Inviting All

Do you enjoy a really good party? That’s probably a silly question. Who doesn’t love parties, right?

Have ever thrown a good party? If you have, then I am sure you still love a good party, but you also know how much work it can be to throw one. Picking a date, a place, a menu, and a guest list can all be lots of work.

Take that last one for example…can you remember that last guest list you put together? Sometimes, it’s tougher than we might imagine. Sometimes, when we begin making out the list of the people we’d like to invite to our parties, we start to say things like:

“If we invite Jim…then we have to invite Jerry and Bill, too…because they all work together, and Jerry and Bill will be really angry if they find out Jim went and they weren’t invited.”
“But then, we’ve got to remember that Bill doesn’t get along with Darlene, so if they both show up, we’ve got to find a way to keep them separated.”
“And don’t forget about Daryl, he’s always telling those terribly inappropriate jokes…make sure to keep him away from Pastor Dan.”
“Yeah, we’ll put Pastor Dan and his wife at a table next to Darlene and her husband, and Jerry and Bill can go with Daryl and his girlfriend, they love a good joke!”
“Oh my gosh, I just realized…we’ve invited Aunt Bertha and Uncle Henry…remember? She still hasn’t forgiven him for that time when they were ten years old and he told the boy up the street that she really liked him!”

Does any of this sound familiar? My guess is, if you’ve ever thrown a party, you’ve had these conversations. Guest lists and seating charts alone can take up lots of time and give us lots of headaches. The end result, though, the day of the big event, makes it all worth it. When everyone arrives and the party begins, fortunately, we forget about all the headaches…as long as everything goes smoothly and nothing gets broken.

I’ll bet the king in the story that Jesus tells in Matthew 22:1-14 went through all of this as he planned a party for his only Son. He chose a date. He chose the place. He planned his menu…who doesn’t love fatted calf? And then, he made out his guest list. He put everyone who was anyone on it. All of his closest friends and advisers got invitations. Every wealthy landowner in the kingdom was asked to save the date. Every shopkeeper, every rich patron, every A-list person in all the land got to RSVP, and the list went on and on. The king invited them all, he ordered his servants to make the preparations, and then he waited…He couldn’t wait to see the look on his Son’s face when he walked into the banquet hall and they all shouted, SURPRISE! It would be great

When was the last time you threw a party and no one came? This isn’t just being disappointed that Aunt Bertha can’t make the long car trip up. When was the last time you had something really big to celebrate, but no one seemed to care? This is much bigger than Jerry and Bill getting angry that you left them off the guest list. When was the last time something big happened in your life, and there was no one there to tell about it? What happened to the king is much more unbearable than what happens when Cousin Daryl, unknowingly tells Pastor Dan that really tasteless joke.

This is what happens to the king in Jesus’ story. He sends the invitations, he calls his friends, he gets everything ready, and then he stands at the gate…and no one comes. None of the landowners head up his driveway. None of the shopkeepers enter the hall. No A-listers make it to the party. How do you think that felt? You went through all the careful preparations, all of the work, all of the headaches…and you’re not going to experience any of the joy.

Our lives together aren’t really all that different than the guest lists we create for the parties we throw. If we think long and hard enough, I am sure we can begin to map out, even in our own families, the complex and touchy relationship quirks that exist between us. Differences in friendships…long-held grudges from some distant event in our past…senses of humor that just don’t mesh…values that conflict…behaviors that grate on us…the list, like the list of the king’s guest, goes on and on.… With all of that going against us, it’s enough to say “forget it” and tear down the streamers, throw away the menu, and shred the guest list…give up on the party altogether.

But before we do any of that, we may want to pay attention to the end of Jesus’ story.

Jesus seems to be saying, stop being so choosy about who your friends are, and start paying attention to who God’s friends are. The king invites everyone…after the wealthy and the powerful turn down the invitation, the king invites everyone to come to the party. God does the same thing. God invites all people.

God doesn’t waste any time the way we do, wondering who will behave once they get to the party, God doesn’t seem too concerned that two people with a grudge between them might run into one another, I would venture to guess that God doesn’t really care how terrible Cousin Daryl’s jokes are, or how self-righteous Pastor Dan may be…Instead, God puts us all together, often right next to each other, and invites us all to live this way, despite our differences…and…even learn to CELEBRATE them!

Every good party needs an invitation, a reason for the gathering, and great menu. The party that God throws for the world has all of these things wrapped up in one. Jesus is the invitation…he’s the one who heads out into the streets, the neighborhoods, and into your heart, inviting you to stop what you’re doing and come to the party. Jesus is the reason for the celebration, the Son of God just walked through your front door and isn’t here to inspect the work you’ve done so far. Instead he’s here to bring you joy. The menu when we gather, at God’s invitation, is Jesus as well. It is his body and blood that make the celebration possible.

When human life had become so tangled and confused that we had all but forgotten how to attend a great party, how to celebrate life, with all of its imperfections, that’s when Jesus showed up. He came to show us that life is difficult, relationships are messy, and it’s all imperfect…But God is still here… and that is worth celebrating!

