SCRIPTURE:
TEXT: THEME: INTRODUCTION The sermon series for Lent is based on two things: Living our Belief and building on our foundation of faith. It seems that the Lenten Lectionary part from the Epistles (The Lectionary selects readings from the OT, Wisdom, Gospel, and Epistles for each Sunday) seem to be not just about believing but on living what we believe about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Letting these influences shape our lives and what we do in very practical ways. Paul is a living example of what he preaches, as from a prison cell he writes this encouragement to the church in Philippi. He is not trying to replicate the Jewish religion in Philippi, but building upon that foundation, to follow God into creating something new, the community of the church, citizen of heaven. SCRIPTURE We were always entertained by those who can take on the likeness, mannerisms and voices of famous people. There were variety shows on TV where impersonator would do their act imitating celebrities. Rich Little, Sammy Davis Jr. and Jim Carrey would do their impressions. Much like how Saturday Night Live has their actors do impression of political leaders for their skits. They would take on a few nuances, voice pattering and contort their faces to look like them but they could never replicate or replace the person they were impersonating. They could never get rid their own persona completely. That being said I don’t think what Paul wants us to be our copies of himself. But to take his example, living faithfully and to find encouragement for us to live our belief in our lives, even if causes sorrow and pain. At the Aha Pae’aina, a colleague listen carefully to what was being expressed, about a motion, then skillfully added a friendly amendment to it to make it more palatable for most people to accept. That is something imitation worthy. There are couples who always treat each other with respect in the way they address each other. You can see the kindness they had for each other with their manners and gentle tone. Something else imitation worthy. It is easier for us to do this when we realize God’s love for us. Maybe shifting from seeing human kind as problematic, to seeing human kind as good, as a blessing, just as God pronounces at creation. And then to see God’s enduring, caring, long suffering love for us. God’s love rejoices, embraces, heals, and desires the very best for us all along the way. God never abandons us, never gives up on us, always hopes and is not there to punish us (although there are consequences to our actions good and bad). We have the example of Jesus recorded in the Gospels to model how to treat each other with grace, love, kindness, revealing truth and drawing us to God. This kind of love is imitation worthy. There is a retired pastor, who is gifted in taking complicated theological ideas and relates them in sermons in plain and practical applications. Illuminating the truth of God for the everyday person. It takes meditation, wisdom, empathy and deep theological study (although he would never admit it). This is imitation worthy. In light of so much evil in our world. And now with the invasion of Russia into Ukraine, as details continue to unfold, stories of valor, courage, sacrifice, endurance and triumph over a formidable evil, from average, everyday people are imitation worthy. So, what if we have to pay more for gas, right?! It is easy to give up on some people. Especially the ‘enemies of the cross’ who persecute Christians, who chose not to follow Jesus’ way. To think that evil has consumed them so completely that there is nothing redeemable in them. But former Senator John Lewis’ words remind us, that through the nonviolent protests, the degrading treatment he had receive, the inequity just because his ancestry is different from the dominant culture, and through the beatings, the incarcerations, and personal sufferings he endured, he says, “we never give up on anyone”. This is imitation worthy. As Paul did so following Christ’s example, and John Lewis did so following Paul’s example. We too can try to imitate them. As citizens of heaven, we take those good examples and adapt them in our living. We create our own versions of God’s wisdom, and Christ’s love with our lives and persona, personal style and flare. Okay I am going to say it again, “this is what our Christian lives look like when we focus on Resurrection Living, instead of focusing on the Cross only for our salvation.:” Our Salvation comes from living in relationship with God the creator of Heaven, Jesus the ruler of all and with the help of the Holy Spirit loving each other. Inspiration from the resurrection is imitation worthy. APPLICATION Jesus’ death on the cross can be seen by some as a huge failure to his movement. Jesus’ death on the cross has become a generous transaction of debt and payment. But what if we see Jesus’ death on the cross as Jesus’ commitment not to back down on loving us, on teaching us, on revealing to us, and never giving up on loving us. How does the suffering shame of the cross figure into our relationship as citizens of Heaven? Here is something interesting to consider from a different tradition. Humans in different cultures, setting, and practices all wrestle with the same problems of our humanity and we all get partial glimpses of glory. Zen master Thich Nat Hanh says, “When you are mindful, you can recognize, embrace, and handle the pain, the sorrow in you and around you, to bring you relief.” “If you continue with concentration and insight, you’ll be able to transform the suffering inside and help transform the suffering around you.” He says this is a miracle, because “you are not trying to run away from suffering anymore, and you know how to make use of suffering in order to build peace and happiness.” In our Christian tradition we don’t have to do all of this work by ourselves, because God is there to guide us and give us insight as well as the example of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit that gives us more self-control than we would muster on our own. This is the interesting point he makes as he talks about the Kingdom of God and about how we are to live today as citizens of heaven: “Yeah, because I could not like to go to a place where there is no suffering. I could not like to send my children to a place where there is no suffering, because in such a place they have no ways to learn how to be understanding and compassionate. And the Kingdom of God is a place where there is understanding and compassion; and therefore, suffering should exist.” If this is true, then living our belief makes us citizens of Heaven and we are living in the Kingdom of God now. CONCLUSION Living our belief has a practical aspect of not trying to escape from the suffering in our world, but having the tools, resources, relationships and ability to have understanding and compassion to inform our living with those around us. We have good examples for us to follow in God’s love for us, in Christ’s love for us, in the examples of the Saints like Paul and the local ones who live among us. Then our Christian life become one we can live, unique to us, built on the eclectic imitating of those who have come before us and new twist that we add on, building upon those foundations of faith.
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