“Are you the one we’ve been expecting or are we still waiting?”  What an incredibly odd question for John to pose to Jesus.  John must have heard the story of how he leapt in Elizabeth’s womb when Mary, pregnant with Jesus, entered the room.  In fact, I am sure he must have heard it hundreds of times.  It is the kind of story that is retold every time the family gets together.  He must have heard the story right along with how his father was mute the entire time Elizabeth was pregnant with him.  John confirms his knowledge of who Jesus is when they encounter each other at the river and John states Jesus is the one he has been telling the people about and that they should follow him.  So why would John as Jesus if he is the one?

Maybe the answer has to do with John’s circumstances and what he expected from the Messiah.  The Messiah, we are told and certainly John had heard, would also bring release for those in prison.  Considering John’s situation, being held in Harrod’s prison, it is reasonable to think he might have been wondering if Jesus was going to bring him release.  John’s question to Jesus might have been meant as a reminder to him that his faithful cousin was in a tight spot.  Interestingly, Jesus responds with a quote from Isaiah but not from the section about the One that would come to bring release to the captives.  Jesus said he was doing what he had been sent to do and what he was sent to do didn’t include getting John out of prison.  In fact, he said John had completed his mission to introduce the Messiah to the world and the world to the Messiah.  The response of Jesus probably was not what John was hoping for when he inquired.  It is easy enough for us to criticize John or Thomas who expressed doubt about what Jesus was doing and who he was since we have heard the whole story and have had centuries to figure out what Jesus came to do.

Even with our advantage of more knowledge and more experience, too often we respond to God coming into the world like John the Baptist did.  We are quick to ask if God is really here when life events don’t go as we believe they should.  We ask where is God when a natural disaster strikes; we ask where is God when a loved one gets sick, or when we get sick, we ask where is God when people commit horrible acts of violence on other people, we ask why do bad things happen to good people.  This question was posed this last week on Facebook and my response was we should look at the life of Jesus.  Was there ever a person as good as Jesus?  And still, his life was not easy.  He was rejected by his own people, he lived without a home, he was criticized by the religious leaders, he was arrested, verbally and physically abused, spat upon, and crucified.  Why should we expect our lives to be without trouble when we say we are walking in his footsteps?  If we are trying to be good so we won’t have difficulties in our lives then we have missed the point of God becoming flesh in Jesus.  Jesus is the only human to live a perfect good life and he had difficulties.  If we are looking for the Messiah who will take away all our troubles and punish all or our enemies, we too will look at Jesus and ask, “Are you the One we have been expecting, or are we waiting for another.”  When we examine the life and teachings of Jesus we learn we are to live a life of kindness, justice, peace, and service because that is what our God who created us expects of us.  We live a Christ like life because doing so will make this world to be more like heaven.  It is up to each one of us to live as we want others around us to live.  Or, as Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

As people who claim the name Christian, we must also be ready to answer when asked if we are the one expected or should people wait for another?  Are you the one expected to care for the stranger?  Are you the one expected to speak up for the voiceless?  Are you the one expected to offer love to the unlovable?  Are you the one expected to provide leadership to the church?  Are you the one expected to bring music to the church?  Are you the one expected to speak prophetic words to the world?  Are you the one we have been expecting or should we expect another?  No one of us is called to be all of these things, sometimes, when asked, the correct answer is no, I am not the one you have been expecting and you must wait for another.  And we must be willing to respond I am living out what God has called for me to do.  We must discern what we have been called to be or do and then be or do that and allow others to be or do what God has called them to be or do.  Too often we spend too much time figuring out what others should be or do and not enough time figuring out our own stuff.  Honestly, how often do you listen to a sermon in hopes of being challenged about the way you are living out your faith and how often do you listen to a sermon hoping pastor will tell the people around you to shape up?  We must learn to be more critical about what I need to hear to live into God’s plan for me and less critical about how well others are living their lives.

You as a congregation will also be looking for the one God has called to come and serve you.  Before you can reasonably ask if someone is the one you have been expecting, you must determine what you are expecting.  You must come together and decide what this church has been called to do in ministry to this community.  Like the farmer, you must do the work of planting and cultivating so that you can produce a good crop and then you patiently wait.  You must also decide what this congregation is needing to do the ministry you are called to do.  If you have not done the hard work of discerning your callyou’re your needs then you will not know when the person God has sent to guide you has arrived.  You may find yourself looking at the one God has sent and not recognizing this is the one or you may think this is the one and when you should be waiting for another.  Amen.

