Romans 7:15-25 and Matthew 11:16-19, 25-230 We value education and training in the United States. We not only provide public education to all children, we require them to attend. It is actually a crime; a minor crime but a crime, to not attend school. We want children to be taught the basic principles of reading, writing and arithmetic; and of course, science, and social studies, not to mention a few electives along the way. One of the greatest jobs of a parent is to teach their children the basic principles of life and what is right and wrong. Knowledge is power. That is a very true statement…… But sometimes, we learn something in such a way that nothing and no one can get through to us. Think about the people in Nazi Germany. They had been through one war and had struggled to get back on their feet. Hitler brought them prosperity and a new way of seeing things. It seemed to be working. The country that had been a mess was now strong and vital, so whatever it was that he was teaching had to be right. The Holocaust did not happen overnight. It happened when the lives of people who had been struggling and straining to live, began to get better, and they were given a scapegoat for all the difficulties in their lives. Some may say they were brainwashed. I am not sure that is completely true, but, good and decent people were manipulated to believe that annihilating a race of people, and people who just weren’t quite right in their eyes, is what it would take for their lives to be better. And they bought it. Fortunately, there were people like Bonhoeffer and other Christians who didn’t fall into that trap. But the majority of white Christian people, thought that what they were learning from Hitler would make life better for everyone. Our lesson from Romans was one that my Theology Professor at Wartburg College used to recite all the time in class. “For a do not do the thing that I want and the very thing I want to do I do not do.” The reality is that most of the people of the world really do want to do the right thing. The problem is that what the right thing is has become so distorted and individualized that what we intend to happen with what we say or do doesn’t really happen. The people of Germany who followed Hitler, thought he had the solution to the problems they faced in their lives. They could not see beyond their own needs and struggles to realize the tragedy they had become a part of. I can safely say that there is no one in this congregations who has a goal of letting people in our community starve to death. I am willing to say that most of the people in America, even those who do not have enough to eat themselves, would say that the images that come across our televisions showing the starvation that happens in parts of Africa, is terrible and shouldn’t happen. And yet, food pantries lack food on many occasions, and those that are well stocked often don’t help the neediest among us. Let me explain. We support ICM… Interfaith Caring Ministries. Christus Victor Lutheran Church was instrumental in the development of this program. ICM provides great services in our community. They have a food pantry; they provide assistance with rent and electricity and other household expenses; they have a Christmas store every year so families who cannot afford to do so can go and pick out toys and other gifts for their children. Resources are not unlimited for these programs. There are policies in place so that it minimizes the chance that the program will be taken advantage of. That is not a bad thing. But the very guidelines in place to assure that this program will be here and able to help this community, prevent the very poorest among us from getting services. If you do not have an address; if you are homeless; you cannot receive benefits from ICM. They require proof of where you live so that they can service this area efficiently with their limited resources… but, the neediest cannot provide proof of their residency. Those are systemic examples of the very thing we want to do most being something that we do not intend for it to be. But you and I as individuals, find ourselves doing things we did not want to do or did not intend to do all the time. The phrase “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” is very valid. In our efforts to do what we feel is best for our children sometimes means shoving aside what is important for another child. When we are working hard to get ahead in our job, we find ourselves pushing aside someone else in the process. For most of us, the idea that we do the thing that we don’t want to do is not as drastic as stepping on people in order to get ahead. But every day as we live our lives, we leave wake behind us and sometimes those wakes hurt other people. Anyone who has ever dealt with addiction knows the power of this verse. In some ways I think the folks involved in twelve step programs really have a leg up on the rest of the world. Don’t get me wrong, I am not wishing addiction on anyone, but the first two steps are ones that every Christian should recite on a regular basis…. 1. I admit that I am powerless over my addiction (life), that our lives are unmanageable. 