October 30, 2011 20th Sunday after Pentecost Year A Matthew 23:1-12 Are you a professional or amateur Christian? The Sports world today There is a lot going on in the sports world today. I don’t want to get in trouble again by sounding to knowledgeable. But I know that the St. Louis Cardinals just on the World Series, the Bears are 4/3, and that the basketball season has not started benefits. We love our sports – sports are a big part of life wherever you go in the world. Young Boys playing soccer and professional soccer team One of the most beautiful pictures that I got in South Africa was a picture of the boys playing soccer on the beach promenade. There were playing in the dark, and many of the boys did not have shoes on, they didn’t have any fancy equipment. All they had was a ball and a desire to play. That seems true of boys everywhere – they don’t need any fancy equipment, as long as they have a ball – they will play their game. And usually it is a very respectful, orderly game. Rev. Trevor Hudson is one of my spiritual leaders. He is a white Methodist pastor from South Africa. I first heard him at the 2007 World Methodist Conference in South Korea. And got a chance to study under him personally as a part of our spiritual retreat for pastors for the last two years. At our last gathering two weeks ago, he talked about the boys of South Africa, who are willing to pick up a game of soccer wherever they can, just as long as they have a ball. He contrasted that to the national soccer team – professionals- those who get paid to play soccer. They are now on strike- because they want more money. Sounds like a familiar story here in America – with the professional basketball players being locked out, and yet there are boys here on the streets who just want to play basketball. Being that Rev. Hudson was talking to a group of clergy – he had a warning for us, not to take our jobs too seriously. Not to become such a professional Christian that you are more concerned about your salary- than you are about serving God. When there are people out there who are serving, just simply for the love of God. Trevor’s talk on being a professional or amateur But I want to talk a little more this morning about what it means to be a professional, and what it means to be an amateur. Because I think that issue goes far beyond the issue of the service of clergy and the service of laity. There are lots of laity who get stuck on being professional Christians. Their whole identity starts to revolve around the titles that they hold the pew that they sit in, the donations that they have made. They start to believe that God owes them for the service that they give, instead of just doing things for the love of service and the love of God. Rev. Hudson’s message to us was to always remain an amateur in your heart. To be in service to God, just for the love of it, and not so much for how God has blessed us. The Occupy Movement Another big story in the news seems to be these Occupy movements. It started out as occupy Wall Street in New York, and then the next thing I know that was an Occupy Chicago, when we were in Maryland – the news talked of Occupy Baltimore. When I was in Nashville – there was an occupy Nashville. And now I hear that St. Paul’s Cathedral in London is shut down because there is an Occupy London. But I have to admit that I have a hard time with that whole concept of only 1% of the world holds all of the wealth and that I am a part of the 99%. One of my colleagues made a comment about how she was a part of the 99% because everything that she had in life she had to earn and had to work hard every day to earn it. But the trouble I had with her statement was that she just got this big promotion – she may have to work hard every day – but she earns over $100,000 a year. She has a PHD – she was a fantastic job, she owns her own home, she has her own business in spite of that, she just picked up and moved to Boston. She may be a part of the 99% but she is blessed pretty well. When we look outside of our American bubble – there are people in the world who don’t have anything. They are starving, they have lost everything, they are worried about their families, and they are living in tents. – And yet they go to church every Sunday and them thank God for what they do have. They love God in spite of the tough times. Who is the professional Christian and who is the amateur who serves out of love for God? Why I don’t need to participate People have asked me if I am going to be a part of the occupy Chicago movement – and at this moment I truly don’t need to be a part of the 99%. Yes I am struggling, just I have debt to pay, yes I understand the injustice that I have suffered in the world – but on the other hand I have a safe house to live in, the heat is on, there is food in the refrigerator, and there is gas in my car. Now if I were to lose any of that I may be tempted to go sleep outside in the cold and take of messing up my record by getting arrested for trespasses. But as far as I am concerned, I am truly blessed – with what God has given me. There are too many people who are much worse off than me, to cry about what I don’t have. Who is the professional and who is the amateur? Jesus and the pharisees It would appear that in our gospel lesson today that Jesus has a message for professional Christians. We know that Jesus has been arguing back and forth with the Pharisees, while he is in Jerusalem. In order to be a Pharisee you had to go through rigorous study for years. We have no record that Jesus ever went through all of that training, and yet he had the nerve to go out into the streets and teach the masses. Who was the professional – and who was the amateur? For awhile Jesus took that questioning, but now he comes down hard on the Pharisees- telling his disciples not to be like them. The three problems that Jesus had with the disciples was that they we overly concerned about titles and their places of honor, they made up stringent rules for others to follow, and they didn’t practice what they were preaching to others. There is a saying which says that if you want to know what is in a person’s heart – don’t watch their mouth – watch their feet. On the other hand Jesus says that they are on the Moses seat – they know what they are talking about. They are right in their teaching. The problem is they don’t live it themselves. Were they being professionals or amateurs? Pharisees are laity Now you have to also know that Pharisees were not clergy. They were intentional lay persons. They took a vow in their everyday lives to uphold the laws of God. There were 613 laws of God – they vowed to live according to all of them – to be an example to others – to help them understand that it was possible to do. That God’s laws ordered your life, and made it better. When Jesus was alive, there were many groups of committed laity groups – the Sadducees, the Herodians, the Essenes. When the temple was destroyed in 70 AD all of these groups died out. But it was the Pharisees who held onto the Torah faith. They remained faithful in their task – to show others that it was possible to hold onto God’s law even in the midst of tough times. Their faith became rabbinical Judaism – that still maintains living out those laws today. At the same time they were developing what it means to be a modern Jew. The disciples were establishing the church. Matthew was writing his gospel – long after Jesus was gone. Matthew is really criticizing church folk The church people did what we church people do best – we look at other people and criticize them and talk about how glad we are that we don’t have to live like that. Matthew’s church loved to hear Jesus talk about the Pharisees. Don’t do what the Pharisees do – they love to sit in honored places in the synagogue, the love to wear big phylacteries, But what happens when we replace Pharisees with church leader, and synagogue with place of worship and phylacteries with our devotional material? A criticism of them becomes a criticism of us. What Matthew was really asking the church was – who was the professional and who was the amateur? Christians become the ones who say the right things, but don’t really live it. The only one worthy of a title is God as Our Lord, the only teacher we have is Jesus Christ, and the only greatness we have is on our desire to serve others. We are to lead through humility We have to lead through humility, generosity, and equality. Not our titles, authority, and expectations. It was the beginning of the school year, and Mr. Jones needed to be there to help the freshman in college move into his dorms. His wife was worried about his working in the hot sun all day. But he told her that was what he needed to do. He helped family after family. And being a black man in the south, the families assumed that he was a part of the custodial staff obligated to help out. When the day was almost over he invited some parents to sit down and rest and have a coke with him. Someone asked if he was helping because he had a child starting school. He responded that in a sense – they all were his children. He was the new president of the university. What does it mean to be a professional Christian? What does it mean to be an amateur? We are both professional and amateur Anthony Munoz – played for the Cincinnati Bengals. He was a 3 time NFL offensive player of the year. Undoubtedly he is a professional athlete. Yet he turned down the chance to do an interview for Playboy magazine. His reason was that it came down to his relationship with God. He had read the bible, he heard to teachings of Jesus, and he was very clear about what God wanted him to do. Who was a professional? And who was an amateur in the word because he loved God? The truth is I think that whether we are clergy or lay – I think God calls us to be both a professional and an amateur. Professional in that Loving God is what we do for a living. We are to uphold the high moral standard of our teacher, Jesus Christ. We are to receive our blessings, and we can claim the title of a child of God. But we must always be amateurs in our hearts – always do it for the love of God. Let us pray….