The Right Relationship / Based on Exodus 20:1-17 and 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 / Delivered to Hudson UMC on March 7, 2021

 

The Right Relationship
Based on Exodus 20:1-17 and 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Delivered on 3/7/2021
Hymns: You Are My All in All, Come to the Table of Grace, In Christ Alone


I am Darci Strutt McQuiston, one of the Lay Speakers of this congregation. It is my honor to take the pulpit this morning.

We are three Sundays into Lent so nearly halfway through. Rev Dawn and Deacon Susan both spoke of the hope of Lent and I intend to do so as well. It was a little daunting when I realized what scripture I had to work with this week. The ten commandments at first glance do not seem to be a passage of hope. However, the Psalm assigned for this week does paint them that way.

Psalm 19:7-10
The LORD’s Instruction is perfect, reviving one’s very being.
The LORD’s laws are faithful, making naïve people wise.
The LORD’s regulations are right, gladdening the heart.
The LORD’s commands are pure, giving light to the eyes.
Honoring the LORD is correct, lasting forever.
The LORD’s judgements are true. All of these are righteous!
They are more desirable than gold – than tons of pure gold!
They are sweeter than honey – even dripping off the honeycomb.

After reading the psalm I set off to find those words of hope and the sweetness contained in God’s commands.

I see a ‘good news’ and ‘bad news’ message as I contemplate the Exodus reading. I am going to give you the bad news first and hopefully make the good news sweeter by doing so.

We are told that God wrote the 10 commandments onto two tablets. Most often we divide them so one is focused on our relationship with God and the second on our relationship with fellow humans. I am going to share ideas about the second half of the commandments first; the ones with instruction about how we deal with each other.

These second tablet commandments were the ones I remembered best from my youth. They were brought up when my parents wanted to remind me to behave kindly and to not be selfish.

We have probably all been told from a young age the importance of not being selfish. Yet, selfishness is a way of being that comes natural to us. Selfishness can be required for survival after all. We are programed to want to survive as individuals. No wonder it is such a strong pull for our selfish behavior.

Selfish behavior is predictable. A truly selfish person will make choices to always benefit themselves. They are locked into a pattern of behavior because they feel they are the ones responsible for their future and cannot trust anyone else. This, sadly, is the wisdom of the world. That is why the message of the cross is foolishness. A selfish person would not think to give up anything for the greater good, let alone their life. That makes no sense to our survival instinct.

The first commandment about our relationship to one another begins with the closest relationship we have. We are asked to honor our parents. This is a command to do something instead of to not do something, which is what the remaining five commandments are. Also, this is the one commandment that has a promise attached to it. You are to honor them “so that your life will be long on the fertile land that the LORD your God is giving you.”

It is the positive fulfillment of the phrase, ‘what goes around comes around.’ This commandment has the understanding that we will become elders in need of care unless our lives are cut short for some reason. I understand this commandment to be broader than only parents. The generation behind us is watching and learning while we care for, or do not care for, the generation ahead of us.

The remaining five commandments have to do with how we treat others in any generation. I am going to clump them together.

A person who is self-focused, or selfish, would be less likely to shy away from behavior that could hurt another person. It makes it more likely you would put physical desires over honoring your spouse, take what is not yours, slander someone to put yourself above them, or believe you are more deserving of good things than your neighbor is.

Each of these commandments feel like they are easier to violate if we keep a “me first” attitude. If we are focused on self-protection and self-promotion, they become hard not to break because breaking them can be seen as a tool for getting ahead. If we are stuck in a belief that we are on our own in the world then self-protection is the name of the game. If your world is dog-eat-dog or survival of the fittest then you want to be on top. That would be the wisdom of the world.

Each of the commandments had many complex sub laws under them. It was enough to make your head spin. Obeying was made more difficult when Jesus told us even thinking of disobeying made you guilty.

Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28
21 “You have heard that it was said to those who lived long ago, Don’t commit murder, and all who commit murder will be in danger of judgment. 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with their brother or sister will be in danger of judgment. If they say to their brother or sister, ‘You idiot,’ they will be in danger of being condemned by the governing council. And if they say, ‘You fool,’ they will be in danger of fiery hell.
27 “You have heard that it was said, Don’t commit adultery. 28 But I say to you that every man who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery in his heart.

Sometimes I think Jesus spoke like that just to get us riled up. We do not want to suffer punishment, but controlling our thoughts is just too much to ask. This looks like “bad news” with no hope. We want to cry out “Who can be saved?” We would not be the first to ask that.

In Luke 18:25-27 we read.
25 It’s easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom.”
26 Those who heard this said, “Then who can be saved?”
27 Jesus replied, “What is impossible for humans is possible for God.”

This brings me to the importance of understanding the first four commandments. We know our strength is limited, but God is more than we can imagine. This is the “good news” part of my message.

Our Wednesday morning Bible study has begun reading “Words of Life: Jesus and the Promise of the Ten Commandments Today” by Adam Hamilton. We have only had a couple weeks of study and it already is turning these stone tablets on their heads.

