Brad Sullivan
Proper 24, Year B
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
Emmanuel, Houston
Job 38:1-7 (34-41)
Psalm 104:1-9, 25, 37c
Hebrews 5:1-10
Mark 10:35-45
Are y’all aware of just how much young children dislike bedtime? My son, Noah, is no exception. If he had things his way, he’d stay up each nigh playing with Kristin and me until he had a total meltdown, was completely exhausted, and inconsolable. He just doesn’t want to go to bed. He wants to play, and he wants to be with Kristin and me. Fortunately for him, Kristin and I are pretty strict on his bedtime. We have a nighttime routine to help him wind down which ends with us reading a book and singing a song to him.
He is now at the point that he requests these things. “Book,” he says once one story is finished, or once we start singing to him, he says “Sing.” He keeps wanting to put off sleep, and he doesn’t know how good sleep is for him. He is mightily disappointed many nights when we finally put him in his crib and leave the room. What he doesn’t know is how much more miserable he’d be the next day if we didn’t make him go to sleep.
By enforcing his bedtime, we’ve got a way of life for Noah that he doesn’t like and doesn’t understand, but it’s a better way of life than he would chose for himself. I bring this up as an analogy for how we humans often relate to the ways of life God has given us. We truly are like little children, with God as our loving parent. God has given us ways of life which we may not initially like or which may not make intuitive sense to us, but by trusting in God, we may just find God’s way of life to be better for us than the way we might choose on our own.
Turning to the Gospel for today, we find James and John with their own ideas for a way of life they’d like to follow. “Lord, my brother and I have been talking, and we know you have other disciples than just the two of us, but we also know we’re really a bit smarter and more capable than the rest of those guys, so we were thinking it would really be a smart move for you if, once you’ve taken over everything, if you made us the second and third most important people in the world, right behind you, of course. Does that sound ok, doable Jesus, if we’re the second and third most important people in the world?”
James and John were definitely being a little bit presumptuous when they asked Jesus if they could at his right and left hand, but I also like to think they were also simply showing there affection for Jesus. I like to think that they really loved Jesus and they really wanted him to love them back. He did of course, but I get they feeling they wanted his approval, like the less cool kid in school wanting approval from the really really cool kid in school. Maybe James and John were just plain old power hungry, but I like to give them the benefit of the doubt that their motives were a little bit out of love than merely out of desire for power.
Whatever their motives, we know that they certainly misunderstood what living in God’s kingdom really is. So Jesus, of course, took the opportunity to teach them. Living in God’s kingdom is not a life of power and domination, but a life of service and love. “You really want greatness,” Jesus said, “then serve other people.” Be meek, not great.
Jesus’ teaching about true greatness is about as counter-intuitive as it comes. Be great and mighty by being a humble servant. That just doesn’t make a whole lot of logical sense in our world of the powerful ruling over the less powerful, and so because Jesus teaching is so counter-intuitive, following that teaching takes a great deal of faith.
One type of faith could be simple obedience. Jesus said to do this so I feel I must obey. This obedience may be done somewhat out of fear. That’s ok. After all, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” but I’d like to emphasize that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, not the end of wisdom. Moving beyond that beginning with the fear of the Lord, we can come to a place of trust and love.
So, another type of faith, a faith that goes beyond obedience not only obeys but trusts. This faith says, “I trust in God. I trust in his goodnes, and I trust that the way of life he taught really is better than another way of life. If Jesus says ‘greatness comes from being a servant,’ then I will trust that he is telling the truth because I believe that he is good and has our best interests at heart when he teaches us his way.”
This faith does not require understanding. It may seek understanding, but understanding how or why the way Jesus taught us to live is better than any other way is not necessary for us to follow in Jesus’ way. This faith follows Jesus’ way out of trust.
I like to think that James and John had this trusting faith in Jesus when he told them that true greatness means being a servant. By the fact that James and John continued to be Jesus’ disciples, I think it’s safe to assume that they submitted submitted to Jesus’ teaching about true greatness. They likely didn’t understand Jesus’ teaching, and they were probably a little embarrased by his teaching. They had asked to be rulers of the world, Jesus said no, and then he taught all of the disciples that James and John were seeking the wrong thing, that true greatness means being a servant.
Despite their embarrasment, however, James and John stayed with Jesus, continued following him, and giving them the benefit of the doubt once more, I like to think they followed Jesus and submitted to his teaching not only out of fearful obedience, but out of loving trust. I like to think that while Jesus’ teaching made no sense to them, that they decided to follow Jesus’ teaching because they trusted in Jesus that his teaching was true and good and beneficial.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Asking God for that which we need
Brad Sullivan
Proper 15, Year B
Sunday, August 16th, 2009
Emmanuel, Houston
I Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
Psalm 111
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58
What can we learn from Solomon? He prayed for wisdom, and that request pleased God so God granted him not only wisdom, but riches and honor as well. So, perhaps we could learn that if one wants to become rich, ask God for wisdom. Some might preach that message, but a lesson for us in this story is not how to get rich without actually trying nor is the lesson in this story really about gaining wisdom. A lesson for us in this story could be to know one’s limitations and to ask for God’s help with those limitations in order to serve God’s people: know one’s limitations, ask God’s help with those limitations in order to serve God’s people.
Ok, so maybe that’s three lessons, but in any case, looking at Solomon’s prayer for wisdom, there are several things we can see. First off, Solomon loved the Lord. That’s the first thing we were told in the lesson today, and his love of the Lord was first and foremost in Solomon’s life. Love the Lord.
There was a fairly young Jewish Rabbi a couple thousand years ago who preached that message. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30) Jesus knew and taught the primacy of loving God. That’s the place where we start. Before we lie down at night, before we rise up in the morning, do we love the Lord? If we don’t, then everything else is for naught. Now, I know we all know this already, but it’s helpful to be reminded every once in a while, and it’s a nice thing to think about.
Before anything else, before we start our day, before showers and coffee, we get to love the Lord, and at the close of our day, after the winding down and the tooth brushing, we get to love the Lord.
How we choose to love the Lord in those times is up to each of us. Maybe we’ll simply remember that fact and say, “I love you Lord.” Maybe we’ll read some scripture. Maybe we’ll get down on our knees and pray by our bedside; I know some in this parish who do so every morning and night. Maybe we’ll write out our thoughts of the day, offering them up to the Lord, giving thanks and asking for guidance and help. Maybe we’ll pray prayers from the prayer book, or do whatever brings us nearer to the Lord, and allows us to love the Lord and to rest in his love for a while.
Proper 15, Year B
Sunday, August 16th, 2009
Emmanuel, Houston
I Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
Psalm 111
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58
What can we learn from Solomon? He prayed for wisdom, and that request pleased God so God granted him not only wisdom, but riches and honor as well. So, perhaps we could learn that if one wants to become rich, ask God for wisdom. Some might preach that message, but a lesson for us in this story is not how to get rich without actually trying nor is the lesson in this story really about gaining wisdom. A lesson for us in this story could be to know one’s limitations and to ask for God’s help with those limitations in order to serve God’s people: know one’s limitations, ask God’s help with those limitations in order to serve God’s people.
Ok, so maybe that’s three lessons, but in any case, looking at Solomon’s prayer for wisdom, there are several things we can see. First off, Solomon loved the Lord. That’s the first thing we were told in the lesson today, and his love of the Lord was first and foremost in Solomon’s life. Love the Lord.
There was a fairly young Jewish Rabbi a couple thousand years ago who preached that message. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30) Jesus knew and taught the primacy of loving God. That’s the place where we start. Before we lie down at night, before we rise up in the morning, do we love the Lord? If we don’t, then everything else is for naught. Now, I know we all know this already, but it’s helpful to be reminded every once in a while, and it’s a nice thing to think about.
