Rev. Gale Watkins, Pastor

From recent Sundays at Westminster: 

March 2, 2025 Scripture and sermon excerpt

Matthew 6:7-15 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Pray, then, in this way:

Our Father in heaven,

may your name be revered as holy.

May your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread. 

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one. 

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,  but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Jesus offers us, his followers, a model prayer. 

We call it the Lord’s Prayer, and it’s just about the most commonly spoken prayer there is.

When something is familiar, though, it can become too familiar, so familiar that we say the words without thinking about what they mean.

Let’s pay close attention, then, to this prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, so that it will help us live this new life that Jesus offers.

This model prayer that Jesus gives us is made up of requests only.

Over and over, we’re asking God for something.

Of course, before we ask for anything, Jesus wants us to be clear about who we’re addressing.

So he has us begin, Our Father in heaven.

After we’ve addressed God, we have three requests that have been called you-petitions.

We’re asking our Father to act on God’s own concerns, God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will.

Dallas Willard says that these petitions concern God’s position in the human realm.

For instance, Let your name be sanctified expresses our desire for God’s name to be uniquely respected, not dragged through the mud.

We want people far and wide to recognize who God is.

I view these first three requests as a sort of protest.

When we call for God’s name to be exalted, God’s kingdom to come, and God’s will to be done, we’re saying that we are not content with the way things are.

We know that heaven is the realm in which God’s will is done fully.

For us, though, it’s not good enough for God’s will to be done in heaven.

We want this for the world we inhabit!

The first half of the Lord’s Prayer is our cry for things to be different.

We are embracing God’s own concerns and longing for this world and its people to be transformed.

Jesus then gives us three additional requests in the second half of this model prayer.

Robert Guelich call them the we-petitions because we’re now considering our own life.

The first of these is about our bodily needs, summed up as daily bread.

Jesus encourages us to ask our Father in heaven today for what we need today. 

We have many needs.

We have physical needs, we have relational needs, we have moral needs.

All of them are embraced by the petitions that Jesus includes in this prayer.

For the whole range of our lives, all of these different realms, we cry out for help.

John Stott puts it like this: “In the second half of the Lord’s Prayer … we turn from God’s affairs to our own. Having expressed our burning concern for his glory, we now express our humble dependence on his grace.”

In this prayer, Jesus encourages us to start with God, then move to ourselves.

Of course we pray for our own needs.

But when we begin with our great concern for God’s reputation and God’s will, that helps us see our own concerns in a new way.

N.T. Wright likens this prayer to a framework.

When you’re building a house, the framework isn’t the whole thing, but it gives form and direction to everything that you add, all of the finishing touches that make that house a home. 

Here, then, is a gift from the Lord Jesus himself, a model prayer that can be a framework for all of our praying.

It’s a prayer that we make our own.

We can literally say the words given to us by Jesus when we meet together.

It’s good to pray the Lord’s Prayer together.

But it’s just as good to adapt it to our own joys and concerns, to let this be a helpful framework for a whole life of prayer.

Jesus wants us who have begun to follow him to be people who pray, and he’s given us teaching and a model prayer to help us follow his lead. 

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February 23 Scripture and sermon

Psalm 63:1-8 (New International Version)

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you;

I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land

where there is no water.

I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.

Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 

I will praise you as long as I live, 

and in your name I will lift up my hands.

I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;

with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

On my bed I remember you;

I think of you through the watches of the night.

Because you are my help,

I sing in the shadow of your wings.

I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.

Matthew 6:1-6 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

 2 “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your alms may be done in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 

 5 “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6 But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” 

If you look around and pay close attention to what is around you, you will notice that Phoenix has a lot of signs.

Streets signs, Business signs. All sorts of signs.

In our neighborhood, I see signs that say Beware.

Beware of dog!

This is a warning sign, and when you think about all the signs that are around us, you realize that a fair number of them are warning us about some sort of danger.

It may be a dog that bites, or it may Do Not Enter because a car could be speeding in your direction, or it may be Warning: High Voltage!

Warning signs are so common that we may stop noticing them, but paying attention and acting accordingly could save your life.

Beware appears on signs that are posted to keep us safe. 

That same word Beware is spoken by Jesus to his disciples.

Beware because there is danger.

Yes, we know that the world can be a dangerous place.

But in this case, Jesus’ Beware warns us not about dangers out there but about the world within.

Did you realize that when we walk in the way of Jesus, there is danger, and that not all danger is out there?

Beware! There is danger within.

Jesus says what he says because he knows us so well.

He knows that there are things to beware of that are so common and seem so harmless that we can get into trouble without even realizing the danger we’re in.

Beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

That is Jesus’ warning.

Some dangers are so obvious that you wonder why there is even the need for a sign.

Slippery when wet. Doesn’t everyone know that? Maybe, maybe not.

Steep cliff. Isn’t that one obvious?

But in this case of danger within, Jesus is warning us about something that comes so naturally to us that it’s second nature.

We are constantly aware, whatever we’re doing, of who is in the vicinity and who may be  paying attention.

We are making impressions on each other all the time. It’s part of life.

We notice what other people are doing. 

Other people notice what we’re doing. It can’t be helped.

What, then, is the big deal?

Jesus says that in our life with God, when we do the things that those who are serious about God like to do, we may actually be playing to the audience so much that God himself is an afterthought.

Some who have walked this path before us coined the term an audience of One. 

The One is none other than God.

These disciples mean to say that they’re interested in pleasing God, even if other people are not paying any attention to us at all, or even if they see us but are plainly unimpressed.

God sees us, and that is what matters.

But it’s very difficult for us.

We like to be noticed. 

We like to be admired.

It’s not easy to live with an audience of One. 

So there is danger in Christian life.

No wonder Jesus begins his teaching on this matter with Beware.

In his teaching, Jesus talks to his followers about rewards, two different kinds of reward.

The first possible reward that he identifies is a reward you can have right now.

It’s the reward of being seen by others, of being noticed and appreciated.

Jesus says that when we’re after that reward, and when it comes our way, we’ve been paid in full.

That’s all the reward you’re going to get.

You’ve been paid in full.

But there is another reward that Jesus identifies.

This one is the reward that comes from God, our audience of One.

However, this reward will not come to us when we’ve set our hearts on the first reward, the reward of being noticed by human observers.

So it is that Jesus speaks to us about these two different rewards.

Jesus is showing us that there is a reward that we receive when we do good things, such as giving money and praying, in the right way. 

You can also do these things in the wrong way, which Jesus describes graphically.

He shows that you can give money and even say your prayers in a way that blocks the spiritual benefit that would otherwise accompany them.

Jesus teaches his disciples by drawing some pictures, such as someone literally tooting his own horn.

This cartoon-like picture brings Jesus’ warning home to his disciples.

Jesus also gives them some other pictures to show us how to give and how to pray in a way that makes sense.

Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

That is, don’t talk constantly to yourself about how great you are.

Whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.

Wherever we are, we can pray as though we’re hidden away, and nobody knows where we’ve gotten to.

Even if you’re out of sight, even if no one even knows that you pray, God knows what you are up to. 

People around us may be able to see what we’re doing, but God’s vision is better.

God sees what we’re doing wherever we are. God sees in secret. 

Even if the people who know us wonder where we’ve gone, that is not a problem for God.

Jesus is giving us a better way to live, a better way to give and a better way to pray.

His teaching lines up with what we find in one of the Psalms, Psalm 63.

There is no pretense here, no playing to the crowd.

It’s all about God.

Earnestly I seek you.I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.

I cling to you.

There is no phoniness here. 

Here is sincerity. Here is the approach that makes sense. 

This is vastly superior to what Jesus sees in the hypocrites of the day.

There is also a fitting reward in Psalm 63.  

I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

Yes, there is a reward in Christian life. 

It’s better than the applause of other people.

Its the reward of being with the Lord, and of the Lord being with us, keeping company with the Lord all the time.

What could be better than that?

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Scripture and sermon from February 16, 2025

Matthew 5:38-48 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you: Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also, 40 and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give your coat as well, 41 and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. 42 Give to the one who asks of you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Jesus has a vision for those who have joined with him as his followers, people like ourselves.

He wants us to live a new kind of life.

We are part of the coming Kingdom, God’s Kingdom..

This Kingdom is different from the surrounding world.

It’s a new and better life that Jesus has in mind for us.

But, in order for us to live as Jesus wants us to live, we need help, lots of help.

Help has come in the teaching that we call the Sermon on the Mount.

We need encouragement and instruction in so many different areas of life.

One of these areas is the realm of relationships.

Now, relationships are a gift.

In fact, the biblical story of the creation of the man and the woman includes the Lord God saying, It is not good for the man to be alone.

We thrive when we have one another.

But, you will tell me, the people I know are not that easy to get along with.

They have issues, and sometime we wonder if it’s worth it.

Jesus knows how life works. He knows that his disciples are going to have trouble unless he gives them some help in the form of a whole new vision, something better than what usually happens.

There are two major relationship crises that Jesus identifies, retaliation and hatred.

Living in 2025, we know all about both of these.

Retaliation and hatred are easy to find.

The saying, An eye for an eye, was meant originally to put the brakes on the cycle of violence.

Once hostilities commence, the level of harm done tends to increase.

This provision in the law was given as a safeguard.

Don’t overdo it!

It was meant to save lives, but like a lot of good ideas, it fell short.

The reasons is that conflict seems to have a life of its own.

One thing leads to the next, and before long, there is bloodshed.

Of course, in 2025, we have found other ways to retaliate.

We can cause damage to the person who has harmed us without doing something that will land us in jail. 

We have discovered new weapons that are very convenient and effective.

Now you can be unfriended or ghosted.

So it is that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

The other crisis that Jesus identifies is hatred of enemies.

Highly respected religious leaders turned to the Bible, where it says, You shall love your neighbor.

That sounded great, but they thought it would be even better to add a little something to complete the thought.

So they made what seemed like a sensible addition to the biblical text, And hate your enemy.

People must have eaten that up!

There is nothing more satisfying than finding new and more effective ways to humiliate the enemy you hate.

I’ve heard of social scientific studies, conducted recently, that reached the conclusion that in our politics, it’s no longer good enough for our side to win.

We now want to destroy the other side.

A shocking number of those polled say that there comes a time when politically-motivated violence is justified.

When Jesus was speaking, those who loved the law added something that wasn’t there because, while there are people we love to love, there are others that we love to hate.

The hatred of enemies that Jesus observed in the first century seems to have made its way into the twenty-first century.

Jesus has come, carrying a vision for his friends that is out of the ordinary.
Non-retaliation! Can you believe it?

Love for enemies! Can you believe it?

He expects us, his disciples, to practice the greatest act of love, which is prayer, on behalf of the very people who would would be glad to hear that we have suffered a major accident.

We naturally say to Jesus, this is impossible!

Life doesn’t work like that.

We have to be realistic.

I expect that Jesus would agree up to a point.

What he has in mind is impossible if it depends entirely on our own energy.

We’re caught up in the way of the world around us, and we’re shaped by our own personal history. Left to our own devices, we will join everyone else in escalating conflict and enthusiastically hating identified enemies.

We benefit from Jesus’ challenge to be different.

Having the challenge before us, impossible though it is to meet, is a step in the right direction.

But Jesus offers us more than that, and this is the good news I want to offer in my sermon.
He tells us about God!

Your Father in heaven, he tells his disciples, gives good things to everyone, the evil and the good.

It’s exactly what we read in the Bible, in places like Psalm 145, which says, The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.

Here is the really good news that makes Jesus’ teaching on these difficult realms of life encouraging rather than discouraging.

God, our Father in heaven, has loved us, even us.

As we receive that love, we are transformed, so that we find ourselves doing strange things, such as praying for people who despise us, or not getting even with the other person, the one Jesus dares to call evildoer, when we have the opportunity.

Jesus has a compelling vision for us. He wants us to be different from the rest of the world, different from what we used to be.

Teaching us, he uses the word more.

If you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?

He goes even further than that when he says, be perfect.

Ordinarily, that would be the most discouraging thing ever.

We would be defeated completely.

But in the context of his teaching, he’s telling us that our heavenly Father is kind and generous to everyone.

I found a helpful comment on this saying made by Dale Bruner: The kind of perfection to which Matthew’s Jesus refers, as the context shows, is the perfection of mercy, of wide- and whole-heartedness, not the “high” perfection we associate with impeccability.

You see, when we discover that God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous, including ourselves, that works a change in us.

If we’ve been loved so lavishly by the Lord who is good to all, even us, our hearts will be transformed.

And then Jesus’ vision for us to live a new kind of life will come about, not because we grit our teeth and try with all our might to change, but because we have discovered and received the goodness of God, which changes us for the better, and which we are happy to share.

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Scripture and sermon of February 9, 2025

Psalm 141:1-4 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

I call upon you, O Lord; come quickly to me;

give ear to my voice when I call to you.

Let my prayer be counted as incense before you

and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.

Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord;

keep watch over the door of my lips.

Do not turn my heart to any evil,

to busy myself with wicked deeds

in company with those who work iniquity;

do not let me eat of their delicacies.

Matthew 5:33-37 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

“Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you: Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.” 

Today, we come to a part of the Sermon on the Mount that doesn’t seem to have the same weight or urgency as other parts.

Oaths? Is that really worth worrying about?

Oaths seem to us a formality, a small nuisance you have to put up with.

It’s signing your name below the fine print, the terms and conditions that no one actually reads.

For some reason, Jesus thought that his disciples needed to hear his teaching about oaths.

At the time when Jesus was speaking to his friends, oaths were a big deal.

Formulas were becoming more and more elaborate.

The reason that oaths were popular was that people didn’t always tell the truth.

When you can’t trust the other person to say what they mean and mean what they, it’s hard for a community to function.

So you try to convince people that you really are telling the truth by swearing an oath.

It’s a serious issue that Jesus is addressing. 

Even devout people found ways to escape the demands of truthfulness.

They knew that it’s a serious matter to misuse the name of God.

That’s clear enough in the Ten Commandments.

You don’t want to renege on a promise you make in God’s name, because God just might strike you dead. 

So prominent leaders counseled people to keep from saying God in your oath.

It sounds like a great arrangement.

The problem, though, is that it didn’t make people tell the truth.

You can’t trust people, even if they do utter a fine-sounding oath.

Jesus knows that his disciples will have to make their way in a mixed-up world.

I wonder if we too have to make our way in a mixed-up world.

Can you believe everything you hear?

The check is in the mail! Really?

Don’t worry about a thing because we’ll take care of you! Really?

You can count on me! Really?

After you’ve been disappointed again and again, you don’t know what to believe, or who to believe.

Business relationships, for a company or for an individual, are complicated by the uncertainty of our words.

Promises are not always kept.

So we try different strategies to make life work better.

We may not have the elaborate oaths that Jesus was talking about, but we do have plenty of safeguards in place, and still, it’s a mixed-up world that we inhabit.

Jesus has a vision for his disciples.

They will be different.

You won’t have to pin them down to be sure that they aren’t dodging the truth, because they are truthful all the time.

No oath is necessary for them.

When these people who have been keeping company with Jesus say Yes, that is exactly what they mean.

Their speech has been shaped by Jesus.

You see, Jesus is the very embodiment of truth-telling.

It’s not that these disciples are inherently better than everyone else. 

It’s their association with Jesus that makes the difference. 

For us who follow Jesus as our Lord, the oath and the signature aren’t necessary.

The reason is that our Yes means Yes, and our No means No.

Jesus’ vision for us is that we are truthful all the time.

This makes sense because our Lord is the very ideal of truthfulness and trustworthiness.

However, shaped by a world in which everything is so murky, and influenced as we are by our old habits, we may have a long journey ahead.

To make this journey, it will help if turn to a prayer found in the Bible,

It will be good to make it our own.

This prayer comes from Psalm 141, and goes like this: Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.

We need help with our speaking, and thus we pray.

I suspect that this is a prayer that God loves to hear, and answer.

The God whose Word is true wants us to people people who say what we mean and mean what we say.