Revelation 12: 7-12 Michael and the angels...we play a part in this too

Revelation 12: 7-12

    I have a quiz for you. It should be easy cause there is only one question. How many of you have heard the story of how the devil came to be? I think I will be more specific; how many of you have heard the story that the devil used to be an angel in heaven. He became very powerful and at some point, he planned to go up against God with other rebel angels and God through Satan out of heaven and banished him to hell and that is how Satan came to be. If you believe that story, you are not alone. That story has been told many times over the years. It has even been used in movies.  

    There is a surprise about this story that some of us might know. This story about how Satan came to be is not in the bible. In fact, it is not in any scripture writings. This story comes from the author John Milton in his book “Paradise Lost.” This book is a classic in literature and it might be easy to think that it came from scripture. In our reading of Revelation today, it may seem that Milton’s story came right out of this reading. It would make sense being that we are hearing this story of a dragon being slayed by Michael; and this large battle taking place and Michael and all the angels knocking this dragon down to earth. That is great news that the dragon has been cast out of heaven. Heaven no longer has to worry about this accuser.

    What may seem like the bad news is that now that accuser has reached the earth. There is no other place for this dragon to go but down. unfortunately, it is not far enough down because the dragon is now here and so are we. So, have you seen any dragons lately? I have not. I mean I heard about “puff the magic dragon” and Pete’s Dragon when I was a kid, but never saw one. Our Scripture tells us that the dragon has another name; and that name is Satan...the Devil. In the Greek, the word that we have translated into Satan or evil is the word “diabolos” or “Diabolical.” We have heard these words before.

    Now we have to contend with this evil here because God has kicked evil out of heaven. There was no place for evil in heaven; there was no place for diabolical behavior among God’s kingdom in heaven. for that we can rejoice, right? Evil is defeated and we can all go home...well...not quite because that means there is evil here in this world, doesn’t it? When we begin to ask the question I asked earlier, “have you seen any dragons” the answer was a laughing “NO.” But when I ask the question, have you seen evil in the world the answer is quite different. It would probably take us about two minutes to come up with that list and we could still be writing into next week. We all are good at pointing out what we believe to be evil in the world. It seems like, through this reading, that we are left to clean up the mess. Does anyone feel like saying “thanks God” in a sarcastic way?’ I can’t say that I don’t.

    This scripture is not about where the devil or evil is. It is not even about who is left to clean up the mess. This reading from revelation is about the defeat of evil and the defeat of Satan. We hear this story of how Michael and his angels do battle with a dragon and it is defeated. This story is about a victory over what is diabolical and what is evil. We are hearing that there is no room for evil in God’s kingdom. We hear of Michael’s courageous battle against this thing that might seem to be so impossible to defeat but yet it is defeated and cast out.  

    What did Michael and his army use to cast out this strong, ferocious animal and army? It was the blood of the lamb. Imagine that, picture this “little bitty lamb” is able to defeat this animal that is portrayed in movies to be huge, fire breathing, intimidating, and unstoppable. That is quite an image isn’t it. But we know that this image of the dragon is Satan, then we must also know that this image of the little bitty lamb is none other than our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Michael and his army did not have light sabers, swords, laser beams or missiles; they had the body and blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son. they had the words of his teaching, the actions of his love, and they had the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross to show us that God is the one who has the last word.

    It is this blood of the lamb who was given for you and me, but also for God’s eternal kingdom. Jesus’ sacrifice was for all people for the forgiveness of sin and brokenness. The death and resurrection of Jesus was for all of us and it was unconditional...freely given as a gift to us all; not so that we could go out and intentionally sin and then think, “God has to forgive me” but so that we live our lives in gratitude for what God has first given us. The gift of offering and/or seeking forgiveness when we say or do things that hurt one another. See, a part of this story is that victory of Sin, death, and the devil has already occurred through Christ on the cross.

