On Distant Shores

The New Revised Standard Version Paul’s Prayer for the Philippians

3 I thank my God every time I remember you, 4 constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, 5 because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight 10 to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, 11 having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

Weeping In Homewood

When I was a teenager, I was really in to Christian Ska-Core music.

Yes, that’s a real thing!

My favorite band was a band called Five Iron Frenzy.

The music was hard core and screaming a lot of the time.

Sometimes it was crazy goofy.

But sometimes, it was profoundly deep and theological.

In fact, I think I can safely credit Five Iron Frenzy and their singer Reese Roper as one of the biggest shapers of my theology.

Five Iron Frenzy broke up in 2003, and released one last album.

Fast forward to 2014, and I was serving as an intern for a church in the Homewood Neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

Not the greatest neighborhood, but I so cherished my time at House of Manna. I learned a lot doing that internship.

I was driving to work one afternoon, and my shuffle brought up the last song from Five Iron’s last record.

So I cranked up the car stereo, and starting singing along.

This song is so deep and worshipful, that I found myself at the red light right in the middle of town ugly crying right as my pastor and boss was walking across the street with some of his friends.

(It’s fine…it’s fine…)

I thought about playing the song for you all this morning in worship, but it’s pretty loud and screamy.

It’s called “On Distant Shores” if you want to look it up afterwards.

But I thought I would at least read the lyrics for you this morning to see what I was ugly crying about.

The Song that Brought The Tears: On Distant Shores

I have been scarred so deep by life and cold despair And brittle bones were broken far beyond repair I have leveled lies so deep, the truth may never find And inside my faithless heart, I stole things never mine If mercy falls upon the broken and the poor Dear Father, I will see you, there on distant shores I have toiled for countless years and ever felt the cost And I've been burned by this world's cold Like leaves beneath the frost On my knees I've crawled to You, bleeding myself dry But the price of life is more, than I could ever buy

If mercy falls upon the broken and the poor Dear Father, I will see you, there on distant shores And off of the blocks, I was headstrong and proud At the front of the line for the card-carrying, highbrowed With both eyes fastened tight, yet unscarred from the fight Running at full tilt, my sword pulled from its hilt It's funny how these things can slip away, our frail deeds The last will wave good-bye It's funny how the hope will bleed away The citadels we build and fortify. Good-Bye Night came and I broke my stride I swallowed hard, but never cried When grace was easy to forget I'd denounce the hypocrites Casting first stones, killing my own You would unscale my blind eyes And I stood battered, but more wise Fighting to accelerate Shaking free from crippling weight With resilience unsurpassed I clawed my way to You at last And on my knees, I wept at Your feet I finally believed, that You still loved me

Healing hands of God Have mercy on our unclean souls once again Jesus Christ, Light of the World Burning bright within our hearts forever Freedom means love without condition Without beginning or an end Here's my heart, let it be forever Yours Only You can make every new day seem so new

What I love about this song:

Raw honesty about what’s broken

Kind of like the sermon we talked about last week, there is a power and even a boost to self-esteem in recognizing our brokenness.

Did you know that a while ago there was a movement in some churches to change the lyrics to Amazing Grace?

They wanted to take out the line “That saved a wretch like me” and replace it with “a soul like me.”

Reese totally understands his brokenness in this song, doesn’t it?

Casting first stones, killing my own.

Even to appreciate the chorus, if mercy falls upon the broken and the poor I will see you there on distant shores, you have to admit that you are broken and poor, that you are in need of mercy.

There is such a freedom in admitting where we stand in the grand cosmic scheme of things.

Not a beat ourselves up for it kind of posture, but a raw and honest reality of what’s broken in our lives.

And it’s also worth mentioning, the focus is on what’s broken in our lives. Not other peoples.

I can’t for the life of me imagine how any Christian has enough time and energy to dedicate to other people’s sin.

I know in my life I have more than enough going on in here to keep me busy.

What we believe in

In the bridge of the song, Reese describes a difficult and painful journey.

With resilience unsurpassed, I clawed my way to (Jesus) at last.

It’s the kind of journey that leaves you battered, but more wise.

It’s the kind of journey that can remove the scales from someone’s eyes.

And at the end of the journey, Reese says he comes to believe something.

Is that he believes Jesus exists? No, that’s not enough.

Is it that he believes in his version of theology? Nope.

Is it that he believes that he’s right in the face of other people being very wrong? Absolutely not.

Is it that his chosen worship style is the right worship style? Of course not.

Is it any of the petty little beliefs that we carry, each and every one of us, day in and day out? No.

While weeping at Jesus’ feet, Reese has finally come to believe that he is loved.

I don’t know why this is the hardest belief for so many of us, but it sure seems like it is, doesn’t it?

There’s so much that can get in the way.

Our past mistakes.

Our egos

Our political inclinations

Our theological divisions.

Our particular understanding of the way the world works.

None of that is as important as this:

You are loved.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the ruler of the universe, not only likes you, but he loves you.

He embraces you, warts and all.

He cares for you.

He wants the best for you.

He saved you.

All because he loves you.

Do you believe that?

I really and sincerely hope you do.

Jesus is the actor

One of the great ironies in this song, and in life really, is how hard the singer works to find something out:

That he doesn’t need to work at all.

The chorus isn’t “because of all this good work I’ve done I’ll see you on distant shores.”

It’s not “Because I’m such a good person I’ll see you on distant shores.”

It’s not “Because I go to church regularly I’ll see you on distant shores.”

It’s mercy.

We have mercy because Jesus acts on our behalf.

We have mercy because when we’re honest, we are the broken.

We have mercy because when we’re honest, we are the poor.

We have mercy because we are incapable of earning our own way.

Beware dear brothers and sisters of any form of faith that puts you in the driver’s seat.

Beware any form of faith that says it’s about what you can do.

Beware any form of faith that says you have to earn your keep.

Beware any form of faith that says that God is disappointed in you unless...

But instead embrace a life of faith that puts Jesus in the driver’s seat.

Jesus does what we cannot.

Jesus pays what we cannot afford.

Jesus offers love and mercy.

And Jesus does it all for each and every one of us specifically because he believes we are worth saving.

I am proud of your faith in Jesus, but don’t ever forget:

Jesus has faith in you.

And realizing that, coming to the place where we recognize that in spite of everything, Jesus loves us just as we are, that’s what brought me to tears.

But it turns out, it’s not just the lyrics to a song that proclaim this.

Philippians starts the same way

Background

Paul is in prison

At the time of the writing of this letter, Paul is in prison for preaching the gospel.

And, it’s more likely than not that he’s going to be sentenced to death.

He’s literally on death row, and he’s still writing letters to churches and preaching the gospel.

This is a church he started

Paul was running around settling in little towns and starting up churches.

It’s not like it is today, where there’s a church on every street corner.

It was likely that every town and city had just…one place to worship as Christians.

But remember, he’s in prison for preaching the gospel.

So these churches are probably the only place in town or your city where you could be…safe.

The work of planting a church is rigorous and difficult and dangerous.

So Paul and the folks at Philippi are probably pretty tight at this point.

So Paul has a few things to say to these people that he’s loved, that he is likely never to see again.

What would he say in this moment?

Raw honesty about what’s broken

There are a few hints at this:

The one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion.

If the good work isn’t done yet, then that means there are parts of it that aren’t where they need to be.

When I set out to train for a cycling event, and I’m not where I want to be, it’s because there’s work that needs to be done.

There’s pain.

There’s weakness.

Paul also looks forward to a day of Christ where they will (eventually) be pure and blameless.

Again, if that day is far off, then that means the folks he’s talking to are anything but pure and blameless.

There’s brokenness.

There’s sin.

But do you see how Paul can talk about these things in a way that’s raw, and honest, but also leads to a hopeful place?

Yes, we’re broken. But one day we won’t be.

Yes, we are far from blameless. But one day we’ll get it together.

Yes, the work is incomplete. But one day it will be.

What we believe in (Love with knowledge and insight)

I have had the same e-mail signature for years, but often get questions about one part of it and not the other:

Pax Christi- It’s Latin for “Peace of Christ”

The more you know.

But the second is this prayer that Paul has for his people at Philippi, and that I have for all of you:

That your love my overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight.

Did you know that love can grow?

Did you know that the more you learn about the world, the more love can fill your heart?

Did you know that the more you gain insight about others, the more you try to walk a little bit more in their shoes, the more you can understand how best to love them?

Did you know that the more you learn about Christ, the more you take that difficult journey of self-discovery, the more you realize that Jesus loves you just the way you are?

And did you know that it never, ever stops feeling like this?

Let your love grow, because the world is in dire need of more love.

But know this too, it’s not entirely or exclusively up to you.

Jesus is the actor

How great is verse six in this passage?

I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.

So much that we could unpack in here:

The word for confident here in the Greek is a legal term, essentially saying that the jury is in and they have been convinced.

What is Paul convinced of? That there is a good work that is happening in the church he started.

Even if they aren’t finished yet, even if they’re half baked.

Where Paul sees any good at all, he celebrates it.

What kinds of good things can we see here at LPC?

Even on an admittedly sad day, because goodbyes are never easy, I have to encourage you to take a look around at all the good works that are begun among you.

Take a look at the healing that’s happened and happening in your midst.

Take a look at the lives that have been impacted as a result of our faithfulness to the Gospel.

Take a look at the way Jesus Christ is moving in our midst.

Celebrate those!

Rejoice in them!

Even and especially when they’re not yet finished or as far along as you’d like.

Because that good work, it was started by Jesus Christ himself, and Christ will see it through.

Paul’s convinced of it.

There will come a day where all the comas of our lives will become exclamation points of Christ’s victory.

There is so much that is left to come.

But it’s extremely important to remember that it’s Jesus Christ who does the movement there.

Anything good around here worth celebrating in our lives? It was Christ who started that work.

Anything that is still on the table, any process that we want to see finished? It is Christ who will see it through.

Yes, we are invited to participate and to get our hands dirty in the process.

But it’s Jesus who gets the work done.

Where do we go from here?

Do you believe in love?

I’ve long thought that it’s super easy to believe in the wrong things.

It’s easy to believe Jesus existed.

In fact, we actually have more historical evidence that Jesus existed than we do Napoleon did.

It’s easy to adopt a set of dogma and beliefs and rigorously stick to them.

It’s easy to find the way we believe church should be, and relentlessly hold to it.

That’s all easy.

What’s hard is what Reese believes in the song, so let me say it over you one more time:

You. Are. Loved.

Jesus Christ loves you.

The God who created the entire universe loves you.

Your sins are not enough to get in the way of that love.

Your brokenness is not enough to get in the way of that love.

Set backs in life are not enough to get in the way of that love.

You. Are. Loved.

Do you believe that?

Let Jesus Be the Guide

The first time I ever went on a trip from Pittsburgh to DC on bike, we had a tour guide with us.

And he was…not good.

Wrong turns, horrible restaurants, and closed campsites were the hallmarks of that trip.

So…we just decided to cut him loose and do it on our own from then on out.

There are a lot of bad tour guides in this life.

The media we unquestioningly consume is a bad tour guide.

Political parties are bad tour guides.

Consumerism is a bad tour guide.

Friends, let Jesus be your guide.

Let Jesus guide you in the way of loving your neighbor as yourself.

Let Jesus guide you in the way of generosity.

Let Jesus guide you in the way of forgiveness.

Let Jesus guide you toward a more peaceful and serene life.

Let Jesus guide you in the kingdom way.

With Jesus on your side, you would be amazed where the journey will take you.

The Phrase: If mercy falls upon the broken and the poor…I will see you there on distant shores.

For as true as all this is, the road ahead won’t be easy, will it?

We will still sin. We’re human.

We will still mourn. Life is hard.

We will still find our way to anger. People don’t know how to drive.

We will struggle.

I have found that in my deepest struggles, this little line from the chorus does a great deal of lifting.

When I’m frustrated at my own brokenness, I remember that mercy falls upon the broken and the poor.

When I am stuck in traffic, I remember that mercy falls upon the broken and the poor.

When I am mourning the loss of loved ones, I remember that mercy falls upon the broken and the poor.

And when the ebbs and flows of the story of God necessitate goodbye for now, when one chapter closes before another one is allowed to begin, I hope you too can be comforted with the truth of the gospel:

If mercy falls upon the broken and the poor; dear brothers and sisters we will see each other again on distant shores.