Christ Memorial Lutheran Church - Houston TX
CMLC 2024-09-29 Sermon (Traditional)
Well, howdy, well, I thought about preaching a gospel that discusses one-eyed people not going to hell, but I decided, eh, next time, next time. You know, I was thinking about what it is whenever we decide that we spend time with other people. We want to hang out with our friends and enjoy some company with one another. And as I say that, I know that all the introverts are having PTSD. But you know, it's always interesting that if you're the one throwing the party, it's a whole lot easier to stick to it than if you're going to somebody else's. If I had a penny for every single time that my sister or whatever friends is like, hey, did you cancel going to that party? Oh yeah, it was the best. I mean, I always love it. But at the same time, whenever we have those opportunities to spend with one another, the time to enjoy company and have that relationship built up, there's a lot that goes behind it. And there's a lot of reason for why it's so important for our life in general, especially as we continue to grow in our faith. So the thing is that whenever you're hanging out with people, you have the opportunity to spend time with one another, you really don't ever know for sure what's going to happen. Whenever I've had people over at my place before, I can honestly say I'm very surprised at whatever it does or does not actually happen. Depending on who does or does not show up at any given time. I've had people start fights with one another in the den. I've found out from different people that they have feelings for me, usually women. With it is, there are times, you never know, where I may be wandering around and wondering why in the world all the ping pong's are thrown all over the place, and then I find a random Lego on the floor, I don't have kids, I thought I would be spared that. But apparently though, there may even be things that are missing. I've lost a straw hat from my grandfather, I've lost two of my DC comic book figurines. And then there are even times where I have no idea if at the end of the night somebody was nice enough to help wash the dishes or if I'll be doing those for the next hour. The thing is that whatever may end up happening is that I never know. But even though I'm not sure what's going to happen in that time, I still invite people over. See the thing is that in spending that time with each other is that that ends up creating the relationships that we're looking for in the long term. See spending time with each other as much as we may be thinking that oh you know what, I'm just too busy for that. It ends up being more important than we might realize. And the same is true as we look at our relationship with God. See in our relationship with God is that we may oftentimes end up ignoring why it is that it's so important to spend time with Him. But you see spending time with one another. It's not for what we're doing as much as for the relationship with that person. You see whenever we're spending time with other people, we never know what it is that we may discover. We never know what situations may arise. Whenever we spend time hanging out and having time with one another, there may be new ideas that are developed. There may be new friendships that end up happening, new plans that we would have never thought up before, but also new opportunities to forgive. Because what's interesting is that even though parties and hanging out with one another may be the time whenever we get frustrated with each other, that's also the time when we have to restore the relationship with one another. And the same is true when we think about our relationship with God. You see it says in our James passage, all these different circumstances when it is that we might want to turn to God. And if you'll notice, they're not all bad. Whenever we're looking not just at things that we may be suffering through, but also the times at which something may bring us joy. Notice it's not just the times of coming to God in prayer, but also the times of coming to God with praise. And we may be asking ourselves, do we always do this? Do we always take the time to come to God for whatever situation we may find ourselves in? Have you ever noticed that there may be one type of prayer that you always manage to find time to go to God for? Maybe you're a person who always finds opportunities to vent to God. God I am so upset. God I can't believe these things are happening and maybe even wondering, "God, why did you do this? Why did you let this happen?" Or there are those who maybe are going to God because you're always asking for something. God I need this, God I want this, God would you give this to me? Whether it's something God actually wants to give you or not is a whole other question. But maybe we're always willing to go to God because of some need or some desire that we have. And then there are those who are happy to talk to God because they're always seeing the times where we can praise Him and say how wonderful God is and God has always given us the things that we want, the things that we're hoping for and God you're amazing, God you're wonderful. But oftentimes different people forget other types of things to go to God for. See sometimes the person who is always happy and joyful with God is afraid to go to God and to request what they need or they're afraid to tell God that deep down inside their angry and they don't know how to say it. Or the person who is always venting to God isn't ready to give praise to God for the fact that He is holy and we are not or maybe isn't always willing to admit that the God that they're angry at is also the God that they depend on. Or the one who is willing to go to God because they have something to ask for somehow doesn't know how to discuss being happy or being angry. Because somehow that connection with God has never gone beyond the divine vending machine that we think God may be. But that's the thing about relationships is that relationships aren't meant to be there no matter what circumstance we find ourselves in. That's the same thing that we find with each other. Isn't it amazing how often we will go to each other when we know that we need something but we forget to share with them what's happening inside of our hearts. Or we're happy to tell them when things are going great we post it all over our social media but we're afraid to say whenever we're struggling. And it's amazing we can be the person that's so happy and then as soon as we say that something is wrong and then people wonder is your faith okay. Because you're willing to admit that not everything's okay. With all of these things is that James keeps emphasizing all of the above. They are all times and ways in which we are meant to go to God. But you see it's not just because of the things that we need but also because of the forgiveness that God gives. And it begs this question why does James in this passage keep going back and forth back and forth between going to God because we are suffering and struggling and also being forgiven of our sins. Aren't those two separate things aren't they times that are supposed to be very distinct in their purpose? And I'll be honest there are times whenever we do that with each other too. Is it somehow we think that we're only meant to make that effort whenever we need to fix something instead of just spending time with somebody just to be encouraging or at times whenever we're afraid that well I don't have anything great to say how am I supposed to go to this person and do I tell them the things that are that I need forgiveness for? What if it's somebody that frankly needs forgiveness from us? But without having that relationship how can any of it become a reality? But I've noticed this a lot with things that have been going on in my own family. One of the things that's been difficult is my sister's cancer came back. And fortunately they've caught it early and that's