We currently are not posting sermons. We apologize for this. We are in a transition period at St. John's. 1 Kings 17:8-16 The Spiritual Tool Box - June 17th Today we are wrapping up our series on Spiritual Disciplines. We have been discussing some of the tools a Christian can use to keep close to God and live a Christ Centered life. Let’s review a little. Our first tool is Silence and Solitude. The chain of safety pins reminds us that silence is golden and we need to provide for minute retreats during our day to hear God speak to us. The globe reminds us to use the tool of evangelism. It is our ministry as followers of Christ to spread the Gospel in our world. If we do not share the Gospel of Jesus Christ the church will soon cease to exist. A plate reminds us that fasting is a tool we can use to draw closer to God and to enrich our prayer life. Something happens when we fast that opens the channel to God and intensifies our relationship with the Creator. The praying hands remind us to pray. Prayer is our connection with God. We are to use the tool of Silence and Solitude to communicate with God. Prayer is our coming to God asking for a transformation in our life and allowing God to work that transformation in our life. Serving as symbolized by this basket of mission is the hallmark of a Christian life. A Christian is the hands and feet of Jesus Christ going to the marginalized, lifting up the oppressed, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked. A Christian not serving is not a Christian. The purse reminds us of the tool of Stewardship. God asks us for a minimum of ten percent of time talent and treasures. Giving ten percent does not mean are Christian only ten percent of the time. Being a Christian means that we are very intentional about giving ten percent of our time talent and treasure to the ministry of God simply because we want to thank God for giving us life and life eternal. So, why have we been talking about these spiritual disciplines?: To remind us that our life as a follower of Christ always belongs to Christ. When we practice these disciplines our life becomes a worship of God Almighty. The widow in our story this morning lived a life that was worship. She had nothing. She believed she was about to die with her son. Yet, along comes this holy man and she responds in worship by serving God through Elijah. She serves God with seemingly nothing and God’s glory is seen by all of her neighbors. The result of practicing our spiritual disciplines is a life similar to the widow in our story. A life that does not practice spiritual disciplines is more like the two guys in this story about old Jack and old John. Jack and John were members of the board at Old First Church in Sheboygan, and were always at odds with each other. They were constantly at each others throats at board meetings. If one of them said ‘yea’ you can be assured that the other one would say ‘nay’. So one day old Jack arrives at the pearly gates and is surprised to see St. Peter asking every one a question before they can proceed into heaven. When it is old Jack’s turn St. Peter greets him and says, “Hello Jack, I’m glad to see that you qualified for heaven. I need to ask you to spell Jesus for me.” “That’s easy says Jack” and goes J-E-S-U-S.” Peter says, “Great, you’re in but before you go in could you do me a favor and take over here for me. I have to go check something out. Jack didn’t mind and he began asking every one in line how to spell Jesus. Suddenly, he looked up and there was old John coming up to him next. John says, “What are you doing here?” Jack says, “I’m filling in for St. Peter asking every one to spell a word before they can come into heaven.” “Oh yea,” says John, “What’s the word.” After thinking for a moment Jack says, “ Albuquerque.” I pray that that will not be the way you live your life. Instead, I pray that you will allow God to give you new insights and new understandings about what it means to worship the living Christ. I pray that you will use the spiritual tool box to intensify your relationship with the Creator. You have the tools. You know how to use them. Put them to work in your life. Make your life a worship of the Living God by using the spiritual tools. Use Silence and Solitude to know God better. Practice evangelism to strengthen the body of Christ. Fast to draw closer to God and intensify your prayers. Pray so you can be connected with God. Serve others in worship and be intentional about your worship by practicing Stewardship, giving God at least ten percent of your time talent and treasures. Now go and worship God in all things.
Marja Coons-Torn preaching May 18th for SONset Casual The Church of the Left Out
Luke 6:17-26 He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. Then he looked up at his disciples and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. ‘Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. ‘But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. ‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. ‘Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
Just about a year ago, I attended my first meeting of the United Church of Christ Disabilities Ministry. This special group meets only once a year, and the rest of the year, they conduct their meetings by conference call. In Synod years, they meet for two days prior to the Synod meeting. In non-Synod years, they meet in Cleveland in March. That’s where I attended my first meeting. Prior to the meeting, we chatted on line about our travel plans. Various people were meeting at the airport and catching taxis or wheelchair vans into Cleveland to the Church House. There was one fellow, however, who, like me, liked taking the light rail from the airport to the center of the city. So I made arrangements to meet David, my unknown friend, outside of the Rapid Transit Station in the airport. He said I wouldn’t have any trouble recognizing him—he’s be the one in the motorized wheelchair. David arrived with his luggage strapped to his wheelchair. I was surprised I confess when, on meeting David, I learned that he wasn’t just in a wheelchair. Because his diagnosis is cerebral palsy, he also has certain speech patterns that make it seem difficult to understand him unless you listen carefully. But David is very verbal. On our train ride, I quickly learned that David has wicked sense of humor. He is, in fact, a charming man with many skills in addition to his wit and good nature. When we arrived at the Tower City station of the rapid transit, I led us up the elevator to the top floor of the urban mall. Confident that I knew where we were going, because I had been to our national offices many times and David had never visited, I led us out the door. It wasn’t long before I realized that I must have turned the wrong direction going out the door. By that time, however, we were too many blocks away to be able to easily retrace our steps. I stopped some people on the sidewalk but they were tourists who had no more idea where to find things than we did. Then we spotted a police office on the corner opposite us. Thinking I could run over there quickly, I told David what I planned to do. I’d done enough, he assured me. And before I could blink, he was gone in his wheelchair, twice as fast, of course, as I could have done. Pretty soon he was back and leading us to the Gateway Radisson much more efficiently than me. You have to know that he never let me forget my misadventure for the rest of the time we were in Cleveland. What I learned at that meeting, above everything else, is that we all have different abilities. People with physical or mental limitations are truly no better and no worse than anyone, they are simply different. Some of them are witty, some are smart, some work hard to do what they do, some are good listeners, some are caring, some are shy, and some are bold. Because they look or sound different, it is we who are lacking the care or the patience to get past the differences and find what is special in each person. That was never the case with Jesus. “They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.” He gave them hope and affirmed their conditions were not anything that would separate them from God, despite the prevailing attitudes to the contrary. He welcomed them into the church of the left out. Can we do less? In the introduction to Any Body, Every Body, Christ’s Body, a marvelous congregational resource that we spoke about in Sunday School this morning, and that I commend to you for further study, the Rev. Jo Clare Hartsig reflects that “the inclusion of people with disabilities and a renewed awareness of disabilities can enliven every aspect of congregational life.” It isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the healthy thing. I want to tell you about another friend—one I haven’t met in person yet. His name is Tyler and he is a high school student in eastern Iowa. Tyler created and filmed a DVD for his Eagle Scout project. It’s called “I’m Tyler. Don’t Be Surprised.” I wanted to bring it with me today, but in my enthusiasm for it, I loaned it to my friend Bruce Druckenmiller, who is presently in Namibia, and I haven’t got it back. So I have to tell you about Tyler instead of show you his film. As the DVD opens, an average looking youth introduces himself as Tyler and tells about his life as an active and interested high school student. He is a member of the marching band, a Boy Scout, a member of the theater club---and the list goes on. The young man stops at the end of his litany of activity and confesses that, in fact, he not Tyler, but everything he has said about Tyler is true. Then the real Tyler comes on screen. Like my friend David, Tyler has cerebral palsy and several other medical conditions. But he has asked for no quarter, no special treatment, no favors or excuses. It’s Tyler who has taught me to think about abilities awareness instead of dis-abilities awareness. He is as able as any young man I have ever known. We are all able. But for the sake of the body of Christ, we are called to be present for one another, and to work with one another to make the changes that make it possible for each one to express his or her abilities. [By the way, I had to pop my sermon into 14 point type to facilitate my own vision challenge, a condition of aging called presbyopia.] Let me share with you a short excerpt from a statement made at the World Council of Churches Assembly meeting in Nairobi, nearly a decade ago now: “The Church's unity includes both the "disabled" and "the able." A church which seeks to be truly united within itself and to move toward unity with others must be open to all; yet able-bodied church members, both by their attitudes and emphasis on activism, marginalize and often exclude those with mental or physical disabilities. The disabled are treated as the weak to be served, rather than as fully committed, integral members of the Body of Christ and the human family; the specific contribution which they have to give is ignored. . . . The Church cannot exemplify ‘the full humanity revealed in Christ,’ bear witness to the interdependence of humankind, or achieve unity in diversity if it continues to acquiesce in the social isolation of disabled persons and to deny them full participation in its life. The unity of the family of God is handicapped where these brothers and sisters are treated as objects of condescending charity. It is broken where they are left out.” Thirty years ago, when I was a young minister, I had the privilege of knowing a minister by the name of Harold Wilke. Harold was a legend in the United Church of Christ because of his strong intellect, his compassion, and his advocacy for the inclusion of all people. Incidentally, he had no arms, and had learned over the course of his life, to use his feet as if they were hands, writing and eating with ease. Before he died, Harold wrote a poem that I’d like to share with you in conclusion of our time together this morning. It is called Signs of Liberation and Access. The festivals of the religious year show forth new meanings for access and liberation: In the glory of Easter – the stone rolled away – we see the barrier removed. In the wonder of Pentecost the message is heard, understood, and seen by all, In the liberating act of Passover the message is: “Let My People Go!” and the parting of the Red Sea. In the joy of Advent God embodies divinity in human form.
Yet for many persons today – who are blind or deaf or have mental retardation or who are in wheelchairs – the barriers still remain; The stone is still in place; The waters are not parted, the way not opened; The words cannot be heard; The flame of the Spirit’s tongues cannot be seen, the message not understood.
Proclaiming the message in all languages for today means using Braille or Larger print for people with visual disabilities, signing or special sound systems for persons with hearing disabilities; image, color and drama for people with cognitive disabilities; architectural access for people with physical disabilities or who are getting older.
Let the stone be rolled away! Let the glorious message be proclaimed truly, in all languages So all may hear and understand!
Mark 12:41-44 May 5/6 Spiritual Disciplines: Stewardship Today we are going to add the fifth tool to our spiritual tool box in our continuing series on Spiritual Disciplines. The tools we have in the tool box so far are silence and solitude-spending time with God every day. Evangelism-sharing the Gospel in the entire world. Fasting to draw closer to God and be open to God’s voice in our life. Last week we added the most costly of our disciplines to the tool box. We added Service. We were reminded that God is calling us to give our life in service because we love God. And that we serve no matter what is happening around us. Today we visit a familiar tool that is easy to understand but more difficult to actually make a regular practice in our life. We add stewardship to our tool box. The focus of our stewardship discussion may surprise you today. Our focus in this message is on how we spend our time. This is a natural follow up to the spiritual discipline of service message from last week. Being a Christian means that we have committed our life to serving God. Though God wants our whole life God has made it clear to us that if we give 10% of all we have we would be showing the world our love for God in a very special manner. Let’s take a few minutes to see what our life might look like if we where good stewards of our time giving 10% to God. Maybe you feel you are already giving plenty of time to God. Well, let’s see. First let’s see how many hours God gives to us. We all have 24 hours a day. In a week we all have 168 hours. Every one of us has 168 hours every week. No one is rich and no one is poor. We all have the same number of hours every day. With each of us has 168 hours a week and we all give 10% to God how many belong to God? The mathematicians among us know the answer is 16 hours and 40 minutes. 16 hours and 40 minutes work out to 2 and 15 minutes every day. What does this mean to you? Where are you giving your ten per cent of time to God? Let’s see how we might be doing. Prayer and bible study are good uses of stewardship of our time. Let’s say everyone gets credit for 30 minutes of devotional time every day. That adds up to 3 hours and 30 minutes of your weekly tithe of time to God. Now, have 13 hours and 10 minutes left to give to God. Let’s say, for arguments sake that every week we come to church and Sunday school. That leaves us with 11 hours and 10 minutes to give. Are you getting the idea? Maybe you are in a musical group at the church or serve on one of the committees or ministries. Maybe you are on the Consistory or are involved in Christian Education and youth ministry. Let’s give the benefit of the doubt on those hours and say you invest four hours a week in one of those ministries. What are we going to do with the remaining 7 hours and 10 minutes? As good stewards for God how are we going to invest the rest of our time in a week? Placing the Christian discipline of Stewardship in our tool box means we want to give God at least 10% of our time simply because we love God. Christ Rice addresses this tool of Stewardship in his song entitled Life Means so Much. In this song Chris writes:
Acts 9:36-43 April 28 Spiritual Disciplines: Serving Our spiritual tool box is beginning to fill up with spiritual disciplines. We already have Silence and Solitude along with Evangelism in the tool box. Last week we added Fasting. We discussed three reasons for fasting being to 1. Strengthen our prayer life and open our hearts to God’s guidance. 2. Express grief and 3. Express repentance and draw closer to God. Everyone was encouraged to support our missions in prayer and fasting. You were asked especially to support the teens in their 30 hour famine with your dollars, by fasting and praying for them and eating the meal they will serve after worship this morning. Today we will be adding the spiritual discipline of service to our spiritual tool box. What is the discipline of service? Maybe the best way to describe service is to look at the Pony Express. The Pony Express was a private express company that carried mail by and organized relay of horseback riders. The eastern end was St. Joseph, Missouri, and the western terminal was in Sacramento, California. The cost of sending a letter by Pony Express was $2.50 an ounce. If the weather and horses held out and the