November 29, 2009 Dr Ron Kratzer

No written sermon

November 22, 2009 Pastor Tim Pusey

A GREAT BIG “THANK YOU”!
Luke 7:36-50

Ah…that wonderful time of the year has arrived when we feed our faces until we nearly burst, resembling stuffed turkeys ourselves as we waddle from the table to the couch to watch football. Oh, ya, it’s also the time of year when we’re encouraged to give thanks to the Lord for all of our blessings—but that part easily gets relegated to an afterthought in too many of our homes on Thanksgiving Day. My hope is that we could promote it to center stage of our hearts and lives this Thanksgiving—and I’m hoping that our time in the Word this morning will help us with that.

We’re looking at another scene from Jesus’ life today from the Gospel of Luke. This is my last sermon in the series I’ve called, “Close Enough to Feel the Pain”—reflecting on Jesus’ pattern of getting so close to people that He couldn’t help but be aware of their hurts and struggles—even when the pain in their lives may have been self-inflicted. Such people seemed to be His mission, didn’t they—and He would not shirk away from them!

The scene of Jesus’ life to which we turn this morning poses the contrast between the town harlot and a local preacher—between a woman known to be a sinner in their town and a Pharisee, one of the men who was a leader in the Synagogue. Once again we find Jesus at a party—this time at the home of a prominent Pharisee, a man named Simon (not to be confused with the Simon we know mostly as Peter). Parties were fairly public events in those days, at least in the sense that they took place in open courtyards and the uninvited commonly stood around and observed the guests and the festivities from the perimeter of the courtyards. That’s what opened the door for what happened at this unforgettable party.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 7—
[Read Luke 7:36-50, TNIV]

It was a fascinating scene, wasn’t it? Let me see if I can help you envision it better. In those days, they ate, as the Romans did, with a low table in the middle and with something like couches or loungers surrounding the table. Lying with their heads at the table and their feet out, the guests would form a pattern that from above them might have resembled a great big star.

Jesus was reclining in this manner at the home of Simon when this woman in the crowd came up to where Jesus was and began to weep over Him. Scripture just tells us that she had lived “a sinful life.” And it seems fairly safe to assume that the sinful life she lived was one of sexual impropriety. Chances are that she was a prostitute—and her reputation was known throughout the community, including all who were at this party and all who were watching from outside Simon’s courtyard.

I wish we had a name for her, so we could at least call her by name—but I suppose in that town her reputation preceded her and the men in the town preferred her to remain nameless. But something had drawn her to this man Jesus—her shame, her desperate desire to be set free from the trap of her own sins, and, with all of that, a glimmer of hope that this man had the power to set her free and give her a new lease on life. Her emotions got the best of her, and it seemed like all she could do was weep. No words came from her mouth.

And as she wept at the feet of Jesus, she became aware that her tears were dripping down onto His feet. His feet were apparently dirty from open sandals on dusty roads he had traveled that day—and she realized that no one had washed His feet as would have been common custom, a common courtesy. It must have been a bright moment in the midst of her painful tears to realize that somehow her tears were meeting a need, albeit in such a strange way. So when her tears had thoroughly rinsed his feet, she dried them with her long hair. First of all, it was scandalous for a Jewish woman to let her hair hang down long—women of good reputation always pulled it up. But not this woman—which tells us something more about her reputation in town. But the scene of her wiping dirty feet with her own hair shows the depth of her humility before Jesus, and the power of hope she had somehow found in Him. No one had ever responded to her as this man did.

Simon—the Pharisee—reacted in a way that reveals a lot about who he was and why he had invited Jesus to this party. It would appear that he did not invite Jesus as a social equal, for he didn’t provide any of the usual amenities for Jesus. He hadn’t offered the anointing of oil for Jesus’ head. He hadn’t offered the customary foot-washing. He hadn’t even given Jesus the proper greeting—which in their part of the world would have been a kiss. He had apparently invited Jesus out of curiosity—not respect. He had heard that Jesus was a prophet and he wanted to see for himself who this new celebrity really was.

And evidently, in Simon’s opinion, Jesus flunked the first test. Simon said to himself, “If this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling all over him” (The Message). And Jesus, reading Simon’s heart, said, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” Then Jesus pointed out that this woman had done the things that Simon had failed to do. Because she had been forgiven so much, she washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, and anointed not His head but His feet with expensive perfume. Her sins, which were many, were forgiven because she loved so much.

We don’t know how Simon reacted to Jesus’ words, but we know that his shallow interest in Jesus was exposed for what it was. Simon knew everything about religion, liturgy, theology, ethics, temple worship, and the law. He knew much about God but somehow missed the essence of where such knowledge is to take us—while the unnamed woman had captured the heart of real worship. You see, the woman knew how sinful she was. Simon’s problem was that he thought he was better than he was and he misunderstood the nature of God and God’s unwavering unconditional love.

We think of Jesus being the Lord of the clean and the wholesome, but the truth is that Jesus gave His life for those who had made an ugly mess of their lives—whose life details we’d be embarrassed to share in nice places like church. The very essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is “agape,” which is the Greek word for the love of God, a love unlike any other love. Every other kind of love is to some degree conditioned. It’s a trade-off—“I will if you will.” God’s love is different. Through Jesus, God is saying that He loves you just the way you are now. There’s nothing you can do that can make Him love you more than He does right now.

If you respond to His love and give Him your life, He’s not going to leave you as you are. If Christ isn’t Lord of our lives, our lives are a mess—even if we look good on the outside. But Christ aspires to set us free and to transform us—and over and over we hear the great stories of how Christ has indeed done that in people’s lives! But even when Christ transforms us and we begin the journey to become the person He designed us to be from the beginning, He will not love us one bit more than He does at this moment. That’s agape love.

