05-25-2008 Don't Worry, Be....

Matthew 6:24-34

²⁴“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

²⁷And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? ²⁸And why do you worry about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.

³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

³¹Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ ³²For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

³³But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

³⁴“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

The young woman was brought to our ER by ambulance. She’d left an emotionally abusive home only to fall into the arms of a physically abusive husband. She then fell into a deep depression which would weigh her down for months.

The night she appeared in our ER, she had a broken cheekbone--from the husband--and long, deep gashes on her wrists. By her own hand.

I arrived after her family’s minister got there, but I could hear him as I approached the curtain. He told her that it was a good thing that she hadn’t died, because she would’ve gone straight to hell. He told her that her husband had acted badly because she wasn’t being a good wife--like God wanted her to be. He told her that her depression was nonsense--she just needed a better attitude. “Consider the lilies!” he told her.

I heard this, and so I grabbed him by the hair and pounded his head into the railing of the bed, and asked him, “who are you to come into my ER and mistreat my patient?”

I didn’t do that. But, I wanted to.

She sat down at the table downstairs last week with her breakfast. And her two kids. She told me that she’d had a good job and a boyfriend, and things had been pretty good.

Then, her job went south--literally--and her boyfriend went east. And the job she has now is just not enough. And that if it weren’t for free meals and food programs in the city, she wouldn’t know what to do. Sundays were hard, because nobody had meals on Sunday.

So, I told her, “Don’t worry about it! Buck up! Look at the flowers and birds. Are they worrying? Jesus said not to worry about trivial things. So, stop worrying and be positive! Relax! Look at the birds! Don’t worry, be happy!

I didn’t say that. Nor would I ever.

Both these stories tell us something about the world in which we live.

It ain’t Galilee.

Galilee in Jesus’ time was a very poor place, and yet, the situation was such that if you knocked on almost any door, you’d get a meal--maybe even a bed for the night. Jesus’ whole plan of mission counted on this. Remember, he told the disciples when he sent them out not carry anything with them, but to accept whatever hospitality was offered? There was no need for most people to get distracted with financial problems. In fact, the more the community became caring, and embodied the gospel of the kingdom the better the chances were that you would survive, at least with the basics.

Acts 2 tells the story of the early Jerusalem church, which was essentially a commune. It was. Everybody shared what they had and they all had plenty. Until the fourth chapter, of course, when things got complicated.

The point is that in Jesus’ time, this was very good advice. Don’t worry about survival. You will survive. God will take care of you, along with generous people.

Bill Loader says, “The strategy would not have worked in desperately poor areas and still does not. Starving people look with vacant faces at birds and, if anything, would want to eat them or shoo them away from the little they have. It is even worse when good Christian people imply that desperate people lack faith or are somehow left on the scrap heap because they worry and don't trust.”

We live in a world full of people who cannot help but worry and who have a difficult time trusting. They are exhausted and fearful--either of economic disaster, or of emotional or mental pain. Repeating “consider the lilies of the field,” to someone on the brink of financial or nervous breakdown, and, well, you’ll get what you deserve.

So, where does that leave us--relatively well-off--and if you think you’re not, take a look at the pictures from Darfur, if you can stomach them. We are relatively well-off, and well fed--maybe overfed. We live in decent homes--some more affluent than others. What does this passage bring to us?

The first verse of our reading addresses us. We can’t serve two masters. We can’t serve both God and money--actually, the word there, mammon, means greed for money or wealth. You either work for wealth, or you work for God. They are opposites.

To serve God is the opposite of serving greed. The issue is about idolatry--and an idol is anything you worship more than God.

Bill Loader writes:

“The contrast [that is of God and wealth] only makes sense if you really do think they are opposites. If your image of God is of one who will guarantee you blessing, here or beyond, so that you can do better than others, then your God is in close alliance with mammon. They are mates. It matters little whether your satisfaction is to be at peace in this world with possessions while others go without or to have peace in the life to come knowing that others face pain and oblivion. They are both versions of non-love. But if your God is a God of compassion, your passion and your pain will be compassionate. So we choose the God of compassion who calls for sharing or we choose the God of greed and self-indulgence, making ourselves rich and happy at others' expense. Both can be very religious.

I think that the pie-in-the-sky prosperity- Gospel type preachers who tell their audiences that God wants them to be rich are going to have some ‘splaining to do. Not only does that kind of thinking not deliver, it reminds me of a line from Harry Emerson Fosdick’s great hymn:

“Shame our wanton, selfish gladness,

Rich in things, but poor in soul.”

So, what do we do? Ignore our needs? Live outside in the park? Stop working? No, God has made us to take care of our own needs, but not at the expense of other people, not at the expense of noticing God’s creation, at not at the expense of worshiping the material world more than God.

Alice Walker wrote in her greatest novel, “I think God gets [hacked] off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” Consider the purple in the field? Not for the sake of the color purple itself, but to honor the one who created it.

Tom Wright (who wrote our Luke for everyone book) writes in his new book on Hope, “when people cease to be surrounded by beauty, they cease to hope.”

Rather than worship the idol of wealth, we are to seek the kingdom of God and its righteousness. Throughout the bible, God’s kingdom and righteousness are linked with justice. And the kingdom of righteousness & justice is the business of making sure that all have enough.

• Justice is questioning why Ohio has the highest foreclosure rate in the country.

• Justice is working to bring jobs to Mansfield

• Justice is not just providing a meal, it is seeking to change the systems and infrastructures that keep some in poverty.

• Justice is noticing the flowers and birds--the beauty given to us by God--and caring for the earth that nurtures them and us.

Then we can truly appreciate the flowers and the birds. Because, our problem isn’t that we’re too busy to notice the flowers, the problem is that we lack confidence in the God we worship. We don’t trust that our needs will be met--not realizing that our needs will never truly be met while others remain in need. Do we really believe that God will provide for us? Seek the kingdom, first, then everything else will come. Seek the kingdom in prayer, in study, in love for others, and you’ll have enough.

But, please don’t say that to someone who looks at a bird and wonders if that might be their next meal--they can’t hear that over the growling of their stomachs. Tell them that God is walking with them--and that you will, too.

You want to know what I said to those two women in the stories I told earlier? Not, don’t worry, be happy! Everything will be alright. Seek the kingdom and everything will be just fine.

No, I told them that God was hurting right there with them, and that God didn’t want them to hurt. And that there were lots of people who would walk with them.

And that is the good news for all of us--that God will always walk with us. And that there are lots of people who will walk through life with us.

Last Wednesday, about 40 of us walked the streets of Downtown Mansfield to see the places our church has called home over the years. And we remembered the people who’d gone before us, and the ways in which they had blessed our city in the past. It was a wonderful metaphor for the Christian life--we walk in paths that have been created for us by those who’ve gone before--who still walk with us, And we notice not only the beauty, but the needs. And we remember that God is walking with us, empowering us to reach out, to love, to enjoy beauty, and to serve. That is Good news, Good News, indeed. Amen.

First Christian Church Sermons Chris Whitehead 5/25/2008

05-18-2008 Go Ye Means Go We

Mathew 28:16-20

Trinity Sunday

16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

It’s Trinity Sunday, meaning most good Disciples pastors are scratching their heads. We Disciples aren’t very good Trinitarians. Alexander Campbell believed in God, known to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but he found the doctrines of the Trinity impenetrable nonsense—one God, three persons, etc., and the term didn’t appear in the Bible, so Campbell didn’t have much use for it. And, ever since, we Disciples have been reluctant to embrace the doctrines surrounding the Trinity, even though we acknowledge God to be our Father (and Mother), God the Son in Jesus of Nazareth, and God within us, the Holy Spirit. In more contemporary terms, we acknowledge God as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.

And so, Trinity Sunday rolls around and we like to dwell on the baptismal formula in Matthew 28, one of only two places in the bible where this idea seems to exist. We baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to acknowledge our understanding of God, and to follow the directive of Christ in this passage.

Or, we play with the language—which I fully intended to do in this sermon—hence the title, “Go ye means Go we.” I put it that way because I still hear the King James Version in my head, like I bet many of you do.

Here, in this passage, is a place where the King Jimmy gives us something we don’t have in the newer translations. The Greek word here for you is plural—most languages distinguish between you singular, as in, “you, Kathy, are doing a great job today,” as opposed to you plural, as in “you, choir, are doing a great job today.”

Elizabethan English had provisions for separating out you singular and you plural. You is singular, ye is plural. And the King James Version gets it right here. Go ye. You, plural. In the South we have a perfectly good way of expressing this—ya’ll. If we were reading this in the Revised Southern version, Jesus would say, “Ya’ll go on out there and round up folks to follow me.”

That’s what I was going to do.

But, funny things happen between the time when I first plan a sermon and the week finally rolls around.

This week, I saw in this passage something new. It is a wonderful brief outline of what being church is all about.

Two Sundays ago, we examined Luke’s version of this story—where Jesus tells the disciples to spread the news—but in a different way. There he gives them the geography—“you will be my witnesses, first in Jerusalem, in a Judea and Samaria, and to ends of the earth.

But, Matthew emphasizes church life in his telling of the story. It is not just about going, and baptizing, but so much more.

The basis for this outline of church life begins from other sources—the rest of Matthew’s Gospel, and the rest of the scriptures. The basis for life in the church is God’s loving grace.

Have I ever told you my theory that everybody is a fundamentalist? It’s true. They may not be classic fundamentalists, how have a list of five fundamentals concerning scripture, the Virgin Birth, Substitutionary Atonement, physical resurrection, and bodily return. Not everyone has that as their list of fundamentals, but we are all fundamentalists at heart.

We just have different lists.

I bet you have a small simple set of beliefs that undergird the rest of your faith, that are foundational, fundamental to whom you are. For some, the Golden rule is part of it. For others, the Ten Commandments. The sermon on the Mount. For some, the doctrine of the Trinity.

Here’s mine.

God’s Loving Grace Is Greater than Anything Anyone Can Imagine. Grace means God Loves You. Period. No matter what.

Grace

Because of that, We Want to Worship God

Because We Know God’s Grace, We Want to Share it With Others.

We want to Learn and Teach God’s will for all and to all.

Remember, Jesus Is Always With Us.

First Christian Church Sermons Chris Whitehead 5/4/2008

05-04-2008 Out of the Church

Acts 1:1-11

May 4, 2008

1In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning 2until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; 5for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

6So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Luke 24:44-53

44Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 45Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

50Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 51While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. 52And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; 53and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

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I saw a bumper sticker years ago which sets the tone for a theological discussion of Christ’s return. It stated, “Jesus is Coming,” and the fine print at the bottom added, “look busy.”

I thought of that this week as I considered this week’s text. We have the story-actually two stories--of Jesus’ ascension, in which he gives the disciples instructions and then vanishes. And then angels come and ask them, “why are just staring off into space? Get busy.”

The stories in Luke and Acts are slightly different—which is interesting, because the same person is telling them. We could try to moosh them together like we do the Christmas stories, but we will miss the point. They are different because they have different emphases.

Luke and Acts were written as one book. The gospel of Luke tells the story of Jesus of Nazareth, beginning with his uncle Zechariah praying in the temple before his birth, and the disciples praying in the temple after he ascends to heaven.

Acts begins with the disciples receiving Luke’s version of the “Great Commission,” and being sent out into the world.

Both versions tell of the coming of the power of the Holy Spirit. Both versions begin with the promise that the disciples will be witnesses to Jesus and his message, and that the story will be told first in Jerusalem.

But then, the Acts story moves out—literally—into the world.

Jesus gives the disciples a plan of action to carry the good news into the world. In Acts 1:8, Jesus tells them, “You will be my witnesses, in (slide) Jerusalem, Judea (slide) and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (slide)

Interestingly, this verse is also an outline of the book of Acts.

The Book of Acts describes the Apostles in mission in the first century after Jesus’ ascension—his leaving the earth. And it follows that three-fold pattern—Acts 2-7 describe the growth of the church in Jerusalem. Acts 8-15 in Judea and Samaria, and Acts 16 through the end of the book describe the acts (primarily of Paul) in spreading the good news about Jesus to the ends of the earth—at least as they knew it.

But, this outline can also be instructive for us in our work in the church, today. We have our own Jerusalems, Judeas and Samarias, and our own ends of the earth.

We are going to be celebrating our 175^th anniversary over the next few months, and we can learn something about ourselves and our future as we look back.

We built this building in Jerusalem. Jerusalem? This isn’t Jerusalem. Ah, but it is.

The disciples were sent out first to the place in which they lived, the place which was most familiar to them. They shared the good news throughout the Greater Jerusalem Metropolitan area, and the church grew like mad.

And we grew within our own little realm of Jerusalem, er, Mansfield. We stayed in the place where we were most familiar and we grew. We grew primarily through the church nursery—because we had a phenomenal birthrate in the 1950s, but then again, most churches did. Some church growth experts have called it “bedroom evangelism.” Think about it.

We were a neighborhood church and grew that way. Occasionally we would invite someone from our immediate circles to visit, and we grew that way, too. Still, the church looked, well, probably a lot like the Jerusalem church in its early days—pretty homogeneous—we all looked pretty much alike—white, middle class.

But God wasn’t satisfied with a church that looked that way, and so the disciples were sent out into Judea and Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth. I want to come back to Judea and Samaria in a bit. Right now, I want to deal with the ends of the earth.

The church reached the ends of the earth pretty quickly, given that there was no mass communication and no rapid transit. Paul traveled by ship—in pretty dangerous conditions—and preached throughout Asia Minor (Turkey), Macedonia, Greece, and even Rome. In one lifetime. And where his message was received, others went out from there to spread the good news.

No doubt, the folks back in Jerusalem were asked if they wanted to go on mission trips, too. No, but they would send money to help. That’s OK, they were participating. And they did a remarkable job in spreading the word.

You, too, have done a remarkable job in reaching the ends of the earth. You have been reaching the ends of the other with mission offerings. First Christian Church Women have been sending money to support Disciples missions for well over a century.

Next month, on the 8^th, I hope you will be here for the kick-off event of our Anniversary Celebration. Johnny Wray will be our preacher—and I consider him to be one of the top 10 preachers in the Disciples. Johnny is the Director of the Week of Compassion Offering ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). That ministry is our relief and development program, and part of a multi-denominational program called One Great Hour of Sharing. Relief, in that when disaster and war arise, human sufferings rise with them. And we help. Sometimes, it’s other help that’s needed. Those Week of Compassion offerings we have given have dug wells that have made a huge difference in the lives of people far, far away.

Johnny has literally been to the ends of the earth in Christ’s name and in yours. In many ways and in many places, he is the face of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). When the tsunami hit three years ago, he was there and you were there, bringing good news and comfort and help. Week of Compassion responded in uncountable ways when my hometown of New Orleans was flooded during Hurricane Katrina. And when floods hit Ohio last summer, week of compassion dollars flowed into Mansfield and Findlay to help. Ohio is the ends of the earth if standing somewhere else.

You have reached out in countless ways to share the Gospel with others in faraway places. And we need to keep doing that.

But, then there’s this pesky business of Judea and Samaria. That must have been hard for the first Apostles (they were Disciples until they were sent out. Disciples=follow, Apostles=sent out or away). The really didn’t like the Samaritans and the Judeans, well they weren’t all that keen of having them in the church either. But, they reached out, and the church grew.

And so here we are, in the midst of our own Jerusalem, surrounded by Judea and Samaria. The birthrate in Jerusalem (that is, at FCC Mansfield) has dropped considerably. This neighborhood, which we once knew as Jerusalem, has now become the unfamiliar territory of Judea and Samaria. But, more than that, we are surrounded by an increasingly unchurched population. Folks who have either never heard the good news of Jesus Christ, or, more likely, had some bad experiences in the church in the past or simply got bored and quit going.

I meet a lot of folks who’ve been burned by the church. They’ve been judged and criticized and squeezed right out of Jerusalem and into Samaria. And, what they need is an invitation from someone—well, like you—with the Good News, indeed, that there are a bunch of folks who love Jesus and each other, and leave judgment to God’s loving heart.

They may have gotten out of the church, but now they need to find their way back. Maybe you—each of you and all of you hold the key for them. And a word of kindness may be all it will take to start.

The Luke lesson ends with the Disciples praying and worshiping in the Temple. In Jerusalem. But, you can’t grow from inside—you’ve go to get out of the church! Cleaning up around here in Judea and Samaria is a good start—and a good way to meet our neighbors.

And there’s nothing in here about age limits. And retirement isn’t a part of the biblical witness at all. Marj, one of our members from the last church I served went on a mission trip with us at age 84. Someone asked what she could possibly do to help with the work that was to be done. “I’ll encourage the others,” she said. And she did. In Ukraine. Which is at the ends of the earth mind you.

Imagine what you could do right here at home.

First Christian Church Sermons Chris Whitehead 5/4/2008