This weeks scriptures included portions of the Ten Commandments found in Exodus and Paul's assertion that life in Christ is not about the laws and rules but about relationship found in Philippians. Our sermon endeavored to explain how the Apostle Paul could make such an assertion (as he does in the Philippians text) and yet expect Christians to live righteous and moral lives.
This question still exists for contemporary Christians: "If it's not about rules and regulations, laws and rules, but about knowing Jesus, then why are we still expected to live a certain way (ie striving toward sinlessness/perfection)?" In order to answer this question I'll tell you about a friend of mine.
His name is Fred Brown. Alfred Eberle Brown to be exact. Fred was my roommate in college (all four years of my undergraduate studies). When I first met Fred, it would be an understatement to say I was unimpressed. He was short, pudgy, big nerdy looking glasses, and wasn't into anything I seemed to be interested in. He was a music major, and so he spent long hours practicing his guitar and studying long since dead musicians. Fred also had several strange sayings. One of his favorites was "Over You!" He would utter this mysterious phrase on many and varying occasions. Later I would discover that the genesis of this phrase came from basketball (no, Fred was not a fan) when one player will dunk over another, hence "Over you!" I on the other hand had been a three sport athlete in highschool and thought of myself as being a "cool dude". I wasn't sure what I wanted to major in, but it was going to be something cool (and now I'm a pastor, clearly the coolest of all professions...God has a sense of humor). Most importantly I never said anything weird!
That first year of rooming with Fred was ok, and we got to know and understand one another better as the year went on. We had a pretty good system worked out, and although we spent much of our time doing our own things, the roommate situation worked. It worked so well as a matter of fact, that we decided to room together the next year. During that second year we spent even more time together, and began to watch some of the same shows and listen to some of the same music (including some of those long since dead musicians). When it came time to figure out housing for our third year of college, Fred and I again decided to room together in a townhouse with some mutual friends. By our fourth year, Fred and I rented an apartment together off campus. What had started as a forced housing situation turned into a lifelong friendship, but more importantly for me, our friendship began to change who I was.
It was somewhere around year two of rooming with Fred that I found myself uttering that mysterious phrase "Over You!" I would proclaim it while out with friends who didn't know Fred, and who clearly were as mystified by the meaning of the statement as I was. Yet I found myself shouting "Over You" in all sorts of situations and on all sorts of occasions. I began to notice other kinds of changes as well, like taste in music, television, and even attire.
What happened during my time with Fred in college is a very common human experience. The more time we spend with a person, the more we will tend to become like that person. This is exactly what is supposed to happen to Christians. This is the reason why the Apostle Paul can throw out all the rules and still expect us to live as if we were following those rules. As Christians we are called to be in relationship with the very real, very much alive person of Jesus Christ. The more we are in relationship with Jesus, the more like him we will become. But unlike my old college roommate, Jesus was perfect. That means the more we are around Jesus, the closer to perfection (without sin) we will grow.
There's one other neat thing about all of this. Not only are we called to be in relationship with Jesus, but we are called to be in relationship with one another. This means that as we spend more time with Christ, we will become more like Christ, and as we spend more time with other people, we will share that Christlikeness with them as well.
So if you find yourself saying "Over You!" you can thank Alfred Eberle Brown as well as me, but if you find yourself living like Jesus then you can thank your relationship with the living Christ as well as every other Christian you've ever encountered.
Grace & Peace,
Pastor John
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