December 20 – Fourth Sunday of Advent

The Promise is  Joy

Isaiah 7:13-14

¹³Then Isaiah^* said: ‘Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman^* is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel (God with us).

This is one of God’s Promises to be with us… a promise of hope. But what is one of the possible human responses to the Promise of hope; one that God wishes to inspire in us?

Luke 1:39-44

39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, ⁴⁰where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit ⁴²and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. ⁴³And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? ⁴⁴For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy.

John the Baptist even while in his mother’s womb recognizes the Promise of God and responds as a person should when encountering the presence of God… with unrestrained joy.

True joy comes from our acknowledging and responding to God’s Promise… Jesus… Immanuel; God with us… and God wants us to live lives of joy… to acknowledge and respond positively to God through faith in Jesus.

Nehemiah 8:10

…do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Just as God is love, God is also joy; where love and joy abound there can be no room for fear for “perfect love casts out fear” 1 John 8:18

Joy 1 a : the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires b : the expression or exhibition of such emotion 3 : a source or cause of delight

Joy is spoken of often in the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments (joy in one form or another—including rejoice—is found almost exactly 400 times. Compare this with love-586; glory-468; mercy-310; and faith-275) and in different ways depending upon the situation the writer found themselves in (this includes happiness from married life and family to particularly harvest. Overwhelmingly though, these examples are related to God—some attribute or action of God in relationship with God’s people and our response of joy.

In the Old Testament, difficult times (times of war, famine, poverty, oppression etc.) the experience of joy became the anticipation of God’s deliverance from whatever it was they were being subject to either because of their faith or their lack of faith and so joy became a central theme in their eschatological hope—their hope in God’s promises of salvation in the coming of God’s anointed or Christ and again in the coming Son of Man.

As Christians, we understand and believe that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise and hope and so the source and object of joy.

This is a key theme in Luke’s gospel beginning with the angel’s announcement to Zechariah in the temple, that he and his wife would have a son and they would have “joy” at his birth because of who he was and what he would do in relation to the coming of Jesus; again in the passage for this morning; the pronouncement of the angel to the shepherds; throughout his ministry and his resurrection. As seen in John’s gospel, our relationship with Jesus is a source of our joy as believers.

The Apostle Paul argues that our joy in Christ can be experienced even during trials and troubles in life as an expression of our faith. He understands them to be temporary (agreed a subjective term but from God’s perspective all of existence is temporary) and as such should not dampen the joy we experience in life. In addition he believes that these difficult times suggest that the pending completion or consummation of God’s promise and our hope and so should heighten our joy. In circumstances where our hardship can be understood as being experienced because of our faith, Paul argues it is an extension or reflection of Jesus’ own suffering and so cause for more rejoicing.

God wants us to experience joy… Jesus tells us that he wants his joy to be in us so that our joy may be complete. Paul reminds us of this when talking about the character traits of Jesus that we receive when given the gift of the Person of the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of Christ—and the fruit of the Spirit, one of which is joy!

I think we also need to stop and think for a moment about the character and nature of God… God’s attributes. Scripture tells us that God is love, God is peace and so also God is joy. God not only evokes these responses in us but God is the source of them for God “is” these things. We experience them in different ways as human beings but in God they could be considered interchangeable but most certainly they are so intimately inter-related as to be indistinguishable… much like the Triune nature of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

These ideas are important because they help us think about how we can understand and experience joy in our own lives.

Think about people’s situation and response from the passage from Isaiah and in the early part of the gospel when God breaks into their lives.

Ahaz—king of Judah is going to be besieged and is in fear for the future; Zechariah—aging, he and his wife Elizabeth past child bearing years and childless, without hope; Mary—a young girl engaged to be married and with bright prospects for the future only to hear that that future all of a sudden doesn’t look to bright; Joseph—Mary’s betrothed… he has just found out his fiancée is pregnant and faces disgrace

God comes to each and says do not fear… the promise is that God is or will be with them and will see them through whatever is going to take place. And what does God say to each of them… do not be afraid…

Their response? Ahaz refused to accept God’s word out of fear. Zechariah questioned and doubted. Mary and Joseph accepted God’s word and acted upon it. But nowhere in these passages is the word joy mentioned, so why bring them up? The passage from Nehemiah is my clue.

Ezra instructs the people not to grieve; which here literally means “not to worry.” That the joy of the Lord will give them strength… will give them courage to do what they need to do.

Think back to the situations that we listed before. Ahaz worried and did not act on God’s word. Zechariah while he certainly wasn’t the example of faith of Mary and Joseph did not doubt any longer. Mary and Joseph, accepted God’s word to them and acted. In a sense you could say that they acknowledged God’s joy in choosing them and that joy provided them the courage to act in faith.

Think back to God and God’s attribute of love casting out all fear… all worry and read that with the passage from Nehemiah in mind and the responses of the folks.

This can help us to understand how Paul talked about he experienced joy during all of the trials and hardships of his ministry for Jesus… the joy of the Lord was his strength.

Does this mean that when we have feelings of happiness when things are going right we should not call it joy? To quote the Apostle Paul… “By No Means!” Of course we can experience joy and celebrate the blessings in life that involve success and good fortune! The Bible is full of examples of those. But we should not limit our understanding of joy and God’s desire for us to experience it to only that understanding.

The reason, I believe, that we sometimes don’t understand that joy can be experienced during difficult times in our lives is that we misplace the source of our joy as well as the object of our joy. The Bible is clear that God is both. And as Christians we experience that in the Person of Jesus Christ… the incarnation of God… Immanuel… God with us… that is God’s Promise to us.

The question we may ponder, especially in light of everything that’s going on in the world around us… political unrest, international conflict, questionable economy, unemployment, the reality of death in our own families and communities… the question we many ponder is, “how do I respond?” Do I refuse to believe God’s Word to me? Do I doubt and question? Or do I take courage in God’s Promise… do I take courage in the abiding presence of Jesus… and live in faith… with joy? For myself, for my family, for those near and for those far away. For the Promise is for all that the Lord our God calls.

Sunday December 13 – Third Sunday of Advent

 

The Promise is Peace

“For the Promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls…”    Acts 2:39

Ephesians 2:11-16

11 So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth,^* called ‘the uncircumcision’ by those who are called ‘the circumcision’—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands— ¹²remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. ¹⁵He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶and might reconcile both groups to God in one body^* through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.

Advent—a time of expectation for us as Christians. For some it is expectation of the celebration of Christmas. Gathering together with family and friends… the giving and receiving of gifts. For others it is time of expectation and preparation… and no not the house for the dinners or parties and family… but a time of preparation of our hearts… our minds… the way we live… not just this time of year but each day of the year. That’s the preparation part. The expectation is for the reason why we prepare—the coming of Jesus.

We do that two ways… the celebration we know as Christmas or the Christ “Mass” to commemorate, to celebrate and give thanks to God for His incarnation and birth as God the Son in the person of Jesus... but also we prepare in anticipation of Jesus’ return in glory to judge the world. To complete what was begun with His incarnation and birth.

That’s God’s promise to us. Jesus is God’s promise to us… Jesus as God the Son is the giver of the Promise… as the incarnate son is the Promise… and as the Son of Man coming in final glory and victory is the fulfillment of the Promise. Jesus is the Promise.

During these past weeks of Advent we’ve been looking at some of the different expressions of God’s promises to us and how they have been fulfilled in Jesus. We’ve seen that the Promise is Hope… that the Promise is Love… and this week we will explore how the Promise is peace.

Peace is sometimes defined as the state prevailing in the absence of war or the absence of hostility. Dictionaries define it as: 1 : a state of tranquility or quiet: as a : freedom from civil disturbance b : a state of security or order within a community provided for by law or custom <a breach of the peace> 2 : freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions 3 : harmony in personal relations 4 a : a state or period of mutual concord between governments b : a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity

Over the past 8 years or so peace has been a reoccurring issue for us as Americans… this is especially true for many that have family members serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. The definitions that we heard have particular meaning in that case. But when they stop to consider the number of wars that have occurred in human history… some folks stop and think, “Are God’s promises of peace valid? Are they true? (ex. Psalms 72, 85, 147; Isaiah 9:6-7; 32:1-10; 54)

The basic problem we face here is trying to understand God’s promises from a human or worldly point of view. Here’s how I understand this… It means that we as a sinful and fallen people are ruled by the attitude, logic, mindset, pattern of thinking of the world that defines victory in terms of overcoming our adversaries by force (most often expressed in violence) and that victory ensures peace.

