The Tripod Basics of Christian Faith

May 3, 2009:  Acts 4: 7-21

This sermon is about courage.  Why? Because courage is a basic human element that we will all need at various times in our lives. We know from experience that life is challenging and tough.  Life can intimidate us—we want to avoid new challenges, new situations, new adventures. Life can be tough to face—growing old gracefully takes lots of courage as we lose many of the attributes we once took for granted—health, energy, hearing, vision, memory.  As one pundit puts it, “Growing old is not for sissies.”

Life can challenge us also when too many demands happen all at once. It takes real courage, strength and faith for single parents to “keep on keeping on” usually working to earn money to pay the family costs, dealing with nurturing children’s growth and behaviors, and providing the strength of setting boundaries and limits to provide safety and security. With all of life’s challenges we also have to also deal with our own inner fears, anxieties, our pain and our lack of self-confidence.

I find movies and books that reveal stories of courage inspire me and help keep me going. It was a sad and tragic story of courage and heroism  several weeks ago when the husband of a spa owner in Mill Woods sacrificed his own life so that his wife and other employees could escape potential death at the hands of a crazed gunman.

Theologians write that Peter’s speech to the Supreme Court of Israel in the 1^st century was a very historic act of courage. Why? Because The Sanhedrin, the Council of 71 religious leaders and bureaucrats was the ultimate authority in that time. They could make judgments on anything with the exception that they could not deliver a death sentence. That was a power reserved for the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate. 

Just weeks before Peter and John are dragged before the Court, it was this group that found Jesus guilty and sent him to Pilate for sentencing. Peter knew that when he spoke he was putting his own life on the line. He was up against a huge power structure. They attacked Peter and John in two ways: (1) They used contempt and put-downs. “These men are not educated and smart like we are. They are beneath us. (2) They used threats about what could happen to these followers of Jesus.

There are two kinds of courage, and maybe you know of more. One kind is reckless courage—courage that is NOT aware of the risks involved. It’s the skier who skies outside the boundaries, triggers an avalanche and then survives. It’s the 3 young men who each dove into cold, icy water to pull three people out of a car sinking into a lake. When asked what they were thinking when they each dove into the waters, the reply was, “I didn’t think about it, someone just needed to do it.” They didn’t consider that they might go down with the sinking car.

Another kind of courage is more cool and reasoned. It was the courage of so many firefighters, emergency services workers and police who rushed into the World Trade Towers on 9/11. It was the response of the great ancient greek warrior Achilles, who was warned that if he attacked the enemy army’s overwhelming odds, he would surely be killed.

Achilles reply was, “Nevertheless, I am for going on.”  Peter and John had that same kind of courage.  What the

To me the profound, deep and striking example of their new-found courage is the strongest example of the truth of Easter and the resurrection. The disciples lives were transformed, from fearful and scared to courageous and willing to face the possibility of their own deaths.

We call the story of Jesus, the gospel, because “gospel” means “the good news of Jesus.” The good news for us is that Jesus came to bring God’s good news to people in the 1^st century and 21 centuries later the spirit of the risen Christ still delivers that good news of the full and abundant life for those who follow his way of love.

When his critics and his students asked Jesus to give them a short summary statement of his life and teachings, he said, “Love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your spirit and all your strength, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.”  It’s the basic TRIPOD  of Christian life. It’s balanced—body, mind and spirit; it’s stable and strong, and it’s simple to understand but very challenging to live out. 

Our Methodist spiritual ancestors said that same thing with these words, “Do no harm; do good, and stay in love with God.”  Do no harm means being good to yourself AND being good to others. I believe that every one of us, and all human beings, are wounded and broken in different ways. Wounded spirits, broken hearts, discouraged dreams, egos that need blessing and encouragement get cut down by constant criticism. And when that happens early in life, make internal not-aware decisions about ourselves and about how the world is. Too many times, we hear “you’re stupid, dumb, no good” and as a child we act out to fulfill those wounding words.

When the tripod strength says “Do no harm” it means we don’t pass our woundedness, our poor self-esteem on to others. To have courage is to withstand the wounds of life and not turn them on others.

“Do good” means that we find our own ways of making a difference. What we are remembered for after our last breath is taken, is what kind of a difference we made. Hopefully, people will have things to remember us for that have made a positive difference. Making a difference, means showing some results.

One of the weaknesses  of our Christian faith is that we fall into the trap that what Jesus asks of his followers is to get the right beliefs, to say the right words, to sing the right songs or hymns. But I think it is being revealed that Jesus is looking for results in actions not simply right words.  Warren Buffet is arguably the second richest person in the world. He is giving most of his wealth to a Charitable Foundation being run by Bill and Melinda Gates. Bill Gates is the richest person.  Asked why he gave so much of his wealth to Gates, Buffet replied, “Because Bill and Melinda Gates are getting things done for people around the world. They get results.”

Tripod:  Do no harm, Do Good, 3^rd leg, Stay in love with God. God is the source of courage, faith, strength, and peace of mind and heart. If it’s all up to us we will face continual frustration and failure.  But if our attitude becomes, “Not me, but Christ in me” we have power (ie. Grace) to do what we need to do.

A couple were vacationing in Ireland and they visited the Blarney Caslte. And of course there you are expected to kiss the Blarney Stone.  To get to the Blarney Stone you have to walk up several flights of narrow stairs. The woman had a fear of heights and was claustrophobic. She told her husband to go on ahead and let her know if he thought she could do it. He came back down and she asked, “Well, what do you think? Can I do it?”|

Before he could answer, two little old ladies came up to her and said, “Honey, if we can do it, you can do it!” And she did, she kissed the Blarney Stone.

About a month or two after getting home from Ireland, the woman found out she had breast cancer and she needed both chemotherapy and radiation. The doctor was obligated to tell her all the things that might happen as a result of the chemo and radiation. She might lose her hair. She might be violently sick to her stomach, have severe diarrhea, run a high fever and might even have lock jaw and so on.

The doctor said, “I really think it will be to your advantage to start chemo right now. Are you ready to start now?”  Inside her head, she said to herself, “Oh, yeah, I really feel ready to start now.”  But, reluctantly and fearfully, she agreed.

Sitting in the waiting room with her husband and other chemo patients, she became very anxious and asked, “Do you think I can do this?”  Sitting across the waiting room were two little old ladies who had just completed their treatment. Her husband leaned over and said, “This is going to be just line the Blarney Stone.  If they can do it, you can do it.”  And she did it.

The really neat thing about courage is that it shows up when we need it. And, if Peter and John could do, we can do it too.  Amen.