Sermons for the Month

Seven Habits of Highly Effective Christians
DATE: September 17, 2000
SERVICE: Pentecost XV
TEXT: James 3:1-12

“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN

How many shoes in a shoe store? Hundreds? Thousands? There seems to be something for everyone. Imagine what it would be like if you had the chance to walk for a day in the shoes of one of the other customers at Lucky Shoes across the street. Imagine that you as a happily married homemaker suddenly switched bodies a single parent working two jobs, an executive with the man who picks up your trash at the curb, an American with a Ethiopian spouse. What would your day be like if you as a parent suddenly switched bodies with your teenager.

A number of years ago, a film came out around Christmas called "Trading Places." It stared Dan Akroyd as the snobbish, self-absorbed heir apparent to a prestigious family manufacturing company and Eddie Murphy as a down and out, apathetic bum who had little going for him. As the result of a cruel wager between the owners of the company, Dan Akroyd woke up one morning in a flop house and Eddie Murphy woke up in his place in the penthouse suit. The rest of the film is the comical misadventures of the two having to adjust to their new situations particularly Dan Akroyd's character who gradually gained an appreciation for those "hard-livers" who he had disdained but who had no choice but to deal with life on a day to day basis. Meanwhile Eddie Murphy's character had to relearn the value of hard work and perseverance.

When little children shuffle around in adult shoes, we laugh because they look so out of character. And yet, we might tend to feel the same way if we actually walked in someone else's shoes through their average day. If fact, it was just this sort of experience that forever changed a young Indian prince named of Sidhartha.

Sidhartha was born a prince (c. 563 B.C.; Kapilavastu, India) into the Gautama family of the Shakaya clan. The Shakayas were members of the priestly-warrior class. In fact, Sidhartha's father was the head of the tribe so Sidhartha was destined to rule. He lived a luxurious life and the best education that his father's wealth could provide, but his father also sheltered him from the hardships of life.

He married a woman named Yashodhara and they lived in his father's house. Sidhartha was still protected from the trials of life. Yashodhara bore a son, and Sidhartha believed that he was happy.

Then, during one of his few excursions from the protection of his father's palace, Sidhartha saw three things which opened the harsh realities of life to him. He saw an old man, suffering from the frailties of age. He saw a sick man, suffering from disease. He also saw a dead man, which shocked him greatly. He finally realized that the infirmities of old age, and the pain of sickness and death cause suffering that he had never experienced. This revelation caused him to begin a search for truth that drastically changed his life, and the lives of many around him.

At the age of twenty-nine he left his home, his wife, his son, and his father. He gave up his claim to the succession of his father's throne and left the palace. He studied Yogic meditation with two Brahman hermits and achieved high cognitive states in both trance and meditation, but his desire for absolute truth was not satisfied.

For the next six years, Sidhartha placed his body under severe asceticism, which included extreme fasting and suspension of breathing. These practices almost killed him, but they did not satisfy his search for truth.

He finally ended his acetic lifestyle and began to eat. Sidhartha decided to meditate until the absolute truth would lie clearly in front of him. He meditated under a Bodhi tree where he sat facing east. At the age of thirty-five, on the night of the full moon, Sidhartha reached enlightenment and became an "enlightened one"--a Buddha (c. 528 B.C.) He had at last discovered the truth he had sought, and he immediately shared it with five ascetics who had practiced near with him.

Part of any disciple's job description is to pass on the truth. After a few weeks of rest, he decided to teach the way to enlightenment to others and went to Deer Garden where he held his first sermon, "The turning wheel of Dharma." Sidhartha felt a strong call to missions even though he could never teach the content of enlightenment, only the way of enlightenment. Buddha called his teachings "the middle way" because it was in the middle between asceticism and indulgence.

For the next forty-five years he taught as the Buddha. He after forty-five years of teaching at the age of eighty.

Approximately 500 years later, another teacher was born not of a privileged family but to a simple husband and wife living in a barn at the moment. This "enlightened one" lived from day one among the common folk, experiencing first hand what it meant to live, love, laugh, suffer and then die. His experience too changed the way that he viewed life. This "enlightened one" was, however, God and he wanted to live our life so that through him all might find peace. He gathered twelve men around him and just a few women as well. He taught them and commissioned them to go and baptize others, encouraging new believers with everything he had taught them. And these twelve plus others went on to mentor not just a continent but a world with a message of hope, life and salvation.

No one is born a disciple of Jesus' truth; one can only grow into it. Unfortunately, many disciples never get beyond the baby stage of their relationship with Christ. Once they learn they can turn to God in time of need but they don't get beyond this rudimentary relationship with their heavenly parent. Like many children they turn to Him only when they want something or feel they have been treated unfairly or when they are angry. They pester; they annoy; they beg; they cry until things swing their way. And if they don't, they sulk, get disgusted or even turn away. God for these baby Christians is little more than a source of nourishment for their wants, desires and egos.

Growth in faith happens as we are mentored by others and as we guide and encourage others toward maturity. Christian education-The Explorers' Club, confirmation, our summer's Explorers' Camp, is the more formal way children of God are discipled in their faith. Mentoring relationships especially the LIFE Groups and our Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are a less "institutional" way the building of faith happens as more mature disciples become "Teachers of the Faith" with new believers. Encouragement happens between more seasoned disciples and those growing, between friends at similar points in their journey encouraging each others to growth, between key teachers such as pastors and congregational leaders and students of the faith. In this process of exchange it is not only the learner who grows, but the one who mentors and teaches. Probably the group that grows the most each year in their Faith are our Explorers' Club teachers. Each Sunday morning, they encourage their students with the Good News of Jesus Christ. The maturing disciple also knows she is never finished learning; that the path of maturity continues to the day we change this life for the next. And Jesus knew that His disciples' greatest period of growth would come as they exercised the habit of encouragement with new believers.

"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 love, being in full accord and of one mind." (Philippians 2:1)

Early Christians were like any other family-mealtimes were often the occasion for division and disagreement. In our lesson for this morning James writing to his community said, "My dear friends, with our tongues we speak both praises and curses. We praise our Lord and Father, and we curse people who were created to be like God, and this isn't right. Can clean water and dirty water both flow from the same spring?" Writing to Christians at Rome, the apostle Paul criticized those who were quick to judge the table manners of their fellow Christians. The meat-eaters ridiculed the vegetarians; the non-drinkers put down the drinkers.

To this community of disgruntled diners Paul offered this advice: "Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you." (Romans 15:7) His command carries the weight of "Befriend one another." In the etiquette of the Ancient Near East, the people with whom a person ate were his friends, and his friends were the people with whom he dined. Paul's advice reminded the Christians at Rome of the fellowship they shared in Jesus, who made them not servants, but friends (John 15:15). He appealed to them to make friendship the top priority characterized by benevolence and generosity; literally, wishing the other well.

Luther captured the importance of this habit of encouragement in his explanation of the Eighth Commandment: "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." Luther in his explanations always tried to turn the negative "Thou shalt not" commandment into a positive "thou shalt" commandment. Not only should we not from betraying, slandering or defaming our neighbors-and everyone is our neighbor-but we should "apologize for him, speak well of him, and interpret charitably all that he does." (Sort of the opposite of modern presidential political races.) Luther knew the destructive effects of negative advertising, negative thinking and gossip on the fabric of community. He also knew that we can often inspire people to act better than they might otherwise act. He regarded the practice of encouragement as one way in which the Gospel itself offered advice. Quoting Matthew 18:20 ".where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them," Luther commended the practice of "mutual conversation and consolation of one another." He envisioned a family of friends, called together to listen to the Good News and challenged to be a mouthpiece of that Good News to others in speech, comfort, and friendship.

Luther's community of friends would also encourage each other in the lifelong task of Christian education. Christian education. Luther writes, is teaching what God "wishes us to do or not to do," a "setting forth all that we must expect and receive from God," and a demonstration of "how we are to pray." Martin insisted that every baptized Christian must have a minimal understanding of what God has done, is doing, and is yet to do. The habit of encouragement involves striving together for some understanding of life with God. We teach the faith as a gift offered through Jesus crucified that cannot be achieved on our own.

Some ideas for keeping this habit of encouragement:

1) Invite grandparents to send frequent postcards to support the challenges and accomplishments of their grandchildren;

2) Be kind to the people you meet. Offer a smile, a greeting or gesture as you pass by. Explain to your children that "We love, because God first loved us." (1 John 4:7-8)

3) Nurture unconditional love. Teach your family members to handle inappropriate behavior with a response, "I might not like what you do, but I 'll always love you."

4) Imagine looking at others the way that God does, as people for whom he died;

5) Leave a pair of shoes near your door to remind you to be sensitive to people in need;

6) Each Sunday morning be sure to meet and greet first guests to our worship;

7) Gather two other people and start a LIFE group. Talk to me and I will help in whatever way I can;

8) Go through your children's clothes with them. Package outfits they've outgrown but which are still serviceable and bring them to the church of Good Neighbors;

9) Contact people in your neighborhood who are sick or in the midst of challenge. Deliver a meal to them. Run errands for them or help transport them to doctor appointments;

10) In all we do, think and say, let us keep first in our minds and hearts those who are not yet part of our family of Faith.

May our habit of encouragement keep the welfare of others rather than our own first in our welcome of new believers to our community each morning. This is the first sign of Christian maturity.

Next week we talk of the habit of invitation.

AMEN

---