Tropicana

There was a time when mostly foreigners hung out in the Tropicana in Zenica

We were the only ones who had money to spend 

People remembered carrying a dinning table up a mountain to trade for lunch

Bread there was no bread at the Tropicana, but there was plenty of money

I was young, but there were some thing that looked familiar

Not many people were very happy

Some were very happy

I chose my side

National Day of Mourning

Things change. It is in their nature to. Big part of following Jesus is dealing with change. I grew up on Indian Hills where we celebrated thanksgiving. Fifty years later the people I respect the most now call it slash national day of mourning. How further could things change? Well they go in circles around God.

People think we are so divided in our politics. I find myself laughing. What is really happening is change and we are coming together and it is difficult. Two hundred years ago when this church was founded it would be broken by slavery. We began in Baltimore conference. Baltimore!!! Rockets red glare bombs bursting in air just nine years earlier.  Baltimore!!! 

Methodist Episcopal Church, Nottingham MEC is what we were for most of our history. The largest Methodist denomination in the country itself only founded in 1784. The first nationally organized church in the country. Nice thing about sermons in the modern Methodist Church not a lot of time for fact checking. Everything I mention I invite you to investigate. Most people will tell you things to stop you. Jesus told people things to free them.

Lots of excitement from 1821, I almost lose my point. by 1860 this ME church would be broken.  No longer the largest or the only one organized. Not yet through our first forty years or the Civil War. We have been more divided. People under Jim Crow south laws walked around as if they made sense. We walk around as if our rules makes sense. Our leaders now say 1.5 degrees Celsius is not so bad and there is nothing we can due now anyways. When people ask why I follow Jesus I simply ask who do you follow? Give me a better example.

We need more holidays.   I've talked about celebrating each other's holidays but we need new ones. There was a time when there were none.  People are afraid to take a critical view.   I think this is a natural occurrence.  There is a great truth about problems.  Some of them will solve themselves. Certainly not everyone and the trick is to know which ones. Sometimes the answer is to do nothing.

The first time I experience this and really understood it was in a professional setting.  The job that was in front of me was impossible.  So I started doing what I could knowing that I would not be able to solve every problem I had before me.  Something surprising happened.  Some of the problems took care of themselves.  I looked in amazement and wanted to tell someone.  We don't usually tell people when we solve a problem by doing nothing.  I didn't tell anybody, but I remember that I wanted to.

Well here you are and another thing has taken care of itself.  Hoping problems solve themselves doesn't seem to be much help in my experience.  Like a store where something is sold.  There are people coming there to just spend money.  There are other people that have no idea why they are there.  A good salesman in my mind doesn't get in the way of the first group and deals with the reality of the latter group.  Ice sold to people in the artic in my mind is not a good sale.  

So here we find ourselves in the next two hundred years at Nottingham. This first week of advent this new year for the church soon to be broken again. Sometimes things need to be broken. Jesus sure was.  Behind us we have Christ the King Sunday and ahead of us we have twelve days of Christmas and the rest of our year.

It is nice how we gather in Advent to begin our year.  Almost like we get a head start on the rest of the world.  We are in the first season again on the road to Bethlehem.  None of us the first time around.  Some of us spun around and confused.  These years like the generations mingle through.  I hope to show you here today it is why things are so hard to fix.

Here today in our scripture we have something different from a lesson. Not an example cause this here today we don't have to do just Jesus does. When Jesus talks about his yoke being light I believe this is part of what he is talking about.

Luke 21:25-36 which I read from the Amplified Bible is our scripture for today:

25 “There will be signs (attesting miracles) in the sun and moon and stars; and on the earth [there will be] distress and anguish among nations, in perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting from fear and expectation of the [dreadful] things coming on the world; for the [very] powers of the heavens will be shaken."

Today we feel like we have been through so much.  That day when Jesus said this people felt they had been through so much.  We have each learned lessons of things then and now that shake at the very powers of heaven.  I would mention the holocausts and maybe the twenty seven million soviet citizens that died for our freedoms.  Something that is never mentioned enough in my mind.

For the contemporaries of Jesus they would not have to think long to come to something that shakes the very powers of heaven, their Temple after all was not their first.  Remembering Egypt was high up there in the their holidays.  

