“Whose Image Is This?”

Mark 12:  13-17,  CEB

Preached by Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, 

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

4^th Sunday After Pentecost, July 2nd, 2017,    (Series:  Questions Jesus Asked  #3)

A man came to a Presbyterian Church and asked to see the Pastor. “Pastor,” he said, “My dog died and I would like a Christian burial for him.”   The Pastor said, “I’m sorry to hear about your dog, but Presbyterians don’t do funerals for dogs. You might try the Baptist church down the street. Baptists will do most anything.”

The man turned sadly and said, “I’m sorry you won’t do my dog’s funeral, but I understand.   I’ll try the Baptist church.  But would you tell me how much would it be appropriate give the Baptist Church as a memorial if they do the funeral?  I was thinking of a gift of $10,000.  Do you think that is enough?

“Wait a minute,” the Pastor said. “You didn’t tell me that your dog was Presbyterian?” 

With our third question of Jesus, we are considering what Jesus asked about a coin:  “Whose image and inscription is this”  (v. 16)?  It sounds like a very simple and innocent, but it wasn’t.    This question follows another question even more serious:  “Why are you testing me?” (v. 15), or as another translation puts it,  “Why are you trying to trap me” (NIV) or to tempt me (to sin)?” (KJV).  It was an attempt by some of the Pharisees and supporters of King Herod, who were both religious and political leaders, to either publicly implicate Jesus with treason against the state or to discredit him with a public sin against his own.  Even when they approach Jesus saying,  “Teacher,  we know you are a man of integrity…’ (NIV),  you can ‘smell a rat’.   In this kind of volatile and explosive situation, Jesus asked: “Whose Image in on this coin?”

BRING ME A COIN…

Last year I was running some wires in my basement to link my TV and my computer, so I could view my Computer in the living room a Young Adult Bible Study.   As I was running the wire, suddenly there was a fiery spark and a loud pop.   I looked, and hanging there before me was a live electrical wire, that once ran to the blower on an old oil burning furnace now replaced with a Heat Pump.  But somebody forgot and left the wire and the circuit open.   It was a very dangerous, ‘high voltage’ situation I didn’t see, until it was almost too late.

Jesus’ situation was also ‘high voltage’.   This was an attempt to get Jesus to ‘take hold of a live wire’ and answer a question that could have incriminated him with treason against the state.  As we all know, political issues, can be passionate, divisive, and contentious.   We live in a nation that is free, thank God, but with this wonder gift of freedom, which allows free speech and encourages civil debate of ideas, some of this speech and some of the ideas can be detrimental to our national civility and to freedom itself.  Our nation’s Founders; particularly Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton, Madison and Franklin, believed that this risk of democratic freedom was far better than the closed, autocratic systems that had long-dominated Europe. 

This week, on July 4^th, just 2 days away, we are about to celebrate America’s 241^st birthday, commemorating the signing the Declaration of Independence.   But this was a very risky and dangerous proposition too, which we dare not forget.  As we celebrate with picnics and fireworks, the real fireworks was this 'declaration' that was so daring, it launched a Revolution.  Today, this ‘Independence’ they declared and the ‘liberty and justice for all’ they signed into existence, is constantly misunderstood and threatened. Just as there were bad politics surrounding Jesus, there are still bad politics today.

In regard to our wonderful gift of freedom and independence we celebrate, there are at least two primary dangers: One is the constant threat to freedom from the inside.  This threat is self imposed, when we who have freedom, are tempted to misuse or abuse it.  The great Roman Empire, built on strong democratic principles, fell because of decay from within.   It was never overthrown, but it collapsed, morally, spiritually, and economically.  On the other side of the coin of freedom, there are always external threats to our freedom.   Some who don't have freedom and don't understand it, are envious enough to seek its destruction.  And even some who do have freedom, want it all for themselves.  They care nothing about the basic cry for 'liberty and justice for all'.   Perhaps exactly because these have no true freedom within themselves, they can’t see the benefits of freedom and justice for all.  

When those Twin Towers fell on 911, many were asking: “What do these people have against us?”  This is a question we continue to ask, not just here in the U.S, but everywhere in the West; in England, Germany, France, Spain, all over Europe and in the Middle East too.   Why do ‘they’ want to bite off the hand that could help to feed them such modern wonders such as democracy, freedom, benevolence, and opportunity?  Why are they so opposed and blind to what could be so good?   Just as it can be hard for us to grasp why the politics of Jerusalem were so opposed to the religious ‘freedom’ Jesus offered (and wanted him dead), we still struggle to understand why so many people in our world hate freedom today.    

Do you remember that wonderful, 26 year old American girl, human rights activists, and humanitarian worker, Kayla Mueller?   Back in 2013, she was taken captive by ISIS when she was leaving a meeting with Doctors Without Borders.  After she had assisted and helped Syrian Refugees, her car headed back to Turkey was ambushed.   The US Military and Mueller family attempted unsuccessfully to rescue her.   Some who did escape, reported Mueller’s strength and compassion, even when they tried to get her to deny her Christian faith.   Finally, while being held hostage, it was claimed by her captives that she been accidently killed by Jordanian airstrikes.   Now, such a wonderful, dedicated young person, full of so much compassion and energy to care, was dead.   And the hate against us, the hate against the west, and the hate against the Christian faith, in particular, continues. 

So, today, in the world in which we find ourselves, surrounded by opposition, dangerous passions, and misunderstood freedom, how can Jesus’ response to their attempt to trap and destroy him, guide us in how we should celebrate and continue to dare to live out this wonderful gift of independence, democracy, and freedom, not just for ourselves, but 'for all'?   

GIVE TO CAESAR….

The first part of Jesus’ answer to his own question to refer to the image of ‘Caesar’ on the coin.  “Who image is on the coin?”   Of course, the answer is simple and clear:  “Render to Caesar, the things that are Caesars!”

Much of the Bible agrees with Jesus on this.   Paul did too.   So, did Peter too (2 Peter 2:18ff).   Even when the government around them was not Christian nor Jewish, did questionable things, made unfair demands, Jesus, Paul and Peter agreed, that we ought to ‘submit, (NIBO)’ or ‘subject ourselves’ (KJV) and ‘obey’ (NJB) the governing authorities, because, as Paul says, ‘there is no authority unless it comes from God… who ‘have been put in place by God (Rom. 13:1).  

Those are some very strong words, and they still have something to say to us.  Paul goes on to say that we should ‘obey’ the authorities because it is ‘God’s servant’ to punish wrong doers (13:4) and put in place ‘for (y)our benefit’.   We always have a need for government because we never lack for  criminals, murderer, and evildoers who have a proclivity toward violence.

We can, of course, appreciate what Jesus and Paul were both saying, commanding us to ‘render to Caesar’ or to ‘obey’ the government.   No matter how human and flawed our government is, it can still be ‘God’s servant’ for good, for justice, and for freedom, can’t it?  Besides the burden of paying taxes, there is also the blessing or privilege of paying taxes, so that we can have roads, bridges, local safety, national security, political stability and social civility through laws and legislation.  Our national identity as Americans still affords us some wonderful benefits.  Paul or Jesus could have hardly imagined then, the greatest benefit we now have as a wonderful gift of freedom that is both political and religious.  In that world, and in much of the world still today, freedom is only a dream or it is deemed a threat.  Only a few nations enjoy freedom as a treasured national and individual reality.  WE should and must celebrate, honor, protect, and should never ever take this freedom for granted because it is ‘America, the Beautiful’ who has been the country that is blessed to lead the way.

So, it light of great blessing of freedom, how should Christians render to Caesar still today?  We can ‘pay the taxes’ and fulfill the ‘duties’ we owe’, Paul says.   We can also give ‘respect and honor’ to ‘whom respect and honor is due’ and of course we can be good citizens, pray for our leaders, and get involved in the political process while we fulfill our civic and community duties to serve and to care, even when we don’t agree, or don’t like or approve of what’s going on in this very moment.  Yes, we can endure the bad with the good of freedom and government, because as long as we are free, we still have hope, because sooner or later, 'we the people can have our say' because we have our vote.  

Speaking of bad politics, perhaps you’ve heard the story about a certain Senator Strange who ordered that his tombstone not state his name but bear only a five-word inscription: Here Lies an Honest Politician. The stonemason objected, “But, Senator Strange, how are passersby going to know it’s your grave?” “Well,” explained the senator, “when they read those five words, the first thing they’re going to say is, “Now, that’s strange!”

(Day, J. Daniel. If Jesus Isn’t the Answer…: He Sure Asks the Right Questions! (Kindle Locations 1404-1408). Smyth & Helwys Publishing. Kindle Edition.)

But even with our votes against bad politics, democracy still isn’t easy.  It wasn’t easy when Clinton, or Bush were president.  It wasn’t easy when Obama was in office, and it can be very challenging as we watch as President Trump tweets his way through the day.   But Scripture still calls us, as Christians, to ‘honor’ and ‘respect’, even the ‘authorities’ we don’t like or always agree with, because in most cases, as it was most often with Rome too, normally, at least, the benefits outweighed the flaws, the failures, and the negatives.  As someone has rightly said, “Democracy is messy, but necessary.”   Churchhill said it best: “Democracy is the worst form of government except (for) all the others that have been tried."   I would add, yes she gets messy, but when she cleans up, she cleans up very, very nicely.”

Isn’t this why we celebrate today?  The Country we have surely isn’t perfect, by any means, but she is good.  All the way down to her soul, her heartlands, up in her hills and on her mountains, down in her valleys and by her seashores, America has been great, because she has been good.  And American can still be wonderfully good, generous, courageous, and compassionate too.   This is why I love America.   But it is up to us to keep calling out, and supporting her goodness.  This is why I pray for America.  And this is why I sometimes am critical or challenge what our government says or does.  I say it because I can, I must, and I should, because I want this country to continue to be, as it has been called, ‘a city shining on a hill’ for the hope of freedom and justice in the whole world.   Without such freedom and justice, the gospel has lesser hope of taking root in the hardened soils of the earth.

GIVE TO GOD….

But I also think it is important for us to hear the second part of the answer Jesus gave to his own question.   And this is not just for a Christian or believer.   It is just as important for all citizens, not just to keep their hand over his heart when they pledge their allegiance, but to also to keep our heads over our hearts too.   This is why Jesus not only says, ‘render to Caesar’, but Jesus also says, ‘Render (or give) to God, the things that are God’s.’  These ‘things that are God’s’ are just as important to our freedoms and our allegiance, as are our celebrations and our patriotism, and our respect and honor to give Caesar what Caesar is due.   Do you know why, it is so important that we keep our heads over our hearts, while pledge our allegiance to the flag?  It is important because only God can show us our government’s boundaries and limits.   Only when we ‘give to God the things’ that are God’s, like worship, faith, and ultimate reverence, can we continue to keep our freedom our founding father’s acknowledged, was not something conjured up in smoked filled room in Williamsburg, or in Philadelphia, the city of ‘brotherly love’, but had to be admitted that this gift of freedom, is a gift from the Creator.   For when this gift is no longer acknowledged, it soon ceases to be practiced, and will soon cease to be present, as God’s gift through Jesus Christ: “It is for freedom, that Christ has set your free….so stand firm and do not submit again to a yoke of bondage”  Paul wrote to the Galatians (5:1).  As someone dramatically, suggested, we should render to Caesar, but we are not to ‘surrender’ to Caesar, because our ultimate allegiance remains to God, who is over everything, including Caesar, Country and all Government, no matter how good, or great it has been or still is.

I need to tell you again, the personal story I have about the man who once ran a copy shop next door to our apartment in eastern Germany.   When I once asked him whether or not he ever went to church, he shocked me when he said he loved to go into churches and admire the architecture and art, but that he would never ever enter a church to worship again.  When I asked him why he was so much against attending church, he told me the horrifying story, of how his father had opposed Hitler.  He did not agree with the rise of the Nazi’s and their misuse of the German identity and all the nationalism that claimed Germany was better than any other nation and had the right to rule all the nations, and could torture and kill, whom ever it wanted.   My Father did not agree with this, nor Hitler’s war machine, and when the draft came, he went into hiding. 

But who reported where his Father was?   It was the Church--a that was no longer ‘separated’ from the state.  This is why this man would never enter a German Church again to worship.   Instead of surrendering and worshiping God’s truth, separating itself from the governments wicked ways,  the German Church had absolutely surrendered its heart the state and its head to the state.  The Church began to pledged allegiance to the fever of nationalism and to patriotism, forgetting the very God who had given them to heart and the head with which to see the truth.  But they chose to look the other way.  And by failing to ‘render to God the things that are Gods’, the people and the church lost it’s divinely given spiritual power that could have limited the the power of Hitler’s wrongly-headed government.   When the people began to idolized the state’s power, it failed to render worship to God, and it lost its way.    

How can we make sure that we don’t lose our way, as we celebrate our freedom?   We must continue to give the same answer with our own lives; we must render to Caesar, but we must also render and give worship to God, because God’s truth is greater than the truth of any humanly, established state. Render to Caesar, but never surrender all to Caesar.

This is why Thomas Jefferson, seeing what had happened in Europe, long before Hilter’s rise,  made sure that in American there was not only freedom and a declaration of Independence, but that there was also religious freedom, and the separation of Church and State.   Unfortunately, just like many in the Muslim world don’t understand of value freedom, too many in the Christian also don’t understand the nature or how this freedom is best practiced.   The separation of Church and State is not to keep churches from obeying the state nor from influencing the state, but the separation of Church and State is to keep the State separated from the Church, so the Church can keep being the Church free from the powers of the state.   This can also be, like freedom and democracy, a very messy and complicated dance, but it is also very necessary one.   If the Church in Germany, had been a Confessing Church before it was an absolutely compliant one to the state, and if it had been separated from the government rather than a part that surrendered and survived through it,  then Hitler would have not had a chance, as long as the people were still worshiping God.  

And this is exactly my worry today, what happens when we become a people who cease to ‘render to God the things that are God’s?   Can we maintain our freedom when we lose our faith?   I think this is what a preacher in Texas meant to be saying when he made a big mistake.   When he became pastor of a certain church in eastern Texas, he noticed the American flag flying alongside of the Christian flag, and not just on equal ground, but sometimes the Christian Church and Flag was swallowed up in the patriotism and the nationalism of his members.  So, what did the pastor do?   One day when his congregation came to worship, they noticed that the American flag was missing.   The deacons questioned the pastor, and when they found that he had removed the American flag from their sanctuary, they proceeded to removed their pastor from their congregation.   He eventually moved to Virginia, where he left the Baptist denomination and became a Mennonite Pastor, where they don’t allow flags to fly in the their sanctuary.   It’s isn’t because they don’t respect and love their country, that they don’t fly the flag,’  he explained,  ‘but it’s because they want to keep their head, not just their hearts.’

While I understand the Amish or Mennonite position, I don’t think this is what the separation of church and state has to always mean.  I think we too, as Baptist, as long as we keep our hearts and heads right,  can honor, respect, and fly our flag, even in our sanctuary.   We do this by following Jesus, as we ‘render to Caesar, and as we also ‘render to God’ what is God’s.   We we know, that everything belongs to God, and this must include our country and our patriotism too.  For God is not just the God of this country, but God is also to be the God over all nations, as he is already the judge over the world.   This is not bad news, but it is the good news that keeps us flying the flag for the freedom and for justice for all, which the what the prophets long dreamed of, and for which the flag and the country, must continue to stand.   How this ‘nation stands’ depends upon how we stand, what we stand for and to whom we ultimately surrender.  For only when render to country, but we only surrender to the God who demands liberty and justice for all, will the gospel stand to have a chance, and will our nation continue to have a prayer.   Amen.

“Aren't You of More Value Than These…?”

Matthew 6: 25-34,  Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Dr. Charles J. Tomlin

3rd Sunday After Pentecost, June 25, 2017,    (Series:  Questions Jesus Asked  #2)

My Grandfather’s farm was right beside the Statesville Airport.   So, you are right to guess that I came to love airplanes.   I used to spend every first quarter I got on a new wooden or plastic airplane that I could go outside and fly.  One of my favorite Christmas toys, as a child, was my own roll-out airport, with airplanes.  I loved to build model airplanes too. 

When I was about 8 or 9,  I took my new, small, blue plastic, rubber band, slingshot powered plane into the back yard to see how high I could make it go.  As I mastered how to launch it, I learned to let the wind take farther and farther, until finally it got so high, I didn’t see where it landed.  I searched and searched the yard and nearby field.  I’d lost toys before, but this was the very first day.  I couldn’t believe I lost it.  I thought I saw where it must have landed, but it was nowhere to be found.   So, I took up flying kites and lost a few of those too.

All of us have lost something valuable in our lives, but the hardest, most valuable treasure we ever loose are those we love.   And sometimes it’s hard for me to look in my own house today and see my Father’s eyeglasses, or see my mother’s picture and try to understand how these ‘things’ are still around, but they are gone.  How could “things” in life, like photos, metal, rocks, and materials, outlast the precious people we have loved more than anything else?  

Of course, we all enjoy using some of the high-tech items being developed today, but wouldn’t we much rather have some of the ‘warmth’ of days gone by, when people looked each other in the eye and talked?   Sometimes we don’t realize what we are missing, but when we do, we might also come to ask ourselves: did the creator make mistake by making materials seemingly permanent, but life and love way too fragile?  Does God really, really care?  Our lives can seem so brief, so transient, so fleeting ‘like a vapor’ as the Scripture says, which is way, way too delicate?

When we think about this second question, a question of ‘value’, we are asking ourselves one of the very important questions Jesus once asked:  Are we not of more value than those small, little things in life, like birds and the flowers?  Are we not worth more than they?

DON’T WORRY

By asking us to ‘look at the birds of the air’, Jesus wants us not to ‘worry’ about our lives.  Do birds help you not to worry?  The Audubon Society estimates that 80% of certain species of birds die every winter.  Birds can get hit by cars, run into windows, have their nests blow out by storms, or even have predators waiting on their little ones, as soon as they fall out of their nest.  When you watch birds out your window, or you feed them, they seem to be scrambling for food almost every moment.  And I know that lilies be beautiful, even the perennial varieties still must hide from the harsh winters, and as Jesus himself says,  ‘the grass of the field is ‘tomorrow cast into the oven’.   Why would Jesus use these always hungry birds and delicate flowers as pictures of God’s care for us?  How can we not ‘worry’ in a world that is as precious, but also as transitory as ours? 

And, what about our world?   Of course there is so much good in it, but what about all this bad we also have to hear, see, and know about, and sometimes, experience.   Yes, most of the time the storms, troubles, murders, and terrorists are over there, but occasionally, they are also here.  I was driving right on the edge of that storm that grazed Hamptonville in May, which was also part of the same storm that was a bigger tornado in Courtney.  We saw the result of the deadly forces in those dark winds.   None of us are completely shelter from the threats, the dangers, or the deadly forces set loose in our world.  

Of course, much of what is most worrying in this world is humanly instigated, but there is even more negative, destructive power in an earthquake, a tsunami, a tornado, a flood, or in a hurricane when they suddenly appear, often with little warning.   We have not tamed all the negatives, physical or political, and this is not even to begin to mention the mental illnesses, the political divisions, the moral decline or the social unrest that seems to be brewing.  How can we not worry?

But we need to realize again, that in Jesus’ day, there was plenty to worry about too, if not more.  There were totalitarian governments, marching armies, religious oppression.  At times, if you were living in Palestine, you could occasionally find someone outside the town, hanging crucified on a tree, with the birds eating away their flesh away.   Now, that would be a ‘threatening’ world, wouldn’t it.   Still, it was exactly in that very world, by the one who was later crucified himself, that we hear him saying,  “Take no thought for your life” (KJV), (or Don’t worry, NRSV) about ‘what you shall eat or drink, or your body, what you will wear” (6:25).   The Father feeds the birds.  The lilies of the field’ outshine Solomon.  The pagans (Gentiles) worry about ‘all these things’ (6:32), but you shouldn’t.  Why shouldn’t you or I worry?  Yes, of course, we worry anyway, but Jesus says we shouldn’t.  Why?

  

YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER KNOWS

Before we get to the ‘answer’ Jesus gives, we need to look at how many questions he keeps firing at those who would worry.  There are five of them that keep coming, one by one:  “Is not life more than food, the body more than clothing “ (25)?   “Look at the birds…are you not of more value than they” (26)?   “Can any of you, by worrying add a single hour to your life-span” (27)?  “Why do you worry about your clothing” (28)?  “If God clothes the grass of the field…will he not much more clothe you---O you of little faith” (30)?   Five questions, one after the other, and then Jesus ends with the implication of what worry means—“O you of little faith”?  

“Worry is Atheism!” said the great Methodist Missionary, E. Stanly Jones.  Once, the great reformer, Martin Luther’s, observed his wife starting to wear black in public.   It was after the reformation had set the landowners and princes free from the controls of the Roman Catholic so they could all go after their own ‘fortunes’ without established, moral constraints.  “Why are you wearing black?”, Luther asked his wife. “O, haven’t you heard,” she answered.  “God is Dead!”  When you think of someone wearing black to express grief on the outside, what do you think a soul looks like, on the inside, when it no longer believes, no longer trusts, and no longer has any elevated, special place for faith in a God who knows and cares?  

This is the obvious answer Jesus implies with all his questions:  ‘Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things  (32).’   God knows.  God cares.  This is reason you shouldn’t worry.  This is reason you should keep faith.  This is the reason you should serve ‘wealth’ instead of God  (6:24), which is the real reason this whole conversation got started.   It all got started because people were so worried about life, they were ‘storing up treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume….’   The more they had, the more they had to keep up and worry about.   All these ‘things’ they were gaining, storing, and treasuring, was not relieving their worry, but it was making them worry more.  They were putting their ‘hearts’ in the wrong place.  They were putting their lives at more risk by ‘having’ than by ‘letting go’.  

The other day, there was a woman who had a nice car at a gas station.  A car jacker tried to steal her car, so she got on top of it and wouldn’t let go.  I know it was a ‘subaru’, but would you put your life at risk to hold on to it?  She did.  Amazingly, the thief was so shocked that he let the car go.  It was rolling out of the service station lot and into the street.  She crawled off the car and stopped it from rolling just in the nick of time.   Would you put your life on the line for a car?   Even a nice one?  Now, if she was a mother with a child in the car, that’s different.  I didn’t see a child in the car.   It was a nice car, but was it that nice?

 Jesus says we are hurting ourselves and our faith by worrying, and by focusing ‘all these things’.   What can you really do, to add a moment to your life?  What kind of life did you have, after you worried about all that stuff?  It’s kind of like a mechanic neighbor, seeing you tinkering under the hood of your own car, asking “Do you know what you are are doing?”  Of course you don’t, not like he does?  And what do we know about solving our problems by getting, having, holding on, or by worrying.  Do we know what we are doing?  Are we accomplishing anything?  Of course not, so why worry? Jesus asks. 

Are you excessively worried about anything?   I just turned 60 this year.  I’m fast approaching retirement.  You’ve got to have X amount of money in the bank.   I’ve lived all my life on a pastor’s salary.  I’ve done some planning and some saving.  But I’ve probably haven’t done enough.   When I was in Greensboro I had a man in my church who was from North Iredell.  I don’t’ remember seeing him in church much.  His wife was sick and had to be placed in the nursing home.  I went to visit him and he said, “I’ve saved all this money.  I had quite a comfortable nest egg, I thought.  Now, I’m spending it all away is just a couple of years.  Pastor, do you know how much it costs.  I’d been better off not having any money at all.  Now, the nursing home is going to get just about all I’ve got left.   He was worried.  We all could worry about that or something else, couldn’t we?   What we have acquired, could be destroyed in a storm.  Who we love might have to go into a nursing home.  We could get very sick and have astronomical bills to keep us alive.   What do we have to worry about?  Jesus said, “Don’t worry!”  But we worry about a lot of things anyway, don’t we?

SEEK GOD’S KINGDOM AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS

The only real solution to all this worry is not a rebuke, but a choice.  “Seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you….” (33).  In other words, if you get busy doing the right things, you won’t worry as much about the bad.   If you keep your focus on the things that matter most, and what you should value most--those you love and the God who loves and cares for you--- these things will take care of themselves.

Of course we have to plan, of course we have to work,  and of course we have to invest and to follow some good financial and spiritual advise, but when it comes to ‘worry’ we also have a very important choice to make.   When I have visited a couple of financial planners in my life,  the number one question I bring to them is how can I earn or make a little money with my money?  They always seem to avoid my question, with another question they put to me first” ‘What do you want to accomplish?” “What are you going to do with that money when you earn it?   I find it interesting that even a “Financial Planner” thinks less about money than he or she thinks about ‘what you value’ or ‘what you want’?  

Jesus was not a financial planner; he was a spiritual realist.  He knew that any and everything in this life is ‘alive today’ and gone tomorrow.   So, why worry?  You can’t change the future or the reality we all face in life for death.   What we can do is focus on the most important things now.  It is much better to be making the right choices in the time you’ve got now.   You can’t serve God and money.  You can’t add an hour to your life by worrying?   The birds and followers are beautiful, but temporary too.   They get on with their living and dying, without worrying?  Perhaps we humans are the only ones capable of worry, but we are also capable of something else: We can make choices.   We can decide what we are going to do with our lives.  We can lessen our loads and make better choices.   We can plan for the worst and hope for the best.   We can do some good things today, and worry less about the bad that might happen tomorrow.  And most important of all, ‘we can seek God’s kingdom’, a kingdom that is coming that belongs to the future only God can bring.

What’s more?  We can also choose to trust God and his goodness, even in a bad world.   Or, we can make the other choice; we can no to hope, no to God, no to good, and wait for everything to get worst.  Like Martin Luther’s wife, we can listen to the ‘nay-sayers’ and start wearing black, because we have lost hope.  But Jesus asks this question about value, because deciding what matters in the ‘short’ life we have is a ‘decision’ that is up to you and to me.   The other day,  I saw on TV news a story about a child that was born with a disease that would not allow the child to have protein.  They were on TV because the child needed a kidney because they did not realize she had this problem until proteins ruined her system.   Now they need a kidney for her so she could have a higher quality of life.   The parents were optimistic and positive.   They were loving to their child, and their child was happy, completely unaware of the dangerous illness and condition she was in and would have to live with most her life.   I take my hat off to those parents who ‘choose’ to value their child, and life; and also to value love and being positive.   They know what we all should know:  When we decide what we value, or what matters most, we create the world we live in.   We decide how we will see it, face it or deal with it, whether it is bad or good.   When Jesus was on the cross, he too cried “My God why?”.   We all come to such dark moment.  But we have a choide.  We don’t have to stay there, stuck on a dark Friday afternoon, but we can keep moving ahead, waiting and believing that Sunday’s coming!  

“Don’t you know that you are of more value than these?”  Jesus asks us.  Don’t you know that the Father knows and cares for you?   We need to be amazed, not by the bad things that happen, but by the good we know, and the love we share, because of God’s love for us.   If God cares about birds, flowers, and exactly what you need, even before you ask,  Don’t worry!   Don’t worry about tomorrow, but live, love, and trust God today!   Seek the Kingdom and God will be there with you and for you, no matter what!    Amen.

“What Are You Looking For?”

A Sermon based upon John 1: 29-42,  Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

2^nd Sunday After Pentecost, June 18, 2017,    (Series:  Questions Jesus Asked  #1)

We’ve all heard of the popular bumper which says, “Jesus is the answer?”  Some think of Jesus as the number one answer man.   But interestingly, when you check it out, Jesus answered very few questions.  

It has been calculated that Jesus asked around 183 questions in the gospels.  Jesus only answered 3 of them.   On the other hand, Jesus asked 307 questions, meaning that Jesus was 40 times more likely to ask a question than to answer one.   You remember some of those questions, don’t you?  “Who do you say that I am?”   “Do you not understand what I’m saying?”  “When the Son of Man returns will he find any faith left on the earth?”  “Could you not stay awake?”  “Do you love me?”  It seems that Jesus preferred to ask thought provoking,  and some very hard questions rather than give easy answers.   Jesus’ style of teaching is exactly opposite of most conservative TV preachers or even most liberalizing “Dear Abby” answer sermons.  Jesus is simply too much of a Jewish prophet to satisfy either status quo with simple platitudes’  (Richard Rohr).

During these weeks of summer, we are going to consider some of the most important questions Jesus asked.  By the time we finish, I hope you will discover what many have, that there is a lot more wisdom found in asking the right questions than having the right answers.

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

Our question today is quite a question, isn’t it?  On the one hand it’s a fairly common question:  “What (or who) are you looking for?”  It’s one of the few questions Jesus asked several times. He asked it here, when some wanted to be his disciples.  He asked it when they came to arrest him  (John 18.7).  He also asked to a woman who came to the tomb (John 20.15).   This sounds like such a simple question, especially if you are asking this to someone searching a matching sock, their misplaced car keys, or their favorite ink pen.  That’s one thing, but if you ask this kind of question to someone who is following you around everywhere you go, either to be with you, or to get rid of you, now that’s a whole different kind of question isn’t it?  What do you want?  What do you want from me?  Who or what are you looking for?

The first time Jesus asked this question, he was beginning his ministry as an traveling, itinerate rabbi.   To learn from any rabbi, would-be disciples needed to make an official request.  It was kind of like choosing the kind of college you wanted to go to and the teacher you wanted.  But Jesus didn’t work this way.   In the gospel, Jesus chooses his disciples.   People had to follow him around waiting for him to ask them.   It was kind of like waiting on the acceptance letter from a university without ever sending in an application.  Jesus was the kind of Rabbi who was asking all the questions, not giving all the answers.

In today’s text, John the Baptist bears witness to Jesus as ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’.   John saw something different about Jesus: ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him’ (John 1:29,32).  The day after John makes these dramatic declarations about Jesus, a couple of John’s own disciples were standing close by and recognized it as code language the coming of a true Messiah.  So, they start following Jesus around everywhere he went.   They knew they couldn’t ask to be his disciple, but they could follow him around.  So, when Jesus realizes that they are following him everywhere he goes, he turns and asks:  “What are you looking for?”  “What is it that you want from me?” 

This may be the most important question for true discipleship, then or now.  We can never be very good followers of Jesus if we already have all the answers.   Every generation has to learn to ask the right questions and seek answers.  Every generation has to recognize how, who, and what they really need all over again.  No true believer ever stops asking, seeking, knocking, believing, or ever arrivals with all the answers.  When the right question is God, we will never have all our questions answered until we see God face to face.

When Adam and Eve committed the original sin in the Garden (Gen 3), part of the temptation of the Serpent was to tell them if they would eat the forbidden fruit, they would be like God.  In other words, when they got what they wanted, they wouldn’t need God, have any more questions or need anybody except themselves.  That is still the great lie for both young or old.  You how that goes:  When I get my driver’s license and my car; When I marry that guy or girl,  when I get that job or promotion, or when I make X amount of money, have X amount in the bank, or get this or that, then I’ll be ‘happy, contented, or fulfilled’.    That’s how many think, or have thought, but it never turns out that way.   Have you ever noticed that most folks who ‘must’ have something, or someone, or work only to obtain and get what they want,  never seem to have enough and are seldom satisfied with what they have?

The reason ‘money’ or ‘wealth’ or obtaining stuff doesn’t buy happiness, was answered by a great Christian way back when Christians were just starting to come into world respect in the 5^th century AD.  The great Augustine said in his own Confessions (Book 1):  “You have made us for yourself, O Lord.  Our hearts are restless, until they (finally) find their rest in you.”  

There is a great story from Hawaiian pastor, Wayne Cordeiro  about “a rabbi living in a Russian city a century ago.  Disappointed by his lack of direction and life purpose, he wandered in the chilly evening. With his hands thrust deep in his pockets, he aimlessly walked through the empty streets, questioning his faith in God, the Scriptures and his calling to ministry. The only thing colder than the Russian winter air was the chill within his soul. He felt so enshrouded by his own despair that he mistakenly wandered into a Russian military compound off limits to civilians. The bark of a Russian soldier shattered the silence of the evening chill. “Who are you? And what are you doing here?” “Excuse me?” replied the rabbi. “I said, ‘Who are you and what are you doing here?’” After a brief moment, the rabbi, in a gracious tone so as not to provoke the soldier, said, “How much do you get paid every day?” “What does that have to do with you?” the soldier retorted. With the delight of someone making a new discovery, the rabbi said, “I will pay you the equal sum if you will ask me those same two questions every day: ‘Who are you?’ and ‘What are you doing here?’”  (Wayne Corderio, Doing Church as a Team,  p. 32-33).

Of course, the Russian soldiers were not asking an ‘open ended’ question.  They were asking a very specific, closed-ended one.  In the same way, many of us go after ‘closed-ended’ answers, like money, fame, success or stuff, when in reality, what we need is something much less material, and much more spiritual and open ended, perhaps even unanswerable in this life.   I’m convinced that most human desires don’t start bad, but get misguided.   We all have ‘desires’ and most of those wrong-headed desires go back to having missed asking, reflecting upon and trying to deal with the most important questions we should have been asking all along; Why am I here?  What is life about?  What does love mean?  What should I do with my life?   When we try to ask and answer these kinds of big, life-long, even unanswerable questions, each and every day, as this Russian Rabbi needed, it is much more difficult to become misguided, empty, and going after things that get us lost and never satisfy.

WHERE ARE YOU STAYING?

But how do we get back from Z to A?   How do we, when we’ve lost our way, gone after wrong things, or now find ourselves alone, empty and unfullfilled, as Bill Murry once described,  “Lost in the Cosmos?”  And how do we get our life back on track when we end up in such an unwanted place?    If the unexpected comes, the letdown, if cancer comes, or if heartache comes, or if great loss, disappointment, or a growing emptiness starts keeping us awake at night, and we realize that we’ve lost our way, or that a sense of peace, joy or hope has left us; if we realize we’ve taken the wrong road, how do we find our way back home, when we are much farther away than we’d like to admit?

There is another little joke that is more real than funny. It is about a drunk fellow who is spotted by a police officer.  The drunken man is intently searching the ground near a lamppost and the officer asks the question: what are you looking for?   The fellow replies that he is looking for his car keys.   The officer helps for a few minutes without success, then asks whether the man is certain that he dropped the keys near the lamppost.  “No,” is the reply, “I lost the keys somewhere across the street.” “Why are you looking here?” asks the surprised and irritated officer. “The light is much better here,” the intoxicated man responds.

Interestingly, this story is often use to illustrate something called ‘The Streetlight Effect’ to help in the training Police Detectives.   The Streetlight Effect is an ‘observational bias’ that occurs when people are searching for something, but settle for looking where it is easiest instead of where it is hard to look.   When we want and need answers, even we are not police detectives, we can settle for quick answers, not taking time, making effort, or walking in or through the most difficult places where it can be too dark to look.   In the same way,  out of our need for finding a solutions for our greatest longings and human needs, we too often settle for ‘things’ (going for the instant light) instead of doing the hard work of dealing with the spiritual darkness or difficulty we are in.   Most of us don’t really want, or have time to go, start, or stay here, so we settle for less, much less, but we end up starving our souls.

Even we Christians can do this.  I recall someone who, when I extended a public invitation after the message, continued to come down the aisle several times.   This person responded time after time.  They seldom had time to talk.  They seldom said much of anything.  When they finally did make an appointment to talk, they didn’t  tell me much.   It was obvious that they were struggling with something that went way back, perhaps into childhood.  They were dealing with a lot deep stuff, but they didn’t ever get to ‘heart’ of things.  Maybe they didn’t know how.   That’s one of the reasons, I’m not as big on ‘public invitations’ like I used to be.   Too often going ‘public’ or ‘through the motions’ of resolving something quickly,  keeps us away from dealing with the hard questions, for which there are no easy answers.   Even answer that are found in faith, if they are too easy, can be misleading too.

What I like about this story and the disciples being asked, “What (or who) are you looking for (In Greek it could be either)  is that they don’t respond by spelling out what or who they are looking for.  Maybe they don’t know, exactly.  Maybe they’ve been disappointed with wrong answers before.   What I find interesting is that even when they are standing right there, with Jesus in front of them whom John has named ‘the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’, they don’t immediately rush to conclusions, decisions or answers.   No, they respond to Jesus’ question with another question.  It shows that they are seeking something real, not some fly-by-night, instant, quick, or shallow answer.   Instead of a quick answer, they asked Jesus a question, showing him great respect, along with caution and wisdom:  “Rabbi, Where are you staying?”   This must have pleased Jesus greatly and he then issues this great invitation:  “Come and See!”   We read that they ‘came’ and ‘saw’ and ‘remained with him that day.  It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.’  They all got lost in conversation.  Wouldn’t you love to know what they were all talking about?   Or, maybe, just maybe, the reason we don’t know ‘what’ they were talking about, doesn’t matter as much as ‘who’ they were with.   The answer was not a ‘what’, but it was it was a ‘who’. 

WE HAVE FOUND THE MESSIAH

Now, we can look closely at where this question of longing, ends up?   One of the two, who heard John speaking and ‘came’ and followed to see ‘where’ Jesus lived, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.  It was after that long, long conversation, that Andrew went to find his brother, saying, “We have found the Messiah!”  

Perhaps what is most important for us here, is that these first disciples started where we all must be, not at one point, but for all our lives, if we want to find hope, meaning, purpose, and fulfillment in our lives, whether we are at the beginning of life’s journey, in the middle, or at the end.   If you really want to start looking for what any of us can lose, which can make us spiritually hungry, emotionally needy, or materialistically poor, even if you have all the money in the world, you need to look where you need to look, not just where you want to look.  

Where You need to take it slower, not rush into things, but simply move a little closer, answer Christ’s invitation to ‘come and see’ where he lives, and not keeping asking him to come where you are?   They ‘journey’ to Jesus’ house might have been the best part.   Perhaps they got so ‘lost’ their conversation,  that they found what they were seeking, not in having or getting an ‘answer’ but in just being with him.   Pastor Eugene Petersen calls it:  “The Long Obedience in the Same Direction”.   Isn’t this exactly where this whole story ends up.  The point wasn’t that Jesus answered all their questions, but that Jesus really ‘knew’ ‘loved’ and cared about them.   “Where, or how did you get to know me?”   (1:48), Nathaniel asks.   Or as the Woman at the Well says, just a couple of pages later, “Come meet someone who told me everything I’ve ever done!  Can he be the Messiah?” (John 4: 29). 

Do you see what was happening?   Their discipleship in Jesus wasn’t about getting all life’s answers, it was about Jesus knowing, loving, and choosing to be with them, and they deciding to be with him.   Could this not be the Answer we are all looking for?   U2, the Rock Group, who are Christians, but prefer they can reach more people by not using that title, have a hit song,  “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m looking For.”   They are right, we never will find ‘what’ we are looking for, because of ‘who’ we need to be with.

‘Who’ is the real hunger, isn’t it?  You go into the kitchen, head directly to the refrigerator, open the door, and peer in. You are vaguely hungry, but you cannot tell exactly what you are hungry for. You survey the options. Cheese? No, that’s not it. Cold pizza? No, definitely not. Leftover chicken salad? That’s not quite it. You go so far as to take a bite of strawberry yogurt but put it back on the shelf.  The refrigerator is full enough, and your stomach is empty enough, but nothing seems exactly right.  The cold air emerges and brings with it a remembered voice: “Don’t leave the refrigerator door open.”  It is not ‘what’ you are looking for, but ‘who’ you miss?  Anything but ‘who’ just doesn’t seem to satisfy.   

Martin Copenhaver tells about a television news report I saw too, but had forgotten until he wrote about it.  It tells the story of a group of men who spent years in the pursuit of a particular stash of treasure they knew was buried off the coast of Florida. One day they uncovered it; and it was everything they had hoped and imagined it would be— golden coins and priceless antique jewelry. Success at last. Of course, there was great jubilation at the discovery, but there was also a hint of something else. The report ended with a picture of one of the discoverers, looking at nothing in particular with an almost wistful expression. And while that picture was on the screen, the reporter closed by asking this question and letting it dangle in the air: “What do you do when you have found what you were looking for?”  There are two great tragedies in life, Oscar Wilde mentioned:  “Losing Your Heart’s Desire or Finding it!”  (Copenhaver, Martin B.. Jesus Is the Question: The 307 Questions Jesus Asked and the 3 He Answered (Kindle Locations 361-366). Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition, 2016).

What we really long for,  Martin Copenhaver says,  “It is have the broken and scattered pieces of our lives brought together in ways that we are unable to do.   This is why our greatest longing in life is not about ‘what’, but ‘who’.  It is a yearning for God who is our only sure ‘dwelling place throughout all generations’ (Psal. 90:1).   “As a deer longs for flowing streams,”  that same Psalmist says, “so my soul longs for you, O God” (Psalm 42: 1).   Whether it was when Jesus was just starting his ministry, or after Easter was all over, the question worth repeating over and over, was not about ‘what’, but it was about ‘who’.   There is a hole in our hearts that nothing else, no career, no amount of money, or no other relationship, but only God can fit and fill.   “Who are you looking for?  Are you willing to ‘come and see’?   Amen.

“The Great Omission!”

A Sermon Based Upon Matthew 28: 16-20

Preached by Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

June 11th, 2017, Trinity Sunday, Year A

Perhaps you’ve heard about the small town that had four churches, a Presbyterian, a Methodist, a Catholic, and a Baptist church.  Since the town was full of trees, all four churches had serious squirrel problems.   Following its own denominational traditions, each church developed its own approach to solving its own squirrel problem.   The Presbyterians decided that squirrels were ‘predestined’ to cause problems, so they would have to learn to live with them.   The Methodist decided they would deal with the squirrels like John Wesley, and they humanely, lovingly, but firmly, took action to trap them and take them to a park outside of town.   But within 3 days, all the squirrels came back.   The Catholics decided that they would serve the squirrels communion so they would leave.  Finally, the Baptists found the best solution.   The simply voted the squirrels in as members.   Now, they only see the squirrels at Christmas and Easter. 

We all know that ‘church’ does not mean what it once did in our society.   Today people are filled with mistrust and are much more committed to themselves and much less committed to their communities or their institutions---including church.   And even among those non-traditional, non-denominational, and atypical churches that are growing, there are lots of differences about what works and what doesn’t.   Today’s growing churches are high on celebration, excitement and self-help, but seem to be much less serious about building community or commitment.  

GO, MAKE DISCIPLES….

So, in light of all that has changed, and is still changing, what is it that church is supposed to mean, or is supposed to be?    Well, if we go back to the gospel, it can be determined that Jesus had three priorities or requirements for his followers:  (1) To Love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, (2) to love our neighbors as ourselves, and finally (3) ‘to make disciples’ of people from all the nations.   This third priority was so important,  that for the first time, Jesus invokes the name of God as Trinity; commissioning his disciples to ‘baptize…in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’ (Matt. 28: 19).    

By naming God as Father, Son, and Spirit, Jesus underlined the vital importance the church’s mission in the world.  Thus, it was not named the Great Suggestion, but it is named the Great Commission---that is, the call of the church to come together to fulfill its mission.   What is the church’s primary mission?   The church supposed to be a people who come together to exist for people who are not yet inside it.   In other words, if a church wants to be a Great Commission Church, local or global, the church was never intended to be a ‘club’ for insiders and it was never intended to be a place where Christians only come to have Christian fellowship or to only have their own spiritual needs met.  Of course, the church should be that too, but a church cannot just be that, or it ceases to be the church Jesus called into being.  

Let’s make this clearer.  For the Church to be the church, the church must love God and love neighbor, but the church must also ‘go’ to ‘make disciples’, that is, make ‘Jesus followers’ out of people who are not of our type, not of our tribe, not of our nation, and not of our own group.   Notice that Jesus did not say, just before he ascended to the Father, for the disciples to all go home to get some and to make themselves comfortable, spending all their time and energy working out the details of community, faith or belief.  Also, Jesus did not say make yourself a place so you can ‘sing your favorite songs’, hear some good sermons, and ‘try to do something good once in a while’.  No, Jesus was very specific.  The mission of his church, which is its Great Commission (commission =  it’s mission as a people who come together) is to ‘go’, to ‘teach’ and show other people how and what it means to become faithful followers of Jesus Christ. 

Unfortunately,  this Great Commission has become the “Great Omission” in the last 30 or 40 years.   There is a lot of talk about it, but most churches, especially mainline churches, are in numerical decline, struggling to grow, and even fearful of closing church doors for good.  The main churches, who have all been primary fixtures in our American life,  Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and Catholic too, are not, for the most part replenishing themselves with a new generation of disciples.   Besides, even our own children are showing less interests in the church, and most of our grandchildren hardly care at all about church.

IN THE NAME OF ….THE HOLY SPIRIT

So, what has happened?   Can we figure it out?  Can we name the big problem that has led to the decline most traditional churches?   Is it the changes going on in our society?   Some. Maybe.  Is it the dominance of technology over human relationships?   Maybe. Is it social change, a political revolution, or could it be a growing spiritual problem rising up in the western world, that has traded it faith in God for a mess of secular pottage?    Why is the church not the powerhouse in our world like the church seemed to be in the early days of Christianity?  Have you read the book of Acts lately?   It tells of how it once was; people coming together in one accord to follow the Apostles teaching, a sermon being preached and 3,000 people are saved, and it also tells story after story of strangers becoming Christians, as folks are healed, miracles take place, and all kinds of social, religious, and geographical barriers being overcome.   Why can’t church be that kind of ‘interesting’ today?

I find it most interesting that when you consider what was happening then, when Jesus gave this commission and also what happened afterward, it could not be explained by mere humanly-inspired activity.    Look around at what is happening among the disciples just before the Great Commission is given.   We read how that the disciples saw the risen Lord, they worshiped, but still, ‘some doubted’ (Mt. 28:17).   Do you see?  The Christian community still had doubters, even as it was being born.  Another thing we see, especially in the book of Acts, is that the church had all kinds of ‘dreamers’ or ‘gazers’ (Acts 1:11); that is people who spent time ‘gazing into heaven’ always focusing on ‘when’ or ‘how’ Jesus would return.   And even though, most of the disciples themselves were doers of the word, and not hearers only, or gazers and thinkers, still, they went out into the world to be witnesses with great opposition, great resistance, and with constant threats being made against their lives (Acts 4:1ff).   Some of them, like Stephen, even early on, lost their lives for the sake of the gospel (Acts 7:59) as there was often, ‘great persecution’ that was against the church.  

No, the early days of the church were not ideal, the disciples were not perfect, and the world was most always against them, and eventually most of their first leaders, including Paul (Acts 21:27ff), Peter, James, Thomas, and all the others lost their lives.   This is how it really was.   The church was a group of people who followed Jesus and should not have succeeded to ‘go into the whole world’.   They should not have overcome and should not have been able to take their message to the world, besides being the greatest religious movement the world has ever known, lasting almost 2,000 years.   How did such an ordinary, even less than ordinary, very unsophisticated, untrained, and unpolished group of disciples (Acts 4:13ff) end up starting a movement, founding such a long lasting institution, or establishing an enduring organization like this? 

Also, how did they do it under such great opposition, and we don’t seem to be able to keep it going, and hold it together even in a free, wealthy, and relatively safe society like our own?   What is not happening now that did happen then?  Can we definitively say what our problem is?

Perhaps the most important part of the answer to why the church isn’t today, what it once was, and has been, found in something the late preacher and devotional writer, AW Tozer in the early 1900’s.   He made the interesting comment that “If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the early New Testament Church then,  95% of what they were doing would have stopped.”   Can’t you see this in the book of Acts?   The Holy Spirit is behind everything.  In fact,  when you read it, you will see that the book of Acts is not really about the Acts of the Apostles, but the Acts of the Holy Spirit.   The story in Acts begins with the Spirit being ‘poured out’ and person after person (Acts 10:45), not just being baptized with water, but being ‘baptized with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 11:16).  One of my favorite chapters in Acts, is Acts 8, where we read the ‘Spirit said to Philip, go near...this chariot’ (Acts 8: 29) and then, just after that ‘the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away’ (Acts 8:39). Then, only a couple chapters later Peter says, ‘The Spirit told me to go…’ (Acts 11:12) and not long afterward we read how it was ‘through the Spirit, Paul was told not to go to Jerusalem...’ (Acts 21:4).   All this means AW Tozer was right:  If the Holy Spirit had not been invited, obeyed and then followed,  95% the what church accomplished would not have happened.  

But isn’t the opposite happening today.   Isn’t it true today, that in the church, 95% of what the church is doing today does not require us to obey the Holy Spirit?   We don’t need the Holy Spirit to preach our sermons, to sing our songs, to lead our choirs, to conduct our meetings, to do our children’s or youth works, to have our fellowships,  raise our money, or to go on our mission trips, do we?   Could it be that the Great Omission is not simply the failure to obey, that is to not to ‘go’ or ‘to make’ disciples, but might our coming demise be more rightly linked to having little desire to be ‘led’, ‘directed’ or ‘controlled’ by the Holy Spirit?   Going in the Name of God the Father and God the Son, while getting to have our personal tastes or display our wonderful talents is fine,   but asking for, invoking, and actually listening to and allowing for the work of the Holy Spirit?   Who needs that in the church today?  Would we rather die than have the discomfort or deal with the disruption of having to obey the Spirit?

ALL POWER IS GIVEN….

Could the failure to have the desire to listen to, follow, or obey the Spirit, be our Great Omission?   Who needs the Holy Spirit anyway?   Can’t we have our Christianity, our beliefs,  our opinions, and our churches without the Spirit?   Besides, what does the church of today really need the Holy Spirit for?   

Well, let’s think about that.   In our text today, Jesus does not just say, “Go, make disciples...in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”, but just before that, Jesus said something even more empowering and also more challenging.   First of all, before he said ‘go’, he said:  “All power (or authority) is given to me in heaven and in earth….” (Matt. 28: 18).   Now, what kind of ‘power’ is this?  What could this mean for the life and the future of this church?

I find it interesting, very interesting, that most of the newer translations have moved away from older King James translation of Jesus having ‘power’ to Jesus having ‘authority.’    These translations are meant to help us get clearer about what this word for power specifically means.   In fact, the Greeks had, and still have, 4 words that could be translated power.  You already know the other two words, even if you don’t know Greek, because they carry over into our English,  dynamis, (Dynamite), and energeia (energy).   One of those Greek words for power, which you don’t know about, is right here in Matthew 28:18.  Here Jesus uses the word exousia, which is not dynamis---an explosive power, and not energeia---- an energy that causes something, and not isxus---the health or strength to work.   But the word Jesus uses here is the only Greek word for power that can means to have the ‘authority’,  the right, or the freedom to choose to do what you want to do.  Here, in the Great Commission is given when Jesus has earned the right and been given the authority by God to give a great mission to the disciples and to the church.   But the GREAT OMISSION is when we don’t give Jesus the same authority and right to command our lives or to commission us.   Specifically, we give Jesus the authority and right to ‘command’ and to ‘commission’ when we are willing to OBEY EVERYTHING he commands us.  This exactly what it means to be ‘led’ by, to be ‘filled with’ or to ‘receive’ or listen to the Spirit.   Because God is Father, Son and Spirit, there is no difference in obeying the Spirit of Jesus than obeying the Holy Spirit.  But still, what does this means, in the most practical terms which can have the most practical results---results that give the church both power it needs to thrive and to carry out its mission?

Well, since, obeying Jesus and listening to the Spirit is the same, let’s think again about what really happened at the church’s birth, the day we call Pentecost.    Before the Church could obey Jesus, it had to receive the power of the Spirit.  But how did this happen?    

If you turn to Acts 2:1, you see that first it says they were ‘all’ there ‘in one place’ (Acts 2ff. 1.  Now, that’s the first step of listening to the Spirit and really obeying Jesus, isn’t it?---all of them actually showed up together ‘in one place’.   Woody Allen, the writer and actor, once said that 80 percent of life is just, showing up.”   In the same vein, Thomas Edison said that success is 90 percent perspiration and only 10 percent inspiration.  The brilliant Einstein was quoted as saying that Genius is only 1 % talent, and 99 percent hard work.   The point of all these sayings is they help point us right back to what was actually going on among the early Christians when the Spirit, the power, and the mighty deeds came.   The church did not forget to do nor omit doing, the most simple, most basic, and sometimes the most difficult thing:  ‘they all showed up in one place.

What troubles me the most about church today, even some of them that are growing quite well, is that many of the Christians, the members, even some of the most committed ones, are part-time Christians.   Not long ago, I asked about some members of one of the churches, who had become quite delinquent.  They are very good people, and they have sweet children.   I asked the deacon,  “Where are so, and so?”  “I haven’t seen them in church lately.”  “Do you have any idea, why they don’t come to church much anymore?”   Well, the deacon guessed,  “I figure they must be burning the candle at both ends….”  He’s probably right.  With both parents working, and with young children, it’s hard to find them at church, in Sunday School, or at Bible Study?  But isn’t it amazing that are still able to go to school?   Isn’t it amazing that they still manage to take in a vacation or go on this trip, or find themselves in Disneyland?   I’m not asking anybody to Boycott Disney, but I’ve never even entertained the idea once, that Mickey Mouse could keep my children off drugs, or give them values that would last a lifetime!

And we wonder why things don’t happen?  Why society is getting dangerous?   People are losing empathy and compassion?  We wonder why our children are spoiled, don’t come to see us, or probably won’t care about us when we get old?   Why did society get so easily moved to the ‘wrong place’?  Could it not be that if forgot to be in the ‘right place’ and to be in the ‘one place’ that should matter most of all?

Second, the text also says they ‘were all with one accord.’   This doesn’t simply mean they were getting along with each other, maybe they were,  but it certainly means they were all united about and unified by the very same thing.   We read in the previous chapter, that ‘they’ (the first disciples, up to 500 of them) ‘all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication (1:14).   This means they were all praying the same kinds of prayers and asking God for the same kind of thing.   In other words, the first disciples and members of the church did not come together to get what they wanted, nor did they all come talk about their friends, family or their differing needs, no, the first disciples and Christians all were praying ‘to receive power’ through the “Holy Spirit” so they could be ‘witnessess… ’ in their own Jerusalem, their own Judea, and in their own… ‘parts of the earth’ (Acts 1:8).  

Perhaps here, we can see why it is so hard for churches today to be unified or to gain power and authority to do what we are commanded to do.   We who come to church, often come to church wanting different things, but not necessarily wanting the same thing.   We want to see people.   We want to be together.   We don’t want to be alone.   We want to be seen.  We want to make a good impression.   We want to keep our heads on straight or we want to do what makes us feel good, or what we’ve always done.   So, what is the right reason to come to church, or to be the church?

This reminds me of the old story about a hermit who was meditating by a river when a young man interrupted him. "Master, I wish to become your disciple," said the man. "Why?" replied the hermit. The young man thought for a moment. "Because I want to find God."

            The master jumped up, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, dragged him into the river, and plunged his head under water. After holding him there for a minute, with him kicking and struggling to free himself, the master finally pulled him up out of the river. The young man coughed up water and gasped to get his breath. When he eventually quieted down, the master spoke. "Tell me, what did you want most of all when you were under water."

          "Air!" answered the man.

           "Very well," said the master. "Go home and come back to me when you want God as much as you just wanted air."

Since fewer people come to church to have their lives changed, challenged, or commanded to do anything—or to really encounter God’s will that could be different from our own, sometimes I think it would be better to stop church for a while, and to tell everyone to come back when ‘we want God as much as we want air’.   Would it work?   Well, I guess we’re all afraid to try it, because we’re afraid that people would get so used to not coming, that when we got out of the habit, we wouldn’t come back.   But that might also prove something else:  It might prove that we come much more ‘out of habit’ rather than to seek, find, and draw closer to God and knowing his commanding, demanding, life-changing and life-challenging, will for our lives.

