IN CHRIST ALONE!: FROM OUR BRETHREN... A CHRISTIAN DENOMINATION THAT IS IN UNION WITH US IN OPPOSING THE FALLACIES OF THE RH/RP BILL: “Excellence via Submission"

“Excellence via Submission"

October 21, 2012

The 21st Sunday of Ordinary Tine

A.K.A.

Kingdomtide

and

Time of the Church

Isaiah 53: 4 – 12/Psalm 91: 9 – 16/Hebrews 4: 12 – 16/Mark 10: 35 - 45

His Eminence

The Most Reverend Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines D.D.

Archbishop of Manila

and

Primate

of the

National Church in the Philippines

and

the Territorial Church of Asia

International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church

We live in a generation and age wherein we are taught to be self-motivated, self-protective and selfish. This is the society we live in. Each person feels that they have rights and everyone should respect their rights. Like in our Congress, we have party-lists people who don’t feel that they get enough attention by their representatives so they have to have special attention. We have groups who feel that they are so special that they want special laws just to protect them.

Many times, parents think only of themselves. Their employment, their jobs become more important than their families. Children ignore their parents thinking they know better than their parents do because they are old and old-fashioned. They have no respect for their parents.

People don’t respect the Church as they used to. In some cases, they think they can come to Church in shorts and T-shirts without reverence and respect for the Altar and the gift that God has given to us in Christ. Individuals no longer want responsibility. They want the pleasures of life but they don’t want to pay the price for it. They want laws passed so that just in case women would get pregnant in enjoying themselves, they can kill the child and murder.

We are self-centered. We don’t want to take responsibility for our actions. We think that everyone should respect us, but we respect no one. We have come to a place in society where communication is based on what I want. It is not based on truth, on what action is happening, but how I want to interpret it and how I want to bring it out. News media does not tell us the truth. They tells us what they think is happening. It is a society that has become very, very self-centered in almost every aspect of our existence. Totally contrary to what we have seen, shown, and commanded to live by Scriptures.

Christ Himself, the great example to us, shows us a self-less life. A life that was willing to give of Himself for others to make certain that others were taken care of – even in their weakness, even in their rebellion, and even in their own selfishness. He made certain that He carried their failures and their weakness.

God’s love goes beyond our stubbornness and self-centeredness. So loving was God that He sent His only Son to give up Himself as far as His relationship with the Father was concerned in closeness. To become flesh so that He could become what we were and pay the price so that we would not suffer from our own rebellion, our own rejection of God, and our own sin. What love, what compassion!

In our society today, we ignore this great gift that God has given to us – forgiveness. How that He has taken away the sin and the iniquity and the marks of it and given to us new life, new potential, and new ability. He has given to us the power to rise up, to conquer and to overcome. He strengthened us to a point where that the evil cannot overcome us but we overcome the evil. Christ has brought sin to a place where it does not have that effect upon us anymore. It has no power to control us. He disarmed the forces of evil, brought the power of the devil to nothing; and yet in our own lives, we blame the enemy for all that goes on, when in reality it is our choice. It is what we have chosen to do.

This choice God gave to us because He trusted us. He wanted us to be like Him. He desired us to rise up in strength and power. He desired us to rise up and to demonstrate the excellence of the life that He has given to us. He has poured in all that He has to make us like Him, to cause us to be in His image and likeness with His potentials and abilities. We are not God, but we are like Him.

Such an awesome gift that He has provided. But it wasn’t enough that He gave all of this to us because we still allowed our own thoughts to be prominent. We still decide what we want to do rather than listening to Him. Submission is not something that we easily follow. We do what we want regardless what others be affected by what we do. We don’t realize that others watch us and others read from our lives who we are and what we are.

The Old Testament reading shows an example of submission. God Himself gave His Son to set us free and to deliver us. Every Sunday, in the Eucharist, I read this portion of Scriptures. I wonder how many of us really have listened to what it says to us, what it proclaims to us. It says, “He who knew no sin became sin in our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God.” What a gift! What a provision that He has given to us! Yet in our lives, we go on living as though sin was controlling us, as though the problems was bigger than what the gift God has given to us is.

Isaiah 52:13-14 says, “Behold, My servant will prosper. He will be high and lifted up, and greatly exalted. Just as many were astonished at you, My people, So His appearance was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.” This, He did in our behalf. This is God. Look at how He suffered. Look at the pain that He went through for us.

Isaiah 53:4, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried.” Why do we keep carrying these things? Why do we allow these things to keep pulling us down and causing anxiety in our lives? We blamed Him. We thought He was stricken because He made some mistakes. We thought He was smitten of God and afflicted. We thought God was angry at Him. We blamed God for what took place when in reality, He was doing this for you and for me. He was royal; He was the Son of God. His blood was Godly and yet He gave Himself to redeem us. In our sin, in our rejection and rebellion, He gave Himself for us.

“He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.” It was not His, but ours. “He was chastened for our well-being. His scourging He took so that we could be healed. He was oppressed, He was afflicted, but He did not open His mouth.” What an example for us today! We murmur and complain about anything that would offend us to the slightest degree. We throw up our hands and give up because someone says something that offends us, because someone does something against us. Because we don’t like the situation around us, so we give it up.

Christ did not open His mouth. He was silent in all the oppression that came upon Him. He was simply submitting to the will of His Father so that we could be set free. What an awesome witness given to us! This was our Lord, the Master, the King. He was royalty, divine and yet, He gave His all that we could be free. He did not murmur and complain in the midst of it.

It is amazing how that we do wrong and we fail; and when someone corrects us, we get angry. We get upset because they offended us. Maybe their offense to us was out of love and compassion. Maybe they were only reminding us that we needed to correct our life. How proud we are and how arrogant we are to reject the correction that comes. How bitter we become and we react because we think we have been offended. Not realizing that sometimes our actions are offensive to others because we have failed when they thought that we were trustworthy and respectable.

Christ went through all of this suffering, but God said, “I will allot Him a portion with the great.” This is because Christ submitted to the plan of the Father, because He took the sadness, the sorrow, the sin, the brokenness of others that they may be set free. How easily we turn against those who offend us. How easily we put them down and degrade them. We speak against them, gossip about them rather than being silent and perhaps bearing the difficulties ourselves rather than putting it on someone else.

Hebrews tells us that God knows the intention of the heart. Nothing is hidden from Him. He knows our weaknesses and He know those things that tempt us. He knows and understands, yet His compassion, His mercy, and His grace He still pours out for us. In the midst of all that we have done, He still sent His Son to redeem us, to give His life, to be put to shame, to be humiliated in order that we may be set free and we may rise up. What a witness He gives to us in our lives today.

We are so affected by petty little things and it causes us to get upset. Not realizing that in reality, nothing can affect us unless we allow it. We are greater than all these things because God is with us. For some reason, we ignore what God has given to us and we then turn away and run and hide in weakness. When we run from the problem, we are weak. When we run from the problem and we hide from these things, it shows us that we are not really what God made us to be because Christ shows us the strength. He went through the humiliations – falsely charged, beaten, struck in the face, hair pulled. All of these things were done to Him. He was nailed to the cross – the lowest death at that time. He would have to go through all of these for us. Yet, you hear Him hanging on the cross saying, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Such humiliation; such submission to the plan – the work, the responsibility. Not blaming others, not putting others down, but asking for their forgiveness. “Father, forgive them.” Do we see the same in our lives today? Do we understand and do we grasp that which God has given to us as a blessing? Do we see, do we thank Him, and do we lift our voices in praise to Him for His mercy and His grace?

