Staunton Mennonite Weblog

Kevin Gasser

Staunton Mennonite Church

7/20/08

Matthew 9:14-17

14Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” 15And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. 17Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

This has been a busy week for Sonya and me.  We closed on our home in Staunton last Friday, the 11^th.  Since then we have spent late nights painting rooms and cupboards, packing boxes and moving them South on 81, and loading a large truck to transplant all of our possessions from Harrisonburg to Staunton.  Then we started unpacking all of those trucks and boxes yesterday.  We are beginning a new life here in Staunton.

            We have enjoyed being in the city, sitting on our front porch, sipping iced tea.  We moved into a house that has been on the market for 18 months, and it has sat empty most of that time.  So the neighbors have been excited to see that the house is now occupied.  Just the other night, as we were sitting outside with a couple of you, a neighbor was riding his bike by and he noticed that “new” people were in the house on Springhill Rd.  So he stopped by to say hello.  We have received a number of friendly waves and introductions.  My next-door neighbor even brought me over ice cream one day because she thought I had been working too hard in the hot weather.

            All of this is to say that I am excited to be living in the city of Staunton.  I think this just might work.  It takes me all of five minutes to drive to the church and Sonya knocks off about 25 miles from her commute to work.  We are a block and a half away from the park and we hope to take in a lot of the free concerts and events.  Maybe they will let me on that train sometime.  On top of all of this, we are now only minutes away from many of your homes.  So what advantage do I see in living in Staunton?  We are now living, working, worshipping, and serving in one community.  I feel we are going to be building relationships with many people in this city.  And now our religious lives and our social lives don’t have to be separate.  We are ready for this city, and I think that this city is ready for us.

            Our scripture for this morning has a lot to do with changes as well.  But it isn’t a new house that Jesus is talking about, but a new movement; a movement that would later be called Christianity.  Our scripture begins with John the Baptist’s disciples approaching Jesus and asking him why his disciples do not observe the fasting rituals of the Jewish community.  They fast, the Pharisees fast, it seems like the thing to do.  All of the “religious” people are fasting.  So why don’t Jesus and his disciples fast?

            Now we can’t say for sure what fasting ritual Jesus and his disciple were not adhering to, but it is clear that they were not doing something that was expected of them.  And Jesus’ reply is that a wedding guest cannot mourn as long as a groom is with them.  He uses the metaphor of a wedding, where he, Jesus, is the groom.  This is a metaphor that Jesus uses a number of times in the New Testament.  He is the groom to be married to the people who follow him, who we might call the church.  They were in a covenanted relationship with one another, much like a husband and a wife.  And there was much reason to celebrate.  So why mourn while they should be celebrating?  This was a party.  There would be plenty of time to mourn in the future.  When Jesus mentions that there will be a time when the bridegroom is taken from the people and that they will mourn, he is obviously telling the people about his coming death.  And when he is taken away from the people, then they will mourn and fast.  But until then, it is time to enjoy life.

            But Jesus doesn’t stick with this subject for long.  He is ready to move off the subject of fasting and move on to something more important; his ministry and purpose on earth.  Jesus goes from one metaphor to another, telling how nobody sews a piece of unshrunk cloth to an old garment.  Because if you do, when you wash the patched garment, the unshrunk patch will shrink and the previously shrunk garment will not shrink.  So the new patch will tear away from the material that it was intended to patch.  And what happens to the old garment?  It is torn worse!  The very thing that was intended to fix the problem is now making it worse.

            Then continuing with this old and new motif, Jesus says that you don’t put new wine into old wineskins.  Because if you do, the wineskins will burst and the wine will be lost.  See in Jesus’ day, after grapes were squished into juice, the juice was stored in animal skins that were sewed up on the sides and allowed to ferment to preserve the juice.  They couldn’t can or freeze the juice, so they kept it long term in skins, fermented to preserve the juice (and they probably didn’t mind the alcohol).

            But when we allow something to ferment, it produces carbon dioxide.  And this excess gas has to go somewhere, so it builds up pressure in the skins.  Eventually, after enough pressure builds, the animal skins are stretched to accommodate the built up gas pressure.  However, if an old skin is used to hold the wine, it cannot stretch anymore.  It has reached its stretching threshold.  So what happens?  It explodes like an over-inflated balloon.

            Now the thing about Jesus and his metaphors is that he doesn’t always explain them.  And this confused and frustrated people in Jesus’ day just as much as it confuses and frustrates people today.  People today might read this and get frustrated thinking, “why doesn’t he ever tell us what he means?”  But I think it is ingenious, because by not prescribing an interpretation of his parables and metaphors, Jesus prevents us from looking at these parables as only referring to one thing.  Instead, they can be applied (correctly and incorrectly) in many different ways.

            In this instance, I believe that Jesus is saying that the message that he is bringing is not simply an add-on to the lives that the Jews were currently living.  He was not bringing a new law to add to the other laws, like fasting laws.  To do so would be like sewing a new piece of cloth on an old garment.  He wasn’t bringing a new law, but a new way of life.  A life grounded in the Jewish traditions, but so much more.  I am not saying that Jesus came to start a new religion, but to change the lives of Jewish people (see John Howard Yoder’s The Jewish-Christian Schism Revisited http://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Christian-Schism-Revisited-Radical-Traditions/dp/0802813623).

            One thing that I have had to learn as we have moved into our new house is that there are certain things that require a little bit of time to work out the details.  For instance, when our place was uninhabited for all of that time, the previous owners didn’t want to pay as much for their utility bills.  So they turned their water heater off.  So when we started moving in, we didn’t have any hot water.

            Then as we planned to spend our first night here on Tuesday, Sonya reminded me to turn on the water heater so that she could have a hot shower in the morning before work.  I forgot to do that; she had a cold shower the next morning.  So one of the first lessons that I have learned since our move is that if you want results, sometimes you have to actually turn the knob to get something started.

So as I walk through the streets of Staunton, I can probably assume that a large number of the people that I come up to do not belong to or attend a church on a regular basis.  This isn’t to say that they don’t believe in God.  I bet most of these non-church goers believe in God in some way.  But there are so many people that have become disinterested in church because of the false piety, the overly simplified spirituality, and the failed fruits tests of evangelical Christianity in the United States.  Essentially, I believe that these people have lost their faith in the church, not their faith in God.

            I think that is one of the major reasons why Christianity seems to be in such a decline in the United States today.  Because we don’t see lives being changed when people become Christians.  And in part, I blame this on how we “sell” Christianity today.  We tell people that they are sinners, and that is true.  Nobody I know would say that they never make any mistakes.  We are not perfect, and we know it.  But then we tell them that they don’t have to change.  There is nothing that we can do, we are all sinners, right?  All they have to do is say the sinner’s prayer and then they are set for life.  That is all that it takes.  So what do these people do?  They say “Sure, I can do that.”  They pray and then they keep on sinning.  Christianity becomes an add-on, something that you just add to your current life and expect it will be better.  But that isn’t the way it works.  You don’t become a Christian, pray that God improves your marriage, and then keep cheating on your spouse.  You don’t pray that God delivers you from alcoholism and then keep going to the bars every night.  We have responsibilities as Christians.  Responsibilities for living our lives as Christ lived his while helping others to find this way as well.

