Given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on August 1, 2004, the primary Scripture is from the 12th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, verses 13-21.

“Hi! My name is Steve… and I’m… a packrat!” I think most people who know me would agree with that confession… and my wife, decidedly so! As some of you may know, I have ‘stuff’ saved from when I was in grade school!

I once had, sitting on top of my computer monitor, a wire sculpture that I did in sixth grade, while in the family room yet today is a plaster bust I did in the eighth… neither of which were considered very good by my teachers… I think I received a passing grade for each, but just barely… but in today’s modern-art world, they would probably demand ‘big-bucks’!

Some of you may remember hearing about the box of letters and ticket-stubs and so-on I have from my high-school days, while stored on another shelf is a thirty-odd-year collection of hats, most of which have never been worn. Meanwhile, tucked away in various locations are most of the cowboy hats that I have ever worn, and a fair selection of the clothes and ties that I wore as a teenager, including, I think, all of the coats I have worn since at least 1970. You see, I have a real problem throwing anything away… you just never know when you might need it, or it might come back in style, or you may need to prove something to somebody!!!

But, my problem runs deeper than that! I can’t tell you how many parts I have changed out over the years, only to keep the old ones, dragging them home if need be, just because ‘I might use something off of it someday’! For example, I replaced a turn-signal switch in a Ford van one time that had circuitry problems. But the old one is sat in a box in the garage for Years ‘just in case I ever need a part for the one in my truck’. Never mind that the odds are it wouldn’t have been the right piece… never mind that you can almost never take one of those things apart… never mind that I would probably never find it if I DID need it… if I even remembered that I had it! I saved it, brought it home, and had it someplace in the garage… along with five-hundred other things brought home for similar reasons! I just can’t throw stuff away… their possible value is just too great to me!

However, I must note that not everyone shares my enthusiasm… for example; most would not understand why I once drug home the old shower stall that a guy where I used to work gave me one time. It had leaked, it was pretty small, and we really had no place in that house to install it, but I brought it home anyway and unloaded it next to the garage. As far as I know, it’s still laying there today. The last I saw it, all of the plastic sides had been broken, and weeds and small trees had grown up around and hidden it, but it was still there… I just Couldn’t seem to be able to get rid of it!

Now, in my mind, I look at all of this stuff and consider the vast amount of wealth I have represented there. Others, however… wonder why the garage is full of junk while the new car sits outside in the weather! I need more garage! I need more storage! A barn… or maybe two! Come to think of it, I did have stuff stored over in other people’s barns at one time! Oh well! Maybe a warehouse… someplace where I can really store everything in order and then do a computerized inventory so I can know what I have and where I can find it!

Sound familiar? The man in Jesus’ parable, today, had a similar problem… he just had too much ‘stuff’, and was trying to figure out how to keep it all! But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves… let’s start at the beginning.

The Life Application Commentary tells us that, “Perhaps because of Jesus’ constant insistence on justice, a person from the crowd asked him to arbitrate a dispute. Instead of addressing the injustice, Jesus exposed the greedy motives of the man and revealed God’s perspective on the foolishness of greed. The simple parable Jesus told describes a person who is solely concerned with himself — his welfare, pleasure, and security. He showed no gratitude towards God or willingness to share with those less fortunate, and his ingratitude invoked God’s anger and led to the man’s downfall.

With every one of his teachings, Jesus gave a glimpse of heaven. Here, in vivid detail, can be seen God’s reaction to the greedy — those who gather as much as they can for themselves. The Lord is appalled at their foolish ingratitude, and he rewards their hard work foolishly spent on themselves with severe judgment. If a person won’t distribute his or her resources to others in this life, God will do it after the person’s death. In effect, Jesus was telling this person to get his priorities straight…”

Now, at this point many preachers would concentrate on those priorities by breaking into a stewardship sermon regarding the idea of ‘who does it belong to in the first place?’ Indeed, most bulletin pictures available for these verses reflect that very idea… and yes, I’ll take just a moment to address that particular angle myself by quoting, once again, from the Life Application Commentary…

“Jesus warned against greed for possessions. Greed keeps track of every tool lent, every dime shared, every overtime minute worked, every check to charity grudgingly written.

Jesus leads the way to generosity, a rare trait today. As God opens heaven to you, clutch less what you own and share more what you have been given.”

However, in Matthew 23:23-24, Jesus says, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices-mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”

Now, there is no record of any Jewish law requiring the tithing of spices… however, in an effort to appear earnest and diligent in their observance of the law, these people were tithing even these items each year. Jesus praised them for that… but condemned them for their failure in practicing those aspects of the law that really mattered… justice… mercy… and faithfulness!

It is very true that we need to be far more aware of just what the true source of all of our earthly wealth is… if God had not blessed us with the intelligence and abilities to do the things we do, we would have nothing! So, indeed, everything we have we have through the blessings of God, and we need to be much more mindful of that at times… there is a quote someone gave me a few years ago that I think is very apropos… “Don’t give until it hurts… give until it feels good!” We all need to remember that sometimes, and return to God more of what He has been so generous with to us.

But I would also point out that money is not always our most valuable possession… for many of us living today, our time is as valuable, if not more so, than the cash we may have tucked away in some account somewhere! And if that be the case, shouldn’t we also be giving God more of that as well?

The Life Application Commentary says that, “It is possible to carefully obey certain details of God’s laws but still be disobedient in our general behavior. For example, we could be very precise and faithful about giving 10 percent of our money to the church but refuse to give one minute of our time in helping others. Tithing is important, but giving a tithe does not exempt us from fulfilling God’s other directives.”

And that leads me to the point that I really wish to make today… something, I think, that goes still deeper, and in reality has far more meaning and impact on our lives than the ‘money’ issue! And it goes back to what I think Jesus was really getting at when He said… “…a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”

In Romans chapter 5, Paul says…

“For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God — all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God.”

Let me read that last part again… “…we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God — all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God.”

In Hosea 11: 1-11, God says…

“When Israel was a child, I loved him as a son, and I called my son out of Egypt. But the more I called to him, the more he rebelled, offering sacrifices to the images of Baal and burning incense to idols. It was I who taught Israel how to walk, leading him along by the hand. But he doesn’t know or even care that it was I who took care of him. I led Israel along with my ropes of kindness and love. I lifted the yoke from his neck, and I myself stooped to feed him.

“But since my people refuse to return to me, they will go back to Egypt and will be forced to serve Assyria. War will swirl through their cities; their enemies will crash through their gates and destroy them, trapping them in their own evil plans. For my people are determined to desert me. They call me the Most High, but they don’t truly honor me.”

These people had a personal relationship with God each and every day… and yet they turned away from Him and turned to other things more ‘comprehendible’… an idol that they could see… a ritual that brought them personal glory or pleasure… and God, in turn, turned from them.

How is your relationship with God?

In Barnes’ Notes we read, concerning today’s verses, “What an awful sentence to a man who, as he thought, had just gotten ready to live and enjoy himself! In a single moment all his hopes were blasted, and his soul summoned to the bar of his long-forgotten God. So, many are surprised as suddenly and as unprepared. They are snatched from their pleasures, and hurried to a world where there is no pleasure, and where all their wealth cannot purchase one moment’s ease from the gnawings of the worm that never dies.”

Again… how is your relationship with God? Are you praying each day? Are you reading His Word? Are you opening up yourself to His wants and desires for you? Are you letting yourself be fully immersed in the love and strength that comes with a full and rich relationship with God?

That’s what Jesus is asking here. Because there is nothing of nor on this earth that will earn anyone a place in Heaven… no amount of money or grain or new cars or big houses or fancy clothes will get you through those golden gates! For, just as all of my old parts and machinery and what-have-you have no value to anyone else… the only thing that matters to God is your faith… your love… and how you have combined those things in doing His work during your lifetime!

This was first given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on July 25, 2004, and, with a very minor ‘rewrite’, again at the Hartford (IL) East Maple Street Chapel on July 26, 2009. The Scripture is from Colossians 2: 6-15…

       In the beginning, the well-pump at the house where I lived the last 15 years I was in Jacksonville was weak enough that it didn’t take much of a dry spell for the water to drop below what it would pull up. So it was that right off the bat, I had to start hauling water to keep us going. Now, like most people, I didn’t want to spend any more money than I had to, so I tried to figure out how I could do this with ‘stuff’ that I already had on hand. What I wound up doing was to take an old diesel-fuel tank that I had tried to rinse a number of times and mount it to the heavy wooden runners I had just put on an old running-gear that I intended to finish in to a hay-wagon. I couldn’t run very fast with it, so each 500 gallons that I hauled took at least an hour round-trip, depending on how many were in line ahead of me at the pump-house in Lynnville… and depending on how the week went, this was a once-or-twice-a-week affair!

