Sermon - Recipe for Joy - 19th Sunday after Pentecost (23A)

 19^th Sunday after Pentecost                                                          Oct 11, 2020

Philippians 4:1-9, Matthew 22:1-14              Panzer Chapel Liturgical Service

Writer Robert Fulghum captured the imaginations of people all over the world when he published his first book.  His premise was this; that everything that we need to know about how to live our lives is learned not in business or graduate school, or even in high school or college, but in kindergarten, in the sandbox, or on the swings.  And he gives to us a list of how to live together so that we can get along:

• ·       Share everything.
• ·       Play fair.
• ·       Don't hit people.
• ·       Put things back where you found them.
• ·       Clean up your own mess.
• ·       Don't take things that aren't yours.
• ·       Say you're sorry when you hurt someone.
• ·       Wash your hands before you eat.
• ·       Flush.
• ·       Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• ·       Live a balanced life- learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• ·       Take a nap every afternoon.
• ·       When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
• ·       Be aware of wonder.[i]

Wouldn't it be great if life was as simple as all that, if we could be aware and a part of the wonders of life, by holding hands and enjoying being together? It sounds easy, but we all know it’s really hard to keep connected to the basic way of living.

Biblical scholars are divided on where this list from Philippians came from. Was it a compilation of Paul’s greatest moments in encouragement? Or was he trying to weave this list into a more cohesive and coherent method for honing in on joy?[ii]     

Stand firm, Paul says. Help others, be gentle, don't worry. Feel God's presence in the midst of these simple, yet difficult things. Pray and give thanks and rest in the peace that comes from trusting in the Holy to define who we are, rather than letting the world define us according to its standards.

As I prepared for today’s sermon, I kept coming back to the things which bring me joy. I thought of how I love this Fall season. As the fruit is picked and leaves fall from the trees, we experience the fullness of life, enjoying the fruits of our labors, but also filled with the hope of the Spring to come when the cycle begins again.

I thought about how much I love to make something from almost nothing. When I am knitting or crocheting a shawl, whether I keep it for myself or give it away, I am I not just making something useful. I am interweaving in each stitch prayers lifted up and a piece of my own heart. When I make a pot of soup or a loaf of bread, I choose a recipe and gather the ingredients in preparation for the work to come… chopping, blending, seasoning, heating… The sum is always greater than the parts, and the time and care and attention I take to prepare matters.

Joy comes best when our spirits are centered in the love and grace of God. But our joy cannot be rooted only in our own wants and needs. Joy is also revealed in how we treat the world around us – the people we encounter and the created world around us.

This joy made more real in the gentleness of our days, in how we respond to the slights and hurts of others, and how we reach out to those who are hurting. This gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit, a gift from God, and it must be harvested and experienced by others. Most often, joy is found in the knowledge and experience of God’s nearness to us, in good times and bad alike. 

When we use the word gentleness, we might think of something soft and dare I say, mushy. But that’s not the kind of gentleness Paul is talking about. He’s talking about a gentleness that is strong, a gentleness that is broad, a gentleness that is patient, a gentleness that fills the room and invites people to rest in its glory. Peterson’s The Message says, “Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them.”

When Paul says, “The Lord is near,” it’s a reminder that when we are connected to God, anxiety is a barrier to the fullness of that relationship. Sharing our needs with God and with others through our honest prayers and reciprocal friendships brings us closer to God and closer to one another. Joy is found in the communion we share when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable and real in the midst of the stresses that threaten to take us down. That peaceful confidence defines what it means to live faithfully in joy.

Of course, Paul can’t leave it there. He has to throw in that messy word, “always.” How is that even possible – to always pray, to always rejoice, to always seek joy in Christ? Take out the word always and you have a definable, measurable plan of action. But that’s just not good enough for Paul or God. Rooted in our relationship with Christ, we are called to something more, something deeper, something eternal.

Think about a time when you felt impossibly close to God… immeasurably sure of your place in the Kingdom of God. Do you remember that joy, that peace, that completeness? God wants us to have that all the time. Paul is reminding us to keep tapping into the source of our joy. Make it a habit. Practice it every day. Think about what rejoicing looks like when things do go the way we plan, or even when they don’t. And then, Paul says, let that joy spill out. Let others experience it through you because God’s joy isn’t just ours. It belongs to everyone.

I have to say that this passage feels especially needed in these days. The world feels fraught with violence and anger. It’s a daily – even an hourly battle to stand firm in the joy of Christ. If Paul is right, we must be willing to reorient ourselves toward that kind of life. A life of hospitality, welcome, inclusion, and acceptance. We must be willing to be listeners, willing to find common ground, willing to learn something new, willing to change our minds… while at the same time, standing up for the kind of life we understand Christ wants us to live.

We all have worries – for the health, for peace, for safety. Paul implores us, “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (4:6). Did you notice that this was not two complete sentences, separated by a period, but one sentence, with two distinct parts that depend on one another?

Don’t worry, says Paul, but get on your knees. Don’t worry, but pour it out. Don’t worry, but beg and plead and pound on the doorways of heaven with both fists, even as you know – not hope, not assume, but know – that you are heard and that answers are already all around you when you open your eyes again and put one foot in front of the other. Don’t worry because you don’t have time to worry; you are so busy bending God’s divine ear. Don’t worry because your life is now a prayer, and the answers are coming fast and furious and surprising. Don’t worry that the answer doesn’t fit what you think is best – God has an answer and we must practice putting our trust in God and living out the answer God provides.[iii]

God wants us to have peace, which often comes in surprising ways. Living in God’s peace is not about disengaging from life so that we don’t have conflict. Living in God’s peace is not about pulling away from conflicts that must be addressed. Living in God’s peace is more about shalom, translated from the Hebrew to mean “wholeness.” God’s peace is not about what’s needed for me or you as individuals, but really about living it out in authentic community.[iv]

When we are pressing on, we are really working toward the kin-dom rather than the Kingdom of God. When we think about the family or relational nature of God and how God works in the world, we can see ourselves as brothers and sisters in Christ, not just people to be ruled over. We are called to build the kin-dom, starting with our own community, our own lives, as we press on to where God has called us. This week, we acknowledge that this pressing on won’t happen without changing our minds, or without thinking on these things.[v]

Some texts lend themselves well to practical actions – ways to reach out, organizations to support, things that we can put on a task list, and check off as we complete them… we like that feeling of accomplishment in our faith lives as well as in our daily grind. But some passages require us to do something more difficult.

They ask us not to examine our work, but to examine our hearts… and to ponder what it means to be the children of God. Then and only then, will we be able to adjust the course of our lives and our behaviors so that we are living fulling in the grace and peace and love of Jesus Christ. This is not something that be accomplished in an hour or a day. It is the work of a lifetime. Our grateful living will only be accomplished if we stand firm and find joy.

Truth… Honor… Justice… Pleasure… Excellence… All are rooted in God's plan for creation and the created. Seeking them, pursuing them, witnessing them, doing them…this is the path to oneness with God. This is the path to oneness with each other. This is the path to peace... real peace... God's peace.

Last Sunday, many Christians celebrated the feast of St Francis. St Francis was a 12th-century Italian monk, who abandoned a life of luxury for a life of poverty and devotion to Christ. In our worship, we sometimes pray a portion of a prayer attributed to him. Oddly reminiscent of Robert Fulghum’s kindergarten rules, I felt like it was a good way to end our sermon today.

Let us pray:

 

 

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[i] Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, 1996.

[ii] Preaching Notes – Oct 11, 2020, , UMC Discipleship, https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/pressing-on/nineteenth-sunday-after-pentecost-year-a-lectionary-planning-notes/nineteenth-sunday-after-pentecost-year-a-preaching-notes

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] Troy Troftgruben, Preach This Week, Commentary on Philippians 4:1-9. 2017, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3444

[v] David Weber, “Planning Worship – Oct 11, 2020”, https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/pressing-on/nineteenth-sunday-after-pentecost-year-a-lectionary-planning-notes

 

Sermon - Rules for Really Living - 18th Sunday after Pentecost (22A)

 Proper 22 - Year A (World Communion Sunday)                         October 3, 2020

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20; Matthew 21:33-46                  Panzer Chapel Liturgical Service

Rules for Really Living 

This year, we’ve been wandering thru the Pentateuch – the first five books of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible. We’ve seen the relationship between God and humans ebb and flow. Just to be clear, it’s the humans that can’t decide how much to trust God. Again, and again, God offers the means to be in a full and meaningful relationship. Again, and again, the children follow when it’s to their benefit, and grumble when things don’t go their way. Over the last month, we have seen the post-exilic Israelites moving through an untamed land, often complaining and wishing themselves returned to their former life of slavery, because – well, at least it was predictable. It is not until here, Exodus 20, that God reframes the whole relationship. And it started with these ten rules.

Moses received them and brought them to a very disgruntled people. These ten rules encompass the spirit of what a relationship with God should look like. They provide the framework for an alternative society. It’s God’s way of saying, “By worshiping me, you are different, and so here’s how to live differently.” This new community is held together not by a majority vote on common goals but rather through common worship of the one and only God.[i]

Our text begins with “I am the Lord your God” (20:2) and ends with focus upon “your neighbor” (20:17). Here, God defines what it means to be one of God’s people. It’s not just about proximity – we’re not God’s people just by following along in the wilderness or claiming the name for ourselves. These rules are meant to be lived in relationship with the God who gave them.

