WEBVTT

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<v ->When the days drew near for Him to be taken up,</v>

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He set His face to go to Jerusalem.

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And He sent His messengers ahead of Him.

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On their way,

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they entered a village of the Samaritans,

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to make ready for Him.

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But they did not receive Him because His face

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was set toward Jerusalem.

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When His disciples, James and John, saw it,

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they said, "Lord, do you want us to command

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"fire to come down from heaven and consume them?"

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But He turned and rebuked them.

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Then, He went on to another village.

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As they were going along the road,

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someone said to Him, "I will follow you wherever you go."

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And Jesus said to Him,

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"Foxes have holes

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"and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man

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"has nowhere to lay His head."

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To another He said, "Follow Me."

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But He said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."

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But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead.

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"But as for you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God."

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Another said, "I will follow you, Lord.

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"But first, let me say farewell to those at my home."

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Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow

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"and looks back, is fit for the Kingdom of God."

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This is the Word of the Lord.

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Thanks be to God.

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<v ->Well, you've heard that in today's gospel,</v>

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Jesus is

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on the way.

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He has, in Luke's words,

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set His face to Jerusalem.

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Which is a kind of a short-hand way of saying

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that He is now on His way

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to the cross.

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Just a little earlier, Luke has noted

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that great crowds were now following Jesus.

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Jesus is becoming popular.

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He's becoming well-received.

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But at this point,

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He sets His face to Jerusalem.

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And you can almost feel the crowds dissipate,

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particularly, with Jesus in the mood

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in which we find Him today.

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He begins to teach His disciples about the direction

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that He is walking.

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Do we want to walk with Him in that direction?

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Somebody comes up to Jesus and says, "I will follow You

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"wherever You going, only my father's recently died

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"and I've got to plan the funeral arrangements.

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"And then, we'll go."

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And Jesus, in not one of the more pastoral moments,

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says, "Let the dead bury the dead.

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"Come, follow Me."

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Someone else says, "I will follow You.

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"Let me just tell people at home where I'm going.

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"I won't be there anymore."

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And Jesus says,

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"Anybody that just for a moment,

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"having put hand to the plow, just looks back,

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"is not worthy to follow Me."

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And a text like this reminds you that following Jesus

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is not always that easy.

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Because if we're gonna follow Him,

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we're gonna have to follow someone

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who has set His face to Jerusalem.

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Someone who is walking a narrow way,

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the way of the cross.

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And if you've been in church very often,

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if you've been with Jesus that often,

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you know that He has a way

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of surprising us,

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of correcting us.

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And time and again, when you're with Jesus,

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you get reminded of just how odd,

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how very different,

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is this following than maybe we first imagined.

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On a number of occasions, Jesus impresses with

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how against the grain His way is with our way.

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Here are nice people

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and they're wanting to follow Jesus,

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but they have obligations.

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Doesn't the Bible say to honor your father and your mother?

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Certainly, by going to the funeral.

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Isn't family values a good thing?

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And here is Jesus,

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seeming to attack such values.

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What you've got here,

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and you have this often with Jesus I think,

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is a kind of clash between good and good.

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One good and another.

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Oh, it would be easy if the choice with Jesus

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was always, "Now, here's a good and here's a bad.

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"Now, you decide which one you're going to embrace."

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But here, as in so many occasions,

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the problem is you've got one good.

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Parents, family.

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Then you got another good.

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The way of the cross.

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The way of discipleship.

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And it is a

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narrow way,

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more narrow than we often appreciate.

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So one reason why we get together on a weekly basis,

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and you have to get dressed and come down here

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at an inconvenient hour of the week,

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is to hear these stories.

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To examine these texts,

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and let them examine us

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so that we might more clearly discern His way.

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And sometimes that means discerning the difference

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between His way and our way.

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Isn't family a good thing?

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Shouldn't we show respect to parents?

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So many times with Jesus,

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it's a clash between one good and another.

