Tempted: Deceived

I'm going to post the sermons from a series I did on temptation during Lent. Here's the first from March 10th.
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*Sermon Title*

In the late 60s a psychologist at Stanford University named Walter Mischel conducted an experiment in delayed gratification. They placed 4-5 year-old kids in a room alone with a marshmallow. They told the child that they could eat the marshmallow or they could wait 15 minutes without eating it and then they would be given a second marshmallow. Since the 60s the Marshmallow Test has been conducted again and again. Here is some video of one of these tests.

Have you ever felt like one of these kids? There’s something there all you have to do is reach out and take it, but you know you shouldn’t you know there will be consequences. We’re going to spend the next few weeks talking about temptation.

Temptation is something that each and every one of us faces. Feeling tempted to do something you know is wrong does not make you bad. It’s a part of a life of faith. So we’re going to talk over the next few weeks about: What is temptation? How can we resist temptation? What if I don’t resist? Because, as you all know, you cannot and will not always resist every temptation that comes. And you all know that temptation will come. It’s not a question of if you will be tempted, but when will it happen. And knowing that temptation will come…well, as I learned from GI Joe cartoons in the 80s, “knowing is half the battle.” Maybe it’s not half the battle, but it at least prepares you for the battle so that life doesn’t catch you off guard.

I want to say a word about our background image for this series. Marianthe Snyder painted this specifically for this series. I love the imagery. It is a perfect image of our faith journey. As we walk through our life temptation is sometimes just over the next hill and sometimes it’s right in front of us, and if we don’t pay attention we may miss it. But it’s always there.

Let’s look to the scripture for today. To see what God’s word says about temptation.

James 1:9-18

New Living Translation (NLT)

⁹ Believers who are poor have something to boast about, for God has honored them. ¹⁰ And those who are rich should boast that God has humbled them. They will fade away like a little flower in the field. ¹¹ The hot sun rises and the grass withers; the little flower droops and falls, and its beauty fades away. In the same way, the rich will fade away with all of their achievements.

¹² God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. ¹³ And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and God never tempts anyone else. ¹⁴ Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. ¹⁵ These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

¹⁶ So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. ¹⁸ He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.

The Letter of James is an interesting book. There is lots of scholarly debate about its origin and its intended audience. Most attribute the letter to James, the brother of Jesus. James was not one of the 12 disciples during Jesus life. He is considered an apostle, though. He became the leader of the Christian church in Jerusalem and was martyred around 62 AD because of his faith. James’ letter is addressed to “the twelve tribes in the Dispersion.” What many scholars believe is that we have a letter written by James, the brother of Jesus, the leader of the Jerusalem church, and written to Jewish Christians throughout the known world.

The letter takes on a couple of styles. Some of the letter consists of what’s known as “wisdom literature”. Those parts seek to impart what James calls “wisdom from above,” as opposed to “wisdom from below.” In other words, if we are going to live by the Spirit, we cannot live by the wisdom of this world. We must look to God’s wisdom. Most of James’ letter is what is known as moral exhortation. This is writing that urges the reader to live in a right way or to live morally. Biblical scholar Luke Timothy Johnson said that the letter of James was written to “persuade the reader to live up to the profession to which they committed.” In other words, James wanted to remind Christians what it means to be a follower of Christ and how to live as a follower of Christ.

One of the things that James is trying to teach in this passage is that temptation ultimately does not only come from outside of us. In verse 14, James says, “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.” Think about those kids sitting staring at that marshmallow. Picking it up, smelling it, licking it. Does the temptation to eat the marshmallow come from the marshmallow itself? Or from the memory of how good a marshmallow tastes and the desire to taste that creamy, sugary goodness? It is these desires, or these passions as some call them, that breed sinful actions. The Message says it this way, “We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust.” It is our own lusts and desires that tempt us.

In other words, often temptation is a form of self-deception. We seduce ourselves with promises of how good something will taste or how good it will feel. Until eventually we convince ourselves that the wrong decision is the right decision.

James expands on this thought later in the letter. Let’s look at chapter 4.

