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Sermon: "A Journey of Faith"
by The Honorable Charles E. Davis, Jr., 2nd
District Court of Appeals
Delivered at All Saints’ Church on Maundy
Thursday, 2011
I
was raised in a lower middle class home in Winter
Haven that was intensely committed to the Christian Faith and the
local Church of the Nazarene.
My granddad was a pillar of the little Nazarene church in Winter Haven
and my dad was raised in the church. My mother attended a Nazarene
church in Miami when she met my dad and thus they raised their family
“in the church.”
I grew up attending church every time the doors
were open—Sunday School and service Sunday morning, Sunday evening
service, Wednesday evening service and usually at least one or more
other social activities at the church. Summers included Bible School
and church camp. I was totally saturated with the culture of the
church. This led me to accept that I was Christian because I did all
the things Christians do. I guess you would use the term “cultural
Christian” to describe me, for this was my cultural setting.
However, my parents were more than cultural
Christians—their’s was a faith that was personal and transformational.
I grew up sensing that my parents were “different”.
My dad had but an eighth grade education and work repairing
large appliances for Tampa Electric—stoves, refrigerators, washers,
dryers, dishwashers, etc. My mother packed fresh fruit in the local
packing house, working long, strenuous hours to provide for our small
family. But their commitment to their church, their friends and
family, and to their faith was distinctive. My dad was what school
teachers would call a poor reader because he would mouth out each word
as he read. And his understanding of big words was very limited—as a
teenager, I would sometimes cringe at his failure to use proper
English when speaking. But even with those limitations, I would watch
him every night, take his Bible and sit down in the living room and
begin to read. I realized that he didn’t understand a good part of
what he was reading—I mean he was reading the old King James Version
with all of its “thees” and “thous”.
But I came to understand that he found it important that he
faithfully pursue this practice for this was the Word of God. On his
75th birthday, I asked him how many times he had read the
Bible through from Genesis to Revelations. I knew that he marked down
such things. He told me that he could account for 29 trips in the
Bible—cover to cover. Early on, I came to understand by his example
that there was something important about reading the Scriptures.
But his example was more than just reading the
Bible. I have never met a kinder, more gentle man than my father. He
never had a harsh word to or about anyone. Although a product of the
old south, he did not see race or color and accepted everyone as his
friend. As the cliché
goes, he would give you the shirt off his back it you needed it—even
if it was his only shirt. As an adult looking back, I have come to
recognize that I saw Christ being lived out in the life of an
individual in the form of my dad.
But as a teenager, I was a product of their faith
and their home. I chose to attend Trevecca Nazarene College in
Nashville, Tennessee, because that what young Nazarenes were supposed
to do. The decision made my mom and dad happy. They willingly
sacrificed financially to see that I had this opportunity. And I made
another decision that was surely a product of the culture—I would
study to be a Nazarene minister. Again, mom and dad were overjoyed as
were all the folks over at the little church. But it was during those
formative years at college I came to realize that faith was more than
what I did and where I went, faith is a personal choice that is the
essence of who I am. I realized that to be Christian meant that I
personally chose to place my faith in that which I could not explain
and to accept a life that was beyond just the human existence. I was
challenged by Godly professors to examine what I believed
and what I would accept and what I would be willing to live for
and yes, to die for. It was there that I made that decision that I
would follow Christ and commit my plans, ambitions, yes even my whole
world view to Him and His teachings. And I suddenly came to the
realization, I was not called to be a ministry but that He had other
fields of labor for my future. Little did I realize at that time where
He would lead me on my journey.
I have come to accept that God is the God of open
doors and closed doors. I have had opportunities afforded me that are
beyond any explanation I can give. And I have made my plans so
carefully that just never came together. Yet, I am satisfied that He
has directed my paths and I am comfortable in that knowledge.
Early on, I came to realize that faith is more than
a mental affirmation of a doctrine or creed. Rather, faith is that
which I am willing to integrate into my life and basically build my
life around. As I grew in my faith and understanding of Christ and the
Christ event that we celebrate this Holy Week, I came to understand
that this faith changes my whole perspective and view on life.
Let me explain this by first telling you a story to
illustrate just how important one’s perspective is. When our older son
was five and his sister was four, my wife took them over to the fall
festivities at the Baptist Church on Halloween. There they played a
game of “going fishing.”
