Sunday 09/22/12 FUMC/HAUMC UMC’s
Sermon Title:
“Corpus Christi: The Body of God’s People”
(Reclaiming our Wesleyan Heritage Series,
Part 3 of 5)
Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Psalm 79:1-9
New Testament Scripture Lesson: 1 Timothy 2:1-7
Gospel Lesson: Luke 16:1-13
Good morning
children of God! Welcome this morning, on this the eighteenth Sunday after
Pentecost. Pentecost that day so long ago that the Holy Fire of the spirit of
God filled the early followers of Christ and the church was born.
As many of you
know, I have begun my service at this church with a 5-week sermon series on
reclaiming our Wesleyan or Methodist Heritage. Within this, the founder of the
Methodist Movement, John Wesley grew faith in Christ in millions of people, and
therefore tremendously grew the church. In doing this, Mr. Wesley, as he was
often called, had many ways, or Methods, as his critics would say, of growing
faith and the church. This label of Wesley and his then small group of followers
being called “Methodical” or “Methodist,” was a name that stuck, as we still embody
the name Methodist today. So a name that was originally a name of ridicule,
based on a very meticulous and methodical group Christians, is still the name
that we carry even today. In fact, recently my church secretary at the Freeville
UMC told me, “Pastor, you are very meticulous with paperwork and just about
everything.” I then said, to my Presbyterian secretary, “Well, that is because I
am a Methodist!”
Our founders
in the Methodist movement in America were circuit riders. People who got on
horseback and rode far and wide to get the Gospel of Christ to all the people
they could. In fact, did you know that in 1850, about 34% of Americans were members
of the Methodist Church? We were at one time, the biggest denomination in these
United States. One farmer famous even said on a rainy day around this time, as
he lamented that he couldn’t work outside that day, that “there is nothing out
today but crows and Methodist preachers.”
You see we have
a rich heritage my brothers and sisters, and I think that our Methodist Church
and all of our sister church denominations can be strong and re-vitalized again
as they once were. In doing this though, the pastors must love there people and
be dedicated to them and God in all that they do, and we must look to the past.
We must, as I said last Sunday, look to the “Democracy of the Dead” or the
saints of the past, I we are to look forward to the future.
Yet with these
two realities of reclaiming the very grassroots our Methodist identity, we must
look to the most vital part of our movement. Of course the most vital part is
Jesus Christ and our faith, but this has always been carried out through the “Corpus
Christi.” I don’t know if anyone has ever visited the City of Corpus Christi in
Southern Texas, but up until a few years ago, I had no idea what “Corpus Christ”
even meant. Does anyone here, have any idea, without looking at my full sermon
title of course, what “Corpus Christi” means?
When I first learned of this, I was
told that “Corpus Christi” is actually Latin, and that it translates to the “Body
of Christ,” I then thought how awesome it must be tell someone that you live in
the City of the Body of Christ. Short of the fact that is just an amazing name
for a city, what is the significance of this to us to our heritage, of which I
speak of this morning?
The significance is this, is that the
Corpus, the body of the Living Christ, is you, and is me. The beating heart of
our Churches, of our Methodist movement, has always rested not in the preacher
at the pulpit, but in the people of God in the pews. For early on in Methodism,
we were criticized as letting all manner of people into Corpus or the body. We
let in the poorest of the poor, and the rejected of the rejected.
We formed
societies, small groups, and we were a family. We gathered often for church
dinners, which I am a fan of by the way. At some point in the future, I seek
again to have us gather in small groups for prayer, for fellowship, perhaps in
our homes, or perhaps here with some college students. You see as the Bible
says, “Iron sharpens Iron,” and therefore we must constantly seek opportunities
to be with each other. We must try our best to be with the Corpus Christi.
Whether it be a dinner, a prayer meeting, a Bible study, or a movie night, let
us gather together often, and with love.
I have another
quick story from Dr. Livermore’s seminary class. Here is the story, I remember
one night in class the old Reverend said something that utterly startled me.
All of the sudden, Dr. Livermore said, “Now I went to tell you class what Billy
Graham did wrong during the evangelical revival of 1980’s.” I then immediately
turned to my friend Brad and said, “Well this guy is getting fired.” Brad was
equally as shocked, and other than being a Detroit Lions fans, he is a good man.
Then though, here is what Dr. Livermore said, “Billy Graham was so focused on
conversion to faith in Jesus Christ that even he himself has admitted that he
didn’t focus enough on discipleship.” You see our movement, Methodism at its
core is about faith in Christ, and this faith is lived out through discipleship
in the Corpus Christi. We do not just gather on Sunday mornings, because we are
supposed to, we were once a massive denomination, because we provided a sense
of love, community, and belonging that people thirsted for. I guarantee you
brothers and sisters, that we have students near here, who thirst to be part of
the Corpus, whether they know it or not. Let us offer them loving refuge in a
world that may reject them, and a world that knows Him not.
In reflecting
upon this little story from Dr. Livermore in my seminary class though, I
chatted with an older man about a year later, and I invited him to church. He
then said, “Paul, I am believer, so I don’t need to go to church!” You see I
have meet dozens and dozens of people who can’t remember there anniversary or
what they for breakfast, but they can remember as sure as the day is long, the
year, the day, and sometimes even the very time that they accepted Jesus. They
then might say, “Wherever two or more are gathered in the name of Jesus, we are
in church.” I then said joking to one of these folks, “You mean to tell me that
sitting in your recliner on Sunday morning, watching an old episode of “Billy
Graham’s Crusade for Christ,” with an old white undershirt on that looks likes
Swiss Cheese, with your next door neighbor, this is going church?” The person
just said, “Yes, this is church.”
