20 Questions with Christ the King

John 18:33-37

Can you remember the last time you played a really good game of 20 Questions? Thanksgiving is coming this week, and I wonder how many times that game has been played by children, sitting in the back seat of the car while mom and dad drive to visit relatives. Before there were dvd players and Nintendo DS’s-it was games like: I Spy, license plate bingo, and 20 Questions that kept children occupied during those long drives.

This morning it may seem as though Jesus is in the middle of a game of 20 questions, but if he’s playing, he’s not doing very well. Everyone but Jesus seems to know that the only acceptable answers in this game are “Yes” and “No”. That’s all that Pontius Pilate wants from him: “Are you a king? Yes or no?” But, Jesus doesn’t seem to get it. He answers Pilate’s questions with some of his own: “Why do you ask?” “Am I a King? You tell me.” “Do you think I look like a King?” And, even though he seems to be toying with Pilate, at this point I think Jesus is done playing games. Maybe that’s the problem.

Or, maybe the real problem is that Pilate doesn’t realize that he’s playing 20 questions with God Himself. I would bet that God loves a good game. I would guess that God is more than willing to play around and have fun with us. But, I also believe that when we play, it’s always by God’s rules. Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea isn’t used to playing by anyone’s rules but his own. Maybe that’s why he’s having a hard time with Jesus.

Have you ever played 20 questions with God? I have. On most days, though, I’ve got way more than 20 questions for God, and on most days I want answers to all of them. If you were standing face to face with the Son of God this morning, which ones would you like to ask?

Jesus is more than willing to help us find answers to even the toughest questions of life. He answered all kinds of questions with the way he lived his life. When people wondered who was welcome, he answered-“Everyone”. When people wondered who was acceptable in God’s eyes he answered the same thing. When people wondered how to have a relationship with God, he answered their question by showing up and spending time with them wherever they happened to be-at work, at the table, drawing water at the well in the hot sun, even in the middle of the night. Jesus is more than willing to sit with just about anyone and help them find answers for the questions of life.

Jesus is more than willing to do this as long as we’re willing to let him. When we try to limit God’s voice in our lives to simple, one word answers-“Yes” or “No” –then we miss out on the great possibilities that a relationship with God holds. Pilate experienced this that day. You and I have, too. When we press God for answers that we’ve already come to all by ourselves, we are bound to end up confused and frustrated. When this happens, I’ll bet God feels the same way.

So much of our relationship with God lives in the questions. In fact, if you think back far enough ,you may remember that your relationship with God began in the questions. They were asked way back when and they sounded something like this: “Do you desire to be baptized?” “Do you believe in God, the Father…Son…and Holy Spirit?”

For many of us, someone else answered those questions. At the font, they held us and they responded: “Yes, and I ask God to help me.”

That day with Pilate, Jesus began to answer the most important questions of life and death for us. If he were like other kings, he wouldn’t have bothered-he would have sent someone else to do it. Or, he would have gathered troops and sent them to face his accusers while he sat safely at home. If he were like any other king, he’d save a place for himself instead of taking your place and mine. If he were like any other king, he wouldn’t be our savior, our Lord, our Christ.

There are all kinds of questions that we ask every day. We find answers for some, and others remain uncertain or unclear. Because of Jesus, we can ask any question we choose…we can pray to God anytime, and anywhere. The answer may not come right away or the way we wanted, but because Jesus answered the toughest questions of life and death on the cross, we know for sure that God’s listening ear is always close by.

So the next time you find yourself wondering about something-anything at all-try asking Jesus about it first, you may be surprised what happens. You may be surprised by the answers, the conversation, and the possibilities that are opened up before you. You may be surprised by the new life you find in the God who took your place, walks with you, and is always ready to help you find the answers you’re looking for. As long as you’re willing to ask the questions.

Time...

Mark 13:1-8

Last week we heard a story about a woman who took her last penny and gave it to God. This week, I’ve been thinking about what we do with our time. In particular, I’m thinking about a question that gets asked all kinds of ways: “If you had one day left to live, how would you spend it?” Think about it for a moment…really think. What would you spend that last 24 hours doing? Would you spend it with the people you love the most? Would you enjoy your last day with family and friends? Would you do something crazy? Steal a car? Rob a bank? Something crazier? Would you spend that last day enjoying your favorite location on earth? Would you drive to the mountains, head to the beach and sit by the ocean, walk through the streets of your favorite city? Would you tell someone something you’ve been meaning to say, but haven’t found the time or words yet? What would you say? “I’m sorry”? “I love you.”? “I really can’t stand you”? Would you, instead, be paralyzed by fear? Would you stay at home and sit and wait and worry? What would you do if you knew you only had one day left to live?

