Ghost Stories: great vision and greater power Reinbeck UMC 5/15/16

    Ghost Stories: great vision and greater power

Reinbeck UMC 5/15/16

 We have been talking about some not so spooky Ghost Stories for 5 weeks now. The stories from those 40 days between Jesus’ resurrection and his ascension during which he appeared to in

•           the garden on Easter morning,

•           the on the road to  Emmaus on Easter afternoon,

•           in the upper room Easter evening and the following week,

•           and of course on the beach.

This final appearance is just before his ascension. The disciples went to a mountain in Galilee, Just as Jesus had told them. In my imagination, it might be the same mountain from the Sermon on the Mount. He gave them one last instruction, “Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”

That is not so hard to understand… but it confuses people.

   A farmer saw a strange formation of clouds one day. The clouds spelled out “GPC.” The farmer thought for a moment and decided they were a sign from God to “Go Preach Christ.” He left her tractor sitting the middle of the field and went to seminary to become a pastor. As a pastor, he was a miserable failure. He couldn’t preach. He didn’t like to visit. He hated hospitals and funerals were torture. It wasn’t long and he was so discouraged he went back to his field and knelt down by his tractor. He prayed, “God you called me to go preach Christ, and I am. But I am miserable and to be honest I am not that good at it. I need a sign of what you want me to do next.” The clouds began to move again, and there were the same letters G  P C.    But this time other clouds formed next to them and spelled out the words. “GO… PLANT … CORN.”

Jesus commands us to “go make disciples.” In Mark’s version, it is “Go into all the world and preach the good news.” That doesn’t mean that everyone is to become a pastor.” Saint Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the gospel, and if necessary use words.” In other words, everything you do can be a proclamation of the Gospel. Anything you say can be a way of making disciples. If you so choose, you can use your life for Jesus.

Jesus is very specific here… every person is expected to be in ministry.

•           No exceptions.

•           No excuses.

•           No free passes.

You may think that every person in ministry was a crazy idea dreamed up by the leadership team. No, it is a crazy idea dreamed up by our savior. And it was important enough to be his last words before he left this earth. I don’t think that is an accident. Jesus was serious, completely serious about every person being in ministry. 

 If you aren’t sure what that means, think back to the week we posted our gifts, skills passions and interests on the cross. Those are very likely your ministries. So get up and use them.

 Jesus says, first, “Go and use your gifts.”

But second he said, don’t go alone. Oh no… don’t you dare go alone. “Remember I am with you even to the end of the age.” That is what Pentecost is about.

•           The power of God coming upon the disciples and us.

•           The power of God empowering the disciples and us.

•           The power of God sending out the disciples and us.

•           And the power of God going with the disciples and us … as we go in ministry.

We talk about Pentecost as the “birthday of the church.” The church is simply the people of God when we GO in power.

•           When we Love with God’s love.

•           When we work for justice at God’s right hand.

•           When we forgive with the compassion of God.

•           When we give with the generosity of God.

•           When we share the gospel filled with the power of God. That’s when we are in ministry.

 Three weeks from right now, I will be in DesMoines at the ordination service at annual conference. Ordination may seem like a strange and mysterious thing to you… but it is not. It is simply a specific baptism renewal in which a person is given authority by the church to be a professional minister.

But here, today the professional ministers are outnumbered what 70 to 2? Who do you think does the bulk of the ministry around here? You do. At least that is Jesus’ great vision... If you were Jesus, would you rather send out two people to go into the entire world, or 72? It’s a no brainer isn’t it?

That is Jesus’ great vision…

•           that we would go…

•           and that we would go with power to be in ministry for him.

Today you will have the opportunity to renew your baptism. But not just to “remember your baptism and be thankful”: but to “remember you are a minister of Jesus Christ.” Every person in ministry… you and you and you and you… and all of us. “Go and remember you are a minister of Jesus Christ.”  

Ghost stories; crazy ideas and second chances Reinbeck UMC 5/8/16

Ghost stories; crazy ideas and second chances

Reinbeck UMC 5/8/16

If you didn’t know the back-story, you wouldn’t realize that this is a ghost story… and you would miss the whole point.

After Jesus appeared to Thomas, the disciples were lost. They didn’t know what to do. To me it seems like a no brainer. Jesus said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” … he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” That seems pretty clear to me.

Simon Peter thought for a minute and said, “OK… anybody want to go fishing?”

 Maybe, if I thought I had seen a ghost, or I had imagined, I wouldn’t believe it either. Maybe I would be too dense to understand what Jesus said too. But it doesn’t seem that hard to understand what Jesus expected.

Seven of the disciples, therefore, end up going fishing. We don’t know what the other four did. But seven went fishing, including the three leaders Peter, James, and John; and good old Thomas from last week.

 Now remember that at least some of these men are professional fishermen. Not just worm killers like me. They worked all night long and caught nothing. They got skunked.

Some smart-aleck yelled from shore, “Hey boys, didn’t catch anything did you?”

Steam must have rolled from their ears and they shot back, “NO.”

•           So the man on shore said cast the net on the other side. And they said, ““But we’ve never done it that way before…” No, that’s not right.

•           So the man on shore said cast the net on the other side. And they said, “But this is my side of the boat. I’ve been sitting on this side of the boat every Sunday for 40 year and I’m not moving now.…” No, that’s not right.

•           So the man on shore said cast the net on the other side. And they said, “No, way. The fish over there are different. We don’t want THOSE kinds of fish in our boat…” No, that’s not right.

•           So the man on shore said cast the net on the other side. And they said, “No. We're too busy. We're happy sitting here and watching our empty net.. …” No, that’s not what they said either.

•           So the man on shore said cast the net on the other side. And they said, “We tried that 30 years ago and it didn’t work. I probably won’t work today.…” No, that’s not right.

•           So the man on shore said cast the net on the other side. And they said, “But we’ve done our part. Let someone else fish that side from now on…” No, that’s not right.

Hmmm maybe they weren’t so much like us. Because that’s what most of us would do. When we are confronted with a crazy idea, we blow it off, or make up 25 excuses why it won’t work.

 Jesus calls the disciples to have a crazy faith, and unlike us, they were just crazy enough it… and it worked! They got a boatload of fish.

But this was not the first time they had seen crazy faith work.

•           It was crazy to try to feed 5000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. But what happened? Leftovers.

•           It was crazy to talk to a Samaritan woman. But what happened? Grace happened.

•           It was crazy for the disciples to leave their jobs to follow this rabbi. But if they hadn’t we might not be the church today.

•           It’s crazy to say, "OK I’ve got 11 disciples now go change the world." It is crazy to leave the kingdom of God in the hands of the church. It is crazy to use broken and imperfect people like you and me to usher in God’s perfect will. But Jesus calls us to have a crazy faith.

•           It was crazy for God to think, “I think I’ll become one of them. I’ll be born as a baby, perform some miracles, teach, die, and come back to life and they’ll al believe…” of course, that’s crazy. But that is the gospel. That is the kind of God we serve. A God of the crazy faith

We are called to have a crazy faith. Part of that is having crazy ideas. Jim Elenberger is one of my favorite crazy friends who has dozens of crazy ideas… but you know what? When we follow a crazy idea,  when we take a chance… when we get out of our rut… when we decide that we can sit in a different place, do things differently, invite different people, do ministry in a different way… when we deicide we can have a crazy faith, crazy things happen. Like

•           LIGHT,

•           Homes for Haiti,

•           GR8,

•           new people coming through the door,

•           new energy in our old bodies, and

•           New life for those who are touched by our crazy ideas.

It might seem crazy to you that we expect every single one of you to be in ministry… but call us crazy for God. I don’t mind. Let’s print t-shirts and start a club… wait we already have a club for people with crazy faith… it’s called the church. It is you and it is me.

So we go on with the story. They do the crazy thing. They get a whole net load of fish and John realizes that this is Jesus. How did he know? Look back at Luke chapter 5 and we discover that this had already happened once. John said, "Wait a minute this happened once before just before we were called to follow… Jesus… it’s Jesus."

