October 12, 2008
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
Some of you may not know that a week ago Saturday marked a significant 100th anniversary. As a baseball fan, I do. On October 4th, the LA Dodgers swept the Chicago Cubs in the NL Division Playoffs eliminating the Cubs from advancing to the World Series. The last time the Cubs won the World Series was on Oct. 14, 1908 by defeating the Detroit Tigers by 2-0. While this was their second World Championship win in a row, it was also their last. As a die-hard Red Sox fan who have tasted the sweetness of championship, I now feel sympathy for the lowly Cubbies.
For 100 years, the Cubs have been in a World Series drought. Our country has changed radically over the past century, but the failure of the Cubbies to win a championship has been a depressing constant in American life. I know some of you feel the same way for the Giants or the A’s. When the Cubs last won, Henry Ford was producing his first Model T. Orville Wright was demonstrating his flying machine. And the First World War was still years away. Being “online” meant hanging your clothes out to dry!
The Cubs have suffered the longest dry spell between championships in modern sports history. No one else in Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League or the National Basketball Association comes close. In fact, the other three major sports leagues were not even in existence when the Cubs last won the World Series.
And yet, despite this long drought, Chicago fans remain faithful. There’s always next year. They rejoice in the Cubs always.
Rejoice Always
It may hurt for awhile when our beloved teams lose, but this persistent faithfulness and loyalty to the Cubbies is what the Apostle Paul is calling the Christians in Philippi to show each other. There was some division in this church leading Paul to write, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.”
Notice that Paul says nothing about winning and losing, nothing about being champions of the faith. Instead, his focus is on rejoicing in the closeness of Jesus Christ, and on practicing the quality of gentleness, a Christ-like characteristic toward others.
It’s like the long-suffering Cubs fans. They still don’t have the World Series Championship but they are still faithful fans. There’s always next year! The Philippians are not supposed to be obsessed over wins or losses. Instead, they are to find joy in being a fan of Jesus, while behaving in a Christ-like way.
Rejoice in the Lord. Always.
Paul goes on to say, “Do not worry about anything” especially your failure to be World Champions! But “in everything by prayer and supplication (humble request) with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” We Christians are to make our requests known to God, but to realize that God will not always give us what we want. Instead, he will give us what we need—give us what Paul calls “the peace of God,” a total sense of well-being that comes from the Lord and links our hearts and minds with Jesus.
That’s a great gift, even when your team may be losing or lost and you are waiting for a hundred-year drought to end. It’s a great gift when you are struggling to make ends meet, or feeling miserable at work, or failing at marriage, or dealing with deep anxiety and depression. Paul says, “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
What a wonderful gift and promise this is—even for the most despondent Cubs fans—the promise of peace in the Lord.
Fan of Peace
Paul challenges us to place our focus on the peace of God, rather than on wins and losses. Too often we look at the church as though it were a baseball team—or, in this season of presidential politics, presidential debates, and statewide propositions—and we spend time and energy debating who’s going to win and who’s going to lose. We wonder who really didn’t lose the Vice-Presidential Debate or who left with a leading edge from last Tuesday’s second Presidential Debate.
Who’s in? Who’s out? Who’s on top? Who’s on the bottom? It’s hard to resist the temptation, especially now, with the World Series upon us and an election coming up in just a few weeks.
But does Jesus really care about who wins the World Series or who wins the White House? For Jesus, what’s important is that we rejoice in him, and let our gentleness be known to everyone. This is true whether we are liberals or conservatives, Republicans or Democrats, Cubs fans or Red Sox fans.
When we are fans of Jesus with our hearts and minds focusing on peace, it’s not a bad idea to have people on the left and others on the right. When the Left Wing and the Right Wing of the church are together, it brings vitality and wholeness.
Too often Christians focus on winners and losers in a way that reflects partisan political struggles, instead of seeing conservatives and liberals as siblings in the family of faith. Churches need conservatives who appreciate moral clarity, but also liberals who stress God’s love for the oppressed of the earth.
Conversation about immigration is enriched by both clarity about legal issues and charity toward undocumented workers. Conversation about the definition of marriage is enriched by both clarity about what the Bible teaches and maintaining parity over human rights for all people. Conversation about stem-cell research is enriched by both clarity about when life begins and the possibility of discovering new remedies and treatments to save human lives.
Unfortunately, in our politicized win-lose approach to the life of faith, critical points of view are lost when one group is judged to be a loser. When liberals are out of favor, conservative Christianity can become inward-looking and self-centered—an approach that neglects the work of social justice that began when God brought the Hebrews out of captivity in Egypt. But when the conservatives are out of favor, then liberal Christianity can end up wandering in the wilderness, without any moral compass.
