“Do You Have the Time?”

Hebrews 12:1-2, 12-17; Luke 12:49-59

August 15, 2004

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John Fleming

You will also know this; besides being a wonderful savior, Jesus is also a great preacher and teacher. He had the knack, the ability to take something common, like the weather, mention it, and then give it a spiritual truth. That is an accurate description of what is happening in our lesson for this morning from Luke’s gospel. Jesus talked about the weather. I guess that he knew that the weather would be a conversation piece forever. But he uses it to make a powerful point. In the days of Jesus farmers had to pay attention to the weather. So much depended on it. Palestinian farmers had to know when it was going to rain and how long a shower might last. Jesus knew that, so he talked about the weather. He included probably what was a saying of his time, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’ and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’ and so it happen.’” There are weather sayings in our day, too. I can remember my mother telling me that when it thundered, that God and his angels were bowling in heaven. That is a weather saying. The spiritual truth that is the result of the weather image is this one, “You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” I know what Jesus is after here. I know that he is telling us that we need to notice the signs of God all around us. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. There is not a lot of time left. More than anything else he wants his disciples to be ready and to be prepared. I know all that.

Let me take a little liberty with our lesson this morning. If we pay attention to the weather. If we notice the clouds and the winds and know that it is going to rain or that it is going to be very hot, why don’t we pay attention to more weighty things like our spiritual lives and being ready for Jesus. Can I ask you this? What are you concerned about? What gets your dedicated attention? Is it the weather? Maybe it is the stock market. If you are in school or if you have children in school, perhaps it is a grade point average that is the most important thing. Don’t get me wrong. These things are important. But are they more important than our spiritual lives? Do you ever focus on the trivial things and make them priorities while neglecting important things like our marriages, our children, perhaps our parents. It seems that I am meddling a bit this morning. I didn’t mean to. Actually I did mean to. How is it that we are supposed to relate to those that we love but don’t focus on?

Jesus, I think, wants more of us. I tell you what I would like to do this morning. I would like to use what is left of both of our scripture lessons to say something to us about focusing on our spiritual lives. Let’s first look at this great passage from the book of Hebrews. This is one of my favorite passages and one that we often use on All Saint’s Sunday, when we remember those who we have loved, but who have died. Not only is it a great lesson, it is a great image. The image is a cloud of witnesses, seated in a huge stadium, watching us run a race, and encouraging us on with their cheers. The lesson says, among other things, that we are to look to Jesus as our example, and that we are to run the race that is set before us. Well, what exactly is this race? The writer tells us a little later in our lesson when he says that we are to pursue peace with everyone and try to obtain a holiness that unless we have, we will not see Jesus.

So that is the race that is set before us. And to get to the finish line with peace and holiness we have to tend to three different things. The writer of Hebrews gives us three see to its. Here is the first one. He writes that we are to see to it that no one misses out on the grace of God. Don’t just receive the grace of God for yourself, is the lesson. Help others obtain it. Let those who are closest to you know about it. Help them to live the life where grace is all over the place. That is the first thing that we must tend to. Here is the second. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way, “See to it that there is no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble...” Have you discovered this, friends? Bitterness has a way of doing that. It has a way of living in your soul and not going away. It has a way of festering and springing up and getting out of control. But you already know that. To grow, says Hebrews, is to find a way to get along with other people. To tend to your spiritual life means that you deal with the bitterness instead of letting it deal with you. It means that you try your very best not to dismiss other people, to get along with other people, to find a way to live together and to support one another. Now I know that that is hard. I know that it is very hard, but it is what we must strive for. Then there is the third see to it. Our lesson tells us that we are to see to it that no one forsakes or gives up on their faith. Giving up on your faith, now that is easier. The example that Hebrews uses is Esau, the brother who traded his birthright for a hot bowl of soup. Do not give up on your faith for something that is insignificant or fleeting, for a moment of pleasure or something will not mean much in a matter of days. Not only that, when someone that you know is struggling with their faith and their belief that God is with them, encourage them.

These three “see to its” are the first way that we take care of our spiritual lives. The second comes by way of the first part of our lesson from Luke’s gospel. Jesus says to us that growing, having peace, and holiness will cause us to make loyalty decisions. Listen to some of Jesus’ words, “...they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother‑in‑law against her daughter‑in‑law and daughter‑in‑law against mother‑in‑law.” That is a hard teaching, though it does get a little easier at the end with the comment about daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law. I guess what really makes it hard is that we have experienced these kinds of relationships. Some of us know about divisions in the family. Jesus says that when you try to bring peace to your family or to where you work, you will probably run into a little trouble. You see, some of the decisions that we make are not popular. When we put our faith on the line, we take stands. We stand up and say, “This is what I believe. I am not falling away from it. I will not back down!” I want you to see this. These words of Jesus are not a prediction of the future. He is not saying that in the future, there will be divisions in our families. What he is saying is a present reality. To a group of people being persecuted for their faith, this word from Luke would have made perfect sense. If they were in the church, still, that means that they took a stand, and did not back down. Sometimes the decisions that you make divide the family. It must have been comforting to these people that Jesus understood that.

You will know this. We are all called to make loyalty decisions and to make stands. How you spend your time is a loyalty decision. Do you spend more of it in front of the television or in front of your Bible? What you do with your talents, those things inside of you that God has made you good at, is a loyalty decision. Do you spend more time thinking about how you can make God’s fellowship great with your particular gift, or do you waste it. This one might hurt a bit. I am doing a little more meddling. What your checkbook looks like is a loyalty decision that we are called to make everyday. Do you spend more on movies than you do on Jesus? I may get a letter about that comment.

Perhaps I should quickly move to the third thing that we can do to focus on our spiritual lives. Here it is. When we are concerned about our spiritual lives, we follow the work and the words of Jesus. To put this another way, we take what we are taught and what we read and what we understand and we live it. We do not just say, “I believe in Jesus” we live it. I notice that people speed up and down Durwood Road, out there, in front of the church. When they are driving slow enough, which is not often, I wonder what they think of us. I wonder what they know about us. Do they think of us as the church that makes their own stained glass windows. Do they think of us as a neighborhood church? Do they know that we are the church with a child care center? Let me tell you what I would hope. I would hope that they would think, “Oh, that is the St. Paul Church. That is the church where the people act like Jesus.” That is our calling, friends. It is what we are supposed to do. People know who we are by what we do and what we say.

Let me close with this. Some of you have heard of Bubba Smith, the great football player who played in the National Football League and then was an actor in the Police Academy movies and in Miller beer commercials. You might remember those advertisements. In every one of them a argument broke out between two groups of people. Half argued that Miller Lite was less filling. The other half said that it tasted great.

After Bubba’s football career was over, he went to his alma mater, Michigan State and rode in a homecoming parade. He rode in a convertible. As his car made it through the route, college students yelled out, “Tastes Great. Less Filling.” Bubba did not like that. It bothered him. Later that day he went to the football game. As he entered the stadium, they called out again, “Tastes Great. Less Filling!” Something happened inside Bubba Smith then and there. He realized that he was making the wrong contribution. He had not intended to do that. His brother (who happened to also be his manager) was with him. He said to him, “Find a phone, call Miller, and cancel my endorsement. I do not care what it costs!” People are paying attention to what we are doing. And we, friends, are called to pay attention to how we are living. Let us pray.

(Special thanks to a minister friend of mine who provided an idea or two in this sermon).