Holy Trinity

John 3:1-17 Holy Trinity

On this first Sunday after the day of Pentecost, we celebrate the Holy Trinity.
Holy Trinity=One God, Three Persons-God (Father)-God(Son)-God (Holy Spirit)=all one God, yet three distinct persons. Any questions? Yes, of course we’ve got questions.

First, some background on “Trinity.” It’s not a term found in the Bible. It’s a term that we-the church have made up. Here’s how I picture it: some theologian years and years ago read his Bible and noticed this language- Jesus refers to God as “Father” himself as “Son” and tells his followers of the Spirit that will come after he returns to heaven. That theologian read this and said “I’m going to make this really simple to understand-I’ll call it the “Trinity” and tell everyone that it’s one God, three persons.” And from that moment on, people like you and I have heard this and said things like: “What the heck does that mean?”

Also, since then, some people have been offering all kinds of crazy explanations. They talk about how H20 can be water, ice, or steam-all are H2O, but in different forms. Someone once told me to think of a pie cut into thirds. It’s all the same pie, but three separate pieces. Or, what about an egg? You’ve got one egg with three distinct parts: yolk, white, and shell. So God is like H2O? God is like a pie? God is an egg? I don’t know how you feel, but these images leave me with more questions, and less understanding.

Leave it to us to take something that God has freely given us and make it really complicated and confusing…sometimes it seems that it’s just what we do best.

But it’s also good, because it makes us think. It makes us wonder. It makes us ask questions, even if those questions are as simple as just saying “What the heck does that mean?”

And if ideas like the “Holy Trinity” cause us to ask questions of faith, then I guess Nicodemus is the perfect person for us hear about today-he’s full of questions. The problem is, he’s afraid to ask them. Why? Because he’s under the completely incorrect assumption that everyone around him knows everything. He’s believed for a long time that he’s the ONLY one with questions about God and how God works. So, he’s afraid if he asks the questions that are rumbling around in his heard. He’s afraid that if he does, he’ll look foolish…so he goes to Jesus at night…when no one else will see or hear him.

Have you ever felt like Nicodemus? I know I have. In fact, I feel like Nicodemus all the time. When it comes to faith, I think most often I have many more questions than I have answers.
Sometimes we live under the false assumption that our faith is a faith of answers. For too long, this is the image the church has presented of itself…a house of answers, absolutes, and definitions, when in reality, if we’re honest, we are house full of people whose hearts are full of questions. In reality, if we’re honest, faith itself is almost always more concerned with the questions…lots of them.

Jesus didn’t come to give answers, at least not easy answers, but to inspire people to ask the questions that others were afraid to give voice to.

What does he say in Luke 11:9 when he’s speaking to his disciples who have posed a question about how to pray? He tells them: “Ask and it will be given you, search, and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you.”

The emphasis here, if we notice, is not in the answers, the destination, or the opening, but in the willingness to ask, to search, to knock on the door even though we have no idea what lies beyond our questions, our searching, or the door itself.

Nicodemus did all three-and he got a good, simple answer about who God is and what God does… “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

In fact, this is the answer God gives to the whole world about who God is. God is love. The kind of love that is willing to endure hardship, and struggle…hunger and temptation…rejection and despair…shame and injustice…suffering and death…all so that we won’t have to. God is the kind of love that triumphs over all of these things with a new life that no one can explain, but everyone can share. God is the kind of God who is so big that one term, one person, one word isn’t enough to adequately illustrate God’s largeness.

This week, after visiting someone at the hospital, I saw a sign in one of the stairwells with a quote from Aristotle that read: “We are what we repeatedly do.”

Now there’s a thought-provoking statement that begs the question: “What do we repeatedly do?”

Maybe we need to think more about this on this day when we remember a term we invented that just might make understanding God a little more confusing than God really needs to be.
When we repeatedly become a place that offers answers, before long we’ll have a hard time welcoming people who are struggling with difficult questions. When we repeatedly stifle the creativity of people who are seeking the new things that God is saying in our world, then before long people will stop searching for God here. When we become people who see our primary task as guarding doors and keeping them secure, then before long, we’ll stop knocking on them looking for God.

God doesn’t seem to mind if we ask questions…in fact, when we read the Bible carefully we just might find that Jesus loved it when people like Nicodemus who asked things like, and I’m paraphrasing here, “What the heck is life all about?” On the other hand, read the Bible closely and you’ll find that he had a very different relationship with the people around him who claimed to have all the answers…he had a special word for them, but that’s a sermon for another day.
Today, I’d like to ask: “What questions do you and I need to be asking God?” Better yet, what questions do you and I need to be asking ourselves about life with the God who is Father, Son, and Spirit, and no matter which words we choose…God, time and time again…repeatedly…chooses to love the whole world enough to give us everything?

"All Together in One Place"

Acts 2:1-21

Nearly every time we gather here, the same person takes center stage. I don’t even need to name him, do I? We celebrate his birth on Christmas. We remember his baptism on another day. We remember the time he called his first disciples, those fishermen on the lakeshore. We listen to the time he went to a wedding and made it the party of a lifetime. We remember his life. We tell the story of his death. We gather on Easter and remember surprisingly that, for him, death was not the end. And because of all that, every time we gather here, no matter what part of the story we hear, we are reminded that because of him, for us, death is not the end, either. He is the main attraction. The center of attention. The man of every hour when we gather. Well, nearly every hour.

Today is different. Go back and re-read the lessons we just heard from Acts and Romans and you’ll find that his name isn’t included in any of them. We hear his words in the reading from John’s Gospel, but that’s it. Today, the man of the hour takes a backseat to someone else…and he’s glad to do it.

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”

That mighty wind rips through the room, filling the house. Those “tongues” of fire ignite among them, above them. The Holy Spirit fills them, giving them new ability, new voices, new words that they’ve never spoken.

How could we not give a day for something that makes these kinds of things happen? How could we not gather, for at least an hour and remember the morning when everything in the lives of this young community of faith changed forever? Each year, on this day-fifty days after Easter-we give a little time to the Holy Spirit. Today belongs to the Holy Spirit…but it also belongs to us, too.

Something that may be even more amazing than the violent wind, the tongues of fire, and the spirited words is the fact, that when the day arrives: “they were all together in one place.” All of them, together, in one place. When I think of that one fact, I am amazed that Pentecost-the day the Holy Spirit claimed us-even happened. All those followers of Jesus-reclaimed by the risen Christ and reunited-were actually “all together in one place.” The day of the Holy Spirit’s arrival is equally the day of the disciples’ sticking around, together.

Today, when you and I gather to remember this, we remember this same thing-it’s about the Holy Spirit…and it’s about us. So really, today is no different than any other day since the beginning of time-every day of your life and mine, because they’re all about the same thing-they’re about God and about us.

As I think of this, it also occurs to me that those first disciple’s lives were different than ours. They didn’t have cell phones or blackberrys that rang, buzzed, or beeped with a steady stream of phone calls, emails, and text messages. They didn’t have 9-5’s or 7-3’s or 3-11’s or 11-7’s like we do. That first group that gathered didn’t have mid-terms or finals, no book reports, or research papers. They didn’t have family that lived hundreds or even thousands of miles away. So maybe being “all together in one place” was a little easier for them. Which makes this Pentecost, and the fact that we are here together in one place-even more special.

It is especially important that we continue to find ways to be “all together in one place.” Together, we need to commit ourselves, more often than just on the day of Pentecost…more often than just one hour each week. Together, we need to give one another permission to turn off the cell phones and the blackberrys, to take a day off from the 9-5’s and to put the mid-term’s on hold. Together, we need to find ways to be “all together in one place.” Because it is important for us, for the world, and to God.

Imagine if those first disciples hadn’t made the time to be together. Just think if they couldn’t schedule that day to be all in one place. What would have happened on Pentecost if they were “all alone, in different places.” Maybe the wind would still have rushed, but there would have been no one to turn to and say “Did you feel that?” Maybe the flames would have ignited, but there would have been no one to look and say “Can you see that?” Maybe the words would have come, but there would have been no one there to look back at us and say “Could you repeat that?”

For as many reasons as the disciples could have come up with not to be together, each one of them knew that there was one very important reason why they needed to be together. So, once again, today becomes about that one person who came and changed everything-we just can’t get away from him. It was Jesus, who after he gave his life for them…and rose again for them…gathered them together and said “You are my witnesses…so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” Jesus invites us all today to hear his words with open hearts, and to remember that it’s awfully hard to live lives, spend days, or even share hours that are about God and one another when we don’t make a point of being all together in one place.

Two Things Jesus Loves to Do

Luke 24:36b–48

If we were to make a list of the things that Jesus loves to do, what do you suppose might make the list?

Here are some things I can think of:

heal the sick, find the lost, eat and drink-go to parties, challenge assumptions about God, talk to people about God’s love, forgive sins, spend time with friends…

After reading today’s Gospel lesson, though, I thought of two things we can add to that list of things that Jesus loves to do:

1. “pop-in” on people-show up unannounced
2. Surprise, startle, even shock people

In fact, after he is raised from the dead, he seems to really enjoy doing these last two.

On the road to Emmaus, he walks with two disciples but they don’t even know that it’s him…then as they sit down to eat dinner-he takes the bread and blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them-in an instant they realize who they’ve been walking with-to their surprise, it’s Jesus…he surprises them at the table.

In Matthew 28-the two Mary’s watch as an angel descends from heaven, the earth shakes, the stone in front of Jesus’ tomb rolls away…and as if that weren’t shocking enough, when they turn to head back home-Jesus “pops-in” on them.

In John 20-Mary Magdalene is crying outside of Jesus’ grave when a man whom she had mistaken for the gardener calls her by name and she realizes-to her surprise-that it’s Jesus.

Then there’s Thomas, whose story we heard last week-After popping in on the disciples once, Jesus returns a second time, suddenly appearing among them even though the front door of the house is locked-He pops in, shows Thomas his hands and side-and Thomas believes.

And what about the story we read in John 21? Peter and the other disciples have gone back to fishing after Jesus’ death-when Jesus’ arrives on shore, tells them as he did once before to cast the net on the other side of the boat-and he surprises them with an enormous catch of fish.
After his death and resurrection, Jesus spends most of his time doing these two things-popping in on the people he loves-and surprising them.

In our lesson for today, he does both. He shows up unexpectedly, he pops-in among them. And he does startle them-the lesson says they are “terrified” because at first they think he’s a ghost-and then they are surprised to see that it is really him-alive again, beyond the cross and the grave-living and breathing, and speaking to them.

So this leads me to believe that you and I, as Jesus followers today should always be prepared for Jesus to “pop” into our lives at any moment. And, when he does, we should be ready to be surprised, shocked, even startled by his presence.

When you think about it, Jesus’ story is shocking-God lives…and then, unexpectedly, God dies.

Jesus’ message is startling- he tells one follower to sell everything he owns, he asks people to forgive seventy times seven times, he stands up for people when no one else will, he asks all who follow him to carry the cross just as he does-all of it startling.

And maybe the most surprising thing of all about Jesus is how much he loves us-his love is bigger than the cross, and stronger than death.

In fact, maybe that’s why Jesus seems to enjoy popping in and surprising us so much-because that’s exactly what God did to him. When the lights went out, and laid lifeless in the grave-God popped in. Then, in the biggest surprise of all-God raised Jesus to new life. Jesus knows how good it feels when God pops into your life, and when God surprises you with something you never dreamed was possible…I think he wants that same joy for us. That’s why he spends all of his time doing those same things for us.

How often do we as the church follow the example of our Lord? When and where to we “pop-in”-showing up in the real world for real people? When was the last time we surprised someone? Or shocked the world? Or startled our neighbors with God’s grace?

Maybe we should pay more attention to the resurrection stories of Jesus-because here’s what happened every time he popped in and surprised people:

The two disciples who were surprised at the table-they jump out of their seats and run seven miles to tell their friends about it!

The two women who are startled when Jesus pops in on them on the road run and tell the men what’s going on!

Mary Magdalene, when Jesus calls her by name falls on her knees, and then shouts “I have seen the Lord” for all to hear.

Thomas cries out “My Lord and My God!”

Peter jumps out of the fishing boat and swims a hundred yards to shore to see Jesus

And the disciples in our lesson for today-even though they are startled and terrified by Jesus sudden appearance, they go on to start the church!

We are here today because Jesus popped into people’s lives and startled them enough to respond to the amazing new life that God gives. We are worshipping because of unexpected visits, surprising sights, and startling words from Jesus that yielded more visits, more sights, and more words from the people who knew him best.

How can you and I, as people who know Jesus in today’s world get back to that? Where can you show up unexpectedly this week? Who can you surprise with a sense of God’s grace? How can you startle the people around you with God’s love? Where can you be a presence that shocks the world with the kind of forgiveness Jesus loved to share?

Because Jesus loved to do all of these things, and I’ll bet he loves it even more when he sees people like you and I doing them!

Listen...God is Calling!

Try to picture this for a second. You’re at home, watching television, and all of a sudden the picture goes dark and you hear a voice that sounds one hundred times clearer than the high definition sound you were listening to, and it’s speaking directly at you. Or, it’s an average day at work, and the phone rings and there’s this majestic voice speaking over an angel choir, addressing you by name and asking if you’ll hold for a call from God. Maybe it happens as you’re sitting in the classroom, scribbling furious notes about the Pythagorean theorem when the pen flies out of your hand and begins writing all on its own. Then, when you read the words, they are spelling out a message from God to you! What if this happened? What would you say? What would you do?

