Sunday, March 3, 2019
For
my birthday, my wife and kids got me the Amazon “Echo Dot” for my office.
Now you can come in and say, “Alexa, play jazz,” and the machine will do
exactly that. In fact, the other day, I did that very thing. But, then I needed her to turn it off, so I
said, “Alexa, stop.” And I said it kind of loudly. Right at that moment, Alexis Carpenter was in
the office making copies. She asked,
“What am I doing wrong?”
You have to be careful with “Alexa.” For fun, I
asked, “Alexa, what is your mission.”
She responded in her machine-like female voice, “To
explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to
boldly go where no A.I. has gone before.”
Do you recognize her play on the iconic Star Trek
opening? “These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: To explore
strange new worlds, to seek out new life forms and new civilizations, to boldly
go where no one has gone before.”
I love the playful convergence of ‘90’s pop-culture and
today’s technology. But, suppose I wasn’t asking Alexa her mission or
James Tiberius Kirk the mission of the Enterprise. Suppose I ask you, what
is the mission of a disciple of Jesus Christ?
Would you say it is to call Jesus “Lord?” That seems easy enough
until we take into account what “Lord” means.
This one who loves us so much he died for our sins that we might be
forgiven and have his righteousness cover us and that we might have eternal
life - this one is to be the absolute, complete, final authority in our lives.
But he’s not an oppressive authority.
Rather he is the source of all love and mercy, and he wants a
relationship with us.
To call Jesus Lord is to enter that relationship by way
of confession and forgiveness and grateful reception of the new life He gives.
It is to live a life of prayer and devotion. And it is to accept that Jesus lays out our
life plan and whatever hopes or dreams we might have, we submit to Him.
Maybe you dream of professional soccer player.
You’re athletic. You train really
hard. You might make it. But
however hard you work, however badly you want it, if you are a Christian, then
Jesus is Lord even of your pursuit of your dream. Go for it. Go ahead.
But, every step of the way, stay connected to your Lord, your Master,
through prayer, Bible-reading, worship, and involvement in church life.
And if there comes a moment where you have to choose between soccer or
obeying your Lord, you follow Jesus.
It could be acting or
writing. Maybe your ambition is academic and you’ve made all A’s in the
hardest classes. Harvard, Yale, and Princeton all have to compete to see
which one gets you. But if your Master,
Jesus, lays out another path, one that deviates from your academic dreams, you
take that path. If we choose academic success over obedience or the
advancement of an athletic career over obedience or any career over obedience
to the will of Jesus, then he is not our Lord no matter what we say. That
career or that achievement, or it could be a relationship or an addiction -
anything we yield to instead of surrendering ourselves to Jesus - that is our
lord regardless of what we say.
I remember reading an article about a Hall-of-Fame
running back when he was still playing. He listed his life goals. Number 1 was to keep Jesus as his Lord and
Savior. After that came another dozen or
so goals. Win the rushing title.
Win the MVP award. Make the playoffs. Win the Super Bowl. He did not have a single goal that stated how
he would acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior and nothing in his life indicated
Jesus has any authority over him. It was just words. A disciple’s mission is to go beyond words
and serve Jesus with our lives.
In Luke 6, we speak of the disciple’s mission because
verse 20 says Jesus is speaking to his disciples. A large crowd is
present. In verses 17-19 we learn two
things. First, thought Jesus clearly
chose 12 for a special calling, many more followed him. Luke describes it
as a great crowd of his disciples.
However, for the 100’s that wanted to follow Jesus as disciples, many
100’s more wanted a piece of him. They wanted healings or they wanted to
witness miracles. So the masses thronged
to this open field to be with Jesus.
This portion of Luke, which is similar to the Sermon on the Mount in
Matthew is sometimes referred to as the Sermon the Plain. It was an oral
culture. You couldn’t go order podcasts
of Jesus preaching the Sermon on the Mount.
I think what we find here in Luke is similar material but a different
sermon.
When he starts preaching, Jesus can see the crowds, but
he focuses on his disciples. That is who these words are for. The crowd can listen in and in doing they
might themselves want to become disciples. We must, though, remember,
these words are for people who have already committed to following Jesus.
