St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church

Contact our Web Master

Philippians:  Pump It Up!

Philippians 2:1-13

September 25, 2005

1. This section of Paul’s letter to the Philippians contains what is considered the first "affirmation of faith." It actually is very close to the middle section of our Brief Statement of Faith that we affirm many Sundays. And it comes in the middle of his advice about the very thing we considered right after Easter – being effective disciples of Jesus. This passage we should all commit to memory, so we can bring it to mind every time we need to remember how to live.

2. So, last Tuesday when I was beginning to think of a good way to visualize these words for you, several ministers gathered around the table in my office to discuss how we could help that family from New Orleans relocate in Haskell. I looked up, and saw this flattened inflatable globe that’s been sitting on top of my book shelf for several years. I jumped up, totally disrupting the conversation at the table, and said, "The air’s gone out of my world!" Everybody laughed and said "There’s a sermon for you!" After they left, I thought, "You know, they’re right." This cheap inflatable balloon, painted to represent the planet earth, symbolizes much more than that! It is our life together, as citizens of the earth. And even more than that, it is a shocking reminder that some of the "air" has gone out of our world!

3. Last Friday night, the Presbytery gathered for worship and communion at Dwight Mission. Rev. Maxwell Banda of Malawi preached. He told us how amazed he was to go in the book stores. He saw shelf after shelf of brand new Bibles and Bible reference books, still in there cellophane wrappers. He said "This is not right! In America you have all these Bibles and no one reads them; in Malawi, we have all these new Christians and no Bibles for them to read and nurture their faith." Some of the air has gone out of our world. Our global community has gone flat. We in America number one-third of the world’s space (more or less), but have two-thirds of the world’s ‘stuff." The other two-thirds of the world’s people share one-third of the ‘stuff.’ He’s right, we in America have too much, and it’s made our world go flat. When something goes flat – anything: tire, soccer ball, basketball, football -- what can a person do about it? Pump It Up!

4. "Pump It Up!" What a perfect title for this sermon. But I wasn’t too sure about that little phrase. What if it meant something good to me, but had an unwholesome meaning to a whole different segment of our society. So I went to the internet and googled "Pump It Up" – and discovered that "Pump It Up" happens to be the name of a new DDR.

5. For those of you who are not familiar with one of the new rages in technology, I need to explain DDR. (Actually, I’m one of those "uninitiated" poor souls who needed to have it explained to me!) DDR is a phenomena called Dance Dance Revolution. It puts more jive in your jitterbug, so to speak. You purchase a dancepad controller, plug into a screen, stand on the dancepad, and then follow the directions on the screen – move your arms or legs in the direction of the arrows on the screen. It’s kind of a technological "Hokey Pokey" or the Twister game set to music. One reviewer had this to say about "Pump It Up":

It must be noted that experienced DDR players will find this game disconcerting at first -- the easiest levels are almost too easy, while harder difficulties spiral out of control, as they feature advanced step patterns totally foreign to the four arrow experience. There is much frustration in finding your feet wandering back into the standard left/right pose of DDR, which on a PIU pad finds you in the gap between arrows. Retraining yourself to be able to smoothly play Pump It Up is a large part of the early game.

4. Isn’t that amazing? Doesn’t that describe the same difficulty we have in being a Christian? It does! Trust me, it does! If I tweak this set of instructions ever so slightly, it would describe the difficulties we encounter being an effective disciple! I’m going to read the Pump It Up directions again, this time substituting Christians words for DDR words:

It must be noted that experienced Christians will find Jesus’ lifestyle disconcerting at first -- the easiest levels are almost too easy (love God, love your neighbor, love yourself), while harder difficulties (showing mercy, loving justice, walking humbly with God) spiral out of control, as they feature advanced actions totally foreign to the way they acted before. There is much frustration in finding yourself reverting back into the standard patterns of relating to people, which finds you in the gap between God’s Way and the world’s way. Retraining yourself to be able to truly follow Jesus Christ is a large part of being an effective disciple.

5. The DDR fan cannot expect to master "Pump It Up" without a bit of retraining, and we Christians cannot expect to "Pump Up" our world overnight! We must retrain ourselves, also, and that takes practice. I’ve been trying to learn to play the Irish Pennywhistle. Talk about retraining myself, and having to practice! I so look forward to the day I can play beautifully. It wouldn’t seem to be too hard. After all, I can read music, and I can play the piano a little bit. But to play the Pennywhistle will take some retraining. It’s not as easy as it looks! And at this point, I have to keep my eye on everything – the holes in the whistle, my fingers, the music! I’ve already gotten frustrated. A couple of weeks ago I spent 24-hour spiritual retreat at the Osage Monastery west of Sand Springs. I took my Pennywhistle with me, and went for a walk in the woods. I got as far away from the cabins as I could, sat down on a bench, and began to play. After a few minutes I became aware of a loud noise, sort of. I stopped playing. The ‘noise’ was a flock of birds. Perched on the branches of the tree in front of me were about 8 little birds, all staring at me, screeching at me. They were not singing along with me! I’m not the only creature frustrated at trying to retrain myself.

To navigate through the web site, click on the buttons at the top or on the side of the pages or on any links within the page.  Use your browser's Back button to return to the previous page if that page does not appear in the buttons available.  External hyperlinks should open in a new window - close it to return to this page.