Summary: Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent Sunday, February 24, 2013 Philippians 3:17-4:1 Like many young boys...I was dumb. In elementary school, I thought I had devised a scheme to get girls to notice me, and to like me. So here was my scheme: I would be obnoxious. Not a bully, but obnoxious. I did that to my older sister’s friends all the time. I remember once hiding for what seemed like hours when my sister and her friends were watching a scary movie. Then, at just the right moment, when the movie was at its scariest, I jumped out of my hiding spot and scared the bejesus out of that them. And you know what happened? It didn’t work. In my mind, this was the perfect ploy to get a girlfriend, and when it didn’t work...well, there must be something wrong with the girl. Not my methods. Upon reflection of my boyhood shenanigans, I realized something. I did a really great job of getting girls to notice me. But for all the wrong reasons. I trust that there are still young boys doing the essentially the same thing today. Doing something you think is good for you, but actually has quite the opposite reaction. We see politicians doing this all the time. Celebrities are probably the best at it. And of course, it happens in Christianity all the time. Saint Paul writes that “many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.” “Their is end is destruction, their god is the belly, their glory is in their shame, their minds are set on earthly things.” Wow Paul. Those are fighting words. In America today, we think we know who the “enemies of the cross” are. The atheists, right? The politicians and the activists persecuting Christians. As the Church, we are quick to point to others, and blame them for Christianity’s decline in America. They’ve taken away the Ten Commandments! They’ve taken away prayer at schools! They’ve done this, they’ve done that! It sure is easy to point the finger at persecution. But I tell you, the Church of Jesus Christ will not disappear from this earth because of persecution, whether intellectual or violent. The Church flourished, even when the Roman Empire was throwing Christians to the lions. The Church flourished, even when our Anglican forebears were burned at the stake. The Church is flourishing, even in places where religion has been banned outright. I tell you, the Church of Jesus Christ thrives under persecution. So what is happening in America? Why is the Church in decline? I tell you it is not because of persecution. The enemies of the cross of Christ are not atheists or other religions, threatening us from the outside. No, the enemies of the cross of Christ are people like us. We are like little boys and their obnoxious hijinks. Many Christians are doing things that they think proclaims the faith, but which are actually tearing the Church apart...from the inside. The enemies of the cross of Christ are among us today and fill the ranks of the Church. Allow me to offer an example: A pastor took a group of parishioners out for a meal. When the time for the checks came, the pastor requested that the automatic gratuity would be removed. So this pastor signed his check, and purposefully put a big, fat “zero” for a tip. Then, to make it worse, this pastor wrote on the check, “I give God 10%, why do you deserve 18%?” Then, to really top it off, this individual signed his check as “Pastor.” What do you think that waitress now thinks of Christians and the Church? She’s making just over two dollars an hour to feed her family and educate her children, and here are Christians making a show of not paying her. Chances of her wanting to be one of us is pretty slim. Sadly, this incident isn’t isolated. In speaking with waiters and waitresses, their least favorite shift is the Sunday lunch crowd because church-goers are the worst tippers. We make a show of thanking God for our meal, and then stiff our servers. I’ve even heard of Christians leaving tracts instead of tips, saying,
