Worship February 19, 2012

February 19, 2012

Morning Prayers
Caring and merciful God, we thank you for the faith of others when our
faith is low, for the love of others when we cannot marshal the strength to
be loving, for the work of others when we cannot work ourselves. May we be
likewise faithful, loving and diligent for our brothers and sisters and for
the least of those among us. Help us to remember that we are not alone and
work your will among us and through us all.

I pray O God to you in thanksgiving for this people before me - this church
of yours that is so loving and caring. Bless us as we try to live out your love in this place. We join with all your people now in praying for others whom you have placed upon our hearts - some of this congregation - and some from places well beyond the doors of this sanctuary. Lord hear our prayers for one another and for our world.

2 Corinthians 1:18-22
18 But as God is faithful, our message to you isn’t both yes and no. 19 God’s Son, Jesus Christ, is the one who was preached among you by us—through me, Silvanus, and Timothy—he wasn’t yes and no. In him it is always yes. 20 All of God’s promises have their yes in him. That is why we say Amen through him to the glory of God.
21 God is the one who establishes us with you in Christ and who anointed us. 22 God also sealed us and gave the Spirit as a down payment in our hearts.

“God’s Emphatic Yes”
There is a moment in the movie Jackie Brown, in which the character named Louis is trying to tell another character, Ordell, that he (Louis) as murdered Ordell’s girlfriend Melanie. Louis tells Ordell that he shot her twice, and Ordell then asks, “is she dead?” And Louis gives one of the great answers in movie history.
“Is she dead?”
“Pretty much,” Louis answers.
Ordell then gets angry and says, “What you mean pretty much, that ain’t a yes or no answer. Is she dead?”
Louis, who can’t bring himself to answer yes says, “I think so.”
That response, “pretty much,” has become synonymous with saying yes in our culture, but it really isn’t. And if you want to answer no, you say, “not really.”
But those equivocal answers for definite questions don’t work.
“Honey do you love me?”
“Pretty much.”
“Did you pick p the stuff I needed from the store?”
Pretty much.
“Pretty much? Did you get it or not?”
“Not really.”
When I answer Kate with “pretty much,” I know that there’s a scream coming.
Whe I used to ask my children to do something, the answer was always, “yeah, but.” They sounded like motorboats. Yeah, but but but but.
Equivocal answers for definite questions--answers that Paul says God would never give.
Does God love us?
Pretty much.
Has God abandoned First Christian Church in Mansfield?
Not really.
Does God have a purpose and future for First Christian Church?
Pretty much.
Paul says that God’s answer in Christ is always an emphatic yes. Which is a good thing. We want to hear yes.
Yes means something.
On the night Kate and I became engaged, we were sitting on the stoop of the house she shared with her sister, and in the conversation, it became clear that we were asking each other to marry. And the answer was Oh yes. Yes yes yes. It was good to hear that yes.
A couple years back, Kate and I were heading up to Ashland on a Saturday morning, when the car overheated on the 71. I thought about whom I could call, and realized that Nelson Shogren lived close to where we were. So I called him, and asked him for help. Without hesitation, he said, “yes,” and arrived a few minutes later. It was good to hear that yes.
On this day, we need to hear that the very nature of our God is a Yes, that God speaks his resounding yes to us and the world. 
In the creation story in Genesis 1, we experience the mood of God, the master artist at work.  God says, “Let there be light,” and suddenly there is light, and God says, “Yes!!! It is good.”  Then God the artist says, “Let there be the heavens” and suddenly there is the sky, with all its expansive beauty, and God, the artist, kisses his fingers in delight and exclaims, “Yes!!! It is good.”  Then God, the artist, thinks and grins within and says “Let there be suns, and moons, and stars in the sky,” and suddenly, the heavens were filled with these glorious bright lights and God smiles again and exclaims, “Yes!!!  It is good.”  About the sixth day, in the afternoon, God felt a little lonely for God had no one to talk with, no one to enjoy his artistic creation with. So God said, “Let there be human beings, to be companions for one another and friends with me,” and suddenly, there were human beings on the earth.  And God, pleased with his creativity, says, “Ahhh!!! Yes!!!  It is very good.”  … God didn’t say, “Yeah, but the world is so corrupt now.  Yeah, but the earth’s solar cap is now melting because of increased carbons. Yeah, but the rain forests are being burnt all over the earth.”  No.  Let it be clearly heard and understood.  To this fallen world of ours, to this sin corroded earth of ours:  God says Yes.  Clearly, cleanly, crisply. Yes.
Psalm 8 says that not only are we and world good, but that we, as human beings, are the highest creatures that God has ever made; we are only a little less than God! God does not say, yeah, but you a divorced loser, or yeah, but you’re not a very good minister, or yeah, but you’re not a very good wife, or yeah, but you’re a bad parent--just look at your kids. No, even to us who are a part of this broken and fallen world, God says, “yes, you matter. Yes, you are loved. Yes, there is a purpose for you.”
In our lesson for today, Paul is trying to explain why he has delayed a visit to the Corinthian church. Some Corinthians are complaining (in the verses before our reading) that Paul failed to stick to his plans and visit them a second time. Instead he had changed his mind. This laid him open to the charge that he could not possibly be a divinely guided apostle, like the others. Paul can't be very spiritually minded if one moment he says, yes, and the next he says, no.
Instead of defending himself directly Paul simply asserts that he lives a gospel where there is certainty: God is certain and clear in the gospel in offering love and acceptance and incorporating us into Christ. He starts by recalling the certainty with which he and Timothy proclaimed the gospel in Corinth in the first place. At another he simply shifts ground to what is certain. The only status Paul is concerned about is living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is prepared to sacrifice the image of consistency and the status gained by being impressive. In fact he sees values such as being consistent overly impressive as a contradiction of the gospel.
What matters is not Paul’s performance as an emissary of the Gospel, but the nature of the Gospel itself--the Gospel that is the crowning of God’s emphatic ‘Yes.” The goodness of creation in Genesis and the affirmation of God in Psalm 8 comes to its greatest glory in Jesus Christ. John 3:16 does not begin, For God so loved the world--but. No, God’s becoming human in the form of Jesus is an emphatic yes to this world and to us.
Let’s ask some questions again:
Does God love us?
Pretty much. NO, Yes!
Has God abandoned First Christian Church in Mansfield?
Not really. No.
Does God have a purpose and future for First Christian Church?
Pretty much. No, Yes!
Does God have a purpose for you?
YES!


Offering Invitation

"For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich." (2 Corinthians 8:9)
        In what ways do you feel rich because of Jesus Christ? Think about this as you bring your offering to God.

Offering Prayer

      From you, O Lord, we have learned the wisdom of a simple lifestyle which places our possessions in proper perspective. Help us, also, to learn from you the extravagance of self-giving love. May these offerings reflect a bit of both. We give them in Jesus' name. Amen.

Benediction

Go in peace,
- serve and love the Lord your God
- and may all of God's blessings -
love, peace, joy, strength, truth,
mercy, and kindness--and God’s yes in Christ--
be upon you and shine forth from you;
both now and forevermore. Amen.