"The Lion's Song" (Reflections on The Magician's Nephew) Genesis 1:1-25

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 7/13/14

This morning we begin our sermon series focusing on C. S. Lewis’s  “the Chronicles of Narnia”  These are stories that as a child I loved, these books would let my imagination go wild as new worlds and creatures were introduced to me. It was in seminary that my eyes were once again opened to these novels.  I was taking a course on C.S. Lewis, and of course we studied many of his important personal and theological works such Surprised by Joy,   A Grief Observed,  The Screwtape Letters, and of course Mere Christianity. Surprisingly, in the class we actually spent more time on his fictional writings, including the Chronicles of Narnia, and it was there it began to make sense to me; these stories though fiction, speak to the truth of God and of Christian living. Over the next seven weeks we will look at each book, and I hope that your eyes are too opened to the wealth of knowledge these books have to teach us about God.

            This morning we begin not with C.S. Lewis’s first and most popular book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but rather with The Magician’s Nephew, a prequel to all the other stories.  This was Lewis’s preferred reading order,  and it makes sense because the Magician’s Nephew is a story that teaches us about the wonders of creation.  Our story starts out with a young boy named Digory who along with his mother have moved into his Aunt and Uncle’s house because his mother is deathly sick. As he’s there he notices that his Uncle acts very odd, and is often locked in his room for hours with only the sound of random laughter coming from behind the door.  One day, Digory and his friend Polly go on an adventure in the attic like area above the house, when they find a way to sneak into the Uncle’s room. The Uncle is delighted to see the kids and tricks Polly into putting on a ring, and the moment she does, she disappears. The Uncle explains that the rings are magic, one takes you to away, and one brings you back; but the Uncle was too cowardly and too proud to ever explore where they went for himself. The only way Digory could save Polly was if he put on a magic ring himself.

When Digory puts on the magic ring he finds himself transported to a strange woods, full of many pools of water. The kids decide to explore one of the pools and find that the pools are portals to different worlds.  The first world they encounter is a place called Charn, a desolate world, at the end of its days. There are no living creatures, just a great castle ruins, full of royal looking stone statues. In the middle of the courtyard there is a bell with an inscription tempting Digory to ring it. When Digory strikes the bell, it awakens an evil witch, and from there on in the story chaos ensues.  The kids try to escape from the witch using their rings, but the witch grabs them and it transported with them back to our world.  After the witch goes on a spree of destruction,  Digory, Polly, the Uncle try to use the rings once again to bring the witch back to the other world. They are successful in bringing her back to the woods and they go into one of the pools taking them to another world.

            As they come out of the pool they find that they are in complete darkness, they had entered into a world of nothingness. Suddenly they heard something, it was a voice singing, and soon other voices were harmonizing with it. As they listened to the song they noticed that above them the sky was suddenly dusted with stars.  Slowly a light on the horizon began to show and a sun had been born. As the light grows they are able to see a strange figure in the distance, it is a lion, and to their surprise the voice was coming from the lion.  The lion would sing and creation seemed to stem from the song. The song would become deeper and slower and  from the song mountains and trees appeared, and as the song sped up and became lighter, flowers and plants and streams popped up all around. Finally near the end of the song creatures of a kind, two of each, started to sprout up from the ground. The lion went to each animal and they touched nose to nose, and when the song was over the  lion cried out, “Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake.” The children had just witnessed something spectacular, they had just witnessed the creation of Narnia. 

            A story like this just stirs at our imagination, we start to picture in our minds the amazing possibilities of mountains and rivers and animals all sprouting up from the sound of a song. We try to start to even hear in our minds what the lion’s song might have sounded like.  There is such power and wonder behind a story of creation like this, and it can help us to remember the wonder behind the actual creation story that we have in Genesis. I think that we have become so familiar with this story that we fail to stop and appreciate the beauty of creation.  How often do we look out at the mountains or pass over the rivers? How often do we hear the birds singing and tend to the cows and horses in the fields?  How often do we watch the sunrise or the stars shine at night?  We interact with nature, with creation, every day and yet so often we forget to truly appreciate it. We fail to recognize that everything around us is because of the work of God. The fact we have day and night is because of God. The reason we have water to drink, or plants to eat is because of God. The reason that we are even here in the first place is because of God.

            It is easy to forget about the amazing nature of creation because it is all we have ever known.  All we have ever needed, all we could ever imagine has already been created.  We as humans now have simply been finding ways in which creation can be used.  It is pretty impressive the ways in which we as humans have used creation as well.  From a dark ashy material we call coal, we have extracted light and energy. From trees and from minerals found in the ground we have created not only dwelling places for ourselves, but entire cities for business and entertainment as well. From silicon we have made machines that can store, process and transmit information all around the world.  It truly is remarkable what we have been able to do with the fruits of creation.

            The wonders of industry and technology can however make us believe that we are greater than we are. We can start to become like Uncle Andrew from our story, who views himself as an amazing and noble scientist. He marvels at all that he has been able to create, he puts himself so much on a pedestal that he views himself more important than other creature. He sends poor like guinea pigs into the unknown worlds because they are not as important as he is. He even sends Polly and Digory into the worlds, because he is greater and nobler than they are. Uncle Andrew is a great creator, and yet our story teaches him and teaches us that we have really created nothing.

            Because imagine yourself like Digory, Dolly and Uncle Andrew in a world that is simply nothing. No light no trees, no mountains, no water, no animals. Imagine the vast nothingness, the hopelessness of that world, and then imagine seeing everything spring into creation through the voice of a lion. When you go from absolute nothingness to creation right in front of your eyes, you begin to realize how small we really are. All of those amazing “creations” that we as humans have made, and only an adaptation of what has already been created, but God creates out of nothing. Genesis starts out by saying, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,  the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.”  Darkness, nothingness, this is what God had to work with but just like the lion who sang and creation sprung from nothing,  God spoke and creation began. God said let there be light and there was light. God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” The waters separated and sky and oceans were formed. God spoke and vegetation grew all over the earth, God spoke and all living creatures inhabited the land. God spoke and male and female were created, created in the image of God.  We can lose the wonder of this story when it becomes too familiar, and we need to be reminded of the amazing fact that out of nothing God created everything. We as humans are not God, what we create is already created, and we ourselves are just a part of the whole creation story.

            And yet psalm 8 reminds us that we are special. “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them,  mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,  the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.” In the grand scheme of things we are reminded that we are really nothing. When we survey the amazing wonders of creation, “the work of God’s fingers” as the psalm puts it, we start to understand some true perspective. We can begin to feel small and insignificant; that we were only a day was spent on us out of the whole week of creation. We begin to look at our own abilities and understand that we really have very little power. We cannot create out of nothing, we are not creators we are the created. In that moment in which we feel like our lives don’t really matter at all, when we ask God, “who are human beings that you are mindful of them” we are reminded that despite our insignificant stature, God has made us just a little lower than himself, and we have been crowned with glory and honor. We have been given dominion over the works of God’s hands.  We are nothing, and yet we have been given everything. We have been given honor, and yet have done nothing to deserve it.

