Sunday
06/10/18 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “I believed, and so I spoke”
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 138
New Testament
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
Gospel Lesson:
Mark 3:20-35
Welcome again, on this the Third Sunday after Pentecost.
Three Sundays after the Holy Spirit moved, and the Christian Church was born.
We read that in the Book of Acts chapter 2, the Apostle Peter preached a powerful
sermon (Acts 2:14-36, NRSV). In fact, on the day of Pentecost, we read in Acts
2:41 that the scripture says after the Apostle Peter preached:
“that day about three thousand persons were added”
to the Christian faith
(Acts
2:41b, NRSV).
Pentecost, was the first day that
those first disciples formally began preaching, teaching, healing, loving, and
forgiving. For on the day of Pentecost the disciples really “got it,” as the
term goes. Or as the Apostle Paul says from our reading from 2 Corinthians for
this morning:
“I believed, and
so I spoke” (2 Cor. 13b, NRSV).
While this is my sermon title for this morning, the full
verse from 2 Corinthians 4:13 says:
“But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in
accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and so
we speak,”
(2. Cor. 4:13, NRSV).
So again this
verse ends with:
“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and so we speak,”
(2. Cor. 4:13b, NRSV).
In the first
part of the verse of Psalm 116:10 it says:
“I believed, therefore I spoke,”
(Ps. 116:10a, NKJV).
The Apostle Paul, the Apostle to the
Gentiles, formally the Jewish Pharisee named Saul of Tarsus, knew the Old Testament
or the Hebrew scriptures inside and out. He knew what faith was, and he then
met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. Saul became Paul, and his faith was
made complete through Jesus Christ and His gospel. Due to this, in quoting in
part Psalm 116:10, the Apostle Paul this morning says once again:
“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and so we speak,”
(2. Cor. 4:13b, NRSV).
Sometimes in our own lives we believe strongly
in certain political, social, and or economic issues. We believe in them, and
as such, we speak. Or we put them all over Facebook and cause World War III. We
all have things that we believe and are passionate about speaking about, Tweeting
about, or “Facebooking” about. Yet, the Apostle Paul didn’t have a Facebook
account, or a Twitter account. So what exactly is the Apostle Paul so
emphatically speaking about? What exactly does he “believe?” Let’s look once
again at our reading for this morning from 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1. It says once
again:
“But just as we have the same spirit of
faith that is in accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also
believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord
Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his
presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to
more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Even
though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day
by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal
weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at
what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary,
but what cannot be seen is eternal”. For we know that if the earthly
tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor.
4:13-5:1, NRSV).
The Apostle Paul is saying in this
scripture that he believes and thus he speaks. He believes that Jesus Christ is
the risen savior of the world. He says that even though our physical bodies age
and begin to breakdown, the truth of Jesus Christ is eternal. The Apostle Paul
believed and preached, because he believed that Jesus was Lord and savior, that
he came to earth to love, heal, and forgive. He believed that Jesus died for
the sins of the world, was physically resurrected, ascended to the right hand
of God of the Father, and that he would return one day in glory. The Apostle
Paul believed that Christ was and is our savior, and that the only truly thing is
eternal is God’s kingdom.
As many of know this physical church
building has been here for many years. Yet, I wonder will this physical church
building be here in 100-years, or 200-years, or 300-years? If the answer to any
of those is no, does that diminish what has and continues to do through us in this
physical building? Many of the ancient church buildings that we read about are
no longer in existence today. The church then is not a building, it is you and
I. The Apostle Paul believed and spoke that through Christ that even though the
temples of our bodies and the temples where we worship will one day be gone, God’s
kingdom is eternal.
A week and a half ago, our UNYUMC 2018
Annual Conference began with what is called a “Clergy Session,” for all the
pastors that are in our conference. While we begin every “Clergy Session” every
year by signing a certain hymn in our hymnal, it struck heavily this year. I
was approved that Wednesday May, 30 to get ordained that Saturday, and the
weight of that struck me. What is the hymn that we sing every year at the
beginning of our “Clergy Session”? The hymn is # 553 in our United Methodist
Hymnal, called “And Are We Yet Alive”. Has anyone ever sung or heard of this
hymn?
What I learned last year, was that
from the earliest days of the Methodist Movement, whenever the clergy and laity
leaders would gather for each year’s annual meeting or annual conference, that
the clergy would begin every year by singing this hymn. So this tradition goes
all of the way back to the 1700’s. An odd hymn I would say to begin every
Annual Conference. So why did the pastors start every Annual Conference singing
this? Why did we do the same on Wednesday night May 30th?