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Here you got these good things: Family, parents,

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money,

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good things.

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But sometimes with Jesus there's this clash of good.

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Just as it is difficult to mix oil with water,

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a lot of times it's difficult to mix our allegiances,

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our values, with those of Jesus.

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A former student of mine at the Divinity School,

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I saw her a month or so ago.

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I asked her how things were going at her new church.

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And she said, "Well, not all that well."

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I said, "Really?

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"I heard that you'd gotten off to a great start.

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"They were pleased with you."

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"Well, they got less pleased during December."

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I said, "What happened in December?"

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She said, "Well, I went head-to-head with Santa Claus."

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I said, "What?"

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She said, "At my new church, they told me in November,

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"they said, "By the way, on the second Sunday of December,

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"we have this wonderful thing where during the service,

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"right before the offering,

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"Santa Claus comes in and he walks down the aisle

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"and he has gifts for all the children.

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"Everybody just loves it.

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"Really gets people in the Christmas spirit."

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(congregation laughs)

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And she said, "You know, I remembered what you said

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"to do in class and all.

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"Go easy on these kind of things.

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"Just don't jump right in to trample on their traditions."

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But I said, "You know,

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"this bothers me."

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She said, "This is like the second Sunday of Advent.

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"We've got a lot of business to do in the church."

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"Well, ya," they said.

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"And Santa Claus, Christmas."

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And she said, "I'm a young parent.

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"And Christmas can be a hard time when you got children

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"and you're tryin' to teach your children

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"about what Christmas is really about,

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"but they're being just pumped with all this advertising

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"and commercialism.

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"And it's just hard for the church to make its point.

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"Particularly, when we mix all that up.

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"Santa Claus has got most of the airways tied up,

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"got a monopoly since early in October.

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"Church is where we kinda make our point."

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And she said, "I think they're gonna kill me for that."

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(congregation laughs)

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But you can see the young pastor's point.

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'Cause one of the purposes of church

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is to get together, on a regular basis,

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and keep clarifying the Christian way.

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We are bombarded every day by thousands of messages,

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mostly in the form of advertising,

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that proclaim a different point of view,

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a different world,

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a different system of values from that of Christ.

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So, we have to get together in church

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and we do the best we can,

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just for an hour,

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to try to get things clear,

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focused.

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And it isn't easy.

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A few years ago, I had this conversation on campus,

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painful conversation,

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with a Jewish student.

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And he was, obviously, kinda nervous being this close

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to a Christian clergyman.

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And he was tryin' to make conversation.

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He said, "Say, you got the Easter thing coming up

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"in a week or so, right?"

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(congregation laughs)

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And I said, "Yeah, in a week or so, Easter, yeah."

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He said, "Well, tell me,

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"just what is Easter anyway?

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"What do the decorated eggs have to do with it?

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"Did Jesus decorate eggs?

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"Do you all do this at church?

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"Is it some kinda Christian ritual?"

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And I said, "No, eggs don't have anything to do with it."

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He said, "The bunny then, what about the bunny?

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(congregation laughs)

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"Did Jesus like bunnies?"

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I said, "No that doesn't have anything to do with it either.

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See, he put me in an embarrassing position of realizing

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how much stuff had gotten mixed in

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with our stuff.

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All these images, eggs, the bunny.

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All dearly beloved, widely-celebrated.

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What did they have, really, to do with the Easter thing?

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Of course, he is not of this faith.

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He's not supposed to know about these details.

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But as a preacher, I had to ask myself

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about the way we allow extraneous symbols

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to muddy the water of our faith, so to speak.

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It's hard for us to keep our stuff straight.

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Because, as Jesus reminds us today, the stuff

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can be tough.

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It's narrow.

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There's a big difference between our way

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and that narrow way of Jesus.

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Once He's set His face toward Jerusalem.

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Friend of mine says, when he stands up to preach

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on a Sunday morning,

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he looks out on a congregation of people

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who think they're Methodists.

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But in reality, a lot of them are really Shintos

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who are worshiping their ancestors,

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buried out in the adjacent church graveyard.

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Or some of them are Muslims,

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who believe God just wrote down every...

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Dictated every single word of Scripture.

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Or Buddhists who come to church

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in an effort to avoid getting in contact with the world.

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Or just good pagans who come to manipulate the gods

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to try to run errands and do good things for them.

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But, there are these moments when we get clarification.

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And we realize that Jesus' way

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does not easily mesh with every other way.

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As Paul says, we gotta test the spirits.

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Because every spirit, the Christmas spirit,

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the American spirit, not every spirit is the Holy Spirit.

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And so, that's why we dare to open the Scriptures,

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and we ask a preacher,

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"Is there any word from the Lord?

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"Now, we've heard a lot of words,

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"but is there any word from the Lord?

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"Because we've spent all week listening

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"to this cacophony of voices

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"that are not God's."

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A couple of summers ago,

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I was in a little church in suburban Berlin.

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And when I came up to the church,

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I noticed that Mercedes were pulling up,

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and people were pulling in,

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and they were unloading this lace bedecked baby.

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And I said, "Well, I guess we're gonna have a baptism

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"in the service today."

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And the minute the baby emerged from the car,

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the video camera's recording every move.

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Well, we went through the service.

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We had a sermon and we had some hymns,

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and the Creed.

264
00:13:36.733 --> 00:13:40.178
And all the adoring relatives endured this.

265
00:13:40.178 --> 00:13:41.870
And then, came time for the baptism.

266
00:13:41.870 --> 00:13:45.980
And this dour German pastor called the people

267
00:13:45.980 --> 00:13:47.840
for the baptism to come forward.

268
00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:49.650
And a large number of people got up

269
00:13:49.650 --> 00:13:51.597
and they were presenting the baby.

270
00:13:51.597 --> 00:13:54.100
And two or three video cameras began to whir.

271
00:13:54.100 --> 00:13:57.890
And then this German pastor just blurted out,

272
00:13:57.890 --> 00:14:00.473
as best I could translate him,

273
00:14:00.473 --> 00:14:02.881
"Stop!"

274
00:14:02.881 --> 00:14:05.935
(speaking in foreign language)

275
00:14:05.935 --> 00:14:07.609
"This isn't a theater!

276
00:14:07.609 --> 00:14:10.879
"This isn't a movie going on here, people!

277
00:14:10.879 --> 00:14:12.331
"This is church!

278
00:14:12.331 --> 00:14:14.680
"We're getting ready to do a baptism!

279
00:14:14.680 --> 00:14:16.577
"We're getting ready to take this child

280
00:14:16.577 --> 00:14:21.575
"and lay over his life, the cross of Jesus.

281
00:14:21.575 --> 00:14:24.525
"This could be painful.

282
00:14:24.525 --> 00:14:26.659
"Turn the cameras off!

283
00:14:26.659 --> 00:14:30.710
"This is hard, holy business!"

284
00:14:30.710 --> 00:14:34.260
And then, he said, "We don't want any distractions

285
00:14:34.260 --> 00:14:38.637
"that might confuse the parents or the church

286
00:14:38.637 --> 00:14:41.917
"about the solemn, holy, difficult thing

287
00:14:41.917 --> 00:14:45.757
"we're about to do here."

288
00:14:45.757 --> 00:14:48.745
Well, as a preacher,

289
00:14:48.745 --> 00:14:52.037
I wondered, "Now, would I have been that severe?

290
00:14:52.037 --> 00:14:54.980
"Would I have reacted in this way?"

291
00:14:54.980 --> 00:14:56.620
No, I probably wouldn't have

292
00:14:56.620 --> 00:14:58.583
and that's because I'm so nice.

293
00:14:58.583 --> 00:14:59.416
(congregation laughs)

294
00:14:59.416 --> 00:15:04.013
I'm a lot nicer than these German preachers.

295
00:15:04.013 --> 00:15:06.690
But then, I remembered, "Wait, wait, wait.

296
00:15:06.690 --> 00:15:10.700
"This is a German pastor."

297
00:15:10.700 --> 00:15:13.430
Four blocks away from that church,

298
00:15:13.430 --> 00:15:16.892
there's a huge house there in this elegant suburb

299
00:15:16.892 --> 00:15:21.055
where they had the Wannsee Conference,

300
00:15:21.055 --> 00:15:22.430
where a group of people,

301
00:15:22.430 --> 00:15:25.642
most of them worship in Christian churches,

302
00:15:25.642 --> 00:15:28.490
got together and had a discussion,

303
00:15:28.490 --> 00:15:33.490
and voted to exterminate the Jews.

304
00:15:33.540 --> 00:15:37.890
So forgive that German pastor for being a little picky.

305
00:15:37.890 --> 00:15:40.450
A little careful about what goes on in the church

306
00:15:40.450 --> 00:15:42.270
in Sunday morning.

307
00:15:42.270 --> 00:15:44.590
Look, he was part of a church,

308
00:15:44.590 --> 00:15:46.840
that when the time for the church came

309
00:15:46.840 --> 00:15:48.862
to say to the world, "No!"

310
00:15:48.862 --> 00:15:51.170
"Nein!"

311
00:15:51.170 --> 00:15:53.000
It lost the ability to say, "No."

312
00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:54.590
Had lost the ability even to know

313
00:15:54.590 --> 00:15:58.120
there was something to say, "No," to in the culture.

314
00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:01.620
So he's a little picky.

315
00:16:01.620 --> 00:16:04.170
This past Spring, I went up to Washington, DC,

316
00:16:04.170 --> 00:16:06.980
to speak at a pastor's conference.

317
00:16:06.980 --> 00:16:08.510
And after I spoke,

318
00:16:08.510 --> 00:16:09.820
we were to have a worship service.

319
00:16:09.820 --> 00:16:14.483
And Alan Storey, young pastor from South Africa,

320
00:16:14.483 --> 00:16:15.370
led us in worship.

321
00:16:15.370 --> 00:16:16.880
And Alan handed out the bulletins,

322
00:16:16.880 --> 00:16:19.230
was giving us some instructions about the worship.

323
00:16:19.230 --> 00:16:21.980
Alan Storey, some of you'd be interested,

324
00:16:21.980 --> 00:16:24.340
is the son of Bishop Peter Storey,

325
00:16:24.340 --> 00:16:26.740
who preaches from this pulpit frequently.

326
00:16:26.740 --> 00:16:29.280
Sometime professor at the Divinity School.

327
00:16:29.280 --> 00:16:31.858
Bishop from South Africa.

328
00:16:31.858 --> 00:16:33.410
Well, Alan stood up and,

329
00:16:33.410 --> 00:16:35.360
after giving us instructions,

330
00:16:35.360 --> 00:16:37.220
walking us through the service,

331
00:16:37.220 --> 00:16:38.240
before the service began,

332
00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:43.175
he said, "May I just say one more thing?

333
00:16:43.175 --> 00:16:45.257
"Could I just say, as a visitor to your country

334
00:16:45.257 --> 00:16:47.738
"from another place,

335
00:16:47.738 --> 00:16:52.085
"I wish you would consider removing the American flag

336
00:16:52.085 --> 00:16:54.651
"from your sanctuary.

337
00:16:54.651 --> 00:16:57.522
"I was shocked when I entered your church today

338
00:16:57.522 --> 00:17:01.174
"and saw that your country's flag was positioned

339
00:17:01.174 --> 00:17:04.751
"so prominently next to the altar.

340
00:17:04.751 --> 00:17:07.362
"That would not happen in my church.

