June 29, 2008 Message

Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:40-42
“What’s Our Reward?”

In our text from Matthew today, Jesus talks to his disciples about who will be rewarded.

Someone once said, “A person is at their best when stimulated by the hope of reward, the fear of failure, and the light of a star.”

That is so very true. We have all known such a time, the fear of failing once again and the hope the prize will this time be ours. All of us are motivated to do something, even the right thing, by the possibility of a reward.

A lady lost her handbag while shopping at the mall. Luckily, the young man who found it returned it to her.
Looking in her purse, she commented, "Hmmmm, that's funny. When I lost my bag, there was a $20 bill in it. Now there are twenty $1 bills."
The young man quickly replied, "That's right, lady. The last time I found a lady's purse, she didn't have any change for a reward."

All of us, I imagine, expect a reward of some sort for what we do. That’s how we’re brought up, right? “Clean your room and then you can go play; Eat your vegetables and then you can have some dessert; or You can do football if you keep your grades up.” When I was younger, there was always that ‘carrot’ out there, or so it seemed. Like, there’s this expectation of a reward for everything. And rewards are not all the same, are they?

Someone once said, “The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what you get for it, but what you become by it.”

That’s certainly true of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and the reason we celebrate Independence Day this coming Friday. Consider what happened to the 56 men who signed that historic document.

• Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
• Nine fought in battles and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.
• Eight had the properties looted by British soldiers or vandals.
• Five were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.
• Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army
• One had two sons captured;
• One saw his trading ships "blasted" and sunk by the British Navy and his home sold
• One, hounded by the British, was forced to move his family into hiding constantly.
• Several had their possessions taken or had to sell everything to pay their debt.

Poverty was the reward for many and several did not ever recover before they died. Many lost their homes, their possessions, and even loved ones because of their courageous act. But because of what they did, their reward - and ours as well - was freedom.

For me, the closest I’ve come to anything like signing the Declaration of Independence was probably my baptism. It didn’t change the course of history, or mark the beginning of new freedoms, or set a new course, at least not on a national or global scale, although I guess for one person –me – it did all those things. It marked my reception into the family of believers called Christians and the beginning of a journey I find myself still on – a journey with more questions than there are answers.

One of the questions we ask sometimes is, “What’s our reward? What do we get for being a Christian or living a ‘Christian’ life? Well, let me assure you, eternal life is not the reward you receive for being a Christian. Neither is it the reward for living a good life.

William Willimon in his new book, Who Will Be Saved, writes about eternal life in chapter two. “Most people I know believe in the ‘immortality of the soul – a life spark that goes on even after physical death, a continuity in the next life with this life,’ which is Plato not Paul.” He says Christians believe that nothing about us is eternal, in this sense. Resurrection promises a completely new life in God.

In today’s reading from Romans, Paul talks about eternal life - the same eternal life Willimon talks about - but only as a gift - God’s gift - given by Jesus Christ our Lord who has set us free from sin. That is what allows us to become holy, which allows us then to have eternal life - a full life, a complete life, a God centered life. This God-present-with-us life, this full-of-God life, this eternal life is possible because of what God did (in the life, death, and resurrection of God’s son, Jesus Christ) not by what we have done. Eternal life is not our reward, it is a gift to us, pure and simple. But there is a reward that comes from being a follower of Christ.

In Matthew, Jesus talks to his followers about being rewarded – in other words about receiving something in return for what they have done or what they will do – but he doesn’t say anything about eternal life. Jesus only talks about two things that are received by his followers – he mentions a welcome and he mentions a cup of cool water. That’s it. That’s our reward. That’s what we should expect. After a long, hard journey, our reward is to be a sincere welcome by our God and ‘a cup of cool water, the water of life, the water that refreshes and quenches our parched lips and dry throats.

Willimon also writes, “God’s love desires not only our assent but also our participation, Jesus doesn’t want us to just adore him but to follow him.” And if we do, we are promised a welcome and a cool cup of water. And that’s really all we need.

Matthew makes it clear that it’s not so much about the reward – what is received, or the one receiving… as it is about the one doing the giving and the fact that what is received is the same. Welcome someone and you are welcomed. Give someone a cup of cool water, and get a cup of cool water.

Sounds like a lesson in “get what you give” or in better words “Do unto others…” The reward is in the “doing unto other.” The reward is in the giving. The reward is in the welcoming and in the cool cup of water. What better reward than that?

