Full time faith, 12.29.13

Matthew 5:13-19

13“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. 14“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house.16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.


17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.


John 15:9-17

9As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.


12“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
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A lot of the ways we talk about Jesus focus on big moments. If you read the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicean Creed, two landmark statements of faith not only for the Presbyterian Church, but for the church universal, all they say about Jesus’ life is that he was “conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.”


Those are all important things, but they are not the whole story. Jesus lived a whole life between those moments. His incarnation, his becoming human for us was not just his birth. His sacrifice for us was not just his suffering and death on a cross. His life also tells us about God’s priorities and it shows us what it means to live a life in sync with God. That whole life is our example, not just the highlights.


There’s a feeling about our lives too that can go along with the highlight reel Jesus. We can think of our life mostly in terms of big moments too: our birth, graduation, our wedding, the birth of our children, et cetera. We might think of our faith journey in moments too: memories of Sunday school, confirmation, when we first claimed our faith, the moment we were “saved.” The big moments are important, they provide the outlines of our lives and give shape to something that often feels pretty squishy, pretty nebulous, but they are not the whole story or even the most important part.


The biggest part of our lives, and Jesus’ life is the little stuff. While the major moments are easier to pick out, ultimately, the day to day direction of our life is more important. While we can call single episodes defining moments with some honesty, the day to day details are what make the definition true or false. If I say I’m a Christian, then not just the big moments, but also the small, even unnoticed details should say the same thing. Otherwise, I’m a hypocrite, not a Christian.


Jesus didn’t just appear to die, and he didn’t just come to free us from sin in a flash so we could have a ticket to heaven. He came to show us what a faithful life looks like, to show us how to live here and now in this troubled, but also sacred world. If we follow Jesus, our goal is for our lives to match his life, not perfectly, not exactly, but in general. If Jesus is light in the darkness for us, we are called to be light in the darkness for others. As the Father sent Jesus into the world, Jesus sends us into the world now.


One thing we see when we look at Jesus’ life is that the whole thing fits together. In other words, Jesus lived with integrity. His birth in a barn was strange, but it wasn’t disconnected from the rest of his life. His birth was about taking a step from heaven to earth, and choosing to step into human history in a particularly humble way.


The rest of his life showed the same concerns; he lived a humble life and focused his ministry on the poor. His teachings talked about putting God first, about the last becoming first, about the care of others in all our decisions. He died a humble death like a slave or a rebel, hung between two thieves, one of whom he was welcoming into God’s kingdom. The big moments and the consistent teaching in Jesus’ life speak the same message: love God and love others.


Our goal is the same: not only to speak the faith of Christ but to live it as well. Not only to live our faith in our worship, our “saving moment,” but in our everyday choices, at work, at the bar, taking our kids to activities, in our family relationships.


The point of everything we do in church is not a moment when someone says, “I believe, sign me up.” The point is to produce and nurture lives of faithfulness that will touch other people with God’s love and grace. The goal is the overall trajectory and integrity of our lives. The goal is day in and day out loving faithfulness.


Our passages don’t use those words, but they do share that idea. Jesus tells his disciples they are the salt of the earth, which means they have to stay salty; they can’t just be salty at the beginning. He says they are the light of the world. That means they need to shine their light so people can see their good deeds and give praise to God. That means they have to do good deeds regularly, not just when people are looking. They need to shine light for others all the time, not just when it’s convenient.


The key word in the passage from John is “Abide.” That means, stay or remain. Jesus tells his disciples to abide in his love by keeping his commandments. That means we’re not just supposed to feel Jesus’ love at Christmas and Easter; we’re invited to rest in Christ’s love all the time. Along with abide, we see the word commandment; in other words, resting in Christ’s love isn’t passive, we don’t just receive love, we also actively seek it out through a life of obedience.


The other key idea is matching Jesus’ life of love. Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so I love you; love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus invites the disciples, he invites us, to take his life as an example for our lives. We see something special in Jesus. There’s something compelling, something inviting about his life; his story catches our attention. We’re called to be filled and transformed by his love, and to live that love for others in our own lives.