Hear again what Paul wrote to the church at Rome as paraphrased in the Message Bible: "May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we'll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Parent of our Master Jesus! ^7-13So reach out and welcome one another to God's glory. Jesus did it; now you do it! Jesus, staying true to God's purposes, reached out in a special way to the Jewish insiders so that the old ancestral promises would come true for them. As a result, the non-Jewish outsiders have been able to experience mercy and to show appreciation to God."  In his paraphrase, Eugene Peterson has emphasized the focus of Paul’s letter was to bring the insiders and outsiders together to show appreciation to God.  Paul, in the letter quotes a passage from Deuteronomy 32 verse 43 which Peterson paraphrases as "Outsiders and insiders, rejoice together!"  The New International Version translates the passage to read as follows, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with God’s people."  Peterson has replaced Gentiles and God’s people with the words outsiders and insiders.  If we go to the original verse that Paul quoted it reads in the New International version this way, "Rejoice, you nations, with God’s people."  Paul appears to have done some paraphrasing by using Gentiles instead of the word nations in the original text.  I think this is more than just a matter of semantics.  I think it reveals the changing way who is in and who is out has been defined.

Deuteronomy is written to an ancient people trying to find their place in the political world.  They were struggling to assert themselves in a region of competing tribes or nations.  For them, God was a national god, defending them against other nations and their gods.  Outsiders were anyone who was not a part of your tribe.  By the time of Paul’s letter to the church at Rome, the challenge for believers was protecting their faith tradition against those who believed otherwise.  The Jews were the insiders and those who worshipped differently were the outsiders.  Peterson has captured the global sense that the challenge for us is to see how our connection with God should lead us to get beyond our petty differences and rejoice together in what God is doing in and through us.  Insiders and outsiders are defined in many different ways in today’s world.  Nationality continues to define others as in or out.  The events of September 11, 2001 caused many in the United States to define insiders and outsiders based on how they responded to the attack.  On September 20^th President Bush issued this challenge to the nations of the world, “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”  This same event caused many people to define outsiders as Muslims and insiders as Christians.  The economic crisis in the world has also caused some of us to define insiders and outsiders based on who has adequate income and assets and those who do not.  People are looking for others to blame.  Some blame others because they are struggling or others want to blame those without for their own situation.  It seems very important to us that we can define some as being outsiders and ourselves as insiders.

The value in defining who are insiders and who are outsiders to us is a feeling of safety, a feeling of being with our own.  We find comfort in being together with others who think as we do, who behave as we do, and who believe as we do.  There are reasons why we have different denominations, different colleges, different restaurants, different kinds of music, and the list goes on and on.  We like different things, we enjoy different experiences, we think differently, and we love differently and we seek to find others who enjoy what we enjoy.  The point of God’s coming into the world was not to get rid of the differences, thank you God!  Jesus said his teachings would bring conflict, the disciples had their differences, and certainly the followers of Jesus have had their differences.  The point isn’t that we eliminate the insiders and the outsiders.  The point is we recognize the value of the difference, we recognize we are all creations of the Creator, and we can come together and worship God with all of our differences.  This Advent season as we consider God coming into this world in human form, we should consider what the presence of Jesus meant for the world and for us.  Jesus did not eliminate differences, he did not end conflict, nor did he insist that everyone who followed him be the same.  What he did was bring together, men and women, rich and poor, healthy and sick, Jews, Samaritans, Syrophoenicians, Greeks, and Romans and taught them God loved them without insisting they change.  The Roman centurion did not have to cease being a soldier for Jesus to heal his companion.  The Samaritan woman at the well did not have to give up her ethnic identity to receive living water from Jesus.  Zacchaeus did not have to become poor to follow Jesus. Paul did not lose the thorn in his flesh to be called by Jesus.  The women were not silenced by Jesus or told they were less than in God’s dominion.  Jesus shows us we can come together with all of our differences to worship God.  In fact it is only when we come together in all of our differences that we truly worship God.  Outsiders and insiders, rejoice together!  Amen.

I am not very fond of waiting, I think the express lane in the store should move quickly, traffic on an expressway should move without delay, and waiting rooms should be unnecessary if people keep appointments.  My aversion to having to wait may be a result of my not knowing what to do while I am waiting.  I know of people who always carry a novel or puzzle book, or some game system with them at all times.  They see lines or delays as an opportunity to catch up on their reading or perfect they game strategy.  I don’t do this because I would be annoyed if my reading or my game playing was interrupted by the line moving or the person I am waiting to see showing up.  I realize this is not a problem for some people as they sit reading or playing long after the line had moved or the traffic has cleared only adding to the frustration of those stuck behind them.  Having something else to do while you are waiting is not what I mean by “active waiting”. 

Advent is for us as Christians, a time of active waiting.  We are waiting for the birth of the Divine into humankind.  I think waiting for the birth of a child is the best example of what I mean by active waiting.  The person who is carrying the child and their spouse and loved ones do not see the time of gestation as wasted time to be endured.  Instead, it is a time of preparation.  There is excitement with each developmental change, there is concern over everything that seems out of the ordinary.  Preparations are made to provide for the child when he or she arrives.  It is time for each one to think about how this child is going to change their identity or their relationships.  It is time to think about and plan for what it means to be a parent, a grandparent, an aunt or uncle, or a sibling.  Friends consider how an infant is going to change the friendship.  Some people will begin to map out the whole future for the child before he or she takes her first breath of air.  Waiting for a baby to be born should not be idle time.

As Christians, advent should also not be idle time.  I fear that the coming of God into flesh has become routine for some of us.  We think there is nothing new in the Christmas story for us, it comes around every year and it doesn’t really change much.  These feelings make advent like waiting in the checkout line or stuck in traffic or a waiting room.  We may even bring other stuff with us to the advent season to occupy our time until we can get to Christmas and the gifts and partying.  We lose so much when we fail to use advent instead like waiting for the birth of a child.  Infants are born every day.  Some people give birth to many children and yet, the birth of each child is miraculous and worth our attention and planning.  Each child is unique and brings with her or him great potential.  Each Christmas is unique and brings with it great potential to change us and the world.  Each advent we should be involved in active waiting.

During advent we have the opportunity to consider what the coming of God into flesh means to me.  We should ask ourselves these questions, how does it change my life, how does it change my understanding of who I am, and how does my belief in God come in flesh change how I relate to other people?  What does it mean for me to take on the name “Christian”?  And probably most importantly, what does it mean to believe God has become flesh in me?  God incarnate, God in flesh happens not just in a manger in Bethlehem two thousand years ago.  It happens in each of us as we recognize God born in us, living in us, being expressed through us.  Advent is a good time for us, while we wait for the Christmas celebration, to actively work on what God being born in me means to me and to the world.

It is difficult for us today to understand some of the stories of the Bible because we are distant from the way of life the people of the Bible lived.  Very few of us have had much experience raising farm animals and those of us who have aren’t familiar with raising livestock like they did at the time our sacred stories were written.  People who are serious about raising livestock for a living don’t let them wander about the countryside and they certainly don’t wander about with them.  It is my understanding this is particularly true of people who raise sheep.  Sheep are primarily raised for their wool and some for their meat and milk, but mostly for the wool.  Sheep produce wool in any environment so it is not necessary to give sheep a great deal of freedom to get the product desired so most commercially raised sheep are kept in confined space eliminating the need for shepherd and sheep dogs and vast pasture land.  This was not true in the time of ancient Israel or even in the time of Jesus.  Sheep were the most prized possession of families as they provided them with food and clothing and a source of income.  A good shepherd was highly prized by a family.  If you remember of the story of Samuel anointing David, you will remember David was not present when Samuel held the sacrifice and reviewed Jesse’s children looking for the next monarch of Israel.  Jesse says David isn’t present because he is tending the sheep.  This has been used to say they thought David of no account, just a shepherd but the truth may be that Jesse didn’t have David present because he knew what an able shepherd David was and did not want to lose this valuable talent.

Sheep are not easy to care for and it might help us to understand some of the characteristics of sheep to better understand what it means when we are referred to as being sheep.  Sheep prefer being in groups and taking their direction and their protection from following the flock, an isolated sheep is terrified and tends not to behave in self-protective ways.  Sheep are not bright animals and then tend to follow whoever appears to be in front.  Sheep spend little to know time on grooming or wound care.  They are totally dependent upon their shepherd or owner to groom them or tend to bites or wounds.  Sheep can be very stubborn, particularly insisting on following the flock.  Sheep have few defenses other than to run and have difficulty getting up if they have been knocked on their backs.  As you can see, being called sheep is not particularly flattering.  While many of these characteristics of sheep may not apply to us, it is true we are totally dependent upon the Shepherd to guide and care for us.

Pastors are often referred to as the shepherd of the congregation.  Intentional Interim Specialists are required to read the book Temporary Shepherds based on the perception of pastors as shepherds of the congregation.  The reading from Jeremiah today contains a warning to the shepherds who mistreat God’s sheep.  It is a valuable warning for those of us who claim a call to be shepherds for God’s sheep.  Shepherds do not lead their sheep into danger, they do not let them graze on poisonous plants or drink at poisonous wells.  Good shepherds do not allow their sheep to wander off into danger, or leave their sheep vulnerable to predators.  Good shepherds will even lay down their lives to protect their sheep.  As I said earlier, David was seen as a good shepherd.  David did not run away in the face of danger and David did not abandon his sheep.  David was an excellent shepherd for the people of Israel.  The people trusted David and would follow him wherever he wanted them to go.  Despite all of David’s skills at being a shepherd, even David failed.  David forgot what was required of a good shepherd and had to be reminded by God of what was right.

There is always a danger when we, the sheep put too much faith in our human shepherds.  The people who are called to be our shepherds are after all human.  They have many of the same characteristics of the sheep they are called to shepherd.  They too can be swayed by the crowd, they too can be stubborn and insist on having their own way even to their own harm, they too can believe their safety comes from standing with the crowd, and they too can fail to do good self-care.  I tend to think of myself more as one of the sheep whose job it is to know the shepherd really well.  I am the sheep that helps the flock to recognize a wolf in shepherd’s clothing.  I am supposed to spend much of my time listening to the shepherd’s voice so I will notice when the voice that is leading us is not that of the shepherd.  I am not the Good Shepherd, I am just a sheep who wants to stay in the flock of the Good Shepherd because I have come to trust that the Good Shepherd knows what is best for the sheep God has given to the Good Shepherd.

Christ is the Good Shepherd, the Christ became a sheep so we could better identify with the Good Shepherd and with God who sent Jesus to us.  When I think of Jesus in this way it makes sense to me that Jesus was both sacrificial lamb and shepherd.  Jesus came to us so we might better understand the Good Shepherd when we are being guided and protected by the Christ.  It was Christ, the Good Shepherd who could while dying on the cross speak words of comfort to the sheep dying next to him.  It was Christ the Good Shepherd who would plead for forgiveness of the sheep who had turned on the shepherd to their own peril.  I urge you, when you are looking for your shepherd, do not be satisfied with following other sheep, no matter how confident they seem, or how well spoken they may be, focus instead on Christ the Good Shepherd.  Amen.

Isaiah the prophet heard God say, “Behold I will create new heavens and a new earth.  The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.”  John the revelator was transported to heaven and “he saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…”  My, O my, how wonderful that will be, no more weeping or crying.  Everyone will live to be over one hundred years old and healthy.  Yes, yes, a new heaven and a new earth, bring it on God!

The problem with having a new heaven and a new earth is it is going to require change.  We are all about the concept of a new heaven and a new earth but we are less excited about there being any change required of us.  We are ready for God to do a new work in us as long as it doesn’t require us to give up any of the things we enjoy doing.  We are all about a world without want as long as it doesn’t require us to have any less.  We are all about a world without disease as long as it doesn’t require us to behave any differently or it doesn’t cost us anything.  We will welcome a world without tears or bullying as long as we don’t have to change the way we treat each other or act in loving ways toward people we don’t care for.  Yes, God, bring on a new heaven and a new earth and make sure I don’t have to be any different in it than I am.  God you change everyone else so the new earth will be more to my liking.

The scripture text from Paul’s second letter to the church at Thessalonica has been used as a source to eliminate social welfare programs.  I rather see the text as setting guidelines for how we do social welfare.  Social welfare should never deprive anyone of the dignity of work.  Everyone should have the opportunity to contribute to society.  When there is work for everyone who can work and when that work produces a livable wage then we need only to care for those unable to work and care for themselves.  Clear in the statement of Paul is that we should all work, even those whose life circumstances makes work unnecessary.  None of us are on this earth to be idle.  We all have gifts and talents that are given to us so we can improve the world around us.  We must work to bring about the change God intends for us.  A few weeks ago we sang a beautiful African-American spiritual, “Guide My Feet”.  It is important to remember God can guide our feet only if we are willing to have our feet move.  If you expect life to get better, if you expect to be used by God, you have to be willing to put effort into it.  You have to be willing to work if you expect anything good to happen through you.

I don’t know how many of you are old enough to have read Pogo, Pogo’s famous line is this, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”  We are far too often our own worst enemy.  We put obstacles in our own way that keep us from doing and becoming all that we could be.  We let fear of change keep us from trying something different.  We let fear of failure keep us from doing what we know needs to be done.  We let the voices of others convince us we can’t or shouldn’t do what we sense God has called us to do.  We let the opinions of others stop us from being what we have been created to be.  We have met the enemy and it is us.  You alone can do the work that needs to be done for you to become the person you want to be and the person God has called you to be.  No one can do the work for you.

I am concerned that some of you may have been deceived about what I was going to do for this congregation if the board accepted my being assigned here.  I bring with me no magic wand, no magical powers, and I did not come with a miracle tonic that would make you a healthy church.  I did come with a great deal of knowledge about organizations, and about dysfunctional behaviors.  I did come with a great passion to see this congregation heal and grow.  I came ready to work with you to identify your strengths and your weaknesses and to work together with you to create a vision of who you want to be.  I am prepared to work with you to create a plan to move you from where you are to where you want to be.  I did not come here to do the work for you.  For this process to work everybody has to work, no one gets to sit on the bleachers to wait to see how the game turns out.

