The Man Behind the Curtain

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The Great Commission

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Sermon 6.19.11 Matt. 28:16-20 The Great Commission

These words we've just heard are called The Great Commission. They are the last words Jesus spoke in the Gospel of Matthew. They are a crystal clear call to mission. No other permission needs to be received. “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go, therefore....” There is work yet to be done.

Have you noticed that you don't hear a lot these days about “foreign missions?” Is that because every place on earth has now been reached by the Gospel and there's nothing more to do in Asia, Africa, the Pacific islands, South America? Does it mean that there's no money for it any more so we just quietly stopped doing it?

When my parents were young they went to “mission rallies.” They were like pep rallies for foreign missions. Rousing songs were sung. Exciting stories-from-the-front were told. Money was raised. No one does that any more. How come? I actually owe my life to mission rallies! That's how my grandparents met. Herman Borchers was hand-pumping an organ in some sweltering Oklahoma church, and Anna Friis felt sorry for him and brought him a lemonade. But young couples no longer meet at mission rallies. We don't have them. Why? What are we doing overseas?

When the first Christian missionaries went to China with early explorers and traders, they would march into a village, round up all the peasants, march them down to the river at spear point and baptize them in Dutch or Portuguese. This had two results: it bewildered and annoyed the peasants (though it did not convert them); and it aggrevated the local Chinese warlords. They said, 'you can't treat our peasants this way,' and thdy threw the missionaries out of China. When European missionaries were later allowed to return they realized they needed a more subtle approach. They'd learned that the warlord was the gatekeeper to the people. So they'd work on converting the warlord... who then marched his peasants down to the river to force them all into baptism! When it had become clear that this was bringing China no closer to accepting Christianity in any meaningful way, the Pope sent in the Jesuits, the Seal Team 6 of the Vatican. The Jesuits learned Chinese, dressed Chinese, ate Chinese, studied Confucius, engaged Chinese academicians in debate, trying to establish the intellectual superiority of Christianity, with the hopes of opening a door that way. But the Jesuits were all called home and chastised for becoming too Chinese.

We are not sending many missionaries overseas any more. We're bringing their students here to receive Masters Degrees, then sending them back to pastor their own people. And we're bringing their pastors here to receive their doctorates in order to go home and teach in seminaries at home to bring up the next generation of pastors right there.

So what do we do now with the Great Commission? How do we go, making disciples? Baptizing? Teaching? How do we do that, other than by financially supporting seminaries that teach foreign students?

When I lived in Sandusky, OH there was a fella there who was a breeder of hunting dogs. He felt the call to build a church and call himself the pastor, so he did. He had about 12-15 people that would worship in a barn. Then he felt a call to feed the hungry. So he went into the city and bought an old house on the poor side of the tracks and converted it into a soup kitchen. He's cooking along, serving about 50-60 people a night, when the city inspectors wrote him up for a violation: he didn't have the right kind of range hood and vent for his industrial kitchen. He was given 30 or 60 days to remedy that, and during that time an acquaintance of a friend of a friend who sat on the board of Cedar Point, the big amusement park that makes Sandusky famous – this third party asks the park to support the local community by supporting the soup kitchen. $30,000 worth of upgrades are installed in the kitchen to bring it up to code and the kitchen goes on.

This all happened before my first visit to the kitchen. I took youth groups there to peel potatoes and do dishes. About this time Herb Thompson retired. He was a plumber. He retired and after about two days of pacing around the house he started making his wife Betty crazy. I invited Herb seven months in a row to come with the youth and peel potatoes before he finally did. Herb loved it, and made every Thursday afternoon his day to go volunteer. He soon started talking about it with his buddies at the VFW and invited them to go with him on Thursday afternoons.

Now, which part of this story is a fulfillment of the Great Commission? Every bit of it! Answering the call to serve, feeding the hungry, volunteering, inviting, a cup of cold water for the least of these, stewardship, giving as generously as one has received... we love, because God first loved us. It's all the Great Commission.

Did you know that indiginous churches in Africa and South America look at North America and Europe, whom they refer to as the “neo-pagan North,” and are sending missionaries to our cities because it's so obvious that we need to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ? Rather than being embarrassed by that can we see that as a sign that our “foreign missions” of the 20^th century were successful enough that they've come full circle? Grandpa and Grandma's mission rally had a hand in this.

