Marks of the True Christian

Romans 12: 9-21, page 162
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.
Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Sermon
You can get in a lot of trouble if you act without thinking.
You might enter into senseless business deals because of emotional pressure. You might go along with the crowd because in the moment it feels like the best thing to do. You might do something that you know you’ll regret, but you do it anyway because you just want to give in to impulse – in to momentary pleasure without thought for lasting wellbeing.
It’s dangerous – to act without thinking. Your parents told you so. But it’s also dangerous to think without acting.
It’s possible to think and think and think – to think through all the possible problems, to become aware of all the potential drawbacks, to become so fearful of risk that you become immobilized. And this is dangerous too – because without action life will pass you by.
Thinking through all the possibilities – not wanting to commit to early – all the while doors are closing.
So afraid of making a miss-step that no step is ever taken.
Assuming that there is plenty of time while the clock keeps on ticking.
Its dangerous stuff – thinking is. I can think of all kinds of reasons why now is not the best time to potty train our two year old daughter Lily – for one thing she doesn’t want to stop using diapers, but for another thing now is just not the right time. She has a new baby sister to adjust to. We’ll soon be moving into a new house, I hope anyway, and I wouldn’t want her to get used to using one set of toilets then ask her to get used to some that are completely new.
More than that, I know what to do with diapers, so I don’t have any problem telling myself “now is just not the right time.”
But if not now, when?
This is really a good question to ask when you say to yourself, now is not the right time to visit grandma, assuming that she’ll be there forever. Now just isn’t the best time to talk to your children about drugs or cigarettes or whatever else, as though you could protect them just a little while longer. Now is just not the right time to quit smoking – there’s too much stress at work – now is just not the right time – all the while assuming that we are guaranteed more than right now, when really the question is – if not now, when?
Moses surely wouldn’t have denied the fact that his people needed to be liberated from Pharaoh’s oppression – but was he just going to walk away from his flock?
Now’s not the right time – and besides – Pharaoh wants me dead for murder, my mother set me down the river in a basket – there’s nothing for me back in Egypt and here I have a family, a life – maybe later, but now’s just not the right time.
But if not now, when?
Moses had plenty of reasons to put it off – just as you do.
He had a life to attend to. Babies to feed. Times were tough.
But if not now, when? And if not you, then who?
Let love be genuine, Paul says – and maybe this one is easy enough to go along with, but in reality we push this one to the backburner as much as any other – focusing on whatever emergency we face, putting out whatever fire is burning bright while the fire of relationships needs tending. It’s easy to assume that it won’t ever go out, but for how long can you really ask those who love you to wait before the fires start to cool?
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them he says – and I suppose that we always intend to burry hatchets, put an end to harsh words, put aside old resentments – but intentions are only kind thoughts that don’t do anyone any good until they turn into action.
We postpone hard conversations – we postpone forgiveness – we postpone living as we know we should not realizing that time is short and getting shorter.
The bush is burning – as we assume it will burn on forever.
The people are suffering under Pharaoh’s oppression – as we assume that they can just go on suffering a little while longer – but why not put an end to it today?
Moses did have a life as a shepherd – but God had prepared him for a life as a shepherd of his people leading them into the promised land – and you may have a life now – but God has prepared for you a life free from the torment of grudges held tight for too long, forgiveness withheld, and the constant drive for vengeance – and why would you postpone such a life any longer? If not now, when?
Our second scripture lesson for today is from Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, and the minister I knew as a child used this passage for his benediction Sunday after Sunday.
At the close of every worship service he would stand before us calling us to leave church going forth as true Christians – letting love be genuine, hating what is evil, holding fast to what is good.
Sunday after Sunday he called us to live life defined by the marks of the true Christian – but it was so easy, and it still is so easy, to believe that now is not the time and that living as we should can wait.
After all – today we live in a world where knowing what to love and what to hate is not nearly so easy as it should be – blessing those who persecute you seems a dangerous proposition indeed, and surely today is not the time for loving enemies – should we go loving our enemies leaving room for the wrath of God we may not live to see tomorrow.
But if we don’t live by these standards today – when will we?
