Be the Best

5^th Sunday after Pentecost

June 28, 2015

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27; Psalm 130; 2 Corinthians 8:7-15; Mark 5:21-43

            The version of the Bible that I use the most often for sermon planning and writing these days is a one that just came out a couple years ago, called the Contemporary English Bible.  Like any translation, it has its issues, yet I have also found it to have certain insights that appeal to my understanding of what the bible text is saying.  For example, the first line of our Epistle lesson this morning starts off “Be the best,” and that caught my eye.  I went back and compared it to other translations, the NRSV that I love to use and the Good News translation that Cowenton has in its pews, and discovered two things about this verse.  One is that this encouragement to “be the best” motivates me more than the other translations that say, “We want you to excel” and “We want you to be generous.”[1]  Encouraging me to “be the best” draws out a different response from me than someone saying “we want you to excel.”  The other major difference was the order of the pieces of this verse.  In the CEB, this appeal to “be the best” comes first, and then is followed by a compliment, that you are already the best in faith, speech, knowledge, commitment, and love.  In the other translations I looked at, that compliment comes first, and then is followed by the request.  And I thought, I think I like that order better, compliment me first, flatter me first, and then tell me what you want me to do.  Except the way that the CEB puts it, it makes “be the best” stick out more.  “Be the best in this work of grace in the same way that you are the best in everything.”  It makes the encouragement stand out more than the compliment.   And so even though I want to focus on the compliment more, (who doesn’t like to hear nice things about themselves?) what I need to hear more is being told to “be the best,” and the part that comes first is the part that catches your attention more.  So, be the best.  At what?  In this work of grace, in this service of love, in this generous undertaking, depending on which translation you read.  This morning we’ll pull out an example from each of other readings. 

            In our Gospel lesson we have the woman who anonymously touched Jesus’ cloak and is told by Jesus, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.”[2]  I think we could say that this woman’s story is an excellent example of how to be the best in faith.  This woman had been sick for many years, had spent all she had on doctors and medicine without ever getting any better, and because of the bleeding was considered unclean and therefore she was an outcast on the margins for all these years.  Then she saw Jesus walking by, and she had heard about him and the things he had done, and she thought, “If I can just touch his clothes, I’ll be healed.”[3]  She believed Jesus did what she had heard about him, she believed he had healed other people, and she believed that he could heal her.  And so, stepping out in faith, she reached out and touched his cloak, having no reason to do so other than what amounted to rumors and hearsay, and she was made well.  This wasn’t the reasoning of “well, what have I got to lose, I may as well try;” no, this was faith, “I believe if I can simply touch him, I will be made better.”  This is believing what she has no reason to believe, no proof to believe.  It doesn’t say she’d met personally the other people Jesus had healed earlier in the Gospel of Mark.  It doesn’t say she’d witnessed those healings.  It says she’d heard about them, and hearing about what Jesus had done was enough for her to believe.  It was enough for her to have faith.  She reached out in faith, and Jesus rewarded her faith.  “Daughter, your faith has made you well.”  Jesus didn’t just heal her body, he brings her back into the fold with that name: daughter.  He gives her a name and a place among the people again.  She reached out in faith, and Jesus answered.  She was the best she could be in faith, and Jesus did not let her down.

            Our psalm this morning is one of hope.  It is a song of lament that begins in the pit of despair, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!”[4] but it doesn’t stay there.  It doesn’t stay in the pain.  Instead, it makes the move toward hope.  It starts with where I am, crying out for God to hear me, and then says “I will wait for the Lord, my soul waits,” and you get the impression that I will wait for as long as it takes.  Talk about how to be the best at hope.  The psalmist says, “my soul waits for the Lord, more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.”[5]  You see, this isn’t a hope that is passive, or just in the back of your mind, the kind that says, “yeah, some day, I hope so.”  This is an active hope, one that waits more attentively than a night watchman.  And you know a good night watchman doesn’t fall asleep on the job but makes the rounds and watches the sky for the first hint of dawn and for morning to come and his shift to be over.  This hope is one that’s even more active than that, a hyper-vigilant night watchman.  Watching, waiting, checking the clock, watching the sky, making the rounds, exploring every noise and every crevice, watching, waiting, and ready for God to act.  Ready for morning to come.  Ready for God to show his steadfast love and redeem us.  Not sitting back waiting for life to happen and pass by, not reactive; this is active, proactive, doing everything that can be done, trusting in God’s promises, having faith in them, and so being the best at hope. 

