Being Love / Based on 1 John 4:7-21 / Delivered on April 29, 2018 to CCH

Being Love / Based on 1 John 4:7-21 / Delivered on April 29, 2018 to CCH

Hymns: My Jesus I Love Thee, I’ve Got Peace Like a River, Take My Life and Let It Be

1 John 4:7-21

4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
4:9 God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
4:11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.
4:12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
4:13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
4:14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world.
4:15 God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.
4:16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.
4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.
4:19 We love because he first loved us.
4:20 Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.
4:21 The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

Good morning and happy fifth Sunday of Easter to you!  My name is Darci Strutt McQuiston and it is my honor to be with you this morning.

This passage from 1st John is a familiar one to many of us.  I’m going to add in a song based on this scripture in the end just because I can’t get it out of my head.  I will also be bringing in a few verses from the gospel reading for today, Luke 15.  I’m approaching the scripture in these ways:

God loved first
Jesus proved it
It’s our turn

God loved first

This reminds me of God’s grace toward us.  God’s love isn’t based on our deserving it.

4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

4:11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.

Again, in verse 16 –
4:16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.  God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

God didn’t wait for us to clean up our act.  He didn’t wait for us to become closer to deserving this love.  He loved first because that is who He is.  God is love.  This passage from 1 John makes that quite clear.

We read this passage and it seems obvious to us, yet for those first readers it would have been a new teaching.  They knew the Jews were God’s Chosen People, but the idea that God’s love was pouring out whether they were obedient or not was new.  They had seen God’s anger and worried about His love being withheld if they disobeyed the laws of Moses.  John taught God’s love never stopped because that was God’s identity.  God was Love. 

Jesus proved it

4:9 God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Jesus came to show us who God was.  Jesus didn’t withhold his healing from those who had sin or from those who were not of the right family.  He taught “neighbor” meant everyone.  At his birth, Simeon gave this prophecy in the temple;

 Luke 2:30-32 For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” 

God’s salvation was for all nations whether the people were Jewish or not.  All people are God’s creation and God’s children.

In the New Testament lesson from Luke for today Jesus describes himself as the vine.

15:3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.
15:4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.

This is a parable of what it means to “live through” Jesus from our 1 John passage, “God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.”  Jesus tapped into God’s powerful love.  He was fully connected, one with God.  He offers us that connection to himself like branches connect to a grape vine. 

It’s our turn

Wayne Dyer said, "If you desire peace for others, you'll receive peace.  If you want others to feel love, you'll be the recipient of love."  The Course in Miracles says it this way, “To have all, give all to all.”   My page-a-day quote calendar happened to have this quote from Pope John Paul II this week, “Anything done for another is done for oneself.”  There you have it from three different sources!

This is a principle I’ve seen in action in my life.  Give to others what you hope for yourself.  Be loving and you will feel love in your life.

First John tells us that God’s love is pouring out to us.  We can receive that love most fully when we are letting it flow through us to others.

4:19 We love because he first loved us.

4:20 Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.
4:21 The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

It is in giving that we open the channel to receiving.  Kind of like you need to breathe out before you can breathe in.  If we claim to be connected to God that means we are being continually filled with God’s love for his children.  If we are filled with love, then that is what will come out of us. 

We most often think of love as a feeling.  We do something because we feel this feeling.  Jesus demonstrated that love was a way to act.  1 John and other passages teach that love is a way to be.  God is love and when you love you are like him.  We are called to BE Love, not just feel it or act in loving ways.

Jesus uses the parable of the vine to show this connectedness.  We don’t use the word “abide” very often.  In the old days your home was called your abode.  That was where you lived.  To abide was to be present in your home.  It meant living within a place.  We are called to abide with Christ in Luke 15:4 “Abide in me as I abide in you”, to abide with God 1 John 4:16b “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them”, which is to abide within love. 

First, we are asked to see a feeling as a person and then we’re asked to see a person as a place to be.  It’s no wonder Jesus spoke in parables to try and help us understand.  We are to become part of who God is.  We are to become love.

That final verse (21) says it is a commandment, but I think it is a truth.  If love is not coming out of you then you are not connected to God.  I like to image it as a river channel connected to a source.  If the river is connected to pure water, then pure water is flowing out of it.  If it has a connection to dirty water, then dirty water is flowing out.  We choose where we receive our source and the result is what flows out of us.  If we have lives of mud, then it would be wise to check our connection.  If we have blocked the flow from going out, the initially pure water can become stagnant.

In the parable of the vine in Luke Jesus says, 15:6 “Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”  I do not see this as a threat but also as a truth. I love to garden, and I’ve seen firsthand what happens when a stem is separated from the main plant.  It dies.  It doesn’t die because the main plant withheld nutrients.  It dies because it became separated from the source of those nutrients.  This is a warning to stay connected to the source of life, to Jesus and thus God, to live a life that is full and productive.

4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

We can live in love because we have been shown through Jesus life that we can live as God’s children.  If you want to receive more love in your life, then let more love flow through you to others.  Become a flowing river of love and you will more strongly feel the love of God flowing into you.  The more love you give the more love you will see return to your life.

Love is a feeling, love is a way to act, and love is a person to be.  Follow in the footsteps of your Father.  Strive to BE Love.  People will see the family resemblance.

Here’s the song I promised.  I’m going to sing it twice so sing along!

Beloved, let us love one another,

For love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.
He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love.
Beloved, let us love one another.
First John, four: seven and eight.

Amen

Present on the Path / Based on John 12:12-16 / Delivered on March 25, 2018 to CCH

Present on the Path / Based on John 12:12-16 / Delivered on March 25, 2018 to CCH

Hymns:

All Glory, Laud, and Honor; I Love to Tell the Story; Joy to the World

John 12:12-16

12:12 The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

12:13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord-- the King of Israel!"

12:14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written:

12:15 "Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!"

12:16 His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.

Good morning and welcome to Palm Sunday!  My name is Darci Strutt McQuiston and I am one of the Lay Servants of the United Methodist Church up on the hill.  It’s my privilege to be with you this morning.   This Sunday is also known as “Passion Sunday” because it begins the final week of Jesus life.  

Palm Sunday is the final Sunday before Easter.  In the next week we will have the retelling unfold completely beginning today with his entrance into Jerusalem on the back of a colt and continuing to his final time as a free man on Maundy Thursday, his death on the cross, and his resurrection from death.

I decided to approach this time together focused on Palm Sunday in the following ways:

Looking forward from the past

Looking backward from the future

Being present on the path

Looking forward from the past

Here are a couple of the prophetic scriptures from the past that pointed to this moment as Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem.

Psalm 118 was a popular psalm, so most of the Jewish community would have been able to quote it.  Verses 25 through 27 read.

118:25 Save us, we beseech you, O LORD! O LORD, we beseech you, give us success!

118:26 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD. We bless you from the house of the LORD.

118:27 The LORD is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar.

I used to think “Hosanna” was a word of praise.  It has a different twist.  The literal definition of Hosanna is: 1) save us, we pray or 2) help us, we pray.  This makes the Psalm language “Hosanna O LORD! O LORD Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD.” 

The people recognized Jesus as the one the Psalm spoke of and repeated these words in John.

John 12:13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord-- the King of Israel!"

Zechariah spoke of the returning king of Israel in 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

A normal champion king would have selected a fine war horse to ride triumphantly into the city.  Jesus wasn’t that type of king.  He was the king spoken of by Zechariah.

John 12:14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written:

12:15 "Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!"

The promises of the old scriptures were in the minds of the people that day.  They described a savior king, the blessed one coming in the name of the Lord.  The people identified Jesus as that person, and so do we when we look at them from after the event.

Looking backward from the future

The people who cried Hosanna were looking for Jesus to be the King to save them from their current situation with the Romans.  We can look backward from our place and see the fulfilling of the cry of “Hosanna” to be saving us from sin and death.  They recognized him as a savior and we recognize him as THE Savior.  They identified Him as the new hoped-for king of Israel, and on the top of the cross put a sign that said, “King of the Jews”.  We know him as King and King and Lord of Lords over all the earth. 

The verses from the Psalm 118;

118:21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.

118:22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

Become our words of praise as we look backward from the future.  Jesus has become our salvation.  He was rejected by the religious leaders of his time but now has become the head of God’s church.

I enjoy looking at the Old Testament through the lenses of the New Testament and see many prophesies that match up with the coming of Jesus.  I’m betting someone has mapped them all out.  We can feel strengthened in our faith to see evidence like this. 

John 12:16 His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.

I can imagine the disciples felt their faith strengthen when they saw the prophecy being fulfilled with Jesus entry into the city.  The event they witnessed on that day had met the description of the words of the prophets.  As they looked back on it that were probably also amazed at how similar they were.

Yet this isn’t the only way I want us to experience this scripture.  Our retelling of Jesus journey into Jerusalem is to help us be there with him.

