Who Raised the Ante?

Who Raised The Ante?=

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Psalm 32:1-7
2 Corinthians 5:16-21

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The journey in which we immerse ourselves in the season of Lent is t= he journey of Jesus to the cross; it is a journey of suffering. It is a journey of immense value f= or us, because the journey of most of the people on the planet earth today, is a journey of suffering. They need to know that their journey of suffering is Christ’s journey and that God has not forgotten them. And we need to share that good new= s with them!

Shannon Johnson Kershner, one of the bright young minds and spirits occupying a Presbyterian pulpit in Irving, Texas, says that in this journey, “the closer we get to the cross, the more our focus seems to be on God’s great compassion and overwhelming vulnerable love made known to= us in Jesus Christ.” There is the journey; vulnerable, suffering love for every human on the face of the planet, and for you. = Shannon points out that the late Shirley Guthrie would almost shout in her theology class, “The gospel is a great ‘nevertheless.’ God sees us= in our sinfulness, sees us better than we see ourselves, but nevertheless God loves us and saves us anyway.”

The gospel reading for today is the parable of the Prodigal Son. It = is a story of the great “nevertheless.” In that parable do you remem= ber the elder brother’s anger? Fred Craddock says the elder brother is not angry because his younger brother has returned and has been received with forgiveness. There is plent= y of forgiveness in the Jewish tradition. The older son becomes angry when he he= ars the music, smells the roasted calf and sees the whole neighborhood dancing.= You don’t throw a party for the renegade! Every grim and proper Calvinist kn= ows that for heaven’s sake. I guess no one ever bothered to tell God about the grim side of our Calvinist theology!

Paul gives us a theological commentary upon the parable. He reminds = us that Christ died for everyone, so that we who live might no longer live for ourselves, but for him. So we no longer regard people from a human point of view, because everyone who is in Christ is a new creation, the old has beco= me new. Well, do we dare to try that on and see if it fits? No longer live for ourselves- no longer regard people from a human point of view?

Someone once wrote an editorial in Psychology Today entitled: “Some Idiot Raised the Ante.” Commenting on what rapid and persistent social change has done to us, he wrote: ”It is as if some idiot has raised the ante on what it takes to be a person, and the rest of = us accepted it without noticing. We find an aspiration gap. What we are as individuals = and groups falls short of what we now consider normal. We feel sent for and can’t get there!”

We live in a time of exciting and exhilarating change. But it is also a time of terrifyin= g and fearful change. Our comfort and security are seriously challenged. We wonde= r, “Is it the end or the beginning of something?”

There are always decisions to be made about that issue, and we were created for this day and time to make those decisions. There is no life in avoiding the decisions. Annie Dillard in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek puts it in these words: “The creator goes off on = one wild, specific tangent after another, or millions simultaneously, with an exuberance that would seem unwarranted, and with an energy sprung from an unfathomable font. What is going on here, that it all flows so freely wild, like a creek, that it all surges in such a free, fringed tangle?” It feels like chaos and a universe= out of control.

In the midst of God speaking a new world into being, it is Jesus who appears and raises the ante on what it is to be human. He does it in this journey to the cross, dealing with and living through suffering. And now we= are on the road with him. We are to live out our lives for others on his terms,= not our own, nor the world’s. We are to live not allowing the things of t= his world to grasp us and suffocate us. You see the issue is not radical change that leaves us grasping for stability. The issue is not loss. The issue is not the affluence that chokes the very life out of us. The issue is the cost of becoming whole, compassionate, Christ-behaving human beings. The issue for congregations ca= ught in radical change, as we are in this place, is not whose ideas prevail, but= is there enough faithfulness to God’s call in the life of the congregati= on. Is this congregation willing to take the journey, and admit we have to deve= lop the competencies to respond. Competent to no longer regard anyone from a hu= man point of view!

What is this higher point of view of humanity Paul is talking about?= He gives us plenty of clues all over the place. If we are in Christ, as all believers are, we are a new creation. We look not to what is seen but to wh= at is unseen. We look to the inner person. We consider the heart not the face.=

We do not take our primary clues from the outer person. And it is the death of Christ that does this for us. We do not do this for ourselves. We = take this journey of suffering with Christ. We feel the choices he made that led= to his death. In the depths of our souls we feel his suffering for us, which is all about the compassion and huge generosity of God; the great “nevertheless.” Because we know we do not deserve this. It is t= he party for the sinner, and we decide to see people that way. We make the cho= ice to learn how to live out our lives for others; to participate ourselves in = the great “nevertheless.”

And this way of living will just keep on expanding all over the place until the whole universe is renewed and transformed. Paul says: “For the creation= waits for the revealing of the children of God…the creation itself will be = set free from the bondage of decay and obtain the glory of the children of God.”

Well, we’re not too sure about that, are we? Some think we hav= e so destroyed the balance of nature that the battle has been lost. But Paul wou= ld whisper in our ear, “What about the great ‘nevertheless?’ “Are we willing to try that on? Will we try living out our lives for others and the creation?

Did you read about Irena Sendler who saved nearly 2,500 Jewish child= ren from the Nazis, organizing a ring of 20 people, mostly Polish Roman Catholi= cs to smuggle the children out of the Warsaw Ghetto in baskets and ambulances?= The Nazis arrested her, tortured her, but she did not talk. She survived and sa= ys she regrets doing so little to stem the horror of the holocaust.

In Chri= st

New creation = Intentional journey of suffering

Partici= pate in the great

“= nevertheless” Throw a party for a repentant sinner

Dispel = the gloom &= nbsp; Reflect light Live= for others

Kaj Munk, A Danish Christian minister, was executed by the Nazis for aiding Jews in his country. He wrote this before he died: “Yes, perha= ps it is all a mistake, this business about Christianity. Sometimes it really looks to me like that. Perhaps all this talk about God in Jesus Christ and = the salvation of humans is just a collection of fairy tales. And I am a ministe= r. Perhaps this is a mistake also. Perhaps a mistake to preach love and forgiveness in a hate-torn world, to rescue those who are in need, to teach children, to comfort the lonely and the dying. But if it is after all, a mistake, then it is a beautiful mistake. If Christianity should turn out, a= fter all, to be true, then unbelief will have been a very ugly mistake.” Thanks be to God for the people who raise the ante on what it means to be human! Amen.