The child was given a fishing pole with a hook on the line. The child
would throw the line over a sheet suspended in front of him and a lady
sitting behind the sheet would take a fish-shaped coupon and place it
on the hook. When she tugged on the line, the child would pull up the
pole, “catching his fish.”
The child would then take the coupon over to a table and he
would receive a live goldfish, swimming around in water in a plastic
bag.
We did not have a goldfish pond nor did we have a
goldfish bowl. My wife, being the consummate mother, took the children
to the pet store to buy a goldfish bowl. Guess what you get when you
buy a goldfish bowl at the pet store—more free goldfish. By the time I
arrived home from work, we had six live goldfish, swimming around in a
small fish bowl.
The next day, being a Saturday, we were all sitting
around the kitchen counter, eating our lunch with the fish bowl in the
center of the counter. As we ate our lunch, all eyes were on the six
fish, swimming around in the bowl. Suddenly, one of them turns belly
up, appearing to be sick. Our son Chad began to cry, “Daddy, I don’t
want my fish to die.” Fortunately (or providentially) the fish turned
back over with a “second wind” and began swimming again.
We hurriedly finished lunch, and after the children were down
for their nap, when the fish finally “expired,” I was able to flush
him without further drama. The next day, as we once again sat at the
counter eating lunch, all eyes on the five goldfish swimming in the
bowl, belly-up goes number two. Twenty four hours has made a marked
difference in my son’s perspective on things. He announced to his
sister, “Deedee, we had six gold fish. You had three and I had three.
Two of your fish are dead!” It’s all in how you look at things. It’s
all a matter of perspective.
Your perspective will establish your value
system—to what and to whom do you assign worth and value. Your
perspective will determine what motivates you—what are you willing to
live for and die for. Your perspective will determine not only you
life-long dreams and ambitions but also the daily routine decisions
that you make without much thought, prayer or consideration. And one’s
faith in Christ will totally transform his perspective. I think this
is what Paul means when he talks of the believer being a “new
creation” and what Jesus himself meant when He told Nicodemus that we
must be “born of the Spirit”.
For the believer, Christ becomes the focus of our perspective—i.e., we
measure good and bad based on His yardstick, we yield our ambitions
and plans to His, we see people as He sees them—He totally transforms
us from the self-centered, physically oriented, here and now view of
life to a focus that is centered on Christ and others, and to a
perspective that is eternal and spiritual. The human condition is that
of survival, fight or flight, self-gratification—yet He transforms us
to see situations and other people from a totally different
perspective—His, not ours.
In college, one of my professors was a theologian
who helped me understand this in a way that is easy to express. He
suggested that God made man with 4 Freedoms. Man was free to God—i.e.,
he was open to God and had a continual relationship with Him. The
creation story of Genesis suggests that—before Adam and Even made
their choice to eat from the forbidden tree, God would daily come to
them and commune with them. They were open to Him and enjoyed His
fellowship. Also, there was a freedom for other people. Again, the
creation story depicts this vividly. Before their sinful choice, Adam
and Eve were naked but they did not notice - it was of no concern to
them. They also enjoyed a freedom from self.
The central point of their life was other than self and self
gratification. And the fourth freedom was a freedom from the
entanglements of this physical existence. Everything they needed was
provided for them and even the tree of life was not precluded from
them. Yet, God gave them the freedom to choose to obey or disobey His
command. And of the millions of things they could do, He gave them but
one thing they were not to do—eat of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. Wanting to be god—they choose self over God’s command and
they lost all four freedoms.
They no longer were open to God but hid from Him when they
recognized His coming. They were no longer open to each other but now
made clothes to hide their nakedness. They also lost their freedom
from the entanglements of this physical existence, now having to work
the soil to eat and know that man is born to die to this physical
world. And most significantly, man no longer was free from self but
became self centered, self dominated and self determinative.
And from that point on, God has been intervening in
the life of mankind, planning and providing for man’s reconciliation
with Himself and a restoration of these four freedoms.
And this is how I understand the transformative power of Christ
in the life of the believer.
Our faith in His death and resurrection creates a new spirit
within us—one that is open to God and His directions for our lives,
one that sees others and their needs through the eyes of the
compassionate Christ, one that is free from the limitations of this
physical existence because we dare to believe that this is not all
that there is—but rather, there is the eternal that awaits us, and one
that willingly allows the Holy Spirit to live within us and move us
beyond self.
