Rumors of Angels | Sermons of Bill Crouch

Planted by Rivers

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Tim Crouch

Psalm 1

¹Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
²but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
³That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

⁴Not so the wicked!
    They are like chaff
    that the wind blows away.
⁵Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

⁶For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

Let this be a day of prayer and thanksgiving for the teaching role of the church. We have honored the teachers this morning, in a few moments we will baptize and confirm this group of six youth. Let this be a day of prayer and thanksgiving for the teaching role of the church.

Methodists have always valued education. The first Sunday School was established in England by Robert Raikes, but John Wesley quickly took up the idea and established such schools in several places. They were not like our Sunday Schools. They were for the poor. They were designed to teach these children the Bible, and to read and write. It was part of Wesley’s lifelong enterprise of bringing good news to the poor. How could a man or woman be happy in God if they could not read the Bible? In the words of our Psalm for today, those who are blessed, that are happy, are the ones who meditate on the law of God day and night.

In America Thomas Coke was hardly off the boat when he proposed to Francis Asbury that the Methodists build a college. You may remember that in 1784 it had become clear that the Methodists could no longer remain tied to England. Just as the colonies had become independent so it was necessary for the Methodists to become independent. So John Wesley sent Thomas Coke to ordain Asbury and twelve others, but Coke was as eager about education as he was about ordination. Cokesbury school was established at Abingdon, Maryland in 1787. It vacillated between a school and a college and finally failed when the buildings burned in 1795, but it was the forerunner of such great Methodist universities as Boston, Duke, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, SMU, the University of Southern California and a whole host of smaller colleges like Southwestern, Texas Wesleyan and Centenary. When the General Conference voted the Africa University on April 30 it was just one more school in that long and splendid commitment to education.

This year at General Conference the Methodist Publishing House gave these little book bags to the delegates in celebration of the fact that its predecessor, the Methodist Book Concern was established two hundred years ago this year in 1788. Every Circuit Rider preacher carried a few books in his saddle bags besides the Bible. It was part of the Methodist commitment to education.

Now, it may seem to you a long way between the Sunday School and the University, but I would maintain that the connection is clear. There is a profound continuity in my experience between the teachers I had in Sunday School and those who taught me in theological seminary. If you are like me then you really can remember some of the things your teachers taught you in Sunday School. I remember Mrs. Barnett and Mrs. Jobson especially. They taught the Bible course for which we received high school credit when I was in ninth and tenth grades. In Mrs. Barnett’s class, for example, we memorized Psalm 1, in the King James, of course, and in Mrs. Jobson’s class we learned the story of Jesus and the life of Paul and I took that learning with me all the way to seminary. So, I say to you who teach children, you are in the same business as John Deschner and Schubert Ogden, Howard Kee and Bernard Anderson. Let this be a day of prayer and thanksgiving for the teaching role of the church.

For what is at stake in that teaching role is not just the teaching enterprise, it is the learning enterprise as well, the lives of those of us who have been touched by that teaching, and that brings me to the text. Let this be a service of prayer both for those who teach and those who learn. My friend Charlie Clarke once told me that teaching is something that takes place in the presence of learning. For an educator like Charlie Clarke that means that one ought to worry about more than methods or gimmicks. For the church that means that teaching focuses on the lives of those who are taught.

There is just one phrase that I want to hold up for your consideration from the text. In this prayer for his disciples on the night before his death Jesus said, “I do not pray that you would take them out of the world, I pray that you will keep them from the evil.” You can translate that phrase “the evil one” and that is correct, but literally it says “from the evil.”

What could that possibly mean to modern twentieth century people who live in sophisticated America? What is the evil? It goes by many names, but think about it as that pervasive evil of the drug culture for a moment. That will serve to illustrate the teaching role of the church. A lot of us think that drugs are a problem in the schools or in the ghetto. When we see the police making arrests we cluck our tongues and thank God that we don’t know anybody like that. But chances are that all of us know cocaine users, whether we know it or not. They are the people like us, doctors, lawyers, school teachers, professors, travel agents.

Most of the anti-drug programs focus their attention on law enforcement, arresting the people who sell them, cutting off the source of supply, punishing evil men like Daniel Noriega. But as long as there is a demand the suppliers will not be put out of business by law enforcement. The Los Angeles police have started arresting the users as a way of cutting into that demand.

I say to you that’s the teaching role of the church, “God, I do not pray that you will take them out of the world but that you will keep them from the evil.” What we are trying to do is to give our children the kind of nurture and support so that they are able to make it on their own out there in a world that hates (Jesus used the word “hates”) the idea that people can be happy in Christ without the evil. I use drugs this morning only as one example of the evil. The evil could be called depression. There must be people right in this room this morning for whom the church is their sole link to sanity. If I can change the metaphor back to the Psalm, the teaching role of the church is to nurture the tap root of your life so that it goes down to the deep streams of living water. “He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season. His leaf also shall not wither.”

This is a service of prayer and thanksgiving for the teaching role of the church. It is a service of prayer for those who teach and those who learn, that they may be kept from the evil. You teachers, yours is a noble enterprise and those of us who have learned from you are more than grateful. You put us as children and youth and adults in touch with the living waters, so that we might not be toppled by the seductive winds of the evil. This might be a good day to say thanks to your Sunday School teachers. At least it is a good day to say thanks to God for your Sunday School teachers. Ah, but think about it all the more. Think about those children and youth and adults who have no teacher. It is not enough to be content with the teaching role of the church., invite them to Christ, that Jesus Christ may be their teacher to keep them from the evil. I am thankful for these six come to be confirmed today, but how many more, how many more!

John 17:11-19

¹¹And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. ¹² While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

This sermon was preached by William C. Crouch at First United Methodist Church in Denton, Texas on May 15, 1988. You can receive notifications of new posts to Rumors of Angels by email. Subscription information is in the upper right corner of this blog page.

Posted in A Rumor of Angels, General Conference | Tagged Africa University, Bill Crouch, Boston University, Christians, Circuit Riders, Denton, Duke, First United Methodist Church Denton Texas, Francis Asbury, Jesus, John Wesley, Methodist and Education, Northwestern, Psalms, Robert Raikes, SMU, Southwestern, Sunday School, Texas wesleyan, Thomas Coke, USC, Vanderbilt, William C. Crouch | Leave a comment

Good Deed to A Cripple – General Conference April 24, 1988

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Tim Crouch

Well, I am off to General Conference tomorrow. It meets in St. Louis this year. In previous years I was only a reserve delegate and I could come home when I wanted to, but this year I am a delegate and I will have to remain seated for the whole two weeks. Albert Outler in his Hopkins lectures a couple of years ago called the General Conference our Quadrennial spasm. I told somebody the other day that I felt a little like what Mark Twain said about the fellow who was tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. He said that if it weren’t for the honor of it he would just as soon have walked.

It is an honor, of course. But sometimes in the last several weeks, given all the preparation that has to be done, all the reading, I have wondered if the time and energy of the 996 delegates spent over that two week period will be worth it. I have asked myself if something significant really happened at General Conference would I be surprised? I am reminded of the night last February when we held our Ash Wednesday service and afterward invited people to stay for the prayers for wholeness, for healing. As we were robing to go over to the chapel Glenn Noblin asked me, “If someone stood up and said, ‘I have been healed,” would you be surprised?” I said that of course I would.

And I am reminded of this story of Peter and John and the lame man at the gate of the temple. When they stopped and looked at him and said, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk” who do you suppose was more surprised? this lame man had expected alms but didn’t get them. What courage it must have taken for Peter to risk such a command And when he got up and walked, who do you suppose was more surprise, Peter or the lame man. After that an appearance before the council was a piece of cake.