Yet in the Apostle Paul’s letter to
the church in Ephesus or the Ephesians in chapter 4:1-6, “I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a
life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility
and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in
the bond of peace. There
is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your
calling, one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who
is above all and through all and in all.”
I then said to this same Sunday morning
recliner church goer, “if you had a family reunion this Sunday, and all of your
brothers and sisters and family members were present, would you go to it?” He
then said, “Well of course I would?” I then responded by saying, “Then why when
your family gathers every Sunday morning in church, do you not gather with
them?”
You see all of us are
part of the body of Jesus Christ. We have all been gifted differently. Due to
this, we need to be part of the Corpus Christi or the body of Christ. We need
to do this not just because it is good to attend church, but because your gifts
and graces are needed. Like Josie the monkey, if we do not have you in the
Corpus, we are deficient. Without what you have, we are weaker, and without you
part of the Corpus or body is missing. While the head of the body, Jesus Christ,
is always present, what are we missing here this morning? Perhaps we are
missing a finger, a foot, and ear, and elbow, and etc. You see, while some are
determined on Sunday mornings and attend the “Bedside Baptist Church” in their
bedrooms, you know the church that is pastored by “Reverend Sheets,” they are
not with their family. They are not in church and the body is not complete.
So if we stay home on
Sunday morning, do we believe? The answer is sure we can believe, but why stop
at merely having a “Fire insurance policy?” Because if you went a Billy Graham
rally (who is one of my biggest ministry heroes by the way), and you came to
Christ and then stayed home on Sunday, then well what good is that? What good
is it to join the family, and then never see the family? You see as your
pastor, I don’t just come here on Sunday morning to worship and give a sermon. I
come to be with my people, my family, those in who I love and trust. This is
why I was hesitant to leave my last churches so suddenly, as we were a family.
In Paul’s first letter of
epistle to his young friend Timothy, that we read from this morning, he said, “First
of all then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and
thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high
positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable like in all godliness and
dignity.” For when we are connected to the Body of the Living Christ, we have
more peace, more godliness, and more dignity. Like a hot coal removed from a
fire, we soon grow dark and cold, when are separated from the Corpus Christi.
The Apostle Paul then goes on to tell Timothy that Jesus Christ desires for all
of us to be saved, and that Christ died for all people. Not just some, but for
everyone. Meaning everyone out there in the world is a child of God, and that
they have a place in here, in the Corpus Christi. All are welcomed, as this is
the life boat, in world that is dark and is sinking.
In the Gospel of Luke
reading from this morning, Jesus tells the parable about a “Rich man’s manager,”
and how the rich man was generous to this manager who had mismanaged the rich
man’s property. For the manager had allowed the rich man’s resources to be
squandered. The manager then called in the debtors who owed his master. The
first one owed “A hundred jugs of olive oil,” to the rich man. Yet the manager then
said make it fifty-jugs. The next man in debt then said, but I also owe “one-hundred
containers of wheat,” and the manager then said, “make it eighty.” This gospel
reading concluded by Jesus saying, “Whoever is faithful in a very little is
faithful also in much.” Jesus then says, “If then you have not been faithful
with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust you the true riches?” Jesus teaches
us in this gospel that we cannot server two different masters. For either we
are just for ourselves and our own wealth and possessions, or we live among the
family, the Corpus Christi. Sometimes we forgive our debtors, and make
exceptions, as were at the Corpus Christi, and we all supposed to be loving and
looking out for each other. And after all, as Billy Graham famously once said, “I
have never seen a hearse, with a U-Haul attached behind it.”
I would like to close
this morning with a short story. This
story is called, “Why don’t you try going to church?” Here is how it goes, “I often
advise people to go to church for pragmatic rather than spiritual reasons. My
own return to church after a nearly twenty-year absence was because I was
worried about my children. I felt that the older ones were beginning to go off
in the wrong direction. When I looked at successful parents, I realized most of
them were regular church goers. Because I wanted to do my parenting job a
little better, I started attending church every Sunday morning and every Sunday
evening. Only six weeks or so later, the Holy Spirit moved me. I
had been baptized long before, but I went forward to the altar and re-affirmed
my faith. Before the year was out, my husband also accepted Christ and some
years later I saw the youngest of my children baptized into the Lord.”
“I have no feelings of
guilt whatever when I urge someone to come to church just to get a handle on
how church people live—what they do to keep their bills paid even on low
incomes and how they raise good children. It may not seem as if I’m
trying to save souls, but I know if I get someone into the church, God
will take care of the rest.”
My brothers and sisters, we
are the Corpus Christi, we are the body of the living Christ. All of you are of
sacred worth, and all of you have so much to offer Jesus and his kingdom. So given
this then, I charge all of you here this morning with this, invite someone here
for church next Sunday. Tell them that you have a loving family here, that we
look out for each other, that take care of people, that your pastor loves the
family, and that even our parishioners who cannot make it here on Sunday Morning,
are still loved and visited. Tell them that in a world of darkness and
uncertainty, that they a have a place and purpose in the light of Christ, in
this place. For we serve a Lord that conquered every temptation, every evil,
and even death. We serve a Lord that breaks every chain that binds us, sews up
every wound that afflicts us, and who can take your life and make it new and
beautiful.
So on this morning if you
don’t know him, and if you are tired, weary, and heavy laden, I urge you, to
pray and call out to Lord Jesus, and he will give you rest. For “his burden is
light, and his yoke is easy.” I bring this message to you, the Corpus Christ,
the body of the living Christ, in his name who makes all things new. Amen.
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