FaithIsland

My hope in heaven is not "unprecedented." If it was - I could still hope - but my hope might not end so well. This is where faith comes in. Faith is not hope. Hope is "fingers crossed, lucky rabbit's feet, wishing on a falling star." Faith is having just enough evidence that whatever you are hoping for is possible. Where does that evidence come from? If you always wanted a child - and have not been able to have one - Hannah and Sarai know what you are going through. If you've ever lost a child - Rachel knows your pain. If you've ever done something you aren't sure you can be forgiven for - Kings David and Solomon and St. Paul would like to take you for coffee. If you were ever outside the church looking in - wondering if they would accept you - Ruth and Rahab have good news they want to share.The evidence we need is found in the tears and prayers and struggles and sins of our ancestors. Sarah's laughter, Hannah's outrageous prayer, Mary's labor, David's Psalms, Peter's boasts, Thomas' doubts. For us to have something more than hope - it can't be unprecedented. Someone has to have gone before me so I can follow in their footsteps.

King David, after his great sin that would have brought him and the nation down if it had not been for God's grace - wrote these words in Psalm 51, "You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings - the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."God didn't want all the sacrifices - but they were necessary for us to see the cost of our sin. A metaphor - a story - but a powerful one. A thousand year's later St. Paul connected the dots when he wrote these words in Hebrews 10, "Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, 'Here I am - it is written about me in the scroll - I have come to do your will, O God.' "Only one sacrifice was ever necessary - and as we look into the eyes of our Jesus on the cross - we see the love of God - and know that we are forgiven and free. Now we give from the heart - sacrifices of thanksgiving - and the BBQ is just a place for friends and family.

I love that what Gamiliel said, "You may find yourself fighting against God." And how would you know? It is as simple as "last one standing wins." If God is God - then "He will build His church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it." I know we love those old Sunday School stories - Shadrach, Meschack, Abednego and the fiery furnace, Daniel in the lion's den, Moses crossing the Red Sea, Joshua fighting the battle of Jericho - because our side wins and the other side loses and we get to say, "nanny, nanny, boo, boo" - our God is bigger than your god." But God doesn't always work that way. The entire book of Lamentations - where the people of Israel are in captivity and crying out for God to rescue them - God just patiently listens until the nation has learned its lesson and are ready to be restored. There was never a doubt that God had the power and willingness to rescue them - the only question was timing. In Lamentations 3:22 Jeremiah says, "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him."When the world talks about god Apollo or god Zeus or goddess Athena - or says there isn't a god or that god is nature or god is a universal consciousness - those are not fighting words. We do not need to take up our swords and be like Hulk and smash everything. Either Jesus is God and He died and rose again and will eventually take us home - or He isn't, didn't and won't. We're in it for the long game - like Jeremiah.

You are filled with the Spirit to receive God's love. Being the church reminds us God promises to always be with us - even when we feel we don't deserve His love and forgiveness or aren't up to the work He has set before us. The Spirit keeps breathing into us - reviving us and bringing us back to life because a life - especially one that is unique and unreproducible as yours - should never be wasted.

Jesus told His disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit before they went out to change the world because there is nothing worse than a bunch of people without candles or flashlights running around in the dark - bumping into things, bumping into each other and not getting anywhere. But there is nothing better than a bunch of people with candles or flashlights helping people find their way in the dark. Once the disciples had the Spirit - it was time to push back the darkness.Back in the old days when you hiked Diamond Head - there were no lights in the tunnel part. One time I forgot my flashlight and had to wait until someone came along so I could follow them. The next time I remembered my light - and it was my turn to lead the way. Every time Ascension Day rolls around, I hear Jesus say, "you know the way to the place I am going." And I do. I know who Jesus is. I can't fully comprehend what that means - but I know enough to know if I want spend eternity with Jesus - the only way is to follow Him home.

And this gets back to our calling. Rarely can we change all the things we think need to be changed to make us happy - whether we're talking about changes to our body or changes to the world or changes to the people around us. We aren't in charge of everything - and even if we were, we can tell people what to do - but they aren't any better at changing things than we are. As Bob Goff said, "Most people need love and acceptance a lot more than they need advice."The one thing we can do - the one thing that is within our power - is to learn to accept the people and events and even ourselves when change isn't possible. Change is a process. "How many times do you want me to forgive my brother?" Peter asked Jesus. And Jesus basically responded, "to infinity and beyond." And that goes for us too - "how many times can I be forgiven - especially if I keep doing the same, dumb things?" "To infinity - or at least eternity - and beyond" Jesus replies.

