Sunday, December 30, 2007
33 With Me, It's All Or Nothing!
"Jesus - With Me, It's All Or Nothing!"
Climb Every Mountain! Jesus has given us a very high mountain
to climb - asking us in today's Scripture, Luke 14:25-33, to leave
everything to follow him - loving him more than you love your " father,
mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters - even more than your
own life." "If you come to me, but will not leave your family you
cannot be my follower" or to say it another way, WITH ME IT'S
ALL OR NOTHING!
I thought a little about that when finishing seminary. It wasn't like
I was going back home to Ohio - my first call was in Wisconsin, the
second in San Juan, Puerto Rico and the third in Miami Beach Florida!
My calling would keep me long distances from father, mother, brothers
sisters, nieces, nephews - all. But it was the only way I could do what I
was called to do.
Jesus did not mean that we must all leave our families. He simply
meant that we must give first priority to our spiritual task - to being a
person of Spirit. You are here on this planet to grow your Spirit and to be
a force for the development of the Spirit of Christ in the world. There will
be times when you will be tested as to the kind of person you really are.
In the way of illustration: Consider the man who was guiding two
clients to the top of Mt. Everest. When they were within 1000 feet of the
summit, they came across a climber who the day before had been left for
dead there in the death zone - but who somehow had survived the night
and, though delusional with the cold and altitude, greeted them. He needed
help - persons to take him back down to where he could me "medivacked"
out. The guide felt that was what, as human beings they were called to do.
His clients, each of whom had paid $25,000 dollars for the climb, agreed
to give up their dream of the mountaintop for this necessary humanitarian
mission.
It seems to me, in making that decision - they had reached the
mountaintop - that is, THE mountaintop, of God-like, Christ-like action.
The guide was not "a religious man" by his own understanding of that, not
affiliated with any church or synagogue - but connected to the Divine
thread that links humanity with Divinity - connected in his heart to the
Heart of the Universe.
The rescue was successful. The wife and sons of the rescued
man who had been notified of his death, but then, one of his sons, following
the event on the internet saw the latest report that his father had been
found alive and rescued. Their joy was beyond measure. Their rescued
loved one told them that he would be missing parts of some fingers and
toes. They asserted that they would love him just as much without them.
An interesting sidelight to the event was that in addition to the
three that rescued him, two others came by at the same time, and
overhearing them speaking English, indicated they did not speak English,
did not understand what was being said and kept on trekking toward the
summit. Later it was learned that they did speak English - they just didn't
speak "human being" - they didn't speak "Divinity"
The question Jesus has for you today is simple - to you speak
"Divinity" with your life. Ironically, speaking "Divinity" with you life could
me that you answer the call, not to leave your mother or father, but to care
for them, cantankerous and difficult as they may be, or hopefully upbeat
and easy.
Whatever happens in your life where a need that you can meet
presents itself, gives you the opportunity to climb the mountain - or as it
was in the climbers case - to descend the mountain! Where you express
your Divinity is entirely dependent on where you humanity finds you - and
gives you the opportunity to know who you are - if you are the Christ's or
not.
Years ago, when one of our parishioners went blind, she added
me to her bank accounts so that I could pay her bills and take care of any
needs that might arise. When she died, the way the accounts were set up,
I had every legal right to take what was in those accounts - thousands and
thousands of dollars - but that wasn't what she wanted. She wanted those
dollars to go the church and they did. I had no temptation to take them -
I knew who I was and that I was in Christ and Christ was in me. There
was no question.
Jesus wants you to lead a "No question" life. Though it's a simple
ethic, it is well worth the following - to guide your life by the life of Christ.
To follow His way of thinking and doing without question.
How well do we do that? We'd have to ask someone other than
ourselves. As a "Christian nation", we might ask someone from Islam for
example. The fact is that the Muslims who despise us, dislike us not
because we're free, or because we're so very Christian, but because, in
their eyes, we're so awfully godless.. It's because we appear to have
produced a godless, sex-saturated, violent, materialistic society.
We as Christians need to admit that, considering our lamentable
inability to practice the teachings of Jesus, that most Muslims are distinctively
unimpressed with our religion. We invoke God's name as we bomb,
occupy and dominate Islamic countries. We may say "In God We Trust"
on our money, but they suspect that oil, power and wealth are our true
heart's desire.
We're going to have to look a lot more redeemed before they believe in
our Redeemer or before they believe in our belief in our Redeemer!
And what can we think of Islam when Islamic fundamentalists
brought about the horror of 9/11? How religious can that be?
What we need is for the main body of people in each of the major
religions to follow their leaders' true values - the values of love and justice
- the values we have in common.
A young man entered Duke University. He was tall, utterly white,
utterly blonde, and utterly Southern. A few weeks later, the Dean saw him
walking on campus, hand in hand with a young woman who was utterly
short, utterly brown, utterly Muslim, and (God forbid) an Ohioan! The
Dean was on personal terms with the boy's parents and it wasn't long
before his mother called: "Have you met Thomas' girlfriend" she
said. "Talk to him! They're serious!"
So the Dean asked Thomas for a chat. "Thomas," he said,
"Tell me about Maranda." He told him that they were very much in
love, that she was a wonderful person, and that they were planning to be
married right after graduation. The Dean asked, "What brought you
together." Thomas said, "It was because we had so very much in
common!" The Dean replied, "Thomas, you're from South Carolina,
you're blonde, Baptist; She's Muslim, brown and from Ohio. What
in the would could you possibly have in common?"
Thomas said, "Well, you know me. I don't drink on
weekends, don't believe in casual sex. I'm not really into the success
at any cost thing. She was the only girl I met who had the same
values as mine!"
The Scripture today is wonderful because it gives us an opportunity
to check our discipleship quotient by checking our Christian values and
how well we're maintaining them.
The fact that you are here in God's house - that's good - for here
you are reminded of who you are and whose you are. It's good you're in
attendance as this sermon is given - at least I think it is.
In one church not too long ago a man got up in the middle of the
pastor's sermon and walked out. His wife rushed up to the Pastor after
the sermon and said, "Please don't think anything bad about my
husband walking out in the middle of your sermon. It's just that he
often walks in his sleep!"
Maybe that's why Edgar A. Guest wrote
I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day;
I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way,
The eye's a better pupil and more willing than the ear,
Fine counsel is confusing, but example's always clear
And the best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds,
For to see good put in action is what everybody needs.
I soon can learn to do it if you'll let me see it done;
I can watch your hands in action, but your tongue too fast may
run.
And the lecture you deliver may be very wise and true;
But I'd rather get my lessons by observing what you do
For I might misunderstand you and the high advice you give,
But there's no misunderstanding how you act and how you live.
When I see a deed of kindness, I am eager to be kind.
When a weaker brother stumbles and a strong man stays behind
Just to see if he can help him, then the wish grows strong in me
To become as big and thoughtful as I know as I know that friend
to be
And all travelers can witness that the best of guides today
Is not the one who tells them, but the one who shows the way.
One good man teaches many, men believe what they behold;
One deed of kindess noticed is worth forty that are told.
Who stands with men of honor learns to hold his honor dear,
For right living speaks a language which to everyone is clear
Though an able speaker charms me with his eloquence, I say,
I'd rather see a sermon than to hear one, any day.
Lots of people who technically aren't preachers, including you
can be preachers. "A preacher is a person who finds the switches
that turn on the best inside of us."
H.Stephen Glenn points out his fifth grade teacher as one of them.
In the days before it was understood, she found ways to deal with hi
dyslexia that had kept him from progressing previously. She got him out
of the stuttering problem that his previous nervous and stressful years in
school had caused. When he went into sixth grade, Miss Hardy became
the teach of that class as well, much to his delight. He kept track of her for
many years thereafter and ultimately learned that she was terminal with
cancer. As her only "special student", he decided to travel the thousand
miles to express his appreciation. But he wasn't the only one who made
the pilgrimage to renew their association and share their appreciation of
her - there were hundreds - an interesting mix of people - 3 U.S. Senators,
12 State Legislators, and a number of CEO's os corporations and business
to name a few.
In comparing notes with them, Stephen figured that three fourths
of them "went into the fifth grade quite intimidated by the
educational process, believing we were incapable, insignificant and
at the mercy of fate or luck. We emerged from our contact with
Miss Hardy believing we were capable, significant, influential
people who had the capacity to make a difference in life if we would
try. "
One life made such a difference in so many lives - as can yours -
particularly if it is guided by the principles and teachings of Jesus and your
priorities are in order, remembering the essence of what Jesus told us in
today's Scripture "With Me, It's All or Nothing!"
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)September 9 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 14:25-33
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
Climb Every Mountain! Jesus has given us a very high mountain
to climb - asking us in today's Scripture, Luke 14:25-33, to leave
everything to follow him - loving him more than you love your " father,
mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters - even more than your
own life." "If you come to me, but will not leave your family you
cannot be my follower" or to say it another way, WITH ME IT'S
ALL OR NOTHING!
I thought a little about that when finishing seminary. It wasn't like
I was going back home to Ohio - my first call was in Wisconsin, the
second in San Juan, Puerto Rico and the third in Miami Beach Florida!
My calling would keep me long distances from father, mother, brothers
sisters, nieces, nephews - all. But it was the only way I could do what I
was called to do.
Jesus did not mean that we must all leave our families. He simply
meant that we must give first priority to our spiritual task - to being a
person of Spirit. You are here on this planet to grow your Spirit and to be
a force for the development of the Spirit of Christ in the world. There will
be times when you will be tested as to the kind of person you really are.
In the way of illustration: Consider the man who was guiding two
clients to the top of Mt. Everest. When they were within 1000 feet of the
summit, they came across a climber who the day before had been left for
dead there in the death zone - but who somehow had survived the night
and, though delusional with the cold and altitude, greeted them. He needed
help - persons to take him back down to where he could me "medivacked"
out. The guide felt that was what, as human beings they were called to do.
His clients, each of whom had paid $25,000 dollars for the climb, agreed
to give up their dream of the mountaintop for this necessary humanitarian
mission.
It seems to me, in making that decision - they had reached the
mountaintop - that is, THE mountaintop, of God-like, Christ-like action.
The guide was not "a religious man" by his own understanding of that, not
affiliated with any church or synagogue - but connected to the Divine
thread that links humanity with Divinity - connected in his heart to the
Heart of the Universe.
The rescue was successful. The wife and sons of the rescued
man who had been notified of his death, but then, one of his sons, following
the event on the internet saw the latest report that his father had been
found alive and rescued. Their joy was beyond measure. Their rescued
loved one told them that he would be missing parts of some fingers and
toes. They asserted that they would love him just as much without them.
An interesting sidelight to the event was that in addition to the
three that rescued him, two others came by at the same time, and
overhearing them speaking English, indicated they did not speak English,
did not understand what was being said and kept on trekking toward the
summit. Later it was learned that they did speak English - they just didn't
speak "human being" - they didn't speak "Divinity"
The question Jesus has for you today is simple - to you speak
"Divinity" with your life. Ironically, speaking "Divinity" with you life could
me that you answer the call, not to leave your mother or father, but to care
for them, cantankerous and difficult as they may be, or hopefully upbeat
and easy.
Whatever happens in your life where a need that you can meet
presents itself, gives you the opportunity to climb the mountain - or as it
was in the climbers case - to descend the mountain! Where you express
your Divinity is entirely dependent on where you humanity finds you - and
gives you the opportunity to know who you are - if you are the Christ's or
not.
Years ago, when one of our parishioners went blind, she added
me to her bank accounts so that I could pay her bills and take care of any
needs that might arise. When she died, the way the accounts were set up,
I had every legal right to take what was in those accounts - thousands and
thousands of dollars - but that wasn't what she wanted. She wanted those
dollars to go the church and they did. I had no temptation to take them -
I knew who I was and that I was in Christ and Christ was in me. There
was no question.
Jesus wants you to lead a "No question" life. Though it's a simple
ethic, it is well worth the following - to guide your life by the life of Christ.
To follow His way of thinking and doing without question.
How well do we do that? We'd have to ask someone other than
ourselves. As a "Christian nation", we might ask someone from Islam for
example. The fact is that the Muslims who despise us, dislike us not
because we're free, or because we're so very Christian, but because, in
their eyes, we're so awfully godless.. It's because we appear to have
produced a godless, sex-saturated, violent, materialistic society.
We as Christians need to admit that, considering our lamentable
inability to practice the teachings of Jesus, that most Muslims are distinctively
unimpressed with our religion. We invoke God's name as we bomb,
occupy and dominate Islamic countries. We may say "In God We Trust"
on our money, but they suspect that oil, power and wealth are our true
heart's desire.
We're going to have to look a lot more redeemed before they believe in
our Redeemer or before they believe in our belief in our Redeemer!
And what can we think of Islam when Islamic fundamentalists
brought about the horror of 9/11? How religious can that be?
What we need is for the main body of people in each of the major
religions to follow their leaders' true values - the values of love and justice
- the values we have in common.
A young man entered Duke University. He was tall, utterly white,
utterly blonde, and utterly Southern. A few weeks later, the Dean saw him
walking on campus, hand in hand with a young woman who was utterly
short, utterly brown, utterly Muslim, and (God forbid) an Ohioan! The
Dean was on personal terms with the boy's parents and it wasn't long
before his mother called: "Have you met Thomas' girlfriend" she
said. "Talk to him! They're serious!"
So the Dean asked Thomas for a chat. "Thomas," he said,
"Tell me about Maranda." He told him that they were very much in
love, that she was a wonderful person, and that they were planning to be
married right after graduation. The Dean asked, "What brought you
together." Thomas said, "It was because we had so very much in
common!" The Dean replied, "Thomas, you're from South Carolina,
you're blonde, Baptist; She's Muslim, brown and from Ohio. What
in the would could you possibly have in common?"
Thomas said, "Well, you know me. I don't drink on
weekends, don't believe in casual sex. I'm not really into the success
at any cost thing. She was the only girl I met who had the same
values as mine!"
The Scripture today is wonderful because it gives us an opportunity
to check our discipleship quotient by checking our Christian values and
how well we're maintaining them.
The fact that you are here in God's house - that's good - for here
you are reminded of who you are and whose you are. It's good you're in
attendance as this sermon is given - at least I think it is.
In one church not too long ago a man got up in the middle of the
pastor's sermon and walked out. His wife rushed up to the Pastor after
the sermon and said, "Please don't think anything bad about my
husband walking out in the middle of your sermon. It's just that he
often walks in his sleep!"
Maybe that's why Edgar A. Guest wrote
I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day;
I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way,
The eye's a better pupil and more willing than the ear,
Fine counsel is confusing, but example's always clear
And the best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds,
For to see good put in action is what everybody needs.
I soon can learn to do it if you'll let me see it done;
I can watch your hands in action, but your tongue too fast may
run.
And the lecture you deliver may be very wise and true;
But I'd rather get my lessons by observing what you do
For I might misunderstand you and the high advice you give,
But there's no misunderstanding how you act and how you live.
When I see a deed of kindness, I am eager to be kind.
When a weaker brother stumbles and a strong man stays behind
Just to see if he can help him, then the wish grows strong in me
To become as big and thoughtful as I know as I know that friend
to be
And all travelers can witness that the best of guides today
Is not the one who tells them, but the one who shows the way.
One good man teaches many, men believe what they behold;
One deed of kindess noticed is worth forty that are told.
Who stands with men of honor learns to hold his honor dear,
For right living speaks a language which to everyone is clear
Though an able speaker charms me with his eloquence, I say,
I'd rather see a sermon than to hear one, any day.
Lots of people who technically aren't preachers, including you
can be preachers. "A preacher is a person who finds the switches
that turn on the best inside of us."
H.Stephen Glenn points out his fifth grade teacher as one of them.
In the days before it was understood, she found ways to deal with hi
dyslexia that had kept him from progressing previously. She got him out
of the stuttering problem that his previous nervous and stressful years in
school had caused. When he went into sixth grade, Miss Hardy became
the teach of that class as well, much to his delight. He kept track of her for
many years thereafter and ultimately learned that she was terminal with
cancer. As her only "special student", he decided to travel the thousand
miles to express his appreciation. But he wasn't the only one who made
the pilgrimage to renew their association and share their appreciation of
her - there were hundreds - an interesting mix of people - 3 U.S. Senators,
12 State Legislators, and a number of CEO's os corporations and business
to name a few.
In comparing notes with them, Stephen figured that three fourths
of them "went into the fifth grade quite intimidated by the
educational process, believing we were incapable, insignificant and
at the mercy of fate or luck. We emerged from our contact with
Miss Hardy believing we were capable, significant, influential
people who had the capacity to make a difference in life if we would
try. "
One life made such a difference in so many lives - as can yours -
particularly if it is guided by the principles and teachings of Jesus and your
priorities are in order, remembering the essence of what Jesus told us in
today's Scripture "With Me, It's All or Nothing!"
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)September 9 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 14:25-33
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
30 Something There Is...
Audio unavailable - We apologize for the inconvenience. Sermon text follows:
"Something There Is.......!"
Please complete this sentence with me......Something there is
that.........(doesn't love a wall.) Who wrote it? Robert Frost:
"MENDING WALL"
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast,
The work of hunters is another thing;
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And one a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go,
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!!"
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,
One on a side. It comes to little more.
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbors."
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there,
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."
Today, God has asked us to give some thought to boundaries.
Do good fences made good neighbors? Do bad fences make bad
neighbors? I think so.
When I was a child living in our farm home, I experienced the
arrival of our neighbor to the West who was pretty riled up because the
fence between his property and ours was compromised at one point, and
he wanted my father to fix it. I took it that our cows had wandered onto
his property and eaten things he did not want them to eat. Knowing our
cows as well as I did, that would not have surprised me! The bad fence
was just about to make bad neighbors, but my father solved the problem
by agreeing to fix the fence which mending would benefit both
parties. So the atmosphere went from boiling point to cautious civility.
A good fence made a "good" neighbor - at least restored one to civility.
But everything conspires to tear down that civility - to tear down
that wall - in Robert Frosts's case: hunters, frozen ground swell, etc.