       Now, to fill this tank, I had added about 12” of pipe to the inlet hole and cut a section of hose long enough to slip over it and on to the outlet pipe at the water station. This meant that it was a solid connection, but the tank had it’s normal vent built into it… a short pipe on the top with two elbows to point it back down… so letting the air out while I filled was never a problem. Of course, seeing how much I had in that steel tank was! And of course, the inevitable happened…

On a very cool autumn day… far too cool to want to go swimming… I had gone to Lynnville dragging my homemade water contraption, hooked up the hose, and put in my quarters. As it neared the time I estimated it to be done, I stepped closer to be ready to take it apart and head for home all the quicker. Suddenly, with a whoosh and a splash, there was water everywhere!!! The tank had filled, and the only place for the excess to go was out that vent at the top… those two elbows turned it to hit the top side of that round tank, and since it was coming out under considerable pressure, there was a solid fountain of water surrounding that tank for about ten feet! I not only was in it when it started, I had to go through it to try and reach the shut-off to get it to stop! Not only was I soaked, but it was just cold enough that what water hit the steel surfaces of the wagon was beginning to freeze… thank goodness the heater in the truck was working on that trip home!

       These verses start off with Paul saying, “…just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Now, try to picture, for a moment, how many gallons of water came pouring out as that tank overflowed… now imagine, if you will, that all of those many gallons was ‘thankfulness’! That’s how we should be feeling towards Jesus for our salvation… gushing and overflowing with all of that thankfulness!

       Some years back there was a new billboard I’d noticed starting to crop up along the highways… in big bold block letters it read… ‘Got Faith?’ At the edge was a picture of a garden-hose tap with water running out of it, while the crystal glass below it was catching… wine! And as I looked at that ad with this verse in mind, I couldn’t help but think that that goblet should have been running over as well… with faith! What a world this would be if each of us were so filled with faith and thankfulness that it welled up out of us and overflowed to all of those around us!!

       The Life Application Commentary notes that, “Paul used several metaphors in these verses, first telling believers to walk, then to be rooted like a plant, built like a building, and established like a legal document. Each metaphor has a specific and profound point for Christian living.

First, the Colossians were to be rooted in Christ. Just as plants draw nourishment from the soil through their roots, so the believers should draw life-giving strength from Christ. The more they would draw strength from Christ, the less they would be fooled by those who falsely claimed to have life’s answers…

Second, they were to be built up. This word is in the present tense, describing continuous action. Like a plant, they were “rooted” once and for all, but they had to grow continuously. Or like a building, they had a solid foundation, but had to keep on building with solid materials in order to be strong.

Third, the Colossians were to be strengthened in the faith. This can also be translated “established in the faith”. “Established” was a legal term, often used for a binding contract. This, too, is continuous action… an ongoing process…

The faith, then, in which these Colossian believers were rooted, built up, and established, should be a source of abundant thanksgiving. True understanding of what Christ has done on behalf of believers can lead to no other response than gratefulness.”

Now, all of that is referring to what Paul was telling the Colossians, but I put it too you that it applies just as strongly to us today! F. B. Meyer says that, “The first act of the Christian life is to receive Christ, and every moment afterward we must continue receiving him. The act must become an attitude. Breathe in the love and power of Jesus. Take deep breaths. Then we shall be rooted in him in secret, and built up in him in our outward walk and behavior. If we have Christ, we have all God’s fullness…. in Jesus, we have everything.”

       In the rest of these verses, Paul is explaining the nature of Christ, and what our relationship with Him is! Now, this is not a simple concept… indeed, it is one that I think many people, including myself, struggle with from time to time. Let me see if I can take it slow and explain it to myself, and maybe to you at the same time.

       Paul says that, “…all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” in Christ. The Life Application Commentary states that, “’All the fullness of the Deity’ refers to the whole total of deity… all the divine attributes. God’s nature and person are centered in Christ. ‘Lives in bodily form’ means “dwells permanently” or “continues to live” in a human body.

The false teaching that Paul was debunking here said that Christ could not have been both man and God. But Paul clearly stated that this was indeed the case. Paul made two significant points in this sentence: (1) Christ was not another deity along with God; instead, God’s fullness was dwelling uniquely and supremely in Christ. (2) Christ was not less than God. He was not merely one in a hierarchy of angels who would act as intermediaries between people and God. Instead, Paul emphasized to these Colossian believers, and to us today, that when we have Christ, we have everything we need for salvation and right living. He is our leader. No man-made religion or philosophy can give what Christ gives — salvation and right relationship with God.”

       Paul was very concerned about the “hollow and deceptive philosophies’ being taught and spread about in that day. What would he say about those being told today? How often does one read or hear, in various local news sources, the on-going arguments between those who support gays and lesbians, and Christians trying to express the will of God! The supporters claim that the ‘old laws’ do not apply to today’s world… that the Bible is no longer relevant to today’s society… they are, indeed, spouting, “hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” They do not accept the Bible as the Word of the Living God… and hence, they do not know, nor believe, nor accept His Son, Jesus. What future they have is bleak indeed!

       But we Christians DO believe the Words of Christ! We accept the teachings of the apostle Paul when he says that we have, “… been buried with Christ in baptism and raised with him through …our faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.”

Praise God, Jesus is the Christ!! Praise God, He nailed all of my sins to the cross!! And praise God… He nailed all of yours there, as well!!! Rejoice… keep near to the cross… and let your thankfulness overflow!!!

Written for and given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on July 18, 2004. The Scripture is from the 10th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, verses 38-42.

In January of 1976, I started working at a small school district close to Jacksonville, IL as their ‘Transportation Superintendent’. This was a fancy term for describing someone who actually spent most of the time working on the buses and/or driving them, and some little time actually planning routes and overseeing drivers.

But, that ‘overseeing of drivers’ part meant that I was responsible for lining up drivers for all of the sporting events and other extra-curricular activities that went on every week. These included various field trips and class trips and such things as that. Since many of these ran well into the evening, or were all-day affairs, it was usually easier for me to find a driver willing to take my daily run and I go on the trip, myself. This meant that you could sometimes find me driving that bus in downtown St. Louis to a ballgame, to Eureka, MO., for a day at Six Flags, or Bloomington/Normal to tour the science building at Illinois State University.

Now, keep in mind that in early 1976, I was only 22 years old… barely legal to even drive a school bus! I mean, I was not all that long out of high school myself, and certainly not that much older than many of the high school students that I took on these trips, and it was only natural for me to be as interested in many of the sights and activities that I took them to as they were! So it was that whenever possible, I would unload them all as close as I could, find a place to park the bus, then hurry and join them… the teachers were usually happy to have another ‘adult’ along, though I couldn’t say I really thought of myself as one quite yet!

Occasionally, though, circumstances would prevent me from being able to join them. Such was the case on a day-tour of the Lincoln sights around Springfield… I had gone with them through Lincoln’s home and tomb, but when we got to the old State Capitol, I had to stay with the bus and move it through the bus waiting line while they went through the building. I was upset! I had not been there since a trip I had made in my fourth-grade, and I really wanted to see it! But, there I was, stuck on the bus… forced to work while they were all off learning and enjoying themselves! So, when I read this story of Mary and Martha, I can really relate to it! Well… somewhat!

I would think that everybody in the sound of my voice has found occasion to take Martha’s side in this story… after all if someone doesn’t do the work, how will it get done?! And isn’t all of this about doing God’s work, anyway? Well, yes it is… and yes, somebody has to do it! And yes, I think Jesus notes and appreciates all of the work done in His name. But… well, listen to what The Life Application Commentary has to say about it…

Hard workers beware. Note three potential problems:

1. While asking for help (a legitimate request), you point to your own accomplishments (prideful).

2. While calling Jesus “Lord” (certainly appropriate), you question his judgment with implied criticism that he is not directing his team effectively (suggesting you are a better chief than he).

3. While acknowledging your relationship to another person (Martha referred to her sister), you criticize that person for failing to follow your lead (imposing your will as right and good just because it’s productive).

A better way:

§     Never assume your own greatness.

§     Support others in their special roles.

§     Ask Jesus first; then get to work.

Martha, for her part, wanted to give her guests the royal treatment — and she should not be criticized for that. However, she allowed her concern and distraction to turn to irritation. She went to Jesus and asked him to tell Mary to get up and get to work. There is a touch of reproach in her words: “Lord, don’t you care?” and “Tell her to help me.”

So, this is telling, first of all, that we need to be really careful about how conscious we are of the work we are doing and why we are doing it… are we working for Christ… or for our own glory and prestige? But Jesus’ point in these verses goes even deeper. Again quoting from the Life Application Commentary…

How quickly duties and demands rob us of our peace. Luke uses Mary and Martha’s experience with Jesus to give us a timeless lesson in discipleship. Doing God’s work in any of its phases of planning or implementation can distract us from reflecting on Jesus’ teaching. Are you so busy working for him that you have no time to sit and listen at his feet? Jesus wants diligent service, but even more he desires that you relax, set aside worries and urgent responsibilities, and come to him in singleness of mind. Adjust your priorities. Take time to meditate on Jesus’ life, his mercy, and his love.

