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The Message for Feb 24, 2019Luke 6:27-38We Are Listening – Now What?Rob Miller, PastorToday we wrap up our 6-week worship series we are calling -- “Now What?” Today our topic is – We are listening – Now What?Consider this… Being a Christian is hard – nearly impossible – if we do what Jesus tells us to do. Listen to what Jesus expects from us in our reading for today…Luke 6:27-38Jesus says: love your enemies… do good to those who hate you…bless those who curse you…pray for those who mistreat you…turn the other cheek…if someone takes your coat give them your shirt too…do not judge…do not condemn…forgive one another…give expecting nothing in return…be merciful just as God is merciful with you…Whoa… How many of us live by these expectations? None of us do… Why don’t we? Does Jesus expect too much from us? Sure sounds like it… Theologian N.T. Wright said this about these verses: This list is all about which God you believe in—and about the way of life that follows as a result.We worship a God of love. Our way of life is to be about God’s love. These instructions from Jesus are all about living a life of love…N.T. Wright goes on to say, Large sections of Christianity down the years seem to have known little or nothing of the God Jesus was talking about.Whoa… I don’t know about you -- but I want to know the God that Jesus is talking about. And… I want others to know the God that Jesus is talking about. And… I want others to experience God’s love too. Don’t you?If following Jesus was easy, everybody would do it. But it isn’t easy… It’s hard… It’s the hardest thing we will ever strive to do…There is nothing easy about loving our enemies…There is nothing easy about loving people who hate us, or mistreat us, or take from us… There is nothing easy about following Jesus because following Jesus involves the cross… There is nothing easy about dying to ourselves and not doing what we want to do…There is nothing easy about living for Jesus and doing what he wants us to do… Sometimes – Ok most of the time – Ok all the time we fail do what Jesus tells us to do… It’s too hard…Henri Nouwen wrote a meditation called, “Our Greatest Gift.” In it he imagines twins–a brother and a sister–talking to each other in their mother's womb:The sister says to the brother, "I believe there is life after birth."Her brother protests, "No way, this is all there is. This is a dark and cozy place, and we have nothing else to do but to cling to the cord that feeds us."But his sister insists, "There must be something more than this dark place. There must be something else, a place with light and freedom to move." Still, she cannot convince her twin brother. After some silence, the sister says hesitantly, "I have something else to say, and I'm afraid you won't believe this, either, but I think there is a mother."Her brother becomes furious. "A mother!" he shouts. "What are you talking about? I have never seen a mother, and neither have you.Bottom of FormWho put that idea in your head? As I told you, this place is all we have. Why do you always want more? This is not such a bad place, after all. We have all we need, so let's be content."The sister is overwhelmed by her brother's response and for a while she doesn’t dare say anything else. But she cannot let go of her thoughts, and since she has only her twin brother to talk to, she finally says, "Don't you feel these squeezes every once in a while? They're quite unpleasant and sometimes even painful.""Yes," he answers. "I feel them, and they are unpleasant. But the pain always goes away after a while.”"Well," the sister says, "I think those squeezes are there to get us ready for another place, something much more beautiful than this, where we will see our mother face-to-face. Don't you think that's exciting?"End of the meditation…Following Jesus and doing what he says to do involves pain and suffering. It involves going to another place. It involves new life.Ask any mother and she will tell you that giving birth is painful. I’ve been there. Well… not actually there… but I’ve been there to witness it… It’s painful for the mother, and it’s somewhat painful for the baby too -- so I’m told.That’s why the baby cries when she or he is born. And then the journey begins…The baby has to learn how to eat. The baby has to learn how to roll over and then crawl and then walk.The baby falls down a lot and gets hurt a lot. Eventually, the baby learns to walk and then run and then - watch out!The baby has to learn how to talk and act and get along with others.There are all kinds of things the baby will try and will explore and will encounter a lot of things that are dangerous. The baby learns how to learn…The job of parenthood is to create a safe environment for that baby to grow up. All the while -- the parents must be patient with the baby because that baby is going to make mistakes -- and then make more mistakes -- and then make even more mistakes -- for the rest of his or her life…And… that’s the way it is with our spiritual lives too. Christianity is a journey - not a destination.And that’s the point Jesus is making in our reading for this morning. Jesus is telling us to be more patient with each other. After all we are siblings – brothers and sisters in Christ. Truth is we are not very patient with each other - are we? That’s probably why we pray things like this… Lord, give me patience and make it quick… Jesus reminds us that God is patient with us. God is merciful towards