Is it all about Kings

Rev. Harriette Cross First United Methodist Church of Wilmington April 5, 2020 Philippians 2:5-11 Is this all about Kings? Palm/Passion Sunday Year A Prelude - O Sacred Head Now Wounded Gathering We have gathered here through the internet week after week coming in search of Christ, looking for a deeper faith and a deeper experience of God. I invite you to now close your eyes and to let go of the things that distract and concern you and listen for God. The time is drawing near. Jesus is preparing to enter Jerulasem. How will we greet him? Will we follow him all the way to the cross? The power of Jesus is that he lived what he taught, even when it led to his death. He loved with the abiding awareness of God, radiating the light of God in all he said and did. But that light was too much for the world. There are forces today as there were in ancient Judea that conspire to it out. Where are we in the drama? What are we willing to risk to follow Jesus? A moment of silence As we extinguish this light, we acknowledge the darkness and pain of illness and disease in the world. Put out candle Let us pray. Loving God. There are so many choices before us everyday. Choices offered by our friends, our families, our culture our own past. Some of them encourage the well being of the earth, ourselves and neighbors, others are destructive. Help us to distinguish between them. May we learn from the choices of Jesus and embody compassion, justice and inclusion in all that we do. Amen. Welcome Children’s Sermon Object: Palm branches, one for each child Lesson: Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name. Good morning, boys and girls. Today is a very special day for us. We call it Palm Sunday or the Sunday of the Passion. Later on in our worship service we will hear the story of how Jesus suffered and died on the cross for us. We also remember something else that happened to Jesus not very long before he died on the cross. These palms here will help us tell that story. (Give a palm branch to each child.) Today we are going to pretend that you are the crowds of people who walked along the road with Jesus as he went to Jerusalem. Would you like to do that, boys and girls? (Let them respond.) Good. Jesus decided that he was going to travel to the city of Jerusalem so he could celebrate one of the special Jewish festivals. His disciples went along, too. Do you know what Jesus rode on to get to Jerusalem? (Let them answer.) Yes. He rode on a donkey. As he went along, crowds of people began to gather. They picked up branches, something like the ones you have, and began to wave them. Let's all wave our branches for Jesus, boys and girls. (Let them wave their branches.) Then they also started to shout and sing. This is what they said: "Hosanna to the King!" (Have them all say the phrase.) Very good! That's just what happened to Jesus when he went to Jerusalem. The people got all excited because they thought he was really going to become their king and rule over them. We know that he wasn't going to do that but the people didn't. They just kept shouting, "Hosanna to the King!" Let's wave our branches again, just like the crowd, and remember that Jesus really is our king -- the king of our hearts. And let's shout together: "Hosanna to the King!" (Have them repeat it.) Thank you, boys and girls, for helping me out with today's story. God bless you all. Amen. CSS Publishing Company, WE ARE THE CHURCH, by Wesley T. Runk Stewardship Moment We Don't Have To Do Anything About It, Do We? In his classic novel, "The Robe," Lloyd C. Douglas has a character called Marcellus, who had become enamored of Jesus. He wrote letters to his fiance Diana in Rome. He told her about Jesus' teachings, about his miracles, then about his crucifixion, and then about his resurrection. Finally he informed her that he had decided to become a disciple of Jesus. In her letter of response, Diana said, "What I feared was that it might affect you. It is a beautiful story. Let it remain so. We don't have to do anything about it, do we?" Oh yes, we do, Diana. Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, www.eSermons.com We have to remember to support our church, through giving. Even though we are meeting, you offerings are needed more than ever to continue our ministry. Please send in your offering, give online, automatic withdrawal, mail them in, drop them off at the mailbox. Scripture 5 Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus: 6 Though he was in the form of God, he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit. 7 But he emptied himself by taking the form of a slave and by becoming like human beings. When he found himself in the form of a human, 8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore, God highly honored him and gave him a name above all names, 10 so that at the name of Jesus everyone in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might bow 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible Sermon Paul’s message to the Philippians and to each of us is to put on the same mind that Christ has. The mind of Christ, what exactly does that mean? Does that mean that we should believe like Christ, act like Christ, or treat others like Christ would treat them. Maybe it means that we should smell like Christ. Well you may ask, exactly what did Christ smell like? There is a company that did some research and concluded that Christ would have smelled like apricots, frankincense and myrhh. In other words a little fruity. The company actually developed a perfume called virtue – banking that Christians would love to smell like Jesus Today we are going to talk about virtue, not the perfume but the characteristics of Jesus that Paul talks about – humility, obedience and self renunciation. Jesus was able to consider the needs of others, before his personal needs. And Paul tells us that we should be able to do the same. I love it when Paul says that Jesus was in heaven, equal to God – but he was willing to put all of that aside to come to earth and to be a human being. When Paul says that Jesus poured out himself – he uses the word Greek word Kenosis. Kenosis means to empty out – such as pouring the contents out of a cup so that it can be empty. There are 175 references to something being poured out in the bible. Such as pouring out the wrath of God onto man, pouring out the holy spirit. In this case Paul is encouraging each of us to pour our arrogance, disunity, discord an selfishness – and learn to be humble like Jesus. If you want to live as Jesus lived, you must be willing to look beyond you own needs to the needs of others. This does not mean you loathe yourself. Do you think Jesus loathed himself? Of course not. But, in contrast to most of the rest of humanity he did not live just for himself. He lived and died for you and me. Jack Kelley, a reporter for USA Today once told the story of the ravaging famine in Somalia, East Africa. In a village decimated by starvation, a photographer noticed a little boy suffering from malnutrition. When the photographer handed a grapefruit to the little boy, he was so weak that he couldn’t even handle the grapefruit. A member of the crew cut it in half and gave it to him. He picked it up, looked as if to say thanks, and walked back toward his village. There on the ground was another little boy, the first boy’s younger brother, who appeared to be dead, his eyes completely glazed over. His older brother knelt down, bit off a piece of the grapefruit and chewed it for a moment. He then opened up his younger brother’s mouth, put the chewed piece in, and worked his brother’s jaws up and down. Later, the news crew learned that the older brother had done that same routine for about two weeks until he, himself, finally died of malnutrition. The younger brother survived. (8) Friend, wouldn’t you love to have a brother like that? You do. Our #1 mantra in life should be Jesus is Lord. If Jesus is the Lord of our lives, what does that mean? On Saturdays the custom at the Erickson house in Peoria, IL, is for Ken Erickson’s wife to clean out leftovers from the refrigerator. One Saturday, she gave the one remaining portion of tortellini to their 6 year old son, Jeremy. However, their 8 year old son, Matthew, also wanted some of the tortellini, so bickering ensued. After several unsuccessful attempts to mediate the dispute, Ken decided on a theological approach. Hoping to convince Jeremy to share his portion with Matthew, he said, “Jeremy, what would Jesus do in this situation?” Jeremy, perhaps thinking about the feeding of the 5,000 immediately responded, “Oh, Dad, He would just make more!” (2) Maybe Jeremy’s right. Theologians warn us against trying to speculate too glibly about what Christ would do in any given situation. After studying Jesus’ parables in depth, one scholar said that the only reliable answer to the question, “What would Jesus do?” can be summed up in two words: “Something unexpected.” When Dr. Fred B. Craddock spoke at the ordination service of our Eastern Pennsylvania Conference on June 8, 1991, he ended his magnificent message with this litany that I believe could guide all of us to serve the living God, whether it be in the manner of the Apostle Paul or Timothy. Dr. Craddock shared: LIVE SIMPLY SERVE FAITHFULLY SPEAK THE TRUTH PRAY DAILY LIVE THE GOSPEL LOVE GENEROUSLY LET GOD - BE GOD! Theologian Leonard Sweet talks of the four “rules” by which we live: The Iron rule Do to others before they do to you; The Silver rule Do to others as they do to you; The Golden rule Do to others as you would have them do to you; and, The Titanium rule Do to others as Jesus has done to you. There’s the rule that we should strive for. The last time that I preached a sermon for Palm Sunday was in 2011. Usually use this day to tell the story of the passion of Jesus before his death – might do a version of it for Good Friday – in the interest of time and simplicity chose to tell a sermon. These are certainly challenging times – expect Christ to show up in unexpected ways. The point of the passion story is that gave up divinity, to come to be a human and to die one of the most humiliating deaths around, just so that he could again be lifted up and exalted by God. In the midst of the unexpected, find comfort that God emptied Godself of majesty – to live your life, understand your struggle and to give the message that you are never alone – God loves you. Let us pray. Prayer Communion – the story from Visions of a World Hungry by Thomas G. Pettepierce Music – Great is They Faithfulness Benediction Additional Illustrations A little boy was starting first grade. Still thinking about kindergarten, he went to the teacher after an hour and said, I am ready for my milk. The teacher explained that in the first grade they don’t serve milk. The little fellow sat down, in a few minutes he was back. Teacher, he said, when is recess? The teacher explained that they didn’t do morning recess in the first grade. The disappointed little fellow again sat down. However, at noon he got up and put on his coat, so the teacher asked where he was going. He explained that it was noon and time to go home. No the teacher explained, in the first grade, we stay until 3 oclock. The little boy stared at her for a minute and finally he said, who the heck signed me up for this anyway. (That is how I feel about all of this). Lose Yourself What does a Christ-like mind look like as we live in the world? We can see it clearly in the great saints and martyrs, such as Mother Teresa or Albert Schweitzer. I'm drawn as well to the idea William Placher suggests in his book "Narratives of a Vulnerable God" as he uses an illustration from the world of basketball. Professor Placher writes, "In basketball the players who are always asking, 'How am I doing? Am I getting my share of the shots?' Those are the ones who never reach their full potential. It is the players who lose themselves who find themselves. And it's that kind of self-forgetfulness that makes the best players." And isn't that the case with all of us in whatever we do? I read about one of the fastest growing churches in the world, with branches in 32 countries already. It is called the Winners Church, and according to its leaders, it lives by a motto that comes from America's religious culture. Here's the motto: "Be happy. Be successful. Join the winners." People flock to that kind of church, I guess. But it all depends, doesn't it, on how we define winning? I wonder what kind of church you would have if your motto were "Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant." Or about this one for a motto, "Those who want to save their lives will lose them and those who lose their lives for my sake, will find them." Joanna Adams, A Beautiful Mind Humility Rules One time there was a little Swiss watch that had been made with the finest skill and precision. But, the little watch was dissatisfied with its restricted sphere of influence on a lady’s wrist. The watch envied the lofty position of the great clock on the tower of City Hall. One day the little watch and its owner passed City Hall and the tiny watch exclaimed, “I sure wish I could be way up there. I could serve many people instead of just one.” The watch’s owner looked down and said, “I know someone who has a key to the tower. Little watch, you shall have your opportunity.” The next day the little watch was placed at the very top of tower. At that moment the little watch looked down and said, “Oh my! I am too small for anyone to see me. My elevation has resulted in my annihilation.” When we aspire for lofty places to achieve greatness we lose sight of those we influence who are within our reach. In other words, humility rules! Several years ago there was a newspaper cartoon that showed two fields separated by a fence. Each field was the same size and each had plenty of lush green grass. In each field there was a mule whose head stuck through the wire, eating grass from the pasture on the other side, even though it was hard to reach. In the process the mules’ heads became caught in the fence. They panicked and brayed uncontrollably at being unable to free themselves. The cartoonist wisely described the situation with one word: “Discontent.” Like the mules, when we focus on what we don’t have we become blinded to the blessings that surround us. There is nothing wrong with desiring something, but to think that life is greater in someone else’s pasture may result in our being trapped. We have new life when we live with humility. Later in the gospel of Matthew Jesus said, “The greatest among you must be a servant. But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Matt. 23:11-12) Once again, humility rules. Keith Wagner, Humility Rules Palm Sunday: Historical Background The palm branches and the shouts harked back a century-and-a-half to the triumph of the Maccabees and the overthrow of the brutal Antiochus Epiphanes, the Saddam Hussein of his day. In 167 B.C. Antiochus had precipitated a full-scale revolt when, having already forbidden the practice of Judaism on pain of death, he set up, right smack in the middle of the Jewish temple, an altar to Zeus and sacrificed a pig on it. Hard to imagine a greater slap in the religious face to good Jews. Stinging from this outrage, an old man of priestly stock named Mattathias rounded up his five sons, all the weapons he could find, and a guerrilla war was launched. Old Mattathias soon died, but his son Judas, called Maccabeus (which means "hammer"), kept on and within three years was able to cleanse and to rededicate the desecrated temple. "Mission Accomplished?" Well, it would be a full 20 years more of fighting, after Judas and a successor brother, Jonathan, had died in battle, that a third brother, Simon, took over, and through his diplomacy achieved Judean independence. That would begin a century of Jewish sovereignty. Of course, there was great celebration. "On the twenty-third day of the second month, in the one hundred and seventy-first year, the Jews entered Jerusalem with praise and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel." So says the account in I Maccabees - a story as well known to the crowd in Jerusalem that day as George Washington and the defeat of the British is known to us. David E. Leininger, A World in Turmoil Palm Sunday What is Palm Sunday? Maybe another way to approach that question is to ask another question: what if the gospel story ended with Palm Sunday? Like the disciples, we maybe would like it if the gospel could conclude right here. After all that the disciples had been through, and with their own secret hope that Jesus would be a political success on whose coattails they would ride to prominence, the disciples looked at the Triumphal Entry and thought, "Now this is more like it!" They probably wanted to capture and bottle that festive atmosphere. It was rather like Peter's reaction to Jesus' transfiguration when Moses and Elijah also appeared with Jesus on the mountaintop. Peter piped up and said, "Let's build some tabernacles right here so we can keep this great thing going forever!" So also on Palm Sunday: if they could have hit the pause button on the remote control of life, this would have been a wonderful image to freeze frame. The problem is that there is no salvation for anyone on Palm Sunday. The people cried "Hosanna," which means "Save us!" But given the world we are in, there could be no salvation from that kind of happy parade. That festive atmosphere, though in one sense befitting the true, deep-down royalty of Jesus as God's Son, still all that hoopla just doesn't fit our world. It doesn't address the problems that need solving. And maybe at this time of war and carnage, of terror and multiple threats of violence all around us, maybe we preachers don't need to work very hard to convince anyone of this point. If we look back upon history, we see that human sin has resulted not in one long string of happy parades but rather in a series calamatis, one long and sad parade of calamity and sorrow. Instead of a festive throng, history shows us things like the Trail of Tears on which Native Americans tramped into exile. History shows us boat-loads of black people in chains, taken from their native country and brought to a place called "America," then paraded before potential buyers, not of their services, but of their very lives. History shows us long lines of Jews marching not in some victory parade but shuffling along toward Nazi gas chambers in Auschwitz. History shows us the Killing Fields of Cambodia, the death squads of Rwanda and Sierra Leone. These are the real parades of human history. Carnivals of sorrow, festivals of death. Scott Hoezee, Comments and Observations Palm Sunday – Who Is That? Picture Fifth Avenue in Manhattan--the stretch of road where the Macy's parade is held each Thanksgiving Day. Imagine that one spring day a kind of makeshift parade is being staged along upper Fifth Avenue near Central Park. But this is not the Macy's parade, not by a long shot. This is a relatively small affair: no floats, no tickertape, no giant balloon figures floating down the street. It's just a crowd of people waving some tree branches and throwing their coats into the road. At the center of it all is a modest, average looking fellow astride a donkey's colt which actually is too small for him to ride with any kind of dignity. But the members of the parade entourage are nothing if not jubilantly excited. Especially the kids are making a lot of noise, singing and shouting. The enthusiasm of this little crowd is enough eventually to attract some attention. The people standing on the plushly carpeted steps leading into the Plaza complex swivel their heads. The horses hooked up to Central Park carriages turn a lazy eye toward the parade even as the people in the carriages peer out past the canopy to see what the commotion is all about. Shoppers coming out of Saks Fifth Avenue and the Time Warner Center also start to glance around to discover the source of all the hubbub. And inevitably people begin to ask, "Who is that?" In reply the branch-waving, coat-tossing folks excitedly answer, "Who is this, you ask! Why, it's Joshua Jones, a preacher from North Platte in Nebraska!" "Oh. So it's not Donald Trump? Not Tom Cruise or Katie Couric, not Bill Clinton? Joshua Jones from Nebraska? Oh. That's nice." But then eyes roll, eyebrows rise, and smirks are repressed as the big city folks go back to their big city business. Granted that Jerusalem circa 30 A.D. was not New York City. Granted that maybe Jesus' name on that Sunday long ago was a little bit better known than the Joshua Jones in my analogy. Granted, and yet . . . there is something about Matthew 21 which bears resemblance to this allegorical story. "Who is that?" the Jerusalemites ask in verse 10. In verse 11 comes the reply: "Jesus, the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee." Scott Hoezee, Comments and Observations On My Account In a Peanuts cartoon, Charlie Brown and Linus are standing next to each other, staring at a star-filled sky. "Would you like to see a falling star?" Charlie Brown asks Linus. "Sure..." Linus responds. "Then again, I don't know," he adds, after some thought. "I'd hate to have it fall just on my account." In the book Parables of Peanuts, Robert Short uses this cartoon to make the point that a star did fall on our account. God came down to us as Jesus: like a lamb led to slaughter, He died on our account. What humility. What love and, oh, what he accomplished there. Charles Schultz, Peanuts, quoted by Robert Short What is God Like? Legend has it that during Marco Polo's celebrated trip to Asia, he was taken before the great and fearsome ruler, Genghis Khan. Now what was Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant and adventurer, supposed to do before this mighty pagan conqueror? One false move could cost him his life. He decided to tell the story of Jesus as it is recorded in the gospels. It is said that when Marco Polo related the events of Holy Week, and described Jesus' betrayal, his trial, his scourging and crucifixion, Genghis Khan became more and more agitated, more engrossed in the story, and more tense. When Marco Polo pronounced the words, "Then Jesus bowed his head and yielded up his spirit," Genghis Khan could no longer contain himself. He interrupted, bellowing, "What did the Christian's God do then? Did he send thousands of angels from heaven to smite and destroy those who killed his Son?" What did the Christian's God do then? He watched his beloved Son die, that's what the Christian's God did then. For that was the way Jesus chose to ascend the throne of his kingdom and to establish his Lordship for all time. Not at all the way we would expect God to demonstrate his might and power, but that's the way it was and that is how we know what our God is like. John M. Braaten, The Greatest Wonder of All, CSS Publishing Co. Adapted. No Day like This One – Palm Sunday William Stringfellow, a distinguished lawyer who became a very distinguished theologian and who died much too soon, was a strong critic of the church. He was particularly feisty about Palm Sunday. He used to say that Christians go to church on Palm Sunday because they love a parade. I used to resent Stringfellow’s saying that. But I now conclude that he was partially right. I love Palm Sunday. There is no day quite like this one, is there? If there is a better moment in the life of this church than the children’s processional on Palm Sunday, I can’t think what it might be. They come down the aisle in numbers that astonish us. They fill the chancel and the sanctuary. They disturb the normal sedate dignity of worship. Presbyterians like their religion “decently and in order.” And there is nothing very orderly about several hundred children waving palm branches. (Although, truth be told, it is no small accomplishment of logistics to get them all here and lined up and in and out in a manner that lets us get on with the business of the day.) I confess, however, particularly when I have the unique blessing of meeting my own grandchildren in the parade that I sometimes feel that maybe they are the business of the day, they and the spontaneous joy of him coming into the city. In any event, there is no day quite like it in the life of this congregation. And there is no day quite like it in the church year. Someone noted recently that Palm Sunday has all the elements of a classic drama: great characters — frightened disciples stumbling along behind him, cheering crowds, conspiring politicians — and behind it all the clash of huge civilizations and religions and worldviews. And in the center — in fact towering over it all — the figure of one man, a young man, riding on a donkey, on his way to his own death. John M. Buchanan, No Day like This One Nine Winners Here is an example of a different kind of power: Jesus, a young carpenter, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. His disciples vie for the best seats and he takes a towel and basin to wash their feet. On the cross he meets their evil with a prayer of forgiveness. The one time Methodist Bishop of Mississippi Jack Meadors tells a wonderful story of an incident that occurred during the Special Olympics. Nine children lined up for the 100 yard dash. The gun sounded and the race was off. But only a few yards into the race, one of the children fell and began to cry. For some reason these challenged children did not understand the world's concept of competition and getting ahead and taking advantage when a competitor was down. The other eight children stopped running and came back to their fallen comrade. A young girl with Down's Syndrome kissed him and brushed him off. The children lifted him up together, arm in arm, they ran over the finish line. The audience rose to their feet in applause. There was not one winner, there were nine winners. For a fleeting moment these children showed us what the Kingdom of God is like. They challenged the world's concept that first place is everything. The world says defeating, even destroying, one's competitor is the way to go. The world says that competition and success is an indisputable law. Competition is touted. On Palm Sunday, and then again in the upper room, and then again on the cross, Jesus challenged the world's concept of power. Staff, www.eSermons.com Aw Shucks! A little boy was sick on Palm Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother. His father returned from church holding a palm branch. The little boy was curious and asked, "Why do you have that palm branch, dad?" "You see, when Jesus came into town, everyone waved Palm Branches to honor him, so we got Palm Branches today." The little boy replied, "Aw Shucks! The one Sunday I miss is the Sunday that Jesus shows up!" Traditional Humor Acceptance and Awareness on Palm Sunday Father Henri Nouwen found a sculpture of Jesus on a donkey in the Augustiner Museum in Frieburg. He calls it one of the most moving Christ figures he knows. The fourteenth-century sculpture originally came from a small town close to Breisach on the Rhine. It was made to be pulled on a cart for the Palm Sunday procession. Nouwen found himself drawn to this sculpture. He sent postcards of it to his friends and keeps one in his prayer book. Looking at the face of Jesus he reflects, "There is melancholy, but also peaceful acceptance. There is insight into the fickleness of the human heart, but also immense compassion. There is a deep awareness of the unspeakable pain to be suffered, but also a strong determination to do God’s will. Above all, there is love, an endless, deep and far-reaching love born from an unbreakable intimacy with God and reaching out to all people, wherever they are, were, or will be. There is nothing that he does not fully know. There is nobody whom he does not fully love." King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com We Are Responsible for a Dead Church Some years ago, a new pastor was called to a spiritually dead church in a small Oklahoma town. The pastor spent the first week calling on as many members as possible, inviting them to the first Sunday service. But the effort failed. In spite of many calls, not a single member showed up for worship! So the pastor placed a notice in the local paper stating that since the church was dead, the pastor was going to give it a decent, Christian burial. The funeral for the church would be held at 2 p.m. on the following Sunday. Morbidly curious, the whole town turned out for the "funeral." In front of the pulpit, there was a large casket, smothered in flowers. After the eulogy was given, the pastor invited the congregation to come forward and pay their respects to the dead church. The long line of mourners filed by. Each one peered curiously into the open casket, and then quickly turned away with a guilty, sheepish look. For inside the casket, tilted at just the right angle was a large mirror. Each one saw his own reflection in the mirror as perhaps never before! That is still what happens when human beings allow the living Christ to confront them in their sinful brokenness. This special day calls us to make a choice to receive God's Christ, and to let our lives be made whole again by the power of God. As you begin this Holy Week, can you truly say in your heart, "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!" The choice is up to you! Robert A. Beringer, Turning Points, CSS Publishing Company. If you do this you will have the Master''s spirit and the Master''s brush, and you can paint a beautiful tapestry of life--to the honor and glory of God. Have you ever wanted to smell like Jesus? I doubt that any of us have ever given that question much thought, but there is a perfume maker in California where else? that promises exactly that. The makers of a perfume called “Virtue” claim if you wear their perfume, you will smell exactly like Jesus. I’m not making this up. Using the Bible as a guide to what kind of plants were used as perfumes in the Holy Land when Jesus walked the Earth, scientists at a perfume company called IBI claim that Virtue is a close approximation of what Christ and his followers would have smelled like. It’s a sweet blend consisting mostly of apricot, with a dash of frankincense and myrrh, which, of course, were given to the baby Jesus by the three wise men. (1) So there you have it. You, too, can smell like Jesus. Obviously that is absurd, but it does lead us to a much more profound thought by writer Max Lucado. At the beginning of his book, Just Like Jesus, Lucado makes this statement which I believe is quite important: “God loves you just the way you are,” writes Lucado, “but he refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus.” Now there is a statement you can take home with you. Let me say it again: “God loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus.” This does not mean living your life as a doormat. It simply means valuing the welfare of others at least as much as you value your own life. I believe that is the definition of courage. I believe that is what it means to be a hero. I believe that is what it means to have the mindset of Christ Jesus who “made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” What would Jesus do? He would do what was good for everyone concerned, not just himself. Go and do likewise.