Excuses, Excuses Sermon by Pastor Jesse Slimak July 3, Luke 9:57-62 & Revelation 3:14-22

Transcription

1 Excuses, Excuses Sermon by Pastor Jesse Slimak July 3, 2011 Luke 9:57-62 & Revelation 3:14-22 Let me tell you a story, not about a man named Jeb, but about a man named Francis of Assisi. He was born to a wealthy merchant family in the late 12 cent. in Assisi (in the middle of Italy). He initially lived a high spirited life that a wealthy young man would be expected to live, and even fought as a soldier at one point. While going off to war in 1204 he has a spiritual experience that made him turn around to Assisi (which would be part of modern day Italy). While on a pilgrimage to Rome he has an experience of begging with beggars and this affects him profoundly. A notable story is one where he is praying in a dilapidated church. In which a religious icon (a picture of Christ) told him: "Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins." He took this to literally mean the ruined church in which he was praying. So he sold some cloth (his father's wares) and gave to the priest at that church. His father attempted to change his mind through threats and then beatings. Francis then has a big public spectacle where his father drags him in front of the bishop. Francis renounces his father, and says that now he can really say "Our Father who art in heaven." Francis literally gives him the clothes on his back too. This was the start of a life of radical poverty that he was known for; rather than trying to do away with poverty, he tried to make it holy. He also was known as one loved nature and found God there. So much so, that later preached to the birds, and tried to talk a wolf out of attacking a town (which supposedly worked). Now let me tell you about another person named Symeon the Stylite-Simeon the Stylite (whose dates are a.d. so you know what time period we are talking about) is not as well known as Saint Francis but maybe even more interesting if that is possible. He was the son of a shepherd. He was born at Sis, which is now a Turkish town. Sis was in an eastern Roman province at that time. Simeon developed a zeal for Christianity at the age of 13, taking a lecture he heard on the Beatitudes from the sermon on the mount very seriously. (if you don t know what the beatitudes are, they are the part of scripture that tell us blessed are the [blank] because [blank] such as blessed are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of God, blessed are the peacemakers they shall see God, blessed are the, etc). They are part of scripture that I think we are prone to say yeah that sounds great, but does that actually work in the real world? Simeon took them very seriously though). He also subjected himself to ever-increasing harsh forms of bodily disciplines from an early age, especially fasting; and entered a monastery before the age of 16. Simeon was eventually requested to leave the monastery. Think about that. You have to pretty hard core in the middle ages for a monastery to ask you to leave because you are too rigorous! I mean think about it! Next he shut himself up for one and a half years in a hut, where he passed the whole of season of Lent without eating or drinking. When he emerged from the hut, his achievement was hailed as a miracle. Which if this really happened would be a miracle. After the hut incident, Simeon sought a rocky place on the slopes of some mountains and forced himself to remain a prisoner within a narrow space, less than 60 ft in diameter. But crowds of pilgrims invaded the area to seek him out. These pilgrims would ask his counsel or his prayers. With all these pilgrims coming to him it just didn t leave enough time for his own rigid and austere devotions. This at last led him to adopt a new and innovative way of life (Powerpoint #) He lived on a pillar! He initially found a pillar which had survived among ruins and decided to live on it. His rationale was that since he could not escape the world horizontally he would vertically. The initial pillar was