            Jesus said that you don’t sew a new piece of unshrunken cloth on an old garment.  Things are made worse if you do.  And when Christianity becomes just an add-on to your current life rather than being an entire change in lifestyle, we are putting a new piece of cloth on an old garment.  It just makes things worse.  And non-Christians see this and they are turned off by Christianity.

Staunton has become new wine skins for us.  This is where we live; we are contained by this city.  And I believe we must become new wine for the city.  And by we, I mean us, Staunton Mennonite Church.  We are new wine for this new wine skin that we find ourselves in.  We are stewards of a message that I believe this city is hungry for.  For almost 500 years Anabaptists have emphasized what is often called Radical Discipleship, following not only Jesus’ teachings, but following him in his actions as well.  Anabaptists refused to accept cheap grace, but instead were willing to pay the ultimate price for the grace of God; they were willing to lay down their life for Jesus Christ.

            And this radical discipleship, this following Jesus in word and deed is something that we still see today in the Mennonite Church.  Christianity isn’t just some add-on to our current lives.  It isn’t just some piece of cloth that we add on to a garment to try to cover a vacancy or a hole in our lives.  Christianity is a new way of life.  It is a new life, a new beginning.  And I believe that the Anabaptist message and the emphasis on Radical Discipleship is the new wine that this city needs.

            I think that the best thing we can do is to be exactly what those outside of the church don’t expect the church to be.  We need to be people living as a part of the Kingdom of God here on earth.  We need to practice what we preach.  We need to turn the other cheek, we need to offer forgiveness, even when an apology is not first offered.  We need to pray for peace and work for peace.  We need to live first as citizens of the Kingdom of God, making sure that others know that we have no other priority, no greater allegiance, and no stronger conviction than our priority, allegiance, and convictions for the Kingdom of God.  Christianity isn’t just an add-on.  It is a way of life.

            In a world obsessed with buying, money, and power, we have a message of simplicity in the Mennonite Church.  Why buy new what you can buy used?  That’s why Mennonites love thrift shops.  Jesus was a poor, homeless man.  It is confusing when non-Christians see so many Christians buying million dollar houses with guest quarters that sit empty most of the time while our brothers and sisters down the street have nothing to eat or perhaps even a place to sleep.  Jesus was a man of much love, much compassion, and much joy.  But he wasn’t a man of many possessions.  If we claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, then we need to be followers of Jesus Christ.  The simplicity of the Mennonite tradition is appealing to those in the city of Staunton looking to escape the traps and lies of consumerism.  As Stauntonians find that you cannot buy happiness, they will appreciate Jesus’ message of simply living so that others might simply live.  Christianity isn’t just an add-on.  It is a way of life.

            We have a war that has been going on now for over five years.  There have been over 4,000 American military deaths and over 1 million Iraqi deaths due to this war.  And I believe that many Americans are tired of this fighting in a war we do not understand.  Then we find people like the Anabaptist Ron Sider who started Christian Peacemaker Teams as an alternative to fighting, instead working as Jesus would to reconcile people’s differences.  Christian Peacemaker Teams has had a ministry set up in Iraq since October of 2002, six months before the war on terror began.  These peace workers are trying to find ways to fight terror, build relationships, and eliminate conflict without the unnecessary loss of lives.  And just as soldiers are willing to lay down their lives in battle, Christian Peacemakers are willing to lay down their lives for Christ.  I think this is appealing to the people of Staunton, and to the people of the world.  People are starting to take notice of what Mennonites have been doing for hundreds of years.  Because Christianity cannot just be an add-on.  It is a way of life.

            So we are back in our new house now in Staunton, the day of my wife’s cold shower.  I turned on the water heater, and I intended to get cleaned up myself that evening.  But even after a couple of hours, the water was still pretty cold.  I hadn’t turned up the temperature enough.  I had to turn up the temperature on the water heater a few times until I got it where I wanted it to be.  This just goes to show that even after you get things started, they might need adjustment.  It might even require constant adjustment.

            In May we celebrated our 50^th anniversary here at Staunton Mennonite Church.  So there has been an Anabaptist witness here in Staunton for 50 years.  There are some here that are cradle Mennonites, meaning you have never been anything but Mennonite and never really known any other denomination.  And as I said earlier, Anabaptism traces back to the 16^th century.  This isn’t just something new to most of us.

            But it is new to many others.  If there are 30,000 people in the city of Staunton, and only 40 people here today, the message of Radical Discipleship is going to be new to 29,960 people.  For these 29,960 people, we have a message that is new wine to them.  And like the water heater in our new home, we need to continue to adjust our method of sharing this message with the people around us.

            The people of Staunton are hungry for the message that we have to share with them.  We have new wine for the new wineskins of Staunton.  For the many people that have not given up on God, but have given up on the church for whatever reason, we have a message.  Christ does change lives.  I hope that we can show people with the way we love them that Christianity is not simply an add-on to their lives, it is an entirely new way of life.   

Kevin Gasser

Staunton Mennonite Church

7/13/08

Psalm 19

1The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

2Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.

3There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard;

4yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun,

5which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy.

6Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them; and nothing is hid from its heat.

7The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple;

8the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes;

9the fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

10More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.

11Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

12But who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults.

13Keep back your servant also from the insolent; do not let them have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.

14Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

            A little old Christian lady comes out onto her front porch every morning and shouts, “Praise the Lord!”  And every morning her atheist neighbor yells back, “There is no God!”  This goes on for weeks.  “Praise the Lord!” yells the lady.  “There is no God!” responds the neighbor.

            As time goes by, the lady runs into financial difficulties and has trouble buying food.  She goes out onto the porch and asks God for help with groceries, then says, “Praise the Lord!”

            The next morning when she goes out onto the porch, there are the groceries she asked for.  Of course, she shouts, “Praise the Lord!”  The atheist jumps out from behind a bush and says, “Ha!  I bought the groceries.  There is no God!”

            The lady looks at her neighbor and smiles.  She shouts, “Praise the Lord!  Not only did you provide me with groceries, Lord, you made Satan pay for them!”  (Cathcart and Klein Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar…)

As I read the scripture for today, I find myself shouting “Amen”.  And I am not normally an amen shouter.  The first verse says that the heavens are telling of the glory of God, the firmament, the sky is proclaiming his handiwork.  In fact, the first six verses are poetry proclaiming the wonder of God that is seen in the beauty of the earth and the heavens.  What the Psalmist is talking about is the natural revelation of God, that God can be seen through the things that God has made.  We know that there is a creator because there is creation.  And since creation is glorious, we should assume that the creator is glorious as well.

In the opening chapters of Genesis we find the creation account where God made the night and day, the heavens and the earth, the land and the sea, the animals, vegetables, and the minerals.  We have creation and we have a creator.  And it is clear that they are separate.  It is God that initiated creation; it is God who started the entire process.  God is the un-moved mover.

            So the Psalmist is saying that this creator God is revealed through what he has created.  Creation is a testimony to God and it tells us a little about God.  We can see from creation that God is a lover of color.  We see flowers of every hue, rainbows adorning the sky, sunrises and sunsets.  In the fall we see an assortment of reds, yellows, oranges, and browns.  Even in people we can see that God has created us in many different colors and shades.  God is a lover of color.

