Just what is going to happen after Tuesday? Here we are on the edge of a major presidential election and if you believe some of the mail I’ve been getting this is either the dawn of a glorious new era or the first sign of the apocalypse. I don’t mean to make light of this. Far from it. This is one of the most important elections we have had in some time. We are in a time of great crisis. We are at war. Our economy is teetering on the edge. People are losing their jobs. People are losing their homes. I’ve received many more requests for help with bills than usual. We gave out food to more families last month than we ever have. These are nervous times in the United States.
Our values as a people are up for debate. Are we still a people who believe that America is a land of opportunity for all people? Are we still a people who believe that we have a responsibility for one another and that we move ahead when everyone gives their best and offers a hand up to their neighbor? Are still a people who believe in a culture of life and that children are to be nurtured? Do we believe that budgets are moral documents that show our values more clearly than our words? Do we live within our means and do we use our common resources for the bettering of our world and not for the enriching of the few?
So what happens on Tuesday is very important. We have gotten caught up in the fervor. You were listening very carefully to my words just now trying to determine who I’m voting for and some of you were preparing arguments to share with me at the end of the service. I have received all sorts of mail and faxes advising me how to advise you in these last days before the election. The worst was one that came the other day telling me that my congregants should think of me as nervous, wimpy and unholy if I didn’t publicly call for Obama’s repentance because he favors child sacrifice. (He doesn’t.)
Here’s what I need to say this morning, though. We need to take this election very seriously. We need to be talking with each other about how our faith and our values are leading us to vote in this election. You can even talk with me and I will tell you who I as a citizen will be voting for. But I will also tell you as your pastor that neither Barack Obama nor John McCain has a lock on biblical truth. Both of them could stand to repent for some of their positions and for the worst parts of this campaign season. But I think we are fortunate as Christians that we have two candidates who share the name of Christ, who have met together in a church – Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church – to talk about how their faith impacts their public policies, who have both sought out people of faith as allies in promoting an agenda they see as faithful to our highest ideals, and who, I hope, will continue to be Christians after the election. I trust that is so.
So I encourage you to vote your hopes and not your fears as you go to the polls on Tuesday. Pray with me that we will make a wise choice and know that whoever is elected that we will need to continue to keep praying and working. Because the truth is that while neither Obama nor McCain are the devils some make them out to be, they are not angels either and whoever wins will need help for the huge challenges we face.
What’s going to happen after Tuesday? Well, as people who expect Christ to return one day to bring the kingdom in its fullness, it is a little presumptuous to speak this way. The pundits will say, “Well, now it’s in McCain’s hands” or “Now it’s in Obama’s hands,” but they will be wrong. If we are really seeking God in this election we will not give the winner that much credit in organizing our futures for us. On Tuesday we will turn to God. On Wednesday we will turn to God again, because whatever happens next is for God to determine.
It’s the same sort of thing that happens at graduation exercises or commencements as they are called. Have you ever noticed that they are called that – commencement? You would think they’d be called something else, like the grand finale, because after you’ve worked your way through high school or college you see graduation as an exit. But it’s called a commencement because the graduates are now commencing a new life in the world. They are going forth to something new.
Usually at some point someone will stand up and lie to the graduates. They will lie to them. Sometimes it’s the valedictorian who does this. Someone will stand up and look out at all of those folks in their caps and gowns and they will say, “The future is in your hands.” That is a lie.
How scary would that be if it were true? “The future is in our hands? I barely made it through Ms. Tankard’s Algebra II class. I slept through government. And have you seen how Myrtle Moomaw handles money? You’re going to put the future in our hands. The world is in trouble!”
No, the truth is that the future is not in our hands. It’s not in Barack Obama’s hands. It’s not in John McCain’s hands. The future is in God’s hands. How do I know this? Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
What does the Bible say? The Bible says that there was no future before God. Neither was the past. The future is what it is because God made space for it. As the Psalmist says, “You have made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting. You make darkness, and it is night, when all the animals of the forest come creeping out.” [Psalm 104:19-20, NRSV] Who made time? Who made the time in which we could be born? Who make the time that we exist in right now? And who, then, makes the future into which we move? God. God who declares all things good.
