SermonsSermons:2010-02-09T17:37:45ZCopyright (c) 2010, Daniel TurnerExpressionEnginetag:germantownumc.org,2010:01:31When Christians Get It Wrongtag:germantownumc.org,2010:index.php/6.6982010-01-31T17:35:00Z2010-02-09T17:37:45ZDaniel Turnerdturner@intermixdesign.comMark 9:38-41 NRSV John said to him [Jesus], “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
Romans 14:1-4; 15:7 NRSV Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on us, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake our spirits; clear our sight. Surround us now with all your glory; speak through me that sacred story. Take my lips and make them bold. Take hearts and minds and make them whole. Stir in us that sacred flame; then send us forth to spread your name. Amen.
Her cart was loaded with a week's supply of groceries...enough groceries for a large family...and she pushed her way into the Express Lane where the sign read: 12 items or less. The shoppers lined up behind her were too polite to say anything…but clearly they were stewing. When she got to the checkout clerk, the clerk looked at her basket full of groceries and very sweetly said: “Ma'am, which twelve items do you want me to ring up for you?” Everyone in the line applauded!
The ticket agent tried to explain to an irate traveler that she could not give him a ticket on that flight because all the seats had already been filled and there were ten travelers on stand-by. Several minutes of haranguing had drawn a crowd. Finally, the man said to the agent: “Young woman, do you know who I am?!!” I love what happened next! The ticket agent picked up the microphone and announced: “Ladies and gentlemen, we have a man at the counter who does not know who he is. If you can help, please come to the Delta ticket counter at once.” Again, the people applauded!
But I save the best for last!
On a British Airways flight from Johannesburg, an aristocratic middle-aged white South African lady found herself seated next to a black man. She called the flight attendant over to complain. The attendant asked, “Ma’am, what seems to be the problem?” And in a loud voice, the woman said, “Can’t you see? You’ve seated me next to this man. I cannot possibly sit next to this person. Find me another seat!” The flight attendant tried to calm the lady by saying, “The flight is very full; I don’t think we have any other seats available in Economy, and I think they’re all full; but I’ll check in Club and in First Class. The woman gave a snooty look to the man beside her. A few minutes later, the flight attendant came back. She said, “Ma’am, as I said, unfortunately Economy is full....” And before the lady had a chance to respond, the flight attendant said, “But we have one seat available in First Class. It’s most extraordinary for us to make this kind of an upgrade, and I had to get special permission from the captain, but given the circumstances, the captain said that it was outrageous that anyone should have to sit next to such a person.” With that, the flight attendant turned to the man and said, “Sir, if you will just gather up your things, your seat in First Class is ready.” The surrounding passengers stood and applauded!
Nobody likes it when folks are rude or uncivil. Nobody likes what’s happening to civility in our culture, in the media, in politics, and in everyday life.
A couple of weeks ago, in an editorial in The New York Times, a columnist wrote these words: “We are witnessing a shocking explosion of incivility that reveals just how angry and bitter the two parties are. The mockery has been savage making the participants seem both outraged and sanctimonious. The rest of us are transfixed like school children watching their teachers break into a food fight. Undoubtedly, they will try to go back to normal, but the veneer of niceness may be gone for good.” And she ended her column with these words: “Contention is hardly rare anymore…it’s harmony that’s hard to find.”
That’s how this writer ended her column about the Jay Leno - Conan O’Brien fracas over late night TV. And if you were thinking I was talking about politics, who would blame you?
From the halls of congress to the streets of Memphis, anger, rage and incivility are commonplace.
My friend Reverend David Jones says it like this: “We live in red state/blue state society where our politics seem to matter more than our religion, where we are polarized by angry debates over abortion, health care reform, evolution, homosexuality, water-boarding and Wall Street and the list goes on. Civility is in decline; acrimony and litigiousness are on the rise. And churches are not immune.”
But before I go there, let me remind you that we are involved in a sermon series called Through Another’s Eyes, as we try to take a step back and look at how others may see us.
Rebecca introduced this series on Jan 10th. The Sunday after, Deborah challenged us to see ourselves though the eyes of someone of another race. And next Sunday, Steve will help us examine what we say and do when life hurts and bad things happen. And he’ll do that in light of the death of his wife last year.
And today, in this message, When Christians Get It Wrong, we’re looking at how others may see us and be turned off by our attitudes and actions. Then, in two weeks, we’re going to look at how to get it right.
David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, who are with the Barna Group, the Gallup pollsters of the Christian world, did a study about this and wrote about it in a book aptly named un-Christian. They concentrated on young adults, under 30, who were not connected to a church. The truth is, 40% of young adults this age are outside of Christianity. And some of these are young folks you know…friends, nieces and nephews, maybe your own kids.
These young adults aren’t just taking a break from the church. Many of them are rejecting Christianity completely, saying: “If what we see in so many Christians is what Christianity is about, then we don’t want anything to do with it.” It’s not that they’re turned off by Jesus; it’s just that they are repelled by so much of what they’ve seen of Christians. It’s like Gandhi said to E. Stanley Jones, “I love your Jesus; I just don’t see many of your Christians who look like him.”
You and I don’t have to like what these young adults are saying; we don’t even have to agree with what they’re saying. But I think we do need to deal with the fact that they are saying it. And perhaps there are some changes we could make that would help us be better Christians and just might remove some of the obstacles to faith that others experience.
For when Christians mirror the rancor, the incivility, the prejudices and hostilities of this world, it drives people away in droves. Few people are attracted to churches where their members are constantly contentious, where they look down their noses at others with a sense of superiority or where Christians are harsh and judgmental and most of their talk is about what they’re against or what it is they dislike in others.
A clue to understanding this may come from Jonathan Swift: Too many of us have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough religion to make us love.
It’s like in our scripture story for today.
A man brought his son to Jesus’ disciples to be healed. The boy wasn’t able to speak; and the father wanted the disciples to cast out the spirit that was making him speechless. But they couldn’t do it. Then, a little later, they discovered that someone could and did help the boy…someone who was effective where they were ineffective. And instead of being thankful that the boy was helped in Jesus’ name, the disciples reacted as we might react to an unlicensed doctor, saying, “this man needs to be stopped.” And later, the disciples come to Jesus and told him: “We saw a man who was healing and casting out demons in your name, but don’t worry, Jesus; we told him he had to stop because he’s not following us.” He’s not one of us. He’s not part of our group.
Sound familiar? In churches all around us, folks like to talk about who’s in and who’s out, who’s saved and who’s damned, who’s going and who’s going to be left behind...which is why this scripture story is so very important! Here, the disciples represent anyone in the church who shuns or puts down or pushes out or feels superior to another person because they’re not like us or aren’t part of our group.
The disciples give voice to their objection like this: “He was not following us.” And the fatal error in this is obvious, isn’t it? People aren’t supposed to be following us. They’re supposed to be following Jesus. And Jesus refused to follow the conventional rules of who’s in and who’s out, who’s included and who’s excluded.
Jesus flung the door open wide to include people his disciples never dreamt of including.
He talked to a disreputable woman at the well;
He commended a Roman centurion for his devout faith;
He made a despised Samaritan the hero of one of his most memorable stories;
And when he chose his disciples, he included a tax collector who cooperated with hated Roman occupiers, but he also included a patriot extremist, Simon the Zealot, who advocated resistance to the Romans.
Jesus flung the door open wide. And the Church pays a high cost whenever it closes that door…whenever it pushes folks away, whether by incivility or judgmentalism or negativity or disunity or lack of hospitality. And what is the price?
It’s kind of like what a vitamin salesman did for the credibility of his vitamins. A friend told me he stopped by a health food store. The salesman was standing near the door, next to posters that portrayed how you would look if you bought his vitamins, consumed his health foods, and took his supplements. The posters portrayed sleek, chiseled, men and women with more definition than Webster. The salesman, on the other hand, looked liked anything but. This disparity left my friend with one of two conclusions: either the vitamins didn’t work or the salesman didn’t take them.
And if we, who are meant to be dispensers of love to the world, fail to find a way to love others or if we can’t live together in unity, how many people will just walk past us? And that’s a part of what the Barna folks are telling us!
I was reminded of something profound by Bishop Woodie White, who spoke on our cruise a couple of weeks ago. Bishop Woodie White, who is a retired African-American bishop of the United Methodist Church, reminded us how in Revelation 7:9 John says: I looked and I saw a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, all tribes and people and languages standing before the Lord…giving God praise.
It is John’s picture of heaven. And Woodie said: “One of the realities I’ve learned is…both heaven and hell are going to be integrated; they will both have all kinds of people, people of every tribe and nation and language—people who are very different from me.”
Woodie got me to thinking about this: people of every tribe and nation and language…in both heaven and hell. That’s more than just black and white; it’s also rich and poor, upper class, middle class and no class, Methodist and non-Methodist, liberal and conservative, republican and democrat, gay and straight, red-necked and politically correct.
And what God has done with the church is to provide us with a place where we try to get it right…a here and now trial run, a place where we have the opportunity to begin to get it right before we spend eternity with a whole lot of folks who are very different from us.
Woodie White said: “We might as well get it right here, because whichever direction you go, there are going to be a whole lot of folks who are very different than you.”
On the positive side, Paul gets to the heart of it when he says, “Accept one another as Christ has accepted you.”
After all, just “How does Jesus accept you?” Does he accept you on the basis of all your opinions? Your politics? Your preferences? Does he accept you because he loves everything you do? Does he accept you because you are so wonderful, so beautiful and so talented? Does he accept you because your beliefs are all so orthodox? No! Then, how does he accept you? On what grounds does he accept anyone?
He accepts us all on the ground of the cross.
This means that the church is the only institution I know where the requirement for joining is that you're not worthy to be a member. We are all sinners, all saved by grace.
As I was thinking about all of this, I had something unusual happen. I was at a health event this last Sunday evening, and all day Monday and most of Tuesday. It was an extraordinary event jointly sponsored by Methodist Hospital and the Church Health Center, put on for United Methodist clergy. Both are deeply concerned about the sad state of clergy health. Fifty years ago, the clergy were considered among the healthiest persons; today, we are considered to be among the least healthy.
The experience included an executive physical and consults in exercise and diet, as well as mental, spiritual and physical fitness. And all of us needed all the help we could get, because we are all United Methodist pastors and we had all eaten entirely too much fried chicken and had been to entirely too many Methodist pot-luck dinners. We all knew that when the health event was over, we’d all be on a different diet, less fat...a whole lot less, as well as more veggies and more exercise...a whole lot more exercise.
So that Sunday night, a pastor friend said: “I know what’s coming! Things are going to have to change. So, how would you like to go get some chips and cheese dip…kind of like the condemned men eating a hearty meal?” I said, “Sure. I never met a chip I didn’t like.”
So off several of us went. We found a restaurant that was open late. We found a table and I placed an order for chips and cheese dip. Others at the table ordered cheeseburgers and fries and pizza. And one guy ordered a platter of appetizers that included fried Mozzarella Sticks, Spinach and Artichoke Dip, Cheese Quesadillas and boneless buffalo hot wings and all the trimmings. It was a heart attack on a plate! But so was every plate, but oh, was it all good!
Our waitress kept checking on us. Maybe she thought she might have to call 911.
One of my friends was wearing a church sweatshirt. At one point, our waitress, who had tattoos and several body piercings and was also the bartender, came over to check on us. She did not know that we were clergy.
She looked at my friend in the church sweatshirt and said, “I noticed your sweatshirt. Do you go to church there?”
He said, “I sure do.”
She said, “My grandparents go there.” She told him their names…he knew them.
Then, she continued, “But here’s why I’m asking. My life isn’t going very well right now. I’ve got a three-year-old little boy and I’m not married; in fact, I’ve never been married. I don’t go to church. In fact, I can’t ever recall being in a church, but I feel like I might need something more in my life, though I have dabbled in Wicca, the occult and astrology. And what I want to ask you is, do you think that the people at that church would welcome a single mom like me, who’s tattooed and pierced and who’s never been to church and is a bartender?”
Without batting an eye, my friend smiled and said, “Absolutely! They would welcome you with open arms.”
And the question that I want to leave you with is this: Would you do the same? Would you? After all, scripture says, “Accept one another as Christ has accepted you.”
Let us pray. O God, we give you thanks for the extraordinary and gracious welcome that you offer to us. We cry out, “nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling.” Teach us, O Lord, how to accept others as you accepted us. Amen.
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Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources:
Bill Bouknight, “Untied, Untried or United”
Thomas Lane Butts, “On Incivility”
Wade Roof Clark, A Generation of Seekers
Bishop Kenneth Carder, A Bishop’s Reflections, pp. 45-46
David Jones, “When Christians Get It Wrong: When We Can’t Get Beyond Our Differences”
David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, unChristian
Max Lucado, “In Spite of Our Differences”
Anders Nygren, Commentary On Romans
Phil Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace?
]]>Keep Calm & Carry On; I Will Carry Youtag:germantownumc.org,2010:index.php/6.6972010-01-24T17:33:00Z2010-02-09T17:35:13ZDaniel Turnerdturner@intermixdesign.com
Isaiah 45:25 - 46:4 NRSV In the LORD all the offspring of Israel shall triumph and glory. Bel bows down, Nebo stoops, their idols are on beasts and cattle; these things you carry are loaded as burdens on weary animals. They stoop, they bow down together; they cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity. Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, even when you turn gray I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.
Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on us, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake our spirits; clear our sight. Surround us now with all your glory; speak through me that sacred story. Take my lips and make them bold. Take hearts and minds and make them whole. Stir in us that sacred flame; then send us forth to spread your name. Amen.
In early 2009, Stuart Manley, a used-book seller in England, was rummaging through a box of old books when he saw a colorful piece of folded paper at the bottom of the box. He pulled it out…and it was a poster, with the crown of King George VI at the top, and beneath that crown, in bold letters were these words: Keep Calm & Carry On.
Manley framed the poster and hung it in the window of his bookshop. Looking into the poster’s origins, he found that it was created in 1939 by the British Ministry of Information, just prior to the Blitz, when every night German planes flew over Britain bombing London, and Coventry, and Liverpool. Every night, as the air raid sirens blared, the Brits took to hiding in basements, subway stations and bomb shelters...anywhere they could find to escape the horror above. All of Britain was terrified. To make matters worse, everyone, including the British government, expected the Nazis to invade Great Britain.
It was at that time that the British Ministry of Information created those posters, 2½ million of them, to be distributed and posted when the German invasion began. But the invasion never came and the posters were never distributed. When the war was over, the posters were destroyed, all but two of them -- one of which Stuart Manley found at the bottom of that box of used books. People began to ask him about the poster. Could they buy one? He had it reproduced and sold 40,000 of them. Manley’s wife said, “The simple message, ‘Keep Calm & Carry On,’ has turned out to have meaning not just for a single people in their time of trouble, but for all of us, wherever we live, whatever our troubles.” (Colleen Mastony, Chicago Tribune, March 21, 2009)
“Keep Calm & Carry On!” Those words are important for us to hear today!
On Sunday, January 10th, Rebecca Luter stood before you and reminded us that as 2009 drew to a close, a lot of us commented that we were glad to say goodbye to 2009. After all, in many ways it was a hard year -- the economy, unemployment, the war, political rancor, and the roller coaster stock market.
And closer to home, beginning in the 1st week of December and continuing into the New Year, we had so many untimely deaths in our church family. Death visited us far too many times, taking many who were far too young and we were all left reeling.
When so much happens, it wears on us all. It weighs us down. I know it did, because it affected us...your clergy. Some of you noticed, because you kept asking us: How’s it going with you? Are you okay? I know this has been tough on you. We’re praying for you!
Well, two Sunday’s ago, Jane and I got away on a Caribbean cruise that we’d planned many months ago. It was wonderful, although we were in Key West on the 2nd coldest day in history! During the cruise, on Tuesday, news broke of the terrible earthquake in Haiti. When the news flashed on CNN, we were glued to the TV as the first horrific details began to emerge. Then, as we listened, we heard tsunami warnings for the Caribbean, right where we were. Jane and I looked at each other. Neither of us spoke! But both of us were wondering: just how safe is a cruise ship in a tsunami? But after about an hour, the tsunami warnings were cancelled and we were able to breathe a sigh of relief! Only there was no relief for the people of Haiti…the news just got worse and worse.
Well, as we cruised the Caribbean, I tried to sort through my feelings about all of this, what had happened back here, the painful losses we’d all experienced and what was happening in Haiti, and I came across what is our scripture for today and it spoke powerfully to me. “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age…I will carry you. I have made and I will bear; I will carry and I will save.”
One thing to note is that these words of Isaiah are a bit of satire from Isaiah. He begins by poking some fun at the gods of Babylon.
So many times during their bondage, the Israelites had seen statues of Babylonian gods, studded with jewels, carried through the streets on floats drawn by beasts of burden. And every New Year, there was a grand celebration as the little gods were slowly promenaded through the streets. But now Babylon has fallen and now these little idols are again being carried through the streets, only this time, they were in a hasty retreat…swaying and teetering on their carriages, as those who had been Israel’s captors feared becoming captives themselves.
With this, Isaiah reminds all of Israel that there’s a great difference between the God they worship and the gods the Babylonians worship. Those little Babylonian gods have to be carried around, he says! But “Your God will carry you.” Then Isaiah adds, after all, hasn't God “held you up from the day you were born? ‘Even when you turn gray, I will carry you,’ says the Lord. ‘I made you and I will bear you. I will carry you and I will save.’”
God says: I will carry you! And today, I want us to focus on those four simple words. Because, no matter where you are…no matter what you’re going through...God’s promise is this: I will carry you.
First, remember: this is God who speaks! I want us to always remember that the character of God does not change.
Have you ever been around a moody person? One minute they’re way up; the next minute they’re down.
I read about a woman whose husband accused her of being moody. He bought her a mood ring. You remember mood rings! You put them on and the color would change based on what kind of mood that you’re in. He bought her a mood ring and pressured her to wear it so he could tell what mood she was in. This is what he wrote, “I’ve discovered that when she’s in a good mood, it turns green. When she’s in a bad mood, it leaves a big red mark on my forehead.” He adds, “Maybe next time I should buy her a diamond.”
Every human being on earth has their ups and downs. But not God! Friends and neighbors and family will let you down. But our God never does. God never has a bad day. God never wakes up on the wrong side of the bed.
God’s character is rock-solid consistent; God’s faithfulness never changes. God was faithful to Abraham and to Moses, faithful to David and to Esther and to Ruth. God has never failed a single human being, and guess what? You’re not going to be the first! God says: I will carry you.
This promise is the foundation on which people, throughout the ages, have been able to face all kinds of challenges and changes…it’s carried them through persecutions and dangers, through disasters and political intrigue, through financial collapse and physical illness, through loss and even through death. God says: I will be there! I will be with you. I will hold you and I will carry you. God says: I will.
Awhile back, we did a church-wide study on Abraham. You may recall how one day God interrupted Abraham’s comfortable life with an incredible promise. God said, “Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you…and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
God gave Abraham two words to live by. God said: I will. I will. In fact, seven times God says to Abraham, in some way or another, “I will.” Seven times God says, “I will do whatever it takes to get you where you need to go.” Seven times, God says, “I will!”
God doesn't say, “I might.” God doesn't say, “I can't” or “I'll try” or “I'll think about it.” God doesn't say, “You will” or “You have to” or “It's up to you.” God defines himself by a profound two-word promise: “I will.” I WILL! It is on that assurance that Abraham steps out into an unknown future!
As I was thinking about this, it hit me that there are companies out there whose sole purpose is to help people prepare for and manage the unanticipated. Do any of you know what these companies are called? Insurance companies! Consider how these companies advertise themselves; there are some really great marketing slogans.
One company says, “Guarantees for the 'ifs' in life.” Oh, if only there were no ifs! Or this one: “Take away the risk and you can do anything.” Oh, if only we could take away the risk! Or this one that’s very familiar: “You're in good hands! Good hands.”
Here’s a question for you: Whose hands are you actually in? Who holds your future? Who holds you?
The truth is, while there are many sources of insurance, there’s only one source of assurance, the good hands of the One who speaks those two all important words: I will.
In the last year of his life, Henri Nouwen took a sabbatical from writing. He was going through a spiritual drought and found that writing and even prayer were difficult. In the midst of this time, he was drawn, of all things, go figure, to a circus act. This Dutch priest, who’d taught at Harvard and Yale, started hanging out with folks from the greatest show on earth.
Of particular interest was a famous trapeze act, “The Flying Rodleys.” He watched them perform, and got to know them. In the Flying Rodleys, as in every trapeze act, there are flyers and there are catchers.
The flyer is the one who climbs up the steps, steps onto a tiny platform, grasps the trapeze and leaps off the platform, swinging through the air. Using his body for momentum, he or she swings with increasing speed and height until, at just the right moment, he lets go and flies through the air. And the catcher swings from his knees on another trapeze, his hands free to reach out and catch the flyer.
The moment of truth comes when that flyer lets go and sails into the air and does a somersault or two. If you will, picture the flyer in mid somersault, and freeze that frame. There’s absolutely nothing, at that moment, to keep the flyer from plunging to his death.
But all this time, the catcher has been timing his swing. And he arrives just as the flyer loses his momentum and is beginning to descend. His hands clasp the arms of the flyer and snatch him out of the air.
Henri Nouwen spent some time getting to know flyers. He said that flyers are small, trim, and muscular and weigh 150 pounds or less, because if you’re a catcher, you don’t want a flyer who has a weight problem. And Henri learned about one of the most important pieces of equipment that flyers and catchers use. It is a sock filled with magnesium powder used to keep their hands dry. And he learned that this was especially important for Joe, one of the catchers, because as they told Henri, “Joe sweats a lot.” And if you’re a flyer, you don’t want a catcher with sweaty hands.
Here’s where this begins to apply to us and our trust in God.
Rodley told Henri Nouwen, “As a flyer, I must have complete trust in my catcher. The public might think that I’m the star of the trapeze, but the real star is Joe, my catcher. He has to be there for me with split second precision and grab me out of the air….” Nouwen asked him, “How does it work?” He answered, “The secret is that the flyer does nothing. The catcher does everything. When I fly to Joe, I have simply to let go, stretch out my arms and hands and wait.” Henry asked him, “You do nothing?” He said, “No! A flyer must fly and the catcher must catch. The flyer must trust with outstretched arms that his catcher will be there, waiting for him.”
Nouwen drew this conclusion: In life and in death and in everything in between, it is about trust, trusting in God, the catcher! It is about trusting that God will always be there. “You just stretch out your arms and trust, trust, trust.”
And that’s, in part, what Isaiah was telling us about God! God says: I will carry you!
Not just sometimes! Not just in the good times! But all the time!
And an inescapable part of this is the message: I will carry you even in death.
For, one day, maybe tomorrow, maybe next month or next year, maybe 25 or 50 or 70 years from now, you will let go of the little trapeze called your life. One day you and I will take our last breath, our arms will go slack and the trapeze will fall from our hands. What happens then?
Some believe that’s the end; there’s nothing more. Some believe that the neurons that you mistakenly believe add up to a soul will just stop firing that day and that the six trillion atoms that were employed by your body will find positions somewhere else and the universe will neither know nor care. But Jesus says different! He believes that in life and in death, there is a Catcher. In fact, from the cross, he said: Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!
God’s promise is this: Wherever you are, whatever it is that you face, when you feel like you’re falling, when it feels like there’s nothing left, God is there. God says: I will be there. I will never leave you or forsake you. I will catch you and I will carry you.
And I assure you of this: God’s hands don’t sweat!
Let us pray. O God, we give you thanks today that you call us and you claim us and that you make promises to us that in the midst of the hard and harsh realities of life, we know we are not alone and our hope is indeed built on a firm foundation. So renew us this day and send us forth into what remains of this year, trusting in you and your goodness, for we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources:
Joanna M. Adams, “No Heavy Lifting”
Craig Barnes, “Stepping Out of the Boat”
John Ortberg, “The Rock”
John Ortberg, Faith and Doubt
]]>Moving from Racism to Gracismtag:germantownumc.org,2010:index.php/6.6962010-01-17T15:47:00Z2010-02-02T15:50:34ZDonna Thurmonddthurmond@germantownumc.org
“This is the day that the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24
Let us pray. Dear Lord God, right now, we ask that you remove those things that may distract us, and Lord, we ask that you fill each and every one of us up with your presence and Lord, I ask that you fill me up with your presence and power; anoint my mouth, my heart, my lips, so that all I say, Lord, will be acceptable in thy sight. It is in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, that I pray. Amen.
2 Corinthians 5:16-20 NIV So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
Before I begin, I would just like to remind you that this sermon is the 2nd in our series, “Looking Through the Eyes of Another.”
The number 46664 was a very popular number and known by countless individuals at one time in our history. This was the prison number assigned to Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa...the first Black African to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Mandela had been incarcerated for 27 years as a political prisoner prior to his presidency. Upon his release from prison, at the age of about 71 or 72, Mandela emerged with his basic mantra being not one of hate, bitterness, revenge, or retaliation, but one with a focus on reconciliation and negotiation.
This theme of reconciliation is mentioned in our Scripture lesson here today. In fact, if you listened carefully to the reading of the passage, perhaps you noticed that the word “reconcile” or some form of it, was mentioned five times in verses 18-20.
So we ask ourselves: Why was the Apostle Paul so concerned with reconciliation? Well, Paul wrote the letter to the church at Corinth because the people there were dealing with some radical issues or concepts also.
During Paul’s time, life in Corinth was ordered and measured according to how well one knew one’s place in life and kept it. There was an implicit understanding that there was a certain manner in which you could take pride in your lower socio-economic class statue, take pride in your poverty, and take pride in your enslavement. You see, the population of Corinth was primarily filled with opportunists and immigrants who were seeking a better way of life. The largest segment of people was what we call freedmen; that is, those who had formerly been slaves in Rome. Also, ex-Roman soldiers seeking a better life for their families were part of the mix. Corinth also attracted ethnic diversity as it was filled with Greeks, Orientals, Jews, and Romans, and there was a significant transient population of merchants, traders, and sailors.
Some Biblical scholars have even stated that Corinth had many of the characteristics that we see in some of our cities today, like San Francisco and New York. This is why when we read 2 Corinthians, we too need to focus on reconciliation because even today we are divided according to race, class, and gender with the most damaging and the most pervasive being race or racism.
You see, racism is defined as speaking, thinking, or acting negatively about an individual solely based on that person’s culture, class, or color and physical appearance. And, because racism is based on such a deep-seated feeling of hatred and disgust, it also breeds hatred and disgust. This is why we look at reconciliation.
Brothers and Sisters, reconciliation is directed toward taking two parties that are hostile and angry with each other and bringing them together where the hostility is no longer there and they can be friends and fellowship together. A person cannot be reconciled with someone who refuses to be so. This is why we say reconciliation, and not forgiveness, because reconciliation requires both parties’ approval whereas forgiveness can be virtually only one-way. Certainly, the verse that emphasizes ministry of reconciliation is mentioned by Paul to the church at Corinth but also to all of us who call ourselves Christians.
I know some of us may be thinking we really don’t know if it applies to us because we think we have moved past the need for reconciliation. But, I ask you: have we? I would like to share something with you through my eyes and then you can judge where we stand on the issue of differences and how we really treat each other.
About three or four months ago, a group of my colleagues and I went to lunch at a nearby fast food restaurant. We all said that we would order, sit down and eat there. When we all went to the table to sit down, I noticed that everyone who was there with me had been served their food on a tray; my food had been placed in a neatly folded “to-go” bag. Through my eyes and my interpretation of the incident, I was hurt and disappointed that I had been treated differently. I even noticed that there was one other African-American present and he, too, had a neatly folded “to-go” bag. We were the only two in the place with “to-go” bags.
I approached the lady who had given me the bag to seek some form of reconciliation because remember, reconciliation implies a broken relationship. When I asked the lady who took the order why, she simply said, “Oh, I must have gotten distracted.” I left and returned to my seat -- not really feeling better because even in that moment, she still did not offer me a tray. She did not apologize. Had we reconciled our differences at that point?
As I reflected on this, I realized that this will happen and it does, but what matters in situations like this one is how we respond to an individual who has broken the relationship. I couldn’t help but think of Paul and how he had said how we should not regard anyone from a worldly point of view, and most assuredly from my narrow and injured lens. What mattered was that I understood that I could not, nor should not, hold this lady’s indifferent and insensitive behavior against her. I wanted, through my actions, to invite this young lady to exchange her old attitude of indifference for a new one that focused on compassion and caring.
Some of us now may be thinking that we are grateful that this attitude of indifference does not exist here in this church. Well let me remind you, Paul did write the letter to the church at Corinth, so let me share this experience with you.
About a month ago I was here at this church for a special event. I intentionally decided to sit in the balcony. Much to my surprise, it was almost full with the exception of two pews at the front of one section. Now, don’t get me wrong, I know how we as Methodists sit in our self-proclaimed, self-identified, self-appointed pews and we don’t move very much from that spot. We even get thrown off balance when someone else sits in our pew, but this situation could have been different.
As I moved to the almost empty pew to sit down, I noticed there was a gentleman there with a camcorder who never looked up to acknowledge me but leaned forward as if he had already begun taping, but the performance hadn’t begun. You see, he was trying to block me from entering that pew.
A lady seated at the far end of that same pew showed her ownership of the pew by telling me I could not sit there. I thought for a few seconds, then brushed past the gentleman and took a seat anyway. The lady turned her back to me in a huff, but I assured her I that would move when her family and friends come if they needed that space. Only later after a couple of performances did a woman and her young child appear, and there was more than enough room on that pew for four people.
She turned to me a few minutes after that and asked me if I were a member of this church. I simply responded, “Yes, I am.” She turned away from me, still visibly angry, and then turned back and asked me later, “How long?” I responded, “A year and a half,” and we sat in silence for the rest of the evening. I couldn’t help but think “Is she going to report me to the pastor?”
You see, Brothers and Sisters, through my eyes, I saw hostile and insensitive behavior. Through my eyes at that moment, I realized that I could not extend reconciliation; I could only extend forgiveness, which caused me to feel somewhat sad and disappointed. I did not tell her I was a pastor because in the end I earnestly believed that it would not have mattered because in the end I was still someone different from her. I realized that as God’s people we need to respect each other not because of titles and positions we may have, but because we are all God’s people. We all have value because Jesus Christ died for all of us and not just for some of us.
This issue of value and even self-worth caused me to reflect on a situation involving my younger daughter several years ago. My daughter came home from school in tears, angry, and crying at the age of 4 because the teacher told her she was black and my daughter, being a very precocious child, corrected her and told her she was pink. And then she looked at me with tears running down her face, and said, “Mommy, will you call my teacher and tell her that I am pink? I really don’t think my teacher knows her colors.” I told her that I would call.
The next day I did meet with her teacher and she tried to imply that I was not doing my job as a good parent because my daughter needs to know that she is black. And, I assured her that the only thing my daughter needed to learn at the age of 4 was that she was a child of God and that she was loved far more than what anybody could possibly put into words.
The teacher was very angry with me. I was angry and sad because I knew that it wouldn’t be long before my daughter would have to deal with issues of race. It seems ironic that the worst differences between races are exaggerated when brown and pink people are labeled “black and white.” Those very terms themselves begin to polarize our thinking between two extremes, rather than emphasizing the closeness of the two. They emphasize the differences in people, rather than the similarities bounded by God’s love. This is how our children are socialized into thinking of themselves in categories of being black or white and not taught to think about the character and content of one’s heart as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. often preached about, and this is most assuredly what the Apostle Paul was referencing in his epistle.
I am also equally certain that there may have been instances where some of you sitting here today have even felt the pain of being treated differently, where you were possibly mistreated or excluded because of the color of your skin or your ethnicity. This is why today, we need to read Paul and seriously think about reconciliation because we need to “regard no one from a human point of view” but from Jesus Christ’s point of view, loving each other in spite of our differences.
The motivation and fruit of true reconciliation is love. If we have been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, we are called to love and serve God by loving our neighbors. The most effective way for us to serve God is reconciling ourselves to each other. You see, God sought out reconciliation with us even though God was not the instigator. God sought us out. God did not follow class, color or culture distinctions and then determine that some of us were more worthy than others.
That’s why today I say we all must move from racism to gracism, a term introduced by David Anderson, the author of the book, Gracism. Here, Anderson reminds us that the basic and most primary definition of grace is the unmerited favor of God on humankind. So, when the definition of racism, which is negative, is merged with the definition of grace, which is positive, the term of gracism emerges. Gracism is defined as the positive extension of favor on other individuals based on class, culture, or color.
I want to conclude with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech, “Loving Your Enemies.” It reads: “So this morning as I look into your eyes…I say to you, ‘I love you. I would rather die than hate you.’ And I am foolish enough to believe that through this power of this love somewhere, men [women] of the most recalcitrant bent will be transformed. And then we will be in God’s kingdom.” (Loving Your Enemies) We will then be fully reconciled.
Let us pray. Lord, God, we thank you for your presence. We thank you for the Word. Challenge us, Lord, so that we can move from racism to gracism. It is in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
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Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources:
1. David A. Anderson, Gracism: The Art of Inclusion (2007). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
2. R. Kent Hughes, Second Corinthians: Power in Weakness, Vol. 46 (2006). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.
3. Jan Lambrecht, S. J. & Daniel J. Harrington, S. J., Second Corinthians – Sacra Pagina Series, Volume 8 (1999). Minnesota, Collegeville: The Liturgical Press.
4. The New Interpreter’s Bible – A Commentary in Twelve Volumes, Volume IX. (2000). Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.
5. William M. Ramsey, Second Corinthians – Interpretation Bible Studies, (2004). Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press.
]]>Faith and Gyrocompassestag:germantownumc.org,2010:index.php/6.6942010-01-10T15:00:00Z2010-02-02T15:51:00ZDonna Thurmonddthurmond@germantownumc.org “Through Another’s Eyes.” Two big questions are driving this series: What is there about Christians that keep others at a distance? How can we be more the disciples and the church that Jesus created us to be? In this series, we will seek to take a look at ourselves through the eyes of others and explore how we can be the church in the 21st century.
Let us pray. O Lord, you are our Guide and our Guardian. You lead us apart from the busy world into the quiet of your house. Grant us grace to worship you in Spirit and in truth, for the up-building of every good purpose and Holy desire. Enable us to hear and understand your Holy Word. Grant that the words of my mouth may be your Word, and the meditations of all of our hearts may be acceptable in your sight. May we be transformed by the hearing of your Word so that we would worship you not just with our lips at this hour, but in word and deed all of our lives. For Christ’s sake, Amen.
Hebrews 12:12-15 NRSV Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and through it many become defiled.
Hebrews 13:1-8 NRSV Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?” Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
May God bless this reading of his Holy Word to our understanding.
The writer of Hebrews is writing to a group of believers who are struggling. Perhaps they had not realized that the Christian life would include suffering and sacrifice. Perhaps they knew that it came with suffering and sacrifice, but they were just now being tested. Perhaps the suffering had been so long or so grievous that they are questioning. What we know is that they have suffered, and now they are weary. And the writer is reaching out to them to strengthen their faith through the suffering.
One scholar says of the book of Hebrews, “It speaks to all ages, perhaps especially to ours. We, like people to whom Hebrews was originally speaking, are in danger of ‘drifting away.’” (Richard Reid, “Hebrews” a Forward Movement Publication, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2002).
We live in a culture that has been deemed Post-Christian. David Kinnaman, in his book, unChristian, writes, “Ultimately, in a culture where people are busy, distracted, confused and trying to keep it all together, there is less loyalty to a faith brand than to self. The purpose of faith, for most Americans, is not so much to discover truth or to relate to a loving, praiseworthy deity as it is to become happy, successful, comfortable and secure. For a growing percentage of citizens, their sense of spirituality, more than Christianity, facilitates those outcomes.”
And, according to Barna research’s 2009 year-in-review, that spirituality that Americans are experiencing is becoming more and more individualized. Americans are comfortable blending faiths, open to new forms of worship and ways of connecting with God. A third of Americans do not believe that there is an absolute moral truth, biblical literacy is not a reality and many people make critical assumptions about the Bible that are inaccurate, and effective, periodic measurement of spiritual maturity, whether by an individual or by a church, is uncommon. (Barna Studies the Research, Offers a Year-in-Review Perspective” at http://www.barna.org)
We are in danger of drifting away, of getting off balance and falling away. And we, like the Hebrews, experience struggles. It’s been a bitter, cold week. The skies have been gray, Christmas and New Years are over, and a lot of people here and all around us are hurting.
As 2009 drew to a close, I heard more than a few people comment that they would be glad to say goodbye to it. It was a hard year – not so much in terms of catastrophic events, but in terms of distressing concerns – the economy, unemployment, poverty, war, terrorism, the environment, health care...to name a few.
And while each new year brings with it a sense of a fresh start, the reality of uncertainty is still with us as this new year has begun, as the concerns continue in the national and international scene, and with several tragic losses in our church family...a person can become weary.
Hope can seem lost. Answers elude us. We begin to slump, our pace slows, our hands droop, and our knees are unsteady. Like a runner whose stamina is giving out, our weaknesses begin to hamper our ability to move forward. We begin to lose our balance.
Think about what happens when you lose your balance. We’ve all done it! You were just steady a second ago, and then there’s that half a second when you know in your mind that you’re about to topple over, right? You just need something to grab hold of. And if there’s not something right there to grab onto – you’re going to fall.
In a postmodern culture of relativism, it is easy to lose your balance and have nothing to grab hold of. Whatever you think, whatever you believe, is valued as equal to what I think and what I believe...and we are encouraged to think critically, even skeptically, and to then make up our own minds. And whatever belief we settle on, whatever decision or judgment we make, is fine.
But, I find helpful what Thomas Jay Oord says in an essay on “Truth and Postmodernism.” “Faith”, he says, “resides at the heart of the Christian message. Christians are believers, not proposition defenders. Faith is different from absolute certainty. But it’s different from absolute mystery, too. Faith need not be blind or unreasonable. To believe is not to reject reason or evidence altogether. One can affirm a degree of confidence in the greater plausibility of statements, ways of living, or perceptions. And this greater confidence can foster reasonable conviction. Faith can be grounded.” (Postmodern and Wesleyan? Exploring the Boundaries and Possibilities with Jay Richard Akkermann, Thomas Jay Oord, and Brent Peterson, Editors, Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, 2009)
Faith is what we grab hold of when we lose our balance. Faith is defined by the writer of Hebrews as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
As I studied this Scripture, I got to thinking about what helps us stay steady in life, because really what we have here in the 12th and 13th chapters of Hebrews are some instructions for living a life of faith.
I thought back to a roommate I had in college. She could never find her way around town, and so she had a compass on her dashboard. But the compass wasn’t terribly accurate. Magnetic compasses aren’t, necessarily. So, when we need to be accurate in our direction, they aren’t the best tool. For example, ships don’t use magnetic compasses. If you want to maintain a heading, you need to know where true North is, so ships use gyrocompasses. A gyrocompass is not affected by the magnetic forces around it or the rolling and pitching of the ship. The gyrocompass is always able to find true North.
As people of faith, what keeps us steadily headed in the right direction? Our social moral code is like a compass, it helps a good bit of the time...but what we need when we get off balance is a gyrocompass -- a true North -- that helps us maintain a steady direction.
I don’t have a real gyrocompass -- or even a magnetic compass -- on my dashboard; but, one night we could have used one. We’d gone to Covington to meet my parents for dinner. And Dad had shared with us a short-cut to the back road we usually take. Well, we didn’t get his instructions completely correct...and began pretty quickly to wonder about this “short-cut.” Suffice to say the path we took involved no street lights, gravel roads, and one U-turn as the road became dirt and then a field. We were together, and laughing, and having a good time...so we didn’t mind that it took us awhile to meander until we found a road in Shelby County that we knew.
We were lost -- we didn’t know where we were or which road to take -- but, we were together, and we knew where we’d been and we knew where we were headed.
And that’s what the writer of Hebrews is telling us, and I believe that is the gyrocompass of our faith that keeps us steady in the journey of faith...we’re together, we have a history, but it doesn’t stop there...it’s not just about a system of beliefs, it is a way of life...we know where we’re headed...toward the likeness of Christ.
Hebrews reminds us that we are together.... Just before today’s Scripture reading, at the beginning of Chapter 12, is the familiar passage, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” He’s encouraging them that they aren’t in it alone, but the writer sees that they are dragging. Their faith is tenuous...and he reminds them of where they’ve been. He turns to Scripture -- the writer of Hebrews is well-versed in the Old Testament -- and he recounts the story of the faith. And he alludes frequently to images and verses from the Old Testament. It is important for us to study and meditate on Scripture. MEDITATING on a verse of scripture and listening for God’s Word is a step toward becoming a new creation. God created us through the Word; God’s message in the Bible also recreates us. (Upper Room, January 10, 2010, Bruce D. Ervin)
Here in the passage we read this morning, as he encourages them to continue the journey, he combines imagery from the prophet Isaiah and from the Wisdom of Proverbs where they say, “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees” (Isaiah 35:3) and “Keep straight the path of your feet, and all your ways will be sure.” (Proverbs 4:26) We’d say it today, “Get your chin up.”
The pronoun “your” didn’t speak to us as individuals -- it is an instruction to the body of Christ. When we see one among us who is drooping, we are to lift them up; when we see one who is weak, we are to provide strength; and when we see one who is lame, we are to make the path straight so that they are not permanently injured. Put your arm around your fellow runner and help them make it to the finish line.
Pursue peace -- all together -- and see to it that no one misses the grace of God. Let mutual love continue. It takes us all together to keep our balance. Balance isn’t the job of just one part of the body. “The brain integrates sensory information from vision, the vestibular (balance) system in the inner ear, and our somatosensory system. The somatosensory system consists of all the receptors we have in every muscle in the body, in our joints, and in our skin. These receptors tell us where our body is in reference to the surfaces that we contact.” (Fay Horak, Ph.D., Neurological Sciences Institute, Oregon Health and Science Center, Beaverton, OR)
And then, once he establishes the way of life in the community, he goes on to instruct them on four ways of living that will allow them to stay steady on the path as they grow in their likeness to Christ. Do not neglect to show hospitality to the stranger, remember those in prison, hold marriage in a place of honor, and keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have.
In order to maintain our balance, we are instructed, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.”
Shane Claiborne, who is speaking tonight at the OLEC, lives a life of hospitality to strangers in a community in Philadelphia that he co-founded called, “The Simple Way.” He learned that hospitality through work with people like Tony Campolo and Mother Theresa, and through joining with his buddies to go to the poorest neighborhoods in Philadelphia to meet the people. He says, in Christ we are “adopted into a new family – without borders. With new eyes, we can see that our family is both local and global, including but transcending biology, tribe, or nationality, a renewed vision of the kin-dom of God with brothers and sisters in Afghanistan and Iraq, Sudan and Burma, North Philly and Beverly Hills.... The same desperate love that a mother has for her baby or that a child has for his or her daddy is extended to all our human family.” “Mother Theresa used to say, ‘In the poor we meet Jesus in his most distressing disguises.’ Now I kn[o]w what she meant.”
Second, we are reminded to remember those fellow Christians who are in prison, as though you were in chains beside them, because you could be. While we don’t live in a time of persecution in this country, people of faith in other parts of the world are being persecuted for their faith. And people right here are in prisons – prisoners to grief, to mental or physical illness, to loss, or addiction – and we are called upon to be there with them as though it were happening to us...because it could be...to have empathy for them and to not forget them.
Third, we are to hold marriage in a place of honor – to respect the faithfulness of the marriage bond. Because of the 1st century culture and its influence, promiscuous behavior could easily begin to seep into the church, so this counsel was needed. And Hebrews was written late in the 1st century...the second coming had not come when they had expected. The early believers had refrained from marrying and having children, believing that Jesus was returning within their lifetime. But, as a generation passed, the community has to respond to the need to not die out and to appropriate relationships in the community. It is no less important today for us to heed this guidance because without faithfulness and honor in our closest human relationships, we are not able to be faithful and honor others or God.
And finally, keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?” When God is the provider, and our love is for God and not for money, a life of contentment is a life free from worry and greed and a life of trust in God.
We are together, we will hold each other up when the struggles come, mutually loving one another and seeking to live in peace with one another. We know where we have been, we have the stories of the people of God to remind us of God’s faithfulness to us. We know where we are headed as we practice a life of faith that increases our likeness to Christ, welcoming strangers, empathizing with those in need, being faithful to one another, and trusting God. May we remain steady in the course, for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Amen.
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Endnotes: This sermon based, in part, upon material from the following sources:
1. William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible, The Letter to the Hebrews, The Saint Andrew Press, Edinburgh, 1955.
2. Shane Claiborne, Irresistible Revolution, Zondervan, 2006.
3. Adam Hamilton, Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White, Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN, 2008.
4. Brian McLaren, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crisis, and a Revolution of Hope, Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN, 2007.
5. Brian McLaren, Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices, Thomas Nelson, 2008.
6. Thomas T. Wolcott, Basic Bible Commentary, Hebrews, Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN, 1988.
]]>Building on the Rocktag:germantownumc.org,2010:index.php/6.6922010-01-03T20:05:00Z2010-01-04T20:08:05ZDaniel Turnerdturner@intermixdesign.comMatthew 7:24-27 NRSV“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell – and great was its fall!”
Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on us, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake our spirits; clear our sight. Surround us now with all your glory; speak through me that sacred story. Take my lips and make them bold. Take hearts and minds and make them whole. Stir in us that sacred flame; then send us forth to spread your name. Amen.
Allen Goldsmith touched the lives of hundreds of teenagers. He was my band director at Kingsbury High School. If others set the bar low, saying, “Band is easy,” they didn’t know Allen Goldsmith! With Mr. Goldsmith it wasn’t that way. If you were his student, you did what he said. He had high expectations! You practiced what he told you to practice, as long as he told you. If he told you to practice for an hour a day, you practiced an hour. Not a minute less. Because somehow he knew!
Lest I give you the wrong impression, learning from Allen Goldsmith was never an act of drudgery. There was something about Mr. Goldsmith that made you want to please him. There was always a twinkle in his eye, a crooked smile on his face and words of encouragement on his lips. He cared about every student and he could make music like no one I’d ever met.
Once he’d been at the top. If a trombonist could ever be a star, his star was rising. But then came a car accident that tore at his face, shredded his lips and left him scarred for life. And a trombonist really needs his lips. Plastic surgeons did a good job of putting his face back together. But his ability to play trombone was never the same. Oh, he could play and play extraordinary, at least I thought so! He’d sit and from memory he would play classics or jazz or pop music. And when he played, he transported you to another world. But because his lips were never quite right -- because there was always a little leak of air around the mouthpiece when he played -- he could never be the great soloist that he once was.
But music was still inside him. And so he poured his passion for music into us...into teaching, into wanting to give us the music he loved. He’d say, “If you’ll trust me; if you’ll do what I tell you to do, one day you’ll be able to do what I do and more. One day music will be in you.”
Like every great teacher, it was love that motivated him -- his love for music and his love for his students.
You know it’s true: the best teachers do more than just pass on information. They see beyond the way we are to the way that we might be.
And that’s how it was with Jesus. He’d just finished the greatest sermon in history, the Sermon on the Mount, and He concluded that sermon by telling a story about the importance of building our lives on a firm foundation.
He told a parable of two builders, two families that built houses: one on rock, the other on sand. Storms came and both houses were hit by the storm. The house built on sand was destroyed while the house built on rock stood. And Jesus concluded his short parable this way: “Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.”
To understand this, consider a bit of Judean geography. The Judean hills are crisscrossed with pleasant sandy hollows, nicely sheltered...just perfect for a house, away from the summer heat and blazing sun…except for a few weeks each year…during the rainy season when those hollows became known by their rightful name which is “wadis” or streambeds, and in the rainy season water comes rushing off the mountains with such force that the surging water can take a house with it.
So, at one level, there’s a practical lesson about building…where to build and where not to build. But the text is really about more than building houses in a wadi, a fault line or a flood plain.
The truth is: we’re all builders, building a life, building character, building a soul. And we’re all going to face storms -- storms that shake us and test us. If ever a year was a testing year…this last year was! Jesus says to us: build your life on a foundation that’s able to weather any storm or test. He says, “If you‘ll trust me; if you will do what I tell you to do; if you’ll put your life in my hands, you’ll have a strong foundation that never fails.”
Across two millennia, untold millions have found that to be true. He’s healed wounds of their past, forgiven their sin, restored their self-esteem, seen them through heartbreaking loss and comforted them in the long, dark night of soul; he has repaired countless broken relationships and given meaning and purpose to so many lives.
But it’s not enough just to know that or to affirm that it’s true.
And that brings me back to Allen Goldsmith! It’s hard to measure how much I admired Mr. Goldsmith. He had amazing skill as a musician; I admired him immensely, as a teacher, a friend, as one who helped me make and appreciate music. But among his students were a few whose response to him went beyond admiration. They heard him play and something stirred inside them and they began to think: “You know, what Mr. Goldsmith does, I can do! The way he plays, plays, I could play.” And they studied and practiced and some became professional musicians and others became music teachers and band directors. They didn’t just admire Allen Goldsmith, they followed in his steps.
And there’s a huge difference between an admirer and a follower.
An admirer applauds what another does; a follower does what they do.
An admirer is impressed; a follower is devoted.
An admirer says: “I like that man”; a follower says: “I want to be like that man.”
That brings me to a question for this first Sunday of 2010: When it comes to Jesus, are we admirers or are we followers?
If we’re honest, there are some days when we act like followers! But other days, maybe more often than we might want to admit, we’re simply admirers. We hear His words and think, “Well, Jesus, those are nice ideas and I really think you’re great, but I’d really rather do my life my way!” And we miss out on the transformation that following brings, and we fail to forge that firm foundation that’s able to weather any storm.
On this first Sunday of 2010, I imagine that more than a few of us have given at least some thought to making some New Year’s Resolutions…the choices we can make that will make 2010 better than 2009. But in things that really matter, what makes a difference are not resolutions, but a relationship -- a relationship with the Teacher, Jesus, who said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.”
]]>God Bless Us Everyone: The Ghost of Christmas Futuretag:germantownumc.org,2009:index.php/6.6892009-12-20T14:50:01Z2009-12-23T14:53:59ZDaniel Turnerdturner@intermixdesign.com
As the story begins, Scrooge is one of the most unlikable, despicable characters in literature. Listen to Dickens’ classic description of Scrooge: He was tight-fisted, hand at the grindstone…a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck a generous fire; secret and self-contained and solitary as an oyster!
That’s definitely a man in need of a happy hour, an attitude adjustment. What he really needed was more than an attitude adjustment, he needed a life adjustment. And that’s exactly what he experienced!
At the end of the story, here's Dickens’ description of the new Scrooge: Scrooge was better than his word [to Bob Cratchit concerning help for his family and Tiny Tim]. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became a good friend, a good master, and as good a man as the good old city knew…. And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well…. Oh, some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and…his own heart laughed, and that was quite enough for him.
Ah, what a transformation! And how do you explain it?
Well, you might begin by saying that nothing in this world could account for it. The ghost of Jacob Marley even says it: I was sent to you. As Dickens tells the story it’s as if God knows that if Scrooge was going to change, he’d need supernatural assistance. That’s how hard and cold he was!
But don’t assume that Scrooge was scared into repentance. No! It was far more than fear! It was what he experienced and learned from those spirits that made the difference. It was the self-discovery, the new way of seeing: seeing his past, the present, himself, others and the world around him. That’s what altered his Christmas future.
Remember, with the Ghost of Christmas Past, Scrooge was forced to confront the painful parts of his past. He saw how his painful experiences and his own choices had moved him away from his relationships with others, making him a solitary, lonely, bitter man, trading people for wealth and love for isolation.
Then, the Ghost of Christmas Present showed Scrooge how in the everyday things of life, he could’ve found joy, but he chose not to experience it. Instead, he focused on his own ambitions and greed and he missed the beauty in people who walked by him everyday. He came to see that joy comes, not from the material things, but from the quality of relationships we have with each other and with God. And he learned how he, if he chose to, could give life to others.
The third spirit came to Scrooge shrouded in black. The Ghost of Christmas to Come took Scrooge to observe the reactions of people to the death of an unknown figure.
Scrooge watches as several men talk about a man's death with curious indifference, even derision. He observes as three people, who’ve robbed the dead man, are selling their loot. Then comes the touching scene at the Cratchit home - minus Tiny Tim. And in the final scene of the third spirit’s visit, Scrooge demands that the spirit reveal the identity of the mysterious dead man. So Scrooge is taken to a deserted graveyard where he sees a neglected grave stone that reads "Ebenezer Scrooge" – no epitaph; there was no, “My loving father,” no “My beloved,” no “faithful friend,” not even Good Businessman,” just a name on a stone in an overgrown and uncared for cemetery.
Horrified, Scrooge realizes that the sum total of his life amounts to zero. He will die unloved and unnoticed, scorned and vilified, alone and with no one to grieve his passing unless he chooses a different course.
And a different course is exactly what Scrooge resolves to take. Ebenezer proclaims:
"Spirit, hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must’ve been…. I will honor Christmas…, and try to keep it all the year. (I will remember the three Spirits.) I will not shut out the lessons…they teach."
Each time I hear the story, I’m thrilled that on that cold, crisp Christmas morning, Scrooge, the repentant old sinner throws open his window and is gleeful that he’s not missed the great day. I’m light-hearted as he skips down the street, liberated, full of joy, pleased to be among his neighbors, surprising and delighting them as he shouts “Merry Christmas" instead of “Bah Humbug.”
So Ebenezer Scrooge lives! Of all people, Ebenezer Scrooge! He experiences a kind of resurrection. Ebenezer Scrooge, who was spiritually dead, lives again!
By the visitation of Marley and the three Spirits, and the lessons they teach, Scrooge's life is transformed. There's no question that he needed supernatural assistance to change his ways.
And I’m reminded of the Good News that God's Spirit is still in the transformation business.
The New Testament tells us that in Christ there’s a Holy Spirit who gives life, who offers renewal and leads us into a new life. And that same Holy Spirit empowers us to live in a whole new way. The Spirit of God also helps us to see with a fresh perspective, opens our minds and touches our hearts and gives us the courage to change.
And, unlike the three spirits in A Christmas Carol, the Holy Spirit doesn't disappear at the stroke of midnight. For when our hearts are open and our wills tender, God will work on us and in us to transform and shape us, day by day, moment by moment, until our last breath.
So, yes, I love Scrooge’s story. I love it because while you and I may not be as broken, selfish and cold-hearted as old Scrooge, the truth is, in each of us there’s some work to be done; there’s some selfishness, brokenness and coldness; there’s some sharp edges that need to be smoothed, some dullness that needs to be sharpened. In each of us there are things that remain unfinished.
I was in a check-out line the other day, checking out after doing some Christmas shopping. I could tell that the lady - two people in front of me - was getting very impatient with having to wait. She just had that tense, frazzled look about her, that look of having had a little too much of the wrong kind of Christmas. I could see it in her body language, the way she was looking around, frowning and rolling her eyes.
The clerk was doing her best, but she was overworked, underpaid and obviously new at her job. Well, when this annoyed woman got to the checkout, the clerk made a mistake on her items, had to call the manager, who had to re-key the register. Then, the clerk messed up again.
Well, this lady blew. The red started in her cheeks, lit up her ears, then exploded from her lips. She insulted the clerk’s education, her intelligence, her parents and her upbringing, bringing the clerk to tears.
Someone in line said: “Hey scrooge, get a grip!” We all joined the chorus. And the angry women stormed out of the store with her treasures! We all tried to say comforting words to the clerk. But the damage was done.
When I went to the parking lot to get in my car, I saw that angry lady closing her car door…ready to back out of her parking spot.
I watched as she backed out and I was surprised when I saw a bumper sticker on the right side of bumper that asked “WWJD?” “What would Jesus do?” And on the left side was another bumper sticker advertising a well-known area church. I thought: that’s so wrong.
And I began to silently rage against that woman. I got in my car, adjusted my mirror and I saw the anger in my own eyes.
And I knew if I’m honest, the problem is not just with that woman. Truth is, in each of us there’s a gap between who we want to be and how we live, who we advertise being and who we actually are.
And each year, Ebenezer’s story reminds me: pay attention to that gap. Pay attention!
I think of the old Christian word, Repentance. It’s not a word we hear often, but it is a very good word. It means “to change.” It indicates a change of mind, a change of heart and a change of direction.
As one wise person has put it, “no amount of extra exertion will ever help a runner win the race if he’s headed in the wrong direction.”
To repent is to turn around and face the right way, to look in the direction from which salvation is to come and to do the work necessary to receive salvation when it comes into our lives.
T
o put fine point on it…
If you’re in a broken relationship, mend it.
If you’re in a pothole of prejudice, repair it.
If you’re addicted to something, get off it.
If you’ve got a mountain of envy in your heart, level it.
If you have money, share it.
If you’re carrying a grudge, drop it.
If you’re having an affair, get out of it.
If you’re toying with temptation, stop playing with it.
In short, if there’s any obstacle at all between you and Jesus, get rid of it. And turn to Christ and trust him to do for you what you cannot do for yourself, to work in you to transform you and to see it through to the end!
Louise Fletcher Tarkington writes:
I wish that there were some wonderful place
Called the Land of Beginning Again;
Where all our mistakes and all our heartaches
Could be dropped like a shabby old coat…
And never put on again.
There is such a place. This is it. You are in it. It’s Christmas and gift Jesus Christ…in whom the old things pass away and all things are made new.
Sources:
Joanna Adams, Construction Project
John Buchanan, Courage
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
Ernest Campbell, The Conversion of Scrooge
Adam Hamilton. The Ghost of Christmas Future
Brian E. Germano, The Person I Was
Gregory Turner, Ebenezer Scrooge Lives
Dale Miller, The Ghost of Christmas Future
Ricky Miller, The Ghosts of Christmas Future http://www.markroberts.com – “Christmas According to Dickens”
]]>God Bless Us Everyone: The Ghost of Christmas Presenttag:germantownumc.org,2009:index.php/6.6882009-12-13T15:18:00Z2009-12-16T15:21:01ZDaniel Turnerdturner@intermixdesign.comLuke 1:46-55 NRSV And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on us, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake our spirits; clear our sight. Surround us now with all your glory; speak through me that sacred story. Take my lips and make them bold. Take hearts and minds and make them whole. Stir in us that sacred flame; then send us forth to spread your name. Amen.
Two pleasant looking gentlemen come to the office of Ebenezer Scrooge. One clears his throat and says, “Mr. Scrooge, at this festive season, a few of us are endeavoring to raise funds to buy meat and drink and the means of warmth for the poor,” that may give them a better life. Scrooge looks up from his desk and bitterly asks, “Why should I give to the poor? I pay my taxes…are there no workhouses?”
“Many would rather die than go there!” says the gentleman visitor.
Scrooge replies: “If they’d rather die, they better do it and decrease the surplus population.” Such is the state of the heart of Ebenezer Scrooge.
And when it came to Christmas, Scrooge’s feelings are summed up with two words: “Bah Humbug.”
Today, we continue our journey into the classic Christmas story as Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by a 2nd spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present.
The spirit awakens Scrooge in the middle of the night and beckons him on a grand tour of Christmas and on the second part of a three-part journey of self-discovery and transformation.
Knowing he really has no choice, Scrooge grabs hold of the Spirit’s robe and is whisked away to Christmas celebrations across the city. But where Scrooge learns the most that night was from the family of his poor clerk, Bob Cratchit.
Cratchit’s family is gathered in a tiny four-room house. Mrs. Cratchit is dressed in a secondhand gown and their children in their Sunday best, and they are all excited about Christmas and the meager feast they will share.
Finally, Bob Cratchit, in his threadbare clothes, enters carrying Tiny Tim on his shoulders.
The salary Scrooge pays Bob Cratchit is a pittance, barely enough to exist under ideal circumstances, but the Cratchits do not live in ideal circumstances. Their little son, Tiny Tim, has a disease for which there’s a cure, only they cannot afford to pay for it.
Scrooge asks, “Will Tiny Tim live?” The Ghost says, “I see a vacant seat at the table and if these shadows remain unaltered…the child will die.” “No, no,” says Scrooge, “he will be spared.”
The Ghost says: “Why?” and quoting Scrooge himself, the Ghost says, “If he die, he’d better go ahead and decrease surplus population.” Scrooge shudders to hear his own words and hangs his head.
Up until now, Ebenezer hasn’t really seen Bob Cratchit as a person. He never thought about him having children or about any needs he might have. His only desire is to get as much work out of him for as little pay as possible.
And Scrooge sees that there’s great joy in the Cratchit home, despite the fact that they live in near poverty. By the end of the scene, Ebenezer’s heart begins to soften and he begins to experience the unfamiliar emotions of empathy and compassion.
Scrooge learns some important truths that night.
First, Scrooge learns something that in our wiser moments, we already know: that happiness cannot be bought. Happiness begins in the heart and is found in relationships with others and with God.
The Cratchits don’t have two nickels to rub together, but they’re remarkably joyful. Though their son’s health is fading and their resources are meager, they have such joy, a joy that transcends their circumstances. Perhaps it’s true that they understand the meaning of Christmas, the glory of God’s gift to us in Jesus Christ.
Then, second, Ebenezer learns that value and worth of a person is not measured by a balance sheet, but in the quality of their character and the depth of their relationships.
As Scrooge watches Bob Cratchit and his family, Scrooge begins to see that it’s not the Cratchits who are in poverty, it is him.
Playwright Henry Miller once wrote, “One's destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things.”
Ebenezer Scrooge is beginning to see himself for the spiritual pauper he’s become and he’s beginning to discover a new way of looking at other people.
Finally, Ebenezer learns that redemption, transformation, healing, grace and mercy are found, in part, in seeing and caring for the poor and those in need.
Christmas is more than a season of good feelings or a time for parties and gifts. It’s about the arrival of the One who comes to transform our lives and to change how we see the world; it is about the One who comes, as Zechariah would later say, “to give light to those who sit in darkness and those who live in the shadow of death.”
And in our scripture for today, Mary’s song, known as the Magnificat, she sings of how her child, Jesus, will lift up the lowly and fill the hungry with good things!
And in this story, Scrooge’s encounter with the Ghost of Christmas Present, there is a powerful moment.
Near the end of their time together, the Ghost of Christmas Present says, “There is one last thing that I must show you.”
The Spirit opens his robe, and at his feet are two ragged, emaciated, scowling children. They’re shocking in their appearance. Their eyes are hollow and their skin is gray. Scrooge asks, “Spirit, are these your children?”
The Ghost says, “These are humanity’s children. This boy is Ignorance; this girl is Want. Beware of them both…but most of all, beware of this boy, because on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.”
It’s interesting to note that Dickens wrote this story at the height of the Industrial Revolution. Dickens was not just an entertainer; he was trying to pierce the hearts of his readers. And he didn’t write to the lower class; they couldn’t read. He wrote to the upper class, to people of privilege, hoping that he could reach them and pierce their hearts.
For those two children, (Ignorance and Want), are an accurate description of what you would have seen in England’s major cities in the time of Dickens. England’s economy had collapsed. Taxes on the poor were so high and wages were so low that they were near starvation. The Industrial Revolution had created a need for cheap labor…children were a solution for the labor problem. Only 20% went to school…the rest were working in mills and mines. The average lifespan for a child-laborer was 25 years. Conditions got so bad that in the 1830’s, laws had been passed -- and you’ll be appalled to hear this – a law that stated that an 11-year-old could not be worked more than 72 hours a week. And a 9-year-old could not be worked more than 48 hours a week.
Can you imagine? You who are parents and grandparents…imagine your children…your grandchildren?
That fateful night, Ebenezer Scrooge saw that if he was to understand the meaning of Christmas and keep Christmas, it had much to do with how he lived his life, how he saw the world around him, how he valued other people, and what he chose to do in a world of ignorance and want.
And 166 years later, we still find Doom written on the foreheads of those children who live in ignorance and want.
It’s no accident that those countries that harbor terrorists are among the poorest countries in the world: Somalia, Afghanistan and Palestine. When you live in “ignorance” and “want” you become easy prey to those who promise you a better life and blame all your problems on those who have power and wealth.
But ignorance and want are not just over there, somewhere else. Today, in the United States, 25% of America’s children live in poverty, 25% have only one parent, and one in three victims of abuse is a child.
And in Memphis, a report of the Urban Child Institute says that 42% of Memphis’ children, humanity’s children, our children, live in poverty. The report continues: “as a result, they lack basic access to resources” that foster “health and long-term social, emotional and cognitive development.” “Lacking this,” the report continues, “these children are significantly more at risk to drop out of school, become parents too early, and run afoul of the law.”
Dickens would say: These are humanity’s children. Ignore these children to your own peril.
When I read that, I think of a Christmas legend.
There’s a medieval legend that says that on Christmas Eve, the Christ-child wanders the world looking for places where he is welcome. And those who love him and want him to enter their home put a lighted candle in their windows…as a sign that he is welcome. That’s where we get the Christmas tradition of placing candles in our windows. Legend goes on to say that no one knows just how the Christ-child might look when he appears; maybe he comes as a child or a beggar or someone disabled. So it became the practice of devout Christians not only to light a candle and place it in the window but to welcome all who knocked at the door on Christmas Eve, for to turn anyone away was to risk rejecting the Christ Child. And to render aid…was to do the same for Christ.
My friend, David Jones, shares this account. In the dead of winter, 1942, Magda Trocme heard a feeble knock at her door. She opened her door and at the door stood a woman -- spindly, shivering, begging for food and shelter. The woman said she was a German Jew, running for her life. She thought that at the pastor’s house, she might find someone who would help her. Magda and her husband, Andre, a local pastor, didn’t hesitate.
And that trembling woman was the first of 5,000 Jewish refugees that were saved by Magda and Andre and other inhabitants of their French village. Acting out of love for Christ and faith in God, they took in Jewish families, gave them shelter, hope and life. And most of those they took in were children -- children of parents who had died in the holocaust. The people of that village took them in, treated them as family and hid them in homes, haylofts, churches, parsonages, cellars, village inns, factories, and in schools. Somehow, over the next four years they managed to take in 5,000, mostly children, and they did this knowing full well the risks.
And one factor that unified the people and gave them courage was going to a little church Sunday after Sunday to worship and listen to pastor Trocme as he preached about peace, about having a greater love and about having courage to resist what is wrong and to stand up for what is right. One woman said, “The pastor always taught us there comes a time in every life when a person is asked to do something for Jesus. When our time came, we knew what to do.”
Do you hear it? Do you see it? Do you get it?
The One who comes at Christmas comes not just to warm our hearts, but to open them and enlarge them so that we look at the world the way He does. He comes to bring us joy that transcends circumstance. He comes to change how we value people. And He comes to involve us in the lives of those in need so that “want and ignorance” do not win the day.
Pat Whaley told me about speaking at Friday’s Brown Bag luncheon here, earlier this month. Towards the end of his presentation, there was a question and answer time. People asked about Muslim influence in that part of the world. He shared how Muslims are open to the Gospel and told the story about Vasalyna, his Muslim translator in Ukraine, who professed faith in Christ and Pat baptized her as a Christian.
He showed pictures of his ministry in Chernovski, Ukrane, including one of the pastor and one of Vaslalyna and one of a disabled girl by the name of Christine.
Christine has severe scoliosis and needs surgery. In Ukraine, that surgery costs around $700, but she cannot have the surgery because, for Christine and her family, $700 is a fortune.
Well, a couple from this church heard Christine’s story. And a few days ago they called Pat to tell him that instead of exchanging gifts this Christmas, they felt God wanted them to give $700 this Christmas for Christine’s surgery.
I know the couple who are making this gift. And they are not among our “rich” members. Not at all! They’re just ordinary folks, retired and not wealthy, in the way we think of wealth! But they are rich beyond measure in things that matter.
And I’m so proud that so many of you are always looking for ways to serve and give. From work with AIDS orphans in Africa; mission trips, to disaster relief; providing Habitat homes, working with at-risk students at Guthrie and First Works, doing advocacy for a brighter future for the MED, and so much more.
These acts of grace are life giving. But there’s so much more that can be done. So much more that must be done for humanity’s children so that ignorance and want do not win the day. Today, in the Mike Wilson Fellowship Hall, there is a table where you can learn more and sign up to give the gift of life to an at-risk child.
Saint Francis of Assisi understood the meaning of Christmas and the power that is meant to be released in the world through the people of God. In the 13th century, he composed a prayer that is just as profound today, as when it was written. I invite you join me in his prayer:
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources:
1. Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
2. Adam Hamilton, “The Ghost of Christmas Present”
3. Robert Henere, “The Ghost of Christmas Present”
4. David Jones, “The Ghost of Christmas Present”
5. Dale Miller, “The Ghost of Christmas Present”
6. Carol Rittner, The Courage to Care
7. MarkRoberts.com…a section of his web site called: Christmas According to Dickens
8. Will Willimon, Pulpit Digest
]]>God Bless Us Everyone: The Ghost of Christmas Pasttag:germantownumc.org,2009:index.php/6.6872009-12-06T15:10:00Z2009-12-16T15:17:46ZDaniel Turnerdturner@intermixdesign.comIsaiah 61:1-4 NRSV The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion – to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory. They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on us, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake our spirits; clear our sight. Surround us now with all your glory; speak through me that sacred story. Take my lips and make them bold. Take hearts and minds and make them whole. Stir in us that sacred flame; then send us forth to spread your name. Amen.
Every now and them, somebody writes a timeless story -- a story that seems to have a spark of divine inspiration; a story that though it is not the word OF God, it seems to contain a word FROM God. Charles Dickens’ classic tale, A Christmas Carol, is just such a story.
Set in the 1860’s in London, it chronicles the transformation of a man who is described as: “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner. External heat and cold had little influence on him. No wintry weather could chill him. No warmth could warm him.”
Dickens tells us that just before Christmas, Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by three spirits.
But first, he’s visited by the Ghost of his friend and former business associate, Jacob Marley. Marley is bound with heavy chains and is destined to roam the world in agony because of the choices he has made. Marley reminds Scrooge that he, too, is bound by chains, fetters forged over the course of his life. Marley warns Scrooge: “See these chains for what they are and cast them off before it’s too late, lest you join me in this same fate.” Scrooge is then told that he’ll be visited by the Ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.
And at 1:00 in the morning, the Ghost of Christmas past tore back Scrooge’s bed curtains and sent him on a journey meant to help Scrooge remember his past and understand how his response to his past had shaped his present.
First, he is taken back in time to a school where Ebenezer sits as a child, where he re-experiences the pain and rejection that he felt as a lonely little boy who’d been sent away to boarding school by his demanding and abusive father.
The scene then shifts and we see Scrooge as a youth perking up at the visit of the one person in his life who seems to truly care about him and love him, his sister Fran, a sister who (we later learn) dies at a young age.
Soon the pieces of the puzzle begin to fit into place: an abusive father, a lonely childhood, the death of someone he loved. In a masterful way, Dickens moves us from simply loathing this pitiful man to beginning to understand the forces that shaped him.
And so Ebenezer saw his life at a crossroads. On one hand, he could have responded to those hardships so that his heart would have become larger and more generous. He could have become a man who cared for kids who, like himself, had been abused or suffered loss. But, that wasn’t what he chose. Instead, he chose to seek meaning through the acquisition of wealth, power and control. Those became his fixation; they became all that mattered.
So much so that the Spirit of Christmas past takes to the scene where Ebenezer is with a lovely woman to whom he’s engaged. With sadness in her eyes she says, “Ebenezer, another idol has replaced me, a golden one. It seems that you love…profits more than me. When we were engaged, we were both poor…but I sense today that you wouldn’t even (look at) someone like me, a dowerless girl. Because what’s in your heart is gold and silver, and not love.”
Now, this story is meant to help us to look at ourselves…at how we become the way we are and how, almost unconsciously, we can become slaves to something. We become enslaved to that which is most important in our lives. For Scrooge it was wealth, power and control, but it can also be that desperate need to be liked by other people; or to succeed, to feel secure, or even to be loved; or maybe it’s an addiction to some substance or feeling.
This story examines how two particular forces have the power to shape who we become.
The first is through the painful experiences of the past. If we think back over our own lives, probably every one of us here can name some of these. Maybe it was the loss of someone we loved. Or perhaps we had a childhood similar to Scrooge: a parent who was abusive, or who rejected us, or who simply failed to love or accept us as they should. Maybe our home life was good, but somewhere along the way someone broke our heart or shattered our self-esteem!
Norman Vincent Peale told of walking by a tattoo parlor in Hong Kong. He noticed a display of tattoo choices. One caught his eye: the simple phrase, “Born to lose.” His curiosity aroused, he entered the shop to talk with the proprietor. “Do people really want 'Born to Lose’ tattooed on themselves?” In broken English, the old man replied: “Yes, it's one of my most popular designs. Last customer had imprinted on chest.” “But why would anyone want to be branded with a negative statement?” The old man shrugged his shoulders and said, “Before tattoo is printed on chest, tattoo imprinted on heart.”
For better or worse, who we are today is, in part, because of our past experiences and what they’ve imprinted on our hearts. And our painful experiences can either lead us to become something beautiful or they can destroy us. They can make our hearts large and magnanimous or make them small and selfish.
That speaks to the second thing that this story teaches us. We are also shaped by the small decisions and choices that we make in response to what happened to us. And if we’re not watchful, those decisions form the chains that bind us.
As Scrooge watched his past unfold, he saw where he had made wrong turns, a small decision here, another there, then another…decisions that led him down a path where his heart became cold and hard. He thought those choices made him free, free from the pain of love and loss, free from having to depend upon others. Yet, as his friend Marley pointed out, Scrooge was forging the chains of his own bondage.
Well, Scrooge’s chance at redemption comes in the form of a visitation, the visitation of three Spirits. But for us today, our chance at redemption comes in the form of another visitation – the visitation of God’s own Son on that first Christmas.
Listen again to the words of today’s scripture from the prophet Isaiah – words that were fulfilled by Christ’s birth and words that were the very core of Jesus’ very first sermon when he went to the synagogue in Nazareth. Jesus read from Isaiah:
“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because God has anointed me and has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,…to comfort all who mourn....to give them…the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.” Jesus ended his sermon with one sentence: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
The Good News of this season is that God looked at the human condition and God understood how things in life can defeat us and how we can so easily become enslaved by the past, by yesterday’s choices, and by desires and temptations.
And God wanted to do something about this.
So God sent Jesus so that we would not have to be tomorrow what we were yesterday. God sent Jesus to set us free, to heal the broken places of our past and to break the bondage of whatever it is that enslaves us.
A number of years ago, I told some of you about Marjorie; and her story is so appropriate for this message that I tell it again! Marjorie saw herself as un-lovely, ungainly, untalented, unintelligent, un-everything that makes people feel valuable and worthwhile. Over the years her self-hatred grew; there was crisis after crisis until finally, in desperation, she turned to a Christian counselor. As part of her healing, he “walked” her back to a painful memory from childhood.
She was in the 3rd grade. And she’d been caught in some minor act of misbehavior. Her teacher, a harsh woman, called Marjorie forward and stood her before the class. She said, “Children, I want each of you to come to the blackboard and write a sentence that begins with the word ‘Marjorie.’ Write anything you dislike about this naughty girl.”
The next minutes were a nightmare for Marjorie as each child went to the board and wrote a hurtful statement. “Marjorie is ugly.” “Marjorie is: fat, ugly, dumb, stupid.” Marjorie wished the floor would open and swallow her. The abuse went on and on until all 25 classmates had filled the blackboard with hateful words. As Marjorie told her story, tears flooded her face and she was breathing in deep, ragged sobs.
After a few moments the counselor said, “Marjorie, I want you to picture your classroom again -- only this time, there's a difference. There's a 26th student; his name is Jesus. Imagine the scene: Jesus gets up from his desk and walks past the teacher. And instead of writing on the board, he takes the eraser and he erases all of those negative terms that have been said about you.”
Then Jesus takes up a piece of chalk and writes: “Marjorie is a beautiful child of God;” “Marjorie is loved unconditionally;” “Marjorie is forgiven;” “Marjorie is my own precious child;” “Marjorie is a unique unrepeatable miracle of God!”
Marjorie said that it was like chains began to fall away…for the first time in many years, Marjorie began to feel valuable. That was an unforgettable turning point. She said it was “as if I’d been born all over again.”
Advent brings with it an invitation…an invitation to each of us to step back and examine ourselves. If there are wounds that are unhealed, it’s time to take them to the great physician. If you’ve slipped into some patterns that have enslaved you or if there’s something out of place in your life, this is the time to turn back to Christ and ask him to help transform you. For the One whose birth we celebrate is the One who brings Good News to the oppressed, binds up the brokenhearted, and proclaims liberty to all who are held captive. And that, dear friends, is the message and the meaning of Christmas from the Ghost of Christmas past and from the words of the prophet Isaiah.
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Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources:
1. Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
2. Adam Hamilton, “The Ghost of Christmas Past”
3. Robert Henere, “The Ghost of Christmas Past”
4. David Jones, “The Ghost of Christmas Past”
5. Dale Miller, “The Ghost of Christmas Past”
]]>Our Cheering Sectiontag:germantownumc.org,2009:index.php/6.6842009-11-29T15:28:00Z2009-12-04T15:35:32ZDonna Thurmonddthurmond@germantownumc.org
Acts 4:36-37 NRSV There was a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”). He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on us, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake our spirits; clear our sight. Surround us now with all your glory; speak through me that sacred story. Take my lips and make them bold. Take hearts and minds and make them whole. Stir in us that sacred flame; then send us forth to spread your name. Amen.
We all have our flaws. Some are quite obvious and others are not so apparent. One of my lesser flaws is that I hate to go to the gas station and fill up the car. I tend to ride that gauge as low down as I can get it. This drives Jane crazy. She swears that sometimes I intentionally run the car down to empty and leave it for her to drive and have to fill it up.
But I just got a new car that’s she’s going to love. Not only does it have a gauge that tells you if you get low on fuel, but it has a little button, and if you press that button, it will tell you how many miles you can go before you run out of gas. If you still don’t fill it up, a voice comes on and says, “Hey, hey you…yeah you. I’m talking to you. Fill up the tank.” And if after ten miles, I still haven’t filled it up, it says: “Hey stupid! Didn’t you hear me? Stop and get gas or you’re going to be walking in about two minutes!” It really doesn’t say that, but I know Jane wishes that it did!
The reason I mention this is: it’s not only cars that have fuel tanks. You and I do as well.
John Ortberg says it well: there are some folks who, when we’re with them, they fill up our tank. They breathe life into you. They remind you of how good God is. When we’re with them, our anxiety goes down and our sense of hope, confidence, trust and faith go up. They encourage you and believe the best about you.
But we have some other people in our lives. And when we’re with them, it’s almost like they stick a siphon hose in your tank and start siphoning fuel out. They are “joy-challenged, dream-squashing and fault-finding.” They drain us.
But let me tell you: that’s not how the Lord intended for the church to be. We’re to be folks who cheer others on, who encourage others. The word that means “to encourage” is used more than a hundred times in the New Testament.
And we meet one of the great encouragers here in the 4th chapter of the book of Acts. His name is Joseph; you might say he is a one man cheering section.
The first time we meet him was when the Christians are struggling to meet the needs of the widows and orphans. And we’re told that Joseph “sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.” He saw a need and sought to meet it; he felt their hurt and wanted to heal it. In fact, he’s the first recorded donor in church history.
I think of all the universities, missions and churches over the centuries and all the billions of dollars that have been given by good people. This is the guy who started it all.
There’s a lot of his spirit in the greater Memphis area. Memphis, this poor city, is the fourth most charitable city in the United States. Did you know that? After Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, it's not Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, Dallas or Denver. It’s Memphis that has the fourth highest per capita giving to charities of any city in America. How do you explain that kind of off-the-charts generosity? Is it our wealth? Hardly! Memphis is disproportionately poor. I would argue that it is our communities of faith that make a difference. Generosity and greatness don’t have so much to do with how much you have, but how much you choose to give. Memphis proves that philanthropy has less to do with wealth and more to do with generosity of spirit. And here, in the 4th chapter of the book of Acts, we see this man who started it all.
When Joseph did this, his spirit of generosity was so inspiring and so infectious that the disciples said, “Joseph is not an adequate name for this guy! We’re going to nickname him Barnabas, which means ‘Son of Encouragement,’ a one man cheering section.”
Then, for a time, Barnabas disappears from the Christian story. The next time we hear about him is just after Paul had been terrorizing the followers of Jesus, breathing his threats and finding men and women to take as prisoners.
But then on Damascus Road, Paul met Jesus. He repents and trusts Jesus, but now he has a problem. When he tries to join the disciples, they’re afraid. They don’t believe that he is really a disciple, because he was party to the murder of Stephen, and he’d threatened, persecuted and imprisoned their friends and family members. No one wanted anything to do with him.
Remember that old cereal commercial? Two brothers are supposed to try a new cereal, because mom tells them that it will be good for them. Neither wants to try it. But one says, “I’ve got an idea. Let’s get Mikey to try it!”
Well, in essence, the disciples say, “I don’t trust him. But I’ve got an idea. Let’s get Barney to check him out.” So they send Barnabas to check this guy out.
Barnabas goes to Paul. He got to know Paul...all because he had the ability to see past the past…to see the best, affirm it and call it forth. And because Barnabas said that Paul could be trusted, the disciples embraced him. And Barnabas and Paul begin their ministry together.
You have to wonder: What would have happened to Paul if he had not had Barnabas?
But then, Barnabas disappears from the story again, until another critical moment, another hinge point in the Christian story. It comes in Acts 11. Up until this point, the Good News about Jesus had spread only among Jewish folks, but it wasn’t long until some “Greeks began to hear the Good News and believe and want to follow Jesus.”
But this development presented a problem! These Gentiles weren’t Jewish; they didn’t know the Torah, they didn’t keep the Sabbath; they hadn’t been circumcised. And up to this point the only followers of Jesus had been from among the Jews. And there were those who insisted that to be Christian you first had to be Jewish! After all, that’s the way it’d always been.
Well, the news about Gentiles responding to Jesus got back to Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Christians weren’t at all sure about this. If they let the Gentiles in, it would change everything.
Should these new believers have to be circumcised, know the Torah and become Jews first in order to become followers of Christ? This was a critical question facing the new church.
And who would the Christian community at Jerusalem send to check this out and make a recommendation? They sent Barnabas. Acts tells us that “when Barnabas saw the evidence of the grace of God at work in the new believers he was glad….” And it was Barnabas who helped to open the door of faith to non Jews.
There’s one more event involving Barnabas that I want to lift up. It came when John Mark accompanied Barnabas and Paul on one of their missionary journeys. Paul's fervor led him to propose that they press on and continue their trip into the uncharted, untested spiritual wilderness of Asia Minor. And perhaps because of fear or homesickness -- we don’t know which -- John Mark abandoned the mission and returned to Jerusalem. Paul was deeply disappointed in John Mark and labeled him as undependable, a quitter. Paul wanted nothing more to do with Mark!
But after time, Barnabas took Mark with him to continue his ministry. And in the process, Mark was transformed, so much so, that when Paul knew he was dying, Paul asked Timothy to come to him and to bring Mark -- the same Mark that Paul had once written off as an undependable quitter. He’d become a trusted companion and co-worker. Again, the one who made the difference was Barnabas, this one man cheering section, this encourager who was able to see the best in others and bring it to the surface.
It is impossible to live in the Memphis area and not know the amazing story of Michael Oher and Leigh Ann Tuohy. Michael Oher never dreamed of the day he’d be welcomed into a loving family or be a first-round pick in the 2009 NFL draft. Nor did a rich, Southern white woman ever dream that she’d adopt an African American son. But life, “The Blind Side” says, is defined by our reactions to what we don't see coming at us.
If you’re one of a handful of folks in the area who hasn’t seen the movie or read the book, I won’t spoil the story, but Michael arrived at Briarcrest High School a hulking young man, who towered over his classmates. He was recruited to school for his athletic promise. But Big Mike, as he was called, was from Memphis’ projects -- a lumbering African-American teen with no home to speak of, a single change of clothes, a messed-up past and a microscopic GPA.
But then came that cold November night when he was walking, shivering, along the side of the road. He was spotted by Leigh Anne Tuohy and her family. Before Michael knew it, he was ushered into their SUV and was whisked away to the Tuohy mansion.
Thus began the transformation of a young man and the transformation of a family because of a Barnabas-like encourager…because someone saw a need and sought to meet it, recognized a hurt and tried to heal it, saw potential and wanted to bring it forth.
Now, it’s not a perfect story. It doesn’t deal with the root causes of poverty and it doesn’t change the systems that create it.
But it’s a starfish story. You know the story. A huge number of starfish have been washed up on the beach. And a man is there, picking up starfish, one at a time, and tossing them back into the sea. Another person comes along and says, “What good are you really doing? There are so many of them.” And the starfish thrower, as he tosses another into the sea, says, “It matters to that one!” That’s the spirit of Barnabas! It’s the willingness to do what you can, to see a need and seek to meet it, to see a hurt and work to heal it.
A few days ago, I spoke at the funeral of an extraordinary young man, Brent Coker, who died far too young in a tragic auto accident. The funeral was at Christ United Methodist Church, and that great sanctuary was packed with over 900 people to bear tribute to this young man who had touched so many lives. When I heard the tributes that his family gave this remarkable young man, I thought about what we might want folks to say about us when the time comes for our funeral.
At the time, I was working on this story of Barnabas, and I came across something by John Ortberg about what Barnabas’ funeral may have been like. He imagines Barnabas’ funeral.
First, it is a great celebration, a celebration of life.
Then, a man gets up to speak and it’s the Apostle Paul. Everybody says to each other, “Is this the Apostle Paul? He’s famous.” He says: You know, I persecuted the church. I put followers of Jesus to death or in prison. Though I met Jesus, nobody trusted me. No one wanted anything to do with me. But Barnabas came to me. He put his arm around me and said, “I’ll vouch for him.” I stand before you today because of this man Barnabas.
Then John Mark gets up. He’s an old man. He’s famous as well. He says: The truth about me is I was a quitter. I ran away from the ministry. But Barnabas wouldn’t give up on me. He saw something in me. I don’t know why, but he took me under his wing and I’m here today because of Barnabas.
Next a Greek guy from Antioch gets up. He says: I was a pagan and far from God. Then I heard about Jesus, and I wanted in. But I didn’t know the Torah. I wasn’t circumcised. I wasn’t Jewish and I didn’t fit in. But Barnabas came along and said that Jesus came for guys like me. And so I’m here today because of Barnabas.
Then a widow stands up. She’s not famous…she’s rather ordinary. She says: I lost everything when my husband died. I had young children. I had no income. I didn’t know if I’d make it. Then Barnabas came along, and he quietly sold his own property so that I could have something to live on and feed my children. I’m here today because of this man Barnabas.
That’s what life is like in the Kingdom of God. It’s about doing what you can and calling out the greatness in others. The spirit of Barnabas is alive in the Christian community whenever we give, whenever we encourage one another, and whenever we decide to be part of the cheering section of the Kingdom of God.
Let us pray. Lord Jesus, we are here today because of so many who have gone before us who have given so much. We are here today because of the encouragement of family and friends and people who saw something in us that we didn’t see. People who gave to make something possible...maybe an education or an opportunity. Lord, help us to continue the spirit of Barnabas, for we know that our life is defined by the reaction of what it is that comes before us. In Christ we pray, Amen.
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Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources:
1. William Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles
2. Max Depree, Leadership Jazz
3. Micah D. Greenstein, Multicultural Memphis Keynote Address, October 27, 2009, Memphis Hilton
4. Lloyd Ogilvie, The Communicator’s Commentary, Volume 5
5. John Ortberg, “The Power of Belonging,” and “Balcony People”
6. Len Sweet, 11 Indispensable Relationships and “Who are the Encouragers?”
]]>Lost in Wonder, Love, and Praisetag:germantownumc.org,2009:index.php/6.6832009-11-15T18:26:00Z2009-11-17T18:37:20ZDaniel Turnerdturner@intermixdesign.com
Psalm 100 NRSV Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name. For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on us, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake our spirits; clear our sight. Surround us now with all your glory; speak through me that sacred story. Take my lips and make them bold. Take hearts and minds and make them whole. Stir in us that sacred flame; then send us forth to spread your name. Amen.
In the neighborhood where I grew up, as kids, we played all kinds of games: hide ‘n seek, red rover, dodge ball, and of course football, baseball and basketball. But from time to time, after a bunch of us would sneak over my back fence to the local Pentecostal tent meetings, we’d get together and we’d play church. Someone would lead the hymn singing and the rest of us would be the congregation. One of the aggressive, extroverted kids would step up front to preach. The quieter ones would sit and be entertained. We’d shout “amen” and “hallelujah!” We’d laugh and sing songs like the Doxology to the tune of Hernando’s Hideaway. Someone in the group would sing, “Love lifted me” and someone in the back would shout, “Put me down you fool.” Or somebody would sing, “I was sinking deep in sin,” and everyone would say “Wheeee!” Once, one of the girls ran home, got a sheet, covered herself, came back and jumped into the room and said, “I‘m the holy ghost.” If those up front were entertaining, they’d hold our attention. But if they weren’t, it wouldn’t take long until someone would shout, “not it,” and we were off to play a game of hide ‘n seek.
Kids play all kinds of games. But even now, though we're all grown up, the worship game can still happen. It happens to any of us when we sit in the pew waiting to be entertained.
Manys the time I’ve been guilty of going to a worship service like some kind of ecclesiastical Siskel and Ebert, there to give either a thumbs up or a thumbs down, sitting back with my arms folded, essentially saying to those up front: “Wow me! Dazzle me. Entertain me.”
When I go to worship in the same way that I go to a movie (to be entertained and then to offer a critique), most of the time I end up withholding my heart and I don’t give praise to the God of the universe…because the song may not be one that I know or I may not like the tune or the preacher is not the one I prefer.
Today, in Psalm 100, we are given a very different and far more profound picture of worship…not worship as a game or entertainment, but a vision of what worship can be, the kind of worship we join in eagerly and joyfully and in anticipation that when we gather, we gather in the presence of the Living God.
This morning, I want to lift up some powerful things that can happen when we worship -- some things you may have thought about and some you may have not!
First, worship gets my attention off me. Worship changes my focus. Deborah was talking about that last week in her message about how hard it is to get our attention off of ourselves in order to serve. But it’s also difficult to get our attention off of ourselves in order to worship.
Listen to how Psalm 100 begins: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; Come before the Lord with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who has made us and we are his.”
In addition to the joy that is wrapped up in these words, what’s most striking is the last part of verse 3. In worship, we focus on God. We think deep and positive thoughts about God. And if I’m thinking about God, who am I not thinking about? I’m not thinking about me!
And as it turns out, thinking too much about ourselves is not a real healthy thing for us to do. Let me put this in the form of a question: Since the end of World War II, how much do you think the incidence of depression has changed? Do you think it’s gone up or down or stayed about the same?
The best estimates are that since World War II, depression has gone up about a thousand percent. It’s ten times more prevalent than 65 years ago. That has led a lot of people to ask the question: “Why?” Why has depression become so widespread, so prominent?
Maybe the best analysis comes from Martin Seligman, one of the most prominent psychologists in our day. Seligman says, “As a society we have lost a sense of connection to something that is greater than ourselves, to something that is transcendent and good, to something that can command our devotion, our allegiance.” He goes on to say that we’ve reduced all of life down into its single, smallest common denominator, and that is the self. And the self is just too small a package to carry the weight of our human hunger for meaning, glory and transcendence.
But when we worship -- when we truly worship -- our minds are focused on something bigger than ourselves.
J.P. Allen compared what happens when we worship to entering a planetarium from a busy, noisy street. The lights dim and the sounds hush and the universe opens up over our heads. “Earth becomes one of the smallest of planets, and we become one of its smallest creatures. In that awesome moment, we focus upon the greatness, the goodness, the glory, and the grace of God.”
Worship puts us in our place, and I mean that quite literally. Our place is not at the center of the universe. That’s God place. True worship gets my attention off me.
Then, a second gift of worship is this: When I worship God, my problems, my difficulties and my struggles lose some of their power to control me.
One of the great passages in Scripture comes from Habakkuk 3:17. And if you are not sure where to find Habakkuk, it’s right between Nahum and Zephaniah. Or you can just trust me that it’s there!
Written in the difficult days of Israel, Habakkuk writes: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food...though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls….” These were agricultural people so this is real serious business. No figs, no grapes, no cattle, sheep, or grain… But then read these fabulous words: “Nevertheless I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my savior.”
That’s a vision of what worship can do…a vision of what it means to come into the presence and reality of God. It changes everything!
You and I face circumstances where life doesn’t turn out the way that we want it to turn out.
I love the story of the guy who shows up at the pearly gates of heaven and he wants in. St. Peter asks him about his life: “Have you ever done any one good thing...anything that you’re really proud of?” This guy is kind of a wimp, but he says, “Yeah, actually, there is. Once I saw a bunch of guys, a gang of thugs. They were really tough guys – knife-wielding, tattoo-wearing, body-piercing, mean-spirited, violent characters. And they were picking on this young girl. It was clear they meant her harm. I knew I had to do something so I walked up to the biggest, toughest, meanest guy of the group -- the leader of the pack -- and I grabbed the ring that pierced his ear and I ripped it right off of his body and I said, ‘If you touch one hair on that girl’s head, you will answer to me.’” St. Peter was kind of impressed and asked, “When did this happen?” The guy said: “About 30 seconds ago.”
Sometimes in life I will face circumstances that are hard; we face circumstances that we can’t control; there’ll be times we’re doing right, but things go terribly wrong. And if I try to face those times with nothing but my own inadequacy, I’ll spend a huge amount of my life discouraged and frustrated. But when I worship, I give God an opening to lift me above the discouragement and frustration.
Awhile back, I was at my computer working on my sermon and my computer just went blank. For some reason, I lost everything I had written and it was late in the week and this was my sermon. I couldn’t get it back. It was like my computer was possessed or something. I was punching keys…talking to it…praying for it…shaking it. Nothing! My sermon was lost. I got so frustrated.
But then I stopped, turned toward the window and I thought: “God, you made the earth. You made the trees; you made the sky, the sun and the air I breathe. You are way bigger than my frustrations. I am incredibly frustrated. But nevertheless, I will praise you.” I prayed that prayer that I pray so often: “Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on me, reveal your love....” Physically, I could begin to feel the frustration leave my body. My computer wasn’t any better, but I was better. My mind was freed up because I realized that God is great and I’m small and so are so many of my problems. I even thought of a way that I could manage around this particular frustration.
When I worship, something happens to the way that I look at my life and my problems.
John Ortberg suggests this: This week, when your fig tree doesn’t bud and your olive crop fails and there’s no sheep in the pen and when your car doesn’t start, when the checkbook doesn’t balance, when the sun doesn’t shine, when your boss doesn’t smile, when the hoped-for phone call does not come, when you are frustrated, sad, and discouraged, just stop…just stop and try some “nevertheless” worship.
You can do this here today or you can do it any day. Open up the Scriptures and read again some words from Jesus. Sing a hymn that goes way down deep inside you. When you leave here, look at God’s creation and remember Habakkuk. Nevertheless, nevertheless, God, I will remember your greatness, your goodness, and I will praise you right now.
Worship gives us a new a perspective on life. It gives me hope, energy and strength.
Another gift of worship is: When I worship, it produces a spirit of gratitude in me.
I’ll let you in on a secret…there’s a chronic complainer that lives inside of me! I’m sure some of you recall Spiro Agnew’s famous phrase: “nattering nabobs of negativism.” I have one of those that lives inside of me…a negative, nit-picking, complaining part of me that will take over if I allow it.
My default mode is to start my day neutral to negative. It’s like, if good things happen to me, then I’ll feel lucky and be happy; but most likely something bad is going to happen, so I better get ready to feel unfortunate and unhappy.
But worship gets that nattering nabob of negativism under control. It loses its power over me!
The Psalmist puts it like this: “Enter God’s gates with thanksgiving and God’s courts with praise. Give thanks and praise God’s name. For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever….”
When I worship, I stop and remember all the ways that God is indeed good…has been, is, and will be. The heart of worship is spending time in song, in prayer, and in scriptures, reflecting the goodness and grace of God.
I think about all that God has given me. The fact is, there’s really no reason why I should exist, but I do. God has given me a body that works pretty well, most of the time. God has given me a mind so I can think, read and create. God has given me senses that see, taste, touch, hear and feel. God has given me relationships, people who love me. God has given me forgiveness of my sins. How often do I just take that for granted! God has given me the promise of salvation through what Jesus did for me. God has given me the gift of the Holy Spirit to be with me, to be in my life, to guide me so that I’m never alone. God has given me a church to belong to and a purpose for my life…so that I could do something with my life that’s worthwhile. And God has given me assurance that when my life comes to an end, death will not have the last word.
And that’s just part of what God has given me. And when I begin to rehearse all of that, I think, “God, I’m just such an idiot to think that my day is starting in neutral to negative. It’s not that way. I’ve been given so much I can’t even name it all.”
So, make your own list of the goodness and the blessings of God. Start your list today. When you come to worship next week, come a little early and enter God’s gates with thanksgiving. Gratitude inevitably happens when we worship.
But when I think of the best reason to worship, it’s not about me at all, not some benefit that I receive; it’s the promise that when we come here, we come into the presence of God.
Awhile back, on a flight to Dallas, I was reminded of this. I noticed that people on a plane and people in a pew can have a lot in common. They are all on a journey. They all take a seat. Some doze, some read, others gaze out the window. Some pay attention as the flight attendant reads instructions, others think they already know it and ignore it. And most, if not all, are satisfied with a predictable experience. For many, the mark of a good flight and the mark of a good worship service are the same. “Nice,” is the word we use. “It was a nice flight.” “It was a nice, predictable worship service.” But some people aren’t content with nice. They long for something more!
On that flight to Dallas, there was a boy who wanted more. As he came through the door, he asked, “Will they really let me meet the pilot?” The boy was either lucky or shrewd…he made his request just as he entered the plane. His question floated into the cockpit; and the pilot leaned out and asked, “Is someone looking for me?” The boy's hand shot up like he was answering a 2nd grade question! “I am!”
Later, when the youngster came to his seat, his eyes were wide and he was wearing wings. “Wow!” he told his dad, “I'm so glad to be on this plane!”
Those of us who heard him smiled and thought, “Now isn’t that sweet?” But few of us shared his enthusiasm. We were just travelers, content to be on our way to our destination. But that boy wanted more. He wanted to see the pilot. And if you asked him to describe his flight, he wouldn't have said, “It was a nice flight.” He would have produced those wings and said, “I met the man who flies this plane.”
And I wonder! What would happen if we began to come to worship like that boy? What if we came with enthusiasm and wide-eyed with wonder…expectant and eager to meet the pilot, knowing that we gather here in the presence of God?
Rev. C. L. Franklin, the father of Aretha Franklin, loved to worship. And he was fond of quoting a pastor-friend. This friend would say to his congregation on Sunday morning: “Children, we're going to have a big time (here today). We're going to aim at the stars, but if we fall to the moon, we will still be on high ground.”
May it be true that we come expectantly into this room and we go away knowing that we’ve been on high ground.
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Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources:
1. M. Craig Barnes, “Dangerous Worship”
2. Dr. William R. Bouknight, “Our Most Important Hour”
3. Mark Buchanan, “Your God is Too Safe”
4. Rod Buchanan, “Learning to Worship”
5. Martin B. Copenhaver, “Prayers of Praise and Joy”
6. Max Lucado, “A Faith Odyssey: Why Worship?”
7. John Ortberg, “Why Worship Matters” and “The Wonder of Worship”
8. Dr. Victor D. Pentz, “Some Assembly Required”
]]>Strengthening Our Servetag:germantownumc.org,2009:index.php/6.6822009-11-08T18:19:01Z2009-11-17T18:26:16ZDaniel Turnerdturner@intermixdesign.comPhilippians 2:1-11 NRSV If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray. Dear Lord God, right now we invite your presence into this place. Most especially, Lord, we invite your presence into our being. Fill us up, Lord, so that we may focus on what you would have us to hear this day. Lord, I ask that you remove Deborah and fill me up with your Holy Spirit, Lord, so that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be accessible in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Amen.
In thinking about, and preparing for the sermon, I thought I would start out by sharing one of my favorite cartoons. In the Peanuts cartoons, you have Lucy and Linus and in this particular scene, Lucy enters the room and demands that Linus change the TV channels, threatening him with her fists, if he didn’t.
Linus asks Lucy, “What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?”
“These five fingers,” says Lucy. “Individually, they are nothing; but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold.”
“Which channel do you want?” asks Linus. Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, “Why can’t you guys get organized like that?”
I believe at this point Linus is interested in strengthening his serve, which is the focus of our text today.
In strengthening our serve, I was reminded of a jingle that went like this: “Hold the pickles; hold the lettuce, special orders don't upset us. All we ask is that you let us serve it your way.” It’s strange how this jingle comes to mind along with a little of the melody, especially since I don’t eat it!
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I am talking about Burger King here, where the song goes down easier than the food...at least for me! No matter what I might feel about the burger, the marketing of that song...that jingle...was an effective and creative idea because the jingle reinforced my thinking and your thinking and the thinking of others at the time that the customer was indeed important -- the customer was queen or king. It told me that my wants were their marching orders -- I am somebody. And it told me that everything they cooked could be customized...leading the competition to claim that not only could it be customized, but it could be super-sized.
In thinking about that, I have to raise the question: What will the fast food industry do for me next? I am not belittling any of this. Customers are important and businesses ought to make us feel that way. I am sure most of us can name several places where we go where they make us feel like they are doing us a favor by taking our money. Such places are uncompromising and uncomfortable. This is why we don’t like them and we try to steer clear of them, for we are spoiled. We have come to expect it “our way.”
If you don't believe that, think of how you felt the last time you looked at a menu and saw the phrase, “no substitutions allowed.” I have discovered, however, that where food selection is concerned, my way is not always a good way.
One example is my disdain for salad bars. Why? Because I make a lousy salad...one that may not be appealing or appetizing to look at. I see the salad bar filled with things I like, and I want to put them all on my plate. For example, if there are ten kinds of lettuce, why not a few leaves of each? If I can't decide between oil and vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and creamy ranch, I usually put a dollop of all three! Crumbled eggs, grated cheese, imitation bacon, croutons, peanuts, pine nuts, wheat germ, olives, and garbanzo beans...sure! And the result is never very good. The flavors blend in a very strange way! And as I look around at the other people at the table, and look at their salads, I seem to always be missing the one ingredient that everybody else is drooling over. Perhaps, it would be better that somebody with talent would make my salad because I never seem to make the right choices in putting it together.
In case you are wondering, I am not much better at buffets or potluck suppers. As is the situation in other areas of my life, buffet tables and potluck suppers offer too many choices. All of them are tempting. But when piled high on a plate (a plate that always appears to be too small), the food is not that satisfying. I always see something on someone’s plate that I missed that seems to be the stellar dish. This is why I welcome those rare occasions when I am taken in hand by a really good waiter in a really great restaurant...a waiter who leads me through the menu, and guides (not forces) me down a path that will both stretch and satisfy me. If you have never had that kind of experience, or enjoyed that kind of waiter, I can only urge you to seek it...and, upon finding it, be open to it all.
This is what Paul was striving to do in his epistle, part of what we read today. He was trying to guide and encourage the Philippians in their faith and remind them of some very basic but important Christian principles. Like the salad bar and buffet lines, life offers us an abundance of choices; and when left up to our own strategies and techniques, we fail to put together the right combinations in our lives. We still look at others and see what they have, and we feel we have fallen short.
How many of you have read the book, Guts: The Seven Laws of Business by Bob Lutz? In his book, I am certain you can name or readily reference the basic principles of corporate leadership...one of which is “the customer is not always right.” In other words, when the pressure is on, people lean toward what they know and return to where they've been. This is when some of us become selfish and look to self. Living a selfish life as a Christian is to do what we want to do and not what we know, based on the Bible. And we justify this with a phrase that we may all know or have said at some time, and it is this: “It’s all about me.” “It’s all about me.”
This focus on self is not new. Peggy Rosenthal in her book, Words and Values, says that few words in our vocabulary are used any more than self and its combinations. And the way we use the words ultimately assigns the value to the words, like self-expression (some of us have used this when we say, “Don’t worry about Johnny, he is just expressing himself!”), self-esteem (what we think about ourselves, like we might say, “I am so Hot!”), self-fulfillment (statements like, “I climbed Mount Everest because it was a challenge and I conquered it.”).
There are books that reinforce this kind of thinking: Recovery of Your Self-Esteem, Self-Help: Conduct and Perseverance, The Power of Self-Coaching, Self-Defeating Behaviors, Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires. There is even a magazine called “Self.” The society in which we live is a very self-centered one. The biggest question we ask when we have a decision whether to do something or not is, “What’s in it for me?”
Robert J. Ringer in his book -- a best seller for 46 weeks -- stated that “Looking out for number one is important because it leads to a simple, uncomplicated life, in which you spend more time doing those things which give you the greatest amount of pleasure.” Even Roger Dangerfield, a noted comedian, makes us laugh when he talks about how he “looks out for #1.”
But, to focus on how we, as a church, can strengthen our serve, we must move beyond self and the individual and do what Paul is emphasizing in our Scripture lesson here today -- spiritual unity, asking the Philippians to love one another and to be one in spirit and purpose. When we work together, caring for the problems of others as if they were our problems, we demonstrate Christ’s example of putting others first, and we experience unity which helps us to strengthen our serve.
One of the most profound posters I saw this week was in a doctor’s office which said: We are the body of Christ. AIDS is in Africa. The body of Christ has AIDS, because we are one body.
You see, brothers and sisters in Christ, we cannot and should not be so concerned about making a good impression or meeting our own needs because it is during that mind set and those actions that we strain our relationships in God’s family. Selfish ambition and selfishness in general can ruin a church and a church family whereas genuine humility, as we are told in verse 3, can build and unite us.
Being humble means we are challenged to have an honest perspective about ourselves. But, it does not mean that we should put ourselves down. True humility means not thinking less of ourselves but thinking of ourselves less. This is what it means to “lose your life” -- forgetting yourself in service to others. When we stop focusing on our own needs, we become aware of the needs around us.
When was the last time you emptied yourself for someone else’s benefit? You can’t be a servant if you’re so full of yourself. It’s only when we forget ourselves that we do the things that deserve to be remembered. We are called to lay aside selfishness and treat others with respect and common courtesy. And, when we do this – considering others’ interests as more important than our own -- this links us with Jesus Christ, who was a true example of humility.
Paul continues in the Scripture by encouraging us to guard against any selfishness, prejudice, or jealousy that might lead to dissension and might very well weaken our serve. Showing genuine interest in others is a positive step forward in maintaining unity and strengthening our serve. Let us be reminded that Jesus Christ was humble, willing to give up his rights in order to obey God and serve people. Like Christ, we all should have a servant’s attitude, serving out of love for God and for others, not out of guilt or fear.
We all have a choice when it comes to our attitude. Sometimes, our natural way of thinking is that the more we can get for ourselves the happier we’ll be -- something like the salad bar and buffet line mentality, “we’ll pile our plates with as much as we can handle but when we sit down and look around, there is something we missed -- something that looks better, so we go again through the line.”
This is what we do in life. We pile our lives with “things,” trying to be happy, and when we think we have it all, we look at someone else and realize there is one more thing that we need. We come to defend our actions by saying to ourselves, “I can spend all this money on me...I have worked hard for it. I’ve earned the right. I can get more.” But God’s Word tells us just the opposite is true. If you want to be great, you’ve got to be the last. If you want to get everything you want, you’ve got to be willing to put others first.
So in the end analysis, we see that we have a choice as far as our attitude. We can approach life expecting to be served or we can look for opportunities to serve others. As believers, as part of the body of Christ, we should have an attitude that enables us to lay aside our rights in order to serve others. If we say or claim that we are following Christ, we must also say, then, that we want to live as Christ lived. We should develop his attitude of humility as we serve, even when we are not very likely to get recognition for our efforts, even if it means putting our selfish needs aside.
There are so many things that we can accomplish with our lives. There are so many levels of success that we can try to attain. The point is not that those things are wrong, but that the measure of a life well spent is not what great things you’ve accomplished or how much “success” you’ve had. What’s important is: Was your life spent for yourself or for God and God’s purposes? Did you pour yourself into your ambitions, or did you use the things like your career and your success to pour yourself into God’s Kingdom? It is only when you say yes to the latter part of this question (pouring yourself into God’s Kingdom) that you will strengthen your serve and our serve as a church.
So, I ask you now: What action can you take to literally empty yourself of your rights and become like a servant, like Jesus? What tasks do you routinely do that cause you to be selfish and cause you to complain?
I challenge each of you, right now, to live in the shadow of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lived a humble life. I encourage you, when you leave today, to write down one concrete action step that you can take this week to develop this attitude of humility and follow the example of Jesus.
Let us pray. Dear Lord God, we thank you for being with us. We thank you, Lord, for modeling humility; and we ask, Lord, that you help us to be more like you. It is in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
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Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources:
1. Cheung, Vincent (2003). “Commentary on Philippians,” http://www.vincentcheung.com/books/philippians.pdf
2. Duncan, Rick, “Looking Out for Number Two,” sermon
3. Dunn, James D. G. & Rogerson, John W. (eds.) (2003). Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
4. The New Interpreter’s Bible – A Commentary in Twelve Volumes, Volume XI. (2000). Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.
5. The Collegeville Bible Commentary – New Testament. (1992). Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press.
]]>A Church of God’s Dreamingtag:germantownumc.org,2009:index.php/6.6802009-11-01T16:13:01Z2009-11-12T16:14:46ZDaniel Turnerdturner@intermixdesign.com
Acts 2:14-18, 41-47 NRSV Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.’”
Those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the good will of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on us, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake our spirits; clear our sight. Surround us now with all your glory; speak through me that sacred story. Take my lips and make them bold. Take hearts and minds and make them whole. Stir in us that sacred flame; then send us forth to spread your name. Amen.
St. Andrews Church is located in the tiny town of Beulah, Michigan. They say that the church is built on a “site on which dreams are made.” Why? It’s a beautiful church with a high-arched ceiling; and on three sides it is solid glass, floor to ceiling. It overlooks rolling hills, orchards, and a picturesque lake. No matter where you sit in the sanctuary, there are incredible views.
Ned Edwards, who was the pastor when the church was built, said that during the summer that it opened, he spent one or two hours each day guiding people on tours of that sanctuary. Someone said to him, “Pastor, with all this glass, with these high ceilings, and with these beautiful views, this must be the church of your dreams.” He almost said, “Yes.” But instead, this is what he said: “It is the church that I dreamed of, but not because of the windows, view, or architecture. It is the church of my dreams because it is an amazing group of people who have come alive in Jesus Christ....”
He is right, isn’t he? The church of our dreams is not about bricks and mortar and glass, or even stunning vistas. It’s about people coming alive together in Christ, finding joy, experiencing growth, increasing in community and faith and purpose, and then expressing all of that in tangible ways with one another and in the world.
The book of Acts takes us back to the beginning -- back to when the church was young...back before the church had any buildings...when all they had was each other and the spirit of the risen Christ. And Acts gives us a glimpse of God’s dream for the church...a dream meant to inspire our dreams of what God would do through us.
And what do we discover? There is so much that could be said! But today, in the time we have, I would like to lift up three very special discoveries for you and me.
The first is this: We discover that the church of God’s dreaming is so shaped by Jesus that it lives its life with boldness and trust.
If you read ahead in the book of Acts, you will soon find that Peter and John are dragged into court for healing a lame man. Acts tells us that “when others saw their boldness, they knew they had been with Jesus.” You see, there was something about them...something about their demeanor...something about their spirit and their vitality...something about their boldness and their love...that told others that they’d been with Jesus. The church of God’s dreaming is a church where we dare to trust in God, then dream, risk, speak, act, serve, and love with boldness!
Reverend John Ed Matheson was, for thirty-five years, the pastor of Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. John Ed tells about being invited to be the speaker at Evangel Temple Assembly of God Church there in Montgomery. They were having different pastors from the city come every Wednesday evening.
John Ed spoke there, and after they had finished, the pastor handed him an envelope. John Ed said, “What is this?” The pastor said, “This is a check. It’s for your expenses.” John Ed said, “I live less than a mile from here...I didn’t really have any expenses.” The pastor said, “Take it. It’s for you.” He stuffed it inside of his Bible and didn’t look at it until the next morning when he got to church. He opened up his Bible and there was the envelope. He opened up the envelope and inside was a check that was made out from Evangel Temple Assembly of God Church. It was properly dated, properly signed...everything was filled out except for the amount on the check!
He called Evangel Temple and talked to the pastor. He said, “Pastor, your accounts are about to be overdrawn!” The pastor said, “What do you mean, John Ed? We’ve got plenty of money here.” John Ed said, “Not for long!” He told him that he had a check from Evangel Temple, that it was given to him the night before, and it was blank where the amount was supposed to have been. The pastor said, “I want to have some fun with this! I can get us on a three-way conversation with the church business manager.” They got on this three-way conversation and the pastor said, “Bill, I want you to know that our church is about to be overdrawn.” There is this long silence on the other end and John Ed begins to giggle on the line. The business manager asked, “Who else is on the phone with us?”
John Ed said, “It’s me: John Ed Matheson. You gave me a check last night and you didn’t fill in the amount. I want to know the balance of your accounts at the church so that I can fill in the proper amount.”
The business manager said, “I’m so sorry! Send the check back and I’ll send another.” John Ed Matheson said, “No way am I going to send this check back to you! You’re not getting it back. I want you to know that if my church ever gets into any kind of financial trouble, I know what to do. You gave me a blank check.”
Germantown Church, God has signed God’s name to a blank check, saying to you and me: “Fill it in.” Bold churches are those places where we dare to dream big things and trust God.
I can give you a check and not fill in the amount and it will be good, if I sign it, but it will be a limited amount that you can draw out of my bank account.” But we don’t worship a God with limits! What are we asking for that is so bold it can only be accomplished if God is in it?
Then a second thing: The church of God’s dreaming is a place where we are all always challenged to be our best selves.
There’s an old Hebrew tale about a rabbi who was living in a Russian city more than a century ago. Disappointed with the lack of direction and spirit in his life, one night he is walking across the city in the chilly evening. He is so preoccupied with this sense of desolation in his life that without knowing it, he wanders into a Russian military compound that was off-limits to all civilians. The silence of the chilly evening is shattered by a bark from a Russian soldier who shouts out, “Who are you? And what are you doing here?”
“Excuse me,” said the rabbi. “Who are you? And what are you doing here?” After a brief moment of thinking to himself and speaking in a way that would be gracious so as not to provoke the soldier, the rabbi said, “Son, how much money do they pay you to be a soldier?” The soldier replied, “What does that have to do with you?” The rabbi said, “My son, I will pay you that same amount if you will just come to me every day and ask me those two questions: ‘Who are you? And what are you doing here?’”
I do not know of another place in our society that seeks to keep those two questions front and center in every life: “Who are you? And what are you doing here?”
The church is that place where week after week we gather in this room and in other rooms across this campus to be reminded of the call to live the life of a follower of Christ...a life of mission and service where we gather together in this room to share in joy our worship of God, to be formed in the image of Christ...to be shaped by the potter and then to go out into the world to bring light into the darkness. We must never forget who we are...whose we are...and what we are meant to do.
Then, the third thing that I want us to hear today is: the church of God’s dreaming can only be explained by the work of God in us.
After all, how do you explain what happened in the book of Acts?
It began with a little group of 120 people gathered in an upper room, with nothing more than a promise and then suddenly it grows to 3,000, with new persons being added each day, and then they begin to spread out across the world and they turn the world upside down.
How else do you explain that, except by the power of God at work with us and in us?
Several years ago, I saw a short film about a father and a son. I can’t show you that film this morning, but I’ll include it in eNews this week. I’ve included a picture of that father and son on the front of your bulletin this morning. It’s a picture of Dick and Rick Hoyt. They are better known as Team Hoyt. That’s a picture of them as they near the end of a race, and that’s the finish line just in front of them.
I want to tell you their story. It’s a love story that began in Winchester, Massachusetts 46 years ago, when at birth, Rick Hoyt was strangled by the umbilical cord, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to speak or control his limbs. The doctors told his parents he would be a vegetable. When he was nine months old, the doctors told Dick and his wife, Judy, “Put him in an institution.”
But the Hoyts didn’t buy it. They continued to see that this little baby’s eyes would follow them around the room. When Rick was eleven years old, they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked, “Is there anything you can do for our boy that would help him to communicate?” “No way,” said the engineers there. “There’s nothing going on in his brain.” “Tell him a joke,” Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed, and they discovered there was a lot going on in his brain.
So, they rigged up a computer that allowed Rick to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, and he was able to communicate his thoughts to other people. His first words were, “Go Bruins!”
Later, when a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident, he typed out on his little computer, “Dad, I would like to run in the race that is raising money for my friend.” “Yeah, right,” thought Dick. How was a self-described “porker” (like himself) who never ran more than a mile, going to push his son for five miles? But he tried. He accomplished it. He said, “After those five miles, I was the one who was handicapped because I couldn’t move for two weeks!”
But that day changed Rick Hoyt’s life. Because after that day, Dick typed on his little computer, “When we were running, Dad, it felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore.” That sentence changed his father’s life. He wanted to give his son that feeling as often as he could.
By 1979, Dick Hoyt got in such hard-belly shape that he and Rick have competed in over 1,000 races, including marathons and triathlons, six of them Ironman competitions. In the Boston Marathon at age 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished 5,083rd out of a field of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours and 40 minutes -- only 35 minutes off the world record...a world record that was set by somebody who wasn’t pushing another adult in a wheelchair!
Dick says he does it for the “awesome feeling” he gets seeing Rick with a huge smile as they run, swim, and ride together. (Sports Illustrated, by Rick Reilly)
Now, I’d like for you to take your bulletin and look at that picture again. Look at that father and son. Look at the face of that big, strong father determined that his son is going to finish the race. Notice the look of joy and exhilaration on the face of his son that says, “Somebody loves me like this.” And, notice how, as they are about to finish that race, their hands are up as if to say, “We did it! We did it together!”
Jesus is saying to you and me: “There is a race for you to run. Of course you can’t do it alone, but you’ve got a big, strong Father who loves you and is wholly committed to coming along side you and picking you up and helping you to run that race.”
Some of you in the room this morning need to hear that message: that there is someone who loves you that much! So let that picture soak down deep inside of you. You have a Father who sends His Spirit to be with you, the Spirit of Jesus, to be with you and to run with you.
But also remember this: it’s bigger than just you and me! It is about all of us trusting God so much that we go out into the world to give that gift away to others. And when you and I do that, we become a part of the church of God’s dreaming!
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Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources:
1. Adam Hamilton, “What if Church Was a Verb?”
2. Jack Harnish, “The Church of Your Dreams”
3. John Ed Matheson, “How to Build an Awe-Full Church”
4. Lloyd Ogilvie, Drumbeat of Love
5. John Ortberg, “The Grander Purpose”
6. Team Hoyt website: http://teamhoyt.com/
]]>And the Heart Will Followtag:germantownumc.org,2009:index.php/6.6782009-10-25T13:30:01Z2009-10-28T13:34:48ZDaniel Turnerdturner@intermixdesign.com
Matthew 6:19-21 NRSV “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on us, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake our spirits; clear our sight. Surround us now with all your glory; speak through me that sacred story. Take my lips and make them bold. Take hearts and minds and make them whole. Stir in us that sacred flame; then send us forth to spread your name. Amen.
I’m not a huge fan of country music, but sometimes when I travel by car, especially through the south, it’s all there is to listen to! Occasionally some song speaks to me. Like George Strait’s wonderful “I Saw God Today,” which celebrates the birth of a baby. Or Brooks and Dunn’s haunting “God Must Be Busy,” which visits the question of God’s presence in a violent world.
But Bonnie Raitt must sing one of the saddest songs I have ever heard called, “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” It is a poignant expression of unrequited love. In the mournful chorus she sings: “I can’t make you love me, if you don’t. You can’t make your heart feel something it won’t.” Isn’t that a great line? One reason the song is so poignant and popular is that it rings true to so many. After all, have you ever tried to love someone or something more than you do? And if you don’t, what can you do? Can you make yourself love something or someone when you don’t? Is it possible to make your heart feel something it won’t?
Well, with these questions in mind, today I want us to look at a single verse from the Sermon on the Mount, a sentence so familiar that when I start to say the sentence, most of you will be able to complete it. Jesus said: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
But, you know, if we’re not careful, we just might reverse what Jesus says, by a kind of scriptural dyslexia, and think of it this way: “Where your heart is, there will your treasure be also.” And that makes sense to us because, after all, much of the time our dollars go where our hearts lead. We give to what matters to us, to what touches our heart. But that’s not what Jesus said.
Oh, yes, we hear that on National Public Radio. I heard it just yesterday morning as I was going for breakfast. The host was reminding us that if we enjoy Click and Clack, the tappet brothers, we should support the program with a contribution. He said, “If you care, write a check; make a pledge.” Where your heart is, there will your treasure be also! That’s true, but that’s not what Jesus said.
When a class representative calls from your school to request a gift for the alumni fund, they’ll likely say something like this: “We know that you care about your alma mater and I want to tell you about the wonderful things happening at good ole Ivy U that are worthy of your support.” And if your heart is touched, if the school is dear to you, you’ll make a contribution. Why? Because where your heart is, there will your treasure be also. But again, that not what Jesus said.
And I know that I’ve said things to you in the past kind of like that. I have a favorite quote from G.K. Chesterton: “Show me a person’s checkbook and I will show you what he really believes.” The truth is, you can tell a lot about somebody by how they spend their money. But again, that’s not what Jesus is saying.
Jesus actually says something much more profound. He says, “Where you put your treasure, that’s where your heart will end up.” He seems to be saying that how we spend our money determines the sort of people we become.
He’s suggesting that we ask ourselves, “What sort of person do I want to become? And if I were that kind of person, what would I do? How would I spend my money and my time?” And then, do what you’d do if you were that sort of person. Put your treasure where you want your heart to be and your heart will follow.
If you think about it, you know it’s true. If you want to care more about the kind of car you drive, buy a new, expensive one. You’ll find yourself pampering that new car. If you want to care more about property values, remodel your house...or better yet, buy a new one. Your heart will be in that house! And how many of you have ever invested in the stock market? I never cared much about the stock market until I made my first investment. But after I invested, it really began to matter to me…a lot!
Your heart follows your money. So, put your money where you want your heart to be. Think of it like this: Don’t give based upon the faith that you have, but on the faith you yearn to have. Don’t give to God just because you believe, but in order to believe more fully. Give faithfully so that you will grow in your faith.
Put your money in God's work, put it in Kingdom activity, put it into building up the church, serving the poor, helping people come to know and love God, and your heart will get more attached to that kind of activity.
So it’s not: “Give from the heart!” Rather, it is give where you want your heart to be, and then let your heart catch up. Don’t just give to those things you care about. Give to things you want to care about. Don’t just decide the amount of your giving based on how much you care, but rather by how much you want to care.
Yes, it’s true that Bonnie Raitt says: “You can’t make your heart feel something it won’t.” But Jesus says just the opposite. He says, “Where your treasure is, your heart will follow.”
And the truth is: We do have a lot of control over what happens to our hearts. Oh, it’s difficult at times, but our hearts can be shaped and formed and molded; we can do certain things that make our hearts feel something more.
That’s in part why we take vows of prayer, presence, gifts, service and witness. We take those vows because we know deep down that it’s through living those vows that we are shaped and formed. Serving, worshipping, learning…they all help us grow in faith. But don’t forget to include the practice of generous giving.
How does giving help us grow in faith? I can think of several ways.
First, giving helps us see and experience that there is enough, more than enough, for us.
From the first words of scripture, the biblical story is a celebration of abundance. The first chapter of Genesis is a song of praise for God’s generosity. It tells of creation and it keeps saying, “It is good; it is good; it is very good.” And many of the Psalms catalogue this abundance in loving detail. And the New Testament gospels are filled with stories of abundance. At a wedding feast, Jesus turns water into wine, more wine than could be consumed at a dozen weddings. Then, he multiplies loaves and fishes so that there is more than enough for everyone. And when his disciples are having a hard time catching fish, he tells them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat and they will have a bigger catch than they can haul into their boat. These are stories of God’s abundance...meant to tell us that if we would but trust God, there is always enough and more.
That’s the biblical story. But we are tempted to live by another story entirely, a story of scarcity and fear, where there’s never ever enough.
A Roper Survey asked how satisfied Americans were with thirteen different aspects of their lives, including friends, home, income and school. The respondents expressed their least satisfaction with the amount of money they had to live on. When asked what hampers the search for good life, the most common answer was, “Lack of money.” And what would improve life quality? “More money!”
But note this: When folks were asked what annual income would be needed to fulfill their dreams, the average American in 1987 answered, $50,000. In 1996, the response was $90,000. I haven’t seen more recent statistics, but can any of us doubt that in late 2009, that figure is much, much higher? Where would you put it? $100,000, $150,000, $250,000?
This scarcity mentality says that enough is always more than we have.
But one of the best ways to change the scarcity mentality is by regular, systematic, generous giving, because giving helps us grow in faith by entrusting ourselves to a generous God who provides abundantly, enough and more than enough.
This leads to a second thing about giving. When we become disciplined in our giving, we become less susceptible to a particular temptation; we were created to give, but we’re tempted to keep.
David Slagle, a pastor in Georgia, invites us to imagine that God has given us ten apples, which represent our wealth or income. God tells us that nine of these apples are ours to enjoy. We are to use the nine to care for ourselves and our families, some to save for retirement, and some to give away to others. But the tenth apple is holy to God. We’re to give this apple to God first, before we consume the other nine apples, as a way for us to express praise, love, obedience, faithfulness, worship and devotion to God and to supply resources to the Church for God’s purposes to be accomplished in the world.
But our lifestyles are such that, for many of us, nine apples are not enough. We think, “How can I pay my bills and have all I want with just nine apples?” So, we decide that the Lord won’t mind if we take just a little bite of his apple. Then, there’s that trip we want to take and it’s really important and special. So, we take a bite out of God’s apple. We say: “The Lord will understand.”
Then Christmas comes, and we don’t have enough money for all of the presents that we want to buy, and besides, we say, “These gifts aren’t for us,” so we take another bite out of God’s apple.
And then retirement is coming…we can’t save from the nine because we can’t stop spending, so we take some from God’s apple. An emergency catches us by surprise because we haven’t saved, so we take another bite from God’s apple.
Then, we need a new car, we want a big screen TV before basketball season, and each expense takes a bite out of God’s apple. Ohhh, this is so good! Just a little more! Soon, all that’s left is the core.
And so, we give the core to God and say, “Lord, here’s your part. I give that to you.” And God receives not our best, not our first fruits, but our leftovers.
But an amazing thing happens when we give the first apple to God. We are less tempted to eat it, because it’s not there! And with God’s help, we find a way to make the other nine apples work. And when that happens, we grow in faith.
There’s a third response to how giving helps us grow in faith. Generosity changes us. Our hearts are enlarged by the act of giving. In the beginning, our generosity is often hesitant. We’re reluctant. But something happens to us in the midst of our giving and we find ourselves trusting God more and we become more and more generous.
What’s more, our generosity blesses others and they’re changed.
Jeff Hanson is a 16-year-old student at a Kansas school for the blind. He’s visually impaired as a result of an optic nerve tumor called neurofibromatosis. But thanks to chemotherapy, he is doing well. With his glasses, he can now see the big “E” on the eye chart.
Jeff is a gifted young man. He paints bold, colorful canvasses and sells his creations and donates money to local, national and International charities. Jeff’s first gift was $1,500 to the Children’s Tumor Foundation. Since then, to various charities, Jeff has given more than $125,000.
In the fall of 2005, when he was still receiving chemotherapy, Jeff was granted a wish by the Make-a-Wish Foundation. His wish was to meet Elton John. When Elton John announced that he was coming to town for a concert, Make-a-Wish contacted Jeff to say that he would meet Elton John backstage before the concert.
The day arrived and Elton John met Jeff backstage. Elton was gracious and generous with his time. Jeff told Elton his story and gave the star a package of his note cards that had some of his paintings as the cover art. Then, before saying good-bye, Jeff reached into his pocket and pulled out a check for $1000 for the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
Jeff Owen Hanson, 12 years old at the time, gave $1000 check to Elton John! My guess is that Elton John was speechless. Elton had wanted to bless Jeff, but he was being blessed by this kid. A week later, the Children’s Tumor Foundation called Jeff to tell him they’d just received a $5,000 check from Elton John in honor of Jeff.
But there’s more to the story. Before Elton and Jeff’s visit was over, Elton asked Jeff if he had ever been to Dubai. When Jeff said no, Elton invited Jeff and his parents to fly to Dubai for an all-expenses-paid stay while he was in concert there. He explained that he wanted to hear more about Jeff’s work because you see, Jeff Hanson -- a kid, just a kid, a teenager faced with huge challenges -- has given away more than $125,000.
Jeff Hanson understands what life is about. He understands the power of generosity. Sure, he could feel sorry for himself, but he chooses instead to give, to help others. And in the process, he and others have been changed.
And I think what Jesus would want us to remember is this: Where your treasure is, your heart will follow!
Let us pray. Lord, thank you! You know so much about us. Your Book reads like a psychology book of the human nature. Speak to us. Challenge us. Remind us who we are and how we are, and how we can become yours fully. Amen.
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Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources:
]]>To All the Generations to Cometag:germantownumc.org,2009:index.php/6.6772009-10-18T16:05:01Z2009-10-21T16:12:35ZDaniel Turnerdturner@intermixdesign.com
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 NIV Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
May God bless the reading of his Holy Word to our understanding.
Let us pray. O God, our Guide and our Guardian, you have led us apart from the busy world into the quiet of your house. Grant us grace to worship you in Spirit and in truth, for the up-building of every good purpose and Holy desire. Enable us to hear and understand your Holy Word. Grant that the words of my mouth may be your Word, and the meditations of all of our hearts may be acceptable in your sight. May we be changed by the hearing of your Word so that we would worship you not just with our lips at this hour, but in word and deed all of our lives. For Christ’s sake, Amen.
This morning, take just a moment and think back to that first time that you knew that you were part of the family, that you were Christian, that you belonged, that you were a part of what goes on at church, that you believed and loved Jesus.
For me, I’m not sure which one of the memories that comes back happened first. Was it when I was dressed as a ladybug in the Fellowship Hall waiting to go on to the sanctuary chancel stage with the children’s choir to sing, “I am a Promise; I am a Possibility”? That might have happened before or after making Vacation Bible School animals that are magnets, to talk about God’s creation and God’s care for the world and Noah’s ark. And I still have my duck that is a magnet on my mother’s refrigerator! It has broken a couple of times, but it’s been glued together. Maybe that Vacation Bible School came after the one where we tie-dyed t-shirts and left a white cross in the center. And I can’t remember if that was before or after I was a little angel on our church’s Christmas float in the town parade. But I knew I belonged. And whichever one of those was the first moment, that would be the first moment for me.
Or for you, whether it happened as a young child when you were coming to the steps for children’s time or as you hunted Easter eggs on the church grounds, or as a youth on a retreat or at church camp, or as a young adult in a shared moment with a family member or trusted family friend, or maybe you were out in nature, or in the midst of serving in the inner city, or whether you knew it as you gave or as you received, no matter your age at the time...I want to suggest something that is the same in all our stories of how we came to know that we are a part of God’s family. You were prepared for that moment...groundwork was laid, relationships were built, examples were set, love was expressed, and your knowing that you were a part of this amazing work that God is doing on earth was IN RESPONSE.
This morning, we conclude our three-part series inspired by the words of the Psalmist in the 71st Psalm, “Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.”
How do we declare God’s power to the next generation, God’s might to all who are to come, so that someday they will be able to say, “Since my youth, O God, you have taught me”? We have room for improvement in this responsibility to pass on the faith to the next generation, and the primary influence on a child is that child’s family.
But, even though I’m going to talk in terms of family this morning, that doesn’t let us (the church family) off the hook. The church, and each one of us, has a responsibility. Psalm 145:4-5 says this, “One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works.”
And each one of us can, and needs to do better than we have. The clear trend of steady decline in attendance and active participation in Christian organizations in the United States since the 1950’s is undeniable. Whatever we have been doing has not elicited the response, “Yes, I am a follower of Christ” in a large segment of the generations that have come in the last 50-60 years. And, I know without a doubt that all was not perfect prior to that time. So, to say that we have room for improvement is both to confess our own limited natures and to challenge us to dig into the problem, to try to understand it, and to do better.
Christian Smith is a Professor of Sociology at Notre Dame and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society, and his research focuses primarily on religion in modernity, adolescents, American evangelicalism, and culture. In his research, he has found that the faith held and described by most adolescents came down to something identified as “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”
As described by Smith and his team, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism consists of beliefs like these: 1. “A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.” 2. “God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.” 3. “The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.” 4. “God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.” 5. “Good people go to heaven when they die.”
That, in sum, is the creed to which much adolescent faith can be reduced. After conducting more than 3,000 interviews with American adolescents, the researchers reported that, when it came to the most crucial questions of faith and beliefs, many adolescents responded with a shrug and “whatever.”
The researchers, who conducted thousands of hours of interviews with a carefully identified spectrum of teenagers, discovered that for many of these teens, the interview itself was the first time they had ever discussed a theological question with an adult. What does this say about our churches? What does this say about this generation of parents?
Barna Research Group found in a survey of over 1,000 parents, that two out of three parents of children under 12 years old attend church at least once a month. However, most parents have no plan for the spiritual development of their children and have little or no training in how to nurture a child’s faith.
The same study found that 85% of the parents believed that they have the primary responsibility for teaching their children about religious beliefs and spiritual matters. It is important that children are a part of a church, that they have opportunities to learn and fellowship with peers, to worship and serve with a community of faith. Children and students need strong mentors and counselors, and we promise to be just that for them every time we baptize a child. But the most important part of a child’s faith development will not happen at church.
I will say it again, the most important part of a child’s faith development will not happen at church. The moment that they realize that they are a part of God’s work, that they love Jesus, that they believe...that moment may happen at church. But, the lion’s share of the molding, influencing, loving, and teaching will not happen here. Life-shaping, life-giving understanding of who you are and whose you are is not, and can not, be passed on at church...even if a child participated in every event or offering that we had, it would only amount to a few hours of his or her week. Now, do we try our best to pass on the promise in those hours? ABSOLUTELY.
Involvement in the community of faith and corporate worship are important in a family’s plan for the faith development of their children. But Christian education and spiritual development are not out-source-able. As parents, we often outsource a lot of stuff to experts, to professionals because we want the best for our kids. And that’s not a bad thing, but there’s a tendency to think of the spiritual life in the same way. There’s a temptation to think I’ll drop the kids off at the church to get the spiritual job done. We’ll get a coach to teach them soccer and a music teacher to teach them how to play the piano and a teacher at the school to teach them math, and then somebody at the church to take care of their spiritual life. The problem is, that’s not God’s primary plan for the spiritual formation. (Ortberg)
I’m going to read again our Scripture passage from Deuteronomy, this time from The Message: “Pay attention, Israel! GOD, our God! GOD the one and only! Love GOD, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve got! Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside of your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.”
It starts with us. First, we have to be faithful. You can’t pass on what you don’t have. We know, anecdotally, that we become our parents, we hear their intonation, their parenting phrases, their attitudes in our words, in our reactions. Our parents are our models for life. We watch them and learn from them how to respond to life’s challenges, what is important, who is valued; and how we interact with the world is in large measure our response and learning from watching our parents interacting with the world. And, our children are modeling after us.
Faith is caught, not taught. Our children are peering over our shoulders, overhearing our conversations, watching our actions. Do our actions match the principles that we are trying to impart to them? We have to be authentic -- in this postmodern culture, especially, authenticity is crucial to passing the faith on to the next generation.
Our children see the hypocrisy in our facades. We have a tendency in the nice suburban church and community to portray the perfect Christian family, creating a little plastic family to the world complete with apple pies cooling on the kitchen window sill and children playing, in their best Sunday clothes without a speck of dirt, and Mom humming as she hangs the laundry. And not meaning to, we can send the wrong message to the next generation about what it means to be Christian. We can send them the message that to be Christian means to be good and to be held in high regard, never admitting your problems, and glossing things over in public that are tearing you apart in private.
And as our children grow, they begin to believe that we are out of touch with reality, living or trying to live in a dream world, because of our faith, and so they reject the faith that we are trying to pass on to them. So, we have to be real, to be authentic, to admit our shortcomings, to repent of our sin, and to walk the talk, first.
And we have to allow God to transform us so that we are becoming more and more Christ-like in our daily lives. The promise is passed on as we live the promise.
Jeanne and George Damoff have a daughter and son who are now a missionary and a seminarian. They say, “We could have talked about the importance of faith forever, but if they didn’t see us praying, giving generously, taking people into our home, reaching out to the needy in our community, our words would have been empty.”
Our plan for the spiritual development of children can’t be just to get the next generation to be good people, who go to church. We must pass on to them the Good News of Christ of an authentic, transformed life in a community of believers who are seeking to do God’s will on earth.
And so we have to share the story. We have to talk about God’s command to love wherever you are, whether you’re sitting at home or walking in the street. We have to talk about it from the time we get up in the morning to when we fall into bed at night. We have to talk about our faith.
Reverend Deborah Smith shared in the first of these three sermons about her great-grandmother, Big Mama. Big Mama made sure the faith was getting passed down to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren by following up with them every Sunday after church. Remember, at first she asked them about the stories that they had learned...and they learned to memorize the answers. And she caught on to them. So, she began to ask them, “Who is Jesus?”
We need to engage our children and grandchildren, our nieces and nephews, and the children of friends in discussions about “Who is Jesus?” And we need to prepare ourselves for some of the common questions of childhood: “How do I know God is there if I can’t see him? Where is heaven? Why do we put people in the ground when they die if heaven isn’t in the ground?” And those of adolescence: “What does it mean to say, ‘I believe’? What is the Trinity, and how does that work? What about the people who aren’t Christian?”
And when those questions come, we need to take advantage of the invitation to share our faith. And if a child stumps you with his question, you can always ask, “What do you think?” and then say, “I’m not sure what the answer is, but I will talk with our pastor or some friends at church and then I want us to talk about this again – that’s a great question!” And then follow up!
The questions will come, if we make the conversation about God open. So much of our prayer and relationship with God is internal, a sense of gratitude or wonder, an acknowledgement of God’s care...and we don’t often stop to say a prayer out loud when we’re by ourselves...but take those thought prayers, and share them with the next generation.
When you’re planting a seed together, share a parable about seeds or talk about God’s creation or God’s care for us and His ways of providing for us. When you hear a siren, pray for those who are in need of help that God would be with them and give them strength and courage and comfort, and pray for those who will be caregivers to that person...that God will keep them safe and give them courage and strength. When you are with a child and a bird sings, comment on how happy the bird sounds, and ask the child what makes her happy, and together, say a prayer of thanksgiving to God. When you help someone in need or cook a meal for someone in crisis, talk with your children about why you are helping that person.
Pray together...throughout your daily lives, a sentence here, a word there. Certainly, pray at mealtimes and bedtime. Bring your child to church and Sunday School and church activities. Find ways for your child to serve along with you. Read the Bible with your child. There are wonderful age-appropriate Bibles for children as young as toddlers...and talk about what you read, what does it mean, how does it change how we live our lives, who is this God that we serve?
The last verses of the passage from Deuteronomy say, “Tie the command to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul and strength as a symbol on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your city gates.”
What will help you remember to bring conversations about faith into your daily living? An amulet with the Shema, a cross, an advent wreath, a devotional Bible beside your child’s bed, a card with a prayer in the center of the table, a bag of nonperishable food with a bottle of water in the car to share with the homeless person on the street....
God knew that we would get busy and forget and that we would take for granted that our children would have faith because we have faith. And so, we are instructed to be intentional, to have a plan to pass the promise on to the next generation, and to place reminders so that we would weave that teaching into the fabric of our everyday lives.
Let us pray. Lord, we pray that we might pass your hope and promise on to the next generation. Help us to live lives of expectation and awareness of your glory. Make us faithful to love you with our whole heart and mind and strength that we might declare your power to the next generation, for we pray in Christ. Amen.
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Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources:
1. “Parents Accept Responsibility for their Child’s Spiritual Development but Struggle with Effectiveness,” May 6, 2003, The Barna Group
2. Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture by Mary E. DeMuth
3. “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism – The New American Religion” by R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
4. “Starting Strong” by John Ortberg
5. The Parent You Want to Be: Who You are Matters More than What You Do by Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott
6. “Teaching the Tradition” by Cassandra D. Carkuff Williams
]]>A Psalm for Turning 65tag:germantownumc.org,2009:index.php/6.6762009-10-11T17:13:00Z2009-10-14T17:23:20ZDaniel Turnerdturner@intermixdesign.com
Psalm 71:17-18 NIV Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.
Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on us, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake our spirits; clear our sight. Surround us now with all your glory; speak through me that sacred story. Take my lips and make them bold. Take hearts and minds and make them whole. Stir in us that sacred flame; then send us forth to spread your name. Amen.
The three words that jump out at me are these: old and gray. Old and gray! It’s in our scripture today, and it’s on my mind, because in a few days I have a milestone birthday! I turn 65: Social Security, Medicare Parts A and B, and finally, senior citizen discounts!
To put my 65 years in perspective, I was born when World War II was still going on. There were no TV’s, no wireless phones, and no such thing as open heart surgery. It was before bell bottom jeans and before women were ordained as ministers. It was before jet travel and computers and text messaging.
When I was born, Franklin D. Roosevelt was president. I was a baby when the United States dropped the atomic bomb. It was before cars had seatbelts...the only seatbelt I knew was my mama’s arm! Eisenhower was president when I was in high school. In those days, when you made a phone call, you dialed...you didn’t punch buttons. I remember when the hula hoop hit the market, and when Elvis and the Beatles were the hot new thing.
I was in college when John F. Kennedy was shot, and in seminary when Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated and when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon.
In a few days, I get to be officially OLD!
And I am struck by some of the contrasts between the 60’s and now. Then, in the 60’s, it was long hair; and now, it’s longing for hair. Then, it was Rolling Stones; and now it’s kidney stones and gallstones. Then, it was acid rock; and now it’s acid reflux. Then, it was getting out to a new, hip, joint; and now it’s getting a new hip joint.
A guy about my age was on an airport tram and he tells about standing there because it was real crowded. There is this beautiful young woman who is seated in one of the seats there, and he makes eye contact with her, and she makes eye contact with him. He is thinking to himself, “Oh yes, I’ve still got it!” He is thrilled! And then, wonder of wonders, she speaks to him and says, “Sir, would you like to sit down?” It crushed him!
We joke about aging, but when I look in the scriptures, the Bible is incredibly respectful and affirming of old age. In the Bible, old age is honored. In Leviticus, it says, “Rise in the presence of the aged and show respect for the elderly.” (Leviticus 19:32)
We find the word “elder” 175 times in scripture. And the scripture speaks of how years can bring a maturity that will enable younger folks to come alongside, mentor, and guide those who are younger. And the older that people were, the more respected they were. In fact, one rabbi in a commentary on the scriptures said, “How welcome is old age.”
But you don’t hear that kind of thing very often in our conversations, do you? You don’t hear that on TV or in the movies; and yet in the scriptures and in the days ahead, we will increasingly hear words like that because the fastest growing segment in our population are those over 65 years of age. People are living longer and healthier lives. Life expectancy for a baby born today is more than 90 years, and a number of people in this church -- maybe some of you in this room -- will live to be more than 100 years of age.
Well, I was thinking about all of this...and about turning 65...and it got me to consider: What does it mean to age well and to finish strong? Just what is it that we need in order to do that? I’m talking about from a Biblical perspective. Sure, we can go across the street to OLEC and they can tell us about diet, health and fitness, and we can go to other places and learn about independence and our security, but from a Biblical perspective, what is it that we need to age well and to finish strong?
This morning, I would like to lift up three powerful ingredients.
First, we need a whole-hearted faith. You and I need the conviction that we can trust God for our tomorrow, not because tomorrow is going to be the way we want it to be, or is necessarily going to be easy, but because we know that God is already there and God is waiting for us.
To help us think about that this morning, two of my favorite preachers, John Ortberg and Mark Adams, suggest that we look at a guy from the Bible named Caleb. I think Caleb can teach us how to stay young at whatever stage of life we are in. It isn’t that Caleb had found some fountain of youth or anything like that; rather, Caleb was a man whose life was fueled by his absolute confidence in God and he built his life on the promises of God!
You may remember the story. Caleb was one of the twelve spies sent out to explore the Promised Land when Israel had left Egypt. When the scouts returned, ten of them said, “Let’s just go back to Egypt and be slaves in Egypt because there are giants in the land before us.” But Caleb and Joshua trust God and say, “With God’s help, we can do this thing. We can occupy this land.” But the nay-sayers won out and because of Israel’s fear and unfaithfulness, they are forced to wander for another forty years in the wilderness.
Now, Caleb was forty years old when he went out to scout the land. By the time they crossed the Jordan River, Caleb is eighty years old. Another five years pass, and listen to what Caleb says as an 85-year old man. He says, “I was forty years old when Moses sent me...to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions. But my brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.” (Joshua 14:7-8)
Caleb is a man with a positive, whole-hearted faith.
There’s a psychologist by the name of Martin Seligman who studied several hundred people in religious communities and divided them up into groups, from the least faith-filled and the most pessimistic to the most faith-filled and the most optimistic. He found that 90% of the most optimistic, faith-filled people were still alive at the age of 85. Only 34% of the most negative, pessimistic people made it to that age.
Another study, the largest of its kind, tracked over 2,000 adults over the age of 65 in the United States. They found that the optimistic, faith-filled people had better health habits, lower blood pressure, and stronger immune systems and that those with a positive attitude are likely to live a decade longer than people with a negative attitude.
We need to be building a positive, whole-hearted faith…one that knows that God is good, that life is a gift, that hope is real, and that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
A second thing that you need if you going to age well and finish strong is: You need challenges; you need problems to solve.
Again, look at Caleb. At the age of 85, Caleb said: So here I am today, 85 years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out. I’m just as (able) to go out to battle now as I was then. Give me the hill country…. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified. But, the Lord being my helper, I will drive them out…. (Joshua 14:10-12)
Now, the Anakites were Israel’s most formidable opponents. They were the ones his friends had talked about 45 years earlier when they said: We saw the descendants of Anak there. We seem like grasshoppers next to them. (Numbers 13:33)
But here’s Caleb, at age 85 -- at the age when others would have entered a retirement home -- peering into the future with eyes that sparkled with enthusiasm, optimism, hope and faith. He didn't say, “Leave me alone. I'm tired.” or “I've done my part, now it's their turn!” Instead, this old man said, “Bring on those ugly giants! Give me the hardest assignment.”
Dr. Marian Diamond is a professor of neuro-anatomy and one of the world’s leading researchers on aging. She has found that problems and challenges are required to keep your brain healthy and developing. In her research, some rats were just given food, but another group of rats had obstacles placed in front of their food dish. These rats had to find a way over, around, and through obstacles. She found that the rats that had to face difficulties...that had to figure out how to get around obstacles and solve problems...developed a thicker cortex in their brains; their brains continued to develop. As a result, they were able to navigate new mazes more quickly. They were able to solve new problems more proficiently. But the fewer problems that a rat had, the faster its brain went downhill.
Dr Diamond writes: “In terms of successful aging, it’s not enough to continue the same activities in the same way year after year with the same expenditure of mental and physical energy. Your brain requires new challenges to remain healthy and functioning.”
God has wired us so that our bodies, our brains and our spirits require not comfort and ease, but challenge. If we’re going to keep growing, we need to take on some new challenges.
And then third, if we’re going to age well and finish strong, we need to be a part of a loving community. We’ve got to be deeply connected and have loving relationships.
Look again at Caleb. When Moses died, Joshua got to be the new leader of the people of Israel. And Caleb could have withdrawn, sulked and isolated himself because he wasn’t chosen to be the new Moses. And besides, all of his friends, all of his peers, were gone. His generation, except Joshua, had all died out. So Caleb, this older guy, developed a whole new circle of friends. He became a mentor, guide, cheerleader for a whole new generation of Israelites. He immersed himself in those who were younger and needed his wisdom. He did it to such an extent that the younger ones said: When we go to the hill country to take on the Anakites, we want Caleb to lead us.
Community is life-giving. Isolation is terminal.
Dr. Diamond, in her research on aging, identified five factors responsible for keeping your brain healthy and active during your lifespan. The first factor is diet. The second factor is exercise. The third factor is facing new challenges. The fourth is a healthy immune system. And the fifth factor is love and nurture.
This last one, love and nurture, happen within community.
Scripture tells us this, but so does science. Again, that’s what Dr. Marian Diamond discovered. She wanted to see the effects of isolation on aging. She found that if twelve rats were in a cage together and this little community of rats were given challenges, their brains developed more and they lived longer than rats in isolation.
But then she discovered something else very significant. When they gave their rats tender loving care, they lived even longer. She and her team began to give the rats some love. I’m not sure how you love a lab rat, but they did. They began to pick up the rats, cuddle them and pet them and stroke them and speak kindly to them, and when they gave tender loving care, the rats began to live much longer and their brains continued developing. Her conclusion was that isolation is deadly and that community and love give life.
So, what do we need to age well and finish strong? We need a whole-hearted faith; we need challenges throughout our lives; and we need to be part of a loving community.
Let me tell you about one of my heroes, Evelyn Brand. Her son, Dr. Paul Brand, a physician and author, tells about his mama, Evelyn, in a book, In His Image. When she was a young woman, Evelyn felt called to be a missionary in India. She was single and you can imagine the faith it took back in 1909. Well, she met a guy named Jessie, got married and began a ministry to people in rural India -- a ministry of education, of medical supplies, and of building roads. Early in their ministry they went seven years without a single convert to Christianity.
Then there was a priest of another religion who grew deathly ill. Nobody would go near him because it was dangerous. But Evelyn and Jessie cared for him as he was dying. Before he died, he said: This God, Jesus, must be the true God because only two of you will care for me in my dying. And it was his dying wish that Evelyn and Jessie care for his family. That was a spiritual breakthrough. People began to turn to Christ. They had many years of great ministry. Jessie died when Evelyn was 50 years old. Everybody expected her to return home. But she stayed. She stayed another 20 years.
Folks gave her the name, “Granny Brand.” When Granny Brand was 70 she got word from her Mission Office that they weren’t going to give her another five-year term. She was too old, they said. But Granny Brand was stubborn and feisty and made the decision to stay anyway and continue work.
With the help of some of the locals, she built a little shack and she got a donkey. She’d ride from village to village to tell people about Jesus. She did this for the next five years. Then, at age 75, she fell and broke her hip.
Her son, Paul Brand, writes: “I visited my mother in her hut several weeks after this happened. I watched as she took two bamboo crutches she’d made and moved from one place to another with her feet just dragging behind…. At age 75, with a broken hip, and unable to stand on her own, I thought I made a pretty intelligent suggestion. I said she should retire. She turned and looked at me and said, 'What value is that? If we try to preserve this body just a few more years and it is not being used for God, what value is that?'"
So Granny Brand just kept on…like an aged energizer bunny. She kept on riding her donkey to villages until she was 93 years old. At 93, she couldn’t ride a donkey anymore and so for another two years, the men in the villages -- because they loved Granny Brand so much -- put her on a stretcher and carried her from one village to another to teach, encourage and share the Good News.
One of the lessons I’ve learned from Granny Brand is this: You and I may someday retire from our careers, but we never cease our main job as employees of Christ, 24—7—365. We never retire from His service.
Preacher and sociologist Tony Campolo tells about a study of people over the age of 90 who were asked to reflect upon their lives. “If you had it to do over again,” they were asked, “what would you do differently?”
There was a multiplicity of answers, but three responses dominated. They said: If I had it to do over, I would reflect more. They said they would focus on things that were important…zero in on things that have ultimate significance—more on Jesus and more on the meaning of life.
Second, they said: If had it to do over, I would risk more. I wouldn’t play it so safe. I wouldn’t be so controlled by fear.
Third, they said: If had it to do over, I would do more things that would live on after I’m gone. They would immerse themselves in something bigger and more enduring than their own existence.
These very old people said, “If I had it to do over again, I’d reflect more, I would risk more, and I would do more things that would live on after I’m gone.” The only do-over we get is today, now, this moment.
Each day is a day of new beginning:
• to live a whole-hearted faith,
• to take risks and tackle new challenges,
• to do those things that leave a legacy, that live on after we’re gone,
• and to immerse ourselves in God’s holy community of where we give and receive the life-giving gift of love!
Let us pray. O God, we give you thanks today that even when we are old and gray, you don’t give up on us, that you still have tasks for us to do, a life for us to live, a faith for us to share, a legacy for us to leave. Remind us again and again and again of your blessing, your grace, and your presence. For we pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.
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Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources: