Sunday 09/16/12 RWJ/Pottersville UMC
Sermon: “Would you deny Him?”
(Growing in faith series, Part 3 of 6)
Scripture Lesson: Proverbs 1:20-33
Gospel Lesson: Mark 8:27-38
Good morning brothers and sisters! I greet you in the name our risen Lord and savior Jesus Christ! I hope and pray that you have all had a blessed week and I am happy to be worshipping with you here this morning!
This morning I am continuing on in my six part series called the “Growing in faith series.” In my first week of this series I talked about how as a church we need to do our best to “Walk our faith vs. talking our faith.” I talked about how if our churches were full of people who gave generously then we would have more than enough resources to serve the community and meet the needs of those who are without. I talked about how the Christian Church could fully take care of the needs of the poor and be the strong center of this community if we really worked at it. Last week, I talked about how “Faith without works in dead.” Specifically, I talked about how if we are going to fully live the gospel of Jesus Christ that we must do good things for the Lord. We must serve the Lord and do good things for others, because almighty God has called us to love others in the name of Jesus Christ. When we give we receive, and we should do good things for others, because we love to serve the Lord. We are so blessed when we give, and we should give freely because the Lord so freely gives to us and blesses us.
Today the title of my sermon is “Would you deny Him?” By the title of this, I mean would we deny Jesus Christ? When I say deny Him, we might think of a variety of things. We can think of the Apostle Peter, when he denied Him three times. We can think of the Apostle Thomas when he doubted Jesus. When he said, that he would not believe unless he put his own fingers in the nail holes and spear wound of Jesus Christ. What up about the rich man that refused to sell everything he had and follow Jesus? In fact, in the gospel according to Mathew in chapter 19:16-22, it says:
“Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” “Which ones?” he inquired.
Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’” “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.”
Jesus then said in verse 24 of the same chapter, “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." In this instance the rich man denied Jesus Christ. He denied the savior, the Messiah. This does not mean that we all have to sell everything we own and give all of our money to the poor to follow Jesus Christ. I think some people like missionaries are called to do that, and the rest of us are able to support those folks called to these special ministries.
While these are big examples of denying Jesus Christ though, don’t we all deny Him at times? In the reading today from the book of Proverbs it talked about seeking wisdom from God. I think that we need to listen to the still small voice of the Lord, and that we need to seek him in all things. For if we don’t listen for Him, than how can we truly follow Him? In the Gospel reading this morning from Mark, Jesus said to one of His disciples, “Who do people say I am?” They gave all sorts of answers, such as John the Baptist, Elijah, and a prophet. The apostle Peter however, said to Jesus “You are the Messiah.” Later in the scripture, Jesus then said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up there cross and follow me.” Jesus then goes on to say, “For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?”
So Peter said that Jesus was the savior, the Messiah. What did Jesus mean though, when He said, “take up there cross and follow me?” Jesus I think was calling not just for believers, but for disciples. What is the difference you might ask? Believers have accepted Jesus Christ as there Lord and savior, but disciples live for the Lord. You see we can accept the Lord, or we can live for the Lord. I think many people in many instances have learned a Christianity that is centered on the idea created by our Methodist Church founder John Wesley, called “Cheap grace.” When we merely accept the Lord, and that’s it, it’s cheap grace. We have accepted Him in our hearts, but not fully, it’s cheap grace.
When we embody “Cheap grace” we deny Him. When we see someone suffering and we can help them and we don’t, we deny Him. If we seek to serve our own interests and our wants, not others, or the church, what difference will that make if we as Jesus Christ said, “Gain the whole world and lose our own soul?” I don’t visit the sick and shut-ins for example, just because I am supposed to, but because if I don’t I deny Him? Because I love Him and all of you so much, I do what I do. Not because this is a job, not because I love to drive 4-hours to get here, but because I serve the Lord. But do we really trust Jesus Christ? I mean really trust Him?
Last night at the RWJ Johnsburg UMC we had our first movie night. We saw a great Christian film called “Facing the Giants.” I arrived early to attempt to try to navigate the technology for the movie. Luckily I had help! I then went into the basement to pop some popcorn for the movie night. The church basement had several people in it toiling and decorating for my welcoming party this afternoon. I was so touched by the fact that these loving people of the Lord sacrificed their time and energies for my wife and I. Melissa and I have felt truly loved by you all since we have been here. Well I have anyway. You will have to ask my wife herself!
I also had a large clergy meeting yesterday with our district superintendent Rev. Bill Mudge. I joked with Bill and said, “You know Bill my wife and I would move up here full-time if you would give me a bigger position.” Bill knew I was joking of course, and he knew that I want to stay at the two churches I am pasturing as long as possible. Bill then smiled and said though, “I’m not planning on moving you from those churches anytime soon, because they love you too much.” I then smartly looked at him and said, “Well I guess the checks I gave them have cleared then!” Being the youngest clergy person by far at this meeting by at least 20-years, Bill wanted my insight for the clergy group as to how to grow our churches.
