On top of Mt.Pisgah

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 10/26/14



Read Deuteronomy 34:1-12

How many of you have ever had the opportunity to go to Disney World?  Pretty amazing right?  My parents took me and my sister when I was little and I remember the magical feeling the place had as you enter from Tomorrow Land to Adventure Land in Magic Kingdom, or when you see the Giant golf ball as I call it in Epcot. Last year on our honeymoon Heather and I the wonderful opportunity to spend a day at Magic Kingdom, and I have to say it is amazing how special the place can be even as adults. Millions of people flood into this theme park every year, but I wonder how many of them actually know the history of Disney World.

            In 1955, Walt Disney opened Disneyland in California and that theme park took off. Quickly however, businesses around the area took advantage of all the tourists that were coming into the area, and shop after shop went up around the park, surrounding the beautiful park with ugly businesses signs and décor. Walt Disney hated this, and once he realized that only 5% of tourists to Disneyland came from east of the Mississippi, Disney had another idea. He was going to build a Disney World on the east coast. Disney did not want the same thing that happened to Disney land happen to this new theme park and so he scoured the country for large masses of land that he could buy, and he found that land in a swampy unwanted area just outside of Orlando. Walt Disney was a shrewd businessman however, this land he wanted to buy was cheap enough now, but if word got out that Disney was planning to build a theme park on this land, then the price would skyrocket and his dream of a Disney World would be in jeopardy. So Disney set up a bunch of dummy businesses and went around buying up all of the land. By the time people figured out what was going on, it was too late, Disney was ready to build his theme park.  He had a wonderful vision of making the Magic Kingdom, a park based off of Disneyland but with its own differences a well. He dreamed of another area in which you could seemingly travel the world and its cultures, which eventually became a reality in Epcot. Disney put so much work and effort, time and leadership into this great dream that he had,  but sadly he died in 1966 from lung cancer, before Disney world was completed. He never got to see his Magic Kingdom or his Epcot, and he did not get to witness the ways in which the park would evolve adding Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom over the years. Disney’s dream became a reality and more, and yet for all the work that he put into it, he never got to see it.

            It is heartbreaking to put our heart in soul in to something, and yet never see it come to completion. Nobody probably understands this better than Moses, because that is the situation in which he finds himself in today’s scripture. In our scripture we find Moses traveling up from the plains of Moab to the peak of Mt. Pisgah. There on that peak he can see all around him. At that moment God speaks to Moses an says, “Look there, that is the valley of Jericho,  and there’s Judah, and Gilead, and Manessah.” This is the promised land that I promised I would give to your descendants.”  You can almost imagine the excitement that Moses was feeling, he whole life’s journey was really leading up to this moment, and finally in his old age he has practically arrived. He could see the Promised Land that he had been dreaming of for years and years. But then God tells him, “I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.” What heartbreak, the people he had been leading are about to enter the Promised Land, but the faithful leader of them was not going to make. And sure enough Moses died, we are told that he died at 120 years, but his sight was unimpaired and his vigor not abated. In other words Moses saw and understood all that God showed to him on top of  Mt. Pisgah, but died and was buried just outside in the land of Moab. Moses was honored and wept over by the Israelite people, but eventually they left his body, and his burial site which is now unknown, and they continued on the journey.

            Mt. Pisgah seemed to be the perfect place for this happen. You can imagine that once you are at its peak, not only can you see where you are going but you can also see where you came from. Moses could turn around and be reminded of the remarkable journey that he lead. As he looked back over the wilderness he could remember that at one point in his life he actually lived a rather royal life; having been floated down the river and rescued and raised by pharaoh’s daughter. He could remember how that life of luxury shattered when he murdered the slave driver and how he had to flee for his life. As he looked off into the wilderness behind him he can remember his days as a shepherd and the day on which God spoke to him through the burning bush. He could remember his desperate pleas with pharaoh to let his people go, and he could remember the fear and devastation caused by the plagues. As he looked out at the clouds from Mt. Pisgah he could remember the faithful cloud of God that led the people across the Red Sea and then closed it behind them to set them free from pharaoh’s army. He could remember the people cry for food in the wilderness and how God provided Manna to eat. As Moses stood there on the peak of Mt. Pisgah I’m sure he was reminded of his time ontop of Mt. Horeb where he received from God the Ten Commandments, and  he can remember the shock of the statue of the golden calf that awaited him when he came down from that mount. As Moses looked back to the wilderness from ontop of Mt. Pisgah, he was reminded of his journey as a whole. He was reminded that at times no one believed him, at times the journey was almost unbearable, but that he continued on because he had a vision, he had a call from God of a Promised Land of milk and honey, and he was going to do whatever it takes to get there.

            As Moses stands on Mt. Pisgah and turns and faces the valley of Jericho, he can finally see that Promised Land that he has spent most of his life striving for. As he remembers all of the chaos that has happened in his life, as he remembers all of the hardships he had faced, he can now see right in front of him what it had all been for. That milk and honey is so close that he can almost taste, but sadly poor Moses never gets to taste the sweetness of the Promised Land. The great leader who held together this sometimes ungrateful and unsatisfied group of Israelites, never got to take a step into the Promised Land. It’s not fair. Shouldn’t someone who worked so hard, who was so faithful to God get to at least experience what it is that he had been working towards?  Sometimes, that’s just not the way it works. In fact as Christians, more than likely our fate will be a similar one to Moses’s. We will spend our whole lives as Christians working and serving the Lord, helping to build up and bring forth the Kingdom of God. We will put our heart and soul into this work of discipleship, we will keep focusing on the beautiful vision of the Kingdom come, but more than likely we will die before we ever see it actualized. One of the hardest parts about living a life in service to God, is that often we don’t get to see what comes out of the hard labor that we put into the Church and into the Kingdom of God.

            I think it is remarkable that this scripture falls on this Sunday of all Sundays. Later today we will be gathering together for our Charge Conference, and what is Charge conference really but a chance to travel up to the peak of Mt. Pisgah. It is a chance for us to stop in our journey as the church and look back and see exactly where it is that we have come from; but also an opportunity to forward towards that Promised Land, that Kingdom Come that we have been striving towards. As we ourselves stand upon our own Mt. Pisgah today we can look back and see where it is that we have come from. We can remember our struggles and our conflicts that we have faced. We can remember some of our frustrations with leadership in the church. We can remember all of the countless meetings and hours of service fulfilling our position as an officer of the church. Still, we can also remember the joys of vacation Bible School, or revival. We can celebrate in the ways in which we have reached out to our community and to our world. We also take time to remember all of those who do not continue the journey with us, and now from their labors rest. This charge conference, this Mt. Pisgah experience allows us to look back and remember where it is that we have come from, both the good and the bad, but it also reminds us that our journey is not yet complete.

            Why do we do what we do for Charge Conference? Why does the finance committee meet to plan a budget for the upcoming year? Why does the lay leadership and Nominations committee help to select officers for the year to come? Why does the Pastor parish relations committee meet to review how things are going between the pastor and churches and make recommendations for the coming year? Why do we audit our books, or double check the actions of our trustees? We do it all because our journey is not yet complete. We do all these things because we are still working towards that Kingdom Come. Now and then we are given little glimpses of what that Kingdom will look like, but we have not yet experienced what it will look like in its completion. Sadly the truth is that for all of this work that we put into serving the Lord, for all of the blood, sweat and tears that we have put into this church we will likely not see what our labors have wrought.  We are almost all like farmers. We have dug up the ground, and boy was some of that ground hard to break. We have scattered the seeds in the mission fields and covered them for safety. We come and continue to water the seeds, we come and pull the weeds that would threaten the future of those seeds, and we might get to see a little sprout poke its head out of the ground, but rarely will we see the fruits of our labors in its fullest. That is just the sad truth of being a disciple of Christ, it’s a sad truth of being of member of the Church, of the body of Christ; we will work our whole lives in service of God, we will spend our lives serving the church, and like the little sprout, like Moses’s Mt. Pisgah experience, we will sometimes get a glimpse of what it is that we are working towards; but rarely do we experience it for ourselves.

