Lord of All

Romans 10:8-13New International Version (NIV)

8 “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Recently, I was talking to a friend of mine who coaches and I asked him about the upcoming season.  He was telling me how his team was young and how he was trying to get them to “trust the process.”  When I heard those words, something struck me and I couldn’t help but to think about my faith in that context.  Faith is a process.  It would be so nice if it weren’t though.  If we could just say, “Ok, God, I have faith” and it was that easy.  I don’t know that life becomes any less complicated once we have followed the instructions of Romans 10:9 “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  It seems simple enough: declare with your mouth and believe in your heart.  But when we break it down and apply it to other aspects of life that phrase doesn’t hold water unless there is a process involved. For example, if I declare with my mouth that I am debt free and believe in my heart that I want the same thing but do not participate in the process of working to become debt free then simply declaring it and believing it doesn’t get me anywhere....  There is a process that I must be a part of to help me become debt free.  It is the process that brings about success.  Programs that help addicts recover like AA and the drug court where Cheyanne works are far from a 100% success rate but when a person truly decides to trust the process then they are far more likely to be successful in the program.  When they decide to give a full effort and trust those trying to help them then they have a much better chance of success.  We can apply this to just about every aspect of our lives: marriage, work, faith, raising a family, building a sense of community, etc.  Life is a process and our message for today is about trusting the process of faith.  

I came across a quote from a self-help blogger, Connie Chapman, who said, “To trust the process, wholly, completely, is to not need to know what is unfolding or why, but to simply be here in the present to experience it.”  Pretty good words to live by but I still feel like something is missing.  She talks about simply living in the present to experience life.  While that is true there is an important aspect of faith that this leaves out: eternal life.  Connie is solely worried about the here and now which I can appreciate but as Christians we have more to look forward to, there is more to the process.  And so I began to think about different groups of Christians and where they focus their attention.  Christians most typically fall into two categories when it comes to Heaven: they are either focused more on the here-and-now or more on the afterlife and where they more heavily relate directly correlates to how they approach their faith.  There was a great article on Relevant.com this week that spoke on this subject.  Scot Mcknight is the author of the article and does a great job pointing to both sides of the debate.  He points to famous theologians on both sides of the argument.  He compares it to a noisy gym where two sides are cheering for their team paying little attention to what the other side is saying.  Mcknight says, “...too much focus on the future heaven or on life in the here-and-now misses the teachings of the Bible.  Really, there is no reason why we can’t live for now in the light of the afterlife.”  In other words, there is a compromise.  He calls the compromise “Heaven People.”

So what does it mean to be heaven people?  It means living in the here-and-now but doing so by trusting the process and knowing that today is only one of many days in that process.  For example, if we fix our eyes only towards the heavens we could miss so much.  The example that comes to mind is what I witnessed yesterday at the district wrestling meet.  Being too focused on heaven would mean that the emotion that I was blessed to be a part of yesterday would be meaningless.  If heaven were the only thing that mattered, then the hard work of our vocation, the dedication to our spouse and family, the love of others would be in vain.  And if the here-and-now is all that matters then we must know that this kind of love and dedication comes to an end when we die.  Christ was so dedicated, so full of love that he died on the cross which shows us the potential that we have to love others in the here-and-now.  God raising him from the dead shows the power and glory that echoes through eternity.  Both instances are examples of grace and love.  One without the other and the process would be incomplete.  Try to telling those young men that advanced to state yesterday that it was meaningless.  Try telling their friends and families who hi-fived, hugged and even shed some tears that yesterday was meaningless.  If you could see Will Anthony run over and bear-hug his dad that then you couldn’t deny the importance of that moment.  If you could see Rose Clark stand to watch Chaz win his match knowing all that she has been through lately, you couldn’t deny the importance of yesterday.  If you could have seen Susan Phillips raise her hands in celebration when Sawyer made it to state you couldn’t deny the importance of yesterday.  Even for those kids who didn’t make it, yesterday could provide for them an important stepping stone into their future.  But if we are too wrapped up in today, we lose sight of eternity.  We lose sight of the importance of God raising Christ from the dead.  Christ died in the here-and-now but Christ’s resurrection means God broke the barriers of death.  Eternity allows us to see past today.  Eternity allows us to hope for a better future.  Eternity gives us a reason to get passed the most difficult times that we face in this life.  While we undoubtedly miss those whom we have lost in this life, Eternity gives us a hope that they now reside with their Creator.  

The Christian calendar constantly reminds us of the process.  We have now begun Lent which is the journey to the cross on Good Friday and to the empty tomb on Easter Morning.  It is easy for us to get caught up cheering for our side in that noisy gym but doing so can cause us to miss something important.  A few years ago there was a young man who was his school’s only representative at the district tournament so there was a small amount of people there to support him but when he won, it was more than just that small group that cheered.  He ran over and gave his dad a hug and celebrated with those friends and family but most of the gym cheered and enjoyed that moment.  I was asked yesterday if I missed wrestling.  I smiled and said, “absolutely not...”  I said this because I wasn’t very good at it and losing is not something I do well at and it was incredibly hard work but there was a process there.  I wrestled next to some of my closest friends.  I enjoyed watching their success but more than anything it gave me an appreciation for the moments I was able to be a part of yesterday.  Why does an athlete become overwhelmed in that moment, win or lose?  I now know and understand the hard work they have put in to get to that moment.  I know how many hours a parent has sat on uncomfortable bleachers.  More so on the losing side of things, I can empathize with that athlete and their parents.  If it weren’t for the process I went through, it would be more difficult for me to understand the emotion of that moment.  Faith is the same kind of process.  Taking part in the process together makes us stronger.  Our scripture for this morning quotes Joel chapter 2 “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  Everyone.  Being “saved” is only the beginning of the process.  A popular Christian movement only focused on the saving of souls and totally abandoned the process of faith causing many to eventually fall away because their faith was so thin and weak with no process to help it along.  Those of you who are educators know that education is a process that has one eye in the here-and-now and one on the future potential of every student.  Do not just participate in the process but also trust it.  Christ died for today and God raised him for eternity.  And somewhere in between is where our focus needs to be.  Amen.