Everyday Excellence

Most of us know the "love chapter" from I Corinthians. That's the one that begins, "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." Paul didn't write that text only for newly-weds. It's supposed to apply to all of us! Imagine what the world would be like if we practiced Paul's advice...

We all want to be the best, don’t we? I guess that’s just human nature. It’s true that some people enjoy competition more than others; but let’s face it: given a choice of coming in first or settling for second, not one of us would choose to be anywhere but in the winner’s circle. After all, who remembers a second-place finisher? We all know who Michael Phelps is, the great swimmer who won a total of 23 gold medals during the course of four Olympic games. Does anybody know who came in second in all those races? I bet you don’t. I know that we could look it up, but… I don’t really care. In an athletic competition, if you come in second, you might as well come in forty-second! First place is the place that really counts. Now, that attitude is great in athletic events. In fact, that’s what athletic events are all about – finishing in first place. The trouble is, though, that this spirit of competition that is so necessary in sports tends to sneak into places where it just doesn’t belong. Everything in life isn’t a competition! In fact, competition can ruin some things. I know adult siblings who have never liked one another because they have competed with one another their whole lives. Their relationship has been consumed with worries about which one was more successful, more intelligent, or more loved. Where relationships are concerned, a little competition goes a long way.

That kind of competition can even creep into the church; and when it does, a congregation can start to rot from the inside out. Instead of working as a team to minster to do the work of Jesus Christ, conflicts take root as church members start comparing themselves to one another. “My idea was better than his was,” someone grumbles; while another complains, “I do more work than she does! Why wasn’t I asked to be the chair of that committee?” That kind of competition can spread like an infection; and no church congregation is immune to its effects. Even Paul had to contend with this kind of unhealthy competition in the churches that he started in ancient Greece and Asia Minor. Judging from some of his letters, the church in Corinth seemed to be especially fertile soil for the growth of competition weeds. In I Corinthians, Paul scolds some of the Corinthian church members for always wanting to be the center of attention. The problem was that each person wanted to have a spiritual gift that would make him look better than everybody else! In the part of his letter that I read this morning (I Corinthians 12:27-13:13), Paul lists a whole slew of spiritual gifts: prophecy, discipleship, teaching, healing, helping, and guidance. But nobody cared about those gifts, because everybody wanted to speak in tongues! Speaking in tongues was a flashy gift that set anyone apart from all the other church members. If someone spoke in tongues, that person won the competition for having the best spiritual gift! All the other spiritual gifts came in a distant second.

Paul had a few words to say about that! He reminded the church in Corinth that they all had to work together to do the work that they had been called by God to do. He reminded them that all their spiritual gifts were necessary to the ministry of the church, from the most eloquent preacher all the way down to the person who set the dinner plates on the table. And then, Paul said something surprising. He said that all the spiritual gifts that everybody wanted so badly weren’t worth anything unless those gifts had something else behind them. And that something else is love. Then Paul wrote the portion of I Corinthians that everybody knows. It’s the chapter that preachers read at nearly every wedding that they perform.  It begins, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” As you read those words, you probably envision a misty-eyed bride walking up a church aisle, while her nervous groom waits for her at the altar. That text is certainly appropriate for a wedding, since it speaks of love and of the joy that it brings! But Paul didn’t write that text to be read only at weddings. He wrote it for every single church member, and expected them to put his words into practice every single day! Patience. Kindness. Humility. Trust. Hope. Perseverance. Paul wanted his congregation to practice these virtues not just with a spouse or a cherished friend, but with every single person that they encountered!

We all know what it’s like when we expect to encounter love but run head-on into its opposite. Isn’t it disappointing to meet someone who is intelligent and gifted, but who isn’t loving? You finally meet someone that you respect highly for their talent or for their accomplishments; and you are excited to be able to meet them in person at last! But when you do meet that person… well, he’s a jerk. He may be talented and accomplished; but he is also rude and self-centered and thoughtless. What a disappointment! “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” There are an awful lot of clanging cymbals out there with lots of show but nothing underneath. Paul wanted every one of his congregation to put their money where their mouths were. If they claimed to have spiritual gifts, great! But if the love in their lives didn’t lay a foundation for those spiritual gifts, they weren’t worth anything at all.

What it all comes down to is this: whatever good things you do are hollow if you don’t have love as their foundation. If you don’t have love at the center of your life, you’re like a beautifully decorated porcelain egg. It looks great from the outside; but if you were to crack it open, you’d find nothing inside it. But if you love… if you love, then you are like a real egg that’s filled with the potential for life and growth! That egg may be plain white or brown, but what it looks like really doesn’t matter, because it’s what inside that counts! That’s what Paul was trying to tell all the members of the Corinthian church who were so worried about whose spiritual gifts were the best. It’s what inside that counts! In the end, you don’t need to worry about which spiritual gift you have, because being a Christian isn’t a competition. Besides, if love is the foundation of everything that you do, in any “best Christian” competition, you’re already a winner.

 

The Heart of It All

In my last several sermons, I have been focusing on the resurrection and what difference it makes to us. Maybe the biggest reason that we should care about it is that it shows us what God is really like -- in other words, the heart of it all!

Who is God? That question has been asked by more people, in more situations, and at more times than probably any other question in history! Who is God? There are lots of guesses. Some people think that God is a tyrant who sets up arbitrary rules and then throws a fit if we don’t follow them. Others think that God is a judge who watches us like a heavenly Peeping Tom, giving us points when we do what we should and black marks when we get out of line. Many think that God is something that we can never know, something so deep and mysterious that our minds can’t even begin to comprehend it; so we might as well not even bother to try and find out.

So, who is God, anyway? It’s a question that’s at least as old as the oldest Old Testament writings; and my guess is that it’s even older than that! For as long as people have known that there is a God, people have wanted to know what kind of deity this God is. The questioning started with Moses. When he met God in the burning bush and God gave him instructions to go back to Egypt and confront Pharaoh, Moses didn’t ask for a map to Pharaoh’s palace or a PowerPoint to show to Pharaoh to convince him that letting the Hebrews go free was a good idea. He asked God, “What is your name?” In Moses’ time, your name reflected your nature; so asking “What is your name?” is really asking “What are you like?” But Moses didn’t get an answer; so from that day to this, we have been trying to understand who God really is.

We can see the quest to know God’s nature in the writings of the Old Testament. The ancient Israelites believed that God was distant and aloof; even dangerous! They stayed as far away from God as they could. Only the priests ever approached this powerful God who made himself known in fire and thick darkness. The prophets, on the other hand, bet the ranch that God was like a judge, absolutely fair and just; although some of them wondered whether God wasn’t going a little bit overboard with Israel’s punishment when the people insisted in worshiping other gods. Habakkuk, in particular, asked why God would choose the Babylonians to conquer Israel when that pagan nation was worse than own God’s people! Even Job, the poster child for faithful devotion, wondered whether God was really as just as he claimed to be. And then there was Jonah. When God told him to go preach to Ninevah so that they would clean up their act, Jonah was madder than a wet hen when God let Ninevah off the hook! God was supposed to be just! Why didn’t he destroy Ninevah, who certainly deserved it – at least, according to Jonah, they did.

So, what’s the deal, anyway? Is God aloof or involved in our affairs? Does God insist on our following the rules or does God cut us some slack? Does God really care about us, or is God only worried about making himself look good? What is God like, anyway? Moses eventually got an answer to that question. He asked God flat out after God had led the Israelites out of Egypt. In Exodus (33:18-23 and 34:6) Moses asked “Show me your glory.” In other words, “I want to see who you really are.” God said no to that request, but he did say this: “[I am] a god merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”

There it is, straight from the horse’s mouth: God is merciful, gracious, patient, and faithful. But we tend to forget that. Maybe it’s because we want to worship a God who is as judgmental and unforgiving as we are; who knows? At any rate, it didn’t take long for the ancient religious leaders to turn God into someone who insisted that everyone follow the rules, no matter whether those rules helped people or hurt them. There was no room for mercy or grace in their understanding of God; and “slow to anger” went out the window! There are still people like that around today, who insist that if you don’t fit into their own religious box, then God will punish you. Is that really who God is: a strict, mean, old curmudgeon who raps us on the knuckles whenever we don’t measure up? Jesus says “no,” that's not who God is! Jesus says something else entirely. Jesus says that God loves us as much as a mother loves her child. Jesus says that God loves us as much as a shepherd loves the animals he cares for. Jesus says that God loves us as much as a father who runs as fast as he can to reunite with the son who took half of his money and spent it all on booze and broads; and then throws a party for his son and invites the whole neighborhood to celebrate with him. That’s who God is. God is love.

If you don’t believe me, all you have to do is to look at Jesus. Don’t even bother with what Jesus said; just look at who Jesus was. Jesus was God who came to be with us in a form that we could understand. Jesus was God who came to be with us so that we would get over the notion that God was aloof and distant and dangerous. Jesus was God who came to be with us and put to rest once and for all the mistaken notion that rules are more important than people.

If you’re still not convinced, all you have to do is to look at the cross. If you were worshipped in our chapel on Good Friday evening, you heard me say that Good Friday could have turned out very differently. God could have crushed us like bugs for the dreadful act of killing his own son; and a completely just God would have done just that. But God is not only just, God is loving. Not only did God spare us the punishment that we deserved; God reconciled himself to us and gave us a way to become new creations by raising Jesus from the dead on Easter morning.

God is love. That’s the heart of it all. That’s who God is beneath and beyond anything else we might say about God. Of course, God is just. Yes, God wants us to behave as decent human beings, and gives us rules so we know how to do that. Absolutely, God in God’s fullness is beyond our ability to understand. The heart of it all, though, is what God says to us through Jesus’ life and death and resurrection – the essence of God is love! And beyond the law, the prophets, and all our sophisticated biblical interpretation, that’s all we really need to know. Thanks be to God!

The Reconciler

Some things are just too good to be true. The reconciliation to God that Jesus offers us, though, is very real -- we just need to be reminded of it now and then!

“If something looks too good to be true, it probably is.” That’s a cynical statement, isn’t it? I hate to agree with it, but… maybe it’s right. Lots of things aren’t nearly as good as they claim to be. Think for just a minute about the products that are advertised on TV. We hear about a new drug that’s supposed to be a “miracle cure”; but right underneath the pictures of healthy, happy, smiling people we see a lot of fine print. That fine print is never on the TV screen long enough for us to read it, but if we stop the action and get out a magnifying glass, we can see that it says something like, “Results not guaranteed. This drug can have serious side effects. Don’t take it if you have these conditions…” In other words, the drug works for some people, but not for others; and even if it does work, the cure may be worse than the disease! That isn’t true just for ads on TV, either. It’s true for all kinds of promotions that try to draw us in so someone can take advantage of us. We’ve all received a phone call from someone who promises us a free vacation in the Bahamas. What they don’t say is that the “free” vacation comes with all kinds of strings attached! That “free” vacation might be in a luxury resort; but it might also be in a run-down dump of a motel where a high-pressure salesman tries to sell you a time-share! Yeah, if something looks too good to be true, it probably is.

But there is an important exception to that rule. Jesus promises us that through his death and resurrection, we are reconciled to God. Even though we may not be worthy of even being in the same universe with God, we’re now not only on speaking terms with God, we’re good friends; and we will be forever! There’s no way that we can ever be separated from God, no matter what we do or what we don’t do, because Jesus has taken care of our relationship with God once and for all.

Now, that sounds too good to be true! That’s the reason that Christians have always had trouble believing it! We keep looking for the fine print at the bottom of the page, thinking that there must be a catch to this wonderful offer! The folks at the church at Colossae felt that way. They had all grown up believing that if they didn’t make God happy, they were toast. No matter whether they had been Jewish or pagan before they became Christians, every single one of them had been taught from the time they sat on their mamas’ laps that they had to sacrifice to a god to make him happy. When they learned that Jesus died for them, and that God was happy with them just as they were without any more sacrifices at all, it just seemed too good to be true. So they started looking for things to do to make God happy. Some of them started to believe that they had to eat or drink certain things. After all, the Jews believed (and some still believe) that God would be unhappy with them if they ate pork or shellfish or other kinds of forbidden foods or drinks. Others believed that they had to observe certain religious festivals; and some thought that they had to worship angels! Some were even taught that the real test of whether they were friends with God was whether or not they had visions (Colossians 2:16-19).

Then, to make things even worse, somebody decided that even though Jesus a really good guy and did a lot of things that made God happy, he didn’t really have the authority to do what he said he did. They said that Jesus couldn’t really reconcile us with God because he was just another one of God’s creations; so how could he speak on God’s behalf? They thought of Jesus as something like a used-car salesman who has to go get the approval of his supervisor before he can negotiate the final price of the auto! (I suppose that in the time of the early Church, it would have been a used-camel salesman; but you get the idea.) The point was that Jesus was something less than God – just a really good guy with really good intentions. And that won’t cut it when we need to be reconciled with God.

That’s why the writer of the letter to the Colossians took such pains to convince his readers that Jesus wasn’t just such a great guy; he was God incarnate (Colossians 1:15-22). The letter says that in a whole bunch of different ways. It says that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God.” In other words, he behaves just like his Father! It also says that Jesus is “the firstborn over all creation.” That says the same thing that the gospel of John says: “In the beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God; and the Word was God!” Finally, not only is Jesus the spitting image of his Father, and not only was Jesus in the beginning with his Father; all of his Father’s fullness lived in Jesus! Jesus was God himself who came to us as one of us; so when Jesus said that he has reconciled us with God, we can trust him, because Jesus has the authority to do that!

So, what does that mean for us? It means the same thing to us that it did to the church at Colossae so long ago; and we need to be reminded of what it means just like they did. It means that Jesus has reconciled us with God once and for all. There is absolutely nothing that we need to do to make ourselves acceptable to God. We don’t have to eat a certain way, or worship a certain way, or even believe a certain way; because Jesus has already made us acceptable to God through his death and resurrection. We can go to God at any time, in any place, and for any reason. There’s no fine print; there are no strings attached; and Jesus doesn’t have to call his manager to make sure that the deal is OK. Nothing in this world or in any other can ever separate us from God’s loving presence. Too good to be true? Not this time! Thanks be to God!

New Creations

What difference does the resurrection make? That will be my sermon topic from now until Pentecost Sunday on May 20. Today: it makes a difference because it has the potential to change us for the better. This sermon suggests several ways that might happen.

Ponder a few questions with me, if you would.

Are you completely happy with how you look?

Are you completely happy with what you do?

Are you completely happy with who you are?

My guess is that very few people are completely happy with all those things. We’re pretty hard on ourselves! We look in the mirror and see too much weight and too many wrinkles. We make an offhand comment, and realize only later that it was taken the wrong way. We think back over our day and realize that we didn’t measure up to any of the goals that we had set for ourselves. We want to improve ourselves, and we think that we can do it if only we would try just a little bit harder; but then we feel guilty because our efforts don’t work. The mass media encourages us to feel that way, too, because guilt sells products! Think back to the television commercials that aired on January 2 and on the days following it. What kind of products were advertised the most on those days following Christmas and New Year’s? Why, it was weight loss products, exercise equipment, and fitness centers. They screamed at us, “You’re too fat!”, maybe not in so many words, but we got the message all right! Those weight loss commercials didn’t stop in January, either. We can see them on any random day that we turn on the TV, together with commercials for cosmetics or perfume that insist we’re not attractive enough. Every commercial, in fact, tells us that we need to improve something in our lives! If we would only buy a new Buick Escalade, or shop at Target, or eat at Arby’s, or visit Home Depot, we’ll be better people!

But that’s not where we really need to improve, is it? We’re all attractive, reasonably fit people who have plenty of possessions. Going on a diet and buying more stuff isn’t the way that we need to improve ourselves. Oh, we might benefit from a few physical touch-ups, but we all know that the improvements we really need aren’t on the surface. We need to be improved way deep down inside – in the place where we set our priorities, and make the decisions that determine whether we’re part of the problem or part of the solution in our broken world. But we can’t make those improvements on our own. To improve our outlook on the world, our attitude towards other people, and our priorities, we need the power that was unleashed at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the good news is that we have that power available to us! Through the resurrection, we are plugged into the power of Jesus like a light is plugged into an outlet. In fact, Paul tells us, because we are plugged into Jesus, we are already the new creations that we yearn to be (2 Corinthians 5:14-21). In Paul’s understanding, when we are baptized into Christ, we die to ourselves and the old person disappears. And then something entirely new is created, a part of the new creation that we call the Kingdom of God. We’re like newborn babies who have the world ahead of them and are full of potential!

What I just said would have made perfect sense to the members of the first-century Christian community. If we had lived in the days of Paul, we would have undergone a long period of preparation for baptism – a minimum of several months, in fact – and during that time, we would have had a mentor who helped us not only learn about our faith, but also practice appropriate Christian behavior. Those practices would have changed us. And then, our baptism would have been a powerful symbol of our new nature. After we had walked down into one side of a large, deep pool, we would have become completely immersed in the water. That immersion would have symbolized our dying with Christ. Our emerging on the other side of the pool would have symbolized our rising with Christ; and we would have received brand new white robes to show that we were brand new creations, robes that we would have worn in church, the assembly of the redeemed.

But that was then, and this is now. We don’t wear white robes any more, not even to church! (Well... I do, as a member of the clergy; but most people don't wear a clergy robe!) We Christians don’t look any different from anyone else in our society. Those of us in our own denomination don’t dress any differently, don’t eat any differently, and don’t live apart from everybody else. How do others know that we are new creations in Christ? The answer is that we show it through our responses to what the world says.

When Reason sneers, “Resurrection? I don’t believe it! No one but a fool would believe such an outrageous claim!” we new creations respond, “I have felt the presence of Jesus in my life, and I know that the resurrection is real.”

When Greed laughs, “How pathetic to believe that anyone would do something that isn’t in their best interest,” we new creations respond, “I follow Jesus, and I am ready to sacrifice all I have and all that I am if he asks me to.”

When Despair shouts, “Why are you so hopeful? Nothing will ever get better!” we new creations respond, “God is making all things new.”

When Pride insists, “You’re better than all those people who aren’t like you are,” we new creations respond, “Man or woman, black or white, rich or poor, we are all one in Christ Jesus.”

And when Apathy yawns, “Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it all before. The resurrection doesn’t change anything,” we new creations shout, “He is risen! He is risen indeed; and nothing will ever be the same again!”

That’s how others will know that we are new creations in Christ: we believe that human reason can’t understand everything; we hope in the face of despair; we practice generosity in spite of the world’s greed; we love others as our sisters and brothers; and we insist that the resurrection wasn’t just a historical curiosity. Jesus was risen; and Jesus is risen; and Jesus will always be risen; and that makes all the difference! The seeds of God’s kingdom are beginning to sprout, despite the darkness that so often covers the world. In the bulb, there is a flower. In the cocoon, there is a butterfly. In the seed, there is a promise of life. And we are new creations through the resurrection! The dawn has come; the new day has begun! Let us greet it as new creations, people who live with and in and for a resurrected Christ! Alleluia! Christ is risen, indeed!