May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
Amen.
At last week's Diocesan Convention in Montgomery, our keynote speaker, was a gentleman named
James Moore. He is currently working on a PhD for Congregational Leadership and Change,
and his presentation centered around a book called Growing Young, Six Essential Strategies
to Help Young People Discover and Love Your Church. Don't worry, I'm not going to go through
all six this morning. If you want to do that, you can buy the book. But during his presentation,
he made this claim, which I think is very important. He said, people don't fear change.
People don't fear change. Rather, people fear the loss associated with change. More specifically,
people have a hard time involuntarily entering into a loss situation. And it is often those
with the most, excuse me, it is often those with the most to lose who have the hardest
time with the loss associated with change. After all, those with the most to lose have
to give up their power. They have to give up their control. They have to give up their
proverbial and metaphorical keys. This claim also seems to translate well in considering
our own spiritual lives with God, especially during this season of Lent when we are called
to repent. Repentance, after all, literally means to change one's mind or heart. Repentance
means change. And inevitably, a change of heart or mind will cause us to give something
up. But why in the world would we voluntarily enter into a loss situation? Why would we
even want to repent, want to change? Now, in the verses leading up to today's gospel
lesson, we are told that the entire Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem are flocking
to the wilderness to hear John the Baptist preach. That is a lot of people. The entire
Judean countryside, the entire city of Jerusalem is going out to hear this crazy guy preach
in the desert. Why in the world are they flocking to this person? Remember that these people
are living under the oppressive Roman government who have been occupying their land for generations.
They are primed for change. They are tired of it. They have grown restless under this
current state of affairs. They have been longing for this change since the prophets of old
have told them from generation to generation. They are yearning for this time of liberation
from oppression. They want change now. And any loss, anything they lose because of this
change is more than worth it. In so many ways, they have nothing left to lose. Change is
so much easier to swallow when there's nothing left to lose. But even then, we can be reluctant
to change because we'd rather stay in the current situation no matter how bad it is
than risk a new situation that is unknown. But that's where the good news of Jesus and
His kingdom come into play. Jesus gives them a reason to believe that the change is worth
it in His own life, in His own ministry, and ultimately through His death and His resurrection,
Jesus gives them a vision of that heavenly kingdom that has been promised to them. They
have reason to hope. This vision of this new kingdom gives them reason to hope and leave
behind their old lives no matter the cost because nothing compares in value to life
in the kingdom of heaven. In His letter to the Philippians, St. Paul says that he regards
everything he lost for the sake of knowing Jesus as rubbish. Anything that St. Paul had
before knowing Jesus, he counts as rubbish. The things that St. Paul valued before knowing
Christ are no longer of importance to him. He was an important person in society. He
was a Pharisee. He was blameless before the law. He was a Hebrew and a Roman citizen,
which is really rare. All of that meant nothing compared to knowing Christ Jesus, compared
to knowing that He is a beloved child of God. Now, for those of us with a lot to lose, the
idea of repentance can be daunting, even impossible. Remember the lawyer who Jesus
instructs to sell everything to follow him? If you look at the Gospel narrative, it is
those with the most power who were the most threatened by Jesus. They had the most to
lose should Jesus come into power. Because Jesus' kingdom, in Jesus' kingdom, the keys
are given to those without earthly power, the least, the last, and the lost. Therefore,
these with power try to find a way to shut him up, ultimately, by killing him. As we
think about our own spiritual lives and a relatively affluent community, we must also
consider the inevitable loss that comes with following Jesus. We are talking about this
in our adult forum class, Finding God in the Suburbs. The first disciples drop their
fishing nets to follow Jesus. This lent, what do you need to follow? What do you need to
drop to follow Jesus more closely? What in your life do you need to let go of, to lose,
in order to move closer to God in Christ? For those of us with a lot to lose, maybe there's
more than one thing that needs to be dropped. That's fine. But let's just focus on one thing
right now. Think about a quick win, something that will help you grow in confidence so you
can drop something bigger the next time. Now, word of caution, you'll never drop anything
left to your own devices. You aren't strong enough to drop something worth dropping by
yourself. God knows this, and this is why God sent Jesus to reveal his kingdom on earth
as it is in heaven. And the vision of this kingdom that he gives through his sermons,
his miracles, his parables, the vision of this kingdom, this promise of new life is what
ultimately gives us the grace and permission to drop those things we thought we needed
to live a full life. Now, the best way I know how to keep this vision in front of me, this
vision of God's kingdom, is through participating in the life of the church. I don't know about
you, but I have a short memory. It doesn't take long after I leave this place to, for
my vision to become distorted by my surroundings. I need to be reminded of what the kingdom
of heaven looks like again and again and again. I need to be converted daily. Bishop Stowell
once said that God reserves the most difficult cases to the priesthood. So I guess that's
probably why. And even the hardest cases to the bishops, apparently. Anyway, don't tell
Bishop Gee. The church community, through our weekly worship, through our study, through
our daily prayers, through our fellowship, through our care and concern for each other,
through our service to the community, and through the power of the Holy Spirit working
in us all, God is giving us this gathered body of Christ, a vision of the kingdom here
and now. So God is working through all of us and all of this to give a vision of the kingdom
in the here and now. So at best, the church should inspire repentance, not in a negative
way, but in a positive way, a change of heart, a change in our world, a change in our communities,
a change in our own lives. And I think most of us would agree that the world is not as
it should be. The world is not as it should be in the vision that we were given by the
kingdom, amplifies that the world is not as it should be. But you know what God does?
God loves the world the way it is. God loves us so much that he sends his only son to die.
So that we might be inspired to pursue a new way of living, to live in love like he did,
no matter the cost, no matter the loss. It is only through God's gracious action in
Christ that change is possible in our world and in our lives. So yes, there's no doubt
that you will experience some kind of loss the more and more you commit to the way of
Jesus. But in time, I pray that you come to see this loss in the same way as St. Paul
did, as rubbish compared to knowing Christ Jesus is Lord. I pray that your Linton disciplines
help you experience your voluntary losses in this life as gains in the life to come,
a life that has come near in Jesus. Amen.
And now we proclaim this faith with the words of the team Creed, we believe in one God, the
Father.