Divine Things and Human Things

Scripture Lessons: Genesis 17: 1-7 and 15-16, Mark 8: 31-38 Sermon Title: Divine Things and Human Things Preached on February 25, 2018 I watched the Emoji Movie this last week. If you're a parent than you might be thinking, "what he means is that his kids watched the Emoji Movie while he looked at his phone or read a book or something," but that's not what I mean. What I mean is that I watched the Emoji Movie. One top critic reviewed this movie and wrote: "The film is boldly bad, yes, but also boldly boring." Another wrote: "Disregard that PG rating and keep your children far away from director Tony Leondis' vile animated faux-comedy." These are harsh words, and some would heed such warnings, but not me. No, after watching the first half of the movie with our daughters I had to tear myself away to get dressed and get to the church last Tuesday morning, so I watched the second half by myself Wednesday because I had a vested interested in finding out how the movie would end. Why? Why would I can so much about about a frowny face, that doesn't just want to frown. He also wants to laugh and cry. Because for some reason I could relate to him. I also started to care about the other main character. This princess emoji who ran away because she wanted to be an outlaw computer hacker emoji. Now, granted, none of this describes what anyone would call a good movie, but I have a feeling that every person in this room, whether she knows what an emoji is or not, has felt the pressure to be, not who she was created to be, but who everyone told her she was supposed to be. I'm working on that too. All the critics told me I would hate this movie, but I kind-of loved it, and that's what I want to preach about this morning. We live in a country where everyone is telling us what to think. And not just about movies. Even Russia is trying to tell us what to think, how to vote, and what to feel about our neighbors and our political candidates, and if we can't learn to think for ourselves, then there goes our democracy, our freedom, and our faith. There is a very real struggle at work in our world today. There is a very real struggle, as forces fight for control of our human hearts determining whether will we be ourselves, or will we lose ourselves to the pressures of conformity? To spoil the Emoji Movie, I'll tell you that despite the social pressure the frowny face gained the courage to cry and laugh out in public, and the princess got to be an outlaw because not every girl wants to be a princess, and in the end, the world changed, and everything turned out perfect. I suppose that's the happy ending we are all after, but getting there is a struggle. You heard what happened with Jesus. Last Sunday Rev. Joe Brice preached a beautiful sermon concerning Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. But the temptation didn't end there. After 40 Days in the desert with the devil tempting him to take power and seize control, to be someone other than who he knew in his heart he was meant to be, Jesus emerged from the desert only to be tempted by his friend. We read from the Gospel of Mark: Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Why? Because Peter didn't want Jesus to be that kind of messiah. Peter didn't want Jesus to upset all those people. Peter wanted a nice, quiet Messiah, who would be everyone's hero and who would one day retire with him to the beach and together Peter and Jesus could look back on all their years of ministry and Peter would say to his friend in the beach chair next to him, "Jesus, it's been a wonderful life, hasn't it?" Maybe there was a part of Jesus that wanted this kind of life too, so he must rebuke Peter just as he rebuked the devil back in the wilderness: "Get behind me, Satan! [he said to his friend] for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." Isn't it easy, to set your mind on human things? The Great Rev. Billy Graham died this week. One of his most famous quotes is: "My home is in heaven. I'm just passing through this world." But it's easy to get stuck in this world. Isn't it easy, to set your mind on human things? A Puritan prayer book that I love says it this way: "O Savior of Sinners, raise me above the smiles and frowns of the world, regarding it as a light thing to be judged by humans." Do you know anyone who needs to pray that prayer? I know I need it. Maybe you do too. And Poor Marco Rubio definitely needs a prayer like that one. Did you see him? I was hurting for Senator Rubio this week. It seems like he gets enough abuse with the President calling him "Little Marco," but it got worse. On Wednesday a student from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida asked him if he'd stop accepting money from the NRA, and poor Senator Rubio. You don't need to have seen the video to imagine the face he was making, because he was making that face that we all make when we feel so trapped that we can't win for losing. We ask ourselves: "How will I even open my mouth, when I'm faced with mollifying one group of people but disappointing another?" How can I speak, when someone out there is about to walk out of this place and hate me forever based on how I answer? You know this struggle. It's a fool's errand but I've been that fool again and again and again, and I bet you have too. You lean one way and you're someone's hero but someone else's enemy - and it sure does feel like you're dying a slow death if you are unable to rise above the smiles and frowns of the world. If it's impossible for you to regard it as a light thing to be judged by humans, because your mind is set on human things. Jesus said to Peter: "you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things," and if that's the way we choose to live, then it's going to be nothing but torture from here on out. It was that way for me in my first year of ministry. I began my ministry at Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church out in Lilburn, GA, and I was going to be everything to everybody even if it killed me. Someone asked me if I liked to listen to the Fish - that Christian radio station, and so I started to listen to it. A group wanted to start a Bible study, and so I helped them get it going, then another group wanted one, then another, and before long I was leading a Bible study every day of the week, listening to the Fish in the car. There was no place of solace. Basically, the hardest thing about my first year of ministry was that I was trying to be, not the pastor who I was, but the pastor who I thought they wanted me to be. Then one morning I woke up with a rash on my stomach. It started out red and itchy, and it wouldn't go away. Sara finally sent me to the doctor. He told me that is was hives, and that he could give me some medicine for it, but really it was just from stress and what I needed to do was find a way to relax. "You're a preacher, right?" my doctor asked. I told him that I was, and so he said again, "What you need to do is find a way to relax. Have you ever heard of prayer?" What is prayer, but the constant reminder that our identity comes not from humans but from God. That our primary relationship must be between us and our creator. To quote that great prayer for illumination: "Lord, among all the changing words of this generation, speak to us your eternal Word which does not change," because it is God's voice that must define us, not the whispers of the gossips or the pressure of the lobbyist. "Who do they say that I am?" Jesus asked his disciples. And the difference between him asking this question and us asking the same of ourselves is that he didn't really care who anybody said he was. Because he already knew. But what about Senator Rubio? If you're actions are tied to public opinion or interest group donations, can you really be free? And what about the accused shooter, Nikolas Cruz? If you have to murder the people who hurt your feelings, if you aren't man enough to voice your anger, then you are letting other people and your out of control emotions define who you are. We all have to slow down and think. Or better yet - we all have to slow down and listen - because in our baptism the Lord already told us who we are: "You are mine, my beloved, and with you I am well pleased." The difference between all of us and Jesus is that he never forgot it. He was always bold to believe it. And he never depended on humans to tell him who he was or how he should live. Let our prayer be: "O Savior of Sinners, raise me above the smiles and frowns of the world, regarding it as a light thing to be judged by humans." And may our song be like the hymn we sang at the 8:30 service: But if, forgetful, we should find your yoke is hard to bear; If worldly pressures fray the mind and love itself cannot unwind Its tangled skein of care; our inward life repair. For how will we make it to the Kingdom of Heaven, if we long for the approval of this broken world? We must set our minds, not on human things. But on divine things. Amen.