2. That a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity. For us here this morning, that power is Jesus Christ. But the entire process is a two edged sword. How do we go about turning our lives over to Christ in such a way that our lives and the lives of those around us are better? How do I do what is best for me and my family and those that I love without hurting or keeping someone else from getting what they need in their life? The answer to this question, if we could truly find the perfect answer to this, is what would unite the political parties of the United States, and well; that is no simple task. Right now, as we sit in this church, there are immigrant children who have fled from horrible living conditions in their home countries, at great expense to the people who love them the most, being turned away from shelters because people are picketing and threatening harm to them. At the core of these individuals who are picketing, I don’t believe most of them woke up and said, “Today I am going to make the life of a small child miserable by turning them away from the only services available to them”. Their feeling is more “The cost of caring for thousands of people who are not accounted for within our system is more than our country can bare and so I have to do what I can to assure there continues to be services for the people who are here right now”. What is the answer? No child should have to live in a country where military personnel threaten their lives and the lives of their families. No parent should have to choose between staying in their home and fearing for their lives, or taking the chance that they could be arrested by traveling to a country where at least they know they won’t be tortured. And yet, these thousands of children coming into the country are leaving just such situations. As people of God, who claim to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, how can we turn them away? And, if we don’t turn them away, how can our government fund such a massive expense? It is issues such as these that make me avoid politics whenever possible. I get it. There are no easy answers. I told someone this week, as we talked about this very issue, that I understand the financial dilemma this crisis brings, but my calling as a pastor and a Child of God comes first and in that calling, all I care about is taking care of those in need. I admit that someone has to sort out the financial issue, but turning children away and threatening them is not the answer. Our gospel lesson this morning points out the challenge of the life of faith. The very people who should have understood Jesus and his purpose in life, were baffled by Jesus. The religious leaders, looking beyond the greed or need for status that many had, followed the scriptures to the letter. To them, the word of God was black and white and this Jesus guy was making a lot of a gray. Following the way Jesus lived would cause the faith they held to crumble. They were going to be faithful to what they KNEW to be true no matter what the cost. That cost was the life of Jesus. John the Baptist and the disciples had seen and heard it all. And yet, they still looked for the time when Jesus would take his rightful place as king. They could not comprehend why this man who was to be the King would suffer on a cross. Their desire was to be faithful, but they were unable to do it. We are no different. I would like to say that our failures with God are limited to a mishap of our good intentions. We really aren’t that great. Sometimes we actually let selfishness and greed motivate us. Sometimes we simply set our faith aside and do what we want, regardless of what God thinks. We are powerless to fully be the people God intended us to be. So, we give up? Of course not. The answer comes in acknowledging that we really are powerless on our own to understand and to do the will of God. We simply do not have it in us to be that good. But the grace of God in Jesus Christ is sufficient. God’s love and grace came before us; lives within us; and will take us through to eternity. Our job is simply to submit to that knowledge and then move forward doing the best we can to respond to that grace given to us. That means we need to know the will of God the best that we can. We do that by studying the life of Jesus Christ and the way he loved and served the world. We need to stay connected to God through prayer and worship and fellowship. We need to step out in faith and do the work of God the best that we can, knowing that our efforts will fall short but through Christ the imperfect will be made perfect. These are not the steps to salvation. Salvation came through Jesus Christ long ago. This is how we respond to salvation. This is how we do the will of God, the best that we can, in this imperfect and sinful world. Begin everyday being reminded that Christ calls us to “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” If you have ever seen a yoke, that big thing placed on an animal to attach them to a cart or a plow, it is heavy. But we are invited to be yoked with Jesus. Side by side we take the burden of the life of faith, and we walk. Christ shares this burden with us and guides us along the way. We will blow it. But Christ will guide us in the right paths. I pray that every one of us takes on that yoke of faith with Jesus. Know the savior in such a way that the directing you is easy. You are not burdened with getting it right on your own. Christ shares that burden with you, and through Christ the very imperfections in us will be used for the Glory of God. AMEN
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 13:24:13 +0000
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