I shared
with 8 o’clocker’s it was a dangerous time for y’all to show up at church. I was at Colloquium this past week and able
to do some serious study. To make
matters worse, our lecturer focused us on the spirituality of some of the early
Church fathers. We were knee deep in the
works of Origen, Evagrius, Maximus Confessor, Augustine, and others, so you
know I was having a good time! Too much
study can lead to too long sermons. I
learned that lesson back in Ohio. Too
much study can also lead to lectures rather than sermons. What was weird to me, though, even with all
the study, was the sermon I had from early in the week stayed pretty much the
same. I got to read some commentary on
the psalm, but no switch in sermon. I
read some Gospel commentaries, but no new sermon came to me. I even did a bit of reading on Revelation
this week wondering if I was ignoring it because of prior warnings by pastors I
respect. As you have figured out, I
landed early in the week on Acts. I
landed on two particular points about the reading from Acts that did not change
even after I spent some time reading commentaries on the book of Acts. My issue, of course, was with the
illustrations. Thankfully, God was in
the midst of that problem. While I might
have wished He’d point out the illustrations to use last Monday or Tuesday, He
probably knew I’d be tempted not to use my time away for good study. This way, He kept me working!
Our story
from Acts today is too well known. It’s
sometimes referred to as the conversion of Paul. Having spent some time wrestling with the
writings of experts, I’m sort of the mind that such is an unfair description of
Paul’s experience. It is not as if Paul
was not zealous for God prior to this encounter with Jesus. Rather, Paul’s mind was not fully illumined
regarding the work and person of the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, prior to this
encounter. Since it’s a blinding flash,
literally, and an experience that causes Paul to re-evaluate what he has been
taught, and it is the same God Whom he follows before and after the experience,
I think I lean to the “Let’s call this the illumination of Paul” camp rather
than the conversion of Paul camp. Don’t
groan, I told y’all I did some reading this week!
The story
is, as I said, well known. Paul is
zealous in his service of God and he is doing his absolute best to stamp out
these folks trying to lead others in the Way of the Christ. Paul held the cloaks and encouraged those who
stoned Stephen to death, so this attitude should not surprise us. He asks for and receives letters of
authorization to stamp out these misleaders from among the Jewish communities
in Damascus. Along the road, there is a
blinding flash, and a voice speaks to Paul.
Paul asks who it is that speaks and learns it is non other than
Jesus. Jesus instructs Paul to get up
and go to the city. There, he will learn
what it is he is called to do.
I will add
here, of course, that Paul’s reputation precedes his arrival. When Jesus instructs Ananias to pray for
Paul, Ananias is understandably resistant.
Paul’s reputation as one fighting the early followers of The Way,
precedes him. Ananias obeys Jesus when
He instructs him, but He does not do so without misgivings or even wondering if
his Lord was sure about the instructions.
That’s a sermon for another passage and another day, though.
The story
is well known. Y’all have been nodding
and following along well. I wonder,
though, if it is not too well known and too common that we skim it rather than
pay attention to significance to us.
Specifically, we are in the season of Easter. The alleluias are in all the hymns. Our focus has shifted from self-examinations
of our sins and our need for a Savior to contemplating the impact of the
Resurrection on our life. To use the
language of one of my colleagues this past week, we are no longer flogging
ourselves for being the miserable wretches or sinners that we are. That work, though, has been replaced by the
consideration of the Resurrection of Christ.
What does it mean to you and to me if that Tomb was empty? Our reading on Paul’s story gives us one
significant reminder.
What does
Jesus say to Paul? Why do you persecute Me? As
your nods and expressions have indicated, you know this story well. Nearly everyone knew Paul held the cloaks of
those stoning Stephen to death. Nearly
everyone seems to know that Paul was zealous in his defense of the torah, the
Temple, and even Yahweh. How does Jesus
treat that persecution of those who first turned to Him? That’s right!
Jesus tells Paul, and us, that his persecution of them is a persecution
of Him! Stoning Stephen was a stoning of
Him. Placing them in jail was placing
Him in jail. Flogging them was flogging
Him. Mocking them was mocking Him. I understand Paul hears this in ways we do
not. Paul has got this horrible pastoral
problem that he is meeting the supposed blasphemer who was hung on a tree after
His death. Our minds do not need the
re-ordering of Paul. Presumably, all of
us present already believe Jesus was raised from the dead. We publicly affirmed it, after all, at our
baptisms and confirmations, and we have reaffirmed it at every baptism and
confirmation we have attended since. We
remind ourselves of His Resurrection every time we say the creeds. We are, to use my earlier language, already
illumined in some ways about the Resurrection.
That we are celebrating that Resurrection 2000 years later and some 6000
miles distant is in its own way a testimony to our belief in the
Resurrection. But do we plumb the depths
of its importance to us? Sure, most of
us, when pressed, will tell others we expect to be raised from the dead. Some of us who really think of such things,
will wrestle with questions of whether it’s really bodily and, if so, which
body. Y’all are laughing, but some of
you have told me you hope it’s your body of a certain age, while others hope
they get one way different. That latter
desire then worries them that others may not know them in the next life.
What about
today? What does Jesus question of Paul
remind us about the significance of the Resurrection to us in this day and in
this place? Think back to your baptism,
or the baptismal rite which was used in your infancy. What happened? You were baptized into His death and promised
eternal life, right? Whether you did the
liturgical baptism and confirmation path or you did the “believer’s” baptism
path, you were bound to God. Bound. A covenant was made by God regarding each one
of you and me. We promised to follow and
obey God, recognizing our actions would either honor or dishonor Him in the
world around us. When we dishonor Him,
by sinning, we promised to repent and try again. That’s all familiar, right? Right?
What about
the oath made by God? What does He
promise those baptized into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit? Certainly, new life is one
of those promises. Yes, that we will be
resurrected, too, is a promise. But what
about Jesus’ question of Paul today? In
our baptisms, God reminds us that He is bound to us, just as we are bound to
Him. When we are dishonored, He is
dishonored. When we suffer, He
suffers. When we are mocked and
ridiculed, He is mocked and ridiculed.
It’s that binding, brothers and sisters, that allows us to give up our
need for vengeance. God has promised
that He suffers with us and that He will avenge! In the end, you and I and all who call upon
His name will be, what, called to share in His glory for all eternity! We will be shown to have chosen wisely, to
use the words of Indiana Jones. We will
be shown to having repented of our sins and redeemed by His Son our Lord.
Do we live
as if we truly believe in that binding covenant we profess every time we remind
ourselves of His covenant? Are we
hesitant to speak His words and wisdom into conversations with friends and
families and co-workers because we don’t want to be seen as a “Jesus freak?” Our we miserly when it comes to those
resources which He has given us to steward for fear we might make bad
decisions, might be taken advantage of, or might be being conned, thereby
limiting the resources available to us and to a God we claim created all
things? Do we really live as if we
believe that when we are mocked for our faith, He is mocked; if we are excluded
because of our faith, He is excluded; if we are ripped off because we are doing
the things He commanded, He is the real victim of the thief or grifter?
I am
guessing by your expressions now, though I knew it when this sermon appeared in
my head on Monday, we give such examination short shrift. We maybe try hard to focus on our obligations
to Him, but we do not spend much time considering the way He has chosen to bind
Himself to us. Yet here we are all,
reading Luke’s narrative regarding Paul’s illumination. Jesus treats the persecutions of Paul as if
they were done to Him. It’s part of the
reason when we gather each time for the Eucharist that we remind ourselves that
in receiving His Body and Blood we are made one body with Him, that He may
dwell in us, and we in Him! One of the
truths supported by the Resurrection is the promise that He is with us always. When we suffer for Him, He suffers; when we
are glorified for our obedient work to Him, He is glorified. When we are persecuted, He is persecuted! It’s an amazing truth! It’s incredibly freeing! We can do whatever God is calling us to do
confident, absolutely confident, of its importance and that we are the ones for
that particular work at that particular time.
No matter the odds, He wins; and thus we share in His victory! It may not work the way we expect or hope,
but we can be confident it will, because He will.
That truth
leads me to the other teaching of the week.
This one you may have heard before, but I am certain we need to hear it
again. There is no limit to what God can
accomplish through the obedient faith of one person. That you and I sit here today in modern
Nashville is yet testimony to Paul’s eventual obedience. God took all of Paul’s characteristics and
molded him into an incredible witness or ambassador. God used Paul’s privilege as a Roman citizen
to speak into the ears of the ANE powerful and privileged. God used Paul’s rabbinicly trained mind to
reach the philosophers and sophists of the Greek culture. God used Paul’s zealous nature to work
constantly for the spread of the Gospel.
The truth is, the importance of one faithful obedient servant can never
be overstated.
This is
where I struggled with a sermon illustration.
My temptation was to share the fight against slavery, but it felt wrong,
even when I was focusing on the stories of others who have taught me in that fight. But God is always faithful, even in little
things like sermons.
A few weeks
ago, I was invited to meet the general who tapped Nathan as one of those men
who might one day succeed him protecting this country. Many of you already know this from other
forums, and it will be limited in the printed version for obvious reasons, but
this particular general, having been alerted about Nathan thanks to a colonel,
decided to recruit Nathan for some special work. And Nathan jumped at the opportunity. Mom and Dad, of course, were worried. In addition to the normal fears of parents in
that situation, we both wondered at the emotional and spiritual burden that
could be placed upon our son. That line
of work places demands on human beings that human beings are not supposed to
experience. If Nathan follows this path
and is successful, he will see things neither I nor Karen want him to see, he
will do things neither of us want him to do.
And here was a general recruiting Nathan, encouraging Nathan, then only
a teenager, that he was the perfect tool for this work.
Anyway, the
general was going to be in town speaking at a Church of Christ church. This would be a good opportunity for us to
meet face to face. He could get to know
me better and I him. Besides, he was not
sure how many people would turn out for the event. If nobody came, we could have a long private conversation. It turns out the event was at a non-denom
church this past Friday. I and only 2000
of my closest brothers in Christ showed up on a Friday night to hear the
general speak. Can you imagine getting
2000 men to show up at anything Christian on a Friday night? I learned later they consider themselves
warriors for Christ, so the high attendance makes sense.
In truth, I
was a bit disappointed at the high turnout.
I had really hoped to spend some time one on one with him. I have friends, clergy friends and former
parishioners, who . . . still suffer the effects of this kind of work. In all the dreams for my son’s life, this was
not in my top anything list. The general
began to give his testimony. He shared
some stories of God’s redemptive work in his life. He spoke rather in terms of God’s miraculous
hand. And I found myself in that weird
place where I had heard several of his stories, but from a more, for lack of a
better word, secular perspective.
His second
or third story to the group was about a failed attempt to rescue forcefully the
American hostages in the Iranian embassy.
As he shared his side of the story, I was a college kid again, sitting
in a Morton classroom one evening, listening to another general’s version of
these events only after we had put our pens and pencils down. As he shared another story of Somalia, I was
drinking a beer and playing cards with another colleague, who, at the time, shared
his night terrors surrounding those same events and even the same guilt
regarding the deaths of others. With
only one exception, I had heard each of his stories from another witness. In each of those stories, they had expressed
how lucky they had been or how crazy it had been that events did not turn out
why they should. And here was God’s
version of Paul Harvey with the “rest of the story.”
Though the
words were different, even the deaf could have heard God’s reminder to me. Even in those places where angels should not
tread, He is at work. In those places
and in those times where we think Him to be the most removed, He is still
redeeming. And it is often the obedient
faith of one glorious son or daughter who is identified by others as the
mouthpiece through whom He speaks. That
God could use an event like that to give me some peace that I did not know I
needed would be enough for most of us.
In truth, it was enough for me.
But God was not done. When we
remind ourselves that He does more than we can ask or imagine, they are not
empty words. They should be a statement
of our faith.
After the
lecture and concert, I chatted with the general. I shared briefly that I was in a much
different place than before his speech.
We chatted about what I knew about his stories but, more importantly,
what those folks had shared about those stories. And I confessed it had been a good spiritual
wedgie for me because I had not reconsidered those stories in light of my faith
and post-ordination, where it became my professional job to share with others
where God was at work in the world around us.
That provoked other conversations and stories which were interrupted by
others and have no part in this teaching.
Rather, it
was the interruptions that are part of this teaching. This general had spent time sharing some
amazing stories of God’s redemptive work in the world to a lot of men. As we were first speaking, he looked over my
should and said “here come the “yabuts.”
It took a couple soldiers and sailors for me to realize he meant “yeah,
but . . . “. Quite a number of
individual servicemen came up to him after the event to thank him. He thanked each one for their service, and
they reciprocated. More than one marine
threatened him good-naturedly about the jokes he told at their expense. But then came the serious work. Nearly every soldier expressed a version of “Generally,
I hear you. I know you believe God wants
us all to serve Him, and that He will forgive us, but you have no idea what
I’ve done.”
Let me say
first and foremost, Jerry was the perfect pastor in all this. For some of these men he listened a bit to
their excuses. For some, though, he cut
them off. Each response to their “yeah, but”
went something along the lines of “yes.
I do know what you did because I likely did it, too. They call war hell for a reason young
man. It’s part of the fall; it’s
evil. But remember this: men like me
ordered you into those situations. We
ordered you into those times and spaces and events which convince you that you
are beyond God’s saving embrace. Each of
us carries that guilt, and the guilt of being the one who sent too many others
to their deaths.”
As he said
a couple times, he’s old and not much into soft-peddling any more, if he ever
was. It was a perspective and truth,
though, those soldiers and sailors needed to hear, each and every one of them,
as the evening wore on in Middle Tennessee.
Nobody, me included, would not have blamed Jerry if he slipped out to
visit with family. Instead, he greeted
each one of those “yeah buts” with an even greater truth, the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. And he spoke in a voice that had
seen what they had seen, done what they had done, and with the authority of a
commanding officer, and the conviction of one who is redeemed! And in that same voice, and in the same
understanding, he shared the certainty of his faith that God wanted nothing
more than to redeem their suffering, too.
I share
that part of the story after a day full of my own reflection for your
consideration. Which do you think was
more amazing? Are you more blown away by
the fact that God used the faith of a young soldier to help be His mouthpiece,
His witness, in some of the darkest battlefields on earth? Or do you think it was that same faithful
servant’s willingness to speak to others individually of that redeeming grace
of God? Or are you more impressed by the
impact his words had on a professional Christian you call your priest? Was it the reweaving of stories and events
that I knew already? Was it the
willingness of a public servant to risk the mocking and derisive snorts? Maybe you find something else far more
amazing, far more wonderful. But isn’t
that, too, part of how God works, amazing us how we, individually, need to be
amazed, reaching out to us in the way we each need to be reached!
God is
asking of you the same obedience he asked of Paul 2000 years ago and Jerry just
a couple generations ago. We have all
the same “yeah but’s” that He has heard since the days of Adam and Eve. Still, He has chosen each one of us to be a
vessel of His grace in this generation.
Yes, the story of salvation history is amazing, but God thought it would
be more amazing to others if it included you.
In our day, in our time, and in our place, He is asking each one of us
to do the work He has given us to do, that the story of salvation and
redemptive history might be made even more beautiful by those who are drawn to
His saving embrace by our faithful obedience to His loving call on both our own
lives and theirs!
In Christ’s Peace,
Brian†
No comments:
Post a Comment