In this life, Jesus’ guest list included tax collectors and fishermen, women and men, the rich and the poor, the sick and the well, people with great references and also many with the worst reputations…He met them all face to face…he sat with them at the table, he drank wine with them at the wedding, and he cried with them at the graveside. In it all, he invited the people around him to celebrate the life God gives, in all of its fullness…the good and the bad.

In the end, he made this kind of celebration possible for eternity…he stretched out his arms on the cross, to invite you into God’s unconditional love. He called you to come and experience real forgiveness and freedom. He sent out word that there was a place saved for you at his table of grace, where the menu would be bread and wine that hold his presence and life…all of it given for you.

The table is set, the doors are open, the meal is waiting. God is inviting you to come, but before you do, you may want to stop agonizing over preparations, stop judging who makes your guest list and who doesn’t, and to stop trying to coordinate and control the messy world of human relationships, and instead start celebrating the loving God who redeems them all.
Imagine a party where you don’t have to do all the work, you don’t have to feel responsible for how the guests interact, you don’t have to worry when something gets broken. In fact, you don’t have to worry about a single thing. This is the party that God is throwing for the world…inviting all people to come and see and taste and hear how much there is to celebrate when we invite everyone to gather together.

Worshipping Faithfully

I’ve got some bad news for you…right now, at this very moment…you’re not accomplishing anything at all…I can almost guarantee you…when you walk out of this room later on this morning…when you drive out of the parking lot later today…you will not have accomplished very much.

-The dirty laundry sitting in the hamper at home, will be just as dirty when you get home.
-The leaves in your yard…well, they will have grown…there will be more of them to rake up once you return later today.
-Unless you’ve written “go to church” on your to-do list this morning, then I guarantee you there will be just as many things to check off…as many things left to do as there were yesterday.
-If you went to the bank and checked the balance on your account, it will not have grown during the time you spent here.

That’s the truth…you’ve chosen to invest your time here in church this morning, but if you try to measure what kind of return on your investment you’ve received later today, you may end up disappointed…because in the hour or so that you and I spend here together…we really don’t accomplish too much. That’s the bad news…if you’ve chosen to invest your time here today…you won’t find much of a return.

In the last several weeks, we’ve been talking a lot about our vision here at Zion…a vision for GROWING. We’ve talked about the importance for our lives of GIVING forgiveness away unselfishly. We’ve thought about how each day in our life might be different if we were to practice RECEIVING God’s grace each moment. And, we’ve looked to Jesus’ as someone who can help us to OPEN new doors of possibility without fear. Today, we’re talking about WORSHIP.

One of the things that I love the most about our GROWING vision statement, is that today’s point is located in the exact center of it. WORSHIPPING FAITHFULLY isn’t just the center of our vision, but as Jesus reminds us, it’s the center of our life. Worshipping Faithfully means that we make our relationship with GOD the most important relationship in our life…it becomes the center of who we are, every moment of every day.

Sometimes, though, we confuse WORSHIP with INVESTMENT. We go to church and wonder, what will I get out of it? What kind of returns can I expect from this investment? What’s in it for me? Believe me, I do this all the time, wondering “How many people will show up?” “What will the giving look like, will it help us to meet the budget?” “What will I say? How will it make an impact.” Maybe you’ve done this, too…wondering what kind of return you’ll get out of the investment that you make when you come to worship.

The problem is, when we do this, we get dangerously close to the mindset of the people in Jesus’ story in Matthew 21:33-45.

From their perspective, they think that they’re really accomplishing something. They think that the investment strategy that they’ve come up with will really pay off for them in the end. They’ve convinced themselves that they’re in for a huge windfall…they’ve got visions of the entire vineyard…every vine, every grape, every drop of wine that comes from that winepress…all of it belonging to them! They can already hear the cash registers ringing in the profits they’ll receive…once that pesky landowner is out of the picture. They are one hundred percent certain, that they are on the verge of accomplishing something great.

How does it work out for them in the end? My guess is, it doesn’t turn out at all how they thought it would. Maybe they should have invested differently. Their plan to sever the relationship with the landowner backfires on them in a big way.

I think Jesus tells this story for a reason. I think he’s illustrating what happens when we lose sight of how important relationships are in life. WORSHIP reminds us, whenever we do this, of just how important they are. In fact to God, they are priceless.

Relationship with us is so PRICELESS to God, in fact, that He sends us the everything that is most valuable to Him. God’s only Son walks into the vineyard to give us his life. He’s less concerned with the number of grapes on the vine than he is with the number of people who are working there. Jesus doesn’t seem to look at his journey to live among us as an INVESTMENT…and if he does, then we might say that in the end he made a poor one. Instead, he just might see it as a PAYMENT…he gives away everything he has to purchase our lives…In the end, when he goes to the cross it looks like his whole life will have been wasted…and the investment that he’s made won’t yield, produce, or accomplish anything.

With Jesus’ death and resurrection, though, God reminds us that life isn’t always about what you can see: the laundry pile shrinking, the leaves being raked into piles and cleared away, the to-do list growing smaller, or the bank account growing larger…sometimes the most priceless things in life are unseen…like the new life that is silently happens inside the darkness of Jesus’ tomb.
Worship, just like life, isn’t about what WE can accomplish when we gather together…sing a few songs…pray a few prayers…and pass the plate (although often we make the mistake of believing that it is.) A life of WORSHIPPING God FAITHFULLY seems to be less about the things we accomplish…the growth we can see….and Instead, WORSHIP is all about what GOD can accomplish through us. The returns on the investments that we make are often intangible, immeasurable…but in the long run, they are priceless.

Think about what happens in the hour or so when we gather in worship.
We begin by confessing our sins…we open our hearts to God and one another and admit that we’re not perfect…we allow ourselves to become vulnerable…and then, the moment we do…we hear not a punishment, but a word that reminds us that we’re forgiven for all of them! I can’t think of another place where this happens.

Bishop Payne once pointed out to a group gathered here that church, in today’s world is one of the only places where people sing together. No matter what your voice sounds like…if you’re more at the “Pavarotti” end of the spectrum…or if you live in my musical neighborhood…you still get to sing together…to God.

We do something else here when we gather that’s unique…we stop what we’re doing to get up out of our comfortable seats to cross the aisle and shake hands, hug, and offer peace to people. Can you think of another place where this happens?

When we gather, we approach a table and share a meal where there is always enough for everyone, and there is always room for everyone…and we don’t ever clear the dishes until everyone has had something to eat and drink…that , I think, is truly unique.
Finally, and to me, this is one of the best parts of WORSHIP…we never say that we’re finished until we receive God’s blessing, and THANK God for sending us out into the world to share the love we’ve found in here with other people!

When we invest our time in WORSHIP, our laundry won’t get clean, but our souls will get cleansed…the leaves in our yard will still pile up, but all of the guilt from our mistakes will be carted away…our to-do list might not shrink, but our sense of being overwhelmed by it all just might…Our bank account may not grow, but I guarantee you, our hearts will!

When WORSHIP…trusting God to be in charge of everything, becomes the center of our life…we GROW…in love for God and in love for one another and the world God made.

For some of us, it may seem like bad news that our investment this morning won’t accomplish too much…but, I’ve got worse news for you…there are many people that you and I know and love…and many people who we have yet to know…who at this very moment are trying to make investments all by themselves, and wondering why none of them are working out. There are people fretting over mountains of dirty laundry at this very moment…there are people crying because the leaves keep falling faster than they can clear them…there are people trying to get everything on the to-do list done all by themselves and working themselves to exhaustion…and there are certainly many people worrying about the balance in their checkbook…You will run into some of these people tomorrow morning…you’ll sit next to them on the bus…you’ll stand beside them in the coffee shop…you’ll say “Good Morning” to them at work…You’ll do it all after coming here, and receiving the PRICELESS return from the investment that God made for you, but they will be struggling without knowing the benefit of it. WORSHIP is at the center of our lives, but we’ll find out next week that it always leads us to invest, not in a return for ourselves, but in the life of someone else…Maybe you can get a headstart on investing this week by inviting one of those many people into God’s investment plan…His life for yours and theirs.

Opening Doors Fearlessly

I’m not a big fan of scary movies, but this week the stores were filled with Halloween stuff, so maybe that’s why I’m thinking about them. And even if you’re not a fan of scary movies, I’ll bet you’ve seen the scene that’s been written into many of them. It starts with a shot of someone sitting at home alone on a dark and stormy night. Then, all of a sudden this person hears a “bump” from upstairs…the same upstairs that’s supposed to be empty. So they get up from their chair, and head to the foot of the stairs. Then, at that point the camera angle switches so that you and I see what they see as they tiptoe up the stairs and creep toward the door to the room where that bump in the night came from When they get there, we see their shaking, trembling hand slowly reach out to open the door… I think that’s the moment when the person in the row in front of you at the movie theater yells out “Don’t go in there!” and you jump out of your seat and spill your popcorn all over your lap. You know that scene, don’t you?

We’re familiar with this kind of thing…the tension…the feelings of trepidation that fill us as we follow the character up the stairs…the fear that we can feel as they reach out with that trembling hand to open the door…we know this well…but I’m not sure that Jesus does.
I’ll bet that when Jesus arrived at the temple in Matthew 21:23-32 that there wasn’t an ounce of fear in him. Picture him, walking across town, down the street to the temple, up the front steps, and making his way to the entrance. How did he open the door when he got there? Do you picture him tiptoeing up the stairs? Do you envision him creeping toward the door? Do you see his hand trembling, shaking in fear as he reaches out to open it and enter? I don’t. In fact, when I read this story, I can’t picture Jesus approaching anything that way.

If you skip back to verse 12, you’ll find, I think, a very different picture of Jesus’ entrance that day:

“Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you are making it a den of robbers.” (Matthew 21:12-13)

Turning tables, driving people out, making bold proclamations? This doesn’t sound like someone who opened the door to the temple that day with fear and trepidation. Instead, I think Jesus opened the door that day with purpose, with confidence…when it comes down to it…I think he opened it…FEARLESSLY.

In fact, if you read Jesus’ story, I think you’ll find that he opens most doors without fear. He opened the door to a fishermen’s heart and asked him to follow…without fear of rejection. He opened the door to the room where that same fisherman’s mother-in-law suffered with a terrible fever…without fear of catching what she had. He opened the door to his friend Lazarus’ tomb…without fear of the smell of death that was inside it. Jesus opens lots of doors, and he opens them all fearlessly.