The majority of people have one of four attitudes about heaven.  One group does not believe in heaven, a second group believes in heaven but isn’t very interested in what heaven will be like, the third group believes in heaven and spends a great deal of time thinking about what heaven will be like, and the fourth group believes there probably is a heaven and wonders what it might be like but doesn’t dwell on it.  Christians accept the reality of heaven because Jesus was very clear about there being a heaven.  Not all faith communities have a belief in heaven, at least not a place where we go after we die.  In the time of Jesus, the Sadducees were a Jewish sect that did not believe in life after death.  We read the Hebrew Testament from the perspective of what we know in the Christian Testament.  Without the teachings of Jesus to clarify the Hebrew stories, there is very little in the Jewish tradition that speaks of a place where souls go after the death of their earthly shell.  The Sadducees believed in God and the sacred writings, they just didn’t believe in life after death.  It is more common for those today who don’t believe in life after death to also deny the existence of God.  Some faith traditions that believe in reincarnation rather than a place where the soul goes to spend eternity with God and some traditions like Buddhism believe in reincarnation without believing in God.  What most faith traditions have in common is that what is experienced after death is directly related to how we lived during our mortal lifetime, after death is seen as a time of rewards or punishments.

I am curious about what heaven will be like and I do spend time occasionally thinking about how we will know and be known by others in heaven.  I wonder what I will do for an eternity and not get bored.  However, I mostly think the time spent thinking about heaven is not a very good use of my time.  I won’t know for sure what heaven is like until I get there and I will have an eternity to work it out once I am there.  Jesus even says, we will have other things to think about in heaven than the things that concern us here on earth.  I do not believe Jesus intends us to interpret this to mean we should not be concerned about these things while we are here on earth.  To the contrary, I understand Jesus to be teaching us to be about the work of living in this world, to be about bringing heaven on earth.  I think Jesus would agree with the statement that being too heavenly minded is to be no earthly good.  Jesus taught very little about the life that follows this mortal life other than to say we should be preparing in this life to enter the life eternal.

I think it is often easier for us to believe we do not need to work for justice, peace, compassion in this world because all will be made right in the next world.  Some even go so far as to suggest those who suffer in this life will have a greater reward in the next life so we do them a favor by allowing their suffering.  I do not believe this is what God wants and I do not believe this is what Jesus taught.  God spoke through Haggai and told the Jewish people to get to work and restore the Temple.  We no longer worship God in the Temple.  For us, as Christians, Jesus became the Temple of God.   Jesus said the Temple would be torn down and rebuilt in three days.  We believe he was referring to his death and resurrection three days later.  We, as Christians, are called by God to restore the Temple, the life of Jesus on earth.  We are to work so that God’s will is followed on earth as it is in heaven.  We are not to wait for our death to serve God, we are not to wait for the second coming of Jesus to be Christ like on this earth.  We are challenged to be the coming of Christ to a world that desperately needs to hear of God’s love, know God’s justice, and to receive God’s peace.

We must be about the work of God through our lives and the life of this congregation in this world and in this time.  Coming to church just so we can feel secure about how we will spend our eternity and not to find the ways that we can bring the dominion of God into our lives and into this world is to disappoint God and to be so heavenly minded as to be no earthly good.  Coming here, being in worship should make a difference in how we live the other 6 days of the week.  Coming here should be to equip us to go into this world and make a difference rather than a time of anticipating when we go home to be with Jesus.  It is my opinion, if we don’t spend all of our time with Jesus in this world, we aren’t going to be all that comfortable spending eternity with him after we die.  Amen.

I have been really lost a couple of times in my life.  I am not talking about finding my way around Dayton lost.  I am talking about being in the middle of nowhere with no idea how to find my destination and no clue as to how to get back to where I started.  These were for me truly terrifying experiences.  The common thread to these experiences was that I had started into strange territory, once was a woods and another was the sand dunes on Lake Michigan, and paid no attention to where I was going until I realized I was not reaching my destination and I could not see either my trail back or my way to the destination.  My father was very adept at finding his way around any place he went.  One of the first clues I had to his declining health happened when I offered to drive him to his credit union and he got disoriented and could not give me directions to it.  He had an incredible sense of compass direction without looking at a compass, he had a very accurate internal compass.  His son, that would be me, does not have such a well developed internal compass.  Dad taught us to use our compass when we headed into a strange woods because the compass would do us little good once we were lost.  I thought about being lost when I read the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus. 

Zacchaeus was challenged because he was too short to be able to see Jesus, his view was blocked by the other people between him and Jesus.  Zacchaeus had to climb a tree to be able to see Jesus.  Jesus said he had come to find and restore the lost.  Many of us are in the same position as Zacchaeus, we can’t see Jesus because other people are blocking our view.  What is blocking our view may be our friends who tell us we don’t want to see Jesus because it is going to spoil all of our fun.  We won’t be able to do the things we enjoy doing because Jesus is going to tell us we shouldn’t have a good time.  Our view may be blocked by teachers who tell us it isn’t intelligent to believe in God and certainly not in the Jesus myth.  Some people who block our view our the religious leaders who tell us we are not worthy to look on Jesus and we have to change if we ever hope to see and follow Jesus.  It is like when you forget to look at your compass before you enter into unknown territory.  If we don’t know Jesus we can be fooled by looking at people who aren’t Jesus.  Not everyone who claims to be Christian is pointing us toward Jesus.  We need to get to know Jesus ourselves so we can determine who is guiding us toward Jesus and who is even more lost than we are.

I have been told by some that they question whether they want to be Christian based on what others in the church have done or said.  If we let the behavior of others define for us what it means to be Christian than we are going to be lost.  If you are lost and you come across footprints, following the footprints will only help you if you believe the other person isn’t also lost.  We must, like Zacchaeus, find a way to see Jesus for ourselves.  Jesus is the one who has come to find and restore the lost.  It is only when we seek to follow the way Jesus has shown us that we can reach our destination.  The world will tell us all sorts of things that we must do or believe if we are to find our way to heaven.  They will also tell us a lot of different things about where heaven is and what it is like.  The truth is none of them have ever been to heaven and none of them know what heaven is going to be like.  I believe there is no short cut to heaven and no one has the only right path to get us there.  I think what Jesus was saying to the crowd was that he is all about finding those who feel lost, are lost, and showing them the way back to the path not just taking them to their destination.  We still have to live the life, we still have to walk the path and the way we keep from getting lost is for us to follow the guiding of Jesus.  I mentioned that Dad taught me to look at my compass when I entered unknown territory and keep looking at it so I keep going in the right direction and, if necessary, I can find my way back because I know what way I traveled into the territory.  Dad, however, rarely looked at a compass.  He had a strong internal compass.  We should have the same goal in our journey with Jesus.  We start out by looking for the examples Jesus gave us about how to live into the journey God has for us.  As we become more and more aware of the truths Jesus taught us, they should become for us, an internal compass.  We need to check scripture, or church teachings, or seek spiritual guidance less frequently.  We are able to sense when we are on the right path and when we have strayed.

I have been asked by some of you to preach more about stopping the gossiping, or about how we are to be nice to each other, or that it isn’t right for people to sexually abuse others, or any number of things.  I cannot believe any of you need me to be tell you that talking about each other when you haven’t shared your thoughts with the one you are talking about, or complaining about someone when you haven’t brought your complaints to the person, or interfering in each other’s relationships, or forcing yourself on someone who isn’t interested is inappropriate behavior.  We are not children, who need a parent to tell us how to behave and to punish us when we behave badly.  Each person needs to take responsibility for their own actions.  Each person needs to speak directly to those they believe have spoken or behaved inappropriately.  I can find no example of Jesus telling the disciples he was disappointed with one of them.  I can find examples of when Jesus has directly confronted a person on their behavior.  I can also find where Jesus said to one disciple that what Jesus thought of another disciple was no concern of the first disciple.  I see where Jesus taught more by example what it means to be just, serving, and loving than by criticism.  Jesus taught openly, honestly, and directly and this is what we must do if we intend to be Christ like.  When we feel lost, the critical thing we must do is to check our compass and see if we are still heading the way Jesus taught us to go.  Amen.

1 Corinthians 13:11  When I was a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became an adult, I put childish ways behind me.

Matthew 18:1-4  At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the geatest in the dominion of heaven?"  He called a little child and had the child stand among them.  And he said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the dominion of heaven.  Therefore, whoever humbles themselves like this child is the greatest in the dominion of heaven."

Are there any children who would be willing to come forward and help me out by answering some questions for me?

I don’t know any of you and I would like to find out some things about you.  My name is Bob, what is your name?

Do you have an adult who takes care of you, makes sure you have food to eat and a place to sleep?  What do you call this adult who takes care of you?

Do you have to remind them that you will need food to eat or a place to sleep?

When you want something from them, are you more likely to get it if you ask politely or if you throw a tantrum, and shout and cry?

When they tell you they love you, do you believe them?

We have God who is our heavenly parent and God wants us to trust when we are told God loves us and trust that God will provide us with what we need.  God invites us to speak to God in prayer.  Will you please pray with me?