Being present on the path

Our liturgy, in its wisdom, causes us to walk in a detailed way through Jesus birth and Jesus death each year.  Certainly, there is some part that is education.  We need to know the history.  Our faith is strengthened by seeing the ties between Jesus and the words of the prophets.  Children need to learn the story of Jesus, so they understand enough to decide to follow him.  It is important to teach, but I believe another gift of this repetition is to strengthen our relationship with Jesus.

We are told Jesus walks beside us in our life.  I believe this Holy Week gives us the opportunity to walk beside Jesus on His path.  It feels important to me not to skip ahead to Easter and celebrating the victory.  Our tradition gives us the opportunity to walk slowly beside Jesus through these last days and pay attention to these final moments while Jesus walked on the earth.

As Jesus entered Jerusalem his followers were scared yet brave.  Their enemies were everywhere.  They felt Jesus was walking into a trap.  Jesus entered Jerusalem knowing exactly how it would end.  He wasn’t trapped or fooled by his enemies.  He chose his path willingly. 

The crowd’s cheers must have been encouraging and maybe gave him strength for the days ahead.  Of course, he knew he wasn’t there to save them from the Romans, but their praise was not misplaced.  He asked for the colt to ride knowing it would act as a sign to them.  It wasn’t the usual steed for a king but was for a servant king that was humble and lowly as well as righteous and victorious.

Maybe we can see ourselves in the crowd.  We, like that crowd, know we need a savior.  We know we need help and guidance in our life.  Let yourself feel the excitement they felt as they hoped Jesus would be the answer to their cry of Hosanna.  Jesus did come to respond to the plea of “save us”.  Jesus is our savior.  This is the gift of Palm Sunday to feel in our hearts.  Our King has come.

I don’t know if CCH will offer services on Thursday and Friday.  Even if they don’t offer a formal service I hope you can take some personal time to be present on the path beside Jesus then as well.  Thursday marks his final teaching moments as a free man with his disciples.  Maundy Thursday is very meaningful for me because I see it as the moment of no return when he fully committed to the cross.  He cried as he prayed, but always with a “not my will but yours”.  Friday afternoon take some time to be present with Jesus as he suffered willingly at the hands of humans that didn’t realize who he was.  Feel his love poured out and know that love is for you.

Easter Sunday you will have the opportunity to gather together to celebrate that He Is Risen!

Today is a day for promises fulfilled.  It was a day of hope.  Hope that a savior had come.  Hope that a king from God would lead God’s people again.  People laid down their coats and palm branches, so the colt didn’t walk in the mud.  They cried out Hosanna “save us” Hosanna “help us”.  In a different scripture Jesus said if the crowd was silent the stones themselves would cry out.  All the earth was receiving it’s king.

As we stand in that crowd we know those hopes are realized.  Jesus wasn’t what they expected in their limited dreams.  He is much more.  He responded to their cry of Hosanna and responds to our cry today as our Savior and King of Kings.  Feel the joy the crowd felt as he entered the city and know their hope and ours is true.

My final hymn for this Sunday is one that is more often sung at Christmas time.  When we get to that hymn I want you to see the words through the path of Palm Sunday.  It will give it a different meaning to the hymn and I hope will bring us closer to the experience of this special day.

Blessed Palm Sunday to you each.  Amen

Directions for Life / Based on Exodus 20:1-17 and Mark 12:29-31 / Delivered on March 11, 2018 to Hudson UMC

Directions for Life / Based on Exodus 20:1-17 and Mark 12:29-31 / Delivered on March 11, 2018 to Hudson UMC

Hymns: We Are Called, Be Thou My Vision, They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love

Exodus 20:1-17

20:1 And God spoke all these words:

20:2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

20:4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

20:5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 

20:6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

20:7 “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

20:9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

20:10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.

20:11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

20:13 “You shall not murder.

20:14 “You shall not commit adultery.

20:15 “You shall not steal.

20:16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

20:17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Rev. Dawn told me she didn’t expect me to fit tightly within her sermon series on grace and covenant but, me being me, I wanted to have our messages fit together.  I struggled at first to determine how the Ten Commandments fit into a series on God’s covenants.  I went back to chapter 19 to give me a running start at them and there it was.

Exo 19:3-8:  Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.  Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”  So, Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the LORD had commanded him to speak.  The people all responded together, “We will do everything the LORD has said.” So, Moses brought their answer back to the LORD.

There is the covenant language!  This was just prior to Moses meeting God on the mountain and receiving the tablets.  Then it hit me that the place these tablets were stored was within the Ark of the Covenant which traveled with the people wherever they went and when Solomon finally built it, the Ark of the Covenant was kept in the inner-most spot in the Temple, the Holy of Holies.  The Ark or the Covenant symbolized God’s presence with the people.  The Ten Commandments were within that presence.  I like that symbolism.

