July 26, 2009
Wendy Harder
What is the message?
Let us pause to pray: God, we are here today to hear your message. What is
it? What are you wanting us to hear? I pray that we can listen. Amen
How many messages do you get in a day? Through email, texting, answering
machines, fax, blackberry, face book… We are always picking up messages. If we
are unavailable for even a minute, someone can leave us a message and we will
get it. But the demand is that I should not even have to leave a message because
I should be able to get a hold of you immediately. How come you are not
answering your phone? You didn’t text me back! Did you get my message?
Our society has been vaulted into the world of cell phones in the past couple of
years. This has been a struggle for me and anyone that knows me, will know that
my cell phone is not always on and so it is not that reliable. I try to have a
policy that when I am out for coffee with someone, the person sitting across
from me is who I am with and so my phone is turned off. What message am I
sending if I am texting or talking on the phone while I am sitting across from
someone? I had this discussion with one my kids recently. He said that I am
sending him the message that I don’t really care about him if if I am busy
texting or talking on my cell, while I am with him. Seems common courtesy right,
I shouldn’t even have to say it out loud but we do it all the time.
We can’t even fathom a world that is unplugged. I was chatting with a parent who
talked about cell phone usage at their house. After a short time of their
teenager having a cell phone, it became a consuming thing. They realized that it
just didn’t fit with their family. Besides helping them stay in touch and aiding
pick ups and drop offs, the cell phone now suddenly had a spot at the supper
table, beside the bed, in the car. This tiny little piece of equipment now
suddenly had priority over everything. So now what do they do? They put it away
for 2 months and then, in bringing it back, set some ground rules as to how it
would function in their house. When we left for the youth assembly, one of my
stipulations was that cell phones needed to be left at home. My motto is “you
need to be present with who you are with”. You don’t need to be texting people
back home. There are so many interesting people to meet, activities to do and so
we need to embrace the location that we are in.
In conversation with one of our youth, the novelty of texting has already worn
off and he rarely uses it. We talked about the messages that we send to people
and question the appropriateness of personal and intimidate information being
sent. We determined that it is better to say things in person, especially
personal stuff. So once cell phones become old news, what replaces it? We are a
long way from the party line, where there was only one phone line in the rural
communities to the current day where each of us have to have our own phone.
Communication devices come and go. What are we doing to our community by how we
communicate? Are we strengthening it or disintegrating it?
We sure are all learning a new form of communication, but it is only partial
communication. We need to teach about building community, not setting up
partitions that we can talk over. Without face to face contact, we become
socially disadvantaged and shape a people that live in fear and mistrust. Just
watching the news is enough evidence of that. Concerns that there might be flu
epidemic or you might catch west nile is enough to have us hole up in our homes
and not touching anyone unless they have been sanitized!
What did the early church have to say about building community? They certainly
had their squabbles. Over and over, Jewish Christians doubted the stories that
are told them – Paul is no longer persecuting them but instead wants to join
their cause? Peter is freed from prison by an angel and is standing at the gate?
God’s message of love came not just for the Jews but for the Gentiles.
Christians don’t have to be circumcises in order to receive the Holy Spirit? Is
it okay to eat with Gentiles? But they are different then us and eat different
thing. People of the day had questions and doubts but each time it came back to
the work that God was doing in their lives. I had James read a long passage
today but you see over and over what people are saying about God.
Acts 11: 23 “when he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced
Acts 14:27 “they called the church together and related all that God had done
with them, and how he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles.
Acts 15:4: “they reported all that God had done with them”
Acts 15:12 “They told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through
them among the Gentiles.
It came back to listening to the stories of people and what God was doing in
their lives. All the rules and regulations and stereotypes of who was in and who
was out, did not matter so much as they relayed story after story about what God
was doing through people all through the area.
Are we any different today? Do we still set up rules to keep a “pure” church? We
would like to think that we are very welcoming. We would like to think that
anyone could walk threw the doors and feel God’s love. But sometimes, we are
caught up in our own world and forget others around us, especially if they don’t
fit into our box, our perceptions of a Christian. I want to tell you a story
about someone who didn’t fit because of his scales. The story is called
“A Dragon’s Tear”
by Dan Keding. (Building Community, p. 46)
This dragon was so ashamed of what he looked liked that he did not dare to come
out in the light. He knew there were rules as to who could live in the village
and he didn’t meet the criteria. He had scales and talons and was much too big.
