Becoming the People of God 2: Called to Be the Church

Becoming the People of God 2: Called to Be the Church

October 23, 2011

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

J.W. McNeill

Last week, today and the next three Sundays we are examining five contrasting statements. One each week. Trying to understand how these pairs of statements differ will help us be clearer about the nature of God, who God has created us to become, and what difference that is to make in our lives. These will be simply provocative sketches, not full answers. I hope that you will give further thought to the topics we will consider and I invite you to ask questions and probe further as the weeks go on.

           

As I said last week: Some of you feel like theological sermons go over your head. But even so, your job is to reach up and try to catch it. You might not catch every all of it, but if you try, you are likely to catch at least some of it. So I again invite you to reach up this morning instead of giving up.

Again, as I said last week: If we do not intentionally try to understand who God is and how God is calling us, we will either head off in a direction away from God – or simply wander around in a fog of confusion being drawn this way and that by whatever calls loudest to us on any particular day. The people of God are NOT to wander around in a fog. We don’t have to. We can exercise our minds and understand. Theology is simply our faith seeking understanding.

If you have been coming to Fairport UMC for some time, you know that we usually use the Affirmation of Faith which was written for the United Church of Canada. It directs and instructs us in our journey together. Week by week it reminds us of the faith we share.

There is a scene near the beginning of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia story, The Silver Chair. Aslan, the great lion,  who is the figure of Christ in the Narnia series, is giving instructions for a task that will belong to Jill Pole, who is about to be blown into Narnia.  In order to help her fulfill her quest, Aslan tells her four signs that she must remember.

"I will tell you, Child," said the Lion. "These are the Signs by which I will guide you in your quest. First; as soon as the Boy Eustace sets foot in Narnia, he will meet an old and dear friend.

Then Aslan goes on to tell her three more signs.

After he had finished telling her the signs Jill said,

"Thank you very much. I see."

"Child," said Asian, in a gentler voice than he had yet used, "perhaps you do not see quite as well as you think. But the first step is to remember. Repeat to me, in order, the four Signs."

Jill tried, and didn't get them quite right. So the Lion corrected her and made her repeat them again and again till she could say them perfectly. He was very patient over this.

And as Aslan prepares to use his breath to blow her into Narnia he tells her,

"Stand still. In a moment I will blow. But, first, remember, remember, remember the Signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing tum your mind from following the Signs.

And secondly, I give you a warning. Here on the mountain I have spoken to you clearly: I will not often do so down in Narnia. Here on the mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind. And the Signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look, when you meet them there.

That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember the Signs and believe the Signs. Nothing else matters.

And now, Daughter of Eve, farewell.

The affirmation we say together week by week contains the basic signs by which we become the people of God. We do not become God’s people by accident. We become God’s people as we remember and attend to God’s call on our lives. Our affirmation of faith is one of the Signs that instruct us on our mission.

We are looking at it more closely and seeing how it contrasts with an alternative set of beliefs that have come to be known as Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD).  This set of beliefs was constructed by researchers after a very large study examining what adolescents believed. They were able to piece together that the youth they interviewed had a fairly consistent theology that stretched across Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and other faith traditions. They also determined that they got this theology from their churches and their parents. The problem for the Church is that this theology is decidedly NOT Christian.

The Scripture texts for this series of sermons are the assigned readings from St. Paul’s letters to the Christians in Thessalonica.

Paul goes there because there is a particular message that needs to be transmitted. The Gospel – the Good News – calls us to a particular message, a particular way of life that we don’t get to know unless we particularly pay attention to it. As St. Paul says to the Thessalonians from our reading this morning:

As we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts. (1 Thessalonians 2:4)

Paul has visited them and instructed them and now writes to them to keep them on track. He knows that they need to be taught, reminded, and corrected and guided to remain on the path to which God has called them.

We also need to be taught, reminded, and corrected so that we do not forget or become confused about how God continues to call us to become disciples/student followers of Jesus Christ.

Last week we contrasted the first tenet with the statement about creation from our Affirmation of Faith.

 A god exists who created and orders the world and watches over life on earth.

True in some sense. But we affirm something much more robust, engaging, and energizing:

 We believe in God: who has created and is creating, who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh, to reconcile and make new.…

That is, in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, God’s purpose was to

reconcile and make new: Transformation of us and our relationships.

Not to judge and condemn us, but to renew us into a different way of life based on justice, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.

           

God is not at a distance simply watching over. God is continually, always and everywhere creating and refreshing not only the world around us, but us. Refreshing us to be God’s people, student followers of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

This morning we contrast the second precept of MTD:

·         God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.

A word about this: Here again, it’s hard to just dismiss this as ridiculous.  It has some truth to it as far as it goes. It is certainly a better rule of thumb than say, "Don't get mad. Get even!" 

In fact, congenial life together could not exist without at least some semblance of the kind of fair cooperation that this precept envisions. We have various “social levers” to bring this about.  Advice columns, etiquette, laws, court system, prisons that attempt to keep this minimal standard as a lowest common denominator. People don’t always behave this way, but it is a pretty uncontroversial standard.

We criticize people who don’t at least make an effort to be good, nice and fair. Or feel apologetic when they fail.

But again, this is a fairly minimal standard.

Now contrast this with how we affirm God calls us:

We are called to be the Church: to celebrate God’s presence, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen. This is energizing and engaging! Not wimpy.

Called to be the Church:

·         Called out assembly of God. We have been intentionally gathered by God. We are called to be God’s people, to be a sign, a living message showing God’s love and grace. We are not nobodies, we are chosen and blessed to be about God’s business in this world.

·         This is true both for the international totality of the called out and the individual local gatherings here and elsewhere of those who are becoming God’s people.

·         So this is important stuff.

Celebrate God’s presence:

·         We worship. This is our central activity. This centers us and orients us to God.

·         Refer back to last week. This is a miracle feast world

·         We are living  in a world that calls us to celebration because we come more and more to appreciate that God’s goodness is all around us.

·         This is a matter of faith and confidence that God is at work in the world. We are called to adopt the positive attitude that God is at work. See through what troubles us with hope.

Love and serve others:

·         To love and serve others is in stark contrast with “be good and nice and fair.”

·         It means proactive attention to others. It means putting ourselves out for others. It means sometimes inconveniencing ourselves for the sake of others.

·         To love others means that we will want their good and work for their good, even if it costs us something.

·         Now, how we balance this with also needing to responsibly care for ourselves and those we have a particular responsibility for (like our own family) requires wisdom and counsel. It’s not always obvious, but to live as Christ has called us – to live as the people of God – goes far beyond simple good, nice and fair.

·         We are intentionally living so as to be creating that kin(g)dom of God among us and pouring out into our neighborhood and our world.

Seek justice and resist evil:

·         This is another case of God calling us to be proactive: Sticking our nose in

·         Understanding that there is a problem that the strong may be dominating the weak and God’s people are about seeing that doesn’t happen. Whether through our own action, or working for social and political structures to keep those who are being treated unfairly will receive justice.

·         Social holiness as well as personal. It means working to rid the world of social evil as well as personal evil.

·         It may not always be easy to identify social justice and social evil, but we are called as the church to try to understand and act so as to seek justice and resist evil.

Proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen

·         There is some clarity about who we have been called to follow. Jesus is our model. His teaching and his life are the central images to which we look as we understand how we are to live. As we said last time, Jesus is the Word made flesh – God living among us.

·         Realistic about what can happen when we seek justice and resist evil. We do not ignore the fact that when God came to live among us, we turned against God and crucified Jesus.

·         But at the same time we are confident about how the story turns out. We know that God’s grace and God’s power were and are finally victorious. We can live out our call with courage.

If we are to become the people of God we have to take notice and remember the signs of the people of God. It is one thing to hear them in church. It is another thing in the stresses and strains of our daily lives. As Aslan told Jill, we must keep our calling to live as God’s people before our hearts and minds in every moment, so that our calling to be the Church will not be in vain.

St. Paul says:

You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain (1 Thessalonians 2:1).

Gospel means a particular way of living. The people of Thessalonica caught on. Or were caught up. But in any case, they opened themselves up to become the people of God. The call of God on their lives was not in vain.

Imagine that!

More next week. Stay tuned!

Becoming the People of God Part One: Creation

Becoming the People of God 1: Creation

October 16, 2011

1 Thessalonians 1:1-9

J.W. McNeill

Today and the next four Sundays we will be examining five contrasting statements. One each week. Trying to understand how these pairs of statements differ will help us be clearer about the nature of God, who God has created us to become, and what difference that is to make in our lives. These will be simply provocative sketches, not full answers. I hope that you will give further thought to the topics we will consider and I invite you to ask questions and probe further as the weeks go on.

