AfterWords: Walking ... into Battle

 

Ephesians 6:10-18

At the end of my time in Basic Training for service in the US Army Reserves, our platoon was put into the field one night to test our skills and to make sure we knew how to use our tools—maps and compasses, field radios, hand-grenades, M-16-A1 rifles, flashlights, and more. The platoon was divided up into squads of five or six soldiers each, and we were given a spot on the other side of the valley we had to make it to without being discovered by others who were looking for us. We did fine, even though I was going through the motions with ‘walking pneumonia’ (my sergeant made it clear—“you can go to sick bay and start the training over, or you can push on through and graduate with your platoon…”). One of the takeaways from that night is the obvious fact that our tools do nothing for us unless we use them.

Paul, writing to the church at Ephesus, wanted to share the same message with them as I learned that night in Basic Training. God gives us tools to fight against evil, chaos, and darkness. Like our world today, the same forces of evil pushed against the followers of Jesus in Ephesus. Evil can be understood as anything or anyone who works against God and the ways of God. So, those ideas and messages that encourage us to think only of ourselves, to break the rules when it suits us, to say whatever we want and however we want, to think too highly of ourselves or too lowly of ourselves—these are all evil.

Paul reminds the church of the tools we’ve been given to combat the works and voices of evil: truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, the Word of God, and prayer. Just like the tools Uncle Sam gave me to fight enemies, “foreign and domestic,” God gives us tools to fight against evil, against chaos, against darkness. The verbs Paul uses make it very clear that the tools rely on our using them—take up, put on, hold on to. We have to act. We have to put these tools to use.

We need truth—the truth of God’s amazing love for us in world where we are told constantly that we’re not good enough. Righteousness (or ‘rightness’)—to do what is right, even when it may not ‘benefit’ us, in a world that whispers to us that we should take shortcuts or do whatever gets us ahead. Peace—in a world filled with violence…violent acts and violent words. Faith (or trust)—in God’s goodness, in God’s presence, in God’s promise to work all things together for good. Salvation—knowing it is ours thanks be to God’s grace…whether we feel saved or not. The Word of God—to remind of all we know and to teach us what we need to know. And, prayer—the one thing that connects us to God.

With these tools, we combat the works and words of evil. With confidence, we can walk into battle.

Sunday, September 1, 2024
“Walking…into Battle”
Watch/Listen: HERE

AfterWords: Walking...onto the Stage

 

Ephesians 4:1-7

My son-in-law, Edgar Rodriguez, or “Mr. Rodz” as he’s known at McAllen Memorial High School, lives and breathes ‘theatre.’ He has been an actor, set-builder, and is now a teacher and director. I am amazed and astounded to see how he works with young people in high school. He is able both to see that ‘something’ inside his students and pull it out of them. The shy, timid young lady is cast in a part that taps something inside of her…and two months later she stands boldly on the stage reciting her lines. The rough and rowdy young fellow takes a part, dons the costume, and six weeks later stands before the audience composed, focused. My son-in-law takes a random group of young people, hands them a script, constructs a set, gives them costumes, and they present a work, a musical, a drama that somehow touches our hearts.

Shakespeare says, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts….” He is right. The world is a stage, and you and I are part of a vast cosmic drama being played out through history, a drama that reveals the story of God’s love for the world and enacts the redemption of this world. God is the director, his son has the lead role, and you and I the supporting cast.

Perhaps due to the accident of architecture, we often get it wrong. For some reason, we construct the buildings where our congregations gather kind of like theatres. We have rows of seats or pews filled with people all facing a raised platform…a platform where a few folks speak, read, sing, pray, and so forth. It might even feel like those who sit in the rows are observers or an audience. But, in this cosmic drama, there is an audience of one—God. All the rest of us are players. Nowhere in Scripture are we called to be ‘spectators,’ nowhere. All of us have a part to play … and that is what Paul points out in todays reading. We have received ‘gifts’—parts to play.