341
00:17:07.362 --> 00:17:11.509
"'Cause my church forbids us to have flags

342
00:17:11.509 --> 00:17:16.509
"and other secular, political paraphernalia in our services.

343
00:17:16.509 --> 00:17:20.229
"I wish you would just think about how that flag

344
00:17:20.229 --> 00:17:24.090
"clashes with this cross."

345
00:17:24.090 --> 00:17:26.000
Then he said, "Of course, I'm from South Africa.

346
00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:29.509
"And we learned the hard way about the difference

347
00:17:29.509 --> 00:17:34.507
"between the ways of God and our ways."

348
00:17:35.460 --> 00:17:38.852
Well, we sat there in awkward silence.

349
00:17:38.852 --> 00:17:42.273
And then, we went on with the service.

350
00:17:42.273 --> 00:17:44.200
What do you think about that?

351
00:17:44.200 --> 00:17:45.950
Does the American flag have a place

352
00:17:45.950 --> 00:17:49.829
in a Christian sanctuary?

353
00:17:49.829 --> 00:17:53.700
What we're talking about here is a confusion of symbols.

354
00:17:53.700 --> 00:17:54.760
And we're Christians,

355
00:17:54.760 --> 00:17:56.500
and to us, symbols are a big deal.

356
00:17:56.500 --> 00:18:00.030
You sit here and the whole building is a symbol.

357
00:18:00.030 --> 00:18:03.878
And we're surrounded by these symbols of our faith.

358
00:18:03.878 --> 00:18:05.250
And we take these,

359
00:18:05.250 --> 00:18:08.270
we take all symbols, very seriously.

360
00:18:08.270 --> 00:18:11.080
Because we know from experience in this faith

361
00:18:11.080 --> 00:18:13.900
that symbols don't just express our deepest feelings,

362
00:18:13.900 --> 00:18:18.736
they form our feelings and our commitments.

363
00:18:18.736 --> 00:18:22.140
Now, I expect when we hear somebody like Alan Storey,

364
00:18:22.140 --> 00:18:24.428
we think to ourselves, "Now, wait, wait, wait.

365
00:18:24.428 --> 00:18:26.937
"You're talking about South Africa.

366
00:18:26.937 --> 00:18:30.120
"We're different, we're Americans.

367
00:18:30.120 --> 00:18:32.192
"We live in a democracy.

368
00:18:32.192 --> 00:18:37.192
"Our country is good, our country is innocent."

369
00:18:37.670 --> 00:18:39.390
I hope none of you would say such sentiments

370
00:18:39.390 --> 00:18:41.910
because they're not true.

371
00:18:41.910 --> 00:18:44.970
Our country has blood on its hands.

372
00:18:44.970 --> 00:18:47.140
The souls of countless African slaves,

373
00:18:47.140 --> 00:18:48.670
of slaughtered Native Americans,

374
00:18:48.670 --> 00:18:52.080
that would rise up to accuse us if we said such things

375
00:18:52.080 --> 00:18:53.232
about our country.

376
00:18:53.232 --> 00:18:56.783
Our nation, like any nation I know of,

377
00:18:56.783 --> 00:18:59.351
has got blood.

378
00:18:59.351 --> 00:19:01.762
Time and again in Scripture,

379
00:19:01.762 --> 00:19:04.810
the great competitor for our allegiance to God

380
00:19:04.810 --> 00:19:08.320
is allegiance to the nation.

381
00:19:08.320 --> 00:19:10.280
Much of the time, when Hebrew prophets

382
00:19:10.280 --> 00:19:13.110
are getting into trouble for what they say,

383
00:19:13.110 --> 00:19:15.070
and they're talking about idolatry,

384
00:19:15.070 --> 00:19:18.290
this is the idolatry they're talking about.

385
00:19:18.290 --> 00:19:23.285
The first lesson, this strange story about Elijah, Elisha.

386
00:19:23.285 --> 00:19:27.745
Prophets of God who always in trouble with the government.