Now, if we choose to focus on domestic missions, which is what is left to us, and what is most needed, how do we do it? How do we carry out the Great Commission here at home? We do it by teaching and remembering. Jesus said, “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, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” So that's what we'll do. We'll teach the people of the world to do everything Jesus has commanded us to do. In other words, we'll ask people to do as we do. And we will do what Jesus has commanded, namely,

• you will be my witnesses, starting in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
• Love one another as I have loved you.
• Take and eat; take and drink.
• Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone;
• Feed my lambs, tend my sheep;

And all the while we're doing this, amid our doubts, and self-doubts, facing our fears and frustrations and distractions, we will remember that the Living Christ is with us always... to the end of the age.

Hearing it-- Getting it

We often think that the miracle of Pentecost was that a bunch of Galilean Jews began speaking in strange new languages. Jews from all over the known world, namely that strip of land all around the Middle East and the eastern Mediterranean Sea – from Italy and Greece and Palestine and North Africa-- were in town for the harvest festival called Pentecost. And suddenly Jesus' disciples began speaking to them in their own languages.

The miracle of Pentecost is not that the disciples began speaking in new languages. The miracle is that the visitors began hearing in their own languages. The Word, the message of God, was not only being spoken – it was being heard. Maybe that sounds simple. But if you've ever tried to communicate with someone-- your grandchildren, your new neighbors from Mexico, your own spouse-- you know that it's a lot easier to talk than to get yourself understood. Hearing is the miracle.

We get together in worship to listen, and hopefully to hear... and to practice getting heard and being understood. We hear the Word of salvation in Jesus, and practice speaking it. We speak it in our prayer, in our singing, in the touch of greeting. We speak it when we hold our hands out to receive. All of this is practice for speaking the Word on Monday...

You see, the disciples were locked away together indoors. But when the Holy Spirit came upon them it made such a ruckess that a crowd gathered. The disciples went out into the city. They went out beyond themselves in order to let the world know that Messiah had come – the one who sets the world right... had come.

Now talking is not the only way to communicate. Using words is not the only way to get across what's in your head and your heart. The Gospel can be communicated through art: painting, sculpture, carving, weaving, drama, poetry, film. The Gospel can be communicated through music as the Spirit enables composers, hymn-writers, instrumentalists, vocalists, etc. But beyond words and art...

In the 13^th century, Elizabeth, princess of Hungary, born rich and married at 14 to a wealthy German nobleman used her power of self-expression (her wealth) to speak the Gospel. In 1225 she gave away all of her money to feed the hungry during a famine. She built two hospitals. And when all her money was gone, she invited the sick and destitute into her husband's home and began spending HIS money to care for the poor – which made him furious, but didn't stop her. Elizabeth's wealth and status as nobility was her language – her means – of communicating the Gospel.

Toyohiko Kagawa of Japan, born 1888, took a Bible class in order to learn English. His family disinherited him when he became a Christian. He lived in the slums helping the poor, but he's best remembered for his efforts to prevent Japan from entering WWII. His efforts for peace amid hostility and peer pressure and nationalistic fever more intense than we can imagine has made him a hero of the faith. He is quite well known outside the US. Against all odds, Kagawa, as the Spirit enabled him, spoke the language of peace and social reform, bringing help and hope to thousands before, during and after the war.

So you may be saying to yourself, What's this got to do with me? Maybe you're not particularly artistic. Maybe you can't carry a tune in a bucket. You're not medieval royalty, nor a heroic peace activist. Maybe the Holy Spirit hasn't enabled you to do any of those things. On the other hand, maybe the Spirit has. None of you were born a princess. Yet here you sit. If you are alive in the late 20^th century – early 21^st century in North America, you are among the richest 2% of people who have ever lived on this planet. By the world's standards you are rich beyond imagining. Not only are we rich with material things we are rich with freedoms. You live in a nation where you can learn the truth about what's going on in your country and around the world. You can speak the truth as you understand it. You are rich with freedoms and powers. Now what does the Holy Spirit enable YOU to do?