            This is the basis for the understanding of our lives as humans. This is the basis for our interaction with God, that we as humans are nothing special and yet God treats us as if we are a most precious possession. The Magician’s Nephew allows us to put is all in perspective. It allows us to imagine ourselves in the most spectacular occasion. This story helps us to imagine what that first act of creation could have really felt like. What it could have felt like for there to truly be nothingness, and suddenly from that nothingness to see life sprout up. It allows us  to imagine hearing the divine song or divine voice that brought it all into existence, for if you haven’t figured out the lion, whose name is Aslan, will be the metaphor for Christ and for the triune God.  This book allows us to put ourselves outside of the creation story and become witnesses, because as we read Genesis, we are not witnesses of creation, but rather we are part of it.

            This imagination gives us the appreciation for the works of the hands of God, and gives us perspective as humans. God spoke, and we were created.  We were nothing but a word on the lips of God, and now we crowned with glory and honor.  We must take this perspective to heart. We have been given dominion of the Earth by God and yet we do not deserve it. We failed our duties, we put ourselves as greater than God and yet God sent us the prophets to guide us back. We rejected and killed the prophets, and so God sent his only son. We killed Jesus Christ and yet his blood was used to wash us clean, and the power of the Holy Spirit was given to all those who believe. Time and time again have put ourselves above God, and yet God continues to love and forgive us. In comparison to God’s almighty power, we are insignificant, and yet God still chooses us to continue singing that song of creation.  It is time as Christians that we humble ourselves, and in lowering ourselves we may rise up to the glory the Lord has prescribed for us. We must finally acknowledge that creation is not something for us to consume, but to take care of. We must realize that dominion does not mean ownership, we did not create this Earth; God did out of nothing. Therefore just as God treats we who are nothing with honor and glory, we must too treat all that has been given to our dominion with that same honor. We must remember that those things which many seem insignificant to us, like us, were spoken out of nothing by the one who creates the great symphony of creation. Our job is simple, we must let that voice continue to sing, and join in harmony with its sweet, sweet sound.

Haters Gonna Hate (Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30)

Sermon as Preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 7/6/14

When I was growing up there was a phrase we used to say about people who criticize us. That phrase was “haters gonna hate.”  What the phrase meant was that people who are looking for something the criticize are always going to find it. It could be about the way you dress, you could show up to school in the nicest Ralph Lauren Polo or in my case in high school in the newest football jersey and Nike’s, and yet someone would criticize you for your brand of jeans. “Haters gonna hate.”  You could be in the upper percentile of your graduating class, hold a steady job six days a week on top of that, and yet still somebody would remark that you should have been involved in more extra-curricular activities at school. “Haters gonna hate.” And yet none of that compares to when you put on that dark shade of blue down in Durham, North Carolina. It doesn’t matter that the school used to be a Methodist school or that it still has a United Methodist Seminary. It doesn’t matter that the school is ranked highly in academics and that their student athletes are not only world class athletes but are also true scholars (unlike that other school down the road from it). None of that matters for when you put those four letters D-U-K-E across your chest, well haters gonna hate.

            The phrase haters gonna hate certainly did not exist in the time of Jesus, but if there was one phrase to summarize what Jesus was talking about in this passage it would be that phrase. As Jesus talks to the crowds in our passage for this morning, he points out all the ways in which the people have rejected messengers of God.  He first mentions John the Baptist and his ministries. Earlier in the chapter Jesus talked about John the Baptist was a prophet preparing the way for the Messiah. But John was rejected. The people did not like the message of repentance and preparation that John had to preach. John was too stern, to strict, too rigid. People would talk and criticized John because he did not drank and because of his long fasts. They thought that John was not one of them, he was an outsider, his views were radical and they did not have to listen to him.

John was rejected for his stern strict lifestyle, and so here comes the Son of Man. He is one of us. He drinks and eats with sinners and tax collecters. He touches the unclean. He comes speaking words of love and peace. This cannot be the Messiah, the Messiah will be a mighty warrior, the Messiah would not associate with sinners and tax collecters, This man Jesus is not the Messiah, he is a glutton and a drunkard… Haters gonna hate.

            Just like the crowds that Jesus is speaking to, we also too often look for the fault in someone rather than for what it holy.  Someone can speak some truth to us, but because it is not what we want to hear, because it is not what we expect to hear, we find reasons to reject them.  We have found ourselves now hunkering down to our own sides, and viewing whoever has a differing opinion as someone who is  misguided, evil, and detestable.  If you want to see this at work, we have to look no further than here in our nation with our own political ideology. We are no longer able to talk through issues that matter to us, we can no longer try to find compromises for the good of the country. Our country has become polarized, conservatives and liberals, and there is no room for anything in between.  Politics has become more of a game of winning on your position rather than working for the common good. All of this has most of us to drawing our battle lines, and whoever is against what we believe, is someone who is detested.  Don’t believe me, simply say the name Michelle Bachman to a liberal or Barack Obama to a conservative, and see the reaction that you get. Where did we go wrong? When did we stop listening for the good and the truth in people, and start looking only for hate and anger?

            Sadly, this hate, this vilification is not limited to our political sphere, but it has snuck into even the church.  Some of you may be aware that the United Methodist Church is going through a lot of turmoil over the issue of human sexuality. This same sort of vilification and hate has become deeply imbedded in supporters of both sides of the argument. Things have become so serious that there are pastors calling for a split in the United Methodist Church. This is an issue that we as United Methodists do in fact need to wrestle with, but how can we,  if we simply reject the other before truly listening to what they have to say? Are we too like the crowds who rejected John the Baptist and Jesus?  Are we rejecting the prophets of now because they speak a word contrary to what we want to hear?

            At Annual Conference this year, Bishop Cho announced that the Virginia Conference who be hosting conversations about human sexuality throughout the year.  I pray that this is true. I pray that these will truly be conversations rather than debates. I pray that as we discuss an issue that is near and dear to many of our hearts,  we may still be able to view those with differing opinions not as evil or as villains, but as people expressing their love and belief in God in a different way. It doesn’t mean that our minds will be changed, it doesn’t mean we have to give up what we believe, but it does mean that we recognize why this is so important for our brothers and sisters who disagree. It means that we can listen, truly listen to what they are saying and believe that in what they say there might just be some truth from God being spoken.  John was rejected for being other-worldly, for being strict and rigid, while at the same time Jesus was rejected for eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners, for being too much of this world.  Yet we know that both John and Jesus spoke the truth of God.  As Christians, as we discuss and have these controversial conversations let us not look first to reject the other, but instead look to see where God may be speaking through them. Sure, Haters gonna hate, but Christians are called to love.