387
00:19:27.745 --> 00:19:31.300
Always reminding us that we don't put our ultimate

388
00:19:31.300 --> 00:19:35.450
love and trust in armies, and violence,

389
00:19:35.450 --> 00:19:40.070
and nations, and kings, and mechanisms of the state.

390
00:19:40.070 --> 00:19:42.254
It's not enough to say, "Well, now, fortunately,

391
00:19:42.254 --> 00:19:43.755
"we live in a democracy.

392
00:19:43.755 --> 00:19:45.288
"We don't have a king.

393
00:19:45.288 --> 00:19:49.477
"Here, we're king, the people."

394
00:19:49.477 --> 00:19:50.720
But maybe for that very reason,

395
00:19:50.720 --> 00:19:52.790
democracy puts us in an even more

396
00:19:52.790 --> 00:19:56.360
spiritually demanding situation.

397
00:19:56.360 --> 00:19:58.697
Once, we went to war only when the king

398
00:19:58.697 --> 00:20:01.310
commanded us to go to war.

399
00:20:01.310 --> 00:20:04.770
But now, we go to war for ourselves.

400
00:20:04.770 --> 00:20:06.870
Once, only a king was brutal enough

401
00:20:06.870 --> 00:20:09.790
to cut off somebody's head for a crime.

402
00:20:09.790 --> 00:20:11.330
But a couple of weeks ago,

403
00:20:11.330 --> 00:20:15.188
we executed a murderer.

404
00:20:15.188 --> 00:20:17.551
The government has now become our protector

405
00:20:17.551 --> 00:20:19.270
from the cradle to the grave,

406
00:20:19.270 --> 00:20:21.220
our main source of meaning,

407
00:20:21.220 --> 00:20:24.020
that to which we look to for all solution

408
00:20:24.020 --> 00:20:25.170
to every human problem,

409
00:20:25.170 --> 00:20:29.083
and for our salvation.

410
00:20:29.083 --> 00:20:32.340
I think we just ask way too much of the government.

411
00:20:32.340 --> 00:20:37.340
And we sacrifice way too much for the nation.

412
00:20:37.930 --> 00:20:41.070
For instance, anybody who would die for his religion

413
00:20:41.070 --> 00:20:45.156
is considered a fanatic, an idiot.

414
00:20:45.156 --> 00:20:47.970
And yet, think of all the people who sacrifice

415
00:20:47.970 --> 00:20:49.150
their lives for the government.

416
00:20:49.150 --> 00:20:51.370
We call them heroes.

417
00:20:51.370 --> 00:20:53.570
So don't tell me we shouldn't be careful

418
00:20:53.570 --> 00:20:58.570
about what objects we bring into Christian sanctuaries.

419
00:20:58.910 --> 00:21:01.280
Jesus, I will follow You wherever you go.

420
00:21:01.280 --> 00:21:04.930
But first, let me be sure that I get my allegiances

421
00:21:04.930 --> 00:21:08.150
in order and I do this, and I do that.

422
00:21:08.150 --> 00:21:13.150
And let me give my pinch of incense to the altar of Caesar.

423
00:21:13.700 --> 00:21:16.660
In a couple of days, we're gonna celebrate the 4th of July,

424
00:21:16.660 --> 00:21:19.100
birth of a beloved nation.

425
00:21:19.100 --> 00:21:23.453
A nation that has been so good to so many.

426
00:21:23.453 --> 00:21:25.708
On the 4th of July,

427
00:21:25.708 --> 00:21:30.110
we're celebrating our declaration of independence.

428
00:21:30.110 --> 00:21:31.260
Just a little reminder,

429
00:21:31.260 --> 00:21:35.440
you won't find the word independence anywhere in the Bible.

430
00:21:35.440 --> 00:21:37.760
That's not a Bible word.

431
00:21:37.760 --> 00:21:41.360
Independence is what the government promises us.

432
00:21:41.360 --> 00:21:44.670
If we'll just pay our taxes, and offer our children,

433
00:21:44.670 --> 00:21:46.920
and serve the government.

434
00:21:46.920 --> 00:21:47.990
But as Christians,

435
00:21:47.990 --> 00:21:51.548
our Sunday morning goal is never independence.

436
00:21:51.548 --> 00:21:55.760
We don't wanna be free to do what we darn well please to do.

437
00:21:55.760 --> 00:21:58.410
Our goal is dependence,

438
00:21:58.410 --> 00:22:02.110
upon the will and the righteousness of God.

439
00:22:02.110 --> 00:22:03.990
And all of this reminds us that Christians

440
00:22:03.990 --> 00:22:08.531
are a lot more weird than we often admit.

441
00:22:08.531 --> 00:22:11.120
And maybe the best thing we can do for our country

442
00:22:11.120 --> 00:22:14.447
is to love it discreetly.

443
00:22:14.447 --> 00:22:17.572
De Tocqueville said, "Democracy is a form of government

444
00:22:17.572 --> 00:22:22.549
"that needs to be modestly loved."

445
00:22:22.549 --> 00:22:25.960
Think of the church in our country as a way that keeps

446
00:22:25.960 --> 00:22:29.410
helping us keep our loyalties

447
00:22:29.410 --> 00:22:31.970
modest.

448
00:22:31.970 --> 00:22:34.290
Well, I've told some of you this story.

449
00:22:34.290 --> 00:22:37.420
But every year, we come to this Sunday of the year.

450
00:22:37.420 --> 00:22:39.100
The Sunday before the 4th of July.

451
00:22:39.100 --> 00:22:43.430
I can't hep but remember a Sunday nearly 20 years ago,

452
00:22:43.430 --> 00:22:46.060
when I and my family visited at a church.

453
00:22:46.060 --> 00:22:47.490
I'm not gonna mention the name of the church.

454
00:22:47.490 --> 00:22:50.797
It's in California, has lots of glass.

455
00:22:50.797 --> 00:22:52.420
(congregation laughs)

456
00:22:52.420 --> 00:22:56.230
Have a lot more people watching on TV than we do.

457
00:22:56.230 --> 00:22:58.613
Anyway.

458
00:22:58.613 --> 00:23:00.640
We get to the service,

459
00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:03.910
and we find out that the preacher is spreading the gospel

460
00:23:03.910 --> 00:23:06.950
in Hawaii that Sunday and won't be there.

461
00:23:06.950 --> 00:23:08.560
They got a guest preacher.

462
00:23:08.560 --> 00:23:12.105
And the guest preacher is Charles Colson.

463
00:23:12.105 --> 00:23:14.460
Some of you are old enough to remember Charles Colson,

464
00:23:14.460 --> 00:23:19.448
Watergate fame, went to jail for his stuff with the state.

465
00:23:21.190 --> 00:23:24.650
My dear mother, sitting there, said, "I haven't come

466
00:23:24.650 --> 00:23:28.115
"to church to hear some jailbird preach."

467
00:23:28.115 --> 00:23:29.147
And I said, "Well, now, wait.

468
00:23:29.147 --> 00:23:32.379
"He's been born again, he's been converted."

469
00:23:32.379 --> 00:23:34.450
My mother said, "Yeah, they all do when they come

470
00:23:34.450 --> 00:23:36.040
before the parole board."

471
00:23:36.040 --> 00:23:39.607
And I said, "Look, it's Southern California,

472
00:23:39.607 --> 00:23:41.860
"just keep quiet."

473
00:23:41.860 --> 00:23:43.040
We went through the service.

474
00:23:43.040 --> 00:23:44.870
We got to the point in the service where

475
00:23:44.870 --> 00:23:47.050
the Associate Minister gave the children's sermon.

476
00:23:47.050 --> 00:23:51.170
And the children's sermon was delivered by this rat puppet.

