Sermon for September 27, 2009 Proper 21 Text: James 4:7-5:6 Title: Signposts of the Christian Life A. In the days before the advent GPS systems, William Barclay, a British theologian, liked to tell the story about a young boy who thought it might be fun to change directional signs on the road. That is, at an intersection of the road where one sign pointed in the direction of the city of Seattle and another sign pointed in the direction of the city of Tacoma, he'd switch them around. The boy wondered how many people could he send down the wrong road with the switched around signs? The Book of James is also about switching signposts, only for James, they are the signposts of the Christian life. James was written to counterbalance certain misunderstandings that had arisen in the lives of some believers who had read Paul's Letter to the Romans. Paul makes it clear in Romans that we are saved by faith. Paul was well aware that no matter how hard one tried to live faithfully to the letter of the Law as expressed in the 10 Commandments and in the 613 additional religious laws that were laid upon the faithful of the 1st century, somewhere along the line, we're going to slip. We can't earn our way to Heaven. We are saved by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, who died for us and who lives forever so we might have new life. Now some believers took this theological reality to the extreme, saying that if I am saved by faith, then it doesn't matter how I behave, as long as I believe in Jesus. Indeed, my faith doesn't necessarily have any influence whatsoever on how I interact with other people. This way of thinking happens all too often even today. I was in a small rural church one time that had a major dispute about where the pies should be placed in the kitchen prior to serving them for the annual turkey supper. One woman actually left the church community because several new comers to the church had convinced the rest of the women working in the kitchen that it would be more efficient to put the pies on the counter beside the sink instead of the counter next to the refrigerator. "It's not the right way to do it", she said. "We've never done it that way before, and I am not going to be part of doing it that way now. Those new people are going to ruin this church." I hardly think the ultimate fate of the Kingdom of God rested on the positioning of a cooling pie, but she was deadly serious. James addresses this issue by turning the signposts of the Christian life so they point the way to living faithful lives as disciples of the Lord. Being saved by faith is supposed to make a difference in the way we live. We are Christians in every aspect of life, not just on Sunday mornings. James expresses this theme most succinctly in chapter 1, verse 21, where he says. "Be doers of the Word, and not merely hearers." Live the life of Christ. Don't give being a Christian mere lip service, but mean it! B. James invites us to recognize that if we want to live as faithful servants of Jesus Christ, we have to live humbly before the Lord. Now be careful here. Humility is not self-deprecation, and it does not allowing people to run all over you. Rather, living humbly recognizes that God is ultimately in charge of my existence. It is in Him that we live and move and have our being. He has given me specific gifts. He has placed opportunities before me to use my gifts. I am a wonderful and unique creation of God. God has shaped the circumstances of my life such that I am where I am and who I am at this moment. Now of course I have free will, but somehow God can work within my free will to shape events so they come out as a blessing, for us and for others. Now I don't need to tell you that living humbly doesn't come naturally. Indeed, it is a complete reversal of the way we tend to live. The opposite of living humbly is living arrogantly. Arrogant living says that I am in complete and ultimate charge of my life. What I have I earned by my own efforts. Arrogant living doesn't even put God in the daily equation of life. It is self-centered, rather than God-centered or other-centered. Now I don't have any problems with persons who pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. But to say God has nothing to do with our lives at all is to deny that Christ is the Lord, and is ultimately in charge of both the world and our world. James starts out our passage by saying "Submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil and he will flee. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands…purify your hearts…lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection." Now believers are not being called to a sad-sack existence here. Rather, if we are living life arrogantly, without the Lord, then we are ensnared by the Devil. We have to recognize this, turn to God, repent of our sin by cleansing our hands, purifying our hearts, and mourning our loss of joy, life, and peace in living humbly with the Lord. "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you." Now as we have already mentioned, James will have nothing to do with private religion. To James, if you call yourself a Christian, you have to act like one. Faith and works are not opposites, but rather are intimately connected. Real faith leads to real conversion, and real conversion makes a difference in the way we treat others. In the rest of this morning's passage, James identifies three areas of arrogant, of which I want to look at just two of them. 1. First of all, in verses 11 and 12, he warns against judging or slandering another person. Slander always seeks to gain advantage at the expense of another. It is always an inner judging of another, because it reflects personal hatred and animosity. We judge others when we size up a person by his or her appearance; we judge others when we speak disparagingly against an ethnic group. Judging and slandering involves simultaneously lowering the neighbor and elevating the self. Therefore, when we judge, we forget the most basic commandment Jesus preached, namely, to love others as we love ourselves. James calls us to remember that, as the Psalmist says, only God can judge, and that we should only worry about doing the Will of God ourselves. Author H.A. Ironside relates an interesting incident in the life of a man named Bishop Potter. "He was sailing for Europe, and after he found his stateroom, he noticed that another passenger was to share the cabin with him. He chatted for a moment with his roommate, then after a while went to the purser's desk and inquired if he could leave his gold watch and other valuables in the ship's safe. He explained that ordinarily he never availed himself of that privilege, but he had been to his cabin and had met the man who shared the other berth. Mr. Potter didn't think he looked like a very trustworthy person. The purser accepted the responsibility for the valuables and remarked, 'It's all right, sir, I'll be very glad to take care of them for you. Your roommate has already been up here and left his valuables for the same reason!'" 2. Don't boast about our control over tomorrow. The form of arrogance, described in verses 13-17, is not subtle. "Come now, you who say 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money. Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring." In other words, with little or no notice, our life can completely change. We could have a car accident; we could get diagnosed with a terrible illness. We could lose a loved one. Many things happen outside our control. Now James is not saying never plan. But he does say that planning the future without God is a confidence falsely placed. It is the quality of the braggart, the boaster, or the foolish loudmouth. Again, such an attitude pushes God to the side. It assumes that nothing is outside our control, when in point of fact, many, many things are out of our control. We can rely fully and completely on our good fortune, or our business acumen. But James points out that such an attitude is eventually going to run into a brick wall. We can't even guarantee that tragedy won't happen tomorrow, much less a year from now. At its core, this attitude views the world as being run solely by us. But such is not the case. It is God who miraculously maneuvers life in such a way that His ultimate Will is done. He is in charge. We are not. To recognize that fact is to live humbly. To ignore that fact is to live arrogantly. In 1969, in Pass Christian, Mississippi, a number of folks were preparing to have a "hurricane party" in the face of a storm named Camille. The wind was howling outside the posh Richelieu Apartments when Police Chief Jerry Peralta pulled up sometime after dark. Facing the Beach less than 250 feet from the surf, the apartments were directly in the line of danger. Peralta yelled, "You all need to clear out of here as quickly as you can. The storm's getting worse." But they all just laughed at Peralta's order to leave. "This is my land," one of them yelled back. "If you want me off, you'll have to arrest me." Peralta didn't arrest anyone, but he wasn't able to persuade them to leave either. He wrote down the names of the next of kin of the twenty or so people who gathered there to party through the storm. They laughed as he took their names. They had been warned, but they had no intention of leaving. Well, you know what happened. Camille was one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever seen. At 10:15 p.m., scientists clocked Camille's wind speed at more than 205 mph. Raindrops hit with the force of bullets, and waves off the Gulf Coast crested between twenty-two and twenty-eight feet high. News reports later showed that the worst damage came at the little settlement of motels, go-go bars, and gambling houses known as Pass Christian, Mississippi. Nothing was left of that three-story structure but the foundation; C. Now we need to point out that James is not just giving us good advice, though he is certainly doing that. He is also giving us a recipe for successful Christian living. Here's the thing – not a single one of us has lived a perfect life. On one occasion when I was an Associate Pastor at a large church, I sat in on a Staff-Parish Relations Committee meeting (this is the Methodist equivalent of the Search Committee) when they were drawing up a description of what they wanted in a Senior Pastor. Some of the qualities included being a magnificent administrator, a powerful preacher, a skillful counselor, and a constant home visitor. Finally, after 20 or more qualities where written down, one of the committee members said "Shall we just say, 'Walks on water,' and ask the Bishop to send Jesus?" No one is perfect. There isn't a one of us who hasn't been kicked around by life. Some of us come out of an abusive childhood. Some of us come out of a history of drug or alcohol abuse. Some of us might never have gotten the breaks on our job that we thought we disserved. Some of us might be in trouble now. All of us need healing from some hurt. And living the way James spells out is the way to healing and wholeness in the Lord. Living humbly before God is far from being a dishrag. It is a way of being in fellowship with the Almighty, of acknowledging that sure, we can live without God, but not forever and not very well. Living humbly before God is living a life that admits it isn't perfect, but also admits that God doesn't care. He takes us as we are, forgives us, and brings us healing. It doesn't happen overnight. But over time we can know the peace that passes understanding through faith in Christ. And Church, we need to know that perfect people don't enter into our worship space each Sunday morning. But broken people do. Needy people do. Lonely people do. And we need to love them and accept them the way Christ loves and accepts us. In Chicago a few years ago a little boy attended a certain Sunday school. When his parents moved to another part of the city the little fellow still attended the same Sunday school, although it meant a long, tiresome walk each way.. A friend asked him why he went so far, and told him that there were plenty of others just as good nearer his home. "They may be as good for others, but not for me," was his reply. "Why not?" she asked. "Because they love a fellow over there," he replied. Jesus said "Come, all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." That is a promise we can take to the bank. Amen. Keith Almond P.O. Box 4388 Leesburg, VA 20177 703-344-3569 |
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Singposts of the Christian Life
Sunday, September 20, 2009
True Status
Sermon for September 20, 2009 Proper 20 Text: Mark 9:30-37 Title: True Status A. Humorist Dave Barry, in his book Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway, writes: "When I got to Washington, I discovered that even among young people, being a good guy was not the key thing: The key thing was your position on the great Washington totem pole of status. Way up at the top of this pole is the president; way down at the bottom, below mildew, is the public". (I have a feeling that may be changing, especially since the march Saturday before last, but that's not his point anyway!) "In between is an extremely complex hierarchy of government officials, journalists, lobbyists, lawyers and other power players, holding thousands of minutely graduated status rankings differentiated by extremely subtle nuances that only Washingtonians are capable of grasping. For example, Washingtonians know whether a person whose title is 'Principal Assistant Deputy Undersecretary' is more or less important than a person whose title is 'Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary,' or 'Principal Deputy to Deputy Assistant Secretary,' or 'Deputy to the Deputy Secretary,' or 'Principal Assistant Deputy Undersecretary,' or 'Chief of Staff to the Assistant Assistant Secretary.' (By the way, all of these are real federal job titles!) "Everybody in Washington always seems to know exactly how much status everybody else has." Status is not only important in government jobs; it's important in other aspects of life. Most private businesses are status driven. I know of one business where your status determines which floor of a 10-story building you work on; the higher the rank, the higher off the ground you work. Position in the company can often be determined by physical position in the office – we all know the importance of the "corner office". Status is even a factor in the church. We preachers judge other preachers by the size of the church, the number of worshippers on Sunday morning, and the enormity of the budget. Now as long as it doesn't get out of hand, status seeking can be a great motivator for excellence in the workplace. A little healthy competition is always a good thing. But the problem is, for some of us, the drive to succeed can be a kind of drug. It can take over our lives. It becomes the focus of everything we do. When we are caught up in the addiction of success above everything else, when we would do anything to succeed, and it doesn't matter how many lives are trampled over and ruined, then we are in trouble. Status seeking in its ultimate form is true idol worship. It is a false god who promises much but delivers little. Perhaps that is why Jesus redefines status in the Kingdom of God. In the God's Kingdom, "whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all". Let's be honest – this goes against the grain. Certainly it baffled those first disciples, who also sought after status, defined as power and position. In understanding Jesus' definition of status, we have to first understand the primary reason behind Jesus' definition, namely, that God is in charge and we are not'; therefore, what we do and accomplish in this life is by His Divine Will. But perhaps I am getting a little ahead of myself. B. The passage begins with Jesus and his disciples traveling through Galilee. Galilee is familiar country. It is symbolic of God's call on their life, since this is the place where they all heard the summons from the Master to "Follow Me." This is the second time Jesus had taught them about His death and Resurrection. On this occasion, however, Jesus puts pastoral care of His small flock above mission to the masses. In this passage He shuns the crowds, preferring to help His disciples understand the journey, namely, that "The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again." All humanity is both implicated and redeemed by this one act. As is often the case, the disciples don't get it. All this talk of death and resurrection doesn't fit into their idea of what Messiah-ship is all about. They just can't get over the notion that the Messiah must be a military leader, conquering the Romans and taking back the Kingdom of David from Latin hands. What Jesus is telling them is way over their heads, and they're afraid to ask him to clarify. After all, they don't want to look stupid! But that's exactly how they look in the next verses. It's important to remember that this chapter of Mark begins with the transfiguration, that glorious mountaintop experience in which Jesus' clothes become "dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them". There He enters into a conversation with Elijah and Moses, the two superstars of the Old Testament, and God's voice booms out of a cloud, "This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to Him!" Pretty heady stuff. Peter, James and John are shocked, terrified and totally impressed by this display of divine power. When Jesus and the disciples come down from the mountain, they run into an adoring crowd with a great need that the other disciples couldn't fix. Then Jesus strongly rebukes an unclean spirit causing the spirit to leave the boy, "crying out and convulsing him terribly." The boy seems dead at first, but Jesus lifts him up, and he is able to stand. Again, this had to have made an enormous impression on the twelve disciples. So given that religious tradition has taught them all their lives that the Messiah would one day come and set up God's Kingdom on earth, and given all the amazing things they had seen, I guess we can't blame them too much for their confusion. Nonetheless, Jesus still had to take pains to re-educate His followers on God's real plans for the salvation not just of the Jewish people, but all people. He predicts that His death is imminent, but it is also part of God's greater plan. Along the way, Jesus overhears a disturbing conversation between some of His disciples. Privately, inside the house, He asks them, "What were you arguing about on the way?" They were silent because they had been sparring with one another about who was the greatest in the coming Kingdom. Jesus' unexpected question catches them red-handed, and by shaming them, He exposes their pettiness and self-centeredness. The disparity couldn't be greater. Jesus is "the Son of Man" who comes "not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many." In contrast, the disciples are small-minded, self-interested souls whose primary concern is status. They want a seat next to the power or an honored place in the kingdom. When Jesus sits down, He is assuming the familiar posture of a Rabbi who is about to teach His followers. He calls the 12 disciples, and says to them, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." To be first you must be last, he insists; to be a star you must be a servant. To have status in God's Kingdom you have to give up status in the eyes of the world. And to illustrate this counter-cultural career advice more clearly, Jesus takes a little child in his arms and says, "Whoever welcomes one such child in My name welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes not Me but the One who sent me." The jaws of the disciples really hit the floor at this point, because in the first century a child is a non-person, a non-entity, a nobody, better seen than heard, if you have to see them at all! There is no reason for a little child to be close to a great teacher such as Jesus, or in the middle of a group of men. Children are to stay with the women and keep themselves out of the way, until they grow up and can start exercising some adult responsibilities. Jesus is saying in effect, "When you welcome a nobody, you welcome me. And when you welcome me, you welcome God. So if you want to be first in the kingdom of God, then you had better get used to being a child-welcoming servant of all people." This is a really different way of looking at status. But when you get right down to it, fame as we all conceive it is a fleeting thing anyway. Today's hero is tomorrow's goat, and vice versa. The public approval polls seem to go up and down on a whim. Recognize any of these names: Owen D. Young, Hugh S. Johnson, James F. Byrnes, Harlow Curtis? You should; according to Time magazine, these are all people who have been designated as "Man of the Year" by Time, indicating they had the greatest impact in that year of all persons living on Earth. The celebrity of today is all but forgotten tomorrow. C. So what's the bottom line? Well, give me a minute. There's just one more thing we have to notice. In the very next story, the disciple John tells Jesus that on another occasion, they had chastised a Jewish exorcist who was not one of them, but who was casting out demons in Jesus' Name. Jesus tells them, "Don't stop him. No one who does a deed of power in My Name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me." In other words, just because this man is not like them doesn't mean he isn't a follower. Notice that the same phrase "In My Name," is used, connecting it with the story where Jesus uses the little child as a sermon illustration. Jesus follows this up by telling His disciples, "whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward." And finally, in verse 42, Jesus says, "If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea." This is hyperbolic, not literal, but that is typical of ancient Near Eastern teaching. Here too, the phrase "little one" is used, the same phrase Jesus used when He embraced the child before His disciples. What I am trying to say is that when Jesus says "Whoever welcomes one such child in My Name welcomes Me," He is not simply talking about the physically young, even though they have to be treated with special care in the Church. Jesus also includes those who are new in the faith, namely, spiritual children in the Lord. And He is telling us to welcome believers who don't look like us, or who don't have cultural traditions like us. He is inviting us to give a cup of water to the underprivileged. In short, Jesus is calling us to unity in the Spirit, patience with those who may not be as spiritually mature as we are, and service to those who need aid. Jesus is calling us to be on the side of the underprivileged, for that is the mark of true greatness. Jesus is calling us to flip our usual attitudes toward greatness and honor and fame completely upside down. Our normal perspective is to look at life from the top down, giving our greatest attention to the people who have competed with one another and come out on top. But Jesus is saying, "No — change your perspective." Instead, he says, look at life from the bottom up and give your greatest attention to the people who have no fame. Focus on children, on single mothers, on cab drivers, on dishwashers, on chambermaids, on the working poor, on the homeless. "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me," He tells us. Christians are to live lives that are radically different from the way the world lives. Our priorities have to be different. Our attitudes have to be different. We focus on the welfare of others, not the welfare of ourselves. We don't rank people, because God sees us all as unique creations of His, and He has given us different gifts and different opportunities together to help bring in serve the Kingdom. We never look down on people; rather, we count people better than ourselves. In the final verses of this extended passage, Jesus says something that sounds very mysterious, but it really isn't, "Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it?" Times will not be easy for believers. The world doesn't like people who don't conform to the ways of the culture. But Christians are supposed to be counter-culturalists. We are meant to have a salty edge, a sting, a sharpness like salt in a wound. We are called to be salty Christians! And with God's Spirit, we can be! One New Year's Day, in the Tournament of Roses parade, a beautiful float suddenly sputtered and quit. It was out of gas. The whole parade was held up until someone could get a can of gas. The amusing thing was this float represented the Standard Oil Company. With its vast oil resources, its truck was out of gas. Sometimes, we Christians forget that we are "clothed with power", and when we forget the Spirit, we find themselves out of gas. My friends, this is a call to saltiness. This is a call to service. This is a call to be great in God's Kingdom, by being the least of all and servant of all. Shall we answer?! Amen. Keith Almond P.O. Box 4388 Leesburg, VA 20177 703-344-3569 |
Monday, September 14, 2009
The Meaning of Messiah
Sermon for September 13, 2009 Proper 19 Text: Mark 8:27-38 Title: The Meaning of a Messiah A. You might remember comedian Yakov Smirnoff, who liked to joke that when he arrived in the US from Russia, he wasn't prepared for the incredible variety of instant products that he found in American grocery stores. "On my first shopping trip," he said, "I saw powdered milk; you just add water and you get milk. Then I saw powdered orange juice. You just add water and you get orange juice. Then I saw baby powder, and I thought, 'What a country!'" He does have a point, though. We all love to have everything we need instantly. We love our fast food. When we buy something that has to be ordered, we get a little miffed because we can't have it yesterday. When we see the doctor, we want to see him or her right now! All this is human nature, and it is as old as humanity. In Jesus' day, people wanted instant salvation. They wanted someone to come along, and free them from their Roman overlords. And they would follow just about anybody who seemed to be able to do that. Josephus, the 1st century Jewish historian, records any number of so-called leaders – dare we say "Messiahs" – who led a group of followers in rebellion against the foreign occupiers. They always came to a bad end. The people in those days believed Jesus was the instant salvation Messiah. They flocked around Him because they thought He was going to mount the white horse and knock the Romans off their high horse. For a time, His own disciples even thought they could be Cabinet members in His new regime. But as we shall see in today's passage of Scripture, this is not what true Messiah-ship is all about. B. This morning's passage has a lot going on in it. I think, though, that we can squeeze the most meaning out of it by realizing that these few verses address and answer three very basic questions, in this order: 1) Who is Jesus, 2) What does being the Christ (i.e. the Messiah) really mean, and 3) What does being a disciple really mean. When you get right down to it, these are also three of the most basic questions people of faith ever ponder. The answers to the first two critically affects our own answer to the third. It is obvious from the way Mark's Gospel is laid out that he thought this incident was a critical turning point in Jesus' ministry. Prior to this exchange, Jesus and His disciples were in ministry in and around the Sea of Galilee. After their visit to Caesaria Philipi, Jesus and His followers headed towards Jerusalem. Before the events of this passage transpired, Jesus concentrates on healing and teaching; He both proclaims and demonstrates that the Kingdom of God is coming in power through Him. But after these verses, Jesus starts to talk about His death and Resurrection. In addition, if you add up all the verses in Mark and divide by two, the exact center of the Gospel lands at this story. So what Mark is proclaiming here about Jesus is of critical importance. Now we also should notice a few things about the geography of the region, because they are also helpful in understanding the passage. Caesaria Philipi is located in the area we call the Golan Heights. Damascus is a mere 50 miles to the northeast. The Golan Heights are beautiful rolling green hills that overlook the Sea of Galilee. From this vantage point, Jesus and the 12 could see all the sites of their previous ministry stretching out below them. Caesaria Philipi was at that time also home to a magnificent temple to the god Pan; tourists came from all over to visit the site. So given all this as a backdrop, Jesus asks his followers, "Who do people say that I am?" What's the word on the street? What are people twittering about me? They answer, "Some say John the Baptist" (by this time he was dead, killed by King Herod – maybe he had come back to life!); "others say Elijah" (tradition had it that he would return immediately prior to the coming of the Messiah); "still others say one (of the more ordinary) of the prophets". But then Jesus gets straight to the heart of the matter: "But, you, who do you say that I am?" Peter gives both an honest and straightforward answer: "You are the Messiah," a term which means "anointed one," the divinely chosen leader of the people. So in answer to the first of our three questions – Who is Jesus – we see that Peter answers correctly. He is God's anointed one, anointed to perform a divinely mandated plan. But when we take up the second question – What does being the Messiah mean? – we find that Peter and the others are very confused. Over the course of the Galilean ministry, the disciples just hadn't gotten who Jesus was. When Jesus calms the storm in chapter 4, the disciples responded, "Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?" He had been called a teacher, and had called himself the Son of Man, who has the authority to forgive sins. In short, none of the disciples had shown any comprehension of Jesus' identity until this point in the narrative. By now they have correctly figured out that He is the Messiah, but in the very next verses we find that their knowledge of real Messiah-ship is sorely lacking. As we discovered last week, this is why Jesus tells them to remain silent about the whole matter. No one could understand what kind of Messiah Jesus was until they view His Messiah-ship through the lens of the Cross. Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man "must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again". To be the true Messiah, Jesus has to undergo suffering, death and resurrection — there's just no way around it. It is the only way God can accomplish the salvation of the world! Then and only then will Jesus be seen clearly as a divinely chosen leader. So the position of Messiah requires a cross before a crown. Until he completes these duties, Jesus doesn't want people talking about him. But Jesus is keenly aware that many people are looking for a military Messiah — God's Commander in Chief — to drive the Romans out of Jerusalem and restore the kingdom to Israel. When Jesus talks openly about his suffering and death, Peter takes him aside and begins to rebuke him. It's inconceivable to Peter that God's anointed leader would have to suffer a humiliating death! But Jesus quickly turns the tables and rebukes Peter, saying, "Get behind me, Satan! You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things". Peter began to "rebuke" Jesus, using the same verb Jesus used when he "sternly ordered them" to keep his identity as the Messiah a secret. The same word describes Jesus' actins to silence the demons he encountered or to describe His calming the wind and the waves of a violent storm at sea. It's a word that means to strongly correct a person's way of acting or thinking, much like a person might correct a naughty child. Peter's rebuke doesn't last long, however. He is rebuked, in turn, by Jesus, again using the same verb. When Jesus said, "Get behind me Satan!" to Peter, He wasn't actually calling Peter the Devil. But Satan can work through any of us if we don't understand the ways of the Lord, to resist those ways. The question is, who is in charge? If Satan is in charge, then Jesus doesn't have to suffer and die; Peter unknowingly reflected this when He rebuked Jesus about discussing His future death and Resurrection. Of course Satan, working through Peter, doesn't want God to effect a Crucifixion, because that is the only way Satan is finally and ultimately defeated. Satan is tempting Jesus to resist His God-necessitated death on the cross, much like the way He tempted Jesus in the Wilderness. Peter was deceived by the Master of Lies. But as we all know, God is in charge. Jesus rebuked Satan when He rebuked Peter. Now we know what being the Messiah really means. It means that Jesus/Messiah had to die, so all people might have eternal life. Jesus has to lead; His disciples have to follow after Him. He leads us to die on the cross, and to rise again in God's love. And like Him, we too have to journey right behind Him to the Cross. When Poland was still under communist rule, the government ordered crucifixes removed from classroom walls, just as they had been banned in factories, hospitals, and other public institutions. Catholic bishops attacked the ban that had stirred waves of anger and resentment all across Poland. Ultimately the government relented, insisting that the law remain on the books, but agreeing not to press for removal of the crucifixes, particularly in the schoolrooms. But a certain zealous Communist school administrator decided that the law was the law. So one evening he had seven large crucifixes removed from lecture halls where they had hung since the school's founding in the 1920's. Days later, a group of parents entered the school and hung more crosses. The administrator promptly took these down as well. The next day two-thirds of the school's six hundred students staged a sit-in. When heavily armed riot police arrived to eject the students from the building, they went into the streets. Then they marched, crucifixes held high, to a nearby church where 2500 other students from nearby schools joined them for a time of prayer in support of the protest. Soldiers surrounded the church. But the pictures from inside of students holding crosses high above their heads flashed around the world. And the priest who led the prayer service told a watching world that one should never doubt the power of the Cross. C. This leads us to the final question the passage addresses, the most important question of all: What does being a disciple mean? Here, my friends, is where the theological rubber hits the road of life. And with what has already been said, I bet you can figure out the answer. Jesus said to His disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." That's the key to being a disciple: one follows Jesus. But wait! But wait! I'm too young to die!, one might ask. Jesus doesn't ask us to literally climb up on the cross with Him. But what He does ask – indeed, He demands – is that we die to self. Jesus invites us to put Him on the throne of life, at the center, not out on the sidelines somewhere, only addressed when we have an emergency. Jesus invites us to kill our own self-will and self-love! And in its place, one puts love of God before all things in life. As He goes on to say in this morning's passage of Scripture, "Whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel's will save it!" In the original Greek, the word for "life" is better translated as "self". We die to self. We live for Christ. Now dying to self is not the same as hating myself. Rather, it's that we find our most authentic way to live when we walk with the Lord and follow His Will for our lives. This is not always easy to do. It takes a lifetime of practice. We keep taking our self-will back after it is surrendered and placing it on the throne of our existences again. Losing one's life for Christ's sake and the sake of the Gospel is not always an easy way to live. It requires us to sometimes take a stand that may be very unpopular. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great German theologian whose faith led him to die at the hands of the Nazi's at the age of 39, expressed it this way: "When Christ calls a man, He bids Him come and die." In his case, it was a literal death. For all of us, it's a death of our old self-will and self-centeredness, and a life lived for the Lord. Now here's the crux of the matter. When we answer the question Who is Jesus and we answer the question What does being a Messiah mean, then we can answer for ourselves what does being a disciple mean. Who is Jesus? He is the Son of God, God incarnate, who came to earth as a man to die for us so we might know forgiveness of sins and relationship with the Father. What does being a Messiah mean? It means dying so others might live. What does being a disciple mean? It means following behind the One who died for me, and dying to self while living for God. Or, as the apostle Paul puts the matter, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is not I who live but Christ who lives in me." Being a disciple means dying daily to self, and living daily for Christ. It means learning about the Lord through being in Church and in Bible studies. It means praying throughout the day, talking to the Lord, and striving to follow His Will for our lives. And it means loving others as we love ourselves. You may know about the annual Ididerod dogsled race in Alaska; it is a grueling 1000-mile race over snow and ice, run for prize money and prestige. You may not know that the race commemorates an original race run to save lives. Back in January of 1926, six-year-old Richard Stanley showed symptoms of diphtheria, signaling the possibility of an outbreak in the small town of Nome. When the boy passed away a day later, Dr. Curtis Welch began immunizing children and adults with an experimental but effective anti-diphtheria serum. But it wasn't long before Dr. Welch's supply ran out, and the nearest serum was 1000 miles of frozen wilderness away. Amazingly, a group of trappers and prospectors volunteered to cover the distance with their dog teams! Operating in relays from trading post to trapping station and beyond, one sled started out from Nome while another, carrying the serum, started from Nenana. Oblivious to frostbite, fatigue, and exhaustion, the teamsters mushed relentlessly until, after 144 hours in minus 50-degree winds, the serum was delivered to Nome. As a result, only one other life was lost to the potential epidemic. Their sacrifice had given an entire town the gift of life. What kind of disciple are we? The question is answered by posing another question, namely, Who is Jesus Christ to me? A prophet. A good man. A remarkable teacher. Or is He the Son of God, who loved the likes of me so much that He died so we might live. This is the Jesus we need to follow. There is no other. Amen. Keith Almond P.O. Box 4388 Leesburg, VA 20177 703-344-3569 |
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
What's the Big Secret?
Sermon for September 6, 2009 Proper 18 Text: Mark 7:31-37 Title: What's the Big Secret? A. The story is told of a traveling vacuum cleaner salesman whose sales technique was to get his foot in the door of a prospective home and then throw a bag of manure on the entryway before the resident had a chance to object. One day, however, his trick backfired, because the owner of the home had a secret. As the potential customer answered the door, the salesman threw a bag of manure into the home, as was his habit. Before the woman could object, however, the salesman explained: "Lady, this vacuum is so powerful, and I have so much confidence in its ability, that I believe it will pick up every speck of this manure or I will personally get on my hands and knees and pick up every speck by hand." To which the lady replied, "Well, come right on in, young man. We don't have any electricity." I told you she had a secret. Secrets come in all shapes and sizes. There are big, classified government secrets, there are personal, embarrassing secrets, and there are secrets that we can't wait to share. When it comes to secrets, many of us might identify with Mrs. Thurston Howell III on the old Gilligan's Island series, who said, "Secrets are fun to hear and even more fun to tell!!" Well, Jesus had a secret. Scholars call this big secret the "Messianic Secret". In a nutshell, that means that He told people over and over again not to tell folks that He was the Messiah. Typically, Jesus would work a great miracle, or He would shush an exorcised demon who knew who He was -- all proof that He was bringing in the Kingdom of God with power – and then He would tell people not to tell anyone what they had seen or heard. The passage this morning is typical, "Then Jesus ordered the people to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it." Herein lies the problem. Why would Jesus tell people not to proclaim Who He is?! He is the Savior of the world – why not spread this Good News? Scholars have speculated endlessly about why Jesus wanted to keep His identity secret. Some scholars have said that Jesus was using reverse psychology – He really wanted the people to spread the news about what they had seen and heard concerning Him, so He told them not to tell it, knowing that human being's love to tell tales when told not to tell them. I don't know about you, but personally, I think this explanation is a little weak! Some scholars have proposed that Jesus had a secret because He couldn't handle all the crowds who would come around Him once they found out that He was the Messiah. There is some truth to that; He certainly was swamped by both the curious and the needy. But I suspect that there is something else going on here as well. Let's get into the passage a little more closely, to see if Jesus' secretive nature had a purpose. B. Jesus has moved closer to the Sea of Galilee when this scene opens, but He is still in the non-Jewish region of the Decapolis (a word that means "Ten Cities"). He is easily accessible to the crowds that approach him. The crowd brings a deaf man with a speech impediment to Jesus for healing. Jesus immediately takes this man away from the crowd, to a private place, where the healing takes place. Now there are a couple of strange things going on here. First of all, the crowd asks the Master to lay His hands on the deaf man; instead, Jesus takes Him away from the crowd. He doesn't want the crowds to share in this healing, and He doesn't want them to tell about it once they find out what had happened. All this is part of the "Messianic Secret" we just discussed. Now we are still left with the mysterious way Jesus did this healing, and the whole big Messianic secret thing. A clue to solving these mysteries lies in the Greek word describing the man's condition. Some of your translations may use the English "deaf-mute", but actually the word means that the man had a speech impediment, due to his lack of hearing. He could still utter sounds. This word is used only twice in the entire Old and New Testaments: once is here, and the other is in Isaiah 35:6, which was the companion verse in this morning's lectionary reading. Here it says, "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped," referring to the coming of God in power to save the people. So Jesus performed this miracle in this way to graphically demonstrate that God's Kingdom is coming into their midst in power! The Day of the Lord had arrived!! You might have heard the story of the little girl who got separated from her mother in the busy department store. The man saw her crying and heard her mumbling something, but he couldn't quite make it out. "Don't cry. I'll help you find your mommy." He proceeded with her to the front of the store, to the customer service desk, and an announcement was made over the loudspeaker about the "found" child. While they were waiting for the girl's mom, she said to the man, "I knew you would come. I was waiting for you." "Waiting for me?" said the man. "What made you think I was coming?" "I was praying you would," she said. "Praying? When I first heard you, you were saying A-B-C-D-E-F-G. What was that for?" She looked up again and said, "I was praying all the letters of the alphabet and letting God put them together the way he wanted to. He knows how to put them together better than I do." The people thought Jesus Messiah would come riding up on a white horse to knock the Romans in the head and put the Kingdom of David back together again in power. But that's not what God had in mind. God put the letters of our salvation together in a wholly different fashion than what everyone had in mind. C. So why the big secret? Why does Jesus over and over again tell the people not to tell anybody what they had seen and heard? Well, to put it bluntly, it is because no one could possibly understand the secret fully at this stage of Jesus' ministry. The people got all caught up in the idea of a miracle-working Messiah; they were so excited they could hardly contain themselves: "The more Jesus ordered them (not to tell), the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure." These folks were like kids at Christmas. Kids just can't stand to stay in their room a moment longer. They just have to go into the living room to see what Santa has brought them, even if it is 5:00 in the morning!! These people who surrounded Jesus, watched His miracles in amazement, and turned into extreme blabbermouths, just couldn't believe their salvation – their political leader, their Messiah, their anointed one – had come. What a joyous day! But they misunderstood that the miracles really meant that the Kingdom of God had come into the world to battle the Kingdom of Satan, not the Empire of Rome. They couldn't possibly understand at this point that the Messiah had to die, not conquer. His throne was a Cross; His throne room was Calvary. But this was the only way God could give people what they really needed -- salvation from sin. The Roman Empire would come and go. It has settled into the dust and memories of history. What people really need is a Savior!! What we really need is Jesus Christ the Risen and Living Lord. What we really need is a relationship with the Lord. What we really need is to be forgiven of our sins!! Listen again to the words of Isaiah, and we can see why Jesus had to keep a Messianic secret until after His death and Resurrection. The words of Isaiah, seen through the shadow of the Cross, say it all. "Say to those who are of a fearful heart, "Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you." Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water." Another way to look at it is that God is in charge. That little girl in my previous story was right. We can trust God to put the letters of our lives together in the proper order. The most powerful prayer we can possibly say is "Lord, thy Will be done!" When we live as though we know that God will provide everything we need in the proper way and at the proper time – and by that, I mean God will provide money, job, health, hope, and all the rest when it is needed – then we live out that prayer with our lives. Paul called this walking by faith and not by sight. It's not living with blinders on. Rather, it's living knowing that God loves us and that nothing can separate us from the love of God, and that God is in control. It's living knowing that ultimately, we can't be in control of life. Too much that is out of control can happen. But God is always in control. A frazzled young mother locked her sick toddler in the car while she ran into the pharmacy to pick up an emergency prescription. While in the store she discovered that she had left the keys in the ignition. It was late at night, she didn't have a cell phone, and the pharmacy had locked its doors and pulled down its metal shutters by the time she realized what she'd done. She ran out to the car, and could hear the sound of her daughter crying. Tearfully, she prayed for help. A few moments later, a young man walked past and turned to look at her in curiosity. "Can you help me?" she begged him desperately. "I've locked my keys in the car and my daughter is in there!" He nodded, and looked around the empty parking lot until he found an old coat hanger that he straightened. She had never seen anything like it — it was simply amazing how easily he got into her car. A quick look at the door and window, a couple of twists of the coat hanger just like that, the door was open. When she saw the door open she thanked him profusely. "Oh," she said, "the Lord sent you! You're such a good man. You must be a Christian!" He stepped back and said, "No ma'am, I'm not a Christian, and I'm not a good man. I just got out of prison yesterday." She laughed and said, "Praise the Lord! He sent me a professional!" My friends, do we trust Christ with our lives. Can we let God be God, and be in charge of our lives? Let's pray about it right now: Keith Almond P.O. Box 4388 Leesburg, VA 20177 703-344-3569 |
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
God's Body Armor
Sermon for August 30, 2009 Proper 17 Text: Ephesians 6:10-20 Title: God's Body Armor A. Have you ever noticed that when you are a parent of boys your museum fare goes from art and sculpture to something bigger and more hard-hitting? You know what I mean; now the museum tour consists of dinosaurs, of huge tombs and temples, of mummies and caskets of ancient Egypt. And of course, one has to meander through the mists of the medieval ages. This means rooms and rooms of ancient, awful-looking weaponry, as well as "awesome" armor. We have all seen the complete coats of heavy iron armor. We have looked in amazement at huge armored warhorses with metal encased soldiers mounted on their backs are holding up hundreds and hundreds of pounds of "protection." Medieval armory gradually grew to be a source of artistic expression. Metal workers took pride in the precision of their pieces and in the intricacy of their designs. Kings and noblemen commissioned fantastic suits of armor that were designed more for parade days than for the battlefields. The Roman armor described in this week's epistle text was far different. It was lightweight, utilitarian, proved and improved on thousands of battlefields. The function of the Roman soldier's armor was defensive. It was designed to keep the soldier from dying so that he could go on fighting for the Empire. The function of the Christian's "armor" described in today's Ephesians text is quite different. The function of the "armor of God" is to keep the faithful alive — alive in Christ. B. Paul had an insight into the Christian lifestyle that we sometimes forget about today, namely, that our ultimate struggle is against the forces of evil in the world. Now I'm not talking about a boogey-man, and I'm certainly not talking about some guy dressed in red and sporting horns, a tail, and a pick-fork!! Neither am I trying to minimize the reality of human sin and temptation, nor the reality of tragedy in the world in which we live as well as in our own lives. The Devil isn't behind every bad thing that happens to us, at least not directly. We can't slough off our own sinful nature by saying "The Devil Made Me Do It." Rather, the truth that Paul asserts and which we must keep in mind is that there is evil in the world. And that evil is intent upon thwarting the advancement of the Kingdom of God and is the enemy of every individual who calls himself or herself a disciple of Jesus Christ. Paul states the matter bluntly: "Our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the Heavenly places." There is both a positive and a negative here. The positive note being sounded here is that ultimately, there isn't a thing persecution, or illness, or tragedy, or anything else bad can do to us in this life. When I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, I have eternal life; my joy is in the now as well as in the hereafter. God is with us, and there isn't a thing in the entire world, not even death, that can change that. But the negative note that is sounded here is ominous. Paul is also saying here that what we see with our eyes and experience with our senses is not all there is to reality. We also have a supernatural foe, and this foe is arrayed against the church. The language Paul uses reflects the mythology of the day. Our own culture might better envision what he is talking about by calling these supernatural forces "demonic." Now we don't like to talk about demonic forces; to most of us they conjure up images of the movie The Exorcist. But we can't throw the baby out with the bathwater either. I have seen a number of evil things over the years whose cause seems to go beyond the explainable. I remember shortly after arriving at my church in Leesburg, being told by a person who was sensitive in the realm of the spiritual that she sensed "dark figures" hovering over the sanctuary. There is no question that the hate and anger that permeated many of the congregants went far beyond normal behavior by civil people. We need to join with Paul to acknowledge, if not fully understand, that evil exists, and it resists God's people at every turn. But the Good News is that Jesus is in charge. It's not even a fair fight!! Although the Devil has been given freedom to stir up things here on earth for a time, God has won the victory!! And the Lord has given His people all that they will ever need to resist the attack of the Evil One. The Biblical student should notice that in these few verses Paul uses power verbs over and over again; many of these words are rarely used elsewhere in the NT. Paul calls the disciple into action – "Resist", "Watch," "Pray," "Be Alert." We are obviously meant to be engaged in the battle against the Devil because the Devil will not hesitate to battle us! Also, we should notice that the word "stand" or "withstand" appears four times in these eleven verses, suggesting that we are to stand at the ready and dig in our heals when the Devil strikes. We can't let the Evil One get a foothold in our lives; we have to stand firm against him. Paul uses the image of the fully armed Roman soldier to get his point across. We have to wear the full armor of God to hold off the attack of the Evil One. Perhaps this is suggested because Paul is in prison while writing this letter; the General has been removed from the field for a time, and he has become a bold martyr in chains, still guiding the troops into successful combat and unafraid of pain or harm to himself. This reminds me of a much more recent struggle. The story is told that years ago, when the South African government canceled a political rally against apartheid, Desmond Tutu led a worship service in St. George's Cathedral. The walls were lined with soldiers and riot police carrying guns and bayonets, ready to close it down. Bishop Tutu began to speak of the evils of the apartheid system -- how the rulers and authorities that propped it up were doomed to fall. He pointed a finger at the police who were there to record his words: "You maybe powerful -- very powerful -- but you are not God. God cannot be mocked. You have already lost." Then the bishop seemed to soften. Coming out from behind the pulpit, he flashed a smile and began to bounce up and down with glee. "Therefore, since you have already lost, we are inviting you to join the winning side." The crowd roared, the police melted away and the people began to dance. Don't go away, Paul says. Put on your armor and dance. I am inviting you to join the winning side. And here is how we do it: The belt of truth: This belt for Roman soldiers was so wide and thick that it protected the stomach and lower abdomen and prevented them from being disemboweled. For the church, the truth is our belt. The truth is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and only through faith in Him and Him alone does one achieve salvation. The truth is that life is best lived not for self, but for God and for others. The truth is that the Church is the community of believers. Satan doesn't mind slipping under this belt with the sword of untruth. But through Scripture study, prayer, and mutual discussion, God sends His Spirit to lead us into all truth. Such truth prevents the community from being eviscerated by untruths. Rumors and gossip can easily divide a church, thus Paul begins by promoting protection of the community's soft underbelly.
C. Finally, we need to engage in prayer. Believers must hear sermons, read Scripture, talk with other Christians, engage in regular prayer, sing the praises of God, and so on. Paul puts it this way, "Pray in the Spirit at all times, in every prayer and supplication. Keep alert and always persevere. And pray for me…pray that I might proclaim the Gospel boldly." Prayer is the umbrella that provides cover for the faithful. Satan cannot withstand a prayer attack. What Paul is talking about here is to live in an attitude of prayer; to live in fellowship with the Lord, thanking Him for the many little gifts He provides on a daily basis, offering prayers of intercession when needed, and, of course, setting aside a time of prayer during each day. Praying in the Spirit means praying in the manner Jesus might pray; attuned to His Spirit, we sense how we must pray. Perhaps many of you have woke up in the middle of the night and sensed the need of prayer. Recently that happened to me. I had no idea why I had to pray, but the next day I found out, when a friend of mine was involved in a terrible accident. Prayer has power. It kept the Great Apostle going while an "ambassador in chains." And is it our surest spiritual defense. Recently National Geographic ran an article about the Alaskan Bull Moose. The males of the species battle for dominance during the fall breeding season, literally going head-to-head with antlers crunching together as they collide. The heftiest moose, with the largest and strongest antlers, triumphs. Therefore, the battle fought in the fall is really won during the summer, when the moose eats continually. The one that consumes the best diet for growing antlers and gaining weight will be the heavyweight in the fall fight. Those that eat inadequately sport weaker antlers and less bulk. I think there's a lesson here. Satan will choose a season to attack; of this we can be sure. Will we be victorious, or will we fall? Much depends on what we do now--before the war begins. And much of that depends upon how well and how often we pray. Paul isn't inviting us to live life joylessly, but simply to be aware that the Enemy is there. And there will be times when the Enemy will catch us with our guard down, and we will fall. Praise the Lord that He can pick us up, dust us off, and help us move forward again during such times. So what times are these? Seasons of attack? Or seasons of victory? Reliance on the Lord will make all the difference. Amen. Keith Almond P.O. Box 4388 Leesburg, VA 20177 703-344-3569 |