PEOPLE OF THE WAY #7
ONE SERVICE
JUNE 6, 2010
Over the last few weeks we have
been preaching a series which we have called People of the Way. Christians very early on were called people of
the way because they exhibited certain characteristics which defined who they
were. What we have been suggesting to
you is that Christians follow a certain path, or way, or road through life. In the words of
We are still called to be people of
the way, followers of one who is still,
by the Spirit, teaching us a particular way of living. We have suggested to you
that to call ourselves Christians we need to take seriously seven
characteristics which all Christians possess. We have handed them out each
Sunday, and again I would like to
challenge each of us here to go over these in a quiet place, and ask ourselves
how we are doing. Do we feel called to
live the Christian life; are we learning and growing in our knowledge of this
life; are we growing spiritually; is
living within the community of faith central to our lives; do we sense the
presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives; do we appreciate and enjoy worship; and finally, are we taking seriously our call
to be involved in Jesus mission to the world around us. The Apostle Paul
challenged his flock in
2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test
yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless, indeed, you
fail to meet the test!
So please, for the sake of your soul, take seriously this challenge, and use this series as an opportunity to deepen your faith, or maybe commit your life to Jesus for the first time.
Today we are going to be asking you to make, or continue a pledge to continue to pay the mortgage on this building. So I think it is appropriate for us to ask ourselves, why? And we can ask ourselves the deeper question, why should we even care if this, or any local church exists? Why the church?
Every Sunday we say: We believe in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. We believe in the church, just like we believe in God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection of the dead.
The church is more than an institution (“organized religion”). We believe it is the body of Christ, a spiritual house, the bride of Christ, a “wonderful and sacred mystery”. Lets look at a few scriptures.
1 Peter 2:4-5 Come
to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in
God’s sight, and 5like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy
priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ.
Ephesians 2:19-20 19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but
you are citizens with the saints and
also members of the household of God,
20built
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as
the cornerstone.
1 Corinthians 12:27 27Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
Ephesians 5:30 30because we are members of his body, (of his flesh and of
his bones)
Of course we need faith to believe this, when we look at ourselves and the history of the church, but without this faith in the mystical reality of the church we will never appreciate the beauty and strength of the church. It was this faith and commitment to the body, to the church, that has preserved the Christian faith to this day.
Now the church exists for a purpose. It has a mission.
Purpose of the church
1 Peter 2:9 9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a
holy nation, God’s own people, in order
that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light.
Matthew 5:16 16In the same way, let your light shine before
others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
In a real sense, the purpose of this group of people gathered together amidst all the cultures of the word is to reflect to the world a new way of life that reflects the nature and image of God. This way involved learning to love, to forgive, to be kind, to be hospitable to strangers, to care for the weak and the poor, to love your enemy and much more. And the amazing historical reality is that, with all their faults, these early Christians, and many down through the ages, lived out these values. And this way of life attracted more and more and more people. . The values of human dignity and caring and loving which we so easily assume are natural human values were not the values of the cultures in which our faith was born.
So today we exist to carry out the same mission and purpose of the early followers of the way. This is accomplished first by what I am calling an inward focus.
Within the community of faith - the church -- we create an environment in which we learn how to live as people of the way. Through all that we do – worship, teaching, small groups, children’s ministry, caring for one another – all of this is necessary for us to live the Christian life. The Christian faith would not exist without the existence of the church. I was born into the church and have been nurtured and taught and challenged by the church my whole life. It is within the community of faith that I grow and draw strength to continue to be a follower of Jesus. This building that we have here is simply a tool to allow us to exist. Sometimes I like to think of the building as a hot house for plants. The hot house exists not for its own purpose, but for purpose of providing warmth so the plants can grow. This building exists for what goes on inside. It helps us carry out our mission in the world.
Within the community we learn to serve and to give and to forgive. This is why we find so many of the “one another’s’ in the Bible.
1 Peter 3:8 8Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart,
and a humble mind.
1 Peter 4:8-10 8Above all, maintain constant love for one another,
for love covers a multitude of sins. 9Be hospitable
to one another without
complaining. 10Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received
We need to learn how to serve and to love and to give to each other. Our community is sort of like a training school. We learn and practice those Christian characteristics that don’t always come natural to human beings. Of course we fail all the time. But we fail because our standards are those of God. We fail and we are judged because we are always striving to do that which is hard to do – like love our enemy.. like forgiving those who hurt us.. those values of God that are not natural to us.
Now the Church also has an outward focus, or mission to the world. This is a mission which we learned more about in our study of the book The Hole in Our Gospel. It is a mission that reflects God’s love for the world. Jesus teaches us that if we serve and help the poor and the hungry and the lonely we are serving Him.
Matthew 25:40 40And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you,
just as you did it to one of the
least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’
We spent a good deal of time being challenged in this area.. and we will continue to do so.
This outward focus, or mission, also involves, in Jesus’ final words to his disciples that we read in Matthhew.
Matthew 28:19-20 19Go
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.”
Thus through word and deed, the people of the way are to care and reach out to the people around them. There is no way to escape the missionary nature of our faith. Mission is central to the reason for the existence of the church. This mission is not accomplished by power or by coercion or arms, but simply through the living witness of those who confess to be followers of Jesus.
When we started this church, we were a mission. In the Episcopal church, a mission is either a new church or a small church. I always liked being a mission, because it implied that we were on a mission, that we had a mission. Now, because of our size, we are a parish. A parish to me has the ring of an old, established church that exists solely for itself. Well, our status does not really matter. What matters is what we are doing and who we see ourselves to be. Lets look at ourseleves for a minute. These sample pictures reflect who we are.. young to old, called to serve.. called to mission, to each other, and to the world around us.
Show pictures on
screen……….
In the last few years, many people say to me something like: “you must be proud of what has been accomplished at Faith church.” I usually say something like, yes, I am, but it is hard to proud when you are in the middle of it all, and you realize there is still so much more to be done.”
Yes, much has been done by many over the last few years, and in a sense we are all proud of how far we have come. But it is exciting and life giving to look to the future. It is exciting to see the small ones around here. It is fun to see us learning and growing and being challenged. It is wonderful to gather and worship as we do. It is fun to dream about a new building for children and adult classes. It is fun to plan and hopefully build a columbarium and a chapel up on the oak knoll. It is life giving to dream about and carry out mission in the world around us.
I believe that we have been very blessed by God in this church. Even when we have had little faith, God has been faithful. I hope and pray that God will give all of us the grace to see the church, the one, holy catholic and apostolic church, with the eyes of faith, and that we will cherish and support this local expression of the body of Christ. I have been in the church my whole life, and of course there are many vibrant and healthy churches around us, but for me, this is a special place. I am pretty sure, when I leave here, it will be hard to find another church quite like this.
May the Lord Jesus help us all, as People of the way, to cherish his church, and to continue to be faithful to Jesus’ mission to the world. AMEN!