Moses came down from mount Sinai with two tablets.  The first dealt with how to have a right relationship with God, and the second tablet dealt with how to have a right relationship with your fellow citizen.  This is the split Jesus gave in his telling of the greatest commandment.  First it was to be in a loving relationship with God, and the second was to be in loving relationship with your neighbor.  Rev. Dawn included this great commandment from Jesus last week.  Here it is from Mark.

Mark 12:29-31 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

I’m going to be looking at these commands in three different ways:

Through the eyes of a sinner

Through the eyes of a lawyer

Through the eyes of God

First through the eyes of a sinner.

We look at the list of rules and most often think in two different ways.  Either we feel shame for our failure or feel superior looking at our neighbors who appear to be failing worse than us.

As humans we tend to compare ourselves.  If there is a standard we look to see how we’re doing against it.  If there is another person with us we check out how we compare to how they are doing.  The joke about two people running away from a bear comes to mind.  One says, “You can’t outrun a bear” and the other replies, “I don’t have to outrun the bear I just have to outrun you.”  Obviously, that’s not the goal but we go there.  We think has long as there’s someone doing worse and they haven’t been struck by lightning, then we’re safe.  We go into survival mode first and foremost.

I’m betting the moment I understood what the ten commandments said, I tried to give myself a score.  I’m betting that you did too.  Because we see we don’t meet all the expectations of the law we feel shame.  We see the law as something that makes us worthy or unworthy.  If we feel we are doing well obeying, then God must love us because that would be fair.  If we don’t feel so good, especially when we’re told even thinking about breaking one is equal to breaking one, well then, we hope God is looking in the opposite direction and we can hide from Him.  Treated in this way the commandments can cause separation from God due to our shame.  That’s not what was intended.

Moses didn’t receive the tablets until after the people were liberated from bondage and fed in the desert by God’s manna.  God didn’t wait to provide his love until after they obeyed, and he doesn’t withhold his love if we fail today.  God’s love continues to be poured on us through his grace, not because we deserve it, but because we exist.  That would be that Prevenient Grace that Rev Dawn preached about with Noah and the rainbow.  The law was instruction in how to live as a child of God, not how to earn becoming one.

The daily devotional The Disciplines brought out a quote recently that speaks to this.  “There’s nothing you could ever do that would make God love you more, and there’s nothing you could ever do that would make God love you less.”  The law wasn’t sent to cause us to feel scared, or shameful, or fear separation from God.  Yet when we see the commandments through the eyes of a sinner that is often what happens.

There were a few times in scripture where someone who felt they were especially law abiding bragged to Jesus.  In most cases they were the Pharisee, or lawyers of the community.  Let’s look at these scriptures through the eyes of a lawyer.

Through the eyes of a lawyer

The Pharisee were the experts in the law.  They made the words of God more detailed to make sure they could judge compliance more accurately.  It makes me think of the case law documents judges put out after each trial to help others after them see how they judged a person as guilty or innocent. 

Judging others is the name of their game, so being as detailed as possible about what would be OK and not-OK is important.  The focus is still very much on the sinner and their relationship to the law, but in this case, it is judgment of another not self-reflection.

Looking at the commandments through these eyes reminded me of the portion of my career I spent writing information security policy.  I created policy for two different large corporations.  When the policy was first created it was just a few pages long.  Then Audit got involved.  They wanted more specific wording “to bring clarity”.  The clarity was for them to more easily judge whether the rule had been broken more than for the person reading the rule to understand it.  Adding more detail at times moved the end goal out of sight.  The end goal was to protect information.  Having a large book of rules caused people to just do a word search for what they wanted to do and if it wasn’t explicitly listed as forbidden they figured they couldn’t get an audit finding on it – even if it obviously lessened information protection.  They lost sight of the true goal.  The goal became not getting an audit finding instead of the goal being to protect information.

The lawyers sometimes were responding to the people’s request to provide more detail.  If God was going to punish them for not obeying the sabbath then they wanted to know exactly what to do and what not to do to stay on God’s good side.  So, they created a whole group of rules around what defined “Sabaoth rest”.  Jesus broke those rules quite often so obviously they weren’t what God intended.

The word Torah is often translated as “Law” but it can also be translated closer to “direction” or “teaching”.  This brings me to my final exploration.

Through the eyes of God

It may sound presumptuous that I’m claiming to describe what God thinks.  No, He didn’t come to me and write on my computer screen with a flaming finger.  Christ gives us the mind of God by his example, and other scripture supports these thoughts.  I’m also relying on the nudges of the Holy Spirit from time in study and prayer.  I’m going to take you down a path that many scriptures have led but ask you to take it more seriously.

