“When Love Demands Stringent Measures”
Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – October 11, 2020
Centenary United Methodist Church Psalm
106:1-6, 19-23; Matthew 22:1-14 There comes a time in the life of many pastors when
they get the distinct feeling that their congregations have lost
interest in the messages being preached Sunday after Sunday.
The message seems to fall on deaf ears. What
is being experienced in worship no longer feeds the spirit of people the
way it once did. Because of the
distractions present from the drama taking place in the world, many
people are no longer paying attention. In many ways, the world's drama
appears to be far more compelling and relevant than what is coming from
attending church services. Jesus discovered this during his ministry.
His listeners were not absorbing many of his teachings. They said
to one another, "Jesus' teachings are becoming too abstract.
Who can listen to them?" (John 6:60).
Jesus responded: What gives life is God's Spirit; human power is of
no use at all. The words
that I have spoken to you bring God's life-giving Spirit to you. Yet
some of you do not believe.
I have made it clear to you that no one can pay attention to me unless
God inspires them to do so. (John 6:63f) John's Gospel reported that many of Jesus'
followers refused to listen and they stopped following the Master.
Their refusal to listen to him frustrated Jesus.
He knew that people needed what he had to teach them.
He turned to his disciples and said, "What about you; do you want
to leave me as well?" Peter
responded, "Master, to whom would we go? You are the only one who has
the words that guide us to experience eternal life." (John 6:68) When we look at what has happened during our own
lifetime, we understand what Jesus was experiencing. There was a time
when the pews were filled with people. Sunday schools were active in
teaching children how to live in this world.
Such days are long gone except for mega-churches like Lakewood in
Houston, Texas, where Joel Osteen is the senior pastor.
We have five to six generations of young people who
have little or no understanding of the vast power that lies within them.
They have no idea that each one of them came well-equipped to
deal creatively with everything that comes up for them.
This morning we are going to consider another
dark parable that Jesus used during his preaching.
Jesus had to use harsh illustrations occasionally to inform
people about what will happen to the quality of their lives if they
refuse to nourish their spirits. Every vacuum eventually gets filled.
What does a person do with the mysterious emptiness that comes in
the form of fear and anxiety? Feelings creep into the consciousness of
people that will cause them to blame their unhappiness on their
circumstances. Often their coping methods are not helpful. Drugs would stop flowing over our borders if the
demand for them was not there. Alcohol sales are at record levels.
Many people have no idea that continued drinking contributes to
cognitive decline and dementia. Why?
Alcohol kills brain cells. Remaining young and physically
attractive remains a useless exercise. People would do better to get
over themselves by accepting that physical changes will show up during
the latter stages of life. In my computer's memory of saved artifacts
of another day, I have pictures of well-known people at their prime of
wealth and fame. Next to
each of these pictures is how they look 30 to 40 years later. These
pictures provide viewers with all the evidence any one would possibly
need to prove that holding on to their youth will remain a losing
battle. Jesus said, "Your heart
will always be where your treasure is." (Matthew 6:21) Who would believe that the real culprit
that continues to fuel a person's feeling of emptiness cannot be
mastered by any of these coping-mechanisms?
Emptiness is a symptom of
spiritual malnutrition.
When people are no longer feeding their spirits, they are feeding
something that entices them with the idea that fulfillment will come
from places that cannot provide it. In our lesson this morning, Jesus' parable leaves
little to the imagination.
Jesus put his message in the most stringent terms.
His words were extremely relevant and were reminiscent of what
John, the Baptist had been preaching: "Change your ways or your current
path will destroy you." (Matthew 3:2) Jesus used words
that were very understandable in spite of a person's level of education
or emotional maturity. Jesus' message came in a graphic form that
communicated that God had spread a feast of an abundant living filled
with fruits that would pour forth from a person's loving attitudes.
Very few were interested in wanting any of it. After repeated
failures to attract those who felt saved and chosen by
God, a King sent his servants to invite everyone, good and bad
alike, who wanted to be fed.
Eventually the wedding hall was filled. (Matthew 22:8f) Jesus
concluded that many people are invited but few will be chosen. This message has remained relevant since
the time Jesus told this parable.
Consequences
are built into our personal experiences. What we feed grows.
If people cannot forgive, they sow seeds of a spiritual cancer
that will metastasize to their other attitudes.
Jesus indicated that it is like having people's hands and feet
bound before being thrown out into the darkness where they will cry and
struggle with depression. (Matthew 22:13) We cannot escape the fact that there are
two worlds. This
fact is not up for debate.
Reality does not need belief for it to be true.
Further, it is perfectly normal for countless people to remain
uninformed about matters of spirit.
The world remains filled with such people who will remain
frustrated in their struggle to figure out what is wrong with
them. People experience consequences that will appear
like the warning signs on the dashboard of their vehicle. They
often run faster toward what appears to be more rewarding experiences in
the world. A more informed understanding of the warning signs is that
they are suffering from spiritual starvation. This is why Jesus taught, "I tell you, there is
more joy in Heaven over one person who has found his or her way
by feeding their spirits than over ninety-nine people who have done so
for most of their lives." (Luke 15:7) There is hope by changing how we
think. A number of years ago, I had surgery for a triple
hernia. Since the surgeon
performed the procedure by going through my navel, I was up the next day
and good to go. Three days into my convalescent period, I was helping
one of my laymen to remove a heavy steel frame that covered all the
dimmer switches governing the lighting in the sanctuary.
The man lost his footing and I found myself supporting the frame
by myself. Pain shot through my abdomen as I managed to tear internal
sutures that had not been given time to dissolve. Within hours, I saw on both sides of my abdomen the
outline of blood trailing about six inches just under the skin. I called
the surgeon the next day to confess my sin.
His first words to me were these: First, let's connect the dots here.
What did I tell you?
Do you remember my words that you were to lift nothing over 5 pounds for
at least four weeks?" Then he said something that was both reassuring and
very funny. He said, "Do
you think that you are capable of ruining my work?
You can’t. You've
got a minor hemorrhage on both sides of the mesh that I installed.
You have nothing to worry about."
In essence, he told me to go and sin no more.
Numerous times during my ministry, I have said the
same thing to people who had spiritually awakened.
After going through their litany of being prodigal sons or
daughters, often they have said, "But, what about my past mistakes
and terrible decisions?" My
response was: "All of those experiences brought you to where you are
now." In other words: Do you think that you are capable of ruining God's
work? You can't!
You are one of God's kids.
All that you had to do was wake up to that understanding.
You have done that.
What is left for you to do is to think and feel like one who is loved
and accepted by God just as you are.
Look at life as having walked across the stones in the stream to
get to the other side. We so easily sabotage our lives by laying blame for
who we are on something or someone.
In reality, we have become our own worst enemy because our cues
for living were coming from a world that will never lead us correctly.
Why? That world has only one consistent value – it is always
changing. Once we learn what life has been trying to teach
us, we awaken to the inner-world that has been with us since our birth.
Our new understanding and orientation toward life saves us from
making excuses and taking detours.
We have arrived in God's Kingdom while still living in our
skin. We cannot ruin God's work. We can only postpone recognizing that
we are a one-of-a-kind work-of-art.
CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER
Thank you, God, for
bringing into our lives a deeper awareness of how mercy, kindness and
peace can heal our fears.
You have given us a powerful road map for living through the life
and teachings of Jesus. Yet, we confess that there are moments when we
feel fragmented. We want to
be generous with our money, while the voice of fear guides us to save
for our rainy days.
We desire more patience for the number of times we fail to experience
it. We have often replaced
our desire to be in mission with scheduled priorities that take us in
other directions. Allow us
to make today a new beginning.
Amen
PASTORAL PRAYER
We come together
this morning in humility and in gratitude for our lives, our families,
and our ability to love and care for each other.
If life has taught us one irreversible truth, O God, it is that
being loved by you is beyond and above everything else that our world
might give us. And when
your son came to be among us, surrendering all that he knew elsewhere
just so he could become one of us, we marvel at his clarity when he
said, "I love you; will you follow me?" We thank you for
accepting us as we are. We
have moods that challenge our ability to be kind and merciful.
We have moments when we do not use good judgment.
We have times of confusion that make our decisions uninformed.
We face moments when it is difficult to admit that we have been
wrong. There are occasions
when we would rather move on with our lives than apologize for who or
what we have become. Touch our hearts
and minds with your spirit. Inspire us to turn a blind eye to the dramas
taking place in our world so that we can experience the stillness and
peace of being in your Kingdom right now.
We pray these things in the spirit of Jesus, the Christ, who
taught us to say when we pray . . .
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