Sermon for October 4, 2009

The Price and Cost of Sacrifice
2 Samuel 24:18-24

“How much does it cost?” How many times have you asked that question? We are obsessed with the price of things. When we see a big house we ask, “How much does it cost?” When we see a luxury car, we say, “Look at the price tag on that!” A big part of shopping is the attempt to find the right price. Some of us will go through store circulars and drive for miles in order to save a few dollars on the price. Some stores even offer low-price guarantees. “If you find our item anywhere else for less, we will refund the difference.”

I know, I know. We are in an economic downturn. We are a nation of bargain hunters. But many people are not giving up on small luxuries. The Trumbull Starbucks seems busier than ever. I read that many people are keeping up their appearance during the downturn. While the demand for plastic surgery has decreased, nearly three out of four plastic surgeons who responded to a survey this fall reported that demand has increased for Botox. In one interview, a woman lost her job as a district sales manager for a bookstore chain She is $140,000 in debt. She has slashed spending and all but stopped eating out. But she hasn't given up her Botox injections. “It's like comfort food,” she says.

I’ve never been a good bargain hunter. Every once in a while, I’ll scout out a good deal. But my problem is that I don’t want my life filled with cheap trinkets. I know lots of people who do. That’s fine for them. I have a different philosophy: Don’t want to pay too much for something, and don’t pay too little, either. We like to think that a person who gets something for free gets the best value. But, that’s not usually the case. You can pay too little for something just as you can pay too much for it. I know someone who gets his room and board for free. Do you know what else? He’s homeless. His “free” room and board are provided by a homeless shelter. Are you envious? Of course not! I’m guessing you would not choose to wait in line to receive that kind of free service unless the wellbeing of you and your family depended on it. We feel pride in paying a fair price for the things we have. What we want out of life is not a handout, but a fair deal. We want to pay the right price.

The question this morning is, “What is the right price to pay for our faith?” How much should we be willing to pay for the spiritual resources that help us find meaning? Listen closely to my question. I didn’t ask if we should pay for our faith. I asked, “How much?” I assume each of us will pay. The issue is: what’s the price and cost of sacrifice?

Have you made a poor decision to protect your ego? It happens in today’s story. God fumes with anger because King David, once again, disobeys God. David calls for a census of the people. It seems innocent enough. However, the royal advisors know that the census results feed David’s self-worth. You can always be more proud of your mighty exploits when your membership rolls are high. The census also tells David how many eligible men to conscript into military service. If David drafts them, his army grows and he can conquer more territory. The census is a bad idea. David knows it. He counts the people anyway. And God is mad.

In our house, we play a game called “Would you rather . . .” We take turns asking another person a difficult question: would you rather be poor and popular or rich and hated? Would you rather eat worms or ants? God gives David a “would you rather” proposition: As a punishment, would you rather see your people suffer through famine, war, or plague? David chooses the plague, and then helplessly watches the agonizing death of 70,000 subjects. In heartache, David laments, “I alone have sinned. I alone have done wickedly, but these people, what have they done? Let your hands, O God, be against me.”

God tells David, “Go and make an altar to me. Make a sacrifice at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” The threshing floor is a place where grain kernels are separated and ground into flour. While his people face scarcity and death, David travels to a house of plenty. Araunah, like a good citizen, offers the king his threshing floor, and everything that goes with it, for free.

If David had been a smart shopper, he would have said, “That’s a bargain I can’t pass up.” Instead, David says, “No, I don’t want it for free. I’ll buy these things from you. I’ll pay the right price. . . I will not offer burnt offerings to my God that cost me nothing.” David knows if he makes a sacrifice that costs nothing, he cheapens his relationship with God. He pays the farmer 50 shekels of silver and God ends the plague. Later on, Araunah’s Threshing Floor will be the foundation for the Jerusalem Temple. The location of one costly offering will forever accept the sacrifices of worshippers.

One of the ironies of the Christian faith is that it’s completely free and it costs us everything. Christ offers salvation for free. We can’t buy God. We don’t pay an entry fee to get into heaven. Nobody here ever sends a bill to church members. But, once we get in the door of a church and start publicly worshiping God, we are asked to give something sacrificial —a gift that costs us something. We want to pay the right price. Every year, we ask you to sit down and determine the right price. We all know that we can’t run the church without money. The question is always, “How much?” Like David, every one of us asks, “How much is the right price for me this year? We can’t have it all for nothing. So, what is my worthy gift?”

Running the church comes with a price and a cost. The price is the bottom line of our budget. Right now, it’s about $245,000. In the past five years, we have cut our budget by almost $15,000. $245,000 pays for heat, electricity, snow removal, staff salaries and benefits, insurance, cleaning, outreach, and other day-to-day expenses of running the church. There is also a cost. Cost reflects an item’s value in alternative uses. When money is tight, we channel it funds to one area of he budget as a priority over another area. There’s only a limited amount of money to spend every year, and it can go to a number of alternative uses. When the money gets used in one area, then there is less of it to use somewhere else. So, we make decisions of how to allocate scarce resources to their most valued uses.

Time has a cost. When time is consumed in one activity, there is less to use somewhere else. The cost of our time is its value in its alternative uses. Discipleship also comes with a cost. We choose to direct spiritual commitment to alternative uses. There are tons of people and places dividing our attention and resources. Worship has a cost. You can choose to be here. You can choose to stay home and read the paper on Sunday morning. You only get one Sunday each week, and you decide how its best spent.

But, how much should we give? Some people answer, “Not much,” “Not all,” “Not here,” or “Just enough.” Such people have a small vision for the church. A small vision is not expensive.

Can you imagine a church saying, “Let’s do the absolute minimum so that it doesn’t really cost us much and we can save our resources”? Imagine if our church decided to cut down on expenses so that we could make it a bargain for the members. We could say, “This month we finally have enough money. We don’t want anybody to give to this church. But down at the Methodist church, they hired a new staff member and they have a new program for children, so we want all our members to give down there instead of here for this month.”

Do you think that would be what God would have this church to do? I don’t want to belong to a church that has such puny vision, and I hope you don’t either. We need visions that reflect the right price for our church -- A vision that challenges our church.

Some people are proud that the practice of their faith costs them nothing. Can you imagine someone saying: “I’m so happy that I go to that church, and I don’t give a dime. I’m a member of that church, and I only attend 20% of the time. I’m a Christian, and I don’t serve anybody but me.”

“I give burnt offerings to God that cost me nothing.” Is that the kind of Christian you want to be? I didn’t think so.

In what will we invest our lives? Will our lives be devoted to giving or only to taking?
What is the price and cost of sacrifice for you? Think about it as we form a vision of who we are, as a church, and what we can do with generous gifts.


Works Consulted:

• Anders, Dr. Mickey. “How Much Does It Cost?" http://www.pikevillefirstchristianchurch.org/Sermons/Sermon20020407.html
• The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. Downers Grove: IVP, 1998.
• Sowell, Thomas. Basic Economics. New York: Basic Books, 2004.
• Stackhouse, Max L., Dennis McCann, Shirely Roels, and Preston Williams. On Moral Business, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995.
• "Keeping Up Appearances In a Downturn." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122999145997128503. html?mod=rss_Lifestyle

Sermon for Sept. 20, 2009

I Doubt, Therefore I Am
September 20, 2009

You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me. You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm. I know you will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living. "Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man when he cries for help in his distress. Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor? Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness. The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me. I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls. My skin grows black and peels; my body burns with fever. — Job 30:21-30

Today’s reading comes from one of the oldest stories in existence. The central character named is named Job. His children are dead. His wealth has been obliterated. His wife walked out on him. He is sick, covered with skin boils and rashes. His friends don’t really know how to console him. He is a good man, a righteous man. He did not do anything to deserve such suffering. There is no reason for it. God doesn’t answer his prayers. He suffers. He complains. Job is consumed by confusion and doubt. Who could blame him?

Here we are centuries upon centuries later and we are still consumed by the same questions. If God is good and all-powerful, why is there evil? Why not stop wars and genocides? Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? Why does God allow my loved ones to suffer? If God is near, why doesn’t God answer my prayers? In the play J.B. by Archibald McLeish, Job comes to this conclusion: “If god is god, he is not good. If god is good, he is not god.”

We get tired of the pat answers. We learned from childhood that when we do wrong we get punished. Do something good, you’ll get a reward. Disobey, and you get in trouble. Is that what’s happening here? Is God punishing us for our sin? Sometimes, well-meaning people will quote Scripture frequently and loosely to give you an explanation. They tell us: If we obey God, and live moral and wholesome lives, we will be healthy and wealthy. If we suffer, God must want to teach us something. Suffering is the only way God can get our attention. They are full of spiritual diagnosis and prescription. It all sounds so hopeful. But then we begin to wonder, “Why is it that for all their apparent compassion, we feel worse instead of better?

As we get older, we often realize that there is no real correlation between the amount of wrong we commit and the amount of pain we experience. In fact, sometimes the opposite is true. We do the right thing and still get knocked down. We do the best we are capable of doing, and just as we are reaching out to receive our reward we are hit from behind side and sent spinning. This is the suffering that first bewilders and then outrages us. This is the kind of suffering that bewilders and outrages Job. Job does everything right, but everything goes so wrong. He rejects the kind of teaching that has God all figured out, the advice that provides glib explanations for every painful condition. Job suffers. Period. And he doubts God.

Is that OK? Is it alright to have doubts? After all, some studies show that rejecting one’s previously held beliefs can lead to shame and guilt. In fact, the Book of Romans in the New Testament unequivocally states that, “... he who doubts is condemned.” Feelings of guilt and shame can erode a person's sense of self-worth, diminished self-esteem is associated, in turn, with greater physical and mental health problems.” As the famous protestant theologian named Karl Barth wrote, “No one should flirt with his unbelief or with his doubt. The theologian should only be sincerely ashamed of it.” Thank you Mr. Barth! Now I not only have doubts. I feel guilty and ashamed as well.

Barth and Paul do not get the last word. There are wise people who tell us it’s OK to doubt. Consider an ancient Zen saying: “Great Doubt: great awakening. Little Doubt: little awakening. No Doubt: no awakening.”

Remember Renee Descartes – the “I think therefore I am” guy? Descartes had another philosophy that doesn’t get repeated as much: dubito ergo sum, “I doubt, therefore I am.” Descartes believed that doubt was essential for learning the truth. More specifically, Descarte believed that a person can grasp the truth only by doubting and calling into question everything one knows.

C.S. Lewis, one of the greatest Christian writers and theologians of modern times, believed that doubts were good in our faith development because the make us examine our faith. He wrote, “If ours is an examined faith we should be unafraid to doubt. If doubt is eventually justified, then we were believing that which was not worth believing. But if doubt is answered, our faith has grown stronger . . .” This statement comes from a man who started his faith journey as an atheist. When Lewis gave himself permission to explore of his doubts, that’s he became a believer. After years of searching and struggling, he became one of the most powerful and insightful writers about Christianity.

In fact, some say that doubt is part of our psychological development. A psychologist named James Fowler has studied faith development in Christians. Fowler’s fourth stage is known as "Individuative-Reflective." OK, let’s drop the fancy psych words and get to the heart of it. When people hit their 30s and 40s, they enter a time of anxiety and struggle as they face difficult questions about who they are and what they believe. Perhaps for the first time, a person takes responsibility for her beliefs and feelings. Where once a person believed what religious authorities told them without any questions, he now re-examines what he’s been told. Nothing feels certain anymore. Disillusionment reigns. This stage is not a comfortable place to be in. Most people, after entering this stage, sense that the world is far more complex than they previously thought.

I can speak from experience and say that when I am in those times of doubt, when I am journeying in those dark nights of the soul, when it seems that God has moved or that the box I was trying to trap God in was exploding, those are the times I grew the most.

In so many ways doubt is good for us. It can motivate us to study and learn. It can purify false beliefs that have crept into our faith. It can humble our arrogance. It can give us patience and compassion with other doubters. It can remind us of how much truth matters.

So here is my question: Is it possible that doubt might be one of those unwelcome guests of life that is sometimes, in the right circumstances, good for you? The Church needs to recognize that genuine and authentic faith must be as open to questions as it is receptive of answers. The Church should step aside and let the people of the world raise questions. The Church should be a listening body—sensitive to the deepest concerns of the world's peoples, intently interested in their problems, struggling to provide solutions to their troublesome inquiries, and endeavoring always to serve as their servant. It's all too easy for the people of the Church to say, “We've got the answers,” without having first asked as to what the questions might be.

If this is not a place where tears are understood, where can we go to cry?
If this is not a place where our questions can be asked, where can we go to seek?
If this is not a place where our heart cries can be heard, where shall we go to find comfort? May this church be such a place for all of us—a place where our questions, and even our doubts, are always welcome.

Sources:
•
• http://www.religioustolerance.org/reldoubt2.htm.
• James Fowler, Faith Development and Pastoral Care (Philadelphia,: Fortress, 1987).
• Neal Krause and Keith M. Wulff. “Religious doubt and health: exploring the potential dark side of religion,” Sociology of Religion (Spring, 2004). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/ mi_m0SOR/ is_1_65/ai_n6141810/? tag=content;col1.
• Rev. David Tinney. “Can we doubt?” www.inglefarmbaptist.com/media/focus/ focus270806.pdf.
• Dr. David T. Howeth, "Upgrading Our Faith by Asking Questions." http://www.schreiberumc.org/sermons/08-12-14.pdf.

Sermon for Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009

The Science and Art of Forgiveness

Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”Matthew 18:21

Is forgiveness a choice, or a biological necessity? Jesus asks us to forgive, but why? Is there a spiritual befit only? Can forgiveness change us, body and soul?

Imagine being in your car, peacefully driving, when suddenly something rock-hard shatters your windshield, hits you and breaks nearly every bone in your face. Imagine that the “weapon” is a frozen turkey, hurled from the rear window of a speeding car by a teenage college student out for a joyride with friends. That’s what happened in November 2005 to 44 year old Victoria Ruvolo, on a road in the town of Riverhead on Long Island. She could have been killed, and she could have had brain damage. Surgeons had to rebuild her face, using metal plates and screws. But remarkably, she recovered. Within a few months, Victoria was back on her own and working again.

But that’s not the real story. It’s what happened the following August in court that makes this a tale to remember. The boy who threw the turkey, 19-year-old Ryan Cushing, who suffers from impaired vision, was indicted on a first-degree assault charge and could have faced up to 25 years in prison. Until Victoria Ruvolo stepped in. She saw her assailant coming out of the courtroom. He stopped, choking and crying as he tried to apologize to her. A journalist for the New York Times witnessed the event and wrote, “For an intensely emotional few minutes, Victoria alternately embraced him tightly, stroked his face and patted his back as he sobbed uncontrollably.” As the young man kept saying, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it,” his victim repeated, “It’s OK. It’s OK. I just want you to make your life the best it can be.”

Then, at Victoria’s insistence, prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain for Cushing, giving him six months in jail and five years’ probation instead of 25 years in prison. Later, one witness said that in his 30 years as a prosecutor “he had not seen such a forgiving victim.” The New York Times actually wrote an editorial about Ruvolo, titling it “A Moment of Grace.” Their words were touching.

Given the opportunity for retribution, Ms. Ruvolo gave and got something better: the dissipation of anger and the restoration of hope, in a gesture as cleansing as the tears washing down her damaged face, and the face of the foolish, miserable boy whose life she single-handedly restored.

Amazing isn’t it. Not easy. But amazing. Making the choice to forgive can be a liberating practice -- one that can lead to a life filled with exquisite experiences. We must remember that forgiveness is possible because we have the ability to make choices. We have the choice to forgive or not to forgive and no one can force us to do either. If we want to forgive someone, no one can stop us no matter how poorly the offender may have acted.

Forgiveness happens in stages. In the beginning, you are filled with self justified anger. At some point in your life, you have been wounded and you are mad at and hurt by the person who wronged you. You blame the offending person for how you are feeling. You are certain that it is another’s actions that cause your distress. You have no choice in the matter. You have forgotten that you have choices as to how you can react. You feel so injured that you are convinced it would not be right to forgive the offense. You are angry. You are in pain. But anger and pain don’t have to declare the final word.

The second step towards forgiveness emerges when, after feeling upset with someone for a while, you realize that the hurt and anger do not feel good to you. It may be impacting your emotional balance or your physical health. You may wish to repair the damage done to the relationship. You may begin to see the problem from the other person’s point of view. You may simply decide to let the problem go. In either case, after a while you are no longer done in by your anger. You forgive the person with whom you were angry.

The third stage of forgiveness comes after you have seen the results of forgiveness. You are now ready to work to either repair damaged relationships or let go of seeing the situation as a problem. You decide to forgive because you have had some practice with it and see the clear benefit in your life. This could emerge in a situation as simple as being cut off by another car on the highway or in a complex situation like an affair in a marriage. At this stage of forgiveness you are aware that the length of time you experience a situation as a grievance is primarily up to you.

I have to confess to you, I feel like I squandered my Summer away being angry at some people. I had some misunderstandings with some people. Words were said. Feelings were hurt. I felt angry, hurt, and betrayed and I didn’t know what to do. I was disgusted with hypocrisy – my own included. I tried to distract myself, but sooner or later I would remind myself of my wounded spirit. I would try to avoid those who hurt me, but we would eventually see each other and I’d remember my injuries.

I can tell you exactly how things changed for me. I was reading a quote about hypocrisy by the famous activist and preacher William Sloane Coffin. He wrote:

Of course we all pass ourselves off as something we are not, but not as anything we are not. Generally, we try to pass ourselves off as something that is special in our hearts and minds, something we yearn for, something beyond us. That’s rather touching.

Reading that quote changed my perspective. I realized that I’m human and I act to protect the wellbeing of myself and my family. Others are human, and they act to preserve their interests. I don’t need to harbor anger. I can make a different choice. I can forgive. And I hope that people can forgive me. I make mistakes. You make mistakes. If I have done things that anger you, I ask for your forgiveness. If I make decisions that you don’t understand or agree with, please forgive me. If I say or do something and your feelings are hurt, please forgive me. Let’s walk in the healing love and unity that can be the trademark of our congregation.

Thankfully, that’s not the end of the journey. There is still one more step to healing.

The fourth stage of forgiveness involves the choice to rarely if ever take offense in the first place. There is an ancient and well-kept secret to happiness that sages have known for centuries. They rarely talk about it, but they use it all the time, and it is fundamental to good mental health. This secret is called The Fine Art of Not Being Offended. In order to truly be a master of this art, one must be able to see that every statement, action and reaction of another human being is the sum result of one’s total life experience to date. In other words, the majority of people in our world say what they say and do what they do from their own set of fears, conclusions, defenses and attempts to survive. We all act out of self interest. When we understand that, the world can become more manageable.

Maybe you are now at a point in your life where you don’t want to waste your precious life in the discomfort caused by anger or hurt. You are ready to feel differently. You are able to forgive yourself, forgive others, forgive life, and forgive God.

Maybe you’ve learned that life is filled with incredible beauty and wonder and you are missing these experiences when you’re stuck in the remembrance of old hurts or disappointments.

Perhaps you realize that everyone, including you, operates primarily out of self-interest. In my self-interest, I will be annoyed by some one else’s expression of self-interest. If I can understand that this is an ordinary part of life, what is there to be upset about? If I understand that self-interest is my guiding principle, how can I not offer forgiveness to everyone, including myself for behaving that way?

In this sense, forgiveness is an art. It takes practice, discipline, and patience to get to a point where you desire not to get offended in the first place.

As it turns out, there is also some science to forgiveness. Forgiveness may be a choice and a discipline, but it also comes from a changed reality at a subconscious level of impulses. The subconscious is ruled by our most in-grained fears and desires, so if we can train our subconsciouses to crave reconciliation and lessen fear, then the world can be changed one thought at a time.

I’m going to keep this very basic, because that’s all I can understand. There is a part of the brain called the Cingulate Gyrus, Latin for “belt ridge”. The Cingulate Gyrus partially wraps around the Corpus Callosum. The Cingulate is an evolved feature of the mammalian brain. It functions as a clearing house for the subconscious mind, deciding which primal instincts are appropriate for a given situation. Think of the Cingulate as the belt around your consciousness. It functions in the brain a little like a mediator. It helps restore balance between your thoughts and your feelings, between behaviors and emotions.

What’s this got to do with forgiveness? Research shows that activity increases in the Cingulate during moments of forgiveness. The brain is hardwired for forgiveness. Your brain is able to consider another person’s intentions, another person’s emotional state and the forgivability of another’s actions. If the brain wasn’t so crowded out with competing demands and opposing stories from the past, there would be more forgiveness because our brains would be free to do what they can do so well and so impersonally. We tend to think that forgiveness only benefits the person being forgiven. However research has found that forgiveness is good for the person forgiving as well. It lowers blood pressure, improves cardiovascular health and strengthens the immune system.

This is not to mention the social benefits. People who forgive tend to have less depression, longer lasting marriages and stronger social networks. With forgiveness, what goes around most definitely comes around.

The science and spirit of forgiveness is summed up like this: Loosen the belt of your consciousness. You can absorb pain and injustice without becoming a bitter person. You can come face to face with pain, your own and others, without becoming hostile. Forgiveness is good for you, and so much better than holding on to resentment. Forgiveness is also good for the world. Forgiveness is one of the powerful thoughts that change the world, beginning with your inner world. So forgive. Stop expecting the world to be perfect. Forgive seventy times seven times. Forgive because it’s good for others. Forgive because it’s good for you. Forgive because it’s part of your biological make-up. Forgive because God forgives you.

Sources:
• “'The Science and Spirit of Forgiveness " By Ian Lawton. February 24, 2008
• The Art and Science of Forgiveness by Frederic Luskin, Ph.D. Avaialalbe online at http://www.cancersupportivecare.com/forgive.html


A Prayer
Say to yourself:
May I be at peace. May I be a lake of forgiveness. May I be truly happy.

Think of someone who has harmed you, or needs your forgiveness:
May you be at peace. May you be free from suffering. May you be free from pain. May you be happy.

Bring all the peoples of the world into your focus:
May the world be at peace. May it be free from suffering. May it be free from pain. May it be happy.

Finally, bring the Earth into your focus:
May she be at peace. May she be free from suffering. May she be free from pain. May she be happy.

Sermon for Sept. 6, 2009

Surviving the Torrents of the Times

“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’ Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority—quite unlike their teachers of religious law. Matthew 7:21-29

Throughout the day Jesus preached to the crowds and they listened to him with amazement. But listening is not enough. If his words are to have a genuine effect, the people must not only hear Christ’s words, but also act upon them. To drive the point home, Jesus tells the story of two builders – two houses. Standing inside these homes, going from room to room, there is little to no difference between. Imagine two identical homes. The same architect designed them. Each home is made of the same material. Each home has the same number of doors and windows. Looking at the homes, you might think that they are solid, well-built, and ready for anything. But one home will collapse and the other will stand. There is one major difference between the houses -- the foundations. One house was constructed upon rock and the other upon sand.

The crowds listening to Jesus’ teaching got it. Few people in ancient Palestine wanted to live in the rocks. It meant grading the side of a slope and hauling up building materials. Living in the hills made travel more difficult. Water had to be carried to the house and winter winds were colder. Most people built along the river beds. The scenery was more pleasant, the water was more convenient to tote, and the house was sheltered from the cold winds of winter. Although flooding was a danger, most of the year the streams trickled pleasantly down the hillsides into the nearby river. But on rare occasions, perhaps only once a generation, the 100-year flood would come. A combination of heavy snow, a quick spring thaw, and a torrential downpour would create a vicious flash flood that swept away everything in its path. House after house washed away. Jesus may be referring to this image in Matthew 7. The lesson? Never cheat on the foundation.

Jesus teaches about the absolute necessity of building our lives on the right kind of foundation. The foundation is what holds everything up. No matter what quality of materials you use for the house, no matter how carefully you join the frame together, no matter how skilled your contractor may be, if the foundation isn’t solid and stable, your life will lack integrity. Over time, cracks will develop in the walls you’ve carefully constructed. The windows will stick. The roof will leak. And sooner or later, the storms of life will bring it crashing down, and everything you’ve worked so hard to build will be lost.

In the 1990’s the “Leaning Tower of Pisa” was finally reopened to the public, after having been closed for almost a dozen years. During that time, engineers completed a 25 million dollar renovation project designed to stabilize the tower. They removed 110 tons of dirt, and reduced its famous lean by about sixteen inches. Apparently, the tower had been tilting further and further away from vertical for hundreds of years, to the point that the top of the 185-foot tower was seventeen feet further south than the bottom. Italian authorities were concerned that if nothing was done, it would soon collapse. What was the problem? Bad design? Poor workmanship? An inferior grade of marble? No. The problem was what was underneath. The sandy soil on which the city of Pisa was built was just not stable enough to support a monument of this size. The tower had no firm foundation.

Let’s get back to the two builders. I assume that the person who built the house on sand did a lot of things correctly. For instance, the builder was must have been a hard worker. It’s no easy thing to put up a house, especially not in those days, with no power tools or Home Depot. He had to carry stone, cut wood, and form bricks out of clay. It probably took him weeks and months of backbreaking labor. He didn’t quit. He persevered until the structure was complete. Yet in the end, all his hard work was for nothing. In the life of faith, the same thing can happen to us. We can confuse activity with godliness. We assume that if someone is hard-working and energetic, he or she must be a sincere Christian. We think, “That person must be close to God.” But what will happen if all that activity and service is built upon a foundation of sand. A person could be doing tons of great things for all the wrong reasons. It may not be obvious what those reasons are; just as it may not be obvious what kind of foundation is underneath a house. But in the end, the true motivation will become apparent. Even the most costly service and the most strenuous labors won’t save you, if the foundational motivation is something other than love.


I am not criticizing active service; far from it. In fact, we make service a requirement for church membership. I am suggesting that we examine our hearts. Ask yourself; what is my foundational motivation in doing this work? Is it sincere love for Christ and for his people? Or is it something else? Pride, or self-righteousness, or habit, or duty, or people-pleasing? If your answer is “something else,” then you may be in danger of a spiritual collapse. The point I’m making is not limited to church life. It applies to any kind of work and service – spouses serving one another, or parents serving their children. It applies to how we treat family members, or friends, or neighbors. In fact, it applies to everything we do, from the time we get up in the morning to the time we lay down at night. Are you working and serving out of love? Just being active and diligent and hard-working isn’t enough. If the foundation is not built on love for Christ and his people, you are setting yourself up for collapse. Never cheat on the foundation.

Now what about the wise builder? Did he work harder than the first builder? Did he use better materials? Not necessarily. The only difference was in the foundation. But that made all the difference in the world. Even the most terrible, frightful storm could not destroy that house.

And make no mistake. The storms will come. Jesus does not say that if you have your foundation on the rock you will never be hit by storms. He does not say that standing on the rock will shelter you from hard times, struggles and suffering. What does Jesus say? “The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house.” We should not be surprised when rain, floods and winds fall in our lives. If bad stuff is happening to you it doesn’t mean you are not in God’s favor. It simply means that life happens. Stuff goes wrong. People get sick. Debt stacks up. Times get tough. That’s life. We should not come here and worship God and then be disappointed when life happens. Life will never be pain, sorrow, and struggle free. Rain will fall, streams will rise, and the wind will blow. I wonder how many people would come to church if we put that message on our sign. What if our church sign said: “Come and join us as we suffer and struggle.” How many people would come ready to serve the Lord? We like things easy and convenient -- maximum pleasure and minimum pain. But Jesus knows that life is full of suffering and struggling. He calls us to a life that hears the Word of God and then puts them into practice.

No matter what you are building in life, you don’t want to cheat on the foundation. If you must skimp on anything, be sparing with the trivial. Skimp on the non-essentials. Save on the windows, the wallpaper, or the paint if you have to save a few dollars; but don’t ever cheat on the foundation. Which builder are you, the wise or the foolish? Are you building your life on listening to Christ’s words and acting on Christ’s words? Or are you relying on something else, or someone else, to get you through the storms of life?

When our lives are built upon faith and obedience to Christ, nothing can separate us from God. God wants us to hear and do -- to listen and then act upon what we hear. This is our strong foundation. The storms of life may rage, we may become frightened, we may lose courage and come close to despair. But no matter what happens, our faith cannot be destroyed. Christ will not lose us. When the tempests of life threaten, when the sky grows black, and the wind starts to howl, and the rain pours down, the key thing to remember is we do not need to have the strength to hold on to the foundation. We survive the torrents of time because Christ holds on to us.

As we come to the Lord’s Table today, we remember that when life gets uncomfortable on the rock, AND IT WILL, we have a foundation that is unshakable. We can have the strength and courage to survive the torrents of time. We can stand here and sing “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand.”

Sermon for August 16, 2009

Who Chooses the Rules?

Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You live this way already, and we encourage you to do so even more. For you remember what we taught you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways. Never harm or cheat a Christian brother in this matter by violating his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before. God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

But we don’t need to write to you about the importance of loving each other, for God himself has taught you to love one another. Indeed, you already show your love for all the believers throughout Macedonia. Even so, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you to love them even more.

Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. Then people who are not Christians will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others.

Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance. Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work. And live peacefully with each other. Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone. See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people. Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 4:1 - 12; 5: 12 - 19


Almost half of the world’s shark attacks occur along a single stretch of Florida’s coastline, long considered one of the finest surfing spots in the state. In fact, the Volusia County shoreline is considered the shark bite capital of the world. An average of 10 million bathers visit Volusia’s beaches each year, and the most shark bites recorded in one year in the was 24 in 2008. A combination of murky water, caused by recent heavy rains, and unusually crowded beaches may have caused the sharks to mistake humans for fish. Juvenile Black Tip and Spinner sharks cause the majority of bites. These young sharks are learning to find food and get disoriented when they get into the wave area near the beach. Once they bite a human, they usually realize their mistake and let go.

The Today Show once interviewed a Florida shark attack victims — a surfer whose hand had been mistaken for food. The shark left a 2-inch gash on the back of his hand, which required surgery to repair torn tendons and ligaments. Towards the end of the interview, Ann Curry asked, “Did you know that there were sharks in the water?” The left side of the surfers mouth turned into an impish smirk and he said, “Ya.” “Then why did you go in the water?” asked the astonished Curry. The surfer answered, “The sharks are always there. You can’t let that stop you from going in the water. It’s just part of the deal.”

During the Summer of 2001, I heard an interview of a paraglider who attempted to land on the Statue of Liberty’s torch and then bungee jump 300 feet off of her arm onto the base of her pedestal. The daredevil’s chute got tangled up in Lady Liberty’s torch. He was suspended upside down until police came to rescue and arrest him. On another Today Show interview, the man’s lawyer declared that he did it for the sake of art and free political expression. And despite the risk to police, tourists, and himself, The paraglider declared he would do it again.

The surfer and the paraglider, in their wildcat ways, expose a deep spiritual truth about sin and human nature. It seems that we humans always take colossal risks to seek pleasure. We will do it at the risk of getting bitten by or tangled up in the very thing that draws us with false promises of good results: cheating, gambling, hard drinking, lying, gossiping, sexual gratification, pride. You know the list. Each one of us is familiar with which entices us with counterfeit promises of fulfillment and satisfaction. Many people will risk their reputations, their integrity, public exposure and shame to seek a moment of pleasure.

A man named Drew Anderson reported the following story in Reader’s Digest. He wrote: While my wife and I were shopping at a mall kiosk, a shapely young woman in a short, form-fitting dress strolled by. My eyes followed her. Without looking up from the item she was examining, my wife asked, “Was it worth the trouble you’re in?”

I can testify to the brainlessness of yielding to temptation from my own childhood. There were things I just wasn’t allowed to do as a teenager. My father didn’t want me to ride in the back of pickup trucks. For some reason he didn’t want me cliff diving at the local gorge. He didn’t want me to hang out with the older teenage boys at the local pizza place in the center of town. Of course, he caught me doing each of these activities more than once. I still don’t know how he found me in those pick-up trucks. Each time I was caught, it was not a pleasant experience. One would think I would have learned my lesson, but no! I kept on doing the forbidden activities and kept myself getting in trouble

We have all have been tangled up in and bitten by the consequences of our sin, and like the surfer or the paraglider, we don’t seem to learn our lesson. We undertake the risk, we suffer a moment of pain, we promise to change our ways, and then slowly return to the same old habits that injured us in the first place. And, if you’re like me, all the willpower in the world won’t keep you from avoiding sin. We tend to give all the credit (or blame) to willpower. But, is willpower really the make-or-break factor in your success? Surprisingly, no! Don’t expect that willpower will get you to be the person you want to be. I think it’s just unrealistic to expect to “will” yourself away from sin. Sure, your sheer will may help some of the time, but let me offer us some help for more challenging situations. When enticed by sin, try changing your environment. The great preacher Charles Spurgeon once said this:

“What settings are you in when you fall? Avoid them. What props do you have that support your sin? Eliminate them. What people are you usually with? Avoid them. There are two equally damning lies: 1) Just once won’t hurt. 2) Now that you have ruined your life, you are beyond God’s use, and might as well enjoy sinning.”

Let’s think about a tool that can change our environment in the face of temptation. What I’m going to suggest is a resource we can use when we are near perilous settings, or harmful people. It is called a “rule.”

Rules sometimes get a negative spin. Some people resist the idea of an authority telling us how to behave. But, the dictionary simply defines a rule as a principle or regulation governing conduct. Published rule books governed the behavior of monks in early Christian communities. The most famous is the Rule of St. Benedict, founder of the Benedictines. Benedict wrote his rule in the late 400’s to give directions for the ordering of his community. He wanted to lay down nothing harsh or burdensome, but an ordered way for Christians to learn how to serve the Lord. In a chapter called, “The Tools for Good Works,” Benedict gives his expectations of a Christian’s behavior, based on his understanding of Scripture. He writes:

First of all, love the Lord with your whole heart, your whole soul, and all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Then the following: you shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal nor covet; you are not to bear false witness. You must honor everyone and never do to another what you do not want done to yourself. Renounce yourself in order to follow Christ; discipline your body; do not pamper yourself, but love fasting. You must relieve the lot of the poor, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and bury the dead, go help the troubled and console the sorrowing. Your way of acting should be different from the world’s way; the love of Christ must come before all else. You are not to act in anger or nurse a grudge. Rid your heart of all deceit. Never give a hollow greeting of peace or turn away when someone needs your love. Bind yourself to no oath lest it prove false, but speak the truth with heart and tongue. Do not repay one bad turn for another. Do not injure anyone, but bear injuries patiently. Love your enemies. If people curse you, do not curse them back but bless them instead. Endure persecution for the sake of justice . . . Refrain from too much eating, or sleeping, and from laziness. Do not grumble or speak ill of others. Place your hope in God alone. If you notice something good in yourself, give credit to God, not to yourself, but be certain that the evil you commit is always your own and yours to acknowledge . . . Listen readily to holy reading, and devote yourselves often to prayer. Every day with tears and sighs confess your past sins to God in prayer and change from these evil ways in the future. Do not gratify the promptings of the flesh; hate the urgings of self-will . . .Live by God’s commandments every day; treasure chastity, harbor neither hatred nor jealousy of anyone, and do nothing out of envy. Do not love quarreling; shun arrogance. Respect the elders and love the young . . . and finally, never lose hope in God’s mercy.

