HE'S IN THE LEAST AMONG US

        When I was a student, I loved open-book tests. I was a pretty good text-taker anyway. I generally performed better on tests than I should have, whether they were multiple-choice, true/false, or essay. There were other students, of course, who underperformed because they had test-anxiety. They didn't score as well as they should have... but we could all agree that an open-book test was a no-brainer. Who could mess up an open-book test? No one, really, and that's what made them great. Well, as it turns out, the Bible has an open-book test for everyone who seeks heaven through Jesus, and the test is found in Matthew 25:31-46.
      In this passage people are gathered around Christ as he comes to judge them. They are a bit anxious, I suspect, and they've probably armed themselves with a long list of real good reasons for the sins they committed. They are gathered to be judged, and they are divided into two groups- the "sheep" who are assembled on the right and the "goats," who are congregated on the left. Then, Christ said to the sheep- but only to the sheep- come on in! "Come on in, and inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for you." (vs. 34) Come in and take your seat in the banquet hall! Go ahead and take your seat- it's the one way up toward the front. Dance for joy and come on in. You've done well faithful servants... because you fed me when I was hungry; gave me drink when I was thirsty; welcomed me when I was a stranger to you; clothed me when I was naked; visited me when I was sick; and called on me when I was in prison. You lived as if you knew me... and you saw me when I stood before you hungry, thirsty, and naked! You saw me in your alleys and in your food lines. You saw the need in my eyes and the desperation on my face. You saw me- when I was least among you- and you loved me... in my name. So, come on in!
      "Unfair," the goats cried. Your test is unfair. We've seldom missed a Sunday in church. We've tithed and we've served as leaders in our congregations. We've behaved ourselves and we've reared our children to do the same. We've done any number of good deeds... and besides, we never saw you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or sick, or as a stranger, or prisoner! We never, ever, saw you in these ways, and if we had known it was you, Lord, we would've fallen all over ourselves to meet your needs. You know we would've. "O, but you didn't," the Lord will say. I appreciated your tithes and your church attendance was impressive. So was your knowledge of the Bible. I know how hard you tried to be good and I appreciated that too. But it wasn't about you... and when I appeared before you, you didn't give me the love and the grace that I gave to you? When I asked for food- you walked on by. When I was thirsty, you were too busy to give me a drink, and when I was dressed in rags, you looked the other way, never seeing that I'm important too. When I was sick, down and out, and isolated, you never called on me, although it would've made my day if you had. And when I was in prison, for crimes I did and didn't do, you acted as if I was dead to you. You never loved me enough to know me.
      Friends, if we don't see Christ in the least among us, we won't see him at all. He appears to us in a hundred different ways. We'll see him in a darkened corner, sitting alone; we'll seeing him getting on and off one of our buses. We'll bump into him at the mall, make eye contact across the way, maybe walking on our side of the street, coming toward us. He'll come to our own dinner table, stop in to our home. Maybe he's working beside you. I don't know, but he will appear to you. He's male and female, gay and straight, young and old, rich and poor, able and disabled, smart and not-so-smart, clean and dirty, borning and dying. He's all these things and more. Look and see him, and if you see him, for God's sake, respond... because responding is your final exam. The goats will persist,"We never saw you thirsty, or naked, or suffering, not once," and our Lord will reply, "Who in the world did you think that was... hanging on the cross?" Amen.

