God’s grace available to us as we become his adopted children.  Jesus is talking about the life-long process of transformation, we call it sanctification, which follows after our salvation with the goal of transforming us into the likeness of Jesus himself.  We will all one day be like him, in the life beyond this one, but for here and now we can become more like him each day as we purge ourselves of sin and embrace righteousness.  That process is a long and difficult one requiring an ongoing commitment and effort from us, enabled by God’s power working in us, and yes, supported by persistent prayer. 

                What will the answer to your prayer for healing be?  I don’t know, pray and trust in the will of God.  What will the answer to your prayer for that job you need?  I don’t know, pray, trust in God.  What will the answer to your prayer to be more like Jesus be?  God will hear you, he will answer you, and he will transform you if you are persistent, bold, audacious, and even impudent in continuing to ask it of him.

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Sermon Video: "Lord, teach us to pray" - Luke 11:1-4

There are a lot of different ways, it seems, to pray, and a lot of different things one can talk about while praying.  How then, are we to know how we ought to pray?  The disciples asked Jesus that exact question, after once again observing him at prayer, and were given a response similar to, but not the same as, the Lord’s Prayer.  The Lord’s Prayer, as it is commonly known, comes from Matthew 6 and was given by Jesus during the Sermon on the Mount.  This prayer template/example that Jesus shares privately with his disciples is a shorter and slightly different version of that famous prayer.

                What do we learn from the fact that Jesus answers with a similar but shorter and slightly different version of his most famous prayer when his disciples ask him how to pray?  The topics in both prayers highlight for us that there are small number of broad topics included in any prayer, regardless of occasion, and the differences between the two tell us that Jesus was not interested in locking his disciples into a specific, word for word, prayer that they need to repeat, but instead a template from which their own prayers could be created.  The three primary topics in the prayer are: The power/glory/dominion of God, the frailty of humanity (whether moral or physical), and the love/mercy of God in response.  These three topics cover pretty much any prayer that you or I would need to make.  Whether our prayers are public or private, out loud or only in our minds, we can always praise God for being God, ask God for help in our distress, and thank God for his loving kindness.

                The one thing that Jesus doesn’t do when asked by his disciples, “teach us to pray”, is to tell them specific things about when, where, or for how long, they ought to pray.  This isn’t a chore to be checked off of a daily list, but a conversation with our heavenly Father.  It ought to be regular, and it ought to be sufficient, but what that means will vary significantly from person to person and from time to time in our lives.  It doesn’t benefit Christians to compare their prayers habits because it only leads to pride for those who prayer more/longer, and to discouragement for those who pray less/shorter.  In the end, it is not quantity as much as quality that God desires, as we know from our own lives, a meaningful conversation is far more important than simple banter.

                The prayer example itself given by Jesus highlights our ability to call God, “Father”, our hope for his kingdom’s eventuality, our daily dependence upon him, our need for ongoing forgiveness from God to us, and from us to others, and our need for God’s guidance in our future.  These are all standard things that we ought to be focused upon as disciples of Jesus Christ.

                To those for whom the prayers of the Bible, like the 23^rd Psalm, or the dozens of prayers recorded by virtually all of the Bible’s main characters, feel especially poignant, go ahead and repeat them, utilizing the wisdom of others to aid your prayers, such prayers are recorded for a reason.  At the same time, don’t neglect to speak to God in your own words, drawing upon what is weighing upon your God, for God has gifted you too with the Holy Spirit, you can call him Father as you simply have a conversation with your Creator.

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What is the secret that allows churches to work together?

What is the secret to working together with other churches in order to multiply the resulting impact within the community?  The answer is exceedingly simple, but often difficult for some Christians or churches to accept: Don’t care which church benefits.  If you, or your church, are more concerned with your numbers on Sunday morning than you are with fulfilling the mission of the Church to care for the poor and needy, you might as well continue to do what little you can on your own.  If ten churches work together to run a food pantry, a pantry that will physically be housed in one of those ten churches, and as a result, new people who are served by that pantry end up going to the church that is the host, that is a cause for praise for all ten churches because the Church of Jesus Christ is the beneficiary.  There is no reason for each church to try to have its own food pantry, clothing collection and distribution program, after-school ministry, home repair team, or whatever other avenue of ministry you can think of.  Each church should find out what their passion is, through serious introspection and assessment of talents and resources, and focus on that area while at the same time lending a significant hand to the area of focus of other churches through financial and volunteer support and in turn allowing those other churches to contribute to your focused ministry.  The end result should have one church running the food pantry, with all other contributing, one church running a clothing program, with all other assisting, one church running an after-school ministry, etc.

                Why shouldn’t such ministries be duplicated in each church?  The practical objection is that it is a waste of resources, as each does far less than the sum of them could do together.  The PR objection is that is shows the Lost, those we aim to share the Gospel with, that we’re in competition with each other and not cooperation.  What does that say about the love of fellow Christians for each other when they can’t even work together?  The spiritual objection is that it fosters the false belief that we own our local church, that we aren’t part of the universal Church of Jesus, as well as depriving Christians of the positive impact in their own faith walk of being part of a collective effort that will actually make a difference in your community.  Last, but not least, it is in keeping with the prayer of Jesus before his passion began that his followers be one.  We certainly aren’t “one” in structure, but we can at least be “one” in spirit and “one” in cooperation.

                There’s another benefit to being a part of ecumenical ministry for your congregation:  It allows the men and women of your church to take part in a ministry that they’re passionate about even if your church doesn’t have that type of ministry.  The alternatives are that they don’t utilize that gift/talent/calling because no outlet for it appears to exist, or that they leave to go to a church where they feel they can contribute.  Does either of those options appeal to the pastors and church board busy building a moat around the church building to keep other Christians out?