Of course, we have no idea when our last day will come or what we will do with it. But think about it for just a minute.

Essentially, this is what Jesus’ disciples are concerned about. It’s what Peter, Andrew, James, and John are thinking about as they sit on the Mount of Olives with Jesus. Really, who could blame them for thinking about it? Just a few minutes earlier, as they were all heading out of the Temple, one of them happened to mention how impressive the whole structure was-“Look at these stones, they’re huge! Look at these buildings, they’re bigger than anything I’ve ever seen!” Then, instead of agreeing, Jesus told them with a less-than-casual tone in his voice that one day the whole thing would be reduced to a pile of rubble.

Once they’re safely across the way, sitting up on the Mount, they ask Jesus a question like the one I began with this morning. “When will this happen? How will we know?” If we were there that day, we would probably ask the same kind of thing.

I wonder if this same kind of thing was on Paul’s mind when he wrote the letter to the Hebrews. In fact, I think what he writes in 10:24-25 makes a pretty good answer to questions about what to do with the time we have left-whether it’s one day or a hundred years, I think they make good sense:

“Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.” -Hebrews 10:24-25 (MSG)

If you know that the time you have left is limited, then Paul says: encourage love, help out, make time to gather together, and in all of it go above and beyond-be inventive-do it all in ways that the world has never seen before.

This verse becomes even more important when the things that Jesus tells his disciples to watch out for start to happen. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars… When people try to get you to compromise on your beliefs… When there is conflict… When there are earthquakes… When there are people without enough to eat…

You know what? All of those things are happening right now… War, conflict, messages that compete for our attention, natural disasters, hunger… So Paul’s words are important for us today. They were happening back then, too, when Paul wrote those words. They’ve been happening since nearly the beginning of time.

So what do you do when you know that the time you’ve got is limited? I’ll bet Jesus was aware of this question every day of his life. I’ll bet it never drifted too far from his thoughts. I’ll bet he lived with it throughout nearly every moment. I’ll bet he thought about it during those last twenty four hours of his life. From sitting at the table sharing a meals with his best friends to praying in the garden for strength in those final hours. From being arrested and hauled off, to being raised on the cross. I’ll bet he thought about how he had spent his life especially in those last moments as friends scattered while others stayed…as people mocked while others couldn’t bear to look. I’ll bet he thought about it a lot at the very end.

I wonder how Jesus thought about his time on earth on the other side of the cross. When the stone was rolled away and the sun streamed in? When his friends stood in disbelief at his living, breathing body?

Time is precious when you know you don’t have a lot of it. Time may be even more precious when you find some you didn’t know you had, or even better when you get some you thought you’d never live to see.

I think, in essence, this is what Jesus’ message on the Mount of Olives is about. Live your life while you have the time to live it. Be the person God created you to be while you can. Find time for what’s really important when you have the time.

If you’ve got ten minutes, twenty four hours, or twenty four years, then you’ve got time. Time to invent something new. A new person to reach out to. A new friend to make. A new chapter to open in an old relationship. A new message to share with the world. A new stone to turn over. Until that day when everything is new…remember what Jesus did for you and what Paul told you, and live lives that let the people around you know that you’re making the most of your time and they can too.

An Empty Boat

John 11:32-44

I want you to use your imagination for a moment. I want you to imagine that you are in a boat on a river. It can be any kind of boat you choose: a canoe, a rowboat, a kayak… Can you picture it? O.K, you’re in your little boat, paddling along, minding your own business, heading down river. The water is still and calm. The leaves on the trees around you are just beginning to change color and you can see all of the yellows, oranges, and reds reflecting off of the water all around you. An occasional leaf falls off of a branch and drifts gently down in front of you. As you watch it fall, all of a sudden WHAM! Another boat bumps into you from behind. You turn around and see that the driver of the other boat was busy furiously texting on their cell phone, oblivious to where they were they were going when they bumped into your little boat.

Now, let me ask you: How do you feel about that person? What do you say to that person?

Shortly after this happens, you get your boat going back down river, your blood pressure returns to a normal rate, and you once again begin enjoying the still water, the changing leaves, and the ride that you’re taking in your little boat, when all of a sudden WHAM! It happens again. Another boat slams into your little boat. But this time when you turn around you see that this boat has no one in it all. It’s an empty boat. What do you do this time? Do you shout at the empty boat? Are you angry at it? Do you say anything at all? How does life change when you get bumped by an empty boat?