With this understanding, I have found that as I
willingly commit myself to Him—ask and allow Him to give direction, He
will provide for me this transformed perspective. Thus the teachings
of Jesus are approachable. I mean, in humanness, turn the other cheek
is unrealistic. But if the self-centeredness, self survival and the
physical are replaced with His perspective on life, this becomes
possible. And consider Christ’s example that we celebrate in this
service tonight—as He shows of the extent of his love for his
disciples—even the one who would betray Him—
the Master accepts the role of
the slave, and performs the most menial task of washing their dirty
feet. And note, He calls us to follow His example. He has modeled for
us the life of one totally committed to the Father, one whose
perspective is totally God focused and eternally oriented.
And He calls us to live such a life as well.
In the terms of the physical, I have been blessed.
I have a good job providing for me a comfortable life. I have a close,
loving family, many friends, good health—all that one could want in
the human perspective. But I have also enjoyed the blessings of
knowing that my spiritual life is likewise complete. I have the faith
to believe that there is more to life than just the physical and
temporal and that God’s plan of reconciliation provides for me the
assurance that just as He has cared for me in the physical, I can
trust Him for the eternal.
And that brings a sense of comfort and peace that the physical
cannot afford.
Daily, I seek His presence and leadership. My
morning prayer is, “Give me the wisdom to know your will, the faith to
believe your will, the courage to do your will, and the grace to
accept your will.” And He
has been faithful.
During this special time of the year when we pause
to acknowledge His death on the cross that provides for us the
opportunity of reconciliation with the Father and we celebrate His
resurrection, recognizing that the same power that raised Him from the
dead is working in our lives to transform and bless us—we can take
great comfort in knowing Him through a personal, transforming and
sustaining faith. And tonight, because of this faith, we join with the
writer of the Scriptures: “It is of the Lord’s mercy that we are not
consumed, because His compassions fail not, they are new each morning.
Great is Thy faithfulness.”
Sermon: "What To Do With the Weeds"
by The Rev. Canon Nelson Pinder
Delivered at All Saints' Church on Sunday, July 17, 2011
Those of you who are gardeners are familiar with
Murphy’s First Law of Gardening: when weeding, the best way to make
sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull it
out. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.
And, of course, there is a corollary to that law:
to distinguish flowers from weeds, simply pull up everything. What
grows back are weeds.
In the parable of the sower we learn that different
kinds of soil produce differing levels of results. We are confronted
with the question: what to do with the weeds? Because we know (those
of us who have ever tried to plant a flower garden or an ordinary
lawn) the weeds are going to come.
If you take
Jesus literally, this is a scary parable. The weeds are going to
be thrown on a fire and burned. Jesus isn’t actually giving us a guide
to growing good wheat, of course. He’s talking about human behavior.
But one thing’s for sure, in this scenario, you do not want to be a
weed.
It’s like a story our Roman Catholic friends tell.
In the Roman Church, seven is traditionally the age of reason. When
children reach seven they are expected to attend Mass regularly and go
to confession. Why? Because when they are seven they are accountable
for their sins.
One five-year old girl was impressed when she
learned about the age of reason. When her older brother turned seven
she greeted him like this. “Happy birthday, Matthew. Now you can go to
hell.”
What an honor. You’ve finally arrived. Now you can
go to Satan’s domain. It’s scary.
But let’s be clear on one
thing, judgment is an important fact of life.
Someone was commenting on the often heard remark,
“Everything happens for a reason.” “Yes,” said this observer, “and the
reason is found in Galatians 6:7.
Whatever a man sows, that he
will also reap…”
The reason some things happen to us is that we are
reaping what we have sown.
Judgment is a
fact of life. You play; you pay – as we say in the common vernacular.
Not always of course, but often that is the case.
In the movie
The Last Emperor, the young
child anointed as the last emperor of China lives a magical life of
luxury with a thousand eunuch servants at his command.
“What happens when you do wrong?” his brother asks
him.
“When I do wrong, someone else is punished,” the
boy emperor replies.
To demonstrate, he breaks a jar, and one of his
servants is beaten.
What a neat system if you are the emperor. You do
the crime, someone else does the time.