I don’t think God meant for us to feel shame, or to judge each other based on how well we followed the laws he gave us.  The intent was not to provide a way for us to make sure we kept God on our side.  The intent was to give us direction in how to stay connected to God and how to treat each other.  From the eyes of both the sinner and the lawyer it feels like the main interrelationship is between the person and the law.  From the eyes of God, the key interrelationship is between the person and God and the person and their brother. 

The first three commandments can sound like God has an ego problem.

You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an image.
You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God.

The truth of the matter is that God is where we get our strength and if we desire to connect to God nothing else can be in the way.  The analogy I go to in my head is of a power outlet.  I need to plug in my lamp if I want it to light my room.  If I move anything, especially something with weight, in front of it I can no longer reach the outlet and my lamp stays dark.  Sure, I could use an extension cord, but that doesn’t last as long and most often can’t provide as strong a current as the source outlet.  That extension cord could be seen as an idol in some creative ways, but I’ll try to hold myself back.

These commandments are more like our parent’s command to “eat your vegetables” than you’d think.  God wants to provide us with strength for the journey.  The psalms understood this.

Psa 118:14 The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.

Paul understood this and he wrote the Philippians.

Phl 4:13 I can do all things in him who strengthens me.

The first commandments protect us from losing connection to the source of our strength.  They are given from a loving God that wants to support us directly.  He does not go against our free will so if we put things between us he doesn’t remove them.  Our life is much easier when we can “plug in” to God’s strength though.

The fourth commandment has to do with resting.  Back when I was young I thought my Mom and Dad put me to bed, so they could get some kid-free time.  Little did I know that it was for my health, so I could grow and thrive!  Without sleep my brain didn’t work as well and my body couldn’t have those wonderful growth spirts.  The fourth commandment is one of the hardest for me to follow, but it is the one that needs no poetic analogy.  We’ve got work to do.  Get some rest!

It is interesting to me that the commandment to honor your parents is considered part of the first tablet, the one dealing with how to have a right relationship with God.  God is the great creator.  Your parents created you.  To practice respect for those that created you is to respect the great creator.  This isn’t limited to biological creation because how you raise a child also creates who they become.  My parents kept me alive and taught me my first life lessons.  Respecting them is training for learning to respect my Father through Christ.

The remaining five commandments have to do with how we treat each other.  We see the law as a benchmark.  God sees the law as a path to walk through life.  We’ve got our eyes on the wrong end game.  The point isn’t to check off how well you fulfill each law.  The point is to understand how to love.  We often miss the “why” of the law.  It was created to provide direction in how to love.  In this way it dovetails into the Sanctifying Grace Rev Dawn spoke of last week.  It gives us guidance in learning to live and love as Jesus did.  He was our example of how to love like God desires.   Love binds us together as a Holy people.

I’m going to take this one step further.  It may sound a little crazy at first, but I believe scripture supports it.  The definition of “sanctify” is “to set apart or to declare Holy.”  I believe when we love each other we are showing love toward God because God is part of who we are.

1 John 4:11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 

1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

God is within us.  There is a part of each of us that is God, that is the divine nature in our human form.    Here is a segment from Matthew chapter 25 that also makes me believe in this way.

Mat 25:37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you.  “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

I’m beginning to see that very literally.  We are part of God.  We are part divine.  We have been called members of Christ’s body with Christ as the head.  To act unkindly to your neighbor is act unkindly to God, and to yourself.  To see our neighbor as separate from us is an illusion.  We are one in the spirit, one with each other, and one with God.  Scripture tells us there is nothing we can do to separate us from the love of God.  Just perhaps that is because God is part of us, not some separate being.  We are one.

Here’s the analogy that sprung to mind for me. Did you realize that our bodies are half us, and half microorganisms, mostly bacteria?  For a while they thought it was 10 to 1 meaning 10 times the number of bacteria to human cells but new science has dropped that to 1.3 bacteria for each 1 human cell.  Still I am less than 50% human.  Before you say yuck I’d like to remind you that you are also in the same condition.  Yet I consider myself 100% ME!  Most of us even help populate our little inner village by eating yogurt after taking antibiotics for example.  All of this makes me who I am and keeps my body functioning properly on this planet.

We must start seeing ourselves like an organism, not just an organization.  We are the inner village of the body of Christ.  Loving each other strengthens the community.  Building each other up empowers the whole group.  Looking at the commandments as “law” draws us into thinking they need a judge and jury.  What Jesus taught was that sin required a gentle physician to help heal the sinner which healed the overall body. 

