Repairing the Leak

Repairing the Leak
Jeremiah 2:4-13
September 2, 2007
22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

© 2007 by Christopher D. Drew

Sermon Focus: God accuses all the people of Israel of forsaking Him and turning to “things that do not profit,” like the worship of idols. They turned away from the “fountain of living water” and have constructed cisterns for saving up water themselves. But these cisterns are cracked and can hold no water.

Our lives are cracked cisterns, and we routinely worship other idols. Having just talked about God’s call, how can we stay faithful to that call, and faithful to the God who issues that call?

Sermon Function: To teach listeners that our ability to stay faithful is limited because of our fallen nature. We must look to Jesus Christ as the salve to which we can sustain our call and remain faithful to God.

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Introduction

We are in week two of a six-week series on the writings of the prophet Jeremiah. For you trivia buffs out there, Jeremiah is in fact the largest book in the bible. Last week, we dealt specifically with the concept of call, using Jeremiah’s call by God to be a prophet as one example of being called into ministry of Jesus Christ. This week, Jeremiah speaks to the nations, revealing God’s prosecution of Israel for its forgetfulness and idolatry, which includes that false idol where we think we can save ourselves.

Listen now to God’s word.

[Read Scripture - Jeremiah 2:4-13]

Introductory Illustration

I will hazard a guess this morning that almost all of you have heard about the horrible situation of NFL quarterback Michael Vick, who pled guilty this week to federal charges related to his participation in a dog-fighting ring. He pled guilty and was told that he would receive his sentence later this year. After entering his guilty plea, Vick took to the steps of the courthouse and made a statement to the press. I’d like to read portions of this statement to you now, because it’s largely a good statement and because it also contains a link to today’s reading from Jeremiah.

Here is Michael Vick:

"First, I want to apologize … for all the things that - I've done and that I have allowed to happen … I was not honest and forthright in our discussions, and … I was ashamed and totally disappointed in myself to say the least.

“I want to apologize to all the young kids out there for my immature acts and … what I did was very immature so that means I need to grow up.”

“I totally ask for forgiveness and understanding as I move forward to bettering Michael Vick the person, not the football player.”

“I take full responsibility for my actions. … [N]ot for one second will I sit right here and point the finger and try to blame anybody else for my actions or what I've done.”

“I'm totally responsible, and those things just didn't have to happen. I feel like we all make mistakes. It's just I made a mistake in using bad judgment and making bad decisions. And you know, those things … just can't happen.”

“Dog fighting is a terrible thing, and I did reject it.”

“I'm upset with myself, and … through this situation I found Jesus and asked him for forgiveness and turned my life over to God. And I think that's the right thing to do as of right now.”

“Like I said, for this - for this entire situation I never pointed the finger at anybody else, I accepted responsibility for my actions of what I did and now I have to pay the consequences for it. But in a sense, I think it will help … me as a person. I got a lot to think about in the next year or so. I offer my deepest apologies to everybody out in there in the world who was affected by this whole situation. And if I'm more disappointed with myself than anything it's because of all the young people, young kids that I've let down, who look at Michael Vick as a role model. And to have to go through this and put myself in this situation, you know, I hope that every young kid out there in the world watching this interview right now who's been following the case will use me as an example to using better judgment and making better decisions.”

“Once again, I offer my deepest apologies to everyone. And I will redeem myself. I have to.”¹

Now to me, this sounds like a man who is truly contrite, and concerned about something more than just his multimillion dollar salary or superstar fame. I give him the benefit of the doubt, because he admitted guilt in federal court, and because he took personally responsibility for the crime he committed. He also took responsibility for lying to his teammates and friends.

Vick also committed himself to be a better disciple of Jesus Christ, something, frankly, I hope that I might be able to do, along with you. In general, then, I appreciated Vick’s statement. It is my deep hope that his words were sincere.

While I appreciated Vick’s statement, he is not the object of this sermon. God is. And several things in Vick’s statement that ought to draw attention to our own behavior and the nature of human society. We are a broken people. And both kids and adults frequently look to mega-wealthy superstars as “role models.” I don’t want to dwell on Vick himself, but on some of the things his statement highlights about our culture, including making idols of role models and fame, how persistent sinful behavior can lead to embarrassment and destruction. How can we, with our broken cisterns, find redemption?

Idols and “Role Models”

Although many times we don’t even realize we do it, we are constantly making idols out of things and people, “role models,” to whom we pay homage. I saw a program on one of the “home and garden” cable channels devoted to how much money a couple could get for their house. The process of selling a home is, in the wider scheme of things, a somewhat banal process. People buy and sell homes all the time. But this is a program devoted to elevating a real estate transaction into a life altering struggle of biblical proportions because, you see, if the couple in question can’t get the big bucks they expect, then they won’t be able to “move up” to that next mansion they have their eyes on.

We make idols out of what we “own” or think we own, we make idols out of professional athletes, supermodels, cars, food, addictive substances, booze, and we even make idols out of ourselves. We do this when we start believing all the hype about how we are better people than we really are. We begin to get tempted, as some athletes and politicians are tempted, to think that somehow we become exempt from the consequences of our unrepentant sin. To be clear, here, I’m not just picking on Michael Vick – I’m addressing all of us here who profess to be Christian and who might be tempted to lord it over those who struggle with matters of faith. But Vick himself touches on the idolatry of our culture because he senses that people hold in him high regard for no other reason than his stellar athletic abilities.

Jeremiah writes:

“Thus says the LORD: ‘What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?” (Jer 2:5 NRSV). Going after the worthless things will take us down the road of worthlessness. Goings after what is worthless means that we aren’t good stewards of the precious gift of life we have received from God.

Jeremiah was speaking to “all the families of Israel” in an attempt to refocus their attention to the God that saved them from slavery.

We are called to do the same thing, by rejecting the idols of our culture that keep us from recognizing Almighty God and from hearing how He is calling us into the world He is preparing for the fullness of his coming Kingdom.

Sin and Destruction

I mentioned earlier that we can become wrapped up in our sin to the point where we lose our way. This kind of thing does not just happen to the celebrities in our culture. Frankly, the problem is endemic to our humanity. Sin is a true, multicultural phenomenon. No one is exempt from its temptation. And our refusal to repent and turn away from sin can actually make us, as Jeremiah writes, “worthless.” We know, from the testimony of scripture and the testimony of our own stories that something is awry. In the rebellion of humanity that had is source in Adam and Eve, we are the “people [who] have changed their glory,” their glory, “for something that does not profit” (Jer 2:11 NRSV).

Who does such a crazy thing? We all do. The same temptations that cause one person, for example, to exchange the healthy income and fame associated with extraordinary athletic ability and sell it out to pursue a few extra bucks on the side in cruel sport? Or to risk the wrath of a family in pursuit of cheap, meaningless sexual escapades? Or maybe succumbing to the temptation to cheat “just a little bit” on our income taxes. It seems that human beings have the incessant need to cheapen human life, to commoditize it, to relevatize it in ways that are so seditious that they can become a subtle form of slavery to that which is worthless. It honestly makes no sense, which is one of the reason Paul complained in Romans 7:15, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” Jeremiah’s revelation of God’s words, written thousands of years ago, still rings true today. In our text, the Israelites stand accused of turning against God. Prophets were prophesying by Baal, that ancient idol of the Canaanites. What idols we prophesy by? Is it prosperity? Do-it-yourself redemption? So many things that they are difficult to enumerate. We need only reflect on our own lives for a few moments before the truth of the matter becomes uncomfortable.

“Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit” (Jer 2:11 NRSV).

Jesus Christ and Redemption

The situation can feel oppressive and hopeless. The situation that Jeremiah addresses in our text, the rebelliousness of Israel, is so severe that all of the heavens are called in as witnesses:

“Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer 2:12-13 NRSV).

Jeremiah’s wording and the imagery are very rich here. Israel has forsaken the Lord, the very fountain of living water. Instead, the people have hewn cisterns out of the rock to try and save life-giving water themselves. I had the privilege of seeing one ancient cistern on the mountaintop fortress of Masada in Israel. As I recall, the cisterns at Masada were designed to hold tens of thousands of gallons of water. The cisterns, coupled with the large from which occupied the largest portion of the Masada stronghold, were designed to make that place impregnable. Despite all of the preparations, however, Masada did ultimately fall. For Israel and for Jeremiah, the cisterns they have dug out are cracked, useless, and can hold no water.

This is a call to return to the Lord, the very fountain of life. We, too, are called by Christ to do the same thing. Do you remember the story of the Samaritan woman at the well? Jesus asks her for a drink of water, and she responds:

“’How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans)”

“Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water’” (John 4:10 NRSV).

The message of the Gospel this week is very straightforward. We are called to turn away from our dependence on whatever well or cistern we’ve dug for ourselves in which we think we can safely place our trust– maybe it’s that big bank account or 401k, perhaps it’s something else. The reason is this: Eternity is at sake. Faithfulness to God is at stake. The things of this world will pass away. The old maxim “you can’t take it with you” is still in effect!

I am always amused when I read headlines like this one: “Among people who pursue habit or behavior X, the death rate increases by 25%.” What baloney! The last time I checked the death rate, my friends, continues to be 100%. No one is exempt, and that stark fact should inform all of our life decisions, and should heavily influence the degree to which we remain faithful to God’s call to us in Jesus Christ.

Leave those cracked cisterns behind. Don’t fall in the trap of dependence on those earthly things that we leave behind. Cleave to the source of living water – Jesus Christ. Trust in Him, the source of all heavenly treasures.

Conclusion

If I had one bit nit to pick to Michael Vick’s statement, it is this four-word statement: “I will redeem myself.” There’s no need for that, Mr. Vick. Someone already accomplished that task for you and for me and for all of you. The price of Israel’s disobedience at the time Jeremiah was writing, and our own disobedience and idol-mongering, has been paid-in-full. What we need to do is reject sin and cling to the One who calls us into ministry as Head of the Church – the One who calls us to the font of our baptism, and who calls us to eat and drink with him at the table.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Given at First Presbyterian Church, Portland, Texas.

¹Transcription from the Associated Press. ↩

Technorati Tags: Presbyterian Church USA, PCUSA, Sermon, Jeremiah, Year C, Michael Vick

Since Before You Were Born

Since Before You Were Born
Jeremiah 1:4-10
August 26, 2007
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

© 2007 by Christopher D. Drew

Sermon Focus: God speaks to Jeremiah and calls him into service as a messenger of God to the nations of the world. Jeremiah is told, when speaking the words of God, that nations and kingdoms will fall. And yet, hope remains, because God will also speak words through Jeremiah that will build and plant.

Sermon Function: To teach listeners about call, prophecy, and ministry. What does God want us to do this day? How can we know? What should we do? We must ask these questions if we are to remain faithful to this text.

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Introduction

Well, another journey, and another return. I’m happy to be back. So is Sara. This time, we were attending the wedding of a very close friend of mine who now lives in Seattle, Washington. I was asked to be a “reader” at his catholic marriage rite. It was a fulfilling experience, and very interesting, particularly since I was asked to read various selections from the book of Sirach. Sirach is an apocryphal book that is part of the Roman Catholic scripture canon, but is not accepted as such by any Reformed Protestant denomination, including ours. It was fun to be included, but it’s even more fun to be back home with you all.

Today’s sermon scripture passage is taken from the Old Testament. We’ll be reading from the book of the prophet Jeremiah. We’ll be reading about his call by God to be a prophet to the nations. How are we to interpret this today, in the midst of cultural strife when many who claim God’s mantle will seemingly extinguish thousands of lives without a second thought? We are challenged in this era to interpret this text in a way that is both genuine and somehow connective with our contemporary situation. That’s what we’ll begin exploring today and continuing on for the next several weeks.

Let’s listen now to God’s word.

[Read Scripture - Jeremiah 1:4-10]

Experiencing God’s Call

As many of you know, I’m still in the candidacy process in the Presbyterian Church (USA). This means that I’m on track for ordination, but must still pass some trials prior to being certified to receive a call.

Along this churchly path to ordained ministry, I’ve been asked hundreds of times, literally, to describe my “faith journey” and my “sense of call.” These terms are used interchangeably. When coming from friends and colleagues outside of the Church, these questions about “faith journey” and “sense of call” really boil down to something like “What happened to you? Is there something wrong with you?” Et cetera.

As you might imagine, when one gets asked the same questions repeatedly, stock responses are developed to ease the storytelling tasks. This is not without some precedent. After all, I am called, and you are called “always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet 3:15 NRSV). For me, that hope is Jesus Christ, the one who for our sake was crucified and was resurrected by God.

In my case, I first came to understand that God was calling me to the ministry when I was a senior in high school. A women in our church, who didn’t know of my developing call, told me after one Sunday service that she had been watching me, and had been struck my the notion that I might one day consider becoming a pastor in the church. Then, after a short 17-year stint, God finally moved me to Austin, Texas for seminary, and to begin the church discernment process.

“The Call” wasn’t something I heard in my mind, but something clearly distinguishable in my soul. It bubbled up gradually, and took me through a career as a consultant prior to taking me to Austin and seminary and marriage. Now it has taken me here. Call is something tangible, but not something necessarily measurable. This is why many scientists cannot understand people of faith. You cannot measure out call using quantitative techniques. Similarly, as C.S. Lewis noticed, you cannot make claims about things like miracles that are, by definition, something not scientifically verifiable. Science depends on repeatability to define and defend theories of reality. And repeatability requires measurement. For experiences that don’t fit that narrow profile, we are left with the necessity of making philosophical and theological statements about our experience. This is why faith is not something empirically assessable, despite what legions of scientists and post-post modern atheists would prefer. Call is like that.

Many seminarians are familiar with a saying by Presbyterian Pastor Fredrick Buechner that is oft-repeated in school orientations and classrooms. Here it is: “[Call] is the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.” I like that definition. The world of Israel certainly needed Jeremiah’s call to prophetic mission. Israel had, at the beginning of Jeremiah’s life, achieved a temporary liberation from the rule of the Assyrians. But another kingdom was on the rise, that of Babylon. Jeremiah’s call sets the stage for what is to follow in his book, which is among other things a recounting of life before, during, and after the destruction of Israel by the Babylonians in 587 B.C. The political life of Israel was at stake, and Jeremiah’s call to prophecy is recognized now as an important word of warning in the face of dominating political power from a foreign nation. But for Israel, more is at stake. For Israel, the political is invariably wrapped up with the religious, because the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, divided since of the time of King Solomon, only came into existence by virtue of the word God had previously spoke when he called Moses to lead his people from the slavery of Egypt. The forthcoming destruction of Israel was, therefore, much more than a political catastrophe. It represented a theological catastrophe as well.

These first few verses of Jeremiah’s call story say something to us, too. What is that? Let’s listen again:

“Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations’” (Jer 1:4-5 NRSV).

God knows us through eternity rather than through the boundaries of time as we understand time. God knows us first, and calls us into service according to our spiritual gifts. The verbs “knew,” “consecrated,” and “appointed” are all in the perfect tense. The perfect tense defines an action has being fully completed from the time of the action through the remainder of history. This means that God absolutely knew, consecrated, and appointed Jeremiah fully and completely, with lasting eternal effect. God’s knowledge of us is certain, full, and complete. In Jeremiah’s case, the call was so profound has to be articulated as speech. In the example I gave you from my own life, the call was subtler, bubbling up from within. God’s call, then, can come in a variety of ways.

Have there ever been times in your life when you might have sensed God’s call? Perhaps a nudge you felt to take on a particular task for the church, or to attend to a fellow Christian in need? Pay heed to these things, because they will tell you about how God is actively working in your life.

God Calls People

The next thing this passage tells us is that God calls people. This is self-evident in our text, but it bears repeating. The reason is this: That God would call God’s creatures into ministry is stunning.

I was recently listening to a sermon by another Presbyterian Pastor, Reverend Vic Pentz. He told he congregation about a book he was reading by Karl Barth, a famous and renowned theologian in the reformed, protestant tradition. Karl Barth’s theological magnum opus is entitled Church Dogmatics. You would need almost three feet of shelf space to accommodate the entire work. But Barth helpfully penned a much smaller compendium of lectures on his theology called Dogmatics in Outline (and I can commend the work to you as well). Pentz quotes Barth several times, but one thought in particular jumped out at me as I was preparing this sermon. We consider it fascinating, marvelous, and wonderful that we have a God that is so tremendous, all-knowing, and wise and full of love. But what is really fascinating, wonderful, and marvelous is that God sees fit to create us! God didn’t need to do that. But God did. And the beautiful truth contained in the story of Jeremiah’s call is that God called Jeremiah, and that God continues to call men and women into service in the kingdom of God, whose head is Jesus Christ.

And in fact, in Jesus Christ we also get the full picture of the type of people God calls. Jeremiah is a member of what was likely one of the priestly tribes of Judah. Jesus calls everyone: Fishermen, tax collectors, and the like. Some of the folks God calls would have struck the ancient listener as odd. For Jesus to call a tax collector during the Roman occupation of Jerusalem was very odd indeed – even scandalous. But God calls. God called the Virgin Mary to bear the Son of God. God called Joseph into a special kind of fatherhood. God calls people into every form of ministry, prophecy, and discipleship. God has called this congregation into existence. God calls us into new and exciting ministries of prayer and service. God calls visitors to this church to discipleship, and I’m excited to think that one or more of you might be being called by God this very moment into not just another phase of life, but to new baptized life in Jesus Christ. God continues to move in this church. God has ordained that the church begin searching for a new pastor. God is calling us to exercise good stewardship over this church and its resources, so that the call of the new pastor might be successfully realized.

God is calling, but what ought we to do in response? What do we do when we don’t feel like we’re the right choice? Or somehow unworthy? Or scared and fearful of what might happen next?

God Is With Us!

Jeremiah felt some of this, I think. Jeremiah’s initial response to God’s call is similar to that of Moses. He asserts that he is “only a boy” and that he “[does] not know how to speak.”

Our attempt to disqualify ourselves from God’s services says some interesting things about us. One the one hand, it suggests that our faith in God’s sovereignty is somehow insufficient. We convince ourselves that God is somehow mistaken if he calls us to do something. Believe me, I’ve made this amusing mistake multiple times. We try to set aside God’s will all the time, particularly if it looks like it might trump our best laid plans for living a successful life.

On the other hand, our attempts to disqualify ourselves from God’s service might also be a reflection of a keen awareness of unworthiness and sinfulness. But it might also be the result of an overwrought or even a sense of condemnation that is unwarranted. There are really, then, two significant ways we sin we attempt to dodge God when he calls us. In the first case, when we try to disqualify ourselves from God’s service because we think God might be mistaken, that’s the sin of pride is asserting itself on our life. In the second case, when we disqualify ourselves from God’s service because we feel completely valueless, we commit the sin of thinking too lowly of ourselves. We are created beings, as the writer of Genesis tell us, in the image of God. Therefore, we are creatures cared for by the One who, as he did with Jeremiah, forms us in the womb as a potter forms a beautiful vase. The potter knows his creation intimately. He knows every nook and cranny, and he knows what will become of the creation because he is the one who represents true creativity and has the imagination and the power to bring his vision into what we understand as reality.

The call from God really does come to people like you and me. As the Creator, God knows our limits. And by living lives of honest repentance, we are able to respond to God’s call because of the very assurance of God’s presence with us. God declares to Jeremiah:

“Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.” (Jer 1:8 NRSV). Do not be afraid. We ought to trust God to put the words we need in our mouths, and to take the actions we need to move ahead and advance the cause of Jesus Christ.

Final Words

In the last two verses of our text today, Jeremiah finds that God’s very words have been put in his mouth, and that he is appointed “over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jer 1:10 NRSV). Our own calls may not appear to be so profound as to impact the life of nations and kingdoms, but they can be critically important in the live of this congregation and its members and this community of Portland Texas. What injustices in our lives must be plucked up, pulled down, destroyed, and/or overthrown? A violent temper? Addiction to pornography? Abuse of drugs? Forgetting the lonely? Is there anything in your life that needs to be overthrown and tossed out? Hasty judgment, perhaps? Corrosive anger? Unconfessed sin? Broken family relationships?

The final words of Jeremiah are words of hope. What are you and I called to build and to plant? Is it to pray for others and for our enemies? Might God be calling you to join the prayer quilt ministry of the church? Perhaps God wants you to consider seminary education and ordained ministry? Perhaps God wants you to participate in reviving people through Mission 911 in Corpus Christi? Maybe you’re called to help educate the youth or the adults in our church? Or is God calling you to mend a broken relationship? Or perhaps God is moving in your heart right now to consider baptism and the commitments of faith in Jesus Christ and discipleship. God’s call is frequently something more than any of us could imagine. I think that’s very exciting, and I pray that you might experience this same excitement in your own life, for the sake of the Joy we have in Jesus Christ, to whom we give all glory and honor.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Given at First Presbyterian Church, Portland, Texas.

Technorati Tags: Presbyterian Church USA, PCUSA, Sermon, Jeremiah, Year C

Lift Up Your Heads

Lift Up Your Heads
Colossians 3:1-11
August 12, 2007
19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

© 2007 by Christopher D. Drew

Sermon Focus: Paul exhorts his listeners to lift up their heads and keep their eyes on Christ, and to completely reject the ways of the world along with its idolatrous and destructive distractions.

Sermon Function: To exhort listeners to put their own earthy distractions to death, and to keep their eyes on the prize – shared glory with Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

[Click to Show/Hide Sermon Text]

Introduction

It is good to be back here with you in Portland! Sara and I missed you very much.

I’m happy to tell you that my 20-year high school reunion was tremendously entertaining and fulfilling. Sara and I were fortune to be able to visit with some friends I had not seen for quite some time back in my hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah. I can report to you that many of my former classmates looked the same, some people looked substantially different. Some had suffered extreme physical, emotional, or financial hardships. Others had experienced tremendous worldly success. What struck me most about the visit was how absolutely nice everyone was. There were moments when I deliberately decided to walk through the crowds to see what might happen. What I found out was this: People who I had not considered to be close friends or even casual acquaintances would stop me to see how I had been all these years later. It was a gratifying and happy time for all.

You will also be interested to know that I won an award during the reunion entertainment program. I won the award for the “most radical change in vocation.” Imagine that!

The only regret I experienced as a result of attending the reunion was this – that I wasn’t able to speak with the many classmates who were unable to attend. I also regretted not seeing many friends who decided that they would not attend.

One good high school friend who decided not to attend lives in Colorado but was, in fact, in Salt Lake City at the time of the reunion. I will call him George. George was a good friend, very funny and very intelligent, but not a particularly good student. I found out, only last weekend, that he did not actually graduate with us. He later earned a graduate equivalency degree, or GED.

I do not know exactly why he decided to stay away, but I can speculate about the reasons, because I knew George very well, and know of some of the circumstances of his life that likely kept him away. The basic reason he didn’t attend was this: He is preoccupied with some heavy things in the past that have scarred him. This isn’t an uncommon thing, is it? In fact, I continue to be amazed at the degree to which the deeds of our pasts adversely impact our ability to mature in our faith lives and in our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Holy Scripture is amazing. The Word of God speaks to us each day and the word is fresh. Today’s Word deals directly with some of the issues I’ve just mentioned. Paul’s words today speak about leaving the old life behind and clinging to Christ.

Let’s listen to God’s Word as it comes to us today.

[Read Scripture - Colossians 3:1-11]

Opening Discussion – Paul’s Exhortations

Friends, it is in this part of Paul’s letter that we get a bunch of Greek verbs in the imperative case. Imperatives mark verbs that implore or exhort the listener to do something. In our text today, almost every paragraph has one or more imperative forms of verbs, verbs like: “Seek,” “set your minds” or “think;” “put to death;” “get rid of;” and “do not lie.” Paul is here exhorting his readers to exemplify a certain kind of moral behavior and character befitting new life in Christ. This is a fairly standard method for Paul to communicate the gospel message. He begins his letters with terrific expositions on faith and grace before moving to his exhortations to live exemplary lives in the faith. Paul believes, as many of us believe, that living resurrection lives means that nothing from the old life remains.

Illustration – George, The Associate Principle, and the Reunion

But for many of us, leaving the old life behind is very difficult. I mentioned to you my friend, George, who didn’t make the class reunion. One of the reasons people don’t make their reunions is they are, frankly, embarrassed or angry about something that happened high school, or upset by misfortune in life, or are dissatisfied with their lot in life and unwilling to be seen in comparison with that other classmate who made it big.

George is a smart guy, and very talented.¹ An adopted child, George was raised in a happy middle-class home. His parents were successful and loving. In high school, however, George was happier with hanging out and playing the saxophone than with studying for the next math exam. He was happier entertaining students by playing the piano at assemblies rather than applying himself to a tricky chemistry equation.

As graduation day approached, George realized that he actually wanted to graduate! He wanted to make things right. He made an appointment to speak with one of the associate principles at our high school. During the meeting, George told the associate principle that he wanted to graduate, and that he wanted some help figuring out how he could make this happen. The administrator looked at George. Here’s what he said:

“George, I think you’re a loser, and that you’re always going to be a loser. Maybe you should just drop out.”

That was the end of the discussion. George went home and told his father about the exchange. His father, understandably upset, made his own appointment with the associate principle. The two met, and the father told the associate principal that he felt his words had crossed the line. In response, the associate principle told the father this:

“I still think your son is a loser. Not only that, but I think you’re a loser too.”

George didn’t graduate with the class, but to his credit he secured a GED not to long thereafter.

I think you might agree that the associate principle’s approach was unproductive. He took what little hope my friend had and dashed it on the rocks of academic malarkey. What’s worse is that this “loser” thinking can plague even the most stalwart person. Words like these, coming from figures of authority, can completely waylay the young person who is struggling with their own identity. For the persons without faith in Jesus Christ, words like these can become a sort of pre-death, leaving someone rudderless and without passion for life. Words have meaning, and words can hurt. We should never forget that. The words of the principle tell us something about his character.

We Are a Hidden Treasure

Our actions and words also have implications because they tell others about what we really genuinely believe. In fact, they reveal much about our theology, what we believe about God.

Paul understands this keenly. And it is because of situations like the one George experienced that we should pay particular attention to these words. The stakes are big for Paul, and they ought to be for us.

Paul writes, “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory” (Col 3:1-4 NRSV).

If we genuinely believe that we have been raised with Christ, and are earnest about our desire to follow him, then our lives will be hidden with Christ in God. We will do what we do, remaining hidden away [in obscurity from the world, and we will be content with this state]. The word translated here as “hidden” carries several other meanings as well, including being hidden like a treasure, something very valuable to the one doing the hiding. You have things of value, too, things like wedding rings, important legal papers, and the like. They are treated with particular concern, and are covered over and protected. We have been given an inestimable gift in Christ, and if we live in him and allow him to live in us, we will remain in his guardianship, protected until we share in Christ’s glory when he is fully revealed.

If We Are Like a Treasure, Remain Uncorrupted

If we have been transformed in Christ, and remain hidden with him like a treasure, then should we not take care that this treasure, this gift from God, to be cared for and maintained?

Paul writes that we should “put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry)” (Col 3:5 NRSV). The Greek word for “put to death” is Νεκρώσατε (nekro-sate) is one of those imperative verbs I talked about a bit earlier. It is a heavily stylized word that really means what our translators have in the text. Paul isn’t saying “please refrain from these things, thank you.” No. He says “put them to death.”

I like how Eugene Peterson paraphrases this same passage:

“[This] means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That's a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God” (Col 3:5-8 MSG). Doing these things subjects us to judgment. “On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient” (Col 3:6 NRSV). We should take Paul’s warning seriously, and reflect how we turn against God with our ill informed, frequently selfish desires. These are marks of living the old life, before acknowledging the death, resurrection, and eternal lordship of Jesus Christ. For some, this list might looks different. Maybe someone’s way of death is marked by alcoholism or some other kind of addiction. Perhaps some other form of social violence continues to pull at you, drawing you away from God and into the bowels of the earth. Perhaps it is one of the other things Paul mentions: Uncontrollable anger, or wrath, or malice, slander, or abusive language. Maybe it’s a mixture of all of these things together, mixed together into a morose cocktail of deceit that tells the rebellious teenager, for example, that they are a loser, and always will be a loser.

This text says to us today that if we truly are disciples of Christ, then our lives had better reflect that reality. If we are truly filled with Christ, and if we truly live in him, then there really should be any space in the room left over for the things of the world. This is not easy, which is why we have the gift of the Church guided by the Holy Spirit. This narrow road of discipleship might mean that we have to physically detach ourselves from unhealthy things. Jesus himself uses very specific language about detaching ourselves from the things that separate us from God. Jesus said, according to Matthew 5:29-30, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matt 5:29-30 NRSV).

Lift Up Your Heads

But how? How do we do this? For many, it seems the road is awfully hard, difficult, filled with pothole of disease and illness and death. The way ahead can be confusing and discouraging. Many, like my friend George, suffer for years, even decades, having been harmed by circumstances of life which have made it all the more difficult to detach ourselves from the sinful ways that, for all that they do to separate us from God, nonetheless maintain their attractiveness because they are at least familiar to us.

Well, the first thing we ought to do is pray. And we should pray whenever and wherever we can, that we might be delivered from the earthy, deathly way that separate us from Jesus Christ. And we should pray whenever and wherever we can, that others – friends, loved ones, AND enemies – might be delivered from the earthly, deathly things that keep them from knowing Christ.

Next, acknowledging that we’re frail and prone to sin, we need to seek out others to help us along the journey. If addiction is the problem, acknowledge the problem, understand that you can’t fix the problem by yourself, and get help. If anger is the problem, acknowledge the problem, and put it to death by making amends with whatever or whomever you are angry.

If depression and loneliness are problems, don’t keep it bottled up, but share this with a trusted friend, so that you might know that you are not alone, and that you have advocates motivated by the love of the Holy Spirit to help you.

The church, at its best, should be the vehicle that can provide the help. And friends, I view it as one of the key, essential ingredients of proper church living to live into that vision that enables us to be the vehicle of action for others. If people need help overcoming sin and death, then we should do whatever we can to help those people, regardless of their personal circumstances. Paul concludes this section of the letter in very similar fashion to what were heard when we talked about his letter to the Galatians -- “In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!” (Col 3:11 NRSV). That means that we must learn how we be a body of forgiveness and healing, so that we can be beacons of the light of Christ in a world filled with darkness.

Conclusion

It is the usual practice among many of us, including myself, to bow our heads during prayer. But if we are earnestly seeking Christ, it is beneficial to look where we are going. Friends, I exhort you, lift up your heads! Look to the one who died and who rose for your sake. And when you pray, ask to get to know Him better. And ask that your neighbor might be healed. And while you’re at it, I ask you a special favor. Pray for that assistant principle in our story, the one who hurt George so badly. And pray for George, that he, too, might lift up his head and live fully into the resurrection life given to us in Jesus Christ our Lord.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Given at First Presbyterian Church, Portland, Texas.

¹The circumstances recounted here are from a story I heard at my 20-year high school reunion. ↩

Technorati Tags: Presbyterian Church USA, PCUSA, Sermon, Colossians, Year C

Friday Funny

I'm a NASCAR fan, and this video is posted without further comment:


NASCAR Coach Reveals Winning Strategy: 'Drive Fast'

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Text for this Sunday - 8/12/2007

Here is the text I'll be preaching on this Sunday. Note that this is the text from last weekend, but because I was out of town at my 20-year high school reunion (gasp!), I'm finishing up the lectionary series in Colossians this Sunday.

“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!” (Col 3:1-11 NRSV)

Translation Comparison Links:
Oremus Bible Browser (NRSV)
BibleGateway.com (NIV, TNIV, Message, CEV)
Resurgence Greek Project (Greek NT with magic tagging and translation)

Technorati Tags: Bible, Sermon Preparation, Colossians

Prayer for a Family

Lord, behold our family here assembled.
We thank you for this place in which we dwell,
for the love that unites us,
for the peace given us this day,
for the hope with which we except the marrow;
for the health, the work, the food, and the bright skies
that make our lives delightful;
for our friends in all parts of the earth.

Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind.
Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies.
Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors;
if it may not, give us the strength to endure that which is to come;
that we may be brave in peril,
constant in tribulation,
temperate in wrath and in all changes of fortune
and down to the gates of death,
loyal and loving to one another.

As the clay to the potter,
as the windmill to the wind,
as children of their parent,
we beseech of you this help and mercy
for Christ's sake.

Amen.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

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Stick with What You Know

Stick with What You Know
Colossians 2:6-19
July 29, 2007
17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

© 2007 by Christopher D. Drew

Sermon Focus: In this scripture passage, Paul is giving important advice and encouragement to the Christians in Colassae. He wants them to remain steadfast in the apostolic faith that was given to them. He also encourages them to maintain their Christian freedom in the face of those who would pressure them into the prevailing spiritual culture.

Sermon Function: To repeat the proclamation that Jesus is Lord of all, and to ask listeners to reflect on the idols of their lives which function in a similar way to the competing spiritual influences of Colassae, and to encourage listeners to remain steadfast in their Christian faith.

[Click to Show/Hide Sermon Text]

Introduction

Last week, we discussed the spiritual milieu confronting the Christians in Colossae, and related how spiritual temptations and divisions were adversely influencing the faith our early brothers and sisters in Christ. I related the situation in Colossae with our contemporary situation, and I talked about some contemporary influences on the spiritual landscape that continue to distract us from proclaiming the truth about our Lord. This theme continues into our text for this week. Here, Paul becomes more specific about how the church is expected to respond to the situation in which it finds itself. Although he is confident in the faith of the Colossians, he nonetheless wants to be sure they cling to the truth of the Cross, rather than the competing spiritualisms in that area.¹

Listen now for God’s Word.

[Read Scripture - Colossians 2:6-19]

Opening Illustration

A few weeks ago, I drove away from Portland, heading over the causeway and the Harbor Bridge, then onto the Crosstown Expressway, and exiting on South Padre Island Drive near the mall so that I could visit the local AT&T mobile phone retail store. Some of you may have already guessed the reason why I made the trip – I wanted to hold, touch, and try out the fancy new Apple iPhone.

And so I did. I held the sleek device in my hands, impressed with both its workmanship and overall simplicity. Before goofing off with it, I used it to place calls to Sara, my father, and my mother. After confirming that this latest of cool gadgets would actually perform this central task of successfully making a phone call, I moved on to other more interesting things. I checked out the internet web browser, I played with the built-in camera, I “flicked” through the sample music and photos that the AT&T people had helpfully placed on the little device. I wondered that I could watch whatever YouTube video I pleased, streamed directly over the network. Amazing stuff.

I love the latest technology. I get caught up with it. I still suffer the pains of wanting the latest thing. Despite all of my longing, I still don’t have an iPod, let alone an iPhone. But I still feel that need, the need that says – “I must have that thing!” The need gets particularly acute when I read the papers and see someone triumphantly leaving an Apple store, bag held high, with surrounding crowds actually applauding the purchase of this greatest of all telephony devices.

That really says something about us, doesn’t it? Receiving kudos and having one’s picture in the paper is easy – just be one of the first in line to buy the greatest gadget ever created.

Life’s filled with similar such moments. Fame and fortune is just a 30-second video away on YouTube, if you can come up with something really clever. Everybody and their brother and sister creates and publishes podcasts these days – including many churches.

Jesus Christ Is Still Lord

Last week, when we were talking about the spiritual milieu facing the Colossian church, I demonstrated how there is a similar kind of spiritual smorgasbord today. This week, we see that there is even more here than we thought. You see, it’s not just the spiritual influences that affect us and our ability to proclaim the truth of the gospel. It is also the non-spiritual things that detract from our spiritual lives. Our expectations for a successful life, even if we confess to be Christian, are still clouded by our expectations for happy lives filled with the things we like to have, or the things we think we need. They are also governed by the subtle oppressions of a culture that looks with particular suspicion on the faith we share in Jesus Christ.

I’m a staunch capitalist – one who believes that American political and economic institutions give us unprecedented opportunity not just to follow our own dreams but the freedom to obey the will of our Father in Heaven. But the trick is this: We must first stick with what we received - Jesus Christ the Lord, remembering to live our lives in him, as Paul writes in verse 6 of today’s lesson. We are called to “live [our] lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (vs. 6-7).

Our lives, says Paul, ought to be governed not by the instant consumer passions we experience, or by our own personal desire to be known by others, or to achieve fame, but by Jesus Christ, the one we proclaim to be Lord of our lives.

We Think We Need More

All of the other trappings of human life and our human institutions can be classified as things that captivate us. We are not satisfied with our lives and the degree of success that we seem to enjoy. So we try to make up the gap in other ways. Sometimes, abiding by the philosophies of our own culture, we put Christ last instead of first.

Tom Sine once wrote in Discipleship Journal that we talk a lot about the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives, but we don’t really want any part of it. He says: “I’ve got to get my career underway and well along, my house in the suburbs, our upscale living started first and fast. Then, with whatever time or energy is left, I will follow Jesus.”²

Frank Harrington, late Presbyterian pastor and mentor, commented on this passage, saying, “It sounds good, but it won’t work. When we get all of our things in place, a pattern is set and we have little time or energy for following Jesus.”³

Paul’s amazing letter to the Colossians, written almost two thousand years ago, still shines the light on the human condition even today. He writes, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8 NRSV).

[The moral of the story, says Tom Sine, is this: “Pursuing the American Dream with a little Jesus overlay isn't biblical and it will not impact the world around us.”⁴]

Baptism, Death, and New Life

Paul then moves into a discussion of circumcision and baptism. Baptism is, for Paul, a “spiritual circumcision.” Baptism, like circumcision, is a sign of our incorporation into membership in a community of faith. We prefer to think of baptism as a sign of new life in Christ, and it is. But it is also something else – something deadly serious, because in the Sacrament of Baptism “we participate in Jesus’ death and resurrection.”⁵ The waters of baptism, then, say something different for us, because we proclaim through Baptism what Jesus Christ has done for us. That’s the profound message of Baptism, and one of the reasons I like the doctrine of infant Baptism is for the practical reason that baptizing an infant makes this message much more profound, because we take what we consider the most precious, innocent form of human life and, by sprinkling the infant with water, emblematic of the precious blood of our Savior, the infant joins with us in this profound journey where we die to the old ways and cling to Jesus, in whom we place exclusive faith for our ultimate redemption and resurrection.

Baptism is the first step of walking in Christian faith. And that means we are called to remember everything that Christ has done for us, so that we might know him better. Philipp Melanchthon, Martin Luther’s protégé, said, “The knowledge of Christ is to know his benefits.”

What are those benefits? Do you remember what they are? Here are some of the benefits of Christ as citied by Paul:

• Inclusion into the communion of faith in Christ, through the spiritual circumcision we receive in the sacrament of baptism.
• Forgiveness of our trespasses and sins. “God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14 NRSV).
• Liberty from all the “rulers and authorities” that claim ownership over our lives. Paul rights that Christ has “disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it” (Col 2:15 NRSV).

Christian Liberty

Paul concludes this part of his letter with an appeal to hold fast to the liberty we enjoy in Christ. Christ is Lord of all. When we appeal to baser, temporal things, we lose focus on the One in whom everything else subsists, Jesus Christ. Other matters, the food or drink we eat, the festivals we celebrate, the sabbaths we observe, these are just pale substitutes for the fullness we have in Christ.

“Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God” (Col 2:18-19 NRSV).

Do not let anyone disqualify you from the body, insisting on worldly satisfactions of the flesh and unhealthy addictions, insisting on clinging to the party line, while dwelling on visions of fame and grandeur and all the other detritus of life, like iPhones, that can separate us from Christ. And moreover, don’t dwell on the things that pass away through death. Believe in Christ, the head of the body.

Friends, our faith is an organic thing. It’s not just pie-in-the-sky hope that ignores our frail and oftentimes tragic human lives. Instead, our faith is grounded in Christ, who is the head of a living organism because he himself lived among us as human being. And I wish I could describe to you the full wonder of this mystery, but we can enjoy a taste of what is coming now, in that joy that we feel when we think of everything Christ has accomplished and will accomplish, so that we might live has faithful servants, finding all fulfillment in Him, while remembering that the Light of the World is coming again.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Given at First Presbyterian Church, Portland, Texas.

¹Martin, Ralph. Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon (Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching). Richmond: John Knox Press, 1991, p. 113. ↩

²Sine, Tom. "A Different Discipleship." Discipleship Journal. January/February 1989, 49:6. ↩

³Harrington, W. Frank. Who Am I? Sermon preached in the fall of 1998 at Peachtree Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, Georgia. ↩

⁴Sine, op. cit. ↩

⁵Presbyterian Church (USA). Book of Order. W-2.3002. ↩

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