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.