            We can see from creation that God is a lover of diversity.  God is creative, having made both the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and the flat, treeless plains of Nebraska.  From the icy polar icecaps to the tropical rainforest, we see the creativity of God.  In the many animals, both four legged and two legged, we see that God is a planner.  God had an intention for the animals of the earth to exist side by side.  And even after God’s original plan for animals, namely humankind, was altered, we see that God was able to adapt his plan to allow the animals of the earth to feed off plants and other animals in a way that allows for the circle of life to continue.

            But yet there are those that continue to deny that there is a God.  There is no proof for a creator, they say.  I step out of my house and I view the trees and the grass, I smell the flowers and the fresh cut hay, I touch the warm soil and the cool breeze and I say, “How much proof do you need?”

            The debates go back longer than any of us have been alive.  Is there a creator or do we and everything around us exist by chance?  People have tried to explain away God with scientific theories and some of these theories do seem to have some credibility, like evolution.  But even evolutionists have problems answering one question.  Where did the first live being come from?  If we are all descendants from a single celled organism, how did that single celled organism come into being?  Was it a big bang?  Maybe crystals, or aliens (where did the aliens come from?)?  For some people, these theories seem to be more likely than to believe in a God who created all of the world as we know it.

            We can see that even back in the 1^st century, the Apostle Paul dealt with people that did not believe in God and Paul appealed to them by showing them the magnificence of God’s creation.  Paul writes in Romans 1:18-20, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth.  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made.  So they are without excuse.”  If you have seen what God has made, then you are without excuse.  How can you claim that there is no God after you have seen what he has made?

            Obviously we do not have a complete revelation of God in nature.  I think that nature shows us that there is a God, but a different revelation of God shows us who God is.  That revelation is the Bible.  Yet there are those that believe that they can disprove a creator God because of what they call “contradictions” between the Bible and science.  These people say that the Bible claims that the earth is only between 6,000 and 6,500 years old.  But science tells us that the earth is around 5 billion years old and the universe has parts that are as old as 12 billion years old!  So I guess this means that God isn’t real, right?

            2 Peter 3:8 tells us that for God, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like one day.  This doesn’t mean that each day of the creation story in Genesis represents a one thousand year period.  Instead Peter is saying that God is not bound by the limitation of earthly time.  Creation could have taken place in 6 24 hour periods or it could have taken place in 6 billion years.  Maybe creation is still taking place.  The point is that God is not bound by our time, nor should we try to limit God to our understanding of time.

            We make a mistake if we try to read Genesis 1 and 2 in a way it was not intended to be read.  And Genesis 1 and 2 were not written as a scientific textbook to be used to determine the age of the earth.  Genesis 1 and 2 were written as Hebrew poetry, intended to convey a message.  And the message that they were intended to convey is that God is the creator of the earth and everything in it.

            Sonya and I just got back last Monday from a week long trip that started with a couple nights in a cabin with her family in West Virginia.  We spent a lot of time hiking, sight-seeing, and even white water rafting.  Then Sonya and her family drove off to Nebraska while I drove to Ohio to see my family before joining them in the Cornhusker state.  I was driving alone and I was in no hurry, so I decided to take the scenic route.  And I loved it.  I drove through the mountains, which were poking their tops through the clouds like a prairie dog poking its head out of a hole.  The trees were so green, the water was so blue.  And as I drove along, I prayed, “God, how could anyone ever doubt your existence?  Your creation is magnificent and breathtaking.  I couldn’t even dream up something like this.”  At that moment, I had no doubt in my mind that God does exist and that he is the creator of the beauty with which I am now surrounded.

            Then the phone rang.  It was my friend Cindy, who in addition to being a pastor at Lindale Mennonite is also employed by the student life department at Eastern Mennonite University.  I could tell quickly that this phone call was not of a personal nature.  Cindy was calling with bad news.  At 9:05 on Wednesday morning, she told me that Matt Garber had drowned while swimming in Costa Rica.

            Many of us will remember Matt as one of the students that came to Staunton Mennonite as a part of the Young People’s Christian Association.  He was a part of this congregation for about two and a half years.  Matt was a gifted musician, often leading the congregational singing or accompanying us with his ability to sight read music that the song leader would call out without giving Matt any chance to prepare for.  Matt was also a gifted thinker.  He was a gifted church historian, an armchair theologian, and scientifically knowledgeable. 

            Matt graduated this past April with a degree in Nursing, receiving EMU’s cords of distinction.  He was involved in many extracurricular activities.  He touched many lives.  He was to start a position at Lancaster General Hospital in the Emergency Room after spending this summer with a missionary family in Costa Rica.  He wanted to be a nurse because, in his own words, “I was being called to minister to the sick, care for the dying, offer healing to the broken and hope to the distraught.”

            The last time Matt was in this building was November 4^th, 2007.  He played the piano at my ordination.  He had been in my home and in many of your homes as well.  Matt was a part of our church community, a part of the EMU community, and a part of the kingdom of God.

            So here I am, driving through the mountains of West Virginia, affirming the presence of God in the beauty of His creation which surrounded me, and I hear that this man after God’s own heart died a tragic death at 22 years of age.  This person who had planned to serve God with his life had that very life taken from him way too soon.  And I was angry.  I was alone in the car so me and God had it out for the next couple of hours.  How could the all-powerful creator God of the universe allow such a thing to happen to one of his own servants?  It was one thing when I processed my theology about the natural disasters in Myanmar, China, and the Midwest.  It was one thing to try to accept these disasters that happened to people I don’t know.  But this one hit too close to home.

            Now I didn’t question God’s existence when I got this bad news, but I did get pretty angry.  And believe me, I am not the first person to ever get angry with God.  Job got pretty angry with God after he lost his family and all that he owned.  Jeremiah got angry with God when he was rejected by the people for delivering his messages.  I bet Jesus was even a little angry as he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  So now it was my turn to be angry.

            Now we need to be careful with our anger.  I think it is okay to be angry with God like Job, Jeremiah, and Jesus were when they lost something precious to them or were being tortured for doing God’s will.  But I will throw in another J name whose anger toward God was not justified.  That was Jonah.  Remember that after Jonah preached to the Ninevites, Jonah wanted God to destroy the Ninevites because of their evil and wicked ways.  Jonah even set up on a hill and waited to watch God destroy these wicked people.  But what happened?  The people repented, God forgave them and spared them.  That is why Jonah God angry with God, because God spared the lives of the Ninevites.  Jonah got angry with God for acting…like God. Time and time again we read that God is slow to anger and abounding in love (Ex. 34:6; Num 14:18; Neh 9:17; Ps 86:15, 103:8; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2).  Jonah knew this about God, he even refers to God as one who is slow to anger and abounding in love.  So why be angry when God spares those he loves?  Jonah is angry at God because God acts within his own nature, because God acts like God.  The others are angry at God when God seems to act outside the nature of God.  And I believe that is when we are allowed to be angry at God as well.

            I remember clearly, however, learning that this is the one thing that God cannot do; God cannot act outside of his nature.  Otherwise, he would not be God.  So maybe it isn’t that God is acting outside of his nature when he allows people to die or suffer unjustly.  Maybe it is just God being selective in whom he saves and when he saves them.  And that brings up a huge question for me…Why?  Why save one and not another?  Why the Ninevites and not Job’s family or Matt Garber?  As Ronald Friesen wrote in his post on Matt’s memorial blog, this is one of the things we will never know this side of heaven.  But it will be on my list of things to ask.