A few years ago, Will Willimon, a Methodist Bishop wrote: "To many people outside the church, the Church is like a football huddle. You know that something important is being said there, but you can't understand a word of it, and all you can see is their rear ends.”   How is it that the early church was able to cross all kinds of language, geographic, and cultural barriers to get the word out, but we have such a great communication problem?   The answer could be revealed through a humorous but painfully true cartoon that appeared in "Leadership Journal" some time ago:   The church secretary is holding the phone, hollering to the pastor in the adjoining room. She says, "A man from Ripley's Believe It or Not wants a picture of someone on fire for the Lord. Do we have one?"

A picture of “Someone on fire for the Lord”, do we have one?   Can you imagine one?   Would you know it if you saw it?   Do you want to see it?  Long to see someone like them?   Is there anyone in the church’s past that you admired as someone who was ‘on fire for the Lord’?  Is there anyone in the church’s present who you look up to, as ‘on fire for the Lord’?   Can you imagine anyone in this church’s future as becoming a person who is ‘on fire for the Lord?’

Now, I know this can be ‘spooky’ for some of you to think about.  We really like having everything under control, not having any kind of ‘strange’ explaining to do to our friends, our family or our neighbors.   But one of the things that made the church attractive to the world, was that it wasn’t like the rest of the world.   The church was filled with people that were a little different, often called weird, and always odd, and odd in a bad world was good.  It was good because even with the weirdness, oddness, and strangeness, came the wonderful reality that these people, without pretention, really were people who ‘were on fire for the Lord!’

Hawaiian Pastor Wayne Cordeiro tells about a bakery he knew about. It was located in a bad part of town. The bakery was small, rundown, and nondescript.  Yet, at 5am every morning, the aroma of delicious bread emanated from that bakery. People would line up around the block to get their hands on that bread.  Isn’t this a great picture a church ‘on fire for God’.   Being ‘on fire for God’ is not about appearances or gimmicks; it is simply about wanting and offering the bread of life. People are so spiritually hungry that all we have to do is offer the bread of life with passion and authenticity, and they will come to taste it.  But there is one catch.  We must be real.   People can easily smell the difference between fresh-baked bread, fresh out of the oven, and outdated, stale, dry old bread.

A pastor friend of mine is retired, but is currently the Interim pastor in a large church in Hickory.   Every Sunday he preaches on Radio and Television, just like he did for over 30 years when he was a pastor in Tennessee, years ago.   A couple of Sunday’s ago, I happened to turn on the TV and listen to what he was preaching on.   The title of his message was “Between the Bridge and the Steeple”.   He opened his message telling about a young woman who went down to the river out in the middle of the bridge and was contemplating taking her life.  As she stood up on bridge railing, she glanced down at the swirling water and then upward toward the horizon.  On the horizon, her eye caught a spire, a church steeple pointing up into the heavens.   After seeing the steeple, she decided to climb down and proceeded to walk into town and to find the church with the tall steeple.  After finding the church office, she asked to urgently see the pastor, who fortunately just happened to be there.   After sitting down in the chair in his study, she looked him straight in the eye with this haunting question:  “Is there anything in under this steeple that should keep me from jumping off that bridge and into that river?”  

I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS

Does the sweet smell of Christ emanate from our lives and this church? Are we sharing our witness? Are we letting our light shine?  I don’t know whether you can smell the bread or see what’s supposed to be under the steeple, but I will tell you that the reason we are supposed to ‘all’ be in ‘one place’ and be ‘in one accord’ is so that we can be empowered and gain the authority to ‘be witnesses’ for Christ as the ‘body of Jesus’ in the world.   This may be a world that believes much less, it needs Jesus as much now, as it ever has before.  

If we really have the ‘hope’ of Jesus within us, we must testify and tell people our truth---even to try to make Jesus followers of them.   We are to do this  because we are led by the Spirit, and under the authority of Jesus, not because we come to church to get what we want or do as we please.   Now, this may scare some of you, but listen closely:  By the grace of God, you are able to share your witness.  You don't do it on your own power.  This is why Jesus said, it’s my ‘authority’ and added "I am with you always, even unto the end of the age." Jesus is always with us, helping us and empowering us to share the good news. I know he is. As a pastor, I have heard many great sermons from the church, but I’ve never heard any greater sermon than those I’ve seen lived by the people who practice what they believe.

We live in a day of increasing addictions.    I heard about a woman who had a friend who was an addict.  The addiction was destroying everything that woman loved. Most people would have said, "Well, we need to pray the she gets the help he needs." But that is not what this woman did.  She wrote her friend a letter telling her that she was going to lose everything including her life unless she went into treatment and received the help she needed. And then she wrote in that letter that the only one who could make her whole is Jesus Christ.

Now, where did she get the power and courage to write a letter like that? Jesus said, "Go and make disciples ….I will be with you always."

A young man was still living at home.  He was rather quiet and kept to himself. One day his coworker found him in the restroom crying.  The coworker asked him if he could help. The young man confided in him. He told him that his girlfriend was pregnant, and he had just revealed this to his parents the night before. They are very strict and religious. They screamed at him and said that he had embarrassed them and shamed the family and told him that he should never set foot in their house again.

What did his coworker do? He reached out, put his arm around him and said, "I am sorry that happened to you. I am sure this is difficult for your parents, and I am certain this is difficult for you.  But I am a Christian, and I believe that God loves you, and God’s love will help you through the most difficult situations."  Now how was that coworker able to say something like that? Jesus said, "Go and make disciples….. and remember, I am with you always."

Not long ago, I was visiting in the Hospital and the patient said to me,  “I know I’m not going to live much longer.”  The nurse was in the room, at the time, and you could tell that she had not heard such direct talk much, even in the hospital.  She did a double-take and looked at me with a troubled look.   After the nurse left the room, I told the patient that I understood that she was going through a difficult time.   I agreed with her that it might not be long, but that she, nor I, nor the doctors, ever know something like this for sure.   Then I told her what we could be sure of is that no matter how bad we feel, or what difficult problem we are going through, we can be sure that God’s love and presence is here with us.   It may be late in our lives, and it may be dark, but to God, it is always just before dawn, because his love as promising as an eternal morning.  Go and make disciples….. and remember, I am with you always."

Charles Reeb, was preaching at a Methodist youth camp. The worship service went really late. He didn't get up to preach until about 11p.m.  It didn't help that he had the flu. But it was the last service of the week, and he had to finish. He doesn’t remember he said.  He was so sick. He was just trying to get through it. He thought it was the worst sermon he’d ever delivered.

After the service, a teenage girl approached him. She looked very angry. She said, "I have to find out if something is true." The pastor replied, "What's that?" She said, "You mentioned tonight that God loves me. Do you believe that? I don't believe anyone has ever loved me. My dad left me and my mother abused me, and I moved from one institution to another. I've been sexually abused, neglected, and you are telling me that God loves me?"

Pastor Reeb looked straight into her eyes, and said, "That's right. I know this for certain. God loves you. You want to know how I know?  God got up on a cross and said, 'This is how much I love you.'" She paused for a moment and tears began rolling down her cheeks. Then she said, "Well, if God loves me, then nothing else matters. If God loves me, that's all that matters."

Deep down you know there are people all around you who need the love, forgiveness, grace, power, strength and comfort of God in Jesus Christ. Give me one good reason why you wouldn't want to share it?  Give me a good reason not to obey the Great Commission and to commit the Great Omission.  You might give me all kinds of bad ones, but you can’t give me one good one.  Not even one.

I hope you always have time to speak about God to those around you.   I hope that no matter what is going on, what plans you are making, or what priorities you have, that at the top of your list, you have included your faith and you don’t forsake to assemble with your church, as some do.   Your church and faith should not be an afterthought, or seem like an additional burden put on your life, but it should be place where you focus on all the love that gives your life its purpose and its promise.   God’s love depends on you.  

Let us pray:   Dear Lord, give us new eyes to see those around us who need your love. Give us new hearts to be sensitive to those who need your love, and give us the courage to share your love and to make them your disciples.  Amen.