But what happened in this time that God made? What happened when we really did try to take the future into our hands? What happened when Adam and Eve looked at the tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden and heard the snake’s voice saying, “Eat it. It will make you wise. It will make you like God?” You know what happened. When we try to do things apart from God we fall, we fail, we take what is good and we despise it. We have been trying to take the future into our hands…we have been trying to take our lives into our hands and the result is the broken lives that we live. What God made good, sin turns into something with only a dim resemblance to goodness and truth. And as Paul says in Romans, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” [Romans 3:23].
God was not content to let us go our own way, though. We may have forgotten who we were, but God didn’t. God knew that we were “fearfully and wonderfully made” [Psalm 139:14] and God loved us not for who we were but who God knew we could be. Is there any greater love than that? Think how many ways we try to cover up who we really are because of the fear we have deep down that we are unlovable? Plastic surgery, fancy cars, jewelry – how much of that is a way of saying, “You could never love the real me, so here is the fake me. Love that.” But God looks beneath the service and says, “No, I know who you are. I know what you’ve done and what’s been done to you. And none of that defines you in my eyes. What defines you in my eyes is who I made you to be and who you can be.”
God sees us through the eyes of Christ. In Jesus came to earth to share our lives and to go to the cross to show the extent of that love. We were made good, we did bad, but in Jesus we were redeemed for new life. “In Christ Jesus, God was reconciling the world unto himself, not counting their trespasses against them,” as 1 Corinthians says [2 Co. 5:19].
There is one last step to this story, though, and this really shows us how the future is in God’s hands. Salvation is offered to you and me and the whole world in Jesus. The work of God in making a way for fallen humanity is done. But something still waits. We still wait for the day when all will be made clear…when the kingdom will come…when Christ will return in glory…when this “mortal flesh takes on immortality” [1 Co. 15:53].
Or to put in the terms of the Bible reading from 1 John that we have for today, “See what manner of love the Father has given to us so that we might be called children of God and so we are.” That’s pretty amazing right there. That we, with all of our warts and all of our flaws and all of our king-sized bone-headed decisions, might be called children of God is one of the truly ridiculous things the Bible has to say about us. It’s also ridiculously true.
There’s more, though. “Beloved,” the first letter of John says, “we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. We do know that when he is revealed, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is.” This is the great hope of the Christian. We don’t look forward to the future in confidence because we are better than the rest of the world. We don’t look forward to the future with confidence because we have been chosen because of our good looks or our high moral standards. Most of us didn’t have either of those when we discovered Jesus.
No, when Jesus came to us we were the ordinary people we had always been – beset by sin and far from perfect. Our mamas loved us but we sometimes had a hard time loving ourselves. We doubted ourselves and we doubted the world around us.
When Jesus turns your life around, though, he tells you something flat amazing – “You are a child of God. You are my brother. You are my sister.” And because of that we look at ourselves differently. Sure we’re still a long way from perfect and we read the Bible and we meet together and we pray and we work for a world that looks more like God’s kingdom because we want to be more like Jesus. But there is that day. There is that one fine day yet to come. There is that day when all will be revealed and we don’t know what we will look like then, but we know this because the Bible tells us so – we will be like him.
This is the great promise of the Christian life. No matter what this old world holds. No matter what the new world under a new president holds. No matter what the world may say, the future belongs to the God of Jesus Christ and it is a future of love and hope and the righting of all wrongs. And the name that is given to those who wait in hope for this future is the name of saints.
That’s what Paul calls the people he is writing to. And the Corinthians and the Ephesians and the Galatians and the Thessalonians were no better or worse people than we are. They had no more claim to the title than we do. But these people who lived at a moment in history that seemed every bit as historic as we now live in were called saints – holy ones, meant for something more.
This is All Saints Day in the Church. One of John Wesley’s favorite days in the church year. It is a day to give thanks for all those who have gone from this life to the next who shared the promise given to us. It is a day to remember that we are called to the same life. It is a day to remember that the future is not in our hands…it is in much better hands. The future belongs to God and God is already there with all the saints. Thanks be to God.