            On that same blog, EMU president Loren Swartzentruber wrote something like, Two things I know for sure are that there is a God and that I am not Him.  And I think that sums things up pretty well for me right about now.  I don’t doubt that there is a God.  If I didn’t believe in God, then who am I angry at?  Obviously I believe.  But I cannot fully understand God as long as I am bound by this earthly body and mind.  And perhaps when I do meet God, I will see that none of this really matters anyway.  But for now, I know there is a God, and I know that I am not him.

            Thankfully, we as Christians have a belief in something called a resurrection.  And I can’t help but think how meaningless all of this would seem if we did not have a resurrection hope.  Without resurrection hope, we would be left with nothing more than the desire to be comfortable and maybe, if we happen to be compassionate, to make others comfortable as well.  But as Jesus said to his disciples in John 14:3, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”

            I know that there is a God.  There is no better way to describe how creation came about in my mind.  I also know that I am not God, nor would I want his job.  I do not understand everything about God; why he chooses to save some and not others.  But I am confident of this, that the God who created the universe and came here and dwelt among humanity in flesh in the form of Jesus Christ is calling all people to follow him.  And the reward for faithful living is eternal life spent with God.  The good Lord giveth, and the good Lord taketh away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Kevin Gasser

Staunton Mennonite Church

June 29^th, 2008

Romans 7:15-25

15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

I went out on the golf course the other day to walk with Ron as he played a few holes.  I had no intention of playing, but I joined him for the conversation.  Now if you have ever been on the Gypsy Hill Golf Course, you know that it differs a lot from Ron’s homeland of Kansas.  Kansas is flat and you can see for miles.  Gypsy Hill, and much of Staunton for that matter, is quite hilly.  As I walked up and down the hills, I noticed something that I wasn’t too happy about; I was out of breath and sweating.  And I wasn’t carrying the golf clubs.  The only extra weight I was carrying was found around my waist.

            It seems as if I have come a long way from the days of my youth when I could run for miles at a time (who am I kidding, I have never been in good shape).  I never had problems with walking up a few hills on a summer morning before this experience.

            And it isn’t like I don’t know what I should be doing and what I should not be doing.  I know very well what I need to do to be in better shape.  I need to exercise, do cardiovascular work like running, walking, bicycling, and so forth.  And I know the things that I shouldn’t be doing, like hitting the refrigerator for those late night ice cream fixes and going back to the buffet for seconds and thirds.  But I do them any way.  I know what I want to do in order to get into better shape, but I don’t do it.  I know what I shouldn’t do, but I do it anyway.

            Well there are a lot of similarities between our physical bodies and our spiritual beings.  In fact, I don’t think we can really separate the two.  And sometimes, the things that we know we should be doing for our spirituality and for our physical bodies are some of the last things we might actually do.  And sometimes the things we know that we should not be doing for our spirituality and our physical bodies are the very things that we do anyway.

            This morning I would like to look at the above passage from Romans 7 and see how the Apostle Paul struggled with these things that he should and should not do and I hope to see that even though we often fail, even though it might not be easy, we are called to live a certain way and by a higher ethic.  Because we are called to be imitators of Christ.

            There is a difference between not knowing any better and knowing between right and wrong, and doing what is wrong anyway.  If I didn’t know that chocolate ice cream was bad for my waistline, should I really be criticized for going to Kline’s for the flavor of the week every now and then?  If I didn’t know that ice cream was contributing to my declining health, could you really expect me to not eat something that tastes so good?

Now I am not suggesting that God should just turn a blind eye to anyone that doesn’t know any better when it comes to sinning.  What I am trying to say is regardless of whether we know it or not, sin has an affect on us.  Even if I don’t know how many calories are in ice cream, they still find their way to the hips.  And those of us that are Christians should really know better when it comes to living in sin.  If someone had grown up in a family where they never went to church or studied scripture in their home, they might not know about the teachings of Jesus, Paul, the prophets, and others in the Bible.  And if they don’t know that we are to turn the other cheek, why might they be expected to adhere to Christian ethics?

            But when you know that ice cream is not good for you and you continue to eat it in large quantities and frequently like I like to, you have nobody to blame for your health problems but yourself.  Likewise, those of us who have read the Bible or been to church or been a part of a small group know better when it comes to living in the pleasures of the flesh.  We know that we as Christians are called to live by a higher ethic than those who are not Christians.  We know that there are things that we are supposed to do, but yet do not do and that there are things that we should not do, but do anyway.

            And this is what Paul is wrestling with in our scripture for this morning.  He knows what is right and wrong.  He had a divine meeting with Jesus and spent a significant amount of time studying with the disciples after his conversion.  You could say that Paul wrote the book on ethics, since he wrote many of our books of the New Testament (or is given credit for writing them).  So that is why Paul is kicking himself here.  He says that he does not understand his own actions.  He can’t explain why he continues to sin, why he continues to live by the flesh rather than living by the Spirit.  He doesn’t know why he does not do the things that he wants to do, or why he commits sins of omission.  And I am sure that we all can sympathize with our friend Paul.

            The first of the year I made the decision to read the Bible through in 2008.  Today is the last Sunday of June, we are halfway through the year.  But I must admit that I am not halfway through the Bible.  And the sad thing is that I know all I need to do is to take 15 minutes a day and I can keep on track to read the entire Bible in a year.  But like Paul, I do not do what I know I should be doing.

            I think it is safe to say that none of us pray as much as we could or should.  I know that we as Christians are called to forgive one another, to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us.  But these things are against my nature, so it takes a little more effort to love someone that has persecuted me.  And boy am I ever good at holding a grudge.  It takes a fair bit of effort to be like Christ.  I want to do it.  I really want to follow Christ in everything that I do.  But I do not do what I want.  At least not all of the time.

            Paul goes on to say that not only does he not do what he wants, he does the very thing he hates.  He is doing the things that he knows he shouldn’t be doing, or committing sins of commission.  So it is bad enough to not be doing the good things, but he is still doing bad things as well.  He writes in verse 19-20, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.”  But I am not quite sure that I agree with Paul in the last sentence.  Paul is claiming that it is not he that sins when he does what he does not want to do, but it is the sin that is within him that makes him do it. 

            Flip Wilson was a comic that was known for the many characters that he portrayed.  One of his famous characters was a woman by the name of Geraldine.  Geraldine had a catchphrase that probably most of us have heard before, “The devil made me do it.”  Now there is some truth to that statement.  I do not doubt the presence of evil in our world, and I know that we are tempted by evil to sin.  But the devil didn’t make her do anything, nor did the devil make Paul sin, nor does the devil make us sin today.  We have a choice.  We can choose to sin or we can choose to not sin.

            When we say that the devil made me do it, we are trying to get rid of all responsibility for our own actions.  And that just isn’t the case.  We do have a say in the things we do and do not do.  We are not simply programmable machines that some evil being can tell to do something and we do it.  No, we have discerning minds to choose between wrong and right.

            Now I understand that some of us might be more likely to fall victim to sinful urges than others might be.  Some people are genetically predisposed to fall into certain sinful actions.  Other people are more likely to commit sins because of the things that have happened to them in the past.  They say that people who were abused as children are more likely to abuse their children.  But just because we are predisposed to sinful nature doesn’t mean that it is okay to sin.  That is not a good excuse.