Think about it for a minute… isn’t that what we tend to do, whether we realize it or not? ‘I cut the grass at the church last week, so I’m a good Christian!’ ‘I stay and wash dishes after the charity supper each time we have it, so I’m a good Christian!’ ‘I sent a check for $100 to a children’s home, so I’m a good Christian!’ People, these are all good things! These are all things that need to be done! But doing them does not make you a Christian… being a Christian makes you do them!!!

That’s what Jesus is saying here! There is a time to cook and clean and take care of one another… but there is also a time to learn… a time to listen… a time to pray and reflect… a time to worship! Don’t mistake painting the fellowship hall as an act of worshiping God! Don’t confuse giving money to the church or food to the needy with giving of your self to Jesus! They are all connected… but it is the worship and the prayer and the faith and the commitment that leads us… to doing all of these other things!

In the Old Testament book of ‘Amos’, chapter 8, verses 1-12, we read how God confronted Amos with a basket of ripe fruit, saying, “The time is ripe for my people…: I will spare them no longer!” He had had enough of Israel’s sinning! “Hear this,” He said, “you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, “When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?”- skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.”

These people had a written law… there was no question what was right and what was wrong behavior… there was no question what God wanted from them… and even if they failed in that, there was a written procedure for them to follow for atonement… and still they failed! Not only failed, but ignored it… they turned their backs to God… most likely because they felt oppressed by all of the rules and regulations, and so on. Never mind that this was God… never mind that He had brought them out of Egypt… never mind that He had performed miracle after miracle after miracle and helped them grow into a great and powerful nation! The false gods were easier to deal with, and promised more personal gain, comfort, and pleasure! Note, the key word there was ‘personal’… they were interested in their personal gain… their personal comfort… their personal pleasure!

Martha wanted Jesus to instruct Mary to help her! She wanted to impress the Lord with all of her accomplishments and her diligence and her hard work in His name! But Jesus was far more impressed with how eagerly Mary listened to Him… how she hungered for His teaching and His wisdom. What about you?

You know, God gave Moses Ten Commandments and then followed those with a book of individual laws and directives… and the people of Israel still didn’t understand or follow them. Jesus has given us just two… Love God above all else, and Love our neighbor as our self! That’s all we have… that and this instruction book we call the Bible! God does not… will not… force us to follow and obey Him! He does not demand of us a certain number of specific things to do in order to be accepted of Him! He asks us to Love Him… and to Love our neighbor… and to listen and learn from Him just what that means! That’s all we have to do… believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and love Him! That’s it!

But you see… if we truly love Him… if we truly listen to His message and open our hearts and our minds and our souls to His teaching… we will then DO all of these things that we feel like we’re ‘supposed’ to… only… then we’ll be doing them with the joy of love that comes with truly loving and following Jesus!

Given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on July 11, 2004. The Scripture is from The Gospel of Luke, chapter 10, verses 25-37…

       Most of you probably remember that I started working early-on as a heavy-equipment operator. And one of the machines that I did some training on was an early CMI machine. These machines were designed to finish both lanes of a highway in one pass.

The dirt machine, which is what I was on, had an auger that ran full width across both lanes and ‘ground’ the dirt of the road bed to within a few hundredths of an inch of spec, leaving the excess in windrows on the outside edges. After the rock base was put down, packed and leveled, the concrete machines would begin their work. These consisted of one that took the thick concrete from the dump trucks and poured it in a slab across the prepared surface, while the next machine power-troweled it into the proper shape and size, including the 2” crown in the center. The following machines would set the reinforcing-rod panels in place, drag a rough pattern into the top of the slab, and spray a conditioner over all of it to slow the curing time… the longer concrete takes to cure, or dry, the harder it is.

Many of you have seen the descendants of these machines at work out here on the new highway, and while many things have changed, there is still one thing that all of them need… some kind of guide that ties them into their relative position with the earth! The newer ones, I’m sure, use lasers, and very possibly GPS systems… I don’t really know, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised! However, in my day, this was accomplished by running a string-line along each side of the road and using sensors set-up against it to guide and level each side of those huge powerhouse machines! That meant that there was a lot of pressure on the surveyors who had to sight and install that string-line for the machines to follow!

Some of you may have recognized the stand that I use for the projector as the tripod for a surveyor’s transit. The transit, of course, attaches to it and you then use the legs and leveling screws on the transit itself to get the instrument absolutely level to the earth in all directions. If all you are doing is checking grades, that’s really about all you need… a grade that you will call ‘0’, and a way to measure how far away you are and how much the ground goes up and down. However, if you are laying out a road or a wall, you really need some kind of location to start from. That’s where the plumb bob comes in… the plumb bob attaches to the exact center of the transit and hangs down beneath it. You then center it directly over a known point. Since the bob points to the direct center of the earth, your transit is then in the exact location indicated on your map, and you can measure and level and grade from that point with complete accuracy!

Amos 7: 7-17 tells of Amos seeing God, in a vision, standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb. This meant that the wall was set straight to the earth and in a straight line along it. My commentaries note that this wall was Israel, and that God Himself was checking how true it was… He had the plumb bob in His hand… and it was found wanting! The ‘wall’ that was Israel had become crooked and bowed, and God was telling them that He had had enough of it and was about to tear it down and build anew.

       In today’s Gospel verses, we find another telling of the Two Commandments given us by Christ… and the story is one that we should all know! Let me read it again…

        On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 

He answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

“Who is my neighbor?” In your bulletins is a copy from the Life Application Commentary that attempts to answer that question. You will note that each example begins with a statement of faith… and each then becomes an ‘if/then’ statement. Let me read just a couple…

Faith in God                                                  

“…now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other just as I have loved you…”                  

Love for neighbor

“…you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

(John 13:34-35)

Faith

“We have heard that you trust in Christ Jesus…”

Love     

“…and that you love all of  God’s people.”

                                                              (Col 1:4-5)

Faith

“Dear friends, since God loved us that much…”

Love

“…we surely ought to love each other.”

                                                                       (1 John 4:11)

Again, each item begins with a statement of faith… in other words, each statement says that if we have true faith in the Lord… we will love our neighbors… and our neighbors are everyone!

But all of this begs the question… what exactly does it mean to ‘love my neighbor?’ Jesus’ answer is what we now call the Story of the Good Samaritan. I’m sure that I don’t need to repeat it this morning… we all probably know it by heart, and if not it is a very simple read. The gist of it is that the two who thought of themselves as being ‘God-like’… a priest and a Levite, the tribe from which all priests came from… pointedly avoided the person needing help.

Now, as The Life Application Commentary points out, “Jews and Samaritans hated each other deeply. The Jews saw themselves as pure descendants of Abraham, while they saw the Samaritans as half-breeds because they descended from Jews from the northern kingdom who had intermarried with other peoples after Israel’s exile. Jews hated Samaritans, so when Jesus introduced this Samaritan man into the story, the Jewish listeners would not have expected him to help a Jewish man… But in great detail, Jesus described all that the Samaritan did for this man. He took pity, bandaged his wounds (perhaps with strips of cloth from his own clothing), put the man on his own donkey (meaning that he had to walk), took him to an inn and took care of him. The wine would have been used as a disinfectant and the oil as a soothing lotion. Apparently this Samaritan understood what it meant to help someone in need, to be a neighbor, regardless of racial tensions.”

This story, then, becomes a sort of guide for us to judge our own actions… it becomes our ‘plumb bob’, if you will, for judging how straight and true our own lives are compared to what Jesus intends for them to be!

There used to be a road in Alton that I just hated to drive my pickup on… the pavement rises and falls at just the same distance as the two axles on my truck, and at 50 MPH it feels like a rocking horse. Due to the age of the road, I had always assumed that it was probably pored with a set of those early CMI machines, and that the operator was just unfamiliar with how to set it. You see, those sensors that I told you about that follow the string-line have a sensitivity setting on them. Ideally, these would be set to allow the barest possible movement before activating the machine’s leveling system up or down without causing it to ‘hic-up’ up-and-down continuously. I have always assumed that whomever set that one up did not know how to set that sensitivity control… hence the machine would slowly move up or down over a space of some feet before the control would activate and bring it back into line… resulting in a washboard effect… in this case, every ten feet!

The same idea can hold true for us! Jesus has given us the tools we need to follow His path… and He has set that path straight and true! But if we fail to use those tools correctly… if we don’t set them right… or maybe even just not realize we need them… we fail to follow the course He has so carefully laid out! Have you ever had to wait in line someplace that has those rope barriers? Have you ever watched as kids and/or people have leaned against them and ‘bent’ or moved them out of shape… not exactly a straight line, is it? That is what happens to the path of our lives if we fail to use the tools that God gave us to follow His true and straight string-line!