            After faith and hope, you may have guessed what comes next if you remember how Paul ends the 1 Corinthians 13, the chapter about love.  He writes, “Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.”  The greatest of these being love leads us to probably our most difficult text this morning, our Old Testament lesson from 2 Samuel.  The last we heard of this story of the early kings of Israel was when Saul proved to be a bad king and so God sent Samuel to anoint David king.  However, David didn’t become king right away, it’s more like he was on deck to be up at bat next.  First David served in Saul’s court, playing a musical instrument for Saul that would help him relax.  Then there was the story of David and Goliath, with which many of us are probably familiar.  Later, David becomes good friends with Saul’s son, Jonathan, and then, finally, Saul learns that the people prefer David to him, and that God is no longer with him, and instead with David.  Saul becomes insanely jealous and tries to kill David multiple times.  David, in turn, spares Saul’s life each time he is in the position to do so.  And at the same time all this is going on, Saul is also still fighting the Philistines, the army that Goliath belonged to, and Saul’s sons are all killed in battle.  Rather than be captured and tortured, Saul kills himself.  When David learns of their deaths, he sings this funeral song that is our Old Testament lesson for this morning.  “On the hills of Israel our leaders are dead!  Oh, how the mighty have fallen!”  Didn’t know that was in the Bible, did ya?  How the mighty have fallen.  The king is dead.  The heirs apparent, the king’s sons are also dead.  And David sings this song in mourning for them.  “Jonathan’s bow never wavered… Never did Saul’s sword return empty.  Saul and Jonathan! So well loved, so dearly cherished! In their lives and in their deaths they were never separated. They were faster than eagles, stronger than lions! Daughters of Israel, weep over Saul!”[6]  What a song of love, for Jonathan, a dear friend, and for Saul, a sworn enemy.  David wins the award for being the best at love.  After all, Jesus says to “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,”[7] and that’s exactly what David does.  David doesn’t rejoice at the fall of his enemies, he doesn’t say, “oh good, I don’t have to hide out from Saul any longer.”  No, when Saul died, David led the nation in honoring the fallen leader.  It’s a beautiful example of being the best at love. 

As Paul writes to “Be the best in this work of grace,” whether this work of grace involves faith, hope, or love, or something else like mercy or forgiveness or commitment, be the best at it.  It may be something grand with public recognition, like a funeral song.  It may be something where you get singled out in a crowd and have to admit what you did in faith.  It may be something ordinary like being a member of a church committee.  Whatever it is that you have been given to do, be the best at it.  That’s what God calls us to do.  Not just go about your business half-heartedly or not really paying attention to it or not caring about it, but to put your all into whatever it is you’ve been given to do.  Be the best.  The work you do matters.  Your relationships matter.  The work you do for the church matters.  Your relationship with Jesus matters.  “Be the best in this work of grace, in the same way that you are the best in everything.”[8]  One of the prayers to conclude a service in the Book of Common Prayer ends with this sentence, “And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithfulness witnesses of Christ our Lord.”[9]  Go out, and be the best at loving and serving.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

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[1] NRSV and GNT, respectively

