Sermon Tidbits 3/21

Returning to God: Perfect - Philippians 3:4b-14
4b If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:  5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;  6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.  7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ  9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.  10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,  11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.  12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 

Mary Lou Retton at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Don Larson in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series, and the 1972 Miami Dolphins all have something in common. Do you know what it is? If you answered that they were all perfect, then you would be right. Perfection is a widely known idea in our culture today. What a lot of Christians don't know is that perfection is also a Christian idea albeit in a slightly different form. In Matthew 5:48 Jesus says simply, "be perfect therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect." In Leviticus 19:2, the people of God here the call to "be holy, because I, the Lord your God am holy." Finally in Deuteronomy 18:13, we are told "you must be blameless before your God." Each of these three verses points in their own way to the idea that we are to be perfect, but what does that mean for us?

I can tell you that a lot of ink been spilled in scholarly circles trying to understand this idea of perfection for Christians. I am going to choose today to look not at the end result so much as the journey to get there since I simply cannot tell you (and I am pretty sure nobody can for certain) what the end actually looks like. Rather, I want to say to you that perfection is something we strive for every day of our lives as we place our hope in God that we would be just like Jesus (because isn't that what perfection really is). So what does this life look like that we are called to? I would put it before you like this. It is a life that lives by the rules and ordinances of living set before us in the Bible, but it also goes a step further in looking at not only these rules and ordinances but the character of God behind them. Our call is to take on the character of God. It is to seek God while living by what God has taught us but also to understand the character of God behind it that we may learn to live into those characteristics for our sake and the sake of the world. This is part of the reason I think our passage is perfect (pun intended) for helping to guide us today.

Paul lays before us in the first section of the passage a person who is perfect by the rules and then makes the statement that he counts everything as "loss" that he may know Christ. Those things he mentioned made him righteous by the law but Paul now refers to a new righteousness that comes from knowing Jesus. A righteousness that takes on the character of Jesus and not just the rules laid before us. Jesus' teachings often aim to take the people beyond the law to live into the character of the law. The old covenant was the law and the new covenant is to live by the character behind it. We enter into this just as Paul by sharing in the sufferings of the ministry of Christ becoming like Christ in life as well as in death by achieving resurrection from the dead.

This is not something that can be done easily though. It is a journey. A journey that takes us to the depths of our body and soul as we seek God and His wisdom. All this so that we may enter into a deeper relationship with our Creator and be greater witnesses for God's name on this earth. Why do we do this? We do this because of Jesus' life, death and resurrection in which we were made God's own once again and shown the path that God had called us to. Like I said, it is a journey. A journey that never ends. It doesn't stop when we feel good about where we are or when we get to a certain age or point in our lives. Each and every day there is a way we can draw closer to God or another person we can reach with the gospel. It never ends. It does stop until God calls us home and tells us our work is done. Are you ready to go on that journey?

John

Sermon Tidbits 3/14

Returning to God: Persevere - Romans 5:1-5
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.  5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. 

Paul is speaking to us about many things this passage today that each could have their own message but we are going to be focusing on the idea that bridges the gap in this list we find today, perseverance (or your Bible might say endurance). It is actually helpful to think of both of those words because together they give a better since of the original Greek word there than they do apart. We find Paul here speaking about sufferings and how we can rejoice in them. It seems like a very difficult idea to grasp. I know very few people who rejoice when they are going through something very difficult. Sufferings are not just tough on us personally but on our faith as well. Suffering is the place where our faith gets the toughest. We place our belief in God and we pray and often are simply left to wait and trust because the help does not always come immediately.

Paul is trying to bring hope to us though here. He is telling us the value of perseverance in times of need. The value of trusting God when all else seems to fail. Persevering is not always the easy thing to do but Paul tries his best to reassure us. He tells us that the ability to stand strong, to persevere, producing two of the greatest characteristics in Christian spirituality, character and hope. Suffering is something most of us could do without but we cannot ignore the great value of persevering through such times. Paul is telling us that perseverance in these times allows God to help us grow in our relationship with God. 1 Peter 1:6-7 and James 1:2-4 both speak of this as well. They talk about how perseverance strengthens and even helps us prove our great faith to God. Luke 8:15 tells us how perseverance helps yield a crop (new believers) for God's kingdom. Looking even deeper, Hebrews 12 speaks to us about need for perseverance in running the race of life and faith. The Bible goes to many lengths to tell us of the great value of perseverance and the need for it in our own lives.

The Bible makes it very clear to us that perseverance and the ability to persevere are key characteristics of the believer who follows the way. Be strong and place your faith and me and I will bring you through. It may not always be easy  but you will be stronger and closer to me in the end. That is what I think God would say to each and every one of us here today. We need to hear that. God loves us and will not forsake us so we persevere through the sufferings that we may serve God and for our own sake and for the sake of proclaiming the goodness and saving grace of God to the world.

John

Sermon Tidbits 3/7

Returning to God: Reconcile - 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.  17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:  19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.  21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Reconciliation is a tough word in our society today. We live in a country/world that pushes the American dream. It is a take no prisoners, work harder than the next person, do what it takes to get to the top with no apologies lifestyle. We are taught that we are always right. An apology is a sign of weakness. This has left a great deal of hurt and injustice in our world today. This is why reconciliation is an important word for us to live by in our return to God during this season of Lent.

Why are we called to this reconciliation though? There is only one simple answer to that question. Jesus. In Jesus' life, death and resurrection, Jesus reconciled us to God. A people who had once been far away from God were now reconciled to God in Jesus. In response, we should enter into this reconciliation with God but also with one another as our passage presses us to do today.

Now, one of the most important characteristics in Christianity sits at the center of reconciliation and that is humility. Jesus lived an authoritative yet humble life among the people. As I have said though, it was more than just defeat of sin that happened on the cross with Jesus. Reconciliation with God was brought to God's children. It brought each and every person estranged from God into right relationship with God. Paul tells us though that we need to take this a step further and reconcile with one another.

Paul tells us about how we become "new creations" as we accept God and as the people of God how we should not "count their trespasses against them" just as God does not count ours against us. How important is this reconciliation we are called to with one another to forgive wrongs and not dwell on them and move forward? Paul reminds us that we are "ambassadors of Christ" and that we must be reconciled so we can show this to others "since God is making His appeal through us." This is a call of the up most importance for us as Christians. Be reconciled to me, God tells us, and then be reconciled to one another.

Can we set aside our pride and do the will of God in reconciling ourselves to God and to one another through the forgiveness of sin/trespass that we may not only grow closer to God ourselves but spread the word of good news of Jesus to the world? It is our call.

John

Sermon Tidbits 2/28

Returning to God: Transform - Romans 12:1-2
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-- this is your spiritual act of worship.  2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will. 

Our society today seems to be obsessed with the idea of transformation. Everything we see seems to be pointing to a better you or towards changing you into who you want to be. That being said, transformation should be pretty easy idea for us to grasp. It is also the second step, although a continuous one (more on that later), in returning to God. Paul is issuing a call to transformation in our passage. Today, we look at two things with regards to transformation.

First, It is not the superficial kind our world portrays to us but rather a spiritual transformation. This spiritual transformation Paul shows us is very much a two-way street. It requires action from us as well as God to be working. Our end of the deal is simply to lay ourselves down and offer ourselves up to God fully with no strings attached and holding on to nothing. Easy, right? As attached as we are to ourselves and our things today, this is a major step and even hurdle for many people. The sacrificial language here is no mistake as it relates back to the Old Testament ritual of sacrifice. God desires to transform us but God wants to transform all of us so we can be entering into the life we are called to in God. That life is a life where we are conformed to the full likeness of Christ, not the partial likeness of Christ, the full likeness of Christ. We must be willing to lay our whole selves down for God to work with, not just part of ourselves.

A common mistake and misinterpretation we hit when it comes to transformation is to believe no action is required of us. Some believe that God will simply do it. Inaction is a terrible mistake. God desires us to be willing to lay ourselves before Him and to allow God to go to work in us. God does not want to force Himself on us for this.

The second thing about transformation we will look at is the word "conform" in verse 2. This word is an essential part of this passage but is often misunderstood. Many people take this word to mean that we should separate ourselves from the world and have no dealings with people in "the world." Did Jesus die on a cross and overcome death through the resurrection so we could separate ourselves from the world? No. Paul is calling us to be different than the world, not separate from it.  So, how do we become different from the world? We allow God to be at work in us through laying ourselves down before God. We read our scriptures, pray to God, act on the world and let God be at work in us transforming us through our communion with God in those ways. God's gift to us of the Holy Spirit will surely be working in us and transforming us into the image of Christ unto which we are called. It is not just a one and done thing though. God is constantly transforming us everyday. We come before God and seek and pray for God's work in us each day as we slowly move, with God's help, closer and closer to Christ's likeness.

We are called to live a transformed life before God, not only so we can begin the process of becoming more like Christ, but also so we can go out and be Christ's witnesses in the world. The world needs to see the change in us and know that it is Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins and was raised from the dead to overcome death, has transformed us for a better life. A life in Christ. Can we lay ourselves down and become transformed this day for our sake and the sake of the world?