    There is another part of this scripture. “Woe to the earth and the sea” says our scripture. It is that part where we say thanks God. We know that sin and evil is in this world. I have already said that we can be real good at finding it and pointing it out. The Bad news is that evil is already here in this world, we have seen it in television, our news, malls, schools...you name it we are seeing it. It feels like we are living out the part of this scripture reading that says this dragon’s “great wrath” is upon this earth; it seems to everywhere we turn, we see shootings, starvation, you name the wrath and it feels like it is here.

Just like the dragon is here on this earth there is something else that is also here; that is victory. Michael did not do all this work by himself. Michael had angels helping him out. Who do you think those angels were? I believe they were those saints who have gone before us proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. They were the faithful people of Israel who were delivered from captivity and proclaimed and worshipped the God who freed them.

So what does that mean for us? We, too, are workers in the kingdom of God. Martin Luther proclaimed that are all sinners who fall short of the Glory of God, even though we are children of God who is perfect in every way. We have the ability to rise up when we see evil and stand against evil. We have the ability to carry on what Jesus taught us in loving our neighbor and living out God’s love in our daily lives.

We also have the same weapon that Michael had...we have the blood of the lamb. That “little bitty lamb” is more powerful than we could ever imagine. This little lamb went to the cross for our sake and for all who have gone before us...to save us from sin and from ourselves. We, too have been given the gift of the body and blood of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ; for forgiveness, compassion, grace, and mercy. When we are hurt by our actions or the actions of others, we have the gift to seek and offer forgiveness. When we see evil, we have the power to not let evil and wrath guide our lives. Each one of us has the power to work and live together as God calls us to live in grace, compassion, and mercy; for our neighbors AND for ourselves.

 Today we give thanks for Michael and all the angels who have gone before us in living and proclaiming their faith in Jesus Christ and in God. We give thanks to all those who have lived and died in the past, present, and in the future. This is a day for us, as we give thanks to all the angels, that we examine our lives and how have we lived and how do we die each day living in the faith...in our faith in God and in Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord: AMEN

Luke 16: 1-13 What parts of who we are do we give to God?

            Okay, so we are going from two of my favorite parables last week to one that leaves me a little confused and I might say troubled. Here, we have the parable of the “poor manager.” This manager has been “squandering” the rich man’s property. Sometimes I start over-analyzing things; just from this statement that Jesus tells us that this manager has been dishonest for some time. How could this rich man not know? I mean, I would think that the rich man would be keeping an eye on his own wealth, right? I mean in modern times you can never know who is out to get your money, but there is always an underlying suspicion.

            The story goes on that the rich man finally found out and gets ready to fire the manager. It is time to audit the books. Now, there is going to be trouble. This manager stole what was not his and now he will pay the price. That is justice right? If you get caught stealing then it is time to pay the price. The manager does not even bat an eye; he figures that if he is gonna go down, he might as well go down BIG TIME! So he reduces the debts of two other debtors to the rich man. He cuts one debt in half and then the other by 20%. This manager figures that he needs to make friends among the people that he will have to live with now that he will no longer be a manager.

            This position of manager must have put this person in some tough spots. Think about it, he is doing the bidding of the rich man. He needs to make sure that the rich man’s wealth is increasing. I am sure that he is not eating with the workers of the estate. After all, he is the right hand man of the rich person. So I bet that he had a lot of perks with the job and now he will have to live among the people that he was bossing around. He may have gotten some of them mad at him because our Gospel reading says that “charges were brought against him.” Who turned him in…maybe the workers? So he was not the most popular person.

            The troubling part is the reaction of the rich person. Instead of calling the police or authorities, the rich man commends the manager. That is the most confusing part, for me. This whole notion of justice and what would seem to be proper (by calling police) does not seem to apply to this whole situation and this can be confusing. This manager is commended for reducing debts that are not his to reduce. These are bills that the people went into knowing that they would have to be paid back.