When we have a problem in our body we can’t function well.  We often end up sleeping more and not able to go to work while the illness travels through the system, until the body’s defenses kick in.  If the disease is serious we’ll pull in a doctor to help us heal.  We have dis-ease within the body of Christ sometimes too.  This causes us to work less effectively.  We focus on the problem, the differences of opinion, and lose sight of the work God has called us to do. 

We may need rules from our heavenly Father to teach us right from wrong in the beginning, but hopefully as we mature in our faith we can see the reasons behind them.  Being in harmony isn’t something we do to prevent God’s anger.  Being in harmony is how we strengthen the body of Christ to do God’s work in this world.  Through God’s grace we can grow in our understanding until we are like the Corinthians.

2Co 3:3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts

The commandments are directions to help us along until our vision aligns with God’s.  The commandment to love God requires us to love our fellows.  The relationship to track progress on isn’t between us and the commandments.  The relationship is always between us and God.  God doesn’t let anything come between He and us.  For our wellbeing, He asks us not to let anything come between us and Him from our side.  God is the source of all strength.  We would be foolish to block that flow.  The core of these commandments from my study, is to love and support each other so we can respond to God’s call together as a strong and thriving body.

Don’t block your source, get enough rest, respect the folks that kept you alive, and be nice to your sister and brother.  We’re even closer than family in God's eyes.  We are one.

I wrote a children’s song I hope helps us remember this message.  It is not about keeping score.  The lesson is to learn how to love.

https://soundcloud.com/darci-strutt/how-to-love

My son I hope you know how much I love you

And I hope you also know I love your sister too

I need you to listen, I don’t want to say this twice

When you two are together treat your sister nice

Daddy I need more so I know what to do

Can you explain how I should see this through

Dad wrote out examples of how being nice would look

He tried not to go overboard or create a book

Don’t pull your sister’s pony tails; that would make her cry

Don’t touch her favorite toys or her blanket hide

I hope this is a help, please learn from this list

Or I may need to punish you if you behave amiss

I didn’t pull her pony tails instead I pulled her bangs

And it wasn’t even on the list me scaring her with fangs

So really you can’t punish me; the list I did obey

If you want to punish someone look in Mommy’s way

She pulled sister’s pony tails; the hair brush made her cry

She took her favorite blanket in the clothes washer to hide

Daddy you don’t seem pleased that I obeyed the list

I’m guessing there was a point there that I might have missed

I can imagine God the Father feeling just like this poor Dad

He gave us some directions, but we treat our brother bad

We missed the lesson in His words from above

The reason why he gave them was to teach us how to love

Amen

Knowledge Versus Love / Based on 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 / Delivered on January 28, 2018 to CCH

20180128Knowledge versus Love

Knowledge Versus Love / Based on 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 / Delivered on January 28, 2018 to CCH

Hymns: Help Us Accept Each Other, Make Me a Channel of Your Peace, The Gift of Love

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

8:1 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that "all of us possess knowledge." Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

8:2 Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge;

8:3 but anyone who loves God is known by him.

8:4 Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that "no idol in the world really exists," and that "there is no God but one."

8:5 Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth--as in fact there are many gods and many lords--

8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

8:7 It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

8:8 "Food will not bring us close to God." We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.

8:9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

8:10 For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols?

8:11 So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed.

8:12 But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

8:13 Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.

Good morning.  My name is Darci Strutt McQuiston, one of the Lay Speakers of the United Methodist Church up on the hill, and it is my honor to be here with you.

Our scripture today deals with a topic that seems a little foreign to us here in Hudson Wisconsin in 2018.  We don’t need to question if our meat has been used to honor an idol when we buy it from County Market or Family Fresh.  We may want to check if it is organic or grass-fed, but sacrifice-free isn’t normally a topic on the label.  I think there’s a deeper message that does apply to us within this scripture so hang in there with me.

The three ideas I am pulling from the scripture are:

Knowledge and freedom

Me versus Us

Knowledge versus love

Knowledge and freedom

In chapter 8 of 1 Corinthians Paul is dealing with a question brought to him by members of the congregation.  Those that were more mature in their faith felt their knowledge led to the freedom to eat meat sacrificed to idols but wanted Paul’s full OK. 

8:4 Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that "no idol in the world really exists," and that "there is no God but one."

Idols were created by man, not by God, and as such were not sacred because “no idol in the world really exists”.  Therefore, logically, there’s no harm in buying meat that’s leftover from sacrifices because the meat is meat nothing more.  Eating meat with that belief did not mean you were honoring the idol, it just meant you were hungry for some meat. 

Sin was linked to your thoughts.  The “Why” you did something is what made it right or wrong.  If you were strong enough in your belief to know the meat as just meat then you were free from being called an idolater because nothing about the meal had anything to do with the idol for you.  You were free to shop wherever you wanted.  Or were you?

Paul reminded the Corinthians that it wasn’t just a question of what they did themselves.  They needed to be concerned with more than their own salvation.  They were part of a community of believers.

Me versus Us

8:7 It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

8:8 "Food will not bring us close to God." We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.

8:9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

8:10 For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols?

8:11 So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed.

8:12 But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

Paul had agreed with them that it wasn’t a sin to eat meat sacrificed to idols, but causing a member of the community to stumble was a sin. 

Jesus dealt with this idea of causing someone to stumble directly in Matthew 18:6.

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

The Christian journey is not a solo one.  Christ told us that plainly when he said the second great commandment was to love your neighbor as yourself.

We are in community.  We are a body of believers.  We are called to be our brother’s keeper.  Paul agreed that eating meat privately may be OK, but if they caused a less mature member of the community to eat such meat while feeling guilty and sinful then that was not OK.  Such guilt would separate him or her from a closer relationship with God.

Knowledge versus love

8:1 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that "all of us possess knowledge." Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

8:2 Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge;

8:3 but anyone who loves God is known by him.

Knowledge can make you feel proud, or puffed up, but love is what supports the community – it builds others up. 

Later on in 1 Corinthians Paul will teach which is more important.

1Co 13:8-10 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

And verse 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Knowledge didn’t even make the first cut.  In the Garden of Eden, it was eating from the tree of knowledge that caused the fall of man to begin with.  Knowledge isn’t as important as we think it is.

So what can we glean from this scripture?  We don’t have problems with meat sacrificed to idols but there are other things within our culture that divide us as Christians.  Whether or not women should have a place of leadership beyond the kitchen committee, whether or not parents should allow their children to be pulled away from Sunday worship by traveling sports, whether or not gays or lesbians should be allowed in worship, or whether or not women should be allowed to wear pants is still in question in some local churches here in Hudson.

I have strong beliefs about some of these, and they may differ from yours.  I was trained in debate in High School, but need to temper that tendency.  A new Christian brother doesn’t need to believe all I believe to begin his relationship with God through Christ.  Convincing a person to act like me, on an issue they are not secure is OK, may hinder their relationship with God because in their mind they feel they have sinned.  It could cause them to stumble in their faith.  In our scripture today, the weak would be defiled not because of what they ate, but because they believed it was wrong and ate it anyway due to peer pressure.

God’s command was that we love one another for love is of God and when you love you are like Him.  If the person beside you has accepted Christ into his or her life, then the spirit of Christ has entered into them and when you hurt them you are hurting Christ.  God wants all of his children to be in relationship with Him.  We go against God’s will when we hinder their relationship from building.

We will continue to debate the hot issues of our culture and struggle with what is before us.  This scripture encourages us to let love triumph over knowledge.  My ideas of truth have altered as I’ve grown in my faith.  What I believed to be absolutely true in my youth has softened and sometimes changed to the point I now believe absolutely the opposite!  If in my passion I caused someone else to follow my lead when they felt it was a sin, then I am sorry.  I vow to do better.  Their relationship with God is far more important than my claim to know something.  Salvation is through relationship not knowledge.

Care for those in your community.  Let your words and actions be tempered by love, as God loves, with patience and with the understanding we are each at different stages in our journey.  Help build up each other with this love so all our relationships with God can grow.  Strengthening another’s relationship with God strengthens our own.

This is a tough lesson.  May God be with us as we consider what it means.

Amen

God With Us / Based on Luke 2:22-40 and Galatians 4:4-7 / Delivered on December 31, 2017 to CCH

God With Us / Based on Luke 2:22-40 and Galatians 4:4-7 / Delivered on December 31, 2017 to CCH

Hymns:  O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

              Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

              Blessed Assurance

Luke 2:22-40

2:22 When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord

2:23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord"),

2:24 and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons."

2:25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him.

2:26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah.

2:27 Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law,

2:28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,

2:29 "Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word;

2:30 for my eyes have seen your salvation,

2:31 which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

2:32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."

2:33 And the child's father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him.

2:34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, "This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed

2:35 so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed--and a sword will pierce your own soul too."

2:36 There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage,

2:37 then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day.

2:38 At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

2:39 When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.

