Category: March 2017

“Blind!”

 

1 Samuel 16:1-13       John 9:1-41

 

How about those Pharisees!  So blind that all they could handle were the rules… misperceptions…stereotypes…and habits  that had been cooked up over the years.

Yep….rules that even said it was wrong to make mud on the Sabbath.  That was deemed “work.”  Because of this rule…they said… Jesus was wrong in healing a blind man…an innocent man who had been blind from birth.  Another rule forbade healing on the Sabbath.  And…a third rule said it was wrong to put spittle on eyelids.

Stereotypes and misperceptions caused them to believe that it was sin that blinded the man.

In their own blindness…they could not see the grace of God in Jesus’ actions.  In their spiritual blindness…they actually thought they were following God.  Notice that in your pew Bibles the heading for part of this chapter from John is the words “spiritual blindness.”  Have you ever wondered how much of that spiritual blindness is out there?

Samuel had a similar problem.  Clearly….he followed God’s command to go to Bethlehem…to Jesse’s family…and to designate a new king for Israel…a king that God would select.  However…Samuel…too…was blind.  He was taken by the outward appearances of Eliab.  He was good looking and tall.  Recent research suggests that those are two characteristics common among male leaders.

God…however…was able to see beyond the packaging.  He could see the heart.  Without loudly saying so…he suggested that Samuel might want to do the same.

What about the blind man?  He’s the other main character in these stories today?

He lost his blindness…he became able to see…in two ways…one immediate…and one progressively.

For the blind man…the physical ability to see came immediately.  As soon as he washed the mud off in the pool the man’s eyes were opened to his surroundings.  He could see people…buildings… objects.  He could discern colors.  All of his life to that time he had been in physical darkness.

His ability to truly see Jesus came a bit more slowly.  When first confronted by the Pharisees he told them that the man called Jesus had changed him.  Another question from the Pharisees…asking for his opinion of Jesus…caused the formerly blind man to call him a “prophet”.  A prophet is one who brings God’s message to others.   Finally…when he was fully cured…the formerly blind man confessed Jesus as the Son of God…not just to Jesus…but to any who would listen.

This progressive change in thinking…in feeling…in ability to see…happened for this man in one day.  For others it may take years to go from being a blind skeptic to an active believer.  Not everyone is born into a believing family.  I’m one of those who was slow to see.

Not everyone has a Damascus Road experience like Paul had.

We United Methodists believe that the sacrament  of the Lord’s Supper that we celebrate monthly is a gift from God to the whole body called the church…to form us…just like Christ…into ministry to the world…including those who are blind…both physically and spiritually.  Through the Lord’s Supper and all of Christian teaching and activity the Holy Spirit works to shape our own moral and ethical lives…to complete the conversion…so that we grow in personal and social holiness and are empowered to work for healing…compassion…reconciliation…justice and peace.  That prevenient grace that Paul and John Wesley said was in all of humanity at birth is nurtured and grown in many ways…including meeting at the Lord’s Table…Bible study…worship and fellowship…until it shows itself in a Christian life.

Remember today…and every day…that Christ was sent to the hurting…the oppressed…those held captive.  He associated with those who were stigmatized and despised.  The heritage of the United Methodist Church is one of similar discipleship.  From concern by the Holy Club…formed by John Wesley and his fellow Oxford students…for ministry to the imprisoned…through care of the sick by the Methodist societies…to Wesley’s own lifelong giving away of most of his money…the early Wesleyan movement sought to ease the suffering.

Wesley made the linkage clear.  He wrote, “The Gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness but social holiness.”  By the early twentieth century, Methodists had begun to realize that holy living meant even more than acts of charity.  Beginning with the Social Creed, American Methodists started to point out injustices caused by economic…social…and political structures and to call for the reform of these structures.  This continues today.

We are expected to be active participants… not sit-on-the-sideline spectators.

To carry out our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ…our Book of Discipline states that the church is to “send persons into the world to live lovingly and justly as servants of Christ by healing the sick, feeding the hungry, caring for the stranger, freeing the oppressed, being and becoming a compassionate, caring presence, and working to develop social structures that are consistent with the gospel.”  We are to go out…and through our actions and our words…do as Jesus did… open the eyes of those who are blind to His love and grace.

How are we doing?

Here are a couple pieces of data to chew on.

According to Giving USA…based on our national tax reports…across America only two percent of our gross income is given to all charities…that includes places of worship…all of which teach tithing in some form.