            Have you noticed that this is all revolving around one thing: money. This parable is about money and it is an uncomfortable issue to talk about. I don’t like talking about money at all. It makes me squirm, and get all nervous, and believe me, if I could, I would much rather be talking to you about the never-ending love of God and happy stories in the bible than be speaking to you about this particular story. It might make you uncomfortable hearing about money in today’s reading. This parable might leave you just as confused as I am that a wasteful manager is praised for reducing debts.

            While this might be uncomfortable, it is important to talk about. Here is why it is important; because Jesus sees what’s going on. He is seeing that people in his time are selling themselves into slavery so that they can earn a living. He sees shrewd business people that might not be so honest. He sees that there are people suffering and don’t have enough to eat. Jesus sees that there are people working hard to make ends meet and still struggling to put food on the table and to have a roof over their heads. He sees that people allow debts to rule their lives; meaning, you owe me and I am going to get what’s mine. These debts are not always paid with money but with the oil, and the wheat. That was their currency at the time.

            Once again, it is ironic how the more things change, the more they stay the same. Look at our society today. What rules our society? It is pieces of metal and pieces of paper. There was a song in a play and the phrase was “money makes the world go around…” Our society runs on money. Everywhere you look, everything has a price. Look at our government, they are arguing over money! There is talk of shutting down the government, debt ceiling arguments…and it is all over money. There are studies that point out that most couples have more fights about money than any other issue. So we know that money is important. It gets us what we need to survive, to maintain our obligations, and yes to have fun.

            This parable does to the heart of what Jesus is saying in the last verse. He says we cannot serve God and wealth. Jesus is pointing out that we get so tied up in having money and having things that it takes over our lives. We put so much emphasis on having this paper and metal that we allow it to decide for us what we do, who we know, who are our friends, and who are our enemies. We allow this little piece of paper to determine whether we are going to have a good day or a bad day. The truth is that we give this so much power that we lose what is important in this world.

            I want to make it clear, I do not believe that money is the root of all evil. Money is necessary. We need it to pay our bills and to do the things that we want to do. The problem is that we can easily get carried away with keeping an eye on this thing called money. We can become obsessed with making sure that we get what we are owed and trying to keep as much of it as we can. Not one of us is immune from this because we all are concerned with our world and the possibility of losing what we need to survive.

            So where is this hope that is in this parable? What Good News is Jesus telling us in the parable? I believe that there is an immense amount of hope. There is hope in knowing that we can serve the God who delivered the people from slavery in Egypt and brought them to the Promised Land. There is hope in serving the God who has sent a son into this world to see where we go astray and does not abandon us; but, continues to invite us to the table of forgiveness from our debt of sin (where the penalty is death) and gives us the gift of everlasting life.

            This parable is troubling because it calls us to look at our lives as disciples. Does being a disciple of Christ mean that we put our faith only in the God of deliverance and grace? Is being a disciple handing over every aspect of our lives; and when I say every aspect I mean our prayer lives, our social lives, our personal lives, and EVEN our checkbooks? Being disciple of Christ means handing everything and I MEAN EVERYTHING over to God. Being a disciple means being uncomfortable and giving it all over to God to guide us in our decisions, all of them. When we give all that over to God, we free ourselves from the bondage of our decisions, social pressures, and coins.

                 Friends in Christ, Jesus, our Lord and Savior tells us that we cannot serve God and wealth. Thanks be to God that we have a God that is kind, gracious, full of mercy, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love: AMEN

Luke 15:1-10 Doing the Outrageous...thanks be to God

I have to say that out of all the parables that Jesus tells, these two might be my favorite parables. Parables are stories that Jesus uses to make people think. They are teaching tools and he uses them to teach us about ourselves and about God. I love these two parables for many reasons. In these parables there is talk about a celebration…a party and who does not like a good party!

