11-13-2011 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

THE SEVEN COVENANTS OF A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST: PART VI

    Once upon a time, there was a very wealthy man who was not known for his generosity toward his church.  In fact, he was not known for his generosity at all.  There came a time when his church was involved in a major building campaign, so the fund-raising committee decided to pay him a visit.  They set up the appointment, and over to his house they went. 

     During their meeting together, the fund-raising committee pointed out that in view of his considerable financial resources they were just sure that he would want to make a substantial contribution toward their building campaign.  “I see,” the wealthy man replied.  “So you have it all figured out, have you?” Then he added, “In the course of your investigation, did you discover that I have a widowed mother who has no other means of support but me?”  Sheepishly, the committee chair replied, “No, we did not know that.”

     The man went on to say, “Did you know that I have a sister, who was left by a drunken husband with five children and no means to provide for them?”  Again the committee chair replied, “No, we did not know that either.” The man added, “And did you know that I have a brother who is crippled due to an automobile accident, and can never work another day to support his wife and family?”  The committee chair replied, “Sir, we did not know that.”

    The wealthy man then stood up and thundered, “I’ve never given any of those people a dime.  So why would I ever give anything to you?”  A man by the name of Robert Rodenmayer once wrote: “There are three kinds of giving: grudge giving, duty giving and thanksgiving.  Grudge giving says, I give because I have to.  Duty giving says, I give because I ought to.  But thanks-giving says, I give because I want to.  The latter comes from a full heart.  Thanksgiving is an open gate into the love of God.”  Keep that thought in mind as we move on.

    A number of weeks ago we began a sermon series entitled, The Seven Covenants of a Disciple of Jesus Christ. I began the first sermon by making the case that Christ’s Great Commission, as recorded in the gospel of Matthew, is the reason for the church’s existence in the first place. The church is called to make disciples.  Yet if the church is ever going to make disciples, then the people who habituate the church…must first become disciples themselves.  That’s what the seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ are all about.

    The seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ are as follows: worship regularly; pray daily; study diligently; live faithfully; serve joyously; give generously; and witness boldly.  The first sermon delved a little more deeply into the first covenant: worship regularly. We said in essence that it was Jesus’ custom to worship, and it should be ours, as well.  Yet we should come to worship expecting God to speak, to move, and to act.   That’s what keeps our faith from being a mile wide and an inch deep. 

    Then we examined the second covenant: pray daily.  There we saw that we are called to share our hurts, our sorrows and our joys with God.  God listens to us in compassion and love…much like we do when our children come to us. And when we do that what we discover is that by praying, we learn how to pray.

    Then we examined the third covenant: study diligently.  We learned that God is responsible for the Scriptures in a revelatory way, not just in an informational way. The Bible is how God reveals himself to us.  It’s something we absolutely, positively never could have come up with on our own.  What’s more, we learned that you’ve got to read the textbook…if you’re going to take the course.

    Then we examined the fourth covenant: live faithfully.  We learned about orthopraxis, or, right practice.  People tend to pass judgment on Christianity by the way they see Christians living their lives.  It is absolutely imperative that we set a good example.

    Finally, we examined the fifth covenant: serve joyously. We learned that God calls each of us to ministry. God calls each of us to an occupation or to a task that God believes we are uniquely qualified to do.  Just don’t forget that how you serve is every bit as important as who you serve. Attitude…is everything.

    Today we examine the sixth covenant: give generously.  The way we give of ourselves and our resources should reflect the self-giving love of God in Christ.  We begin by committing to giving a set proportion of our time, our talent and our financial resources to God. We aspire to live lives in which our giving is sacrificial. 

    Now this might be the least popular of all the covenants – the one about which people least desire to hear.  However, I want you to reserve judgment on that until you hear what I’ve got to say about witnessing boldly in a couple of weeks.  I have a sneaking suspicion you’re not going to like that one much either! 

    The sixth covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ is give generously.  Perhaps the question now is, “Why do we give in the first place?”  Most of us work hard for what we have.  Why on earth would we want to work our fingers to the bone to earn what we have…and then simply give it away?  The question is, “Why do we give in the first place?”