 27 "Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with [transcendent, overwhelming] power [subduing the nations] and with great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to occur, stand tall and lift up your heads [in joy], because [suffering ends as] your redemption is drawing near.”

Pretty good way to start the year.  Bit of a spoiler.  It is telling to note where we start this year on the road to Jerusalem celebrating where we will arrive.  Through the shadow of the valley of many things we will come.

29 Then He told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 30 as soon as they put out leaves, you see it and know for yourselves that summer is near. 31 So you too, when you see these things happening, know [without any doubt] that the kingdom of God is near. 32 I assure you and most solemnly say to you, this generation [those living at that definite period of time preceding the second coming] will not pass away until [a]everything takes place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.

I don't think I have an answer here because I am not sure there is one.  Mark records this generation will not pass as well.  There are no answers that I like among those who have theories.  People say Jesus must be talking about future generations.  There is also this idea of double fulfillment which is even less satisfying.  Somehow it was a true prophesy for future generation and that generation because the Temple was destroyed a second time.  About the worst thing the contemporaries of Jesus could imagine happening.

Maybe I wonder here if this is why things are so hard to fix: these generations.  When I was younger people seemed older.  Now that I am older people of seem younger.  There was something that I identified early in life: people cycle through and institutions go along with little memory.  Even our church no one who has been here two hundred years.  Some people linger but those in charge today were not in charge yesterday.  The new person that shows up next week will not worry about that.

We go through stages in life.  The year 2021 seemed so far away to me. It did not to my daughter.  We replace ourselves and have been mingling in since the time of Jesus.  This institution of Christianity traces itself directly to the life of this man.  How many people and who were in charge has cycled and circle and almost exhausted itself and in other times did not have enough room for all that wanted to enter.

I'm not sure what exactly is gonna happen in the kingdom the return of Jesus will usher in, but I think what will change most is these generations will be different.  I almost wonder will we have enough people by then.  

34 “But be on guard, so that your hearts are not weighed down and depressed with the giddiness of debauchery and the nausea of self-indulgence and the worldly worries of life, and then that day [when the Messiah returns] will not come on you suddenly like a trap; 35 for it will come upon all those who live on the face of all the earth. 36 But keep alert at all times [be attentive and ready], praying that you may have the strength and ability [to be found worthy and] to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand in the presence of the Son of Man [at His coming].”

It's the generations that mingle through. Why nothing is ever done and how everything is. I noticed this when I was young and saw people retire.  There were certain people that read the news when I first learned that was a thing.  They have all gone.  I think it would be funny for those news readers to see what the current news calls news, but they are all gone or gone quiet.

That first Thanksgiving took place on the land of the Wampanoag Nation, with 30,000 to 100,000 people spread across their land.  They did not eat turkey I can tell you.  They helped them survive to ensure their own demise, well there are 2,800 still there today.  Ignored by the 1.5 million visitors to Plymouth rock.

The Wampanoags, whose name means “People of the First Light” in their native language, trace their ancestors back at least 10,000 years to southeastern Massachusetts, a land they called Patuxet. In the 1600s, they lived in 69 villages, each with a chief and a medicine man.

The Wampanoags were nearly wiped out by a mysterious disease that some Wampanoags believe came from the feces of rats aboard European boats, while other historians think it was likely small pox or possibly yellow fever.  Known as “The Great Dying,” the pandemic lasted three years.

The Wampanoags kept tabs on the Pilgrims for months. In their first winter, half died due to cold, starvation and disease.  By the fall, the Pilgrims — thanks in large part to the Wampanoags teaching them how to plant beans and squash in a mound with maize around it and use fish remains as fertilizer — had their first harvest of crops.

To celebrate its first success as a colony, the Pilgrims had a “harvest feast” that became the basis for what’s now called Thanksgiving. The Wampanoags weren’t invited.  They showed up only after the English in their revelry shot off some of their muskets. At the sound of gunfire, the Wampanoags came running, fearing they were headed to war.

The people who saved them the year before were not invited to the first Thanksgiving.  There would not be something as conventional as war.  