Maybe you're no Michelangelo, but if you can draw a cross or nail two sticks together you can reproduce the Glory of God! Now what does the Holy Spirit enable you to do?

I once served a church where fourth, fifth, sixth grade kids made Valentines for shut-ins. I saw them being made. They were nice. Not a one of them was going to wind up in the Louvre, but each contained a nice message. A week later a woman calls the church in tears. “Thank you for remembering my husband,” she said. “His Valentines Day card was beautiful! It's so nice to know that he's not forgotten, even though it's been years since he could come to church. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” With nothing more than construction paper and markers those kids TOUCHED LIVES! Just by speaking as the Spirit enabled them.

In the United Church of Christ we like to say, “God is still speaking.” Or, using the words of Gracie Allen, “Never put a period where God has put a comma.” What does that mean? It means that we live together with God in an open system. Our faith is an old faith, but it is not exclusively defined by 2000 year old ideas or images or methods, or modes of communication. Preaching is the proof. There has been preaching since the beginning of the church. What is preaching but the interpretation of the ancient scriptures? In other words, asking and answering the question, “What do these scriptures mean to us, here and now?” That's interpretation. The Scriptures, precious as they are, do not – and have never – stood alone apart from interpretation. There is no such thing as a once and for all, literal interpretation of the Bible. That is an oxymoron and an idea that is proved false every time a fundamentalist interprets scripture claiming he is not interpreting it. Which is every time.

The theologian Karl Barth is famous for having said, “The preacher should climb into the pulpit with a Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” In other words, God is still speaking. It is required of us that translate what we know of Christ from the Scriptures into the world we live in now. We get to decide how we share the Good News of Jesus Christ. We don't have to do it the way someone else did.

So what does the Holy Spirit enable YOU to do? Maybe you're feeling a little frustrated, like you don't know what YOUR contribution, YOUR witness is supposed to be? Here's my advice: Don't try to figure it out. DON'T TRY TO FIGURE IT OUT! Let the Holy Spirit lead you to it. There is a difference between “doing” and “letting.” Half of life is knowing when to “do” and when to “let.” Finding your role in Christ's salvation-story is a “let” rather than a “do.”

We are here to support each other in the work of emptying ourselves so that God's Holy Spirit can fill us. Part of that is to empty ourselves of our natural anxious desire to DO so that God can fill us with the ability to LET. We don't grab the Spirit and force it in. We let the Spirit in. Listen for the wind. Look for the flame. Wait for the Spirit. Then speak... as the Spirit enables YOU.

Separation Anxiety Sermon for May 29, 2011

Sermon     5/29/11   

What do Jesus' disciples, small babies and all of us here today have in common?  We all suffer from separation anxiety.

Somewhere between 6-9 months old most children go through a phase where they hate to see Mom or Dad leave the room.  If Mom leaves the baby's sight the baby will let out a scream as if her whole world has been lost.  At this point baby has not yet learned what doctors call the concept of permanence – that just because you can't see something doesn't mean it's gone out of existence.  Baby's view of the world is so small, he is so completely wrapped up in himself and his own comfort that any disturbance, like the absence of his mother sends him into screaming expressions of separation anxiety.

Jesus' disciples experienced separation anxiety when Jesus was crucified.  Before his arrest Jesus said goodbye to his disciples.  We heard some of that in the Gospel reading from John 14.  When Jesus talked about his death it greatly disturbed his disciples.  They didn't want to face the prospect of losing him.  Jesus had to reassure them that, even though he was going to be killed, he was not leaving them forever.  Just because they cannot see him does not mean that he has ceased to exist. 

When a baby experiences separation anxiety it screams and cries.  After Jesus' death, when the disciples experienced separation anxiety they cowered and hid behind locked doors.  They became very quiet, lest the same people that killed Jesus would find them and crucify them too.

What about us?  What does our separation anxiety look like?  There are times in everyone's life when it looks to them that God doesn't exist.  Can't see him.  He must not be there.  God must have abandoned me, or rejected me, or is punishing me. 

·        Some, in their anxiety will scream and cry out, “God, why are you doing this to me?  Where are you?  Why have you forsaken me?”

