Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
March 7, 2004

Scripture:

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Two weeks ago, when I talked to you about Mel Gibson’s movie "The Passion of the Christ," I told you that dying wasn’t the purpose of Jesus’ life, it was the consequence of his life. It is very clear in the Gospels that Jesus could have avoided crucifixion by denying his mission, by shutting up, by refusing to be faithful to his call.

We have a perfect example of that truth in today’s Gospel lesson. In that lesson, Jesus is working his way toward Jerusalem, just as now in Lent we are working our way toward Jerusalem, toward the sorrow of Good Friday and the joy of Easter Sunday. Some Pharisees, here portrayed as apparent supporters of Jesus rather than as his archenemies as elsewhere in the Gospels, come to him and say: "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." Jesus’ reply is, shall we say, cryptic at best. He starts out forcibly enough: "Go and tell that fox for me...." Sounds to me like he was getting ready to say something good, polite Christians like us who are appalled at coarse language wouldn’t want to hear him say: "Go tell that fox for me to go ....!" Instead, he talks about what he’s doing, specifically about his ministry of healing. I hear him saying: "So Herod wants to kill me? So what? I have my mission, I have my ministry, and I intend to carry on with it to the end, even though that end may very well mean my getting myself killed." If he weren’t so given to cryptic responses to people, Jesus might have said something like: "Herod can do what he wants. As for me, I will stand firm in the faith." And stand firm he did, right up the moment of his death on the cross.

Herod, and even more than Herod the Romans, were a real threat to Jesus. The Christian communities that Paul founded and to whom he wrote the letters that make up part of our New Testament also faced challenges and dangers. They were continually tempted to reject the faith, to reject Jesus as their Lord, under threats from people whom Paul calls "enemies of the cross of Christ" in this morning’s lesson from Philippians. Paul urges them to "stand firm in the Lord." Paul had no illusions. That wasn’t an easy thing for his people to do. They were, after all, being told by their friends and relatives at every turn that they had taken the wrong path.

Some of us may be feeling the same way these days. The powers of the world, of hatred, prejudice, and exclusion, don’t like being told they’re wrong. Staying faithful isn’t easy when it seems like everyone around you is telling you you’ve got it wrong; and we’ve got a lot of people telling us we’ve got it wrong these days. We aren’t literalists. We think God’s grace is for everyone. We don’t think there’s some law code you have to follow to get right with God. The powers of the world, and of much of Christianity, don’t like to hear that.

Well, for what it’s worth, let me tell you that we don’t have it wrong. We seek to follow the way of Jesus Christ our Lord. That way is the way of welcome, of inclusion. It is the way of reaching out to the outcasts and inviting them in. It is the way of seeing all people as beloved children of God. It is the way of rejecting no one simply because of the person God created him or her to be. It is a way, indeed it is The Way, of trusting God and seeking to live into a deeper relationship with our God, each of us as we feel called to do.

And so, my brothers and sisters, I urge you to stand firm in the Lord. Through us God is doing a new thing in this community. Hold tight to the faith. Hold tight to one another. Hold tight to Christ. If we do, all will be well.