Sermons « God Must Laugh

May 23 2011

Sermons

It’s the End of the World! Or not…

I have good news and bad news. The good news is the rapture was supposed to happen yesterday, and we’re all still here!

The bad news is… we’re all still here.

All the people that ditched church today get a free pass, because you never know. At least not until we see them in church again, and then let the guilt trips begin!

I’m kidding. Why wait until next week? Call them up after church. “Just checking to see if you’d been raptured, since we didn’t see you in church this morning.”

That’s only funny because some little church lady somewhere is having that exact conversation right now.

E. Stanley Jones was a Methodist missionary who knew Mahatma Gandhi. When the Rev. Dr. Jones asked Gandhi what Christian missionaries could do to reach India, Gandhi said, “I love your Christ, but I dislike your Christianity. First, I would suggest that all of you Christians live more like Jesus Christ. Second, I would suggest that you practice your Christianity without adulterating it. The anomalous situation is that most of us would be equally shocked to see Christianity doubted or put into practice…” Did you catch that last line? Gandhi said the people of India would be just as shocked to see us doubt our faith as to see us actually live it.

Our reading today is about someone who took his faith seriously, so seriously that he was willing to die for it. The church honors Stephen as the first martyr, and often holds him up as an example, but today I’m offering a different interpretation. My advice this morning is, don’t be like Stephen. Don’t get stoned. Good advice no matter which way you take it.

The disciples, guided by the Holy Spirit, chose Stephen as the leader of the first Deacons. Scripture says he was full of God’s grace and power. He performed wonders among the people and taught all who would listen about God’s love. Whenever someone argued with him, scripture says they could not stand against him because the Spirit gave him wisdom as he spoke. So far so good. Go and do likewise and the world will be a better place.

But if you do, expect trouble. The powers that be benefit from the way things are. Run around freeing slaves and shining light in dark corners, and you undercut their power. You take money from their pockets. And just because you’re trying to live sin-free doesn’t mean anyone else agreed to play fair.

Stephen’s enemies met secretly. They planted false witnesses. Same thing happened to Jesus. Everybody loves Jesus, right? Jesus loves everyone. He makes wine for weddings and forgives the adulterous woman. He eats with terrorists and tax agents. Everyone loves Jesus… Well, obviously not everybody or they wouldn’t have killed him. You know what they said about him? “He’s a glutton and a drunk. He hangs out with a bad crowd.”

Don’t think it will be any different for you. They will take your actions and twist them. They will take your words out of context and put new ones in your mouth. If you honestly try to live like Jesus, like Stephen tried to do, they will crucify you. Metaphorically, hopefully.

So far, no problems. Follow the example of Stephen up until this point, because up until this point he has followed the example of Christ. But then he does the one thing Christians are so prone to do, and it almost never turns out well. He starts to preach.

Actually, he tells a story. Which, if you have to preach, is not a bad way to go. He tells a story they already know, which is a great way to build rapport. He tells them their own story, because remember, he’s a Jew too. He’s establishing common ground, very smart.

But he takes the story, and adds little twists, little jabs. It’s all in what part of the story you emphasize, right? He says, “the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles.” No big deal. It’s not a nice thing to say about the patriarchs, but it’s true.

Stephen continues, “When Moses was forty, he decided to visit his people. He saw one being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and killed the Egyptian. Moses thought his own people would realize God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. The next day Moses saw two Israelites fighting. He tried to stop them, “You’re brothers! Save it for the real enemy.” But the man pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge? Are you going to kill me too?’ So Moses fled to Midian, where he live as a foreigner and had two sons.

So the Jews rejected their greatest hero. He lived in a foreign land, married a foreign woman, and had half-breed babies. At this point in the sermon, people are probably starting to get uncomfortable. It’s all true, but that’s part of the story you usually skip. Stephen keeps pushing. “This is the same Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up a prophet like me from your own people.’… “But our ancestors refused to obey him.” Then he brings up the Golden Calf, the most embarrassing story in the entire history of Israel, and he waves it in their faces. He has their complete attention.

Then closes with a killer twist. He springs the trap. “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him…”

It’s an amazing sermon. And it got him killed. Jesus stood silent before his accusers, but Stephen had to preach. Jesus said love your enemies, but Stephen used his eloquence to rub their faces in their own guilt.

You could make an argument that Stephen was speaking by the power of the Spirit, that a message of guilt was exactly what they needed to hear before they could repent. To support that argument you could point to Stephen’s vision. Why would God grant him a vision of heaven if he wasn’t doing God’s will?

That’s possible. But it’s also possible that Stephen’s vision is proof that no matter what mess you’ve gotten yourself into, God is there with you. No matter how badly your best intentions have mangled God’s message of love, God’s love is still true for you.

We have all said one thing and done another, and we will all do it again. That’s a problem, but we make it worse when we speak as if this self-evident fact weren’t obvious. The problem doubles when we speak with such arrogant, self-righteous certainty.

“You stiff-necked people,” Stephen says, “Was there ever a prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute?” As if he weren’t a Jew, as if those weren’t his ancestors. As if he bore no guilt. If he was so certain that Jesus was the Christ, then why did his savior have to die alone? It’s not like it was hard to get crucified. All he had to do was speak up. Jesus could have died with a friend at his right hand instead of a thief. But he didn’t.

Every time we stay silent in the face of evil, we condone it. And every time we speak with self-righteous certainty, our own words condemn us. One of my favorite preachers, Brennan Manning, put it this way: “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle.”

Ghandi went a step further. Remember, he said they would be equally shocked to see us doubt our faith as to actually live it. The problem isn’t just hypocrisy, it’s arrogance.

Photo by Arty Smokes

This is why humor plays such a large role in what we try to do here. Our ad in the paper says, “We take God seriously, not ourselves” because humor is the opposite of self-righteousness. Humor shines a light on things everyone else wants to ignore. Humor deflates pride, especially our own, and humor is our best chance to win our enemies instead of just yelling at them.

The real tragedy of this end times rapture prediction is not that it failed. The real tragedy is that for a surprising number of people it came true. For them, world ended at 6pm local time. They had one more day to make things right, and most of them blew it. Those who remain should take that as a warning, but we won’t because some preacher was certain he was right and turned the whole thing into a joke.

Next time someone predicts the end of the world, remember this. The unified witness of scripture is clear and simple. No one knows the day or the hour, only that it comes. One day, the wrong will be put right. Life will conquer death. Love will defeat hate. One day, each of us will answer for our lives, for the words we spoke and the ones we didn’t. We can pretend that day isn’t coming. Or we can start living the life God promised us now. What are you waiting for?

Closing Prayer: Every time we stay silent in the face of evil, we condone it. And every time we speak with self-righteous certainty, our own words condemn us. Lord forgive us where we have failed, by what we have done, or left undone, and by the power of your Spirit, lead us in new and right paths for your name’s sake.

A Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Easter
First preached at First Congregational Church of Saugatuck on May 23, 2011.
Texts: Acts 6-8:1

It’s the End of the World! Or not… is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Link to revsmilez.com.

Tagged humor, martyr, rapture, Stephen

Mar 21 2011

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Sermons

Is it just me, or is God nuts?

A Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent
First preached at First Congregational Church of Saugatuck on March 20, 2011.
Texts: Genesis 12:1-9 and John 3:1-21

By show of hands, who has seen the movie, The Gods Must Be Crazy? For those of you who have yet to see this delightful movie, here’s the nutshell. A tribe of nomadic Africans is living a wonderful, happy life, when a passing pilot drops a Coke bottle out the window of his airplane. The tribe discovers the mysterious object and quickly learns that you can use it as a tool, a toy, or an instrument. They call it a gift from the gods. But there’s only one bottle. It can’t be a tool, a toy, and an instrument at the same time. In the ensuing argument, they discover it also makes a good weapon. The main character decides, “If this is a gift from the gods, the gods must be crazy.” So, for the good of his people, he’s going on a quest. He’s going to walk to the edge of the world and throw the Coke bottle off, give it back to the gods. He sets out on his quest, bumps into the modern world, and that’s when things get interesting. The question the movie raises is common to us all, “What do we do when God doesn’t make sense?”

First, recognize that we’re in good company. Bill Cosby has an amazing sketch about Noah…

Noah wasn’t the only Biblical character to wonder if God was nuts. How about Hosea? God told him to marry an unfaithful woman. Mr. Prophet of God had to go down to the hooker store and pick out a wife. And I can’t even tell you what he named the kids. I’m not allowed to use that kind of language in church.

How about Jeremiah? His country is about to fall, the enemy is at the gate and God says, “Go buy some land. This is a great investment. Get the notary. Sign the deed. This land is going to be worth something someday.”

How about Gideon? He’s about to fight a battle, and God says, “Your army is too big. Send some of them home. Nope, still too many. Send more home. Are any scared? Got kids at home? Send them home too. How many are left? 300? Perfect.”

How about Moses? He needs a sign, a miracle he can do to prove God is real. So God teaches him how to turn his staff into a snake. But when he gets there and does the miracle, no one is impressed. Turns out magicians in Egypt have been doing that trick for years.

Person after person in the Bible meets God and walks away shaking their head. “This doesn’t make sense. How can God ask me to do this? Is God nuts?” Then we look up from our Bibles and look around at the world. A kid from Fennville puts up the winning shot and then dies. Katrina, Haiti, Christchurch, Japan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. What’s going on here?

Photo by Oddharmonic

C.S. Lewis wrote a little book called A Grief Observed. It records his process of grieving after his wife died of cancer. He says that through it all it seemed clear in his mind that God existed, but he wondered if maybe God was more like a kid burning ants with a magnifying glass than a loving, omnipotent father. Maybe God is real, he just doesn’t like us much. We all wonder sometimes. Is it just us, or is God nuts? Here’s the good news. It’s us!

Why does it seem sometimes like God doesn’t make sense? I’ll give you three reasons. 1. Because he’s about to do something impossible. Can you imagine the conversations that took place after Abram met with God?

Abram walks in, “Honey, we need to talk. God spoke to me today, and God says we need to pack up our entire house, and move.” And she says, “Right. Where are we going?” “I don’t know. God said he’d tell us when we got there.” He’s 75 when they leave, he’s 100 when the get there. And when they get there the land is full of big people with armies. Sarah says, “Why are we doing this again?” “Because God says he’s going to give us all this land.” “Right. And how exactly is that going to happen?” “You’re going to have a son and I’m going to be the father of a great nation, more descendants than you can count.” “Let me get this straight. We pack up everything to move somewhere, it takes 25 years to get here because you won’t ask for directions, and now we’re supposed to do the wild thing? Am I on Candid Camera?”

God’s not nuts. He’s just about to do something that’s impossible. You could never do it. And until God tells you, you could never imagine it. So it’s completely normal that it would seem insane. From your perspective, it is. But you’re not God. That’s option 1.

Option 2. Why doesn’t God make sense? Because God makes perfect sense; you just don’t want to know. Let’s look at our text from John chapter 3. Nikodemus is a Pharisee, a preacher. But not just a Pharisee. He’s a member of the ruling council, the Sanhedrin. He’s a big shot. So answer me something. Why is Mr. Big shot sneaking around at night? And look what he says. “We know you’re from God…” We. He doesn’t even speak for himself. He lacks the courage of his own convictions. He want to follow Jesus from the sidelines, at night, in secret. But Jesus doesn’t play that game. He says you have to be born again.

Now this is an interpretation, so you don’t have to believe me, but my read on this is that Nikodemus is playing dumb. “Surely, an old man can’t climb back into his mother’s womb.” First off, eww. And second, what kind of stupid question is that?

So Jesus unloads a mini-sermon on him, including the most popular verse of all time, John 3:16. But for our purposes today, I’d rather you focus on verse 19 and following.

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.”

Remember, he’s preaching this to a leader who approached him in the middle of the night. “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

Sometimes we know exactly what God wants to do. We just don’t want to do it. As C.S. Lewis said in his Chronicles of Narnia, “The problem with trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you often succeed.” That’s option 2.

Option 3. Why doesn’t God make sense? Because you’re in the middle of a story that you didn’t write. History only looks tidy and predictable 500 years out. Up close, it’s a mess. We look at the American Revolution and think, wow those Brits were out of touch. Did they seriously believe they could own the intire world and no one would say no? But up close it wasn’t obvious at all. When they signed the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin said that now, “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” They had no clue how it would all turn out? What does that mean for us?

For starter it means don’t be surprised. Look at the heroes of faith. Look at the life of Jesus. If that’s how the world treats the prophets and the saints, if that’s how the world treats the Son of God, why act surprised? Expect it and accept it, and you’ll be moving forward while everyone else is still in shock wondering how this could happen.

On the other hand, don’t pretend like it’s ok. The saints complained. Jesus wept. The Psalms contain every human emotion from joy to black rage. We have an entire book in the Old Testament called Lamentations. By pretending everything is fine, all we do is cut ourselves off from the people who want to help us. This is your family. They want to laugh and cry and dance with you, and help you up when life knocks you down, but they can’t when you pretend it’s all fine.

But what if the problem isn’t in your life? Maybe it’s someone else’s life that exploded. When you step into that situation from the outside, don’t act like you know how their story goes. As a pastor, I’ve been part of a lot of funerals, and I’ve heard some doozies.

“God just needed another angel in heaven.” Really? I need my angel too. “God has a plan, you know.” Really? That plan sucks. “He’s in a better place.” Really? You know what a better place would be? Right here!

If they want to claim that story by faith, that’s their choice, but don’t push it on them. Your job is not to tell them what to think or how feel. Your job is sympathize. Sym-pathos – to suffer with them. You don’t have to have the answers. You be there. That means something.

If you’re the kind that needs to do something, or if you’re not able to be with them, then offer something specific and tangible that you can do that will make their life easier. “I can take the kids to a movie next Friday, take their minds off things for a bit, if that would be helpful.” A specific and tangible offer.

Lastly, don’t give up. You are in the middle of a journey. You are surrounded by good travel companions. And you have enough light to take the next step. So keep moving forward.

Noah floated. Hosea raised family. The kids had weird names, but he loved them. Jeremiah never redeemed his property, but his people sure did. Gideon won the battle. Moses set his people free. Sarah had a son, and she named him Laughter. Abraham became the father of a nation. And despite the scorn, the abuse, and the attacks of enemy after enemy, generation after generation, they are still here. Your story is just beginning, and even if this part doesn’t make sense, the author still holds the pen, and he’s already told us how the story ends.

Is it just me, or is God nuts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Link to revsmilez.com.

Tagged Abraham, Gideon, God, hope, Jeremiah, moses, Nikodemus, Noah, Sarah, tragedy

Mar 14 2011

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Sermons

Lent: Let’s get miserable!

A Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent
First preached at First Congregational Church of Saugatuck on March 13, 2011.
Texts: Psalm 32 and Genesis 2:15-3:21
Lent has to be the worst marketing ploy in the history of the Christian Church. Just imagine it. The Pope calls an emergency meeting of his cardinals in his secret Pope room and says, “Guys, we got a problem. Attendance is down. Giving is down. We need a way to recharge the faithful. Now, who’s got an idea?”

“I have one! Let’s put a sign in every church that says, ‘Beatings will continue until morale improves.’”

“No, Spain already tried that. It didn’t work so well.”

“How about we fine people for not showing up at church. And if they can’t pay the fine, we’ll throw them in jail until they make enough money to pay up.”

“No. England did that already. Come on, something original.”

“I’ve got one! Let’s do Lent!”

“What’s a Lent?”

“It’s forty days of prayer and fasting in preparation for Easter. Extra church services, no meat, and we’ll tell everyone to give something up so they can focus on God. Count back from Easter 40 days. Don’t count Sundays. That means we’ll kick off on Wednesday with a ceremony of ashes, symbolizing repentance.”

“Sounds great. Let’s do it!”

You all know how it turned out, right? The preachers told their congregations to prepare for 40 days of prayer and fasting starting Ash Wednesday. So the people did the only reasonable thing. They crammed 40 days worth of partying into Tuesday. Great plan, guys. Way to honor Jesus with beer, babes, and beads.

And can somebody please explain the logic behind Fish Fries on Friday? “No meat? No problem. We’ll eat fish instead.” Whoever came up with that little loophole deserves to work for Goldman Sachs.

Try explaining Lent to your neighbors. “Well, it works like this. Think of something you really love to do, something you do a lot. And you make a promise never to do that at all for forty days. Sound like fun?”

And yet, we still do it. I sat in my office this week, thinking about what I should give up for Lent. And you know the first thing that sprang to my mind? Hot dogs. Every Wednesday night, I have hot dogs, and not just regular hot dogs. I get two steaming hot 1/3 lb. all-beef franks, piled high with Chicago-style fixings, on bed of crispy golden french fries. I love my wife’s cooking, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I look forward to Wednesday night.

So I’m thinking about Lent and the first thing that pops in my mind is hot dogs. You know what the second thing was?

“No way!”

I love hot dogs! I wrote this sermon on hot dogs! Forty days? You gotta be kidding me. And then I think, “What? Jesus died for me, and I can’t give up hot dogs?” So now I’m stuck either way. Either I lose my hot dogs, or I feel guilty for forty days! Who’s dumb idea was this?

As a marketing ploy, Lent makes New Coke look like a good idea. But as a discipline, it’s gold. We talked last week about what Charlie Sheen and Jesus Christ have in common. Namely, that they’re both human. The way we lift up celebrities is a twisted shadow of the way we put Jesus on a pedestal. We miss the fact that he had fears and doubts, just like us. He was fully human. He identified with us completely, so that we could identify with him. We are to be little Christ’s. As he was for us, we are to be for others. Which is fully true, but it’s not the whole story.

Many scholars believe that the word Christian was first used by our enemies as a way to mock us. “Oh look at them. They think they’re little Christs, mini messiahs running around saving the world.” In fact, that “ianos” ending that they stuck on the end of Christ, Christ-ianos can have another connotation, slave of Christ. As in, “Look at them. They don’t think for themselves. They’re just little slaves of Christ. ‘Yes, master. Whatever you say, master.’” And the Christians said, “Thank you. That’s perfect.”

There’s online web-comic that I really enjoy. It’s called The Order of the Stick. The main characters are little stick figures who know they’re in a Dungeons and Dragons roll-playing game. One of the characters is a very devout follower of Thor, whose is name is Durkon. In one of my very favorite scenes, Durkon gets in over his head. He’s incapacitated in a dungeon full of monsters that want to eat him for supper. So he looks down at his little necklace that says WWTD, and thinks to himself, “What would Thor do?”

And in his little thought bubble, Thor steps down from the sky and says, “With my ultimate power of the thunders, I, Thor, smash this entire dungeon to shattered ruins, each piece no larger than a man’s fist. Then, I return to Asgard to woo goddesses and drink an ocean’s worth of beer. Huzzah!” And Durkon says, “Somehow, that “W.W.T.D” thing is never really as applicable to my situation as it’s supposed to be.”

Try as we might, there are things Jesus did that we can’t do. Jesus healed the sick. He touched the outcast. He fed the hungry. He humbled the mighty, and died on the cross an innocent man. I can’t even give up hot dogs!

People complain about hypocrisy in the church, but that’s not the real reason people reject Christianity. Hypocrisy is everywhere. If you’re waiting for a perfect club to join, you’re going to be looking a long time. And when you find it, they’re not going to let you in. Hypocrisy is just the convenient excuse. Who’s in favor of hypocrisy?

No, the real reason is that we hate coming to the table as anything less than equals. Jesus is the great physician, the good shepherd. He’s here for the lost and the hurting. Grace implies a benefactor. Forgiveness implies a wrong. The graffiti on the wall says, “Jesus Saves.” And in our hearts we reply, “From what?”

That’s where our Psalmist is. He tries to keep silent, doesn’t want to ask forgiveness. But he says that in his silence it’s as if his bones are on fire. He’s sapped of strength, as if God were pressing him down. So he changes his mind, and the song becomes a prayer.

“You are my hiding place. You always fill my heart with songs of deliverance. Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you. I will trust in you. Let the weak say, ‘I am strong in the strength of the Lord.’ I will trust in you.”

And God responds. He says, “I will instruct you and teach you. I will lead you with my eye.” How do you lead someone with your eye? The second half of the couplet explains, “Don’t be like a mule that needs a bit and bridle.” God does not use force to control us. We are children of the king, not beasts of burden. We are co-heirs with Christ, citizens of the Kingdom of God, and it’s high time we acted like it.

There’s a lot of argument over Genesis. Is it a literal 7 days, or is it metaphorical? Frankly, I don’t care, because for preaching purposes, it doesn’t matter which way you read it. The point of the story is the same. Adam and Eve don’t want to be disobedient. They want to be like God, knowing good and evil.

And what’s the immediate result? 1. They feel shame at their own bodies. 2. They hide from God. 3. Adam blames Eve. Eve blames the snake. 4. An animal has to die so they can have skins for clothes. The point of the story is that sin breaks our relationship with ourselves, with each other, with God, and with nature. Sin is a tangling vine that starts as a seed, grows into a prison, and ends in death. If you eat this fruit, you will surely die, not immediately die, but surely.

Lent may be horrible marketing, but it’s great discipline, because it all comes from here. As your pastor, I don’t get to choose what habit you give up, or what new one you start. What am I going to do, check up on you? It all happens here.

We give something up, or start something new, and in the process we learn something about ourselves, about how we treat other people, about our relationship with God, about the hold that mere things have over us, and the carelessness with which we treat the world we’ve been given. It’s a great discipline, because it only takes 40 days to realize we don’t have it all together. We really could use a good shepherd, or a great physician. It’s a great discipline, because the only way God can lead you with his eye is if you keep your eyes on God.

Lent: Let’s get miserable is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Link to revsmilez.com.

Tagged funny, grace, lent, marketing, sin

Mar 07 2011

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Sermons

What do Charlie Sheen and Jesus Christ Have in Common?

A Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday
First preached at First Congregational Church of Saugatuck on March 6, 2011.
Texts: Matthew 17:1-9 and Exodus 24:12-18

Charlie Sheen. The man is a walking train wreck. In case you’ve somehow managed to miss this story, Mr. Sheen went on a few drug-induced benders recently, causing the hiatus of his sitcom. That would have been enough for media attention, but he’s gone on an unashamed, I’m a winner, you’re just jealous, viral media crazy-blitz.

Everyone makes mistakes, but most of us don’t go and crow about it on talk radio the next day, and then on Good Morning America, and then on the Today Show, and then on CNN, and then an interview with that most respected of all world news outlets, TMZ. And just when you think it’s over, he says something even crazier, like: “I’m an F-18, bro.” Or “These resentments, they are the rocket fuel that lives in the tip of my saber.” Yes, you heard that right. Resentments are the rocket fuel that lives in the tip of Charlie Sheen’s saber. Train wreck, in slow motion, with instant replay.

So here’s the big question of the day. What do Charlie Sheen and Jesus Christ have in common? I’m no Letterman, so I could only come up with a Top Five. (Many thank to Jerry Donovan for his help!)

5.   Jesus creates miraculous amounts of alcohol; Charlie consumes miraculous amounts of alcohol.

4.   Both speak in metaphors difficult to translate into English.

3.   Jesus makes great wine. Charlie just whines.

2.   Neither sees anything wrong with hanging out with hookers.

1.   One of them is God’s gift to the world, the other thinks he is.

Kidding aside, I think Jesus and Charlie do have something in common. We have a problem, us 21^st century Christians. We read this book, and we love it so much, and we respect the people in it so much that we have a hard time identifying with them. All great literature is about identifying with the character. You recognize yourself in Tom Sawyer or Atticus Finch. They’re complete fiction, yet you see something in them that you want to be. Great fiction is the lie that tells the truth.

So look at our text today, the transfiguration. Who are the characters in the scene? Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Peter, James and John. Six characters, and we identify with none of them. Jesus walked on water. Moses walked through the Red Sea. Elijah called down fire from the sky. What did you do last week? I got stuck in three inches of slush! I can’t compete with these guys.

It reminds me, in a small way, of how we deify celebrities. We put them up on a pedestal, as if they were role models. They’re not role models. They’re pretty people who are good pretending to be someone they’re not. Which is good, because that’s pretty much what we expect them to do 24/7.

No falls off a pedestal. We put them up there, and then we rip it out from under them. It feels good to have someone to look up to, someone to follow. It frees us from the responsibility of defining ourselves. As good as that feels, it feels so much better to look down on them afterward. It proves that you’re a better person. “I may be messed up, but I’m no Charlie Sheen.”