I understood these four commandments as showing respect for God. They are more. When we disregard these first commandments, we fail to see the greatness of God and his ability to sustain us. Following them gives us hope.

The first commandment is “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.”

The line begins with the reminder that God was able to take care of them in the past. He did not fail them. We do not need any other god. It is as if God is reminding us, he was enough for us in the past and he is enough for our future.

We are commanded to not make God into an idol. God is bigger than we can imagine. If we create something that means we can imagine it and we just shrunk God down to the point of our limited imagination.

Adam Hamilton shared that there are two ways God has made his image visible. The first is through seeing Jesus. The second is by looking at each other. We were created in God’s image. We can see God in each other.

We are also at risk for making God small when we misuse his name. His name is not a truth rod that we can hold on to that causes us keep promises. Jesus dealt directly with this command as well when he said in Matthew 5:37, “Let your word be “Yes, Yes,” or “no, no”; anything more than this comes from the evil one.”

This command also includes those times when we speak what we think God is saying. I take it very seriously and pray I am listening to the Holy Spirit’s guidance whenever I talk to you, but this is only my interpretation. God did not etch this message into stone tablets for me. I also pray the Holy Spirit is helping you take in what God wants you to hear.

You may not take the pulpit, but anytime you divide people into “us” and “them” and claim God is on your side, you have shrunk God down to be a mini-you. Watch out for putting words in God’s mouth. There have been many times God favored people that I would not have thought deserving. We cannot know the mind of God.

Sabbath keeping is one Rev Dawn has taught about at length and I still fail at. I ask myself why? Do I think if I stop running on my hamster wheel my life will fail? Trusting God enough to be willing to rest is another way we let God be God. The people receiving these commands had just been freed from slavery with no days off. God is telling them he is not that kind of taskmaster.

Jesus said in Mark 2: 27 Then he said, “The Sabbath was created for humans; humans weren’t created for the Sabbath.” Sabbath is a gift to enrich our lives. It is God attempting to take care of us.

It is interesting how looking at the first commandments in this way helps us understand the greatness of God. Commands five through ten are easier to keep if we trust and acknowledge commands one through four. Our God is big enough to care for us. We do not need to be fearful and selfish.

We also need to remember the universe does not revolve around you or me individually. There is a bigger picture. There is a different relationship we are dealing with.

Deacon Susan taught us about the covenant relationship God entered with Abraham. Rev Dawn taught us about Jesus being baptized and the voice of God saying, “You are my Son.” Each of these relationship moments included a journey. Jesus journeyed in the wilderness. Abraham walked into an unknown land. There were unknowns but the relationship with God was solid.

Our verses from Exodus are also ones of relationship and covenant but not with an individual. The relationship is between God and the people. All the people. This was about community having a relationship with God. This journey is not measured in days or years. It is one measured in generations.

As I pondered this shift in the message, I thought about how Christ called us Children of God. Paul called us a body with many members and Christ at the head in 1 Corinthians12:12. In Exodus the people were descendants of Abraham. Jesus Christ added the whole world to that covenant by putting the community above himself and paying the cost of our sin for us on the cross.

1 Corinthians 1:18
“The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are being destroyed. But it is the power of God for those of us who are being saved.”

Christ gave his life for the good of many. He taught us the way of love. He taught us by example that God could be trusted.

He put a positive spin on the two tablets of the commandments by his response when asked what the top commandment was.

Matthew 22: 37 He replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: You must love your neighbor as you love yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

Only when you understand how to love, and honor God, will you realize that God is big enough to handle all your fears. You have no need for running on the hamster wheel in this dog-eat-dog world. You can step out of that earthly wisdom and realize there is more to you than this earthly life.

We are invited to be part of God’s family. Christ’s death on the cross gave us this opportunity.

Maybe, these ten commandments are not just a guide to our current behavior, but a vision of what the world will be when we truly grow into the people God intends. Imagine a world where love is at the center. There is no more killing, no more stealing, no desire to have your own way, and respect is shown to all people. That sounds like a glimpse of heaven.

Rev Dawn said she wanted this period of lent to be a period of hope. This is my hope.

Know God is bigger than any need you may have. God’s love is bigger than any sin you commit. God’s plan is bigger than your life, but he still holds your life as special to him. Let him be your all in all.

Trusting in that vastness will give you more strength to love your neighbor. Who needs to take from another when God can provide all your needs? In Christ alone our hope is found.

When we celebrate Communion Sunday, we recognize we cannot trust in our righteousness but only in this table being a table of grace. We remember Christ’s sacrifice to bring us to God as part of God’s family. It is a moment to pray that we grow into the likeness of Jesus Christ. He knew his journey spanned more than his limited time on earth. Ours does too.

Jesus showed us God’s face in the flesh. My prayer is that we can show God’s face to each other by how we live our lives. We serve a mighty God. Trust in that knowledge. Live in love not in selfishness. We are not only children of God, but together we are the body of Christ. We stand in the power of Christ.

How incredibly awesome is that?!

We are called to be God’s people. We are called to live as though we are in eternity already. Each time we say the Lord’s Prayer we ask, “May your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” That may not happen in our generation, but we have a role to play in its creation. Help others see the greatness and goodness of our God. Share this good news far and wide! The whole world needs to hear it because the whole world is part of this covenant of love.

In this time of Lent I pray you can know these truths in your heart. God is bigger than we can imagine. God loves us more than we can imagine. His words are words of life that are sweeter than honey dripping off the honeycomb.



Amen

 

 

 

 

Epistle / Based on Psalm 19:1-6 / Emailed to Hudson UMC on March 1, 2021

 

Hello Church family! Darci here.

I am writing this DCE for the first day of March. Our weather has started to warm, and I am hearing the chickadee sing their love songs. I have a few seeds started in trays under lights in the basement for the summer garden season. In the dead of winter, I long for time to move more quickly, but soon winter will be a memory. Our Psalm this week echoes the movement of the days.

Psalm 19:1-6
For the music leader. A psalm of David.

1 Heaven is declaring God’s glory;
the sky is proclaiming his handiwork.
2 One day gushes the news to the next,
and one night informs another what needs to be known.
3 Of course, there’s no speech, no words—
their voices can’t be heard—
4 but their sound extends throughout the world;
their words reach the ends of the earth.
God has made a tent in heaven for the sun.
5 The sun is like a groom
coming out of his honeymoon suite;
like a warrior, it thrills at running its course.
6 It rises in one end of the sky;
its circuit is complete at the other.
Nothing escapes its heat.


I realize some people love winter. I am not a fan of the cold. When I was younger, I did downhill ski and ice skate, but now I view winter most happily through my windows in my warm home. There is beauty in snow and ice, but my gardener’s heart is looking forward to that date our final frost is past.

These warmer days are welcome. The daylight time is increasing, and the sun is slowly rising higher in the sky. I like thinking the sun is thrilled at running its course across my sky. The news I imagine the day “gushing” is that spring is coming soon. That is news that needs to be celebrated.

There may be no speech but obviously the birds are hearing the news. They know to begin flying north and begin their mating calls. The trees will begin to bud with the lighter and warmer days. My seedlings in the basement will pop up in their artificial spring conditions and get their roots established. Damp soil, warming mats, and artificial lights create spring a little earlier for them.

This psalm makes me pause. It reminds me I do not want to rush through any days – even the cold ones. Life is precious and each day God’s glory is seen in our world. We need to listen as the sky proclaims God’s handiwork.

Lent is a time to pause and reflect. It is needed to prepare our heart for the events of holy week. This sacred time does not come with shouts, well except for Palm Sunday, yet our soul knows what is coming. Thoughts of sacrifice and pain, and thoughts of victory and joy. We will live it all day by day as each night informs the next what needs to be known.

I pray you can find time to pause. Be grateful for these days to prepare for the time ahead. Do not wish the days to fly by. Instead, think about each one whispering its secrets to the next day dawning. Every day has a story to tell. Listen.

Heavenly Father, thank you for sharing your glory through the natural world. Help us to thrill with each new day. May this time of preparation make our hearts ready to respond as witnesses of your work in the world. We feel the hope of a world reborn through the warmth of your love. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Epistle / Based on Psalm 147:1-11, 20c / Emailed to Hudson UMC on February 5, 2021

 

Daily Church Epistle for February 5, 2021.

Happy Friday to you!  Darci here.

Psalm 147:1-11, 20c is the daily reading for today in the Upper Room Disciplines.

Praise the LORD!

Because it is good to sing praise to our God!

Because it is a pleasure to make beautiful praise!

The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem, gathering up Israel’s exiles.

God heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.

God counts the stars by number, giving each one a name.

Our Lord is great and so strong!

God’s knowledge can’t be grasped!

The LORD helps the poor, but throws the wicked down on the dirt!

Sing to the LORD with thanks; sing praises to our God with a lyre!

God covers the skies with clouds;

God makes rain for the earth;

God makes the mountains sprout green grass.

God gives food to the animals – even to the baby ravens when they cry out.

God doesn’t prize the strength of a horse;

God doesn’t treasure the legs of a runner.

No. The LORD treasures the people who honor him, the people who wait for his faithful love.

Praise the LORD!

 

The author of the reading asked us to read the Psalm silently first and then out loud.  After that, write it out in a notebook, and see what jumps out.  I decided to type the words out instead of doing a copy/paste for this DCE.

I am a little weird perhaps but the first thing I wanted to know is what was in the parts the lectionary left out.  Obviously, there are verses 12 through 20.   These verses seemed familiar to me and I checked back to see they had been in our lectionary for December 31.  Our Zoom prayer services focus on the weekly Psalm, so they are highlighted in my memory.  If you have not experienced a Zoom prayer service, I highly recommend giving one a try.  We are a friendly lot.

Back to the verses assigned from the Psalm for today.

I have a love of astronomy so the verse about God naming all the stars jumped out.  We humans are trying to number and name all the stars too!  We can only number the ones we can see but God can number and name them all.  I am easing the winter blues by obsessing about gardening.  The verses about God causing rain to fall on the earth and causing the grass to grow is the other part that jumped out.  It is interesting to me that the two parts that hit me were things I can identify with from experience.  Many of the Psalms are meant to be songs so the command to sing feels familiar.  You know I love to sing.

I am writing this DCE on Wednesday before the Zoom prayer service happens, and I will learn more from the others attending as we explore the Psalm together tonight.  “God’s knowledge can’t be grasped!”  That verse reminds me of the saying that we do not know what we do not know.  It is a blessing that we can learn from each other as we ponder scripture together.

I will remember this Psalm as I look at the night sky and think about God knowing the name of each star.  I will think about God’s gift of rain as I start my seeds inside and plan for the gardening season.

What jumped out at you?  Read it silently and then out loud.  I am betting something different came to the surface for you.  We each have a different perspective.  God treasures us all.

Dear God, thank you for your word.  Thank you for church friends to ponder the meaning with me.  You have created us to be in community.  We pray for each other.  We pray for all the members of Hudson UMC and for people in the area that might be drawn to join us.  Thank you for the stars and for the seedlings.  Thank you for giving us the privilege of offering our praise whether that be in word or in song.  Amen

Beams and blessings to you each!

 

 

 

Epistle / Discipline of Prayer / Emailed to Hudson UMC on January 5, 2021

 Hello church family and Happy New Year.  This is Darci here.

A few weeks ago, I talked about my prayer practices during our weekly Bible study and Rev Dawn said that would make a good DCE.  Soon after that, this little writing was scheduled to open our new year.

This is a glimpse of my practice and not meant to be a “thou shalt do”, but I hope you find it helpful.

Prayer is a spiritual discipline of our faith so giving some “discipline” around it keeps us focused.  In an earlier DCE I spoke about learning to pray five times per day; morning, breakfast, lunch, supper, and bedtime.  In my world, those are “thank you” prayers to God.

I also do a morning practice.  Each day I make myself a cup of coffee and sit down with my notebook to write my “morning page”.  This journaling is a practice I learned from the book The Artist Way by Julia Cameron.  She advises you to write for 30 minutes without stopping each morning.  If you are interested in more information on that drop me a line.  My prayer practice has more to do with the cover of the notebook.

I have a post-it-note taped on the cover of my notebook that lists church members.  It includes staff, musicians, and people from my Bible study classes.  I take a moment before I open my notebook to read each name and send love to each person.  I visualize them sitting in a comfortable spot smiling.  I have seen each of these people smile in my life so that is the image I hold.  I imagine them feeling joy.  If I know a certain person has a special need I linger on them a little longer and pray about that need.  Rev Dawn and John got extra prayers as they put together our special services this Christmas season.  Others had health issues of their own or loved ones that I added special prayers for. 

I have a second post-it-note for prayers that are more immediate and temporary.  Those sometimes come from our church prayer chain, Zoom prayer services, or even Facebook posts.  For those, I send love but also pray for the specific need. Those post-it-notes get changed out as needs come and go.

Both these notes do not take a ton of prayer time.  The key for me is that they are placed on the cover of a notebook that I use “mostly” without fail each day.  You may not journal daily but have something else that you do “mostly” without fail each day.  Consider connecting a time of prayer to that daily task.  It becomes natural to see a name and imagine their smiling face in your mind’s eye.  It is a prayer without words.

There are also times I go into “prayer warrior” mode.  Some situations pull on my heart and I feel moved to surround them more actively in prayer.  For those needs I set a one-hour timer on my phone.  The alarm goes off, I stop what I am doing and pray hard, and then reset the timer for another hour.  I may still think about them as I do my normal daily living, but each time the alarm goes off I am focused on nothing else but taking their need to God in prayer.  A church friend going into surgery put me in prayer warrior mode recently, as did another church friend that had a fall.  These are times I will reach out to the family and more closely track the situation.  You cannot stay in warrior mode long, so it is good to hear the outcome of the issue.  In the examples I gave both outcomes were positive in my perspective but in every case, I pray for God’s will and God’s peace to be present in any outcome.

I get caught in “what if” thinking sometimes around fears of something that has not yet happened.  A wise counselor reminded me that “even if” those things happen, God is present.  Now when I think a “what if” I quickly think “even if” and remember to pray.

Our last Bible study was called “Almost Christmas”, by Devega, McIntyre, Casperson, and Rawle.  They gave this definition of prayer.

“Prayer, at its core, is an intentional attentiveness to God’s spirit, ‘as if the Lord were visibly present before your eyes,’ and a recognition that God is always with us, always speaking, always listening, and always ready to guide us along the way.”

We often say we are God’s hands and feet as we do God inspired work to help others.  In prayer I believe we can call God’s spirit close and be the channel for God’s love to flow to each other. It is not as easy to explain, but I know I have felt the prayers others gave for me.  I sensed a greater peace and love.  I am guessing you have too.  As we enter a new year, I hope you can be mindful of ways you can embrace the discipline of prayer more fully.

Beams and blessings to you each!

Epistle / Based on Psalm 126 / Emailed to Hudson UMC on December 11, 2020

 Daily Church Epistle for December 11, 2020
 
Hello Church!  Darci here.
 
It is hard to feel like Christmas is coming.  No shopping trips.  No social gatherings.  No snow.  I am grateful for our podcast that reminds me we are halfway through Advent.  Christmas is coming!
 
The scripture for Friday December 11 in our Disciplines book of devotions is Psalm 126.
 
Psalm 126
A pilgrimage song.
1 When the Lord changed Zion’s circumstances for the better,
    it was like we had been dreaming.
2 Our mouths were suddenly filled with laughter;
    our tongues were filled with joyful shouts.
It was even said, at that time, among the nations,
    “The Lord has done great things for them!”
3 Yes, the Lord has done great things for us,
    and we are overjoyed.
 
4 Lord, change our circumstances for the better,
    like dry streams in the desert waste!
5 Let those who plant with tears
    reap the harvest with joyful shouts.
6 Let those who go out,
    crying and carrying their seed,
    come home with joyful shouts,
    carrying bales of grain!
 
 
I have the Amplified Bible on my cell phone.  The second half of verse one in that version is:
 
“we were like those who dream, it seemed so unreal.”
 
There are days our current lives feel like we are living in captivity and we can identify with the people in this psalm that it seems unreal. It feels like a nightmare some days. I am a gardener that starts many of my plants from seed and see that final verse as one of patience.  You must wait awhile before a seed becomes grain you can harvest.
 
The psalm spoke to me enough today that I decided to give rewriting it a try.  That is one of the ways to study.  Take a scripture and make it your own.
 
Here’s Psalm 126 the Darci-version.
 
God was with his people in the past when life felt unreal.
They had their joy returned.
Back then people could see God was at work in their lives.
God is at work in ours!
Help us feel full of life once more.
Turn our tears into songs of joy.
Help us be patient and trust this joy is in our future.
 
Christmas will be different this year, yet we can still sing our songs of joy.  Christ came to earth as a tiny baby to help us understand the great gift of God’s love.  God’s love is not stopped by a virus.  Christmas is not cancelled because there are no shopping trips, or social gatherings, or snow.  Sing out with joy to honor Christ’s birth.
 
John 10:10b says: “I came so that they could have life—indeed, so that they could live life to the fullest.”
 
Be patient.  Trust this God of love.  Live life to the fullest.  God is faithful.
 
Pray with me the prayer from Disciplines for today.
 
Lord, change our circumstances for the better, like dry streams in the desert waste.  Continue your work within us and lead us to give thanks for your glorious deeds.  Amen.
 
Beams and blessings!
 

Epistle / Based on Judges 4:4-5 and Matthew 25:14-30 / Emailed to Hudson UMC on November 13, 2020

 

Darci here.  Happy Friday to you.  I am writing this epistle on Wednesday the 11^th just two days after turning 60 years old.  Normally birthdays do not bring a lot of emotion.  They are just the passing of time.  However, this year I am struck by that passing of time.  Perhaps it is because I have experienced multiple deaths and illness around me in the past twelve months.  They have me thinking more about how temporary life is.  I see that “60” and my head tells me I am approximately three-quarters done with my time on the planet.  Just twenty years left if averages mean anything.  Not much time to start any great new works.  I am a woman in her sunset years. 

Then I read the scripture for this week. 

I have experienced the “glass ceiling” keeping me just a bit lower than a male coworker.  I have been put in my place by someone lecturing me that the Bible tells women to keep silent.  This week I hear God has a different point of view.

Judges 4:4-5 

4 Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was a leader of Israel at that time.

5 She would sit under Deborah’s palm tree between Ramah and Bethel in the Ephraim highlands, and the Israelites would come to her to settle disputes.

God had no trouble selecting a female to be judge over Israel.  Being a woman does not make me less likely to be called by God.  God calls who he wants to call.  Scripture makes that clear and I pray we can listen.  Our feeling of who is worthy is not a limit God recognizes.

Our Wednesday Bible study is diving into the birth stories of Jesus.  The study began with Elizabeth becoming pregnant when she was physically beyond the point that should have been possible.  Mary is told she will be pregnant and when she asks the angel how that could be possible, the angel tells her about Elizabeth and states, “Nothing is impossible for God.” 

It appears age has little to do with God’s call.  You are neither too old nor too young to be called.

Then I get to Matthew 25:14-30 and the parable of the talents.  I am not going to put the full scripture in here because I am assuming you will study it more fully during Sunday’s service.  Here is my “nutshell.”

 A wealthy man goes away and leaves three different servants in charge of different amounts of his property.  When he comes back the first two servants have doubled the value of what he gave them.  The third servant was too scared to risk attempting to do anything with what he had been given so hid his “talent”.  The wealthy man praises the first two but calls the third “worthless.”

The term “talent” in the parable is indicating a form of money, but we can legitimately treat it as our term “talent” to mean capabilities within us.  We have been given skills or talents by God.  What are we doing with them? Are we developing them and growing in our skill level?  Are we hiding them?

Reading the scriptures together, they appear to be telling me that gender and age do not matter.  What matters is that I am using what God has given me in a trustworthy manner.  Matthew also reminds me that in the end it is God that will let me know if I have completed my time here successfully, not fellow humans.

You are each at a different age.  You are neither too old nor too young.  Some of you are males and some of you are females. God does not give our physical being much weight at all in his decisions.  I am confident you each have different talents to choose to develop and use.  My hope is that you are as inspired by these scriptures as I am.

1 Thessalonians 5:2 reminds us, “the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”

We do not know when our time on earth will come to an end.  Luckily for us that is not an important bit of information.  What is important is that we are living our lives as well as possible while we are on earth.  Listen for God’s call.  See the possibilities of using your talents.  Never say something is impossible for you because for God all things are possible. 

God of possibilities, help us to listen to your call and remember it is through your power that we are strengthened to complete it.  In that knowledge may we respond, “Here I Am Lord.”  May we use the gifts you give so freely in obedience and trust so they may be multiplied to serve your world.  We give thanks for each new day.  In Jesus name we pray.  Amen

Beams and blessings to you each.

 

 

 

Love/Based on Matthew 22:34-46/Delivered October 25, 2020 to UMC

Hymns: They’ll Know We Are Christians, This is My Song, This is My Father’s World

Good morning and happy Sunday to you.  I am Darci Strutt McQuiston, one of the Lay Speakers of our congregation.  Rev Dawn invited me into the pulpit this morning because she has spent the week doing the work of the church at a virtual annual conference.  It is my honor to be with you today.  I am glad you are worshiping with us.  Welcome.

The current scriptures we are dealing with these past few weeks are important.  Timeline-wise, Jesus is in his last week of life on earth.  That means the Pharisees and Sadducees are both trying to trap him because the political issues are coming to a head.  Just last Sunday, in their time, Jesus made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem which no doubt Rome noticed, and this makes the Jewish leaders nervous.  Jesus is also thinking about what final lessons he wants to teach before he returns to his Father in heaven.  That sets the stage for us.

I am going to focus on the scripture from Matthew and hit three ideas:

Love God

Love your neighbor

Recognize God and the Messiah, Jesus, are above earthly rulers

The scripture from Matthew is one that is familiar to most, and hopefully all, Christians.  It is what we call the great commandment.  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”  That one seems to be straightforward and uncontroversial.  Then Jesus adds in the second one, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus was not making these commands up.  The first is known as the Shema and is taken from Deuteronomy 6:4-9:

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 strength.

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.

Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

 

The second is from the book of Leviticus 19:18

“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.”

According to Wikipedia there are 613 Jewish laws so asking what were the most important is not a foolish question.  The Shema was considered important by all already, but Jesus was the first to match it with the requirement to love neighbor.

Our founder, John Wesley, captured those two commandments in his three rules.  Do no harm.  Do good.  Stay in love with God.  It sounds so simple.  The first two rules have to do with loving what God loves, which includes how we treat all of creation including our fellow humans.  The third is a rephrase of the great commandment.  Love God.

So simple and yet it feels like we are failing so miserably.

The love we are dealing with is not a feeling.   It is a decision.  Love is described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 “Love is patient, love is kind, it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t  brag, it isn’t arrogant, it isn’t rude, it doesn’t seek its own advantage, it isn’t irritable, it doesn’t keep a record of complaints, it isn’t happy with injustice, but it is happy with the truth.  Love puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things.”

Love of God is commandment one, so let us deal with it first.

How do we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind?  I do not have a pat answer.  Since Jesus compared our relationship to him as a bride, maybe I can compare it to the love I experience with my husband.  The path toward love began with getting to know him.  Caring enough to get to know him deeply.  Translating that to God could be studying the Bible to get to know God as the people before us understood God. 

As my love blossomed with my husband I wanted to spend more time together and share my day.  When I think about how that would look between me and God the example that pops into my head is Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof.  His whole day was a conversation with God.  He thanked God and complained to God.  He attempted to bargain with God – Would it spoil some vast eternal plan if I were a wealthy man?  If you have not watched the movie in a while, I encourage you to watch it with fresh eyes and notice Tevye’s intimate relationship with God through his dialog.

Earlier this year my group did a Bible study on the book “The Walk” by Adam Hamilton.  It included praying as an essential practice of the Christian life.  The recommendation was to pray in the morning and evening, and at your three meals.  Five times a day bring God into your heart and mind for conversation.  It is helpful to have triggers that make you think of God but ultimately, I think God would like us to share our days with him like we would a friend.

As my relationship to my husband grew, the relationship became more important than my individual desires.  I went from thinking about what was good for me to thinking about what was good for us.  I desired his happiness as well as my own.  I tried to imagine how my decisions would impact him and was sensitive to his feelings.

These days when a woman is pregnant the couple says “they” are pregnant.  I used to think that was foolish because the baby was clearly being carried by the woman alone.  Then I realized it was the relationship that was pregnant.  It was the relationship that was being joined by that little baby.  By both being named as pregnant they were stating their love was what was carrying the child. 

My current Wednesday morning Bible study is focused on Jacob’s son Joseph.  He saw an act against another as a sin against God.  The relationship he had with his fellow humans was important, but his focus was on what pain his actions could cause his relationship to God. 

Joseph continually gave credit to God for his wisdom.  He understood it was God working through him that gave him success.  His relationship to God was so strong that he did not see himself as separate from that relationship.  Joseph gives us an example of loving God.

God is worthy of our love.  We love God because God first loved us.  Jesus called God his Father and us his adopted children.  The love of a good parent is strong.  I smile at remembering one of my niece’s comments when she felt her cousins were not accepting her.  She remarked, “Nobody likes me accept my parents and they HAVE to!”  God did not have to love us, but he does, and our proper response is to love Him back.

The second command is called “like” the first, which means similar but not equal.  “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Love and care for yourself is assumed.  If we love God, then we must respect what he loves.  God loves the whole world.  That is a tougher one.

1 John 4:20 “Those who say, “I love God” and hate their brothers or sisters are liars.  After all, those who don’t love their brothers or sisters whom they have seen can hardly love God whom they have not seen!”

We are to love ourselves and others because God loves us and others.  We are not in the business of loving because someone may have power to make our life easier or give us more status.  We are to love because that is who we are called to be.

1 John 4:7 “Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God.  The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love.”

They will know we are Christians by our love.  This is the greatest testimony we can give to the world.

In Luke 10:25-37 we see these same two commands stated by a legal expert.  He follows up with a question, “And who is my neighbor?”  Jesus gives the parable of the good Samaritan as a reply.

The question was “who is my neighbor” but Jesus response was an image of how to be a good neighbor.  The parable of the good Samaritan is about a man who gets robbed and beaten up while traveling and, after being passed by many the Jews would have considered to be good people, a Samaritan, who was not considered to be a respectable person, stops and cares for him.  In the end Jesus reframes the question and asks, “what do you think? Which one of these three was a neighbor to the man who encountered thieves?”  Of course, it is the one who acted in a neighborly way.

As humans we judge others to determine if they are worthy of our love.  Jesus’ takes the judgement out of it and instead asks us to look at how good we are at being neighborly.  How well are we sharing love? In many verses of scripture Jesus directed us to turn from judging others and instead work on improving ourselves.  God will work on others.  God through the holy spirit is asking us to work on ourselves.

We are called to love as God loves which includes acting in loving ways toward many who we may think do not deserve it.  We often do not deserve it but by grace God still pours his love out on us! 

I did not always agree with what my husband believed.  There were times I outright vehemently disagreed to the point of raising our voices at each other.  Yet, the relationship was more important than the situation that caused the disagreement.  This is how we showed love to each other.  We debated and at times attempted to change the others point of view, but we did not stop loving and respecting each other.

It helps if we remember that we each are growing and changing throughout our lives.  I do not know if I would invite my younger self over for coffee.  Her views are not my views.  Yet I have compassion for my younger self and understand she was doing the best she could at the time.  If that is true even as I look at my younger self deserving love, then how much more that needs to be considered as I look at others.

I am speaking to you during a time of conflict and intense emotions.  We have an election in process that has driven neighbor against neighbor.  We have a virus that science is struggling to understand, and the impact of leaders attempts to protect their people has driven neighbor against neighbor.  The topic of climate change and how to care for our planet has driven neighbor against neighbor.  Examining justice for people of different races and cultures has driven neighbor against neighbor

Add in social media that seems to encourage speaking without thinking and it feels like love is a far-off goal.  The energy I feel around me is often that of hatred and fear, not love.  I am betting even just hearing me read those issues caused your stomach to feel tense.

Hatred and fear are not of God.  Love and peace are of God.

I am going to touch on the second half of our Matthew reading.  The question Jesus asked the Pharisees after answering theirs is “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?”  They knew from scripture the answer was the son of David.  Then Jesus quotes Psalm 110 with a question, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.” 

It was a mic drop moment.  No one was able to give him an answer. 

The Gospel of Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus which traced him back to David.  If Jesus was the Messiah, this means he was Lord even over kings.  God was over the country’s leader, and so was the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Being a singing person the lyric from the Hallelujah Chorus comes to mind. 

The kingdom of this world is become

The kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ, and of his Christ

And he shall reign forever and ever.

A pandemic gives us a clue as to how interrelated our planet is.  A virus does not stop at country borders because our earth has a single atmosphere.  Depending on the winds, we can smell the fires in Colorado.  God’s spirit also covers the whole earth.  God’s love extends to all.  He has got the whole world in his hands.  To love as God commands certainly does set us apart from the world.  It also is impossible without help from the Holy Spirit.

I am proud to be within our country.  I feel very blessed to be born here.  I need to say that clearly.  As Christians we are members of two kingdoms.  Dual citizenship if you will.  We have a foot in our country and a foot in the kingdom of God.

The hymn “This World is Not My Home” is going through my head.

This world is not my home I’m just a passin’ through.

My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.

The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door.

And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.

In the beginning the people of Israel only had God as their leader.  Then they demanded God give them a King so they could be like all the other nations around them.  The king was to be a servant leader and recognize the ultimate authority was God.  There was no separation of church and state back then.

In Jesus time the people were under Roman occupation.  Caesar was not a servant leader that looked to God.  Caesar thought he was a god himself and demanded respect as one.  The people needed to survive as members of the Roman community as well as members of their faith community.

Jesus teachings point out this dual citizenship is not on equal footing.  Just earlier in this chapter in Matthew the Pharisees asked him about taxes and Rev Dawn dealt with this scripture last Sunday, so I won’t repeat it except to say that the verse, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God,” makes me smile.  What can Caesar have without God granting it to him?  Jesus turned their question on its head.  All we have is but passing through our hands.  It is God that has it all within his hands.

The Bible does not say we should disrespect authority.  1Timothy 2:2 says, “Pray for kings and everyone who is in authority so that we can live a quiet and peaceful life in complete godliness and dignity.”

Paul’s letter to Titus 3:1 “Remind them to submit to rulers and authorities.  They should be obedient and ready to do every good thing.”

As Christians, we need to remember that the ultimate King of kings and Lord of lords is God.  Humans will die. 

Psalm 90 is also assigned for this Sunday.  Verses 2-6 speak to this.

Before the mountains were born, before you birthed the earth and the inhabited world – from forever in the past to forever in the future, you are God. 

You return people to dust, saying, “Go back, humans,” because in your perspective a thousand years are like yesterday past, like a short period during the night watch.

You sweep humans away like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning.

True in the morning it thrives, renewed, but come evening it withers, all dried up.

God remains.  We are about to elect a leader for our country for the next four years.  The past few elections have felt full of emotion and I am not making light of the strong beliefs people have, but we cannot forget that God is God of all the nations.  The citizenship that is lasting is our membership in the kingdom of God.  Our earthly kingdoms and political structures are dust in comparison.

My time with you is nearly done for today.  Here is what I hope you take away from my words.

Love God.  This is about relationship.  Seek to know him.  Spend time together.  Share yourself with God as you would a special loved one.  Jesus gave us a face to see God.  We can learn so much from his example of loving God the father.  Our primary command is to love him. 

Love others.  God’s love for us has never been deserved and we need to keep that in mind as we are called to love as God loves.  The command has nothing in it about waiting to see if the person is worthy of love or will show love to us back.  The command to love has little to do with the person we are loving at all.  It is concerned only that we love them.  We are not asked to feel love: we are asked to BE love.

I do not know what heaven will be like.  I do not know what my resurrected body will look like.  I feel in my heart that it is by our love that we will know one another.  Our love will become our heavenly fingerprint.  It will be developed throughout our lifetime on earth.  It is the identity worth cultivating.

Lastly, remember God is above all earthly kingdoms.  Support your family, your community, your state, and your country.  Please pray for wisdom, do your research, and do your civic duty and vote.  Decan Susan gave us multiple prayers to pray in our Daily Church Epistle on Tuesday.  A parking lot evening prayer service is being planned for the Monday before election night.  Our attention and care for these earthly connections has importance but they are not to be our highest loves.  God is above all.  The world is his.  We can rest in that thought.

Our first hymn today spoke of the fingerprint of love.  Others will know we are Christians by our love.  It includes being in community with each other as members of Christ’s family.  Claiming to follow Christ is not as strong a statement as living a life that follows Christ’s commands. 

The hymn we will hear next is a song recognizing God as ruler of all the nations and asks us to look for the day when we will all be united when Christ’s kingdom comes. 

Our final song of the day takes it one step further.  All of creation is God’s to rule.  We are to be his hands and trust God is the ruler even if things seem out of control to our eyes.

My Bible study this past Wednesday ended with a question.  Who in your sphere of influence needs to know the Redeemer?  How are you making the love of Jesus know to him or her?

Those questions were timely and here I am.  I do not know the power of my influence, but I am here to share Jesus words.  Jesus showed us God’s love for us.  God loves us so much he adopted us as his children.  The creator of the world desires us to call him Father.  Jesus loved us enough to die on a cross to redeem us.

Our response to this wonderous love is to love back.  The greatest command is to love.

Amen