By the time we get to
chapter 6 verse 46, can you hear the exasperation in Jesus’ voice? ‘Why
do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you?’ The life he has laid
out for them is extreme and the only way to abide by his words are with the
help of the Holy Spirit. We can’t cover it all in one Sunday sermon, so
we zero on a few of his points beginning in verse 37.
“Do not judge and you
will not be judged.” We have to name evil and be specific and truthful in
calling a sin a sin. But we cannot claim righteousness just because we
endeavor to follow Jesus. Every one of us falls short in our attempts to
be wonderful disciples. Because we fall short, we should be humble and generous
toward others both inside the church and outside. Humble and
generous.
Jesus goes on to say we
must forgive. Because we live, work, and play with people - people flawed like
we are - both inside the church and outside, in the world, we’re going to be hurt.
And, we’re going to say and do things that hurt others, even when we
don’t mean to. Do not be
judgmental. Be gracious. And forgive.
What else? Verse
42, “How can you say, ‘Friend let me take the speck out of your eye when you do
not see the log in your own eye?’” In other words, how can someone
constantly name the sins of others when his own sins are piling up? Jesus makes no allowance for sin. Sin
is so serious and so deadly, he had to die on worst of torture devices to cover
the penalty - the Roman cross. We can,
in love and humility, correct one another. But, the love and humility
have to be expressed and each one of us has to live in confession.
Confession has to be a
regular part of our Christian lives. Don’t make stuff up. When you pray, don’t make a show of saying,
“O Lord, I am such a miserable wretch,” and then ramble on about how despicable
you are so everyone listening can see you being confessional and humble.
Don’t it that way. Do it this
way. Carve out time to be alone, just
you and God, a time of solitary prayer. Honestly review your life, your
choices, your relationships. Ask God to
help you see your blind spots and your mistakes. When we do this
honestly, it is painful but also cathartic.
Usually for me, it
becomes clear that I have been heavy handed with someone in my family or
someone I love. I have had to confess rudeness and insensitivity. I have had to confess laziness. I have had to acknowledge my willful
indifference to all the privileges I enjoy as a white, middle class, educated,
married, heterosexual, employed American male. None of those descriptors
are bad things, but every one of them gives me advantages. Many, I haven’t really earned. At times, I have exploited those advantages
for my own good without thinking about those who do not have these advantages. I have to confess that to God and ask
forgiveness.
But don’t worry about my
confession. You make yours. God
has forgiven me and will forgive you.
Jesus says, don’t judge;
forgive; don’t try to correct others without first dealing with your own junk
through confession and repentance. What else?
He talks about the
produce of our lives. “The good person out of the good treasure of the
heart produces good, and the evil person out of the evil treasure produces
evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks”
(6:45). So, what is in your heart?
What is in my heart? More importantly, what shapes and influences our
hearts, our desires, our affections?
Jesus looked into the
crowd and saw that even those who wanted to follow him were prone to sin,
tempted to turn to other influences, or likely to make other things more
important in their lives than the way of God. Sure, once I get my
athletic career going, then I’ll work on my discipleship. Once I assert my opinion about the hot issue
of the day, once I have had my say, then I will trouble myself with obeying
Jesus. Once I make all money I think I will
need to make me happy, then I will see about fitting discipleship into my life.
He could see it on their
faces. He can see it on ours. Why
call him Lord if we are just going to disregard God when we feel like doing so?
To call him Lord, is to
speak truth, because He is Lord of the universe. It is also
acknolwedgement that our only hope for life is to stay connected to Jesus in
relationship. It is all we have.
The call of a disciple, the people Jesus was talking to in this Sermon
on the Plain was to obey Jesus. We need help and God gives it.
When we receive that
help, and do our best to live the obedient, disciple life, we walk in joy, no
matter our circumstances. We find ourselves part of what God is doing in
the world. We live the mission he has
given us and are welcomed by Him as He says, “Well done, good and faithful servant.
Enter the joy of your Master.”
AMEN
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