**Transcription by CastingWords**
Well, I'm going to start. Why not? Right? It's 10 o'clock. We can start. Good morning. Welcome to Bethel. Welcome if you're watching us online. And welcome to you folks that are here. We're excited about today's concert this afternoon. That's why I don't think you can see them on camera, but if you're in the room, you can see that there are some chairs kind of piled up to each side. They'll magically be organized into their orchestra configuration after church today.
So let's begin with our responsive call to worship. Let me start. Jesus teaches us, "Do to others as you would have them do to you." But who are the others? Our enemies and friends, family and strangers. Jesus teaches us, "Be merciful as your Father is merciful." But what is mercy? To act with compassion, to help without expecting anything in return. Jesus teaches us, "Forgive and you will be forgiven." But how do we forgive? By recognizing enemies, friends, family, strangers, and ourselves as people in need of compassion.
Let us worship God who loves us and empowers us to love one another with mercy and compassion. Come, let us worship. Thanks be to God. Amen.
And please join me in prayer. Holy Love, bear in us a new beginning. Soften our hearts and still our minds into your glorious embrace. Hold the worries and wanderings of our lives. Gift us with the renewing energy of your Holy Spirit. Let it meet our fatigue and form us in deepened commitment to your vision of the beloved community. Yes, mold us with Christ's love into agents of your blessing for the good of the world. May the cup of our lives run over with this of your desire. In your holy name we pray. Amen.
Our first song is "Spirit of Jesus, If I Love My Neighbor." So, please join me in singing. Amen. That song always makes me think. So, if you have time, let me read through those lyrics again. Always makes me think.
So, announce a passing proud of you. And thank you for being here. Announcements. Big, important announcement. Annual meeting. What did we say? March 10th? Ninth. Ninth. Okay. Can't count days. Council is the second. All right.
Yeah. So, council meeting on the second. That, council members, that will be in order to go over nominees and budget, which Donna and Virginia and I worked hard on sometime this last week. That's it. Too many things. Anyway. So, we have a very good budget for us, and we're looking forward to the meeting.
If you are a member and you have considered stepping into any leadership roles, please, well, I don't know, at this point, let Donna know. Yeah. And we'll see. There are various offices, which we sort of have filled. We have our moderator. I think we do not have a vice moderator this year. Is that? That's right. Correct. Yeah, right. And we have our clerk and our financial secretary treasurer, along with diaconate, and, well, there's other things. But we'll send out probably a little list of what those officers are.
The main thing is to make sure that all those of you who are members, that you show up on March 9th, especially so we can have a quorum, to have a meeting and go through and keep on working. So, March 9th, very important day. Sure. Yeah. That's a great idea. That'll get them here. Especially if Cookie Grandma brings cookies for the potluck.
All right. Our announcements are kind of the same as every week. You can sort of look through them. Regular worship service is Sundays. Chorus rehearsal here on Tuesdays. For the Symphony Chorus, Cub Scouts on Wednesdays. Thursdays, the Gidong class. I think I better start going. I could use some conditioning.
Friday evenings, Wind Ensemble is here rehearsing. Saturday mornings, the orchestra is here rehearsing. Today we have a concert with the orchestra. Really fun concert, concert, concert. Featuring one of our cello friends doing the Sasson Cello Concerto and our wind principles doing the Mozart Concert for Winds and Orchestra.
And so that we're also doing an overture by Mendelssohn called the Hebrides. So it's a lovely, very accessible, pleasant program for everybody. And we're looking forward to that. The orchestra will have one week off for rehearsal after that. And then they start up again. So there's all that. I think that's about it. We'll be posting other concerts soon that are coming up in March.
So let's go ahead with our video for children's night. The Faithful. That was a Peter's Digest condensed version of that story. But that's okay. Let's sing our Gloria as we prepare to hear our scriptures. Glory.
Our gospel reading today comes from the gospel of Luke. We continue the story from last week. This is verses 27 through 38.
But I say to you that listen: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you, and if anyone takes away your goods do not ask for them again.
Do unto others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much again.
But love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Give, and it will be given to you: a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.
And we hear and understand what the scriptures are teaching us today. I'm going to perch on my stool today for the sermon. I'm sure everyone will still be able to see me. It's been a strenuous week, so I want to be able to focus on what I'm saying and what God is saying and not focus on leg cramps.
So, do unto others, love those people, pray for them. Sometimes it's hard. We're in the same section of Luke that we've been in for a while, and we've kind of been asking this question and learning about what it means to be blessed and what are those woes and what are those curses.
