"Blessed!"

An sermon based upon Matthew 5: 1-20 

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, BA, MDiv, DMin. 

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership,   

Third Sunday after the Epiphany, January 26th, 2020 

‘Have a blessed day’!   

In my younger years, the 60’s and 70’s, I never heard anyone say it exactly this way.  I certainly heard other warm wishes: “Have a nice day!”  “Good Day!”  “See you later”.  But even among Christians, I didn’t hear this until years later, perhaps during the late 1980’s or 90’s.     

So, what does it mean to ‘wish’ God’s blessings on someone?   

In today’s text the wish for God’s blessings is being used by Jesus’ as a ‘preamble’ to his Sermon on the Mount.  Interestingly, the preamble of our US Constitution also contains a wish for ‘blessings’:  ‘We the people…, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.  Even this very secular document contained a wish for blessings. 

But Jesus did not mean it the way we normally do.  

Jesus flipped the normal, biblical, Hebrew meaning of blessing upside down, or maybe we could say right side up.  Jesus used ‘blessed’ in a way that might take a whole lifetime to understand.   

BLESSED ARE…  (A disciple has a different perspective on life) 

What does Jesus mean when he says, “Blessed are…the poor in Spirit, blessed are the mourners, …those who hunger for righteousness, and so on?    Perhaps a comic strip can help us begin to get on the right track.    

’Life is a mystery Charlie Brown," says Lucy, "Do you know the answer?" 

  

Charlie Brown answers, "Be kind. Don't smoke. Be prompt. Smile a lot. Eat sensibly. Avoid cavities and mark your ballot carefully . . . Avoid too much sun. Send overseas packages early. Love all creatures above and below. Insure your belongings and try to keep the ball low . . ."   

Before he can get out another platitude, Lucy interrupts: "Hold real still," she says, "because I am going to hit you a very sharp blow upon the nose!"… 

How do we live for God’s blessings?  Is blessedness something we do; a state of moral perfection or even, as our catholic neighbors say, a form of ’sainthood’ that very humans can obtain?   

Tradition has named these life altering words of Jesus ‘Beatitudes’, but what kind of attitudes are these to replicate?  Should we try to be ‘poor in spirit?  Should we wish to mourners?  Do we try meekness in order to grow real estate holdings? Should we feel blessed because we are hungry for what is good and right?  And while we might imagine that being merciful, pure-hearted, or peace-making might be a blessing for someone else, Jesus actually means we are blessed before blessing someone else. Most puzzling, perhaps, is the last one: how can anyone dare suggest that when you are persecuted you are blessed? This sounds more like tragedy rather than blessing?   

Surely, Jesus doesn’t mean to wish such difficulties upon his disciples, nor was Jesus giving us lessons what to do to be a Christian.  These ‘beatitudes’ should not be made into ‘steps’ to heavenly bliss or blessing based on good deeds or behavior.    

So, if these ‘beatitudes’ are not methods to gain God’s blessing, what are they?  Let me try to guide your understanding with a very familiar name.  When the late Billy Graham once wrote a book on the Beatitudes, he entitled it ‘The Secret to Happiness’.  Now, of course, everyone wants to know a ‘secret’.  But that word can be easily misunderstood.  Besides, once the ‘secret’ is told, it isn’t a ‘secret’ anymore.  Perhaps an even better word Billy Graham might have chosen today is the word ”mystery”.   

Here again, we can agree with Charles Schultz’s character Lucy: ‘Life is a mystery, Charlie Brown.’  But Charlie Brown, and we too, are wrong to think that we solve this ‘mystery’ by simply doing all the right things.  Good Grief, Charlie Brown’, life is more mysterious than this.  This is the one thing Jesus is not suggesting; that we achieve God’s blessing by being poor, by grieving, or by being persecuted.   The ‘blessing’ Jesus wishes or grants is not dependent upon what we do, but it’s more about who we are, or even better, it’s a the blessing that comes from ‘whose’ we are.  

Let’s go back to what Billy Graham was explaining when he discussed the very first Beatitude, ‘Blessed are the Poor in Spirit’.  He told his readers how many very wealthy people he had know had all kinds of money, wealth, and access to almost anything they wanted, but they were still miserable (p. 20).  What is most needed, Billy Graham suggested, is ‘contentment’.  Contentment, Graham went on suggest, is not an any amount in our bank accounts, but it’s based on the state of our soul.   

If you remember hearing Billy Graham preach, or you have read any of his books, you’ll discover that the major message in everything Graham wrote or preached was just like a continual ‘invitation’ in an a old style revival meeting: ‘Come to Christ!, he’d say. Every message Billy Graham preached would conclude this way.  He was giving an invitation, but it wasn’t just his invitation.  It was the kind of invitation Jesus gave.  It is the kind of invitation the Spirit still gives to us.  We are invited to confront the challenges and mysteries of life by trusting God’s promise and by living with the knowledge of God’s presence.  When Jesus said ‘blessed are the poor, blessed are the mourners,…the meek, or the persecuted,  Jesus promises God’s presence, to those who trust their lives to God, even when life gives them nothing and even when everything seems to be against them.   

Jesus wants his disciples, and us too, to be assured that we have God’s blessing because we trust our lives to God and not based upon what does, or doesn’t, happen to us.  For even when we are ‘poor in Spirit’, that is humbled by life, God still blesses us.   Even when we mourn, God is there to comfort.  Even when we are meek, or when we take the higher, harder, and more demanding ways of mercy, of purity, or peace-making, so that we are persecuted for doing what is right; the blessing of God’s goodness and grace does not leave us, but comes comes even closer to us, because God is with us and is being revealed in us.  By trusting our lives to God’s promise we can be assured of the blessings of God’s presence.   

So, rather than being prescriptive of what we should do to have God’s blessings, Jesus words are descriptive of how life looks from God’s point of view.  Jesus turns the normal way of perceiving the spiritual situation of our lives upside down (or right side up), so that those who seek God can know that God hasn’t left or abandoned them, even when they don’t feel blessed.   

YOU ARE THE SALT…  (A disciple is a preserver of life) 

When we live our lives, with the ‘blessed assurance’ of living in God’s presence and blessing, a disciple not only learns to see life differently, but we also have an influence on making life turn out differently too.   

This is what Jesus means by calling his disciples ‘the salt of the earth ‘.  We all know the value of salt for both flavor and preservation.  In the ancient world, and even up to just a few years ago, you may remember your family salting down hams or grandma canning vegetables.  Before the advent of refrigeration, having an adequate supply of salt was practically a matter of life or death 

I once saw how important salt has been first hand when I visited a salt mine, going underground 500 feet.  It was big enough to fit an ocean liner with multiple large rooms, where salt sculpture now filled the rooms.  ‘Take a deep breath’, our guide told us, as we traveled even deeper underground.  She continued, ‘The air you’re breathing down here is much healthier than the air you were breathing up there’, pointing upward were we all came from.  “Many people with lung or breathing problems come down here to breathe the salt-purified air.”  Then she reminded us, “For most of human history, mIning salt has been much more important than even mining gold.  In some parts of Asia and Africa salt is still used as a form of currency. 

Jesus says his disciples are just that important for preserving civilization.  But what does this mean in the real, everyday, world in which we live?  What does it mean, for a person to live such in such a way that, as old timers used to say, they are ‘worth their salt’. 

