Everything As Loss

Sunday, March 25th, 2007
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Text: Philippians 3:4-14

4even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised 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; 6as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8More 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 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13Beloved, 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, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

We love it here.

We really DO love it here.

Not just in the sense of loving the scenery, or the relative peace of living in the country, the friendliness, the neighborliness. We love it here on a far deeper level than I think we are aware of on a day-in and day-out basis.

I don’t want this to sound sappy, but I hope you realize that we love YOU as well. That loving YOU is a huge part of why we love being HERE. We love spending time with you, talking to you, knowing you, knowing your families, and what’s going on with them, laughing and sometimes crying together, eating and meeting together, studying the Bible together, wrestling with the truths of scripture and those parts of scripture that are sometimes confusing. I treasure being able to be with you when you have to be at or in the hospital, or when you go through the loss of a loved one. Being able to BE present with you in those times is not in any way a burden. It is in the fullest sense of the word, a blessing. Yes, it can be hard, but blessings come in many forms.

We love it that you all are interested in how the kids are doing, how our parents and brothers and sisters are doing, and what is going on in THOSE relationships as well. There is a wonderful sense of family that comes from being asked about your relatives, their health, and just the regular daily-ness of life. We love that we are walking beside you on this pilgrim journey, working out our salvation “with fear and trembling”.

During our prayer and share times on Wednesday evenings, and especially here, on Sunday mornings, during the Pastoral prayer, to be able to voice concerns and praises, thanksgiving and worship is easily a highlight of the week for me. For those of you who haven’t been to a Wednesday evening service in a while, we’d love to see you, if you can make it. The time together can really fly by. During our sharing time before prayer, we go through new additions to our prayer list, and also bring up concerns or updates to the list – it is an open time of sharing, not very structured, because I believe that the praying is actually already taking place before the formal prayer is voiced. This past Wednesday we concluded our winter Bible Study just a single day over the mark – the first day of spring. This coming Wednesday as well as Wednesday of Holy Week we will be doing just a couple of more reflective Lenten-oriented devotionals. After Easter we will be digging a little into the Old Testament, probably looking at the Minor Prophets – most likely Habakkuk to begin with.

There’s this thing, though, that I have to deal with. Call it insecurity, call it trouble with self-esteem, whatever; I don’t always know if I’m doing things right or not. I HOPE I am, I THINK I am, some of the time, maybe a slight majority of the time, but not always. And I’m not saying this looking for affirmation, but simply as a point of information. Having said that, I need to let you know that when you DO say something in that way; encouraging, affirming, even constructively criticizing, it gives me a boost like you wouldn’t BELIEVE!

… What’s that, you say?

When is he going to get to the text? When is he going to get into the passage? Oh, that.

Well, in a way, I have been. You see, Paul was going over in his mind what it was he had to look back on and treasure, and appreciate, and hold in high esteem in his life. He had his Pharisaic heritage, that is, his faithfulness as a member of that Hebrew group that was intent on seeking and fulfilling all that it meant to be HOLY before God, as they understood it.

He had a lot to be thankful for, a lot to hold close, a lot to inform him of who he was.

So I’ve been working up to somehow telling you that, as dear as you ALL are to me, and as MUCH as I hold you ALL close to my heart, by the light of the gospel I have to be able to let this all go for the sake of the Gospel.

I’m not saying that that is in the process of happening. Thankfully, I don’t have any sense that I’m supposed to be anywhere else doing anything else than what I am doing. But it’s the attitude that I think we ALL need to cultivate.

It’s unsettling to think about. And it feels especially odd for me, having come from a life of observing my parents and other key figures in my life GET that … sense of call, to move from what they know to what they DON’T know … I would’ve expected my sense to be … more willing?

I think back to my late teens and early and mid twenties, when I was wrestling with what God’s call on my life was going to look like, having thought all along that I’d end up somewhere overseas, living a life similar to that that I’d grown up around. And I remember hardly giving a thought to serving a local church, much less a rural congregation, as their Pastor.

And now, it seems like it is what I was born to do, insecurity and all. I’ve learned in the last ten years to trust God in all things. Like Paul says, “not that I have already obtained this”, but it is at work in me.

So I’m working on learning to count all this as loss. As beautiful as it is, as wonderful as it is, as good a life as it is, if this were all ripped away from me tomorrow, would I find my faith intact? Would I find my trust still there? Would my center be Christ? Can I even phrase that question “Would my center STILL be Christ having not actually gone through that?

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

Do you know someone who has gone through the ‘loss of all things’ that Paul talks about? Are YOU someone who has experienced that? I think it is safe to say that, above a certain age, we have all to varying degrees, experienced SOME loss in our lives, and as far as that goes, we have an IDEA of what it would be like to suffer the loss of all things … but we’re just not able to completely wrap our minds around that experience short of living it.

Paul’s point wasn’t to boast about what he’d gone through. His point was what was at his center.

10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,

So the question for us this morning is that: what … or rather … WHO is at OUR center? Would we be able to write down a similar statement if we were to have given up what in essence was our ENTIRE identity in order to follow Christ?

How compelling is Christ’s call on our lives? Is it so compelling as to cause us to want to change even our very NAMES in order to signify how radical and complete the change has been? How much we are breaking from who we were prior to knowing Jesus, to who we are now that we DO know him?

Living in the area of the country we live in, especially living in the shadow cast by those who’ve gone before and who have been faithful in THEIR obedience to teach us and guide us in the way that leads to life, we are recipients of an incredibly rich blessing in the way of … an atmosphere of faith – not all, but most of us here today don’t remember a time when going to church wasn’t a part of our lives, we can’t remember a time when we didn’t consider ourselves ‘Christian’ in some way, even in a nominal way. We can easily recall things we’ve DONE that weren’t exactly … exemplary of what a Christian would say and do, but on balance, we have to ask ourselves the question: did becoming a Christian change my life all that much?

If your answer is yes, then there is much to be grateful for.

If your answer is no, we can study that from a couple of perspectives. There’s the perspective that we were so steeped in what it was to live the life of a Christian that the official ‘mark’ at which you made the decision to accept Christ was more a … confirmation of what you’d been growing to believe all your life.

The other perspective is that both the life you lived prior to professing Christ as Lord and the life you live now are neither very reflective of the Lordship of Christ. Simply put, in a moment of passion you promised, but you have yet to truly engage the life of a follower of Christ.

So the question is out there: Who is at our center? I ask it both on an individual level and at a congregational level. Is what you’ve done all your life, and what you continue to DO at your center, or is Christ? Is a hundred and seventy-five years of history and what we continue to DO BECAUSE OF THAT HISTORY at the center of Jerusalem or is Christ? In asking those questions, I don’t want to create a false dichotomy – an unnecessary division – in our perception of ourselves and our family of faith. I DO want us to examine – and reexamine – continually, if need be, the ongoing relationship we have with Christ. Not to be examining our belly-buttons, but to keep tabs on who we are as individuals and as a faith family. We must be willing to give an honest and humble assessment of ourselves at any time, to speak frankly about how we are going about this journey, especially now, in the season of Lent.

As we approach Holy Week, we are made more and more aware of our complicity in an event that took place nearly two thousand years ago. That on a spiritual level, Christ died for the sins that we’ve committed today and will commit tomorrow and the next day.

So we engage in a sometimes painful round of self-examination. It may feel like we are beating ourselves up at times. There can be an unrelenting quality to the exercise – in truth, I think we are all VERY aware of the ways in which we fall short of the mark; the words, the actions, the inactions that do nothing more than pound the nails into the tree at every turn. And as humans, we have this amazing ability to deny what is right in front of us, that blinds us to what we are doing. But with a little prodding, with a little coaxing, we CAN uncover our true selves, our fallenness, and our weaknesses.

In the darkening shadows, hear the good news of the Gospel: God’s grace in the blood of Christ covers it all.

Let’s pray.

What it’s like to be a Christian

by Hannah Park

Being a Christian is more than just being baptized and asking Jesus to be lord of your life. It means to change your actions of a sinner to a better person. To make better choices than some bad ones you’ve made before. But it can be hard sometimes. As a kid you could get tempted to do the wrong thing or make a bad choice, or to hate some other person’s action and just want to do something to them. But you have to stop and think for a moment what would God have done? How does God see this person? How can I handle this person nicely?

I remember only a couple of months ago when my class went to gym at school. Our teacher broke us up into teams of four. You know the one kid that will do anything to get attention by being annoying? Well that kid happened to be on my team. And he made me so mad by being so annoying, I wanted to scream and yell at him. I couldn’t take being on his team much longer so I asked the teacher if I could go to the restroom. While I was in there I prayed. I prayed for the Lord to help me see him the way He sees him, to help me be a better person to him. And you know what? I felt better. I went back in the gym and I was nicer to that kid even if he did annoy me sometimes. I tried to handle the situation as God would have handled it.

For me being a Christian can have its ups and downs; trying to be like Jesus is hard for me. I know it’s hard for everybody. Before I asked Jesus to be my savior I had to think am I willing to except him as my Lord? Am I going to be ready to have all my sins washed away? Will I be ready to go wherever God leads me? And I was. I wanted to become one of God’s children and I was ready to go where God would lead me. I was ready to become a Christian.

READ I Timothy 4:6-12

6If you put these instructions before the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound teaching that you have followed. 7Have nothing to do with profane myths and old wives’ tales. Train yourself in godliness, 8for, while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. 9The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance. 10For to this end we toil and struggle, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. 11These are the things you must insist on and teach. 12Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

Some people might think at my age that would be too much for an eleven year old kid to handle. But I just answer them nothing is too much for me to handle while Jesus is leading me all the way.

Being a Christian
by Caleb Park

I have always gone to church. Except the times when I have been sick, I have been in church all my life. Of all of the activities that have taken place at church, my favorites are the Easter Egg Hunt in the spring and Vacation Bible School in the summer.

Even though I have always gone to church, I knew that it was important for me to ask Jesus to be my Savior. I would think about this every time I was in church: when Daddy preached and when I was in Sunday school with Ms. Janie and Ms. Jane. The stories that we read in our Sunday school books have changed my life. A couple of weeks ago, at Mr. Frank’s and Ms. Joyce’s anniversary party, I was in the youth room and I prayed and asked Jesus to be my Savior. After I prayed, I called Mommy in and I told her and she cried. Then Mommy got Daddy and when I told him, he cried. I am going to be baptized in two weeks on Palm Sunday.

My mom and dad are helping me to realize that becoming a Christian is not one decision that you make on one day, it is a thousand decisions that you make everyday for the rest of your life. That means that I try to live my life for Jesus everyday. I have been trying to put that in my life. To be honest with you, that is not an easy thing to do.

For example, last Sunday I broke a window at the church where we had an Encuentro. I told my mom and she helped me tell Pastor Lee about the window. It was an accident and they understood that. I offered to pay for the window, but Pastor Lee said that it was an accident and I didn’t have to worry about it. What I did not tell my mom or Pastor Lee was that I had been throwing the ball against the side of the church building when the ball hit the window.

I’m not sure why I didn’t tell them right away. I guess I was afraid that they would get really mad. But the truth sat with me all week long. I finally told my mom the whole truth day before yesterday. I was still afraid but I felt like I needed to tell my mom the truth. It was hard, but I knew it was the right thing to do. Being a Christian didn’t make it easier, but being Christian helped me know the right thing to do. I have a feeling that there will be more times like that in the future, but I will always try to tell the truth.

What Being a Christian Means to Me

by Brandon Harcum

Good morning. I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today for Youth Sunday. I've already had a great time teaching the Men's Class with Caleb.

I will be reading scripture from John 3: 16 - 17. You can follow along in your Bible or just listen as I read.

16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

I chose this scripture because it's one of my favorites and I believe it teaches a good lesson.

Before I was baptized, I gave a lot of thought to what it meant to be baptized. Would I be happy after I was baptized? Would I be different after I was baptized? How would I feel after I got baptized?

How many of you have heard of the ABCs of becoming a Christian? Some of you are probably thinking what the world is he talking about!

A stands for admit - you admit that Jesus is your Savior.

B stands for believe - you believe that Jesus is your Savior.

C stands for confess - you confess your sins and confess Jesus is you r Savior.

Pastor Kenny and my parents have influenced me greatly about becoming a Christian. They told me about their experiences being a Christian. My Vacation Bible School teachers Miss Frannie and Miss Linda also helped me learn about being a Christian.

During Cub Scouts, I wanted to earn a religious badge called God and Family. Pastor Kenny helped me with this. Pastor Kenny and I worked on a pizza. The crust and bottom of the pizza was the foundation which is our church. The sauce and the cheese are the people you love. Even though I was working on a badge for scouts, Pastor Kenny taught me even more about becoming a Christian.

My mom and my dad have taught me right from wrong and to make good choices. Mom and Dad have taught me not to give up (which believe me, they know I am very persistent).

An example of my persistence is the day we were all out in the boat and saw something in the water. I kept after Daddy to go closer to it. Then we realized that something was flapping in the water. I told Daddy lets go help it. Come to find out, a fish hawk was drowning. The fish hawk was in the water trying to get up to fly but could not. It wasn't caught in anything. So Daddy got an oar and stuck it underneath the fish hawk. The fish hawk grabbed on and we got him on the back of the boat. When Mom saw its claws, she would not let me pet him. Next thing you know, the fish hawk was in the water again. He had slipped off the back of the boat. So we had to do the oar thing allover again. This time he went in the bottom of the boat which was good. Both Mom and Dad were really worried that the fish hawk might attack and claw us. So my Dad drove the boat very slowly to the shore and put the fish hawk on top of a crab trap. Well, all these other fish hawks started messing with this fish hawk and I got upset all over again. So we had to go get it again and this time, we carried it to an old duck blind. The fish hawk was safe here because the duck blind had a top on it. Later that afternoon, I convinced Mom and Dad to go back out in the boat to check on the fish hawk. The duck blind was empty and the fish hawk was back on its nest. Every time we went in the boat for the rest of the summer, the fish hawk would follow us. My Mom and Dad said my persistence had saved the fish hawk and that God was with us that day. And God helped save the fish hawk. I gotta tell ya - Mom was NOT happy with the fish hawk in the boat when she saw its claws.

When I see Mom and Dad do something like this, I know they care. They didn't have to help the fish hawk but they did. I also know God loved us and the fish hawk.

Miss Frannie and Miss Linda in Bible School talked about team work and how we all need to work together. We had fun in their class.

I like going to church. I like Sunday School, VBS, Family night and I like helping with the suppers for other people.

Passport Kids Camp was an awesome experience for me. Miss Leslie got me signed up for Passport Kids Camp. Meeting lots of new people and making new friends was exciting. I really liked a guy named Patrick who was from Africa. I met Patrick the first time I went to Passport Kids back in 2005. Talking with him was interesting and fun because he talked about his life in Africa. I began to realize that living in Africa is much different than living here in America.

I know I am closer to God now and I have Mom and Dad, Pastor Kenny, Miss Leslie, Miss Frannie and Miss Linda to thank for it. I also have all of you who are my church family.

Knowing that God loves me is a great feeling. It's awesome to know God loves me and sent his Son to die for me. And to know that God did the same thing for all of us. I know God is with me every day. God is with me all the time where ever I am.

Please join me in prayer.

Dear God:

Thank you for loving the world and all who inhabit it. Thank you for sending your Son to die for our sins. Thank you for giving me the chance to teach the Men's Class today. Thank you for our church and all the people in it. Please take care of everyone. Thank you for loving us. Amen.

Common to Everyone

Sunday, March 11th, 2007
Third Sunday of Lent
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Text: 1 Corinthians 10:12-17

12So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. 13No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it. 14Therefore, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols.
15I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? 17Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

Over the last few Wednesday evenings, we’ve been studying what it is that sets Baptists apart, and in doing that we’ve been more or less following the book “The Baptist Identity; Four Fragile Freedoms”. What we’ve been seeing through the study is that, overarching everything else … or perhaps underlying everything else, is a single concept that is reflected in the four chapter titles – and indeed in the subtitle itself – FREEDOM.

We’ve seen that the foundational concept that drove John Smyth and Thomas Helwys to establish that first small group of believers and constitute themselves into a church in Holland in 1609 was a desire to be able to FREELY practice their faith as they understood it, as they studied it, and as they lived it.

Over the last nearly four centuries, our Baptist predecessors proclaimed, defended, fought and died because of this understanding of what it meant to be a people of faith – freely choosing to become followers of Christ, freely choosing to read and interpret scripture for themselves, being guided by the Holy Spirit, freely choosing to associate as an individual with a body of believers and freely choosing as a body of believers to in turn associate with OTHER bodies of believers in their local area or across the world. At the heart of the Baptist understanding of what it means to be a Christ follower is the idea that Christ offers us a freedom that goes so deep and is so strong and so permeates our being that it suffuses – it spreads into – every aspect of our lives, and while it is a wonderful, liberating thing to experience this freedom we HAVE in Christ, it can make for some pretty unruly experiences … of which Baptist History is full.

So when we come to the letter Paul writes to his brothers and sisters in the church at Corinth, it is especially important for us to understand the fundamental issue that was at the root of the situations that Paul was asked to address by the folks there.

The Corinthians lost sight of what that freedom they found in Christ meant for them.

They were surrounded by every conceivable iteration of religious, social and physical practice that their first century society could come up with, and when Paul stepped into that mix and said “Christ sets you free FROM ALL THIS” they stopped listening at the word “free” and from there, took off on their individual wild goose chases, largely depending on what experience they were coming out of.

Paul’s stay in Corinth is estimated by scholars to have lasted about a year and a half … which would seem to be plenty of time to get some grounding established within the church, especially considering he wasn’t working by himself – Timothy and Silvanus and Priscilla and Aquila were with him, and Phoebe came from nearby Cenchreae; and after he left, Apollos, a Missionary from Alexandria in Egypt came to continue the instruction of the newly formed church.

Even with all that, the folks in the Corinthian church still ended up having to ask Paul about a number of issues:

1. What to do about some concepts that had been held onto by some people who were formerly devoted to the mystery religions, what later came to be known as Gnosticism in the early church;

2. How to deal with the sexual immorality of a particular couple in the congregation;

3. How to handle disputes and disagreements within the membership;

4. How their faith in Christ translated into how they lived together in marriage;

5. What their faith in Christ meant in the face of being offered food to eat that had first been sacrificed to idols in one of the multiple temples that filled the city and surrounded them;

6. How they were to practice their spiritual gifts;

7. How they were to observe the celebration of the Lord’s Supper;

8. Questions about the resurrection of the dead;

9. And finally, questions about a special offering that Paul was gathering to send back to the followers of Christ who were gathering in Jerusalem.

Paul had his work cut out for him when he began to dictate the reply from Ephesus to send back to them.

The passage this morning comes from that part of his reply that is dealing with the problems surrounding the questions about eating food sacrificed to idols, which is actually a pretty lengthy section, beginning in chapter 8 and going through the first verse in chapter eleven.

The situation is this: the idea that idols are no more than the material they are made of – bronze, gold, wood, stone, whatever – and don’t pose any sort of threat by way of supernatural or divine retribution if one does not appease or obey these supposed (lower case g) ‘gods’ is a concept that those who first received the gospel of Jesus Christ from Paul ‘GOT’. They understood that, whatever following may have developed over the centuries around Aphrodite or Hermes or Zeus or whatever other gods might be around, when it came to ultimate significance – what mattered in the end – none of THEM made a difference – only Christ did. So there was no real issue when it came to dealing with the ‘apparent’ spiritual significance of dealing with them. Since they were not real, there were no consequences to, for example, eating the meat of an animal that had been sacrificed to one of the pagan gods just down the street, and the priest or priestess turned around and sold it to make some money to support the temple staff. I imagine the sign at the stand said “Fresh roasted bull; 100% organic, purified in the fires of the great and mighty Zeus; provides 100% of the daily recommended dose of ‘Zeus Juice’ for those who worship him! It keeps you going when you have to ride herd on all those other, lesser gods!”

The problem arose when people who still BELIEVED to some degree in the strength OF those other gods, who had begun to express interest in the new Jesus faith and began to come around to their meetings and were attracted by what they saw … then saw one of their new friends stop at that stall and buy a quarter pound Hermesburger with extra onions. Although they were moving away from what they had taken for granted as being fact all their lives, there was still a part of them that had yet to overcome all that baggage, and in fact, was still so entrenched in the belief that eating that meat infused the person with the essence of the god to whom it was sacrificed that it didn’t make sense … it seemed that these Christ followers who were eating this food were wanting it both ways – covering all their bases, as it were.

It’s hard for us to really get into their skin, I think, because of the specifics involved. I looked through the phone book, and nowhere in the Northern Neck is there a listing for a temple to Zeus, and I haven’t seen any ads in the Northern Neck News for fresh-sacrificed Zeusburgers, on buy one get one free special at Food Lion.

So let’s see if we can put these same temptations into our context:

What I HAVE seen are ads on Television for “chat lines”, where you are invited to talk with local singles and really have “fun” – usually by beautiful young women who are breathing the commercial at you more than speaking it. I’ve seen movies on the top shelf at the movie rental store that are MOSTLY covered, but there is just enough of the title showing to give you an idea of what might be on that video tape or DVD … I’ve seen magazine covers that present the physically beautiful body in situations that turn it into so much meat on the sacrificial altar of lust and base desires, with total disregard for the worth of the individuals pictured. I’ve heard talk shows on the radio as well as on television that celebrate the depravity of the human mind – that give equal standing and weight to voices that espouse hatred and bloodlust and encourage the dehumanization of our fellow human beings so as to make it easier to allow atrocities to become more and more and more acceptable. I’ve heard interviews with proponents of ideas that center on a man being the ultimate determinant of his fate. I’ve seen shelves and shelves of bestsellers that propose to their readers that we are, in a word, divine in our own right. I’ve seen books that claim to explain all the mysteries of the Bible – which would, of course, provide the person who reads them with the ultimate knowledge – what’s going to happen when, and where, so having that answer, that special knowledge, that BIG SECRET will give you the POWER to be in the KNOW, and ready when the time comes.

Most references to this passage focus on the words of verse 13:

13No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

It's a nice thought. You may have heard it rephrased as the saying "if God led you to it, God will lead you through it."

I would invite us to read the two statements that straddle these two sentences … for just this time skipping over the two sentences of verse 13.

12So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. … 14Therefore, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols.

So what does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

Let’s read on:

15I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.

Paul is saying “THINK FOR YOURSELVES!” In this context, he’s saying “Don’t be taken in by the prevailing … MOOD … the accepted NORM …” THAT accepted norm tends to be WAY off base, when it comes to discerning what is TRULY meaningful and what TRULY matters in this life!”

He goes on:

16The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? 17Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

Paul began the argument against eating food sacrificed to idols in chapter 8, way back, by saying that in fact, yes, as Christ followers, freed from the lies of idolatry, we are free to confront and ignore and in so ignoring tear down the presuppositions that surround the acceptance of those idols. We are free to basically say out loud that the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes. We can call a spade a spade.

What his argument comes around to, though, is the reality that we each are at a different place in our pilgrimage … in our faith walk with Christ. Some are sprinting ahead, taking in and assimilating what it means to be a Christ-follower as fast as we can run. Others of us are coming along at a steady pace, taking in and digesting each bite, realizing the full implications only after careful deliberation and much study and prayer. Others of us are straggling along behind, sometimes gaining momentum and coming even with the rest of those who are walking along the way and sometimes stumbling and falling back … seemingly struggling with what sometimes seems like insignificant issues that nevertheless occupy the lion’s share of our devotional time.

Paul highlights the fact that – no matter where we are on the road – that we eat the same bread – that we share the same cup, that we share the same Christ. We who are many are one body.

That means that we cannot expect all of us to be at the same place in our spiritual journeys. That we are to bear with each other, encourage each other, help each other along, hold each other accountable, live alongside each other in this freedom that Christ gives – the freedom to BE so much more than the world expects us to be. To surprise our neighbor with an unexpected – and maybe even undeserved word or act of friendship and kindness, to confound the person who has just had a horrible day with a totally random act of selfless giving that will renew their faith and show them that there truly ARE people who SAY they are Christ followers and LIVE like it as well. And give that honor to Christ’s presence in their life – in other words – that will unpretentiously give the credit where credit is due – humbly acknowledging that were it not for the transformative power of Jesus being Lord that that … whatever… would most likely not have taken place. Claiming Christ as Lord carries not only enormous freedom, but enormous responsibility as well.

Let’s pray.

My Beloved

Sunday, March 4th, 2007
Second Sunday of Lent
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Text: Philippians 3:14-4:1

14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
15Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. 16Only let us hold fast to what we have attained. 17Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. 18For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. 19Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.
4Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

The music is almost not there at the beginning, just a high steady note on the strings … then the voice over begins; “These are the voyages …” the confident voice of command, enunciating the mission:

“…to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life, and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before!”

The music swells, and the last word is almost shouted, and the Spaceship Enterprise flashes by the screen moving at some multiple of the speed of light.

