{"id":536,"date":"2019-11-17T13:54:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-17T13:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=536"},"modified":"2019-11-18T01:57:52","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T01:57:52","slug":"23rd-sunday-after-pentecost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2019\/11\/17\/23rd-sunday-after-pentecost\/","title":{"rendered":"23rd Sunday after Pentecost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Luke 21:5-19<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to you and peace\nfrom God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\none time I believed that it was enough to present a good and persuasive\nargument, after which all those who hear it would happily change their beliefs to\nmy beliefs. I could not have been more wrong! People do not change their\nbeliefs no matter how persuasive an argument. For example, look at our current politics,\nfor the most part, people refuse to hear any negative facts about the\npoliticians that they support and when they do hear a persuasive argument, they\nfind a way to justify their own different beliefs, ignore the argument or\nforgive the errant politician. Why would I expect church beliefs be any\ndifferent? I\u2019ve learned that the best approach to those who do not believe as we\ndo, is to simply say, \u201cthis is what I believe\u201d, and to then follow it up with a\nsimple statement of belief. The best we can ever expect is that those to whom\nwe offer our beliefs will give us the time and actually listen to what we have\nto say, maybe consider them. When questions follow and, on those occasions,\nwhen agreement is stated, we can be assured that the Holy Spirit has been with\nus, guiding our words and opening the hearts of those to whom we reached out\nto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharing\nthe good news of Jesus is not easy and Jesus made it clear that many of his\nfaithful will be treated poorly and may be handed over to those who disagree\nwith us; in Jesus day and in the centuries that followed, that meant arrests,\nsometimes torture and sometimes execution. Jesus was not one to sugarcoat the\npossibilities. And in China, in some Muslim countries, in parts of India, and\nother places throughout the world such dangers still exist for those who openly\nshare their faith in Jesus Christ. Even in this country today, good Christians\nrisk the disdain and even violence for speaking out in a public way with the\nmessage of Jesus\u2019 love for the poor, the stranger, the persecuted and those\ntreated unjustly. Jesus made it clear that we may in fact be hated, all because\nof Jesus name, and our attempts to remain faithful to Jesus\u2019 example. Part of\nthe reason for this is that, in Christ, we are a people who are not bound by\npolitical, national, racial, language and other barriers. As the Body of\nChrist, as Christians, as the People of God our loyalties go to Jesus, first\nand foremost. Our political and national loyalties, our loyalties to the\nLutheran denomination, our sports loyalties, our congregational loyalties, our\nschool loyalties, our loyalties to our friends, all of these, take a back seat\nto our dedication to the love and will of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again,\nwhile the Lord will honor us for our loyalty to his will and love, we cannot\nexpect to be treated by those who oppose us with the same love, Jesus\u2019 love,\nthat we offer to them. The picture painted by Jesus and lived out by so many\nthroughout history, is not a pretty picture! It suggests that we will not be\nable to enjoy much of this life. In some parts of the world and for some people\nthis may be true, but not so in our country; here we are free (for the most\npart) to express of faith and love without fear of repercussions. As for the\nexpectation of the Lord for us, in the eyes of our Lord, the only freedom, not\nafforded us, is the freedom to ignore those who suffer of our world. We are\nexpected, as the beneficiaries of God\u2019s love in Jesus, to share that love\nliberally and stand firm against those who would look to restrict and endanger\nthe lives of those who suffer in our world. I want to address some of these\nsituations, but I see two problem with, for example, my publicly standing\nagainst the way that the children of people attempting to immigrate to our\ncountry (illegally) are separated from their parents and placed in cage-like\nenclosures: first I do not have the answer to providing better treatment,\nthough I know there must be a better way; second I do not look forward to the\nhostile response from those who (I believe) are afraid of what the immigrants\nmight do if freed to enter our country. How do we love as Jesus loved? How do\nwe love, when we are afraid, when we do not know how, when we do not ourselves\nhave the power to make things better, when the laws keep us from helping?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\nis just one of the issues facing us here in the United States. Then there is\nthe question of how do we get guns out of the hands of the mentally ill,\ncriminals and those who are a part of hate groups. And there is also the\nquestion of how we can make good medical care, quality education and other\nbasic resources available to everyone. When was it, that such issues became\npolitical issues, rather than human issues? Jesus did not teach us to ignore\nthe needs of the poor, displaced, the under employed, the sick, the confused\nand those who are different from us. The Gospels are full of stories about\nhealings, feedings, building relationships with people of all stations of life,\nincluding the lowest of the low and the biggest of sinners. As a pastor, it is\nnot my job to tell you which political party you should belong to, or which\npolitical candidate you should support, so I will not. As a Christian I know\nthat there is good and bad is every party and in every candidate. The fact is\nthey, no matter how powerful or successful will stand in judgment before the\nLord; they will all, you and me included, be confronted for the evil that we do\nand be asked to profess our faith in the one Lord Jesus Christ. Strange thing,\nwe are all subject to God\u2019s judgment and will all be offered Jesus\u2019 forgiveness,\nearned for us by his death on the cross. I can\u2019t say that I fully understand\nthe generosity of Jesus\u2019 love and forgiveness, but I am thankful for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nguess, it all comes down to Jesus doing what our politicians do not do, what we\nas a society fail to demand, what we as individuals fall short of doing, and\nthat is treating everyone in a humane manner. I heard a story this past week of\na man in Houston by the name of Rambo. Actually the character Rambo from the\nmovie of that name was drawn from his military service in Vietnam. After returning\nto Houston he struck oil and became very rich, but lived as a survivalist. Well,\nhe got sick, cancer; being told there was no cure he went to church and\nsomething made him look at life differently. He decided to help everyone who\nasked for help; he even helped an individual known for not truly needing such\nhelp; when asked why he helped her, he said life was too short to worry about\npeople\u2019s motives; he would leave that to God. In the short time we have in this\nlife be generous, help when you can, be humane.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke 21:5-19 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ At one time I believed that it was enough to present a good and persuasive argument, after which all those who hear it would happily change their beliefs to my beliefs. I could not Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":537,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536\/revisions\/537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}