Chuang Tzu was a Chinese philosopher who lived in the 4th century before the birth of Christ. This lesson about the “empty boat” was one of his stories.

Have you ever been bumped? Can you remember the last time you really got bumped in life? When someone or something came along, often without warning, and knocked you off course? When something bumped you out of the comfort and security of the life you were living and left you trying to paddle back on course?

We’ve all been bumped. And when it happens, it’s jarring. It’s startling. It can make us angry. In fact, many of us have been bumped so many times that we’re no longer paddling along through life, enjoying the scenery and the moment, but instead we’re spending all of our time on the lookout for the next boat that may come along and bump us. Can you relate?

Mary and Martha have been bumped. In our lesson for today, they’re still reeling from a big bump-one that startled and shook them. One that has sent their lives off course. Lazarus, their brother, has died, and they are feeling bumped in a big way because of it. They’re angry. They’re tearful. They’re searching for answers and looking for hope. They’re worrying. Really, they’re doing what we would do.
What they learn that day is that God has the power to make every painful experience, every threatening thing, every worry inducing bump in our lives into an empty boat. Jesus, filled with every human emotion his body will hold, as he fights back the tears, appeals to God to do just that. In the face of death, Jesus prays to God and opens the grave. At the end of that day, with the bandages still hanging from his head, arms, and legs, Lazarus’s death is nothing more than a momentary bump from an empty boat.

We still get bumped. Every day. The problem with this isn’t in the bumping, but it’s in what we do with it. If you get bumped enough, you begin to worry about where and when the next big bump will come from and what it might do to you. When this happens, you spend most of your life worrying instead of living. You start looking not at the changing leaves or the still water that God has blessed you with, but at the boats all around you, the one way out there on the horizon…and you worry that it’s coming for you. When this happens, the whole world shrinks to the size of your little boat and you spend all your time wondering how you’ll protect it. The end result is that even an empty boat can rob us of the present-the only time we really ever have.

Jesus came, in part, to liberate us from the idea that worrying accomplishes anything. He told his disciples, at the most uncertain point in their lives: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.”

In Jesus, we are given the power and the strength to become the very thing that we spend so much time running from. In Jesus, we can become empty boats. Chuang Tzu put it this way: “If you can empty your own boat crossing the river of the world, no one will oppose you, no one will seek to harm you....” When we become empty boats floating through life, then God becomes the one who charts the course, drives our lives, and watches out for the bumps along the way.

Jesus, seeing the pain that death causes and the power that it holds over the lives of the people he loves, does something about it. That afternoon, he opened the grave, prayed to God, and called for Lazarus to come out. Later, in order to destroy the power of death forever, Jesus ventured right into it. He walked into the darkness that Lazarus emerged from. He set his course for the heart of it and never allowed himself to be bumped off course by anything. Before he did, he emptied himself completely, he prayed for God to take over, and when he set his compass for the cross he became an empty boat-driven by God. In the emptiness, God does something amazing. Death is conquered and new life emerges.

No one likes getting bumped. We’re bumped by all kinds of things and all of them add up in many ways to death and loss. We’re bumped when we lose a loved one. We’re bumped when we lose a relationship. We’re bumped when we lose a job. Every bump interrupts our life. Every bump knocks our little boat off course. Every bump hurts.

In the God who raised Lazarus, in the God who was raised on the cross, and in the God who raised Christ to new life, we’re reminded every day that these bumps cannot defeat us. These shocks cannot drive us off course forever. These traumas will never have the last word…because with this God, one day the waters will become calm once more, the sun will shine again, and even at the end of life, our boat will still sail on.

Becoming Children of God-Reformation and Liam's Baptism

John 8:31-36

Martin Luther, the founder of our church, the “igniter” of the Protestant Reformation, the man who was bold enough to compile a list of 95 issues with the church of his day, and then bold enough to nail them to the door of the castle church in his own Wittenburg, Germany on October 31, 1517. This Martin Luther, who holed himself up in a tiny room to avoid being burned at the stake, and while he was there translated the entire Bible from Hebrew and Greek into German, so that the average person could read it. This historical figure, who psychologists say, is the only person in history who could be completely analyzed based on the large volume of writing he did…they say he never had a thought that he didn’t put on paper…This man, this “legend” among Lutherans, when it comes down to it…is exactly like you…and me. His name may be in the history books, but he’s no different than us.

