#66 The Whole Shebang! ... In Six Words (02/03/03)

The Message

By: Dr. Leonard Sweet

Introduction by Robert A. Schuller:

It is my pleasure to introduce our guest pastor this morning, Dr. Leonard Sweet. He is with us this week as one of the leaders for our 34th Institute of Church Leadership which my father launched in 1969. Dr. Sweet is well known in three areas of ministry. He is a historian in American culture, a futurist who dreams of possibilities, a preacher and a writer who communicates the gospel powerfully to a post-modern age. After five years as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Theological School at Drew University, Leonard Sweet now occupies the E. Stanley Jones Chair. Leonard Sweet is also a visiting distinguished professor at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. Author of more than one hundred articles and twenty books, his best selling post-modern trilogy has its own website and multi media components, some of which have already received national awards and one Grammy nomination. Dr. Sweet has been called one of the church's most important and provocative thinkers. Please welcome with me to the pulpit to deliver today's message at the Crystal Cathedral ... Dr. Leonard Sweet.

Message:

Good morning Saints and Sinners! We're all here, and all that we are is here and I am delighted to be here and what an honor to be here with you, Dr. Schuller.

I am here to kick off the Church Leadership Institute and I come to you from a seminary setting where we train leaders and I want to give you a crash course in Christian theology. I want to give you "the whole shebang in six words" ... everything you need to know about Christian theology. As my theology gets more complex, my faith is getting more simple. So I'm taking you to seminary with me this morning in six simple words. The older I get the more enamored I become of short simple words. Einstein unraveled the secrets of the universe using only three letters and one number. A very simple formula. What is it? E = MC2.

There was a menu planner at Delta a few years ago who noticed something very simple. She noticed that nobody ate the lettuce underneath the salads. So she said, "Why don't we just get rid of the lettuce? I don't think anybody notices." So they did and they've saved over $1 million! A little simple decision.

I have six short simple action words to challenge you in your living. And three of the words are the same.

The first sentence comes from my most favorite Sunday school story growing up as a child. To this day I can't think of anything more beautiful than a white sycamore tree against the blue sky. Do you know this story found in Luke 19:1-10?

"Zacchaeus was a wee little man
and a wee little man was he.
He climbed up in a sycamore tree
for the Lord, he wanted to see.
And when the Savior passed that way,
He looked up in the tree and said,
'Zacchaeus, you come down for I'm
going to your house today.'"

(I learned, "For I'm going to your house for tea." I think I have some Salvation Army memories in me and you know that's British import.)

1) Come Down!

The key to this whole story are two words: "Zacchaeus, you come down." (Luke 9:5) Those are the first two words of the whole shebang of Christian theology. "Come down." You and I have a God who is willing to COME DOWN. This is the insight from the very beginning of our Jewish and Christian tradition.

I'm from the United Methodist Church and in our hymn book we have a song I love. "We are Climbing Jacob's Ladder." It's a great song, but that's not how the story goes. Jacob didn't have to climb anything, because God first came down. And then we have this crescendo of insight that what gravity is to the physical world, grace is to the spiritual world ... in the theology of this Divine come down.

How many of you know any Greek? How many of you know Italian? Marinara ... Rigatoni ... Ravioli ... you and I know quite a lot of Italian! How many of you know Spanish? Tortilla ... Salsa. To eat these wonderful foods you need to learn some Italian and Spanish. And to understand Christian theology, it helps to learn some Greek. So today I want to teach you just one Greek word. The word is "conosis" which means "emptying." In Philippians 2, St. Paul talks about this God who is willing to "empty" Himself by being willing to take on the form of a human being, even the form of a servant. Now that's a "come down"! One of the most powerful moments in His ministry was when Jesus "came down" and washed His disciples' feet.

In the first century there was no dirtier or fouler part of the human body than the feet. Jesus showed us that you and I have a God willing to come down, even to the point of washing His disciples' feet. The Apostle John writes,

"When Christ washed their feet, He sat down and said, 'Do you know what I have done for you?'" (John 13:12)

Sisters and brothers, you can't wash anybody's feet without getting your hands dirty and wet. Are you getting your hands dirty reaching out to this world in all of its needs and pain and agony? If we've got a God willing to come down for us, are we willing to come down and get our hands dirty and wet?

2) "Come Out"

The second sentence I share with you today in the language of life also came from another favorite Bible . There's a second favorite story and I don't really know why it's a favorite. Perhaps it's partly because I just love the name of the key figure in this story, Lazarus. More importantly, I like this story because it reminds me of what the church really ought to be about. You see, we used to be about great and mighty things like "making the lame to walk, the blind to see and the dead to rise" ... Now what are we about? Jesus Christ challenges us as His church to "come out" from our lame, blind and dead attitudes and spirit to new life.

In this great story of Lazarus in John 11, Jesus calls out to Lazarus in a loud voice:

"Lazarus - come out" ...

And the dead man came out. His hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth round his face. Then Jesus said to them, 'Take off the grave clothes and let him go.'" (John 11:44)

To be alive God "came down" to get us to "come out" from whatever is entombing and limiting our living. And you and I need to be unwrapped from that which binds us.

So God has had to unwrap me with the help of my own kids. I used to be a learned professor, and I had to be unwrapped from my learnedness and I am becoming a learner. One of the great philosophers and thinkers of the 20th century had a saying, "in the future everyone will have to 'learn' a living." Are you willing to learn a living? That sentence had an impact on me.

When I was a learned professor, life was a quiz show. Now that I'm a learner, life is a "discovery channel."

When I was a learned professor, it was a question of how much I knew. Now that I'm a learner, it's a question of how much I'm being stretched.

When I was learned, knowledge went to my head. Now that I'm a learner, knowledge travels the longest foot in the universe, the foot that separates my head from my heart.

When I was learned, I used to point my finger and pontificate. Now that I'm a learner, I slap my forehead all the time.

When I was learned, I knew where I was going. Now that I'm a learner, I don't know where I'm going, but I know Who I'm going with.

When I was learned, I loved to talk. Now that I'm a learner, I prefer to listen because that's when I'm learning.

When I was learned I was impatient with dumb people. Now that I'm a learner, I'm grateful when people are patient enough to "dumb down" to me and care enough to smarten me up.

When I was learned, my life revolved around what other people thought about me. Now that I'm a learner, my life revolves around what I think about myself and what God thinks about me.

When I was learned, the power and mystery were in the big words. Now that I'm a learner, the power and mystery are in the small simple words.

When I was learned, I was always trying to speed things up. Now that I'm a learner, I'm always trying to slow things down even when I'm speeding up.

When I was learned, I bragged about how our human knowledge was an ever-deepening ocean. Now that I'm a learner, I shutter at how our wisdom is an ever-shrinking drop.

I've got my little bottle of Windex like in the movie, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" ... and I'm trying to shine and clean that glass as best I can with that Windex, but I know that the best I'll ever get in my lifetime is to know only in part. One day I'll know face-to-face, but until then, I depend on the Holy Spirit, who will guide and guard me into all truth. In the words of Jesus:

"Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart." (Matthew 11:29)

"Come out," God frees us from graves of despair and then He unwraps us through the church to learn how to live. So this morning I ask you ... how tightly wound are you? How wrapped up are you? What is preventing you from being all that God is calling you to be?

I think one of the greatest things that is binding and confining us in this world today is fear. One of the greatest things keeping us in our prisons from which God wants to release us and unleash us is fear. So what do you fear? Do you fear being rejected? Do you fear looking foolish? Do you fear not being needed? Do you fear being needy? Do you fear break ins, break downs, break ups? Do you fear blackouts, bankrupts, hold ups and shake downs? What do you fear? 365 times ... one for every day of the year ... in the Bible in one form or another are these words: no fear. And Jesus says to every one of you, "Be not afraid. I'll be with you." (Matthew 28:10)

There have been many heart rending stories recently, but I've seen none that has touched my soul more deeply than the one from Mercer, Pennsylvania, in early December of last year. The Wengerts, an Amish family, had nine children. There was a fire at their farm and five of the nine children died in that fire. When the firefighters finally went in to find the remains of those five children, ages 2 to 14, who died in that fire, they found the oldest 14 year old, Katy, in a corner with all four of her younger brothers huddled around her. Her 2 year old brother, Jonathan, was in her arms. Here was a 14 year old girl who probably could have made it out alive herself, but was not going to save herself without her four younger brothers and chose to stay with them and be with them and love and hold to her heart her 2 year old brother, Jonathan ... and tell them in their moment of greatest needs, "Fear not. I am with you. I love you."

Sisters and brothers, you and I have a God who says, I don't know what fire you're in, God does, but that God says to you, "I will be with you in the fire. I will not leave you. I will not abandon you. I will hug you to my heart." Can you feel the arms of the Almighty around you? Even when we come to the last two words.

3) "Come Home"

One day every one of us will have to meet our Maker and what words will we hear? "Come ..." I don't know about you, but the most precious words I can ever hear, in my life, will be the last two that I learned from a story about the prodigal son, as the father said to that child even in the midst of his far distant journey, "Come home."

Prayer: O God, hear my cry this morning. You know what is lacking in my life and I hear your challenge to "come out" and be alive again. I thank you for coming down to where I am and showing me the way you want me to "come down" to my brother, sisters and neighbors in love.

I believe your promise, Jesus Christ, that you can take away any and all fear. Walk beside me through life until that day when I will hear Your call "come home." In Jesus name. Amen.