    I think the best answer to that question is this: “Because God said so.”  Consider the passage that Janice read from the book of Deuteronomy.  Verses 22 and 23 say, “Set apart a tithe of all the yield of your seed that is brought in yearly from the field.  In the presence of the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose as a dwelling for his name, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine and your oil – as well as the firstlings of your herd and flock – so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.”

    Let’s take those verses apart.  The first issue has to do with tithing.  “Set apart a tithe of the yield of your seed,” it says.  What exactly is a tithe?  The old rule of thumb is that a tithe is ten percent.  It was long believed that the concept of tithing 10% was introduced to the Church by Mosaic law.  Yet the truth of the matter is, the 10% concept probably really came to the church by way of Roman law.  Anyone who obtained a part of the public land in a conquered country automatically paid a tenth of the revenue earned from it to the State. 

    Of course, we pay a whole lot more than 10% of our income to the state, do we not?  I think of an article I once read in the Wall Street Journal entitled, “God will provide…unless the government gets there first.”  The United States government has taken on a lot of the responsibility that used to be held by the church.  Specifically, the government tends to provide for those less fortunate than ourselves. In some respects, that might be a good thing.  In other respects, perhaps it is not. But I really don’t want to get into all of that here. The point is that the government takes a whole lot more than 10% of our income.

    Yet still a lot of church leaders blindly call for ten percent.  I remember attending a conference on stewardship many years ago. The leader of the conference told we clergy to set an example for our congregations by giving 10% ourselves.  Someone raised the question:  “Do you mean 10% of gross or 10% of net?”  The leader said, “You get to 10% of net, and then we’ll talk about gross!”

    Tithing has traditionally meant 10% of our income.  Yet we give a whole lot more than that to the government, do we not? Perhaps the point is that tithing doesn’t necessarily have to mean exactly ten percent. For some people it might be less. Yet for others, it might be even more. Let me try to explain.

    The issue of tithing aside, why were the Hebrew people called by God to give in the first place?  I think we see that explained in our passage from Deuteronomy as well.  They were to bring their sacrifices – and a sacrifice wasn’t just what was left over at the end of the day – a sacrifice was something that truly cost them something.  It was meant to be the first and the best of what they had.  That’s important.  They were to bring their sacrifices to one particular place, and they were to all feast together in the name of God.    

    Do you see what’s really going on here?  God called for a sumptuous feast in thanksgiving for all he had done for them. What’s more, everyone got to partake of it. The wealthy, who probably ate well on a regular basis, feasted with the poor, who probably only ate well at this God-inspired banquet.  It was meant to be a celebration of life.  It was meant to show that God’s desire was for all to share in the bounty he provides.  Yet let me also note that all were to contribute something.  It was never God’s plan that anyone should receive a free ride.  Because truth be told, God is the source of all that we have and all that we are.  And it’s only when we sacrifice…that we truly act as if we really believe that.

    Contrast this truth with the passage I read from the gospel according to Luke.  There, a rich, young ruler approaches Jesus with a profound question.  He says, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus tells him, in essence, to follow the Ten Commandments.  To which the rich, young ruler replies, “I have kept all these since my youth.”  Jesus then looked at the man and said, “There is one thing you lack. Sell all that you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”  As the story goes, the man hung his head and went away sad, for he had a great many possessions.

    This passage – and others like it – have been used for centuries to disdain the wealthy.  I’m not going to do that.  I’m not going to say that the wealthy are going to burn in hell.  Because I don’t think that’s what the Bible says.  The Bible doesn’t say that the wealthy are going to burn in hell.  It only says they might.  The issue is: Is wealth a means to an end, or is wealth an end it itself? If wealth is an end in itself, then like the rich young ruler, we have completely missed the point.  But if wealth is a means to an end, then still there is hope.

    Here’s the point.  The role of the Christian minister, I think, is to communicate the gospel of God’s will to all…and to prepare those who stand in the crucial secular areas of the world to be faithful caretakers of the world’s goods.  If we teach it well, Christians within important secular environments will then be on the job to see to it that what needs to be done with the goods of the world will be done as God would have it done.  So you see, you have to pay attention in church.

