Well, howdy.
Now, as a lot of you know, I've been working with the county for some time now, and within
the next few weeks, I'll be able to stop working for the county.
Oh, my goodness.
I actually get an office with Windows now.
Yay.
And so with that is one of the things that we've been doing oftentimes is we've been
having these community workshops where we go out and we make sure we get feedback from
people in the community to find out what they want federal money to go toward.
Well, some weeks back, I was supposed to go and do one of these on a Saturday with one
of my coworkers.
Now the thing is, is that I had most everything that we needed, but what I didn't have was
some of the printouts that we needed in order to get feedback.
And my coworker somehow didn't check that you kind of got a set up before the event.
And on top of that, somehow got lost in the parking lot.
And then also once she finally did arrive about 15 minutes after the event had already
started, and I was kind of sitting there looking silly for quite some time, turned out she
had not brought any of the papers and somehow was like, oh, well, what do you mean?
I didn't have them.
We went over this.
You specifically had them.
And so this event was going on for about two hours.
And I'm spending the first hour sitting there just like, don't see the Jason, just don't
see.
I know.
Yes, I know.
Don't be upset.
It's okay.
And after about an hour, I got to use the other hour thinking, okay, how can I try to put
a more positive, better spin on what's going on?
So I breathed through it.
And at the end I said, how are you?
Because I don't know what happened that morning.
I have no idea what in the world she went through.
For all I knew, maybe her pedagwana had died or something like that.
It happens.
I don't know.
I know, right?
And so maybe you've had a pedagwana.
But with it, though, is basically she goes into expressing that she knew she needed to
be there sooner and that she was sorry.
And so instead of going into the whole, okay, how terrible are you?
I felt like an idiot.
Da, da, da, da.
Is this dead saying, you know, here are some things that I've used in order to try to keep
track of some things, things to think about in advance.
Gave her about three or four tips of things that I did.
And I said, so do you feel like you'll be ready for the next one?
Yes, absolutely.
Fast forward.
Yesterday.
I know, right?
Except this time, see, the thing is, is that they already know that I'll be leaving.
So they've already started passing things on to her.
And so she, on Thursday, had gone and collected everything that was needed for the meeting.
I was about to get up and go find her and say, let's go over.
I think she went and did it already.
We get there.
She was there 10 minutes before I was.
And so with all of this, then in mind is that instead of looking to make sure she knew how
badly she'd failed is instead saying, this is where we need to be.
How do I help you to get there?
And that's the thing that really comes to mind a lot whenever we're thinking about what
it is that Paul is valuing when we look at Thessalonians as well as what Jesus ends up
teaching us.
You see, we look at something called accountability oftentimes.
And when we think of accountability, oftentimes we have a very narrow view of what accountability
is.
We think of it as, hey, you better not fail or I will catch you.
But the truth is that accountability isn't just a one way, let me make sure that you
haven't failed.
Accountability is also saying, how am I, if I'm holding you accountable, help you to
get there.
See, the thing is, is that accountability is based on love, but also respect is wanting
to bring out the best in that other person.
The thing is, is that oftentimes we can catch ourselves narrowing what accountability is
instead of living into it.
Back whenever we were having all of our, like the main stuff with COVID when it first came
out and not to pretend that it's not out there or having its ups and downs right now, but
especially whenever we were also trying to figure out what to even do with it.
And man, it was like a back and forth of who was like expecting other people to finally
get with the program.
How dare you not do this that everybody needs you to be doing?
Or then the opposite side saying, how dare you do this and fall into being a sheep?
And it was this constant over and over again.
And it felt like no matter what, it was this feeling of expecting that someone was going
to jump down your throat no matter what you did or didn't do.
Instead of pausing to say, hey, how is it that we can be doing things that are better
for each other with each other?
But also, how can we work with each other to figure out the best thing that we can do
as a community?
And that wasn't just us.
That was nationwide, worldwide.
Kind of helps you realize how broken the world really is sometimes.
But that also ends up showing us what we ended up learning about the Pharisees.
See the Pharisees, we can oftentimes turn them into this easy stereotype.
And you can be such a Pharisee about something in today's world.
But see, the thing is that the Pharisees were actually in many people's eyes, they were
actually the common folk.
They were the ones that you could feel more relaxed around because the Sadducees, oh man,
the Sadducees were the elites and they were the ones who thought they were better than
everybody.
And the Pharisees were, well, they were the ones trying to make everything a little more
doable, a little more like make sense.
Instead of you have to be 99% perfect, well, as long as you're 51% perfect kind of a thing.
And yet, the basis still ends up being so difficult.
You see, the Pharisees had all sorts of things that they would expect of people.
So for example, if someone said, I make an oath, I make a promise, well, I'm going to
show how important and how much this means to me.
So I'm going to swear on the altar of the temple.
Now the thing is, is that, yeah, okay, the altar was kind of a big deal.
But then what would happen is that the Pharisees would say, oh no, it's not the altar that
matters, it's the sacrifice.
You have to swear an oath on the sacrifice in order for it to matter.
And the reason what they would do is they would say, well, you know what, I only, the
Pharisees might say, I only swore an oath on the altar.
So you know, there's some flexibility there if I need to change my mind.
Or if you were to swear on the altar, they'd come up and be like, that's not a very good
oath, is it?
No.
Things like that that would come up.
Or they might take their phylacteries and the phylacteries, what would happen is they
would put little scripture verses in these boxes that they would have on their forehead
and on their arm that they would strap there.
Way back before tattoos were such a big deal.
And they had their phylacteries.
And they made those things ornate just to show how holy they were because I'm holding
the word of God on my forehead and on my arm.
How big is your phylactery?
Yeah, your phylacteries a little bit smaller than mine.
I'm sorry.
You just don't love God as much apparently.
Or to be able to come in and if they would convert somebody to coming to follow the pharisaical
laws, then they're ending up either just making these people feel guilty all the time or they're
teaching these people to go and do the same thing to everybody else.
Or even more than that, how is it that they could then find ways to point out the flaws
in everybody else but don't dare to point a flaw out in their own life and let alone
being able to stop.
There was a thing called Corbin, starts with a K and it references tithing, giving money
to the temple.
What would happen is that they would say, well, I'm giving this money to the temple
and therefore I'm showing God my dedication.
But sometimes those very Pharisees had families that were in need that they weren't even taking
care of.
I'm sorry.
I can't buy you food today, mom.
I gave my money to God.
So that's all there is to it.
Go on a diet.
So with it is this thing would be going on is that they would be looking so much at making
sure that everything on the outside like a dish looked good, but there was no fruit of
the spirit on the inside.
The people they were on the inside are pretty terrible.
And that's the thing about this is that even when the prophets would tell people you need
to change instead of listening, what would they do?
They just go and kill the prophets.
And yet these Pharisees, they're like, oh, well, we would never do that to a prophet
of God at all.
And yet then on that Good Friday with Jesus, they managed to prove how wrong that truly
was.
See, that's the thing is that it's not even just the Pharisees.
We kind of have our own parts in that too.
Back whenever I was a teenager and for my confermans, yes, there was a time when I was a teenager
I was young, I was awkward, more awkward.
And so back in those days, there was a movement that was pushed about trying to make sure
that you were so pure in your dating that some people would even go so far as to say,
you're not even going to kiss the person until you get married.
All these things start coming up in these weird circles because people were trying to
prove more and more, I can be more holy than you are.
Although the sad part is that the author of that particular book ended up losing his faith,
got divorced and now is an atheistic agnostic.
What was going on in the inside when they were so focused on the outside?
Or even if you go, I think it's Hulu, they've got the whole Duggar family four part series
where they were trying to show how to be the best family that you can be on television
for years, only to find out that one of their children was abusing the others.
See, the thing is, is that oftentimes as the church, we can spend so much time trying to
even show how spiritual we are.
Did we have a good enough spiritual service that now I can really look holy?
I'm just not going to worry about whether I'm compassionate to the blind guy a few rows
over or even more than that.
I need to make sure that worship looks exactly the way I want it to look because I have decided
and I've seen that this is a good way of doing worship.
So if you change it, well, what's wrong with you?
I'm sure traditional worship has never gone through that before.
But the thing is, is that oftentimes instead of pausing to ask what is the struggle that
people are going through, instead of understanding and having humility, instead of walking alongside
people, how easy is it just to point and try to find the flaw?
See that's the thing about Paul.
Paul knows that there are so many churches that are going to struggle with what it is
to be a Christian.
Paul is going to struggle with what that means.
But in his letter, what is his primary focus?
Is Paul's focus to try to say, okay, now who's going to tell me all the ways in which you've
messed up because I know I'm going to have to set you all straight here?
Yeah, there's a time for that.
But is that the priority?
No.
Because he spends this whole chapter, I need to learn how you're doing.
I love you guys.
I'm worried about you.
What do you need?
How are you struggling?
I can't be there.
I want to be there.
I'm going to make sure somebody is there to be with you.
Is that what we've always made our priority?
Is that what it is that we've understood to be important?
Because the truth is that our teachings can be so focused on trying to point at people
instead of spending the time saying, let me be there with you.
Let me understand why it is that you are struggling.
Let me spend some time just loving you first before I start trying to find you some ways
at how you should be better.
Because the people, the very people that you are the most likely to convict and to show
the truth to are the ones that you know the best.
One of our students, I was a teacher for seven years and one of the students that we had,
we were inviting students, it was a middle school, high school together.
And in ninth grade, we would usually have some openings for people to come in and fill.
And there was this one student, we were going to fill four of those slots and we had like
20 something applicants for this school.
And there was one of the students that, she wasn't the best student by far.
Definitely had some math issues.
Definitely was struggling with focus.
Everybody was not going to be in everybody's clique.
But as we walked through them, their lessons to see who would do well, she was the one
who asked questions everywhere, did everything she could to find out how to do what was needed
and to make sure she was listening.
At a time when everybody else was just looking at it, how can they just crack up jokes and
everything else.
And I put my vote for her.
I wasn't the only one.
But I put my vote for her and she got one of the four slots.
And for the next like year, two years, it was this constant thing of why did we let her
in?
She's struggling, she's not doing well, on and on and on.
But she was still pushing and trying.
And I remember one day sitting with her for tutoring for physics.
And I remember starting the class thinking, oh man, what is going to happen in this?
And she wasn't the best student at all.
But she wanted to be.
And so each step was to say, when I show you this and I look at your paper and I see that
you're not doing this, can you tell me why it is that this part is hard?
And she'd explain it to me and I'd say, okay, let's take baby steps.
Just to help you to get a little bit further and a little bit further.
And she passed physics.
She got a C. When I left, I was worried because shortly thereafter, COVID hit and I knew she
was already struggling as it was.
And lo and behold, she was held back a year.
But you know what though, she did graduate the following year and got scholarships to
go off to Knox College is doing an applied science program.
Grew so much over the course of that time.
Thing is, is that people were trying to figure out, are you able to do what I need you to
do instead of pausing to say, yeah, but how do we help her to be everything she's meant
to be?
There are a lot of things that we have here at Christ when we're a Lutheran and there
are things that we still work on and grow.
There are those who are elders and deaconesses, even though we don't give them those names.
The people who will call to check on you because they know that maybe you're struggling with
something or they just wonder why they haven't seen you in a bit.
And you do an okay.
The ones that I have seen do care team here just to make sure they're either sitting down
to have a meal with each other or going out to visit those who are in need and those who
can't be here physically, even those that praying for one another, even realizing we
take it for granted, even did we even follow up to find out how they're doing a few weeks
later?
We prayed for them for like a year and did we even know what happened?
But we've had those people.
And that was also why it is that whenever we talk about our small groups, I think sometimes
we confuse discipleship.
We think discipleship is just did I read my Bible more?
Did I make sure that I did more things in my community?
That's not all.
Discipleship is also care.
Discipleship is also sitting down with people and loving each other.
Because the only way to truly change a life is to love them.
Earlier this week I had a bout of quote unquote, righteous anger.
I always hate that because it's a moment in time where it's like, oh, well, Jesus had
some righteous anger.
Well, maybe he did, but I'm not a Messiah.
So maybe I should pause before I assume.
But then looking for ways to make sure that I followed up with, I still love those people.
See that can be the hard part here.
But it's also the only way that we make a difference.
Today is all Saints Sunday.
I forgot to say last week was Reformation.
Sorry.
But today is all Saints Day.
We spend a lot of time thinking about those who have passed away.
Those that we will see again when Jesus comes back.
But let's also pause and realize that all Saints include us today.
We only have a limited amount of time on this earth to be with each other in this existence.
We'll have all of eternity for the next life.
But for right now, how are you getting the opportunity to love those that are a part
of your community or those who could be a part of your community?
Because if we really want the world to change to show Christ, we need to be Christ for them.
So if you've got those in your life, love them and don't stop.
And if you need some more, we'll find you some.
There are plenty of people out there who need to be cared for and plenty of people who need
to know our Savior.
Thanks be to God.