October 9, 2011 - The Sermon On the Mount - The Lord's Prayer - Never Give Up!

Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV)

Winston Churchill is one of modern history’s most quoted individuals. There is a famous story about a speech he gave on October 29, 1941 to Harrow School, which he attended as a boy. The story is that when Churchill stood up to speak he said – Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, give in. Never give in. Never give in. Never give in. Then he sat down.

The entire speech, according to the story, was just 18 words. It makes for a good story, but it isn’t true. Churchill actually gave a longer speech that day (the text of which can be read here – http://www.school-for-champions.com/speeches/churchill_never_give_in.htm) and it included these words – Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Though the story of the 18-word speech is not true, it continues to live on as fact to many. Why? Probably because it’s a great story, even if it isn’t true. It makes a great story because it distills the longer speech down to the essence of what Churchill was saying – don’t give up. That was the message people needed to hear in Churchill’s day and it’s one we need to hear today. Never give up.

We are attracted, I think, to stories of perseverance. The weight of what we face in our lives can bring about so much discouragement that we need those stories of overcoming difficulties.

The next picture reminds us there are people who overcome incredibly difficult situations in their lives, and we are encouraged by what they are able to accomplish in the face of such great difficulties. Bethany Hamilton lost her arm in a shark attack at the age of 14. Nick Vujicic (Voy – e – chick) was born without any arms or legs but has proved incredibly inspirational because of what he has been able to accomplish in spite of his physical limitations.

How many of you feel hopeful about the state of the world? Do you ever feel as though you want to just give up? Does life ever get to the point that you feel so overwhelmed you want to just throw up your hands and say what’s the use? I give up! I quit! Have you ever faced challenges that seemed so insurmountable that you felt there was no hope?

This morning we complete our study of the Lord’s Prayer, and as we come to the final phrase, this is the message Jesus offers – Never Give Up! Never Give Up! Don’t lose faith. Don’t lose heart.

Listen again to the final words of the Lord’s Prayer – and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

I believe the message of those words is that we should never grow discouraged and we should never quit. We should never lose heart. We should never lose faith. Those words are a promise of the goodness of God and the faithfulness of God.

There are a couple of unusual aspects to this final part of the Lord’s Prayer. First, depending on the translation of the Bible that you use, you may be surprised to find the final phrase – for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, missing. Some translations omit that phrase because it doesn’t appear in many of the early manuscripts of Matthew’s gospel. Interestingly, it begins to appear more often in the manuscripts that date to the time when the church was suffering terrible persecution under the Roman Empire. It was an important reminder during a very difficult time – Never give up! Don’t lose hope. Don’t lose faith. Don’t despair. The world is in the hands of God however much it may appear otherwise. That was the message sent to a church under terrible persecution – God is in control, not the Roman Empire.

The second unusual aspect of this latter part of the prayer is the phrase – and lead us not into temptation. Have you ever thought it odd that we should ask God not to tempt us? Would God do such a thing as tempt us? Isn’t life difficult enough without the worry that temptation might come from God?

Jesus is not implying that God would tempt us to into what is wrong. In fact, the book of James says When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone (James 1:13). The word used for temptation actually carries the meaning of being tested. Temptation and tested are two very different things. Temptation means to be led astray while tested means to undergo a series of trials or difficulties.

It is the evil in the world, I believe, that tests us, not God. The struggles and trials of life test us, not God. The evil in the world can cause us to lose hope; some people have abandoned faith because of the evil they see or experience. It is tempting to lose heart because of the struggles we fact in life. It is tempting to say what’s the use in trying? It is tempting to say What I do doesn’t matter. It is tempting to say Nothing I do makes a difference. But the end of the Lord’s Prayer is a reminder that in spite of how bad things in the world may appear, God is ultimately in control. And he’s in control forever.

Forever, Jesus says. Forever. When the economies of the world are shaky and on the verge of collapse, God is in control, and he is in control forever. When political instability threatens – God is in control – forever. When wars and violence rage on, God is in control – forever. When hatred seems to be getting the upper hand over love, God is in control – forever.