us. God does not condemn us but rather has sent Jesus to make the forgiveness of our sins possible… God forgives us. We are forgiven sinners – now what?The Rev. Dr. Kimberly Pope, a United Methodist pastor, author, and speaker tells this story:Several years ago, her niece was murdered by her boyfriend. He stabbed her 15 times with a pair of scissors during a fight over a clogged-up toilet.When it came time for the man’s trial, Kim was there. In walked this older gentleman who looked very similar to the man who murdered her niece. She realized that he was the killer’s father.He took a seat right in front of her in the courtroom. And Kim couldn’t stop staring at this man. She got to thinking: “What a horrible person you must be to raise a child who would take another person’s life.”Then Kim said that the Holy Spirit spoke to her, saying, “This man is created in the image of God.” And that got Kim’s attention. Soon her whole perspective began to change.Instead of sitting there hating this man, she began empathizing with him: “What he must be going through I can’t imagine, but it must be worse than what I am going through…” she thought to herself. Before she knew it she started to have a deep compassionate love for this guy.After the trial was over and the man who killed her niece was convicted and sent to prison for life, Kim started writing letters to him in jail. Then, she started sending him soap and money and continues to do so to this day. And why does she do it?Bottom of FormAs Kim says: “Jesus died for this man to forgive his sins, and someday I want to see him in heaven.”Jesus says to those who accept the invitation to follow him…“A new command?I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.? By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)?Jesus has given the world the right to judge us. That’s right, Jesus has given the world the right to judge whether or not we are truly his disciples. Say this with me… They’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love! Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.How we doing with that?In a world where grocery store workers hate their customers because the customers are always complaining -- we are called to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us.In a world where waiters and waitresses hate the people they serve -- we are called to bless those who curse us and pray for those who mistreat us.In a world where revenge, retaliation, and retribution seem justified -- we are called, to turn the other cheek when someone slaps us. And if someone takes our coat – we’re supposed to give them our shirt too!Why??? Because… Because God is merciful with us and patient with us and loves us and we are to go and do likewise…Story:Corry Ten Boom tells the story of how her family helped hide Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust.Eventually, they got caught and they were all sent to a concentration camp. Corrie was the only one in her family to survive. And she wrote a book about it called “The Hiding Place.”Corrie and her sister, Betsie, were especially close. And they were together for much of the time in the concentration camp. Eventually, though, Betsie lost her life.After her ordeal, Corrie became a bit famous for what she had lived through and she was often asked to speak about her experience at various church gatherings. She would talk about God’s love and mercy and forgiveness.One night, at a Church in Munich -- Corrie was shocked to see one of the former SS men who had stood guard at the shower room doors at the concentration camp.He had been one of the cruel men who had mocked Corrie and Betsie and the other prisoners in the processing center. He was the first of their actual jailers that Corrie had seen since that horrible time.Corrie writes: “And suddenly it was all there – the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain, it all came back to me.”He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. ‘How grateful I am for your message’, he said ‘To think that, as you say, Jesus has washed away my sins!’”Corrie continues: “His hand was thrust out to shake mine.And I, who had preached so often to the people about the need for mercy and forgiveness - I kept my hand at my side. Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus had died for this man; was I going to ask for more?”Corrie prayed: “Forgive me and help me to forgive him.”Corrie writes: “I tried to smile. I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not even the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer.“Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness.” And then she writes: “As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a compassionate love for this man that almost overwhelmed me.I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on God’s. When he tells us to love our enemies, Jesus gives us, along with the command, the love itself. Isn’t that interesting? She writes…Jesus says, “Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back, and great is your reward…”Could it be that this great reward is who we become “in the process” of asking Jesus for his mercy and love and forgiveness and doing our part to follow him by sharing those gifts with others? Could it be?Christianity is not a destination, but a journey. It’s not what is, but what could be. Now, that’s exciting!I hope and pray that you are listening to Jesus – Now What? Amen ................
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