Scripture Reading: Romans 3:23-26
23 since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; 26 it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.
Sermon Title: "GETTING THE CHURCH THING RIGHT" Sunday, February 17, 2008
PASTOR HUDSON: The opening line of my
sermon notes includes the phrase, we are not perfect.
I'm going to delete that line today as a needless,
obvious statement.
If you are under any illusion as to our
perfection, I imagine it's dispelled by now. I
noticed this morning when we were warming up for
praise team music that I was discovering whole new notes
that had never been created on the fretboard before.
I even traded out guitars and that didn't seem to
help. So that's been kind of the tone of my day.
Well, today we want to talk about getting the
church thing right. Doing something with it that is
significant, different, rich and full.
First, why is it significant to discuss getting
the church thing right? Well, a few weeks ago I was
talking about Christ calling us to be fishers of men,
and how that perhaps strangely there is really no
description, no explanation in the gospels as to
exactly what that meant for Jesus.
We have the gospel's recording in more than one
location that Jesus stopped and saw certain disciples,
certain individuals, and he bid them to come and
follow him and said that I will make you fishers of
men, but then they don't go on and share with us
exactly what that meant, what it looked like, what
were the instructions. You know, what was Jesus’
four spiritual laws? What kind of little witnessing
curriculum did he use to prepare the disciples to
share the good news about the Kingdom of God?
So in some ways we're left to work it out on our
own, and maybe in some ways that's the reason why
oftentimes we are so hesitant to do it. We don't feel
like we have clear-cut instructions.
Well, so also it is in the gospels with the
church. We have very, very few statements in the
gospels where Jesus even mentions the church. There
is, perhaps, the most famous one where he looks at
Peter on one particular occasion and queries “Who do you say that I
am”, and Peter responds appropriately that you are the Christ,
the Son of God, and Jesus responds, flesh and blood
does not reveal this to you, Peter, but the spirit of
God, and from this point on I'll call you Peter
instead of Cephas, and upon this rock I will build my
church, and that term is used at that particular point
in time.
It really isn't until after the resurrection of
Christ that we begin to get a glimpse into this group
of individuals that would become what we understand to
be the church. Jesus doesn't spend a great deal of
time talking about what the church will be, how it
should function, and maybe that shouldn't be so
surprising to us.
If there were really good, clear guidelines,
maybe we wouldn't have, my goodness, this Heinz 57
varieties of church denominations and groups and
policies and procedures, and governances and so forth
that sometimes causes us to just scratch our heads and
wonder what in the world.
I've actually had people come into the United
Methodist Church from other denominations, oftentimes
from a free church congregational background, and
they're used to the idea that they will keep a clergy person
forever. They're there long-term and hopefully, it's a
good mix.
In the Methodist Church we change around a little
bit, and often-times people that come in from
more free church or congregational backgrounds
have a little trouble getting used to the itinerancy.
They kind of like the clergy,
and about the time they think this person
is a really, really good person, all of a sudden they
get the message that the clergy is leaving. Well, why are they
leaving? Well, the bishop moved them. What do you
mean? They think, well, can he or she do that?
I've seen a few settings where
parishioners that just don't quite understand this
Methodist system get together and start a petition and
write letters to the bishop to keep that clergy they
really liked. Well, maybe we wouldn't have those
things if Jesus had written down some rules and
regulations, but we don't have that.
So to get the church thing right I think what we
need to do is recognize that, much like Wesley put it
years ago, that we need to approach it from a particular
perspective. Number one, in essentials, we need to get
on the same page. In essentials, unity; in all other
things, liberty, and we'll try and revisit that
statement from time to time over the next couple of
three Sundays, but we're going to be attempting to
identify what the essentials are.
What are the essentials that makes the church the
church? Well, our text this morning gives us one of
the foundations that is essentially a platform stone
for the church. All have sin and come short of the
glory of God. I like the way Paul writes it in
another part of that text.
He says it this way, talking really about all the
individuals who would ultimately find a place in the
church, he says no one is good, not even one. No one
has real understanding, no one is seeking God. All
have turned away from God. All have gone wrong. No
one does good. Their talk is foul. Their speech is
filled with lies. The poison of a deadly snake drips
from their lips. They're quick to commit murder.
Wherever they go, destruction and misery follow them.
They do not know what true peace is. They have no
fear of God to restrain them.
Now who is he talking about? Me, you, all of us
who will stand poised at that point where we need to
become what our forefathers and foremothers would have
referred to as sinners saved by grace.
When we think about getting the church thing
right we need to understand first that the church is a
place where highly flawed, far-from-perfect people
gather to let grace work a transforming work within
their lives.
I'm looking at a congregation full of flawed,
imperfect people. You're looking at a pastor that is
flawed and imperfect. The quicker we get used to that
and begin to see each other with grace-filled eyes
rather than eyes of extreme and unreasonable expectation, the
quicker we will begin to get the church thing right.
Scripture tells us that the church was a place
where people that were called out by the spirit of God
into a elect community would gather to do two very
important things. Number one, they would worship God.
They would spend time in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs. They would spend time in prayer.
They would spend time in the presence of the
absolutely other seeking the touch of God's
regenerative spirit within their heart.
They knew that the contact and the connection
that they had with God from day to day, week to week,
year to year was crucial for them to be able to
flourish within the grace experience that they had
encountered in Jesus Christ.
The reason that was significant was because
they knew that they were flawed and imperfect and yet
did not wish to remain in that condition. For you
see, Jesus said I've come
that you might have life and that more abundantly, and
his plan was very much, I believe, not only to bring
us forgiving grace, but the strength and the energy
and the ability to move from our imperfectness to a
place of greater perfection.
Would it not be true that life where there is no
growth or development or maturation would be less than
the life we would desire? The church gathered to
worship the God that could bring about that kind of
regeneration, but they did a second thing as well.
They recognized that it was the purpose of the
Holy Spirit within the gifting of the body of Christ
when the community gathered together to bring those
people into contact with one another so that they
might grow the growth that is from God.
Paul elaborates on that in several of his
epistles, Corinthians, Ephesians, Galatians,
Colossians and others, and it was the idea that coming
together as the body of Christ in significant ways
fosters and nurtures growth within the community.
Now we understand some of that. We know what
it's like to come into a church that is very friendly
in nature. We feel very much accepted. We've also
had the other side of that coin presented to us, the
experience of going into a church where nobody spoke
to us the entire time that we were there. We came, we
experienced it, we left with scarcely a greeting. We
know which is the most desirable.
We also understand the deeper dimensions of that
friendship that comes when we become a part of the
body of Christ, and we know that there are friends who
are going to be with us in illness and in struggle.
They're going to be the kind of folks that we can sit
and have coffee with and we enjoy their friendship and
their companionship in all manners of settings, but
the New Testament also understands that there is a
dimension of that fellowship that comes and touches
the very root of spiritual growth.
Let me ask you, who in the body of Christ in your
church is really your ‘anam cara’, that is to say your
soul friend, the
one who actually holds you gently and lovingly
accountable for the growth and the development and the
maturation that you need in Christ? Through their
encouraging words, through their insight, through
their wisdom, through their prayers and spiritual
gifts you are the stronger and better person now than
you were when you first met them.
That heritage of having a soul friend goes back
across many centuries, and I think in some cases in
our contemporary church because of the fast pace of
life where we scarce have time for friends, we let
some of that slip by, and friends are more people
we're merely friendly with. We really don't take the
time to invest in one another, and yet the truth is
that scripture declares that as the church would come
together, it was understood that the body of Christ
was built up by that ministry that took place whenever
saints of God gathered.
How could that happen at Wesley? How could it be
possible that at Wesley if we were to really invest
ourselves in the kind of growth that comes through
fellowship that goes beneath the surface, what would
it look like? I think it would look like a number of
things.
One thing it might look like is that we would
find ourselves not quite so inclined to hit the ground
running and be out the door right after everything was
over, slide in at the last minute, leave early. We'd
understand that time spent with one another as
brothers and sisters in Christ is not time wasted but
time invested, particularly if the nature of the time
is in spiritual conversation exploring and searching
out the things about which we struggle and that we
need encouragement, prayer and support.
Melissa and her colleagues working in
the small group ministry circulated a survey just a
few Sundays ago, and they're going to be meeting later
this morning to begin the process of developing small
group ministries within the life of our church, and I
know that for some, small groups have different
perspectives, a different understanding, and I
understand that small groups can be many different
things.
There can be affinity groups that meet around all
kinds of interests and so forth, but there is also a
place where that in my hopeful vision of small groups,
we could find a place for small groups where
individuals that were truly hungry to grow in their
walk with God could fellowship and converse with
similar persons who would desire to encourage them,
hold them accountable, explore the issues of struggle
that we all have and so that together the spirit could
use that to grow the growth of God.
When we think about those two dimensions of
worship and community ministry, community being the
body of Christ within our church, how is it that that
is significant to you and I today? We understood that
we're all sinners saved by grace. We understand that
we are not yet perfect, but we are pressing on to
perfection.
I would encourage us this morning to let the
spirit of God truly worship that worship experience,
be within our hearts and minds, to let it so speak to
us as individuals that when we are in the presence of
God we feel transformed and energized, but at the same
time know that our investment in that process is so
crucial as well.
Are you part of that nurturing community? Are
you a part of a small group? It could be a Sunday
school class, could be a bible study, could be a
mission team, could be any kind of a group, but it's a
group that draws you into the company of people that
not only care about you, but hunger to grow in the
presence of God. Don't stand on the edge, plunge in.
The name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.