            I have family history of alcoholism.  A close family member died of alcoholism at a young age because his coping mechanism for a painful experience included emptying a bottle of whisky on a regular basis.  And they say that alcoholism has a genetic predisposition.  That means if your father or mother or another relative is an alcoholic, you may have inherited a gene or genetic combination that makes it more likely that you could become an alcoholic.

            So what does this mean for me?  If I am predisposed to be an alcoholic should I just give in and become an alcoholic?  If my genes are working against me, maybe I should just give in!  Who am I to fight genetics?  No, I have a choice in how I live my life.  And I refuse to give in to the sin of alcoholism just because I might be predisposed to the disease.  We need to take responsibility for our own lives and the lives of others.  The devil might tempt you to do something, but ultimately the choice to live a sinful life or not is ours to make.

            So Paul is making a confession in our scripture for this morning.  He doesn’t do what he wants to do, and he does do the things he doesn’t want to do.  He commits sins of omission and sins of commission.  Even the great Paul is not perfect.  But I think it should be obvious that Paul is trying to make a point here that he is not without fault, he is not trying to say that he never does the right thing or that he never avoids doing what is wrong.  He is saying he makes mistakes like everyone else.  But he is not happy with his mistakes.  He still must strive for the (unattainable?) perfection modeled for us by Jesus himself.

            As I was preparing for this message, I had to think about my wife’s line of work.  Sonya works for Woodrow Wilson Rehab Center in Fishersville.  She is an occupational therapist and she works a lot with people who are confined to wheelchairs.  Many of these people are victims of paralyzing spinal cord injuries, automobile accidents, sports accidents, brain injuries, a few strokes, and things of that nature.  The people that Sonya works with do not have full control over their own bodies, and probably many of them never will.

            If I walk into Woodrow Wilson Rehab while Sonya is working, I find her helping people that cannot open their hands try to write and tie their shoes.  They might be trying to make their own meals or do their own laundry.  Some are trying to walk the few steps needed to get from their wheelchairs to their beds at night.  And though they may never achieve perfection, though they may never regain the full use of their arms and legs, though they may never walk again, these people are trying.

            Now it would be easy for those with physical disabilities to read these words of Paul and connect at a different level than most of us might.  Sonya’s patients want to make their bodies do certain things, but they cannot.  They want to not do other things, but they seem to have no choice.  But then there are those examples of people that have not let their disabilities keep them from their goals and their dreams.

            There is a man by the name of Oscar Pistorius who is a double amputee.  Both of his legs had to be removed below his knees when he was quite young.  For many people, I would think this would be something that would cause a great deal of anger and depression.  Anger and depression because of the things that they want to do but cannot.  But Pistorius has not allowed his disability to keep him from being a world-class sprinter.

            Known as the blade runner and the fastest man on no legs, Pistorius holds the world double-amputee records for the 400, 200, and 100 meter dash.  And in 2007 he competed in his first international race with non-amputees after beating many others in his home country of South Africa.  His next goal: to compete in the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing China as a sprinter against non-amputees. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moIkCxXrobk

            A search of the internet can find many people that have endured body altering accidents or birth defects competing at a high level in spite of their disabilities.  In 2005 there was a documentary released called Murder Ball which followed the US paralympic wheelchair rugby team in their 2004 quest for gold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii-JRUkG_6w.  Wheelchair basketball, wheelchair tennis, and many other sports have been adapted for people with disabilities that refuse to give up on their bodies.  So while these people are at a great disadvantage, while they want their bodies to do certain things but fail time and time again, they do not give up.  Nor should a Christian give up trying to follow Christ when they find themselves not able to do the things they know they should.  A Christian like Paul, like you, and like me that does things that they do not want to do must not give up.  A Christian like Paul, like you, and like me that does not do the things that we know we should do should not give up.  Oscar Pistorius, after all of his struggles, learning to walk and then run on prosthetic legs didn’t give up.  And when a governing body told him that his prosthetic legs gave him an unfair advantage in running against “able bodied” runners and that therefore he could not compete in the Olympics, he appealed the decision and won.  Now he will have the opportunity to qualify just like everyone else.  Imagine if Christians would put as much effort into following Christ as Oscar Pistorius has put into becoming the first double amputee to compete in the Olympic Games.

            But we also need to be realistic here.  There is a reason we have therapists like Sonya and others that work at rehabilitation centers.  That is because it takes work to overcome these injuries.  Oscar Pistorius did not get where he is without a lot of work and he surely didn’t get where he is on his own.  The people that are able to care for themselves after a spinal cord accident don’t get to that point without pushing themselves.  It takes work and it takes help.

            As Paul closes this piece of scripture, he mentions one more time his struggles.  He says in verse 24, “Wretched man that I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?”  Paul is not saying that he wants to die, but that he wants to live!  He wants to live for Christ.  But he needs to be rescued from the things that continue to cause him to sin, the things that continue to keep him from the perfection of Christ.  And he knows that the one who is able to help him achieve his goals is Jesus.

            We all have obstacles to achieving the perfection of Christ.  Our first obstacle is our humanity.  For the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.  But we cannot make excuses for failing time and time again when we do not do the things we want and we do the things we don’t want to do.  We have heard the Gospel.  We know that Jesus has called us to a higher ethic.  With the help of Christ and the help of others, let us continue to strive for perfection.  Don’t let a genetic predisposition, a physical deformity or handicap, or the temptations that surround us keep us from achieving our goal of a life in Jesus.  Just as I have identified not exercising and eating too much ice cream as the reason I could not walk the hills at the golf course, we must identify the obstacles that keep us from living for Christ and overcome them.  If a man with no legs can run in the Olympics, who knows what we can do?

Kevin Gasser

Staunton Mennonite

6/22/08

Matthew 10:5-25

5These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. 9Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, 10no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. 11Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. 12As you enter the house, greet it. 13If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. 15Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.

16“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; 18and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. 19When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; 20for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; 22and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. 24“A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; 25it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

In the late 1990’s, a show debuted on television called “Whose Line is it Anyway?”  The idea of the show was that four participants would be given themes for skits and they would then act out these skits.  The skits were not only unrehearsed, they were unwritten.  The participants made them up as they went.  This required quick wits and anticipation of where someone else was going with the skit.  The participants needed to know one another and how they would think.  They needed to be up to date on current events, news stories, popular culture, and things of that nature because anything was fair game.  This was an exciting show to watch because of the giftedness of these participants in their ability to improvise, or Improv these spontaneous skits, building off one another.

But I think that it is interesting how we look at Improv differently in different fields.  For instance, think of a pastor that stands up on a Sunday morning without having prepared a sermon for the day, not having read the scripture, and just begins to talk.  We might refer to this kind of Improv as “flying by the seat of your pants” or “winging it”.  Now compare that to the Improv we might hear from a Jazz musician.  If a Jazz musician stands up and starts playing without music, without even having a song in mind, we don’t say that she is winging it or flying by the seat of her pants.  No, we call her a genius.

None of us would accuse a Jazz musician that can stand up and compose music as she plays it of being unprepared.  Just the opposite.  She is very prepared.  She has studied music composition, she has learned her instrument, she has practiced, practiced, and practiced some more.  So Improv doesn’t mean that the improviser isn’t prepared.  Quite the opposite is often true.  Improv takes more preparation than a rehearsed, practiced, refined approach.

This morning I would like to look at the church’s mission as Improv.  And for a missionary to be able to Improv well, we need to know who we are Improv-ing with, we need to know that God will be with us, and we need to know that we will sometimes fail by worldly standards.  We will start by looking at with whom we are Improv-ing

In our scripture for today, Jesus sends out the original twelve disciples on a mission trip.  He gives them specific instructions on who they are to preach to; the Jews, not the Gentiles or the Samaritans.  He gives them instructions on what to do, preach the message that the kingdom of heaven is near while healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing those who have leprosy, and driving out demons.

Now many people have criticized Jesus here for limiting this mission to the lost sheep of Israel and not to the Gentiles and the Samaritans.  And there are other times when Jesus seems to only care about the Jews.  Remember the Syrophoenician woman (Matthew 15, Mark 7) who came to Jesus to ask for healing for her demon possessed daughter?  Again, Jesus says that he came for the lost sheep of Israel.  What is the deal here?  Did Jesus have a problem with people of different races?

No, I think Jesus shows many other times that he was not racist, or sexist, or what ever other –ist people might want to accuse him of being.  He healed the Syrophoencian woman’s daughter, he ministered to the Samaritan woman at the well, he referred to the Good Samaritan as a neighbor, and he gave the great commission to preach the gospel to all nations.  So what Jesus is doing when he tells his disciples to go to the lost sheep of Israel, the Jews, he is preparing them to minister to people that the Jewish disciples would be familiar with.  This was not to be a cross-cultural mission trip.  There wasn’t enough time to prepare them for a cross-culture experience.  Jesus has just called these disciples in the previous chapter.  So they had to go to a group of people that they understood and that would understand the message that the disciples would be bringing.  He would send them on their cross-cultural mission later.

What Jesus is saying is These are the kinds of people I think you can reach.  They are the ones that know about the kingdom of God.  They know what to expect; the blind will see, the lame will leap, the dead will rise.  And when you do these things before them, they will know that the kingdom has indeed come near!  Jesus knows that the Jews will hear the words that the disciples say and the Jews will see the deeds that the disciples do and some will follow Jesus.  I think this is why Jesus limits the people that the disciples are to be sent to the Jews.

When we do Improv, it is always best to know something about the person with whom you are Improv-ing with.  For instance, Mr. X, would you please help me with a demonstration?  (I pretend to pitch a baseball to Mr. X.  He will likely act out catching the ball and throw it back.  We didn’t plan this out, but I knew how he would react and respond.)  I asked Mr. X to Improv with me because I knew that he would know what to do when I pretended to pitch a baseball to him.  We didn’t plan this out beforehand.  I know that Mr. X is a baseball fan and that he would receive my invitation to play a fictitious game of catch. 

So when Jesus sends out the disciples on their first mission trip, he sends them to the people that will be able to respond to the offer to participate in the message that they are bringing.  Like Mr. X was able to recognize my invitation to play catch, the Jews would have understood the invitation from the disciples to hear about the coming of the kingdom of heaven.  If I had chosen to Improv with someone else, I would have chosen a different activity that would have been more easily recognized by them.  I would approach them differently than I approached Mr. X because I know they are different from Mr. X.  This is guideline number one for mission as Improv; try to know the person with whom you are going to be Improv-ing with.

Back in our scripture for this morning, we read in verses 9-11, “Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food.  Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave.”  It seems to me that Jesus is instructing these missionaries to not take anything extra with them; no extra money, no extra clothing.  He is saying, “Don’t even worry about where you will stay.  Just stay with someone who is worthy of your company.”  I think it should be clear to us that Jesus is saying that God will take care of the missionaries.  God will work through regular people to provide the things that they need.  Therefore, the missionary need not worry about these things.

But we do worry about these things, don’t we?  We worry about what we are going to wear, what we will eat, where we will stay.  I just got back on Thursday from a trip to Maine where we were for eight days.  And we had everything planned out.  We packed clothes for the trip, we got cash from the bank and made sure that there was money in our checking account.  We knew where we would be staying and how we would get there and what we would drive.  It is not normal for us to not plan these things out in advance when we travel.  But here Jesus is saying to the missionaries, “Trust in God and you will be okay.”

Now when Mr. X and I were Improv-ing earlier like we were playing catch, it seemed like he changed up the pitch a little on me.  He seemed to have thrown a curve ball to me.  I could not have anticipated that he would throw the curve ball back to me, but I reacted accordingly.  I improvised and went where he was taking me with the game we were playing.  I didn’t say, “No, now stop.  I am leading this experience and you will only do as I lead you to do.”  I went where he wanted to go, and because I was prepared to do so, I was able to respond accordingly.

When we do Improv in mission, we must be able to stray from our notes in order to have a real conversation with people.  And this is important because people will ask questions, they will want you to explain why Jesus had to die, what about other religions, what about other lifestyles, do Christians hate homosexuals, why can’t we get along with other denominations, let alone other religions.  When we Improv, we must be ready to adjust when the person we are Improv-ing with wants to give some input as well.  And that does take prior preparation.

1 Peter 3:15 teaches us to “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”  And also to do this with gentleness and respect.  Again, this comes back to the Improv-ing of a musician.  To Improv well requires that you know what you are doing well.  Practice may not make perfect, but practice does make better.

But in spite of all of our efforts, when we Improv with others missionally, it is not only us that engage in this experience.  It is the Holy Spirit of God working through us in this Improv-ing.  So while we can prepare, practice, and become more and more ready to engage in Improv with those we come in contact with, it is only through God that we can have meaningful conversations.  Just like the disciples had to learn to trust in God for all of their needs, we too need to learn to trust in God for what we need as well.  Whether it is equipping us for Improv dialogue with a neighbor, or our clothing, food, and housing, we all must learn to trust in God.  And that is the second guideline for mission as Improv.  Practice as much as you can, but you need to trust God to provide you with what you need.

As we look at the rest of our scripture for today, and even beyond what was read for us, we find that Jesus wasn’t expecting everything to be rosy for the 12 disciple missionaries.  The rest of the chapter is made up of Jesus telling the disciples what to expect on their mission trip.  And most of it isn’t good.  Jesus talks about people not listening to the disciples and how they are to shake the dust off their sandals as they leave that place.  But it gets a lot worse than people not listening.  Jesus says that the disciples are like sheep and that he is sending them out to the wolves, that they will be handed over to the governing authorities, flogged, tortured, persecuted.  I would imagine that the disciples are wondering, “What did I get myself into?”  Imagine how much they must have believed in Jesus to be willing to put themselves through such pain and agony!  But they did it!  They spread the good news even though Jesus told them how much it might cost them.

One of the biggest fears any of us have is that of failure.  We don’t want to look foolish in front of others.  So we don’t take chances, we don’t step out of our comfort zones.  We might see an opportunity to do something great, but not take it because of what others might think if we fail.

When we see people doing Improv, like on Whose Line is it Anyway, we often see the participants trying to get the audience involved.  They look for people in the crowd that are willing to jump up on stage and work with them, to create a skit as they go.  And it looks like a lot of fun while the professionals are doing it, but the audience members are usually so reluctant to jump in.  They are afraid of looking foolish, and many people miss out on a lot of fun because they are not willing to give it a try.  They are afraid of failing.

Well guess what.  When you do Improv, you will likely fail by human standards.  There is a good chance that you will be left without the words to say at the appropriate time.  There is a good chance that you might look silly.  But what if you got up there and you didn’t fail?  What if you were able to keep up with the professionals?  What if you turned out to be quite the Improv-er?  You never know until you try it.  And to tell you the truth, I don’t consider anyone a failure who tries something new only to find out that they are not gifted at it.  I only consider someone a failure if they never try.  This is my third guideline for mission as Improv: you don’t fail if you don’t convert someone to Christianity, you don’t fail if you are persecuted and run out of town like the disciples.  You fail when you choose to never try.

Yes, it is difficult to put yourself out there, to let others know that you are a follower of Jesus Christ.  Sometimes it is even difficult to do this with other Christians.  But compared to what these disciples had to deal with, I think we have it pretty easy.  I have maybe been snickered at or ignored because I shared my faith.  But I have never been flogged, arrested, or felt like a lamb thrown to the wolves.  Yes, we may experience some persecution, but not like these disciples did.  So why are we so reluctant to engage in conversations, why are we so reluctant to try to Improv with those we come in contact with?

Mission as Improv means that we must know the people we plan to Improv with so that we can be ready to have an answer for our faith.  Mission as Improv means trusting in God to provide the words to say and the actions to live out when our own ability to do so comes up short.  And Mission as Improv mean being willing to accept persecution, whatever that might be. 

Over forty years ago, Bob Dylan wrote, “The times they are a changing.”  This is just as true today as it was back then.  We are living in a new day and age, and I believe we need a new way to share the love of Christ with others.  Let us enter into dialogue with others with the ability to Improv as we go.  We can come to a conversation with all of the answers to the questions, but if these aren’t the questions that people are asking, we need to be ready.

*Thanks to Nick Nissley of the Banff Center for his insight on Improv at the Lexington Seminar, June 2008 http://www.banffcentre.ca/about/

Kevin Gasser

Staunton Mennonite Church

6/8/08

Matthew 9:9-13

9As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. 10And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

            As Sonya and I have been looking for a home here in Staunton, we have looked at houses of all kinds.  Old houses, new houses, brick houses, stucco houses.  You name it, we have looked at it.  And some of the houses really stick out to us, not because of the house itself, but because of what surrounds the house.  A beautiful lawn can make an old house really shine like a gem.  And sometimes we find around these houses nice fences of various kinds.

            Now Sonya thinks that when we get a new house that she also needs a new dog to go along with it.  So a fenced in back yard looks pretty good, because I would like to not have to leave a dog in the house all day while we are gone at work.  And having grown up on a farm with a lot of pasture land, I know the importance of a good fence.  A good fence can keep things inside a boundary that you want them to stay inside of, like keeping a dog inside your yard.  But fences can serve two purposes.  Not only do they keep things in that you want kept in, but they also keep things out that you want kept out, like neighbors’ dogs and thieves.

            Well today I would like to look at the fences in our lives, the ones that we have erected to keep things out, the things that we perceive to be a danger to us.  And I hope to show how Jesus has called us to build bridges, not fences.

            Our scripture begins with Jesus walking along and he comes across a man called Matthew.  The parallels to this story in Mark and Luke call him Levi.  And we read that this man Matthew was sitting at a tax collecting booth.  The reason he was sitting there was not because he was paying his taxes; no, he was a tax collector.  We all know how much we like to pay taxes; food taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, and fuel taxes.  And we probably like the people collecting those tax dollars just about as much as we like paying all of those taxes.  Well tax collectors were not too well liked in Jesus’ day in part because they were the ones collecting the tax dollars (hence the name).  Also, in the first century the tax collectors made their living off what they collected.  They could collect a little more for themselves on top of what was supposed to be collected.  This was a commission for their work, a commission that the tax collectors imposed upon the tax payers and this commission was pretty much set by the tax collector.  So you can imagine that these tax collectors were not well liked by the Jewish tax payers.  But not only that, the tax collectors like Matthew were Jews working for the Roman Government.  They were working for the enemy!  They were sell-outs, collaborating with the enemy just to make a few bucks!

            So Matthew and the other tax collectors were not well thought of in their days.  But it seems to me that Jesus really didn’t care about people’s reputations.  He walks right up to this despised Jew and says to him, “Follow me.”  Jesus is inviting Matthew to be one of his disciples.  He is inviting him into his close circle of friends, companions, and confidants.  And we don’t have written in the text how Matthew responds to this invitation, but in the next paragraph we find Jesus sitting and eating with none other than the “tax collectors and sinners.”  So it looks like Jesus and Matthew developed some type of relationship quickly and they decided to eat together later that evening.  And Matthew invited his friends who also happened to be tax collectors and sinners to dinner that evening as well.

            I think this reveals an important detail about tax collectors and sinners…they hang out with other tax collectors and sinners.  And this is just as revealing for those of us who are a part of the working class, blue collar or white, for the poor, for the Christians and the pagans.  We tend to hang out with people like us.  People that look like us, people that make about as much money as we do, people that have a similar education as we do.  We like to be around people like us in many ways, (which kind of surprises me since so many people in our society don’t seem to like themselves).   We don’t usually go out of our way to hang out with people of a lower class than ourselves, now do we?

            Let me tell you a little bit about the neighborhood where Sonya and I currently live.  We live in a townhouse in Harrisonburg.  The guy that lives to our right is a white guy who just finished his doctorate from James Madison University this spring.  To our left is a young husband and wife; he also graduated from JMU and is now working in finances.  She graduated from Eastern Mennonite University and works in a doctor’s office.  In fact, a lot of the people in our development are a lot like us; 20-30 somethings, college graduates and grad students.  Many are married and have young families.  We live with people just like us.  We have surrounded ourselves with other young professional people.

            Now the next apartment complex over is a different story.  It is an old brick building and it is occupied mostly by minorities.  Many of the people that live in these apartments are poor compared to the people that live in our townhouse development.  There are people outside during normal work hours, so I assume that many of them don’t have jobs or don’t have what we might consider good jobs.  I hear the kids playing outside, yelling vulgarities and curse words that I assume they don’t even understand.  I also assume they learned those vulgarities in their homes.  It seems to me that a lot of the people in this apartment complex have surrounded themselves with people like themselves as well (perhaps not by choice).

           So inorder to keep out those people that are not like us, the people that are poor, the people that often get visits from the local police department, our homeowner’s association put up a big fence.  Like I said, this is not a fence to keep things in our development, it is intended to keep possible thieves out.

            Back in our scripture, we find Jesus sitting at the table with tax collectors and sinners.  Jesus breaks this unwritten rule (maybe it was written somewhere) that you don’t eat with “these people”, you don’t eat with people of a lower class than yourself, and definitely not with sinners and Roman supporters.  And Jesus was bringing his disciples along with him.  The Pharisees see this and they approach the disciples and they ask them, v.11 “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

            The Pharisees have recognized that Jesus is eating with someone outside of his class and outside of his religion.  He is eating with someone “below” him, and this doesn’t make sense.  It is like sitting at the lunch table with the geeks and the nerds when you are one of the cool kids in high school.  You just don’t do that.  And in eating with the sinners, Jesus was also making himself and his disciples ceremonially unclean.  Why would Jesus choose to do this if nobody was forcing him to do it?  That is why the Pharisees ask this question.  His actions just don’t make sense to them.

            I think the fact that the Pharisees don’t ask Jesus directly why he is eating with the tax collectors and sinners shows that they have learned that Jesus is a pretty sharp cookie and that they better not challenge him.  But Jesus overhears them and he answers them in v. 12, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

            I love this analogy of Jesus being the great physician, the one who can bring healing to the physically sick and the spiritually sick.  And not only that, Jesus also came to give routine checkups to those who thought that they were already spiritually healthy, because he continually challenges the Pharisees, the Scribes, and other religious leaders.  And Jesus had made the decision to spend his time where he could do the most good for the kingdom of God; he surrounded himself with the sick so that he could heal.  He surrounded himself with the tax collectors and sinners because they needed healing.

            I think that I have mentioned a time or two that I believe we as Christians need to be giving to those in need, the poor, the downtrodden, the least of these.  And we as a church do give to people in need.  We have a budgeted amount that we give to the Staunton/Augusta Church Relief Association.  We have a budgeted amount that we give for other local relief as well.  You wouldn’t believe the number of people that call here looking for help with a heating bill in the winter or for medication, diapers, food, you name it.  So we try to help out those that we can, though obviously we can’t help everyone (Alone, that is.  Together I believe all the churches could wipe out poverty, but that is another subject).

            This past week I got a phone call from a woman in the community who had been living with a friend and her young children.  They hadn’t been able to pay their electric bill in a long time and she told me what they owed and I later found out the number was closer to $600 in back electric bills.  Then her friend took off and left her with the entire bill.  I went through the normal questions, making sure she had gone to the local relief agencies and I said we would help out, but that we could not pay the entire bill for her.  So I collected her information, her account number and so forth and called the electric company to try to pay a small portion of her bill.

            So I pat myself on the back, another job well done.  I have given to someone in need.  Matthew 25, what you have done for the least of these you have done for me as well.  But what is missing?  What step did I leave out?  I couldn’t tell you anything about this woman and her family.  I can remember her name, but that is only because I believe God has convicted me this week of how we give to those in need.  Yes, we need to give to those in need.  But sending a check, paying a bill over the telephone, and giving to a cause seems to miss the point found in our scripture for this morning.  Yes we can live within the safe confines of living with people just like us, visiting people like us, being friends with people like us, but that is not how we are called to live.  We can build high fences, gated communities, and put out border patrol to keep the riffraff out, and send an occasional check, but we are missing an important step.  Because we are called to live with, eat with, worship with and love everyone from the richest of the rich to the poorest of the poor; saints and sinners alike.

            I come back to this fence that separates our home from the neighboring apartments.  I don’t know a single sole that lives in those apartments.  I have never called one to follow me, or walk beside me the way that Jesus called Matthew.  I have never broken bread with them in their home or in my own.  Instead we build fences to keep them out of our neighborhood because we don’t want their kind in our neighborhood.

            When we build fences, we are doing more than trying to protect our possessions from those heathens, those tax collectors and sinner that might come and take our things off our property.  When we build fences, we are saying “I don’t trust you and I don’t want you near my things.”  And I believe that building these fences makes plenty of people angry and they say, “You don’t want me in your neighborhood?  Well I’ll come in and do just what you don’t want me to do.”

            We have come a long way from Jesus eating with the tax collectors and sinners when we build fences to keep these people out of our neighborhoods.  We want protection from these perceived threats, and we think that keeping them as far away from our places as possible is the best answer.  But I suggest a different option.  The one that Jesus lived out.  Get to know the tax collectors and the sinners in your area.  Invite them into your home, grill a community lunch, go to their homes.  The point is to get to know the people that we are afraid of, people with whom we differ.  Because when we get to know the perceived threat, we can see them as people, not as thugs, not as criminals, not as tax collectors and sinners.  I bet Jesus didn’t see these people as tax collectors and sinners.  He saw them as people.  This will help to relieve us of our fear of people that are not like us.  And even if they were a threat to steal something from us, I would bet that it would be a lot harder for a person to steal from you after you have given to them from your time and from your kitchen.  I heard a wise man say recently that if you give someone the benefit of the doubt and treat them as someone with integrity, chances are they will be a person of integrity.  If you treat someone as if they have no integrity, they will likely act as a person without integrity.

            Sometimes I read a book that can really get me thinking, and I have been reading one such book recently.  It is called The Irresistible Revolution: living as an ordinary radical by Shane Claiborne.  Claiborne is an educated, intelligent, 33-year-old that has a passion for not only giving to the tax collectors and the sinners, the poor and the homeless.  He has a passion for living with the least of these.  After spending time working with Mother Theresa in the leper colonies of Calcutta, Claiborne and others returned to the US to find that what they found in the church was not living up to the practices initiated by Jesus Christ.  So they started living with the poor, the prostitutes, the drug addicts.  They began an intentional community known as “The Simple Way” in northern Philadelphia.  Together they help the inner city children with their homework, revive tired landscapes by planting gardens, they eat together, they worship together, they pray together.  They are imperfect people seeking to live out God’s perfect will.  And as they break bread with the modern day tax collectors and sinners, they are seeing lives transformed for Christ.

            In his book, Claiborne says, When you give to the least of these, they call you a saint.  When you live with the least of these, they crucify you, or call you crazy.  But that is what Jesus modeled for us and what he has called us to do as well.  I’ll admit, it sounds a little crazy to go and live with the poorest of the poor, to break bread with them, to worship with them, to serve with them.  But when we surround ourselves with people just like us, are we truly being faithful to our calling as Christians?  Now I am not saying that we cannot have friends like ourselves, but I am saying that I cannot limit my circle of friends to other 20 something white pastors that are interested in sports and theology.  We cannot be putting up fences, figurative fences or literal fences, between us and people that are not like us.  Because Jesus showed us when he broke bread with the tax collectors and sinners that we are not called to build fences to keep people who are different from us out.  We are called to build bridges to those people so that we can join together to work for the kingdom of God.

            At the end of every summer, our homeowner’s association puts on a community cookout for the people that live in our townhouse development.  How cool would it be if rather than having an exclusive group where only people from our development were invited we were to tear down that fence that separates us from the older apartments on the other side and invite the tenants into our neighborhood?  Jesus ate with people different from himself.  What if we followed Jesus?

**In this sermon I perhaps lumped together the poor and the tax collectors/sinners into one group.  The intention is to encourage my middle class, white congregation to be as Christ was unto people different from us.**

Kevin Gasser

Staunton Mennonite Church

6/1/08

Romans 3:21-26

21But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 23since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; 26it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.

James 2:14-26

14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. 18But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. 19You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. 20Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren? 21Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works. 23Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. 24You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? 26For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.

            Many of you have been asking what I have been doing with my free time now that I am done with school.  And if you have been around me enough, then you know that I have an on-going project that has been in the works now for three years.  I have been working at finishing our basement by running electric, framing new walls, and hanging drywall.  I enjoy this work and it gives me a chance to get my hands dirty.  But as I have found out time and time again, there is not a lot of forgiveness when someone is trying to run new electric. 

            One of the first things that I did was to put in a four-way switch in an existing run of electric.  This was so we could have an additional switch at the bottom of the stairway.  So I am trying to figure out what someone else was doing when they ran the wire before and trying to figure out what happens when you flip any of the three switches on the circuit.  It was a pretty frustrating way to learn.  But I figured it out.

            Then when I moved to cutting and hanging drywall, I found a totally different approach to this work.