The Mustard Seed

Sermon: "The Blessed Mess"

“The Blessed Mess”                Text: 1 Corinthians 10:14-17

World Communion Sunday

Elpis Christian Church

October 2, 2011

 

 

Many of you may not realize it – but every year, here at Elpis, two important events occur on the same weekend – our Fall Festival and World Communion Sunday.  It’s always struck me how fitting that is.  To get together and, on the one hand, spend all that time chopping those onions or peeling those potatoes or cooking that meat or stirring those huge stew pots filled with Brunswick Stew – and on the other hand, spend some time gathering around the Lord’s Table in worship and thanksgiving.  Both events are about fellowship.  Both events demand something of us.  Both events draw us close together as a church family and both events call us to reach out to the hungry community outside these four sanctuary walls.  Butter Beans and Blessed Ordinance of the Church – those two just go together well, I think.

And there is something else that is kind of ironic.  At both our Fall Festival and at the Lord’s Supper – things can get a little messy now and then.  At the festival it’s all about mixing and chopping and stirring and pricing and selling that yard sale stuff.  At the Lord’s Supper it’s about prayerfully and thankfully recognizing that the cup represents spilt blood and that the broken bread represents a broken body sacrificially given in love for all people.  That symbolism is sometimes lost on us as we rush through the ceremony each week.  But sometimes it becomes very clear.  Take for example what happened at one worship service held years ago in a chapel gathering somewhere.  Here’s the story, which also explains my sermon title today:

“The “Blessed mess” –as it was later called by eyewitnesses - happened unexpectedly during a solemn academic worship service. The Faculty and the student body filled the chapel of the Seminary. The choir performed magnificently. Preaching in his festive robe, the Dean delivered a powerful message. The occasion was heightened by the fact that it was Communion time a significant event, when everybody in the school was expected to attend.

Everything went as scheduled and without blunder though a number of professors and students participated in the Liturgy. When the part of the Lord’s Supper was reached, the youngest and recently appointed new Faculty member walked to the Communion Table ready to serve the Holy Supper.

He was a thin, diminutive person of quiet voice and gentle manner. Since this was his first ministerial function in the Seminary he was noticeably tensed, working hard to do everything in the traditional, “proper” way. He handled his part well and nobody expected trouble till he lifted up the Communion bread. While quoting the words of Christ, “This is my body broken for you”, he was supposed to break the symbol of that body into two halves.

Apparently the loaf had an unusually tough, thick crust because the young professor’s long, narrow fingers could not break through it. He tried once, twice, many times, turning the bread desperately around looking for a better grip and a weaker spot – but in vain. It resisted all assaults.

The people watched his pitiable efforts with increasing shock and dismay. Not knowing what to do, nobody moved to help him in his struggle. And struggle it was. Sweating and panting, gradually disregarding any semblance of solemnity, the professor was stubbornly determined to break that bread. With full force he violently pushed it and pulled it, forced his thumbnails into it, tried to peel off bits and pieces. As the result of this horrendous fight eventually the impeccable Holy Table was covered with crumbs and small torn parts of the non-cooperating bread. It was a real mess. 

Yet, the declaration of the Lord, “This is my body broken for you”, received a deeper and lasting meaning on that day. 

After the service, participants thanked the professor for such an unusual visual presentation of Christ’s suffering. One said: “This was my most memorable Communion Service because it helped me realize that salvation is the result of such a struggle against brokenness”.”

Salvation is the result of such a struggle against brokenness.  Think about that for a minute.  Maybe it takes a “blessed mess” at the communion table to sometimes remind us of what it really means – so that we don’t take it for granted.   It may be that one of the dangers of using neatly chopped up bread or perfectly shaped unleavened pieces is that we forget the broken aspect of it all.   And, in the same way, maybe getting knee deep in the messiness of our annual fall festival can remind us of something too.  That we are not a perfect community by a long shot; that we are broken, imperfect people who get mixed together – like that Brunswick stew we sold yesterday – mixed together in big pots of love and poured out sacrificially for others in Christ’s name.

I know, I know – some of you are probably thinking – “Man, he’s really going out on a limb today – trying to really make something out of a simple pot of stew or a weekly communion service.”  But that’s what preachers like me do.  We take the common elements of our life – be they Brunswick stew or Communion Bread – and search for symbolism there that can help us to appreciate what our life of faith and service is all about.  So bear with me.  Think about it a little.  Think about how God, in his wisdom, and in his love does this in our lives.  He takes the messes we make – and the messes we are – and blesses them in His service.  Doesn’t He?

And then that leads to a question.    How are we doing with that?  On this World Communion Sunday, and on this Fall Festival weekend, how are we doing at making ourselves available as part of God’s “blessed mess”?

