Heroes

While I was in seminary, I worked as a nanny for a family with a 3-year-old little boy named Michael, who got to watch 30 minutes of television a day. It was a precious commodity. And he saved it every day so that he could watch Power Rangers. And you know what his favorite thing to play was – Power Rangers. Flipping, fighting, kicking, wrestling… every afternoon. He loved them; he wanted to be like them. To activate their powers, the Power Rangers morphed with a cheer: Ninja ranger power now, and it’s morphin’ time: white ranger power, black ranger power, pink ranger power, blue ranger power, yellow ranger power, red ranger power. And just like that, regular teenagers became Power Rangers, ready to take on the villain.

My kids didn’t get to watch many Power Ranger episodes. Because I knew what would happen – flipping, fighting, kicking, wrestling – as they imitated the heroes. Paul knows, too, that we imitate our heroes. And so he warns the Philippians, and us, to choose our heroes carefully.

Paul encourages them to imitate him and others who live like him. He writes, “Our citizenship is in heaven.” We are visitors in a foreign land. We have a passport, and a visa, with clearance to work, but we know our visa will expire, and we will go home.

Paul warns them about living like many do. Paul says many have destruction as their goal. They worship full bellies and satisfied lives. Their minds are set on earthly things. “Many,” he says, “live as enemies of the cross of Christ.” What does that mean? Remember he is writing to the church in Philippi. Philippi is a powerful city. It is a Roman colony, which means that it is a city that has been designated a retirement location for veteran Roman soldiers, who have the power of self-government under Roman law and freedom from taxes. What Paul is saying is that many wield the power of victory rather than the power of vulnerability. The cross of Christ reveals God’s power through vulnerability.

When you watch Power Rangers, they always win. They always defeat the bad guys…in 30 minutes. That’s what heroes do, right? They win.

Trevor Hudson is a pastor in South Africa, just outside Johannesburg, and he writes about God’s power that “creates, redeems, liberates, and heals. I’m concerned, however,” he writes, “that we often speak about God’s power in a triumphalistic way. We say that when God’s power is at work, everything works out well….But what do these grandiose testimonies mean to parents whose child has leukemia? What do these testimonies to God’s power mean to the thousands of young people in South Africa who are looking for a job? What do they mean to a mother of three, dying of breast cancer? What kind of God has been represented in these testimonies? Although God is all powerful, that power is revealed in vulnerability, weakness, and suffering. That’s the gospel secret. The God we worship has come to us in Jesus.”

Our hero’s story reveals that he has always been powerful and vulnerable. His first bed was a feeding trough, yet his birth announcement was delivered by angels. His earthly father was a poor carpenter who begged for some place out of the streets for him to be born, yet his heavenly father celebrated his birth with a star unlike any star before or since. As he came to claim his kingdom, he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey rather than a chariot, weeping rather than rejoicing. Yet people lined the parade route with their cloaks and waved palm branches shouting “Hosanna!” As he hung on the cross, he whispered forgiveness. Vulnerable. Powerful.

There are two ways to live, Paul is telling us. We can be our own heroes, rely on our own power, set our minds on earthly things. Or we can look to Jesus, and rely on his power, set our minds on heavenly things. But we can’t be our own heroes and rely on Jesus’ power at the same time. We have to become vulnerable.

It is at our weakest place that God enters our lives. Where we hurt the most, the place of emptiness, the place where the ground is shifting out of control…stand there and Jesus will meet you.

Rev. Dr. Tony Campolo tells about preaching at a church and on impulse, at the close of the service, he said if anyone wanted to stay behind for healing, he would be glad to pray for them. He took his time as he prayed with each of the people who stayed. He listened and hugged, he anointed them with oil and prayed.

“Four days later,” tells Tony, “I got a phone call, and the woman on the other end said, ‘Tony, on Sunday you prayed for my husband. He had cancer.’

When I heard the word ‘had’ my heart quickened a bit. ‘Had cancer?’ I asked.

The woman answered, ‘Well, he’s dead now.’

When she said that,” Tony tells, “I thought to myself, A lot of good I do.

Then the woman said, “You don’t understand. When my husband and I walked into that church on Sunday, he was angry with God. He had cancer and he knew he was going to be dead soon, and he hated God for letting it happen. He wanted to see his grandchildren grow up more than anything. At night he would lie in bed and curse God. It was horrible. And the angrier he got toward God, the meaner he was to everyone around him. It was unbearable to be in the same room with him. His nastiness just kept getting worse and worse and worse. But then you laid hands on him on Sunday morning and you prayed for him. When he walked out of church I knew there was something different. I could feel it. He was a different person. The last four days of our lives have been the best four days we’ve ever had together. We talked and laughed. We even sang hymns with each other. It was a good, good time.’

She paused, then added something really profound. She said, ‘Tony, he wasn’t cured, but he was healed.’”

His cancer didn’t go away. But, Jesus met him at the point of his deepest need. Philippians 3:21 happened by the power of the Holy Spirit as he opened himself in prayer, Paul writes “Jesus will transform our humble bodies that they may be conformed to his glorious body.”

As they stood in the sanctuary, he stood in the place of his greatest weakness, and Jesus met him there. In his vulnerability, her husband received the power of God. Power of knowing that his citizenship was in heaven; power that prepared him for the journey home.

He had a choice: to be his own hero, rely on his own power, set his mind on earthly things, or look to Jesus, rely on his power, and set his mind on heavenly things. He couldn’t be his own hero and rely on Jesus’ power at the same time. He had to become vulnerable and meet Jesus in that place of weakness. He had to allow Jesus to be the hero.

We have the same choice to make in our lives. We all have places of weakness, of pain, of fear…when we go there, Jesus, our hero, meets us in power. Thanks be to God. Amen.