When it comes down to it, Martin Luther, with all of his credentials, accomplishments, achievements, and history-making works…is just another disciple of Jesus, another child of God. He’s just another person who heard the words of Jesus when he said:“Follow Me” and did exactly that.

“The truth will make you free” Jesus says. The truth of the matter is, a disciple is anyone who leaves behind the pressures of this life, makes a turn somewhere along the way, and begins following Jesus first.

The disciples did it: Peter and Andrew left their nets lying in the sand and followed Jesus. James and John, jumped out of the boat and left the family fishing business to follow Jesus. Tax collectors and sinners flocked to Jesus’ side, leaving behind their old lives and starting something new. Each of these people, when Jesus came into their life and asked them to “follow”, they stopped what they were doing, and they did it. They followed Jesus. They became disciples.

Just like Peter and Andrew, James and John, our first movement as disciples is to drop whatever it is that keeps us from answering the call, and begin to follow Jesus. Just like Martin Luther, our first task is to let go of anything that stands in the way of our relationship with God and begin to follow Jesus…
Is it easy? Think for a moment about all the things you have to do today. Could you drop them all and never return to them again?

There is someone here this morning who in just a few short moments will make it look really easy. In just a few short moments Liam will come to the font, feel the waters of baptism trickle gently over his forehead, and just like that…become a child of God…become a disciple of Jesus. It’s just that simple…come to font…feel the waters rush.... It’s easy, and it happened exactly the same way for you. Baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we become his followers.

Jesus, in the end, the one we’re following, leads us to the cross…the sacrifice that he makes to bring the unconditional love of God to the world is the sacrifice of his own life. In this supreme gift lies the heart of what Martin Luther discovered: God’s love is free…for you, for me, for the world. God’s forgiveness is free….God’s approval of you…is free. It can’t be bought, not with money, not with good deeds, not with self-denial, or self-sacrifice, or anything else that you or I have or hold. It is God’s to give, and God gives it for free.

Of course, it’s not free for God. For God the cost is huge, it means life and death, it means pain and suffering, it means the cross for his son, the grave for his own flesh. But in this incredible act, God says “You’re worth it”

Today, we remember and celebrate the Reformation, a shift in the church toward the God who is gracious, the God who forgives without charging us a thing. The God who rejoices in the possibility of new and continual reformation and rebirth in the church for years to come. This is the movement that Martin Luther began. This is the Reformation commitment we are called to continue as disciples of Jesus.

The best part of this is that there are as many ways to do it as there are people in the world. The possibilities are limitless. You can do it as a teacher, a mechanic, a tax man, a saleswoman, a doctor, a lawyer, a stay-at-home mome, a cashier, a toll booth worker, a builder, a child, a friend, a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter, a grandparent, a baby… The list goes on and on. At the end of the day, all you have to do to follow Jesus is be yourself. Exactly the person God created you to be. That’s why Liam makes it look so easy-he has absolutely no problem being the person God created him to be. In fact, at his age, it’s all he knows.

Luther nailed the 95 theses to the door. Peter and Andrew dropped their nets. James and John jumped out of the boat. The tax collectors left their tax booths. The sinners found forgiveness. Liam came to the font and was baptized. What will you find in the words of Jesus, standing before you, saying: “Follow Me”? How will you be a disciple, in the spirit of the first disciples, the tax collectors and sinners, Martin Luther and the other Reformers? How can you receive God’s love the way Liam did this morning? How will you change the world tomorrow as a disciple of Jesus? What can you do today with the gifts God gave you and the unconditional love God shows you?

Wild Things

Mark 10:35-45

There once was a rich man who was near death. He was very grieved because he had worked so hard for his money and wanted to be able to take it with him to heaven. So he began to pray that he might be able to take some of his wealth with him. An angel heard his plea and appeared to him.

"I’m sorry, it doesn’t work that way. You can't take your money with you."
The man begged the angel to speak to God to see if He might bend the rules. The man continued to pray that his wealth could follow him into heaven.

The angel reappeared and informed the man that God had decided to allow him to take one suitcase with him. Overjoyed, the man gathered his largest suitcase and filled it with pure gold bars and placed it beside his bed. Soon afterward, he died and showed up at the gates of heaven to greet St. Peter.

