St. George's Episcopal Church
Roseburg, Oregon
The Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 21A
25 September 2005
Go To St. George's Home Page
Note: This page is optimized for a display size (screen resolution) of 1024 x768 or higher. How to change display size.
St. George's Episcopal Church |
|
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 78:1-4
Philippians 2:1-13
Matthew 21:23-32
The Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74 th General Convention of the ECUSA
If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:1-13)
Hi-Yo!
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop, Rector
 |
Hi-Yo Silver — A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty Hi-Yo Silver … the Lone Ranger! With his faithful Indian companion, Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fight for law and order in the early West. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. The Lone Ranger rides again!
Announcer: The Lone Ranger, Tonto, and Marshall Forbes found Shelby’s runaway horse quietly nibbling grass a short distance from Sunflower River. After examining the animal’s tracks, the masked man and Tonto realized that Shelby had left on foot, probably to steal a horse someplace nearby. In the ranch house, Clarabelle had been struggling with the ropes that held her. When she finally got her hands free, she took the gag from her mouth.
Clarabelle: “Now.... now if I can untie my feet....”
Announcer : As soon as her feet were free, she hurried to the corral. Her favorite horse was gone!
Clarabelle: “Well, that no good, theivin’ poke head must have it.”
Announcer: Clarabelle quickly saddled another horse.
Clarabelle: “Steady! Easy! The sooner I get to Marshall Forbes, the better.”
Announcer: Clarabelle traveled cross country. As she neared the main trail, she started down a slope when the sleek, black horse she was riding balked and slid down hill. Then, without warning, the animal lost it’s footing!
Clarabelle: “Oh mercy! Oh! Help!”
Announcer: Thrown from the saddle, Clarabelle pitched head long to the bottom of the rocky slope, where she struck her head against a small boulder and lay still. Just then, the Marshall, Tonto, and the Lone Ranger came over the hill. The Lone Ranger signaled a halt and spoke to Marshall Jack Forbes and Tonto.
Lone Ranger: “Jack, did you hear someone call for help?”
Forbes: “I thought I did.”
Tonto: “Me hear it. It sound like woman.”
Announcer: A few minutes later, they approached the still figure lying at the bottom of the slope.
Lone Ranger: “Why, it’s a woman!”
Forbes: “Lyin’ unconscious. She must have struck her head when she fell.”
Tonto: “Bad cut on forehead.”
Forbes: “ How bad’s she hurt, mister?”
Lone Ranger: “I don’t know, Marshall. I thought she was conscious there for a minute, but she’s blacked out now. She may have a concussion.”
Tonto: “Me bandage cut on head. Kimosabe, maybe it be better a doctor come.”
Lone Ranger: “I think you’re right, Tonto.”
Forbes: “The ‘Rafter H’ ain’t far. I’ll go there and ask Thunder Martin to bring a wagon so she can be moved.”
Announcer: Back at the ranch and under the watchful eye of the doctor, the woman regained consciousness.
Doctor: “Settle down there. You’ve been hurt. How do you feel?”
Clarabelle: “I … Well, my head hurts bad. In the dark, there was a man who helped me, I think. He had a mask. Who was he? Who was that masked man?”[1]
“Who was that masked man?” Of course we knew that the masked man was the Lone Ranger, a man who sought to bring justice to the old west.
I grew up listening to the Lone Ranger on the radio and then later on TV. Each week on TV, Clayton Moore as the masked man, and Jay Silverheels as Tonto, would capture my imagination and fill my head with clear visions of what was right and just. The Ranger once said that he would never shoot a man to kill him; he would only shoot to bring a man to justice. “ If a man must die,” he said, “it’s up to the law to decide that, not the person behind a six-shooter!”[2]
Paul’s letter to the Philippians is considered by Biblical scholars to be one of the seven authentic letters actually penned by Paul; the other epistles in the New Testament were written by others and attributed to him. In the midst of his own words in the Letter to the Philippians, Paul placed an ancient hymn that describes a very early view of Jesus the Christ: “Though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born of human likeness, and being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross” (Phil 1:6-8). This poetic hymn is probably the earliest testimony to Christ that we have, and it may have even been originally composed in Aramaic – the language of Jesus.[3] It is quite possibly the earliest development in the idea that Christ pre-existed with God – an idea elaborated centuries later by the writer of the Gospel of John.
I think you’d be hard pressed to find another passage in the Pauline literature that exercised the early church more than this one. Although called the “Christological Hymn” by scholars, this passage could be called the “Kenotic Hymn” from the Greek word “kenosis” which means “emptying.” The hymn refers to Jesus’ willingness to give up the pre-existent divine nature that belonged to him and to become like a slave – to become thoroughly human. In becoming human during the incarnation, Jesus moved from the world of timelessness to a world dominated by time; to a life that had a beginning and an end – an end on the cross. Jesus gave up his equality with God to become like us.
In the third and fourth centuries, the idea of Christ’s humanity and divinity became huge issues of dogmatic importance. People were declared heretics and condemned for holding views that over emphasized one extreme or the other. And although we would like to believe that these questions are settled, they are far from it. People in every generation who take Christianity seriously, and who try to know Jesus closely, ask the same kinds of questions: If Jesus was divine, how was it possible that he died on the cross? Does that mean that human beings can kill God? If Jesus was God, then who was minding the store in heaven while he walked the earth? If Jesus was divine, and omniscient, why did he utter the cry of abandonment, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mk 15:34). These questions are not unlike Clarabelle asking, “Who was that masked man?”
