A Christian Response to Terror

Matthew 5:43-48 (NRSV)

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters,[o] what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Romans 12:9-21 (NRSV)

9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.[a] 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly;[b] do not claim to be wiser than you are. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God;[c] for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

1 Peter 5:6-11 (NRSV) 

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. ⁸ Discipline yourselves, keep alert.^[d] Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters^[e] in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. ¹⁰ And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. ¹¹ To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.

There are times when a preacher has carefully planned and prepared for worship to move in one direction, and then something else happens where that plan get scrapped.  Sometimes, there are things happening in the world or within us that cause us to move in another direction.  Today is one of those days.

Friday night, eight people carried out terrorist attacks in Paris that took the lives of 143 people.  Two days earlier, there were terrorist attacks in Beirut and Baghdad.

Like you, I have plenty of mixed feelings about the things that have taken place over the weekend.  I’m sad, I’m angry, I’m afraid.  I’m wondering, “What next?  When?  Who and where?”  I’m concerned for how we might react – will we make it better or worse?

Maybe we feel a sense of helplessness.  We want to help, but we’re so far away, so far removed, what can we do to help in Paris, or Beirut, or Baghdad, or Kenya?  Sure, we can pray, but it’s still hard to sit comfortably while the world around us bleeds and grieves.

I can’t speak today for how the nation is supposed to respond.  Today, I’m only speaking about what might be the response for those of us who gather under the cross of Christ.  What action does Jesus call us to?

Thankfully, the Bible has much to say about that sort of thing, particularly in the face of persecution.  It may not be what we want to hear, but it does have a lot to say!  Mark Twain famously said, “It’s not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.”

Perhaps today is exactly a Mark Twain kind of day.  We have explicit instruction from Jesus about how we are to treat our enemies.

What we read a few moments ago from the 5^th Chapter of Matthew’s Gospel comes from Jesus’ most important sermon, we know it as the Sermon on the Mount.  [Jesus said] “43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

I’m with Mark Twain on this one.  It’s not like we don’t know what Jesus is talking about.  It’s not that complicated – it’s that we just don’t want to. 

Mike Slaughter says, “How can we as people who claim to love God not respond with violence, retribution or prejudice when evil attacks through human agents? If we are going to deal with these questions we have to understand the nature of the real enemy.

We are at war, and the real enemy is not people. There is a spiritual force of darkness. There is a blinding spirit of sickness and a spirit of hate on Planet Earth that defies logic.

Why does this matter?  Because friends, evil is a parasite that requires a host.  Evil, hate, violence, is not something that is intrinsically part of someone.  It’s something that finds its way into people and makes them do unspeakable things.  Wipe out one evil-doer, and the parasite slithers its way into the heart of another.

Ephesians 6 says our battle is not against flesh and blood.  It’s against the forces of evil.  We are fighting a spirit of hate that is not tied to a particular people or relegated to a particular place.  We are in a spiritual war zone, battling a spirit of hate that has as its sole purpose the destruction of people.

1 Peter 5:8 says to be alert, because the devil prowls about like a roaring lion, seeing whom he may devour.  The devil is anyone who has succumbed to evil, when we give in to hate and evil, we are devoured.  Do you see how, when we are consumed with blind anger and rage, we become casualties in the war against evil?  What’s at stake is our very soul and being, and Jesus is asking, “Will you choose to be a person of hate, or will you choose to be a person of love?”

The front line in the battle against evil and hate runs through every human being; Jesus knows that love is stronger than hate and goodness stronger than evil.  The way to keep evil from getting into us is to be so full of love, so full of grace, that there is literally no room for something more sinister to get into us.  If evil is a parasite looking for a host, Jesus tells us to love our enemies so that evil doesn’t find a host in us.

For the Christian, Romans 12 is our battle guide for life on the front lines in the fight against evil.  And so, we let love to be genuine.  We hate what is evil, we hate the hate itself, but we continue to hold fast to what is good.  We rejoice in hope for we are people of hope.  Hope is not simply blind optimism or feeling happy, it’s the resolute belief that God will get the last word, and all the trials and suffering we endure in this life will get sorted out in the end.  We will be patient, we will persevere, and we will continue to live into God’s call to extend hospitality to strangers.  I am praying for the strength and will to bless those who persecute us, and if we cannot do that, we will, at least, not curse them.  We will continue to weep with those who weep.  We will struggle and keep in the forefront of our minds to not repay anyone evil for evil.

