Sermons: January 20, 2008 - January 26, 2008 Archives

Sermons

« January 13, 2008 - January 19, 2008 | Go Back to the Main Index of Sermons | January 27, 2008 - February 02, 2008 »

January 20, 2008

United In Christ

Sermon: January 20, 2008
1 Thessalonians 5:13-18,
John 1:35-42

John the Baptist’s followers hear John proclaim Jesus as the one sent by God, and they leave John to follow Jesus. John knows that it is his responsibility to point his followers in the direction of Jesus, to focus on Jesus and not call after his disciples discouraging them from leaving him. John’s connection with God and his ability to listen to God’s instructions, allow him to see and understand upon Jesus’ baptism that he is the Messiah, the one sent by God. John knows that he is not the end of the story, just the beginning. John the Baptist is a good instructive example for us today.

As people who’ve been in the church for a large portion of our lives, we can get sidetracked. John’s witness reminds us of this. Sometimes we focus on our individual church community, our denomination, our pastor, our traditions, or money. We are reminded that our focus needs to be on Jesus and his call that we serve and share the Good News in His name. We are here because of him and his commitment to love and serve us.

Today marks the 100th year of cooperation between Anglican, Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant churches of participating in a week of Prayer for Christian Unity. While theologically we don’t expect that all of us will just set aside our difference and come together, we do pray for a Spirit of Unity in the Christian Church--a spirit of unity that centers on our common belief in Jesus Christ.

The question that comes to mind for us as United Methodists is the question that other denominations such as the Episcopal Church USA are struggling with right now. The question of reconciling ministries—affirming the rights of all people to be open about who they are without fear of reprisal, dismissal, or exclusion from their community of faith, their families, their jobs or from society. The question we ask ourselves is, “If we can’t have unity in our own denomination on this one issue, how can we have unity across denominational lines?” I want to suggest this morning that the answer is multi-layered.

First, we have got to stop focusing all of our time on the institutional church—our doctrine, our organization, ourselves!! We’ve got to get over ourselves. General Conference happens once every four years and it sets policy and doctrine for the United Methodist Church. At General Conference, there are 10 issues which come before the 1000 delegates. The delegation is to examine, debate, and vote on these main issues and other items brought forth from the floor. In my brief time of observing General Conference, I would say that we spend too much time putting together focus groups or committees that look at the same issues over and over.

For example, the ordination process. We continue to change and amend the process of ordination. It has changed when I was coming up and now they want to change it again, just four years later. Shouldn’t we keep the system the same for a while to see if it is working before we change it again? What I’m trying to say is that the institution of the United Methodist church is caught up in institutionalism. We think we can legislate policy and doctrine. Then people's hearts will change. It doesn't work that way.
I think being the church has got to be both/And. At the local church level, we need to support organizations such as RMN and others who are working to change the doctrines (laws) of the church that are prejudice, hurtful, and exclusionary.

However, we cannot afford to spend too much time focusing on changing the culture of the church from the top down. This is part of the reason why people are disenchanted with the church. They feel we are irrelevant. Many people don’t think the things we argue about in the church are issues that should be argued about. If we are going to change the culture of the church, it has got to start in the pews with each of us. It’s got to start with us and become a surge upward.

To be a Radical Christian is counter intuitive. Jesus didn’t spend his time working to change the structure of the Jewish faith. He walked about in the culture, teaching, healing, preaching, and being there for people in their pain, suffering, and marginalization. As followers of Jesus, we are to shift the majority of our focus from the institution of the church, the maintenance of the local church, to the community in which we live. We have to focus beyond the church. And unlike Jesus’ time, our community is the world. What we do in Chicago Illinois can have a positive or negative effect on children in India, Columbia, or Florida. At the local church level, we cannot wait for the church culture to change. Our work, our ministry, will be our statement about what we believe. We are called to share the love and Gospel of Jesus Christ with those we meet and serve each day.

In two recent surveys of white evangelical Christians, the results showed that the tide may be shifting—that there may be an opening where Christian churches can come together to be a powerful force in our community and the world. White evangelicals are known for reading their Bibles literally and not being a thinking Christian—more of a spoon-fed Christian. They have been indoctrinated to believe what their pastor tells them rather than critically explore scriptures for themselves. We have seen their influence in Washington over the past eight years in keeping abortion and gay marriage as top priorities.

Anyway, in a CBS News poll, white evangelical Christians surprised pollsters by not listing gay marriage and abortion among their top priorities. Health care topped the list with 23% and the Iraq war followed with 20%. When asked to identify the issued evangelicals should get more involved in, 33% said poverty and 17% cited genocide and violence. I remind you that at a survey done in worship here at Irving Park UMC, 33% of you named hunger (which I would equate side by side with poverty) as your number one concern for 2008—a mission that you would personally work on.

Even more telling to me was a recent Barna Group poll that interviewed young evangelical ages 16 to 29 years old. The results were that:
• 50% perceived Christianity to be judgmental, hypocritical, and too political
• 33% say Christianity is old-fashioned and out of touch
• 80% say “anti-homosexual” is a phrase that describes Christianity
• 22% agree that Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus

This information leads me to my second point and one of the reasons I have encouraged us to participate in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. We live in a world with all kinds of problems and issues. We’ve got to have partners in ministry. At Irving Park UMC, we should not try to be the church alone. Sometimes as the local church we think we must be all things to all people. We can’t. In order to expand our ministry and outreach we need to be looking for partners in ministry. Sometimes these partners will be our denomination. We have so many awesome resources at our disposal as United Methodists, so many networks set up for mission work around the world.

Why do you think FEMA gave a large portion of the rebuilding money to the UMCOR (an arm of the UMC) after Hurricane Katrina? Because we have a very, very good structure in place for handling disaster relief.

Another example of doing work together with other UM is our youth group. Our two youth, Ruby and Cole Keutzer, and I join the youth group at First Vietnamese on Wilson, and the youth group from Ravenswood Fellowship. This teamwork approach works because now we have a larger group, providing the teenagers with a better experience than if it was just the three of us.

We need not limit ourselves to just other United Methodists as partners in ministry. We would be wise to work with other local Christian congregations on shared ministries in our community. I belong to the local Ministerial. It is comprised of the Baptist minister, Episcopal priest, Lutheran minister, retired UM minister who is the husband of the Baptist minister, a Catholic deacon, and a few others who I’ve not met yet in my six months here.

The Ministerial worked together to put on a celebration for the late, great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The celebration is at 4:30pm this afternoon. There will be a High school dance troop, special music, readings from Dr. King and a video produced by the youth at St. John’s and Irving Park Lutheran. We’re having a light dinner after the service. I’ll be there and it would be good to see some of our congregation participate in this community event.

We put together a joint Thanksgiving service on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving last fall. As the new person in the cluster, I was asked to preach. Vicci Keutzer was there representing our congregation with me. Let’s make a better showing for this community event. This is a continuation of a relationship with our sister churches in our community. During Holy Week, we will be partnering with one maybe two of the local Christian churches for a Good Friday evening service. By spending time together in worship and fellowship getting to know each other, my hope is that we will to take the next step and work together on a particular issue in our community.

We also look for partners in Ministry who are not necessarily Christians and leads me to my third point—It is time for a revival of the Christian Church.

Jim Wallis is Editor in Chief of Sojourners Magazine. Sojourners is a monthly magazine that sees it as their mission to inform and inspire people of faith to find ways to express their faith in positive actions that transform themselves and the world. They are also about doing the work and reflection themselves so it is an active, participatory faith they are sharing.

In addition to being editor of Sojourners, Jim is a Christians who has a passion for social justice and an author. He has written a new book. The book is entitled “The Great Awakening.” In his travels across the U.S., Jim is witnessing a change in people’s involvement in social issues. While the social issues we face seem so huge and daunting that they cannot be tackled, Jim reports that people are tapping into the Biblical principle that “if we have faith as small as the grain of a mustard seed, we can move mountains.”

Validating my theory that now is the time for a revival of the Christian Church; Jim writes that historically, “Revivals often occur when politics is broken, when it (politics) fails to address the most significant moral issues of the day. Social movements then rise up to change politics, and the best movements usually have a spiritual foundation.” (1) Wallis goes on to say that “Such revivals of faith applied to our most significant social and public challenges also show the capacity to bring people together—even across traditional political boundaries and divisions—in order to find real answers and solutions. That’s because faith and spirituality can take us deeper than politics can, with a moral commitment that allows us to transcend our usual ideological debates.” (2)

What are some examples of these spiritual revivals that have occurred? The one we celebrate when we remember Dr. King and the black churches leadership is the U.S. civil rights movement. Going before this we also remember John Wesley’s involvement in the abolition of slavery in Britain and the U.S., the Solidarity movement in Poland with its Catholic roots. We also recall how Bishop Desmond Tutu and the South Africa churches inspired victory over the apartheid.

This is not the time to look for those things that divide us but for those issues that could potentially bring us together. I had this idea for the sermon and must admit that I felt validated when I read Jim Wallis article. Although I haven’t traveled the country as he has, I was elated to read his article and to be affirmed that something is happening in our country. Business as usual is shifting. The religious leaders who have spoken on behalf of all religious bodies are being quieted as others raise their voices and take action.

Those in positions of power are elated that the Christian church, that people of faith are side tracked with schism and disharmony. What kind of changes for the good could we make if we harnessed our combined voices to rid our country of poverty, rid the world of AIDS and racism. Remember when I said above that we must also look for partners in ministry who are not necessarily Christians? Here’s why. We cannot assume we have the corner on God’s movement and action in the world. There are people out there who want to make a difference and they have the money, contacts, and heart to do so.

Bono is a perfect example. So is the Nothing But Nets campaign. The NBA, UMC, Sports Illustrated partnered up to provide children in Africa with mosquito nets that would protect them while they slept. These nets cost $10 each and to date 1,811,949 nets have been distributed to Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Chad, and Nigeria. There are plans to get nets to all the countries of Africa.

It begins with Prayer. Prayer is not a passive act! It is powerful. It is active. John Wesley would encourage us to “work out our salvation” through both our personal, quiet time of reflection with God and our actions done in response to what that faith in God compels us to do.

Make your life a prayer. Pray without ceasing does not really refer to unending prayer, but rather to prayer that is persistent until a proper outcome transpires—until transformation occurs. Paul’s writing at the end of 1 Thessalonians urges his readers to be pro-active rather than reactive, shining like lights in the darkness so that others might be drawn to the light of Christ.

We are a people who believe that God changed the world through one man—Jesus Christ. Do you think that God is finished acting in our world? Do you want to be a part of the radical transformation that needs to take place? I do and I hope you do too. Make your life a pro-active prayer.

Posted by vickie at 10:00 AM