God we thank you for the love and care you give to us.  Please forgive us when we forget to come to you and ask you politely for what we need.  Help us to remember to pray for others and to love them as you love them.  We thank you God for all you have given us and for the adults you have sent to take care of us.  Amen.

Thank you for helping me out this morning.

Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to you God for you are our foundation and our hope for the future.  Amen.

Child like, not childish.

I believe it is very important for us to read the sacred texts for their meaning for us, not just read them as they have always been interpreted for us, and not even read them as meaning for us today what they meant for us the last time we read them.  I truly believe the sacred texts are living words and God give us new understanding each time we read them.  I think the texts are in some ways like a letter or an e-mail we receive.  Have you ever received a letter or e-mail from someone and you totally misunderstood the writer’s intent because you missed the vocal inflection or the facial expression necessary to comprehend what the person was trying to communicate?  Have you ever sent written communication to someone that they misunderstood for the same reason?  It is my experience this happens more often when we are corresponding with someone we do not know very well.  When I receive written communication from a close friend, I can hear them speaking the words and I can even see their expression while I read what they wrote.  My point is, this should also be true when we read the Word of God if we have become intimately acquainted with God.  We should be able to read what has been written and hear God’s inflection and see God’s Spirit in the written word.

When I read the words of Jesus, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the dominion of heaven.”  I hear him speaking to us about a child like faith like we heard from the children this morning.  A faith that trusts that God knows what we need and will supply it.  We do not need to keep going to God in prayer and reminding God we need to be fed and we need to feel secure.  We are to have a faith that assures us God knows and God will provide.  Our faith should not be about seeking constant reassurance that we are loved by God.  We should be going to God to ask God to show us what we need to know for the living of this day, for God to provide us with insight in the ways we must behave to achieve the kind of world God desires for us and for all of creation.  God desires from us a child like faith.

I do not hear Jesus saying we are to behave in childish ways to gain what we want.  When we were children we behaved like children but when we mature we put away childish behaviors.  Mature faith means we do not keep tugging at God and demanding to know if God loves us.  We do not throw a tantrum if God does not give us what we want when we want it.  Mature faith tells us God’s love for us is not diminished by God’s love for others and for all of creation.  Mature faith does not start a conversation with God by saying, “it isn’t fair” and insert your own favorite whine to finish the sentence.  God is not moved by our sense of fairness or our sense of need unless we have truly examined what would be fair for all involved and what we really need rather than just what we want.

God wants us to approach God with a child like faith expressed through mature behavior, child like not childish.  Amen.

There are many meanings attributed to the word humble and I think we too often apply the wrong meaning when read of God’s desire for us to be humble.  Humble can mean feeling insignificant, inferior, or of less worth.  It also can mean low in rank, importance, or quality.  God is not seeking for us to feel insignificant, inferior, or worthless.  The very opposite is true, God tells us over and over again how important we are to God and to each other.  God created us so we cannot be inferior, and God says we are important enough that God cares about every part of us, even the number of hairs on our heads.  We must never confuse God honoring humility with thinking poorly of ourselves or allowing others to make us feel like we are inferior.  The humility that God is seeking is the humility that is not arrogant or boastful.  This humility comes from our understanding that all we are and all we do is a gift from God and not of our own making.

God cannot use us if our humble heart tells us to hide our gifts and talents under a basket.  We are given the gift of singing so we can sing God’s praises.  We are given the gift of playing music so we can worship God with our instruments.  We are given the gift of preaching and teaching so we can lead others to know God.  We are given the gift administration so we can be good stewards of what God has given the church.  We are given the gift of healing so others might know God’s power through healing.  We are given the gift of hospitality so we can care for stranger and homeless person.  We are given the gift of charity so we can care for the widows, the orphans, and the aliens in our midst.  Every gift or talent we have been given by God is for us to use to glorify God and accomplish God’s will here on earth.  It is not humble to hide your gifts away and God cannot use such humility.

God cannot use a humble heart that says I am so unworthy that I do not offer to do anything.  God wants us to recognize that we are God’s creation and as such we are not inferior and we do not have to change anything or deny any part of ourselves to be worthy in God’s sight.  It is false humility to fail to offer any service to God and God’s people because we are not worthy.  This church and this community are in need of people who will offer their gifts and talents of leadership, teaching, praising, and serving in many different ways and I believe God has placed people with the talents we need in our community and they must step up and offer the gifts and talents they have so we can succeed as God’s church.

Having a humble heart does not mean we hide our talents or declare our unworthiness to serve, a humble heart means we acknowledge the source and purpose of the gifts and talents we have been given.  Those of us who sing, play, teach, preach, administer, heal, and give must do so not to gain our own fame or to increase our own power.  We are to have a humble heart that says I can do all things through God who strengthens me and all I do I do through what God has given me.  The humble heart that God can use is a heart that does not boast of what it can do and the humble heart does not envy the talents of others.  The humble heart recognizes God has given all of us gifts and talents and none of us are superior or inferior to another.  It is when we freely share the diverse talents that we have been given that the community becomes a powerful source to be reckoned with is this community and this world.

We are entering a time of stewardship.  I encourage each one of you to honestly consider what gifts and talents you have been given by God and how God wants you to use those to achieve the mission of this church.  We should each consider what we can do to assure this church keeps the promise we and those before us have made to God, not in a boastful and way and not in a false humility but with an honest humble heart.  This is what God can use.  Amen.

It seems to me most of us enjoy learning new things while most of us also dislike going to school.  This seems like a contradiction but I think the explanation is quite simple, while we enjoy learning; we dislike being tested on what we have learned.  This explains a great deal for me about my choice to learn about being a child of God.  I enjoy learning, I just don’t like being tested on what I have learned about discipleship.  I have mentioned before my most frequent mantra is, “no more life lessons.”  Life lessons is just another way of saying God is testing us on what we have learned about being child of God.

The sacred texts are for me an unfolding of how we understand God and how that understanding is to mature.  The Hebrew text for today tells us about people first become acquainted with God through hearing and learning God’s law.  The law is an external influence to control our behavior.  God said do this, don’t do that and we obeyed without understanding why.  As we gain greater understanding of God, we begin to understand what God expects of us.  We can reason out what God wants us to do and what God does not want us to do.  Eventually, we are to become so intimately aware of God that we automatically respond as God would have us to respond.  This way of growing in our understanding of how to be a child of God is very much the way we are socialized by our parent figures.  As small children, we are told what to do and what not to do by the parent figures in our life.  It does no good to speak to a toddler about the dangers of sharp objects, or the consequences of ingesting things found on the floor, or running out into traffic so parents just tell them no.  As the child matures, the parent begins to explain consequences and expects the child to begin to make decisions based upon reason.  Fully mature children have an internal guidance system that allows them to process information and make decisions on how they will behave.  As mature Christians, we should have a fully developed guidance system based upon how God expects us to behave.

The problem, as I mentioned earlier, is we are willing to learn about God’s way and God’s expectations for us, we just don’t want to be tested on our understanding of God expects from us.  We are fine with doing justice in theory but not so excited about having to confront in our own lives when our behavior condones or even benefits from injustice.  We accept God’s amazing grace as a concept but not so enthusiastic when we are asked to show grace to others who we feel have wronged us.  Unconditional love is one of our favorite God qualities but we don’t find it easy to give unconditional love to others.  We like to learn about God qualities in terms of how those qualities benefit us but we aren’t as pleased to learn God expects us, as God’s children to exhibit those same qualities.

I have found that learning is much easier for me when I can see how the information I am being taught is going to be useful for me in my life.  When we encounter a God lesson, it is important for us to consider how this will make my life or me a better person.  Very often God lessons teach us something contrary to what the world teaches us.  Living justice, grace, and love isn’t seen as the wise way to live.  Getting what we are due and more is considered wiser than seeking that all are treated equitably.  Hanging on to our grudge against someone who we believe has wronged us is considered wiser than being willing to forgive.  And, expecting our love to earn us certain behaviors from the one we love is seen as wiser than loving without condition.  The God lessons about justice, grace, and love will move from theory to practice only if we accept that it is better for us and for the world when we live as just, grace filled, and loving people.

The best way to learn God lessons and to move those lessons from theory to practice is to establish a prayer life that opens us to hear God and to allow our prayer to change how we see ourselves and our world.  The gospel passage for today has been a difficult one for many to understand.  At first read, it appears to equate God with an unjust judge who must be badgered in order to get what we are petitioning God to do for us.  Some have tried to move the focus from God as the judge to God as the widow but I believe that wrenches what the parable says.  I read the story as an example of how our prayers should persist until we achieve what we are petitioning for.  Prayer, as I understand prayer, is not about changing God, it is about understanding what we are asking for and how God is molding us to achieve what we need.  Prayer is a place where we learn God lessons.  We learn to discern the consequences of our prayer, we learn our role in bringing about what we request, and we learn to listen for God’s answer.  I think the story of the widow and the judge is meant to teach us that the widow learned what she needed to do to receive justice from the judge.  We must also pray persistently so we can learn how to achieve justice, how to give grace, and how to love unconditionally.  We pray persistently so we can learn God’s lessons for us.  We pray consistently so we can succeed when our knowledge of what it means to be child of God is tested.  Amen.

Jeremiah 31:27-34

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

Luke 18:1-8