Pastor, Western Presbyterian Church
Washington, D.C.
Text: Luke 13:31-35, Philippians 3:17-4:1
February 28, 2010
In the season of Lent, we focus on what is known as “Jesus’ journey to the Cross.” During this crucial phase of Jesus’ life, the somewhat laissez faire days of his early ministry in Galilee were replaced by equally intense support and opposition to his ministry. Adoring crowds grew ever larger as masses of Galileans sought to be inspired Jesus’ preaching, touched by his healing power and enlightened by his broad understanding of God’s grace. During this period, the disciples intensified their work to spread Jesus’ Word.
At the same time, Jesus’ opponents grew ever more restless as they watched the young preacher’s popularity grow. Roman provincial governments were ordered to be on the lookout for alternate sources of power and authority surfacing in the grassroots. When spotted, Rome squashed any perceived threat quickly and ruthlessly. Jesus quickly showed up on Rome’s radar.
For reasons other than Rome’s, some among the established religious leadership of Israel were troubled by what they heard and saw of Jesus. From where they sat, the peasant preacher seemed to be moving away from the well-defined traditions of their ancestors. He had odd, even dangerous, ideas about what believers could do on the Sabbath, who was included in God’s family, and to whom forgiveness could be extended. During breaks in meetings of the Sanhedrin, a small but influential group of leaders lobbied their peers arguing that Jesus needed to be dealt with as a heretic, reminding the more tolerant in their midst that they were charged with protecting the faith. So there were two forces spinning around Jesus—his personal popularity and opposition to his ministry.
To keep his popularity intact, Jesus faced the temptation to tell the crowds whatever they wanted to hear. Fame has a way of compromising those who are blessed with it. There is a tendency to feed the beast that creates a high approval rating, to give the people more of what they seem to crave.
On the other hand, Jesus faced a temptation regarding his opponents. He could either 1) dismiss his critics as an older generation unable or unwilling to change with the times or 2) battle them tooth and nail. If he did the former, he would have been dismissive rather than inclusive. If he did the latter, his ministry would have been reactive rather than proactive.
I would suggest that many of us face the same type of struggles. Perhaps we are blessed with a certain amount of success at work, in our neighborhood, at church or wherever and we feel challenged as to how to cope with our acclaim. Or we come under criticism for our beliefs or lifestyle and get sucked into an unending, unwinnable debate with our critics. As we do so, these criticisms and our responses to them increasingly define who we are.
I have seen a number of pastors lose their personal integrity when their ministry became highly successful. Falling in love with success, all of their decisions flow through the matrix of whether or not a particular action will increase or decrease their popularity. Paul warned against this in a passage we read this morning where he writes, “their minds are set on earthly things.”
I have also seen clergy colleagues fall into the trap of obsessing over criticism. These pastors become unhinged as they attempt to counter every false statement made about them, rebut every criticism no matter how trivial it may be. It is a deadly trap.
When we fall into these classic quagmires, we lose our focus. Instead of making decisions based on where we want to go and how we are going to get there, we focus on whether or not we are popular or our critics are wrong. In so doing, we allow others to set our agenda. We are always responding to external realities rather than the internal call from God that should direct our actions.
Part of Jesus’ genius that is so abundantly on display during the season of Lent was his ability to stay focused. He didn’t ignore his critics or his fans. But neither would he would allow them to dictate what he did.
In this morning’s Gospel lesson, some Pharisees come to Jesus and warn him about Herod’s intent to kill Jesus. First, it is important to note that it was Pharisees who warned Jesus. Too often, the Pharisees are portrayed as a solid phalanx of opposition to Jesus. The Gospels don’t support such a caricature. The entire Jewish leadership was not set against Jesus.
How did Jesus respond to the threat from Herod? He told the Pharisees to tell the King, “‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way….’” In other words, “I have work to do.” Jesus refused to allow Herod or any other critic push his ministry off target. He knew where he was going and it didn’t make much difference to him whether or not a huge crowd walked with him or critics tried to stop him.
The disciplined focus so evident in Jesus should be a goal for each of us in our spiritual journey through life. When we stay focused, we, like him, can do amazing things. When we lose our focus, we lose our effectiveness as his disciples.
In the context of Washington, D.C., it seems to me that the Republican Party is currently struggling with the temptation of success while the Democrats are dealing with the temptation of battling one’s critics. To rebuild their popularity, the Republicans are jumping on the runaway freight train of anti-government feelings. Without question, there are strong feelings among the American people that our government isn’t working. When we should have been raising taxes to fight two wars, our government spent money lavishly on bridges to nowhere. When we should have been paying attention to various market bubbles, we reduced regulatory scrutiny of those who make financial decisions. When we were facing an obvious job crisis, there seemed to be little concerted response to generate new jobs. People are rightly angry that our government isn’t governing effectively.
However, having seized upon an issue they helped create with their own inept governing during the Bush era, the Republicans now face the temptation of following this volatile message to the darkest side of the body politic. Anti-government crackpots are being given podiums in responsible Republican circles as though they are mainstream. It is a dangerous time for the Republicans.
The Democrats, on the other hand, face the danger of handing over their agenda to their critics. In life, we have to listen to, respect and attempt to work with our critics. People who ignore criticism do so at their own peril and usually suffer severe consequences. However, while we need to listen to our critics, we have to act on our convictions. In an effort to reach reasonable compromises, we can’t compromise our beliefs until they are unrecognizable or dig in for an extended battle just for the sake of the battle.
At some point, leaders have to lead. They have to act on what they believe to be the best course of action. If they are criticized for their actions, so be it. Maybe their critics are correct. Maybe they aren’t. But leaders need to do what they think is the right thing to do and live with the consequences.
For progressives in the Presbyterian Church, our temptation isn’t being too popular. Those of us who favor the full inclusion of LGBT folks in the life of the church will never please our critics. We just won’t. Indeed, to date, we haven’t been able to get a majority of our brothers and sisters to vote with us on this issue over any lasting period of time. So popularity isn’t our problem. But we do face the temptation of getting bogged down in a battle with those who oppose the inclusion of LGBT folks and losing the ability to work on a host of other equally important issues.
We can and should meet with those who oppose the full inclusion of LGBT women and men in the church, talk and break bread with them. In essence, this is exactly what has been happening throughout my 36 years in ministry. Gratefully, the progressive argument has been gaining votes every single year.
Is this a long time to ask LGBT folks to wait for inclusion? Of course. But considering that we are attempting to undo 2000 years of Christian bias and tens of thousands of years of human bias on this issue, we are actually moving quite fast.
However, we can’t allow this debate to consume us or divert us from the broad agenda of other justice, environmental and peace issues that face the world. So let us continue to press our position and vote our consciences. Let those who oppose us do the same. In the end, right will prevail.
So often we turn Jesus into an idealized, romanticized figure. We portray him as being so perfect that it is hard to relate to him. In fact, he was flesh and blood, real as real can be. When we are dealing with the challenges of popularity and criticism, we can learn so much from his pragmatic, realistic approach.
For example, let’s look at how he dealt with his popularity which seems to have peaked on the day we call Palm Sunday. As evidenced by the way the crowds eventually abandoned him, some of Jesus’ popularity was rooted in small and large misunderstandings of who he was. Indeed, most people were drawn to him because they thought he was somebody other than who he was. He was a wall onto which they projected their hopes. They saw him as the instant solution to their problems—personal, political or other problems. In some ways, this fantasy continues today with the many Christians who think Jesus will solve all their problems. When Jesus doesn’t, they turn on him.
But Jesus refused to portray himself as the solution to humanity’s many problems. “Only you can solve your problems,” he said in many different ways. To an adulteress he said, “Go and sin no more.” To a person overly attached to his material possessions, he said, “Sell what you have and give it to the poor.” To people filled with anxiety he said, “Look at the lilies of the field and birds of the air. If God cares for them, will not God care for you as well?”
These answers may or may not have been well received. But they were the only things Jesus could say with integrity. He wasn’t going to sell out his message just to gain a few more followers. So it must be for you and me individually and as a congregation.
Our success at Western hasn’t flowed from a strategy designed to make us popular. It flows from focus. We have done a pretty good job of understanding what we can and cannot do. There are always causes beckoning us to move off in different directions. Often, they are the popular causes of the day. However important they may be, none of them are as important as maintaining our focus.
Rick Warren has made a lot of money with his book The Purpose Driven Life. On one level, I think he misses the point. I have known a lot of people who were very clear about their purpose. But in pursuing that purpose, they lose their focus.
Maybe it is a pastor who tries to grow her or his church by being all things to all people or a teacher who is more concerned about being popular with the students than the students learning all the material or parents whose obsession with their child’s grades causes them not to pay enough attention to the child’s shaky self-esteem. The examples are as numerous as the human race. So many of our problems flow not from a lack of purpose but from a lack of disciplined focus on how we are going to accomplish the purpose.
On the plane down to Mexico earlier this month, a US citizen was sitting near me filling out his immigration form. The form asks for a destination in Mexico. The guy called over the flight attendant and said, “I don’t know what to put here. I don’t know where I am going.” She responded, “Well, put the city where you are going.” He said, “I don’t know that.” She replied, “Well where are you staying tonight?” “At a hotel near the airport.” “Put that down,” she concluded and walked away shaking her head. I just started to laugh. Talk about a lack of focus. For decades, Mexico has attracted Americans who have no idea where they are going.
Knowing where we are going and then staying focused on that destination is at the heart of a happy, health life. It is at the heart of effective, faithful Christian discipleship. In this season of Lent, we see Jesus focused in a way that is truly divine. May each of us learn from him how we can stay focused on who we are, where we are going and how we are going to get there.
Let us pray: Gracious God, it is easy to get diverted in life. There are so many important things begging for our attention, time and energy. Help us to figure out what you are calling us to do. May we then have the discipline to dedicate ourselves to accomplishing our calling. Having said “Yes” to your call, may we have the strength to say “no” to those things that will divert us from that end. All this we pray in the name of our Teacher, Jesus of Nazareth. Amen.