According to the non-profit, non-partisan Corporation for National and Community Service…in South Carolina…only 23-percent of our population volunteers to serve in some way…and those individuals give an average of 153 hours of service per year.  There are 168 hours in a week.

Following the end of Congressional debate on the proposed American Health Care Act this week…most of the talking heads…the politicians…pundits and journalists…were talking about which political leaders won or lost…which persons are to blame or to be credited…what the role of government should be.  There was very little conversation about finding a solution that cares for God’s people.

Let us remember that our time…our talent…and our resources…are gifts from God.  Though they belong to God those gifts are freely given to each of us and to our church family to be stewarded for God.  Stewarding means sharing in ways that takes Christ to the hurting…not keeping those gifts to ourselves…for our own use… today…or in the future.

Who and where are the spiritually blind?

Who and where are those physically blind like the man Jesus cured?

The blind are just outside our doors.

The blind are where we have our morning coffee.

The blind are throughout this community… state…nation and world…in seclusion and right in front of us…in positions as unknown people and in positions as well known leaders.

Let us use our God-given time…talent and treasure to help the blind…see Jesus in us.

“Water and Truth”

Exodus 17:1-7  John 4:5-42

 

          The famous British author and Christian apologist…C. S. Lewis wrote these words.  “To love at all is to be vulnerable.  Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken.  If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal.”

Clearly God…Jesus…and the woman at the well were vulnerable…because…clearly… they loved.

Twice before…in their wanderings…God had heard the complaints of the Israelites.  And…he provided for them.  He provided water.  He provided manna.  Yet, they were grumbling once again.  This time it was because they wanted water.

Because he loved them…God gave them water…even though the Israelites demanded God’s action on their terms.

Don’t we sometimes do the same thing?  When God does not do for us what we think he ought to do, in the way we think he ought to do it, we complain about it.  At home, at work, and in the church, we demand God take care of us on our own terms.

God so loved them that he gave them water…even though the Israelites were denying God’s protection.  They assumed the worst.  They had concluded that God had abandoned them.

Don’t we sometimes do the same thing?  We complain that what God is doing in our lives…especially the suffering we must endure…is not good for us but actually harmful.  That is a way for us to deny God’s protection.

Even though they tested God….he gave them water because he loved them.  And…they still asked “Is the Lord among us?”

Our own trials often raise the same question.  We may feel that God isn’t blessing us very much right now. This is one way we deny God’s presence.

The Israelites were suffering from spiritual amnesia…forgetting the love of God.  They forgot that because of His love God had provided for them…had protected them… and had always been with them.

Sometimes in our daily lives we have the same affliction…spiritual amnesia.  The remedy is to pause and remember the immeasurable ways God has demonstrated his love for us.

When Jesus got to the well He was weary.  The long walk from the south to the north…the disciples pressing him with endless questions…the constant crowds…their never-ending questions and badgering made him a tired man.  He felt like some of us feel from time to time…maybe often.

Then the woman came to the well.  Jesus had every reason to ignore her.  He was tired.  He was a Jew and she was a Samaritan.  There had been great animosity and separation between their races for seven centuries or more.  He was male.  She was female.  At that time it was considered highly inappropriate for a Jewish male to speak with any woman in public.  But…because He loved…Jesus spoke with her….Jesus reached out to her.

Jesus loved his Father and all of His creation.

He was energized by service to God.  He was feasting on the potential he saw in that woman’s life.  He was so absorbed in what could happen to her that he forgot himself.  Jesus loved.

The Samaritan woman had lived a difficult life…five former husbands.   She was a social outcast…not even able to interact with other women who went to a well closer to their home in cooler parts of the day.  But…she loved also.

Once it was clear to her that she was being offered the love of the messiah she showed her love.  She was so excited that she ran to tell other Samaritans…leaving her all-important water pot behind.   What happened when she acted out of love is typical of the way in which the Gospel is spread.

First…she told her friends about Christ and how he knew of her life…how he had ignored the barriers and reached out to her…how he had helped her discover herself…how he had offered her the living water.

Secondly…as their knowledge grew…that prevenient grace within them that Wesley told us about…the same grace that’s in all people…believers and non-believers alike…caused them to be curious and want to go meet Christ.

Thirdly…when they met Christ…discovered who he was and encountered His love…they surrendered.   They were the first to discover in Christ the savior of the world.  A discovery that came to them because God loved…Jesus loved…and the woman loved…and they all acted out of love.

