Being Christian: Jesus Calls, We Follow - “Love Is Certain”

• John 3:1-17 - read this passage online here »

When I pick the individual titles for a message series, I usually do so several weeks in advance. The overall theme for our journey through Lent and into Easter this year is “Being Christian: Jesus Calls, We Follow.” But when I looked again at this week’s title of “Love Is Certain,” I wondered if I should change it. The vicious way some leaders in some nations have recently treated their citizens, their people might wonder about the certainty of love – and so might we. The way Planet Earth has treated various areas of the world recently, such as Japan and that country’s inhabitants, they might also wonder about the certainty of love or even if they are loved – and so might we. But I decided to keep the title because I believe it is a true statement. Despite the worst evil that human beings may experience at the hands of other human beings, despite the most calamitous conditions we may experience in nature and despite the most difficult personal circumstances we may experience here and now, I still believe that love is certain.

If you have been following the disastrous situation in Japan, there are more than a few glimpses of love to be seen. There is the story of the “Fukushima 50” who are risking their lives to prevent a severe meltdown of the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. While there are more than 50 personnel involved, they all know the possible deadly dangers to which their lives are exposed with the massively high radiation levels in the plant. And there are stories such as the following that I received this week in an email from a Japanese friend. The story’s author is a non-Japanese teacher of English as a second language in Sendai, which was hit the hardest by the earthquake and the resulting tsunami. Here is part of what she wrote:

“Things here in Sendai have been rather surreal. But I am very blessed to have wonderful friends who are helping me a lot. Since my shack is even more worthy of that name, I am now staying at a friend's home. We share supplies like water, food and a kerosene heater. We sleep lined up in one room, eat by candlelight, share stories. It is warm, friendly, and beautiful.

“During the day we help each other clean up the mess in our homes.... If someone has water running in their home, they put out a sign so people can come to fill up their jugs and buckets.

“It's utterly amazingly that where I am there has been no looting, no pushing in lines. People leave their front door open, as it is safer when an earthquake strikes....

[There are] other unexpected touches of beauty [such as] the silence at night. No cars. No one out on the streets. And the heavens at night are scattered with stars. I usually can see about two, but now the whole sky is filled. The mountains around Sendai are solid and with the crisp air we can see them silhouetted against the sky magnificently.

And the Japanese themselves are so wonderful. I come back to my shack to check on it each day, now to send this e-mail since the electricity is on, and I find food and water left in my entranceway. I have no idea from whom, but it is there. Old men in green hats go from door to door checking to see if everyone is OK. People talk to complete strangers asking if they need help.

When I read this email, I asked myself, Are these not glimpses of love – of people acting with compassion toward others? Are these not hints that we really do consider one another valuable enough and worth enough to give our lives for or, at least, act with the utmost compassion and care toward each other?

How much does love cost? Or another way to put the question might be: What is the value of a human life? A writer for the New York Times wrote an article in the February 16, 2011, issue and talked about the fact that the United States government has been grappling with this particular question: what is the value of a human life? Or to be more precise, there are government agencies trying to find what is called “the statistical value of life.” The answer will influence how much American society (especially businesses) should spend to prevent a single death. In 2004, the United States government's Office of Management and Budget told agencies they should pick a number between $1 million and $10 million, although it also warned that any figure under $5 million would be too low. So, as of last month, the following agencies have offered their price tags on the worth of one human life:

• The Environmental Protection Agency set the value of a life at $9.1 million.
• The Food and Drug Administration declared that a life is worth $7.9 million (up from $5 million in 2008).
• The Transportation Department has determined that one life is worth $6 million.
• [Binyamin Appelbaum, “As U.S. Agencies Put More Value on Human Life, Businesses Fret,” The New York Times, 2-16-11]

I have not discovered whether there are any Canadian agencies attempting a similar determination.

I wonder what God thinks about these human calculations? Does God put a dollar value on our heads? Or how does God express that value? Rather than dollars and numbers, might our value to God be expressed in God’s love for us – and for all in this world? For those of us who grew up in the church, I hunch that one verse we all probably memorized was John 3:16. If this verse is new to you, it is one of the most significant passages of the Bible. Millions of followers of Jesus have loved John 3:16 for 2,000 years because it sets out the limitless dimensions of how God values – of how God loves -- the entire human world:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. [John 3:16, New King James]

Look at the cross behind me and let us ponder the breadth and the length of the love of God, and the depth and the height of the love of God.

“For God so loved the world … ” Hear the intensity and see the breadth of God’s love in these words.

God’s invitation of love is broad – as wide and expansive as God’s very nature. When we follow Jesus from place to place in the Gospels and listen to him, we will hear him say he came not to save a few good people but he came to seek those who are lost – the whole world of humanity, the very ones God loves. Even at our best, we all are marred by sin. One definition of sin is the human bent to fall short of God’s glory – or God’s standard of goodness. This coming up short needs to happen only once in our lives for us to be marred or broken. And if we are honest, we know there have been many times when we have come up short of God’s standard of goodness. But God loves us – marred and broken though we are because God’s very nature is love.

God is love. And by looking at the character of God in Jesus, we discover the nature of God’s love for the world. Jesus Christ and the salvation he offers have their origin in the will and action of God’s love. God loved and God specifically acted at a point in time -- God gave his only Son to the world for the world.

The intensity of the love of God, the agony of God’s love, is expressed in that little word “so” – “God so loved the world.” “So” means “how much.” The Message Bible says, “This is how much God loved the world: he gave his son, his one and only son.”

We are in Week 2 of Lent when we, as followers of Jesus, journey with him toward the inevitability of his suffering and death on the cross of Good Friday. And it was the intense love of God in Jesus that compelled Jesus to give his life for us so that we could experience God’s gracious forgiveness and accept his loving invitation to give our lives to him.

The breadth of God’s love embraces the whole world. On the night Jesus was arrested, just before he left the house for the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed that the world would know God loved them. And the world – that includes the entire human race -- is no small place.

“For God so loved the world ... that he gave his son, his one and only son.”

This speaks of the dimension of length (or the extent) of God’s love – the length God was willing to go to forgive us because of his incredible love for the human race.

There are also other Scriptures in the New Testament that speak strongly about the dimensions of God’s love. Listen to the writer of Ephesians:

“I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love, so that you, together with all God’s people, may have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep, is Christ’s love. Yes, may you come to know his love -- although it can never be fully known -- and so be completely filled with the very nature of God.” [Ephesians 3:17-19, Good News Translation]

In many languages, to speak about Christ’s love being broad and long and high and deep is awkward since love cannot be conceived as having spatial dimensions. So this figure of speech could well be translated: “So that you will be fully able to understand how very, very great is Christ’s love for you” or “You cannot even imagine how great Christ’s love is!” or so you will grasp “how much Christ truly loves you.” [Newman, B. M., & Nida, E. A. (1993). A Handbook on the Gospel of John. Helps for translators; UBS handbook series (89). New York: United Bible Societies.] My friends, the extent of God’s love seen in Jesus Christ for you and for me is beyond our comprehension and imagination. But I say, God’s love is certain!

God’s love also runs deep. God’s love has depth. John 3:16 says, “that whosever believes in him [in Jesus] should not perish but have everlasting or eternal life.” That statement is bold, is it not? When Jesus talked with Martha about the very real physical death of her dearly beloved brother, Lazarus, whom Jesus also deeply loved, he said to her with similar boldness:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” [John 11:25–26, TNIV]

That is Jesus’ question to us too: Do you believe this? You see, Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. They were like family to him. He would sometimes take time away from his disciples and the crowds and spend weekends with them. They were his friends. Even so, he still asked Martha, “Do you believe I am the resurrection and the life?” God’s love possesses enormous depth because that love includes anyone and everyone who believes in Jesus as the resurrection and the life. And Jesus said these people will never spiritually die but will live with him forever.

God’s love has the cosmic dimensions of breadth and length and depth. The love of God also possesses height -- “everlasting or eternal life.” Everlasting life, as the Scripture teaches, has a beginning but no ending. Eternal life includes all the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love for all his followers now but also real life that continues with God after our short lives on this Earth are over. And this is the great hope of the human heart!

Oswald Chambers, in his book The Highest Good, wrote:

“To realize the dimensions of the love of God, its breadth, and length, and depth, and height, will serve to drive home to us the reality of God’s love, and the result of our belief in that love will be that no question will ever profoundly vex our minds, no sorrow overwhelm our spirits, because our heart is at rest in God, just as the heart of our Lord was at rest in His Father. This does not mean that our faith will not be tested; if it is faith, it must be tested.” [Chambers, O. The Highest Good. London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996.]

Paul the Apostle said something similar and expressed the extravagance of God’s love in his letter to the Romans 8:31-39. Here is what he said from The Message Bible:

“So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? [Doesn’t this include Jesus’ journey of suffering toward the cross for us? Doesn’t it also mean he rose from the dead to defeat the stranglehold of sin and death in human lives? Paul continues:] And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us -- who was raised to life for us! -- is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. [We could say “praying for us!”] Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture … None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. [Now, that is some statement of faith!] I’m absolutely convinced that nothing -- nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable -- absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master [or Lord] has embraced us.”

I believe with Paul: God’s love is certain!

So, my friends, I dare to conclude with a prayer for you – the same prayer the Apostle Paul prayed for those he worked with and loved. From The Message Bible:  

“I ask [God] to strengthen you by his Spirit -- not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength -- that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask [God] that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.”

My friends, may this be so for you and for me.
Rev. Chris Miller,

Lent 2, March 20, 2011

oympastor@rogers.com

OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto

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Being Christian: Jesus Calls, We Follow - “Clarifying Questions”

• Matthew 4:1-11 - read this passage online here »
• Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 - read this passage online here »

While I haven’t read Jewish journalist and author A. J. Jacobs’ funny yet serious book The Year of Living Biblically, I am reading Christian pastor Ed Dobson’s book The Year of Living Like Jesus [Zondervan, 2009]. Jacobs wrote the Foreword to Dobson’s book and observed: “Ed was inspired by my book ... (a fact that makes me commit the sin of pride).”

Jacobs is a secular Jew. But he wanted to see what it was like to live like a biblical Israelite. Dobson is a Christian who took up Jacobs’ challenge but applied it to the life and teachings of Jesus. In his book, Dobson told a story of visiting some bars in Florida. Because Dobson knew Jesus was accused of being a glutton and drunkard (or wine-imbiber) by the religious leaders of his day, this Baptist minister decided to visit places where people usually drink -- hence, the bars. In one particular bar, he had a conversation with a short Jamaican bartender with a slightly greying small moustache, a contagious laugh and who wore a Hawaiian shirt [The Year of Living Like Jesus, p. 164].

Normally clean-shaven, Dobson was trying to live like Jesus as fully as he could for a year so he let his beard grow as Jesus probably did. The bartender liked the beard and asked him why he was growing it. Dobson responded: “I made a commitment on January first to spend the whole year trying to live like Jesus. So the beard is part of the gig.”

After some conversation, the Jamaican bartender said: “Dude, that’s unbelievable. So what are you learning?” Here is Dobson’s dialogue with the bartender:

Ed: “I’m learning that trying to follow Jesus is a full-time job. I’m learning how difficult it is to actually follow his teachings.”

Bartender: “So what’s so hard about it?”

Ed: “That’s a great question. How about loving your enemies? How about caring for the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame? How about clothing the naked, visiting those in prison, visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, and giving water to the thirsty?”

Bartender: “Right on.”

I have heard more than one person make a similar confession: that trying to follow Jesus is difficult. Living as Jesus did and following his teachings is far from easy. Pastor Ed Dobson didn’t think it was easy either. But that is our calling – our mission -- is it not? Our congregation decided to express our mission this way: “To bring to life the teachings of Jesus Christ.” How do we do that – bring to life Jesus’ teachings? Bring to whose life – your life? my life? the life of our community? our city? our country? our world? Does not the meaning of our mission embrace all of these?

Our underlying theme for Lent and Easter this year is stated simply: “Being a Christian means Jesus calls and we follow.” This may sound simple but it comes with personal struggle. Following Jesus calls for faith and trust in him even in the greatest of difficult circumstances. For instance, Ed Dobson has been living with the debilitating disease of ALS – Lou Gehrig’s disease – since January 2001 when he was diagnosed. While writing his book about The Year of Living Like Jesus, which was published in 2009, his body continued to deteriorate. So whatever our personal concerns or whatever our circumstances as a church, the meaning of being a Christian does not change. It will always mean Jesus calls and we follow. That is the foundation upon which I am building these messages through Lent and Easter.

At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, two significant events occurred in his life. First, he was baptized in the Jordan River. That was vital for the rest of Jesus’ ministry because he knew – at that moment – the acceptance, the approval and the confirmation of God the Father on his life and ministry. The Message Bible puts Matthew 3:16-17 this way:

“The moment Jesus came up out of the baptismal waters, the skies opened up and he saw God’s Spirit -- it looked like a dove -- descending and landing on him. And along with the Spirit, a voice: ‘This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.’”

For Jesus, he heard God’s call and so he followed.

The second event happened immediately after his baptism: “Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the Devil.”

There are at least two significant questions underlying Jesus’ time in the wilderness with the tempter. Both questions require a response from Jesus. Since we claim to be followers of Jesus, they are our questions too. And they require a response from us as well.

The first question: What is Jesus’ sense of God? Theologian Dale Bruner [The Christbook Commentary on Matthew, Eerdmans, 2004, p. 133] calls Jesus’ sense of God being “the ruling passion perceptible in all three of Jesus’ answers to the Tempter.”

• Jesus’ first answer: “The scripture says, ‘Human beings cannot live on bread alone, but [they] need every word that God speaks.’”
• Jesus’ second answer: “But the scripture also says, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
• And Jesus’ third answer: “The scripture says, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!’”

In all three answers, God is uppermost in Jesus’ mind. In two of the answers, Jesus also included a word translated as “only” and “alone”: “Human beings cannot live on bread alone” and “The Scripture says … serve only [God].” What does Jesus want us to understand here? That in all the circumstances and concerns of our lives and despite how the circumstances and concerns of our lives appear to us, God is not to be excluded from our thinking and living, or from our service and worship.

Consider Jesus’ first temptation. He has just completed a long fast without food. He is hungry and tired. He hears the appealing words of the tempter: “Since you are God’s Son, order these stones to turn into bread.” Of course, he is God’s Son. He knows it. Jesus could have changed the stones into bread. He had the power to do this or else it would not have been a real temptation to him. But what was Jesus’ temptation? I believe Jesus remembered the voice he heard not long before from God his Father who called him “chosen” and “beloved” and a “delight.” He remembered his baptism. But that was then and this is now. Surely, as God’s chosen One, he could serve himself, especially since he was so hungry. He had the memory of his baptism. But sometimes memory can play tricks on us. Sometimes faith can fade into the background when we are weary or hungry or under stress. And, after all, Jesus was deeply human. But God was Jesus’ passion. To turn the stones into bread would have revealed a lack of trust that God would provide for him. Remember, Matthew records that, after the tempter finally left Jesus, angels came and helped him.

What does this temptation mean for us? In Genesis 3, Eve got into a discussion with the tempter and lost. Let me suggest that you and I will lose every time if we try to question and discuss and rationalize temptations that come into our minds. Has God said this? God surely would not have said that – whatever “that” is.” In Adam and Eve’s case, God commanded them not to eat the fruit from one particular tree because, if they ignored what God said and did eat from that tree, they would experience evil for the first time and begin to die spiritually. But the tempter lied to them and convinced them God was trying to keep something from them. The tempter convinced them God didn’t really mean what he said and had other reasons for not wanting them to eat. Unfortunately, they gave in to these lies. And isn’t that a similar kind of conversation that goes on in our minds when we are tempted to think or do something that is not quite right – that is, in fact, wrong?

Jesus attempted no such discussion. Instead, he answered the tempter with the words of Scripture. Jesus knew his Bible. He quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 in this instance as well as Deuteronomy 6:16 and 13. Jesus understood what God was doing in the events and stories of the Old Testament Scripture. In Deuteronomy 8, the nation of Israel was being tested. And through this testing, God was demonstrating to Israel that the people could depend on and trust God. Listen to what Jesus knew about being tested and trusting God from Deuteronomy 8:2-3:

“Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” (NRSV)

Jesus’ sense of trusting God meant trusting what God says -- that human beings are meant to live by every word that comes from God!

The second question underlying Jesus’ time with the tempter in the wilderness: Whose word will Jesus honour? As followers of Jesus, that is our question too: Whose word will we honour? Jesus not only honoured God, he also honoured God’s word. In all three temptations, Jesus gained the upper hand over the tempter by knowing and using the Scripture. And Jesus used the same common resource – the same Scripture -- that is accessible to all of us! To receive direction and help and strength from God, he did not use a private line that is unavailable to you and me. Jesus believed the Hebrew Scripture gives us God’s Word. The apostles believed that as well. And, of course, as followers of Jesus, we also have the record of Jesus and his early disciples in the New Testament Scripture. This adds even more to our knowledge of God’s amazing love for all humanity and gives us even more reason to continue to listen to and trust God.

But I am troubled, quite frankly, by certain trends today. What troubles me is the diminished value many in the church place on the Scripture. For many, it is as if God no longer uses the Scripture that Jesus himself used. So let me finish this morning with a story about how the record of Jesus in the Scripture changed the life of one man whose name is Nard Pugyao. Nard writes:

In March of 1956 (when I was about 6), a tall, pale, white man stumbled into my home village ... in the northern jungles of the Philippine island of Luzon. The man didn't speak our language, so our elders asked him the best they knew how, “Why are you here?”

“I've come to learn your language,” he [helped them understand]. “I'd like to write it down and then give you God's Word in your language.”

“Who is your God?” the elders asked.

“He's the God of Heaven and earth,” the man answered. “He's the Creator of the universe. He created you, too.”

“Is he powerful?” the elders probed. “More powerful than the spirits that have controlled our lives from the beginning of time? Is he more powerful than our ancestors, the head-hunters?”

“Yes, he's more powerful.”

Hopeful, we started teaching this man [whose name is Dick Roe] our language. Maybe his God could free us from the spirits.

When I was about 13, Dick had to return to the United States to raise support for his ministry. But before he went back, he translated the Gospel of Mark and gave me a copy. While he was gone, I started reading the Bible for the first time, beginning with the Easter story and continuing through Chapter 16. Sitting on top of a rock, I read the Gospel of Mark in my heart language. It felt like I was actually there, seeing the characters.

But the further I read, the more distressed I felt. A mob of people came to get Jesus out of the Garden of Gethsemane. What did he do wrong? I read as fast as I could. They accused him of all kinds of false things. They mocked him, spat on him, beat him, and took him before Pilate. Then the scourge and the crown of thorns. It was excruciating to read that they forced him to carry a wooden cross and then nailed him to it.

Deep in my heart, a hatred of God swelled. I shook my fist and shouted: “I hate you, God, for being so powerless! Why should I believe in a powerless God like you?” With all my strength I threw the Gospel of Mark down to the rocks and started walking home. I couldn't understand why God wouldn't protect his own Son. Our head-hunters defended us to the death. Because of them, no one could touch us. I wanted a god like that -- someone who would protect me from the spirits that demanded we sacrifice our cows, chickens, pigs, and dogs. This God didn't even save his own Son.

Suddenly, God reached down into my heart. “Nard, don't you understand?” I heard him say. “That's how much I love you. I gave my Son on your behalf.” For the first time, I understood grace. I understood how much God loved me.

“God, if you love me that much,” I prayed, “I want to give you my life, my heart. It's all yours.” I went back and picked up my Gospel, brushed it off, and sat back on that rock to see what happened next. It was an incredible moment as I read that Jesus rose from the grave on the third day. Nobody in [my town], nobody from among [my] people, had ever risen from the grave. The resurrection story changed my life. [Nard Pugyao, "Penetrating Power," Decision (July-August 2006), p. 18; ©2006 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, used by permission, all rights reserved. Preaching Today Illustrations]

May the words of Scripture change your life too. May the Risen Jesus bring you hope and strength and deep joy too. My friends, may this be so for you and for me.

Rev. Chris Miller,

Lent 1, March 13, 2011

oympastor@rogers.com

OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto

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The Lord’s Prayer: “Give Us This Day Our Bread”

• Matthew 6:11 - read this passage online here »
• Luke 12:22-31 - read this passage online here »
• Exodus 16:12-30 - read this passage online here »

Over recent weeks, we have been looking at The Lord’s Prayer. People, in all times and in all places, have always wanted to pray. Jesus’ followers are no exception. In Matthew 6, Jesus tells his followers to remember that, when they pray to God, they are praying to their heavenly Father who loves them and knows already what they need. So with a God like this loving them, Jesus told them to pray very simply. Like this:

“Our Father in heaven, 

hallowed be your name. 

Your kingdom come, 

your will be done, 

on earth as it is in heaven. 

Give us this day our daily bread, 

and forgive us our debts, 

as we also have forgiven our debtors. 

And lead us not into temptation, 

but deliver us from evil. [English Standard Version]

We usually end the prayer with “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.” Some have asked me why we add these final words when they are not in either Matthew’s Gospel or Luke’s Gospel. Though these words are not in the earliest or best manuscripts and so do not appear in more recent translations, there are times when tradition serves the church well. These words were added later by the church as a doxology of praise to God. But theologian Dale Bruner has this interesting observation [Matthew: A Commentary, Vol. 1: The Christbook, Matthew 1-12, Eerdmans, 2004, p. 305]:

“The fact that the Lord’s Prayer ends so raggedly – with the devil! – is probably an invitation to close the prayer with one’s own free petitions.... The rough ending is an open ending.”

I like that! I think that’s also why our Roman Catholic friends wait for the priest to add his words at the end rather than everyone saying “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.” 

The prayer Jesus gives us is short and simple. In its marvellous simplicity is contained all that is necessary for us as his followers to pray. When we read the prayer in Luke 11, we hear Jesus telling his disciples, “When you pray, say this.” So our praying regularly and together The Lord’s Prayer basically word for word is a good thing. It fills our minds and hearts with words from the heart of Jesus when he taught his followers – including us! – to pray to his Father and our Father. On the other hand, when we read the prayer in Matthew 6, we hear Jesus telling his disciples “Pray like this.” In other words, here is the essence of how to pray to God. 