It’s never really about them; they’re just the backdrop for our story. They are the measuring stick we use to inspire or comfort ourselves. We forget… well that’s not really accurate, we willfully choose to ignore, that they’re human.

Back to our text. Why are Moses and Elijah in this story? The short answer is that Moses represents the Law and Elijah the prophets. Together, they symbolize the entire Old Testament. Remember, Jesus didn’t come to break the Old Testament. He loves his Hebrew Scriptures. He wants to fulfill the Hebrew Scriptures. Moses and Elijah need to be here to show the continuation of their work in his ministry. But I think there’s more to it than that. They’re here on this mountaintop for a reason. Both of these men have stood on the mountaintop.

Moses stood on Mount Sinai, and received the tablets of the law. The cloud descended on the mountaintop. God spoke from the cloud, and thunder rolled down toward the people. When Moses came down, his face glowed with reflected glory, and they were so terrified they made him cover his face.

Elijah stood on Mount Carmel. He faced down 450 prophets of Baal. God answered his prayer with a fire so hot that it burnt the wood, the offering, the water, the stones, and scorched the earth. When he came down off that mountain he ran ahead of the king’s chariot all the way to Jezreel.

They’ve been on the mountaintop, not just once, but twice. Moses stood on Mount Nebo, and looked down into the Holy Land. He looked down on the promised land of God, the land he had spent 40 years of his life seeking, and he knew he would never make it. He made a stupid, arrogant mistake, and this was the price. He could see the Holy Land, but never go in.

Elijah stood on Mount Horeb. Well, stood isn’t really the right word. He cowered. He hid… in a cave. The man who faced down 450 prophets ran and hid when Jezebel’s messenger delivered her death threat. When God asked him what he was doing, he complained. Then God revealed himself not in the wind, or the earthquake, or the fire, but the still small voice. And the voice said, “What are you doing, here?” And he complained again in exactly the same words. He learned nothing.

We’ve studied Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount over the last few weeks. Matthew intentionally parallels the story of Jesus with the story of Moses so that the Sermon on the Mount echoes the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. If that was the first mountaintop, the victorious mountaintop, then what is this?

We Christians are sometimes so careful to deify Jesus that we forget, or we willfully choose to ignore, that he was human. Perhaps Moses and Elijah were there because he needed them to be. He needed to see what was coming as part of a larger story, the story of faith, the story of deliverance not from all suffering, but through and out the other side. You see this confirmed on the Mount of Olives when Jesus cries, “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” You hear it confirmed on the hill of Golgotha, when Jesus cries, “My God, my God, Why have you forsaken me?” Jesus was fully human.

But he must have learned something from these two. Or perhaps they reminded him of something he already knew. Because he follows “Let this cup pass from me” with “Not my will, but yours be done.” And he follows “Why have you forsaken me” with “Into your hands I commend my spirit.”

If you ever wondered what was the right thing to do. If you ever knew the right thing to do and wondered if you had the strength to do it, then you have something in common with Jesus. If after all that, you went and did it anyway, if you made God’s will a reality in this place, forgetting the cost, for the sake of your brothers and sisters, then I’d say you share a family resemblance. You and Jesus have something in common.

These heroes of faith are not porcelain statues to be observed from afar. They are human beings just like us. The word Christian does not mean Christ follower. It means little Christ. As he is for us, we are to be for others, even for Charlie Sheen.

Benediction: You may have noticed I left someone out. Three someones, actually. What about Peter, James, and John? Why are they in the story? First, they teach us that Jesus is not one among many. You don’t build three equal houses and put Jesus in one. God says, “This is my son. Listen to him.” And second, try as we might, we can’t stay on the mountaintop. All we can do is hold onto what we learned there and take it with us into the valley of everyday life. May God meet you on the mountaintop and walk with you through the valley and out the other side. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God forever, amen.

What do Charlie Sheen and Jesus Christ have in Common? is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Link to revsmilez.com.

Tagged celebrity, Charlie Sheen, Christianity, transfiguration

Nov 19 2010

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Sermons

Faith is not an Excuse

Text: Isaiah 65:17-25 , 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
First Preached: First Congregational Church of Saugatuck

What’s the number one reason people reject church? That’s right! “The church is full of hypocrites.” That’s awesome! You know why? It makes our job sooo much simpler. We don’t have to educate them. We don’t need to explain the mysteries of trinity and incarnation. All we have to do is live it. Sounds simple, right? But there’s one huge problem.

One of my online friends (from Allegiance, greatest free multiplayer game ever) said something this week that highlights the problem perfectly. He says, “The stupidity, arrogance and callousness of people when it comes to the wonderful and fragile web of life here keeps amazing me. Why are so many blind to what a treasure we have? I also have absolutely no respect for anybody who thinks their religion tells them that this is a false and temporary world, and how we treat it doesn’t matter since the real rewards are in some afterlife. Even if you believe it was all created by God(s), shouldn’t that make it all sacred and holy?” He’s not worried about whether Jesus is the Son of God. He’s worried that we’ll use our faith as an excuse.

When I was in Bible College I had a friend who said without exaggeration. “I don’t recycle. This whole world is going to burn anyway. What’s the point?” Her faith in God was her excuse for leaving the world a dirtier place than she found it.

My sister is a total tree hugger, and when I told her what I was preaching on today, she said, “I know exactly what you mean. I have a friend who refuses to recycle. When I asked her why, she said, “The rapture is coming. We’re all going to get taken away, so why bother?”

It’s right there in our text today. “Behold, I will make a new heaven and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind” If that’s true then this world is disposable. We can do whatever we want. It doesn’t matter.

Talk back time. What character traits make a good employee? A good friend? A good politician? What character traits make a good person?

In classical times, these were called virtues. Plato listed the four chief virtues as: Temperance (what we would call self control) prudence (which means choosing the appropriate action for the context), courage, and justice. These virtues form the foundation of what we call a free society. A lack virtue destroys society.

This is what people mean when they say all religions teach basically the same thing. All religions are trying to create virtuous people. It’s not strictly true. If you look under the hood, how each religion defines virtue and how they say you get there are often very different. But in a broader sense, sure, all the great religions would essentially agree that not being a jerk is a good idea. Yet, when people think of Christians, do they think of virtue, or do they think of jerks?

If you only hear one thing today, hear this. Virtue is a result.

You cannot argue someone into virtue because argument sways the mind. Suppose it works. Suppose you’re brilliant, persistent, and persuasive enough to get someone to agree with you. They’re still stuck with the same problem you are. Willpower is finite and your appetites are not. If you’re trying to will yourself into being a better person, you will lose.

Benjamin Franklin actually tried it. He made a list of virtues and dedicated himself to perfecting them. He would focus all his mind and will toward a single virtue and when he felt he had conquered it, he would move on to the next. You know what he found? He couldn’t hold onto them all. As soon as he got good at a new virtue, one of the old ones would start to slip. You cannot will yourself not to sin any more than an alcoholic can will himself not to drink. Short term, you might win. Long term, you will lose.

This is where we get to push back a little bit on those people who bash the church. The church is full of hypocrites, right? You read the papers lately? For every one story about scandal or abuse in the church, I’ll show you five in the world of business or finance or politics.

The problem of virtue isn’t the church’s problem. It’s a human problem. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help us much. Can you imagine that in our next ad campaign? “FCC Saugatuck, no more corrupt than your average politician.” How’s that for a ringing endorsement? Makes you want to go to church, right?

How did the saints do it? They recognized that that virtue is not a goal. It is a result. God is light and life and love, and when they approached that truth, all their falsehood became glaringly obvious. This is the mark that all the saints have in common. They shared a radical humility and a passion for change. In the light of God’s perfection, they caught a vision of themselves and the world is at is, and then they moved. Relationship gave birth to vision. Vision gave birth to virtue. Virtue is a result, which means we’re starting at the wrong end of the story.

The relationship doesn’t start with a new heaven and a new earth. That’s the end of the story. It starts “in the beginning”. God is light, life and love. Because that is God’s nature, God made creation to share that life, light, and love. But we chose death, darkness and hatred. Now God is doing a new thing. God is putting it right. That is the story of the Bible, and it leads to the choice of our lives.

