May 26, 2019   “Rise, Take Up Your Pallet, and Walk”             

In our gospel reading this morning, Jesus heals a lame man by the pool of Bethzatha. The pool is identified as being near the Sheep Gate, which is the poorest of entrances, where the sheep are watered. Actually, the name Bethzatha, has a double meaning, it can be interpreted as a place of shame – for the crippled who gather there, and a place of grace – for those healed by it’s waters. The local legend is that from time to time, an angel stirs up the water in the pool, and when that occurs, if someone with an illness enters the water, they will be healed. The man in our story is either crippled or paralyzed. He has been brought to the pool each day for 38 years, and perhaps he has seen many a miracle, but when the angel stirs up the water, there is no one to help him, and others rush in to be healed.

Now there are three interesting parts of this story, which actually continues on till verse 16.

The first is that the man never enters the pool. Jesus asks him if he wants to be made well, the man answers with his story of not being able to get in the pool. At this response, Jesus doesn’t engage in conversation, but simply says, “Rise, take up your pallet and walk.” At this word from Jesus, the man does so, and is healed.

Perhaps the simplest example of this might be found in the healing of an alcoholic, or an overeater, or a drug addict. There are programs a plenty to help people with these problems, some include 5, 10, or 12 steps. But perhaps the most direct route is not to drink, overeat, or take drugs -today, and then the next day, and then the next. It may sound harsh, but Jesus doesn’t allow us to make excuses, or to indulge in feeling sorry for ourselves. Jesus knows what we know, either we do what we need to do or not, and that’s why he tells the man to “rise, take up your pallet, and walk.”

The same thing goes for us. We all know our own lives, our shortcomings, the things we need to do, and the things we need to cease from doing. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we are not our own Lord’s, choosing what is best for us. We have a new Lord, who commands us, and we obey.

The second is that the Pharisees make a big fuss about Jesus healing on the Sabbath. It’s not right, Jesus is not following their law, he must be a heretic or a false prophet.

Now we have all heard this nonsense before. Your not catholic, so your not a true believer. You not protestant, so you are going to hell. Heck, there are some churches in our own community that re-baptize people, because they believe your baptism in another church wasn’t good enough. It’s arrogant, and presumes the power of God for themselves. Now I’m sure I’ll get some flak for saying this, but churches that behave like this aren’t interested in helping to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, they are interested in helping themselves.

And the problem is this. How many people are turned away from the church, because they are sinners. How many people are turned away because of their race, nationality, sexuality, or politics. How many people are turned away because they haven’t gone through the right rituals in worship, or followed the right religious laws in their lives. We must always be on guard, as religious people, about how we might stand in the way of their coming to Jesus. Or, how our belief in the sacredness of our own rituals, keeps us from coming to Jesus.

Oh, I know, we all say we don’t turn people away, after all we need warm bodies to fill the pews and contributors to meet the budget. But how many people do we turn away with our attitude about whether they can help us or not, or with our attitudes about who are sinners and who are righteous.  

Jesus understands this hypocrisy, and gets himself in trouble with the religious leaders, by saying and acting as if salvation is for all people. And we, as Jesus disciples, need to offer this grace and salvation to all, without conditions, and without question.   

Third, Jesus links the healing of this man to the forgiveness of sins. In the 14^th verse of this chapter, Jesus meets the man again and tells him, “go and sin no more”.

Now I’m going to go back to the alcoholics, overeaters, and drug abusers again. Most psychologists, will tell you that people do these things to escape depression or abuse. I will tell you, many escape into this because terrible things have been done to them, and they are unable to forgive. Everyone here knows what it is to hold a grudge. Everyone here knows that we act differently towards those who have harmed us. Everyone here knows the weight that we carry when we are unable to forgive one another. And that inability to forgive doesn’t just result in drug addiction, it results in broken marriages, families, and relationships of all kind. The inability to forgive results in subtle divisions that permeate our entire lives.  

The gospel of John is very focused on the power of forgiveness that has been shown to us in Jesus Christ. This forgiveness is the path to our being born anew. It is the path to those who are crippled to become whole. It is the path to the world’s salvation. I know, people have done terrible things to you, I know that the world has taught you to hold grudges, but it is not for their sake that you are called to forgive them, it is for your sake, so that your lives will no longer be crippled.  