A Church Without Walls (Matthew 10:40-42)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 6/29/14




If you have ever driven in downtown Memphis Tennessee, you know that it can be quite an adventure. With all of the allure of the bright lights and sounds of blues emanating from Beal Street, with the great history of places like Sun records where many legends of early rock and roll played  Elvis and Johnny Cash just to name a few, with the appeal of world class bbq on almost every block, one knows that with one wrong turn you can be in a very unfamiliar, uninviting, and quite frankly frightening part of town. This is situation that faced one of my good friends and me during my senior year of college. We had travelled to Memphis, already having taken in Graceland we now made our way downtown to see a basketball game and to grab something to eat.  We see the arena, we see the lights of Beal street, but one thing we don’t see is parking. So we have to make a few turns down some roads that seemed to be leading us away from the celebration of the city, into a more turbulent area. Finally we find a place to park on the side of the road, near some small park and as we get out we notice some strange columns just standing in the park. It almost looked like Stonehenge here in the middle of downtown Memphis.  As we were standing there, it must have been apparent that we didn’t know what we were looking at, because a stranger walked up to us and said, “it’s a church.” They call it “the church without walls.” He went on to tell us about how members of the community would meet here in the park for worship. How every week lines of people would form as this church fed those in the community. He told us the church without walls has no barriers, nothing keeping others from coming in, and nothing to stop members from going out to serve.  What does it mean to be a church without walls?

            What purpose are our walls serving?  Now I don’t mean what purpose are the walls literally serving, Of course these walls give us a place to gather for worship, a place for Bible studies and Sunday school and much more where we are safe from the rain or snow or Sun. The walls of course serve to be a place to escape the blistering heat of summer or the freezing cold of winter, but beyond this, what is the purpose of these walls, and have we become too familiar and comfortable with them?

            Somewhere down the line we as Christians have  lost the meaning of Church. Just the fact that we can say I’m going to church, or that our church is located on Lambs Church Rd/  Church Ln, shows that we have gotten things so mixed up that we don’t even know what we are saying anymore.  If we look at Acts we don’t find stories of buildings, we find stories of communities. We find stories of Peter and Paul, and Barnabas, and Timothy and Apollos traveling all around spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, baptizing new members into community of Christian fellowship and serving the poor, the sick, the orphaned, the widowed and the downtrodden. That was Church. Even in the letters that we find Paul writing to the churches in Corinth, or in Ephesus, these are not letters to some steepled building, these are letters to a community of believers, letters to a counterculture working through the power of the Holy Spirit to transform the world while they themselves are being transformed. Fast forward many many years to 18^th century England and we see the development of church buildings have become common practice, and still John Wesley did not call these buildings churches, but rather they were referred to as part of a parish. A parish is a small divide or community of a greater church. Even still the building was not the parish, the community that worshipped there were. I bet if we look back into the history of this church we will find that it too is centered around a community. I bet we would find a community of believers who wanted to gather together in worship and service, and I would bet you that moment is when this building was built.  Throughout history church has always  been about a community of believers gathering for worship and service.

And yet something has changed. It is as if these walls hold some power, that over time these walls have convinced us that church is not this community gathered together, but the walls themselves. When coming to worship or to some meeting how often do we say we are going to church as if church is where we meet rather than those who are gathering.  Shouldn’t we be saying that we are going to be the church?  We say our church is located on this or that road when shouldn’t we be saying our church gathers at Lambs Church Rd/ 20 Church Ln? 

            Over time, these walls have a profound effect upon us.  Over times these walls can talk to us, the can trick us in to believing that we are not the church, but that church is only what happens within these walls.  These walls coax us into a false sense of entitlement, that this is our church, and it should be done the way we want it.  These walls can even become a barrier, instead of being a place to drawn the community together, they can become a way to separate us from those around us.

            This is our human nature, Jesus knows that we can become insular, Jesus knows we can become too comfortable with the status quo and in the process can become unwelcoming to the stranger. This is why as many of the followers of Jesus are gathered around him, listening to his instructions and be prepared to be sent into the world to serve, he tells them, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” Jesus is preparing these ministers for the reality that they will go out in his name and at many places will be unwelcome. That they will go to fellowships of believers and they will be rejected. Yet those who welcome the guest, those who practice radical hospitality welcome Christ, and welcome the Father.

            Now we in the south know a little something about hospitality. We know how to clean up real nice for our guests, to offer them a glass of lemonade or sweet tea, then how to go about telling them how they are the most idiotic, misguided person, but it’s all ok, because we said bless your heart. Isn’t that how it goes, you can say the meanest thing to or about a person, but if you say bless their heart then it’s all good. This isn’t radical hospitality.  Radical hospitality is the one who accepts the sinner, the outcast, the one we’re afraid, and accepts them as equals, in fact puts them above themselves. 

            I am reminded of a story, of a poor man, his clothes all torn, his face dirty, a stench just radiates off of him. He walks into a church one day and sits down. He hears some mumbling and a few minutes later feels a tap on his shoulder; it was the usher. The usher tells him he’s sorry but he’s going to have to ask the man to leave, he is causing a distraction during worship. The man goes outside, sits outside the doors of the church and starts weeping. Suddenly another man comes and asks him what is wrong. The poor man replies, “I wanted to go to worship, I wanted to hear the choir and see the excitement from the children, but they won’t let me in”. The stranger replies, “It’s ok, my name is Jesus, and I’ve been trying to get into that church for years, but they won’t let me in either.”  Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”

            Are we a church that welcomes Jesus? Abagail Van Buren once said, “The church is hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.”  Are these walls acting as the home of a spiritual triage,  or are they protecting the rare artifacts housed inside?  You see, not only do these walls often serve as a barrier to keep others out, they can also become a way from keeping us from going out into the world. It can become a way of containing the church, and yet the power of the Holy Spirit cannot be contained. We see that even the earliest followers of Jesus, those who were even able to sit and listen and learn by his side did not remain there. They did not set up camp and say this is where Church is. In our scripture today, Jesus is sending his followers out into the world to serve. Are we prepared to go into the world and serve, and are we prepared to welcome those who come to lead us in service?  I think it is an amazing gift from God that this scripture is part of our lectionary reading on this day in which many churches around the conference are welcoming new pastors.  I pray that this scripture guides those churches, opens them up to receive the gifts the pastor has to bring. I pray that prophets around the conference will be heard, I pray that the righteous will be welcomed.

            And yet if we fall into an understanding of the pastor being the only one who is called go, called to reach out into the world, then we are deeply mistaken. Sure Christ tells people to welcome the prophet, to welcome the righteous. Yes this means those appointed to be evangelists and leaders of the church are called to go forth, but Christ also says, “And whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple -- truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.” When Jesus says one of these little ones he is not talking about children, he is talking about the average Joe, he is talking about the power of the laity. He is saying that all  followers of Christ are called to go and serve, and that all followers of Christ are to be welcomed.