These parables talk about something that is totally outrageous. They are the parables of the “lost sheep” and the “lost coin.” What is outrageous is that Jesus begins asking “Which one of you…” His question implies that there is one of us, somewhere, that might leave the 99 sheep to go find the one that is lost. Then his story about the woman who lost the coin; “which one of you…” would throw a party, invite your friends, have food, and drink because you found a coin. Oh and by the way, spend that coin, most likely, on the food for the party. Which one of you would do that?

I think the practical answer would be that none of us would do that. It makes no sense! Why would you turn around and spend money, probably kill the fatted calf because you found one sheep that was lost, risk the lives of the other 99 sheep for that one sheep. It just does not make any sense to go to all that trouble to throw some party because you found one thing that may seem insignificant. I mean, when we clean the house and find a quarter under the couch cushion, how many of you invite the neighborhood over for a bar-b-que or a party? I don’t, I put it in the coin jars we have at home to save for a nice night out for dinner. It makes no sense does it?

But Jesus is telling us something about God. Jesus is teaching us that God would do something that seems so outrageous. God would go to any lengths to find that one lost sheep, coin, or child. You see, the most important thing Jesus is telling us is that being lost is a serious matter. Being lost is not to be looked at as “oh they’ll come back, just wait and see.” It is not something to be taken lightly. Jesus is telling us that being lost means that we are separated from God, our creator. It means that we are separated from the love of God and all that God has to offer.

While this throwing a party seems to be outrageous for us, Jesus is telling us the extent of God’s love. Jesus tells us that for God, this is not outrageous behavior. He is telling us that God will go out and leave those 99 sheep to find the one lost. He will bring that sheep home and there will be a big celebration, a party where everyone can rejoice that the lost one is found. God will go to the extent of finding that lost coin and throw a huge party. The reason is that all that was lost has now been found and brought home to share in the fellowship, promises, and love of God.

That is one of the most important things to know about God. God will do the outrageous in order to make him be known to us. God will go to the extreme that we might never think about to make sure that God is revealed to us as a caring God, a loving God, and one who gives everyone value. God will go to the extreme of allowing his only Son to sacrifice for our sake. Jesus Chris, God’s only son died on a cross of shame for us, you and me, so that we would know how much we are cared for and loved, despite our sin and brokenness. Jesus rose on the third day so that, once again, we are reminded that God is the one that always and forever gets the last word. Isn’t that something to rejoice in and throw a party for? Isn’t that a reason for us to do something outrageous and celebrate!?

Notice I have not said much about being lost. What does it mean to be lost? We can sit here and think and say to ourselves that “being lost does not apply to me.” What do we think of when we say we are lost? Some of us might look to the alcoholic or a drug addict, or even a poor person and think, “They are lost.” But lost can also look very differently. Is it possible that parents whose children are so wrapped up in keeping schedules because they want their children to have all these opportunities- could they be lost? The person who is so focused on their career that they sacrifice their personal lives- could that be lost? People who work at their jobs and hate their jobs but do it to provide for their families- could that be what lost looks like? Seniors or teens who feel like they aren’t useful or have anything to offer- could that be what lost looks like? What about people who are constantly asking “have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior- could that be what lost looks like?

Believe it or not we are in a time where we all, as church, might be lost. Think about it. Our numbers are getting smaller and church seems to have lost its appeal. People are finding other things and reasons to occupy their Sunday mornings. We can mourn the days when the pews were full of people. I said before that the church is changing and we are at a good and scary time to be church because some of the things that we have done before do not seem to be working anymore. But we can all relate to that feeling of being lost, whether it is as church or in our individual lives. We know that feeling, we can relate to that sense of being lost.

Today we can bring all those feelings of being lost here to the table, to the Lord’s Supper. For it is at this table and in this cup where our feelings of hurt, pain, and loss are contained; it is in this bread and wine that God’s most outrageous act was committed. It was and is the act of ultimate forgiveness. It is the outrageous and crazy act of God showing us that we are loved and have worth.   