The world is not getting any better – and if there aren’t people out in the world determined to choose another path it never will.
Now is the time. Today is the day.
Let love be genuine – now and forever.
Amen.

We Have Gifts

Romans 12: 1-8, page 157
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.
For the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
Sermon
You’ve all heard about the dangers of low self-esteem. How some, or maybe all of us at certain times, look in the mirror and don’t like what we see, don’t see beauty, intelligence, or creativity, but a person who could stand to look better, work harder, and give more.
What you don’t hear as much about is the flip side of that same coin – high self-esteem. I’m not sure that’s even a real term, but I heard about it once on TV and it’s stuck with me, as there are always people around who seem to suffer from thinking too highly of themselves.
Paul writes, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment,” and he follows this statement with his rational, “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function.”
In our world however, some functions seem to matter more than others. A search of the word “celebrity” on Google will come up with 382 million results, but you won’t have much luck trying to find information about their mothers, without whom they would not exist; their housekeepers, without whom they would not survive; or their agents, without whom they would know what to say or where to go.
There are some people in our world who seem to matter more than others, whose names you know and can remember, but Paul calls us to recognize that humanity is like a body – there are many members with different functions – and while the world might celebrate some functions more than others you must not be tricked into believing that some functions matter more than others.
Take the first two chapters of Exodus for example. Certainly you know who this story is about, the heading of chapter two tells you everything you need to know, it’s the story of the “birth and youth of Moses.” But notice that Moses wasn’t mentioned in our reading for today – he’s not given a name until verse 10. This story isn’t really his story yet – the first two chapters of Exodus is the story of strong women whose names have mostly been forgotten because our world values some functions more than others.
The heroes of this story are Shiphrah and Puah. The king of Egypt said to them, “when you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.”
Maybe even Pharaoh himself valued some functions more than others, believing that only a man would rebel against him toppling him from his seat of power, but here he underestimated two midwives who saved the lives of innumerable boys, saying to Pharaoh, “the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”
These two are named in chapter one of Exodus, because these two women, Shiphrah and Puah, matter. Without their faith in God, Moses would have been killed at birth.
More than that, by these women we know that Moses was not the first to defy Pharaoh’s orders. He was not the first to stand before the most powerful man in the land without cowering. These two women went before him, defying Pharaoh’s power, refusing to follow his orders, finding a means to execute justice in a time of terror and fear.
But their names could have been forgotten. Moses is the name that we remember today. He is the one who seems the most important, as it is his function as liberator of the Israelites, bringer of the 10 Commandments, and as the guide into the Promised Land that has been valued by generations of the faithful over these two who function as his crafty and brave midwives.
It falls to us then, to remember the names Shiphrah and Puah, because without them there would have been no Moses.
On the other hand, to most people their names will be forgotten. Like mothers or housekeepers or agents of celebrities, it’s not their function as nurturers or promoters that society values, it is the one they nurtured or promoted whose name goes up in lights.
The same is true for so many in our world who live their lives disconnected from reality and ungrateful to those who held them up. Rev. Bill Williamson, longtime pastor of this church was known for saying, “There are some people who we were born on third, but think that they’re there because they hit a triple.” So it goes for the well born who go their whole lives believing that they deserve their privilege, the entitled who believe it is their right to receive gifts and handouts. For some life is easy, blessings overflow. And should they ever ask why, we should pity those who reach the conclusion that they deserve what they have been given.
Paul urges you, “not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think,” as those who fall into positions of power, prestige, and privilege without recognizing how they got there miss out on the opportunity to be thankful.
Tina Fey is not a notoriously religious woman. She’s a comedian notorious for her Sarah Palin impersonation and her role as lead actress and writer of the Thursday evening show 30 Rock. But in her recent book she included a prayer titled, “the Mother’s Prayer for Its Daughter.”
The prayer begins, “First, Lord: No tattoos,” and it ends with this: “And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 AM, all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back. “My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans [who knows what] off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know. Because I peeped it with Your God eyes. Amen.”
For Moses there were two incredible brave women, without them he never would have breathed his first breath. Then for him there was a mother who hid him as long as she could before she placed him in a basket and prayed; and then there was his sister who watched the basket float downstream into the hands of Pharaoh’s daughter. His sister was brave enough to suggest that a Hebrew woman be called to nurse him and Moses grew up nurtured in Pharaoh’s house by Pharaoh’s own daughter and his own mother.
Without these women there would be no Moses – so who can say that one gift is better than another.
For you there are others – some whose names you remember while the memory of others has faded. There are generations of faithful, those who witnessed firsthand the mighty acts of God all the way to the forefathers and foremothers of this church who gave us a place to hear the Good News and be saved. We are the recipients of their legacy. Give thanks for them all, because without them there is no you – so who can say that one gift is better than another.
The foolish may go their whole lives thinking that nothing important happened before they showed up on the scene – but those of you who know the truth will remember and be thankful for all those who came before. Those of you who know the truth will face the trials and tribulations of today knowing that generations have passed through hardship before and lived to tell the tale. Those of you who know the truth will enter into the unfolding drama that is the great story of humanity, serving this church as many have served before, giving of your gifts just as so many before you have given.
Rejoice and be thankful – not thinking too highly of yourself, but giving thanks to all those who made you who you are.
Amen.

Things That Defile

Matthew 15: 10-28, page 17
Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”
Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.”
But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” Then he said, ‘Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”
Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.”
But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.”
He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”
He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
Sermon
This past week I was in Charleston, South Carolina. My grandmother has been in the hospital there for the past few weeks struggling to fight a rare strain of pneumonia, and my grandfather, wanting to be at her bedside each day, needed me to drive him back and forth from the hospital.
One night I fried him chicken wings, and I was reminded of how differently he eats. He grew up in a swamp, more or less, not that that explains it, but I suppose he grew up not wasting anything. When it came to chicken wings I ate the little drum stick part and the flat part with the two bones. He thought this was wasteful, because he on the other hand, in addition to eating both those parts also scrapes the skin of the pointy piece that makes up the tip of the wing that I didn’t even know was edible.
He’s always been like that. His favorite part of the catfish is the tail fin, and at Thanksgiving or Christmas I remember being called into the kitchen as a 7- or 8-year-old where he’d cut off a piece of fat from the roast: “Here you go boy; don’t tell your mother I gave you this.”
The things that go into his mouth aren’t want I would call clean, nor would I call it healthy, but what comes out of his mouth is often something different – “I can’t tell you how proud we are of you Joe,” he has so often said to me.
Then he said to the disciples, ‘Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart…’
What people eat, what goes in their mouths, is largely informed by culture. Here in Columbia, at least until the close of Sam Hills, there were rooster fries. Bushmen in Africa like nothing better than porcupine skin, and my grandfather grew up eating squirrel. But more than that, culture informs not only what we eat, but who we eat with, who we accept and who we don’t, who are worth associating with and who aren’t. So Christ makes this statement about food, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles,” and follows this statement with its application.
Jesus grew up in a time with its own cultural norms, and by those norms he was told what was good to eat and what wasn’t, but more than that, he was told who he should eat with, who should be accepted, and who was worth associating with. When a woman from a certain region came to him shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon,” Jesus didn’t just think on his own, his response was informed by the cultural norms of his own day – “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
That’s not what we expected Jesus to say, but Jesus wasn’t born into a cultural vacuum. The Canaanite people for generations had been defined by where they lived, how they lived, and what they ate. These people were not just considered to be less than the Israelites, they were so low as to be considered dogs. And Jesus, just as he was taught what was good to eat by his environment, he was also taught who was good. Born into a certain family, he knew who was better and who was worse – who got the pork loin and who got the chittlins. He took in these lessons from culture, but it’s not what lessons you take in that matters, it’s not what you take in, what you eat, or where you grew up, it’s what actions that come out that define who you are.
A lot has changed at airports in the last 10 years, but the only change that I don’t find frustrating is the new Dyson Air Blade you can use to dry your hands in the Nashville Airport bathroom. There’s a lot more to be aggravated by – check-points, lines, always being ready with your boarding pass and drivers license, having to take off your shoes and not being allowed to take normal size shampoo. There’s a lot to get aggravated by, but it’s not the environment that you find yourself in at the airport that defines you – it’s how you react to the environment at the airport.
