First Presbyterian Church
Spiritual Competition
Sermon for January 20, 2008
by Pastor Susan Barnes

We will read Psalm 27 in unison. You can find the psalm on page 503 in our pew Bibles. The first six verses of our psalm are a profession of faith: the psalmist speaks about God. Then the psalmist speaks to God.

Faith in God doesn't spare God's servants from difficulties, but it equips them to live with courage and hope despite difficulties. Listen for the word of God as we read it together.

1 Of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

2 When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh-- my adversaries and foes-- they shall stumble and fall.

3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident.

4 One thing I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.

5 For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will set me high on a rock.

6 Now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD.

7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!

8 "Come," my heart says, "seek his face!" Your face, LORD, do I seek.

9 Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation!

This ends our reading of the psalm. It's not full of happy encouraging things.

Happy encouragement is easy to hear; God loves you, be motivated to do better, just think away the bad stuff that happens.

But that sort of theology doesn't help us in times of trouble, when we have done our best and it isn't enough; when we are surrounded, as the psalmist was, by evildoers, adversaries, and foes. It's not the good news. The psalm asks that God hide the psalmist in a place of safety, in God's own tent, until trouble passes by.

For Jesus, the good news was that the kingdom of heaven was near: the blind see, the deaf hear, the prisoners are set free. But the realm of God hadn't yet arrived; there was still trouble around: plenty of injustice, oppression, violence, poverty, illness, and sin.

Our gospel reading is on page 3 of the new testaments in your pew Bibles. Last week we heard about John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. John preached a baptism of repentance, even to the Pharisees and Sadducees. When we repent, we acknowledge that we have not done as we ought. We recognize that another way is possible, a way that allows us to follow God's laws, a way that includes justice, peace, and healing.

John criticized the powers that be. Herod was afraid to arrest him, because he was so popular. In Chapter 11 of Matthew, Herod arrested John for criticizing Herod's incestuous marriage. Much of what was dangerous for John was also dangerous for Jesus. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Matthew 4:12-23.

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled :

" Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles--the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned."

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea--for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

This ends our gospel reading.

And the good news didn't come through one charismatic person, but required disciples: the poor fishermen, Simon Peter and Andrew, fishing from the shore with one net, and the wealthier fishermen, James and John, who had a boat and nets. Jesus wanted all of them to follow him.

Let's listen to the choir.

Our epistle reading is on page 166. Later on, after Jesus' death and resurrection, Jesus' followers became church leaders, and selected elders and deacons to carry on the gospel message and care for the sisters and brothers in Christ, even the non-Jews.

One gentile church was in Corinth. Corinth was part of the Roman world, where citizens worked to accumulate honor and minimize shame. The honor accorded to a teacher spilled over to the teacher's students. Students took pride in, and even boasted about the character of their teacher.

In our epistle lesson, Paul writes to the Corinthian church with advice, telling them the gospel is about something else besides obtaining honor.

Listen for the word of God as it is found in 1 Corinthians 1:10-18.

Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. 12 What I mean is that each of you says, "I belong to Paul," or "I belong to Apollos," or "I belong to Cephas," or "I belong to Christ."

13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

This ends our reading of God's word.

I think that when we have few material goods, we hold tightly and greedily on to our honor and our family's honor, because it is all we have. Perhaps that's what happened in Corinth.

Last Sunday, I read the comic Doonesbury. There are two guys in a humvee, doing reconnaissance.

The US soldier says:“That's the safe house. The big white building at the end of the street.”

The Iraqi translator says, “I know this house. The owner is Sunni scum!
The soldier says, “Oh yeah? Well, intel wants us to capture the guy alive.”

“This will not be possible. I am sworn to vengeance.”

“Why, what'd he ever do to you?”

“A member of his family killed a member of mine.”

“What? When did this happen?”

“1387.”

“What is the matter with you people?” 1

Holding long grudges isn't limited to Iraqis or Muslims. Christians too have long memories. Since the seventeenth century, the ownership of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem has been disputed among Christians. Today, the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic Church and the order of the Franciscans each have one-third ownership of the building containing the place where popular legend says Jesus was born. I have been in that church. As we moved from one area to another, it was clear there were invisible lines on the old stone floors that our guides could not cross.

A few weeks ago, Greek Orthodox monks and Armenian Apostolic priests were cleaning the church in preparation for the orthodox Christmas. Some orthodox monks stepped into the Armenian church section. They fought each other with brooms and stones and the police were called.

I think the only reason American grudges haven't lasted for four centuries is that our country is only a little over two centuries old. But we have our share of craziness too.

Actor Tony Goldwyn played the bad friend in the film Ghost. His character embezzled money and arranged for his best friend's murder. Tony was asked how fame changed his life. He said that some years after the movie, he was sitting in a restaurant for and a long time without even a menu. Suddenly, the waitress rushed up with water, silverware, and a menu and said, “I'm so sorry, I didn't realize who you were. I just knew I hated you.”

And his character was hateful in the movie. But the actor hadn't done anything to the waitress except be in a movie she saw.

What is it within us human beings, that we hold on to fictional hate, or three hundred years of competition, or six hundred years of vengeance?

When we aren't clear about what we should focus on, it's easy to let others command our loyalty. Our family tells us who to hate. Sometimes, even our religion can. Our entertainment can prejudice us against whole races or religions; sometimes we forget the difference between truth and fiction.

When we are confused, it's easy to listen to a strong voice, who repeats the same thing louder. The more we hear it, the easier it becomes to believe. When we're uncertain about our own identities, it's comforting to identify with a strong person who encourages us to believe without question.

That may be what happened in the Corinthian church. Cephas and Apollos apparently had Christian converts loyal not to Christ, but to Cephas and Apollos. So Paul told them not to be divided, but to be united with the same mind and purpose. Proclaiming the gospel is the key, not who performed your baptism.

What does it take to have no division? To tender an apology when we're wrong, to listen respectfully to other people, even when they differ, and to hold to the truth even when it's unpopular. To pay attention to what is true, and to act on the gospel you know.

This Martin Luther King weekend, I think of the civil rights movement and its roots in the Nineteenth century.

Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery in 1838. When he wrote his autobiography, he didn't name any of the white people who had helped him escape, because he knew it would be too dangerous for them, and he didn't want them to be harmed, nor to interfere with the good work they were doing.

He writes about the joy he felt when he was paid for his labor was able to keep his wages. When he was a slave, he was paid for his labor for a brief time, and turned his weekly wages of $6.00 to his master, who would give him 6 cents in return.

Frederick Douglass wrote about the pious white slaveholders who attended church:

“between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference--so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. “I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels.” 2

After his escape, he became friends with abolitionists, those people who were against slavery. Two of his friends were Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In addition to being abolitionists, they were suffragists, working for the right for women to vote. Frederick visited Susan's home long before the Civil War started. Wouldn't you expect that these good people, working hard for justice, to uphold one another no matter what. Their shared Christian faith should bring them unity.

But after the war was over, Frederick and Susan and Elizabeth had a falling out. Frederick believed that it was important to secure the rights of African-American males before working to achieve the rights of women. Susan and Elizabeth wanted all Americans, no matter their color or gender, to be able to vote. The women refused to support the fourteen and fifteenth amendment because they excluded women; the fourteenth amendment refers only to “male inhabitants.” Their argument was both public and private, and there was resentment and hurt on both sides. 3

But immediately after Fifteenth Amendment was adopted in 1870, Frederick resumed his women's rights activities. He never let up on writing editorials and attending conventions for women's rights. He welcomed convention women into his home. He made up with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

In 1884, he married Helen Pitts, who was not only a feminist but a college graduate, a journalist, and a white woman. You can imagine the controversy. Frederick Douglass wrote:

“No man, perhaps, had ever more offended popular prejudice than I had then lately done. I had married a wife. People who had remained silent over the unlawful relations of white slave masters with their colored slave women loudly condemned me for marrying a wife a few shades lighter than myself. They would have had no objection to my marrying a person much darker in complexion than myself, but to marry one much lighter, and of the complexion of my father rather than of that of my mother, was, in the popular eye, a shocking offense, and one for which I was to be ostracized by white and black alike.” 4

Elizabeth Cady Stanton congratulated the two and wrote:

“In defense of the right to...marry whom we please -- we might quote some of the basic principles of our government [and] suggest that in some things individual rights to tastes should control....If a good man from Maryland sees fit to marry a disenfranchised woman from New York, there should be no legal impediments to the union.” 5

In 1888, Susan introduced Frederick Douglass at a convention as a woman's rights pioneer. Somehow, he, Susan and Elizabeth were able to be friends and colleagues again, despite their quarrel. Douglass continued to work for women's rights. The day he died, he had attended a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington D. C. where the audience had given him a standing ovation.

At his funeral in 1895, Susan B. Anthony gave a eulogy that Elizabeth Cady Stanton had written.

Here we have an amazing group of friends; they worked for justice together. They each held that they were right; Douglass for the rights of African-Americans to vote, the suffragists for women to vote. They each held to the truth they knew and it strained their friendship. But only for a while; they were able to befriend one another some years later. They did not hold grudges nor ostracize each other. I expect that the spirit and their faith helped them to do that. They knew the light of Christ and wanted to follow Jesus. May our faith sustain us as well.

1 January 13, 2008.

2Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, 1845, p. 118

3 winningthevote.org/FDouglass.html

4 Douglass, Life and Times ... p. 534.

5 winningthevote.org/FDouglass.html