So isn’t it time for us to do something outrages? If Jesus is our teacher and we are learning that God is willing to do the outrageous, then why can’t we learn from that? Why can’t we reach out to the people that we have not seen in a while and invite them back to church? It is not just the pastor’s job to reach out. As Disciples of Christ it is all of our jobs to reach out to our family and friends whom we have not seen and invite; and when they come to church we can celebrate that one of God’s children has come home, has been found again. Isn’t it time to do the outrageous and celebrate, with a meal, our commitment to next year’s ministries of the church?

I am speaking of our work on a Stewardship program for this year. This program is about doing the outrageous and making the effort to understand that our giving is not about keeping the doors open for another week or another year; but it is about celebrating the blessings that God has given us and sharing those blessings with the church. It is about our financial commitments for the coming year and understanding that our commitments are biblical. It is a form of worshipping the God who created us and sustains us through our faith and in our world with all that God has created. This Consecration Sunday ends with our commitment and we do the outrageous by celebrating with a meal.

Could you imagine what our worship services would look like if we started celebrating, every Sunday someone who came back, or celebrated the fact that we are all here one more time together. Imagine our Party Budget line item if we started celebrating in outrageous ways.

Jesus tells us about God, teaches us about God and shows us that God is willing to do the outrageous. If we are God’s children, and we are, then can’t we be God’s hands and feet in teaching, showing God’s outrageous love in this world: AMEN

Luke 14:25-33 Discipleship; what does it mean?

            Well, isn’t this a fine way to start a rally Sunday; a Sunday that we celebrate the beginning of another Sunday school season. The words are the kind that will just…let’s face it, these words are horrible. “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, brother and sister, wife and children, yes, even life itself cannot be my disciple.” What kind of love and care is that for Jesus to say? Is this all about hate? What kind of Jesus is this that tells us that in order to be a disciple of Christ we must hate?

            This Gospel reading is not about hate. This is about upsetting the norms and standards that applied to Jesus times. In the first century, everything was determined by family and community. The first born got many of the privileges, inherit the Father’s business, farm. The children carried on the Father’s legacy and profession. Family determined what you did and who you were. It makes sense because it is in the Ten Commandments, “honor your Father and Mother.”

            While we are to honor our Mothers and Fathers, there is one commandment that is above them all. That Commandment is to Love God with all our heart, mind, and soul. See, Jesus is pointing out that the people of Jesus time can tend to take things to the extreme. While honoring Mother and Father, they can tend to idolize parents or parent figures and there may even be an expectation of idolization; whether it is the community or the parent.

Jesus is not talking about hate, but he is asking…no…telling people to stay focused on who is the one to be loved with all our heart, mind, and soul. He is telling the people that discipleship is remembering who it is that created the heavens and the earth and all that is within it. Jesus is telling us that discipleship is about hearing the Word of God and remembering the Word by living it out in their daily life. In the time of Jesus, the people had so many things to distract them; living by the law was difficult enough. Trying to remember what you could and could not eat, who was clean and who was not, what kind of sacrifices were necessary to become clean again. Then there were rules of the community. All that stuff could be daunting and distracting. I could imagine that it could be confusing and maybe painful in some cases.

Jesus tells these people that discipleship means listening to the Word of God. It means living by the Word of God. In the people of Jesus time they had the Books of scripture that we call the Old Testament. There were stories in there of people who were also told to live out their lives according to God’s wishes and not by their own wishes. There are stories of people who got distracted and did not want to do what God had asked them. One example of that is Moses. Moses did not want to do what God asked him to do, but eventually Moses went to speak to Pharaoh. Almost all the other prophets go through this same thing of saying “no” at first. But through their yes to God’s call their discipleship…to the living God is not easy but God does not abandon them. God carries them through and protects them. They lived out their discipleship. They worked to teach the word of God and share the word of God.