Now force does not need to be physical… there can be economic force, political force, psychological force… all of those might be considered non-violent in physical terms but have the effect of violence if they are understood as not being entered into freely; in other words coercion or threat.

Now consequences to our choices should not be understood as threat or coercion. In any human relationship there should be an element of cooperation and or incentive for certain behavior. For instance; I’m trying to help our kids understand that there are consequences for their behavior… that the choice they make in cleaning their room or the way they treat each other can have blessings… or not.

In a perfect world our relationships would always be mutually beneficial and motivated purely by selfless desire to make sure that everyone’s needs are met including our own. But we don’t live in the perfect world. One of the interesting things that I noticed when I read those definitions was that all of them talk about peace as a state of existence that is dependent upon how well we as people can get along. That’s always the rub isn’t it? That we need to agree on some common core values and purposes—hey we have a hard enough time doing that in the church and sometimes in our own families.

Look back over the course of human history. Our nature, our cultures and societies are not only marked by constant reoccurring warfare of one kind or another, but they have been shaped by it as well. Our character as human beings is competitive in nature and that has been understood and explained as a self-defense mechanism… in Darwin’s terms, it is survival of the fittest. The stronger and more adaptable an organism was thought to be the better its chances of surviving and multiplying. Now whether we believe in evolution or not we all understand the principle and can see it lived out on a daily basis.

Hearing all of that can be depressing. It can make it sound like there is no hope at all for us as human beings in general and as a country… even as a people. This is especially true when so many Christians around the world are being killed because they are Christians. And I say that knowing that our own past as Christians has its own share of violence and conversion by the sword.

So are we without hope? That depends upon where you draw your hope from.

You see I believe in that maxim that victory ensures peace… The questions are; what kind of victory and what kind of peace?

Listen again to the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Ephesus… (my paraphrase)

Remember at one time you were far away from God… in the way you thought and in the way you acted… your character and nature was miles apart from God’s… because you did not know or have Christ… you had no hope… But now you have been brought near to God and have received his character traits because of Jesus’ victory on the cross… because off the gift of his blood and his life… he has conquered violence and death and hostility… Jesus is our Peace… the Promise that God gave to us.

That’s why we have hope… that’s why we can look at all the violence and bloodshed and oppression and greed and coercion and threats from within our country and from without and still have hope.

We know that it doesn’t have to be this way because God has spoken his Word and fulfilled his Promise to overcome it. It’s just that the world doesn’t realize it. It refuses to listen or to pay attention to it because the world thinks that it has won. It hasn’t won… It just hasn’t realized that the victory that has ensured the final outcome has already been won and that everlasting peace is inevitable. What that means is, yes we will continue to have wars… because we will continue to have people, organizations, and governments that continue to seek and maintain power for the benefit of a very few… especially those in control of that power… and let’s be clear here that this is not a Republican or Democrat issue… it’s not about one administration or another or one country or another… it goes much deeper than that. It is a human issue… a condition of our spiritual health…

Jesus himself warns us of how deeply rooted it is in our human nature when he answered a question about the coming of the Son of Man… Jesus’ own return in final victory and glory… it’s from the Gospel of Mark

Mark 13:5ff Jesus said to them: "Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

As a human endeavor peace is a state that will ebb and flow…

But it doesn’t need to be that way for us as followers of Jesus. And we shouldn’t throw in the towel and not try to make a difference in the world… we are called to be peace makers.

The thing is; we need to stop looking at peace from viewpoint of the world… we have to begin to understand how God defines it and claim it for ourselves… for our family of faith… for our communities and for the world.

If God’s Peace is Jesus… and he is… then God defines victory as self-giving; and we won’t truly understand this until we come to the cross… until we come to Jesus.

You see, peace is a state… not a state of mind but a state of being… a way of living… living in relation with ourselves… with others… but it all flows from the state of our relationship with Jesus.

If we are looking for peace in our lives then we need to start with the peace that God not only promised us but the peace that God has provided—a personal relationship with Jesus.

When we, with God’s help, place our faith in Jesus, God begins to change our broken human character and nature into Jesus’. If we choose we will begin to see things as Jesus sees them… to think and reason as he does… we will begin to care more about others and trying to encourage and serve them rather than worrying about being served.

What would happen if people started to really think and act this way? So much of what we struggle with in our communities, our countries and around the world simple disappear…

Hunger? Gone. Prejudice? No more. Violence, oppression, War? Things of the past. It would be like… it would be like… heaven.

Will we ever see it in our life time? Don’t know. But I pray for it and as a church along with millions of others WE pray for it at least every Sunday just like we will in few minutes:

“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”

We pray for Jesus’ return. For the victory that has been won in his incarnation, death and resurrection to be consummated… for every person to bow and confess that Jesus is Lord of all.

For Jesus is our Peace… it is through him that all who are far away from God will be brought near… I’ve been kind of dancing with this throughout this message… there is another way to understand or define peace… a biblical way. In Scripture peace has the primary understanding of being made or restored to wholeness.

Why do we have war and all of those negative expressions of what it means to be human? We have them because of our separation from God. We are broken and fragmented as human beings because of it. In my mind then it follows that we will not know peace, wholeness; completeness; until we know Jesus. Because Jesus is the Promise of God… and the Promise is Peace… for those near and for those who are far away.

Sunday December 6 – Second Sunday of Advent

 

The Promise is  Love

(Sorry, initial notes only. The sermon text was the unfortunate victim of operator error… yeah, I erased the wrong file.)

Malachi 3:1-4 (God’s promise to send a messenger to prepare the way of the anointed and the anointed’s purpose in coming)

3See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. ²But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; ³he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.^{* 4}Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

(You do not purify and sanctify what you do not love… so what is spoken of here in Malachi is an act of love)

Luke 3:1-6 (God’s fulfilling God’s promise to send a messenger to prepare the way of his anointed… his Christ)

3In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler^* of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler^* of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler^* of Abilene, ²during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. ³He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, ⁴as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, ‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. ⁵Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth; ⁶and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” ’

The Word of God came to John… he went into all the region around the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance and the forgiveness of sins… and all flesh shall see/witness (not necessarily experience) the salvation of God

The fulfillment of God’s promise: 1. if my people will seek my face and turn from their sin I will forgive their sin (2 Chr. 7:14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land) 2. God will send a messenger to prepare the way of the coming of the Messiah

In the Old Testament, the land acts as a spiritual barometer registering the people’s loyalty and devotion to the Lord… God’s response to Solomon’s prayer reminds the people that through worship at the Tempe God has provided a way for the forgiveness of sins… that beyond the broken covenant are divine resources for healing and restoration… the land is a symbol for the people… it suffers as result of the people’s sinfulness

Why is this important? Because the temple will be destroyed along with Jerusalem and their will no longer be the focal point for divine healing and restoration or forgiveness of sins… But God himself has interceded and prepared the way by establishing both a new temple and the sacrifice for the sins of the people…

So God’s promise of forgiveness is preceded by God’s call to repentance and that promise is being fulfilled by John as the one who goes before (as God promised) the one who is the Promise and the fulfillment of the Promise

The key is highlighted in the above verses: John shared God’s Word (not John’s)… the Word (God’s promise is a message of repentance and forgiveness) is an expression of God’s love… that calls us back to a way of living that honors God and our relationship with God as well as others and our relationship with them.

In Malachi the image of the Lord’s anointed is that of judge… but in reference to God’s people… those that kept covenant with God… the judgment is not one of eternal separation of God but that of refinement or sanctification… where all impurities will be removed and we will be made like Christ Jesus at the coming of the Son of Man (from last week). This can (and I believe should) be understood as an expression of God’s love in that we are not punished but disciplined.

