CMLC 2023-10-01 Sermon

Howdy.

Howdy.

Well, have you all heard the phrase,

snitches get stitches?

Yes.

Oh, wait, wait, wait.

Man, someone in the choir was like, yes.

It was like, man, oh, my word, okay, goodness.

I don't want to know who turned against you, okay.

But yeah, it's the idea that, you know,

like, if you squeal on somebody,

then, you know, you're going to get

even worse coming to you.

The thing is, you know,

everyone so while I tell you all about

elementary school and

how it was like the worst time

of my life whatsoever.

And with that is back in second grade,

there was this one day

where some of the kids just,

I don't know what it was I did that day,

but they just did not like me at all.

And the teacher noticed.

And that's like the worst thing

in the world when the teacher notices,

because then the teacher's going to jump in

and try to do something about it,

but it always makes it worse somehow.

And that's the thing,

is that the teacher said that all of the kids

that were involved in it

had to go and write me an apology.

So all of them were just sitting there

for like 20 minutes

trying to write down all this stuff.

And it's like, oh,

I'm really, really sorry.

And oh, let's be really, really good friends.

And yeah, it was a whole bunch of lies.

But the thing was with it

that it became super awkward.

And it also ended up

costing me one of my actual friends.

And with it though,

is it also reinforced

something in my mind.

Is that you can't force

goodwill.

You can't force

friendship.

You can't force

people to actually like you.

And with it is

when we come to our

epistle lesson today

and Paul is telling them,

you'll need to just stop

bickering and get along.

And that's the thing with this,

is that it makes me wonder,

was Paul ever a second grade teacher?

I don't think that he was.

Maybe he should go back and, you know,

he'll get his certification somewhere

along the way.

But the thing is, is that oftentimes

is that picking a fight

is just so easy.

It is just so easy

to be able, whenever you're upset

with someone, to try to look at ways

to not only pick a fight,

but also maybe to keep it going.

You know, it's like there's that one

person that just like,

they just get on your nerves

all the time.

And you're just like, you know,

man, if only I could

just get back at them.

And you catch yourself saying

little snide remarks from time to time.

Little comments

or, you know, as soon as

their back is turned and you're like,

yeah, of course I'm going to do that,

whatever.

And the thing is, is that we can't help ourselves.

It's this desire

that when someone has really

just gotten to us,

we really want to make

sure that they know

we haven't forgotten.

The thing with this is that

we always feel like we're

justified in doing it.

But in so doing it,

it's sort of like

as much as we read

the passage in Philippians

and we think, well, of course

people shouldn't be, you know,

propagating arguments

and bickering and hurting each other.

But somehow we always

think that it's a good idea

when we do it.

Somehow it is that

we are trying to make a point.

I need to make a point to this person.

They don't realize what they've done.

I need to take a stand

because I'm defending people.

Or maybe I need to take a stand

because I'm defending God.

Or even more than that

is just making sure

that someone knows that they've been

put in their place.

And that's the thing

that we see in here

is that in Philippians 2

Paul comes in here saying

if there's any encouragement in Christ

any comfort from love

any participation in the Spirit

any affection and sympathy

there is any part of you

that has the Holy Spirit

in any part of you that cares

at all.

Complete my joy

make me happy by being of the same mind

having the same love

being in full accord

and of one mind

and do nothing from rivalry or conceit.

If you cared all about me

could y'all just

find a way to get along

and agree on something.

And the thing with this

is that in many ways

we hate that.

We hate the idea

that we have to find

ways to agree with

or get along with

the very people that hurt us the most.

It's almost like we think

that if we can make peace

with someone that has hurt us

or annoyed us or frustrated us

that somehow

that means that we are weak.

It's almost like

some sort of weird evolutionary

development sort of a thing.

I read a little piece

that was in

one of Richard Dawkins

writings and

I can't stand the guy but

you know it's like you gotta at least know a little bit

of what it is that a person is

teaching and learning

and it's this whole idea that somehow

we can only look after other people

if we somehow feel like it's

benefiting ourselves.

And so what I wanted to do

is I wanted to

teach you all a big work.

It's five syllables.

I want you to repeat this after me.

My yes,

taught to come.

Let's try it.

My yes, taught to come.

It is a nice big word.

They made us learn it at the seminary.

And the idea behind this

is that Jesus

being both God and man

that every time

Jesus was doing

something divine,

miraculous, amazing.

His human side

was also doing it too.

So the idea is that

his human side was glorified

because he's also God.

So there's another side to that though.

And it was a teaching

that wasn't always

necessarily embraced.

And I don't want you to repeat this part

after me because it's a controversial one

and I'll explain why.

They called it the tupping not a con.

And the reason why

it was controversial

was the idea that, well,

what about the other way around?

Doesn't that also mean that

being God, God

is participating

in human things.

Suffering, frailty,

struggles,

temptation.

And the reason why it was

so controversial

is because some people

thought that that meant that Jesus

was emptying

himself

of his godliness,

of his divinity.

They called it kinosas.

And they thought that if that were the case,

then does that mean

that Jesus somehow

let go

of being God

while he was a human?

Now I'm going to ask you,

does that sound right?

No. And that's

the trouble with it, is that

leading toward this idea

that somehow

allowing people

to make him suffer that way

was somehow losing his divine side.

The trouble is

is that we do

the same thing

in our own lives.

We somehow think

that if we allow ourselves

to seem weak,

or somehow

that we have to deal with

the ones that we don't like as much,

if somehow we are showing

that maybe we're giving in,

does that mean that now

I've lost

a piece of myself?

Does that now mean that I'm no longer

as strong? Or for us guys,

does that mean we're no longer manly

because we had to apologize?

And I don't mean the whole,

yes honey, you're right, I'm sorry

that you're supposed to memorize when you first get married.

It doesn't always work.

But the idea that somehow

if we acknowledge that

maybe we don't have it all figured out,

and maybe we do want

to restore things with this person

that we've been frustrated with,

that somehow

it takes away from us.

And that's the problem

with this teaching about Jesus,

is that we keep seeing

the same thing ourselves.

There was an episode of

Friends,

okay?

For the kids,

that was a TV show.

Your parents will probably

quote it from time to time.

If they ever say pivot,

just go with it.

But in it, one of the characters,

Ross,

was trying to find a nanny

for his daughter,

his and Rachel's daughter.

It's been like two decades,

three decades. If you haven't seen it by now,

I'm not really spoiling anything.

But with it though,

is then they had a guy come in

who was the perfect nanny.

Would play on a flute

to get their daughter to fall asleep,

baked the perfect

Madeleines,

always knew exactly

what to say and how

to care for a child

in any situation,

making Joey feel better

about himself as well.

But Ross could not

stand the idea

of a man being a nanny.

Back in the days,

I'm sorry,

you just can't be the nanny.

And he said, is it because I'm a man?

He was like, well yeah.

And then ends up finishing

the episode by showing

that Ross himself was afraid

of being weak.

And that that's why he was so afraid

of a man being the nanny.

And Ross ends up crying somewhere

in there and everybody

laughs.

But the truth is, is that we do that also.

We somehow think

that if we do not stand up

against anybody and everybody

that has ever harmed us,

that somehow it takes away

from our strength.

And that's the thing about this,

is to pause and say

what is God

working in you?

See the truth is, is that

I could come up here

and just tell you, you know what?

If there's some sort of a

conflict happening, get over it.

God demands you to get over it.

You've got to get over it.

Yeah, that's only going to go so far.

But the scary part

is the fact that God does want that.

And every moment

that we continue to say,

no, I can't let myself

be weak is another moment

of telling the Holy Spirit

I don't want to listen to you.

That's kind of scary.

Is that this isn't just

a matter of ego or pride.

It's actually even getting

to a moment of saying

God is saying this to you.

And you don't want to hear

the Holy Spirit.

And that's the hard part about this,

is that Paul

is here

not as somebody just

lecturing them, but as somebody

who is willing to be

imprisoned.

Paul is not the person

to sit there and then

basically say, okay, now I need you all

to come in and bring some money

and bribe these guards to get me out.

I need you to come with a hacksaw

and get the back window open

for me so we can run out.

This isn't, oh my goodness,

could you believe what Timothy

and Epaphroditus said

and blah blah blah and they got me arrested

over here if they could have just played

it cool for a little while.

No.

This is Paul

in prison

now

talking up Timothy

and Epaphroditus who are

on the outside.

Two people who are not

having to sit with him in prison,

Epaphroditus coming from

Philippi, Timothy

over there having been with him throughout

all of this and what does he end up spending

verses 19 through 30 doing?

The man who is in prison

who has any and every reason

to complain

is spending it all talking

up his companions.

Because at that moment in time

what was most important to him

was everybody else.

And that's the thing with this passage

is to come back

to this idea is

are you looking only to your own

interests

or do you care about the interests

of others?

You see that's the

piece with this.

When

all of these other issues are coming up

is that instead of looking

to something that makes us great

is instead

we're looking to

what makes others great.

And the truth

be told is that

we also are called to do that

for the ones that

have hurt us.

We're also called

to do that for the ones

that bother us the most.

You see that's the hard part

is that

we as a church

we're still

not too far out of COVID

and we're still

making sure that we can bring back

the people who had been here previously

but also bringing in new people

and truth be told is that

it is scary

as a church

to not seem strong

and confident and bold

because what is the rest of the world

going to think of us?

But the problem is

is that a church that spends

so long trying to be strong

and confident and bold in themselves

is no church at all.

See that's the thing about this

is that rather

being strong in weakness

being empathetic

being loving

being compassionate

being able to acknowledge that the very person

who may have harmed us the most

or maybe didn't even harm us

as much as just didn't even care enough

the one who

just maybe wasn't even emotionally

invested in us in the first place

but also by being willing

to love them

and to go the extra mile

and that if they ask us

for a cloak to give them a second

and if they ask us to walk a mile

we walk a second

is that it ends up allowing

the spirit to do work through us

that God can't do

if all we're doing is looking at ourselves

you see in the midst of empathy

we

are called

to be like Christ

two weeks ago we talked about Cory Ten Boom

and the truth is this is that at that moment

the very person who had come

and harmed her and her family

she could have

marked him

for the rest of his life

and made sure that everybody in that room

knew who he was

and gotten her revenge

but what did she do

the thing is is that this isn't easy

we're not going to get it right

on the first try

but we are called to try

you see with this is that

these examples of empathy

and compassion

are actually the only things

that are going to make a difference

and the thing is is that as I'm bringing

this idea

to a head

I want to bring to you three examples

one

is Samson

see in the Old Testament

Samson was a strong man

and you read most of his story

and most of his story is him doing things

where he's making sure everybody

realizes

he wins and they do not

whenever he is being taken advantage of

by a future father-in-law

and he ends up destroying crops

with fire

tied to fox's tails

whenever he is able to go in

and prove that

he can kill a lion

but then come in

and have a riddle

and stump everybody

whenever he wants

to end up showing that he can get any woman

that he wants

but one's ends up happening to him

is that all that pride ends up leading

to a downfall

where he loses his hair

and he loses his strength

but in the midst of being blind

and weak

that is when God

is able to use him

to bring down

the Philistines

or even looking to Luther

Luther's kind of a pain in the butt sometimes

let's just be honest

but at the same time

he was also a man called by God

and being in Germany

Germans, whether you know it or not

sometimes

pick fights with each other

I know there are always a peaceable

group of people but

sometimes Germans can be a little bit

stubborn

rumor has it

but with that is that

Luther would have back and forth arguments

with a man named Carlstadt

and the two of them disagreed time and time again

but when the peasant war

came up

and Carlstadt was being accused

as inciting violence

Luther took his

adversary

and hid him in his home for eight weeks

and gave him a chance

to write an apology

and when I say apology it's more of an explanation

but

letting people know that he had

nothing to do with inciting the violence

and so Luther gave his enemy

a chance to speak for himself

so that he wouldn't be killed

by the authorities

and more than that is the third example

hopefully is the obvious

how many times did Peter

want Jesus to assert himself

but at the moment

whenever Jesus could

have let his disciples take on

the guards

and he told Peter to put away his sword

is that that was the very time

when his weakness

was used to bring about

salvation for us all

so the truth is that as much as we're

often times afraid of looking weak

by making nice with the people

that cause difficulty in our lives

is that the truth is that that is the very

time when God does

his greatest work

but more than that

it also means

that we get restored with another person

and just like a brother

and his sibling

sometimes

even though they may still be annoyed

with their sister

which I have absolutely no idea

what that's like

is that sometimes by the end of the day

you just gotta let it go

because that's your playmate

and who really wants to sit alone

in their room with nobody

to play with

so in your life

may you find

the strength

to be weak

and to have compassion

not on an enemy

but on a future friend

thanks be to God.