Sunday
09/30/18 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “Laying on of hands”
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 124
New Testament
Scripture: James 5:13-20
Gospel Lesson: Mark
9:38-50
Welcome again on this the Nineteenth Sunday after
Pentecost, and this our “Church Has Left the Building” Sunday. To be honest
with you all, this is my first ever “Church Has Left the Building” Sunday. To be
honest even further, am I the only one that doesn’t really like the title “Church
Has Left the Building”?
I think of the old phrase, “Elvis has left the building”! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_has_left_the_building).
I think, and maybe I’m wrong, that “Church Has Left the
Building” is a strange title. For me when I first heard it, I thought that it
was confusing. What I would like to call this Sunday, is “Mission and Ministry”
Sunday. We are here to worship and to fellowship, but we are also taking a
little time today to live out our church’s mission and to do ministry together.
We are therefore, first worshipping and fellowshipping, and then we are in
different ways living out our faith.
Why
do this? Well here is one answer to that question. I wonder if people in this
community ever walk by or drive by our church and think, “Well why would I want
to be a part of the Sidney United Methodist Church”? They might even think, “What
makes the Sidney United Methodist Church so great anyway”? Here is the answer,
when we are living out our faith in service, in action, in word, and in deed, we
are showing the people all around us our faith in Jesus Christ.
I don’t know about you, but I want to bring people, with
God’s help, to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. I want them to know the love
of Christ, the transforming power of Christ, and to see them further live into what
God has called them to be and do in the Sidney and the world. If having a “Church
Has Left the Building” or a “Mission and Ministry” Sunday helps to accomplish
this task, then I am all for it! As one pastor said to me once, “I am willing
to do anything short of sin to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the
transformation of the world”.
Now
don’t get me wrong, I believe that everyone here in a variety of ways are
living, loving, healing, and caring for others in the name of Jesus Christ.
This Sunday though, is then but a specific example of what Christ calls us to
do.
We are all welcomed after church, once we have gotten our
coffee of course, to live out our faith out in different ways. Some of us might
do physical mission work at Keith Clark Park. Some might get food for the Food
Bank to feed the hungry, some might visit some of our homebound folks, some
might pray, some might write cards to people in nursing homes, hospitals, and
etc. The cards some of you will write will in fact, “leave the building”. When
we share the love of Jesus Christ in a variety of ways, people will see Jesus
in us, and sometimes these people may say, “I want some of what that person has”!
They will say of us, “that person has a joy, a love, and a peace that is
inspiring to me, and I want some of what they have”!
Our faith can be like a good flu virus, it can be
contagious, and the various ways that we live out our faith will grow faith, grow
the church, and in the process transform Sidney and the world. People need to
see Christ, and often they see Christ in us. We need to be willing to show them
Christ.
Some older folks in the churches that I have served have
said to me however, “Pastor Paul, I just can’t do the physical work like I used
to do”. Not everyone today is called by God to grab a shovel or a rake, unless
Barb Doyle gives you a stern look. We are all called though to serve and to love
God. Maybe one of you this very day will send a card to someone that will make their
entire week better, as they haven’t heard from you in quite some time. This my
friends is how our faith, how our love of Christ “leaves the building”. Living
our faith, while loving others and forming relationships with others, is how we
best grow the church. When we operate like a loving family that grows closer to
Christ together, then you will continue to see a renewed and a revitalized
church.
So it’s not that the title “Church Has Left the Building”
is completely awful, I just think that it leads some people to think that they
all have to grab a shovel or a rake. In reality the many things that you might
engage in after this service are all good, are all loving, and are all things
that act to serve and love others.
With all of this said, in this brief sermon I want to
connect this “Church Has Left the Building” Sunday with our scripture from the
Book of James. The funny thing is that I picked this sermon title weeks ago not
knowing that today would be “Church Has Left the Building” Sunday. Originally,
I was planning to offer to anoint people with oil after the service this morning,
and then pray for them individually if they wanted.
Last
weekend when I was in meetings all weekend at Sky Lake, I prayed and struggled
with the fact that in a short service like this one this morning, that I just
wouldn’t have the time to pray for everyone individually. I then had an “Aha”
moment, and I realized that what many of us are going to do today is to give or
to show healing. So basically, I will do anointing after the service, and I will
be praying for you, but since the service is shorter this morning I needed to
take the individual praying for people out.
Yet I was so sure that I would be anointing and praying for
many this day. Let’s look at our Book of James scripture again for this
morning. It says:
“Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any
cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should
call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them
with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and
the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven”
(James,
5:13-15, NRSV).
So of course, I called my sermon “Laying
on of hands,” as I said, I planned to anoint and pray for many after this
service. Yet I really think that what many of us are going to be doing today,
as I said, is similar to what this scripture is saying. Are we all going to be
actually anointing people? No. Are we going to be praying for many? Yes, I hope
so.
We can offer love and healing in many
ways. The scripture from the Book of James continues on saying:
“Therefore confess your sins to one
another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the
righteous is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being like us, and he
prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it
did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and
the earth yielded its harvest”.
“My
brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and
is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner
from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover
a multitude of sins” (James 5:16-20, NRSV).
My brothers and sisters, the scripture from the Book of
James this morning tells us to pray and love one another, and the great thing
about the church is that we can do that in a host of ways. Today is about
practicing the use of our gifts, our talents, and our graces, so that Jesus
might be glorified, and that people may see him in us. So that we might “make
disciples of Jesus Christ, for the transformation of the world”.
So anything you do today to glorify God is not wasted. As
Jesus our Lord says himself in our gospel of Mark reading for this morning:
“For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to
drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward”
(Mk. 9:41, NRSV).
Today then, on this “Church Has Left
the Building” Sunday, or “Mission and Ministry” Sunday, we are invited to
partake in a variety of things, none of them being better or worse than the
others. For when we glorify God, show people Jesus Christ, and bring them
closer to him, then we are truly a “Church” that “Has Left the Building”. Amen.
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