The Israelites were not always impressed. Perhaps, like many a vision statement, they thought them vague and unmeasurable. Maybe they just wanted to express their independence by going their own way. Either way, there were many times that the Israelites dropped and ball and lost their way (sorry for the mixed metaphor). That’s why it’s important to come back to them today and see why they continue to be a grounding point for the children of God.

Today I would like for us to take this list we call the Ten Commandments and think about them in a little different way. They are more than a list of do’s and don’ts. They help define how to relate to God and to one another so that we can live in grace and peace together.

It would be easy to list each of the commandments and decide what action we should take to better incorporate them into our lives. But first let’s put them in today’s language… and to be even more radical, let’s look at them from the backside, from the “shall” rather than the “shall not” side of things.

Old Testament scholar Dr J Ellsworth Kalas, frames them this way.

1. You shall have no other gods before me can also be heard as …God shall have all of you.

2. You shall not make for yourselves idols becomes… You shall adore the mystery that is beyond comprehension.

3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord becomes… You shall enter into God's name.

4. Remember the Sabbath becomes… The Sabbath will keep you.

5. Honor your father and mother becomes…You shall accept the blessing of the past so that you can have a future.

6. You shall not murder becomes… You shall embrace life.

7. You shall not commit adultery becomes…You shall cherish the sacredness in you and your mate.

8. You shall not steal…You have been given all you need.

9. You shall not give false testimony…You shall bless and be blessed by the truth.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s stuff… You shall rejoice in your neighbor's having. (J. Ellsworth Kalas' book, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FROM THE BACK SIDE.)

This is God saying, “I brought you out of the slavery of the past to the freedom of the present.  Don’t take our relationship for granted.”

·     Idols… they can never reveal to you how big my love for you is.

·     Naming a day to worship me means that our special relationship can grow stronger.

·     Respecting others, whether parents or life or things belonging to someone else… means you will be blessed in God’s own time.

Everyone who has ever been a parent or worked with children and teenagers knows about boundaries. They set limits beyond which it is not acceptable to go. Experience and research show that children given firm boundaries tend to be happier and more secure than those who haven't. At our best, we give our children a great deal of freedom within the boundaries we have set. We allow them to make their own decisions and choices.

At the same time, we are always there, caring and guiding; we maintain our relationship with them and expect them to respond – asking for help when they need it, appreciating what is done for them, and learning from us. But when the boundaries are broken, we also have to be there to bring them back in. Appropriate consequences for boundary-breaking behavior must be set and adhered to in order for the whole system to work.

I’ve experienced the freedom of boundaries from both sides. My mom always allowed me to use her as an excuse if my friends wanted to do something I was uncomfortable with… just tell them your mom won’t say yes to that. And as I have worked with youth and college students over the years, I saw them respond positively to the boundaries that we set out. They wanted to know what was expected of them, to be reined in when they got it wrong, and to be praised when they got it right.

In God’s eyes, the Ten Commandments represent the boundary: largely stated in the negative, as boundaries tend to be, and setting out limits which must not be overstepped. But they do not stand alone. The boundary (commandment) is not a substitute for an on-going relationship with God; it provides the context for it.

A child who has been given firm boundaries, but without a healthy relationship with his or her parents, may grow up with a strong sense of right and wrong, but without the social skills to function well in community. In the same way, a religion based on the Ten Commandments, but which lacks a relationship with the living God, risks being strong on condemnation, and useless at relating faith to the real world.

We are mistaken if we think that God gave us these rules only to keep us in line. God gave the rules to frame what it means to be in relationship with the One who created us. God doesn’t just want us to obey. God wants us to worship Him, and to be so in love with him that this love spills out into the rest of our lives. Worship on Sunday morning isn’t the box we check off and say, “OK, that faith thing is done for this week.” Hopefully, it’s a time to get refueled for the business of living out our faith in the world every day, in every way.

Bishop Rueben Job was a United Methodist bishop born in Jamestown, ND. His path to ministry and the episcopacy was remarkable. He dropped out of high school at age 15 to work the family farm when his father had a heart attack. He said he would have been happy to be a tiller of the soil for his whole life. But his family and his church saw more.

When he was 22, he left the farm for Iowa, where on the first day he met his future wife. With her help and a group of strong tutors, he graduated from college and seminary and in 1957 left to serve his first appointment back in North Dakota. Imagine his surprise when he arrived at the parsonage, where his furniture had been unloaded and left and was greeted by three elderly parishioners who asked, “Can you preach in German?”