Here is what I said to him. I said “first of all, I don’t just want people to come to church I want disciples of Jesus Christ. I want committed Christians who want to change this community in name of Jesus Christ.” He then said, “Well Paul how do you think we do that?” I then said, “We love each other radically in the name of Jesus Christ.” He then said, “What do you mean radically?” I then said, “Bill we love everyone that comes into this church. We love them whether there drunks, drug addicts, covered head to toe in tattoos, black, white, purple, big, small, or anything else.” I then said, “And we do this, because every human being on this earth was crafted at the potter’s wheel of Almighty God, and because died for us all. If we are all creations of God, then Jesus died for all of us, and who are we to judge someone else? For when we don’t welcome all people into the house of the Lord to worship Him, then we deny Him. When we judge someone who comes in here, and we think we are better than them, then we deny Him. When we decide that certain people’s sins are greater than others, then we deny Him.” To God, I believe that sin is sin, is sin. I do not believe that there are degrees of sin. I believe all sin is sin. I think that if we seek to grow our faith and to grow our great church, that we must do this with the radical love of Jesus Christ. We should seek to live the gospel of loving God and our neighbor, and through us may people see Him. Imagine if every person we saw for the rest of the day today in our minds looked like Jesus Christ. What if, to take it a step further, we literally thought that every person we saw today was in fact Jesus Christ? How would we treat them? How would we love them? What if the homeless man on the street is really an angel from heaven? Do we deny Him? Are we really ready to love like this?
I envision a church and a faith were people love all people who come through the door of the church, a church where we really and truly love people for Jesus Christ. Whenever we don’t love someone, then we deny Him. A church where we boldly and unapologetically preach the Word and where we are all loved greatly. A church where you are comfortable here, a church you love coming to, a place of peace, a place of joy, a place of family. When we don’t strive for all of these things, do we not deny Him?
I want to close today with a good story. The story concerns a Christian monastery that had fallen upon hard times. Once a great order, as a result of waves of anti-monastic persecution in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the rise of secularism in the nineteenth, all its branch houses were lost and it had become decimated to the extent that there were only five monks left in the decaying mother house: the abbot and four others, all over seventy in age. Clearly it was a dying order.
In the deep woods surrounding the monastery there was a little hut that a rabbi from a nearby town occasionally used for a hermitage dwelling. Through their many years of prayer and contemplation the old monks had become more spiritually aware, so they could always seem sense when the rabbi was in his hermitage. "The rabbi is in the woods, the rabbi is in the woods again " they would whisper to each other. As he agonized over the imminent death of his order, it occurred to the abbot at one such time to visit the hermitage and ask the rabbi if by some possible chance he could offer any advice that might save the monastery.
The rabbi welcomed the abbot at his hermitage hut. But when the abbot explained the purpose of his visit, the rabbi could only commiserate with him. "I know how it is," he exclaimed. "The spirit has gone out of the people. It is the same in my town. Almost no one comes to the Jewish synagogue anymore." So the old abbot and the old rabbi wept together. Then they read parts of the Torah or the Old Testament and quietly spoke of deep things. The time came when the abbot had to leave. They embraced each other. "It has been a wonderful thing that we should meet after all these years, "the abbot said, "but I have still failed in my purpose for coming here. Is there nothing you can tell me, no piece of advice you can give me that would help me save my dying order?"
"No, I am sorry," the rabbi responded. "I have no advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the Messiah is one of you."
When the abbot returned to the monastery his fellow monks gathered around him to ask, "Well what did the rabbi say?" "He couldn't help," the abbot answered. "We just wept and read the Torah or Old Testament together. The only thing he did say, just as I was leaving --it was something cryptic-- was that the Messiah is one of us. I don't know what he meant."
In the days and weeks and months that followed, the old monks pondered this and wondered whether there was any possible significance to the rabbi's words. The Messiah is one of us? Could he possibly have meant one of us monks here at the monastery? If that's the case, which one? Do you suppose he meant the abbot? Yes, if he meant anyone, he probably meant Father Abbot. He has been our leader for more than a generation. On the other hand, he might have meant Brother Thomas. Certainly Brother Thomas is a holy man. Everyone knows that Thomas is a man of light. Certainly he could not have meant Brother Elred! Elred gets crotchety at times. But come to think of it, even though he is a thorn in people's sides, when you look back on it, Elred is virtually always right. Often very right. Maybe the rabbi did mean Brother Elred. But surely not Brother Phillip. Phillip is so passive, a real nobody. But then, almost mysteriously, he has a gift for somehow always being there when you need him. He just magically appears by your side. Maybe Phillip is the Messiah. Of course the rabbi didn't mean me. He couldn't possibly have meant me. I'm just an ordinary person. Yet supposing he did? Suppose I am the Messiah? O God, not me. I couldn't be that much for You, could I?
As they contemplated in this manner, the old monks began to treat each other with extraordinary respect on the off chance that one among them might be the Messiah. And on the off chance that each monk himself might be the Messiah, they began to treat themselves with extraordinary respect.
Because the forest in which it was situated was beautiful, it so happened that people still occasionally came to visit the monastery to picnic on its tiny lawn, to wander along some of its paths, even now and then to go into the dilapidated chapel to meditate. As they did so, without even being conscious of it, they sensed the aura of extraordinary respect that now began to surround the five old monks and seemed to radiate out from them and permeate the atmosphere of the place. There was something strangely attractive, even compelling, about it. Hardly knowing why, they began to come back to the monastery more frequently to picnic, to play, to pray. They began to bring their friends to show them this special place. And their friends brought their friends.
Then it happened that some of the younger men who came to visit the monastery started to talk more and more with the old monks. After a while one asked if he could join them. Then another. And another. So within a few years the monastery had once again become a thriving order and, thanks to the rabbi's gift, a vibrant center of light and spirituality in the realm.
What is the point of this story brothers and sisters? How do we love each other to grow in our faith, and to grow our church? What if, just what if you are the Messiah? Or you? What if the man you see on the street corner today is the Messiah? Let’s go forth this week, treating everyone so wonderfully because they could all be the Messiah. Praise God and Amen.
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