 Are we going?  Are we welcoming?  Are these walls hindering us from serving as Christ truly calls us to serve?  Do these walls act as a gate to keep out that which is outside, and to keep us in? What would it look like to be a church without walls?  What would it look like to once again recognize the church not as a meeting place but rather a community of follower of Christ gathering to worship and to serve our risen Lord?  What would it look like to offer radical hospitality? To welcome the stranger, the outcast, the sinner into this community, and even give them the power to change us? Imagine a church without walls, where the community could see something strange, the would see a collection of people from all over the community gathering and giving praise to the Lord almighty, gathering and learning and serving the Son of God. And imagine those people gathered, that even as they gather the see the world around them, they see the hurt, the injustice and the pain, and go into their community to change it.  Imagine a church without walls where every day we are reminded of sacred beauty of creation, that with each breath in which we are able to smell the daisies, each gentle gust of wind is a reminder of the power of the Holy Spirit working within us. Brothers and sisters this church exists for we are that church. This building and the ministry that is able to be done in this place is special, but this is not the church… we, we are the church, we are the church without walls.

            

I've Got The Power (Acts 2:1-21)

Sermon as preached on 6/8/14 at Lambs and Evington UMC

Image Courtesy of HermanoLeon Clipart

Today in the life of the church we celebrate the wonderful day of Pentecost. Pentecost is that most of us are familiar with, it is the day in which the Holy Spirit descended upon a group of followers gathered together, and though they spoke in different languages, they were able to understand each other as if they were hearing their native tongue.  We know Pentecost for the amazing events depicted here in Acts 2, with the tongues of fire resting on those gathered. It is why we celebrate this day with our altar adorned in red to symbolize the fire of the Holy Spirit, it is why many of us today are wearing red as well.  In fact, this wonderful day is part of the inspiration for our United Methodist logo  that we have all come to love. The cross of course depicting Jesus’s ministry on Earth, but also the flame, representing the fire of this day of Pentecost, the flame of the Holy Spirit.  Pentecost is the day in which we celebrate the start of the early church as thousands were baptized on that day. For pastors and laity alike who are tasked for reading the Pentecost scripture, it is also a time to brush up on your reading skills as they have to pronounce a long list of different regions, Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Phrygia and Pamphylia, and anyone who has read it knows it can be quite a tongue twister.  We as Christians already know and celebrate so much about this wonderful day of Pentecost, and yet there are some simple questions that I think we often fail to ask.  Why were there so many people from all around the known world there in Jerusalem on that day?  Or maybe the most obvious question that we fail to ask it what does the word Pentecost even mean?  When we start to answer these questions we may begin to learn more about this special day, and it may even give a more significant meaning of this day for our own lives.

            So what does the word Pentecost mean? Any guesses? Don’t be shy, there are no stupid guesses, I had to look it up myself.  I thought it would have to do something with the Holy Spirit, or with the start of the church, but in fact the term Pentecost simply means the “fiftieth day.” [1] The fiftieth day after what though? Well even though this term Pentecost has come to be an important term in the life of Christianity, the term itself actually originated long before even the arrival of Jesus Christ. Pentecost was fifty days after the celebration of Passover, the extremely important Jewish Holiday that celebrates the final plague of Egypt passing over the Israelites houses that were marked with Lamb’s blood. It also signifies the beginning of the Israelites freedom from captivity in Egypt.  Pentecost at the time of our story was fifty days after this great Jewish holiday, in fact Pentecost was its own Jewish holiday.  Sometimes also called the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost was one of three holy days in which Jews from all around the world would come together and gather in Jerusalem. That explains why the Parthians, and the Medes, and the Elamites were all there, they were there to celebrate Pentecost. Except Pentecost at that time was not a celebration of the Holy Spirit like we know today, Pentecost is said to have been a remembrance and celebration of Moses’ receiving of the law from God.

            And so here they are, believers from all over the known world gathered in Jerusalem, as well as Peter and some of the other followers of Christ,  all gathered for this Pentecost celebration, when something extraordinary happened. There was the sound a violent gushing wind. Tongues as if on fire descended and rested upon the followers of Jesus gathered and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and suddenly what they said, this great diverse crowd could understand.  This crowd started to take notice they said,  “"Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Galileans you see were notoriously known for their lack linguistic skills and knowledge of other languages, so imagine the surprise when these Galileans now seemed to be speaking each person’s own language. Something so strange and so powerful was obviously happening, that outsiders commented that these people must be drunk.  And yet when the people heard the message of the Holy Spirit, thousands were baptized and they too received the power of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost was forever transformed.

            The people in Jerusalem gathered for one particular reason. They gathered in remembrance and celebration of Moses receiving the Law, something that we should not take lightly. For the Jews this was a sign of God’s presence with the Israelites.  God had chosen Abraham, and made a covenant between Abraham and his descendants and God. Yet how were the people supposed to hold up that covenant, how were they supposed to be in relationship with God. Sure God spoke through some extraordinary people, like Jacob and even Moses, but how was the average Joe supposed to connect with God?  How was this nation of Israelites supposed to function as a people of the Lord?  These are questions answered by Moses on the mount, that now the people had a covenant with God through the Law. The Law would lay out how the Israelites were to live and to worship, how they were to be faithful to the will of God. This original Pentecost celebration was not insignificant, it signaled God’s covenant with the people and their obedience to God.  

            And yet something important has happened. God came to Earth as human. The people of Earth could actually see, feel, touch God! A relationship with God was no longer something relegated to a tablet or scroll, God was experienced firsthand!  Jesus Christ had come and died in order to restore all humanity. And in restoring all humanity he opened up salvation to all who believed, both gentile and Jew.  And then Jesus ascended, and God was no longer on Earth on bodily form, but things simply couldn’t return to the way it was before. How were the Jewish followers of Christ simply supposed to go back to a relationship with God through the Law, when they had experienced Christ firsthand?  How was the Law to be applied to those followers of Jesus who were not Jewish? And so on this day of Pentecost when the Jewish people were celebrating their covenant, their relationship with God, God once again was revealed to the people in a new way. Just as John the Baptist had proclaimed, just as Jesus had promised, the Spirit of God was poured out upon the people.  Our relationship with God had taken a new step. God is with us, always.

            As Christians I think we often overlook the importance of the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit.  We think of God the Father and all the wonders of creation from the work of his hands. We think of Jesus, and rightfully so, with the importance of his life, death, resurrection and ascension. And yet the Holy Spirit sometimes becomes an afterthought.  And yet on this day of Pentecost we are reminded of the wonders of the Holy Spirit. We are reminded that God is with us.  We are reminded of the new covenant established through the Holy Spirit. That covenant brings us all here together as a church.

