Respect

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon
Sunday, September 4, 2011

We take it within ourselves that we build and judge our character. The Urbandale Police Department, as part of their cultural integrity and the basis of that integrity is respect, respect for those about us and those after us. I have come to find, over the years, that if you would like to have respect, you must first show respect to your friends, your peers and your citizens. As a resident, they receive that and that’s what the cultural integrity does. It builds up that pillar which is the basis of Character Counts.

I don’t know about you but when I hear the word “respect,” I get this Aretha Franklin song going through my head. “R-E-S-P-E-C-T.” Aretha wanted just a little bit of it. Don’t we all? Don’t all of us what to have a little bit of respect shown to us? As parents, don’t we get really upset if our kids are disrespectful to us? Relationships fall apart if one person senses that the other one doesn’t respect them anymore.

Respect. But what is respect? Pastor Phil, on the Gloria Dei blog, said “Respect is easy to identify but it’s hard to define.”

This morning, I want to identify respect, identify it in the life of Jesus Himself as He identifies for us and embodies for us what it is to treat others respectfully. This quality of a good character is especially important to me, I need to tell you, because I see less and less of it in our society today. And as we see less and less respect among people and treating each other respectfully, it seems to me that it is a poison within our society that is ruining relationships and it is dividing us, putting a wedge between us.

It seems that we are deeply partisans in our world today, and I’m talking beyond politics. We have beyond just Republicans and Democrats. We have east-siders and we have south-siders. We have those people who live in the small towns. “Oh, those are just city folks over there.” We have management and we have workers. The list is endless. We draw lines. We put ourselves into camps and somehow, if you’re in the camp, you’re good. If you’re not, you’re bad.

In the church, we notch it up a bit because, after all, we have God on our side. And what I perceive is this: If we believe, “I’m right and you’re wrong, then I’m excused from treating you respectfully. I can vilify you, I can insult you, I can be hateful towards you because, after all, you’re wrong and I’m right.” That is the opposite of what we see in the life of Jesus.

This morning, I want to take two encounters that Jesus had with people. In both of those encounters, the people were living counter to what God would have them live. He did not agree with their lifestyle or their choices. They were unacceptable in God’s sight and yet, in both instances, He could treat them respectfully.

We’re going to take a look at the woman who was caught in adultery. We’re also going to look at Zacchaeus, the tax collector. I believe we will see there that Jesus for us embodies what it is to treat another individual respectfully. Hopefully, we will learn of the importance of that for us and our relationship with Him and finally, I believe we can see that we can have an impact. We can have an impact on our world and our community if we open up our hearts and we learn from Jesus.

He is the embodiment of what it is to treat somebody else respectfully. But before I dive into that, I think I need to make one point really clear. Respect does not equal agreement. That’s where I think we get hung up, somehow we’ve equated that if we treat another person respectfully, then that means we agree with them or we condone their behavior, they’re okay at least and we’re okay. Respect does not equal agreement.

If you look at the life of Jesus, the two encounters I just mentioned, Jesus does not condone nor does He agree with the lifestyle that is there. How does it end with His encounter with the woman who’s accused of adultery? It ends this way. Jesus says to her, “Go now and leave your life of sin,” indicating, “Woman, you haven’t been living right. You’re not in accordance with the Word of God.” He could treat her respectfully, but He didn’t agree with her nor does He condone her behavior.

Look at Jesus’ encounter with Zacchaeus, the tax collector. Tax collectors were thieves. They were crooked. That’s how they made their money. They would collect the taxes for Rome, but then they would overcharge the people. Zacchaeus is the chief tax collector, so he’s very wealthy. That means he stole a lot of money. Jesus doesn’t agree with that. He doesn’t condone that. How does He end that encounter? He says, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Zacchaeus was lost, but Jesus came to seek and to save.

What I’m saying is this: Jesus accepted them where they were, but He loved them too much to leave them there. He accepted the woman where she was, but He loved her too much to leave her there. He accepted Zacchaeus where he was, but He loved him too much to leave him there. Respect doesn’t equal agreement, but it does open up opportunity.

We look at the life of Jesus, specifically in these two encounters. I believe there are three ways that Jesus exemplifies for us what it is to be respectful of other people. He does it in His attitude, His actions and His adjectives.

First of all, in attitude. The attitude is how do we view another person? How is it that we see them? So I’m going to ask you the question, how do you see other people? How do you view people, specifically people who you do not agree with, people who you do not condone how they live? You do not agree with their lifestyle. How do you see those people? How do you view them? What I’m trying to get at is where do we get to the point where we say to ourselves, “I don’t have to show respect for that individual. They’re not worthy of respect.” I would contend that we get to that point when we see them as less, when we see them as lower than us, when we see them as less of a human being. If we can dehumanize them, then we’re excused from showing any kind of respect towards them. At that point, we can vilify them. At that point, we can degrade them. We can look down upon them.

How did Jesus view people? What was His attitude toward them? Jesus always saw them as a child of God, as one of His creations. Jesus saw every individual as a person worth dying for. He didn’t agree or condone the woman caught in adultery nor Zacchaeus and his thieving ways. In fact, it was their actions, it was their behavior, it was their lifestyle that He would have to give His life for. He would have to shed His blood for their forgiveness. But He saw each one of them as one of His own creations. His attitude was one of love and compassion.

If you will, He lived out His own teaching. Jesus was asked once, “What is the greatest commandment?” He said, “The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.” And the second one is like it. He says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Treat others as you would want to be treated. He could be respectful to them and not agree with them. He could be respectful to them and not condone their behavior, but it all started with His attitude. How did He view them?

Do we view people as objects? Do we view them as somehow less or lower or do we view them as Jesus does, as a child of God, as a person who Jesus was willing to die for? The attitudes instill over into the actions. Depending upon how we view people, depending upon our attitudes towards people, then that will spill over to how we treat people. If people are less, if people are lower, if we have dehumanized them, then that means we can degrade them. That means we can humiliate them. That means we can vilify them, we can be hateful towards them because, “After all, they’re less than us and so we don’t need to engage them. We don’t need to talk with them. We don’t need to listen to them.”

But if our attitude is different and Jesus’ attitude was different, that spills over then onto how He treated people. That spills over to His actions towards people. As He sees each individual as a person worthy of His life, as He sees each individual as a child of God, then that spills over to how He treats them and His actions towards them.

Take a look at the story of Zacchaeus. The story of Zacchaeus is in Luke 19. Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man there named Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector and very wealthy. He wanted to see Jesus but, being a short man, he could not so he ran ahead, found a sycamore fig tree to see Him. When Jesus reached that spot, He looked up and said to Him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” In that simple act, He changed everything. “I must stay at your house today, Zacchaeus.” In that simple act, He elevated Zacchaeus to be equal with everyone else who was around Him.

They didn’t see it that way. The next verse says, “They all muttered and said, ‘He’s going to be the guest of a sinner?’” Zacchaeus was less than all the rest of them. Zacchaeus was lower because he was working with Rome, because he was cheating them. He was stealing their money. I’m being repetitive here, but Jesus didn’t agree with what he was doing, but He saw him as a child of God as He saw everyone else who was gathered there and, in that simple act, that simple act of saying, “I’m going to be at your house today,” to say that, “I accept you where you’re at, I’m willing to engage in a relationship with you,” he elevated Zacchaeus with everyone else.

Our attitude towards people flows over into our actions. Are we willing to engage, are we willing to acknowledge them as a fellow child of God? Are we willing to listen? Are we willing to seek to understand before we sought to be understood? Jesus is the only one who had every right to judge them and yet, He was never mean. He was never hateful. He was never degrading. The attitude spilled over into the actions.

The adjectives sort of mix into the whole mess. What I mean by adjectives is what is it that we label people? How do we identify them? How do we categorize them? In Jesus’ day, the woman who was brought out, she was an adulteress. She was a cheater. They probably had other uncolorful words to describe her. Zacchaeus was a traitor. He was a thief. He was scum.

What are the labels we have today for people? I won’t even say them. You know what they are. They’re degrading. They’re humiliating. They’re insulting. The labels we put on people will influence our attitude, which will flow over into our actions, in the same way our attitude and our actions will spill over into the adjectives, the labels we give to them.

How is it that Jesus labels people? Look, once again, to the story of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus, when Jesus made that move to have dinner at his house that day, God worked in his heart and he stood up and he said, “Look here, Lord, I give half my possessions to the poor. If I’ve cheated anyone, I’ll pay them back four times.” Jesus said this, “Today, salvation has come to this house because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.” Jesus called him a son of Abraham. Jesus is saying to the crowds, “He is a Jew just like the rest of you. He is a descendant of our father, Abraham, just like the rest of you. He is a child of God.”

How is it that God identifies you? He calls you son and daughter, brother, friend, dearly loved children of God. Do you think He agrees with everything you’ve done? Do you think He condones all of your decisions and your life choices? Jesus is willing to accept you where you are, but He loves you too much to leave you there.

This is the impact for us. Jesus is willing to accept us where we are, but He loves us too much to leave us there. Ask yourself this question: Have you ever looked at another human being with lust in your heart, had desire for someone that you weren’t supposed to? Jesus says, “If you have, you have already committed adultery with that person in your heart.”

Have you ever kept too much change back that’s been given to you? Have you ever borrowed something and not returned it? Have you ever stolen an idea from somebody else? Cheated on a test when they weren’t looking? Then you’re no different from Zacchaeus but God accepts us where we are but He loves us too much to leave us there.

He sees you as a person worth dying for. He sees you as someone who He was willing to give His life for, to shed His blood so that you could be forgiven, so you could be given a new life, a new life in Him, a new life that can have an impact in our world, an impact in our community.

I believe that respect leads to relationships and relationships lead to real opportunity. If we can treat people respectfully, that leads to relationships and those relationships will lead to real opportunities for us to share the love of God with people. Do you know what the reputation Christians have with non-Christians? Study after study after study after study shows it again and again and again. “Christians are hateful. Christians are judgmental. Christians are closed-minded.” We have to turn that around and I believe that we can turn that around without compromising one iota what we know to be true from the Word of God.

I want to say that again. I believe that we can turn that around without compromising one iota what we know to be true from the Word of God.

If we can treat people respectfully through our attitude, our actions and our adjectives, then that makes way for relationships. If we can engage people, if we can listen to people, if we can seek to understand so maybe we have a right then so they can understand us, that builds relationships.

Imagine the impact we can have if, in this community, Christians were known as people who stood firm in what they believed but they were also people who treated everyone respectfully, willing to listen, willing to seek to understand, not willing to degrade, won’t engage in labels and humiliation and insult them in hateful talk. If we could have that reputation, those relationships would then lead to real opportunities.

When you have a relationship that leads to opportunities to learn from one another in those areas where God has not spoken clearly, there can be agreement. In those areas where God is crystal clear, that leads to opportunities for us to share the truth of God’s Word and to share the love of God with those if we didn’t have the relationship, it simply wouldn’t happen.

One last example from the life of Jesus. When Jesus breathes His last on the cross and He dies, the Centurion standing at the foot of the cross declared, “Surely, this was the Son of God.” How do we know that just a few hours earlier that wasn’t the guard pounding the spikes into His hands and His feet and if not the guy doing that, certainly standing by the side nodding in approval? Jesus, at that moment, as they were nailing Him to the cross, had every right to condemn everyone standing around Him saying, “You’re all going to burn in hell because you are putting the Son of God to death.” How much different would that final scene be when He breathes His last?

But instead, Jesus asked for forgiveness. He saw every one of them as a person He was willing to die for, to reclaim, to reunite with the Father in heaven.

It can have an impact. And we need to lead the way, to have a noble character, to build a community of character. It gives us opportunities to share the love of God with people.

Respect. Treating someone respectfully. It’s easy to identify. It’s hard to define. Believe we can identify it in the life of Jesus, to His attitude, His actions and His adjectives. And if we open up our hearts and learn from Him, I truly believe we can make an impact in our community. Amen.