Who's Number 1?; Mark 9:30-38

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

We’re Number 1!! We’re Number 1!! We hear that a lot don’t we? We have a strong sense of competition in the United States. Competitive sports teams make billions of dollars and claim millions of fans in every corner of the country. We root, root, root for the home team and when the Titans don’t win, well we’re getting used to it. Sports are not the only thing that we are competitive about. Probably more competitive than sports is the pursuit of wealth. We want money and the stuff that money buys. I heard a comedian say one time that life is a game and we win when we have lots of money. Sometimes we don’t want money for ourselves, but we have to keep up with those Joneses down the street.

I have a friend who has a brother and a sister; both of them are married with children. Now the sister bought a new car, not just because she wanted a new car, but because she had a growing family and the car she had was inadequate. We not a month later the brother had bought a new car only it was bigger and presumably more expensive. The sister bought a house, not too big but a nice quaint little one story house, six months later the brother had bought a new house but it was two stories and brick. The brother then bought a camper and a boat. The brother and his wife try their best to outdo his sister. We see that all the time, sometimes we are guilty of it ourselves. John Smith bought a new truck then we think we need a new truck; we are competing in some kind of game that we have invented in our minds and we never win, because someone always has something nicer. Does this pursuit, this competition make us happier?

Jesus and the disciples are walking down the road toward this village where they were going to stay for the night. The disciples have separated themselves from Jesus and have been arguing about something. When they reach the house Jesus asks them what they were arguing about. Now this is one of those rhetorical questions that we hear from Jesus a lot. It is kind of like when our parents caught us in the act of doing something bad and they ask, “What is going on here?” Jesus knew what they were arguing about, but he wanted to see their reaction. Their reaction is like our reaction to our parent’s question…stunned silence. The disciples knew that they had done something wrong and they thought they hidden it from Jesus, but alas it’s hard to hide things from God. Jesus knows that the have been arguing about who is the greatest among the twelve. Who is top dog, right behind Jesus? So, Jesus takes them and sits down with them in the house. Now this is the posture of a teacher, so in a way Jesus is saying “OK, Class its time for a lesson”, so we know what is to follow is important. Then Jesus once again, completely blows their minds. “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” WHEEW I can imagine you could have heard a pin drop. This is not what was expected. People then are like people now, they want to be the best. The goal in life was to be the best in whatever occupation you had, and to rise above and be successful. The Roman government was filled with people who competed with one another for power, the same for the Jewish temple priests. And now their teacher is telling them if they want to be top dog they have to be the flea. It doesn’t make sense, it is illogical. But then what about the Gospel is logical?

Jesus teaches that we have to work hard not to be the first, but to be the last not just last, but to be a servant. We have a term that we use in ministry called servant leadership. I never heard that term before I began my journey in ministry. It means that we lead others not by bossing them around, but by humbling ourselves and leading b y example. We see servant leadership in John, when Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. Jesus wanted to show the disciples that they should go into the world and serve in whatever way was needed, even if it meant doing to lowliest job.

Jesus then says something else. Jesus picks up one of the children in the household and says anyone who welcomes a child like this welcomes not only me but also God. We think this is just another example of Jesus being kind and sweet. We have pictures in our mind of children playing around Jesus and he is smiling at their innocence. We think that Jesus is referring to the fact that we have to welcome the innocent children, but that is not exactly the point Jesus was trying to make. In order to fully understand the significance of this act, we must first understand the status of children in the days of Jesus.

Unlike today, children in the days of Jesus were considered not just second class citizens, but non-persons. Their social status was lower than that of women and even household servants. They were defiantly considered the lowliest of humans. So Jesus is making a bold political statement. He is saying that if you welcome this non-person, this lowliest of the lowly, then you welcome him, King of kings and Lord of lords and not only this but you are welcoming God the creator, the father. He is putting himself at the same level as the lowest in society.

Who would fit that criterion today? It would the homeless person on the street. It would be the single mother who has been shunned. It would be the person suffering with AIDS. It would be migrant worker who doesn’t speak English. It is the poor and marginalized where ever you might find them. He is saying if you want to be truly great if you want to be number one then you must be welcoming not just to those on your same social level but to all people even the lowest of the low. You must open your home, share your food, and your love with all people no matter how low on the totem pole they are. We must be humble if we are going to be exalted.

This leads us to the first verse that we read from Mark; see the last will be first. Jesus tells the disciples that he will be killed and then will rise again. Mark says that the disciples did not understand the meaning behind these words. They did not understand that Jesus had to humble himself even to the humility of the Cross in order to be exalted above every other name. Sometimes we fail to fully understand what the cross means. We say “Christ died for our sins” but we forget what that meaning behind it. The disciples didn’t understand the meaning behind it until Jesus had been resurrected. They didn’t understand that since God is the greatest God had to make the greatest sacrifice. God had to be the greatest servant. Jesus laid down his life on the cross for many reasons; one reason was as a display of ultimate servanthood that being a Christian is not coming to church or donating money or even preaching a sermon, but it is service and if we want to be first for Christ than we the last for humanity.

This is not what society teaches us. Society teaches us that we work and strive to be the greatest so we don’t have to serve but so we can be served; to hob-knob with the rich and famous not welcome the common. Society wants to fly first class not dish out soup in a rescue mission.

Jesus didn’t have to be born in a feeding trough; he could have been born in a palace filled with gold and jewels. Jesus didn’t have to be born to a poor working family; he could have been born to a king or an emperor. Jesus didn’t have to walk around with 12 guys from place to place homeless; he could have been chauffeured by a chariot. Jesus could have not died a humiliating death on a cross; but the world changed because he did. The greatest moment in the history of the world was not a moment of grandeur and spectacle, but a humble, humiliating death on a cross. The greatest became last and servant of all.

My family went to Washington DC about 12 years ago and one of the places that we stopped was the Hard Rock Café. I thought it was so cool, this was before they put on in Nashville. I bought a hat and on the back a slogan was embroidered and it blew me away because it was something that I never expected. It read “Love All, Serve All”. I thought that is a perfect slogan for Christianity. That is what, if we boil it down to its most simple form, Christ wants from us, to love all and to serve all. We all want to do our best for Christ, we all want to be number 1 in his eyes, but in order to do that we must humble ourselves and be last in order welcome and serve the others. Amen.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Suit Up and Stand Strong: Ephesians 6:10-20

We are at war. You do not need me to tell you that. Unless you have been living in cave, unless you are in a cave with Osama Bin Laden, for the last five years you know that our nation is in the midst of a struggle with terrorists. We use the metaphor of war a lot in our country. We have declared war on drugs, war on poverty, a war on crime, and others. People understand the meaning of war, two groups battling against one another for control.

Paul uses the war metaphor in his letter to the Ephesians. We talked about the Ephesians a few weeks ago so to recap, Paul as established a new church in Ephesus, which is in modern day Turkey, and he is writing a letter back to them to aid them in their struggle as newly formed Believers. As, Paul is concluding his letter, he mentions to the Ephesians that they must prepare for a kind of spiritual warfare. Their enemy as believers are not those of flesh and blood, even flesh and blood could take their lives; remember that Christians were persecuted at that time. The real enemy was the “cosmic powers of darkness” and the “spiritual forces of evil”. We today have the same enemy, and the reason that we should worry more about this kind of an enemy instead of the ones of flesh and bone is because the spiritual enemy can affect not just the physical but also the spiritual. They can attack our relationship with God.

Who are these enemies? The first answer you might receive is Satan. The devil is the enemy to the Christian. He is the one that is root cause of all the evil in the world. Now, we can spend a long time discussing and analyzing the aspects and characteristics of Satan and trying to uncover the source of evil in the world, but instead let us look at forces of evil that we might be more familiar with. How about hate? There is a lot of hate in the world today; we see it not just on the news but in our own lives. What about fear? We’ve talked about this force of evil a lot. Fear can destroy faith and can prevent us from living full lives and from fulfilling our responsibilities as a church which is to make disciples. What about sinfulness? This can accompany a whole list of problems that we face. There is so much temptation out there that it is almost overwhelming. What about lies and deceit? This affects our relationships to the very core. The lack of trust will destroy marriages and friendships. What can we do with all this evil in the world?

God does not leave us alone in our battle. Remember that David was successful only because he has God’s power with him. Moses defeated Pharaoh because God was with him. Jesus withstood the temptations of the devil because God was with him. So the first thing we must do is to be strong.

Whose strength do we cling to, our own? Be strong not in ourselves but in the Lord. God has always demonstrated his strength in the weakness of humans. We remember story after story in the Bible about how God doesn’t chose the strongest, oldest, or even the smartest, but with the strength of God they accomplish anything. So before we take a step out of this church and into the world filled with the forces of evil we must first and foremost be strong in God. This signifies a relationship. We are dependent on the strength of God; we cannot succeed or even survive without God backing us up. Paul sums this notion up in another letter to a church in Philippi, when he says “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me”.

Once we have put our trust and dependence on God then we must put on. We must put on the whole armor of God. Note the word whole. We have to depend fully on God and put on all the armor he provides because if one part is missing then we are vulnerable. *SHOE ILLUSTRATION*

Paul also says to take up the armor of God. The word take in this case comes from the Greek and refers to the preparations of a warrior before battle, when they would put on their armor. So we must take up or suit up with God’s armor before we enter battle.

What is the armor of God? Paul makes a list of the different pieces of armor that most people of the time would be familiar with and then assigns and attribute of the spiritual help that God provides for us. First, Paul describes the belt of truth. A belt is something that we are all familiar with. It holds our pants up, keeps things held together as we move through the day. Truth is the foundation of our lives. Truth is related to trust. If our relationships with others, family, friends, is filled with lies and deceit then everything falls apart. We may be able to hold our lies together but we always end up having to tell more lies to cover up the first one we told. It’s like wear pants with no belt and you have ton constantly have to pull them up and tug on them to keep from being exposed. Eventually our pants fall down and our lies are brought to the surface. A belt of truth holds everything together. Being honest with one another provides a foundation to our relationships and holds everything together. Also, God’s truth holds us together; the truth of the Cross fastens us and holds us against the attacks of the forces of evil.

Second, Paul describes the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate was worn to protect the heart and vitals organs from attack. Righteousness is holiness, morality, justice, and the attributes of God. So, righteousness or Godliness protects our hearts from the assailments of evil. Remember the demoniac that Jesus healed. After he had exorcised the demon, Jesus said if the person remained empty then the demon would return with seven others more evil than itself. The point is that if our hearts are empty then we are venerable, but if we are filled with the righteousness of God then our hearts are protected from the forces of evil. Paul also means that we must have pure hearts. Remember David, he had a pure heart when he faced Goliath; he wanted only to serve God and wanted only God’s glory. So, if we have the same attitude then we can be protected, we must have God’s will in mind in all that we do.

The next item on the list is shoes. Paul says to put on whatever shoes we need to proclaim the gospel of truth. I wore my sneakers here on purpose. We have to be swift of foot, ready to move quickly at a moments notice. In those days, messengers had to send news of a peace treaty to all parts of the kingdom to prevent further death and destruction. Sometimes they would make it, sometimes they would not. Remember the Battle of New Orleans, it was Andrew Jackson’s finest moments as a military leader and it was a great victory for the United States, the only problem is that it came after a treaty ended the WAR of 1812, but neither side knew it. The gospel of Jesus Christ is one of peace and reconciliation. We must be swift to spread this good news to all that need to hear it. We have to put on our Nikes or our New Balances in order to be fast in our proclamation.

Paul then talks about the shield of faith that quenches the flaming arrows. The reference comes from the practice of Roman soldiers who would soak their leather shield in water before battle to prevent them from catching on fire if the enemy shot flaming arrows at them. We have talked about faith quite a bit because I think it is important. We talked about how the only thing that can fight fear is faith and the only thing that can destroy faith is fear. There are a lot of things to be afraid of in this day and age. Terrorism, economic downturn, illness all these things can destroy our faith like a fire. We must hold tough to our faith in God and no matter how many flaming arrows of fear get shot our way we can defend ourselves.

Next is the helmet of salvation. A helmet protects the head and our brain. Our salvation gives us a mind like Christ. We have the knowledge from Scripture that gives us the strength to face the world and when the forces of evil attack we are protected with the knowledge that God’s grace is sufficient for us and that God’s love can never be taken away from us.

The final piece of armor is the most interesting, the sword of the Spirit. Unlike the rest of the armor described by Paul the sword is an offensive weapon, used to attack. This lets us know that the battle is not simply us repelling the attacks of the forces of evil but it is also us going into the world with the sword of the Spirit which is also the Word of God. The word of God is our offensive weapon. When we proclaim God’s word we are attacking the evil in the world, each time someone understands that God loves them and that God’s grace is feely available to them then the forces of evil have lost a battle and God has gained a warrior.

We must remain vigilant and pray that we will have to strength of God when the attack comes and come it will. No one ever said that being a Christian was easy, we have targets on our heads and we must be ready to battle for God. We must do three things 1) Be Strong not in our own selves but in God; 2) Put On the WHOLE armor of God not missing one part; finally 3) Take Up the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes to proclaim the gospel of truth, the shied of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. We must prepare to serve God in a world that does not want to hear the truth. We can’t just stay put and wait till the evil attacks, we must go into the world and be soldiers of the Cross.

When a Good Thing Goes Bad: Sermon Mark 7:1-8

America loves tradition. Our country is steeped in traditions. We have ceremonies, songs, symbols, and places that make us feel more American. This weekend begins another tradition that many Americans especially southern Americans enjoy; college football. This weekend is the beginning of a season that makes many men happy and many wives and fiancés sad and grumpy.

But college football is immersed in tradition. Stadiums like Bryant-Denny, Jordan-Hare, Michigan Stadium, the Rose Bowl, and of course Neyland Stadium stand like cathedrals in honor of what many consider a religion. Certain traditions are specific to a particular university. For example, the University of Tennessee has the Vol Walk where players walk through the crowds to the stadium, the Pride of the Southland Marching Band forming the “T” and players running through it, and of course Rocky Top. Traditions are not limited to sports. Think for a moment about all the traditions we have when it comes to holidays in this country. Halloween is coming up in a few weeks with dressing up, carving jack-o-lanterns, and handing out candy to the kids. Thanksgiving just isn’t Thanksgiving without turkey and dressing, eating too much, and taking a nap during the football game. Let’s not even get started on all the traditions tied in with Christmas, by the way only 112 shopping days left.

The joy of tradition is the repetitive observance of the tradition. We look forward to these days all year long and we get all worked up and excited and then we just have a ball. Traditions are good things. We will talk about the positives in a minute, but like anything there can be too much of a good thing.

The Church is not without its traditions. In fact, many of the things we celebrate during church service come from tradition. The doxology, the Gloria Patri, the singing of hymns, and the Eucharist that we celebrate today all come from traditions that started centuries ago. Our own denomination has a long standing history stemming from the Anglican Church in England and the Holy societies and groups started by John Wesley.

Traditions reconnect us to the past. We are united by things in the past that we can share commonly. The hymns that we sing and the affirmation of faith we say at each service are many years old and yet they are still relevant today one reason why is they reconnect us back to our past and our history. It is a wonderful think about the same hymns have been sung in this church for many, many years. All Christians can reconnect to the traditions of the Sacraments, baptism and Communion, they did not just come up in a last few years but are 100s of years old and they help us to remember that Christianity isn’t a new fad that comes and goes but it is the Church that is founded on the rock of Christ.

Traditions help to unite people together in community. We talked about college football earlier. The traditions of each school help to unite the fans and alumni of that school together as a cohesive community. The tradition of the United Methodist cross and flame symbol unites us together as United Methodists. Wherever you go in the world and you see that symbol you know that those people are Untied Methodists. The traditions of the Jewish people at the time of Jesus help unite them and keep them united in a time that they were occupied by the Roman government. They could cling to the traditions of their forefathers and remember that they were God’s chosen people.

Traditions also help us to make decisions as a united community. When the Church has an issue that it is dealing with we have a tendency to look back at what we have done before. John Wesley used the traditions of past theologians to help him find his own way through Scripture. So we see the importance of traditions not only in our lives as individuals but as a community and as a Church.

Our Scripture lesson this morning comes from Mark and in it Jesus is having a confrontation with the Pharisees. The Pharisees come up to Jesus and the disciples and accused them all of not following the Jewish laws. They say the disciples do not wash properly before they eat, so in a sense they are calling Jesus and disciples dirty. Does Jesus take this lightly? No, Jesus turns right around and tells the Pharisees that they have become so wrapped up in their traditions that they have lost the big picture. They have lost their connection with God. They have traded in their relationship with God for their own traditions. Instead of being dependent upon God they have put their entire faith on their rituals.

So, you see traditions can be a good thing that goes bad. Traditions can reconnect us to the past, but they can also keep us in the past. I have seen many churches get into the “Well this is the way, we’ve always done it” syndrome. We have a tendency to fear any kind of change or adjustment to our church routine. We come in we sing, we stand, we sit, we listen to a sermon, we sing some more, we put the money in the plate, we shake the preachers hand and we go about our day. We have service on Sundays, Communion on the first Sunday of the month, and we might have a Christmas and Easter services if we feel like it, and don’t go a changing it preacher. It’s a good thing to hold on to our traditions but sometimes we get in such a rut that we need to break out of it. I don’t want our time with God to become routine, but to be renewing and rejuvenating each week. I don’t want us to do things in the future just because it’s what we’ve always done, but to reach out to our community and to have faith that God will do great things for us if we take some chances. The Pharisees were so connected to the past that they failed to see the future God had in store for them, a future with Christ.

Traditions can unite a community together, but it can also exclude those people who are not members of the community. Sometimes we get so used to the people around us that we tend to not be welcoming to those who want to join our community. Also, we can be unreceptive to people that belong to a different community than our own and who practice different traditions. We see this in the story from Mark. The Pharisees were hostile to Jesus and the Disciples because they were not practicing the traditions that they were accustom. They were different and so they were not welcome to join the community.

Jesus was welcoming. He allowed people of all social classes, races, and ages to come and join him in his ministry. He did not pass judgment on those who sought God’s kingdom even though they were a part of a different community and therefore had different traditions. The Church, as the Body of Christ, must also be welcoming even to those who might be different from us. We must welcome those who dress, talk, act, and think differently that we do. It is easy to welcome someone who is just like we are, but it is much more challenging to be receptive to those who are different.

The Communications Board of the United Methodist Church created a slogan a few years ago, entitled “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors, The People of the United Methodist Church”. I have seen some of you with that bumper sticker on your cars. It’s a catchy slogan and one that we feel good about, however, if we are going to use that slogan than we have live that slogan. Our churches must be open to all people of all races, social classes, and cultures. We must make the church a home for all people and be an open community to all people who wish to worship God. This is our new tradition that will carry us into the future.