So…we are loved…and given the opportunity to love.

We can do as Lewis suggested.  Keep our hearts closed…never show love…and never enjoy love.  Or we can share the love that’s been shown to us.

Even when we’re tired and alone we can…like Christ… be energized by God’s love shared with others…who are ill…who have lost a loved one…whose body has become frail…who are imprisoned…who are poor…who have little education…who live next door…who don’t know Jesus Christ.

When we’re facing barriers that society and tradition have created…or we ourselves have created… like Jesus…we can eliminate those barriers and reach out…to the child who plays in the church parking lot…to the neighbor who attends no church…to the person of another faith or no faith at all…to those who are or act suspicious.

Not long ago I read a book entitled “Suspicion Nation.”  It was written by Lisa Bloom…a lawyer and court analyst for a number of TV networks.  The premise of her book is that we are a divided nation because we are a suspicious nation….rich are suspicious of the poor….poor are suspicious of the rich….old are suspicious of the young….young are suspicious of the old….highly educated are suspicious of those with little education….those with little education are suspicious of those with a lot of education….races are suspicious of other races…..women are suspicious of men and men are suspicious of women…people of each faith are suspicious of people of other faiths.  We are all suspicious of those not exactly like us.

We have seen the result of that suspicion in recent headlines.  We have also seen the result of God’s grace and love.  The families of the victims of the massacre at Mother Emanuel surely did not suffer from spiritual amnesia.  They had drunk of the living water.

Two years ago many people saw the removal of the confederate battle flag from the statehouse grounds as a thing of beauty…like a rainbow.  Others saw it as devastating…like a tornado.  This reminder… both rainbows and tornados…are short lived events.

The real question for each of us…for the United Methodist Church…and for all of South Carolina…is how do we truly heal and go forward together…not from this point of division only…but from every point that divides us in the church …the community…the state…the nation and the world… all gifts from God for our stewarding.

In addition to the demonstration of forgiveness shown by the families of the victims at Mother Emmanuel …three of our state’s leaders…who are all United Methodists have given some sound advice.

I like best the indirect advice coming from former Governor Nikki Haley…someone with whom I don’t always agree.  The governor said she made her decision after asking herself how she could look her children in the eye if she chose to leave the flag in place.  How will the children and grandchildren… who will one day lead and care for us… see our words and actions if they are not words and actions that heal and show love for all of God’s creation and all in God’s creation?

Former Governor Dick Riley…a friend and member of Buncombe Street United Methodist Church…wrote “significant disparities in our systems of education, health and justice have a disproportionate impact on poor and minority citizens in our state…. Let us think and act deliberately about a new legacy for our state, one that brings the two South Carolinas together in one.”
And, our Bishop…L. Jonathan Holston…has told us…”It is imperative that love be vigilant and truth be bold….let us think big.  Pray bigger.”

It’s likely that none of us will be in a position to single handedly change the world…or by our own single word or deed to ultimately heal and bring the two South Carolinas together…to bridge the divides in our nation.

But we can each of us diligently…daily…in every word and deed hear…and live out…the words of Saint Teresa of Avila….who in the 15^th century wrote…

“He has no hand but our hands

To do his work today:

He has no feet but our feet

To lead men in his way

He has no voice but our voice

To tell men how he died:

He has no help but our help

To lead them to his side.”

God has done the hard work…sending his Son…and providing that prevenient grace…the living water.

The rest is up to you and me.

Through comforting word and simple deed filled with grace and love…as Christ has done for you and me…whose heart and mind can we…help heal…and help open…to the truth and thirst-quenching living water…today?

“No Traffic Jam in the Second Mile.”

Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18 Matthew 5:38-48

 

How would you feel if you had been one of those disciples with Jesus?  He had just told you that four of the basics of the Law you had learned all your life were not quite correct interpretations of what God had meant…that the Pharisees and teachers had taught you incorrectly.  What’s next?

Well…He’s about to tell you that two more interpretations of the Law were wrong…and that you should strive for perfection.  Are you going to stick around…or…is it time to leave?  Fortunately for us the disciples stuck around so that Jesus could share with them…what some would consider the defining characteristics of Christians…the characteristics that some who call themselves Christians would like to forget.

Are you going to stick around to hear whether you’ve been taught…and are living as Jesus wants?

First…”You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.”  But I tell you do not resist an evil person.”  The original intent of the law was to limit vengeance.  Before the law, if a man of one tribe injured a man of another tribe, then at once all the members of the tribe of the injured man were out to take vengeance on all the members of the tribe of the man who committed the injury.  The vengeance they desired was nothing less than death.  The law limits vengeance, to only the man who committed the injury and to no more than the equivalent of the injury he inflicted and the damage he had done.

But…for the Christian Jesus abolished the old law of limited vengeance and introduced the new spirit of non-resentment and non-retaliation…true forgiveness.  He gave examples.

It will not happen very often, if at all, that anyone will slap us on the face, but time and time again life brings to us insults either great or small.   Jesus is here saying that the true Christian has learned to resent no insult and to seek noretaliation for any slight.

In the private and public life of a Christian…going forward is not about responding to insult…with name-calling and further insult.  Instead…it is about forgiving and truly moving forward.  Check your neighborhood and your newspapers to see whether this is really happening.

There are people who are forever standing on their rights…who clutch their privileges to them and who will not let them be pried loose …who will quickly go to court rather than suffer what they regard as the slightest infringement of them.  The Christian thinks not of his/her rights…but of their duties… not of their privileges but of their responsibilities.

There is a move afoot in South Carolina and other parts of the United States to convince employers to hire individuals who have been convicted of non-violent crimes and served their sentence in jails…instead of turning them down for employment which often leads to a return to crime…as a way to support themselves.   What path is the Christian path for employers and neighbors to take when it comes to the people who have this stumbling block as part of their background?

In an occupied country citizens could be compelled to supply food… to provide lodging … to carry baggage.  Palestine…in Jesus’ time… was an occupied country.  At any moment a Jew might feel the touch of the flat of a Roman spear on his shoulder…and know that he was compelled to serve the Romans.  It might be in the most menial way.  That, in fact, is what happened to Simon of Cyrene…when he was compelled to bear the Cross of Jesus.

What Jesus is saying to the disciples is this.  Suppose your masters come to you and compel you to be a guide or a porter for a mile.  Don’t do a mile with bitter and obvious resentment.  Go two miles with cheerfulness and with a good grace.  Don’t be always thinking of your liberty to do as you like. Be always thinking of your duty and your privilege to be of service to others.  When a task is laid on you…even if the task is unreasonable and hateful… don’t do it as a grim duty to be resented.  Do it as a service to be gladly rendered.

To give to some needy person was not something which a person might choose to do.  It was something the person must do.  To refuse to give to the needy was to refuse God.  The rabbis loved to point out that loving-kindness was one of the very few things on which the Law had no limit at all.   The effect of the giving on the receiver must also be taken into account.  Giving must never be such as to encourage laziness and shiftlessness for such giving can only hurt.  The professionals today call this “toxic charity.”  To give hundreds of blankets to homeless persons is not as helpful as taking the time to work with them to find ways for them to break the situation of being homeless.

“Love your enemies”…Jesus said.  The kind of love Jesus was describing here is what the Greeks called agape (uh GOPP ay).  It means that no matter what that person does to you… no matter how he treats you… no matter if he insults you or injures you or grieves you…you will never allow any bitterness against that person to invade your hearts.  Instead you will regard that person with unconquerable benevolence and goodwill that seeks nothing but his highest good.

Jesus never asked us to love our enemies in the same way as we love our nearest and our dearest…our parents….our children…our spouses.  The word is different.  To do so would neither be possible nor right.  This is a different kind of love.

This kind of love is not only something of the heart.  It is also something of the will.  It is not something we just cannot help…not romantic love.  It is something which we have to will ourselves into doing.  It is in fact a victory over what comes naturally to us. It is the power to love those whom we do not like and who may not like us.

It can happen only when we open our hearts to Jesus Christ.  He then enables us to conquer our natural tendency to anger and to bitterness… and to achieve this goodwill to all people.

It does not mean that we allow persons to do anything they want…to be left unchecked.  If we regard a person with goodwill… it might mean that we must punish him… that we must restrain him… that we must discipline her… that we must protect her from herself.  It also means that we do not punish him to satisfy our desire for revenge…but in order to make him a better person.  All Christian discipline and all Christian punishment must be aimed…not at vengeance…but at cure.

Jesus said this is the basis for personal relationships first and foremost.  He wants us to live a life in which we personally never allow any such thing as bitterness to invade our relationships with those we meet every day.  And…each of us should say first and foremost:  “This means me.”

