Sermon Echoes: Meet People Where The Are

 

I am so thankful to my congregations for the love they have shared with me over this Pastor Appreciation month. I feel so blessed and seen by these folks. They have come to mean so much to me over our four months together and I LOVE being their pastor. 

"We Are His Offspring" Kimberly Cash

Yesterday in worship, I told a story about Tony Campolo and Agnes, It turns out the story was turned into a short film with names and places changed by rik swartzwelder films.

(synopsis) It's the same-old-same-old tonight at the local diner. Jim, the owner, hides in the kitchen while the regulars retread the old banter. But a new guy walks in and sits alone at the far end of the counter. Soon a new idea shatters the dull routine. Will it continue to be the same-old-same-old? Not tonight. Not ever again...

 I have linked it below. (PG)

"The Least of These" a rik swartzwelder film (Based on a true story by Tony Campolo)

In Acts 17, Paul shares the message that God is not a deity to whom we simply bow down and make offerings in the hopes that the odds will turn in our favor. Rather God lives within us, and we in God, and daily we have the joy and privilege of communing with God and being led by God. As we share our faith, we should be reminded that we, too, have growing and changing to do. This invites people to a community of disciples who are learning and growing together, rather than into a club where they are expected to ‘join and catch up with everyone else.’

When we think of not only ourselves but of everyone as being made in God’s image, we are invited into seeing the ways that others are trying and the way that God is active in their lives. Seeing the Imago Deo or the fingerprints of God, in someone means that we are willing to make space to hear about their experiences, to understand other contexts, to be in conversation, and growing relationships. There are so many ways that story Tony tells could have gone, But it makes me happy to think there are people who set aside all the things that could make us call a person unclean because we truly have come to understand that what God has called clean we cannot call unclean. And God has called creation good. Yes, we all sin and fall short of God’s glory, but when we set aside our personal piety to discover the created goodness in others we can see Christ emerge and can allow love to lead the way.

Disciples of Christ are called to be a witness for Christ in daily life, to surprise people around us with the good news of the gospel. We’ve acknowledged over these weeks that putting our commission into regular practice can be daunting.

Author Michael Frost, in his book, Surprise the World teaches clear and practical missional habits for being evangelism in your daily life. Frost’s BELLS Method offers five habits for disciples to practice each week:

·        Bless others

·        Eat together

·        Listen to the Spirit

·        Learn Christ

·        Understand yourself as Sent by God into others’ lives

We, as the church, have a responsibility not only to teach but also to listen. Every person who walks through our doors or who we meet out in the world will have a completely different lived experience. We can learn from Paul’s shift in approach and we can seek the example of Christ by not trying to get people to where we are, but to enter into where they are and begin the conversation there. Sometimes that bears fruit immediately, sometimes it’s just a seed planted for a long journey, sometimes it’s a cake that goes home before anyone takes a bite, sometimes we learn more about ourselves than anything, but whatever the circumstance we have the opportunity to be a positive connection to Christ by recognizing and honoring where someone is.

Sermon Echoes-Good News For Everyone

 

Good News for Everyone

Jesus is the telos or ultimate aim of the Law, and our cruciform connection to him allows his love, the greatest commandment, to be fulfilled in our own lives.
                                         

In the letter to the Philippians, Paul uses a Confession of Christ, which takes the form of a hymn known by all of the communities of faith he planted. To this community especially, to talk about having the mind of Christ.

5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
7 but emptied himself,
taking the form of a servant

being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8 he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.

Now the history of the Philippian community as a Roman army base, meant that the readers of this letter had certain expectations of their gods. 1 god didn’t die. 2 gods didn’t HUMBLE THEMSELVES. 3. gods didn’t expect worshipers to change how they did things. But this God DID DIE, HE DID HUMBLE HIMSELF and we are being asked to change our minds to be like Christ. For the Philippians community, it meant letting go of the social order the community had established and someone of high class having the same place in the community of faith as someone of low or no class. For us, perhaps it is letting go of our judgments of others, or giving our own opinions a rest for the sake of a relationship. To humble ourselves as an act of service to another is what Christ did.

The second verse of the hymn continues,

Therefore God also highly exalted JESUS
and gave him that name
that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Church this confession is our history, it is our present and our future. Our willingness to go beyond boundaries and to understand what God has made clean we can’t call unclean is all tied up in having the same mind as Christ. We have been given life by Christ offering for us, his humble act of service to all humanity. All of this makes it our honor and privilege therefore, to have open hearts, open minds, and open doors for the glory of God the Creator, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Sermon Echoes - The Great Commission

 

 The Great Commission

October 8th was such a full day of wonderful opportunities to be church. I am so blessed to serve the communities of Pilmoor Memorial UMC in Currituck and Mt. Hermon UMC outside Elizabeth City.  The morning began with a beautiful sunrise over the Currituck sound that always has this way of centering my spirit and reminding me how small I am in the scheme of things. God shows off every morning over here in Currituck and I love seeing the paintings in the sky and all of creation coming alive.

This week, I began a sermon series called "Everybody Tell Somebody" that will take us through the month and I am very excited to be sharing these messages, calls to discipleship, and weekly bible study. If you missed out on the message you can watch it here.

"What if we were to read the text this way, 'Go, therefore, and while you are going make disciples and baptize them into Trinity and the family of faith.' Doing so causes a shift in our understanding of evangelism from being a task we are commanded to complete, to instead, being asked to live our entire lives as a witness to the Gospel, meeting others and ourselves where we are along the way.”

There is a difference between “mission” and “evangelism” even though we often use them as interchangeable words and experiences.  So often in our churches, we do great mission work but struggle to find the opportunities for evangelism or to know the difference between mission and evangelism. 

Mission - apostolḗ  - ap-os-tol-ay'

sent or sending

Evangelism - euangelion - yoo-ang-ghel'-ee-on

to announce/tell good news 

As we journey through this series it is my fervent prayer that we will make a shift from "doing evangelism" to “being evangelism”.  That could look like (e.g., making conversation with a stranger in the checkout line or the server in the restaurant you frequent; listening when a stranger, friend, or neighbor is going through something; letting others go first in a line; helping a neighbor with a project; handing out food in a food pantry) allowing our lives become shaped by the call to "euangelion" (evangelize)

Step 1:acknowledging our doubts and fears about our ability to do or be evangelism does not prevent God from using us. God's perfection does not need ours, if we allow grace to work in us and through us God can and will use us for all sorts of good.

Step 2: take a relationship from stranger to neighbor, showing love and kindness to anyone we encounter. Showing them they matter enough for us to build a relationship with them.

Step 3: do not be afraid to say that the source of that light shining within you is Jesus.

What would it look like if we, as the body of Christ, were to see our call to evangelize not as one task among many but as an overall approach, structuring our days from morning to night? Imagine being that daily witness who baptizes others into a Christ-filled life.  Our evangelism or witness becomes an announcement, a telling, not just with words, but with our actions and behaviors too.

A culture shift like this for our church begins to generate the same kind of excitement as invitations to a big celebration, where it’s not just another thing we do. The Great Commission also becomes the Great Invitation - one that all of us can rally around and help share this amazing Good News. 

-May Trinity make it So-

REMEMBER! God Loves you and So do I!