2.13.11--Learning the Lyrics

As I am sure Jessica will attest to, I am horrible about remembering the lyrics to songs. Now, I maintain that part of this is not my fault but the fault of the artist. If they cannot enunciate well enough for me to understand what they are saying, then how can I be held responsible for learning the correct words? So I will, on occasion, make up the lyrics for a song. If it sounds close enough, who is going to be able to tell the difference, right?

There is one song by Brad Paisley, one of Jessica’s and my favorite country artists, that includes the phrase “and we’re lost but holding hands.” But right as he sings the line, the music picks up and he kind of runs the words together. So, for the longest time, I had no idea what this phrase actually was, so I would sing the phrase that I thought it was—“and we’re lost before we ask” every time the song came on the radio. It does not make any sense, I know, but it worked with the rhyme scheme… sort of… and it fit the tune of the song, so if I sang it with enough confidence, hopefully no one would ever realize I did not actually know the words!

Well, one day I was driving a friend of a friend on an errand and the song came on the radio. We were both singing along, and when we got to that line, I sang what always had sung. Now this girl was one of the people with whom I was really more of an acquaintance than anything else, and honestly, she annoyed me to no end. This particular occasion is one example of why. When she heard what I had sung, she turned to me and said “Umm… those are not the words. It’s ‘and we’re lost but holding hands.’ You really shouldn’t sing songs if you don’t know the words.”

            Now, this took me aback for two reasons. The first was because I was I was doing her a favor by giving her a ride and here she was actually critically evaluating my singing! Only Jess is allowed to do that. The second reason was because she was right. I had been unknowingly singing this song wrong for years. I felt like her little quip had shaken me to the core. I really didn’t know the words to this song that I’ve loved for years? If I was wrong about that, what else in life am I wrong about?

Now, obviously, I might have over-reacted about the implications of not knowing a line from a song. I mean, it is just a song, right? The world would have continued turning, my life would probably be exactly the same, even if that song had never been written. So what if I had a line wrong. But none of like to hear that something that we know to be true is in fact false. None of us like to hear that we’ve been doing something wrong for years—maybe our whole lives—without ever actually knowing it. It’s embarrassing. It’s humiliating. It can even sometimes truly hurt to hear.

And yet this is exactly what Jesus is doing in the Sermon on the Mount. He is taking laws given from God and recorded by Moses and He is reinterpreting them for the people of God, showing them that over the years they had greatly skewed their understanding of the Law. The Jewish people had strayed far from their covenantal relationship with God, had lost the ability to see the truth of the Torah and the real message behind God’s laws. They had been singing the wrong lyrics for centuries, millennia. And Jesus comes in and corrects them, saying to God’s people that they had been singing the wrong words all along and then working to teach them the right ones.

Today, I want to focus with you on the first topic that Jesus discusses with His listeners. The first thing that Christ brings up is murder. Now, “thou shalt not kill” is one of the ten big ones, right? And it sounds pretty straightforward. Don’t kill. But you see, Jesus knew his target audience. He knew their hearts. I mean, He was one of them, and He was the Creator of all of them. Jesus knew that the Jewish people were an actively oppressed people under Roman rule. And before that they were under Greek rule. And before that Persian. And before that Babylonian. And let us not forget about all of the years they were slaves in Egypt! They longed for freedom, and many of them wanted it no matter the cost. How many of them had looked at a Roman centurion, sitting so proudly on top of his war horse, and thought “If only God hadn’t forbidden it, I would kill you now where you sit”? And so Jesus throws down the truth: even the malicious thought towards your neighbor is a sin. Holding that grudge, carrying that anger, should be seen as just as bad a sin, for it keeps the individual from being able to truly minister to that neighbor and it mars the individual’s soul. That anger and hatred go so far as to interfere with one’s relationship with God, for how can you love the Creator and yet hate something fearfully and wonderfully made in His image? Therefore, get right with your neighbor before you come to the Lord’s table, otherwise you won’t be able to get right with God.

My friends, what would happen if we ascribed to this in our lives? What if, before we came to the communion table each month we took the necessary time to seek out those whom we had wronged or who had wronged us and we worked to seek reconciliation with them? I know that this is obviously not an easy thing to do all the time, and yet our Savior requires it of us.

One of the times that I really struggled with this was my last semester at TLU. Someone that I considered to be a friend turned his back on Jess and me over a misunderstanding that led to Jess having to find someplace to live for a couple of months and me feeling guilty and betrayed. I wanted to confront him. I wanted to yell at him. I wanted him to feel the emotional pain he had caused me. And after feeling angry and bitter about it for a month or so, I talked to a pastor friend of mine about it, asking if he thought I should confront the guy. My friend read this section of Matthew to me and asked what I thought I should do to get right with God about it?

So I ended up writing my estranged friend an email, apologizing to him and asking if we could meet up to patch things up. And even though his response was unkind and not what I had hoped for, I felt much better about it. I had done everything I could to clear things up, and my heart was finally right with myself and with my God.

So is your heart right with God in this way? Is there anyone with whom God is telling you that you should seek reconciliation before you come again to the table?

Jess and I now play a little game in the car when we listen to music. When one of us sings the wrong lyrics or messes up the song in some way, we start the song over and sing it until we both get the entire song right. I remember one car ride that we started a certain song over 15 times before we sang it right! It was extremely annoying, but I must say that we sure do know all of the words to that song now!

I think that sometimes following the teachings of Christ requires the same process. We have to be ready to try and try again until we get is right, rejoicing in the fact that Christ is urging us onward. I pray that we will answer the call to follow Jesus’ true interpretation of the Law. I pray that we seek true reconciliation with our neighbors. And I pray that we will keep trying to be better and more faithful followers of Christ, no matter how long it takes us to learn the lyrics.

Amen. 

11/12/2010--By Our Love

By Our Love: A Call to Renewed Identity and Renewed Purpose

Let us open with a word of prayer. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be found pleasing and acceptable to You, our Rock and our redeemer. Speak to me and through this day, oh God, so that the message we hear would not be my own, but would be Your word for Your people. This we ask and pray in Your Son’s holy name. Amen.

            Our story begins at the Roman Coliseum. The gladiator games are in full swing, and the event has once again led to a packed stadium. A sold out crowd fills the seats, everyone jumpy and excited as the anticipation for the awaiting carnage reaches untold levels. They have all come out to witness the ultimate spectacle—a fight to the death. The electrically charged crowd takes in a collective breath as the gladiators enter the sand-covered arena and, after saluting to Caesar, begin to fight. The air rings with the sound of sword clashing against sword, and every eye is glued to the center of the ring as the battle continues. It is shortly evident that our warriors are evenly matched, neither able to secure an advantage over the other.

And so, the battle continues. Until one of the gladiators slips on a small rock and his concentration is broken for a split second. The other fighter sees his opening and strikes, knocking away his opponent’s sword and quickly bringing him to his knees. He does not kill his opponent, though. Instead, he looks up to Caesar, as protocol dictates, and awaits his command. You see, if one gladiator managed to best the other without first inflicting mortal damage, one of two things would happen: Caesar would either stretch out his hand and put his thumb up in the air, signifying that the loser had fought a good fight and that mercy was to be shown to him, or Caesar would stretch out his hand and put his thumb down, commanding the victor to take his due reward and kill the gladiator because he had not shown the bravery and skills needed to earn salvation.

So Caesar stood from his throne and stretched his arm out, leaving it hanging in front of him as he listened to the shouts from the crowd. He knew that all eyes were on him, and he was going to milk this moment for all it was worth. The crowd seemed torn. Half were yelling for thumbs up, shouting things like “He fought well! Show mercy!” while others were succumbing to their carnal natures and shouting for blood. Whichever stance they had taken, all of the spectators were on their feet, yelling at the top of their lungs.

Everyone, that is, except for a little monk named Telemachus who was sitting on the very top row of seating. If there were a nosebleed section at the Coliseum, he would be sitting in it. Telemachus had been praying during the match, and while everyone around him was shouting, he finished his prayer and rose to his feet. Then, in his quiet voice, he said six words: “In the name of God, stop.”

Now, everyone was yelling, so not many people heard him. In fact, only the people on either side of him caught what he had said. But he took a step down and said again, “In the name of God, stop.” The people around him were nudging those next to them and pointing to the little monk. Soon more and more people had stopped yelling and were staring wondrously at Telemachus, watching as he made his way down the steps of the Coliseum and saying in his quiet voice every few steps, “In the name of God, stop.”

Finally, the entire stadium was completely silent as they watched this little monk make his way onto the sandy arena, move right in between the two bewildered gladiators, and say one final time, “In the name of God, stop.” Now, no one knew what to do about this, least of all the gladiators. So they did what they always to when they were in an uncertain situation: they looked up to Caesar for guidance. And Caesar, still standing in his box, stretched out his arm… and put his thumb down. Seeing this, the gladiators ran Telemachus through.

A man who had been sitting by the monk gathered his family and left the stadium. On the other side of the stands, a group of businessmen grabbed their things and left as well. Here a group of fifty left, there a hundred. Soon, the only people left in the Coliseum were Caesar, his guards, and the gladiators still standing on either side of the dead body of Telemachus.

This was the last time in history that there was ever a fight to the death in Rome’s Coliseum. Telemachus changed the world by standing up for what he believed was right. He saw injustice around him, and he refused to sit idly back while the world around him sank farther and farther into sin and carnage. And, friends, we are called to do the same. We are all called to change the world, just as this little monk did so long ago. And like Telemacus, we are called to change the world through a very special medium: love.

Our first Gospel lesson today was Luke 10:25-37. In this story, we heard Jesus’ response to the question “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus turns the question back on the questioner, and we learn that the Law (which we know today as the first five books of the Old Testament) holds that above all else you must “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love is the key. We are to love God with our absolute everything and love everyone else as well as we love ourselves.

In our second Gospel reading from John 13:34-35, Jesus is speaking to His disciples, and He gives them a commandment: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Once again, we are called to love. We are even told that our love is the standard by which the world will know that we are Christ’s disciples. Love is absolutely crucial for the faithful follower of Jesus. Our purpose in life, therefore, is to show everyone we meet the love of Jesus Christ so that they might know that we are Christians and so that they might some day come to know Christ as we do. We do this by living our lives in a way that reminds the entire world who we are and Who’s we are.

The truth, though, as scary as it may be to admit, is that the church as a whole is not good about this. Time and again throughout history we fall into sins of pride as individuals and people, raising ourselves up while at the same time beating others down. Whether we speak of the crusades, the inquisition, the treatment of slaves, or any other myriad of topics, it is easy to see that the command to love is sometimes lost on the people who should be upholding it.

And, sadly, this is something with which we as the church still struggle today. We have groups here in America that preach a gospel of hate across the nation, so caught up in their personal piety and so high up on their personal soap boxes that they either cannot see or refuse to see how their actions are widening the schism that forms between the church and the world. We have actual churches that will picket soldiers’ funerals to speak out against the war, disrupting an event already hard for many to bear to push their ideals at people who are hurting and struggling with the loss of a loved one. We have actual churches with websites such as godhatesfags.com that are so entrenched in getting their point across they do not see how they are hurting, alienating, and humiliating people that already struggle with their identity in a world that has constantly marginalized them. We have actual churches that will crowd around the sidewalks of abortion clinics, yelling until they are red in the face at young women entering and exiting the building, many of whom are drowning in shame already and do not need anyone else telling them that they are evil and that they are murderers. We have actual churches that would rather burn another religion’s holy book than work hand in hand with them to strive for peace in a war-torn world.

We as a church—and I do not simply mean this local congregation, I mean the body of Christ throughout the world—we as a church must come to understand that above all else we must act out of love. We cannot try to impact and change the world by hate or by violence or by any other means but love, because to do so would be to abandon the very thing for which Christ stood. Please don’t think this has anything to do with my political views or your political views.  This is about how we choose to represent our God and our faith. Nothing more. Are we answering God’s call to change the world through love? Or are we trying to change it some other way?

We must find a way to act out of a place of love. Then and only then can we start changing the world as Telemachus did.  And when this happens, we will also be better able to see the injustices around us, for God would not have called us to go out and change the world if there were not reason for it and if God were not going to open our eyes to the needs of the world. Like the Good Samaritan, we will see the stranger lying battered and bruised on the road and actively seek to help him, for we see in him a need that can be filled and a person who needs love. No longer will we be able to walk ignorantly through life like the priest and Levite in Jesus’ parable, for God has opened our eyes to the injustices around us and expects us to act accordingly.

So what are the injustices around us? I would like to share one with you today that has been all over the news recently: the tragic suicides of so many young people around the nation. Friends, there are so many people around us who struggle with their identity in society and how others view them. Some, feeling lost and alone simply because they are different, have chosen to end their lives rather than face these towering giants. One such person was Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University, not thirty minutes from here. We get in a mindset of “these problems are other peoples’ problems and don’t apply to me,” but, friends, this happened right down the road! I’d like to share some of Tyler’s story with you. What follows are sections from a Yahoo! News article from September 30^th of this year:

The death of a Rutgers University freshman stirred outrage and remorse among classmates who said they wished they could have stopped the teen from jumping off a bridge after secret video of his sexual encounter with a man was streamed online.

Tyler Clementi, 18, jumped off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River last week.

"Had he been in bed with a woman, this would not have happened," said Rutgers student Lauren Felton, 21, of Warren. "He wouldn't have been outed via an online broadcast, and his privacy would have been respected and he might still have his life."

Clementi had just started at Rutgers… and was a talented violinist whose life revolved around music, friends and mentors said.

Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi, and fellow Rutgers freshman Molly Wei… used a webcam to surreptitiously transmit a live image of Clementi having sex Sept. 19 and…  tried to webcast a second encounter on Sept. 21, the day before Clementi's suicide.

Gov. Chris Christie… sent a warning to students who taunt or pull pranks on others.

"You don't know the feelings of the people on the receiving end of that," he said. "You can't possibly know. There might be some people who could take that type of treatment and deal with it, and there might be others, as this young man obviously was, who are much more greatly affected by it."

His death also stirred outrage at his new school.

"The notion that video of Tyler doing what he was doing can be considered a spectacle is just heinous," said Jordan Gochman, 19, of Jackson, who didn't know Clementi. "It's intolerant, it's upsetting, it makes it seem that being gay is something that is wrong and can be considered laughable."

Other students who knew Clement were upset that they didn't do more to help him.

"I wish I could have been more of an ally," said Georges Richa, a freshman from neighboring New Brunswick.

"No person should have to endure such shame and humiliation," said Alcaro, who grew up with Clementi in Bergen County, west of New York City. "I'm disillusioned that in a generation that prides itself on acceptance and tolerance, people can still be so closed-minded and downright hateful."

Friends, this is absolutely unacceptable. There is no reason whatsoever that anyone should ever feel so lost and alone that the only way to find release is in death. No reason whatsoever. And this is not because, as many people far removed have remarked, that they should be stronger or they should not be as cowardly or anything like that. There is no way for us to place ourselves fully in their shoes, so we cannot know just how strong or weak they are. Besides, we as Christians are told that the right to judge and condemn is the Lord’s, not our own.

The reason, brothers and sisters, that it is unacceptable that anyone should ever feel so lost and alone that suicide is the only answer is that we as Christians should be working so hard to make sure that everyone feels accepted, included, and loved that there is no opportunity for anyone to feel otherwise. Whether we are referring to the most respectable member of the church or the homeless woman living under a bridge or the homosexual teenage boy attending the nearby school, we as the church should be showering any and everyone we can in the love of Christ. Everyone should know beyond a shadow of a doubt that even if the world marginalizes and oppresses, the church will always welcome and embrace with open arms.

Friends, our world is full of hate, and we have to stand up to it. It is easy to see these kinds of things as happening far away, and to tell ourselves that they don’t pertain to us and our world. But we could not be more wrong. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in one of his famous sermons, urges his listeners to actively engage the wrongdoings of the world. “We must learn that to passively accept injustice is to cooperate with it, and thereby become a participant in its evil.” Though Dr. King ‘s message was aimed at stopping the racial prejudice and injustice of his time, it is absolutely prevalent for us today. We cannot sit back while this kind of hate continues to spread. We cannot allow this apathy of the individual’s feelings to fester and grow. We as a church must stand up. We as a church must be God’s beacon of hope in this world. And we as a church must be the first to show love to those who only know hate.

This is just one instance where an injustice is prevalent in the world and we as the church have the opportunity to combat it in a very real way. We have the chance to be the forerunners of our nation in showing love and acceptance of everyone, no matter whom they are or what they have done.

So how is God calling you individually to change the world? As we saw with Telemachus, it does not take the entire body of Christ to usher in the Kingdom. It takes one person willing to stand up for what is right in a way that shines forth the love of Christ. So what is it that God is calling you to do or to stand up against? How will you begin or continue to change the world for your Lord? And how will we, the body of Christ in this community, begin and continue to change the world through love? What injustices do you see around you? How can the church through love right those wrongs? I pray that we would become a church that, though we meet here in this place for worship once a week, would be constantly at work together in the world around us, and I pray that you will boldly answer God’s call to change the world through love, so that everyone will know that we are disciples of Jesus the Christ.

I want to leave you with the first verse of a song that I have known for years. I grew up listening to this song, but I do not think that I fully grasped the meaning of it until much more recently. Listen to the words of this song, and then we will spend a moment in silent prayer and meditation, speaking with God about ways in which God is calling us to change the world and listening to what God says in response:

“We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord. And we pray all unity may one day be restored. And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

           Lord, thank You for speaking Your word to us on this day. Allow Your Spirit to live within us, guiding us into action throughout our lives, so that we might truly begin to change the world around us through the love that Your Son first showed to us. We thank You and we love You. Amen.

Let's Get This Party Started

Aloha!

My name is Wes Cain and this is my blog. I am a follower of Christ with a lot to say about my God, and--at the urgings of some of my friends and family--I decided to put some of my sermons up on the interweb for everyone to read.

So, usually in these first blog posts, people tell a little bit about themselves and and share why they think you should read their blog. I'm not going to do this, though. I tend to write my sermons in a way that people learn about me through them. They tend to be personal and share different parts of my life and identity with the people who hear them (or who read them on this blog). So, instead of boring you with a mini-autobiography in this first blog, I thought it would be better to kind of go on a journey with you, sharing little insights about me each week.

I will say one word of explanation for the title of my blog. It is meant to serve two functions: to tell a little bit about me and to tell a little bit about my purpose. First of all, anyone who knows me knows that I am not comfortable in any type of shoe but my flip-flops. Even in the cold of winter, I will sometimes break them out just to remind my feet what true comfort and freedom is. My friends and family can attest that, if I had it my way, I wouldn't wear anything but flip-flops. I even tried (unsuccessfully) to wear flip-flops with my tux at my wedding. Now, my current church placement does not really allow me to dress the way I would like, and on Sundays you can find my in my suit and dress shoes, but I guarantee that, as soon as I am able, I will preach in my flip-flops every occasion I can manage. The second part of the blog title is a reminder for the world and myself that the message that God has given me to preach is not always one that is easy to digest. Sometimes God needs a word of challenge spoken, and word that pulls people out of their comfort zones and pushes them into action. Sometimes God needs a word spoken that calls people out on certain actions, not for the sake of placing blame and judgment, but for the sake of accountability and helping the Church be the Church. Just as we must always be ready to hear this type of message, we must always be ready to give this type of message as well, allowing God to use us as not only His hands and feet but also His mouth.

I read a pretty enlightening quote today that I hope will work as a summing up of what I'm trying to do with this blog (and, honestly, my ministry in general): "If the point of literature is to turn blood into ink, then the point of the sermon is to turn the ink back into blood." I hope that my sermons here serve as a way of bringing to life the Gospel message for you, not for my sake and not to see how many hits I can get on my blog, but so that the Living God might plant the Living Word in your hearts.

Thanks for reading, and God bless!