Eucharistic Sermon

“The measure of a sermon is not whether it affirms what you already believe. A sermon is not a product to be consumed and then evaluated according to how good it was or whether it was pleasing or enjoyable.

If a sermon can be resolved in the time it took to deliver it, then it missed something central to what a sermon even is, which is connected with what the Eucharist is. The gathering of the church, in a service or worship or teaching setting, is to remind, instruct, and inspire people about being Eucharist for the worlds they find themselves in.

The sermon is about starting the discussion. The sermon is about having the first word. The sermon is a catalyst that inspires people into whole new ways of seeing their lives.”

These words from Rob Bell continue to inspire me as I prepare for sermons. I have preached almost every week this summer and because you are the pastor, I always receive feedback/criticism. The part of Mr. Bell’s words that resonate the most with me is the first part of the second sentence: “If a sermon can be resolved in the time it took to deliver it, then it missed something central to what a sermon even is . . .”

So many people listen for the Word of God for those 25 or so minutes and that is it. Then there are a few that carry it with them even after worship is over. Out of all the compliments I have received over the past couples years in reference to my preaching, the one that will stick with me the longest was this: “You know, I’ve never really read Amos before. But after your sermon, I think I’m going to read it this week.” This man actually did. The next week, he came back to hear the second part of a sermon series on Amos, and before the service began, we talked at length about Amos. For me, this is what sermons need to be. Pete Rollins talks about how sermons are not to be water that satisfies the soul, but rather salt water that makes us yearn for and long for that which the sermon is about, the Word of God.

I Am What I Am

This is the sermon I gave yesterday at chapel. It comes from 1 Corinthians 15.

Now I should remind you, brothers and sisters,^* of the good news^* that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, ²through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.

3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, ⁴and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters^* at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.^{* 7}Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. ⁹For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

What strikes me with this passage is the emphasis that Paul places on the appearance of God. It’s almost as if he mentions the crucifixion in passing. What he really wants to tell the church in Corinth is that Christ was resurrected. Not only did he appear to Peter, and the twelve disciples, he also appeared to a great crowd of people, and to James and to the apostles.  Then Paul gets to the kicker. Christ appeared to me. The least of the disciples. One unworthy of bearing this name. One unworthy of sharing company with Christ. And yet Paul then says what I think captures the essence of this passage and maybe letter and the rest of his literature. “But by the grace of God, I AM WHAT I AM.”

I am what I am. What does Paul mean when he says this? In some of his other writings, we learn more about the identity of Paul.

Paul writes to the church at Philippi: “If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” (Philippians 3:4-6) Paul was a BAMF Jew. The Jew of all Jews. People probably looked up to him. Admired him. Wanted to be just like him.

But also sees himself in the other extreme: completely sinful through and through. He calls himself the worst of all sinners and writes, “For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (Romans 7:18-19)

So who is Paul? The most righteous of all righteous? Or the sinner of all sinners?

The resurrection gives shape and direction to who Paul sees himself as being. Paul sees himself in light of this transformative event. Not only did the resurrection hold connotations of the world to come, specifically heaven, or the bodily resurrection, but also for the current world. The resurrection was the new heavens and the new earth piercing our world. It was the already/not yet moment. We are saved, but not yet resurrected. We are in the tweener stage – adolescents, not fully adults, but not simply children anymore either.

The resurrection sets up boundaries for us to live in a truly human manner. The resurrection provides us with a working model, where we as humans live somewhere in between two poles. Karl Barth, the brilliant Swiss theologian, would say these extremes are divinization and secularization. On the one extreme, divinization, we have humans striving to become gods. On the other, secularization, we have humans being hell-raisers, void of any sort of morals. Either extreme should be avoided. We are not gods. We are not hell-raisers. We are humans. Blaise Pascal, the famous French mathematician/scientist/theologian utilizes different terminology that may illumine this concept a bit more. Pascal says that we are not angels and we are not beasts. We are not some sort of celestial, heavenly being. Nor are we some sort of animals. We were created distinctly as humans. Rob Bell has popularized this concept in his book, Sex God. Pascal goes on to state that humans’ greatness is found in their ability to recognize their wretchedness. Animals cannot do this. Angels do not have a wretchedness to recognize in the first place. Humans fall in between these two extremes.

But the resurrection shifts the perspectives of how we define ourselves. Living in light of the resurrection allows us space to be humans. It gives us soil in which humanity is able to grow and flourish. By the grace of God, we are able to be what we were created to be. Humans. And in being who we are created to be, we are glorifying God. Barth says that when creation fulfills its purpose by being itself, it is witnessing to the light of God, and the Word of God is revealed in the act. It echoes the resurrection story through all creation. The resurrection frees us from any notion that we can create the new heavens and the new earth. It releases us from the bonds that we control our futures and our lives. It frees from notions that we always have to be doing something, that there is always work to do, and that we can always be better.

But the resurrection does not allow us to stand by and do nothing. It does not give us permission to sit around and wait until we go to heaven. The resurrection implores us not to sit around passively. The apostle Paul would be up in arms at such a claim. He ends chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians exhorting the community: “Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” In the choices we make, we either sow seeds of heaven or hell, of the world that is to come, new heavens and the new earth, or the old way of life, living according to the flesh. We are witness to the resurrection both in word and deed. So when we allow space for humanity to thrive between the poles of divinization and secularization, the future is breaking into the present. But when we dehumanize others, when we do not respect the image of God in another, we are fostering the desires of the flesh, the pre-resurrection story.

We are humans, bearing the light of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are humans, yearning for the world to come, exemplifying the new way of life that Christ initiated. We must not mistake ourselves for the kingdom of God. But we must also resist conforming to the kingdom of the flesh.

On Wednesday, we entered into the season of Lent, the season of looking ahead to the central event in the Christian faith – namely, the resurrection. In Lent, we participate in the depletion of ourselves. We empty ourselves. When we give up chocolate, or snacks, or video games, we are creating space for something else to fill it. And in the case of Lent, we hope that the resurrection will fill the empty space. That the resurrection story will be our story. That the resurrection story will take birth within us.

May we not confuse ourselves with angels. And may we not mistake ourselves for beasts. May we be ourselves – that is, may we be humans. May we be what God created us to be. May our lives be lived in response to the resurrection story. Because the resurrection story provides the boundaries in which we are capable of living as truly human. By the grace of God, may we fall into the resurrection story. By the grace of God, may we be enveloped and immersed in the resurrection story. And, by the grace of God, may we embody the resurrection story and live accordingly.

Sermon Applications

I’m sure anybody who has attended church for any length of time has encountered the phenomenon of sermon applications. You know, the one to three things at the end of the sermon that we can immediately apply to our lives? It can be hard to miss, especially if the majority of the sermon is devoted to these points. I am not trying to slam on those who preach in this manner. But I am suggesting that by doing this, all we are doing as pastors is trying to satisfy the congregants’ religious needs in a very consumeristic manner. I think and hope that there is another way to preach in order to fend of this temptation to be a religious vending machine.

When I think about sermon applications, it means that there is something else I should be doing as a Christian. There is something else I need to tack onto the faith that I have. But really, I could care less about tacking something else onto my faith. Because, in effect, if all we do is take the sermon application and tack it onto our life every Sunday, we run the risk of creating a big game of pin the tail on the donkey. And I don’t want to be playing that the rest of my life. We make Christianity out to be a paint-by-number portrait when Christianity and faith seem to be quite messy at times, and life doesn’t really follow a set pattern. Instead, I want a Christianity that is in my veins. That moves me. That inspires me. That gives birth to love and peace and grace and gentleness and kindness and self-control. Not a Christianity that I can simply add something to, like using a trendy scarf to jazz up an outfit. Frederick Buechner writes that to truly know something is to participate in it. He says it runs through your bloodstream. And I would add that it is pumped through your heart. To know Christ is to participate in him, to have the love of Christ permeate your being to the point that you reek with his very aroma. 

I think sermons shouldn’t be just the run-of-the-mill, simplistic reductionistic sermons that we have made them out to be. They should poke and prod us. They should make us uncomfortable, and yet give us hope. They should get inside of us and become a part of us. If not, we will only be adding more and more applications to the point that we have neglected Christianity and more specifically Christ himself. And if we do this, we are not being faithful ministers. We are prostituting the gospel.