Two young boys were spending the night at their grandparents.At bedtime, the two boys knelt beside their beds to say their prayers when the youngest one began praying at the top of his lungs, "I PRAY FOR A NEW BICYCLE. I PRAY FOR A NEW PLAYSTATION. I PRAY FOR A NEW DVD..."
His older brother leaned over and nudged the younger brother and said, "Why are you shouting your prayers? God isn't deaf."
To which the little brother replied, "No, but Gramma is!"
That little boy knew exactly what he was doing.
He was crystal clear in purpose.
He wanted Gramma to hear what he wanted.
Clarity is a good thing.
Can we be clear?
About a few things … we have to be very clear.
To be a Christian, to be the church of Jesus Christ … to be a Presbyterian congregation … to be Covenant on the Corner …
To embody within ourselves something of Christ … his purpose and his passion, his grace and his goodness.
Purpose
Passion
Grace
Goodness
Such things must characterize the life of the church that bears his name … each of us must embody these things, in some form or fashion, because we are, as Paul describes us, ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
Purpose
Passion
Grace
Goodness
As for purpose: simple! To the point and on target!
It’s all about love.
Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.
Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.
Don’t judge one another.
Get the log out of your own eye before you mess around with the speck in your neighbor’s eye.
Forgive one another, and forgive one another many times over.
Pay attention to one another – see people around you: the woman at the well, Zacchaeus up a tree, blind Bartimaeus by the side of the road – there’s a world of hurt out there, a world of sorrow and pain, and we can do something about it; so pay attention; don’t be in such a hurry that you pass by one another with little heed and skimpy regard.
Honor God – God is, and God will always be, the guarantee of a life larger than life itself.
We’re all tempted to live small lives.
Life reduced to want and need.
Reduced to “my comfort and my consolation.”
But God won’t allow that to happen … at least not the God of Isaiah, Hosea and Amos; the God of Peter, James and John – a very large God, and when we let God into our heart, God begins remodeling – old walls torn down; little rooms expanded; additions made – the house of our mind and the rooms of heart grow large, to make space for a very large love!
When the disciples shoo away the children, Jesus invites the children to sit on his lap.
When the disciples want to call down fire from heaven and burn up a few towns, Jesus cautions them to show love and kindness instead.
When the disciples don’t get it, Jesus chides them, because Jesus knows full well how easily we pretend ignorance, how easily we let old ideas prevail; how we feign confusion. When in fact we really DO understand, but would rather not.
I hear Jesus saying, “You DO understand. You know full well what all of this means and where it’s all going. Don’t feign ignorance.”
It’s all about love … and sometimes, tough love.
Religious systems self-absorbed; Jesus overturns the tables.
The uppity self-righteous; he tweaks their nose.
The powerful showing off their authority; he ignores them and shows them something better.
It’s all about love – that’s his purpose; and it has to be our purpose, too!
The next word is passion …
Full-out engagement!
Christianity is no armchair philosophy, but a life lived in the love of God for the sake of the world!
Jesus always calls for our engagement.
Jesus requires a piece of our life!
Sacrifice … not all the time, but some of the time.
Jesus wasn’t born with the cross on his back, but he carried the cross when needed, and when needed, he didn’t run away!
Sometimes the cross is needed.
That critical moment when someone has to speak up … stand in the breach and bear the burden of faith, hope and love.
A prophetic voice:
To trouble the kings and queens of the land.
Those who live in the power and glory of self-made importance – they need to hear a clear reprimand and a reminder of what life really means!
The subtle and not-so-subtle racism that still plagues our land … every form of exclusion and discrimination … anything that closes a door and deprives people of a fair and honest chance to make something of themselves.
Someone has to shine the spotlight of God’s love on these dark corners – these stinky places, as Jesus puts it– whitewashed tombs – all clean and pretty on the outside, but full of corruption within.
Bernard Madoff’s 50 billion dollar scam.
Allen Stanford’s banks and homes.
Millions spent lobbying Congress.
Over-the-top CEO salaries, protected by self-serving boards of directors, manipulated by fast-talking money-managers … too many MBAs looking to make a fast buck rather than make a living.
I suspect Madoff and Stanford are just the tip of the iceberg …
By the way, philosopher and all-around curmudgeon, W. C. Fields said: “You can fool some of the people some of the time - and that's enough to make a decent living.”
We have unleashed the horses of greed and desire …
We have worshipped at the alters of excess and glamour …
Everything bigger and everything better … on the backs of workers and at the expense of our nation’s health, and the impoverishment of millions of children.
Someone has to speak up:
For a living wage for LAX hotel workers.
For healthcare.
For better schools and a more equitable tax system, where everyone really pays their fair share!
For a way of life that’s more restrained and thoughtful, rather than driven by want and acquisition.
For politicians who are transparent and global in outlook, rather than secretive and nationalistic.
For business leaders who care for their employees and tell Wall Street to take a hike.
For religious leaders who build bridges rather than big buildings, who proclaim inclusion and welcome rather than separation and judgment.
There are those moments in life when we have to speak up and join together for the life imagined by Jesus – a world that’s true and right, good and fair.
“But preacher,” you say, “that’s impractical.”
Is Jesus impractical?
If anything is impractical, it’s our present world!
Look at the results; immeasurable suffering … wars and rumors of war … death, sorrow and sadness on every hand – the scorecard is in – our present world and the values we live are not practical at all.
Jesus is practical!
Jesus is the most practical reality in all the world.
His world and his way are the truth and the life.
It’s not that Christ has been tried and found wanting; rather Christ has been tried, and found to be hard!
But why so hard for us?
Why so hard to make the change?
We’re smack dab up against a sorrowful mystery.
The Bible calls it sin – the unyielding spirit of self-interest!
An even deeper mystery:
A world perishing will often choose to perish rather than live … blinded by the gods of this world, as Paul says.
If the church is to be of any real value at all, we have to offer an image of something better!
Look, we’re all in this together, and we’re not going to build Utopia – but can we do better?
After all Jesus prays, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Can we lift up for the world an image of justice and peace?
Can we link arms with folks of faith all around the world?
It’s not a matter of “if we can.”
I think it’s a matter of “we have to!”
And if you leave here today with only one idea firmly fixed in your heart: let it be this:
Jesus is the most practical reality in our world …
And it’s our pleasure, our joy, our task, our burden, to embody his purpose, and to live his passion!
And sometimes carry the cross.
Now comes grace … amazing grace we all it!
A friend of mine said, “We call it amazing, because it’s such a rarity, but for God, grace is standard operating procedure.”
Can we make grace a little less amazing, and a little more common?
Religion can easily and often become anything but gracious.
In the last forty years, we’ve seen a hard brand of fundamentalism emerge from the backwoods of our nation to main street attraction – a hard-faced evangelicalism … a conservative movement harsh and unyielding in its denunciation and its judgments – tailor-made for TV and the fast-paced world of religious publishing.
We’ve seen the rise of what I call “bedroom religion” with a sexual fixation, anti-choice bias and a swift and certain condemnation of gays and lesbians …
A fundamentalism associated with wealth and power, big numbers and expensive ministries.
“My Bible verse is bigger and better than your Bible verse.”
How different the works of Jesus.
Of big buildings and expensive ministries, Jesus says, “None of them will last.”
But your love for one another – that’s what counts …
Grace is the power of God to make all things new.
Grace abounding, says Paul.
Grace for the masses, for the lost and the lonely.
A place at the table for everyone.
Especially for those rejected by the usual suspects of power, wealth and religion.
The grace of our LORD Jesus Christ … and to work all the harder for grace – to make grace less amazing and much more common – a day-to-day thing in our life, the way we think and talk, the way we deal with one another – grace, plain old grace, to welcome and to accept, to encourage and to help – grace for the moment, and grace for the long-haul … grace today and more grace tomorrow – standard operating procedure.
The last piece - goodness.
To be good …
Micah put it well: God has shown us what is good: to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with God.
To be faithful to something other than ourselves …
To grow constantly and grow beyond ourselves.
To pray often and pray deeply.
To be content and patient.
To be faithful in hard times and even more faithful in good times.
To search the soul diligently and seek the love of God.
To speak out and to speak up.
To defend the cause of the widow, the orphan and the stranger at the gate.
To be sure that the balance scales are accurate and there are no bribes in the land – that kings and queens govern with kindness, relying less on military prowess and more on economic justice.
Can we be clear about such things?
Of course we can … we have to be clear.
In the name of our LORD Jesus. Amen and Amen!
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