"Don't Forget to Be a Blessing"
Scripture Reading: Ephesians 3:12-15
Sermon Transcript for July 24, 2005
By Rev. Dan Sinkhorn
We’ve been getting back to the heart of worship these last two weeks. Reverend Mike has rightly called us to give a special attention to the purpose and the meaning behind what we do in our worship together. It’s a good thing too. You know, we sometimes go through the motions of worship so routinely and so regularly that we tend to forget what it is about. We come to worship, I hope, because we can’t help it. We come to worship because at the heart of worship is something much bigger and much deeper than ourselves. Reverend Mike has given us some practical applications and insights with regard to worship. Today I want to carry on in that vein. And I am thinking today about all the reasons that people go to worship and all the reasons that they don’t. I was thinking that many of us come to worship on Sunday morning because, well, it’s sort of how we kick off the week, isn’t it? It helps us to set the week in order and carry on. It’s part of our Sunday routine to begin our week. And many of us come to worship because, I hope, the music is so good and because the preaching is so dynamic, I hope! Many of us come to worship because we see our friends here and some even come, I think, on Sunday morning because they wouldn’t know what else to do.
But you know people, as I do, who don’t come to worship very often, who are not regular attendees if at all. And you’ve heard, like me, some of the things they say. You know, one of my favorites is, “I can get as close to God as I need to be out in the woods.” You’re smiling, because you’ve heard that one too. Listen, I would put myself up against just about any outdoorsman. I’ve been out there and enjoyed the wilderness much in my life and I still do whenever I can. And I must say that I have felt nearer to the Lord on tops of mountains and deep in forests and out on streams and lakes. And I agree, you certainly can come to know the Lord in those kinds of places. But it is still not the same as coming to church!
How many of you have heard someone say, “I don’t go to church. There are just a bunch of hypocrites there”? Yeah, you’ve heard that one too. Usually that’s the same person who says, “I don’t go to church on Sunday because that’s the only day I can get some rest.” Well, speaking of hypocrisy, have you ever heard that person say, “We’re not going to the lake today, it’s the only day we can get some rest”? Fact is, the church is full of hypocrites. It’s absolutely correct. I’m chief among them. There is not a week that goes by that I don’t slip up and fail to live what I’ve preached. But I keep trying; I keep plugging away; I keep seeking God’s redemption and God keeps giving it to me. I keep trying to be a better man today than I was yesterday. And I know that is what all of you are doing too. And the big secret out there in the world where they resist church for the hypocrites, is that we know we’re hypocrites. That’s part of why we keep coming because we are trying to get better at this thing. And somehow being here makes us better at it.
But there is an aspect to our corporate worship that I’d like to try to shed some light on today. It’s a part of our worship that we may have forgotten but it is so important to us. And it’s like this, when we come together like this on the weekend to worship, we are like the loving son or daughter who makes that visit to mom and dad’s house for Sunday supper and brings all the kids along. We are like that grandson or daughter who is faithful to come at least once a month to grandma’s house for a visit. When we come together on those occasions, who are we doing it for? What’s it about? Well, I don’t know about you, but in my life it’s like this. We are about 100 miles away now from my parents and whenever we are able to get down there for a visit, my dad will usually get on the e-mail or the phone and he’ll contact my other brothers and sisters and say, “Dan and Laura and the kids are coming. If you could come out it would be great because it would be so nice to have you all together.” Right now there is an e-mail discussion going back and forth amongst my brothers and sisters and I about getting together for Labor Day weekend so that we can all be together with our parents. And we’ll work it out. And I wish I could tell you that all the time I get along beautifully with my brothers and sisters. But over the years we have had our differences, and over the years we’ve had to accept that we are different though born of the same stock. Over the years we’ve accepted the fact that each of us has our own style of raising our kids and each of us have our own set of values for life that may be slightly different from the others. But for our parents’ sake, we come together anyway because we love them so much. We just want them to experience all of us together. So we put aside our differences where they may exist and we are present for our parents’ sake.
I know what it is like sometimes when you are driving to this gathering or whatever you are thinking, “You know I don’t really mind all of us getting together but man my brother’s kids are the most annoying kids.” Yeah, they are probably saying the same thing. Or you are thinking, “I love getting together. It makes mom and dad so happy, but every time we are there Dad always tells that story again.” Maybe you are thinking as you get together, “I hate going there because Mom and Dad aren’t as young as they use to be and they keep the house so darn hot!” Yeah. Maybe you are thinking about all of the reasons that it is difficult for you to be there but you are on your way, aren’t you? And you know why? —because you don’t want to disappoint them, because you love them, you want so much to honor them in this way.
