JUST THINKING ABOUT …
2 Timothy 1: 1-14
LUKE 16:19-31
OCTOBER 4, 2025 – WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY
I have been doing a lot of thinking these past two weeks … perhaps that’s both the benefit and the challenge of having some free time to sit in a backyard that resembles a small meadow with the breeze flowing through my thick head of hair, the sun shining in the sky, and the sound of birds singing in the air. A restful setting … a Psalm 23-like place of potential restoration with God offering an opportunity to consider life, the world, and the ongoing challenges that are part of daily life. Challenges we all face.
How often do you spend time just thinking about … thinking about God, the Gospels of Jesus Christ, and whether or not your life is aligned with God’s expectations?
Do you take your moments to celebrate God’s love for you, as an individual, through Jesus Christ? How God calls out to you … and whether you answer by following God.
Yes, I realize that as a pastor and as someone who during my life has been associated with University Methodist Church, Williamsville Methodist Church, Randall Memorial Baptist Church, Church of the Advent, St. Mark’s at the Crossing Episcopal Church, Church of Mark and All Saints, Peace Lutheran Church, Emmaus United Methodist Church, Leesburg and Delmont United Methodist Churches, Central United Methodist Church, Wesley Theological Seminary Chapel, the National Cathedral, 1st Pres Church of both Tonawanda and Buffalo, Calvary Episcopal Church, and St. Paul’s United Methodist Church plus some close relationship with St. Peter and Paul, and Beth El Synagogue and other churches I have had opportunities to hear the Word of God … to discover Jesus’ truths that counter the world’s blasphemy … and I have been blessed with many opportunities to pause for Holy Communion allowing those moments to have my soul restored by God.
Friends, amidst the banter, the chaos, the shouts, and the clanging noise of the world people of faith are OBLIGATED to pull closer to God rather than to give God a quick wave and howdy do while rejecting God. People of faith going back to David’s Psalm of reflection claim that the Lord God is our shepherd, which means if we have faith … if we believe … if we are connected to God that we are guarding God’s Word deep in our hearts and in our minds and that we are living lives that are quick to reject and run from alignment with any whose actions and words counter our faith and go against the teaching of Jesus because frankly … it is easy to succumb to the popular; it’s easy to want to join in evil shouting and screaming and throwing things at people we don’t like.
But that’s not God’s call … we are the ones charged with guarding the Gospels in our time. We are the ones told to love ALL of our neighbors as Jesus loved.
At the RYDER CUP, which is a golf competition that I have always paid little or no attention to … Golf tournaments that I have always associated with the concept of shhhhhh everyone quiet down … he or she is about to line up their shot or make their putt … It’s the ultimate sport of decorum. Well, at this year’s RYDER CUP held on Long Island … in an unbelievable reflection of how low we have gone and how evil has taken over and how even people who attend churches willingly join in … the emcee and the crowd shouted CURSE WORDS at the great Irish golfer Rory McIllroy. CHANTS of CURSE WORDS and VERBAL ATTACKS merely because he represented Europe’s golf team. And, then one of them threw a beer can that hit Rory’s wife Erica in the head and the crowd cheered …. The wife of a golfer dressed in a pretty dress … hit in the head with a beer can and the crowd cheered because she was from the other team … well actually because she was married to a member of the other team.
I thought about our world … the state of the church … as I heard an elected representative from the State of Arizona suggest that a United States Representative, Pramila Jayapal, a member of Congress, should be EXECUTED … EXECUTED …. EXECUTED … because she encouraged people to use their freedom of speech to protest …. A right that has been part of our Constitution, an element of our democracy reflective of our freedom of speech since our forefathers stood up to the King in the late 1700’s. And, there were church attenders cheering this Arizona male representative saying KILL HER KILL HER not because she committed a crime but because she spoke words.
And, today is WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY … are you ready to share in the cup and eat the bread? Have you found the still waters and green meadows to be restored in your faith and refreshed by God or is God an after thought as you embrace the 21st century’s new gospel? Do you share a love for all of our neighbors around the world … and are you sharing the Gospel message of Jesus Christ in your daily life.
In Joshua we are reminded to “make sure the Word of God NEVER leaves your lips. We are to be VERY strong and brave. Carefully obeying all the law that God has put before us. To not be afraid nor to panic because the Lord God is with us” when we do.
“He leads me down the paths of righteousness for His sake … He takes me to the green meadows and restores my soul.”
Yes, I have been wondering … this month I am planning on taking us through Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy because Paul in writing to his disciple and friend from the depths of a Roman prison that he would never leave is concerned about the world. Paul who would be executed and never walk freely again wanted to make sure that the early church remained focused on God and Christ even in the midst of a turbulent evil world.
Paul’s short letter, which you can find in the New Testament after Thessalonians and before Titus offers a central theme … people of faith are called to be different and to be courageous and to embrace Jesus Christ daily in our lives. Paul writes that in our words and through our actions we are to stand in God’s truth and in righteousness. He repeatedly uses that Greek phrase, sy de, which means BUT AS FOR YOU.
And, on this World Communion Sunday … that is the question or the consideration I want you to take from church … sy de … BUT AS FOR YOU what are you choosing for your life? Are you sensing God’s love through Jesus Christ remembering the sacrifice and of course always remembering that Jesus beat back the cross and death. He is RISEN <<HE IS RISEN INDEED>> not just some name to morph into a claim of being a Christian while rejecting His declaration that we must love all of our neighbors while caring for the poor and the broken. JESUS our personal SAVIOR and TEACHER.
Paul challenges Timothy in this first chapter of the letter to NOT BE ASHAMED of the GOSEPL of JESUS CHRIST. To live it … to declare it … to stand up for it. In our Gospel lesson today we heard the lesson of the rich man who died and then went to THE BAD PLACE where he was suffering … the rich man now in Hell had mistreated sick and poor Lazarus while he was alive probably mocking him or calling him names of derision along with his friends because Lazarus was homeless and lying at the city gate much like the many homeless we have in our nation and like the poor around the world … the rich man did not share his food and we hear how Lazarus longed for the crumbs off the table. But when he died … Lazarus found heaven and Jesus shares this lesson.
Perhaps I need to say this again … JESUS shares this teaching moment of the rich man who ignored the poor, homeless and sick man and ignored the lessons of Abraham and of faith who ends up in torment and pain for eternity … ACCORDING TO JESUS … when Abraham tells the rich man he cannot get to heaven the man begs to send Lazarus from heaven to warn his brothers but Abraham declares, “They have Moses and the Prophets, if they don’t listen to Moses and the Prophets … “ well we know the story because Jesus implies that if individuals don’t listen to the Word of God they won’t be persuaded if someone rises from the dead … forecasting His death and resurrection.
Paul reminds Timothy and us to REVIVE God’s gift that is in us. Perhaps on this World Communion Sunday we need to experience personal revival … we need to regain our focus because this world with its constant barrage of messaging including false AI imagery can be so overwhelming. We need the peace that God can give … we need the directional messaging of the Gospels that is consistently clear on what we are to to with our lives … Paul tells Timothy that “God gives us a spirit that is powerful, LOVING, and self-controlled.” Love is the central theme and reality of faith … LOVE GOD and LOVE ALL YOUR NEIGHBORS being the two primary commandments of Jesus. Paul says, “depend on God’s power.”
There is an odd balance in this world offering the same choices faced by the rich man and Lazarus. God does not force us into making the choice but the outcome of our decision has a direct impact on us. Many times, when I am in the ER or the ICU when a stranger dies their family members whom I don’t know will turn to me and ask me, “Pastor is my mother/father/wife/husband/brother/sister in heaven today?” Obviously I don’t know but we each need restoration through God’s love and we need to align with Jesus’ teaching.
What I do know … is that those of us here today have heard the Gospels … we have been exposed to history’s lessons of faith messages from God. We are aware of Jesus Christ and how God’s love was demonstrated for every single human but we have to choose not to claim we are Christians but to actually change our lives so that we ARE CHRISTIANS rejecting the world without shame. I cannot judge any other person’s relationship with God and Christ but certainly those who cheer on a beer can hitting a woman in the head are actively rejecting the teaching of Christ in a visible manner.
Paul writes that God saves us not because of anything we have done but that it is in God’s grace and love with our only requirement being that we actually believe and reject the world. We are to “protect our faith and the love that comes from Christ Jesus … placed in our trust through the Holy Spirit.” A lesson for all let Communion today restore your faith and take that faith into the world guarding the Gospels. AMEN