Acts 4:8-12

⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! ⁹ If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, ¹⁰ then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. ¹¹ Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’

¹² Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Let me back up and tell you the rest of the story, the part that goes before the appearance before the council which we read today. Peter and John were on their way into the temple for prayers when this lame man who sat at the gate every day, stopped them, holding out his hand, asking for alms. If you have been to Mexico you know how they look, sitting along the path that leads to the cathedral, perhaps with a child on her lap, upturned palm, pathetic look on her face. It is illegal to beg in Mexico, but they say that there are 20,000 beggars in Mexico City alone, anyway. Imagine walking by one of those, and stopping. He would expect to receive a coin, but Peter said to him, “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give unto thee, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” And Peter took him by the right hand and jerked him to his feet and he not only walked, he danced before them as they went into the temple.

The arrest followed shortly. It was not the healing. It was something more like disturbing the peace. It was because, says the author, they were preaching Jesus and the resurrection. Now, you have to know that the first century was the period that Paul Van Buren has called “the church in the synagogue”. It is a period marked by persecution of the Christians by the Jews. It is certainly contrasted to what Van Buren called the next 1900 years, “the church against the synagogue”, marked by an extensive persecution of the Jews by the Christians. By the way, he calls our period since Vatican II withdrew its condemnation of the Jews as Christ killers, “the church alongside the synagogue”, and we must talk about that sometime.

But back to Peter and John, they were thrown into jail because it was expected by everybody that when the Messiah came all the lame men would be made whole, and Peter’s sermon consisted in something like, “See, see, we told you so! and you killed him.”They put them in jail to put an end to that kind of thing.

Let me do a little Bible study with you. This lame man is called a cripple. Now, I don’t know what your picture is, maybe some unfortunate beggar you have seen somewhere. The Bible uses a very imaginative word here. There he sat, weak, powerless. It was a weakness in the ankles so that when he tried to walk he staggered and stumbled at best. Or maybe it was a moral weakness.Maybe it was a sense of being out of control and having no power over his life. The Bible means all of that with the word cripple.

When Peter stood before the Council he said, “If you are questioning us about a good deed done to a cripple, let me tell you that this man stands before you by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” Now wait a minute, “this man stands before you?”Which man? There were two men standing there, no three. Was he talking about the man who had been healed. Of course, but who had been healed. Was he also talking about Peter? Of course. Here we have a parable of Peter’s own healing. How many days had it been since he was so afraid of that name Jesus that he told this little girl that he never even knew the man. Like all the disciples he forsook him and fled. You talk about weak in the knees. And here he is standing before the most powerful court in all Judea, able to walk around like a man, full of moral courage and influence. The story of a good deed done to a cripple is Peter’s story, and maybe mine and yours.

The General Conference meets in St. Louis this week, like a cripple at the gate of the temple, weak in the ankles, morally in doubt, questioning its own influence. There it will sit, day after day, for two weeks, palm upturned, seeking for some gift, some alms. There will be a new doctrinal statement to be considered, will that be it? a new mission statement? There will even be a new hymnal, a fine new hymnal. Will that put us on our feet again? There is no other name in heaven or on the earth by which we will be made whole except the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. My friends, I stand before you today to ask for only one thing, that you pray earnestly for the General Conference, that it may hear that name and walk.

Surely what could be said of the General church can also be said of a particular church. Let’s talk about our church. We know that God has not called us to be crippled beggars. God has made us to be whole and to walk around this town with great influence, just as God called Peter and John. We know who we are. We are a people in mission, a people on the way. God has given us the Manna program to help those who are weak, for after all, the Gospel is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. We are defined by God’s eagerness to break down barriers between people as last week in our Hopkins lectures. Wasn’t it good to have Rabbi Zimmerman here.

But no matter what alms we receive, what silver and gold, there is no other name by which we will be made whole, by which we will be able to walk about the community with influence for wholeness except the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. My friends, I stand before you to ask only one thing, that you become a praying church.

So who is this cripple? He is nameless in the story. Is he Peter? Is it I, Lord? I am and you are and we are. So I am off to General Conference tomorrow. Would I be surprised if anything significant happened there? Of course. But what if someone were to stand on the floor of that conference and say, “Silver tongued oratory and golden resolutions have I none, but such as I have I give unto thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”And the whole church, including all of us here, were to feel that long lost strength flow into old limbs again, and old tired and weak knees would touch the floor in prayer again, and the whole church would get up to dance and praise God. Pray for the church, people of God, pray for a miracle.

1 John 3:18-24

¹⁸Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

¹⁹ This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: ²⁰ If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹ Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God ²² and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. ²³ And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. ²⁴ The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

This sermon was preached by William C. Crouch at First United Methodist Church in Denton, Texas on April 24, 1988. This post is made 2 days before the start of the 2012 General Conference in Tampa, Florida. Many of the thoughts of this sermon are similar to the questions and hopes of delegates as they prepare for the 2012 General Conference.

You can receive notifications of new posts to Rumors of Angels by email. Subscription information is in the upper right corner of this blog page.

Posted in A Rumor of Angels, Christian Life, General Conference | Tagged Albert Outler, Anxious about the world, Ash wednesday, Beggars in Mexico, Bill Crouch, Christians, Cole Chapel, Denton, First United Methodist Church Denton Texas, General Conference, Glenn Noblin, Healing the Cripple, Hopkins Lectures, Jesus, Judea, Manna Program, Mark Twain, NEw Testament, Paul Van Buren, Peter, Peter and John, Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman, St. Louis, Tampa Florida, Vatican II, William C. Crouch | Leave a comment

Easter – Let’s Begin Again

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Tim Crouch

Last Christmas I heard about a new toy, I’m not sure who put it out, Mattel, Hasbro, Fisher-Price. It was an educational toy, a puzzle, designed to teach children how to live in the modern world. No matter how you put it together it was always wrong.

Now, I’m not really that cynical. I have noticed, however, that it is easier to prepare for last Sunday’s service than this one. It is easier to preach on Good Friday than on Easter. We always get more comments about the Palm/Passion Sunday service than any other in the whole year. You say that it is moving, that it is beautiful. You tell us in one way or another that you worship when we read the story of the crucifixion of Jesus.

I think I know why. I think that the hard realities of life seem to be more in tune with Good Friday. The story of a young man who died of AIDS captures the attention of the new media more than a story of a new cure for the common cold.

You think about the pressures of your daily life. What did you bring with you today? Everybody expects you to measure up. Coming to the end of the semester students are graded, but so are teachers and the evaluation process for teachers may bring more anxiety than a semester grade. Public servants run for election, and somebody wins and somebody loses. Your company has its bid in for the contract and somebody gets it, but somebody doesn’t, and this competition, this evaluation is hard not to take personally, your personal value.

Or the pressure of just trying to make it. Just when you think the job is set the company goes broke. Just when you think the kids are through school and out on their own they show up at the door again. Just when you think you can retire comfortably your investments go bad.

Or the pressure of meaning of Divorce. How do you start all over again? Where do you find the courage?

John 20:1-18

The Empty Tomb

¹ Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. ²So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” ³ So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴ Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷ as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. ⁸ Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. ⁹ (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) ¹⁰Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

¹¹ Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ¹²and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. ¹³They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” ¹⁴At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. ¹⁵ He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). ¹⁷ Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” ¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

I think that we find Good Friday to be more compatible because we find resurrection too good to be true. What I am telling you is that this Gospel lesson is your story and mine. I’m telling you that the question is not do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus, but do you believe in your own. Everybody gets a second chance and a third…. Everybody can start over. Everybody can be born again. Let’s follow Mary and John and Peter to the tomb. See if you know these people.

Mary Magdalene was first. The first witness to the resurrection was a woman. The first person to the empty tomb was a woman. The first person to see the risen Lord was a woman, and I can hardly overemphasize that point. It must have happened exactly that way. Nobody would have made that up. Women were not important religious leaders. In fact, women weren’t important anything. The fact that a woman has first place in the resurrection story means something. It means that in Christianity women are not second class. In Islam women are second class or worse. In some Christian churches today women are second class. You go to some weddings and the minister will tell the woman that she is second to her husband. The potential violence in that kind of arrangement is enormous. But whatever may be said about women being second in our most important story, a woman was first.

It was Mary Magdalene out of whom they said that Jesus cast seven devils. We don’t know what that means. We don’t know what those devils were. We know what our devils are like. We know all too well, drugs, alcohol. You know that Methodism has had a long association with the temperance movement, so…, of course,… there are no Methodists who ever drink alcohol. The unfortunate part of that pretense is that we can never admit in church that we have an addiction. That’s absurd. We have to get over that pretense so that we can face up to our demons.

What do we know about Mary? Were these demons symptoms of the fact that her father abused her and her mother told her that whatever happened to her it was her fault? In a society where women are devalued many of you were taught to turn your anger inward, to convert it to guilt.

Jesus had brought new meaning to Mary’s life. His death seemed to put an end to that meaning. All was lost. His resurrection was a new beginning. Do you know Mary Magdalene?

How about John, the beloved disciple? I have always thought of John as somebody you would like to have for a best friend. He is the fellow you could sit in the boat with for hours and never get tired of talking, or just being with. I wonder if he was best friend to Jesus. Of course, Jesus didn’t play favorites among his disciples, except, of course, there was Peter, and John was the beloved disciple, and Judas, was he the real favorite? Myron Madden reminded us in the lectures recently that the father blesses the oldest daughter and the mother blesses the oldest son. In the best of families there are favorites and that is alright.

When Jesus died there was nobody around to whom John could be best friend, nobody to tell him that he was beloved. You know that grief. Some of you adults know, your mate dies. You children know, your best friend moves away. The resurrection meant that John could begin again. Do you know John?

Peter, the rock. On this rock I will build my church. There was a certain power that went with it. People in power sometimes seek it selfishly, but sometimes they seek it for the good they believe they can do.
I think of the powerful influence for good that this church has been through all the years in this community. I think of the people who have made their place in leadership in this community, putting themselves up for election, offering their time for the public good. I have said many times that I never go anywhere where decisions are being made about the future of Denton that I don’t find some of you there.

This building project is a time to begin again. Stanley Monroe and I thought long ago that we weren’t going to live long enough to get involved in this but we have. I decided long ago that it was time and many of you have said long past time. We are going to renew this building, inside and out. People will come to Denton and see this resurrection.

For the resurrection for Peter was a sign that the promises of Jesus were indeed going to be fulfilled. He was Peter and on this rock the church would be built. Jesus raised Peter from the dead that day and said to him, “Oh yes you can.”

Well, you may have come here today, sure, deep down in your heart that you can’t, that it doesn’t matter how you put the puzzle of your life together it will never come out right. This is a day of great celebration, new clothes, new life, but there may be many of you who put on your Easter finery and your Easter face that only hides the deep things of your life. Like Mary Magdalene you keep hoping that your life will mean something. Like John you wonder if anybody really cares. Like Peter you hope to make a difference.

The question is not whether you believe in the resurrection of Jesus. Do you believe in your own? Will you follow Jesus the crucified out of the tomb? Will you let him raise you from the dead?

This sermon was preached by William C. Crouch at First United Methodist Church in Denton, Texas on Easter Sunday April 15, 1990. You can receive notifications of new posts to Rumors of Angels by email. Subscription information is in the upper right corner of this blog page.

Posted in A Rumor of Angels, Christian Life, Easter Sermons | Tagged Bill Crouch, Denton, First United Methodist Church Denton Texas, Gospel of John, Resurrection, William C. Crouch | 1 Comment

Good Friday – The Crowd

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Tim Crouch

Matthew 27:39-44

³⁹ Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads ⁴⁰ and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” ⁴¹ In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. ⁴² “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. ⁴³ He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” ⁴⁴ In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

Have you ever stood in a crowd like this one and watched a disaster unfold? Maybe you have. Through the miracle of television all of us have been present. If you have been there you have been aware that a crowd is just a crowd, an amorphous collection of individuals who have nothing more in common than their common curiosity, their common cynicism, unless it is their common humanity which this Jesus came to redeem. Let me describe them for you.

There were the passersby. If this event had been held on the courthouse lawn they would have been the curious occupants of the cars going from this place to that, who stopped at the traffic signal, rolled down their windows and offered obscene gestures at the goings on. If it had taken place at the Mall they would have been the idle Friday afternoon shoppers strolling in and out of this store and that, pausing to be entertained by the man clinging to life while he hung on the cross. Since it all took place outside the city they were not passersby at all. They were those who had packed a lunch and taken the Golgotha bus. They had brought the children for something to do on a school holiday.

There seems to be a fascination with violence that is as old as the crucifixion and as new as the six o’clock news. Have you ever seen any of those old pictures of the last hanging in Denton, the crowd, they brought the children, of course. Modern executions take place behind prison walls, but outside the blasphemous crowd still gathers with signs and placards, wagging their heads and saying what crowds say. No community here, just a crowd.

So also with the leaders, leaders are supposed to be people who build bridges and break down barriers, but these leaders were building walls and tearing down bridges. Religious leaders retreat behind dogma. Political leaders tear down what God has built to hold us together. In their eagerness to distance themselves from Jesus they had also distanced themselves from God. “He trust in God, let God deliver him, if he delights in him.” Like the blasphemous mayor of Boston many years ago who refused to plow the streets after a great snow storm, “God sent the snow, let God take it away.”

Even the thieves who were hanged with him railed at him. Misery loves company, they say, but there is no love in it, only more misery. No community here either.

All this Jesus received into his body. When they tore his body apart it demonstrated their own brokenness. And when his body emerged from the tomb it emerged whole, resurrected, as if to demonstrate that we don’t have to live like that. We don’t have to live in a crowd; we can live in a community. Think of the little groups that you belong to that are dedicated to exclusiveness. Think of how those groups inflict pain. Think of the way the leaders of the nations build walls and tear down bridges.

Scott Peck has said that the nations often say to each other, “If we could just solve our problems then we could get together.” Maybe it ought to be that if we could just get together we could solve our problems. Maybe our salvation is in community. It is certainly not in the crowd. There it hangs on the cross, the community of all humankind, broken, bleeding. But on the third day that body emerges from the tomb. It is the Body of Christ that is gathered here today. Thanks be to God. Amen.

This sermon was preached by William C. Crouch at First United Methodist Church in Denton, Texas on Good Friday March 23, 1989. You can receive notifications of new posts to Rumors of Angels by email. Subscription information is in the upper right corner of this blog page.

Posted in A Rumor of Angels, Good Friday, Holy Week | Tagged Bill Crouch, Body of Christ, Christians, Crucifixation, Denton, First United Methodist Church Denton Texas, Good Friday, Gospel of Matthew, William C. Crouch | Leave a comment

Maundy Thursday -THE DISCIPLINE OF SERVICE

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Tim Crouch

John 13:1-17

Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet

¹It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

² The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. ³ Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴ so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵ After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷ Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

⁸ “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

⁹ “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

¹⁰ Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” ¹¹ For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

¹² When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. ¹³ “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴ Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶ Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

John 13:34-35

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

So, now the disguise is off, and we can see him for what he is. No pretending anymore. If he had told them plainly before who he was, and he had told them plainly, they had seemed confused, not able to understand, as if he had been wearing a disguise, the Son of God dressed as the son of a carpenter. But now, it is midnight; all masks are off, all disguises laid aside. The hour is come. It is the hour of his death, but it is the hour of his glorification. It is the hour when he goes to the Father. It is the hour when his love for his disciples is forever sealed on their hearts.

Knowing about Judas, who sat there at the table with the rest of them, a feigned look of innocence on his face; Judas who was already guilty of betrayal, knowing who he was, whence he had come and where he was going; (was anyone ever as sure of himself as Jesus? Did anyone ever need less reassurance that he was doing the right thing?)

This son of the king, this teacher, this Lord, took a towel and a basin of water and began to wash the feet of the disciples, one by one, all twelve of them. It was not required that anyone should wash anybody’s feet except his own. Not even servants could be compelled to do that. It was a voluntary act of humiliation, an act of service, like his death, that revealed who he was, that ripped off the mask and revealed his glory.

Imagine if you will. No words are spoken for no words are necessary. John was sitting next to Peter. He began with John, of course, for he was, after all, the beloved disciple. Next to John was Thaddeus and next to him there was James. As he came to each one the silence was broken only the splash of water and the soft rustle of the towel, and Peter watched. Then he came to Judas, as if nothing were special about Judas he simply wash his feet, too, washed the feet of his enemy. Jesus never hated Judas.

In that growing disbelief or panic or whatever it was in Peter as he watched, when Jesus came to Peter he burst out, “You will never wash my feet.” “You will know later, Jesus promises him,” as if he is promising blind men that they will see and deaf men that they will hear at the foot of the cross. “If you do not let me serve you, you do not have a share with me.”

So Peter consents to be served. But you know Peter, as strong one way as he is the other. He offers Jesus his hands and his head as well as his feet.

Jesus takes his place again and speaks to them of example, but it is not an example to be slavishly imitated as if we could reduce the new commandment to some ritual of foot washing. It is an example an illustration, if you will, of self-giving love, which we can understand only at the foot of the cross, in which we share the inheritance of Jesus.

I came across this statement from Mother Theresa the other day. She said, “I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn’t touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.”

Why does she do what she does? Because love is a commandment and a discipline? Yes, love is an act of the will. If we serve only those whom we feel like serving we would, for example, never serve our enemies, our Judas, and miss sharing in the inheritance. Let me tell you what I think is her secret. She has said that she serves Christ in the poor, and when she touches that old diseased head she touches the head of Christ. But I think she has discovered that in doing so she is served, Christ serves her, and so like Peter she lets him wash her feet.

So you and I, knowing who we are, our position, our pride, knowing even who will betray us and knowing who will deny us, are invited to take our basin and our towel and wash one another’s feet. For in serving we are served, in loving we are loved, in dying to our pride we are raised to life.

This sermon was preached by William C. Crouch at First United Methodist Church in Denton, Texas on Maunday Thursday April 19, 1984. You can receive notifications of new posts to Rumors of Angels by email. Subscription information is in the upper right corner of this blog page.

Posted in A Rumor of Angels, Christian Life, Communion, Holy Week | Tagged Bill Crouch, Denton, Disciples, First United Methodist Church Denton Texas, Gospel of John, James, Jesus, Judas, Peter, Thaddeus, William C. Crouch | Leave a comment

Palm/Passion Sunday

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Tim Crouch

Mark 11:1-11

Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King

¹ As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, ² saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”

⁴ They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, ⁵ some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” ⁶ They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. ⁷ When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. ⁸ Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. ⁹ Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”^]

¹⁰ “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

¹¹ Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

Don’t let the donkey fool you. This was a royal procession. Don’t let the children make you believe that this is sweet little Jesus boy coming humbly to the great city. He knew exactly what he was doing. Make no mistake about it, this is David’s heir. This is the king of the Jews. This is the Son of God. And this is a great risk, for this king comes unarmed to take this city. The priests were alarmed, the soldiers were put on alert. It was a dangerous time and this was a risky business. And this is not the end of the story by a long shot. There is a lot of suffering and dying to be done before this thing is over. Just you wait and see.

Mark 14-15:47

Jesus Anointed at Bethany

¹ Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. ²“But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.”

³ While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

⁴ Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? ⁵ It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages^[a] and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.

⁶ “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ⁷ The poor you will always have with you,^[b] and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. ⁸ She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. ⁹ Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

¹⁰ Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. ¹¹ They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

The Last Supper

¹²On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”

¹³ So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. ¹⁴ Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ ¹⁵ He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”

¹⁶ The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

¹⁷ When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. ¹⁸ While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.”

¹⁹ They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely you don’t mean me?”

²⁰ “It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me. ²¹ The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

²² While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”

²³ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.

²⁴ “This is my blood of the^[c] covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. ²⁵ “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

²⁶ When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial

²⁷ “You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written:

“‘I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered.’^[d]

²⁸ But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”

²⁹ Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”

³⁰ “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.”

³¹ But Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the others said the same.

Gethsemane

³² They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” ³³ He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. ³⁴ “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”

³⁵ Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. ³⁶ “Abba,^[f] Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

³⁷ Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you asleep? Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? ³⁸ Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

³⁹ Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. ⁴⁰ When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.

⁴¹ Returning the third time, he said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. ⁴² Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

Jesus Arrested

⁴³Just as he was speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders.

⁴⁴ Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him and lead him away under guard.” ⁴⁵ Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Rabbi!” and kissed him. ⁴⁶ The men seized Jesus and arrested him. ⁴⁷ Then one of those standing near drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.

⁴⁸ “Am I leading a rebellion,” said Jesus, “that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? ⁴⁹ Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled.” ⁵⁰ Then everyone deserted him and fled.

⁵¹ A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, ⁵² he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.

Jesus Before the Sanhedrin

⁵³ They took Jesus to the high priest, and all the chief priests, the elders and the teachers of the law came together. ⁵⁴Peter followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. There he sat with the guards and warmed himself at the fire.

⁵⁵ The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any. ⁵⁶ Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree.

⁵⁷ Then some stood up and gave this false testimony against him: ⁵⁸ “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with human hands and in three days will build another, not made with hands.’” ⁵⁹ Yet even then their testimony did not agree.

⁶⁰ Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” ⁶¹ But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.

Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”

⁶² “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

⁶³ The high priest tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked. ⁶⁴ “You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?”

They all condemned him as worthy of death. ⁶⁵ Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, “Prophesy!” And the guards took him and beat him.

Peter Disowns Jesus

⁶⁶ While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came by. ⁶⁷When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked closely at him.

“You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus,” she said.

⁶⁸ But he denied it. “I don’t know or understand what you’re talking about,” he said, and went out into the entryway.^[g]

⁶⁹ When the servant girl saw him there, she said again to those standing around, “This fellow is one of them.” ⁷⁰ Again he denied it.

After a little while, those standing near said to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.”

⁷¹ He began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about.”

⁷² Immediately the rooster crowed the second time.^[h] Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows twice^[i] you will disown me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

Mark 15

Jesus Before Pilate

¹Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.

² “Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.

“You have said so,” Jesus replied.

³ The chief priests accused him of many things. ⁴ So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”

⁵ But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.

⁶ Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. ⁷ A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. ⁸ The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.

⁹ “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, ¹⁰ knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. ¹¹ But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.

¹² “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.

¹³ “Crucify him!” they shouted.

¹⁴ “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

¹⁵ Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

The Soldiers Mock Jesus

¹⁶ The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. ¹⁷ They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. ¹⁸ And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” ¹⁹ Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. ²⁰And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

The Crucifixion of Jesus

²¹ A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. ²² They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). ²³ Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. ²⁴And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.

²⁵ It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. ²⁶ The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS.

²⁷ They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. ^[28] ^[j] ²⁹ Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, ³⁰ come down from the cross and save yourself!” ³¹ In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! ³² Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

The Death of Jesus

³³ At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. ³⁴ And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).^[k]

³⁵ When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”

³⁶ Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.

³⁷ With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.

³⁸ The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. ³⁹ And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died,^[l] he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

⁴⁰ Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph,^[m] and Salome. ⁴¹ In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.

The Burial of Jesus

⁴² It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, ⁴³ Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. ⁴⁴ Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. ⁴⁵ When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. ⁴⁶ So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. ⁴⁷ Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.

There is a lot of suffering and dying to be done before we assemble here again. We have read about it, in the days of this holy week I pray that you may experience it. I pray that you will remember Jesus as he went about challenging their authority, teaching, cleansing the temple. I pray that you will come and eat and drink with him as his disciples on Thursday night. I pray that you will watch on Friday as he dies on the cross. I pray that you will remember the words of the Centurion, “Truly this was the Son of God.” This was all for you. This is God’s great gift of love which he has prepared from before the foundations of the world, the gift to be opened, like a tomb, next Sunday. There is a lot of suffering and dying to be done before we assemble here again, but when we do, when we do….

This sermon was preached by William C. Crouch at First United Methodist Church in Denton, Texas on Palm/Passion Sunday March 24, 1991. You can receive notifications of new posts to Rumors of Angels by email. Subscription information is in the upper right corner of this blog page.

Posted in A Rumor of Angels, Palm Sunday | Tagged Bill Crouch, Crucifixation, Denton, First United Methodist Church Denton Texas, Good Friday, Gospel of Mark, Jerusalem, Jesus, Last Supper, Maunday Thursday, Palm Sunday, Passion Sunday, William C. Crouch | Leave a comment

School Master to Christ

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Tim Crouch

You can hardly pick up a magazine these days that it does not make some reference to the problem of ethics that confronts us as a nation. Time magazine had a cover story, Newsweek, U.S.News, the newspapers are full of it, both the report of unethical behavior on the part of government and even church leaders and the call for a concern about ethics. Although nobody ever says it quite that way the underlying message seems to be that if we could just live by the golden rule or the ten commandments…which seems like a good idea until you notice that most of the calls for ethics based on the ten commandments lift them from their religious context and you can’t do that. If I can get ahead of myself a moment, that’s what our New Testament lesson is about.

John 2:13-22

Jesus Clears the Temple Courts

¹³ When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵ So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

¹⁸ The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

²⁰ They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” ²¹ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. ²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

Exodus 20:1-17

The Ten Commandments

¹And God spoke all these words:

² “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

³ “You shall have no other gods before^[a] me.

⁴ “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶ but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

⁷ “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. ¹¹ For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

¹² “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

¹³ “You shall not murder.

¹⁴ “You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵ “You shall not steal.

¹⁶ “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

The crucial statement in the twentieth chapter of Exodus is the first, not the business about stealing and killing and adultery, but the first, “I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, therefore, you shall have no other gods besides me.” My friend Ralph Slater often reminds us that these are not the “ten suggestions.” I would add to that the fact that the ten commandments are not repealed by the New Testament. The commandments and the covenant they express remain valid. (We need to talk more about that sometime, that the covenant they express is still valid.) But the point I want to make this morning is that it is the covenant rather than the commandment that is first in importance. In the words of Martin Luther, the commandments are always a school master to Christ, intended to lead us to that relationship with God that we call Jesus Christ.
The great ethical problem is complacency. The rich young ruler came to Jesus and told him, “All these things I have kept from my youth up.” If we can honestly look at the commandments and not be brought to our knees then there is no need for Christ in our lives. And that’s what this business of cleansing the temple is all about. Now, I said that I want you to keep one finger in Exodus and one in John. I want to pay close attention to John for a moment. When you do an exegesis of John you have to do it a little differently because John’s words always have a double meaning.

The story begins at verse thirteen telling us that the Passover is at hand. That’s the first clue. Jesus will come to Jerusalem two more times for the Passover. The last time they will crucify him. He finds the temple a cacophony of commercialism. The other gospels tell us that all this buying and selling took place in the part of the temple where the gentiles came to pray and that Jesus threw them out to make a place of prayer for all nations, but that’s not John. It says that his disciples remembered, “Zeal for thy house will consume me.” The house of God, the temple, clearly means something more here than a building where you can pray.

If there is any doubt the authorities ask him for a sign, not for his legal authority to do this mind you, but for a sign. In John’s Gospel a sign is always a miracle that points to who Jesus is. He gives them a sign. He says, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” They are still thinking about the building but just in case we are too, John makes it clear that Jesus is talking about the resurrection. The resurrection is the sign of who Jesus is par excellence.

Now, what does all that have to do with the commandments? You can squeeze all the juice out of your religion. You can reduce it to a series of commercial transactions. You can make it a few good motions to go through. You can make it into a few good rules that you can keep. Jesus comes to sweep all that aside, to drive out those who are not offended by that sort of minimal rules religion. If we have not found our need for God in the commandments then we have not looked hard enough. The commandments are not so much about right behavior as they are about a right relationship with God.

To speak of sin is not to speak of a few little things we can correct and everything will be all right. To speak of sin is to speak of our overwhelming and desperate need for Jesus. It is to speak of our lives that have been destroyed and only Christ can build them up again. It is to speak of our death out of which only Christ can raise us. When you come to the table it is not to confess that you broke some empty rule, but to confess the Christ who has filled up the law with his death and resurrection.

This sermon was preached by William C. Crouch at First United Methodist Church in Denton, Texas on March 6, 1988. You can receive notifications of new posts to Rumors of Angels by email. Subscription information is in the upper right corner of this blog page.

Posted in A Rumor of Angels, Ten Commandments | Tagged 10 Commandments, Bill Crouch, Cleansing the temple, Ethics, Exodus, First United Methodist Church Denton Texas, Golden Rule, Gospel of John, Jesus, Martin Luther, Newsweeek, Passover, Ralph Slater, Time Magazine, U.S. News, William C. Crouch | Leave a comment

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Tim Crouch

You have heard the story about the two little boys who got into a discussion about the devil one day, trying to decide, is there really a devil. Finally one of them said, “Well, you know what I think. I think the devil is just like Santa Claus, it’s your daddy.” For some children, of course, that is no joke. They suffer at the hands of the man who is in their house who sometimes goes under the assumed name of daddy.

What they were talking about, though, is the origin of evil, where does evil come from. Now, that’s one of those big philosophical questions, one that has occupied philosophers since, well, I suppose, since there were philosophers. Are there two powers in the world, good and evil? Does God really tempt us or is it the devil? The questions about the origin of evil are at least as big as the philosophical questions about prayer, and like them, they deserve some serious discussion. But this morning on this first Sunday of Lent I take my text from the story of the temptation of Jesus and my title from the petition which Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “lead us not into temptation,” and if I were to say what I wish for you today it would be that you should be free to pray that prayer, Lord, lead us not into temptation.

Luke 4:1-13

Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness

³ The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.”

⁵ The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶ And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. ⁷ If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

⁸ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”

⁹ The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. ¹⁰ For it is written:

   “‘He will command his angels concerning you
   to guard you carefully;
¹¹ they will lift you up in their hands,
   so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

¹² Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

¹³ When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

The problem with temptation is with the way we use the word, not with the way the Bible uses the word. For us temptation is an internal, psychological thing. It is a disposition of the mind. To be tempted to eat the dessert that is not on your diet is to give it serious consideration, and the Bible seems to say that the thought is as bad as the act. It troubles some folks to imagine that Jesus might have considered turning stones to bread or throwing himself off the pinnacle of the temple. Of course, it is also true that we give the dieter credit for resisting that piece of cake and no blame comes from thinking about it.

But the Bible uses the word in another way. The Lord’s prayer could just as easily read, “deliver us in the time of testing,” for the word means to try something or attempt something, to test something or prove something. It is like putting a thing to the acid test. Wang Yang-Ming the sixteenth century philosopher said, “To know and not to act is not yet to know.” When it comes time to put our faith to the test, Lord help us. This morning I would wish that you should go away with the freedom to pray in the time of testing, for prayer is the only appropriate posture in that time.

Last Sunday I asked you to take up a prayer project during these forty days of Lent and to pray for your church. I ask you again for this is the time of testing. I have a confession to make, for myself and I think for all of us. We have grown complacent and comfortable. Let me illustrate that for you. In 1985 we showed an actual membership decline, not a great decline, only two, but that was the first time in the thirty years I have been in the ministry when the church I have served has shown a membership decrease. I was shocked when that realization struck me and in a city growing as Denton grows. Our average attendance has been stuck on 582 for three years and our average Sunday School attendance has increased by only four persons in that time. When I evaluated that, I could only draw the conclusion that I had grown complacent and comfortable. I am willing to take my share of the blame, but I offer you some of it, too. In this time of testing, Lord, lead us not into temptation. Pray, people of God, pray for your church, that in the time of testing our words and our deeds may be one.

So what did Jesus do in the time of testing? The devil offered him bread from a stone. What’s wrong with bread when you are hungry? The answer, of course, is that there is nothing wrong with bread. What’s wrong is the notion that every appetite ought to be satisfied immediately.

We are tempted to consume everything. It is the American Way, isn’t it? In fact, it often seems to be un-American to postpone satisfactions of any kind. There is no other way to explain the rampant addiction to drugs and alcohol, the easy exploitations of God’s good gift of sexuality. Most of us cannot imagine fasting forty days in the wilderness or anywhere else. We can imagine dieting but that’s not fasting. Richard Foster describes fasting as desisting from what is otherwise good for the sake of spiritual growth. That cuts out dieting and it also cuts out hunger strikes which are usually engaged in for political purposes.

Foster suggest that the whole purpose is to take control of our lives. Once in awhile when I pass through the gym I will find a basketball on the floor and if nobody is looking I will pick it up and throw it toward the basket. Well, it seldom goes through, but if I keep trying and edging a little closer I can eventually get it through the basket. Now Tommy Newman doesn’t want people like me on his team. He wants disciplined basketball players who will practice, and practice until they can get the ball through the basket when they need to get it through the basket. Fasting helps us take control of our lives so that our lives don’t control us. Foster also suggests that fasting twentieth century style doesn’t always mean going without food. He says it means desisting from the media, for example. Leave the television and the radio and the newspapers alone for twenty four hours sometime. Leave the telephone aside, for the sake of your spiritual growth. We have become a society that consumes everything.

Even the church. We pat our spirits that have been filled and we are satisfied. We said long ago that our vision was to serve God and this community from this location, but we have been content to rent our facilities to community organizations. What about the poor? We haven’t served them at all. Pray, people of God, pray that in this time of testing our words and our deeds will be one. Lord, lead us not into temptation.

So what did Jesus do in the time of testing? The devil offered him power over all the kingdoms of this world. So what’s wrong with that? Wouldn’t the world be better off if Jesus had accepted that offer? Can you imagine what the world would be like if there were one world government and Jesus of Nazareth were at the head of it? You already know the answer to that. There is something inherently deceptive about power. The devil offered Jesus the power and the glory. maybe the deception is in the glory. You remember T. S. Eliot’s reenactment of the temptation story, his play about Thomas A. Becket, “Murder in the Cathedral.” The final treason, says Becket, is to do the right thing for the wrong reason. Lord help us when the test comes.

Some of us may want prestige for our church or to be as big as the Baptists. Some of you have begun to say that we need more parking, and we do, or a new sanctuary, and may that too. But some of you have begun to say, we need more parking or a new sanctuary to serve all those people who are going to move into Denton in these next few years. You see, the only poor are not those who sleep under bridges at night. Fifty percent of the people who live in Denton at this moment don’t have a church to call on it time of need. Oh, maybe back in Dallas or Indiana, but no pastor whom they know well enough to call if there were a crisis in the family; fifty percent! They are also the poor, and we decided long ago to serve this community from this place, serve it, not control it. Pray, people of God, pray that in this time of testing our words and deeds may be one. Lord, lead us not into temptation.

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Offerings of First fruits and Tithes

26 “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, ² you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. ³And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ ⁴Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God.

⁵“And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. ⁶And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. ⁷Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. ⁸And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. ⁹And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. ¹¹And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.

So what did Jesus do in the time of testing? The devil offered him the easy way out. So what’s wrong with that? Isn’t the whole point to be well known, to have the world beat a path to your door? Wouldn’t they have come flocking to see the one born up on angels wings? The devil even supported his argument by quoting scriptures. The devil can probably do that at least as well as you can. The Gospel of success and those who proclaim it can give you chapter and verse.

What’s wrong with that is it takes a short cut. It is one more demand for instant gratification. The road for Jesus did indeed pass through Jerusalem, but it was the cross that lay at the end of it, not the pinnacle of the temple. My friends, when the time of testing comes it will be hard work and sacrifice of money and time. It will be turbulence and change. If we are going to get this church moving again there are no short cuts and no easy way out. Pray, people of God, pray that in this time of testing our words and deeds may be one. Lord, lead us not into temptation.

Let me share my vision with you for a moment. I think that it is your vision,too. I think, in fact, that I caught it from you. It is the vision of a church that from this strategic location, where God has called us to be, at the corner of Mulberry and Locust streets, truly serves God and this community. There are people out there who need this church for what it can do to help them. We need to be asking, what can we do for you. They need bread not a stone. There are people who need us to care about them, not to distend our membership or swell our pride. They have human hurts that need to be comforted and hopes and dreams that need to be encouraged. There are people out there who want their lives to count for something really important and they are willing to work for it. You go tell them. You bring them to this place where the people of God are praying that they might be delivered in the time of testing. I challenge you this day, you go out and find them and bring them until we have to build a new parking lot and a new sanctuary. Pray, people of God, pray that our words and deeds may be one. Lord, teach us to pray. There is no other way.

Romans 10:8-13

⁸ “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: ⁹ If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. ¹¹ As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” ¹² For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, ¹³ for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

This sermon was preached by William C. Crouch at First United Methodist Church in Denton, Texas on February 16, 1986. You can receive notifications of new posts to Rumors of Angels by email. Subscription information is in the upper right corner of this blog page.

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The Problem of Suffering

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Tim Crouch

God is not the author of your suffering. Let me say that straight out, God did not set out to make you suffer whatever pain you experience. God’s intention is to stand with you in the midst of that suffering so that you can come out on the other side whole. How do I know that? The cross. The cross and resurrection are the sign that the power of evil can never send God packing, never.

The agnostic cries out in his pain the classic dilemma of suffering: If God is good then why do we suffer. Either God is unwilling to do anything about it and therefore not good, or God is unable to do anything about it and therefore not God. Or you may remember Ivan Karamazov in Dostoyevsky’s story. Ivan is the one who insists that as long as there is one child who suffers he cannot believe in God, for a good God would not allow any child to suffer. God does not make little children suffer. God’s purposes do not include the suffering of children. Oh, I know, sometimes we want to offer comfort to those who suffer and we struggle for things to say. Haven’t you heard it, that well meaning person who tells you, “Something good will come of this. God brought this suffering upon you so that you will emerge a stronger person for it.” God is not the author of your suffering. The thought that God set out to make you suffer is simply a lie.

And the Bible says that the devil is the author of lies. Lies appear personified in our story today.

Luke 4:1-13

Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness

¹ Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, ² where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. ³ The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” ⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.” ⁵ The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶ And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. ⁷ If you worship me, it will all be yours.” ⁸ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.” ⁹ The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. ¹⁰ For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully;
¹¹ they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” ¹² Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ¹³ When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

The word “devil” means slanderous or the slanderer or the liar. It is clear that the temptation story tells about how Jesus was tempted to believe the liar and to turn away from God’s truth. I want to tell you that lies will result in untold suffering.

Lies are personified in our story today. They have a voice and they can speak. They have arms and legs and can take Jesus up and show him the kingdoms of this world in a moment of time or set him on the pinnacle of the temple. They have self consciousness and can invite worship and service. But you don’t have to personify the devil to know that lies will bring untold suffering.

I don’t want to be philosophical about the problem of suffering today. I don’t want to talk about the suffering that we bring upon ourselves or the suffering that we bring upon others. My purpose is not to tell you that there seems to be some suffering that is uncaused in any cosmic sense, stuff that seems to be random, like a mountain avalanche or the bite of a deadly snake.

Instead, let this be a time of self-examination. Truth is located in God, and we all suffer from lies.

Lies can appear as good things. Bread is a good thing, especially when you are hungry. Jesus had been forty days in the wilderness. When his fast came to an end he was hungry. What’s wrong with feeding the hungry? Nothing. Last Saturday night the telephone rang and on the other end was a man, traveling through town, who had found a place to sleep the night out of the cold, but he was hungry. Without hesitation I called Tom and Jo’s restaurant and asked them to give him a meal and charge it to us. If I turn down those weekend callers it is because we have a good Monday to Friday program and I tell them that if we pay their rent somebody goes hungry. Power is a good thing, not unlimited power, of course, but power that subjects itself to the justice of God, and he offered Jesus power. Christians are not anarchists, though I suspect there is a small streak of anarchy that runs through the heart of all of us. Why else do we freeze up when we see those big lights on the patrol car in our rear view mirror? You don’t have to put on the shoes of a police officer to imagine what it is like to be thought of as the enemy. Scripture is good, but the devil is good at quoting scripture. Don’t be fooled by those who quote the Bible for bad reasons. If God is not in the bread or the power or the scripture then it is a lie, masquerading. Remember Eve, when she saw that the fruit was good for food…. Examine yourself. Are you caught up in the lies of good things at the expense of the truth of your life in God? Lies result in untold suffering.

Lies can even appear as Godly promises, even as a short cut to the truth. No doubt about it, God’s purpose is that Christ should rule over all. Paul put it like this, “That every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” What’s wrong with helping God along? After all, everyone knows that it says over there in the book of Hezekiah, “God helps those who help themselves.” Remember Abraham? God had promised him a son, so Abraham decided to help God out since his wife Sarah hadn’t been able to produce, but if you know the story of Hagar and Ishmael then you know how Hagar was terrorized and all the suffering that has been caused by the continuing war between the Arabs who are the children of Ishmael and the Jews who are the children of Isaac.

Don’t try to short cut God. Try as I may I can’t wish those seeds out of the ground that I have planted. I think I know how people get into drugs. God wills our happiness, right. One night I got home late from a very stressful evening, lots of coffee with two friends in trouble. There in the medicine cabinet, a prescription for sleeping pills given to me as I left the hospital after some minor surgery. One of those would help, after all, I have a busy day tomorrow. The consequences were almost immediate. I woke up with an infection next day, the product of the stress and caffeine and sleeping pills, but I can see how Eve would have thought about that fruit and said to herself, God wants us to enjoy the garden, right. I’ll help God out. Examine yourself. Are you caught up in lies about good ends justifying bad means? Lies result in untold suffering.

Lies can even appear as faith. Jump off this building. The Bible says God will take care of you. The devil not only can quote the Bible he is a pretty good theologian, isn’t he. We often speak about faith as a leap into God’s arms. But faith does not take leave of its senses. Why do people engage in self-destructive behavior? Not because it is the truth. They say teenagers do it because they believe they are indestructible, but that’s a lie. Teen age pregnancies and teen age alcoholics and teen age suicides are proof enough of that. You don’t have to be sixty-five years old and a wino to be an alcoholic. Just ask those people in the balcony. They know the truth.

Self destructive behavior is the very opposite of trust in God. It most often grows out of self hate. How can you hate what God loves? God loves you, don’t treat yourself that way. God’s love is the truth. Self hate is a lie. Remember Eve. It made her wise alright, but it was too late by then. Examine yourself. Are you caught up in the lies of self-destruction? Lies result in untold suffering.

It is not that I have given you some formula to avoid suffering. Jesus didn’t avoid suffering. The devil was off with a wave of the hand, “I’ll be back,” he said, “at the time, the right time.” And when the Bible talks about the right time it means the cross. The truth was not that Jesus would never suffer but that God would never desert him. A truthful self-examination shows us that each of us is his own Adam and that Eve is the mother of all living things. Which of us does not at some time get caught up in the lies of good things or good ends or in some other behavior that is self-destructive? My purpose is not to hold out the absurd promise that if you play your cards right you will never suffer and you will always be prosperous. That’s the devil’s promise and the devil has always been a liar. My purpose is to tell you about the cross. God is not the author of your suffering. God did not set out to make you suffer whatever pain you experience. God’s intention is to stand with you. God will not desert you. No evil will ever send God packing. That’s not a lie, that’s the truth.

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Firstfruits and Tithes

¹ When you have entered the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, ² take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the LORD your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name ³ and say to the priest in office at the time, “I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come to the land the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us.” ⁴ The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the LORD your God. ⁵ Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. ⁶ But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, subjecting us to harsh labor. ⁷ Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our ancestors, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. ⁸ So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. ⁹ He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; ¹⁰ and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, LORD, have given me.” Place the basket before the LORD your God and bow down before him. ¹¹ Then you and the Levites and the foreigners residing among you shall rejoice in all the good things the LORD your God has given to you and your household.

This sermon was preached by William C. Crouch at First United Methodist Church in Denton, Texas on February 12, 1989. You can receive notifications of new posts to Rumors of Angels by email. Subscription information is in the upper right corner of this blog page.

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The Shining Face of Prayer

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Tim Crouch

You have all heard the story about the fellow walking home late one night, thought he would take a short cut, got lost, fell down over the cliff, and the only thing that saved him was he caught hold of this bush growing out of the side of the precipice. He didn’t know what he was going to do, so he began to pray, and then he began to yell. Though it was late at night, he began to yell, “Is there anybody up there?” “I’m here,” came the voice, “what do you want?” “I want help,” he said. “Just let go, trust me,” came the reply. “Who are you?” he yelled back. “I am the Lord,” was the answer, “just let go, trust me.” There was a long pause and he said, “Is there anybody else up there?”

Alright, I might as well admit it as I begin this series on prayer. That’s the real question, isn’t it. Does God answer prayer? Or does God answer my prayer, or even is God listening, or is there anybody up there? Oh, I know, it isn’t always a popular question among Christians. The evangelicals will answer glibly, God answers prayers if you have enough faith, and if your prayers aren’t answered then it is a sure sign that you don’t have enough faith, it is all your fault, and that’s absurd. But the liberals have dealt with answers to prayer by denying the question. Virginia Mollenkott, whom I otherwise admire, and who might resent being called a liberal, writes to ask about answers to prayer is to ask the wrong question. We ought, she says, to be listening to God. True enough, but if I have cancer I want to know, does it do any good to pray? Is anything going to be changed? If nothing is going to be changed then what’s the use of praying? Maybe that’s the question, is there any use in praying? Did it do Jesus any good to pray, seeing the cross and all? And that brings me to my text, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Luke 9:28-36

The Transfiguration

²⁸ About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. ²⁹ As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. ³⁰ Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. ³¹ They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. ³² Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. ³³As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)

³⁴ While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. ³⁵ A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” ³⁶ When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.

I think that if I were to say what I would wish for you to go away from here with this morning I would wish that you would go away with the freedom to pray, just cut loose and pray, just wild uninhibited praying, as Jesus prayed. Now, I know, the whole matter of prayer raises all sorts of philosophical questions, enormous question about natural law and whether God can or would suspend natural law, questions about whether prayer changes God’s mind or your mind. I think I know all those enormous questions, but I would wish for you that you would go away from here with the freedom to pray, just turn loose and pray. Did you notice in the text that it began by saying that all this happened while Jesus was praying. He was transfigured, his face shone in prayer, but I get ahead of myself. To be free to pray requires something of you.

First of all, it requires risk. One of the things the Bible says, Paul said it, “we do not know how to pray as we ought.” That’s probably true. Few of us would deny it. If I asked all of you to raise your hands who believe that you know how to pray as you ought we probably would show few hands. So we tell other people, or we tell ourselves, the reason your prayers aren’t answered, you don’t know the right words. So we don’t pray at all. Then somebody comes along and tells us you ought to pray as Jesus did, “Thy will be done.” The trick seems to be to shape the question to the answer. If God is going to say no, wouldn’t it be better to shape your prayers to receive no as an answer? But that’s the whole point, isn’t it, we want to tell God about our deep desires. We want to persuade God to our point of view and if we aren’t free to pray like that, what’s the use of praying at all.

2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2

¹² Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. ¹³ We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. ¹⁴ But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. ¹⁵ Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. ¹⁶ But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 4

Present Weakness and Resurrection Life

¹ Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. ² Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.

If you are going to pray it requires risk. It requires you the risk of hope. It requires you to dare to imagine that it might be, that God would actually say yes, give what you ask or think or even that God would give us far above all that we are able to ask or think or imagine. I say that the reason we don’t pray is often that we don’t dare risk believing in such a God. What if it didn’t work? It doesn’t always work. Would we be disappointed, and God couldn’t stand our being disappointed in him, could he, so don’t take the risk.

Or what if God said yes! Could we risk that? Be careful what you pray for, God might say yes. Prayer is dangerous. Be sure that you handle it with care. Do you suppose that Christa McAuliffe prayed that she would win the contest and be the first teacher to ride the shuttle? What about that man who lay beside the pool at Bethesda, do you suppose he ever prayed to be healed? Jesus asked him, “Do you really want to be healed?” Do you dare ask? What if God said yes? What would you do then. Just to cut loose to pray requires risk. Are you willing to do that?

And it requires faith. We are often not free to pray because we don’t believe enough. I don’t mean to say that prayers are answered in some sort of proportion to the amount of faith you have, as if faith could be measured like a bank account and you get a list of transactions at the end of the month, how much you have put in, how much you have taken out, what your current balance is.

Exodus 34:29-35

The Radiant Face of Moses

²⁹ When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. ³⁰ When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. ³¹ But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. ³²Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai.

³³ When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. ³⁴ But whenever he entered the LORD’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, ³⁵ they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.

Prayer requires the sort of faith that Moses had, the faith to enter boldly into the presence of God. The reason that Moses covered his face was that it made everybody afraid to see a man who believed in God like that. If you remember the stories of Moses, you remember that he was a man who often went in and confronted God, pounded on his desk and made demands.

Walter Brueggemann was reminding some of us the other day that people don’t always come to church from out of a whole set of happy experiences ready to praise God. Sometimes you come here with a feeling of alienation and fear and anger. You know there is something badly wrong and some of it may be your fault, but there’s a whole lot of it that isn’t your fault, it’s God’s fault and you want to tell God about it. Immediately after I heard him say that I went to visit a friend of mine in the hospital in Dallas. He is a cancer patient and we talked about that, the anger. “I know this isn’t my fault,” he said, “this is God’s fault.” Are you willing to believe in God enough to voice your complaint, like Job? Do you believe in God enough to be angry with God? Do you love God that much? Moses did. If you are going to cut loose and pray it requires faith.

And it requires trust. Prayer is when you have the courage and the faith to go in and pound on God’s desk and leave it there. There is a sort of division of labor here. You are you and God is God. Your part is to pray, God’s part is to answer prayers. That means in the first place that you don’t have to answer your own prayers. What a relief. Do you remember the old poetic line that pictures God as a paraplegic, “God has no hands but our hands to do his work today?” In the second place it means that when you lay it on God’s desk you have found the right place, the buck stops there.

Brueggeman said there is a sort of process in prayer: articulate it, take the risk of really imaging it, saying it out loud; submit it, have enough faith to submit it to God; relinquish it, so often we hold on to it, won’t let it go.

So, does God answer prayers? Does God answer my prayers? Is there anybody up there anyway? Is there any use in praying? We could talk about all the important theological questions that need to be answered, and maybe we can do that sometime, but I want you to go away from here free to pray, free just to cut loose and pray. What freedom Moses had and Jesus had. Faces show things like that, don’t they. We see faces black with hatred or red with rage. Faces are white with terror or they glow with love. What good did it do Jesus to pray, seeing the cross and all? But the story says that while he was praying, while he talked with God, he was transformed and his face shown with a dazzling light. I wish for you that shining face of prayer. Go ahead, take the risk, do it, do it.

This sermon was preached by William C. Crouch at First United Methodist Church in Denton, Texas on February 9, 1986. You can receive notifications of new posts to Rumors of Angels by email. Subscription information is in the upper right corner of this blog page.

Posted in A Rumor of Angels, Christian Life, Prayer | Tagged Angry with God, Bethesda, Bill Crouch, Body of Christ, Cancer, Christa McAuliffe, Christian Liberals, Christians, Corinthians, Denton, Evangelicals, Exodus, First United Methodist Church Denton Texas, Freedom to pray, God as a paraplegic, Gospel of Luke, IS there anybody up there, Jesus, Job, Moses, Natural Law, NEw Testament, Paul, Praying, Space Shuttle Challenger, the Buck stops on God's desk, uninhibited praying, Virginia Mollenkott, Walter Brueggemann, William C. Crouch | Leave a comment

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Matthew 27:39-44

John 13:1-17

Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet

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