REMEMBER THE BIG PICTURE: September 27, 2020

Year A, Pentecost                                                                               
Philippians 2:1-13                                                                           

                                                                             

           The Apostle Paul was in intense man. He was not the kind of person you wanted to bring over for dinner for casual and enjoyable conversation.  Sometimes I like to imagine what he would have been like in an age of e-mail and text.  There probably would have been a lot of ALL CAPS, and cross emoji✞✞✞✞✞✞✞✞✞. For Paul, everything was urgent and significant. Most points that he made eventually came back to the cross. 

 Paul was most likely writing to the Philippians during one of his imprisonments in Rome. He knew the community he was writing to and was obviously fond of them. He had been to visit them before and was hoping to return. It doesn’t appear that they had any major issues like other communities Paul wrote to.  He commends them for their obedience.  But they weren’t perfect. There was clearly some dissension in the group.  There is evidence of that in our reading for today.  Paul is even more explicit in the 4^th and final chapter of this letter when he mentioned two women and encouraged them to “come to an agreement in the Lord.”  Paul was incredibly concerned about the unity of the Christian community.  We see that theme over and over in his letters.  He didn’t need everyone to agree all the time, but he wanted people to care for one another and live alongside one another, even when they were disagreeing.

In our reading for today, it’s not clear what the dissension is. He says, “be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.  Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.”  He goes on to talk about the importance of considering the interests of the other above your own interests.  This has come up a lot lately in our readings from Paul.  For him, it was always about the other, never about the self.  That was something he was continually preaching.

That’s a tough pill to swallow because it is contrary to everything we experience in this day and age.  I mean, most of us walk around glued to a device called an “iphone.”  However, we know from reading Paul’s letters that even before Apple products, people were preoccupied with themselves.  Otherwise, Paul would not have had to talk about putting the needs of the other above your own as much as he did. 

What makes this text distinct from the ones we have been reading over the past few months is verses 6-11.  They are familiar verses because we hear them every Palm Sunday.  “Though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited but emptied himself…he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death---even death on the cross.”  This is often referred to as a Christological hymn, which means it was essentially a statement of belief about who Jesus was.  It’s an interesting thing to put in the middle of a letter—it almost seems out of place.

But that is the beauty of Paul.  Paul felt that every problem, every disagreement could be solved by knowing Jesus and knowing the sacrifice that Jesus made for God’s people.  You don’t agree on what traditions to follow in this new community, remember that Jesus died for you.  You are having some leadership disputes, remember that Jesus was a born a human and died a horrible death, for you.  It almost seems a little manipulative, as if nothing we face compares to Jesus’ sacrifice.

It was more than that for Paul.  For Paul, every issue was theological. In other words, it always came back to Jesus Christ—but not just the name of Jesus, but who he was and what he did.  How can we squabble about who gets to make decisions or be in charge when Jesus (God in the flesh) agreed to come down to the earth, be born in a barn, live like one of us, then be betrayed, denied and ultimately killed by humans who he was trying to save.  He truly emptied himself of privilege and to some degree power by living with us on earth.  So when Paul says, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…” he is talking about embodying Christ by emptying ourselves from selfish ambition.  It’s the opposite for being full of oneself. 

            Apparently there has been significant debate about what Paul really meant when he said, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”  Was he saying that we have to follow his example, perhaps even make the same kind of sacrifice?  I think it is more than that---because it is so easy ignore that.  Who wants to follow Jesus’ example of death on the cross? It’s impossible.  If that is what we have to do, it’s tempting just to give up.

 What if Paul was talking about something deeper…the idea of being in Christ.   It comes back to the mission statement of St. John’s: “To live in the Spirit of Christ.” That is more than following an example.  It is living the Christian life knowing deep down what Jesus did for us.  It is being transformed by that understanding of radical love and acceptance. 

Jesus is not a role model to follow.  Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.  Often times when I am facing a difficult decision, I start combing through the Bible, hoping I can find the verse to convince myself and ultimately everyone else.  But you know what, that almost never works.  What might be more effective is too back up and look at the big picture like Paul does.  Don’t ask what would Jesus do.  Ask: What does a person transformed by Jesus’ sacrificial love do?

Throughout our Sunday morning liturgies and virtually every other liturgy of the church, we have reminders of who God is and what has done for us.  If you just look at the Eucharistic Prayer, it is full of prayers to remind us of who Jesus is and what he did for us. What if we extended that idea beyond Sunday morning and found a way to remind ourselves of the way and the truth and the life, every day. The last verse of our reading reminds us that God is at work in us, enabling us to do God’s will.  God is at work in us---- but we also need to make space, empty ourselves so God can do that work.  We need to remind ourselves of the sacrificial love that God poured out for us, his children. 

In a time of our lives where everything is different—nothing goes according to plan—hold fast to Jesus Christ.  Perhaps find a Christological hymn for yourself, something you keep coming back to.  It could be the one we had in our reading for today.  It could be “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again” from our Eucharistic prayer.   Write it down, put it on your iphone as a daily reminder. Embrace it as the part of our world that doesn’t change, that remains true and holy.  Embrace God as not simply part of the world, but a part of who you are, the best part.  Don’t let anyone or anything take that part away from you.  God is bigger than any disagreement or conflict the world will ever see, as long as we give him the space.

September 28, 2014: Matthew 21:23-32

Facing the truth

Year A Pentecost 15                                                

                                                               

            I have talked to several rectors about what we miss most about being an assistant.  Most of us miss knowing that if there was a tricky question that we did not know the answer to or did not want to answer, we could always say, “I need to ask the rector.”  Of course the reason that most assistants are called to be rectors eventually is that more often than not, we would rather be the ones answering the questions.  Most assistants get a little sick of asking the rector about everything.  Occasionally we just want to make the decision ourselves.  But like the Hebrew people who longed for the food of Egypt, we remember those experiences through rose colored glasses, especially when we are stressed and frantic about what we are experiencing right now.

            The people that Jesus is talking to in this Gospel reading are the chief priests and the elders, also known as the Sanhedrin.  The Sanhedrin was essentially the Supreme Court of the Jewish people.  In some ways, they had even more power than the Supreme Court because they were involved with legislation, administration, and justice.   One of their jobs was to ferret out the false messiahs.  You would think that there would not be too many of those, but there were often several false messiahs lurking in parts of Israel.  We don’t know about them now because they were false.  

            The chief priests and elders are never portrayed very kindly in the gospels.  They were after all, at least partially responsible for the death of Jesus.  We often hear them questioning Jesus, often rather condescendingly.  When Jesus tells parables (like the one we hear today) religious leaders usually look pretty bad.  So it is understandable that we might have bad opinions of the chief priests and elders. 

But they weren’t all bad.  They were committed to their faith and to God.  Perhaps not all had the best of intentions, but many did.  The reason that they questioned Jesus was because that was their job.  They needed to prove that these messiahs were false.  Otherwise the false messiahs would lead the people astray and possibly cause huge problems between the Jews and the empire that controlled them, Rome.  The chief priests and elders were trying to keep the peace and ease the tensions that these false messiahs created.

            What they did not anticipate was that not all of these men were false.  John the Baptist was neither false nor the messiah.  He was the person pointing to the true messiah.  One would have hoped the priests and elders would have learned something from John the Baptist, but they never really gave him a chance.  And if he was false, well then Jesus must be false as well.  While it was their job to judge these potential messiahs, they were supposed to allow for the possibility that this person could be the real deal.  However, as we know it’s a lot easier to be cynical than hopeful…a lot easier to be negative than positive. It also did not help that Jesus did not fit the messiah mold.  He was a peasant with no formal education.   The educated and well-bred religious leaders of the day could not have a  messiah like that as their king.

            Instead of giving Jesus a fair hearing, they tried to trap him with questions.  Being the teacher that he was, Jesus would always turn those questions on them.  Many people believe that this technique of Jesus was a bit of a mind game, but I think it was a teaching technique.  I believe he hoped to open their minds, even if he knew it was almost impossible.  Jesus was not the kind to give up on lost causes.  Unlike their typical questions, this question we heard today was a pretty clear cut question.  They asked him where he got his authority. 

            There were a couple of recent events that concerned the Jewish leadership and led them to ask this question.  Right before this interaction, Jesus had paraded into Jerusalem while people shouted “Hosanna to the Son of David!”  This was a pretty magnificent claim and not one he denied.  It would appear that he even encouraged this representation.  He then went into the temple, the very seat of the power of God and in many ways, the power of the Jewish leadership.  He drove out the people who were buying and selling goods saying, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.”  Can you imagine the response of the elders and chief priests?  “Did he just say: ‘my house’?”  Of course they had to confront the man who made such claims. 

            So they did.  Instead of answering their question, Jesus asked them, “Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?”  That question put them in a bit of a bind.  They were in the midst of people who were followers of John, who had just been killed.  The elders and priests knew that if they said that the baptism of John was of human origin they would offend all these people…and that offense would potentially end in violence.  They also knew if they said that the baptism was from heaven, then they would be admitting that Jesus was potentially the messiah because that was what John had said all along.  How could someone who baptized on behalf of God be so wrong when it came to the coming messiah? 

            What I find rather interesting is that we never hear what they really believe.  Perhaps they did believe that John’s baptism came from heaven. Maybe there was disagreement among them.  However, the text indicates that they really believed that the baptism was of human origin and they were just afraid to say that. This is where I lose a little respect for them.  They took the easy way out.  Instead of just telling the truth, they answered, “I don’t know.” 

In general I have no problem with that answer.  I would much rather people admit they do not know than bluster through an answer that is not even correct.  But they did know.  They had a very definite opinion and they didn’t give it because they were afraid of how it would affect them.  They were not answering on the basis of truth, but on what was safe to say.  It wasn’t what was safe for anyone else. They were not protecting the feelings of others. They were only protecting themselves.  Because they were unwilling to answer honestly, Jesus refused to answer their question.  It’s not because he was being evasive, he just knew that they were not interested in the truth.  They only wanted to protect their beliefs and their lives.  If Jesus’s answer did not comply with that, they did not want to hear it. 

            While I lose a little respect for them in this interaction, I can also sympathize.  There were many times when I was an assistant when I knew the answer and it was absolutely in my power to give it, but I took the easy way out.  I used my lack of authority to avoid the harder questions.  While I know it was a little cowardly, I miss it sometimes!  Haven’t most of us done that at one time or another?  Either we have avoided answering or provided the answer we just knew the person wanted to hear because that was the safe way to go.  While it is the safe way; it’s not the true way.  Because in avoiding the hard questions and the even harder answers we are avoiding conversations that can open up new possibilities and futures that we can’t even imagine. 

            We all have some truth in our life that we are fighting.  It could be something that we are afraid to acknowledge or something we are just not sure of.  Let us all take some time in the next week, month or year to consider what truth it is that we are avoiding.   God will help us answer the hard questions of life, but only if we are willing to provide honest and authentic answers.  We get frustrated when God doesn’t answer our prayers and our questions.  But maybe it would be easier to hear those answers if we weren’t working so hard to avoid the truth in our own lives.