I don’t know a better example of someone ‘worth their salt’ than the one given by Fred Andrea, who told of living in Aiken, South Carolina, and going to breakfast at Gene’s Restaurant.  In the middle of various modern office buildings, with all their high-tech, carpeted offices, Gene’s represents the best of a world gone by—tile floor, booths with Formica topped tables, and an atmosphere that feels like the best of small-town Americana. 

But the best part of Gene’s Restaurant isn’t the setting, or even the food, but for most people it was the employee named Goldie.  She looked older than most my mother, Fred says, and she’s the only one who took his order for years.  She always greets us, “You want coffee, honey?” “How about you, sweetie?” Goldie talks to everyone that way.  That’s how her spirit of intimacy and warmth brightens up the antiquated decorum which is transcended by the color of her personality.  “Want your coffee warmed up, sugar? “Sure,” Fred answered, “who would ever refuse an offer like that, even it meant you had to float back to the office.”  

Goldie is a widow, and as long as she can, she always brings the pie before she brings the salad.  That ensures you get dessert before the kitchen crew runs out of pie.  You can understand why so many people love and appreciate her. She adds a little spice for everyone’s day.  As Fred Andrea concludes, ‘There we were on a Friday morning.  It had been a long and exhausting week.  The sky was a bit dark. The weather outside was cloudy and rainy.  But the forecast inside was bright and sunny.  Goldie the waitress was doing her thing. At Gene’s Restaurant, the food is pretty good, but Goldie made it even better. She was a person who was ‘worth her salt’. 

You’ve met people like that.  For me it was a Physical Therapy Tech at Wake Forest Baptist named Hiawatha.  He wasn’t Native America, but he was African-American.  After a two month stay in the hospital, when doctors said I had to learn to walk again, Hiawatha was the man who took a weak, anxious, 17 year-old by the hand, instructing, encouraging to stand, to take painful, awkward steps, until I finally was able to make it back and forth across the room, and then out the door, on crutches, and still in a body cast.   

Interestingly, 32 years later, after returning to the area, I was on an elevator at Wake Forest Baptist hospital, and who did I see as I was getting on.  It was Hiawatha with graying hair, but I recognized him immediately.  I spoke to him, telling him who I was, reminding him what he did for me, and how much it still means to me.  Of course, he’s helped thousands since then.  He didn’t remember, though he politely pretended to.  But the point is that I remembered him, not just because he was doing his job, but he was a person who worked and cared in a way that made him someone who is ‘worth their salt’.  He told me, as we parted that day, that he was headed to a retirement party were he was to be recognized for his many years of service.   

People like Goldie and Hiawatha are the kind of people who have not only cared about their work, but they also care about the people they work with.  This is what made them people ‘who are worth their salt’.  And this is very much what Jesus meant when he called them ‘the salt of the earth’.  Living out God’s love and compassion is how human life on earth is preserved.    

Back in biblical times, in Palestine, people used brick ovens outside to cook their food.  To ensure that there would be a cooking fire the next morning, people cut a trough in the bottom of their ovens and poured in layers of salt.  The salt acted like a catalyst.  It maintained the heat level in the coals that were spread over the top of the salt.  Thus, after the fire had burned down for the evening, and was ‘banked’ for the night, the salt below kept the heat.  Then, the next morning, the oven temperature could easily be built up again.  (These ideas found in ‘Following Jesus, Sermons on Discipleship’, Hulitt Gloer, editor, 1994).     

Isn’t this the call of Christian discipleship, and right at the core of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?  Christians not only can ‘take the heat ‘, but we keep the ‘fire’ of life and love going, and we have God’s blessing, not because of what we have or don’t have, but because of who we are and how we live.  

YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD  (A disciple points to the source of life) 

The final part of being ‘blessed’ is that by living ‘salty’ lives we also become ‘light’ in a dark world.   

Notice, Jesus doesn’t say that his followers reflect God’s light, like the moon reflects the light of the sun, but Jesus told his disciples: ‘You are the light of the world.’  Then Jesus also clarifies that we are Light not simply because of our belief, but we are light because of the ‘deeds’ we do as a result of our belief.  Of course belief matters, but belief matters because our belief causes us to do the kind of things that reveal God’s love in the world.   

We spoke about mines earlier, but now I need to speak about a cave.  The first and only time I ever went into a cave was when I was a child.  I went with my parents and took along a friend to Linville Caverns. They tried to prepare us for what was going to happen, but a picture was worth far more than 1000 words.  We descended down into this cave and then with a quick warning, the guide turned off the flashlight.  It was suddenly darker than I ever knew possible.  It was so disconcerting and disorienting, I began to feel dizzy and sick too.  I didn’t have any great fear of darkness before, but then I realized I had no clue what real darkness was.  If this what darkness is, I was terrified.  I have seldom been more relieved than when that guide turned on his flashlight!   

Most of us also little understanding of what spiritual darkness means.  Of course, some of us have seen movies about demons, evil spirits, or some kind of living, walking dead, but none of this is the kind of real, human, spiritual darkness the Bible means.   When the Bible speaks of a people ‘walking in darkness’, or of ‘light shining into darkness’, the darkness the Bible means is not always visible or noticeable until somebody turns on the light.  This is what is so dark about any spiritual form of darkness.  The ‘darkness’ isn’t realized because it is dark, but it’s realized because there is light. 

This is why Jesus said, ‘don’t hide your light under a basket’, but ‘let it shine out before everyone’.  The kind of light that makes a difference isn’t the ‘light that is within us’ but it’s the light that shines, radiates, and projects out from us into the world.   

To quote a great preacher: ‘‘Light is only important if it is taken to the darkness. The place to shine your light and show your light and share your light is not inside the church, but outside the church.  Now we should come to church to recharge our batteries but God didn’t call us to be a light in the light, but a light in the dark. If you are living in darkness you need to get to the light. But if you are living in light, you need to get to the darkness and shine your light’ (James Merritt).  I’ll certainly say ‘Amen ‘ to all this. 

So, how can we summarize Jesus’ introduction to Christian discipleship?  In short, we are blessed to be a blessing.  When we come to understand that are blessed by God’s presence and promise, we in turn become God’s presence and must convey God’s promise of life and love in the world, both through our words and in deeds.  We are blessed to be salt in a decaying world and light in a dark world.  This is the kind of ‘righteousness’ that brings ‘praise’ to God in heaven, and brings ‘heaven’ down to earth where we live.  It’s the kind of righteousness that makes life feel blessed.  Amen.      

“Lead…to be Tempted…”

An sermon based upon Matthew 4: 1-11

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, BA, MDiv, DMin.

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership, 

Second Sunday after the Epiphany, January 19th, 2020

A man who owned a small-town grocery store saw a little boy come in one afternoon. The little fellow stood near the front door looking at a barrel of apples. He would look up at the man and back down at the apples. Finally, the man went over and said to him,

"Son, are you trying to steal one of those apples?"

The boy replied, "No, sir. I'm trying to keep from it."

THE TEMPTER CAME…

In today’s text, Jesus had a choice to make.   And in making this choice Jesus was ‘trying’ to keep from ‘stealing’.  This something Jesus was being tempted to ‘steal’ was the very identity or name God the Father had just given to him at Baptism, when God said: ‘This is my Son, whom I love’ (3:17). 

Like Jesus at his Baptism, at our own Baptism into the Christian Faith, we too are given a new name.  In some Christian groups during the ‘christening’ process, infants are still given ‘Christian’ names. Most Christians today don’t actually get new names, like when Saul the Hebrew became Paul the Christian, but this is still what Baptism means.  When we are baptized into faith in Jesus Christ, we are baptized ‘into the name of Jesus Christ’ (Acts 2:38).  Paul explained: “if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Cor. 5:17 NIV)   

The person who is ‘baptized into the name of Jesus’ is named, like Jesus, as ‘the child, God loves’.  This is what you are to learn as a Christian.  As the old gospel hymn says, being a Christian means you ‘take the name of Jesus with’ you.  As Christians, whether everyone becomes a Christian or not, we believe that every human person should be ‘named’ as a person whom God loves.  

But we can ‘throw away’ or ‘lessen’ this ‘naming’ can’t we?   When Dylan Roof sat in that Bible Study in the Immanuel Church in Charleston, S.C., on a Wednesday night back June of 2015, he decided to ‘throw away’ the name God gives.  He decided to throw away the core biblical and Christian truth that “God is no respecter of persons’ and that the people in that black church where just as much loved by God as white people are loved by God.

By acting out of this hate, Dylan Roof also ‘threw away’ his own name too.  Maybe Dylan couldn’t throw away God’s love even for him, for no human being can do that, but what Dylan Roof did was to throw away the ‘name’ of love he had an opportunity to ‘bear’ (1 Pet. 4:16) because he chose not to bear it.  When the 21 year-old Roof took his pistol and shot those God loving people in cold blood, he refused to bear or wear the name of love that God had given to him, as well as, God had also given to them.

And we can do this too, can’t we?   While we may never shoot an innocent person, we can belittle people, mistreat people, ignore people, or even abuse people with the thoughts and the words we say, or the deeds we do or don’t do.   We can forget to bear the name of love that God has given us too. 

This is the ‘great temptation’ isn’t it---to lose the ‘name’ of love in the choices we make?  We can wear and bear the name of love in our humanness, or we can refuse to bear it at all.  In Jesus Christ, God has given us his love to ‘bear’, being called and challenged to ‘bear one another’s burdens to fulfill the law of Christ’ (Gal. 6:2, KJV).   This ‘law of Christ’ is the both the ‘name’ and the ‘burden’ of love we are given to ‘wear’ and to ‘bear’ in this life.  Love is a ‘gift’ that freely comes from God like a ‘dove’ and like an affirming ‘voice’.  It is a ‘name’ of love freely spoken to us, but it is still a name we can refuse or choose to ignore.

As a human being, Jesus had this choice to make, just like we do.  The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus was ‘in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin’.  Perhaps that helps us understand why we have this ‘temptation’ story in our Bible.   Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness just like Israel had been tempted; with hunger, with various tests and with true or false worship.  According to biblical story, it took 40 years of wandering in the wilderness for Israel to pass that test.  Here, Jesus is being confronted with the same kind of test in 40 days.  

What we especially need to understand about Jesus’ test, however, is that at about the same time Jesus heard God’s voice’ of love affirming who he was, Jesus was immediately ‘led up by the Spirit’ to be ‘tempted by the devil’.    At first glance, this means that it was not a ‘sin’ for Jesus to be ‘tempted’ or ‘tested’, just like it isn’t a ‘sin’ for us.  We are taught to pray ‘Lord, lead us not into temptation’, but we are to pray this way because the realities of life, death, and the devil too, will always put God’s love to a test through us. 

In this great love and wonderful freedom God gives us we all have choices to make, but God has a very different agenda than the devil does.  In the book of James we read that “no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; (Jas. 1:13 NIV).   Thus, when Jesus was ‘led by the Spirit’ he was ‘tested’ by the Spirit at the same time he was being ‘tempted by the devil’.  This may sound contradictory, but this is the Bible’s way of saying that love gives us a choice to make.  Because God loves us freely, even in a sinful, fallen world, love comes as a spiritual ‘test’ which can be used by the devil to ‘tempt’ us to be less than who God has named us to be. 

Whether we are a young child, or a mature adult, every one of us continues to face this ‘test’ of love which we can either choose or refuse.    As one pastor wrote: “There are certain things that can be said with certainty about every person.   We know that everyone of us will die.  Everyone has a longing for something more.  And everyone of us faces some kind of test and temptation (From Paul Duke’s sermon,  “Surviving the Test”).   Temptation comes to us, no matter what religion we have or don’t have, no matter how much or how little we have, and no matter how strong we are or how weak, we all have to make and live with the choices we have in life.  And the greatest choice is always the given to us through love. 

THE DEVIL TOOK HIM…

There is something else we need to see in Jesus’ temptation, which also points to our own calling as disciples.  Jesus was tempted in different ways, which here is being illustrated by three most basic ways:  Jesus was being tempted with his physical needs—his appetite.  Jesus was being tempted with his emotional needs—his need to have human approval.  And finally, Jesus was being tempted in his spiritual needs---his sense of worth and purpose.   These are needs which all human beings have in one way or another.  And even if you say you aren’t very religious, you can still see human need and desire written between the lines of each temptation. 

We could get into each of these in detail, but what strikes me most, is this one point in the middle temptation, when it says that ‘the devil took’ him ‘to the highest point on the temple’ (4: 5).  What we should especially make note of is that Jesus was not just tempted by the devil when he was his lowest, either ‘in the wilderness’ or when he was ‘hungry’, or ‘lonely’,  but Jesus was also tempted when he was ‘taken to the holy city’ and asked ‘to stand on the highest point of the temple’ (4:5).   In a similar way, we are not only ‘tested’ during our lowest points in life, but we are also tested’ at our ‘highest points’.  Twice, the devil took Jesus to a ‘high’ places, after the ‘temple’ then on a ‘high’ mountain (4:8).   It was there, on top of the world of his day, God’s loving name was most ‘put to the test’ (v.7).   

Could we also come to understand that this is also how it is with our own test and temptations in life?  Could we understand that God’s love and God’s name is most tested in us, is not just when the ‘chips are down’ or when tempted to take ‘a lower or lesser road’ in life, but the test also comes, and perhaps for us Christians mostly comes, because we find ourselves at a privileged and most opportune place?  It was exactly because Jesus carried God’s name and God’s love, that he was tested in these ‘high places’.  Being ‘tested’ and ‘tempted’ at a very ‘high place’ could be how love comes to be most tested in us.   

That’s how it was with Tom Long, a respected Christian teacher and preacher, who told of searching the aisles of the hardware store for a tube of "Super Glue,"  He couldn't find it, so he went up to the customer service desk to ask for help from the young man standing at the cash register. He was on the telephone and, when he saw him coming, he turned his back.  He was making a personal call, so Tom just waited. The call went on and on ... "So did you like the movie ... really? ... Oh you're kidding! ... What did Susan say? ..." Finally Tom cleared his throat. He gave a sharp look and kept on talking. "That Susan's ... Oh, I know, I hate that ... So, you going to the game Friday? ..."

Tom was beginning to be impatient: "Pardon me," He said, "I need to ask one question."

The young man let out a great sigh and mumbled into the phone, "Catch ya' later, Charlie, I gotta go." He looked up with an exasperated expression that said, "Well, what are bothering me for, spit it out."

"I'm looking for 'Super Glue,'"  Tom said.

"It's on the third aisle, in plain view," he said with disdain.  Tom said he walked down the third aisle, and the farther he, the angrier he got. “How dare that young man be so rude to his customer? Tom said he was ‘tempted’ to go back up there and give him a piece of his mind!  He was ‘tempted’ ... As a Christian, and as a customer, being the one who was ‘in the right’,  Tom said he was ‘tempted, and perhaps for a good reason, to go back and give that fellow ‘a piece of his mind’? 

When you give someone ‘a piece of your mind’, what ‘piece’ do you mean?  The ‘mean’ piece, right?   Interestingly, Tom Long was being not being tempted to do something wrong.  He was being tempted from a ‘high place’ from even his ‘rightful position’, which was a ‘place’ he could be free to choose not to show this fellow any love.   Like any of us in that situation, he was being tempted to give in to his feelings, to forget his calling, and to overlook the command to love, even this sinner, who God loves.

This was the ‘intent’ of the devil with Jesus, wasn’t it?  It wasn’t so much to get Jesus to do wrong, but it was to get Jesus to claim his ‘rights’ in a lesser way.  Besides, what’s wrong with having an appetite?  What’s wrong with having people take notice?  What’s wrong with being ambitious enough to accomplish whatever you can?  Jesus’ temptations were based on normal, human ways of life. 

But, as we all know, each of these human needs can be perverted and corrupted too, can’t they?  While the Spirit sent Jesus out in the wilderness to prove himself, the devil wanted to prove that Jesus wasn’t able to sustain his ‘high calling’.  And while we certainly aren’t tempted exactly like Jesus, we are tempted in some similar way.  In the realities of life and living, we are constantly tested and tempted to ignore the call, to fail the command, and to forsake the cost of love.  It was the devil’s intent to get Jesus to ‘settle for less’ in his high calling.  It is still the devil’s great scheme, to get us to live by a name and by a love that is less than the best we can live.

THEN, THE DEVIL LEFT…

We are told, that Jesus was able to resist the devil’s temptations, and so can we.  Of course, it was the Word of Scripture that enabled Jesus to respond to and resist the devil’s temptation, but it wasn’t the Scripture in his Bible, but it was the Scripture that Jesus carried with him always in his heart.   What kind of ‘Scripture’ do you carry around with you, in your heart?   

While there are several ways Jesus was tempted, and are different ways that Jesus resisted the devil, and we can too, everything Jesus answered from his own heart, finally boiled down to one single response.  What the devil wanted Jesus to name and to have is what Jesus told us the Lord’s prayer, only belonged to God.  Do you remember at end of the Lord’s prayer, where it says, right after “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’, then it says, ‘for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever?   When you claim any of these things which only belongs to God; the kingdom, the power, and the glory, then the devil always has a way to get you.   But if you are willing to ‘let God be God’ and let God be in charge of your life, the devil can’t even get in a ‘word in edgewise’.  That is, when you choose the way of love, as God names it, and you refuse to play God yourself, and you refuse to take God’s position with your life, but you are willing to be ‘humble’, to serve, to answer God’s love with your life, and you remain human, then the devil leaves.  The devil knows that he can’t ever be in charged, when we give God charge over our hearts and in our lives.

So, while it make look like this story about Jesus’ temptation has nothing to say to you,   since we aren’t any kind of Messiah, the deepest truth is that this story speaks straight to the ‘highest’, biggest temptation we all have; to be like God and to say what we will only do, love, and serve what we want.  What the devil was offering Jesus, is what the devil still offers us; a way to be in charge and not to bear the cross of love.  

Let me close with some final words I found from a pastor who’s already gone on to his reward.  Mark Trotter wrote: “I have to be honest, and say, my future is increasingly a matter of concern to me. I mean, I've made plans. I've stored up provisions. I've tried to take charge of my life. You know that phrase, "Take charge of your life." The wise men of this age tell us to do that, and I have tried to do some of it.’  But, he continued: “I've been around long enough, and I have buried enough people, to know that if you think you are in charge of your future, you're a fool.  You are being tempted. And the temptation is to lead you away from where our security really lies. It doesn't lie in your plans, but your future lies in God's plan. Your plans may fail. You may never realize the fulfillment of your plans. You may have a future you don't want. So don't be tempted to think that you are in charge of your future. "For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever." 

And as far as I know, there is only one way keep trusting God to be God and to keep resisting the devil.  You have to also know what Jesus knew;  that ‘you are God’s beloved child’ in whom God is already ‘pleased’.  When you already know that you are loved, it’s amazing what kind of traps in life that you can avoid.  And when you trust God’s love enough to live from, in and to keep living toward his love, even when life hurts, you will be able to resist the hateful ways the devil who, like a roaming lion, constantly seeks whom he may devour.  But if you walk this way of trust and love, no one, and nothing, will be able to ‘snatch you’ or ‘tempt you’ away from God’s unfailing love.  Amen.   

“The Kingdom … come near!”

A sermon based upon Matthew 3: 1-12

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, BA, MDiv, DMin.

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership, 

First Sunday after the Epiphany, (Cycle A), January 12th, 2020

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."

(Matt. 3:1-2 NIV)

“In those days” people were called to ‘repent, for the kingdom had come near…’, but this is a very different day, right?  The call to repent can sound like that bad joke about a Scottish painter called Jack.  Jack was very interested in making money whenever he could.  However, he didn’t always make it honestly.  He would thin down his paint to make it go, as the Scotts say, “a wee bit further”.  He got away with this for quite some time.

When the large Presbyterian church in town decided to do a big restoration job, Jack put in a painting bid.  Because his price was so competitive, he got the job.  And so he set to it, setting up his scaffolding, sanding, scraping, and preparing all the surfaces, buying the paint, and...yes also, whenever he could get by with it, he thinned the paint down with turpentine.

With the job nearly done, Jack was up on the scaffolding finishing his work, when suddenly there was a horrendous clap of thunder. The sky opened and the rain poured down, causing streaks in the thinned paint all over the church.  The force of it all knocked Jack off the lower level of the scaffold to land on the lawn.  Now, Jack was no fool. He knew this was judgement from the Almighty, so he fell on his knees and cried out, 'Oh, God! Forgive me! What should I do?' And from the thunder, a mighty Voice spoke, 'Repaint you thinner, Go and thin no more!'  

If repentance points to something ‘flawed’ in us is there any wonder we might avoid such a practice today?  Back in 1987, I invited a retiring Missionary to speak our church.  He had been away from the United States for over 40 years, so I had to ask: “What’s the biggest difference you see in American churches since you’ve returned”?  Without having to think, he answered: “Repentance isn’t being preached or practiced as it once was.”  He was right because during the 1950’s and 1960’s, while he was away, churches found it much more inviting, winsome, and optimistic to emphasize ‘the power of positive thinking’ rather than the touchy talk of repentance.  And there may have been some wisdom in this too, as it’s said, ‘You can attract more flies with honey, than vinegar.’ 

Even Jesus noted the negative aspects of ‘burdensome’ religion and offered ‘rest’ for the ‘weary’ (Matt. 11: 28-30).  This is what Jesus means when he invites us to ’come to him’ to find ‘rest for our souls’ (Mat. 11:30).  By offering himself as a ‘once and for all sacrifice for sins’ (Heb. 10: 11-12), now, when we confess our sins in repentance, we can know that God is faithful… to forgive our sins’ (1 Jn. 1:9), rather than condemning of us (Rom. 8:1ff).  In Jesus Christ, God made the first move toward us, humiliating himself by death on a cross (Phil.  2:6ff), so that when we draw near to God with sincere, repentant hearts, we have the assurance (Heb 10:22) that God has already ‘come near’ to us.  But even this ’new and living way’ (Heb. 10:20) of ‘grace through faith’ (Eph. 2.8) accomplished in Jesus Christ, does not remove our need to confess and repent of our sins.  Jesus came preaching repentance just like John did.  Later on, as Paul preached to the Greek scholars in Athens, ‘in the past God overlooked such ignorance, but  now, God ‘commands people everywhere to repent’  (Acts 17:30).  

REPENT…PREPARE THE WAY

Interestingly, when John came preaching repentance, prophets had been silent for nearly 400 years.  During that time there was no word from the Lord.  People were left to do their own thing and find their own way. Then, suddenly, looking a lot like the prophet Elijah, John appeared in the wilderness by the Jordan River baptizing those who accepted His message saying: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."  

Since God’s coming rule is a new and different way of life being offered to those who follow Jesus as King and Messiah, repentance is necessary.   To repent basically meant to ‘turn’ from sin, but in John’s preaching, and then in Jesus’ preaching too, the new emphasis is to ‘turn toward’ God’s Messiah and to participate in his saving life (death and resurrection).  A ‘would-be’ follower of God’s Messiah, Jesus, could not continue to live ‘their own way’ or ‘do their own thing’. Following Jesus required a complete reorientation of one’s mind, heart and soul.  Let me explain.

Recently, a test pilot was practicing high-speed maneuvers in a jet fighter.  She turned the controls for what she thought was a steep ascent, up into the air---but suddenly she flew into the ground.  She was traveling so fast that she became disoriented and was completely unaware she was flying upside down (Told by Dallas Willard, Divine Conspiracy, p. 1).

Today, we are all moving through life at such high speeds, people are losing awareness of what it means to ‘live’ upright. Is there any wonder we constantly hear that someone, somehow, and somewhere has ‘crashed?  Are we surprised?

In an untethered society, traveling so fast, changing so quickly, so that laws, values and ethics can’t keep up, is it any wonder that we find harder to figure out which direction is right, which direction is wrong, which way takes us forward, and which way takes us backward? What’s the chance that we too have become so morally and spiritually disoriented that we can be ‘flying upside down’ without realizing it?  If we don’t get our bearings, and soon, we too could be headed for a ‘crash.’

Way back in 1987, then Harvard University President, Derek Bok, told the University that ‘religious institutions no longer seem to be able to impart basic values to the young.’  He also reported that ‘today’s study of ethics in colleges do not convey a set of moral truths’ or ‘right answers’.  He then concluded, that ‘despite the importance of moral development to the individual and society, one cannot say that higher education has demonstrated a deep concern for the problem….’   His point was that there is now ‘no recognized moral knowledge’ upon which Higher Education agrees.  If student writes on a test that 7 times 5 equals 32, or that Columbus discovered America in 1520, we could mark it ‘wrong’, but we have no longer any standard to for addressing moral questions or demanding ‘right’ moral answers.  While we do have laws, which can be changed, we have no longer any agreed upon set of absolute moral truths, by which to judge whether we are a society flying right side up, or flying upside down.

Another interesting example, straight from Harvard, which applies almost everywhere else, is when a Catholic Scholar Robert Coles, who was once a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard, told of how a young ‘midwestern’, working-class woman, who with little money, got into Harvard based on her grades, reported to him over and over how she had been mistreated on campus by other students.  She was not from an elite background, but had to work extra, menial jobs to pay her way.  Knowing this about her, other students not only looked down upon her for her lower economic status, they not only did not treat her with simple curtesy or respect, but they were often rude and crude to her.  Besides that, she was repeatedly propositioned for sex by one Harvard Student.  He had been in two “Moral Reasoning” ethics classes with her and had received the highest grades. 

The pattern of mistreatment she experienced led her to quit her job and to leave the school.  In an exit interview with Coles, after going over the long list of people who had committed all these ‘atrocities’ against her, she concluded saying, “I’ve been taking all these philosophy courses, and we talk about what’s true, what’s important, what’s good.  Well, how do you teach people to be good?  What’s the point of knowing good, if you don’t try to become a good person?  There are just no ‘tests’ nor ‘curriculum’ the American education system where people are taught and graded based on the kind of ‘character’ it takes to be good. 

There is so much more than could be said about the moral and spiritual situation in our current culture, not just American, but all over the western nations---that once agreed, even if they didn’t practice faith, that Christianity is right.  But that is no more.  Now, most of modern life has no absolute value, except that ‘life is an accident’ that happened when ‘particles’ came together accidently, and now there is only a dream that how can an individual or a society make ‘progress’ as an ‘accidently united little lump of something we call life’.  A PBS special recently called this ‘accident’ ‘A Glorious Accident’, but that’s all that can be said, because there is no great ‘good’ we came from and there is no great ‘good’ we are headed toward.  We are all, nothing more than just, Glorious Accidents.  When this is ‘all’ an educated person can say, is there anyone wonder we don’t know which end is up?

This kind of ‘lack of (moral, spiritual, ethical) knowledge’ (Hos. 4:6) is exactly the kind of ‘upside down flying’ that brought about the ‘crash’ God’s people suffered not long after Jesus was crucified.  When Jewish leaders refused the reorienting direction given by both John and Jesus, it was only a few short years later, that Zealots forced the tiny nation ‘to pull up’ with violence, rather than to follow Jesus’ way of peace, so that they infuriated Romans, who burned Jerusalem down to the ground. 

PRODUCE FRUIT….DON’T SAY…

The poor and sometimes evil human choices humans make, is why the preaching of repentance, as strange as it might sound, is meant to be a positive, saving, and rescuing force in our lives.  This is what John meant, when in verse 8, he called upon Jewish leaders to ‘produce fruit in keeping with repentance’.  Repentance was not meant to be a negative, but it was to be outward ‘fruit’ that we were ready and willing for God to reorient us and to begin his regenerated, redemptive work in our hearts.

A positive example of what ‘fruit in keeping with repentance’ can mean, is given by Kathleen Norris.  Mrs. Norris was once, a guest writer visiting a school, where she was teaching biblical poetry from the Psalms to young children.  She discovered that children are much better at using biblical words to express their own hurt, anger and feelings of revenge, than adults.  She also discovered how especially those children who came from troubled, difficult and dysfunctional homes, having a a lot of penned up anger, can use the Bible’s words to help them vent their anger and avoid expressing the kind of rage that might become self-destructive or hurt others.

She told of one little fellow who used the Bible to write a poem entitled, “The Monster Who Was Sorry”.  He began his poem by admitting he hates it when his father yells at him; his response in the poem is to throw his sister down the stairs, the tower k his room, and finally to wreck the whole town. Then he wrote, “I sit in my messy house and say to myself, ‘I shouldn’t have done all this.’” His phrase ‘this messy house says it all,’ Norris says.  His way of honesty was even more than most adults could muster, Norris says. By facing his rage, and by admitting his own ‘mess’ he was on the way to expressing repentance, finding a way out, he was learning he was not such a monster after all (Adapted from Kathleen Norris in Amazing Grace, pp 69-70).

This story reminds us that the repentance ‘the fruit’ of repentance, isn’t just saying I’m sorry, or admitting our own ‘messes’, but it’s to learn to live in a less messy way.  This is why Jesus called his followers disciples, or ‘learners’.  Then, and now, Jesus calls us to ‘learn’ how to bear fruit worthy of repentance, by not just by learning what we’ve done wrong, but by learning what we can do right, as we learn and discover who we can be when we follow the kingdom teachings of Jesus Christ.     

HE WILL BAPTIZE YOU WITH FIRE…

To ‘learn’ how to live differently, and to be able to live ‘upright’ lives in a world that is flying ‘upside’ down world is not something we can do on our own, by our own will or in our own strength.   This is why John’s final word about this ‘baptism of repentance’ concludes with his promise of a ‘baptism of the Holy Spirit and with fire’ (v. 11).   What John’s ‘baptism of repentance’ is about is opening our hearts for the spiritual ‘power’ God gives for us to live against the moral and ethical darkness of this world.

What John is pointing us to, is the ‘gift’ God gives, through Jesus Christ, for us to have the power and strength to live the life we know when should live, when we turn to God, away from the darkness of this world, and begin to ‘walk’ in his wonderful, revealing, warming, and guiding light.   This is what Christian discipleship is about, turning our life toward God’s light, and walking in it, and toward it.  This is what it means not only to live a life in Christ, it’s what it means to live a life that matters, both now and in eternity.  

What kind of ‘life’ does it mean to live a life empowered by the fire of the Holy Spirit?  It can mean many different things, but one great example of the ‘desire’ to live a life that challenges the darkness of this world, was expressed by the Baptist preacher, Martin Luther King Jr., when he was receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.  The Baptist preacher said:

“Every now and then I think about my own death, and I think about my funeral ... I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long ... Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize ... Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards ... I’d like somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. I’d like for somebody to say, that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody ... Say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. That I was a drum major for righteousness. And all the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind.”

Another pastor, a Roman Catholic was once honored with a place at the head table at a dinner with other clergy, prior to an ecumenical service. He was high in the hierarchy of his church, a colorful television personality, and a witty and insightful writer. He had every reason to have an exalted opinion of himself; but instead, he had the spirit of a servant.  This famous man never finished his meal. Instead, he left the head table to greet the lay people who were present and chat with the waitresses and busboys. And afterward, in church, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen preached powerfully and passionately on the text, "I have been crucified with Christ" (Galatians 2:2a).

This is what it means to turn toward God and receive the ‘gift’ of ‘power’ that enables you learn how to live from Jesus Christ.   This is what it means to ‘produce fruit worthy of repentance’.  This is what it means for the ‘kingdom to come near’!  This is also what it means be God’s moral light in an ‘upside down’ world. Amen.

“Go, Make Disciples…!”

A sermon based upon Matthew 28: 16-20

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, BA, MDiv, DMin.

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership, 

The Second Sunday After Christmas (Cycle A), January 5th, 2020

Human stories in the news are always the best.  One of the best of the best human stories is about Larry Walters, a thirty-three-year old truck driver in California. For his entire life, Larry wanted to fly, to glide through the sky, but his poor eyesight prevented him from getting his pilot license.  So, Larry spent most afternoons sitting in his backyard on an old lawn chair.

One afternoon, in mid-1982, Larry hooked up 45 helium-filled, surplus, weather balloons to his old lawn chair. He tied a 6-pack of beer to one leg, some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to the other, put on a parachute, hung a CB radio to his belt, and sat down in his lawn chair with a BB gun in his lap so he could pop the balloons when he wanted to come down.

Larry thought he would go up about 200 feet. Instead, he shot up 11,000 feet, right through an approach corridor of the Long Beach Airport.  When Larry finally shot out enough balloons to land safely, reporters immediately asked, “Were you scared?” “Wonderfully so,” Larry replied. “What made you do this?” they asked. Larry said, “Sometimes you just can’t sit there!”

The ending of Matthew’s gospel agrees with Larry Walters: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations,...  When it comes our proper response to the Great Commission given by Jesus Christ, we ‘just can’t sit here’!  Each of the four gospels, and the book of Acts too, have some form of challenge and commissioning. 

Similar to Matthew, the Gospel of Mark has Jesus saying: “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (16:15). 

Luke’s gospel has Jesus declaring: “…repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things” (24:47-48).

In Acts, Luke is more specific: “…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 

Then, in John’s gospel, the great commission is given most concisely: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you”  (20:21).

Each in there own way, have the same urgency.  They create the same feeling I had at each opening of the 1970’s hit TV series, ‘Mission Impossible’.   The show always started with an offer for ‘agents’ to take an ‘impossible’ mission, saying , “If you choose to accept this mission…”.  But the difference with the gospel mission is that it not a secret mission and we are not given the option to refuse.  As one mission’s professor told his students: “Some must go, some must let go, some must help go, but everybody needs to get going.”  ‘Sometimes we just can’t sit there’!  First century Christians lived by Christ’s mission.  Missionaries in the 20th century devoted their lives to it.  But the question in this 21st century is what will we do with it?  How will we ‘choose to accept’ the mission Jesus has given to us? 

As we begin this New Year together, from now until Easter, I plan to preach about the fundamental purpose the church.  Last year, both of our churches formed strategy teams to think about our specific mission as churches, but our consideration isn’t complete until the whole congregation joins in this discussion.  To help us focus on the church’s primary purpose, I’m going to follow some key passages from Matthew’s gospel, which is appropriately nicknamed, The Church’s Handbook.’  It is in Matthew’s gospel that we have the Great Commission expressed in its most classic form.  Standing at the center of four imperatives to Go!  Baptize!  Teach!  Obey, is what has become, in our increasingly secular society, the most pressing priority of the church today, to Go, and Make disciples’…”.   Our mission, ‘if we choose to accept’, is to answer in our own churches, is not to answer what should we do, but it is to answer ‘how’ we can ‘make disciples’ of Jesus Christ.

…AND SOME DOUBTED

To begin to answer ‘how’ starts by answering ‘who’.  Who ‘can’ and ‘should’ be a disciple of Jesus Christ?

When you answer who now, we should refer back to who ‘then’. For the story of the gospel, in all four gospels is that Jesus chose his own disciples; twelve to be exact.  No doubt this was symbolic of the the 12 tribes of Israel, expressing the hope that 12 leaders would rise up and help bring God’s perfect rule over his people.  What was most peculiar about Jesus was that he chooses his own disciples.  The normal practice in Jesus’ day, was for would-be-disciples to choose a rabbi they would like to teach them, the unique difference with Jesus is that he took the initiative and did the inviting.   

So, if Jesus still does the inviting, what qualities do you think Jesus used to select his disciples then, that he might still use today? That would make for an interesting study, but we can only address three of them that are reflected in this Great Commission Text from Matthew. And the first quality is quite surprising.  Our text begins openly and quite honestly, reporting that when Jesus entered the room with his remaining eleven disciples, after his betrayal by Judas, his crucifixion and resurrection, the text says: “When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted.” (Matt. 28:17 CSB17).

Does the Bible’s honesty shock you?  Here, we not only have a picture of what was going on in the Upper Room, but what happened there also reflects what continues to happen in church, when we all come together to worship each Sunday.   When we come together to worship Jesus as Savior and Lord, there will always be those ‘some’ who still have doubts.  Can you have a more honest, realistic, and important description of what it means to be church in the world, than that all of us are not fully convinced?  And should having doubts about Jesus, being cautious or hesitant, keep you from following and learning from Jesus?  Certainly not?  This may, in fact, be what qualifies some of us to become learners and disciples of Jesus.  Without the capacity to doubt and the courage to face and ‘doubt your doubts’ you will not be a very good follower of Jesus.  As someone has said, ‘doubts are the ants in the pants of developing a strong faith’.

One great illustration of doubt I heard about came right out of the tragedy of 911.  One Christian who was filled with hurt and hate afterward, told a fellow Christian, that he couldn’t come to church and honestly pray the the traditional ‘Our Father’, saying, ‘Forgive us…as we forgive.”  He told his friend at church, “I just can’t come and repeat this and mean it.”  To which his friend answered, ‘That’s OK, you just come anyway, and when we get to that part we’ll pray it for you until you are able to say it again?

Such openness, honesty, transparency and integrity is exactly what Jesus is looking for in a learner, or disciple.  I realize thinking about our ‘doubts’ and ‘integrity’ too, might sound like a rather strange place to begin to think about discipleship.   But it’s not, because the point of everything Jesus was about then, and still is about now, is the truth.  The very first call of every ‘would-be’ disciple should echo and answer the same question Pilate, the Roman governor asked, when he encountered Jesus: ‘What is truth?’ 

“Truth” is a core value of the Christian gospel, just like integrity and honesty is.  Christian discipleship begins with a desire and need to know the truth; but this is not just a desire to know the truth about the world.  It is also reflected in the need to know the truth about myself, as I am known to others, and to God.   And this truth about myself and about ourselves, becomes clear in the light of Jesus Christ who said: “I am the Truth…the Way… and the Life!”  Jesus is the ‘truth’ that every disciple aims to learn and follow in their life.

The presence of ‘doubters’ among the first disciples of Jesus, even after his ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection, reminds me that to ‘learn’ the truth about Jesus, just like we learn about the world and about ourselves is a ‘truth’ that takes ‘time’ to learn.  Everything we need to know about life, about God, about faith, and about Jesus doesn’t come to us all at once.  Even more so, the ‘truth’ we still need to be learning from Jesus, is not just learning about Jesus, it is most importantly, it is truth that we learn ‘with Jesus’.  Jesus’ invitation to discipleship and ministry is an invitation to ‘be with him’; to spend time with him, or as the song says, ‘to walk with him, and to talk with him, and to say that he is my own….’

What this song reminds us is that being a ‘disciple’ or ‘follower’ of Jesus is much more than simply believing, learning facts, mastering ideas, or developing a certain protocol or procedures for life and living.  When you read the gospels closely, you’ll understand that all of Jesus’ disciples constantly struggled.  They struggled with believing. They struggled with understanding.  They struggled with learning.  They also struggled to live how Jesus taught them to live.  What those first disciples did do well, however, and what they did, was to ‘be with Jesus’.  Even though Peter denied him, he was still ‘with him’, watching from a distance.   And after Judas betrayed him, he could not stand himself because he gave up being with Jesus for money. 

What the gospel story about discipleship means, as British Pastor Sam Wells has said, is most basically an invitation ‘to be with Jesus’, to learn from him, to follow him, and to join him in ministry in the world.  Back in 2015, Dr. Wells released his book, ‘The Nazareth Manifesto’ where he speaks of ‘being with’ as the way of a disciple who follows and learns from Jesus.  In that book he speaks of a person who hurting, perhaps homeless due to some problem in their lives.  He says our tendency as humans is not to reach out and help that person, but our human tendency is rather respond in judgement of that person, saying ‘it’s because they did this’ or ‘they did that’ that they are in the shape they are in.  But, Wells goes on to suggest, if we were ‘with Jesus’ when we encountered that hurting person, would Jesus respond that way; even more so, would we respond that way, if we were with Jesus and Jesus was with us? 

That’s an revealing way to express ‘discipleship’ isn’t it; not just to say that we believe in Jesus, or follow Jesus, but that we are ‘with Jesus’ in a way that Jesus changes how we respond to life, and how we respond to others, especially how we look at and respond to other people in need? 

What I thought was most interesting about the review of Dr. Well’s I read, was a letter written from a retired doctor, that was written in response to the review of his book.  Because it shows the rarity of a doctor becoming, not just hospital chaplain, but understanding what it means to answer the ‘Nazareth Manifesto’ and to become a disciple who is ‘with Jesus’, I want to read that brief letter in its entirety:           

“I am a retired physician (child and adult neurology). I went to seminary after retiring and now I am a hospital chaplain.

Seeing things from a different perspective, from the other side of the reflex hammer, I have become more and more aware of what I call “accusatory medicine.”

How often I hear from medical colleagues as well as clergy and lay people, “Well, look at him. He is overweight. He smokes. He does not exercise.”

Most, but not all, is said out of the hearing range of the patient.

Meanwhile the patient is suffering or dying from cancer, pulmonary disease, or complications of diabetes. It becomes not a matter of “Who sinned? This man or his parents?” but of “You sinned, so here you are.”

I shudder when I realize I have been the accuser as well. As we have endeavored to make our staff aware of "accusatory medicine,” we have encountered surprising denial and resistance that crosses religious and denominational lines.  (There is a great) need for medical personnel and chaplains to “be with,” to be “incarnational,” not accusatory.

https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2015-06/power-being.

ALL AUTHORITY GIVEN…

Being or Becoming a disciple not simply a belief, an idea, or a process, but it is an invitation to ‘be with Jesus’ and to learn to see life and others differently; in a way that is redemptive and rescuing rather than accusatory or judgment.  The call of a disciples first and foremost, is to be ‘with Jesus’.  And you can’t ‘be with Jesus’ until you commit to spending time with him, learning from him, and joining with him in the kind of mission, purpose, and ministry Jesus calls his disciples to complete.  So, one of the first steps we make in following Jesus, and answering Jesus’ call to discipleship is to set aside ‘time’ to be with him.  

May I challenge you do set aside some special time each day, to ‘be with Jesus’?  Of course, you can be ‘with Jesus’ in many ways; through having a prayer time, by having intense or directed Bible Study, or getting involved in a specific ministry or mission that is not ‘accusatory’ but is ‘incarnational’; in other words, being the ‘hands and feet of Jesus in your world.’   

So, the most important first step in following Jesus and learning from Jesus is to find some way to ‘be with Jesus’ each and every day.  This is the way you will begin to overcome your doubts and your reluctance; you must decide and you must act on that decision ‘to be with Jesus’.

But you’ll not take this challenge seriously, unless you are willing to give Jesus ‘authority’ over your own life.   All the ‘imperatives’ of being a ‘disciple of Jesus’ don’t rest finally on my authority, nor do they rest upon your own wish or will.  If you remember, the ‘prayer’ Jesus taught his disciples says, “Not my will, but thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.”   Christian discipleship, that is, ‘being with Jesus’ is about making Jesus your authority, your teacher, and the LORD of your life.

How do we make Jesus ‘our’ own authority in life?   Well, besides being ‘with Jesus’ we must also be willing to ‘submit’, ‘give’ or ‘surrender’ ourselves to what Jesus is teaching us and actually ‘following’ the commands he gives.  In other words, the “Great Commission” is only “GREAT” when this ‘COMMISSION” becomes “COMMANDS” that shape the priorities we have, both as churches, and as people, who are following Jesus.  These five ‘imperatives’, “Go, Make, Baptize, Teach, and Obey, were given  not simply from the Jesus who is our Savior, but from the Christ, who has become the risen LORD; who in our own saving becomes our teacher, our master, because he is the very revelation of love and of even God himself, in human flesh.   

So, here’s my point; there is no discipleship without ‘being with Jesus’; but there is also no true being with Jesus without granting Jesus authority over your life.  And this is what makes discipleship most challenging today.  We live in a world where we have so much wonderful freedom to choose, to decide, and think, so that we have certain ‘rights’ to be the ‘boss’ of our own lives.  This ‘freedom’ is a wonderful thing, and we should thank God for it.   But that’s is exactly the point.  Freedom comes from somewhere.  It is a gift.  And even our freedom to choose to be ‘our own boss’ and ‘to make and live by our own choices’ comes to us as a gift, that is not only to be ‘had’, but is also a ‘gift’ that can be lost.  

This was exactly the context of Jesus’ teaching.  He came so that his disciples ‘could know the truth, and the truth would make them free.’   Jesus did not come to confine or restrict, but Jesus came to help his people claim God’s gift of freedom.  But God’s freedom not, and never is without making claims on us, or without cost to us.  This is why Christian discipleship, as a way of truth and freedom, begins as a way of ‘surrendering’ ourselves to a higher authority than our own will, wish, desires, or self-centered demands.  Christian discipleship only begins when we ‘surrender’ ourselves to the ‘authority’ that is ‘given’ to Jesus Christ. 

Leslie Weatherhead, a Christian preacher and writer of another age, also named ‘surrender’ as the very first step of ‘being with Jesus’.  Weatherhead quoted the Great American psychologist William James, who said, ‘the crisis of self-surrender is the ‘vital turning-point’ of the religious life’.  But of course, those words were easier to say in a day when people still had some remaining respect for ‘human’ or ‘divine’ authority, but what does ‘surrender’ mean, and what might Jesus’ authority mean in a world where most people are determined to live by their own ‘authority’, or live by no authority at all?   Interestingly, Weatherhead’s word about discipleship beginning as ‘surrender’, was given way back in the 60’s and 70’s as ‘established authorities’ were being greatly questioned in both American and British life.  Today, however, it’s not just political or religious truth that is being questioned, but all kinds of ‘truth’ being called into question.  People don’t only question what their parents say, what the politician says, what preacher says, but they also question what the professor says, and what the professional says, so that today, there is  no more important ‘truth’ than my own.    

But even in a world where everyone wants to be their own ‘boss’, the ‘narrow’ entrance into the Christian way of life has not changed.  There still no Christian discipleship, no actually following Jesus, and no finding of the true spirit of Jesus without surrendering to Jesus, as not only Savior, but as ‘Lord’ of your life.  What it means to ‘make Jesus LORD’,  must be answered in every age and in every single life.   Being a disciple means that we honestly and sincerely answer what does it mean to surrender ourselves to Jesus as our LORD, even when we still have a life, when we still have a job, when we still have a family, and when we live in this world, and when we are still our ‘own’ person who still has to make hard decisions in life?  We still sing that classic song and line that says,  “All to Jesus I surrender, All to him, I freely give,…” but what that means in the real, day to day life, which is also a life that we choose to live ourselves, but not only for ourselves, is how we become disciples of Jesus Christ.

However, we decide, means that following Jesus has many answers, it all boils down to ‘surrender’ in a way that, as we say in the church, in a spiritual, personal, but real way, the Spirit of Jesus come and sits down on the ‘throne’ of our hearts.  This is what surrender has always meant, and will always mean.  The apostle Paul explained true discipleship of the ‘heart’ as ‘having the same mind of Jesus Christ, ‘when he took the form of a servant’ and humbled himself, sacrificing himself for others  (Phil. 2:1ff).  Accepting this kind of ‘mind’ Paul told the Romans, meant both in Paul’s day, and in our own day, as well, ‘the transforming of our minds’ (Rom. 12:2), from the way it is, to the way it should be.  And this is the ‘learning’ that makes discipleship the journey of how we see things, to how to learn to see life, as Jesus taught his disciples.

I WILL BE WITH YOU…

So, now, we have come to understand the core of the Great Commission of Jesus Christ is to ‘go and make disciples’.  There is so much that more that can and should be said about this, but most of all, we need to grasp here that ‘disciples’, that is followers of Jesus Christ, are ‘made’, not born. 

To become a learner, follower, or disciple of Jesus Christ is to decide to ‘be with Jesus’, not just believe in Jesus: “The devil’s believe and tremble”, the book of James says, but being with, and living like Jesus in the world is about much more than the any simple VBS formula: ADMIT, BELIEVE, and CONFESS.   If you understand this to mean ‘confess and make Jesus your LORD’, your are on the right track, but God’s salvation, which means surrendering your whole life to God, is not something accomplished in a simple formula of 1,2, 3.  While you may begin to ‘work out your salvation’ in by believing and being baptized,  the work of God’s great plan of salvation is a whole life ‘thing’, a daily thing, which all starts as a ‘surrender’ thing. 

Jesus concludes his Great Commission with the motivation to inspire his disciples to want to be with him, so they will surrender to Jesus’ authority for their lives.   It is as if Jesus is saying,   “If you go, make, baptize, teach and obey,  you should ‘remember’ that: “I will be with you until the end…” (28:20).    Here, the language about ‘the end of the age’ is very specific on purpose.  It can be translated ‘until the end of the world’ (KJV), but ‘the end of the age’ is what is what it says, because Jesus preached that God’s kingdom is coming ‘on earth, as it is in heaven’.  With this promise, Jesus called his disciples to live toward the world’s ‘transformation’, not until the world’s end.

But there is something else.  Jesus is not just promising to be with his disciples, but he is still challenging and motivating his disciples to stay with him, to be with him, to live in him, and that this promise of Christ’s presence will be realized, not simply by us ‘being’ disciples with Jesus, but as we continue to ‘make disciples’ of Jesus in the world.  Here, Jesus is being very practical and realistic, not only just spiritual or other-worldly.  What he means is that Jesus’ presence is felt in the world, as long as, we continue to make disciples in the world.  How we do this, always starts with letting others see Jesus in us.

Tertullian, one of the early Church fathers, said that he and most of the early converts to Christianity were won to Christ not by books or sermons, but by observing how Christians lived and how they died. That’s still the way it works.  I don’t understand how a person can call themselves a believer, a follower, or a disciple of Jesus, and not be concerned about helping others ‘see Jesus’ in the way they live.

Will Durant, a well-known and respected historian of another day, tells of the time his little girl approached her mother and asked, “Mother, what is God like?” The mother hesitated in the face of so great a question. She could have helped her sew on a button, plan a meal, work a math problem, even talk with her about her boy friend. But, about God she was unsure, so she sent her daughter to her father. The little girl went in to her father and said, “Daddy, what is God like?” He, too, hesitated, unsure of what to say. Later, among her possessions, they found a slip of paper on which she had written a bit of free verse. This what she wrote:

“I asked my teacher what God is like. She did not know.

I asked my mother what God is like. She did not know.

Then I asked my father, who knows more than anyone, what God is like. He did not know.

I think, if I had lived as long as my teacher, my mother, or my father, I would know something about God.”

Of course! They each knew so much about the things that were important to them. Tragically, their little girl learned that God was not near the top of their list. 

So, as we begin this new year, the challenge before us, and the church today, is Discipleship.  This is not only the question whether we are being disciples, but also it is the question as to whether we are making disciples?   This means that we too, even in our own homes, are simultaneously, both a learner and a teacher.   We are to be with Jesus, surrender to Jesus, learn from Jesus, to remain faithful to Jesus, so that we can know in ‘this age’ that Jesus is in, and will be with us.    

But this ‘promise’ that Christ will be ‘with us’ can’t be realize unless Jesus is also ‘in us’ as we livesas his disciples and as we continue to make disciples to follow him.   The good news here, is that we are not alone, nor are we on our own in this, but Jesus has promised to be with us.   Again, if Larry Walters lived to tell about ‘not just sitting there, but doing something’ after traveling 11,000 feet in the air; and God looked after him, think what God can do through us.  Whatever Christ calls us to do, he also gives us the grace and the strength to do it.  He is ‘with us’ when we choose to stay ‘with him’.  Amen.