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Well, howdy.

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Now, as a lot of you know, I've been working with the county for some time now, and within

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the next few weeks, I'll be able to stop working for the county.

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Oh, my goodness.

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I actually get an office with Windows now.

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Yay.

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And so with that is one of the things that we've been doing oftentimes is we've been

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having these community workshops where we go out and we make sure we get feedback from

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people in the community to find out what they want federal money to go toward.

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Well, some weeks back, I was supposed to go and do one of these on a Saturday with one

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of my coworkers.

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Now the thing is, is that I had most everything that we needed, but what I didn't have was

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some of the printouts that we needed in order to get feedback.

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And my coworker somehow didn't check that you kind of got a set up before the event.

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And on top of that, somehow got lost in the parking lot.

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And then also once she finally did arrive about 15 minutes after the event had already

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started, and I was kind of sitting there looking silly for quite some time, turned out she

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had not brought any of the papers and somehow was like, oh, well, what do you mean?

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I didn't have them.

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We went over this.

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You specifically had them.

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And so this event was going on for about two hours.

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And I'm spending the first hour sitting there just like, don't see the Jason, just don't

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see.

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I know.

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Yes, I know.

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Don't be upset.

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It's okay.

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And after about an hour, I got to use the other hour thinking, okay, how can I try to put

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a more positive, better spin on what's going on?

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So I breathed through it.

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And at the end I said, how are you?

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Because I don't know what happened that morning.

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I have no idea what in the world she went through.

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For all I knew, maybe her pedagwana had died or something like that.

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It happens.

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I don't know.

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I know, right?

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And so maybe you've had a pedagwana.

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But with it, though, is basically she goes into expressing that she knew she needed to

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be there sooner and that she was sorry.

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And so instead of going into the whole, okay, how terrible are you?

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I felt like an idiot.

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Da, da, da, da.

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Is this dead saying, you know, here are some things that I've used in order to try to keep

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track of some things, things to think about in advance.

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Gave her about three or four tips of things that I did.

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And I said, so do you feel like you'll be ready for the next one?

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Yes, absolutely.

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Fast forward.

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Yesterday.

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I know, right?

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Except this time, see, the thing is, is that they already know that I'll be leaving.

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So they've already started passing things on to her.

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And so she, on Thursday, had gone and collected everything that was needed for the meeting.

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I was about to get up and go find her and say, let's go over.

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I think she went and did it already.

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We get there.

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She was there 10 minutes before I was.

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And so with all of this, then in mind is that instead of looking to make sure she knew how

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badly she'd failed is instead saying, this is where we need to be.

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How do I help you to get there?

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And that's the thing that really comes to mind a lot whenever we're thinking about what

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it is that Paul is valuing when we look at Thessalonians as well as what Jesus ends up

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teaching us.

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You see, we look at something called accountability oftentimes.

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And when we think of accountability, oftentimes we have a very narrow view of what accountability

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is.

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We think of it as, hey, you better not fail or I will catch you.

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But the truth is that accountability isn't just a one way, let me make sure that you

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haven't failed.

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Accountability is also saying, how am I, if I'm holding you accountable, help you to

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get there.

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See, the thing is, is that accountability is based on love, but also respect is wanting

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to bring out the best in that other person.

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The thing is, is that oftentimes we can catch ourselves narrowing what accountability is

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instead of living into it.

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Back whenever we were having all of our, like the main stuff with COVID when it first came

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out and not to pretend that it's not out there or having its ups and downs right now, but

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especially whenever we were also trying to figure out what to even do with it.

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And man, it was like a back and forth of who was like expecting other people to finally

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get with the program.

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How dare you not do this that everybody needs you to be doing?

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Or then the opposite side saying, how dare you do this and fall into being a sheep?

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And it was this constant over and over again.

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And it felt like no matter what, it was this feeling of expecting that someone was going

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to jump down your throat no matter what you did or didn't do.

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Instead of pausing to say, hey, how is it that we can be doing things that are better

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for each other with each other?

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But also, how can we work with each other to figure out the best thing that we can do

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as a community?

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And that wasn't just us.

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That was nationwide, worldwide.

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Kind of helps you realize how broken the world really is sometimes.

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But that also ends up showing us what we ended up learning about the Pharisees.

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See the Pharisees, we can oftentimes turn them into this easy stereotype.

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And you can be such a Pharisee about something in today's world.

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But see, the thing is that the Pharisees were actually in many people's eyes, they were

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actually the common folk.

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They were the ones that you could feel more relaxed around because the Sadducees, oh man,

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the Sadducees were the elites and they were the ones who thought they were better than

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everybody.

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And the Pharisees were, well, they were the ones trying to make everything a little more

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doable, a little more like make sense.

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Instead of you have to be 99% perfect, well, as long as you're 51% perfect kind of a thing.

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And yet, the basis still ends up being so difficult.

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You see, the Pharisees had all sorts of things that they would expect of people.

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So for example, if someone said, I make an oath, I make a promise, well, I'm going to

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show how important and how much this means to me.

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So I'm going to swear on the altar of the temple.

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Now the thing is, is that, yeah, okay, the altar was kind of a big deal.

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But then what would happen is that the Pharisees would say, oh no, it's not the altar that

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matters, it's the sacrifice.

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You have to swear an oath on the sacrifice in order for it to matter.

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And the reason what they would do is they would say, well, you know what, I only, the

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Pharisees might say, I only swore an oath on the altar.

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So you know, there's some flexibility there if I need to change my mind.

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Or if you were to swear on the altar, they'd come up and be like, that's not a very good

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oath, is it?

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No.

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Things like that that would come up.

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Or they might take their phylacteries and the phylacteries, what would happen is they

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would put little scripture verses in these boxes that they would have on their forehead

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and on their arm that they would strap there.

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Way back before tattoos were such a big deal.

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And they had their phylacteries.

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And they made those things ornate just to show how holy they were because I'm holding

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the word of God on my forehead and on my arm.

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How big is your phylactery?

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Yeah, your phylacteries a little bit smaller than mine.

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I'm sorry.

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You just don't love God as much apparently.

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Or to be able to come in and if they would convert somebody to coming to follow the pharisaical

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laws, then they're ending up either just making these people feel guilty all the time or they're

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teaching these people to go and do the same thing to everybody else.

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Or even more than that, how is it that they could then find ways to point out the flaws

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in everybody else but don't dare to point a flaw out in their own life and let alone

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being able to stop.

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There was a thing called Corbin, starts with a K and it references tithing, giving money

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to the temple.

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What would happen is that they would say, well, I'm giving this money to the temple

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and therefore I'm showing God my dedication.

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But sometimes those very Pharisees had families that were in need that they weren't even taking

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care of.

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I'm sorry.

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I can't buy you food today, mom.

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I gave my money to God.

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So that's all there is to it.

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Go on a diet.

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So with it is this thing would be going on is that they would be looking so much at making

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sure that everything on the outside like a dish looked good, but there was no fruit of

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the spirit on the inside.

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The people they were on the inside are pretty terrible.

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And that's the thing about this is that even when the prophets would tell people you need

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to change instead of listening, what would they do?

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They just go and kill the prophets.

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And yet these Pharisees, they're like, oh, well, we would never do that to a prophet

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of God at all.

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And yet then on that Good Friday with Jesus, they managed to prove how wrong that truly

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was.

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See, that's the thing is that it's not even just the Pharisees.

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We kind of have our own parts in that too.

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Back whenever I was a teenager and for my confermans, yes, there was a time when I was a teenager

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I was young, I was awkward, more awkward.

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And so back in those days, there was a movement that was pushed about trying to make sure

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that you were so pure in your dating that some people would even go so far as to say,

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you're not even going to kiss the person until you get married.

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All these things start coming up in these weird circles because people were trying to

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prove more and more, I can be more holy than you are.

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Although the sad part is that the author of that particular book ended up losing his faith,

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got divorced and now is an atheistic agnostic.

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What was going on in the inside when they were so focused on the outside?

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Or even if you go, I think it's Hulu, they've got the whole Duggar family four part series

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where they were trying to show how to be the best family that you can be on television

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for years, only to find out that one of their children was abusing the others.

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See, the thing is, is that oftentimes as the church, we can spend so much time trying to

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even show how spiritual we are.

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Did we have a good enough spiritual service that now I can really look holy?

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I'm just not going to worry about whether I'm compassionate to the blind guy a few rows

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over or even more than that.

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I need to make sure that worship looks exactly the way I want it to look because I have decided

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and I've seen that this is a good way of doing worship.

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So if you change it, well, what's wrong with you?

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I'm sure traditional worship has never gone through that before.

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But the thing is, is that oftentimes instead of pausing to ask what is the struggle that

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people are going through, instead of understanding and having humility, instead of walking alongside

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people, how easy is it just to point and try to find the flaw?

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See that's the thing about Paul.

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Paul knows that there are so many churches that are going to struggle with what it is

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to be a Christian.

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Paul is going to struggle with what that means.

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But in his letter, what is his primary focus?

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Is Paul's focus to try to say, okay, now who's going to tell me all the ways in which you've

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messed up because I know I'm going to have to set you all straight here?

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Yeah, there's a time for that.

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But is that the priority?

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No.

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Because he spends this whole chapter, I need to learn how you're doing.

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I love you guys.

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I'm worried about you.

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What do you need?

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How are you struggling?

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I can't be there.

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I want to be there.

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I'm going to make sure somebody is there to be with you.

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Is that what we've always made our priority?

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Is that what it is that we've understood to be important?

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Because the truth is that our teachings can be so focused on trying to point at people

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instead of spending the time saying, let me be there with you.

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Let me understand why it is that you are struggling.

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Let me spend some time just loving you first before I start trying to find you some ways

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at how you should be better.

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Because the people, the very people that you are the most likely to convict and to show

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the truth to are the ones that you know the best.

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One of our students, I was a teacher for seven years and one of the students that we had,

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we were inviting students, it was a middle school, high school together.

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And in ninth grade, we would usually have some openings for people to come in and fill.

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And there was this one student, we were going to fill four of those slots and we had like

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20 something applicants for this school.

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And there was one of the students that, she wasn't the best student by far.

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Definitely had some math issues.

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Definitely was struggling with focus.

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Everybody was not going to be in everybody's clique.

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But as we walked through them, their lessons to see who would do well, she was the one

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who asked questions everywhere, did everything she could to find out how to do what was needed

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and to make sure she was listening.

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At a time when everybody else was just looking at it, how can they just crack up jokes and

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everything else.

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And I put my vote for her.

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I wasn't the only one.

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But I put my vote for her and she got one of the four slots.

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And for the next like year, two years, it was this constant thing of why did we let her

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in?

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She's struggling, she's not doing well, on and on and on.

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But she was still pushing and trying.

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And I remember one day sitting with her for tutoring for physics.

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And I remember starting the class thinking, oh man, what is going to happen in this?

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And she wasn't the best student at all.

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But she wanted to be.

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And so each step was to say, when I show you this and I look at your paper and I see that

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you're not doing this, can you tell me why it is that this part is hard?

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And she'd explain it to me and I'd say, okay, let's take baby steps.

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Just to help you to get a little bit further and a little bit further.

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And she passed physics.

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She got a C. When I left, I was worried because shortly thereafter, COVID hit and I knew she

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was already struggling as it was.

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And lo and behold, she was held back a year.

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But you know what though, she did graduate the following year and got scholarships to

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go off to Knox College is doing an applied science program.

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Grew so much over the course of that time.

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Thing is, is that people were trying to figure out, are you able to do what I need you to

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do instead of pausing to say, yeah, but how do we help her to be everything she's meant

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to be?

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There are a lot of things that we have here at Christ when we're a Lutheran and there

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are things that we still work on and grow.

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There are those who are elders and deaconesses, even though we don't give them those names.

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The people who will call to check on you because they know that maybe you're struggling with

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something or they just wonder why they haven't seen you in a bit.

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And you do an okay.

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The ones that I have seen do care team here just to make sure they're either sitting down

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to have a meal with each other or going out to visit those who are in need and those who

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can't be here physically, even those that praying for one another, even realizing we

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take it for granted, even did we even follow up to find out how they're doing a few weeks

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later?

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We prayed for them for like a year and did we even know what happened?

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But we've had those people.

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And that was also why it is that whenever we talk about our small groups, I think sometimes

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we confuse discipleship.

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We think discipleship is just did I read my Bible more?

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Did I make sure that I did more things in my community?

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That's not all.

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Discipleship is also care.

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Discipleship is also sitting down with people and loving each other.

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Because the only way to truly change a life is to love them.

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Earlier this week I had a bout of quote unquote, righteous anger.

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I always hate that because it's a moment in time where it's like, oh, well, Jesus had

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some righteous anger.

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Well, maybe he did, but I'm not a Messiah.

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So maybe I should pause before I assume.

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But then looking for ways to make sure that I followed up with, I still love those people.

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See that can be the hard part here.

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But it's also the only way that we make a difference.

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Today is all Saints Sunday.

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I forgot to say last week was Reformation.

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Sorry.

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But today is all Saints Day.

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We spend a lot of time thinking about those who have passed away.

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Those that we will see again when Jesus comes back.

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But let's also pause and realize that all Saints include us today.

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We only have a limited amount of time on this earth to be with each other in this existence.

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We'll have all of eternity for the next life.

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But for right now, how are you getting the opportunity to love those that are a part

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of your community or those who could be a part of your community?

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Because if we really want the world to change to show Christ, we need to be Christ for them.

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So if you've got those in your life, love them and don't stop.

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And if you need some more, we'll find you some.

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There are plenty of people out there who need to be cared for and plenty of people who need

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to know our Savior.

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Thanks be to God.