We receive a playbook (the Bible), a director’s guide if you will, that lays out the history of the narrative, that provides the plot. Of course, the plot is God’s unfolding redemption of the Creation…a redemption that includes you and me and all of us. The guide doesn’t give us lines to say—we get to ad lib. But, we are shown how to speak—with grace, with kindness, with forgiveness. The playbook doesn’t lay out all of our actions and turns. But, we are taught how to move—serving, helping, building. And, we are given character, persona, shape in our lives. We have often called these ‘spiritual gifts,’ but we can just as well call them costume and character. God by His Spirit gifts us with parts to play (see 1 Cor. 12:1-11).

Shakespeare gets one thing wrong: “…and all men and women merely players….” In God’s drama, there are no “merely.” Every player matters, every character is important, every gift given is done so with purpose. We are players in God’s cosmic drama of redemption. Every Sunday we gather, we greet, we serve, we learn, we sing, we read, we pray, we hear God’s word—yet, all of this on Sunday is a dress rehearsal for playing out this redemption drama in our daily lives: at home, at school, at work, in the streets, at the stores, in the restaurants and bars, in the parks.

Silence on the set. Lights. Action! Let us live our part in the story of redemption today….

Sunday, August 25, 2024
“Walking…onto the Stage” (Also, “Walking…for the Long Haul”)
Watch/Listen: HERE

AfterWords: “Walking…Together in a Straight Line”

 

Ephesians 2:19-22

When I was a young teenager, I had the chance to help crew a yacht in an informal regatta. The boat was a 52’ ketch named So Long…fast, fun, beautiful. After the owner, Don Atkinson, had the boat out of the bay and in the open sea, he offered to let me steer. That and then is where I learned some important lessons. Our heading was 240 degrees—WSW. With no landmarks, it’s hard the keep the boat going in a straight line. With the currents, waves, and wind pushing from various directions, it’s hard to keep the boat going in a straight line. Focusing on the clouds on the horizon doesn’t work—they are constantly shifting and moving as well. The only way to move in a straight line is to keep an eye on the compass mounted by the wheel. Once I figured that out, all I had to do was to glance down at the compass every now and then, and make the small corrections I needed to make.

The church—the family of faith—also must make corrections and make sure they are going in the right direction. Paul uses the metaphor of a building in his letter to the Ephesians. On one hand, this is a bit ironic since Christians didn’t build church buildings until after the 3^rd Century. Until then, Christianity was illegal and no town or city had a “church” as we think of it today. The church in Paul’s writings—in all of the New Testament—is always a reference to the gathered people of God in Christ Jesus, never a building. But, the church—the Jesus people—in Ephesus were very familiar with buildings. The city was growing and thriving on the eastern edge of the Roman Empire. So, buildings were going up.

Paul references the absolutely important role that the ‘cornerstone’ plays in building a structure in the 1^st Century. Three sides had to be smooth, flat, and each side perpendicular to the other sides. One surface ensured a level floor, a smooth foundation...and this made the roof right as well. One side provided the measure for a straight wall—both as it stretched out and as it stretched up. The other side for the other wall. Without a 'true' cornerstone, the building would be ‘off,’ and maybe even unsafe.

As Paul teaches us, Jesus is our cornerstone…and our compass. As a congregation, we must come again and again to the Cornerstone and make sure we’re building a true church. We must come together and glance at the compass and make sure we’re going in the right direction. Not only does this apply to the gathered family of faith but also to us as individuals. We need to check ourselves. We need to make those small corrections to ensure we’re true to how Jesus calls us to live and minister.

Our Sunday gatherings, our worship services, are a time we come together and set our lives—family and individual—by the cornerstone of Jesus as we sing hymns and song of worship, as we join our hearts in prayer, as we hear the public reading of Scripture, and we listen to the proclamation of the Good News. All of these provide our weekly check-up…our measure by the Cornerstone…our glance at God’s compass to ensure that we are walking together in a straight line. Let us gather again and again and again…that we might build in our fellowship that temple for God that Paul refers to, that we might keep this ship going in the right direction.

 

Sunday, August 18, 2024
“Walking…Together in a Straight Line”
Watch/Listen: HERE

AfterWords: "Walking...with Purpose"

 

From Ephesians 2:1-10

In Paul’s relatively brief letter to the Ephesians, he mentions ‘walking’ at least eight times. As we read this week’s passage, we come upon two of his mentions—how we do not want to walk and how we do want to walk.

