December 9, 2018 – “Attitude of Gratitude: The Ability to Change” by Rev. Cody Sandahl
Lay Reader = Luke 3:1-6
1In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; 6and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
Introduction
As we get ready for Christmas, we are looking at having an attitude of gratitude. This week we are looking at being grateful for our ability to change. Now, humans go to some pretty extreme lengths to avoid the need to change, so why should we be grateful for our ability to change?
Well, most of you know that I carry both a Geek card and a Nerd card – and if you have strong opinions on the differences between geeks and nerds, you probably are a card-carrying member of both groups as well. You may have picked up from some of my high school stories that I also used to have a superiority complex. Not an inferiority complex – a superiority complex. I went out of my way to make sure my fellow students knew I was smarter than them.
And so Becca and I joke that it’s a good thing we didn’t meet until I was out of college and mellowed out a little bit, because she would have hated me if we had met in high school.
I’m glad I was able to change! It was a good thing! Even if you somehow proved to me that God doesn’t exist, I would still be grateful for that life change. Life’s better this way.
Many people think that following Jesus means you have to give up a bunch of stuff. But I see it differently. I look at everything I’ve changed in my life because of my faith, and I think I traded up! I didn’t give up a sports car for a reliable but boring station wagon, I traded in for a better model.
So this week we are looking at how we can be grateful for how following Jesus has made our lives different – in a good way.
Many of the letters in the New Testament are about Paul or Peter or someone else encouraging the members of a church to change their lives in light of their faith in Jesus. Our text today is from Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi. Listen for Paul’s attitude of gratitude, and his encouragement for the church to choose a better way of living for Jesus.
Philippians 1:3-11
3I thank my God every time I remember you, 4constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, 5because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. 6I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.
7It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus.
9And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight 10to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, 11having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.
Choose to be Filled with Love and Joy
When Becca and I started dating, I had a very fortunate coincidence. For the first year we were dating, the University of Texas Longhorns did not lose a single game. We won one of the greatest games in college football history against Southern Cal to win the national title. Good times. That was a very fortunate coincidence. Because my dad, my brother, and I become well and truly grumpy whenever the Longhorns lose.
Actually, I’m giving us too much credit. We’re grumpy whenever a single play goes wrong during a game – even if we’re winning. My dad once complained that our third string defense gave up a touchdown at the end of a game so instead of winning 56-0 we lost the shutout at the end. And if that bad play is because these 18-to-22-year-olds make a mental mistake? You don’t want to be around us when that happens. When we lose, my day is ruined.
So it’s a good thing Becca and I didn’t meet in high school, and it’s a good thing we started dating during Texas’ last national championship season. The angels were on my side.
And a week ago my Longhorns were playing for the conference championship against the Godless heathens also known as the Oklahoma Sooners. So you know where I was last Saturday at 10am Mountain Time? Not watching the game, that’s for sure! I expected us to lose (which we did), and I knew that I would just be grumpy all day if I watched it. So I just tracked the score online and therefore only became slightly perturbed when we lost.
I still care, but I am a better person to be around when I’m not watching the game live. Paul writes in our text today that he is praying for the church in Philippi to be filled with love and joy. Watching the Longhorns lose doesn’t fill me with love and joy. Watching the Longhorns win doesn’t even fill me with love and joy. So I rarely watch a game live anymore. And I am better off because of it.
I still track the score. I still know the players’ names. But now my attitude on Saturday isn’t determined by the athletic performance of 18-to-22-year-olds playing a game a thousand miles away from me.
Before I became a pastor and moved to Pennsylvania, I had been to just about every home football game from the time I was one year old. My dad made sure we stayed the whole game so we could sing the Eyes of Texas to honor the players at the end of the game whether they were victorious or went down in defeat. Longhorn football wasn’t just a habit or ritual – it was an obligation.
Except it wasn’t. I could choose to change at any time. I could choose to do more of the things that fill me with love and joy, as Paul prayed for the church in Philippi, and less of the things that drain me of love and joy. At any time.
Did you know that you can, too? You can choose to do more of the things that fill you with love and joy and do less of the things that drain you of love and joy. Even if it feels like a habit, or a ritual, or even an obligation. You have choices. Now sometimes choices have consequences, but you have choices.
We can be grateful for the ability to change – to choose to do more of the things that fill us with love and joy and less of the things that drain our love and joy. That’s good news!
What fills you with love and joy? How can you do more of those things?
What drains you of love and joy? How can you do less of those things – even if they feel like obligations?