Jesus lets the disciples know that the love he’s talking about isn’t a warm fuzzy feeling, but full of courageous and sacrificial action: “No one has greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” He’s right up front with them that their love for others, like his love for them, is going to cost them dearly. The disciples at that table won’t all die for their faith, but they do all put love into action as the guiding commitment, the consuming passion of the rest of their lives.


That means we can expect hardship to be part of our life too. Our faith is going to cost us something. The life we live as Jesus’ disciples is not a spectator sport, but an active engagement with other people in a loving way. Different Christians live that out in different ways, but true discipleship can’t be just a small part of our life.


When I think about Christians laying down their lives for their friends I think about Christian Peacemaking teams. These are groups of Christians trained in non-violence, who go to unstable places in the world to support people there. Christian Peacemakers from the US travelled to Iraq before and after the US invasion to put themselves where US bombs were going and show that the church in the US cared.


Similar ministries happened in Columbia at the height of the violence there. Christian accompanists stood alongside Columbian peacemakers to show that they were not alone. These folks risked their lives to show the love of Jesus for those in harm’s way.


I think also about civil rights protestors in the American south who put their bodies on the line for freedom and dignity. I think about the women’s prayer movement that took to the streets to protest the Liberian civil war and to pray for peace. Through Christian and Muslim women praying, marching and working together, the Liberian dictator Charles Taylor was thrown out and hope for peace under a democratically elected president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is alive and well.


These are examples of Christians laying down their lives to put their faith into action. In many of these cases the ministries were not only moments of courage and risk, but also consistent commitment to a faithful struggle. The women of Liberia sang and prayed publically for peace for more than a year. Many of the civil rights leaders in the US put the rest of their lives on hold to commit to the movement. Accompanists in Columbia trained extensively and then moved to Columbia for months or even a year.


More to the point, these actions are the fruit of lives of committed discipleship. Even if they are highlights, they rise out of preparation and practice so that the Christians are ready to lay down their lives when the moment comes. The lives of true disciples are consistently about love; remarkable episodes of faithfulness are part of the wider story, not disconnected moments.


All that sounds very heavy, and discipleship is serious, life-changing business. It’s also joyful. Jesus says he’s giving his disciples this commandment to love so that their joy may be complete. Following Jesus is hard sometimes, but it’s also wonderful and freeing. When we decide to follow Jesus we are set free from chasing worldly success. We’re set free from the stress of measuring ourselves against other people in terms of wealth or accomplishments. We’re free to simply love other people, to serve other people, to listen, to care. We’re free to rest in the love of Jesus and to let that love shine through us to the world.


You and I have somehow been drawn to Jesus. Something about his story and his love attracts us, so here we are. In some way we have all decided to follow Jesus, but maybe we haven’t really committed to that yet. Maybe we’re still trying to follow with part of our life. If that’s the case for you, if you think of your faith as one small part of your life you probably feel stress and tension. You probably feel unsure about how your life fits together, and phrases like “complete joy,” don’t describe how you think about your faith and life.


Jesus calls us to follow, not as one activity we do, but as the core and meaning of our whole life. When we truly live as disciples that discipleship shapes everything else we do. Jesus tells us that’s going to demand sacrifice, but also that it’s going to bring us joy. So today I invite you to take another step in your commitment and choose to follow Jesus with your whole life. I invite you to bow your head and pray with me for a new birth of Christ within us, a new Christmas of commitment and discipleship and joy. Let’s pray:



Loving Jesus, you came to us as a baby born in a manger. Your whole life told the story of love and commitment, commitment to the world and love especially for the outcasts. You taught your disciples that love through your example and you invited them to follow. Help us follow you today and every day. Help us commit fully to your example of love, courage and sacrifice. Fill us with the joy of discipleship, the joy of community, the joy of an integrated life wholly dedicated to love. Guide our steps and claim our heart for your own. We pray these things in your precious name as we seek to truly make you our Lord, amen.

putting others first, 4.28.13

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Acts 4:32-37

³²Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. ³³With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

³⁴There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. ³⁵They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. ³⁶There was a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”). ³⁷He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

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Generally, I leave it up to personal preference whether you read along or not in the Bible. For today’s reading I’d recommend that you open the Bible and follow along. We’re reading from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 8 and you’ll find it on page 171 of the New Testament in the pew Bible. What I want to point out in this passage is that this letter is really a letter. It is part of an active correspondence between Paul and members of the church in Corinth, a community Paul founded and lived in for a year and a half. As you look at the passage you’ll notice that there are several places where there are quotations; the first instance is in the first line: “Now concerning food sacrificed to idols, we know that ‘all of us possess knowledge.’”