Before anything else, before we start our day, before showers and coffee, we get to love the Lord, and at the close of our day, after the winding down and the tooth brushing, we get to love the Lord.
How we choose to love the Lord in those times is up to each of us. Maybe we’ll simply remember that fact and say, “I love you Lord.” Maybe we’ll read some scripture. Maybe we’ll get down on our knees and pray by our bedside; I know some in this parish who do so every morning and night. Maybe we’ll write out our thoughts of the day, offering them up to the Lord, giving thanks and asking for guidance and help. Maybe we’ll pray prayers from the prayer book, or do whatever brings us nearer to the Lord, and allows us to love the Lord and to rest in his love for a while.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Freedom from our Bad Decisions
July 26th, 2009
Proper 12, Year B
2 Samuel 11:1-15
Ephesians 3:14-21
John 6:1-21
This is a brief typed version of the sermon I gave...I did not write out a full text.
Last week, I had the privilige of being on a mission trip with 17 of our youth. We stayed at the Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Houston and served at several organizations around Houston, largely serving Houston's homeless population. The trip was a wonderful experience for me and the youth, and each day, at least one of the youth said the place we worked was their favorite one and he or she wanted to come back.
The trip was not without conflicts, as one might expect. Several of our youth had conflicts with one another, but they all saught reconciliation (sometimes with a bit of coaxing). They admitted their faults to each other, appologized, and were reconciled to each other.
We all make poor decisions in our lives which hurt others; that is part of being human. Even in our baptismal covenant, we state that we will fall into sin and then when we do, we will repent, and return to the Lord. The first part of repentance is admitting fault, saying we did something wrong.
I've been careful not to say repentance involved admitting a mistake. In an incitful article, Leonard Pitts Jr. points out the falacy of calling our poor dicisions, "mistakes". (see article - http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/1127813.html)
True admission of guilt involves owning up to the poor decisions we make. Saying, "I made a mistake", on the other hand, amounts to a denial of culpability. "The serpent made me do it," Eve said. "Eve made me do it," Adam said. "I'm sorry you thought I was insulting you," one might say. All such appologies deny our fault.
This is the problem we find with David in the reading this morning. He made an excedingly poor decision by knowingly having an affair with Bathsheba and then he denied culpability, trying to cover up his poor decision by inviting Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, home so he could be with her and think the child was his. He built up lie upon lie, finally choosing to have Uriah killed than admit his fault.
Proper 12, Year B
2 Samuel 11:1-15
Ephesians 3:14-21
John 6:1-21
This is a brief typed version of the sermon I gave...I did not write out a full text.
Last week, I had the privilige of being on a mission trip with 17 of our youth. We stayed at the Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Houston and served at several organizations around Houston, largely serving Houston's homeless population. The trip was a wonderful experience for me and the youth, and each day, at least one of the youth said the place we worked was their favorite one and he or she wanted to come back.
The trip was not without conflicts, as one might expect. Several of our youth had conflicts with one another, but they all saught reconciliation (sometimes with a bit of coaxing). They admitted their faults to each other, appologized, and were reconciled to each other.
We all make poor decisions in our lives which hurt others; that is part of being human. Even in our baptismal covenant, we state that we will fall into sin and then when we do, we will repent, and return to the Lord. The first part of repentance is admitting fault, saying we did something wrong.
I've been careful not to say repentance involved admitting a mistake. In an incitful article, Leonard Pitts Jr. points out the falacy of calling our poor dicisions, "mistakes". (see article - http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/1127813.html)
True admission of guilt involves owning up to the poor decisions we make. Saying, "I made a mistake", on the other hand, amounts to a denial of culpability. "The serpent made me do it," Eve said. "Eve made me do it," Adam said. "I'm sorry you thought I was insulting you," one might say. All such appologies deny our fault.
This is the problem we find with David in the reading this morning. He made an excedingly poor decision by knowingly having an affair with Bathsheba and then he denied culpability, trying to cover up his poor decision by inviting Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, home so he could be with her and think the child was his. He built up lie upon lie, finally choosing to have Uriah killed than admit his fault.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Enduring in our Faith
Brad Sullivan
Proper 7, Year B
Sunday, June 21st, 2009 (Father’s Day)
Emmanuel, Houston
1 Samuel 17:32-49
Psalm 9:16-20
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Mark 4:35-41
What about the Christian faith keeps you having faith in Christ? What about the Christian faith keeps you going? What soothes you when you are stressed? What calms you when you are angry? What comforts you when you are saddened or lifts you up when you are downtrodden? What brings you peace when you are frantic? What humbles you when you are proud? What brings love to your heart when you are feeling irritated or selfish? In short, what about the Christian faith helps you to endure in your faith?
Endurance seems to be something of a theme in our lessons today. Paul mentions endurance explicitly in his letter, writing about the endurance he and Timothy have in their faith through many hardships. Paul is also alluding, however, to the endurance he prays the Corinthians will have.
In various ways since Paul began the church in Corinth, the Corinthians seem to have fallen away from the faith they had been given. By reading Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, we see that some argued over who had the true Christianity, dividing over which apostle or teacher they followed. Some became arrogant. Some became lax in their morality. Some seemed to believe proper religious practice to be more important the faith signified by that religious practice.
From 2 Corinthians, we see that further divisions came in the church by some following supposed apostles who were flashier than Paul, who seemed possibly to preach a lax version of Christianity, flashy, fun, without much substance. Whatever these false apostles preached, it was enough to lead some of the Corinthians to fall away from the faith they had received from Paul.
Perhaps Christianity seemed too difficult and so some Corinthians fell away. Perhaps after the excitement of conversion had died down, Christianity seemed rather dry, dull, and lifeless to some of the Corinthians and so they fell away. Perhaps the fighting within the Corinthian church itself over who was right led some people to fall away. For whatever reason, we find in Corinth, a church divided, a church lax in its faith, it’s morals, it’s works of charity, and we hear these words of Paul encouraging them to endure, to keep or regain their faith.
There is a similar theme of endurance in the story of David and Goliath. As soon as David offers to fight Goliath, he is told that he is unable. The Israelites had been totally cowed by the size of Goliath. No one else had even offered to go fight him. They were afraid not only of losing their lives, but of giving all of Israel into the hands of the Philistines. Goliath was the Philistines’ champion, waiting on a champion from Israel, the deal being that whoever won the fight would win the entire war for their country.
So David was fighting for his life and for all of Israel, no pressure. Then, once he volunteers, the king, his brothers, Goliath himself all tell him he can’t win. Goliath was too big for David to stand a chance. It was like putting me up against Hulk Hogan, but David didn’t care about Goliath’s size. David cared about the fact that God would be fighting for him. David seemed to remember the times in the past when God fought for Israel. Israel had defeated many enemies not because of their military might, but because of their dependence on God.
From a human point of view, the Israelites drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea by Moses waiving around a stick. The city of Jericho was taken because Joshua had a box and some trumpets. When Gideon defeated the Amalekites and Midianites, he had 32,000 men with him, but God decided that was too many, so he left Gideon with only 300 men, and they won the battle with some torches and trumpets. Of course in all of these cases, God was the one fighting for the people of Israel. God was teaching the Israelites to trust in him rather than in their own might.
Fortunately for Israel, David seemed to remember this lesson when he fought Goliath. Unlike Saul and the other soldiers, David trusted in God. He endured in his faith against a seemingly unbeatable enemy.
Now look at today’s Gospel. Jesus was again teaching his disciples to endure in their faith. Now I love this story; it’s very funny to me. Just imagine being in the boat with this huge windstorm and then looking back and seeing Jesus asleep, his mouth hanging open, snoring in the back of the boat. Of course the disciples were upset, “Dude, wake up, Jesus; what are you thinking?”, and of course Jesus wasn’t bothered by the storm. He knew he could handle it. So, he got to teach the disciples again to keep their faith. “Why are you afraid?” he asked them, “Have you still no faith?” He was teaching them to endure in their faith even though they were afraid.
So in the three lessons we heard this morning, we have several calls to endure in our faith and several reason why we might not endure in our faith. Perhaps like the disciples, we are at times afraid. Perhaps like the Israelites, we sometimes forget who God is. Perhaps like the Corinthians, we spend too much time fighting over who is right. Perhaps our faith sometimes loses its luster. Perhaps we’re at times led astray by false apostles. In many different ways, we may find ourselves throughout our lives without much faith in God. The key is to endure. Keep striving after God.
When God seems remote, remember those times when he felt near. When afraid, remember that God is with you, even in death. When God seems boring, and this might be the most insidious, remember, “all that glitters is not gold.” Faith in God may not be flashy. It often isn’t. Faith in God won’t necessarily fulfill our desires for wealth or pleasure, and faith in God my certainly seem boring and slow compared to the fast pace and flashy things of our society. Many activities are more “fun” than prayer. There are many things or activities that are more instantly gratifying than prayer. There are many things or activities that are more instantly gratifying than service to others. There are many things or activities that are more instantly gratifying than following the commandments of God as a healthy and helpful way of life.
Faith in God, however, will help us endure when many other things fail us. A life of service to others will fulfill our lives vastly more than a life lived only for oneself. A life lived following God’s commandments will prove a more healthy and helpful way of life than many other ways of life which seem more instantly gratifying. Enduring in our faith in God is neither easy nor, but enduring in our faith in God will carry us well through this life.
So, looking again at each of our lives and how the texts we heard today speak to our lives, I have several questions to ask. Who is your Goliath; who or what makes you forget who God is? What’s your windstorm; what has you so afraid that you lose your trust in God? Who is your false apostle; who or what pulls you away from your faith in God and God’s way of life for you?
Now, holding those in your mind, think also to your answers to the questions with which I began today. What about the Christian faith keeps you having faith in Christ? What about the Christian faith keeps you going? What soothes you when you are stressed? What calms you when you are angry? What comforts you when you are in need? What brings you peace when you are frantic? What humbles you when you are proud? What brings love to your heart when you are feeling irritated or selfish? We may not have answers to all of those questions yet, but that’s one reason we keep striving, to find more peace, to find, more love, so that we can endure. Amen.
Proper 7, Year B
Sunday, June 21st, 2009 (Father’s Day)
Emmanuel, Houston
1 Samuel 17:32-49
Psalm 9:16-20
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Mark 4:35-41
What about the Christian faith keeps you having faith in Christ? What about the Christian faith keeps you going? What soothes you when you are stressed? What calms you when you are angry? What comforts you when you are saddened or lifts you up when you are downtrodden? What brings you peace when you are frantic? What humbles you when you are proud? What brings love to your heart when you are feeling irritated or selfish? In short, what about the Christian faith helps you to endure in your faith?
Endurance seems to be something of a theme in our lessons today. Paul mentions endurance explicitly in his letter, writing about the endurance he and Timothy have in their faith through many hardships. Paul is also alluding, however, to the endurance he prays the Corinthians will have.
In various ways since Paul began the church in Corinth, the Corinthians seem to have fallen away from the faith they had been given. By reading Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, we see that some argued over who had the true Christianity, dividing over which apostle or teacher they followed. Some became arrogant. Some became lax in their morality. Some seemed to believe proper religious practice to be more important the faith signified by that religious practice.
From 2 Corinthians, we see that further divisions came in the church by some following supposed apostles who were flashier than Paul, who seemed possibly to preach a lax version of Christianity, flashy, fun, without much substance. Whatever these false apostles preached, it was enough to lead some of the Corinthians to fall away from the faith they had received from Paul.
Perhaps Christianity seemed too difficult and so some Corinthians fell away. Perhaps after the excitement of conversion had died down, Christianity seemed rather dry, dull, and lifeless to some of the Corinthians and so they fell away. Perhaps the fighting within the Corinthian church itself over who was right led some people to fall away. For whatever reason, we find in Corinth, a church divided, a church lax in its faith, it’s morals, it’s works of charity, and we hear these words of Paul encouraging them to endure, to keep or regain their faith.
There is a similar theme of endurance in the story of David and Goliath. As soon as David offers to fight Goliath, he is told that he is unable. The Israelites had been totally cowed by the size of Goliath. No one else had even offered to go fight him. They were afraid not only of losing their lives, but of giving all of Israel into the hands of the Philistines. Goliath was the Philistines’ champion, waiting on a champion from Israel, the deal being that whoever won the fight would win the entire war for their country.
So David was fighting for his life and for all of Israel, no pressure. Then, once he volunteers, the king, his brothers, Goliath himself all tell him he can’t win. Goliath was too big for David to stand a chance. It was like putting me up against Hulk Hogan, but David didn’t care about Goliath’s size. David cared about the fact that God would be fighting for him. David seemed to remember the times in the past when God fought for Israel. Israel had defeated many enemies not because of their military might, but because of their dependence on God.
From a human point of view, the Israelites drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea by Moses waiving around a stick. The city of Jericho was taken because Joshua had a box and some trumpets. When Gideon defeated the Amalekites and Midianites, he had 32,000 men with him, but God decided that was too many, so he left Gideon with only 300 men, and they won the battle with some torches and trumpets. Of course in all of these cases, God was the one fighting for the people of Israel. God was teaching the Israelites to trust in him rather than in their own might.
Fortunately for Israel, David seemed to remember this lesson when he fought Goliath. Unlike Saul and the other soldiers, David trusted in God. He endured in his faith against a seemingly unbeatable enemy.
Now look at today’s Gospel. Jesus was again teaching his disciples to endure in their faith. Now I love this story; it’s very funny to me. Just imagine being in the boat with this huge windstorm and then looking back and seeing Jesus asleep, his mouth hanging open, snoring in the back of the boat. Of course the disciples were upset, “Dude, wake up, Jesus; what are you thinking?”, and of course Jesus wasn’t bothered by the storm. He knew he could handle it. So, he got to teach the disciples again to keep their faith. “Why are you afraid?” he asked them, “Have you still no faith?” He was teaching them to endure in their faith even though they were afraid.
So in the three lessons we heard this morning, we have several calls to endure in our faith and several reason why we might not endure in our faith. Perhaps like the disciples, we are at times afraid. Perhaps like the Israelites, we sometimes forget who God is. Perhaps like the Corinthians, we spend too much time fighting over who is right. Perhaps our faith sometimes loses its luster. Perhaps we’re at times led astray by false apostles. In many different ways, we may find ourselves throughout our lives without much faith in God. The key is to endure. Keep striving after God.
When God seems remote, remember those times when he felt near. When afraid, remember that God is with you, even in death. When God seems boring, and this might be the most insidious, remember, “all that glitters is not gold.” Faith in God may not be flashy. It often isn’t. Faith in God won’t necessarily fulfill our desires for wealth or pleasure, and faith in God my certainly seem boring and slow compared to the fast pace and flashy things of our society. Many activities are more “fun” than prayer. There are many things or activities that are more instantly gratifying than prayer. There are many things or activities that are more instantly gratifying than service to others. There are many things or activities that are more instantly gratifying than following the commandments of God as a healthy and helpful way of life.
Faith in God, however, will help us endure when many other things fail us. A life of service to others will fulfill our lives vastly more than a life lived only for oneself. A life lived following God’s commandments will prove a more healthy and helpful way of life than many other ways of life which seem more instantly gratifying. Enduring in our faith in God is neither easy nor, but enduring in our faith in God will carry us well through this life.
So, looking again at each of our lives and how the texts we heard today speak to our lives, I have several questions to ask. Who is your Goliath; who or what makes you forget who God is? What’s your windstorm; what has you so afraid that you lose your trust in God? Who is your false apostle; who or what pulls you away from your faith in God and God’s way of life for you?
Now, holding those in your mind, think also to your answers to the questions with which I began today. What about the Christian faith keeps you having faith in Christ? What about the Christian faith keeps you going? What soothes you when you are stressed? What calms you when you are angry? What comforts you when you are in need? What brings you peace when you are frantic? What humbles you when you are proud? What brings love to your heart when you are feeling irritated or selfish? We may not have answers to all of those questions yet, but that’s one reason we keep striving, to find more peace, to find, more love, so that we can endure. Amen.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Resting in God, Overcoming the World
Brad Sullivan
6th Sunday of Easter, Year B
Sunday, May 17th, 2009
Emmanuel, Houston
Acts 10:44-48
Psalm 98
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17
Abide in my love, Jesus tells us. We’ve had an ongoing theme for the last couple weeks about abiding in Jesus: abiding in Jesus as the true vine, the one from whom we gain life and are grounded and rooted in God. Today we’re told to abide in Jesus’ love. If we keep his commandments, Jesus tells us, we will abide in his love, and we will conquer the world.
Ok, Jesus didn’t say that last part, but John did in the portion of his epistle that we read this morning. John wrote:
For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:3-5)
“Abide in my love.” Conquer the world. I found this to be rather odd when I noticed it. Visions of modern day crusades flashed through my head, Christians vanquishing all of their enemies (including each other?) and taking control of the world. This didn’t seem to fit too well with “abide in my love,” so I looked around for other instances of that word, “conquer”, and I found that it could also mean overcome. For instance, in Romans 12:21 Paul writes, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” That sounds a little better, a little more like abide in my love.
So, what if John was writing something a little closer to “…for whatever is born of God overcomes the world…the victory that overcomes the world [is] our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
Now, I realize overcome and conquer are synonyms, but overcome says something to me not so much of military victory over the world, but of not being brought down by the world or not being overcome by the world ourselves.
John felt Christians were in a struggle between seeking God on the one hand and seeking the world on the other. Now, while I think even John would say that the world God created is good, he saw some of our inordinate desires for riches, for pleasure, for too much and too many things as love of the world, the things of the world drawing us away from God. In first John 2:14-17, he writes:
"I write to you, young people, because you are strong and the word of God abide in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world – the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches – comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever."
Now we can see the idea of conquering the world in a little different light than military victory. By following God’s commandments, by having faith God, faith in Christ and following him, we can keep from being overcome by “the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches,” to use John’s examples. We all face this struggle between desire for things, for whatever each one of us desires and times when those desires get in the way of loving God and loving our neighbor. Have y’all all felt that, a struggle between some of our desires, some things we may want and loving God, loving our neighbor? I see a few head nods…sinners…kidding.
I’ve got another related question. Do any of y’all ever feel anxious, tired, worn out, at the end of your rope, or like you’ve got too much to do with too little joy in what you do? Maybe that was several questions. Some of our desires, desires of the flesh, desires for riches, etc. can make us feel anxious, tired, and worn out. I think of a friend of mine who is terribly overworked, but partially by choice so that their can have enough money to do the things they want, have certain expensive things, have a certain “standard of living”, and when I see my friend so stressed out so much of the time, I think are those things really making you happy? Are those things worth the stress and anxiety of your life? What I further think is my friend has been overcome by the world. As John wrote, the desire of all these things has overcome this person. Maybe to varying degrees that sounds familiar too.
I’ve been reading a book called “Downtime” by Mark Yaconelli, a book about the need we have to spend some time resting in God. I’m going to read a couple of passages from this book, and maybe some of these ideas will hit home with you.
"We minister among young people who are trained to no longer see the presence of God in the world. We minister among budding consumers, people who have been told ‘You are your appetites.’ We minister among people who are only allowed to live within a narrow band of their humanity, people imprisoned within the material world. We minister among kids whose worth is based on what Marcus Borg calls the three ‘As’ of Western culture: Appearance, achievement, and affluence. We minister among families and communities desperate for spiritual grounding. We minister among young people whose souls are malnourished and depleted by a culture that worships, not the God of Jesus, but a God of our own making – an anxious God who condones human greed, violence, and self-absorption. We minister within a culture that is putting the souls of our young people to sleep. Consider how Hillary Hunt, a middle-aged shop steward for the AFSCME union, describes the formation of her own soul within the North American consumer culture:
'I know most of my fellow workers very well, and they are wonderful people. But many of us meet for a drink after work and talk about how dead we feel after a day in our offices. I sometimes remember what a lively little girl I was, how full of life and energy, and I wonder whatever happened to that girl. It’s almost as if growing up is ‘coming down’ from a high. Here I am now in a life where everything seems so mechanized and out of control. Sometimes I feel like I’m a zombie surrounded by zombies – everyone doing their assigned role, trying to fit in and be the way they are supposed to be, and even in the way that people talk to each other, it’s so unreal and forced.'"
Downtime: Helping Teenagers Pray
- Mark Yaconelli, p. 19-20
Perhaps there’s something familiar to you in that. Well, the author further writes:
"In a society gone made with feverish activity, perhaps the gospel, the love of God, and the freedom of Jesus Christ are best communicated by inviting young people to rest and pray like Jesus. It’s the life of prayer that will help young people resist the frantic consumption that afflicts us. It is prayer that will inspire young people to trust and follow God’s hope. It is prayerful rest that will strengthen the spirits of young people so they will no longer fear difference or weakness or suffering. An it is prayer, much more than words, that will allow young people to feel the power and freedom of God’s love."
Downtime: Helping Teenagers Pray
- Mark Yaconelli, p. 26
Think of time spent in prayer as simply resting in God. Perhaps you’ll talk to God, perhaps you won’t. Maybe you’ll read some scripture; maybe you’ll simply be silent. Maybe you’ll go for a walk or simply sit outside. Two weeks ago, I had a wonderful chance to rest in God at CREDO, the clergy conference/retreat that I was on a couple of Sundays ago. For one thing, thank you for that opportunity to go to CREDO, and for another, I want to give y’all some of what I gained while there. The really short version is, take some time to rest in God.
I had a wonderful experience there of resting in which I kinda became a contemplative for a couple of hours. I was sitting in the chapel looking out at some of the trees, and as they gently blew in the breeze, and I became very calm and peaceful. I thought of being deeply rooted in God, like the trees are deeply rooted in the earth. I thought of the demands of life sometimes pulling in all these different directions, sometimes taking me right along with them. Now the trees get pulled along a little bit by the breeze, but except in the case of hurricanes and tornados, the trees come back to where they are, and so too for us, being grounded and rooted in God, we can move and sway a little bit with the demands of our lives, but we can come back to our center, to our grounding in God.
So, take some time to ground yourself in God. Not to place yet another demand on your lives, but if you don’t already, allow yourself to take some time for holy rest. Whether the demands of life or the desire of things are overcoming you, you can overcome these things, we can overcome the world by abiding and resting in God’s love. Love God and love your neighbor, these are not only Jesus’ commandments, but the way we were made to be. The only way our lives really make sense is by loving God and loving our neighbor. So abide in God’s love. As the Father has loved Jesus so he has loved each of us; abide in his love. Amen.
6th Sunday of Easter, Year B
Sunday, May 17th, 2009
Emmanuel, Houston
Acts 10:44-48
Psalm 98
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17
Abide in my love, Jesus tells us. We’ve had an ongoing theme for the last couple weeks about abiding in Jesus: abiding in Jesus as the true vine, the one from whom we gain life and are grounded and rooted in God. Today we’re told to abide in Jesus’ love. If we keep his commandments, Jesus tells us, we will abide in his love, and we will conquer the world.
Ok, Jesus didn’t say that last part, but John did in the portion of his epistle that we read this morning. John wrote:
For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:3-5)
“Abide in my love.” Conquer the world. I found this to be rather odd when I noticed it. Visions of modern day crusades flashed through my head, Christians vanquishing all of their enemies (including each other?) and taking control of the world. This didn’t seem to fit too well with “abide in my love,” so I looked around for other instances of that word, “conquer”, and I found that it could also mean overcome. For instance, in Romans 12:21 Paul writes, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” That sounds a little better, a little more like abide in my love.
So, what if John was writing something a little closer to “…for whatever is born of God overcomes the world…the victory that overcomes the world [is] our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
Now, I realize overcome and conquer are synonyms, but overcome says something to me not so much of military victory over the world, but of not being brought down by the world or not being overcome by the world ourselves.
John felt Christians were in a struggle between seeking God on the one hand and seeking the world on the other. Now, while I think even John would say that the world God created is good, he saw some of our inordinate desires for riches, for pleasure, for too much and too many things as love of the world, the things of the world drawing us away from God. In first John 2:14-17, he writes:
"I write to you, young people, because you are strong and the word of God abide in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world – the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches – comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever."
Now we can see the idea of conquering the world in a little different light than military victory. By following God’s commandments, by having faith God, faith in Christ and following him, we can keep from being overcome by “the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches,” to use John’s examples. We all face this struggle between desire for things, for whatever each one of us desires and times when those desires get in the way of loving God and loving our neighbor. Have y’all all felt that, a struggle between some of our desires, some things we may want and loving God, loving our neighbor? I see a few head nods…sinners…kidding.
I’ve got another related question. Do any of y’all ever feel anxious, tired, worn out, at the end of your rope, or like you’ve got too much to do with too little joy in what you do? Maybe that was several questions. Some of our desires, desires of the flesh, desires for riches, etc. can make us feel anxious, tired, and worn out. I think of a friend of mine who is terribly overworked, but partially by choice so that their can have enough money to do the things they want, have certain expensive things, have a certain “standard of living”, and when I see my friend so stressed out so much of the time, I think are those things really making you happy? Are those things worth the stress and anxiety of your life? What I further think is my friend has been overcome by the world. As John wrote, the desire of all these things has overcome this person. Maybe to varying degrees that sounds familiar too.
I’ve been reading a book called “Downtime” by Mark Yaconelli, a book about the need we have to spend some time resting in God. I’m going to read a couple of passages from this book, and maybe some of these ideas will hit home with you.
"We minister among young people who are trained to no longer see the presence of God in the world. We minister among budding consumers, people who have been told ‘You are your appetites.’ We minister among people who are only allowed to live within a narrow band of their humanity, people imprisoned within the material world. We minister among kids whose worth is based on what Marcus Borg calls the three ‘As’ of Western culture: Appearance, achievement, and affluence. We minister among families and communities desperate for spiritual grounding. We minister among young people whose souls are malnourished and depleted by a culture that worships, not the God of Jesus, but a God of our own making – an anxious God who condones human greed, violence, and self-absorption. We minister within a culture that is putting the souls of our young people to sleep. Consider how Hillary Hunt, a middle-aged shop steward for the AFSCME union, describes the formation of her own soul within the North American consumer culture:
'I know most of my fellow workers very well, and they are wonderful people. But many of us meet for a drink after work and talk about how dead we feel after a day in our offices. I sometimes remember what a lively little girl I was, how full of life and energy, and I wonder whatever happened to that girl. It’s almost as if growing up is ‘coming down’ from a high. Here I am now in a life where everything seems so mechanized and out of control. Sometimes I feel like I’m a zombie surrounded by zombies – everyone doing their assigned role, trying to fit in and be the way they are supposed to be, and even in the way that people talk to each other, it’s so unreal and forced.'"
Downtime: Helping Teenagers Pray
- Mark Yaconelli, p. 19-20
Perhaps there’s something familiar to you in that. Well, the author further writes:
"In a society gone made with feverish activity, perhaps the gospel, the love of God, and the freedom of Jesus Christ are best communicated by inviting young people to rest and pray like Jesus. It’s the life of prayer that will help young people resist the frantic consumption that afflicts us. It is prayer that will inspire young people to trust and follow God’s hope. It is prayerful rest that will strengthen the spirits of young people so they will no longer fear difference or weakness or suffering. An it is prayer, much more than words, that will allow young people to feel the power and freedom of God’s love."
Downtime: Helping Teenagers Pray
- Mark Yaconelli, p. 26
Think of time spent in prayer as simply resting in God. Perhaps you’ll talk to God, perhaps you won’t. Maybe you’ll read some scripture; maybe you’ll simply be silent. Maybe you’ll go for a walk or simply sit outside. Two weeks ago, I had a wonderful chance to rest in God at CREDO, the clergy conference/retreat that I was on a couple of Sundays ago. For one thing, thank you for that opportunity to go to CREDO, and for another, I want to give y’all some of what I gained while there. The really short version is, take some time to rest in God.
I had a wonderful experience there of resting in which I kinda became a contemplative for a couple of hours. I was sitting in the chapel looking out at some of the trees, and as they gently blew in the breeze, and I became very calm and peaceful. I thought of being deeply rooted in God, like the trees are deeply rooted in the earth. I thought of the demands of life sometimes pulling in all these different directions, sometimes taking me right along with them. Now the trees get pulled along a little bit by the breeze, but except in the case of hurricanes and tornados, the trees come back to where they are, and so too for us, being grounded and rooted in God, we can move and sway a little bit with the demands of our lives, but we can come back to our center, to our grounding in God.
So, take some time to ground yourself in God. Not to place yet another demand on your lives, but if you don’t already, allow yourself to take some time for holy rest. Whether the demands of life or the desire of things are overcoming you, you can overcome these things, we can overcome the world by abiding and resting in God’s love. Love God and love your neighbor, these are not only Jesus’ commandments, but the way we were made to be. The only way our lives really make sense is by loving God and loving our neighbor. So abide in God’s love. As the Father has loved Jesus so he has loved each of us; abide in his love. Amen.
Why We Believe
Brad Sullivan
3rd Sunday of Easter, Year B
Sunday, April 26th, 2009
Emmanuel, Houston
Acts 3:12-19
Psalm 4
1 John 3:1-7
Luke 24:36b-48
Why do we believe in the Gospel? We haven’t seen Jesus raised from the dead. We haven’t seen Jesus’ apostles heal anyone. By and large, most of us haven’t seen anything supernatural. We haven’t seen great signs; been given visions by angels, nor heard testimony from eye witnesses of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
The apostles saw Jesus after his resurrection. The first heard about his resurrection from Mary Magdalene who was told of it by the angels. They were told again about his resurrection by Cleopas and his companion who saw Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and Simon saw Jesus. The disciples even proclaimed “The Lord is risen indeed…,” and then when Jesus appeared among them, they didn’t believe. They thought he was a ghost. Then, when they saw he has flesh and bones, they still felt it was too good to be true, so Jesus ate some fish just to prove that he really was alive there among them. He wasn’t a ghost. He wasn’t a reanimated corpse, like a vampire or a zombie. He was and is Jesus, alive and well, just like he told them he would be.
I find interesting the fact that the disciples believed until the saw Jesus raised. They believed the testimony of their friends which matched what Jesus had told them would happen, but seeing him alive before them, just three days after he had been killed was too much for them. Rather than increasing their belief and joy, seeing Jesus initially increased their fear and disbelief, and I think that’s a pretty reasonable response.
Imagine being in their position. Imagine a good friend of yours, an actual good friend of yours, someone you admire, someone who maybe teaches you. Imagine that person foretelling his or her death and resurrection. Imagine seeing that person die. Imagine the grief you’d feel, and then imagine seeing that person walking around three days later. My guess is, each of us would also meet our resurrected friend with fear and disbelief.
The disciples’ reaction to seeing Jesus seems pretty reasonable. Having never seen a resurrected human before, I can guess they had a little bit of fear of the unknown. This person before them looked like Jesus, but was he really? Was he a disembodied spirit? Was he still the Jesus they knew and loved? These were all reasonable questions for the disciples to have. Notice Jesus was not angry with them for their unbelief. Rather, he greeted them with peace. He told them to touch him; he ate in front of them. Jesus showed them that he really was the same person who had been their friend and teacher for three years.
So, what then does Jesus’ resurrection appearance among his disciples say to us? For one thing, Jesus’ resurrection tells us tells us that resurrection in general is true, that death does not triumph over God. The end of God’s creation is not death, but life. What kind of life is the resurrection? That is another question answered, at least in part, by Jesus’ resurrection appearance to his disciples. In the resurrected life, we will be largely who we were.
In his resurrection appearance, Jesus showed his disciples that he was the same person he had been. He was obviously changed in some ways. He couldn’t die anymore. He could appear and disappear at will, but he was still Jesus. So for us too, in the resurrection, we will be changed, but we will still be ourselves. Our loved ones will be changed in the resurrection, but they will still be themselves. As John tells us in his epistle, “we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him…” (1 John 3:2) If the resurrected Jesus was changed and yet the same Jesus as before, then we will also be changed and yet be the same as before.
We don’t know exactly what the resurrection life will be like, so there is still some unknown, but that unknown can hopefully leave us with excitement rather than fear. One reason Jesus became human, died, and was resurrected was to “…free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:15)
Living in fear of death, one would hold on to all that one has with a vice grip, desperately grasping for anything to keep death at bay. Living in fear of death, one might accumulate exceedingly great wealth, things, and power, just to counter the powerlessness one feels regarding death. In today’s economic world, that one might hit home. Perhaps the folks responsible for our current economic downturn were living in fear of death and therefore accumulating too many things, driving up too much debt. The super rich aren’t the only ones who lived this way, aren’t the only ones responsible. Many Americans were living beyond their means. Many of us have too much debt. Many of us have more things than we need.
Perhaps many of us have been living with some fear of death. I include myself in this. I’ve never gone out and bought something thinking, “this will keep me alive another day,” but there have been times when I’ve felt a need or a longing for something and I’ve sated that need with a purchase of some kind. I think, on the one hand, my true longing was for God, but I also think mixed in there was fear of death and a longing for security.
Now, I usually don’t consciously fear death, but when I think of the resurrection, when I think of the next life, being at one with God, then I feel peace come upon me, and my desire for things tends to diminish. I find I have less desire for things when I think of the resurrection. So, I’m guessing I still have some unknown lingering fear of death, fear of the unknown that I sometimes try to quell with things. Maybe I’m not alone in that. Perhaps living out of our faith in Jesus can help keep us from over spending. So, our faith really can make a difference in our lives, in a tangible way by freeing us who have been held in slavery by the fear of death.
As Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians, quoting Isaiah and Hosea, “‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’” (Isaiah 25:8, Hosea 13:8, 1 Corinthians 15:54-55) One of the beauties of Easter is that death has no sting. By believing in Jesus’ resurrection and believing that we will share in his resurrection, we can live lives of hope and love without the need of material wealth and security. Further, as followers of Jesus, we can share our hope and faith and love with others so that those who do not yet have this hope might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. (2 Corinthians 5:15) We can share our faith, our hope, and our love so that those who fear death might not fear death, so that those who are longing to know God might come to know God.
Jesus told his disciples that they were witnesses of his death and resurrection, witnesses that were to share that witness with others, and I believe we also share in that witness. We get to witness to others the hope that is in us, the faith that we have been given. We get to witness as we have been witnessed to. We are not eye witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection. We’re going on the testimony of Jesus’ disciples, of the witness they gave and the witness given by so many generations after them. We get to witness so that others may believe as we believe.
I asked at the beginning of this sermon why we believe. We believe not because of what we have seen, but because of what we have heard. We believe because of what we have been told by those who did see. We believe because of God’s spirit dwelling within us, praying for us, even in times of doubt, praying for us with sighs too deep for words. (Romans 8:26)
We also believe, I think because we want to. I want to believe that death is not the end. I want to believe that there is life after death. I want to believe that the resurrection life will be a wonderful life lived with our creator. I want to believe that I have nothing to fear in death. I want to believe that I don’t need to build up security here on earth because my life is in God’s hands and this life is not the end. I want to believe that God became human in the person of Jesus, that he, lived, died, and was resurrected all out of love for us. I want to believe, and so I choose to believe.
How much do I believe? How much trust do I put in the testimony that I have heard? Well, that kind of varies. At times I trust more than others. My prayer for all of us today, the message I want to leave us with is that we would believe the testimony we have been given enough not to fear death. My prayer and message is that we would believe enough in Jesus’ resurrection to trust him and to have lives filled with hope, love, and peace. Let us pray. “May the God of hope fill [us] with all joy and peace in believing, so that [we] may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13) Amen.
3rd Sunday of Easter, Year B
Sunday, April 26th, 2009
Emmanuel, Houston
Acts 3:12-19
Psalm 4
1 John 3:1-7
Luke 24:36b-48
Why do we believe in the Gospel? We haven’t seen Jesus raised from the dead. We haven’t seen Jesus’ apostles heal anyone. By and large, most of us haven’t seen anything supernatural. We haven’t seen great signs; been given visions by angels, nor heard testimony from eye witnesses of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
The apostles saw Jesus after his resurrection. The first heard about his resurrection from Mary Magdalene who was told of it by the angels. They were told again about his resurrection by Cleopas and his companion who saw Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and Simon saw Jesus. The disciples even proclaimed “The Lord is risen indeed…,” and then when Jesus appeared among them, they didn’t believe. They thought he was a ghost. Then, when they saw he has flesh and bones, they still felt it was too good to be true, so Jesus ate some fish just to prove that he really was alive there among them. He wasn’t a ghost. He wasn’t a reanimated corpse, like a vampire or a zombie. He was and is Jesus, alive and well, just like he told them he would be.
I find interesting the fact that the disciples believed until the saw Jesus raised. They believed the testimony of their friends which matched what Jesus had told them would happen, but seeing him alive before them, just three days after he had been killed was too much for them. Rather than increasing their belief and joy, seeing Jesus initially increased their fear and disbelief, and I think that’s a pretty reasonable response.
Imagine being in their position. Imagine a good friend of yours, an actual good friend of yours, someone you admire, someone who maybe teaches you. Imagine that person foretelling his or her death and resurrection. Imagine seeing that person die. Imagine the grief you’d feel, and then imagine seeing that person walking around three days later. My guess is, each of us would also meet our resurrected friend with fear and disbelief.
The disciples’ reaction to seeing Jesus seems pretty reasonable. Having never seen a resurrected human before, I can guess they had a little bit of fear of the unknown. This person before them looked like Jesus, but was he really? Was he a disembodied spirit? Was he still the Jesus they knew and loved? These were all reasonable questions for the disciples to have. Notice Jesus was not angry with them for their unbelief. Rather, he greeted them with peace. He told them to touch him; he ate in front of them. Jesus showed them that he really was the same person who had been their friend and teacher for three years.
So, what then does Jesus’ resurrection appearance among his disciples say to us? For one thing, Jesus’ resurrection tells us tells us that resurrection in general is true, that death does not triumph over God. The end of God’s creation is not death, but life. What kind of life is the resurrection? That is another question answered, at least in part, by Jesus’ resurrection appearance to his disciples. In the resurrected life, we will be largely who we were.
In his resurrection appearance, Jesus showed his disciples that he was the same person he had been. He was obviously changed in some ways. He couldn’t die anymore. He could appear and disappear at will, but he was still Jesus. So for us too, in the resurrection, we will be changed, but we will still be ourselves. Our loved ones will be changed in the resurrection, but they will still be themselves. As John tells us in his epistle, “we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him…” (1 John 3:2) If the resurrected Jesus was changed and yet the same Jesus as before, then we will also be changed and yet be the same as before.
We don’t know exactly what the resurrection life will be like, so there is still some unknown, but that unknown can hopefully leave us with excitement rather than fear. One reason Jesus became human, died, and was resurrected was to “…free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:15)
Living in fear of death, one would hold on to all that one has with a vice grip, desperately grasping for anything to keep death at bay. Living in fear of death, one might accumulate exceedingly great wealth, things, and power, just to counter the powerlessness one feels regarding death. In today’s economic world, that one might hit home. Perhaps the folks responsible for our current economic downturn were living in fear of death and therefore accumulating too many things, driving up too much debt. The super rich aren’t the only ones who lived this way, aren’t the only ones responsible. Many Americans were living beyond their means. Many of us have too much debt. Many of us have more things than we need.
Perhaps many of us have been living with some fear of death. I include myself in this. I’ve never gone out and bought something thinking, “this will keep me alive another day,” but there have been times when I’ve felt a need or a longing for something and I’ve sated that need with a purchase of some kind. I think, on the one hand, my true longing was for God, but I also think mixed in there was fear of death and a longing for security.
Now, I usually don’t consciously fear death, but when I think of the resurrection, when I think of the next life, being at one with God, then I feel peace come upon me, and my desire for things tends to diminish. I find I have less desire for things when I think of the resurrection. So, I’m guessing I still have some unknown lingering fear of death, fear of the unknown that I sometimes try to quell with things. Maybe I’m not alone in that. Perhaps living out of our faith in Jesus can help keep us from over spending. So, our faith really can make a difference in our lives, in a tangible way by freeing us who have been held in slavery by the fear of death.
As Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians, quoting Isaiah and Hosea, “‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’” (Isaiah 25:8, Hosea 13:8, 1 Corinthians 15:54-55) One of the beauties of Easter is that death has no sting. By believing in Jesus’ resurrection and believing that we will share in his resurrection, we can live lives of hope and love without the need of material wealth and security. Further, as followers of Jesus, we can share our hope and faith and love with others so that those who do not yet have this hope might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. (2 Corinthians 5:15) We can share our faith, our hope, and our love so that those who fear death might not fear death, so that those who are longing to know God might come to know God.
Jesus told his disciples that they were witnesses of his death and resurrection, witnesses that were to share that witness with others, and I believe we also share in that witness. We get to witness to others the hope that is in us, the faith that we have been given. We get to witness as we have been witnessed to. We are not eye witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection. We’re going on the testimony of Jesus’ disciples, of the witness they gave and the witness given by so many generations after them. We get to witness so that others may believe as we believe.
I asked at the beginning of this sermon why we believe. We believe not because of what we have seen, but because of what we have heard. We believe because of what we have been told by those who did see. We believe because of God’s spirit dwelling within us, praying for us, even in times of doubt, praying for us with sighs too deep for words. (Romans 8:26)
We also believe, I think because we want to. I want to believe that death is not the end. I want to believe that there is life after death. I want to believe that the resurrection life will be a wonderful life lived with our creator. I want to believe that I have nothing to fear in death. I want to believe that I don’t need to build up security here on earth because my life is in God’s hands and this life is not the end. I want to believe that God became human in the person of Jesus, that he, lived, died, and was resurrected all out of love for us. I want to believe, and so I choose to believe.
How much do I believe? How much trust do I put in the testimony that I have heard? Well, that kind of varies. At times I trust more than others. My prayer for all of us today, the message I want to leave us with is that we would believe the testimony we have been given enough not to fear death. My prayer and message is that we would believe enough in Jesus’ resurrection to trust him and to have lives filled with hope, love, and peace. Let us pray. “May the God of hope fill [us] with all joy and peace in believing, so that [we] may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13) Amen.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Humility: The Freedom Not to Have to Be Perfect...
Brad Sullivan
Palm Sunday, Year B
Sunday, April 5th, 2009
Emmanuel, Houston
John 12:12-16
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Mark 14:1 – 15:47
Palm Sunday, as we do every year on Palm Sunday, we get to hear the stories of Jesus’ seeming triumph as he rides into Jerusalem with throngs of people shouting his praises, and we get to hear about Jesus’ seeming defeat in his death on the cross. What I’d like to focus on today is Jesus’ humility in his life and death on the cross, and the way Jesus’ humility shows us the depth of God’s love for us.
Recently, I was having a conversation with a non-Christian about the Christian faith, and this gentleman had many questions about our faith; he was truly trying to understand what the Christian faith is. One question he raised was, why is Earth so important that God would become human to live here on Earth? With the millions of other galaxies, all of which could have millions of planets like Earth, with human beings like on earth, why would God limit himself by becoming human and living here? The whole concept seems to place more importance on us and our planet than maybe we really deserve.
The Christian faith might seem to engender some pride in ourselves, as though the God of the universe was somehow our God and that we can somehow lay claim to God because he came to live among us. So, I was wondering about this idea; do we almost believe the universe revolves around us by believing that God came to live on Earth with us? This is a valid question and a valid point, so what I’d like to address is this idea of God as God of the universe.
We don’t believe God has limits, and so while God limited himself in Jesus, living here on earth, being limited by his humanity, we don’t believe God limited himself beyond Jesus. There was no 30 year hiatus of God from the rest of the universe while God was living here on earth as Jesus.
So, while our belief does not limit our understanding of God, do we still lay a claim on God or lead us to believe that we are the only important people, the only important planet in all of the universe? Could Christian belief lead to a kind of pride, that we’re the only important ones and God is ours and no one else’s?
Think of the vastness of space, the fact that our planet, is a relatively small planet revolving around a relatively small star, in a relatively small galaxy.
Considering the whole of the universe, we could hardly be less significant. I did some research to try to find out just how small Earth is compared to the rest of the universe, and I searched around on the internet so God only knows how accurate any of these number are, but according to some of the numbers I found, the earth is somewhere around 20 quintillionths smaller than the known universe. What’s a quintillionth? Well, the numbers go: millions, billions, trillions, quadrillions, quintillions. These numbers are utterly unfathomable, so I tried to find a way of conceptualizing the size of the earth compared to the universe, and I found a possible way to conceptualize these numbers. If the earth were one penny, twenty quintillion stacked up on top of each other would be several galaxies long.
I brought all of those numbers up so that we could imagine something of the scale of God’s humility in becoming human. God’s humility in becoming human is as unfathomable to me as trying to think of the tininess of earth in relation to the universe, and yet, as Paul wrote in Philippians:
…Christ Jesus…though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5c-8)
The scale of God’s humility and love in becoming human is unimaginable. When I consider God who created and is in charge of the whole of the universe coming to live among us on earth, I am struck not by our significance but by our insignificance. We are tiny people on an infinitesimally small speck in the Universe, and yet God cares for us deeply enough to become human and live with us.
This helps me see us as significant because of our insignificance. The God of the universe didn’t just make us and leave us alone. He made us and then stuck with us, even with the whole of the universe to tend to as well. One the scale of the universe, we are insignificant, and yet we’re significant to God. We are loved by God. Our universal insignificance doesn’t seem to matter to God. God loves us because he created us. The Christian belief that God became human to live among us does not raise our significance and pride so much as show something of the depth of God’s love for us, that God would humble himself so much in order to draw us closer to him.
Now on the other side of this, what Paul said in his letter to the Philippians was, “let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…” (Philippians 2:5) Let the same humility and love that God has for us, be in us for each other.
Humility is one of those difficult things that in seeking humility, we can even become prideful of just how humbler we are. Perhaps you’ve heard someone say, “I’m one of the most humble people I know.” The heart’s in the right place, but humility is almost something for which we can’t really strive. The more we want to be humble, the more we might find ourselves taking pride in our humility because we’re that much better at being humble than everyone else.
That just doesn’t work, but what we see in Jesus is not him striving for humility, but what are we told? “He emptied himself…” In seeking to follow Christ, therefore, in seeking to be humble, we find the idea of emptying ourselves to be a fairly helpful concept.
If we begin with ourselves, trying to be humble, then we will find humility something difficult to grasp, but if we empty ourselves instead and look to others with love, look to others as beloved children of God, then we might have a chance to achieve humility.
Now humility is not the same thing as self loathing. We may find ourselves thinking, “oh, I hate myself, I’m terrible, I’m awful; it’s Holy Week and so I should think badly of myself; God doesn’t like me very much…” No, no, no. Humility is not a chance or an obligation to think badly of ourselves.
Humility is a joy. The joy of humility is the ability to see and accept God’s love for us. When we can see and accept how much God loves others, when we can empty ourselves of the need that we feel we have in this world to be great, to be successful, the need we have to achieve more and more, we can see that those are demands we place on ourselves.
God doesn’t demand greatness from us. We are next to nothing in the universe, and yet God showed his love for us through his humility. God didn’t say, “first become the greatest, most perfect, most highly exalted person you can be, and then I will find you worthy of my love.” No, God loves us simply because he made us, simply because we are his, and there is a great burden lifted in that acknowledgment.
Humility is truly allowing ourselves to accept God’s love for us, not because we are great or highly exalted above anyone else. None of us has any more intrinsic value than any other one of us. God loves and values each of us because we are his children, and in emptying ourselves of thoughts of greatness, thoughts of being above or more valuable than anyone else, we can find then find acceptance of God’s love for us. We can find ourselves to be beloved of God beyond our imagination. My prayer this Holy Week is that we will seek to have the same mind as Christ, that we will seek to empty ourselves of the need for greatness or the presumption of importance, and that we will then be able to accept God’s love and see ourselves and each other as beloved of God. Amen.
Palm Sunday, Year B
Sunday, April 5th, 2009
Emmanuel, Houston
John 12:12-16
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Mark 14:1 – 15:47
Palm Sunday, as we do every year on Palm Sunday, we get to hear the stories of Jesus’ seeming triumph as he rides into Jerusalem with throngs of people shouting his praises, and we get to hear about Jesus’ seeming defeat in his death on the cross. What I’d like to focus on today is Jesus’ humility in his life and death on the cross, and the way Jesus’ humility shows us the depth of God’s love for us.
Recently, I was having a conversation with a non-Christian about the Christian faith, and this gentleman had many questions about our faith; he was truly trying to understand what the Christian faith is. One question he raised was, why is Earth so important that God would become human to live here on Earth? With the millions of other galaxies, all of which could have millions of planets like Earth, with human beings like on earth, why would God limit himself by becoming human and living here? The whole concept seems to place more importance on us and our planet than maybe we really deserve.
The Christian faith might seem to engender some pride in ourselves, as though the God of the universe was somehow our God and that we can somehow lay claim to God because he came to live among us. So, I was wondering about this idea; do we almost believe the universe revolves around us by believing that God came to live on Earth with us? This is a valid question and a valid point, so what I’d like to address is this idea of God as God of the universe.
We don’t believe God has limits, and so while God limited himself in Jesus, living here on earth, being limited by his humanity, we don’t believe God limited himself beyond Jesus. There was no 30 year hiatus of God from the rest of the universe while God was living here on earth as Jesus.
So, while our belief does not limit our understanding of God, do we still lay a claim on God or lead us to believe that we are the only important people, the only important planet in all of the universe? Could Christian belief lead to a kind of pride, that we’re the only important ones and God is ours and no one else’s?
Think of the vastness of space, the fact that our planet, is a relatively small planet revolving around a relatively small star, in a relatively small galaxy.
Considering the whole of the universe, we could hardly be less significant. I did some research to try to find out just how small Earth is compared to the rest of the universe, and I searched around on the internet so God only knows how accurate any of these number are, but according to some of the numbers I found, the earth is somewhere around 20 quintillionths smaller than the known universe. What’s a quintillionth? Well, the numbers go: millions, billions, trillions, quadrillions, quintillions. These numbers are utterly unfathomable, so I tried to find a way of conceptualizing the size of the earth compared to the universe, and I found a possible way to conceptualize these numbers. If the earth were one penny, twenty quintillion stacked up on top of each other would be several galaxies long.
I brought all of those numbers up so that we could imagine something of the scale of God’s humility in becoming human. God’s humility in becoming human is as unfathomable to me as trying to think of the tininess of earth in relation to the universe, and yet, as Paul wrote in Philippians:
…Christ Jesus…though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5c-8)
The scale of God’s humility and love in becoming human is unimaginable. When I consider God who created and is in charge of the whole of the universe coming to live among us on earth, I am struck not by our significance but by our insignificance. We are tiny people on an infinitesimally small speck in the Universe, and yet God cares for us deeply enough to become human and live with us.
This helps me see us as significant because of our insignificance. The God of the universe didn’t just make us and leave us alone. He made us and then stuck with us, even with the whole of the universe to tend to as well. One the scale of the universe, we are insignificant, and yet we’re significant to God. We are loved by God. Our universal insignificance doesn’t seem to matter to God. God loves us because he created us. The Christian belief that God became human to live among us does not raise our significance and pride so much as show something of the depth of God’s love for us, that God would humble himself so much in order to draw us closer to him.
Now on the other side of this, what Paul said in his letter to the Philippians was, “let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…” (Philippians 2:5) Let the same humility and love that God has for us, be in us for each other.
Humility is one of those difficult things that in seeking humility, we can even become prideful of just how humbler we are. Perhaps you’ve heard someone say, “I’m one of the most humble people I know.” The heart’s in the right place, but humility is almost something for which we can’t really strive. The more we want to be humble, the more we might find ourselves taking pride in our humility because we’re that much better at being humble than everyone else.
That just doesn’t work, but what we see in Jesus is not him striving for humility, but what are we told? “He emptied himself…” In seeking to follow Christ, therefore, in seeking to be humble, we find the idea of emptying ourselves to be a fairly helpful concept.
If we begin with ourselves, trying to be humble, then we will find humility something difficult to grasp, but if we empty ourselves instead and look to others with love, look to others as beloved children of God, then we might have a chance to achieve humility.
Now humility is not the same thing as self loathing. We may find ourselves thinking, “oh, I hate myself, I’m terrible, I’m awful; it’s Holy Week and so I should think badly of myself; God doesn’t like me very much…” No, no, no. Humility is not a chance or an obligation to think badly of ourselves.
Humility is a joy. The joy of humility is the ability to see and accept God’s love for us. When we can see and accept how much God loves others, when we can empty ourselves of the need that we feel we have in this world to be great, to be successful, the need we have to achieve more and more, we can see that those are demands we place on ourselves.
God doesn’t demand greatness from us. We are next to nothing in the universe, and yet God showed his love for us through his humility. God didn’t say, “first become the greatest, most perfect, most highly exalted person you can be, and then I will find you worthy of my love.” No, God loves us simply because he made us, simply because we are his, and there is a great burden lifted in that acknowledgment.
Humility is truly allowing ourselves to accept God’s love for us, not because we are great or highly exalted above anyone else. None of us has any more intrinsic value than any other one of us. God loves and values each of us because we are his children, and in emptying ourselves of thoughts of greatness, thoughts of being above or more valuable than anyone else, we can find then find acceptance of God’s love for us. We can find ourselves to be beloved of God beyond our imagination. My prayer this Holy Week is that we will seek to have the same mind as Christ, that we will seek to empty ourselves of the need for greatness or the presumption of importance, and that we will then be able to accept God’s love and see ourselves and each other as beloved of God. Amen.
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