In the Revelation to John this morning, we hear the story of a new heaven and a new earth, a place where the presence of God dwells with us. I believe this is what will happen, when we finally learn to forgive one another, for then we will no longer be crippled by the inability to forgive, and we will live together in peace, and in love. And that is the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

May 19, 2019     Love that Heals a Broken World                  

         A few weeks ago on Good Friday, I preached a sermon on the question, “Was it Necessary for Jesus to die?” In that sermon, I spoke about the jewish ritual for the cleansing of the sins of the people. How they brought two goats to the temple, and one of the goats was slain, it’s blood sprinkled on the altar, and on the people. In this way, God and the people took responsibility for their sins. The priest then laid his hands on the second goat, and prayed that this second goat would take the sins of the people away with it, and so the second goat, the scapegoat, was driven out into the wilderness. In the gospel of John, this theme of the scapegoat and the goat that was slain, now termed the lamb of God slain for our sins, is a large part of the John’s passion narrative.

         I then went on to explain, that scapegoating is still very much alive today. Throughout history, people have always scapegoated the new, the different, the stranger among them. In America, the Indian, the Italian, the Irish, the Chinese, the African American, the LBGT person, have all at one time or another been blamed for the problems of the nation, or if not the nation, our communities and our lives. And similarly, the Jewish people of Jesus day did the same thing. They scapegoated the Persians, Ethiopians, Syrophenecians, Greeks, Romans and etc. They were to blame for the presence of sin and suffering for the Jewish people. Now in the bible, some of these nationalities are mentioned as Jesus interacts with them, but on the whole the Jewish people had just one word for them, Gentiles.  And Jesus, because he preached to these Gentiles, and healed these foreigners, was to blame for corrupting the Jewish religion. Which brings us to our reading in Acts this morning.

         In the book of Acts, the early church, including Peter are still stuck in this Jewish mindset, so they spend most of their time, trying to convert Jews into Christians. But in this story, God speaks to Peter in a vision on the roof of the building in which he is staying. God sends a vision of unclean animals, animals that the Jewish Law forbids Jews to eat, and tells Peter to eat of these animals. Three times, Peter refuses before the vision vanishes, and then there is a knock on the door downstairs, calling Peter to come and preach the gospel to a group of  Gentiles. So Peter goes, and preaches the gospel to the Gentiles, and to his amazement, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon them. And at this point, Peter gets it, that the gospel of Jesus Christ and salvation are not just for the Jews, but for the Gentiles as well.

         Now as I mentioned before, the scapegoating of foreigners, strangers, and sinners, continues on today. But it is through our faith in Jesus Christ, that we are called to recognize the way in which the world scapegoats people, and we are called as followers of Jesus Christ to preach to, minister to, and welcome into our lives those who are scapegoated by the world. And if I may boast in the United Church of Christ, over my lifetime, our church has indeed done this, preaching and ministering to African Americans, immigrants from foreign lands, and even those broken people and sinners among us in our own nation. Standing up for the rights of Jews, Muslims, the handicapped, and others in the face of a world that would blame them for the fear and prejudice that are the source of sin, suffering, and death in human life.

         In many a Christian church, this struggle also continues, between the newcomer and the longtime member, the older member and the newly confirmed, between those we choose to invite and those we decide should not be invited, between those with a family history in the church, and those with no history, those who we see regularly and those we see rarely.  And we are called to find a way to include all of our members, and even those who aren’t members in the mission, ministry, work, and celebration of the church, so that we might be the “one body” in Christ, that Jesus calls us to be. That is the constant struggle of the church in every generation.  

         And that is why, God’s love for us, in Jesus suffering and death upon the cross, is the love that leads to the healing of a broken world. And that is the Good News of Jesus Christ. 

May 12, 2019   Hearing the Voice of the Good Shepherd         

         Today is Mother’s day, and while I planned to speak on hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd today, I seem to have spent more time thinking about Mother’s Day, than Good Shepherd Sunday. So here goes,…

         My mother had five children, not a lot compared to others, but she was equal to the task. Some say that when you have two or even three children, you can have twelve. Anyway, she was quite busy taking care of us kids for about 13 years before she went back to working as a teacher, which is the degree she got in college.

