2-11-2018

Good Morning All,

         Matthew 19:21; “Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 

    One night a farmer looked out his window and saw that his barn was on fire.  He ran out and saved the pig and the chicken that lived in the barn.  The next morning, the chicken and the pig were talking about the heroism of the farmer.  The chicken suggested that they should serve a grand breakfast to the farmer for his act of heroism.  The chicken suggested that they serve him a breakfast of scrambled eggs and fresh ham.  The chicken said they would each contribute to the meal.  The pig said you may be contributing but it’s a total commitment from me!

    Total commitment; that is a phrase that we hear often.  If you ever watch or listen to a coach of a sporting team, the coach will talk about how his players have total commitment to win this game.  Politicians will tell you they will give 100 percent commitment to serving the country.  When I counsel two people about to marry, I tell them this is a life-long commitment; all the way, you can’t be part way in.  There are lots of time when we have to have complete commitment or what we are doing will fail.

    In our verse, Jesus is answering a young man who asked what he had to do to be saved.  The young man said that he had kept the commandments and Jesus told him you are close.  If you want to be perfect (that is complete), go, sell what you possess and give it to the poor.  The young man went away sad because he was very rich.  Jesus was telling the man to be totally committed and the man went away sad.  You see the young man only wanted to be partially committed.  He also wanted that commitment to be on his terms.

    Jesus is telling this man and us a couple of things.  First, if you want to be complete, if you want to be whole; you have to get rid of the “stuff” that gets in the way.  We all have “stuff” that we hold onto and will at times look to that “stuff” to meet our needs and to give us our sense of security.  We make that “stuff” our false god.  We may not mean to but we don’t want to give it up; we like to hold on to something we can see and hold on to; we are afraid to completely trust in God and his providence.

    The other thing Jesus is telling us is that, we, on our own, cannot be complete or whole.  Since we are sinful by nature we will always have something missing in us and only God can fill the hole.  God gives us the faith to trust in his promise of hope and eternal life.  He fills that hole that we, by nature, fill with “stuff”.  Stuff that never fills the hole in us and sometimes makes us feel even emptier.  “Stuff” that never really completes us. 

    God, in is mercy, comes to you every second of every day to give you peace, hope, comfort and joy; even in the tough times he comes to us with these gifts.  He is there to make you perfect, to make you complete in a way that “stuff” never will.  His grace will free us and give us the peace that we all seek and need.

 Dearest Father in heaven, we often feel empty and lost.  Lead us back to you where we are complete and whole.  Forgive us when we rely on stuff and not place our whole faith in you.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray. Amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret