The Greatest Commandment, Matthew 22:34-40

Posted on November 5, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

Sermon:        The Greatest Commandment

Scripture:     Matthew 22:34-40

Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.

Location:      First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, FL            

Date:             October 25, 2020

            Have you ever been intentionally put on the spot in front of a bunch of others? Someone asks you a question to determine if you really know what you’re talking about?

            I just graduated from seminary, I answered my first call to a serve two small churches in north Georgia. In the Presbyterian system, a congregation calls a pastor and then he or she appears before the entire Presbytery of that region and is “examined” by those attending. The examination is to determine your fitness and ability to run a church. It’s an oral test.

            Seated towards the back of the church, I hear my name called out to please come forward. Nervous. Sweating. I’ve heard about these examinations before and some of the stories were not pretty. I share my statement of faith and now the 150 or so pastors and ruling elders get to grill me. A man stands up and goes to the microphone. He is a visiting pastor from Kenya and with a smile, he asks the first question. “Mr. Reesley, explain for us the relationship between Jeremiah’s book of Lamentations and the Cherokee peoples’ Trail of Tears.” He turns and sits down.  What wall did that come from? I looked at all the faces expecting an answer and tried to keep from getting an anxiety attack. It’s at this point God showed up.

            Spirit said, “Wrisley, you have just been asked a question from a man who has had and has witnessed the abuse of his rights and dignity as a black African male. He is asking you a question about a group of indigenous Americans who have had their rights, way of life, and land taken by the white man and then forcibly marched a thousand miles to Oklahoma to be resettled.”

            I spoke: The Cherokee nation, like the people of Israel and Judah, were forcibly removed from their homeland and taken as slaves, and were exiled to a foreign land. The book of Lamentations is the Jewish book we might even call, “The Trail of Tears.” I realized it wasn’t a trick question at all; if you think about it a moment, it all fits together nicely.

            Today’s text from Matthew 22:34-40 describes a similar scene. Jesus is still in the Temple and he is being grilled by the religious scholars and leaders of the day. They are doing everything they can to trip Jesus up and get him to say something scandalous in order to arrest him. So they ask him one more tough question hoping to entrap him.  Listen to the Story from Matthew 22:34-40.

Matthew 22:34-40

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” [1]

            In the eyes of the religious leaders and scholars, Jesus’ behavior appeared to them to play loose and easy on the Torah. Jesus associated with the ne’er do wells of the day – you know, those politicians, women of ill repute, shady business leaders, Gentiles; in essence, if you listen to any of the local or national political ads at how a candidate’s opponents are doing all these horrible things, that’s what the religiously serious scholars and leaders thought about Jesus. They believed Jesus was violating the Torah, the Law, when in fact Jesus was attempting to recast the Torah, the Law, in a way that got to the essence, the heart of it.  They all looked and listened to hear what Jesus would say.  Which one of the 630 some-odd Laws in the Torah would Jesus pick?  You see, the Jews believed that all the Law was important and vital.  If you say one Law is more important than another, you risk demeaning all the Law.  They thought they were tricking Jesus; instead, they tossed him a softball.

            Jesus, being the good Jewish boy that he was, recited a prayer every Jewish person would know by heart. This prayer was the first prayer you were supposed to say upon waking and the last words you speak before sleeping.  He quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 which is called the Shema. Our Jewish friends have that little scroll on the doorways of their homes we call “mezuzahs” that have this scripture and prayer placed inside them.

            The first prayer in the morning is what? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. What’s the last prayer before bed? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

            It’s beautiful isn’t it? The first and last prayer of the day, both in our living and sleeping, is to love God with everything that’s within us! We don’t love with some of our heart, some of our soul, or with some of our mind; we are to love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our mind.  We are to love God with the full range of our emotions. We are to love God within the spiritual depths of our being which even reaches beyond our mortal time. We are to love God with every aspect of our intellect, our imagination.

            If we pause and think about it, this is a prayer that sets the bar pretty high! How many of us can say we truly live this prayer out every day and night? What are the first words you and I say in the morning getting out of bed? What are our last words as we turn out the light?  The greatest command of God’s Law is to put God first in every part of our lives.  In our jobs; we put God first. In our marriages and relationships, what are we to do? We put God first. In the way we raise our children, what are we to do? We put God first. The way we treat a server at our favorite restaurant, what are we to do? We put God first.  When we use a check or a credit card for whatever we are buying, what are we to do? We are to put God first. When we make our household budgets, what are we to do? We are to put God first and not just give God the leftover!

            And then Jesus goes adds a twist to the Shema. He couples it with a scripture from Leviticus 19 taken from a list of edicts God shares with Moses about how to treat the poor and down and out in the community. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  When Jesus put these two scriptures together outlining what is now called the Great Commandment, he silenced all the critics.  They had nothing to say.

            Loving God and loving neighbor are two sides of the same coin. You can’t separate love for God with our love for those about us. It’s a Yen/Yang type of thing. We can’t have one without the other. As scholar Dale Bruner remarks, “(Our) purpose of living is the adoration of God and the cherishing of human beings…(we are to) love the God who love you and cherish the person who meets you.”[2]

            Jesus reminds us that upon these two, the entire love and expression of God hangs. Like the capstone of a stone archway, that if removed, the whole arch comes tumbling down, so are these two commandments, if they are yanked away as the capstone of the Law, the all the words of prophets and preachers come tumbling down if they are not obeyed. Jesus words are evangelical because they point us to God alone.  These words are missional in that they turn us outward to share God’s love with others. Or as Bruner reminds us, “This Double-Love command gives humans a direction to face (i.e. towards God) and a way to be (i.e. loving towards others in our midst).”[3]

            Beloved, what if we in the Christian tradition were to adhere to what our Jewish neighbors do and that is to twice a day utter the words of not only the Shema but the words pointing you and me beyond ourselves to the people we pass on the sidewalk?  What if we were to wake up every morning and the first thing out of our mouth is the prayer, “Today, I will love the Lord our God with all my heart, soul, and mind; I will also love those around me as I love myself.”  What if we were to go to bed every night and the last words on our lips are, “As I close my eyes to sleep, I will love the Lord our God with all my heart, soul, and mind; I will also love those around me as I love myself.” 

            All together now, let’s say, “I will love the Lord our God with all my heart, all my soul and with all my mind; I will love my neighbor as myself!” Now let’s go prove it by the way we live! Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.

Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder

First Presbyterian Church

401 SE 15th Avenue

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew. A Commentary. Volume 2: The Churchbook, Matthew 13-28 (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1990), 409, 417.

[3] Ibid., 412.

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What’s in your wallet?, Matthew 22:15-22

Posted on October 20, 2020 by patrick h wrisley 

Sermon:      What's in your wallet?
Scripture:   Matthew 22: 15-22
Preacher:    Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min. 
Location:    First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, FL 
Date:        October 18, 2020

            It’s helpful to realize the context Jesus is in as you hear today’s scripture. Matthew takes two and half chapters to describe for us a singular scene that takes place in the Jerusalem Temple. Beginning at Matthew 21:23 and running through the end of chapter 23, we find Jesus confronting hostile civic and religious authorities while an awed crowd sits back and watches all the drama unfold. The people came to Temple and feast as they always did; who would have expected something exciting would happen “at church”?

Those who have been ensconced in power for so long are feeling threatened by the words, deeds and wisdom this upstart country boy is declaring and displaying. Jesus in his humble, direct way is outlining what soon was to take place in Jerusalem. He is laying the groundwork for reclaiming the Temple for God’s work that will be completed with his upcoming resurrection.

Our Story has four main characters. There is Jesus.  There are the Pharisees, or as Dale Bruner from Whitworth University calls, “the religiously serious” and along with their disciples[i]. Then there is this group of folks known as the Herodians who were the political hacks for Rome. And the final characters are the silent onlookers – people like you and me watching and soaking all this up. We are like a Greek chorus who wants to shout to Jesus, “Watch out! This is a trap!” You see, the Pharisees want Jesus for religious sedition and blasphemy.  The Herodians want Jesus arrested for political sedition because Jesus was a threat to Caesar and Rome. Listen to the Word of the Lord!

Matthew 22:15-22


15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. 16 So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” 21 They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away. [i]

In a perfect example of damning someone with faint praise, the Pharisees begin their conversation with Jesus by appealing to his ego. In their mind, they are softening him up so he will get caught off-guard with a seemingly simple but ever-so-loaded question. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?” Well, it kind of depends on who you were.

The Pharisees only saw one answer: No. This is because the Jews are a sovereign people and their god is not Caesar but is the God Almighty. 

The Herodians only saw one answer: Yes, it is lawful to pay taxes to the Roman government because they were the occupying force at the time that was bringing “justice and safety” to Palestine.

Both of these groups knew full well that whatever Jesus says will upset one of the two groups. It would be like having Jesus stand before you and me today and then ask him, “So, Jesus, are you voting for Trump or Biden?”  Whatever Jesus says, he will deeply upset one side or the other. The reality is, both sides wanted to lock him up.

 Jesus’ answer is brilliant and slams both sides knocking them back on their heels.  With a wink in his eye, he asks them, “Show me the coin you will use for the tax?”  They quickly produce a coin that has a picture of the Emperor on it and it is inscribed to the effect, “The Supreme Holy Divine Caesar.” It’s a great scene! We can imagine Jesus looking over the top of his glasses at the ultra-pious, self-righteous religious leaders who keep reminding Jesus that there is no God but the true God of the Jews;  Jesus, meanwhile, is smiling pointing at the picture of Caesar, a Roman god, on the coin the Pharisees are carrying in their pocket!  The implication Jesus is making is, “Why would righteous Jewish religious leaders like yourselves be carrying these miniature idols that speak of Caesar as God?”  Jesus reveals their hypocrisy at this point. In essence he tells them, “Listen, don’t be all high and mighty about worshipping God when you are acknowledging the cultural Roman god Caesar by using a currency that affirms Caesar’s divinity.” I imagine their faces look like a child whose hands have been caught in the cookie jar!

Jesus’ genius does not end there! He goes on to say, “Give back to the emperor what is the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” The Herodians like his answer because Jesus is acknowledging the role of the State. The Pharisees like his answer because Jesus acknowledges the vital importance that for the Jew, God is the only king or sovereign that matters. The Protestant Reformers like John Calvin and Martin Luther would look at this text as an example of how we cannot confuse the state, the system, the culture’s way with the way of God and the Kingdom of heaven. Yes, we are to live under the laws we have been given but when those laws, those systems conflict with God’s ways, God’s decrees, God’s just system, we have but one choice and that’s that we side with God. Jesus is declaring the State, the culture, has definite boundaries that can, and at times will definitely, encroach upon the boundaries of the Kingdom of Grace. What do we do about it?  Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees and the Herodians is a reminder to all of us to make sure the realm of God takes precedence over all our political, financial and social matters.

So, Church, does it? 

Years ago, Methodist actress Jennifer Garner made popular the credit card commercial jingle, “What’s in your wallet?”  In essence, this is what Jesus is asking the Pharisees, the Herodians, as well as you and me.  “What’s in your wallet?” In other words, Jesus is demanding, “Show me where your ultimate loyalty lies, pilgrim.”  

Beloved, the object of our loyalty determines how we live. This is the essence of what Jesus is trying to teach us. The Pharisees and the Herodians all said the right things, publicly did the right things but their loyalty was devoted to their own sense of power, rank, prestige, and privilege as compared to the person standing next to them.   

So, what’s in your wallet?  What is the object of your loyalty my friends? As a church, as fellow pilgrims and disciples of the Way, it is vital to God to know where our ultimate loyalty lies.  Church, we are all puzzle pieces that come together to form the identity of Jesus in our city. There’s nothing sadder than to see a beautiful puzzle all completed except for one little piece that’s missing. Jesus is saying he wants your life, your heart, to complete the picture of Christ in Fort Lauderdale and beyond. The puzzle, the picture is incomplete without your piece. Your piece, no matter how large or small it is, is needed to make the portrait complete. Beloved, your personal loyalty to God speaks to the larger loyalty of your church, this church!

I want to close today be leaving you with a question you that may seem to be a non sequitur but it’s not. The question is this:  Why is it, friends, so easy for us that without any thought to drop ten dollars down for a very mediocre hamburger for lunch on Las Olas Boulevard and yet find it so painful to drop a dollar in the offering plate for the work of God in the church?  What’s in your wallet? What do the receipts we have tucked in there say about where our ultimate loyalty lies? Is your piece missing from the puzzle?

Let’s pray.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.

Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder

First Presbyterian Church

401 SE 15th Avenue

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

© 2020 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[i] Dale Bruner from Whitworth University calls the Pharisees the “religiously Serious.”

[ii] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Pastoral Prayer for Sunday, October 11, 2020; First Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale

Posted on October 13, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

Almighty and Ancient One, the God who is, was and is yet to come, We gather as your expectant people this Lord’s Day.  Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory and majesty; You are Lord over all that is seen and unseen. It is at your feet way place our prayers and petitions.

Holy Spirit, we pray for our nation. As Israel and Judah forsook their love for You, so too have we and we are reaping the consequences of violence, plots against our leaders, illness, mistrust, distrust, inequitable justice practiced among the people, and spiritual blindness that inhibit us from “seeing” that reality. We are at point when our country needs the mighty velvet Hand of Providence to guide her people in the way we should go together as unified and diverse country. Help each one of us to do our part in toning down vitriolic and degrading rhetoric of others who think different from us, and through your Spirit, let us speak as humble sisters and brothers outdoing one another in showing love to those with whom we disagree.

Jesus, we pray for our leaders in government like our President, the Court, the Senate, and the House. We pray for their health, their ethics, and their commitment to equal justice for all. 

We lift to you our local and civic leaders from our governor to our local mayors and county and city commissions. 

We ask you, dear Father, to hold our women and men in blue in the palm of your heart and keep them and their family safe as they seek to bring our communities safety.

We pray for leaders in business and commerce who shape the livelihoods of so many in our community and affect what our community becomes.

And we pray for our Church leaders – Elders and Deacons all – inspiring these ordinary men and women with holy wisdom to lead your Church in such chaotic, unholy times.

Direct your blessing upon those who are worshipping from their homes and are not able to worship in person with us. Some are ill, some are staying safe, some feel grossly alone, and some are yearning for the contact of their blood or church family.

In your power, O God, remove the glorified cape of violence so many in our world have put on. Prick our spirits and conscience that we would stand up and say enough to drive-by shootings like that of a young 31-year-old father in Lauderhill and to extremists on the left and the right who do not reflect who we are as your people.[1]

Lord, there is so much to pray for. Those suffering from the lack of emotional surge capacity and depression. Those struggling to find work and pay their bills.  Those whose bodies are healing from surgery or illness.  Those whose hearts are shattered with grief because of the death of someone they love.  Oh, Lord, God, you know are hearts…deeply search them even now…

…And now we come and pray the prayer Jesus taught his beloved to pray: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy Name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.  Give us this day, our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory forever. Amen!

[1] See the article on Trabis Ward. Trabis is the nephew of an FPC member and was a father of three. Suspects are still at large. See https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-ne-football-trabis-ward-fatally-shot-20201011-xhsjgbya25djzpimkofvlrxoo4-story.html

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Pressing on…, Philippians 3:4b-14

Posted on October 6, 2020 by patrick h wrisley

Sermon:        Pressing On

Scripture:     Philippians 3:4b-14

Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.

Location:      First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, FL            

Date:             October 4, 2020; World Communion Sunday

            Last week we spent time looking at the need for genuine humility in both our personal lives and in the life of the congregation. Humility is one of those ongoing virtues and ways of living that as soon as you realize you’re humble, you immediately become aware that you’re not! Humility is the perpetual goal we are to strive for but on this side of glory, we will never attain it because pride gets in the way. We realize, “Hey, I’m acting pretty humble!” and then wham! We acknowledge our progress and automatically go back to square one. Hopefully, we come to realize the spiritual life is about our growth and depth along the spiritual journey towards Christ-likeness. It’s about our evolution along the way as we shed our old self and put on the simplicity of Jesus’ life of love. What we once thought was important in our spiritual life changes over time and becomes more, shall I say, simple? Paul speaks of this simplicity today.

            This morning we find Paul having just concluded a discussion about how some members of the church want to keep things like the good old, pure days of the faith where following Jesus was fine as long as you followed Jesus “my particular way.” For these folks, they were pushing the need for all males to be circumcised and follow the old Jewish rules. Paul would have none of this. The spiritual life is not about a pedigree or accomplishments; a spiritual life is finding our single, laser-focused love affair with Jesus and jettisoning anything and everything we have to embrace him. Listen to Paul in our text today from Philippians 3:4-14.

Philippians 3:4-14

4 …Even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.[1]

            Paul has simply stated that even though he grew up in the Mainline tradition and got his undergraduate degree from Harvard and his doctorate of religious studies at Yale, though he has been groomed from the day he was born to be a great spiritual teacher and leader himself, though he belongs to more spiritual societies and academies one could imagine, they are worth nothing and are as helpful as waste in the sewer if he not emptying himself and straining to become full of Christ. For Paul, it’s all about his passion to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and sharing in that rapturous resurrection experience himself.

            In the ancient church, it was a custom that on Easter a person joining the church would strip off their clothes and literally enter into the baptism waters to be cleansed.  They would emerge from the water naked and clean and then were redressed with new garments. This is what Paul is telling you and me. We are to strip away, do away with anything that hinders us from experiencing Christ.

            Beloved, are you stuck in your religious and spiritual past or are you straining to reach what lies ahead?  Are you and I smug enough to think we’ve spiritually arrived or are we humble enough to realize that as Christ’s pilgrims, we are slowly, steadily making our way under the strains of a world gone amuck with subversive politics, increased pride and bigotry, and illness that totally disregards the sanctity of our home address?

            This morning, for the first time since early March, we are gathering to take communion together.  You, this church, our nation, the world has leaned hard into the harness of this year called, 2020, and are straining to power through it and reach something different from what we are experiencing now.  We may not know what “that” is yet but it doesn’t matter. We just know that we will know what it is because it’s not going to be what we’ve currently got! We are living in a liminal time between the already and the not yet and this “pressing on toward the goal” can be a tiring, exhausting and scary thing!

            That’s why we are having supper this morning.  That’s why we are taking communion in ways we normally would not with our little cups with prepackaged wafers or sipping from juice and bread at home while digitally worshipping today. Desperate times call for desperate measures and all of us are feeling the effects of COVID-fatigue in our spiritual lives, family lives, business lives, or school lives. We come because our legs are tired from carrying the burdens we have hauled. We come because we know the only way ahead is to move forward. We come because we need the strength of the Spirit through this simple meal to build new dreams and visions for what’s to come instead of trying to rebuild castles out of yesterday’s sand.

            Ideally, Church, we would be together while sharing this meal. Ideally, I would hold the cup as you humbly come forward and dip your bread into the cup and eat of the meal. Ideally, we would come and serve you at home or at your bedside if you could not be here in person. Yet, these are not ideal times. We are on a difficult journey together. On the journey we learn to travel light. We learn to evolve our understanding of faith, of God, and what’s really important. We learn to jettison the spiritual baggage that weighs us down and return to Jesus’ side sitting at the dinner table.

            Today my friends, let us acknowledge that this year has been hard on so many levels and ways; yet, let’s not walk into the future facing backwards! Let’s turn around and confidently press on toward the goal!  It doesn’t mean things will get any easier; it simply means that with the nourishment from this meal and the Spirit of Jesus Christ, we will see the promises our Christ has waiting to be picked up and enjoyed.  Let us come to the Table.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.

Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder

First Presbyterian Church

401 SE 15th Avenue

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

© 2020 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States.

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Empty Shelves to Empty Selves; Philippians 2:1-11

Posted on September 28, 2020 by patrick h wrisley
Sermon:        Empty Shelves to Empty Selves

Scripture:     Philippians 2:1-11

Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.

Location:      First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, FL

Date:             September 27, 2020

This morning we are picking up right where we left off last week in our reading of Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi. Paul has just implored the Church to live a life worthy of the manner of the Good News of Christ Jesus. We learned that the way we do that is when we live in unity with one another in our faith community. Today, Paul picks up on the key to this living in unity. See if you can hear and discover the key! Listen to the Word of the Lord!

Philippians 2.1-11

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. 9Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.[1]

Did you hear and discover the key to living in unity?

For the last six months, our nation, indeed the world, has gone through the throes of a trying pandemic. The virus has totally changed what “normal” means and all those things we took for granted all these years have become scarce or have changed. I mean really, who would have thought a pandemic would cause grocery shelves to go bare? People began hording everything from toilet paper to Isopropylalcohol to make hand sanitizer! Fights have broken out at COSTCO over the last jumbo pack of paper towels on the shelves!  The empty shelves were not just because of hoarding; they were a result of the virus affecting food supplies and production as well as distribution across the nation. It’s at this point that something began to happen: The emptier the shelves became the grumpier people began to act. 

Soon there began a new display of unhealthy behaviors from certain people in response to being in lock-down and having to adopt new ways of living together like wearing a mask; you know who I am talking about, don’t you?  Karen and Kevin.

What I am sure will become new definitions in our dictionaries for 2021 are the terms “Kevin” and “Karen” which have become memes on the internet and social media that describes a person’s behavior when they act all full of themselves that they do not show regard for other people’s feelings or safety. All the empty shelves and lockdown orders have created a subset of people that act as though they are self-entitled to anything they want or care to do. Emotional filters that are typically used collapse and any sort of mental governor that filters out verbal flatulence or gives pause to acting out with a typically unsocially-accepted behavior are abandoned. 

This season of empty seats and shelves is a warning to us that if we are not careful, we will go quickly into the direction of empty SELVES. In other words, we have experienced financial emptiness from lost work and income. We have experienced a loss in our need for community because we have been isolated from not only everyday routines but physically from those people we love and who give us support. We have experienced spiritual emptiness as our long-held traditions have had to adapt and change, we have been separated from others in worship, choir, and in studies, and in our spiritual fatigue we look heavenward and ask, “Lord…are You still there?” In the process, Our nation has experienced a profound loss of civitas and unity among her people. 

 All this loss thrown at us and the world has caused many folks to come to me and say, “Patrick, are we in time of the Apocalypse?”  My answer is, “I don’t know but I think not; I don’t believe God is done with giving us a chance to work things out.”  I do believe, however, we are in a lower-case ‘a’ apocalypse which are cycles in history that cause major upheavals in politics, economics, civics, technology, medicine, spirituality and the environment; these cyclic little “a” apocalypses force people to look and relate to God, neighbor and the world in a different way.[2]  In these little ‘a’ apocalypses our human tendency is to focus solely on how bad everything is. For Christians, we must resist the temptation to view apocalyptic times as moments where we stop living in a manner worthy of the Gospel because God’s Glory Bus is soon coming to take us to our heavenly home.  No, these whirly, swirly times are the sounding bell for Christ-followers to put on their muck boots and get to work. Christians are made for these apocalyptic moments because we are the ones God calls to who venture out into the world’s storminess and demonstrate to others what it means to live a life worthy of the gospel! Church, it’s up to you and me to show the world there’s a different way!

The Apostle Paul reminds us that in order for the Church (that’s you and me) to show the world a different way is not about making judgmental pronouncements on other people; no, the Apostle tells us in verse 5 that we are to have the same mind in ourselves that Jesus had. Our text’s beautiful hymn says it so profoundly: 

5Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death…

The man Jesus made the decision to empty himself of the rights and privileges of being God in order to be the pioneer showing us how to live with one another in a manner where our lives demonstrate the Good News of the Gospel. Friends, it’s all about humility!

It’s important to be reminded that in his ancient Greco-Roman world, humility was not seen as a virtue but rather as a weakness. Professor Elizabeth Bounds writes concerning the first century, “In societies organized by fixed structures of status, those with power could and should have pride, while those without power had to settle for humility. Paul’s championing of humility, his insistence on “regard[ing] others as better than yourselves” was a countercultural move, echoing Jesus’ words that “the last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matt. 20:16).”[3] Pride was seen as a virtue and humility was perceived more as a matter of life circumstances. So Jesus in Matthew, and Paul in our text today, are saying that in order to show the in-breaking of the reign of God, Christians and the Church are going to be required to live, work and play in cultural dissonance with the rest of the world.[4] And how do we accomplish that? The Church accomplishes this when it and her members live humbly.

Our English word for humble comes from the Latin root word we derive our term humus from which means the dirt and compost on the ground. To be a humble person, we have to empty ourselves of pride, bitterness, and entitlement and literally get down low on the ground. Humbleness leads to our serving each other, serving others in the world, and most importantly, serving God. This is what Jesus did in his life.  It’s what he and Paul are saying is vital for our individual lives and for our fellowshipped-community of the Church.  Humility is the engine that drives love.  Hear that one more time: Humility is the engine that drives love.

Humility is such a counter-cultural idea in our nation today; quite sadly pride has replaced it as a virtue.  So this week, our homework is to look at spiritually emptying ourselves in humility.  The words from 2 Chronicles 7:14 need to haunt us this week, Church. It reads,

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.[5]

Oh, how are nation, our communities, and our churches need to hear that! Remember, beloved, it’s only when we empty ourselves that we can get refilled and full of God. Jesus knew what he was talking about.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.

Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder

401 SE 15th Avenue

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

© 2020 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] This concept is attributed to Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D., former Director for Doctoral Studies at Drew University

[3]Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship (Kindle Locations 10941-10945). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition 

[4] Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship (Kindle Locations 10912-10913). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

[5] New International Version.

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