He invites you to do the same thing…with doors that lead to new possibilities…with doors that have been bolted shut for too long…with doors that prevent you from living life in all of the abundance that God intended...Jesus invites you to do it with every door you face.
We’re invited to open doors fearlessly because that’s what Jesus himself does. I think he must get that from his Father.

God isn’t afraid of opening new doors. God isn’t afraid to open the door that leads from heaven to earth and send his only Son down to live with us. God isn’t afraid to open the door of the tomb that holds His Son’s lifeless body. God certainly isn’t afraid to open the door to your heart, and invite you to follow His way.

How did Jesus open the door to the temple that day? Timidly? Fearfully? With uncertainty? I’ll bet not! He opened it fearlessly and walked right in. Even though he knew there were challenges waiting for him on the other side of it.

The people Jesus meets in the temple that day aren’t very good at opening doors…fearlessly or otherwise. In fact, maybe because of their fear they prefer to close doors and keep them shut. We might not be all that different. When you see a door in front of you that may hold a new, but scary opportunity behind it…what do you do? When you pass by the doors that have been slammed on relationships, and hold nothing but old wounds and grudges behind them…what do you do? When you stand before the door that leads to new life…how do you stand? Do you tiptoe past them? Do you creep by them? Do you stand and tremble with fear…debating whether or not to open them?

I think Jesus is always inviting us, but never forcing us, to open these doors in our lives and know that because he’s with us that we can open them FEARLESSLY!

God opened the door from heaven to earth and Jesus walked through it…on the other side he saw some pretty scary things…he saw people using God’s name to get rich…he saw people struggling to eat with no one to help them…he saw people dying alone because people were afraid to reach out and touch them…in the end he saw possibly the scariest thing of all…a wooden cross with his name on it! He saw it all, and yet he never crept, he never trembled, he never gave in to any fear he may have had. In the end, I think Jesus goes to the cross because his love for us is so strong that it far outweighs any fear he feels.

There is one exception to this, though. On the evening when Jesus was raised from the dead, we’re told that his disciples were gathered in a house and they had locked the doors because they were afraid. These may be the only doors that Jesus doesn’t open. Mysteriously, he simply appears in the house. The doors remain locked as he stands among his disciples, shows them the marks of the nails in his hands and offers them his peace. He doesn’t open the door when he comes to show his disciples that he’s alive and well…He appears, and then he leaves that last part up to them…to let go of everything that scares them, and fearlessly open the door to step into the life that God has in store for them. We know they did it because we wouldn ‘t be here otherwise. Will you do the same?

Receiving God's Grace

When the alarm clock goes off on a Monday morning, what’s the first thought that typically comes to your mind?

If you’re like me, then that thought, most Mondays just might begin with the word “Ugh!” “Another Monday.” Have you ever felt that way? If you have, then you know it’s even worse when you wake up on Monday and it’s dark and grey outside, and the sky is cloudy, and the air is cold. On a day like that it’s enough to want to just stay in bed, pull back the covers, and hide from the world. Have you been there before? Me too.

Now, shift gears for a moment and think back the last day you can remember when you woke up, and the first thoughts in your mind, the first thing you said to yourself was “Man, today’s going to be a great day!” Maybe the sun was shining in through the window, the birds were chirping outside, the sky was blue…maybe you’re like a friend of mine, and your automatic coffee maker had dutifully made the coffee and you can already smell it wafting in from the kitchen…and all you can think in the middle of that perfect scene is “Man, today’s going to be a great day!” Wouldn’t it be nice if every day could begin that way?
Well, if you think so, then I’d like to let you in on a secret…ANY day CAN be a great day. It doesn’t matter if the sky is blue or grey, if the sun is shining or buried behind a thick wall of clouds, if the birds are chirping sweetly or there are a flock of crows cawing wildly…any day can be a great day.

Too often, I know I’m guilty of it, when the day doesn’t start the way we wanted, when the air’s too cold, the sky is too grey…you forgot to plug the coffee maker in the night before…we didn’t get enough sleep…when all these things collide to make us wake up on the wrong side of the bed…too often the first thoughts we think or the first words we say…fall into the category of complaints. Before we’ve even pulled back the covers, we’re complaining…
We all complain, some more than others..but when complaining becomes a daily habit…an every morning routine…then pretty soon the things that can ruin a day become smaller and smaller…and it doesn’t take long before the words “Man, today’s going to be a great day” disappear from our vocabulary altogether…THIS DOESN’T HAVE TO HAPPEN…Like I said…any day has the potential for being a great one.

Think about the story that Jesus tells in Matthew 20:1-16. There is a group of people in that story for whom the day is starting to show signs of going south. I’m talking about that 5 pm group who are still standing around.

They may have rolled out of bed saying “Man, today’s going to be a great day!” but then when the clock struck 9, noon, 3, and 5 and they were still standing around, un-hired, they may have begun question their initial assessment…the reason this is turning out to be a bad day is because they know that if they don’t get picked, they don’t work, and if they don’t work, then their family doesn’t eat that day.