One of the things that was very important to the apostle Paul was that he help others understand that God can take you and your life; turn you upside down; shake you up a bit; and make something wonderful to His glory.  That’s what God did in Paul’s life.  That’s what he did in the lives of those of the early church who sacrificed everything they had to be part of this thing called the “Body of Christ.”  He took all they were; all they had to offer and put it into service.  And, especially at the Lord’s Supper, they were constantly reminded of how Christ had given himself for them and for the entire world in just that way.   Paul asks those pivotal questions in today’s text: “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ?  And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?”

He might just as well have put it this way:

“Every time we come together around this table – and we eat this messy, broken bread and we spill a little of this wine getting it into our mouths – doesn’t that remind us all of what God did for us and how he made us one people because of it?  Sacrifice is a messy thing.  But it’s that sacrifice that has brought us and all of God’s people together as one.  So let’s overlook each other’s faults – each other’s sins – each other’s weaknesses – let’s overlook or forgive each other’s messiness – and let’s be one people the way God want us to be one people – in His spirit and in his love.”

And then he hammers the point home: “Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body.”

We live in a broken and very messy world.  There are a lot of people who feel disenfranchised – which is a fancy way of saying – they feel like they just don’t fit in; that they have been pushed aside by life and forgotten.  At things like our Fall Festival, and especially at times like when we gather around the Lord’s Table, we have a wonderful chance to do something.  We can say to our community “we want you to be a part of who we are in Christ’s name.”  We can do so much more than just sell a little stew or some old yard sale items and make some money for the church.  We can open the doors of the church and the doors of our hearts and invite someone in.  And – at this table – we can remind ourselves and proclaim to the entire world – that we are one people beloved by God.  We are far from perfect; in some ways we have a made a mess of things.  But we are the people of God living in a broken and messy world as those who know something very important.  God has not forgotten about it.  God has not pushed us, or any of his children, aside. God wants us all at his table and in his kingdom.

I like that the Fall Festival and World Communion Sunday fall on the same weekend every single year.  Because it says loud and clear: “Welcome to our ‘blessed mess.’  Come in and join us in the spirit that makes us one in Christ!”

            I want to conclude today with a simple invitation.  It’s an invitation to the Lord’s Supper.  But it’s an invitation to a lot more than just that.  It’s a call to thanksgiving and to service as part of the worldwide body of Christ:

“Come to this table, not because you must, but because you may.  Come not because you are worthy, but because you realize your unworthiness.  Come not because you love God so much but because you love God a little and you want to know more about how to love God.”

Come to his table – his messy, glorious, holy and blessed table.

 

AMEN.

 

 

Sermon: "Water in the Desert"

“Water in the Desert”                                                 Text: Exodus 17:1-7

Elpis Christian Church

September 25, 2011

 

 

            “Is the Lord among us or not?”  I don’t suppose there could be a more important question ever asked.  And that’s saying a lot given how many questions confront us in life.  But when I think of all the ways, and all the circumstances, in which I and others I have known have asked that one, single, burning question – I’ll stand on what I’ve said.  It’s the most important one ever asked.  Because when you boil it all down – if the Lord isn’t among us – we are lost in the most profound of ways.  And life, well, it’s just a merry-go-round or a roller coaster that takes us up and down and around and eventually dumps us out in a cold, empty, dead universe.  Game over.

            So – how good it is to answer the question in the affirmative today.  God IS among us – God has ALWAYS been among us.  God WILL ALWAYS BE among us.  And that makes life a whole another thing.  It makes if full and rich and ultimately meaningful.  Not a game at all, but a journey with a wonderful destination.  And that – is what the people of Israel had to learn.  That is what WE have to learn.  Unfortunately, too often, we learn it the hard way.

            When I was a kid there were some lessons I just had to learn the hard way.  How about you?

 

• There was the time I took a small, pearl-handled pocket knife to school, and, though it was against school rules, couldn’t resist whipping it out at lunch time and performing surgery on the paper cup on my lunch tray.  You would’ve thought I had brought a loaded machine gun in and shot up the place.  But – rules are rules. And soon I was in the principal’s office.
• There was the time – more than one time really – when my eyes were too big for my stomach – and I had to choke down food that my parent’s had paid for with hard earned money because I had insisted on ordering from the “adult” menu instead of wisely choosing from the “kids” meals.
• There were all the times I suffered through exams because I had spent too much time the night before watching TV instead of reading my notes.

 

 

And then, there are of course the adult times when I’ve had to learn things the hard way too.  When I have said the wrong thing, done the wrong thing, refused to do what I knew to be the right thing because of pride or ignorance or some combination of both.  I won’t ask you to embarrass yourself by sharing the times you have failed in life like that – and I will thank you to not ask me for any specific examples from my own life.  But you and I both know – we have plenty of occasions we could recall, don’t we?

Life, for all its joys, is full of hard lessons.  Maybe that is why I like reading about the people of Israel and their wilderness wanderings.  Because time and time again they are just so dumb.  And time and time again, God is so good to them in spite of their stupidity.  Maybe it somehow allows me to feel superior – because I can so easily see what the people of Israel could not see.

One of those times was the one I just read about.  When Moses and the people quarreled with each other about whether or not God was with them in that desert.  And when God and Moses proved once again that He was – by providing the thirsty people with a little refreshment from, of all places, a dirty old rock.  Here the people have to, one more time, admit how little they understand about life and about God and about the glorious reality that he will never leave them high and dry in their wilderness wandering.  Here they learn once again that even out of a place as unlikely as a rock in the desert – He can provide life-giving sustenance.

I’m sure they were grateful for the water when it came gushing out of that stone.  But in a way, it was probably a little bitter to drink as well – because surely they weren’t shamed by their lack of faith.  It’s easy to feel superior to them.  To say, “Why didn’t you trust God?”  But come on – are we any better?  Don’t we have an equally astounding lack of faith now and then?

So that leads me to this.  If the most important question we can ask in life is “Is God among us or not?” and if the life affirming answer is that He is – and that He has proved that time and again.  How do we handle this recurrent, deadly, lack of faith that plagues us all now and then?

Today I want to suggest a couple of things.  I want to suggest a couple of ways that when you are out there in the desert looking at all those dusty looking rocks that surround you – you can remember – God – the rock of our salvation – has some living water for you – right at hand.

In those dry, dusty, moments of weak or nearly non-existent faith – here are a couple of things I want you to remember to do.

 

1. Remember you are not the only one to ever experience what you are experiencing.
2. Remember that what you are experiencing – no matter how painful or frightening – is only temporary.
3. Remember that you are never, ever, alone because even if every other person on the face of the earth were to abandon you – God never will.  Remember that proves just how precious you are in God’s sight.
4. Remember then, in light of that, how you have something ultimately valuable and unique to offer to this world.  So get busy finding out what it is – and get busy doing it.

 

Do that – and I think you will soon find yourself moving out of your confusion, or your grief, or your anger or your cynicism or your lack of faith or whatever it is that is temporarily defeating you and holding you back in life.

Look at those unhappy, grumbling, desert wanderers in our passage today.  They were struggling because they had failed to do each one of the things I just mentioned.

 

• They had forgotten that they were not the only ones to ever wander in need. 
• They were so busy feeling sorry for themselves they couldn’t even recall how God had set them free from their slavery.  They had fallen into the trap that there temporary condition was a permanent one; that God was nowhere to be found and that this Moses fellow had sold them a bill of goods and that they were all going to die.  Most important of all – they had forgotten God’s promise that they were on their way to a promised land full of milk and honey.

 

• They had forgotten how precious they were to God.  And so – it was easy to believe that they were easily expendable.  And, because they were so easily expendable, they started to believe they had no purpose.

 

• And so – they were on the verge of despair – feeling hopeless, abandon, and worthless.  And that is when people die.

 

So, literally, thank God – that God stepped in and did something about it.  Via Moses water was provided – but what was given was much more than just water.  It was hope.  And it allowed them to go on.

 

Now some will cynically say, “So what? That first generation of wilderness wanderers didn’t make it to the Promised Land!  Only their children did!”  And that is true – there was harsh price to be paid for those who consistently disobeyed and walked away from God.  In a way you could say they learned the hard way about what walking away from God too many times can mean.

            But – we mustn’t let that harsh truth blind us from the fact that ultimately that next generation did make it to the Promised Land.  And from this people ultimately came the savior of the world.  There were some harsh detours along the way – because God allowed Israel to suffer some consequences of their disobedience.  But ultimately – a remnant survived – and God’s purposes were fulfilled.  And we are here to tell the story and carry it forward.

I’ll repeat myself.  WE can too easily forget what life is all about, how we fit into the larger picture, and start to believe we are alone.  But if we can remember – if we can just remember – we are not the only ones to have ever thus despaired; we are not alone; and God will see us through if only we have faith in Him to do so – it will make all the difference in the world.

 

Some lessons we do have to learn the hard way.  But the lesson of the smitten rock in the wilderness is that some seemingly rock-hard obstacles can by God’s grace become living water.  Theologians have long understood that the smitten rock symbolizes the living Christ that smitten for us provides life.

It’s an obstacle for many.  But for those who can believe its salvation.

Look around you.  There are people – thirsty people – who feel alone and abandoned and hopeless.  You know that God is good and loving and ever willing to provide strength and love and hope.  Maybe in some small way you can help those thirsty people find a little something to drink.  And maybe, just maybe, the next time your faith fails - and you are thirsty – someone will do the same for you.

“Is God among us or not?”  Absolutely, He is.  So in spite of any temporary difficulty or doubt - let’s all take a long, lingering, deep drink of that good news.  And then let’s move on - to the Promised Land.

 

AMEN.

 

 

 

Sermon: "Why Baptism?"

“Why Baptism?”               Text: Galatians 3:26-29

Elpis Christian Church

April 17, 2011

 

 

     Well I thought today, since we’ve had our baptismal service as part of our morning worship, it would be good timing to talk a little bit about this ancient ritual.  Baptism is one of those things that, if you ask a half-dozen average persons to explain its meaning, you might get a half-dozen answers.  There’s good reason for that really. One is that everyone experiences baptism in slightly different ways – especially if you’re the one being baptized.

Some of us here today were baptized as infants.  It was an act of faith entered into by their parents – and they had little to do with it at the time.  No one asks a baby – “Hey, is it O.K. with you if next Sunday we dress you up in a frilly white dress, hold you up in front of a room full of people, and pour some water over your head? It’s sort of a religious thing . . . you O.K. with that?”  Parents just do it – and only later do some of those individuals come forward, enter into what their church calls “confirmation classes,” then finally become members of their church body through formal expression of their faith.

Still others of us were baptized like our candidates today – having made a formal confession of faith on their own accord.  Four youth and one adult were immersed in our baptismal pool, according to ancient, New Testament tradition.  Or, to put it a little less formally – when it comes to our baptismal experience - some of us have been “dunked.”

For some, it’s a very meaningful, holy moment.  For others, it’s more of a rite of passage – something they do because they just think they have to – and only later may they come to appreciate its full significance.  For still others – it’s kind of mixed bag. Take my own mother, for instance, sprinkled as an infant in the Methodist church; immersed into the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) as an adult.  And not just immersed – but dunked into a pool of over-heated water, thanks to a faulty water heating system.  She always said afterward, “Now I know what those lobsters feel like.” 

Finally, there are those who have never experienced baptism personally – and maybe find the whole thing more than a little strange.  “What’s this all about, anyway?” they say.  “Sprinkling, dunking, what’s the difference and what does it matter?”  Well, those are good questions.  And today I want to take a stab at answering them.

So let’s start with the word itself – baptism.  It is translated from the Greek – where we find it as baptizo (bap-tid-zo.)  It means, “to dip repeatedly, to submerge, to cleanse by dipping or submerging, to wash, to make clean with water, or to wash one’s self, to bathe.”  It also can mean, interestingly enough, to “overwhelm.”

According to James Montgomery Boice, writing in BIBLE STUDY MAGAZINE in May 1989, the “clearest example that shows the meaning of baptizo is a text from the Greek poet and physician Nicander, who lived about 200 B.C.”  What’s funny though is that it’s not a religious text in which we find the word used.  It’s not even a Greek tragedy about the sinking of a mighty war ship.  It’s a recipe – for making pickles. Nicander says that in order to make a pickle (and let’s see if you ladies agree) – the vegetable should first be ‘dipped’ (bapto) into boiling water and then ‘baptized’ (baptizo) in the vinegar solution.  But the first – the dipping - is temporary.  The second, the act of baptizing the vegetable, produces a permanent change.”  Maybe what happened to my Mom isn’t so unusual after all.

Well, I know our candidates today are glad that we didn’t dip them into boiling water and baptize them in vinegar solution afterward.  But it’s interesting that – spiritually speaking – they experienced something akin to those pickles in question.  You see – we dipped them in the water – that part, as significant as we try to make it – is only temporary; only symbolic.  The real change, the permanent one, is what happens thanks to God’s grace.  And it has nothing to do with vinegar.  It has everything to do with love.

There’s a legend that when Saint Patrick baptized King Aengus (eengus) of Ireland, at some time during the rite St. Patrick leaned on his sharp-pointed staff and inadvertently stabbed the king’s foot.  After the baptism was over, St. Patrick looked down at all the blood, realized what he had done, and begged the king’s forgiveness.  “Why did you suffer this pain in silence,” the Saint wanted to know.  The king replied, “I thought it was part of the ritual.”

     Sometimes we too, don’t understand everything about the ritual.  Whether we are participating in it ourselves or just onlookers, it can seem strange and foreboding.  But in spite of that, we need to remember this has nothing to do with suffering, at least not our own.  Baptism is about new life.  It’s about the Savior who loves us so much that He died for us.  Just so, we are buried – symbolically with him – in the waters of the baptismal pool.  And, like Him, we are symbolically raised from that grave to new life.

     The baptism waters also cleanse us – but it’s not about how dirty our physical body is or isn’t.  We are cleansed spiritually in this ancient, beautiful process.  Borrowed from the practices of the Jewish community; bringing to mind the ritual cleansing that was done on various occasions; we have come to see baptism as cleansing too.  We recall Naaman’s dipping in the Jordan River seven times for cleansing from his skin disease; we think of the Qumran sect which produced the Dead Sea scrolls and how they were concerned with ritual cleansing and purifying rites.  We think of John the Baptist – whom some have said may have been part of that Essene community at Qumran which emphasized repentance and submission to God’s will.  Most of all, we think of how Jesus himself came to “fulfill all righteousness” being baptized himself – though he clearly needed no spiritual cleansing.  And of how the ancient church, and the church through the ages, faithfully followed His instruction to not only be baptized in His name, but to go “into all the world, baptizing others in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”  All of this swirls around in the mysterious waters of the baptismal pool.  And all of us calls us and speaks to us intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and as a part of this community we call the body of Christ.  Baptism is all of this – and more.

     Like almost everything else in the history of the Church, it has been a bone of contention.  Churches have split many times over questions of what baptism was and how it should be practiced.  The debate has been hot and heavy.  But the rite itself remains.  And, thankfully, in more recent years the debates over the specific practice have waned.  And we have returned to a renewed appreciation of the fact that baptism should be something that brings us together as believers, not divide us.  Our own denomination, as an example, once adamantly opposed to the practice of infant baptism, now fully recognizes both infant and immersion as acceptable and no cause for conflict.  What it comes down to is this.  Sprinkling, dunking that is of little consequence; but being brought into full communion and participation with the one, worldwide, body of Christ – that is everything.  Our scripture today goes to the heart of it.  “There is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  And the words I spoke over each candidate today call them – and not just them, but us all – to something powerful and important:

 

     “Do you promise by the grace of God, to be Christ’s disciple to follow in the way of our Savior, to resist oppression and evil, to show love and justice, and to witness to the work and word of Jesus Christ as best you are able?”

 

As best you are able – we aren’t perfect.  We never will be.  But we are called.  And we are His.  And that is enough.

 

     Philip Henry, father of the 18^th century, the Presbyterian minister and scholar Matthew Henry, wrote for his children some words that became their baptismal statement.  They are words we should all take to heart.  And as we reflect on what Baptism means – they call us to devotion and to action.

 

     I take God to be my chief end and highest good.

     I take God the Son to be my prince and Savior.

     I take God the Holy Spirit to be my sanctifier,

          teacher, guide, and comforter.

     I take the Word of God to be the rule in all my actions

          and the people of God to be my people

              under all conditions.

     I do hereby dedicate and devote to the Lord all that I am,

          all that I have,

              and all that I can do.

     And all this I do deliberately, freely, and forever.

 

 

Why baptism?  Because it is so much more than just sprinkling, or dunking, or a rite of passage, or a funny, religious ritual.  It is accepting God’s grace, once and for all, and loving Him as we have first been loved.

Take some time this Lenten and Easter season to reflect on what baptism means to you.  If you’ve never been baptized – consider it.  If you have – re-claim it and celebrate it: the waters, clear and pure; God’s grace abounding; God’s church calling.  That’s what baptism is about.  And to God be the glory.

 

    

 

    

      

 

 

     

Sermon: "To Life!"

"To Life"                     Text: John 11:1-44

Elpis Christian Church

April 10, 2011

 

 

 

            Eileen Guder, in a book with the intriguing title God, But I’m Bored, has this to say:

            “You can live life on bland food so as to avoid an ulcer, drink no tea or coffee or other stimulants in the name of health, go to bed early and stay away from night life, avoid all controversial subjects so as to never give offense, mind your own business and avoid involvement in other people’s problems, spend money only on necessities and save all you can. (And) you can still break your neck in the bathtub (and die).  And, she adds, “it will serve you right.”

            That may seem a bit harsh – but she has a point.  Life is to be LIVED – lived to the fullest – and not just endured.  I’ve always loved the Jewish expression one hears at their various gatherings and celebrations, especially weddings: “L’Chayim” meaning literally, “to life.”  On the one hand, it’s a simple toast, offered before wine or other alcoholic beverages.  But it seems to me – it’s really something much more.  Coming from this people who have suffered so much for so many years, and who have survived near extermination time and again – it is a bold, faithful declaration.  “To life!” as if to say, “Live it to the fullest – and never take it for granted.”  How easy it to slip into taking life for granted.  And how much is lost when that happens.

            I put that before us today as a backdrop for our consideration of this amazing story of the raising of Lazarus.  We come to it as we wind our way with Jesus and His disciples to Jerusalem.  We come to it as we note the tension that is rising – how the powers that be in Jesus’ day are all conspiring to do Him in – as the hand of Satan himself guides them.  If you look back in the chapters leading to this passage in John, you will quickly see that there is a back and forth shifting between bold declarations of who Jesus is as the long awaited Messiah and Savior and equally bold assertions of how He must be eliminated since, they say, he is obviously only a blasphemer and troublemaker.

This is the tension that hovers near the path we walk from Bethany to Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives, Golgotha, and the tomb that would hold Jesus’ body very soon.  And in the midst of it all – in the midst of all this threat of death – we find this story of resurrection - in this case, not Jesus’ but that of one of his closest friends, Lazarus.

            It’s such a familiar story to us, in a way I think it has lost much of its impact.  But it is one we should re-visit often, not just during Lent, but all through our lives.  Because it is one of the clearest reminders we have of who Jesus was and what he was all about.  In this world of constant, inevitable, relentless death and decay – Jesus is LIFE.  We may call him a great teacher; a compassionate healer; a formidable prophetic voice for justice; a wise sage and a thousand other names.  But what we as Christians affirm most of all is that he is “the resurrection and the life.” And the question he asks of young Martha, as she wipes her red eyes and bows her head in sorrow – is the question He asks of every single man and woman on the face of this planet.  “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this?”

DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?

            That’s what it all comes down to.  You can take or leave church membership; you can decide to be a part of what’s happening here or not; you can live every day reading your Bible and trying to live by its precepts or you can set it aside and follow a thousand other ways.  But it all comes down to this.  DO you believe Jesus is who He says He is – or not?  And the answer makes all the difference in the world.

            It makes a difference in the long run – in regard to, as the evangelists are fond of saying – “where we will spend eternity.”  More sermons than could ever be remembered have used this very text to challenge, frighten, guide, and inspire listeners into making confessions of faith so as to avoid being sent to a fiery death.

            But I think the answer to Jesus’ question also makes all the difference in the world as to the kind of life we will live in the here and now.  It’s not all about avoiding hellfire and damnation.  It’s about finding life and living life to its fullest NOW.

            I believe Jesus has the power to unwrap the burial clothes which bind us so tightly not just when our physical bodies are dead and decaying in the tomb but when our day to day living has grown stagnant as well.  I believe Jesus is the way in which we find ourselves freed of the depression, the discouragement, the meaninglessness, and the sheer boredom which sometimes threatens to do us in – long before our physical bodies have died.  Put it still another way – to follow Jesus is to find not just life eternal but life in the here and now.

            Somehow, sadly, there are lots and lots of people who have missed that message.  And I have a sneaking suspicion the Church, as an institution, must bear a large part of the blame for that.  Ask a lot people for a honest response to how they feel about Church and the faith and they will tell you they’d just as soon have to a go the dentist and have a root canal as be forced to dress up and come to church and sit through one more boring sermon or sing one more glum hymn.  We’ve lost our passion – our enthusiasm – our conviction to say loud and clear “To Life!” And a lot of people know it.  So they seek life elsewhere, rarely finding it.  We’ve got to do better than that.  The stakes are too high. And it’s time we re-discover for ourselves the joys of living a real life of faith.

            So, says the cynic, how?  Prove it?  What does Jesus offer that is so “life-giving”?  Well, truth is, I can’t answer that in a hundred sermons, much less just one.  It’s something you have to experience for yourself to really come to believe it.  But, lest I be accused of just taking the easy way out on that let me make one suggestion – and it takes us back to our scripture passage today.

            Go back to that little encounter between Jesus and Martha.  He asks Martha if she believes in this concept of resurrection – and whether or not Jesus has the power to raise Lazarus.  And like any good, careful, Sunday School student, she answers the good rabbi “I know he will rise again the resurrection of the last day.”

            Do you see?  He asks the question and she answers with a nice, reasonable, theologically correct response.  Even in her sorrow, she engages her brain and finds the appropriate intellectual belief and spits it out as if she is being graded on some final exam.

            But Jesus doesn’t leave it there.  He doesn’t just pat her on the head, give her a gold star, and say, “Very good, little girl, you just keep believing that, and one day, hopefully, it will prove to be true.  And – by the way – I’m sorry for your loss. Now go fix us something to eat.”

            No – Jesus presses on.  He presses on past what she believes in her mind to what she believes in her heart.  Again he asks, “I am the resurrection and the life….Do you believe this?”  And it’s as if the light bulb goes on.  You can almost see here expression change; her eyes brighten as she realizes in her gut what he is promising do right then and right now.  And she says “Yes, Lord!  Yes!  I BELIEVE YOU ARE THE CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD, WHO WAS TO COME INTO THE WORLD.”  She might just as easily said, and maybe she did, “Yes Lord!  I understand! I believe you can make my brother live again, right here, right now.  I believe you can give us all our lives back again!”

And when she made that leap of faith, not just with her mind, but with her heart, Jesus prayed and then brought her brother back to her and her sister.

            In other words you can’t find life in Jesus just by believing certain things about Him.  That’s good, as far as it goes.  But what you really have to do is believe not just things ABOUT him – you have to believe IN HIM – and in his power to be a real, live, active, powerful, life-giving force in your life right now.

            It’s so much more than just creeds and doctrine.  It’s being willing to every day go to him, talk to him, listen to him, and follow him.  And then and only then will the veil of death begin to part and real life begin.

            Today there are some among us who are willing to do that.  They are willing to step forward and boldly declare that they don’t just believe some things about Jesus in some, vague, intellectual way.  They are willing to walk down this aisle today and say publicly that they know Jesus is the resurrection and the life and that following Him day in and day out is going to change their lives radically and permanently.  They are willing to say “To Life!” with all their hearts, minds, and souls.  I hope and pray we can join in their affirmation and add our own, enthusiastic affirmation as well.

            Chuck Swindoll says in his book Grace Awakening:

            If our greatest need had been information,

                        God would have sent us an educator.

            If our greatest need had been technology,

                        God would have sent us a scientist.

            If our greatest need had been money,

                        God would have sent us an economist.

            If our greatest need had been pleasure,

                        God would have sent us an entertainer.

            But our greatest need was forgiveness,

                        so God sent us a Savior!

 

Being a Christian isn’t just about believing in a certain set of principles, or following a certain set of laws, or engaging in a certain number of ethical actions – though it encompasses all of those things.  And it certainly isn’t just about attending a certain number of church services before you die.  Being a Christian is about choosing life by choosing Jesus as Lord and Savior in every single aspect of your life, day in, day out, every single day.  Do that, and everything else will fall into place.

 

“L’Chayim! To LIFE!”

           

Audio Sermon: "To Life!"

This past Sunday four of our youth and one adult came forward to make their confessions of faith in Christ.  Here is the audio version of the sermon from that day.

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Sermon: Choose Life

“Choose Life”                     Text: Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Elpis Christian Church

February 13, 2011

 

 

 

     Albert Stauderman tells of a young business woman who was approached by a real estate agent who wanted to sell her a home.

“A home?” she says.  “I was born in a hospital, educated in a boarding school, courted in a car, married in church.  We eat in restaurants, spend our mornings playing golf, and spend our afternoons playing bridge at the club.  Evenings we go to movies, and when I die I’m going to be buried from a funeral home.  I don’t need a home; all I need is a garage!”

     I don’t know if that young woman was just being sarcastic – or expressing a deep, earnest frustration with her life – or something in between.  But, perhaps even without knowing it, she spoke great truth.  If we are not careful life can become just a long, tedious string of events; a never ending carousel ride on the merry-go-round until one day it just abruptly ends.  And when it does and we are transported, as the apostle Paul says, in the “blink of an eye,” and we face what’s next – it might be that we are left just with a question.  “Where did the time go?”

Or, to put it even more pointedly, “Where did my life go?”  It is so easy to get caught up in the tedium of living and miss life itself.

     Dr. James Dobson, in his book Straight Talk to Men and Their Wives touches on the problem.  He describes well what he calls “the straight life” – and how drab it can be.  He says:

     “The straight life for a homemaker is washing dishes three hours a day; it is cleaning sinks and scouring toilets and waxing floors; it is chasing toddlers and mediating fights between preschool siblings.  (One mother said she had raised three ‘tricycle motors’ and they had worn her out.)  The straight life is driving your station wagon to school and back twenty-three times per week; it is grocery shopping and baking cupcakes for the class Halloween party.  The straight life eventually means becoming the parent of an ungrateful teenager, which I assure you, is no job for sissies.  (It’s difficult to let your adolescent find himself – especially when you know he isn’t even looking.)  Certainly, the straight life for the homemaker can be an exhausting experience at times.

     The straight life for a man (or woman working outside the home) is not much simpler.  It is pulling your tired frame out of bed, five days a week, fifty weeks out of the year.  It is earning a two-week vacation in August, and choosing a trip that will please the kids.  The straight life is spending your money wisely when you’d rather indulge in a new whatever; it is taking your son bike riding on Saturday when you want so badly to watch the ball game; it is cleaning out your garage on your day off after working sixty hours the prior week.  The straight life is coping with head colds and engine tune-ups and crab grass and income-tax forms; it is taking your family to church on Sunday, when you’ve heard every idea the minister has to offer; it is giving a portion of your income to God’s work when you already wonder how ends will meet.  The straight life for the ordinary, garden-variety (person) is everything I have listed and more . . . much more.”

     Surely we can identify with that, can’t we?  Regardless of our sex, age, employment status, and all the rest – we know how tiresome “the straight life” can be.  And yet – listen to what the pastor Chuck Swindoll says in response:

     “The good life – the one that truly satisfies – exists only when we stop wanting a better one.  It is the condition of savoring what is rather than longing for what might be.  The itch for things, the lust for more – so brilliantly injected by those who peddle them – is a virus draining our souls of contentment.  Have you noticed?  A man never earns enough.  A woman is never beautiful enough.  Clothes are never fashionable enough.  Cars are never nice enough.  Gadgets are never modern enough.  Relationships are never romantic enough.  Life is never full enough.

     Satisfaction comes when we step off the escalator of desire and say, ‘This is enough.  What I have will do.  What I make of it is up to me and my vital union with the living Lord.’ . . . .Honestly now, do you believe it?

     Are these two, wise counselors advising us to just “give in” to the humdrum life – the “straight” life – the crabgrass and dirty dishes life – and never, ever seek something happier, more fulfilling, more filled with purpose?

     I don’t think that’s it.  What I hear them saying, though, is that life that is meaningful and rich and filled with purpose can be found right smack-dab in the middle of even the dullest of days.  It depends on whether we are walking, or even running, with God through it all.

     Our scripture text today, pulled from ancient Israel’s history, as they stood perched on the edge of the Promised Land, speaks to this as well.

     “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.  For I command you to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.”

     There’s no question that there is a condition mentioned there – one that is so typical of Israel and its hundreds of ritual laws and requirements.  There’s more than just a hint there of “you better straighten up and fly right” if you want to live life as God intends.

     But I hear something more there too.  I hear an invitation.  I see an opportunity for those ancient people – and for us today – to realize that even in the midst of day to day drudgery and pressure and exhaustion and boredom – there is life to be found if we have eyes to see and ears to ears and spirits to discern.

Biblical scholar William Barclay puts it well by offering a little prayer.  He says,

 

     “Lord of all pots and pans and things,

          Since I’ve no time to be

     A saint by doing lovely things,

          Or watching late with Thee,

     Or dreaming in the dawn light,

          Or storming heaven’s gates,

     Make me a saint by getting meals

          And washing up the plates.”

 

Put still another way, all the challenges, big and small, of the daily life can become a relentless tyranny – a maze which through which we must aimlessly wander – until one day, if we are lucky, we will find blessed release.  Or they can become opportunities in which we find relationship and purpose with each other and with God.  The tasks that fill our calendars and buzz our Blackberries late at night can be small chances to gratefully use the talents God has given us; to explore the possibility of developing new ones; to not just scratch another job off our to-do list but also to learn and laugh and grow.  “Choose life” is not just some great, abstract, theological principle.  Nor is it just another “rule” to follow.  It is an attitude and a choice and a practical way that we find meaning in life every single day.

     I learned something about myself the other day.  I have two opposite tendencies.  One is to spend too much time pondering my options; thinking about what I might choose to do; worrying over whether the choice is right or wrong and so I get stuck in inaction.  The other is to move too quickly from one activity to the next without stopping to savor the moment; to really experience the blessing nestled within in.  Both tendencies rob me of something.  They rob me of being on the lookout for the way God is at work in my life, and in the life of those around me, and how that intersection should be not just noticed, but celebrated.  Choosing life is about being aware that in spite of all my indecision, weakness, disobedience, sloth, or ineptness, God is at work in my life – and He has given me discernment, and strength, and a willing and loving heart, and enthusiasm, and real skill in some things as well.  And even small mundane tasks can take on great meaning and purpose when they are part of a life dedicated in appreciation.

     The people of Israel were far from perfect.  In fact, read through the Old Testament and you’ll begin to wonder how they ever got at the desert in the first place.  The people of the New Testament weren’t much better.  A bunch of fishermen, a former tax-collector, a reformed prostitute, a pompous lawyer turned into a humble servant of God, you know them.  The people of the Way, of which we are a part, are a pretty mixed bag of weakness and strength as well; selfishness and selflessness; error and accomplishment.  But it was to them and it is to us that life in all its God-given beauty and richness and possibility has been given.  And it is our God-given freedom that we can use to make the best of it, or the worst of it.  “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction . . . . Choose life.”

     Think for just a moment about a couple of things.  Think about what your day, this week, this month, this year might hold for you.  Think about all the things you’ve got to get done.  Think too about this church for a minute.  You have within your bulletin that insert I mentioned – with yet one more possible “to-do” list – the committees you might join; the jobs you might take on.  Believe me – I understand that you might take a look a at all of this and just want to run for the hills.

     But think too of how in all of it – from the smallest to the greatest of choices that lie before you – there is the constant possibility for experiencing the presence of God and His love.  Think about the people with whom you will interact as you go about your daily tasks, boring or thrilling, mundane or challenging.  Think about the humanity you will touch in the process.  Think about how it all affords the chance for you to not just pass another twenty-four hours but how this day, this week, this month, and this year - might be one of the best you’ve ever lived.  The choice – the choice – is yours.  Choose life.

 

 

       

 

Audio Sermon: The Salt of the Earth

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Audio Sermon: Just Imagine

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High Tech Christmas

Here's a music video a friend shared with us showing a band from a contemporary worship service bringing a little Christmas cheer via their ipads, etc.

 

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