[2] Mark 5:34

[3] Mark 5:28

[4] Psalm 130:1a

[5] Psalm 130:6

[6] 2 Samuel 1:22-24

[7] Matthew 5:44

[8] 2 Corinthians 8:7

[9] Book of Common Prayer, p. 366

This Is a Heartbreaking Sermon

3^rd Sunday after Pentecost

June 14, 2015

1 Samuel 15:34 – 16:13; Psalm 20; 2 Corinthians 5:6-17; Mark 4:26-34

            Last week, our Old Testament reading was about the people asking God for a king.  Between last week’s reading and today’s the people have gotten a king, King Saul, and it has not gone well.  In fact, things are so bad that in this week’s passage we’re told that Samuel grieved over Saul and God regretted making Saul king.  God gives Samuel a little time to grieve, and then calls him to anoint the next king.  He sends him to Jesse of Bethlehem, because one of Jesse’s sons will become the next king.  You can imagine Jesse parading his sons in front of Samuel, one by one, from oldest to youngest, and imagine everyone’s surprise when Samuel keeps saying, “No, not that one.  No, not that one.  No, not that one.”  Even Samuel is surprised, which is why he has this side conversation with God, in which God tells him, “Don’t pay attention to how tall and handsome he is.  Looks aren’t everything.  I don’t look at things the same way you do.  People look at the outward appearance, but I look at the heart.”[1]  God looks at the heart.   There are other ways of saying this, like “don’t judge a book by its cover,” or “beauty is only skin deep,” or “looks aren’t everything,” or “all that is gold does not glitter.”  Or, to quote elsewhere in the bible, through the prophet Isaiah, God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.”[2]  God looks at the heart. 

            God choosing David to be the next king is an obvious example that he doesn’t look at things like we do.  You see, after Jesse presented seven of his sons to Samuel and Samuel said, “No, not this one,” to all seven, Samuel then asked if Jesse had any more sons.  And Jesse said, “Yes, there’s my youngest boy.  But he’s out keeping the sheep.”  The youngest son, David, was the one that God chose to be the next king.  Not the oldest son, who would have assumed it would be him, not even the second oldest, but the youngest of eight brothers, is who God chooses.  A lowly shepherd, obviously not thought highly of by his father, that’s who God wants, because God knows his heart.  Subsequent passages in the bible in both the Old and New Testament describe David as a “man after God’s own heart.”[3]  That’s the kind of person God wants to lead his people, someone who follows God with all his heart.[4]  God doesn’t look at things like we do, he doesn’t evaluate them the same way, he doesn’t use the same values we do.  God looks at the heart, and as a result sometimes the leaders of God’s people come from unexpected places.  Saul was an obvious choice for a king; David was not.  The thing is that “God frequently chooses the weak, common, unimpressive [people, at least], from a human perspective to be his servants. [Even Jesus] himself was described by Isaiah (53:2) as one whose outward appearance would not attract people to him.”[5]  Another example of God doing this is in the parable that Jesus tells in our Gospel reading about the mustard seed.  The mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds, and it grows to become the tallest tree in garden, the largest of all vegetable plants.  You wouldn’t think it to look at it.  It’s not obvious.  But God knows what’s inside.  David wasn’t an obvious choice, either, but God knew his heart and knew that David’s heart was right with God.   

            Just as God doesn’t view things from a human point of view, our Epistle lesson tells us that we are to no longer regard anyone from a human point of view, either.  Paul tell us in this letter to the Corinthians that we who are Christians do not live for ourselves, but for Christ, and part of living for Christ means that we see things how Christ sees them.[6]  Why?  Because Christ’s love compels us.[7]  It urges us to see things how God sees them, and not how the world sees them.  Take, for example, Jesus’ outward appearance.  By society’s standards, he was homeless, he was a migrant, he ate with people that decent folk wouldn’t be caught dead with, like prostitutes and thieves, he broke church rules, and rather than obey every jot and tittle of the law, he emphasized love.  That was Jesus’ outward appearance and his actions.  And we, as a society, are still “obsessed with externals – with youth and beauty, accomplishments and credentials, productivity and profit. We are constantly tempted to judge our own worth and that of others according to ‘a human point of view.’ We are tempted to view worldly success as a sign of God’s favor, and conversely, to view weakness and suffering as a sign of God's absence or even God's punishment.  [And in this passage] Paul reminds us that human standards of judgment count for nothing in God’s eyes. The scandal of the cross is that God chooses vulnerability, weakness, suffering, and death in order to bring new life.”[8]  This homeless migrant, who ate with the least, the last, the lost, and the left out, who didn’t appear to care about church law, loved the whole world so much that he died so that we might be saved. 

