SERMON - September 25, 2011
Rev. Kevin E. Johnston
"In The Power of The Future "
The Message
Philippians 2:1-13; Matthew 21:23-32
- “Your not the boss of me!”
- “Just where do you get off?”
- “So who died and made you God?”
- “Who do you think you are, anyway?”
- “Listen here young man – young lady – if you think…!”
…and so on, and so on….tra la, tra la, tra la
We’ve heard it all before. We might have even made some of these statements ourselves at one time or another. Chances are, we’ve been on both the giving, and receiving ends.
“By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority? Who authorized you?” the storyteller notes the chief priests and religious leaders challenged Jesus as he taught in the temple that day.
These people were not your everyday, run-of-the-mill, faithfully pious folk. They were members of the religious aristocracy. Heck, they were the upper class nobility. And they also had a vested interest in keeping things “the way we’ve always done them”. The status quo was theirs to guard and maintain. And that they did. Any challenge to “what was”, “what has always been”, or “my space” would immediately be dismissed, disregarded, and ignored. In fact, if anyone did have the nerve and chutzpah to question or dispute any part of the faith and tradition – let alone attempt to bring forth a new way of “doing” things within that – the individual would be brought up on charges of sedition and treason, labeled a rabble-rouser and revolutionary, and deposed – tossed out of “the establishment”. He, or she, might even be killed.
Yes, the chief priests and elders had the authority – the power – the “whatever it took” – to keep things “under control” and ensure “normal” was the order of the day.
After completing my Internship in Virden, MB at the end of April 2004 , I returned to Ontario for my final year of studies at the University of Toronto’s Emmanuel College. Prior to moving to Virden eight months earlier, my email service provider was America On Line – AOL.com for short. However, when in Rome, one does what the Romans do – right? The service provider in the province is Manitoba Telecom Services, and so my email address was @mts. Yet, when I returned to Ontario, I had a pretty good suspicion that within a year I would be moving yet again, and did not see the need to keep changing email addresses every time I moved – especially if it would be to another area of Canada. So I set up my address as kjtherev at hotmail.com, knowing that it is a universal provider regardless of where one may be on the planet. Besides, friends had been calling me “Rev Kev” for a while by then, and it was kind of a clever little way of encapsulating this. Or so I thought, anyway.
Notifying my contacts of the new address change, I quickly received a reply from the chairperson of my Presbytery’s Education and Students Committee, demanding to know where I got off presuming to be “the rev”, when I wasn’t yet ordained. Apparently, “the chief priests and religious leaders” of that day and place in Ontario took offence…and were questioning my “authority”. Dancing very gingerly, I sent a note back explaining my reasons for the “name”, hoping and praying all the while they would not veto my ordination. Thank goodness the explanation worked, so I could be here today.
The Jesus-figure in Matthew’s story was constantly under close scrutiny by those in authority within the religious community.
- “Why do your disciples pick grain on the Sabbath? We can’t. So what’s up with that, Jesus?”
- “Why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners? That’s not what “the Law” says!”
- “Why don’t your disciples wash their hands before they eat? We have to wash our hands.”
- “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority? Who authorized you, anyway?”
For anyone in a position of authority, it’s a pretty powerful place to be. Sometimes, unfortunately, people employ their status or position to dominate, exploit, and manipulate – especially if we let it go to our head and allow it to be misused, abused, and dominating. But authority can also be exercised in helping, empowering, and embracing “other” – be it another person or a different way.
I’m a very territorial person when it comes to my kitchen. Notice I said my kitchen? Especially when something was not put back in the cupboard or drawer where it belongs. I’m even worse when it comes to cutting and cooking food, and washing dishes. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m not the only who benefits from what’s in the kitchen. It’s not just about me.
And when people visit for more than a few hours, it’s more of a struggle for me to keep quiet, specifically when I sometimes thought my former mother-in-law was “taking over”. There were times I just wanted to shout out, “By what authority are you doing this? Who gave you permission to do that?” Not that she was taking over, mind you. She just wanted to help as much as possible, getting both hands in the water, so to speak. But, believe me, it’s an area of life that I’ll probably still be wrestling with until the day I make my transition from this world to the next.
And I wonder – do you, too, ever feel as if you are threatened in some way by others? Do we, as a faith community, perhaps, struggle with authority and territorialism? Could some folk see us as threatening, manipulating, dominating, or abusive? Are we insecure when it might appear that someone else is taking over – using “my” space, “my” resources”, “my” whatever it might be? Or is your – my – our authority helpful, empowering, inclusive, and embracing?
The Christian community in Philippi was no young fledgling church, having existed long enough to endear itself to Paul. Because of the peoples’ continued support of his ministry, o f all the churches, their contributions were among the only ones he accepted. But over time had come the perennial, age-old congregational enemies – internal dissent, and external threat.
When he wrote this letter, Paul was in prison, and faced an uncertain future. His life hung in the balance, and he struggled to come to terms with his precarious situation. In the face of possible death, faced with hardship, and suffering, Paul also realized that he did not live for himself alone. His friends in Philippi needed him, as much as he needed them. And so, upon discovering encouragment and communion in the Spirit, Paul invited the Philippian community to the same, calling them to unity, to a life of self giving in which other toakes precedence over self, and to adopt the mind and practice of the Christ.
Paul’s appeal to the community begins with a set of “ifs”.
“Folks, if you've gotten anything at all out of following the Christ, if that One’s love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care, … Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves [in] the way [Jesus the] Christ” did.
In his book, The Pagan Christ, Tom Harpur helps me understand this “Christ” principle Paul talks about when he writes,
…Christ is every person and represents us all. … As each of us becomes aware of his or her true essence as a body-spirit entity, and awakens the Christ within, he or she too is Christ. … it’s a matter of knowing ourselves to be wholly one with the wholly one with the very same energies and principles that in the drama are shown driving [the Jesus figure]. … [Each] individual can discover that he or she is “imbued with a latent divinity.” … Jesus Christ, having “two natures in one person” becomes an accurate description of you and of me. It’s the true definition of any human life. …1
He goes on, noting that “…spirituality calls for the individual to take fullest responsibility for his or her own moral struggle…aided…by the constant presence of the Christ spirit within…to work out or own salvation…” 2
“…[The] Christ within us is indeed “the hope of glory” still to come…such a faith,…far from being escapist or life-avoiding, arms us with the … courage to live our lives to the fullest for the advancement of all…in the light of the eternal.” 3
I have a feeling there may be some football fans here this morning – am I right? Can you imagine what it would be like if the star quarterback stood up and said to head coach, “You know, Sir, I am the star Quarterback on this team, and I want to play all the time in every game. No, I demand it. There’s no way anyone else will ever be on the field as long as I’m part of this team.” Can you imagine the chaos, let alone team morale and the public kafuffle that would follow. He’d be given the opportunity to shrug the uniform sooner than he might think.
1 Harpur, Tom. The Pagan Christ. Page 156
2 page 187
3 page 193
And I wonder….do I act this way? Do you? Do we at FAM?
I shudder to even think that, as one of the staff members, anyone would ever get this attitude or impression from me or from anything I said. I cannot imagine any of our staff, or any of our committee chairs or members, even our chair of council acting in this way. Can you? Come to think of it…I can’t imagine anyone here in that way. And even if perhaps I can’t imagine it…I wonder…could it be happening…be true…anyway?
“ What I'm getting at, friends, ” wrote Paul, “is that you should simply keep on doing what you've done from the beginning. … Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God's energy, an energy deep within you, God willing and working at what will give [God] the most pleasure.”
The perceived rabble-rouser – the one who threatened the ones with authority – the ones in charge – responded to the question with his own: “About the baptism of John – who authorized it: heaven or humans?” For the ones who tried to trap him, he sprung a trap, and stood the situation on its head.
Jesus’ commitment to God’s dream and vision for the world was closely tied to John’s, but in a different way – for instead of a future Shalom, Jesus proclaimed, and lived, it as already present, as a gift.
”John came…showing you the right road. … the crooks and whores believed him. [Yet] even when you saw their changed lives, you didn't care enough to change…”
“Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. … He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. … he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! [And] having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless… life and then died a selfless… death … Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honoured him”
And that authority – that Shalom – that power to help, encourage, embrace, and uplift “other”? That, Matthew’s Jesus-figure proclaimed, is already present, as a gift. And we can live now…in the power of the future.
Thanks be to God! And may it be so.