My First Semon

The following is the written version of my sermon. I know I changed it some as I spoke.

What is Christianity all about? You hear about it every Sunday, every evening for devos, in Bible class. You may even call yourself a “Christian”. But what does that really mean?
I want to thank all of you in Bible class who turned in an answer to this question and for the staff who were willing to answer my randomly asked question. Here are some of your answers:
“relationship with God”
“having a loving father caring for you”
“god and faith”
“being good and having faith”
“living your life to the glory of god”
“love and faith”
For most of those, I think I could find scripture to back it up. However, what if we wanted to reduce it down to two things that “are Christianity” to share with others, what would you pick? Katelin, I want highlight your answer because it is such a good lead-in for my topic today. “It's about Jesus Christ and how he came to earth and died on the cross to save us from our sins.”

Katelin, you are on the same page as Paul when he went to Corinth to preach to a new church in a city known for its wealth, culture and moral corruption. Paul writes them later, reminding those in the church what it was like for him when he first came.

Chapter 2 starting in verse 1
“When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.”

There it is: Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul didn't concern himself with prayer, fasting, church attendance, or “good” living. Paul had knowledge of theological topics as can be seen later in this letter and others, but in the beginning of his preaching, he did not make that his focus. Just two simple things: Jesus and his death. What is so important about these two things that made it all that Paul needed to know?

Let's take a look at Jesus. Hopefully it is obvious that Christ is an important part of Christianity. After all, it is where that name comes from.
What do we know of Jesus Christ? Quite a bit if you include the old testament prophecies, the gospels about his life, and the references to him in the letters to various churches. We know about his lineage, little about him growing up, teachings, dinner dates, fishing, healing, death and resurrection. To go into all that we know about Jesus would take much longer than 20 minutes and I have been sternly warned about my time limit. Maybe another time. But one thing that is interesting to notice is that Paul states he was proclaiming “the testimony of God's” yet didn't say he resolved to know about the Creator or the Almighty God. He came sharing the knowledge of Jesus. In case you didn't already know this, there is a connection between Jesus and God. It's almost as if God were this being that is SO beyond us that we have little to no hope of understanding or explaining. Yet, when Jesus came, he was both the Son of God and the Son of Man. While we cannot understand God, we can better understand Jesus since he was human like us. He is the “image of the invisible God”, as Paul writes in Colossians. That is just one reason Jesus is worth being in Paul's narrow focus of preaching.
And then, of all the things in Jesus' life, Paul made his focus his death. What is so important about Jesus' death that it deserves to be talked about as a separate topic? I get to bring up my favorite verse in the Bible to answer this. Matthew 27:51- “At that moment (as Jesus died) the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” This curtain kept people from coming into the presence of God at any time. Access was only allowed one day a year by one person, the high priest. With his death, access was granted to any person at any time. We no longer face God's wrath, but his peace. Why? The holes in our relationship with God have been patched by Jesus' blood. We can now have a normal relationship with Him. (these are Paul's words from Romans 5)

Now, for all of you who just had my words go in one ear and out the other, here is a visual of the first two chapters of 1 Corinthians. (brought to you by Wordle.net) What stands out in the first two chapters? God, Jesus, Christ, Spirit, Lord, and wisdom. Some of those come later in the passage. And can you see “crucified” there next to the “su” in Jesus?

Both Jesus Christ and his death is what Christianity is about. It is all Paul preached as he started a church in an unlikely city. It is what he reminds the church of as their focus has shifted to differing beliefs and divisions in the church. I guess I could stop here and make sure that I'm under the 20 minutes. After all, I already answered the first question about what Christianity is.

But there is more that can be found in the how and why.

How did Paul preach? Pretty much like me right now- weakness, fear and trembling.

I am reminded of one of my favorite books, which has now also been made into a movie. In Prince Caspian, The prince, along with the pevensies and Narnians, have defeated the evil and wrongful king. Now it is Caspian's time to reclaim the crown. Aslan asks him about this task:
“Welcome, Prince, Do you feel yourself sufficient to take up the Kingship of Narnia?”
“I- I don’t think I do, Sir,” said Caspian. “I’m only a kid.”
“Good,” said Aslan. “If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been proof that you were not.”
Caspian was humble and therefore ready to lead Narnia.

The same is true of Paul as he went to the Corinthians. He was humble and weak and his words were unwise and unpersuasive. But he went anyway and preached what he knew because he was called.

Why did he go if he felt weak and unprepared? Because it wasn't about him! Paul is talking about God and he knows that he deserves none of the credit in Christianity. In chapter 1, Paul makes this clear as he attacks the issue of divisions in the church based on the man that each group says they follow. Paul preached in weakness so that the focus would be on the Spirit's power, not his own; so that their faith would be in God and not Paul.

Christianity is not about Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, names mentioned in chapter 1. It's not about John Stott, Charles Spurgeon or Billy Graham. It's not about Mr Harden, Mr Friesen or myself. It is about God: Jesus, the human with the fullness of God, his death, his wisdom, his power. As George MacDonald said through the character of Thomas Wingfold in one of his books: “For Christianity does not mean what you think or what I think concerning Christ, but what IS OF Christ. My Christianity, if ever I come to have any, will be what of Christ is in me; your Christianity now is what of Christ is in you.”

I want to leave you with a little “so what” as an application for knowing that Christianity is all about Jesus, his death and God's power and wisdom.

Those who claim Christianity: Make sure you have the right focus, both in how you live and how your share the message of God. Make your Christianity all about Christ and His death, God's power and wisdom.

Those who reject Christianity: Make sure you are rejecting the right thing. If Christianity is all about Jesus and his death and God's power, that is what you must ok with rejecting, not Christians. But don't reject something without knowing about it- that is just arrogant.

Reminders of Home

Recently, I have been feeling like my whole life revolves around this little campus on the mountain in Jarabacoa. It is frustrating when all of my time is spent working, doing things I don't have time for while working, and preparing for other jobs I have volunteered for.

But today on my time off this afternoon, I have had a chance to "get in touch" with things back home. I was listening to my favorite radio station from home while I did some other work things. And now I have the Taylor football game on (ugly, I know, but it's still a bit of home). This has improved my day :).

No Love Lost

I love the Cubs. Always have. It's something that was passed down to me from my grandpa to my dad and to me. I few months ago I shared about them as ESPN had a big deal about them on their main page.

So, when I found this today, I just had to share it. For all those cold, windy games at Wrigley, to seeing them in various cities anytime their schedule matched our vacation schedule, to knowing the phone would ring with my grandpa on the other side as soon as something good or bad happened in a game, I will wait, for myself and my grandpa. Pop- wish you were here for this season!

For all you other Cubs fans who have not lost your love, check out Outside the Lines on ESPN, Sunday at 9am ET

Closed Friday

Living in the Caribbean, you can't help but be aware of hurricanes. Having lived in the Houston area, you can't help but pay attention to hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. Put those two together and you see why Ike has been on my mind for at least 2 weeks now. I first began "worrying" when they made a big deal of it at work, reminding us to stockpile water and let us know they would be saving some rice and beans and eggs for us in the campus kitchen. Last week I watched as the projected path moved further and further north of Hispaniola. And that is what the hurricane did- remained north of the island. That's not to say it didn't affect us here, with over 40,000 Dominican displaced from their homes. But here in the mountains we were over prepared.

I have paid a little attention to it in the past week. However, I have noticed that the projected path moved closed and closed to a direct hit of Galveston, Clear Lake and Houston. Knowing it was close, I checked the Weather Channel this morning to find this: Pretty big, ain't it? I then went to the Houston Chronicle to see what things are like in that area as they prepare for the storm. According to this everything, including the airports, are closed starting today. Yeah, it's that big of a deal.

Here is what some of my friends from the area are saying through their Facebook status: "I think Ike is on track to literally wind up at my doorstep. Nice." "is waiting on Ike." "says bring it Ike" "is not evacuating, but this could get interesting" "Y-Ikes!!" "is evacuating tomorrow. Thanks Ike" "is thinking about possible campsites"

If I have any Houston area readers (who aren't too busy to read this), know I am praying for you all to survive the storm well.

Four Names I Dislike

I want to apologize to any one who has one of these names (and those of you who are reading my two dislikes back to back).

Gustav, you gave us 24 hours of rain, no water for about half a day and knocked over some trees onto some Dominican neighbors' homes.

Hanna, you have brought us more rain and some wind, but thanks for staying out of our hair, and water supply.

Ike, man you are making us plan ahead big time as we make reserves for drinking water, bathing/toilet water and food. If you come this way, it'll be rice and beans for many meals. Please don't mess with the flights of staff nor the births of babies nor our fall retreat.

Josephine- here is your early warning- stay away from this island!

EDIT 9-3: Hanna, you are just sticking around, aren't you? I thought they said you would be closer to Florida by now, but you are actually closer to us then you were the past couples days. Thank you for really only bringing some occasional big gusts of wind.

Hot Sauce

My boys (how I refer to the students in my house) love hot sauce. So do the other staff that work in the house with me. And I really have no problem with it. Well, that was until Saturday.

I had made a chicken soup and tried to flavor it nicely, getting it as hot as possible so that I could still eat it, though I know the boys will like it at least 5 times hotter. As soon as we sat down to eat, the housefather gets up to get his hot sauce: 100% Pain. For some reason, it hit me hard that time. The food has not even been tasted and yet they are changing the flavor! Almost everyone put some in the soup and commented on the zing and "pain" they felt because of it. Even Eric, sitting next to me, had little bits of sweat on his face. I began to wonder why I should even flavor the soup when they are going to do it themselves. And how can you eat food that always has the same flavor: hot sauce. There are other tastes in this world. It was a low blow to the time I had spent in the kitchen.

So how did I feel when the dare comes up to see how long the students will last with some on their lips? Terrified. I had made dessert! It was chocolate! They had BETTER not do that until after they had dessert. I was already worried about their taste buds being a bit numb after the hot sauce soup. Much to my relief, Barry was smart enough not to start the challenge (which was fun to observe) until after the dessert was eaten. Yet I still walked away from that meal offended.

What am I supposed to do now? I know they all, house staff included, love hot sauce and I don't want to take it away from them altogether. Is it worth it to talk with Barry about reserving the flavor-destroyer for only certain meals? For now all I can say is I hate hot sauce even more than I did before.