I think a man named Dallas Willard sums things up quite well in a book called, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives.  Listen closely:

The church certainly is to lead the way in charitable works, and after that is to exhort and advise all public agencies concerning policies of public welfare. But this is not to be the fundamental aspect of its service to the world.  Its fundamental work is to show those who gather in its meetings how to enter into full participation in the rule of God where they are.  In this way the church will ultimately bring all nations to itself to find out how humanity can realize the universal ethical vision of righteousness and well-being.  Through vision and discipline taught and practiced, our Christian ministers and teachers should shape a people who can form the foundation and framework of a world that is the unique dwelling place of The Immortal God.

    So you see, we give because our goal is to form the foundation and framework of a world that is the unique dwelling place of The Immortal God.  It’s like we say in the Lord’s Prayer every week: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  Thus, there is no shame in being wealthy or comfortable.  And I’m not trying to make anyone feel guilty.  It’s really just a matter of where your priorities lie.  Amen.

 

10-23-2011 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

THE SEVEN COVENANTS OF A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST: PART V

    As Christians, we often times say that God calls us to a particular occupation, or God calls us to do a particular thing. Well, what exactly is a call from God?  Frederick Buechner, in his book Wishful Thinking, defines it this way: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger…meet.” Personally, I’ve always believed that a call from God is accompanied by an inner urgency.  In other words – try as we might – a call from God is something we feel deep inside that we cannot explain…and that we cannot dismiss.

    Each and every minister has his or her own sense of call from God.  Mine occurred when I was but 16 years of age.  I was a junior in high school and was actually employed by the First Presbyterian Church in Sioux City, Iowa, as a custodian.  There were a couple of us teenagers who worked as custodians at the church. We basically babysat doors while the choir practiced, mowed the lawn, and shoveled snow.  It wasn’t a terribly taxing occupation.  It was just a high school job.  I think I made a whopping $1.40 an hour.

    One Sunday morning after worship, I was walking up the aisle of the sanctuary and the minister, the Rev. William F. Skinner, was walking down the aisle after greeting the congregation.  He said to me, “Brian, have you thought about what you’re going to do with your life after you graduate from high school?”  I thought to myself, “That’s all I’ve been thinking about!”  I said to him, “Well, I’ll probably go to Iowa State and become an engineer like my dad.”  I couldn’t think of anything else.  He said to me, “Have you ever thought about becoming a minister?”  I quickly replied, “Me?  A minister?”  I was a skinny, quiet, shy kid in high school.  It was something that I truly hadn’t considered…but I told him that I would.

    That’s how the seed got planted.  I wrestled with the idea – and in my late teens I literally ran from the idea – but I felt an inner urgency that I just could not explain…that I simply could not dismiss.  Then Bill Skinner said something to me, that his father had said to him, that really cemented the issue in my mind.  He said – and please pardon the sexist language – he said, “Use your talents in the best way that you know how to help better mankind.”  I thought that writing and speaking were the things that I did best.  What better way to utilize those talents than in the ministry?  And the rest, as they say, is history.

    That’s how I was called into the ministry.  Like I said, each and every minister has his or her own sense of call from God.  In the Christian church in general – and in the Presbyterian Church in particular – we say that ministers are called by God to serve.  Perhaps the question now is: Does God call people to other occupations as well?  Does God call doctors to practice medicine, lawyers to practice law, homemakers to make homes, and engineers to drive trains?  That’s what an engineer does, right? Does God call people to occupations other than the ministry?  Keep that thought in mind as we move on.

    Several weeks ago we began a sermon series entitled, The Seven Covenants of a Disciple of Jesus Christ. I began the first sermon by making the case that Christ’s Great Commission, as recorded in the gospel of Matthew, is the reason for the church’s existence in the first place.  The church is called to make disciples.  Yet if the church is going to make disciples, then the people who habituate the church must first become disciples themselves.  That’s what the seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ are all about.

