PRESSING ON (Philippians 3: 4b-14) 3/17/13

          I really should have called this “Cindy’s Sermon,” or maybe  “Kathryn’s Sermon.” I have known my wife Cindy almost 20 years now. If there is one phrase by which she could be identified, it would be “Press On.” She gives all the credit to her mother Kathryn. According to Cindy, that was not only her mother’s mantra; it was also her advice to her children whenever they were in a pickle. Look for the answer, but don’t stand still. Press on. Don’t give up. Don’t quit. Keep moving and things will get better.

          Kathryin McCabe Scott had a good idea. It worked well for her daughters and it works well in life. It you’re looking for a creed to live by, you could do a lot worse. Press on. Now that Kathryn is a member of the Church Triumphant, I suspect that she has been able to compare notes with the apostle Paul and that they have had some stories to swap about what happens when you “press on.”  

I’ve gotten and given plenty of that sort of advice in my life. It’s practical and it’s perfect advice for someone who needs to shut down the pity party and get moving again. But here, Paul takes the principle a giant step further. He makes it a mantra by which to live the Christian life. When Paul gives us that advice, he finishes the thought with words that will not only show us the road, but also give us the reason why to take it. They are some of the most famous words ever uttered, certainly some of the most quoted in all of Scripture.

          Paul says: “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”          “Forgetting what lies behind…” Paul had a lot to forget. He was the Jew of Jews, the Pharisee of Pharisees, a persecutor of Christians. He was hardly the stuff of which Christians were made.  If they were giving out awards for the people who most despise Christianity, Paul would have been the grand prize winner. When Paul came to town, Christians hid in their homes.  Yes, Paul had plenty to forget.    

          “Straining forward to what lies ahead…” Paul also had plenty of reason not to strain forward. He wrote these words sitting in prison, most likely in Rome. The days ahead for anyone else but Paul would have been marked by only the certainty that life as he had known it and the freedom that he was used to, were over. His fate would be decided by the powers of Rome. But Paul came to Rome for a purpose. That purpose would cost him his life. He had had his chance at Caesarea to walk away, but chose instead to appeal to Caesar as a Roman citizen. Paul walked to the sound of a different drummer.

So about 32 A.D., Jesus stopped this man Saul in his persecuting tracks, turned him inside out and made him Paul. Three missionary journeys and twenty five years later, Paul sits in prison and writes to his beloved church in Philippi. His message is positive, upbeat. He is still a man in a hurry. His Savior is coming and he wants to be found ready.

Paul had everything. His family tree was pure. He was Jewish through and through. He was an Israelite, with roots all the way back to Jacob. He was of the favored tribe of Benjamin. You will remember Benjamin as  the only child of Rachel actually born in the Promised Land. Saul’s (Paul’s) namesake was of the same tribe and was the first king of Israel. There were only about six thousand Pharisees in Israel and Paul was among the most prominent. His was a rising star.  And then Jesus called.

Isn’t it ironic the way we work so hard, travel so far, piling up credentials, working and climbing to claw out our place in the world, striving to carve our name on the wall, only to find out that that for which we have worked so hard is of little value.  I once knew a fellow who was really driven. He worked hard to educate himself, went to prominent universities. He served in the military. Although he was a small town fella, he took job after job in big cities, moving up the ranks. He went to Law School and started his own law practice. He built a strong law firm. He went to church, became a deacon, then an elder. He joined all the clubs. He did all the right things to move up in the world. He got elected to the school board and was about to become President of the Chamber of Commerce---when it all came to a halt. His wife was beset with mental problems that were out of control. His four children were the silent victims of all that dysfunction.

That fella realized one thing. He had to protect his children. That decision changed everything. It cost him his marriage, his law partners, his community standing. Even his church began to murmur about who was at fault. He had nowhere to turn, no one to turn to. Like Paul, one decision changed his life.

And Paul tells us the “whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.” He goes on to say that all that he gave up, he now counts as rubbish. He counts all the achievements of his life to that point as so much more garbage, because they stood in the way of gaining Christ.

That fella I mentioned, he thought he knew Christ. Paul had a communication straight from Jesus on the road to Damascus. This fella didn’t have that. He just walked around the block a few thousand times and prayed. He would have walked somewhere else but his children were in the house asleep and he needed to stay close. So he walked round his house. He pressed on. He kept on going to church, although it was awkward. He dropped everything else except his job so he could raise his children. He didn’t have an epiphany, like Paul did. He just tried to pray and keep going. Over time, he too got the answers for which he prayed.

Paul tells the Philippians from his jail cell that he wants to be found in him, meaning Christ. Paul wants to be found in Christ. We usually think of Christ, or the Holy Spirit, being found in us. But Paul says he wants to be found in Jesus Christ. Perhaps he is thinking of standing before the judgment seat of God and wanting to be found in Jesus. I don’t know for sure what Paul means, but I am sure that he wants his life to be so wrapped up in Jesus that when you look at the one, you can’t help but see the other.

Paul says his righteousness does not come from him. His righteousness is spun from the threads of faith that life in Jesus has taught him. Faith is Paul’s answer to gaining Christ, and Christ is not only the object of faith; he is also the path to faith. Jesus says it like this in the Gospel of John: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me” (Jn. 15: 4).  If Paul were living today, he might say “that’s what I’m talkin’ about.”

Did Paul get there in this life? Paul certainly didn’t think so. He spent the rest of his life in devotion to Jesus, preaching the good news from the hills of Athens to the prisons of Rome. He preached on riverbanks, in synagogues, on highways and in house churches. He pressed on.

Paul wanted resurrection. He believed in the resurrection of the body and he wanted to obtain that which his Savior had promised. He never took it for granted that he had done enough. He never believed that he had done enough. This is not a “works” doctrine. It is a love doctrine of the highest order. He tells the Philippians that “I press on to make it my own, because Christ has made me his own.” Even in prison, Paul exhorts himself and other Christians to stay in the race, to press on.

I was recently at a lecture series in which Robert Cooley was the featured speaker. Dr. Cooley has a storied fifty year career as a seminary professor and scholar as well as being quite an archeologist. After the lecture we spoke for a moment. I encouraged him not to quit, to which he remarked that the word retirement is not in the Bible.

Certainly retirement never occurred to Paul. He had too much to do, too many people to whom to carry the Gospel. Paul had God’s work to do, not only because it needed doing in other people’s lives, but because it needed doing in his own life.

That fella I mentioned? Twenty five years later, he enrolled in seminary, answering a call that had come in the shape of catastrophe and was formed in the stillness of midnight prayers. He didn’t have an epiphany like Paul, but the call was just as unmistakable. Long ago, he found that shedding baggage is the necessary task of service to the Master. That task still continues for him, too, as he tries to press on. I know that to be true, because I am that fella.

We press on. We press on toward the goal. What is the goal? It’s the prize, of course. So what is the prize? Listen now. Listen. Do you hear? You can hear it in the rustle of leaves in the wind. You can see it in small ripples of water as they make their way upstream. You can touch it in the innocence of a child’s hand. You can taste it in the breath of spring that now knocks on the doors of this community.

What is it? It is Jesus calling. Paul says it is the upward call of God---in Christ Jesus. Do you have something standing in the way of gaining Jesus Christ? Shed that baggage. Count it garbage and get rid of it. Press on toward that upward call.

 Listen. You can hear it and see it and touch it and taste it. Jesus is calling you. He called Paul. He called this messenger. He’s calling you too. He wants to make you “his own.”

Amen.

We Represent (2 Corinthians 5: 16-21) 3/10/13

          In the classic 1939 film by MGM called “The Wizard of Oz,” a teenage girl named Dorothy is plucked from a Kansas farm by a tornado and finds herself in a strange land called Oz. She is an immediate hit with the locals, for her house has landed on, and ended, the wicked witch. She is welcomed by a group of munchkins who serenade her, saying that they represent the Lollipop Guild. They are called upon to officially endorse Dorothy as their new heroine.

          “We represent” or “I represent” is a common phrase in Hip Hop and other musical genres. It is a stock phrase for comedians. They say they represent a particular ethnic group or sub-culture. They speak for someone else.

           We elect people to Congress and then we call them our representatives. They “represent” us in government. They speak for us, advocate for us, stand up for us. At least, that’s the theory.

           In 2^nd Corinthians, the apostle Paul is talking to the church he helped start in Corinth. He is speaking to a troubled group and he is telling them about what it means to be a Christian. He tells them a story about newness, re-formation, reconciliation and representation. Paul is telling the Corinthian church that something fundamental has changed and he calls upon them to give the proper response to that change.

          Paul was the ultimate Pharisee. Although he was raised in Tarsus, a Greco-Roman city in the Diaspora where he would have been exposed to many cultures and customs, he also studied under the great teacher Gamaliel, probably in Jerusalem. He was at the head of his class. He was by far the most vocal and famous Jewish persecutor of Christians. He went looking for believers and wanted to stamp out this new belief.

          One day on the road to Damascus to persecute more Christians, Paul had a date with destiny. He was confronted by Jesus himself. His sight left him as he was blinded by the very truth that had eluded him. When his eyes reopened as a believer, he wasn’t the same man. His vision had improved. Now he could see the truth of the gospel. Paul was never the same. He was a changed man. The rest of his life was a testimony to the truth he saw and the task he undertook. His zeal remained. He went after the evangelization of the Gentiles with the same fervor with which he had previously gone after the persecution of Christians.  Paul was a new creation.

          Paul’s letters to the Corinthians show that zeal. In this passage, he has several things to say to the young and troubled church in Corinth and to us as well as we continue to act as God’s church  here on earth until he returns. In these verses, we can begin to see as Paul saw, to find the work that he found, to claim the newness and the righteousness that God has promised us.

          Paul starts out by saying “From now on.” He signals us that something has changed. From now on—something will be different. Paul says from now on we will not regard anyone according to the flesh. In other words, we will not judge based on appearance. We will have to look deeper. We will have to inquire. We will have to find out the belief system of those with whom we would engage. Jew and Greek is not important. Male and female is not important. Are you Christian? If you are, says Paul, then you are my brother. Forget gender. Forget color. Forget nationality. We are either brothers in Christ or we are separated by that chasm between belief and non-belief. Christian or not is the dividing line.

          Paul says “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” This is a continuation of the theme introduced by Jesus to Nicodemus in John’s gospel. The great leader of the Sanhedrin comes to Jesus, He is more than curious. He thinks Jesus has come from God and he doesn’t really know what to do with this information. Jesus tells him that he must be born again to enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus acts about as confused as the members of the church in Corinth. Born again? New creation? What does it all mean?

          Paul answers. He says “we once regarded Christ according to the flesh.” But no more. Is Christ a new creation? I suppose people could argue about that since he was God, became man, died and was resurrected. That does sound a lot like a new creation, but I don’t think so. I think the essence of Jesus never changed. For me that is part of his glory. The Son of Man took it all, did it all, bore it all without so much as a demerit. That gives you and me Hope, don’t you think.

          I think that what Paul is saying is that we were wrong to ever regard Christ as just flesh, as just a man. He was so much more. He was also the Son of God. His life, death and resurrection were all part of the divine plan of redemption.  The Cross changed nothing for Jesus, but everything for us. It gave us a path, the path of reconciliation.

          “The new has come,” says Paul. In Christ, God reconciled us to himself. We were separated. We couldn’t get to God. No matter how hard we tried, we could not keep our selfishness from building a wall between ourselves and our Creator. That problem was solved by Christ. He was fully man and therefore he could set an example that was real and worth following. He could feel all the pain, experience all the temptation, feel all the desires we feel. He was fully God and therefore when he chose to go to that Cross, the sacrifice he was willing to take on could save not only this man, but every man, woman and child of all time.

Paul says that “for our sake he [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin.” And Jesus never shrank from the task to which he had been called. For that reason and that reason alone, we are reconciled to God. We can become his children. We believe and we are reconciled because the debt has been paid. And Paul reminds the Corinthian church that it can take no credit. The new has come and the sin debt has all been paid in advance. Paul says that “all this is from God.” It is the world’s greatest lottery payoff and you don’t even need to buy a ticket. In fact, you can’t. All the tickets are free, a gift from your heavenly father through Christ. Reconciliation is God’s great umbrella of Christ covering all who believe in the greatest act of love ever known.

          And now that we are God’s new creation, now that we are reconciled to him, we have a ministry and a message. We have the ministry and message of reconciliation. When Jesus walked among us for those three years of ministry, he concentrated on the disciples, readying them for ministry. His last words to them were to go and teach and make new disciples. Paul reiterates this here. He says that Christ “gave us the ministry of reconciliation,” and that further, he entrusted its message to us. Paul doesn’t say that the message was entrusted to him or even to the apostles, but to us.  The context of the passage would seem to say that “us” is not just the apostles, but all who would believe. For once we believe, we, too, take up the Cross. We too are entrusted with the Good News and we are charged to carry it for Christ as his ambassadors.

           Ambassador is one of those great words. It comes from the Greek presbeutej (presbeutes). William Barclay tells us that it was used in conjunction with the Latin word legatus. A legatus presbeutes was the man who administered an imperial province on behalf of the Emperor. In other words, he represented the Emperor. He had a direct commission from the highest authority. The same principle applies today in large part. The United States has ambassadors all over the world. They speak for the United States and it current administration in whatever country they are assigned. They have a direct commission from the President.

          Paul claimed such a status for himself, the apostles and for everyone who called him or herself a Christian. Paul says that we are ambassadors for Christ, that “God makes his appeal though us.” We are charged with a commission. To those with whom we come in contact, we are given the ministry of witnessing to them about how through Jesus Christ, God has reconciled himself to us. As Paul puts it, in him (Christ), we become the righteousness of God.

The church is called to the glorious task of representing God until he comes again. Paul saw this as his one glory. His task was the same as ours; to be ambassadors for Christ, to tell the Good News of Jesus Christ to everyone we meet. We proclaim that message of reconciliation because it saves our lives and because it will save the lives of all who believe. We are truly the King’s men. We stand in his place and we represent.

So remember this lesson from the great apostle. He gives us the three “R’s” of the Christian life. All of them are Christ sponsored and initiated, but that still leaves us with a glorious task as the body of believers that is the Church. We must carry the torch until he comes again. Here are those three “R’s:”

In Christ, we are re-formed as new creations.

In Christ, we are reconciled to God as righteous.

In Christ, we represent his saving power and proclaim the Good News of salvation.

This is our act of love, that we can represent, that we can be God’s ambassadors. Pass it forward.

 Amen and amen.                  

Feeding The Dog (Philippians 3: 17-4:1) 3/3/13

          Over a life spent in the practice of law, I have had occasion to work with many fine individuals, for which I am most grateful. Unfortunately, one cannot spend so many years in one area without also being exposed to another sort of practitioner. There are also those who can’t handle the power, who can’t stay away from the limelight or the back room drama. There is an old saying that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Power is intoxicating. You must handle it with great care or it will handle you. Power comes in all shapes and sizes. It can be just as addicting to be the lead teacher at it is to be superintendent, just as heady to be mayor as it is to be governor.  It all ends the same way. The misuse of power destroys those who wield it. Many fall during life, some from great and public pedestals and some in the silence of their own overwhelming guilt. But sooner or later, all fall from grace.

          A curious phrase: “falling from grace.”  We see sports figures and entertainment superstars and government officials engaged in scandalous behavior. Eventually they are marred so deeply that they fall from the public eye, having risen like meteors only to fall the same way. We call that falling from grace, in the sense that they are no longer our heroes and heroines.

          The apostle Paul talked to the Philippians about others who had fallen from grace. He warned his new church of those who would mislead them. But for Paul, those unnamed people were much more dangerous than the modern day sports hero or errant congressman. He called them “enemies of the cross of Christ,” a label that Paul pinned upon them with his own tears. He realized the great damage of which they were capable and he cried for the fledgling church for which he felt personally responsible. He called the members of the Philippian church his brothers, not just once, but twice. He feared for them because he understood what was at stake. To believe in anything other than the cross and all that it represented was to reject the only path to salvation.

          Who were the enemies of the Cross? Paul does not identify them specifically, except to say that they were espousing the wrong message. There are as least two possibilities. We have talked before about Judaizers, those who wanted the Gentile Christians to observe the rituals of the Jewish law, including circumcision. Paul rightly identified this as a salvation that wrongly mixed works with faith. This emphasis on legalism undermined the Cross.

Another possibility is that Paul was combating Gnosticism, a branch of which believed that salvation is only for the soul, that the body is inherently evil and separate from the soul. This was antinomianism, a belief that resulted in throwing off all moral restraints. Whatever was done or not done with the body was unimportant. Immorality reigned under the mask of legitimate religious practice. This too alienated those trying to follow the Cross.

Whether Paul was dealing with Judaizers or Gnostics or both, he had his hands full. These people were persuasive. Like so many others that you have met in your own lives, they had all the answers. The answers contained more than just a grain of truth in them. They were close enough to sound like the truth, but they were just far enough from it to miss the Cross completely. A little heresy can go a long way.  So Paul gave these new believers some practical advice. He said: Follow my example and the example of others who are like minded. Paul was not bragging. He lived his life so that his was an example to be trusted, and he also recommended others whose lives and example were similar in the faith.

Who do you worship? We all say that we worship God, but we need to pay close attention to whether our actions reflect our words. There is a new series on television called Golden Boy.  A young, smart, ambitious detective is climbing quickly through the ranks of the New York City Police Department. His partner, much older, becomes his mentor. The first piece of advice our hero receives is a caution: There are two dogs living in the pit of every man. One is good and one is evil. Which one will dominate? The one you feed the most!

That sounds dangerously close to the life that I have experienced. I’m never been that far from that hungry dog of selfishness, growling in the pit of my stomach. Have you had similar experiences? It would seem that life never changes, wouldn’t it? Essentially it doesn’t…unless you allow Jesus Christ to be your most important relationship. Jesus makes the difference in our lives. In the words of Paul, “the Lord Jesus Christ…will transform our lowly body to be like his body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” Paraphrased in the words of the older and wiser detective, Christ is the dog we need to feed the most.

Our world is little different from that of the first century. Our church is the same in many ways as that of the early church. Today we have great roads and large powerful armies. So did Rome. Today we have small groups and house churches. So did Asia Minor and even Jerusalem in post Temple Israel. But today we have technology and smart phones. We have hospitals and automobiles. Today we have many advantages and life for many of us is much easier than it was for those of Paul’s day. And yet, today we also still have the poor and the disadvantaged. Nations still vie against nations for power. Our world is still worldly. Today, we are still misled by leaders in every arena of life from government to business to church itself.

Paul has the answer. We must be transformed. We await a coming Savior. Our god cannot be our belly or our job or even our family, for that would make us just like the Judaizers and the Gnostics of old and, incidentally, those old problems are alive and well today. The labels may have changed, but the problems persist.

Paul’s answer is about that dog that wants to be fed. Which dog gets your attention? Will you feed the god of selfishness? Will you spend your time and your energy worrying about whether you have enough? Enough money? Enough life insurance? Enough friends? What is enough? To spend your time chasing those shadows is to play right into the hands of those who miss the cross, who miss salvation itself.

Will you follow those who walk as enemies of the cross of Christ? Or will you find those who walk according to the Christian example? Paul’s answer is to have the right allegiance. He says “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await our Savior…”

Listen to these words from Julia Ward Howe, penned in 1861.

She was watching a public review of Union troops outside Washington and a minister friend suggested that she write a new fighting men’s song. Staying at the Willard Hotel, she awoke before dawn with the words spinning through her mind. While she wrote six verses originally, four have traditionally survived in the printed version. What she wrote is laced with biblical passages from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Revelation and others.  Some have said it should be renamed “The Bible Hymn of the Republic.” These words speak to a citizenship that transcends the bonds of earth and reaches within us to something more noble, more lasting. Listen to how the hymn ends and think about Paul’s message to the Philippians That message resonates as much today as it did in the first century.

In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea,

With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me;

As he died to make men holy, let us live to make men free,

While God is marching on.

Paul ends his appeal in the beginning of Chapter 4. He again calls upon his brothers. Gone is the trumpeting of the evangelist to his congregation. Gone is the ordering of the father to his children. What remains is the kind entreaty of a man who reaches out lovingly for his brothers. Paul has seen these people come to a belief in Christ and that makes them equal with him and brothers in Christ. He calls them his joy and crown.

To whom do you answer? To whom lies your allegiance? Where is your citizenship? The Apostle Paul’s words sing out to us as strongly as that Battle Hymn from yesterday’s war. Paul speaks to us today as strongly as if he were here.  He warns us to act with discernment, to beware of false teaching and faulty leaders, within and without the church. He reaches out to us to gather us back into the fold. He encourages, even pleads with us. “Stand firm in the Lord.” Keep your eyes on those who walk according to the right example.

Our power comes not from our armor. Our courage comes not from ourselves. Our salvation comes not from our works. It comes only from the saving grace of our Lord. Stand firm in the Lord, and only the Lord. Acknowledge, and cling to, your heavenly citizenship.

Food, Fame and Faith (Luke 4: 1-11) 2/24/13

Today’s Scripture is very familiar to us. It’s the story about Satan’s temptation of Jesus at the end of Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness. Satan comes to Jesus at what is very probably Jesus’ weakest moment and Jesus is subjected to three temptations. The first one appeals to basic sustenance. The next one appeals to selfishness and ambition. When they fail, Satan tries to use Jesus’ own belief system to trick him into disobedience. We all know the outcome. I thought it might be instructive to look at this old story with a different lens. What might it have looked like to The Great Deceiver? Along the way, there are a couple markers about covenants, the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace, and how far back they go. Let’s take a look at this old story through the eyes of the enemy.

He’s going to be a challenge. It’s that Spirit thing. He’s full of it, you know.  Very close to his old man. He talks with him a lot. He goes off by himself and prays. I guess they can communicate that way.

He had his little coming out party last month down by the Jordan River with his crazy cousin the Baptizer. They made a big to-do and he said he was fulfilling the Scripture. I was there. I saw it all. Disgusting. The Big Guy even showed up the way he does, you know. He won’t actually show himself. He just talks in clouds and burning bushes and that sort of thing. Real hocus pocus stuff. My army was all impressed and cowered back in corners. But I’ve seen it all.  The only reason he wins is that he doesn’t play fair. He gives them a little dose of that Spirit stuff and the next thing you know, it’s praise time.

I was there in the beginning. Well, almost the beginning. I slithered into the garden all dressed up as one of his pets. I had Adam and Eve eating out of my hand, if you know what I mean. He had already made his deal with them about being obedient in exchange for his protection and all. I busted that so quick. All I had to do was to tell them they could be their own gods, and they fell for it. So much for his Covenant of Works. So what does he do? He comes up with that Grace thing. Cuts a covenant with Abraham and everything.

Well, I didn’t just fall off the cabbage truck. I got Abraham to lie about his own wife. Got Jacob to steal Esau’s birthright. Got Sampson to chase the good life and break all the rules. Got David to chase after a married woman. Then he let them have kings. That was like shooting fish in a barrel. Even the great Solomon chased power through all his marriages. The Bible is full of all these losers. People are easy. I just appeal to their selfish instincts and before you know it, they’ve sold out.

I mean, yeah, there were a few who gave me a hard time. Joseph for one. And Moses and Joshua were just plain tough. Job was an idiot. He should have just checked out instead of putting up with all that. But hey, look at my batting average. I’ve gotten to the best and the brightest over and over again, whether they were paupers or kings.

And what did he do? Grace again. Every time they asked to be forgiven, what do you think he did? You got it. Sure, bud. I forgive you. It’s not fair. He puts out his commandments. I get people to break them, but then he gives them grace!  I mean really, is there a rulebook or not?

No matter. I adapt. In all of history, I just keep coming up with ways to get people to be selfish. That’s their nature. They want to please themselves. He says they are made in his image, but look at the evidence.  If you ask me, the image is pretty tarnished.

So I was going along pretty good. Maybe a little too good. The next thing I know, here comes Junior to save the whole thing. Apparently the creation thing was getting so far out of whack that he sends the fixer down here to set it all back straight. I thought it was a pretty big compliment to me, but he says it was his plan all along, that that’s what this Grace thing is for to begin with.

So he sends the boy. Gives him all these great names: Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Messiah. Well, anybody can have a label. I’ve got names too: Satan, Diabolos, Ruler of this Earth, Prince of the Air. We’ll see soon enough what he’s got.

So after his baptism, he went out to the desert. Forty days he’s been out there. No food. No nothing. A rock for a pillow. Hot in the daytime and cold as all get out at night.  My kind of environment. Just figure out what’s unbearable to someone and that’s what they get. Of course, cold and hot and hungry and thirsty work for just about anyone. I’ve been giving him little temptations all along the way. He looks bad. Wasted. I think he’s about ready for prime time. This should be easy.

I walked right up to him. I just went for it. He looked so hungry. I said, “Hey, if you’re really the Son of God, why don’t you just turn this rock into a loaf of bread. You can make a feast out of this place and enjoy yourself.” Then he quotes Deuteronomy to me, this mumbo jumbo about “man shall not live by bread alone.” I heard that one before. That’s one of those sayings Moses came up with. Okay, so he is so tired and so hungry he’s lost his appetite. But he and I know that there’s more than one kind of food. If he won’t go for the food for the belly, I’ve got more for him to think about.

So…I took his hand and in an instant we were up high, high enough to see all the kingdoms of the world. I have some magic of my own. I could tell he was impressed and taking it all in. I knew I was close. I said: “This is all mine. I control it. It can be yours. Every bit of it. All the nations, all the riches, all the power. All you have to do is worship me. Nothing else. Take a knee and it’s yours.”

Scripture again. Deuteronomy again! He looked at me and said that only the Lord should be worshipped. Only the Lord should be served. I have to confess, it threw me. I thought sure I had him with the power thing. If food didn’t work and fame wouldn’t turn him, then what would?

Then it hit me. This guy isn’t like the rest. He doesn’t have ambition like Solomon or lust like David or a little lack of courage like old Abraham. But what he does have is this overwhelming desire to be like God, to do his will, to convince others of his mission and sincerity. There’s always an angle. You just have to be patient and look for what buttons to push.

So once again I took his hand and the next instant we were in Jerusalem, standing on the pinnacle of the temple. I sensed this was his destiny. This was where it was going to come together, right here at the temple. He had something big planned, but I could stop him right here. I quoted Scripture to him. I figured he would like that. I told him to throw himself down, because God has already said that he would command his angels to protect you from harm. That was it. I knew he was going to show me that he was God’s son. He wouldn’t brag on himself, but he would show off God by letting God rescue him. Subtle, isn’t it. I get him to disobey God by making it look like it might just be God’s will. I will use his own faith to burn him.

Well, like I said, it’s going to be a challenge. He looked at me and for the third time, he quoted from the book of Deuteronomy. I’m getting really tired of hearing from that Old Testament wilderness experience. It’s like the failure of God’s people to listen then won’t be repeated by this Jesus. This time he said “You shall not put your Lord to the Test.”

I left. I’m not a very good loser, and he took three of my best shots and gave me nothing. I offered him food of every kind at his weakest point. He could have had food for his belly, food for his head, food for his heart and soul and he turned me down flat.

He’s good, this Son of God. He reminds me a lot of the Old Man. I will have to watch him carefully. There must be a way to get to him. In fact, I have to get to him. If he does what he says he came to do, my little game is up. Nobody can be this unselfish. Can they?

Yes. He could, and he did. Satan lost!

You know, Satan comes at us in every way. He knows us almost as well as God does. He certainly knows our weaknesses and he knows when to push our buttons. And if we don’t trust God in the same way that Jesus did, we will make the wrong decisions. That’s the downside. How easy it is to fall away unless we are kept safe by God’s grace.

But here in this story, Jesus shows us another way. He shows us what Paul called a more glorious way. Jesus came in love, lived to teach it and in love died to save us. In the process, he conquered not only death, but Satan as well.  

Think back on those three temptations. Don’t try to satisfy your hunger or quench your thirst with the things of the earth. Worship the Lord. Serve Him. Don’t put Him to the test. Leave it to Him to test you. That’s our path. That’s the way out of our personal wilderness. That’s the way to life!                             

Ashes and Oil (Esther 4: 1-3. Isaiah 58: 3-11) 2/13/13

 Today is Ash Wednesday. For much of Western Christianity, this is the day that marks the beginning of the season of Lent. Lent is a period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline. It is the period of forty days, excluding Sundays, before Easter. During this time, Christians prepare for Easter. We identify with the forty day period that Jesus spent in the wilderness after his baptism. We imitate in some small measure the thirst, hunger and temptation to which he was subjected. As we remember the  fasting and preparation of our Savior in the desert, we also mourn for him as we prepare with him during this season for his greater sacrifice on the cross just weeks away.

We impose ashes on our foreheads as an outward witness of our repentance. We remove ourselves from the privacy of our prayer closets in order to acknowledge not only the sacrifice of a risen Savior, but also our earnest desire to be forgiven for our participation in the sin that drove him to that cross. We remove the flowers and adornments from the sanctuary to help us remember what is coming.

In the book of Esther (3:12-4:3), a plot is hatched by Haaman, the King’s assistant, to kill the Jews. When Mordecai, Esther’s uncle, hears of the decree, he tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth and ashes and goes out in the middle of the city to cry out. As the word spread to the provinces, the Jews followed suit, dressing the same way and fasting and mourning. It is an old custom, this practice of looking sad and doing without in the midst of crisis.

Today, we mark our foreheads with ashes and oil to remember. It is no matter that we were not born when Jesus’ sacrifice was completed, for he came and died for all sin, and that means he died for you and me just as surely as he did for those who came before us.

The prophet Isaiah reminds us that true worship has little to do with ritual and everything to do with restoration. He encourages us to fast to call attention to injustice, to oppression, to hunger, to providing   shelter, clothing the naked, not turning away from the needs of our neighbor. Worship is more than ritual, fasting more than form. The appearance of humility inside this sanctuary impresses little if thrown aside like a cloak once we leave.

If our fasting is to be acceptable to our Lord, we must act our testimony and not just ritualize it. If our prayers are to be listened to by our heavenly Father, they must arrive on the wings of our witness. If our worship is separated from our daily life, it is not worship and we are not righteous. The glory of the Lord here and now is seen in the eyes and acts of his disciples. This is our act of righteousness. This is our true worship; that we act as God’s people. It is for this reason that we gather  in this season of Lent. Let the oil which bonds the ashes of repentance to our foreheads be a healing balm for us. Let the sign of the cross of Christ so become our true character that no cross will need be painted upon us for that witness to be seen. May we present ourselves anew as living sacrifices to our Savior. May we, in this season, remember, repent, and restore.

Transfigured (LuKe 9: 28-36) 2/10/13

Have you ever met someone famous? I’ve shaken hands with a couple governors and Congressmen and also Bob Hope. I’ve had my picture taken with Captain Kangaroo. Once I played a round of golf with a University President. Another time I met Willie Mays, the great baseball player for the New York Giants. One can’t help but be slightly awed in the presence of great success or fame. Maybe we quietly hope that their success will rub off on us.

The Gospel of Luke records a meeting of normal and famous people. We call it the Transfiguration. It is eight days after the miracle of the Feeding of the 5,000 outside Bethsaida. Matthew and Mark tell the same story and they say it’s six days. Let’s just call it about a week later. Jesus goes up on a high mountain. The mountain was thought by the ancients to be Mt. Tabor. We don’t know for sure. There were other mountains in the area where it could have taken place. Today, Mt. Tabor is home to the Franciscan Church of the Transfiguration and the sight of many Christian pilgrimages. From the top, one can see all the surrounding countryside. Whichever mountain it was, it wasn’t that far from Jerusalem and it was high, according to the accounts.

 Jesus takes the big three apostles: Peter, James and John, with him. What happens on that mountaintop is miraculous. It is also a different sort of miracle from all the others in the Gospels, for this miracle comes to Jesus instead of coming from him. According to Luke, Jesus and the disciples are praying. The other gospels don’t mention this. Luke tells us that as Jesus was praying, his face was altered and his clothing became dazzling white. We have seen something like this before. Remember the story of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 34? Moses comes down from the mountain after having talked with God and his face is shining. He has been in the presence of God and it shows. His face is so bright that the people are afraid to come near him.  Now, here on this mountaintop, these three men find themselves in the presence of God.

Moses and Elijah are visiting with Jesus. Can you imagine? They have been dead for hundreds of years, but here they are in the flesh, so to speak. They are talking about his departure and what he is to accomplish in Jerusalem. The Greek word which we translate as departure is exodus (ecodoj). The departure, or exodus, to which they are referring, is Jesus’ death in Jerusalem and his journey back to glory. Moses, who represents the Law, and Elijah, the greatest of the Prophets, are talking to Jesus about his last job on earth and his return home.

Peter, James and John are asleep, apparently in a deep sleep. Only Luke records the event this way. As they become awake, they see this event unfolding. They have trouble looking at Jesus and his friends, for they are clothed in the glory of God. It is too much to look upon. I’m visualizing them as they try to look. They must have to shield their eyes from the brightness. Their hands cover their faces. I imagine there might be a great heat accompanying the bright light emanating from the men.

What’s going on here? Jesus has just come from a great miracle where thousands have been fed with virtually nothing. He comes to the mountain to pray. Soon he will be in Jerusalem. Soon he will be arrested. Soon he will be crucified by the very people he came to save. So Jesus comes to the mountain to pray. He knows what lies ahead. He knows he must undergo a test that no man can withstand, but that is exactly what he is expected to do. So he comes to the mountain to pray, to get ready, to get re-enforced.

I’m thinking this is one of those moments of which the Son of Man has no foreknowledge. He comes to the mountain to pray. I’m sure he is used to getting plenty of feedback from God the Father, but not like this. Jesus prays, probably for awhile, because the disciples fall sound asleep. This is not the last time these three will fall asleep on the job. Remember their same failure in the Garden of Gethsemane? Jesus prays for strength to follow his Father’s will on the last night of his life and the disciples fall asleep.

But on this occasion, Jesus receives a visit. The All-Star team comes down from above and stops in on Jesus. They remind him of how far he has come. They remind him of the glory that awaits him upon his arrival back in heaven. They give him a pat on the back and some high fives. The scene is so powerful that Jesus takes on the outward appearance that manifests the glory that God has reserved for him. And the three disciples get a glimpse into what it looks like to be glorified.

Peter is you and me. He looks at the most glorious sight we can imagine and he tries to normalize it. The Law and the Prophets personified are leaving and Peter says no, wait, let me make some shelter and we can build a campfire and roast some marshmallows. Good old Peter. When in doubt, just blurt out something and hope. James and John are not heard. They are just watching, probably entranced by the scene that is unfolding. I’m reminded of another time when Peter acted without thinking. He stepped out of a boat and walked on water to come to his Savior while the others held back and watched. Peter is a man who makes mistakes. But Peter’s mistakes are the kind we should applaud, because his mistakes are made while trying to do something, as opposed to the mistakes we all make by doing nothing.

While Peter speaks, he and all the others are enveloped in a cloud. To be more accurate, they are surrounded by God’s presence. Within this cloud comes a voice. It is the voice of God. Stop here and try to capture this image in your mind. You have been in the presence of two great figures from history and your leader, all three of them in more light than you can bear to see, and then a cloud surrounds all of you…and it speaks. There is nothing normal about this scene. All of it takes on the aura of surreal, of superhuman. There is nothing to compare it to. It must have been overwhelming for these three men. This is what happens when human nature comes face to face with God.

Then from the cloud comes the voice of God in a divine endorsement almost identical with those words heard at Jesus’ baptism. Matthew’s gospel says “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Mark and Luke just call him the beloved son. Luke adds the phrase: “the Chosen One.” All three end with a command: “Listen to him.”

In the next instant, Moses and Elijah are gone and Jesus again stands alone. But not so alone now as he was before he started praying. His prayer has been answered. Jesus has not only direction; he has God’s approval. The Law and the Prophets back up his actions and propel him toward his destiny. God once again renders a divine endorsement of his Son and his Son’s actions. And the endorsement is punctuated with a three word command for not only those three disciples, but for us. “Listen to him.”

Listen to him. Look back to the call of Levi in the book of Deuteronomy (18:5), where Moses says to God’s people: “…the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the Lord…” Levi and his tribe were called by God to be the priestly tribe of Israel. Here, it is once again made plain to these three men to whom they owe not only their allegiance and obedience, but also to whom they should look for instruction.

Perhaps we can see now why Peter, James and John accompanied Jesus up the mountain that day. Although it was an answer to prayer for Jesus…a moment set aside to prepare him and give him encouragement for his last great sacrifice, it was also a window into heaven for those three mortal men. Coming down the mountain, they were told to keep the events they had seen to themselves. They did so until after Jesus’ death and resurrection. But they had seen. They remembered that day and the things they had seen. Although they had their missteps on the way to the cross, they finished strong, didn’t they: Writers of the New Testament, missionaries, pillars of the faith, martyrs.

We need to learn the lesson of the Transfiguration. It’s not just something marvelously mystical, full of clouds and angels. It’s much more than that. It is advice and counsel from our Father. Listen to him. What simple, direct, wonderful advice. It comes straight from God. Listen to him. He is our prophet. He is our leader. He is our teacher. Listen to him. He is…our Savior!       

Super Spoiled (Luke 4: 14-30) 2/3/13

         

It’s here again. For football fans, today is the day. It’s Super Bowl Sunday. This evening, about 180 million people will watch the last two teams standing battle it out for the chance to call themselves champions of the world of football. At least that’s true in the United States. Elsewhere in the world, football is played with a round ball and the players use their feet to move the ball down the field. Americans call it soccer and its championship game actually draws an even bigger television audience than our football. The Super Bowl is such a big deal in the United States that last year, a thirty second commercial cost 3.5 million dollars. That’s a lot of dough to try to get your message out.

Super Bowl Sunday. Out of all the things Sunday might be known for, the Super Bowl is not my favorite. Don’t get me wrong. I love football and chances are pretty good that tonight I will be in front of the tube soaking it all in. A lot of grown men have spent their lives getting to this moment. This is their day. When the hype is over and the final whistle blows, a new team will be crowned champion…until next year.

Luke tells us of another Sunday when Jesus came home for a visit. It was a Sabbath day in Nazareth, the home of Jesus’ youth. The Sabbath is on Saturday, the last day of the week. It is the Lord’s Day for the nation of Israel. Some time after Jesus’ death, Christians began meeting on Sunday, the first day of the week, because that’s the day of our Lord’s resurrection. Whether you observe the last day of the week as your Sabbath or worship on Sunday, the first day of the week, either way, you are observing the Lord’s Day.

So Jesus comes to Nazareth. In the Gospel of Luke, he has spent his time in the desert being tempted by the devil and then returns to the region of Galilee. Luke tells us that a report of Jesus went out throughout the surrounding countryside. He was teaching in the synagogues and being glorified by everyone. The parallel story does not occur in the gospel of Matthew until late in Chapter 13. By that time in Matthew, Jesus has performed many miracles and healings. By that time in Matthew, Jesus has had his own Super Bowl of sorts, having fed the 5,000 with two fish and five loaves of bread.

For Luke, this event in Nazareth comes early in Jesus’ ministry. But again, we must realize that Luke has a different audience and a different lens through which he sees the gospel story. Luke does tell us that Jesus had been busy all over the region. He just doesn’t give us the detail that Matthew does. The chronological occurrence of these events is not necessarily in conflict, and besides, the chronology is not as important as the story, and Luke’s story of Jesus’ ministry begins in Galilee, in much the same way that John narrates six stories about Jesus in his ministry beginning in Cana, also in Galilee.

While Matthew wrote primarily to a Jewish audience, our doctor and reporter Luke, the only Gentile gospel writer, writes his Gospel primarily to a Gentile audience. Here, we can see that he starts early. The message Luke beings us early and often is that Jesus came for God’s people. He came to save God’s chosen. Luke’s point is that God’s chosen were measured by a different yardstick than Jesus’ Jewish friends and neighbors in Nazarath…and in the nation of Israel…were looking for.  God’s people included the Gentiles. Gentile is the Jewish way of saying anyone not Jewish. So no one is excluded. Every nation is invited.

This is the crux of the passage in Luke 4. Jesus comes home and goes to church on Sunday (not literally, but figuratively). There, in the presence of many with whom he has grown up, he reads the scroll citing Isaiah 61. The good news is for the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed. This is their year. They have finally made it to the Super Bowl. Then, Jesus levels everyone with his next announcement. He essentially tells them that he is the one they have been waiting for. To use a football analogy, this is the number 1 draft choice, the franchise player. While the people in the synagogue are glad that their native son has done well, he is, after all, their native son. This is Joseph’s son. Long forgotten is the message of the angels singing in the fields outside Bethlehem. This is the carpenter’s son.

Jesus anticipates their skepticism. He talks about what they want to see. Since he has done miracles and healing all over the countryside, why not prove himself and do them here? Since he has prescribed the proper remedy for so many others, let him now do so for himself. If he wants to be believed, let him give an offer of proof.

Jesus rejects such a suggestion. Perhaps it is precisely because of the people’s need for additional proof that Jesus will not accommodate them.  The concept is not lost on courts of law. To this day, advocates are prompted by judges to render an “offer of proof” prior to being allowed to introduce controversial evidence in the presence of a jury. Such a requirement moves into a physical, rather than a spiritual, realm. Jesus is not a performer. The words of Isaiah are still ringing in his ears: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” says Isaiah, and so quotes Jesus. Jesus’ offer of proof is himself, though he does not expect it to be enough for this crowd.

On one level, we see that Jesus has no expectations of those with whom he has so much familiarity from his youth. “No prophet is accepted in his own country.” “No prophet is acceptable in his hometown.” But on another level, Jesus speaks to the Jews about who God’s people really are. He quotes two Old Testament stories about the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Elijah is sent not to deal with the people of Israel during a three year famine, but rather to a widow in the country of Sidon, where his archenemy Jezebel was born. Elisha cleanses none of the lepers of Israel, but rather Naaman, a Syrian…a Gentile.

Jesus is telling the people of his hometown…and the people of Israel…that his story is bigger than miracles, broader than Nazarath. His message is not of deliverance from the tyranny of a ruling nation, but salvation of the nations themselves. Jesus message is, to use another modern day ad cliché, supersized. Jesus has come for all God’s people. He is bigger than the promised Messiah of the prophets. He is the Son of God and he has come for all those who would believe, whether they are Jew or Gentile, saint or sinner, rich or poor, man or woman.

The people in that synagogue in Nazareth became violent when they realized they were not at the front of the line. Some twenty years later, the apostle Paul was treated no better in Jerusalem when he announced his intention to minister to the Gentiles. In both cases, the listeners turned into an angry mob. Like the people of Israel in the time of the prophets, they turned their backs and refused Jesus. Like the prophets of the Old Testament, Jesus took his message to those who would believe. It was never about the people of Israel to begin with. They were God’s chosen tool to reveal himself to the world. It was always about God and his revelation of himself to his creation. That creation did not stop with the nation of Israel.

Today, we welcome two more members into our membership. One comes from right down the road. Another made her way here from a Roman Catholic Church in Massachusetts. Our Savior could care less where they come from. He is concerned with where they are.

Where are you today? Who are you looking for when you come here to worship? Do you come to worship or to be entertained? It’s not about you, you know. It’s not about me, either. It never has been. It’s all about God. In the words of the Psalmist, we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. We are his creation.

Don’t be Super Spoiled like the people of Nazareth. Take a lesson from this chapter on selfishness and self-centeredness in first century Israel. God can stand right in your presence and you can be so busy looking for what you want to see that you can’t see your salvation standing right in front of your very eyes. In the Super Bowl of life, we who believe in the Good News become champions not for a year, but for eternity. In the Super Bowl of life, Jesus is the prize, and he makes it possible for every one of us to obtain it.

Will you reach for the prize? Will you become super-sized?         Or will you remain super-spoiled? The choice is yours.