I wonder what it would look like if each of us came up with a rule for our own conduct as Christians. What if each of us individually took responsibility for our actions in a positive way by intentionally living out what we believe? What would your rule look like? Where would you start?

I suggest getting out a Bible, and writing down, to the best of your knowledge, what you think God’s expectations of you are. Don’t do it for anyone else — just for you. Don’t just think it through, but write it down and make your thoughts concrete. Then, when faced with places or people that might ask you to compromise your standards, you will know exactly what your standards are.

Paul often closes his letters with encouragements and appeals to holy living. We find them in the books of Galatians, Colossians, and in today’s reading from 1 Thessalonians. If you were to take today’s Scripture passage and make it into a simple rule for Christian living, Paul’s advice would sound something like this:

Live to please God. Control your bodies and you will live in holiness. Don’t cheat your brothers and sisters in any way but love one another more and more. Live a quiet life, not sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong but working hard. That way you will I’ve as an example to those who don’t know Christ. Listen to respectable leaders, and live peaceable with all people. Encourage the timid, care tenderly for the weak, and be patient with everyone. Don’t take revenge, but do good to all. Be filled with joy, pray always, and be thankful. Don’t stifle what the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life. Hold onto good, and avoid all evil. In short, change your environment, and you will resist temptation. Paul also reminds us that those who choose not to follow rules like these are rejecting God’s law, not human law.

Paul tells us that the point of all this us to pursue holiness.Someone asked me recently what the point of life is. The text book answer is that our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy God forever. But the Bible is also clear: without holiness, no one will see God. The goal is not to be able to check off points on your rule like a to-do list. The goal is to adjust out lives so that we are growing to be more consistently like Jesus Christ. If we can do this, we may find more gratification in knowing God and basking in his presence, than we do in pursuing our own self-gratification through sin.

And let me be clear: adhering to a list of do’s and don’ts is not going to make you holy. We can never make ourselves pleasing to God only by outward displays of piety. Jesus showed us a different example. He taught that in all our thoughts, all of our actions, in every part of our character, the rule that guides us should be the desire to follow him by doing the will of God.

This is not the only way to monitor and guide your conduct, but if you have a desire to grow in the Lord and haven’t tried anything else, why not give this a try? If you are interested and would like some more guidance, come talk to me about it sometime. No matter what you do, do something. May you grow to be like Jesus in every way, and find hope and fulfillment in following God.

Nota bene

The Blog is on vacation for the rest of August. Read old sermons and check back in September for the latest.
--Matt

Sermon for August 2, 2009

The Secret Plan
Ephesians 2:1-22
(based on a sermon at Kir Shalom: http://www.rockies.net/~spirit/sermons/b-or16su.php)


A READING FROM EPHESIANS 2:11-22
Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. 4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. 8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

11 Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. 12 In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. 13 But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. 14 For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. 15 He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. 16 Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.

17 He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. 18 Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us. 19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. 20 Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22 Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.


It happened that in a particular village there was a man who was well known for his compassion for others. He was not a particularly wealthy man, nor was he a native of the village, nor did he attend the village church. In fact he was not even baptized, and he showed little interest in changing that situation. But if a stranger came to the village and needed a place to stay, this man would offer a cot in his little home. If a village family ran out of food, he was among the first to offer a loaf of bread or some flour from his meager supplies. When the Germans or the Russians swept the village to collect young men for imprisonment or forced military enlistment, he would help hide the men in the woods outside town. The villagers loved him very much.

The man eventually died from some cause or other. The villagers prepared his body for burial and proceeded to the village church where they asked the Priest to perform the burial service in the church cemetery. The priest, who knew and loved the man as much as the rest of the villagers, agreed that he would conduct the funeral service. However, he insisted that he could not bury the man inside the church cemetery because he was not baptized. “I cannot bury him in our cemetery”, the priest said, “It is hallowed ground. He must go where the un-baptized are buried. Those are the rules of the church and I cannot change them.”

The villagers appealed earnestly to the priest, saying that the man was a good person and surely loved by God as much as any of the baptized, perhaps even more on account of all the good that he had done. The priest agreed with them regarding the virtues of the man, but insisted that the rules of the faith were clear and could be not be broken. But he did make one compromise. The priest said, “In recognition of your love for him, and his love for you and all of God’s people in this village, I will bury him on church land, near to those who have gone before. But it will have to be beyond the fence that surrounds the consecrated ground of our cemetery.”

And so it was. On the appointed day a grave was prepared just outside the fence that surrounded the church cemetery. The villagers brought the man’s body his final resting place. That night, something very beautiful happened — something that became apparent when the priest went to the church next morning to conduct morning mass. The fence that surrounded the cemetery had been moved by some of the villagers. It now surrounded the grave in which the man had been buried.

For me, this story captures something of what the good news is all about. As the villagers expanded the fence which enclosed hallowed ground to include the grave of the man whom they loved, so God, through Christ, expands the boundaries of the sacred to include both those whom the rules of our religion might exclude, and those that the ways of this world
might exclude.