Today we kind of move beyond those blessed are you if you're poor, blessed are you if you're in mourning. We're moving past those to a different bit of Jesus's teaching. Last week, you might remember he was speaking to the disciples, his inner circle, although there was a crowd and they did hear. This week, Luke says that this sermon is addressed not just to an inner circle that others can overhear, but instead to all who listen, which kind of means watch out, you know, listen to this. If you've got the guts to listen to it, there might be a little hard to digest.
He's still talking about blessing, and in this instance, it's unusual for him to be this directive, to be this "do this, do this, do that." For him to speak in that way, usually it's parables or "why are you doing this?" type things. But this time he outright says exactly what he means, but it's still all in the context of blessing.
Interestingly, we tend to think of blessing, despite last week's sermon, we tend to think of blessing as something that we receive. But Jesus here is linking it to a way of being, a way of living our lives. And finally, another way to understand the teaching today is that he's elaborating on the things we looked at last week, the blessings and curses and woes.
Last week we heard, "Blessed are you when men hate you and ostracize you and insult you and score your name as evil for the sake of the Son of Man." In other words, you are blessed if people are recognizing that you're actually really following the way of Jesus, and there are some who will criticize you, ostracize you, hate you for actually doing what Jesus tells us and leads us in doing.
As he continues this week, Jesus turns to our side of the question. He kind of answers for us the question of how we should respond and what should we do when that blessing we just talked about, when people ostracize you or hate you or are mad at you for following Jesus's way, what should we do when that happens to us?
What should I do when I'm out there on Facebook saying we should have compassion for the war? There are not parasites, you. Thank you. What should I do? Would I do that? And I get a myriad of responses. Well, I delete the responses and turn off the comments. And I say, I'm doing it. And when I do that, I say, you want to talk about this, put it on your page and talk about it from your platform.
Basically, I'm just sharing thoughts when I'm doing those things or sharing information. But what should we do? How do we respond to those people who made those comments? What does it mean to engage and experience God's blessing in that instance? Jesus tells us really directly that in return we are to love, do good, and give freely.
In fact, he'll circle through each response three times if you want to count things and look for symbols. But it's clear that the blessing comes through responding as Jesus would respond. That's where that blessing comes from. It comes from showing the grace that God has shown.
I have friends that drive me nuts, fellow musicians, some who even play in my group, who spout out some of the most infuriating things. I do not engage them about the infuriating things, at least not when I'm around other people. But I do engage them by living and showing an example of caring and compassion, by making sure they have enough room to play their instrument, by offering them one of the engagements that we have because I need capable musicians, by showing them how I practice mercy and compassion with other people besides them.
And I'm very out about who I am and who I care about. It's hard not to get furious and angry and display that. But it's much more rewarding to engage wearing the clothing of compassion and grace and still holding your position in those regards.
Sometimes I think we ought to have a class about that. You know, how do we hold our position, our stance for social justice, our standing for those who need our help? Even if our help is in the form of tough love, how do we do that with compassion and joy? And how do we not fall into the trap of becoming the thing that is attacking us?
I'm going to try to talk a little about that today. This part of Luke, and we talked about this three years ago too. It was actually one of the most popular sermon podcasts as I read up on the podcast. But if you want some special instructions, some really specific instruction on how to be blessed, this is where Jesus offers it. He offers it here.
And it's much the very same message that Jeremiah gave the Jewish exiles some thousand years earlier. You remember we talked about the Jewish lexicon last week. Well, here's Jeremiah again. And here's what he said to the exiles: "Seek the blessing of your enemies and you will come to experience God's blessing yourself." Hard to do.
Okay. Some instructions. I want to go through some of these instructions. The first pass is this triple command that says, yeah, well, it's to love and to do good and to give freely. Right? Those are the things he's saying. He's not just saying, "Here's what you should do." He says, "I say to you who hear." It's the kind of thing a parent might say to a kid or a teacher might say to a class.
Please turn your listening ears on. Put your listening cap on your head. And remember the context. Jesus had just said that the people who are hated, ostracized, insulted, and scorned for his sake are blessed. That's what he just said. That was that sentence. And then he turns around and says this other thing.
We also learned earlier in Colossians, "Whatever you do, do it heartily as for the Lord." So now Jesus is going to give examples of what that looks like, especially in the context of the kind of trouble those who serve him might face. The trouble we might call good trouble nowadays.
Each of the instructions is more than challenging. Probably kind of shocking for a lot of people. "Love your enemies," he says. But he counteracts we have when we are using "sı." Take it, he knows, we get gears. No, henhye. Indemnity, like if we fall into. Because he doesn't want to. Let's stop.
Stop. Make Discorde. Go outside the FAR. My month. You build pads. You can do anything. Be the very ones who hated, hurt, and came against you. That's the last thing you want to do. A prophet of today would say to people of authority, if you consider the immigrants your enemies, love them. If you consider the poor people your enemies, love them.
Jesus says to all of us, love your enemies. And I can understand that sometimes that's the last thing we want to do. I get it, and I know that Jesus understood that too. He already said that following him was going to make enemies of some people. So what sense does it make to stop following Christ when they start trouble? That would just serve their cause.
If we stop doing what we're doing, if we stop walking in the way, if we stop doing every day with any person we meet, loving them and seeing that they are loved by God, if we stop doing that, then they've accomplished their goal. If I trouble you for serving Jesus and your response is to stop serving Jesus and declare me your enemy, then I have succeeded.
It's also important to define and qualify the meaning of love here. It does not mean running up and giving your enemy a big hug. Loving your enemy is emulating what Jesus might do. There's an old book called "Pilgrim's Progress," which some of you might have seen that had to do with following in those steps.
Yeah, for Jesus, love was sometimes forgiving. Sometimes love was confrontation. I was always concerned for the truth and well-being of the other, and love can be pretty tough when that's necessary. Sometimes that's the right way to express love, but the point is the well-being, even the blessing of others, even those we find unlovable or worse.
Then next he says, "Do good to those who hate you." He offers a lot of things with this. These things are sort of keyed in large part to that trouble we were just told to expect for that ostracization. So he tells us, "Do good to bless those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you."
All of those who are in some ways similar to the challenge presented about loving our enemy, but Jesus fleshes out some of the range of what that might look like. It can involve doing good for the other or praying for them. Blessing gets to the heart of it. We are to seek God's best for the other. Seek God's best for the other.
It's going to be the common theme today, by the way. Give freely to the thief. I had lots of things taken, and when I was a lot younger, I'd get all upset and angry, and I wanted to chase them down and tackle them, get whatever it was back. Finally, I decided that was hurting me too much, all that angry energy, all that indigestion, all that.
And that, well, honestly, they probably needed it more than I did, whatever it was—a coat, a jacket, something. And then Jesus here speaks of lending even to those who have taken from us, even giving freely when someone has not been as generous, helping someone yet again when they screw up.
That might be where the rubber hits the road for a lot of people. That person wasn't very generous to me. They took advantage of me. They stole from me. But then Jesus says, "Be generous. Give them another chance."
Has anybody ever had the experience where a parent, a guardian, a teacher, someone charged with your care, someone with authority over you has given you some sort of instruction or responsibility, and you royally mess it up, just completely screw up, damage their property, all kinds of things?
I think everybody said that. It might be a student in a class. We have people here who have worked in some classes that have problem kids that they're honestly hard to love sometimes, and they break your favorite cup. Yeah, or worse.
And if you were the one who screwed up and broke someone else's favorite cup or you forgot to do something that was really important to do for them, you know, I always found that it teaches me a whole lot more and it makes a much bigger impact on me when that person in authority says, "Okay, let's try this again. We're going to get this better. I know you can do this right. That was just a screw up. Don't worry about it. Yeah, I forgive you. Now let's start over. Let's do this again."
A huge difference. And sometimes it works. Sometimes they're going to screw up again and again. Maybe eventually Jesus says, "Be generous. Give them another chance. Don't give them just as bad as I gave you. Do better. Be generous."
The open-handed. I can't help thinking of those old stories of Hatfield and McCoy feuds or the gangs in New York or in LA, the Bloods and the Crips—perpetual cycles of revenge and payback that never end. But as he did when he entered the world, Jesus offers a way to break that pattern: love, do good, give freely.
Then he repeats these same demands in a different format. This sounds more like Jesus. There's a question with each one, and he turns our expectations on their heads. I call this sort of a surprise. He says, "If you only do these things for those who do them for you." Remember when I said in the reading, "If you only lend to someone who lends to you," or "If you only do good, then he says, what credit is that to you? Even the sinners do that. It doesn't mean anything if you're just exchanging favors."
If you only give to someone because they give to you, if you love the ones who love you, well, that's easy. If you do good to the ones who do good to you, that's easy. Even sinners do these things. Break the pattern of the world, says Jesus. Don't measure your actions, your thoughts, your feelings by those of other human beings.