Peter jumped in headfirst as usual and went to meet Jesus. The rest followed with the boast almost tipping over from all the fish they caught because they were willing to take a crazy chance and have a crazy faith.

 When they get to the beach, Jesus had already made a fire and invite them all to breakfast. The Bible is very specific in using a word that mean charcoal fire. There are only two places in the Bible where this word charcoal is used. Here on the beach and at the high priest’s house on the night Jesus was arrested. Remember that story… where Simon Peter denied Jesus three times. “I tell you I don’t know the man.”

You can imagine as he walked up to the fire and smelled the charcoal that it must have brought back all those memories of that night and the agony he felt when the rooster crowed.

I don’t want you to think of Peter as a failure today. 3 years earlier, Peter had made a decision to have a crazy faith in Jesus.  He left everything he owned, including his livelihood and his family, and followed Jesus

It didn’t turn out the way Peter imagined. And the worst of it was that night when he denied Jesus. Three times. He couldn’t shake that. It was as if he had fallen and he couldn’t get up.

So all this is going through Peter’s mind, and Jesus takes him aside. He says, “Peter do you love me?” Peter says once, “Of course I love you.”

Jesus says a second time, “Peter do you love me?” Peter says a second time, “Of course I love you.”

Jesus says Peter a third time, “Do you love me?” Peter says a third time, “Of course I love you.”

How many times did Peter deny Jesus?

How many times did Jesus give him the opportunity to profess his love?

After giving him a chance not to reject Jesus three times, what are Jesus final words to Peter? “Follow me.” The very same words Jesus spoke to Peter, by the very same lake 3 years earlier. Jesus wipes the slate clean and is telling Peter, Let’s forget that, and just start over again.

 God doesn’t call us to be perfect. God doesn’t call us to be successful. God calls us to have a crazy faith and to do something because of Jesus.

Wade Hughes, Sr. tells the story of a weak and sickly man who lived in the deep back woods in an old log cabin. Out in front of his cabin was a huge boulder.

One night he had a vision. God told him to go out and push the massive rock in front of his home all day long, day after day, until he told him to stop. The man got up early in the morning, started to push on the rock.

Each day he pushed a little harder and a little longer. Days rolled into weeks, and weeks into months, as he faithfully pushed against the rock. After 8 months, he started to doubt his dream. He measured from his porch to the rock, and after pushing the rock, he would measure to see how much he had moved the rock. He finally realized that in all this time he had not moved the boulder a fraction of an inch.

The man was so disappointed, he sat on his porch and cried, because he had invested so much time in such a crazy endeavor… and all for nothing.

Jesus came and sat down next to the man on his porch. He said, “Son, why are you so sad?” The man replied, “Lord, You know how sick and weak I am, you gave me a vision and I have pushed with all that was within me for many months, and it hasn’t moved an inch.” Jesus said to him, “I told you to push against the rock. I never told you to move the rock.”

God doesn’t call us to be perfect. God doesn’t call us to be successful. God calls us to have a crazy faith and to do something because of Jesus.

Was it crazy to try to move that boulder? Sure. Is it crazy to think that we might change the world? Sure. Is it crazy to think that we might change someone’s life by having a pancake breakfast? Absolutely. Is it crazy to think that our little old church could build a church in Africa by helping to train pastors at Banyam seminary? Yes. Is it crazy to think that our change in a pot each week, or our donation of a curious George book might change the life of one of our children, who might change the world for God. Absolutely.

Will it all happen? Will the world be different because of what we do today? Will everyone’s life be better? Will we end racism and hatred? Will we build a church in Africa? Will we change a child’s life? I don’t know. That is in God’s hands. Having a crazy faith means taking the risk and letting God care for the success.

   The only way to fail... is not to try. When we get to heaven Jesus will not ask, “Did you succeed?” …But just like Peter, he will ask “do you love me?... Did you do it because of me?”  If we can answer, “Yes lord we did it because we love you” …and that will be enough.

When the leadership team set the goal of “Every person in ministry.” That is exactly what we mean. Every person taking a chance…

Every person trying something new…even if it seems crazy

Every person in ministry … because of Jesus.

Now go and get crazy for God.

Ghost stories: Behind closed doors Reinbeck UMC 5/1/16

Ghost stories: Behind closed doors

Reinbeck UMC 5/1/16

 What a great ghost story! They were all together except Thomas. The doors were locked because they were afraid of the soldiers. They spoke only in whispered tones. Every noise made them jump: footsteps, animals, children, even the wind. Nerves were on edge. Footsteps approached again. Closer and closer. Slowly they came closer and closer. The beating of their hearts became louder with every step. Closer and closer. Everyone held his breath. Waiting for the knock on the door that never came.

Suddenly the footsteps were inside the room. The hair on their necks stood straight up. Someone or something was there. They could feel it. The air grew cold and the silence was deafening. And then without warning the voice comes; a voice from the past.

“Hey guys, peace be with you!”

It wasn’t a ghost, but it seemed like a voice from the grave. It was the last thing anyone expected. It was Jesus.

They knew it was Jesus, not just because they recognized him, but he also showed them the bloody holes in his hands and side. Jesus was very much alive, and not at all a ghost. This was Jesus alive and well in the flesh.

Jesus had a message for them. He said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

In other words, Jesus didn’t come to scare them. He came to give them a job. Actually he gave them a he job, gave them the tools for the job, and he gave them authority to do the job.

1.         The job was to GO. “As the father sent me, so I am sending you.” In other words, get to work. There is work to do. You shouldn’t be sitting here, locked up like caged animals; hiding like scared children. Go and get to work.

2.         Then he gave them the only tool they needed. He took a deep breath and breathed on them, the Holy Spirit. Everything they needed would flow from this one gift. There would be gifts of the spirit, fruit of the spirit, the presence, and power of the Holy Spirit in all that they did. They had everything the needed.

3.         Finally, he gave them all the authority they need. He says it is up to you now. “If you forgive sins they will be forgiven, if you don’t forgive sins they will not be forgiven.” In other words, it’s up to you to take over from here.

a.         I give you the job.

b.         I give you the tools.

c.         I give you the authority. So GO! And then he disappeared from their sight just as mysteriously as he had come.

 One would think that when Jesus came back from the dead and told them they had a job, gave them the tools they needed, and gave them all authority they needed, that the disciples would have jumped up and gone to work.

One would think that, but we would be wrong. I’ve been around the church long enough, and most of you have too, to understand what was happening here. They had to check the discipline, call a charge conference, establish a ministry statement, consider the ramifications, have a study committee, and a blue ribbon committee, and hire a consultant. They had to think about where they would put all these people, so they had to establish a building committee, have a capital funds drive, and fight over the color of the carpet and … well, to tell you the truth, they had become the church. You know how it is… if we want to; we can create a never-ending series of hurdles. We can come up with an infinite number of excuses. And without even trying very hard, we may never have to do the job that Jesus sent us to do.

The disciples said, well I have to check my calendar…and maybe after the family reunion… and tomorrow is my bowling night… and I can ‘t do it on Saturday because I have to take the kids to soccer… and I’m afraid the fish are biting this weekend… so don’t count on me.

I am sure there is someone who said, you know what… I did my bit. It is time for younger disciples to take over.

And I’d bet someone said, but you know guys we have never done it that way before. You know how it is; they had suddenly become the first congregation. And like many who populate pews 2000 years later, they had an excuse for everything.

So fast forward a week and they were still in the same room behind the same closed doors, doing the same thing they had done the week before. The only difference is that this time Thomas was with them.

Thomas gets a bad rap. All we remember him for is his doubting, but Thomas was a courageous, committed, inquisitive disciple. Besides that, in this story when he says, “I can’t believe until I put my fingers where the nails were, and put my hand into his side,” he is not asking for anything the other disciples didn’t already have. They had the opportunity to see for themselves on Easter night when Jesus appeared to them. Thomas only asked for the same opportunity. So don’t be so hard on poor Thomas. I think any of the disciples might have asked the same thing, and I think many of us would have asked the same thing.

The more important thing here is that THEY ARE STILL IN THE SAME ROOM, BEHIND THE SAME CLOSED DOORS, DOING THE SAME THING THEY HAD BEEN DOING THE WEEK BEFORE and Jesus appears again. Do you see the problem here? The problem is not Thomas. The problem is that they were not doing what Jesus told them to do. Remember, he gave them a job, he gave them the tools they needed, he gave them all the authority they needed and what had they done?... NOTHING... Jesus response to Thomas was also directed at us. Picture Jesus staring you in the eye and saying “BECAUSE THOMAS SAW ME, HE BELIEVED; BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HAVE NOT SEEN AND YET HAVE BELIEVED.” That’s us. We have not seen, yet we believe.

This is not a condemnation of unbelief. This is encouragement for those of us who live 2000 years later. Blessed are those who have not had the advantage of seeing the risen Christ stand before them in the flesh, and they go to work anyway.

Today the church gets a bad rap in America. And to a certain extent, we deserve it.

We have been given a mission (GO) we have been given the tools (Look at the tools we displayed last week.) We have been given authority. We have everything we need…And here we sit.

The strength of the United Methodist Church is our connectional organization. But that is also our greatest weakness.

•           We condemn ourselves every time to put off the mission of Christ for the sake of order.

•           We condemn ourselves every time we focus on a silly 44-year-old fight instead of getting to work loving people.

But before you get too self-righteous, our congregation has not been any better. For years, we were bogged down in committees and meetings. We had all the right things in place but the mission was to run the structure we had built. It took months to get anything done. That was not the way it was designed but it morphed into that. We sat trapped behind doors of our own making, with a lock of our own design, holding the key in our hand but too paralyzed to do anything different.

That is the past. We have shed that structure, streamlined ourselves for mission and we are ready to go. The unified leadership team, the coaches and the MATS are all designed to get out of the way, open the doors, and free you to do the job you are called to do.

Very few are called to sit on committees. For those with leadership and administration gifts… that is a great place to be in ministry, but that is not most of you. And that is why most of you are no longer asked to be on a committee. There are only about 20 people in the whole congregation who sit on a committee (down from almost 80 two years ago.) You might say “Whew, that’s a relief I don’t have to do that.” But what I want to hear is “Wohoo, now I can do the ministry I have always wanted to do.” “Wohoo, now I can be in caring ministry, or I can teach, or I can help a neighbor, or I can read to a child, or I can be in a Bible study, or I can help with GR8 or I can” .. Well you know what you can do. We brought them up and put them on the cross last week. Isn’t that beautiful?

Well it’s beautiful except for one thing. Just like the disciples in the story, and just like today’s church, it’s all locked up.

The church can’t afford to stay behind locked doors. That’s not what Jesus called us to do. He called us to go. Gave us the tools, and endowed us with authority. He is counting on us.

 Jesus has unlocked the doors and set us free to do ministry. The barriers are gone, the excuses are no longer accepted, the mission is clear, the opportunities are out there, the needs are plentiful, the hurt are waiting for us, the jobs are waiting for you. The world is waiting. FOR EVERY PERSON TO BE IN MINISTRY OF SOME KIND. Remember the gifts, passions, and ministries, you put up here last week. You are all prepared, and we are all called to be in ministry.

The only thing holding you back is … is what… your fear… The only reason anyone has for not being in ministry in some way is fear. Many of you are in ministry and doing exactly what Jesus tells us to do… GO. Just like the disciples, however, … some of you lock yourselves in the closet of your fear and do nothing week after week after week. This is your wakeup call. No matter your age, no matter your physical ability or disability, no matter your schedule, no matter your fear it is time to get up and go.

•           Just as Jesus rolled back the stone from the door of the grave, Jesus has unlocked the door for you.

•           Just as Jesus threw off the death that held him in the grave, Jesus is THROWING OFF THE CHAINS THAT HOLD BACK.

•           Just as Jesus appeared before the disciples, Jesus stands before you now. Saying, “see how much I love you?

•           Now you go and love others in my name.

•           Go be in ministry for me.

•           Go in the power of the Holy Spirit, with all authority in heaven and earth, and Go be my hands and feet in the world.” Go every one of you and be in ministry.