Sermon preview--The Dishonest Manager

This week, we'll be looking at a story Jesus told that is so weird, so seemingly out of character for Him, you might think--if you're reading it for the first time--that some cynic has pasted it into your Bible when you weren't looking. In the story (found in Luke 16:1-9), Jesus seems to hold up a crook as an example for Christians to follow (?). Then He seems to say that people who know how to work the system in this world are smarter than righteous folks (??). Then He tops it off by saying--literally--"use your filthy money to make friends for yourself so they'll help you out when you need it later" (???).

Have you ever heard someone you knew well say something completely unexpected and out of character? The sweet older woman who seemingly never had an unkind thought put her finger in your face and told you in no uncertain terms what would happen if you ever treated her that way again. Or the friend who was constantly joking around suddenly broke down in tears describing his heartache over his rebellious teenage son. When such things happen, we pay attention. We remember what they said. It has an impact on us, precisely because it was so unexpected. I think that's what Jesus is up to in this parable. But with that said, what was He trying to teach us through this unusual parable?

This is the last of our yearlong study on the parables of Jesus. The following Sunday is the beginning of Advent, believe it or not. You might find it an odd choice for me to end this long study with such a strange story. But I think you'll find if you hear the sermon that this story sums up the entirety of Jesus' message quite neatly. I hope you will be with us Sunday.

We Are...Penn St.

Even if you're not a football fan, you've probably heard the news about Penn St football. A beloved former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, will face trial on 40 counts of sexual abuse of young boys. The legendary head coach, Joe Paterno, was fired Wednesday, along with the University president, for not reporting Sandusky's actions to the authorities. Two more school administrators face criminal charges for lying to cover up these crimes. Another assistant coach, Mike McQueary, is under heavy public criticism because he witnessed one of the incidents, but simply told his head coach, and did not go to the authorities either. As of this writing, he is still employed by Penn St, and is expected to coach in their game this Saturday against Nebraska.

There are many more details that I will not share here, because I frankly wish I did not know them myself. The irony of all of this is that Penn St has long been seen as a bastion of all that is right with college sports. With their trim navy-and-white uniforms and helmets with no logos, they look like a team from the 1950s, not the flashy, video-game obsessed modern day. And Paterno, with his bryll-cream hairdo, thick black glasses, and nasally Brooklyn accent, always seemed like a throw-back to an earlier time as well. There's a reason for that: He started at Penn St. as a player in 1950, then served as an assistant coach before becoming head coach in 1966. Now 84, he has always been seen as a coach who did it the right way. His players graduated at a high rate. There were no stories of boosters paying recruits, no reports of Penn St players being arrested. And, of course, he won. A lot. This season, on a snowy day in October, he won his 409th game, making him number one in wins for a division I head coach. I suppose the university was capitalizing on this timing when they rolled out their new advertising campaign for the fall. All universities advertise themselves during their own football games, but Penn St this season has been running ads during nearly every televised game on every network. In the ads, a series of attractive young people are shown studying, accomplishing great things, while in the background, we hear the chant often heard at Nittany Lion football games: "WE ARE...PENN STATE!"

And now these stories come out. Now we are treated to the sight of Penn State students rioting in protest over their coach's firing, and countless articles written by journalists who once fawned over Paterno and Penn St, now seething with righteous indignation; now we witness a former Penn St player, Matt Millen, a tough, imposing man, break down on live television trying to explain how this could have happened at the program he loves.

We debate the issues among ourselves in personal conversations and on the internet: Was Paterno culpable? Did he deserve to be fired? I don't know the answer to those questions, although I have my opinions. Here is what I do know: A sexual predator was allowed free reign at a public university. He used his position in the athletic department and his charity to at-risk boys to enable him to continue his awful crimes. He was caught on at least two occasions. But never was he arrested until last week, 12 years after his retirement. He was allowed continual access to the Penn St athletic facilities--the incident witnessed by McQueary took place three years after Sandusky's retirement. And as far as we know, nothing was ever done to help the victims in this case. So for Paterno and everyone else in this sad affair, it's a matter of the sin of omission. It wasn't what they did, it's what they didn't do. Just one person of action--an assistant coach, a president, an athletic director, the head coach himself--could have stopped this long ago, but no one did. Paterno himself seemed to understand this yesterday, as he told reporters, "It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more."

I wonder how many of us will feel that way at the end of our lives? This Sunday, we will be exploring the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, found in Matthew 25:31-45. According to that parable, a great many people who live otherwise morally upright lives will face their own sins of omission on the Day of Judgment. It is a powerful reminder that God expects His people not to simply be religious and abstain from a few vices, but to be proactive, compassionate agents of His love. How often do we fail? How often do we fly right by the least of God's children because we are focused on other things? How often do we see pain and tragedy, but choose to do nothing? Jesus doesn't want us to be surprised at the Day of our Judgment. He wants us to be ready. This Sunday, we will talk about what we need to know.

There are so many lessons to be learned from the Penn State scandal. For me, the biggest one is this: The sin of omission is all around us. It is a part of our lifestyle, and we must deal with it. We must rouse ourselves from our self-centeredness and self-righteousness. We must stop confusing pity for compassion and charity for action. We must pray for God's eyes to see the least around us. Because right now, we all are culpable. We are Penn State.

Sermon preview--The Talents and the Minas

Not many Americans know the name William Wilberforce, but he changed the world in ways that still affect our lives today. Wilberforce was a British politician during the era when our own nation was being born. Wilberforce was elected to parliament at the age most of us are still living with our parents. He was independently wealthy, was a dazzling speaker, and was friends with all the right people. He could easily have been Prime Minister. But when he was 24, he gave his life to Jesus Christ. He became convinced that God put him on the earth for a purpose, what he called his “one great object,” the abolition of slavery. He gave his life to this cause, fighting for decades. That made Wilberforce a very unpopular person among some very powerful people. Terrible things were written about him in the press. His life was constantly in danger. And year after year, his proposals to abolish slavery were voted down. Late in his life, he succeeded in banning the sale of slaves, but it didn’t really help those who were already in slavery. Finally, just days before his own death, Wilberforce heard the good news: Parliament had voted for the emancipation of the slaves. You may think to yourself, “I wish I knew why God place me on this Earth.” I think that you can.

In fact, I think that you and I MUST know why God has us here on this Earth, and we must devote ourselves to that purpose. Jesus told two very similar parables: The parable of the talents (Mt. 25:14-30) and the parable of the minas (Luke 19:11-27) to let us know that life is a precious gift, far too brief...and that one day we all will have to give an account to our Creator for the way we spent that gift. How can we know what God will expect of us on that Day? What do need to do in order to be ready? That's what we will talk about this Sunday.

Stuff on my prayer list this week

Here are some things on the top of my prayer list--along with others too personal to mention, of course. If the Lord leads to you join me in praying for some of these, I'd appreciate it.

1. Our church's Fall Carnival tonight (Oct. 31, 6-8). That God would bring lots of unchurched people, that everyone would be safe and have a great time, and that during and after the Carnival, He would use that good time to draw them to Himself and to our church.

2. My opportunity to speak to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at University of Houston this Wednesday at 8 PM. Several football players are being baptized, and UH Chaplain Mikado Hinson has asked me to speak on the purpose and meaning of baptism. I am always refreshed and inspired in the presence of these young men and women. Pray that I would be God's instrument.

3. The all-church prayer meeting at WBC this coming Sunday at 5. We'll be preparing our hearts for 2012, and specifically the Radical Experiment. Click here for more details.

4. That the Holy Spirit would fill my children, Kayleigh and Will, with a hunger to know Him better and a yearning to fulfill His purpose for them in the world.

5. That God would provide a buyer for our house.

6. That I would live this day--and every day--in hope of Christ's return, living each day in a way that positively impacts eternity.

Sermon preview--The Ten Virgins

I know this is an unusual title for this message, but that’s what the parable we’re studying today (Matthew 25:1-13) is commonly called. Perhaps a better title would be, “How to have hope.” Hope is one of the key concepts of the New Testament; it’s a trait all Christians should have. But not many of us seem to have hope these days. What is hope? It’s not the kind of desperate wishing that we often think of when we hear the word. It’s not, “I hope my team wins tomorrow,” or “I hope my teenager isn’t getting into trouble.” It is a confident expectation of something you know will be yours someday, but you just don’t possess it yet.

The metaphor Jesus used to describe hope was usually a wedding. Isn’t it interesting that a man who never married saw a wedding as the ultimate picture of hope? I think about my own wedding when I read parables like this. Carrie and I got engaged a full year and a half before we would be able to get married. I know a long engagement isn’t ideal, but I was very intentional about that. I saw the way guys on our campus and at Carrie’s church looked at her. I wanted a rock on her finger (or in my case, a pebble, unfortunately) so that I could let everyone know she was mine. That was indeed a long year and a half, but I wouldn’t do it differently if I could. It gave me something to look forward to, something to keep my hopes up. I knew that even if my car broke down, or I didn’t get the job I applied for, or I got an annoying roommate (and all of those things happened over that year and a half) that none of that could change the fact that I was going to marry her in May of 1992. My theme song then was the old Beach Boys’ tune: Wouldn’t It Be Nice.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we were older, and we didn’t have to wait so long?

Wouldn’t it be nice to live together in the kind of world where we belong?

You know it’s gonna make it that much better, when we can say goodnight and stay together. Oh wouldn’t it be nice?

Jesus wants us to live in that kind of hope. He wants us to have something the world can’t take away from us. That kind of hope will help us to live holier, more meaningful lives, because we know that every day, we have a chance to impact eternity for good. So our lives aren’t just about surviving the work week and waiting for the weekend, or paying our bills; our lives are about doing something that lasts forever to the glory of God. And that kind of hope leads to joy that our circumstances can’t erase. Because even if our dreams in this life fall apart, even if loved ones die—and they will—even if our bodies disintegrate—and they will—the world can’t take away this hope of being with our Lord in a perfect place forever. So even things like sickness and aging and sorrow, things that the rest of the world has no answer for, are just reminders that a better world is coming, that we will live in perfect bodies someday in the presence of the one who makes all things new. That hope is why early Christians were willing to die rather than forsake Christ. It’s why they were willing to stay in plague-ravaged cities, taking care of the sick, both Christian and pagan, when everyone else had abandoned the city. It’s why those early Christians lived such distinctively loving and holy and joyful lives, because while everyone else was focused on the here and now, they lived in hope of something far better.

So how do we live in that kind of hope? How can we keep our eyes on a future that we’ve never seen? Jesus spoke at length about His return in chapter 24. Then He capped it off with a series of parables, including this one. This Sunday, we'll explore the parable, and see what it takes to live in hope. I "hope" you'll be there!

Sermon preview--The Rich Man and Lazarus

It will soon be Halloween, so there are horror movies, old and new, on TV. I remember how much I used to enjoy scary stories when I was a kid. I was a voracious reader, and sometimes I would check out books about Bigfoot, ghosts or UFOs. Later that night, as I struggled to fall asleep, flinching at the slightest sound, I would wish I had read Tom Sawyer instead. As a teenager, I remember one Halloween night when my best friend and I rented an armful of terrifying movies (including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and stayed up most of the night watching them.

At this point in my life, slasher films and spook stories don't have the same appeal they once did. Real life is scary enough. But sometimes, it is good to be frightened. Even though the most prevalent command in the entire Bible is "Fear not" or some variation thereof, sometimes fear is a useful emotion, reaching us in ways that more gentle approaches cannot. I'm not saying that watching the latest Hollywood gorefest is good for our spiritual lives (quite the opposite, I suspect). But in His Word, God often uses horrifying images to motivate us to change. In other words, we can be literally scared straight.

This Sunday, we will look at the scariest story Jesus ever told. It's found in Luke 16:19-31, and I think because of its central message, it's more terrifying now than ever before. How will it change your life?

What is a preacher to do?

So what does a preacher do on the weeks he isn't scheduled to preach? This weekend is our annual Faith in Action Day, and this year, we're putting a new twist on the event. Instead of cancelling church and Bible Study to do ministry in our community, we'll be ministering on Saturday and celebrating on Sunday. So in place of my message, our church will hear stories from all fifteen of the groups who will taking the love of Christ outside our walls. It will be a great, great day in God's house.

So with no sermon to prepare, how did I spend my time? Frankly, you might feel like Rhett Butler on the subject, but I'll tell you anyway. As some of you already know, in 2012 we will challenge all Westbury members to take the Radical Experiment. You can find out more by clicking on this link. One of the five challenges will be reading through the entire Bible in a year. My plan is to preach a message each week based on one of the passages our church will be reading that week. So I spent a good bit of time preparing next year's sermon calendar. It's a big task, and I'm only halfway done. But it is also one of the most exciting things I do all year. I can't wait to preach these messages!

So pray for me as I keep on planning, knowing of course that all plans are only as good as God allows them to be. He has the final say-so.