WELCOME

Greetings in the name of Jesus! This is a continuing effort on my part to make available to family, friends, and any other poor unfortunate souls that run across this, some of the thoughts that run through my mind regarding sermon preparation, newsletter articles, random thoughts (of which there are many), and generally how God is working in my life. I hope to post at least once a week but I'm not promising that.

So welcome to it.

Post Script:
A couple of people have asked me about the address. When I was putting this together I was preparing for sermons from the 6th chapter of John where Jesus refers to himself as "The Bread of Life" and these are passages that I strongly identify with. So artos is bread and zoe is life (roughly) and to quote Forrest, "That's all I have to say about that."

Thursday, October 22, 2009

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.

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