How Can They Do That?
Sermon
Living Vertically
Gospel Sermons For Lent/Easter Cycle C
On February 5, 1597, a group of Christian missionaries became the first martyrs in Japan. One contemporaneous account gives these last words from Paul Miki, one of them:
As I come to this supreme moment of my life,
I am sure none of you would suppose I want to deceive you.
And so I tell you plainly:
there is no route to salvation
except the one that Christians follow.
My religion teaches me to pardon my enemies
and all who have offended me.
I do gladly pardon the emperor
and all who have brought about my death,
and I beg them to seek Christian baptism.
In my ministry I have had two experiences over and over again. By way of explaining their difficulty with living a Christian life -- or perhaps as a way to excuse their lack of effort -- people have said something like, "Oh, if I had lived in Bible times, when Jesus was performing miracles and walking on the water, then I could have believed; but things are so different now." Most of us nod knowingly when we hear this because we can empathize with this feeling; maybe we have thought it or said it ourselves.
And I have had the privilege of working side by side with Christians in the third world -- Africa, Mexico, Central and South America -- who were caught in the grips of absolute poverty and awful disease, who lived in huts made of sticks and mud, and yet who possessed a profound sense of the presence of Christ, and a deep and transforming Christian joy. What is our reaction to that? Very often persons who have shared in these short-term missions will describe it as being one of the most profound experiences of their lives; and for many it has been a formative moment that has led to a life of service. Just as we knowingly nod our heads in the former case, here we sometimes shake our heads and mutter, "How can they do that?"
We dare not romanticize the poverty and suffering out of which these inspirational examples emerge, as if there is something magical about living in desperation; nor do we dare trivialize their plight (as is so easy to do) as if the main reason for the existence of these individuals is to provide inspirational footage for our mission video. And we know that this suffering does not automatically produce sainthood; for every person in these circumstances who is led to a life of servanthood, giving all they have to others, there is one who becomes self-obsessed, taking anything that is not nailed down.
This difference was made clear in one sprawling slum on the edge of a large Brazilian city. Before there was any kind of sanitary sewage system or source of safe drinking water, there were makeshift huts selling the local version of moonshine. "The quickest ticket out of the slums," as one missionary put it. In that same slum was the tiny church in which we were working; in the congregation was an elderly, blind guitar player who accompanied the singing. Well, he actually didn't accompany the singing because he was a terrible instrumentalist; indeed the singing proceeded more or less in spite of him. It certainly shattered any stereotypes of all Latinos being talented at this sort of thing, and I will confess that I wondered why the congregation put up with him. One night I found out. We were sharing testimonials, and here was his.
"As you all know, when my wife died I felt absolutely lost; it seemed that I had no reason to live. And then when I lost my eyesight, I was utterly overcome. But then Brother ________ gave me his guitar, and I discovered that I could play and help with the singing and praise God in this way; suddenly, I had a reason to live! And now I can glorify God in my music."
How could he do this? How could he get on with a seemingly empty and pointless life? In his own words, because he discovered God in the midst of his suffering and he found a way to share the presence of God in his life with others. In John 14 Jesus promises the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate who will teach us all things. How does that teaching relate to all this? Maybe in a way it doesn't, although clearly the presence of the Holy Spirit does.
A few years ago, when my daughter was a student at American University in Washington, D.C., she told me about a conversation she had with a friend's aunt, a very devout Christian. This aunt's faith very much revolved around two doctrines: the Virgin Birth and the verbal inerrancy of Scripture in the original manuscripts. Upon learning that Genevieve's father was a United Methodist preacher-type, she wanted to know how many times Genevieve could recall her father preaching on either of these key doctrines. The horrifying answer was "none." The aunt suggested that perhaps her father's faith was suspect, and Genevieve's dad was one big hypocrite. In her version of things, my daughter came to my defense (although parents always do wonder what children say behind their backs!).
There is, as it happens, a good reason why I have never preached a whole sermon on either of these topics, and maybe not as many as I could have about the doctrine of the Advocate, and it is neither ignorance nor disregard. It is, rather, that in Scripture while the miraculous nature of Jesus' birth is mentioned several times, and while the trustworthiness of the witness of Scripture is assumed, neither of these doctrines is the focal point in the Bible that it is in many person's thinking. The focal point is much more experiential.
Indeed, when these teachings come up, it is always in the broad sweep of the "big picture" of salvation history and inevitably aimed at encouraging persons to make or strengthen their commitment to God, through Jesus Christ. This is true in the Gospel of John, in New Testament preaching, and in the theologizing of Paul.
The book of Acts contains accounts of the very earliest Christian preaching, beginning with Peter's sermon immediately following the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. I have always understood the account of that sermon in Acts, like all the sermons, to be a kind of outline or "executive summary," maybe because I can't imagine Peter and Paul speaking for only a few minutes. But in the sermon, we find certain key ideas that come up again and again:
a) Jesus was recognizable as a servant of God by his remarkable life of deeds of power, signs, and wonders.
b) It was God's will that Jesus be given over to the powers of evil and destruction; his death represented God's self-giving love and Jesus' absolute obedience, not a triumph of good over evil.
c) God vindicated Jesus by raising him from the dead, a fact attested to by firsthand witnesses.
d) The witness and ministry of Jesus is now continued by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit; and
e) God has, through the act of vindication, made Jesus both ruler and Messiah; in other words, the one through whom God's desire for a parent/child relationship with humankind is made available for all people everywhere.
We find all these basic points in Peter's speech at the house of Cornelius in Acts 10, with more emphasis on Jesus' post-resurrection appearances; we even find most of them in the very brief summary of the remarks Peter made in Acts 4 when he and John were first arrested and brought before the council of rulers in Jerusalem.
The longest -- and first fatal -- sermon in the New Testament is that delivered by the deacon and first martyr Stephen in Acts 7 where he begins at the beginning, giving a detailed recollection of the various ways in which God had reached out to humankind through a variety of servants beginning with Abraham and Moses, continuing through David and Solomon, the various prophets and finally Jesus of Nazareth. Just as they had rejected the message of all these spokespersons, and they had rejected that of Jesus when he was in the flesh, they had now stopped their ears to the witness of the Holy Spirit in their time, he argued.
What is immediately obvious about all these sermons is that none of them was given to argue the fine points -- or for that matter even the gross points -- of doctrine. Each was geared toward grabbing the listeners and confronting them with the choice of whether or not to accept the fact that Jesus of Nazareth was Savior and Lord and to make the appropriate life changes. It is preaching for decision. When the crowds heard Peter on Pentecost they were "cut to the heart" the text says and asked what they should do; as a result 3,000 were baptized. The council of elders were not convinced by Peter's defense, but were sufficiently impressed by its power that they feared doing him harm. Stephen, of course, did not fare so well, and was stoned to death for delivering his scathing indictment of the religious establishment. In each case, the hearers realized that they were being put on the spot.
The beautiful Christ-hymn of Philippians 2 is generally regarded as one of the most magnificent and profound statements of Christian theology, speaking of the pre-existent Christ emptying himself to become a human being and willingly dying on the cross; the hymn's content is strikingly similar to the sermons in Acts. And so is its purpose: to open believers up to the power of God at work in their lives, so that they might become vehicles of God's will in this world by "let(ting) the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus...."
When one has recognized Jesus as Lord and Messiah, I would assert, when one has the mind of childship, humility, obedience, and self-giving is present in a person, when one understands the welfare of others to be more important than the welfare of oneself, the fine points of doctrine will take care of themselves. But, the history of Christianity is riddled with disasters that have resulted when debates about doctrine -- even crucial valid doctrines -- have taken center stage resulting in divisions and excommunications and anything else but "in humility regarding others as better than yourselves."
At the University of Evansville we have a SEARCH Retreat program. SEARCH is the college level retreat with roots in the Cursillo Movement. For 48 hours, students leave campus and through a series of talks, reflections, sharing and receiving Holy Communion, experience a sense of Christian community, some for the very first time. They experience what it means to be accepted by God and others as a worthwhile individual, with gifts to share. One student, who had been active in church and church camping all the while he grew up, sent me a note after his SEARCH experience: "In case you didn't know the SEARCH retreat was the most important thing that has happened in my life. You see the retreat opened me up to the Lord really for the first time in my life. I had such a wonderful experience that I want everyone to go."
Over the years we have received many similar testimonials. SEARCH is not magic, we hear the same thing from persons who have attended Marriage Encounter, Cursillo, Walk to Emmaus and a score of similar opportunities to open oneself to the power and presence of Jesus Christ continued through the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is the peace that Jesus promised; it is the presence of the Holy Spirit of which Peter preached; it is the same mind that was in Christ Jesus which can now be in us.
It is this mind, this presence, this power that enables us to transcend and overcome whatever situation in which we may find ourselves. It is often the answer to that question, "How can they do that?"
As I come to this supreme moment of my life,
I am sure none of you would suppose I want to deceive you.
And so I tell you plainly:
there is no route to salvation
except the one that Christians follow.
My religion teaches me to pardon my enemies
and all who have offended me.
I do gladly pardon the emperor
and all who have brought about my death,
and I beg them to seek Christian baptism.
In my ministry I have had two experiences over and over again. By way of explaining their difficulty with living a Christian life -- or perhaps as a way to excuse their lack of effort -- people have said something like, "Oh, if I had lived in Bible times, when Jesus was performing miracles and walking on the water, then I could have believed; but things are so different now." Most of us nod knowingly when we hear this because we can empathize with this feeling; maybe we have thought it or said it ourselves.
And I have had the privilege of working side by side with Christians in the third world -- Africa, Mexico, Central and South America -- who were caught in the grips of absolute poverty and awful disease, who lived in huts made of sticks and mud, and yet who possessed a profound sense of the presence of Christ, and a deep and transforming Christian joy. What is our reaction to that? Very often persons who have shared in these short-term missions will describe it as being one of the most profound experiences of their lives; and for many it has been a formative moment that has led to a life of service. Just as we knowingly nod our heads in the former case, here we sometimes shake our heads and mutter, "How can they do that?"
We dare not romanticize the poverty and suffering out of which these inspirational examples emerge, as if there is something magical about living in desperation; nor do we dare trivialize their plight (as is so easy to do) as if the main reason for the existence of these individuals is to provide inspirational footage for our mission video. And we know that this suffering does not automatically produce sainthood; for every person in these circumstances who is led to a life of servanthood, giving all they have to others, there is one who becomes self-obsessed, taking anything that is not nailed down.
This difference was made clear in one sprawling slum on the edge of a large Brazilian city. Before there was any kind of sanitary sewage system or source of safe drinking water, there were makeshift huts selling the local version of moonshine. "The quickest ticket out of the slums," as one missionary put it. In that same slum was the tiny church in which we were working; in the congregation was an elderly, blind guitar player who accompanied the singing. Well, he actually didn't accompany the singing because he was a terrible instrumentalist; indeed the singing proceeded more or less in spite of him. It certainly shattered any stereotypes of all Latinos being talented at this sort of thing, and I will confess that I wondered why the congregation put up with him. One night I found out. We were sharing testimonials, and here was his.
"As you all know, when my wife died I felt absolutely lost; it seemed that I had no reason to live. And then when I lost my eyesight, I was utterly overcome. But then Brother ________ gave me his guitar, and I discovered that I could play and help with the singing and praise God in this way; suddenly, I had a reason to live! And now I can glorify God in my music."
How could he do this? How could he get on with a seemingly empty and pointless life? In his own words, because he discovered God in the midst of his suffering and he found a way to share the presence of God in his life with others. In John 14 Jesus promises the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate who will teach us all things. How does that teaching relate to all this? Maybe in a way it doesn't, although clearly the presence of the Holy Spirit does.
A few years ago, when my daughter was a student at American University in Washington, D.C., she told me about a conversation she had with a friend's aunt, a very devout Christian. This aunt's faith very much revolved around two doctrines: the Virgin Birth and the verbal inerrancy of Scripture in the original manuscripts. Upon learning that Genevieve's father was a United Methodist preacher-type, she wanted to know how many times Genevieve could recall her father preaching on either of these key doctrines. The horrifying answer was "none." The aunt suggested that perhaps her father's faith was suspect, and Genevieve's dad was one big hypocrite. In her version of things, my daughter came to my defense (although parents always do wonder what children say behind their backs!).
There is, as it happens, a good reason why I have never preached a whole sermon on either of these topics, and maybe not as many as I could have about the doctrine of the Advocate, and it is neither ignorance nor disregard. It is, rather, that in Scripture while the miraculous nature of Jesus' birth is mentioned several times, and while the trustworthiness of the witness of Scripture is assumed, neither of these doctrines is the focal point in the Bible that it is in many person's thinking. The focal point is much more experiential.
Indeed, when these teachings come up, it is always in the broad sweep of the "big picture" of salvation history and inevitably aimed at encouraging persons to make or strengthen their commitment to God, through Jesus Christ. This is true in the Gospel of John, in New Testament preaching, and in the theologizing of Paul.
The book of Acts contains accounts of the very earliest Christian preaching, beginning with Peter's sermon immediately following the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. I have always understood the account of that sermon in Acts, like all the sermons, to be a kind of outline or "executive summary," maybe because I can't imagine Peter and Paul speaking for only a few minutes. But in the sermon, we find certain key ideas that come up again and again:
a) Jesus was recognizable as a servant of God by his remarkable life of deeds of power, signs, and wonders.
b) It was God's will that Jesus be given over to the powers of evil and destruction; his death represented God's self-giving love and Jesus' absolute obedience, not a triumph of good over evil.
c) God vindicated Jesus by raising him from the dead, a fact attested to by firsthand witnesses.
d) The witness and ministry of Jesus is now continued by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit; and
e) God has, through the act of vindication, made Jesus both ruler and Messiah; in other words, the one through whom God's desire for a parent/child relationship with humankind is made available for all people everywhere.
We find all these basic points in Peter's speech at the house of Cornelius in Acts 10, with more emphasis on Jesus' post-resurrection appearances; we even find most of them in the very brief summary of the remarks Peter made in Acts 4 when he and John were first arrested and brought before the council of rulers in Jerusalem.
The longest -- and first fatal -- sermon in the New Testament is that delivered by the deacon and first martyr Stephen in Acts 7 where he begins at the beginning, giving a detailed recollection of the various ways in which God had reached out to humankind through a variety of servants beginning with Abraham and Moses, continuing through David and Solomon, the various prophets and finally Jesus of Nazareth. Just as they had rejected the message of all these spokespersons, and they had rejected that of Jesus when he was in the flesh, they had now stopped their ears to the witness of the Holy Spirit in their time, he argued.
What is immediately obvious about all these sermons is that none of them was given to argue the fine points -- or for that matter even the gross points -- of doctrine. Each was geared toward grabbing the listeners and confronting them with the choice of whether or not to accept the fact that Jesus of Nazareth was Savior and Lord and to make the appropriate life changes. It is preaching for decision. When the crowds heard Peter on Pentecost they were "cut to the heart" the text says and asked what they should do; as a result 3,000 were baptized. The council of elders were not convinced by Peter's defense, but were sufficiently impressed by its power that they feared doing him harm. Stephen, of course, did not fare so well, and was stoned to death for delivering his scathing indictment of the religious establishment. In each case, the hearers realized that they were being put on the spot.
The beautiful Christ-hymn of Philippians 2 is generally regarded as one of the most magnificent and profound statements of Christian theology, speaking of the pre-existent Christ emptying himself to become a human being and willingly dying on the cross; the hymn's content is strikingly similar to the sermons in Acts. And so is its purpose: to open believers up to the power of God at work in their lives, so that they might become vehicles of God's will in this world by "let(ting) the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus...."
When one has recognized Jesus as Lord and Messiah, I would assert, when one has the mind of childship, humility, obedience, and self-giving is present in a person, when one understands the welfare of others to be more important than the welfare of oneself, the fine points of doctrine will take care of themselves. But, the history of Christianity is riddled with disasters that have resulted when debates about doctrine -- even crucial valid doctrines -- have taken center stage resulting in divisions and excommunications and anything else but "in humility regarding others as better than yourselves."
At the University of Evansville we have a SEARCH Retreat program. SEARCH is the college level retreat with roots in the Cursillo Movement. For 48 hours, students leave campus and through a series of talks, reflections, sharing and receiving Holy Communion, experience a sense of Christian community, some for the very first time. They experience what it means to be accepted by God and others as a worthwhile individual, with gifts to share. One student, who had been active in church and church camping all the while he grew up, sent me a note after his SEARCH experience: "In case you didn't know the SEARCH retreat was the most important thing that has happened in my life. You see the retreat opened me up to the Lord really for the first time in my life. I had such a wonderful experience that I want everyone to go."
Over the years we have received many similar testimonials. SEARCH is not magic, we hear the same thing from persons who have attended Marriage Encounter, Cursillo, Walk to Emmaus and a score of similar opportunities to open oneself to the power and presence of Jesus Christ continued through the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is the peace that Jesus promised; it is the presence of the Holy Spirit of which Peter preached; it is the same mind that was in Christ Jesus which can now be in us.
It is this mind, this presence, this power that enables us to transcend and overcome whatever situation in which we may find ourselves. It is often the answer to that question, "How can they do that?"