Scripture, on page after page, affirms that God is indeed in control. The Old Testament book of Job is about the testing of Job and raises the question of whether he would be able to endure in spite of a series of great trials and testing. In spite of all the difficulties Job experiences, he doesn’t lose faith. In spite of the fact that Job’s friends encourage him to give up, he does not do so. In 13:15 Job’s hold to his faith allows him to say though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.

The 23rd Psalm reminds us The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou annointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Isaiah 40:28-31 reminds us - Do you now know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Romans 8:37-39 says Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine of nakedness or danger or sword?...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Philippians 4:13 says, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

The book of Revelation, often seen as only prophecy, is really a book to instill confidence in people who were suffering terribly under persecution. So many of the images in Revelation are of a God so much mightier and more powerful than the armies of Rome. God is still in control is the message of Revelation.

And on and on we could go.

Some of you are facing tremendous challenges. Some of you may be on the cusp of giving up. Some of you may be wondering how you will make it. Never give up. Do not lose hope. Don't quit. Your life doesn't rise and fall on the stock market. Your life doesn't rest upon the success or failure of a political agenda. Your destiny does not rest upon the report a doctor offers, but upon what is deeper, higher, and more powerful - that which lasts forever. Forever! Say with me - Forever!

October 2, 2011 - The Sermon On the Mount - The Lord's Prayer - The Gift of Forgivenes

Matthew 6:9-13

How many of you like to camp? I’m not talking about camping in a large trailer with a satellite dish; I mean hardcore camping. The kind of camping where you take a small tent, a sleeping bag, and a couple of cooking utensils out into the woods and you live off the land for a few days. Believe it or not, that’s the kind of camping I used to do.

My older brother and I, along with a cousin, would spend as long as a week camping in the woods of Ohio. We took a small tent, sleeping bags, some cooking utensils a little bit of food, and mostly lived off of fish we caught. I’ve wizened up since then.

If you have done that type of camping you know it is not for the faint of heart. Now, imagine living in an even more primitive fashion for six and a half years. Not because you want to, but because you have been kidnapped and forced to sleep on the ground, with no tent for cover and no sleeping bag for comfort. And then imagine you are not in the woods or a forest, but a jungle. And not just any jungle, but the Amazon jungle, a jungle so dense and dangerous it is one of the most inhospitable environments for human habitation on our planet.

That is the experience of a woman by the name of Ingrid Betancourt.

Ingrid Betancourt has a remarkable story. Harrowing, but remarkable. In 2002, as she was traveling through the country of Columbia campaigning for president, she was kidnapped and held prisoner for the next six and a half years. Her captors mistreated her, abused her, and drug her through the Amazon jungle for six and a half years before she was finally rescued. Life in the jungle meant she was constantly under attack by insects large and small. Fire ants and mosquitoes dug into her skin so deeply that she was in constant misery from their bites. Living in the jungle brought danger from large predators as well as the constant threats from her captors. Attempting to escape on numerous occasions she was recaptured, beaten, and received more severe treatment.

Shortly after her rescue she was asked about all the suffering she had endured. Of all she had to say about her experience, the most surprising and profound statement she offered was this –The only thing I've settled in my mind is that I want to forgive. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/10/colombia.france1)

Can you imagine saying those words after experiencing six and a half years of such horrible torment?

As we continue through the Lord's Prayer we come to the phrase forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Or, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Jesus taught about a lot of subjects, but there are certain themes he returned to time and again. One of the regular themes in the preaching of Jesus is that of forgiveness. A year ago today I preached on The Challenge of Forgiveness. We talked about it a little bit when we looked at the Beatitudes early in the summer. We return to it again today as we continue our study on the Lord’s Prayer. If Jesus spoke often about forgiveness, so should we.

Forgiveness is one of those topics that make us squirm, because we recognize how incredibly difficult forgiveness can be. When we hear a story such as Ingrid Betancourt’s we instinctively want to say instead of forgiving her captors she should be pushing for justice. I think that if we are really honest, we will admit that forgiveness comes neither easy nor natural to us.

Out of curiosity I did an internet search for stories of forgiveness. Some of the stories I found were absolutely mind-blowing. People who forgave others for acts so horrendous that it made me ashamed that I have withheld forgiveness for hurts so small in comparison to what others have suffered. I read those stories and wondered how can people forgive after experiencing such horrendous acts?