But even for non believers the message should be one of hope based upon God’s love for us and God’s desire that all flesh should experience the salvation of God… the way the passage from Luke reads “all will see” but not all will experience the salvation of God… but God’s desire is that all will experience it. We get this understanding from numerous places in the Bible but perhaps the most well known is John chapter 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that all who believed in him would not die but have eternal life…”

The call to repentance is God expressing God’s desire for us to accept God’s gift of love and forgiveness for the things in our lives that separate us from God…

Like Isaiah the promise is not only for the Son of Man who comes but that there will be one before him that is to prepare the people for the coming of the Lord’s anointed.

John the Baptist was the messenger… the one who came before with God’s Word of forgiveness and acceptance pointing to the One who was in essence the giver of the promise and the one who would make the promise effectual for all who received the promise

This is a call to repentance for us so that we too can share in the receiving of God’s promise… in Advent repentance is part of our preparation to receive the Christ child…

we are the objects of God’s love and desire… the reason for the incarnation and birth of Jesus

The call to repentance is an expression of God’s love

We need to be ready to claim the promise (accept God’s gift of faith in Jesus… just as we prepare to receive in Spirit the Christ child) and we need to be ready for the coming of the Son of Man… the day of judgment that is promised

The coming judgment is also an expression of God’s love

Focus on God’s faithfulness in keeping God’s promises…

God’s nature is self-giving love… God’s promise is lived out exactly that way in the life of Jesus

Jesus is the giver of the promise and fulfillment of the promise—on God’s behalf as well as ours--

Sunday November 29 – First Sunday of Advent

The Promise is Hope

Jeremiah 33:14-16 and Luke 21:25-36

The first Sunday of Advent remembers God’s promise of both coming of the Messiah and his return to judge the living and the dead… it anticipates the celebration and remembering of the in breaking of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ as well as the anticipation of his second coming… so the first Sunday in Advent communicates God’s past faithfulness, present faithfulness and future faithfulness…

Because God is faithful to God’s promise we have hope.

Some History from our passages

~ What situations did they speak to?

The passage from Jeremiah spoke to the people of Judah as they were in exile in Babylon… they were cut off from their identification as God’s people (Jerusalem and more specifically the temple… in fact it had been destroyed) and so they had lost the physical manifestation of God’s promise to them… the land or physical location of their nation (if you will be my people and obey my word I will give to you a land flowing with milk and honey and I will establish you as my people). So this was a time of great loss emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually. It was also a time where they questioned God’s faithfulness to God’s promise because they applied the promise in ways that suited their purpose… in other words of the 60’s song The Boxer… they heard what they wanted to hear and they disregarded the rest…

Jeremiah was reaffirming God’s promise to them… that God had not forgotten God’s promise and that God had not forgotten them

The passage from Luke spoke to a similar situation where the country had come under the control of the Roman empire (and before that the Greek, the Persian, and the Assyrian empires) and they were again looking to God’s promise of an anointed one… a Messiah… to reestablish them as a political power. Jesus in his preaching had been saying; repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand or close. In other words he was restating God’s promise through the prophets (like Jeremiah)… which again was understood two ways… political kingdom and eternal kingdom AND that he was the fulfillment of God’s promise (think back to the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry when in the synagogue in Nazareth… when he read the prophecy—promise of God—from Isaiah Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

~ What is God’s promise of hope? (Specifically in these passages and in general)

That God has not forgotten God’s promise to his people that was first given to Abraham and then Isaac and Jacob, to Joseph, to David and Solomon. God’s promise is to make them a holy and special people; to be their God and one day re-establish God’s people as a light to the nations as representatives of God’s Kingdom on earth… a kingdom where justice and mercy are to be lived out in the lives of the people under the leadership of God’s anointed… and this was to be an everlasting or eternal kingdom… this promise was understood two ways; that there would be an earthly political or human kingdom and there would come a time when God would re-create the world through God’s anointed one—The Son of Man which Jesus in citing passages from Daniel who speaks of the Messiah (anointed one) as the Ancient of Days (a descriptive name for God)… is proclaiming that God will in fact establish an eternal divine Kingdom where justice and mercy will be finally realized by all. The gospels make clear that Jesus is the Son of Man

Hope is grounded in God’s promise to be Immanuel – “God with us” that is the basis of all of God’s other promises… peace, love, joy; the promises of healing, restoration

What God promises us is that God will always be with us (hence the promise of Immanuel—God with us) so the promise is relationally based… the kingdom of God is not so much a physical reality (meaning a political one) but a spiritual and relational one (God affirms this through Jeremiah earlier—chapter 31—when he says, 31:31 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

~ Is God’s Promise still good… is it still valid? Can we still trust God? How has God fulfilled promises in your life?

We may not experience or see the completion of the secondary promises but we can always experience the first… it is based upon our trust or faith in God… not having to follow laws or rules… the laws or rules are there to help point us toward God and to help us keep and live out our faith… they do guarantee us the fulfillment of the promise… they help us to appreciate it more…

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for; the conviction of things unseen. Hebrews 11:1

One of the things that we need to remember is that God’s Promise is eternal in scope or range… God’s concern is not only for what we are experiencing now but for God’s concern for all humankind in the present but also the future…

That’s why I place so much emphasis on the God’s promise to be Immanuel… “God with us”

~ How did God fulfill God’s promise?

Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise of hope

And God fulfilled that promise in Jesus… his incarnation/birth as God the Son; his ministry and teaching; his self-giving on the cross; his resurrection; and his self-giving in the Person of the Holy Spirit…

Jesus is the Giver of the Promise and the Promise… and so is the source and object of our Hope

That’s what we celebrate on this first Sunday of Advent as we proclaim his coming in the celebration of his birth… as he comes to us continually in the Word and in the Person of the Holy Spirit, and whose return as the Son of Man we anticipate to complete our hope.

Leads me to some questions

~ So do we accept God’s promise of hope?

Individually? As the church?

~ How do we experience hope? Through our relationship with God lived out through our relationships with God’s people

~ If we have accepted and experienced God’s promise of hope;

Have we shared it? How do we share it?

~ How do we fulfill the promises we’ve made to God?

God has made promises to us but in response we have made promises to God… so how do we keep those promises? This is a way of asking, how are we living out our faith and our hope?

OR

~ How do our acts of faith help in executing God’s promise of Hope to humanity?

On the front of the bulletin there is the passage from Acts 2 where Peter in his preaching on the day of Pentecost…

“For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who 
are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him."                 Acts 2:39

~ How can our congregation promote acts of compassion to actively live this message of hope in our community?

Being prepared and ready does not mean to be passive… to not be active in who Jesus has called us to be and what Jesus has called us to do…

Who are the ones out there who need this… who can we identify… who needs to hear God’s promise and know the giver and the keeper of the promise

Advent 2009

The Promise

This year, once again, I’m using Michael Card’s “The Promise” as the basis for the celebration of Advent. I told someone just the other day(and I’m sincere in this) that I believe “The Promise” is the best Christmas CD ever produced… if not musically certainly theologically.

While not taken directly from Card’s devotional that accompanied the release of the CD; the messages for each Sunday of Advent certainly (I hope) draw upon the spirit of The Promise.

11/15/2009 Final Stewardship Sermon

Stewardship as Worship

Today’s gospel lesson is a parallel verse to Matthew 22:39 where Jesus is asked the question of which is the greatest commandment:

2^nd Scripture Reading: Luke 10:25-27

25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" 27 He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

Matthew 25:14, 19-21

¹⁴“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; ¹⁹After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. ²⁰Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ ²¹His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’

Review the main points… what stewardship is:

Stewardship is about trust… God trusting us more than our trust in God… God entrusts us with the most valuable gift imaginable—himself through faith in Jesus

Stewardship is about meeting our most fundamental need… a restored relationship with God… stewardship is a way that God transforms us into the character and nature of Jesus

Stewardship frees us… from the things that separate us from God (greed, fear, worry, etc.)

