Nature and Mission

Sermon given at Grace UMC 9/27/15

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^NRS  Matthew 28:16  Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

I believe that the thing that separates us the furthest from our brothers and sisters of faith in the first century is that we have forgotten our purpose. I believe that they accepted their commission and never wavered from it. I believe that they understood the message that it gave and what message they were supposed to send. And I believe that when we accept our commission and understand the message we can do great things. George Sweeting, in his book The No-Guilt Guide for Witnessing, tells of a man by the name of John Currier who in 1949 was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Later he was transferred and paroled to work on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee. In 1968, Currier’s sentence was terminated, and a letter bearing the good news was sent to him. But John never saw the letter, nor was he told anything about it. Life on that farm was hard and without promise for the future. Yet John kept doing what he was told even after the farmer for whom he worked had died. Ten years went by. Then a state parole officer learned about Currier’s plight, found him, and told him that his sentence had been terminated. He was a free man. Sweeting concluded that story by asking, "Would it matter to you if someone sent you an important message -- the most important in your life -- and year after year the urgent message was never delivered?" The young man knew better than the so called “man of God” about what his purpose was.

I believe that the nature and mission of the church continues to be centered on Jesus Christ, offering Jesus to all persons that they may know him as the Son of God and through him enter into the Kingdom of God growing in the image of Christ and witnessing to the world. The nature of the church is to be the sign of the reign of God, exists to be a redemptive community and to be the instrument of God’s presence by providing the means of grace in the offering of the sacraments, Word, order and service. The church is a foretaste, an appetizer of the Kingdom of God which will be fulfilled completely in the feast at the table of God on the mountain of God. The church through its worship brings the Word of God to the world and proclaims the message of grace, love and salvation. The church is, “a community of believers brought together by the profession of the same faith and conjoined in the communion of the same sacraments.”[i]

When someone comes into our worship service, from the moment they enter the doors, they need feel the very presence of God and the Kingdom of God.

We do that and we do it well. But what if we did it seven days a week and we did it everywhere we live? What if we gave hugs, showed genuine concern and showered people with love every day and every place in the world? You see the church is not the building as the song says, it is the people. That means that it is you that is the church. So we can share the very essence of the church, the very essence of God’s love with the world by reaching out into the world and loving one another. That is what is meant by the Go therefore in the scripture. In other words, do not stay where you are but go into the world. We are to be the message carriers of God’s love and we cannot do that if we spend all our energy in these walls. Jesus wanted us to know that we are being tasked by God to Go.

The mission of the church includes leading a meaningful, relevant worship within the church which relates to the community both inside and out through the use of a scripture based interactive and uplifting service. And in that worship we proclaim the WORD of God through the message and the grace of God with the Clergy presiding over the giving and taking of the sacraments. In addition to the worship service, the church builds disciples for the transformation of the world through Sunday school and small group study where we continue the study, discussion and understanding of Christ together in fellowship with one another.

We are told that we need to baptize. But this baptism is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that Jesus described to Nicodemus. It is more than just pouring or immersing oneself in water. It is the immersion of the Holy Spirit within us that we might share in the total relationship with God that God desires of us. Notice that it does not say go out and baptize. Rather it says, go and baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In other words, this is a total immersion of God surrounding us, cleansing us, and filling us up with the power and love of God. Don’t get this total immersion confused with total immersion in water. They are not the same. One gets us wet, this one gets us well. Jesus tells us this so that we know what is being asked of us in our own lives as well what we are to do with others. Anything less is unacceptable. If you give yourself to God, it must be a complete giving. Do you stand at the plate in baseball and give less than all. If you do you cheat yourself and your team. So it is also true in our Christian faith.

We are to teach ourselves and those who come to know Christ the commandments of Christ. Do we know what they are? How can we teach what we do not know ourselves? Jesus commanded us to Love God with all our hearts, our minds and our souls. That is that total immersion of God that we talked about. And then to love our neighbors in the same way with a total immersion of love that they might feel and experience the love of God. Bishop Cho has a saying that he says at every prayer and in most of his sermons. “God’s will be done, nothing less, nothing more, nothing else.” I think that sums up pretty well the idea of God filling us up so that there is nothing else but God within us. Jesus wants us to know that the church is about love. Our central focus needs to be love. Love for God and love for one another. Jesus did not exclude anyone in that message. He wants us to love one another unconditionally as God loves us first. That is the central message of the Gospel and the whole Bible. What Jesus taught about loving God and loving neighbor is integrated in the stories of the Old and New Testament. We are to be a loving people, caring and nurturing our fellow human beings.

In addition, the church is responsible for outreach and nurturing ministries to the community and the world. We do this through service ministries aimed at providing for those who are in need with an emphasis on eliminating poverty where we are able to do so, standing against social injustice wherever we find it and reaching out with love to those we encounter. The church has lost its focus as the center of the community and we as clergy should work to reestablish this within our appointed communities.

Our primary task is completed by receiving, relating, equipping and sending disciples in the world, found in our missional statement in (Matthew 28:19) “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." I believe that the nature and mission of the church is summed up in those words, that we are tasked with finding those who are searching wherever they may be, building relationships with them in order to win them to Christ, building disciples through our instruction on the Word and then sending them out in mission to the world.

A young man enlisted, and was sent to his regiment. The first night he was in the barracks with about fifteen other young men, who passed the time playing cards and gambling. Before retiring, he fell on his knees and prayed, and they began to curse him and jeer at him and throw boots at him. So it went on the next night and the next, and finally the young man went and told the chaplain what had taken place, and asked what he should do. "Well," said the chaplain, "you are not at home now, and the other men have just as much right to the barracks as you have. It makes them mad to hear you pray, and the Lord will hear you just as well if you say your prayers in bed and don’t provoke them." For weeks after the chaplain did not see the young man again, but one day he met him, and asked -- "By the way, did you take my advice?" "How did it work?" "Well," said the young man, "I felt like a whipped hound and the third night I got out of bed, knelt down and prayed." "Well," asked the chaplain, "How did that work?" The young soldier answered: "We have a prayer meeting there now every night, and three have been converted, and we are praying for the rest." 

---

[i] Garrett, 2005/06, n.p.

Sanctuary

Sermon given at Grace UMC 9/20/15

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^KJV Psalm 23:1 <A Psalm of David.> The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. ² He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. ³ He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. ⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

 ⁵ Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. ⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

The 23^rd Psalm is probably one of the most famous of the biblical scriptures, second only maybe to John 3:16. And yet our memory of the 23^rd Psalm is related to funerals where we most often hear these beautiful words. And yet these words, we believe to be written by David, tell a story of thanksgiving that transcends time and culture. The Lord is my shepherd is telling us that the shepherd boy who becomes king holds his allegiance to God. And yet he tells us that he does not want the gift of God who leads him to a beautiful place with green pastures and still waters. Isn’t that just like our lives? We acknowledge a loving God and yet we rebel against the will of God in favor of our own. But David reminds us that God restores our souls, gives us salvation and leads us on the path of righteousness.

In our story Ordinary has been traveling towards his big dream. His path has taken him through the wilderness where he has sometimes lost the path and struggled with his choice. And then at the moment when he reaches his lowest point, where he feels that he can no longer go on, sanctuary appears and he rests. And so Ordinary journeys through the wilderness and now finds himself in a place called sanctuary. But the journey was full of trials and testing. He lost his way on the journey. The path became obscured along his way by the wind blowing the dust. And now here he is safe for the moment. And yet it is here that he is asked the one thing he could not imagine being asked, to give up his big dream. This story reminds us of many of the Old Testament stories of Abraham and the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt and then the exile of the nation during the time of Nebuchadnezzar. And in each of these events there lies within them a point where God asks them to give up their individual dreams for God’s dream. The battle of wills, God’s or mine. Have you been in wilderness on your journey in life? Has the path been obscured or hidden from you at times? Have there been trials that have left you feeling that you had nothing else to give?

So this leads us to ask, what is sanctuary? If we look at a medieval idea of sanctuary, it is a place where those who were in fear for their lives could find safety. Sanctuary to the earliest traveler was a place where they found rest from the world and its troubles. It was a place where enemies could find peace for a time around an oasis of water. It was a place where you could find rest until it was time to move onward. If you were in trouble with the law or the government, often they would seek shelter in the church where they were protected from persecution. In fact the Queen of England found sanctuary in the Westminster Cathedral during a time when her husband had been disposed and he was in hiding. That the political opponents would have allowed her safety with the King’s children speaks to how important this concept truly was. By the way, we think that these rules still apply in our world today, but they do not. If you look at a dictionary definition of sanctuary you will find that it means a place of worship, the holiest of holies, and the place where God is. We are right now in the place by definition called a sanctuary. It is here that God’s presence rests with us. But what does this place mean to us and exactly what does the concept of sanctuary mean in our modern world today?

From the earliest history of humankind is the relationship between God and Adam in the Garden of Eden. God was present in the world. Genesis 3: ⁸ They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. God walked in the garden. This scripture indicates a real presence in the world of humankind by God. And yet after the fall, we see that God’s presence is very limited in the world. At the time of Abraham, God presence is distance. At the time of the Exodus, Moses must go up to the mountain to meet with God. And then God’s presence is again in the world from that day forward in the holiest of holies with the tabernacle. But even that presence is limited to one man on one day of the year who enters the holiest of holies to speak with God. And then Jesus comes into the world. Jesus birth into the world brings a new revelation of the nature of God.

Jesus’ death and resurrection changes the presence of God from being in the world to being in the body of Christ. Now you may hear language that is somewhat confusing when I talk about the body of Christ. We, the believers of Jesus as the Christ, and believe in the triune God, Father, son and Holy Spirit are the body of Christ in the world. And that simple statement creates the ultimate paradigm for many. To understand the concept of sanctuary now is to understand the relationship of God in the world. Before Jesus, God directed the people through God’s interface with specific individuals. But even before that, God had directed the people of the world regarding how they were to be sanctuaries to the world. In the covenant with Abraham the Hebrew people are told to spread the news of God.

So what does this all mean? Sanctuary is the place where peace is. Two artists were asked to paint a picture to illustrate peace. One painted a beautiful evening scene. In the foreground was a lake, its surface absolutely calm. Trees surrounded it and meadows stretched away to the distant horizon. A little cottage and the setting sun all suggested peace. The second artist drew a wild stormy scene. Heavy black clouds hovered overhead. In the center of the picture a huge waterfall poured volumes of water. One could imagine its roar, yet almost the first thing to catch the eye was a small bird nesting in the cleft of a great rock, absolutely sheltered from the outside elements and pouring forth a song of joy. That, too, pictured perfect peace. Perfect peace is what God would have us know. Not only for ourselves but for others! You have heard me say over and over again that life is hard. The world does not want success from individuals because your success often means someone else did not. There is very little win-win in the world. And yet we come to this place today in need of sanctuary and peace. We come to this place today in need of rest. And most important, we come to this place today in need of a sense of who we are and whose we are. Jesus walked the earth two thousand years ago letting us know that the devil has no power with us unless we give him power. Satan has been conquered. Now he knows it and logically we know it. And yet we keep on giving Satan power over us by our own doubts and fears and sinful nature. Think about it. Jesus told us that even a sparrow falling to the ground is noticed by God. And the Lord will make greater provision for you and me than for the sparrow.

God will give us peace if we only ask God. And I suggest that everyone here who has been baptized and professed their faith in God has asked God for peace. And yet our faith is such that we don’t believe. And if we cannot believe it, then how can we ever get anyone else to believe? Isaiah tells us that we will have perfect peace when we trust in the Lord. In God’s house the sparrows found safety, rest, delight, provision, nearness, not because they were worthy, but because they were welcome. When we are baptized our sinful nature is washed away as we are brought into relationship with the kingdom of God here on earth. We become part of the body of Christ.

And then when we stand before the world and profess our faith in God through Jesus, we achieve salvation. What don’t you get? Once your salvation is assured, then what in the world does Satan have on you? If you pay off your mortgage and the bank says you still owe the full amount, you would scream your way to an attorney who would represent you and win. When Satan comes knocking, you pray your way to Jesus and he will knock Satan back to the fiery dungeon. Now that is the good news. We are free to face the world knowing that no matter what it throws at us, we have eternity. And because of that, life should not be able to knock us down as much as it does. Do you believe? Tell me that you believe?

And once you believe, start living a life where things don’t knock you back. See, from my perspective, every one of you that has been baptized and professed your love for Christ has nothing to fear from life. Oh sure it is going to be hard, but hey, we will persevere and in the end we will be in paradise. And because of your faith, your life will change. Things won’t affect you as much. Life won’t beat you down as badly as before. And other people will notice. And that’s the point. When they do, they are going to want to be a part of what you have. If you go to Vegas and start wining, guess what happens. Everyone flocks around you, right.

So if you can go to a place of sin and be surrounded by sinners just by winning, think what living righteous will do?

And when that transformation happens, you become a sanctuary for others. Think about it. When they are being beaten by the world and overcome by Satan, you can provide them rest and refuge by telling them your story. Bringing them the good news of Christ brings them the joy and peace that you know. And since it did not matter where you were in the world and what baggage you brought to the altar, it will not matter what they bring. Let us become a sanctuary for the world by beginning to believe that we matter to God. Let us become sanctuaries for the world by letting the Holy Spirit transform us. Let us become like Jesus in the world.

Lord, prepare me, to be a sanctuary

Pure and Holy, Tried and True

With thanksgiving, I’ll be a living

Sanctuary, for you!

Bullies

Sermon given at Grace UMC 9/13/15

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^NRSNumbers 13:26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. ²⁷ And they told him, "We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. ²⁸ Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. ²⁹ The Amalekites live in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea, and along the Jordan." ³⁰ But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it." ³¹ Then the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we." ³² So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, "The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size. ³³ There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim); and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them."

This week I have spent time with the Bishop and his steering committee talking about the future of the Virginia Annual Conference. In those discussions I heard a lot about spiritual formation, was quizzed on how Discipleship Circles, a method for working toward answers to growth, church vitality and issues that challenge us that puts spirituality first before human responses to the questions. I heard the Bishop talk about what legacy he wishes to leave behind when he leaves the conference next September and the work that needs to be done between now and then. Then I spent Saturday working with a team of our leaders focusing on Reaching New People. How do we reach a culture that quite frankly does not know what we do or the message we have to offer? How do reach out to people who know church as that place that seems always to be in the news in a bad light or filled with strange people with strange ideas? After coming home last night I thought about what I had heard and what the future direction of the church, specifically Grace United Methodist Church, is going to be. 

In our scripture God has told Moses to send spies into the land and report back. These spies have seen the Promised Land that God has told them about for the past forty years. But they have also seen giants, strong fortified cities and the offspring of Angels. So they come back with a report that scares most of the people. The same people who have seen God overcome every obstacle that has been placed in their way. So they begin to do what we human beings do and that is whine when we see things in our way that we cannot figure out how to overcome. Now the spies did not intend to upset the plans that God has for them. But well, they are human and we humans often cannot see the way because we are too often focused on our own abilities and lack the ability to trust God.

Six months ago Don Foster and I shared with you the idea that we can grow a church through relationship. In fact, what we shared with you was that we are not the church of our parents or grandparents who lived in a time when we opened the doors and people came. We live in a world that has become very “me” centered and our response must be to work within the culture of the world to bring a message that transcends all cultures and understandings. As I sat and listened to the Bishop I heard the same kind of message that I heard from the consultant who shared with us the future of the church on Saturday. We cannot be the church we have been and still expect to survive. Let me set it in another way. Companies don’t survive by doing things the same way for generations. My dad spent his life in the steel industry and I am glad that he was able to retire from that occupation. But truth is he went from upper middle class to lower middle class over a few years because the people who ran those companies believed that they did not have to change the way they did things or the technology that they used to do them. Interesting side note, Dad wanted me to follow him in that line of work so many years ago, so much so he had gotten me a job without asking me what I wanted to do and sprung it on me the day of my graduation from High School. Needless to say one of the biggest arguments between him and me resulted in one of the many estrangements of our lives. That is what is meant by bullies by the way, well intentioned desires by someone we know and often love, who sabotage or circumvent the dreams that God has given us.

So here we are today, six months later, relatively nowhere better for the efforts of our training and presentation. Why? Maybe because we thought foolishly that if we made the presentation you would see the beauty of it and jump on board. But that is not how we work is it? Many of you want to understand more or see successes before you are going to commit to being a part of the world that someone else’s envisions. To sit here this morning and say that I believe that God has given me a vision for the future of the church doesn’t mean that you are going to buy even a single piece of that stock. So what will help you to buy in to a future vision of this church?

So let me offer you some data:

•         19 % of the population attend Sunday mornings

•         33 % under age 30 have no religious background

•         125,000 churches closed last year

•         80/90 % are declining

Now here is some data worth paying attention to:

•         There are 16, 594 people within 10 miles of the Grace UMC

•         Statistics tell us 13,192 do not attend church

•         1 % of that total is 132

•         Of the 13,192, 8,575 have never been invited to church, especially our church

•         Data suggests that 6,260 would come if invited

•         1 % of that number is 63

•         Based on that data our average worship attendance which is 116 should be between 179 and 248

So why can’t we achieve those numbers?

Maybe because we have forgotten two important points about our lives as Christian people. The first and most important is that God alone gives vision about the future direction of the church. Just as God told the Israelites that God was going to bring them into the land of milk and honey, God is telling us that we can increase our actively attending worshiping folks who show up on Sunday morning or Sunday night. But like the spies sent out into the land, our own concerns keep us from realizing that reality. So the first point is that we need to trust God with all that we are. 

The second point is that we must learn new skills. A great deal of the work that has been going on has been done to prepare us for a new reality with a new future. Fixing up the house of God was only a small part of the overall plan that needs to be followed to see the land of milk and honey realized. So what are these new skills?

First we need to rededicate our Discipleship and trust in God. We do this through intentional work at building our relationship with God. Reading the Bible daily, praying constantly, spending time with our Christian sisters and brothers and finally believing that God can and will make a difference in our lives. Instead of waiting for God begin to believe that God can and live into that reality. There is a story of a missionary who was sailing to China. A ship’s captain was upset because his ship was floundering because the wind that moves him had stopped. Nothing is more serious to a sailor in the seventeen or eighteen hundreds than the loss of wind. Without it we cannot move, we are caught in a place of inaction and despair can set in because we have no control over the moment. Knowing that a man of God was below deck, the captain went down and talked with him. He asked the preacher to pray for wind. Sometime later the preacher came up on deck and was surprised. He sought out the captain and told him, you ask for God’s help and yet the sails are not unfurled, open to the wind that will come. You pray and yet you don’t believe that God can provide defeating the very power you seek. We are a church with the sails that are not yet unfurled open to the wind that will come. Let us unfurl our sails and trust God to guide us believing that God has already set the plan into motion.

Second we have to trust that God will teach us how to build new relationships with people through our witness. Let me explain how all that works. Each of us has hobbies and/ or things that we do. Like going to the beach or the Barrier Islands, going bowling or golfing or sewing and the list goes on. God has given you special talents and gifts that make you who you are. Use them! If you truly want to grow this church it is as simple as doing what you are already doing, except, you invite folks to do it with you. Friends who you know through church and then folks you know who don’t go to church anywhere. Plan a picnic on the beach and invite some of your friends from the church and have each of them invite some of their friends from work or school or your neighborhood. Then do it again. While you are there on the beach do what you normally would do. Nothing less, nothing more! Allow them to get to know you better and in the meantime they will also get to know your church friends. After friendships have developed or been strengthened, then invite them a church supper or a church activity. Talk to them about how God has changed your life and how God is working within your life. Believe it or not, 80 % of them will come to church with you if you develop those relationships.

Finally, develop relationships with people you don’t know. Suppose you are sitting in Club Car and see someone who you do not know. During your time there take the time to go over and introduce yourself. Not as Joe or Suzy Church person, but as simply you. Get to know something about them and then write it down later. That way when you see them again you can start at a different place. Let say you are in line and a new person is behind you, you could say, hi, I am Don. Are you new to the area? The person might say, no, I have lived here all my life in which case you could say, oh, well, I haven’t been here for a long time but I have not seen you before. Do you live around here? Why yes, I live here in Parksley. So what do you do? I am a teacher over at the High School. What do you teach? I teach history and coach the golf team. Well, take care. Then jot it down and the next time you see them you might ask, so how is the golf team doing and you are off to a deeper conversation.

If we want to make a difference in the lives of those around us, we must learn to trust God and to share the message of love with the world, one person at a time.