Each time we pray like this, we should remember God is our Father, whose name is to be honoured above all others and whose kingdom and will is for the whole of this Earth as well as for heaven. There is no other kingdom or will or name to be sought. God’s righteousness and God’s kingdom are to come first in our lives, in the lives of all Jesus’ followers and, ultimately, in the lives of all humanity. For two weeks in a row, we have sung the Scripture from Matthew 6:33 -- “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness” -- for that reason. As we fill our minds and souls with the essence of Jesus’ mind and soul and continue to grow in our understanding of what he taught, we can alter the words we use. The phrases of The Lord’s Prayer then become a kind of handrail, Dale Bruner suggests, along which we form our own words and responses to God. One of the places on the handrail is “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Almost every week, Marg and I walk up one aisle and down another in our local grocery store filling the cart with food items for the week to come. I imagine that’s a weekly or bi-weekly ritual for many of you as well. Then we line up with others at the checkout and pay for our food. Some people no longer regularly leave their home to buy their daily food; they go to the dining room in their residence for their meals. But they still pay for this service, of course! On the other hand, because of the circumstances of their lives, others have difficulty getting enough food for themselves and their families. So they receive government assistance. They may also go to a local food bank for groceries or to a local church such as ours and hope for a food voucher to help them get through the day and, perhaps, the next day. Or they might sit down to a meal once a day that is provided by an Out of the Cold group. 

Physical sustenance is a necessary part of our living. Jesus understands we need daily bread in order to live – we need enough food every day! So Jesus tells us to pray to his Father, who is also our Father, about our daily necessities, which reminds us who the ultimate Provider is of all the good gifts we have. The sense here of daily provisions is what housekeepers in Jesus’ time would understand as they made their daily lists of what the household needed to sustain itself and then purchased the food at the daily market. [Robertson, A. (1997). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Matthew 6:11). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems.] When Jesus taught this prayer, he emphasized that God is vitally interested in our daily lives, beginning with the food necessary for our physical bodies each and every day. So to pray about physical, social and personal needs is not a selfish attitude. Jesus actually commands his followers to pray this way.  

However, for those of us who have healthy bank accounts, I suggest it is difficult, more often than not, to think God has very much to do with our daily food. We are the ones with the cash or credit and we use them easily. Maybe that’s why the writer of Proverbs prayed this way [30:7-9 GNT]: 

“I ask you, God, to let me have two things before I die: keep me from lying, and let me be neither rich nor poor. So give me only as much food as I need. If I have more, I might say that I do not need you. But if I am poor, I might steal and bring disgrace on my God.” 

Perhaps that is why Jesus said it is hard for rich people to enter heaven. It would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, he said [Matthew 19:23-24]! It is too easy to forget about God when things are going too well or too easily for us.

Perhaps that’s also why Jesus instructed his followers to pray first to God: “Our Father in heaven, honoured be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, right here on Earth as in heaven.” Then when Jesus continued to pray “Give us our daily bread,” the clear connection is that the ultimate source for our daily bread is God – not someone or something else. In whatever form or from whomever the gifts of daily sustenance may come, all ultimately comes from God’s creation, God’s love and God’s gracious concern for all his creatures – human and otherwise. In other words, we need to leave room for God to help us in our lives when we think about even the basic of necessities of life.   

When we leave room for God in our lives, we are opening up the possibility for a relationship of trust with God. When we are not afraid to ask someone for something, we are implying there is a relationship of trust between us. For instance, I was more than happy when my children asked me for something they really needed. As their father, I wanted nothing more than to help. So when Jesus tells us to ask God to provide the bread we need for today, we are saying to God: We trust you, God our Father, to provide for us today. 

When we trust God in this way, we learn more and more about being grateful to God. There have been only a few times in my life when I have been close to being hungry -- especially when I was at college and living away from home. But I am one of those in this blessed western society who has never really gone hungry. So when I say The Lord’s Prayer each week and think deeply about this particular petition – “Give us this day our bread” -- I find myself being grateful for the food and sustenance I have this day and thank God again for it. 

Our problem, sometimes, is that we worry about a tomorrow that has yet to come. And may not come in the way we worry about! To worry about tomorrow is a draining experience. It distracts our focus from God and drains us of trust in the God whose very nature is love. In Luke 12:22-31, Jesus tells us not to worry about what we will eat or what we will wear and not to be afraid because our Father knows we need these things. Instead, we need to be concerned, first, with God’s kingdom and, if we are, Jesus says God will provide what we need somehow. Jesus is not saying it is wrong to think about tomorrow or to plan for tomorrow or to make provision for tomorrow; he is saying not to worry about tomorrow. To worry is to lack trust – and, often, gratitude too. But when we leave room for God in our lives, we will discover we can both trust God for our daily sustenance and remember to be grateful for all the good gifts in our kitchen cupboards.  

When we do trust God, we will find ourselves saying thanks to God again and again for our blessings. But as we say thanks, we may well feel more than a little guilty for being able to enjoy food in abundance while so many in the world “walk in hunger,” as we prayed in the Opening Prayer. (Did you notice how close that prayer is to a familiar grace people often use before a meal?) So at the moment we pray “Give us this day our daily bread,” should not our next sentence be “We are sorry we so often think only about our own need for bread” and then “Show us how to share our bread with the world”? William Barclay wrote: “No Christian can be content to have too much while others have too little.”

When we trust God in our own lives, we will not allow God’s other intended recipients of daily bread stay hungry. As one writer suggests, should we not shout, “Woe, woe to the persons or institutions or economic systems that keep people hungry” [Arthur Paul Boers, Lord, Teach Us to Pray]? Is not this prayer for God to give us our daily bread also a prayer for justice for others too -- a lively concern that there be enough bread for all people all over the world?

It is good our denomination receives and sets aside money from its mission and service fund for the relief of world hunger. It is good to encourage our governments to take seriously worldwide concerns for those who are hungry and give even more in matching grants to relief and development projects through CIDA. But what does the answer to “Show us how to share our bread” look like on a personal level? Maybe we can learn about that in unexpected places.

While working as a journalist for the Chicago Tribune, Lee Strobel reported on the struggles of an impoverished, inner-city family during the weeks leading up to Christmas [The Case for Christmas, Zondervan, 2005]. A devout atheist at the time, Strobel was mildly surprised by the family's attitude despite their circumstances. Here is part of his report:

The Delgados -- 60-year-old Perfecta and her granddaughters, Lydia and Jenny -- had been burned out of their roach-infested tenement and were now living in a tiny, two-room apartment on the West Side. As I walked in, I couldn't believe how empty it was. There was no furniture, no rugs, nothing on the walls—only a small kitchen table and one handful of rice. That's it. They were virtually devoid of possessions.

In fact, 11-year-old Lydia and 13-year-old Jenny owned only one short-sleeved dress each, plus one thin, gray sweater between them. When they walked the half-mile to school through the biting cold, Lydia would wear the sweater for part of the distance and then hand it to her shivering sister, who would wear it the rest of the way.

But despite their poverty and the painful arthritis that kept Perfecta from working, she still talked confidently about her faith in Jesus. She was convinced he had not abandoned them. I never sensed despair or self-pity in her home; instead, there was a gentle feeling of hope and peace.

Strobel completed his article. But he could not get the Delgados and their unflinching belief in God's providence out of his thoughts. So on Christmas Eve, he decided to pay the family a visit. He discovered that readers of his article had responded to the family's need in overwhelming fashion, filling the small apartment with donations of new furniture, appliances, rugs, a large Christmas tree, many wrapped presents, bags of food, warm winter clothing and even a generous amount of money. (We have heard of similar responses by the citizens here in Toronto from time to time to families in need.) But it wasn't the generous gifts that shocked Strobel. It was the family's response to those gifts. In his words:

As surprised as I was by this outpouring, I was even more astonished by what my visit was interrupting: Perfecta and her granddaughters were getting ready to give away much of their newfound wealth. When I asked Perfecta why, she replied in halting English: “Our neighbours are still in need. We cannot have plenty while they have nothing. This is what Jesus would want us to do.”

That blew me away! If I had been in their position at that time in my life, I would have been hoarding everything. I asked Perfecta what she thought about the generosity of the people who had sent all of these goodies, and again her response amazed me. “This is wonderful; this is very good,” she said, gesturing toward the largess. “We did nothing to deserve this -- it's a gift from God. But,” she added, “It is not his greatest gift. No, we celebrate that tomorrow. That is Jesus’ birth.”

To her, this child in the manger was the undeserved gift that meant everything -- more than material possessions, more than comfort, more than security. And at that moment, something inside of me wanted desperately to know this Jesus -- because, in a sense, I saw him in Perfecta and her granddaughters.

When we leave room for God in our lives like the Delgados did, despite having only a handful of rice at the time, we discover Jesus, the Bread of Life – Jesus who leads us into God’s kingdom. When Jesus was in the wilderness and tempted by the Evil One, his response to the first temptation was: 

“The scripture says, ‘Human beings cannot live on bread alone, but need every word that God speaks.’” [Matthew 4:4, GNT]

When people later asked Jesus to show them a miracle similar to the one their ancestors experienced in the desert when God gave them bread – manna -- from heaven to eat [John 6:30-35 and Exodus 16:12ff], Jesus answered this way:

“‘The bread that God gives is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’

‘Sir,’ they asked him, ‘give us this bread always.’

‘I am the bread of life,’ Jesus told them. ‘Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty.’”

I believe a second meaning behind this prayer for daily bread in The Lord’s Prayer is for a spiritually starving world to be given the Bread of Life – that is, the Word of God. Besides needing bread to eat, people also need bread for their souls. They need the gospel, the good news about Jesus – who is the Bread of Life – through whom human beings really live, both now and forever!

Let us trust God for our daily necessary physical needs when we pray “Give us this day our bread.” And let us be thankful too. Let us also pray for open and generous hearts to share that bread with a hungry world. And let us ask for Jesus, the Bread of Life, when we pray. Jesus came to this world for everyone. He is the Bread of Life people all over this world are hungering for -- whether they know it or not. 

My friends, may this be so for you and for me.

Rev. Chris Miller

February  13, 2011

oympastor@rogers.com

OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto

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The Lord’s Prayer: “God’s Kingdom Come”

• Matthew 6:10 - read this passage online here »
• John 18:28-38 - read this passage online here »

In recent weeks, Bob Dylan’s classic song “The Times, They Are a-Changing” can be illustrated from what is currently being heard and seen in the news.

Come senators, congressmen,
[add presidents and rulers and kings]
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it is raging
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times, they are a-changing

The line, it is drawn, the curse, it is cast
The slow one will later be fast
As the present now will later be past
The order is rapidly fading
And the first one now will later be last
For the times, they are a-changing

First in Tunisia and now most prominently in Egypt. And it appears these changes may only be the beginning. These are truly “kingdom shaking” times. Will the shake-ups be minor or major? What new rule or kingdom will emerge in their places?

Jesus knew what it meant to shake up kingdoms. Did you hear the Call to Worship?

Jesus said: “Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here.”
Earth-leaders say: “We have our own kingdoms.”
Jesus said: “Change your life and believe the Good News.”
Many say: “Let’s get free of God.”
Jesus said: “Listen to me carefully.”

The Call to Worship is adapted from Mark 1 and Psalm 2 – a psalm of leaders and people plotting rebellion against God. But in the end the rebellion is doomed. The psalmist warns the kings and rulers that they are in grave danger. So he urges them to embrace God in adoration and to celebrate God in trembling awe.

Almost every week, along with millions of other Jesus followers in this world and in various ways, you and I pray together The Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed [or honoured] be your name; your kingdom come, your will be done, on Earth as it is heaven.” Let me tell you, this prayer Jesus taught is a kingdom-shaking prayer of massive proportions. Have you ever felt its tremors?

When Jesus tells his followers to pray “God’s kingdom come,” he is saying various things to them. One, our lives will be shaken to the core. The way Jesus calls us to live in love in our community with others, the way we are called to relate with deep care to the Earth and the way Jesus calls us to relate intimately with God – our lives will never be the same. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ call to forgive others who have seriously wronged us (even to love our enemies), his call to be peacemakers, his call to consider ourselves blessed when people lie about us because we are his followers and his call to us to live with God as our most significant relationship – this kind of living can only happen for us when this prayer becomes deeply embedded in our souls: “God’s kingdom come.” I believe Matthew placed The Lord’s Prayer in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount to show how Jesus’ prayer provides the support necessary to live out what Jesus taught. In a previous message, I said: “If there is no prayer to a loving and compassionate Father at the centre of our lives, Jesus’ teachings are like a dry code of lifeless ethics.”

When we sincerely pray that we want “God’s kingdom to come,” we are identifying with a kingdom that “does not belong to this world.” That’s what Jesus told Pilate, the governor of Judea. Jesus said: “My kingdom does not consist of what you see around you. If it did, my followers would fight so that I wouldn’t be handed over.... But I’m not that kind of king, not the world’s kind of king” [John 18:36, The Message Bible]. What does Jesus mean that his kingdom is not of this world? Two of Jesus’ stories illustrate one aspect of his kingdom, Jesus said:

“God’s kingdom is like a mustard seed that a farmer plants. It is quite small as seeds go, but in the course of years it grows into a large tree, and birds build nests in it.”

Jesus also said: “God’s kingdom is like yeast that a woman works into the dough for dozens of loaves of barley bread -- and waits while the dough rises.” [Matthew 13:31-33]

Here’s a contemporary story with a similar meaning. I think Jesus would have liked the program Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman. This was a popular 1990s television series about an early frontier doctor and her devotion to medicine, her patients, her family and her friends. In one episode [Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman (CBS Television, 1994), episode written by Toni Graphia], Dr. Quinn's best friend, Dorothy, has breast cancer. She doesn't know how bad it is and is worried she may not have long to live. As Dorothy walks sombrely among the townspeople who are enjoying a picnic in a large clearing, Dr. Quinn’s 10-year-old son, Brian, runs up to her.

“Hey, Miss Dorothy, look what I found! Acorns! Sully says if I plant one, it'll grow to be as big as that oak.”

“None of us will live to see it get that big, Brian,” says Miss Dorothy. “That oak is a hundred years old.”

“Oh,” Brian replies. Dejected, he puts the acorns in his pocket and walks back to his family. He tells his mother, Dr. Quinn: “Miss Dorothy says there's no use in planting it. She says none of us will get to see it grow that big.”

Dr. Quinn takes an acorn from him and says: “Brian, you must plant it because, by next year, it will have grown up to your knees. The year after that, it will be taller than you. When it's time to go courting, you can take your young lady for a picnic under it. Then, when you have children, they can build a tree house in it. And some day you can tell your grandchildren about how you planted it. When that tree gets to be a hundred, it doesn't matter that you're not here to see it.” Dr. Quinn places the acorn back in Brian’s hand and says: “All that matters is today. Today, you hold a hundred years in your hand.”

Brian looks at the acorn thoughtfully, then asks Sully to help him find a place to plant it.

Brian could look forward to a lot of birds that would nest in his tree!

Jesus’ kingdom can work within and change other kingdoms on the Earth, like a small acorn seed planted in the ground breaks up the hard soil around it into workable earth, so good things such as kindness, compassion, peace, hope and love can sprout and grow. Where Jesus’ kingdom is worked into the kingdoms of this world through his people like salt, as Jesus said in another story, they can preserve what is good in society and provide zesty flavour to life. Jesus’ true kingdom is anything but bland! Jesus’ kingdom is also like rays of light coming together to penetrate the darkness and cause both the good and the bad to be seen for what they truly are.