Over his 58-year ministry, he served local churches and as a USAF chaplain in Germany, wrote over 20 books and was the World Editor of The Upper Room, an arm of the UMC publishing house. He was later elected bishop, and still maintained his place as a quiet activist, a contemporary mystic, a gentle prophet, and the spiritual guide to hundreds and thousands.[ii]

His most popular book was a thin volume still in demand today – Three Simple Rules. In this small and mighty work, he reminds us of our call to ministry and service to God: "do no harm, do good, stay in love with God.” In it, Bishop Job writes, ‘The rules are simple, but the way is not easy. Only those with great courage will attempt it, and only those with great faith will be able to walk this exciting and demanding way.’[iii]      

Through Jesus, in words to the gathered followers at the Last Supper, God promised we would never be alone – and look – we have the Holy Spirit and the community of faith to prove his promise true. And yet we have not always kept our promises. Don’t you think that God is sad when he looks down on creation and sees all the ways that we have made our relationships with one other negative – the ways we have pitted ourselves against one another and erected boundaries, tall and wide. Left vs. Right – Democrat vs. Republican – Black vs. White -- Liberal vs. Conservative – Jew vs. Muslim – Christian vs. Christian – Me vs. You... the list goes on and on.

Over time, we have been fooled into the belief that “freedom” means we can live life any way we want. Through these Ten Commandments, God defines freedom as the freedom to be who God has created us to be. Our freedom comes from being bound to God. We no longer have to write our own stories from scratch. We’re now freed into the service of the God who makes our lives mean more than we could make them mean on our own. This is true freedom.[iv]

When we come to the Lord’s table together, we say many things. We say that we believe in the possibility of forgiveness, not just ours, but also the ability that God gives us to forgive others and ourselves. We say that we believe in the openness of God’s love, which invites to the table all people who seek God’s peace and will, even if it’s not OUR will. We say that we believe that God’s miraculous love is more powerful that our hate or greed or lust put together, and that we want and need the healing power that coming to this table will bring to our lives.

In the Gospel lesson, Jesus criticizes religious leaders who are more interested in their own status and power than in caring for God’s people. Jesus tells the story of a group of tenants who murder their landlord’s messengers. Instead of being faithful caretakers of the vineyard, they impede the landowner from receiving a full harvest from the land. And they pay the price.

God has entrusted this wonderful life to our care. We are the tenants of God’s vineyard. When God seeks an accounting, how do we measure up?

As we celebrate the Eucharist on this World Communion Sunday, let us give thanks for the millions of Christian people who come to the Lord’s Table and say, “Let us be one.” Many things divide us, but if you take nothing else away with you today, remember this image … of sitting together at a huge family meal. That comes as close as I can think of to what it would mean to truly be the united body of Christ.

There are rules for living, and for all of them, we give thanks. And then there is grace. And for it we get life…life everlasting… Amen.

Peace, Deb

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[i] Will Willimon, “God’s People at Worship,” Pulpit Resource, Vol. 48, No. 4, Year A, 2020.

[ii] Bruce Ough, “Reflections on the Life and Witness of Bishop Rueben Job,” https://www.dakotasumc.org/news/reflections-on-the-life-and-witness-of-bishop-rueben-job

[iii] Rueben Job, Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living, Abingdon Press, 2007.

[iv] Will Willimon, Ibid.

Sermon - Living Lifted Up - 17th Sunday after Pentecost

September 27, 2020  - 17th Sunday After Pentecost (21A)       Stuttgart Liturgical Service

Philippians 2:1-13, Matthew 21:23-32

I don’t know about you, but I need a little bit of encouragement these days. The world seems crazier and more mixed up that I ever remember it, even though the world has often been even more dangerous and unpredictable than now. You cannot read a newspaper or watch television or check social media without getting hit in the face with the reality that, left to our own devices, we can really mess things up.

That’s why we need a story bigger than our own in which to be grafted and grounded. That’s why we read the stories of the Hebrew Bible and Christian scriptures. They tell stories that are true. It’s not the facts that draw us to the stories… it’s the truth of the stories – Truth with a capital T.  The gospels are like documentaries of Jesus’ life and teachings, each with a particular audience in mind. Likewise, the letters are written to specific communities of believers with unique problems and gifts.

These writings were designated as a canon of sacred texts after they had proved to be instructive to the Christian community for several hundred years. Still today, they teach us important lessons about who God is and who we are called to be. Knowing this, what do we do with the words that we have heard today from Paul and involving the events and stories we have heard about Jesus?

This passage from Philippians is very famous and historical. It is called “the Christ Hymn,” and is believed to be part of a hymn from the early church, when Christianity was spreading from person to person, and house to house. These verses are deeply theological, describing not just the behaviors of Jesus, but also revealing Paul’s understanding of his very nature.

Deep questions are addressed in this passage. What is the relationship between Christ’s humanity and his divinity? And how does the saving work of his life relate to the work that we are called to in his name? Even better, this passage names the kinds of lives we are being called to live – lives of love, compassion, sharing and sympathy. It sounds like an easy task in the abstract, but in practice, it is agonizingly difficult. Why do you think that is?

One reason could be our status in the world. That status could be defined by our race, our gender, our socioeconomic level, our level of education… the list is endless. I think about the life that I am leading… about where I came from and the resources I have at my disposal, and it’s easy to get caught up in the expectations of the world… to be lured into thinking that I’m doing OK on my own. After all, if my needs are being met, that’s the most important thing. But that’s not true, at least not in God’s world. When trouble comes, personal, emotional, worldly trouble, I am reminded that my own comfort and perspective are secondary to the life which I claim in Christ.

It is worth remembering that the earliest Christians were considered some of the lowest members of society. The chief priests and elders made that pretty clear in our gospel lesson. “By whose authority are you upsetting our apple cart?” they ask Jesus. In many respects, they had the right – he was not from the line of those who served as priests. But still Jesus taught. In fact, he uses this to challenge very premise of their question. He knew that somewhere along the way they had stopped being followers of God and started being the gatekeepers of the world they wanted to control. Jesus knew that while they thought very highly of themselves, they were also afraid enough for their positions that they wouldn’t pull out the big guns until it was absolutely necessary.

We don’t know exactly why this parable is the one that follows Jesus’ newest encounter with the religious leaders, but we can see that it would be a real puzzle to everyone gathered… no easy answers allowed. Which of the sons honored the father? The one who told him what he wanted to hear, or the one who maybe even begrudgingly did the right thing? Do actions mean more than words?  I’m betting this quandary is lived out in each of our homes every day. And when we can see ourselves on both sides of the fence, I don’t know about you, but I am uncomfortable with this encounter and how it calls me to task, no matter which side I am on.

So maybe pairing this passage from Philippians with this Jesus encounter is purposeful enough to allow us to dig a little deeper into not only the nature of Christ, but also our relationship with him. So I’d like to spend a little more time on Paul's words.

When I look back over my life, I often remember that it’s been at the moments that I have felt most carefree and “together” – when everything was ‘rainbows and unicorns’ - that life got turned upside down, reminding me of why I need Jesus. A few years out of college, I got a promotion at work and a few months later was offered an even bigger job in a different state. And I wanted to be happy – to celebrate my big success with my friends and family… but all I could do was cry. And after prayer and soul searching and some good pastoral care, I realized that wasn’t the life I wanted, and a year later ended up cashing it in all in to go to seminary.

Over and over in my life, just when I thought I had my act totally together, I realized that this was not the life that Jesus had called me to. And I’ll bet that’s true for you, too. This passage from Philippians reminds us that we meet Christ most honestly in the midst of our need for God. Just when we think that we can make it on our own, something reminds us that our real strength is found in community… in loving and caring for one another, in putting the needs of others ahead of our own needs, in being willing to change our minds about the things we were once so sure of.

Today we hear of Christ himself taking the form of a slave, humbling himself even to the point of death by crucifixion -- the execution reserved for traitors in the Roman Empire. In God’s world, it is Christ’s willingness to give up himself to the powers of the world that gives us our freedom. To become like Christ, if that’s what’s being asked of us (and I think it is), we begin by hearing how Christ became like us, and continues to come among us. Then, and only then, are we ready to hear about how to be "the imitation of Christ."

Jesus’ life is one of both descent and ascent – of coming down to be like us, with us, even though he was in the form of God and equal with God. Relinquishing that, even for a short time, must have felt like slavery for him – limited by the frailness of the human body and spirit. During his time with us, he experienced how fickle humanity can be, and how we are willing to sacrifice much for our own safety and security. And still he gave himself up for us, obedient to the task at hand, willing to see it through, even though the end would be so painful.[i]

This is both exhilarating and frightening, to see what Christ went through in his faithfulness to God, and then knowing that we are also called to live that kind of life. The best news is this: we are not called to this kind of life alone.

God is the one working in us, stirring up in us a willingness to do the things which must be done. When we immerse ourselves in it fully, God’s work is the source of our energy and enthusiasm to serve. And when we find community in the process, amazing, even miraculous things can be accomplished. In fact, because of the language differences between Greek and English, the “you” to which Paul refers is not in reference to individuals alone being called to serve, but to the development of communities, the willing and the working.

Likewise, the salvation that we are working out is not just about who’s going to heaven and who’s not, but about the quality of our corporate life as we work together under the rule of the Savior. How will we know if we are successful in sustaining this kind of life? Paul talks about it in these terms: mutual love and affection, sharing in the Spirit, unity, humility, sacrifice – and doing in all “in Christ.” So, if anyone tries to tell you that faith is an individual, private thing, or that’s it’s all about going to heaven, please direct them to Paul and this letter to the church at Philippi. Faith is corporate and public and even political… after all, Jesus came to turn the world upside down and calls us to do the same.

I don’t know what that means for you, but the place that I’ve started is to listen. There are millions of people in the world who have different life experiences than mine, and rather than assuming the worst of them and trying to make their lives look more like mine, I try to put more energy into listening to their pain and disappointment and joy, and to figure out if there is some way that I can be a part of the solutions to make life and the world better.

On NPR I heard the story of student who helped integrate a public high school in Tennessee in 1964. All-white schools would often refuse to play there, and if they did meet on the field, many of the black players left the game bloodied from the extra hard hits and no-calls from the referees on the field. Sometimes the police would have to escort their buses as they left town. He described the relief he felt when they got back to the high school safely, seeing his dad there to pick him up, each week escaping the angry mob of mostly white folks who felt like this integrated team was ruining football for them.

Dr. Weaver said, "Normally when you're with a team, you feel like everybody's going to stand together, and I never got that feeling that the team would stand with me if things got bad," Weaver says. "I think a number of the white students who were there with me would say now, If I could have did something different, I would've said something. But that's what evil depends on, good people to be quiet."

Weaver had never been back to West High School since graduating 50 years ago. After hearing a StoryCorps interview that aired on NPR, the current principal reached out, and Weaver returned says he will return to the school to talk to the students about his experiences with integrating the school.[ii] Think about that – over 50 years since it all happened and this was the first opportunity he had to go back and share what that meant to him – how it made him the person he is today.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that a good Christian life is all about the grand gesture… although those are always good. The harder thing is to not be silent when a word of love or kindness or support is needed. It’s scary to step out of our comfort zones and say the things we know that others don’t want to hear. But Paul reminds us that the more we act out and speak out the faith we accept in our hearts, the more God will give us the heart and energy and courage to walk that road. In the end, we have to live like we’re lifted up, and God will do the rest.

I’m going to close with the same Philippians 2 passage, but this time from Eugene Peterson’s “The Message.”

^1-4 If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

^5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

^9-11 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.

^12-13 What I’m getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you’ve done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I’m separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure

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[i] Susan Eastman, Commentary on Philippians 2:1-13, Preach This Week, September 24, 2011, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1009

[ii] William Lynn Weaver, “What Evil Depends On: For Good People to Be Quiet.” Story Corps: NPR Morning Edition, September 29, 2017.

Sermon - Surrender - 13th Sunday After Pentecost (17A)

13^th Sunday after Pentecost – 17A                            August 30, 2020     

Panzer Liturgical Service, Stuttgart

Exodus 3:1-15, Romans 12:9-21, 

Matthew 16:21-28                                                

“Surrender”

This passage from Matthew gives us the first of the passion predictions. Jesus’ death is not only imminent but is necessary and places him in the role of a prophet, not a ruler or a king. Peter’s response to Jesus’ death prediction is totally human. He loves Jesus and wants nothing bad to happen to him. His faith, which he proclaimed only a few verses earlier, is bound to Jesus as a person – to being with him day in and day out. I’m sure all Peter can this is: How will Jesus be able to fulfill his role and king and redeemer of the people of Israel if he is dead?

We want to think Peter gets it – he actually has flashes of understanding. But just as quickly, he loses focus on the truth of why Jesus has come. Jesus’ purpose is “other.” God did not send Jesus to fulfill our expectations. Instead, Jesus came to usher in an alternative kingdom, a radically different way of exercising rulership and authority. Just a few verses earlier Jesus asked Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter’s response was definitive, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.”

But despite Peter’s revelation from God, he continues to think in purely human terms – reasonable, logically, and in hopes for the anticipated outcome. Israel’s expectation had always been for a king like David, who would come to rescue them from their oppressors. But Jesus wasn’t that kind of king. Jesus’ reaction is to call Peter to a renewed and deeper form of discipleship. “Fall in line, Peter,” Jesus says. “I am going to the cross – now pick up yours and follow me.”

This scene makes an important theological claim about Jesus: Jesus’ death was not a meaningless event. Jesus was not a hopeless and helpless victim. He was a knowing and willing participant in the divine strategy to bring humanity into a fuller relationship with God. And in this part of Jesus’ story, there are lessons for us to learn.

First, Christ calls us to a way of life that is opposite of the prevailing culture.  Self-denial is not a part of our culture’s image of “the good life.” It’s currently in our American nature to acquire, to get, to have more and more. But Jesus tells us to lose or hate our lives in order to gain something more than things. What does Jesus mean by that? Does he really want us to hate ourselves? No, I don’t think that’s what he’s saying. But he does want us to stopping looking to ourselves or others for our purpose or happiness or fulfillment. He wants us to look to him for our joy. He asks us to let him drive. With no GPS or map. To follow him on an unknown journey.

When my niece turned five, she came with her family to visit us in Germany. When we woke up that day, we told her that we had planned a big surprise for her birthday, but she would have to wait until we got there to know what it was. She pondered that for a little while, and then came to me and said, “Aunt Deb, I don’t like surprises, but I can keep a secret, so if you tell me what we’re going to do, I promise not to tell anyone.” I know exactly how she feels.

Moving from place to place has been such a challenge for me – 11 moves in 25 years… thinking ahead to retirement is giving me the same kind of disquiet. When should it happen? Where will we live? … and what about church… and making new friends… and finding purpose outside of the work that defines us? Lord, I don’t like surprises, and yet I’m always amazed when, looking back, I see how God has woven good through the things I never wanted or expected to happen.

Second, the call to discipleship is based on faith in Christ and confidence in the future victory of God. That means that sometimes, OK most of the time, things don’t go according to my plans. Taking up our crosses means reorienting our lives toward the good news that God has acted decisively and ultimately in Jesus. Following Jesus isn’t about believing that Jesus gives us good advice. The Christian life doesn’t consist of boxes that can be checked off – OK did that mission project, memorized that scripture, have the right friends, check, check, check. No, Jesus’ life turns us in a different direction.

I think about the story of the Good Neighbor, which we also know as the Good Samaritan. The lawyer and the priest were so boxed in by the religious rules they observed that they missed the point of it all. They had all the correct answers, but they didn’t do what was really required of them… they did not help someone in need. Jesus’ instructions only make sense to us if we really believe he is the One who came to save us from our sins and from ourselves. Being a good person is not enough. We each have to come to the conclusion that it’s all about him, and not about each of us.

Third, the call to discipleship is a matter of confession and community. In the original Greek the word we translate as “confession” comes from the word martyrion, which is also the root word for martyr. We hear that word and think of ultimate martyrdom – giving one’s life for the faith. But being a martyr is not just about dying for the faith. It’s about living the whole of our lives as an act of testimony to something bigger than ourselves. This is something we are called to do every day, every hour.

Each act of worship, each act of service, each act of study is a giving of ourselves to Christ. And in this we are not alone. Being a follower of Jesus Christ is not an individualistic ethic of the solitary “I” but is an ethic for the community of disciples that confesses Jesus Christ to be the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. This is not to say that we do not need to experience Christ alone and for ourselves, but we do need each other. Even Tom Hanks needed a Wilson to make it long enough to get rescued from that deserted island in the Pacific Ocean. 

Jesus gathered a group of people around him to learn and serve and to be accountable to one another. From the very beginnings of the Christian church, people gathered to worship and serve and care for one another. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul reminds us that not everyone has all the gifts necessary to do the work of the church, but that each of us provides a necessary piece of the puzzle. In baptism, at the communion table, at marriages and funerals, in bible studies and committee meetings, we are called to realize that all voices and hands are necessary to accomplish God’s work on earth. [i]

And lastly, the call to discipleship cannot be learned in a day. These lessons are the lessons of a lifetime. We are often hard on ourselves, saying, “Well, I keep messing up, so I’m just going to throw in the towel.” God doesn’t want that from us. We are just like everyone else who has attempted to be in relationship with God … like Adam and Eve, Moses and Jonah, Peter and Paul. We make mistakes. We get it wrong, but then we start over. And as we learn from our mistakes, and see the witnesses of those who serve the Kingdom of God, we refocus our eyes on him, pick up that cross and begin the journey again.

Max Lucado has written a book entitled, “It’s Not About Me: Rescue from the Life We Thought Would Make Us Happy.” In the forward, NBA star David Robinson, writes about how successful sports teams function best when everyone has one goal in mind. All efforts and gifts are concentrated on the greater goal – winning, and that those who seek their own glory drive the team away from success.[ii]

We fight an uphill battle as disciples of Jesus Christ. Everything around us tells us to look out for our own good. It is only by letting go of our own agenda’s and timetables that we can discover God’s mind-blowing plan for our lives. The only thing we have to do is believe that it’s all about Him - our worship and work, our bodies and families, our success and our struggles. Easy – no, but fulfilling in ways that we have never even imagined.[iii]

Jackie Robinson would have been 101 years old this year. He is probably best known for his contribution to baseball. In 1947, he became the first black player to play for a major league baseball franchise. But before that, he was a standout student at UCLA, playing baseball, basketball, and running track and field. Baseball wasn’t even his best sport.

