THE POWER OF ONE

Sermon Summary (1/19/20/) “The Power of One” (John 1:29-42)

The Mission of the United Methodist Church (and this church) is “To Make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World.”  Question: What is the most transformational thing you’ve ever done?  For me, probably Habitat for Humanity.  A warm dry place for a family to lay their heads is transformational.  

And did you know that Habitat for Humanity began with one man?  Actually, one couple when Linda Fuller challenged her self-possessed millionaire husband to take his faith seriously.  He did.  Together they gave all their wealth away and began one of the most transformative ministries ever.

The priorities of the Missouri Conference are to 1) Identify and nurture missional leaders, 2) Start new places for new people, and 3) Create pathways out of poverty.  The latter two require the missional leaders identified in priority one.

So what is the impact of a single invitation, a single person?  In our story today, Andrew and John are disciples of John the Baptist first, and when John sees Jesus and says, “The lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world,” they approach Jesus and say “Teacher, where are you staying (same word as ‘abide’).  Jesus calls them by saying “Come and See.”  And they remained (same word as abided) with him all day.  The next day, Andrew finds his brother, Simon Peter, and says “We have found the Messiah (the Christ).”  Peter accepted the invitation and that changed the shape of the first century Christian community and Christianity forever.  The power of a single invitation to a family member.

Who might be the missional leaders in your surroundings that could be transformational?  They might be the obvious candidates.  Or they might be the humble version of Christ that lead through humble service. “The last shall be first and servant of all.”  They might be those that are just compelled to do that drag those around them along.  Finding them may only take a single invitation.  The Power of One.

And sometimes God provides.  We have a case in point.  Just when we were talking of New Places or New People, such a leader came along.

And we might find that person among us.  You see, I was invited.  “You need to go to Sarah Smith’s class.”  (The district director of lay speaking ministries that eventually became my mentor.)  Mid-State district has a Basic Course on Mar 21st and an Advanced Class, “Christian Transformational Leaders,” on Apr 4th.  I encourage as many of you as possible to attend one or both of them.

Leadership may be quite different that you imagine.  Jesus spelled it out for James and John in Mark 10 when they were looking for the perks of leadership, only to be told that “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wills to be first among you must be their slave.”  The love of Jesus so demonstrated.  Amen.

EPIPHANY: CHRIST'S PRESENTATION TO THE WORLD

Sermon Summary (1/5/20/) “Epiphany: Christ’s Presentation to the World.” (Mt 2)

“The Twelfth Day of Christmas….Twelve Drummers Drumming.”  The Twelfth Day, the last day of Christmas is a noisy day.  Tomorrow, also Jan 6th is Epiphany, in some places in the world bigger than Christmas.  The first story Matthew gives us after the birth, the presentation of the Christ child to the world, to the “Magi,” the outsiders more than likely from Persia.  And what is the last story in Matthew? Jesus’ Great Commission: make disciples of all nations. The bookends of the Good News, the presentation to the nations and the call to go to all the nations.  Here’s my take: Matthew’s Gospel excludes no one. 

So, I have to ask myself, “who am I excluding?”  If Jesus is Savior of the World, and we are called to make disciples of all the world, who am I excluding?  Jesus calls us to love our neighbors, even our enemies.  We are told “God so loved the world.”  Who do I exclude intentionally or because I don’t give them second though or because they don’t share my values or they don’t belong to my tribe or maybe because they hate me?  Who?

Maybe here’s a New Year’s Question for me: Who should I include?  In the year 2020, who should I include that I exclude?

Stephen Covey (Seven Habits) says that we all have a circle of concern and that we should work to make our circle of influence approach our circle of concern.  What do you suppose God’s circle of concern looks like?  What should the circle of influence of his Church look like?

On Christmas Eve we did not take an offering, but I recommended that all write two checks, one to a worthy charity close to home, and other at a distance.  How do we expand our circle of influence?  See where God is working in the world and join in.

As a South Dakotan living far from home, I too often exclude the Native Americans.  I just don’t consider them.  Yet, the most caring Christmas message I received this year was from my Native American friend who grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation and now lives in Alaska.  Yet I exclude the Native Americans from my consideration.  If I look to see where God is working, I can find the Red Cloud Jesuit School on the Reservation that is transforming. I can join in. I can include them with a little effort on my part.

If the Church of Jesus Christ, the Body of Christ, looked, we can fill God’s Circle of Concern with our Influence, whether refugee camps, girls schools in Asia, impoverished people in Latin America.  We can find a way.  Individually, we can’t do it all, but because we are a connected church, we can do our part.

Epiphany is a manifestation, an appearance, it is Christ’s revelation to the whole world.  There is no longer Greek, nor Jew, male nor female, slave nor free, but all are one in Christ Jesus.  Who should we include in 2020?  How can we embrace them even if they are beyond our embrace?  See where God is working in the world and join in. 

CARING FOR A CHILD NOT YOUR OWN

Sermon Summary (12/29/19) “Caring for a Child Not Your Own” (Mt 1 and 2 selected)

I grew up in town of less than a thousand.  If I did something wrong, my parents knew it before I got home from school.  The family, the church, the school, even main street were involved in our lives.  My sister–in-law said even the post master, she couldn’t buy a stamp as a kid without saying please and thank you.

I realize that Dad’s implement business employed a lot of people.  He took his employees seriously.  I remember Dad taking me to a house early one Thanksgiving morning (and shortly after a delivery of a baby).  There were Christmas bonuses.  His legacy to me was always to find ways to care without fanfare and with dignity.  Kids in our town were valued.

Charles Dickens’ England was a time and place that valued children little.  I think A Christmas Carol changed that and a crippled child, Tiny Tim, “God bless us everyone,” changed our thoughts.

What do you suppose it was like growing up in a town of 200, 2000 years ago, Nazareth of Galilee?  To carry an illegitimate child?  What did the community say? Was it a mysterious child of the Holy Spirit as the angel said?  Would it be adopted by the community?  A glimpse of Jesus at 12 where his parents believed he was playing with the children of the caravan would indicate he was a child of the community. (Luke 2)

But whose child was it in the eyes of Joseph?  Certainly Joseph responded to the angel, married Marry, protected the child, raised it as his own when even the genealogy of the community did not recognize him as the child’s father: ¹⁶ and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. (Mt 1:16)  Not the father of Jesus but the husband of Mary.

Christmas is a reminder that it takes a community.  Coyote Hills in Harrisburg may be an example of Larry McDaniel and his wife providing for over 40 foster children at a time.  A friend of mine fostered a family of five and later adopted them.  We may not be able to take in foster children ourselves, but Christmas is a reminder that those that do need our support.

And we were blessed with the opportunity this Christmas to support a family with a disabled child.  Thank you for making that possible, Samantha.

This Christmas is also a season of Mister Rogers with his movie in theaters.  In his 32 years he impacted generations of elementary school children emphasizing developing of the child psyche and moral and ethic values.

(At this point we viewed “The Time Shop” (http://tiny.cc/Timeshop).

It is reminder that maybe our greatest gift is a gift of time.  The community, foster parents, even Mister Rogers looking into the living rooms of our homes saying, “I’m going to give you my time.”  So may it be for us.

WHY WE NEED CHRISTMAS

Sermon Summary (12/24/) “Why We Need Christmas” (Lk 2:1-15)

I’m going to begin by answering the title question, “Why we need Christmas?”  Normally, you would have to wait at least half way through the message to get the answer, but the answer is so important, I’m going to give it to you now.  Here it is: “We need Christmas because Jesus is the answer to the deepest longings of the human heart.” (repeat)

Why do we miss that? Why do we not see that? We cannot see the need for Jesus until we see ourselves, until we see our human condition.

People in New York City cannot imagine how a 13 year old stabbed and killed a beautiful young college freshmen, Tessa Majors.  How can one of their own, a 13 year old take a life.  Do you suppose he had gone to church? Had been in Sunday School since a young age? That his friends had learned right and wrong from the stories of Jesus?  Probably not.

As I was writing this, I received a call from a friend asking how I was doing?  He knows that Christmas is a difficult time for those in grief and that Jesus is the only answer to my deepest longings.  I thank my God for the caller.

You see, the Christmas story really begins in Genesis, in the garden, with the giving of free will.  God gave us the ability to choose and instructions and a conscience to know right from wrong, but it is the human condition that even when we know things that cause harm to ourselves or others, we choose to do the harmful thing anyway. 

Jesus, in the story of the Good Shepherd, tells us that there are false shepherds, imposters that care only for themselves.  But Jesus is the Good Shepherd who cares for the sheep.  Jesus concludes by saying, “I come that you have life and it to the full.”  Other translations say, “life and it abundantly.”  Isn’t that what we want for our children, our grandchildren, “live abundantly”? 

John Wesley was asked, “How do we avoid the wrath to come?”  I had always thought of “the wrath to come” as the judgment, but there is “wrath” in this life, too.  John Wesley gathered those followers of Jesus into small groups to look over one another in love who would ask “how is it with your soul” and “what temptations have you faced and how have you dealt with them?”  And he gave them three rules to follow: “First do no harm (it is almost impossible to undo the consequences of harm.  You can be forgiven, yes, but the consequences remain).  Second, to good.  And third, stay in love with God (pray, read the bible, worship God.) 

We read in the papers every day of shattering actions that crush our Christmases because of bad choices.  Isn’t the gift of good choices the very best gift we can give ourselves, our children and our grandchildren.  “I come that you have life and it abundantly.”  Jesus is the answer to the deepest longings of the human heart in this world and the next.

We need to hear the angels proclaim the “Good news of Great Joy.”  We need to believe the shepherds.  We need to say, “Yes,” and to unwrap the gift of Christmas.  Jesus is the answer to our deepest longings. 

CHRIST THE KING

Sermon Summary (11/24//19) “Christ the King” (John 12:9-19;
Lk 23:33-43)

Christ the King Sunday.  What does it look like for us to make Christ King?  A life striving to be filled with the love of God and neighbor, obeying Jesus, and walking as he walked.  When we do that, we are submitting to his authority, making him first in our lives. 

Why are we so reluctant to do that?  Primarily, we have other things we want to put first: Ourselves, those we love, as teenagers, those to whom we are attracted.  (Adam Hamilton admitted one Sunday that as a teenager, there were things he placed first and it had to do with marriage, a reason he got married at 18.)  It is easy to place God behind spouse, family, life, and if we are really honest with ourselves, even materialism, but especially self.  We are surrounded by idols, or what we make as idols.

Christ the King Sunday is a reminder of how we are to “Order our loves.”  In Jesus’ day, kings were big deals.  If they said “come,” you came; if they said “go,” you went; they literally held life in their hands.  Caesar was king of kings, literally known as “king of kings and lord of lords.”  When Christians game Jesus that tile, “King of kings and Lord of Lords,” making Christ King, they were placing their very lives in jeopardy.  Yet that is what they did.  Every day was Christ the King day.  Every day, they ordered their loves to make Christ first.

We have been looking at unique passages from Luke.  Today we also look at Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday where he is declared king.  We also see a relationship between his entrance and the last of John’s signs, the raising of Lazarus.  The Pharisees saw the people’s declaration of Jesus as King directly related to his “sign” of raising Lazarus.  They said, “You see, you can do nothing.  Look the world has gone after him.” (John 12:19) 

John wrote his book using “signs” so that we may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ and so believing, have life in his name.” (John 20:31)  These signs were performed 2000 years ago and the people took them to heart (moved their intellectual understanding to a believe in the heart that changed their behavior).  That’s our task today, to read, reflect, ponder, meditate on the stories of Jesus that we move our intellectual understanding through intense mental activity that affects the heart.  That’s what John means by “believe.”  “That you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and in so believing have life in his name.”  More than an intellectual understanding, but behavior changing heart.

We have choices to make.  Our reading from Luke is the story of the two thieves, one of whom mocked Jesus, the other who said, “Jesus, remember me when you get into your kingdom.”  Jesus replies to him, and to us who so order our loves, “today you shall be with me in paradise.” 

So may we make Christ the King of our lives.  Amen.

SHREWD

Sermon Summary (11/17/19) “Shrewd” (Lk 16:1-9)

A dozen years ago, I met a young pastor, Mike Rayson, and we connected on many levels.  When we met, he was in the midst of grieving the loss of his son, Sam, in a horse accident.  Next, he was an Aussie, Australian, an ordained pastor in the Uniting Church that I often attended on my many trips.  Years later, Rosemary and I attended a worship service planned and led by Mike, the most wonderful and  meaningful worship service we ever attended.  I then found that Mike had been appointed to a Methodist Church in Granite City, IL.  If Rosemary was still with me, we would travel the three hours just to attend.

Then in March, I found that Mike had been relieved of his credentials by his bishop.  What if you were a pastor one day and did not have a church the next?  Mike started a church, and within two months it was every bit the church that he was forced from.  How?  I would suggest, shrewdly, using all the wiles of the world around him.

What if you arrived and the church was locked, or maybe just a green space?  What would you do?  Knock on doors, yes, but use all the technology available to create a worshiping community.  Shrewdly, with all the wiles of the world around us.

Today, we are looking at a parable unique to Luke, “The Dishonest Manager,” maybe the most difficult of Jesus’ teachings.  We need to be careful to not treat it as an allegory, attributing roles, eg. God, us, others to the all the characters with multiple teaching points.  The Prodigal Son is an allegory.  The Dishonest Manager is a parable with a single teaching point.  If we treat it as an allegory, we will be confused.  “⁸ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” (Luke 16:8)  That’s the heart of it.  I’ll leave the reading of the rest to you.  We are to be shrewd in our ministry and our evangelism, using the wiles of the culture around us.  Here’s another passage that may convince you: “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” (Mt 10:16)

What should we be doing to bring others to Christ?  There are churches that don’t yet allow instruments to accompany them because Paul’s church in Philippi didn’t have one.  What about us?  How do we use the culture around us to draw the community to Christ?

On November 3rd. 17.000 people gathered for worship at the Forum in Los Angeles.  Who was the leader?  Would you be shocked to learn it was Kanye West?  One 17 year old, interviewed following the service, said, “I’ve never been in church before in my life.  I’ve just never considered it.  I guess I’ll have to be open to God now.” 

We aren’t going to gather tens of thousands, but we can be children of the light even while using the wiles of the children of the age to bring the message of hope and eternal life to a people who desperately need Jesus.  So may it be with us.  Amen.

ALL IN

Sermon Summary (11/10/19) “All In” (Lk 14:25-33)

Rosemary and I used to drive by an unfinished house everytime we went back home.  Mark, the son of a high school classmate, never finished the house.   He never understood either the cost of finishing the house or the price of life. 

My primary source for this sermon is The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  “Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without Christ, living and incarnate.” I would like to say that I’m a student of the book but it is too challenging for me.  Maybe the classic line from the book is “When Christ calls a person, he bids him come and die.” 

Bonhoeffer entered adulthood with the rise of Hitler. In 1930, he spent a year at Union Seminary in NYC.  A fellow negro student introduced him to Harlem, Abyssinian Baptist Church, the Rev. Clayton Powell, and the plight of black people.  In Harlem, he learned of oppression from the bottom.  He returned to the land of Beethoven and Bach with records of Negro spirituals, I’m sure something never before heard there.

When Hitler consolidated power in 1934, he instituted fraudulent elections in the church placing supporters throughout the state church.  Bonhoeffer became part of the “Confessing Church,” a resistance movement to reclaim the theology of the church.  Even as a pacifist, he became part of the conspiracy to remove Hitler saying, “When seeing a madman starting to drive a car into a crowd, one does not wait for it to be over to then minister to the dead in dying, one tried to wrest the steering wheel from the hands of the madman.”  He was imprisoned in 1943, then alleged to be part of the July 20, 1944, attempt on Hitler’s life, and was hung on April 9, 1945, two weeks before his prison was liberated. 

Bonhoeffer walked the walk.  We can’t all be martyrs; we can’t all go to the cross; we can’t all die.  But we can all be “All in.”  For Bonhoeffer, grace which God offers through the cross was infinitely costly and should not be accepted cheaply.  Cheap grace was first and foremost grace without discipleship. 

Our Scripture passage ends with “So therefore, none of you can be my disciples if you do not give up all your possessions.”  This had nothing to do with possessions, it is about ordering our loves:  Jesus first, then family, then life itself.  We need to be “all in.” 

Recall Jesus’ parables and the treasure found in the field, and the pearl of great worth where in their joy the finders sold all their had and bought the whole field bought the pearl. 

When Jesus says we must hate father and mother, and even life itself, he is using Mid-eastern hyperbole, extreme exaggeration to make a point.  But what he does mean is that we have to choose, we have to order our loves, there is no other way but to go “all in.”

We start or restart from where we are.  We choose to be disciples and we immerse ourselves in grace that will lead us to where God wants us to be.  So may it be with all of us.