Sunday
07/01/18 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “With the Love of Jesus Christ”
(“Living the Mission” Series
– Part 1 of 5)
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 130
New Testament
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Gospel Lesson:
Mark 5:21-43
Good morning again, my friends, my sisters and brothers in
Christ! What a joy and a privilege it is to be with you all this morning!
Again, my name is Pastor Paul Winkelman, and I am blessed and honored to be
your new pastor. Today marks the beginning of my seventh year as a United
Methodist Pastor. Today is also a big day, as today I begin formally serving my
fifth church. Of course, as well, I am ever grateful for the love and the support
of my beautiful wife Melissa.
I
want you all to know that Melissa and I have been treated with great love and hospitality,
from the minute that we arrived in Sidney for my take-in interview in the
winter, and from the moment that we moved into the church parsonage in June.
This church is truly full of great and loving people. We are humbled and
blessed to be serving here. It is my hope and my prayer that during my tenure
here that God will bless this church, my ministry, and this great community.
With
all of this said, on this my first Sunday preaching at the Sidney United
Methodist Church, I am going start a sermon series this morning, called “Living
the Mission”. For those of you that don’t already know, the mission of the
United Methodist Church is, “To make disciples of Jesus Christ, for the
transformation of the world”. So how do we both individually and collectively
live that mission out, not only here on Sunday morning, but each and every day?
One way is, “With the Love of Jesus Christ”.
You
know, when I first saw this sanctuary when I came to visit this winter, I was
struck by the beauty of the stained glass windows, and the incredible size of this
sanctuary. In fact, I then went home and called my mother, and told her that this
church sanctuary was so big that I thought that I would be preaching at the Crystal
Cathedral. Just call me Dr. Schuller I told her.
Yet
in the great beauty that is in all of these stained glass windows, I noticed that
one has Christ behind me, one has the founder of Methodist, Rev. John Wesley,
and one has a Methodist Circuit Rider on horseback. So just to get this
straight then, every Sunday I preach here, I will have Jesus eying me up from
behind me, Rev. John Wesley from over there, and a Methodist Circuit Rider from
other there. No pressure Pastor Paul.
In
the tradition of the Methodist Church, these Methodist Circuit Riders on horseback,
many of whom were even younger than me, rode hundreds of miles. What was there
charge? Their charge was to bring the life giving hope found only in the gospel
of Jesus Christ to all that they came into contact with. What was there duty?
To build churches, build communities, and to love the people. The first
Methodist Preachers, these Circuit Riders, half of whom died in the line of
duty before the age of 30, and half of whom died or quit within the first five
years, gave everything they had so that we can have the Methodist Tradition of
our Christian Faith that we have today.
How
dedicated were these men? Well if you look in your United Methodist Church
Hymnals, hymn number 553 is called, “And Are We Yet Alive”. The first verse
begins with:
“And
are we yet alive, and see each other’s face” (UMH 553).
This
hymn, written by the great hymn writer and brother of Rev. John Wesley, Charles
Wesley, was written in 1749. Every year, as is the tradition of the people
called Methodists, we gather for our Annual Conference. In the present day, in
our clergy session on the first day or night of our Annual Conference each
year, all the clergy begin by singing this hymn. For years, when the Circuit
Riders gathered at their yearly Annual Conferences and sang this hymn, they would
look around the room and see which of their brothers were still yet alive, and figured
out who had died. This was the level of devotion that these preachers on
horseback had.
I
saw a good newspaper cartoon when I was in seminary school. It showed a farmer
looking out his living room window on a rainy day in 1850s. The farmer lamented,
as he really wanted to go outside and work. Through the window in the cartoon
you could see a man on horseback and some crows. In the caption the farmer
said, “There is nothing out today but rain, crows, and Methodist Preachers”.
Why
do I tell you all of this on my first Sunday here? Here is why my friends,
because I take my charge of preaching the life giving hope of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ seriously, and I take my duty of serving, loving, healing, and
forgiving very seriously.
This
is why on this my first Sunday, I tell you all that Melissa and I have come to
Sidney, NY “With the love of Jesus Christ”. I am not here for a paycheck, for
benefits, or for a parsonage to live in the size of China. I am here because I believe
that Jesus Christ and his gospel are the hope of Sidney and the hope of the
world. I am here because I love Jesus, I love the United Methodist Church, and because
I love all of you.
You
might be thinking though, “You love all of us? How can this be, you don’t even
know some of us?” Well guess what I do love you all. I love your spouses, your
children, your grandchildren, your family, and this whole community. I don’t
love you because I have to, but because my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ told me
to love my neighbors. You all are my neighbors. So I love all of you.
Friends
I have been in churches in my life where I didn’t really know for sure if the
pastor loved me or my family. I have been in churches before where to be very
honest I didn’t know if the pastor would have been concerned if I lived or
died.
So
this is what I want to tell you all on my first Sunday in your beloved Sidney
UMC, I don’t know how long I will have the privilege of serving here, and you
might not remember any of my sermons after I am gone. You might not remember
any of my corny jokes, and yes there will be many. For example, if a Methodist
dies, how do you bury them? Well, in a covered dish of course.
What
I do hope though, is that you all remember, how much Melissa and I love you and
will continue to love you. I hope that when you put your head on your pillows
at night, after you have said your prayers of course, that you will know that
your pastor loves you. I hope you know that your pastor cares about you, your
family, and is there if you need him. If it is the darkest day of your life
call me, or come over to the parsonage the size of China, and let us suffer
together. If you or someone you know is in the hospital, call me, so that I
might be with them and pray for them.
You
see my friends, like you, I stand in a line of heroes. This line of heroes goes
all the way back to the living Son of God, who came to seek and save the lost,
and give his life on a cross for you and I. This line of heroes extends through
the great saints of the church, to people like the Rev. Billy Graham and St.
Mother Theresa of Calcutta, and from what I have heard at the Sidney UMC, St.
Dave Masland. Every placard, every stained glass window, is dedicated to a
great saint or family that sacrificed and gave believing in Jesus Christ as
there Lord and Savior.
So
yes I have come to preach and live the gospel of Jesus Christ, because not only
is it the hope of the world, but because it cost my Lord and savior his life. I
am also here to serve, to love, and with God’s help to revitalize this
beautiful church. I hope to have Bible Studies, maybe breakfasts, trainings, and
other opportunities. In the next couple of weeks, I am planning to make a
survey to put in the Sunday morning worship bulletin, so that I can get some
feedback on the sorts of things you want in this church. Do you want Bible
Studies? Programs? And etc. Let me know!
Now
with all of that said, as I know there is a lot of introduction this Sunday, I
want to talk about our Gospel of Mark reading for this morning. Once again this
gospel reading is the Gospel of Mark 5:21-43.
In this gospel lesson, Jesus has just crossed the Sea of
Galilee, and waiting for him on the other side of the sea was a great crowd of
people (Mk. 5:21, NRSV). When Jesus got off the boat and was approaching the
crowd, a leader in local Jewish Synagogue named Jarius went to Jesus (Mk. 5:22,
NRSV). He then begged Jesus to heal his daughter who was dying (Mk. 5:22, NRSV).
Jesus went with Jarius to the child and the child was healed. After this, Jesus
was in a crowd and a woman who had suffered from hemorrhages for twelve years,
touched Jesus’ cloak (Mk. 5:23-29, NRSV). This woman was healed.
The gospel then continues on to say that Jesus Christ
brought a twelve year old girl who had just died back to life (Mk. 5:35-42,
NRSV). In fact, Jesus said to the girl, “Talitha cum,” which means “Little
girl, get up!” Everyone was amazed by what Christ did.
My friends, my brothers and sisters, Jesus loved, healed,
and forgave, and before he ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God
the Father, he entrusted the church to the Apostles. Subsequently, over centuries,
the church and the transmitting and the living of the gospel has been entrusted
to us.
So I, like you, stand in a line of heroes. Due to all of
that, I come here to Sidney to serve “With the Love of Jesus Christ”. I do so
because my Lord and Savior commanded me to do, and because it cost him his very
life.
I hope and pray my friends that when you put your head on your
pillow tonight that you know that “the new kid,” as I am often called, loves
you. Know that I have been, and will continue to be praying for you. Know that
I am here to serve, and for however long God keeps me here, I pray that you
would know above all else, that your pastor, this kid, loves you.
So how do we live out the mission of “Making disciples of
Jesus Christ, for the transformation of the world?” One way, is our leaders,
our pastors, our shepherds, preach the life giving gospel of Jesus Christ with
passion, conviction, and love, and then these leaders live out and model the
Christian faith. When we all do this even better then, we are striving to further
live out our mission. We do this so that people would know the salvation power
of Jesus Christ, and so that they would be forever changed. Through this
changing, these disciples will then go out and make disciples and will transform
Sidney, and the world. This is a part of how we live our great mission together.
God bless you all, and Amen.
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