And yet Jesus calls us to practice forgiveness. Going through the Sermon On the Mount is a tough experience, because what Jesus asks us to do seems so monumentally challenging that it is easy to feel incredibly inadequate. But I believe we instinctively know that what Jesus says is true and that if we could all live what he teaches in this sermon the world would indeed be a better place.

When I visit other churches, and they repeat the Lord’s Prayer, I always hope I say the same version. Have you ever been to another church and said debtors while they said trespassers?

Whichever word is used, I think they both communicate some important truths.

When I was a teenager I spent a lot of time riding motorcycles. There was a great farm out the road from where I lived, and my friends and I really wanted to ride on that farm, but there were No trespassing signs posted everywhere. As much as we wanted to ignore them, we knew better than to do so.

The word trespass means there is a line you don't cross. To forgive those who trespass against us is an acknowledgement that someone has crossed a line of what is right, what is good, and what is acceptable and have done something that causes some kind of hurt to us. It acknowledges there has been real hurt that has taken place.

It also reminds us that perhaps it is us who have crossed that line. It’s not always others who do the hurting; sometimes we are the ones who hurt others with our words and our actions. And that is a difficult truth to accept.The word trespass means there is a line you don’t cross. To forgive those who trespass against us is an acknowledgement that someone has crossed a line of what is right, what is good, and what is acceptable and have done something that causes some kind of hurt to us. It acknowledges there has been real hurt that has taken place.When I was a teenager I spent a lot of time riding motorcycles. There was a great farm out the road from where I lived where my friends and I wanted to ride, but there were No Trespassing signs posted everywhere. As much as we wanted to ignore them, we knew better than to do so.

When My mother-in-law lived on Tybee Island, Georgia, my family and I used to visit a neighboring island, which had a statue of John Wesley, the great hymn-writer and one of the founders of Methodism. Wesley had some difficulties with General James Oglethorpe, who founded the colony of Georgia. Oglethorpe told Wesley, I never forgive. Then I hope sir, replied Wesley, you never sin.

(http://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/forgive-us-our-trespasses)

Granting forgiveness and receiving forgiveness brings about an end to the toxicity that can exist in relationships, where hurt is piled upon hurt, and bitterness builds and builds until it becomes a soul-destroying force in our lives.

But the words debt and debtors are important as well.

What Jesus is saying is to release that person from the position of being a debtor. We are called to remove the shackles of guilt we want to fasten to them and we are called to release the other from any sense of indebtedness to us.We usually think of the word debt as a financial word – someone owes a debt to someone else. That’s how we sometimes see forgiveness. When someone hurts us, we believe they owe us something. They owe us an apology, they owe us an explanation, and they owe us restitution. It is easy to hold the offense of the other person over their head and to place them in a position of being a debtor to us.

I need to add another note as well – forget about the saying forgive and forget. We have so connected those two words in our minds that people believe forgiveness has not taken place unless they have completely removed the offense from memory. We do not always forget hurts, but that does not mean we have not forgiven and it does not mean that we are unable to move beyond them if we haven’t forgotten them. Forgiveness is an act of the will. Forgiveness means we make a conscious decision to refuse to allow the poison of bitterness to build up within our hearts and minds. It does not mean we forget the things that happen to us, but it does mean that we will not allow those memories to serve as open wounds that feed bitterness.

Who do you need to forgive this morning? Perhaps there is someone in your family. Perhaps it’s yourself. Perhaps it’s God. There are a lot of people who are mad at God.

When I was in the 6^th or 7^th grade, I got in trouble one day. My mom was not very happy with me, gave me a lecture, and sent me to my room to wait on my dad to come home from work. I waited in my room for a while, wondering what was going to happen. I can still hear the sound of his car coming down the driveway and the front door opening. I couldn’t hear the conversation he and my mom had, but I heard his footsteps coming up the stairs and then the doorknob turning. He came into my room, sat down on the bed beside me, and put his arm around my shoulder, and actually said very little to me. It was a moment of grace that I was given. It was also a good cop/bad cop routine I think my mom and dad were pulling on me as well, but it worked.