Consider our every day language. How often we call others “those people”, or use the term “they” and “their kind in our conversations. We say, “Those people come over to our country and expect . . .” or, “They just don’t appreciate hard work,” or, “Their kind always have their hand out,” and so forth. “They” most often are the strangers in our midst, people from another country, with accents, a different shade of skin, different foods and religious customs, and different ways of being family. Whoever “they” are, they are different than us.

But perhaps “They” are not from another country. Perhaps “They” live right next door to us. Perhaps “They” have visited our church. Perhaps they are gay. Or on welfare. Perhaps they are conservatives, or liberals; Catholics, or fundamentalists. Maybe they are environmentalists or loggers. Perhaps they are body piercers or people who think casual is loosening one’s tie when the weather is hot.

No matter. “They” are not us. We build different kids of emotional, spiritual, and moral barriers to keep them away, or at least to keep them in their place. We are all in need of the reconciliation spoken of in today’s reading. We are all in need of a fresh look at just who we are in the eyes of God, and where we fit in the family of God.

Let’s try to get into the culture of Paul’s audience. Ephesus was a seaport trade city with a population of about 300,000. It was a center of Greco-Roman culture that hosted the Temple of Artemis -- one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. All to say, the people in this city were thoroughly Gentile. They worshiped Greek gods and adhered to Greek culture. Early Christians like Paul came to Ephesus as missionaries and established churches. And because of their ministry, some Ephesian citizens turned from their gods and their culture and put their faith in the resurrected Jesus Christ. This caused some problems. Some Jewish Christians demanded that Gentile converts must follow a certain set of rules in order to achieve favor with God. They required Gentile Christians to follow the entire Jewish law. Eat certain foods. Wear certain clothes. Be circumcised. Then you will be a true Christian. Today we call this kind of thinking legalism. Don’t swear, don’t dance, don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t lie and cheat, don’t wear immodest clothing, don’t drink coffee, don’t pierce body parts, then you will be a real Christian. Sounds silly, doesn’t it? Paul always had a problem with this kind of thinking. Even though he was a Jew, Paul realized that Jesus met people where they were, in the life-situations they were in. He knew that God’s showered love upon all people through Christ. It didn’t depend on who their parents were, what they looked like, how they dressed, what they ate, or where they were born.

We still struggle with the false belief that we must meet certain standards in order to please God and feel good about ourselves. Consider these laws that people hold themselves to:

• Some people are caught under the law of church attendance. They say to themselves, “If I attend every worship service, and work diligently in the church, then God will be pleased with me. Those who do not go to church as faithfully are outsiders.”
• Some are caught in the law of morality: “If I can just behave well enough I will be acceptable to God. Those who don’t behave according to my moral standards must be changed in order to be among us.”
• Some people are captive to the law of perfectionism: “If only I can keep my house spotless, my family looking good, and my social life in order – if only I can keep tight charge over every area of my life, then God will smile upon me and I will be happy.”

In each of these situations, we try to earn find our place in God’s world be trying to attain a ridiculously high standard. We think that our happiness, freedom, and salvation depend solely upon what we can do to make our lives better. Consider the following essay, written by a student applying for admission to NYU in response to the question, “Are there any personal accomplishments or significant experiences you have had that helped define you as a person.” The student wrote:

I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees. I write award-winning operas. I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row. I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing. I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook 30-minute brownies in 20 minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru. Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single -handedly defended a small village in the Amazon basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play a bluegrass cello. I was scouted by the Mets. I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I’m bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge. I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics world-wide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don’t perspire. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening, I have performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. When on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me. I balance, I weave, I dodge, and my bills are all paid. I participate in full contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life, but forgot to write it down. I have performed open heart surgery and I have met with Elvis, But I have not yet gone to college.

This young man went to great lengths to convince the admissions department at NYU that he was good enough for their school. This is not the Gospel we proclaim. Race, sex, culture, biblical knowledge, conservatism or liberalism, and heritage have no part in our salvation. All are chosen by God and all are loved by God.

This is God’s secret plan. We are saved by grace through faith, not by works. No more basing our worth on what we do and don’t do. No more divisions in the church based on who people are or where they come from. God has made us one by offering salvation to each and every person. For the Christian, this happens when we put our faith in Christ, and accept the free gift of God’s love. We need to look again at those we call “strangers”. We need to see them not as different from us, but as essentially the same. Paul invites us to look at ourselves and others in a different light, a light created by God.

Think of the racial, economic and social barriers that mark the terrain of our daily lives and determine with whom we see, touch and share our lives. These walls direct our footsteps, where we go and whose terrain we avoid. Think of the gender barriers between us, how we think and talk about each other; how we relate to one another at work and at home. Think of the way we classify each other at church — the liberals and conservatives, the “old timers” who built the church and the newcomers — and let go of these things.

Instead of ignoring, dismissing, or labeling people because they are different, we need to offer a space of welcome in which “They” can be themselves. Hospitality means people don’t have to conform to our ways, but that they can be themselves in our presence. It doesn’t try to change people but enables them freedom and space to change at their own pace in their own way as God leads them.

Paul says something amazing in the passage from Ephesians. We are God’s masterpiece. Do you understand that? Imagine God painting a picture. God concentrates on the canvas, adding outlines, then colors, shadows and flourishes. Finally God steps back and gazes upon a phenomenal work of art. To look at its beauty would take your breathe away. And it’s a picture of you. You are God’s work of art. God loves you. God wants you. You are God’s masterpiece, and God won’t stop cherishing you.

Now imagine taking a step back. Your picture hangs on a wall in God’s art gallery. There are more pictures next to yours. Each is an original. Each is a carefully created masterpiece. God has about 6.5 billion of these masterpieces hanging in creation’s art gallery. Have you come to a place in your life where you know you are deeply loved, fully pleasing, totally forgiven, accepted, and complete in Christ? Have you come to a place where you realize that God shares that same grace with others? No matter who we are, no matter where we are on life’s journey, we are God’s masterpieces, and we are welcome here.