'To download a copy of this sermon please click
here'
Fw: Sermon
...
Friday, May 22, 2009 10:17:47 AM
From:
"Rev. Tom S. Jones, BCD, LMFT"
...
View
To:
pastortom@prodigy.net
SermonWeAreTheChurch.wpd (17KB)
We Are the Church
Grace & Peace to each of you this morning; grace & peace.
It’s hard for us to imagine what it was really like for the disciples in the first weeks after Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead. They knew what the Roman authorities could do to anyone they saw as a threat, and they were learning that while the Jewish authorities did not understand much about Jesus, they really didn’t approve of any followers of Jesus talking about him or healing the sick. The gospel of John describes the disciples locking the doors so they would be safe from all the local authorities and their informants. Suddenly Jesus appears to them saying, “Peace be with you.” They probably felt a bit like the shepherds, when the angels appeared saying, “Be not afraid.” Right, Then. Sure. Ok, Got it!
From the perspectives of the disciples, not knowing at all what the future would hold, but knowing there is danger everywhere, and nothing seems to be making much sense... well, staying calm sounds like a nice plan, but just how does one go about trying to implement ? The way most folks try to get life back to normal is to try to do the same old things in the same old way, get back into the old routine, & take charge of your life. But they don’t really have that option. Jesus comes to them in a locked room just a few days after being executed by the most powerful military force in the world at the time, and Jesus gives them the Holy Spirit and sends them out to work. Actually, I think the disciples had already just had a pretty tough week, and they were probably a bit frightened, & maybe that would have been a good time to take a break & go on a nice long vacation in some Mediterranean paradise. But Jesus had a different idea; instead of giving them permission to stay locked-up in hiding, or to run away in fear, Jesus blesses them with a holy commission. Jesus sends them into the world, with all its challenges, and you know, maybe that is the message for all of us today!
2
We can focus on all the rational-sounding excuses for why we can’t possibly “take on one more thing.” We might blame the economy, or complain that we don’t have enough resources to deal effectively with any challenges. As a congregation, we might be tempted to say that figuring out answers to new challenges on the Capital Improvements Projects is just too hard to talk about, so we are tempted to with-draw and mope. Or we might say that serving on the Christian Ed Board sounds like too much work, and designing lessons for the Sunday School classes is impossible. But you know what? We don’t!
No, we have members who have volunteered to work on big important projects, take on challenges, create new solutions, and work with others to accomplish our goals. When we run into temporary set-backs, we have not just given-up in despair, and as a result, we see over & over again how people keep growing and maturing. It is not that the challenges aren’t real, it isn’t because everything is easy; sometimes we all may feel that our goals are too high, or that God couldn’t be calling us to really take on one more challenge, could He? I’m sure the disciples could have made the same sort of excuses for why they couldn’t possibly be expected to go out into that hostile, cold world and ask people to listen to what Jesus had taught them: love your enemies, forgive people, pray for those whose behavior is aggravating, and show compassion to others, even if they might not be able to return the favor anytime soon. How are the disciples supposed to go right back into that very sinful world that had just crucified Jesus, and continue doing the same sort of things that Jesus had been doing?
Probably the same way we are called to go out and mentor kids when we feel like we didn’t get a very good night’s sleep last night, or pray for someone who hasn’t really been acting much like an angel lately, or even go to a church
3
meeting to work on a problem that probably no one is gong to be able to solve. There definitely are times when our common sense would say we should give up, or run away, but our conscience has another message. So, which side wins? Common sense or Conscience? I think this is why we worship as a congregation, as a group of intelligent, successful people, who are all aware that we as individual sinners need God’s guidance and forgiveness, and we are also aware that as a congregation and a denomination, God is still speaking to us, still working with us and still calling us to follow Jesus. Just like the disciples, we may want to hide ourselves in a locked room, but God wants us to stretch & grow, to reach-out to a world whose needs have never been greater. Maybe God is calling you to share a story about what our church is all about with someone, but you are pretty sure that that person might not want to hear anything you have to say, and anyway they don’t even live in Charlotte, well this past week when one of our members broke out of her normal comfort zone to do a little evangelizing, O M G, what a surprise, the person replied that they didn’t care if they had to drive a few extra miles to go to a church that was really involved with living-out their faith, it was what they were really looking for! So, you may be thinking, OK, good, check that job off the list, witnessing to strangers from out of town has been done, but then you detect God or your conscience saying to you, so lets get back to sharing the faith with the good townspeople of this fair city. After all, it has got to be easier than taking on the mission field of Jerusalem in the summer of 33. How tough could it be, just talk about some of the fun, interesting, worthwhile things going on around here, and invite someone to come to a Saturday morning prayer shawl ministry, or Sunday morning worship! And by now some of you may be thinking, “Hey wait a minute Pastor Tom, didn’t you just refer to two things that really did happen this
4
week? Isn’t a sermon supposed to challenge us to stretch Beyond what we are already doing?” Or are you already realizing that if other people have been inviting others to join our church family, like we say each week in our Mission, maybe it’s time for more of us to really give it a try! But, actually, what I am thinking is that we can’t become complacently content with our small steps, when we need to help each other get ready to engage in some really significant spiritual growth. What we have already achieved is a nice start, but when we look at the challenges, and reality of the needs in Eaton County & beyond, I get the sense that God is speaking to us in the same way that Jesus spoke to the disciples, calling us to break down the barriers of fear, and really live our faith.
So, lets look at today’s scripture reading from the Book of Acts, as it picks-up the story of what actually happened after the disciples did go out and confront the powers & principalities with the message of compassion. Whether the account is from Luke, or from secular historians, clearly lives were changed. People were healed of their poisonous attitudes, the magic of forgiveness was actively and sincerely practiced, creating significant physical changes for individuals & communities. And Peter and other disciples still faced challenges. Yeah, that’s an understatement ~ they got themselves locked-up in those nasty first-century jails with the notoriously poor cuisine. And the most important part for us to hear is that even with the “challenges”, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they saw their community being transformed. As Dawn read today from Acts 4:32, “The community of believers were of one heart and one mind.” Now, That is a really tough concept for us to understand; what kind of church is of one mind? A Cult? A commune? No, to understand what was happening in the early church, we have to adjust several of our assumptions. They were facing incredible challenges from
5
their religious authorities and from the Roman empire. Also, they really expected that Jesus was going to be physically returning to end the world as they knew it. Holding all things in common was a practical way of managing their financial resources, but it really was not a requirement for membership to sell all of your possessions, rather, some people sold their property and gave the proceeds to the church to support the mission of the early church. I think it was not a long-term plan for stewardship, but more a sign of how much their lives were being changed by the love & compassion of this new community. The utopian communities in America in the 19th Century, like the Shakers, who held all of their property in common, and practiced celibacy, were similar in some forms to the early church, but the specific rules & regulations are not the key to understanding what was so powerful in transforming people’s lives, the important thing is the power of the Holy Spirit, which was breaking down the artificial barriers between people, so that they could truly practice the love & compassion that Jesus had taught. The key for us as individuals and as a congregation is to understand that we are all being called and equipped by God to serve an extremely important role in transforming the sin of human society into the Kingdom of God. We are being called just like the disciples and the early church, to be of one mind, that is to recognize that we do have a vital function as a spiritual live-saving team. We are being called to look at our neighbors the way God does, and see Christ’s light within them, and within ourselves. We must be of one mind, the mind of God, but that doesn’t mean we are always going to agree with everyone else’s preferences & perspectives for every specific challenge or opportunity. Rather when we are all of one mind, treating each other with compassion, grace, and supporting each other’s burdens, then we all win! The best illustration of this phenomena that I can
6
think of from the news this past week, didn’t come from the religious community exactly, although it did involve a woman who attends her church regularly. You may have seen the video on the Internet, or heard a news report about the British version of American Idol, called, “Britain’s Got Talent”, where a 47 year old woman went before Simon & the other judges and the audience, and the TV fans, and virtually everyone thought she was not particularly pretty or talented or smart, until she sang a song from Les Mis. Suddenly, everyone, even Simon The Critical was of one mind! Of course the people who have been singing with Susan Boyle in their church choir for the past twenty years or so were not surprised, but the rest of the world got a quick lesson in not judging a book by its cover, didn’t we?
So, we have seen examples, time after time, of people who have sincerely prayed to the Lord, listened intently to God’s voice, dismissed their fears that the world might see things differently, and honestly did their best to reach out and make the world a better place. Yes, it is a little easier to do when you have the support of others in your congregation, but it still comes down to God’s call to each of us to use the talents we have been given, in order to share the love of Jesus with a world that is so often just plain off track. Maybe God is going to open an opportunity for you to reach out & invite someone to join us, or maybe God is offering you a chance to study some scripture, do some reflection, and share your thoughts in a sermon in a Board meeting. We all have received different blessings and different challenges, but we can all be of one mind in following Christ. Amen.