73 years later, we remember his contribution to the integration of professional sports. But we don’t often think about how difficult is was for him to stand up to the racist hatred reigned on him by fans and rival players alike. Some days, it took every ounce of courage he had to walk out onto the field. Some nights, he cried and shook with anger at the hate that seemed to confront him at every turn. Jackie Robinson’s faith served as inspiration and motivation, comfort and strength, wisdom and direction. Some say it was the secret to his success, grounding him to face whatever would come his way.

Later in life, he would become active in the civil rights movement in the US, but before that he was #42 for the Brooklyn Dodgers, shattering racial and athletics barriers on and off the baseball field.[iv] His teammates reminded him often that his courage gave them courage to change long held beliefs and move into an new era of baseball and life. Even in the end of his life he left us a good word, with this quote chiseled into his tombstone in Brooklyn, NY: “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”[v]

Our pain, our difficulties, our disappointments, they are not outside the scope of God’s love. Focusing on that all-consuming love, we realize that all things can give glory to God. Even in cancer and recovery and even death, if it comes to that, God’s power will reign. Max Lucado writes, “Your pain has a purpose. Your problems, struggles, heartaches and hassles cooperate toward one end – the glory of God… Faith in the face of suffering cranks up the volume of God’s song.”[vi]

I don’t want to minimize the pain of our struggles. The losses we experience are real. They wound us to our core. But if Jesus’ death and resurrection teach of nothing else, it is that God is present in the middle of the storm, and will see us to the other side. We are never alone.

So ultimately what do we do? I think that Jesus is asking us for something that we really don’t want to give. He is asking us to surrender to him. To give him our whole lives, “lock, stock and barrel.” He wants it all - our jobs, our families, our money, our time. 

We’re hearing a lot of God-talk in today’s society. But are we seeing the walk to match? Do our lives reflect the way we talk about who God is to us? In all of this study and prayer, I realize that I need to take another look in the mirror – I’ve got a lot more work to do. But God is good and waiting for us to come and follow him.

Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Lord, hear the words of an unknown confederate soldier and know that they are our words, too.

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve;
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health, that I might do greater things;
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy;
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men;
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life;
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among all [men] most richly blessed.[vii]

Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

This stuff didn’t fit into the sermon but I felt the need to share:

Did you know that every MLB team retired the jersey #42 in 1997 in honor of Jackie Robinson's contribution to baseball?

Jackie Robinson Day is usually remembered on April 15^th each year, but with the 2020 COVID-19 crisis, that celebration was delayed until August 28, coinciding with the 57^th anniversary of the first March on Washington and MLK’s I Have a Dream speech. At the same time, protests were occurring in Kenosha, WI and throughout the US in protest of the shooting of black persons by police, most recently Jacob Blake. On August 27th, one stark remembrance saw the NY Mets and Miami Marlins line on the opposing baseline, observe 42 seconds of silence, and then leave the stadium without throwing a single ball, leaving only a Black Lives Matter t-shirt blanketing home plate. Other teams made similar tributes. Teams from the NBA, MLS, MLB, WNBA, NFL, and professional tennis, refused to play until the teams could have conversations about the inequity of racial justice in the US and how they could contribute to bringing these issues to the forefront of national conversation and action. 

To hear more of Jackie’s words, check this MLB video showed at all the games on August 28^th. “4 Us 2 Remember – MLB’s tribute to Jackie Robinson in his own words” https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1299361104259317760

Here’s a great article with MLB tributes to Jackie Robinson 2020 https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/29/mlb-jackie-robinson-day/

 

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[i] Matthew – New Interpreter’s Bible – by M Eugene Boring, 1995, pp 342-352.
[ii] It’s Not About Me, forward by David Robinson, 2004, pages xiii-xiv.
[iii] It’s Not About Me, Max Lucado, index of chapters.
[iv] Chris Lamb, “Jackie Robinson’s 100^th Birthday – His faith in God was the secret ingredient to his success,” Fox News, January 28, 2019.
[v] Clemente Lisi, “Jackie Robinson’s Forgotten Christianity” Religion Unplugged, February 20, 2019.
[vi] It’s Not About Me, Max Lucado, ppage 124-126.
[vii] The Oxford Book of Prayer, George Appleton, editor, 1985, page 119.