Monday Morning Message—7/22/2024

Good Morning!

Technically it is not morning... it is also not Monday as I am writing this. It's Tuesday. This is something new I want to try. I will send out a brief message each Monday morning which will include a short inspirational note, daily Bible readings for the week (as included in the worship bulletin each Sunday), the text of Sunday's sermon, and maybe a few announcements. 

This past Sunday, I preached on compassion. I shared at the end of the sermon that I searched and searched across various news sources but could not find any stores of compassion to share. As I thought about this on Sunday afternoon, an old poker adage came to mind... "If you can't spot the sucker at the table, you're the sucker."

What does being a sucker at the poker table have to do with compassion? I'm glad you asked... 

That saying came to mind because I realized that if I'm not seeing any evidence of compassion... it could be because I'm not living compassionately. If I see a lack of compassion in the world, it's because I am lacking in compassionate actions. I'm going to do my best to live with compassion this week. I'm going to keep my eyes, ears, and heart open to those in need and do what I can to act with compassion and help where I can. 

God of compassion, open my eyes to see your children, especially those most in need. Open my ears to hear the cries of "Help" from the most desperate. Open my heart to receive and share your love and grace. Amen. 

Announcements:

Next month, I'm going to preach a series on Holy Communion. Do you have questions about communion? Maybe there's something you don't understand or you've always wondered why we do something a certain way or don't do something... Let me know. You can email your questions: scoats@nccumc.org

Next Sunday's (7/28/2021) Sermon: John 6:1-21, "We Are Greater"

Daily Readings (July 22-28)

Monday— Hebrews 13:17-25

Tuesday— Acts 20:17-38

Wednesday— Luke 15:1-7

Thursday— Colossians 1:9-14

Friday— Colossians 3:12-17

Saturday— Psalm 14

This Week's Sermon: "We Are Compassionate"

Mark 6:30-34; 53-56

Our text today, includes the wrap-up to events that began earlier in Mark’s gospel—we read the set up for the first part of today’s reading a couple of weeks ago. After being rejected in his home town of Nazareth, Jesus sent his disciples out to minister in the towns and villages of Galilee. 

Mark’s gospel says, “They went out and proclaimed that people should change their hearts and lives. They cast out many demons, and they anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.” (Mark 6:12-13). Jesus sent them out to do what he was doing. To proclaim God’s reign; to teach; and to heal.

Today, we read of their return. You may have noticed that the reading is split into two chunks. That is because it skips over 2 of Jesus’ miracles— feeding the 5000 and walking on the water. We’re going to look at John’s account of those events next week. That is what happened between Jesus teaching the crowds and his arriving again at Gennesaret. 

We begin as the disciples return from teaching across Galilee and tell Jesus about their ministry – preaching, casting out demons, healing the sick. And Jesus realizes they are tired. They need some time to rest and recover. There are people everywhere. So many, they can’t even take a break to eat. So Jesus suggests that they slip away to some secluded place and take some time to rest and recover.

So they hop in a boat and head off to a deserted piece of shoreline where they can rest. But the crowds notice. And they follow. They ran to where they were going and actually beat them there. And when Jesus sees the crowd, he is filled with compassion for them. So he begins to minister to them – to teach and heal and eventually feed this crowd of 5000 men, plus women and children. 

Jesus saw the crowd and had compassion for them. That was the phrase that really stood out to me in this text. Compassion is a word, and a concept that we often misunderstand. Often when we hear compassion, or when we think about compassion, what we really mean is pity. 

Compassion is much more than pity. Pity is something that is done from far away. Physically and emotionally – pity is distant. You can see someone’s plight and feel sorry for them and never get your hands dirty – that’s not compassion. I heard someone say this week, “Pity is something you can manage from afar.” Compassion requires closeness and intimacy. Jesus had compassion for the crowd—that is more than pity and much more than simply feeling sorry for them.

Sometimes, to better understand a word, it is helpful to look to other languages. In this case, German is really helpful. The German word for compassion, or one of the German words for compassion is mitleid – it means “with suffering” or “suffering with”. In other words, when you see someone suffering, if you have compassion for them, you suffer with them – you feel what they feel. I think that’s closer to what Jesus felt. He saw the suffering of the crowd and he felt their suffering and he had to act to end it. 

The Greek word used in Mark’s gospel gets even more to the point. It is one of my favorite words in biblical Greek—if for no other reason than it is fun to say. Splagchnizomai (splänkh-nē'-tzo-mī) is the word translated as compassion in verse 34. It literally means “moved in the bowels”. The bowels, in 1^st century Palestine, were seen as the center of emotions. One translator suggested we might think of splagchnizomai as “having one’s [emotional] guts ripped apart.” This gives you an idea of the intensity of Jesus’ feeling of compassion. I like to think about it like this, Jesus saw the crowd and was punched in the gut by their plight. 