Then we have the people of Jesus time. With all the things I spoke of before (laws, regulations, community rules, society expectations) it was easy for the people to get distracted from their lives of discipleship. Because they have ONE BIG FLAW…they’re human. They make mistakes and Jesus knew they would fall short of living their lives to the Glory of almighty God. Jesus knows that, sometimes, when the going gets tough, humans choose the easier way rather than the way God would want the people to choose. Jesus is saying that being a disciple means sometimes choosing the more difficult path than the easier. Being disciples means proclaiming the Word of God through teaching and actions that all people are valued, worthy, and invited to experience the grace, mercy and love of God.

Being a disciple means being a witness to God’s glory here on this earth. Discipleship is about one title on this earth for all of us. It is the title “Child of God.” It is about telling the story of how God “so loved the world that he gave his only Son not to condemn the world but so that the world might be saved.” Discipleship is about giving thanks to the one who gave us all these relationships. It is about realizing that God gave us the gift of family and friends, the gift of strangers, and even all our possessions; realizing that they all come from God and giving thanks to God publicly and privately for all that we have received. Discipleship is sharing that our lives have meaning, not because of our accomplishments, but because of God’s only Son, Jesus Christ who showed us the extent of God’s love. That is why our lives have meaning.

Isn’t it funny how time does not change much? Don’t we want the best for our children? Don’t we want to see them succeed? Sure we do! We want them to be productive citizens in society, have the opportunities that we never had when we were growing up. Every parent, grandparent, and parent figure want that for all the people we love. We even want them to follow in our footsteps from time to time, Carry on the family business, the family profession, or even like the same sports teams that we like. Sure we want that to happen, but it is not always because we want our neighbors to think highly of us or because our status is on the line. Sometimes it may be ego and other times it may be nice to share that part of our lives.

But we forget that one important flaw. There comes a point in time where we realize or it is pointed out to us that we are human. We make mistakes and fall short; we fall short of the expectations of others and we fall short of the glory of God. It is the harsh reality that we all face every day; a missed appointment, practice, something we said, did, or did not do. We fall short and at times it can be painful or even devastating.

But the Good News is that is also part of discipleship. God knows that we fall short. God knows that we make bad choices, make some dumb mistakes, and sometimes look out for our own interests, put our needs over the needs of others. God knows that we do this and that is why God sent Jesus into this world. Jesus came into the world to show us the Good News that God is not going to abandon us. God gave us the gift of salvation and forgiveness through the death and resurrection of God’s only Son, Jesus Chris. Jesus shows us the strength and courage to proclaim the Grace and Mercy of God through God’s only Son on the cross; a cross that calls us to bring our shortcomings and burdens to the cross and give it all over to God.

But it does not stop there. We are not only to bring our failings and burdens to the cross. We are called to bring the talents that God has blessed us all with to share them with others. See, in our last verse, Jesus tells us that God wants it all. He wants our relationships with one another…our job skills, our hobbies, and yes everything we own, our possessions. Give it all over to God, because guess where it all came from? IT CAME FROM GOD to begin with! Give it all over…even your heart and mind.

            So what does that look like for us to give it all over and be a disciple of Christ? Here are some ways: when we give our weekly offerings think about and try giving a little bit more for the ministries that we do here at the church. When we come up for communion, say a short prayer before you receive it. Let God’s word sink in a little deeper to your heart…take the readings home and read them over again. Talk about the readings with your family. When people ask you why you go to church, think about the question and let them know how God’s word inspires your life and faith. When you hear the words (and I have heard these too many times) that “church is just a bunch of hypocrites. Say, “That’s right and there is always room for one more, because we all are sinners and saints.” Share your experience of giving God one hour on a Sunday morning to lift your soul and you receive an eternity. Discipleship can look like taking time out of your busy day to sit down with your family and share a meal at the table, together; or plan to come to worship every Sunday morning. Studies have shown that families who share meals and take time to be together for worship are healthier and have a balanced life.

            I do believe on this rally day, Jesus asks us this question through our scripture reading: “are you ready to give everything that you have and all that you are to be a disciple of God?” AMEN.