Will we join him, watch him, or fight him? You’re here because you said yes. Which means settling for an average amount of virtue is not an option. You’re here because you want to more. So, how do we do that?

First, remember the story. Read everything in that context. The Bible says God will forgive me, so I can do what I want, right? The Bible says there will be a new heaven and a new earth, so I don’t need to take care of this one right? The Bible says Jesus is the way, so all non-Christians are fair game, right?

Wrong! John 3:16: for God so loved the world. Not you, only. Not this church, only. The world. And you wrecking it is in direct conflict with the Lord of love you claim to serve.

God is saving the world, and the Bible says God forgives, so I’d better forgive. God is saving the world, and the Bible says God’s making a new heaven and a new earth, so I better grab a shovel. God is saving the world, and the Bible says Jesus is the way, so I’d better make a friend. Read everything the context of the story, and then decide. Am I going to fight against this, am I going to watch it happen, or am I going to help?

Two. Get active, and stay active in a local church. My dad got the boys a stone polishing machine. Have you seen these? You put in a rough, ugly rock with some sand, and you turn it and turn it and turn it. And very slowly, the sand scrubs the rough edges off and the inner beauty of the stone shines through. If you took one rock and threw it in alone, it would bang around while and come out roughly the same. If threw five rocks in together, they’d knock each other to powder. But the sand is persistent and gentler.

Brother and sisters, that’s church. You cannot will yourself into virtue. You need help. This is a testing ground because at least here you know people are trying to be decent. Virtue is hard, so this is where we come to learn and to plan. When we want to slack, these people will get us back on track. That’s what our second reading is about today. Let no one be idle. Do not grow weary in doing what is right. But when someone does, hold them accountable with the tools of relationship, not force or political power. Relationship. Our weapons are not of this world.

Three. You have one and only one goal: to draw close to God. The nearer we get to God, the more clearly we see our own brokenness and the brokenness of the world. Were we on our own, that revelation might lead us to despair, isolation, and pessimism. But we are not alone, and the size of our problems is dwarfed by the size of our God. So, when those around us are ready to quit, we’re just getting started. Where they see impossibility we see opportunity. Where they hear rattle of chains, we hear the winds of change, because God is saving the world. We can fight it, or we can watch it, or we can help.

“Faith is not an Excuse” by Rev. Robert J. Brink is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tagged church, ecology, hypocrisy, virtue

Sep 20 2010

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Sermons

Free Sermon: Bashing Politicians

Text: 1 Timothy 2:1-8, Jeremiah 8:18-22
First Preached: First Congregational Church of Saugatuck

This sermon is dedicated to our new national pastime. No, I don’t mean baseball. I don’t even mean football. I mean bashing politicians. It’s taking the nation by storm. During my research, I spent some time with the source of all truth and knowledge, the internet.

According to sites I read this week, President Obama is a Muslim socialist, fascist, communist Kenyan double agent. According to them, his ultimate goal is nothing less than the complete destruction of America and the imposition of Sharia law on the shattered remnants of the population. And lest the Democrats get too proud of themselves, I also read articles during the election that President Bush had teamed up with Osama Bin Laden to stage 9/11 in order to have a pretext for war and martial law in America. According to them, George W. Bush was planning to be the head of a new American military dictatorship. The election would never be allowed to stand.

It seems to me that this political back-biting is reaching a new low. The Illinois State Register, from our president’s home state, labeled this politician “the craftiest and most dishonest that ever disgraced an office in America.” They accused him of changing the rationale for ’his’ war, then hounded him for mismanaging it. They charged his administration with incompetence and accused him of trampling on the Constitution. They even compared him to an ape. Of course, the president in question is Abraham Lincoln.

This is not a new game. As long as we have had politicians, we have slammed them, especially the ones who aren’t from our team. Paul was writing to Christians who lived under the boot of the Roman Empire. Every good Roman prayed to the Emperor, with only one exception. The Jews had bought the privilege, bought it with blood, the exclusive privilege of praying for the Emperor instead of to him. Now these Christians come along and say they’re not Jews. Shouldn’t they have to pray to the emperor too?

Paul is trying to head off a political firestorm when he tells Timothy, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions,” No one wants to live in occupied territory, but Paul says, “Don’t start a revolution. Start praying.” Why? “So that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” According to Paul, government is not the instrument of the world’s salvation, that’s God’s job. Government exists to keep chaos at bay.

If that’s true, then a lot of what we call government is really politicians overstepping their bounds because the church has not yet become the kingdom of God. If we were caring for the widows, the fatherless, and the strangers in our midst… If there really were no needy among us, then who would need social security? If we really were peacemakers, who would need an army?

But we’re not there yet, so our leaders do their best to hold the chaos at bay. If that’s true, then government can fail through two fundamental errors: a weak defense and internal corruption. This is where our political leaders most need our prayers. It is soooo much easier to attack than to defend. It’s tactically simpler and psychologically easier to attack. It is sooo much easier to accept corruption than to fight against it. It’s so hard to stay clean when so many people are trying to turn you into a very rich pawn. Our leaders need our prayers, even when our hearts are breaking, even when we’re terrified and it looks like the end of our country.

Remember Jeremiah? “O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!” Jeremiah’s country is being dismantled around him. His people are walking into exile. He can see it coming and he tries to warn them but no one will listen, so he prays. He prays to God and he prays for his leaders.

He’s not the only one who’s afraid. You know what Al Qaeda and the KKK have in common? Fear. They feel like their world is under attack an they feel powerless to stop it. And they’re right. The way of life they long for is gone, and it will never return. So they lash out with the only tool they have, fear.

Perfect love drives out fear. It’s surprisingly hard to pray for someone and then in the next breath demonize them. It is surpisingly hard to pray for someone and then give up all hope. Praying for people in positions of power protects our hearts from the poisons of cynicism and despair. If that’s all it did, it would be worth it, but there’s more.

Praying for people in positions of power pushes you to action. People like to tease the church, that we don’t actually do anything. We just sit in our buildings and pray. “Let’s fight. You pray, I’ll punch, and we’ll see who wins.” But every great awakening, every great reform movement has begun in prayer. It’s surprisingly hard to pray for someone day after day after day and then do nothing. It’s surprisingly hard to pray for someone day after day and imagine they are somehow better than you.

Athens, Alabama KKK (Ku Klux Klan) Rally and Counter-Protests September 2007. Original work by Gregory Skibinski on a Creative Commons License

Look at the picture on front of your bulletin. This is what prayerful action looks like. These people are standing across the street from a KKK rally. Imagine standing on that street, and one one side there are angry people, someone yelling into a microphone. On the other side of the street, you see no fear, no rage, no violence, and no hoping it will all just go away. You’re standing there in the middle of the street, and you already know who has won.

Right now, the big fear in Saugatuck seems to be Aubry McLendon. Some people are afraid he’s going to destroy the dunes forever, or lock them away so no one can enjoy them any more. Some fear that he’ll bully his way though and his fancy new development will suck life away from our little downtown.

A casual reading of our text today might lead you to believe we should pray for him. Not true. The only reason we think that is because our culture confuses money with power. Of course we should pray for him, but for other reasons. Remember, the purpose of government? “So that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” Their job is to protect the boundaries and enforce the laws, to hold off chaos. In our town, who is doing that? Is it McLendon? No way! He’s pushing the boundaries.

Our job is to pray for our council and our city officers. Imagine you’re an elected official in the middle of a series of lawsuits with Aubry Mclendon. On the one hand you have threatening lawyers, on the other you have screaming environmentalists, and in the middle you have hundreds of people yelling at you that you’re wasting their money. It feels like you’re walking through a minefield. Then out of the blue, someone walks up to you and says, “I prayed for you today, that you would keep us safe and be free of corruption.” Wow, that was weird.

Then someone else comes up and says, “I prayed for you today, that you would help our people to live quiet lives of godliness and dignity.” Now you’re feeling strange. Later on, a third person walks up and says, “I’ve been praying for you and praying for you because you’re in a position of authority. In fact, I read the council minutes whenever I can so I’ll know better how to pray, and last week you said you needed help with something that I know how to do. Would you let me help? I don’t want any compensation or recognition. I just want to help.

How would that make you feel? Would a day like that make you re-evaluate your opinion of the church? Would a day like that make you a better politician? Let’s find out.

Tagged fear, McClendon, politics, prayer, protest, Saugatuck

Sep 13 2010

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Sermons

You Know What This Church Needs? More Drunks!

Text: 1 Timothy 1:12-17, Luke 15:1-10
First Preached: First Congregational Church of Saugatuck

Welcome to Saugatuck, the coolest small town in America. Sure, we came in 4^th if you’re just counting votes, but we were competing against towns 6 to 8 times our own size. That means on a per capita basis, we win. Each one of you, just by sitting here today is now orders of magnitude cooler than everyone else. You are awesome.

“Coolest small town in America” is a great slogan, perfect for this world. It provides social proof. “It must be cool. Look how many votes it got. I have to go. It’s the coolest per capita town in America. I’ll be cooler just by being there.”

God’s priorities are different. When we look at Jesus, we see God as God truly is. So who does Jesus hang out with? Traitors, drunks, and hookers. You know what this church needs? More drunks. This is Saugatuck, right? Jesus was a rabble rouser. He hung out with a rough crowd, and his disciples weren’t nearly pious enough to please the religious.

Look at Paul. Perfect example. That guy burning Korans down in Florida has nothing on Paul. Paul doesn’t burn your holy book. He tracks you down, kicks in your door and drags you off to jail. A mob decides to kill a Christian by chucking rocks at him till he dies. Paul is right there holding their coats, looking on with approval. In the end, God gets a hold of him, and you know what Paul has to say about it? He sums it all up in one sentence. “Christ came to save sinners, of whom I am the chief.”

I think we should start a new tradition. Members of the church need to get this verse tattooed across their forehead. “Christ came to save sinners, of whom I am the chief.”

The only problem with the idea is that as soon as it caught on someone would have to go get their tattoo done in a special font, or backwards so they could read it in a mirror. Someone else sees that and decides theirs needs to be in bold with two colors, until finally someone shaves their entire head and has the verse written all over the place in 12 different languages. “I’m the chief sinner. No, I’m the chief! No, I’m the chief.” Isn’t it amazing how quickly we can turn humility into a contest?

The primary word here isn’t chief. It’s sinner. “Hold on there preacher man, I didn’t come here to get yelled at. Sinner is an ugly word. Can’t you say something positive? Sure I can. I’m absolutely positive that I am a sinner. I’m pretty sure you are too.

The proper response to “Christ came to save sinners” isn’t awwww. It’s Wooo hoooo! The world says pride is the key to the good life and that humility equals humiliation. Jesus says just the opposite.

Jesus talks about leaving the 99 good sheep and searching for the lost one. He talks about a tearing your house apart to find one lost coin. And when the work is done and the lost is found, what do we do? Throw a party! Is this a story about humiliation? It’s about recognizing hidden value and doing whatever it takes to get it back.

Self-hatred is a trick. Thinking too little of yourself is just as dangerous as thinking too highly because in both cases all you’re thinking about is yourself. True humility focuses on God. The word sinner means nothing more or less than separation from God. As far as our lives are separated from God, so far are we sinners. And whatever that distance may be, that is exactly the distance God is crossing to touch your heart today.

Remember Paul, standing there holding coats while the crowds threw rocks at Stephen’s head? If he was half the hard case he thought he was, why wasn’t he chucking rocks himself? When he finally meets Jesus on the Damascus road, he hears a voice that says, “It’s hard for you to kick against the goads.” That’s why he was holding coats. Because God was there knocking on the door of his heart, pricking his conscience, goading him away from consequences he would have to live with for the rest of his life. God was already there, even on his darkest day.

Lovely, lovely sinner, God is searching for you . You are precious to him. Do you imagine that applies only to the sinners who showed up for church today? Angels rejoice over you today because you at least have turned around. You’ve found friends for the journey and food for the road.

What about all of them out there, those of low reputation, the ones who are trapped in consequences of choices they wish they could undo, the ones on the edge of despair? They’ve been burned so many times, they can’t imagine anyone could love them. They can’t trust any more. You think God loves them less? If you’re the 99, then the good shepherd is out there somewhere right now, searching for the one.

That sounds great in a sermon, but why would a drunk want to come to church? Should we start using real wine in communion? How about rock and roll hymns. That’s what they play in the bars, right? How can we make church more appealing so they’ll want to come?

That’s the wrong question.

Jesus didn’t sit in the temple and wait for sinners to decide that church is cool. The widow didn’t wait for her money to show up. The good shepherd didn’t wait for the sheep to wander home again. What do they do? They go. They search. You think my weekly schedule is an accident? I’m trying to set you and example as I try to follow one.

Jesus went to them and he offered them what they couldn’t find: acceptance, forgiveness, hope, purpose, healing, and love. Religious people go through this life afraid the world might infect them with sin, Jesus walked right into the middle of it and infected it with love.

I expect you to go out there this week and raise a ruckus. I’d like nothing more than to hear some pious religious person say, “First Congregational Church? I’d never go there. That’s where all the drunks hang out.”

Tagged church, drunks, pride, Saugatuck, sin

Sep 07 2010

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Sermons

Labor Day Sermon

Text: Philemon, Jeremiah 18:1-10
First Preached: First Congregational Church of Saugatuck

President Grover Cleveland

Labor Day is one of those holidays we do and don’t know why. Do you know how it got started? President Grover Cleveland wanted to get re-elected, and he needed an olive branch to appease the unions after US Marshals and US Army soldiers broke the Pullman strike, killing some and wounding many.

You know Pullman cars, those luxury train cars made by the Pullman Company. Pullman workers mostly lived in the company town, called Pullman. Mr. Pullman owned the bank, the school, and the shops. He rented or leased the homes. You didn’t have to live there, but there was an inkling it was a smart idea. The bottom fell out of the market, so Mr. Pullman had to cut back: reduced wages, layoffs. But he didn’t reduce the rents. When the workers complained, they were ignored. Pullman said he was only making 3 percent on the town as it was. He had an obligation to his shareholders. When the workers tried to unionize, he said they could join any union they like, just not the Railway Union. They struck, and against all odds, it worked. Thanks to sympathy strikes, they managed to stop traffic across the nation. Hence Grover Cleveland, hence the marshals and the army, hence clubs and guns, hence the need for a Labor Day.

The obvious choice would be May 1, International Workers Day. But that would remind people of the Haymarket affair. Unions from all over the US had agreed to strike on May 1, in support of an 8 hour work day. This strike ended with more than just clubs and bullets. Someone threw a bomb. The ringleaders were arrested and convicted, even though there was no evidence any of them had thrown the bomb. They were hung, executed not for what they had done, but for what they believed. International unions claimed May Day in their honor. Cleveland couldn’t use that. Too many bad memories. So, they picked the first Monday in September.

Most of us think an 8 hour work day is a good idea, but we wouldn’t want to face clubs and bullets to get it. How do you influence someone with more money than you? Paul answers that question in his letter to Philemon.

Philemon was the head of a house church, so he must have been at least moderately wealthy and influential, Paul wants him to set his slave, Onesimus free. This is a big request. There’s a financial cost, a personal cost, and social cost. Your slave runs away, comes back, and you set him free?! What will his family do? What will the neighbors think? Paul might offer three tips to us on how to influence powerful people.

First, be the real deal. Paul really is the apostle to the Gentiles, respected so much in his own time that his letters to the churches are preserved as scripture. He really is sitting in jail for what he believes. So be yourself, who God made you to be. Speak with authenticity.

Second, don’t spend your chips until you’ve earned them. How do you earn chips with people who already have everything? Give them something money can’t buy. Paul is Philemon’s spiritual father. He organized the missionary push that founded their church. All the prestige and authority, and more importantly all the spiritual growth in Philemon’s life has its root in Paul. So, you earn the right to be heard. Invest in the relationship so that when the time comes, you can speak with authority.

Finally, pick your battle: you set the time, the place, and the victory conditions. One appropriate time. One important place. One achievable goal. In this case, the time is after Philemon has had a chance to cool down, the ground worth fighting over is slavery, and the goal is that Philemon decide on his own to set Onesimus free.

Did it work?

Did what work? We assume Paul wants Onesimus to be free, but he never says that. Our prejudice, our presuppositions filter our reading. You all just heard it, the whole letter. By show of hands, how many of you heard, “I want you to set the slave free.”?

And yet, for years people said the Bible supports slavery, Paul specifically. When they read this letter they said, “Look, Paul caught a runaway and sent him back to his master. He never says he should set him free. He just says be good to him.” Remember, this is the same Paul who says in Colossians that slaves should obey their masters.

So who’s right? Us or them? Egypt and Rome both had a law that said if you were a slave and your master treated you horribly, you could flee to an altar, a temple, for sanctuary. They would try to convince you to go back. If that didn’t work, they would sell you to someone else and send your master the money.

In the text, Paul says he’ll pay whatever Onesimus owes. Looks like Onesimus grabbed something valuable and fled to Paul for sanctuary. But Paul doesn’t follow convention. He doesn’t send the slave back, and he doesn’t sell him off. Look at the end of Colossians – see how the names match? Onesimus was from Colosae, and Paul was sending him back with Tychicus, who had two letters. A public one for the church, and a private one for Philemon.

What is he really asking? Forgiveness for a wrong, welcome for a brother, and the return of a free man to continue his service to Paul. Imagine the courage and the faith it took for Onesimus to go along with this. He might be beaten, or sold, or thrown in jail. But welcomed? How much faith would it take to even hope for that?

This entire letter is one long guilt trip pushing the rich man, the one with power, to make a better choice. And how does it end? “Get a room ready. I’m coming.” I’m telling you in this letter to make the right choice, and I’ll be there soon to make sure you do.

Did it work? Probably yes. Why else would we still have the letter? It’s personal, not written as a lesson for churches or preachers. It’s potentially embarrassing. It’s the only one of its kind in the New Testament. Why was it preserved?

Ignatius of Antioch

The answer to that may lie with Ignatius of Antioch. I wish I had time to talk about him because he’s amazing. Today, what you need to know is that he was a bishop. He was arrested and sent back to Rome, where he would die in the Amphitheater. On his way, he received visits from and wrote letters to many churches. Here’s what he says to the Ephesians:

“I have heard of your name, much beloved of God, which you have gained by a habit of righteousness, according to the faith and love which is in Jesus Christ our Savior…For when you heard I was coming bound from Syria… you hastened to see me. I received, therefore, in the name of God, your whole congregation in the person of your bishop, Onesimus, a man of great love, whom I pray you by Jesus Christ to love and imitate. Blessed be the one who gave you such an excellent bishop and made you worthy of him.”

Paul writes our two letters around AD 60, Ignatius was martyred around AD 100. Assuming Onesimus was young when he escaped, he could very well be the 60 or 70 year old bishop of Ephesus who visits Ignatius in prison.

How’s that for a rags to riches story? The runaway slave becomes bishop, leaving him perfectly placed to make sure this tiny, personal letter made it into the collection we call scripture. It’s conjecture, but it’s not wild conjecture. If any of it is true, what a difference Paul made with this tiny little letter, not just for Onesimus, but for Philemon, and for us. That is the power of influence. Be the real deal, earn your chips, and pick your battle.

But wait a second. How can say in the private letter, “set Onesimus free” and in the public letter, “slaves obey your masters”? Because it’s not about principle, it’s about getting personal. In principle, Paul favors an orderly society, and he cannot imagine one without slavery. Personally, he loves Onesimus and he loves Philemon and he’s going to use every ounce of his influence to find another way.

Original work by Scott Ableman on a Creative Commons License

Think back to today’s Old Testament reading. God says, “I am like a potter, shaping a pot. If I don’t like how it turns out, I reshape it. If I say I’m going to punish you and you repent, I’ll forgive. If I say I love you and you rebel, I’ll punish.” God is not laying down immutable rules that you can apply regardless of context. God is giving you the message you need to hear so that you can become who you were meant to be.

So Paul doesn’t give the message we’d like to hear. He gives the one Philemon needs to hear. He doesn’t outlaw slavery. He creates enough trust and freedom and accountability that the person with the power can make a better choice. Today, we recognize slavery as evil, but their world, their way of life depended on slavery. Their imaginations were not big enough yet to hold God’s dream.

So God takes what is and he shapes it. First, it’s don’t abuse your slaves. Then, it’s don’t abandon your slaves. Then it’s, “Slaves, honor your masters.” Then, it’s a tiny, insignificant letter asking for a favor. First you are a master, then a provider, then a protector, then a friend, and at last you are a brother. Or look at it from the slave’s perspective. First you are an animal, then a valuable tool, then a prized possession, then a family fixture, and at last you are free.

Every one of those steps is an opportunity for influence, because we are all clay. 150 years ago, Americans still held slaves. 100 years ago, women couldn’t vote. 50 years ago, certain seats on the bus or at the lunch counter were whites-only. 50 years from now, what will they say about us? What new dream is God trying to cram into our tiny minds? We are clay, and we are still turning in the master’s hands.

If Onesimus represents labor and Philemon represents capital, then perhaps the reason we celebrate Labor Day this weekend is because Paul never sent his letter. Perhaps the reason an 8 hour work day had to be decided with clubs and guns and blood is because the church failed to influence wisely and well. They valued principle over people. They kept silent, or they took sides. Will we follow their example, or Paul’s?

Tagged influence, labor, laborday, labour, onesimus, philemon, slavery

Jun 24 2010

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Sermons

Father’s Day Sermon: Father’s Day Stinks

Title: Father’s Day Stinks
Text: Galatians 3:23-4:7
First Preached: First Congregational Church of Saugatuck

Father’s Day stinks. (Pull out rock) This rock represents an actual gift I gave to my father. I didn’t even jump for a cheesy tie, but literally gave my father a rock for Father’s day. I even heard a radio show running a contest to reward people for buying their dad the cheesiest gift possible. Americans spend 9.8 billion dollars on Father’s Day. Sounds great, until you hear that Moms get 14.6. Year after year, moms get spa treatments and jewelry while dads get ugly ties and soap on a rope. Moms get fancy dinners while dads have to cook something on the grill.

Then you go to church. On Mother’s Day, mom gets a flower and we’ll most likely hear a sermon about how wonderful moms are, and how we all need to love them more. On Father’s Day, no flower, and Dad’s get a sermon about absentee dads, deadbeat dads, and how dads aren’t pulling their weight.

Ok Dads, I’m on your side, here. Let’s be honest. Do you seriously want to wear a pretty flower today? We’re speaking in broad generalizations, but generally, dads are the authors of their own problems. I’ll be the first to admit it. I’m hard to shop for.

I don’t want people buying me clothes because they either don’t fit, or they’re not my style. Outside of clothes, if I want something I generally go out and buy it myself. If I haven’t already bought it, which means it’s probably expensive. And if it’s expensive, I don’t want you buying it because you’ll probably buy the wrong one. With an attitude like this, is it really a surprise if I get a rock?

Same thing goes for food. I don’t want to go to some fancy restaurant to eat tiny portions of healthy food prepared by a chef. I want a half-pound burger and a beer brat. Four times the calories for one fourth the money, grilled in my own back yard. At Father’s Day, I’m not just getting what I deserve, I’m getting what I asked for.

It starts at birth. Social scientists once recorded the sounds of an elementary school playground. When they analyzed the tapes, they discovered that girls use a lot of words. They verbalize frequently and use many words per sentence. Boys on the other hand barely use words at all. They primarily us grunts, yells, and one word commands.

Welcome to the great social science revelation of the 80s and 90s. Guys and girls are different! I know, shocking right? Body language specialists tell us that when women converse, they tend to sit face to face, but men sit side-by-side face to face is too confrontational. Studio execs know we’re different, that’s why they don’t make one movie for everyone. They have movies that go “boom” and movies that go “awwww.”

So when the Bible calls God “Father.” Does it mean he’s a man of action, not much of a talker, and likes to watch stuff blow up? No. Jesus doesn’t call God masculine. He calls God “Father.”

If we want to understand that, we have to put it in context. In the time of Jesus, there were two major theories about God. The first was that there were many gods, and they were basically people with superpowers. They were just as vain and spiteful as we are, but they could turn you into a newt. Your primary job was to avoid making them angry.

The other theory was that there was one god, but it was an impersonal, ultimate reality behind everything. According to this theory, we are like a dog tied to a moving cart. We can either run alongside the cart, or we can get dragged behind. Either way, the cart doesn’t really care.

The Hebrew God was different. It was singular, all-powerful and personal. This God made demands on your life and had plans for the world. It starts with Adam, then Noah, then Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It deepens with David and finds its fulfillment in Jesus, who calls God, “Abba.”

Jess and the kids were gone for about a week visiting family in Janesville. They came home Wednesday. I came home, opened the door, and I got hit with a double-barreled boy hug. They came running at me, arms wide, screaming “Abba! Abba!” Actually they said, “Daddy,” but that’s exactly what the word means.

That’s the feeling Jesus inspired with his choice of words. That’s the thing he said that so confused and infuriated the Pharisees. He didn’t call God “Lord” or “Almighty,” he said, “Father. Daddy.”

Jesus isn’t telling us that God is merely masculine. He’s saying God is powerfully personal. And he invites us into that personal relationship. That perfect relationship, between the one Jesus called Father and the one the Father called Son, is the very relationship we are invited to share.

Which brings us back, finally, the today’s reading. You guys were wondering if I was going to get there, weren’t you? Paul says that when our hearts cry out for our Abba Father, it is actually the Spirit of Jesus calling out within us. It is the proof of the Spirit that God is doing a new thing within us.

To explain the difference between our new life and the old, Paul uses the example of a trust fund baby. Say your dad owns a huge family business. You’re a smart kid, so you apply for a job there so that someday, when you’re all grown up, you can take over the company.

You’re the heir to the empire. You have big plans. You think that makes any difference to the 30-year veteran who has to train you? Nope. To your trainer, you’re just another minimum wage know-nothing. But if you put in the time and learn from your trainer, you’ll be ready for your inheritance when it comes.

According to Paul, your trainer is the law. You learn by trying to live it. You learn that you can’t do it. If we respect the spirit of the law, we have to admit that we fail. If we settle for just the letter of the law, we become hypocrites. We need help. We need forgiveness. That is a horrible pill to swallow, especially for us guys.

But it is the start of a new life, a life where there is no more Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. Power plays, be they religious, socio political, or physical, have no place in this life. Not that we all magically become the same, but that our differences find purpose in a unity without uniformity. In Christ we are free to live out our gifts.

At least that’s the idea. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there are a lot more women involved in church that men. That isn’t in “us” thing. It’s true in churches all over the USA. This would normally be where the man-bashing part of the sermon would start, but I already told you we’re not doing that today.

Why aren’t more men involved in church? The answer isn’t “Because men stink.” The answer, at least in part, is that church doesn’t make it easy for them to use their gifts. If we agree with the movie studios, that men are less verbal and more action oriented, then lets also agree that your average church service is about an hour of sitting still experiencing words.

Like Willy Nelson says, “He’s not bad, he’s just different.” We have our own gifts, and our own ways of showing love. Remember that rock I gave my dad for father’s Day? I put eyes on it and glued a piece of yarn for a tail, put felt on the bottom so it wouldn’t roll around. My Dad has had a lot of jobs in his life but every one of them has had a place on the desk for that stupid rock. He didn’t want flowers, or a diamond. He certainly wouldn’t want me deciding what king of power tool he was going to use. All he wanted was something he could see and touch to remind him that I love him.

If you give them a chance, guys can do amazing things. So today, I’m calling for the creation of a brute squad. There are a lot of things that need doing around here, and out there a lot of stuff to build, things to fix, and people to help. I want a list of guys. (Yes, ladies can sign up too, but I’m talking to the guys right now.) I want a list of guys I can call on to get stuff done. And since I know the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, I hereby create the first Brute Squad bylaw, that wherever we gather to do good in God’s name, there will be food and/or beverages. Downstairs in the Fellowship Hall, a list is waiting. It says Brute Squad Sign-up. If your name will soon be on that list, raise your hand.

Good.

The board of Deacons told me it wouldn’t be fair to sing a song for Mother’s Day unless I did one for Father’s Day too, so I tried to pick one the guys could get behind. It’s called “Our Father (The New Revised Edition).”

Tagged Dads, Father's Day, gender, men

Jun 03 2010

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Sermons

Memorial Day Sermon: God Has Blessed America

Title: God has Blessed America
Text: Romans 5:1-11
First Preached: First Congregational Church of Saugatuck

Original work by Mark Sardella

Every time I see one of those “God Bless America!” bumper stickers, part of me winces. I love America and I do want God to bless it. But… Let me show you what I mean.

“Tom, get me some more water.” Because Tom is a kind and loving soul, he actually stood up, but he hesitated. And all of you know why. Because it wasn’t a request. It was an order. It assumed a position of authority and it left him with bad options. He could submit and risk losing face in front of all of you, or he could refuse and risk offending me.

But if we say, “Tom, could you please get me a refill? I’m really parched up here.” What a difference! It’s just a few extra words, just a little extra time, but when it comes to God Bless America, we don’t bother, because it won’t fit on a bumper sticker, or maybe because we think we deserve it.

“God Bless America.”

Look around you. How many of you drove a car here today? We drove two! Over roads that are safe: no military checkpoints, no thugs charging “tolls”, no police demanding bribes. We just get in our cars and drive with no appreciation of the incredible complexity and harmony of the systems required to make it all happen.

And we arrive at church where the preacher is free to complain about the government, and you are all free to go downstairs afterwards and complain about the preacher. We have companies that make more money than decent-sized nations. We do things every day that 100 years ago would have been called witchcraft. Brothers and sisters, God has blessed America. Every day for over 200 years we have been blessed.

Of all those blessings, one of the greatest is the one we remember today. We live in a country founded, built, and preserved by people who put their lives on the line for others. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that they lay down their life for a friend.”

The Raised Bones of Arlington National Cemetery

Original work by Trey Ratcliff. www.stuckingcustoms.com

Like a tree standing tall over the graves of Arlington National Cemetery, the blessings we take for granted grow from soil enriched by sacrifice. But that tree would not grow, no matter the soil, were it not for the unearned gift of rain and sun from above.

A few might be willing to die for a good man, but one good man died for the ungodly. While we were still relaxing in the shade of a tree we did not plant, while we were demanding still more blessings from God’s generous hand, while still more men and women watered the earth with their blood, Christ died for us.

Since we have been made right through his sacrifice, we have peace with God, and we strive to create that peace here on earth. Because of his faithfulness, we stand in undeserved privilege, and we strive to share that grace with the world. Because of what he has done, we can take the long view.

When those around us demand blessings, we can give thanks. When we are stunned by all that we have received, we can give thanks. And when our hearts break for the sacrifices that have been made, for those who continue to put their lives on the line for us, we can give thanks.

More than that, we can rejoice, for we know that our trials build endurance, and endurance develops character, and character yields hope, and our hope does not disappoint, for the Spirit speaks in our hearts the truth of God’s love.

Only one question remains. If we have been blessed, and we can rejoice, then on this day of remembrance, how shall we live? We begin by accepting that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is the natural consequence of putting human beings in inhumane situations.

We’re not surprised that retired athletes live with pain. We’re not surprised when Muhammad Ali slurs his words. Sure, we’re sad. We empathize. But we’re not surprised. It’s accepted. It’s expected. We make allowances for them, because they willingly chose to step into a life that’s hard on the body.

Soldiers willingly choose to step into a life that’s hard on the soul. When you break a bone, sure it’ll heal, but it won’t be the same. You’ll carry the scar. Soldiers carry scars too, scars you can’t see, because the choices you have to make in a war zone scar the soul. One vet told me, “It’s the ones who don’t come home who are lucky, because they don’t have to remember.”

That doesn’t sound like blessings and joy to me. It sounds like someone who desperately needs the blessings and joy he broke his soul defending. Your job this week is to love two soldiers in practical, tangible ways: one who came home, and one who did not. If they have faced trials, help them find endurance. If they have endured, help them find character. If they have character, help them find hope. If they have gone past hope, into the presence of God, leave a flag or a flower on their stone, and say a prayer of thanks for the one who died and the one who died for all. And if you don’t know any, you can start with the ones on our wall downstairs. Those are ours.

If you accept this responsibility, say amen.

God has Blessed America by Rev. Robert J. Brink is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at RevSmilez.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at RevSmilez.com.

Tagged Memorial Day, PTSD, sacrifice, soldiers, veterans

God Must Laugh

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Memorial Day Sermon: God Has Blessed America

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