Saint Luke's Lutheran Church

Cynics and critics of the Church have described Christians as people so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good. I have known a few Christians who fit this description - church members who spend a great deal of time in Bible study, but are absolutely uninterested and uninformed and unconcerned about the problems and concerns in the world around them; Christians who spend hours in prayer and meditation, but do not take the time to reach out to help a neighbor in need; believers who will only associate with other Christians and avoid relationships with unchurched people who need to hear God's message of love and hope; people so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.

There don't seem to be as many people like that today as there used to be. The Church seems to have pretty well solved the problem of being heavenly minded. In fact, it looks like the pendulum has swung the other way. Today Christians tend to focus more on the here and now and very little on the then and there. The temptation today is to get so caught up in the things of this world that we loose sight of where we are going - that we forget about heaven. It is easy to do. After all, we don't hear much talk about heaven anymore - not even in the churches. Even fifty years ago, C. S. Lewis commented in his book The Problem of Pain, "We are very shy nowadays, of even mentioning heaven. We are afraid of the jeer about `pie in the sky' and of being told that we are trying to escape from the duty of making a happy world here-and-now into dreams of a happy world elsewhere. But, either there is 'pie in the sky' or there is not. If there is not, then Christianity is false, for this doctrine is woven into its whole fabric. If there is, then this truth, like any other, must be faced."

Paul would agree with C. S. Lewis. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul contrasts those whose minds are on earthly things with those whose minds are on heavenly things. He makes it clear that we have our citizenship in heaven, and it is this citizenship that should guide and direct, shape and mold our lives here on earth. And he encourages us to find the proper balance between living in the world and yet not being of the world. Jesus had to walk this balance beam himself. Through his incarnation, Jesus was born into our world, and for 33 years he lived in the world - experiencing every aspect of life in this world from sorrow to joy, from pleasure to suffering, from friendship to loneliness, from acceptance to rejection, from death to taxes. For 33 years Jesus was very much in the world, but he always knew that he was not of the world. He always knew that there would come a time when he would be in that world no longer. That reality and that awareness is what gave his life and work focus and perspective.

Paul says that it is the same for us. We are also very much in the world. This is where we live and move and have our being. But, Paul says, our minds are not to be set on worldly things. Our perspective needs to be broader than the here and now. Our vision needs to look farther than this time and place. In other words, like Jesus, we need to be in the world, without being of the world.

The temptation, however, is to settle in. The temptation is to get caught up in the ways of the world - to exchange heavenly values for earthly ones, to live only for today, to spend our time and effort on acquiring and accumulating things that will never last, to be so enamored of our life here on earth that we neglect our spiritual life. And the sad thing is that we fall into this pattern without realizing it.

Recently a publishing company conducted a survey to determine what kind of books educated American's preferred to read. High on everyone's list was the Bible, or course, and then classics by authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, and Edgar Allen Poe. In return for their cooperation, the researchers offered a free book from a list of titles published by the company. The most popular choice among this high-minded group was "Murder of a Burlesque Queen."

So it is that often the values by which we live do not match the values which we claim to hold. That happens when we say that family is most important but we are too busy to eat dinner together or have caring conversations. That happens when we say that people are more important than things, but we spend more time watching television or on the internet than helping someone in need. That happens when we say that the members of St. Luke's are all ministers, but we are so busy taking trips or playing golf, or going out to dinner that they say they don't have time to do ministry.

In the face of this temptation to set our minds on earthly things, Paul says, "Stand firm in the Lord." Then in the following verses, he goes on to describe how to do that. "Rejoice in the Lord always. . . .Let your gentleness be known to everyone. . . .Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made know to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Today is the day the church remembers Perpetua and Felicity, two young Christian women who were martyred on March 7 in the year 203. At that time, Roman law prohibited anyone from becoming a Christian, but Perpetua and Felicity had come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. They love Jesus and trusted in him, and they wanted to be baptized. Before that happened, however, they were arrested and thrown into prison. Under penalty of death, they were ordered to offer a sacrifice for the welfare of the emperor. Perpetua's father, who was not a believer, came to the prison to beg his daughter to offer the sacrifice. She refused. She would not deny her Lord and Savior -- not for her father, not for her infant son, not even to save her own life. So Perpetua and Felicity were taken to an arena where they were first attacked by wild animals and then put to death by a sword.

We know the details of this story because Perpetua kept a diary of her last days and we still have copies of what she wrote. We also have copies of an eye witness account of what happened when Perpetua and Felicity martyred. This is what that eye witness wrote: Perpetua and Felicity "marched from the prison to the amphitheatre joyfully as though they were going to heaven, with calm faces, trembling, if at all, with joy rather than fear."

These two young Christian women are remembered by the church today because they were a shining example of what Paul was writing about to the Philippians. They rejoiced in the Lord - even as they were about to die. Throughout their arrest and trial and execution, they let their gentleness be known to everyone who saw them, including the Roman officials and soldiers. They did not worry or fear, even in the face of death, because they knew where their real citizenship was and their hearts and minds were guarded by the very peace of God.

I do expect that any of us will be faced with martyrdom as Perpetua and Felicity were. But in some ways, our circumstances are more difficult and more dangerous than theirs. For these martyrs, the line was clearly drawn in the sand. Their choice was to stand with Jesus or to renounce him, to live as a citizen of this world or a citizen of the next. For us, the choices are not nearly so clear. We live in a time and place where people believe that it is their right to worship God as they choose without persecution or oppression. We live in a time and place where Christians believe that they can live in this world without making any significant sacrifices for our faith. We live in a time and place where so many church people believe that they can have dual citizenship - both in this world and in heaven as well.

To this Paul says, "Stand firm in the Lord." Remember who you are as children of God, and let that be reflected in everything you say and do. Don't settle in. Remember that you are a sojourner, a resident alien in a foreign land. Don't get so comfortable that you forget whose you are and where your true loyalty is. Those whose minds are set on earthly things are bound for destruction, but by the death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord, we are destined for a better place. Amen.