Category: News

¹³ Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. ¹⁴ As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.  ¹⁵ While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. ¹⁶ When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  ¹⁷ On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

In college, not every class was offered to every person.  In some cases, a student needed to take a prerequisite course in something before taking another.  A Biology student, as I was, needed to take the introductory courses in General Biology and General Chemistry before a student could take more advanced courses like Anatomy and Physiology.  Those courses were just not offered and available to everyone, one had to quality for them or meet certain conditions before offered to a student.  Until they were met, a student just could not take them.

But, while courses at the university might only be offered to some that were prepared or qualified, Jesus’ offer of the Forgiveness of Sins was offered to all people, including even people like Levi.  As a tax-collector, Levi was considered by most people not only to be immoral and unethical, by working for the Romans and against the Jewish people; Levi was also considered unreligious, by not following God’s Law and therefore against God.  His crimes were just reprehensible, and his actions were despicable in the eyes of the people.  But Jesus’ offer of forgiveness was not kept from Levi but offered deliberately to him.  Who more so than Levi needed his sins forgiven?  And Jesus’ love and offer of forgiveness was still open and available to him.

In our day and age, the tax-collectors and prostitutes bore the same stigma as perhaps today’s addicts and sexual predators do.  Not only are they considered to be those that broke the law and therefore felons, but they are traitors to our modern sensibilities and sinners against the Law of God and the law of Nature.  But, just as Jesus offered forgiveness to Levi, so too does Jesus offer forgiveness to everyone, including today’s Levi’s.  No sin can disqualify Jesus’ forgiveness, no amount of depravity can negate the power to make clean, and no wickedness can thwart the love of God which can make all things new.  Jesus’ forgiveness is still offered to all, and no ill deeds or inordinate desires can cancel that offer.

It was this offered and accepted forgiveness from Jesus that made Levi and all the other tax-collectors and sinners right and true.  So right and true that after Jesus was done with them, they were worthy of eating with Jesus at his table.  After Jesus’ work of forgiving, the newly forgiven and re-created saints were worthy of companionship with Jesus and his disciples.  They ate and drank and celebrated the joy of God’s Kingdom which made them whole and right.  This companionship with Jesus is the cause of the Pharisee’s offense.  It was the law that brings companionship with God, not the forgiveness of sins by Jesus.  Therefore, it should be the Pharisees that interact with God and here the despicable now interact with God.  And that offends.  The saints are the same as the sinners.

It also offends us.  It offends us when the rapists, the thieves, the addicts, and the pedophiles bear the same place as those of us who never committed those heinous acts.  True God’s forgiveness does fall on us, for which we are grateful, but God’s forgiveness also falls on our Levi’s.  Like the Pharisees that upsets us, because it means that in our world, we are same as them.  The sinners are the same as the saints and the saints are the same as the sinners; both are loved, both are offered forgiveness, both are pardoned by God.  God, it seems plays no favorites and gives no special treatment.  All are equally loved, equally forgiven, and equally blessed.  And no one is better than anyone else. 

But not everyone can handle that.  Today’s sinners are quick to accept that forgiveness, knowing and acknowledging of their need, while today’s Pharisees are slow to accept that forgiveness, because pride prevents them from seeing their need for help.  Jesus’ words still ring true, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.  Those who see themselves as sin-sick run towards Jesus for forgiveness and become healthy, those who see themselves as healthy will condemn Jesus for forgiving unworthy people and become sin-sick.  The Levi’s are brought into the Kingdom of God through the work of Jesus and the Pharisees remove themselves from the Kingdom of God because pride prevents them from seeing themselves as needing help.

Which are you?  Jesus can forgive anyone, even the Levi’s of today.  But today’s Levi’s accept their need and accept the forgiveness of Jesus and enjoy the companionship of God.  The sin-sick are made well.  But today’s Pharisees see themselves as healthy and reject the forgiveness of Jesus.  The healthy are made sin-sick.  Never forget my friends, the non-religious accepted Jesus’ forgiveness and the religious could not handle or accept it.  Let us not make the same mistake.  Let us see ourselves as the sin-sick ones needing forgiveness, even if we are today’s Levi.  Let us never see ourselves as the healthy ones and the Levi’s as the sick ones.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.  Jesus’ forgiveness is offered to all; will you register for it?

There will be no video service on July 4 and July 11 while Rev. Mong is on vacation.

Mark 6:45-52

⁴⁵ Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. ⁴⁶ After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray.  ⁴⁷ When evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. ⁴⁸ When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea. He intended to pass them by. ⁴⁹ But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; ⁵⁰ for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” ⁵¹ Then he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, ⁵² for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

As a boy, I went on a three-day canoe trip in Southern Ohio.  The first two days were spent on a lazy jaunt down a local river with the third to be spent on the Ohio River.  As an impressionable young boy, I was dreadfully afraid of sinking in my canoe.  We had all of our belongings in our canoe and I was afraid of tipping over and losing all of my things on the bottom of the Ohio.  We never made it to the Ohio River though, as the second night some local drunks untied our canoes and sent them down river without us in them.  But that is another story. 

Just as I was afraid of my boat tipping over and/or sinking, so too were the disciples afraid of their boat sinking.  Having embarked in their boat in an attempt to cross the Sea of Galilee, the disciples find themselves being bombarded by both wind and waves.  Being threatened by the severe weather, the disciples fear for their lives.  Will they take on water and sink?  Will they tip over and drown?  Fear gripped the hearts of the disciples stronger than any rope or strap.

Are we also not afraid of sinking?  Maybe not a literal sinking, unless on a boat cruising down the Ohio River.  But maybe a sinking nonetheless.  Perhaps, your job is not providing enough means to live upon.  Perhaps, your family relationships are not as healthy as you would like.  Perhaps, your purpose in life is starting to decay.  Perhaps you are suffering a loss or change of some kind.  Whatever our life’s situation is are we not afraid of having all that we have and all that we are fall apart?  Are we not all afraid of sinking?

But, God has given us a balm for our fear.  God has given us a Word of Hope.  To the disciples floundering on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus speaks, Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.  By walking on the water, Jesus not only terrified the disciples, who thought he was a ghost, but he also reassured the disciples, by having authority over the water and wind.  God reassures his people that he still does have authority over all things.  In plain terms, God says as Jesus Christ, relax, I got this. 

If God said this to the disciples floundering on the Sea of Galilee, does God not also say this to the disciples floundering wherever they are?  To all of us who are threatened by something, who are afraid, who are anxious, God speaks a Word of hope in Jesus Christ, by telling us, Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.  We who are sinking are recipients of a Word of assurance from God telling us that even while we might be sinking, God has authority over the things in this world dragging us under. 

It seems then that is precisely when we are sinking and being dragged under, that we find ourselves being caught by the hand of Christ.  Not only caught by the one who has power and authority over all things, but caught by the one who has the love to bother reaching out for us in the first place.  In those moments of our sinking into the depths, we find ourselves being saved by the hand of God, the man Jesus Christ who loves us to the point of saving us. 

My brothers and sisters in Christ, if we possess such a Savior, with love to match his power.  Then let us be not disciples of little faith watching only the waves and the wind.  Let us become disciples of a greater faith watching only Christ.  Let us not sink into the depths of fear, but let us sink into the depths of Jesus Christ.  Let us choose more faith, and less fear.

Mark 4:26-29

²⁶He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, ²⁷and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. ²⁸The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. ²⁹But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”

We live in a technological world with wonders and blessings.  Whether we talk about the technology that refrigerates or cooks our food, or the technology that allows a wi-fi connection in our cars, or the technology that allows us to travel to Mars and Venus, we will in a world of tremendous blessings thanks to technology.  But do we as the users of that technology understand and comprehend how these things work?  Do we understand the properties of freon in our fridges or the thermodynamics in an air fryer?  Do we comprehend the infrared waves of a wireless connection or the physics behind interstellar travel?  We might partake of these technologies, but do we understand and know how they work?

So too is it with the Kingdom of God.  As those baptized into Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit we live in and enjoy the wonders and blessings of the Kingdom of God, but do we understand how and see the progress of that same Kingdom?  We do not understand the laws of statics and dynamics in physics, but we enjoy cars and planes.  We do not understand how the Kingdom of God grows and progresses, but we enjoy the wonders and blessings, nonetheless.

In the parable of the seed, the Sower sows the seed on the ground and then time would pass, the seed would grow, and he does not know how.  Many ministers and preachers over the years have preached the Word of God and this is most likely the idea behind the sowing of the seed.  But at the Word has been preached and heard, No one knows how that Word does its work or its result.  Some people respond to that Word, and some people are irritated and offended by that same Word.  That Word will change the lives of some that hear it and in the lives of others it will ricochet like a rubber ball on a hard surface. 

Perhaps the good news of the parable is that God alone activates and implements His own Kingdom.  The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.  The progress and growth of the Kingdom lies alone in God’s purview as the earth alone produces the crop from the seed.  The Sower must watch and wait.  This can be good and bad.  The earth will always grow the seed, God will always grow the Kingdom.  No human must progress the Kingdom or advance the Kingdom, God alone bears the ability and the responsibility to advance the Kingdom.  And since God alone progress it, the Kingdom will always progress.

When it comes to the progress of the Kingdom, we as the citizens of God’s Kingdom have a two-fold problem: timing and control.  We want progress now, but God’s Kingdom progresses when God wants it.  God is patient and takes time to progress the Kingdom.  We are not patient, and we want it now and we want our progress in chunks not in tiny steps.  The other problem is control: we want our results and not God’s.  We want vengeance not justice.  We want favoritism, not free grace for all.  We want pride not humility.  We want prosperity not blessings.  We want… not gratitude that God gives.  Progress now, and my kingdom not God’s.

But perhaps the more sinister problem we face is not the temptation to play God and control the growth and progress of a kingdom not our own, but the temptation to see the world degenerating instead of progressing and to trip headlong into despair and despondency.  The famer does not know how the Kingdom grows, and when we cannot understand how God’s Kingdom can grow when our world is decaying, we despair.  The earth produces the crop, and when we see no results or progress without our senses and cannot hasten that growth despite our efforts, we lose heart.  The Kingdom cannot be seen to grow, and we cannot help it do so.  This happens and we lose hope. 

My friends, the good news of God’s Gospel is that even when we cannot see God’s invisible Kingdom and even when we cannot aid God’s Kingdom that seems to be deteriorating, we neither need to or can do anything about it.  God alone bears the responsibility and the capacity to not only progress the growth of God’s Kingdom when it does not look it is or to preserve His Kingdom, when it is taking on water.  And because the responsibility rests on God, His Kingdom will endure, and His Kingdom will be finished.  We may not know how, nor the ability must speed things up, but we can merely enjoy the blessings of having the Kingdom.  In plain words, we must learn to wait in faith, and hope in the Work and Nature of our God.  The Sower had to wait and to trust in the earth.  We must wait and trust in God.