Have you ever felt like that? Like a day that had so much potential just sort of ran out of steam? Or took a wrong turn somewhere? Or came to a screeching halt altogether? What did you do when that happened? What are the things you started to think? What did you say? What did you do about it?

The interesting thing to me, about the 5 o’clock group is their strategy. They don’t start complaining: “What a rotten day!” or “How come he got picked over me? Everyone knows I always work hard and he’s a slacker!” Instead of letting the grey clouds get the better of them, instead they seem to say “Let’s wait and see! The day’s not over yet.” At the end of the day, for them it was worth it…they finally get picked, and they receive far more than they ever expected. I’ll bet when the checks were handed out at the end of the day…that 5 o’clock group looked at them and said “Man, I KNEW today was going to be a great day!”

There is word for what those workers received, and it is the key to the secret of every great day…the word is GRACE. Being paid for a full day’s work, when you only showed up at 5 is GRACE…it means the difference between food on the table or empty stomachs. GRACE is the key to our lives, too because it means the difference between whether a day is rotten or good.
The complainers in Jesus story grumble because they worked all day and got the same thing as the ones who showed up late. My guess is, most of us might do the same thing if we found ourselves in their shoes. I think they complain…and most of the time we do too…because we have a hard time recognizing GRACE. Jesus’ story reminds us that GRACE is all around us…it’s as available to you the moment you wake up, before the day has even started, as it is late in the day when you’re exhausted and ready for bed.

The question is, is it ENOUGH for you? Is what God provides enough…or do you find yourself worrying about what others have? Is what God provides enough for today or do you find yourself fearful of what tomorrow might bring? When you look at what God has given you, do you find yourself complaining about what you’re receiving…or not receiving?

Many of you probably know who Randy Pausch is…he’s the Carnegie Mellon Professor, who at the age of 47 was diagnosed with a terminal pancreatic cancer that this past summer took his life. For Randy, that one day at the doctor’s office changed his life forever. With a wife and three small children, no one would blame Randy if he complained…if he said that this wasn’t fair…if he cried out that he didn’t deserve what he had received in this diagnosis. In his book, “The Last Lecture” he says something profound about complaining. He says this: “Complaining doesn’t work as a strategy.” I would agree with him.

Complaining doesn’t work as a strategy…but I believe that Receiving God’s Grace does. When you don’t receive what you had hoped out of a day, a week, or a life…complaining won’t change any bit of it. God’s Grace might.

Take Jesus for example. We’re told that on one particular Thursday night, he had a nice meal with all of his friends, but that later on he wound up spending the rest of that night in a jail cell. Then, Friday morning he woke up and stood trial. He listened as large crowds of people called not for his release, but for his life. Then at noon on Friday he trudged up a hill with the cross on his shoulders…and that afternoon he felt the nails in his hands…then that night, he died.

As far as I know, he never complained about any bit of it. But he did say things like: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Even when the day showed no signs of improving, and only got worse as the hours went by, Jesus spent every minute of it still trusting, hoping, and counting on somehow receiving God’s grace. No matter how you look at it, that Friday for Jesus was not a “good” day.

But then, something happened…something no one could have foreseen or predicted. If you think that the 5 o’clock workers were surprised that day when the checks were handed out, then imagine how surprised Jesus was when Sunday morning rolled around, and he opened his eyes, breathed in and looked around, and saw that the sun outside his tomb was shining and the door was opened. My guess is, he smiled, rolled out of that cold, dark tomb and said to himself “Man, today is going to be a great day!”

Jesus reminds us all that no matter what happens, whether it is morning, noon, or night, God’s grace is always there…sometimes we don’t see it right away, but if we hang around long enough it always shows up. Complaining, though we do it often, is never a strategy that will improve our day or our life…But, waiting on God’s grace just might!

Giving Unselfishly

If you wanted to read a really great work of literature, you could go to your local library and borrow: War and Peace, The Old Man and the Sea, The Great Gatsby, or countless others. But, as far as I’m concerned, there aren’t too many books that rival a classic from my childhood. “The Berenstain Bears: Trouble with Money” is without a doubt one of the greatest books you’ll ever read. If you haven’t read it, do yourself a favor and pick it up, you’ll be glad you did. It’s a quick read, but what it lacks in length, it more than makes up for in meaning.
The Berenstain Bears Trouble with Money is a portrait of a young bear family, and their struggles to teach their children about money. Brother Bear and Sister Bear have a problem with money, namely they have a hard time holding onto it. It burns holes in their pockets, they spend it frivolously, they have a hard time saving. For them, that’s the trouble with money, they can’t seem to spend it or get rid of it fast enough. Often, they spend it on the wrong things. The book is all about Mama and Papa Bear trying to teach their young cubs how to save money, how to value their money, and how to put some away for a rainy day. Again, if you have yet to read this classic of American literature, go out and pick up a copy. Ours is well-worn and well-read.

