Values

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. My sermon is entitled Value, Pauline Values, Matthean Values, and my focus is Romans 6 and Matthew 10:24-25. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

Several years ago, the singer Pharrell recorded a huge hit song called Happy. His Happy video features people dancing the 4-minute song for 24 hours. A 24-hour video! Of course, Happy is not the first song to promote happiness. The list includes Don’t Worry, Be Happy; Happy Together; You’ve Made Me So Very Happy; The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA; Happy Days; and Oh Happy Day.

I begin a sermon on values with happy thoughts because many view happiness as a personal value. So, let us look at Value, Pauline Values, Matthean Values, and because we are planning summer vacations, I am going to refill your Prescription for Spiritual Laziness, which may be your key to happiness.

First, value. Although our founding fathers penned “pursuit of happiness” into the Declaration of Independence, they did not define it as we do. Definitions evolve. For example, the word nice comes from the Latin word nescius meaning “ignorant.” In the 14^th century, it meant foolish, then evolved to mean cowardice, and then shyness. Today, when someone says you are nice, you take it as a compliment.

In the context of the Declaration of Independence, happiness was about one’s contribution to society rather than pursuit of self-gratification. I contribute to society the personal values I learned and modeled as a child. These personal values provide an internal reference for what is good. In a society where people come from various ethnic and religious backgrounds, our cultural values emphasize those that people broadly share.

We derive our Christian values from the teachings of Jesus and from Christian teachers throughout the history of our religion. What we believe and practice as Lutherans is not exactly what Baptists, Methodists or other Christians believe and practice, but we share some basic Christian values. To sort out Christian values, we return to our roots, and turn to my second point, Pauline values.

Paul came to believe, practice and hand on to Jesus’ early followers what the Holy Spirit revealed to him as essential. He was sophisticated enough to understand that the teachings of Jesus, like definitions, may not mean the same thing to all people.

Learned, practicing 1^st-century Jews in Jerusalem understood the deeper meaning of Jesus’ Last Supper differently than Gentile converts reared to worship other gods. Hence, Paul taught a new theology of baptism and communion that Jews and Gentiles alike understood and appropriated.

Paul did the same with sin and grace, redemption and sanctification. He conveyed to cultures that lacked the Scriptures the concept that humans are sinful by nature and by choice. Once he presented this, Paul could teach that because our loving God values us, and redeemed us through His Son. Today, we take for granted Paul’s teaching on sin, redemption, baptism and Christian values. We even take for granted a brand-new term that Paul coined – sanctification.

Do we fully understand what Paul meant when he wrote to the Romans (6:16) to present yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification? … Probably not. So, let me tell you briefly about Minh Dang, a woman I met while I was working in Berkeley, CA. I have mentioned her previously, but her story bears remembrance. When I was living and working in Berkeley, Mihn was a graduate student at the University of California-Berkeley. Minh was enslaved by her parents until she broke free as an adult. She personally understands the concept of slavery quite differently than we do. Like other children whose parents have no values, Minh was literally used as a source of income by her parents. Most of us have no personal experience of what it means to be a slave.

I see myself as master of my own destiny. No one tells me how to live, how to think, how to behave. I am my own man. That makes it difficult to grasp the meaning of Paul’s words. We might understand the concept of presenting ourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification if we considered ourselves not as slaves but as addicts.

In the Roman Empire, addicts were bankrupt people given as slaves to their creditors. A family may experience bankruptcy and debt, and be forced to give a son or daughter to creditors. Addict comes from the Latin addictus, meaning “a debtor awarded as a slave to his creditor.” In the 1600s, it meant giving yourself to someone or some practice. By the 1900s, addict became associated with dependency on drugs.

So, when Paul says we are slaves to sin, he means addicted to sin. This addiction extends beyond acts of murder, theft, adultery or gossip, and goes to the heart of sin – idolatry. (This is something Martin Luther covers in detail in his study for the First Commandment in The Small Catechism.) … We are addicted to thinking that we control our own destiny. God is not my master. I have no master. I am my own master.

From his encounter with the Risen Christ, Paul knew better. As sinners whose debt was paid through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, we, the baptized, should live as addicts of the Holy Trinity. That is what “present yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification” means. Think of yourself in a positive way as addicted to God. You need God. You cannot live without God. God is not simply part of your life. God is your life, your entire life. And that is good news, for God is love. As a drug controls the life of an addict, the unfathomable love of the Trinity controls the life of a Christian. Addiction to God leads me to my third point, Matthean values.

The kernel of today’s Gospel is that Christians resemble their Teacher and Master, Jesus Christ. When baptized, we put on Christ, but often fail to resemble Him. By grace, Christians become more like Christ by prayerfully reading God’s Word and receiving Holy Communion.

Paul pointed out that God favored the Jews over Gentiles because He chose them and remained faithfully present to them. We are favored because God remains faithfully present to us through Word and Sacrament. Word and Sacrament are essential to our worship and life. They are essential to other Christians as they too attempt to become more like Christ. However, other denominations interpret Word and Sacrament differently.

We should understand that although we agree with denominations whose personal and communal values are formed by the teachings of Christ, when it comes to the interpretation of Word and Sacrament, we view these quite differently. Some denominations, such as Methodists and Presbyterians, teach that Christ is only symbolically present in Holy Communion. Some churches practice open Communion even for the unbaptized.

We have more than a symbolic presence. We have the true Body and Blood of Christ in, with and under the forms of bread and wine. Because that true Body and Blood of Christ is available to us and because God calls us to be like our Teacher and Master, think how deep your relationship with God could be if you are totally present to Christ in Word and Sacrament.

Imagine how deep your relationships would be if you made yourself totally present to each member of your family. Now, switch gears and imagine yourself as a hot water heater. Everyone takes for granted the hot water heater. No one notices it until … something is wrong. We have relationships like that. Family members take us for granted or never notice something is wrong until we break down. How do we respond when faithful friends and family members treat us like the hot water heater? How does God respond when we treat Him like a hot water heater? When it’s too hot or too rainy to be puttering around the house or golf course, ponder that question this week.

Now that summer is officially here and many will soon observe Independence Day, consider that we take for granted the inalienable rights from God as we do God Himself. For some, Independence Day is just part of summer vacation – taking time away to relax. Unfortunately, for some relaxing means not only taking time away from work, but also from God, Word and Sacrament. Like our relationship with the hot water heater, we tend to become spiritual lazy.

Oswald Chambers once wrote, “We are all capable of being spiritually lazy saints.” We are all capable of being spiritually lazy saints. I know some people who are too lazy to take their prescribed medications every day. I don’t understand it, but I know that they do this.

If you are like me, your need to get your prescriptions refilled on a regular basis. So, I have made copies of a prescription for you. If you did not receive my sermon online, you can pick up your prescription in the hallway. It is the Five P’s of Prayer: Passage, Place, Posture, Presence and Passage. If you have done this before, you may need to renew your prescription. If you have not, try this for the month of July.

Passage. Everyday, read a passage from the Bible. I suggest that you read one of the Gospels. Matthew has 28 chapters, a chapter a day would work well. Read it in the morning or the night before. During the day, find a time when you are fully awake, and reread the passage.

Place. Chose the same place every day. Cindy and I have separate spaces where we can sit and meditate. There is a comfortable chair and a small table. If you live with someone, tell your family members or spouse that you will be in your sacred space for 20 minutes, and not to disturb you. Set your timer for 20 minutes.

Posture. After you are seated comfortably in your place, make sure you position yourself like you are engaged in a meaningful conversation with someone. In other words, do not lie down or slouch because if you do, you will probably fall asleep, and that is not the goal of this time. As we tell our grandchildren, “Focus!”

Presence. Now that you are focused, think about the passage you read. What grabs your attention? What have you noticed about this passage that you have never noticed before? Ask God the Holy Spirit to help you in your prayer about this passage. Ask Jesus why He spoke these words. Ask the Father to pour forth into your heart His love.

Passage. If your mind wanders, pick up your Bible and reread the passage. Remember, this time is when you want to be totally present to the Trinity. Put everything else out of your mind. If whatever it is that seems so important at the present moment to be something other than your passage, let it drift away. Focus on your listening to God.

After your timer rings, turn it off, and whisper aloud The Lord’s Prayer. Thank God for spending time with you.

If you think that you do not need this prescription because you are satisfied with your spiritual life, think about the Steelers. Next month, Steelers training camp begins at St. Vincent College in Latrobe. Now, if you are satisfied with your present relationship with God and are living a respectable Christian life, consider these words of the late, great Chuck Noll, the only NFL coach to win four Super Bowls and lose none. Asked at his first news conference in 1969 if his goal was to make the Steelers respectable, Noll said, “Respectability? Who wants to be respectable? That's spoken like a true loser.”

Friends, don’t settle for respectability. Be a champion for Christ. Like a true champion, witness for our Teacher and Master, Jesus Christ, and not Satan, sin and self. … We are more likely to witness for Christ if we are addicted to Him and not ourselves. When we step forward in faith and love, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.