           

Why this is important: I am aware that there are those of you who particularly appreciate sermons that are more theological and philosophical. I also know that there are those of you who sometimes feel that some of these theological sermons are difficult to understand. You might even feel like they go over your head. But think of it this way. If you are an infielder on a baseball team and the ball is hit toward you and it’s going over your head, your job is not to watch it sail into the outfield. Your job is to reach up and try to catch it. You might not catch every one, but if you try, you are likely to catch some. So I invite you to reach up this morning instead of giving up. We’re all supposed to be working at this here.

The danger is this: if we do not make an effort to understand what we believe, our minds, our thoughts, our beliefs will be shaped for us by the loudest voices that surround us. It is clearly true that the loudest voices around us are not coming to us with messages of the love of Jesus Christ.

If we do not intentionally try to understand who God is and how God is calling us, we will either head off in a direction away from God – or simply wander around in a fog of confusion being drawn this way and that by whatever calls loudest to us on any particular day. The people of God are NOT to wander around in a fog. We don’t have to. We can exercise our minds and understand. Theology is simply faith seeking understanding.

One of the reasons that nearly every week we say together an affirmation of faith is to help keep ourselves clearer and by repetition to ingrain some basic truths about God and about ourselves so that we have some confidence that we are keeping the story straight.

Creeds/Affirmations of Faith do not attempt to try to give us a complete set of teachings. Instead they lay out some basic propositions which form a set of beliefs that have wide agreement. One of the interesting things about creeds in the history of the Christian tradition is that they tend to be written against particular false beliefs that the church wants to take special care to guard against.

One of the ways to understand more deeply what a creed is trying to say is to examine what it was written to guard against.

If you have been coming to Fairport UMC for some time, you know that we usually use the Affirmation of Faith which was written for the United Church of Canada in the mid 1960s. We began using it more regularly after a very intentional group process some years ago that revealed that it spoke to many of us at a deep level.

Over the next few weeks we will be looking at it more closely and see how it contrasts with an alternative set of beliefs that have come to be known as Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD).  Some of you might remember that I referred to this set of beliefs in a message last spring.

To review: MTD had five precepts:

• A god exists who created and orders the world and watches over life on earth.

• God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.

• The central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about yourself.

• God is not involved in my life except when I need God to solve a problem.

• Good people go to heaven when they die.

We will take each of these in turn, starting with the first one this morning.

Just a note on where these come from. A couple of sociologists of religion did a nationwide study of the faith of adolescents. After thousands of surveys and 250 in depth interviews, the researchers were able to piece together that the youth they interviewed had a fairly consistent theology that stretched across Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and other faith traditions. They also determined that they got this theology from their churches and their parents. The problem for the Church is that this theology is decidedly NOT Christian.

This will become clearer as we contrast it with our affirmation of faith.

One more thing and then we will get into the meat of this. Our Scripture texts for this series will be the assigned Sunday readings from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. Scholars believe that this letter is the earliest piece of writing in what we now know as the New Testament. Each week’s theme will be tied to our reading from this letter of St. Paul. Lispers beware.

St. Paul writes to the congregation in Thessalonika and opens with a very robust expression of gratitude and appreciation of them. He writes:  you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Notice this: they became imitators of the Lord (Jesus) in joy despite persecution. How were they able to do that? How were they able to become people of God with enthusiasm and joy despite the threat of persecution? Because they were clear about who they were to be and what they were to do and they intentionally set about doing despite the fact that it would have been easy to be something else. It was not convenient. It was not easy. It was not what was going on in the culture around them, but it was who they had been called to be. They set their minds and hearts on becoming the people of God and so became the bearers of a message of hope in a world that needed hope. Messengers of peace in a world of violence, messengers of justice in a world of oppression.

Now we might not face persecution, but we are called to have that same kind of clarity and dedication to live with joy and enthusiasm the life to which Christ has called us. To imitate Christ – to be as Christ to one another and the world.

On what basis can we do that? The answer is that at least one element is clarity about who we are.

Who are we imitating?  Who do we want to be? What do we want to be when we grow up? A clear intentionality is needed.

First Premise of MTD

• A god exists who created and orders the world and watches over life on earth.

True in some sense. One can imagine a statement that is less true. For example:

           

I don’t want to be hard on atheists, but this MTD statement carries us a long way from atheism. Compared to this statement of atheism, MTD sounds reasonable.

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism does acknowledge a God who created and orders and got things going. But “watches over?” That indicates an element of distance. According to MTD, God is not too involved in life on earth. (This is the Deism part.) Not too big a role for God.

But it also has an implication from our side of things:  God does not need to have too big a role in our lives. Safe and respectful distance. “OK God, if you don’t get too close to me, I won’t get too close to you. Deal?”  Background God. Stepped back. Maybe once was involved. Creation, Biblical days, long ago. But not much now. We’ve taken over. Technology.

So now let’s contrast this with what our affirmation of faith says:

We believe in God – WE believe this. Others may not. [More on this later. Do we have to coerce or force of manipulate others to believe this?? NO!]

This statement of affirmation orients us to the world, orients our lives, gives us a particular reference point to how we approach the world. It’s all a miracle. It’s all a wonder of God. The psalmist says it so well as we read a couple of Sundays ago here: The heavens are telling the glory of God.

And notice: Not a God. But the God – the God of whom the Bible speaks. The God who Of Abraham and Sara, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel, Miriam and Moses. The God who calls forth a people to be a sign and a witness to that God’s steadfast love and mercy. A testimony to that God’s commitment to lifting up the oppressed. Not a God. The God.

Our affirmation goes on to say that God HAS created and IS Creating – all existence depends in each moment on God. God is continually bringing the universe into existence. There is simply no existence apart from God. God’s being undergirds ALL being. All of creation can be thought of as being suspended from God’s being. If God were to let go, all would be nothing.

Our affirmation goes on to say that this creator God has come in Jesus – Not at a distance, but come to us as one of us. Mystery how this happened – simply means there is no physics explanation for it that we are aware of – but we affirm that is what happened. We cannot view God as apart from us. God has had a part of us.

And that God who has come among us, gotten close to us, is the Word made flesh: became an articulate message among us to reveal not just God’s love for us, but also the way we are to live with each other so that God’s way might become real – the Kingdom (kindom) God’s way for us to take root and grow – as it did among the Christians of Thessalonika.

That is, in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, God’s purpose was to

reconcile and make new: Transformation of us and our relationships.

Not to judge and condemn us, but to renew us into a different way of life based on justice, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.

And this way of life preserves us, as Paul says, from wrath: that is, from violence, condemnation, and death. Imitating Jesus – the Message, Sign, Word of God made flesh forms us into God’s people.

           

God is not at a distance. God is continually, always and everywhere creating and refreshing not only the world around us, but us. Refreshed to be God’s people, student followers of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Imagine that!

More next week. Stay tuned!

October 9, 2011 - Pray About Everything - UMW Sunday Message

Pray about Everything

Philippians 4: 1-9

Ginny Spring - UMW Sunday

[Note that we do not clean up formatting when we post our sermons. They are pasted in simply as they appear for the most part.]

Paul wrote to his followers in Philippi: Do not worry about anything; let your requests be made known to God in everything by prayer.

  In other words: Do not worry about anything; pray about everything!

            Words that are easy to say.  Much harder to carry out.

Let’s consider what we, as individuals, worry about.  What keeps you awake at night?

 There are a wealth of problems that come to my mind:

a test at school;                       a health concern;        a broken family relationship; 

a bullying situation;                  a job loss                    a child’s recalcitrant behavior

 a domestic violence situation            

How do we react to worries…..?   

Whether we are a young adult, teen, or older person, do we

     : keep our anxieties within ourselves: always in our thoughts;

              letting them hang like a gray cloud in our day; letting them erode our spirits and                          perhaps eventually affect our bodies?

    : talk about them to others

             : not expecting a solution; just wanting to unload; or

              : in hopes of finding a way to resolve the situation?

      Psychologists tell us that one of the more healthy approaches is

                        to simply spell out what is disturbing us.   

By clarifying what it is, we may already be relieving some stress.

By writing down our concern,  perhaps we will see what it is that we should be doing differently; or we may realize that we have little control over the situation.

And then there is Paul’s approach: pray about everything…offer it to the Lord in supplication.  If you are at all inclined to talk about your worries to a friend, a teammate, or a relative, Paul is suggesting that we talk about them with the God Who loves us!

           

        God Who has always loved each one of us is often hungry to be more involved in our lives.  We give thanks for the start of a new day and thanks at mealtime.  On Sunday each week we gather in shared worship and praise.   Here is an opportunity to engage Him more fully in our lives.         

By telling God  how helpless we find ourselves,  we are in conversation with God.

                        We are NOT praying for divine intercession…

            :expecting God to intervene and rescue us from our troubles;

            :expecting  God to take away the problem.

           

We  are praying : to ask for the grace to adjust our attitude;

                              : to ask for the grace to accept what we cannot change;

                              : to acknowledge that we cannot do this alone and need His                                                      inspiration and support.

Our Affirmation of Faith states:  “We are not alone…God is with us.”

Young Pastor Emily reminded us: “God doesn’t need my words, to know my heart.”       

Would just sitting still and  being silent open our hearts to the Holy Spirit and help us feel God’s Presence? 

Paul’s letter to the followers of Jesus in Philippi from which we read a passage today was written about  thirty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.  You may already know that Philippi was a city on the northeast coast of modern day Greece.   Paul urges these early believers to help each other on their spiritual journey.

Two spiritual leaders shared the desire to spread the good news of Christ’s way of living,  but perhaps they were at odds about some detail.

If there were indeed such a difference of opinion, their falling-out might be affecting the unity of the Christian community at Philippi.  Paul wrote to all of his followers there and urged them not to be worried by such divisions, but instead, help the two members reconcile their differences.  Their names were Euodia and Syntynche.

This week I went online and was able to find a u-tube clip of these same women.   It was   a conversation they shared years later in their lives.  Let’s listen in….

SYNTCHE:  Euodia, it is so relaxing to sit with you here outdoors in the    afternoon.   I always look forward to chatting with you.

EUODIA:  Yes, we’ve been friends for years , ever since our children were youngsters.  Now they all have their own growing families.

SYNTYCHE:  Of course, there was that stretch of time when we weren’t even talking to one another.

          I remember being very upset with you then but to tell you the truth, I      can’t even recall what the reason was!!

EUODIA:  It’s ironic, isn’t it?   Here we are such close friends but years ago we    did have our differences.   What I recall is your  propensity to worry about         change.

SYNTYCHE:  Change?

EUODIA:  Things were looking  promising for our faith community .  Clement and         the others were working  hard teaching what “following Jesus” actually         meant. 

          Most of us enjoyed welcoming other people to hear Clement          preach and    to our prayer services.   You, on the other hand, became more and more reluctant to open your heart to people from different backgrounds.

SYNTYCHE:  I probably didn’t feel comfortable with them.

EUODIA: That could well have been true, Syntiche.   Eventually your attitude      made many of us feel uncomfortable.   I wondered how you were going to   understand people of different lifestyles if you did not even want to         spend time with them!  Let alone,  worship with them!

SYNTYCHE:   Then when Paul wrote from prison in Rome, he reminded us to      focus on the things that were good and righteous in other people.

           All other people.  (Turning to look at her friend) You really helped me     work through that, Euodia.

EUODIA:  (smiling broadly)         And do you remember our friend, Margaret?

                    She insisted:

          :  If we could find only the good in those whom we consider different,

                   we would be unstoppable Christ followers!

                   Your attitude changed completely. 

                   After that, you kept in mind that God loves every one of us.

                   But then you were exasperated with me when I refused to be                             baptized.

SYNTYCHE:  That’s right… you felt it would be enough for a person to say in                public that she believed that Jesus was the Son of God.  Everyone else        believed we should be immersed in the river, as Jesus was with John the           Baptizer.

EUODIA:   I was afraid of the water!  I had never gone in such deep water,         whether it was a lake or a river!  I did not think that God would want me        to do such a thing!

SYNTYCHE:  You really became quite outspoken and defiant, Euodia.

EUODIA:  Yes, and there were a lot of other people that agreed with me.

                   It became quite a group.

         

SYNTYCHE:  But we prayed about that together.  We talked about your anxiety.

          We asked God to give you the courage to get over your fear,

          to let the rest of us help you.  We were right there beside you. 

EUODIA:   Paul had urged us to not worry about anything, but instead pray        about everything.   (Laughing together)  Well, we sure did that!

Of course, we have no idea of their actual difference of opinion, but

through all the centuries, there have been divergent views about aspects of the direction of the church.  What held true then, as it does now, is that we as followers of Christ are called to open discussion and respectful hearing of views that differ from our own.  The

lesson for us is that they turned to prayer.

If  reconciliation is true of church community, it is also true of families…and other social groups that we are take part in. 

Rather than division, Paul urges us to focus on the things that are decent, admirable and worthy of praise in people.  Paul was interested in attracting followers to Jesus’ way.  He wanted the congregation to be filled with joy and to be known for their joy in the Lord.

            Just as in the first century, we as present-day Christians should

            keep in mind how our behaviors and words impress or do not impress

            people of other faiths and people who have no religious affiliation.                          They know we are Christians. 

We need to be sure to share our joy!

Let’s let others know the empowerment and inspiration found in prayer.

Let’s avail ourselves more frequently of the transforming power of prayer.

Our mission statement reads that we are called to nurture people in their spiritual journey.  This may happen:

            : by becoming aware that someone else is anxious or hurting;

            : by being ready to take the time to listen to their concerns;

            : by being willing to take the time to walk with them during the rough                                spots of their life.

If you are sharing in confidence a deep concern with another person, may I suggest two methods of prayer that might be helpful.

a) The 1-2-3 plan.  This is not a get-rich plan; it is a spiritually enriching plan. This is when you propose that, no matter where you are in your day, both of you will pray

                        :for one purpose, for two minutes, at three o’clock each day.

                                                One/two/three. 

If three o’clock is not a realistic timeframe, make it a one/two/ten plan.   Whatever hour is realistic for you and this relative, friend or co-worker.

The important thing here is that the other person knows that someone is praying with them.

          By stopping your routine; freeing your mind of distractions, being focused in prayer about the concern, you are enriching your own spiritual life.

         

   Perhaps those few minutes would serve as a freeing time to lift the burden and feel His Presence.

b)  Secondly, if one of you prefers a formal prayer, may I propose reciting  the Serenity Prayer together:

 Lord, grant me: the courage to change those things that can be changed;

                          : the grace to accept those things that cannot be changed; and

                          : the wisdom to know the difference.

In closing, let’s try doing what Paul urged the early Christians to do:

            : engage God in all aspects of  our lives:  pray about everything

                        letting the Spirit of God uplift us;

            : help those around us deal with the struggles of their journey;

            : bring more joy to our own lives and to the lives of others by giving the gift of prayer.

           

           

Beginning this Sunday, October 16, Pastor John will begin a five part series of messages examining what we affirm almost weekly in our Affirmation of Faith. We will contrast these affirmations with an alternative set of beliefs that are prevalent in our culture that obscure the energizing message of hope Christ offers.

As Christians we are called to be the people of God. We are called to be witnesses of the good news of Jesus Christ in word and deed. Unless we are clear about what that good news is, and what kind of community Jesus Christ is calling us to be, we will almost certainly miss the mark.

Join us as we explore at a basic level who God is calling us to become.

Pastor Margaret's Message from 10-2-2011

World wide communion meditation 100211

Psalm 19; Matthew 28:;16-20

Margaret Scott

Our psalm today tells us about God—no kidding. Well, more accurately, it tells us THAT God is….without a word spoken, the whole cosmos tells us God is, God says

It’s a wisdom psalm—it offers two sources of wisdom: the cosmos tells us God is, and tradition/teaching that tell us what God says.

It’s this last, God says, that connects that ancient song with the later gospel words….God speaks. And it’s God speaking that brings good news: in the face of the vast, cosmic, unspoken existence of God, comes God’s words, God’s teaching, God’s personal message for little old me. From “the heavens are telling” to listening to God’s word, “I shall be blameless” says the psalm, and this same cosmic God gives us Jesus, known as the Word of God, spoken in real life, to real people, in real relationships….then tells this Jesus to pass the divine word along to the disciples, to us, to all the world…it’s huge. This is known as the Great Commission, and it’s a divine word, from God, and a commission, not a suggestion: we are to follow Jesus in training others in this way of God, instructing them in the practice of a God-life.

This making disciples commission comes right out of Jesus’ mouth—say the gospel writers, a divine word acted out for centuries since.

it’s in our UMC and annual conference mission statements- ours not so much—ours leaves more space for interpretation. I wonder why? Could it be that this commission makes many of us squirm a bit. First because we’re uncomfortable with the idea of ‘making disciples’, and most of us haven’t the foggiest idea of what it would look like to take Jesus seriously, so rather than struggle with the connection between faith and daily life, we ignore it.

Or maybe we don’t think the world really needs this any more; we’re a so-called Christian nation, our little corner of the world is just fine the way it is.

Some of us have some kind of browbeating, Christianizing army image of ‘making disciples’, and we don’t want to be seen like that, and don’t believe that was Jesus’ way either.

Maybe we need to re-think what making disciples is…. Not Christianizing the nations, but sharing the Jesus lifestyle and mindset contagiously, by our lives…the translation can also be made: make disciples FROM all nations, and for sure,

there are people in other nations, of other faiths, who consider following Jesus’ way quite acceptable: Ghandi, for one, saw Jesus as eminently followable. It was Christians he had trouble with.

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

Mohandas Gandhi

And, Making disciples doesn’t always involve preaching or teaching people, most of us are poorly equipped and even turn down opportunities for training—why else do we have trouble finding SS teachers to share the faith in this building, let alone people willing to share faith in ordinary life places like home or work or school?

It means making people want to follow Jesus; and I know there are times I don’t set much of a Jesus example…

But let’s take heart from this text—it’s wonderfully encouraging, not guiltmaking at all!!

Let’s look at these disciples: they’re a motley crew. They have imperfect pasts, and present doubts. They’re moving ahead not knowing what lies ahead.

Sound familiar?

We bring our imperfect pasts with us this morning; we bring our doubts. We joke at the beginning of worship about saints and sinners, but it’s profoundly true. We are works in progress; we don’t have our act together.

What’s encouraging and meaningful is that Jesus is undeterred by doubting disciples with imperfect pasts, and present excuses. God gives THEM a task. They are to be part of something BIG, something divine, something world-wide, something practical, not theoretical. That’s wonderfully meaningful for life!

And they don’t have to be perfect or have their act together to do it! That’s wonderfully encouraging for life.

And what Jesus commands, Jesus enables:

‘as you go’ he says, I will be with you. You are not alone

As you go, not before you go. Christ’s Present Presence is promised. That’s wonderfully empowering for life!

Our UMC takes God’s presence into all the world; our participation in FUMC helps that happen…even as far as Kamina in the DRC as we heard at breakfast this morning. But every bit as importantly is who takes God’s presence into YOUR world, your family, your class, your workplace. Who goes to make disciples in our SS? At learning links? On Culver Rd at Covenant?

Here in this holy place, on this momentary mountain, we meet Jesus again, here again we are commissioned to be part of something BIG, here we are empowered to go and make disciples, maybe just one baby step at a time.. A little bread, a dip of juice, shared around the world at this moment, are the very life of Jesus, the promised presence empowering and equipping us – will we take a little step and go? Will we show Jesus in our life?

Will someone see in you, in me, something THEY need and be inspired to follow Jesus?

Can we share what you have found in the Jesus life?

Will you teach about the Jesus life?

Lots of ways to live this out…. Opportunities abound to learn AS we go - opportunities to study, to teach, to serve – that’s why we call our children and youth ministries leaders ‘co-learners’.

Go and make disciples the St Francis way, preach the gospel everywhere you can, if necessary, use words.

Or go and make disciples the John Wesley way

Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can.

Above all, hear the words of Jesus: as you do these things, I am with you.

The cosmic God is as close as that.

Make disciples?

Yes, we can.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Invitation to the Lord's Supper

Companions on the Journey:

This is the joyful feast of the life of Jesus Christ. This is Jesus’ table and Jesus invites all who wish to join him in the feast of life.

Jesus invites you:

Woman or man

Girl or boy.

Black or white

Yellow or brown or any color of God’s palette.

Jesus invites you.

Gay or straight

Well-off or struggling.

Convinced or confused,

Of great faith or struggling with doubt

Jesus invites you.

Able-bodied or physically challenged,

Old or young,

Infirm or healthy,

Saint or sinner,

Jesus invites you to this feast of life.

There is a place for you at Jesus’ table.

You are invited.

Are You A Trader?

Excellent video:

Are You A Trader?

Pastor Margaret's Sermon from Sunday 9-25-2011

A Jesus Mindset, Again   09/25/11

Philippians 2:1-13

Margaret Scott

Children’s Message

Mirror; photos of my kids

Who do you look like?

My children don’t look like me because they’re adopted. 

But Jess sometimes sounds like me because she grew up listening to me and talking to me

God wants us to grow up with Jesus so we sound like and act like him, not just our family

When you look in a mirror, don’t just see someone who’s like mom or dad, but say, I want to be like Jesus.

Sermon

What’s your favourite hymn?   Why?   Think about a phrase from it that sticks with you….

What hymns say and what they mean can be two different things;  the words they say

The meaning we give to them – very individual

This text is most likely a quote from a favourite hymn in the first century!

Paul is in dire circumstances – imprisoned, under death sentence (we’ve heard a lot about that this week), very concerned with the state of the faith community, the church – yet he writes a letter that’s laced, not with doom and gloom, but with joy and thanksgiving —how is this possible?

Perhaps because he’s reflecting on a favourite hymn and hears “let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” --  has set his own mind on being like Jesus –  and wants all who call themselves Christian to do the same.