It was a regular Saturday evening ritual in the dorm room or in Claude’s den, to have supper ready and be sitting in front of the television come 7 PM, such was the draw for me of the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series. You’ve heard me speak of it before; of the different characters, the conflicts that they were confronted with in dealing with either newly-discovered species or with some internal problem … watching those same episodes when they come on now, they seem pretty cheesy, but at the time, the special effects and production values were state of the art.

I’m a fan of science fiction. I enjoy a good thick book with lots of technological wonders and preferably lots of strange looking aliens. Now it is mostly for pure escapist enjoyment that I pick one of the books or movies, but I am still stirred by the possibilities that are presented … what IF … we COULD zap ourselves from one side of the planet to the other in a couple of seconds, what if we could speak to a computer and have a cup of 'earl grey, hot,' materialize in front of us? I suppose it speaks to the basic hope that I hold inside. But what has always been missing has been the in-between stage – the part where it explains how we get from HERE to THERE.

Usually, with the science fiction that I’ve read or watched, the in-between involves the near-destruction of the world as we know it – if not the ACTUAL destruction of the world as we know it – and what is left is a remnant of humanity that goes on … after the vast majority of the population has died or been killed off. Not a very hopeful view of the near future of humanity, is it? To base the advancement of the human species on the premise that, first, we get rid of all but those who are the smartest and strongest, or who in some way are away from the ‘great unwashed masses’ of humanity.

It reminds me of a Far Side cartoon where a scientist has filled a blackboard with equations and scientific notations – covered the left side of the board with all this stuff that seems to be leading somewhere, and on the RIGHT side of the board there is an amazing result – and square in the middle, the critical piece of the formula, was the outline of a cloud with the words ‘and then a miracle happens’ in the middle of it.

The critical piece was not there.

Paul’s tone in our passage this morning is almost imploring. His letter to the church at Philippi has always been one that has been highlighted by the way he expresses his love for the people there. Scholars believe that Paul was writing near the end of his life, when he was in something of a contemplative mood – looking back over his lifetime of mission work for the Gospel. It is apparent on reading the letter that the Philippians had a special place in Paul’s heart. There is, in this passage, an expression of a nearly overwhelming need to communicate the critical piece between now and then to the people of the church at Philippi.

And it is not a piece of concrete, hands-on, insert tab A in slot B kind of information. It is simply a reminder: ‘our citizenship is in heaven’.

An interesting thing, citizenship; you don’t lose it unless you renounce it. It stays with you, no matter where you are, or where you go. And it is, for the most part, recognized by whoever it is that you are around, whether they care to or not. It is a part of your person. It is not determined by something you wear or carry, by how you dress, or don’t, but by who you ARE.

In our case, as members of the body of Christ, it is a matter of WHOSE we are as much as WHO we are. Because you see, as followers of Jesus, we have given ourselves to the life of the Kingdom, to the work that will bring forth the presence and work of the Holy Spirit on the earth until the Lord returns.

Paul’s plea to the Philippians to ‘stand firm’ is phrased as a reminder, a theory in the face of the fact that they were currently living in the reality, albeit temporary, of an empire that held the ruling Caesar as divine, more often than not, allowed and in fact encouraged the worship of a whole pantheon of gods, and could be brutal in shutting down anyone who spoke against the governing outlook from Rome.

Paul’s concern was ultimately with the eternal, as is ours, but it was expressed in very real life-on-earth terms. The competition from false teachers, and pagan doctrine, and any number of other distractions to the pursuit to which God has called us is serious and real. There are an overwhelming number of distractions to the task at hand on any given day – and when we actually turn TO that task, the distractions only seem to increase.

So what does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

It means that, very simply, we need to focus on what it is that God has for us to do, and while doing it, never lose sight of the hope that we have in Christ, who has granted us citizenship in heaven. Our task, if you will, is no small endeavor.

We are to change the world, to help break in the Kingdom of Heaven, to take part, in some way, in the reconciliation of humanity to God. To follow Christ in the most faithful way we can, with our whole heart, soul, mind and body. Jerusalem has a history, and it is one that includes both the doing of that and the falling short of that. That is part of what happens in a fallen world. We don’t have an unbroken record on either side. What we DO have is a legacy of faith that continually calls us back to Christ, back to the Bible, back to the good news and to the reality of the Grace of God available to all humanity through Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray.