“The Magnetic Power of a Secret” Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – January
7, 2018 Centenary United Methodist Church
Matthew 2:1-12; Ephesians 3:1-12 This is Epiphany Sunday, a time when pastors normally discuss the
events surrounding the arrival in Jerusalem and later in Bethlehem of
the three astrologers from the
east. They brought their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh in
honor of the epiphany they
experienced in Persia when their star-gazing indicated that a child was
soon to be born in the Jerusalem area who was destined to be a world
ruler of great power. This morning we are going to discuss an alternate scripture
lesson that comes from the Apostle Paul's letter to the Ephesians.
In this letter, he shared his
epiphany of God's plan for a
new world order. His letter was written to a group of believers who were
not of Jewish lineage.
Paul had stayed in God gave to me the
privilege of taking the Good News
of the infinite riches of Christ to the rest of the world and
helping all people to understand how
God's
secret plan is to be put into
place. God kept his
secret hidden through all the
past ages in order that at the present time,
by means of
the Church, even the
angels might learn of God's wisdom in all its different forms.
(Ephesians 3:8f) Even in ancient times, such wisdom described in this fashion
would have drawn significant attention.
Most people are compelled
to the magnetic power of something that has been a
secret until their present
time. This is like Paul
saying, "Thank you God, I have the mandate from you.
We can take it from here." Most of us have seen extra large magazines with big splashy
covers featuring shapely women with a tag line,
The
30-day Secret to losing 13-pounds
and 7-inches around your waistline. What gets the attention of a good number of people are words that
inspire their curiosity. For
instance, never before
revealed diaries of Meghan
Markle, Prince Harry's fiancée, or e-mails containing
top secret information that
had been sent on an unsecured server by Hilary Clinton, or the
just published written
testimonies of sixty-five women detailing
the inappropriate conduct of
members of the United States Congress.
The words secret, recently
revealed, newly discovered, hidden
for centuries, and
new miracle drug are all great marketing terms to get the public's
attention. Paul's method of
communicating was quite compelling to the Greeks who thrived on abstract
thinking. What is interesting is that Jesus made no such claims during his
ministry. He simply began
teaching ideas that moved his listeners away from the faith and
practices of their heritage, particularly beliefs concerning the
nature of God.
Jesus' mission statement
was to teach people the truth
on how to live lives that mattered. (John 18:37)
In fact, to provide as much clarity as possible for his
listeners, Jesus inspired people's imaginations with vivid images
created by his numerous parables and illustrations about what it was
like to live in the Paul's approach was believing that God had chosen
the Church to be the carrier
of God's truth to the rest of
the world. By contrast,
Jesus' approach was to teach people that it was their choice
whether or not they wanted to reflect the qualities of God. The developing Church wasted no time in becoming
institutionalized with Popes, Bishops, the College of Cardinals and
trained ordained pastors. The
Church needed money to carry on its ministry while
the Son of Man had no place
to lay his head. The Roman branch of Christianity shut out the other branches of
the faith by labeling them as
heretics. The Church decided which scriptures to keep and which ones
to discard. The Church kept the scriptures
secret by preventing them
from being translated from Latin into the common languages of its
people. Anyone who attempted to translate the scriptures was burned at
the stake. Lay persons could only rely on their priests to interpret the
scriptures for them. The priesthood coveted their control over the
masses while Jesus left self-expression a decision of his listeners.
Further, Jesus loved sinners. Paul taught a more oppressive message that
all people had sinned and had fallen short of the glory of God.
(Romans 3:23) Pastors began asserting their own power and authority over people
instead of giving them hope and a vision for improving the lives of
others. The Church grew in
political power to a point where lay-people were routinely condemned as
heretics for varying from traditional beliefs and were killed in exactly
the same way that the scribes, Pharisees and teachers of the Law accused
and condemned Jesus. What does all this mean? This is more than just a history lesson.
As the centuries passed, the Church slowly and incrementally distanced
itself from the small first century communities of believers known as
People of the Way of Jesus.
In fact, the corruption and immorality became so rampant among
the clergy that in the 12th century Pope Innocent III called his priests
a sty of pigs. Slowly people began abandoning what once informed them about
the will of God.
Spirituality began to
flourish outside the Church as attendance and its
salvation theology began to fade. Today,
instead of wielding authority and power, the churches and clergy have
begun to engage their parishioners into being servants to those in need.
(Matthew 25:44) We sometimes worry that churches are not growing in the numbers
that they did in the past. People began to learn how to live by
experiencing what worked and what did not. In so doing they were often
closer to the compassion and forgiving nature that Jesus was teaching
instead of the guidance provided by institutional religion.
Yet,
the
healing happening all over
the world has remained invisible as God's presence.