2 about four meters but he either found or had larger pillars made so that the last one he was on was about 15 meters off the ground. Villagers would bring food to him, and some would basically make pilgrimages to see him. When his mother died, he had her brought to the foot of the pillar. After spending 37 years (yes, 37 years) on one pillar or another, Simeon died on 2 September 459. As of 2010 in the Guinness s book of world records, he was still attributed as having the longest pole sitting... maybe someone surpassed it this year but I doubt it! Anybody here reading the book Weird for their growth group, or outside the growth group. We have nothing to compare to these guys weirdness for God! Now, I am not advocating that everyone here forsake the world, go out and get a pole for their backyard to live on. If you do though, please do watch out for power lines! Nor am I saying that we must have a dramatic scene in front of our pastors naked renouncing all our worldly possessions (Trust me, we don t want that!). In fact, many of Simeon s and Francis s actions would be considered mentally ill by our standards. However, let me ask you this: who are the ones more likely to respond to Christ s summons we heard today? Us or them?.. Who would be more likely to immediately respond to Christ s call? Us or them? On the other hand: Who would be more likely to put stipulations on that summons? Us or them? Who would be more likely to make excuses? Us or them? I think it goes without question that we (we, being Christians here in North America) would be the ones to say: Well Christ, I would serve you through tithing... but I first need to get my finances in order. Well, I would attend your church regularly Christ... but I will when things are not as busy in my life. Well, I would start obeying your command to offer my body as a living sacrifice... but I am young and I just want to have fun and I am not hurting anyone through what I am doing. Excuses, excuses... and you guessed it, more excuses. What s your excuse? We all have them, I know I do. We all have excuses why cannot follow Christ in the first place. Or if we already know Christ we all have excuses why we can t up the ante and further follow him in a deeper more meaningful way. Often times they seem plausible. Often times they are plausible based on what the world says. What s your excuse? Let s look at each the cost of discipleship today and a few excuses we heard today: 1. Lk 9: As they were walking along, someone said to Jesus, I will follow you wherever you go. 58 But Jesus replied, Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head. (NLT) this first would be follower seems particular appropriate for our culture. This person already believes in Jesus. He wants to become part of Jesus inner circle though. He wants more intimacy with Jesus. Yet there is a cost here. Does he really know what he is asking? Where is Jesus heading at this point? Jerusalem! To suffer and die. Does he realize the costs involved? Do we realize the costs involved? So many in our culture would identify as Christians. So many would check off Christian when going to the hospital for a surgery. Yet often our lives don t look different from the rest of culture. Does this person really want to suffer the cost of further relationship with Jesus. Notice the text says that Jesus (the Son of Man a very common designation Jesus uses to refer to himself) has nowhere to lay his head. Wait a minute! Jesus did live somewhere though while he wasn t travelling. What this text is saying is not that Jesus doesn t literally have a place to stay. Instead it is saying that nature, the world, provides for the animals. Yet the Lord of the world does not receive the same treatment form creation. The King of the world is not accepted by his own creation. Jesus is the agent that creation was brought forth through, and yet creation rejects him. He came to his own, yet his own did not receive him. This statement is saying that explicitly that Jesus will be rejected. But notice what it implicitly says. It implicitly says that to follow Jesus means to suffer like

3 him. The person asked to be able to follow Jesus, and Jesus answers, this is what I have in store for me, so by default that too is what you have in store for you. 2. Lk 9: He said to another person, Come, follow me. The man agreed, but he said, Lord, first let me return home and bury my father. 60 But Jesus told him, Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead! Your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God. (NLT) The next person, interestingly enough, Jesus tells him to follow him. Now it is important that we address the issue of burying the dead the importance of burying the dead cannot be stressed enough in Judaism. The Book of Tobit (prob. 2 nd cent. b.c.) has a great illustration of this. Tobit 6:15 has a son contemplating his possible death and look what he is concerned about (powerpoint #) so now, since I am the only son my father has, I am afraid that I may die and bring my father's and mother's life down to their grave, grieving for me and they have no other son to bury them." NRSV. That is his primary concern, no one to bury his parents! Sorry Mom and Dad, that would not be my primary concern if I were in his shoes! Just in case you are not convinced of the importance of burying the dead, the Talumd makes it even clearer. (The Talmud is a Jewish document detailing basically how one lives as a Jew was composed around 500 a.d. but has material from the oral tradition that dates back to the time of Christ) powerpoint # He who is confronted by a dead relative is freed from reciting the shema, from the eighteen benedictions, and from all the commandments stated in the Torah. b. Ber. 31a Wow! The Shema is Oh hear Israel the Lord your God, the Lord is one and would have been recited every day by a faithful Jew; the eighteen benedictions are prayers that also would have been said everyday by faithful Jews; and the commandments, we know what the 10 commandments are, but the Jews saw something like 613 commandments in scripture. All these things were the defining characteristics of what it means to be Jew. And the Talmud says that burying a dead relative is more important than following these. So Christ is giving a new marching order. He is saying that the old way of doing things has past. Whereas burying the dead was the most important thing, now proclaiming the kingdom of God has taken the place of burying our relatives. This statement of scripture would have been even more shocking to the person Jesus made it too than us. It is offensive, there is no way around it. Just to be sure though, I don t think that Jesus is saying that this is a timeless principle; i.e. that everyone must ignore making funeral arrangements and instead go off to preach! Instead Jesus is using a specific event as a focus to illustrate the demands of discipleship. This doesn t give us an excuse to ignore the demands of discipleship by any means though. Too often we do that we tough sections of scripture. We try to make them easier, more palatable. Sometimes scripture is that offensive. This statement would have been even more offensive than it seems to us. What should we make of Jesus response? Does it mean Jesus doesn t care? What Jesus probably means by his statement is let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead as the New Living Translation points out in that translation. Perhaps Christ is thus implying this person is spiritually dead. 3.Lk 9: Another said, Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say good-bye to my family. 62 But Jesus told him, Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God. (NLT). The last person that Jesus invites asks to be able to say goodbye to his family, kind of a tone down version of the last excuse. In a similar situation in the OT (I kgs 19:20) Elisha asks Elijah to go and say goodbye to his family and is allowed to. It looks to be a normal request, and by all accounts it is a normal request. But one again, Jesus has again given new marching orders. Elsewhere in scripture he makes it just as clear that one must put Christ above one s family.

4 An early important brother in Christ known as Basil the Great, put it this way, (powerpoint #): A person who wishes to become a disciple must repudiate a human obligation, however honorable it may appear, if it slows us ever so slightly in giving the whole hearted obedience we owe to God. This laying out of the cost of discipleship and the couple excuses that accompany could really go on and on and is not limited to what scripture here records. Often the commitment to Christ may vary in the area we need to commit. (e.g. The rich man who came to Christ). The call to follow Christ is the same for everyone, but the way that call works out varies and may look different. For example take tithing: it is not that only certain people are called to tithe. Maybe it is that for certain people tithing is the area that blocks them from further commitment to Christ. What s your excuse? Sometimes often have a desperate fear of legalism and works righteousness (meaning that one could earn salvation through their good actions) and we don t want to commit. That is a common form of excuse. As far as we Evangelicals are prone to accuse the examples from the early church of Francis and Symeon, of legalism and a works righteousness, I think they could make just as strong of an accusation that our concept of grace is cheap and that our concept of commitment is lukewarm. Call Francis and Symeon what you want, but you can t call them lukewarm! Christ himself elsewhere has some convicting words concerning lukewarm faith as we heard earlier in the service. He says in Revelation 3:15-17 to the church at Laodicea: (powerpoint #) 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm neither hot nor cold I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. (NIV) It should be noted that the city of Laodicea did not have hot or cold springs, so the water had to be transported there in aqueducts and by the time it reached there it was lukewarm. Lukewarm water was associated with stagnation. It is not life giving. Perhaps this letter is really to the church in North America, to you and me. What s your excuse? What blocks you from Christ? What gets in the way of Christ s call to you? Where are you lukewarm in faith? is it everwhere? What is blocking you from God? Maybe it has to do with anger at God. This one hits home to me. But I often think that those who even have anger toward God have a better chance at relationship with him than those that are lukewarm. At least if you have strong feelings toward God than there is a chance at relationship. Remember the movie Signs from about a decade ago? In it, it is really about Aliens, but Mel Gibson s character has lost his wife. He is angry at God. In a scene about midway in the movie, they think it is going to be the end of the world, so they make all different sorts of food to eat. They are sitting at the table and his son says, we should pray. Mel Gibson s character refuses to pray. He won t even talk to God. But then later on in the movie at one point, his son is having an asthma attack and he says, he prays to God, Don t do this to me again, not again. I hate you. I hate you! I think that is the turning point of the movie, because at least he is telling God how he feels. If you are not willing to commit to God because we feel like he has wrong us, than you are not alone. There is a long tradition of lament or compliant in the bible. There are

5 plenty of examples of people pouring out anger and frustration to God. Lukewarm people don t do that. Lukewarm Christianity is not life giving. I think God would prefer us to be hot or cold. It is a lot easier to work with someone who is emotionally invested even if they are negative. I know in my own life I went through a period where I was so angry at God and that was my excuse for not further committing to Christ. I was angry because I felt like God (through my circumstances) was telling me that I should take a break from pursing theological studies. That I was not having many opportunities for the type of ministry I thought I was bested suited for. If you know me, I love theology, and I love teaching people about theology. I really do. I mean I love it. A turning point, a point of commitment came when I prayed to God, Ok Lord, either open doors for me or make me fall so in love with you that I just don t care. I think at that time, God started to do more of the former, and more recently he is doing more of the latter. Besides anger there are many other excuses why we don t commit to God, and even many specific areas where we could show commitment to Christ: What s your excuse? Many us lack in the area of tithing, we think I will tithe when I get my finances straightened out, and yet we are forgetting that we are merely stewards of what we think are our possessions. Temporary stewards. Perhaps we have been toying with the idea of foster care or adopting but have numerous reasons why it just isn t time yet (and yet we forget that we have been adopted by God). Maybe we want to be able to spend more time doing the kingdom s work through a new ministry but we just can t stop working overtime. We think there is no other way but for us to work 60, 70, 80 hours a week (often time to support a particular life style) and yet we forget that what good is it for someone to gain the world and yet lose their soul. Perhaps have just always intended to go to church more regularly but find we just can t stop sleeping in on Sundays. Yet we forget that what kind of relationship would we have with those we love if we didn t spend time with them. I am married and have two small children, what kind of husband and father would I be if I didn t spend any time with my family, with my spouse and my children. And yet being the bride of Christ we neglect our spiritual spouse, and our spiritual brothers and sisters when we don t worship. What s your excuse? Conclusion: But when it comes down to it, the various excuses and reasons why we won t commit are really not that important. Because they all really boil down to a theological reason. A spiritual reason, that as John 3:20 says, (powerpoint #) Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. (NIV) (powerpoint) We must expose our excuses for what they are. The are rebellion against God. We must expose them to God s powerful transforming Holy Spirit. We must do this if we are to continue in relationship with Jesus Christ. We have thoroughly discussed excuses both theirs in the text and ours, let s talk about responses now. Notice that in today s reading from Luke it doesn t show what these would be followers of Jesus responses are (pause). (slow) It doesn t show how they respond. Unlike the rich man who comes to Jesus and told he is to sell all and follow him, with these would be followers we don t know how they respond. Perhaps that is really Luke s way of asking what is our response as the readers? I remember my friend Ryan who used to be associate pastor at Trinity Church in Livonia in a sermon saying that the bible was often a mirror of our own experience and he added be careful objects in mirror are closer than they appear. This mirror we saw today has written all over it: So what is your response to Jesus call? (Pause) we covered why we don t want to commit and even specific areas in our relationship with Jesus that need more commitment. But perhaps I haven t answered the question I was supposed to of why should I commit?

6 In the end the reason why we should commit to Christ is simple (and would have made for a far shorter sermon if I specifically stuck to it!). It comes from a conversation between the Apostle Peter and Christ after the feeding of the 5000 in John chapter 6: (powerpoint #) 53 Jesus said to them, Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it? 67 You do not want to leave too, do you? Jesus asked the Twelve. 68 Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God. (closing prayer) (lead into affirmation of faith)-if you want to further follow Christ, or don t know him and want to start following him, I would invite you to talk to one of the pastors here at faith after the service. As one way that we can pledge ourselves to Christ here and now let us now recite the Apostles creed. Sources (suggestions for further study) Word Biblical Commentary Vol. 35b, Luke 9:21-18:34 (Nolland) The New Interpreter's Bible: Luke - John (Volume 9) The Gospel of Luke (New International Greek Testament Commentary)-(this particular passage is still very accessible for someone who doesn t know Greek) Wikipedia (For Francis and Simeon) The movie Signs by M. Night Shyamalan Book of Tobit in the Apocrypha