Defining Your Life, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 8/28/2011 by Rev Steven Mitchell

Defining Your Life
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 8/28/2011
Based on Romans 12:9-21 and Matthew 16:21-28


Earl Nightingale, an early twentieth century motivational speaker often said, “People don’t plan to fail, they just simple fail to plan.” This is not true about the person of Jesus, as we read in this week’s lection reading of the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus had very intentional plans, in which he shared with his disciples about what his future was to be, as well as stating what the results would be of those plans. He said he must go to Jerusalem, where he will undergo great suffering at the hands of the religious leaders, and be killed. The result of these events would however allow him to rise from death. At this Peter, who just last week we learned had been given the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth, didn’t want to hear what Jesus was telling him and tried to sway Jesus into not taking this course of action. Jesus then calls Peter, “Satan”, telling Peter that he is a stumbling block to Jesus; for Peter was setting his mind not on divine things but on human things.
Many of us are much like Peter, wanting to have direction, but when given the plan, don’t like what we hear and resist following what has been presented. Congregations are very much like this. They hire a minister, expecting the minister to create plans that will help the congregation move out of the rut they have found themselves in. But when the pastor lays out the plan that he has been hired to do, and after explaining the costs both financially and physically this plan is going to require, the congregation begins to voice concerns much like Peter, say things like, “We can’t do that, that is too difficult, it is too much work and it is too expensive.” In essence they have hired a leader, but don’t wish to be lead, because they don’t like hearing what it takes to move from point A to point B.
Jesus then explained to his disciples, “If you want to become my followers, you have to deny yourselves and take up your cross and follow me. If you don’t, then you will lose what you want to accomplish. This “picking up my cross” might sound simple, but just what does it actually mean?
When I was a child, I exasperated my parents a great deal because I was always asking questions. When they would give me a task to do, I often followed up with the basic, “who, what, why, when, where, and how” questions. They perceived that I was being defiant when asking these question, which I really wasn’t. In general, I tried to please my parents, but in order for me to know that I was accomplishing what they wanted me to, I generally needed more information than what they would initially give me.
In Romans, Paul, gives us some very practical instruction as to the “what, where, why, who, when, and how” to Jesus’ remark about “picking up our cross and follow him”, with a whole laundry list of behaviors that we are to not just strive toward but do, do specifically toward those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. “9-10Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.
11-13Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality. “ Okay, these things sound pretty normal as to the way we are to act toward other Christians. It is pretty much the same type of behavior that parents would teach their children in how to act toward their brothers and sisters. Well, that is something that I can buy into, after all, if you are in a church setting, we should all be able to play nicely with one another, should we not.
But then comes the part of the lesson that isn’t so easy for most of us to buy into. Paul switches from how we are to act toward other Christians, to how we are supposed to respond to outsiders, to strangers who are not like us, even to the bad guys. 14-16Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.
17-19Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it." Generally, this is where most of us will throw down the cross. This is the part that we don’t like to hear and can become very anger and even nasty.
We are coming up on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, an event that has changed how we live in this country. That act by a group of terrorists has created an atmosphere where we now treat people who look differently than us with great suspicion.
Scott Bader-Saye, a teacher at the Episcopal Seminary of the southwest, writes in this week’s issue of the Christian Century, “Ten years later, I think the most significant change that occurred on 9/11 was that America became a victim, and since that day we have faced the moral hazards of negotiating that status. The moral challenge for the victim comes in the temptation to use one’s suffering as a shield to deflect moral questions, to say, ‘never again’ and to whisper under one’s breath, ‘whatever it takes.’ Victimhood becomes a kind of moral currency that justifies one’s actions in advance.
Vice President Dick Cheney gave voice to this logic a few days after the attacks, declaring that the U.S. had to ‘work the dark side,’ using any means at our disposal and without any discussion.” Ten years later, we continue to bear the bitter fruit of that decision: Muslims in the U.S. continue to face persecution, mosques are viewed with suspicion, Guantanamo Bay continues to operate, torture remains a political tool, and we are no closer to peace in the Middle East.
Jesus does not allow Christians to take refuge in the blank check of “what-ever it takes.” We are called to test our own actions and maintain our own faithfulness, to notice the log in our own eye even when we have been wronged. This is not to blame the victim but rather to understand that the victim remains a moral agent and that the logic of “there is no alternative” only provides cover for those unwilling or unable to imagine alternatives. Ten years later, the church must offer and embody the alternatives that our political leaders have refused.
The church’s capacity to respond to an event like 9/11 is formed long before the event in all the small ways we learn to practice patience, love, kindness, compassion and forgiveness. It is these practices that we need ten years later to empower our witness for peace and reconciliation.”
Now I do not know where you might stand on the actions that we took after 9/11, but we must realize that those actions have put us at war for eight years, with much loss of life, property, and resources on all sides, and has lead to our borrowing unimaginable amounts of money from other countries that puts us at peril for national security as well. These actions turned us away from looking at ourselves in an introspective and constructive manner that might have helped in the future to overt future wars; the need of looking at the log in our eye, so to speak.
As people who say we are followers of Christ, we need to look at our actions as a nation as well as on a personal level and compare them to what Christ teaches and how Christ acted toward those who tried to do harm to him. There are some very deep questions that need some serious discussions: How do we not repay evil with evil? How do we reconcile not taking revenge when wronged? How do we truly ‘bless’ those who persecute us?
Our challenge through this lesson is to understand the tension between living of the world (abiding and going along with the standard of the day) verses living in the world as a people called to live by a radical standard called for by Christ.
The quest for the Christian is to define their life by the standards that Christ laid out within his ministry. The road to peace is far more difficult than the road to revenge. We are called to live in genuine love, to hate what is evil but to not address evil with evil. Finally, we are a people called to rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, and persevere in prayer. Amen