Podcast of "This Sermon Is Not About You" (MP3)
Exodus 12:1-14
Psalm 149
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts
be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen
When I started writing the sermon
early last week, I had a beautiful illustration for how to make it look like two
people were following 18:15-17 from our reading this morning, Christ’s
directions to his disciples on conflict resolution. Now as I cryptically said,
the illustration made it “look like” they were following Christ’s directions,
but truly they weren’t.
After sharing the illustration I
was going to say “But this sermon is not about
them, and it’s not about you either.”
As it would happen, on Wednesday Al told me that I needed to take a look at the
web site he checks for children’s sermons. The next day at Lectio Divina, the group
that meets on Thursday to study the gospel reading, I was given more food for
thought. Then I read an article on line that asked the pastoral question “Are
You a Preacher or a Motivational Speaker?” At that point, the old illustration
was worthless.
The children’s sermon Al shared
with me was wonderful. I won’t share the whole text with you, but here’s the
Reader’s Digest condensed version:
Once upon a time
there were two brothers. When their father died, they inherited and split their
father’s farm and continued in the family business. One day, one of them
offended the other over a slight that is now long forgotten.
Then one day, a
carpenter visited one of the brothers and asked if there was any work for him.
The farmer-brother said yes, there was work. He wanted the carpenter to build a
fence along the stream that split their property so he didn’t have to see his
brother again.
At the end of the
day, the farmer came to check on the carpenter’s work only to discover that
instead of building a wall, he built a bridge. Shocked at the work, he was even
more amazed to see his brother on the other side. “After all the terrible
things I’ve done to you over the years, I can't believe that you would build a
bridge and welcome me back.”[1] He
then reached out to his brother and gave him a big hug.
After the two men
made amends, the brother that hired the carpenter went home. The farmer asked
the carpenter to stay. The carpenter replied “No, I have more bridges to
build.”
There are several ways to interpret
scripture, among them are descriptive and prescriptive. The descriptive way of
interpreting scripture interprets through explanation, a grand rephrasing of
the word of God for the people of God. I tend to do a lot of this. My original
illustration, the one I talked about at the beginning, would have made a
wonderful segue into describing verses 15-17. I would have described how this
biblical conflict resolution process works and how important it is to use it.
I would have said that those three
verses show us how to make amends when a brother, fellow disciple, member of
the church has sinned against you. It keeps it small and intimate until the
whole church is involved and it does keep the sin within the church. What
starts between the disciples should remain in the church.
It’s not bad as descriptions go; at
least it wasn’t bad before I was reminded there’s something better.
The prescriptive interpretation of scripture
does something different. The prescriptive interpretation doesn’t describe the
text. Like a prescription helps make a sick body better, the prescriptive
interpretation helps us use the text in our lives. It helps make us better
disciples. A prescriptive interpretation of this scripture is the basis of that
children’s sermon. The prescriptive interpretation reminds us that Christ makes
amends for us and between us. Christ makes amends between us and our God.
Christ bridges the gap. Christ
closes the chasms and schisms that are so old that we don’t remember their
particulars anymore. Yes, we can remember broad brush strokes of the sins, but
the details are gone like yesterday’s news.
The glory of this prescription is
that while it is humanity’s first inclination to want to build walls between
us, Christ will have nothing to do with that. When something comes between
disciples, between brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord is there building
bridges instead of walls.
How wonderful is that? Our God
saves! Even when we try to build walls God builds bridges and saves us from
ourselves bringing us to reconciliation.
On Thursday, this was going through
my mind as we were reading Matthew 18:15-20 in our study. On a side note,
during the announcements Al always says that everyone is invited to join the
study in the chapel at 10:00 Thursday mornings. As he has said, we read and we
discuss, we listen and we pray. It’s not a lecture. Because of this, insights
that are new (at least to me) and glorious are shared regularly.
One of the things that came up on
Thursday was a wonderful and glorious interpretation that helps define church
for all of us. One of the participants, Tom Malcolm, noted that in verse 20,
Jesus says “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among
them.” Now, that’s nothing new, this is the kind of scripture that has helped
define the church for nearly 2,000 years. What made this more special was how he
related it to the first part of our reading.
He reminded us verse 15 begins, “If
your brother sins against you…” and ends saying “between the two of you.” Friends,
intelligence is often complex and complicated, but great wisdom often comes in
the very simplest of words. Let me paraphrase the point made on Thursday. He
told us verse 15 has two people, the sinner and the sinned against, when they
come together in Jesus’ name, Christ is among them.
I love this insight. I absolutely
love it. In verses 15-17, this is a particular brother member of the church,
who was sinned against by another particular brother member of the church. They
are disciples, but they are individuals.
In the last three verses, the “you”
Jesus is talking about is the Church, his Church. The two in verse fifteen, by
coming together in Jesus’ holy name come together as the Church, the capital
“C” church. They don’t form a denomination or a congregation; they come
together as members of the Body of Christ, they come together as the Church.
This is important for all of us;
there are times when we do not agree with one another. There are times when people
will be hurt by the actions of another member of the Body of Christ. There are
times when members of the same denomination or congregation hurt one another.
So now not only do we have a
scriptural conflict resolution process (and good, holy tools are never a bad
thing), we have a savior who is the bridge between two in conflict. Even more
so, when two parties are gathered in the name of the Lord, especially when it’s
two members, one who has sinned against the other, Jesus promises he is there
with them.
Then I read the article by Sherman
Haywood Cox II on the difference between preaching and motivational speaking.
He contends that a lot of preaching, popular preaching, what passes for
relevant preaching, is nothing more than changing “the title from the latest
pop-psychologist’s seminar from “how to succeed” to “how to fulfill God’s
purpose” where God’s purpose is defined as “succeeding in this life.”[2]
He points out that hearing this
kind of message may be helpful and useful, but it’s not the gospel. He laments
that often this Gospel Lite is no more than learning “a skill or a mindset that
will help [the listener] finally break the boundaries that keep them from that
promotion.”[3] It’s
nice, but it’s not the Good News.
He says that where good
motivational speaking from the pulpit breaks down is that it lacks two things,
the cross and the coming kingdom
of God
This week’s edition of
“Presbyterians Today” magazine includes an article called “Questions Muslims
ask Christians.” One of the questions was “Why do you believe that Jesus
suffered and died on the cross?”[4]
The answer begins reminding the
reader that Muslims don’t consider Jesus the Son of God, though they consider
him a great prophet and within their theology a Messiah. They also believe that
God, the God of Abraham, would have never allowed the murder of such a great
prophet. Another belief they don’t share is original sin, so they don’t share
our concept of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God for the atonement of sin. No
original sin, no need for the sacrifice.
From the pulpit I must proclaim and
as disciples we must to live that through Christ’s death, even death on the
cross, Jesus died for the sin of the world. Our Creator knew us so well that
even before we were created there would have to be someone who would build
bridges between us and God, between each of us and all of us. “Jesus humanity and
suffering communicate the extraordinary lengths to which our Creator has gone
to lavish extravagant love upon sinful humanity.”[5]
As I said, this sermon is not about you. One of the reasons I say this
is because I remember when I was in my 20’s I began to wonder if my pastor
wasn’t following me around all day so that he could say something from the
pulpit on Sunday that was intended just for me. I knew this wasn’t true, but it
was uncanny the way he seemed to fashion messages that directly convicted me.
I don’t want anyone to think that I
am indicting someone about a particular situation. I’m not. But let me say
this, this sermon is not about you
but it is for all of us. It is for
the church. It is for the disciples. It is for the people of God. If that convicts
each of us and all of us, that’s as it should be.
We are called to remember it is our
Lord who takes the wood of the cross and builds bridges so that we may be one
as his Body, one in his Church. This is the coming of the kingdom on Earth. We
are called to go across those bridges and seek those who have sinned against us,
and those who we’ve sinned against. Once a bridge is built, we can’t make
anyone walk across it, but Jesus knew that too. But we also know that when two or
three come together, Christ is there with them, together in his name they are
the Church. This is necessary because of our sin and this redemption is only
possible through his life, death, and resurrection.
I could go on and describe this passage
all day, but I would rather us use this as a prescription that brings the body
together than share another description. Truly, this prescription for
forgiveness is a tonic for the troops.
[1] “Building
Bridges,” http://sermons4kids.com/building_bridges.htm, retrieved August 31,
2011.
[2] “Are You
a Preacher or a Motivational Speaker?” http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/preaching-teaching/153625-are-you-a-preacher-or-motivational-speaker.html,
retrieved September 1, 2011.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Perkins,
Mitali, “Faith Seeking Understanding: Questions Muslims Ask Christians.”
Presbyterians Today. Vol. 101, No. 7, September 2011, p 4.
[5] Ibid.
No comments:
Post a Comment