1 John 3:1-3
Look at what sort of love the Father has given us -- that we should be called children of God and so we are. The world does not know us for this reason -- it did not know him. Beloved, we are children of God now, and it is not yet revealed who we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him because we will see him just as he is. All who have this hope from him purify themselves.
Our values as a people are up for debate. Are we still a people who believe that America is a land of opportunity for all people? Are we still a people who believe that we have a responsibility for one another and that we move ahead when everyone gives their best and offers a hand up to their neighbor? Are still a people who believe in a culture of life and that children are to be nurtured? Do we believe that budgets are moral documents that show our values more clearly than our words? Do we live within our means and do we use our common resources for the bettering of our world and not for the enriching of the few?
So what happens on Tuesday is very important. We have gotten caught up in the fervor. You were listening very carefully to my words just now trying to determine who I’m voting for and some of you were preparing arguments to share with me at the end of the service. I have received all sorts of mail and faxes advising me how to advise you in these last days before the election. The worst was one that came the other day telling me that my congregants should think of me as nervous, wimpy and unholy if I didn’t publicly call for Obama’s repentance because he favors child sacrifice. (He doesn’t.)
Here’s what I need to say this morning, though. We need to take this election very seriously. We need to be talking with each other about how our faith and our values are leading us to vote in this election. You can even talk with me and I will tell you who I as a citizen will be voting for. But I will also tell you as your pastor that neither Barack Obama nor John McCain has a lock on biblical truth. Both of them could stand to repent for some of their positions and for the worst parts of this campaign season. But I think we are fortunate as Christians that we have two candidates who share the name of Christ, who have met together in a church – Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church – to talk about how their faith impacts their public policies, who have both sought out people of faith as allies in promoting an agenda they see as faithful to our highest ideals, and who, I hope, will continue to be Christians after the election. I trust that is so.
So I encourage you to vote your hopes and not your fears as you go to the polls on Tuesday. Pray with me that we will make a wise choice and know that whoever is elected that we will need to continue to keep praying and working. Because the truth is that while neither Obama nor McCain are the devils some make them out to be, they are not angels either and whoever wins will need help for the huge challenges we face.
What’s going to happen after Tuesday? Well, as people who expect Christ to return one day to bring the kingdom in its fullness, it is a little presumptuous to speak this way. The pundits will say, “Well, now it’s in McCain’s hands” or “Now it’s in Obama’s hands,” but they will be wrong. If we are really seeking God in this election we will not give the winner that much credit in organizing our futures for us. On Tuesday we will turn to God. On Wednesday we will turn to God again, because whatever happens next is for God to determine.
It’s the same sort of thing that happens at graduation exercises or commencements as they are called. Have you ever noticed that they are called that – commencement? You would think they’d be called something else, like the grand finale, because after you’ve worked your way through high school or college you see graduation as an exit. But it’s called a commencement because the graduates are now commencing a new life in the world. They are going forth to something new.
Usually at some point someone will stand up and lie to the graduates. They will lie to them. Sometimes it’s the valedictorian who does this. Someone will stand up and look out at all of those folks in their caps and gowns and they will say, “The future is in your hands.” That is a lie.
How scary would that be if it were true? “The future is in our hands? I barely made it through Ms. Tankard’s Algebra II class. I slept through government. And have you seen how Myrtle Moomaw handles money? You’re going to put the future in our hands. The world is in trouble!”
No, the truth is that the future is not in our hands. It’s not in Barack Obama’s hands. It’s not in John McCain’s hands. The future is in God’s hands. How do I know this? Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
What does the Bible say? The Bible says that there was no future before God. Neither was the past. The future is what it is because God made space for it. As the Psalmist says, “You have made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting. You make darkness, and it is night, when all the animals of the forest come creeping out.” [Psalm 104:19-20, NRSV] Who made time? Who made the time in which we could be born? Who make the time that we exist in right now? And who, then, makes the future into which we move? God. God who declares all things good.
But what happened in this time that God made? What happened when we really did try to take the future into our hands? What happened when Adam and Eve looked at the tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden and heard the snake’s voice saying, “Eat it. It will make you wise. It will make you like God?” You know what happened. When we try to do things apart from God we fall, we fail, we take what is good and we despise it. We have been trying to take the future into our hands…we have been trying to take our lives into our hands and the result is the broken lives that we live. What God made good, sin turns into something with only a dim resemblance to goodness and truth. And as Paul says in Romans, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” [Romans 3:23].
God was not content to let us go our own way, though. We may have forgotten who we were, but God didn’t. God knew that we were “fearfully and wonderfully made” [Psalm 139:14] and God loved us not for who we were but who God knew we could be. Is there any greater love than that? Think how many ways we try to cover up who we really are because of the fear we have deep down that we are unlovable? Plastic surgery, fancy cars, jewelry – how much of that is a way of saying, “You could never love the real me, so here is the fake me. Love that.” But God looks beneath the service and says, “No, I know who you are. I know what you’ve done and what’s been done to you. And none of that defines you in my eyes. What defines you in my eyes is who I made you to be and who you can be.”
God sees us through the eyes of Christ. In Jesus came to earth to share our lives and to go to the cross to show the extent of that love. We were made good, we did bad, but in Jesus we were redeemed for new life. “In Christ Jesus, God was reconciling the world unto himself, not counting their trespasses against them,” as 1 Corinthians says [2 Co. 5:19].
There is one last step to this story, though, and this really shows us how the future is in God’s hands. Salvation is offered to you and me and the whole world in Jesus. The work of God in making a way for fallen humanity is done. But something still waits. We still wait for the day when all will be made clear…when the kingdom will come…when Christ will return in glory…when this “mortal flesh takes on immortality” [1 Co. 15:53].
Or to put in the terms of the Bible reading from 1 John that we have for today, “See what manner of love the Father has given to us so that we might be called children of God and so we are.” That’s pretty amazing right there. That we, with all of our warts and all of our flaws and all of our king-sized bone-headed decisions, might be called children of God is one of the truly ridiculous things the Bible has to say about us. It’s also ridiculously true.
There’s more, though. “Beloved,” the first letter of John says, “we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. We do know that when he is revealed, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is.” This is the great hope of the Christian. We don’t look forward to the future in confidence because we are better than the rest of the world. We don’t look forward to the future with confidence because we have been chosen because of our good looks or our high moral standards. Most of us didn’t have either of those when we discovered Jesus.
No, when Jesus came to us we were the ordinary people we had always been – beset by sin and far from perfect. Our mamas loved us but we sometimes had a hard time loving ourselves. We doubted ourselves and we doubted the world around us.
When Jesus turns your life around, though, he tells you something flat amazing – “You are a child of God. You are my brother. You are my sister.” And because of that we look at ourselves differently. Sure we’re still a long way from perfect and we read the Bible and we meet together and we pray and we work for a world that looks more like God’s kingdom because we want to be more like Jesus. But there is that day. There is that one fine day yet to come. There is that day when all will be revealed and we don’t know what we will look like then, but we know this because the Bible tells us so – we will be like him.
This is the great promise of the Christian life. No matter what this old world holds. No matter what the new world under a new president holds. No matter what the world may say, the future belongs to the God of Jesus Christ and it is a future of love and hope and the righting of all wrongs. And the name that is given to those who wait in hope for this future is the name of saints.
That’s what Paul calls the people he is writing to. And the Corinthians and the Ephesians and the Galatians and the Thessalonians were no better or worse people than we are. They had no more claim to the title than we do. But these people who lived at a moment in history that seemed every bit as historic as we now live in were called saints – holy ones, meant for something more.
This is All Saints Day in the Church. One of John Wesley’s favorite days in the church year. It is a day to give thanks for all those who have gone from this life to the next who shared the promise given to us. It is a day to remember that we are called to the same life. It is a day to remember that the future is not in our hands…it is in much better hands. The future belongs to God and God is already there with all the saints. Thanks be to God.
1 John 3:1-3
Look at what sort of love the Father has given us -- that we should be called children of God and so we are. The world does not know us for this reason -- it did not know him. Beloved, we are children of God now, and it is not yet revealed who we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him because we will see him just as he is. All who have this hope from him purify themselves.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment