Over thinking Christianity and Jesus Christ may cause your faith to diminish.  I appreciate the words of Frederick Buechner in his book, “Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC” ~ an everyday definition of “Love.”  “The first stage is to believe there is only one kind of love.  The middle stage is to believe that there are many kinds of love and that the Greeks had different words for each of them.  The last stage is to believe there is only one kind of love.” 

It’s the same with believing.  We start out simply believing Jesus is amazing;  the stories are simple and direct. As we “mature” we think through details, over thinking nuances, exact meanings, parsing the Bible text 15 different ways….  Then the last stage: it’s not that complicated…. Back to the basics of simply accepting…

Today, a new pulpit (house model ~ watch the slide show below)… For me, this was stage one 45+ years ago when I first made a model of the house when I was in Beginners Sunday School and my mother was the teacher.  Pinkie has been my friend for over 40 years, given to me as a child when I had my tonsils out at the old St. Luke's Hospital.  

Everything Happens for a Reason.  Last week’s scripture Jesus enters the ordinary world of Peter and the first disciples, Jesus makes a mess of their ordered lives.  Now in this story the leper is rejected by society, his body literally decaying from the disease, and the messed up man says to our Lord, “If you are willing, you can make me clean…”  “If you are willing, bring order into the mess of my life, into my decaying body, rock my world Lord, I am an outcast, my mind is going, my life is spiraling out of control… If you are willing…” I love the request….Last week we saw Jesus mess up the order of life…., this week we see Jesus bring order to a mess… which one do you relate to?… probably both at different times…

Today I am talking to you who have messed up lives, those who need better but can’t get it together, those that feel stuck, stuck in a bad relationship, stuck with not enough resources, messed up mind, confused… The first lesson from the leper is that he recognizes his life is a mess… It is significant that the Leper comes the Lord and asks for wholeness.  Just like the bedrock principle of AA, which recognizes that nobody will be helped with their alcoholism until they admit they are alcoholics, so the leper is not helped till he asks for help, and you have the very same invitation open to you.   there is something about knowing your need.  Clearly the man with leprosy knows his life is a mess.  I know a thousand people who need to make better choices and instead choose to live chronic messed up lives.  And I cannot help but wonder, what I am blind to?  What sin am I keeping to myself that I don’t want the Lord to touch?  What bad decisions do I still relish and delight in and don’t even know it.  Make the first prayer is to ask the Lord to reveal our own weakness and sin.

A powerful one sentence prayer: “Lord, do things I’m not used to.” We like to order our universe so we know what to expect.  We need patterns. But we need enough wiggle room to let God orchestrate the order.  In today’s scripture Jesus enters the world of ordinary fishermen doing everyday things…READ Luke 5:1-3.  The fishermen are washing their nets… ask the Lord to enter your ordered world.  

The bigger the Lord, the easier we face the problems of life. The smaller our God the bigger our problems. Let us practice what John the Baptist proclaimed when he saw Jesus: “he must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30).   

BTW, this explains today’s world: get rid of God in schools, in marriage, in society, and problems get bigger because we weak and ignorant humans are trying to resolve them.  Bring back God and problems get smaller, because then we leave them in God’s hands.  We don’t need to understand everything.  I fly in an airplane, not having a clue as to how to fly one of those buggers, totally amazed.  I googled how much a Boeing 787 Dreamliner weighs: When empty, 223,000 pounds!  I don’t need to understand how such a craft stays in the air, how to take off and land, but I’m glad the pilot knows.  How much more God?  I don’t need to wrap my mind around every personal problem, I just need to know God understands everything.  

Jesus Christ has risen from the dead!  God believes in you…do you believe in him?  The scripture today is a declaration that accepting Christ is a simple act of faith that transforms your life and heart:  Confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart ‘God raised him from the dead.’  The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a key to a changed world and a changed life.  The mouth: our external life, the heart: our internal thoughts. God believes in you… he sent Jesus to die for your sins, and now he is risen from the dead…. Do you believe in him?   Listen to the words of a boy that has much to teach us about believing in Christ....VIDEO…. God understands….