He saw them and he felt their pain. He didn’t see the crowd and simply shake his head and tell his disciples, “Aw, that’s too bad.” He felt their pain—their hurt, their grief, their need— and it spurred him to action. That’s what compassion is. Compassion is seeing the plight of others and being moved to action. When you have compassion, you can’t help but help those in need.

And that is the story of God throughout the Bible, not just in this story in Mark’s gospel. God is a God of compassion. But we don’t always portray God as compassionate. Often God, especially in the Old Testament, is portrayed as vengeful, vindictive, and angry. And we, as Christians often portray God in the same way. We portray God as distant, other – approachable only through structured and protected ritual – like going to church, praying a certain way, reciting certain creeds. 

But that is not the story of God. The Bible tells us, again and again, of a God of compassion. Psalm 145:8-9 says, “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.” It is a refrain we read throughout the Bible. 

“The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” 8 or 9 times in the Old Testament – the Lord is gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love. We read again and again of God’s compassion. God saw and heard the plight of the Hebrews living as slaves in Egypt and out of compassion, could not help but help. God saw the plight of those exiled to Babylon, and out of compassion God could not help but help. 

The gospel, the good news of Jesus, is a story of compassion. It is a story of God, again, seeing the plight of humanity and all creation, and out of compassion God could not help but help. God could not help but do something to defeat Sin and death – to give hope to the hopeless, to free the captive. 

Part of the beauty of God’s compassion is that God meets us where we are with compassion. No rituals or special formulas are needed. In our scripture today, Jesus found the crowd waiting for him. He ministered to them, showed them compassion. Then ends up in Gennesaret, and again, out of compassion, teaches and heals those in need. Jesus brings compassion to them – he doesn’t wait on them to come to where he is. 

This story serves as a reminder that God is with us. Rochelle Stackhouse says, “God dwells where we dwell and moves where we move.” Our compassionate God who offers hope and life pursues us – sees our plight and is “gracious and merciful abounding in steadfast love – and shows compassion to all creation.”

Not only is God compassionate, not only does Jesus show compassion, but Jesus teaches us that “compassion is inherent to discipleship.” Being compassionate is a requirement as followers of Jesus. It is a part of who we are—because it’s part of who Jesus is. We should have compassion just as Jesus had compassion. It should hit us in the gut and move us to action. We see that in our scripture this morning.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to compassion. We are called to suffering with those around us. It is compassion that moves us to action. Jesus also teaches us that compassion is not just a feeling, it is a doing. True compassion moves us to act, to affect the suffering around us. 

Tony Campolo tells a great story of what it looks like to show compassion. He was speaking in Honolulu. And since he was from the East Coast, he woke up at about 3:30 in the morning. He couldn’t get back to sleep, so he went to a local diner. When he was there a group of prostitutes came in. One of them mentioned that the next day was her birthday. The other’s kind of made fun of her. “So what? Do you want me to sing? Should I bake you a cake?” And they all laughed. 

Agnes, the one who’s birthday it was, looked sad. She said, “You don’t have to put me down. I’ve never had a birthday party in my whole life. I don’t expect to have one now.”

After they left, he asked the guy behind the counter if they came in every night. He said they did. So, Campolo asked him a question. “Tomorrow is Agnes’ birthday. Can I throw her a birthday party?” Harry, the cook and owner, thought it was a great idea. 

So the next night they decorated to the nines. Harry’s wife baked a birthday cake. Word got around and the place was packed. When Agnes came in, they all yelled “Happy Birthday!” And Agnes was stunned. When they brought the cake out, she started to cry. She couldn’t even blow out the candles. 

Then she asked a weird question. She asked if she could take the cake and show her mother. She just lived down the block. She wanted to show her mother because she’d never had a birthday cake before. 

While she was gone, Tony Campolo who was a sociologist at the time, led the whole restaurant in a prayer for Agnes. Harry looked at Tony after the prayer and said, “You’re a preacher? What kind of church do you belong to?”

Campolo replied, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning.” I think what he meant was that he belonged to a church that knew how to show compassion. He saw and heard Agnes’ plight and his compassion moved him to action. 

What can we do to be a compassionate church? How can we be compassionate to the hurting in our community?

I mentioned that earlier that this story is a reminder that God is with us. Our lives should serve as a reminder of that same thing. Our lives are meant to reflect the Jesus’ life of compassion. Living with compassion means that we notice the suffering around us – whether it be a prostitute who never had a birthday party, someone begging on the street, a person who is sick or dying, or even someone simply having a bad day – living with compassion means we notice and it’s like it hits us in the gut. And we can’t help but help.

In doing so, in living with such compassion, we serve as a reminder to others that God is with us. Rochelle Stackhouse says, “The people of [Jesus’] time knew Jesus by his words and his actions of love and generosity.” The best way the people of our time can know Jesus is by our compassionate actions of love and generosity.

Have y’all noticed that the news is not always good lately? We don’t see a lot of love and generosity—we don’t see a lot of compassion. Friday as I was writing this sermon, I started searching news sites for some story of compassion just one little bit of love and generosity… I didn’t really find anything. And I started to get really depressed because here I am preaching about compassion and how important it is for the world, and for us as we live out our faith… and I couldn’t find an example. I only found despair and desperation and division. Then as I was reading and editing last night I remembered something. 

There is a great meditation about resurrection by Rob Bell that I listen to from time to time. He talks about the little tiny moments of life we have. These experiences that fill us with hope and life. They may be huge moments like the birth of a child or little tiny moments like a simple lyric of a song that pops into your mind at just the right time and brings a smile to your face. He calls them the moments of meaning. Moments of significance. 

Then there are those moments and events and experiences that seem to drain us of life. The times when things don’t go well. The times when all seems lost and hopeless. 

And we start to think that those dark moments are what life is and those good, inspiring moments feel like little “escapes from how it really is, which is cold, dark, lonely, and pointless.” Do you ever start to feel that way—that the way the world really is is cold, dark, lonely, and pointless”?

Here’s the thing… we are Easter people, which means we live with and in resurrection, and as Rob Bell says, “Resurrection is the opposite.” Resurrection tells us that the little moments of light, the moments of hope—the huge ones and the tiny ones—those are the real thing. Those moments are glimpses and glances of “how it really is”. They are little (or big) visions of God’s reign breaking in and shining the true glory of God’s creation.

Every time I listen to that seven minute meditation I am reminded that the dark, dreary news that seems to be the way tings really are—is just a distraction from God’s love and hope and peace. Like a cloud passing across the sun with a momentary dark shadow.

When we live with compassion, we have the chance to let God’s light shine in the darkness—to remind the world that the hope and joy and peace of Jesus is what is true and real and beautiful. 

The Life Span of a Sermon

I often wonder, as I’m sure other pastors do, if a sermon lives on past Sunday morning. Preaching is a curious thing. I spend about 15-20 hours (give or take) a week on sermon preparation – reading, researching, studying, praying, making notes, outlining and, ultimately, writing and reading and editing. All for a sermon that lasts about 20 minutes.

So, I wonder…does the sermon live on past those 20 minutes? Does it live past Sunday afternoon? Monday morning?

Every now and then I get a little affirmation that, yes, God does in fact continue to use the words I write and speak. Every now and then someone will say something like, “Remember when you preached about…” or “I remember you said that in a sermon.”

More often I hear things like, “You should preach about that sometime,” just a couple of weeks (or days) after I did in fact “preach about that.” Those are the moments when I wonder, “Does the work – the prayer, the study, the wresting – make any lasting difference?”

Today I got a little shot of affirmation.

A few weeks ago an elderly couple attended worship at NWUMC. They are members of another church but worship with us from time to time. After the service on this particular Sunday, Mr. Noselew (not his real name) was very complimentary of the service and the sermon.

He asked if I write them out word for word or if I write an outline and fill in the rest in the preaching. I told him I do write them out, and that I actually preach from a manuscript. He then asked if I ever printed them out (I preach from my iPad). No, I had not before – except on the occasion when my iPad was on the fritz.

He then told me that if I printed it, he would love to have a copy. Well, I was over the moon. I told him, “Of course.” And I left church that morning with a little spring in my step. Honestly, I thought he probably wanted a paper copy because his hearing is not good and he didn’t actually hear the sermon. Regardless, I printed a copy and left it at the church for him to pick up.

This morning, Mr. Noselew called me at the church. He, again, complimented the sermon. I preached on “hope” that Sunday. He talked about how much he needed to hear that and that so many others did as well.

He said he went to visit a cousin who has been ill for quite some time. On his visit, knowing that his cousin needed a word of hope, he gave him a copy of my sermon. He went on to ask if he could copy the sermon and give it to others.

Wow! I have never been so flattered.

So I say all of that to say… it is wonderful to know that, yes, the words God inspires in me do in fact live on and make an impact beyond Sunday morning.

By the way, if anyone wants a copy of my sermons, I’ll be glad to print one for you.

I am ever grateful for the opportunity, the privilege, of proclaiming Gods word to God’s people. Thanks be to God!

Christ is Risen!

This is my retelling of John 20:1-18. I used this at our Easter Sunrise Service (4/5/2015). You are welcome to use or reprint, but please give credit.

--------------------------------------------------------

As she ran, her thoughts raced faster than her feet. Maybe she was mistaken. It was so dark. Maybe her eyes had deceived her. The tears in her eyes did cloud her vision. She could be wrong. Still the blood ran cold through her veins as she fled the garden. The grief of the previous two days gave way to rage. Her cold blood began to boil as the reality of what she saw set in.

The stone moved. Who would move the stone? It could only be the Romans. No one else would venture outside the city before sunrise as she had. But why? Was the body gone? She ran before she looked to be sure. The shock of what she saw moved her legs before her thoughts could process the scene.

As she reached her destination, she could not find words. She could only scream – a desperate, haunting scream – as she collapsed to the ground.

He couldn’t sleep. Neither of them could. How long had they been in this dark house? Crouched, silent. Gripped by grief, frozen in place by fear. John replayed the last meal over and over in his head trying desperately to remember what he saw; what he heard.

Peter wept. Shame surpassed grief days ago. The contempt he felt for Judas Iscariot on that dark night was quickly eclipsed by his self-loathing. “No,” how could he say, “No”? “I don’t know him.” The words rang in his ears. His own words shouted again and again in his head. “I don’t know him.”

Then a scream. Both men bolted to their feet. Had the Romans found them? Had they too been betrayed? They strained to listen to the dark morning. The scream gave way to loud sobs. Sobs known to John’s ears. Mary.

The two men burst through the door into the lightening morning.

Through her sobs, Mary heard motion. A door opened. Hands gripped her arms. Lifted her. Then the familiar voices. “Mary! Mary, what’s wrong?”

“They’ve taken our Lord out of the tomb.”

Peter felt the words hit him in the gut. “Taken?” As his mind reeled, his hands fell from Mary’s arms. After  a moment of frozen shock, he turned to John, but only saw his back as he sped away.

John ran. He’d never run faster. What could it mean? Could Mary be mistaken? He reached the garden and saw the stone pushed aside. At the sight of the dark opening, his feet ceased their movement. He stood frozen in place. He stared. Could do no more than stare.

Peter ran behind John, trying his best to catch him. To arrive at the tomb first. The shame of the previous days seemed to drift, if only slightly, from his mind – replaced by uncertainty, confusion, anger, and… a slight, an ever-so-slight ray of unexpected hope. 

When Mary reached the garden, John stood outside of the tomb. Stuck in place by shock or anger or simply disbelief. Peter came out holding the linen that should cover the body of their master. Their friend. John entered the tomb. He quickly exited and joined Peter as they silently stumbled toward home.

Mary could not enter the tomb. She saw the confusion, the distress, in Peter’s eyes as he passed. She heard John’s halting breath as he tried to speak to her but could not find words. She knew now that she was not mistaken. She stood in the garden, the sound of her sobs drowning out the singing birds. She could not enter, but she felt she must look. She must see for herself – Jesus is gone.

She leaned toward the opening, eyes clinched tightly, hoping against hope that she was wrong; that they all were wrong. She leaned toward the opening hoping to see his broken body, to perform the ritual cleaning and anointing she came to perform. She opened her eyes but could not keep them open. The light was blinding. She looked again. Two figures draped in white sat inside the tomb. Together they asked, “Why are you weeping?”

Her voice answered before her mind could comprehend the question. “They’ve taken my Lord. I do not know where they have laid him.” Saying the words aloud brought renewed grief. She could not look at this empty cavern any longer.

She turned to leave, but there was a man. She thought Peter or John had returned or the other disciples upon learning the news had begun to arrive. She was wrong. She did not know him. As he stepped toward her, he spoke, his voice seemed oddly comforting – at once familiar and unrecognizable.

“Woman, why are you crying? Whom are you looking for?”

 He must be the gardener. He will know where Jesus’ body was taken. She wanted to grab him, to demand to know. She wanted to fall at his feet to beg him to return the body – to help her find her friend. With an unknown strength, her calm, firm voice spoke.

“Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him. I will take him away.”

At that moment, her world changed. With one word, her grief, her anger, her uncertainty burst into uncontainable joy.

“Mary.” Spoken with a love and recognition she did not expect – could not expect. “Mary.” Her name. Spoken by a voice she’d heard a hundred times. Spoken by a voice she knew she should not hear – would never hear again. But she did hear it. “Mary.”

That simple word meant so much, but at that moment in her mind it meant only one thing. She found her master and her friend. She found Jesus and he was alive. She turned and sputtered the only word that would leave her tongue in that moment. “Rabbouni” – Teacher, Lord.

Jesus said more to her, but she barely heard any of it. She could only look at him. Basking in his risen glory. Jesus is alive. She didn’t want to leave. She wanted to never leave. To never again be out of Jesus’ presence. “Go tell my friends” he told her.

Peter and John found some of the other disciples. They told them about Mary’s report. About the empty tomb. They sat in silent uncertainty. A sudden rap on the door startled them from their thoughts. The door burst open. Mary stood in the entryway, her tear-streaked face beaming with excitement.

She shouted, “I have seen the Lord!”

In that moment all uncertainty, all thoughts were replaced with one. “Christ is risen!”

Christ is risen!

Christ is risen indeed!