            Because what is Church other than that family of God that have been united together through water and the Spirit; those who have been washed of their iniquities and who have received the power of the Spirit. The Church cannot be separate from the Spirit.  It is what we see in our scripture where through the power of the Holy Spirit, through the baptism of thousands of believers the church was created. We see it still in churches today, where often Pentecost is the day in which people who have been preparing for baptism are baptized. We see it in our creed where the church and the Holy Spirit are linked in the same line,  “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church.”  And I see it today as I look out at you all wearing red. It is a reminder that we are bound together, we are called together by the power of the Holy Spirit that is still with us today.

            And yet the Spirit calls us forward.   This day of Pentecost, God’s creation of the church is not how the books of Acts ends, but instead it is just the beginning. The whole rest of the book of Acts are stories of how the followers of Christ now receiving that Holy Spirit respond to that power.  From Stephen the matyr,  to Philip and the teaching and converting the Ethiopian Eunich, to Paul’s reaching the Gentiles in Athens,  we see how the followers of Christ faithfully responded to the power of the Holy Spirit. We as Christians are called to respond, we are called to go out into the world, we are called just as Jesus calls us in Matthew 28 to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”  And yet the beauty of it all, is that we do not do it alone. For Christ continues, “and remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  Now on this day of Pentecost we see the truth of this statement, that though Christ may have ascended,  he is forever with us through the power of the Holy Spirit. That God has made a new covenant, God has chosen us as sons and daughters, gentiles as we are, broken as we are. And more amazingly has put trust in our hands  to be part of this amazing restoration, this amazing transformation that is in store for all creation. It reminds me of a trust that was placed upon me and my youth group many years ago. Every fifth Sunday in my home church was considered youth Sunday, in which the youth of the church would lead worship, from responsive reading, to singing, and yes even preaching.  I remember one service in particular in which our group decided to do something different. Instead of one sermon by one person we did multiple mini sermons by multiple people. I remember as one of my friends presented his section, on war, a controversial topic for sure especially at the time right near the beginning of the war in Iraq, we heard the door slam in the back. Unknown to us, one member had taken exception to the message, and for the whole time in between the early service and the late service, this member berated my pastor about it. Now maybe this man had some points, maybe the issue was not handled in the best way, but how did my pastor respond? I mean no pastor wants to be yelled at, no pastor wants an angry member of the church, it would be totally understandable if after this Sunday he scrapped youth Sunday for good; but he trusted us, even in our missteps, even in our mistakes, he trusted us and we continued our youth Sundays.  It is so nice to have that type of trust. The trust that even with our faults, God believes in us to be part of Kingdom building. That even after we as humans rejected, abused, and crucified Jesus Christ, that he would still pour the Holy Spirit upon us, making a new covenant with us to be his people.

            That sort of trust is so powerful, and yet not only does God trust us in Kingdom building, he empowers us in it. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians of the many different gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit. From prophesy to wisdom to healing to faith, those of us who have received the power of the Spirit have been given special gifts for ministry, and we are special for not everyone has the same gift we do. Receiving the Holy Spirit is not just about our covenant with God, but that in all things God is with us.  That we can proclaim I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  We can proclaim If God is for us who can be against us.  Or maybe we can even shout like the great early 90’s song, “I’ve Got the Power.”  It almost like that can of spinach that popeye opens up and goes from being a puny dweeb to a massive hero.  It is a power that gives us the ability to do great things, and yet it is not our own power. We cannot simply use it however we like, it just doesn’t work like that. It is the power of the Holy Spirit working through, leading,  guiding, and strengthening us not for our own desires, but for the desires of God. And so the question is how do we respond?  If you have not yet received this power of the Holy Spirit through baptism, then the first step in to respond to that gentle push God is giving you to enter into eternal covenant with him just as thousands did on that day of Pentecost. If you have already received the power of the Spirit through baptism then we must ask ourselves what are we doing with that precious trust, that amazing power given to us. If the book of Acts were written today, about this group of Apostles, how would it read? Though this church is over a hundred years old I believe our story is just beginning. I believe there are so many here who feel that power, who respect the sacred trust placed upon their lives, who want to stand up and shout to the Lord, I’ve got the Power, I’ve got the power. Now lead me Lord. Now lead us Lord.

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[1] New Interpreters Bible Commentary pg.53

Is it Time? (Acts 1:1-11)

Sermon as Preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 6/1/14

Image Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library

Later this week Heather and I will have been married for 8 months now, and while for many of you that’s laughably short, for me it’s amazing how quickly the time has gone since that wedding day. I mean there is so much build up for that special day; for Heather and I we had dated in college and seminary for three years even before our engagement, and finally we were engaged and yet waited another year and a half before we walked down that aisle. And that year was full of change and expectation, I started my ministry here while Heather continued school, we dreamed of when we would live together, we dreamed of our wedding day, what we would wear, what music would play, where we would get married and who would officiate. With all of that expectation,  when the day finally did come it almost didn’t feel real, and in the blink of an eye the day was over… we were married. And yet now eight months in I start to wonder about what it was that we were really anticipating. Were we anticipating the day in which were united in holy matrimony or was it the marriage itself. Because in the matter of a few hours all of the preparation we had done for that wedding was gone and past, and yet the work of marriage had truly just started. We were finally married and yet it had really only just begun.

            I mention this because in our scripture for today we find the disciples of Christ waiting and expecting what they have dreamed and hoped for all of their lives. In their scriptures, which we must remember is only the Old Testament for them at this time, they have been hearing about this Messiah who would come and return Israel to its rightful place, and here is that Messiah, this man named Jesus.  They have followed him, watched him perform miracles, and listened to him tell stories of the Kingdom of God here on Earth and so they waited.  Jesus was then arrested and crucified, and while the disciples did not understand, while their faith was shaken, they waited, waited for the arrival of this Kingdom of God. Jesus rose from the grave restoring hope to the disciples and now for forty days they have followed him and prepared for this very moment, This moment when Christ would ascend to the throne. And so in great joy and expectation the disciples ask, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?"  And Christ replies, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.”

            The disciples  seem to be asking the right question, all of their expectations have been waiting for this day in which Jesus Christ would reign, and when he ascends that is exactly what he does; he sits at the right hand of God the Father on the throne. So this must then be the time when the Kingdom is restored. And yet Jesus simply answers, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that Father has set by his own authority.”  Frustratingly Jesus neither gives us a simple yes or no.  At first glance it seems as though Jesus denies that this is the time of the Kingdom, and yet when we look at his reply we see that that is not the case, he simply tells us it is not for us to know the period or times set by the father.

            When we hear this we may become frustrated just like the disciples. We want to ask, has the Kingdom of God arrived on Earth or is it still to come, and the answer to this question is just as frustrating. This is not a yes or no question and yet the answer is simply yes.  Has the Kingdom of God arrived on Earth, yes!  Christ came to Earth as a human, took on our sinful and broken nature all the way to the cross, and then conquered it with his resurrection.  Freed us from our slavery to sin and death, and created with us a new covenant by water and the spirit. Christ freed us from ourselves so that we may truly follow him, and throughout his life both before and after the cross, Jesus taught us what following him would truly look like. Through all of this action Christ has created a new world order, Christ has established his Kingdom on Earth.

