October 17, 2022 — Faith Is A Verb

“Then he (Jesus) will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Matthew 25:45 – 46

“Imagine if we viewed every person we met, especially every believer, as if he or she is the very presence of Christ! How much kinder would we be? How much more welcoming would we be to the visitor or the desperate in our church services? How much more attentive would we be to their aches, pains, difficulties, and hardships? How much more careful would we be to not say anything insensitive or uncaring?

Jesus reminds us that this is precisely the case. But he goes one step further. He also reminds us that those who are mean and cruel and hard on others will face ultimate hardship. He reminds us that the ultimate justice is not going to be seen this side of eternity. But when he comes, each will be blessed according to his or her service to him. And, of course, service to him is serving his people!”  (What Jesus Did! ‘To the Least of These (2)’ — Matthew 25:41-46; Monday, November 22, 2021; heartlight.org)

I think one of the greatest challenges for the church today is helping people move from “saying” to “doing — from “believing” to “living”. Our lives have become so “scheduled”, so “prioritized”, that we get caught in the day to day rat race of trying to keep up. Parents of young children spend the weekend running between soccer, ballet, rugby, baseball, basketball, lacrosse practices all the while trying to wash the car, plan a vacation, do the laundry and prepare for another exhausting week. Some may be able to get to church on a Sunday morning, if they can get themselves out of bed. Even retirees — those who have “done their time” — served on committees and chaired them as well, that they believe retiring from their work means retiring from everything, including church.

So, how do we move from “believing” to “living” — from “saying” to “doing”? I don’t know how to answer that question — for it may be different for each person. But one thing I can say is that the Gospel must be lived as well as told. If we are “followers” then we have to also be “doers” — it is a necessity. Faith needs to be a verb, not a noun. But the only way we will maintain that active part of our faith is to constantly review our priorities. The Gospel must be, must be lived as well as told…..

Let us pray,

Lord Jesus, help me to see every believer as the very presence of Christ and treat each one with the same dignity with which I would treat Christ. Sweep through your church with the Holy Spirit and pour out your love in powerful ways. Amen.

Pastor Dave

October 16, 2022 – Pentecost +19C; Luke 18:1-8

“Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. ²He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. ³In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ ⁴For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’ ” ⁶And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? ⁸I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

I think our eyes, as Shakespeare so eloquently said, are “the windows to our soul”. If you pay attention, you can make a fairly good prediction on a person’s state of mind by looking at or into their eyes. You don’t have to just look into their eyes, you just have to look at the face of a person, in which the eyes are the window, and everything else is window dressing. You might look at someone and see bags under their eyes, telling you how tired they are – or how difficult it is for them to find sleep. You might look at someone and see that their eyes are red and weepy – suggesting they are sick, or just not feeling well. You might look at someone and notice their eyes are puffy and swollen – thus suggesting they are sad, or they may have been crying.

So, why am I talking so much about the eyes today? Well, in our Gospel lesson from Luke, the “Unjust Judge” as we have come to know him is worried. He says:

“…this widow keeps bothering me – so I will grant her justice so that she will not “give me a black eye” by continually coming to me.” Yes the text does not say that – but the Greek does – and really paints a picture for us to look at today. You see, the judge is so concerned about the widow’s persistence – worried that she might hurt his reputation, if not his face – that he relents and gives her what she asks for – just to avoid a black eye.

When we look into the eyes of the poor, the victims, the battered, the homeless, and such, their eyes tell us a story. But all too often, no one cares enough to hear their story, or cares enough to look them in the eyes, and listen. And so my friends, since G-d sees us through the lens of the cross of Christ, we then need to do a better job seeing our world through our faith glasses. We need to see the injustices that are all around us. We need to be unafraid to see the marginalized and how they are mistreated. And we need to see and respond to the opportunities where we can make a difference – where we can be the hope of so many who are looking for someone – anyone – to see them.

There are many eyes around us who are crying – and crying out to us – who do not need our judgment – but seek justice, acceptance, and love. Their eyes are the windows, not only to their souls, but most certainly they are windows to G-d’s realm of justice, love, mercy and Grace – for in their eyes – we see Christ.

Pastor Dave