©2015 – Scott Coats

The Social Network: Shine Brighter

Here is the last sermon in my series on community. This was preached 5/12/2013.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Social Network. What does your social network look like? To whom are you connected? Think for just a moment. How many people in this room do you know by first and last name? How many people in this church do you where they live? How many have you visited at home? How many people have you prayed with? Not just said – “I’ll pray for you” then gone on your way – but taken time to sit and pray with them. How many people here do you know you can count on in a crisis? Is there someone in the church who you can talk to about things with which you struggle? Is there someone who you know will call you out, in a loving and constructive way, when you’ve done something stupid? How many people in this room have you laughed with? Cried with? With how many people in this church have you shared your faith story? From how many have you heard their story?

I hope you can think of at least a few people who fit into each of those categories. That’s what a social network is supposed to look like.

I want to share an image with you. Have any of you ever used Friend Wheel on Facebook? It will show all of your friends and then show what connections you and that friend have in common.  Here is my Friend wheel. The dots around the circle represent the people I am friends with on Facebook. The lines between them connect those who are friends with one another. Just to give you a better idea of how it works, here’s another slide. In this one I highlighted one friend to show the mutual connections we have. This shows my connections to Misty, so these are all of the mutual friends we have. 

So these 240-something dots represent all of my Facebook friends, but If I were going to make a “friend wheel” of people like I mentioned earlier. Those with whom I am close. Those who will call me out when I do something dumb. The ones I can really talk to. That wheel would look more like this.  And I may have overestimated a relationship or two. The sad part of this wheel is not the small number of people on it, but the infrequency with which I meet and talk with those people, save one.

This is the connection I described earlier. This is the connection we need to have. This is the social network we need to build. A small network of people who will support us; who will pray for and with us; who will help us through our struggles. A group of people with whom we grow closer to Christ as we grow closer to one another.  

Our scripture this morning gives us some instruction about why we need one another. Jesus tells us to be salt and to be light. There is something distinctive about salt and light. By nature, salt and light are communal. Or at least they should be. I want to look at what being salt teaches us about our need for community and then what light teaches us.

Salt is an interesting substance. It has been in use since about 6000 BC. At one time, salt was even used as a currency because of its value. Our word salary was derived from the word salt. I don’t know how much truth there is to this, but if a slave was traded for salt, and performed poorly, we get the saying – “He’s not worth his salt.” In Jesus’ time and place, salt was a necessity. Salt was used to season food, but salt was also used as a preservative. 1^st Century Judea did not have refrigerators, but with salt, you could cure meat to make it last longer. Salt was used in some purification rituals. Salt was sprinkled on all offerings and sacrifices in the Jewish Temple.

Salt was essential in Jesus’ world and in that of his audience. They understood the importance of salt when he told them – “You are the salt of the earth.” The thing about salt, though, is that it is not useful to itself. It only has value in that it is applied to other things. It seasons food. It preserves meats. It is used to purify. Salt enhances the things around it.

In other words, if we are salt, we are no good by ourselves. Salt is not for itself. We are not to be kept to ourselves. To be salt, we must exist for others. To season and enhance all of those around us. If we keep to ourselves, we lose our saltiness – we lose our value. To lose our saltiness means that we become useless to those around us. We become so consumed with ourselves that we lose the connections around us. We no longer enhance or season our world.

I want to take a little break here to interject something. All of this talk about community and our faith being dependent upon being with and around other people does not mean that we should never spend time alone with God. Quite the opposite. We need time alone with God. Jesus tells us we should spend time in private prayer. In fact, when Jesus prays he almost always goes off alone to pray. Solitude is a good thing. For introverts like me, it allows us to recharge.

Maybe we can think about it in terms of salt. We spend time with other believers to get seasoned. That time we spend together enhances our time with God.

We spend time alone with God to become saltier. We pray and study so we can become more helpful to others. We spend time with God so that we can be salt for others. We spend time with others to get salted.

Jesus also says we are to be light. You are the light of the world. Light, just like salt, is meant to be shared. Scripture, again and again, refers to Jesus as light. Just a few verses before our the scripture read this morning Jesus quotes a passage from Isaiah in reference to himself. When he says that “the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.” The Gospel of John talks about the light of Jesus breaking into the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome the light.

Now Jesus says we are to be light. We are to reflect the light of Jesus for those around us. Jesus goes on to say that when someone lights a candle, they put it on a stand so that it will give light to everyone in the house.

This got me thinking about a couple of different images. The first is the power that light has over darkness. Have any of you ever been spelunking, or as we used to call it, cave crawling? As a kid, my dad used to take us to Collier Cave. Or Coffee Cave – which ever you want to call it – to go cave crawling. We would all put on some old clothes, get our Atlanta Braves replica batting helmets, and grab a flashlight to go crawl around in the mud 30 feet underground. I loved it!

One thing I learned in that cave is that you don’t understand dark until you are underground without a light. We would get to a certain spot in the cave, deep enough that no outside light came in, and turn off our flashlights. It was dark. It was a darkness that you could feel. We were in a room that was probably 100 feet in diameter with 20 foot ceilings but with the flashlights off it felt like the walls were right next to me.