Choose a Better Community
Just last week, a 9-year-old boy in Severance, CO, made a choice to help his community be filled with love and joy. For the last one hundred years, it has been illegal to have snowball fights within the city limits because snowballs were classified as “missiles.”
Being a law-abiding citizen but also enjoying snowball fights, Dane Best took the matter before the city council. “Today’s kids need reasons to play outside,” Best said, “Research suggests that a lack of exposure to the outdoors can lead to obesity, ADHD, anxiety and depression.” He was ready!
After agreeing that snowballs shouldn’t have rocks in them, and that windows shouldn’t be targeted, the town voted unanimously to reclassify snowballs and end the century-old ban. Dane was given the honor of throwing the first legal snowball in the town of Severance in over a hundred years. The second throw went to younger brother Dax, later identified as Dane’s preferred snowball fight opponent.
That may seem like a silly example of change, but Dane Best wanted a better community and he worked to make it happen. He wanted more joy and love and fun outdoors in the winter, and he chose to have a better community rather than just complaining about it.
We can choose to invest in a better community. We can help our community change to be better – to have more love and joy as Paul prayed for the church in Philippi.
Many of you know that the apartment complex just up the road from us caught fire again, displacing over a hundred seniors. They just found out the building has been declared uninhabitable, so they have no homes. Our partners at Love in the Name of Christ are coordinating efforts to help. Our mission committee sent some funds. Our Deacons sent some King Soopers gift cards. I know a few people from our church have volunteered to help. Ella, one of our youth, is collecting donations today for the cause. Because they wanted this community to be better. There isn’t a formal plan about what to do to house these people displaced by the fire. We could say, “Oh that’s a shame,” or we could say, “What can I do to help?”
Whether that’s physical help, or counseling help, or just helping people wade through insurance claims, what kind of community do we want to live in? And how can we choose to help that happen? It may be harder than getting snowball fights approved, but how can you invest in a better community? A community that experiences more love and more joy as Paul prayed for the church in Philippi? If God is calling you to help with that particular situation, the contact number for Love INC is in your bulletin. Pitch in. Lend a neighborly hand. They aren’t just our figurative neighbors – they’re our “just down the street” neighbors.
We can choose to have a better community.
Choose a Different Attitude
We heard in our first text that John the Baptist came “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” And then we saw this quote from Isaiah, “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” That’s an interesting pairing to me.
That’s interesting because usually when we think about repentance, I think we picture fire and brimstone. Turn or burn. I think the word repentance usually conjures fear.
But here the Gospel of Luke is focusing not on fear, but on joy. “Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill shall be made low, the crooked [paths] shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
That’s good news, right? Do you want the obstacles in your way lowered? Do you want the twists and turns that take you away from your destination to become straight? This is like getting a tunnel through the mountains on I-70 instead of having to wind your way around them. This is good news!
So reading this, I think another choice we have, another way we can choose to change, is to choose a different attitude. We don’t have to be afraid. We don’t have to be guilty. We don’t have to be grumpy. We don’t have to be self-absorbed. Instead, Paul writes to the church in Philippi to be filled with insight, to be pure, to be filled with praise for God, to hold each other in our hearts, to show compassion.
We can choose a different attitude – our attitude can change. That’s good news!
I remember at one of my previous churches, there was a woman in one of my small groups. She was volunteering at church and other really good organizations. But in her personal life she was a bit more self-absorbed. Kind of out of the blue, in the middle of one of our small group meetings, everything clicked for her. She realized that her faith could be more than just serving a lot of places. It could transform her inner attitudes as well. And that would be an improvement for her.
And very quickly she did change. She didn’t have one of those dramatic, drug addict to saint kind of transformations. She was a fine person before, but then she became a really deep follower of Jesus. And it wasn’t a loss for her. It was gain.
What inner attitudes could be transformed by your faith in Jesus? Where have you been a little self-absorbed? Where have you been a bit grumpy? Where have you felt afraid or guilty? Choose a different attitude in the name of Jesus Christ. It will be good news for you.
Summary
Sisters and brothers, Jesus doesn’t want to nag us into change. Jesus is offering us a better way forward. Maybe that’s doing more of the things that fill you with love and joy, and doing less of the things that drain your love and joy. Maybe that’s choosing to have a better community. Maybe that’s choosing a different inner attitude.
Those aren’t changes to fear. Those aren’t changes to avoid. They’re changes to embrace. To be grateful. What change could make your life better in the name of Christ? Amen.
