Think Different.

Scripture Readings

New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition Psalm 92

1 It is good to give thanks to the LORD,

to sing praises to your name, O Most High,

2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning

and your faithfulness by night,

3 to the music of the lute and the harp,

to the melody of the lyre.

4 For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work;

at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition Psalm 92

12 The righteous flourish like the palm tree

and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

13 They are planted in the house of the LORD;

they flourish in the courts of our God.

14 In old age they still produce fruit;

they are always green and full of sap,

15 showing that the LORD is upright;

he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition 2 Corinthians 5

6 So we are always confident, even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord—7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him. 10 For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive due recompense for actions done in the body, whether good or evil.

The Ministry of Reconciliation

11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people, but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. 15 And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for the one who for their sake died and was raised.

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we no longer know him in that way. 17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!,*

Introduction: Think Different

Steve Jobs- Think Different.

In 1996, Apple Computers was in trouble.

They had launched the Newton, which was a personal assistant device that was…less than helpful.

Their sales were sluggish.

They were no where near the innovators they used to be.

And so they reached out to their former CEO, and brought back Steve Jobs.

And right after coming back, Steve Jobs launched an add campaign for Apple.

Think Different.

The ads all featured prominent thinkers and creators in black and white photos with just those two words.

Think different.

Apparently even Job’s own daughter Lisa caught on to the grammatical inaccuracy of the ads, but all the same.

The idea was that if you bought Apple stuff, you were one of these people who saw the world differently from everyone else.

You weren’t content for the status quo, and you realized that if you wanted things to be better, you had to make sure things were different.

How does thinking different impact our faith?

2 Corinthians- Defending His Call.

Confidence in What?

What does it take to be always confident?

Confidence in ourselves?

I hurt myself this week on my bicycle.

Not riding it.

Not wrecking it.

Not over-doing it on a hill.

No no. I hurt myself changing a tire.

In my basement.

Alone.

Like, threw my shoulder out hurt myself.

Changing a tire.

And then to make matters worse, the next day I was a grumpy and irritable jerk most of the day…because I’d hurt myself changing a tire.

I put several key relationships in my life at risk…because I hurt myself changing a tire!

So firstly, I apologize to anyone who was around me that day.

But secondly—confidence in ourselves? No…I don’t think so.

Confidence in our politics?

I don’t know why this one keeps coming up, as if there’s some major event happening here in a few months.

But some people out there put endless confidence in this political party or that political party.

And in fact, we lately seem to have taken it farther by suggesting that we should have no confidence, in fact perhaps we should carry hatred, for the other party.

But you know…

I’ve been around long enough to see both parties let me down, haven’t you?

I’ve been around long enough to know that nobody who runs for office of any kind is perfect, because none of us are.

I’ve been around long enough to know that yes, we should vote, and yes we should have our opinions, and yes this stuff is important.

But as a place to keep our confidence? It’s lacking.

Confidence in our church?

Did you hear me mention that as the pastor around here I was grumpy because of a tire-injury?

The truth is that the church is on earth to serve broken people, and hence we are actually full of broken people.

We will get it wrong.

We will screw up.

Best we can do is own up to it when it happens, and promise to do better.

That’s not the way it is at every church out there.

Some might suggest that they are the be all and end all.

I’d encourage you that if you start to see that around here, you’d like me know so we can knock it off.

No, of course, we keep our confidence in one place and one place only:

The love of God in Jesus Christ.

Letting Go- Little deaths

Death is a part of the plan.

I like that Paul owns up to death being a part of the plan here in verse 14 and 15.

Big death

There is a 100% mortality rate here on earth.

None of us are going to make it out alive.

And yet, Ann and I had had the privledge of talking this week about folks who were approaching the end of their earthly journey.

Those who had been around the church for a while, who had been surrounded by the love of God in Christ Jesus?

They tend not to worry about death later in life.

They, like Paul, are always confident that they are headed to the home made for them in Christ Jesus.

The love of Christ urges us on, even in the face of our deaths, because we recognize that Christ has beaten death at death’s own game.

Little death

But of course, there are lots of little deaths throughout our lives too.

What does it look like to have an always confident attitude through the little deaths?

Can we have the confidence of Christ’s love when our dreams for the future die?

Can we have the confidence of Christ’s love when our regular routines die?

Can we have the confidence of Christ’s love when our perceptions of the world die?

Can we have the confidence of Christ’s love when our hopes for an easy tire change die?

We face a whole bunch of little deaths every day.

Sometimes they are just a letting go of what we have, so that we can open ourselves up to something new.

What comes out of that death is what matters.

When we walk by faith in the resurrection, it gives us the chance to not walk by sight of all the little deaths around us.

When we walk by faith in the hope God offers, it gives us a chance to not walk by sight of cold cynicism.

When we walk by faith in the new creation, we don’t have to walk by the sight of the old one.

In other words, when we get our heads right with these little deaths, we start to see things differently.

See it different.

No more human point of view.

This is, I think, one of the most remarkably hard encouragements in scripture, isn’t it?

Because seeing people from a human point of view might be the most natural thing we have going for us.

When I see someone begging on the sidewalk, I naturally see them with suspicion.

When I see someone engaged in a political debate, I naturally see them almost exclusively for how they’re different from me.

When I am stuck in traffic, they are naturally not actual people in those cars, they are just in my way.

Paul is suggesting we fight against what is natural to us.

We can’t see people the way we naturally see them.

We have to see them the way Christ sees them.

En Christo- Enveloped in Christ.

This is one of Paul’s favorite phrases, and is quickly becoming one of mine!

Anyone can believe in Christ, to hold to a certain set of logical or theological ideas about who Jesus is.

But that’s not how he is using this phrase.

En Cristo is to be enveloped in Christ.

It’s got the kind of image of being at the bottom of the deep end of the pool.

All around you, above, below, and beside, is Christ.

When you get to that spot, you can’t help but see people and things the way that Christ sees them, because you are in Christ.

And when that happens…

Something new is born!

And that something new is…different from how it used to be!

Let’s Think Different

In our own faith life.

Think different about how we pray.

For a while after seminary, I had a pretty rad prayer habit.

There’s this red book, I still have my copy right here.

There’s a different prayer service, complete with scripture readings, for every day of the week.

And this really helped me connect with God, just about every day.

Until one day it didn’t.

One day it just stopped working.

The prayers that used to mean so much just kind of died off for me.

There was little to no connection with God.

So I found myself needing to think different about how I prayed.

Sometimes prayer works best in quiet places, with scripture readings.

Sometimes prayer works best just shouting at God.

Sometimes prayer is a solo activity.

Sometimes we pray in groups.

Sometimes prayer is extremely formal, prescribed, written out.

Sometimes we just wing it.

I wonder what it would look like to turn your prayer life into a new creation?

I wonder what it would look like to experiment with a prayer style that might be the total opposite of what has worked for you in the past?

If only we had a freshly cleaned and organized prayer room for everyone to make use of…

Think different about how we worship.

We’ve tilled this ground before, how silly I think it is when there’s a battle between contemporary and traditional styles of worship.

At other churches.

For starters it’s silly because both styles of worship are beautiful and unique, and when done well can be amazing conduits to connection with Christ.

Luckily for us, we have both styles of worship done very well around here, amen!

But the other reason the worship wars are silly is that there are way more than two styles of worship.

Some worship through the Taize style.

Some worship through chant.

Some worship through mission and interacting with people in our community.

Some people worship online on our live streams.

Some people worship in unique and creative ways that we’ve never even heard of.

I wonder what it looks like to make our worship a new creation?

Maybe around here it’s as simple as trying the other service out.

Maybe it’s about experimenting with a new offering online in addition to what we do here?

Maybe it’s our worship leaders looking in to new creations in worship springing up all around us.

Think different about who we interact with.

We don’t see anyone from a human point of view any more, right?

I wonder what we could see out there in our world if we took the time to think different about the people we interact with on a daily basis.

I wonder what we’d see if we saw our cashier at Giant Eagle through Christ’s eyes?

I wonder what we’d see if we watched the news through Christ’s eyes?

I wonder what we’d see if we walked through the first floor this week and saw all the beautiful kids about to call this place home for the summer through Christ’s eyes?

This one is exciting, because I think there’s a lot more beauty to behold in our fellow humans out there than we regularly experience.

To be sure, it’s going to involve some letting go on our part.

We’re going to have to let go of how we see other people if we’re going to pick up how Christ sees others.

As a church community.

Think different about our programs.

This story happened a few churches ago, so as to protect the innocent.

But I had an elder come up to me once a few churches ago, and say—and I quote—

“I have a new and innovative idea for how to get new folks into the church!”

To which I responded— “I like new and innovative! What you got?”

To which she responded… “I think we should have a strawberry festival…”

Now, don’t get me wrong…

I’m a sucker for a good strawberry festival.

Nothing wrong with that!

But new and innovative? I don’t know so much about that.

Maybe it’s time for our programs to be a new creation.

Maybe it’s time to quit hitting repeat on the same old stuff.

Or…maybe it’s time to quit burying some of the old stuff just because it didn’t work before.

Maybe it’s time to try something brand new.

Or maybe it’s time to try something old in a new way.

My friend Brian Wallace from the Presbytery has this line…

“Your church is perfectly designed to get the results it’s getting.”

Meaning that if you just keep doing what you’re doing over and over again, you’re going to keep getting the same results.

So maybe we have to think different about what we offer around here.

Think different about our evangelism.

I can’t count how many times in my life I’ve heard this message:

You could walk out of this building today, and get hit by a bus out there!

Do you know where you’d go when you die?

Are you all set with Jesus?

A few problems with this:

Firstly, it’s entirely fear based.

It has nothing to do with the richness of the life of Christ.

It has everything to do with self preservation.

Secondly, I think it scares a lot of people off the idea of evangelism.

Not a whole lot of people signing up to tell everyone else they’re gonna die!

And so we’ve seen, particularly mainline denominations like ours, kind of shy away from this idea of evangelism in any way shape or form.

But also, it’s not working.

We’ve looked at the numbers over and over again, and the church in America is in decline.

If this message of evangelism that is pervasive and everywhere were working, then why are we declining?

Maybe it’s time to bring a new creation, to think different about our evangelism efforts.

Maybe it’s time to point to how Jesus enhances our life now, rather than use him as fire insurance for the next life.

Maybe it’s time to point out how our service to Christ can be life changing, rather than using Christ to save us alone.

Maybe it’s time to invite people in to our joy in Christ, rather than trying to literally scare the hell out of them.

Whatever it looks like, we ought to try to think different about how we share this gospel of Christ.

Not that the Gospel is out of date.

But how we share? That’s constantly evolving.

Think different about our mission.

For so much of the Presbyterian church, I’m sad to say, our mission efforts have been confused with charity.

Mission in so many churches that I have been associated with is more about who we give money to, rather than the work we do with our mission partners.

And credit to our MOST team, we’re starting to look in that direction a bit more, making sure we have deep and lasting relationships with our mission partners.

Still, I wonder if there’s room to grow there?

If we can think different about mission.

If we can do our mission with our feet, not with our checkbooks.

If we can be the hands and feet of Jesus, rather than out sourcing that work to someone else.

The Old Life is Gone…

There is a chance that I’ve frightened some Presbyterians here today…

Change is never one of our favorite topics.

But still…

We can remain always confident.

Yes, things are changing.

In fact, they need to change for us to be able to keep pace with our culture.

And letting go of the way things used to be can be challenging.

It can even feel like a little death.

But…out of the ashes of death is where Christ tends to do his best work, isn’t it?

Let’s embrace the new!

I invite us in this season to think different together.

Let’s embrace the new things that Christ is doing in our midst.

Let’s be the hands and feet of Jesus in a wanting world.

And let’s change it for the better, may the kingdom come.

Come on friends, let’s think different!