Now, everybody who has ever used a tool knows that there is a right and a wrong way to use it… you don’t use a screwdriver to pry with… you don’t, do you?… you don’t beat on something with a wrench… and you don’t use a hammer to change a light bulb! But at some point, each of us had to be taught these things… we had to learn them… and the more complicated the tool, the more training that’s required! So, where do we get the training to use the tools that God has given us… where do we learn how to recognize them and get the most out of each one? Where do you think?

From the instruction book of God… your Bible! Again I tell you, everything you ever need to know about life and how to live it is in there! Read it! Know it! Understand it! Only then will you be able to follow the course that Christ has laid out so carefully for each of us!

This is an updated version of the very first ‘sermon’ I wrote when I started the speaking-course in 2001! (IT appears earlier on this site!!) This one was given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on June 27, 2004. The Scripture is from the 8th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, verses 26-39…

I think it was 1965 when Grandpa Luebbert decided to retire and sell off most of the farm ground and equipment. We had been looking for a small farm of our own and wound up buying one near Edwardsville at about the same time, so some of the equipment and animals made it to our place. I was 12 and my brother 9 when we moved there over the Christmas holiday that year.

Growing up in a small town was neat, but being on the farm was fabulous! Our old farmhouse was on the side of a hill, and when the snows came you could really get a sled moving down into the field. In fact, I got the notion to take buckets of water from the well and dump them down the path that I had made so that it would freeze overnight. It worked pretty well. I could almost make it to the road. Well, at least I made it over halfway there.

It was also great, for me, to be around so many animals. We had brought our cat with us from town, and had gotten a young border collie to take along as well. That winter, after we fixed all of the fences, we hauled several of our Hereford cows from one of the family farms to our pasture, along with one special prize… I’ve told you how Grandpa had gotten a genuine Mexican burro included with the purchase of one farm, and Cookie became a member of our family. She was old and arthritic and stubborn as a…. well, stubborn as a donkey! But, she was what I learned to ride on… such as I do!

Over the years, dad had been putting some money into my brothers’ and my savings account, so when he wanted to buy four bred sows that summer, he asked us if we would each like to go halves together on one, and of course we said YES. After we hauled them home and unloaded them into their pasture, my brother and I got to pick out which one was ‘ours’. One sow was far-and-away bigger than the other three, and we enthusiastically chose her.

“Now,” dad said, “just because she’s the biggest doesn’t mean that she’ll have the most pigs!” We didn’t care. That was our choice, and we were sticking with it! And you know what? She DID have the most pigs! If I remember right, she had thirteen and managed to keep 12! We were happy.

Sometime after that, one of our sows had a litter with a little runt in it, and Dad brought it into the house to hand raise. Our poodle quickly adopted it and took to sleeping by its box. Pierre would bark to let us know each time it was awake so that we could feed it, first with an eyedropper, and eventually with a baby bottle. Baby Huey survived and became another family pet.

Now, pigs may look and sound pretty stupid, but they are actually more intelligent than most dogs, and this one was soon housebroken, first to a newspaper, and then to ‘oink’ when she needed outside. When she got big enough to start rearranging the furniture, she became an outside pet, and I have very vivid memories of friends from church coming to visit and start up the walk only to turn around and run back to their car screaming “PIG” when they saw ‘Huey’ running towards them.

Now, I told you all of this to make a point. I appreciate the many values of a pig. Pigs are intelligent. Pigs can be loyal. And, normally, pigs are valuable… I said normally.

So when I read in today’s lesson how Jesus sent these spirits into a herd of pigs, my first reaction is…WHY mess with the pigs?! These pigs were valuable! Mark 4:13 tells us that there were ‘about two thousand’ of them! That’s a lot of pigs! WHY mess with the pigs?

Let’s look at this story a little closer…

The Life Application Commentary points out that this, “… demon-possessed person lived in isolation and agony… he was homeless… (Mark’s Gospel describes him as uncontrollable, so he could not live anywhere else)… He was naked — unable to take care of himself, not caring about physical comfort (Mark also says that he cut himself with stones). And, he lived in a cemetery. In those days it was common for cemeteries to have many tombs carved into the hillside, making cavelike mausoleums. There was enough room for a person to live in such tombs. Tombs of wealthy people had more than one chamber for later family members to be buried, so there were empty chambers available for shelter. Such cemeteries were often in remote areas. A demon-possessed person, already shunned, would also be considered unclean because of living among the tombs. Finally, the text says that he had been in this condition for a long time.”

This, then tells us a little bit about the condition of this person as Jesus found him… dirty, filthy, unkempt, and unclean in every sense of the word… remember, according to Jewish Law, even just touching a dead body made one ceremonially unclean, let alone living among them! So, why do you suppose Satan had chosen this person for all of this… what evil plan did he have in mind that he used this man in this way?

According to J. I. Packer, “Satan has no constructive purpose of his own; his tactics are simply to thwart God and destroy men” The Life Application Commentary tells of, “an old fable about a scorpion and a frog. The scorpion asked the frog to carry him on his back across a creek. The frog said no, fearing the scorpion would sting him. The scorpion swore he would not, and so the frog warily allowed the scorpion to hop on, and started across the stream. Sure enough, when they were halfway across, the scorpion stung the frog. “Why did you do that?” yelled the frog. “Now I will die and you will drown, too!”

“I know,” replied the scorpion. “It’s just my nature to sting.”

Satan is pictured several different ways in Scripture — Lucifer, the Accuser, a prowling lion — but they all have this in common: Satan’s nature is to destroy!” So his reasons for possessing this man were as simple as that… it caused trouble for other people, and hence caused trouble for God! Jesus though, took this situation and turned it to His purpose!

In the verses just preceding these, Jesus had shown His power over nature by calming the winds of the storm that threatened to overturn their boat. And in these verses, He demonstrates His power over Satan by purging the demons from the man and sending them into the nearby herd of pigs.

Now, there is no doubt that if this had occurred today, animal activist groups would be all over the situation and, “protesting that he had no right to let those demons destroy that herd of pigs.” And indeed, the townspeople did come out and berate Him for destroying their property… they feared Him and sent Him away! “Many have wondered why Jesus chose that particular means of casting demons out of this poor man; Luke didn’t say. One insight should be very clear, however: Jesus has authority over unclean spirits, pigs, people, and everything else. He didn’t ask permission of the pigs’ owner before allowing his herd to be destroyed because he didn’t need to.” But one other point should be very obvious to each of us… Jesus wasn’t concerned about the value of the hogs because, to Him, this one man was worth more than any number of pigs!

What price do you put on a man’s soul? Can you value it in dollars and cents? What kind of price tag would you put on your own soul? There have been times when I thought mine wouldn’t have been worth very much. But God’s values are different from our own. Each and every one of us is invaluable to Him.

The Life Application Commentary notes that, “At Jesus’ word, the winds and waves were calmed. At his command, thousands of demons fled. Previously, Jesus had loudly called people to listen to his words and obey them. But… even though the elements of nature and the evil beings of the spiritual world listen and do not ignore his command… many people do!”

And yet… He values each one of us just as much as He did this man. In fact, helping that man only cost a herd of pigs. To save you and me, He gave His life. And how much is that worth?

Given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on June 6, 2004. The verses are from the 8th Chapter of the Book of Psalms…

       I have told you all how I love music and singing, and how I sang in any and every choir and chorus I’ve ever had a chance to. As a result, I’ve had an opportunity to learn and experience many different types and styles of songs and writers over the years. These have ranged from popular songs pulled from the ‘charts’ and arranged for a chorus, such as Do You Know the Way to San José and Blowin’ in the Wind, to pieces written and arranged specifically for 4-part choirs. These could consist of anything from nonsensical pieces to the romantic to Christian to deep, serious, make-you-think kind of songs. And often, a really good composer would combine various traits to make his point.

       As an example, I recall doing two very different suites in my high school chorus and combining them into one concert. One was an older set of songs surrounding the life and times of Abraham Lincoln. These were fun, if somewhat dated pieces, but presented some challenges, vocally, in several of them. The other was a set of seven songs by Randall Thompson which took some of Robert Frost’s best works and put them to music… to this day I still remember my two favorites, and use them in my head whenever I want to quote either poem!

       In college, our director had us learn the entire Missa Secunda, or Second Mass, by Haussler, and perform it at the dedication ceremonies of the then new Campus Religious Center. He had us learn the Latin phrases by sound, so that even though I can say, ‘Paten terra, pox, Ominibus’, I have very little idea as to what I just said. At another time, he had us learn a song that was really easy for me… because I had sang it, also, in my high school choir.

       It was one in a series of six titled ‘Prayers From the Ark’ , and I’ve always wished I could see the others. If my information from the internet is correct, the words are from a series of poems written by Carmen Bernos De Gasztold, while the music was written and arranged by Jane Marshall. The one I learned was called The Prayer of the Cat, and went something like this…

Lord,
I am the cat.
It is not, exactly, that I have something to ask of You!
No-
I ask nothing of anyone –
but,
if You have by some chance, in some celestial barn,
a little white mouse,
or a saucer of milk,
I know someone who would relish them.
Wouldn’t You like someday
to put a curse on the whole race of dogs?
If so I should say,

Amen.