In our story from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus sensed the woman’s deep sorrow for her sins and He pronounced her forgiven. The forgiveness was unearned—right? She didn’t deserve for Jesus to forgive her sins. Why should He, a stranger even care about this immoral woman? But the very fact that she didn’t deserve God’s forgiveness was what prompted her emotional display of such love and gratitude.

Gratitude—that should be the center of our attentions this week—not rich foods, nor football, nor the Friday-after-Thanksgiving shopping deals, nor even the people with whom we share these things. There’s nothing wrong with any of those, but they can easily be distractions to our gratitude.

And even if your life has been seemingly shipwrecked this year with economic hardships, and even if you’ve experienced grief and heartache this year that has exceeded any other year in your life, and even if you might find yourself all alone on Thanksgiving Day, the redeemed child of God still has a lot of heartfelt worship to do as we humble ourselves before the Lord and recall all that He has done for us. And even if everything else had been stripped away from us, no one can take away our salvation—what God so graciously offers to us, that treasure that is above every other treasure in our lives.

And so, on this Thanksgiving Sunday, we give thanks to our Savior and Lord, our Redeemer, who loved us not because of who we were or what we had done, but in spite of those things. Our giving of thanks is to be as heartfelt as was that of the woman who wept at the feet of Jesus, who dried his feet with her hair, and who took the expensive perfume that was perhaps her greatest treasure and poured it over the feet of Jesus.

So how are we to worship Christ today? How are we to express our gratitude to Him this day and every day? He’s not here in physical form that we can respond to His needs as the unnamed woman did in Simon’s home. So how shall we thank Him?

I want to suggest to you two ways we can thank Him. First, we thank Him by our worship. That’s what this lady was doing—bowing at His feet, pouring perfume on His feet. It was perhaps her greatest treasure and she poured it over the feet of Jesus.

You and I appropriately demonstrate our thanks to the Lord when we are passionate in our worship—not just walking through the doors of the church out of obligation, or because your wife or your mom made you, but stepping through these doors with a sense of expectation and focus that this is our opportunity to join with other believers in worshipping
• our Lord,
• our Redeemer,
• our King,
• our Savior—
o the One who has given us new life,
o the One who gives us hope day after day,
o the One who sustains us and helps us,
o the One who hears our every prayer—
 our Creator,
 our Rock,
 our Fortress!
He is the One to whom we bow down this day and every day!

And when the opportunity for corporate worship becomes such a high priority in our lives, we don’t look for opportunities that pull us away from it, we don’t make casual excuses not to be part of it—it is an unwavering priority in our lives!

May I meddle a bit to push my point here? I wish I could have put my fingers on the raw data this week, but I heard in recent years that 30 years ago the “regular attender” at most churches missed about two Sundays per year—but now the “regular attender” will be gone from their local church 12-15 Sundays every year. And honestly, I’m guessing that in Idaho it just might be more than that!

Some of you remember when we used to give away Sunday school pins for perfect attendance and how some people proudly wore their little Sunday school perfect attendance pins that had little bars on them which reflected maybe 12 years of perfect attendance, or 20, or even more. None of us would earn such badges anymore! I understand. Our world’s so complicated. Our families are spread out, and we travel often. We have lots of opportunities to do fun things over the weekends and there are lots of places to see and experience. Our lives are complicated by lots of commitments beyond the local church—some of which may be good, some of which may not be so good in the big picture of things.

And what I yearn to see is for more followers of Jesus who make worship a high priority in their lives. The truth is that a lot of people are far too casual about whether or not they’re going to make it to church on Sunday. And parents, what do you think that says to your kids? What example are you setting? How important is the Sabbath to us? And when you’ve got to be away from your own church family here, do you make a serious effort to still join with other believers to worship the Lord on the Lord’s Day—to humble yourself before Him once again and acknowledge your need for Him, to sing songs of praise and worship which you lift to Him, to hear God’s Word proclaimed so that you can apply its great truths to your life, to quiet your heart and soul before the Lord to talk with Him and to listen to Him?

Can’t we worship by ourselves? Sure, we can, and we need to do so every day. But all through scripture—Old Testament and New Testament—we see proclaimed the value of corporate worship, coming together as fellow believers and centering our attention on Lord in worship together.

And dare I say again that such worship is not centered around what makes us happy. Please understand that we work hard to make worship relevant and meaningful to every person who walks through our doors, but at the end of the day worship is not about us—the pastors of this church—making you happy with how we approach worship. It’s about the opportunity for each of us to humbly come together and with one heart lift our praises to God; it’s about falling at His feet and basking in the wonder of His mercy and grace.

Well, I believe that making worship a high priority in our lives is one way in which we express our thanks to God. And I know that many of you do, and I affirm you for it. I just know that we live in a culture that minimizes such a commitment—and we as followers of Christ need to be on our guard lest we get swept up in the distractions and lest we let our families get caught up in less important things that distract us from the main thing. But when we make a solid commitment to keep worship a high priority in our lives, we’re far more likely to maintain heartfelt gratitude in our daily lives…and God is honored.

I also believe that we demonstrate our gratitude to the Lord when we let our lights shine for Christ in our world. I suppose we need to share our love for Jesus in a way that is as unabashed as the woman in our story today. She clearly didn’t hide her love for the Lord. It just gushed out from her. All could see it—and don’t you know that there were those watching around the table and around the perimeter of the courtyard who felt humbled and challenged in their own lives by her all-out love for the Lord that day?

I still have on my desk the stack of cards you gave me with the names of persons for whose salvation you are praying. I’ve come to see them not just as names on cards, but as your brothers and sisters, your sons and daughters, your friends, your moms and dads, your husbands, your wives—people you care about who need to know Jesus as Savior and Lord. I join you in praying for those people often. I don’t know that I ever take that stack in my hands and start through the cards without tears filling my eyes, because I know the heartache of loving people who haven’t yet figured out how much they need the Lord, people who are lost now and will be lost eternally if they don’t make a u-turn in their lives. And I encourage you again to keep praying for these people.

But I also want to encourage you to let your light shine before them. How? Three words come to mind: prayer, care, and share.
• Pray for them regularly, asking God to show you how to let your light shine before them.
• Care for them. Just love them. Find ways you can demonstrate loving kindness to them.
• And then Share with them—as God gives you natural opportunities to speak of the difference Christ makes in your life.

I’ve been reminded again this week that the greatest way we let our lights shine before others is simply to pour out love upon them in the same way Christ poured out His love upon us. And I know that it’s hard some times. Honestly, we don’t always know how to best love others…but I’m also confident that our Lord wants to show us how and to teach us.

Back in the late 80’s, I was pastoring in a small town in Ohio—Galion, Ohio. There was a young man remotely connected to our church with whom I got acquainted. Chris was living in a homosexual relationship with another young man whose grandmother attended our church. He’d come by the church sometimes during the week and ask if he could go into the sanctuary and play the organ. He’d come to church occasionally. Now and then he’d ask if he and I could meet for lunch—and over time I learned of his loneliness and the dysfunction of the relationship he was in.

I endeavored always to be kind and gracious with him, though not excusing away the sin in his life. And, honestly, I’ll confess that I was often a bit uncomfortable with the thought of being seen having lunch with him—because I knew a lot of people in that small town knew how Chris was living and I didn’t want them to draw the wrong conclusions. But I always went, because I knew it was the right thing to do.

And honestly, when I left that town in 1991, I didn’t have much hope that Chris would ever change his ways, as desperate as he was for a new way of life. But maybe 3 or 4 years ago now, I got the shock of my life one day when I got a phone call from Chris. I learned that he had finally given his life to Christ, broken away from his homosexual relationship and lifestyle, became involved in the church I once pastored, and worshipped there regularly. Chris was calling me to thank me for the role I had played in his conversion. There was a sense of joy and peace I had never heard in Chris before. And I was reminded again of the importance of us simply loving people who need to know Jesus, loving lost people like Jesus did.

I think that’s a great way to show our gratitude to Christ, too—because it’s partnering with Him in His great purpose in our world. I suppose it may be easy to say “Thank you, Lord” for this and that, and to make our thanks the focus of one day a year, but perhaps the real test comes in committing ourselves to consistent and continual heartfelt worship. Perhaps the rest test of thanksgiving comes in living out with others the kind of love Christ has poured out over us. And it’s to that kind of thanksgiving that I challenge you today. May God bless us as we give ourselves to becoming more and more people of heartfelt gratitude to our Lord and Savior.

Pastor Tim’s Blog

BEEN THINKING…

I attended a 2-hour seminar earlier this week which centered on the new book Postmodern and Wesleyan: Exploring the Boundaries and Possibilities. The dialogue was interesting, though heavy on the academic view of things (which, granted, is good for me to grapple with but never as helpful to me as the perspective of practitioners). I had read the book, relating with a smile to a term used in it—“pomophobic”—which refers to those who have a natural distaste and fear for the general conversation about the significance of trying to minister in a “postmodern” world. I guess I find it a little troubling that everyone has a hard time even defining what “postmodern” means! What really has bugged me has been those who have inferred that everything the church has been doing for years and years is now suddenly obsolete and irrelevant. And I suppose it’s difficult not to take that a little personal, though I’ll get over that part!

I recognize that our world keeps changing—and certainly it is changing in significant ways. I’m also aware that those of us who have given ourselves to ministering to people through local churches have all along been conscientiously and diligently making adjustments to how we’re approaching ministry in a changing world. We’re passionate about reaching people, so of course we want to make adjustments to how we’re approaching ministry so that we’re most effective! I recognize the indictments upon the church in ways in which she has failed at times across the years in failing to embody the love of Christ in such a way that we’re told the postmoderns are insistent upon, and yet I reflect upon the ministry of my father-in-law in the 60’s and 70’s in which he and my mother-in-law gave of their time and resources over and over again in Christlike love as they endeavored to be the vessels through which others came to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Sure, my father-in-law used tools which I wouldn’t use today (and that I was never comfortable with), but the tools worked for him because of the love he poured out on lost people. I believe we’ve always had those heroes in the church that kept the main thing the main thing, and who lived out Christlike love in the manner in which we’re told postmoderns are longing. Is all this really so radically different?

I appreciated what Carl Leth said in the book (which was a series of essays, a few of which took opposing views on the topic)—

There is very little in these proposals that is really “new.” These themes and ideas can readily be found in the long history and conversation of the Church. That is not to say that there is nothing important being said here. It would be an assumption of modernity that significance is a function of novelty. Rather, these ideas and conversations have ongoing importance—particularly given the creative character of this transitional time…One last observation: While the title of this work identifies it as a postmodern and Wesleyan conversation, there is little in these papers that is distinctively Wesleyan…They could easily be described as postmodern and Christian…

And I was reminded that I’m far more interested in being Christian than I am in being “Wesleyan”—even though I cherish our Wesleyan heritage.

Well…we won’t solve this one over night. There’s sure a lot to think about, but I’m not going to give into the thinking that everything we’ve been doing no longer has relevance. I pray the Lord helps us to communicate and live out the timeless truths of the Word to people today in such a way that they can understand and embrace them.

What are you thinking…?

November 15, 2009 Pastor Tim Pusey

THE TOUCH OF HOPE
Luke 8:40-56

[See video “God Restores”—1:02]

Who of us haven’t had those times when we wondered if maybe our lives had been trashed? And I’m guessing more of us than would like to admit it have had those experiences that left us feeling broken, crushed…even shattered. And while I’m incredibly grateful that it hasn’t been my day-by-day experience, I do know what that’s like—and too often I’ve been the greatest culprit of my own brokenness. Do you know what I mean?

Sometimes it’s just life that pushes us to the edge! Even good things! When Cindy and I married we so very much wanted to have children and were so thrilled when God blessed our home with Justin, Krista and Kara! But I also can look back and see what I couldn’t see at the time—that my wife was so overwhelmed with the demands of three babies that she was living on the edge of depression—especially in that first year when we had all three in diapers! She shared years later that there were times in that first year or two when she’d pause at the top of the steps for just a moment and the thought would go through her mind, “If I fell down these steps I might break my leg and then I could go to the hospital and get some rest!” Life happens, doesn’t it?

This morning we’re going to look at the lives of a couple of people who found themselves at the edge of life—fearing they were about to fall off! And then…they met Jesus. And when all they could see were holes, He saw wholeness! When they saw rubbish, He saw righteousness! When they saw death, He saw life! Jesus was the One who makes beauty out of ashes! I like the thought that God recycles: He turns trash into treasure, rags into riches and paupers into princes—and that He’s not afraid to dig through the garbage of our lives in order to make that happen! Isn’t that an amazing thought?!

So turn with me to Luke 8—
[Read Luke 8:40-56]
Here we have intertwined the stories of two people—caught at what was perhaps the most critical time in their lives. And for both people we see the power and compassion of Jesus displayed in marvelous ways—and we also see the significance of faith.

And yet the two people involved in these two healings could not have been more different. Jairus was a man of means—apparently rich and certainly socially powerful. He had prominence in the religious world—what some might think of being a “cut above the rest.” In the synagogue he was up front all the time—in the spotlight reading the scriptures, perhaps determining which songs would be sung.

The woman, however, suffered from a physical problem with bleeding that would have barred her from even entering the synagogue. Her physical condition left her ceremonially unclean—and it had been that way for 12 years! Twelve years is a long time! It probably seemed to her like most of her life had been spent that way—and, having spent every penny she could muster on doctors and still not finding a cure, she apparently had concluded that this was her lot in her life—the way it would always be now. And with all of that in mind, she was on the far end of the social and religious spectrum from where Jairus was. We don’t even know her name.

The circumstances of the healing were so different too. In a scene full of people crowding in upon Jesus, all who apparently had enough faith in Him to believe that He could do something for them, there emerged one woman of special faith. While she was forbidden to touch others because she would make them ceremonially unclean too, she dared to believe that God’s power so resided in Jesus that if she could just get close enough to Jesus to touch the border of his long garment that she would be made well.

On the other hand, when Jesus entered Jairus’ home, there was pretty much a void of faith. “Your daughter died, Jairus. No need to bother the Teacher now. He can’t do anything for her.” They were consumed with sharing the grief of a mother and father who had lost their only daughter. And when Jesus said to them, “Don’t cry, she didn’t die; she’s only sleeping,” they laughed at Jesus because they knew the girl was dead. And from their vantage point, there wasn’t anything now that could be done for her. Jesus got the naysayers out of the house and only He and a few of His disciples and the parents were allowed to enter with Him. And Jesus restored life to that little girl. And it wasn’t a resuscitation—it was a resurrection!

It was all truly amazing, wasn’t it?! Two people in seemingly hopeless situations come to Jesus—and He restored their lives. His touch was the touch of hope. The woman had been trying for years to get her physical problem resolved, but no one could heal her. All due respect to doctors, but there was only so much the doctors could do! She had exhausted her resources—and there appeared to be no hope and no help for her condition. It not only sapped her strength, but it was embarrassing. And because it rendered her ceremonially unclean, it had taken control of her life!

She didn’t want to draw attention to herself in coming to Jesus, and she didn’t want others to deem Jesus ceremonially unclean because of her need, so she determined to simply try to touch the bottom fringe of his long garment. That meant that she had to get down near the ground—with the crowd pressing in upon Jesus. He immediately knew that power had gone out from Him—though it certainly wasn’t as if His power was being drained. I don’t know that we can begin to understand what that was like—but clearly Jesus was aware that someone had reached out to Him in such a way that healing power had gone out from Him to this person. And Jesus immediately asked those closest to Him, “Who touched me?”

The disciples thought Jesus’ question was a bit ridiculous and unreasonable, noting that the crowd was pressing in upon Him from every direction—all wanting to get close to Him. That moment reminds me of an experience I had in the Dominican Republic when I was a college student ministering there for a summer. Our team of four spent much of our time in a village outside the city of Santo Domingo. The village was a community of Haitian people who had come from their home country on the other side of the island in order to make a living working in the sugar cane fields. Of our team of four, I was the blondest, and evidently most of these very dark-skinned people had never seen a person with blond hair before. And I remember times when we would get into the little taxi they called the “publico” to ride back to the city, hands would reach through the open window to touch my blond hair as they would call out my name in farewell greeting, “Timoteo!” I’m just guessing that lots of people were reaching out to touch Jesus with certainly greater enthusiasm and more excitement than my Dominican friends had with me.

And yet Jesus knew that someone had touched Him in such a way that His divine power had been tapped. “I felt healing power go out from me!” The woman apparently felt exposed. She began to tremble, bowing at the feet of Jesus. Her voice quivered as she told Jesus and all who were standing nearby about her need, and how she had indeed reached out to touch the edge of His garment, and how she had been instantly healed. I’m sure she didn’t know how Jesus would respond to her, but with compassion and grace and affirmation of her faith, Jesus said, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

And even though Jairus was a man of social standing in the community, there is no less of a display of desperation in him coming to Jesus that day. Scripture tells us that he fell at the feet of Jesus, pleading for Jesus to come to his house in order to heal his only daughter who was dying at this very moment! It was pretty remarkable that Jairus would bow at the feet of Jesus—particularly when it was already clear that most of the religious leaders were not happy with all the attention given Jesus. And I wonder if he might have responded to those who may have scrutinized him for doing so, “You’d have done the same thing if your little girl was dying!”

It appears that Jesus agreed to go to Jairus’ house, but they got waylaid en route. And don’t you just imagine that Jairus was chomping at the bit while all this conversation was going on between Jesus and the woman he healed along the way? If I had been Jairus and I had to stand there while she cried and trembled her way through her long story while I knew that my little girl was at that same moment dying and desperately needing the emergency care of Jesus the Healer, I don’t know what I’d have done. Even if I hadn’t said anything, my body language would be screaming, “Come on, Jesus! You can’t waste time by talking with this lady now! You healed her, now let’s get going! My little girl’s dying!” If I’d been Jairus, Jesus would probably have had to take me by the shoulders and say, “Chill out, Tim! I’ve got this under control!”

And I wonder if the poor guy didn’t just fall apart when he got the update from his house, “Your daughter just died. There’s no need to bother the Teacher now.” But did you catch what Jesus said to Jairus at that point? “Don’t be afraid.” “Don’t be afraid.” How often has the Lord had to steady us with those words?! All through scripture, the Lord brings those words of peace to His people—“Don’t be consumed with your fears. Trust me in this. Don’t be afraid!”

And we know how it ended. Jesus went to the house and reached out to hold the hand of that 12-year-old girl. It was a lifeless hand—limp as Jesus took it in His. She was dead. He looked into her ashen face and gently spoke to her, saying, “My dear child, get up!” And she did! Life returned to her body! She wasn’t just alive—she was healthy! She stood up and Jesus had to ask the stunned parents to get the poor girl something to eat!

Our scripture today tells us of two people in hopeless situations and how Jesus stepped into their world, bringing hope and health and wholeness. These stories of healing demonstrate Jesus’ authority over disease and death. They give us a glimpse of the difference He can make in our lives when we dare to have faith in Him.

So was that then and now’s now and do such miracles never happen anymore? No…that’s not so! And if we were to have some open mic time in this crowd today, you’d likely hear lots of stories of how people experienced Jesus’ touch of hope in their lives. Miracles are still taking place. God still brings His healing touch upon bodies. Lives are restored by God’s touch. Marriages have been healed. God still reaches out to uplift and restore exhausted, desperate people. He still lifts up those who have blown it with their lives and have no place to turn. He still redeems lives. He is the God of hope!

Verse 50 of Luke 8 is a strong word for us today: “Don’t be afraid; just believe…” And the truth is that today or tomorrow, whatever we face, we do not need to be afraid. It may be our mistakes and failures that got us where we are. It may be secret sin that takes our lives to the edge of disaster. It may be from circumstances out of our control—maybe loneliness, sickness or grief…but God’s word to us today is “Don’t be afraid; just believe…you can trust me.”

Maybe you’ve lost sight of hope in your life. You might acknowledge the hopelessness in only one corner of your life, but the darkness of that corner of hopelessness seems to consume too much of life for you. Perhaps you’ve lost hope of ever being accepted as you’d like to be. Maybe you’ve lost hope of keeping your job—you just keep waiting every day for the ax to fall and for you to find yourself unemployed. Maybe the ax has already fallen for you, and you’re losing hope of getting a job that will meet your needs and the needs of your family. It all may have brought you to hopelessness in ever carving out a better future. Maybe your hopelessness relates to physical needs—your body’s falling apart and you don’t know how long you’re going to be able to hang on! And with all that’s going on in our world today, maybe hopelessness has consumed you and you fear that you will never feel secure again!

May I remind you of what God’s Word says to us about hope—and how our lives can be anchored in our hope and trust in Him? Listen to these words. Let them speak peace to your soul today…
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (Psalm 42:5)

Put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. (Psalm 130:7)

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory. In his name the nations will put their hope. (Matthew 12:20-21)

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Romans 5:1-5)

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. (Romans 12:12)

On Him we have set our hope…(2 Corinthians 1:10b)

God has chosen to make known among the
Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade…(1 Peter 1:3-4)

It is our greatest privilege as sons and daughters of God Almighty to find hope in Him—hope in the midst of pain, anguish, disease, fear, poverty, rejection, sadness, heartache, loss, and regrets. May we never forget that He makes beauty out of ashes, that He makes joy out of sorrow. And He wants to restore His people today—if we will dare to trust Him.

This morning I want to do something that I do not do often. I want to offer to you the ministry of anointing. It’s a New Testament practice, spoken of most clearly in James, chapter 5—
Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make them well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
(James 5:13-16, TNIV)

And if you need to experience in a tangible way this morning the touch of hope, I want to encourage you to come forward and let one of our pastors pray for you and anoint you with oil. Let’s do so believing that our Heavenly Father loves us and wants to make a difference in our lives—if only we will place our trust in Him. Please understand that it’s not the person praying for you and anointing you who will make the difference—we’re just the vehicle through whom we pray God may chose to work. We also recognize the sovereignty of God and submit ourselves to His wisdom and His grace, knowing that God’s ways are often different than ours, but assured that however God responds to our need that He will not leave us alone to struggle with it. We can trust Him with our every need. His touch is the touch of hope.

Pastor Tyler’s Blog

CHAMELEON OR BUTTERFLY?

Three weeks ago, I was in the midst of planning for the next series of lessons for the Senior High, when I came across an article in one of my favorite magazines, Discipleship Journal. The article was entitled “Truly Transformed.” As I began to read through the article, there was a connection to the times we live in–and the next message I desired to communicate to our youth. That message was more the posed question, “Are you content with just conforming or is there a desire to be transformed?”

Romans 12:2 reads, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” (NLT) Paul had been observing the church in Rome and had come to the conclusion that those in that church looked far too similar to those who were a part of the Roman culture and did not understood the saving grace of Christ. One must ask, is it any different from today?

If you look around, I don’t think it’s too difficult to observe that, oftentimes, those who claim the name of Christ look pretty similar to those who don’t. For example, the current divorce statistics look quite similar within the Church as those in families that don’t claim the Truths of a Biblical worldview. We are seeing another generation contented with the idea that living together and enjoying the physical benefits of marriage without an actual commitment is alright—and justified. We excuse the use of foul and poor language. We gossip about and slander our own brother and sisters in Christ. We are just as likely to be the victim of road rage as we are to engage in it. We see people who are angry, dissatisfied, frustrated, and depressed. All in all, it seems like there is very little difference between those of the world and those who are Christian—we who are challenged to be in but not of this world. Why is this?

Is it possible that along the way we learned to conform to the patterns of church? Is it possible we’ve seen how to copy behaviors of Christians yet not really allow God to transform us? Is it possible we’ve never been transformed and we simply are content living a life as chameleon?

The chameleon is an amazing animal; part of its self defense is the ability to blend into its surroundings. It adapts, changes and fits in to where it needs. Does that sound like you? Do you have a tendency to blend in, to fit in where you need to? Do you fall in line with expectations of co-workers or friends? Christians can oftentimes live the best at a chameleon lifestyle. We know the songs, we’ve heard the stories, and we know the language of what it looks like to be Christian. Yet Monday morning, we know that the “real” world awaits, and the Christian lifestyle just “doesn’t fit us” in that reality.

There is a part of us that rises up to blend in or hide in order to keep people from really seeing who we are. We struggle with the idea of transformation maybe because we were let down when we first prayed the prayer. After all, wasn’t there supposed to be this warm and fuzzy feeling and all your problems go away? Isn’t there supposed to be some great celebration as I make a commitment to changing my way of life?

The butterfly is one of God’s best ways of communicating His plan for us. The butterfly starts out life crawling around on the ground. All it ever sees is the stems of plants and the dust and dirt of the ground. I’m sure it wonders, is this all? Is this all I was meant for? Have you ever asked that question? Yet, what the butterfly maybe doesn’t realize is there will be a time for something new, something better. There comes a time when the butterfly climbs up to build a chrysalis. As time goes by in that cocoon, something begins to happen. Transformation is taking place. When the cocoon or chrysalis opens, the caterpillar is no more, and what is, is the beauty of a new butterfly. With new wings, the butterfly now is given a new perspective of the world. Perspective changes, direction changes, and purpose changes.

Has that happened to you? Do you sense that you now have a different perspective on life because of what Christ has done for you? Has your direction changed because of the Holy Spirit speaking to you and guiding you? Has your purpose changed now that you have new life and new eyes?

You can tape wings to a worm, but that will never make nor allow it to fly. You can learn to blend, but that won’t give you access to the transformation that God wants to do in you! Are you content with copied behaviors? Or is there something inside you that wants new perspective—or simply new life? If the world is going to be changed, it must start with a transformed you, a transformed family, and a transformed Church. So here’s the question are you a chameleon,,,or a butterfly?

November 8, 2009 Pastor Tim Pusey

THE WRONG COMPANY
Luke 5:27-32

Have you been noticing all the Christmas merchandise arriving in area stores? I think I noticed the first of it as early as September—Santas in September! But now that the Halloween stuff is being cleared out, Christmas will reign full force in the stores until early January when they’re trying to clear it all out!

And Christmas is less than seven weeks away now—and Cindy and I have already begun to feel the squeeze! She hit the panic button this week I could tell (husbands know these things!)—as she began to count down the days until this or that and subtracting out days for all the other things we feel we need to do. And I realized too that if we were going to get Christmas letters out to our friends and family that live far away that I was going to have to get rolling on it soon too—so I bought the stationery this week and hope to get it written and printed in the next week or so!

The Christmas season can be so busy, and all too easily we’ll miss the point, won’t we? But let’s not forget that we will celebrate Christmas with great anticipation because we as Christians believe in the Incarnation—that God became man in order to close enough to sinful people to feel the pain of their lost-ness and alienation from Him.

Getting close enough to people to feel the pain of their lost-ness was what Jesus spent His life doing! And this compassion for people took Jesus to the strangest of settings—often in defiance of what had become commonly accepted religious and social “rules” and expectations. And as we’ve noted in recent weeks, He often kept the wrong company.

And He’s at it again in the passage we’re going to look at this morning. We’re going to look at how Jesus embraced the wrong crowd in inviting Matthew to follow Him and in accepting Matthew’s invitation for dinner with all of Matthew’s old friends. For someone considered already by most a great teacher of noble character, Jesus blew them all away with the company that He kept!

Look with me at Luke 5:27-32—
[Read Luke 5:27-32, NIV]

So the succession of people on whom Jesus bestowed His grace and favor just keeps getting longer! As we read through the first few chapters of the Gospel of Luke, we see Jesus’ grace to individuals possessed by evil spirits, to persons with leprosy, and to a man who was paralyzed—bringing healing and wholeness to each one. Jesus liberates people suffering from the personal pain of pervasive evil darkness, physical handicaps and being social outcasts. And, of course, the antagonists—the Pharisees and the teachers of the law—continue to be on the scene.

The man identified by Luke as “Levi” is identified by the name of “Matthew” in Matthew’s Gospel (9:9). He’s the tax collector who became one of the 12 Disciples of Jesus. I’m going to call him “Matthew” this morning, because that’s how most of us have known him. Matthew might have had two names or he might have been given a new name by Jesus—as Simon was called Peter by Jesus. We’re really not sure. But we do know that the Levi spoken of in Luke 5 is the same man as the one called Matthew in other parts of the New Testament.