He hasn't gotten there yet, but we already sense it coming. Here it is: measure your actions, thoughts, and feelings by those you have received from God, from Jesus. What did you get from God? How does God love you? How does God act towards you? As you love God, you will find yourself loving others.
This is a practical outworking of that great commandment. It's an outworking of God's government promise that I will bless you, that you might be a blessing in the world to others. It's a surprise because we're not used to thinking that way. We're used to "me first, what's in it for me," and "I've got to protect myself," and "that's not fair." We're seeing a lot of that right now.
But those were all the things Jesus set aside to come live and teach and make a home among us. And he says that blessing is not a one-way gift from God; it is a lived reflection of God's intent towards us.
Finally, he restates those things, three commands one last time and more concisely. He says in verse 35, "But love your enemies and do good and lend, give freely, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great."
We looked last week at reward not as some kind of extra heavenly bonus, but as living and being in God's realm, God's beloved community, God's blessings right here and now. He says it here: you will be children—that is, you will be the inheritors of the Most High—not only because God rewards good behavior. That's not it. You will be inheritors because God's grace, love, and salvation is the very blessing being described here.
Remember the lesson of Jeremiah. He told God's people who were so desperate for God's blessing, "Seek the shalom blessing of the city, and in their peace you will know peace." As we participate in God's community in following Christ, we realize the blessing that we already have in Christ.
From there, Jesus moves to the thing we were anticipating. He provides the example for our love, doing good, and giving freely. It's God himself. In that same verse 35, he says, "For God is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful just as your Father, creator, is merciful."
Then he makes another move to say that for the measure you give will be the measure you get back. So whether kindness, mercy, judging, condemning, pardoning, or giving is our pattern set by God and our measure set by God.
All this began with Jesus saying, "Blessed are you." And if you run into my trouble on my account, woe to you if you merely live for the approval of others. You're blessed if you get in trouble because of me. Woe to you if you just live for the approval of others.
All that is set in the context then, this running over thing, pressed down, shaken together, running over. Some people cook, bake, you know, put the flour in, the other ingredients in, shake it all together. Rather than dodging trouble by denying Christ with our words and actions, Jesus is teaching us here how to lean into the faith and honor him in the midst of the trouble, saying again in Jeremiah's words, "Go the extra mile, bless those who are against you, and you will experience the blessing that you yourself seek."
As you see them encounter God, if you bless them, if you bring God's blessing to people, you are bringing God to them. And as they encounter God, it's hard to believe sometimes, but I believe that verse that says that God's word will not return to God void. It might take longer than we want, but it will not return to God.
The final image of this good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, that's a picture of God's generosity. It's not trying to skimp you on what I give to you, but I'm giving you a good portion, whether of wheat or of forgiveness. I'm going to make sure as much rain gets into that measure as possible. I'm going to push it down and put in more and make it all shaking it, packing it down, shaking it again, packing it down.
And then even then, I'm not going to stop, but I'm going to let it flow over the top. And this is that example Jesus gives us for how we are living to live in relation to others, even towards those whom it is the hardest to do so.
May we know that kind of blessing, and may we be that kind of blessing. All of this is not to say that we shouldn't speak up about things that are wrong. That is a form of giving blessing. That we shouldn't take action to help those who are hurt. That is a form of giving a blessing.
Remember we said sometimes Jesus's love was confrontational. Sometimes Jesus's love was prophetic. And one of the things I want to make sure to do today is to speak up for those who are being those prophets in our time, like Bishop Betty, but those who are speaking full of God's grace and compassion. You could see it in her home, and yet holding her place and her position and holding God's place, she gave them a blessing, whether they knew it or not.
So may we know that blessing and be that kind of blessing. Amen.
Let's join together in our prayer of unity. Please pray with me. Teacher of hard truths, it is difficult to let go of our anger toward those who prosper through deceit and unscrupulous ways. It is not easy to make ourselves believe that the meek will inherit the earth when they are being crushed by the unjust system stacked against them.
We long to see the vindication of the righteous and the prosperity of those who work selflessly to bring your realm here on earth. We yearn for the day when all people will treat one another as they wish to be treated. Help us live into that day, holy one, even when it is good that your love might shine like the sun through our lives and our ministries. Amen.
When we treat others as we would have them treat us, Jesus calls us the beloved children of the Most High. If God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked, how much more will God be kind to those who love the Lord and seek to live the Golden Rule? Rest in this assurance and be at peace.
So, as part of our prayer time, of course, we share some of our requests and our concerns. Continued prayers, please, for Ben and Megan. Progress has been made. The stint is in. And now there's time for healing and making sure things work. He'll still be on a recovery road for quite a while, but things are going well compared to what they could be.
Ben shared on Facebook, so I will share things like, this was really rare that someone recognizes there's a problem and they come in before it explodes. This was really rare that we were able to get this under control. This was really rare that this surgery, all these rare things, as he heals. So, we praise God for that, and we continue to lift him up for more healing. And Megan too, as she recovers from some other surgery.
So, and of course, our friends upstairs, as they continue their worship and their ministries and their work while he is away. So, and prayers for all of those. Other prayers for Sandy. Sandy's recovery is going as it should, according to the cornea doctor.
And there's still one other issue that we, she's going to have to go back for, this thing in the corner of the eye. They haven't gotten out whatever the root of what's causing it. Some sort of, like, little seed or something in there, in the duct. And that's what keeps causing some infection or inflammation. So, when it's possible, she'll probably have to go back in for another procedure for that, to work on that again.
They've tried to do it in the office, and so far that hasn't worked. They're trying to address it with antibiotics, but so far that puts it at bay, but it keeps coming back. So, prayers for that with her eye. Prayers for us as we handle a concert without her handling the logistics today. I'm sure that our current volunteers will be spectacular.
So, I'm going to give you gifts from Sandy of things, and then I'm going to leave you all alone to do your thing. And we had a, well, we're looking forward to a really delightful concert tomorrow. Today at four. Today at four, yes.
I continue to be delighted that Nostine is back from China, because Sandy's not here, and I much prefer that this not be the Sylvia Shroom. Exactly. So, continue with delight for that.
Let's see, I think that's all the particular personal ones, and of course, we continue to pray for all those out on the forefront of the battlefields of love. There was a video that was shown, that was created, and shown over X, that showed a particular pastor who was one of those modern-day prophet speaking truth to power pastors. It showed him being hanged in effigy.
This was posted on X. And so, that's one of the reasons I bring up praying for all those, especially those pastors who are doing that particular, very confrontational work. Keep them safe. Teach them how to be, show love to the enemy, even so, right? And all of that, and, um, I just, I keep hoping for things to turn around.
I've seen signs of hope. Lots of people are standing up. Lots of people are participating in various things. The boycotts and days of don't buy anything, February 28th. Yeah, those kinds of days. So, I continue to hope for justice to begin manifesting, put it that way.
So, um, okay. That's mine. Anybody? Pressure away. Pressure away. Um, I did look things up. He'll probably be back with us Tuesday, Tuesday evening. Um, so, uh, he should be back home again soon. I was able to come and visit, so. Yeah, prayer is ruined.
All right. Uh, let's take a few moments of silent prayer, and then we will join together in the Lord's Prayer. Let us begin.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.
Our offering time comes again today, and we thank everyone for your contributions and your support of our ministries, for the blessings you give us. And we pray that we continue to be a blessing to you in all ways.
If you wish to give online, just visit the website, BethelUCCOntario.org. Scroll on down, there's a section about how to donate. You can give online through Tidely or through PayPal. And our favorite is using Zelle. Our email identifier for Zelle is info at BethelUCCOntario.org.
Um, we have our in-person folks. We have our offering tray and our mission bucket with the bandana for spare change up here in the front, if you wish to give in person that way. And, uh, if you need to write a note on your offering, to tell us where to go ahead and do that.
So, let us consider our blessings and our offerings as we hear a little bit of Nisi. Dr. P Excel, um, you know, and, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, um, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh. Amen.
And let's join together in our prayer dedication. Let us pray. Merciful God, who calls us to love beyond measure, we offer these gifts as a sign of our commitment to your teachings. Help us love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, and bless those who curse us. May our offerings bring healing and hope, reflecting your boundless grace in our community. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Our closing song today, I'm going to need Eric to sing it so I'll stand up, is "This is a Day of New Beginnings." And this was written by a Methodist minister, and it talks about all of the differences we can make. So let's go ahead and sing this together.
Thank you for singing. Skipped something. That's all right. Let's now join in our responsive benediction.
Go with God's blessings. As followers of Jesus, we will love our enemies and do good to those who hate us. Go with God's blessings. As disciples of Christ, we will bless those who curse us and pray for those who persecute us. Go with God's blessings. As people of the way, we will do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Go with God's blessings. Go with peace. Amen.
on Feb 25, 2025