       Now, anyone who has a cat or understands cats will easily recognize the cat-attitude in this piece. First, he’s proud and arrogant… but, then he realizes he is talking to God, so humbles himself just a little. In the end, though, his true ‘cat personality’ comes through as he tries to tell God what He should do.

       Isn’t it amazing how the words of a poem or prose have the power to transform you and take you places and help you see things in your mind that you never imagined on your own? And when those words are added to music the effect sometimes become overpowering! This can be very good… or very bad!

As an example of what I mean by ‘very bad’, I have one song by Peter, Paul and Mary that I consider very, very evil! It is entitled Home is Where the Heart Is, a very beautiful thought, and a very beautiful song! If one simply listened and got lost in the music, the danger of the message in the words would penetrate our subconscious and place the germs of evil there… for the words of the song praise and condone the activities of homosexual and lesbian lovers and try to teach the acceptance of it to a young child… and through that, you, the listener! We must always be on our guard!

       I have also heard the words of today’s lesson from Psalms put to music… and how different these words are from that of the cat. Listen again…

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

       How beautiful that is! It’s a song of humbleness! It’s a song of greatness! It’s a song of joy! And mostly… and overpoweringly… it’s a song of worship! O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! It’s beautiful!

       The 8^th chapter of Proverbs asks us, “Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?” Solomon repeatedly refers to ‘wisdom’ as a woman trying to get mankind to notice her. Here he says, “On the heights along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand; beside the gates leading into the city, at the entrances, she cries aloud: “To you, O men, I call out; I raise my voice to all mankind.”

He also describes wisdom as being brought forth as the first of the Lord’s works… before any other deeds were done. In other words, wisdom… the true wisdom that comes from God… has been around almost as long as God! And it surrounds us still today, seeking to fill us with knowledge and insight and understanding! All we have to do is open ourselves up to it and accept it! How? By listening! By reading! By learning and doing and being all that we can! And doing each of those things in a God-like manner!

       When we do all of that… wisdom will then open our eyes to some startling realities! Suddenly, the sex and violence we see on TV and in the movies stands out as the evil it is… propaganda intended to lower our morals and our values! The commercials telling us we need this or that or the other will be seen as urging us to be greedy and self-centered… to think only of ourselves! And those people who are pushing us to accept so many new ideas and beliefs regardless of their Biblical standing by trying to convince us of their ‘political-correctness’ will be seen as the true enemies of the Lord that they are!

       Don’t accept all that you hear as truth without first subjecting it to these tests…

• Is it correct according to Biblical teachings?
• Would you be comfortable explaining it to God?
• Would Jesus do it or accept it?

These three things should be a very simple guide to understanding and accepting the wisdom of the Lord… and if there is any particular question that you may not be certain of the answer, then it’s time to research it and learn what God has to say about it! For it is literally all in this book! Read it!

       Lastly, though… and perhaps most importantly… pay attention to what you are hearing! Pay attention to what others are trying to tell you! Whether it’s in the words of a song, a newspaper article, a comment made by a friend or an acquaintance, or something you see or read in the normal course of your day… pay attention to what you are hearing!!! Otherwise, you may find some of those ‘wrong’ thoughts and ideas getting in while you’re not looking and getting a foothold inside your head… and from there they grow much easier than they can be eradicated!

       I think the words of this closing song are a perfect case-in-point. How more perfect description and understanding of God can you have than these wonderful, ageless words! Really listen to the words this time… and not only to this… but to every song that you hear this week!

       Oh Lord, my God… when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands have made…I see the stars… I hear the rolling thunder! Thy power throughout the universe displayed! Then sings my soul!.. My savior, God, to Thee! How Great Thou Art… How Great Thou Art! Then sings my soul!.. My savior, God, to Thee! How Great Thou Art… How Great Thou Art!

May the presence of God the Creator give you strength;

May the presence of God the Redeemer give you peace;

May the presence of God the Sustainer give you comfort;

May the presence of God the Sanctifier give you love.

              Amen.

Based on the Scripture found in Matthew 7: 21-29, this was given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on June 2, 2002…

      My brother was three years younger than me. In our later years it didn’t seem like much of an issue. But when I was 15 and he was 12 we were worlds apart. Or so it seemed at the time. And in all honesty, since we were half-brothers, there were a number of differences. For one thing, I had always had what seemed like a natural ability to operate any piece of equipment. Indeed, after letting me drive forward and backward all over the school blacktop, my Drivers Ed instructor had me driving out on the streets and highways of Edwardsville during my very first time behind the wheel! (My only problem was going over 30 MPH…I had never driven anything faster than that!) At seventeen, I was driving myself down to my grandparents in the Ozarks, about a three-and-a-half hour drive. Mike, however, was chomping at the bit to get behind a wheel. As the older brother, I had usually been the one to get to drive the tractor or whatever, and he just hadn’t picked it up like I had yet.

      During one of our summer stays together at grandma and grandpas’, grandpa decided to wash grandma’s car. As I’ve said before, only the main highways in this part of the country were paved. All of the other roads were still gravel, and it didn’t take long for a vehicle to reach the point where it was impossible to tell what color it was. Creeks abound in these hills, and most roads just went right through them. But for the bigger ones, a concrete slab was poured to cross on. The water would still run over the top of it, and over time gravel would fill up to the top of the slab, but at least you had a firm footing to drive on! The road past their farm crossed water four times, but only one such crossing was big enough to require a slab. And it was to this creek that grandpa took my brother and me in the car to wash it. This creek was about twenty feet wide and four inches deep before it crossed the slab at this point. Grandpa backed off of the slab onto the gravel where we used buckets dipped in the running water to wash with. Yes, we got good and wet ourselves, but that was part of the idea.

      When we were through, grandpa went to pull back out onto the slab, but the gravel was just too deep and the tires started to spin. He stopped right away, shut off the engine and got out. He had half expected this to happen so there was no surprise and no look of chagrin as he started walking back to get the tractor. Since there was a chance that I might drive, I went with grandpa, leaving Mike to ‘guard’ the car in case anybody was to drive by.

      About twenty minutes later, as we came around the corner with the tractor and chain, we were greeted with a very…er…surprising…sight. There was grandma’s car right where we had left it…except that the rear bumper was now in the water! Mike had decided that HE could get it out all by himself, and had tried to rock it back and forth the way he had seen us do at various times. The problem was that he wasn’t moving at all, and each time he spun a tire it dug itself deeper into the gravel. The first realization he had of this was when water began coming in through the bottom of the doors! Now, he thought, he HAD to get it out! Instead, of course, it just went deeper! By the time we got there, water was started up the cushion of the back seat!

      Looking back, it seems like water and gravel played a very important part in most of what went on in that area. First of all, they were probably two of the most common elements to be found around there, and generally had to be figured into any project that a person might plan…either in making use of or in getting rid of! Let me give you one example about how one business I knew of managed to use both.

      Shortly after moving down there, grandpa bought a small, very used dragline. He used it, along with the dozer that he took down with him, to build a number of little ponds and lakes around the farm. However, the hills and hollers and mud and gravel proved to be too much for the crawler drive gears, and for the last year that he had it he had to push it around with the dozer. Finally a man came to buy it for his rock quarry. Grandpa told him that the travel gears were out of it, but the guy said that that didn’t matter. The crane would be set next to the creek/river where his business was and would dig out all of the gravel that it could reach from there in a day’s time. Overnight, the flowing water would fill the hole that they had dug with more gravel, which they would dig out again the next day. He had a never-ending supply, thanks to the power of water and the fluidity of gravel!

      The fluidity of gravel? Oh, yes! Gravel and sand are both very fluid, as both of these stories illustrate.

      At various times through the years I have been a member at the St. Louis Science Center, and used to get down there fairly often. I recall on one visit watching an associate demonstrate just how fluid sand can be. Sand was built up and sculpted into a miniature landscape including hills, fields, and valleys. On this landscape were placed scale houses and barns, trees and bushes, cows, pigs…and people! A reservoir above the landscape was filled with water, then allowed to run out at various speeds. Even at lower amounts, the water began to cut out and reshape the low areas and ‘gullies’. As the flow increased, whole banks would fall in and be swept away, until, finally, the house itself was carried downstream with the flowing sand! And this is just the type of scenario that Jesus is describing in today’s verses!

