"Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors"
(3rd message in a 3-part sermon series)
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 4:12-16, 5:1-4; Proverbs 23:6-8; Leviticus 19:34
Sermon Transcript for August 21, 2005
By Rev. Dan Sinkhorn
This is the final message in the three-part sermon series that Reverend Mike began a few weeks ago: “Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors”. And it has been timed so that we could prepare for new worshipers who will be with us in response to the United Methodist Churches’ ad campaign that begins in September, which is, of course, based on the “Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors” theme. That’s why we’ve been showing you samples of the commercials at the beginning of the service to kind of help you prepare for what they are responding to.
What does it mean to have an open heart? That’s what we are going to talk about today. I suppose most people consider themselves open hearted. I consider myself open hearted. An openhearted person is the one who is willing to serve another, to sacrifice for another person’s sake. An open hearted person I am sure, whether they want to admit it or not, gets a little choked up or teary eyed when a movie grabs at our heart strings or when we see a lost puppy along the highway. I see some of you are getting choked up just thinking about it. We are all open hearted, I think, but I think there is a limit to our open-heartedness. And that limitation is usually caused by closed-mindedness. Now I know that in a previous sermon, Reverend Mike talked about having open minds. And I believe he did a very good job of preaching the topic. But today we are not talking about an open mind in the concept of an intellectual sort of open mindedness which is one of the greatest qualities, I think, of the United Methodist Church. We get that quality from our founder, John Wesley, the sense that it is okay to study many ideas, to examine many interpretations of the Bible, to think open mindedly and to listen open mindedly to the thoughts and ideas of others and to receive them into our fellowship without rejecting them because they might say something that trips our switches and turns us off or because they may not have experienced the same depth in their journey with Christ that we have.
So an open mind is a very good thing in that sense. But when it comes to open heartedness, our minds can be our enemy. And I’ll tell you why I think that is—Because our hearts are far more vulnerable than our minds. Our minds, as a result of plenty of exercise of the years, have become pretty adept, pretty sharp, at protecting our hearts. Now you know I’m speaking metaphorically here because the heart in this case, if we are going to be honest, is about feelings. And we’ve been trained over the years to withhold our feelings, to guard our feelings. Some of us have been taught that it is just not manly to express your feelings. Some of us have been taught that feelings get you in trouble. You start talking about how you feel and somebody’s just libel to hurt you worse. Some of us have grown up in very dysfunctional and sad situations where feelings get hurt so easily that we’ve hardened ourselves against it. And how do we do that?--with the skills of the mind. So when someone comes to church looking for an open heart, the first thing that can cut that open-heartedness off is when their need threatens our own need. When Christ calls us into repentance, self-sacrifice and surrender, He calls us to let go, to live a new, abundant life as a result of His grace, mercy, and forgiveness. That means we let go of the hurts that we have held on to for so long that we’ve used them to defend ourselves against deeper hurt. If we are going to be like Christ, we go openly and willingly to the One in need knowing that it might cost us something.
And you know, the secret to abundant living that Jesus never says in an outright way but implies over and over again is that by devoting yourself to caring for others, the wounds of your past begin to heal. And so open heartedness is a kind of surrender. It’s a willingness to put aside your wounds and your needs for a little while for the sake of another. That’s why a good rule that we could use going through life is that we should try to let our hearts be a little bit softer than our heads. Or to put it another way, many of us mean well, but our meanness tends to be greater than our wellness. So to be an openhearted person in the spirit of Christ is to focus on your wellness and to concentrate on leading others into the same.
There is a sign I think we should put on the door of every Christ-centered church. There is a poem I’d put on that sign. You may have heard this epitaph actually. It says, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free, the wretched refuse of your teaming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed to me. I lift up my lamp beside the golden door.” How many of you recognize that? That’s right. In fact by answering that you’ve demonstrated your own Statue of Liberty. That’s right, it’s a plaque on the Statue of Liberty that says to people coming to the United States that this is the goal. Now I don’t know whether we as a country have fulfilled that goal very well, but as I think of those words, as I was planning for today’s sermon, I kept thinking about how that is a message that we ought to put on the front of the door of every Christ-centered church. And we should have, not necessarily the Statue of Liberty, but a torch bearer standing there saying to the people of our community, “Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses who yearn to be free, the wretched refuse of our community. Send the homeless, the tempest tossed to me.” And, of course, we are pointing them to Christ because we are lifting up this lamp at this golden door to a relationship to Christ that heals.
