Sunday 09/29/12 FUMC/HAUMC UMC’s
Sermon Title:
“We are in the business of changing lives”
(Reclaiming our Wesleyan Heritage Series,
Part 4 of 5)
Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Psalm 91:1-6,
14-16
New Testament Scripture Lesson: 1 Timothy 6:6-19
Gospel Lesson: Luke 16:19-31
Welcome my
brothers and sisters on this the nineteenth Sunday after the holiday of the
feast of Pentecost. Pentecost, that day so long ago that Holy Fire from heaven
streamed through the early Christians, igniting their minds, their hearts, and their
souls, to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. For in Jesus Christ we are freed
from all that binds us. In Christ we are freed of every vice and every trapping
of this world.
While we as
Christians are many though, there is quite a diversity of believers. We have
Christian populations in every part of the world. We have people who worship in
countless languages, and who worship the Lord in many different ways. Within
all of this, the question a non-believer may ask us though is why do we do what
we do? More specifically, why do we
believe in this Jesus, we talk so much about? What’s the deal with Jesus
Christ, they might say? Further, they may say, is there really and truly any
power in this Jesus? Or do we just gather on Sunday mornings, and many other
times, to make ourselves feel better? Is there power in the name of Jesus?
When we look
at the depth and breadth of our great faith, which spans centuries, we know the
power that is in Jesus Christ. We know that Jesus Christ and the power of the
Holy Spirit can lift us up, and can restore us. In my young life, I have seen
drug addicts, alcoholics, and people who were at the “bottom of the barrel” in
their lives find the Lord. And oh how these people changed when they met Jesus!
I have seen people go from the brink of disaster to being revitalized and
restored. Many of us on this morning can attest the power of Jesus Christ, and
how Christ has lifted us up on wings like eagles.
In the reading from Psalm 91 from
this morning, it says, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” It
also says, “For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the
deadly pestilence.”
You see for
those of us who truly believe then, we know the power of the risen Lord. I know
the power of the risen Lord so much so, that I have given up any secular life
that I have had, to pursue him. You see his power, his love, and his grace is
so great, that I will follow him the rest of my days. For those who have had their
hearts changed by the Lord, they know exactly what I am talking about right
now. For Christ spoke truth and grace, and then we believed. As the song
Amazing Grace says, “how precious did that grace appear the hour I first
believed!”
When looking at
the reading from 1 Timothy 6:6-19 from this morning, it speaks of desiring
wealth and falling into the trappings of sin and temptation. That the love of
money is the root of all evil, and that true happiness, true peace, and true
love, lay in Christ Jesus. You see the Apostle Paul is telling his young friend
Timothy here to pursue holiness, pursue righteousness, as the desire for money,
pleasure, and power, will destroy him and everyone.
Some of us here this morning in fact,
might be school teachers, or college employees, or bankers, or lawyers, or
doctors, or social workers, or retired, and etc. Yet for those of us who
believe in the risen in the Lord, I would argue that we are Christians cleverly
disguised as all of the professions and the jobs that we may have. You see before I became a minister, I was a follower
of Jesus Christ, cleverly disguised as a teacher. When I was a social worker, I
was serving people, and I was doing so in the name of the Lord. I remember a
non-believing friend asked me once, “Paul, you work for such and such agency as
a social worker right?” I than said, “No, that is not my primary employer.” My
non-believing friend then said, “Well then who is your primary employer?” I
responded, “I work for the Lord.”
Yet, I know other people who have
said, “Paul the church is nothing but a business.” I have then replied to such
people, and said, “I agree, the church is a business.” Those persons are
generally shocked to hear me say this, but then I have often said, “the
Christian Church is only in one business. This business is the business of
changing lives.” For me then, the Christian Church is a hospital, a life boat,
and when people come in here sick and covered in the muck of the world, let us
the people of God love them. Let us pray with them and for them, and then watch
how the Lord changes their lives. Remember how the Lord has blessed you and has
changes their lives.
You see, I think
that to revitalize our churches in this era, we need strong and spirit filled
pastors who love there people and God boldly. We need to look to the democracy
of the dead, and realize that all of the saints, who went before us, were in
the same business that we are still in today. That the saints of the past, which
might include many of your ancestors, were in the business of changings lives. All
the people of God, the Corpus Christi, with all our varied gifts and graces,
are in the business of changing lives. We believe this so strongly that this is
the very fiber of who we are. We believe this so strongly, that we build these
churches, and even these churches can attest to the transformative power that
is found only in the life saving blood of Jesus Christ. For Jesus saves and you
stand to inherit the greatest inheritance in history. This is because, all of
you men here are princes, and all of you women are princesses, for your Father in
heaven is the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords.
I remember that during some tough
times that I have been through in my young life, that I would often call my
mother during these times. I remember she used to say in these tough times, “Paul,
you’re a son of the King.” “You are blessed in him, and he has a plan for your
life.”
Oh my brothers and sisters, I once
was lost, but now I am found. I once was blind, but now I see. The Lord of
hosts has raised me up, and has empowered me and you, to be in the business of
changing lives.