·        Some, in their anxiety, will become very quiet.  “OK, if this thing with God isn't working out, what other crutch is available to me?”  We elevate our hurt feelings into the place we used to reserve for God.  And we worship our victim status.

Sometimes, we experience separation anxiety, not because some tragedy has occurred, but simply because we have drifted away, or allowed ourselves to be pulled away from God.  Maybe we just wake up one day and notice – hey, where did everybody go?  God?  Haven't talked to him in a while.  The longer one has been away from worship, the harder it is to come back.  The longer one has been away from prayer, the harder it is to get started again.

When Jesus' disciples express their anxiety about his leaving them, he seeks to assure them three ways.  1.  In vs. 16 Jesus says, “I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate” that is... the Holy Spirit.  Some translations render the word Counselor instead of advocate.  The word in Greek that is used here is paraclete – one who brings comfort and hope by standing up in court to defend you.  So Jesus promises that they won't be alone-- that shortly they will have a Conforter among them, namely the Holy Spirit.  2.  In vs. 18 Jesus says, “I will not leave you orphanous (Gk.).  I will not leave you orphans.  I will not leave you deso;ae ones.  Even if you cannot see me, I have not ceased to exist.  3.  In vs. 20 Jesus encourages his disciples to observe his commandments while he is [apparently] gone.  This is more than simply a tactic to distract them away from their own self-absorption.  Following Jesus' commandments means that the disciples will be forced to think about others, and not just themselves. Their world will grow beyond their grief, fear, confusion and paralysis.  They will be engaging in action, mission witness, service. 

Because, what is it that Jesus commands us to do? 

·        Love one another as I have loved you.

·        Feed my sheep.

·        Go, therefore and baptize, making disciples of all nations.

·        Abide in me (make your home in me).

·        Go... quickly... and tell.

·        Take and eat; this is my body.

How do we know that Jesus is still with us?  When we can't see him?  When we feel so far away?  Part of the answer has to do with avoiding religion long enough to find faith.  Does that sound strange?  Avoid religion so as to find faith?

What is religion?  Here's one definition: Religion is a discipline or system of practice that seeks to alleviate or prevent anxiety over our real or imagined separation from God by observing rituals or practices designed to keep God's anger away.  Religion, when talking about all the religions of the world, both the worldwide religions and the smaller, tribal or primitive religions, is often about appeasing a god that is presumed to be angry, presumed to have a short temper.  As if god is Sheherezod's wicked husband, the king, who will gladly kill us unless we give him a good enough reason not to.  Or like the teacher who starts out every student in her class with an 'F', and over the course the semester you try to raise it up to a passing grade.

Does our God assume the worst about us?  Is our God just looking for a reason to kill us?  Do we worship an angry god?

In our first lesson today we heard about Paul at the Areopagus.  The citizens of Athens were so afraid of offending a god or goddess by overlooking them that they set up an altar to an unknown god.  Building altars was part of classical Greek “religion.”  It was supposed to keep the god situation under control.  It was supposed to assuage the gods' petty egos to the point that they won't get bored or angry and start meddling negatively in human affairs.  These are religious practices in the sense that they are designed to keep things as they are, with God happy enough to leave us alone.  They are designed to control God, nature, and the world.  These religious practices were supposed to prevent “surprises.”  Prevent bad surprises-- that's religion.  (I always cross myself before I shoot a freethrough, that's why I will always do it: to prevent a miss.)

Contrast that with faith.  Religion hopes to repeat the old while faith is open to the new.  Religion seeks to conrol, while faith seeks to set free.  Religion is a discipline (we must keep doing the things).  Faith is an adventure!  (Let's see what God is going to do next.)

Jesus came to give us a look into God's heart.  When we see Jesus we see the heart of the Father-- healing, encouraging, lifting up the poor, loving, forgiving... raising us from the dead!  We do not worship an angry God, eager to see us fail.  We worship the one we know through Jesus Christ, the one who went to the cross to show us that there is no place we can be, which is as distant from God as we sometimes feel – to show us that neither hight nor depth, nor anxiety, nor death-- can actually separate us from the love of God in Christ.  Amen.