A burglar broke into a house one night.  He shined his flashlight around, looking for valuables, and when he picked up a CD player to place in his sack, a strange, disembodied voice echoed from the dark saying, “Jesus is watching you.” He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight out and froze.  When he heard nothing more after a bit, he shook his head, promised himself a vacation after the next big score, then clicked the light back on and began searching for more valuables.  Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he heard, “Jesus is watching you.”  Freaked out, he shined his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice. Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot.  “Did you say that?” He hissed at the parrot.  “Yep,” the parrot confessed, and then squawked, “I’m just trying to warn you.”  The burglar relaxed. “Warn me, huh? Who the heck are you?”  “Moses,” replied the bird.  “Moses?” the burglar laughed.  “What kind of stupid people would name a parrot Moses?”  The bird promptly answered, “The same kind of people that would name a Rottweiler Jesus…”

This burglar would have been better off if he had known Jesus was watching him the whole time. Imagine the things he would have done differently if he had known about Jesus, the Rottweiler that is.  Not suspecting that there would be any such consequences for his actions he felt free to do as he pleased only to find out Jesus was watching him.  As far fetched as this story is the concept is not that far removed from how all of us behave.  When no one is watching we feel pretty free to act as we please and can do all sorts of things we wouldn’t if we knew someone, especially our Lord was watching.  “While the cat is away the mice will play” we say and go about our business.  I believe as Christians we are called to a way of life, that way being marked by the life of Christ, living in his example, fulfilling as best we can the expectations the Lord has placed on us, and we are called to do this always even when we don’t think anyone is watching.  I suspect that most of us don’t believe Jesus is watching us, at least not in any close or imminent sort of way.  Most of the time our sense is that Jesus is far off and so we don’t worry too much. 

This is why I find the last sentence of the passage we read a few moments ago to be so interesting.  “Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”  Did you catch that, Paul isn’t going to be around, he is absent, which means he is not looking over their shoulders.  If Paul, who at least had been present with these people, was going to be absent, how much more absent must Jesus have seemed to these folks none of whom had likely ever seen Jesus face to face?  Yet Paul is encouraging them to live as if Jesus were watching, not in some far off distant way, not like a Rottweiler either,  but Paul is encouraging the Philippians to live as if Jesus were among them, watching, but also instructing, nurturing, guiding them into more and more perfect disciples. 

This last sentence is not rocket science, nor is the rest of the passage, but we seem to be challenged in doing it.  My guess is as Christians we know what we are supposed to do, we have heard these things over and over, but just in case let me quickly cover what Paul says we should be doing.  He says the church should be unified, that we should love each other and get along with one another, that we shouldn’t act selfish or conceited but instead be humble and view others as better than ourselves, that we should not be so concerned with our own needs as we are with the needs of others, and finally Paul says that we should do these things because they are what Jesus did and we ought to follow his example.  Again I don’t imagine I am telling you anything new.  I also don’t imagine that the church looks a whole lot like I would expect it to if we had done what Paul encouraged the Philippians to do 2000 years ago.  So why haven’t we done these things, why doesn’t the church look more like what Paul has said here?  My guess is it is because we have failed to live as if Jesus were watching or as if we expected his return any time soon.  We have failed to be busy or even look busy because the boss is no where around, and we don’t expect him any time soon. 

Our church office manager, Phyllis, and I have been following a certain line of prophecy ever since the man she sat next to on the shuttle bus at the State Fair warned her that Jesus was going to return on the 29^th of September 2008.  Yes that is right tomorrow.  It has something to do with someone’s interpretation of scripture and so many red or blood moons till the Lord returns.  I can see the concern on some of your faces.  I don’t really expect Jesus to come tomorrow; in my mind it is possible but not likely.  I do think that I, we ought to live each day as if we believed he was coming tomorrow, as if he were watching.  I believe that as John Wesley once said we ought to “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.”  There is no room for excuses in that kind of living; always doing what Christ calls us to do as if he were watching. 

In the September October 2007 edition of the Upper Room Walter Maris tells the following story.  “I was headed down the highway to a conference when I noticed a farmer walking down the median. I was going in the opposite direction, and I inwardly wished him well and kept driving. Then I came upon an old grain truck with a flat tire. I realized that the farmer was going for help, and he had about a three-mile walk ahead of him.  I began to feel uncomfortable with my decision to go on my way. I felt that I had no choice but to turn around and help the man. Locating a median crossover, I headed back. The man accepted my offer of a ride, and I took him to a truck stop where he was able to make arrangements to get his tire repaired.  I had invested 30 minutes of time and effort in another person’s life. Rarely are emergencies convenient; but if we are to give aid and comfort, we must make ourselves available when others need help.

Rarely is fulfilling our calling to live as Christ calls us extremely difficult but rarely is it convenient either.  Often times it is no more difficult than going 30 minutes out of our way for a stranger, giving a cup of cold water to someone who is thirsty, sharing our abundance with those in need, or using our gifts to take care of the world’s hurts.  It is just that simple and yet just that inconvenient that without the sense that someone is watching we are tempted at times to let it slide.  But someone is watching.  Jesus is watching, again not as a Rottweiler ready to pounce, not as a score keeper, but as one who has already humbled himself and suffered death on our behalf to make up for all the many times we have fallen short of living this way.  Jesus is watching, cheering us on, hoping this time we get it right so that all of heaven might celebrate the good we do in his name.  Also the world is watching us, wondering if we will live according to what we say we believe.  May we exemplify Christ to the world by living as though Jesus return was near, as if he was watching us. 

As Church Growth consultant Thomas Bandy points out there can be so many things get in the way of living out our call in the church.  He says: “The church, like much of our culture, is like a rocket ship attempting to escape the gravitational pull of the earth, but never quite generating enough momentum. The church accommodates to culture, not by accepting theories of evolution, but by believing (as do so many scientists, businessmen and politicians) that our origins are more important than our destinies. Pull back, hunker down, slow down immigration, close the borders, educate the ushers, repair the organ … and get a youth group. But only get a youth group if the youth are educated to pull back, hunker down, defend the borders, educate the ushers, repair the organ … and so on and on.Friends, here is the secret to church growth: Get a mission! That’s it. Beyond that single thing, you can do whatever tactic works to help you achieve that mission. If traditional worship works, do it. If your location and property does it, maintain it. But if it doesn’t, change it. And stop arguing about it. Stop trying “to have your property and your mission, too.” First the mission … always the mission … and your church will grow again.

May we as a congregation continue to grow, grow in our mission, grow in our calling to live as Christ taught us, grow in our faith, grow in our love, grow in our compassion, and inclusivity, grow in our embracing without prejudice all God’s Children, grow in our vision, grow in our welcoming, grow in our unity and humility, and grow into our living as though Christ were watching.  Spiritually we know that Christ is with us always, but physically Christ has been absent from us the way Paul was absent from the Philippians, but may we not play while the Lord’s away.  Instead may we work each day as if we expected the Lord to return any moment, to live in such a way that reflects our knowledge that Jesus is watching us, rooting for us, and cheering us on into greater and greater faithfulness.  Amen.