Sermon for August 20, 2006

WHO IS YOUR ROLE MODEL??

7^th in a series based on the book of Philippians

by

Rev. Dr. Harvey Martz

Scripture: Philippians 3:17-21

¹⁷ Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. ¹⁸ For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. ¹⁹ Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. ²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹ He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.

I thought about the Smothers Brothers this week in looking again at the book of Philippians.

Many of you will not remember the Smothers Brothers comedy routine where little Tommy Smothers makes the accusation against his older brother that “Mom always liked you best.”

I wondered if the several congregations that Paul established in Greece: Thessalonica and Berea and Philippi and others, felt any of that sibling rivalry, if they felt that Paul had played favorites with any of them.

It is obvious in several ways that Paul felt extremely close to this congregation at Philippi. This was the first place that he stopped when he came to Greece. It was in Philippi that he baptized the first person ever to become a Christian in Europe-do you remember who it was? It was a business woman, a merchant who sold a very elegant kind of purple cloth. Her name was Lydia.

He has a special relationship with the congregation in Philippi and in these verses in chapter 3 and 4 he sees them being misled by some false teachers who have come in after he has left and are taking them down the wrong path. He has just urged his dear Philippian friends, “Beware of the dogs! Beware of the evil workers”-probably Jewish Christians who were telling the Philippians that they must become Jews first to be true followers of Christ-this was a heated controversy early on in the time after Jesus.

We might compare it today to church leaders who tell people that their journey of faith must follow a certain absolute prescribed formula or it is not real and authentic. Paul has just told his friends that if anyone wants to boast about how righteous they have been, that he has that prerogative because he followed all the legalistic rules: he was a self righteous Pharisee who was schooled by one of the most respected rabbis, but, as we heard last week, he now regards all of that part of his life as garbage or dung compared to his new life with God in Christ.

He is trying to keep his friends on track, on the right course, trying to help them not be misled, and he is doing that from a distance and from a jail cell which he can’t leave to go and be with them. Perhaps it would feel like sending a kid off to college and then hearing they have gotten in with the wrong group. You are worried about them but you can’t go and be with them right now and provide good counsel so you have to just e mail and write.

Paul solves part of his frustration with his friends getting on the wrong path by saying something that has created controversy over the centuries. If you ask students of the Bible how they feel about Paul, they will often have strongly divided opinions: some will say he hates women and that he is in favor of slavery. In truth, the demeaning references to women and the advice that slaves are to be obedient-those are not in the actual writings of Paul. They are in the letters written in Paul’s name but which are very likely not his own. That includes six of the letters attributed to Paul but which do not have his stamp of vocabulary or style or theology.

Some people, mistakenly thinking those letters are really his, find Paul appalling. Other people find Paul appealing. I find him appealing and very human and very encouraging in how vulnerable he is, particularly in Philippians.

Those who find Paul appalling name one of the verses we heard today and they say, “Look at what an egotistical, puffed up hypocrite he is!”  Which verse do you think they are referring to? It is where he says, “Imitate me! Be like me!” It does sound egocentric until you look at the time and culture he wrote in. Fred Craddock, New Testament scholar and preacher gives some background on the front of your bulletin. He says this was a pedagogical technique very common in teachers and academic leaders in the first century. They had students who wanted to learn, and some could read and others could not, so the teacher began by setting an example of how to live fully and told the students to imitate the teacher. Use me as a role model, they would say.

It is a little scary to do that today but we all have role models we look to and whom we imitate. Let me ask you to reflect in silence for a bit; who are some role models in your life? Who do you admire and want to imitate some values and some behaviors from?

Let me ask you a more sobering question: what if people see you as a role model? What is there that you could say, like Paul, “Here is-I hope-something to imitate in me?”

I was reading some passages from the book on Mr. Rogers that was published by his wife shortly after his death. He tells about a time when he was asked to speak at the White House at a meeting on children and television. In the audience were broadcasters from across the country. During the speech he asked the people there to do something similar to what we just did-to think in silence for a moment about a person who has been influential in your life or someone who is a role model, someone worth imitating. As he was leaving he passed by a military guard all dressed up like a statue in white and gold and the guard told him as he passed-“Thank you, Mr. Rogers.” Fred Rogers stopped and noticed the tears in the guard’s eyes. The young man told Rogers that he had been thinking about an uncle of his who had introduced him to fishing when he was a boy and who had generously given him his first fishing pole. He was remembering that act of generosity and how that had instilled in him a life long appreciation for fishing and how he wanted to imitate that generosity.

You might talk together over lunch about who you have been consciously or subconsciously imitating or using as a role model in your life. I can name some people who were influential for me when I was 20 or 21: they include the young Jewish manager of the department store I worked at during college, one of my history professors during college, and two ministers Judy and I knew during college. They all have been positive role models at an important time in my search for a calling and a vocation.

You might also keep thinking about that second question of what is it in your life that you hope is worth other people imitating. I read a survey result from researcher George Barna who says that most church members in America do not see any tangible evidence in fellow church members that their Sunday morning faith is making any real practical difference in their lives.

The second thing Paul does in this letter will make us a little uncomfortable also. He says of the people who are misleading the folks in Philippi that they are enemies of the cross of Christ-perhaps meaning they do not encourage a life of sacrifice and self giving (that is part of what the cross stands for) and that “their god is the belly”.

It is an unusual statement. Their god is their belly. It means they worship their appetites. If it feels good or tastes good, they do it without any discipline or self control or hesitation. Food and sex and drugs or alcohol or possessions are what they worship. They are hedonists who live only for physical pleasure. Paul was not encouraging a life of complete ascetism or abstinence. He was not saying we should all go to the desert and live on grasshoppers like John the Baptizer did. He is looking around him and is troubled at the worship of pleasure-we see this most clearly in his letter to the Corinthian church, since Corinth was the first century Las Vegas with 1000 temple prostitutes at the temple of Aphrodite in Corinth. They even had a similar slogan: “What happens in Corinth stays in Corinth.”

Here is another instance where Paul’s words are just so contemporary. Pornography addiction in our country is at a high largely because of the internet. American industry loses millions-perhaps billions-because of alcoholism and drug abuse. Here too, we can see some positive role models who can offer examples for us. I was reading this week about Samuel Jackson whose new movie about snakes is just out. He tells in the USA Today interview about his decision 20 years ago to get into treatment for his drug and alcohol abuse and how he redecides every day about staying clean and sober and how important that change of direction has been for him. He is dealing successfully with those demons of addiction.

One of the most prevalent and now becoming very serious addictions in our country is obesity and food abuse. There is an article about this in your bulletin. Physicians are talking about an obesity epidemic where two thirds of us are overweight and one third of us are obese-30 pounds or more above our ideal weight as determined by our physician. That ideal weight varies with body type and genetics but there is great concern from health professionals and from the CDC now about increases in heart disease, diabetes, stroke susceptibility in people who do not see their bodies as sacred temples of God (that is another phrase from Paul) and who are slaves of appetite.

This is a complicated and difficult subject and we all know how hard it is to lose even a few pounds once we have let ourselves put them on-especially as we pass forty and our metabolism slows down.  And there is no magic formula. To become healthier takes self discipline and hard work. And it is not a matter of doing something healthy for a while and then sliding back into bad habits once we reach a certain goal. It involves a life long change in habits and patterns.

We have some very good examples of those changes the past few months in four St Andrew staff members whose permission I have to tell their stories. They have lost in total over 100 pounds in the past several months and they all feel better and are healthier and happier. Those four are Melanie Rowlison, Susan Bell, Mark Zwilling and Mike Ratliff. They have all said they are willing to talk with anyone about how this has been, and several of them have used different programs to help guide nutrition and to create accountability and support. Mike Ratliff summarized how simple and how challenging this is for all of us when someone asked him how he had lost 20 plus pounds; he said he is moving more and eating smarter. That is the key: burn more calories than you take in!! Move more and eat smart. Cut back on sugar which is listed in the book of Leviticus as an abomination to God; chapter 37 of Leviticus. (Not really)

We believe in this need for healthy lifestyle so much here in our church that we have offered every year or so a 10 week class led by a nutritionist, a counselor, and another health professional to help change destructive habits and create healthier habits. And I have been impressed with the serious changes some of those folks have made. It is the same philosophy that makes 12 step groups successful: support and loving accountability. 

Making those changes involves discipline and self control. In the book on Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers tells about how he was just so committed to swimming every day-not so much because he loved swimming, but because he loved the benefits of exercise and movement. He began his daily routine by reading the Bible and then he swam. His wife said about him, “He worked hard at being the best he could be… if I were asked for three words to describe him I think those words would be courage, love and discipline.”

They are good words especially for us United Methodist Christians who inherited from our founding father John Wesley a commitment to self discipline that is even reflected in our denominations book of order named The United Methodist Discipline!

Paul says in another one of his letters how we can stay on the right course in our life in Christ so that our God is not self indulgence and hedonism. He says if we stay connected to the spirit of God and the community of other pilgrims, then here are the results or the fruits that will come forth in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness and self control.

We don’t achieve these on our own. We exhibit them as we stay involved with and connected to a worshipping, praying, studying, serving community of faith. That is why we need each other in this journey together in the community of faith!

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