Every spring they will have to mend the wall. Quoting from what I read
on the internet from sparknotes, "The image at the heart of "Mending
Wall" is arresting: two men meeting on terms of civility and
neighborliness to build a barrier between them. They do so out of
tradition, out of habit. Yet the very earth conspires against them
and makes their task Sisyphean. Sisyphus, you may recall, is the
figure in Greek mythology condemned perpetually to push a boulder
up a hill, only to have the boulder rolled down again. These men
push boulders back on top of the wall; yet just as inevitably, whether
at the hand of hunters or sprites, or the frost and thaw of nature's
invisible hand, the boulders tumble down again. Still the neighbors
persist. The poem, thus seems to meditate conventionally on three
grand themes - barrier-building,...the doomed nature of this
enterprise, and our persistence in this activity regardless"
Jesus, we know, specialized in breaking down barriers. In today's
Gospel, He is crossed the boundary from his place of origin, Galilee, and
entered into that shadowy place known as Samaria - where lived those
Jews who had committed the unpardonable sin of intermarrying with the
Roman occupiers of the land. The rabbis taught that no self respecting
Jew would ever go there. But Jesus went there. His concern for his fellow
human beings was greater than his concern about the rules of his religion.
There he fellowships with another marginalized group - lepers.
He heals all of them despite the strict prohibition by his religion against
contact with these "unclean" persons. What "religion" said "in the name of
God, was not godly at all.
What have we done with the name, "God"? The races of men
with their religious factions have torn the word to pieces. They have killed
for it and died for it, and it bears their fingermarks and their blood.
Strange that the religions of the world would be building walls of
separation, instead of breaking down the barriers between them. Jesus,
in our Gospel story praised the Samaritan - who returned to thank Him
for His healing. To Jesus, it was more than interesting that the leper who
returned to him to thank him for the healing was a "foreigner."
The truth was, that for Jesus there were no "foreigners" only fellow
human beings - on the same planet together.
That reminds me of the dean of a college that was asked by the
parents of one of the students to talk with their son who had joined a really
"out there" religious group, forsaking his midwest religious upbringing. When
asked why he joined the new group, he said, "Well, it all started on the
first Sunday I visited them. When I walked into their church, I saw
black people, white people, people of every shade of the rainbow
and as I got to know them I realized that they were like a microcosm
of the world - rich poor, black white, gay straight, well educated
and poorly educated, and when I walked in there I could feel the
love. My church had always preached this sort of loving fellowship
to me, but I never seen it until I walked into that group. I said to
myself, 'This is the church I've always heard about but have never
seen until now.'"
Toward the goal of seeing everyone as our brothers and sisters,
we in our time have a distinct advantage - having looked back at the little
space-ship Earth from outer space. On that space ship - all are one - or
should be.
And should we be attacked from without, we would become one
in a hurry. (Let's not give anyone any ideas!).
But it is time for us to have some ideas as to how we can join
Jesus in breaking down barriers and building up fellowship with all
individuals and groups.
Jesus had broken down a barrier by mingling with the lepers.
And it's not surprising that nine didn't come back to thank him - it's surprising
that one did - after all, if you think about it, Jesus had told all ten of them
to go to the temple and show their healed selves to the priest so they
could be certified as "clean."
What I think is that the one leper, came back to give thanks to a
new "temple" named Jesus, seeing in him the way that all men - all persons
should be - letting the things that unite us outweigh the things that divide
us. Hopefully he began to model the same behavior.
Consider the incident where Jesus modeled acceptance where
others modeled condemnation. No one was condemned with any more
vehemence than were tax collectors. If the Romans had collected the
taxes themselves it might no have been so bad, but they appointed certain
Jews to collect taxes from their fellow Jews. What these tax collectors
did was to collect more taxes that Rome demanded and kept the money
themselves. Everybody knew it, but they could do nothing about it. Rome
looked the other way.
Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector - richer than anybody, shorter
than everybody. But he was curious about this Jesus - and climbed into a
tree where he could really get a look at him. Jesus saw him there, called
him down and announced he was going to Zacchaeus' house for lunch.
There we are in the crowd - overlooked by Jesus - and he reached out to
a notorious sinner whom we know to be beneath us - WAY beneath us.
How could Jesus dare to embrace the bad tax collector as much as he
has embraced us? Jesus dared because he knew that Zacchaeus was a
lost soul who could be found.
Zacchaeus was a man so far down there was no way for him to
get up by himself. He had defrauded so many, had committed such deep
sins against his own people, how on earth could he be saved? But he was
a seeker - he sought redemption. He climbed the tree looking for it, and
where the rest of us could have cheerfully hung him from the tree, Jesus
called him down saying "Let's do lunch!" And during the course of the
meal at his home, Zacchaeus puts his money where his heart now is.
Zacchaeus is transformed from a taker to a give - as it turned out a most
generous, gracious giver.
This story and the poem of the neighbors mending a wall each tell
us that we have an assignment. If we are going to stay close to Jesus,
share bread and wine at his table, fellowship with him on a regular basis,
then we'd better be willing to be close to sinners - those in the church and
those outside the church - and there are plenty to go around! If we want
to be close to him, we'll have to be willing to share him with the lost.
By such sharing, such scandalous grace, salvation comes to my
house and yours.
SOMETHING THERE IS.............THAT DOESN'T LOVE
A WALL!
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)October 14, 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 17:11-19
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
"Something There Is.......!"
Please complete this sentence with me......Something there is
that.........(doesn't love a wall.) Who wrote it? Robert Frost:
"MENDING WALL"
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast,
The work of hunters is another thing;
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And one a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go,
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!!"
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,
One on a side. It comes to little more.
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbors."
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there,
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."
Today, God has asked us to give some thought to boundaries.
Do good fences made good neighbors? Do bad fences make bad
neighbors? I think so.
When I was a child living in our farm home, I experienced the
arrival of our neighbor to the West who was pretty riled up because the
fence between his property and ours was compromised at one point, and
he wanted my father to fix it. I took it that our cows had wandered onto
his property and eaten things he did not want them to eat. Knowing our
cows as well as I did, that would not have surprised me! The bad fence
was just about to make bad neighbors, but my father solved the problem
by agreeing to fix the fence which mending would benefit both
parties. So the atmosphere went from boiling point to cautious civility.
A good fence made a "good" neighbor - at least restored one to civility.
But everything conspires to tear down that civility - to tear down
that wall - in Robert Frosts's case: hunters, frozen ground swell, etc.
Every spring they will have to mend the wall. Quoting from what I read
on the internet from sparknotes, "The image at the heart of "Mending
Wall" is arresting: two men meeting on terms of civility and
neighborliness to build a barrier between them. They do so out of
tradition, out of habit. Yet the very earth conspires against them
and makes their task Sisyphean. Sisyphus, you may recall, is the
figure in Greek mythology condemned perpetually to push a boulder
up a hill, only to have the boulder rolled down again. These men
push boulders back on top of the wall; yet just as inevitably, whether
at the hand of hunters or sprites, or the frost and thaw of nature's
invisible hand, the boulders tumble down again. Still the neighbors
persist. The poem, thus seems to meditate conventionally on three
grand themes - barrier-building,...the doomed nature of this
enterprise, and our persistence in this activity regardless"
Jesus, we know, specialized in breaking down barriers. In today's
Gospel, He is crossed the boundary from his place of origin, Galilee, and
entered into that shadowy place known as Samaria - where lived those
Jews who had committed the unpardonable sin of intermarrying with the
Roman occupiers of the land. The rabbis taught that no self respecting
Jew would ever go there. But Jesus went there. His concern for his fellow
human beings was greater than his concern about the rules of his religion.
There he fellowships with another marginalized group - lepers.
He heals all of them despite the strict prohibition by his religion against
contact with these "unclean" persons. What "religion" said "in the name of
God, was not godly at all.
What have we done with the name, "God"? The races of men
with their religious factions have torn the word to pieces. They have killed
for it and died for it, and it bears their fingermarks and their blood.
Strange that the religions of the world would be building walls of
separation, instead of breaking down the barriers between them. Jesus,
in our Gospel story praised the Samaritan - who returned to thank Him
for His healing. To Jesus, it was more than interesting that the leper who
returned to him to thank him for the healing was a "foreigner."
The truth was, that for Jesus there were no "foreigners" only fellow
human beings - on the same planet together.
That reminds me of the dean of a college that was asked by the
parents of one of the students to talk with their son who had joined a really
"out there" religious group, forsaking his midwest religious upbringing. When
asked why he joined the new group, he said, "Well, it all started on the
first Sunday I visited them. When I walked into their church, I saw
black people, white people, people of every shade of the rainbow
and as I got to know them I realized that they were like a microcosm
of the world - rich poor, black white, gay straight, well educated
and poorly educated, and when I walked in there I could feel the
love. My church had always preached this sort of loving fellowship
to me, but I never seen it until I walked into that group. I said to
myself, 'This is the church I've always heard about but have never
seen until now.'"
Toward the goal of seeing everyone as our brothers and sisters,
we in our time have a distinct advantage - having looked back at the little
space-ship Earth from outer space. On that space ship - all are one - or
should be.
And should we be attacked from without, we would become one
in a hurry. (Let's not give anyone any ideas!).
But it is time for us to have some ideas as to how we can join
Jesus in breaking down barriers and building up fellowship with all
individuals and groups.
Jesus had broken down a barrier by mingling with the lepers.
And it's not surprising that nine didn't come back to thank him - it's surprising
that one did - after all, if you think about it, Jesus had told all ten of them
to go to the temple and show their healed selves to the priest so they
could be certified as "clean."
What I think is that the one leper, came back to give thanks to a
new "temple" named Jesus, seeing in him the way that all men - all persons
should be - letting the things that unite us outweigh the things that divide
us. Hopefully he began to model the same behavior.
Consider the incident where Jesus modeled acceptance where
others modeled condemnation. No one was condemned with any more
vehemence than were tax collectors. If the Romans had collected the
taxes themselves it might no have been so bad, but they appointed certain
Jews to collect taxes from their fellow Jews. What these tax collectors
did was to collect more taxes that Rome demanded and kept the money
themselves. Everybody knew it, but they could do nothing about it. Rome
looked the other way.
Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector - richer than anybody, shorter
than everybody. But he was curious about this Jesus - and climbed into a
tree where he could really get a look at him. Jesus saw him there, called
him down and announced he was going to Zacchaeus' house for lunch.
There we are in the crowd - overlooked by Jesus - and he reached out to
a notorious sinner whom we know to be beneath us - WAY beneath us.
How could Jesus dare to embrace the bad tax collector as much as he
has embraced us? Jesus dared because he knew that Zacchaeus was a
lost soul who could be found.
Zacchaeus was a man so far down there was no way for him to
get up by himself. He had defrauded so many, had committed such deep
sins against his own people, how on earth could he be saved? But he was
a seeker - he sought redemption. He climbed the tree looking for it, and
where the rest of us could have cheerfully hung him from the tree, Jesus
called him down saying "Let's do lunch!" And during the course of the
meal at his home, Zacchaeus puts his money where his heart now is.
Zacchaeus is transformed from a taker to a give - as it turned out a most
generous, gracious giver.
This story and the poem of the neighbors mending a wall each tell
us that we have an assignment. If we are going to stay close to Jesus,
share bread and wine at his table, fellowship with him on a regular basis,
then we'd better be willing to be close to sinners - those in the church and
those outside the church - and there are plenty to go around! If we want
to be close to him, we'll have to be willing to share him with the lost.
By such sharing, such scandalous grace, salvation comes to my
house and yours.
SOMETHING THERE IS.............THAT DOESN'T LOVE
A WALL!
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)October 14, 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 17:11-19
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
29 Why NOT Me?!
Audio unavailable - We apologize for the inconvenience. Sermon text follows:
"Why NOT Me?!"
When bad things happen to us, we say, "Why Me" When we
suffer, we should ask "Why NOT Me?"
Today's Scripture is like a phone call from the Apostle Paul to his
protege, Timothy, inviting him to suffer. To suffer what? To suffer the
high cost of discipleship. Paul knew what it was to suffer - to pay the high
cost of discipleship. He worked harder than anyone. He was put in jail
more often, whipped more times. He faced death again and again. Five
different times he was given thirtynine lashes with whips. Three times he
was beaten with rods. Once, they stoned him. Three times he was
shipwrecked. Once he spent the whole night and day adrift at sea. He
traveled countless miles, facing danger from flooded rivers and eager
robbers. He faced danger from his own Jewish people and from the
Gentiles. He faced danger from those who were Christians and those
who were not! He often went hungry and thirsty, was left shivering with
cold, with not enough clothing to keep warm.
Now if I tell our prospective members today that that is what they
are going to endure, I don't think we will have any show up for Membership
Sunday next week!
Paul suffered for God because he was prophetic. He had vision.
He, more than anyone else was responsible for the growth of the followers
of Christ who were called The People of the Way (i.e. the way of Jesus.)
After trying to stop the movement by persecuting the people involved in it,
he became its chief advocate - after the Resurrected Jesus stopped him in
his tracks on the Damascus Road - and he became the chief advocate for
Jesus both to his fellow Jews - who had loved him for persecuting the
Christ followers, , and now hated him for being one of them. And the
Christians themselves, as they were later to be called - they were for the
most part Jews who believed Jesus was the Messiah and hated him for
allowing non Jews to become part of the movement. He was so prophetic
and ahead of his time that everyone hated him. Were he living in this time,
he would undoubtedly be a member of our denomination, The United
Church of Christ which is a church of firsts - right from the first.
Our forbearers were the Pilgrims who left Eurupe with their Pastor,
John Robinson, urging them: "God has more light and truth to break
forth out of his holy Word." They wanted no church hierarchy telling
them what to do. Each congregation they formed was self-governing,
calling their own ministers, - hoping to be a model for a just society lived
in the presence of God. Their leader, John Winthrop prays that "we
shall be as a city upon a hill...the eyes of all people upon us."
The Congregationalists (we're from the Congregational side
of the UCC merger) were among the first Americans to take a stand
against slavery. They rebelled against unfair tea taxes - you've
heard of the event - the "Boston Tea Party." (That was SOME
party!).
They ordained the first African American Pastor, the first woman
pastor, the first gay pastor, and the first to pass a resolution supporting
same-gender marriage equality. When people take prophetic stances
they suffer. In the 1960's, for example, a businessman in a small Southern
town spoke up for racial justice. He made the effort to hire African
Americans in his business. Why? "Because I am a Christian. I am a
Baptist, and we try to do what the Scripture tells us to do." he said.
People in the town did not say, "It is wonderful to see someone
doing what Jesus would do." No, they said, "He is a fanatic! Joe
has lost touch with reality." And Joe's once thriving business began
to decline as people no longer patronized him because of his stand. In
four years, he was out of business.
In our denomination, with every one of these decisions that made
us "first" we lost congregants, chuches and even associations. La Iglesia
Unida Conference in Puerto Rico recently withdrew from the UCC.
But as some leave, others arrive - particularly those who previously
have not felt welcome - to whom no pastor has ever said, "No matter
who you are or where you are in your life's journey, you are welcome
here."
Years ago, The Rev. Harold Wilke who headed up our UCC
disabilities ministry got after us to make our church accessible. He was
truly amazing and inspiring. Born without arms, he did everything you and
I do - only differently. He could reach in his pocket with his foot, take out
a quarter, put it in a payphone and make a call. He ate with one of his
feet. When he visited we knew we were going to be very uncomfortable.
Not at all. He did it so naturally. He wrote with his right foot and when
President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act,
newspapers worldwide carried a photo of the President handing Harold
Wilke one of his pens, which the Rev. took with his left foot.
Somehow, we have been able to get our mind around how those
who are excluded by their difference feel inside, and we have managed to
manifest the Christ spirit, to set those exclusions aside. As a church we
went on record as being open and affirming of all - why? Because we
believe that God Is Still Speaking - that the Holy Spirit that Christ promised
us to guide us has led us into new truth. And that truth that has freed
others has often been very costly to those who fought for it.
Your job, as a modern follower of Christ, is to keep you mind
open to new truth while being willing to fight for old truth that should not
be set aside - and may God help you to decide which is which. Billy
Graham whose Christian faith is so respected by so many around the
world, has always had more of an open mind and a more accepting spirit
than some of his colleagues cared for. He has never taken his fame all
that personally, nor did his wife Ruth it seems, but it was true that while he
was out getting famous, Ruth was home with the kids! Roving Guideposts
Editor, Elizabeth Sherrill, whose mother was a member of our church tells
of her son's being rescued by Billy Graham. The boy climbed a cliff and
suddenly was in danger of falling. They saw Billy running with a ladder -
and yes, he rescued the boy - carrying him down the ladder at which point
his wife Ruth said, "Now I've actually seen someone who was 'saved'
by Billy Graham." May we all take God more seriously than ourselves.
We can do that.
Fortunately our God is a living God who is active in our lives.
Note that the Apostle Paul says, "Join me in suffering for the
Gospel...relying upon the power of God who has saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our work, but according to
his own purpose and grace."
We're not called by God to be small and little and mean, but to be
large in spirit, forgiving and accepting. Sometimes in churches, we members
get the facts wrong - without meaning too we think we're grand and God
is small. Pastor and writer, Rick Warren cautions us: "I've always said
the shoes must never tell the foot how big to be."
One of the great privileges of Communion is to get close to Jesus
and let HIS LARGE GENEROUS SPIRIT wash over our own so that
we can reflect His Spirit in the world, while enjoying Its Presence Within
us.
Ask that Spirit to teach you what it is that God wants you to do
for His sake - regardless of the cost. Find out the gift that God has given
you and use it to God's Glory. "Now I want you to use that gift and
let it grow more and more like a small flame grows into a fire."
Come to this sacred table, not because you must, but because
you may. (Communion Liturgy continues)
Communion Meditation Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon (or meditation) is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)October 7, 2007 10:30 a.m.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
"Why NOT Me?!"
When bad things happen to us, we say, "Why Me" When we
suffer, we should ask "Why NOT Me?"
Today's Scripture is like a phone call from the Apostle Paul to his
protege, Timothy, inviting him to suffer. To suffer what? To suffer the
high cost of discipleship. Paul knew what it was to suffer - to pay the high
cost of discipleship. He worked harder than anyone. He was put in jail
more often, whipped more times. He faced death again and again. Five
different times he was given thirtynine lashes with whips. Three times he
was beaten with rods. Once, they stoned him. Three times he was
shipwrecked. Once he spent the whole night and day adrift at sea. He
traveled countless miles, facing danger from flooded rivers and eager
robbers. He faced danger from his own Jewish people and from the
Gentiles. He faced danger from those who were Christians and those
who were not! He often went hungry and thirsty, was left shivering with
cold, with not enough clothing to keep warm.
Now if I tell our prospective members today that that is what they
are going to endure, I don't think we will have any show up for Membership
Sunday next week!
Paul suffered for God because he was prophetic. He had vision.
He, more than anyone else was responsible for the growth of the followers
of Christ who were called The People of the Way (i.e. the way of Jesus.)
After trying to stop the movement by persecuting the people involved in it,
he became its chief advocate - after the Resurrected Jesus stopped him in
his tracks on the Damascus Road - and he became the chief advocate for
Jesus both to his fellow Jews - who had loved him for persecuting the
Christ followers, , and now hated him for being one of them. And the
Christians themselves, as they were later to be called - they were for the
most part Jews who believed Jesus was the Messiah and hated him for
allowing non Jews to become part of the movement. He was so prophetic
and ahead of his time that everyone hated him. Were he living in this time,
he would undoubtedly be a member of our denomination, The United
Church of Christ which is a church of firsts - right from the first.
Our forbearers were the Pilgrims who left Eurupe with their Pastor,
John Robinson, urging them: "God has more light and truth to break
forth out of his holy Word." They wanted no church hierarchy telling
them what to do. Each congregation they formed was self-governing,
calling their own ministers, - hoping to be a model for a just society lived
in the presence of God. Their leader, John Winthrop prays that "we
shall be as a city upon a hill...the eyes of all people upon us."
The Congregationalists (we're from the Congregational side
of the UCC merger) were among the first Americans to take a stand
against slavery. They rebelled against unfair tea taxes - you've
heard of the event - the "Boston Tea Party." (That was SOME
party!).
They ordained the first African American Pastor, the first woman
pastor, the first gay pastor, and the first to pass a resolution supporting
same-gender marriage equality. When people take prophetic stances
they suffer. In the 1960's, for example, a businessman in a small Southern
town spoke up for racial justice. He made the effort to hire African
Americans in his business. Why? "Because I am a Christian. I am a
Baptist, and we try to do what the Scripture tells us to do." he said.
People in the town did not say, "It is wonderful to see someone
doing what Jesus would do." No, they said, "He is a fanatic! Joe
has lost touch with reality." And Joe's once thriving business began
to decline as people no longer patronized him because of his stand. In
four years, he was out of business.
In our denomination, with every one of these decisions that made
us "first" we lost congregants, chuches and even associations. La Iglesia
Unida Conference in Puerto Rico recently withdrew from the UCC.
But as some leave, others arrive - particularly those who previously
have not felt welcome - to whom no pastor has ever said, "No matter
who you are or where you are in your life's journey, you are welcome
here."
Years ago, The Rev. Harold Wilke who headed up our UCC
disabilities ministry got after us to make our church accessible. He was
truly amazing and inspiring. Born without arms, he did everything you and
I do - only differently. He could reach in his pocket with his foot, take out
a quarter, put it in a payphone and make a call. He ate with one of his
feet. When he visited we knew we were going to be very uncomfortable.
Not at all. He did it so naturally. He wrote with his right foot and when
President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act,
newspapers worldwide carried a photo of the President handing Harold
Wilke one of his pens, which the Rev. took with his left foot.
Somehow, we have been able to get our mind around how those
who are excluded by their difference feel inside, and we have managed to
manifest the Christ spirit, to set those exclusions aside. As a church we
went on record as being open and affirming of all - why? Because we
believe that God Is Still Speaking - that the Holy Spirit that Christ promised
us to guide us has led us into new truth. And that truth that has freed
others has often been very costly to those who fought for it.
Your job, as a modern follower of Christ, is to keep you mind
open to new truth while being willing to fight for old truth that should not
be set aside - and may God help you to decide which is which. Billy
Graham whose Christian faith is so respected by so many around the
world, has always had more of an open mind and a more accepting spirit
than some of his colleagues cared for. He has never taken his fame all
that personally, nor did his wife Ruth it seems, but it was true that while he
was out getting famous, Ruth was home with the kids! Roving Guideposts
Editor, Elizabeth Sherrill, whose mother was a member of our church tells
of her son's being rescued by Billy Graham. The boy climbed a cliff and
suddenly was in danger of falling. They saw Billy running with a ladder -
and yes, he rescued the boy - carrying him down the ladder at which point
his wife Ruth said, "Now I've actually seen someone who was 'saved'
by Billy Graham." May we all take God more seriously than ourselves.
We can do that.
Fortunately our God is a living God who is active in our lives.
Note that the Apostle Paul says, "Join me in suffering for the
Gospel...relying upon the power of God who has saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our work, but according to
his own purpose and grace."
We're not called by God to be small and little and mean, but to be
large in spirit, forgiving and accepting. Sometimes in churches, we members
get the facts wrong - without meaning too we think we're grand and God
is small. Pastor and writer, Rick Warren cautions us: "I've always said
the shoes must never tell the foot how big to be."
One of the great privileges of Communion is to get close to Jesus
and let HIS LARGE GENEROUS SPIRIT wash over our own so that
we can reflect His Spirit in the world, while enjoying Its Presence Within
us.
Ask that Spirit to teach you what it is that God wants you to do
for His sake - regardless of the cost. Find out the gift that God has given
you and use it to God's Glory. "Now I want you to use that gift and
let it grow more and more like a small flame grows into a fire."
Come to this sacred table, not because you must, but because
you may. (Communion Liturgy continues)
Communion Meditation Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon (or meditation) is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)October 7, 2007 10:30 a.m.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
28 What Goes Around Doesn't!
Audio unavailable - We apologize for the inconvenience. Sermon text follows:
"What Goes Around Doesn't!"
My mail is always interesting, whether it's e-mail, snail mail or fax.
Yesterday I received a letter from a friend who was writing on behalf of a
handicapped man who sits at an intersection and asks for donations. But
that's not where he would like to be. He'd like to be working as an
accountant. He has a degree from one our universities, but so far, no one
will hire him because he's handicapped. His upper body works, so has a
wheel chair to get around in and a van he drives to transport himself and
his chair. He could go to work tomorrow. He is the modern Lazarus,
sitting, dependent upon the charity of those who pass by.
You just heard the story. Lazarus was sitting at a rich man's door,
just hoping to get some scraps of food. He didn't get any. The rich man
passed him by. They both died. Now there fates were reversed. Lazarus
had everything, the rich man had nothing.
No wonder somebody recently prayed this prayer: Lord, why
did you have to pick the poorest and weakest people to be drawn
to? The are so unpleasant, so different, so depressing, so
forgettable. What we would like to do is forget about them, but
you bring them up so often in your Scriptures. Enough is enough!
You make it hard to enjoy all the stuff we have when we are
constantly reminded of the hungry, the sick, the lame, the powerless.
Couldn't you just make our faith be more about "spiritual" things?"
There's something embarrassingly appealing about that prayer!
The rich man could certainly have related well to it, but now he was in
what the Bible describes as a place of death - not because he had been
rich, but because he was a complete failure of using his riches for godly
purposes.
Undoubtedly he refrained from doing that because he thought it
would be painful. Actually, he had missed out on one of the greatest
pleasures - the pleasures that come from doing good and godly things.
God doesn't ask us to do good things for His sake, but for ours.
In your case, for example, he wants you to be able to look back over your
life and bask in pleasure over the lives that have been changed by your
charity, your compassion, your teaching, your loving, inclusive spirit.
I had another letter from a Pastor in North Carolina whose former
parish voted to leave the United Church of Christ because of its inclusive
policies in regard to same sex relationships and unions. Feeling differently
than the majority of his parishioners, and unable to bring them to a more
loving and inclusive way of thinking, being and doing, he had no choice
but to take the thirty-some people who were disappointed in the church's
decision and begin a new congregation with them, the Grace United Church
of Christ. He was requesting donations to build their church. Hopefully,
all UCC churches will comply. It's a wonderful opportunity to stand with
people who will make sure you will be really welcome in the church
fellowship, no matter whether you are black or white, rich or poor, sick or
well, gay or straight, theologically conservative, or theological liberal, able
bodied or lame, native or immigrant, home owner or homeless, young or
old. It's a decision to be where Jesus would be - where people are
hurting. Thus far the 30 have grown to 55 and are meeting in the cafeteria
of a school. They hope to have a building of their own in three or four
years. They hope and pray that our congregation will be willing to assist
them to answer what they feel God has called them to do "a call that
demands breaking the barriers that divide and the ending of the
hostilities that make strangers out of brothers and sisters in the
human family."
Albert Schweitzer, the gifted physician, scientist, musician and
missionary, saw our task as living in such a way with Jesus, the Light of the
World, that our light would rekindle the lights of others.
Applying that to the Scripture of today, we would make ourselves
rich not by what we hoard, but by what we give. They didn't come in
the mail but about thirty young people arrived at the church door yesterday
to help with the luncheon for the homeless which is NEXT Saturday!
And Estelle Farnsworth arrived to add to her donations for Afghanistan.
And the mail delivered the newsletter from our sister church in
Coconut Grove - our Plymouth church - which will be the main center for
the Annual Meeting of our Florida churches the first three days in May.
The Pastor, Tom Niblock, wrote of being at a wedding in Wilmington,
Delaware. At the reception Tom noted that the bartender was from
Jamaica - the dreadlocks and the accent may have been clues. "Have
you ever heard of a group called the Missionaries of the poor?" he
asked. "Oh, yes sir. They are Catholic Brothers and they do great
work." "That's good to hear," Tom said, "My church just sent
them some money to hop put back a few roofs in Kingston" Tom
said, "He stopped what he was doing and looked at me very carefully.
'You got family in Kingston?" he asked. "No, No. I replied. "You
Roman Catholic? he asked. "No, I'm a Protestant from Miami"
There was a long pause while he again examined me. Then he
asked, "So why do you care about roofs in Kingston?" "Well, my
church tries to make a difference - tries to help in whatever little
ways it can." The handsome young man walked around the bar,
gave me a big hug and simply said, Thank you!" (The Plymouth
Church and the Cobb Family Foundation sent nearly $30,000. That
SHOULD make a difference.)
It was good the minister went to the bar. We're not agin' drinkin'
- just agin' people drinkin' too much! Which reminds me of the incident
centering around Mildred the church gossip and self-appointed monitor
of the church's morals who kept sticking her nose into other people's
business. Members feared her enough to maintain their silence however.
But that was not true of Charlie, a new member of the church, who she
accused of being an alcoholic because she saw his old pickup parked in
front of the town's only bar one afternoon. She told Charlie and everybody
else in the town that everyone seeing his truck there would know what he
was doing there. Charlie, a man of few words, stared at her for a
moment and just turned and walked away. he didn't explain defend, or
deny. He said nothing.
But, later that evening, Charlie quietly parked his pickup in front
of Mildred's house...walked home...and left it there all night! (Ya gotta
love Charlie!)
The world is changed one day at a time, one person at a time. Many of
you know that I like you to listen to the Scripture each week and see who
you are in the story - are you the good Samaritan or the people who
passed by the wounded man.
In today's Scripture, I would like to suggest that you might be the
brothers of the rich man. The rich man, not able to save himself, asked
Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers to warn them not to end up as he
did. "But Abraham said, They have the Law of Moses and the
writings of the prophets to read; let them learn from that. The rich
man said, No, father Abraham! But if someone came to them from
the dead, then they would decide to change their lives.
But Abraham said to him, 'If your brothers won't listen to
Moses and the prophets, they won't listen to someone who comes
back from the dead."
The Bible says that to whom much has been given, much is
expected. That seems to me a logical expectation, but let us not frame it
in a negative way - let us reflect that God is giving us an opportunity to
bring life and light to others - which will bring life and light to us. If we are
the brothers, we can escape our brother's fate.
Will Willimon from whom I get a lot of sermon illustrations says
that wen he was growing up he received many a threatening lecture from
his mother about his treatment of your nieces and nephews. "You better
watch out" she warned, "What goes around comes around."
But Will doesn't think so. What do you think? What do I think?
I think that on this earth what goes around does not come around. One
could say, WHAT GOES AROUND DOESN'T. But ultimately the
Bible says, the scales are balanced, the tables are turned. But it's a bad
turn those tables take if we're rich and don't share our riches, and by the
world's standards, we are all rich - very very rich and have the potential of
very rewarding lives as we decide how we share what we have.
I'd like to quote the preacher from the Miami Beach Community
Church who in a recent sermon quoted C.S. Lewis who said, "Charity
- giving to the poor - is an essential part of Christian morality..I do
not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid
the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other
words, if our expenditures on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc.,
is up to the standard common among those with the same income
as our own, we are probably giving away too little.
If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should
say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to
do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes
them."
C.S. Lewis
What goes around does come around in God's ultimate reality. I
have a story about a man who woke up at the destination God has in mind
for us. It was shocking to him because he didn't believe in the afterlife at
all. "New Zealander Russ Woolcock was an atheist who thought
he had all the answers. "We don't know why we're here." he said.
"All we can do is make life palatable." Well, Woodcock was in for
a surprise. First came the chest pains, then an authentic heart
attack, then physical death - temporarily.
But Woolcock's spirit was far from dead. He was in a whole
new environment, with intense light and love. He became aware of
an 'overwhelming, overpowering, colossal, extravagant, amazing,
radiating love." It was God's presence. "This ran counter to
everything I had believe," Woolcock says. It was all novel to me.
I was flabbergasted.
The experience was peaceful, not frightening, and he wanted
to stay. But he was brought back to life, a totally changed man.
Now the former skeptic testifies: "In the presence of that love,
you would never want to be out of that again. I wanted God in my
life every day. What I learned was this: Far from being a random
organism swimming through an ocean of blind chance, it turned out
I am the beloved child of the creator God who made me for his
purpose."
Reported by John McNeil
Our task is to tune into that purpose. Member Gladys Green
found her Woods Hole Neighbor with his shoes off standing in the brook
that ran through his property. He was moving stones into different places,
changing the sound of the brook. He was "tuning the brook".
We need to tune ourselves to the Life of God that runs through us,
connecting ourselves to the mysterious Presence of God. Then mysterious
things happen as reported by Angie Arthur who was going through her
things to see what she could give to a family who had lost everything in
Katrina. She was trying to beam in on what it would be like to lose all the
things in your house - so many with such precious memories. Speaking of
precious memories, she came across the rocking chair in which she used
to rock her son to sleep. She could never bear to part with that - until a
feeling from deep within herself said, "Give it away." She did. She
would give it to the family her church was helping get back on their feet.
The person who transported her donations and the chair came back full of
excitement. When the family saw the chair, they all stopped and stared.
Then one of the grandchildren called out, "Grandma, look. It's your
rocking chair." The rocking chair she had given was exactly like the
one they had lost, the one that held their sweetest memories.
God's asking you to share of what you have is His invitation to
Share the mysterious miracles He is even now contemplating and hoping
to bring about.
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)September 23 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 16:19-31
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
"What Goes Around Doesn't!"
My mail is always interesting, whether it's e-mail, snail mail or fax.
Yesterday I received a letter from a friend who was writing on behalf of a
handicapped man who sits at an intersection and asks for donations. But
that's not where he would like to be. He'd like to be working as an
accountant. He has a degree from one our universities, but so far, no one
will hire him because he's handicapped. His upper body works, so has a
wheel chair to get around in and a van he drives to transport himself and
his chair. He could go to work tomorrow. He is the modern Lazarus,
sitting, dependent upon the charity of those who pass by.
You just heard the story. Lazarus was sitting at a rich man's door,
just hoping to get some scraps of food. He didn't get any. The rich man
passed him by. They both died. Now there fates were reversed. Lazarus
had everything, the rich man had nothing.
No wonder somebody recently prayed this prayer: Lord, why
did you have to pick the poorest and weakest people to be drawn
to? The are so unpleasant, so different, so depressing, so
forgettable. What we would like to do is forget about them, but
you bring them up so often in your Scriptures. Enough is enough!
You make it hard to enjoy all the stuff we have when we are
constantly reminded of the hungry, the sick, the lame, the powerless.
Couldn't you just make our faith be more about "spiritual" things?"
There's something embarrassingly appealing about that prayer!
The rich man could certainly have related well to it, but now he was in
what the Bible describes as a place of death - not because he had been
rich, but because he was a complete failure of using his riches for godly
purposes.
Undoubtedly he refrained from doing that because he thought it
would be painful. Actually, he had missed out on one of the greatest
pleasures - the pleasures that come from doing good and godly things.
God doesn't ask us to do good things for His sake, but for ours.
In your case, for example, he wants you to be able to look back over your
life and bask in pleasure over the lives that have been changed by your
charity, your compassion, your teaching, your loving, inclusive spirit.
I had another letter from a Pastor in North Carolina whose former
parish voted to leave the United Church of Christ because of its inclusive
policies in regard to same sex relationships and unions. Feeling differently
than the majority of his parishioners, and unable to bring them to a more
loving and inclusive way of thinking, being and doing, he had no choice
but to take the thirty-some people who were disappointed in the church's
decision and begin a new congregation with them, the Grace United Church
of Christ. He was requesting donations to build their church. Hopefully,
all UCC churches will comply. It's a wonderful opportunity to stand with
people who will make sure you will be really welcome in the church
fellowship, no matter whether you are black or white, rich or poor, sick or
well, gay or straight, theologically conservative, or theological liberal, able
bodied or lame, native or immigrant, home owner or homeless, young or
old. It's a decision to be where Jesus would be - where people are
hurting. Thus far the 30 have grown to 55 and are meeting in the cafeteria
of a school. They hope to have a building of their own in three or four
years. They hope and pray that our congregation will be willing to assist
them to answer what they feel God has called them to do "a call that
demands breaking the barriers that divide and the ending of the
hostilities that make strangers out of brothers and sisters in the
human family."
Albert Schweitzer, the gifted physician, scientist, musician and
missionary, saw our task as living in such a way with Jesus, the Light of the
World, that our light would rekindle the lights of others.
Applying that to the Scripture of today, we would make ourselves
rich not by what we hoard, but by what we give. They didn't come in
the mail but about thirty young people arrived at the church door yesterday
to help with the luncheon for the homeless which is NEXT Saturday!
And Estelle Farnsworth arrived to add to her donations for Afghanistan.
And the mail delivered the newsletter from our sister church in
Coconut Grove - our Plymouth church - which will be the main center for
the Annual Meeting of our Florida churches the first three days in May.
The Pastor, Tom Niblock, wrote of being at a wedding in Wilmington,
Delaware. At the reception Tom noted that the bartender was from
Jamaica - the dreadlocks and the accent may have been clues. "Have
you ever heard of a group called the Missionaries of the poor?" he
asked. "Oh, yes sir. They are Catholic Brothers and they do great
work." "That's good to hear," Tom said, "My church just sent
them some money to hop put back a few roofs in Kingston" Tom
said, "He stopped what he was doing and looked at me very carefully.
'You got family in Kingston?" he asked. "No, No. I replied. "You
Roman Catholic? he asked. "No, I'm a Protestant from Miami"
There was a long pause while he again examined me. Then he
asked, "So why do you care about roofs in Kingston?" "Well, my
church tries to make a difference - tries to help in whatever little
ways it can." The handsome young man walked around the bar,
gave me a big hug and simply said, Thank you!" (The Plymouth
Church and the Cobb Family Foundation sent nearly $30,000. That
SHOULD make a difference.)
It was good the minister went to the bar. We're not agin' drinkin'
- just agin' people drinkin' too much! Which reminds me of the incident
centering around Mildred the church gossip and self-appointed monitor
of the church's morals who kept sticking her nose into other people's
business. Members feared her enough to maintain their silence however.
But that was not true of Charlie, a new member of the church, who she
accused of being an alcoholic because she saw his old pickup parked in
front of the town's only bar one afternoon. She told Charlie and everybody
else in the town that everyone seeing his truck there would know what he
was doing there. Charlie, a man of few words, stared at her for a
moment and just turned and walked away. he didn't explain defend, or
deny. He said nothing.
But, later that evening, Charlie quietly parked his pickup in front
of Mildred's house...walked home...and left it there all night! (Ya gotta
love Charlie!)
The world is changed one day at a time, one person at a time. Many of
you know that I like you to listen to the Scripture each week and see who
you are in the story - are you the good Samaritan or the people who
passed by the wounded man.
In today's Scripture, I would like to suggest that you might be the
brothers of the rich man. The rich man, not able to save himself, asked
Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers to warn them not to end up as he
did. "But Abraham said, They have the Law of Moses and the
writings of the prophets to read; let them learn from that. The rich
man said, No, father Abraham! But if someone came to them from
the dead, then they would decide to change their lives.
But Abraham said to him, 'If your brothers won't listen to
Moses and the prophets, they won't listen to someone who comes
back from the dead."
The Bible says that to whom much has been given, much is
expected. That seems to me a logical expectation, but let us not frame it
in a negative way - let us reflect that God is giving us an opportunity to
bring life and light to others - which will bring life and light to us. If we are
the brothers, we can escape our brother's fate.
Will Willimon from whom I get a lot of sermon illustrations says
that wen he was growing up he received many a threatening lecture from
his mother about his treatment of your nieces and nephews. "You better
watch out" she warned, "What goes around comes around."
But Will doesn't think so. What do you think? What do I think?
I think that on this earth what goes around does not come around. One
could say, WHAT GOES AROUND DOESN'T. But ultimately the
Bible says, the scales are balanced, the tables are turned. But it's a bad
turn those tables take if we're rich and don't share our riches, and by the
world's standards, we are all rich - very very rich and have the potential of
very rewarding lives as we decide how we share what we have.
I'd like to quote the preacher from the Miami Beach Community
Church who in a recent sermon quoted C.S. Lewis who said, "Charity
- giving to the poor - is an essential part of Christian morality..I do
not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid
the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other
words, if our expenditures on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc.,
is up to the standard common among those with the same income
as our own, we are probably giving away too little.
If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should
say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to
do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes
them."
C.S. Lewis
What goes around does come around in God's ultimate reality. I
have a story about a man who woke up at the destination God has in mind
for us. It was shocking to him because he didn't believe in the afterlife at
all. "New Zealander Russ Woolcock was an atheist who thought
he had all the answers. "We don't know why we're here." he said.
"All we can do is make life palatable." Well, Woodcock was in for
a surprise. First came the chest pains, then an authentic heart
attack, then physical death - temporarily.
But Woolcock's spirit was far from dead. He was in a whole
new environment, with intense light and love. He became aware of
an 'overwhelming, overpowering, colossal, extravagant, amazing,
radiating love." It was God's presence. "This ran counter to
everything I had believe," Woolcock says. It was all novel to me.
I was flabbergasted.
The experience was peaceful, not frightening, and he wanted
to stay. But he was brought back to life, a totally changed man.
Now the former skeptic testifies: "In the presence of that love,
you would never want to be out of that again. I wanted God in my
life every day. What I learned was this: Far from being a random
organism swimming through an ocean of blind chance, it turned out
I am the beloved child of the creator God who made me for his
purpose."
Reported by John McNeil
Our task is to tune into that purpose. Member Gladys Green
found her Woods Hole Neighbor with his shoes off standing in the brook
that ran through his property. He was moving stones into different places,
changing the sound of the brook. He was "tuning the brook".
We need to tune ourselves to the Life of God that runs through us,
connecting ourselves to the mysterious Presence of God. Then mysterious
things happen as reported by Angie Arthur who was going through her
things to see what she could give to a family who had lost everything in
Katrina. She was trying to beam in on what it would be like to lose all the
things in your house - so many with such precious memories. Speaking of
precious memories, she came across the rocking chair in which she used
to rock her son to sleep. She could never bear to part with that - until a
feeling from deep within herself said, "Give it away." She did. She
would give it to the family her church was helping get back on their feet.
The person who transported her donations and the chair came back full of
excitement. When the family saw the chair, they all stopped and stared.
Then one of the grandchildren called out, "Grandma, look. It's your
rocking chair." The rocking chair she had given was exactly like the
one they had lost, the one that held their sweetest memories.
God's asking you to share of what you have is His invitation to
Share the mysterious miracles He is even now contemplating and hoping
to bring about.
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)September 23 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 16:19-31
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
27 Run For Your Life!
Audio unavailable - We apologize for the inconvenience. Sermon text follows:
"RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!"
Did you see the picture on the front page of the Miami Herald of
the man who survived the crash of his malfunctioning airplane, which came
to rest close to I95. . He was still seated at the controls - but the front of
the plane was gone. There was nothing over his head - the plane was in
pieces, but there he sat upright, blood from a gash on his forehead pouring
down over his face. He had a broken arm and a broken leg. But he had
SURVIVED!
Survival is very big on television. I choose not to watch that kind
of program. Why not put all the herculean effort to survive into something
real and worthwhile. Jesus wants us, as we read in Luke 15: 1-13, to
think as hard and as fast as the dishonest manager did when caught cheating
by his boss. He bought favors for his future from those who owed his
boss money by changing the amounts owed to him.
Good old Jesus, of course, was not suggesting that we be dishonest
in our dealings, but rather to be as inventive, creative as the dishonest
manager was when he was running for his life.
The "children of the light" as Jesus called us (His followers) tend
to play it safe, to act prudently. We like to stay within the church budget.
We don't like to spend what we don't have or commit ourselves unless we
know we have the resources to succeed. We tend to be careful, cautious,
deliberate and conscientious.
But where is our willingness to do anything God asks, to step out
on a limb of faith, to rush forward to do something that needs to be done.
Jesus said "Love your God with part of your heart - part of your
soul and with part of your mind, and part of your strength" NO, HE
DIDN'T! JESUS SAID "LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH
ALL YOUR HEART WITH ALL YOUR SOUL AND WITH ALL
YOUR STRENGTH AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND!"
Use you mind for GOD. GET CREATIVEIN DOING GODLY
THINGS! Let me illustrate as I like to do. A member our church with a
few other individuals set out to build a building to house three arts agencies
at a cost of just over three million dollars. Amazingly, they had just about
raised that amount, but they had all used up their contacts it seemed, so
the remaining, needed dollars they needed to get creative. So all involved
were asked to Get Creative. To go beyond the geographic area where it
seemed everyone had been contacted. So the member asked me to put a
request before the Board of Directors to direct $3000 to the project. I
got creative. Learning that I could spread my gift out over three years, let
me offer to match their funds if they would pledge $5000. They did.
Now, instead of $3000, the project had $10,000. Our member was so
moved by our action that he matched the $10,000. And, as such things,
go, when the people in that project heard that a little church in Miami
Beach was doing this they were deeply moved, and when we started
raising money for sanctuary restoration, our $5000 gift came back several
times over.
It's THIS dynamic that God wants you to have up and operating
in your life in reference to what you do as a disciple of Jesus. WHAT
HAVE YOU DONE FOR HIM LATELY! How creative have you been.
How "out of the box" have you thought?
How many people have been added to this church because you
invited them to come with you to church?
If every member were to give as much to the church as you have
this year, would the church be able to continue?
Have you ever joined in a march for civil rights or gay rights, or
for fair wages - a living wage for those who work in our hotels,
condominiums and produce fields?
This strange metaphoric parable asks us directly and point blank
what we are doing in this life for the life that follows it. "I tell you" Jesus
said, use the worldly things you have now to make 'friends' for later.
Then when those things are gone, you will be welcomed into a home
that lasts forever."
What He didn't say was that as we stop "walking" and instead
"RUN the race that is set before us" we enter the Home that Lasts Forever.
We experience it now.
"Have you ever had to scrabble for your life? Have you
stood on the edge of a rocky cliff and felt the ground start to crumble
beneath your weight? Have you ever walked across a street and
noticed a dangerous driver careening around the corner and rushing
toward you? What did you do? You ran for your life. Or maybe not.
Alexandra didn't have a chance to, but a chance meeting with a homeless
man made all the difference in her life. As he appealed to her for a
handout, she reached for a dollar in her purse. There was a five there.
She was headed out for dinner with her husband. Didn't this man deserve
to eat as well? She gave him the five - and he exclaimed "I haven't eaten
for days! Now I can! I want to shake your hand," he said. She hesitated
but couldn't refuse. He left, then he came back and asked her name. In
all the years of helping the indigent, no one had ever asked her name.
"Alexandra" she said. She asked his. It was James.
Two years later, deeply engrossed in her thoughts she steppout
outin front of a speeding car. "Alexandra, look out!" a voice boomed
and a stong hand pulled her to saftety. She turned around. It was James.
Was he really a homeless man, or "an angel unawares." She'll never no.
nor will we.
When you scramble for your life, comfort and appearance
do not occur to you. It doesn't matter whether you like to run, or if
you are in good shape. It doesn't matter whether you run elegantly
like a gazelle, or lumber like a pregnant Holstein. You simply run,
scrambling away from the danger. Such things don't matter when
you are totally committed to on thing: survival. The operative
words, "totally committed." Run for your life to get to the home
that lasts forever - in the here and now!
A couple I read about adopted a little girl who had run for her life
and her father's life. Her father was dying, and she would venture out into
the streets of Calcutta to steal food for them. When her father died, she
was put in an orphanage and adopted by a couple from America - given
new clothes and brought into their safe, bountiful environment.
Yet they began to notice food missing. They found bananas and
bread and other food hidden in her room. It took her a long time to learn
that there would always be enough food for her.
Today, Jesus is asking us to think not about physical food - bananas
and bread, but spiritual food - to think not of ourselves but others.
In Small Miracles of Love and Friendship, I read about a
woman who had always put the needs of her family above her own. So
when they came into a little money, her husband insisted she take the
money for a wonderful trip to Italy, the land of her history and heritage.
It was a wonderful trip, and on her last day there sought to find gifts for
her family. She found necklaces for her mother and sister, and as she did
so her eyes fell on an exquisite silver-and-turquoise necklace. She fell in
love - irrevocably, and immediately., It had her name stamped all over it,
she decided. But she could only afford it, or the gifts for her mother and
sister, not most.
`"Me or them" she thought - after all this was a trip for Me. But her
lifetime of living for others prevailed. She got the gifts for her mother and
sister. But three years later, her mother returned from a trip to Italy, and
brought necklaces for each of them. Always, she would get the same gift
for each, but this time, one got one necklace and the other - the other.
And there before her was the necklace of her dreams. As she had never
mentioned it to anyone, she asked her mother why she chose it. "It just
seemed to have your name on it!" she replied.
When we use our money in loving caring ways, in the ways of
God and for His purposes, we open up entry doors into a loving home
that begins now and keeps on going forever.
By the way, there was an interesting comment on that necklace
incident. It read, "Even simple objects have a mysterious way of reaching
their human soulmates." Something to think about! Small Miracles of
Love and Friendship
The Season of Pentecost we're now in is devoted to the subject
of growth in faith and the practice of our faith. One aspect of that growth
in learning how to give ourselves away.
The little girl from Calcutta had learned about survival. Now she
was in a position to learn about getting beyond herself and her needs into
spiritual territory - the needs of others. Now she could scramble not for
her own existence but for the lie and well-being of all people. We all have
that potential in common.
Quoting from Rob Bell in VELVET ELVIS: Jesus said that as
this new reality takes over our hearts and lives and minds and actions, we
are crossing over - "from death to life." He called this new kind of life
"eternal life". For Jesus, eternal life wasn't a state of being for the future
that we would enter into somewhere else, it is a quality of life that starts
now.
Eternal Life then is a certain kind of life I am living more and more
now and will go on forever. I am living more and more in connection with
God, and I will live connected with God forever.
The more connected we are, the happier we become. Do you
remember Chris Gardner whose struggles as a homeless single father trying
to break into the stockbrokerage business inspired the Pursuit of
Happiness.
The happiness he pursued I believe was to be a good father to his
son - to give him things he didn't at that moment have - like a roof over his
head and regular meals in their own place. One of the most touching
scenes was when they were huddled in a subway bathroom, their room
for the night. Nestled in his father's arms, his son says, "You are a good
papa." I may not have the words exact but the sentiment came not from
the money his father had or didn't have but for the presence of his father,
holding him tight, keeping him close and secure. In a luxury home that
moment might have been missed, but here where their very survival was at
stake, the peril was real and the protection he felt from his father -
palpable - and knowing that he was pursuing a future home for them with
every ounce of his energy, time and stick-to-it-iveness. He wasn't
walking toward it - he was running toward it with everything he had.
OUR PRESENCE IS PRIMARY - to our loved ones - and to
our God who wants nothing more than to be with us - to have us with him.
That's why I say to you on this Sunday, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)September 23 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 16:1-13
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
"RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!"
Did you see the picture on the front page of the Miami Herald of
the man who survived the crash of his malfunctioning airplane, which came
to rest close to I95. . He was still seated at the controls - but the front of
the plane was gone. There was nothing over his head - the plane was in
pieces, but there he sat upright, blood from a gash on his forehead pouring
down over his face. He had a broken arm and a broken leg. But he had
SURVIVED!
Survival is very big on television. I choose not to watch that kind
of program. Why not put all the herculean effort to survive into something
real and worthwhile. Jesus wants us, as we read in Luke 15: 1-13, to
think as hard and as fast as the dishonest manager did when caught cheating
by his boss. He bought favors for his future from those who owed his
boss money by changing the amounts owed to him.
Good old Jesus, of course, was not suggesting that we be dishonest
in our dealings, but rather to be as inventive, creative as the dishonest
manager was when he was running for his life.
The "children of the light" as Jesus called us (His followers) tend
to play it safe, to act prudently. We like to stay within the church budget.
We don't like to spend what we don't have or commit ourselves unless we
know we have the resources to succeed. We tend to be careful, cautious,
deliberate and conscientious.
But where is our willingness to do anything God asks, to step out
on a limb of faith, to rush forward to do something that needs to be done.
Jesus said "Love your God with part of your heart - part of your
soul and with part of your mind, and part of your strength" NO, HE
DIDN'T! JESUS SAID "LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH
ALL YOUR HEART WITH ALL YOUR SOUL AND WITH ALL
YOUR STRENGTH AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND!"
Use you mind for GOD. GET CREATIVEIN DOING GODLY
THINGS! Let me illustrate as I like to do. A member our church with a
few other individuals set out to build a building to house three arts agencies
at a cost of just over three million dollars. Amazingly, they had just about
raised that amount, but they had all used up their contacts it seemed, so
the remaining, needed dollars they needed to get creative. So all involved
were asked to Get Creative. To go beyond the geographic area where it
seemed everyone had been contacted. So the member asked me to put a
request before the Board of Directors to direct $3000 to the project. I
got creative. Learning that I could spread my gift out over three years, let
me offer to match their funds if they would pledge $5000. They did.
Now, instead of $3000, the project had $10,000. Our member was so
moved by our action that he matched the $10,000. And, as such things,
go, when the people in that project heard that a little church in Miami
Beach was doing this they were deeply moved, and when we started
raising money for sanctuary restoration, our $5000 gift came back several
times over.
It's THIS dynamic that God wants you to have up and operating
in your life in reference to what you do as a disciple of Jesus. WHAT
HAVE YOU DONE FOR HIM LATELY! How creative have you been.
How "out of the box" have you thought?
How many people have been added to this church because you
invited them to come with you to church?
If every member were to give as much to the church as you have
this year, would the church be able to continue?
Have you ever joined in a march for civil rights or gay rights, or
for fair wages - a living wage for those who work in our hotels,
condominiums and produce fields?
This strange metaphoric parable asks us directly and point blank
what we are doing in this life for the life that follows it. "I tell you" Jesus
said, use the worldly things you have now to make 'friends' for later.
Then when those things are gone, you will be welcomed into a home
that lasts forever."
What He didn't say was that as we stop "walking" and instead
"RUN the race that is set before us" we enter the Home that Lasts Forever.
We experience it now.
"Have you ever had to scrabble for your life? Have you
stood on the edge of a rocky cliff and felt the ground start to crumble
beneath your weight? Have you ever walked across a street and
noticed a dangerous driver careening around the corner and rushing
toward you? What did you do? You ran for your life. Or maybe not.
Alexandra didn't have a chance to, but a chance meeting with a homeless
man made all the difference in her life. As he appealed to her for a
handout, she reached for a dollar in her purse. There was a five there.
She was headed out for dinner with her husband. Didn't this man deserve
to eat as well? She gave him the five - and he exclaimed "I haven't eaten
for days! Now I can! I want to shake your hand," he said. She hesitated
but couldn't refuse. He left, then he came back and asked her name. In
all the years of helping the indigent, no one had ever asked her name.
"Alexandra" she said. She asked his. It was James.
Two years later, deeply engrossed in her thoughts she steppout
outin front of a speeding car. "Alexandra, look out!" a voice boomed
and a stong hand pulled her to saftety. She turned around. It was James.
Was he really a homeless man, or "an angel unawares." She'll never no.
nor will we.
When you scramble for your life, comfort and appearance
do not occur to you. It doesn't matter whether you like to run, or if
you are in good shape. It doesn't matter whether you run elegantly
like a gazelle, or lumber like a pregnant Holstein. You simply run,
scrambling away from the danger. Such things don't matter when
you are totally committed to on thing: survival. The operative
words, "totally committed." Run for your life to get to the home
that lasts forever - in the here and now!
A couple I read about adopted a little girl who had run for her life
and her father's life. Her father was dying, and she would venture out into
the streets of Calcutta to steal food for them. When her father died, she
was put in an orphanage and adopted by a couple from America - given
new clothes and brought into their safe, bountiful environment.
Yet they began to notice food missing. They found bananas and
bread and other food hidden in her room. It took her a long time to learn
that there would always be enough food for her.
Today, Jesus is asking us to think not about physical food - bananas
and bread, but spiritual food - to think not of ourselves but others.
In Small Miracles of Love and Friendship, I read about a
woman who had always put the needs of her family above her own. So
when they came into a little money, her husband insisted she take the
money for a wonderful trip to Italy, the land of her history and heritage.
It was a wonderful trip, and on her last day there sought to find gifts for
her family. She found necklaces for her mother and sister, and as she did
so her eyes fell on an exquisite silver-and-turquoise necklace. She fell in
love - irrevocably, and immediately., It had her name stamped all over it,
she decided. But she could only afford it, or the gifts for her mother and
sister, not most.
`"Me or them" she thought - after all this was a trip for Me. But her
lifetime of living for others prevailed. She got the gifts for her mother and
sister. But three years later, her mother returned from a trip to Italy, and
brought necklaces for each of them. Always, she would get the same gift
for each, but this time, one got one necklace and the other - the other.
And there before her was the necklace of her dreams. As she had never
mentioned it to anyone, she asked her mother why she chose it. "It just
seemed to have your name on it!" she replied.
When we use our money in loving caring ways, in the ways of
God and for His purposes, we open up entry doors into a loving home
that begins now and keeps on going forever.
By the way, there was an interesting comment on that necklace
incident. It read, "Even simple objects have a mysterious way of reaching
their human soulmates." Something to think about! Small Miracles of
Love and Friendship
The Season of Pentecost we're now in is devoted to the subject
of growth in faith and the practice of our faith. One aspect of that growth
in learning how to give ourselves away.
The little girl from Calcutta had learned about survival. Now she
was in a position to learn about getting beyond herself and her needs into
spiritual territory - the needs of others. Now she could scramble not for
her own existence but for the lie and well-being of all people. We all have
that potential in common.
Quoting from Rob Bell in VELVET ELVIS: Jesus said that as
this new reality takes over our hearts and lives and minds and actions, we
are crossing over - "from death to life." He called this new kind of life
"eternal life". For Jesus, eternal life wasn't a state of being for the future
that we would enter into somewhere else, it is a quality of life that starts
now.
Eternal Life then is a certain kind of life I am living more and more
now and will go on forever. I am living more and more in connection with
God, and I will live connected with God forever.
The more connected we are, the happier we become. Do you
remember Chris Gardner whose struggles as a homeless single father trying
to break into the stockbrokerage business inspired the Pursuit of
Happiness.
The happiness he pursued I believe was to be a good father to his
son - to give him things he didn't at that moment have - like a roof over his
head and regular meals in their own place. One of the most touching
scenes was when they were huddled in a subway bathroom, their room
for the night. Nestled in his father's arms, his son says, "You are a good
papa." I may not have the words exact but the sentiment came not from
the money his father had or didn't have but for the presence of his father,
holding him tight, keeping him close and secure. In a luxury home that
moment might have been missed, but here where their very survival was at
stake, the peril was real and the protection he felt from his father -
palpable - and knowing that he was pursuing a future home for them with
every ounce of his energy, time and stick-to-it-iveness. He wasn't
walking toward it - he was running toward it with everything he had.
OUR PRESENCE IS PRIMARY - to our loved ones - and to
our God who wants nothing more than to be with us - to have us with him.
That's why I say to you on this Sunday, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)September 23 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 16:1-13
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
26 Does God Know What He's Doing?!
Audio unavailable - We apologize for the inconvenience. Sermon text follows:
"Does God Know What He's Doing?!"
God has chosen you and God has chosen me - are we SURE
God knows what He's doing. What's He doing with people like us -
admittedly imperfect, flawed, sinful.
However, God called "the chief of sinners" as the Apostle Paul
described himself to develop the church and make it grow - the church to
which Paul had laid waste, entering house after house where the Christians
were meeting dragging them off to prison. God turned him around in his
tracks on the Damascus Road and the rest is history. God does things
His Way, and His way is usually diametrically opposed to ours for the
most part.
I am a person without spatial sense - north, south, east and west
are foreign concepts. I always wanted to learn to fly, but if the Tower told
me to fly in a northeasterly direction, it would take me five minutes to
figure out where that was. No, I can't get lost in an elevator (!), but I can
tell you this. When I get turned around in an area and have to decide
which way to go, I decide which way I think it is, then turn the other way!
It almost always works!
Applying this to the way we do things and the decisions we make
- consider that more often than not, God would not choose what we
choose. And when we choose what God would choose, we can find
ourselves faced with some real challenges.
Consider the car dealer that was featured on the evening news
with Katie Couric. He found a homeless person sleeping in one of his
cars. What did he do? He did what God would do - he hired him. He
became one of his best salesmen. The salesman, who had been homeless
had a friend in dire straits whose son, it seemed was going to be the one to
suffer with his father's inability to provide a healthy environment, so the
dealer hired him to become the lot attendant and from that time on became
a mentor to the boy. He befriended a couple who with their children
needed help - needed a place to stay. By the end of the day they were in
an apartment and the man was on his payroll. The two men that he had
hired onto his staff as salesmen were now the number one and number
two producers of sales.
Soon, a lot of people heard about his unusual hiring practices and
thought what he was doing was wonderful - but only a handful bought
cars as a result. However, many handfuls of people came for help!
Wouldm't you know! The dealer has stretched every resource to do
everything he could - with the help of a very supportive wife. They're not
rich, but they are deep in the satisfaction of knowing their lives make a
difference in the lives of others. They are happy and content.
Jesus came to make a difference in your life and mine. And he
does that if an when you make specific decision to team up with Him and
be a follower.
Dr. Schuler, on the Hour of Power this last week, interviewed
Aurelio, who had come from Cuba to pursue the American Dream. He
did a good job of it, starting several businesses, selling one of them for 60
million dollars. He now HAD the American Dream, but it was not as
fulfilling as he had assumed. He felt empty inside. He had no center for
his life, no Abiding Presence. Not that he didn't know about Jesus. When
asked about Jesus he told what he knew ; Jesus was born at Christmas
and died at Easter!
When the concept of a Living Jesus who walks beside us was
explained to him, he asked Jesus to walk with Him, to be the Abiding,
Holy Presence in His Life The restlessness ceased and the peace began.
We are a Relationship Religion. We are alone until we connect
ourself with the Love which is at the very Center of Everything. When
Aurelio made that dedication of Himself to Jesus, his life was permeated
with a sense of being loved by God - by Everthing that Is.
In the same way, God showered his Love and Presence upon
Racehoss, Big Emma's Boy. Racehoss grew up in a violent home and
was a repeat offender in the Texas prison system. The all-too-familiar
cycle emerged: prison, parole, offense, prison. Racehoss learned cunning
survival skills in an environment of extreme brutality. But one day in the
hellish darkness of solitary confinement, the boy experienced God's
acceptance, even of him who had been rejected by family and society.
Here's how Race Sample tells the story:
The slamming of the two steel doors still rang in my ears.
Sitting naked on the slab in pitch-black silence, I hung my head as
the tears bounded off the floor onto my feet...Sweat poured. Gritting
my teeth, I hugged and rocked myself, trying to squeeze my head
against the unyielding concrete....I mauled myself, scratching and
tearing my body. Slumped, exhausted on the slab I covered my
face with both hands and cried out, "Help me, God! Help meeee!!..."
A ray of light between my fingers. Slowly uncovering my face, the
whole cell was illuminated like a 40-watt bulb was turned on. The
soft light soothed, and I no longer was afraid. Engulfed by a
Presence, I felt it reassuring me. No pressure any more. I breathed
freely. I had never felts such well-being, so good, in all my life.
Safe. Loved....An the voice within talked through the pit of my
belly, "Don'cha worry about a thing. But you must tell them about
me." I lay back on the slab. A change had taken place. Never
before had I felt so totally loved. That's really all I ever wanted.
The biggest need in my life fulfilled in an instant. And I loved that
Presence back.
My dedication of myself to Jesus was not so dramatic or
mysterious, but no less effective. My whole life and future changed as a
result of that decision. What was mysterious about it - something to
marvel at - was that I was an Ohio teenager, living in New York State and
working in Pennsylvania - just for the summer. The missionary who invited
me to follow Jesus was from California, living in New York State - and
working, temporarily at a fruit packing plant where I worked in Pennsylvania.
I marvel at how God used these temporary circumstances to bring our
meeting about.
I read this week that "You know you're old when you've lost
all your marvels - (that's with a "V" and in Victor.")
Hopefully, you are not old - that the marvel of the Living Jesus is
very much a part of your thinking and believing. Fortunately, we are
becoming more able to delve into the realms of the mystical.
Have you read Ninety Minutes In Heaven? Rev. Don Piper
was on his way home from a church conference when his car was struck
by a semi. He was pronounced dead, his body covered with a tarp while
they waited for the jaws of life to extricate the remains. Another preacher,
on his way home from the same conference stopped to offer help and
despite being told by the EMT's that he was very, very dead, crawled
under the wreckage, put his hand on
Don's shoulder and began to pray for him. Then he began singing hymns.
That's when there was really something to marvel at - when he started to
sing "What A Friend We Have in Jesus, the dead man started singing with
him!
But for ninety minutes he had been dead - or rather, he was alive
- in heaven, surround by loved ones and friends, enjoying the magnificent
light and the sense of pure peace and the most glorious music he had ever
heard. He said, "A light enveloped me, with a brilliance beyond
earthly comprehension or description. Only that. I n my next
moment of awareness, I was standing in Heaven."
He goes on to say, "I'm thoroughly convinced that God
answers prayer. Answered prayer is why I'm still alive. I have an
unquestionable belief that God still is in the miracle business. Too
many people read about the supernatural in the Bible and think,
That's the way it was in biblical times. I'm convinced that God
continues to do the more-than-ordinary,"
A walk with Jesus is no ordinary walk. It can walk you right into
where you have never been before - everything from hiring the homeless
to hobnobbing with heaven's inhabitants.
Think of the disciples, Peter, James and John who walked in on
Jesus who was talking to none other than Moses and Elijah.
Whenever there was an experience that bordered or crossed over
the line into the mystical, Jesus always chose those who were open to it -
could deal with it - and it always seemed to be these three - Peter, James
and John..
Does he choose you? Could he choose you if you made the
simple step to believe that what happened in Bible times can happen in
our own
What would happen if you were to live by this mantra: Expect a
miracle? What if you were to cancel out "coincidences" in your life and
vote for marvels instead? God Knows what He's doing and He's
doing it all the time. The question is "Are we able to see and experience
what he's doing?"
In telling the story of his 25 yr. old son, Eric, Fred Zimmerman
touched on several mystical things. As his son prepared to finish his last
two weeks of training at the Ohio State Highway Patrol Academy, he and
his father were talking . Eric was standing on the sidewalk with the street
light glowing behind him. It gave the picture of a halo of which light around
his head. "Eric was talking about Christmas presents and his
graduation from the academy and my coming down to see him
graduate. I was thinking of reply when all of a sudden my complete
thought process went blank and a voice said to me: "Eric is going
to die. Be prepared." It was definitive, authoritative, precise, to
the point - and I got the impression there was not a thing I could do
about it."
A week after he graduated, his parents wakened at two in the
morning knowing something was wrong. Later they found that was the
time he suffered a fatal accident. As they heard the news, Eric touched
her on the shoulder and said. "It's Eric. Sorry, Mom, so sorry." Then
he was gone.
Forty-five days later, at home, and on the way into another room,
Fred felt a tremendous squeeze and hug on both sides of his body that
stopped him in his tracks. "Eric appeared right in front of my face,
smiling ,and the whole rooms was full of energy. It's like the
molecules, atoms, and air are all moving at a tremendous speed. It
was forceful, explosive, loving, highly energized, the most
exhilarating experience that I have ever had! I hugged Eric...My
mind was ecstatic, lucid, fully awake and aware of that was
happening. I could see the tremendous love in the complete
environment that Eric brought with him. I knew this was real, on
purpose, planned by Eric. Eric Zimmerman was in full and complete
control for the ten-plus seconds of his visit. I saw a view of eternity,
and believe me, it is a wonderful loving, totally uncomplaining, joyful
world."
As you get to know Jesus, as you invite Him to walk with you
daily,
he will chose you as worthy to enter into the mysterious world of the
Spirit, where Love reigns supreme -where the Light shines and there is no
darkness at all
Let us pray: O Lord, in these sacred moments call each of us to
walk with you. Speak specially and persuasively to those who have not
before accepted your invitation to wal with them. Make your invitation
clear. Strengthen their resolove to make this a day of marvel and mystery
- a day of beginning that has no end.
Speak to those os us who have been your followers for sometime,
struggling to balance all the demands put upon us by the daily return with
Your need to spead the Love and Presence of Christ in the world.,
Straighten out our pririties. Let the excitemenet of discipleship overcome
us and lead us.
Now, O Lord those who wish to dedicate themselves to your
Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, and to those who wish to rededicate their
lives to him will repeat these words after me.
O LORD MY GOD, THIS DAY, I DEDICATE MYSELF TO
YOU.
O LORD, FILL ME WITH YOUR SPIRIT
O GOD, GIVE ME THE GRACE OF A DAILY WALK WITH
THE LIVING JESUS.
USE ME FOR YOUR GOOD AND BLESS ME WITH YOUR
SPIRIT. LET ME WALK IN YOUR WAYS.
AMEN
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)September 16 2007 10:30 a, m. I Tim. 1:12-17, Lk., 15:1-10
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
"Does God Know What He's Doing?!"
God has chosen you and God has chosen me - are we SURE
God knows what He's doing. What's He doing with people like us -
admittedly imperfect, flawed, sinful.
However, God called "the chief of sinners" as the Apostle Paul
described himself to develop the church and make it grow - the church to
which Paul had laid waste, entering house after house where the Christians
were meeting dragging them off to prison. God turned him around in his
tracks on the Damascus Road and the rest is history. God does things
His Way, and His way is usually diametrically opposed to ours for the
most part.
I am a person without spatial sense - north, south, east and west
are foreign concepts. I always wanted to learn to fly, but if the Tower told
me to fly in a northeasterly direction, it would take me five minutes to
figure out where that was. No, I can't get lost in an elevator (!), but I can
tell you this. When I get turned around in an area and have to decide
which way to go, I decide which way I think it is, then turn the other way!
It almost always works!
Applying this to the way we do things and the decisions we make
- consider that more often than not, God would not choose what we
choose. And when we choose what God would choose, we can find
ourselves faced with some real challenges.
Consider the car dealer that was featured on the evening news
with Katie Couric. He found a homeless person sleeping in one of his
cars. What did he do? He did what God would do - he hired him. He
became one of his best salesmen. The salesman, who had been homeless
had a friend in dire straits whose son, it seemed was going to be the one to
suffer with his father's inability to provide a healthy environment, so the
dealer hired him to become the lot attendant and from that time on became
a mentor to the boy. He befriended a couple who with their children
needed help - needed a place to stay. By the end of the day they were in
an apartment and the man was on his payroll. The two men that he had
hired onto his staff as salesmen were now the number one and number
two producers of sales.
Soon, a lot of people heard about his unusual hiring practices and
thought what he was doing was wonderful - but only a handful bought
cars as a result. However, many handfuls of people came for help!
Wouldm't you know! The dealer has stretched every resource to do
everything he could - with the help of a very supportive wife. They're not
rich, but they are deep in the satisfaction of knowing their lives make a
difference in the lives of others. They are happy and content.
Jesus came to make a difference in your life and mine. And he
does that if an when you make specific decision to team up with Him and
be a follower.
Dr. Schuler, on the Hour of Power this last week, interviewed
Aurelio, who had come from Cuba to pursue the American Dream. He
did a good job of it, starting several businesses, selling one of them for 60
million dollars. He now HAD the American Dream, but it was not as
fulfilling as he had assumed. He felt empty inside. He had no center for
his life, no Abiding Presence. Not that he didn't know about Jesus. When
asked about Jesus he told what he knew ; Jesus was born at Christmas
and died at Easter!
When the concept of a Living Jesus who walks beside us was
explained to him, he asked Jesus to walk with Him, to be the Abiding,
Holy Presence in His Life The restlessness ceased and the peace began.
We are a Relationship Religion. We are alone until we connect
ourself with the Love which is at the very Center of Everything. When
Aurelio made that dedication of Himself to Jesus, his life was permeated
with a sense of being loved by God - by Everthing that Is.
In the same way, God showered his Love and Presence upon
Racehoss, Big Emma's Boy. Racehoss grew up in a violent home and
was a repeat offender in the Texas prison system. The all-too-familiar
cycle emerged: prison, parole, offense, prison. Racehoss learned cunning
survival skills in an environment of extreme brutality. But one day in the
hellish darkness of solitary confinement, the boy experienced God's
acceptance, even of him who had been rejected by family and society.
Here's how Race Sample tells the story:
The slamming of the two steel doors still rang in my ears.
Sitting naked on the slab in pitch-black silence, I hung my head as
the tears bounded off the floor onto my feet...Sweat poured. Gritting
my teeth, I hugged and rocked myself, trying to squeeze my head
against the unyielding concrete....I mauled myself, scratching and
tearing my body. Slumped, exhausted on the slab I covered my
face with both hands and cried out, "Help me, God! Help meeee!!..."
A ray of light between my fingers. Slowly uncovering my face, the
whole cell was illuminated like a 40-watt bulb was turned on. The
soft light soothed, and I no longer was afraid. Engulfed by a
Presence, I felt it reassuring me. No pressure any more. I breathed
freely. I had never felts such well-being, so good, in all my life.
Safe. Loved....An the voice within talked through the pit of my
belly, "Don'cha worry about a thing. But you must tell them about
me." I lay back on the slab. A change had taken place. Never
before had I felt so totally loved. That's really all I ever wanted.
The biggest need in my life fulfilled in an instant. And I loved that
Presence back.
My dedication of myself to Jesus was not so dramatic or
mysterious, but no less effective. My whole life and future changed as a
result of that decision. What was mysterious about it - something to
marvel at - was that I was an Ohio teenager, living in New York State and
working in Pennsylvania - just for the summer. The missionary who invited
me to follow Jesus was from California, living in New York State - and
working, temporarily at a fruit packing plant where I worked in Pennsylvania.
I marvel at how God used these temporary circumstances to bring our
meeting about.
I read this week that "You know you're old when you've lost
all your marvels - (that's with a "V" and in Victor.")
Hopefully, you are not old - that the marvel of the Living Jesus is
very much a part of your thinking and believing. Fortunately, we are
becoming more able to delve into the realms of the mystical.
Have you read Ninety Minutes In Heaven? Rev. Don Piper
was on his way home from a church conference when his car was struck
by a semi. He was pronounced dead, his body covered with a tarp while
they waited for the jaws of life to extricate the remains. Another preacher,
on his way home from the same conference stopped to offer help and
despite being told by the EMT's that he was very, very dead, crawled
under the wreckage, put his hand on
Don's shoulder and began to pray for him. Then he began singing hymns.
That's when there was really something to marvel at - when he started to
sing "What A Friend We Have in Jesus, the dead man started singing with
him!
But for ninety minutes he had been dead - or rather, he was alive
- in heaven, surround by loved ones and friends, enjoying the magnificent
light and the sense of pure peace and the most glorious music he had ever
heard. He said, "A light enveloped me, with a brilliance beyond
earthly comprehension or description. Only that. I n my next
moment of awareness, I was standing in Heaven."
He goes on to say, "I'm thoroughly convinced that God
answers prayer. Answered prayer is why I'm still alive. I have an
unquestionable belief that God still is in the miracle business. Too
many people read about the supernatural in the Bible and think,
That's the way it was in biblical times. I'm convinced that God
continues to do the more-than-ordinary,"
A walk with Jesus is no ordinary walk. It can walk you right into
where you have never been before - everything from hiring the homeless
to hobnobbing with heaven's inhabitants.
Think of the disciples, Peter, James and John who walked in on
Jesus who was talking to none other than Moses and Elijah.
Whenever there was an experience that bordered or crossed over
the line into the mystical, Jesus always chose those who were open to it -
could deal with it - and it always seemed to be these three - Peter, James
and John..
Does he choose you? Could he choose you if you made the
simple step to believe that what happened in Bible times can happen in
our own
What would happen if you were to live by this mantra: Expect a
miracle? What if you were to cancel out "coincidences" in your life and
vote for marvels instead? God Knows what He's doing and He's
doing it all the time. The question is "Are we able to see and experience
what he's doing?"
In telling the story of his 25 yr. old son, Eric, Fred Zimmerman
touched on several mystical things. As his son prepared to finish his last
two weeks of training at the Ohio State Highway Patrol Academy, he and
his father were talking . Eric was standing on the sidewalk with the street
light glowing behind him. It gave the picture of a halo of which light around
his head. "Eric was talking about Christmas presents and his
graduation from the academy and my coming down to see him
graduate. I was thinking of reply when all of a sudden my complete
thought process went blank and a voice said to me: "Eric is going
to die. Be prepared." It was definitive, authoritative, precise, to
the point - and I got the impression there was not a thing I could do
about it."
A week after he graduated, his parents wakened at two in the
morning knowing something was wrong. Later they found that was the
time he suffered a fatal accident. As they heard the news, Eric touched
her on the shoulder and said. "It's Eric. Sorry, Mom, so sorry." Then
he was gone.
Forty-five days later, at home, and on the way into another room,
Fred felt a tremendous squeeze and hug on both sides of his body that
stopped him in his tracks. "Eric appeared right in front of my face,
smiling ,and the whole rooms was full of energy. It's like the
molecules, atoms, and air are all moving at a tremendous speed. It
was forceful, explosive, loving, highly energized, the most
exhilarating experience that I have ever had! I hugged Eric...My
mind was ecstatic, lucid, fully awake and aware of that was
happening. I could see the tremendous love in the complete
environment that Eric brought with him. I knew this was real, on
purpose, planned by Eric. Eric Zimmerman was in full and complete
control for the ten-plus seconds of his visit. I saw a view of eternity,
and believe me, it is a wonderful loving, totally uncomplaining, joyful
world."
As you get to know Jesus, as you invite Him to walk with you
daily,
he will chose you as worthy to enter into the mysterious world of the
Spirit, where Love reigns supreme -where the Light shines and there is no
darkness at all
Let us pray: O Lord, in these sacred moments call each of us to
walk with you. Speak specially and persuasively to those who have not
before accepted your invitation to wal with them. Make your invitation
clear. Strengthen their resolove to make this a day of marvel and mystery
- a day of beginning that has no end.
Speak to those os us who have been your followers for sometime,
struggling to balance all the demands put upon us by the daily return with
Your need to spead the Love and Presence of Christ in the world.,
Straighten out our pririties. Let the excitemenet of discipleship overcome
us and lead us.
Now, O Lord those who wish to dedicate themselves to your
Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, and to those who wish to rededicate their
lives to him will repeat these words after me.
O LORD MY GOD, THIS DAY, I DEDICATE MYSELF TO
YOU.
O LORD, FILL ME WITH YOUR SPIRIT
O GOD, GIVE ME THE GRACE OF A DAILY WALK WITH
THE LIVING JESUS.
USE ME FOR YOUR GOOD AND BLESS ME WITH YOUR
SPIRIT. LET ME WALK IN YOUR WAYS.
AMEN
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)September 16 2007 10:30 a, m. I Tim. 1:12-17, Lk., 15:1-10
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
25 Jesus - With Me, It's All Or Nothing!
Audio unavailable - We apologize for the inconvenience. Sermon text follows:
"Jesus - With Me, It's All Or Nothing!"
Climb Every Mountain! Jesus has given us a very high mountain
to climb - asking us in today's Scripture, Luke 14:25-33, to leave
everything to follow him - loving him more than you love your " father,
mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters - even more than your
own life." "If you come to me, but will not leave your family you
cannot be my follower" or to say it another way, WITH ME IT'S
ALL OR NOTHING!
I thought a little about that when finishing seminary. It wasn't like
I was going back home to Ohio - my first call was in Wisconsin, the
second in San Juan, Puerto Rico and the third in Miami Beach Florida!
My calling would keep me long distances from father, mother, brothers
sisters, nieces, nephews - all. But it was the only way I could do what I
was called to do.
Jesus did not mean that we must all leave our families. He simply
meant that we must give first priority to our spiritual task - to being a
person of Spirit. You are here on this planet to grow your Spirit and to be
a force for the development of the Spirit of Christ in the world. There will
be times when you will be tested as to the kind of person you really are.
In the way of illustration: Consider the man who was guiding two
clients to the top of Mt. Everest. When they were within 1000 feet of the
summit, they came across a climber who the day before had been left for
dead there in the death zone - but who somehow had survived the night
and, though delusional with the cold and altitude, greeted them. He needed
help - persons to take him back down to where he could me "medivacked"
out. The guide felt that was what, as human beings they were called to do.
His clients, each of whom had paid $25,000 dollars for the climb, agreed
to give up their dream of the mountaintop for this necessary humanitarian
mission.
It seems to me, in making that decision - they had reached the
mountaintop - that is, THE mountaintop, of God-like, Christ-like action.
The guide was not "a religious man" by his own understanding of that, not
affiliated with any church or synagogue - but connected to the Divine
thread that links humanity with Divinity - connected in his heart to the
Heart of the Universe.
The rescue was successful. The wife and sons of the rescued
man who had been notified of his death, but then, one of his sons, following
the event on the internet saw the latest report that his father had been
found alive and rescued. Their joy was beyond measure. Their rescued
loved one told them that he would be missing parts of some fingers and
toes. They asserted that they would love him just as much without them.
An interesting sidelight to the event was that in addition to the
three that rescued him, two others came by at the same time, and
overhearing them speaking English, indicated they did not speak English,
did not understand what was being said and kept on trekking toward the
summit. Later it was learned that they did speak English - they just didn't
speak "human being" - they didn't speak "Divinity"
The question Jesus has for you today is simple - to you speak
"Divinity" with your life. Ironically, speaking "Divinity" with you life could
me that you answer the call, not to leave your mother or father, but to care
for them, cantankerous and difficult as they may be, or hopefully upbeat
and easy.
Whatever happens in your life where a need that you can meet
presents itself, gives you the opportunity to climb the mountain - or as it
was in the climbers case - to descend the mountain! Where you express
your Divinity is entirely dependent on where you humanity finds you - and
gives you the opportunity to know who you are - if you are the Christ's or
not.
Years ago, when one of our parishioners went blind, she added
me to her bank accounts so that I could pay her bills and take care of any
needs that might arise. When she died, the way the accounts were set up,
I had every legal right to take what was in those accounts - thousands and
thousands of dollars - but that wasn't what she wanted. She wanted those
dollars to go the church and they did. I had no temptation to take them -
I knew who I was and that I was in Christ and Christ was in me. There
was no question.
Jesus wants you to lead a "No question" life. Though it's a simple
ethic, it is well worth the following - to guide your life by the life of Christ.
To follow His way of thinking and doing without question.
How well do we do that? We'd have to ask someone other than
ourselves. As a "Christian nation", we might ask someone from Islam for
example. The fact is that the Muslims who despise us, dislike us not
because we're free, or because we're so very Christian, but because, in
their eyes, we're so awfully godless.. It's because we appear to have
produced a godless, sex-saturated, violent, materialistic society.
We as Christians need to admit that, considering our lamentable
inability to practice the teachings of Jesus, that most Muslims are distinctively
unimpressed with our religion. We invoke God's name as we bomb,
occupy and dominate Islamic countries. We may say "In God We Trust"
on our money, but they suspect that oil, power and wealth are our true
heart's desire.
We're going to have to look a lot more redeemed before they believe in
our Redeemer or before they believe in our belief in our Redeemer!
And what can we think of Islam when Islamic fundamentalists
brought about the horror of 9/11? How religious can that be?
What we need is for the main body of people in each of the major
religions to follow their leaders' true values - the values of love and justice
- the values we have in common.
A young man entered Duke University. He was tall, utterly white,
utterly blonde, and utterly Southern. A few weeks later, the Dean saw him
walking on campus, hand in hand with a young woman who was utterly
short, utterly brown, utterly Muslim, and (God forbid) an Ohioan! The
Dean was on personal terms with the boy's parents and it wasn't long
before his mother called: "Have you met Thomas' girlfriend" she
said. "Talk to him! They're serious!"
So the Dean asked Thomas for a chat. "Thomas," he said,
"Tell me about Maranda." He told him that they were very much in
love, that she was a wonderful person, and that they were planning to be
married right after graduation. The Dean asked, "What brought you
together." Thomas said, "It was because we had so very much in
common!" The Dean replied, "Thomas, you're from South Carolina,
you're blonde, Baptist; She's Muslim, brown and from Ohio. What
in the would could you possibly have in common?"
Thomas said, "Well, you know me. I don't drink on
weekends, don't believe in casual sex. I'm not really into the success
at any cost thing. She was the only girl I met who had the same
values as mine!"
The Scripture today is wonderful because it gives us an opportunity
to check our discipleship quotient by checking our Christian values and
how well we're maintaining them.
The fact that you are here in God's house - that's good - for here
you are reminded of who you are and whose you are. It's good you're in
attendance as this sermon is given - at least I think it is.
In one church not too long ago a man got up in the middle of the
pastor's sermon and walked out. His wife rushed up to the Pastor after
the sermon and said, "Please don't think anything bad about my
husband walking out in the middle of your sermon. It's just that he
often walks in his sleep!"
Maybe that's why Edgar A. Guest wrote
I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day;
I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way,
The eye's a better pupil and more willing than the ear,
Fine counsel is confusing, but example's always clear
And the best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds,
For to see good put in action is what everybody needs.
I soon can learn to do it if you'll let me see it done;
I can watch your hands in action, but your tongue too fast may
run.
And the lecture you deliver may be very wise and true;
But I'd rather get my lessons by observing what you do
For I might misunderstand you and the high advice you give,
But there's no misunderstanding how you act and how you live.
When I see a deed of kindness, I am eager to be kind.
When a weaker brother stumbles and a strong man stays behind
Just to see if he can help him, then the wish grows strong in me
To become as big and thoughtful as I know as I know that friend
to be
And all travelers can witness that the best of guides today
Is not the one who tells them, but the one who shows the way.
One good man teaches many, men believe what they behold;
One deed of kindess noticed is worth forty that are told.
Who stands with men of honor learns to hold his honor dear,
For right living speaks a language which to everyone is clear
Though an able speaker charms me with his eloquence, I say,
I'd rather see a sermon than to hear one, any day.
Lots of people who technically aren't preachers, including you
can be preachers. "A preacher is a person who finds the switches
that turn on the best inside of us."
H.Stephen Glenn points out his fifth grade teacher as one of them.
In the days before it was understood, she found ways to deal with hi
dyslexia that had kept him from progressing previously. She got him out
of the stuttering problem that his previous nervous and stressful years in
school had caused. When he went into sixth grade, Miss Hardy became
the teach of that class as well, much to his delight. He kept track of her for
many years thereafter and ultimately learned that she was terminal with
cancer. As her only "special student", he decided to travel the thousand
miles to express his appreciation. But he wasn't the only one who made
the pilgrimage to renew their association and share their appreciation of
her - there were hundreds - an interesting mix of people - 3 U.S. Senators,
12 State Legislators, and a number of CEO's os corporations and business
to name a few.
In comparing notes with them, Stephen figured that three fourths
of them "went into the fifth grade quite intimidated by the
educational process, believing we were incapable, insignificant and
at the mercy of fate or luck. We emerged from our contact with
Miss Hardy believing we were capable, significant, influential
people who had the capacity to make a difference in life if we would
try. "
One life made such a difference in so many lives - as can yours -
particularly if it is guided by the principles and teachings of Jesus and your
priorities are in order, remembering the essence of what Jesus told us in
today's Scripture "With Me, It's All or Nothing!"
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)September 9 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 14:25-33
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
"Jesus - With Me, It's All Or Nothing!"
Climb Every Mountain! Jesus has given us a very high mountain
to climb - asking us in today's Scripture, Luke 14:25-33, to leave
everything to follow him - loving him more than you love your " father,
mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters - even more than your
own life." "If you come to me, but will not leave your family you
cannot be my follower" or to say it another way, WITH ME IT'S
ALL OR NOTHING!
I thought a little about that when finishing seminary. It wasn't like
I was going back home to Ohio - my first call was in Wisconsin, the
second in San Juan, Puerto Rico and the third in Miami Beach Florida!
My calling would keep me long distances from father, mother, brothers
sisters, nieces, nephews - all. But it was the only way I could do what I
was called to do.
Jesus did not mean that we must all leave our families. He simply
meant that we must give first priority to our spiritual task - to being a
person of Spirit. You are here on this planet to grow your Spirit and to be
a force for the development of the Spirit of Christ in the world. There will
be times when you will be tested as to the kind of person you really are.
In the way of illustration: Consider the man who was guiding two
clients to the top of Mt. Everest. When they were within 1000 feet of the
summit, they came across a climber who the day before had been left for
dead there in the death zone - but who somehow had survived the night
and, though delusional with the cold and altitude, greeted them. He needed
help - persons to take him back down to where he could me "medivacked"
out. The guide felt that was what, as human beings they were called to do.
His clients, each of whom had paid $25,000 dollars for the climb, agreed
to give up their dream of the mountaintop for this necessary humanitarian
mission.
It seems to me, in making that decision - they had reached the
mountaintop - that is, THE mountaintop, of God-like, Christ-like action.
The guide was not "a religious man" by his own understanding of that, not
affiliated with any church or synagogue - but connected to the Divine
thread that links humanity with Divinity - connected in his heart to the
Heart of the Universe.
The rescue was successful. The wife and sons of the rescued
man who had been notified of his death, but then, one of his sons, following
the event on the internet saw the latest report that his father had been
found alive and rescued. Their joy was beyond measure. Their rescued
loved one told them that he would be missing parts of some fingers and
toes. They asserted that they would love him just as much without them.
An interesting sidelight to the event was that in addition to the
three that rescued him, two others came by at the same time, and
overhearing them speaking English, indicated they did not speak English,
did not understand what was being said and kept on trekking toward the
summit. Later it was learned that they did speak English - they just didn't
speak "human being" - they didn't speak "Divinity"
The question Jesus has for you today is simple - to you speak
"Divinity" with your life. Ironically, speaking "Divinity" with you life could
me that you answer the call, not to leave your mother or father, but to care
for them, cantankerous and difficult as they may be, or hopefully upbeat
and easy.
Whatever happens in your life where a need that you can meet
presents itself, gives you the opportunity to climb the mountain - or as it
was in the climbers case - to descend the mountain! Where you express
your Divinity is entirely dependent on where you humanity finds you - and
gives you the opportunity to know who you are - if you are the Christ's or
not.
Years ago, when one of our parishioners went blind, she added
me to her bank accounts so that I could pay her bills and take care of any
needs that might arise. When she died, the way the accounts were set up,
I had every legal right to take what was in those accounts - thousands and
thousands of dollars - but that wasn't what she wanted. She wanted those
dollars to go the church and they did. I had no temptation to take them -
I knew who I was and that I was in Christ and Christ was in me. There
was no question.
Jesus wants you to lead a "No question" life. Though it's a simple
ethic, it is well worth the following - to guide your life by the life of Christ.
To follow His way of thinking and doing without question.
How well do we do that? We'd have to ask someone other than
ourselves. As a "Christian nation", we might ask someone from Islam for
example. The fact is that the Muslims who despise us, dislike us not
because we're free, or because we're so very Christian, but because, in
their eyes, we're so awfully godless.. It's because we appear to have
produced a godless, sex-saturated, violent, materialistic society.
We as Christians need to admit that, considering our lamentable
inability to practice the teachings of Jesus, that most Muslims are distinctively
unimpressed with our religion. We invoke God's name as we bomb,
occupy and dominate Islamic countries. We may say "In God We Trust"
on our money, but they suspect that oil, power and wealth are our true
heart's desire.
We're going to have to look a lot more redeemed before they believe in
our Redeemer or before they believe in our belief in our Redeemer!
And what can we think of Islam when Islamic fundamentalists
brought about the horror of 9/11? How religious can that be?
What we need is for the main body of people in each of the major
religions to follow their leaders' true values - the values of love and justice
- the values we have in common.
A young man entered Duke University. He was tall, utterly white,
utterly blonde, and utterly Southern. A few weeks later, the Dean saw him
walking on campus, hand in hand with a young woman who was utterly
short, utterly brown, utterly Muslim, and (God forbid) an Ohioan! The
Dean was on personal terms with the boy's parents and it wasn't long
before his mother called: "Have you met Thomas' girlfriend" she
said. "Talk to him! They're serious!"
So the Dean asked Thomas for a chat. "Thomas," he said,
"Tell me about Maranda." He told him that they were very much in
love, that she was a wonderful person, and that they were planning to be
married right after graduation. The Dean asked, "What brought you
together." Thomas said, "It was because we had so very much in
common!" The Dean replied, "Thomas, you're from South Carolina,
you're blonde, Baptist; She's Muslim, brown and from Ohio. What
in the would could you possibly have in common?"
Thomas said, "Well, you know me. I don't drink on
weekends, don't believe in casual sex. I'm not really into the success
at any cost thing. She was the only girl I met who had the same
values as mine!"
The Scripture today is wonderful because it gives us an opportunity
to check our discipleship quotient by checking our Christian values and
how well we're maintaining them.
The fact that you are here in God's house - that's good - for here
you are reminded of who you are and whose you are. It's good you're in
attendance as this sermon is given - at least I think it is.
In one church not too long ago a man got up in the middle of the
pastor's sermon and walked out. His wife rushed up to the Pastor after
the sermon and said, "Please don't think anything bad about my
husband walking out in the middle of your sermon. It's just that he
often walks in his sleep!"
Maybe that's why Edgar A. Guest wrote
I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day;
I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way,
The eye's a better pupil and more willing than the ear,
Fine counsel is confusing, but example's always clear
And the best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds,
For to see good put in action is what everybody needs.
I soon can learn to do it if you'll let me see it done;
I can watch your hands in action, but your tongue too fast may
run.
And the lecture you deliver may be very wise and true;
But I'd rather get my lessons by observing what you do
For I might misunderstand you and the high advice you give,
But there's no misunderstanding how you act and how you live.
When I see a deed of kindness, I am eager to be kind.
When a weaker brother stumbles and a strong man stays behind
Just to see if he can help him, then the wish grows strong in me
To become as big and thoughtful as I know as I know that friend
to be
And all travelers can witness that the best of guides today
Is not the one who tells them, but the one who shows the way.
One good man teaches many, men believe what they behold;
One deed of kindess noticed is worth forty that are told.
Who stands with men of honor learns to hold his honor dear,
For right living speaks a language which to everyone is clear
Though an able speaker charms me with his eloquence, I say,
I'd rather see a sermon than to hear one, any day.
Lots of people who technically aren't preachers, including you
can be preachers. "A preacher is a person who finds the switches
that turn on the best inside of us."
H.Stephen Glenn points out his fifth grade teacher as one of them.
In the days before it was understood, she found ways to deal with hi
dyslexia that had kept him from progressing previously. She got him out
of the stuttering problem that his previous nervous and stressful years in
school had caused. When he went into sixth grade, Miss Hardy became
the teach of that class as well, much to his delight. He kept track of her for
many years thereafter and ultimately learned that she was terminal with
cancer. As her only "special student", he decided to travel the thousand
miles to express his appreciation. But he wasn't the only one who made
the pilgrimage to renew their association and share their appreciation of
her - there were hundreds - an interesting mix of people - 3 U.S. Senators,
12 State Legislators, and a number of CEO's os corporations and business
to name a few.
In comparing notes with them, Stephen figured that three fourths
of them "went into the fifth grade quite intimidated by the
educational process, believing we were incapable, insignificant and
at the mercy of fate or luck. We emerged from our contact with
Miss Hardy believing we were capable, significant, influential
people who had the capacity to make a difference in life if we would
try. "
One life made such a difference in so many lives - as can yours -
particularly if it is guided by the principles and teachings of Jesus and your
priorities are in order, remembering the essence of what Jesus told us in
today's Scripture "With Me, It's All or Nothing!"
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)September 9 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 14:25-33
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
24 Sarah's Sons
Audio unavailable - We apologize for the inconvenience. Sermon text follows:
"Sarah's Sons!"
When I was reading our Scripture lesson before preparing the
sermon, as often happens when we read Scripture - something popped
out at me - made me ask a question.
After Jesus tells us that when we have people over for dinner, we
shouldn't just invite those who can invite us back, but he tells us to invite
the poor, the crippled, and the blind - people who cannot pay us back.
THEY cannot reward you, Jesus said, but GOD will reward you at the
time when all godly people rise from death. My question is - "When
is that time - when do all godly people rise from death."
Christianity often become sort of a "by and by" religion - Everything
happens in the "sweet by and by". But that's not what Christianity is really
about. It's not about THEN, it's about NOW - being a DISCIPLE,
NOW. Thinking about discipleship should bring a growing awareness
that some churches and members of church have focused primarily on
conversion and eternal salvation and neglected a way of life here and now.
"Pardon me, Jesus, but now that I am "saved" won't you excuse
me while I get on with my life, and I'll see you in heaven."
That's not Christianity at all. Christianity is about a
RELATIONSHIP -about people who have a RELATIONSHIP with a
PERSON, Jesus, a Living Lord whom they know to be alive and well
and living among them - walking beside them - leading them in good works
to help the disenfranchised, the poor, the crippled, the blind, the homeless
rounding up all of the above to sit at their tables.
When I was in seminary, I was often "homeless" at holiday times.
I was working my way through and I often couldn't afford to drive from
New York to Ohio, so I stayed in the dorm at Colgate Rochester Divinity
School as did several other seminary students who lived too far away to
go home for the holidays. That's when we became "SARAH'S SONS!"
Sara Scruggs, the dietician of the seminary would invite all of us homeless
wonders to her lovely home for dinner. And, of course, being the dietician,
she could really cook, but more important was the sense of welcome we
had in her home, the laughter and the joy - the camaraderie and the pleasure
of company and the sweetness of her spirit. We called her "Shug" - short
for "Sugar." And as exhausted as she must have been after hosting all of
us, she was energized and empowered and thankful - full of Life.
Opportunities to become truly alive are around us every day.
Godly people rise form death to an exciting life every day as they find and
serve SARAH'S SONS whether they are homeless, or hungry or jobless
or working for less than a living wage. You don't have to wait until you
die to rise to life! Following Jesus gives us life - and it more
abundantly.
Jesus went about doing good. "Go thou, and do likewise" because
if you do, you will get a great sense that you are beginning to discover that
Christianity is a life you live, not a belief you have. We have lots of
"beliefs" at Community Church - they are so diverse that is a divine miracle
that we all get along so well. It is because each of us who believes is
moved by our beliefs into the doing category. We meet the designation
of what is now called the "Simple Church" which is a congregation designed
around a straightforward and strategic process that moves people through
the stages of spiritual growth. It moves you from the foyer, to the
living room and on to the kitchen of congregational life. That's
where SARAH'S SONS are fed and strengthened.
Jesus sent his disciples out to be healing agents in the community,
and they came back with stories to tell! If you're thinking correctly, you
see your coming here each week for the specific purpose of being sent
back out - in Jesus' Name. Each week at the end of the service I do a
"commissioning" as well as a "benediction." As Jesus sent forth the early
disciples, so he sends you.
First, you attend the church. Then you join it. Then you start
applying what you receive from it into your life and work, your mission -
until you find being Christ's Person is your Life's Mission. My mission is
not to get you TO the church for long, boring meetings, or to events that
"just aren't you", but to get you out of the church and into the world. The
Church is a unique organization because it exists for the people who aren't
in it - yet"
People who sense your love and compassion and benefit by your
help will be drawn to the source of your compassion, and may well end up
in the pew beside you here at what I like to call The Filling Station - where
we refuel ourselves for the next several miles - taking in so we can give.
Cynde McQueary wrote recently about her father. He was always
helping everyone. A farmer, he hired a lot of people - particularly young
people - took an interest in them - wrote a letter to each of them every
Christmas - telling each one how he prayed for them. And they would
stop by for dinner or just a chat - you never knew who was coming to
dinner or who her father would rush off to help just as they were sitting
down at the table. "Be right back" he's day, getting his hat and stuffing
a roll into his pocket as he headed out the door - if a neighbor got his truck
stuck and needed her father to pull him out with his tractor - it didn't
matter what it was. Often, someone was sick and the family needed help.
"You have to make time for people" he would say. "Giving is the
best way of living." And that's the way he lived until he died - right
when it was time for his crops to be harvested. His daughter and his wife
wondered how they were going to handle the harvesting. They shouldn't
have worried. As Cynde pulled into her mom's driveway, something in
the distance caught her eye. A cloud of dust was forming down the road
- an army of combines and trucks were working in their fields. There
must have been 30 or 40 of them, our neighbors and friends from across
four different counties. When they thanked the leader of the effort, "Big
John" as he was called, he replied. "Cynde, when we work together it
all gets done. That's what your dad always showed me. We're just
here to pay him back."
Cynde says: "Mom and I stood together out in the field,
wiping the tears from our eyes, watch all those friends and neighbors
harvest the bounty my father had planted."
That's the way it's supposed to happen - where we realize that we
are all on this spaceship earth together and must learn to love and help
each other.
We are reminded of that as we come to this Communion Table
because it is a table that stretches around the world to encircle its people
in the loving arms of the Christ - to spread His Compassion and care.
When we work together, it all gets done. We are called to this
table not because we have Spirituality. Spirituality is FINDING peace.
We are called to this table because we are Disciples. Discipleship is
MAKING Peace. Discipleship gives you a life penetrated by love - by
hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances
and by the power to do what is right and to withstand and to stand up to
the forces of evil. So shall we have the abundant life - so shall we be the
godly people who rise from death - NOW.
So, come to this sacred table, not because you must, but because
you may......Come not because you are qualified by your own
righteousness, but come, because Jesus has invited you.......Communion
Communion Meditation Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon (or meditation) is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)September 2, 2007 10:30 a, m. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
"Sarah's Sons!"
When I was reading our Scripture lesson before preparing the
sermon, as often happens when we read Scripture - something popped
out at me - made me ask a question.
After Jesus tells us that when we have people over for dinner, we
shouldn't just invite those who can invite us back, but he tells us to invite
the poor, the crippled, and the blind - people who cannot pay us back.
THEY cannot reward you, Jesus said, but GOD will reward you at the
time when all godly people rise from death. My question is - "When
is that time - when do all godly people rise from death."
Christianity often become sort of a "by and by" religion - Everything
happens in the "sweet by and by". But that's not what Christianity is really
about. It's not about THEN, it's about NOW - being a DISCIPLE,
NOW. Thinking about discipleship should bring a growing awareness
that some churches and members of church have focused primarily on
conversion and eternal salvation and neglected a way of life here and now.
"Pardon me, Jesus, but now that I am "saved" won't you excuse
me while I get on with my life, and I'll see you in heaven."
That's not Christianity at all. Christianity is about a
RELATIONSHIP -about people who have a RELATIONSHIP with a
PERSON, Jesus, a Living Lord whom they know to be alive and well
and living among them - walking beside them - leading them in good works
to help the disenfranchised, the poor, the crippled, the blind, the homeless
rounding up all of the above to sit at their tables.
When I was in seminary, I was often "homeless" at holiday times.
I was working my way through and I often couldn't afford to drive from
New York to Ohio, so I stayed in the dorm at Colgate Rochester Divinity
School as did several other seminary students who lived too far away to
go home for the holidays. That's when we became "SARAH'S SONS!"
Sara Scruggs, the dietician of the seminary would invite all of us homeless
wonders to her lovely home for dinner. And, of course, being the dietician,
she could really cook, but more important was the sense of welcome we
had in her home, the laughter and the joy - the camaraderie and the pleasure
of company and the sweetness of her spirit. We called her "Shug" - short
for "Sugar." And as exhausted as she must have been after hosting all of
us, she was energized and empowered and thankful - full of Life.
Opportunities to become truly alive are around us every day.
Godly people rise form death to an exciting life every day as they find and
serve SARAH'S SONS whether they are homeless, or hungry or jobless
or working for less than a living wage. You don't have to wait until you
die to rise to life! Following Jesus gives us life - and it more
abundantly.
Jesus went about doing good. "Go thou, and do likewise" because
if you do, you will get a great sense that you are beginning to discover that
Christianity is a life you live, not a belief you have. We have lots of
"beliefs" at Community Church - they are so diverse that is a divine miracle
that we all get along so well. It is because each of us who believes is
moved by our beliefs into the doing category. We meet the designation
of what is now called the "Simple Church" which is a congregation designed
around a straightforward and strategic process that moves people through
the stages of spiritual growth. It moves you from the foyer, to the
living room and on to the kitchen of congregational life. That's
where SARAH'S SONS are fed and strengthened.
Jesus sent his disciples out to be healing agents in the community,
and they came back with stories to tell! If you're thinking correctly, you
see your coming here each week for the specific purpose of being sent
back out - in Jesus' Name. Each week at the end of the service I do a
"commissioning" as well as a "benediction." As Jesus sent forth the early
disciples, so he sends you.
First, you attend the church. Then you join it. Then you start
applying what you receive from it into your life and work, your mission -
until you find being Christ's Person is your Life's Mission. My mission is
not to get you TO the church for long, boring meetings, or to events that
"just aren't you", but to get you out of the church and into the world. The
Church is a unique organization because it exists for the people who aren't
in it - yet"
People who sense your love and compassion and benefit by your
help will be drawn to the source of your compassion, and may well end up
in the pew beside you here at what I like to call The Filling Station - where
we refuel ourselves for the next several miles - taking in so we can give.
Cynde McQueary wrote recently about her father. He was always
helping everyone. A farmer, he hired a lot of people - particularly young
people - took an interest in them - wrote a letter to each of them every
Christmas - telling each one how he prayed for them. And they would
stop by for dinner or just a chat - you never knew who was coming to
dinner or who her father would rush off to help just as they were sitting
down at the table. "Be right back" he's day, getting his hat and stuffing
a roll into his pocket as he headed out the door - if a neighbor got his truck
stuck and needed her father to pull him out with his tractor - it didn't
matter what it was. Often, someone was sick and the family needed help.
"You have to make time for people" he would say. "Giving is the
best way of living." And that's the way he lived until he died - right
when it was time for his crops to be harvested. His daughter and his wife
wondered how they were going to handle the harvesting. They shouldn't
have worried. As Cynde pulled into her mom's driveway, something in
the distance caught her eye. A cloud of dust was forming down the road
- an army of combines and trucks were working in their fields. There
must have been 30 or 40 of them, our neighbors and friends from across
four different counties. When they thanked the leader of the effort, "Big
John" as he was called, he replied. "Cynde, when we work together it
all gets done. That's what your dad always showed me. We're just
here to pay him back."
Cynde says: "Mom and I stood together out in the field,
wiping the tears from our eyes, watch all those friends and neighbors
harvest the bounty my father had planted."
That's the way it's supposed to happen - where we realize that we
are all on this spaceship earth together and must learn to love and help
each other.
We are reminded of that as we come to this Communion Table
because it is a table that stretches around the world to encircle its people
in the loving arms of the Christ - to spread His Compassion and care.
When we work together, it all gets done. We are called to this
table not because we have Spirituality. Spirituality is FINDING peace.
We are called to this table because we are Disciples. Discipleship is
MAKING Peace. Discipleship gives you a life penetrated by love - by
hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances
and by the power to do what is right and to withstand and to stand up to
the forces of evil. So shall we have the abundant life - so shall we be the
godly people who rise from death - NOW.
So, come to this sacred table, not because you must, but because
you may......Come not because you are qualified by your own
righteousness, but come, because Jesus has invited you.......Communion
Communion Meditation Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon (or meditation) is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)September 2, 2007 10:30 a, m. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
23 Help!
Audio unavailable - We apologize for the inconvenience. Sermon text follows:
"HELP!"
Do you believe that God has a plan for your life? If so, do you
know what it is, and if you know what it is, are you doing it?!
When Jeremiah was just a young lad, God spoke to him. Jeramiah
was growing up surrounded by priests - as part of a family of priests in a
town that belonged to the tribe of Benjamin. Perhaps it was not surprising
that God spoke to him - or does God speak to all of us?
God speaks to all of us! How do we hear God speak? Jeremiah
puts it this way - "The Lord's message came to me" That describes
the process perfectly. It says that deep within you is - shall we say - the
gnawing presence of God's Spirit which nibbles persistently at your
conscious self to make Itself heard. We all have it. Some listen better
than others.
To those who listen, God's plan for them begins to take form. So
while you're going about your daily routine as a business man or woman,
- as a father - as a mother, you should go about with a secret mischievious
smile knowing that you are pursuing your task as God's helper. as your
main job! It's like you're a double agent - you do what everyone expects
you to do but you have another life entirely - a life in the Spirit. You have
learned life's secret - that you are not a body with a spirit, but a spirit that
temporarily has a body attached to it - which one day you will shed like a
butterfly emerging from a cocoon.
On my last cruise which was so long ago it has faded into the
misty past, I went to yet another "Butterfly World" - I guess I like to go
to them because there you see the impossible happen - this incredible
beautiful etherial like body comes out of a silent, death-colored mass of
nothingness. It's unbelievable!
God has an unblieveable life mapped out for you and as you enter
into the exciting, challenging, fulfilling reality of that life, if you give conscious
attention to what God is saying to you from within yourself. Just as Jesus
said, The Kingdom of God is within you. You are so much more than
you know yourself to be!
When God's voice first surfaced in the boy, Jeremiah, telling him
that he would be a prophet to the nations, Jeremiah said: "Hey! Wait a
minute, God. I am just a boy! Get real!" (We are always telling God
how off base He Is!)
You see who you are now. God sees who you can become and
what you can do. God sees what is essential for your life. Unfortunately
what is essential for our lives is often invisible to OUR eyes - that's why
we come here to the mystery of this place where God shares the essentials
- where we catch a vision of where we came from, where we're going
and what we are to do while here. Let me illustrate as is my custom!
I'm a Katy Couric fan and I TIVO her news report each weeknight.
One thing I like about it is that each Friday they have a human interest
story about people who are doing interesting things. - I believe it's called
Eye on America. The audience picks one of three options for each week
. The one chosen for this week, like our Scripture lesson this week,
involved a young lad . The young boy featured this week lamented
that no one was doing anything to restore the parks of New Orleans from
the devastation left by the hurricane. A big problem was that the grass
was growing wild and unkempt. So this young man - I don't remember
his name - began to mow. After all, the park covered only thirteen acres!
Who would start that knowing how big the job was? Only a kid with
good in his Spirit and grit in his constitution - and smarts. He soon
recruited other mowers - one I saw came with a ride-on mower.
Collectively they are known as the Mow Rons. But there is nothing
moronic about them, for they have listened to the still small voice within
them and they have begun to walk the path outlined for them. God said,
HELP! and they responded. They asked,
Who?" and God said, "You!"
What we do for God is also good for us. A recent study shows
that after just one week of volunteering - volunteers found that their degree
of happiness skyrocketed. Doing what we are designed to do releases
chemicals in our bodies that make our lives rich and full - the scientists
conducting the study verified that.
Lining oneself up with Good is lining oneself up with God. Lining
oneself up with God is what I call "Lining Onceself Up With the Universe"
- going WITH the grain of the Universe - a much smoother ride. Anyone
of any faith can do it - even a person without any - though that would put
them in great danger of getting some!
So each morning I want you to say to yourself - "That darned
Reverend said that I am first and foremost a Spirit. I know what
my body is going to do today - that's pretty well prescribed - but
what is my Spirit going to do? What small or large Divine missions
can my Spirit accomplish today? What mischief can IT get into -
what incredibly beautiful, etherial miracles can come out of one
seemingly ordinary day?"
(Don't say any more than that, or you won't have any time to DO
anything!)
I mowed grass when I was a kid, but my motives were not altruistic.
I wanted the money so I could buy things - one of the first things was a
record player so I could listen to classical records - I especially liked
opera and had quite a few Caruso recordings and Mario Lanza's too. My
older brother, Duane, ridiculed my choice of music. His comments about
how opera singers sound will definitely not preach! But just about then,
he discovered his wonderful tenor voice - soon he was putting his ear to
the speakers to hear how the professionals did it! And he has sung in
churches for decades, so though my purposes in cutting grass were not
altruistic or religious, they did have a good result. I noted with some
glee, that the young boy who launched the Mow Rons would not mow the
grass at home. There must be a non-sermon in that somewhere!
God says to you, HELP! Jesus, with a simple "Follow Me" has
called you to walk down a road with Him. And there's no telling what
will happen in your everyday experience.
In December of 1955, a humble, black Methodist seamstress sat
down in a bus seat in the front of the bus. The driver, J.P. Blake, ordered
her to the back of the bus, but on that particular day, Rosa Parks took
upon herself the oppression that weighed down on all her people. She
sat where she was, and justice moved forward. Oppression lifted. History
marveled. God had tears in His Eyes, but He wasn't surprised - not this
God who told a young lad named Jeremiah - "Today I have put you in
charge of nations and kingdoms. you will pull up and tear down.
You will destroy and overthrow. You will build up and plant."
The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom then shall I
fear, of whom shall I be afraid?
So listen to what God has to say to you from deep within you. Be
attentive to your life and find the way that you can make your life count for
God. In your own quiet way, you may well be a guide for others on the
Pilgrim's way - through your joy, your enthusiasm, your thoughtful ways,
your caring spirit.
"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting
some kind of battle." (I read that this week) If the people around you
sense that you know they are fighting a battle, they will be strengthened by
your insight - grateful for it - and benefitting by your kindness can learn to
be a friend in need to others. It's a catching kind of thing. Your kindness
will draw people to you.
Sometime ago and also just recently I came across this relevant
story: "Just up the road from my home is a field, with two horses in
it. From a distance, each looks like every other horse. But if you
stop your car, or are walking by, you will notice something quite
amazing. Looking into the eyes of one horse will disclose that he is
blind.
His owner has not chosen to have him put down, but has
made a good home for him. This alone is amazing.
If nearby and listening, you will hear the sound of a bell.
Looking around for the source of the sound, you will see that it
comes from the smaller horse in the field. Attached to her halter is
a small bell. It lets her blind friend know where she is so he can
follow her. As you stand and watch these two friends, you'll see
how she is always checking on him, and that he will listen for her
bell and then slowly walk to where she is, trusting that she will not
lead him astray. When she returns to the shelter of the barn each
evening, she stops occasionally and looks back, making sure her
friend isn't too far behind to hear the bell.
Like the owners of these two horses, God does not throw us
away just because we are not perfect or because we have problems
or challenges. He watches over us and even brings others into our
lives to help us when we are in need. Sometimes, we are the blind
horse being guided by the little ringing bell of those who God places
in our lives. Other times, we are the guide horse, helping others
see.
A reporter of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Time Madigan, was
suffering from depression. So he reached out to Mr. Rogers (yes the one
from the Neighborhood), Fred Rogers whom he had interviewed some
time before and had begun a correspondence with. During that interview,
Mr. Rogers had opened up to him and told him how consumed by grief he
had been over the death of one of his best friends. Tim listened quietly as
he revealed his feelings. Tim shared his faith with him and listened some
more. And Mr. Rogers said, "You're ministering to me , Tim. By
listening, you minister to me."
Now it was Tim that needed ministered to - he was consumed by
depression. "Dear Fred" he wrote and then followed with a detailed
account of his anguish, asking pitifully at the end if Mr. Rogers would be
proud of him. His reply came. "Dear Tim. The answer to your
question is YES - a resounding YES. I will be proud of you. I am
proud of you. I have been proud of you since first we met. (Tim and
his wife now refer to the letter as Fred's IPOY - Fred's 'I'm Proud Of
You" letter. The depression lifted.
Sometimes we are the blind horse being guided by the little ringing
bell of those who God places in our lives. Other times we are the guide
horse, helping others see.
As followers of Jesus, we are all on the pathway together with
Him, forming a community that feeds us and fuels us giving us the strength
for the battles we are fighting and to help others with theirs. That's our
calling. When God says "HELP!" we answer and therein find solace
and satisfaction in the daily experience - knowing we are on the right path,
finding helpful and fulfilling things to do - seeking to bring the Love of
Christ into a world much in need of It. May God guide and direct us.
He has told us: "You shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall
speak whatever I comand you. (Jeremiah 1:7.) Amen
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)August 26, 2007 10:30 a, m. Jeremiah 1:4-10
"HELP!"
Do you believe that God has a plan for your life? If so, do you
know what it is, and if you know what it is, are you doing it?!
When Jeremiah was just a young lad, God spoke to him. Jeramiah
was growing up surrounded by priests - as part of a family of priests in a
town that belonged to the tribe of Benjamin. Perhaps it was not surprising
that God spoke to him - or does God speak to all of us?
God speaks to all of us! How do we hear God speak? Jeremiah
puts it this way - "The Lord's message came to me" That describes
the process perfectly. It says that deep within you is - shall we say - the
gnawing presence of God's Spirit which nibbles persistently at your
conscious self to make Itself heard. We all have it. Some listen better
than others.
To those who listen, God's plan for them begins to take form. So
while you're going about your daily routine as a business man or woman,
- as a father - as a mother, you should go about with a secret mischievious
smile knowing that you are pursuing your task as God's helper. as your
main job! It's like you're a double agent - you do what everyone expects
you to do but you have another life entirely - a life in the Spirit. You have
learned life's secret - that you are not a body with a spirit, but a spirit that
temporarily has a body attached to it - which one day you will shed like a
butterfly emerging from a cocoon.
On my last cruise which was so long ago it has faded into the
misty past, I went to yet another "Butterfly World" - I guess I like to go
to them because there you see the impossible happen - this incredible
beautiful etherial like body comes out of a silent, death-colored mass of
nothingness. It's unbelievable!
God has an unblieveable life mapped out for you and as you enter
into the exciting, challenging, fulfilling reality of that life, if you give conscious
attention to what God is saying to you from within yourself. Just as Jesus
said, The Kingdom of God is within you. You are so much more than
you know yourself to be!
When God's voice first surfaced in the boy, Jeremiah, telling him
that he would be a prophet to the nations, Jeremiah said: "Hey! Wait a
minute, God. I am just a boy! Get real!" (We are always telling God
how off base He Is!)
You see who you are now. God sees who you can become and
what you can do. God sees what is essential for your life. Unfortunately
what is essential for our lives is often invisible to OUR eyes - that's why
we come here to the mystery of this place where God shares the essentials
- where we catch a vision of where we came from, where we're going
and what we are to do while here. Let me illustrate as is my custom!
I'm a Katy Couric fan and I TIVO her news report each weeknight.
One thing I like about it is that each Friday they have a human interest
story about people who are doing interesting things. - I believe it's called
Eye on America. The audience picks one of three options for each week
. The one chosen for this week, like our Scripture lesson this week,
involved a young lad . The young boy featured this week lamented
that no one was doing anything to restore the parks of New Orleans from
the devastation left by the hurricane. A big problem was that the grass
was growing wild and unkempt. So this young man - I don't remember
his name - began to mow. After all, the park covered only thirteen acres!
Who would start that knowing how big the job was? Only a kid with
good in his Spirit and grit in his constitution - and smarts. He soon
recruited other mowers - one I saw came with a ride-on mower.
Collectively they are known as the Mow Rons. But there is nothing
moronic about them, for they have listened to the still small voice within
them and they have begun to walk the path outlined for them. God said,
HELP! and they responded. They asked,
Who?" and God said, "You!"
What we do for God is also good for us. A recent study shows
that after just one week of volunteering - volunteers found that their degree
of happiness skyrocketed. Doing what we are designed to do releases
chemicals in our bodies that make our lives rich and full - the scientists
conducting the study verified that.
Lining oneself up with Good is lining oneself up with God. Lining
oneself up with God is what I call "Lining Onceself Up With the Universe"
- going WITH the grain of the Universe - a much smoother ride. Anyone
of any faith can do it - even a person without any - though that would put
them in great danger of getting some!
So each morning I want you to say to yourself - "That darned
Reverend said that I am first and foremost a Spirit. I know what
my body is going to do today - that's pretty well prescribed - but
what is my Spirit going to do? What small or large Divine missions
can my Spirit accomplish today? What mischief can IT get into -
what incredibly beautiful, etherial miracles can come out of one
seemingly ordinary day?"
(Don't say any more than that, or you won't have any time to DO
anything!)
I mowed grass when I was a kid, but my motives were not altruistic.
I wanted the money so I could buy things - one of the first things was a
record player so I could listen to classical records - I especially liked
opera and had quite a few Caruso recordings and Mario Lanza's too. My
older brother, Duane, ridiculed my choice of music. His comments about
how opera singers sound will definitely not preach! But just about then,
he discovered his wonderful tenor voice - soon he was putting his ear to
the speakers to hear how the professionals did it! And he has sung in
churches for decades, so though my purposes in cutting grass were not
altruistic or religious, they did have a good result. I noted with some
glee, that the young boy who launched the Mow Rons would not mow the
grass at home. There must be a non-sermon in that somewhere!
God says to you, HELP! Jesus, with a simple "Follow Me" has
called you to walk down a road with Him. And there's no telling what
will happen in your everyday experience.
In December of 1955, a humble, black Methodist seamstress sat
down in a bus seat in the front of the bus. The driver, J.P. Blake, ordered
her to the back of the bus, but on that particular day, Rosa Parks took
upon herself the oppression that weighed down on all her people. She
sat where she was, and justice moved forward. Oppression lifted. History
marveled. God had tears in His Eyes, but He wasn't surprised - not this
God who told a young lad named Jeremiah - "Today I have put you in
charge of nations and kingdoms. you will pull up and tear down.
You will destroy and overthrow. You will build up and plant."
The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom then shall I
fear, of whom shall I be afraid?
So listen to what God has to say to you from deep within you. Be
attentive to your life and find the way that you can make your life count for
God. In your own quiet way, you may well be a guide for others on the
Pilgrim's way - through your joy, your enthusiasm, your thoughtful ways,
your caring spirit.
"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting
some kind of battle." (I read that this week) If the people around you
sense that you know they are fighting a battle, they will be strengthened by
your insight - grateful for it - and benefitting by your kindness can learn to
be a friend in need to others. It's a catching kind of thing. Your kindness
will draw people to you.
Sometime ago and also just recently I came across this relevant
story: "Just up the road from my home is a field, with two horses in
it. From a distance, each looks like every other horse. But if you
stop your car, or are walking by, you will notice something quite
amazing. Looking into the eyes of one horse will disclose that he is
blind.
His owner has not chosen to have him put down, but has
made a good home for him. This alone is amazing.
If nearby and listening, you will hear the sound of a bell.
Looking around for the source of the sound, you will see that it
comes from the smaller horse in the field. Attached to her halter is
a small bell. It lets her blind friend know where she is so he can
follow her. As you stand and watch these two friends, you'll see
how she is always checking on him, and that he will listen for her
bell and then slowly walk to where she is, trusting that she will not
lead him astray. When she returns to the shelter of the barn each
evening, she stops occasionally and looks back, making sure her
friend isn't too far behind to hear the bell.
Like the owners of these two horses, God does not throw us
away just because we are not perfect or because we have problems
or challenges. He watches over us and even brings others into our
lives to help us when we are in need. Sometimes, we are the blind
horse being guided by the little ringing bell of those who God places
in our lives. Other times, we are the guide horse, helping others
see.
A reporter of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Time Madigan, was
suffering from depression. So he reached out to Mr. Rogers (yes the one
from the Neighborhood), Fred Rogers whom he had interviewed some
time before and had begun a correspondence with. During that interview,
Mr. Rogers had opened up to him and told him how consumed by grief he
had been over the death of one of his best friends. Tim listened quietly as
he revealed his feelings. Tim shared his faith with him and listened some
more. And Mr. Rogers said, "You're ministering to me , Tim. By
listening, you minister to me."
Now it was Tim that needed ministered to - he was consumed by
depression. "Dear Fred" he wrote and then followed with a detailed
account of his anguish, asking pitifully at the end if Mr. Rogers would be
proud of him. His reply came. "Dear Tim. The answer to your
question is YES - a resounding YES. I will be proud of you. I am
proud of you. I have been proud of you since first we met. (Tim and
his wife now refer to the letter as Fred's IPOY - Fred's 'I'm Proud Of
You" letter. The depression lifted.
Sometimes we are the blind horse being guided by the little ringing
bell of those who God places in our lives. Other times we are the guide
horse, helping others see.
As followers of Jesus, we are all on the pathway together with
Him, forming a community that feeds us and fuels us giving us the strength
for the battles we are fighting and to help others with theirs. That's our
calling. When God says "HELP!" we answer and therein find solace
and satisfaction in the daily experience - knowing we are on the right path,
finding helpful and fulfilling things to do - seeking to bring the Love of
Christ into a world much in need of It. May God guide and direct us.
He has told us: "You shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall
speak whatever I comand you. (Jeremiah 1:7.) Amen
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)August 26, 2007 10:30 a, m. Jeremiah 1:4-10
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