Good Stuff...

So I'm currently wearing shorts... not because I was playing basketball but because it's been that nice here lately. At some point today I checked the temperature and it was 67 degrees. 67! At the end of November! In Northeast Ohio! It's kind of some odd weather... particularly for some place where all the people keep telling me that I'll see more snow than I've seen in a while (doubtful... the mountains out west have a fair amount... but whatever). Also, lately I have seen quite a few people putting up sticks and poles around small roads and driveways... in an effort to see where the road or driveway is in the event of snow. Yet it's warm.

Granted, I know this will end... surely by weeks end when our warm temperatures are scheduled to end and the snow is supposed to set in. But I'll take the warm temperatures for now. =)

This has been a pretty good week for me. I preached twice... once on Wednesday with the intern from Holy Angels Catholic Church for Thanksgiving Eve and then again today for Christ the King. As such, I'm going to post both sermons for those who want to read them. Tonight, I post today's sermon because I conviently left my jump drive at the office with Wednesday's sermon on it. Expect me to post that one tomorrow or the day after.

Without further delay... here's today's sermon:

Sermon – Christ the King – November 26, 2006

Text: Revelation 1:4b-8

Some of you may have heard me say that there are two things that are the devil for me – pumpkin pie and green chile dip.

Both are oh so tasty – rich, creamy goodness. Warm pumpkin pie with just the right amount of whip cream on top… yummmmmmmm….. And green chile dip with the right combination of garlic and other spices plus the chiles to give it the right flavor and a bit of a kick.

Give me some corn chips and a tub of green chile dip and it’ll be gone in no time. Same with the pumpkin pie – give me a fork and soon the whole pie will be gone.

I’m held captive to those two foods, I can’t stop eating them and self control is something that exists only in my dreams.

Simply put, pumpkin pie and green chile dip are the devil. I can’t stop eating them and inevitably they will make me gain three hundred pounds.

I’m starting to think that I should put on the list of devils, of things that hold me captive, anything that Jim Meyers brings into the office. That includes any form of beef jerky and chocolate.

But I’m not only held captive by food. There’s always perfectionism. Feeling like I need to be perfect, to do everything right, to be the best at everything. Feeling like I need to earn everything, that what I have is due to me. I work and work and work in order to obtain perfection – but really it is unattainable and I usually just wear myself out trying to get to that unattainable goal.

We’re captive to a society that values money more than love. We’re captive to sales, to the notion that we’ll save money if only we’ll spend more. Captive to buying more stuff in an effort to fill the emptiness inside.

We’re captive to our minds, to the thoughts that drag us down. We’re captive to our desire, our need, for love. We want to be liked, we want to be loved.

Some of us are captive to an illness or disease. We’re captive to that which breaks down our minds and our bodies. We’re captive to cancer… to MS… to AIDS… the effects of the disease hold us down, bind us in shackles.

We are captive to doubt and worry. To greed, to insecurity, to war, to poverty. We are captive to terror and terrorists. We’re captive to death and most often we are captive to ourselves.

We are captive…

It’s like a bad marketing campaign. “We are captive – the story of our lives” is the slogan. What holds us down, what makes us do what we don’t want to. What hurts us; causes pain. We are bound in chains, the chains of self-absorption, of despair, of loneliness.

It’s a marketing campaign the Roman Emperor Domitian repeatedly sold. Late in the first century, at the time of the early church, he reinforced the imperial cult – the notion that the Roman Emperor was a god. People were captive to the cult – captive to Domitian. People were expected to worship the emperor – to make a periodic offering.

Those who refused, those who didn’t buy into the marketing campaign, were tortured and often put to death. Christians were often the ones who refused to worship the emperor.

But some buckled under the pressure… some were more concerned about losing their own lives. They were captive to the emperor and his marketing techniques.

But God was mounting another marketing campaign, a timeless campaign – one that proclaimed the truth. God hired a guy named John as the spokesperson – to proclaim to the people that they really weren’t captive, to proclaim to us that we are not captive. To proclaim freedom from captivity!

So John does – “Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come.” Grace and peace in the face of fear and captivity. Grace and peace to you – now. Grace and peace from the one who is and who was and who is to come. Grace and peace from God your Father. Grace and peace from the one who is and the one who always was… long before that emperor of yours. Grace and peace from the one who will always be here… long after the emperor is gone. Grace and peace from the God of Moses who is the great I AM. Grace and peace.

“And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood.”

Grace and peace from the one who loves us and freed us! “We are free!” John proclaims.

No need to fear the emperor, we are free. The emperor cannot hold us captive. Pumpkin pie cannot hold us captive.

Never mind the beast that comes. Never mind the forces of evil. Never mind what weighs you down. Never mind the devil that holds you captive. John proclaims that Jesus frees us from all of that.

But it doesn’t end there. There’s more to this campaign, more information.

Jesus has “made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” Jesus has set us free to be a kingdom. Free to worship, free to serve, free to create justice, free to give, free to be children of God.

“Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him.” Every eye will see Jesus, even those who pierced him. Even the emperor, the one who claims to be a god, will see Jesus. No one will be left out.

Jesus is the real king, the king over all the rulers of the earth, even the nasty emperor.

In the end, Jesus offers his own voice to the campaign – “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

I am the Alpha and Omega. I am the beginning and the end. I am A to Z and everything in between.

I am A for always loving you.

I am C for chemo for cancer.

I am D for dying and then rising again.

I am G for giving you life.

I am H for hugs in the midst of the pain.

I am L for love.

I am P for protection.

I am S for strength.

I am T for the tears that you cry with friends.

I am W for winning the war over sin and death.

I am everything – I am the beginning and I am the end. I was here before creation began and will be here long after it ends. I am the one who knew you before you were born. I am the one who calls you by name. I am Lord of all – Lord of all the rulers of the earth. I am the one who was, the one who is, and the one coming. I AM.

Everything that we think holds us captive cannot possibly hold us down. Christ frees us, releases us from our shackles. Christ has power over everything, everything.

Even D for doubt and P for perfectionism or perhaps even pumpkin pie. Even G for green chile dip and W for war. Even A for AIDS and M for MS. Even C for commercialism and R for racism. Christ is Lord of all.

God’s marketing campaign isn’t really a marketing campaign at all – it is truth. We are not captive! We are free!

Everything, big and small, is subject to God, subject to Jesus. Jesus is everything – Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, A to Z… and everything in between.

God wins. Pure and simple. Amen.