Sermon - February 18, 2024 - The Rev. Jack Alvey

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight,

O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

Amen.

At last week's Diocesan Convention in Montgomery, our keynote speaker, was a gentleman named

James Moore. He is currently working on a PhD for Congregational Leadership and Change,

and his presentation centered around a book called Growing Young, Six Essential Strategies

to Help Young People Discover and Love Your Church. Don't worry, I'm not going to go through

all six this morning. If you want to do that, you can buy the book. But during his presentation,

he made this claim, which I think is very important. He said, people don't fear change.

People don't fear change. Rather, people fear the loss associated with change. More specifically,

people have a hard time involuntarily entering into a loss situation. And it is often those

with the most, excuse me, it is often those with the most to lose who have the hardest

time with the loss associated with change. After all, those with the most to lose have

to give up their power. They have to give up their control. They have to give up their

proverbial and metaphorical keys. This claim also seems to translate well in considering

our own spiritual lives with God, especially during this season of Lent when we are called

to repent. Repentance, after all, literally means to change one's mind or heart. Repentance

means change. And inevitably, a change of heart or mind will cause us to give something

up. But why in the world would we voluntarily enter into a loss situation? Why would we

even want to repent, want to change? Now, in the verses leading up to today's gospel

lesson, we are told that the entire Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem are flocking

to the wilderness to hear John the Baptist preach. That is a lot of people. The entire

Judean countryside, the entire city of Jerusalem is going out to hear this crazy guy preach

in the desert. Why in the world are they flocking to this person? Remember that these people

are living under the oppressive Roman government who have been occupying their land for generations.

They are primed for change. They are tired of it. They have grown restless under this

current state of affairs. They have been longing for this change since the prophets of old

have told them from generation to generation. They are yearning for this time of liberation

from oppression. They want change now. And any loss, anything they lose because of this

change is more than worth it. In so many ways, they have nothing left to lose. Change is

so much easier to swallow when there's nothing left to lose. But even then, we can be reluctant

to change because we'd rather stay in the current situation no matter how bad it is

than risk a new situation that is unknown. But that's where the good news of Jesus and

His kingdom come into play. Jesus gives them a reason to believe that the change is worth

it in His own life, in His own ministry, and ultimately through His death and His resurrection,

Jesus gives them a vision of that heavenly kingdom that has been promised to them. They

have reason to hope. This vision of this new kingdom gives them reason to hope and leave

behind their old lives no matter the cost because nothing compares in value to life

in the kingdom of heaven. In His letter to the Philippians, St. Paul says that he regards

everything he lost for the sake of knowing Jesus as rubbish. Anything that St. Paul had

before knowing Jesus, he counts as rubbish. The things that St. Paul valued before knowing

Christ are no longer of importance to him. He was an important person in society. He

was a Pharisee. He was blameless before the law. He was a Hebrew and a Roman citizen,

which is really rare. All of that meant nothing compared to knowing Christ Jesus, compared

to knowing that He is a beloved child of God. Now, for those of us with a lot to lose, the

idea of repentance can be daunting, even impossible. Remember the lawyer who Jesus

instructs to sell everything to follow him? If you look at the Gospel narrative, it is

those with the most power who were the most threatened by Jesus. They had the most to

lose should Jesus come into power. Because Jesus' kingdom, in Jesus' kingdom, the keys

are given to those without earthly power, the least, the last, and the lost. Therefore,

these with power try to find a way to shut him up, ultimately, by killing him. As we

think about our own spiritual lives and a relatively affluent community, we must also

consider the inevitable loss that comes with following Jesus. We are talking about this

in our adult forum class, Finding God in the Suburbs. The first disciples drop their

fishing nets to follow Jesus. This lent, what do you need to follow? What do you need to

drop to follow Jesus more closely? What in your life do you need to let go of, to lose,

in order to move closer to God in Christ? For those of us with a lot to lose, maybe there's

more than one thing that needs to be dropped. That's fine. But let's just focus on one thing

right now. Think about a quick win, something that will help you grow in confidence so you

can drop something bigger the next time. Now, word of caution, you'll never drop anything

left to your own devices. You aren't strong enough to drop something worth dropping by

yourself. God knows this, and this is why God sent Jesus to reveal his kingdom on earth

as it is in heaven. And the vision of this kingdom that he gives through his sermons,

his miracles, his parables, the vision of this kingdom, this promise of new life is what

ultimately gives us the grace and permission to drop those things we thought we needed

to live a full life. Now, the best way I know how to keep this vision in front of me, this

vision of God's kingdom, is through participating in the life of the church. I don't know about

you, but I have a short memory. It doesn't take long after I leave this place to, for

my vision to become distorted by my surroundings. I need to be reminded of what the kingdom

of heaven looks like again and again and again. I need to be converted daily. Bishop Stowell

once said that God reserves the most difficult cases to the priesthood. So I guess that's

probably why. And even the hardest cases to the bishops, apparently. Anyway, don't tell

Bishop Gee. The church community, through our weekly worship, through our study, through

our daily prayers, through our fellowship, through our care and concern for each other,

through our service to the community, and through the power of the Holy Spirit working

in us all, God is giving us this gathered body of Christ, a vision of the kingdom here

and now. So God is working through all of us and all of this to give a vision of the kingdom

in the here and now. So at best, the church should inspire repentance, not in a negative

way, but in a positive way, a change of heart, a change in our world, a change in our communities,

a change in our own lives. And I think most of us would agree that the world is not as

it should be. The world is not as it should be in the vision that we were given by the

kingdom, amplifies that the world is not as it should be. But you know what God does?

God loves the world the way it is. God loves us so much that he sends his only son to die.

So that we might be inspired to pursue a new way of living, to live in love like he did,

no matter the cost, no matter the loss. It is only through God's gracious action in

Christ that change is possible in our world and in our lives. So yes, there's no doubt

that you will experience some kind of loss the more and more you commit to the way of

Jesus. But in time, I pray that you come to see this loss in the same way as St. Paul

did, as rubbish compared to knowing Christ Jesus is Lord. I pray that your Linton disciplines

help you experience your voluntary losses in this life as gains in the life to come,

a life that has come near in Jesus. Amen.

And now we proclaim this faith with the words of the team Creed, we believe in one God, the

Father.