    The seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ are as follows: worship regularly; pray daily; study diligently; live faithfully; serve joyously; give generously; and witness boldly. Five weeks ago, we delved a little more deeply into the first covenant: worship regularly. We said in essence that it was Jesus’ custom to worship, and it should be ours, as well.  Yet we should come to worship expecting God to speak, to move, and to act.   That’s what keeps our faith from being a mile wide and an inch deep. 

    Four weeks ago, we examined the second covenant: pray daily.  There we saw that we are called to share our hurts, our sorrows and our joys with God.  God listens to us in compassion and love much like we do when our children come to us. And when we do that…what we discover is that by praying, we learn how to pray.

    Two weeks ago, we examined the third covenant: study diligently.  We learned that God is responsible for the Scriptures in a revelatory way, and not just in an informational way.  The Bible is how God reveals himself to us.  It’s something we absolutely, positively, never could have come up with on our own.  What’s more, you’ve got to read the textbook if you’re going to take the course.

    Last week we examined the fourth covenant of a disciple: live faithfully.  We learned about orthopraxis, or, right practice.  People pass judgment on Christianity by the way Christians live their lives.  It is absolutely imperative that we set a good example. 

    Today we examine the fifth covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ: serve joyously.  Each of us is called to ministry.  We seek the field of ministry most closely aligned with the call of God on our lives that hauntingly stirs our deepest passion. We begin by engaging in some form of ministry with others.  We aspire to create ministries in which we engage others as partners in ministry with us.

    The first – and perhaps the most important – statement in the fifth covenant is this: “Each of us is called to ministry.”  It’s not just ministers who are called.  Each of us is called to ministry.  That wasn’t always the belief that Christians held.  As Os Guinness wrote in his book The Call, “For most Christians in medieval times, the term call was reserved for priests, monks, and nuns.  Everyone else just had work.”

    Reformation theologian John Calvin helped to change all that.  In 1559, he addressed the notion of vocation or calling in his epic work Institutes of the Christian Religion. He wrote, “Wherefore no man can doubt that this vocation is, in the sight of God, not only sacred and lawful…but the most sacred – and by far the most honorable – of all stations in mortal life.”  What is that most sacred and honorable station in life?  Is it the ministry?  No.  Calvin went on to say, and I quote:

With regard to the function of magistrates, the Lord has not only declared that he approves and is pleased with it, but moreover, has strongly recommended it to us by the very honorable titles which he has conferred upon it. When those who bear the office of magistrate are called gods, let no one suppose there is little weight in that appellation.   It is therefore intimated that they have a commission from God, that they are invested with divine authority, and in fact represent the person of God, as whose substitutes they in a manner act. Wherefore no man can doubt that civil authority is – in the sight of God, not only sacred and lawful – but the most sacred, and by far the most honorable, of all stations in mortal life.

    What is the most sacred and honorable station in mortal life?  It’s not the ministry. According to John Calvin, the most sacred and honorable station in mortal life is that of the politician.  We need to remember, of course, that Calvin is not speaking of the person holding that office.  He is speaking of the office or the calling itself. Regardless of whether the person holding that office is wise or is a fool, it is the office itself that is worthy of honor.

    All I’m trying to say is that it’s not just ministers who are called by God.  Doctors, lawyers, homemakers and engineers can all be called by God as well.  Consider the passage I read from the book of Genesis.  God said to Abraham, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”  Was Abraham blessed that he might hoard those blessings unto himself?  No, he was blessed that he might become a blessing to others.  The same is true of us.  We are blessed…to be a blessing.

    Perhaps our dalliance into the arena of calling should take both mental aptitude and spiritual giftedness into consideration.  Ideally, these factors should be wedded to a strong sense of mission, such that our blessedness might be a blessing to others.  Questions that come to mind now are these:

1.      What has God called YOU to do in partnership with the community of Christ?

2.      How can you fulfill your mission for Christ in the world…based upon what you feel you have the mental aptitude and the spiritual gifts to do?