Standing there in that blackness, my dad struck a match. One simple little match. And suddenly the room was huge again. That overwhelming darkness was no match for that tiny little light. Which shows us the power that light has over darkness. It brings to life that passage from John – the darkness cannot overcome the light.

But the room was still dark. Then someone turned on a flashlight and we could see a little more. Then another flash light. Then another and another. Until finally we lit the entire room. It wasn’t bright, but it was lit. We could see the room, we could see each other.

Not only did I learn the power light has over darkness, I also learned that a light can shine through the darkness, but as we let our light shine together the light becomes brighter. The darkness recedes more and more until when we add enough light shining together, it doesn’t matter how dark it is, we’re illuminated.

It makes me think of the Christmas Eve candlelight service. We start ina dark room with a single candle burning. And that single light is all you can see. But that light gets passed from person to person until everyone in the room is letting their light shine. And together those candles light up the sanctuary. You can see everything.

That’s what being light teaches us about community. Your light may shine, but together we shine brighter. Together the light of Jesus is even more powerful. It lights our way and it is a light for the world.

And back to the cave for a moment. Another reason we come together is so that our light can be a help to those who are struggling to shine. I remember being in the cave a group of 6 or 8 of us and my flashlight died. If I’d been alone, I’d be done for. But there were 5 – 7 more flashlights there to help me get out of that darkness.

I want to put a practical spin on this series. I’ve talked a lot about community and about having a group of people to pray with and study with.

I’ve talked several times over the last few weeks about a quote from John Wesley about Christianity being a social religion. That wasn’t simply something he preached. It was something he lived and practiced. The Methodist movement started when Wesley was at Oxford University and he and his brother and a few more friends started what we would call a small group. They prayed and studied together. And they visited prisons and fed the hungry together. This led Wesley to start the Methodist movement as a movement of community. There were Methodist societies throughout England. Each society was broken down into bands which were then divided into class meetings. These class meetings were groups of 6-8 people who would pray together, check up on one another, care for one another.

Earlier this week, one of my professors posted a story on his blog about his daughter. This story gave a perfect example of what small groups are about. His 2 ½ year-old daughter came to him one morning with her baby doll and said it was the baby Jesus. After breakfast, he told her it was time to go to school. She told him that she was Mary and he was Joseph. “Ok, Mary, it’s time to go.” When they got to her daycare, he asked if she wanted to leave the baby in the car. She told him, No. Maybe I can share Jesus with my friends, and when they’re done they can give him back to me.” 

That is exactly what social religion is about. That is what a small group is about. It is a group where you share Jesus with others and they share Jesus with you. And together you grow more and more like Jesus.

The Social Network: We Do We Will

This is the third sermon in a series on community. This sermon was given on Confirmation Sunday, so it is a little shorter

A few weeks ago, I started a sermon series called “The Social Network.” The inspiration for this series was a couple of quotes from John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. In one of his writings he said, “Solitary religion is not to be found [in the gospel of Christ]. ‘Holy solitaries’ is a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than holy adulterers. The gospel of Christ knows of no religion but social; no holiness but social holiness.” In another sermon, Wesley explained that in saying that Christianity is a social religion he means that our faith cannot survive without being with and sharing with other believers. In other words, our faith is dependent upon community. It is dependent upon connection to one another.

We spent a couple of weeks talking about this connection that we call the body of Christ. In the body of Christ, we are connected to one another just as all of the parts of our body are connected to one another. Jesus talked about that connection, too. He said, “I am the vine and you are the branches.” Today is a special day because we get to be a part of and to witness as new branches are grafted onto the vine of Jesus. This morning, we welcome new members into the body of Christ. And we get to witness some others making their first public proclamation of their faith and affirm their part in the body.

Now, I want to talk to our confirmands and those who will be baptized for just a few minutes. I hope the rest of you will listen, too, but I’m going to talk to you guys. Today, you will claim your part in the body of Christ. What does that mean, though? A lot of what it means will be addressed in the questions you’ll answer in just a few minutes. Do you reject evil and wickedness and repent of your sins? Do you accept the gift of God’s grace that allows you to resist that evil? Do you confess Jesus Christ as your savior? Will you be faithful members of Christ’s holy church? Will you support the church with your prayers, your presence, your gifts, your service, and your witness? In those questions you see what it means to be a member of Christ’s body. It doesn’t just mean that you say you believe in Jesus. It doesn’t just mean that you come to church on Sunday mornings and maybe Wednesday nights.

Being a part of the body of Christ means that you are committing yourself to live as a follower of Jesus. It means that you are committing to live a life of the Spirit. To do the best you can, empowered by God’s grace, to live a life of holiness. To do good, to avoid evil. You are committing yourself to growing closer to Jesus day by day – by studying, by praying, by worshipping, by serving others. You are promising to be an active part of the body. Not a paralyzed arm, but an active working part of the body of Christ. Sounds hard, doesn’t it?

It is hard, but guess what. You don’t do it alone. First of all, it’s only by God’s grace that we can do good and avoid evil. It’s only by God’s grace that we grow closer to Jesus. But we have more help also.

I saw visual example used last week that I want to share with you this morning. As Christians, one of the symbols of our faith is the cross. In the cross, we are reminded of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. Jesus came to earth, lived as a man, and died so that our sins can be forgiven, so that for us death holds no power. Think about John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that he gave his only son. So that whoever believes in him won't die, but will have eternal life. The cross reminds us of that gift. The gift of God’s redeeming grace, returns us to righteousness in the eyes of God. So you see that the cross connects us to God.

Looking at the cross, we can think about the vertical part as that connection to God. But the cross has two parts. Vertical and horizontal. This horizontal part is a connection as well. The cross connects us to God, but it also connects us to one another.

Now I want to talk to the rest of the people here, but I want you guys to listen.

As followers of Christ we have a responsibility to one another. Paul writes in Ephesians that, as the body of Christ, we have a responsibility to help one another grow closer to God. By praying together, worshiping together, studying scriptures together, and by sharing our faith stories with one another. In the scriptures that Anna Kate and Claire read this morning Paul and the writer of Hebrews reminded their readers that we are called to encourage one another.

Paul wrote of the Body of Christ again in 1 Corinthians 12. There he says that not only do we help one another grow, but we are also to care for one another. In verse 26, he says "If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad." This connection we have through Jesus Christ is more than a common faith. It’s more than believing in the same thing. It is a responsibility to care for one another physically and spiritually. Look around the room, each of us is connected to one another. Each of us has a responsibility to one another. Each of us, through the power of the Holy Spirit is connected by the Love of God and called to share that love.

Each of you in this room has a responsibility to these who will be baptized or confirmed this morning. Not only will they make promises and commitments, but so will you. Each of you will reaffirm your own commitment to live as followers of Jesus. You will also make a commitment to these young men and women. You will promise to proclaim and live the gospel as an example to them. You will promise to surround them with love. You will promise to pray for them. To support them, to help them as they do their best, empowered by God’s grace, as they grow in their faith. To help them become more and more like Christ.

That is what “social religion” is all about. That’s what it looks like to be connected to God and to one another. This afternoon, you, the confirmands, will be given a cross as a reminder of your decision to follow Christ. Let it also serve as a reminder that you are not doing this alone. You are connected to God and we are all connected to one another.

The Social Network: It's What We Are

Here is sermon #2 in my series on community. This was preached 4/14/2013.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Last week we began a series called The Social Network. I said last week, that we are talking about a social network that has little to nothing to do with Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest, but everything to do with the person to your left, your right, in front of and behind you.

Last week I shared with you a quote from John Wesley that served as an inspiration for this series. Wesley wrote, “Solitary religion is not to be found [in the gospel of Christ]. ‘Holy solitaries’ is a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than holy adulterers. The gospel of Christ knows of no religion but social; no holiness but social holiness.” In other words, the Christian faith is not something we can do on our own. Living as a follower of Jesus Christ has a distinctively social aspect. I also gave you Wesley’s definition of what he means that Christianity is a social religion. He said that our faith cannot survive without living with and sharing with other believers. In other words, our faith is dependent on community.

So during this series we are talking about the importance of community. And this is actually something we talk about all the time, probably without thinking too much about it. We often talk about being a community of faith, but what does that mean? We talk about being the body of Christ, but, again, what does that mean? That’s going to be our focus today. What it means to be the body of Christ and what it looks like to live as the body of Christ.

In our scripture this morning Paul talks about the body of Christ. Paul uses this metaphor again and again in his letters. He talks over and over about the church as the body of Christ. We read an example of that last week. In Ephesians 4:12 Paul we are all given gifts and have a responsibility to use those gifts to do the work of God to “build up the church, the body of Christ.” It is a metaphor we see throughout the New Testament. As the church, we make up the body of Christ. It is more than a metaphor, we are the embodiment of Christ. We are to be the eyes and ears, the hands and feet, the voice and the heart of Jesus for the world.

Through our baptism, we are initiated into the body of Christ. We become members of that body. But it’s more than membership in an organization. I read an article this week that talked about the church as an organism versus an organization. That’s the way we should think about the church. As a living organism. One point that article made is that an organization has many heads, the church has only one head. Ephesians and Colossians both talk of the church as the body of Christ and Christ as the head of that body.

So instead of members of an organization, we are members of the body, just as our hands and feet, arms and legs are members of our body. And just as we use our members – our arms, legs, hands, and feet – to move and work in the world around us, Jesus uses us the members of the body of Christ to work in the world.

There are three aspects of the body of Christ present in our scripture that I want to focus on as we think about what it means to be the body of Christ and how we live as the body of Christ.

The first of these goes back to the quote from John Wesley I read earlier. “Solitary religion is not to be found in the gospel of Jesus Christ.” If we are a part of a body, the we are dependent upon one another. Paul speaks of the church in terms of a human body. The many parts make up one body – and so it is with the body of Christ. When we talk about the human body, we know that no part of the body can survive apart from the body.

When I was growing up I remember seeing a Michael Caine movie called “The Hand”. Has anyone else seen it? In that movie, Michael Caine’s character had his hand cut off in a car accident. Actually, I think he was sticking it out the window in a fit of road rage and it was knocked off. Well, for the rest of the movie, that malevolent hand tormented Michael and the rest of the cast.

In reality, if you were to lose a hand or a finger, it can be reattached, but doctors say that it must be within 6-12 hours because the tissue begins to deteriorate quickly. And, of course, the thing would not reanimate on its own.

The same is true for us as members of the body of Christ. We cannot survive apart from the body. Our faith, our growing closer to Christ is dependent on being with other Christians. It is dependent on being connected.

Jesus uses a similar metaphor to the body in John chapter 15. There he says that he, Jesus, is the vine and we are the branches. In other words, we are all connected through Jesus. He goes on to say in verse 4, “For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fuitful unless you remain in me.”

I know what some of you are thinking. “I can remain connected to Jesus without being connected to the church!” “I can feel just as close to God on the golf course or in a tree stand or running or hiking or”, you name it. I would argue that you cannot stay connected to Jesus without the church. On our own, we start to depend on ourselves instead of others. And that leads to depending on ourselves instead of depending on God.

And, as I mentioned last week, we are created for relationship. A defining characteristic of God is the trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is community. It is relationship. This is the image in which we are created. We are created to be in community. We are created to be in relationship with God and with one another.

The second thing we learn about being the body of Christ is that in the body, we are all connected to one another and through that connection, no one part is more or less important than another.

One reason Paul wrote this letter to the church at Corinth was because of arguments among the members about who was more important. In verse 13 Paul attempts to settle this argument. “Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.”

In other words, in the body of Christ, we are all equal. It’s odd that in the 2000 years since this letter was written, these same issues are still lingering. We still deal with issues of race, gender, social status, economic status. All of these are things that divide us, things that in some cases turn us against one another. All of them are things that Paul tells us don’t matter one bit in the body of Christ. In Ephesians 3:6 Paul makes this same argument. He wrote,  “And this is God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus.”

In the body, no part is more important than the other. And something else to remember. It’s not up to the parts of the body to determine who is and who is not a part of the body. Paul reminds us that some parts that seem the weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. It’s not our job to decide who is on or out of the body. It’s our job to work as one body. To be one body. Paul says we should be in harmony so that all of the parts care for one another.  

Which leads to the third thing we learn about the body of Christ. That when one part suffers, the entire body suffers. When one part rejoices, the entire body rejoices. Our passage ends with an emphatic statement – “You are the body of Christ.”  James Boyce says that in light of this passage that verse is more command than statement. He says, “we are meant to hear that this calls us not to some assertion of privileged status, but rather to the recognition of our responsibility for mutual care for the members of this body.” We are meant not to simply have sympathy for those around us, but to have empathy. Do you know the difference?

I’m going to show my geekiness. Is anyone a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation? Do you remember counselor Deanna Troi? Troi was an empathy. Her mother came from a planet of mind-readers, but her father was human. So instead of reading someone’s mind, she could feel their emotions. She was an empath. She literally felt what they felt. That is what it means to have empathy.

If we have sympathy, we feel sorry for someone. If we have empathy, we feel their suffering. When is the last time you had empathy? True empathy? When is the last time you suffered with someone. I saw it put like this. When I have an ear infection, the rest of my body suffers. But when Ms Eloise is widowed I don’t really suffer, when frank gets a cancer diagnosis, when the Smyth’s baby is still-born – occasionally I feel a pang of something. Maybe I breakdown and cry for a few minutes. But then I go about my life. I certainly don’t suffer with the suffering.

The best way to do that is going back to the second point. We are all connected to one another. But we tend to build barriers between us that keep us from truly feeling what the other is feeling. In the body of Christ we have to let those barriers go. We have to open ourselves to God and to one another.

To do that, you have to make your faith about more than 11am-12pm every Sunday. You have to make church about more than sitting in these chairs once a week surrounded by acquaintances and then going back to real life when the service is over.

To truly be the body of Christ, you have to know the rest of the body. You have to spend time together. You have to share with one another. In order to truly be the body of Christ, you have to make Christ the head of you. What does the head of a body do? It directs the body. Tells it where to go and what to do. It senses pain and joy from the different parts and lets the rest of the body feel that as well. To connect ot one another we have to first connect to Christ.

But then we have to connect to one another!

Amen.