"Simple Stewardship: Simply Give" -- Sermon for 14 November 2010

photo © 2007 Fabio Venni | more info (via: Wylio)
Text:  Philippians 4:10-14 & Deuteronomy 8:11-18
Title:  “Simple Stewardship:  Simply Give”

Because we had such a great presentation from the Gideons, I’m going to keep this a little shorter than usual today…and probably quite a bit shorter than many “concluding sermons” for a stewardship drive.  This would probably be the sermon where the pastor pulls out all the stops, pulls on every heartstrings, tells you to think about the children, and implies that an angel cries when you give anything less than 10% of your income to the church.

As fun as that may sound, this is “Simple Stewardship.”

We’ve been saying that stewardship could be simplified to some base concepts.

FIRST -- SIMPLY BELIEVE – Believe that we have a God who’s big enough to provide for you…and when you give, God will take care of you.  God, the creator of the heavens and the earth will be with you if you nudge up your giving.  Believing that you couldn’t possibly give more…for almost everybody…is a belief that God couldn’t possibly provide enough.  Don’t sell him short. 

SECOND -- SIMPLY SERVE – Our giving is an act of service.  Because you give, we can have a food pantry, we can have someone to counsel those who have lost loved ones, we can have Vacation Bible School, and we can, “through our apportionments (our giving to the Alaska United Methodist Conference) be in mission and ministry around the world.  When we give, we think beyond ourselves to others.

And, today, it’s SIMPLY GIVE.

But why?


This week I went into Anchorage to see my allergist, so I could move to allergy shots every other week instead of every week.  The visit took one and half hours.  And it wasn’t because of the various tests they ran.  It took a long time because the doctor and I were talking about Jewish law.

I told the doctor, who is Jewish, that I had been talking with folks recently about the grieving process and how, when someone you loves dies, one of the problems is that, while your world comes to a screeching halt, the rest of the world keeps on spinning.  People go to work.  People, who are very sorry for your loss, have their lives to manage.  There are places to go. Days and nights come and go.  And it can be so difficult, after trauma in your life, to figure out how to work your way back onto the world again.

The Jewish Law, I said, gives guidelines for this.  It’s a process.  There’s a seven-day SHIVA period when you isolate yourself and your family.  Food may be provided.  Torn garments are worn to symbolize the loss and the pain.  It’s a week of great grief where the community supports the mourners.

Then for 23 more days, there’s the practice of SHLOSHIM.  The family reenters the community.  Engagements are limited.  It’s recognized that pain is still present but that community life can begin
again.

And, if one has lost a parent, mourning goes on for a full year until, after a year’s time, one is not considered a mourner anymore.

What I talked with my doctor about is how beautiful and healthy and wholesome this is.  It doesn’t shelter anyone from the realities of death and pain and loss.  It recognizes community.  It recognizes the need for mourners to grieve, even as they make their way back onto the spinning world that never really stopped for them in the first place.  What might, by some, seem like overly restrictive rules and regulations is for us.

And the doctor shared how this rang true in his own life when his parents died and how he remembers the anniversary of their death in worship each year.

Says AISH.COM, the largest Jewish content website these days:

Judaism provides a beautiful, structured approach to mourning that involves three stages. When followed carefully, these stages guide mourners through the tragic loss and pain and gradually ease them back into the world. One mourner said her journey through the stages of mourning was like being in a cocoon. At first she felt numb and not perceptively alive, yet gradually she emerged as a butterfly ready again to fly.

The loss is forever, but the psychological, emotional, and spiritual healing that takes place at every stage is necessary and healthy.

This Jewish law and ritual actually brings life.

This brings us, if you can believe it, to giving...

I can spell out for you all the things the bible says about giving…but I won’t.  It doesn’t really mince words.

We talk about tithes because that’s what’s in there.  It's what the Bible says:

“Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram     …. Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything (Genesis 14:18-20 NIV).

This is where it begins.

Abram, later Abraham, had his spoils from battle with a nearby king and he sees Melchizedek.  And, because he sees that he is someone who is with God, Abram gives him one tenth of what he had received.  This sets it all up; the process of giving ten percent of our increase back to God.

This was a sign of the covenant. But you and I both know that sometimes it’s hard to relinquish any…let alone 10% of what we’ve been given.  Some people sit with calculators making sure to tip their server 15% after good service and a good burger and fries, but giving extra to God for his service can give us fits.

We’re not alone. Israel had that trouble as well.  There were times that they held onto what they had and forgot the tithe and things got bad for them.  That’s where the prophets came in, to call persons back to God and why Malachi does this so well in Chapter 3:

“I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.

“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.

“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’

“In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.  I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.

The Deuteronomy text we read before, begins with:

Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.

And then it says that if you fail to follow the commands, you’ll forget the Lord and fall away from his covenant.  We’re not going to burn anyone with unquenchable fire here, but it’s clear that holding back on our giving, is detrimental to our relationship with God.  Our holding back gets in the way.

This makes sense.  Sheila ________, at our meeting last week, used an illustration from Dave Ramsey.  She said that, when you’re holing onto your money, you have tight fists around it.  Nothing is going to get out.  But nothing is going to get in.  When we are generous with our gifts, it makes it possible for us to receive as well as give.  It opens us up to God’s blessings and reminds us, in our wallets, that we have a God who does provide for us, that he will take care of us.  And that’s the relationship he wants to have with us.

As I talked with my allergist this past week about Jewish laws and regulations for mourning, we talked about how these laws and regulations, while hard to follow, while misunderstood, while countercultural, are designed to help those very persons who have suffered loss in their life.   They bring persons into community and into a proper relationship with the God who gives and takes away.

The Scriptural rules and regulations and understandings about giving are hard to follow, misunderstood, and very much countercultural.  I know it can be hard to hear, but they really aren’t about meeting a church budget or being asked to support a new church construction or fund a pastor or even some wonderful, holy, life-changing ministry.  They are designed to help the very persons who have an income, and increase, material things.  They bring persons into community and bring us into a proper relationship with the God who gives and takes away. It also fights against the impulse to make an idol of material things.  It reminds us who we are and who God is.  It’s about faithfulness and holiness.

In this place you will be defined by the sacrifice of Christ, by a God who loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him will not die but have eternal life.  That will define you here…God’s love for you.  You will never be defined by how much you give or don’t give.  You will never be defined by what percentage of your income you offer to God.  There won’t be bigger crowns in heaven for the larger portion of guilt that you carry as you go to write your check.   That won’t define you.

You are defined as a loved child of God with whom God wants to be in relationship with.

Part of that relationship, a prominent but challenging part, is stewardship.  To put it simply.  SIMPLY BELIEVE. SIMPLY SERVE.  SIMPLY GIVE.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

"Simple Stewardship: Simply Serve" -- Sermon for 7 November 2010

Image by crunklygill via FlickrText:  2 Corinthians 8:1-15 & John 13:31-25
Title:  “Simple Stewardship:  Simply Serve”

A little over a month ago I went into the Alaska United Methodist Conference office with Sheila _______ (our money person) and Steve _______ (our “building” person).  To meet with Dave _______ and Leila _______ (our Conference Leadership Persons).  We met with them to talk about our church finances, which, the farther along we’ve been getting in our construction without actually occupying the building, the harder it’s been.  And we knew that this year, as we were looking at what we’ve had on our plate to get heat and start worshipping over there, it was becoming more and more evident that our “income” wasn’t meeting up with out “outgo.” 

And we’ve tried to be honest and forthcoming here.  The longer we’ve had to wait for construction to finish, we’ve been paying bills for a building we’ve not been able to occupy.  And we could see that it was going to get a little too close for comfort as we got to the second half of this year and into the beginning next year as we’ve had some large chunks of money due at one time while giving has gone down a bit.

And we’re there now.  I won’t get into all the details here, but know that we’re struggling to cover some of our basic bills—even things like my salary and the building insurance—all the time as we strive to increase the amount of ministry done in the community.

Well, we went to the Conference office to seek some guidance, knowing that we need to keep pushing to be in that space next door.  Well, from that meeting, I found out there is a fund set aside by the Conference called “The Mission Aid” fund.  It’s a fund built up from APPORTIONMENTS – which is a collection of money all the United Methodist Churches put into to keep up with the functioning of the conference but also for mission work both here and around the world.  Some people—particularly those in the South and Midwest—view APPORTIONMENTS as a HEAD TAX or a “fee” for having members.  It’s not that.  Really, APPORTIONMENTS are A PORTION MEANT FOR OTHERS.  It’s giving beyond ourselves.  And because of that giving from United Methodist Churches around Alaska, our church is getting $7,000 which we’ve said that we would apply to my insurance and pension contributions, which we’re behind on.  It’s a gift for us.

But, many of you know, that’s not the only way we’ve been helped by others throughout this building process.  BY NO MEANS! (As the Apostle Paul says a couple of times.)  Really, it’s breathtaking when you think of all the financial help we’ve gotten just to get in the place we are…with a full-time pastor and some active ministries and a nearly completed building – where I was able to write my sermon this week. 

Did you know that, in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 – each year – we took in over $50,000 from Christians around the US to put towards, not just our building, but also our ministry?  That number’s going down some which is why, this week I need to start mapping out a trip to Mississippi this winter, to visit churches. 

And that $200,000 doesn’t include the vast generosity of churches that have held bake sales and cookbook sales and carwashes and special offerings to send work teams up to Girdwood, Alaska to help us build.   I think it’s 34 work teams—with an average of 12 people.  That’s over 400 tickets to Alaska with rental cars and food and some supplies and, at about $1,500 per person, that’s another financial gift of $600,000 just so people could come and work for us and with us.

I’m done saying we’ll be in that new sanctuary on this or that date.  Been heartbroken too many times for that.  But I know that, as we sit over here today, soon we’ll be over there.  And the hope and the promise of that is only because of the grace and kindness and gifts of – not just the people you see around us today – but a whole lot of other people.  People have been generous with us. 

We are talking about STEWARDSHIP over this three-week period.  And I’m trying to think of just how simple I can make the concept so that you appreciate its importance in the lives of, not just our church, but all followers of Jesus.  I said, if I could break this concept down into just the very important parts to know and understand, I’d say that SIMPLE STEWARDSHIP means SIMPLY BELIEVE, SIMPLY SERVE, SIMPLY GIVE.

Last week we talked about that BELIEF aspect.  This is a tough one in our culture where we have a sense that there just isn’t enough to go around, and so we worry about what we have and how much we have and how much everyone else has.  There’s a SPRIRIT OF SCARCITY which makes us hold onto what we have.

But part of what we need to do as Christians is to recognize that we have a very big God…one who even created the heavens and the earth…and through his PROVIDENCE he will take care of us.  And, even if we loosen our grip on our money by 10%, a biblical tithe, he will take care of us.  He’ll make sure that we have enough…more than enough…to keep on going.  If you don’t believe that God will take care of you…well, then you have to rely on other things, such as money, for backup…in case God fails to come through. 

That’s the first aspect of a SIMPLE STEWARDSHIP.   SIMPLY BELIEVE.

The part I wanted to get to today is SIMPLY SERVE. 

We’re all well aware that our God is a serving God and our Jesus is a serving Jesus.  In fact, that passage we read before kind of gets right at it.  Jesus has come to the Passover Meal with the disciples…although they don’t know it’s “The Last Supper” yet.  And as the meal is set to begin, Jesus does the strangest thing.  He takes off his outer robe and begins to wash the disciple’s feet.  Now, remember, this is Ancient Israel.  Sandals.  Dusty roads.  Dirty feet.  This was the job of a servant, not of the Messiah.  Peter protests, but then relents.  And then the meal begins.  After the meal he gives them a “new commandment.”    He says:

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

And that love…, well, it’s shown through service…through washing feet, through offering food, and bread and juice.  That’s how it’s shown to the disciples…and us.

It’s also shown to us through churches coming together to help us with our benefits or people around the US giving $50,000 a year to help us build. 

Now, I hope it goes mostly without saying that service is important in the Christian life.  After all, Jesus said for us to take up our crosses.  He said that he came to serve and offer his life as a ransom for many.  And if we look at his life, he went out of his way to serve others…to minister to the hurting and the lost, to reach out to the social or economic outcast, and, of course, to die on a cross for the sins of the world.  Service…, well, that’s part of what made this Messiah different than the military and political Messiah that a lot of folks expected.  They expected someone to ride into Jerusalem on a stallion, with army behind him….not on a donkey.  This was a different kind of King.

And so, we know that we should do good things for people.  We know that we should have things like a food pantry and that we should help persons who are homeless or are having problems with their kids or their jobs or their marriage.  For that’s part and parcel of the Savior we say we believe in.

We are thankful for those who have served in our church in this way…for the committee folks…for the construction folks…for the people who’ve served as mentors for kids…for those who have cleaned Little Bears or shoveled the chapel roof or chopped wood or whatever.

That’s good stewardship of time.  That’s serving through our talents and time and spiritual gifts.

But stewardship of money is also connected to service…in a big way.  See, money is AMORAL as Dave Ramsay says.  Money is neither good nor bad in and of itself.  It’s just money.  It’s like a brick.  A brick is neither good nor bad…in and of itself.  It can be used for good or bad purposes.  It can be used to build a hospital…or it can be thrown through a window.  And money can be used for good or bad purposes.  It can buy things that are unneeded, unwanted, unhelpful in this life.  It can be stored with more and more money out of fear that we’ll never have ENOUGH.  OR…it can be used to serve.

We can’t really wash the disciples’ feet with money, but we can use it to help those in need.

We had fun a few weeks ago in Bible Study looking at Paul’s words to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 8, which is one of the most thorough explanations of stewardship in the Bible.  Well, at least I had fun with it.

The scenario is that times are tough for the Jerusalem church.  Poverty there is bad.  They need help.  And Paul’s taking up a collection along his journeys, in order to help support those Jerusalem Christians. 

In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul talks about the Macedonian Christians and, essentially, says “You know how bad they have had it in Macedonia.  Well, let me tell you they have been graced by the grace of Christ and even amidst their poverty they have responded generously.  They are eager, out of their poverty, to help the saints of Jerusalem.   He says, to the Corinthians:

“…for during a severe ordeal of affliction , their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.  For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints.”

So…you Corinthians, who also have been blessed by God and others, and who are not in a severe ordeal of affliction at this point…will you, also, excel in this undertaking?  Remember how well those Macedonians excelled…as I was just saying.

One of the Bible study folks said they hadn’t realized how amusing Paul can be at times.  He really is funny in places.  And this is one of them.  It would be like me standing up before the offering plate was passed and say something like this...

Friends, before you reach into your wallets and open up your checkbooks, I want to ask if you’ve been blessed by God.  I know you have.  But I want you to answer that question.  Well, if God has blessed you so much then we need to address what we should do with this blessing.  There are people in this community, in this world of ours who need some help.  They need to be served.  And the Bible tells us that we love because he first loved us.  Well, you’ve been loved.  So, we can, in turn, love with what we’ve been given. 

And, before that plate is passed, I’d like you to consider, for example, the fact that we’ve had three workteams from Elkhart, Indiana over the years…a place so depressed that MSNBC had a special place on their website to talk about the unemployment and depression there.  And this is a community that was so very generous with their gifts to you.  They excelled in their giving.  Will you excel in this present undertaking?

I couldn’t do that.

Paul’s got some guts.

But more than guts, it’s true.

Yes, we need funds for the building…not so that we can complete the building, but so that we can start using it for ministry.

Yes, we need funds for my salary…not so that I have money in my pocket, but so we can afford to keep a full-time pastor here, doing what I hope you think is valuable ministry to and with the community.

Yes, we need funds for the heat, and the mortgage, and the phone line…not so the lights stay on for us but so they stay on for all who might need this place.
Paul says, closing out his discussion of the collection:

“The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.”

I’m not going to say that you have too much.  I’ll say that I have too much.  But I won’t speak for you.  But I will say that pretty much everyone here has more than ENOUGH.  Well, what if we could serve by offering up some of that MORE THAN ENOUGH to others – through the work of this church.

