JUNE 2nd
SERMON
SERMON BASED ON MATTHEW 7 (24-27)
HABITS FOR EFFECTIVE DISCIPLESHIP # 1
: HEARING AND PRACTICING THE WORD OF GOD.
Word of life: Our lives will be based on a firm foundation if they are built on the Word of God.
INTRODUCTION:
I used to believe that being a Christian was easy.
All you had to do was come to church, sit through an hour or so of worship,
stay for Sunday School occasionally, and
participate in the confirmation process. In other words, Christian discipleship
would come upon us if we grew up in the church. However, as I have grown up in
the church I have learned it doesn t work that way and really never has.
To be a disciple of Jesus the Christ, takes an
intentionally that our ancestors called discipline, Stephen Covey calls Habit
and Dorothy Bass calls practices . In other words, it takes a deliberate set
of behaviors and attitudes to keep us focused on following Jesus in this day
and age. Over the next several weeks I will be talking with you about some of
these important sets of behaviors and attitudes, which I am calling Habits. I
am hopeful by doing this that I can focus our attention and encourage us to
intentionally do those things which will
help us become more faithful in our discipleship.
So let us begin with today s Habit, which is based in
our Gospel lesson.
READ MATTHEW 7 :24-27
DEVELOP:
The
passage raises two questions for me. First, what is the importance of a good
foundation for a building? As I looked into that question I discovered that the
foundation is crucial for the building. If the foundation is weak or cracked
the building cannot stand. Thus, a strong foundation is necessary to support a
good building.
Which then leads to the second question, what makes a
foundation strong? I found out that in the days of Jesus, some people would
take the easy way of building on what looked like a good place only to find
that in the winter that place would be filled with water and would destroy the
home that they had built.
Jesus, who
himself was a carpenter, knew that a strong foundation for a home must be built
on a solid base of rock. He likens this building principle to our lives. We can
choose to build our lives on Wisdom that comes from tradition, or from the
world or even of our own devising. However, if we choose that then we will soon
discover that the foundation, we have chosen for our lives, is not strong
enough to deal with the realities of this broken world.
The other option Jesus puts before us is that we can choose to build our lives on His Word.
That he says is like building on a strong base of rock and will with stand the
storms of life.
If we are honest we have seen this in our world.
Allow me to compare two people, not from our area, but who have experienced similar events. Both of
these men were 65 when their spouse of 32 and 35 years respectfully died. One
withdrew into himself and became very bitter at life, the other worked through
his grief and with the help of his Christian friends found new hope and even
joy in his life. What made the difference? I believe the foundation of their
lives, made the difference. For one was not solidly grounded in the Word of God
and the other was.
OR compare two young adults who are injured on the
job. One becomes very beligerent and believes that the World owes him a living.
The other becomes very humble and is grateful for all he can receive and can
do. What makes the difference? I believe it is the foundation that has been
laid in their life. If it is grounded on the Word of God it can lead to
developing strength when the storms of life come. But if it is not founded on
the Word of God. Then when the storm of life come, it will crumble and fall.
CONCLUSION:
This
brings me to my final point, how we build the strong foundation for our lives
on the Word of God, is a process that takes a Habit of listening and
practicing. Jesus says to build our lives on the strong foundation of His Word,
we are to listen and practice.
A Basketball player knows it is not enough to just
listen to the coach explain the plays, they also need to practice them. A
musician knows that it is not enough for them to just listen to the director
explain how this piece of music is to be performed, they must also practice.
Just like these we as disciples of the Christ, must also not just listen to the
Word as it is proclaimed each week, we must also ask what does this word tell
me I need to do or stop doing. Then we must be willing to put that word into
practice in our lives. For then and only then will we be building the strong
foundation which we need to live a full and rich life with God. Amen
June 9th SERMON
SERMON
BASED ON MATTHEW 9: 18-26
ENTITLED
PERSPECTIVES FOR FAITHFUL DISCIPLES #2
GOD
DESIRES WHOLENESS FOR EACH PERSON
Word
of Life: God is a compassionate and loving God, who desires that each of his
children become whole.
INTRODUCTION:
In a classic Peanuts cartoon, Linus is
talking with Lucy, and announces to her that he has decided to become a DR.
Lucy laughs at that and says in her own demeaning style, You can t be a DR.!
To which Linus replies, And why not? Lucy says Because Dr s love humankind
and you hate humankind. Linus corrects Lucy, It is not Humankind that I hate,
I love Humankind, it s people I hate.
