April 24- change the world day sermon

Change happens- what kind will it be?

RUMC April 25, 2010

How many united Methodists does it take to change a light bulb.

109.

 Seven on the Light Bulb Task Force Subcommittee, who report to the 

12 on the Light Bulb Task Force, appointed by the 

15 on the Trustee Board.  Their recommendation is reviewed by the Finance Committee Executive of

 5, who place it on the agenda of the

 18 member Finance Committee.  If they approve, they bring a motion to the 

27 member church Board, who appoint another 

12 member review committee.  If they recommend that the Church Board proceed, a resolution is brought to the Church conference.  They appoint another

 8 member review committee.  If their report to the next Church conference supports the changing of a light bulb, and the conference votes in favor, the responsibility to carry out the light bulb change is passed on to the Trustee Board, who in turn appoint a 

7 member committee to find the best price in new light bulbs.  Their recommendation of which Hardware Store has the best buy must then be reviewed by the 

23 member Ethics Committee to make certain that this hardware store has no connection to any unjust corporations.  They report back to the

Trustee Board who, then commissions the

Trustee in charge of the Janitor to ask him to make the change.

By then the janitor discovers that one more light bulb has burned out.

Nevertheless, everyone has a pot luck to celebrate what they accomplished.

It is a good thing that we can laugh at ourselves isn’t it?  

Let me ask you a serious question now.  How many Christians would it take to change the world?

Change is inevitable in life isn’t it?  And not just light bulbs.  They say the only thing that stays the same is that nothing stays the same.  We have seen a lot of change.  I like to ask our older members what has changed life the most since they were a child.  Some say electricity, some computers, some say cars and some say communications.  But they all agree that the change has been tremendous. 

They also agree that some change has been good and some has not.

God is a God of change.  Read the next to last chapter of Revelation.

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ²I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Rev 21)

You think imagining the new heaven is hard; now wrap your brain around this.  God has appointed the church to be the ushers for this new kingdom.

It has always amazed me that God trusted the kingdom to such a group of stumbling and bumbling people as us.  However, God did!  Thus the idea for CHANGE THE WORLD DAY which we celebrate today.

The question was what if we got 11 million people on the same page to work to change the world?  It just so happens that the United Methodist church has 11 Million members.  But how . . .  how do we do it?

How about starting with prayer?  Do you think prayer changes things?  I do.  I am convinced that prayer is the greatest power in all creation.  God says, “Ask whatever you will in my name and I will give it to you.”  Just last week we read, “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  Do you take those promises seriously?

You should . . . both individually and corporately; we have seen over and over again the tremendous power of prayer.  Bodies healed, jobs found, disasters averted, marriages saved, prayer is the number one most powerful tool for changing the world because it connects us directly to God's intention and God's power to change.

If there is any greater hope for changing a world that so desperately needs to be changed, I don’t know what it is.  So the number one world changing tool whether you are a single Christian or 11 million UM’s or 2 billion Christians worldwide, the number one world changing tool is prayer.  Pray, pray, pray, pray and when you are just about prayed out, pray again.  Change the world with prayer.

The second way we change the world is by banding together in worship.  Worship might be as small as 2 or 3.  .  .  Or as much as 25-30 thousand like Joel Osteen claims. 

What is so powerful and world changing about attending worship?  Let’s put it this way, don’t you think changing the world should start in our own hearts?  How can we teach forgiveness while we are holding a grudge?  How can we teach hope when we are in despair?  How can we teach about love when our own hearts are empty?  Worship transforms by the renewing of your mind
          Being present in worship is the place to start because that is where we are ourselves transformed.  That is where we ourselves are made new.  Worship is where we ourselves are molded, shaped, disciplined, and changed into the creation God envisions for us.

Every time we expose ourselves to the influence of God's word and every time we sing the songs of the faith; we walk away changed.  We walk away transformed. 

Change the world with your presence in worship.

The third tools we have to change the world are our gifts.  This is a very generous church.  As we celebrate “Change the world day,” we start a new offering for Mosquito Nets to wipe out malaria. 

We are using our change to change the world.  We can use bills and checks too, but it is not as catchy.

But this latest project is just the tip of the ice berg.  The apportionments are fundamentally the United Methodist church banding together 11 million members strong and saying together we can change the world with our gifts.  We gave $25,000 to apportionments last year.

But that is not the whole story either because on top of that you gave through your noisy offerings and fund raisers and your Operation Christmas child boxes and your health kits and the post garage sale donations--- are you ready for this?. . .  $18,156.  That is what these posters are about back here.  Please look at those.  When you add in the apportionments, a big percentage of which also goes for changing the world, that accounts for about a 1/3 of our spending last year. 

Do you think we might have changed the world for a child when they received their operation Christmas child box? 

Do you think we might have changed the world for one of the families I took to our local food bank?

Do you think we might have changed the world Change the world for a mother with a hungry baby when we gave to CROP or 30 hour famine or society of saint Andrew?

Do you think we might have changed the world when we helped provide a rent deposit so an abused woman and her children could have a place to live?

I would say you have changed the world with your gifts.

The fourth tool we have for changing the world is our service. 

I warned Mrs. Christiansen that I was going to do this to her.  She sits before us as a living breathing illustration of how the world changes because we love and serve. 

I met Beverly and Carl about a year ago when they moved in as my new neighbor.  And Beth met them and so did Sherris and others.  Little did any of us know that Carl would die in the December blizzard.  The congregation rallied around Beverly to get her through the first day when her family could not make it to Reinbeck because of the roads.  Carolyn even stayed with her through that dark first night.  And again, we served by inviting them to have the service here, and again by serving the lunch, and again by the way many of you treated them that day and in the following days.  And I know from Beverly’s own words that you showed her the love of Jesus by the way you treated her.  Your love showed her the love of Christ in a whole new way.  And today she sits here to become a member of this congregation.  Do you think you changed the world for Beverly?  I’d say so.

Again Look at LIGHT!  Look into the faces of those young children as they learn about Jesus.  Talk to the parents as they tell you how grateful they are to have a time that works for them to worship and learn as a family.  Do you think you just might be changing the world for them?

And what about our campership dinner.  Do you think that going to camp might change a child’s life?  Just ask me I will tell you it can.

What about love your neighbor day?  Or the blood drive?  Or the Valentine’s Day cookie walk?  None of them seems earth shattering, but for a family with a warm floor or a woman with clean windows or the parents with the child in need of blood or the person who thought no one cared for them.  You may have changed the world.

Change the world with your service.

Add all of these things added together- Prayers, presence, gifts and service then couple that with the final tool of our witness to the life changing power of Jesus Christ and, my friends, you have a recipe to change the world for someone.

Isn’t that what the scripture was about this morning.  for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.  When we do these things with the knowledge that we are doing them for Jesus, we just may be changing the world.

I don’t know how many united Methodist it takes to change a light bulb.  I don’t know how many united Methodists it would take to change the world.  But I do know that it only takes one person faithfully living out their Christian commitment to change the life of one other person, and then another and then another.

Let’s change the world one person at a time.

Change the world with your prayers

Change the world with your presence

Change the world by your gifts

Change the world by your service.

Change the world by your witness.

AMEN

           

"believing is believing" April 11, 2010 RUMC

Believing is believing

Rumc Easter week 2, 2010

·         If I say the name Judas, what word comes to mind?  Many of you say “betray" but not all of you.

·         If I were to mention Simon Peter, some of you would say "faith," but not all of you.

·         If I were to mention the names of James and John, some of you would say "Sons of Thunder," but not all of you.

·         But when I mention the word Thomas, there is little question that most everyone would say what?. . .  “Doubt.”  In fact, Thomas is so closely associated with doubt that we have coined a phrase to describe him: "Doubting Thomas."

Do you know that in the first three gospels say absolutely nothing at all about Thomas? It is only in John's Gospel that he emerges as a distinct personality, but even then there are only 155 words about him. There is not a lot about this disciple in the Bible but there is enough.

When Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem the disciples thought that it would be certain death for all of them. Which disciple said, “Then let us go so that we may die with him.”  THOMAS It was a courageous statement, yet we don't remember him for that.

When he missed Jesus’ first appearance to the disciples, which disciple asked for the same opportunity the rest of the guys got?  THOMAS.  That is the context of his words, I will not believe unless . . . “But we don’t look at it that way do we.

When Jesus appeared which disciple bowed down in an earth shattering confession of faith “My Lord, and my God." Not teacher. Not Lord. Not Messiah. But God! It is the only place where Jesus is called God without qualification of any kind.   THOMAS. These are certainly not the words of a doubter.

Even if we continue to call Thomas the doubter,

·         How different is his first reaction than the women who accused the gardener of stealing his body. 

·         How different is Thomas from the materialist Sadducees who didn’t’ believe in a bodily resurrection.

·         How different is Thomas from the millions of people throughout history who have said, “I don’t know- ‘now you see him, now you don’t, now you see him again’ doesn’t seem like God’s game.” 

·         How different is he from those who say he must not have really died? 

·         How different is he from those who say he was a ghost? 

·         How different is he from those who say I just don’t know

·         How different is Thomas from those who have tried many times to use historical of scientific methods to prove or disprove the resurrection.

·         How different is Thomas from those who say the dead do not normally rise, and therefore Jesus could not rise from the dead.

·         How different is Thomas from those who say I’ll follow Jesus because he was a great teacher.  But this resurrection stuff is just too much?

·         How different is Thomas from you and from me?

Preachers have spent way too much time trying to prove the resurrection to skeptical congregations.  I have read so many sermons entitled “5” or “7” or “3” reasons to believe Jesus was raised from the grave sermons that I begin to ask myself, “Who are they really trying to convince? The congregation or themselves?

Let me show you the best evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

1.      I’ll start right here.  Do you think I could have gone out and followed a career path that would make me more money?  Sure I could have, and I might have, if the real power of the resurrection hadn’t grabbed hold of me while I was still in High School and changed both my goals and my values.

2.      Do you think that after one church burning down and the other being on the edge of the 93 flood, after depression, suicide attempts, hospitalization mocking, after being stalked, harassed, threatened, and being told in a church council meeting that they ought to tar and feather me and run me out of town on a rail.  Do you think that after successfully working in a couple of  different industries, becoming a journeyman carpenter, starting my own business . . .  do you think after all of that that there is any explanation for my standing here today is anything short of a living testimony to the power of the resurrection in my life?

Let’s look at you

1.      I know of people in this congregation who have been raised from the grave of awful addictions to walk among us.  Is there any explanation for that besides the power of the resurrection of Jesus?

2.      I know of people who have survived awful, abusive childhoods or marriages, some who continue to suffer; yet sit here week after week.  Is there any greater evidence of the reality and power of the resurrection than their presence in our midst?

3.      I know of people here who have been down the road of mental illness; they daily struggle with the fear that it will come back or get out of control.  How do you explain presence in our midst? Only because the power of the risen lord brings them here.

4.      I know of some who have been through unspeakable illnesses, suffered, been on the brink of death, or walked through such illness with a loved one. Yet sit in our midst and testify to the love and the power of Jesus.  Is there any explanation other than the work of a resurrected and living Christ at work in your lives today?

5.      I have walked with some of you through the death of some dear people.  We have walked away from their graves with our heads hanging low.  Yet because the power of the risen and living Christ is proclaimed in our midst we have the hope to return on Sunday to sing halleluiah- AMEN. 

YOU- AND YOU AND YOU AND ME ARE THE BEST EVIDENCE I CAM IMAGINE THAT JESUS LIVED, DIED AND LIVES AGAIN.

How many of you were here Wednesday night?  Raise your hand.  Can you imagine any greater proof that we serve a resurrected and living Jesus, than what you saw Wednesday night? 

·         I am sure there were some who went Wednesday night believing in their hearts   that LIGHT would fail.

·         Here we are in a congregation with an average age of somewhere around 60

·         In a denomination with an average age of 62

·         In a time in history when we have lost 6 million members from our denomination

·         When the church is no longer marginalized but has been pushed off the page for most people.

·         With people around us asking “Why can’t they come on Sunday?  Or “Why should we make it easy for them?”—yes that question was really asked!!!

In that context we launched the first week of LIGHT.

Ø  We had more high school students than we have had all year including one who hasn’t been here since confirmation a year and a half ago.

Ø  We had ALL of the confirmation students here- which hasn’t happened in months, and they were alive and engaged!

Ø  The children’s rooms were overflowing and we know of more who plan to come this week!  There were two huge adult classes making the walls of their rooms bulge.

Ø  There were God’s children of all ages sitting fully engaged in praising God, and hearing God’s word. 

Ø  There were people you may have never met sitting in your pews.

Ø  There were people who hadn’t been to church in years smiling and talking about bringing friends.

If there is better evidence of the resurrection of Jesus than that I don’t know what it is!!!

Friends.  We don’t need scientific proof.  Friends, we don’t need to put our fingers in his hands and in his side.   Friends, we don’t need to see the grave cloths ourselves.  Friends, we don’t need to rely on our own private feelings, or hopes to prove the resurrection of Jesus.  And though it is a powerful reminder we don’t need to rely on a 2000 year old story to prove to us that Jesus is alive and well in our world, in Reinbeck, in our congregation and in our lives.

Last week, on Easter, we celebrated that after that awful Friday and that dark Saturday came Sunday morning.  The women left in brokenness and hopelessness and came running back from the tomb saying he’s loose! He’s loose!

Here we are a week after Easter- Just like the Thomas story.  Today we remember the one called the doubter , but we remember him not for doubting but for testifying that Jesus really is not just set loose from the tomb, and set loose in Thomas life.

Today we look at the story of the resurrection and it is almost unbelievable.  By that I mean it can’t be measured, explained, proven or disproven: except one single and miraculous way.   When Jesus himself comes to stand in front of us.  (I don’t mean bodily)  I mean in you looking at me and me looking at you.  I mean in all of us seeing in awe the living breathing Christ teeming in the faces that filled this sanctuary Wednesday night.  I mean in each of us as we see in our mind’s eye the person we once were and the person Christ has made of us. 

And there is only one response.

Some might say: evidence is believing.  But that is not really believing.

Some might say: I’ll believe when I can touch it. But that is not really believing.

Some might say: seeing is believing But that is not really believing.

Some might say: feeling is believing But that is not really believing.

Some might say: proving is believing. But that is not really believing.

Jesus asks us to have faith.  That is to say- we must believe simply because we believe that we believe that we believe. 

To know that we know that we know. in the depths of our being.

To have faith is to say believing is believing.

To believe so deeply that with Thomas we leave all doubt behind and unashamedly fall on our knees in worship to exclaim my lord and my god.

Will you believe with me?  If so let’s say it together.  My Lord and My God! – My Lord and My God. 

SOMETHING- NOTHING - EVERYTHING 4/4/2010

“SOMETHING, NOTHING EVERYTHING”

Rumc 4/4/10

Easter 2010

The Easter story says the women went to the tomb that day looking for SOMETHING:  SOMETHING sad, SOMETHING painful, SOMETHING tragic.  They were expecting to find a body tucked away in a sealed and guarded tomb.  In fact, they were expecting to complete Jesus’ burial arrangements.  Yes, that is what they expected. Just normal routine taking care of the dead.

The leaders of the Jews expected SOMETHING different. They were afraid that “SOMETHING” might happen.  Hear the words of Matthew.

The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ’After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting a guard.

So, the Jews were looking for SOMETHING, they were afraid of SOMETHING.  The chief priests and the Pharisees were afraid that the body might go AWOL and then what a mess they would have because the followers of this teacher would claim he had risen from the dead.  The Jewish leaders came to that first Easter expecting SOMETHING- SOMETHING sneaky, and deceptive.  SOMETHING that would cause them problems.

We come to Easter today expecting SOMETHING too, don’t we?  As I planned worship for this past week it is all designed to point us to SOMETHING; to move us long the road to SOMETHING.  To prepare us for SOMETHING.  And that SOMETHING is this morning.  That SOMETHING is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  That SOMETHING is the hope that as we celebrate today we will not only celebrate a story but we will celebrate Christ truly and honestly risen in our lives, making us new people in him.  I have tried to create a sense that SOMETHING is going to happen, SOMETHING important.

You come expecting SOMETHING too.  You expect certain hymns, certain kinds of music, a certain kind of preaching.  No one comes to Easter worship expecting that they will hear a sermon on the virgin birth.  You come expecting lilies, and hallelujahs and robes and a sermon about Jesus’ resurrection.

The world approaches the resurrection of Jesus expecting SOMETHING too.  Some expect to discredit the resurrection and us. They hope that they will be able to disprove the resurrection on historical or scientific grounds. Some expect that they will be able to disprove it on theological and philosophical grounds. 

Others approach the resurrection with hopeful skepticism.  Skeptical that it happened, but somewhere deep inside hoping that this thing (that may or may not have happened) will provide hope for their lonely lives.  They hope that just maybe there is SOMETHING to this.  Just maybe there is SOMETHING important going on here and even if there isn’t, just maybe we are the kind of people who really could love and accept and care for them without judging them and without seeking to take advantage of them.

Everyone: the disciples, the leaders of the Jews, Christians - even the non-Christian world comes to Easter and the resurrection expecting SOMETHING.

The truth is Easter is about NOTHING.  Now don’t get me wrong.  When I say Easter is about NOTHING I mean that in the best sense of the word!

I’m kind of like Oscar Wilde who said, “I love talking about NOTHING. It is the only thing I know anything about.” 

At its very core, Easter is about NOTHING!!  What did the women find when they got to the tomb.  The stone was rolled back and when they looked inside, they found. . .  NOTHING!  That is the whole point of Easter.  They found NOTHING!

I heard about an ad from a Lutheran church that I liked very much. It said, “The tomb is empty … No bones about it.” That sums up it, doesn’t it?  Easter is about NOTHING!  NOTHING in the tomb;  No body, no bones, no stench of death no Jesus, NOTHING to anoint, NOTHING to hide, NOTHING to grieve over, NOTHING to remind them of the pain of Friday; NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING!

And isn’t that exactly what the leaders of the Jews were afraid of NOTHING? They were afraid that they would find . . .  NOTHING.

Easter is at its very core a celebration of NOTHING!  It is a celebration that NOTHING…. NOTHING… NOTHING. NOTHING can separate us from the love of God  in our Lord Jesus Christ- Neither life nor death neither angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, neither heights nor depths nor anything else in all of creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Neither betrayal, nor capture, nor denial, nor trial, nor beating, nor whipping, nor spitting on the son of God will ever separate us from God’s love.  Neither a cross, nor nails, nor thorns, nor pain, nor suffering . . .  not even killing God’s only beloved precious son in the most inhumane way we can imagine . . .  NOTHING can keep God from loving us.  And to prove it, when we go looking for SOMETHING, what do we find. . .  NOTHING!  Easter is a celebration of that NOTHING.

Friends it is because of that NOTHING that we have EVERYTHING.

I was reading I Corinthians 15 this week, that famous passage where Paul reasons out loud about the resurrection and the implications if it did not happen. Evidently some believers in Corinth were teaching that Christians would not rise from the dead when Jesus returns to the earth. Paul answers by saying, “That’s foolish because if Christians do not rise from the dead what you are really saying is that Jesus didn’t rise from the dead because those two things go together–his resurrection and ours.”

Then he says it twice: “If Christ has not been raised.” “If Christ has not been raised.”  (I Corinthians 15:14,17) THEN

1. Our preaching is vain. (14)

2. We are despicable liars. (15)

3. Our faith is vain. (17)

4. We are still in our sins. (17)

5. there is no eternal life. (18)

6. We are to be pitied more than all men. (19)

This NOTHING is the central fact of our faith.  The fact that the women found NOTHING is what guarantees that we have EVERYTHING that is important.

Because of this NOTHING we know that Jesus Christ is who he says he is.  That He is the son of God who lived on this earth as one of us, taught, healed and died for each one of us.  And was raised so that forgiveness and salvation and eternal life would be available to every one of us.   And that ,means EVERYTHING.

Because of this NOTHING we know that God is faithful and powerful and is able to make EVERYTHING out of NOTHING.

Because of this NOTHING, we know that EVERY  sin, EVERY fear, EVERY guilt, EVERY trial, EVERY suffering, EVERY trouble, EVERY pain has been conquered by God.

In our society there are two great religious holidays–Christmas and Easter. For most of us Christmas is the bigger and greater season of the year. It’s the time of year when we gather with family and friends to sing carols, decorate the tree and exchange gifts. Christmas is the climax of the whole year. Easter? Well, for most people it’s just another long weekend, another chance to get away for a few days.

Even Christians view Easter as a second-rate holiday!  And I understand that because the Christmas story is part romance, part family, part mystery with the wise men, part underdog shepherds.   Somehow we’ve gotten our thinking badly mixed up. If Easter had not happened, Christmas would have no meaning. If the tomb is not empty, the cradle makes no difference. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then he really is just a misguided Jewish rabbi with delusions of grandeur. If Easter is not true, then Christmas is only the story of an obscure baby born in an out-of-the-way village in a forgotten land 2000 years ago. It is Easter that gives Christmas its meaning.  Let me take that one step further- it is Easter that gives life meaning.

Because the women found NOTHING in the tomb, we can confidently say that Jesus Christ truly is uniquely the son of God. And that means EVERYTHING.

Because the women found NOTHING in the tomb, we can confidently say that every sin has been conquered. And that means EVERYTHING.

Because the women found NOTHING in the tomb, we can confidently say that we worship and serve a most loving and gracious God. And that means EVERYTHING.

Because the women found NOTHING in the tomb, we can confidently say that in the end, God always wins- even over death. And that means EVERYTHING.

Because the women found NOTHING in the tomb, we can confidently say that our tombs of doubt have been conquered too. And that means EVERYTHING.

Because the women found NOTHING in the tomb, we can confidently say that our tombs of fear and failure have been conquered too. And that means EVERYTHING.

Because the women found NOTHING in the tomb, we can confidently say that our tombs of shame and guilt have been conquered too. And that means EVERYTHING.

Because the women found NOTHING in the tomb, we can confidently say that whatever tomb you live in-- wherever your dark places are-- wherever your weak places are.  .  . Those caves have been conquered too. They have been broken open and found to contain NOTHING.  No power, no judgment, no shame, no punishment.  And that means EVERYTHING.

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Because the women found NOTHING in the tomb, we can confidently say “I know that my redeemer lives”  and that means EVERYTHING.

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Because the women found NOTHING in the tomb, we can confidently say to the world we “serve a RISEN savior he’s in the world today  I know that he is living whatever foes may say”  and that means EVERYTHING.