Brothers and sisters, I think that is what this is supposed to be like! I think that our worship here each weekend is a family coming together for the sake of their creator. The Heavenly Father, as Jesus called Him, and we know that God is neither male nor female but our Heavenly Father asks us for His sake to come and be together despite our differences, despite our varying tastes in climate control, despite whether we find worship entertaining or not. Despite all of those things that might separate us from each other we come together for the sake of the One who called us together. That is the heart of worship. And do you know why we do this? --because we are God’s family. The Apostle Paul says it many times in many ways but I take this one from the Letter to the Ephesians where Paul says, “In Jesus and through faith in Jesus, we may approach God with freedom and confidence. For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom His whole family in Heaven and on earth derives its name.’ Paul is fond of reminding us that we are the family of God. Because of Jesus, we have become co-heirs with Christ. Paul, who was a Roman citizen, often spoke of our union with Christ as brothers and sisters in very legalistic terms. Simply to say that once you’ve been adopted into the family, there is no difference between you and your brother Jesus. And so, we are to think of ourselves as sons and daughters of God. And so we come together because Dad has asked us to come. He has asked us to be in His presence for a little while knowing that we come with our differences, knowing that we come incomplete and needing improvement. He asks us to come nevertheless. And then when we are together like this, He just sort of beams at us. You know, like at home on Sunday afternoon or Christmas or Thanksgiving or whenever it is that your family gets together. And at some point you catch your mother’s eye and she is just beaming because you are all there. God, the Father, is beaming at us right now. He is presiding over this time that we share together in His parlor, in His living room, on His back patio and just delighting in our presence together. It should make us feel really good. It should make us feel really joyful to see the happiness that it brings to our heavenly Father for us to be together for a little while.
The Heavenly Father would stand, I think, over us like this. He would look around at all the people and he’d be in joy for your presence here, but always mindful that His joy would be even more complete if only, well, so and so is not here today. She hasn’t been here in a long time. But that is because ever since the divorce she’s always felt maybe like she wasn’t welcome any more. And the Father looks out over this gathering and beams with pride and joy at all of you and says, “I’m so happy that you are here. My joy would be complete if only there wasn’t this terrible injustice going on.” The Father looks out over all of you with pride and joy beams because you are here for His sake. And yet He is always mindful that someone is suffering today. The Father looks out here at all of us and joy beams and says, “I’m so glad you are all here. My joy would be complete but sometimes you curse one another in my Son’s name!” The Father looks out over this crowd and is so pleased at your presence, so joyful that you are here, but His joy would be more complete except that He knows that we don’t know what we are missing, we don’t know how much more fulfillment and abundance He has for us. The Father looks out and He beams because you are here and He longs for you to listen. Yeah, He’ll tell that same old story that He always tells. And you’ll say, “I’ve heard this before.” And you’ll be tempted not to really listen. But He retells this story because it is the story of who you are and what you are to be. So He tells the story again and again through a different means but always the same old story. And He loves you so much. And there are so many out there who have not yet experienced His love and He wants us to be the ones to share that love.
The story of our Heavenly Father’s relationship with humanity is told throughout the Bible. And from one of the earliest stories, we get the instruction that we need more than anything else. It comes from the story of God and Abraham. Do you remember that Abraham was like all the people that he lived with in his community and he wasn’t all that different really? But God had called him apart from them. God had asked him to be something a little different. And so God said these words to Abraham one day. He said, “Abraham, leave your country, your people, and your father’s household and go to the land that I’ll show you.” And then God said this, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.” Our Father calls us together in worship so that for His sake we can be His family gathered together. And He says, “Look at you. You’ve been blessed. But my joy won’t be complete until you go and become a blessing.” God made a covenant with Abraham that day that is still true for us today. And that is that God will bless you so that you can be a blessing.
And who does God call you to be a blessing to? Well, only you and the Lord can know for sure but I suspect that where your heart is moved because of injustice, God has called you to be a blessing. I imagine that where you have been moved by the spirit to recognize another person’s sorrow, hunger, grief, or loneliness, God has called you to be a blessing. I suspect that God has called you to be a blessing even to the person sitting next to you in the pew. You know, speaking of family, I have to tell you a funny story. You know, we Sinkhorn’s are a pretty small clan by comparison to Simth’s and Jones’, you know? There aren’t that many Sinkhorn’s and they are all pretty much related closely. And yet, I can remember a conversation I had with my Dad’s cousin, Jack Sinkhorn, a long time ago. And he said, “You know, a funny thing about Sinkhorn’s is that two of them can live across the street from each other for 25 years and never visit each other because the other one never visited him.” How true! I wonder who is sitting around you now in your family of faith that you don’t know simply because you keep waiting for them to make the first move? If you are looking around you now and you know that there is someone, a part of your family here for the same reason you are to honor our Heavenly Father, and you haven’t met them yet, I wonder if right now the Spirit is stirring you to be a blessing?
We have been blessed so that we can be a blessing. This is what our Father tells us when we come together in His name. And you know, it is true that the Lord is with us, each of us, in our heart as we leave this place. But to keep this analogy going, can’t you just imagine. You know when you leave that visit with your parents, they walk out to the car with you and they wave through the window at the kids and the kids wave back. And then you back out of the driveway and you wave some more. And sometimes you can look over your shoulder and they are still waving! Can’t you hear our heavenly Father right now, as you get ready to leave this place say, “Don’t forget to be a blessing?” I think that’s what the heart of worship is. And may God add blessing to the hearing of His Word.
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