June 15, 2008

Romans 5:1-8; Matthew 9:35-10:
"Included In God's Love, Included In God's Mission"

The good news that we find in our scripture for today is that: We are included in God’s love and we are included in God’s mission.

Sometimes growing up, we think we have to earn our dad’s approval. Dad’s expect us to do things right, don’t they? When you are little, and even when you are almost grown, dad’s praise can be worth more than anything else in the world. We try to get things right, but our best effort is not always good enough. He doesn’t say anything, so maybe we think ‘Does dad love me?’ We even begin wondering if we are included in dad’s love.

In the song about her father’s generation, Barbed Wire Boys, Susan Werner writes: “Where do the words go, that you never said?” Those are powerful words indeed. Not only because they could be asked of so many of our fathers, but because they could be asked of us as well - especially when it comes to expressing our faith. Listen carefully now to all the words of this moving song:

BARBED WIRE BOYS From: New Non-Fiction (2001) Copyright © Susan Werner
Well I come from the rural Midwest
It's the land I love more than all the rest
It's the place I know and understand
Like a false-front building
Like the back of my hand
And the men I knew when I was coming up
Were sober as coffee in a Styrofoam cup
There were Earls and Rays, Harlans and Roys
They were full-grown men
They were barbed wire boys

They raised grain and cattle on the treeless fields
Sat at the head of the table and prayed before meals
Prayed an Our Father and that was enough
Pray more than that and you couldn't stay tough
Tough as the busted thumbnails on the weathered hands
They worked the gold plate off their wedding bands
And they never complained, no they never made noise
And they never left home
These barbed wire boys

'Cos their wildest dreams were all fenced in
By the weight of family, by the feeling of sin
That'll prick your skin at the slightest touch
If you reach too far, if you feel too much
So their deepest hopes never were expressed
Just beat like bird's wings in the cage of their chest
All the restless longings, all the secret joys
That never were set free
In the barbed wire boys

And now one by one they're departing this earth
And it's clear to me now 'xactly what they're worth
Oh they were just like Atlas holding up the sky
You never heard him speak, you never saw him cry
But where do the tears go, that you never shed
Where do the words go, that you never said
Well there's a blink of the eye, there's a catch in the voice
That is the unsung song
Of the barbed wire boys

After a while we realized that dads love us no matter what, at least those of us fortunate to have dads that do. They just don’t always tell us. We were included in dad’s love all along, even when we fell short of his expectations, and even when we didn’t know it.

And then there are times when dads let us help with things he’s doing. Those are special as well. It may be washing the car or handing him a wrench from the toolbox or holding the fence wire while he pounds in the staple– whatever it is, when we are included in something dad is doing, that’s a big deal. So when we hear Jesus tell his disciples (and tell us as well) to go and do the Father’s work – that is very special.

We are included in God’s love and we are included in God’s mission.

Being Christians means being included. We are included, all of us. And that is our mission as Christians, to go where he leads – even when where he leads is right here – to unconditionally love those who need to be loved.

Catherine Marshall once told about a couple named Mary and Harold Brinig, who moved to Chicago many years ago. They had no friends there and were lonely. Irritable and unhappy with each other, they sought help from the Bible. They found it in John 15:16, where Jesus said: "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide." They wondered what mission Jesus had included them in. The first person they encountered after this discovery was the waitress who served them in a nearby restaurant, who also was new in the city and miserable. They invited her to their apartment after work. Next they befriended a lonely widower and soon a dozen people were meeting once a week for conversation and prayer. This was the mission of love Jesus had included them in. Makes you wonder what mission we have been included in right here, where we have been led.

We are included in God’s love and we are included in God’s mission.

The history books tell us that in America's early years our land was filled with evangelism. That’s why there are Methodist churches in most towns today. Methodist Circuit riders were so relentless in their ministry that on stormy days there was a proverbial saying: "There is nothing out today but crows and Methodist preachers." We may not all be Methodist preachers, and surely we are not, any of us, crows, and yet we have all been included in God’s mission to “Go out and tell others…”, the same mission these early circuit riders responded to.

So, "Are we going, or not?" Because like the unsung songs of the barbed wire boys, the message of the gospel may never be heard as well… if we don’t go now.