one of the good parts about going for the regular checkups people put off their checkups regularly and frankly that's whenever we need them the most. But one of the things that's come up quite a bit especially whenever she had first found out that there was cancer was all of these questions of why. All of these debates all of these struggles trying to understand what is happening here and that can end up altering the way that we talk with God. See sometimes whenever the bad things have happened the struggles are there is that we end up wondering God, do you love me? Do you think, do you remember that I'm here? Did I do something? Did I fail in some way that now you've allowed this to happen? Or other times we may be struggling with what it means to follow God. And the truth is that there are ways and times in which we make decisions that end up reflecting that we don't respect who God is but sometimes those decisions can end up affecting us in other ways. Instead of realizing that our whole life belongs to God and making choices that reflect that is that sometimes we end up dealing with the consequences of what we have done. The times whenever the person has decided to drink and then get on the road and then they have to suffer with the consequences for the rest of their life or somebody else does. Or the times whenever we decide that we're just going to ignore whatever we think matters to God and then we discover that other people in our lives are following suit. We wonder why it is that people or the world around us can't seem to quite get things together. But isn't that true about the world around us as well? Is that sometimes we may end up discovering that the world is broken because the world is broken. We live in a world of sin. We live in a world of death. We live in a world where cancer happens. The things that we eat. The places we live, however close we are to the refineries or not. We find out there's an explosion in Texas City and then we realize we lived only five miles from there. And times wherever we were like wondering why it is that a school has to be that close to a crushed concrete plant. And then wondering, "God, where are you in the midst of it all?" The thing is is that in those conversations is that sometimes there isn't an answer. What do we still pray? Because with it, in the midst of that relationship, we end up discovering more than we went into it with. We may have gone to God because we are venting. But while we are in that relationship, does He also convict us of what we have to praise Him for and maybe that there are things that we do need to confess. Or times whenever we go to God and we are confessing because we can't get something off of our minds and God is saying, "I know that you're still struggling with this, but I'm still here and you can still ask me for things. You can still share with me your needs. I still love you." Basically the thing with that relationship with God is that that relationship is not just for one thing. That's what James ends up showing us, is that the same thing with one another is that we don't just go to each other for the things that we need but also for the relationship to be forgiven and that the more times that we have to connect with each other, the more ways that there are to restore each other to God to ourselves. There have been a lot of things that we've been revamping and retooling over the last few years. There were sometimes whenever people would say, "Should you just focus on one thing, get that right and then the rest may follow?" And the difficulty is that we have to be the best version of who we are as the church in all ways because there are all reasons why people may need us. Finding opportunities to have fellowship with each other whenever the rock dinners have been brought back, whenever the fellowship opportunities for both men and women have been emphasized and at the times whenever it's like, "Should we just let this month go?" No, even if it's just three people. So what? Every people needed you or the times where we needed to be able to get back to our small groups because how many of us have lost touch with being in our Bible? That during COVID, how many terrible habits were we in? How many ways did we lose touch, not just with each other but with God? There we were in our homes, the times that we should have the most time for prayer and that was when we were the least likely to do it. For that we've had to re-emphasize our spiritual welfare and care in order to make sure that you have deacons, to keep up with you, to check on you and to find out that you're angry about something and not so that then you're shamed because of your anger but rather that you have somebody to be able to share with, to pray with you, to comfort you, to be like "I get it" and then maybe you're right to be angry and then maybe we're not. But even to know even the times with our elders, to know that there are elders who are there because frankly you put a sinner in the pastoral office and you need to make sure that there are other people to help them know their way to go. And when we come together here, that when we commune and we say that there is the forgiveness of sins, is we say that because God is present and that's what relationship does, relationship forgives. Relationship is not just because of what we get, relationship is also because of the love that we share. And that's the thing about who we are meant to be as we look at who we are as the church, is that as we restore each other, are we restoring each other with one another and with God just because we're saying "God I need something" or is it also to be able to say "I know I've struggled and I need you just because I need you." I was sitting with some future entrepreneurs through the link, Houston non-profit, it's one of the registered service organizations with the Lutheran Church and they were talking about different opportunities that there are to serve and to bless the community as a whole. And there was a lady that was there that was talking about a cooking program. People might think why it is that cooking might be so important. But one of the funny parts was something that she said is that we may be fighting before we go there to eat. But when we cook, then we're not mad anymore. And isn't that so true? Is that the more that we spend that time with each other, serving and laughing and living and eating and taking that time, it is amazing. Some of the things that we discovered weren't actually that important anymore or other things where we realized that we cannot avoid it anymore. Do we really need to wait until Thanksgiving to try to heal all wounds? And that's where we end up finding ourselves as we close our time with James. See, the thing with this is that as much as we may get caught up in thinking that faith is something just up here in our heads, faith is something that you live. And it's not something that you just live by yourself. It is something that you live in community. And that's where we end up seeing where it says in this part that you'll be able to save your brother from a multitude of sins. It says, "My brother, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. And I always wondered whose soul, whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death, whose soul is being saved. Only the person who's being brought back or the person whose heart needs to be touched enough to bring them back in the first place, because both parties are oftentimes creating the multitude of sins. So as we, as a church and within this community, look for more opportunities to connect with each other and to restore that relationship with each other and with God may we realize it's not just the receiver who is forgiven, but it's also the giver. May we in all things and in all ways come to God with thanksgiving, with joy and with gratefulness for his forgiveness and for his love at all times and in all ways. Thanks be to God. [BLANK_AUDIO]