ISIS is counting on us to repay evil with evil.  That’s their whole goal.  To whip us up into a frenzy of retaliation, such that we become the very thing we hate.  The goal is for violence and hate and division to continue to spiral down and down until all is dead and destroyed – thus giving evil the victory it desires.  When we give into hate, we only multiply evil rather than defeat it.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness.  Only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate.  Only love can do that. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, turning us into the very thing we deplore, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.”

Today, in Paris, even as volunteers help clean up one of the restaurants that was targeted, people are lined up across the street at the Saint Louis Hospital to give blood.  Said one person in that line, “You shed blood, we give blood.”  That’s an example of fighting hate with love.

There will be people on the front lines in the fight against ISIS and whatever agents of terror are out there in the world, and we can empower them and bless them to do their job without giving in to hate.  There is honor in protecting and defending those who cannot defend themselves, and ensuring that bullies are not terrorizing the entire playground.

The important thing is to not allow hate to find a host in us. To eschew that rage that thirsts for blood and demands revenge.  The danger is turning into the very thing we deplore, fueling the kind of blind hate that will darken a night already devoid of stars.

Perhaps this is why Jesus calls us to bless and not curse; to not repay evil for evil, but to overcome evil with good.  How can we do such a thing? We come to the cross. We come before the one who, despite the cost, blessed and didn’t curse. We come to the one who did not repay evil for evil but who overcomes evil with good. We come to Jesus. We lay what we feel, what our questions are, what we don’t understand, and what we wish we could do at the foot of the cross. We hand it over to the One who can guard our hearts and minds; to the one who can overcome the evil that threatens us both within and without. We lay these burdens down at Jesus’ feet. Will it solve the problem of terrorism tomorrow or this week or even this year?  No.  But it will guard our own souls and ensure we don’t carry that terror with us as we follow in the narrow way of Christ.

There are several, simple actions of good we can do even now:

First, pray for the world and its leaders.  Whether you like the current administration or not, they are charged with the responsibility of keeping us safe, and they will need your prayers.

Pray for your enemies, and if you can’t pray for them, ask the Spirit to pray on your behalf.

Pray for victims of violence and their families.

Watch where you lay blame.  There’s a dangerous impulse to start pointing fingers.  This is not France’s fault for how it maintains its borders. It’s not Republicans’ fault or Democrats’ fault, not the fault of refugees.  Not the fault of all Syrians, all Iraquis, all Muslims, or all brown people.  Eight people carried out an attack.  They are the individuals to blame.

And remember:  The only antidote to hate is love, and now’s a time for us to over-use it.  Evil is trying to get a foothold, now is the time to flood the system with faith, hope, and love.

When you came in this morning, you were handed a small piece of paper, and you were asked to write your fear, your anger, or whatever is weighing heavily on you from the events of this weekend.  In a few moments, I invite you to come and lay that paper on the altar, a symbolic way of naming it and giving it over to God.  Later on, when you’re tempted to pick that thing back up, remember where you’ve left it.  God has it, and you don’t need it back.

But I don’t just want you to leave that paper there.  I’m inviting you to trade it in for another.  We’re going to practice overcoming evil with good.  Another sheet of paper has the words “Faith, Hope, and Love” across the top of it, and then a space for every day of the week.  What I want you to do is write down every time you practice sharing “faith, hope, or love” – or even all three – this week.  That could be an encouraging facebook post, that might be going to visit somebody, that might be when someone is shaking their head saying, “What is the world coming to,” you saying, “But God’s got the whole world in his hands.”  Don’t overthink this – you may simply pray for your enemy and be thinking, “Oh my gosh, that’s something I never imagined I could do!”

There’s enough hate in the world.  Let’s not add to it.  Let’s overcome it with love.

Multiplying the Things that Count (John 6:1-13)

Have you noticed how so many of us give up before we even try? An opportunity comes along and we shoot it down before it’s even off the ground. Some of us think we are too old to learn new tricks.  Or, too young and lacking experience or wisdom.  Or, not educated enough or not rich enough or not beautiful enough or not articulate enough. We defeat ourselves before we’ve even tried, and sometimes we trip up others before they are out of the gate.

I suppose much of it has to do with being realistic. It’s like there’s a calculator in our head, adding, subtracting, dividing, and coming up short so that even before we started, we give up. God brings along opportunities of a lifetime, something extraordinary, something special, and guess what? We compute, calculate, estimate, come up short, and pass the opportunity even before we try.  Or, when it comes to someone else’s dream, we poo-poo it with all the reasons it can’t, or won’t, work.

Truth is, we have closets packed with thousands of excuses why our boats are too small to sail in the big, deep side of the ocean called life. So often we opt for the safer floating along in the shallow end, dreams that are small enough to be drowned in a bathtub.  We are called to a great, life-giving adventure with Jesus, but we settle for the predictable, taking no risks, never going outside our comfort zone, safe bet shallow-end of life.

Isn’t that an interesting juxtaposition for those of us who call ourselves, “people of faith?”

This reminds me of the Gospel of John, chapter six.  Let’s hear the story.

Jesus went across the Galilee Sea (that is, the Tiberias Sea). ² A large crowd followed him, because they had seen the miraculous signs he had done among the sick. ³ Jesus went up a mountain and sat there with his disciples. ⁴ It was nearly time for Passover, the Jewish festival.

⁵ Jesus looked up and saw the large crowd coming toward him. He asked Philip, “Where will we buy food to feed these people?” ⁶ Jesus said this to test him, for he already knew what he was going to do.

⁷ Philip replied, “More than a half year’s salary worth of food wouldn’t be enough for each person to have even a little bit.”

Following hard after Jesus and here they come scrambling up the mountain - men, women, children, young, old, middle-aged, healthy, the sick, the lonely, the confused, the ones struggling with addictions of various kinds – they all just wanted to get to Jesus.

When Jesus saw them, all 5,000 of them, he turned to his disciples and said, "Looks like we’re having guests and it's lunch time. How about a picnic? Nothing beats a picnic on the mountainside overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Let's have lunch together! Let's eat together, break bread together." For Jesus this was an opportunity. An opportunity to glimpse the heavenly banquet perhaps. For Jesus, this was a wonderful opportunity to turn an ordinary day into something absolutely different.

But for the disciples, it was a problem - a big problem. Phillip was the first one to speak up. Phillip did some quick calculations in his head to see how much it all will cost.  “Let’s see, half a sandwich, multiplied by 5000 people, carry the two, and . . .  wow.”

How much is “Wow?”  In the movie, White Christmas, Bing Crosby says it’s somewhere between “Ouch” and “Boing.”

To get a picnic for the 5,000 would take six months of paychecks. Truth of the matter, a picnic on the mountainside was WAY out of the budget.

John 6 records the minutes of the church’s first finance committee meeting.  “Interesting idea you’ve got, Jesus, but we just don’t have that kind of money around here!”

The disciples of Jesus are invited to be part of one of his greatest and most famous miracles, and their knee-jerk response is to list all the reasons it can’t happen.  Sound familiar?  We’ve had 2000 years to work on this, and there are still times when Jesus presents us with an opportunity, and we immediately turn it into a problem.  Let’s read on. Verse 8:

⁸ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, ⁹ “A youth here has five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that for a crowd like this?”

Andrew starts to look for a solution outside the budget.  Andrew was likely a Methodist – his first instincts were to have a fundraiser or a potluck.  I can see him working through the crowd.  “Hey everyone, Jesus needs your help.  We’re going to have a picnic, but we don’t have any food.  Does anyone have anything to contribute?”

Andrew should probably not be put in charge of the stewardship campaign, because among all those 5000, he comes back with . . . a child . . . a peasant child whose mother had the foresight to pack along a meager lunch of five barley loaves and two pickled herring.  Well, it’s something, but it’s just not enough.

It’s just bread and fish.  No cheese or grapes.  No dates or figs.  No pomegranates, no olives, no wine.  No tables, no chairs, no plates, no napkins, no knives and forks. “We just don’t have everything we need.”

Again, here’s an opportunity, but it’s viewed as another problem.  Not enough.  Too little to go around.  Limited resources.  “We just don’t have, We just don’t have, We just don’t have.”