            This is a painful message to the world, but I think that it is a message that makes us as Christians special. This world wants instant gratification, this world wants to work and immediately reap the benefit of their work for themselves. As Christians though, we do not work for ourselves. We do not work for our own benefit, we don’t even work so that we may be saved. We work because we know that through the power of Christ, this broken world can be redeemed. We work because Christ has promised us a new heaven and a new earth in which all things are made new. We work out of hope; not a hope for ourselves, but a hope for the entire world that is given to us through the power of and Lordship of Jesus Christ.

            So when we have that Mt. Pisgah experience, when we come to the point in which our journey is about to end, what do we do? Well, we talked about Disney earlier, and so I’d like to take my advice from a Disney movie. In the movie the Lion King, the King Mufasa sits on top a mountain with his son Simba looking out at the Land before him and says, “Look Simba, everything the light touches is our Kingdom. A King’s time as ruler rises and falls like the Sun. One day Simba the sun will set on my time here, and will rise with you.”  This scene  really is very much like our scripture, with God showing Moses the light hitting the Promised Land, but reminding him that his time has come. Though we are not kings this scene reminds us that the Kingdom of God is before and that we are striving towards it, and yet the ebb and flow of life means one day the light will set on us, and rise on another. So when you are faced with your Mt. Pisgah experience, when you know you  have come to a point in which you will not get to see the fruits of your labors, my advice for you is to invite someone to share in it with you. That though the sun may eventually set on you it may continue to shine on those your have paved the path for. Though Walt Disney died,  others who were inspired by his vision made Disney World what it is today. Though Moses did not get to cross over into the Promised Land, he chose Joshua, a faithful servant to lead the people into Jericho. Though we might never get to see the fruits of our labors, when you are climbed that peak and sit ontop of Mt. Pisgah, looking behind to see where you have come from, and looking ahead to see the future of the Kingdom of God, bring someone with you, so that even when your journey and your labor ends, the work that you started and the goal that you strive for still remains. 

Loving Alike

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 10/19/14

Read Philippians 4:1-9

This week the Vatican and Pope Francis made an announcement that seemed to have sent ripples through the Catholic Church. Pope Francis said, that homosexuals may have “gifts and qualities to offer” the church. This small statement has both liberal and conservative Catholics in a tizzy. Conservative Catholics believe that the church are falling away from their stances and are letting sin enter into the church, Liberal Catholics cry out that this statement does not do enough to fight the injustice done to homosexuals by that hands of the Church. Nevermind that this statement did not change the doctrine of the church, nevermind that Pope Francis was just commenting on the sacred value of all life; this small short phrase has the Catholic church divided.

            But let’s not act like the Catholic church is the only denomination that has to deal divisions on ideology. As we all know our own United Methodist church struggles with divisive issues all the time, including this issue of homosexuality. But it’s not just this issue but a long list of both social and theological issues. Abortion, Stem Cell Research, War, Health Care, Uranium Mining, Itineracy, apportionments, worship music, liturgy; get people talking about these issues at Annual Conference and just watch the arguments begin. How are we supposed to be the Church, how are we supposed to be the arms and legs of God when we find ourselves so often in disagreement with one another?

            One of our biggest problems is that we as Christians today act as if this is the first time the church has ever faced these types of issues. We can look all throughout history to see the Church struggling with many of the same types of things, but more importantly we can even look back to the Bible and see it happening within the pages of this Holy book.  In fact, when we stop to really think about it, Almost all of Paul letters that we have in our Bible are a response to some conflict that is going on in the Church. 1 Corinthians deals with different leaders believing their gift is the greatest, Thessalonians deals with a group who is getting restless in waiting for the second coming, Galatians  deals with  Jewish and Gentile relations, and here Philippians deals with…. Well what does Philippians deal with?

            This whole time we’ve been talking about becoming a disciple of Christ, about becoming more like Christ. We have talked a lot about the attitude of humility that was in Jesus, and should be in us as well, but one thing we have not mentioned is why it is that Paul is writing this letter in the first place. Why would he take his time while in jail awaiting trial, to write this letter to the Philippians? Honestly the first three chapters of the book do not give us much of a clue to the reason for this letter, which is a little odd for Paul. As we turn to the final chapter of this letter however it begins to make a little more sense. Paul writes, “I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.”