Indians held off, that letter would complete the entire two-thousand-mile journey in a speedy ten days. It may surprise you that the Pony Express was only in operation from April 3, 1860 until November 18, 1861-just seventeen months. Being a rider for the Pony Express was a tough job. You were expected to ride seventy-five to one hundred miles a day, changing horses every fifteen to twenty-five miles. Other than the mail, the only baggage you carried contained a few provisions, including a kit of flour, cornmeal, and bacon. In case of danger, you also had a medical pack of turpentine, borax, and cream of tartar. In order to travel light and to increase speed of mobility during Indian attacks, the men always rode in shirtsleeves, even during the fierce winter weather. How would you recruit volunteers for this hazardous job? An 1860 San Francisco newspaper printed this ad for the pony Express: “WANTED: young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18. Must be expert riders willing to risk daily. Orphans preferred.” Those were the honest facts of the service required, but the Pony Express never had a shortage of riders. We need to be honest with the facts about the Discipline of Serving God as well. Like the pony Express, serving God is not a job for the casually interested. It’s costly service. God asks for your life. He asks for service to God become a priority, not a pastime. He doesn’t want servants who will give The Creator the leftovers of their life’s commitments. Serving God isn’t a short-term responsibility either. Unlike the Pony Express, God’s Kingdom will never go under, no matter how technological our world gets. In our lectionary reading today we see that Tabitha was always doing good. Her life was one of doing good by serving other people. Tabitha’s service was given freely in joy because she knew she was a forgiven woman. Donald Whitney in his book, “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life writes, “In this life there will always be a part of us (the bible calls it the flesh) that will say, “If I have to serve, I want to get something for it. If I can be rewarded, or gain a reputation for humility, or somehow turn it to my advantage, then I’ll give the impression of humility and serve.” But this isn’t Christ like service. This is hypocrisy.” Richard Foster calls it “self-righteous service”. “Self-righteous service requires external rewards. It needs to know that people see and appreciate the effort. It seeks human applause-with proper religious modesty of course… Self righteous service is highly concerned about results. It eagerly wants to see if the person served will reciprocate in kind… The flesh whines against service but screams against hidden service. It strains and pulls for honor and recognition. It will devise subtle, religiously acceptable means to call attention to the service rendered.” The only acceptable motive for service is love. Jimi Hendrix once said, “When the love of power is replaced by the power of love, then we will have peace. Service begins with a love of God that fosters a love for others. It is in that love that we serve God in true humility under all circumstances. Donald Whitney tells this story. “I read of a Missionary in Africa who was asked if he really liked what he was doing. His response was shocking. “Do I like this work?” he said. “No. My wife and I do not like dirt. We have reasonably refined sensibilities. We do not like crawling into vile huts through goat refuse…But is a man to do nothing for Christ he does not like? God pity him, if not. Liking or disliking has nothing to do with it. We have orders to ‘Go.’ And we go. Love constrains us.” The more we love God the more we will live for God and serve the Creator, and the more we love others the more we will serve them. The most significant gifts in the church’s life in every era are ordinary natural abilities sanctified. In other words ordinary gifts blessed by God are the most significant gifts we can offer God in service. This room is filled with God’s version of the Pony Express. We are called to serve in regular, ongoing ministry in the church because we love God. It doesn’t have to be in a recognized or elected position. We are called to find a way to defeat the temptation to serve only when it’s convenient or exciting. Disciplined service is not service that only takes the easy task in the best time during the best weather. Those with a servant’s heart and eyes in this room will find themselves compelled by love to serve the ongoing ministry of this faith community. Friends, here is the bottom line when it comes to Christian Service: Spiritual gifts are for using in service. If God didn’t intend for your gift to be used, there would no longer be any purpose for your life. Put another way, the purpose of your life is to serve God. When you stop serving God what is the reason for you to live? God is advertising for you. God calls out to us, WANTED: human beings, all ages must be willing to risk daily. Persons willing to give their life preferred. Today put service in your tool box and shine for Jesus.
Acts 9:1-11 April 21/22 Spiritual Disciplines: Fasting Today we are adding our third spiritual discipline to our spiritual tool box. So far in our tool box we have silence and solitude and evangelism. We need silence and solitude to listen to God. To begin experiencing silence and solitude we are encouraged to take minute retreats every day to be with God. Evangelism is a necessary tool for every Christian to use. We investigated four evangelistic tools last week. First, know what you believe, ask people if you can pray for them in your prayer time, wear you faith gently on your sleeve and get involved in ministry in Centre County. We also suggested practicing sharing the Good News at God Moments time during worship. Our tool today is the spiritual discipline of fasting. Let’s begin by saying that fasting is not a weight loss program. We aren’t going to be talking about losing ten pounds in five days or anything like that. So don’t go there. Here comes a quiz. Quick, what do people who fast look like? Are they a bit strange? Are they John the Baptist types? Hanging out in the desert weird looking dressing funny? Does Jesus come to your mind? Jesus practices and teaching fasting to his disciples. Fasting is mentioned more often than baptism in the scriptures. Fasting is mentioned 77 times and baptism 75 times. Fasting is a spiritual discipline important to Jesus yet we modern Christians seem to have left this one out of our tool box. Maybe the reason for not using the spiritual discipline of fasting is because we have forgotten, or have never known what fasting is all about. Well, let’s take a look at what fasting really is. A biblical understanding of fasting is a Christian’s voluntary abstinence from food for spiritual purposes. Donald Whitney in his book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life states; “Fasting is Christian because the discipline’s motives and purposes are to be God-centered. It is voluntary in that fasting is not to be coerced. Fasting is more than just the ultimate crash diet for the body; it is abstinence from food for spiritual purposes.” There are three types of fasts we can use to become God-centered in our life. First there is the Normal fast where we abstain from food but not water. This is much like Jesus’ fast in Matthew 4 when he spends forty days in the wilderness not eating. The second type of fast is a partial fast. Daniel and his friends in Daniel 1 went on a fast eating only vegetables and drinking water. John the Baptist only ate locust and wild honey. I don’t recommend that diet. We can also embrace a partial fast by limiting our portions. The third type of fast is the absolute fast where we avoid all food and liquid, even water. Examples of this absolute fast can be found in Ezra where he fasted for the people and in Esther when she asked the people to have an absolute fast and pray on her behalf. In today’s passage of scripture we see that didn’t eat or drink anything for three days while he was blind. Normal and Partial fasts are my recommendation for you to use in your effort to become God-centered. Fasting is expected of a Christian. Jesus says in Matthew 6:16-17 “When you fast don’t look like you are fasting” my paraphrase. Okay, so why would you fast. Let me share three reasons for us to fast. 1. To strengthen our prayer life and receive God’s guidance. 2. To Express Grief and 3. To express repentance and return to God. Let me say this, there are many other spiritual reasons to fast like humbling our self before God, ministering to the needs of others, overcoming temptation. But today we will focus on these three. Fast so you can strengthen your prayer and receive God’s guidance. John Calvin, the great reformer in the Presbyterian traditions stated, “whenever men are to pray to God concerning any great matter it would be expedient to appoint fasting along with prayer.” Something happens when we fast that sharpens the edge of our intercessions and gives passion to our supplications. Fasting opens the eyes of our spirit and jump starts our praying in a more intense nature. There is a telling story in Judges 20 about the eleven tribes of Israel going to battle against little vastly outnumbered tribe of Benjamin. Twice the tribes prayed before they attacked Benjamin and twice they were soundly beaten. On the third day the people prayed and fasted until evening. Only then did they hear the Lord tell them they would be victorious against the enemy. Some how, when we fast we are more conscious of God’s presence. Our spiritual senses are sharpened when we fast. Fasting strengthens our prayer and opens our hearts to God’s guidance. We can fast to express grief. There are plenty of examples in the scriptures of people fasting in the grief of death. Those same 11 tribes fasted in grief over their dead in the battle with the tribe of Benjamin. After King Saul and his son Jonathan where killed the people fasted in grief for seven days. We can also fast in grief over our sins. We are not required to pay for our sins, because we cannot and because Christ has done that once for all. But that doesn’t mean that confession is a light and easy thing. A simple mouthing of words does not mean we have confessed. Mere admission is not confession. Christ is dishonored by a frivolous view of confession that does no appreciate how much our sin cost Him. Confession does involve as least some degree of grief for the sins committed. Fasting can be the expression of grief that expresses a heartfelt confession. We can fast to strengthen our prayer and receive God’s guidance. We can fast to express grief and the logical next fast is one of repentance and the return to God. Fasting for this purpose is similar to fasting for the purpose of expressing grief for sin. But as repentance is a change of mind resulting in a change of action, fasting can represent more than just grief over sin. It also can signal a commitment to obedience and a new direction. The best illustration of fasting to repent and turn to God can be found in the book of Jonah. How about those Ninevites? Jonah preaching to them telling them they are going to be destroyed for their evil ways. The entire city declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Then he sent out a decree that no one should eat or drink. That everyone should wear sackcloth, even the animals and all the people should call urgently on God and repent of there evil ways. Nineveh became a different city and God gave them new life. We can fast to repent and return to God. Next weekend our teens are going to fast in an effort to starve hunger. You can help. Put some dollars in their buckets to be sent to the World Hunger Ministry. The 30 hour famine is a world wide effort to make a dent in the 29,000 children who die everyday from hunger. You can also help by joining them in their fast. Try a twelve hour fast where you eat nothing and pray for the teens to be able to fast in joy for the hungry. Fasting is expected of a Christian by Jesus Christ it is an important tool in our spiritual tool box. Fast to strengthen your prayer life and receive God’s guidance. Fast to express grief. Fast to express repentance and return to God. Watch your life change.
Acts 5: 27-32 Spiritual Disciplines: Evangelism Today we are reconnecting with our spiritual disciplines series of messages. The first discipline in the series was the need to have silence and solitude so we can connect with God. We recommended using minute retreats to get ourselves started in having daily time with God in silence and solitude. I hope you all put the silence and solitude tool in your spiritual tool box and have been using it. Today we are talking about our second tool for the spiritual tool box. Today’s tool is evangelism. Evangelism means communicating the Gospel. Peter states in the lectionary reading today, “We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” Acts 5:32 Donald Whitney author of Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life writes this; I heard the story of a man who became a Christian during an evangelistic emphasis in a city in the But the new believer was crestfallen. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?” he asked, “You were the very reason I have not been interested in the gospel all these years.” “How can that be?” the boss wondered. “I have done my very best to live the Christian life around you.” “That’s the point,” explained the employee. “You lived such a model life without telling me that it was Christ who made the difference, I convinced myself that if you could live such a good and happy life without Christ, then I could too.” The key is not just to rub shoulders with unbelievers, but to dialogue with them in such a way that their hearts and minds might be opened to the gospel. If you are looking for a way to begin a discussion of your faith, try this. To turn the conversation toward spiritual matters ask the person how you can pray for him or her. Evangelism is a natural outflow of the Christian life. We should all be able to talk about what the Lord has done for us and what He means to us. Jesus said in Matthew 5:16 ‘Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” To let your light shine before others means more than simply not doing anything to keep your light from shinning. Think of His exhortation as, ‘Let there be the light of good works shinning in your life, let there be the evidence of God-honoring change radiating from you . Let it begin! Make room! In a survey conducted by Discipleship Journal it was discovered that nine out of ten individuals who attempt to explain their theology to other people come away from those experiences feeling as if they have failed…The reality of human behavior is that most people avoid those activities in which they perceive themselves to be failures. When it comes to evangelism we need to learn that sharing the Gospel is successful evangelism. The transforming power of evangelism is not in our ability. The power of evangelism is the Holy Spirit. From the instant that the Holy Spirit dwells in us we are given the power to witness. Peter says, “We are witnesses.” We are not all empowered to evangelize the same way, but all believers have been given power to be witnesses of Jesus Christ. The evidence that you’ve been given the power to witness is a changed life. The same Holy Spirit power that changed your life for Christ is the power to witness for Christ. So if God by His Spirit has changed your life, be confident of this: God has given you the power to share the Good News. Evangelizing is part of who a Christian is. When you mow the grass with your power mower you put gas in the tank because the engine needs gas to run. The gasoline is not considered an extra to the mowing experience. Without the gas the mower won’t mow grass. Being a Christian and evangelizing is similar to the mower. If Christians do not evangelize-that is if Christians do not share the Gospel the Christian church will soon cease to exist. A part of who each one of us is as a Christian is being an evangelist. Here are a few ideas to begin using the evangelism tool in your spiritual disciplines tool box. First, take an hour to write down in one sentence what you believe about God. Write one sentence about Jesus and one sentence about The Holy Spirit. And write one sentence about what the church the body of Christ means to you. If you need some help with what you believe check a copy of one of the creeds we use in worship. Once you are able to articulate what you do believe it is much easier to share the gospel with another person. We briefly mentioned the second approach to evangelism already. During a conversation with someone ask how you can pray for him or her. The person will let you know if they want to know more. Third, wear your faith gently on your sleeve. I have begun wearing a comma instead of a cross on my suit coats. I heard John Thomas the President of the United Church of Christ tell a story about a flight attendant who asked him what the comma was for that he was wearing. John had the opportunity to share with her his belief in a God who is still speaking. The comma reminds us to never place a period where God has placed a comma. The flight attendant told John that she never would have asked him the question if he had been wearing a cross. So the comma can spark the evangelism conversation. Some of us have the God is still speaking license plate frames on our cars. Again we spark interest in the gospel by gently wearing our faith on our sleeves. Fourth, get involved in a humanitarian mission here in Today I pray that you add the tool of evangelism to the tool of silence and solitude in your spiritual tool box and begin to share the gospel everyday of your life. People are looking for something to hold on to in life. We know Jesus is the life giver that people need. Share the gospel with them and change your world.
Luke 19:28-40 April 2007 “An Army Can’t Stop an Idea Whose Time Has Come” Luke shares with us an idea whose time has come in his telling of Jesus entry into Jerusalem. This idea comes in three parts: First Jesus gives us a gift. Second we see what happens when we accept the gift. And third we are shown what our response can be like. We see in this passage of scripture an idea whose time has come and an army can’t stop it. Let’s take a look. First, notice that the entry involves Jesus and his disciples: No one else. There is no ovation by the general crowds that are in the city for the festival as Matthew shares. There are no persons gathered because of reports about the raising of Lazarus as John relates. Luke tells us that Jesus is honored and praised only by his followers. This is not the group which turns cold and later calls for Jesus’ crucifixion. It is a true statement to say that his disciples did not fully understand his messiah ship, but they did not praise him on this day and then later call for his crucifixion. The portrait of such a fickle crowd must come from some account other than Luke’s. The story as Luke tells it is less crowded and more subdued, but it is an event of and for believers, and its meaning lies in Jesus and the gift of life he is giving to all human kind. Nothing is going to stop Jesus from giving us this gift. This is an idea whose time has come. And an army can’t stop an idea whose time has come. Allow me to use a much less important idea to explain what I am sharing with you today. The early church leadership had an aversion to music in worship. There was no instrumental music used in the worship experience. The early Christians were opposed to the use of any musical instrument in church, and they took a particularly dim view of the organ because of its association with extravagance and luxury. My favorite quote from church leadership during the organ battles was this; “That squawk box should remain in the taverns where it belongs.” The pipe organ was invented in the second century but the church did not begin to use pipe organs until the 13 th century. At first it was used like bells and chimes to call people to worship but eventually evolved to become an integral part of the worship experience. The gift of music is one given to us by God. Music in worship is an idea whose time had come. And an army can’t stop an idea whose time has come. Jesus gives us more than music. Jesus’ idea of giving us life is an idea whose time has come. And an army can’t stop an idea whose time has come. Second what happens when we accept the gift? Look at what Luke doesn’t say. Fred Craddock in his Interpretation of Luke says this: “Luke’s account contains no mention of hosannas, of palms, or of branches cut from trees. Those belonged to parades and festivals with nationalistic overtones, and Luke apparently wants this event to carry no such implication. Perhaps this is also the reason the bursts of praise contain no references to David or to the Davidic throne. The word “King” is used but it seems to be without political force. King is placed beside Peace.” The idea that Luke is sharing with us is that when we accept the gift our lives will be focused on peace. We will live peace like one of our favorite Christmas carols proposes. Silent night, holy night all is calm all is bright, round yon virgin mother and child. Holy infant so tender and mild sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace. The idea is a life of peace in Jesus, a life we live in peace with Jesus. When Joseph Mohr wrote these words and Franz Gruber put them to music in 1818 for a Christmas Eve worship the song began to be distributed to other churches. The song was not well received. George Weber was the music director at the Mainz Cathedral in Germany when he first experienced Silent Night. His response captures the feeling of much of the church leadership at the time. Speaking of the song he says it is, “vulgar mischief and void of all religious and Christian feelings.” I wonder was peace vulgar to the Christian community in 1819? Is the idea of peace vulgar to the church in 2007? Luke shares with us the idea of a gift of life given by Jesus that when received results in souls filled with peace. This is an idea whose time has come. And we all know, an army can’t stop an idea whose time has come. Finally what is our response to this gift that results in peace? Let’s see what Luke has to say. A feature of the episode peculiar to Luke’s account is the objection by some Pharisees to the activity of the disciples. We cannot, of course, know in what tone of voice or with what motivation the Pharisees asked Jesus to rebuke his disciples. Their reason might have been from self-interest; that is, let us not upset the Romans and lose what few benefits we now have. Or their reason might have been concern for Jesus’ safety. After all, they had warned Jesus earlier about the threat of Herod. Of course, the Pharisees could simply be registering their won disagreement or disbelief. Jesus simply responds in a vivid image to affirm the rightness and appropriateness of his disciples’ praise. “If these were silent, the very stones would cry out” In other words, some things simply must be said. God will provide a witness though every mouth be stopped; opposition to Christian witness cannot succeed; and the truth will come out, it cannot long be silenced. That stones would shout is of course a figure of speech, but the expression does remind us that in biblical understanding, the creation is involved in events that we tend to think affect humans alone. Genesis says that the sin of Adam and Eve caused the earth to produce thorns and thistles; Isaiah sings of a reign of peace on earth when cows and bears will graze together and the lion and the lamb will lie down side by side; Matthew says a special star appeared to announce Jesus’ birth, and that the earth shuddered, cracking rocks, when he died; and Matthew, Mark and Luke agree that for the three hours Jesus hung on the cross, there was an eclipse of the sun. All this dramatic language reminds us of what we sometimes forget: all life is from God, the whole universe shares together destruction and blessing, life and death, and in the final reign of God “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” Rom 2:21 Of course, if we are silent, the stones will cry out. In 1445 a German goldsmith and printer named Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. This invention revolutionized the passing of information and made it possible for the bible to be printed and provided to everyone who wanted to read it. This was a tool God gave us to use. But church leadership was very much opposed to having the Holy Scriptures printed by a secular machine. Church leadership was so opposed to the idea that church people who promoted the idea of printing the bible were hunted down and killed, often by burning at the stake as heretics. The printing press was a God given gift to shout out the story of Jesus Christ. Printing the words was an idea whose time had come. The time has come for us to cry out to the world and share the gift of life in Jesus Christ. And an army can’t stop an idea whose time has come. So Luke in his telling of the triumphal entry shares with us an idea whose time has come. He tells us: Jesus gives us the gift of life. When we receive it our life becomes a focus on peace. In that peace we cry out to all the world that Jesus is life. The gift is yours. The peace is yours. The idea is to tell the world. This is an idea whose time has come. And we all know now that, an army can’t stop an idea whose time has come.
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