It amazes me how some supremely kind people will still help others to get baggage on and off the conveyor belts or how veteran flyers will explain to those who don’t know what can go on their carry-on and what can’t. How many people will return valuable objects left behind in airport restaurants, say please, thank you, and excuse me, even if they’re obviously running to catch their flight.
Their response to this new cultural norm of airport security says something about who they are, just as Jesus’ response to cultural norms of discrimination says everything about who he is.
In saying, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” we hear the echo of cultural norms of prejudice and racism, the hold that culture has taken on even the Son of God – but when she says to him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table,” he is invited to speak, not as his culture has taught him to speak, but to speak from his heart. Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
You are all the product of culture. What goes in are standards of not only what you eat, but who you eat with, who you accept and who you don’t, who are worth associating with and who aren’t. However, “it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”
It is not the cultural norms you were born into that define who you are, but whether you live your life never questioning those norms, especially those that discriminate against groups and individuals.
It is not the norms of the household that you grew up in that define who you will be, but it is the choices that you make – to be like them or to be different – that make you who you are.
It is not the words that you heard growing up to describe groups of people, it is not the separation that culture deemed appropriate, it is not the generalizations that you grew up believing were true that determines the future – it is what you do – what you say – that will change the world.
Amen.

On Your Lips and On Your Heart

Romans 10: 5-15, page 160
Moses write concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them.”
But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say?
“The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart”
(That is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Sermon
There’s a difference between actually being there and assuming you know what is going on without being there.
Before I started seminary I worked for a lawn maintenance company and I would sometimes be working in someone’s lawn, cutting their grass, trimming their hedges, spraying their weeds, and I knew I was being watched as though I weren’t completely trusted with their boxwoods. At the time I was offended, feeling as though I deserved their trust, but there is a lot of wisdom in actually being there rather than assuming you know what is going on.
Assuming that everything is fine, that you’ve given good instructions and that they’ll be carried out isn’t always a good idea.
Bob Duncan, our county historian and long time member of this church told me a story the other day about a man who paid the price for not being there, assuming that everything was fine.
This man’s church, a beautiful old church south of Bigbyville in the Hopewell Community, needed a fresh coat of paint, and the man decided he was just the one to do something about it. There weren’t any other negotiators as shrewd as him, and with painters always out to make an extra buck off the kindness of church folk, this man began interviewing painters.
One rose above the rest – or you might say he bid below the rest – and the man patted himself on the back for such shrewd negotiating and told the painter, “I want you to paint everything below the roof white.”
“Everything?” the painter asked.
“Everything,” the man said, and he assumed his work was done, having given clear directions to the painter, and assured the painter that he was not the kind to be pushed around.
Soon he would be the hero of the congregation the man assumed, without returning to the church to make sure everything was going on as it should.
On Sunday the man came to church. The painter was gone having finished his work, done just what the man had asked, but not what the man assumed the painter would do. The congregation was standing outside the church admiring the new coat of paint - the siding was painted white, the doors were white, and so were the door knobs and even the windows. Everything below the roof had been painted white and that day church was held in a dark room, not as much worshiping as hand wringing and arm crossing.
There is a difference between actually being there and assuming you know what is going on without being there.
Adam Southern, columnist for the Daily Herald, wrote a story with a similar moral in the paper last week. He decided to take a trip to Atlanta, but rather than ask friends who had actually been there for recommendations about where to go and where to stay he made hotel reservations on-line. The hotel described itself as, “close to attractions and Downtown Atlanta.” Being from Atlanta I want you to know that’s not necessarily good, but that sounded good to Adam, as reading about a place is one thing and actually being there is another.
He pulled into the hotel parking lot at the same time as an ambulance. Not that an ambulance is bad, but the theme of the hotel is what concerned him – there are some hotels that seem inspired by bed and breakfasts, others that posses the flavor of the beach with shaded windows and palm trees – this hotel seemed to possess a prison theme, only lacking razor wire and a gunned parapet.
“Well, looks aren’t everything,” he told himself as he walked across the parking lot, only to be greeted by a man running and screaming to explain the presence of the ambulance, “That was a drive-by they just had!”
He went on into the office; “May I help you?” asked the desk clerk. Immediately Adam replied, “Yes! I would like to cancel my reservations please.”
There’s a difference between actually being there and assuming you know what is going on without being there. Sometimes you just have to be there – you can’t assume you know what’s going on, you can’t read about it on the internet. You just have to be there – and the same is true for people – the power of presence is always significant, there being a big difference between being present and not.
The Apostle Paul in this lesson from Romans writes, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard?”
Paul seems to believe that you know the answer to this question – how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed – that wouldn’t make any sense, now would it? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard – well, you can’t expect them to do that either. What, then, are you to do? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
He can’t be talking about your feet, you might say. He may as well be asking you to walk on water. But we know he asked Peter to do that too, and so we can’t be surprised that he asks you to get on your feet, regardless of how uncomfortable that makes you feel. How else are they going to call on the Lord? How are they going to believe without you?
It’s a clear enough message, I think, but still it’s a great challenge for Presbyterians. There’s an old joke: what do you get if you cross a Presbyterian with a Jehovah’s Witness? Someone who knocks on your door but doesn’t know what to say.
Let me say this then - there’s a difference between actually being there and assuming you know what is going on without being there.
There is a difference between setting foot in the hospital room to sit by a dying friend not knowing what to say, and assuming there’s no point in going.
There is a difference between getting to know a teacher by seeing her in action, and assuming that education in this country is failing and teachers are the problem.
There is a difference between setting foot in East Columbia and seeing our neighbors face to face, and assuming that there’s nothing we can do to fight crime and poverty in our community.
There’s a difference between actually being there and assuming you know what is going on without being there – “How beautiful are the feet then,” Paul writes, “How beautiful are the feet” of those who don’t put their faith in assumptions.
Those who do so honor our God, Paul says, for there is no need to bring Christ down from heaven or to descend into the abyss that you might bring Christ up – there is no need to go looking for Christ for God has made the word near you, on your lips and in your heart.
Ours is a God who has drawn near, walked the lonesome valley with you, not looking down from heaven in times of your distress, but coming as near to you to know all your joy and all your pain, taking human form to know you rather than make assumptions about the human condition.
Go and do likewise then. Go to them.
Do not assume that they’ll figure it out on their own – if you do we may as well paint the windows and keep the good news in here and all to ourselves.
Go to them and do not assume that you already know who they are. Do not assume that they already know what you have to bring, and do not worry about what you will say – it’s not the mouth, nor the words, but the feet. For beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news.
Amen.

My Kindred According to the Flesh

Romans 9: 1-5, page 159
I am speaking the truth in Christ – I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit – I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh.
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
Sermon
Last Sunday afternoon, James Fleming, the chair of the pastor nominating committee who interviewed and called me to this church, challenged me with an email titled: “Can you top this?”
The email was a video of a protestant minister praying before a huge crowd at a NASCAR race:
“Heavenly Father, we thank you tonight for all your blessings. You say in all things give thanks. So we want to thank you for all these mighty machines that you have brought before us. Thank you for the Dodges, and the Toyotas, thank you for the Fords, and thank you most of all for Rouch and Yates partnering to give us the power that we see before us tonight. Thank you for GM performance technology and R07 engines, thank you for Sunoco racing fuel, and Goodyear tires that give performance and power to the track. Lord, I want to thank you for my smoking hot wife tonight Lisa, my two children, Eli and Emma, or as we like to call them, the little “e’s”. Lord I pray you’ll bless the drivers and use them tonight. May they put on a performance worthy of this track. In Jesus name, boogedy, boogedy, boogedy, Amen.”
The titled of Mr. Fleming’s email was, “can you top this?” but I’m pretty sure that if he really thought I could pray a prayer to match that one he never would have been interested in interviewing me to serve this church.
There’s a degree of polish that comes with being a Presbyterian. There’s a certain air, and maybe you, like me, consider yourself to be different from the kind of pastor who would pray a prayer like this one and the kind of crowd who would appreciate it.
I would like to believe that there are miles of difference between the two of us, but when you get right down to it we have a lot more in common than I’d like to admit. We’re both pastors, we’re both protestant pastors for that matter. I assume we share many of the same hopes and aspirations – to live as Christ would have us, to pray for those who face danger, to see and know fully all the blessings that we have to be thankful for. This pastor, Joe Nelms and I, not only share the same vocation and many other similar qualities; we have the same first name.
I’m stuck with him, just as he’s stuck with me, as in a lot of ways our Spiritual Family isn’t any different from the families we were born into. They’re not like your friends, in that you don’t get to pick them. You and I are stuck with Pastor Joe Nelms, though we’re tempted to see ourselves as different, and maybe even better.
The Apostle Paul must have been faced with the same temptation, to believe that he was more enlightened, to believe that he knew more or was closer to God than those Israelites who stayed with the old traditions and failed to see Christ as the Messiah. He must have been tempted to believe that there were miles of difference between where he came from and where he ended up, going from a life in Judaism to a life in Christ. But in our scripture lesson we see a man who doesn’t distance himself from the Israelites, but honors them despite their differences:
“They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah.”
Rooted then in the faith of his forefathers and foremothers Paul celebrates not only his new life in Christ, but his heritage in the people who gave Christianity a savior.
While Paul sees it this way I doubt his family did. They must have seen him as their great disappointment. There’s no evidence that anyone in his family followed his example, and maybe you can imagine how dinner conversation went when Uncle Paul journeyed back to Jerusalem to visit his brothers and sisters. His grandmother had been explaining his quirks to all her friends – yes, he was such a student of the Torah, yes, he adhered to the letter of the Law, yes, he did go on to persecute Christens…but right now he’s going through some kind of phase you see – but I’m confident his parents are going to be able to talk him back to reality – you know how young people are.
I’m sure that his parents were worried, and that they saw miles of difference between where he was and where they thought he should be. But while it would be understandable for Paul to go and do the same, call attention to the gap of difference between them, Paul calls their attention to what they hold in common and longs for a way to bridge the gap – “For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh.”
This way of thinking doesn’t last very long as relations between Christians and Jews deteriorate rapidly – first Christians are kicked out of the synagogues, then ostracized by their families, and soon Christians begin returning the favor, and by the middle ages you have Crusaders who find it appropriate to destroy Jewish settlements in Europe on their way to fight Holy War in the Middle East.
What develops is the kind of mindset that becomes the foundation of the Holocaust – but it didn’t have to be this way.
The Apostle Paul doesn’t call for animosity between Christians and Jews – here he so clearly calls Christians to acknowledge the truth that the foundation of all their belief is with the Israelites, and rather than strike out at them we should longingly look forward to the day when they recognize the coming of their Messiah in Christ.
We’re not so different at all, he seems to be saying, but sometimes our tendency is to call attention to the differences.
Last Friday the Daily Herald quoted late night television host David Letterman: “The NFL lockout is over. All the parties agreed and we have a compromise. It’s too bad the national debt isn’t as important as football.”
It is too bad, but these days the difference between a Democrat and a Republican seems insurmountable – Speaker of the House John Boehner not wanting to have much to do with President Obama, and I’m sure the feeling is mutual.
It seems today as though there are miles of difference between the two camps, and the more this difference is aggravated the more you and I will suffer.
That’s how it seems to be anyway – that this country stands to gain from a government working together rather than perusing two difference goals, that we have more in common than we have different, and we should be praying for each other rather than fueling division with our rhetoric.
“I am speaking the truth in Christ – I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit – I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh.”
Paul does not represent the current attitude among politicians in Washington, but may he represent yours.
See commonality when all around you there is focus on division.
Feel the pain of schism, with great sorrow and anguish in your heart.
And while some focus on what they have to gain from attacking opponents and catering to likeminded factions, remember that Paul would cut himself off from Christ for the sake of his people.
Exhibit that same love for those who seem different and you’ll honor the one who makes us all sons and daughters, brothers and sisters.
Amen.