Reflection on Philippians 2:1-13

 

Do you want to know what sounds impossible these days?  Being of one mind. 

Paul encourages the Philippians to be of one mind, to be of one accord, and to find themselves in love with one another (and he does not mean romantic love, but the same sort of love that God has for God’s children). 

I do not know about you, but I find this to be rather unrealistic in today’s world.  There is just so much dividing us right now. 

Liberals and conservatives are as far from one mind as anyone can imagine.  Parents and children have a hard time having discussions with one another about the future of our world.  Something as simple as racial justice and racial inequality have become hot cultural fires where we once thought existed only warm coals.

People widely disagree about what to do about the lingering nature of the pandemic.  Do we open everything up and let people live their lives in freedom while the virus takes its toll? Or, do we tighten down our society in order to limit the virus, but also limit our lives for another thousand years. That is how long this pandemic has been around, is it not? 

Cats vs. dogs, Star Wars vs. Star Trek, Minecraft vs. Roblox, sports socks vs. tube socks; we are not of one mind about anything.  We probably have never been of one mind, but the stakes seems so much higher this time around.

But, why?  Why do the stakes seem so high?  Why is it so important that we be right about any of this and everyone else wrong?

In the Bible, Paul seems to think that there are a couple of reasons that we get entangled in this trap of division.  You get a hint of it in Paul’s instructs to the church in Philippi, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests…” 

Selfish ambition (desiring success); conceit (thinking more of yourself than you ought); and loving yourself and paying attention to your own wants and desires rather than turning your attention toward your neighbors; these are all self-focused things.  And, when everyone is focused on themselves, there is little chance that we will be able to be of one mind about anything.  A nation of a million kings is not a nation.  So, what do we do?

This is what the Bible says.  There once was a man who had as much power as God.  He could create as God creates, he could judge and God judges, and he was able to destroy as God is able to destroy.  Upon seeing the hate and division of the world, rather than thinking, “It is time to destroy this and start it all over again…what about a flood?” he came down from his heavenly heights, and walked around for a little while on the bloody soils of hate and division.  He allowed his own story to become a part of the world’s story; a story of hate and division. 

Like a slave, forced to gather from the fields, he took into his arms all the hate and division cast his way, and he carried that heavy burden belonging to others all the way to a cross where he was nailed.  Though his arms were spread, he never stopped holding onto the hate and division, and it was still in his grasp when death consumed him.  He died, but so did the hate and division.

This man regarded other people’s lives better than his own…worth more than his own…so, he died that you might live a blessed life.  His life was not shaped by his own needs and interests; rather, he focused on what others needed and took action, even if that meant death on a cross.

Rather than lifting up our political leaders, or sports stars, or movie actors, or even hometown heroes, the Bible says that we lift high Jesus Christ.  He is the name above all names.  He is the one that every tongue will confess as Lord.  He is the one worthy of devotion and praise. He is the one worthy of being followed.  Jesus is our savior.

The Bible has an idea for us.  Rather than be guided by political leaders or their ideologies, or by the whims of celebrities, or even our own whims and desires, the Bible suggests that we live and think with the mind of Christ. 

The mind of Christ did not care about success.  The mind of Christ did not dwell on selfish notions.  And the mind of Christ was in no way focused on “me” or the need to have more and be more.  The mind of Christ did not even focus on making everyone believe that he was right.  Christ focused his mind on obeying and following God.  Christ focused on doing acts of love for the sake of others.  Does this sound familiar?  This is the Apostle Paul’s way of saying: the primary commandment is to love God and love neighbor.

Allow yourself to let go of the leaders and ideologies of the world that compete for your mind and for your time.  In its place, Christ will give you his own mind.  It is a mind that offers healing when asked, and shares a meal when needed, and frees those who are captive to whatever holds their lives hostage.  Christ’s mind is full of love for those who need it…for us who needed it. 

Sacrificial love is not a task.  Sacrificial love is who you are.  Your life was made a sacrifice to God and neighbor when Christ sacrificed his life for you.  Allow Christ to clear out all of the division, and disagreement, and desire.  Allow Christ’s mind of humility to fill your own.

Reflection on Matthew 20:1-16

I will be the first to admit that math and I do not have a very good relationship.  It was not always like this.  For instance, I thought that geometry was so nice that I took it twice.  OK, I lied, math and I never got along. 

You know what has never happened in a meeting of any organization of which I have been a part?  No one has ever said, “I nominate Pastor Jira for treasurer, I think that he would be great.”  But, even with my sketchy past with mathematics, there is some math that is so intrinsic to life that even I get it.

For example: Hard work equals getting by in life.  My rural, German influenced farm upbringing taught me that one.  If you work hard, you will make it by.  Now, this math does not promise you will thrive; but you will get by.  Who learned that math?

I also learned this bit of math: If you take dollar, you owe a dollar.  This is the basic eye for an eye math that most of us inherently understand.  If a toddler bites you, you bite them back.  If someone steals a car, they owe you a car or something of equal value.  If you take a life, you lose your life.  Our criminal laws function this way, with lady liberty holding the scales of justice, balancing everything out fairly; not too much, not too little.

There is also noble math like: the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.  This is where a soldier lays on a live grenade in order to save the rest of his friends.  It is a noble math indeed.

All of this is to say, that there is this basic math…these basic equations and laws of life…that allow us to get along and thrive.  As basic as this math seems, you might be shocked to learn that God’s math does not always match up with our own? 

Remember the story that Jesus told of the shepherd who leaves 99 sheep in peril while he goes to find one sheep.  I guess, in God’s kingdom, the needs of the one can, shockingly, outweigh the needs of the many. 

And, what about the person who is forgiven seventy times seven times for the same offense, over and over again?  It does not seem to make any sense, but in God’s kingdom the scales of justice sometimes lean dramatically to one side.  This is not the way the world functions, Jesus!

And, to top it all off, Jesus upsets the math of hard work! 

In today’s gospel story there is a vineyard owner who needs some day laborers to go trim his vines.  So, he goes to the end of the Wal-Mart parking lot and hires a bunch of guys at $12 an hour to work for an 8 hour shift.  Seeing that he could use a few more men, the owner goes back a few hours later to the Wal-Mart parking lot and hires more.  He does this again and again, until the end of the day when he hires some guys who still had not been hired by someone else, so that they might gain at least one hour of work.

Now, the first guys that worked all day got paid $96 in cash for their 8 hours of work. 

Did I factor that right?  Remember, I am not good at math. 

But, here’s the kicker; the vineyard worker also gave the guys who worked just one hour $96. 

Alright, I realize that I took a lot of liberties with this ancient story.  We all know that Wal-Mart had not yet established its dominance in the world, but what was not exaggerated was the vineyard owner’s total disregard for the math of hard work.  The guys who worked the day away in the hot sun earned $96.  Those who worked only one hour in the cool weather of the early evening also earned the full $96. 

What?  This story of unfair wages is what the kingdom of heaven looks like according to Jesus?  God’s kingdom is a place where the hard workers are given the same as late comers?

This is bad math, God.  This type of math only encourages laziness on the part of the late comers and gives no incentive to those who would normally work hard to continue to do so.  In the real world, you disserve what you earn.  Fair wage for fair time is the bedrock of a thriving economy.  Hard work and an eye for an eye…do you not remember those values, God?

Jesus’ answers our objections using the voice of the vineyard owner who tells those who worked hard the entire day, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?  Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you.  Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”

“Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”  We have heard this sentiment in the Bible before.  God basically said the same thing to the prophet Jonah who did not want any mercy shown to the evil and corrupt Ninevites, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” 

God says the same thing to us when favor and attention is given to people who we think, quite frankly, don’t deserve it, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”

You see, the kingdom ruled by Jesus Christ, works with a whole different system of math.  It is a math that desires “mercy, not sacrifice.”  It is a math that will go and save the one, even though there are many.  It is a math where all are created equal and given equal worth; there is no need for you to first earn your worth.  It is a math that can save a wretch like me.  It is a math that can look at the sinner…the lost cause…and see a future.  It is a math that looks nothing like our own because, in this math, one person’s death on a cross balances the scales and pays for the sins of the entire world.

There was once a man who stole a church’s Sunday collection.  It was a substantial amount of money.  In retaliation for the theft, the church decided to pay the man’s bills for the month.  The man and his financially struggling family were overcome by the mercy that the church showed.  And, when I say overcome, I do not just mean tears were shed; I mean that the mercy of Jesus Christ literally took control of the man’s life, and his life was changed, forever. 

When asked why they did such a thing by a befuddled news reporter, a member of the church simply answered, “Are we not allowed to be generous?  We believe that the mercy of Jesus Christ can save the world.”

How is that for faith?  How is that for backwards math?

Never forget, you have been saved, not by the math of the world but by the crazy, but merciful math of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Reflection on Matthew 18:21-35

 

Reflection on Matthew 18:21-35 (from Sunday, September 13, 2020)

I will admit, I have lots of questions about forgiveness.  And so, again this week, I find myself standing next to the disciple Peter as he asks the question: “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive?  As many as seven times?”  As I look at Peter, I suspect that there is something behind that question.  At least there is for me.

What if the person does not ever get better, their sin is so ingrained in them that they cannot seem to do anything else?  What if they need to ask for forgiveness over and over again? Reality teaches me that there are lost causes in this world.  Jesus, can I just write them off?

What about people who have suffered abuse?  Do they need to forgive their abusers?  Do they need to go have a milkshake and smile at the one who destroyed their lives, giving them another chance to do the same?

What if I am so hurt by someone that I am just numb toward them and will probably never have a desire to forgive them?

Surely, Jesus knows that this forgiveness stuff is complicated and that there is probably a complicated story behind Peter’s question and my own? 

But, rather than addressing these questions, Jesus simply tells Peter that he must forgive, "Not seven times, but…seventy-seven times.”

That does not help, Jesus.  You did not answer my questions.  Or, maybe more to the point, Jesus did not answer the questions the way I wanted them answered.  I guess that I continue to want to just get out of the situation entirely.  I guess that I desire to delete the “forgive” part of “forgive and forget.”  Just “forgetting” the person is fine with me. 

But, I imagine that Jesus knows our struggles to forgive all too well.  After-all, he did end up on a cross, undeservedly. 

In response to our struggles, Jesus tells a story.

There once was a slave who owed his king 10,000 talents, which is equal to 60 million days worth of work.  I do not know about you, but I am pretty sure the king is not going to get paid back.  Knowing this, the king plans to do exactly as I usually desire to do to those who have wronged me.  He plans to sell the slave and “forget” the rotten guy.

In an act of repentance, the slave falls to his knees and begs for mercy, stating that he will pay it all back.  Yeah right!  I think that we have already established that that is not going to happen.  But, the king, in a shocking act of unwarranted mercy, forgives the entire debt and lets the slave go free. 

I just want to stop right there, because that is already helpful to me.  You see, this guy comes to the king in repentance, begging not to be cast away and sold.  And, though you can most certainly forgive someone in your heart, without them repenting, in order to release your unhealthy, chest squeezing anger toward the person, what is most important to Jesus about forgiveness is not that it makes us feel better, but that forgiveness brings us back into community with one another. 

So, the forgiveness that Jesus is talking about here starts with repentance and then moves toward bringing that person back into our communities and into our lives.  This is not blind forgiveness.  It is the forgiveness given to someone who repents.

To drive the necessity of forgiveness home, Jesus continues his story and tells of how the newly forgiven slave refuses to forgive the debt of a fellow slave who only owed him the equivalent of 100 days worth of daily wages.  That could realistically be paid back and it is much less than the first slave was forgiven by the king. 

The first slave refuses to forgive his fellow slave though and throws him into jail until the debt is paid back.  The king is enraged by the first slave’s hard heart.

It is no coincidence that The Lord’s Prayer in the gospel of Matthew asks God to “forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors.”  God assumes that if we are forgiven, we will forgive.  God assumes that forgiveness is the way that all things are made things right again.  God assumes that if we are a part of forgiveness, then forgiveness will be a part of us.

Now, there is a huge consequence to refusing to forgive those who ask.  Not only is the repentant person’s guilt still condemning them to endless, sleepless nights and likely continued abandonment by those who used to be friends, but it also means that the forgiveness we have been given has obviously had no affect on us.  Instead of forgiveness, we choose the torturous, red flames of hate.

Forgiveness is supposed to free us.  It frees us from anger and hate.  It frees us to be closer to one another and closer to Jesus, who is forgiveness in the flesh.  If forgiveness is not a part of who you are, how can Jesus be a part of who you are?

You know, it is ironic that Peter does not suggest a higher amount of times that one can be forgiven.  He only suggests seven times.  Thinking on the number of things that I need forgiven in my own life, that is a really low number. 

Ironically, Peter is one of the disciples who will need forgiveness from Jesus the most!  He fails to stick with Jesus when it becomes very apparent that following Jesus leads to death; even though he promised he would always be there.  He denies Jesus three times after Jesus is arrested and taken away. On top of it all, this “rock” of faith is nowhere to be found while Jesus hangs, abandoned by his friends, on the cross.  Peter abandons Jesus.  

Peter requires lots and lots of forgiveness.

Thankfully, he follows the one who forgave the whole world on the cross.  Thankfully, he follows the one who does not give up on providing chance after chance to get things right.  Thankfully, Peter has come into contact with the Lord, Jesus Christ.

You know, according to the Bible, forgiveness is not a feeling, it is an action.  Jesus took action and forgave us on the cross, the king took action, forgiving the repentant slave (then, setting him free), and we too set aside our own feelings and take action to free those who are indebted to us.  After-all, when you are freed from having to pay an awful debt back, and once you are freed from sleepless nights of guilt, you will desire to share that precious gift. 

Jesus frees you to live a forgiven life and a forgiving life.  You are free to be the person God created you to be, a person of forgiveness.

The Rev. Kathryn M. Schifferdecker relates this story:

Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch Christian woman who was imprisoned in the Ravensbruck concentration camp for hiding Jews in her home. She lost her beloved sister at the camp but after the war, she traveled around Europe, preaching the Christian gospel of forgiveness and reconciliation. She writes of an encounter with a former guard from Ravensbruck whom she recognized at a talk she gave at a German church in 1947. He came up to her afterwards, told her that he had become a Christian, that he knew God had forgiven him, but he wanted to ask for her forgiveness. He held out his hand but she felt nothing but anger for him.

“And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion—I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. ‘Jesus, help me!’ I prayed silently. ‘I can lift my hand, I can do that much. You supply the feeling.’

And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

"I forgive you, brother!" I cried. "With all my heart!"

For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then.”

(https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=5454)

Forgiveness is hard, really hard, but it is the way that the future is changed.  As followers of Christ you are the forgiven and you are the forgivers.  Set people free in Christ’s name.