This commandment is possible only for a Christian.  Only the grace of Jesus Christ can enable a person to have this kind of goodwill in personal relationships with other people. It is only when Christ lives in our hearts that bitterness dies and this love springs to life.

This commandment does not only involve allowing people to do as they like to us.  It also involves that we should do something for them.  We are expected to pray for them.  No one can pray for someone else and continue to hate them.  The surest way of killing bitterness is to pray for the person we are tempted to hate.

Why does Jesus want us to have this kind of love?  Jesus said we must have this kind of love that we might become “the sons of our Father who is in heaven.”  The reason we must have this goodwill is that God has it.  If we have it we become nothing less than sons of God… godlike people.

“Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”…Jesus said.  The Greek word for perfect as used here has nothing to do with what we might call perfection.  Instead…a thing is perfect if it fully realizes the purpose for which it was planned, designed and made.  A human is perfect if that person realizes the purpose for which he/she was created and sent into the world.

A human will fit their purpose if they become the image of God.  The primary characteristic of God is this universal benevolence… this unconquerable goodwill…this constant seeking of the highest good of every person…to love the saint and the sinner alike.  No matter what humans do… God seeks nothing but their highest good…even when that person does something that God hates.  God expects the same of us.

True love of God enables the same of us.

At its simplest… the person who cares most for the good of other humans is the most perfect person.  The one thing that makes us God-like is the love which never ceases to care for others…no matter what they do to us.  We enter Christian perfection when we learn to forgive as God forgives…and to love as God loves.

Who will we forgive today?

Who will we love instead of feel bitter toward?

Who will we serve?

For whom will we realize that there is no traffic jam in the extra mile?

“What’s on the Menu?

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7       Matthew 4:1-11

 

          I would understand if you thought today’s message was about food.  A menu is one of the first things you’re given when you go to a restaurant.  Adam and Eve dealt with fruit from a tree.  Jesus was tempted to turn stones into bread.

It’s not…about food

It’s about what you do when you’re given the menu…about making decisions.  We could make this short and simple by saying Adam and Eve blew it and Jesus didn’t.  But…let’s think about decision-making for a few minutes.

Jesus…often called the “Second Adam”…was the Son of God.  He was God in the flesh.  He had all the powers that God could have.

But…Jesus came to us fully human…so that from Him we could learn how to follow God’s Word…and that it was possible to follow God’s Word even in this world in which we live.

The word that many Bibles translate as “tempted” is perhaps better translated as “tested”.  Jesus was “tested” by the Devil after being taken by the Spirit to the wilderness for that very purpose…to be tested.  It happens to us, also.  It happens to us in the very ways it happened to Jesus.

First…Jesus was tempted to turn the stones into bread.  It was a temptation to Jesus to use his powers selfishly.  We have the same test.  God has given each of us unique powers…talents…abilities.  We can ask either of two questions.

“What can I make for myself out of this gift?”

“What can I do for others with this gift?”

A person may have a beautiful voice which is very pleasant to the ear.  That person may want to “cash in” on it.  That person may refuse to use it unless receiving pay for it.  There is no reason why he should not use it for pay, but there is every reason why he should not use it only for pay.  There are many highly paid vocalists in this nation.  Some perform at no charge to benefit others.

What is your gift…or gifts?  Each of us has gifts and talents.  How are you using them?

Secondly the tester took Jesus to view the top of the temple.  He asked Jesus to jump because he and Jesus knew from Scripture that God’s angels would catch him and gently and safely place Jesus on the ground.  In fact, there were those that believed the prophet Malachi had promised that the Messiah would suddenly appear at the Temple.

Jesus refused.

First…it would have been an example of using God’s power to create a sensation and win people over through the spectacle.  That’s not the kind of Gospel that God gave Jesus to spread.

Jesus repeated the words that Moses is credited with writing in Deuteronomy.  “Don’t put the Lord your God to the test.”  There is nothing good that can come from seeing how far you can go by deliberately putting yourself in a threatening situation then expecting God to rescue you.

My guess is that most of us here today have matured past that youthful stage where we often said “Hey y’all!  Watch this!”  But, have we entirely moved out of the mode of taking unnecessary risks…expecting God to bail us out?  What dietary choices are we making?  Exercise choices?  Health care choices?  Financial choices?

If faith cannot believe without sensations or rescues from unnecessary risks then it is not really faith.  It is doubt looking for proof…looking in the wrong places.  God’s rescuing power is not something to be played with and experimented with.  It is something to be quietly trusted in everyday life.