         We had a traditional home, in the sense that my father went to work 40-50 hours a week, and mom did most of the raising of the kids. As a teacher, my mother, was always finding ways to engage us in learning. Aside from reading to us, she made play dough, and had plenty of songs and games for us to learn. As we grew, she had a list of chores for us each Saturday morning, many of which she had to follow along and complete if we didn’t get them done right, and she taught us lots of things, like sewing, crocheting, knitting, and embroidery.I had 4 sisters, so group activities were mostly directed towards my sisters.

My mother also took us to swim classes at the YMCA, piano and violin lessons, cheerleaders, choral groups at school, and girl scouts and cub scouts/webelos. Dad helped, but mostly it was mom doing the driving. The one thing she did for me specifically, was Khoury league baseball each spring and summer. She would drop me off and pick me up from practice, while running my sisters around, but when the games began, she would more often than not, bring her lawn chair and watch her son play. I think it was the one time during the week she ever just sat and rested. The rest of the time, I suppose her life was one long list of doctor’s appointments, school activities, church activities, cooking, cleaning, chauffeuring, and etc. And by the time I was five, if that wasn’t enough, she added substitute teaching to the list.

Did I mention church? My mother had to get 5 children ready for church each Sunday, get us off to Sunday school, and sit with us during worship. As a minister’s wife, she was always worried about our behavior, one Sunday, as I went flying down the center aisle with my arms wide, roaring like a jet plane, she almost lost it, by that I mean she raced forward, grabbed me by the arm, and sat me in the pew.  But I can say, my mother never beat me, though there were plenty of times when I probably deserved it. My mother had a mean scoul when we were misbehaving, she could yell at us if she was upset, and wasn’t afraid to tell us if our were being potty. One time, many years after it happened, my mother apologized to me for yelling at me when I mowed some flowers she had just planted under a tree – I thought they were weeds. I said, “Are you kidding me? You feel bad about that? Don’t worry about it.” Mom’s feel guilty about a lot of stuff, they worry, everything little thing with their kids is life and death. I’d like to tell the mothers out there that they worry to much, but they probably wouldn’t believe me.  

 At church she made sure we got to youth choir, church plays, and youth group, while she attended the couples group and the women’s fellowship as the minister’s wife, and in later years on the church mission board – missions were important to her. As a teacher, she worked on the Sunday school committee, and was a teacher for vacation bible school.

By the time I turned 16, with my sister’s all gone to college, my mother went back for her master’s degree in teaching, and also taught school. But this did not stop her from planting a garden. A garden which by the way, was 1/16 th of an acre. She got up every morning and went out before 7 am to put in an hour or two of weeding and cultivating her crop. The garden was where we got our fresh veggies. And my mother spent the last 20 years of her professional life, teaching behavior disorder and developmentally disabled students, which was her master’s degree.

Now the point of all this reminiscing, is not to make my mom out to be a superhero, nor is it to make other mom’s feel guilty. I look at mom’s today, and I see them having the same 6 am to 10 pm days that my mom had, running kids everywhere, teaching them, bringing them to church, and participating in family social functions, community activities, school activities as well. I bet if you were to write down all the things your mom did in her life for you and for her family, you would probably be amazed not only at all she has done, but that her head didn’t explode while she was doing it!

No the real point that I am making is this, my mother chose to be a servant of her family, and in our Christian tradition, we believe that it is the servant who creates life. Now the natural reaction of the world to the word servant, is to think doormat or slave, someone forced to do these labors for the benefit of another. But that’s not what mom’s are all about, they do these things not because they are forced to, but because they love their children and families. They lay down their lives for us, so that we might live, grow, and have as good or better than they had. They teach us how to love one another through devotion and hard work. Their deeds of kindness are their bright clothing, washed in their travails of loving us, that makes them shine before our eyes. Their presence brings peace to our lives, like a good shepherd watching over us, and their voice calls us to love our children and families, and even others, as we love ourselves. Oh, and for those of you who don’t have kids, you can have this same Spirit of life in yourself, if you love others as God has loved us in Jesus Christ.

Now all this stuff about mother’s, doesn’t mean that father’s don’t lay down their lives as well, but this is mother’s day, father’s will get their day in a few more weeks. But this spirit of servanthood, this spirit of love that gives life, is the Spirit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who laid down his life for us, so that we might live, and calls us, in the voice of the Good Shepherd to do so as well. For in following that voice, miracles happen, the miracles that make up our lives. Amen.       

May 5, 2019                Conversion                                            

         In our epistle lesson this morning, we hear the story of Saul of Tarsus. You see, Saul was a Jew, through and through, his parents were Jewish, he grew up in the synagogue and participated in all the right rituals, he had devoted his life to the law of God, and had become the chief priests top lawyer and investigator. Saul was blameless before the law, and a member of the Pharisees, a group that sought purity in faith and in practice.  

         Saul hated Christians. As he saw it, for these Christians to claim that Jesus was the Son of God was an attack on his religion, his faith, and family. And so Paul went around finding these Christians, driving them out of their homes and communities and attacking those who dared preach about this Jesus.

         Everyone’s life is driven by something. And Saul’s life was driven by his pride, pride in himself, pride in his religion, pride that led to anger, violence, suffering and death. But on that road to Damascus, God stops him dead in the road, and blinds his eyes, and changes his life. No longer will he be driven by this pride in himself, or his religion, but from now on, he will be driven by his desire to know Jesus Christ. As many of you know, Saul of Tarsus, becomes Paul, the great apostle of the early Christian church, and it is that same passion he had for persecuting Christians, that becomes the driving force in his bringing Christianity to all the world.

         What is the driving force in your life? In his book, the purpose driven life, Rick Warren picks out five of the most common things that drive human lives.

         Some people are driven by guilt, they spend their entire lives running from regrets or hiding their shame. Guilt driven people allow the memories of their past to control them. They always wonder what people are saying about them, and so they see conspiracies all around them.

         The problem with being driven by guilt is that we become prisoners to our past, always seeing ourselves from those one or two incidents that we allow to define us.

         But there is good news! God says we don’t need to be driven by guilt. God took a murderer Moses and made him a liberator. God took a coward named Gideon, and made him a hero. And God can help you to redefine your life, and free you from the guilt that keeps you a prisoner as well.  

         Some people are driven by resentment and anger. They hold onto hurts that happened to them long ago, they play them over and over in their minds, planning and plotting their revenge.

The problem with being driven by resentment and anger is that some people internalize it, allowing it to eat away at their lives and at those close to them. Others, allow it to take control of their lives, and in order to keep themselves safe, they strike out and seek to destroy anyone they feel threatened by.

But there is good news! Those who are driven by resentment and anger have been given in Jesus Christ, the power of forgiveness, by which they can let go of their hurt and their anger. The power to stop resentment from eating away at them. The power to no longer feel threatened and to end their endless and angry crusade against others.

         Some people are driven by Fear. Perhaps they had a tramatic experience as a child, or perhaps they lived in a relationship where mistakes were treated with overly harsh punishments.

The problem with being driven by fear, is that fear keeps us from reaching out, trying new things, taking some chances that might lead to a better life.  

         But there is good news! In Jesus Christ, God has shown us a life that trusts in God. A life that is not free of mistakes, or hurt, or punishment, but one that faces these with God present in our lives, so that we might bear these hardships and discover on the other side a new life.

         Some people are driven by material possessions. Some think that having more or living better than others makes them better than others. Others think that having more will give them greater security in life.

         The problem with this is that self-worth and net-worth are not the same, and the reality of wealth is that it can be won and lost through a number of uncontrollable factors.

         But there is good news! Real self-worth and security comes in realizing ourselves as children of God. Of having a relationship with God and with others that can never be shaken, or taken away by some market. True happiness is not a matter of bank accounts but of the peace and security that we find relationships of love and trust with God and one another.

         Some people are driven by a need for approval. They allow the expectations of others to control their lives.

The problem with those who are driven by a need for approval is that they often they find that in trying to please everyone, they please no one, and their lives seem hopelessly out of control. 

But there is good news!  God is not some human being who changes his mind repeatedly, who runs us round seeking one thing one moment and another the next. When we seek God’s approval, it is always the same, and God does not withhold his approval in order for us to satisfy our whims, God gives us his approval and makes good his promises to those who follow him.

        

         In our gospel lesson this morning, we find the disciples after the resurrection of Jesus. Their leader Peter is still bound by his sense of guilt over denying Jesus. So when he instructs the disciples to go fishing, he isn’t talking about fishing for men, but to return to the old life of catching fish.

But then Jesus appears on the beach and calls them to cast their nets anew, as he did when he called them to fish for men, and their nets were filled to overflowing.

In the conclusion of this scene, Jesus asks Peter three times, Do you love me – we can clearly see that this threefold question reminds Peter of his denial, but we can also see, that through it, the road is cleared for Peter to respond to Jesus final command, “follow me”

         So what drives your life? guilt, resentment, fear, possessions, approval, or is it something else that keeps you from realizing God’s glory in your life? The good news is that God in Jesus Christ has the power to overcome them all, and give you a new meaning and purpose for your life, if we are just willing to hear and respond to his command, “follow me!”

April 28, 2019      Not Doubting, But Believing                        

         This morning our John’s gospel tells us a story of the disciples on that first Easter evening and week. And while we celebrate Easter with joyful worship services, that was the last thing the disciples were doing.

         The disciples had locked themselves behind closed doors. They were afraid, Jesus had been crucified, and they were afraid that the Jewish leaders, and the Roman authorities would hunt down his disciples next. And to make matters worse, the women of their group had come to them with strange stories of Jesus being gone from the tomb. For as of yet, they did not believe their statements about his being risen.

         Yes, rather than joyously celebrating his resurrection, his disciples, the earliest of the early church were locked in a room, fearing for their lives, the gospel message silent, and them going nowhere. And the Risen Christ comes to them on that first Easter evening and gives them four statements that get the early church going!

The first thing Jesus says to them, is “Peace be with you!” In the midst of this fearful gathering he tells them to have peace. He shows them his hands and his side, he shows them that it is truly him, and that he has risen from the dead. In doing this he shows them that death no longer has power over him, – and so they need not be paralyzed by fear, afraid of the Jews or the Romans, for through faith in the resurrected Christ, they no longer need to fear death.  

Have Peace in Christ, is the first of these four statements for the early church, and for our churches today. In a world filled with hostility, anxiousness, alienation, violence, war and greed. Through the peace that Jesus resurrection gives to us, we can go forth to minister in this world without fear, we are freed to go forth into this world and proclaim the gospel of God’s love, which overcomes all these worldly powers.

The second thing Jesus says is “As the father has sent me, I send you.” This is Jesus commission to the early church. Jesus now sends them into world, just as he was sent, to proclaim God’s love that seeks to save us from these powers of sin and death, and to call others to join them in seeking God’s kingdom in our lives together.  

In my grandmother’s Evangelical catechism, published in 1906, the answer to the first question about what is the purpose of those who follow Jesus Christ. The answer had two parts. Give glory to God, and win new followers to Christ. In later printings of the Catechism, winning new followers to Christ, has been left out. And I wonder if that wasn’t a mistake, because being sent is who we are as followers of Christ – and if we don’t realize this, than religion becomes all about our personal salvation, rather than the salvation of the world.

         The third statement Jesus makes is, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. Jesus then breathes upon them the breath of God. It is this spirit that fills them with strength to go forth into the world and proclaim the gospel message.

         As I think of this statement, I think about Moses before the burning bush, asking God how he can make a difference in the face of Pharoah, and God tells him, not to worry, for God will go with him. And that is what Jesus promises to the disciples and to all of us who follow him. That God will be with us, in the form of the Holy Spirit, to both protect us, and to give us the strength we need to do the things that Jesus did. And so, Jesus doesn’t just send us into the world, but promises his presence in the form of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus final statement to the disciples as this meeting is this, “If you forgive sins, they are forgiven, if you refuse to forgive they are retained.” In the gospel of John, proclaiming God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ is the work of his disciples. Over and over, the disciples have seen Jesus forgive sins, to overcome, blindness and illness, to call sinners to repentance, and to restore people to community. They have seen how the Jewish legal system of refusing forgiveness has oppressed and separated the people. And now they are called to do this work. And so are we.

Our world today has the same legalists and moralists. We have state and federal governments who administer the law. The world does not practice forgiveness. Nations are unforgiving, and Families are unforgiving. It is only through God’s forgiveness, that oppression and division ends, that sin and death are overcome. And this is not just blanket forgiveness, but the announcement of God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ, those who accept it are forgiven and lead new lives, those who do not accept it, for themselves or for others, condemn themselves.

         And so on this first Easter evening, and on the following Sunday, Jesus comes to a fearful and silent church, and gives them these instructions. Have Peace through Christ, You are sent into the world, You will receive the Holy Spirit, and do the work of forgiveness that heals and overcomes the powers of sin and death. With these instructions, the church went forth into the world, and spread around the globe. And we are called as followers of Jesus Christ, to heed these instructions as well, so that we may be filled with the Holy Spirit, and continue to spread the gospel to all the world. Amen. 

April 21, 2019        We Are Witnesses                                

This past week, I read in my old church letter from Zion UCC, that Marcella Loekle had passed away. Marcella was a very special woman, a woman of faith, who you could say, was raised from the dead.

     At the age of 73, Marcella had a stroke, the kind of stroke that all of us fear, the kind that leaves the majority of our bodies paralyzed, and requires a feeding tube because we cannot speak or swallow food. For the first month, Marcella laid in her hospital bed, despondent, feeling that her life was over. One day, when the chaplain came to visit her, she wrote on a piece of paper with the one hand that she could still move, “How did I do, that God would do this to me?” And the chaplain replied, “O Marcella, This stroke wasn’t about how good or bad you have been in life, God sends both the rain and the sunshine upon all of us, the good news is that God gives us faith to help us rejoice in the good and cope with the bad.

And Marcella thought about this, She was not naive, she knew what it meant to believe in Jesus Christ, and the power of Christ’s spirit to heal and make new our lives,  but like many of us, she also had those prideful thoughts of growing up in the church, that her religion made her special, and that God would reward her by keeping her from harm. It was quite crushing to realize that this wasn’t the case, but she didn’t lose faith. Marcella looked past these ideas and saw how she had been blessed in her life, and so she decided to put her trust in God to help her cope with her stroke and she got down to work.  

For the next 5 months, Marcella struggled to retrain her muscles, the muscles that let her breathe, speak, eat, the muscles of her legs, her arms, her abdomen and back. Each day she would awake with the pain of atrophying muscles, but she would force them to work, and work, and work, until the day, six months after her stroke, when she was sent home with a walker, because she could take care of herself.

And from that moment on, whenever someone had a stroke, Marcella found someone to drive her to see them, and she would share her experience, and the faith that God had given her to day by day, step by step, recover control over her muscles.

As I read the scriptures for this Easter Sunday, my eyes caught upon the phrase, “We are witnesses”,  and “Chosen as witnesses” that Peter said before the crowd. Peter spoke about his experience of Jesus faith, and the miracles and wonders, and words that came from his faith, and he was sharing that faith now with others, bearing witness to how Jesus Christ had brought forth life from death, had given new life to those who were dying, and finally himself, came forth from the dead and was raised to life again.

Now I believe, that like Peter, and like Marcella, we have been called to be witnesses to the power of God in our lives. The power of God that has helped us to overcome the loss of a loved one. The power of God that has been there to help us through an illness. The power of God that has helped us through a time of trouble in our lives. The power of God that has given our lives meaning. Each of you, who is gathered here today, has a story about the power of God in your life, and so, you are witnesses, and you have a powerful witness, that can be shared with others.

That powerful witness, is rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ! To a faith in a God, who cares about those who are crucified by the world. To a faith in a God, who cares for the sinner, the lost, the stranger, the foreigner. To a faith in a God who stands on the side of those who are discounted, rejected, outcast, and enslave. To a faith in a God who loves each and every one of us. To a faith in a God who can raise from the dead, all who are persecuted and oppressed by the world. Throughout history, it is this faith, that those who believe in Jesus Christ, have had faith in, and God has been with them in their struggles, and brought them forth from their slavery and oppression.

So we are witnesses, called to share with others, the way in which our God has brought us forth from slavery and oppression, to the powers of sin and death in our life. We are witnesses to share with others who are experiencing sin and death in their lives, that there is hope for their lives. We are witnesses to those dead and dying, in our world today, to the new life and resurrection that we believe in, through faith in Jesus Christ. Be witnesses to the next person you meet, tell them about your faith, and invite them to come and worship with you. For what it means to have a resurrection faith, is to bear witness to the works of Jesus Christ, and the power of God in your life, that has made your life new! Happy Easter!!

April 14, 2019         Having the Mind of Christ                        

Last week, when Kris and Emily were home for a few days, Emily was talking about her goals for next two to three years, and of course, as her father, I was telling her that reaching those goals would require some hard work, steadfastness, and self-sacrifice. And of course, she laughed and said, “Oh Dad, you’re just so basic!”

Now, I don’t know if the slang term “basic” has reached Somonauk, IL, quite yet, so let me explain what it means, at least as I understand it. “Basic” means dull, boring, plain, going about your business, just another face in the crowd, or unremarkable. I suppose for young people, being “basic” could be considered a put down. Certainly, when I was a young person, being different, standing out from the crowd, getting recognized, winning prizes, being “cool”, was what life was all about.

Being “basic” when I was young, was what my parents did. Get up, go to work, pay the bills, take care of the kids. Teaching us to do what is right for all, even if no one is looking. Teaching us to tell the truth if we have done something wrong, accept the punishment and move on. Telling us that nothing really good or meaningful comes to us without hard work, steadfast effort, and personal sacrifice. I guess when I was young, my parents were dull and boring, but they built a life on that, and in their golden years, they could look back on all that a “basic” life built, for them and for their kids.

This week I read a commentary on our scripture lesson from Philippians this morning. What caught my attention was what the author said about the people of Philippi. It said that they had a special place in the Roman Empire, that Philippi was a capital city, that all it’s members were Roman citizens, not subject to taxes, and that the majority of people were involved in government work. Therefore, a big part of being a Philippian was about social climbing and status, being loyal to the emperor, and being recognized apart from the crowd.

The author went on to explain that the troubles the church at Philippi suffered from were directly related to this kind of life. That people came to church to be recognized, that their contributions were to be celebrated, that their social status needed to be recognized with positions of power and authority, that those who were slaves should serve them. And in response to this attitude, Paul writes for them a beautiful hymn about Jesus Christ, that is worth reading again!

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, and being born in human likeness, ….. humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.                        Philippians 2:5-8

The message of course to the church members, was that as followers of Jesus Christ, they were called to be servants of one another. That while the world called for them to seek status, to be recognized for their social standing, and to Lord it over one another, that was not the way of Christ. The way of Christ, was the way of humility, obedience, and self-sacrifice.

I wonder, how the people of the church at Philippi received this hymn. I wonder if some of them didn’t react the way the rich young ruler reacted, when Jesus told him to give away his riches, and he walked away shaking his head, because he just couldn’t do it. I suspect that perhaps, that’s why a great many people today, especially young people, aren’t interested in the church. They live in a world that tells them, they need to be arrogant, prideful, and self-serving. That being anything less will cause them to lose out, be run over, or be taken advantage of. As I mentioned in our prayer of confession this morning, humility is not considered a virtue, and from the first part of my sermon, being “basic” is not considered a compliment. But that is the view from this side of the cross, the Palm Sunday side.

On Palm Sunday, Jesus rides into Jerusalem and the crowd lines the road, laying down their coats, waving palm branches, shouting Hosannas to the one they hope will throw out the romans, and give them status, power, privilege. Through the week, they will see Jesus arrested, suffer, and die, and even his closest disciples will desert him. The way of Jesus, is not their way, not the human way, not the worldly way. That is the view of Jesus from the Palm Sunday side of Easter.

But after Easter, that is not the view of Jesus that his followers have of him. After Easter, that view will change, much as our view of life changes, from being young to growing old. The view that being “basic” -  the hard work, steadfastness, and sacrifice over the years has resulted in giving life to us, to our children, and to others, is a productive way of life.  That view will change because of the resurrection, when we see at last, that the way of Christ Jesus is indeed the way of life! And that is the good news of Jesus Christ!!