When we send
young kids to summer camp, we plant seeds of Christ’s love in their hearts,
seeds of transformation, seeds of hope, and seeds of change. So, is the church
a business then? You bet it is, and our product is total spiritual and life
make over. Our product requires no shipping and handling, no tax, and no down
payment, because it was paid for on Calvary 2,000 years ago. On that day my
brothers and sisters, three nails and one cross set us free. We are in the
business of changing lives. We are the Corpus Christi, we are the body of the
living Christ, and in this place people’s lives our changed.
In this place
God takes broken people, and he puts them back together. In this spiritual
emergency room, people find healing, they find hope, and they are freed from
all shame, all guilt, and all that binds them. We are in the business of
changing lives.
When we
participate in church dinners, church festivals, church events, and in things
like Sunday we are all working the Jesus Christ ULC, Unlimited Love Corporation.
When we put our tithes in the collection plate, we are not just giving because
we are told to give, when we give to missionaries, we are not doing so just
because it is the right thing to, when we help a teenager that is broken and in
need of love, we don’t do it because we have nothing better to do. We do all
this my brothers and sisters, because we are in the business of changing lives,
and if don’t you of know it my brothers and sisters, in this branch of the Jesus
Christ ULC, business is good!
In this
morning’s reading from the gospel of Luke, a rich man who had great wealth and
abundance, allowed a poor man named Lazarus to lay hungry and covered in sores
at the front gate of his house. The rich man knew he was there, yet he did
nothing to help him, or nothing to change his life. Then one day the rich man died,
and went to Hell. The poor man then died and was “carried away by the angels to
be with Abraham.” Lazarus and Abraham then viewed the rich man burning in the
torment of flames in hell, and he asked Lazarus to dip his finger in some water
and touch his tongue to cool off the burning. Yet Abraham tells the rich man
that since he never helped Lazarus, he will never receive help himself. The
rich man then begs Abraham to tell his still living five-brothers to repent and
change, as to not end up burning in agony. You see the rich man saw Lazarus
every day, but the rich man was not “in the business of changing lives,” he was
in the business of himself. He came first, and everyone else came second, or
never.
This business
of changing lives is not just vested in the pastor either, but it is vested in
all of you. To prove my point about the pastor not being the only one who can
evangelize and reach people, I want to close with a made up story that makes
fun of us pastors. Here is the story, about a generous little girl. A little
girl in a church once approached her father at home after that morning’s church
service, and brought him by the hand into her bedroom. She then uncorked the
bottom of her piggy bank and dumped out all of the coins and money she had on
her bed. She then said, “Daddy, I want to give all of this money to Pastor
Paul.” The dad looking shocked, touched, and perplexed, said to his daughter,
“Are you sure?” She said, “Yes daddy, I’m sure.” Well wouldn’t you know it the
next time I filled in at that church I preached at sometimes, the little girl
approached me after the service with a small little bucket of coins and money.
“She said, here Pastor Paul, this is all the money from my piggy bank, and this
money is for you.” Well as you can imagine my heart just melted. I said to the
little girl, “No honey you should save that for you,” and she replied “No
Pastor Paul, this money is for you.” I said, “Honey surely there is charity, a
needy family, or someone else who needs this money much more than I?” She just
replied “No Pastor Paul, this money is for you.” I said, “Well maybe we can
donate it to the food pantry?” She then said getting much sterner with her
voice, “No Pastor Paul, this money is for you!” I finally said to the little
girl, “Well ok, but why do you want me to have this money so bad?” She said
well “Pastor Paul that’s simple. My daddy told me that you are the poorest that
pastor that this church has ever had.”
Sometimes, we
take ourselves way too seriously don’t we? Especially us pastors, and we forget
that we are nothing without the grace and love and Jesus Christ. That we are
broken sinners, and through the blood of Jesus Christ, we have been lifted up.
You see brothers and sisters, there are so many people out there who are
broken, who feel hollow, who feel lost, yet we are in the business of changing
lives. For we serve the Lord of Lords, the prince of peace, the one who
overcame death itself.
As one pastor said to me once, “if
you can find me the bones of Jesus Christ, I will be worshipping with my Jewish
brothers and sisters at the Jewish Synagogue next Saturday.” I then asked that
pastor to repeat what he had just said. He then said, “don’t you understand
Paul, the bones of Jesus Christ cannot be found, because he is risen!” He then
said, “the reason you will find me in church on Sunday mornings, and not in the
Jewish Synagogue on Saturdays, is because Christ has risen! For if he never
rose from the dead, than he was not Messiah,” said this pastor.
My brothers
and sisters, we will never find the bones of Jesus Christ, because they are not
here. For sits at the right hand of God the Father. You see he was tempted and
he was tried, he endured a horrible death, and was sinless. He rose, he is
among us, and he still changes lives. If we are to revitalize our faith in this
era, we must always make the focus of all we do the very face of the risen
Christ. For in him all things are new. In him we can build a better world. In
him hearts are mended, and lives are changed. Oh yes my brothers and sisters,
we are indeed in the business of changing lives, and business is good! Amen.
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