That’s why our psalmist this morning says that “Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses, but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God.”  A modern way to phrase that might that some take pride in their possessions, things like money and power and control, and some place their trust in military strength, but we take pride and place our trust in the name of the Lord our God.  When we view things like God sees them, then our focus is on others, then we are humble about our own abilities and accomplishments, then our efforts go towards pleasing God, and, as a result, the glory goes to God alone.  If something great happens, to God be the glory, because he is the one who brought it about.  We do not take pride in superficial appearances, but in what is in the heart.  And this can be hard to do with other people, especially people we don’t know very well.  God knows what’s in the heart, but what we see is what spills out of the heart and into action.  And I’m sure not all of your actions always reflect your heart.  As Paul says in Romans, “I don't do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do.”[9]  Anyone identify with that?  You don’t always do the good you want to do?  Sometimes, we do the wrong thing, even though we know deep down in our heart it’s the wrong thing?  It happens to all of us.  The thing is, that action is what people see, not what’s in our heart.  And so we are often judged by our actions, and not by our hearts.  However, God knows what’s in our hearts, and that’s how we are to regard to others, based on what’s in their heart.  And the only way to make that judgment call is to be in relationship with them.  You can’t tell what’s in someone’s heart unless you know them, spend some time with them, walk a mile in their shoes.  That’s not easily possible with most people, because you can’t know everyone, and that’s where grace comes in.  We allow ourselves grace and we allow others grace.  We give each other the benefit of the doubt, until proven otherwise.  That’s how we view people from God’s standpoint, with lots of love and grace, and even more love and grace when someone messes up.  After all, Jesus tells Peter we are to forgive seventy times seven times, or in other words, a lot.  There is no end to God’s love and grace and forgiveness.  That’s God’s perspective.

And so Paul writes in our Epistle lesson, “No longer, then, do we judge anyone by human standards. Even if at one time we judged Christ according to human standards, we no longer do so.  Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.”[10]  The old has passed; the new has come.   I want to point out that this new creation isn’t a brand new creation starting over from scratch.  This is a re-creation of the old, a transformation.  Cowenton/Piney Grove is still here, we’re moving into the next phase.  It’s different, but the basic parts, the core of the church, is the same.  There is always grief whenever anything changes, whether for worse or for better.  Samuel grieved for King Saul, even though he wasn’t a good king, and it’s healthy and wise to take time for grief and pain.  Then, there’s still ministry to do, and it’s time to move on.  As our final hymn says, “time to remember and move on… laying to rest the pain that’s gone.”[11]  Not forgetting, just moving on.  I think forgetting is a fear of a lot of people, that we’ll forget something when it’s gone.  But “forgive and forget” isn’t actually something Jesus says.  What he says is more like “forgive and move on.”  The past doesn’t cease to exist, and we honor the good in it and we forgive the bad in it, allowing even grace for the past.  We don’t forget the past nor do we view it through rose-colored glasses.  The good old days are not behind us.  The last line of that passage from 2 Corinthians today is “see, everything has become new!”  The best is still yet to come! 

In the meantime, we try to view everyone how God would see them, as our fellow brother and sister, as his beloved child, allowing each person love and grace and forgiveness, trying to see into their heart, into who they really are, aside from their external appearance and their actions.  As Paul writes, “we live by faith and not by sight.”[12]  Living by faith is seeing things through God’s eyes, which is what he would have us to.  “Our goal is to be acceptable to him,” and he looks at the heart.[13]  May our hearts be ever acceptable in his sight.  Amen.

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[1] 1 Samuel 16:7

[2] Isaiah 55:8

[3] 1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22

[4] 1 Kings 14:8

[5] http://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/2865/sermon-options-june-14-2015

[6] 2 Corinthians 5:15

[7] 2 Corinthians 5:14

[8] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=324

[9] Romans 7:19

[10] 2 Corinthians 5:16-17

[11] “This Is a Day of New Beginnings,” UMH 383

[12] 2 Corinthians 5:7

[13] 2 Corinthians 5:9

Dare to Believe, Part II

2^nd Sunday after Pentecost

June 7, 2015

1 Samuel 8:4-20; Mark 3:20-35

            You will probably not be surprised to learn that at Annual Conference there was a special presentation by our District Superintendent, Rev. Moore-Koikoi, and a few of my colleagues who serve churches in the Sandtown-Winchester part of Baltimore as well as one lay person.[1]  They shared stories about life in their churches over the past several weeks since the unrest; some stories were uplifting, others were heartbreaking.  One story of lament was shared by Rev. Moore-Koikoi.  She was on the ground the evening after the unrest, supporting the clergy in the area and joined a prayer march with the clergy.  The riot police didn’t appear to take kindly to the clergy walking and praying in the street and so some members from the community surrounded the clergy as they walked and prayed and joined them at the end when they went inside a nearby United Methodist Church.  It turned out that these community members were from the Bloods, Crips, and the Black Mafia family, gangs who had declared a truce in the midst of the unrest.  One of them knew one of the clergy.  He turned to him and said, “You used to be my pastor.  I’ve got some pictures of home with your children and me, when I was at church.” Rev. Moore-Koikoi’s lament was that “we had him!”  We had this young man in our churches and we let him go.  When he didn’t find family and opportunity and unconditional acceptance in the church, when the church stopped listening to him, he found family and opportunities and acceptance and someone who listened to him in a gang.  Then Rev. Moore-Koikoi shared what she called a “grace note.”  When she went a couple weeks ago to visit on of these churches, she talked with a pastor who reminded her of two brothers they had also met that night.  This pastor had followed up with the brothers and got them enrolled at Coppin State University.  When the people of faith dare to believe and step out in faith, look what God can do!  At the end of this presentation a motion was made to designate today, June 7, Dare to Believe in Stronger Baltimore Sunday, with a special offering collected.  The motion was passed unanimously and so today and next Sunday, we will collect the special offering and send it the week after next into the Conference.  Dare to Believe in a Stronger Baltimore.  There are three parts to it: Stronger Churches, Stronger Relationships, and Stronger Communities. 

            The first of these is Stronger Churches.  A stronger church is one who dares to believe that the church will not collapse, but endure.  In our Gospel lesson this morning Jesus says that “A kingdom involved in civil war will collapse.  And a house torn apart by divisions will collapse.”[2]  Our country faced exactly that scenario, and on April 12, 1861, it did collapse.  The United States of America ceased to exist as anyone had known it to that point.  You’re all well aware that it survived, of course, but it took many years of healing before it could consider itself whole again.  And we as a church have been through some of our own divisions.  Yet we dare to believe that we, too, will endure.  We dare to believe that God has the final say on God’s church.  It’s not our church, anyway.  When God’s kingdom is involved in civil war, it does not collapse.  What does happen is that some leave the kingdom, like the young man who joined a gang, finding there what he didn’t find in church.  Stronger churches have compelling reasons for coming to church.  They have warm welcomes for new people, not smothering or overbearing, but genuine smiles and greetings of “it’s nice to have you here.”  Stronger churches have a variety of ways to get involved.  Not everyone is interested in singing with the choir, and that’s ok.  There’s the nursery, Vacation Bible School, Sunday School, there’s feeding the men at Streets of Hope in the winter and donating canned food for Eastern Interfaith Outreach and serving in our food pantry, there’s the collection of health kits and dry foods that I took to Sandtown a couple weeks ago.  A stronger church is also a praying church, and I want to encourage you to pray for this church every day.  If you don’t have a regular daily praying time, then set the alarm on your cell phone or on your alarm clock as a reminder to pray each day.  [PG: If you need a suggestion for what time, I suggest 2:01 p.m.  I know many of us aren’t morning people, and 201 is also our street address, so it should be easy to remember.]  It doesn’t need to be a long prayer, simply one sentence is enough: Lord, I pray for Cowenton [Piney Grove].  Let’s give it a try, each day, and see what happens.  Dare to believe in Stronger Churches.

            The second part is Stronger Relationships.  A good friend of mine was sharing with me about her marriage, and she said that she and her husband “rely on our relationships with others to build and maintain our own relationship. We are stronger when we work together. We are healthier when we allow others to participate in our lives, choosing not to do things all on our own.”[3]  A stronger marital relationship is one that relies on other friendships to help build up and strengthen the marriage.  A stronger friendship is one that allows others to participate in the friendship.  There is no selfishness here, there is no greed or envy, there is no rejection or exile. 

We find a story about a weaker relationship in our Old Testament lesson this morning.  Samuel has been a prophet and judge for Israel for most of his life, and now that he is old, the people want a king so that they will be like the other nations.  Samuel feels rejected by them and is upset by this request, rightly so.  He brings it to God, as we are to do with all things, and God says, “Listen to the voice of the people; for they have not rejected you.  No, they’ve rejected me from being king over them.”[4]  Samuel reports God’s words back to the people and describes what life would be like under a king.  However, the people don’t care, “We know what we want and we want a king to be like everyone else.”  Well, they got their king, and that decision ultimately led to the end of their country.  It’s a case of “be careful what you wish for.”  It’s also a case of human beings thinking they know better than God and that their plan is better than God’s plan.  Our relationship with God is weaker when we put our plans ahead of God’s.  Our relationship with God, with ourselves, and with others is weaker when we try to be like everyone else, because God didn’t call us to be like everyone else.  He didn’t create us that way, and he doesn’t call us to become like everyone else.  He called us to become more like him.  And as a church, God isn’t calling us to be like every other church, or even like every successful church or every well-attended church.  God is calling us to be us, and not Camp Chapel or Mountain Christian Church, or any other church you find yourself comparing us to.  I shared when I returned from maternity leave last fall that I had visited other nearby churches during leave, and it wasn’t to “check out the competition,” it was to get to know our neighbors and see how they serve our community so that we might, either share with them in ministry and not reinvent the wheel, or fill in a different gap where there’s an unmet need in our community.  We’re not called to all the exact same ministries as another church.  We’re called to serve in the intersection between our interests and passions and strengths and the needs of our community.  That’s how we build Stronger Relationships and Stronger Communities.  Dare to believe that we can build them.

            Stronger Communities is the third prong of Stronger Baltimore.  One of the songs I’ve been hearing a lot lately, [and I heard it again this past week at Friendship Circle] is “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”  A Gospel song originally written in 1907 by an Englishwoman, Ada Ruth Habershon, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame a hundred years later, in 1998.  While it’s about the circle here on earth being broken when loved ones die, and then the circle being unbroken in heaven, the “better home awaiting, in the sky,” I think we can apply it to our communities here, as well.  Many of our circles have been broken, and not just by death or moving away for work or retirement, but by violence and harsh words and bitterness and unresolved conflicts.  If God’s kingdom is to come here on earth as in heaven, then we need to work to repair the circle here.  The problem is that “many [people] would rather sever the ties altogether than live with the memory of ties that were broken. Many would rather abandon people and community for their own self-justification than to admit their own contributions to the problem. And many would rather stir up the proverbial pot than sense opportunities for kindness, graciousness, and gratitude.”[5]  To build stronger communities, to strive for the circle to be unbroken, requires some hard work.  Some of you are probably thinking of concrete ways to go about this; others may stuck on not knowing what to do.  The good news is, to quote a fellow pastor, “If we listen to the community, the answers are in the people of the community.”[6]  So spend some time listening to our community.  Find out what some of the needs are that aren’t being met.  And that intersection where the community’s deep need meets your deep passion, that’s where we are called to serve, and that’s how we move towards Stronger Communities.[7]  Dare to believe that’s where God’s calling you to and that you can make a difference in that place. 

            In our Gospel this morning Jesus points out that “No one can break into a strong person’s house and steal anything without first tying up the strong person. Only then can the house be burglarized.”  The good news is that Jesus is the stronger person.  In fact, the Gospel of Mark even calls him that, just two chapters earlier, when Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist, describes Jesus by saying, “One stronger than I am is coming after me. I’m not even worthy to bend over and loosen the strap of his sandals.  I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”[8]  Jesus is the stronger one.  Dare to believe in him and that he can overcome any obstacle you perceive or any obstacle you have placed in the way of building stronger churches, stronger relationships, and stronger communities.  It can be done.  I dare to believe it.  Do you?

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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzOf6yh1Pk4&feature=youtu.be

[2] Mark 3:24-25

[3] https://kathyrandall.wordpress.com/2015/06/02/building-family/

[4] 1 Samuel 8:7

[5] http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=3639

[6] Twanda Prioleau, pastor, John Wesley UMC, Baltimore

[7] An adaptation of a quote by Frederick Buechner

[8] Mark 1:7-8, CEB

Dare to Believe, Part I

Trinity Sunday

May 31, 2015

Isaiah 6:1-8; Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17

            This past week our lay delegate and I were at Annual Conference, held here in Baltimore this year.  The theme of this year’s Conference was “Dare to Believe,” based off the story in Matthew 14.  Jesus walks on water during a storm and at first the disciples are afraid, because they think he’s a ghost.  Then Peter says, “Lord, if it’s really you, order me to come to you on the water,” and so Jesus calls, “Come.” Peter’s fine as long as he keeps his eyes on Jesus, but then he notices the storm and his eyes go to the strong wind and the high waves.  He starts to sink and cries out for Jesus to save him.  Jesus catches him, and says, “Ye of little faith, why did you doubt?”  Jesus challenges Peter to dare to believe and this past week our bishop, Bishop Matthews, challenged us to dare to believe as well.  Dare to believe that all things are possible with God.  Dare to believe in Jesus’ power to save.  Dare to believe that the Holy Spirit is here, active among us, and leading us.  Bishop Matthews said that our daring to believe “must be a dare based on our full, unconditional belief in Jesus’ power to deliver and save.”  Keeping that in mind, that we do dare to believe, let’s look at our scripture readings for this morning.

            First, our Gospel reading directly talks about Jesus’ power to save.  Recently, I heard someone comment that we hear lots about John 3:16, but what about John 3:17?  “God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”  Do we dare to believe that God did not send Jesus to judge the world but to save it?  And do our actions reflect that belief?  It feels like many Christians talk a great deal about judgment and how God will judge people, but look at this last verse from our Gospel reading.  We’ve talked other times about the context of this passage, how Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a leader of his people, came to talk with Jesus at night.  He knew something was up with Jesus, that Jesus could only do the miracles he did because God was with him, and yet Nicodemus was afraid of being judged.  He went to talk with Jesus at night, when no one would see him, under the cover of darkness.  And Jesus kinda calls him out on it, reminding him that he didn’t come to judge, but to save.  We call Jesus our Savior, not our Judge.  And I hope and pray that’s how we know Jesus, that we know him as the One who saves, and are not afraid of him as one who judges.  And related to that is we show Jesus to others.  There are some outside the church who view Christians as a very judgmental bunch, because that has been their experience with the church.  Yet Jesus did not come to judge, but to save.  May we be known as those who point the way to the One who saves, the One who rescues, the One who redeems and restores.  May we not be afraid of being judged, and instead share the love of Christ with everyone we meet.  We don’t serve an angry God whose judgment we fear.  We serve and worship the one, triune God who loves the world so much that he came to save it.  Dare to believe that. 

            Next, looking at our Romans passage, do we, in fact, dare to believe that we have received God’s Spirit?  This is what we celebrated last week on Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and it’s available for us, too.  Paul reminds us that we have not received a spirit of slavery or of fear, at least not from God.  If we have a spirit of fear, it did not come from God.  God does not want us to be be afraid.  We do not need to live in fear.  Dare to believe that.  Dare to act not out of fear.  The word has been peppering our conversations lately.  We’re afraid of scarcity, that there isn’t enough.  We’re afraid for our safety, that something will happen to us or our loved ones.  We’re afraid for our church, that we’ll continue struggling.  Beloved, God did not give us a spirit of fear!  These fears do not come from God!  And we should not act on them nor act from them.  Instead, we dare to believe that we received a spirit of adoption as God’s sons and daughters.  We dare to believe that we are God’s children, God’s beloved children, and that God provides enough, maybe not to meet all our wants, but certainly all our needs.  God ensures our safety.  We talked a few weeks ago about how only because of God can we lie down in safety.  And God has the final say on his church.  To quote a professor of mine from Duke Divinity School, “God is gonna get what God wants.”[1]  It means that the resurrected Christ cannot be stopped, not by anything, even death.  And if we spend so much time and energy worrying about and being fearful for the future of this church, then we are not fulfilling the great commission to make disciples of Jesus Christ.  To quote an article I read this week from a United Methodist college student and aspiring pastor, “As United Methodist Christians, the fear of death shouldn’t be what motivates us to do ministry because it distracts us from really matters: being faithful to who God is and the life that he promises us. When we allow fear and death to define us, we begin to forget who we are, allowing the world to take away the reality we see through Christ and replacing it with its own reality.”  When we allow fear and death to define us, we forget who we are and whose we are.  God will provide enough for his church, somehow, some way.  The future of the church may not look like the past.  The Church today is quite different than it was a hundred years ago, and that’s just one-twentieth of the Church’s history.  And that’s ok.  The ministry we do here does not stem from fear.  It stems from responding to God’s call, which brings us to our Old Testament reading this morning. 

            Our Old Testament lesson was the story of God calling the prophet Isaiah.  Today, we dare to believe that God still calls.  On my drive to the previous church I served, in North Carolina, I would drive past another church who had a banner at their entrance that said just that, “God is still speaking.”  I saw that every time I drove to church, God is still speaking.  God is still calling.  This passage from Isaiah is about Isaiah’s own call, which comes in the form of a vision.  Isaiah’s initial response is basically to say that he is not worthy.  The creature in his vision touches his mouth as a means of forgiving his sins (remember, this is before Jesus Christ).  And then Isaiah hears the Lord call, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”, and Isaiah answers, “Here I am.  I’ll go.  Send me.” 

Many of us here know and can give testimony that God still calls.  In different ways, at different times, to do different things, God invites us to join in his work in his world.  And I believe that God is still calling this church, that’s why we’re still here.  God isn’t done with us yet.  And so our work is to listen to what God is calling us to do, a process called discernment, and then to do it.  We don’t just listen to God’s call, if we really hear it, then it also compels us to act and answer the call.  The prophet Jeremiah described God’s Word as a fire in his bones that he could not contain, he could not hold it in.[2]  Listening to God’s Word compelled him to act on it.  Jeremiah literally could not keep quiet about, no matter how much he wanted to or how hard he tried.  And he really wanted to, because much of what God told him to prophecy was not pleasant to listen to and people made fun of him and mocked him all the time. 

When we receive God’s Spirit, then “the Holy Spirit works within us, that being born through water and the Spirit, we may be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.”[3]  If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the prayer we pray at the end of a baptism.  It also echoes our Gospel reading, Jesus’ explanation to Nicodemus about being born again, through water and the Spirit.  It echoes the passage from Romans, in the Spirit working within us, guiding us and leading us into all truth, affirming that we are, in fact, beloved children of God, and the work of a disciples being faithfulness, not fear.  And it’s a response to God calling.  There are many ways to respond to God’s call, baptism among them.  And so this is my prayer for you today, “May the Holy Spirit work within you, that being born through water and the Spirit, you may be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.”  Amen.

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[1] This quote and much of what follows comes from http://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/6072/saving-the-umc

[2] Jeremiah 20:9

[3] UMH 37