            We finally start to see why Paul is writing; two leaders of the church Euodia and Syntyche seem to be having some sort of disagreement. Just a side note, but if you need proof of women in the ministry in the Bible here is just another example, because these two women are important enough in this church that the disagreement between has  drawn the attention of Paul. And yet it seems as though this disagreement between the two women is not necessary that severe. This is not the full blown catastrophe that was the church in Corinth, this is not the hostile, divisive battle that we find in Galatia. This seems to just be a disagreement of some sort. Usually when Paul is lashing out against leaders of a church he is  kind enough not to name names, so Paul naming these women kind  of tells us that neither of them have done anything really wrong, that he still considers them faithful servants, and yet he is trying to address a disagreement.

Humans disagree; I guess that’s just part of our nature, maybe it part of our free will. You and I will not see eye to eye on everything, we will disagree on some issues, some of which will be close to our hearts. The real question is, in the midst of these disagreements, when we have these conflicting opinions, how can we still be the Church?

            This seems to be the issue that Paul has really been addressing throughout this whole letter, without our even realizing it.  Instead of some treatise about the importance of love and spiritual gifts like he gave the Corinthians, here Paul follows a simpler route. This whole letter has been talking about having the mind that was in Christ, but when we say mind we don’t mean knowledge, but rather more like the attitude that was in Christ. Hopefully you have caught on to this message, but the attitude of Christ that we are supposed to have is an attitude of (let them answer) humility. We can be the church in the midst of  disagreements and disputes when we take on this attitude of humility. When in our differences we are still of one mind in Jesus Christ.

            Sadly this attitude of humility is something that seems to be foreign to many Christians. This attitude of humility has even become counterintuitive to the ways in which many Christians and church function today.  Too often instead of acting like people on a journey striving to grow closer to God, we act more like people who have it all figured out and have to prove we are right to those who disagree.  I am not excluding myself from this list, as I know that I fall into this trap far too often as well. So many times now our differences and our disagreements become such a divide for us that our egos and our pride stop us from any true form of transformative ministry.

            Sometimes our disagreements become so ridiculous that I imagine to the rest of the world we look a little something like the Twix commercials that have been playing recently. If  you haven’t seen these commercials, well the general premise is that Twix used to be one long chocolate bar made by two brothers, until one day both brothers refused to let go of their end of the bar and the Twix broke into two pieces. This created a divide between the brothers and so they go off making their own version of the candy; one brother making Left Twix, and the other brother making Right Twix.  And let me tell you these two companies were vastly different. Left Twix flowed caramel on cookie, whereas Right Twix cascaded caramel on cookie. Left Twix bathed in chocolate, while Right Twix cloaked in chocolate. Other commercials have followed, one has a kid who compares the cookie bar to the other factories bar he gets his mouth sealed with packing tape. Another commercial shows a co-worker asking his colleagues why they’ve never tried the other side’s cookie, and as he goes to eat that Right twix, a huge vacuum comes and sucks him up and shoots him out of the factory. My favorite however is the one where an aid comes and presents an idea to one of the brothers who is now much older. He says that the two bars are practically made in the same what and suggests a merger of the companies. After correcting the aid that the two bars are not made the same, the brother simply says, “I just don’t like the way they carry themselves.” What is great about these commercials is the ridiculousness of the division. Both companies think and view themselves and what they do as being different, but in the end they are producing the same product.

            In the midst of all of our disagreements and divisions as Christians have we forgotten that what we offer the world is same thing? Lost in all of the arguments about church polity and structure, arguments of theology and scriptural interpretation, lost in all of the arguments in social justice and holiness is the fact that what we have to offer the world is a God who willingly emptying himself and became human, dying on the cross for our sins. What we all have to offer is a God who can wash us clean from our guilt of sin and offers us the hope of eternal life. What we have to offer the world is the Holy Spirit whose power can feed sick, comfort the afflicted,  heal the sick, and give strength and hope to those who feel as though they have nothing to live for. When we have all of this to offer to the world, then why do we get caught up in whether we bathe or cloak, whether we cascade or flow. Why instead of working together to offer the grace of God to the world that needs it so bad, do we say about our brothers and sisters, “I don’t like the way they carry themselves.”