            And yet if we ask if the Kingdom is still to come then the answer is yes as well.  It is in fact a lot like a marriage. If after that wedding day, you ask if that couple is married then answer is of course yes.   But if you were to ask that couple if on that day their marriage was complete, well I’d hope they laugh, for it has only started. Our day of ascension is almost like that wedding day. Christ’s bodily ministry on Earth is over, he has done everything he has needed in order to establish his kingdom and now he takes his rightful place on the throne, the kingdom is established and nothing can take that away.  And yet though it is established, it is only the beginning; many years must come until it arrives in completion. How many years? Well now we are asking the disciples question, and we get the same response they did, it’s not for us to know.

            The question of how long or how soon is not what we should be focusing on. How long do I have with Heather, how long until our marriage is complete; 40, 50, 60 years, or 1 year, one month or even one day?  As humans we do not know when our lives will end, when the lives of our loved ones may end, and yet marriage it is not the  1 day or 60 years that matter, what matters is what you do with it. What matters is how we are working together to grow and strengthen our marriage each day.  And so likewise Jesus is telling us it is not for us to worry about when the Kingdom of God will come in completion. We have been the assurance that the Kingdom has been establish and nothing can change that. We have been given the hope that one day the world will be renewed and restored as the Kingdom comes in final glory and we feast at the heavenly banquet. It is not for us to worry about when, it is for us to worry about what we are doing to bring forth and build up that Kingdom in the meantime. How will we respond to the grace given to us by our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. How will we allow the power of the Holy Spirit to work through us?  How are we striving to bring forth the Kingdom of God?

Building Idols (Acts 17:21-32)

Sermon as Preached at Lambs and Evington UMC  on 5/25/14

image courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library

Today in our scripture from Acts we find Paul in the midst of his second missionary journey. Paul is visiting from city to city across the known world, and in each city is trying to spread the good news of Jesus Christ and help establish churches in the cities.  This is Paul second missionary, he has already helped to start churches in other cities in this trip and in his first journey, and he even visits some of the same cities again such as Antioch. While Paul saw many successes in his journeys he encountered many challenges and failures too. Where Paul finds himself in our scripture for today however may be one of his most difficult challenges.  Paul is not in Phillipi or Thesolonica, or even Antioch or Corinth where he saw some mixed results, Paul in the heart of Greece, Paul is in Athens.  If you have studied any Greek history or watched any movies about the Ancient Greeks such The 300   then you are likely aware two of the major cities of Ancient Greece, Sparta and Athens. In movies Sparta is usually depicted as the warrior city while Athens is depicted as the city of wisdom and intellectual thinking.  I’m sure that this is probably and over the top caricature of the cities, but yet it does seem to hold some merit. After all Athens is the city of the great philosphers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.  

            By the time Paul arrives in Athens, these philosophers had been dead for hundreds of years, the wonderful wars that are depicted in the movies are part of Greece’s history. Still, many of the influences of Athens’ history still played a large role in the life of the people of the city. Wisdom and ethics were still the watchwords of the people and new philosophical strands had emerged as the dominant way of thinking and living.  There were two in particular that Paul had to deal with in his journey. The first is called Epicureanism, which is the belief that pleasure is the ultimate goal of life, and that the way we obtain perfect pleasure is through the removal of pain in our lives. The other strand of philosophy may be more familiar to us, it is called stoicism. You may have heard of someone being very stoic, and that comes from this line of thinking in which emotions are things to be conquered in kept in control so that one may live an ethical life. These strands of philosophy were not just intellectual mumbo jumbo as we sometimes think of it now, but these beliefs truly shaped the way that the Athenians spoke, thought, and even lived their lives.

            And as if these philosophies weren’t already hard enough for Paul to engage in with his news of the Gospel, as Paul enters into Athens he is taken aback by all of the statues of idols that he finds in the city.  While the people of Athens are extremely philosophical, at the same time they are also very devout and pious people. As Paul strolls along the city he studies many of the idols and notes the fervency of  the Athenians piety. And so here in our scripture we find Paul in front of the Areopagus preparing to speak to the Athenian people, who many are Epicureans and Stoics like we talked about earlier, and he is here to tell them about Jesus.

            What a daunting task, and yet Paul’s response in our scripture is a shining example of how we can tell the good news of Christ in the world.  It is no secret that Paul is appalled by the amount of idols and false worshiping going on in the city. Scripture tells us that he was deeply distressed by all the idols.  Yet Paul does not come out in full condemnation of the people of Athens. Paul does not cast the city off as a city of heathens, of sinners. In fact Paul’s first words to the Athenians do not condemn the people, but rather commend them.  “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.” Paul actually commends them for their piety, but what Paul does next may be the true lesson of this story. Paul talks about how in his traveling around the city he studied and observed many of the idols, and he lifts up one idol that he finds particularly interesting, that is the statue of the unknown God. Paul sees this idol as an opportunity to reach the people where they are. He says, “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.”  Or in other words what you worship as unknown, is not unknown to me.  I worship a God who is creator of heaven and Earth, I worship a God who has given us everything and needs nothing from us. I worship a God who chose one ancestor from whom all the world is their offspring.  I worship a God who is God of all of us. I have seen and commend your devout religiousness to this unknown God, but to me this God is not unknown, this God is the Lord.  Paul meets the Athenians where they are, he even uses something that they believe in, to help teach about God.

            This scripture reminds me of my time in South Africa. While we were visiting some of the villages and townships in the mountains, one of the most difficult parts of the journey was simply getting through the streets. I say this not because of the condition of the roads but because of the amount of goats that ran wild in the roads, even sometimes jumping on top of the cars. Our driver and guide was very careful not to hit one of these goats, and first I thought simply for a respect for the animals, but later he told us that many of the people in the villages believed that their ancestors were actually somehow linked with the goats, that somehow the goats were a tie between this world and the next. In fact as we visited houses around the village we found some with goat horns about the entry way into the house. Our guide told us that many believed that those bones helped those ancestors to find the home of their family. While for many Westerners like us, this idea seems very foreign, the missionaries in these parts took a page out of Paul’s playbook. Instead of flat out rejecting this custom they used it to teach about Christianity. The ancestors tie to this world through the goats helped to teach about an understanding of the Communion of Saints, those who have already lived a life of Christ and now commune with God and yes even sometimes with us.  The understanding of the spirits of ancestors visiting houses also made it much easier to understand how the Spirit of God can live and dwell among us, maybe even easier to understand than it is for us here in the  States.  Like in our scripture, these cultural beliefs were used as a way to reach and teach Christ to people where they were.

            We fool ourselves if we think cultural beliefs are something that is only different in a foreign country halfway around the world. There are many culture’s different than what we are familiar with even in our own backyard, in our own community. While we live in an area that gives off the vibe that the whole area is Christian, and evangelical Christians to boot, the truth is that there are many in our community who are not. There are some who are from other religions, there are some who are actively atheistic, but one of the growing trends in America is a group of people who identify themselves as “Spiritual but not religious.”  These are people who believe in God, maybe even believe in Jesus, but have a disdain for organized religion. They believe that Church as we know it is something archaic, sometimes even evil, and that all they need is their own personal belief. This group of people is rising in numbers especially in my age group and the middle aged. There is a wide array of people in our own community that for one reason or another have not embraced the good news of Jesus Christ.

            So the question then  for Christians seems clear, what are we going to do when it seems our culture is changing, where now there seem to be more options for people, where going to church is not a given, and where the good news of Christ continues to fall on deaf ears? Sadly, it seems like for too many churches our response to this culture around us is to just sit and complain.  “Back in my day you just came to church because that was the right thing to do.” I don’t understand why these young people aren’t more active in the life of the church, when I was their age I already held three positions.” We wine like children that things aren’t going our ways and then we sit back and simply do what we’ve always done.  Somewhere down the road we adopted a field of dreams approach to ministry,  “If you build it they will come.” If we hold this event they will come, and yet this is not the example of evangelism that we get from the Bible. Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” Jesus doesn’t say stay, sit, or wait, Jesus says, go! The field of dreams approach does not work, we are called to go out into the world and make disciples.

            And that is why the Book of Acts is so helpful to us as Christians because we are able to look at it and learn from the ways in which the earliest leaders went into the world in ministry. We can glean insight from their stories of ministries, just like our story of Paul and the idol of the unknown God. Paul did not sit at home trying to spread the Gospel, he went out into the world, but maybe what is  more important than that for us to learn, is how he evangelized once he was there.  We can learn from Paul’s teaching on the idol of the unknown God and see that in order to reach others who are culturally and ideologically different than ourselves then we have to meet them where they are. We need to find out what is important to them, what really matters in their lives, and try to use that to explain the goodness and mercy of God.

            And yet this is dirty and sometimes scary work. When we go out into the world for Christ we will encounter many people who live and think very differently than we do. I don’t think that’s the scary part though. The true scary part what if we are successful, what if we do succeed in bringing these people to Christ, what if they become part of our church, what if our church even changes because of who we bring in?  Evangelism for Christians is fun until the things we cherish start to change. We may lose some power in the church, there may be changes made to the parts of worship that we have grown up loving. There may be more disagreements in Sunday school because people are reading the Bible from a different perspective than we are used to. Sadly for many Christians these fears are enough to hinder our attempts at evangelism. We will gladly evangelize until it affects us; we want to bring in people to the church as long as they are just like us. When we evangelize in this way then we ourselves are building our own idols. Our idol may not resemble the altars of stone or gold that Paul encounters in Athens, but our idol takes on a different shape. Our idol is not an unknown God, but rather a God that is all too familiar. When we squander opportunities for evangelism because we don’t want our efforts to disturb the status quo, then our idol is none other than ourselves.

            For as Paul explains in our passage for today, “ From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him--though indeed he is not far from each one of us.” Paul gets it,  that all of us are offspring from one ancestor, all of us are made in the image of God. We are denying the world from seeing the full beauty of that image when we pretend that everyone else should be just like us. We sings songs like Jesus loves the little children where we sing red and yellow, black and white they are precious in his sight, and yet our sanctuaries and our evangelistic efforts don’t reflect that sentiment. While Paul uses the idol of the Unknown God to reach the people of Athens on their own level, the passage reaches to us as well. That too often we build our own idols, our ideas of what the church is supposed to be, and we deny entry to anyone who may believe differently or threaten that image. When churches act in this way they are no different the Athenians for they too are worshiping an unknown God. For our God is the God created the original humans from whence all humanity came. Our God is the God who invited a Moabite named Ruth into the Hebrew family to become a foremother of Jesus himself. Our God is the God who sent his son into the world not as a king or Pharisee but as the son of a Carpenter, and who established his kingdom not through military conquest but through death on the cross. And our God is the God who used a converted persecutor of Christians named Paul to teach the good news to the Gentiles at a time when other Christians refused to.   If we fail to obey the call of Christ to go into the world, if we fail to learn from Paul’s inclusion of others into the Body of Christ, if we are not working with Christ in building up the Kingdom of God, then we too are simply building idols.

Just Like You (Acts 7:55-60)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 5/18/14

Image courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library

How many of you have heard the Harry Chapin song, “Cats in the Cradle”?  It truly is a powerful song, one about a dad and his son.  The song starts out saying, “My child arrived just the other day, He came to the world in the usual way But there were planes to catch and bills to pay
He learned to walk while I was away And he was talkin' 'fore I knew it, and as he grew
He'd say "I'm gonna be like you, Dad You know I'm gonna be like you"  The song continues with lyrics like this where the son wants to spend quality time with his father but  his father keeps talking about how busy he is and how he wish he could, but just can’t.  The song ends with the father later in his life, he is now in retirement and has time to spend with his son, and we once again hear a conversation that he has with his son, “I've long since retired, my son's moved away, I called him up just the other day, I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind", He said, "I'd love to, Dad, if I can find the time, You see my new job's a hassle and kids have the flu, But it's sure nice talking to you, Dad, It's been sure nice talking to you" And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me He'd grown up just like me My boy was just like me.”   This song is a painful and haunting song that teaches a powerful lesson;  the way in which  we live and act matters, because we have no idea who may be watching us. We have no idea in fact may be emulating us. The father in the song loved his son, but through his actions sent the message that work comes first, and we hear in the end of the song the pain of the father’s realization, that that message was passed on to his son. And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me, he’d grown up just like me, my boy was just like me.

            It is easy to forget that the way we live our lives matter.  Especially in this day in age where face to face conversation  seems to be becoming a thing of the past, where people feel as though the can hide behind a wall of social media and not truly interact with each other. And yet the truth is, more and more we are able to see more of each other’s actions and daily life. What used  to seem private is increasingly becoming more public. We can just look at Donald Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers who made several racist remarks in a phone conversation with his mistress, and now the whole world has heard it, and he has faced the ramifications of his actions.  All of this reminds us of the fact that what we say and do maters, that what we do matters, because we never know who may be watching, learning, and emulating the way in which we live our life.

            And yet when we remember this, it can create in us a sort of inner struggle. We want to show our best, we want to be the best example we can be for others, and at the same time we don’t want to put on a show. We don’t want to be like the Pharisees who would pray in public so others would see them, and yet we want to teach others the importance of prayer by showing them how much it means to us. It almost feels like a catch 22, We want to live in a way in that others can learn from and be inspired by, and yet we don’t want to lives to be dictated by how others perceive us. The only answer to what seems like a paradox, is that our lives must be authentic. Others can learn and experience Christ through us, not because we are intentionally teaching them, but rather because that’s who we really are. It is as C.S. Lewis puts it, “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.”

            As Christians, we often already have an understanding of living a good life, of living a proper life. However, far too this leads to a moralistic view of living. We live be a set of guidelines, a set of rules to follow, if we follow them we are good, if we don’t then we are bad, but is this truly the best way to lead an authentically Christian life. Does this really change the essence of who we are, does this help us to be truly authentic?  It surely is a help, but as Christians it is not the end all be all. As Paul explains we are not saved by the law, but the law points us toward our sin. The law points out our sin, it helps us to see the wrong that we are doing, but what makes us truly authentic in the ways we live our life. How can we go from leading a life in which we make decisions based upon what we are told is good and bad, and make those decisions simply because that is who we are.  How can we learn to live this authentic Christian lifestyle?  Well, just as the boy in the song did, we can learn from watching, studying, and emulating those who already live that way.

            And so as we begin to think of what example can we use to learn from, who has lived a holy and God centered life, the answer becomes quite obvious to us, it is an answer that even our young children could answer, who do we want to live like? Jesus, of course.  And yet when we say this we get a little nervous, a little uneasy, because though we know Jesus was fully human he was also fully divine, that is Jesus is God. How can we possible live like God?  And yet in our passage for today we see a shining example of an ordinary human, like you or me, who lived their life emulating Christ.

In our passage for today we read about Stephen. As the early church grew and more and more people were being baptized into this community, The disciples of Christ realized that they could no longer lead alone; they would need to appoint some new leaders. Stephen was one of the men appointed. Stephen is described of being full of faith and the Holy Spirit, full of wisdom and power, and yet Stephen was no different than you or I am. Stephen went amongst the people just as Jesus did, he helped those in need just as Jesus did, and he taught about the good news about Jesus Christ. While Stephen did many wonderful things, two things in particular are described in detail in the book of Acts.

First, just like Jesus, Stephen spoke the truth. When I say this I’m not talking about the polite manners that we as Southerners have been taught, don’t lie and tell the truth. While this is certainly a good thing, when I say Stephen spoke the truth, I mean that he saw injustice in the world and he named it. He saw a people who were once again ignoring God in their presence, and he calls them on it. Stephen spoke the truth, Stephen was a prophet. While we often think of prophets as people who predict the future, a prophet is simply one who speaks the word of God.  Stephen is arrested on false accounts of blasphemy and instead of defending himself he tells a story. He tells the story of the Israelites and how and multiple steps throughout their history they had rejected the prophets who lead them, from Abraham, to Moses, to David, and Stephen proclaims to them once again that they are once again rejecting the movement of the Holy Spirit, that this new movement called Christianity is spirit led and yet like their ancestors they reject it.

            Stephen does the difficult thing; Stephen speaks the truth even knowing what fate waits for him if he does. Stephen emulates the life of Christ and speaks the truth, speaks the good news of God and rejects injustice, and speaks it in spite of the consequences. We can truly learn from Stephen’s courage.  Prophets are not a thing of the past, but some of us are called to be prophets, and all of us are called to speak out against injustice. We are called to look around in the world around us and see the injustice ahead.  We are called to bring awareness to the fact that on average black convicts receive longer sentences than white convicts who commit the same crime.  We are called to speak to the fact that on average women are paid 77 cents to the dollar that men receive for the exact same position. We look in our community and see the great poverty and we must call out the fact that 400 Americans, 400 Americans have more money than half of all Americans combined. When we see injustice in our community and in our world we must speak out in truth; yet this can be a quite terrifying experience. It is something that haunts and frightens me, what will happen if, what will become of me, and yet if we are emulating Stephen we see that those are not the right questions to ask. We are called to speak the truth, whatever may befall us.

            And yet we are called to speak the truth with love.  Too often when Christians speak the truth it is spoken with condemnation, in harsh ways, and even with hate.  We see injustice and instead of speaking out in a way that calls for reform, that even calls to draw the people causing the injustice away from their sins and towards Christ, we simply reject them. We cast them off as sinners, we say they are heathens, and that they don’t deserve love or forgiveness. Recently I was reading an article about a horrible incident in which an 8 year old boy in Richmond was killed trying to protect his sister from being raped.  Now rightfully so this type of incident causes in us outrage, pain, and sadness and yet I experienced just as must shock when I read some of the comments on the articles of people, some even professing Christians who said that they want to personally be the one who flips the switch on the murderer, or that lethal injection was too kind, or even that they hope the person burns in hell.  We must speak out against injustice, but we must speak it in love.  For after Stephen finishes he speak, he himself is taken away and stoned, and yet in the midst of being killed he cries, “Lord do not hold this sin against them.” If it sounds familiar it should because it echoes the very words of Jesus on the cross, “Father forgive for they know not what they are doing.” In the midst of death, Stephen prays for his murderers forgiveness. How can someone act in that way, unless that was authentically them? In that moment Stephen didn’t weigh the good and bad, he didn’t consult the law to figure out what the right thing to do was, Stephen lived a life emulating Christ, and in that moment Christ was revealed through him. As Christians this is what we are striving for, that our hearts are aligned with Christ’s, that in our darkest hour we may love as Christ loves. That each day we may emulate the life of Christ, that we speak the truth in love, that we may live the truth in love, that we may learn from the examples of the saints who have gone before us, and that maybe, just maybe, someone may learn to live like Christ through us.

            For there is one aspect of this story that is rarely mentioned. That one of the members observing the stoning of  Stephen was a young man named Saul. Saul, who would later become the horrible Jewish who he himself dragged Christians from their homes and stoned them. Saul the great persecutor of Christians, but also Saul the man who on the road to Damascus was struck blind. Who in that moment had Christ appear to him and who at that moment was converted to the very religion he persecuted. Saul who then changed his name to Paul and became of the greatest leaders of the early church, who helped to share the gospel with Gentiles, and whose letters account for the majority of our New Testament.  This great leader tells of his conversion later in Acts, and while the experience on the road to Damascus can be understood as the defining moment of his conversion, guess what event he talks about as being formative in his life. That’s right, the stoning of Stephen.  Like the father in “Cats in the cradle” we don’t always know who is watching us, we don’t know what impact we can have on someone’s life. Stephen’s great act of prophecy and compassion played a profound role in the life of one of the greatest Christian leaders; and it is all because Stephen lived an authentic Christ-like life. So the question is who’s watching you, and what are they learning.  Are you living a life striving to emulate the love and compassion of Christ? Is that how you live when no one is watching, it is part of your very being so that what people see is the true you. Others are watching and emulating us even when we aren’t aware of it; are we showing a Christ-like life?  Does it make us proud or give us chills when that person tells us I want to be just like you.