It is perhaps human nature to focus on what we don’t have, even when what we do have is a gift.  Hand a HOT NOW Krispy Kreme donut to some folks, and they’ll complain that it has a hole in the middle.  Or, “It doesn’t have sprinkles!  No chocolate frosting!  No custard filling!”

Bob Sawyer says these are the kind of people who wouldn’t be happy in a pie factory. He says you could serve them ice cream, and they’d complain to you that it’s the wrong flavor.

Do you want to be the kind of person who is grateful for the donut, or upset because it has a hole in it?  Shall we be grateful for every gift we have received, or resentful that we didn’t get more?

While it is perhaps human nature to focus on what we don’t have, as people of faith, we must do better.  In fact, if there is a phrase or a mindset that needs to be expunged from the people of faith, it’s the notion that “we just don’t have.” Maybe money or people or talent or resources.  We just don’t have this, we just don’t have that.  But the more we focus on what we don’t have, the less we are able to appreciate and build on what we do have.  Further, what does it say about our faith, what does it say about the one in whom we have faith, when the first words out of our mouths are, “We just don’t have.  It just won’t work.  “We just can’t do it.”

Friends, this matters deeply, because whatever we choose to focus on gets multiplied within us.  When we focus on what we don’t have, we fall into discontent and dissatisfaction.  We learn to look for problems rather than possibilities, we get hung up on obstacles rather than opportunities.  And then, we begin to focus on what others don’t have in a fault-finding sort of way, and we are sucked into a black hole of criticism and judgment toward others.

But, when we learn to take notice of the things we do have, well, that also gets multiplied within us.  We become grateful and content.  We begin to notice and appreciate what others have – celebrating the gifts God has uniquely given them, extending grace toward them, opening ourselves up to receive from them, be blessed by them, and bless them in return – the kind of relationships that Jesus would describe as the kingdom of God unfolding among us.

That’s spiritual maturity – God working on us so that we become more the kind of people who are grateful for the donut, and less the sort who are upset because it has a hole in it.

Becoming a mature disciple of Jesus is a lifetime process of transformation.  Anybody here finished, spiritually?  Anybody here still a work in progress?  Discipleship is a lifetime of growth so that we come to the place where we see things as Jesus sees them.  We move from our scarcity mindset to his abundance mindset.  We stop fretting over what we lack, and to develop appreciation for what we DO have, and to have the faith that whatever it is, when placed in the hands of Jesus, he can and will do something extraordinary with it.  Verses 10-13:

¹⁰ Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass there. They sat down, about five thousand of them. ¹¹ Then Jesus took the bread. When he had given thanks, he distributed it to those who were sitting there. He did the same with the fish, each getting as much as they wanted. ¹² When they had plenty to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the leftover pieces, so that nothing will be wasted.” ¹³ So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves that had been left over by those who had eaten.

Didn’t look like much – five loaves and two fish.  What is that among so many people?  In our hands, not much.  But in the hands of Jesus, it’s enough.  More than enough, in fact.  Plenty to go around and then 12 baskets of leftovers.

The disciples saw problems.  Jesus was trying to get them to see possibilities.  They saw obstacles while he was pointing to opportunities.  They were fretting and saying, “It’s not enough!” but Jesus says, “Have faith, there’s actually an abundance.”

I call that “Jesus math.”  “Jesus math” can’t be done on a standard calculator.  It won’t balance in QuickBooks, and there’s not a formula in an Excel spreadsheet that will get you there.

Jesus math will drive your CPA nuts, because it won’t add up to them.  My grandfather was an accountant his entire adult life, and I guarantee you, his books always balanced.  He volunteered as the treasurer in their church, and even as the treasurer for what was, at the time, the entire Maryland-Virginia Annual Conference. 

I learned a lot from Papa about financial responsibility – the value of a dollar, and that they don’t grow on trees.  When it came to spending money, Papa could be a little tight.  You might even say cheap.  The man knew how to squeeze a dime until it squeaked, and then squeeze a little more, just for good measure.

There’s one place, however, where he was incredibly generous, and that was toward God and others, particularly those in need.  You see, he was not only a man of math, he was also a man of faith.  He’d tell you that he didn’t exactly know how, but he knew that whatever he gave to God through his church was multiplied and went further than he ever thought possible.  And when everybody was bringing what they had and giving it to Jesus, when you put it all together, it far exceeded the total of what they had all brought, and much good was done through their collective efforts.

The accountant in him would always say, “I’m not sure how it works, I just know that it does.  And the more we give, the more our own needs are taken care of and then some.  If you don’t practice it, I can’t explain it so you’ll understand how it works.  I don’t know how  it works, I just know that it does.”

That’s how Jesus math works.  It starts with a focus on and gratitude for what we have.  And when, with cheerful and grateful hearts, we place it in Jesus’ hands, he multiplies it in order to transform lives, starting with the life of every grateful giver.  It reminds me that God’s been in the transformation business, using the ordinary to accomplish the extraordinary, for some time.

Friends, everything we are and have is a gift from God – not only to us, but to the world through us.  We are blessed in order to be a blessing.  Knowing that God will multiply what we have, let’s be people of gratitude and grace.

Let’s be ready to be part of the next miracle.

Why Do You Labor? (Psalm 127:1)

Unless it is the Lord who builds the house,
    the builders’ work is pointless.

One of the defining movies of my generation was Office Space.  It takes place in the corporate setting of a software company in the late 1990s, and it represents the worst stereotypes of that sort of work environment – cubicle farms, office politics, redundant systems, quirky co-workers, and unfulfilling work.  If you could imagine the most boring, uninspiring, menial work environment, Office Space was it.

One of the plot lines in the movie centers around two outside consultants – both named Bob – who have been hired by the company as “efficiency experts.”  They are trying to identify “redundant and ineffective personnel,” in other words, who is going to be laid off.  One by one, the Bobs call the employees in for an interview in which each describes their job and how they contribute to the company.  During one interview that is going particularly poorly, one of the Bobs leans across the table and asks the flustered employee, “What would you say you do here?”

What would you say you do?  Have you ever noticed how quick we are to identify people by their job?  Meet someone at a party or on an airplane, and one of the first questions we ask is, “What do you do?  What sort of work are you in?”  When we were young and asked what we wanted to be when we grew up, we responded with a certain profession.

Where did we get this idea that a job defines us?

On this Labor Day weekend, maybe you’ve got work on your mind.  Large portions of our lives are spent at work. Some go to an office each day while others labor outdoors. Some work in 12-hour shifts to provide our food, keep us safe, and heal our wounds. Others travel near and far to sell, build, consult, and transport products and people. Still others teach children, cook meals, clean, and provide other services for our communities.

Indeed, work is a good thing – just ask anyone who is looking for work – it allows us to contribute to the world at large as we put our skills and gifts and training in service, while providing a means for us to provide for our families.

But, there comes a point where even too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing.  Such is the case with work.  Our society is, in many ways, addicted to work for the sake of work.  Hard-working people like ourselves can be fooled into an over-inflated sense of our own self-importance – have you ever looked around at your workplace, your family, your church, and thought, “If it weren’t for me, nothing would get done around here – If it weren’t for me, this place would just fall apart” – ever had those thoughts?

Friends, we already have a savior.  His name is Jesus!  We already have a savior; none of us need apply for that position.

Whenever you start to think that it all hinges on us, keep today’s Scripture reading in mind - Unless it is the Lord who builds the house, the builders’ work is pointless.  This is one of those verses that everyone should memorize, cross-stitch, and hang over your door.

We are a society addicted to work.  We find too much of our meaning and identity and self-worth in the work we do.  Psalm 127 speaks directly to the one who cannot seem to stop working, who constantly burns the midnight oil, who is obsessed with trying to get ahead, who thinks that a few more hours at the office or turning out a few more widgets will somehow lead to happiness, security, or self-validation.  This Psalm deals with the one who has no innate sense of their own self-worth, and somehow has to prove and secure their identity in their productivity.

I got to wondering if there is patron saint for workaholics.  Turns out it’s a two-man team.  St. Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, worked hard as a carpenter, so he is the patron saint of workers.  Joseph is a busy saint – not only was he a hard-working man on earth, he still has a lot of responsibilities and is working his little halo off in heaven, too.

