“At An Unexpected Hour”

Meditation on Matthew 24:36-44

***

     ‘But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

     ***

    Not long ago, I opened up one of my commentaries and an old church bulletin fell out. Turned out, it was the bulletin from my first service here at Ebenezer—Sept. 4, 2011.  

    The call to worship came from Psalm 46 and began, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea.”  Our hymns were, “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” “The Solid Rock,” “Because He Lives,” and “Seek Ye First.” Our gospel lesson was Matthew 7:24-29, which begins, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.” This is the passage that follows Jesus’ warning that “not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven…” 

     My sermon title?  “Getting ready.”  And it was about preparing our hearts and minds for our new ministry together. I remember it was a very exciting time.  I couldn’t wait to begin the work that God was calling us to do! 

    The main point of that first sermon was that this wasn’t our work and it wasn’t for us. It was God’s work through us for Him. And Christ would be our “Solid Rock”—the foundation for our faith, the head of our church, and the reason for all that we do. If Christ weren’t our foundation, then the work would be in vain; we would be like “the foolish man who built his house on sand.  The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”

     “Getting Ready,” then, was making sure our hearts and minds were in the right place, to ensure that our work together was God’s work and not done simply to make us feel good about ourselves.  What was the best way to ensure our readiness for ministry and that our work would be what He wanted for us? Prayer. Seeking God’s will together and then surrendering ourselves and our lives humbly to Him. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, that there would be trials and temptations. We are human, after all. But we also knew that there would be joy as we were led by the Spirit to walk this journey side by side, growing in trust, growing in love, waiting in hope.

 ***

       And here we are today, this first Sunday of Advent in 2013, talking about getting ready again. But this time, the getting ready isn’t about preparing our hearts to do ministry together.  Instead, it is about preparing our hearts for Him!  For when He comes again to reign in glory, to be our King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

    And my first response to the news of His coming at an unexpected hour is an anxious, “But, Lord, we’re not ready! There’s still so much more we need to do.”  We have friends and family who are still unsaved.  All around us are people who walk in darkness, hungry for the light of Christ that dwells within us but not knowing they hunger for Him. All around us are broken hearts and wounded lives, people without hope in this world or faith in the world to come. We have neighbors, near and far, in need of our acts of kindness, generosity, and compassion. And we ourselves still struggle daily with sin and selfishness, feelings of helplessness and unworthiness. 

      But it doesn’t take me long to realize how foolish is my response of “Not yet, Lord,” to thoughts of Christ’s immanent return! As foolish as the man who built his house on sinking sand! I’ve missed the point of laboring for Him and the gracious message of the gospel if I think that somehow we can get more done for Him if we just have a little more time before He comes back!  

      The whole purpose of the Christian life is loving and serving the Lord. Everything we do is done to draw us nearer to Him; we long to be with Him face to face! And the whole point of the gospel is that we can’t possibly make ourselves worthy enough for Him! And if we can’t “fix” ourselves, we certainly cannot “fix” our neighbors or unsaved family members, either.  For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son so that all who believe on Him would not perish, but would have everlasting life.

     The message of Christ coming at an unexpected hour is both a warning to the apathetic and a comfort to those who are overly anxious. If we are promised that Christ’s coming will be unexpected, then we have to believe that we cannot fully prepare our hearts and lives for His coming—certainly not without His help.

      Our Matthew reading reveals Christ’s concern for his followers being distracted from doing the good works He has taught them to do. Hear the urgency in his command, “Keep awake!  Stay alert!” No one but God knows the day and hour of His return—not the angels, not even the Son of Man himself.  Truly powerful are the images of the two women grinding meal together; one who will be taken and the other left. And the two working in the field, one being taken and the other left.

      But for today’s church, I think more than fear or apathy, the notion that we have somehow “arrived” or finished our work for Christ may be the greatest obstacle to faithful discipleship. The Lord is saying to us through this passage not just “Keep alert!” but  “Persevere!  Keep going! Labor until the very end!” 

     Brothers and sisters, we are blessed to welcome four new families into membership in our church today!  We are blessed with growth not so we can pat ourselves on the back and say, “Good job!” We are blessed because the Lord still has more work for us to do!  He has brought us more laborers for His harvest. And more people to love and nurture in the faith.  

    God is getting us ready, preparing our hearts and minds for more ministry together. I have to say this is a very exciting time!  I can’t wait to begin the work that God will lead us to do!

       But we know the best way to ensure our readiness for ministry and that our work will be His work is by praying together. Seeking God’s will and then surrendering ourselves and our lives humbly to Him. It isn’t going to be easy; there will be trials and temptations. We are human, after all. But there will also be joy as we are led by the Spirit to walk this journey side by side, growing in trust, growing in love, waiting in hope!

        Comforted that our Lord will come at an unexpected hour!

Let us pray.

Holy God, thank you for your Son, whom you graciously gave up for our sakes—so that we could be reconciled with you and one another.  Bind us together in love, Lord.  Teach us to have grace for one another. Equip us and lead us to do the work you have ordained for us to do.  Keep us alert and focused on You, persevering until the very end. Bless the new families who have joined us in laboring for your harvest.  Help us to warmly welcome them and be a blessing to them in the days, months, and years to come.  Build our faith as we journey side by side, learning to trust, growing in love, waiting in hope, and longing for our King of Kings and Lord of Lords to come again!  In His name we pray.  Amen.

Meditation for Funeral of Alfred Dikken

I Corinthinians 4 & 5, selected verses

Nov. 22, 2013

***

      “So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling… so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. … For the love of Christ urges us on because we are convinced that one has died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who died and was raised for them.” I Cor. 4-5 (selected verses)

***

    Alfred Dikken had only been in the nursing home in Renville a short while when I walked past his room and recognized the name near his door.  Our church had been praying for Alfred after his son shared that he was very sick and in the hospital.  Since Alfred lived in Willmar, I didn’t expect him to show up at the Renville nursing home. And I was on my way to serve communion to the man next door to Alfred, whose family was gathered and waiting for me. So I stopped only briefly to say hello, introduce myself, and see how he was feeling. 

       I told Alfred I would be back another day.  He said he would like that. Turns out, he was easy to talk to. So over the next few weeks, I sat on his windowsill or on a folding chair beside his bed and got to know him through about a half dozen conversations, his wife Dorothy listening in a recliner nearby. I learned about Alfred’s family and his taste for sweets. I discovered that Alfred and I both liked vanilla ice cream with peach sauce—and that he and my dad were born in the same year.  Sometimes, when the small room was crowded with visitors, Alfred talked with me while I sat at the foot of his bed. But I stopped doing that after one day, when he was especially restless—and almost kicked me off.

          I also enjoyed watching and listening to him talk with his family and friends.  Several times I was there when his cousin Louie came.  Louie and Alfred were boyhood pals, children of our church. They rode Harleys together, and the story goes that Alfred was the one who kept Louie out of trouble.  Louie had a nickname for Alfred—“Crink.”  If Alfred was sleeping when Louie came to visit him at the nursing home, all Louie had to do was lean in real close and say, “Hey, Crink!” And Alfred would wake up and smile. 

           When I asked Alfred why Louie called him “Crink,” he laughed and said he didn’t know.  So I asked Louie. He laughed and said he didn’t know, either.  I think maybe they just didn’t want to tell me.

            On my second visit, Alfred told me how much he loved and missed the people of Renville and Ebenezer church. He said his grandfather Stomberg had been one of the charter members, more than 100 years ago! Dorothy told me later that Alfred had been a Sunday school teacher and an elder on session. 

        Alfred and Dorothy joined another church in the 1980s when they sold the farm and moved to Willmar where Alfred could more easily access the medical care he needed. He had struggled with serious health problems since he was a teen and had rheumatic fever, which damaged his heart.

      In Willmar, Alfred found a variety of jobs—hauling for a candy company, laboring for a poultry company, and working at a tractor museum. At all of these jobs, Dorothy worked alongside him.  She truly was his life partner, as well as his caregiver.  She was the one upon whom he relied. They had been together—in sickness and in health—for 55 years.   

      She was a 21-year-old nurse at Granite Falls hospital when her friend and coworker, Junith, introduced her to Alfred.  Junith was dating Alfred’s cousin Louie. Louie told Dorothy that she shouldn’t be too nice to Alfred. That she shouldn’t agree with “Crink” all the time; Alfred wouldn’t like that.

      Dorothy took Louie’s advice. And 24-year-old Alfred, an aspiring farmer, soon proposed. He used the money from the sale of his wheat crop to buy her an engagement ring. Dorothy said yes and accepted the ring, but couldn’t resist commenting, “Boy, it must have been a small wheat crop.” They married at her church in 1958—4 months after they had met.

         For sure, there wasn’t much money in the beginning. For the first four years of their marriage, they lived in a tiny rented house with no running water.  They had milk because they shared a Guernsey cow with their neighbors across the road, Lawrence and Alice. Alfred and Lawrence bought “Gurney” through an ad in the newspaper. Alfred milked Gurney in the morning; Lawrence milked her at night. Gurney wintered in Alfred’s barn and summered in Lawrence’s pasture.

       It was a simpler life, in some respects, but also a hard life, without many of the comforts and conveniences we enjoy today. But in those early, struggling years, they made some happy memories—stirred when old friends visited Alfred at the Renville nursing home.        

           Alice and Lawrence came to visit one day, and Alfred joyfully proclaimed to a nurse, “I know these people!  We shared a cow!”

         In all our conversations, Alfred never complained of his pain, though I know he was hurting. He only made one request.  He made me promise to make sure that he and Dorothy’s membership would be moved back to Ebenezer church.  He said he felt like he had come home.

          I understood. Still, my faith told me he wasn’t home, yet.  But he was on his way.  That “homey” feeling Alfred experienced was the peace of Christ, a gift from our loving God for all who trust in Him.   Alfred was happy to come to the place he used to call home and see the people he loved, but what gave him real peace was that he was ready to go home and be with the Lord.

     He didn’t lose heart, as the apostle Paul urges the church at Corinth.  Alfred had suffered, but his faith had endured.  He knew that the pain of this world would end—and not follow him into the world to come.

     Friends, this isn’t all there is! There’s more than what we can see.  And what cannot be seen is “eternal.”  

     Paul says the suffering in this life is but a “slight momentary affliction.” And that it is preparing us for “an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure.”

       Our outer nature, our physical body, won’t last forever.  Our body is just a “tent.” A “building from God” awaits our imperishable soul—our inner nature—that is being “renewed every day.”

       Like Paul, let us we walk by faith and not by sight.

       And may the love of Christ urge us on.

       For the one who died for all was raised for us—so that we might live for Him!

"An Example to Imitate"

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13. 

Nov. 17, 2013

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     Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.

***

     The fog hung heavy and thick as I drove my red mini-cooper south on County Road 6 yesterday.  I was headed to the nursing home in Renville to visit with a family who had just lost a loved one.  The midday fog blocked the usual view of farmland spreading out for miles to the north, south, east and west.  I saw only the road directly in front of me, telephone poles to my right and left, headlights from approaching vehicles, and dark shapes of trees and buildings.

     But I wasn’t afraid.

     I have traveled that stretch of road many times. And I know the way.  I know the road is straight, paved, and mostly flat or gently sloping. I know the intersections I pass as I head to highway 212. And that I will not encounter streetlights or stop signs along the three and a half mile trek.  I know to watch out for slow-moving farm vehicles, trailers with wide loads, and big trucks hauling beets, beans, or corn.  I know when the speed limit will drop from 55 to 30 as I near the town.  And to be cautious as I approach the railroad tracks, as there are no flashing lights, dinging bells, or black and white gates that lower when trains rumble by.

      In the fog, I relied on my memory of the familiar journey; in fact, the car seemed to be driving itself!  My thoughts were on the grieving family and bringing them comfort and hope. I never once thought that I might not make it safely to my destination!

      And, in seemingly no time at all, I was pulling into the nursing home parking lot, pausing to pray before leaving my car. I didn’t worry about anything. I trusted the Spirit to guide me and that the Lord was with me in this work of love. 

     Later, on my way home, I thought how good it is when Christians experience the peace of knowing the Lord is with us and that our work is His work—what God is leading and empowering us to do. We can trust the Lord with all of our days, though the road may be unfamiliar—and we can’t see what lies ahead.

      We can trust Him, knowing how God wants us to live in this in-between time, walking by His Word and Spirit, watching and waiting for Our Savior’s return.  Trusting and trying with all heart, mind and might. And never growing weary of doing what is right.

 ***

     As we read today’s Epistle lesson, we learn how the church of Thessalonica is struggling with life in this in-between time—after the Resurrection of our Lord and before Christ comes again.  Earlier in Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians, he tells them that he gives thanks to God for them and boasts of their steadfastness and faith as they endure persecution and suffering.  He assures them that their trials will make them “worthy of the kingdom of God” and are “evidence” of God’s righteous judgment of their persecutors. 

     He tells them not to be “shaken in mind or alarmed” at the thought of Christ’s return and “our being gathered together to him.”  The apostle asks the Thessalonians to pray for him, Silas and Timothy so that “the word of the Lord may spread rapidly” and that they may be “rescued from wicked and evil people.” He assures them that he and the other apostles are confident that the Thessalonians will go on doing the things that Paul and the others command.

    Finally, in today’s reading, Paul gets to the main point of this letter—the concern about which he has already written to them in his first letter to the Thessalonians!  He has heard that some of them have been “living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work.” This may be due to a misunderstanding of his teachings on the Second Coming of Christ and the life we are called to live as Christians in this present world. 

     Back in the year 49 or so, when Paul wrote this letter—the very oldest letter we have of Paul’s—fewer than 20 years have passed since Christ's crucifixion. The Thessalonians expect Jesus to come within their lifetimes; every day, they wonder, “Is this the day?” Some people quit their jobs and abandon their responsibilities as they await His return.

      But Paul commands the church to keep away from these believers living in idleness as they are also unruly, disturbing the peace of the entire faith community.   They aren’t serving the Lord, sharing the love of Christ, or helping people in need; they aren’t even taking care of themselves—and it is not because they are unable to work or that work is not available.

      Paul and the other apostles work hard to earn their own living and not be a burden to anyone.  He has learned to be a tentmaker, a leatherworker—and it is this labor that supports him throughout his missionary journeys.  While earning one’s own living is not required for those who are full-time workers for the Lord, Paul says he works to give them “an example to imitate.” 

     He doesn’t say this because he believes he is the perfect example of a Christian and that we will only be saved if we are perfect Christians, too.  Paul teaches in one of his later letters, in II Corinthians, that God’s grace is sufficient for us! And that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness; therefore Paul says he will boast of his weaknesses, through which God’s strength is revealed and more people may come to know the Lord.

          I believe what Paul is really saying to the church at Thessalonica is “follow me as I seek to follow Jesus Christ.” This second letter to the Thessalonians builds on the teachings in the first.  In I Thessalonians, Paul praises the church because they have become “imitators of us and the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all …”

***

      Brothers and sisters, let us live as Christ calls us to live in this in-between time—as we await His Second Coming. 

     Let us, with God’s help, be an “example to imitate”— so the world will see Christ in us and more people may come to know Him.

    How good it is when we have no doubt or fear!  When we have the peace of knowing the Lord is with us and that our work is what He is leading and empowering us to do. With God’s help, we can follow in Christ’s self-giving ways. Trusting and trying with all heart, mind and might. Never growing weary of doing what is right.

Let us pray.

Holy One, thank you for giving us your living Word, Jesus Christ, our perfect example to imitate.  Forgive us for our many sins, for not always living as you call us to live in this in-between time.  Prepare our hearts and minds as we await Christ’s return for His church. Help us to be more like Him, seeking to follow Him every day, though the road we travel may be unfamiliar, and we are not able to see what lies ahead.  Equip and lead us to do the work you have ordained for us to do. Help us to care for our neighbors in need and minister to those who grieve the loss of loved ones. Teach us to trust in you to be with us and care for us now and forever. And may the light of Christ shine through us so all the world may see and come to know Your love, your forgiveness, your grace. Amen.