We can say that doesn’t happen in real life, but in
a sense it does. How often are innocent people punished for the sins
of a drunk driver, for example? How many innocent children suffer
because of the sins of abusive parents? How many spouses suffer
because of the waywardness of their partner?
Usually, however, we reap what we ourselves have
sown. However, if we get hit by that texting driver, we have reaped
what another has sown.
You and I may look at this parable and say it is
horrible that the weeds get thrown in the fire, but that’s the way
life is. It is absurd to sugarcoat reality. If you plant bad, seed,
there is no use praying for a good harvest. Most of the time you’re
going to get what you sow. Or, as someone has said, “If the grass
looks greener on the other side of the fence, it may mean they take
better care of their lawn.”
What is dangerous is trying to figure out what
other people are going to reap. Some people, I’m sorry to say, delight
in separating people into categories of acceptable and unacceptable,
worthy or unworthy, good and bad, wheat and weeds.
Notice what happens in this parable. The
landowner’s servants come to him to tell him that there are weeds in
his wheat and ask him if he wants to pull the weeds up? The landowner
tells them no, wait until the harvest and then separate them.
Harvesting wheat in Jesus’ time was arduous work.
The harvesters would use sickles. They would bend over and cut wheat
just above the ground. But what happens if weeds are growing midst the
wheat? We’re told that the weeds in Jesus’ parable were a poisonous
variety called “bearded darnel.” In the early stages of growth this
bearded darnel so closely resembles wheat that it is not possible to
distinguish one from the other. Later when it is possible to
distinguish between them, the roots of the wheat and the weeds are so
intertwined that one could not be pulled without also tearing up the
other. To rip up the weeds would also destroy the growth of the wheat.
So the landowner was being wise when he said, “No …let both grow
together until the harvest.” So, the harvesters were not allowed to
try to separate the weeds from the wheat until the final harvest.
Now what does that mean for us? A constant theme in
Jesus’ teaching is that his followers were not to pass judgment on
others. This is very important. Traditionally the primary sin of
highly religious people is being self-righteous and judgmental. We
have a tendency to judge for ourselves who is fit for the kingdom and
who is not, who is spiritual and who is worldly. This is a dangerous
tendency. I want to suggest to you three key reasons why we cannot be
the ones to decide who is wheat and who is weed.
First of
all, we should not judge others because we ourselves are not totally
acceptable.
Writer Kent Crockett tells about a married couple
who pulled into a full service gas station to refuel their car. As the
tank was being filled, the station attendant washed the windshield.
When he finished, the husband stuck his head out of the window and
said, “It’s still dirty. Wash it again.”
“Yes, sir,” the attendant replied.
After he cleaned a second time, the husband said,
“Don’t you know how to wash a windshield? It’s still filthy. Now do it
again!”
The attendant scrubbed the windshield a third time,
carefully looking for any spots he might have missed. By now the
husband was fuming. “I can’t believe you are so incompetent that you
can’t even do a simple job like cleaning a windshield! I’m going to
report you to your boss!”
Just then, his wife reached over and removed his
glasses. She wiped them clean with a tissue, and then put them back on
his face. And it was amazing how clean the windshield was! “Do not
judge or you will be judged,” said the Master. “For in the same way
you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it
will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:1,2). We forget when we judge
others that we are looking at them through smudged lenses. Sometimes
we criticize others unfairly. We don’t know all their circumstances,
or their motives. Only God, who is aware of all facts, is able to
judge people rightly.
Even a saint like John Wesley made this mistake.
Wesley once told of a man he had little respect for because he
considered him to be miserly and covetous. One day when this person
contributed only a small gift to a worthy charity, Wesley openly
criticized him.
After the incident, the man went to Wesley
privately and told him that he had been living on parsnips, a kind of
carrot, and water for several weeks. He explained that before his
conversion, he had run up many bills. Now, by skimping on everything
and buying nothing for himself, he was paying off his creditors one by
one.
“Christ has made me an honest man,“ he said, “and
so with all these debts to pay, I can give only a few offerings above
my tithe. I must settle up with my worldly neighbors and show them
what the grace of God can do in the heart of a man who was once
dishonest.” Wesley then apologized to the man and asked his
forgiveness.
Jesus said that we have enough to do to look to our
own acceptability to spend time evaluating the acceptability of
others. We are not to judge others, first of all, because we are not
perfect ourselves. Leave it to God to judge who is wheat and who is a
weed.
