Being

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 7/28/16

Click here for audio

Scripture Reading:

^NRS  John 6:60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" ⁶¹ But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, "Does this offend you? ⁶² Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³ It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ⁶⁴ But among you there are some who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. ⁶⁵ And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father." ⁶⁶ Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. ⁶⁷ So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

A twelve year old boy became a Christian during a revival. The next week at school his friends questioned him about the experience. "Did you see a vision?" asked one friend. "Did you hear God speak?" asked another. The youngster answered no to all these questions. "Well, how did you know you were saved?" they asked. The boy searched for an answer and finally he said, "It’s like when you catch a fish, you can’t see the fish, or hear the fish; you just feel him tugging on you line. I just felt God tugging on my heart."

Discipleship should be as important to you as eating. Now we all love to eat. Eating is essential to life is it not? If we don’t eat we die. If we find ourselves hungry our bodies tell us that they we are hungry. Eating is essential to life. Like the little boy in the story, discipleship should be the same way. Like the fish on the line, we can feel it tugging at the bait and we know that we have caught a fish. Discipleship is that tugging on the heart, that feeling inside that tells us that we are hungry and need to be fed. Discipleship when given the proper priority in life keeps us nourished and strong. Discipleship is not simply showing up, it is a determination to live a different kind of life.

All too often we equate discipleship with Sunday morning worship attendance. If we show up then God will know that we are disciples. But Jesus pushed that bar way beyond simply showing up. Jesus said to the disciples that in order to follow Him, one would need to be willing to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Well I know as you do that if someone said that to us without some other understanding we would find that thought revolting. But what Jesus was trying to say is that we need to be willing to take Jesus completely inside of us, to become Jesus to the world in order to be true followers of Christ. In other words, we must abide in Jesus and then Jesus will abide in us. I once preached on the fruitless fruit tree and how if we don’t have the evidence of fruit about us then how can anyone know that we truly have Christ within us. So let us talk about discipleship today.

Today young people say that the church is no longer relevant. Reverend Judy Worthington points to three issues that they claim assures them that the church does not stand for what it should. First, that we preach love your neighbor and then exclude those who follow a different path sexually and religiously. Jesus said there is one true path and that the path is paved with God’s love. We will never win our neighbors if we say we are inclusive and then have exclusive doctrines and paths to membership. Second is the issue of authenticity. We claim to the authentic message of God.  With over seven hundred Christian denominations, what is the one true path? Jesus was clear in His teaching that we are to love one another above all else. That love is the only answer about the Christian doctrine. It doesn’t matter how you baptize, how you serve communion, how you dress or even what Bible version you use, the only thing that matters is that the Christian community loves the world. Authentic love looks like love, feels like love and responds to the world like love. It doesn’t demand that you dress or act a certain way to earn that love; it is simply given expecting nothing in return. True love allows choice to love back. It cannot force, does not abuse and does not purposely harm. I once asked a young lady why she wore Gothic clothing. We talked a little and she asked if I was serious. I was! A week later she brought me a multi-page report on Gothic lifestyle. Why? Because she sensed that I wanted to be in relationship, not condescending, but understanding. That is authentic love.

Finally, that we preach diversity but on Sunday morning we are anything but. But the reality is that even in a racially diverse area such as NOVA, churches tend to be more diverse than the corresponding communities in which they exist. Well everyone’s place is that they share an equal setting at the table of God. Look to the teaching of the Parable of the Good Samaritan if you want Biblical reference for it. When we get to heaven I would highly advise that you leave those misconceptions about race relations where they belong, in the trash and begin to realize that we are all God’s creation, regardless of color, nationality, language or upbringing. Until we the church begin to realize that we have some work to do, larger and larger percentages of young people will flock to the “None Religion” category. You fear Muslims, learn from them. They teach community and establish expectations and rules. Even Moose Lodges and the Elks kick you out if you fail to attend and pay your dues. If you fear those who practice other religious practices, find out what attracts people to them and you may realize they are practicing the teaching of Jesus.

Phil Maynard who teaches about Discipleship around the country says that we need to learn about being, becoming and joining. It will become somewhat of a mantra around here in the next few months as we engage in Discipleship as a church. We need to focus on being the body of Christ. As a disciple, we need to be focused on being in a life of worship. That is more than just showing up on Sunday morning. It means that we focus on reading the Bible daily, praying constantly and following our spiritual disciplines as we get closer to God. It means that we need to be in life of hospitality towards our neighbors, reaching out to them where they are. Today we live in a society where most people are not part of a church anywhere. So we need to be about building relationships with the people around us. The early Christian movement built itself on relationship, relationship with each other and relationship with God. Our task ought to be focused on reaching out to new people who have never heard the truth of the Gospel, that God loves them and wants them to experience that love. How many of you prepare for Sunday worship? The scripture for next week is in the bulletin along with the topic. How many of you prayed this morning for God to enlighten your heart today as you participated in the music, the liturgy and the Word? If not, why not?

Today we struggle with the world around us, politics gone amuck, terrorism on the rise, and we see inhumanity in every place we look. If we cannot find support amongst the people of the congregation then who will give us strength and courage? Not too many years ago if your barn burned down the whole community would come together to build you a new one. If you were injured members of the community would cut their fields and then come over and help you with yours. We are not farmers much anymore but why can’t we carry those same values and ethics into the communities in which we live? Can’t we find ways to rebuild that which is broken and assist those who cannot do what they used to do? That is what the Body of Christ is all about. People loving people! People helping people! We are family and we need not be dysfunctional about it if we can.

Being, becoming and joining are the mantra of a discipleship church. Being, becoming and joining become the lifestyle of a person who follows Jesus and wants to make a difference in the world. Our world is in need of learning about the love of God. Our world is desperately in need of feeling, experiencing and living into a relationship with God. If we do not reach out and share the love of God with the world, the world will pervert it into sexual innuendo, self-fulfillment mandates and success at any cost agendas. The world is doing that every minute of every day. It is up to us, the followers of Jesus to change that. Do you really believe that we cannot do what the early Christians did? The stories throughout history talk of thousands if not millions who have been brought into relationship with Christ through the love of someone they knew who took the time to reach out to them.

We profess to give God our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service and our witness. Did you not take that seriously? It means that each and every day we vowed to God and our community here at Sydenstricker to give our daily prayers, to be present at the activities, programs and events here at Sydenstricker, to give our gifts to the Lord and our service where God wants us to go. Our gifts are the unique talents that God has given you. Maybe you are given the gift of leadership, maybe the gift of teaching, or maybe the gift getting the job done. Whatever your gift, are you using it to the glory of God? And the abundance that God has given you, are you giving 10 % of it back to the Lord? We spend several hours making sandwiches, gathering school supplies and canned goods, our youth spent time in mission helping those who could not help themselves and we give where we are asked, not for bragging rights, but because God is calling us to show love in those ways. We are to witness to the power of God. It means sharing our stories with those around us so that they might know that they are loved.

I want to close this morning with the things that I have learned about God from Noah.

• One: Don't miss the boat.
• Two: Remember that we are all in the same boat.
• Three: Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.
• Four: Stay fit. When you're 600 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big. 
• Five: Don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done.
• Six: Build your future on high ground.
• Seven: For safety's sake, travel in pairs.
• Eight: Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.
• Nine: When you're stressed, float a while.
• Ten: Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
• Eleven: No matter the storm, when you are with God, there's always a rainbow waiting.
• Twelve: Remember that no matter where you’ve been, no matter what you’ve done, no matter how you got here, God loves you. God has always loved you and always will.