Sermon-
February 6, 2004
C. Douglas Simmons, D.Min.
Christ as
Central
Inasmuch as this is the
last Sunday before Lent and since in Lent the centrality of Christ as Savior
and example is clearly the focus of the season, I felt it would be a good thing
to help us prepare with a sermon on the centrality of Christ.
As Episcopal Christians we affirm each week in our worship that Christ
is central. We repeat the creeds,
the Lord's Prayer and we participate in the common expression of calling him
Lord and savior. All of this is
appropriate and yet if one stops to examine the kind of culture in which we
live one comes up against governmental creeds and statements that run somewhat
counter to calling anyone Lord.
The title Lord is strangely unfamiliar to our American
ears and
sensibilities for we do not have lords and dukes and kings in our
experience. On the contrary, we
purport to be egalitarian, even when we aren't, and I believe that it is hard
for us to conceive of, let alone adhere to the practice of, putting a person in
the position of absolute authority that the title Lord connotes.
However, for anyone to
grow in their Christianity that is just what needs to be done, make Christ
central to all of life, have everything that we do revolve around the focal point
of Christ. A Christian life that
is full, vital and power laden is Christ centered. Christianity that is anemic, flaccid and shallow is when
Christ is on the periphery of our lives.
To put it another way, a
measure of the fullness of our personal Christianity is how we view the place
of Christ in our lives.
Is Christ
a part of our lives or we are a part of his life. The difference is a big one and the New Testament would have
us understand that as Christians we are the body of Christ that is, we are a
part of his life. We are to
emulate the pattern of compassion that marked everything that Jesus did and
make that our central motivation for all our relationships, at work, at home
and at play. On the other hand our
society and its influences would have us understand that God is important, but
as a part of our lives, one part of many.
And so we are caught up in a tension that is very
difficult to resolve.
Lent is a time when we can
especially focus on this tension and also focus on the one whom we call Lord so
that we can find new ways to grow more fully into the mind set and attitude
that are symptomatic of the Christian faith.
To help us focus on the
person of Christ I will review some of the key Christian statements about
him. You'll find these summarized
on pages 849-50 in your prayer book.
This will not be a totally detailed study but it
will touch upon some of
the more crucial things regarding the centrality of Christ and its implications
for our lives.
First, Christ is, for all
Christians, the Son of God, revealing the nature of God through his humanity
and revealing God’s intention for the pattern of all human lives.
The significance of this
is that God has shown us how divine power works. This is the same power that created the stars, the planets,
and all else in the universe, both seen and unseen. It is a different sort of power than we are accustomed to,
for it does not impose itself nor does it destroy in order to make itself felt. In Christ we see the power of God as
self-giving love of the highest order.
It is a power which appears as weakness in the
eyes of many and yet it
can heal the sick, create stars, and raise the dead. There is no other power that can do these things. This same power
is available to each of
us just as it was to Christ, this is important, for it reveals to us the nature
of the relationship between the divine and the human. Christ reveals to us not only the fullness of God's love but
also the fullness of our human potential given through God's grace.
In Christ we find humanity
as it was meant to be, at its best and fullest. We are shown that each human life is indwelt by the Spirit
of God, not as something that we can claim as our natural right, but rather as
a gift of our creator.
Further, we
are shown that this power is not ours to do with as we please; rather it is a
trust that we are to administer as stewards. To misuse this power will not hurt God, it will only distort
our humanity. We can see evidence
of this in human history in those who have used power in destructive ways.
In addition, in Christ we
see that humanity has been given something that goes beyond the amazing
faculties of reason and imagination that have given rise to so many advances in
civilization, technology, science, and the arts. This gift is hard for us to understand, even with our
fertile imaginations, it is the gift of life eternal. In Christ we are shown that the self that we develop over a
number of years is not impermanent like our bodies. Somehow this self continues to develop and grow even after
our bodies have ceased to function.
The implications of this revelation are enormous,
for they are
super-imposed over the material life we live and show that many of its values
are very short sighted and often damaging to the self which God has graced with
eternal life. Whatever we do with
this self will have consequences that reach far beyond this life; our actions
and attitudes have an effect that is virtually eternal in scope. Jesus often taught
that the values and
norms of the material world are meant to be treated as transitory and
intermediate, while the values and norms of the spiritual dimension of life,
are to be treated as ultimate in their importance.
We can get an idea of what
happens when the teachings of Jesus are ignored. For example, the universal equality of all people before God
that is declared in Christ has been perverted into the various nationalisms,
bigotries and regionalisms of our world.
All we have to do is note the many times that boundaries,
racial
tensions, national interests and regional factions have created death and
destruction in the world to see how crucial it is that we attend to God's
revelation in Christ as central.
On the other hand, the way of heaven is one in
which all selves are
lifted up and share a love that transcends all understanding and ability to
express. As Christians we are
called to give allegiance to heaven's way before all others. That way is revealed
in Christ as
having ultimate sway over the structure of creation, not even death can stand
in its way. The ways of the
nations and kingdoms of the world, no matter how glorious or how mighty, will
fade from sight and influence.
The
immediacy of the influence of earthly systems of economy and government make it
difficult to accept this revelation and yet we can all attest to the fact that
no earthly nation has ever persisted throughout human history; an interesting
and sobering footnote for us as Americans.
In Christ we are shown
that we live our lives on two levels, the material and the spiritual. In Christ God shows
us that the
spiritual is meant to be the formative and definitive dimension of our
lives. As we give allegiance and
energy to this truth we will discover that it re-orders the ways in which we
view life and the importance of certain elements of life. We will also come
to discover the power
of the living God in ways that will make us wonder why we had never understood
these things before.
All of this
begins and ends with Christ.
As we
come to place Christ more and more at the center of our lives we will grow more
and more aware of the presence of God and the reality of the heavenly realm and
its power. We will discover that
it is a power that is vested in a person; it is not impersonal like the power
of this world. We will discover
that this power is aimed at blessing all life and only that. It is the same
power that worked
through Jesus to bless the lives of people who came to him and who still seek
him. It is the same power that
engenders courage and perseverance in those who stand against the tyrannies of
this world. It is the same power
that gently calls within our hearts and minds by helping us to feel
dissatisfactions with those elements of life that fall short of God's intention
for us. We can deny its existence,
we can ignore its call, but the figure of Christ stands astride the flow of
history revealing to us the foolishness of such an enterprise.
There is no more
appropriate time for us to dwell on the centrality of Christ than in Lent. I pray that as
we enter this Lent it
may bring each of us the opportunity to find Christ in more of our life and to
be blessed by that discovery.
As
you receive the Eucharist on the successive think upon the reality of his
presence in the bread and wine and of the ways in which your life is blessed by
that presence and you will have made a good beginning for your Lenten
discipline.
