Who Will You Follow?
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Every four years, the people of the United States are called upon to make their voices heard and choose the person to lead their country. At times like these, we find ourselves reflecting on what we want in a leader. What qualities do we want our next president to have? For some, this question may be simple to answer. However, as Christians, we must ask ourselves another question: How do the qualities I desire in a president match up with the qualities of Jesus Christ, the one we are called to follow and emulate? If Jesus ran for president today, how would his campaign look? If Jesus ran for president and we did not know who he was, would we vote for him? Paul Bresnahan will provide the main article. Illustrations, a liturgy, and a children's sermon are also included.
Who Will You Follow?
Paul Bresnahan
Matthew 4:12-23
Jesus said, "Follow me" in the gospel for today. The candidates would like us to follow, too. Lou Dobbs called it "pandering." That is to say some candidates are trying to appeal to the conservative vote, some to the woman's vote, some to the young emerging vote, some to unions, some to the elderly, and so on. In the meantime, there are those who claim the Clinton campaign has played the "race" card, and those who claim that Obama's minister preaches a kind of racism. And on and on it goes.
We'll be hearing about this kind of rhetoric until the whole contest is settled in November. In the meantime, I'm wondering who I'll follow. Whose view most closely matches mine? How comfortable am I with the candidates? What is interesting this year is that there is lots of "crossover" potential for the electorate.
In biblical history, we clamored for a king as the record has it. God was loath to give us a king claiming that we were to give our faith and obedience to God. We were reluctant to do that, preferring a human authority to put God's will in place for us like "other nations." God finally relented. True to form as the biblical record puts it, things went from bad to worse as each successive king was a bit worse than the one before. That sure has a ring of truth to it!
Then came the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He turned things upside down. He didn't "pander" to our political views, or our economic, or even moral worldview. Instead, he tells us in no uncertain terms to repent and return to God and to follow him. He will tell us to tend the poor, the outcast, and the prisoner. He will tell us to give everything away, to forgive and love one another and in the end to give our lives as a ransom for many. He will tell us to love our enemies.
I ask you... how would such a candidate do in today's political world? How many votes do you think he or she would get? Or if the candidate were to press his point, do you think he or she would be in any personal danger in today's world? The world Jesus came into crucified him. What do you thing our world would do to him? Really, honest to God, what do you think?
THE WORD
"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light" (Isaiah 9:2). There is no doubt that the light is great indeed but its brilliance can be blinding to many. For instance, the light challenges our partisanship and willfulness. It seems to be in the nature of human nature that we seek our own will instead of the will of God. It seems that we are born with an innate tendency toward selfishness. We are of all things a self-centered lot, and that seems more so now than ever before. Reinhold Niebuhr defined "original sin" in this manner by saying that we have that innate tendency toward self-will.
It is therefore no great surprise that baptism would be confused with party spirit by our ancestors in faith in Corinth. What should be our freedom in Christ is made to be an occasion for partisanship, party spirit, quarrels, and divisions. As parish and parochial life groans on toward its current fulfillment, every parish leader knows that without a skillful approach to conflict management, this quirk of human nature will always be the undoing of the glory of God in every congregation.
It is as though C.S. Lewis were writing about every church when he noted in The Screwtape Letters that the favorite victim of Wormwood is not the child of the devil, but the child of God. After all, the children of darkness are already decidedly within the clutches of the kingdom of evil. It is the child of light that the devil really longs for and is really eager to work on.
What better way than through the born weakness each of us has to fight each other while missing the evil that lurks all around? Paul, therefore, proposes to preach the doctrine of the cross, which many see as foolish, and yet we have discovered is the path to the power of God.
Jesus calls for repentance, and more than "sorrow for sin" or "change," but an entire change of being... a metamorphosis of sorts. The root of the Greek word for repentance is the same as metamorphosis. When John and Jesus call us to repent, they are calling for a change of the sort that will even bend our self-centeredness. In our baptism, we are called to be "other-centered," or as Bonhoeffer calls it, "a man for others" (you can make that woman, child, etc.). When Jesus calls us to follow him, he is calling us to do his will. He is certainly not pandering to what we want.
At least within the Judeo-Christian tradition (this is true of Islam as well), God does not do human bidding. We are called to be the justice, love, and mercy of God on earth. As many rightfully point out, so much of what passes for Christianity is merely a projection of human willfulness. Not so with Jesus. We are called to sacrifice. We are called to obedience. We are called to merciful love.
THE WORLD
We cannot lift a newspaper or scan the channels of our TVs without seeing political candidates currying our favor. It is interesting to note that at least in New Hampshire and Iowa more people have voted than ever before. It seems that there is a renewed interest and excitement about politics in the electorate this year.
There is a nobility of spirit out there on the one hand. The popularity of Obama derives much of its energy from a sense that the nation wants to leave behind its partisanship and become "one" nation again. The Huckabee campaign seems to focus on a refreshing likeability of the candidate. McCain presents his honesty and candor as the base upon which a candidate will ultimately win, because ultimately politics must restore honesty and candor to the body politic.
It cannot help but get nasty from time to time. If Rush Limbaugh tilts in favor of Mitt Romney, he cannot help himself, but to castigate McCain and Huckabee. The Clintons will clash with Barack Obama over race and the press will pounce wherever it can to point out an embarrassing faux pas from any candidate who manages to make a mistake.
It is all so typical. What makes this race so promising to many of us is that there is also a move afoot to bring us back together as a nation. So many of us are tired of the politics of divide and conquer. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
I confess that I love politics. I have an opinion on every issue that comes down the pike. I am a political partisan. Everybody in my family is. Holidays are a wonderful free-for-all in our family. We represent all the color and hue of political opinion that makes us part of the tapestry of this nation's political life.
Many of us are a bit like that. We are partisans. We have our preferences, in politics, in churchmanship, in theology, in philosophy, and in so many other ways. As this political race heats up, we'll find ourselves becoming enthusiastic about "our" candidate. We'll be surprised and maybe even hurt if our friends don't share our enthusiasm. In fact, we'll find that some unfortunate charges will be leveled at people we like. We'll have to "check out" what we hear. The whole process is so much a part of what makes this nation what it is in this splendid experiment called democracy. What we'll also be looking for is a way to make us one in our diversity.
The first Christians faced this problem, didn't they? They found that they were for Paul, Apollos, and Christ as if that made them different. They used their allegiances to justify their divisions and quarrels. Paul had to speak sternly to them on this point. And we, too, need to be reminded honestly and often that parochialism in congregations can easily lead to conflict rather than unity.
There were quarrels and there was division. Is there ever division in your church? Are there quarrels among your people? When that happens do your feelings get hurt? Do you feel like this of all things should not happen in Church... of all places? Does it make you want to throw in the towel on the whole thing?
Our ancestors in faith faced these same matters at the outset of this whole enterprise and Paul found a way out of it... or perhaps I should say "through" it. He preached the doctrine of the cross. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being born anew it is nothing short of the "power of God."
The doctrine of the cross must involve the notion of baptism. It must somehow involve a death to one way of life and a rebirth to another. In the matter of divisiveness for instance, baptism may mean death to our opinions, our wants and ways, and a new life subject to a creative understanding to the will of God.
When Jesus asked us to follow him, he was asking us to live our lives not for ourselves but on behalf of God's will for us. God's will puts the hopes of the poor first. Those that mourn shall find their hearts mended, the meek shall inherit the earth, the hungry will be fed, and the righteous shall be satisfied. There's so much more. The merciful, the peacemakers, and the pure in heart shall each in their own way find their way to the heart of God. In doing the will of God, we will not find an easy path. We'll find instead that people will revile us and we will often be persecuted and ridiculed. Besides all this, we are to rejoice and be glad because it has all been done before!
This is indeed the doctrine of the cross and it is clearly foolishness to those who are perishing. But to those of us who are being saved for it is the power of God.
As we live into Jesus, more and more we discover that his intent for us is to live lives so filled with joy, resolve, and creativity, that we won't have time for the silly foolishness of divisiveness and petty quarrels. We'll have more noble aspirations than that.
In our national life there is much that divides us: race, gender, sexual orientation, economic class, citizenship, and immigration -- the list is endless. How is it that God would have us break the walls that divide us? Do we use our differences to exploit political gain or do we look for the love of humanity in one another and find ways toward equitable resolution of our difficulties?
It is the cross that will guide us. The cross will guide us to follow Jesus. The cross will remind us of our baptism. We are already dead to that old way of life. We are now alive again! Repentance has given us a new life. It always will!
Thus my opinions dissolve before the glance of Jesus and the cross. My willfulness and even the politics that I love so much takes its rightful place. God is in charge of this old world. God is still our Creator, our Savior, and our Sanctifier, and the Spirit of God is alive and well in us.
"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light."
ANOTHER VIEW
Scott Suskovic
INTRODUCTION
For the Response, I wanted to look at the call of the disciples in Matthew 4. It has always fascinated me that Jesus went for the least likely, the least qualified, the least educated, and the least expected. One person put it this way: "God doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called." In the case of Andrew, Peter, James, and John, this certainly was the case.
As the primary article focused on the political machine trying to determine who belongs to whom, the call of these disciples remind us that these most unlikely disciples follow Jesus. To capture the irony of Jesus' choice, I would like to turn our attention to something that showed their lack of qualifications -- their hands. It is to be read in the first person from James' perspective.
DRAMA
(James is speaking, rubbing together his hands, looking at his palms.)
My father, Zebedee, use to always tell me, "James, you can tell a lot about a man by looking at his hands--even his ability and desire to one day save your life." I must have heard that phrase a thousand times since I was a young boy, mending nets on the seashore, listening to my father bark out orders to the men.
"Look at his hands," he would knowingly say to me. My father could read hands better than the palm reader down at the corner. He could get an idea about a man's character with a single glance -- was he honest? Trustworthy? Dependable? Most of the time, he was right.
I suppose he had to be. Old Zebedee had to hire many men to help with the boat. He had to be a quick judge of character. Because out there on the open sea with the boat rocking and the nets heavy, you needed a man next to you that you could depend on because he just might have to save your life.
A man with soft and pretty hands didn't know hard work.
A man with scarred hands was sloppy and careless.
A man with dirty hands was a bit lax with the details. You know, just do enough to get by.
Old Zebedee looked for a man with clean, callused hands; one who knew hard work and was ready to, if need be, go beyond the call of duty.
So, when this stranger came to the salty seashore and looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people," instinctively the first thing I did was to look at his hands. His hands knew manual labor. He was not a stranger to hard work, and they were clean. More than what he said, his hands spoke louder than his words. Immediately, I dropped the nets and followed Jesus.
It made perfect sense to me but you can imagine the confusion that such a dramatic turn in my life stirred in others. One minute, working on the nets, the next, following a stranger along the seashore. It does seem pretty odd when you put it that way. I remember the stunned look on my father's face as his two sons just walked away from the family business one afternoon almost mid-sentence. There was no way he could understand. He had spent his whole life on his fishing business so that he could turn it over to us one day. He had raised us for the sole purpose of following in his footsteps -- fishermen, just like himself. He was so stunned, so totally taken aback that he could not even ask the obvious question, "Why would anyone make such a drastic turn with such little thought and preparation? What power could there be that would capture the heart so intensely that it would lead them into a path so totally foreign and unfamiliar?"
I must admit that it took me a long time to fully understand those questions and provide an answer because, quite honestly, it did not make sense. Not for a long time. I only knew that those strong hands were leading me -- though I did not exactly know where.
For most of those three years after I left that boat, I simply followed. At times, I was ashamed of my weather-worn, callused hands, particularly when Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, Sadducees and learned men of the law. You see, my hands betrayed me. Thirty years of mending nets and hauling in fish had left the unmistakable leather marks of the seas on my hands. They will always be a part of me. I could never hide from who I was -- a fisherman from Galilee.
We would talk to people who met Jesus and tell them more about his teaching but many times they would grab hold of my hands and snicker, "Just look at his hands! Why, he's nothing more than a fisherman! What can he possibly know about God? How can he heal and teach? He's nothing more than a commoner, no one special. Plain James."
I grew to hate the laughter, the teasing, the doubts. So, for a long time, I tried to hide my hands in my tunic. I was ashamed of being "just a fisherman" -- the way Jesus had first met me. I wanted to be so much more. I did not leave a successful fishing business and the hopes of one day inheriting the whole thing just to drift around aimlessly with some teacher and become a nobody. I wanted more.
And I wasn't alone. Think about it. You take twelve men who were either common folk like myself or outsiders like Matthew, the tax collector, and give them the strong drink of power and authority, you give them a taste of fame beyond their imagination and suddenly we became drunk with personal glory. The possibilities that were before us intoxicated our senses and controlled our motives. The only thing we could think about was that next drink of power -- and it was never enough.
You have to remember that we saw amazing things: Jesus feeding 5,000 people with his hands, casting out demons with a touch, raising the dead with his warm embrace. We wanted that. We wanted to send the Pharisees reeling and silence the Sadducees. We wanted what he had. We wanted the power of his hands.
(Embarrassed) I even remember one day, privately, going to Jesus with my brother and demanding (DEMANDING: I guess that is the right word) that when he comes into full power and is king that we get to sit at his right hand and his left. We deserved that position. If we didn't assert ourselves at the beginning of this movement, there were ten other men hungry for that position of power.
His answer, at the time, left us scratching our heads, "Are you able to drink my cup and be baptized with my baptism?" Of course, willing to do whatever it takes and not having any understanding what Jesus meant, John and I both nodding and said confidently, "Yes, you can count on us." We were so hungry for the power, that we never noticed the tear in his eye as he said, "Indeed, you will. One day, you will."
You see, his cup was not a golden, wine filled goblet on a king's table, but rather a cup of tears. And his baptism was not one of glory and death, but of death. Unknowingly, I had just asked Jesus to let me fight for him and, if need be, die for him.
It wasn't until one dark night, huddled in an upper room with the other scared disciples that I fully understood what all this meant -- "Follow me, fish for people, cup, baptism." For there, in that darkened room three days after they put Jesus to death, he suddenly appeared. And immediately, just like on the shoreline years ago, immediately the first thing I did was to look at his hands, and saw the unmistakable scars where the nails had pierced him through. The words of my father flooded my mind and my heart, "James, you can tell a lot about a man by looking at his hands -- his commitment, his honesty, even his desire and ability to one day save your life." Staring in amazement, looking at Jesus' hands, I knew that my father was absolutely right. Jesus' hands said it all.
Fifteen years after that life-changing night in the upper room, I personally came to understand the depths of Jesus' words, "Take up your cross and follow me." For just like I foolishly demanded years ago, I was the first disciple to join Jesus at his throne of glory. I was the first disciple to drink from his cup, to be baptized into his baptism. You see, I was the first disciple to die for Jesus. The book of Acts records the incident, "(Herod) had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword." That's it. Not much. But a fitting, humble epitaph for one once drunk with personal power. For it was not MY death that changed the world. Not MY hands that bore the marks of nails. And certainly not MY hand that continues to uphold us, guide us, and comfort us.
Jesus turned my life upside down one afternoon on the seashore and since then, everything has changed. Everything, that is, except the wise counsel of my father, "James, you can tell a lot about a man by looking at his hands -- even his ability and desire to one day save your life."
ILLUSTRATIONS
To achieve the presidency, to create a profitable financial empire, or to pastor a mega-church requires an enormous focus of energy. It is often done at great sacrifice to other interests in life. Every politician, every person who works in commerce, and every preacher should be haunted by the words of Matthew 16:25-26: "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?"
* * *
Pastors are often privileged to be with people in their final hours of life. I'm not sure where I first heard it, but the following illustration has been haunting to me. A pastor reported that he had never heard a dying person say, "I wish that I had spent a little more time at the office." Part of responding to God's call is to refuse to make an idol out of some aspect of that call to the detriment of the relationships that God has given us that are also part of God's call in our lives.
* * *
In Paul Bresnahan's teaser, he makes reference to Israel's demand for a king and rightly points out that the desire for a king so that they might "be like other nations," was a challenge to the invitation to only have God as their king. (1 Kings 8:7) In November we will choose a president for our country. If it is like most of our elections, the person we don't choose will represent the choice of almost half of the country. If your candidate does not win, it is good to remember that God's response to the people's refusal to have God as their king was to work through the people's (mistaken?) choice to continue to effect God's purpose. If your candidate does not win, will you then turn and seek to discover how God is now working through the one who is chosen? That, I believe, is part of what it means to trust in the sovereignty of God.
* * *
A number of our denominations today are in the midst of heated debates over such matters as abortion and the rights of sexual minorities, and it's all too easy for us to let such differences of opinion create such sharp divisions within our group that they take up most of our energy.
In our 1 Corinthians reading, Paul urges us to not let these disagreements keep us from being united with the same mind and purpose in our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is still calling us to be God's people and do the work of the kingdom with him, and Paul reminds us that we need to be focused on the central message of the cross (vv. 17-18).
It's a temptation for us to get sidetracked. Paul insists that we need to be busy proclaiming the gospel, the good news (v. 17).
* * *
In our gospel for today, Jesus speaks about the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali, the "Rust Belt" of the Holy Land in that day. These two of the northernmost of the twelve tribes were the first to be attacked when the Assyrians "came down like a wolf on the fold" in about 722 B.C. and carried off all the able-bodied people, leaving only the children and the elderly.
The Assyrians then brought in conquered peoples from some other part of their kingdom, and a deep depression settled over the area.
It was in the little town of Nazareth, in the land of Zebulun, that the Lord God chose to have Jesus grow up as a child, and begin his ministry, among these defeated people.
Jesus knows our difficult situations. He's been there, done that.
* * *
As Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee at the beginning of his ministry, he began calling fishermen to help him on a new kind of fishing expedition. Barbara Jurgensen catches some of this in her poem, "Fishing":
Jesus went to Galilee
to begin his ministry
with a folk whose hope had fled
and faith grown dim.
And he issued there his call,
"Peter, Andrew, leave it all."
And at once they left their nets
and followed him.
Then he walked along the shore
and he stopped to gather more
fisherfolk to help him bring
the great catch in.
"James and John, come follow me
and we'll fish a different sea."
And at once they left their nets
and followed him.
Jesus walks the shore today
Calling us to walk his way.
We can hardly hear his voice
above the din.
And he calls, "Come, follow me,
and you fisherfolk will be."
And at once we leave our nets
and follow him.
Barbara Jurgensen, Following You, p. 62.
* * *
"The Corinthian congregation may have resembled the chaos of the floor of [a political] convention, where groups compete for attention. Like the state groups needed to be reminded by the individual speakers that they belonged to one party, so did the Corinthian congregation...
"Paul responds to the slogans of the various factions by these piercing, sarcastic, rhetorical questions: 'Is Christ divided into little pieces? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?' Paul's three-fold answer drips with sarcasm. You may need to read it aloud to receive the full force.
"These questions do not expect answers. They are used by Paul to communicate the absurdity of divisiveness in the church. The sarcasm of Paul's response to their slogans intends to shame the church members into improved behavior."
-- Linda McKinnish Bridges, "Lectionary Homiletics"
* * *
"That was not the last time a splinter-group rocked a congregation. It is worth asking, where do these divisions come from? Reinhold Niebuhr offers a helpful perspective. According to Niebuhr, the human person is pulled in two different directions: We are hemmed in by the necessities and limitations of natural existence, while also having a freedom of spirit which rises above these same limitations. We are caught and ruled by certain 'givens' in life, every bit as much as our animal counterparts are, except that the animal world does not have the capacity to surmount these givens. But we never surmount them as fully as we pretend. We like to assume that our group has the Final Word, or the Ultimate Vantage Point, when the truth is that no group does. But this is how factions arise: One party will start to glory in its angle on reality. A particular, partial perspective will be absolutized and treated as though it were the Ultimate. Another group will do the same with its slightly different point of view."
-- William Eisenhower, "Lectionary Liturgies"
* * *
"Throughout the years as I have been privileged to work with persons who were having a hard time establishing and maintaining meaningful relationships, I have become aware of the painful fact that some of their attitudes and behaviors were counter-productive. The sad fact is that for whatever reason no one had seemed to be successful in helping them to get a perspective on what they were doing that produced alienation from family and friends. Either they had been chastised verbally, or they had been ignored, neither of which was helpful or healing.
"What is possible in such situations is to set forth one's own reaction but in a healing rather than a destructive manner. Often I have been able in one fashion or another, speaking gently but firmly something like, 'as we talk I find myself getting irritated by you while at the same time being confident this is not what you intend to happen.' With this word spoken in a healing way rather than a destructive way there is a good possibility of strengthening the relationship. It comes down to the fact that perhaps no one had ever cared enough to tell the person the truth, but to tell the truth in a loving way so that it could lead to possible change rather than to a feeling of rejection.
"In a real sense the Isaiah passage describes the movement from 'deep darkness' to the light. This transition is essential for all of us and is made possible as we increasingly lay hold on the meaning of Epiphany, the continued awareness of the essential relationship between grace and truth as the prologue of the Gospel of John puts it so clearly. Both are necessary; the 'there you are' ('as we talk I find myself getting irritated by you') and 'I love you' ('while at the same time being confident this is not what you intend to happen') make for growth. Without the 'there you are,' the 'I love you' is useless. Within, the person will surely be feeling, 'If you really know who I am you wouldn't love me'; and without the 'I love you' the 'there you are' is destructive. But when these two are spoken together they make for life abundant."
-- William B. Oglesby, Jr., "Lectionary Homiletics"
WORSHIP RESOURCE
Call to Worship
Leader: You call us, O God, to have the same mind,
People: so we can know each other's joys and sorrows.
Leader: You call us, O God, to have the same purpose,
People: so we can be one people who are not afraid to follow Jesus.
Leader: You call us, O God, to have the same mission,
People: so we can serve together in your kingdom.
Prayer of the Day
You will not play
hide-and-seek with us,
Revealing God,
but you invite us to watch
with wide-open eyes
as you break our burdens
into manageable pieces;
as you take our tentative hope
and multiply it with abounding joy;
as you shelter us
in the storms of life.
You call us,
Teacher of Tenderness,
to make us gatherers
of all who are lost;
bearers of light
to those in despair's gloom;
storytellers of hope and grace
to the world's straining ears.
Speak to us,
Spirit of Foolish Grace,
so that we may know
that we are all one,
always and in every moment,
eager to follow you
into the wonder of your kingdom.
We lift our voices to sing
our praise to you,
God in Community, Holy in One,
even as we pray, saying,
Our Father...
Call to Reconciliation
However we have hurt others, whatever wrong
we have done, our hearts whisper to us to see
God's face, to walk into the light of salvation,
and to embrace the healing grace of God's heart.
Unison Prayer of Confession
We go through our lives, O God, arguing
with our families and friends over such foolish
issues. You call us to follow you, and we
dawdle in making up our minds whether or
not to respond. You would shelter us in the
comfort of your grace, but we take solace
in the gloom of the world.
Forgive us, Light of our lives. Continue to
proclaim the good news of the life that has
come to us in the gentle grace and healing
hope of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
(silence is kept)
Assurance of Pardon
Leader: The good news of salvation is this: Christ
came proclaiming the good news of God's
kingdom, teaching us to live with one another,
healing our every brokenness.
People: God has multiplied our joy, so that it overflows
our hearts, to be a blessing and comfort to
everyone we meet. Thanks be to God. Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
You are a Christian
Object: signs for children to hold with the names of different denominations written on them -- Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Church of God, Roman Catholic, and so on
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
What I mean is that each of you says, "I belong to Paul," or "I belong to Apollos," or "I belong to Cephas," or "I belong to Christ." (v. 12)
Good morning, boys and girls. The other day someone told me that she was a Methodist. I told her that I was a Lutheran. She told me that her sister used to be a Lutheran, but now she was a Baptist. The person who was listening to our conversation said he was a Presbyterian, but after he got married he became a Roman Catholic. Of course, someone wanted to know if I was a Wisconsin Lutheran, a Missouri Synod Lutheran, or if I belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Church In America.
How do we figure this out? (hand out the signs to the children) Let's all stand in a line so that people can read our signs. Let's say them out loud again. Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Church of God, Roman Catholic, and lots more. There are Moravians, German Baptist, Friends, Pentecostals, and hundreds of more names of churches. Why isn't there just one church? A long time ago, way back to the time that Saint Paul lived, there were people with the same problem. Paul wrote to the people who lived in one town and asked them, "What is going on?" He heard that the people that learned about Jesus from him were calling themselves followers of Apollos, followers of Paul, or followers of Cephas. A few said they were followers of Christ. Paul told them not to use his name but the name of Jesus Christ. None of these people that the Corinthians were following had died for their sins. None of them had been resurrected from the dead or had ascended into heaven. "Stop it!" This was Paul's advice and he meant it. Paul told them that we are all followers of Jesus Christ and we should not follow anyone else. I thought I should come this morning and tell you the same thing. You are not a Lutheran, you are not a Presbyterian, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, United Church of Christ, Disciple of Christ, Church of God, or any other name. You are a real live Christian. We may attend any of these churches because we have chosen to do so, but we are Christians first and everything else is second. The next time you hear someone tell you that they are one of these names, tell them that they are Christians who have chosen to attend that church. Jesus Christ is our God and we will never forget it. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, January 27, 2008, issue.
Copyright 2008 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
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Who Will You Follow?
Paul Bresnahan
Matthew 4:12-23
Jesus said, "Follow me" in the gospel for today. The candidates would like us to follow, too. Lou Dobbs called it "pandering." That is to say some candidates are trying to appeal to the conservative vote, some to the woman's vote, some to the young emerging vote, some to unions, some to the elderly, and so on. In the meantime, there are those who claim the Clinton campaign has played the "race" card, and those who claim that Obama's minister preaches a kind of racism. And on and on it goes.
We'll be hearing about this kind of rhetoric until the whole contest is settled in November. In the meantime, I'm wondering who I'll follow. Whose view most closely matches mine? How comfortable am I with the candidates? What is interesting this year is that there is lots of "crossover" potential for the electorate.
In biblical history, we clamored for a king as the record has it. God was loath to give us a king claiming that we were to give our faith and obedience to God. We were reluctant to do that, preferring a human authority to put God's will in place for us like "other nations." God finally relented. True to form as the biblical record puts it, things went from bad to worse as each successive king was a bit worse than the one before. That sure has a ring of truth to it!
Then came the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He turned things upside down. He didn't "pander" to our political views, or our economic, or even moral worldview. Instead, he tells us in no uncertain terms to repent and return to God and to follow him. He will tell us to tend the poor, the outcast, and the prisoner. He will tell us to give everything away, to forgive and love one another and in the end to give our lives as a ransom for many. He will tell us to love our enemies.
I ask you... how would such a candidate do in today's political world? How many votes do you think he or she would get? Or if the candidate were to press his point, do you think he or she would be in any personal danger in today's world? The world Jesus came into crucified him. What do you thing our world would do to him? Really, honest to God, what do you think?
THE WORD
"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light" (Isaiah 9:2). There is no doubt that the light is great indeed but its brilliance can be blinding to many. For instance, the light challenges our partisanship and willfulness. It seems to be in the nature of human nature that we seek our own will instead of the will of God. It seems that we are born with an innate tendency toward selfishness. We are of all things a self-centered lot, and that seems more so now than ever before. Reinhold Niebuhr defined "original sin" in this manner by saying that we have that innate tendency toward self-will.
It is therefore no great surprise that baptism would be confused with party spirit by our ancestors in faith in Corinth. What should be our freedom in Christ is made to be an occasion for partisanship, party spirit, quarrels, and divisions. As parish and parochial life groans on toward its current fulfillment, every parish leader knows that without a skillful approach to conflict management, this quirk of human nature will always be the undoing of the glory of God in every congregation.
It is as though C.S. Lewis were writing about every church when he noted in The Screwtape Letters that the favorite victim of Wormwood is not the child of the devil, but the child of God. After all, the children of darkness are already decidedly within the clutches of the kingdom of evil. It is the child of light that the devil really longs for and is really eager to work on.
What better way than through the born weakness each of us has to fight each other while missing the evil that lurks all around? Paul, therefore, proposes to preach the doctrine of the cross, which many see as foolish, and yet we have discovered is the path to the power of God.
Jesus calls for repentance, and more than "sorrow for sin" or "change," but an entire change of being... a metamorphosis of sorts. The root of the Greek word for repentance is the same as metamorphosis. When John and Jesus call us to repent, they are calling for a change of the sort that will even bend our self-centeredness. In our baptism, we are called to be "other-centered," or as Bonhoeffer calls it, "a man for others" (you can make that woman, child, etc.). When Jesus calls us to follow him, he is calling us to do his will. He is certainly not pandering to what we want.
At least within the Judeo-Christian tradition (this is true of Islam as well), God does not do human bidding. We are called to be the justice, love, and mercy of God on earth. As many rightfully point out, so much of what passes for Christianity is merely a projection of human willfulness. Not so with Jesus. We are called to sacrifice. We are called to obedience. We are called to merciful love.
THE WORLD
We cannot lift a newspaper or scan the channels of our TVs without seeing political candidates currying our favor. It is interesting to note that at least in New Hampshire and Iowa more people have voted than ever before. It seems that there is a renewed interest and excitement about politics in the electorate this year.
There is a nobility of spirit out there on the one hand. The popularity of Obama derives much of its energy from a sense that the nation wants to leave behind its partisanship and become "one" nation again. The Huckabee campaign seems to focus on a refreshing likeability of the candidate. McCain presents his honesty and candor as the base upon which a candidate will ultimately win, because ultimately politics must restore honesty and candor to the body politic.
It cannot help but get nasty from time to time. If Rush Limbaugh tilts in favor of Mitt Romney, he cannot help himself, but to castigate McCain and Huckabee. The Clintons will clash with Barack Obama over race and the press will pounce wherever it can to point out an embarrassing faux pas from any candidate who manages to make a mistake.
It is all so typical. What makes this race so promising to many of us is that there is also a move afoot to bring us back together as a nation. So many of us are tired of the politics of divide and conquer. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
I confess that I love politics. I have an opinion on every issue that comes down the pike. I am a political partisan. Everybody in my family is. Holidays are a wonderful free-for-all in our family. We represent all the color and hue of political opinion that makes us part of the tapestry of this nation's political life.
Many of us are a bit like that. We are partisans. We have our preferences, in politics, in churchmanship, in theology, in philosophy, and in so many other ways. As this political race heats up, we'll find ourselves becoming enthusiastic about "our" candidate. We'll be surprised and maybe even hurt if our friends don't share our enthusiasm. In fact, we'll find that some unfortunate charges will be leveled at people we like. We'll have to "check out" what we hear. The whole process is so much a part of what makes this nation what it is in this splendid experiment called democracy. What we'll also be looking for is a way to make us one in our diversity.
The first Christians faced this problem, didn't they? They found that they were for Paul, Apollos, and Christ as if that made them different. They used their allegiances to justify their divisions and quarrels. Paul had to speak sternly to them on this point. And we, too, need to be reminded honestly and often that parochialism in congregations can easily lead to conflict rather than unity.
There were quarrels and there was division. Is there ever division in your church? Are there quarrels among your people? When that happens do your feelings get hurt? Do you feel like this of all things should not happen in Church... of all places? Does it make you want to throw in the towel on the whole thing?
Our ancestors in faith faced these same matters at the outset of this whole enterprise and Paul found a way out of it... or perhaps I should say "through" it. He preached the doctrine of the cross. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being born anew it is nothing short of the "power of God."
The doctrine of the cross must involve the notion of baptism. It must somehow involve a death to one way of life and a rebirth to another. In the matter of divisiveness for instance, baptism may mean death to our opinions, our wants and ways, and a new life subject to a creative understanding to the will of God.
When Jesus asked us to follow him, he was asking us to live our lives not for ourselves but on behalf of God's will for us. God's will puts the hopes of the poor first. Those that mourn shall find their hearts mended, the meek shall inherit the earth, the hungry will be fed, and the righteous shall be satisfied. There's so much more. The merciful, the peacemakers, and the pure in heart shall each in their own way find their way to the heart of God. In doing the will of God, we will not find an easy path. We'll find instead that people will revile us and we will often be persecuted and ridiculed. Besides all this, we are to rejoice and be glad because it has all been done before!
This is indeed the doctrine of the cross and it is clearly foolishness to those who are perishing. But to those of us who are being saved for it is the power of God.
As we live into Jesus, more and more we discover that his intent for us is to live lives so filled with joy, resolve, and creativity, that we won't have time for the silly foolishness of divisiveness and petty quarrels. We'll have more noble aspirations than that.
In our national life there is much that divides us: race, gender, sexual orientation, economic class, citizenship, and immigration -- the list is endless. How is it that God would have us break the walls that divide us? Do we use our differences to exploit political gain or do we look for the love of humanity in one another and find ways toward equitable resolution of our difficulties?
It is the cross that will guide us. The cross will guide us to follow Jesus. The cross will remind us of our baptism. We are already dead to that old way of life. We are now alive again! Repentance has given us a new life. It always will!
Thus my opinions dissolve before the glance of Jesus and the cross. My willfulness and even the politics that I love so much takes its rightful place. God is in charge of this old world. God is still our Creator, our Savior, and our Sanctifier, and the Spirit of God is alive and well in us.
"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light."
ANOTHER VIEW
Scott Suskovic
INTRODUCTION
For the Response, I wanted to look at the call of the disciples in Matthew 4. It has always fascinated me that Jesus went for the least likely, the least qualified, the least educated, and the least expected. One person put it this way: "God doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called." In the case of Andrew, Peter, James, and John, this certainly was the case.
As the primary article focused on the political machine trying to determine who belongs to whom, the call of these disciples remind us that these most unlikely disciples follow Jesus. To capture the irony of Jesus' choice, I would like to turn our attention to something that showed their lack of qualifications -- their hands. It is to be read in the first person from James' perspective.
DRAMA
(James is speaking, rubbing together his hands, looking at his palms.)
My father, Zebedee, use to always tell me, "James, you can tell a lot about a man by looking at his hands--even his ability and desire to one day save your life." I must have heard that phrase a thousand times since I was a young boy, mending nets on the seashore, listening to my father bark out orders to the men.
"Look at his hands," he would knowingly say to me. My father could read hands better than the palm reader down at the corner. He could get an idea about a man's character with a single glance -- was he honest? Trustworthy? Dependable? Most of the time, he was right.
I suppose he had to be. Old Zebedee had to hire many men to help with the boat. He had to be a quick judge of character. Because out there on the open sea with the boat rocking and the nets heavy, you needed a man next to you that you could depend on because he just might have to save your life.
A man with soft and pretty hands didn't know hard work.
A man with scarred hands was sloppy and careless.
A man with dirty hands was a bit lax with the details. You know, just do enough to get by.
Old Zebedee looked for a man with clean, callused hands; one who knew hard work and was ready to, if need be, go beyond the call of duty.
So, when this stranger came to the salty seashore and looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people," instinctively the first thing I did was to look at his hands. His hands knew manual labor. He was not a stranger to hard work, and they were clean. More than what he said, his hands spoke louder than his words. Immediately, I dropped the nets and followed Jesus.
It made perfect sense to me but you can imagine the confusion that such a dramatic turn in my life stirred in others. One minute, working on the nets, the next, following a stranger along the seashore. It does seem pretty odd when you put it that way. I remember the stunned look on my father's face as his two sons just walked away from the family business one afternoon almost mid-sentence. There was no way he could understand. He had spent his whole life on his fishing business so that he could turn it over to us one day. He had raised us for the sole purpose of following in his footsteps -- fishermen, just like himself. He was so stunned, so totally taken aback that he could not even ask the obvious question, "Why would anyone make such a drastic turn with such little thought and preparation? What power could there be that would capture the heart so intensely that it would lead them into a path so totally foreign and unfamiliar?"
I must admit that it took me a long time to fully understand those questions and provide an answer because, quite honestly, it did not make sense. Not for a long time. I only knew that those strong hands were leading me -- though I did not exactly know where.
For most of those three years after I left that boat, I simply followed. At times, I was ashamed of my weather-worn, callused hands, particularly when Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, Sadducees and learned men of the law. You see, my hands betrayed me. Thirty years of mending nets and hauling in fish had left the unmistakable leather marks of the seas on my hands. They will always be a part of me. I could never hide from who I was -- a fisherman from Galilee.
We would talk to people who met Jesus and tell them more about his teaching but many times they would grab hold of my hands and snicker, "Just look at his hands! Why, he's nothing more than a fisherman! What can he possibly know about God? How can he heal and teach? He's nothing more than a commoner, no one special. Plain James."
I grew to hate the laughter, the teasing, the doubts. So, for a long time, I tried to hide my hands in my tunic. I was ashamed of being "just a fisherman" -- the way Jesus had first met me. I wanted to be so much more. I did not leave a successful fishing business and the hopes of one day inheriting the whole thing just to drift around aimlessly with some teacher and become a nobody. I wanted more.
And I wasn't alone. Think about it. You take twelve men who were either common folk like myself or outsiders like Matthew, the tax collector, and give them the strong drink of power and authority, you give them a taste of fame beyond their imagination and suddenly we became drunk with personal glory. The possibilities that were before us intoxicated our senses and controlled our motives. The only thing we could think about was that next drink of power -- and it was never enough.
You have to remember that we saw amazing things: Jesus feeding 5,000 people with his hands, casting out demons with a touch, raising the dead with his warm embrace. We wanted that. We wanted to send the Pharisees reeling and silence the Sadducees. We wanted what he had. We wanted the power of his hands.
(Embarrassed) I even remember one day, privately, going to Jesus with my brother and demanding (DEMANDING: I guess that is the right word) that when he comes into full power and is king that we get to sit at his right hand and his left. We deserved that position. If we didn't assert ourselves at the beginning of this movement, there were ten other men hungry for that position of power.
His answer, at the time, left us scratching our heads, "Are you able to drink my cup and be baptized with my baptism?" Of course, willing to do whatever it takes and not having any understanding what Jesus meant, John and I both nodding and said confidently, "Yes, you can count on us." We were so hungry for the power, that we never noticed the tear in his eye as he said, "Indeed, you will. One day, you will."
You see, his cup was not a golden, wine filled goblet on a king's table, but rather a cup of tears. And his baptism was not one of glory and death, but of death. Unknowingly, I had just asked Jesus to let me fight for him and, if need be, die for him.
It wasn't until one dark night, huddled in an upper room with the other scared disciples that I fully understood what all this meant -- "Follow me, fish for people, cup, baptism." For there, in that darkened room three days after they put Jesus to death, he suddenly appeared. And immediately, just like on the shoreline years ago, immediately the first thing I did was to look at his hands, and saw the unmistakable scars where the nails had pierced him through. The words of my father flooded my mind and my heart, "James, you can tell a lot about a man by looking at his hands -- his commitment, his honesty, even his desire and ability to one day save your life." Staring in amazement, looking at Jesus' hands, I knew that my father was absolutely right. Jesus' hands said it all.
Fifteen years after that life-changing night in the upper room, I personally came to understand the depths of Jesus' words, "Take up your cross and follow me." For just like I foolishly demanded years ago, I was the first disciple to join Jesus at his throne of glory. I was the first disciple to drink from his cup, to be baptized into his baptism. You see, I was the first disciple to die for Jesus. The book of Acts records the incident, "(Herod) had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword." That's it. Not much. But a fitting, humble epitaph for one once drunk with personal power. For it was not MY death that changed the world. Not MY hands that bore the marks of nails. And certainly not MY hand that continues to uphold us, guide us, and comfort us.
Jesus turned my life upside down one afternoon on the seashore and since then, everything has changed. Everything, that is, except the wise counsel of my father, "James, you can tell a lot about a man by looking at his hands -- even his ability and desire to one day save your life."
ILLUSTRATIONS
To achieve the presidency, to create a profitable financial empire, or to pastor a mega-church requires an enormous focus of energy. It is often done at great sacrifice to other interests in life. Every politician, every person who works in commerce, and every preacher should be haunted by the words of Matthew 16:25-26: "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?"
* * *
Pastors are often privileged to be with people in their final hours of life. I'm not sure where I first heard it, but the following illustration has been haunting to me. A pastor reported that he had never heard a dying person say, "I wish that I had spent a little more time at the office." Part of responding to God's call is to refuse to make an idol out of some aspect of that call to the detriment of the relationships that God has given us that are also part of God's call in our lives.
* * *
In Paul Bresnahan's teaser, he makes reference to Israel's demand for a king and rightly points out that the desire for a king so that they might "be like other nations," was a challenge to the invitation to only have God as their king. (1 Kings 8:7) In November we will choose a president for our country. If it is like most of our elections, the person we don't choose will represent the choice of almost half of the country. If your candidate does not win, it is good to remember that God's response to the people's refusal to have God as their king was to work through the people's (mistaken?) choice to continue to effect God's purpose. If your candidate does not win, will you then turn and seek to discover how God is now working through the one who is chosen? That, I believe, is part of what it means to trust in the sovereignty of God.
* * *
A number of our denominations today are in the midst of heated debates over such matters as abortion and the rights of sexual minorities, and it's all too easy for us to let such differences of opinion create such sharp divisions within our group that they take up most of our energy.
In our 1 Corinthians reading, Paul urges us to not let these disagreements keep us from being united with the same mind and purpose in our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is still calling us to be God's people and do the work of the kingdom with him, and Paul reminds us that we need to be focused on the central message of the cross (vv. 17-18).
It's a temptation for us to get sidetracked. Paul insists that we need to be busy proclaiming the gospel, the good news (v. 17).
* * *
In our gospel for today, Jesus speaks about the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali, the "Rust Belt" of the Holy Land in that day. These two of the northernmost of the twelve tribes were the first to be attacked when the Assyrians "came down like a wolf on the fold" in about 722 B.C. and carried off all the able-bodied people, leaving only the children and the elderly.
The Assyrians then brought in conquered peoples from some other part of their kingdom, and a deep depression settled over the area.
It was in the little town of Nazareth, in the land of Zebulun, that the Lord God chose to have Jesus grow up as a child, and begin his ministry, among these defeated people.
Jesus knows our difficult situations. He's been there, done that.
* * *
As Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee at the beginning of his ministry, he began calling fishermen to help him on a new kind of fishing expedition. Barbara Jurgensen catches some of this in her poem, "Fishing":
Jesus went to Galilee
to begin his ministry
with a folk whose hope had fled
and faith grown dim.
And he issued there his call,
"Peter, Andrew, leave it all."
And at once they left their nets
and followed him.
Then he walked along the shore
and he stopped to gather more
fisherfolk to help him bring
the great catch in.
"James and John, come follow me
and we'll fish a different sea."
And at once they left their nets
and followed him.
Jesus walks the shore today
Calling us to walk his way.
We can hardly hear his voice
above the din.
And he calls, "Come, follow me,
and you fisherfolk will be."
And at once we leave our nets
and follow him.
Barbara Jurgensen, Following You, p. 62.
* * *
"The Corinthian congregation may have resembled the chaos of the floor of [a political] convention, where groups compete for attention. Like the state groups needed to be reminded by the individual speakers that they belonged to one party, so did the Corinthian congregation...
"Paul responds to the slogans of the various factions by these piercing, sarcastic, rhetorical questions: 'Is Christ divided into little pieces? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?' Paul's three-fold answer drips with sarcasm. You may need to read it aloud to receive the full force.
"These questions do not expect answers. They are used by Paul to communicate the absurdity of divisiveness in the church. The sarcasm of Paul's response to their slogans intends to shame the church members into improved behavior."
-- Linda McKinnish Bridges, "Lectionary Homiletics"
* * *
"That was not the last time a splinter-group rocked a congregation. It is worth asking, where do these divisions come from? Reinhold Niebuhr offers a helpful perspective. According to Niebuhr, the human person is pulled in two different directions: We are hemmed in by the necessities and limitations of natural existence, while also having a freedom of spirit which rises above these same limitations. We are caught and ruled by certain 'givens' in life, every bit as much as our animal counterparts are, except that the animal world does not have the capacity to surmount these givens. But we never surmount them as fully as we pretend. We like to assume that our group has the Final Word, or the Ultimate Vantage Point, when the truth is that no group does. But this is how factions arise: One party will start to glory in its angle on reality. A particular, partial perspective will be absolutized and treated as though it were the Ultimate. Another group will do the same with its slightly different point of view."
-- William Eisenhower, "Lectionary Liturgies"
* * *
"Throughout the years as I have been privileged to work with persons who were having a hard time establishing and maintaining meaningful relationships, I have become aware of the painful fact that some of their attitudes and behaviors were counter-productive. The sad fact is that for whatever reason no one had seemed to be successful in helping them to get a perspective on what they were doing that produced alienation from family and friends. Either they had been chastised verbally, or they had been ignored, neither of which was helpful or healing.
"What is possible in such situations is to set forth one's own reaction but in a healing rather than a destructive manner. Often I have been able in one fashion or another, speaking gently but firmly something like, 'as we talk I find myself getting irritated by you while at the same time being confident this is not what you intend to happen.' With this word spoken in a healing way rather than a destructive way there is a good possibility of strengthening the relationship. It comes down to the fact that perhaps no one had ever cared enough to tell the person the truth, but to tell the truth in a loving way so that it could lead to possible change rather than to a feeling of rejection.
"In a real sense the Isaiah passage describes the movement from 'deep darkness' to the light. This transition is essential for all of us and is made possible as we increasingly lay hold on the meaning of Epiphany, the continued awareness of the essential relationship between grace and truth as the prologue of the Gospel of John puts it so clearly. Both are necessary; the 'there you are' ('as we talk I find myself getting irritated by you') and 'I love you' ('while at the same time being confident this is not what you intend to happen') make for growth. Without the 'there you are,' the 'I love you' is useless. Within, the person will surely be feeling, 'If you really know who I am you wouldn't love me'; and without the 'I love you' the 'there you are' is destructive. But when these two are spoken together they make for life abundant."
-- William B. Oglesby, Jr., "Lectionary Homiletics"
WORSHIP RESOURCE
Call to Worship
Leader: You call us, O God, to have the same mind,
People: so we can know each other's joys and sorrows.
Leader: You call us, O God, to have the same purpose,
People: so we can be one people who are not afraid to follow Jesus.
Leader: You call us, O God, to have the same mission,
People: so we can serve together in your kingdom.
Prayer of the Day
You will not play
hide-and-seek with us,
Revealing God,
but you invite us to watch
with wide-open eyes
as you break our burdens
into manageable pieces;
as you take our tentative hope
and multiply it with abounding joy;
as you shelter us
in the storms of life.
You call us,
Teacher of Tenderness,
to make us gatherers
of all who are lost;
bearers of light
to those in despair's gloom;
storytellers of hope and grace
to the world's straining ears.
Speak to us,
Spirit of Foolish Grace,
so that we may know
that we are all one,
always and in every moment,
eager to follow you
into the wonder of your kingdom.
We lift our voices to sing
our praise to you,
God in Community, Holy in One,
even as we pray, saying,
Our Father...
Call to Reconciliation
However we have hurt others, whatever wrong
we have done, our hearts whisper to us to see
God's face, to walk into the light of salvation,
and to embrace the healing grace of God's heart.
Unison Prayer of Confession
We go through our lives, O God, arguing
with our families and friends over such foolish
issues. You call us to follow you, and we
dawdle in making up our minds whether or
not to respond. You would shelter us in the
comfort of your grace, but we take solace
in the gloom of the world.
Forgive us, Light of our lives. Continue to
proclaim the good news of the life that has
come to us in the gentle grace and healing
hope of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
(silence is kept)
Assurance of Pardon
Leader: The good news of salvation is this: Christ
came proclaiming the good news of God's
kingdom, teaching us to live with one another,
healing our every brokenness.
People: God has multiplied our joy, so that it overflows
our hearts, to be a blessing and comfort to
everyone we meet. Thanks be to God. Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
You are a Christian
Object: signs for children to hold with the names of different denominations written on them -- Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Church of God, Roman Catholic, and so on
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
What I mean is that each of you says, "I belong to Paul," or "I belong to Apollos," or "I belong to Cephas," or "I belong to Christ." (v. 12)
Good morning, boys and girls. The other day someone told me that she was a Methodist. I told her that I was a Lutheran. She told me that her sister used to be a Lutheran, but now she was a Baptist. The person who was listening to our conversation said he was a Presbyterian, but after he got married he became a Roman Catholic. Of course, someone wanted to know if I was a Wisconsin Lutheran, a Missouri Synod Lutheran, or if I belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Church In America.
How do we figure this out? (hand out the signs to the children) Let's all stand in a line so that people can read our signs. Let's say them out loud again. Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Church of God, Roman Catholic, and lots more. There are Moravians, German Baptist, Friends, Pentecostals, and hundreds of more names of churches. Why isn't there just one church? A long time ago, way back to the time that Saint Paul lived, there were people with the same problem. Paul wrote to the people who lived in one town and asked them, "What is going on?" He heard that the people that learned about Jesus from him were calling themselves followers of Apollos, followers of Paul, or followers of Cephas. A few said they were followers of Christ. Paul told them not to use his name but the name of Jesus Christ. None of these people that the Corinthians were following had died for their sins. None of them had been resurrected from the dead or had ascended into heaven. "Stop it!" This was Paul's advice and he meant it. Paul told them that we are all followers of Jesus Christ and we should not follow anyone else. I thought I should come this morning and tell you the same thing. You are not a Lutheran, you are not a Presbyterian, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, United Church of Christ, Disciple of Christ, Church of God, or any other name. You are a real live Christian. We may attend any of these churches because we have chosen to do so, but we are Christians first and everything else is second. The next time you hear someone tell you that they are one of these names, tell them that they are Christians who have chosen to attend that church. Jesus Christ is our God and we will never forget it. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, January 27, 2008, issue.
Copyright 2008 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
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