            It all starts up here (point to the head). We have failed to have the mind that was in Jesus Christ, that attitude of humility. We hear that we are to have the mind of Christ and we act like that means we are supposed to know all that Christ knows. We take it to mean that we are to have a perfect understanding of God, of the world, of salvation, and even of heaven. Instead of becoming humble servants of Christ, we have become know it alls. We trust not in the mind that was in Christ, but rather our own minds. Now do not get me wrong, learning and studying about God and about our beliefs is not a bad thing. Paul even writes to the people of Rome saying, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” I’m sure most of you have noticed about me that I love to learn, especially I love to learn about God. I love to think through the meaning of Communion, the meaning of grace. I love to read about different interpretations of what Heaven is like or what the Kingdom of God will be like in its fullest. I love to see what our own tradition says about Baptism our the communion of the saints. Studying all of these things is important, but there has to be something more. These beliefs are only important if it points me back towards God. We like to take all of these things that we believe and wrap them up with a nice little bow and call it faith, but this is not faith. Faith is not acknowledging that God exists, faith is trusting that God will lead you. Faith is not a perfect understanding of the Gospel, faith is as Paul puts it, living a life worthy of the Gospel of Christ. When we begin to trust to much in our own mind and not the mind that was in Jesus Christ, then we can begin to confuse ourselves with God.

            When we are able to shift our faith away from a pride in our knowledge, and put our trust in Christ and take on that mind, that attitude of humility that was in Jesus Christ, then even with our differences, we as Christians can be the church; we can offer the world something of true value.  For we hear in our scripture that there is a peace that passes all understanding, and it will guard our hearts and our minds. This peace through humility allows us to disagree and yet still be one in Christ.

            This doesn’t diminish the seriousness of our disagreements, in fact some of the disagreements that we have as Christians are pretty fundamental disputes.  Should infants be baptized or not?  Does the bread and wine or juice physically become the body and blood of Christ, and who is able to receive it?  Should homosexuals be ordained as clergy in the church?  These are some fundamental disagreements that Christians have with one another, and simply having an attitude of humility doesn’t make these disagreements go away. Having an attitude of humility doesn’t even necessarily mean that we should change our beliefs, though I do believe we should always allow room for the Holy Spirit to work.  Having the mind that is in Christ, having that attitude of humility means that as John Wesley says, “Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may.” Although we as Christians may disagree, can we not remember that all of us are simply trying our best to serve a risen Lord? Instead of focusing on whether the chocolate is cascading or coating, instead of simply looking at our brothers and sisters and saying, “I don’t like the way they carry themselves” let us look at them as those who are offering to the world, the God of love. When we do this we may truly find that peace that surpasses understanding, for though we may not think alike, we can love alike. We can be of one heart, and of one mind, the mind that was in Christ Jesus.

Pressing On

 Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 10/12/14

 

 Read Philippians 3:4-14

 

How many of you have ever watched the show “The Biggest Loser”?  I know the name sounds a little mean, but what happens on this show is actually pretty awesome. For those who haven’t seen the show, people who are severely overweight or obese volunteer for months to be part of a weight loss camp where they exercise vigorously daily and learn nutritional alternatives to what they have been eating. At the end of the show the person who has lost the greatest percentage of body fat becomes “the biggest loser” or in other words the winner of the competition. While this show has been on the air for quite a while, this year they are doing something a little different. This year they are calling the show “The Biggest Loser: Glory Days” and the people who participate are actually former athletes and models. It is really shocking to see people who used to make a living off of the abilities of their bodies now hundreds of pounds overweight. It almost makes you want to ask how is that possible? How can former NFL, WNBA, and Olympic players be this overweight. How could somebody who used to train on a daily basis, who would put their bodies to their limits regularly, who I watched perform at the highest levels on Sunday afternoon, how can they now be more out of shape than me? I think that more than ever, this show reminds us of the dangers of complacency. It reminds us that we cannot afford to stop and boast about what we have accomplished. It reminds us that just like the care of our bodies is a constant struggle, the care for our souls is constant as well.