This is exactly what happens to Samuel. He’s minding his own business one day, when all of a sudden, he hears it: “Samuel! Samuel!” He hears it loud and clear, and he does what you and I might do. He starts to wonder: “Who’s behind this?” He runs to the only other person there, his mentor Eli… “I’m here, I’m here!” But it wasn’t Eli who called. Three times this happens and three times Samuel does the same thing, jumps up and runs to Eli.

You and I would do the same thing. We’d turn off the tv and look around the house. We’d sit on the line and try to figure out which one of our friends concocted this elaborate prank. We’d search the classrooms for the hidden cameras. “This has got to be a joke, right?”

God calls Samuel three times to put down the remote control, put all of his other calls on hold, stop writing theorems, and instead start speaking to the people. God’s call is clear: “I made you to be a prophet, and now I’m asking you to get started.” Samuel, this is what you’re here for.
Who could blame Samuel if he didn’t figure this out the first time? Who can blame him if it takes three separate calls :

“Samuel…Samuel…Samuel!”

After all, this little story begins by telling us that “the word of the Lord was rare in those days…” (1 Samuel 3:1) Things like this just weren’t happening.

Some people would say that the word of the Lord is rare today…that the things that happened to Samuel don’t happen at all any more.

I met someone this past Sunday, though, who would argue with that, and I happen to think that she would make a case that would be very convincing. She’s less than a year old, yet if you asked her, she would say that God is still speaking, and things are still happening. She won’t use words to tell you about it today, but give her some time and one day she’ll let you know all about it.

On Sunday, she had a Samuel-esque experience. She was held by the people she knows best as she listened to a lot of words. There, in the mix of them, she heard one word that she already recognizes: her name. “…child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.”

Right in the middle of this, something strange happened to her. Amid the swirl of words she felt a sudden and cool rush of water trickle over her forehead as she was baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Like Samuel, she may have wondered: “Who’s behind this?” Like you and I, whenever something unusual happens, she may be asking “Is this a joke?” Later, she’ll learn just as Samuel did, and just as you and I do…that God is behind this, and it’s no joke…because in the water God spoke her name, God called to her, and God made her His own child.

I can almost hear you asking the question, though. Thinking about an infant and wondering: “How do you know she’ll remember any of this?” “How can you be so sure that she will know?”

Why will she remember it? Because she’ll have plenty of people to help her to remember it. How will she know that God spoke on January 18 2009? Because her mom and dad and her baptismal sponsors: will tell her about it. She and her brother will get used to hearing the story of how God spoke to each of them. When she’s older, she’ll hear all about how the people who loved her most bundled her up on a very snowy day and brought her to the font because the God who loves her more than anything had something special to say to her. Samuel had Eli to point him in the right direction. She’s got people who will do the same thing.

Nathanael had a similar experience. When his friend Philip told him that God was in their neighborhood, he was skeptical. Then Jesus walked up to him and told him that he had been there the whole time, that he knew him better than Nathanael had ever dreamed. Then, he told him, this is just the beginning, there’s a whole lot more to come… “you will see greater things than these.” (John 1:50)

It’s the same with us, God meets us first in the waters, but then follows us every day of our life. At work, in the classroom, even when we’re lounging in front of the tv. God comes to us and calls us by name…always inviting us to be a part of what He’s up to in the world, always inviting us to share his message of love and forgiveness with a world that sometimes thinks he’s stopped speaking altogether.

Jesus called the world with his life, every bit of it. He did things for God that no one else could ever, or would ever do. He gave all that he had, and trusted that God would call his name even when things seemed dark and hopeless. He gave everything, He gave all that he had to meet you, to meet me, and this past Sunday to meet a little girl who he’s known before anyone else.

God comes just to tell us that He loves us, and He has a very special plan for each of us.

If you heard God’s voice, booming loud and clear through the speakers on your television or the receiver on your phone, you’d listen, right? If God’s own hand started writing a message in your notebook, you’d read it, right? If God interrupted your life to tell you what He wanted you to be and do with the rest of your days, you’d do it, right? It’s ok if you’re not sure…it took Samuel three times before he got it. It took Nathanael a little while before he heard. It will take you, and I, with the help of God most of our lives to hear it…but if we listen, we’ll find out sooner or later that God is here, and he’s calling us.

ALL IN

One of my not-so guilty pleasures, something I look forward to each holiday season, happens when we gather with my wife’s side of the family. Typically, whether it’s Thanksgiving or Christmas, after the dishes have been cleared, my father-in-law, my two brothers-in-law, and myself gather at the kitchen table to play cards. Lately, our favorite game has been Texas Hold-Em…or as my niece and nephew call it: “poker checkers.”

In these games, at least once, one of my brother-in-law’s will sit at the table, look at his cards, look at the pile of chips in the center, look at us, look at our stacks of chips, look back at his cards…take a long pause, and then says two words: “ALL IN”

ALL IN means just what it sounds like. It means I’m putting up all that I’ve got…I’m playing it all on this one hand.

Now, when he does this, I always say two words as well, and those words are “I FOLD” I usually fold because going all-in, even in a game where there’s no real money involved scares the heck out of me.

I’m not sure what God would think about our games of Texas Hold-Em or if God would approve of teaching our niece and nephew how to play “poker checkers”, but my hunch is God just might smile when he hears those two words my brother-in-law isn’t afraid to say: ALL IN.

There are two people in the story Jesus tells in Matthew 25:14-30 who go all in…and they don’t even hesitate as long as my brother-in-law does to do it. The master gives one of them 5 talents and the other 2 and they go off “at once” to trade them all away. They go ALL IN. In the end, it pays off, they each double their investment and their master is thrilled.

But there’s a third person in this story too, who might be more like me. He gets one talent, and he goes off at once to bury it. He doesn’t trade it. He doesn’t put it in the bank to earn even a small amount of interest. He takes it, finds a safe place, digs a hole in the ground, and buries it. Whatever he does is the opposite of ALL IN…maybe we could say he does what I do…he folds…he takes himself out of the game altogether. He buries the talent.

I think this story is why I say that God smiles when people go ALL IN…because the two servants who do hear things like: “Well done!” and the servant who folds hears this: “You wicked and lazy slave.” In the end, this becomes a story about what happens when we go all in, and what happens to us when we fold.

There’s another story that illustrates that God is in favor of going ALL IN even more clearly.

It’s the story of Jesus. God goes ALL IN when he sends his one and only Son to save us. God doesn’t fold when there’s no room at the inn… “Even if my son is born in a barn, I’m still in God says.” God doesn’t fold when the stakes get high because of Jesus’ message, and people turn against him, and people call for his life…This is how far God is willing to go to go all in for you and I. Because of it, Jesus is a beautiful savior for us.

He’s a beautiful savior, but he would be a terrible poker player. He’d be terrible for at least two reasons that I can think of: he shows his hand way too soon, and he’s always, just like his Father, going ALL IN. Jesus shows his hand early, he tells the world exactly why he came and what he’s about. Then, he proceeds to go all in on every hand that he plays, no matter how many chips are in front of him. For instance, Jesus doesn’t fold when the crowds are starving and hungry, and there seems to be no food. He goes ALL IN and he feeds them. Jesus doesn’t fold when they tell him your friend Lazarus is dead and buried…he goes ALL IN and rolls the stone away and calls into the darkness. Jesus doesn’t fold when people tell him “You can’t do that!”…he goes ALL IN and heals the sick, and turns the tables, and forgives the sins.

Even when the cross is laid on his table, he looks at it, looks at the hand he’s been dealt, looks at the crowds…and still goes ALL IN. The difference maker in this wager, is as Jesus goes ALL IN, so does God…God goes into the darkness, into the tomb, into death itself, refusing to fold until new life emerges for his Son and for you and I.

God goes ALL IN for you ALL THE TIME and he invites you to do the same.

When was the last time you looked at the hand you’ve been dealt, the stack of chips in front of you…no matter how large or small it seemed…and REALLY went ALL IN?

When you saw something in the world that needed changing…you went all in. When you saw something in your life that needed improvement…all in. When you heard a call from God, took it to heart…and went all in.

Or do you fold? The world will never change…so I’ll take my chips and throw in my cards and fold. My life will never change, so I’ll toss my cards on the pile and fold. God’s call isn’t really for me…so I’ll bury my talent in the ground and fold.

God’s promise for you today, even if you’re like me and want to run and hide and grab hold of all your poker checkers when you hear the words “ALL IN”…God’s promise is when you refuse to fold, when you take the chance to go ALL IN…you’ll never go alone because God doesn’t just smile when he hears those two words, he pushes all of His chips into the middle with you and echoes them…ALL IN!

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.