James 4:1-8

New Living Translation (NLT)

4 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? ² You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. ³ And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

⁴ You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. ⁵ What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the spirit God has placed within us is filled with envy?⁶ But he gives us even more grace to stand against such evil desires. As the Scriptures say,

“God opposes the proud
    but favors the humble.”

⁷ So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 

Our sins come from temptation, which come from our own desires. Or from the leering, seducing flare-ups of our lusts. I know lust typically has a sexual connotation, but that is just one type of lust. We can lust for power, we lust for money, we lust for people we don’t like to get what’s coming to them, we lust for our own selfish wants.

Maybe you can think about it this way – the sins of the hand begin with the desires of the heart. That being true tells us where our attention needs to be focused. If we simply wash our hands of sin, they’ll just get dirty again and again. Or if we simply ask to be forgiven of our sins, we’re not getting to the root of the problem. Instead, as James says, we have to purify our hearts.

I saw this on the twitter feed of another pastor in our conference. I don’t know if it is original to him or not, but I liked it. “Temptation is coming today...and every day. The question is whether Christ is on the throne of your heart now? Will He be your Lord today?”

That is one way we resist temptation. To make sure that Jesus is lord of our lives. That’s what James means when he says we should draw close to God. That’s what James means when he says “purify your hearts.

A few years ago Adam Hamilton, who is the pastor of Church of the Resurrection near Kansas City, spoke to a leadership conference for pastors about the 5 R’s of resisting temptation. I’m going to talk about them in a couple of weeks, but I wanted to give you the first one today.

Remember who you are! You are a child of God, a follower of Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean that we are perfect, but it does mean that we try to be better. As followers of Jesus, we strive to be like Christ, and I hope I am more like him today than I was yesterday, and will be more like him tomorrow than I am today. Remember who you are. Pay attention to God. Keep God’s word close to your heart. Pray, stay in contact with God.

Draw close to Jesus, and Jesus will draw close to you. And when Jesus draws close to you, your heart’s desire will be only God’s will. Your heart’s desire will be nothing more or less than to love God and love others.

ReDo: Renewed to Transformed

This was the last in my series on Spiritual Renewal. It was preached February 24.
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A couple of weeks ago we looked at the story of Jonah. When we left him, Jonah had just experienced his own personal revival in the belly of a fish. He tried to run from God, but he repented and experienced the renewal he needed to accept God’s call for him. So there he sits, on a beach covered in fish slobber. Ready to follow God.

Jonah 3:1-10

New Living Translation (NLT)

¹Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: ² “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.”

³ This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. ⁴ On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” ⁵ The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.

⁶ When the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes. He dressed himself in burlap and sat on a heap of ashes. ⁷ Then the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city:

“No one, not even the animals from your herds and flocks, may eat or drink anything at all. ⁸ People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning, and everyone must pray earnestly to God. They must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence. ⁹ Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.”

¹⁰ When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.

We have spent the last few weeks talking about spiritual renewal. We have talked about spiritual renewal as the Holy Spirit filling us, preparing us, and empowering us to fulfill God’s call in our lives.

But spiritual renewal is not simply an individual phenomenon. We’ve talked about renewal as a process. Spiritual renewal starts with the individual. Each one of us is called to be a minister of the gospel. Ministry is not something that is confined to people called Pastor. I had a pastor a few years ago who always introduced himself as “one of 300 ministers” of his church. That is because each of us is called to ministry.

We experience spiritual renewal when we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit and allow God to renew our hearts, to empower us to answer God’s call. We can open ourselves to the Holy Spirit by growing closer to God through prayer, studying the Bible, through worship – In other words, by devoting ourselves to walking with Jesus, to growing closer to God. As our relationship with God grows closer, we become more and more open to the leading of the Spirit. As we grow closer to God, we experience the renewing and restorative power of the Holy Spirit.

But we can’t keep it to ourselves. I said last week that renewal is not true renewal unless it spreads. I used the illustration of champagne glasses stacked on one another. As you pour liquid in the top glass, it runs down to those under it and then from those glasses to the next level. In the same way, when we are filled with the Spirit (when we are renewed), we let the Spirit flow from us to fill those around us, then from them to those around them and so on and so on.

The reason the water could go from one glass to the next is because they were connected. That is the koinōnia I talked about last week. Koinōnia, remember, is fellowship by intimate participation. It is a life and a faith lived in community. Our connection to one another is essential to our faith journey.

We experience renewal as a congregation by learning together through Bible study groups, through book study groups, accountability groups, and other ways to meet together and learn together what it means to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ. We can experience renewal by praying together. Praying for and with one another. By sharing our struggles, our hurts, our joys and our successes with one another and knowing that you will be prayed for helps to build that connection and leads to renewal. And we can experience renewal as a congregation by worshipping together. Coming together for the common purpose of praising and worshipping our creator, redeemer, and sustainer. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

To experience renewal as a congregation enables us to fulfill our mission of making disciples. Jesus gave his disciples the mission of making disciples of all nations. And that is a mission that is passed down to us. The mission statement of the United Methodist Church says, “The mission of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” So as the church, we are in the business of disciple making. And that is a twofold mission.

1)    Bringing people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Encouraging and enabling people to accept Jesus Christ as their savior from sin and death, and in doing so, to begin the journey of salvation.

2)    Teaching those who have chosen to become disciples of Jesus, what it means to live as a disciple.

Last week we talked about the second level of disciple making. This is the stage where most of us live. At some point in our lives, we realized “I am a sinner and I am helpless to do anything about it.”  And we invited Jesus to save us from sin and death. Now, whether it’s weeks later or decades later, we are learning how to live as disciples. And we do that in just those ways I mentioned earlier. We teach one another through studying together, praying together, and worshiping together.

Today we’re going to focus a little more on the first part of that mission. Bringing people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Because that’s what happens when a church experiences renewal and we allow it to flow from us into the community.

I have to point out something about this next step in the process of spiritual renewal. It looks a little different than the first two. We’ve talked about individual renewal and renewal in the church as the Holy Spirit empowering us to fulfill God’s call for us. You can think of this as the Holy Spirit working in you and in me, and working in us collectively as the Body of Christ.

For renewal to move into the community, we have to answer God’s call. So our renewal comes as we grow closer to God and it prepares us to answer God’s call to make disciples. Renewal in the community comes as we live out that call. You can think of this as the Holy Spirit working through you and through me and through us collectively as the Body of Christ.

We see this in the story of Pentecost. I’ve mentioned this story for the last few weeks because it gives us a great example of this process of spiritual renewal I’m talking about. The Spirit renews and empowers the disciples to preach as Jesus instructed them. The Spirit renews and empowers the followers of Jesus, old and new, as they dedicated themselves to learning together, praying together, eating together, and worshipping together. And then the Spirit worked through them as they took the message of Jesus throughout Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria, and then to all the world. And that message transformed the world.

We have another example of a community transformed in the story of Jonah.  We sort of skip a step in Jonah’s story. Jonah experiences a personal renewal, but look at the renewal he inspires in Nineveh. At his words, God begins a transformative work in that community. The entire city, the king, even the cows, repent and turn to God.

Will we see an entire city turn to God like in the story of Jonah? Is that thought just a fantasy? Well, the story of Jonah is probably a bit of fantasy. It is more of a moral tale than an historical account. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire. The Assyrians were known for their brutality and their cruelty. What’s important in the story of Jonah is not the facts of the story, but the truth of the story. The truth of this story is that God works in powerful ways, and God works through us. The truth of the story is that God’s message of love, God’s message of salvation, which comes through Jesus Christ can transform the world. And that message goes to the world through us.

In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus says that as his followers we are the light of the world. We should let our light shine in order to glorify God. And that is what it means to be a renewed church. It is letting the Holy Spirit work through you and work through me – work through us together – so that this community sees the light of Christ shining from this church. Not the building, but the people. That is what it means to let that renewal spread to the community in order to transform the world.

A few years ago, I was attending Edgemont across town. We had an Easter Egg Hunt. As the adults were out hiding the eggs, they noticed they had company. Several kids from some low income apartments nearby were going around picking up the eggs and taking the candy out of them. You can imagine that this upset some folks. When they noticed the kids, one of the women in charge walked over to them. Everyone braced for a confrontation.

But she didn’t do what I would’ve done. I would’ve told them to get lost. But she invited them to help hide eggs. She invited them to stay and eat with us, to have their faces painted, to get balloon animals. She asked them to go home and invite their younger siblings and neighbors. And they did.