ACCEPT THE FACT THAT YOU ARE ACCEPTED

      When I was beginning to enter the "church world," which I hardly knew, it became clear that the authority I had enjoyed as an executive would be useless. It was obvious that, if I wanted to have any success at all, it would have to be done in community. Being a pastor to, let's say, 300 people (many of whom would see themselves as my boss) seemed to be a daunting thing. "How can I possibly succeed?"I asked one of my mentors, "sooner or later, I will say something that someone doesn't agree with, or not say something that someone wanted to hear. It's just a matter of time." How can I make a difference without line authority- that was my question- and my mentor relied, "Ken, love the people. Love the people. Just love the people. If you love the people, they will cut you all sorts of slack; they will overlook your foibles, and help you become your best self. If the people know you care, they will care about what you know. Just love the people!" 
      These words have stuck with me throughout the years and I've come to believe that anything we get done as a community will get done with the power of love. Indeed, I've come to believe that anything we get done for God will get done with the power of love. We all know that we are commanded to love God with all of our hearts and minds... but the power to do that comes from accepting His love for us! If we accept the fact that we're accepted, we will accept ourselves and others. If we receive the sacrificial love that he suffered and died to give us, we will give our lives for him. If we can bring ourselves to let go and trust in his love we will be bold and tireless disciples. We honor God by loving him entirely ... and by embracing the Amazing Grace that he offers us. In short, our power to be faithful Christian is energized by love. Our Christian journey is powered by love, and a big part of that is believing that God loves us with every fiber of his being,
      It's all about love and perhaps that's why all three of the Lenten Bible passages before us have to do with love. Each passage tells us about God's amazing love and each passage invites us to accept his love for ourselves. Deuteronomy 21:4-9 invites us to join the Hebrews in their wilderness as their hope gives way to fear. You know the story- God's people became impatient, they sinned, their sins had consequences; they cried out to God; and God saved them! It's a great story, but it's far more than a historical story. It speaks to us. If you've ever been in the wilderness, then you know how easy it is to feel sorry for yourself and how tempting it is to doubt. I've been there. I know that's easy to feel that nobody cares when you're in the wilderness but our Old Testament passage reminds us that the God who sees, El Roi, sees us too and that he will answer our heartfelt cries.. not because we're good but because He is good. Our New Testament passage, from the book of Ephesians, depicts life before and after Christ, and as a man who didn't take faith seriously until he was 30, I know something about that as well. For many years, even though I had some success in the business world, my life was driven by self-will. I was without a foundation, purpose, or direction, but God reached out to me... when I wasn't even trying to be good...because He is good! God saved me because it is his nature to save and I can say that the worst day I've had after Christ has been far better that my best day before Christ.
      We can't earn God's love; we can't explain God's love; we don't deserve it; and we can't lose it... BUT we can embrace it! We can trust in it. We can stake our life on it... and if we do, we will experience the fullness of life- here and forever with our Lord. This is the truth of it. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son what whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Wow. This verse, which Luther called the Gospel in Miniature, is so powerful and mind-boggling. But I fear that it's wonder is lost in all of those signs that we see in the end zones- when the cameras pan the crowds filling our stadiums- and that it's message is under-valued because it seems so simple. Indeed, it is too simple for many of us because we tend to complicate simple things. Then, too, there are those who won't accept to because they can't explain it. They've grown up in a world where there is no free lunch and where everyone keeps score. So it doesn't make sense to them that God would love those who haven't earned or even wanted his love... but that what grace is all about. God loves us in a deep and unconditional way and there's no stopping it. We can't earn it, understand it, or ever repay it... but we can embrace it! 
      Lent is a time to embrace the great truth that God so loved me that he sent his only son to an awful cross so that I might live. We have but one word for love in the English language... so I express my love for...Sherry, soft-serve ice cream, the Cubs, and Willie Nelson with the same word. Love. And whether I'm involved in a puppy love, a "deal-making" love (where I love you as long as you love me), a manipulative love (if you really loved me you would do this or that for me), or a tested and longstanding love, I use the same word- love! Our single word "love" covers a range of things, and that can make it hard to grasp what the Bible means when it says that "God so LOVED the world that he gave his only begotten son... so that all of those who believe in him might have eternal life." The Greeks, as some of you know, had several words for love, including "philia," as in Philadelphia, the love of friend for friend (which can be a powerful thing) and "storge," which is based on familiarity. There is also "eros love," which is a passionate love that every lover would know... and "pragma," which is the mature and steadfast love that has seen the better and lived through the worse...and persevered. Other than a mother's love, at its best, pragma love is about as good as it gets for us. We hope that the person we love will at least stick with us to the end! Pragma love is a good thing, and so is philia, storge, and eros, for that matter. BUT God's love is captured with the Greek word "agape," which is the word used in John 3:16. Agape is a love that never keeps score and cannot quit. Agape love has no sense of whether it's deserved or not. Agape is always other-directed and all-consuming. Agape doesn't flinch in the face of resistance, rejection, denial, or even crucifixion. It just is. 
      God so loved the world that he gave his son on Cavalry's cross, SO THAT all of us-each of us- male and female, rich and poor, young and old, gay and straight, black and white- who believe in him will not perish, but inherit eternal life. We will die, but we will not perish! This is the promise and all we have to do is EMBRACE IT! Believe it. Experience the freedom that comes from believing that God is not against you... and that His love is not conditional. Do business with the fact that God loves you in depth... and you will be free to love others in the same way. Take in the fact that you are forgiven... and you will forgive others. It's not much more complicated than that! 
      Karl Barth is a well-known theologian within our own faith tradition. He spent his life studying God's word, and as the story goes, a reporter asked Barth to tell him what the greatest thing he had ever learned was. And Barth said that the greatest thing he had ever learned was this: Jesus loves me, this I know, because the Bible tells me so. Believe this simple truth. Don't dismiss it or spend a lifetime trying to understand it. Embrace it. Dance with it. Share it...and you will be saved. Amen.

STILL A MINISTER AND THERE'S WORK TO DO

      At the outset of my journey as a Christian, my advisor told me that I should NOT become a pastor if I could do anything else and still be happy. She told me that being a pastor was not a job that was interchangeable with other jobs, but a way of life that would either fulfill or consume a person. Don't do it, she said, if you can do anything else, but IF being a pastor is what you are called to be... you must do it! A painter must paint, a singer must sing, and a pastor must preach. This is what I believed as my wife and I left the business world and headed off for seminary... and now that I have 'retired," I believe it all the more. Being a pastor was a source of great joy for me. I loved the preaching of course and the teaching too... but my greatest blessings came from the deeply personal and sacred moments that I was blessed to share with so many people. Looking back. I remember Isabelle Whitley. She was the first person whom I had ever seen die. She liked me (mostly because I was the "other" pastor) and her family told me that she waited for me to arrive before she died. Her family, I think, thought that I had been trained for such moments, but all I did was show up and be present in her sacred hour. I remember, too, the many, many friends who let me share their pain and their hope as they (or their loved one) faced trials and death itself. Imperfectly for sure, I began to see that loving one another was what it was all about. Sharing joys, sharing dreams, sharing work, sharing stories, sharing tears- doing these things vulnerably and in Christ's name- was what it meant to be a Christian and a pastor. There were titles that came with the job- like Reverend and Doctor- and I admit that they had a ring to them... but the greatest title for me was "pastor."
      But time flies, as they say, and I'm retired now. I am no longer a pastor and I find myself looking for something to do, or more honestly, for something TO BE... because somewhere along the line, my work and my identity became intertwined. And so my life seems emptier now that I'm not preaching or teaching. I confess that that's the way it feels... but God continues to bless me with opportunities to serve and represent him in many different ways. Nearly every day, I have the opportunity affirm, stand with, listen to, and love another person in his name. Nearly every day, I have the opportunity to share what I know about the Bible in the way that I treat others, and nearly every day, I am given the privilege of giving a "sermon" to someone in need of God's word. In short, my ministry is still going on... and God is still blessing me with opportunities to share sacred moments with others. For instance, just a few days ago, I was able to spend time with some dear friends from the Quad Cities and also with a man with whom I had shared a ministry and a dream. I hadn't seen him for years and the moments we share together gave me great joy! Later, God gave me the opportunity to share a moment after church with a man who needed to be listened to. He was just a man who sat in the pew next to me, but he had shared enough of his pain to touch my heart. So, when church ended, I asked him if he wanted to join me for a cup of coffee and he gladly accepted. He talked for well over a hour and I was blessed when we parted. I was glad that I reached out! And then, just a day or so ago, I was blessed to attend a funeral service for a woman whom I knew and loved. Her husband is a friend of mine and I don't believe I've ever seen anyone in greater grief. He's a man of faith, but his heart was entirely broken... and before he left the sanctuary, I was able to tell him that my wife and I loved him. I had nothing official to do with the funeral service... but telling him that we loved him was enough.
      I've struggled to stay involved in ministry since I've "retired" because what I did seemed so meaningful to me. I've been anxious about it and a little bit lost. But there's a very real sense in which I am not retired at all because I am still a "minister" and will be until the day I die. We are all ministers, aren't we... because there are legions of people who need to be loved and who need to hear that Jesus loves them. We're all ministers, or at least we could be, because there are people all around us who need to hear God's word and who need to experience God's non-judgmental and empowering love! There is work to do. Work for Christ. Work for you and for me to do. Look around and see all of the dry bones surrounding you. Tell them that, in God's hands, they can rise to their feet and be a blessing to someone else. Tell them that there is no telling what God can do. Tell them that God is not through with them yet. Tell them that they are created in God's image. Be Christ to them. That's what ministers do... and I couldn't retire from that- never- not even if I wanted to!
      I'm still a minister and I still have work to do. So, I had better get at it, Thanks for listening.