1 Corinthians 3:10-11,16-23 Matthew 5:38-48
After getting all Pope John Paul II's luggage loaded in the limo (and His Holiness doesn't travel light) in NYC, the driver notices that the Pope is still standing on the curb. "Excuse me, Your Holiness." says the driver, "Would you please take your seat so we can leave?" "Well, to tell you the truth," says the Pope, "They never let me drive at the Vatican, and I'd really like to drive today." "I'm sorry but I cannot let you do that. I'd lose my job! And what if something should happen?" protests the driver, wishing he'd never gone to work that morning
After getting all Pope John Paul II's luggage loaded in the limo (and His Holiness doesn't travel light) in NYC, the driver notices that the Pope is still standing on the curb. "Excuse me, Your Holiness." says the driver, "Would you please take your seat so we can leave?" "Well, to tell you the truth," says the Pope, "They never let me drive at the Vatican, and I'd really like to drive today." "I'm sorry but I cannot let you do that. I'd lose my job! And what if something should happen?" protests the driver, wishing he'd never gone to work that morning
."There might be something
extra in it for you," says the Pope. Reluctantly, the driver gets in the
back as the Pope climbs in behind the wheel. The driver quickly regrets his
decision when, after exiting the airport, the Supreme Pontiff floors it,
accelerating the limo to 105mph."Please slow down, Your Holiness!!!,"
pleads the worried driver, but the Pope keeps the pedal to the metal until they
hear sirens. "Oh, my God, I'm gonna lose my license," moans the
driver.
The Pope pulls over and rolls
down the window as the patrolman approaches, but the cop takes one look at him,
goes back to his motorcycle, and gets on the radio. "I need to talk to the
Chief," he says to the dispatch. The Chief gets on the radio and the cop
tells him that he's stopped a limo going a hundred and five."So bust
him," said the Chief."I think the guy's a big shot," said the
cop."All the more reason.""No, I mean really a big shot,"
said the cop."
What'd ya got there, the
Mayor?""Bigger.""Governor.""Bigger.""Well,"
said the Chief, "Who is it?"
"I don't know", said
the cop, "but he's got the Pope driving for him."
We
just prayed: "O Lord, you have
taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing:" Our culture teaches us that "actions
speak louder than words." Most of
us want to be judged on our good "intentions" even if the outcome of
a situation is a disaster. However
people can rarely see our "intentions", but our actions are self
evident.
I.
Today our texts
seem to convey a common theme. They are
a call to the mission and ministry God has called the church to undertake. What
then is the Church? If this building
were not here, would this still St Thomas' Church? I would suggest that the
unbelieving world would think so. I would also suggest that too many over the
centuries may also have defined this in such terms. When enemies of Christ have tried to stamp
out the faith, they first seem to outlaw the gathering of Christians
together.
A.
That is the
heart of the matter. When we gather
together, we are the Church. The Church
IS the people. Do we realize that? The
earliest Christians under persecution met in the Catacombs, one of the "graveyards" of the
population of the time.
B.
The edifices we
build are not the "church" (a word that means "assembly")
but like a picture of a loved one. They remind
us of God and his people.
1.
We ARE
God's people and are BECOMING God's
people. The Christian life is a journey
of progress and regress. It is only
possible by the indwelling of God's Spirit who transforms us into the image of
Christ.
C.
If you have been
confirmed in the years since 1979, you may have been taught the following in
the Catechism. It's in the Prayerbook,
if you may not have noticed. On page 852 of the Book of Common prayer we are
asked this question:
1.
Q. What is the Church? A. The Church is the community of the New
Covenant…then
2.
Q. How is the Church described in the
Bible? A. The Church is described as the
Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head and of which all baptized persons are
members. It is called the People of God, the New Israel, a holy nation, a royal
priesthood, and the pillar and ground of truth.
D.
We are a Community, a Common
unity engaged in Mission! That is
supposed to be US!! We are the children
who have inherited the family business: the business of God and His Kingdom. We
internalize a new way of thinking, a new way of acting proactively rather than
reactively.
1.
In 1 Peter
2:9 we read: "But you
are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special
possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of
darkness into his wonderful light. "
2.
Sometimes the gospel "good news" is
tough news, gospel is seemingly hurtful news!
This is not the simple love of the gospel but the response of what the
Bible calls the "world, the flesh and the devil."
a)
Have you ever
noticed how angry, how much in denial and how pretended in virtue are those as
it were, "caught in the act?"
Jesus speaks of this in context of the LIGHT. John speaks of this in chapter 3 of his
gospel:
E.
" For God so loved
the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall
not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send
his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes
in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already
because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son." but then, the lesser heard verses that follow tell
us: " 19 This is the
verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of
light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the
light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be
exposed. 21 But whoever
lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that
what they have done has been done in the sight of God."
1.
Have you ever noticed when someone is trying to get
away with something they shouldn't do, they get angry and defensive when they
get caught. They cast blame everywhere
but on themselves. Maybe even you have
been there. I am sure that I have.
II.
We are leaving the season of Epiphany, a season of the Light, of manifestation
and witness. We are coming up to a
season we call the "holy season of Lent, of self-examination and
revival."
A.
I usually refer to Lent as "Spiritual Boot camp." The word
merely means "spring". What
happens in Spring? Things that appeared
dead are starting to come back alive. It is a time of Spiritual
Self-Examination as to where we are in our walk with God in Christ
B. Do we take advantage of opportunities that we have? We don't need more time for God, we need to MAKE TIME for God. How many of you know that we make time for things that are important to us?1. Faith is upward moving, vertical to God. Love on the other hand is outward moving, horizontal to our neighbor known or unknown. What is the Great Commandment from the prayerbook? On page 321 we read: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 22:37-40 Familiar words…difficult words at times but they define our love to God and neighbor. Returning to the Catechism we read:2. Q. What is the mission of the Church?3. A. The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.4. Q. How does the Church pursue its mission?5. A. The Church pursues its mission as it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace, and love.6. Q. Through whom does the Church carry out its mission?7. A.The church carries out its mission through the ministry of all its members. |
III.
Pastor Tullian Tchividjian of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft
Lauderdale says this :
A.
" Faith is vertical (it’s upward)—it’s trusting
that everything I need and long for, I already have because of what Jesus has
accomplished for me. Love, on the other hand, is horizontal (it’s
outward)—because Jesus has done everything for me (faith) I can now do
everything for you without needing you to do anything for me (love)."
You could put it this way: love is faith worked out by us for our
neighbor horizontally; faith is love worked into us from God
vertically."
B. Paul describes what this looks like in the Christian life saying to the Church in Galatia:1. " But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.." (Galatians 5:22-23) Are we actively seeking to nurture those fruits in our daily lives?
2.
It has well been said that "you may be
the only Jesus that someone will ever see." What would Jesus do? I would suggest that this is one of the
most difficult passages in the gospels.
Our flesh resists it. It takes
God in us by the Holy Spirit to walk such a road. It is "tough love" for every
Christian.
C. It is not a natural impulse to LOVE your enemies! It is unnatural to turn the other cheek.1. Jesus closes this section of the gospel in this way: " For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the unbelievers do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."2. Well, he does have a point! Unnatural? Incidentally our Lord recalled for his audience what is written in modern case law, as it spoke about retaliation
a)
But Jesus' point
is this: the Holy Spirit is living in you, the urge to 'get even',
self-justify, return evil with good is
natural to the flesh. But it is
unnatural as the Spirit gains more and more control in us as we "walk in
the Spirit"
b)
Paul says our
foundation, the basis upon which everything in the Christian life stands is
Jesus Christ. You are God's temple. I
shudder to think how I have defiled my temple since I received the grace of
God in Jesus Christ.
(1)
He writes: in I Corinthians 3 "For the wisdom
of this world is foolishness with God."
Who is in the driver's seat of our lives? I admit that I often want God to move over
and let me drive.
(2)
One problem: I
don't have a map to the specific destination!
As the fruits of the Spirit are more manifest in our daily living, we
will move gradually into the Spirit of God and he into us. We must do more
than speak, but our speaking must be reflected in our lives.
Let us return to the petition of the Collect: "Send your Holy Spirit and pour into
our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of
all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted dead before
you…." The LOVE of God is all in
all. As we hear with our ears, may be
receive in our hearts the Spirit of God each day that we may as one of our
confessions say: "we may delight in his will and walk in his way to the
glory of your Name." AMEN
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