That’s what others have done for us.

If you want to have a very basic understanding of stewardship, you need to SIIMPLY BELIEVE and SIMPLY SERVE.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

"Simple Stewardship: Simply Believe" -- Sermon for 31 October 2010

Text:  Matthew 6:25-33 & Mark 4:37-41
Title:  “Simple Stewardship:  Simply Believe”

I read a blog pretty frequently called “Naked Pastor.” I don’t believe the pastor, David Hayward, is, in fact, naked. It’s more of a metaphor for a pastor bearing his soul.  But this pastor doesn’t bare his soul in lengthy posts about what food he ate on a particular day or how awesome worship is.  He actually draws cartoons.  And every Friday, he gives one away.

I won one just a few weeks ago.  (Picture at right.) It’s a sketch of a giant hand reaching down from the heavens to a character on the earth below.  The hand holds a giant daisy and the daisy just has one petal left. And the voice from heaven says, “Start with he loves me.”

You know, there is a whole lot we can discuss theologically.  We can discuss how it is that the death of Christ on a cross offers us “atonement” or “At-One-Ment” in this life.  We can argue about whether sinners really are welcome in the church and what sins we should really keep out.  We can discuss at length what it means to have a Trinitarian God and we can wonder how in the world one can equal three and vice versa.

There is a whole lot that we can discuss Biblically.  When it says that all of Scripture is “inspired by God” in 2 Timothy 3:16, does that mean that all of Scripture is infallible?  Should we lean in our interpretation of Revelation to a more metaphorical understanding?  How important for us New Testament folk are all of the Old Testament references that Jesus makes?

And we can, some more than others, go on and on about how this all comes together in the life of the church…ordination, mission projects, struggling to get Sunday School teachers, mission and ministry, and, indeed, stewardship.

But, you know, if I could just break it down to the simplest form I could, I’d start with something like that cartoon.  “God loves you.”  That’s where it all begins.  That’s where it all ends.  From the creation in Genesis to the triumphal return of Christ in Revelation, it’s all about the all-encompassing love of our God for us…for you.  That’s a lesson that’s at the heart of it all.  It actually encompasses the message of the whole of Scripture pretty well and shapes how it is that we’re supposed to act in this life.  God loves us.   There’s nothing we can do about it that will change it.  But we can respond in kind.

We’re starting on a three-week journey into Stewardship.  I might throw some charts your way.  I might try to get you informed about our building project and our lack of funds.  It’s tight around here.  And I’ll probably send you home with a commitment card when all is said and done—so you can make a commitment to God and to the church.

But you know, sometimes we have a tendency to make this all more difficult than it is.  I know, in the day when Stewardship might be mentioned just once a year, I always felt like the people in the pews wished they could be anywhere else than in church that day. 

I used to tell jokes just to make the congregation and me feel more comfortable, as if it was a joking matter.  My favorite was the following....
 

A Baptist Minister, a Presbyterian Minister, and a United Methodist Minister were all talking about how they divided up the offering each week.
 
The Baptist said, he'd used the same method for a lot of years.  After everyone was gone he would draw a line on the floor and throw the offering up in the air.  What landed on one side was God's.  What landed on the other was his to keep for himself.
 

The Presbyterian said he was surprised, but his system was similar.  He drew a circle on the floor and threw the offering up in the air.  What landed in the circle was his to keep and what landed outside belonged to God.
The Methodist said his was just about the same.  He threw the the offering up and he figured whatever God wanted, he'd keep. (Ha Ha Ha)

Other times, I’ve heard clergy say, and mean it, that their stewardship sermon was just for the members within the church on that particular day and not for everyone there--like the visitors.  But, you know, if the visitors listened a little bit they might gain some knowledge they could take home with them.  The message was that this is complicated stuff for members only.

However, friends, stewardship isn’t -- as my son might say--stewardship isn’t “rocket surgery.”  It’s basic.  It’s relevant.  It’s simple.

And as we look at our Simple Stewardship over the next few weeks, I’m going to tell you that I think, if we take stewardship down to its simplest form, it’s rooted in three simple steps…SIMPLY BELIEVE, SIMPLY SERVE, SIMPLY GIVE.

But, it all spring from the very fact that our God loves us and, through his providence, cares for us.

And, while you may not think so, at times this can be very difficult to believe in.

First, sometimes, like the idea that cartoon was describing, we question whether or not we really can be loved by our God.  We may feel like we’ve sinned way too much or too badly for us ever to be loved by our God.  And, there’s some good hidden under that emotion.  The good is the recognition that you’re a sinner.  You are.  However, says, 1Timothy 1:15, Peterson’s The Message version, “Here's a word you can take to heart and depend on: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.”  I don’t want to pretend that your revelation that you’re a sinner is no big deal.  I just want to say that the bigger deal is you're just the person Christ came to save.

Secondly, sometimes, we act like that love of God in our lives is not enough for us, like it’s incomplete.  Take for instance, our need to find belonging and care in our relationships.  We can surround ourselves with friends.  We can be lost when we’re not invited to the parties everyone else is going to.  We can feel so hurt inside when we’ve been wronged by those we love.  And we can, somehow feel less of a person while, all the time, God declares that we are, indeed, his chosen ones...that he loves us.

We can, in life, feel like we’re unloved and can try to escape this world by filling it with other things like drugs and alcohol…as if they can somehow fill us in a way we may not think we’re getting filled with God.

And, perhaps more to the point of stewardship, at least, financial stewardship, we can surround ourselves with the physical stuff of our world…our houses, our cars, our clothes, our gadgets, our retirement accounts, and find our worth here.

This latter issue, living as if worth and care were derived from material belongings is not only an American problem…but it is stereotypically an American problem.  For we live in a nation of consumers and advertisers and sellers and we have difficulty saying “no” to the stuff of our economic environment.  Advertisers know this.  Credit card companies know this.  The person who’s selling us that new house or new car or new dress or new shoes or new iPhone knows this.

If you think you’re immune to the siren calls of advertisers who repeatedly tell us that we’re only cool if we drive this or that car, or we’re only cool if we have this or that ski, or we’re only cool if we use a certain type of computer, or we’re only cool if we wear clothes that look a certain way, or we’re only cool if we drink a certain energy drink, there are millions of advertisers who will tell you that you’re not immune.  They know that their ads work.  They make us want more than we have now.

Just this week I saw a comic about our need to acquire that poked fun at women and their need for dresses—which, frankly, is not a need expressed by as many Alaskans as possibly persons from other areas.  It was a mathematical equation--  “N = D + 1” (Where N equals the number of dresses a woman thinks she should own and D equals the number of dresses she currently has.)  The dresses she needs is always the dresses she has …plus one.

But “dresses” may not be the thing for you.  Perhaps you think you always need one more app for your iPod, one more thousand dollars in your retirement account, one more set of skis or one more snowboard, one more winter hat, one more fishing pole, one more house, one more vacation, one more tool, one more purse, one more gadget.

The bible says that, at heart, this need for stuff isn’t just an affront to our brothers and sisters on this planet who have less, it’s an affront to God because it implies that God is NOT sufficient…that we have need BEYOND GOD and God’s providence for us.  We forget that there is no THING, no PERSON, that will (taking words from the Jerry Maguire movie) COMPLETE US.  In fact, the more stuff we surround ourselves with the harder it is for us to remember that we have a need for God.  The more stuff we have, it’s harder for us even to BELIEVE IN GOD.

Let’s look again at what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew.  We’ll look at Peterson’s version, The Message.

"If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

"Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.
"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

Isn’t it kind of funny that Jesus would question why we worry too much?  I mean it’s almost more comfortable to hear him talk about the coming Kingdom of God or tell a nice parable or heal someone.  But here he tells us that we worry too much because we’re too concerned with the stuff of this world; we’re too concerned with getting things; we’re too concerned with having the nicest stuff and the nicest food.  And all of this essentially is a crisis of belief…we don’t believe in a God who is able to provide.

In our second Gospel text we have a storm overtaking the disciples because they don’t have faith…faith in God to provide…and Jesus quiets the storm that raged against them.

By living simply we can calm the storms that rage against us and trust, once again, or maybe for the first time, for God to provide for us.

One of the best illustrations I've ever seen for tithing, giving 10%, was from a tract from somewhere down in Louisiana, I think. The author of the tract said that money is sticky.  It sticks to us and, more, we stick to it.  Once we get a hold of it, we hold on tightly, thinking that we need it, that we can't live without it, that it is what's providing for us.  And so here we are, holding on tightly to our money with two clenched fists.  Tithing, is the equivalent of wrenching back one of those tightly grasping fingers, letting go, ever so slightly of our grip on money, releasing some of the stickiness, reminding us that it does not control us and, ultimately, does not provide for us.  Without that reminder, we're stuck.
One of the hazards of Stewardship sermons is that people think they’re about money.  They’re not.  They are sermons about belief in the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Mary and Martha and Jesus.

Do you believe that our God is good enough and strong enough and loving enough to provide for you if you give 10% of your income to the church?

Do you believe that simplifying the stuff of your life would free you up to trust God more and more?

Do you believe that God will take care of you, through every day, o’er all the way?

How much do you believe that God loves you and will provide?

Or, do you want to hedge your bets, making sure someone or something else provides for you, too?

Simply believe.  It's the start of our "Simple Stewardship."

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

128 People Read My "Diarrhea Sermon" This Past Week

Image by Shockingly Tasty via Flickr
Well, I don't know if they actually read it, but 128 people, probably while searching for sermon resources on the lectionary text of this past week, Luke 18:1-8, found my sermon on that passage called, "The Parable of the Persistent Widow."  It was preached on June 27th of this year and, I have to say, is a pretty good sermon.

However, it is remembered by some as my "Diarrhea Sermon" where, as part of our summer series on the parables, "The Stories of Jesus," I told stories from my time here at Girdwood Chapel that helped describe who we are and what we are as a congregation. So, as an illustration on the importance of prayer, I brought up how a young boy in our congregation, Gunnar, wanted prayer for his father, who was on a boat, and had diarrhea.  Everyone giggled at the time the original event took place, but I retold it as a reminder of what prayer means at Girdwood Chapel and, if it's big enough to be a burden, it's big enough to lift up in prayer.  Now, the story didn't have much to do with the Persistent Widow, but it did have a lot to do with our church...which, during a summer of storytelling, was important to remember.

However, now I see 128 people found that sermon as they were looking for stuff to use on "The Persistent Widow" and I'm wondering what people thought when they got part of the way through and found that I actually used the word "diarrhea" in a sermon in a reference to prayer life in a congregation.

I'm mortified.

I'm amused.

And I'm impressed that 128 people found that sermon.

I'm hoping there were more than a few giggles at the topic and more than a few recollections from their own congregations, when prayers surprised congregants.

I guess, in order to get hits to my site, I just need to keep in front of the lectionary by a couple of months and the hits will keep rolling in.

What other maladies can I use that will surprise and shock those who visit?

I Want to be a Giant Killer

Image via Wikipedia

Let's see.  Two weeks ago we introduced our "Good Samaritan" theme to the congregation and told them that we're going to be addressing the plight of some of the world's most needy people.  This was not going to be small task.  These were going to be big issues.  A week ago we talked openly and honestly about AIDS and pandemic disease.  We threw out facts and figures with the hopes that persons in the congregation would get a sense of just how many people are dying of diseases that we can actually do something about.  Yesterday we dove head first into issues of justice, highlighting the growing world slave trade, including sex trafficking.  As I look to next week, I'm excited to be looking at poverty.  That's something that hits a little closer to home for our folks and for me as well.  Here is something that we've actually seen in some of its forms...a more familiar enemy.

These are big issues.

These are bad issues.

These are issues that are clearly not what God wants for the world.

However, their size and their scope can make us feel so very small.  In fact, I think the issues are so big that we have this natural flight response that makes us want to run away from them as fast as we can so that we can deal about those issues which are more personal to our own situations.  Give us something smaller.  How about talking about trying to be Godly spouses or our need to read the Bible more frequently?  Tell us some nice stories of Jesus and the coming Kingdom of God.  When's Christmas?  At least these are issues we feel like we can do something about.


But next week I'll be in that pulpit with sermon in hand and I will try with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength to have our congregation get passionate about the poverty issue that face so many of the people in the world and so many people in our own country and, really, so many persons in our own community as well.  And I'm not sure where we'll be at the end of the hour (or hour plus).  Will anyone be moved?  Will anyone have their eyes opened to little things that can be done in our own backyard?  Will lives be changed?  Will a new generation of advocates rise up? 

Or will everyone get a glimpse of the size of the issue at hand and run the other way?

(Sigh.)

One of my favorite prayers is the prayer of a fisherman that I had heard years ago.  It says:

"Dear Lord, the sea is so wide and my boat is so small."

That gets at some of what I feel as these issues are addressed.

From Scripture we also get the account of David and the giant, Goliath.  It's in 1 Samuel 17 and the Wikipedia account of the battle goes like this:

Saul and the Israelites are facing the Philistines at the Valley of Elah. Twice a day for forty days, Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, comes out between the lines and challenges the Israelites to send out a champion of their own to decide the outcome in single combat. However, Saul and all the other Israelites are afraid of him. By chance, David is present, having brought food for his elder brothers. Told that Saul has promised to reward any man who defeats Goliath, David accepts the challenge. Saul reluctantly agrees and offers his armor, which David declines, taking only his sling and five stones chosen in a brook.

David and Goliath confront each other, Goliath with his armor and shield, David with his staff and sling. “The Philistine cursed David by his gods,” but David replies: “This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down, and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that God saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is God’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

David hurls his sling with all his might, and hits Goliath in the center of his forehead. The Philistine falls on his face to the ground, David takes Goliath’s sword and cuts off his head. The Philistines flee and are pursued by the Israelites “as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron.” 

We're facing some giants on these Sundays. These are big beasts.  Our ammunition seems so puny in comparison.  I mean, how are we to do battle against AIDS, and injustice, and slavery, and hunger, and poverty, and all the damage that's been done to our earth?  How are we to deal with these big issues that have a way of making us feel, rightfully, so small and insignificant?  What could we possibly bring to the fight?  Here we are, waging battle, and we have a sermon and a video and a Sunday School class, and a take-home devotional.  Can anyone take us seriously in this fight?

We need to remember as we do all of this that David didn't have much either.  He was just a kid who was pretty good with a sling shot and had the faith of God that he'd be victorious.  He just found a few good stones right as he goes off to the fight.

Says David right before the battle:  "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied."  (1 Samuel 17)

And we know of that turned out...for both David and that menacing giant that he faced.

So, next week, once again we'll gather and we'll hand our our little stones...small changes in life, ways to get involved, bits of information to spread the news about the issues at hand so that we can better know our enemy.  Together we'll fling these with all the faith and strength we can muster...praying that we hit our enemy right where it hurts...and that we win through the grace of our God.

And, when all is said in done, perhaps we will be giant killers and the world will see the glory of our Lord. 

It's something I pray for.

"You Are Expected" -- Sermon from 5 September 2010

Text:  Luke 14:25-35 & John 15:1-17
Title:  “You Are Accepted Expected”

A little introduction here…

Paul Tillich is considered one of the premier Christian thinkers and philosophers of the 20th Century.  He taught theology and philosophy in Germany and came to the US in 1933--which seems like it would have been a pretty good time to get out of Germany.  He taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York and then at Harvard and wrote lots of books.  He also wrote a lot of sermons.   I had to study one of them when I was in seminary back in the early 90s.  It was called “You Are Accepted.”

In “You Are Accepted” Tillich was trying to get at an understanding of grace for mid-20th Century Christians and non-Christians.  Paul, not “Tillich” but “Apostle Paul” wrote in his letter to the Romans (5:20), “Moreover the law entered, that offense might abound.  But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”  As the old hymn sings…grace that is greater than all our sin.

What does this mean… “sin” and “grace?”   Are they viable words today or have they lost so much of their meaning over the years that we need to have new connotations for them completely?  No, we didn’t need to get rid of the words, Tillich offered, but we did need to come to a new understanding of them.  At heart, I believe he wanted to get at the amazing-ness of grace…that it is bigger than our sin, it’s before all that we do, and is there for us.

He wrote in Shaking the Foundations about the grace of the conversion experience:

Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: "You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!" If that happens to us, we experience grace.

“Accept that you are accepted.”


It’s really not that much different than when we talk about grace being like a present you need to open up.  God gives you a present, his salvation paid for by his death on the cross.  And, as a sinner in need of redeeming, all we have to do is take the present, receive it…accept it.  Grace!

And it’s not that far off from something that I’ve said many times… “There’s nothing you can do that will make God love you any more.   There is nothing you can do that will make God love you any less.”    You are accepted.  Grace!

But, 20 years ago, I had some trouble with Tillich’s sermon…not that either then or now I could go toe to toe with such an intellectual heavyweight.  Turning grace into acceptance was, I thought (and I still think) missing something.  Grace is cool.  Don’t get me wrong.  It's God's free gift.  It’s AMAZING.   After all, that’s what the song says, doesn’t it?  But I really don’t want to turn grace into inoffensive pablum.   I don’t want it to be toothless.  I don’t think Jesus was crucified because the gospel was a toothless inoffensive pablum.  No, he was crucified because it wasn’t.  Defining it as merely "acceptance" seems to miss out on the response that is asked for from those of us who have received this grace.

Grace may be free, but it isn’t cheap.

Cheap grace is what someone once called “SLOPPY AGAPE.”  It’s love without all the difficult and hard things that love entails.  Grace is and always will be God’s free gift to us, but following God comes with a cost.  There is a COST TO DISCIPLESHIP.

Luke’s Gospel expresses this directly.  Jesus is speaking to a large crowd which is traveling along with him.  He’s saying cool things.  He’s doing cool things and people are attracted to this.  But Jesus knows there’s more to this than good teaching and a few healings.  He knows that there will be precious few who will follow him when the going gets tough as they near the cross.  He tells them that they need to, in vivid hyperbole, HATE their family and go against their wishes if they’re going to follow.  Later he says they need to give up possessions.  But the heart of it...the heart of this passage...I think, is that middle section of what we read:

Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.  For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it?

You need to count the cost.

There’s going to be a cost.

It’s like that great cartoon…my favorite Christian cartoon ever…that had a picture of a man lying prostrate on the ground, gripping into the earth with all the strength of his fingers, fighting as he is pulled backwards to a cross in the distance.  The caption below read, “Jim has decided to follow Jesus.”

(NOTE:  I have looked and looked and looked for this cartoon and can't find it anywhere.  If anyone knows where a picture of it might be online, let me know.)

There is a cost.

But…in the age of “YOU ARE ACCEPTED” we don’t ask much of persons.  We have a nice cozy Jesus who’s not too demanding.  Sure, a tithe is 10% of your income but we’re just happy you’re here.  Sure, we want to say that the Bible is important but it doesn’t really matter if read it or not.  Yes we think ridding the world of poverty and oppression is in line with our Savior who came to preach good news to the poor and release to the captives, but it’s more of a suggestion than a command.  Instead of picking up your cross how about you just wear one or sit in front of one for an hour a week.

You are accepted.  We set the bar low for expectations.  And that’s what we get.

You are ACCEPTED.  Not much is EXPECTED.

United Methodists are not immune…at all…to wishy-washiness of faith.  Even, of all people, Jon Stewart, late night host of the Daily Show, out of the blue offered up a critique.

A couple of weeks ago Ms. Chelsea Clinton married Mr. Marc Mezvinsky.  You may have heard about it.  I saw some clips online of the news stations trying to cover it and only reporting on how many cars were driving down the street.  Mr. Mezvinsky is Jewish.  Chelsea is United Methodist (as is as are the Bushes).  Jon Stewart, who is both Jewish and a comedian, satirized the wedding later that week.  He noted that the wedding had both Jewish and Christian elements.  The groom for instance, wore a formal prayer shawl and a yarmulke and had a traditional Jewish marriage certificate.  And Chelsea did Methodist things…meaning…there was a minister in attendance.  That's the only "Methodist" thing about the ceremony.  Jon Stewart then said the following:

Man, being a Methodist is easy.  It’s like the University of Phoenix of religions.  You send them 50 bucks and click “I AGREE” and you’re saved

Well…no.  And in fairness to Methodists around the world, the same could be said about many churches and denominations, both big and small, around the nation.

You are accepted.  That's a great part of our faith.  However...something is expected of you.
Remember Jesus’ famous words in John 15:

‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower.  He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.  You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.  Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.  I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.

We are to bear fruit.  Our lives are to be different.  We are to are to be about discipleship.  We are to follow the one we call Savior and Lord.  We are to take up our cross and follow him.  We are to recognize that there is a cost that comes with this whole following Jesus thing.  We are to grow.  We are supposed to change.  We are to mature.  We are to experience a transformation.  And if there is no growth then we…then we…well…we’ve cheapened grace.

When a little kid comes home with an egg carton full of dirt from kindergarten and a note from the teacher that seeds were planted in class today and all you have to do is water it and put it in the sunlight and little bean plants are going to spring up…you, as parent, are going to make very sure that there is some growth there.  You don’t want to have a disappointed little kid on your hands.  You want to see the look on their face when a little green shoot comes out and leaf begins to form.  You expect some change.

Well, the same goes for us.  God expects some change in us.  We don't want to have a disappointed God.

I have been doing a lot of blog posts and it has been expanding the amount of Christian web sites I go to on a weekly basis.  And I’ve been finding a lot that has rocked my world.  This week I found a website for Soul City Church in Chicago.  They’re just starting up.  When looking at their VALUES, I found the following under “TRANFORMATION” that caught my attention and led to today’s sermon title

At Soul City church everyone is accepted, but everyone is expected.  We believe that God created us to transform and through the power of the gospel God changes every element of our lives from the inside out.  We believe that as we are transformed into our true identity we experience freedom that liberates us to love our community in a way that promotes peace and health that can bring transformation to our neighborhoods, city, and the world.

And they quote from Ephesians 4:24:

“You must display a new nature because you are a new person,
created in God’s likeness-righteous, holy and true.”

I love that first sentence of that section…"everyone is accepted, but everyone is expected."
 
We don't expect much from most folks...even ourselves.  That's a great reminder there. 

You know, I’m a master at using vague generalities in my sermons.  Most preachers are.  We talk of Jesus and God and faith and discipleship and speak in such innocuous ways that there’s no challenge there.

It is good to follow Jesus.  Amen?

It is good to read your Bible.  Amen?

It is good to be nice to people.  Amen?

It is good to love Jesus with your heart.  Amen?

It is good to lead your family in Godly ways.  Amen?

It is good to go to a Christian study of your choosing.  Amen?

There’s not much cost to any of this.

But what about the specifics?  What about the nitty-gritty of faith?  What about an actual challenge to grow in our spiritual lives?  What about that?

There’s a reason why this sermon is being preached here today…on this Sunday.  We are at the start of a school year, which, in many ways is the start of church year, and is one of the major ways people keep time in our society.  It’s a day of new beginnings, as a great hymn says.  It’s a day to look ahead and count the cost of discipleship, thanking God that we ARE ACCEPTED by his great grace, but to hear that more is expected of us.  You have some opportunities to follow Jesus…perhaps more closely than you did last year.

We have a New Worship and Sunday School series kicking off next week.  This is going to tackle some of the difficult world issues out there and hear stories from those who are out there tackling it.

Says the website for our material for this study:

A World in crisis... besieged by Poverty, Pandemic Diseases, Social Injustice, Racism, Inequality and Political Oppression…

What impact could 77 million American Christians have on these problems? How different would our world be if the Church of Jesus Christ became the strongest voice on these issues? Why don’t more Christians get personally involved?

How about you?  You can invite your unchurched friends to show them that we’re not afraid to get our hands dirty in some big issues in the world…that Jesus has a word to say about this.  Specific enough?
We’re going to have an 8 week Disciple Bible Study starting up in a few weeks, hoping to find the perfect, yet always elusive time.  I was hoping for a 34-week study but it’s hard to do with 2 other persons expressing interest.  Could you do 8 weeks?

Financial Peace University will be starting up in a couple of Mondays.  We’ll do it through Community Schools to try to attract more folks so that more folks can hear how they can make peace with their money.  Are you ready for this?

Sunday School.  We need teachers.  I can’t teach this and the adult class.  Physically impossible.  I know who the usual suspects of teachers are. What about you?

Youth.  I know you’re too big for little kids Sunday School unless we enlist you as a helper.  But you’re not too big for Jesus and discipleship.  Parents take some leadership here.  Help us with the positive discipleship of your kids.

And others…    We’re going to need folks to step up in leadership around here.  We need warm bodies for the committee rosters and we need people actually serving on these committees to help this place be in ministry and mission in the world.

We need people to ask… “What can I do to help the building process along?”   “How much more should I give?”  “What can I offer”    We need people to look at this community we’re in and ask where it is that we, collectively or individually, can be the hands and feet of Jesus.  Where is our cross that we can pick up and follow?

During the next sermon series I’m hoping…hoping…to have a take home component so you and your family can pray for the issues at hand.  Will you?

God is good.  Jesus Christ accepts you and me.  But how much can he expect from us?

You are accepted.  And you are expected.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

"[CHURCH] is a VERB" -- Sermon for August 15, 2010

Text:  Matthew 28:16-20 & Luke 10:1-12
Title:  “[CHURCH] Is a VERB”

My first church out of seminary was in __________, Indiana.  There were some good people in that church…really good people.  Some of you know that I've talked openly about how that was a hard place to start out in ministry for a couple different reasons.  And, so, when I say "there were some really good people there" you might expect me to follow it with the traditional Southern, "Bless their hearts."  Sometimes, perhaps stereotypically, Southerners will say something like “Jimmy Ray Miller (bless his heart)…” and then follow it with all the horrible stuff they were going to tell you about Jimmy Ray Miller and the only reason their saying "bless his heart" at all is so they don't feel bad about talking bad about him.

But there were some really good people in that church.  There really were.  In fact Julie and the kids were able to go visit a few of them when they were down in Indiana…although they attend a different church now.  There were, and I'm sure still ARE, some wonderful people in that church.


But I did come out of that church with some stories that have been instrumental in my understanding of what it means to be a church and what it means to reach out, as I am want to say, "IN CONCERN AND SERVICE FOR THE WORLD."

I know many of you have heard this story before.  But, you’re going to hear it again.

See, when I got to the church, one of the first Sundays I was there, one of the folks who had been around awhile said, “Preacher, you know what your job is here.”  My ears perked up, thinking this could be pretty important.  He said, “Your job here is to bring in young people…and make sure they’re upwardly mobile.”  In an economically depressed county seat town in Indiana, he wanted me to find the one or two twenty-somethings who were moving up a corporate ladder somewhere and hadn’t moved out of that town and make them members.  It was going to be a challenge to meet that job requirement.

But that comment wasn't meant to be rude or mean or anything.  It was because the church was hurtin’ for young people in the pews.  Those referred to as “the young women” by the elders of the church were now approaching 60.  And the older ladies were approaching 80.  Most of the kids of those 60 and 80 year old persons had moved away, seeking greener economic pastures.  And the church found almost no one to fill the void.  They weren’t an unfriendly bunch.  They had some studies going on.  There was a lot of experience in the congregation.   That gentleman who gave me my job description was merely putting some words to what, I think, a lot of folks were feeling when they had a 22 year old pastor show up with his young wife to serve a congregation with a lot of graying hair.

While we can have lots of discussions about mission and evangelism and hospitality that this all points to, I want to say that this particular church in ______, Indiana was suffering from BAD GRAMMAR.

See, back in the fifties, after World War II, those returning veterans with their lovely young wives...they were full of energy.  They were planning families.  And they wanted to build a church.  They got together and they worked and they planned and they sacrificed and they built a rather large stone church with a  whole neighborhood around it.

At this time, the church adopted a BEHIVE as their symbol—each worker bee assigned a task in order to raise up a hive…a church…a spiritual home for all of those bees.  It’s no mistake I think that the Freemasons see a beehive as a symbol of industry.  There were a lot of masons among the older members of the church and they were clearly industrious.

Now I’m extrapolating from my own history there as these events took place long before I got there in 1994.  But, I think all of that DOING had one goal…BEING.  There were a group of people who were, by God, going to build and BE the Methodist Church in that neighborhood.  They had young families and they had a facility and the assumption was that persons would be drawn to that place like…well, bees to honey.

And, perhaps it worked for a little while.  The “if you build it, they will come” mentality works well for a while.  The latest new thing always gets a little bit more attention.

But somewhere along the line…they were no longer DOING church.  They merely WERE the church.  All those action words that had described them during their years of construction and growth stopped.  It was all stuff from their PAST.

Their church became a NOUN.  It was a building.  Yes, it was a building where they had friends and had funeral dinners to support the loved ones after a funeral for those who had died in the community.   Yes, they had their Sunday School classes.  And, yes those older women and younger women, who were rapidly increasing in age over the years, supported missionaries far and wide.

But very few people ever set foot in their building, except for Sunday mornings.  For many in the community, it was just that church building over by Lincoln School.  And, by the time I had gotten there, and walked around the community, I found many of the neighbors didn’t even know it was a church.  Because of their need to protect their building…because of a self-satisfaction that comes from being around people just like you that you just really like…because they had gotten undisciplined in their discipleship…they HAD church, all right…but they were failing at DOING church in their community and in the world.

In all fairness, this is way oversimplified.  Factor in an economic depression, an influx of Hispanic workers, and the exodus of young adults from the community and you can see there were other factors involved.  A fifty year history of a midwestern church in a midwestern town can't be condensed down to a 20 minute sermon illustration without using some very broad strokes.

But it’s clear from my time there, that church was NO LONGER AN ACTION WORD.

Two quick stories that get at this:

First, there was a story about why the boy scouts were no longer able to use the building.  I think I remember it correctly at this time.  Apparently, when meeting up on the third floor…long before I got there since I never saw the third floor used but twice…when meeting up on the third floor, one of the boy scouts started a fire in the garbage can.  I understand that this is behavior you don’t want repeated, but the response of the church was excessive.  They determined that no outside groups were going to use their church, particularly not the Boy Scouts.  And I have no idea how long that had gone on before I got there, but they had a facility that had, easily triple the floor space of our new facility we're building over there and it was only regularly used Sunday morning for worship and Sunday school, Thursday morning for “[Older] Women's Bible Study” (and I loved those ladies), and Thursday evening for choir practice…four hours a week.  But they kept it clean and protected it from any fires up on the third floor.

Secondly, and I’ve shared this here, when I got to the church and saw that it was right across the street from Lincoln School, I wanted to know about outreach and ministry with the kids or teachers at the school.  The conversation went something like this:

“So, I notice, we are right across the street from Lincoln School.  So what types of ministries have you all done with the school over the years?”

“What do you mean?

“I mean, have you had any kids clubs or tutoring or have you done something special for the teachers on the first day of school, like a breakfast or something, or brought over gifts at the holidays.”

“No.”

“How long have you been across from the school?”

“Forty years.”

“You mean this church has been sitting directly across the street from an Elementary School for forty years and we’ve never done anything to be in ministry with them or to them?  Well, we should start something!”

“Well, the school is closing down this year.”

And it did.

There was a kid walking home from school right before summer vacation and I was inviting him to the first Vacation Bible School that church had had in years.  I was telling him where it was going to be and pointed to our church which we were standing in front of, and he said he had no idea that it was a church at all.  The church could have evaporated into thin air, right there on the spot, and it wouldn't have made a lick of difference to him...or perhaps his parents...or perhaps many other folks in that town.  That's not just sad.  It's not right.

Many churches, for years, have operated from the ATTRACTIONAL MODEL—meaning churches have felt “if we build it, they will come.”  Churches have felt that all we needed to do was put up pretty signs and have the most awesome praise band and make sure the Yellow Pages (that’s a phone book, kids.  You may not use one), make sure the Yellow Pages listed you as a “FRIENDLY CHURCH.”  And people were going to be ATTRACTED to the church merely because it was the church…it was THERE.  It had persons.  It was a place.  It was a thing.  It was a noun.

And, you know, golly, when you’re working in an environment that is religiously sensitive, where activities revolve around church activities, where persons are being born in the church and raised in the church and married in the church and taught in the church and buried in the church—or nearby it—this just might work for a little while.  Just make the neon sign a little larger than the church next door and you’ll be fine.

But, you know, it just doesn’t work this way.  I know that when I go outside and speak to supporting churches and show them the artist’s rendering of our new facility and show them all the people that are walking in through the front doors I joke that we didn’t have just an artist but a prophet, too…he could see all the people that were going to come to us once we build this place. 

Our shiny new doors aren’t going to reach people for Christ.  And, I’m happy to say, I’M not going to reach people for Christ.  WE ARE.   And to do so, we will need to be sent out through those shiny new doors, to love the people where we are…our neighbors, our coworkers, our teammates.

People will hear the gospel message, they will find comfort in times of trouble, they will have their minds blown by the amazing grace of God, they will find that there are Christians whose company they can enjoy and have fun with…because, instead of an ATTRACTIONAL MODEL of ministry, we have a MISSIONAL model.  We’re not a noun.  We’re a verb.  We’re an action, a ministry, an outreach.  We are a people who do not SIT, we are a people who are SENT.  Amen?

It’s probably about time for a little Bible now.  And, these aren’t hard, friends.

Matthew 28…the Great Commission.

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Go.  Baptize.  Teach.  Verbs!

Luke 10:1-12, known as the sending of the 70 (or 72, depending on the manuscript):

He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.  Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.  Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

Go.  I’m sending you out.  Go be VERBS!

It was said by one of my teachers down in Nashville, that while much of discussion of mission in the church has revolved around Matthew 28, Luke 10 may be closer to what the church needs today.  We’re not looking for vast hordes of Christians to go out and harvest like a swarm of locusts eating crops.  We need folks to do out two by two…into the places where the unchurched people are--as your friends--and eat and stay and be with them…trying to be good witness in their presence and…over time…through relationship share the story of Jesus...or what Jesus means to you.

Look, next week is our CHURCH IS A VERB SUNDAY.  We're going to be doing service projects in the community again.  But, I don't want to close out the sermon by just listing them.  I want to give you an illustration about what it looks like when a church starts being a VERB.  It’s an illustration I heard from Rev. Sharma Lewis, a United Methodist District Superintendent from Georgia and thought it was so awesome, I put in on my blog.

There was a church (as often these stories go)….

There was a church in a downtown area of some town somewhere and it might have had some resemblance to that church in Indiana that I had been sent to—not much going on, the community not knowing it was even there, and if it had burned down only the people who were there on Sunday morning would have missed it.

In this "somewhere church" there was fire that broke out on a Sunday evening.  Some trustees of this church were in the area and saw the smoke coming out through the old stained glass windows.  The trustees ran in to the building thinking that they could AT LEAST save a picture of Jesus hanging down in fellowship hall.

Now, this was a pretty traditional picture of Jesus and had been in the congregation, hanging on the same wall of the fellowship hall, for 25 years.  It had been painted around, straightened when it got a little crooked, occasionally dusted.  Persons had eaten many a doughnut and drunk many a cup of coffee at its feet.  Children had run wild.  Youth had held lock ins.  All with little regard to its presence in their midst.  But that was many years before.  Recently it had just been dusted around.

Then the fire came.

Well, those trustees raced into the church, raced downstairs into fellowship hall, and raced on out with the picture of Jesus.

There wasn't much else that could be saved that day.  Those two trustees, some other members who got the phone call about the fire, and a lot of the people from the neighborhood gathered around and watched the church slowly burn to the ground.  It was a community event.

As they stood there and watched the church burn, they looked at the picture of Jesus in their midst.  It was traditional.  Jesus was a traditional lily-white, gazing up to heaven.  But there was a beauty about him.  Someone noted an irony of "saving Jesus from the fire."  The trustees got to share why it is that they would run in and save this one thing and why it was important.  Church members got to talk about some of the great, holy, life-changing events that had happened in that little church, even if it had been a long time ago.  And persons, some of whom had been in the community for years, heard about the saving power of this "saved" Jesus for the first time.

We need to be about the business of taking Jesus out onto the streets.  We need to take the message out on the highways and byways…to the neighborhoods and coffee shops and bars and parks and homes and businesses and lives around us.  We CANNOT keep our Jesus confined to our fellowship halls and our libraries and sanctuaries and church offices.  We CANNOT keep our Jesus inside our 30-foot by 30-foot leaky-roofed box of a church or our 126-seat sanctuary church we hope to be in.  We have a world out there that needs to hear about and be transformed by our Jesus.  It may take a spiritual fire to make it happen, but we pray it doesn't take a physical one.

We need to go and preach and teach and love and serve and work and relate and share and play and heal and love.

Because CHURCH IS A VERB.  We are an ACTION WORD FOR JESUS.  Let's GO.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

"When Love Comes to Town" -- Sermon for 8 August 2010

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Note:  This sermon was inspired by my time away from my congregation.  It seems whenever I return from my various trips, my sermons always start with something that says how much I missed the people here.  This holds true to form.  The last illustration, personifying Christ as "Love," is inspired by a keynote address by Pastor Rudy Rasmus of St. John UMC in Downtown Houston, TX.  I got to hear Pastor Rudy a couple of times on Monday, August 2nd and thought his ministry and perspective were awesome.

Text:  1 Corinthians 13 & John 1:1-18
Title:  “When Love Comes to Town”

I’ve been gone for three weeks, in case you noticed I was gone.  Two of the weeks were spent in Indiana, visiting Julie’s family—or families.  Then I spent five days in Nashville at a conference, along with Sheila ______ from our church.  This time around I had trouble finding a guest preacher for one of the Sundays and our Superintendent Dave _____ said he would do it.  But, when Dave got the offer of going to his high school reunion, he hooked us up with Drew ______ who is working at Turnagain United Methodist Church for the summer.

I had never met Drew and he had never met any of you.  So, when he asked a bunch of questions, I sent him an e-mail trying to describe this congregation.  While it doesn’t really pertain to the sermon at all, I thought I’d let you know what it is that I told him.

Drew, thanks for preaching.  Dave ________ had been the 9th person I had checked.  You're #10 (but first in my heart for being able!).
 
The Congregation:  Small, informal feel, very forgiving, able to roll with punches.  You can check out our website for things that are important to us or my blog to get a sense of their pastor.  This is a church that Superintendent Dennis _____ "barked" during a sermon several years ago because it's the first church he felt comfortable enough in which to do so.  He thought we could handle it.

It's a congregation that has some very liberal and very conservative folks.  It's a congregation that ASKED for communion to be held every week 12 years ago and it is done with joy...people smiling, people laughing, and kids asking for "a big piece" of bread.  They allow me to be very colloquial and I've been able to tackle some difficult issues with, I hope, love.  We use a traditional format but it feels very laid back...really it does.   Honest!

We have focused a lot on ministry in the community but confess that our building process has sapped a lot of energy from us over the last 6 years.  It's been a long road and we celebrate every step that gets us closer to the new building being occupied.

We have an 8:30 AM service (which averages about 5 in attendance and I love them) and a 10 AM which averages about 60-70 (but will be smaller with the 7 Doepkens out of town).
 

I want to reiterate that this is a congregation that will go with whatever.  They laugh at jokes.  They'll respond to your questions if you want them to be thinking about points.  They are game for video (although probably not what you want as a guest preacher).  If you have a fun youth song you'd like to do for children's time or a song you'd like to teach them, great.  If you want to bear your soul, they'll listen.  They appreciate heartfelt prayer and they know how to both praise God and offer up some difficult questions.  It's a good place to lead worship.

I just thought you might like to know that.

But, as we get to the sermon I want to tell you that, while Drew was preaching here, I was learning a lot in Nashville.  I heard a lot.  I experienced a lot.  Great stories.  Great preaching.  A lot of African American worship leaders and a whole lot of “Amens.”  And all along I got to hear how it is that communities of faith, across the nation and, indeed, around the world, are trying to live out God’s love with those they come into contact with on a daily basis.

I wish this wasn’t a novel idea.  (Amen?)  I wish this wasn’t something we need to be reminded of.  (Amen?)   I wish this was something that was just second nature to us.  (Amen?)

But it’s not.  (Congregation, on their own, responded with "AMEN!")  We need to be reminded.  We need to be reminded to love.

That scripture passage from 1 Corinthians which we read this morning.  It’s a pretty passage.  It’s a “nice” passage.  For those of us who have had it read at our weddings (which is a whole lot of us) when we hear “and the greatest of these is love” we can turn to that special someone in our lives and go… “Ahh…”  And for the married folk, we can think to our own little selves, “He’s talkin’ about us, darlin’.”

And that’s what we often think of as love in this world.

But the “love” that Paul talks about here is not some ooey, gooey, puddle of self-satisfied love.  No, it’s hard-hittin’ revolutionary stuff.  (Amen?  Amen!)

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

Got that?

This is love WAY beyond a dozen roses.  This is the kind of love that changes people…that changes situations…that changes the world.

And it’s hard.

The last night in Nashville, all that love discussion under my belt and hearing about leadership in the small church and schmoozing with church leaders and getting’ ready to hear Tony Campolo speak, I went out to dinner with Sheila and Leila _____ from our conference.  That afternoon Sheila and I had gone to a ministry in a poor section of Nashville where a church from the suburbs had sent in a pastor to live in that poor section and be in ministry with the underprivileged, forgotten, hurt people and work for economic justice and social justice...putting feet on their love in a difficult neighborhood.  

But before we went into the city, we went to the suburbs for worship at the parent church.  They were huge…about eight-thousand members.  Something like that.  I don't know.  And their contemporary service had a band that was awesome.  On the way to dinner that night, I was trying to describe the band to Leila and I said it was “tight” and “crazy good” and “sick.”

The only problem was there was a gentleman in front of us who overheard part of this conversation.  I assume was homeless and I assume had some emotional issues going on.  I think he thought my mention of “sick” was referring to him.  And he turned and he yelled.  And he was angry.  And I was nervous.  And I was trying to find a way just to get around him and get to the restaurant without really having to look him in the eyes.   And I did.

There was no “patient and kind” from me at that time.  My love didn’t “bear all things, believe all things, hope all things.”  My love only endured to the point that I started to feel uncomfortable.

After dinner, I was first out of the restaurant.  There was a beggar on the street.  The beggar looked at me, wearing my $14 straw hat I picked up on the trip, and said, “Nice hat.  Are you a minister?”  I don’t know if he had seen a lot of ministers over those few days or I was looking particularly clerical that evening.  Maybe it was the hat.  But, since he now knew I was a Christian…and more…a MINISTER…I felt like I should show what love I could at that time.  I couldn’t address the underlying reasons for his presence on the street that night.  I don't know what job he may have had and lost.  I don't know what ailment had him fall on hard times.  I don't know what REALLY was going on.  But I could give him some money…in the hopes that it went toward some food.

Love is hard.

Girdwood is not Nashville.  And, thank God, Girdwood doesn’t have Nashville’s heat right now.  It was 90 degrees and humid the whole time I was gone.  But we do have among us those who are challenging to love at times.  And, if we’re truly honest with ourselves, we will be among those who are “challenging to love at times.”  (Amen?  Amen.)

Each of us has our circles…our friends and relationships…our comfort zones.  They are the people who may work where we work or who have kids the same age as our kids or who have lived in the community about the same amount of time as we have.  They may be the people we serve on committees with (Lions Club has their Humpy Fest next week!)  They may be the people we run with or party with or look like or vote like or think like or live with.

And, getting outside of that safe area can be a challenge.  How do we reach out to them?   What would love look like?

We say, in this place, that we want to be followers of Jesus.  That’s nice.  

We are those who believe in a God of love.  That’s nice.  

We think service is a good idea and that we are the ones who benefit, really, when we act like Jesus…love like Jesus…to those around us.  That’s nice.  

We have a church that has a mission statement of “Love God.  Love others.  Change the world.” And we say that we want love to come to town…to this town through the presence and action of this church in this place.  And that we want to see a change because of this.  That’s...nice.

But we can be pretty lousy with love…not just with those who look different or think different or talk different or smell different or who act different.  Sometimes we’re pretty lousy with love in our own families…in how we treat our spouses…in how we treat our kids…in what we say behind people’s back.  And we can be pretty lousy with it in our love for God.  We, very rarely, are the people God would like us to be.  We’re lousy lovers.

And we have good company.  We, collectively, have a history here.

From the moment Adam and Eve ate some fruit, the story was set in motion that we’d have issues with love.  Then Cain kills Abel out of Jealousy.  Josephs brothers sell him into slavery.  David kills a man for the affections of his wife.

And even though our God would say about himself in Exodus 34:6:  "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” almost all of our story is about how unloving we have been.  Jeremiah notes how we loved foreign gods.  Isaiah talks of how we loved bribes and treated the poor poorly.  Micah even needed to remind us to love mercy.

We lied about our love.  We twisted our love.  Our love was self-serving.  It wasn’t love at all.  How could we learn about love?  How could we see it in action?  How could we experience it anew?  What could God do with us or for us or...even more...IN US.

John’s gospel includes that famous television-ready Bible verse, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

Earlier it says this (John 1:14-18):

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.  (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’)  From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.  The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

I love how Peterson’s The Message translation puts it here:

The Word became flesh and blood,
      and moved into the neighborhood.
   We saw the glory with our own eyes,
      the one-of-a-kind glory,
      like Father, like Son,
   Generous inside and out,
      true from start to finish.

Like the hymn that says, “Love Came Down at Christmas,” it’s here that “Love Comes to Town.”   Love moves into the neighborhood.   Love puts on flesh and walks among us.  Love was born of a poor woman in an obscure Middle Eastern town.   Love was tempted not to love.  Love turned water into wine to save a wedding feast.  Love healed a crippled man who was lowered through a roof.  Love walked on water.  Love reached out to a woman, an unclean woman who had been bleeding for years.  Love challenged Nicodemus at night to be born again and Love reached out to a despised Samaritan woman at the well and offered her “living water.”

Love made lunch with just a few fishes and loaves.  Love spoke from a Mountain to say that it’s peacemakers who are blessed and those who are poor and hungry and weeping…and you know these are hard words to hear when you are rich and full and happy.  Love took bread and broke it and a cup and blessed it.  It was given to the whole world.  Love in action.  Love in the flesh.  Love in word and deed.

Love came to town and the town rose up against Love.  We put Love on trial.  We convicted Love.  We whipped and beat love.  We abused Love.  We mocked Love.  We marched Love up to Calvary and we nailed Love to the cross for all the world to see…to see just what it is that we do to Love

And Love died.

We had been killing Love for thousands of years…through action and inaction.  And now that God’s love was made manifest in God’s very own Son, we killed it off.  Didn’t want any of it.  Didn’t want the challenge.  We had other things we sure liked a whole lot better than love.  Easier things.

We buried Love and Love stayed in the grave for three days…just long enough to let everyone know that Love was dead…that we had given it our best...and our best was the absolute worst you can imagine............

But...Love...doesn’t...die.  

Three days later Love gets up.  Love walks around.  Love teaches again.  Love preaches again.  Love breaks bread again.  Love pulls together.  Love builds up.  And Love says, I am going to live in each and every one of you.  YOU will have my love.  You will be my Love.  YOU be the Love that comes to your town.  YOU will be the Love that comes to THIS town.  Amen?  Amen.

Look, I want us to love this town and the people here.   I want us to love our spouses more fully.  I want us to love our kids and try to teach them and raise them in such a way that they learn about Love and learn to Love…maybe not how we do…but how Jesus did himself.  I'm a long way from that myself. 

Can we love like that?

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.