"The Lord Among Us" | Rev. Stephanie Boaz preaching | 09.27.26

"The Lord Among Us" | Rev. Stephanie Boaz preaching | 09.27.26

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Is the Lord among us? That's the question that ends our first lesson from Exodus this morning. And it was the question on the hearts and the minds of the Israelites as they were quarreling and arguing with Moses, complaining about needing water. Now it's important to remember, as Exodus reminded us, reminds us, is that the people were slaves in Egypt for generations, and they were finally set free. And it's so wonderful to imagine the celebrating that took place on the far side of the sea after they had come through the water with walls of water up alongside of them, passing through on dry ground and not even becoming wet. And once they were on the other side of the sea and safe, well, they began to look to one another in celebration. And before long, Miriam begins to sing and to dance. And the music begins to move through the people, such a huge gathering of people. And pretty soon there are those who are reaching into their bundles, all that they have packed, and they are pulling out instruments and they are singing and dancing and playing together, worshiping the one who has set them free. The people are so close together on that day, and they draw close together to God. It's a beautiful picture. Of course, the story that we read in our passage today, and that Sophie spoke about with the children, is only one of the times that the Israelites were thirsty and feeling like God had forsaken them. Actually, it was the third time, two times before, they had been someplace where the water was either undrinkable or there was no water. And God was faithful, giving them water. And it's easy to think they should have remembered that God was so faithful so many times before. But I think we get it. We are fine. We're fine when we have what we need. But as soon as we are without or we're afraid of losing what we have or what we need, then the questions come. Questions like, is the Lord among us? Such a common human experience. And Jesus came into our human experience. He came to be among us. Our second lesson today is from Philippians chapter two, verses one through thirteen. Hear the word of God. Our ears are open. If then there is any comfort in Christ, any consolation from love, any partnership in the spirit, any tender affection and sympathy, make my joy complete, be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interest, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him even more highly and gave him the name that is above every other name, so that at the name given to Jesus, every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work on your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for God's good pleasure. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Humility. Now I think it's fair to say that culturally this is not one of our favorite words. We can appreciate those who are humble, but in our culture we seem to be more concerned with being first and most and best. Why do I need to be humble? There are others who need to humble themselves more than I do. Humility? Weakness is more like it. There are so many waiting to take advantage. Nobody wants to be the sucker who lets others make a way for themselves at their own expense. It can feel like that these days. We can feel like that these days. But Paul reminds the Philippians, reminds us that Jesus emptied himself. He humbled himself to come among us. And his humility went all the way to death on a cross. Now this week I found a story called Mountain Goat Grace. It's a story about two mountain goats that lived near the top of a rocky mountain. Around one end of the mountain was a narrow ledge. It was only a foot wide, maybe less. But fortunately, mountain goats can navigate narrow ledges. One goat started walking around the ledge from one side, and then the other goat began walking around the ledge from the other side. They met each other halfway, face to face. Because the ledge was so narrow, they couldn't get past each other. They just stood there, staring at each other, nose to nose. What were they gonna do? And then all of a sudden, one goat knelt down, first with his front legs and then the back. And it became clear to the other goat that he was being invited to go over the top of that one goat and continue on his way. And after the goat had done this, the other goat that had knelt down got up and continued on his way as well. And clearly the message of the story was even though it's not a very popular idea, following Jesus involves humility. Now this is a sweet story. And I began to wonder if mountain goats really handle themselves this way. So I went to Google and I searched mountain goat behavior when meeting on a narrow path. And you know what I found? Nothing to suggest that this is common mountain goat etiquette or behavior. What's more, the sweet story is actually a rewriting of one of Aesop's fables. The fable tells about two mountain goats who met on either side of a branch that had fallen across a divide between two mountain trails on either side, and it was deep below that divide. Both goats stood at the branch bridge intending to cross to the other side. Now that branch was only large enough for one goat. Maybe the goats knew this, or maybe they didn't. Whatever the case, both goats stepped on the branch from their respective sides and began to cross. Inevitably, so it seems, they met in the middle. They could not walk past each other. One of them was going to have to back up to let the other through if they were going to pass safely, but neither budged. And in their unyielding stalemate, they ended up both plunging into the chasm below. Thank you, Aesop. The moral was it's better to yield than to come to misfortune through stubbornness. Now those are two very different stories. And I don't know if the sweet one was written by AI trying to tug at our heartstrings, mission accomplished, or if the story was simply reimagined by someone who wanted a lovely sermon illustration. But I felt duped. I know enough to not trust just any old thing that I read these days. Everything needs to be verified. And once I had read both stories, well, the fable was sadly the one that felt more realistic. At least it feels more like our human experience too much of the time. Which brings us back to the significance of Paul's letter to the Philippians. He wants to remind them of the humility of Christ that closed the gap between God and God's people. Paul loved the church in Philippi. They were a precious communion of people he had never actually planned to meet. Rather, on the way to somewhere else, God guided Paul to the Philippians. In Philippi, he met a diversity of people who came to believe in Jesus. And Acts chapter 16 gives an account of these first people in Philippi to come to believe what Paul was preaching about Jesus. There was Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a successful businesswoman who made a living for her whole family. And when she had heard what Paul and his people were preaching, she believed. She was being used by her owners to make money as she would tell the fortunes of people who came through town. And this young slave girl had followed Paul and his people around all day, shouting that they were servants of the most high God who had come to proclaim salvation. All day long she followed Paul and his people. And finally, out of annoyance, it says, Paul cast the spirit out in Jesus' name. Well, this got Paul sent to jail because the owners were pretty upset about this. But that slave girl, she had heard the message, and she had been set free, and she was changed forever. And then there's a jailer who thought he lost all his prisoners. Paul and Silas had been praying and praising God while the other prisoners listened to them. And then there was suddenly an earthquake that broke the jail wide open. The jailer thought for certain that all of the prisoners had escaped, and that meant that he would face terrible consequences, maybe even death. But not a one of them had moved. The jailer was so overwhelmed by all the prisoners staying put that it led him to believe what Paul and Silas had been proclaiming. And so he and his whole household were baptized. A businesswoman, a slave girl, a jailer, maybe even all those other prisoners, all heard the message Paul brought. And this is the story Acts tells us about the very beginning of the church in Philippi. And that fellowship grew. And in its growing and being, conflict had arisen. Of course, with any group of people, there will be disagreements. Sometimes those disagreements can get heated, and inevitably people start to take sides or just steer clear of the whole thing. Either way, it becomes a problem by creating divisions, especially for people who have been called together for the same purpose, which is why Paul writes them a letter reminding them of their purpose and of the one who has called them together. The message that Paul shares points the people right back to Jesus. Paul reminds them of the one who is worthy of their praise, the one to whom it is always safe to bow. And Paul reminds them through worship. You see, verses 5 through 11 in chapter 2 of Philippians, well, those are often referred to as the Christ hymn. It seems that these words were a song that followers of Christ sang together when they gathered for worship. When reading the letter, presumably out loud to the whole fellowship, the people's hearts would have begun to turn so quickly to worship. The words were familiar, the words pointed to Christ, and those words had brought them together so many times before. So in addressing the division between them, Paul chose to call them to worship, and then he urged them to put on the mind of Christ. Now let's be clear. Paul was not calling the people to agree with each other about everything, which is good because I think we all know from our personal experience that this is not easy for people. I'm not even completely sure that it's possible. I know that with God all things are possible, but with humans agreeing on everything, I'm not so sure. But Paul, Paul wasn't calling people to agree about everything. He was calling the people to put on the mind of Christ, to see things from Christ's perspective. He says, remember what you know about Jesus, how he loved, how he taught, how he sacrificed, and how he changed the world forever by closing that gap between God and God's people. And then Paul says, worship. Worship will help you to praise God. Worship will help you turn your attention to Christ. Now, of course, Paul knew this was not easy for the Philippians. But when we look to Christ, it becomes possible to see to see things, to see things differently. And when we do, we can begin to see ourselves differently. We can begin to treat each other differently, and in so doing, change the way we live in our day-to-day lives. Now I read another story this week, and I want to let you know I verified that it seems to be exactly true. It was by another preacher, so I looked extra careful. But this pastor had been to a conference at a particular church over the course of two days. And when he was filing into the parking lot of the church, there for the conference, as he parked, he noticed that there was the word love hung up on a light post right there where he was parking. And then as he walked into the building through another section of the parking lot, he looked up and saw the word faithfulness up on one of the light posts. And then the next day, when he pulled into a different lot at that same church, he saw patience up on a sign up on the light post. And all of a sudden he realized these were like numbers in a mall parking lot. These words were up there to help people remember where it was that they parked. If you're like me, well, I don't know how much you all hang out at hospitals, but I do hang out at hospitals a lot. So on my cam on my phone's camera, there are a lot of pictures of D1 or H3, as I'm trying to remember where I parked my car at the various hospitals. So people could get out of their cars at this conference, look up, and know I parked in the love parking lot or the faithfulness parking lot or the patience parking lot. But this pastor went on to say that no doubt these signs served another purpose. Because after each session, people were in a hurry to get home. They would rush to their cars, even sometimes cutting others off to get out of that lot. Patients could begin to wear thin, and tempers could begin to flare. But those signs were there, hanging high above, but in plain sight as a reminder. The reminder is so necessary because it's amazing how quickly the love we have for our brothers and sisters in Christ can disappear, even just in a parking lot. Not to mention when we're going through our daily lives and something difficult or just annoying begins to happen. The testing of our faith, the testing of our patience and love and faithfulness may come through heavy burdens, but it's just as likely that those tests will show up at a checkout line or on an expressway in our churches together, not to mention in a parking lot. We need to be reminded of the mind of Christ. We may not always get things right as human beings, but when we look to Christ especially together, something changes in who we are. Because Jesus already changed the world. So this is probably a good time to call your attention to the art on the front of the bulletin. Some of you might think that this little fellow looks a lot like Donovan. And I can understand the comparison, but that was truly accidental. Somehow this week, this art caught my attention because I think sometimes we can get annoyed when we feel like the work that we're called to do is too hard. And this guy wonders, why do I have to change the world? And the important answer is you don't. We don't. Jesus has already changed the world and is changing it more and more every day. Friends, our invitation is to look to him, to follow him, and to show forth that change in ourselves, but also among us. We come together here weekly for worship. This is such an important time for us to focus in together on Christ. And when you look in that bulletin, you can see so many ways that so far we've come up with to help us focus on the mind of Christ together throughout the rest of the week. This is our calling as the people of God. This is something that we can do together and not alone because the Lord is among us. And the hope is that every time we leave this place, that there are those out there who see us and recognize that we're just not a bunch of people that have gotten into the habit of coming together regularly. No, we are people who know the Lord and that He is among us when we are here, but also when we leave this place. Amen.