            Paul addresses this issue of complacency in our scripture for today, but diving right into that section would be jumping the gun a little. We need to first see how it is that Paul gets us from our message from last week, to this danger of complacency. If we remember last week, we focused on what is the crux of this letter to the Philippians; that is that in order to become a disciple of Christ, we must have the same attitude as Christ, that is humility.  In other words just as Christ who is God, emptied himself for our behalf, for us to be a true disciple, we must be willing to empty ourselves for Christ. When we truly humble ourselves before the Lord, something amazing happens. Slowly our heart and our souls and our minds become more aligned with God. We become closer to God, and in turn our actions will become more Godlike. It is amazing the transformation that comes from this life of discipleship.

            One of the great dangers of this life of discipleship is that we can begin to boast about our transformation.  It begins innocently enough, usually it begins with a truly humble want to share the good news of Christ, but over time pride sneaks and our story becomes less of what God has done for us and becomes about what we have done. We’ve all seen it before, the recovering alcoholic that goes from celebrating their own sobriety to judging all who drink anything at all. The person who through grace has become financially stable who then rails against all the poor and homeless who just aren’t working hard enough. Often times it’s not even as drastic as that, in fact one of things that drives the most people away from the church, are the members who act as though they have it all figured out, you know the whole holier than thou approach.

            Paul warns us about the danger of boasting in our faith. It’s actually kind of funny, the way that Paul makes his point about the dangers of boasting, is by out boasting everyone else! Paul says, “If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more:  circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” For Christians today, it is hard sometimes for us to understand exactly what it is that Paul is boasting about, because we forget the struggle that the early church went through. This usually begins with the fact that we forget that Jesus was himself, Jewish. What he read was the Hebrew Scripture, he often quoted the psalms and the prophets. He sat in discussions with the other Rabbis and the chief priests. He participated in the Jewish holidays such as Passover. Jesus was Jewish. And so after Jesus died, there was a wide belief the followers of Christ must first be Jewish, including being circumcised. There was a great debate about this, but even those who fought for the Gentiles to be part of the movement, realized that a special allowance was being made for them, they were being added to the family, the stories and history of what we call the Old Testament was not their history.

            With this going on in the background, and while writing to probably a large group of Gentiles, Paul reminds them, if there is anyone who should boast it should be him. He is circumcised. He is part of the tribe of Benjamin, one of the tribes of Israel, meaning that he is 100% Jewish. This is a reminder to the people of Philippi that he shares the Jewish history with Christ, and that most of them do not. And yet he goes over and beyond this. He says not only am I Jewish, I was a Pharisee. The Pharisees were known for their strict adherence to the scripture and for their deep devotion to the Law. In other words Paul is saying that not only is he Jewish, but he is part of an elite group, one of strict discipline, and that even in this group he was one of the most zealous. Paul really puts the people of Philippi in their place.

            The beauty though is that his boast isn’t a true boast, but an opportunity to teach about the humility that he talked about in the previous chapter. He says, “ Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” Paul says that everything that he has to boast about is nothing, because the greatest thing of value to him is knowing Christ. Paul even says that he regards all of these things as rubbish, which in all honesty our translations of the Bible have softened the harshness of what he said. The words Paul uses to describe these things he boasted about is actually closer to feces, or excrement, or in today’s vocabulary it would be a little four letter word that I’m not bold enough to say this morning. Everything that Paul has to boast about is worthless, because of the value of knowing Christ Jesus.

            This is the essence of the humility of discipleship. That nothing compares to following Christ. But Paul lesson on boasting goes much deeper than this, because what happens when we become true disciples of Jesus Christ? What happens when we truly take on the attitude and the mind that was in Jesus? If we are truly striving to follow Jesus, to be more like Jesus, then we should expect for great things to happen through the power of Christ. We should expect to be able to feed the hungry, we should expect to be able to heal the sick, we should expect to eat with the sinners and tax collectors and for them to join us in the journey with Christ. I’m not making this stuff up, look at the book of Acts and see the success that the true disciples of Christ had. When we take on the attitude that was in Christ, when we truly put God and neighbor before ourselves, we will see results. It is why our conference does this whole vital congregations thing, because when you are active in worship, when you are bringing new people in, when you are active in mission, and when you take more time to grow in discipleship then you will see results. You will see growth and vitality.

