“HDTV Increasing the Signal”
Scripture Reading: Matthew 5:13-16
Sermon Transcript for February 18, 2007
By Pastor Bob Coleman
Good morning! I have one of those winter colds so pardon me if I do a little bit of this once in awhile (took a sip of water from a bottle). Don’t go around town and say, “Well, the preacher is drinking again,” anymore than the people who mean well who say to me, “Well, how’s your cold?” Now, how do you answer that? “Doing quite well, thank you” or “Doing very poorly, thank you”. You know, it is interesting the words that we say to each other. And, also, in passing how little we need to say or want to hear. One of the difficulties of our world today is conversation. How deeply do we get involved in it, how much do we connect with other people? In our series HDTV or “How to Design Your View”, we have talked frequently about conversation—prayer being one of those—a conversation with God. What do you say to God? What does God say to you? And through meditation and solitude, as Pastor Nancy shared last week. The difficulty of conversation among any two people, between any two people is the very difficulty of how far do you go with what little time you have? We want to show you two individuals who have a deep, meaningful conversation. Now listen carefully, you’ve got to pay attention because the words are loaded with deep meaning. So this is an example of the type of conversation people have in this world today.
Skit: Two gentlemen walk to the front of the church in their winter coats and gloves obviously trying to keep warm.
Jim Johnson: How are you doing?
Keith Erdman: Pretty good, how about yourself?
Jim Johnson: Pretty good. Is it cold enough for you?
Keith Erdman: Oh, yeah. A little bit too much, I think.
Jim Johnson: How about them Colts?
Keith Erdman: Oh, pretty good. Kicked the snot out of the Bears. What do you think?
Jim Johnson: (Nods his head yes) Well, I’ll see you.
Keith Erdman: All right, take care.
That’s all there is folks; there isn’t any more. That’s called male bonding! It’s also, unfortunately, about all the time we give each other when we are so busy even as Christians. We come to worship, and I haven’t listened or eavesdropped to people in the entry area around the church, how far you get into conversations, how meaningful they are, or in the Christian context it’s, “How are the Colts?” “Cold enough for you?” “How’s your cold?” that’s another one. Well Jesus tells us that we are not to hide what is inside. We are to become, in fact, not just a light for the world but something that brings flavor and depth to the world. The Scripture that we find in Mathew, Chapter 5, in the midst of what we call the Beatitudes, Versus 13-16 that you will see projected. Let us hear and see these words and see what Jesus is telling us that we need to be out in public doing things and engaging ourselves in a more deep way with each other.
“You are the salt of the earth,” Jesus says, “but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill can not be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Or as the writer of Ecclesiastes says, “Two are better than one because they had a good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the one who falls and has no one to help him up. Also if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Where one may be overpowered; two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken “
We need the strength of other people. We need to let our light shine in those relationships with other people. That’s why today we are talking about accountability, accountability and confession. And you’ll see how the two tie themselves together. The word “accountability” is an ethical word. It really has several meanings, but responsibility is the foundational one that is used most often. Accountability is what we call for out of our government officials and politics particularly in a representative democracy in which we live. Accountability is a part of a factor of trusting and believing that the system will bring good governance and legitimacy to public power. We say our officials are to be accountable to us as the electorate. William Wilberforce had a choice of who he was going to be accountable to—to God or to political government. Well, as it turned out, he was in both. He was accountable to God by following through in political settings the opportunity to make a major change to let his light shine.
Or another way of putting it is simply that you, to be accountable, is to have the willingness to stand up and be counted as part of a process or an activity. In the Christian setting, accountability comes first with those with whom we worship; we carry our ministry with whom we live. By the way, Senator Biden, who has been trapped by the sound bite in the last few weeks and who will probably never be elected President simply because of that sound bite, I wish they could have read this statement and let it stand firmly. Several years ago he was quoted the following way, and this relates to the accountability that he finds in his own life, in his own soul. “I believe my rights are not derived from the constitution,” Senator Biden says. “My rights are not derived from any government. My rights are not derived from any majority. My rights are because I exist. They were given to me and each of my fellow citizens by our Creator and they represent the essence of human dignity.”
The very existence of our lives is a statement of God’s presence. That we exist is also the essence of who we are. That the foundation, to be accountable, first to God and then to others. But to "God and Jesus Christ our accountability calls forth in what we say generally is Christianity. British novelist, Dorothy Sayers, captured a statement about Christianity in saying that “Christianity affirms that perfection is obtained through the active and positive effort to ridge a real good out of a real evil.” Too often, even within the church, the message has been that God’s grace will cover everything and make you a good person just because you are. There’s truth there, but it’s not the whole truth. Accountability and confession calls us to the awareness that first we need to know we have fallen short; we have evil thoughts in our lives. This is the essence of Christians who talk about redemption. We can not me redeemed from something if we have not admitted that we have fallen, that we have sinned. The underscore of the paradox is that we have to understand evil first in ourselves before we can truly embrace the good that is in life. And how do we embrace that evil and recognize it? First with God in prayer and confession, that which we have spoken of before.
But then what God wants for us is the opportunity to live out that whole image of being a Christian, not just a relationship with God, but with other people—accountability to other people. Our Christian walk is somewhat like a marriage. When you are married, you sign a certificate of marriage, a wedding certificate. Now if you live long enough and prosper in your relationship and you reach your 50th anniversary, does that mean then that on your 50th anniversary that certificate has somehow proved worthy and true more than it was on the first day? No, it is just a certificate; it is the same as it was at the beginning. It doesn’t mature, that certificate, like a double e-bond. But the marriage matures because of the relationship that continues to deepen and honesty. The marriage certificate hasn’t matured but the people have; and that’s the difference. Technically they are no more united on that 50th anniversary by law then they were on the very first day. But by spirit, they are much more two and one.
That’s when we understand our accountability to be related to the body of Christ. When we “join the church”, when we are baptized as an outward sign of God’s grace within us, when we step forward and say, “I want to be a part of this congregation”, it’s like that marriage certificate. If we step forward and how long will it last in years and time? We do not know, but it is meant to move forward from there. We do not stay static in that position. We are to be a part of the body of Christ. As Paul says, “Just as each of us has one body with many members of it, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body and each member belongs to the other.”
That’s the difficulty of the conversation we had. They didn’t belong to each other. They were passing as two ships in the night as they were seeing themselves as just touching base and felt as if they had an acquaintance, a human connection. But the Christian faith calls for us to risk much, much more than that. To step forward in the understanding that as the body of Christ, we are to be one unit different though we may be and usual as we can be separated in one sense because of the various gifts but yet feeling that one sense of coming together as a body of Christ. Accountability in Christ, to one another, helps us to seek answers to the questions that all people are seeking answers to. Such as, “How do we make sense out of life?” “What does it mean?” “What is truly a good life?”
A few people are blessed to share in a long marriage. Anyone can be blessed to share in a long relationship. A few people getting together to share their lives and talk about things on the surface is not what we are dealing with here. It’s two, three, four—small numbers work best—of people getting to know each other beyond the casual, the superficial, the sports and the weather. Brothers and sisters in Christ allowing themselves to be challenged and holding each other to a higher standard than the world would dictate. Not for criticism, condemnation, but to hold each other up and say, “God has made you for a better life”. And honesty and sharing and trust in that sharing, folks being honest with each other about their struggles and shortfalls. Fellow travelers in the faith bring together with and for each other. That’s what it means to come together and be a counsel particularly in a small group.
As the writer of Psalm 133 says, “How wonderful and how beautiful for brothers and sisters to get along.” In fact, Scripture is filled with many passages that tell us what are the benefits of coming together as the body of Christ? We are going to display up on the screen and I’m going to ask Pastor Nancy to step forward as she reads them to you. Listen to these words that are shared in this way—that these are the benefits of coming together as the body of Christ and in relationship with other Christians:
Love
Serve
Be Kind
Health
Confess
Honor
Accept
Encourage
Spur On
And we could go on and find more within Scripture. But also, what becomes more important is that you begin to live these experiences in a relationship with other people. You can not follow Jesus Christ and keep as a solo. You can not claim to be a follower and a disciple of Jesus Christ and ignore the person that you relate to in the same faith. It is one thing to recognize the barriers between ourselves and people that we don’t know or of different faiths and cultures. And sometimes we use those as an excuse not to know, but how much more opportunity do we have to be accountable to each other. We are accountable for family and employers and yes, in some cases, friendships. But in the Christian faith, our accountability is to go deeper. And vital relationships that we are speaking of here are to be understood not as just part of the job or as an automatic, but like a marriage, like a good long-standing friendship, something you have to work at. It doesn’t come just casually just because you see each other once a week at church but you are now friends in Christ forever. But with a few, a handful, you go deeper, you understand more fully. It is specifically for the purpose of growing as a Christian and dealing with the struggles and shortfalls in our lives that we are to connect with a few others. As it says in Amos 3:3, “Can two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?”