                In the end, the final evaluation is beyond dispute: Are more people shown the love of Jesus Christ when churches work collectively or when they work alone?  You know that the answer is clearly when collective efforts exist, how can a disciple of Jesus Christ, a committed servant of the Kingdom of God, fail to set aside whatever objection he/she has to ecumenism and start working with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ?  Whatever the excuse is, it isn’t good enough.

Sermon Video: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff - Luke 10:38-42

Life can be busy, it can be hectic, stressful, and frustrating.  Work needs to be done, things need to be taken care of, we have responsibility.  All this is true, and the Word of God doesn’t attempt to gloss over such concerns, but it does offer hope.  In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is confronted by a frustrated hostess Martha whose efforts to prepare for Jesus’ needs and those of his disciples, has been hampered, in her mind at least, by her sister Mary’s lack of contribution to the work.  Martha interrupts Jesus to complain about this unfair situation and request, with much emotion, that he order Mary to help out.  What was Mary doing this whole time, why wasn’t she helping?  Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, soaking up the wisdom of his teaching, and acting as if she too, even though she is a woman, is going to be his disciple.

                This passage can be viewed as a sibling rivalry, the struggles of an older sibling to deal with responsibility and the younger of shirking it.  Or it can be looked at as a clash of personality types, with Martha’s “A” personality being frazzled by Mary’s laid-back attitude.  We’ve all experienced such turmoil, in our family, at our work, or in our church.  When people work together on projects it always seems that some are left holding the bag and doing all the work while other skate by.   

                How will Jesus respond?  Will he scold Mary for not helping out?  Keep in mind that the previous passage was the Parable of the Good Samaritan, a message about helping out someone in need, and Mary isn’t helping out.  Are the situations parallel?  They are not, and therein lies the key to Jesus response.  In the parable, it was a question of life or death, right and wrong were clearly in the choice, to help was righteous, to fail to help was a sin of omission.  Here in this situation, Martha and Mary are not dealing with a right vs. wrong decision, but rather a good vs. better comparison.  Is it better to work hard to provide for the needs of others, as Martha is doing, or is it better to satisfy the spiritual hunger of learning from Jesus?

                Much of the commentary on this passage attempts to point out that Martha’s preparation were overly indulgent, that she had put too into it, and thus the lesson for her from Jesus is one of simplicity.  While there may be some truth to that line of thinking, it isn’t necessary that we criticize Martha in order to understand why Jesus takes Mary’s side by declaring that she chose something “better”.  Martha’s didn’t do anything wrong, per se, she just didn’t make the best choice possible.  There will always be more work to do, but Mary recognized that learning from Jesus was a unique spiritual opportunity not to be missed.  That was the better choice for Mary, it would have been the best choice for Martha as well.

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Sermon Video: "Who is my neighbor?" - Luke 10:29-37

As the conversation between Jesus and the expert in the Law continues, the lawyer and Jesus have agreed that the heart and soul of the Law is loving God with everything and loving our neighbor as ourselves.  At this point, the original question, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” has been answered in that what is required by the Law has been clearly summed up.  The next part of the conversation should be a discussion of how we reconcile the Law’s demand with humanity’s failure to fully keep it, i.e. a discussion of repentance and forgiveness, of mercy and grace.  The lawyer, however, in an effort to justify himself turns the discussion in a new direction by asking Jesus, “and who is my neighbor?”  The lawyer’s question is focusing on the object of the Law, who it applies to, in the hopes that a narrow definition will make it easier to keep.  As Jesus typically does, he doesn’t answer the question he is asked but instead chooses to focus upon the subject of the Law, that is, us, by explaining what it means to be a good neighbor.

                The Parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the most commented upon sections of the Bible, it has fascinated Christians down through the centuries with its powerful message.  In the story, the unnamed man who is robbed, beaten, and left for dead while journeying from Jerusalem to Jericho is only treated as a neighbor by one of the three people who pass by that way.  The first two that come along, both of whom are professional servants of God and thus in theory ideal representatives of the requirements of the Law to love your neighbor, yet they both walk by without even stopping to assess the situation.  Both of these men of God commit sins of omission by not helping a fellow human being in distress.  The lawyer who asked the question of Jesus about defining the term neighbor was hoping that the definition would end up being, “only people like us, our fellow Jews are your neighbors”.  Even by that narrow definition, the priest and Levite are in violation of the Law.  The broad definition of neighbor advocated by Jesus, everyone you meet is your neighbor, is embodied by the Samaritan who comes along next, takes pity on the wounded man, and goes far beyond the minimum to take care of his needs. 

                The twist of the story is of course that a hated Samaritan is the good guy and two respected religious leaders are the bad guys, that alone is a powerful enough message about prejudice and judging people based on outward appearances, but the parable also teaches us to not put limits on who we consider to be our neighbors.  The demand from God that we love our neighbors as ourselves has no boundary, there is no “us” and “them”.  Anytime that people start dividing the world up into groups of “us” and “them”, the process begins which allows racism, sexism, indifference, callousness, greed, and hatred to grow.  Why?  Because when we look at another human being as a “them” we allow ourselves to begin to minimize their suffering and treat it as somehow less than our own.  How was Hitler able to murder millions of innocent Jews, Gypsies, and other “undesirables”?  He had millions of willing men and women throughout Europe that also believed that those lives were less valuable, because it was “them” and not “us”, unspeakable horrors were unleashed. 

                What is the call of God for his people?  To love all, and treat all equally, to see everyone as your neighbor and imitate the love of God by loving them in turn.  The conversation between Jesus and the lawyer ends when the lawyer is forced to concede that the one who acted as a neighbor to the man in distress was “the one who had mercy on him”, it does not matter who he was, his actions spoke for him.  In response Jesus said, “Go and do likewise”.

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