This is why we gather. This is why we come to the Altar in thanksgiving. Thanking Him for taking all the weakness of man. Taking all of the sin and the rebellion in our place and giving us what He was. Giving us a new life; giving us ability and strength; sending to us the Holy Spirit to make certain that we could stand firm and strong in the midst of tests and trials. God never promised that He would take away the problems, but He did promised that He would give us the strength to conquer those problems, to overcome them, because this is strength! When we can face the issues and not run from them; when we can face the conflict and not be intimidated with them. When we can face the pain and we can smile and say, “God forgive.”

In the gospel today, we see Christ at work. James and John, as they were on the road walking, were talking among themselves. Christ came perhaps separating Himself for a moment from the crowd. They thought, “This is our opportunity. Let us go talk to Him.” They approached Him in what may be considered as privacy. They realized that they were special and He had great favor for them.

John was the one who said that he would lie with his head on the Christ’s breast. He was one who knew Christ intimately, closely. James, his brother, was much also like that but not as close as John. They knew they were special; they felt they were privileged so they came to Jesus and they said to Him, “Teacher, we want You to do something for us. We want You to do whatever we ask You.” See this statement: we want You do to do whatever we ask You.

This was the Master. This was the Messiah. This was the Son of God and they would come and they would say to Him, “We want You to do this for us.” How arrogant they are! How proud they have been! But how many times do we do this same thing to God in our prayer. “God, I want You to do this.” “God, I want You to help me go through this traffic.” “God, find me a parking place now.” “God, I didn’t have time this morning and I am late. There are too many things that I needed to do so I am late. Please, get everybody out of my way so that I won’t be late.” How many times do we ask God, “God, would you heal so and so?”

Many times we demand much of God in the same manner that the two brothers did to Christ. Have we stopped and listen to our prayers? Have we stopped and listen to the words we speak when we ask God or more likely demand of Him to do something special for us? How arrogant we have become. No longer submissive; no longer respectful; but as though He was our servant and treat Him like the disciples did, “We want You to do whatever we ask of You.”

Notice the response of Jesus. He did not become offended. He did not react and He did not put them down or rebuked them. He said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” See the humility.

Very definitely, the disciples were out of line, but the response of Christ was humble, respectful. He asked, “What do you want Me to do?” They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit at Your right hand, one on the right, one of the left when You enter in Your kingdom.” Jesus responded, “You don’t know what you are asking for.”

It is true, they did not know. They were thinking that His kingdom was going to be set up in Jerusalem, but it was going to be on the earth. They were thinking that they were more important than the others and they wanted the others to see how important they were. They were seeking glory, not seeking Christ. They were not submitting to Him. They wanted to be glorified. They want the other people to look up to them. They wanted the other people to respect them.

Christ said to them, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized of the baptism that I am baptized with?” They responded, “Oh yes, we are able.” They did not even know what He was talking about. They had no understanding that the cup that He was talking about was Calvary, the Cross. It was His sacrifice that He was going to become being the Lamb of God. The Lamb had to be slain in order for the forgiveness to be given. Were they willing to take upon themselves the sin of the whole world? They did not know what they were talking about. They did not understand what He was here for. They did not see Him truly as the Messiah.

The baptism that He was going to be baptized with a baptism of fire, the mockery, the humiliation, the beatings – all of these He was going to be identified with into death. Where they willing and able to handle such? They did not know what they were talking about. Jesus said, “You don’t realize that it is the Gentiles who want to be the rulers. They want to be the ones to give all the commands. They want to be the ones that are served, but in the kingdom of God, he who is great is the one who will be the servant. He is the one who doesn’t demand His own way. He is the one who, even when offended by words spoken or actions taken, still stands firm and completes his assignment and his task. He doesn’t run.

This is the one who is great. This is the one who will receive the glory because they have not demanded for themselves. They have not easily been offended because they have not demanded for themselves. They have not easily been offended by words spoken. He said, “For even the Son of Man has come not to be served, but to serve.”

In this one verse, Christ is speaking of the whole plan of God. How that God sent His Son to serve man. He did not come to condemn. He did not come to judge. He came to deliver. He came to set free. He came to pay the price to set man in deliverance from the wrong that they had committed, from the disobedience and the sin. He said, “He will give His life a ransom for all.” In most of the Bibles, when it says, “He gave Himself for a ransom,” it says, “For many.” When you go back to the Greek and the Hebrew, it actually says, “For all.” Christ gave His life for all.

Here is the humility. Here is the submission – a submission that is not based upon pleasantries. It is not based upon things being easy. It is based upon commitment, loyalty. It is based upon love. Christ did not come to be served, but He came to be a servant to all.

This is a real challenge for us. It is something that most of us, in our life today, do not find normal. We want things to be our way. When things are not our way, we are either offended or angry. Sometimes, we react and fight back, but the life that God has given to us is a life that is greater than anything that can come against us. Scriptures says, “Greater is He who is with us than he who is against us.” Why then would we be offended? Why would we be in fear or in anxiety at the circumstances around us? If God is with us, we are more than conquerors. We are more than overcomers.

This is what God intends us to be. He wants strength to be demonstrated through our lives. He wants us to be a witness of what He has done for us – to stand firm and to stand straight and strong. Even in the midst of the storm, we are unwavering because of God’s greatness in our lives. We are blessed! Jesus said to James and John, “It is not Mine to say to you that you may sit at My right hand or My left hand.” Do we realize what Christ has done for us? In all that He did in His humility and in His submission? Christ took away our sin. He took away our iniquity. He took away death. He took away hell. He took away the grave, but He did something greater than all of these things.

Ephesians 2:6 says, “We have been seated together with Him in heavenly places.” James and John could not get that place, but Christ has given to us the honor and the respect of being seated with Him. Scriptures says in one place, “When you go to a banquet, don’t take the seat at the highest table because the master of the feast may come and ask you to move down because the seats are reserve for someone else. It is much better that you take the seat at the lower table and if the master of the feast comes and says to you, ‘Would you please move up?’, what an honor and a respect in front of the people that he would bring to you this privilege.”

James and John asked to be seated left and right, but we are the ones who got the seats because Christ chose us. What a privilege! What a blessing! What an honor for us today! Yes, I am sure this is a confrontation to us because in our lives today, we have been so trained to be self-centered. We have been trained to do what we want to do, not what we know is right. We make the decisions ourselves today as to what is right and what is wrong. We don’t pay attention to the Scriptures. We don’t pay attention to the moral standards that God has set for us. We think we are greater than God. We have lost humility. We have lost submission. We think we are the elegant, the elite. In reality, we are but that demands of us servanthood – the only ones that would be exalted in the end.

The first shall be last; the last shall be first. May we learn and listen to what God speaks to us today. May we be challenged because so easily we are offended. So easily we find ourselves in circumstances demanding to be given attention. If only we would be secure in Christ. This is the attention we want. All the other things do not matter. Others may have the degrees, the positions, the respect, and the other things, but that which is given by God is by far the most important. It will bring peace to our lives. It will bring security and fulfillment within us. All the other things only demand more and more. We get more and more frustrated because we are never satisfied. We are always attacking something. We are always seeing wrong in something because we have the wrong attitude.

May we come to Him with repentance in our hearts. May we realize all that He has given to us. May we find submission part of our lives. I would add these thoughts on submission. “Christ went to the cross to set us free from sin. Christ went to the cross to forgive us of our rebellion. Christ went to hell to destroy the power of the enemy. He rose again from the dead to bring us new life. He has given to us new life. The most valuable praise that we can give to God today is that we would resubmit to that new life. We would cast off the old and we would put on the new.”

This is the submission that God desires of us. The dying of self and the rising to the new life that God has given to us. This is the challenge that is presented to us today. This is Ordinary Time. We, as God’s people, come to Him for our redemption, for our salvation, and for the new life. May we submit to what He has given to us. May He filleth us with that peace and may we walk in that peace – fulfilled; joyful; and honorable before God. This is His desire for you and I! May we submit to Him and to His ways!