But when Paul wrote this letter, he was not interested in providing a theological basis for a view of Christ. He wrote this letter from a prison cell – most likely in Rome – probably not long before he was executed.[4] Paul’s principle reason for writing to the gentiles in Philippi was to spell out the way he believed people who are in Christ ought to live. To be sure, the hymn says a lot about the incarnation of God in Christ, but it also says a lot about the lives of those of us who acknowledge Jesus as Lord. It tells us about the relevance of God’s divinity to our humanity.
The hymn also tells us something about how live a moral and ethical life. And that message is actually pretty simple. In this hymn we hear the prophet Isaiah applied to Jesus (compare Isa 52:13-53:12 with Phil 2:6-11).[5] In living his life, Jesus emptied himself of himself. He gave up his own fears, anxieties, and ambitions, or as Isaiah put it, he cut himself off from the land of the living. And as a result, he became filled with his love of God and God’s love for him, and he became a servant to all people. He cared for the sick, did not shun those who had violated the rules, and offered hospitality to those nobody else would accept. He climbed into ditches to help people who had fallen there. And in the end Jesus was exalted by God because he humbled himself for others.
You and I who have been reborn as children of God by our Baptism have been filled with the same Spirit today as Jesus was then. We therefore have the same opportunity to live as Jesus lived on earth. And in fact, that is just what Jesus intended for us to do. As Jesus said to God in the Gospel of John, “Just as you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” Jesus commissions us all to live in this world and to claim his ministry as our own.
 |
To those of us who attend church, the story of Jesus and his life among us is our own story. It became our story because we have heard it over and over again. And it is a wonderful and life giving story. It is a story that should have just as much impact on us, our children, and our children’s children, as the stories about the Lone Ranger did on millions of kids and adults. The Lone Ranger achieved the highest rating of any radio Western program ever, and by 1953 the show had a weekly listening audience of twelve million people who listened to his broadcasts on one of 249 radio stations. When the Lone Ranger transferred to TV, the show became the highest rated western on TV, watched by five million viewers. The stories about the Lone Ranger had such impact because they weren’t just stories about action and special effects – there were no special effects then other than what a stunt man and a property master could accomplish. The reason The Lone Ranger had such an impact was because – whether planned or not – the stories recast many of the ethical stories told about Jesus in the Bible.
Like the New Testament, The Lone Ranger told simple truths about a better way to live, and the masked man held himself to a code of honor that was higher than the culture he lived in. The Lone Ranger made specific claims about things like tolerance, sympathy, religion and speech among others. Indeed Fran Striker, the creator of The Lone Ranger, wrote a creed that guided the Ranger’s behavior. The Lone Ranger was accepting and tolerant. His friend Tonto was a Comanche Indian. It was obvious to any child that great men have no racial or religious prejudice. The Ranger respected all creeds, and the only man besides Tonto who knew his true identity was a Catholic missionary. He always used proper language, and was respectful of women and children. He believed that all people are created equal and that everyone has within themselves the power to make this a better world.
Now don’t get me wrong. I am not putting the Lone Ranger on the same plane with Jesus Christ; I don’t need 200 e-mails about that Monday morning! What I am saying is that the Lone Ranger stood for something, and that we knew what he stood for by watching and listening to him. The Pharisees and Scribes looked at and listened to Jesus too. And they formed an opinion about what he stood for. They didn’t like what they heard. He threatened them and their livelihood. He stood for a kind of inclusive justice that undermined their authority. They questioned his right to do and say what he did.
Their view of Jesus did not match Paul’s or the early Christians who saw Jesus as a divine man who inspired a new and better way of looking at the world and taking responsibility for changing it for the better; making it more heavenly than earthly; more of a kingdom than an empire. The early Christians like Paul saw something quite different. They saw Jesus as a source of inspiration and change; lives were transformed by knowing and remembering Jesus. And they wrote songs about him, like the Christ Hymn in today’s epistle.
So how about you? What do you see and hear in Jesus? He doesn’t wear a mask, but just who is he?
Note: The Back to Top button above requires Macromedia Plug In.
Click here to download Macromedia Player Version 7.
COMMENTS? E-Mail Me
From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?” But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The LORD said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 things that we have heard and known,
that our ancestors have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children;
we will tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.
12 In the sight of their ancestors he worked marvels
in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and let them pass through it,
and made the waters stand like a heap.
14 In the daytime he led them with a cloud,
and all night long with a fiery light.
15 He split rocks open in the wilderness,
and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
16 He made streams come out of the rock,
and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. “What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.
O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
[1] Betty Joyce. “Trouble at Rafter H.” A radio serial written for The Lone Ranger. Aired July 9, 1954. Script downloaded and modified 15 September from The Generic Radio Workshop Vintage Radio Script Library at http://www.genericradio.com/ show.php?id=76cb023820861645.
[2] “The Lone Ranger.” Wikepedia. Accessed 16 September 2005 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lone_Ranger.
[3] Peter F. Ellis. Seven Pauline Letters. (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1982), 124-125. Morna D. Hooker. “The Letter to the Philippians.” The New Interpreter’s Bible. Leander E. Keck, Sr. Editor. ( Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000), 501.
[4] Hooker, 501.
[5] Ellis, 129.
To Bill Stroop's Sermon Index Page
To Bill Stroop's Current Year A Sermon Index Page
Copyright Notice
Copyright © 2005, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
16 September 2005
This publication, ie. this page and the preceding document that has a link to this page, are copyrighted. Except as permitted by the Copyright Act, no part of it may in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or any other means be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or be broadcast or transmitted without the prior permission of the publisher.