Your Platform

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Matthew 22:36 ESV

 

As we wade deep into election season 2012, we are bombarded with the platforms of the various candidates, and how their platform is different than the other person’s platform.  In this verse the person essentially is asking Jesus, what is your platform as a rabbi? Jesus what is the most important thing for you as a rabbi?  Where is your passion at, what issue or law are you most concerned with?  Jesus’ reply was this:

 

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 22:37-40

 

Jesus’ platform is simple.  Love God, love others.  Sounds a bit simpler than what many are taught throughout religious institutions.  We are taught about laws, rules, and regulations.  We are told about special clothes to wear (or not to wear), things to say, and styles of music that are good and bad just to name a few.  When Jesus is put on the spot and asked to identify what is most central to His work and ministry, He keeps it simple, love God, and love others.  Let your life be guided less by rules and patterns, but instead by Jesus calling, love God and love others.  As simple as it may sound, these two things transform everything you do, if we really take them to heart.  It asks the question does everything I do or say reflect my love of God or love of others?  This election season, you know well what Jesus stands for, what he considers most important: love God and loving others.

 

Pastor Bill

 

Discussion Questions

1. What is your platform in life?  What is most important to you?
2. How do your priorities guide your life?
3. How do you believe your priorities compare to God’s for your life?

First Love

Do you remember your first crush, starting dating or newly married?  You may have shared a booth or dinners when out for dinner, you made homemade cards for one another, you sent candy AND flowers.  But then for most couples that time slowly comes to an end.  The home-made cards became store-bought; sharing food was not that appealing, candy and flowers are two separate gifts, if they are given at all.  Something changed once the relationship moved from new, to something normal, common, and expected.  Some of the early passion in the relationship may have gone away, or just transformed into something different.  As the passion fades, we tend to take the relationship for granted, we stop doing things to remind those we love how special they are, and sometimes forget all together the importance of that relationship is to us.  Our relationships become another task or job on our list of things to do.  We don’t do it intentionally.  Life is busy; there are bills to pay, appointments, jobs, kids, pets, other family, and all sorts of other things that pull at our time.

If we are not careful our faith and relationship with God can easily get caught up in the everyday routine.   Think about when we first become a believer and how excited we were about our faith or came home from a retreat or mission trip on a “God high”.  I know of some, who read the Bible cover to cover in days, spent hours in prayer, began to volunteer at a food pantry, only for it to continue a little while.  Then the normalcy sets in.  Their bibles start to collect dust on the shelf, our prayer time becomes three minutes before we fall asleep, and we get a little too busy to volunteer.  We find ourselves at church, but not engaged.  We pray but we don’t believe it does anything, and quickly we have forgotten our love of God, the reason we began any of this.

We are not the first people to experience this, in Revelation there is a letter to a church in Ephesus that says this from God, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” (Revelation 2:4-5, TNIV)  For the church in Ephesus, they had become so focused on “doing church” (meetings, by-laws, administration, the color of the walls) that they had forgotten that all of it should find its source and focus in our love and relationship with God.  So what is the instruction to the church?  Do what you did at first.  At first you did not have committees that fought about the budget, you simply used all that you had to care for the community.  At first you did not fight about styles and formats of worship or bulletins, you simply rejoiced at the opportunity to come together and worship God in one voice.  At first, church was a place that we came to worship God, encourage one another in our faith, and share the Good News with other.

In the midst of meetings, committees, programs, budgets, paperwork, styles, and preferences have we lost our focus?  Is our first love of God still the drive and source of all our life together as Christians?  Or is our faith becoming just one more job, one more distraction, and one more thing to do in an already busy schedule.  Let us remember our first love – God.

“Who is My Neighbor?”

Play nice with others.  Love your neighbor as yourself.  Treat others as you want to be treated.  I am sure each of us have heard or been told these as a reminder of how we are to act.  We were taught them from a young age, and may teach them now as adults to other kids.  But what does it look like, how do we do it?

A young man who thought he was really smart asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” hoping that Jesus would affirm his idea of serving his neighbor.  The young man felt that his “neighbor” was his friends, those that he is comfortable with, those that he thought and looked like.  He felt that this meant to love those who loved him, and who treated him well.  Jesus responds to the young man by telling the story of the Good Samaritan.  In this story Jesus shows that to care for our neighbors is to care for those in need, but also to show love and mercy to all kinds of people, even our enemies (Luke 10:36-37).  When the young man hears this he is shocked, and leaves Jesus speechless.

Jesus tells another story later about caring for our neighbors.  In the story (Matthew 25:31-46) there is a group of people who meet God in heaven, and God says to them, “Thank you for feeding me when I was hungry, and visiting me in prison.”  To which the flustered people say, I don’t remember ever doing that.  God simply responds to them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:40)

So what does loving our neighbor look like?  What does it mean to serve the least of these?  It means that our chances to share Christ’s love with others begin the moment that our alarm clock goes off each morning.  Patrick wakes up each morning at 5:30am to get showered and ready for his day.  Patrick’s morning are pretty full though, he drops off his daughter at school, then off to a morning work meeting, then back home to pick up his son to drop at another school, then back to work for the rest of the day.  But Patrick wouldn’t trade that time with his kids for anything, even if it makes for busy morning of driving. “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.”

Corrie works with cognitively impaired teens and adults to teach them life and job skills.  Each day is an adventure, you never know if a client will have a bad morning, have their medication adjusted, or what.  But she loves the adventure and the ministry of her work, and loves her clients deeply.  “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.”

Jesus call for us to serve the least of these is broad.  In this Holiday season, take a moment to think about who the least of these is in your life.  Perhaps it means that you send a note of encouragement to a fellow church member, invite a co-worker to lunch, or make some extra special time for a family member.  So tomorrow when you climb out of bed, hit the snooze button, or drink your morning coffee, love your neighbors, all of them.

All In

In the past few years the game of poker has dramatically risen in popularity in the United States.  The World Series of Poker is broadcast on ESPN each year.  One of the many vocabulary terms used in poker is, “all in.”  All in means that you are literally putting all your money or chips in on the hand you are currently playing.  There are a number of reasons that you can use this strategy, and one of them is confidence.  A player feels that they are able to win with the hand they have been dealt so much so that they are willing to put everything they have on a single hand with confidence they will win.  It is a bold strategy, but can reap tremendous benefits for the player if used properly.

Although poker players may have created the term all in, it is a concept that we see Jesus speak to his followers about in scripture.  Take a moment to look at John 21:15-20.  In this passage Jesus asks the disciple Peter, Do you love me?  If you have ever been asked that question by someone that you care about, you know that this question cuts deep.  When someone asks do you love me, it rattles you at the core; it can bring up feelings of hurt and confusion.  But Jesus asks this to Peter, and he replies, “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”  Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” (John 21:15 TNIV)  Three times Jesus asks this question to Peter, and we are told by the 3^rd time, “Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old…someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” (John 21:17-18, TNIV)

Jesus’ call to Peter hurt Peter’s feelings, but at its core was this simple question from Jesus, “Are you all in?”  Peter to follow me, to show you love for me is going to be hard, you are going to run into obstacles and ridicule, trust me this is not going to be easy.  So when I send you down this road, I have to ask, are you all in?  Are you willing to follow me even when it is hard, even when I ask you do challenging, uncomfortable things?  Will you put My will and My plans above your own, trusting that My plans?

God has dealt each of us a hand, filled with talents, skills, people, our church, situations, and experiences.  He tells us in His Word, that if we are faithful to his leading we will bear great fruit (John 15:5).  So are we all in?  When God tells us to serve his sheep through the children at a local school, are we all in?  When God says feed his sheep by reaching out to our neighbors, by putting more time and effort into work outside the four walls of the church, by spending time and money differently, by trying new things, are we still all in?  I believe Jesus has called us as His followers to be all in, as an act of our trust and faith in Him and His will.  I believe that God will show us things and do things that we could have never imagined, if we will follow with this kind of faith and obedience.  So when the next opportunity arises from God in your life, step out in faith, be all in for his work, because God will honor that, even if the road has a few bumps along the way.

Love Your Family

As I said good bye to by wife for a few days as she went on a trip, I quickly realized how much I appreciate her and love her.  Yet for so many of us we don’t share those thoughts with one another very often.  We don’t let those closest to us know how we feel, that we appreciate and love them, that we are blessed to have them around.  So how do we change that so our family and friends know that they are appreciated and cared for?  I might buy my wife some flowers just because, or clean the whole house to surprise her.  I might take a day off of work just to spend time with my family or friends, take them out to dinner, or to see a movie that they want to see.  We take time to thoughtfully do things that would show our affection and appreciation for our loved ones.

As I thought about this I reflected on times that I have neglected my friends and family, but then I thought what about my family at church?  Read these words from 1 John:

“We love because God first loved us. If we say we love God yet hate a brother or sister, we are liars. For if we do not love a fellow believer, whom we have seen, we cannot love God, whom we have not seen. And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love one another.” (1 John 4:19-21, TNIV)

I stopped for a moment to think, if someone asked around today would this church know that their pastor loves them?  Would they know that they are loved by one another?  Just like our own families I think it can be easy to forget to show love and affection for our church family.  We can begin to see one another as obstacles, hindrances, and frustrations, instead of people that we love deeply in our church family.

Have you ever thought about encouraging someone in the pew next to you, or reminding them that you appreciate or love them?  There are so many people that I appreciate deeply in this church because they are gifted and skilled in ways that I could only dream about.  There are others that I love because they are patient, compassionate, thoughtful, or a servant.  God commands us in this passage to love one another as part of our church family as fellow believers.

Send a card to someone to let them know you are praying for them.  Invite someone over for dinner that you appreciate and get to know them better.  Take a moment after the worship service to thank our musicians for sharing their gifts.  Be creative with this, but take the challenge seriously to encourage one another and build up this body.  God continues to bring a unique group of people to this place to do his work and be his people in this community.  Take a moment this week to let another church family member know how much you mean to them, and how much you appreciate them.

He said what?

Thursday March 25^th, 2010

This Sunday as we celebrate Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy week, we will study Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus covers a lot of topics in this passage.

One phrase that is often used is, “You have heard it said…but I say to you.”  What is really being said to us?  Jesus tells us that leaders say one thing that is not always the full reality.  Instead Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount – there is a different reality.

As we study these words, Jesus words cut to the core and speak deeply into the world that we live:

Society teaches us that we can find true happiness in money, success and material goods.   Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.“ Matthew 6:24, TNIV

People tell us to be afraid of those who are not just like us or don’t talk to people who believe things differently that you.  Jesus says, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.“ Matthew 5:44-45, TNIV

Often we are taught to be skeptical of those who may harm us or those closest to us.  We might even be taught that it is ok not forgive others.  Jesus says, “For if you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.“ Matthew 6:14-15, TNIV

At times churches lose sight of the importance in loving sinners but rather focuses on hating their sins.  Jesus says, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.“ Matthew 7:1-2, TNIV

We are taught to just be students of scripture but how often to we put scripture into action.  Jesus says, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.  But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.” Matthew 7:24-26, TNIV

Pastor Bill