Here is why, our first pastors or
preachers in the Methodist Church were circuit riders on horseback. Most of
them were very young, and they road hundreds and hundreds of miles to bring the
life giving hope found only in the Gospel of Jesus Christ to people all over
England, this country, and soon after, the world. Since it was tough work
riding all those miles on a horse, and due to disease, and many other factors,
half of those first Methodist preachers didn’t make it to the age of 30. In
fact, I was told at this last UNYUMC Annual Conference, from our former Finger
Lakes District Superintendent Rev. Dr. Richard Barton, that the average circuit
rider lasted only 5-years.
So why going back to the 1700’s did and
do we begin every annual meeting or Annual Conference by singing #553 “And Are
We Yet Alive”? The answer is this, in singing this hymn those first Methodist
Circuit riders were praising and thanking God that they had literally lived
another year. There were singing because they were able to be there among their
friends singing the hymn “And Are We Yet Alive”. These young pastors, many of
which are nameless to history, but are faithful for eternity, gave their lives
to preach, teach, build, and create the Methodist Church. They are responsible
for the construction of colleges, universities, hospitals, schools, and
countless ministries and programs.
The
first Methodist Preachers like Psalm 116:10, or like the Apostle Paul said in 2
Corinthians 4:13 this morning would likely tell us:
“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and so we speak,”
(2. Cor. 4:13b, NRSV).
Every year then at those annual
meetings, or those Annual Conferences, those circuit riders, those Methodist
Preachers, stood singing “And Are We Yet Alive”. In doing this, many of them
would look around the room and be overjoyed that some of their friends were
still “yet alive”.
I tell you all of this to make this point,
the first Apostles and the Methodist Circuit Riders, had a primary focus. This focus,
this goal, was to speak and live the life giving gospel of Jesus Christ. For
when people come to Christ as Lord and Savior, they are changed by the power of
the Holy Spirit. When this happens they can then further be equipped to go
forth and change this community and the world.
My name is Pastor Paul Winkelman, and
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. I believe that His
gospel is our hope. Or as the Apostle Paul wrote nearly two-thousand years ago:
“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and so we speak,”
(2. Cor. 4:13b, NRSV).
I am proud to be part of a movement
that founded what is today Syracuse University, which founded other hospitals,
colleges, schools, and so on and so forth. All of this, all of the Methodist
Churches that you see in virtually every town that you drive through exist
because millions and millions of saints that went before you and me said:
“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and so we speak,”
(2. Cor. 4:13b, NRSV).
The witness of the United Methodist
Church and the worldwide church is strongest when we bring people into relationship
with Christ, with each other, and then we go forth and live that through
mission in the world every day.
My worry as a United Methodist Church
pastor though, is that some of our churches have forgotten this. Yet, this is
who we are, and when believe, speak, act, love, heal, forgive, and pursue
justice, well I believe that we would not be talking about closing churches. Instead
we would be talking about how the proposed church building expansion would be
able fit on the current church property.
In briefly looking at our Gospel of
Mark reading for this morning, we are reminded by Jesus that work we do is unto
God, not unto the world. Once again the gospel reading says:
“And the crowd came together again, so that they
could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him,
for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” And the scribes who came
down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he
casts out demons.” And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables,
“How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that
kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will
not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided,
he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder
his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can
be plundered. “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and
whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit
can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—for they had said,
“He has an unclean spirit.” Then his mother and
his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A
crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your
brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And he
replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat
around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will
of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
In this gospel reading, Jesus is being
attacked by his family and others, as he had come home. They seek to denounce
him, so say that he is insane. Jesus then tells them:
“Here are my mother
and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and
mother” (Mk. 3:34b-35, NRSV).
When we serve God, follow Jesus, and
seek the Holy Spirit, there will always be those who seek to denounce us, to cut
us down, and to try to make us look foolish. What I know though is what Jesus
preached and lived, what the Apostle Paul wrote and preached, and what many of
the Methodist Circuit Riders died for. What is this? That Jesus Christ is our
savior, and that through him and his gospel all things are possible. How are we
then living this out? For me,
“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and so we speak,”
(2. Cor. 4:13b, NRSV).
So what do you believe? What do you
speak? I believe in Christ, and speak and live Christ. Amen.
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