When Jesus tells us to pray for God’s kingdom to come, what else does he mean? Certainly he means that God – not someone else or something else -- is clearly the centre and the Creator of this new reality. And as the Creator, God also is the One who cares for his kingdom. When Jesus began his public ministry, his first words were: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” [Mark 1:15]. Those listening to Jesus then would have thought of three things when they heard the word “kingdom.” First, they were looking for a king whom they knew would also be the Messiah – that’s significant. Second, they would also be thinking of the kingdom as land (a sacred place or sacred space). And, third, they would be thinking of themselves as participants together with the king in this kingdom. Then along came Jesus who declared that the kingdom they were looking for throughout their long history had finally arrived and was now here – in him! What is significant for us to understand is that the arrival of Jesus into our human community brought the kingdom of God into fresh focus. Jesus upgraded the meaning of the kingdom of God not only for his original hearers but also for us. Here is Eugene Peterson’s expression of what Jesus meant:

“This kingdom you have been hearing about now for these many centuries is here. Listen to me carefully. Watch me attentively. Join me believingly. I am here to do kingdom work, and I want you to join me in the work. I want you to work alongside me.” [Eugene H. Peterson, Tell It Slant: a conversation on the language of Jesus in his stories and prayers, Eerdmans, 2008, p. 174]

If we were to look up all the references to the “kingdom” in the New Testament -- about 150 or so depending on the version -- we would discover the following three major themes. First, God’s kingdom refers to a redemptive community or society of people. It does not signify merely any kind of social community. God’s kingdom is wherever God’s people offer themselves as participants in the world where God rules in love and brings salvation. And God’s people, Jesus says, are those who “seek first – above all else – God’s kingdom and God’s right way to live” [Matthew 6:33]. Second, those who desire to participate in God’s redemptive kingdom community must enter by repentance, faith and obedience to Jesus. This is the essence of Jesus’ words in Mark 1:15: “The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel -- the good news.” The entrance to God’s kingdom is primarily by way of personal commitment to Jesus Christ whose death on the cross brought salvation to us. Third, the connection between God’s kingdom and Jesus is so close that the clear implication is “there is no such thing as kingdom apart from relationship with Jesus” [Scot McKnight, www.patheos.com/community/jesuscreed/ 2010/11/15/secularizing-kingdom/#more-10545]. This is another way of seeing that Jesus’ work among us is God’s kingdom work. And that he wants us to join him in what he is doing in this world.

There is one more major theme about God’s kingdom that I should mention because Jesus often spoke about it -- about the end of this age or the end of history as we know it and the coming of the new earth and the new heavens. Theologian and Gospel of Matthew scholar Dale Bruner said it this way [The Christbook Commentary on Matthew, Eerdmans, 2004, p. 300]:

“The most sophisticated biblical scholarship on the one hand and the most simple … faith on the other combine in believing that when Jesus teaches his church to pray ‘Your kingdom come,’ he is teaching her to pray for the coming of the new heavens and the new earth, for the end of this history and for the beginning of the new, and thus (as far as we know now) for Jesus’ own Second Coming. Here we are praying not merely for changes in history but for a complete end to this history and for the beginning of the new history of the world of God.”

When Jesus was on the cross, two thieves were also crucified, one on either side of him. One of them recognized that Jesus was innocent and should not have been there. The thief knew he deserved his punishment, but he also seemed to know enough about Jesus to ask: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” [Luke 23:42].

In Fuller Seminary’s Theology, News, and Notes [Dale Bruner, “Is Jesus Inclusive or Exclusive?” October 1999, p. 3], Rev. David Peterson told about a time when he was preparing his sermon.

His little daughter came into the room and asked, “Daddy, can we play?”

He answered: “I'm awfully sorry, Sweetheart, but I'm right in the middle of preparing this sermon. In about an hour I can play.”

She said, “OK. When you're finished, Daddy, I am going to give you a great big hug.”

“Thank you very much,” he said.

David Peterson said his daughter went to the door. “Then she did a U-turn and came back and gave me a chiropractic, bone-breaking hug.” He said to her, “Darling, you said you were going to give me a hug after I finished.”

She answered, “Daddy, I just wanted you to know what you have to look forward to!”

My friends, part of the fullness of our faith and the love of God is the great hope of Jesus’ Second Coming when he will truly reign. When there will be no more sickness, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more tears, no more mourning and no more death. That’s part of the promise of the new resurrected life with God. You can read this for yourself in the second-last chapter of the last book of the Bible – Revelation 21:4.

Through all we experience with Jesus because of his First Coming, we have so much more to look forward to in his great cosmic Second Coming.

May this be so for you and for me.

Rev. Chris Miller
February 6, 2011

oympastor@rogers.com

OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto

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How Not to Pray (Series on The Lord’s Prayer)

• Matthew 6:1-8 - read this passage online here »

Have you heard the story about a minister who dies and is waiting in line at the Pearly Gates? Ahead of him is a fellow dressed in sunglasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket and jeans.

Saint Peter says to this man: “Who are you, so I may know whether to admit you to the Kingdom of Heaven?”

He replies, “I'm Joe Cohen, taxi driver, of New York City.”

Saint Peter consults his list, smiles and says to the taxi driver, “Take this silken robe and golden staff and enter through the Gates.” The taxi driver goes into Heaven with his robe and staff. 

The minister is next in line. He says, “I am Joseph Snow, pastor of Saint Mary's for the past 43 years.”

Saint Peter consults his list. He says to the minister, “Take this cotton robe and wooden staff and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

“Just a minute!” says the minister. “The man before me was a taxi driver. He gets a silken robe and a golden staff. How can this be?”

Saint Peter answered: “Up here, we work by results. While you preached, people slept. While he drove, people prayed.”

We may smile and even laugh. But the kernel of truth in the story is that we human beings want God to notice us. This is especially true when we pray. And as Jesus said to his early followers, let me say to you as well: God does notice us. In verse 6, Jesus said, “Your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.” God can’t reward someone he doesn’t notice! But God does notice us -- and rewards us, Jesus says -- when our good actions and deeds are done for the right reasons and not for the wrong reasons.

Most of us, I would think, want to know how to pray. That was true of Jesus’ first followers. In Luke’s Gospel 11:1, when Jesus had finished praying his private prayers, his disciples asked him to teach them how to pray. In the beginning of 2011, this is my prayer as well: “Lord Jesus, teach me how to pray. And, Lord Jesus, teach these wonderful people at Oriole-York Mills how to pray as well.”

In Chapter 6 of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus divides his teaching on prayer into two sections: “How Not to Pray” in verses 5-8 and then “How to Pray” in verses 9-15.” The how-to-pray section is what we call The Lord’s Prayer or the Jesus Prayer. When Jesus tells us how not to pray, he wants to free us from some widely held mistaken notions about prayer. Once we understand this, we will more fully grasp how Jesus wants us to pray by teaching his marvellous prayer to God the Father. So today, we will take time to consider Jesus’ teaching about how we are not to pray.

Jesus said: “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites! They love to stand up and pray in the houses of worship and on the street corners, so that everyone will see them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full.” Let me start with the negative. When we come before God, Jesus is clearly warning us not to make a spiritual production of praying. We are not to be theatrical show-offs, as someone said, before one another or before God. 

The literal meaning of “hypocrite” is of a performer who is doing good actions in a dramatic way so as to be noticed. Jesus rejects this kind of performing in the lives of his followers. He sets us up for his teaching on prayer by teaching first about helping people in need. This is a significant theme in Jesus’ life and teachings. Listen to what he says in verses 2 to 4 of Matthew 6:

“So when you give something to a needy person, do not make a big show of it, as the hypocrites do in the houses of worship and on the streets. They do it so that people will praise them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. But when you help a needy person, do it in such a way that even your closest friend will not know about it. Then it will be a private matter. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.”