After the egg hunt, one of the youth invited the older kids to youth group. Some of them came. One or two of them still attend 3 years later. That is what it looks like when renewal spreads the community. That is what it looks like to be light for the world.

I want to say one more thing about the story of Jonah. This is not just a story of renewal, but a story of redemption. Jonah repented and received God’s pardon. The Ninevites repented and received God’s pardon. Through faith, an entire city is redeemed. In Jesus Christ, we find our redemption. And just like Jonah, who didn’t want the Ninevites spared because of his prejudices, and just like the Ninevites who were known for their wickedness – their cruelty and brutality – we too, despite our prejudices, despite our cruelty, despite our selfishness – God offers redemption to us through Jesus.  If we believe and trust Jesus as our savior, and repent – ask forgiveness and turn from our sin – we will be redeemed.

That is the Good News we are sent to share. That despite your past, God loves you, and wants you to have eternal life. And that is a message that will transform the world.

Risen Indeed

I'm getting out of order, but I wanted to go ahead and post my Easter sermon.
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Spoilers have been a topic of conversation lately. Do you know what I mean by spoilers? When someone gives away the end or some plot twist in a book, movie or TV show. Last week, Savannah Guthrie of the Today Show caught some flak for commenting about the end of Downton Abbey’s season finale. Apparently, lots of people who had recorded the show and not watched it yet were upset.

Do you like to have things spoiled, the ending of a movie or the plot of a TV show or the twist in a novel? I’ll be honest, sometimes when I’m reading a book, I’ll read the last page when I’m half-way through. But when I do I always feel a little guilty that I spoiled the surprise.

Some people get really upset about spoilers. This is bad because we have the unfortunate combination of DVRs and Twitter. Lots of people record shows to watch them later, and lots of people watch them as they happen and then Tweet about it – sometimes as they’re watching. Then the DVR crowd gets mad because the suspense is ruined. Or the surprise is ruined.

Jesus was a fan of spoilers, but like with so many other things, most of the time his followers didn’t get it. In his three years with his disciples, Jesus spoiled the end of his story a few times. In Mark 8:31 he tells the disciples that he will suffer, that he will die, and that he will rise from the dead. He told them several times about the resurrection, but still, as we saw in our scripture this morning, they were surprised by the empty tomb. They didn’t know what to think; they didn’t know how to feel.

I think that is the way a lot of us feel about the resurrection of Jesus. We hear the stories, we read the accounts, and we look at the page and think, “Yeah, but what does it mean?”

One of the most effective ways I’ve found to read scripture, to find the meaning of scripture, is to put myself in the story. Look at the events from the point of view of one of the participants. I want to do that for our scripture from this morning. Think about the story. Put yourself there as Mary or as Peter or as John.

It has been a troubling few days – days filled with sorrow, days filled with fear and weeping. We don’t know where Mary spent the Sabbath. She spent Friday at the foot of the cross watching her friend and teacher die. But we have no record of Saturday. Maybe she went to the Temple to pray, to ask God why Jesus was taken from them, to ask God if she’d been wrong to follow Jesus.

Peter, like most of the other disciples, spent Friday running and hiding. He’d tried to watch some of Jesus’ trial, but only ended up denying that he even knew Jesus. He probably spent Friday and Saturday hiding from his shame as much as hiding from those who had Jesus arrested. Like most of the disciples, he only heard about the horror of Jesus’ death from others because they were too afraid to show their faces in public – too afraid to see it for themselves. Or maybe he didn’t want to hear, didn’t want to see – couldn’t bear to think about it.

John had been there at the crucifixion. Maybe he told Peter about it or maybe it was too much to talk about. Peter and John probably stayed in hiding on the Sabbath, afraid that they would meet the same fate as their master if they entered the Temple to worship and pray. As the sun went down Saturday, marking the end of Sabbath, maybe they considered at least going to see the tomb.

Early Sunday morning – before dawn – we find Mary on her way to Jesus’ tomb. She waited as long as she could; left almost as early as she could without breaking Sabbath laws. As she approaches the tomb, she sees the stone has been removed from the entrance. Her grief immediately turns to panic. “Oh no! Someone stole the body!” She turns and sprints back into town. She finds Peter and John and tells them what she found. Now they are panicked and they figure they’d better do something about it.