But there is a second and even more important
reason we are not to judge others.
When we pass judgment on
others, we distance ourselves from them.
Pastor Jason Freyer says that when he was in
college, he was walking to class with a few friends who were asking
him how he could be a Christian when so many of the Christians they
saw on TV were so judgmental, nasty, self-centered people. He told
them that he really thought that Christian people as a whole were
doing much better.
As those words left his mouth, he said, they
rounded a corner and were met by a group of students carrying huge
30-foot banners that said things like, “Turn or Burn,” and “Gays will
die in hell” and “I know what you did last night, and God doesn’t like
it.”
Young Freyer was furious. He walked up to one of
the women who was carrying a sign and asked her if she thought she was
really being effective. In his estimation it seemed as though many
people were just walking away mad, rather than walking in the love of
Christ. The woman told him that in Matthew 5 Christians are told they
would face all kinds of persecution. Freyer says he wanted to shake
her and scream, “BUT HE DOESN’T ASK US TO LOOK FOR IT!”
Later he realized why he was so angry with her
methods. She wasn’t engaging anyone. “It’s easy to stand on the
sidelines,” says Freyer,” with a sign or a bullhorn and tell other
people how wring they are. It’s much different though to actually
engage with people, learn their stories, learn their hurts, and learn
their lives.”
We are all familiar with John 3:16, “For God so
loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever
believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. “ Do you
remember John 3:17? “For God did not send his Son into the world to
condemn people but to save the world through him.” And so it is with
us. We are not here to judge other people – whether it’s our friend
who sleeps around, or who drinks too much, or even who themselves are
too critical or judgmental. Our task is to love people and to witness
to them of a God who loves them.
You see the
real problem with passing judgment on others is that it does not allow
us to be vehicles of God’s grace. Our central task is to help
other people experience God’s grace just as we have experienced that
grace. We cannot do that if we come across as one with a condemning
attitude. Besides, we simply don’t know what kind of hurts other
people may have experienced.
Ken Collins, a pastor in Kentucky, was working one
day near a barn. Suddenly he realized that he wasn’t alone. A squirrel
scurried by him into the barn. The squirrel was squeaking as he ran.
Then the squirrel emerged from the barn and began running alongside
the barn. Collins realized he was coming in his direction. The thought
came to him that perhaps the squirrel had rabies. He armed himself
with a club. However, the squirrel again passed him and went to a huge
tree. There it stopped, unable to climb. Then Collins saw the problem.
As the squirrel spread its front legs he could see the area where a
bullet had entered the squirrel’s chest. Unable to climb the tree, the
squirrel finally disappeared into the woods.
Pastor Collins whispered, “Lord, what message is in
this scene?” Then, in the quietness of his own heart, the Lord spoke
to Ken Collins and here is what God said, “Ken, you just witnessed a
squirrel that was unable to climb because it was wounded by Satan …
But they are still my children. Do not condemn because you don’t
understand but do all you can to help them now that you do
understand.” There is much wisdom in these words.
F.B. Meyer once said that when we see a brother or
sister in sin, there are two things we do not know. First, we do not
know how hard he or she has tried not to sin. And second, we do not
know the power of the forces that assailed him or her. We also do not
know what we would have done in the same circumstances.
The teaching of the parable is clear: there will
come a time when the wheat is separated from the weeds. But only God
is in a position to judge which is which. In the meantime let’s focus
on what God has called us to do – to love all people and to witness to
the amazing grace of God as shown in Jesus Christ.
Sermon: "Stewardship of Family"
by The Rev. Dr. Michael Staples, Director of Anchor House
Ministry
Delivered at All Saints' Church on Sunday, November 13th, 2011
This past Thursday night during our Chapel
Service at Anchor House, our guest speaker, a man who had spent a
lifetime of drug abuse, gang involvement, prison time and brokenness
prior to his acknowledgement of Jesus as Lord, prayed this way:
“Lord, show me the truth.
May I know your truth and not be deceived”
I was touched by the honesty of the prayer but
also by the perceptiveness of how tricky and deceptive sin can be and
how easily we can be fooled about ourselves.
Truth can be very elusive for many and for those who are always
juggling to understand ‘truth in context’, are missing the reality
that truth is for the most part more clear and apparent than we often
acknowledge.
This week, a major sports team and university was
brought down by a scandal that stretched over many years involving the
charges of abuse by an assistant coach over young boys.
The beloved head coach, a man of high integrity and character,
reported the incident to a couple of people and then essentially
disconnected himself from it.
No follow up and no accountability.
For those of you wondering what the appropriate
response is when you see abuse of a child?
You are to call the abuse hotline and in this instance, Law
Enforcement also. This is
truth. Jesus said, of his
disciples, “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
It’s so important as Christians that we get it right!
You see…the children belong to all of us.
This morning’s scripture reading from Mark declares, that the
widows mite was most valued by God.
I would like to make a comment here.
The scriptures for today are part of an overall theme of
stewardship that is ongoing in Christian teaching and also here at All
Saints. You may have
recently received your commitment card in the mail asking you for your
stewardship commitment of tithe, time and talent.
We all know from scripture that the tithe belongs to the Lord
and this is usually ten percent plus any other offerings to the poor
or missions projects. This
belongs to the Lord.
Our stewardship kicks in with how we treat the
other 90 percent of the resources God has entrusted to us.
Stewardship is also about how we give of our time to local
ministry, the parish, outreach and missions and how we allow God to
make use of the gifts and talents He has bestowed upon us.
The widow gave out of her need.
She gave out of her poverty.
Not just her tithe…but everything.
This pleased the Lord.
What also was pleasing to God, is who she is and what she
represents. For our God
has a special place in His heart for the widows and orphans.
They represent vulnerable communities.
Jesus said,
“Suffer not the little children to come unto me
for such is the kingdom of God”
James said,
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and
faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress”
(James 1:27)
One truth
about Stewardship has to do with our being good stewards over our
families; children, parents and others.
As a Christian Family or parish, this extends into the
vulnerable communities as James clearly states, “widows and orphans”.
And so we in the community of faith have this
responsibility toward the vulnerable.
Why do the children belong to all of us?
It is in their nature to trust and yet that trust
has been broken leaving them vulnerable.
Who else is there to step in and fill in the gap…then the
loving touch of Christian’s.
One boy, Daniel once commented about all the
people who come by Anchor House to help them when no one else cares
that is it helping to restore in him trust to people.
So let us invest in our own sons and
daughters…but also invest into the life of a child who has been
forgotten.
Anchor House
One boy was deserted by his father and then woke
up one day to find that his mother had crawled into bed next to him
and taken a load of pills and overdosed.
He was then placed with a grandmother who died of drugs.
One day, he cried to me and said, everybody I have ever known
or loved has died of drugs.
I don’t want that for me.
Another boy has bounced around and lived in over
200 places. Though 16, he
reads and writes at kindergarten level and his math is that of a 6
year old. His goal was
that his father get out of prison so they could be together.
His father got out a few weeks ago and died of an apparent
overdose within 24 hours.
Veteran teachers working with him at Anchor House have cried as they
have seen him begin to read for the first time.
He calls me dad.
The Kingdom calls us to be like Jesus…and to be a
“father to the fatherless.” Jesus
said,
“When you have done it to the least, you have
done it unto me”.
Let me tell you the story about Easy Eddie.
Easy Eddie was Al Capone’s right hand man,
business partner and lawyer.
For years he helped Capone to hide his money and run his
businesses. Easy Eddie was
well compensated and lived like a king.
Easy Eddie had one son whom he greatly loved and invested into
him attending the finest schools.
It is speculated that he was concerned that one day he would
leave behind a legacy that would tarnish his sons opportunity in life,
Easy Eddie developed a conscience and cooperated with the government
in bringing down Capone.
As State’s witness, his testimony put Capone away for years and with
it came a revenge killing that took out his life.
Easy Eddie did all this to restore honor to his family and
ensure that his son could have integrity to his name.
Not long after this, a young navy pilot named
“Butch O’Hare was flying in formation in the South Pacific, protecting
the USS Lexington from Japanese bombers.
Heading back to the aircraft carrier on account of low fuel, he
spotted a formation of Japanese bombers approaching the Lexington.
Without hesitation, O’Hare charged the Japanese formation and
bravely and ferociously destroyed 5 bombers and brought an end to the
Japanese attack. He was
the first Navy Pilot to win the Congressional Medal of Honor along
with numerous other accolades and awards for bravery.
Though Butch was killed one year later, the city of Chicago
never forgot their favorite son, Butch O’Hare and renamed their famed
airport after him; O’Hare International Airport where a statue there
honors him. Butch O’Hare,
was Easy Eddie’s son.
I would request you to consider this morning your
investment into your children and your stewardship of leaving behind a
legacy that brings honor to them and prepares them for life.
As a parish, how are we extending this investment into the
vulnerable among our community?
Easy Eddie finished well…may we also by His grace
and strength.
Sermon: "Sharing God's love today"
by The Rev. Dr. Michael Staples, Director of Anchor House
Ministry
Delivered at All Saints' Church on Sunday, February 19th, 2012
The setting is the
Transfiguration…It is glorious, heavenly, miraculous.
Could there be any better evangelistic setting than to be on
the Mountain Top having God himself reveal His son along with Moses
and Elijah and then to tell Peter…”Listen, to him”.
If it was me I’d say, “ you bet!
Whatever you say.
You have my full attention.”
For most of us however, we don’t have
the luxury of that kind of “set up” for introducing people to Jesus.
The average Christian actually feels
some stress about sharing their faith with others.
Often, we don’t know where to begin,
what to say, how to finish or even when to begin.
Finally, we really don’t want to offend in this era of
“correctness”; political and religious correctness.
Three Things I want to share with you
about communicating your faith to another person:
1)
Divine
Appointments
2)
Be the Light of
the world
3)
Have confidence
in Christ
1.
Recognize Divine
Appointments:
It is those occasions where the Spirit has been
moving and preparing a person to favorably receive the message of
salvation.
God’
s message is one of hope and love and reconciliation and restoration.
It’s a message of healing and forgiveness of cleansing and
transforming.
God’s Spirit is at work preparing people along
life’s journey to receive these themes and to know Him.
The Apostle Paul said “some plant, some water and
some harvest.”
So it is good for us to keep in mind that in
whatever stage of sharing God’s love with someone, we are actually
participating in God’s activity with the person.
We don’t have to achieve a “decision” for Christ in order to
have successfully shared our faith with someone.
What is helpful is that we discern whether we need
to be planting or watering or being the one who explains the gospel;
or proclaims it. There are
indeed those Divine Appointments and in them the fruit on the tree is
ripe for the picking. We
don’t want to pick it too soon or let them drop and rot.
So here is a suggestion:
Be intentional about the relationships that you are
building with people whom you know and to people that are un churched
or unbelievers.
Be in constant prayer for that group and understand
evangelism to be a relational process.
Be prayerfully planning seeds of love, of
encouragement, of nurture and friendship.
Continue to water those seeds over the months and find those
openings where you can tap into divine opportunities to invite them to
a special event at the church, a home group, a Christian
concert, an activity among believers.
Find those moments in their life where they need
your spiritual upliftment, your prayers or ministry or an opportunity
to share in a spiritual moment.
There are surely enough crisis moments in people‘s lives that
afford us such opportunities.
When the character of your relationship with them
has been built to where trust and respect has been achieved you then
have an opening.
Some might call
this friendship evangelism and to some extent this is true.
However, it is not just limited to developing a lengthy period of time
for which a friendship has been established.
It is being intentional in your relationships at work, at the
gym, golf course or club or wherever you may be.
In that setting you are developing a
rapport with people and keeping your antennae open.
2.
The second point
is to “Be the light of the world”.
Yes it is true that we are called as fishers of men
but this is not in some organizational development scheme aiming to
reach target goals or bureaucratic business.
We are the light of the world and our lives and
words can be winsome as we engage people in ways that are relevant to
them and meet needs while pointing to the Lord.
St. Francis
of Assissi would say, “Preach always and when necessary use words”.
We often think of
being “Light in darkness”.
How about Light in the midst
of lots of grey and a lot of other colors?
The cultural challenge of today is
being Christ’s representative in a post- modern world where everything
is equal and no one truth is considered higher than another.
Post modernity says everyone’s
religious experience is equal and there is no absolute moral truth or
higher authority upon which people can claim.
Claiming Christ is the Lord and the
only way is a cultural offense.
Many people question how do we share without offending?
Some say:
·
Let it rip.
Don’t worry about the offense.
Let the word of God do the talking.
·
Others might
pursue a Ph.D in Apologetics and learn how to skillfully answer
·
You might
consider learning to tell your Christian story well.