2:40 The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

Good morning and Happy New Year to you!  My name is Darci Strutt McQuiston.  I am a Lay Servant from the United Methodist Church up on the hill.  I’m happy to celebrate this first Sunday after Christmas with you.

 

I’m leaning heavily on the scripture from Luke that I’ve already read, but I will be reading a short section from Galatians that is also assigned to this Sunday.  The three ideas I plan to touch on from these scriptures are:

To desire

To listen and act

To believe

To desire

Scripture had promised from the beginning that there would be a redeemer.  It was promised from the first introduction of sin while Adam and Eve were in the garden. 

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.

The scripture from Isaiah we hear at Christmas is:

Isa 7:14  Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel

Isa 9:6  For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Immanuel means God with us.

Our two main characters from the passage spoke of this desire.

2:25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him.

Verse 38 includes Anna speaking about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.  That tells us many had the desire.

They both knew of the promise of God and had let that desire take hold within their lives.  They had claimed the promise as their own.  Because of the Holy Spirit’s leading Simeon lived in expectation it would be fulfilled in his lifetime.  I believe they both lived with a strong knowing that they would see this promise fulfilled.  Their desire for the promise aligned their will with the will of God.

To Listen and Act

Simeon and Anna also paid attention to the Holy Spirit within them.

2:26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah.

2:27 Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple

Anna was named as a prophet in our scripture.  She listened to God’s voice and taught what she learned.  She came “at that moment” because of an inner knowing the time had been fulfilled.

The Holy Spirit can guide and teach but it takes our willingness to listen and act on that communication to have the desire fulfilled.  Simeon listened to the Spirit’s guidance.  God didn’t lay Jesus in his lap in his home.  He needed to meet him in the temple.  They both arrived at the meeting place in the right time because of their ability to listen and act.

To Believe

They not only lived in expectation of their desire being met and listened to the leading of the Holy Spirit, but they also believed the fulfillment of the promise when it came.  They recognized their desire had been answered by God.

2:28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,

2:29 "Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word;

2:30 for my eyes have seen your salvation,

2:31 which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

2:32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."

Anna praised God and began to teach everyone that was there.  Her prophet’s heart knew this child was the desire fulfilled.

Simeon and Anna aligned their desire to the promise of Jesus.  We can take it one step further after His coming.  Here is the short passage from Paul’s letter to the Galatians which is assigned to this Sunday.

Galatians 4:4-7

4:4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

4:5 in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.

4:6 And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"

4:7 So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

God sent his son.  He is Immanuel – God with us.

As we start this new year many of us have resolutions; things we want to improve in our lives.  One I tend to add is to grow in my faith and relationship with God.  The example of Simeon reminded me of the importance of aligning my will with God’s will for my life.

God does not go against our free will.  Step one is to claim the promise and desire it to be fulfilled in your life.  In that way you align your will to the will of God.  Simeon took the promise he would see Jesus before he died and desired it. 

The verses from Galatians are life changing if we take them seriously.

4:7 So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

This is a verse we can claim.  It is God’s will that I call him Daddy.  It is his will that we love each other as closely as a parent and a child.  To claim that relationship I will set my desire in alignment of that promise.   

Simeon called Jesus, “a light for revelation to the Gentiles.”  It is this light of revelation that will help us realize who we truly are.  There are times I feel I keep my eyes tightly closed in fear of this light.  What will it change if I truly accept and believe that I am fully a child of God?  That fear may keep me from the promise.  It is important to trust in faith, put fear aside, and firmly desire the outcome.

Next is to listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit and act on that inner knowing.  It was that leading that brought Simeon and Anna into the temple.  Verse 6 of Galatians tells us the Spirit of Christ is already within our hearts, crying “Abba!  Father!”  That tells me there is already a voice within me that has accepted the promise that I am God’s child.  I need to take time to be still and listen.  Rev. Dawn, from the UMC, wrote an article for the paper this past week.  In it she spoke of setting aside 15 minutes each morning to read scripture and listen for the leading of the Holy Spirit.  This daily ritual of listening strengthens her in times of struggle and helps her stay connected during times of joy.  I know in my heart it would do the same for me.

The final step Simeon demonstrated was accepting and believing the promise had been realized.  The Holy Spirit is within us to remind us who we are.  He is our guide to help open our eyes to the light of revelation.  My prayer for each of us is we can fully embrace that Christ came to be God with us, Immanuel, and through his light of revelation accept who we truly are; sons and daughters of God.  The promise has been fulfilled!

I wish you blessings as we continue the journey together into 2018!  Happy New Year!

Amen