SERMON 488

LENT 11, MARCH 12, 12, 2006

GENESIS 17:1-7, 15-16; PSALM 22:22-30; ROMANS 4:13-25; MARK 8:31-38

SETTING THE MIND ON DIVINE THINGS

Beloved in the Lord, grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and from the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life.

Herman Schultz of Kansas came into some money late in his life. He sold his butcher shop and retired, vowing to take his first vacation in decades. Shultz decided to go to the New Jersey seashore because he had never seen the ocean and because someone had told him that salt water was good for sore feet. After so many years on his feet, it seemed like a good idea.

He arrived at Atlantic City one evening and immediately went down to the ocean to get a bucket of water so that he could soak his feet. As he was filling the bucket a smart aleck came along and said, “You know, there’s a 50-cent charge for that.” Schultz shrugged and handed over a half dollar.

The next morning it was raining and Shultz couldn’t bask on the beach, but he decided to get another bucket of water. He could afford the half-dollar.

This time he reached the beach at low tide and, dumbfounded, exclaimed, “Whowy! What a business they did last night!”

There is so much going on in this world that it is pretty hard to know what is going on everywhere or even what is the normal cycle of life in other places.

And change in just about everything that is familiar is accelerating.

The person who longs for the return of the “good old days” is whistling in the dark. New techniques, new equipment, and new attitudes are replacing the old ways of running organizations as surely as today’s cars replaced the Model T. And the trend continues to accelerate.

Many companies and organizations schedule meetings, seminars, and training programs to help their professional people keep abreast of the latest developments. Alert leaders are planning their programs to make sure they don’t become prematurely obsolete.

Bishop Henry of the Calgary Roman Catholic Diocese spoke at one of our STS pastoral chapter retreats. He talked about the extraordinary changes that are occurring in every area of life. He also told us that 14 percent of the population simply cannot tolerate any change whatsoever. So you can imagine the pressure under which some people have to live.

Our lessons for the day seemingly increase that pressure rather than alleviate it. We are told in the Gospel lesson to set our minds on heavenly things. Now we have enough trouble adjusting to all the changes here that are being forced upon us. How then can we adjust our mind to heavenly things, which are so far beyond us and may indeed call us to change and change and change even more?

So as we examine our lessons we shall do so under the theme, SETTING THE MIND ON DIVINE THINGS!

In our Gospel lesson we find Peter opening his mouth and being rebuked. Jesus had told them that his mission was to suffer and be killed and be raised on the third day. That message simply did not fit into Peter’s way of thinking so he took Jesus aside and tried to set him straight. It was he, Peter who had to be straightened out, his way of thinking changed. Jesus even called him Satan because he was standing in the way of the divine plan of God, his mind thinking in human terms and not divine.

So how does one set ones mind on divine or heavenly things and what difference will it make?

To set ones mind on divine things is first and foremost the willingness to trust and obey. You may remember that old gospel song which put it this way, “Trust and obey for there is no other way to be living in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

Our old testament lessons points us to Abraham, the man we call the father of faith. God spoke to him and told him to leave everything behind and follow him. God made some promises to him, assuring him that in leaving everything he had behind, following God’s instructions, he would be enriched in every way, with a land, with a son, with descendants in huge numbers, the father of many nations, and become a blessing to all. Abraham did believe what God said and in believing packed up everything he had and left for the place that God would lead him.

That according to Paul was to set one’s mind on divine things. For in believing what God said and obeying the call, Abraham became a righteous person in God’s eyes. Abraham believed what God told him and he became a child of God through that faith. He believed and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. The sign of his believing and of his faith was his willingness to obey and follow God’s directions regardless of the cost. Abraham had absolutely no idea how this was all going to be put into place but he trusted God to do it as God had promised.

To set one’s mind on divine things is secondly to be willing to wait for the Lord. We live in a world were waiting for something is intolerable. It is now or never. What I want, I want now, now, now, and if you can’t give me what I want, I will go somewhere else and get what I want, now!

When Abraham left his home, at age seventy five, with Sarah his wife about sixty five years old, they had no children. They had been promised a child. They waited and waited and waited. Twenty five years later, still wandering around without a land to call their own, they still had no children.

Over and over again in the Scriptures we find those familiar words, “Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Yeah, wait for the Lord.” It is true that Abraham and Sarah got a little impatient once in a while. But they waited believing that God would do for them what God had promised. They did not weaken in faith even though the signs of old age and impotency and menopause were present. They, according to Paul in Romans, grew stronger in faith being fully convinced that God was able to do what God had promised.

To set one’s mind on divine things is, in the third instance, to take up the way of the cross. Peter told Jesus, when he heard about the cross and the way of the cross, “No dice,” That is not the way things are.

We have been hearing the case against the father who was so obsessed with helping his children become successes that he not only did irreparable damage to himself but was responsible for the death of his own daughter. And every day we hear again of the challenge put forward to young people to become the winner in the new great Canadian idol contest.

We want the best for our children. We want the best for ourselves. But the best never lies in setting our minds on human things and human glory. The best always lies in the way of the cross, and setting our mind on divine things.

Christ Jesus came among us as a servant. He was prepared to pay the price for the redemption of human kind. That is why he came in the first place.

We who are his followers know that the path to success is quite different than the mind set of the world. The path to success is, in whatever our vocation may be, to be a servant of others. We know we can gain the whole world and have nothing. We know that we can give our lives in service to others, because of Christ, and at the end gain everything in the kingdom that is coming.

To set our minds on divine things is, in the fourth place, to be willing to live in shame without being ashamed. Our Lord Jesus came among us and was forced to live in shame. He bore the disgrace of dying on a cross as a criminal, for only criminals were put to death by crucifixion. He bore the shame of carrying on his person the sins and evil deeds of every human being. We can scarcely carry our own burdens of sin. We are often filled with shame. But our Lord Jesus bore them all. Indeed, as he bore the shame and sin of human kind he was forsaken. He cried out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He was put to shame and crushed for the sins of the world.

When we speak or confess the name of Jesus we can be sure that there will be many who will try and put us to shame. The name of Jesus is despised by many, as are those who bear the name of Jesus. There are more Christians being put to death for the faith today, than ever before, in many parts of the world.

There is a cost to following the Lord Jesus, and the cost is to bear the shame of claiming him as Savior and Lord in the public arena. You have already undoubtedly been mocked or despised by others in your walk of life when you dared to say in public that you were a believer in Jesus Christ.

But to set our mind on divine things is never to be afraid or ashamed of bearing the name of Jesus as Savior and Lord.

The words of Jesus are clear. Those who are not ashamed of him will live with him in glory. On the other hand our Lord Jesus will be ashamed of those who were ashamed of him in this life when he comes in glory.

The good old days are gone and they will never return. We will continue to move into more and more changes in our world. But we are called upon to change more rapidly than any one else in this world and set our mind on the divine things. We are called to trust in what we cannot see, to obey the word of the Lord, to be willing to wait for the Lord even beyond the waiting period of Sarah and Abraham. We are called to take the most difficult path in life there is, to be the servants of all. And we are called to live in shame, without shame confessing Christ Jesus before the world as Lord and Savior.

Herman Schultz was overwhelmed by the amount water he thought had been sold in buckets when he saw the low tide for the first time. The men and women of this world will also be overwhelmed when they see the shame we are willing to bear for Jesus, not recognizing the fulfillment and glory that is to be found in following the King of the Ages, Jesus king most wonderful.

Amen!