Chapter 18 of Matthew’s Gospel (v. 21-35) contains a quick lesson, too, but it is also full of meaning. You could call this story “The Trouble with Forgiveness.” It all begins with a simple question from a sincere disciple. Peter asks Jesus: “Lord, how many times should I forgive?” Already, he’s recognizing that when it comes to forgiveness, he’s having trouble. Maybe his question is an effort to make this difficult concept somehow simpler: “Should I forgive seven times?”

Jesus’ words remind Peter, and you and I, that forgiveness doesn’t really work that way. His story is an illustration of the trouble we often have with forgiveness.

Whereas the Bears in the book have trouble holding onto their money, often you and I have trouble letting go of our forgiveness. Sometimes we guard it as if it were pricelessly irreplaceable. Sometimes, we treat it like money: we bank it, we save it, we hold onto it. Sometimes, we lock our forgiveness up in an air-tight vault with thick walls, that only we have the combination to. Sometimes, we don’t let forgiveness out enough.
The trouble with forgiveness, that Jesus communicates, is that you have to GIVE it for it to work. The king in the story that Jesus tells gives forgiveness, he forgives an outrageous debt…and the servant is relieved. But, he still has trouble with forgiveness, because just a few moments later…he can’t do the same thing for a miniscule debt. Because of this, he winds up in trouble. When we don’t give our forgiveness away, and instead keep it all to ourselves, then we wind up in trouble.

What he never realized, is that you can never “bounce” a forgiveness check. You can never deplete your “forgiveness” bank. In fact, it’s impossible to ever run out of forgiveness. Peter is probably more ambitious than you and I could be “Can I forgive up to seven times?” Jesus still says he’s being way too conservative with his forgiveness.

We’ll never run out of forgiveness because God has already given us more than we could ever imagine. God knows how to give out forgiveness.

When we owed God and one another big time, God handed himself over to cancel our debt. No matter what we owed, Jesus came to forgive it. Unselfishly, he gave all that he could to erase every debt. He gave us his time, his listening ear, his loving presence…in the end, he gave us his life. Jesus’ death cancels our debt…forgives us completely. His new life, in rising again, helps us to get on a brand new payment plan…one that runs on love and forgiveness.

Because of all this, you will never “bounce” a forgiveness check, so write them often, and make sure they’re in large amounts.

Our Vision at Zion is for GROWING and the first challenge we’ve set to help ourselves grow is the commitment to GIVING UNSELFISHLY. I can think of few things more challenging to give unselfishly than forgiveness, but if we are really interested in GROWING in our faith, then this a good place to begin…by giving forgiveness unselfishly.

When you and I forgive from the heart, we grow! We grow closer to one another, and we grow closer to God. Jesus makes it abundantly clear in his last words to Peter that God is really interested in our trouble with forgiveness, and God is concerned with helping us overcome it.

When you think about your own trouble with forgiveness, who comes to mind? Who might benefit this week, if you decided to crack open your forgiveness vault and give some of it away? Who might you know who needs for you to open up your forgiveness checkbook and write one great big check? Who is that person whose whole life might change, all because you trusted God enough to confront your own trouble with forgiveness and give some of it away?

Forgiveness isn’t like money…it’s not something we should save up and bank throughout our lives. Instead it’s something God wants us to spend frivolously, generously, unselfishly…every day. He did it for you and it made your troubles easier to bear…you can do it for someone else and do the exact same thing.

Water is still wet!

In his book, The Shack, William Young tells the story of a man named Mack who spends a weekend with God in a shack in the wilderness, sorting out the tremendous pain that a devastating loss has brought into his life.

In one very poignant scene, Mack takes a walk with Jesus, who suggests that the quickest way to get to where they’re headed is to walk, not around the lake at the foot of the hill, but across it…on top of the water. At first, Mack is skeptical, but then he remembers “If Peter could do it…why not me?” Before he takes his first faith-filled step, Mack has one important question for Jesus. He asks: “Will my feet get wet?” Jesus tells him: “Of course, water is still wet.”

Maybe this was Peter’s problem when Jesus invites him to walk on water. (Matthew 14:22-33) Even though he gets over the shock of seeing someone walking on water, even though he establishes that it is not a ghost standing in front of him, and even though he decided to take that first faith-filled step…he forgot: water is still wet!

Maybe that’s what happened. Maybe this is why he’s distracted, startled, and becomes fearful. He steps on to the surface of the water and his feet get soaked. He takes a few steps and the sea sloshes beneath him. He walks over to Jesus, and standing on the water, those first waves crash around his feet, and soak his shins, he becomes worried…he loses focus on Jesus…he starts to sink. Maybe he thought that because he was walking on water, that the waves and the wind would become less real…that they would lose their power over him…but he learns: no matter what…water is still wet!

God loves to make the impossible possible. In the Bible this looks like Peter walking on water, Jesus changing water into wine, and five loaves and two fish feeding thousands until they can’t eat another bite.

God makes the impossible possible for you and I, but in our lives the miracles are often more subtle. After a devastating loss, somehow we pick up the pieces and move on with God’s help. When life becomes difficult, when waves crash and the wind is in your face, God shows up and helps you keep going. When life becomes uncertain, God is there to stand beside you.