Paul begins by reminding his readers that before we came to Jesus, we walked in “sin.” The word Paul uses here for sin is the Greek word hamartia – a term often associated with archery that means to miss the mark. We walked, yes, but we did not get where we were going. We walked as we often do--in circles or we meandered aimlessly…without real purpose. In our 21^st Century world, we often find ourselves sucked into that circular walk of consumerism. Others walk forward passionately without a clear destination in mind. No matter what it is that occupies our walks, it is not the walk that God calls us to—we miss the mark.

Ephesians 2:8 is probably one of the best-known verses in the New Testament: “For by grace you have been saved through faith….” God’s grace—the undeserved, unearnable agape love and favor of God towards us—is the very thing that saves us from an aimless or circular walk. As Paul indicates, we must respond to that grace—and that response comes through faith. God uses that moment of response to save from the chaos of our lives, to shine His light into our lives, pour out peace into the craziness of our worlds…and to start us walking in the right direction.

At that moment we respond in faith, we are remade. Ephesians 2:10 tells us clearly that “…we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Everyone who responds in faith is given a clear purpose: We are to do “good works.” We are to do good, to shine light in the darkness, to bring peace to others.

Too often, people think they do good to earn God’s favor, to get God’s attention. No. We have already received God’s favor, God’s grace, and we have responded in faith. Now, we spend our lives doing good in every way we can. We live our lives doing good—in our homes, in our schools, in our businesses, in the park, in the grocery store…everywhere! We do good. And, if anyone asks why, the answer is simple: “Because God has been good to me.”

Perhaps this call to do good, this basic purpose in our lives, led John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, to encourage us  to “Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.” Amen.

Sunday, August 11, 2024
“Walking…with Purpose”
Watch/Listen: HERE

AfterWords: “A Story of … Moving Forward”

 

The ‘Great Commission’ passage at the end of Matthew’s Gospel (28:16-20) provides us with a plan for moving forward, for living out the Christian faith. But….

But, we often overlook something striking, surprising. Jesus has lived his life on Earth. He has ministered, taught, healed, suffered, died, and been resurrected. He is now ready to move this “kingdom of God” message from the Judean/Galilean lands to the rest of the world. The Commission sends his followers “into all the world.”

But, his followers. If we were going to start a world-wide movement, if we were looking to teach and make disciples around the world, we would want the best, the most passionate and devoted to the cause. Yet, who does Jesus have? He has “eleven” disciples. Not ten; not twelve – eleven.

Eleven is an odd number—numerically and metaphorically. The Bible reveals numbers that are special, important: three, five, twelve, forty. Forty disciples would be so much better—more to go into the big wide world awaiting them. Twelve would be the minimum, but with Judas gone, now Jesus has only eleven. If they were to go out two-by-two as he had sent out disciples before, there would be an odd man out. Ugh. Eleven…

And, not even all eleven are on board: “…some doubted.” What did they doubt? Perhaps they doubted this was really Jesus. Maybe (probably!) something seemed very different about him. Perhaps they doubted this mission to the world—doubted if it would be embraced, doubted their own ability to do this. But, they doubted. In short, Jesus has a less-than-ideal group to send out.

However, there is something about this group that does stand out. There is something about this group that speaks to Jesus and speaks to us today. In fact, we quickly realize that we are not too different from this group. We are not a ‘perfect’ group of Jesus-followers ourselves. And, if we are honest, we gather on Sunday with our own doubts: Is God going to work in my life? Can God save my marriage? Will following Jesus actually change anything in my life? We are not too different from those disciples. But, we, too, have that something that stands out in Matthew 28.

What is that ‘something’? They show up. After all they’ve been through, they show up. Even though they get the message second hand to go to the mountain (the women tell them), they show up. Even though their worlds have been turned upside-down, they show up. And, that is what you and I do each week: we show up. More than anything Jesus asks us to simply show up. When we show up, Jesus can use us to build his kingdom. When we come to worship—even with our doubts, Jesus will use us, send us, entrust his sacred message to us.