Besides, his kind had been at war with the villagers over the centuries and so
why would they welcome him now. But it took a boy to hear his story and not be
afraid. He was not afraid because he saw his way to the dragon’s heart. The
dragon was lonely and isolated because people had judged him and wanted to bring
him harm because he was different. And yet he had gift of storytelling that
would bring joy to others if only they could see past his outer scales.
What are the scales that are keeping you from reach out in fellowship? If we
ostracized everyone who is different then us, it would be a pretty bland place.
What are we doing as a church to separate those that don’t feel welcome?
Christians of Jewish birth believed that you must be circumcised in order to
receive the full blessing from the Lord. Circumcision was the way it was and so
why question it, why change what has already been laid out in the rules of the
ancestors?
Michelle Hershberger was one of our speakers at the youth assembly. She wrote a
book called “God’s story, our story”. She writes about the early church forming.
As the leaders of the church met in Jerusalem, there was a lot at stake. “Would
there be two kinds of Christians – Jewish Christians (first rate) and Gentile
Christians (second rate)? Who decides? Do new Christians still need to follow
the rules that were set out by Moses? Believers Bible Commentary puts it like
this:
“This, of course, was a frontal attack on the gospel of the grace of God. The
true gospel of grace teaches that Christ finished the work necessary for
salvation on the cross. All a sinner needs to do is receive Him by faith. The
moment human merit or works are introduced, then it is no longer of grace. Under
grace, all depends on god and not on [people]. If conditions are attached, then
it is no longer a gift but a debt. And salvation is a gift; it is not earned or
merited.” (p. 1628) End of quote
It is God who decided for the early church. Verse 8: “And God, who knows the
human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did
for us.” Instead of supporting the Pharisees argument, Peter creates an even
playing field. And he even goes as far as telling the leaders not to put
unnecessary burdens on the people that not even God expects of them. God knows
their heart and we have testimony to show how God is working in their life. That
is enough.
Do we have testimony to how God is working in our lives? God sees our human
heart and knows how we respond. I think this will be put to the test more and
more in the days to come. We work at building community and creating
relationships with people around us so that they see God in our lives but I
think the path will become more difficult. I think our world will become more
fragmented and isolating as we become fearful of our health or want to be
efficient. We call a business and we get an automated voice, we go through the
self-serve check out line because it is quicker and maybe because we don’t feel
like talking to someone. My mom has a habit of sharing “her life story” with the
sales clerk about who she is buying the item for or what is happening for her
right now. My sisters and I tease her about it but maybe there is something
right about it because it engages relationship, it creates community. This last
week, I went to buy a piece of lattice. Now I had measured my car and my dad had
said that the piece I needed to pick up was 4 x 8 and so I figured I could get
it in. Well I bought the lattice at the lumber yard and then took it to my car.
Well, there was no way that could fit it in. So now what do I do? Well one
gentleman that was picking up his own stuff, tried to help but it did not work.
Another man asked me where I needed to go and since he had a truck, he told me
to toss my lattice on top of his plywood and he followed me home and dropped it
off for me. What a friendly gesture. I was happy that he was not afraid to
engage a stranger because I benefited from his generosity.
This is the opposite of being afraid to reach out to people. I mentioned the
potential flu epidemic that is being high-lighted every where. What will our
response as a church be? Will this be our chance to shine so that people will
say – it was the Christians who were not afraid to care for the sick or to go
outside their walls. Patrick gave me a book that talked about this during some
of the epidemics of the second century. The author, Rodney Stark, actually
believes that Christianity became more a dominant faith because of their
response to the crisis. “When disaster struck, the Christians were better able
to cope, and this resulted in substantially higher rates of survival.” (The Rise
of Christianity, p. 74) This did not mean that some of them didn’t die because
some did die. And I quote:
Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing
themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took
charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in
Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected
by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their
neighbours and cheerfully accepting their pains. Many, in nursing an doctoring
others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead…. The best
of our brothers lost their lives in this manner, a number of presbyters,
deacons, and lay men winning high commendation so that death in this form, the
result of great piety and strong faith, seems in every way the equal of
martyrdom. End of quote
It was the Christians that were reported to have responded to the sick and also
became ill. Even when the Christians died, their life was a testament of God
working in their life and so those that became healthy as a result of their
care, came to faith through the love of God working through them. What is the
message? We don’t fear death because God is at work in our life. We look to God
so that we can give testimony to God working in our life.
What is the most important message that we need to be sending? Is it the text
that tells you what you forgot on the grocery list or what who pick up when and
where? Or is the most important message that “We believe that we will be saved
through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” Repeat. Amen