      We find Jesus finishing up the ‘Sermon on the Mount’, as it came to be called. Let’s try to picture the scene. Jesus’ ministry has been going on for some time now, enough so that there are ‘multitudes’ who have come to see and hear Him. So many, in fact, that He must climb to a mountain top to address all of them. Mathew Henry’s Commentary says that, that alone carries some significance. “The place was a mountain in Galilee. And not one of the holy mountains neither, not one of the mountains of Zion, but a common mountain; by which Christ would intimate that there is no such distinguishing holiness of places now, under the gospel, as there was under the law; but that it is the will of God that men should pray and preach every where, any where.”  Some of the people are there because of the stories they have heard about Him healing and casting out demons. Some may indeed be there hoping for such to happen to them. Some are there to try to find fault in what He says in order to discredit Him. Some have come because they truly believe Him to be the promised Messiah! But most have come because they’re curios. They have heard about this ‘man’ Jesus, and about all of the miraculous things that His has done, and want to see for themselves just what everybody has been carrying on about!

Jesus begins, in chapter 5, by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, then goes on to talk about the salt of the earth and hiding our light under a bushel. He told how He had come to FULFILL the law, then gave us lessons on anger, adultery, divorce, revenge, and love. He taught us how to give…how to pray…and how to handle money and possessions. In chapter 7, verse 12, He says, “Do for others what you would like them to do for you. This is a summary of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.” In short, in under an hour, and in an amazingly few concise words, Jesus laid out the outline of how a person should shape his life. A ‘Christian’ way of life. The way God wants us to live!

And now, in our verses today, Jesus says that it is decision time. Barnes’ Notes puts it this way…Jesus closes the Sermon on the Mount by a beautiful comparison, illustrating the benefit of attending to his words. It was not sufficient to “hear” them; they must be “obeyed.” He compares the man who should hear and obey him to a man who built his house on a rock. Palestine was to a considerable extent a land of hills and mountains. Like other countries of that description, it was subject to sudden and violent rains. The Jordan, the principal stream, was annually swollen to a great extent, and became rapid and furious in its course. The streams which ran among the hills, whose channels might have been dry during some months of the year, became suddenly swollen with the rain, and would pour down impetuously into the plains below. Everything in the way of these torrents would be swept off. Even houses, if erected within the reach of these sudden inundations, and especially if founded on sand or on any unsolid basis, would not stand before them. The rapid torrent would gradually wash away its base, and it would totter and fall.

But Jesus is not talking about houses…He’s talking about foundations! We must read the Sermon on the Mount with its final application in mind. Jesus sets before us two choices. The “wise and foolish builders” share two traits in common: Each were builders and each had “heard” Jesus’ instructions. What matters, Jesus declared, is not familiarity with his teaching but putting it into practice. It is of supreme importance to build upon the right foundation. The man whose house collapsed was at fault not because he failed to labor, but because he did not use the rock. And the rock is Christ.

We’re told that those who heard Jesus speak were impressed by his authority. But amazement doesn’t equal acceptance or submission. In today’s’ passage, Jesus starts off by saying, “Not all people who sound religious are really godly They may refer to me as ‘Lord,’ but they still won’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven.”

What about you? On what foundation is your house built on? Most people do not deliberately seek to build on a false or inferior foundation; instead, they just don’t think about their life’s purpose. People who agree in theory that a house should be built on a solid foundation may still go out and construct their lives on a swamp. Many people are headed for destruction, not out of stubbornness but out of thoughtlessness.

Some may think that they can get by with a simple foundation…that they can weather whatever storms life might dish out to them. Like the three little pigs, they just don’t want to make the investment of time and resources required to be secure. They ‘gamble’ on everything being all right. And when the waters rise and the winds howl, they feel all alone…which, indeed, they are! But if we have a good, solid foundation…a foundation in Christ…then we know that we can weather what ever comes our way. We can face the trials and tribulations of life secure in the knowledge that we are NOT alone…that whatever happens, God is with us!

Every life has its share of storms and swirling waters. That’s just the way it is. But how each of us face and hold up to these storms tells a great deal about what kind of foundation our life is built on. Is your life like the gravel being pushed around the waters of a rushing creek or river, with no idea and no control over where you are going?  Or are you standing firm on the Rock of Ages? And if you’re not sure, think about it this way…if you asked your neighbor what they thought, what would they say? Part of our responsibility as believers is to help others stop and think about where their lives are headed and to point out the consequences of ignoring Christ’s message.

Is the way we are living our lives showing the strength of the rock…or the weakness of shifting sand?

May 30, 2004 was not only the Sunday of the ‘Memorial Day’ weekend but also ‘Pentecost Sunday’ of that year. This is the talk I gave on that date at the Lynnville (IL) UMC addressing Both of those occurrences!

The Scripture is from the 14th chapter of John, verses 8-17 and 25-27…

          If I’m counting the years right, I was thirteen years old when I first went to work for the neighbor as a ‘tractor operator’. And on that first day, one of the main things he taught me was how to start his two International 450 Farmalls, each of which had the semi-diesel engine. You see, these started on gasoline to warm-up but switched to diesel for operating, and were quite complicated for their day.

          First, there was a large lever on the side that you had to lean forward and pull towards you until it snapped into position. Then, making sure that the key was on and the throttle was in the full-off position, you pulled the choke and hit the starter till it was running on the gas-side of the engine. After letting it warm up a bit, you placed one hand on the big lever on the side and the other on the throttle, and at exactly the same time, push the big lever forward and open the throttle about half way. This required not a few calisthenics by the operator, who had to be pretty flexible!

          After walking me through the sequence, I remember telling him that he might have to show me at least once and maybe twice more for me to be absolutely sure I had it, but after that I would remember. I think that my description of it here proves that I did!

          Have you ever noticed how easy it usually is to learn something you really Want to learn, and harder to learn something you don’t? By the same token, once you do learn something, don’t you find that unless you have cause to use it, you sometimes tend to forget as the years go by? And what about those things you really had no interest in learning in the first place… or that were just too complicated to make much sense of so you didn’t really try to learn? How much of that do we retain?

          I know that there have been many times over the years that I have said to someone, “How long have you been here (Or been doing this)? And you still don’t know about such-and-such?” The problem is that I get to be rather gun-shy about it, because I know that sooner or later the day will come when they’re going to come back to me and say… hopefully with a grin… “How long have you been here? And you still haven’t learned such-and-such?” What goes around comes around! Sometimes, though, that feeling is justified… and that’s what we find in today’s verses!

          Phillip starts off by saying to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” And what does Jesus say? Can’t you just see Him standing there saying, ‘Phillip… how long have you been here? And you still don’t know or understand me!!’ And yet many of us can relate to Phillip’s comment… after all, he was only asking for confirmation, right?

The Life Application Commentary asks, “Was Philip wrong, shallow, or out of place to question the Lord? Whatever Philip’s personal reasons for asking Jesus to “show us the Father,” his question shows how much easier it is to ask for more proof than to act on what we already know. We expect God to satisfy our conditions before we will trust him. These conditions take some of the following forms:

• The desire for assurance: “Please give us bomb-proof faith in who you are and exactly what you expect from us. Protect us from doubts and ambiguity.”
• The desire for intimacy: “Please give us such a constant feeling of being close to you that we will never be alone or afraid again. Protect us from the risks of broken relationships and living in a fallen world.”
• The desire for knowledge: “Please give us a deep understanding of your nature. Protect us from confusion.”

These desires may be real, but God is not obligated to satisfy them. Most of us will experience desires that will go unfulfilled in this life. In fact, unmet desires remind us to submit to God. He is in charge; not us. In Christ, God has given us all the resources we need to live, to love, and to serve. Eventually, Christ will help us understand why some of our desires go unmet. In the meantime, we are to trust and go on.”

          There have been many, many things over the years that I have had to learn, and each time I try to take special note of those that I think I need to retain. And if it’s something complicated, I try to ask as many questions as I can to make sure I’m absolutely clear on what it is I am to learn. Sometimes, I might wind up making a nuisance of myself in the process, but I manage to learn what I need to none-the-less. Yet after all of that, I have found that unless it is something you really use or are interested in, time has a way of disrupting our memories and we forget some or all that we worked so hard to learn… and it’s almost like we never really learned it in the first place!

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. It was originally called Decoration Day, and is intended to be a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. According to a source I found on the internet, there are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day, most since the end of the Civil War.

In fact, Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868, by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was first observed on May 30 of that year when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.

Since the late 50’s on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the 1,200 soldiers of the 3d U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington. They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing.

Many other organizations sponsor annual observances of various kinds, but the truth is that most Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. Why do you suppose that is? Because, like so many things, we forget the lessons that have been learned in the past!

          I don’t want to get into a big history lesson this morning, but consider, if you will, how many different men and/or nations have set out to ‘rule the world’ over the centuries. Consider the evils that have been perpetrated by one man against another in the name of race, creed, and yes, religion! And it seems that since the establishment of this United States of America some 200 years ago, it has been our country valiantly standing up for Christian ideals and honor all over the world. But… over time, Satan has corrupted our ideals of right and wrong… so much so that it is no longer ‘proper’ to consider ourselves as a Christian nation… we now fight for, ‘Truth, Justice, and the American way!”

          True, the ‘American Way’ used to be the ‘Christian Way’, but time is causing us to forget the lessons of the past… and most of that un-learning tends to pull us away from God. Consider how many times the Israelites fell away from God… He would punish them, they would repent, He would forgive them, they would follow and be His people again… until… again, they would forget and move away. They never seemed to be able to remember that all of this had happened before. People, we are headed down that same path!

          Our soldiers are in a foreign land today trying to save those people from an evil, sadistic regime and ruler… and in that they have been somewhat successful. But when their leaders lose all trace of Christian ideals and morals, they become as corrupt and evil as the evil they are attempting to destroy… and all of that evil then spreads outward and touches all who are involved! Instead of it being a battle of Christianity over Satan, as it should have been… for Satan certainly has a mighty stronghold in the Middle East… it becomes one of evil subjecting evil to even further evils… and the only winner is Satan!

How do we combat this evil… how do we defeat Satan and push him back to the hell he belongs in? By learning the truth… and then spreading what we have learned throughout the world!!!

Today is also Pentecost Sunday… and we heard earlier this morning how the Holy Spirit came upon all of those present that day, as promised by Jesus in these verses when He said, “…I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever- the Spirit of truth,” and later adds, “…the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

          ‘The Holy Spirit … will teach us all things!!!’ That’s what Jesus tells us! He will teach us how to live our lives… he will teach us right and wrong… he will teach us how to recognize and defeat evil at every turn. “All things!!!”

But are we listening? Are we learning anything? And if not… why not? And if we do learn it, are we understanding it… retaining it… using it? Remember what I said earlier? If we don’t understand something, we sometimes tend to gloss-over the learning of it… and even if we do absorb it, if we don’t make use of it, we will eventually forget it again. Either way, the devil’s work is done… for by not learning and using and teaching the Message and Work of the Lord… we become Satan’s ambassadors on this earth… for in the end, our inaction for Christ counts as a positive for His enemies!

So… what do we do about it… how do we learn from the Holy Spirit? How do we face our fears of ignorance and embrace the knowledge of the Lord? How do we know what’s important to know and what’s not? How do we know that we are using our knowledge to do the work He intends? How do we ask questions if we’re not sure of something?

The answer is really very simple… first, we must study… we must KNOW God’s Message! And then… we must pray! It is only through prayer… and being open to His answers afterwards… that we can truly discern God’s teaching and calling!

How many hours do you suppose the officers in charge of those Iraqis prisoners spent on their knees in prayer and meditation each day? How many hours a day do you think the soldiers overseeing those prisoners spent on their knees in prayer and meditation? How many hours a day do you spend on your knees in prayer and meditation? So… who is setting the example for who… and what are they learning by that example?!

In the closing verses of today’s passage, Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” The Living Bible puts it, “I am leaving you with a gift-peace of mind and heart! And the peace I give isn’t fragile like the peace the world gives. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”

Don’t be troubled or afraid… the peace of Christ is yours… a gift from Christ! But it is not intended to be a gift to be put up on a self and admired… it is to be shared and used and spread out to all who want and need it! And it is up to you… to do it… in Christ’s name!

This was written for and first given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on May 16, 2004. The Scripture is from the Book of Acts, chapter 16, verses 9 – 15.

       My freshman year at Edwardsville was the last year that the ninth grade was still in the junior-high building, but some courses were already being held in the high-school building next door. Such was the case with my ag-class, which I had signed up for as one of my electives the year before. The junior-high building had very limited facilities for shop classes, and the high-school’s was huge. Indeed, the shop that was used for their Ag program had originally been the district’s bus garage!

       Taking this class had been very important to me, for, even though I had pretty much grown up on Grandpa’s farm, and was now living on our own, I still knew very little about the ‘business’ of farming. So, even though many of my fellow classmates considered me the ‘odd-man’ out… I was the only one who also sang in choir and performed in plays… I would sit and listen attentively as I attempted to absorb and learn all that I could. At times, though, my inexperience showed through in a big… and usually embarrassingly… big way!

       One example was when we were studying and learning about engines. As part of that, each of us were to bring in some kind of engine from our homes to disassemble and rebuild as needed, and most of us, including me, had brought in a lawn mower. The one dad had me take was actually our newest one, bought the first summer we were on our farm to mow the large yard we now had. That had already been enough years, however, that it was losing power and getting hard to start, so he figured I might as well see what I could do with it.

       Our instructor had had many years trying to teach sometimes un-teachable farm boys, and had admittedly become somewhat jaded with his job. Still, he soldiered on and taught us the basics of how an engine functions and why it works, and then started getting into the specifics of working on one. He told us how to hone a cylinder and install new piston rings into it, and talked about grinding the valves. Then it was time for us to actually work on our own.

I had dad get all of the parts and gaskets that I thought I needed and tore it down to bare metal. I had no major problems taking it apart, honing the cylinder and reassembling the block. Then came grinding the valves. Our teacher hadn’t been real, real clear about that, and since there was a lot of build up on them, I went over to the grinder and started to grind! One of the other kids came over and said he didn’t think that that was the proper way to do it, but by then it was too late. Besides, about that time I lost hold of it and… zing… through the grinder and across the shop it went! “Uh, dad, that engine has a bad valve… we need to get one of those, too.” The next day, our teacher gave us specific instructions as to how to properly grind valves!

By now, I imagine some of you are wondering, “What in the world is he talking about, and what does it have to do with Paul’s journeys in today’s verses?” To understand that, I need to tell you one more story!

In the church that I grew up in, in Hartford, the junior and senior-high students, along with some of those starting college, were combined into one Sunday school class. This class had always been taught by one of the three more serious and studious elders of our church, and their diligence and thoroughness in teaching their subject was well known. This, combined with the fact that all of the other students in that class were those whom I had idolized as being the ‘older kids’, caused me no small trepidation on my first day of being in that class. And I have to say that as time went by, that fear turned out to be well founded. In could take as long as six months or more to cover a single chapter of Acts… and I have to admit, at that age my mind had some trouble paying attention to all of the great orations that took place each week.

Oh, how I wish I had paid better attention… or had a tape recorder of some kind. The knowledge and insight into God’s Word that was expounded in that small room each Sunday was staggering! And I was just too young to recognize and appreciate it! Still, over the years I have come to realize that I must have picked up and retained more of it than I ever thought, for it is amazing how some of it comes back to me from time-to-time. Such is the case of today’s verses… for I remember well that Paul made three journeys throughout the Gentile world, and we studied them in minute detail… and at least some of that is still with me today!

These verses chronicle the start of these journeys as Paul received a vision calling him to Macedonia. In the verses preceding these, we read how the Holy Spirit had ‘forbade’ Paul and his companions from entering Asia and guided them, instead, towards reaching out to the Romans and Greeks. Through the leadings of the Holy Spirit, Paul was to spend the rest of his life spreading the Good News among that part of the world! Our verses also note the conversion of Lydia, noteworthy, among other things, as being the first Roman noted as being converted. And it is true that much could be made from these verses regarding being called and responding to that call… of the significance, if any, of the first convert being a woman… and of how she opened up her heart to God and her home to Paul and his companions. However, this morning I choose not to speak on the verses themselves, but on how well we all have learned them, and others, over the years.

 I started out telling you about my first experience with grinding valves. What I haven’t told, yet, is how I came to be very proficient in doing valve jobs and overhauls on engines and heads of all sizes! Indeed, as an ag-mechanic for many years, I became very adept at rebuilding, modifying or adapting all sorts of standard and non-standard parts… sometimes by choice, sometimes because the correct ones were no longer available! My point is that I didn’t let that first bad experience deter me from learning more and becoming as good at it as I could be… and if I may say so myself, I was certainly one of the best in my hey-day! Now, I didn’t get that way overnight… it took many years of learning by doing… and asking… and I must make note, here, that I have never been afraid to admit that I don’t know something and ask! I’m not saying I wasn’t embarrassed to ask… but I tried very hard to not let that embarrassment keep me from learning all that I needed and wanted to know!

By the same token, while it has taken longer, I still strive to learn all that I can about God’s Word, as well! Though my early experiences with doing so may not have gone well, or may have seemed daunting, I have slowly continued to learn all that I can as time and circumstances have allowed. Now, I am far from an expert… and I must add that this is a never-ending endeavor… but I do feel more comfortable talking about what I do know, and if I have questions, I know where to look or who to ask… and I’m not afraid or ashamed to do so!

How many of you here this morning can stand up and tell us the specifics of Paul’s three voyages? I can’t. But, I have a book at home, and a program on my computer that can tell me if I really need to know! On the other hand, how many of you can recite, “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s… render unto God that which is God’s?”  How about, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’   This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’.”

You see, you have been learning! Slowly but surely God has been trying to instruct each of us in what He wants us to know… and whether we realized it or not, we have been given, at the very least, the basic knowledge of God… His Son, Jesus… and His sacrifice on the cross for our sins.

In the 14^th chapter of the Gospel of John Jesus says, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.” God is teaching us! Sometimes, He teaches us even when we aren’t expecting it… and sometimes the lessons aren’t apparent until they are used at some point in our lives. But in reality, He’s teaching us something everyday! We only need to be open to His teaching and His leading. And then… like Paul in today’s verses… we need to be willing to go where He says and do as He instructs!

I invite you this morning to pause for a moment and consider this question… How and what has God been trying to teach you today? And then… and perhaps even more important… consider what it is He’s asking you to do about it?

May the presence of God the Creator give you strength;

May the presence of God the Redeemer give you peace;

May the presence of God the Sustainer give you comfort;

May the presence of God the Sanctifier give you love.

This was written for Mother’s Day in 2004 and given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC that year, as well as the Wanda (IL) UMC in 2021! The Scripture is from the 10th chapter of the Gospel of John, verses 11-18…

       Due to situations that occurred during her teen years, my mother hadn’t been able to finish high school. So it was that she was pushing thirty when she decided to start taking classes and get her GED. And she enjoyed doing that so much, and did so well at it, that she continued her studies until she graduated from SIU @ Edwardsville as a special education teacher. Part of that process included doing student teaching in a regular classroom for a given number of semesters. One of her projects was a science/biology demonstration in which each of the students was to be responsible for watching over and taking care of their very own duck egg. The plan had been that all of the eggs would be hatched by Easter and each student would take his-or-her duckling home with them to keep as an Easter gift. And as best I recall, that’s pretty much the way it worked… except for one small detail. They had forgotten to ask the parents if it was alright for their child to bring home a new pet… Especially a duck! Within two weeks after Easter Sunday most had been brought back to her at school and our farm became the new home to a flock of ducklings.

We started out keeping them in the chicken-house with the chickens, but later that spring we took all of them up to the pond we had built on top of the hill in the back pasture and turned them loose. There, they had plenty of room, water and grass, as well as what food we took up each day. Eventually, though, one by one they started disappearing… well not entirely… we could usually find trails of blood and feathers. You see, in the woods behind our pasture were foxes… and from the sounds that we could hear at times, there must have been a lot of them! Eventually all of the ducks were gone, and then chickens started disappearing… and they were in a fenced pen in the barnyard and locked up in the chicken-house at night!

Now, I had been raised on children’s stories and cartoons about evil, crafty foxes and wolves… at that time they seemed pretty much one-and-the-same to me… and when you combined that with seeing the carcasses left from their occasional raids, I had a very strong respect for foxes.

The adjoining property to the rear of ours had two small hilltops cleared as pasture while the rest was surrounded by the aforementioned woods. As I grew older I came to enjoy walking back there on occasion to relax and work through solving all of the world’s problems, as teenagers are wont to do. One night I was sitting on the side of the hill watching the gathering evening and listening to the foxes run in the woods across the way when I suddenly heard a small ‘bark’ close by. I turned and saw a red fox standing about thirty feet away from me looking at me as intently as I was looking at it! He must have been walking around the hill and came upon me quite by accident… indeed, his bark had been more one of surprise than anything.

Keep in mind that at this time I was a very lanky, skin-and-bones teenager, (though I did have my ‘farm’ muscles) and was probably 15 minutes from any other human being. I was probably wearing a t-shirt, shorts and sandals and never carried anything in my pockets on these walks. I stared at the fox as it stared back… thoughts of stories about rabies and hunting in packs racing through my head. (I know, now, that only wolves hunt in packs, but I didn’t then!) “Okay…,” I said, as I slowly stood up. “Let’s play chicken!” I spread my arms and shouted as I began running towards him! He turned and was out-of-sight in less time than it takes for me to tell it. I won, but decided that it was probably time to head back to the house, anyway.

When the hired hand in Jesus’ story, today, sees the wolf coming, he runs away. Wolves are far more dangerous than the small fox that I faced down, and since the worker had no personal stake or interest in the sheep, his first concern was for himself.

In today’s verses, Jesus declares that He is ‘the Good Shepherd’. Fausset’s Bible Dictionary says that, “The shepherd’s dutieswere to… go before the sheep and call them by name… watch the flock… search for stray sheep… supply water… bring them back to the fold at evening and make sure that none be missing by passing one by one “under the rod”, counting and checking each sheep as it passed…and to act as porter, guarding the entrance to the fold by night. The shepherd had the responsibility of, and at the same time, a personal interest in the flock.

Tenderness to the young and feeble was also part of the shepherd’s duty, and great care was taken not to overdrive them. That’s why the shepherd’s office is often used to represent Jehovah’s tender care of His people.

Jesus does all of these things for His flock! He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. And ultimately, as ‘the Good Shepherd’, He is willing to lay down His life for His sheep. In fact, He says it no less than four times in these eight verses! Looking back from our vantage point of two-thousand odd years of learning, we are all well aware of what He was talking about. And we know that He did it out of His love for each of us! And I put it to you that each of us are expected to love one another in that same way and to also be shepherds of the flock!

In the 3^rd chapter of 1 John, starting with verse 16, the same ‘John’ who wrote the Gospel of John writes,

“We know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for us. And so we also ought to give up our lives for our Christian brothers and sisters. But if anyone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses to help–how can God’s love be in that person?

“Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions. It is by our actions that we know we are living in the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before the Lord…”

The Life Application Commentary says that, “John dismissed the idea that God’s love is a mere theoretical concept. He rejected the notion that sentimental words are an adequate expression of love to others. On the contrary, he argued, Biblical love is a verb…it requires action! Yet, we so easily rationalize away biblical demands that in most of the world, our Christian brothers and sisters lack proper food, clothing, and jobs to live decent lives. Consider the people God has placed in your life and ask yourself, “What does an active love require me to do for them today?

“Talk is cheap, so unsubstantiated claims of mere word or speech are worthless. Anyone can claim to have faith, but if his or her lifestyle remains selfish and worldly, then what good are the words and speeches.”

Since this is Mother’s Day, let me tell you a little more about my mother. After graduating from SIU, she started working with the Special Ed program in Edwardsville, and eventually became the administrator of that program for the entire district. In the mean time, she continued taking courses and eventually received a Masters Degree in Education. She was appointed principal of one of the inner Edwardsville grade schools for a number of years, until being asked to take over as principal at three of the district’s rural schools. She also was asked to teach courses on Special Education at SIU and was a part-time professor there for a number of years. At the same time, she had continued with her own education and was getting close to getting her Doctorate before two separate family members were overcome with serious health conditions and she chose to take an early retirement in order to care for both her husband and my brother.

And all along the way, each of the things she did she did out of love… love for the children she worked with… love for the profession that she was proud to be a part of and to help others learn… love for each of her family members… and a very strong love for the God that her mother had shown her and helped her to know! And because of that love she excelled in everything that she did!!! (And still does!)

For those who may have trouble picturing the kind of love that God has for us… trouble seeing just what kind of love Jesus expects from us… and trouble comprehending the love that we should be showing for all of those around us… just picture the love that a mother has for her children!

Let me read this piece that came in my e-mail some years ago… you’ll find it in today’s bulletin.

Love In the Home

If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place, but have not love, I am a housekeeper—not a homemaker.

If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements, but have not love, my children learn cleanliness—not godliness.

Love leaves the dust in search of a child’s laugh.
Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window.
Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk.
Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys.

Love is present through the trials.
Love reprimands, reproves, and is responsive.
Love crawls with the baby, walks with the toddler, runs with the child, then stands aside to let the youth walk into adulthood.
Love is the key that opens salvation’s message to a child’s heart.

Before I became a mother I took glory in my house of perfection.
Now I glory in God’s perfection of my child.
As a mother, there is much I must teach my child, but the greatest of all is love.

Yes, we are all of us shepherds… we are shepherds of our families… we are shepherds of our friends and neighbors… we are shepherds of our Christian brothers and sisters all over the world… and we are shepherds of God’s church! And to be effective shepherds we must all be filled with the same overpowering love for each other that a mother has for her child… the same overpowering love that God has for His Son… the same overpowering love that Jesus has for each one of us sitting here today!

The writer of 1 John said that, “We know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for us.” Then he adds these words…

“Dear friends, if our conscience is clear, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive whatever we request because we obey him and do the things that please him. And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. Those who obey God’s commandments live in fellowship with him, and he with them.”

The Life Application Commentary says that, “If we could ask John what the one message he wanted us to get from his epistles was, he would probably say, “Love one another.” This command did not originate from John… it came straight from the lips of Jesus. John repeated this command often, basing it on the premise that since “God is love,” all who claim to know God must exhibit that same love in their relationship with others. Jesus commands his followers to love others as he did.

It is easy to talk about love and how much we love people, but love means putting others first. Love is action — showing others that we care — not just words.

To that I can only add ‘Amen’… and to all mothers… thank you for loving us and for teaching us how to love… “Happy Mother’s Day!”