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My heart beats for love. I want to be different. I want to be who I am called to be. WORTHY and LOVED!

Sunday, November 20, 2016

“Exploring Ephesians: Maturing in Christ” Eph 4: 1-16



To mature. Webster’s Dictionary defines maturing as the process of growing or developing. Full development of the body and mind. To become complete and perfect. Now there is a word that we don’t like very often do we - perfection. 
I’m a big fan of Broadway musicals. One of the songs that rings through my mind from Mary Poppins, the story about a cheerful nanny, is called “Practically Perfect.” This was her way of introducing herself to the children and she declares that she is “practically perfect in every way.”
We’ve created an image of Christian perfection in our heads that few would even want to obtain –nonsensical, prudish, unimaginative, and perhaps even gruff. Someone who doesn’t smile or laugh or have fun. As a United Methodist, one of the tenants of our tradition is that we are moving on towards perfection, but if these characteristics mark perfection it is most certainly not who I want to be, nor is it who I wish to lead people to discover as their pastor.  
When I think about Jesus Christ, the one that we are invited to mature in the example of and through the power of, I don’t apply any of the words we fear around perfection - nonsensical, prudish, unimaginative. No Christ invites us into a much more Wesleyan understanding of perfection in this passage - becoming more deeply in love with God and your neighbor every single day. 
For the author of Ephesians, this deeper love expresses itself as unity. This is another word that seems to bother us from time to time, mostly because it is mis-understood. The author is calling for unity of the Church, or a coming together around Christ as the center of our faith. But unity is not uniformity. We all have different gifts and talents. We have lived out our faith in different ways. God is not looking for cookie cutter Christians. No. God wants us to use our uniqueness to bless the Lord every single day. However, we need to keep coming together around our Savior, Jesus Christ. 
Unity is emphasized through peace. How many times have we seen Christians behaving badly - arguing over things that do not have eternal value? Rev. Lori Steffensen shared at the 2015 Charge Conference about having churches that fought over who brought what covered dish to church events and the color of carpet. I wish I could say that this was abnormal, but I’ve seen some of the same fights in my time as a pastor as well. Do those things have eternal significance? No. Then let them go for the sake of unity through peace. Let them go for the sake of proclaiming the message of the Kingdom of God. 
This passage, friends, is talking about what it looks like to be the church and why it matters. One of the things I do my first year in a church is work my way through the directory visiting folks, so we can get to know one another in the body of Christ. But it can get quite awkward if the directory hasn’t been updated in a while and contains folks who have left the church. Then I hear heartbreaking stories of why folks have left the church, and often it is because they were not treated with gentleness, patience, and love. It’s equally heartbreaking when I’m new in an area and introduce myself as the pastor of XYZ church and I hear folks respond with the stories they’ve heard about why folks left that church years ago. The author of Ephesians is reminding us that we need to do better - we need to be unified - because our ability to fruitfully share about the Kingdom of God is at stake. 
Church, we have the most important and beautiful message to share that has ever been told - the story of Jesus Christ. The story of hope and faith. The story of God pursing us and making a way for us to be reconciled to a holy God, even when we were yet sinners. The story of the cross and the grace that is to be found there. But all too often all this other stuff gets in the way of us being able to share that message. And as a result we become a church that is better known for our fundraisers or our fights then sharing the love of Jesus Christ. 
Its time for us to grow up, church. Its time for us to mature in our faith. The ten dollar theological term for this process of maturing is sanctification, to become set apart for a special, holy purpose. This is an ongoing process as we focus more and more on the love of Jesus Christ and less and less on the things that don’t matter. 
Part of maturing is making sure that Jesus is in the right place in your life - right at the center. Have you ever noticed that when Jesus isn’t the center of your attention and focus that you can often become side tracked by other things? That you are more prone to slip into the sins that can rip apart a church, like pride and gossip? When we don’t have Christ as our center, we often think that the Church is about us - meeting our needs instead of reaching out to those who don’t yet know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. But when Christ is in that right place in our lives, all of our focus comes around serving God and glorifying the name of Jesus.
But the other part of maturing in Christ is building up the body of Christ. This is not building up the select members of the body that we like. Its encouraging everyone in the body to use their gifts and talents to live into the call God has for them and the call that God has for this local church. It's helping to carry one another’s burdens during tough times and celebrating during joyous times. We are to build up one another is all that we do. The local church is God’s greatest hope in the world for spreading the message of Jesus, but when we are dysfunctional we aren’t as effective in doing that.
Think about your own body - growth depends on all of the parts of the body working properly together. When one part is out of wack, even from something as simple as a cold, the whole body suffers. So it is with the body of Christ, we all need to be working together and not against each other in order to be the most effective at reaching folks for Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters, how is our local body of Christ doing? Are we maturing in the faith? Do folks know us as a place where the love of Jesus is proclaimed and shown? If not, what needs realigned in order to get us there? And what about you as an individual? Are you moving on towards perfection? Are you loving God and your neighbor more and more every day? If not, how do you get your focus back on Christ? Folks, we are never done maturing. Never done growing. Never done moving on to perfection. Let us keep running the race with endurance, building one another up in love. Amen. 


Sunday, November 13, 2016

“Exploring Ephesians: Alive in Christ” Eph 2: 1-10



“Alive in Christ!” For the last four years our annual conference has proclaimed this theme. We are alive in Christ - on a journey of faith, raising up transformational leaders, equipping congregations to be vital, and creating new places for new people. 
To be alive is pretty vital - its to exist, to have life, to be full of the Spirit, to be active. Yet far too many congregations today have forgotten this teaching from Ephesians, that we are alive together for Christ. They are focusing on existing just long enough that their needs be fulfilled and have given up on thinking about a future in ministry. A future of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. 
The writer of Ephesians is reaching out to a group of people who have been taught a lot of different things over the years about Jesus and God - some of which were not scriptural and lead them down the wrong path. He is trying to teach them the basics of faith. Brothers and sisters, I fear today that some churches have forgotten the basics of the faith, the basics about why they exist. 
The church exists to boast the message of Jesus Christ! And one of the ways that we do that is by telling the powerful story of how Jesus changed our lives. I’ve shared before that I grew up in the church - I don’t remember a point in my life when I have been without him, and haven’t deeply believed in him, but that doesn’t mean that he still hasn’t changed and is changing my life! Praise be to God! It doesn’t matter if you have a moment in time when you can point to when you have been changed or if you grew up with Christ and have been on a continually journey, we all have signs that we have been made new in Christ that need to be shared!
The truth is we were all dead before accepting Christ in our lives. Dead in sin. Dead in our trespasses. Dead because we lived according to the worlds standards and ways which do not lead to the abundant life, friends. We followed the ways of this world, grasping after power and privilege, not thinking about others, and living by the flesh, which is marked by greed, pride, and an obsessive need to put ourselves first. 
Yet, even in the midst of all of that, God made a way for us to have life and to becoming alive again, through Christ Jesus! God offers us life - both the breathe we take in and the new life we can have in Christ - as a a  good gift. But we have to accept the gift. 
I love how pastor Adam Hamilton describes the gift of life and grace offered by God. Pastor Hamilton tells the story of how he was putting away his Christmas tree one year and a gift fell out that had become lodged in one of the branches. What were they going to do with this gift? They unwrapped it of course! They didn’t throw it away saying that Christmas was over so they didn’t need the gift anymore. They didn’t put it away until next Christmas to wait to open it. They opened it right then and there, because gifts are meant to be opened and shared. 
Far too many people though never unwrap and open the gift that God it trying to offer them in Jesus Christ. They say that the timing isn’t right so they will wait until things change for them - until they have time to appreciate it, but never really knowing if that time will come. Or the toss the gift to the side, saying it isn’t right for them. Friends, the gift of Christ is meant to be opened and shared right here and now! 
God gave us the greatest gift we could ever need and never would have thought to ask for on our own - Jesus Christ. Because of Jesus we can be saved to new life and have our lives changed! You don’t find many folks who like change today - even when things aren’t going well in their lives, they have become so accustomed to it that they have forgotten that there is something better to be had. The truth is, change is a gift from God, not being comfortable or stagnant. God is calling us to be changed and to change the world, but that’s a little hard to do if we insist on staying the same ourselves.
One of the phrases I hear a lot in churches is “we have always done it that way” - when it comes from everything from worship to evangelism and outreach. And that is beautiful, except when it keeps us from reaching out to a world that is changing. If we continue to do things as we did decades ago because it makes us feel safe and comfortable, instead of asking what our neighbors need to help connect them deeply with the Jesus whom we love, we’ve made it about us and not Christ. We’ve missed the point. When we becomes so focused on our own wants and desires, it can actually distract us from being alive in Christ. 
God’s love should change us in such a way that we are willing do just about anything to reach new people and help them unwrap the gift of salvation in their own lives. My brother are identical twins, which means they share a birthday. There are several videos of when they are little - too small to open their own birthday gifts - that I gladly helped them tear through the paper and boxes. I wanted them to see and love whatever gifts they were getting. I knew they weren’t my toys to play with - it was their birthday - but I wanted to share in their joy and excitement of their special day.
One of the ways we can help folks unwrap the gift of salvation in their lives is to share our story. We need to share the story of how God saved us from sin and saved us by grace. I’ve told some of you before that I am a big believer is the Elevator Story - can you tell the story of how Christ entered and changed your life is the amount of time it takes to ride an elevator? I can hear the objections now - of course not! Christ has done so much for me I could never share it that quickly - but the point is this: can you share your story in such a way that invites other people to ask questions so you can be in further conversation with folks. Sometimes we talk so much church, that folks stop hearing. Can we share our story in a way that invites other people into it, so that they can come to know Christ possibly though us?
But in order to be able to share your elevator story, you first must be able to know how Christ changed your life. Have you ever stopped and considered this? And I don’t mean just change your life in the future in terms of eternity, but changed your life in a concrete way here and now. I fear that too many folks have not even considered this, so when they do have the opportunity to share they have no idea where to start or what to say.
We need to be able to share how we believe the power of sin is real, but God’s power is so much greater. But if we don’t believe that’s true in our own life, we will never be able to share that truth with others. How has God changed you and how can you share that story with others?
God has changed us all in some way. Set us free from something or someone that has controlled us. Changed our belief that we need to be able to do everything on our own, instead of claiming the power of God. Changed what we live for. Changed us from thinking that we can be saved by our good works or by being a good person. How has Christ changed your life, brothers and sisters, and how can you share this change with others? Amen. 






Sunday, November 6, 2016

Explorig Ephesians: Chapter 1


Exploring Ephesians: Lavishing Grace Eph 1: 3-14

I love to write letters. To send cards with encouraging notes. During most of college and seminary I would try to send at least three letters or encouraging cards per week and I would sign them with one of two things “You are Loved” or “You are worthy.”
If I had to describe the letter to the Ephesians I would use the same phrases - worthy and loved. For the next several weeks, until we arrive at the season of Advent, we are going to be exploring this letter together. Some in the parish have been studying this letter as part of a Bible study, but there are different things that we pick up on when we are combing through the word of God together than when we hear the Word preached on Sunday morning. Both are vitally important and remind us that scripture speaks to our hearts over and over again.
Our scripture this morning is found right after the greeting issued by the letter’s author to the church. The author didn’t waste any time jumping right in and boldly proclaiming the word of God, that Christ and God are to be blessed and worshipped. While we worship God for who God is and not just what God has done for us, the church in Ephesus is reminded of all the love that God has lavished on us through Christ. We know that we are loved by God because we have been adopted into the family of God - not because of anything that we have done or we have earned on our own merit, but because of Christ freely giving himself for us on the cross. It is because of that gift that we have life and have it abundantly. We are forgiven and redeemed and given new chances because of God’s lavish love for us. 
The problem church is that too many people still haven’t heard about this love. They think that God could never love them, that they would never be welcomed into the family of God because of things that they have done in their past. The truth is we all have done things that we regret. We have all sinned. And God doesn’t view one sin as worse than another. That tends to make church folks a little bit nervous - that a lie or gossip is the same in the eyes of God as stealing. But that’s the way it is. Sin is anything that separates us from the love of God and it all pains the heart of God. We also cannot fix our sin issue on our own - we cannot will ourselves to stop - instead we need a Savior that breaks the power that sin holds in our lives. Enter Jesus. 
God knew that a plan was needed to cancel the power of sin and death in our lives, so God fashioned Jesus, completely God but in human form to walk on the earth and teach us how to live. And when the time was right, Jesus gave his life for us, shedding his own blood as the price for our sin. This is the greatest gift we could have ever been given and because of it we are welcomed into the family of God and called the Beloved.
I graduated from a Christian college. To be accepted you had to write a statement of faith and covenant to grow in your faith while you attended. I transferred from a large liberal arts school with these ideal notions of how much easier it would be to live out my faith surrounded by other Christians, especially these ones who had to write out a statement of what their faith in Christ means to them to even be accepted. I was shocked the first year there, when I found that so many people were struggling with their faith. Shocked that so many people understood in their head that Christ had died for them, but couldn’t quite let it sink into their hearts. 
During the summer session after my first year I found a book that radically changed by life, Henri Nouwen Life of the Beloved. The book was written by Nouwen, a priest, to one of his non-christian friends about how much God loves them. Friends, Christian or non-Christian, we all need to be reminded about the lavish love of God. So I started to hand that book out to everyone I met who was struggling with the question if God could really love them, really forgive them. I wanted people to know that they were the Beloved of God, not just in their heads, but in their hearts as well.
Too many Christians are walking around with an unneeded since of shame and feeling like their life is worthless today. If anyone should be singing a song of hope and God’s love, it should be us! But when our faith is all in our head, it makes it really hard to accept with the author of Ephesians is talking about - a God who loved us enough to make a way through the cross. A God who loves us enough to adopt us into the family of God, no matter what we have done in our past. That brothers and sisters is the grace and mercy of God. That is why we are in awe and sing songs of wonder and praise.
But this love, this Belovedness, is not something that we are to keep to ourselves. Instead we are called to the specific task to serve God and neighbor out of gratitude for what Christ has done for us. Church, will we be remembered as people who shared the lavish love of God? Will we be the people who tell others about the God who has made a way to be set free from the power of sin? Will we be a people who remind people that they are worthy, not because of what they have done, but instead they are worthy because of what Christ has done?
Can I be honest with you brothers and sisters, nothing breaks my heart more than when we don’t put first things first as the church? When we argue over things that have little if any meaning for people’s salvation - what songs we sing, what color the carpet is, who will bring what dish to the next fellowship event. We are called to be better than that. We are called to act like the Beloved of God - who is set out to proclaim the salvation that can be found in Christ alone. 
Further, because of that salvation we should be people who proclaim the hope of God. Friends, the second thing that breaks my heart is when Christians bemoan all the reasons the church of God is failing and how we are going down like a sinking ship. We are the body of Christ and we will not fail. We may not have the same numbers in terms of worship and money that we once may have had, but that just means that we have more people who are waiting to hear the good news of Jesus, if only we are willing to go out and tell them! It is not our job to despair about the future, its our job to share Christ’s love in the present. Let’s go forth and share the hope that can only be found in Jesus, folks. Let’s focus on the amazing things God is doing in and through us. Let’s remember that we are the Beloved of God and act like it - in what we say and in what we do.
Sometimes it can be so hard to rest in the fact that we are the beloved of God. We live in a world that tells us that we need to earn our accomplishments and accolades. But the truth is, we could have absolutely everything that it is possible to earn or that we would want, but still not have the peace of God in our hearts because we haven’t fully accepted the love God is trying to offer us in Christ. Being the Beloved of God isn’t something you can earn, its a gift freely offered by God.
At camp this summer, one of the student’s favorite songs to sing was “How He Loves” by the David Crowder Band. Hear these words, “I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way Oh, how He loves us, Oh How he loves us. How he loves all.” Have you accepted that love in your life, yet friends? If so, may you find peace today in the assurance in your heart that you are the Beloved of God and may you go forth and live a life that proclaims to others that God is waiting on them with the best gift ever given. If you haven’t yet accepted that love, may you consider doing so this day, praying to God to accept Christ in your life, finding forgiveness for your sins,  and beginning to that voice of love that is saying to you that you are the Beloved of God. Amen.