SPECIAL DAYS: Fifth Sunday in Lent

LESSONS: Philippians 3.2-14; John 12.1-8

SERMON TITLE: Pressing On

INTRODUCTION:

1. An atheist complained to a friend: ⁽¹⁾
1. "Christians have their special national holidays, like Christmas and Easter; Jews have holidays like Passover and Yom Kippur; and Muslims have their holidays.
2. Every religion has holidays, but we atheists have no recognized national holidays. It's unfair discrimination."
3. His friend replied: "You can always celebrate April l."
1. April 1. April Fools Day, a day for practical jokes.
2. This sounds like a practical joke, but it is not.
4. The feelings that arise are often like those we feel when we get trapped in an automated phone system.
5. Robert Alper, the Jewish comic and rabbi, tells this story about a synagogue that uses voice mail. ⁽²⁾
1. Alper phoned and heard this message: "Welcome to Temple Beth Shalom.
2. If you're calling from a touch-tone phone and would like membership information, press one.
3. For our service schedule, press two.
4. To complain to the rabbi, press three.
5. To complain about the rabbi, press four, five or six."
6. Have you ever felt trapped in the maze of an electronic phone answering system.
1. To get where you need to go you have to press on.
2. To keep pressing phone buttons as you delve deeper and deeper into the system.
3. What you wouldn't give for the sound of a human voice.

   (Top)    (Back to sermons for 2001)   (Back to sermons Home Page)     (Back to Shultz Home Page)

2. A voice that would help you get through the maze.
1. I have listened to many sermons.
2. Sometimes the sermon is like an electronic phone answering machine.
3. sermons so often tell you where you should be, but too often do not tell you how to get there.
   
   In college, taking a class in homiletics (the principles and practice of preaching) you had to be evaluated by the professor, in this case it was Dr. Herbert Douglas. I was standing in the pulpit of a church in Framingham, Massachusetts when in walked Dr. Douglas and took a seat in one of the back pews. Those of us in the class had seen the evaluation sheet. It was an 8 1/2 by 14 sheet of paper with close columns and many places for comments. You talk about panic, I was in a panic as I quickly thought about the text for the day, the sermon, and its application.

   I really do not remember exactly what I said, this is because I preach from notes and not a manuscript. I was eager for the closing hymn and the benediction. At the close of the service, I was standing greeting the people when here came Dr. Douglas. With some reservations, he complimented me on the sermon and then he handed me the evaluation form. Written on part of it in words that were too large to miss was the sentence, "Application to human need!"

   A good job had been done in expositing the text, the application was weak. I had told the people what they ought to do without showing them how to do it. I have never forgotten that lesson. Just as an aside, even now my application to human need is occasionally weak.
    

4. What is needed is not only the what, but also the how.

   (Top)    (Back to sermons for 2001)   (Back to sermons Home Page)     (Back to Shultz Home Page)

MAIN BODY:

1. I was reading a sermon in Homiletics Magazine and came across the following sage advice.
1. Look outward. Strain forward. Press on toward the goal. ⁽³⁾
1. Love others as God has loved you, even the neighbors who are downright obnoxious.
2. Work hard-and even suffer-for things you believe in.
3. Build a community of support for the distressed and the crying, the ill and the dying.
4. Pray every day, as a way of communicating with your Creator.
5. Speak of your faith, not as a structured religion but as a saving relationship.
6. Invite a friend to worship, online or in person.
7. Recommend the values of Christ-and the value of knowing Christ-to others through your words and your actions.
8. Live in such a way that you honor your God, love your community and serve your world.
2. These are all important parts of our Christian life and practice.
3. How are we going to get there?
2. We not only need goals, we need directions without distractions..
1. Life is so often filled with distractions.
1. Have you ever driven a car with a shimmy.

   (Top)    (Back to sermons for 2001)   (Back to sermons Home Page)     (Back to Shultz Home Page)

2. The front tire is wobbling and it can be felt in the steering wheel.
3. The wobble happens because your front tire is out of balance.
4. The only way you can eliminate the shimmy is to balance your tires.
5. The only way you can eliminate the wobble from life is to balance it.
6. You can go to your favorite garage to acquire this service.
7. You have to go to a soul-service station.
8. That's here.
9. That's what this is.
2. And we need to have a great mechanic to help us do the work.
1. We have the Master Mechanic in Jesus.
2. But we have an Associate Master Mechanic trained by the Master in Paul.
3. What does he have to offer us today?
1. Goals
2. Directions
3. It takes a willingness to press on, even when we are tired or sore, rebellious, and mentally challenged or even distracted.
1. This is what is being illustrated in the lesson for today.


Philippians 3:2-14; John 12:1-8, (NRSVA)

²Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! ³For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh--⁴even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised 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; ⁶as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. ⁷Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. ⁸More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. ¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, ¹¹if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. ¹²Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

(Top)    (Back to sermons for 2001)   (Back to sermons Home Page)     (Back to Shultz Home Page)

2. If this is not enough read 2 Corinthians 6.1-13 for a further information on the trials of life that Paul endured.


2 Corinthians 6:1-13, (NRSVA)

1As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. ²For he says, "At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you." See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! ³We are putting no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, ⁴but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, ⁵beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; ⁶by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, ⁷truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; ⁸in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; ⁹as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see--we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; ¹⁰as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything. ¹¹We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you. ¹²There is no restriction in our affections, but only in yours. ¹³In return--I speak as to children--open wide your hearts also.
 

3. If that is not enough read 2 Corinthians 11.16-33 for graphic details of the trial that he faced andovercame.


2 Corinthians 11:16-33, (NRSVA)

¹⁶I repeat, let no one think that I am a fool; but if you do, then accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. ¹⁷What I am saying in regard to this boastful confidence, I am saying not with the Lord's authority, but as a fool; ¹⁸since many boast according to human standards, I will also boast. ¹⁹For you gladly put up with fools, being wise yourselves! ²⁰For you put up with it when someone makes slaves of you, or preys upon you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or gives you a slap in the face. ²¹To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that! But whatever anyone dares to boast of--I am speaking as a fool--I also dare to boast of that. ²²Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. ²³Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman--I am a better one: with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death. ²⁴Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. ²⁵Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; ²⁶on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; ²⁷in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. ²⁸And, besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches. ²⁹Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not indignant? ³⁰If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. ³¹The God and Father of the Lord Jesus (blessed be he forever!) knows that I do not lie. ³²In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas guarded the city of Damascus in order to seize me, ³³but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands.

(Top)    (Back to sermons for 2001)   (Back to sermons Home Page)     (Back to Shultz Home Page)

1. Paul was able to accept what had happened in his life because he believed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and what it meant not only for him. But for all who would accept it and live within the grace of its power.
2. This is why he writes as he does in his letter to the Philippians.
1. ¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, ¹¹if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
1. ¹²Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal;
2. but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
2. ¹³Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
1. Forgetting is not forgetting.
2. It is rather the developed ability to remember the past, but to be free of the past.
3. ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
3. In the midst of it all he kept his head, his faith, his love, and his hope.
4. The application is clear.
5. We are to keep pressing on.
1. No matter what the circumstances, press on.
2. No matter what the physical ailments, press on.
3. No matter what the opposition, press on.
4. No matter if we are serious ill and face our dying, press on.
5. This is all that matters, keep pressing on.
6. It is the only way to achieve the goal of attaining the resurrection from the dead.

CONCLUSION:

1. This is well illustrated by a man who turned his life and death into a Eucharist.
1. We also can have a similar experience.
2. If we apply the principles of the Divine Mechanic. 

   Thomas G. Long, in the Gospel Sound Track, printed in the Christian Century, writes about a significant experience in the life of a family in a former parish. ⁽⁴⁾

   Some time ago, I returned as the guest preacher to a church where years before I had served as a student pastor. After the service, I struck up a conversation with a woman whom I had not seen in many years. "How is your dad?" I asked her. "I remember him as one of my favorite people."

   "I lost my dad last summer," she said sadly. "Cancer. But he lived a long and good life," she added, "and in many ways he died a peaceful death. The last few moments of his life were amazing.

   "My sister, my brother and I were with him when he died. He had a stroke a few days before and lost his speech. You can imagine how hard that was on my father."

   "Yes," I nodded. "Your father loved to talk, loved to tell a good story."

   "About an hour before he died, he began a hard struggle. He was using this last bit of energy to try to speak. He seemed to have something he really wanted to communicate. It was terribly frustrating for him and painful to watch. Finally he pointed at my brother and motioned toward the sink in his room.

   My sister said, 'He wants some water, and my brother went to the sink and poured a glass. He brought it over to my father, but Dad refused it and made a gesture toward my brother as if to say, 'No, you drink it. My brother hesitated for a moment and then took a sip from the glass. My father then motioned with his hand, as if to say, 'Pass it to your sister. My brother handed me the glass, and my father repeated the gesture.

   "It was then that it dawned on my sister. 'Hes serving communion, she said quietly."

   Through these gestures, her father communicated that this was no ordinary hospital room, but a chapel; no ordinary dying, but a sacred and faithful death.

   This is what is meant by pressing on.

 
1. via Norman Bernauer, Kansas City, MO and the Internet

2. Context (1 February 1993), 1. Cited in Homiletics, October 3, 1993 Soul (Mate) on Ice, Used with permission

3. Quoted in Homiletics, October 3, 1999, Virtual Values, Used with permission.

4. Thomas G. Long, Gospel Sound Track, Christian Century, March 14, 2001, p. 11

(Top)    (Back to sermons for 2001)   (Back to sermons Home Page)     (Back to Shultz Home Page)