Sermons for the Month
The Vision of Faith (Part 2)
DATE: May 23, 1999
SERVICE: Pentecost
TEXT: Psalm 71:17-18"To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
In many ways, the 90s have been good for Kenny Lombino. He's got a job with a top brokerage firm in Los Angeles, a $600,000 bachelor pad and a blue Jaguar with vanity plates. He's even a master skydiver, having accomplished the difficult "30-way": 30 linked divers plummeting to the ground from 30,000 feet up. Kenny, however, has felt no need to be part of a church
Kenny represents just one of the 2/3 of the baby boomer generation that left the church of their fathers and mothers back in 1960s. Although 1/3 checked it out again in the 80s found that little had changed and left again still there are those who are looking for the good news the church has to offer.
Kenny is one of a growing number of boomers who are approaching the second half of their life with a sense of uneasiness about their future. For the next 20 years a baby boomer will turn 50 every 7 seconds. Now with aging bodies, slowing minds, failed expectations, burned out souls, a few are trying out once again not their faith in God--that never left--but the organized church. It is enough of a trend that the Wall Street Journal included a lead article in its Weekend Journal last year. They are looking for relevant life investment experiences, help with mid-life skills, faith development and relationship-building opportunities. In 1997, according to the Wall Street Journal, Kenny Lombino felt he needed something more. "I thought," he writes, "Here I am 45 years old, and my life isn't going anyplace. I have a penthouse in Westwood and the right kind of car, but my life is empty. So I have decided to give church another chance."
"Follow Me," says Jesus. Two simple words. Two words that have transformed millions of lives, yet words filled with staggering implications: "If any want to become my followers let them deny themselves and take up their cross" (Mark 8:34). "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26-27).
Such demands offend today's individualists and rub them the wrong way. These statements of Jesus go against everything free agents stand for. "I gotta be me" crooned Frank Sinatra back in the 70s and 80s to which the world still chants in the 90s, "Right on!" And yet as believers we know that following Jesus, being in relationship with God, letting go and letting God is the only way to meet the deep need we have for meaning in life, to get us through the toughest times, to give sum and substance in our struggle with eternity.
So how do we motivate and lead a self-centered culture post-modern into the radical nature of discipleship? Once they're in the door, what do we want people to learn and become? And finally, what do we want them to value?
The first drive of a mission-driven congregation, it seems to me, is to have a vision that includes reaching the unchurched. I say the unchurched rather than the unbeliever because research has shown that very few unchurched persons do not believe in God and most of them affirm Jesus as their Lord and savior. They just don't have room for the church.
Today is Pentecost Sunday or the birthday of the Christian church. This is the day we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit into the hearts and minds of those first twelve disciples to go out and spread the good news of Jesus to the world. This is the day when we who call ourselves Christian honor the commitment of those men in spite of the odds to begin transforming the world. For them the whole world was not only unchurched, it didn't know Jesus as Lord.
I believe that our first and foremost responsibility as Christians is to reach those who do not know Jesus Christ and then to win them to his kingdom church. I believe there is can be no such thing as a Christian in isolation. Although I often here Jesus mentioned on the soccer field, the baseball diamond or the golf course, I believe to be a disciple of Christ means being a part of his church somewhere. I also believe, however, that means I can not wait for them to find me. Whenever my child or pet got lost, I didn't wait for them to find their way home. I went out looking for them. So it was for the Jesus who went to find Peter, sought out James, confronted Saul on the road. He went after those who did not know him. So our first responsibility is to go and seek, search out and rescue, meet and invite those who do not have a church home.
I have to admit my biggest joy is when someone like Kenny becomes a part of the body of Christ whether here in Fairlawn or in Pietersburg, South Africa where I will be in a few short weeks. To be there when a someone has what I call an "aha" experience with Jesus is for the greatest of all feelings right up there with seeing a newborn child or a committed disciple of Jesus still testifying to their faith at the end of their life.
The second drive of a mission congregation is to help each other change from merely being admirers of Jesus into being disciples of Jesus.
I have always been struck by the words at the end of Matthew just before Jesus ascension to heaven, "Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus directed them. Whey they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted." Even then, at the very end, with the evidence literally staring them in the face, some still were not willing to commit.
For all its good intentions, mainline churches including Lutheran, have made being a disciple appear effortless. In our constitution, to be a member of Faith Lutheran Church, all you have to do is be baptized. To be a voting member you are required to give something of record and receive Holy Communion once a year. But does either of those requirements mean you are a disciple? I don't think any one of us would say yes. It might mean we are an admirer of Jesus but a disciple? So maybe it would be a good idea for me to define discipleship and then outline what Jesus says is the profile of a disciple.
A. Discipleship is a one-time event. Disciples are people who have been adopted into God's family of faith through Jesus Christ. They've been transformed by God's grace.
To be a believer in Jesus is to be his disciple. As a result disciples come in many different shapes and sizes. Some are new to the faith. Others have been following Jesus for a lifetime. Some feel their relationship with God is stagnating. Others have become apathetic. Some are enjoying growing intimacy with god. Some might be trying to make the faith of their parents their own. The point is, regardless of where people are in their faith journey, they are disciples of Jesus by virtue of God's grace.
B. Disciples means growth. One never really arrives but continually grows.
Linda and I have two children, Skip and Stacy. Since their births we have prayed that they would grow to be all God crated them to be. Like every parent we want our children to mature into responsible, productive adults. And like every parent we look for and encourage certain signs of growth in that maturing process. We watched as they took their first steps, got on the bus for the first time to school, play in the band or on the soccer field. We watched them graduate from High School, college, grad school.
At each stage of their life, however, our expectations changed. We couldn't expect our two-year old to respond to life like a fourteen-year old. However, we did expect and encourage our children to continue growing no matter what their age. The same can be said about disciples. Discipleship is a process of growth. People move from infancy in their faith to maturity. Throughout the process we can look for certain vital signs of health and vitality. We can nourish and support each other along the way.
C. Discipleship centers on a relationship with God. Relationships are dynamic. They grow as people spend time together getting to know each other. They stagnate and even die if people ignore each other or take the relationship for granted.
When Linda and I married in 1967, we didn't start out by writing a list of rules we would follow to keep the relationship strong. Instead, our love for each other, our relationship, shapes and motivates our behavior. As is true of any relationship, however, we've discovered certain habits that keep our marriage fresh and alive.
Discipleship is a relationship with God. It centers on following Jesus Christ. Disciples live in response to God's grace, finding motivation for life in God's love and forgiveness. They seek to live their lives with a whole new mindset--from the perspective of children of God, rather than from the perspective of a secular culture. Disciples don't follow rules but there are certain habits that help them be intentional about their walk with Christ. Mission-driven congregations offer guidance for believers on how to grow in their relationship with God. They encourage people to spend time getting to know God and experiencing God's love for them.
So then what is the profile of a disciple? What is the product we are trying to produce look like? Let me suggest the following biblical criteria:
1) Disciples worship regularly and not just anywhere. They worship regularly in their home community. Many seekers begin their discipleship journey by worshipping once or twice a month. As the gospel continues to shape their lives, their hunger for worship grows. This congregation encourages a growing commitment to regular, consistent worship attendance.
2) Disciples take time for personal devotion. Jesus made prayer a high priority. He invites his followers to do the same. Developing intimacy with God through prayer and devotions keeps people refreshed. It also keeps them motivated on their discipleship journey.
3) Disciples are committed to growing in their knowledge of the faith. This means participating in at least one growth opportunity outside of worship. That involvement might include joining a small group, enrolling in a prayer seminar, or taking an adult education course. The more people grow, the more they want to grow.
4) Disciples give cheerfully of their financial resources. Having received God's best through Jesus Christ, disciples respond by giving of themselves through their financial resources. For most believers, giving money runs contrary to their values. We have been raised in a "look out for number one first" culture. Besides, they reason that the church was doing fine before they started coming. The church apparently doesn't need their money. But as the love of God permeates their lives, he sets them free to be cheerful givers.
5) Disciples are involved in missions. Disciples also grow in giving their time. As people pour themselves into others, they discover that they actually receive more than they give. Disciples commit themselves to reaching out to others by sharing their faith through words and actions.
And that is the third drive of a mission-centered congregation: to go out and joyfully relieve suffering in the world. The premium value of a Christian is the relief of the hurting in the world.
These last few weeks, I have felt embarrassed about all the requests for money that have come our way: the South African mission trip, the refugee crises at Kosovo, the Lutheran Outdoor Ministries of Ohio capital drive to improve our youth camps, sprinkled between temple talks from our Property, Worship, and this morning Service. Baby Boomers especially don't like to come to church and always hear requests for money. But I hope you have noticed that most of those requests are not for us but for others, others who desperately need relief, who need release from suffering. When Jesus said, all those who want to find their life but first lose it, he wasn't kidding. And that is precisely what Kenny Lombino was finally learning at the ripe old age of 50 years. Hopefully, most of us learn that at a younger age and so won't wasted so much of our life striving for that peace of mind that only comes through Christ Jesus.
Five Years ago Dick Spears, a senior vice president of Ashland Oil retired at 56 hoping to settle down in his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky. Instead, he was personally approached by rev. Don A. Wimberly, bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Lexington, who wanted help raising money for a youth camp. I said, "Good God, Rev, I just retired," recalls Mr. Spears.
Eventually, Mr. Spears, who says he was a sporadic churchgoer, relented. He spent weeks driving around with the bishop hitting people up for money. In six weeks they raised $1.3 million. The best part for him, says Mr. Spears, were the hours in the car, when he could "talk to that bishop about his life and my life…I came out of it feeling that I had accomplished one of my goals, which was to think about God and church. The corporate world is wonderful, " he says. "But it's a ball game. This soul stuff is not a game."
There are so many like Kenny and Dick waiting to be invited provided we meet them halfway. And that means never compromising either for us or for them the call of Jesus Christ to go and make disciples of all people in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
AMEN