Sermon Tone Analysis

Richard Davenport

March 13, 2022 - 2nd Sunday in Lent

Philippians 3:17-4:1

I remember a movie Laurie and I watched not long ago.

In it, the hero, an FBI agent, finds himself teamed up with a life-long crook, as they try to take down another crook who has gotten them both into trouble.

At one point in the movie, they discuss how it is they ended up doing what they do for a living.

In both cases, the answer turns out to be rotten fathers.

A rotten father made a man decide he didn't want to be a crook.

A rotten father made a man decide he wanted to be an even better crook.

In both cases, the sons looked to their fathers and made life changing decisions based on what they saw.

To me, that thought is frankly rather terrifying.

To know that someone is going to be watching me every moment of his life and making decisions about his own life based on what he sees in me, well, I don't really know what to do with that.

There are times I feel the tremendous pressure of trying to be at least an adequate role model and usually I don't think I do a very good job at it.

At some point in his life, my son is going to make decisions about how he wants to live and what he wants to do with himself, and the primary guide he has to make those decisions is me, for better or for worse.

There's the part of me that hopes he looks up to me and respects me, that he wants to be like me.

There's the part of me that he isn't like me because he should be better than me.

There's also the part of me that fears a little bit that he won't want to be anything like me because he thinks I'm a bad example of how to live.

What's worst is that when I honestly examine my life, everything I do and everything I say, I find I wouldn't really be able to fault him for coming to that conclusion.

Being an example, being a role model, it's a tough job to have.

It's one thing to be asked to pass on certain skills or knowledge you have, if you're a carpenter for instance, you can show someone how to plan out the project, select the right kind of wood, use all of the various tools for the job and so forth.

It might be time consuming.

There's probably some trial and error involved, but it's a reasonably achievable goal if a student is willing to invest the time and effort.

The same is true about just about any other profession, lawyer, psychiatrist, zoo keeper.

Modelling the things needed for those professions can be done.

It happens pretty regularly.

But sharing the skills and abilities necessary to be a good lawyer, zoo keeper, or whatever, doesn't require someone to watch you every day for most of your life.

If you are teaching someone the skills to be a good zoo keeper, your student isn't going to be interested in what kind of diet you have, what sort of exercise regimen you may or may not have, whether you share the latest gossip or tell off color jokes, whether you pilfer things that aren't yours or whether you're shacking up with another zoo keeper who's already married.

Your student may have opinions about all of those things, but they aren't relevant to learning how to be a good zoo keeper.

As parents, we don't get to decide what our kids pick up on, because it's all fair game.

Children aren't learning a particular profession or picking up a specific skill, they're learning to be human.

They're learning what it means to be a human being and the first and most prominent human beings in their lives are parents.

Of course, Jesus doesn't have this problem.

Not that he's a parent, but he is a role model for all of us.

He's the one we are to look up to and try to emulate.

He shows us exactly how we should live, caring for each other, putting others' needs ahead of our own, lifting each other up, bringing beauty and joy to the world around us.

All of the things we were created to do, all of the things we're supposed to do.

We come into the world as physical children who look to their fathers and mothers to learn how to live in the physical world, but we are also spiritual children who look to God to learn to live as spiritual people.

In that respect, it's good we have the perfect role model.

There's never any question about whether Jesus is doing something questionable.

He doesn't make off color jokes.

He doesn't gossip.

He doesn't borrow the circular saw from the neighbor and conveniently forget to return it.

He doesn't take other people for granted.

He truly is the perfect role model.

You couldn't ask for anyone better.

He does absolutely everything perfectly and if you really managed to emulate him you'd be doing as well as anyone could possibly do.

You would have it all figured out.

You would be a perfect and mature spiritual adult.

That's all well and good, except that we have a hard enough time learning how to live in the world from our parents and getting that right, and they aren't even perfect.

Trying to emulate perfection is out of our reach entirely.

That wouldn't be so bad except that, just as children grow up to be parents themselves to physical children, we also grow up to be parents of a sort to spiritual children.

Those who come to faith after us, whether they are physically children or whether they came to faith later in life, know little about what it means to live as a Christian.

They look to us to see how to put their faith into action, to see what God's teachings look like when they are lived out.

Any bad habits your "kids" pick up, well, that's on you.

You can't blame God.

He gave you a perfect role model.

You're the one who isn't passing it on.

That's where the real problem lies.

We don't think of ourselves as role models.

We don't accept any real responsibility toward those around us.

We are responsible for ourselves and nothing more.

It's no wonder many outside the church look at us as hateful, haughty, and self-absorbed.

We want to be good for our own sake, not because someone else might be looking to us as examples.

If we are thinking about people looking to us, it's more for the celebrity status and the reputation, "Look what a good guy I am!" than because our behavior really matters to someone else.

This isn't who we are called to be as Jesus' disciples.

In baptism we are clothed with his righteousness.

We look like him and we are sent into the world to be his representatives, to speak his words.

That means, whether we like it or not, we are role models to those around us.

So many see our bad behavior and want nothing to do with us and, more specifically, nothing to do with Christ.

We make the church and we make God all about us.

That's a huge difference from what we see Jesus doing.

Jesus goes about his ministry, preaching, teaching, caring for others, and always pointing the way to the Father.

John's Gospel opens by describing Jesus, "No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known."

Jesus is always pointing beyond himself, modeling the role he has been given to live.

Jesus models the love of his Father.

Everything he does reflects that love.

He forgives those who malign and hurt him because that's what his Father does.

He cares for all people, regardless of their social standing.

He never slanders.

He holds no grudges.

He never thinks to take what isn't his.

He never sees anyone as anything less than the Father's precious children.

He perfectly reflects everything the Father gives him.

He is the perfect role model.

That's also what we are called to be.

We look at what St. Paul says, "Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us."

Paul knows he is a role model.

He goes from city to city sharing the Gospel and those who come to faith need to see what that looks like.

They want to see firsthand what the love of Christ looks like, and there's St. Paul standing there among them, one who had been an enemy of God, but who had been forgiven and put on a new path.

It might sound like he's holding himself up as a celebrity and seeking the fame, "Look how great I am!" or something like that, but just before this in Philippians 3, he says, "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own.

But 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 upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

He is not a perfect role model.

He is a flawed and sinful man.

But, as one who has been claimed as a child of God, who has been forgiven through the death and resurrection of Christ, who has been washed clean in his blood, St. Paul tells people to imitate him.

Not to become like him in his sin and imperfection, but to join him in pointing to the one who is perfect, the one who brings salvation to the world.

We will never be perfect role models in this life.

That's a given.

But we can reflect the love God has for us, even in our imperfection.

That comes by first looking to Christ, looking to what he did and why he did it for you.