The Greek word is phonein, to set  one’s mind on,  to have an attitude of

And from reading the hymn itself we find that the Jesus mindset includes

Humility

laying aside privilege

Selflessness

Obedience to God’s call on his life

and

Commitment

Let’s take a brief look at some of these attributes of Jesus, and then we’ll take a moment of quiet reflection to  ask ourselves a wonder question:  I wonder if I have this mindset?  If not, why not; if so, how is it practiced?

Humility:   not a Roman virtue in Paul’s day, and a carelessly considered one even today.  This attitude

·        recognizes one’s smallness in the God’s cosmic picture without losing an understanding of one’s importance to God

·        ignores cultural concern about status and value…

·        it doesn’t act on the basis of social distinctions….who’s in your group, who’s out, who wears what kind of clothes, or has which kind of job

·        it is open to God’s direction as more significant than its own

I wonder if I have this mindset?  If not, why not; if so, how is it practiced? (silence)

Another mindset attribute from this hymn is

Laying aside privilege: there is a pattern in this hymn that Paul sees in Jesus life, and has adopted as his own: privilege to servanthood to exaltation.

Jesus set aside his place as part of the Divine to become the full human, and not just any old human, the lowest of the low human, a servant, or slave, to others for God.

This isn’t an easy one for us.  Emily last week got us thinking about the alternative value system of the kin-dom – and it wasn’t too comfortable   This isn’t any more comfortable for me either, in fact it goes further….it goes against the grain of western culture and self-image to not only THINK that God sees us all equally, but to actively put oneself in a servant position.  In the church we sometimes think of ourselves as recipients of service—the church is here to meet my needs.  Yet if we are to be a truly Christian church, we must take our servant role seriously.  We are citizens of the kin-dom, not the culture.

Jesus laid aside the rights and privileges of Godhood, says the hymn.

I wonder if I have this mindset?  If not, why not; if so, how is it practiced? (silence)

Selflessness:  again, not a common virtue.  It’s a mindset that shows in two components, internally spiritual and externally other-focussed. 

Internally:  The hymn says Jesus emptied himself—

he put himself aside for a larger cause,

made room inside himself for God to fill,

quieted his own inner noise  enough to hear           

             the voice of God guiding him

left room in his soul for what life alone does not have to offer

Externally: became a full human being, warts and all.  When SLB talked about aspects of the Jesus mindset, this was the first on almost all our minds:  he paid attention to others…I mean really paid attention to others.

I wonder if I have this mindset?  If not, why not; if so, how is it practiced?

Obedience: to God’s call upon our lives.  I was reminded this week that the word obedience comes from a root that means listening….listening for what God is calling us to be, to do, and acting upon it…even to go as far as to die for that cause.

Let me be clear: I do not believe that God intended for Jesus to die a horrible death on a cross and Jesus obeyed THAT will.   I do believe that Jesus obeyed (listened, heard and followed) the call of God that ended up that way because of human refusal to listen and obey.  Had it gone differently, Jesus would still have been obedient as far as death, it just might have been a more natural death.  Men and women of faith still listen to God no matter what, and some of them die for it, but most of us will go to our deaths more naturally—will we go as obedient (listening, hearing, following)?

I wonder if I have this mindset?  If not, why not; if so, how is it practiced? (silence)

The last attribute of the Jesus mindset I see in this hymn is intimately connected to obedience, because it’s how obedience is displayed:

Commitment: time and again in the gospels, we read that “Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem”….his was a determined mindset committed to the cause of bringing people to God’s love and healing power,

Committed to transforming the world through non-violent but prophetic action,

Committed to healing the hurting, comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable

I wonder if I have this mindset?  If not, why not; if so, how is it practiced? (silence)

Like Paul before us, like those first Christians in a Roman culture, we need to re-order our values and mindset, as individuals and as a church….the mindset that has been subtly shaped by the success-oriented society around us.

Can we change our mindset?   Can we make new priorities in light of God values,

Priorities in our choices of activities – ones that nourish the soul instead of idolize the sport

Priorities in our attitude toward church – to serve or be served, or something of both

Priorities for prayer and listening time or busy noise?

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, the hymn begins, and the sermon ends

This mindset of love and humility is a way of life, it takes persistence, dedication, and a listening commitment for the call of God on our lives

So that we can be taken out of ourselves into the mind of God for humanity (Chittister)

 Let the same mind be in you, and me, that was in Christ Jesus

Amen