There are people who have hurt us, and they owe an apology that may never be offered. But we have caused hurt as well. Grace is what is really needed, and that is what Jesus is asking, that we learn to give and to receive grace.

May we do so this day, and all days.

September 25, 2011 - The Sermon On the Mount - The Lord's Prayer - Our Daily Bread: Enough

Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV)

Tanya and I completed our annual cleaning of the garage last week. Not matter how much stuff we clean out, it seems to multiply throughout the year. We make piles of stuff – what we want to keep, what we want to get rid of, and looking at it, we wonder, why we have so much stuff? Where does it all come from?

As we continue through the Sermon On the Mount, and the Lord’s Prayer, we consider this morning the short phrase, give us this day our daily bread. We live with such an abundance of stuff that, on the surface at least, we hear the words of Jesus to give us this day our daily bread in a far different way than those who were in his audience the day he spoke them. How often do we worry about our daily bread? In our pantry we have today’s bread, tomorrow’s bread, and in the freezer, bread for more days. It’s not having daily bread that concerns us as much as it is having too much daily bread!

Even though we have our daily bread, it does not mean we are free from the anxiety of what we need in the days ahead. We live in very, very anxious days and that anxiety can drive us to a crippling sense of worry and it can drive us into an obsession with accumulating money and belongings in an effort to find a sense of security.

So let’s consider what it means to pray for our daily bread.

The call to pray for our daily bread is an invitation to simplicity.

Jesus was talking to people whose lives were the very model of simplicity. They led simple lives because there really was no other choice. While we can stockpile food in freezers and other storage methods, the people in the time of Jesus were unable to do so. They were people who lived on a day-to-day basis and struggled to have enough for each day. For most people in that time, getting one’s daily bread was a literal truth. They led lives of simplicity because of circumstance. They lived barely subsistence lives, working each day to earn enough money to feed their families. The far majority of people lived in a grinding poverty that left them wondering if there would be enough bread for that day, let alone the next day.

For the most part, we have so much more than the average person in the day of Jesus, but I’m not sure were any freer of worry. Perhaps it’s because we search for security in the things we own, and our sense of security has been greatly shaken in recent years.

Jesus invites us to a life of simplicity by asking us to pray simply for our daily bread. It is his invitation to ask for what we need rather than all the extras we either think we need or that we desire to have. It doesn’t mean we aren’t concerned with our needs, or that God isn’t concerned with our needs; it means we have learned to be content with simpler lives.

You remember, I’m sure, how God provided for the Hebrew people as they wandered through the wilderness after being freed from captivity in Egypt. God provided them with manna, a bread-like substance they collected every morning. It was, quite literally, their daily bread. They were only to collect what they needed for the day, and no more. It was a very dramatic lesson about learning to trust God.

Paul writes in Philippians 4:11-12 I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or in want.

But there is another reason why simplicity becomes important. As the population of our world will cross the 7 billion mark at any time, and the estimates of growth for the next generation are staggering, simplicity with either be voluntarily adopted or enforced by a scarcity of resources.

To ask for our daily bread reminds us we are not as self-sufficient as we think.

I remember on Christmas Eve, when I was in the fifth grade, our neighbor’s house burned to the ground. One of the kids was my age, in my class at school, and my friend. The flames lit up the night sky and the glow from the fire could be seen from quite a distance. It was hard for me to imagine the experience of losing everything you own in a matter of minutes.

We work hard to bring a measure of security to our lives. We work to save money, we invest money, we purchase insurance, and search for other ways to prepare us in the event of disaster or to bring a sense of security in life.

But the economic downturn has brought home to us the reality that financial security is more precarious than we want to imagine. Stock value can evaporate very quickly. A 401K can be wiped out in a single trading session. A job loss or emergency can eat away at our savings. A medical crisis, even with insurance, can stretch us to the limits financially and remind us in very vivid terms of our own mortality. I don’t say this as a way of generating fear or pessimism, but as a reminder that we often search for a measure of security in places and things that are not as secure as we think.

I listened to an interview recently with one of the wealthiest individuals in the world who had recently experienced a life-threatening situation. It was very interesting when the discussion turned to faith. When asked if he believed in God he said no, but added how he wished he did have belief and faith because of the comfort and sense of security it would bring in life. Here was someone who had the resources to buy anything he wanted, to travel when and where he wanted, and yet was still looking for a sense of security in life.