            Scholars believe that these quotes were from a letter Paul received from Christians in Corinth. They either made statements or asked questions that Paul is directly responding to. We do this a lot when we’re writing emails to each other. We’ll often copy and paste quotes from the person we’re replying to, and Paul does the same thing here.

           

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. ²Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; ³but anyone who loves God is known by him.

⁴Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists,” and that “there is no God but one.” ⁵Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords— ⁶yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

⁷It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. ⁸“Food will not bring us close to God.” We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.

⁹But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. ¹⁰For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? ¹¹So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. ¹²But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. ¹³Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.

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            It’s easy to feel like the stories in the Bible are so old, that things were so different then that the message doesn’t apply now. We feel like they were closer to Jesus because they lived a long time ago. Something about the distance in time makes it seem like they achieved feats of spiritual power we can’t even dream of today.

In reality, though, people of that time were a lot like us. They worked hard to support their families. They worried about their kids and their finances. They thought about how to succeed in their business or how to impress their supervisor. They sometimes argued with their neighbors or disagreed with their spouse. Like now, being a Christian was part of a person’s story; they also had other roles in life that sometimes supported and other times challenged their identity as a Christian.

Paul is getting at that conflict in the passage we just read from his letter to the Corinthians. In the first century, the culture overall was pagan. Judaism was a well recognized, minority faith, but most people, including many who weren’t especially religious, were pagan. Christians made a choice to be different.

The culture as a whole was religious, and religious in a way Christians rejected, so it was a challenge to be a Christian and a member of society at the same time. The particular issue Paul is talking about in this passage is meat sacrificed to idols. This passage is part of a longer section about meat and idolatry that takes up the next three chapters. We only have time for this part t today, but Paul’s argument will make more sense if you read from the beginning of chapter 8 through the first verse in chapter 11 when you get home.

This is a challenging concept for us now since pagan worship isn’t an issue anymore. Then, however, most people were pagan and much of the social life of the city was built around pagan festivals and pagan temples. Even more than now, life was social, and a person’s opportunities had a lot to do with whom he or she knew and how they cultivated those relationships. For members of the church, especially those in business, pagan celebrations would have been tempting networking and social opportunities, even though they didn’t worship those gods anymore.

The folks writing to Paul argue that since they know that the pagan gods aren’t really gods, they can go to their temples without betraying their faith. In chapter 10, Paul goes on to argue that this isn’t really true because God demands our full allegiance, so any kind of worship of other gods is off limits. Here his argument is about how going to the temple might hurt the faith of others in the community, so we’ll keep our attention on that part.

The Corinthian church was a mixed congregation. While most Christians in Corinth and elsewhere were poor, a few were wealthy and some were middle and working class. Some of the divisions about religious questions had a lot to do with economic situation or education level. Those with more education seemed to think of themselves as above pagan superstition and looked down on others who didn’t know as much. For philosophically minded Corinthians, knowledge meant freedom from superstition and from being enslaved to the physical world.

Paul certainly valued education too, but knowledge wasn’t the most important thing for him. As he puts it at the beginning of the passage, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” We aren’t saved by what we know, but by God’s love in Jesus Christ. And we don’t grow in faith by showing off our knowledge to others, but by loving other people.

Faith isn’t about getting the right answer to a theological or academic question. When we’re making a decision about how to act, the most important question is what is most loving and most beneficial to the community.

The question at stake here isn’t just whether or not it will compromise my faith to go to a pagan temple, the more important question is whether it could lead someone else in the community down the wrong path. For us pagan temples aren’t a temptation, but the principle is still important. I see this at work everywhere. In fact, this section of First Corinthians is a huge part of how I think about being a Christian. So let’s think about some modern examples.

Our culture is so much about our rights, but Paul calls us to look instead at how we can help others. We think that we have a right to speak our mind, and that’s true. But we also need to think about how what we want to say might impact others. That’s worth thinking about in terms of avoiding hurting someone else’s feelings as well as hurting someone else’s faith.

It’s important to bring faith outside the walls of the church, including places like the Boulevard. At the same time, people are watching. While I don’t have a problem with alcohol, many people do, so it’s important for me to watch my behavior if I’m leading a church discussion at the Boulevard so I don’t trip someone else up.

It’s the same thing with going to church. Believe it or not, your friends and coworkers are looking at you to see what it means to be a Christian. Maybe you are spiritually strong enough that you don’t need to be in church regularly. But if your friends see you putting other things ahead of church on your priorities list, that’s going to make them think church isn’t important and that they don’t need to make time for it.

It’s important in church too. Maybe a certain style of music or prayer or sermon isn’t your favorite. While I do want to know about that so I can plan worship that works for everyone over the course of the year, we have to make sure everyone is fed spiritually. And we need to put folks struggling the most first in that respect. Decision making in the church isn’t about earning a bigger vote by working hard; it’s about working together to build up the community

That means church is the opposite of a meritocracy where the people with the most skills and strength dominate. We’re supposed to be an upside down economy where we think most about what other people need, especially the newest or weakest members of the faith, and then later on about what we want. Ann Philbrick, who did our leadership training for New Beginnings put it well. She said, “Mature believers are willing to be inconvenienced for the sake of the gospel.” That means if something we’re doing here is reaching new people for Christ, but it’s not your favorite, we need your support anyway.

That doesn’t mean grinding yourself into the ground with church stuff you don’t enjoy. Joy is a huge part of following God’s calling in our life and God has given you your gifts and interests for a reason. But it does mean thinking about what other people need as well as what we want.

A lot of people think about religion as a bunch of rules they have to follow, and that’s not right either. Paul gives us a better way forward. It’s not about following an old set of rules or doing what other people say we should do, but it’s also not just doing what we want either. Being a Christian means following Jesus Christ and being part of a community that is bound together in love. And that means other people are just as important as we are. So when we think about our choices, the question isn’t so much “What do we have to do?” or, “What do I want to do?” Instead, maybe the best question is, “How can I love my neighbor with this choice?”

That’s not the same as, “What does my neighbor want me to do?” If we think about the example of going to the pagan temple, maybe our neighbor wants us to go to the temple so they can feel alright about doing it too. The point isn’t making everyone happy in the short term. It’s not about the lowest common denominator. It’s about contributing to an atmosphere where everyone can be their best, where everyone can grow in faith, where it’s easier to do the right thing.

That means pushing ourselves not to make the easier choice but the choice that reflects our faith most clearly. Most of all, it means putting our community before ourselves. That’s what we see in the brief snapshot from Acts that Sally read a few minutes ago. Luke tells us that the believers were so committed to their community that they sold their possessions so everyone would have enough.

We know that this wasn’t the case for everyone in the church in the first century. Actually, in the very next chapter of Acts Peter tells members of the community that they have a right to their property, but they have to be honest. The point of sharing this vision from Acts isn’t so make us feel guilty about the fact that we don’t share anything now. It’s not about guilt, after all; it’s all about love.

Instead my point is to hold up a vision of a community where people love each other deeply. What would it be like to belong to a community like that? How wonderful would it be to care about each other enough to stop worrying about ourselves? How amazing would it be to think about what would bless other people most? What kind of community would encourage you to be your best? What would a church look like that invited your deepest commitment and encouraged the same from everyone else?

How can we build a church where we think about other’s needs ahead of our desires, not because we feel guilty, but because we love each other? Picture that dream church of commitment and joy and love. Allow that dream to grow in your heart and let’s start building the dream together.

Thanks be to God.

"Death to life" Easter, 2012

Luke 23:55-24:12

⁵⁵The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. ⁵⁶Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they went in, they did not find the body.

⁴While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. ⁵The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. ⁶Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, ⁷that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” ⁸Then they remembered his words, ⁹and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.

¹⁰Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. ¹²But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Romans 6:1-11

What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? ²By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? ³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

⁴Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. ⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

⁶We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷For whoever has died is freed from sin. ⁸But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

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            Jesus had been traveling for three years. He had healed and taught, welcomed outcasts and called sinners to repentance. Often huge crowds followed him to hear his comforting and challenging words.

Besides the crowds, Jesus had a core group of followers who went everywhere with him. Twelve leaders, called apostles were the most famous, but there were also others Jesus sent out in his name to teach and heal. Other disciples supported and cared for Jesus in his ministry, especially many women.

            Jesus and his followers started to make their way to Jerusalem, the capital of Jewish life and worship. Along the way, Jesus told his disciples that he would be killed in Jerusalem, but that he would rise again. The disciples knew enough to be sad about that prediction, but they didn’t really understand, even though Jesus repeated it three times.

            When they got to Jerusalem, a huge crowd welcomed them with shouts of praise and songs to crown a king. Israel hadn’t really had a king in 600 years, but the people’s hope for someone to trust and follow hadn’t died. A welcome like that must have been a high point for the disciples. All Jesus’ talk about the kingdom of God seemed to be coming true. On top of that, the excitement of the big city at festival time thrilled these small-town fishermen.

            Then things went horribly wrong. The religious leaders had never liked Jesus. They worried about his teachings and were downright terrified of the attention he might bring from the Roman rulers. They also worried that Jesus’ teachings could weaken their power. As Jesus’ ministry continued, the conflict with the religious leaders got more and more intense, until they finally decided to kill him.

            At the Passover supper, Jesus told his closest friends that one of them would betray him and the rest would run away. Despite their passionate denials, that’s exactly what happened on Thursday night when officers from the Temple came to arrest Jesus.

            A whirlwind of interrogation, trial and torture followed, and by Friday evening Jesus had died on a Roman cross and been buried. True to his prediction, the disciples ran away. A few women and a man named Joseph made sure Jesus was buried decently before sunset, and the women made plans to go back to the tomb on Sunday morning after the Sabbath was over.

            That morning, Jesus proved once again that he wasn’t interested in playing by the rules. He’d been surprising people since birth, and death wasn’t going to limit Jesus any more than tradition had. The women came expecting to find their teacher’s body, expecting to anoint him with spices as a sign of their love for him, a last expression of care. Instead, they found the rock door rolled away from the front of the tomb and no body to be found. 

            It’s a great story, but all that happened almost two thousand years ago, so what difference does it make for us today? That answer will be a bit different for everyone since faith is a bit different for each of us, but Paul’s words to the church in Rome ring true today: faith is about deep questions, life and death importance.

            Christian faith is about following Jesus. Like the first disciples, we never do it perfectly. We misunderstand and fall short of our calling. A lot has changed over the two thousand years since the women and Peter found Jesus’ tomb empty. The early church was surrounded by threats from religious leaders and the Roman Empire. Following Jesus was very obviously a matter of life and death.

In the US in the 21^st century, we face different threats. We’re free to worship or not, and we’re free to believe whatever we want to. I thank God for our freedom, but I worry that the Christian majority in this country makes it easy to follow Jesus halfway and easy to forget that following Jesus is still a matter of life and death.

When we choose to follow Jesus we aren’t picking a club or a team or a style. We are choosing to join Jesus in his death. We are choosing to leave our sin and selfishness behind, to die to the world and begin a new life with Jesus. We are choosing to put Jesus first, to make him the center of our existence.

Faith can seem complicated and confusing. There are so many churches, so many opinions, so many points of view. Christians think different things about the Bible, politics, organization, money, family and everything else.

At the same time, faith in Jesus is simple because it means choosing to trust and follow Jesus. All the complications are second, and very distantly second. The point is following Jesus; everything else falls into place when we put Jesus first.