Stewardship is about investing in what is important to God… God’s creative purpose…

redemption of creation… so

Stewardship is primarily about people not money… it’s about relationships… God entrusts himself to us so that we can share him with others

Discipleship is stewardship of the life of Jesus that God entrusts to us… by each of us sharing in the process and investing that gift in each other we help one another grow into the character and nature of Jesus.

Evangelism is stewardship of the message of God’s love in Jesus, that God entrusts us to share with the un-churched and the marginally churched.

Membership is stewardship of God entrusting us with each other as the church… it is as the church… the body of Christ… that we are called to live out our lives of faith

Mission is stewardship of the service that God has entrusted us to engage in as we invest in tangible ways the love of Jesus that God has entrusted us with.

This week we have worship as an expression of stewardship… and what I hope to make clear is that worship is so much more than just another purpose we have as Jesus’ church.

Define worship… as it is described so often in the psalms… worship is bringing God pleasure… it is whatever makes God smile

Doing whatever we do to glorify God… to please God

Peterson’s The Message of Romans 12 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

Worship is what we do here on Sunday mornings but it can and should be what we do every moment of our lives… That is one of the messages of the New Testament and it finds it’s origin in the Old Testament… in fact Jesus references one of the key passages from the Old Testament when asked when asked about the greatest commandment and the key to receiving eternal life… "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

What that tells me is that when we worship we are to 1) respond to God’s love with all of who we are and all of what we have been entrusted with… and 2) it’s to be directed toward God and other human beings… And by all here I’m talking about an attitude that holds nothing back… nothing of our time, our energy, our talents, our personality, our financial resources... it all needs to be on the table and available to used by God.

This attitude is important because it demonstrates our desire for God and God’s desire to be the most important thing in our lives. Why is this important? Because; anything that is allowed to come between us and God is an idol.

The Bible talks a lot about not wanting us to be double-minded, meaning, that’s where we try to have two incompatible ideas, attitudes, lifestyles at the same time. What it is really, is a form of rationalization… we try to talk ourselves into believing that we can do both, when we know deep down inside that we can’t give both equal importance… there is always going to be a pull towards the one that focuses more on what’s in it for us… our self-centeredness… as opposed to what’s in it for God or other-centeredness or God centeredness. The self-centered focus becomes an obstacle to our relationship with God as well as what God wants to do through us.

But it’s not like the other things in our life are always bad… it’s really just the opposite… often they’re things that are good and even necessary to spend time on. Work… family… leisure. Each of these, and so many different expressions of these, require time and energy and have a financial component… they are all part of our lives… of which our relationship with God is an important part. So the question becomes; how important? How much do we value one compared with the others. How we answer that question is an indicator of the maturity of our faith which is a demonstration of our level of trust in God—or who we identify with more.

And that’s the important question when we stop and think about living a life of worship… worship is where our relationship with God… the gift that God has entrusted us with… is THE starting point for everything we do and say… and provides the guidance we need when faced with choosing what to do and say…

In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus, in response to the rich man’s question of what he must do to inherit eternal life (which is another way of asking how do I respond to the great gift of God’s love for me…) Jesus said in essence… follow the commandments and then to sell everything you own, give it to the poor and then follow me… the man was deeply grieved because he was extremely wealthy… This was an example of what Jesus spoke of earlier when he said, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon or money”

Remember from last week what Jesus said to his disciples from the gospel of John… if you love me you will obey my commandments…

God wants us to love… to love God with everything we are… because that’s what God has entrusted us with… everything that we are… and when we put our best effort into doing just that we make God smile… we bring pleasure to God… we are worshipping… we are taking the gift that God has trusted us with and investing it in situations, in lives, in relationships that are important to God…

When we respond in that way we experience such freedom… because we are free… we’re free from the selfish thoughts that sometimes rule our attitudes and actions… that’s what’s behind the old proverb… it’s better to give than receive… because in the giving we are freed from what might be holding us back in our relationship with God AND we receive so much more… we grow closer to God…

I want you to think about a time when you were moved to do something totally and solely for someone else… remember how you felt… the rush of satisfaction and pride… the joy! Where do you think that came from? What was that? I have a suggestion to consider… what we experienced didn’t originate from us… it was and is a gift… I believe that we received the gift of experiencing God smile…

God longs to be part of every moment of our lives… I’m the youngest of three brothers and I remember growing up as a kid… following my older brothers around… just wanting to be a part of what they did… really just wanting them to notice me and include me in what they were doing… to my shame as a parent there were times I would get annoyed at my kids for doing the same thing… and I wonder… is that how we treat God’s presence in our lives?

I started this message out by saying that I hoped to make clear that “worship” is more than just one of our purposes as a church… I want to add to that I feel the same way about discipleship, evangelism , membership, and mission…

Over the past five weeks we’ve been discovering the relationship between each of these and stewardship… that each is an expression of stewardship… that God has entrusted us with each of these as a way for us to grow closer to God, each other and the people in our daily lives… that each is something that we need to think about as something that we should be involved in daily…

I’d also want to encourage you think about what is involved with each from the perspective of worship… When we are being good stewards with all that God has entrusted us with by making use of the gifts of Discipleship… Evangelism… Membership… Mission… then we are living lives of worship…

Discipleship is stewardship of the life of Jesus that God entrusts to us… by each of us sharing in the process and investing that gift in each other we help one another grow into the character and nature of Jesus and that pleases God… it is an act of worship

Evangelism is stewardship of the message of God’s love in Jesus, that God entrusts us to share with the un-churched and the marginally churched… and that pleases God… it is an act of worship

Membership is stewardship of God entrusting us with each other as the church… it is as the church… the body of Christ… that we are called to live out our lives of faith… and that pleases God… it is an act of worship

Mission is stewardship of the service that God has entrusted us to engage in as we invest in tangible ways the love of Jesus that God has entrusted us with… and that pleases God… it is an act of worship

Stewardship is about investing what God has entrusted to us in what is important to God…

God entrusts himself to us so that we can share him with others… when we do that… it pleases God and it is an act of worship

As we continue to grow in doing these things we make God smile… and we can hear our master say… well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master…

My desire is for us as a church is experience God’s smile on a regular basis

So with that in mind…

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

November 8, 2009 Sermon

Stewardship as Mission

Our gospel passage follows the events of Easter morning; the women going to the tomb, encountering the angels and then the resurrected Jesus who says to them; “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Stewardship is about trust… God trusting us more than our trust in God… God entrusts us with the most valuable gift imaginable—himself through faith in Jesus

Stewardship is about meeting our most fundamental need… a restored relationship with God… stewardship is a way that God transforms us into the character and nature of Jesus

Stewardship frees us… from the things that separate us from God (greed, fear, worry, etc.)

Stewardship is about investing in what is important to God… God’s creative purpose… redemption of creation… so

Stewardship is primarily about people not money… it’s about relationships… God entrusts himself to us so that we can share him with others

We’ve looked at how we live that out in our lives of faith through discipleship, through evangelism, through membership and today we’re going to see stewardship through the lens of mission.

What is mission? We hear the words mission and ministry used almost interchangeably and it may get confusing… are we engaged in ministry or are we engaged in mission? We talk about the mission of the church… “to know Jesus and to make Jesus known” is that the same as being in mission? The answer is yes. To all.

Pastor Rick Warren (Purpose Driven Life) implies that there is a difference between ministry and mission. He proposes that Ministry is serving the needs within the community of faith—the church—so it is inward focused for the purpose of building up the body to be effective in it’s Mission which is serving the needs of the un-churched; so it (mission) is outward focused. Both are expressions of our overall mission of the church to make disciples of Jesus. While this may be a helpful way to distinguish between outward and inward service the separation of the two doesn’t really have any basis in scripture. The root word for mission is the same for ministry (diakonia). When translated mission (which depending upon the translation we will only see it one to three times in the NT) it is in the context of traveling away from what might be considered a home locale to engage in ministry. So “mission” is a type of, or expression of “ministry.” With that in mind Warren’s designation is helpful because it can help us understand mission as ministry beyond ourselves—whether that is our family of faith (local mission) or beyond our community (national or even international mission). It is this understanding that I want us to focus on.

Jesus spent the majority of his time ministering to both his disciples and to what he called the “lost sheep of Israel.” He had a few encounters with non-Jews and when they demonstrated the faith he was calling for in the Jews he blessed that faith. We might consider Jesus’ mission statement to be John 3:16… for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son… so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. So Jesus’ mission is the same as God the Father’s… to restore all humankind in a right relationship with God. The plan to accomplish it however was and is to do it through the church. Jesus discipled Peter and the gang… he entrusted them with his character and nature… to re-present him… and then he entrusted them with his mission: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

It began locally… where they were in Jerusalem… and initially to Jews… but it quickly spread to include non-Jews too. The ministry that the apostles were engaged in had both a local emphasis… we saw that last week with the passage from Acts… ⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

But it also grew to have an outward focus… the account of Peter on the roof praying and the Gentile Cornelius comes to him after being spoken to in a vision… and he asks Peter to come to his home and share the message of Jesus with them… with non-Jews… so Peter does.

Mission is ministry that focuses outside ourselves… as individuals and as the church… to the un-churched.

Mission is an expression of stewardship because we are investing both ourselves and what God has entrusted us with… himself in the person of Jesus… in the lives of people who are un-churched or marginally churched.

Mission is primarily God’s initiative in Jesus’ name and power… Whatever it is we do; we do it in Jesus’ name and power… we re-present Jesus… he is present to and through us… and he is the one that gives us the direction, the energy, and the passion to act.

In the book of Acts (5:12-39) Peter and John are arrested for preaching the Good News that is Jesus, for the second time… so they are repeat offenders… One of the leaders of the temple council (Gamaliel) says… hey let them alone… if what they are doing is of their own invention then it will quickly fade away… but if it is of God you won’t be able to do a thing about it—in fact you may even be fighting against God.

So God leads… God sends… and we respond… we go to where God is already at work… remember the story of Peter and Cornelius? God was already at work there and Peter just responded to the call… Peter preached but it was God in the Holy Spirit that touched peoples hearts and lives… but the catalyst was Peter’s willingness to go… to be sent.

Mission is individual and corporate… We need to note that when Jesus speaks he is not speaking only to Peter, or only to John, or only to Andrew… he is speaking to all of the faithful that will come to believe through the faithful response of the 12… so he is not speaking to us only as individuals… he is also speaking to us as a community of faith… he is speaking to the church.

So Jesus is sending us as the church… individual members working together for a common purpose… to go beyond ourselves… beyond our community of faith to serve the needs of those in the larger community around us…

So why are we supposed to be in mission? We might be able to come up with any number but the only one that really matters is that Jesus asked us to. I don’t think this will come as any great surprise but the great commission wasn’t only for Peter and the rest. We can learn that from a lot of different places in the Bible but we have one this morning… “teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”

In the gospel of John Jesus said, “if you love me you will obey my commands”; meaning that if we are disciples of Jesus we will willingly invest what God has entrusted to us… continuing the ministry of Jesus… to achieve God’s creative purpose of restoring people in a relationship with God.

That theme is repeated in all of the gospels as well as the book of Acts… it is one of the most mentioned aspect of the Christian faith next to John 3:16… for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son… Why?... so that all who believe in him would have eternal life. So even John 3:16 relates to it the great commission… and why not… it’s Jesus’ mission statement.

We are to be in mission because God cares about the lost… God cares about people who either don’t know him or trust him… to help them realize what it is that they really need…

The primary need that we are trying to fill is their awareness of their need for God… the difficult thing is that so many things of the world get in the way of recognizing that need… This shouldn’t be too hard for us to understand because we struggle with the same problem don’t we… we think that we need so many different things to fill something inside us when really what we need is a restored relationship with God…

That’s why the primary focus of mission is helping people meet their basic physical needs… providing security through helping provide shelter, clothing, food… helping them to develop job skills and the like…

People need to know that they have value… that they can make a difference in their lives and in the lives of others… that’s why ministries like Habitat for Humanity are so successful… or more locally The Mission of Hope or the Women at the Well Prison Ministry at Mitchellville… and we do it all in Jesus name… with no expectation of repayment of any kind… The goal of mission is to make disciples of Jesus… not us… not the local church… but Jesus. And we do that by being Jesus to the people we serve… We offer ourselves as a faith community… we invite, we encourage, we continue to serve… but if folks choose to be part of another church, then we celebrate with them… we rejoice just as Jesus rejoices because what’s important is that they are now part of the family…

In one of the earlier messages in talking about the parable of the talents I shared that the Master entrusted to them more than money. He gave them a way of thinking or understanding of what he wanted done and how he wanted it done… what he really gave them a way of living with others that was a reflection of himself—that’s the gift of discipleship. The result of that was is the same for us… our life of discipleship shows itself when we serve others as we share in the mission of Jesus to make disciples… people shouldn’t see us… they should see a reflection of our Master… Jesus.

This is going to sound familiar but, the important thing in using the gift of mission that God has entrusted us with isn’t the feeding, the providing of clothes, the repairing or building of homes… it’s not the wells that are built or the animals that are provided… it’s not the schools or the books or the supplies… it is the relationships that are developed… it’s in getting to know the people that we are in mission to and with because if we truly are disciples of Jesus then they will get to know Him too.

So where do we start? We need to start where we are…..We encounter Jesus in our lives; we worship but then we begin to question… But some doubted… we are always going to have questions… are we doing the right thing? Is this the way we’re supposed to go about it… the thing is we can’t let indecision or uncertainty about the details stop us from acting… we plan the best we can… we start small… we attempt… we review and analyze… we make corrections… try again… but we are always called to act

My prayer for us is that we can continue to grow in our stewardship of mission. We’ve made some good first steps in the past year with our involvement in collecting food and clothes for Mission of Hope and the local food banks. We’ve made some needed contributions as part of the Ingathering that will make a difference in peoples lives. But I believe that you have a lot more to offer than clothing and food and other material needs. I know this because I know the one who has entrusted you with so much more.

Jesus is already at work in the community around us and he is entrusting us to show people where he is… that he cares… that they matter. It is as we continue to grow into a life of mission that we will hear our master say, “Well done good and faithful servant… enter into the joy of your master.”

Sermon and Notes for Sunday Nov 1

Stewardship as Evangelism          Acts 2:37-42

³⁷Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” ³⁸Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” ⁴⁰And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” ⁴¹So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. ⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

[Believers who share a common geographical location are to share a common religious life.]

What happens in this passage:

~ Inspired by the Holy Spirit Peter gives a compelling witnesses to the people about the character and nature of Jesus… (Peter’s words and passion but the Holy Spirit’s power)

~ The Holy Spirit convicted them (they were cut to the heart) and they wanted to know how to have their most fundamental need fulfilled (be reconciled to God… be restored in their relationship with God) “Brothers what should we do?!”

~ Peter tells them:  turn away from the attitudes and actions that separate you from God; be baptized; put your trust in Jesus

~ Those that welcomed his message did just that (which means not all did)

~ Their life began to focus on several things: the apostles teaching (the Word); prayer; breaking of bread (and this is not communion but it can symbolize communion);  AND fellowship

Stewardship is about trust… God trusting us more than our trust in God; Stewardship is about meeting our most fundamental need… a restored relationship with God… it is a way that God transforms us into the character and nature of Jesus; Stewardship frees us… from the things that separate us from God (greed, fear, worry, etc.); Stewardship is about investing in what is important to God… God’s creative purpose… redemption of creation.

Link between Stewardship, Discipleship, Evangelism and Membership:

God entrusts us with a gift of incalculable value… the gift of himself through faith in Jesus. He also provides us with the means to invest that gift effectively in ourselves and in others… one expression of that (the means by which we do that) is Discipleship. Another is Evangelism; sharing the gift of God with others… last week we spoke of it in terms of sharing the invitation that God has entrusted us with… giving people who have not been considered acceptable (in a lot of different ways) compelling reasons to accept God’s radical hospitality. And how effectively we use and give these gifts is stewardship of the gift… and both are means by which we grow into the character and nature of Jesus—they themselves (Discipleship and Evangelism) are not the goal.

God entrusts us with another aspect of who God is in which we are to live out our lives of discipleship and evangelism… God entrusts us with each other the church… the community of faith… because God exists in community (communion of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) we are called to live in communion (community)

Which is consistent with what we’ve been talking about… because earlier we talked about stewardship in terms of God entrusting us with people… with relationships

So this week we are going to be looking at membership in the church as another expression of stewardship.

What is it that is common to all human beings? What is it that we all long for… to know that we are loved and accepted… we want to belong… we want to receive love and give love… we want to have people committed to us and we really want to be committed to people… we long for meaningful relationships… we want to be part of something that makes a difference… all of this is a reflection of or based upon our need to be reconciled to and restored in our relationship with God. Our human relationships are an expression of our need for a healthy relationship with God because God is relational… God wants us to know Him in the way he knows us…

From God’s perspective the church is the best place to do that… that’s why he established it. Jesus in response to Simon Peter’s revelation that Jesus was the Messiah… the Christ said,  “And I tell you, you are Petra, and on this rock I will build my church.”

The passage from Acts can helps us look at why and how being a member of the church is a part of our living a life of faithful stewardship.

So what takes place? What do we see?

First of all Peter’s being a good steward… he is investing what God has entrusted to him and the other disciples by sharing a compelling witness about the character and nature of Jesus and what his death and resurrection can mean to the folks and the Holy Spirit convinces them of the truth of the message.

Then he responds to their question of, “OK, so what do we do now?” by saying, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus” so that:  sins will be forgiven and; they will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit… or another way to understand it… they too will be entrusted with the living and abiding presence of God… God will entrust them with himself.

Need to be clear here that it isn’t the act of baptism that does this… it is our conscious act of faith—empowered by God, to place our trust in God—by which God gives the gift of the Person of the Holy Spirit as the seal of that trust. The act of putting water on a head in no way obligates God… The water is a sign of our desire to be part of God’s family… to be a part of God’s household…

It is important however because it points to the covenant promises or commitments that we say that we are making and there are several:  The promise between the parents of a child or the person themselves with God to commit to a life of nurturing their faith as part of the church;  The promise of the church to be there to support the individual and/or the family in their life of faith together;  And last but certainly not least, God’s promise to all to accept them into his family.

One more word about baptism and how it relates to membership in the church… There is the church universal… The larger body of Christ, the saints that have come before and all believers around the world… we become a part of that family in our baptism… but then there’s the local church family.

Rick Warren gives what I think is a great example of why membership is an important choice to make he writes, “Whenever a child is born, he or she automatically becomes part of the universal [biological] family of human beings. But that child also needs to become a member of a specific family to receive nurture and care and grow up healthy and strong. The same is true spiritually. When you were born again, you automatically became part of God’s universal family, but you also need to become a member of a local expression of God’s family.” (The Purpose Driven Life, 2002) What Warren leaves unsaid is that that is necessary to receive nurture and care and grow up healthy and strong spiritually.

Baptism is a sacred gift... we are entrusted with the gift of baptism… it is a sign of our adoption into the family of God… we are not family because the law says we are family… we are family because the law of love says we are family. So baptism is not to be used indiscriminately or off hand… Baptism is a sign of commitment to each other… that we take this trust that God has given us seriously. It should also remind us that membership is accepting responsibility not only for nurturing your own life of faith but also for helping others nurture theirs. So, membership is a commitment to a life of discipleship… a commitment to a particular community of faith.

Many of you have heard me say I would rather have someone be active in the life of the church (the life of fellowship, study, discipleship, mission) and not be an “official” member than have them be an “official” member and only participate in Sunday morning worship. I still believe that. But let me also say this… at some time that level of involvement should translate into the same level of commitment. Membership in a particular church is a seal or sign of a person’s commitment. I would argue that it is similar to the sign of water at baptism.

So membership is important but like discipleship or evangelism it is not the goal… it is a means to the goal.

So, what happened next? The people repented or their sins, they turned back toward God, were baptized and God entrusted them with the gift of the Holy Spirit… what was life like for them?

⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

They began to fellowship together as they devoted themselves to the Word of God, to prayer, and the breaking of bread...

For me the key here is fellowship… they didn’t do it on their own… they did it together. We don’t understand this immediately from this passage but it is made clear as we read through the rest of Acts that, in the words of one Biblical Scholar, “Believers who share a common geographical location are to share a common religious life.”

Rick Warren in his book the Purpose Driven Life lists some reasons why he thinks that membership is important to us and I’d like to briefly share those; some of which we’ve already talked about:  identifies us as a genuine believer;  a means to help make us less self-centered; helps us focus on the needs of others; can help us understand, nurture and develop our faith… as each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love (Eph 4:16);  God has a unique role for each of us in the church… A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church (1 Cor 12:7); It will help us share in Christ’s mission in the world… He created each of us… to join him in the work he does… (Eph 2:10); Can help keep us on track… Encourage one another daily… so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness (Heb 3:13).

As we look at that list we should notice something… we should notice that each one of the things there are to help us invest what God has entrusted us with… At the risk of sounding like a detective in a bad mystery movie… we have the means; the motive; and the opportunity… all we need to do now is act… to put it into practice.

A couple of weeks ago I said that faith is not what we believe as much as its what we do… in other words our actions witness to what we really believe… our actions are our investment of what God has entrusted us with…

My prayer for us is that we will continue to grow in our commitment to invest more of ourselves in each other as Christ’s church… as His people… that we as his visible body can grow more and more into His likeness so others can receive what God has entrusted us to share with them and join us… in this church, the church universal and the church eternal…

As we grow in this way then we will be able to hear our Master say, Well done good and faithful servant, come and enter into the joy of your master.

Initial Sermon Notes for Sunday 10/25

Stewardship as Evangelism

Matthew 25:14-19, 20-21

14 ‘For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; ¹⁵to one he gave five talents,^* to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. ¹⁶The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. ¹⁹After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. ²⁰Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, “Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.” ²¹His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”

Luke 14:15-24

15 One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, "Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!" 16 Then Jesus said to him, "Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. 17 At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, "Come; for everything is ready now.' 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, "I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.' 19 Another said, "I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.' 20 Another said, "I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.' 21 So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, "Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.' 22 And the slave said, "Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.' 23 Then the master said to the slave, "Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.' "

Initial thoughts on this sermon.

Stewardship is about…

God entrusts us with himself in the person of Jesus. The essence of God is self-giving love (between Father/Son/Holy Spirit) most fully expressed and experienced in Jesus. God exists in self-giving relationship. God’s purpose in entrusting us with this is to accomplish his creative purpose—redemption of Creation (starting with humanity who were created in the image of God). This is done through restoring relationships… Jesus reconciles us to God and God to us through our relationship with Jesus and Jesus’ relationship with the Father.

So God entrusts to us his creative purpose… we are given the gift of stewardship as a means by which God accomplishes his creative purpose… God isn’t satisfied with just us… the process doesn’t end with us… we are a continuation of the God’s creative purpose and so we are called to invite others in this life by sharing with them… investing in them… what God has entrusted to us…

The passage from Luke is symbolic of the completion of God’s Kingdom when God brings all things to himself for final judgment… the implication is that only those who accept his invitation… who honor their relationship with God… will experience the blessing of God or eating at the heavenly banquet that we often hold up as part of our communion liturgy.

The two gospel accounts parallel each other in that they both are focused on the fact that it is our relationship with God (investing of talents faithfully and both accepting the invitation and sharing the invitation of God’s radical hospitality in Jesus Christ) that is going to be the measure of our acceptance into the eternal presence of God.

Evangelism at its heart is sharing the good news that is Jesus Christ (hence our motto Share Grow Serve). Sharing the good news that is Jesus is one leg of our core purposes as the church.

When I think about the parable of the banquet I think about it in terms of the servants doing a couple of different things. First of all:

~ they are sharing the invitation that their master is making…

~ they are going out to where the people are to do it

~ they are witnessing to the truth of it

Evangelism is an expression of stewardship because Jesus is entrusting us with what seem to be two things (at least) but in my mind are the same thing. He is entrusting us with the same invitation that he made to us who are now disciples or followers… and like last week he is entrusting us with himself through the process of discipleship… I said earlier that the good news we share is Jesus Christ… like I have asserted before; Jesus is the Good News that he proclaimed… he is the source of the message, the message itself, and the messenger.

That’s what Jesus entrusts us with for the purpose of sharing it with others… not keeping it to ourselves… the Good News that is Jesus ceases to be Good News if we keep it to ourselves…

Like the manna that the Hebrews received from God as they traveled in the wilderness if they didn’t use it up it didn’t keep… it turned wormy… it turned bad… those that hoarded it or took more than they really needed did not benefit from it and neither did anyone else.

Since we are entrusted with the gift of Jesus and sharing him (not only his love… because to share him is to share his love) the question then becomes: “How do we do that?”

But first another question: “What is Evangelism really about?” or “What do we hope to accomplish?”

Evangelism isn’t about getting more people in the sanctuary on Sunday morning. If it is, it’s destined to fail in the long run because after a while people recognize that they were looking for something more than a religious expression once a week. That’s not to say that what we do here on Sunday’s isn’t important for developing and expressing our faith… it is. But if that’s all that there is, then we shouldn’t be surprised that people stray away.

One of the things I think we need to look more closely at is this question, “With what do we identify in this parable?” In other words what do the actions or titles or subjects mean for us… how we interpret this parable can tell us a lot about how we form our idea of what church and evangelism is.

I submit this for your consideration and it is a generalization. Could it be that when we hear or read this parable we identify the place where the great feast is to be held as the church? In other words when we think of God’s Kingdom we think of the church and more to the point what a large percentage of main line established church’s idea of what the church is? Which is what takes place on Sunday mornings.

Personally I don’t understand God’s Kingdom in that way. There was a time when I would have but not anymore. And the reason I don’t is because I feel that it is too limiting of God and it stands against the witness of the Bible.

Evangelism… sharing the Good News that is Jesus Christ… is about becoming the means by which God is able to fulfill peoples most basic human need (restoring our relationship with Himself). Evangelism is about becoming the means by which God is able free people from greed and fear (among a whole host of other things). Evangelism is about becoming the means through which God helps us invest in his creative purpose (redeeming humanity)

I just finished reading Mitch Albom’s new book, “have a little faith.” One of the things that I was reminded of from reading it centers on evangelism… and it made me take another look at the parable that Jesus told of the great dinner… when the master tells the servants to go out into the streets and the markets and the alleys and country roads and compel people to come in I think we need to understand or look at what I think he means by compel. How do we compel people? Do we give them well reasoned arguments convincing them to follow? Do we forcibly drag them to Jesus kicking and screaming under the threat of violence (don’t discount that one because it has happened countless times in the history of Christianity)? Or do we give them a compelling reason? How about if we love them, if we accept them, if we share with them, if we serve them, if we listen to them, and in the process share with them the reason we are willing to give of ourselves in this way—because what we have experienced of Jesus in our lives.

10/18/2009 Initial Sermon Notes

Week Two: Understanding Stewardship as Discipleship:

“It is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them…”   Matthew  25:14

Question: What can the parable of the talents teach us about discipleship?

Logical Speculation… reading between the lines:

The servants had an established relationship with their master. They were entrusted with large sums of money. A talent (by some scholars) was equal to 15 years of wages of a day laborer (common worker). So it is reasonable to assume that they had to know what was expected of them. So it is also reasonable to assume that the first servant had a longer relationship with the master because he was entrusted with more than the other two. Likewise the one entrusted with one talent may not have been in his service very long in that capacity.

With that in mind the Master entrusted to them more than money. He gave them a way of thinking or understanding of what he wanted done and how he wanted it done. In terms of conducting his business, he probably trained them to think and act in the manner that he did so that they would be able to accomplish the tasks he had set for them.

Personal example: remember my years as an employee (first as a sales person and then the sales manager) I had instilled in me an attitude of how to approach, address and establish a relationship with every customer… listening to not only what they said they wanted but by asking questions learn what their need was with the purpose of offering them the best possible choices. It took time and practice to develop that attitude towards sales and have it become effective.

God entrusts us with a gift of incalculable value… the gift of himself through faith in Jesus. But He also provides us with the means to invest that gift effectively in ourselves and in others… the means by which we do that is discipleship and how effectively we use and give that gift is stewardship of the gift and both are means by which we grow into the character and nature of Jesus—they themselves are not the goal. So with that in mind God entrusts us with a way of being… a way of living in relationship with God, each other, and the world around us—discipleship. Discipleship is not something we are called to do; discipleship is a way of life through which God achieves His creative purpose—redemption of creation. He brings people back into relationship with Himself through us—His people. Healthy discipleship is an expression of stewardship in that we make us of what God entrusts to us to grow in our relationship with Him, each other, and with those he calls us to reach out to.

I often refer to discipleship as growing into the character and nature of Jesus. Perhaps a more accurate description is that discipleship is a process of growing into the character and nature of Jesus. It’s like I said before, discipleship is a way of being or living. But the transformation that takes place in our lives does not come about at the end… it takes place as we give ourselves to the process… it’s like riding a bike… you can read all you want to about how a bike works, the physics of why it works, and the basics of how to ride it; but none of that will help until you actually get on it and try. And then it’s only as you practice that you will gain confidence in what you’re doing. Most of us needed help and instruction and encouragement along the way. There are going to be times when we fall down and will need that help and encouragement to get back on and try again. So not only is discipleship a process of growing into the character and nature of Jesus it’s also a community process… it’s a life lived together…

So when we think of discipleship we need to think of community. There are a couple of reasons for this but let’s just focus on one for the time being—that’s how Jesus did it. How many disciples did Jesus have? One? Two? Eight? Twelve? How about hundreds. Literally Jesus had hundreds of followers but from those hundreds, he chose twelve to disciple personally and of the twelve he chose 3 to disciple intimately (Peter, James, and John).

So what does that mean? They spent three years not only learning information on how to be a disciple but three years growing closer to Jesus… having instilled in them a sense of justice, compassion, mercy, forgiveness. They became like their master so that when people saw them; they didn’t necessarily see Peter or James or John… they saw—and more importantly—experienced Jesus.

Let’s take it back to discipleship being an expression of stewardship. Stewardship is about giving, right? It’s about trust (God trusting us and then in response us trusting God); it’s about investing in God (so God’s creative purpose is realized through us), it’s about gaining our freedom (from greed and fear), it’s about meeting our most basic human need (being restored in our relationship with God). What did Jesus entrust to his disciples? Was it his teaching? His ministry? His knowledge? His time? To a degree, yes. But most importantly he entrusted himself… he poured his life into them and it happened as they walked and talked and shared meals and as they listened to Jesus open God’s Word to them. And as the final act of self-giving, of entrusting Himself to the them he gave them the gift of His Holy Spirit after he had left them with the promise that he was going to return to claim what was his.

Does any of this sound familiar? “For it is as if a man… going on a journey… summoned his servants… and entrusted his property to them…”

Here’s the thing. Stop and consider for a moment what and who we claim to be; Christians. That name implies that we are followers of Jesus… that we are disciples. We claim the same heritage that Peter and James and John and the other disciples claim. That’s good news… that’s something to be celebrated. It also means that God has entrusted us in the same way; with the same purpose… and again this is good news! God wants to grow closer to us and wants us to grow closer to Him. And, He wants us to do it in the same way that the 12 did. He wants us to spend time with Jesus and do it with others—remember that discipleship is a process where we grow into the character and nature of Jesus… AND… it is not a solitary process. We’re supposed to do it in community with other followers and those who want to be followers of Jesus.

Now traditionally when we talk about discipleship we bring up Bible study and prayer groups in addition to our own reading of the Bible and daily prayer and I want to encourage that and I will make myself available to help start as many as we might need. But also consider this; where did Jesus do most of his teaching, even with his disciples? It was in the streets, in the market places, in the work places, and in the homes of the people. Here’s the point… Jesus developed his relationship with his disciples while he was in the process of reaching out to the people. In fact it was often his interaction with the people that Jesus used as the means to not only teach but also grow in his relationship with the disciples.

So what does this mean for us? Well let me ask it another way… what has God entrusted to us?

What is He asking us to be stewards of? People. Relationships. First with God, then each other and then with people who are not a part of the church—the body of Christ; as well as the rest of His creation. So For us to be good stewards we need to really know God. But not only through prayer and Bible study and small groups as vitally important as those are… we also need to go where Jesus is in the world around us… in the lives where Jesus is at work and waiting for us to show up and share in that work… in the schools, at work, with the folks in our community that we may not normally associate with… sharing with them what we’ve experienced of Jesus in our lives in the past and in the moment… inviting them along in our journey, our process of being formed into the character and nature of Jesus.

Loved ones… Discipleship is a gift… the gift of Jesus… not just knowledge about Jesus… but the living and transforming presence of his life being lived in us… God entrusts us with that gift so that we in thankful response to God can give it to others…

When we can live lives like that… then we will hear Jesus say… well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master.

Inital Sermon Notes, Sunday 10/11/2009

Week 1: Christian Stewardship Defined

Genesis 1:26-28c

26 Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind^* in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth,^* and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’
²⁷So God created humankind^* in his image, in the image of God he created them; ^* male and female he created them. ²⁸God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it…

Matthew 25:14-30

[Regarding the Kingdom of God]: 14 ‘For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; ¹⁵to one he gave five talents,^* to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. ¹⁶The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. ¹⁷In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. ¹⁸But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. ¹⁹After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. ²⁰Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, “Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.” ²¹His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” ²²And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, “Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.” ²³His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” ²⁴Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; ²⁵so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.” ²⁶But his master replied, “You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? ²⁷Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. ²⁸So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. ²⁹For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. ³⁰As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Note: all the text in [italics], with the exception of Scripture quotations, are taken from an article from www.faithwriters.com by Richard Laribee

Stewardship is about Trust

[What is “Stewardship”? Definition: Stewardship is managing somebody else’s stuff. A “steward” is a manager of resources that belong to another.]

The Kingdom of God is…‘For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them…’

[The essential idea of stewardship is trust. Not that the steward trusts the owner or king, but that the owner or king trusts the steward. Stewards are entrusted to care or manage the resources that do not belong to the steward.]

In the creation account God created everything (including us as human beings) and made us responsible for taking care of “every living thing.” (Peterson’s The Message) God entrusted us with all of his creation… what an awesome thought.

^“For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills… ^*and all that moves in the field is mine… for the world and all that is in it is mine.” Psalm 50:10-12

KEY STATEMENT – [ Faithful stewards manage the resources not for themselves, but for the purposes of the one who has entrusted them.]

What is God’s purpose? To live in perfect relationship with all of God’s creation. Since God’s creation is separated from God and unable to live in perfect relationship with God; God’s purpose is redemptive in nature; working to reconcile creation to Himself. That redemption is expressed in the Person of Jesus Christ and effected by people of faith… the body of Christ… the church… God chose to entrust His creation to human beings for the purpose of reconciling humanity to himself…

In the words of Eugene Peterson’s The Message: Prosper! Reproduce! Take Charge! Be responsible … for every living thing… on the face of the earth.

This truth has implications not only for our use of our natural resources, caring for our environment, but also for providing for the care and nurture of ourselves as human beings:

Physically, emotionally, materially, and spiritually (which really encompasses all aspects of our humanity)

As Such:

Stewardship helps meet our most fundamental need

[The most persistent myth about stewardship is that it has something to do with God’s needs, with funding ministry, with church budgets, or with controlling how others use our gifts. These are simply and entirely false. God has no needs. “If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.” (Ps 50.12). Stewardship is not about funding the ministry, funding the church, or funding God. It is how God transforms us into servants; it is a basic way in which God is changing us into the likeness of Jesus Christ. It’s not about what God needs – but what we most desperately need in our deepest, must fundamental being.]

What is God’s purpose? To redeem our relationship with Himself. God wants us to grow into the character and nature of Jesus…

Stewardship is not about meeting God’s needs (funding ministry, church budgets, etc.)

Stewardship is about the means by which our most fundamental need is met… reconciling us in our relationship with God… ; [it is a basic way in which God changes us into the likeness of Jesus Christ]

Well done good and faithful servant… enter into the joy of your master

The payoff for the servant was the nature of the relationship with the master… the parable didn’t say, “hey good job with investing the money, you deserve a raise, or here’s a corner office, or new Cadillac or condo, or vacation home… the payoff was entering into the joy of the master

We need to remember that from God’s perspective stewardship is not primarily about meeting our physical needs… (more in Investing in God) but our spiritual needs

Stewardship Frees Us

[Another popular myth is that somehow giving releases God’s power, that it triggers miraculous power. One may hear that by giving sacrificially, God’s power is released into the world. This is simply and entirely false. God’s power is not passive, latent, or dormant. It needs no external release mechanism or trigger. On the other hand, people find themselves in bondage to fear, greed, and envy. By becoming faithful servants of God, we discover who really owns all of heaven and earth, and we become free. Stewardship does not release God, but it does release us.]

So in this sense only does stewardship release God’s power… by freeing us God’s power is able to flow in and through our lives to achieve his purpose… it’s a matter of perspective… by growing in our stewardship we become more aware and able to live out of God’s perspective… we become freer from the world’s ideas of ownership; not only of material things but also of our own abilities and gifts and relationships… we become less bound to seeking our own security, our own welfare (regardless of what that looks like… physical, financial, or emotional)… and become more motivated to look to the welfare of others…

[Stewardship is essential to our discovering our own spiritual freedom.]

The servant that held onto the talent that he had been given based upon his fear of his master… another way to see it was his lack of trust in his master… his master trusted him but he did not honor that trust… he was a slave to his mistrust and as a result was incapable of making the best use of what he was entrusted with… it kept him from using it to benefit his master’s purpose; from using it to benefit others; and he received no benefit or blessing from it… he did not enter into the joy of his master. He was held captive to it…

Stewardship is about investing in God not ourselves

[A third popular myth is based on human greed. It views giving as a kind of investment. The more I give, the more I get. This is simply and entirely false. Although God may entrust some of God’s faithful servants with great wealth, Scripture claims that many of his most faithful servants live in poverty, while many of the most evil become rich – sometimes at the expense of the faithful. On the contrary, the Scriptures consistently teach us to give ourselves, to sacrifice ourselves for the good of others, with the assumption of no reward in this life. We are to follow the example of Jesus, who “made himself poor that others might be made rich.” Stewardship assumes that we God’s flock, the sheep of God’s pasture. What God chooses to do with us is entirely up to God. God calls us to become servants, to be faithful stewards, regardless of whether we become wealthy or poor in the process of our stewardship.]

While it is true that God gives us guidance on the proper use of our finances that can and do benefit us financially… the emphasis is never on our accumulation of wealth. It is always on being blessed to be a blessing regardless of our economic standing (rich or poor or somewhere in between)

Go back to the example of the first two servants… what was the blessing that they received? Was it money? Was it power? Was it position? No. They received more responsibility AND entered into the joy of their master. Their master placed more trust in them to serve his purpose and they grew in their relationship with him… we might even say that grew to be more like their master… they became an even more influential expression of who he was… when people saw them (the servants) they knew that they were acting on behalf of the one who sent them…

Effective and healthy stewardship is not about gaining something for ourselves… it’s not about what we have or don’t have; it’s not about what will or will not get (materially speaking)… it’s about investing in what is important to God and God’s creative purpose.

Summation: Stewardship is the means not the goal

[Stewardship is about Spirituality. The Scriptures present faithful stewardship as the means, the basic discipline, for learning how to follow Jesus. Stewardship is not the goal of the Christian life, but a method. It is designed to break our addiction to control, greed, the demand for personal security. This is why Jesus told the young man first to sell it all, give it all away, and then to come follow Jesus. It was not the goal, but the gateway.]

With this in mind in the coming weeks we will be looking at Stewardship as expressions of our core purposes as the Church, the Body of Christ

Evangelism; Discipleship; Membership; Mission/Ministry all of which are expressions of our Worship