Monthly Archives: March 2012

25

Mar. ’12

Wind in Our Sails: Our Witness

We’ve reached the last mast on our Lenten ship, the final part of our membership vows that allow us to catch the Holy Spirit and propel our church into the future. Today, we’re going to talk about our pledge to be a witness for Jesus Christ in the world.

This requirement for Christians is straightforward; the Bible records Jesus making clear his expectations on this matter in several places. Today I’m working from Acts 1:6-8, a record of the resurrected Jesus’ words just before he ascends into heaven.

Jesus was speaking to his followers standing before him, of course, but he also was speaking to those of us who follow him centuries later. Those in his presence would tell his story in Jerusalem, all Judea, Samaria and even more distant points. But for the word of Christ to spread to “the ends of the earth,” every generation of Christians must be involved.

While the requirement is straightforward, many Christians behave as if the act of witnessing is too complicated or involves words and phrases that are somehow embarrassing to utter. I have just one goal today. I want to give you a simple strategy for explaining Jesus to someone who has not accepted Jesus as Savior.

As I’ve mentioned in earlier sermons and teachings, it helps if you have a relationship with the person already. Step 1: Be friendly. For a Christian filled with God’s love, this should not be too difficult.

If your new friend doesn’t know Christ, opportunities to be a witness will abound. Trust me. I’m continually amazed at how those who don’t yet know Christ will steer the conversation toward the nature of my faith without my prompting. And yes, this used to happen before I was a pastor.

To give that conversation some structure, learn this simple sentence: “Jesus Christ is Lord.” One of my seminary professors used to say that this four-word sentence is the core of Christianity. It was perhaps the earliest creed of the church.

Let’s break the sentence down.

Jesus is a historical character, one of the best attested historical characters of his era, with four accounts of his ministry in the gospels and numerous mentions of his life and work in letters from his followers. There also is evidence of his existence outside the Bible.

As he was very real in human terms, I like to imagine what he looked like. We don’t have a lot to help us describe Jesus’ appearance; writers in the New Testament era simply didn’t provide information about a person’s physical characteristics like we see in modern writing.

He was Jewish; it’s not hard to think of him with black curly hair and a beard. Tall or short, Jesus also likely had a powerful physique. We translate his occupation as “carpenter,” but the Greek word teknon really has a more generalized meaning like “construction worker.” Jesus worked hard in a pre-power tool era, and by the time he was in his thirties he surely had the muscles to go along with the work. I also have trouble imagining a frail Jesus clearing the temple with a whip of cords.

I point this out to emphasize his humanity, and to counter an image of Jesus that troubles some men and makes church unattractive to them. Artwork, movies and the way we speak of Jesus or read his words sometimes make Jesus look frail or effeminate, a wispy, doe-eyed figure exuding a weak, false image of spirituality. When that happens, we lose Jesus as a strong male role model.

And yet, this man’s man preached love and forgiveness. Like God, in strength and power there is peace.

We take the man to a new level when we call him Christ, another word for Messiah. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Jews’ hopes, and of our hopes.

In God’s covenant with Abraham, the man who would father the Jewish people, there were three basic promises: that the Israelites would be a great nation, with land; that his descendants would be numerous; and that blessings would abound, including a blessing for all the families of the earth.

When we call Jesus “Christ,” we place him in that stream of history recorded in the Old Testament. He is that blessing for all the families of the earth.

The tiny word “is” holds a place of great importance in this sentence because of its present tense. Jesus is not a history lesson. He is for today, ruling in heaven as part of the Trinity. He also continues to work among us by sending us the Holy Spirit, the same aspect of God empowering Jesus’ ministry.

When we speak of Jesus in the present tense, we affirm that his sacrifice on the cross was effective and that the resurrection happened. Jesus died, but now he lives.

The last word, “Lord,” declares that Jesus is over and above all things. As Christians, we test all of our other interests and loyalties by whether they supersede our allegiance to Christ as Savior.

If they do, they have to go. Calling Jesus “Lord” is what got the early Christians in trouble. They were using a title that was supposed to be reserved for the Roman emperor.

That’s the core understanding of Christianity; we pray that those who hear our witness will accept that Jesus Christ is Lord.

We also need to be conscious that when we take people to that point of understanding, they still need our help. They now have a new belief system, but as they explore it, they will find significant parts of their lives are in conflict with Jesus’ teachings.

James wrote of the danger of being double-minded. Psychologists talk of cognitive dissonance, the pain experienced when we try to hold conflicting ideas in our heads. While we’re saved at the moment we believe, a conversion is not truly complete until that double-mindedness is resolved.

Such resolution is worth pursuing. It is the moment we achieve our greatest joy and peace.

That truth reminds me of one of the best reasons for witnessing. Telling people of Christ ultimately is an act of love, a gift from God that we’re allowed to deliver.

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23

Mar. ’12

Wind in Our Sails: Our Service

I’m a little late with Sunday’s sermon summary this week, but for a reason: in lieu of a written summary, I want to share with you a video of how we talked about Christian service during our fourth Sunday of Lent.

It took me a little while to retrieve and prepare the video for posting. In my clumsy handling of technology, I’m probably showing my age. I still think of e-mail as a rapid way to communicate, but a teenager told me not too long ago that such thinking is “soooooo 20th century,” and that I need to text more.

The Scripture we worked from is 1 Peter 4:7-11, where Peter warns us that Christ’s return is imminent, and then in that context tells us to love and serve one another to the glory of God. The folks in the video are Jim Belgeri, reading our text; and left to right, Linda Gordon, Wendy Gordon, Jill Kaufman, and Ron Porter. (I’m the guy in the robe.) Linda, Wendy, Jill and Ron are talking about their participation in a mission team that traveled to Alabama to provide tornado relief.

This, of course, is all related to the fourth mast on our five-masted Lenten sailing ship, the mast representing service. Next Sunday, we’ll close our series by discussing our pledge to witness.

You’ll find the video here.

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11

Mar. ’12

Wind in Our Sails: Our Gifts

The third mast of our Lenten ship brings us to the subject of gifts.

We have many gifts to offer God; certainly, we’re giving gifts back to God and our neighbors when we use our time and talents to spread the love of Jesus Christ. Those gifts tie more directly to the idea of service, however, and we’ll talk about service next week.

Today, I want us to return to a topic we discussed in January, our financial gifts. By the way, I should once again say thanks. We’ve started off the year on a positive financial note, with your tithes and offerings exceeding your expenditures by about $5,000 so far. If the trend continues through the rest of the year, it’s going to be much easier to expand our outreach to people who need to know Christ.

I don’t want us having an extended conversation about numbers today, however. During this Lenten season, as we talk about prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness, we’re talking about matters of the heart, or perhaps “habits of the heart” would be a better phrase, if I can borrow a title from an important book published in 1985.

In our Scripture reading today, Mark 12:41-44, Jesus pointed out the very heart of giving by showing us a poor widow making her offering at Jerusalem’s temple. Specifically, she was in the part of the temple known as the treasury, located in the Women’s Court, as deep into the temple as women were allowed to go.

Here, rich and poor men and women mingled, making their offerings by pouring them into what looked like 13 brass trumpets, their bells upturned like funnels. The handfuls of valuable Jewish silver shekels from the rich would have rattled mightily going in, drawing attention to the wealthy givers.

In contrast, the copper clink of the widow’s two almost worthless coins would have been either lost in the din or perhaps even laughable to some, if she were unfortunate enough to drop them in during a moment of quiet.

And yet Jesus told his disciples, “This poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Clearly, when we talk about gifts, it’s not just about the number of digits following a dollar sign. The widow’s gift is a financial expression of deep love for God regardless of her particular situation. (I wonder what her mansion in heaven must look like; surely it is one of the biggest ones on the highest hill.)

In an ideal world, the widow who gave her all would have had nothing to worry about. At the foundations of Jewish society was the principle that the least in society—the orphans, the widows, the landless wanderers, the poor—were to receive care from those more blessed. In particular, the people in charge of the temple system, making proper use of the resources flowing through it, should have guaranteed this woman had nothing to fear.

We do not live in an ideal world, however. Back up a few verses in Mark, and you can see the problem in Jesus’ day. In Mark 12:38-40, Jesus denounces the scribes, lawyer-like bureaucrats who worked the religious system to their advantage. In particular, Jesus noted, “They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers.”

For a modern analogy, think of silk-suited televangelists who pick and choose Bible verses to build a convincing argument that the elderly poor and others should write checks to them.¹ Scribes used Jewish law in a similar way, selectively choosing and interpreting rules to tell widows the additional burdens they needed to bear. Those brass funnels in the treasury turned into black holes, with bureaucrats on the receiving end sucking up the money so it never emerged to help those in need.

The system could have worked if those with plenty had maintained hearts for those without. Instead, the rich used religion to show off.

The system could have worked if those running it had stayed true to their calling, remembering that the core of Jewish law was to love God with all your heart, mind and strength, and to love your neighbors as yourself.

These principles for giving and using gifts wisely remain the same today. I asked you in January to make percentage pledges based on how you felt God was leading you, using pledge cards that you took home. If you’re still considering that pledge or want to reconsider it, I’ll give you another piece of guidance.

Make your giving decisions when your heart is full of love for God. That may be during a particularly fulfilling moment in worship or in prayer, or simply at a time when you feel blessed. It even could be during a low moment—I know that might sound strange, but it often is in our lowest moments when we’re most sensitive to how much God loves us.

Remember what Christ has done to relieve us of the burden of sin. Like the widow he watched in the treasury, Jesus gave his all. Don’t give because I say so; I’m just Chuck. Give because you truly understand who God is and what God is doing in the world.

I’ll also tell you when not to give. If you ever think this church has stopped doing Christ’s work, don’t give it another penny. I don’t think anyone can legitimately make that complaint right now, though; there’s just too much good being done here in Christ’s name. We may disagree on strategies and priorities from time to time, but the leadership of this church, and most of its membership, I dare say, understand why we exist.

If you give with loving hearts, and if the church continues to use those gifts to reach out with loving hearts, the Kingdom of God will expand because of the people at Cassidy UMC.

——————–

¹I had a fascinating experience while writing this sermon. I needed to get away somewhere quiet, so I went down the street to Warriors Path State Park and wound up sitting in the grill at the marina. While there, two middle-aged women and a much younger woman began talking rather loudly about their opinion of preachers. (I was not dressed like the stereotype of a preacher, instead wearing hiking pants and a baseball jersey.)

“I just don’t trust them,” one of the older ladies said. “I believe in God, but I don’t go to church.”

A big part of her complaint was that she thought preachers were too well-off, citing one she knew “living in the big house with the rich people.” (Even as grateful as I am for the house this church provides its pastor, I don’t think she was describing the Cassidy UMC parsonage.)

Apparently, we all need to spend more time at the grill, and I look forward to getting to know these ladies better.

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04

Mar. ’12

Wind in Our Sails: Our Presence

Mark 14:37-42

Today we’re going to try to better understand how to fill the sails on the second mast of our five-masted ship, which carries us toward the resurrection we celebrate at Easter.

Last week, we looked at the mast of prayer; this week, we’ll see how the mast of presence helps drive us along.

As far as today’s Scripture is concerned, we’re picking up in Mark where we left off last Sunday. Jesus was praying for the strength to follow Father God’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the midst of that intense process, he went to check on the three disciples he took along, Peter, James and John. Jesus found them asleep—even Simon Peter, the assertive disciple who only recently had pledged to stand by Jesus even unto death.

“Simon, are you asleep?” Jesus asked, his rhetorical question capturing the irony of the moment. “Could you not keep awake one hour? Keep awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Two more times Jesus returned to find them similarly asleep, suffering from a drowsiness that seems to me more the work of the devil than the result of any physical exhaustion.

“Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Enough! The hour has come; the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners,” Jesus said. “Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.” Jesus then was arrested and taken down the rocky, thorn-strewn path toward crucifixion.

I have no doubt that Jesus’ followers had many moments they would have handled differently if “do overs” were possible. They would have been by Jesus’ side as he prayed in anguish. They certainly would have stayed with Jesus and spoken up for him at his trial and crucifixion rather than denying knowing him and hiding. Nearly all of those do overs would be tied to their level of presence in both a physical and spiritual sense.

I am sympathetic to their situation. We, of course, are blessed with a full understanding of the story. The disciples were struggling with the collapse of their high expectations as their teacher faced torture and ultimately murder on a cross.

They could not comprehend what Christians now declare, that this death was only temporary. The core of our belief system is this: Jesus rose from the dead, resurrected, remade, inaugurating God’s remaking of all creation, rescuing us from sin.

Even knowing what we know, however, our biggest problem may be the failure of many of our own church members to be fully present. There are many in the American church who call Jesus “Savior,” perhaps even attending church regularly, but who are for all practical purposes asleep in the garden at a critical time.

It’s not a new problem. In the 18th century, Methodism became a British religious movement as a response to the lukewarm, Laodicean behavior of the Anglican church.

In one of John Wesley’s more famous sermons, “Awake Thou That Sleepest,” the founder of Methodism expressed his deep concern for those content with this life, particularly if they were outwardly religious but not particularly engaged with God or with the work God is doing in this world through the resurrection.

“Awake, thou everlasting spirit, out of thy dream of worldly happiness!” Wesley said. “Did not God create thee for himself? Then, thou canst not rest till thou restest in him. Return, thou wanderer!”

In modern times, the problem is similar, but worse, I think. We have more to distract us, more to keep us feeling content until our time in this world is all used up.

We are tired because we do too much that is not really of God’s will. And when it comes to worship (loving God) and active engagement in Christian ministry (loving our neighbors), we treat those activities as just more items on a troublesome to-do list rather than the priorities they are.

In short, we fail to be present. We stop being present spiritually, simply going through the motions, acting like what Wesley called an “Almost Christian.” Once there, we’re not far from reducing or ending our physical presence, withdrawing from church and ministry, and quietly hoping we bought enough fire insurance with our baptism to cover our eternal souls.

If any of this is sounding uncomfortably true, the answer is to engage in a little spiritual warfare. I am convinced that this problem goes beyond simple apathy. We are under attack, and the best weapon Satan has found in the 21st century may be distraction.

Distract them with material wants, and they’ll miss seeing the needs of others. Distract them with entertainment—sports, television, sports on television—and they’ll think they’re much busier than they actually are, lacking time to worship God.

Fire these weapons accurately and often, and one day these Almost Christians wake up to realize their best years are behind them, even if they are surrounded by lots of stuff. All they have left is a longing for Christ and no way to make up lost time.

I sincerely believe Christ’s grace remains available even to those who learn only late in life the value of being present in Christ’s church both spiritually and physically. We are saved by the grace of God, not by our works.

It’s still good to say thanks for eternal life, however, to respond to such a tremendous gift from God with all the loving presence we can muster.

Actively loving God and our neighbors from the day of our baptism until the day our bodies give out is one of the best ways I know to offer such thanks, particularly when you consider it is how God asks us to respond.

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