I guess it s all a matter of
perspective. How we perceive things is very important in our lives. For our
perceptions shape our behaviors and our attitudes. For example, if I perceive
someone to be a friend, I will treat them one way. On the Other hand, If I
perceive them to not be friendly, I will treat them another way. Our
perceptions are the antennae through which we can react to our world.
Last week I began sharing with you
about these perceptions for effective discipleship. What I have come to see in
the Gospel lessons for the next several Sundays are a series of perceptions
that I believe would help us be faithful in our discipleship. So I am striving
to share with you these perceptions as well as some of the implications they
pose for our journey of life.
DEVELOP:
Today s Gospel lifts up to very
interesting stories that reveal to us , God s desire for his children to have
wholeness. Now that last statement may surprise some of you. For often we think
of healing in terms of being cured of our diseases. Yet, when we read the
scripture we come to understand that one of the by products of this fallen
world is that disease and death will always be with us. In fact if we are
honest, we recognize that they dog our steps through out the journey of life.
For if we are not sick, then someone we love is sick or in pain. We yearn that
for them there might be a restoration of their wholeness.
We are not alone , In today s Gospel
stories we have two examples of people who long for wholeness. The Good news is
that Jesus fulfill their hopes in a very special way.
TELL
THE STORIES OF THE WOMAN SUFFERING FROM HEMORAGES:
Emphasize
how this illness kept her from worship and isolated her from friends and
family. Yet she believes that Jesus can restore her to wholeness and so she
comes to touch his garments and she is not disappointed.
Then
tell about Jairus and his DAUGHTER WHO
DIED FROM MATTHEW 9: 18-26 : Emphasizing that Jairus took quite a risk to seek
Jesus against the will of his village and at the risk of loosing his job, yet,
he believed that Jesus had the power to heal his daughter and restore wholeness
to their family. He was not disappointed.
CONCLUSION:
In both cases Jesus restores wholeness
to the person as well as to the family. Jesus, we believe is the visible
likeness of God and so what he did while on the earth is revealing to us of
what God intends for us. In this case we can see that we have a God who is
concerned for the wholeness of his children. Therefore, we can with boldness
and confidence bring our requests for wholeness before him in prayer. We can,
as we do in this service offer anointing with oil, in confidence that our God
will bring forth healing and wholeness for us and/or our loved ones. For we
have before us a powerful story that helps us see our God is a God who Heals.
Amen
June 16th SERMON
SERMON
BASED ON MATTHEW 9 & EXODUS 19
From : Perspectives for Effective Discipleship
#3
God calls us to be
His Priestly people.
INTRODUCTION:
In a book entitled Living like Jesus, Ron Sider the author, tells a fictional story
about a conversation Jesus has with the Angel Gabriel upon his arrival back in
Heaven.
Gabriel
asks Jesus did you accomplish you mission.
Jesus
says yes and no. I taught the people about the
Gabriel
then says no offense Lord, but that is quite an unpredictable group of people,
which you have given such an important task to do. Is there a back up plan if
they fail?
Jesus
says there is no back up plan.
No
Back up plan, the proclamation and enacting
of God s love depends on us.
DEVELOP:
However,
this is really not new. In our Old Testament lesson today, We hear Moses
reminding the Israelites that God has called them to be a Priestly People.
But
what exactly is being a Priestly People?
The priests were a people set aside by
Israel to teach the others about God, to help the others discern God s will and
direction for their lives, and to call the nation to be faithful to God. St.
Peter in 2: 9-10, says we exercise this priestly function by doing two things;
proclaiming what God has done for us and reflecting to those around us the love
and mercy of God.
TELL
STORY OF JOE [How through his willingness to tell others about how God changed
him he brought others to want to know
about God s love.] Joe was acting like the priestly people God has called us to
be.
Since
today is Father s day, let us consider another possibility for being a priestly
people. We have come to understand that
Father s have an important role to play in nurturing the spirituality of our
children. A Father s leadership in coming to church, establishing a pattern for
Family devotions, has been shown to go along way in helping youth remain strong
in their faith. Unfortunately, we are finding that more and more Father s are
abdicating this role, with the result that more and more youth are straying
from the church and from the faith.
This is the reason that movements like
promise keepers and others are active in calling Fathers to take back the
spiritual leadership role in their families. In fact promise Keepers is calling
for us as Fathers to exercise our Priestly role in the family. A call to which,
I hope we will listen and obey.
CONCLUSION:
Jesus
in our Gospel reminds us that the time is getting on and we as God s people
need to get busy. He uses the metaphor, The Harvest is plentiful, but the
Laborers are few. A couple years ago, I asked some farmers in my congregation,
what happens to the Harvest when this is the case. They said one of two things
either the Harvesters exhaust themselves trying to get in all the harvest or a
part of the harvest will be lost. In my mind neither alternative is acceptable.
Already we have seen laity and clergy alike burning out as they strive to
respond to the needs of God s children. Already, we have seen where
opportunities may have been lost to share the Gospel message. However, this
does not need to continue!
You
and I can work together to take the love of Jesus, by looking around us for
those in our midst who need a word of hope, or those who need us to do an act
of love. So that God and his love can become visible and trustworthy for them.
For
remember there is no Back up plan, God is depending on us to be his priestly
people; Empowered by the Holy Spirit we can meet that challenge. So let us go
forth in Christ s name to spread his love! Amen.
June 23rd s Sermon
SERMON BASED ON MATTHEW 10 VERSES 24 TO 39
ENTITLED PERSPECTIVES FOR EFFECTIVE
DISCIPLESHIP # 4
TO UNDERSTAND WE ARE STEWARDS FOR GOD
IN THIS WORLD
INTRODUCTION:
When I was younger in my ministry, I
would often hear people say that I didn t look like a pastor, to which I
jokingly replied and what does a pastor look like. These people however, were
expressing a truth about how we deal with the world.
For we each have pictures in our minds
of what God is like, of what the church is to do, of how the world is to
operate. These are what psychologists call perspectives on living. These
perspectives guide our actions and behaviors.
It is with our perspectives that I want
to share the word I hear in the Gospels for the past several weeks as well as
for a few more weeks to come. For I believe that if we desire to become
faithful in our discipleship then we need to dialogue with the word of God.
Allowing the light of that word to even possibly change and transform our
perspectives.
Thus, over the past few weeks I have
shared with you what I hear Jesus saying about what perspectives we need to be
faithful disciples. We began with understanding that a faithful disciple builds
a strong foundation for living by hearing and practicing the word of God. Then
we heard how our God is a God of compassion and healing, he desires that all of
his children should be whole. We also heard how God calls to each of us to be
his priests in this world. Today, Jesus
tells his disciples that we are to acknowledge him before others. To
acknowledge means to honor his claim on our lives. So we need to ask what is
the claim he makes for our lives and how do we honor that claim in our living?
DEVELOP
Scripture tells us that he makes two
claims on our lives. First, he claims to save us from the power of Sin, which
would condemn us and make us unable to live in communion with God. Now that is
a claim we have spoken a lot about, how we believe that what Jesus did on the
cross paid the price for our sin and now we are free to live in union with God,
thanks to Jesus.
The other claim he makes on our lives is
to be our Lord. We have heard that many times before in the church. However, I
wonder if we understand what it means. Allow me to share with you a little
language history. The term Lord comes from the culture in which Christianity
emerged. In that time a Kingdom was divided among various noble men. Each own a
portion of the land. They would then hire peasants to farm the land, The
peasants were then to give the Lord of the land a percentage of what was
produced, some demanded 10%, others 20%, still others as much as 50%. So to
acknowledge someone as Lord was to say he had the right to receive a certain %
of what you produced.
Now what are these Christians saying
when they apply that title to Jesus? The Lord of the land would have ownership
of all that was on the land. Thus, to call Jesus Lord would say that we believe
he has ownership of all that is in our lives. He has ownership of our material
wealth, he has ownership of our relationships, he has ownership of our health.
In other words to acknowledge Jesus as Lord, is to say that all we have
received belongs to God.
Now that leads me to introduce another
Biblical idea. In the Biblical time, a landowner hires a Steward to oversee and
manage all that he has. Christians have now taken that concept and said we are
like the Steward, in that all we have has been given us by God, so now we have
the responsibility to manage all he has given us in such a way that he will be
pleased.
Let s just use one example of what I
believe was good stewardship. About 15 years ago some farmers in the Mid-west
had produced much to much hay. They heard that other farmers in the south did
not have enough hay. So one man decided that he wanted to help the Farmers in
the South because he believed that all he had he had received from God and
desired to be a good steward. So he arranged to gather up the extra Hay from
his friends and neighbors and have it shipped to some Farmers in the South.
What a marvelous act of stewardship!
CONCLUSION:
A slogan that has helped me follow this
perspective in life has been All we have is a gift from God, What we do with
that gift is our gift back to God.
So my friends, I invite us to see
ourselves as Stewards of all that we have and to manage all that we have
received from God s hands in a way that will please him. I wonder what that
will mean for each of us as we look at how we are managing what he has
entrusted to our care. Amen
June 30th s Sermon
SERMON BASED ON MATTHEW 10 VERSES 40 TO 42
PERSPECTIVES FOR FAITHFUL DISCIPLES # 5
GOD EXPECTS US TO SHOW HOSPITALITY TO
OTHERS IN HIS NAME
INTRODUCTION:
Max Lucado in his book Just like
Jesus, makes an interesting image. He says [the tenses have been changed for sermonic purposes]
What if for one day and one night Jesus lives
our life with his heart. Our hearts get the day off and our life is led by the
heart of Christ. His priorities govern our actions. His passions drive our
decisions. His love directs our behavior.
What would we be like? Would people
notice a change? Would our families see something new? Would our co-workers
sense a difference? What about the less fortunate, would we treat them the
same? How about our friends, would they detect more joy? How about our enemies,
would they find more mercy in Christ s heart than in ours?
What difference would this transplant
make in our inner world? How would it affect our stress levels, our mood
swings, our temper, even our sleeping patterns?
When we think on this we come to
recognize that this is exactly what God wants to do in our lives. To help us
strengthen the image of God, in which we were created so that His heart is
driving our lives. For He knows that when his heart drives our lives we will be
led into the fullness of life and discover the love of God which makes all
things new.
Over the past few weeks Jesus has been
teaching his disciples and us how to be that new kind of person. We began by
recognizing that this new life is built in us when we hear the Word of God and
then practice what it teaches in our daily living. A few weeks ago Jesus showed
us that God wants all his children to be made whole. Jesus then commissioned
his disciples and us to be his priests, and let us know he is depending on us
to carry his love into the world, he has no other back up plan. Last week, he
called on his disciples and us to remember that all we have is a gift from God
and what we do with what we have is our gift back to God. Today, as we heard,
Jesus is teaching his disciples that when we live with the new Heart which God
provides we are welcoming to all people.
DEVELOP
Now to be welcoming is no small task.
For Psychologist tell us that to belong is one of a person s greatest needs. We
as human beings need to feel like we belong somewhere. In the church we call
this hospitality. In a book widening the welcome of your church : "Hospitality = is the attitude and
practice of providing the atmosphere and opportunities, however risky, in which
strangers are free to become friends, thereby feeling accepted, included, and
loved. The relationship thus opens up the possibility for eventual communion
among the host, the stranger and God.
.
This week in my e-mail, The Ferguson s
sent me a great story that illustrates this practice of hospitality.
The Rented Room
Our house was
directly across the street from the clinic entrance of
A moment I
hesitated, but his next words convinced me: "I could sleep
In this rocking
chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the
morning." I
told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the
porch. I went inside and finished getting
supper. When we were ready, I asked the old
man if he would join us. "No thank you. I have plenty." And he held up a brown paper bag. When I had finished the
dishes, I went out on the porch to talk with
him a few minutes. It didn't take a long time to see that this old
man had an oversized heart crowded into
that tiny body. He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her
five children, and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury.
He didn't tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence was preface with a thanks to God for a blessing.
He was grateful that no pain accompanied
his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer. He thanked God for
giving him the strength to keep going.
At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children's room for him. When I got
up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded and the little man was out on the porch. He refused
breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, haltingly, as if asking a great
favor, he said, Could I please come back and stay the next time I have a treatment? I won't put you
out a bit. I can sleep fine in a chair." He paused a moment and then
added, "Your children made me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my
face, but children
don't seem to mind." I told him he was welcome
to come again. And on his next trip he
arrived a little after seven in the morning.
As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the largest oysters I had ever seen. He said he had shucked them
that morning before he left so that they'd be nice and fresh. I knew his bus
left at
In the years he came to stay overnight with us
there was
Never a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or
vegetables
From his garden.
Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special delivery; fish
and oysters packed in a box of fresh young
Spinach or kale,
every leaf carefully washed. Knowing that he must
Walk three miles to
mail these, and knowing how little money he had
Made the gifts doubly precious. When I received these little remembrances, I
often thought of a comment our next-door neighbor made after he left that
first morning. "Did you keep that
awful looking man last night? I turned him away! You can lose roomers by
putting up such people!" Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice. But oh!
If only
They could have known him, perhaps their
illness' would have been
Easier to bear. I know our family always will be grateful to
have known him; from him we learned what
it was to accept the bad without complaint
and the good with gratitude to
God.
CONCLUSION:
This family found a blessing of
knowing a large hearted man, by opening their home to him at a time of need.
God can bless us as well when we are willing to be hospitable to others. For
remember what Jesus told his disciples:
READ MATTHEW 10:
40-42
So when the heart of Jesus drives our
lives we are hospitable for others and the world is a better place! Amen