As I said a moment ago, Matthew was a tax collector—and so he had incurred the scorn of those who looked on such officials as crooked—and there seems to be little doubt that the vast majority of those in such positions enriched themselves through extortion and oppression. We honestly have no reason to believe that Matthew was any different. The Jews particularly despised any of their own people who consented to work for the Roman government who had usurped power over the Jews. And so the tax collectors were also considered traitors to their own people. So, while Matthew may have been a wealthy man, he was clearly ostracized by his own people, the Jews. And yet it was to people like Matthew that Jesus chose to go.

Jesus called Matthew to follow Him—and Matthew did! Matthew walked away from everything and went with Jesus. And we need to think through that Matthew paid a high price for following Jesus—perhaps a higher price than most of the other disciples! He gave up his wealth and privilege and position—and did so gladly to follow Jesus. You couldn’t give up tax collecting for the Roman government on a whim and ever expect to return to it. The fishermen who became disciples of Jesus were more like middle-class businessmen—if this gig of following Jesus ever fell through they could go back to fishing, but for Matthew there was no turning back.

But it didn’t seem to matter to Matthew. He was so elated about this opportunity that he wanted to celebrate. He threw a huge party and invited all his tax-collector friends and their friends. It was evidently quite a feast! He had found something of great price, and he wanted to share it with his old friends and colleagues. And in taking this opportunity to introduce them all to Jesus, he was committing himself publicly and irrevocably to this new way of life. Matthew didn’t try to sneak into being a follower of Christ—and I don’t believe any of us can!

The Pharisee neighbors, watching this party from across their fences, were immediately up in arms! They were upset because, in their times and pretty much still today, table fellowship meant full acceptance—mutual acceptance. To eat with someone is to say, “We are one. I have no qualms about you. You are welcomed in my home!” And the Pharisees were concluding what was exactly true—Jesus considered these sinners His friends!
We might liken Jesus going to eat with Matthew and his friends to someone like us inviting a Nazi collaborator over to our house during World War II.

And we really dare not be too hard on the Pharisees because they were just living out what they had devoted their lives to do—what they thought was the right thing, though it was clearly so twisted. They were fiercely dedicated to upholding the purity of their Jewish faith and life. Implicit in their teaching was strict adherence to both law and tradition, including necessary rites of purification and separation from all whose moral or ritual purity might be in question. The Pharisees refused themselves to eat with tax collectors and other sinners, or even to go into their houses, believing that this would defile them. And, of course, they expected Jesus, as a rabbi or teacher, to do the same. But Jesus’ actions defied their rules and regulations and exposed the reality that the Pharisees had been misled. He shattered their religious and social norms by eating with sinners and rubbing shoulders with them—getting close enough to feel their pain!

The Pharisees were apparently not ready to argue directly with Jesus about this, so they directed their question to Jesus’ disciples—“Why do you eat and drink with such scum?” They were doing what counselors often call “triangulating”—one person that has a problem with a second person but instead of going to that second person goes to a third person with the problem, thinking they are dealing with the problem when, in fact, it is not being dealt with directly at all! Jesus cut through that pitiful approach and answered their questions directly.

He said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31) Jesus took the perspective of a doctor—Dr. Jesus—and responded that, like a doctor, His mission was to work with sick people, not those who are already healthy. His mission was to go to those who recognized their spiritual need for God’s grace and healing—rather than to those who were so convinced that they didn’t need God’s grace. His mission was to outsiders, not insiders.

This was not an admission by Jesus that the Pharisees were healthy spiritually, for their lack of spiritual wholeness was the scandal of the day! They had become a self-righteous lot, failing miserably to see their own desperate need for God’s grace and His transformation. They were so good at living by rules, but they had missed the heart of faith in God. Jesus was evidently implying that the Pharisees only thought they were healthy spiritually—and it just makes sense that we have to first acknowledge our sin before we can genuinely respond to the call to repentance.

It was sort of like medical triage—you know, the process of determining the priority of the severity of cases so that medical attention is given first to those that have the most serious risks. If you ever watched MASH on TV, they showed how medical teams in war did triage. And it happens every day in hospital emergency rooms—because it simply wouldn’t be wise to make someone in cardiac arrest wait while someone with a fairly minor cut on their finger is taken care of. By the way, if you ever want to get quick attention in an ER, just tell them you’re feeling pressure in your chest and that you have a history of heart disease. I’ve done that—because it was true—and they quickly wheeled me into a room (against my protests that I was fully capable of walking there!) and within 30 seconds had six or seven people working on me! And, thank the Lord, it ended up being all over nothing…but I was amazed at how effective their triage was!

Jesus was committed to giving Himself to those who needed Him the most and were most receptive to what He had to offer. It was the glory of our Lord Jesus that He came to heal the moral and spiritual sickness consuming people—and the Pharisees themselves were included in this if they had only been able to understand and embrace it!

So it was once again that Jesus’ compassion for people took Him to the most surprising setting! Contrary to the traditional teachings of the religious folk, Jesus knew that His mission was to get to where the spiritually lost people were. Have you ever thought about who Jesus would invite to a party if He was hosting such an event today? Would it just be us church folk? Would it just be the most godly of the batch? Could it be that He’d invite to that party people with names like Hasan and Mohammed? Wouldn’t He also invite people with criminal records—felons, even child-molesters and murderers—and maybe the latest recruits to AA? I wonder, if this party cut across the barriers of time, if He might have included some men like Hitler and Mussolini. I’m confident He’d include the regulars at the local bars and the girls who make their living dancing at places most of us wouldn’t go near.

Why would Jesus invite people like these folk to a party? Why? Because they are why He came! Those who are healthy don’t need to see the doctor—just those who are sick. Jesus was often criticized and misunderstood for deliberately associating with people who were suspect in the eyes of the religious elite. But there was a reason for Jesus’ actions! His mission was to outsiders! His triage reflected His priority and His calling! He wasn’t doing what He did in order to gain a following and He certainly wasn’t doing it to be “weird” or bizarre or even hip! Jesus came to redeem the enslaved, to find the lost, to mend the broken, and reclaim sinners.

Later in Luke’s Gospel we read Jesus’ parable about the prodigal son—it’s in Luke 15. It tells the story of a rebellious son who takes his inheritance early and squanders it all, leaving him desolate and without hope. He humbly returns to his father’s home, glad to take the role of a servant—knowing he doesn’t deserve better than that. But the father welcomes the son with open arms and throws a great party to celebrate the son’s return.

The older brother—who had stayed on the farm and continued working and been good and diligent all of his life—was angry that the father was throwing a party to celebrate the return of the prodigal son and he refused to go into the party. The father came out to him, saying, “My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:31-32). Jesus was saying that triage was necessary—He had to go seek the lost!

In Luke 19 we read about Jesus reaching out to another tax collector—this one high in the ranks of tax collectors—a “chief tax collector” named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was the short man that perched himself up in a tree in order to see Jesus above the crowds who had flocked around him as Jesus entered into Zacchaeus’ town. The crowd wasn’t happy with Jesus that day either, because Jesus invited Himself over to dinner at Zacchaeus’ house that night—and Jesus made those arrangements in front of the crowd. Again, Jesus was doing triage—going where He was needed most.

And you know, somewhere down the road, a couple of thousand years after Jesus spotted Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree, the Lord saw me—and He recognized how greatly I needed Him. I was just a kid, but it didn’t matter. He saw that I needed what only He could offer. And He invited me to follow Him—and with a young and tender heart I began to follow Jesus. I’m older now—I know, some of you think I’m ancient! But I hope that it’s still with a tender heart that I follow Jesus.

And you too have been invited, because we’re all “Humpty Dumpties”—we’ve all had a great fall! Romans 3:23 tells us, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Some may have looked on you or me and wondered if Jesus hadn’t chosen the wrong company when He chose to call us, but for Jesus there is no wrong company to keep. He went where He was needed most and where people recognized how much they needed Him. It’s such a wonderful aspect of His grace in each of our lives. And Jesus went wherever He needed to in order to reach us, because He was driven by a compassion for people and He knew that His mission was to seek and find those who were spiritually lost.

There’s a corollary to this—and some of you may have already jumped ahead of me to it. Here’s the corollary: We as Christ’s Church must also demonstrate that same determination to reach those who are spiritually lost! We’ve got to do our triage, too.

Jesus took a lot of flack for His willingness to get close enough to sinful people to feel the pain of their lives, but He obviously chose His battles carefully and this was clearly worth taking the heat for! We’ve got to learn from that—and let the Lord challenge us in that. We need to be on our guard lest we ever opt for security in our acquaintances and avoid potentially messy relationship entanglements as we open our eyes to see the spiritually needy around us.

Could it be that we in the church are too often worried about placating those who are already saved and are occasionally fussy about how they want things in their church? And while Jesus’ mission was clearly to the outsiders, could it be that we as a church too easily find ourselves a church for insiders rather than for outsiders? And could it be that in lots of churches a lot of energy is sapped trying to appease religious folk whose “itched isn’t scratched” by their pastor or their church?

May the Lord pour out His Holy Spirit in a special way among us, gripping us with a deep concern about those who need most to experience a God who gets close enough to them to feel their pain—and may others experience that touch and that love through us, Christ’s Church. May the Lord help us to live with the same values—the same priorities of triage—with which Jesus lived and ministered, reaching first and foremost toward those outside of grace rather than catering to those who have already received it.

This morning we have the privilege of receiving together the Lord’s Supper. In doing so, we gather symbolically around the same table—and let’s just acknowledge that it’s about like Jesus having dinner with those tax collectors and sinners long ago. Oh, yes, we’ve been offered God’s grace, and I pray that each of you have received that grace and experienced the cleansing of your sins—but we gather at this table knowing that it’s only because of His love and grace that we could ever come before the Holy God. We come, in some ways, as needy as those who were gathered around Matthew’s table. And if, as we come to this part of the service, you feel yourself unworthy to get this close to Jesus…may I remind you that it’s for people just like you that Jesus came, and that He welcomes you to His table of grace this morning.

November 1, 2009 Pastor Tim Pusey

No Written Text
Special Speaker:  Missionary Hermann Gschwandtner

Pastor Casey’s Blog

BEING BUSY!

This time of the year it is hard to relax and not fill our schedules with “stuff.” I am sure most families have a lot going on, with seasonal activities, sporting events, school schedules, work loads, and many other random events taking place each week. Personally, the same is true. With Upward basketball/cheerleading registration in full swing, Harvest Party details coming together, Christmas Musical planning, and regular weekly meetings, it is hard to not, be busy. There are times when I need to sit back and look at everything going on from a different perspective. I need to make sure I know why I am doing what I am doing. I don’t want to be keeping busy for the sake of being busy. I want to be busy for the sake of God’s kingdom.

I would not mind being busy till I die, if God is using me for His glory. Are we planning a Harvest Party just to have something fun to do? Or are we going to use it as a chance to minister to our community and reach out and meet new people? Are we praying for a lot of kids to sign up for Upward because it looks good? Or are we praying for lots of kids to sign up because we want more kids and families to minister to through our sports league? I found in Haggai chapter one that the people had been so busy with their own stuff, that they neglected God and the building if His temple. God gave them a wake up call through the prophet Haggai. Sometimes I wish I had a clear wakeup call, instead I learn the hard way. Being busy is part of life…for some of us more than others. But in the process of being busy, lets not neglect to show God our love for Him. We have to work harder to find that quiet time with God. I don’t think God would give us more than we could handle (even if, at times, it feels like it). Let’s remember to find time for God and to give back to God what He wants most. OUR LOVE!