Why is that? One of the reasons that we do not sense God's presence among us
is because our attention is drawn to stories of misfortune, social
issues that need fixing, people who have made mistakes in their
judgments, rogue nations, the activities of crime syndicates, drug and
medication abuse, and lone-wolves
randomly killing people in acts of terror. The list of life's many
distractions could go on and on with each new generation. Centenary gives away 170 bags of groceries to needy families but
what gets the headline is the man who was arrested for carrying six
ounces of marijuana with an intent to distribute. Ignored by the
storytellers of our daily news are the people who are rescuing
animals from horrible living conditions, countries that are sending
rescue teams to places that were decimated by recent hurricanes,
Doctors Without Borders,
people that are feeding the hungry and others that are trying to inform
the world's people that global warming is causing weather conditions
that are not getting any better as the years pass.
The
problem is not that God works
in secret.
The problem is that people become so fixated on
other things that they scarcely take notice that God
has not lost anyone's file.
Divided governments will seldom get along.
The miracle is that average people in very diverse societies get
along just fine. God has coded
people to be caring, kind and compassionate. Politicians
are wired to get re-elected. Has the Church lost its influence?
No, it has only lost its popularity among the masses. Today, a
good number of people do not need a church to feel vital or needed.
Followers of Jesus must share the
stage of compassion with many others.
A 15th Century Dutch theologian named Erasmus once wrote: Truly
the yoke of Christ would be sweet if petty human institutions added
nothing more to what he, himself, taught.
He commanded us to love one another. We do not need to belong to a church family in order to move
mountains and to be the leaven for the loaf.
Often what is done to help
someone in need occurs from our natural response of compassion (Matthew
6:3) A short poem makes this point abundantly clear: I
would rather see a sermon than hear one any day.
I would rather one walk with me than merely tell me the way.
The eye is a better student and more willing than the ear; fine
counsel can be confusing, but example is always clear.
I can soon learn how to do it, if I only see it done; I can watch
your life in action, while you're serious or having fun.
The greatest of all my friends are the ones who live their
creeds; for to see the good in action, is what everybody needs. The Good News is that
each one of us has the potential to let
our divinity show up in our
lives just as Jesus taught his followers to do.
Wise clergy today often serve as
the cheerleaders for their
people to be in mission.
The choice to be an angel-in-the-flesh is ours alone to make and not the
Church's. What does the future look like?
No one knows but it will be unpredictable and very exciting. As
long as there are people who are sensitive, caring, compassionate and
loving, there will always be little communities that want to learn about
how better to express their spiritual energies. Our inner world is the final frontier, not outer space and planet
exploration. Whatever we have going on within ourselves, we will take
out there. We had better
get ourselves together now before we head off into such endeavors. Churches will never go out of style.
Why?
The Way of Jesus is the only
way in life that works when nothing else does. Christians can wear
their label if they wish;
however, we need to remember that there are others that do not need a
label. They love
automatically because that is who they have become.
(Luke 9:49f) In
the New Year all of us need to experience our own
epiphany and live knowing that we are all brothers
and sisters.
When we encounter people who cannot do that, we will understand
that how to love one another
is still a secret for many
people. In spite of our understanding, we must be at peace in
knowing that, for most people, the path to living in heaven now remains
a path that is least traveled.
Try to imagine that being in heaven now can come by one decision
to do so. Let's make that
decision as we enter the New Year. CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER Loving God, we know that our lives are as an open book to you.
You can sift through our thoughts and know the secrets of our
wills.
You can see the
areas where the child in us has not grown, where our attitudes
reflect the hurts of another day and where our vision of discipleship
has been obscured by self-interest. Cleanse us from thoughts that are
unproductive and from emotions that make visible our unresolved
conflicts.
Loving God, help
us to integrate the many cross currents in our lives, so that our energy
flows in a direction that reveals a spirit that desires healing and
peace.
Amen. PASTORAL PRAYER We thank you, God, that following the
afterglow from Christmas day when we received anew the coming of your
spirit into our lives, we are inspired by the seeking of the three Wise
Men.
We, too, have known
the longing to find that which will give us inner peace every day. We
often experiment with new ways to begin our day, developing our bodies
with new exercise routines, and discarding habits that never really
served our growth.
What is
it about us that causes our resolves to slide back into our all too
familiar patterns of living? Give us experiences that will energize
us in the New Year. Help us
to sense and acknowledge our own
epiphanies. Show us the
way to deepen our inner world rather than being preoccupied with trying
to solve the problems in our outer world. Help us to choose words that
make our compassionate spirits visible through what we say. Teach us how
our smiles will surround others with our acceptance of them.
Enable us to give people permission to be whomever they want to be rather than insisting that they reflect our likeness and values. May we be humble enough to understand that you will save all your children, and everyone who ever lived, in a time of your choosing and not ours. Help us to be content to remain instruments through which the music of your peace is played. We pray these thoughts through the loving spirit of Jesus, the Christ, who taught us to say when we pray . . . |