Sunday
06/21/20 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “A Disciple Is Not Above The Teacher”
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17
New Testament
Scripture: Romans 6:1b-11
Gospel Lesson: Matthew
10:24-39
Friends, welcome again on this the Third Sunday after Pentecost, and this
our Father’s Day. To all the dads who are here and who are out there, to all
men who have acted as fathers, who have loved, and who cared for others, we
thank you for being parents, leaders, encouragers, people who sacrifice, and
people that have helped us become the people that we are today. We do not seek
to be better than you, but we seek to be more like you.
If you did not have a good biological
father here on earth, I would encourage you on this Father’s Day to think about
the men that were or are still in your life that did so much for you. Those men
who taught you, mentored you, cared for you, and who sacrificed so much for you.
Today we thank and honor all men who have raised children, animals, or who have
cared for and loved others. Thank you to the men on this day!
For me, my biological father, my stepfather,
and other men in my life have helped to shape me and make me the man I am
today. The women in my life have been instrumental, as well, but today is Father’s
Day not Mother’s Day.
Among the many men that have mentored
me, loved me, and guided me, I have been very fortunate to have learned more
about God and our Christian faith from many of them.
I
learned things like it says once again in Psalm 86:9-10 for this morning:
“All the nations you have made shall
come
and bow down before you, O Lord, and shall glorify
your name. For you are great and do wondrous things;
you alone are God” (Ps. 86:9-10, NRSV).
From
some of the many men that have done so much for me in my life, I learned about
the love, the sovereignty, and the authority of God. I learned that God was God
and that we are not. I also learned how treat other people, to work hard, to
respect and love all people, and to love God.
I
learned what were good things, and what were not good things. This really
reminds me of our scripture reading for this morning once again from Romans 6.
The first verse is so interesting to me, as it says once again:
“What then are we to
say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How
can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who
have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we
have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in
newness of life”
(Rom. 6:1b-4, NRSV).
We cannot sin our way into the grace
of God through Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do terrible
and bad things, baptize them as good, and justify them as Godly. I believe that
only struggles and violence should happen to protect our lives, and the lives
of the innocent and the vulnerable. Just Wars occur to end tyranny and the
oppression and the victimization of others. Committing violence, murder, and or
criminal activity simply because we think it is ok or justified though, is
sinful. We cannot sin our way into the gracious love of God. We must turn and
repent from sin and darkness, and in doing so, we turn to God. God embraces us
and we are filled with his love. We then share it with others.
Our spiritual transformations are not
ones that we cause, that we accomplish, but rather what God accomplishes in and
through us. God works through us, and we, as new creations, change Sidney and
the world. We are called to follow Christ, to be like Christ, to live like
Christ, and to love like Christ. Through Christ we have joy, peace, love, and
mercy.
The Apostle Paul concludes our reading
this morning from the Book of Romans with 6:5-11 that says once again:
“For if we have been
united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a
resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that
the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For
whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe
that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the
dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he
died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you
also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:5-11, NRSV).
So, the Christian faith is about Jesus
Christ. As humans we need redemption, we need transformation, we need to know
that we are loved unconditionally, we need to know that we are forgiven, and we
need to be made whole. As much as we think that we can do everything in this
world on our own, we can do nothing without God. We are to lean on God, not our
own understandings. If God has not spoken and revealed himself through the scriptures,
then how can we even know God, his nature, or who God is? We know who God is,
his expectations, and how we are supposed to live.
So,
do we trust God, or do we just trust ourselves, and claim that we are trusting
God? In trusting God, God leads us, not our own desires. Our gospel lesson from
the gospel of Matthew this morning is really telling of this. The gospel once
again says:
“A disciple is not
above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple
to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the
master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his
household!” (Mt. 10:24-25, NRSV).
I will be honest with you, whenever I
read this scripture, I have to think about it. I mean as Christians we are all
equal before God, whether pastor, lay person, boss, employee, Cubs fans or the
others, etc. Yet in this scripture, we are told we are not above the teacher,
and not above the master. This seems uneven though doesn’t it? I mean I thought
that we were all equal before God, right?
Yet, what Jesus is saying here, is that
his disciples and us are not above him. The Apostle Paul says he is slave for
Christ, and if God is our master, then we are not above God. What Christ has endured
for all of us in his crucifixion, means we do not have to endure what he has endured.
So instead of being above Christ, we are just called to be like him. We cannot
die for the sins of the world, and we do not have the full power and the wisdom
that Christ has, but we are called to be like him. As we walk with him, we
become more like him.
Instead of selling out to secular and a
materialistic world view then, the historic Christian faith believes that we
can be changed by Christ. I have been changed by Jesus Christ, and so can we all.
We serve Christ, we serve and love others, and the world becomes attracted to
our faith and our love through Christ. We build Christian community, we love
each other, we grow closer to Jesus, and the church grows and flourishes. Instead
of the church changing to be like the world, the world changes to be like
Christ. Or to put it another way, we are in the world, but not of the world.
Jesus came to transform the world, not be transformed by the world. The gospel
of Jesus Christ is designed to change Sidney and the world, the gospel of Jesus
Christ is not designed to be changed by Sidney and the world.
Further
the property we own and the possessions we own are just on loan to us while we
are on this earth. They do belong to God, but we have them here on earth. In
fact, two of ten commandments protect private property, which is why we are not
to steal or to covet. The abolition of such things then, are contrary to the very
Law of God. Having some wealth is not the sin, greed and the love of money is
the sin.
As the scripture also says, if the
master of the house is called “Beezlebul,” or the Devil, how do you think we
will be treated? Do we live in a world that wants to turn from sin and
darkness, or do we live in a world that largely loves sin and darkness? We will
not find wholeness in the world in mobs, in riots, in burning down buildings, only
in Jesus Christ. The changes that are needed in this country, should come
through our faith in Christ. We are not vigilantes that can do anything we want
and then explain it away as faith. We are not to envy, to covet, to steal, and
we are also not to hate. We all have work that we need to allow God to do on us.
Jesus continues on in Matthew 10:26
saying about those whose persecute us as Christians:
“So have no fear
of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing
secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the
light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear
those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can
destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet
not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the
hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value
than many sparrows” (Mt.
10:26-31, NRSV).
We can live for this world. We can live
for pleasure, possessions, power, revolution, or we can turn to the saving
embrace of Jesus Christ. If we follow Christ and work hard, and if we amass
some wealth and possession, then what a blessing it is to give. What a blessing
it is to be generous. What a blessing it is to feed the poor, care for the
sick, and transform the world.
Jesus
concludes this gospel of Matthew reading for this morning starting in 10:32
saying:
“Do not think that I
have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a
sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against
her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes
will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more
than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is
not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not
worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their
life for my sake will find it” (Mt. 10:32-39, NRSV).
So, if we are going to try to create a
perfect world with no problems, we are fooling ourselves. We are sinners, and our
human nature is flawed. I wish it wasn’t so, but we don’t always do the right
thing. This doesn’t mean that we can’t do good, but that we can’t seem to
completely avoid doing bad. We can make the world much better, be we cannot
make it perfect.
Some might say, “So you mean Pastor
Paul that we can’t solve all the world’s problems?” No, we can’t. Can we eradicate
hunger and poverty? I really think we are moving in that direction, thanks to
market economies that have produced advances in agriculture and technologies. The
world is advancing and the qualities of life of many are increasing like never
before.
There are inequalities in this country
though, and in this world. There is hate, anger, and racism, but we are called
to be faithful to Christ. We should love and care for all people as children of
God. We should defend the weak, the helpless, and the oppressed, but the gospel
of Jesus Christ is about human redemption, not human revolution.
All throughout the history of the
church we have created orphanages, hospitals, schools, feeding programs, homes,
taught people to read, provided education, and shared the hope of Jesus Christ.
The Christian Church has created and still has many feeding programs and
continues to do so much to help the poor, to fight poverty, and create a more
peaceful world. Yet we cannot simply defeat sin in the world, only Christ can
do that. Do we really think that we can accomplish in this world, only what
Christ can?
One day my friends the world will be
perfect, but only when Christ returns to this earth in glory. If we deny the reality
of human sin and human nature, then not only are we fooling ourselves, but we
are playing with fire. I am not giving up or abdicating my role in serving,
helping the poor, or making the world better. I realize though that I am not
God, for “A disciple is not above the teacher.” Amen.
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