            But what do we do with this success? This is really the next question of discipleship. Once you have experienced success, what do you do? Do we look and see new members in the church and stop and boast about it. Do we pat ourselves on the back for the energy that the children are bringing to the church? Do we congratulate ourselves for the wonderful amount of money that we have given towards mission and outreach? I think you know what the answer is going to be, no. “I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”  All of this is regarded as rubbish, in order that we may gain Christ. We regard everything a loss because of the value of knowing Jesus.

            At first, I think it is easy to misunderstand what it is that Paul is trying to say. Paul isn’t  telling us that new members, or a children’s ministry, or mission giving is a bad thing, I don’t even think that Paul is saying that here Jewish lineage or zealous lifestyle is bad. What Paul seems to be stressing is that what we have done does not compare to what Christ is doing. He is stressing that sometimes success can be our biggest hindrance in ministry. We can do something well and then instead of celebrating the ministry being done and moving on, we stop and we boast about it. We become complacent, giving is good enough, attendance is good enough, the children’s ministry is doing good enough. When we become satisfied with the way things are, when we stop and boast about what we have done instead of humbling walking forward with Christ, the we have missed the mark. Paul is right at that moment, then we should count it all as loss, if our success distracts from the true mission of following Christ, then it rubbish, excrement, it is....

This is why Paul goes on and says, “Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” We as Christians have a heavenly call of God, we are called to be followers of Christ. That means that our goal is not to boast about what we have accomplished, but to continuously press on towards the goal, to press on in our walk with Christ, to press on towards that goal of being perfected in love. We are called to press on. This term press on is a term that Paul uses a few times in this passage, and it’s a term that is all too familiar to anyone has been mountain hiking like Heather and I did a couple weekends ago. That weekend we had a goal, we were going to make it to the summit of Sharp Top at the Peaks of Otter. Unfortunately, nobody had quite communicated that to our bodies, so about a mile into our trek, we exhausted. We stopped, there was a beautiful clearing, in which we could have called it quits; we could have celebrated getting that high up and appreciated the view we had, but we pressed on towards our goal. Later in the hike we got to a crossroads where we were staring at a steep climb to the summit, or an easy walk to another overlook. We could have taken the easy route and gotten a beautiful view, but we pressed on toward our goal and finally we made it and oh was it worth. The rolling mountains were breathtaking, but if we had stoppe we would have never had that experience.

            Our journey as disciples; our journey in following Christ will bring us to many moments both individually and as a Church that will give us the chance to stop and boast. An while we can celebrate what the Lord is doing in our midst, we should never stop pressing on. Not just for the sake of it but because of the heavenly call each of us has received; and because knowing God, walking with God, surpasses everything. Complacency is a great danger in the church, and there is no time for boasting. A church can almost become like the contestants I talked about on “The Biggest Loser.”  They spent hour after hour, day after day preparing their bodies to be the best, to be pro athletes, to be models and they were successful; but it just goes to show that if we stop pressing on towards the goal, then it is all for loss. Our church has done some wonderful things, but if we keep pressing on, if we don’t stop to boast but continue on in our humble service of Christ, if we continue on the path we call discipleship, then imagine all that is possible through the grace of God. If we simply keep pressing on towards that heavenly call, then imagine the view from the summit, a view of the Kingdom of God, and a place to rest from our labors.

           

Be Like Christ

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 10/5/14



Read Philippians 2:1-13

 In the nineties there was not a more dominant basketball player in the world then Michael Jordan. In fact Jordan is arguably the greatest player to ever play the game. This dominance on the court and the grace in which he did it, led to many all around the country looking up to Michael Jordan, trying to emulate him, trying to be like Mike. In fact this phrase “be like Mike” became a craze in nineties as well. Companies such as Gatorade used the slogan to convince people that if they practice and drink Gatorade they too can be like Mike. In the late nineties a kids movie called “Like Mike” was even made playing on this popular phrase. I guess it is just normal as human beings when we see greatness, to want to be like it.

