“Risky Business” Sermon Transcript for August 23, 2009 Pastor Andy Kinsey “Just as you did it to one of the least of these members Matthew 25:40
Prayer of Preparation O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable unto you, our Refuge, Redeemer, and Strength. Amen. The Message Perhaps you heard the story about the man who went to a doctor for a physical examination. When the examination was concluded, the doctor told the man, “Sit down, I have some good news for you. You are in perfect health. In fact, you have the health of a man half your age.” The man thanked the doctor, got up, and headed for the door. When he got to the door, though, he collapsed and died on the spot. The doctor said to the nurse, “Let’s turn him around so it looks like he was coming in.” Dr. Karl Menninger used this story when teaching medical students; he would ask them, “What is the most important task in medicine?” Some students answered it was the relationship between doctor and patient. Others said it was the prescription of medicine. Other made similar remarks. When they finished, Dr. Menninger said, “The first and most important task of healing is diagnosis!” There have been many diagnoses of what is wrong with the church in our time. As you may know, there has been a steady decline in membership and participation over the last fifty years. All denominations, regardless of theological heritage, have shown some kind of decrease in influence. Even the so-called newer “churches” are beginning to plateau. There is a growing recognition that something is not quite right. I suppose I have read most of all those diagnoses. It’s similar to a doctor’s report: just as you can go to a doctor and find out a number of things that you ought to look at, so these reports tell you what may make the church stronger and healthier. The problem is that these reports usually address the symptoms; they don’t typically address the cure for what ails you. A deeper diagnosis is needed if healing is to come. That’s part of the reason we are focusing on the five practices of fruitful congregation. Churches that practice radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, and risk-taking mission, and extravagant generosity tend to show signs of vitality and health. The patient is alive and walking! On the other hand, churches that forget to carry out these practices with excellence tend to flatten out, if not decline. In fact, there are reports that some churches are on life support. The vital signs are not good. This is one the reasons many congregations create “futuring committees” to make a diagnosis: what do we need to do to have a viable future? Usually, the reports come back with something like this: if the church is to have a hopeful future it will need strong children and youth ministries, room for parking; different styles of worship, adequate building space, and numerous opportunities for people to grow and serve; it will need to reach out. I think you get the idea. Such reports also suggest that, if the church is to have a healthy future, it will need to come to grips with change. The church can’t assume anymore that the surrounding culture supports the message of the gospel. As we shared last week, there is little societal encouragement to live the Christian life these days. That’s a part of the diagnosis. At one time we in the church could rest The technical word we use for this arrangement is “Christendom.” I say it’s a debate because in Christendom, the church, theoretically, doesn’t have to do anything; in Christendom, the church and the culture are thought to be one. Conversion is not really necessary because everyone is Christian, or, at least, they are assumed to be Christian. If you are a good citizen, you are a good Christian; and vice versa. In Christendom, you feel like the Maytag repairman because there is nothing to fix. The church calls the shots, and everything fits together./1/ I don’t know when Christendom came to an end – the 30’s, the 50’s, the 60’s, the 80’s, who knows?; but most agree that the world in which they grew up no longer exists. Bishop Will Willimon of the North Alabama Conference suggests that Christendom came to an end when he was growing up the day the movie theater came to town. Now, all of sudden, he says, people had choices to make. The church was not the only show in town./2/ Personally, I think Bishop Willimon is too simplistic, but I do believe there is something to his point: We all have choices to make. Do I attend worship, or don’t I attend worship? Do I go to youth, or don’t I go to youth? To what am I committed? After the theater moves to town, I have more choices to make. But it isn’t simply local movie theaters the church contends with And so, if someone asks you what it is like to lead a church in this day and age tell them it’s a great deal like herding cats, with everyone going in thousand different directions at once – and fast! It is also a sign that the world of Christendom is gone and breaking apart. And that’s part of the diagnosis. At one time the church was the center of social life; that’s no longer the case. This doesn’t mean the Christian faith or the church doesn’t have influence; it simply means that its influence has shifted. The church is not apart of the establishment anymore. It’s on a new mission field. Let me give you an example. This week I conducted an informal survey. I went to several places here in Franklin, and I asked if they would tell me about a church in the community I could attend. I didn’t tell them I was a pastor. It was interesting; if you live on this side of Franklin, people know Grace Church is here; if you live on the other side of Franklin, however, this church doesn’t exist, or, least, it is not in people’s consciousness, unless you belong to a church and you keep up with what is going on (which, as some of you have shared with Pastor Bob and me, people have made comments about Grace Church’s presence in the community). Try this as a test; when you are “out” ask about churches in the community; and see what kind of response you get. I think you may be surprised. The Lab Results And so, with all that said, I am glad you are sitting down for this part because most folks don’t like to hear the results from the lab tests. There is some good news, and there is some bad news. The bad news is not everyone is on the same page with respect to the gospel way of life. The days are gone when people simply show up because the church is open on Sundays. In fact, pulling out of your driveway on Sunday morning has become an act of witness. As we shared last week, with all the choices we now have to make, serving Christ requires greater intentionality than before. No one else can do it for you. Instead, your relationship with God comes to the forefront – priorities and all. You can’t hind behind a Christendom culture anymore because it’s not there, or, at least, it’s not there the way it used to be! That’s difficult news to take, but if healing is to come, we need to understand our condition. Risky Business The good news is that the mission field is wide-open! There are all kinds of opportunities to serve Christ in the world. There are all kinds of ways we can make a difference. That’s the good news. It means we have work to do. It also means we will need to come to grips with the fact that (and it’s the point of this sermon): the mission of Christ is indeed risky business! It’s risky because, as Dorothy said to Toto, “We are not in Kansas in anymore.” The landscape is different. There are new challenges that require rethinking how we serve others, Mission is risky business; it is risky because there is greater uncertainty and higher possibility of discomfort./3/ Some of the old ways of helping others are not going to work the way they used to work. In his award winning book The World Is Flat, for example, Thomas Friedman of The New York Times writes that there was a time when we had a kind of conveyor belt mindset; we would give our money to a big bureaucracy (i.e., a denomination), and it would take our financial support “up and over” and drop it where it needed to go; most of the time we would never see the persons we tried to help. But now, Friedman says, with high-speed travel and high-tech Our world is smaller. There is here, and here is there. Risk-taking congregations understand this and make the connections. The local is global, and the global is local. We can go to Tanzania and make personal connections with the missionaries we support there, and children from Uganda can come here and sing at Grace Church. And we don’t think anything of it. And that’s great! But it can also be threatening. In his book on the Five Fruitful Practices, Bishop Schnase reminds us that we all have our comfort zones, and making personal connections or doing hands-on mission may not be for everyone; but in a world where there is little awareness of God’s compassion, it is becoming more necessary, as Jimmy Keith and Sandra Brown were saying, to be the hands and feet of Christ to others – both here in Franklin and over there in Africa or South America!/4/ Risk-taking mission involves making those personal connections. It involves what Jesus says in our passage that in every act of compassion and service we touch Christ. “I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me” (Matthew 25:35-37). The disciples don’t understand this until Jesus says, “Truly, I tell you: just as you did it to one of the least of these members of my family you did it to me” (NRSV, Matthew 25:40). The disciples are learning what it means to share in Christ’s mission: Jesus is first and foremost among us as one who serves (Matthew 20:26-28), and he calls those who follow him to serve as well. Therefore, we serve Christ by supporting our missionaries and making personal connections with them; but we also serve Christ by sending out missionaries every week into this community because the mission is now on our front doorstep. That’s why we want to invite persons to help with the USO and Study Connections. Risk-taking mission will stretch us in these and other directions, and challenge us to see that folks will need to experience Christ first hand if they are to know that God cares for them. Closing RemarksIt’s what we tried to do when we took VBS to the park. Instead of expecting children to come to us, we went to them. We took a risk. And we learned some things. And one of the things we learned is that when you leave the building you have to trust. We also learned that we have to make more inroads into the community. We learned this with the Christmas Dinner as well. After all, we are not in Kansas anymore. We are in a new place. And, do you know what? That’s okay! It’s a good place. It’s a good place to serve, and it’s a good place to grow. And with God’s help and guidance, we will do both! When we leave the building we will walk in the way that leads to life, and we will serve Christ, growing in our faith, thanking God for the opportunity, and sharing in God’s mission for the world! Yes, we will – right here, right now! Amen. Notes
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