If you are not part of a small group at this point, you may wish to seek that out. Now caution, be careful, don’t just draw a name out of a hat. Pray and ask God for some guidance of who God would like for you to have in this relationship. It may become evident in that way. Talking to one of your pastors or to another pastor in this congregation to let them help you guide and finding a group of two, three, or four that regularly you will get together and find the opportunity to reach your full potential as the children of God and to grow toward Christ-likeness. That’s what the purpose is—to grow toward Christ-likeness. Yes, outside benefits may be a better family life.
As we come together in this small group that we strive as it says in Ephesians, “to be made new in the attitude of our lives and to put on a new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” The only way to truly do that with God’s help and His Spirit moving within us is to face-to-face develop in a relationship, to look into each others eyes truly, literally, and the eyes of our souls. Being accountable to someone means that you see who they are and you look into their soul, look into the person honestly and openly discuss what’s going on in your lives. There is a trust factor here and so you go slowly. You don’t jump in the first week and talk about deep, meaningful issues. But in time come forward. And yes as you face-to-face face each other, you will then find that you are walking together in your journey shoulder to shoulder, standing side by side through thick and thin sticking with each other when we go through tragedies and calamities, disappointments and heartaches. One becomes not about the other, but you become equal in that journey. And, yes, you will continue to find ways to strengthen each other through these vital relationships. We become stronger as we help each other through struggles, temptations, and shortfalls. And you encourage one another towards Spiritual growth.
There are many things you may discuss and at first they will be somewhat surface. But take the time, be faithful, be committed, be disciplined in getting together. Make it a priority just like in a relationship. You will do what you can to keep that relationship going when you see the positiveness of it whether it is in a marriage or long standing friendship.
One of the benefits of accountability is that often you will find that you, as you travel along, continue to change. You will be a different person and so will be the people that you share with. In knowing that you are not alone, you can help and encourage each other. As it says in James 5:16, “Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.’ This is an opportunity that God provides, like the opportunity of Bible study, prayer, solitude, meditation, the other journeys and tools of discipleship that we have been speaking of for the last several weeks. Accountability and confession are key to these also.
An additional benefit of accountability is that you will have one or more persons that you can truly listen to and speak to and trust without judgment, without fear of gossip, with love, with acceptance, with patience. Consider that then as an opportunity for you to practice this discipline with small groups—the accountability and confession.
I wish for us to take a moment in our time for closing prayer, if you are part of a group give God the praise and the thanks for its continuing to be strong. Maybe you can help others in taking those steps; you can be a model for them. But also seek, if you do not have connection with a small group or another person or two or three or four, ask God’s help and guidance. Seek out some other strong lay ministers and lay people in this congregation that you see as spiritual leaders and ask them to help guide you in choosing well in prayer and preparation for a small group. And take the steps slowly, but take the steps. And one of the things that marriages tend to ignore, but they need to do this also. So you might try and new opportunity with your spouse of being accountable to them and confessing.
Whatever your situation is, let us go before the Lord in a time of silence and closing prayer for preparation. Let us join together. “For some of us here, Gracious God, it is hard for us to trust you, let alone another human being Let us trust first the call of your Spirit upon our lives that you wish for us what is right and best. Freedom of soul as well, freedom of life so that the good life will be not those things we gather around us but good life will be described by the relationships, the friendships, the loving, caring connections. May we help one another in this journey of faith to grow closer, to walk together face-to-faced and shoulder-to-shoulder in our journey of life. And may we see Your Spirit and Your countenance in the lives of others. This we ask in Christ’s name, Amen”
E-mail Comments to: Pastor Bob Coleman