The two of them run back to the tomb – excited, scared, confused – and they see just what Mary saw. The stone is moved, the tomb is empty. Peter gets there just after John, and he goes in to get a better look. He finds the wrappings lying there empty. John enters the tomb after Peter and sees the wrappings and the cloth that covered his head folded and laid aside. John sees and he believes. Maybe they finally get it. Jesus told them he would die and he died. He also told them that he would rise again. Did he rise?

Peter, in his confusion, must wonder what it means for him. Is he even more ashamed of denying he knew Jesus? Is he excited and looking forward to a chance to apologize, a chance to redeem himself? Is he ready to see Jesus again so he can apologize or does the empty tomb fill him with dread and embarrassment?

What about John, he watched Jesus die. Jesus spoke to him from the cross – asked him to take care of his mother, or asked his mother to take care of John. And now the tomb is empty. Maybe his thoughts are practical. Do I still need to take care of Mary? Maybe his thoughts were more spiritual. Jesus said he would go to prepare a place for us – told us that we would go where he goes. Will we rise also?

And then they went home. Their panic turned to belief turned to uncertainty about what to do. Maybe they don’t know what to make of this just yet.

Mary returns to the tomb, still grief stricken, still panicked over the missing body. And now Peter and John are gone, too. Her mind must be swirling. He died, but now he’s gone, stolen body, rise again. She looks into the tomb and sees angels, but still she doesn’t quite get it. She doesn’t seem to notice that they are angels. “Where is he?” Then she realizes she is not alone outside of the tomb. She asks again, “Where is he?” She just wanted to see him again. To know where he was. To be near him.

Finally he calls her name. “Mary.” And her panic melts away, and the trouble and the sorrow of the last few days are replaced with absolute joy! She is near him. Christ is risen! She is ecstatic and she can’t wait to tell someone, just as he told her to. So she runs to town to find the disciples again. This time to tell them, “I have seen the Lord!”

What does the resurrection mean?

For Mary, the resurrection means that she can spend more time with her Lord. She can be in the presence of Jesus again. For John, it means that what Jesus said is true. He is truly the Son of God. He is light in the darkness. He is Lord. For Peter the resurrection means a chance at redemption.  A chance to start anew.

What about for you? What does the resurrection mean to you? We don’t typically recite the Apostle’s Creed in this service, but a part of that statement of faith says that we believe that Jesus was crucified and died, was buried, and rose again on the third day. We believe it, but what does it mean to believe it?

We can start by looking to Mary and John and Peter. Resurrection means that we worship a living God. It means that we can spend time in the presence of Jesus. It tells us that Jesus is who Jesus claimed to be. The Son of God – Jesus is light in the darkness. John’s gospel is the only one that begins the resurrection story in darkness. I imagine the sun breaking over the horizon just as Jesus calls Mary by name. The light of Jesus breaking into the darkness. Just as the light of Jesus breaks through the darkness of our lives. Resurrection means that, just like Peter, we have a chance for redemption.

In the death and resurrection of Jesus, sin and death are defeated. The death and resurrection of Jesus delivers us from the consequences of sin. Paul wrote in his letter to the Roman church that the “wages of sin is death.” Jesus defeated death. In baptism, we are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus. As followers of Jesus, we share his baptism. In sharing his baptism, we share his death. In sharing his death, we share his resurrection. For the believer, sin and death have no power.

So for us, Jesus has spoiled the ending. We know how the end will go. Life wins over death. Light wins over dark. Christ is risen! No matter what tragedy we are dealt, life wins. No matter what disastrous or just disappointing circumstances we face, life wins. Alyce McKenzie said this, “Knowing that, in the end, life wins, takes the steam out of our suspense and strengthens us to face whatever life may hold.” As Fredrick Buechner wrote, for the believer “Resurrection means that the worst thing is never the last thing.”

Resurrection means life wins. No matter what, the love of Jesus wins. And that is news that is so good, it has to be told. It has to be shouted. Christ is risen! Or as Mary told the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!”

Amen.