For most people in our world today however, they
are either simply seekers or living in a world whereby their concerns
in life are that of most people around the world; paying the bills,
raising a family and building a future.
For these people they want to
know what is it about your faith that is working for you?
In what way has this made a difference or impact in your life.
Dr. Phil often says, “How’s that
working for you?”
Think about that for a moment…Reflect
on the ways your relationship to God has given you more peace or
tranquility.
Think about how your sense of identity
and purpose being centered upon Christ has given you more concern in
listening to others and therefore becoming a better friend.
Think back on those times of trouble
where without Christ, His grace and love, your not sure that you would
have come out in one piece.
The testimony of our changed lives
through Jesus is such a great sermon and story and I want to encourage
you to learn how to effectively tell that story.
This can be a form of personal testimony just 2 – 3 minutes in
length.
Here’s what you can do with it.
Build it upon a theme like:
·
Unfulfilled
dreams
·
Emptiness
·
Unrealistic
expectations
·
Disappointment in
life
·
Religion vs
relationship
·
Trying to be a
good person or do good things but never measuring up
·
Addictions
·
Brokenness or
loneliness
·
Overcoming the
demons or ghosts in your life
Be yourself and be
natural and personal in sharing this and keep it very simple.
Many times we feel intimidated that our
story is not sensational.
It does not need to be; simply develop a few different forms of your
testimony around how your relationship to Christ made all the
difference in impacting an area of your life built on one of the
themes that you identify.
It can be as simple as this sample:
“As a young person I had some many
dreams of what I wanted my life to look like and how I envisioned the
American dream to be achieved.
After several failures and an emptiness that came with those
unfulfilled expectations I invited the Lord to come into my life and
lead me forward. I have
never looked back. The
change in attitude, focus, priorities and values has indeed made me
more successful in my achievements and more at peace in my failures.
Can I share with you more about how he has impacted me?
Find ways to connect to the person that
you are sharing with on their level of need and interest.
Use varying forms of the testimony to speak to their specific
situation, drawing them interested in what you have to say.
3.
Thirdly, have
confidence in Christ.
Think about it.
God said, “Listen, this is my son.
Listen to him”
Paul said in the first chapter of
Romans, “I a not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God
unto men and women to salvation.”
The gospel is Jesus.
He did not just die; he rose from the grave.
Jesus in v 9 said, “don’t tell anyone
until I am raised from the grave!
Why? Because his resurrection sets Him
apart from all others:
Jesus is not simply a good man or
prophet but the son of God having come to achieve and fulfill God’s
plan for this world.
I was recently in Peru working with the
Anglican Church and was so impressed with their vision
to reach the hurting and lost.
Bishop Godfrey has a heart for church planting and evangelism.
The church is going into the needy communities with medical
teams, with compassionate ministry and with servant leaders with a
heart for the poor and a love for them.
It is my intention to make a return trip and take a team with
me to assist the church there.
What struck me is how Peru has been
shaped by its early Spanish colonial heritage.
I learned that the predominance of the
Roman Catholic Tradition was pre reformation and that in that
understanding of Jesus is a focus on his death (not the resurrection).
Everywhere you see death!
Even church signs will say of Jesus, “I suffered so you may
share in my sufferings.”
The way of life for these people is hard and the God they are asked to
follow asks them to share in sufferings.
Jesus said, “I have come to give you
life and give it to you abundantly.”
We know him and the power of his
resurrection. Jesus said,
wait and then tell.
Now we have all the confidence in the
world to tell.
When he came back and said, “GO into
all the world” he used a verb form that really means, “as you go into
the world”…you will be making disciples, baptizing and teaching.
We are called to be His light, share
His love and have confidence that He is at work in the process of
planting, watering and harvesting.
I will close with this story:
Every
day an old man walked on the beach picking up starfish that had been
washed ashore by the tide and he threw them back into the sea.
One day a young boy stopped the old man and asked," Mister, why do you
throw the starfish back into the sea?"
The old man answered,"
Because they will die in the hot sun if left here stranded on the
beach."
“But sir, there are so many and the beach goes on for
miles. You can`t possibly make a difference."
The old man
slowly bent over once more, picked up another starfish and threw it
back into the sea and replied, "IT MADE A HUGE DIFFERENCE FOR THAT
ONE."
May
our lives make a difference for that one to whom we engage with and
connect.
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