God makes the impossible possible, and yet we sometimes still make the same mistake that Peter made. How often do you and I forget that the water is still wet? God helps us through the pain, but the pain still stings….because pain hurts. God gets us through the storm, but the waves still crash on our little boat and soak us to the bone…because that’s what waves do. God helps us live in uncertain times, but our heart still races, our mind still wanders, and our breath sometimes gets taken away, because that’s what fear does to us.

What if the miracle is not that God comes to our side, walking across the water to our boat, and the storms clear out? What if the real miracle isn’t when God takes us by the hand and at once the pain disappears? Could it be that the miraclet is not that God puts his arms around us and the fears dissolve? What if the real the miracle is simply that God comes to us, God takes our hand, and God puts his arms around us? Even though he does these things, often, the waves still crash, the pain still hurts, and the fears still fill our heart…but the miracle is that we are no longer alone in them.

Peter gets out of the boat, I suspect, because he wants to walk with Jesus. Jesus comes down from the mountain, I also suspect, because he wants to walk with us. He isn’t content to sit on the mountaintop while we’re being battered by the waves on the sea below.

When God sees the waves that crash and the winds that blow…when God watches the losses that fill us with pain unfold…when God notices that our hearts are filling up with fear…his first action is to come to wherever we are.

It’s what Jesus did that day for his disciples. It’s what Jesus seems to do all the time. He comes to us out of the safety of heaven, to be with us as we face the waves and the wind. He comes to our side to walk with us through the pain and the loss. He puts his arms around us as we stand in the middle of our greatest fears.

Maybe Peter and the other disciples were so scared when they saw Jesus walking on the water, not because they didn’t recognize him, but because they knew that no one in their right mind would stand where he was standing. Who would get their feet wet, walking into the middle of the storm, just to be with the men whose boat is filling up with water?

Who would walk into the rooms that fill with loss, just to be with someone whose heart is filling up with pain? Who would venture into the fearful places, just to sit with someone whose heart is trembling? Who would do all this? There’s only one person, who in every storm, at every loss, and for every fear, will promise to show up…he’s the same Jesus who came down the mountain and walked on the sea.

He walked through this life, and lived it his way He showed up when the storms raged. He appeared when loved ones died. He came out to be with people whose hearts knew only fear.

Even when the skies darkened over his own life, and the waves of accusation crashed around him, and the winds of rejection blew into his face, he still stuck around. When the pain became real, and the cross was placed on his shoulders, he kept on. Even when he hung there and wondered aloud whether or not he was completely alone, and the fear of death filled his heart, still he stuck around.

The lesson that Jesus himself learned through all of this, is that no matter what happens, God is there when you need him. Jesus may not have felt his presence when he hung on the cross, breathed his last breath, and the darkness began to descend upon him. I’ll guarantee you that he felt it when he opened his eyes , breathed once more, felt the sunshine streaming in through the open door of the tomb!
When that happened, once more he walked out into the world. He walked out of the tomb to be with people who were still feeling the pain of loss, still huddled in fear, and for whom the storm had yet to subside. When he did, he still had the scars, because the pain of death still hurts, but now he knew that God was there, is there, and will always be there when his children need him.

The next time you wonder about whether or not God is around: because the pain seems to be too much, the loss seems to be too strong, and the fears seem to be too real…remember even if you walk on water, you’re still going to get wet. If your shoes are soaked, and the waves are still crashing, it doesn’t mean that God’s not there. Peter found out when he started to sink, sometimes that’s when you and I realize, too.

a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter

“A loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter.” You remember these words, don’t you? Are they etched in your brain? Do they emerge as you walk the aisles of the supermarket with your shopping list in hand, trying to make sure you don’t forget a single item? If you grew up when I did, or had children who did, then you know these familiar words.

If you don’t know what I am talking about, they come from a Sesame Street cartoon in which a little girl is asked by her mother to walk down to the store. She tells her daughter: “Now, don’t forget: a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter.” Then she says: “If you can’t remember, I’ll write it down for you.” But the little girl is confident and says: “That’s o.k. mommy, I won’t forget, I’ll remember.”(Watch it now at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jdP7HUPbVs )

How does she remember? She remembers those three items by repeating them to herself over and over in her head as she walks down the block and into the store: “A loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter…a loaf of bread a container of milk, and a stick of butter…a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter…”

Memory is important. Not just for remembering the things on our grocery list, or the important things that people tell us, but also, it seems for our spiritual life.

Do you know about the five loaves and the two fish? Do you know about the five thousand

people who were fed by them? Matthew tells the story in chapter fourteen of his gospel (14:13-21) The story begins when Jesus and his disciples are out in the middle of nowhere among a crowd of over 5,000 people who have been determined to follow them wherever they go. Out there, at the end of a long day of listening to Jesus speak, as the sun begins to set , suddenly the disciples realize: everyone has forgotten to bring something to eat. Over 5,000 people, and among all of them, all they can gather up are 5 loaves of bread and two little fish. Whether they never intended on staying this late, or they just plain forgot, no one brought anything to eat.

Fortunately, the disciples have thought about this, and to avoid an angry, grouchy, hungry crowd turning on them, they’ve come up with a plan that they propose to Jesus: “We’re out in the country and it’s getting late. Dismiss the people so they can go to the villages and get some supper.”

