Reformation Sunday, & Confirmation of:
Habtamu Epley, Nathan Epley, Lucas Kramer, Jake Quirke, Max Quirke
Texts: Jeremiah 31:31-34; John 8:31-36
Sermon by Rev. Robert Klonowski, Faith Lutheran Church, Homewood, IL
October 31, 2021
Five Guys
You may look at the church calendar and think today is something called Reformation Sunday, but I’m declaring this instead the Sunday of the Five Guys. After worship we’re all going to make the Hajj, the holy pilgrimage, down to Lincoln Highway for lunch!
The Sunday of the Five Guys. You know, two years ago we were planning the Confirmation class retreat weekend for this group. This was back in the days – two years ago! – when we could do such things, when the fear of something going all viral super-spreader, well, that only meant something on social media. As part of the planning, Pastor Wiegert came to me with a special request:
“Would you take them on the Confirmation retreat this year, instead of me?”
Now that was an unusual request, because that is normally the responsibility of the associate pastor, part of her Christian education portfolio. So I asked her, “Amy, why would I want to do that?”
To which she replied, “They’re all boys this time, and somehow I think you would do better in that environment.”
And I answered with a big smile and told her, using the immortal words of my old Polish grandfather, “Oh, I would enjoy to.” That’s what Grandpa Klonowski used to say: “I would enjoy to!” And so I did!
So it is that, people of God, I’m going to ask for patience on the part of most of you out there this morning, because I want to preach to our Five Guys. Thirty-nine years I’ve been doing this job, this is the first time it’s been all young men, and we men of the faith have some things to say to one another. I want to take the opportunity today to preach on what it means to be a man, and to be part of the community of Jesus Christ. I’ll preach to the Five Guys; the rest of you, feel free to listen in, if you’d like.
Now, gentlemen, preaching is always a matter of bringing the Gospel and the Kingdom of God – the world as it should be! – to break into the world as it is. When we’re talking about being a man, the first thing we have to acknowledge is that the world as it is, the old world all around us, has lots of things to say about being a man that are wrong, wrong, wrong. And when you commit yourself today to the Gospel of Christ, you will be part of the best corrective that we have for this problem – this male sickness! – because the way of Christ includes a way of being a man that is righteous, and of God. So let me go through some of these sick, mistaken, old-world images of masculinity, and let’s preach! Let’s bring some of the Gospel and the Kingdom of God to bear, on every one of them. I’ve got Five of them, as a matter of fact!
First, this old world will teach you that you are your own man. The male ideal is the loner, who goes his own way. Nothing could be further from the truth, and it is only the truth that can set you free from this terrible mistake. You all know what it means to be on a team, whether it’s the chess team, the kind of team that puts together a big musical theater production, a cross-country team, a volleyball team, a baseball team. If you are your own man on that team, if you go your own way, the whole body will suffer. On a team, you are in it, together. Or think of the households of which you are a part. You Epleys, you Kramers, you Quirkes; in a household like that, you are in it together. Or think of our pandemic response. Where we didn’t do so well, it was when someone said, “I don’t have to. I’ll go my own way.” Where we have done well in our response, was whenever we said, “We’re in this together.” You are not your own man; by the promise of your Baptism you have been saved only by God’s good grace, and it is God who has bought you with a price. You belong to God, then, Christian faith says. Christian faith says, you belong to the community.
Second, let’s talk about the nature of leadership, in this old world, and by contrast in the Kingdom of God. You know what it means to be the man in charge in this old world, don’t you? It’s the rich who call the shots, right? It’s those who have it all together, who are the respected. It’s the arrogant and the ruthless, who win. All too often that is true, when the leader, the one in charge, is The Man.
But Jesus says of such leadership that lords it over others: “It shall not be so, among you.” It shall not be so, among you!! Translated literally from the New Testament Greek, what Jesus is saying here is, “I want you to stick it to The Man!” The one who would lead among you, must be the servant of all, says Jesus. True leadership – the truth that will set you free – is not models of male domination, but rather servant leadership.
My uncle served for more than 30 years as the men’s soccer coach at Loyola University. What he used to say about his job was, “How do we make it not about what we adults need out of our young athletes, but instead about what our young athletes need, to grow and be strong?” That’s servant leadership, leadership not for self-serving domination but in the service of all, in the service of the whole. When he died, two years ago this week, 170 of his former players flew in from around the country and around the world to attend that funeral Mass.
Third – and that bit about leadership leads right into this third piece – this old world will tempt you into so many ways of male domination in other respects as well. Everything from who makes decisions to who gets to talk to who gets the credit to who gets listened to. This worldly temptation is so ingrained in us, gentlemen, and it’s so sneaky, that even Five Guys like you – good guys! – will fall into it. You know how I know? Because I’m a good guy, too, and … well!
But fortunately for us, when sin like that runs rampant in this old world and needs to be addressed, it’s then that from the Kingdom of God and the world of the Gospel God sends us angels, messengers, prophets, to speak to us a corrective word. We call these angels and prophets, women. They will talk to us. They will point out to us in no uncertain terms what we are doing. They will speak a Word of God, and some of the Word of God will be in new words, like “man-splaining.” When angels and prophets speak a Word, it is the job of those in the community of faith to hear it. Our job there is to shut up, and listen. Carefully.
Fourth, if we’re going to talk about what it means to be a Christian man, we need to talk about sex. Here again is a place where worldly models of male domination, and I’ll add to that manipulation, and exploitation, are all-too-prevalent in this old world. St. Paul offers us a corrective Word, a Gospel Word: Remember, he tells us, that in that Baptism you affirm today your body was joined to Christ. You are to use your body then, and that beautiful and exciting gift God has given you of your sexuality, in keeping with the Gospel. This is not for serving and satisfying yourself alone; it is for the upbuilding of the whole Body, the whole community. That means that sexual relationships are mutual. That means that the no from a sexual partner, means no. And that means in the end that the gift of your sexuality will be good and upbuilding and a blessing, to your sexual partners and to you. There is a Gospel way of doing it!
Fifth, and finally, to be a Christian man means to resist the surprisingly narrow definitions of masculinity that are offered by this old world. Think about it: a successful man, a celebrated man, is someone who makes it with some specialized kind of sports prowess, or business success, or some such thing. But when Jesus gathered his earliest followers he reached out first to the different, the poor, the outcast, the oddball – in other words, to everybody who did NOT fit the contemporary definition of success. Gentlemen, there is a giftedness about each one of you that in some ways fits well with social standards of masculinity, but in some ways does not fit at all. And yet each of these gifts you hold, these ways that you are, are blessings you have received from God. Don’t buy into the world’s way of how you ought to be a man. Claiming your identity as Baptized follower of Christ as you do today, you can be a different kind of man. After all, Jesus certainly was.
Enough. Step forward now, and claim that identity: Christian man! Pastor Wiegert and I and this whole community, we are so proud of you! We just can’t wait, to see what God will do next, with such fine young men!