477
00:23:51.170 --> 00:23:54.240
And the rat puppet had an American flag and talked about

478
00:23:54.240 --> 00:23:57.040
how good it was to be an American, and etc.

479
00:23:57.040 --> 00:23:59.440
And then, we got to the sermon.

480
00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:01.560
Charles Colson stood up.

481
00:24:01.560 --> 00:24:04.710
And Charles Colson said,

482
00:24:04.710 --> 00:24:06.214
"I just wish all of you

483
00:24:06.214 --> 00:24:09.694
"could see how good you look arrayed before me today.

484
00:24:09.694 --> 00:24:11.717
"The sun streaming in through the windows.

485
00:24:11.717 --> 00:24:14.647
"What a beautiful Southern California Sunday.

486
00:24:14.647 --> 00:24:16.707
"I just wish you could see how beautiful

487
00:24:16.707 --> 00:24:20.425
"this congregation looks.

488
00:24:20.425 --> 00:24:22.717
"Quite a contrast from where I was preaching yesterday

489
00:24:22.717 --> 00:24:23.577
"about this time.

490
00:24:23.577 --> 00:24:28.577
"I was preaching out at the Los Angeles Prison Camp.

491
00:24:28.627 --> 00:24:32.087
"And there, I did not preach in this beautiful cathedral.

492
00:24:32.087 --> 00:24:36.535
"I was preaching in a little cinder block chapel,

493
00:24:36.535 --> 00:24:38.678
"in the middle of the prison camp.

494
00:24:38.678 --> 00:24:40.967
"And there, my congregation were not you distinguished

495
00:24:40.967 --> 00:24:42.767
"people here, but were murderers,

496
00:24:42.767 --> 00:24:46.592
"and rapists, and thieves."

497
00:24:46.592 --> 00:24:50.795
He paused for a moment and he said, "And you do know

498
00:24:50.795 --> 00:24:54.394
"where Jesus would be more comfortable?"

499
00:24:54.394 --> 00:24:57.288
Man, and then, he started hammering on us.

500
00:24:57.288 --> 00:25:00.470
He hammered on us for the cars we were driving,

501
00:25:00.470 --> 00:25:01.303
the lives we were living.

502
00:25:01.303 --> 00:25:04.395
At one point, he said, "And these preachers that know

503
00:25:04.395 --> 00:25:06.748
"better how to use a blow dryer than a Bible."

504
00:25:06.748 --> 00:25:07.600
(congregation laughs)

505
00:25:07.600 --> 00:25:11.265
It was rough.

506
00:25:11.265 --> 00:25:12.260
After he finished preaching,

507
00:25:12.260 --> 00:25:15.089
my mother leaned over and said, "I hope he had a good time

508
00:25:15.089 --> 00:25:16.676
"because he won't be coming back."

509
00:25:16.676 --> 00:25:19.843
(congregation laughs)

510
00:25:24.230 --> 00:25:25.900
You wanna know the greatest service

511
00:25:25.900 --> 00:25:29.550
we could render this nation?

512
00:25:29.550 --> 00:25:31.780
Is to be the church.

513
00:25:31.780 --> 00:25:33.050
To be a critique.

514
00:25:33.050 --> 00:25:37.441
A visible reminder that God, not nations,

515
00:25:37.441 --> 00:25:39.310
rules the world.

516
00:25:39.310 --> 00:25:41.790
That we have a loyalty that qualifies

517
00:25:41.790 --> 00:25:44.820
every other loyalty.

518
00:25:44.820 --> 00:25:47.190
Jesus Christ is Lord.

519
00:25:47.190 --> 00:25:49.660
Let us and the nations of the world

520
00:25:49.660 --> 00:25:51.480
walk His

521
00:25:51.480 --> 00:25:53.210
narrow way.

522
00:25:53.210 --> 00:25:54.043
Amen.

523
00:25:57.895 --> 00:26:01.312
(congregation shuffling)