Jesus reminded his audience that our hearts long for security, that we expend a great amount of energy searching for security, and that means we should look for security where it can truly be found. It is a sense of security that gives us a peace and confidence in the face of life’s greatest challenges and will see us through the most precarious of moments.

To pray for our daily bread is a reminder that we need to remember those who struggle to find their daily bread.

Have you noticed what Jesus did not say in this line of the prayer? Jesus did not say give me my daily bread. We should listen to our prayers to see how often they are filled with the personal pronouns of I, me, and mine.

Jesus says us; our. It is a reminder that we are part of the human community. It is a reminder that the question asked by Cain am I my brother’s keeper (Genesis 4:9) is not just a rhetorical question, but has a very specific answer, and the answer is an affirmation that we do have a responsibility to those who struggle to secure daily bread.

Almost a third of the world’s population fails to find enough daily bread for their families. That’s more than 2 billion people. That number will only increase as the population of the world escalates and as environmental stress and degradation becomes more acute.

In the 6^th chapter of Mark’s gospel we read the story of Jesus and his disciples arriving in a remote area and a large crowd had gathered in anticipation of their arrival. The disciples told Jesus he ought to send the crowd away and into the surrounding villages to buy food. Jesus told his disciples you give them something to eat (Mark 6:35-37). Perhaps the disciples were simply concerned and believed sending the crowd away was the best solution, or, perhaps they didn’t want to be bothered by the needs of the crowd. Jesus forced them to confront the need of the crowd.

I’ll confess that I often don’t know what to do with the needs that confront us. They can be so overwhelming and so deeply entrenched that I want to throw up my hands and say there’s nothing we can do. But maybe that’s my own way of doing what the disciples sought to do – send the people away. I don’t always have an answer, but I know we are called to never forget those who struggle to have their daily bread.

Even when we eat alone, we never really eat alone. Every bite of food we take is a communal act. Someone raised the food I eat. Someone brought the food to market. Someone delivered it to the store. Someone sold it to me. Food is one of the few things in life that bind us together, and even when I think I am buying and preparing my own food, it is not a solitary act. It that bond of community is broken, we do not eat. If a farmer cannot raise food, we do not eat, and on down the line. It will matter not how much money I have to buy food, if the community of food production is broken down, I will find very quickly I cannot eat my money.

To pray for our daily bread is to be called to a life of gratitude.

I often find myself thinking of what I don’t have rather than thinking of what I do have. And when I look at my life, there really is very little that I don’t have. It’s not that I have too little, but too much.

And yet our culture will continue to present me with message after message that I need more, when there is nothing else I need in life. And those messages slowly and unknowingly soak into my mind and heart and gradually turn my gaze away from what I can do for others and cause me to think about myself.

It’s a very simple phrase – give us this day our daily bread. At least it seems simple at first glance. In reality, it is a huge acknowledgement we make to God of our dependency upon him and upon one another. It certainly asks us to be grateful for what we have been given. It could very easily be us who are struggling to find daily bread. May our gratitude bring us to be sure others have their daily bread.

September 18, 2011 - The Sermon On the Mount - The Lord's Prayer - Bringing Heaven to Earth

September 18, 2011

Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV)

I am always amazed when I hear someone say that because the Bible is an old book it doesn’t merit our attention. I was listening to a morning show on the radio a couple of years ago and one of the hosts started into some Bible-bashing by asking what relevance would such an old book have on today’s world. Amazing. The Bible is certainly an old book, but it remains as contemporary as this morning’s newspaper. In fact, the Bible has much to say about what we read in today’s newspaper. The Bible has much to say about today’s world because, in many ways, the world hasn’t changed all that much. From the earliest pages of Genesis to the final pages or Revelation we see themes that are still playing out every day in world. We have made tremendous strides in technology – we have cars, computers, amazing medical technology – but the basics themes of humanity – love, hate, conflict, redemption, temptation, forgiveness, jealousy – all those types of themes – are the same today as they have been since the beginning of time.

As we return to the Lord’s Prayer this morning, we come to the phrase, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That short phrase encompasses so much as we consider the two kingdoms in which we live – the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world. There is a lot of tension between those two kingdoms, and this morning, we will consider Bringing Heaven to Earth – the establishment of the kingdom of God in this life.

Jesus spent a lot of time teaching about the kingdom of God, and in short, what Jesus was trying to get us to picture when he talks about the kingdom of God is this – to whom does the world belong, depending on the answer, how should it be run?

(God & Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now, John Dominic Crossan, page 117).

I think it’s safe to say much of the way our world is run is not the design that God had in mind. The level of conflict between nations and individuals; the destruction of the physical world; the millions in desperate need of even the most basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing are surely evidence of the need for the kingdom of God to come in its fullness to our world.

The prayer of Jesus reflects God’s desire for a different kind of world. It reflects God’s desire for peace among people and nations; it reflects God’s desire that we care for creation; it reflects his desire that people not suffer from want, and they do not suffer from want because there is justice and not just charity. Charity is a wonderful thing, but it would be wonderful if people had enough that it were not needed.

I believe that in the Lord’s Prayer, and particularly in this phrase of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus calls us to the politics of the kingdom of God. The politics of the kingdom of God are very different from what comes to mind when we use the word politics. Most of us become weary of the political battles we see waged in our society and the gridlock and all that comes with the politics of the earthly kingdom. But the politics of the kingdom of God are very different from earthly politics, as Jesus demonstrated.

Jesus was extremely political. His message and his ministry had tremendously important implications. The religious and political leadership of Jesus’ day opposed him because they understood that much of what Jesus said was directed at them and the way they were running the world. The multitudes loved to listen to Jesus, in part, because he spoke against those who were leading the earthly kingdom that was making their lives so difficult.

The example of Jesus, I believe, teaches us –

We are called to move our faith beyond being purely personal.

In our nation we have the separation of church and state, and I believe that is an important concept. We don’t need a state church, we don’t need the state interfering with church, and we don’t need the church seeking to govern.

But separation of faith and politics is something entirely different. Separation of church and state does not mean that faith should not have something to say about the policies of government and the effect of those policies upon the lives of people. Jesus taught by word and deed that we are called to make our faith public in the sense of challenging the world when the world oppresses people and treats people unfairly. Jesus dared to challenge the way things were. He dared to speak against the oppression of people. He dared to challenge both the religious and spiritual authorities because of what they were doing to people.

It is absolutely necessary, I believe, that from a perspective of faith we remind our elected officials they should never forget the least of these as they fashion political policies. We live in a time when the poor are getting poorer, and it’s not as simple as saying it’s because people are lazy and don’t try. The structures of society – the kingdom of the world – are often designed in a way that makes it difficult for some people to get ahead in life. The Old Testament prophets make it very clear that God’s desire is that the poor are never forgotten. The prophets never hesitated to challenge the rulers of Israel when it came to treating people fairly and justly.

When Jesus turned over the tables of the moneychangers in the Temple, he was making a very pointed accusation – the system that was oppressing so many people – the political system of the day – was finding support of the religious system. Instead of seeking justice for people, the religious leaders and the religious system of the day was complicit in oppressing people. There was a religious sanctioning of oppression. Instead of standing up for the least of these, the religious leaders were a part of the oppression of the least of these. It was a huge indictment against the religious leaders of the day.

We often see our faith as a very personal matter, and it is, but it is not just personal. Our faith has a public component because we are called to speak to the injustice and unfairness of the world that so greatly affects the lives of millions of people.

Faith is deeply political, but it is not partisan.

I was talking with someone about Billy Graham one day, and we talked about how he remained very nonpartisan despite being close to so many political figures. The other person said they had often wondered how Billy Graham was registered, but assumed he was a Republican. I replied that I had watched an interview when Graham had revealed he was a life-long Democrat. The other person seemed very disappointed when I told him of Graham’s political affiliation. I reminded him it would be expected that someone of Graham’s generation who grew up in his part of the country would be registered as a Democrat. It bothered the other person a great deal that Billy Graham was a Democrat. Their parting words, as we ended the conversation, were he may be a Democrat, but I’m certain he votes Republican!

I have heard people say it is impossible to be a Democrat and a Christian, or a Republican and a Christian, or a member of the Green Party and a Christian, or an Independent and a Christian, or Libertarian and a Christian. The truth is, Christianity is not exclusive to any political party. As the bumper sticker says, Jesus is not a Republican, or a Democrat.

I find political movements that try to co-opt Jesus to be rather puzzling. What would Jesus drive? Where would Jesus shop? I think those kinds of movements mean well, but I don’t know what Jesus would drive. I don’t know where he would shop. But I think he would have something to say about a lifestyle that is in constant motion and fails to park the car and sit and be quiet. I think he would have something to say about compulsive shopping to try and fill some kind of need within us. Jesus said quite a bit about material possessions but he never told anyone where to shop.

If we align our faith with a partisan point of view we are doing exactly what Jesus condemns in the gospels, which is to give a religious sanctioning to an earthly political system. It doesn’t mean that we don’t have a political point of view; it does mean that it is a point of view reflecting a heavenly rather than earthly kingdom.

But faith has political implications. Faith ought to have something to say about a system that would put you or me in jail if we rob a bank but when those at the highest echelon of the banking industry bring our nation’s economy to the edge of collapse they are rewarded with millions of dollars.

Being God’s kingdom.

Political success and spiritual success are not the same things. Some believe the advancement of the kingdom of God is best done through the political process. But the early church didn’t organize voter drives, organize protests, or lobby in Rome. They just did their work, living out the love of Christ.

What would God’s kingdom look like? Perhaps the best way to visualize God’s kingdom on earth is found in Acts 2:42-47 –

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.

All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,

praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

September 11, 2011 - The Sermon On the Mount - The Lord's Prayer - Hallowed Be Thy Name: Honoring God's Name

Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV)

For the past several weeks I have debated about whether or not to bring the events of 9/11 into today’s message. Honestly, I felt that so much has been said in the weeks leading up to this 10^th anniversary of that terrible day that I didn’t think there was much I could add. But as we have worked our way through the Sermon On the Mount, and now the Lord’s Prayer, we come to a verse that I believe speaks to the events of that day. It is a verse that speaks not only to the events of 9/11, but to many of the acts of violence that have plagued human history.

We come this morning to the phrase hallowed be thy name. When Jesus says hallowed by thy name he is saying we should honor the name of God. To honor the name of God means we set aside the name of God and treat it as special, with honor, and as unique, and in the process we then honor and correctly communicate who God is. One of the tragedies of 9/11 is the demonstration of what some people are willing to do in God’s name and how in the process they distort the name of God for their purposes. People who do terrible things in God’s name do so for various reasons, but at the root we find they do not understand God’s nature. It is necessary, I believe, to offer a religious response to this tragedy, because it has raised so many religious questions.

In this day and age we cannot assume people understand the nature of God, so we must consistently speak out for who God is. Nothing I will say this morning, then, is at all new. What I have to say follows some of the themes that are common to many of my messages, but affirms what I believe is the essential nature of God.

God is a God of love.

Five years ago I preached a sermon series called Confronting the Skeptics. The series dealt with belief and unbelief and some of the accompanying issues. I am thinking about revisiting that series in the coming months, and would be interested in knowing of your interest in that topic.

As I was doing research for the series I read a lot of material by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens, three of the most famous skeptics of faith in Western society. Looking at Richard Dawkins’ web site I discovered one could buy books, t-shirts, posters, and other items expressing the perspective of unbelief. One of the items for sale is a poster of the skyline of New York City. It is a picture obviously taken before September 11, 2011, as the twin towers of the World Trade Center are plainly visible. Emblazoned across the top of the poster are words taken from the song Imagine by John Lennon – imagine no religion.

One of the false assumptions of unbelief is that religion is to blame for all the ills of humanity, and if religion could be removed from the world, humanity would then live in love, peace, and harmony. Religion is superstition, skeptics claim, and if humanity would follow science and logic and believe in only what is material – what we can see and what we can touch – the world would be a better place. If we can just rid ourselves of the superstition of religion, they claim, the world will then become an oasis of reason, cooperation, goodness, and love. Violence will disappear, because violence is rooted in religion.

That is simply not true.

To be a people who believe only in the material will not automatically lead to a just and moral society. The claim that the world would be a better place if we jettisoned our believe in God is simply an illusion perpetuated by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and their fellow skeptics.

It is not logic and materialism that moves us toward justice, goodness, peace, and mercy – it is love, and the great Biblical affirmation of God is that he is love. This is the great affirmation of God that towers over all other claims about God made by the Scriptures. What Scripture tells us is that God does not appeal to logic, he does not appeal to our minds, he does not appeal to the cerebral part of our nature. No, Scripture tells us that God appeals to our hearts, because that is where love resides. Jesus does not ask us to think our way to God, but that we open our hearts to him.

There is no doubt that some people do, and have done, terrible things in the name of God, but that does not at all mean their actions reflect either the will or the nature of God. The nature of God is love, and the Bible affirms this truth time and time again.

It is absolutely necessary that we counter the claim that belief in God leads to violence and hatred. It is essential that we proclaim that hatred and violence do not express God’s nature and are not expressions of authentic faith.

There is a song on Christian radio that begins with an interesting line – he’s not mad at you. (Come As You Are by Pocketful of Rocks). What an interesting way to start a song – God’s not mad at you. There are ministers who like to take the angry God approach. I don’t do the angry God thing. Jesus certainly demonstrated anger, but it was aimed at hypocrisy and the crushing religious institutionalism of his day that gave people an entirely wrong view of God. My belief is that God isn’t mad as much as he is brokenhearted. He is brokenhearted at what he sees going on in creation, brokenhearted as he sees his children inflicting pain upon one another, brokenhearted as he sees his beautiful vision for creation destroyed by the hatred and violence of humanity.

God is a God of love.

God is a God of peace.

I have told you about the class I teach one class period a week in Louisville. I ask my students to write three papers throughout the school year and I provide them with a list of topics. The subject of our class leads us to consideration of whether or not it is ever justifiable to take the life of another person, so that is one of the topics. Every year I remark to my students about how comfortable they seem to be with the idea of the taking of human life. I tell them to write their opinion, but then I remind them to carefully consider the implications of their beliefs.

There is a lot of violence in the Bible, and a lot of skeptics like to point out that violence and then lay it at the feet of God and say he is responsible for it. Time doesn’t allow us to examine that question today, but I believe there is a great deal of misunderstanding about the violence in the Bible and whether or not God sanctions it.

Violence is so ever present in our world that at times I feel we simply accept that it is the way of the world. But it is not the way of God. Scripture affirms that God is a God of peace. Isaiah 2:4 is a beautiful verse that expresses the hope of God’s peace for the world, as Isaiah proclaims that He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, 
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. 
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, 
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. 
Through violence you may murder the hater, 
but you do not murder hate. 
In fact, violence merely increases hate. 
So it goes. 
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, 
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. 
Darkness cannot drive out darkness: 
only light can do that. 
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

The beauty of the cross of Jesus – which really sounds like an oxymoron to say the beauty of the cross – is that violence was defeated at the cross. The violence inflicted upon Jesus was broken by his response of love. The taunts and the insults of those who crucified Jesus could not draw retribution from Jesus; only love. In the face of hatred, Jesus loved, and in response to the violence inflicted upon him, he loved even more.

There is a story of a young man who served under Alexander the Great. Having failed at a task he was brought before Alexander. Alexander the Great asked the young man what his name was. The young man barely mumbled his reply, Alexander, sir. Alexander the Great asked the question again and again the young man replied in a barely audible voice, Alexander, sir. Alexander the Great asked one more time, Young man, what is your name? The young man finally answered with a louder voice, Alexander, sir! Alexander the Great looked at him and said, young man, change you ways, or change your name.

When I was growing up, everywhere I went in my home county people seemed to know me. They might not have met me, but they knew my father. Aren’t you Ed Charlton’s son? was on oft-heard question. How many of you heard were asked such a question? I knew I had a responsibility to live up to the name of my father.

Hallowed be thy name, Jesus asks us to pray. What happened on 9/11 does not reflect the character or the will of God, and it is our calling to rightly proclaim that God is a God of love, and a God of peace.