On thing that we’ve lost in our highly polarized political climate is the idea that church can be a meeting ground—a community where people of diverse opinions and perspectives can gather, talk, debate, and argue. Church can be an excellent place for people to wrestle with difficult issues, share perspectives and learn from one another. But if such discussions are going to be fruitful, Christians have to ground their comments in shared religious values, and make a commitment to search for the truth in a spirit of gentleness.
Paul knew that Christians are not always going to agree, which is why he urges Euodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. It may not be possible for them to be of the same mind about tough political issues, but they can be of the same mind in the Lord. Especially if they come together to rejoice in the Lord.
Whole-Bird Christians
Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church and author of the Purpose-Driven Church says, “I’m not left wing and I’m not right wing. I’m for the whole bird.” The challenge of the Christian community is to take both liberals and conservatives seriously, and not write off or disparage the beliefs of either wing of the church.
Being a whole-bird Christian means accepting that conservative Christianity rises out of the covenant made between God and Abraham, when God said, “walk before me, and be blameless” (Gen. 17:1). But it also requires affirming that liberal Christianity is equally biblical, and grounded in the exodus of God’s people from slavery in Egypt (Ex. 3:7-8). Since Jesus continued this balancing act by making a new covenant and freeing people from sin and death, both conservative and liberal perspectives should be accepted as critical parts of a fully informed Christian faith. We are for the whole bird and not just for the wings.
Notice that Paul has no interest in taking sides when he gives the Philippians their game plan for Christian living. “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (4:8). He wants them to focus on whatever is true and honorable and just—whether it comes from the Left Wing or the Right Wing. He wants them to celebrate whatever is pure and pleasing and commendable—whether it wins or loses. He wants them to rejoice in whatever is excellent and worthy of praise—just like Cubs fans, who have rejoiced in their players through a century of broken dreams. He wants them to stand firm in the Lord—not in a particular political party or a particular candidate or a particular proposition.
Fans of Jesus
There was a woman named Mae who celebrated life and her laugh was a pure joy. Her laugh made her pastor remember how to laugh himself. As she became sicker, the pastor began to call her every few days to check on her. She would always answer the phone in the same way. The pastor said, “Mae, how ya doin’?” and she would chuckle and reply, “I’m blessed, Pastor. I am blessed.”
The night before she died, the pastor called and her family brought the phone to her. “Mae,” the Pastor said. “It’s me.” The pastor could hear her coughing and clearing her throat, looking to find breath enough to speak in a lung filled with cancer, willing herself past the morphine to connect with the pastor’s voice.
“Mae,” the pastor said again. “It’s me. How ya doin’?” There was a sound the pastor couldn’t at first identify which slowly unwrapped itself into a deep chuckle. “I’m blessed, Pastor. I am blessed.”
We can bless others only when we feel blessed ourselves. Blessing life may be more about learning how to celebrate life than learning how to fix life. It may require an appreciation of life as it is and an acceptance of much in life that we cannot understand.
There is much in this world that I know I don’t quite understand. I realize I can’t go around fixing things. I can’t help the Cubbies win the World Series nor can I really project who will be in the White House come January. I can’t resolve the differences that people have in taking one side on a proposition or taking the other side. But there’s one thing that I do know about and am certain about. I am a fan of Jesus always. For that, I am blessed.
Being a fan of Jesus, we discover peace in the living of a Christ-like life. For this, I am blessed. World championships, presidential elections and other worldly prizes have no real significance for the Savior who emptied himself, humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on the cross (2:8).
Any true victory is going to come from God, who raised Jesus from the dead and highly exalted him. Any lasting achievement is going to come from imitating the Christians who have gone before us, living in ways that are true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent and worthy of praise.
Paul says to the Philippians, and to us, “Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.” (4:9)
The God of peace will be with us, whether we win, lose or have to wait another hundred years for a World Championship. These kinds of triumphs, in sports or politics, really don’t matter in the divine scheme of things.
What really matter is to rejoice in the Lord always as fans of Jesus!
Let us pray.
Gracious Lord, reminds us once again that we are truly blessed when we know our Savior, Jesus Christ. In a world spinning with challenging issues and divided opinions, teach us to pray making our requests known to you so that your peace that surpasses all understanding will give is peace in our hearts and know the mind of Christ. If we are to be fans of anything, let us be fans of Jesus always. It is in his name that we pray. Amen.
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