Now, we may not be literally talking about those who are the least and the worst in the community. Of course, that’s true; but the fact is who hasn’t come into the doors of the church at least once in a while feeling tempest tossed? Who hasn’t come into the doors feeling poor? Who hasn’t needed from time to time to huddle together for comfort and warmth? We all have. So I hope that those words that are familiar to us maybe more familiar than some Scriptures, would continue to go through our minds as we open our hearts to those who respond to the advertising, to the welcoming extended to this church, to your own effort to invite friends, co-workers, family members to experience not church, but open minds, open hearts, and open doors.
Ken Houts in his book, You are a Miracle Waiting to Happen, that’s the one we’ve referred to from time to time in the last few weeks. It’s out there on the little kiosk. He says that every week hurting people enter our churches with hope that they will find evidence of a real God and real love inside our doors. Now, I think that was true; I think he is exactly right. But what does church mean to people? What does that word mean? Well, I think to those of us who have grown up in the church, who knows the church well, it means many things just as any well-known thing would. But to those who have not grown up in the church, to those who are not acquainted with life in the community of the church, there aren’t really a lot of definitions. Now we all know that there are un-churched people out there who have some pretty colorful definitions for the church. But that is not what this sermon is about so we are not going to talk about those.
What we want to talk about for a minute here is what people who come here uneducated, inexperienced with the church, naïve about how things might be inside these doors, what did they come looking for? I’ll tell you what I think—I think they come looking for God; they come looking for love; they come looking for grace, oh boy do they come looking for grace. Don’t we all? They come looking for hope. And the truth is that they are likely to never come here, not because we don’t have those things but because they won’t come until they are desperate for God, for love, for grace, for hope. When they are that desperate they will come; and they will come looking for intensive care. They will come, like those who go to the emergency room when they have been wounded. Many years ago I was an Emergency Medical Technician and I did that on a volunteer basis. So in order to keep my credentials current, I would do ten-hour shifts from time to time in the Trauma Center in Louisville, Kentucky. And boy the things you saw! You know, I used to schedule, believe it or not, I intentionally scheduled Saturday nights when the moon was full. Now those of you who are in medical professions, you know exactly why I did that because if you are going to see it all, that’s the night to do it. And we saw it all! And you know that they had to do, is they had to triage the people as they came in the door. They had to evaluate the seriousness of their injury and treat the most serious needs first. Those people came there because they knew that when they were hurting, that’s the place to go. And these folks were professionals and so they cared for the needs. I believe that though their injuries are not visible and though their trauma is hard to evaluate, people come through these doors every week for the same reason—looking for healing, for hope. And what can we do about that? All of us can do something.
I’d like to turn to Scripture now, these words from the Letter to the Hebrews. This first part is good news for those of us who are regular in attendance. “Indeed the word of God is living and acting, sharper than any two-edged sword. Piercing until it divides soul from Spirit, joints from marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart and before Him no creature is hidden but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the One whom we must render an account.” (Hebrews 4:12-13) Now, that’s good news I said. You know, I would be a little frightened too. It means that the Lord is here and the Lord knows us. The Lord sees each of you. The Lord sees me. The Lord knows all of the secrets that we are able to keep hidden from each other. The Lord knows the secrets that the newcomer carries into the door. We are united by the Spirit of God that cuts us to the core and reminds us of our own humanity and our own need for healing and to bear good account to the Lord.
And the word for those who come through that first time looking for help, the Hebrew writer says this, “Since then we have a great High Priest who has passed through the Heavens—Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast to our confession for we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are yet without sin. And so, therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16) This is good news if you come here looking for God, for hope, for love because our Heavenly Father, the creator of all things, the God of the universe, has offered us grace and mercy. We are promised that we can approach his throne and receive grace and mercy. That’s good news for you if you have come here looking for that. It’s good news for you if you have come here every Sunday for years. But it is also a reminder to us that if God above, our Creator, the Master of all that is willing to offer mercy and grace, then we should be willing to do the same. We must welcome all people into our midst with an open heart that forgives. It does not judge the sin but receives the sinner in love. The truth of these words is that we are all sinners before God and not one could purchase their own salvation.
I continue reading from Hebrews: “Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf to offer gifts and sacrifices to sins, is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is subject to weakness. And because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as those of the people.” (Hebrews 5:1-4) That is a word to all of us. Some scholars believe that the Apostle Paul is the author of these words. If that is true, than I should remind you that the Apostle Paul has said in other places that we, through Jesus, have become the priesthood of believers, that we are all priests. That is, we are all intercessors between humanity and the Heavenly Father because of Jesus. And that is a good thing because it means that when that newcomer, especially that one who needs love, who needs God, who needs hope, when that person approaches you, you know that, like the High Priest mentioned in the Scripture, that you’ve been there and done that. That your weakness is as equal before God as theirs and they simply need what you need. They simply hunger for the same things you hunger for so opening your heart to them is as simple as unconditionally receiving them and then dealing gently with their ignorance and their weakness just as Christ has done gently toward us. And that last line there says, “And one does not presume to take this honor.” Well how dangerous it is for us to be presumptuous? To think that somehow we’ve come to a higher level, that we are somewhat better than the others? Because of our salvation through Christ, we are a little bit cleaner. We are, because of Christ, and we’ve certainly chosen, for His namesake, to live a higher ideal; but we also know that in the secret times of our lives we have fallen short of the glory of God. And so it doesn’t pay to be presumptuous. Rather, we should take this calling to serve as priests or representatives of Christ to those weak and hurting people who come through our doors, we should see it as a calling in the same spirit as Aaron’s calling, Aaron, the first High Priest.
I want to say a word to those who come, even today maybe, this first time longing for hope, help, love, grace. I want to say a word to those who have been church shopping. It happens every week here. As much as it pains me to say this to you here, I know that there are churches out there whose motives are not as honorable as they should be. There are churches were people walk through the doors and they are counted as a number. They are considered a sign that God is blessing us because our church keeps getting bigger and bigger. There are people who greet and receive newcomers in the church with insincerity because of what they desire from the newcomer rather than the desire to serve with an open heart. Here is a word from the book of Proverbs about that and I think it is kind of colorful but it makes the point pretty clearly. “Do not eat the bread of the stingy. Do not desire their delicacies for like a hair in the throat, so are they. Eat and drink, they say to you, but they don’t mean it. You will find it out. The little that you have eaten and you will waste your present words.” (Proverbs 23:6-8) You know sometimes people in the name of Christ offer you something totally insincere and unreal. When you go church shopping, I hope that you will listen carefully to the words that are spoken and you will look carefully into the eyes of the ones who greet you. Look for the eyes of Christ. If you’ve come here to Grace on your way through a list of churches that you want to experience, judge us as severely, please! Because the last thing I want people of this church to be is a hair in the throat. We want to be, we desire to be, and we will work to be people with open minds, open hearts, and open doors.
Here’s a word for those of us who have been a part of this church for a long time. It comes, basically, through Aaron, the High Priest that I just mentioned, from Leviticus. “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as a citizen among you. You shall love the alien as yourself for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” This word that God gave goes back to the very earliest days of God’s relationship with humanity. And this was one of the most important rules that God prescribed for the people that he called His chosen--those who would be the vehicle for whom the love of God was expressed through all of creation. He said treat aliens, those who are not a part of your fellowship, like they are a part of your fellowship. And he says, because I said so, I am the Lord, your God.” It doesn’t sound like God is mincing words now. That sounds like a command. And so for obedience sake, let’s do this—let’s receive the alien and accept them as one of our own. Because we were aliens once and we were received into the fellowship, unconditionally.
I want to close with this little story. It’s an excerpt from a book that was written by a pastor. I can relate to this and I know some others here can as well. This book is called, One Church From the Fence. His name is Wes Seelinger. “I’ve spent long hours in the intensive care waiting room,” he says, “watching with anguished people, listening to urgent questions, ‘Will my husband make it? Will my child walk again? How do you live without your companion of thirty years?’ The intensive care waiting room is different from any other place in the world and the people who wait are different. They can’t do enough for each other. No one is rude. The distinctions of race and class melt away. A person is a father first and a black man second. The garbage man loves his wife as much as the university professor loves his. And everyone understands this. Each person pulls for everyone else. In the intensive care waiting room, the world changes. Vanity and pretense vanish. The universe is focused on the doctor’s next report. If only it will show improvement.” Everyone knows that loving someone else is what life is all about. Long before we are in the intensive care waiting room, maybe we can learn to live like that. The love of this church is like a diamond with many facets. It has beautiful music. I hope you consider good preaching. It has great Christian education, beautiful facilities. It is well managed. It’s a beautiful place to look at. But is this place an intensive care waiting room? Do we come in here united by a common bond of need for healing? If not for ourselves than for those we love? If we can’t throw away pretense in this place, if we can’t discard our consideration for a person’s appearance, a person’s background, and the nature for their sin and suffering, then who will? Wouldn’t it be sad if people with spiritual wounds had no place to go? May we be like that place where the torch shines bright saying, “Come here to receive that.”
Let us pray, “Father, thank you for your Word. Now burn on the hearts of your people that which is of you and change us Lord. Don’t let us leave this place unchanged. Send us forth broken where we need to be broken and uplifted where we need to be uplifted so that we will be a part of all that you are doing in our midst. For your glory and your name’s sake, Amen.”
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