How many times has a new experience led you to new questions? And new questions led you to new answers that challenge how you thought about life. When we were children - if we read and listened to our teachers and ran and played and talked - our minds were constantly stretched so to absorb all the new stuff we were experiencing. Then came the hard part - processing and figuring out what was good and what wasn't - what we needed to remember - and what we could forget.This is the way of life. If we are to be healthy - we cannot stop learning and growing and experiencing until the day we die. And as followers of Jesus - our faith requires us to add another dimension to sort all this so we can not only apply it to our life - but also so we can we talk to others about Jesus.

Unless we have some context - all those doctrines, fancy words and Greek and Hebrew verbs aren't going to make sense. Sometimes, in fact most of the time, we aren't going to fully understand what God is trying to tell us until the moment comes that translates it for us. It's not about us being smart or holy - it's not even about us wanting to know things. Sometimes you have to be in the moment - whatever moment that is - for God to speak to you and you be able to understand what He's saying. And that moment requires some prep work which is why we worship and study the Bible and pray.God never wastes anything. All of our stories - adventures - failures - questions - doubts - they all are woven together and used by the Holy Spirit to bring us along in our faith. When I get the chance to talk to people - and hear their story - I can see God at work in each wrong turn and dead end but also the moments where they're flying down the road with the top down and the wind blowing their hair without a care in the world. God is always with us - not just in the dark moments.

If you have ever experienced the loss of someone who was close to you - someone you loved and perhaps even said, "I don't know how I could live without you..." - you know what Mary was feeling. It's these flashes of honesty that Ezekiel is talking about in our Old Testament Lesson. The Lord asks, "Can these bones live?" Elijah answers, "Oh, Lord God, you know." I love how Elijah turns the question back on God. I would have said, "I have no idea! - but, if these dry bones are my family and friends - the people I don't want to live without" - I would add, "but I hope so!"St. Paul says, "if we only have hope in Jesus for this life - we are to be pitied more than anyone" - and he's right. If all we're doing is fooling ourselves - pretending there is something after this life - we should not only be pitied, we should be ashamed of ourselves.

Black is a color. White is a color. But light and darkness are completely different. Darkness - especially deep darkness - only hides what is actually there. When the darkness is complete - you discover the table, the chair, the marbles on the floor. They were always there - the darkness didn't make them go away - you just couldn't see them.You can't see light - but you see what it lights up. I suppose light is visible - but if it doesn't illuminate anything - if there isn't anything to see - light doesn't serve a purpose. If you were out in the deepest part of space - and a beam of light went past - you would only know it because one moment it was pitch black and the next it's wasn't. But what do you need light for if there isn't anything to see?Would you rather see nothing clearly - or know even though something is there and you can't see it - there is someone who can see it and will keep you safe? This is the question we need to answer.

What Isaiah and Jeremiah want you to know is - the worst thing in your day, your week, your month or even the worst thing in your entire life is not the last thing. Did you get that? Like daughter Zion, we can be tempted to give up - to think we've been forgotten - if we were ever remembered in the first place. Like her, we might even write "it looks like...you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure" in our diary, and then lay down our pen and close the book.Fortunately our story does not end with our sin or hurts or pains or losses. God will not allow those things to be the final words of our life. Psalm 139 says, "your eyes, O God, saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Some people think that means we have no freedom or choice in our lives - God is pulling the strings and we're just puppets. But if that were true - why would God let us sin in the first place? One of the hallmarks of Lutheran theology is Eternal Foreknowledge. God knows what we are going to say and do - and He lets us choose for or against Him, for or against our world, for our against us - but always places within our grasp everything we need to know He is still here - still loves us - and won't give up on us. Divine love always conquers divine justice because of the cross and empty tomb.

What does it take to move you from apathy to action? You know those late night commercials with children and animals in need? Or St. Jude's hospital? Which commercials do you have to leave the room otherwise you would max your credit card and empty your bank? What news stories get you out of your chair and onto the street or into a school or gathered with a group of people setting forth to make things right?For Jeremiah - it was no longer just The Woman's suffering - it became personal. Because I want you to be able sleep tonight, I will not read or even summarize the verses. As the Narrator watched this pain and suffering and loss unfold he could not remain on the outside - he stepped forward - his words softening - his eyes crying - his suffering visible.At first, Jeremiah found himself praying for The Woman. Then he found himself being a pastor to The Woman. He went from narrating her sins - to walking beside her - crying out to God for her and searching for a way for her to be redeemed. Jeremiah became a pastor instead of a prophet.

500 years ago someone supposedly asked Martin Luther what he would do if he knew he was going to die tomorrow. Luther replied, "I'd plant an apple tree." When they asked why he would do such a crazy thing - he said, "it was on my list for today." Luther was saying - if it was important enough for me to do - then it doesn't matter whether I get to enjoy the fruit or not - someone will - and that is enough for me. As believers - our life is always about buying a piece of land or planting an apple tree because we are theological optimists. Our hope is not naive - nor is it the easy way out as some suggest. In fact, it is the hard way out. C.S. Lewis, in his work, The Problem of Pain, notes, "love may cause pain to its object, but only on the supposition that the object needs alteration to become fully lovable."

The Woman of Lamenations represents all of us. We are so proud of being God's people - all the things we said and did in Jesus' name. We are the chosen - the saved - the redeemed. And yet if we step outside of our churches and put down our crosses and Bibles and prayers and see ourselves from the world's view - what do we look like? Are we the Bride of Christ - or the Bride of Frankstein?

There could be no book of Lamentions if there were no God. If there is no God, no grand plan, no purpose or reason for our existence other than being an accident of time and space - then lamenting makes no sense. If you cry out, "Why?" - the answer is "Why not?" If you ask, "How can this be?" - the answer is, "why shouldn't it be?"But the response changes if there is a God, a grand plan, a purpose, a reason. If - as Christians claim - the Book of Revelation is not just a hopeful vision - but rather an actuality that is already real in God's timeline even if it hasn't happened in ours yet - then a lament is not only perfectly acceptable - but necessary. "How can this be?" - we ask. And we expect God to answer. And the most important part of the grieving and mourning process is the waiting for that answer.I normally don't like to spoil the ending - but in this case, I must. As dark and smelly and loud as it is going to get when we ask God, "how can this be?" - there is a reason to stick around until the end.

We are paying the price of our sin - and the sin of our family and neighbors and community and the strangers we've never met. "Everything happens for a reason" - and our reason is sin. I get that we don't like it. And it's possible we aren't as guilty as others. But we are guilty. That's what this day is all about. And sitting by the river, refusing to sing while we wait for God to fix things - isn't going to help. It's a day of penitence. A day to be honest about who we are as fragile, mortal creatures. We lament the condition of the world - and our own condition. We think about the sins which brought us to where we are today. I'll go first - I'm sorry for all the things I ever said that hurt or offended you. I'm sorry for not being the person you needed me to be. Hebrews 5 says the pastor has to first confess his sins and receive God's forgiveness before he can hear the sins of God's people and speak to them God's word of forgiveness. Something I need to take to heart.There is a very tiny speck of light in all this darkness. There is a muted echo of the word alleluia wafting in the wind. There is the smell of incense as our prayers rise to God. There is still the promise of our laments turning into songs of joy.

We don't know when Peter, James and John finally told everyone what they had seen and heard on that mountaintop. Once Jesus was dead, there was no sense in keeping the secret anymore. I know most of us like to think if we had been there - if Jesus had told us He was going to die and rise again after three days - we would have believed Him. We would have been standing outside the tomb with a "welcome back" banner, some cake and maybe some presents. But the truth is - I doubt it.When I pour the water over the head of a child - do you believe it actually washes away their sin and makes them a child of God - that simple water and a few words are enough to cheat death? When you taste that little wafer and sip the wine - do you actually believe it's the body and blood of Jesus - that mysteriously the wafer and wine are now also Jesus in the flesh - emptying you of your sin and filling you up with God's love and mercy? When you hear God's Word read - can you tell it's different than all the other words in the world that get read?To say that God is a mystery is in a way saying you can't quite nail Him down - that there is something more to Him and His Word and Sacraments that no matter how hard we try - we can't fully comprehend - and so we must take them on faith. And I suppose, if we want to take the metaphor just a little further - Pontius Pilate and the Roman soldiers couldn't nail Jesus down either - they tried - but He just got up out of the grave and went back to loving and forgiving and healing and raising others from their graves.

The prophet Micah says: "What does the Lord require of us? Act justly, love faithfulness and walk humbly with your God."Such acts are not easy for us mere mortals - which is why we tend to build buildings, install stained glass windows and make pews more comfortable - those things are easy. Did you hear Jesus' words in the Gospel lesson? "If you don't want to be near me - I won't judge you because I didn't come into the world to judge - I came to save - and besides, I don't need to judge you because the stuff you have surrounded yourself with and the words you speak will judge you."How close do you need to be to Jesus? The church has never, ever saved anyone. The church can't save anyone. No building, music, pew, program, pastor or DCE has ever saved a single soul. The only one who can save you is Jesus. The Bible is very clear on this - if you want to be saved you hold on to Jesus - who is and always has held on to you.The manger in Bethlehem, the miracles, the crucifixion, the empty tomb - that is God holding on to you with all His love.

If you read the Bible - you will find every argument and complaint and disappointment vocalized by people like Ricky Gervais and the Atheist social media darlings. As Solomon said - there isn't "anything new under the sun." These individuals and others who rail against the "God they don't believe in" are not the enemy - nor should we treat them as such. They are the mission field.I have come to love a God who accepts and acknowledges that I will have doubts and days when my words fail. I am beginning to understand and accept a God who refuses to micro-manage my life, my community or my world. And I am whole-heartedly in love with a God who can love you and me and even those who deny He exists.

The worst thing about depression and darkness is you know you need to get into the light - but you just don't have the energy. Newton's first law, "a body in motion tends to stay in motion - but a body at rest tends to just give up." That's my paraphrase. Last Monday was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Two of his quotes I love are: "Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase" and "If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward." Finding Nemo paraphrased that when Dory said, "just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." There is nothing more powerful than the light of a new dawn when you have been surrounded by darkness all night. There is nothing sweeter than the love of a friend who stands beside you when your life is falling apart. There is nothing more important than the words of forgiveness spoken by someone we hurt. There is nothing more important than Jesus

Being a disciple is not about what you know or can prove or even how much you believe. Faith is something we can make sound a lot easier than it really is. When we say someone has faith - it doesn't mean they don't have doubts or fears. You know those clear, glass walkways at the Grand Canyon or Tianmen Mountain in China or the CN Tower in Canada. I know engineers spent a lot of time and the contractor a lot of money to make sure they are totally safe - I have faith in their work - but I'm still not going out on one. A disciple is known for the risk they are willing to take. They know there are bad people in this world - that everyone is dying, there may not be a monster under the bed but he might live down the street, there are babies in cancer wards, little boys and girls living without fathers and mothers, elderly people living alone. They accept all that as true. The leap of faith - the risk - is they are willing to make is in spite of all these terrible things - there is a God who loves the world and is working through His people to bring light into the darkness and hope into a hungry void that doesn't want to let go of its victims. That is a risk!

The simplicity of baptism is a deeper story than we will ever understand. We tried to become like God - not just His image but His power - and we failed - that's the Creation story. Since we could not become God - God became like us - that's the Christmas story. Jesus got baptized and walked this earth showing everyone how to forgive and love and live - all things we should know but forgot because we are still obsessed with becoming God - that's the Lenten story. Not a surprise, but turns out we weren't big fans of God showing up and living a holy life - as any two year old can say, "I do it myself" - so we nailed Jesus to a tree - that's the Good Friday Story. The only thing you can do with a dead body is bury it - Jesus didn't have His own grave so He borrowed one and they put Him in it on Friday afternoon - and that gave everyone time to think about what it means when God is dead - that's the Holy Saturday Story. That should be the end of the story - but it's not. Turns out when you bury God - He just gets up and walks out of the tomb - and instead of running around smiting everyone because they killed Him - He forgives people and loves people and says He will never die again - which is the Easter Story. God doesn't stop there. Even after Jesus went back home to heaven, He continues to hold out His nail-scarred hands through His church - crying out, "Peace be with you" to anyone and everyone who is willing to listen. He calls you by name. He forgives you. He resurrects you. And one day He will take you home to heaven so you can experience life - your life that was supposed to be before sin messed things up. That is your Story and it all starts with your baptism.

Do you know how I know someone really loves me? When I am sweaty and stinky and look like I haven't showered in a month and someone says, "give me a hug!" And I respond, "I stink!" And they say, "so what - give me a big hug anyway!" - that's when I know they love me. They don't love me only when I smell good or do the right things or act a certain way - they love me for who I am.We always picture the magi showing up in these really expensive robes and jeweled crowns and smelling like the perfume section at Sephora - but how would you smell - what would you look like if you spent four months wandering through the desert? I'm kind of thinking they were as ripe as those stinky shepherds on Christmas Eve. It wasn't about them - it was about Jesus - the Baby who came to bring life and light and maybe some air freshener.

The first time I remember hearing about postpartum depression was when a famous singer - someone who is my age and who I listened to when I was in high school - left her baby with the babysitter, got in her car and drove off with no real intention of ever coming back. Because she had a loving family and they didn't give up - she got the help she needed and worked through the depression. She noted what drove her away was when all the dreams and romanticism surrounding having children and being a family didn't happen the way it was supposed to. Being faced with the sinful reality of why God had to send His Son into our world is something the world tends to leave out during all the Christmas festivities. It's a complicated compartmentalization - with all the death and destruction on one side of the news and Santa and his elves on the other side. We work so hard at believing that if we get the right gifts - spend enough money - eat enough cookies - drink enough egg nog - all the bad stuff will just go away. And when it doesn't - the world settles into a severe postpartum depression - leaving the baby behind with a sitter and driving off with no intention of coming back until the next Black Friday sales.

And that is why we came back this morning. To be among people who understand what we’re going through - because they are going through it as well. We aren’t any different than the people who aren’t here to day - it’s just we might be a little more honest about it. We came to make sure Jesus was still here - that His defiant light of hope was still shining. We can go back to our families, our phone calls, our presents, our dinner, our dinner and trees and lights - but also our problems, pains, hurts, anxieties and challenges. But maybe we aren’t quite as afraid or anxious because we know “the Light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not, will not ever over come it.”We will get to go home someday where there is no more darkness or any of the other things that make this life so hard - but until then we have just enough light, just enough faith, just enough peace and just enough love to see us through this life

We aren’t Mary or Joseph - but we are cancer survivors, prodigal sons and daughters, the sick and the dying, the lost and the lonely, the anxious and the hurting, the wondering and the confused. We are imperfect - and yet unique and unreproducible at the same time. Your imperfect story - all the things that were in your control that you messed up - and all the things that were out of your control that tore your life apart - that’s where this tiny Baby’s story begins. God meets you where you are - He doesn’t expect you to be or do anything different until the Gospel starts its work in and through you. The miracle of Christmas starts with a story of two imperfect people whose lives were changed by a little baby. It’s no different for us.

The angel tells Joseph to take Mary as his wife, name the baby "Jesus" and that's it. It's not a lot of information. There may have been more - but Matthew didn't write it down. One of my questions is: how is Joseph supposed to explain all this to his friends and family? And that may be the point - it's not up to us to explain God. The greatest explanation comes in us following and trusting Him - even when we aren't completely sure where we're going or how we're getting there.Traditional weddings include, "for richer or poorer, sickness and in health, till death us do part..." As crazy as this story is for Joseph - what would have happened if the Angel let him see the "the long journey to Bethlehem, the "no vacancy" signs on the inns, the stable birthing room, the shepherds, the visit of the wisemen, the need to escape to Egypt from the evil King Herod, the slaughter of the Holy Innocents." There is so much Joseph can't see - so much he doesn't know - and yet he agrees to take Mary as his wife and name the baby Jesus. That's faith.

Curiosity is a curious thing. It killed the cat - but it also inspired the greatest inventions of our time. If you have ever seen an Alfred Hitchcock movie, you understand when he says: "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it." Likewise, quite often we discover the anticipation of something is far better than whatever we were anticipating. Why THIS Child? Babies get born every day - and the anticipation around their birth is always exciting. But for over 2,000 years much of the world has been celebrating one particular Baby's birth and on Christmas eve we sing, "Christ, the Savior, is born..." It seems strange that a Baby can save us. Even though most of us haven't had our second or third iced tea yet - and these questions are a little heavy we need to ask - what do we need to be saved from? How can a baby do that? How does this saving take place? And how do we know when we're saved?

There is still light and holiness and love and hope - but the darkness presses in and threatens to vanquish them. We hear John's Gospel every Christmas, "the Light shines in the darkness and the darkness will not overcome it." God promised He is going to return - no more darkness, death, sin or pain. But we wonder if that's true. We light a candle each week - a little more light pushing back the darkness. We cling to the hope and tiny bits of flame radiating from the candles which seem so fragile. But the flickering candles are just a metaphor. Our real hope is in Jesus because candles are just not enough.We watch and wait. For healing. For a brighter light. We hold fast hoping we won't be disappointed. Advent is like a child on Christmas Eve. The reason we can't sleep - that we lie awake staring at the clock wishing it to go faster because we think we know what is waiting for us on Christmas morn - and we can't wait to find out if it's true.

If all those books and videos are right and my only choices are: my faith isn't good enough to win the lottery, cure my cancer and deserve an ice cream cone OR my faith is so poor God has to punish me even if I'm just a five year old kid in Kindergarten - then I'm with Martin Luther who said, "if I...had seen such dolts and blockheads teach the Christian faith, I would sooner have become a hog than a Christian."Why THIS Faith? I wish we all had all the answers we wanted - answers that were so clear and so perfect we could accept them without any reservation. But such simple answers are exactly what get us into trouble in the first place.

Only one leper runs back to Jesus. He completely violates Jesus' personal space - falling at Jesus' feet. Social, religious and even personal boundaries go out the window. And all Jesus can say is, "where are the other nine?" Jesus wasn't worried they hadn't been healed - He knows they were. And it wasn't like my grandma who used to call and say, "I mailed your birthday card yesterday - did you get it?" so I'd say thank you. This is a "everyone pay attention - ten got healed, only one came back to say thank you - and the difference is the one isn't just healed - he is also whole." And there is the purpose of the story.Jesus says, "your faith has made you well." This is very, very different than if He'd said, "Faith is the price you pay if you want to get well." God healed the ten lepers whether or not they gave Him credit. Whether they saw the connection or wrote a thank you card. God didn't require faith to heal them. Sometimes grace is like that.

I know what you're thinking - if God is so great and so powerful - why isn't He fixing everything? Turns out - God is asking us the same question. He says, "I have given you everything you need - everything - so why aren't you using it fix the world?" How should we answer Him?To an anxious people wondering not just about the future - but even whether the world will survive today - Isaiah starts off his prophecy with a vision of God's power and glory. When I view this from the perspective of today's world - there is a problem. The people listening to Isaiah's prophecy might have been impressed by God's power and glory - but we've got more computing power in our phone than NASA had to get someone to the moon - some of our homes are bigger than David's palace - and we can get from Honolulu to London in 20 hours so who needs Elijah's Fiery Chariot. If Isaiah was impressed with God on his throne - he should see our Harley or Ford Raptor pickup. If God walked into our church - would anyone recognize Him or bother to bow down before Him? What about if He showed them the nail holes in His hands and feet? We may be easily distracted by doom scrolling and watching endless YouTube shorts - but it takes a lot to impress us - and even more for us to render honor to someone.

On occasion, when I am meeting with the family of someone who died, they ask the unanswerable: "are they are in heaven?" The problem with the question is - I'm not God. I do not know the secret things or their last thoughts or if they just pretended to believe or if they were the "very model of a modern major believer." God has not let me look at the names in the Book of Life. All I have is what I saw in their life, what the family shared with me and the promises of Jesus. And so as I always do, I say, "I commend them into the hands of a loving and just God." I cannot be certain of any other way to heaven than Jesus. Jesus never said, "I am one of the ways or a way." And this is where the dilemma and challenge gets very personal. It is not that those who are far away and who I will never meet on this earth aren't important. They are - to God and therefore to me. But when someone I love - or someone I respect - is following a different path and I cannot be certain it leads to heaven - I cannot just say, "oh well, good luck with that." If I truly love them - I will do my best to share the love of Jesus because love demands nothing less.

When someone says that all religions are the same and lead to the same place - that is like saying all drinks taste the same because they are all water based. To believe anyone can believe anything and wind up in the same place is illogical and dangerous. It does matter what you believe and why you believe it - not just because Jesus says, "no one comes to the Father except through Me" in John 14:6 - but because your soul cries out for a single truth that satisfies as nothing else can because it is THE truth. To ask the question, "Why THIS Faith?" is to recognize there is a truth beyond all other truths. It is not enough to just hope and wish and follow the crowd. It matters what you believe and why you believe it. Moses asked God, "what is Your Name? If I am going to go and do what you are asking me to do - then I must know your name so I can tell people Your name!" If you want a simple paraphrase - "I need to know You are who I have been looking for and who the world is looking for."

Frederick Buechner said, “their sainthood (and ours) consists less of what they have done than what God has for some reason chosen to do through them. When you consider that St Mary Magdalene was possessed by seven devils, that St Augustine prayed, "Give me chastity and self-control, but not now," that St Francis started out a high-living rebel in downtown Assisi, and St Simeon Stylites spent years on top of a sixty-foot pillar trying to get away from people - maybe there's nobody God can't use as a means of grace, including us.”To fully understand what it means to be a saint - the first thing is to stop thinking it’s all about us. C.S. Lewis said, "humility is not thinking less about yourself, it's about thinking about yourself less." Apple trees, rose bushes, sunrises and ocean waves don’t sit around saying, “how can I do something great so I get noticed” - they just do what God called them to do - and all of us go "ooh and ahh.

The time to read God's Word - to let it dwell in your heart and soul and marinate - is not when the lightning is flashing and thunder is booming and the world is coming apart. The time to read God's Word is when all is well - or at least a few things are well with the world and we have five minutes every other day or so to spend with God. Then, when the lightning flashes and thunder booms and world comes apart - instead of running away to find a Bible and frantically thumb through it hoping to find some good news - we run toward the lightning and the thunder as the world comes apart because we know "nothing can separate us from the love of God we have in Christ Jesus, our Lord." It doesn't mean we have all the answers - it means we know who does and He is holding us in His hands.God does not give answers - He gives Himself. He is the answer. He is the Word we seek, the One that will fell satan.

To sentimentalize something is to cling to how we feel about something or someone instead of holding to the truth. The greatest challenge is accepting that WE are the problem. We may try to point to a particular person or group or church or belief system and how they need correcting - but the truth is none of us are perfect and we all need correcting. That is why Jesus left heaven, get born in a stable, dealt with all our garbage, suffered, died and got resurrected. He didn't do it for "them" - He did it us in the extreme plural. Sin and grace, lostness and foundness, darkness and light, pain and joy - we divide the world up by these things - but the truth is - where these things come together, that's where the Gospel happens.

We carry around the darkness and sin and pain of this world like a snail carries his shell. We know it's there - but we don't have to look it. We feel the weight of the shell but can still pretend it isn't there. We occasionally try to slide underneath something and discover we don't fit because our shell is too big - but even then we just look for another way in rather than deal with the reality of our shell. The Christian faith is based on death and resurrection. We die and we rise again. Not just when we take our last breath, but every single time we confess our sins we die to those things that would suck us into the darkness forever - and then God raises us up again and again to new life. At least that is the way it is supposed to work - but sometimes we get sidetracked - and instead of dying and rising, we spend our time pointing out the sins of others and making fun of them so we don't have to deal with the pain and pressure of our sinful shell.

It takes faith to trust in this Book and I know that doesn't always come easy. Just a reminder - this book doesn't save you - no book on earth or in the heavens can do that. What saves you is Jesus and only Jesus. This book just opens up your heart and soul to the amazing story of God's love for you. When you get to heaven you won't need a Bible any more - because as St. John said in his Gospel, "in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God..." - and John wasn't talking about this Book - He was talking about Jesus. Your challenge this month is to re-engage with God’s Word - read it, study it, mark it up, create a list of questions - for in so doing, you will also engage with Jesus - and that will change your life - and then you get to go out and make a difference in this world.

Can you see what Jesus is sharing with us? If we want to build a perfect kingdom on earth - and put a big gate around it to keep all the bad people out - God will let us. But it may be all we get. Lazarus didn't have to be poor or homeless or dying - he could have been me or you waiting at the bus stop outside the gate on our way to work or driving past the gates taking our kids to school. It isn't Lazarus poorness that gets him into heaven - it's his reliance on God's grace and mercy - which is why the rich man isn't excluded based upon his wealth. We - no matter who we are - "are saved by grace, through faith - and it isn't our work - so none of us can boast - it is the gift of God" - that's what Jesus is trying to get across to us - just how much God loves you - in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

One of my favorite Eugene Peterson quotes is, "when Jesus told parables the people all stood around listening and applauding and when He was done they shouted, 'great sermon - loved it - really spoke to my heart.' The truth was they weren't really listening and had no idea what He was saying - until later that night when they were sitting around relaxing and suddenly - like a time bomb - the truth of the parable plowed through their brain like a runaway freight train. Jesus was talking about them. He snuck a story about them - a not so nice story about them - into the sermon. And now they have to wrestle with it."

That's where I had my aha moment. The reason the value of the sheep is more than $2.15 a pound is because the value is not decided by the sheep or even decided by the market. The value is determined by the shepherd. The shepherd said I will come and find you. You - even though you are a lost sheep - are important enough to me that I will do whatever it takes to bring you back.

The words of Frederick Buechner from his book, A Room Called Remember. "The words 'You shall love the Lord your God" become in the end, less a command than a promise. And the promise is that, yes, on the weary feet of faith and the fragile wings of hope, we will come to love him at last as from the first God has loved us - loved us even in the wilderness, especially in the wilderness, because he has been in the wilderness with us. He has been in the wilderness for us. He has been acquainted with our grief. And, loving him, we will come at last to love each other too so that, in the end, the name taped on every door will be the name of the one we love.' "

When you get to heaven - and Jesus says there will be an amazing banquet waiting for you - everyone will know everything about you. No secrets. No hidden agendas. And the person sitting next to you might be Jon Bon Jovi - or it might be the homeless man you see on the way home who is picking through the rubbish can looking for something to eat. It might even be that kid with the bloated stomach on the late-night commercial for World Vision. It could be a Raiders fan - or a Yankees fan or even a Republican or Democrat. And you will know everything about them - no secrets - no hidden agendas.You will know their story - and they will know yours. And where you will find comfort in each others presence is knowing that both of you were forgiven for whatever sins your committed - you were freed from whatever addictions you suffered with and healed of the diseases and mental health challenges that you fought through. And none of it will matter.

One of the biggest questions we will ever wrestle with is: can we be absolutely, unfailingly certain we are going to heaven when we die. Working through that is one of the fundamental questions in life of a Christian - but even not-believers ask, "what happens when I die?"

When Jesus says, "Do you think I came to bring peace?" Our immediate reaction is, "yes - Jesus - Isaiah said you are the Prince of Peace - so we assumed you came to bring peace!" Jesus continues, "I have brought division." And that stops us cold. When He continues, "families are going to be divided over Me" - and gets very specific - we are lost and confused and hurt all at the same time. Why would Jesus do that? We need to broaden our understanding by seeing these verses in context. When Jesus says, “ I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled” - that sounds crazy - like God is going to burn the whole world down. But if we go back to Luke 3:16 where John the Baptist says, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" we find the context we need. God isn't going to burn the world down - He's going to purify it. And the way He is going to do that is by placing His Holy Spirit and the fire of His Gospel within His people.

This whole Gospel is about Jesus’ giving us a glimpse into the heart of God. And when I say heart - I'm not talking about the blood pumping organ - I'm talking about the very core of God's being. When St. John said, "God is love" - he wasn't trying to create a branding logo for God's Instagram or TikTok - he was stating a facet of who God is at His core. Far too many people complain they don't know God or don't know enough about Him or are confused by His essence. If God's core is love - it allows us a glimpse of why He does things. Jesus said, "if you've seen Me - you've seen the Father." If we read the stories of Jesus in the Gospels - healing the sick, knocking tables over in the temple when people were being cheated, forgiving sinners, sacrificing Himself for the world - we get a very good idea of what God's heart is all about: LOVE.

The church isn't perfect - but it was given a gift from God to share with the world. I can't eliminate the pain and fears from your life - but I can promise you that you don't have to through them alone. When you confess your sins - when you lay your burdens before the cross - the stories are always difficult - and some people will never understand - but don't worry about them - some will - and that's the point.

Forgiveness is the justice of God. A society that has forgotten how to forgive can never be truly just. Because the best that justice can do is set the stage for forgiveness. Justice can’t make things right. Even forgiveness can’t make things right on its own – but forgiveness begins the process of reconciliation which leads to healing. It is not simple and it isn’t quick - but it all starts with forgiveness. Forgiveness isn’t the end - it’s the beginning.

God made a promise to you at your baptism - a covenant so holy He will never break it. He promised to be your God - to love you and forgive you and care for you - to make sure when you finally make it home there is a place with your name on the door and the lights on. Your life will not be perfect - you will experience trauma and heartache, pain and sickness, lostness and fear. Weaving its way in and out of all those will be joy and hope and love and peace. And every morning when you wake up and every night before you go to bed you will ask yourself what the purpose of your life is and how it is to be lived and what it all means. You may not think about the words of your baptism - but they are engraved on your forehead and your head and you soul - even if you are the only one who knows they are there - just like Abraham and Sarah were the only ones who knew that what God had promised them