St. Peter, seeing the suitcase, said, "Hold on, you can't bring that in here!"
The man explained to St. Peter that he had permission and asked him to verify his story with the Lord. Sure enough, St. Peter checked it out, came back and said, "You're right. You are allowed one carry-on bag, but I'm supposed to check its contents before letting it through." St. Peter opened the suitcase to inspect the worldly items that the man found too precious to leave behind and exclaimed, "You could bring anything you wanted, why did you choose to bring pavement?” (The streets of heaven are paved with…)

There was another man who had worked all of his life and had saved all of his money. He was a real miser when it came to his money. He loved money more than just about anything, and just before he died, he said to his wife, "Now listen, when I die, I want you to take all my money and place it in the casket with me. I wanna take my money to the afterlife."

So he got his wife to promise him with all her heart that when he died, she would put all the money in the casket with him.

Well, one day he died. He was stretched out in the casket, the wife was sitting there in black next to her closest friend. When they finished the ceremony, just before the undertakers got ready to close the casket, the wife said "Wait just a minute!" she had a shoe box with her, she came over with the box and placed it in the casket.

Then the undertakers locked the casket down and rolled it away.

Her friend said, "I hope you weren't crazy enough to put all that money in the casket."

She said, "Yes, I promised. I'm a good Christian, I can't lie. I promised him that I was going to put that money in that casket with him."

"You mean to tell me you put every cent of his money in the casket with him?"

"I sure did, " said the wife. "I got it all together, put it into my account and I wrote him one big check. If he can cash it, he can spend it.”
Today, we hear a story about James and John. In it, we find out that just like the two men in these jokes-they want to go to heaven with gold bricks in their pockets and a big check in their wallets. “

Jesus sets them straight, or at least he tries to when he essentially tells them “It doesn’t work that way.”

Others have captured this wisdom over the years. Someone somewhere said “You can’t take it with you.” Another anonymous person put it into these words “Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have.” Maurice Sendak, author of “Where the Wild Things Are” understood this too. Here’s what he said about it: “There must be more to life than having everything.”
His book was recently made into a movie that was released this weekend. In short, the book is about a little boy who imagines a world of Wild Things and retreats there when his mother sends him to his room without supper.

When we’re not satisfied with what we have we run the risk of becoming like James and John. When this happens our imaginations run wild with impossible ideas of personal greatness. Ideas that include special seats at the right and left hand of God. Ideas of suitcases that are full of gold bricks. Ideas of big checks to stuff into our wallets.

As we find out in today’s lesson, these are ideas that God cannot bless. If we listen closely, we realize that we are fortunate that God does not bless these ideas.
I think God wants us to use our imaginations to come up with all kinds of wild things. I think those wild things might include working to make seats, not for ourselves, but so that other people will have a place to sit. A wild thing that God could bless might look less like a suitcase of gold bricks, and more like bricks that build foundations for places where people can gather to hear a story of hope for all, not just a few. I think God would like us to make some wild things happen by opening our wallets and checkbooks to find more imaginative uses for what we find there.

Maurice Sendak wrote the book, but I think God is the master of wild things. God created this wild world, but He wasn’t satisfied with it until people like you and I were living here. When we came up with all kinds of wild ideas that God couldn’t bless-God came up with the wildest one yet. Jesus was born. God was born into our world. He lived as we do. He saw what we see. He walked through the world and shared wild things like unconditional love, complete forgiveness, and real life with anyone who was willing to listen. In this wild world, Jesus does all kinds of wild things-but none was wilder than venturing into the wildest, most untamed place we could imagine-into death and back out again. In doing this one wild thing, Jesus frees us from all those misguided imaginings and frees us to be wild things just as he was.

When we’re not satisfied with what we have we become like James and John. We start thinking about ourselves more and more, and thinking about the people around us less and less. When this happens, we come up with all kinds of wild things-seats in heaven, suitcases full of gold, and big checks with our name on them.
I think God wants to let us in on a little secret: When we get to that place where God’s glory shines the brightest, that place where James and John wanted those two special seats on either side of Jesus-we won’t care about most of what we had in this life. It just won’t matter anymore.

But, all of those things we had in this life will be left here when we go. They will speak to what kind of people we were in this life. Will people tell stories about you and I? They certainly will. And you and I will write those stories today. It’s up to us. They can tell stories of the gold bricks we packed up in our suitcases and the checks that went un-cashed and unused. Or, they can tell stories about people with great imaginations who realized that there was more to life than having it all, and upon realizing that-did some really wild things to serve the people and the world that God loves. If we’re successful, one day people will point to the seats that we set, the places we build, and the things we imagine and say: “That’s where the wild things are.”