In the Power of the Spirit

Sermon given 6/24/18 at Sydenstricker UMC

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Scripture Reading:

^KJV Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

^NIV Luke 4:14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. ¹⁵ He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. ¹⁶ He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: ¹⁸ "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

A frog goes into a bank and approaches the teller. He can see from her nameplate that her name is Patty Whack.

"Miss Whack, I'd like to get a $30,000 loan to take a holiday."

Patty looks at the frog in disbelief and asks his name. The frog says his name is Kermit Jagger, his dad is Mick Jagger, and that it's okay, he knows the bank manager.

Patty explains that he will need to secure the loan with some collateral.

The frog says, "Sure. I have this," and produces a tiny porcelain elephant, about an inch tall, bright pink and perfectly formed.

Very confused, Patty explains that she will have to consult with the bank manager and disappears into a back office.

She finds the manager and says, "There's a frog called Kermit Jagger out there who claims to know you and wants to borrow $30,000, and he wants to use this as collateral." She holds up the tiny pink elephant. "I mean, what in the world is this?"

The bank manager looks back at her and says, "It's a knickknack, Patty Whack. Give the frog a loan. His old man's a Rolling Stone."

(You sang it, didn't you? Yeah, I know you did.)

Never take life too seriously.

I quote that famous line in a movie about spirits, “they’re back.” Bonnie and I have returned from this year’s Annual Conference and I can tell you, I am full of spirit and desire to move us from where we are to where God wants us to be. The Bishop as always was full of spirit as she tasked us with moving out into the world around us to witness to the power of God. She said as she often does, that her God, which is our God, is a God that there is nothing that cannot happen, cannot be done and cannot be fulfilled with the power of God in the Holy Spirit, Amen! The Bible tells us that where there is no vision the people perish. They do not just disperse, they perish. In other words, death comes to those who choose to move through life without a vision. Not just any vision mind you, but the vision that God gives us for the future. God’s vision! Vision is discussed 108 times in the Bible and in almost every instance; the vision that is received is from God about sin, about living correctly and about moving in a direction that glorify God. I wonder what would happen if we here at Sydenstricker, instead of trying to figure out what we want, should take the time to ask God what God wants. What would happen if we took seriously the idea of intentional prayer and asked God what God desires of us. I honestly believe that we would hear the voice of God and would then begin to live into that voice and hundreds of people in our community would come to know God. I believe that with all my heart.

In 2016, Bonnie and I arrived here. However, before we got here I was already listening to you. I talked to every leader and chair and asked them four basic questions.

1.     What are your hopes and dreams for Sydenstricker/ function?

2.     What is going well?

3.     What is not well?

4.     How can I best assist you?

I still have the results of that survey conducted in May 2016. This is what I heard.

We need to grow (number one response)

Younger people and families

Better communication

We want the Sydenstricker spirit back

When we arrived, I began to listen to the various committees to hear what you had to say about the church. I encountered a welcoming congregation that needed to focus on how to be more radically hospitable. I encountered people who honestly acted like, talked like and seemed like they were in a place of depression or shell shock. I encountered loving, caring mission ministry. I inherited a lay leadership team that was very interested in Discipleship and Vision, which are my passions. The District Superintendent asked me to learn who our neighbors are and determine if Sydenstricker’ s future was viable as a standalone church by December of 2016.

Therefore, having heard from you we went to work. We began to explore a path to discipleship together in class and conversation. We began to use tools like strength finders and discipleship surveys that shared valuable information about who we are. We completed a Gallup assessment survey that shared important information. That information was then shared with all of the leadership of the church. During this time the DS went from concern to excitement and invited us to join an elite study called Next Level Innovations which we have now completed a full year. We have laughed together, cried together, lost some of our saints and gained some new ones as we have grown from 200 average worship attendance to 278 as of this week. We have worked on defining staff positions and filling them with the best and the brightest. We have a ways to go but what an awesome start.

Jesus said that He was sent and anointed by God to bring the good news to the poor. That He came to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. He came with vision of what the world should look like and how we are supposed to love one another, interact with one another and support each other. He came as an example of what perfection in human skin should and could look like. Yet, they nailed Him to a tree. Even there, in death, the awesome power of the Holy Spirit shines through. For even death could not hold Jesus. In the resurrection, He brings that awesome power to our fingertips, to our feet and to our hearts. It is up to us then to trust God and follow in the footsteps that God sets before us. I saw a cartoon the other day, Jesus is telling someone that He walks beside him, when there are only one set of footprints then that is when Jesus is carrying him and when the path in the sand is there, it is when He dragged him forward where he did not want to go. How many of us have drag marks when we look back at our path. I do!

I am told there are four major concerns about the vision and direction of the church. One of them seems to be that the Leadership team has the knowledge and the rest of you do not. Some of that concern comes from baggage long before my time here. Nevertheless, let allay your fears. We do and will not operate in a vacuum in decisions about the church. I do use the Leadership team as a sounding board to help me clarify the vision of God I perceive. With the Next Level Innovations, I have made sure that a copy or two of every resource I have been asked to read is available to you. We have had town halls to share information. We may not have been as transparent as we hoped but we are trying. I am open to hearing you and have been working towards scheduling and listening to all who would share their dreams and concerns.

Some are concerned whether or not we have the funds to move forward with all that we are doing. One simple answer is that we have sufficient funds to do the work we have set before us. We have significant investments to provide upgrades on sound and AV systems and other projects without impinging on a safe reserve for the difficult times. The Business Manager, Financial Chair or I will be more than happy to share those reports with you.

We are moving too fast, so fast that I no longer know my own church. I came here with a mandate and a vision from God that we need to be good neighbors to the 70,000 + neighbors within our defined boundaries. We cannot do that standing still. Nor can we live in the past and hope that if we open the doors people will come; those days have long since passed. Interestingly enough, they were not the days of the early disciples either who witnessed to the power of God and changed the world. Jack Martin and I had an interesting conversation. Jack was here when we were 50 and left here when we were 400 average worship attendance. Jack had a big dream for Sydenstricker. We have been declining ever since with small church dreams rather than God dreams. I have a dream where we listen to God and reach out to the world around us just like Jack did.  

Jesus was sent to share the good news. Jesus had disciples who shared the good news. Those disciples had disciples and eventually passed the baton to us. I believe we can be family even in the midst of growth and change. We cannot rest on the laurels of Jack or Ed or Ed or Lee or Jim. We cannot remember Claude or Shirley or the Hall family or any of those who have gone on before us and not remember that they were actively encouraging witness and growth. I have a vision in which Sydenstricker is the center of our community, growing and sharing the good news of the Gospel and living into the vision of God.

Tony Campolo recounts that he is dangerous when he gets on elevators. Often the people on elevators will not look at each other or will look serious or sad. So he often will talk to them about how they are taking a journey together and that they should sing. So he will start singing, usually. “You are my sunshine”. One day he got in a crowded elevator and it was as it usually is, everyone was quiet and sullen. So he said, we are on a journey together so let us sing and began to sing. As the doors of the elevator opened at each floor, the people outside the elevator were treated to “You are my sunshine.” When Tony got off at his floor, a man got off with him. He asked the man, is this your floor. No, he replied, but I wanted to finish the song.

Let us finish the song together!

Where do I go

Sermon given June 10, 2018 at Sydenstricker UMC

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^NIV Deuteronomy 34:1 Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the LORD showed him the whole land-- from Gilead to Dan, ² all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea, ³ the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. ⁴ Then the LORD said to him, "This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it." ⁵ And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as the LORD had said. ⁶ He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. ⁷ Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone.

In the Disney movie Pocahontas, the main character, a young girl is suddenly thrust into a new reality and she asks the question in a song of course, “Where do I go from here?” Today there are folks here who are facing new realities as they end journeys they have been on for some time. Some of you have been at this since almost after birth, entering pre-schools and then Kindergarten until your graduation shortly from High School. What an adventure it has been but the fun is only beginning. Some of you have gone on from High School and now graduate from College. Is that rejoicing from the parents in the room I hear? Now you find a way into vocations that will lead you places you cannot even imagine. Some of you have completed postgraduate work that allows you to soar even further in your life. Each of you is here this morning but there is a little voice inside you asking the same question Pocahontas asked, Where do I go from here? I want you to remember something important today. If you forget where you came from, and focus on where you are, you will forget where you are going.

The world you are now entering is not unlike the wilderness of the people of Israel when they left the Promised Land. They left what they had known, what they were comfortable with and homes where they had grown up, raised their children and buried their dead to go somewhere they had never been before. Many-left Egypt with great anticipation of what would come but they then spent 40 years wandering.

The words of Pocahontas song seem appropriate here:

The earth is cold
The fields are bare
The branches fold against the wind that's everywhere

The birds move on
So they survive
When snow so deep
The bears all sleep to keep themselves alive

They do what they must for now
And trust in their plan
If I trust in mine, somehow I might find who I am

But where do I go from here?
So many voices ringing in my ear
Which is the voice that I was meant to hear?
How will I know?
Where do I go from here?

So I am speaking to you today as a Pastor, as a person who has shared your journey, your anticipation and fears and as a father who has two children who have also shared your journey. We must trust first in God, the one who created us and has shared in our journey from our birth. We must trust that God will walk beside us every step of the way and like the people of Israel, be there to guide us. In order to follow in that guidance, we must never forget our Christian roots. If you forget where you came from, and focus on where you are, you will forget where you are going.

When Moses was born, his fate lay in the hands of those he did not know and those whom knew him as a slave. Yet, God directed his mother to relinquish him to the water, knowing that if he stayed where he was, he would be put to death. Moses was plucked from the water by royalty and became favored in the court of the Pharaoh. Not since Joseph, had a Hebrew been favored in the Pharaoh’s presence. The irony here is that the court did not know of his Hebrew heritage, But Moses could not allow injustice to prevail and so he killed an Egyptian who abused a Hebrew. To escape being punished for that crime he fled to the west where he came into the influence of God. We may never know what a burning bush looks like or what it means in our lifetime to stand face to face with God. But Moses did and because of his faithfulness, we are here today, worshipping how we choose to worship and finding ways to move in the direction of God’s will. As we see from this narrative, Moses is on the mountaintop, overlooking all of what we now call Israel and Palestine. I am told that from the top of Mt. Nebo not much can be seen because of the lay of the land. Yet we know that Moses at the age of one hundred and twenty saw everything that God wanted him to see. Moses saw all of the land of Israel that the Hebrew people would inhabit, lose, and then inhabit again, several times. Imagine with me for a moment that God gives you sight beyond your normal capability and shows you the vision of what God wants for you and the people who surround you. What a wonderful gift. But the story has a sad side. Moses is not allowed to walk among the palm trees, the valley of Jericho were the people of Israel would win a great battle in the days to come, or the great city of Jerusalem, which would be built and destroyed several times. No for Moses, his time had come. He had been faithful and he had followed God’s will along the way.

My world has changed and so have I
I've learned to choose
And even learned to say goodbye

The path ahead's so hard to see
It winds and bends but where it ends
Depends on only me

But where do I go from here?
So many voices ringing in my ear
Which is the voice that I was meant to hear?
How will I know?
Where do I go from here?

For 40 years, he had led the Hebrew people from captivity to the land of milk and honey, the land of Abraham’s promise. Here he is taken into God’s kingdom in heaven and his bones are known no more. It is interesting in that Moses place in death stands with Elijah and Enoch who were taken by God to their place of rest and Paul tells us that they are among the faithful that were faithful and yet have not received the promise. Moses is the giver of the law and the one to whom we look to when we hear the story of the Mount Sinai experience. Moses shared the vision God gave him with the people and even though they rarely believed him, they followed him. Moreover, they followed the promise that Moses shared with them that God had given him of a place with milk and honey.

So what sets Moses apart and how does his life project our own. Hebrews the 11^th and 12^th chapters tells us that many faced stoning, destitution, persecution and even death as they walked in their faith before God. ³⁹ Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰ since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect. God has a promise for us that if we walk the ways of God’s, live a life that imitates Christ in the world and follow the will of God, it is then that we will receive our reward. However, that reward is not physical or material.

Each of us has shared in a journey of life, which began at birth and has followed some great valleys and mountaintop experiences, all of which has led us here to this moment. We each have shared in dreams, some of which have been fulfilled and others still yet to come. But all of all at one time or another have wondered where we are going and what comes next. My words to each of us this morning is to remember our roots, especially our Christian roots and trust God as the guidance and direction for our futures. Like Moses, the road in front of you may not take you where you thought you were going but God will always take you to the place that is best for you. God will be faithful and we need to be faithful along the way. If you forget where you came from, and focus on where you are, you will forget where you are going.

In my heart I don't feel part of so much I've known
Now it seems it's time to start
A new life on my own 

But where do I go from here?
So many voices ringing in my ear
Which is the voice that I was meant to hear?
How will I know?
Where do I go from here? (Walt Disney Records)

Today begins the first day of the rest of your life. A life that will be filled with joy, with fun times, with some sorrows and sadness too, but a life where you get to experience the glory of God if you let yourself. Today you step out into new realities, the paths you cannot even see and yet like Moses on the mountain, God is showing you the path. When you ask where do I go from here, the answer lies deep within your heart. Let it be your guidance. Remember your roots, where you have come from and all that it has taught you, then step out into the future, and become the person God has called you to be.