Now, when these disciples should be glad that Jesus didn’t look at them and say: “They don’t need to leave, you give them supper. Go into town and don’t forget: 5,000 loaves of bread, 5,000 little fish…and a stick of butter…If you can’t remember, I’ll write it down for you.” While they may not have liked it, they might have understood better if this had been what Jesus says. Because, what Jesus does say to them is: “No one needs to go away. You give them supper.”

Can’t you picture them standing there, speechless, looking at one another? One of them is holding those five loaves and two fish and they sort of put them right in front of Jesus…”Aren’t you forgetting…this is all we’ve got! 5 loaves. 2 fish…5,000 people! This isn’t a sample portion, this is the whole menu!”

Go back to that Sesame Street cartoon for a moment. When the little girl finally arrives at the store, after repeating that shopping list over and over to herself the whole way, she walks up to the counter, looks at the clerk and says: “Sir, can I have a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and…and…I can’t remember…” At the most important part of the trip, she forgot. She remembered as she left the house, as she walked down the street, but at the counter, standing in front of the clerk, on the spot…she forgot! What does she do? She closes her eyes, pictures her mother standing in the kitchen, giving her the instructions, and then, it all comes back to her: “A loaf of bread, a container of milk, and…a stick of butter!” “I remembered!” she shouts.

I think that Jesus’ disciples would have benefited from watching this short cartoon, because if they had, they might have borrowed a page from the little girl’s book and thought back and remembered all other things that Jesus had told them and done with them, instead of giving up so soon.

That day, out in the middle of nowhere, they forgot all about what he said, but I bet you remember, don’t you? You remember when Jesus spoke about the seed that produces thirty, sixty, and a hundred times over! You remember the tiny mustard seed that grows into a tree. You remember that he told you that a mustard seed’s worth of faith can move mountains and uproot trees. You remember all of those stories that Jesus told about small things producing huge results?

His disciplese made it all the way out to the wilderness, they saw the crowds, they listened to Jesus, but when it mattered most, they forgot about all that they had heard and seen.
What does Jesus do? When his disciples seem to be forgetful? Matthew doesn’t mention it, but I like to think that he smiled when looked at them, with those five loaves of bread and those two little fish, and said “Give them to me.”

We know how it turns out. Jesus asks God to bless those five loaves and two fish, and then he breaks the bread and everyone is fed. In the end, it happens just as Jesus said, the disciples give everyone something to eat. All 5,000. Until they couldn’t eat another bite. There are even leftovers to wrap up and take home.

Memory is important, and I would be willing to bet that the disciples never forgot what happened that day. Or, maybe they did. Or maybe Jesus was afraid they would. Later on, when he knows it will matter the most, he goes over it all with them again.

At the Last Supper, Jesus sits them all down and gives them the most dramatic illustration there is of small, simple things producing big results. Maybe his talk with them was just like the mother in that Sesame Street cartoon: “Now don’t forget: the bread is my body, the wine is my blood…If you can’t remember, I’ll write it down for you…” and you can almost see the disciples around the table, repeating it back to him: “No, Jesus ,we won’t forget the bread is your body, the wine is your blood…”

He goes over it with them there, because when they get out into the real world he knows it may be easy to forget. At that critical moment, when his hands are tied and the cross is placed on his shoulders, it would be easy to forget: “the bread is your body, the wine is your blood…” At that critical moment, when he is raised up, and breathes his last breath, you could understand if what happened at the table with the bread and the cup escaped the memory of the disciples.

How well-versed are you in remembering that because of what Jesus has done for you on the cross, that small, simple things can produce huge results? When you reach the critical moments in your life, do you sometimes forget? I know I do. I know that many times, I must seem just like the disciples, standing before God, worried and trembling, saying: “Don’t you see, this is all I’ve got” Then I stand there, and raise up the equivalent of those five loaves of bread and two little fish for God to see.

How about you, do you ever do the same thing? Somehow, at those moments we forget about the mustard seed, the feeding of the 5,000+, and the faith that Jesus showed us on the cross, and all we can think about are how little we have, how bleak it looks, and how God needs to understand the situation our way.

Maybe what we need at that moment is what the little girl in the cartoon had. She had the ability to stop all the worry, the fear, and the wandering of her mind, and remember what her mother had told her. Maybe we need the same thing.

Jesus’ disciples finally remembered. After the cross, after he was dead and buried, three days later, he appeared again. He met two of them on the road and walked with them. All they could talk about was how bleak it was, how little they had, and how their hopes had grown small. Then, Jesus sat with them at the table, and did what he did at the feeding of the 5,000 and at the Last Supper: he took the bread, asked God to bless it, and broke it…and do you know what they said at that moment? “We remember! We remember!”

Every day of your life you have the same chance. Bring all of your hopes that have grown small, all of your skepticism about the future, all of your worries, and bring them to Jesus. Show them to him, and every time he will do the same thing. He will smile, take them from you, ask God to bless them, and show you that with God, no matter how little you feel you have, huge things are possible! Then, before you go, he’ll feed you and ask you to remember that no matter what happens that week: “The bread is my body, the wine is my blood…given for you!”