The third attempt of the Tempter was a whopper.  He offered Jesus the whole world and all that was in it.  All Jesus had to do was worship him…not God.  The Tempter was saying compromise…make a deal with me.  Don’t have such high standards.  Work with me on this one, Jesus.

Jesus’ response showed that he was quite certain that we can never defeat evil by compromising with evil.  Christianity cannot stoop to the level of the world.  It must lift the world to its level.  Nothing less will do.  We compromise with evil when we do nothing about it.

Jesus gave us the example….what to do when temptation…testing…come our way.  One commentator puts it this way.  “Resist the devil in the power of the Sprit through the guidance of the Word to accomplish the will of God.”

Let’s break that statement down into some smaller chunks.

Resist the devil.  Jesus clearly resisted.  His brother…James…and the apostle Peter…saw up close how Jesus was confronted by evil.  James wrote “Submit yourselves…to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”  (James 4:7)  Peter wrote “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”  (1 Peter 5:8-9)  When the temptation is in front of you…just say “No”.  Help others do the same.

In the power of the Spirit of God.  It’s not our own strength or cunning that will get the job done.  Just as Jesus was guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit…so must we be.  Just as Jesus was never alone…so we have a companion…a source of power and strength.  In our temptations we might be led to believe that God is not around.  In his letter to the Romans Paul made it clear that for all of those who belong to Christ the Spirit is there even in the darkest moments.

Through the guidance of the Word of God.  The best way to overcome the temptation to go against the Word of God is to know the Word of God.  We have been given the Bible to show us the truth of life.  Compare the words of Jesus to the words of the world.  Then, you’ll know how to discern and confront the lies.  You’ll know how to follow God’s will.  The devil knew the Scripture well when he tempted Jesus.  Does he know them better than you?  How often and how deeply do you study the Bible?  We have room for more people in our Wednesday night studies.

To accomplish the will of God the Father.  If we truly know God’s Word we will be able to discern…to figure out His will for us.  After all…our goal is to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

The instruction from the Psalmist is most appropriate here.  “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4)  Loving God…delighting in God…could be the most important guideline for all of the decisions of our life…big and small.   If we truly love God we will not do anything contrary to His Word and His will for us.  And…when we delight in our walk with God…we are freed to pursue our own desires and dreams…because they will be God’s desires and dreams.

Here’s a real life…real world…example for all of us today…of the tempter at work.  How will you decide?

I have two friends who have written a play about the lynching of Willie Earle in 1947.  He was a young black man held in the Pickens County Jail…waiting for further legal action.  He had been accused…accused…not convicted…of robbing and murdering a white man who drove a cab in Greenville. I had the privilege of attending a reading of the play a while ago.

As I sat there…listening to the script being read by a number of performers I asked how could a Christian community tolerate the lynching of a young man…accused of a crime and in jail awaiting further legal action.

I then reflected on our community…state… nation…and world today…70 years later.  Some say hate and intolerance are greater today.  Some say otherwise.  No matter how you want to measure…or what your measure might show…the reality is…hate and intolerance are still there.  It’s the cause of much of what is reported as news.  It’s the topic of many conversations…on Facebook and in the coffee shops.

And…the hate and intolerance are not just based on race…it’s gender…it’s citizenship…it’s gender preference…it’s perceived faith beliefs…it’s economic status.  All are excuses for hate and intolerance.

As you decide how to participate in these great debates turn to Scripture…and look for the verse in which Jesus tells us to care for the least among us.  Or, the teachings that say love your neighbor.  You’ll find them several times in more than one Gospel.   Then look for the verse in which Jesus places qualifications on that caring and love.  You won’t find any qualifiers…exceptions…or excuses…none of those I just mentioned and no others.

As you decide whether to join those who speak and act of hate and intolerance and anger…look further at the Sermon on the Mount…chapters five through seven of Matthew…and Jesus’ instructions for those who want to call themselves Christians.  Nowhere will you find instruction promoting anything other than love and inclusiveness.  The tools of hate and intolerance…and twisting Scripture to support hate and intolerance are tools of the devil and those who would follow him.  They are not tools of Christ and those who would follow him…even when those tools are used against us.

No matter what’s on the menu we can rest assured of the proper decision when “we resist the devil in the power of the Spirit through the guidance of the Word to accomplish the will of God?”

Let us come to the feast provided at the Lord’s Table this morning…knowing the love, strength and guidance He provides are the menu items for us to choose.