Seneca scholar John Mohawk wrote that according to his culture, “an individual is not smart […] but merely lucky to be part of a system that has intelligence. Be humble about this. The real intelligence isn’t the property of an individual; the real intelligence is the property of the universe itself.”

I think there is something that will happen to the generations to stop this round and round and bring us our memory.  Perhaps this is part of what Jesus is, the word.  We are learning as much about the past as the future.  Things with the possibility to finally be fixed.  Gives us no excuse to break things.  Here on the road to Bethlehem we know the destination.  We fail sometime, but we don't plan to.  

The start of the year is where we find ourselves.  In the second two hundred years of Nottingham, Jesus may come back in them, but if not we plan to still be waiting.  Around the year.  Around the generations.  Now past the end of the year, Christ the king represented by one banner in one corner.  Heading to twelve days of Christmas represented in the other corner.  Here we are in Advent.  So be here in Advent.  I invite you to live each of these weeks Hope, Peace, Joy and Love.

Let Us Pray

From Psalm 63:2-9

O God, you are my God, for you I long;

for you my soul is thirsting.

My body pines for you

like a dry, weary land without water.

So I gaze on you in the sanctuary

to see your strength and your glory.

For your love is better than life,

my lips will speak your praise.

So I will bless you all my life,

in your name I will lift up my hands.

My soul shall be filled as with a banquet,

my mouth shall praise you with joy.

On my bed I remember you.

On you I muse through the night

for you have been my help;

in the shadow of your wings I rejoice.

My soul clings to you;

your right hand holds me fast.

Hold us fast, Hold Nottingham fast

We ask in Jesus' Name, Amen

Benediction

Go out

Go in circles

Keep doing what is right

Until all the roads our lord makes straight

Until all of us are called home

Be the blessing Jesus has for others

Praying that you may have the strength and ability

Nottingham UMC 11/28/2021

I Got No Brakes

I got no brakes

I got no brakes

I got no brakes

Plenty of room to slow down baby

Kind

A group, a quality of being friendly, how you learn about people is their use of words.  You can learn about yourself.  For us here in the church words are sustenance.  There are people of other kinds.  Some that find no value in them.  Some steal with them.

Next week the world will gather for the latest UN Climate Change Conference.  Mostly what they will be doing is debating which words to use in the final agreement.  This process is essentially a continuation of the work that came out of the first Earth Summit in 1992.  Many words have been argued over and the pattern has always been for the weaker words to win.  Everything to date has been voluntary.  We don't really seem to have a way forward.  Our own climate change response has been an open question since 1992.  

The environment first become interesting to me as I saw these pressing questions would have real answers on the scale of a human lifetime.  Specifically my human lifetime.  Earlier in my life the worst weather always seemed to be snow now for me it is rain.  The intensity of the rainfall today is nothing that I am used to.  100 year storms we need new names.  Words sometimes don't work anymore.

We have had an issue of flooding that has thus far stumped our plumbers.  The education wing has flooded several times recently and the best we can figure at this time was it is due to the intensity.  More rain in a shorter amount of time than the drains were designed to take care.  In the past we designed systems to speed up drainage at our own peril.  Best practice today attempts to slow water down.

I don't argue with you about the science, but just to say we have given up on avoiding climate change.  The best we can do is keep it to below +1.5 degrees.  There are slogans of hope to keep it to this level now.  Honestly with my experience in this process I think it would be  a miracle to keep it at this level as we only have promises and little real action.  

The international work reminds me of the long history of the clean water act.  Many people think this is something of the past.  Created when I was 1 year old, they still have not solved agricultural runoff.  They agreed on a wonderful word: exempt.   We have toxic algae blooms in the lake cause apparently there is nothing we can do about this problem.  

In the early 70s it was easy to stop pollution from point sources such as factories with pipes going into the river.  Storm water and combined sewer flows were completely ignored for 30 years.  In 2003 when I graduated from the urban school there was finally a permit system being created for storm water.

In our region the last 20 years we have been building tunnels to store storm water for later treatment.  In my mind it may have been more cost effective to rebuild everyone's home in Cleveland and put a rain garden in the back yard.  Slowing down the water is something we have not done the last 100 years.  Non point pollution is hard and global climate change the hardest example.

There is one point of hope.  This problem has been worked on by more people than any other problem in the history of the world.  Local Agenda 21 since 1992 has involved more people than any other project in the history of people.

We have a unique problem of imagination.  The same intellectual creature that is sending robots with cameras to mars is the one destroying the only habitable place in the universe it knows.  We are a species of contradictions.  We get ahead of ourselves.  

So before we do today, we have a short scripture from Mark chapter 10: verse 46-52. I will read from the Amplified Bible:

46 Then they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar, Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting beside the road [as was his custom]. 47 When Bartimaeus heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout and say, “Jesus, [a]Son of David (Messiah), have mercy on me!” 

When we find ourselves in crowds we almost become a type of super organism.  We watch each other for cues.  The crowd knows better than us we naturally believe.  Interesting research has shown this to be true.  A crowd guessing the weight of someone will usually be spot on with the average of their answers.  Think about that for a second.  No right answer but on average the right answer.  This is fairly well establish science of the crowd.  Something emergent.

A poll of the general population about the top five environmental priorities and a list made up by experts will match.  This is fairly well established science I have seen in action.  Community holds more than us.

48 Many sternly rebuked him, telling him to keep still and be quiet; but he kept on shouting out all the more, “Son of David (Messiah), have mercy on me!” 

The crowd kind of made a decision.  Maybe not everybody in the crowd had decided what Jesus was yet.  By calling him a Son of David he was telling the crowd his opinion.   These were early days yet.

49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, telling him, “Take courage, get up! He is calling for you.” 

Jesus it seems didn't have to yell as the crowd seems to have here.  Quick to rebuke and just as quick to support.  These were followers Jesus could use.  These were followers who could learn on the road from Jericho.

50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped up and came to Jesus. 51 And Jesus said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” The blind man said to Him, “Rabboni (my Master), let me regain my sight.” 52 Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith [and confident trust in My power] has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Jesus on the road.

I love the way this chapter starts in verse 1: Getting up, He left there (Capernaum) and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan; and crowds gathered around Him again and accompanied Him, and as was His custom, He once more began to teach them. As was His custom.

So they were leaving Jericho.  On the road from Jericho to Jerusalem we meet the good Samaritan.  "Good" Samaritan.  You know as a youth when I first heard this story these words told me something different than they do today.  It sounded nice.  The "good" Samaritan.  Didn't really occur to me that it could not.  I was taught about the world from certain angles.

Today it sounds the opposite of what I had first learned.  Jesus used the story to shock his audience and they saw no Samaritans as good.  We often get distracted along the road, but we also can learn the other angles of life.  Why?  To understand the question of free will.

So we are often leaving Jericho.  This crowd passing this outsider.  He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar, Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting beside the road [as was his custom].   I am reminded of some of my Grand father's words:  

"Our experience of life may seem to us to be of a personal and private character. But they are more than that, they are a passkey into the lives of others. There are three words which describe what our attitude ought to be towards humanity today: the first is "pity", the second is "Compassion", the third is "sympathy". There is a difference between the first of these words and the other two. Pity is an aristocratic virtue: Pity is static, Sympathy and compassion are dynamic virtues. Pity condescends; compassion and sympathy share. The greatest help we get in time of trouble comes to us from someone who can say to us quite simple, "I have endured all that".

We have in those words the secret of the appeal of Jesus to our minds and hearts. He was tempted just as we are. He was hungered and homeless as millions are today. He was misunderstood and rejected and lonely. The greatest thing we know about pain is that Jesus felt it. And for the Christian the significance of these facts rests on the conviction that God Himself is not content with divine and aristocratic pity for his children; but that He has compassion on them and sympathizes with them."

My grand father was preaching about Job as we remember Job 42:10 And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

It is a question of free will.  Many sternly rebuked him, telling him to keep still and be quiet; but he kept on shouting out all the more, when is this ok and when is it not?  “Son of David (Messiah), have mercy on me!”   Now everyone understood what Bartimaeus was calling Jesus and Jesus knew what he was calling upon him to do.  I imagine Bartimaeus wanted to see, but I imagine Jesus wanted more.  I wonder that this was a lesson for those present and for all time.  I imagine Jesus had things Bartimaeus needed his sight to do.  I imagine there is more involved I can not conceive.

And Jesus said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” Bartimaeus had an answer because he knew he was blind.  I wonder what I answer, what we answer.  I wonder if we see or if we are blind.  I might ask for the same thing Bartimaeus did.  “Rabboni (my Master), let me regain my sight.”  

Let me not think whole all those things I learned from one angle.

So they called the blind man, telling him, “Take courage, get up! He is calling for you.”  Part of following Jesus is being ready to follow Jesus.  The crowd which had rebuked this man now took up his part.  This might seem problematic to have followers who keep missing the point.  

In school kids often say we did this before.  I explain most of what we do we have done before.  This is a great truth.  We learn in following Jesus to follow Jesus.  I see at this early stage how hard it is to follow and how easy.  We can't all yell out in the crowd, but Bartimaeus did.  Many sternly rebuked him, telling him to keep still and be quiet; but he kept on shouting out all the more, “Son of David (Messiah), have mercy on me!” 49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”   Everyone's attitude changed in a moment.

How do I apply this story to my life?  Do I need more faith to solve all my problems.  It is hard to define the problems as I see.  I don't think the lesson is that blind people don't have enough faith.  Not everything God needs us to do requires sight is the best I can figure.  But we have this story.

This story of power.  We have this story of a problem well defined.  Immediately he regained his sight and began following Jesus on the road.  Bartimaeus was waiting for something and when he saw it he knew it was time.  That is how we know when it it is the right time.  Cause it isn't always.

We are always on the road from Jericho. As we see in 21rst Chapter of John: 22 Jesus said to him, “If I want him to stay alive until I come [again], what is that to you? You follow Me!” 23 So this word went out among the brothers that this disciple (John) was not going to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not going to die, but only, “If I want him to stay alive until I come [again], what is that to you?”

So this conference next week we can certainly say some prayers that people will work together to use strong words.  Some might think we are at the end times and get a pass.  People have always thought that as long as we have had Jesus.  What is that to you?  We follow Jesus and his way is not destruction.  Not always easy to tell which way Jesus will go, but it is easy to see that we are not doing enough.

Well the first days are the hardest days, don't you worry any more

'Cause when life looks like easy street, there is danger at your door

Like the morning sun you come and like the wind you go

Ain't no time to hate, barely time to wait

Got some things to talk about, here beside the rising tide

Let Us Pray,

Heavenly Father,

We admit we are blind and not living your will

“Rabboni (my Master), let us regain our sight.”

Let us see you in each person that we meet

Help us come together as one community next week

Help us to know when it is the right time to stand

Help us to know when it is ok to be rebuked for your name's sake

Help us to remember your name and shouting out all the more

Help us love as you have taught us

Son of David (Messiah), have mercy on us.

Amen

Benediction:

Go follow Jesus

Go expect to be surprised

Go and change direction when the Lord calls

Stand up when you need to 

Be rebuked when you need to

Nottingham UMC 10/24/2021 

Kind

a group
a quality of being friendly

how you learn about people is their use of words

you can learn about yourself

Skin in the Game

That's what he always used to preach.  Got to get some skin in the game.  Turned church around for me.  Not a place to go.  A place to go from

He said we get together to gather our strength.  It wasn't about what we did there.  We would go and it would be hard.  We would do it.  It would matter.  There was always joy.

We suffered and we celebrated together.  He tried to fill the church the best he could do with his own family.  Certain Sundays his guests would out number members.  He would meet someone once and ask them to come preach to us because Nottingham was where he brought his best.  In truth he brought his best to everything.

We lost Stanley Miller too soon already before here at Nottingham. We certainly have a good idea what it is like.  The best story I know is when he visited the seniors at Euclid Beach.  He asked them, "Dave's Market across the street they must give you something this time of year?"

"No." the seniors answered without delay.  He was across the street before anyone had known what was going on.  It was thanksgiving time.  He spoke to the manager and returned with either frozen turkeys or promises of frozen turkeys.  People didn't often know what to think of him when he was in meetings.  We had this in common too.

He had skin in the game.  Everything he did was important to him.  These ideas did not come from nowhere.  We have so much to draw upon as we look to our future.  This has not been an easy time for anyone.  Life the last few years has been more about death than life it seems at times.  No one alive had the experiences we all have had these last two years.

We lost one of our great leaders, Stanley Miller.  We sure do have skin in the game.  Not something we are ever prepared.  Reminds me of other people I have lost.  We have a story from numbers this week that reminds me of my Dad.  He used to like all the odd stories of the bible.  We discussed many.  He was well spoiled in the word. I didn't really remember this one.

Numbers 11:24-29

 24 So Moses went out and spoke to the people the words of the Lord, and he gathered seventy men from among the elders of the people and stationed them around the Tent (tabernacle). 25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took some of the Spirit who was upon Moses and put Him upon the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied [praising God and declaring His will], but they did not do it again.

26 But two men had remained in the camp; one named Eldad and the other named Medad. The Spirit rested upon them (now they were among those who had been registered, but had not gone out to the Tent), and they prophesied in the camp. 27 So a young man ran and told Moses and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying [extolling the praises of God and declaring His will] in the camp.” 28 Then Joshua the son of Nun, the attendant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them!” 29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”

Where this story takes place is important.  The rabble as they are called are getting tired of eating manna.  The story implies it is the foreign element among them from Egypt that really started the trouble.  There were a good many greedy people as there always are where ever people gather,  Sometimes I put my father in that category when I see how well he was taken care.  Sometimes I put myself in this category.

But here we have quite a story if you remember.  God sends them meat all right.  God talks about sending so much meat that it will be coming out of their ears and nose.  The wind brings quail and the people spend the day gathering.  This was good luck?  God sends a plague against the greedy and we are told they end up in the ground.  

"Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!"  This prayer for the good news and the holy spirit of Moses almost overlooked.  There is a risk of exaggerating the importance of the word of God, but not much.

What a place for this spirit of Moses story.  Moses was doing everything spiritually speaking for his people.  God tells them that he is different because God speaks directly with him because he has this spirit upon him.  He took some of the Spirit who was upon Moses and put Him upon the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied [praising God and declaring His will], but they did not do it again.

It is easy to imagine that there is a good reason that only two of them went and prophesied to the camp.  It often feels when I speak to seventy children one thing I am lucky if two will understand.  We come from different places and we share the same place differently.  We have here something foreshadowed about the holy spirit and the good news.

Something could be shared of this spirit and not lost.  We come with this spirit to look at our scripture reading today Mark 9:38-50 which I read from the Amplified Bible.

38 John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not accompanying us [as Your disciple].” 39 But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. 40 For he who is not against us is for us. 41 For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, I assure you and most solemnly say to you, he will not lose his reward.

In this first section we see clearly how the disciples before the holy spirit came upon them struggled to see the vision of Jesus.  We hear an echo of Moses.  Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets.  What was it they didn't like?  We often talk about how different times and cultures can be.  Yet what is it they do not like.  Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not accompanying us.

People are at their best when they take ownership, but their shoulders often at their widest.  In all stages and season of life I have found this to be true.  In my students and my teachers.

Outsiders like insiders.  This was more than foreign to them.  A cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ.  Was Jesus getting them ready.  When we say Jesus is a great teacher we do not say that as simple praise.  We say this because we have a record of his methods and we know the outcome, to this very morning.

42 “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe and trust in Me to stumble [that is, to sin or lose faith], it would be better for him if a heavy millstone [one requiring a donkey’s strength to turn it] were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to stumble and sin, cut it off [that is, remove yourself from the source of temptation]! It is better for you to enter life crippled, than to have two hands and go into [a]hell, into the unquenchable fire, 44 [b][where their worm does not die, and the fire is not put out.] 45 If your foot causes you to stumble and sin, cut it off [that is, remove yourself from the source of temptation]! It would be better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell, 46 [c][where their worm does not die, and the fire is not put out.] 47 If your eye causes you to stumble and sin, throw it out [that is, remove yourself from the source of temptation]! It would be better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where their worm [that feeds on the dead] does not die, and the fire is not put out.

Could we say here we have a more old testament Jesus.  Someone we are not as comfortable.  No is the simple answer.  Here we are.  This too is good news.  We have to hear this more than a dire warning.  An invitation to the bounty of life.  Being outside is nothing compared to cause to stumble someone you have a chance to help.  Opportunities to serve are missed at your peril.

49 “For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good and useful; but if salt has lost its saltiness (purpose), how will you make it salty? Have salt within yourselves continually, and be at peace with one another.”

Salt.  Salt of the earth. Sometimes I sing it in my mind.  One of my favorite teaching we talked about last week.  In verse 35 Sitting down [to teach], He called the twelve [disciples] and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be last of all [in importance] and a servant of all.” 

What if you don't want to be first?  Well I would offer here there is not another answer.  You want to be second? must be servant of all but one.  As we file in we see something of a plan.  If you keep reading in Mark you see Moses is what Jesus talks about next and might wonder I have a plan for this sermon.  If you keep reading you will find a plan for life.

We might hear something of an answer to dire warnings.  The worst you could say is that we really do not have a choice.  But that is easy when you have been properly spoiled by the word.  James 5:13-20 again from the Amplified Bible gives us an answer to this question and many others.

13 Is anyone among you suffering? He must pray. Is anyone joyful? He is to sing praises [to God]. 14 Is anyone among you sick? He must call for the elders (spiritual leaders) of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with [a]oil in the name of the Lord; 15 and the prayer of faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another [your false steps, your offenses], and pray for one another, that you may be healed and restored. The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man (believer) can accomplish much [when put into action and made effective by God—it is dynamic and can have tremendous power]. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours [with the same physical, mental, and spiritual limitations and shortcomings], and he prayed [b]intensely for it not to rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its crops [as usual].

We often take it as an article of faith that we all know to pray.  We might pray in phases and get down a long line that God just places a right turn.  We grieve our own life as much as we grieve others.  

We got some skin in the game.  Somethings we can't lose.  We can never lose Jesus.  We can only walk away or with him.  In my mind this is not a choice.  

Somethings we could do without.  Many things in truth we can do without.  Beyond my health and a chance to work hard there is little I can not do.  

As a man the entire world stacked against him.  There was little Pastor Miller could not do.  He faced with a smile I am witness.  He wasn't supposed to succeed.  He somehow never got that message.  There he was.  He was blessed indeed.  His territories were enlarged.

Also lost a friend who lost his way before 40.  His actions it could be said lead directly to death.  There is a finality to a life when it ends.  We don't have to evaluate our feelings about someone anymore.  He had many names actually that people called him, but he only called himself one.  It is not hard to say I love him.

We lost our music director Karen recently as well.  When you start to think of all the death it can lead you to many conclusions.  I remember her one day leaving the church as she talked to herself, "I'm just not praying hard enough."  I smiled and think of that moment often.  I am happy that I knew how lucky we were to have her when we did.

I pray without ceasing but you might not think I am praying.  Another one of those non decisions of mine.  When I am blessed I do not hesitate to ask for the next one.  When I don't get what I pray for I wonder how I am so far off track.

It's not easy.  It matters.  In life we find seasons.  In the end we find abundant eternal life or an end.  Not for lack of love.  How do you feel about things you create? 

Let Us Pray:

Creator of All Thank you for bringing us here.

Thank you for taking us there.

Help us to learn from our great teacher.

Help us to keep your lessons ever near.

Help us to get some skin in the game

Help those who grieve

Help those who sing

We ask for every single one of your blessings in the name of your son, Jesus.

Amen

Benedictions

Go into the world as if it matters

Go into the world as if you matter

Go into the world to serve

Go into the world as if your life depended on it

Let's get some skin in the game

Nottingham UMC 9/26/2021

Skin in the Game

That's what he always used to preach
Got to get some skin in the game
Turned church around for me
Not a place to go
A place to go from

He said we get together to gather our strength
It wasn't about what we did there
We would go and it would be hard
We would do it
It would matter

We got some skin in the game
Somethings we couldn't lose
Somethings we could do without

As a man the entire world stacked against him
He faced with a smile I am witness
He wasn't supposed to succeed
He somehow never got that message
There he was

He was blessed indeed
His territories were enlarged