If we go back to verse 1 in Chapter 6, Jesus tells his followers not to do the right thing for the wrong reason. “Make certain you do not perform your religious duties in public so that people will see what you do,” he said. It is not that we are not to act in good ways, in right or righteous ways. Of course, we are to give our money to help those in need. Of course we are to pray, even in public. That’s what we do every Sunday morning in our worship. We have several times of prayer in our service, including what we call the Prayers of the People. But to those who are his followers, Jesus warns them about their motives. If the religious duties they do are done with an eye on the audience, they are not acceptable before God. Jesus said it this way: “If you do these things publicly, you will not have any reward from your Father in heaven.” Our reward will come from being noticed by our human audience instead of by God. And God’s reward isn’t merely any reward. As theologian Dale Bruner, in his The Christbook Commentary on Matthew [p. 288] reminds us: “Disciples make their life goal the hearing of their Father’s approval at the Last Judgment.”

But Jesus also told his followers how to do the right thing for the right reason. Here are his words in The Message Bible:

“When you help a needy person, do it in such a way that even your closest friend will not know about it. Then it will be a private matter. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.” [6:3, 4]

The right reason has to do with how we relate to God. Jesus wants us to do whatever we do because we are eager to please God. This is meant to be so private we won’t even tell our closest friend. So Jesus instructs his followers on how they can do whatever they do – whether helping others or praying -- with integrity and focused solely on God.

When it comes to our own prayers, here’s how The Message Bible stated what Jesus said: 

“Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense [God’s] grace.”

We don’t pray for show because God wants to meet us mainly in private, by ourselves, where we can be real and honest before him.

Many people today talk as if their life -- the way they live -- is really a prayer. So they do not recognize the need to stop, find a private place and pray some words to God. In other words, they don’t think they need to take time to actually talk with God. But prayer for Jesus is far more than a general sense of God’s presence with us in life. Prayer is the attempt to say words to God in privacy – in an intimate and personal conversation. Theologian Dale Bruner [The Christbook Commentary on Matthew, p. 288] observed that, for Jesus and thus for his followers, “Prayer is to a living person – to the living God – and it is not ... a psychological mind game....” 

There is a place for praying – for saying actual words to God – when we are on the go in the midst of our tasks and activities of the day. But it is difficult to have a good conversation with someone if we are multitasking – a 21st-century term we are familiar with. Just ask my wife. When she phones me at the office, she has this unerring sense of determining if I am on the computer or reading at the same time I am talking with her. She knows when she does not have my undivided attention. God knows it too. He knows when he does not have our undivided attention. That’s why Jesus wants us to pause and to “closet” ourselves at some time in our day away from things that distract us from giving God our undivided attention even for a few minutes. In that place by ourselves with God, we can strive to be as honest as we can be with God. If we do, we will discover that God will become the focus of our very existence. And we will become less self-centred and more God-centred.

Jesus said not to pray as a performance or a show before others because God wants us to talk with him, not to the people who might be listening. And God loves a one-on-one conversation.

Jesus also said: “When you pray, do not use a lot of meaningless words, as the [Gentiles] do, who think that their gods will hear them because their prayers are long. Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need before you ask him.” When we pray, we do not have to go on and on and on, repeating our prayer over and over again, because God already knows what we need. Jesus says there doesn’t have to be a lot of words before God will hear us.

Jesus is contrasting the sort of praying that went on in much of the non-Jewish world of his day. For instance, there was the conviction that the gods were reluctant to hear prayers unless the prayers were long – long, repetitive and sometimes filled with complicated magic words meant to persuade the deities to be favourable toward those who prayed. The lengthy prayers were also meant to prove the sincerity of the petitioners. But Jesus taught that, because of the loving character of God the Father, we do not have to pray that way. That’s why Jesus told his followers how to pray (and not merely how not to pray) and he began his prayer by saying “Our Father.” But that’s next week’s message.  

It has been a while since I saw the film Bruce Almighty [Universal, 2003, directed and produced by Tom Shadyac, written by Steve Kornen and Mark O'Keef]. But when I came across the write-up of the following scene, I was drawn to it because of how prayer was treated.

Bruce Nolan (played by Jim Carrey) is a mediocre news reporter in mid-life crisis. He complains to his girlfriend that God does a poor job of running the world. He could do far better. To his surprise, God (played by Morgan Freeman) gives him the opportunity.

You guessed it: Bruce does not do a good job of playing God. After wrecking his relationship with his girlfriend, Grace, he begins to ask God for help. The turning point comes when God helps Bruce cut through the pomp and pretence and teaches him to pray about the real issues in his life.

“What do you want me to do?” Bruce asks.

“I want you to pray, son. Go ahead.”

Bruce squints his eyes and attempts a prayer: “Um … Lord, feed the hungry and bring peace to … um … all of mankind. How's that?”

“Great … if you want to be Miss America,” God responds. “Now come on. What do you really care about?”

“Grace,” Bruce says, thinking of his girlfriend.

“Grace. You want her back?”

Bruce seems surprised by his own response. “No. I want her to be happy, no matter what that means.” Bruce closes his eyes. “I want her to find someone who will treat her with all the love she deserved from me. I want her to meet someone who will see her always as I do now -- through your eyes.”

“Now that's a prayer,” God says. “I'm going to get right on it.”

Jesus wants us to be real with God -- not play games. We can’t expect any response from God by trying to impress him with fine-sounding spiritual talk because God wants to meet with us privately for a real and personal conversation. And remember, God loves us. God is not a reluctant listener. 

Jesus knows intimately that God is a lover of people. That’s why, later in his ministry [Matthew 11:28], Jesus would graciously call to people and say: “Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads and I will give you rest.” Jesus wants his followers to understand that God knows all about them – their sorrows and joys, their burdens and comforts -- and what they need in their lives. And he wants his followers to bring their various needs to God as a child would, with trust in his father. 

As a church, we have many questions about where we are going in 2011. I do believe Jesus would love to hear us say: “Lord Jesus, teach us how to pray – for our sakes, for your sake and for the sake of the world.”

May this be so for you and for me. Amen.

Rev. Chris Miller

January 9, 2011

oympastor@rogers.com

OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto

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Experience Hope This Christmas... In a Baby Born

• Isaiah 9:2-7 - read this passage online here »
• Luke 2:1-20 - read this passage online here »

Whenever I see one of those huge hummer-like vehicles parked outside a bank, I know it is delivering some serious coin. Occasionally I have watched as some big guys in uniforms with guns at their sides haul a heavy sack through the front doors. It doesn’t take much thought to know the bag is filled with a lot of money.

However, what would you think if you saw an old pickup instead of an armoured van in front of the bank and a young fellow in a T-shirt and blue jeans leaning against it? If you are like me, you might glance at it but then just walk on without any more thought. Here is how the fellow in the T-shirt and blue jeans described his experience in this true story [Roger Thompson, “Treasure in a Brown Bag,” Preaching Today, Tape 42]:

One day we got a call from Bank of America in downtown San Bernardino, and they were in a panic: “We've got to have some coin in the hour.” Well, all the armoured trucks were gone, and so Larry, my manager, backed his '49 Ford pickup into the bay. Now if Brinks ever finds out about this they're going to shoot this guy. We loaded $25,000 worth of coin in a '49 Ford pickup. That thing was dragging. That's over a ton.

Larry said: “Hop in. We're going up to B of A.”

We hopped. I'm in my T-shirt and blue jeans. We drove up to the front of the Bank of America, parked the truck, and Larry said, “Hang on, I'll go in and get the dolly, and we'll haul this stuff in.” I'm whistling, standing against this truck for twenty minutes. I don't have a gun. I thought, if anybody notices what is in this common-looking pickup truck, I'm a dead duck! Of course, you can't carry eighty pounds very far.

The treasure that people were walking by! But they didn't see it because of the commonness of the delivery people and delivery vehicle!