This is good news for us! We do not have to be the best. We do not have to be perfect. We do not have to have it all together in our minds. We just need to show up…and Jesus will receive us.

Sunday, August 4, 2024

“A Story of…Moving Forward”

Watch/hear sermon HERE

AfterWords: “A Story of … Love”

Would we like to change the word with one order, one command? We hear commands and orders all our lives—small attempts to change the world around us, perhaps: “Make your bed;” “Eat your veggies;” “Be at work by 10am.” In Matthew 22, we hear more commands: “Love God;” “Love your neighbor.” How in the world can someone—even God—command us to ‘love’?!?

First of all, for us English-speakers, ‘love’ is a feeling. Second, we love so many things in so many different ways: We love pizza, the new Marvel movie, that fancy car, our girlfriends/boyfriends/ spouses, our mothers, and our country. We do not have a clear understanding of ‘love’ because we use the one word to indicate our very different relationship to things, people, and country!

The Greeks of the 1^st Century used different words to describe or indicate their different relationships. Greek has four words that we usually translate as ‘love’—but maybe we shouldn’t . Eros is a feeling of attraction, physical desire, associated often with visible beauty. Phileo indicates the camaraderie among friends, a positive brotherly/sisterly relationship. Storge reveals a familial connection and commitment, that “blood bond.” And, agape is selfless behavior; putting others first; showing kindness not based on feelings; giving of oneself without expectation of anything in return. This agape is the word that we find in Matthew’s Gospel.

When we realize that we are not commanded to have a feeling but to act in a particular way—selflessly, putting others first, with kindness (in spite of feelings), self-giving—then we begin to wrap our minds around these words…and we can begin to live them out. We’re commanded to act, not to feel. I deny myself and give part of my time, part of my day, to God in prayer, devotion, Scripture reading, or worship. And, I act with kindness towards my neighbor regardless of how I feel. We do these things because when we do, we take another step towards being fully human as God intended. Wesley (founder of Methodism) says that living into these commandments is moving towards “Christian perfection”—being who and what God created us to be, living into the “image of God” (Gen. 1:27).

So, back to changing the world with a command. When we give ourselves to God, when we agape God, when we say ‘no’ to ourselves and ‘yes’ to God for just a few minutes each day, we are allowing God to change us. Each encounter with God—through prayers, worship, Scripture reading—changes us somehow, shapes our lives in so way. Likewise, every time you and I speak with grace, do any small act of kindness, allow someone else to have priority, they are changed. Through agape, you and I become conduits of God’s grace and instruments of change in this world.

When we live into these commandments, you and I begin to change this world. Living out agape in our lives—towards God and neighbor—changes the world. Be a world changer today.

Sunday, July 28, 2024

Watch or listen: "A Story of ... Love"

AfterWords – “A Story of … Discipleship”

 While much of the Christian life is ‘doing,’ at times we are called to change our thinking. “Let this mind be in you…,” Paul writes. In this Sunday’s reading (Matthew 16:24-26), Jesus is calling us to think differently. After all, this is a call to discipleship, and a disciple is a student. So, time to learn to see ourselves and the world differently.

“Deny yourself.” This is a conscious decision because our natural tendency is to think of ourselves. Whether our lives are difficult (‘Woe is me…’) or we think we’re king/queen of the world (‘Woah! It’s ME!), we tend to think about ourselves. Jesus is calling us to think outside of ourselves. While the world calls us to ‘be true to yourself,’ Jesus calls us to be true to him. One way to deny ourselves is to ‘flip’ this call: affirm others. When we get outside of ourselves, what is rotten in our lives doesn’t look so rotten; our self-absorption is replaced by the joy of tending to others.

“Take up your cross.” This clause is so misread today. While we think of Jesus and his decision to go to the cross, the disciples heard something very different. When they heard these words, they were reminded of the brokenness of their world—a world where crosses were part and parcel of daily life. One school of wisdom teaches that we should see the world from the perspective of “the glass is already broken”: Everything we have or own will break, will fail, will fade, will be scratched. How freeing to realize this so that when the moment comes, we aren’t surprised. Jesus calls us to see that “our lives are already over.” When we own our own mortality, we can let go and enjoy the reality of here and now. We are set free, in a way, to live life with joy and enjoy the people and world around us.

“Follow me.” Following Jesus today is different from how the disciples did this in the 1^st Century. Today, we follow Jesus by aligning our lives with his, with his words and actions, with his way of being. Another way to think of following Jesus is to really internalize his teachings and his life by reading Scripture, participating in worship, fellowshipping with other followers of Jesus, praying, and by serving and teaching others.

All of this—denying self, taking up the cross, and following—are a way to know and lay hold of life. In doing these things, we really begin to live life as God intended. Affirming others, recognizing the transience of this life, and internalizing the life and teachings of Jesus provide the foundations for seeing the world from a truly Christian perspective. Let’s determine to think these ways….

 

Sunday, July 21, 2024

A Story of…Discipleship

AfterWords - "A Story of ... Following Jesus"

Often, when we see or hear about something, what we saw or heard becomes the standard or the pattern. If we go to a particular Thai restaurant a few times, that becomes the standard for all Thai restaurants for us. If we hear that a friend or family member has a particular experience at a new store we’ve never been to, their experience becomes the standard or pattern for what we think we should expect when we go there.

In the same way, we’ve made some of the Biblical stories patterns for the Christian life…and we may have done people a disservice in doing so. Paul’s “Damascus Road” experience, his dramatic conversion complete with ‘sound and lights,’ has become for many the pattern for how to come to Christ. But, Scripture does not bear that out. In fact, we don’t see anyone else coming to Jesus in such a dramatic way. If they had, I’m fairly confident they would have told that story somewhere along the way.

Likewise, in the Gospels, we see the dramatic response of Peter and Andrew, James and John, as they drop their nets, their work, their families—everything—and follow Jesus. While some certainly have “Damascus Road” experiences and some do leave everything to follow Jesus, the vast majority of us have relatively “tame” conversion experiences, and we follow Jesus in a very different way.

What does it mean “to follow Jesus”? For the first disciples, it meant getting in line physically behind the Master and walking the roads of Judea. For 21^st Century disciples, it more often means getting up in the morning, breathing a prayer of gratitude and asking God how we might live as Christians in our families, at work, in the classroom, at the park, or wherever it is we find ourselves that day. Following Jesus is not so much about walking a geographic path as it is aligning ourselves with Jesus and all he showed us through his life and teachings. For us today, following Jesus is living daily lives of goodness, kindness, and gratitude; speaking words of hope, grace, and peace; taking time to listen, help, and serve others.

How will you respond to Jesus’ call today: “Come, follow me”?

Sunday, July 14, 2024

A Story of…Following Jesus

AfterWords – “Writing New Stories”

 

    Our lives are stories. Some chapters move and flow; some chapters seem stuck or slow. We write characters into our lives, and we write characters out of our lives. Our parents wrote the early chapters of our lives, taught us how to write along the way, and by the time we moved into adolescence, we were taking the pen from their hands and beginning to write our chapters. Once we had the pen in our own hands, our lives were our own…for better or worse.

     We have written some really nice scenes or chapters into our lives—some things we did well, some conversations that were fun, thoughtful, life-giving. We discovered some good characters to include in our stories. But, we also have chapters of regret. We have woven some damaging scenes into our lives, and we have written some bad characters into our lives. Inevitably, we come to points in life when we realize that past scenes and actions have captured us and hold us back. We recognize that some of the characters we’ve written into our lives need to get out, and we don’t know how to write them out. All is not lost.

     The writer of Hebrews refers to Jesus as “the author and finisher of our faith” (12:2). Could it be that now is the time to invite the Author into our lives again, to share the pen with him, to allow him to guide us into writing new and better scenes, fresh conversations, and to write the bad characters out of our lives? We already know what kind of tale we get when we do all of the writing ourselves. Now, today, let us invite Jesus, author and finisher of our faith, to join us in our life-story, to help us write new stories…stories of meaning and purpose and direction, stories that others can watch unfold and can celebrate when we’re gone.

"Writing New Stories" 
 Sunday, July 7, 2024