            As Christians we are called to greatness, we heard a couple weeks ago Paul telling us to live our lives in a manner worthy of the Gospel. We learned about the great privilege it is to serve God, and in responding to this great privilege we are called to greatness. We are called to strive towards Christian perfection, and yet as humans we need an example, we need something to strive towards, something to emulate, something to help us understand how it is we are supposed lead our lives. For us as Christians, we have to look no further than Christ for that example.

            Our passage for this morning is the essential point to understanding all that Paul has to say here in his letter to the Philippians. Sometimes called a hymn for its poetic language, this passage has inspired and baffled Christians for centuries. In fact many of the early church fathers used this passage in their defense of the divinity of Christ. Paul tells us here in the second chapter of the book that Christ was in the form of God prior to his existence on Earth but emptied himself and became human. Throughout the Gospels we hear of Jesus referred to with many titles, Son of Man, Son of God, Messiah, but other than maybe John’s prelude in which the Word becomes flesh we do not see many texts talk about the divinity of Christ as explicitly as it is discussed here. Christ is both human and divine.

            Which then might give us a bit of a shock then when we hear Paul’s words, “ Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”  Paul reminds us that we are not only supposed to be like the Son of Man, we aren’t only supposed to be like the savior of humanity, the one in which we are to emulate is God, we are supposed to be like God. Being like God, wow, what an amazing call, but what an amazing challenge. There are so many characteristics of God to try and follow. God is love. God is just. Maybe we know it from one of our dinner blessings but God is great and God is good. When we as humans begin to dream of following those characteristics, when we dream of being like God, too often it has turned into failure. I mean the fact that we are even here in this state of sin is because Adam and Eve couldn’t resist eating from fruit that would make their minds more like God’s.  Again later in Genesis we find the people trying to ascend to the lofty space of God building a tower in Babel to reach the heavens, and from it a once united people we scattered across the globe with different languages unable to understand one another. We as humans have no troubles trying to ascend to greatness, we have no trouble picturing ourselves being like God, Our need for power and control lends itself perfectly for these aspirations, as I said it is what got us in trouble in the first place.

            But there is a reason I do not call our sermon series on Philippians “Being like God” for while Jesus is fully God, he is also fully human. Christ gives us the example of how as humans we can be more like God. That is why Paul calls us not to have the same mind as God the father, but instead to have the same mind as Christ. Whereas we as humans strive to be greater and greater, to ascend closer to God, Christ, who was already clothed in honor, descended, emptied himself and became human, taking on the role not of a great God but that of a slave, one obedient to death, even death on a cross. Adam and Eve’s reach for divinity and immortality led to the fall of humanity, but by lowering himself, Christ has raised humanity back up.  And later in the story we hear of the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost restoring the broken cause by the arrogance of the people of Babel. It was not some grandiose act of supreme power in which God’s people were saved, it was through the humility of Christ.

            When we are called to be like Christ, when we are called to strive towards having the same mind of God, we are not calling ourselves into the arrogance of our forefathers but into the humility that was shown to us by Christ. If we want to be like Christ we must first recognize that Christ humbled himself and sacrificed himself for our behalf. Our discipleship, our march towards Christian perfection must begin with that same sort of humility. We can not afford to begin our journey looking out for our own personal interest,  for our journey of discipleship is not primarily about us. We are not disciples so that we may obtain something, we are not even disciples so that me may be saved. When we begin to think like this we begin to make the same folly as Adam and Eve, the same folly as the people of Babel, the folly that we can build something, that we can do something to make ourselves greater, to make ourselves like God.  There is great irony this, that the more we strive to make ourselves great like God, the more we fall away,  but when we strive to humble ourselves as Christ did, when we put God before ourselves, when we put the needs of others before ourselves, when we see  injustice and oppression in the world and would do whatever it takes to change it, even at the cost of our own lives; then in lowering ourselves, we may be raised with Christ. When we stop putting ourselves first and put God first, when we take on the role of a disciple of Christ, when we empty ourselves as Christ did, then we find we gain more than we ever had to give. Maybe we do not gain money, maybe we do not gain an easy life, but we gain in becoming perfected in love, we gain in becoming more like Christ, and yes like Christ who was obedient to death, even death on a cross, but on the third day rose again, we too shall gain eternal life.