Every year we still carry on the custom of celebrating the anniversary of an ordinary birth in unusual circumstances – the birth of Jesus. He was delivered in the same way every other baby comes into this world. While we may wonder about how he was conceived – and that is one of the great mysteries surrounding Jesus – we don’t usually wonder about his actual birth. He came out of Mary as any other baby is born. Anyone walking by the stable that night and knowing a baby was being born might have wondered about the place of birth but not about the birth itself. It took some angels telling a bunch of shepherds and an unusual star in the sky to tell some Magi that there was treasure to be found in the simple birth of a baby called Jesus -- born in a little Middle Eastern town in a place where animals were housed. Otherwise they would have missed him.

We are now aware this baby grew to become a man whose life and teachings have influenced the world like no other. We could be somewhere else tonight but we are here in this place, perhaps because we sense that this particular baby called Jesus has treasure in him yet to be recognized by others who walk by – treasure yet to be discovered by us.

What is the treasure to be found in Jesus? Here is part of the treasure I have found.

In the Christmas story, we read of God’s love for the world. That’s Treasure Number One.

It intrigues me that Mary and Joseph did not pick the name of Jesus for their son. Most parents want to pick a name that is meaningful to them in some way. Instead, God picked a name for him that was significant to God! One of God’s angels told both Joseph and Mary separately to call the baby Jesus “for he will save his people from the condition and the consequences of their sins.” The name Jesus means “the Lord who saves.”

You see, Jesus is an expression of God’s character. Here is a good way to think about the way God works -- from creation to Incarnation to redemption, God’s work is an unfolding of God’s character. So we ask, What is the character of God shown in the Christmas story?

Like the creation of the Earth and the universe, the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus are also expressions of a most extravagant divine love. This is love that seeks beyond every river and mountain until the lost sheep is found. This is love that travels down any road of suffering and pain, of messy living and difficulties to find, to heal and to reconcile. This is love that will suffer and sacrifice everything on behalf of the beloved and that lays down his life for his friend. This is the same love that brought us into being in the first place. And in the tiny out-the-way village of Bethlehem, this same love enters into a new and more intimate relationship with human beings in the person of Jesus. “God so loved the world” that he sent Jesus so that every person who puts his or her faith in him will be reconciled to God and be brought to live with God forever. God’s extravagant love seen in Jesus: that’s the first treasure.

Treasure Number Two: We celebrate in Christmas that God became a person in order to enter into a personal relationship with human beings -- with us!

I am not embarrassed to tell you that I have a personal relationship with my wife. Our relationship is personal, intimate and loving. She loves me and wants me. I love her and I want her. Well, God also loves us and wants us for his own.

If I told you I had a “personal relationship with Jesus,” does that sound too personal and too intimate a way to express my response and devotion to him? Or to God? But the treasure of Christmas is that God became a person. In other words, our most intimate relationship with God is only possible because of the astonishing and seemingly impossible event we celebrate at Christmas: God entered into our human condition. God became one of us, capable of relating to us not merely as Creator but also as Friend in Jesus Christ. The truck driver who thinks of Jesus in the passenger seat as he rolls across the plains of Saskatchewan. The school teacher who asks Jesus for patience as she nears the end of the school day. The worker in the oil fields of Alberta who talks and jokes and argues with Jesus as he goes about his work. The disabled child who asks Jesus for the strength and courage to carry on. All of these people, whatever their background, give expression to a profound theological truth: God is not only the magnificent Creator who fashions the suns and measures the span of the heavens but also the compassionate Friend who dwells among the lowly, the humble, the contrite and the suffering.

With the coming of Jesus, we discover the treasure that our relationship with God is meant to be interpersonal. Not only is it characterized by worship and reverence but also by tender mercy and forgiveness, love and mutual understanding. With Jesus, we can know God and be known by God. With Jesus, we have footsteps in which to walk. With Jesus, we have the transformative presence and power of God with us even in our most human and most painful moments. And for that I am most grateful. God’s personal relationship with us: that’s the second treasure of Christmas that we can experience in Jesus.

Treasure Number Three: In Christmas we celebrate that God delights in using the small, the weak and the foolish things of the world to humble the great, the mighty and the wise. 

In his newest book What Good Is God? In Search of a Faith That Matters [Faith Words, 2010, pp. 184-186], author Philip Yancey tells a contemporary story that shows how the great and the mighty were humbled by the small and the weak. He wrote about the 2004 election in Ukraine in which the reformer Victor Yushchenko challenged the entrenched party and nearly died for it. On election day, the exit polls showed Yushchenko with a comfortable lead. But through outright fraud, the government reversed those results. Yancey wrote:

That evening the state-run television reported, “Ladies and gentlemen, we announce that the challenger Victor Yushchenko has been decisively defeated.” However, government authorities had not taken into account one feature of Ukrainian television: the translation it provides for the hearing-impaired. On the small screen insert in the lower right-hand corner of the television screen, a brave woman raised by deaf-mute parents gave a different message in sign language. “I am addressing all the deaf citizens of Ukraine. Don't believe what they say. They are lying, and I am ashamed to translate these lies. Yushchenko is our President!” No one in the studio understood her radical sign-language message.

[Inspired by that courageous translator, deaf people led what became known as the Orange Revolution.] They text-messaged their friends on mobile phones about the fraudulent elections, and soon other journalists took courage … and likewise refused to broadcast the party line. Over the next few weeks as many as a million people wearing orange flooded the capital city of Kiev to demand new elections. The government finally buckled under the pressure, consenting to new elections, and this time Yushchenko emerged as the undisputed winner.

Yancey further commented:

Our society is hardly unique.… [L]ike the sign language translator in the lower right-hand corner of the screen, along comes a person named Jesus who says in effect, “Don't believe the big screen -- they're lying. It's the poor who are blessed, not the rich. Mourners are blessed too, as well as those who hunger and thirst, and the persecuted. Those who go through life thinking they're on top will end up on the bottom. And those who go through life feeling they're at the very bottom will end up on top. After all, what does it profit a person to gain the whole world and lose his soul?”

In the birth of Jesus, whose young mother laid him in a manger, we see a God who delights in using the small, the weak and the foolish things of the world to humble the great, the mighty and the wise: that’s the third treasure of Christmas that should give most of us great hope!

Treasure Number Four: God showed us in Christmas what it means to give and to love. 

We human beings love to give gifts – to those who may be in need of some of the essentials of life, to those who are friends and especially to those who are family. Sometimes we even give for no apparent reason -- we give “just because.”

In the Christmas story, the Magi brought gifts to the infant Jesus. So it could well be said we give gifts at Christmas following the example of the Magi and their gift-giving. Yet the ultimate Gift-Giver in the Christmas story is God. In the first Christmas, God showed us what it meant to give. God did not give sparingly and selectively. God gave of himself in Jesus to the whole of humanity. God did not give from a distance as one song would want us to believe. God entered into the trenches with us, into the deepest pits of our fears and struggles and sufferings in order to be with us, to comfort us, to strengthen us, to heal us, to redeem us.

In setting aside his glory in coming into our world as a baby, God showed us what self-sacrifice means because of his great love for sinful humanity. When we give ourselves or sacrifice ourselves for others, when we enter into the trenches with one another, when we restore broken relationships and deepen the bonds of friendship and family, when we give even to those who have wronged us or failed us or disappointed us – when we do this, we are honouring the fourth treasure of love and giving that God showed us in Christmas.

Hear this piece of treasure from the heart of seven-year-old Bobby: “Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.”

My Christmas prayer for each of us is to listen well, to be open to God’s love, and to receive the hope, the joy and the peace God has for us in the birth of Jesus.

May this be so for you and for me -- and for the entire world. Amen.

Rev. Chris Miller

Christmas Eve, 2010

oympastor@rogers.com

OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto

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