Latest / Belin Memorial UMC / Rev. Will Malambri - "Only This"
Transcript
- Belin Memorial UMC: Please remain standing as we hear together the gospel according to Matthew in chapter 10. Or Jesus says, Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. And even the hairs on your head are all counted. So do not be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows. Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever denies me before others, I will also deny before my Father in heaven. Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword, for I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother in law, and one's foes will be members of one's own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life My sake will find it. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Nothing screams daddy issues like selecting that for Father's Day. For the record, I did not seek out that passage. It came to me. Most weeks we let the revised common lectionary direct us, giving four scripture choices from which to preach, and as the calendar would have it, the gospel reading for today, Father's Day, a day when I plan to see my father, a day when I hope to receive a gift from my daughter, was that. ⁓ and to add to it today is my mother's birthday. Before you think I have some adolescent grudge against my parents, or am inviting one from my daughter, I do not, and I am not. So don't get too excited. This isn't one of those preacher doing self-therapy in public kind of sermons. While we're clearing things up, let me tell you that I don't believe Jesus wants fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, in-laws and outlaws to be enemies. I think he wants no one to be enemies, including family. Jesus calls God father for heaven's sake. He is thrilled whenever families have discipleship in common. When families are committed to him as their priority, when how they treat each other and others, they do because of him, not despite him. He just knows that sometimes, many times, life's more complicated than that. Take Matthew, for instance, talk about complicated. If his parents were to remain good, respected members of the Jewish community, they had to distance themselves from their tax collecting son. Then, when Jesus called him out of tax collecting son, they might have had a moment of relief until they realized that he was following Jesus, and that would also put them at odds with the leading authorities. So, did they side with their son? Did they side with public opinion? Do they side with their faith? Did they believe that Jesus that Matthew's siding with Jesus was their way of siding with their faith, even if it was before the public could understand that? And if so, did they support that? We don't know. Wouldn't we love to? W wouldn't we love to know how they handle that thorny situation? Because we know from our own lives that even when family members are of the same faith tradition, there is room for plenty of debate. Everyone in my family, immediate and extended, claims to be Christian. But that does not mean that everyone in my family, immediate or extended, understands what it means to follow Christ in the same way. It's what make famil makes family gatherings interesting. Which is not a revelation to you. Sons may be named for their fathers, may look like their fathers, may be increasingly like their fathers. But that does not make them their fathers. My father and I have no drama, but we have plenty of differences. He's a musician. Need I say more. He's a retired university professor, director of bands. I'm the first Malambri male in four generations to not get paid for making music. I don't think that disappointed dad. It sure didn't surprise him. When I told him that I thought I might not play trumpet in the high school band, he did not make an appeal. There was no one none of that, but you have so much talent, son. He said the way he did when I gave up violin in sixth grade. That's fine. I guess I was not the only one who was not enjoying the little bit of practicing I was doing at home. What my father did enjoy was using his talent to create experiences for our family. Like many musicians, he has an artist's imagination, and he over the course of our lives used that and his own great talent, his willingness to sacrifice, to make our lives more comfortable than they would have been otherwise. Our main disagreements. Along the way were not drama but differences. They were related to fear. I think he has too much. He thinks I have too little. So early in life I learned to not let him know everything that I was planning to do. I learned that earlier than I needed to through conversations like this one. Dad, how do you spell? Go get the dictionary, look it up. Ugh, professor. I'd look it up, come back around. Hey, I noticed this thing is broken. Let's try to fix it. We'll only break it more. How much broker can it get? Go get the dictionary, boy. Instead, I'd go get the tools and I'd try to fix it myself. Because to me, he had an irrational fear of how much damage we could do to our home, to ourselves. And to him, I had irrational confidence in how much good we could do to our home or for ourselves. And that's all fine and dandy when we're talking about a home project where it'll get better or it'll get worse. You can do it yourself, or somebody can bail you out if you need it. But it's not fine if irrational fear keeps us from following Jesus. Or if irrational confidence keeps us from thinking we need to. Many get caught in between, with enough fear to think they need Jesus, and enough confidence to think that they can have him on their own terms when it's convenient. In ways that are not demanding. Expecting Jesus to be there to help them all the time while they're willing to help him if they find the time. Which is tough, you know, because of family. But what if Jesus is not saying it's me or them, one or the other, you can't have both? What if he's saying instead it's me and them in that order? And if they'll allow that, then you can have both. We'd like that better, wouldn't we? So let me try to make a case for that, using three examples, all from the gospel according to Matthew. In chapter 8, a man is interested in following Jesus, but he wants to delay starting, saying, Lord, let me first go and bury my father, to which Jesus responds, Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead. In chapter 12, someone interrupts Jesus while he's speaking to the crowds and says, Your mother and brothers are standing outside wanting to speak to you. And Jesus asks, Who are my mother and my brothers? Then he points to his disciples and says, Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. In chapter 15, the Pharisees and scribes point out that Jesus' disciples break With the elders' tradition by not washing properly. And then Jesus shoots back. Why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of the tradition? For God said, Honor your father and your mother, and those who speak evil of father and mother must surely die. But you say that whatever whoever tells father or mother, whatever support you might have had from me is given to God, then that person need not honor the father. So So for the sake of your tradition, you nullify the word of God. You hypocrites. Isaiah prophesied rightly about you, and he said, This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines. So after hearing all that If your question is, so am I to follow Matthew chapter eight, or the teachings in chapter twelve, or the teachings in chapter fifteen? The answer is yes. In chapter eight, Jesus was not forbidding someone from honoring his father at the time of burial. He was saying, Don't put off following me until your father dies. Don't decide you'll become a disciple once it is no longer at odds putting you at odds with your father. It's me and them in that order. In chapter twelve, Jesus wasn't saying his biological family is no longer his family, but that his family is no longer exclusive to those who are part biologically part of it. His family includes whoever does his father's will. It's me and them in that order. In chapter fifteen, Jesus shows us that God's will is that we honor our father and mother, which comes from having hearts that are close to his. It's me and them in that order. Having hearts like Jesus is really what this all comes down to. Try as we might, discipleship cannot be compartmentalized. We can't decide we'll follow Jesus whenever it doesn't bring us any conflict or sacrifice, whenever it lines up with the way the people I think care about, think about. We can't say, I know Jesus wants this from me, expects this of me, calls this out of me, but that's not the way my daddy does things, so Jesus will have to wait. That's not meant to dishonor family. It's meant to honor Lord. Whenever there's a choice to make We're called to choose Jesus. It's me and them in that order. And if they'll allow that order, then you can have both. It's what Deuteronomy teaches. The same book that gave us the commandment, honor your father and your mother, also gave us this. So now, O Israel, what does the Lord require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and his decree that I am commanding you today. for your own well being. Only that. Only this. A lifelong journey of seeking to follow Jesus above all else. A journey that I'm thankful to say my family helped me get started on and helped me to continue on. Such that honoring them means my first priority is honoring Him. Even when to do so would mean disagreeing with them. Father's Day, Mother's Day, Birthdays, every day. Best way I can honor them is to make it about Jesus then them. In that order. Thankfully it's what they taught me. Thankfully, doing what they taught me honors him.