For workaholics, St. Joseph teams up with St. Dymphna, the patron saint of crazy people, because too much work will make you crazy.

For people of faith, our value, our worth, our identity is not defined by what we do.  We are defined by who we are, or more to the point, whose we are.  We belong to God! Unless it is the Lord who builds the house, the builders’ work is pointless.  What sort of house is God building?   The Biblical writers are almost playful in their use of the word, “house.”  In the Old Testament, house is often used as a metaphor for family, and that’s what God is building – a family of faith.  We are named and claimed as part of God’s family – friends, God is trying to build us.

We are children of God!  We are part of God’s family!  What we do flows out of who we are.  The work we do necessarily flows out of the work God is doing in us. 

What work does God do in us?  God offers us opportunities to grow in grace.  To become more like Christ.  To grow in our love of God and neighbor.  To be filled with the Holy Spirit, such that our lives reflect the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, generosity, self-control.

That’s God’s desire for God’s children.  For the family of God, that’s who we are called to be.  That’s the foundational work that God does within us, without which, all of the tasks we might perform, even if they’re for the church, even if they’re in God’s name, are meaningless.  Unless it is the Lord who builds the house, the work of those who build it is pointless.

For our part, in order for God to do that most important of work within us, we show up in the places where God has promised to do that work.  We not only attend worship, we do so with an expectation that we will encounter and hear from God.  We participate in Sunday School or Bible studies or prayer groups.  We study the Scriptures and we pray.  We learn about who Jesus is and what he did and what was important to him, and commit to making his priorities our priorities. We build friendships with Christians who are more mature than ourselves, and we ask them to mentor us and teach us.  And we come to the table of our Lord in a sense of awe and wonder, confident in the promise of Jesus himself that he would meet us and commune with us every time we gather in faith to receive the bread of life and the cup of salvation.

These are all ways we orient our lives toward what is most important, and place ourselves in a place to receive all the goodness God desires to give us.  To be sure, simply going through the motions on these things is no guarantee that God is working in us.

No, the condition of our heart, our openness to God’s leading, will determine whether God is able to work within us or not.  God wants to pour love and grace into each of us and shape us as members of his family, but God needs us to be open and ready to receive.  Without that work that God does within us, whatever tasks we perform, are done in vain.

We are quick to ask others what they do.  We are quick to find our worth and identity in terms of the work we perform.  We even do that with work in and on behalf of the church.  But rather than asking, “What do you do?” perhaps a more determinative question is “What is God doing?”

Martin Luther, the German church reformer, invited many people to help him in his work of the Reformation.  He was known to retire to his garden in the afternoon, and invite all those working with him to join him in a pint of beer following the day’s work.  One of his helpers, Phillip Melanchthon, was very zealous for the cause of reformation, and he thought this was an unwise use of time.  He said, “Dr. Luther, how can we relax when there is still so much important work to do in Reforming the Church?”  Luther set his drink down and said, “Phillip, surely God is still at work, even while we are drinking beer.”

Friends, God is at work even when we’re not.  The God who neither slumbers nor sleeps is keeping us in our waking and in our sleeping, in our coming out and our going in, in our work and in our rest.

Shifting our focus there has the potential to change the whole game.  Recognizing that the work that God does in us is far more important than any work we do, even work we do for God, is an incredibly liberating thing.  It can free us from thinking of ourselves as the center of the universe, from patterns of workaholism, from being too impressed by our own opinions and thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought.  It can free us to take a breath, get our bearings, treat ourselves with grace and kindness, and hopefully, to extend that to others, as well.

Do we still have work to do?  Absolutely.  But more importantly, God has work to do within us.  For hard-working, self-sufficient, independent people like ourselves, the challenge is to rely on God more than we rely on ourselves.

But that’s exactly what it will take.

God, unless you build the house, those who build it labor in vain.  So, build your house, Lord.  You’ve claimed as us your children, now shape us and build us as your family, that we might grow up to be more like you.  God, take the life of each one here and use it, do with it what you will.  Let it be consecrated to you and for your purpose.  We don’t belong to ourselves, Lord – you have bought us with a price and we belong to you.  So put our lives to labor in the service of your love, for we know such work is never in vain.  We pray all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, who embodied your love on earth, Amen.