    For Theresa, the defining moment came one night with an unexpected knock at the door.  At   the time, she was a teacher in a private girls’ school.  But when she opened the door that night, she found a dying woman, crumpled up on her doorstep.  Theresa took the dying woman from one hospital to another looking for help…but none of the hospitals would accept the woman as a patient.  Finally, it was too late.  The woman died in her arms.

    It was a defining moment.  It touched something deep inside her; a well of deep love and deep anger.  From that moment on, Theresa was not the same.  Her life would be dedicated to making sure that the poor people in her city died with dignity, knowing that they were loved. By the way, that woman named Theresa came to be known as Mother Theresa. She sensed what God was calling her to do, in partnership with the community of Christ.  And she fulfilled her mission based upon what she felt she was gifted to do. She felt that she was called by God to make a difference in Jesus’ name, and she dedicated her life to fulfilling that calling.

    It’s good to pay attention to such unexpected moments in our lives – moments that I think each of us have now and then – moments that reach deep down into our souls. They can sometimes become the foundation for our own unique ministries.  They can sometimes become the foundation to our own call to serve joyously.  A call from God does not refer exclusively to an occupation.  Sometimes it’s more like a task that needs to be done…a task God thinks you are uniquely qualified to do. As someone once said, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger…meet.”

    Does that seem a little out of reach to you?  Are Mother Theresa’s aspirations perhaps a bit too lofty?  Listen, people in this very church have felt called by God to take action in our community as well, and they have done so. That’s how the Fairview/Fairmont low-income housing development got started. That’s how the Meadville Area Free Clinic got started as well.  People from this very community of faith felt called by God to accomplish something in Jesus’ name in their own community…and they did so.

    I think of a woman from this church who was appalled by the fact that the Meadville high school no longer held baccalaureate services for graduating seniors.  So she involved her husband, who is a teacher, she involved the student council, and she involved the Meadville Area Ministerial Association.   We’ve been holding baccalaureate services in Meadville for 8 years now and attendance has grown each and every year. That’s what it means to be called by God.  That’s what it means to make a difference in Jesus’ name.

    I think of another woman from this church who finds it disturbing that so many young people who were raised in the church…do not involve their own children in the life of the church. This kind of thing upsets grandparents to no end.  She recently formed a group that’s bit of a spinoff of a group called, Moms in Touch, and calls it, Grandmas in Touch.  A group of grandmothers now gets together to pray for their grandchildren.  I suspect God listens to “grandma” prayers.  That’s what it means to be called by God.  That’s what it means to make a difference in Jesus’ name.

    Yet one more thing needs to be said.  The fifth discipline of a disciple of Jesus Christ is not just to serve.  It is, rather: Serve Joyously!  That’s why I had Nancy read the story of Cain and Abel a little while ago.  Attitude is everything.

    As the story goes, Cain and Abel were the sons of Adam and Eve.  Cain was a tiller of the ground while Abel was a keeper of sheep.  One day they each made an offering to God.  Abel brought the best he had to offer – the firstlings of his flock.  Cain…Cain pretty much brought what he had left over.  God was pleased with Abel’s offering, but he had no regard for Cain’s.  Cain was angry about that…and in the end, he slew his brother, Abel.   Why was God pleased with Abel’s offering and displeased with that of Cain? I think it comes down to attitude.  Abel recognized that God was the source of all that he had and all that he was. Therefore, he offered up to God the best he had to give. Cain thought more of himself and his own efforts than he did of God. Giving – to him – was an afterthought…a burden.  Attitude is everything. We are called not just to serve, but to serve joyously.

    The fifth covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ is: Serve Joyously!  Each of us is called to ministry.  We seek the field of ministry most closely aligned with the call of God on our lives, that hauntingly stirs our deepest passion. We begin by engaging in some form of ministry with others. We aspire to create ministries in which we engage others as partners in ministry with us.  Just don’t forget that how you serve is just as important as who you serve.  As the Apostle Paul once put it in the second book of Corinthians, “The Lord loves a cheerful giver.”  Attitude…is everything.  Amen.

 

10-16-2011 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

THE SEVEN COVENANTS OF A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST: PART IV

    Are all of you familiar with the story of Samuel and Eli?  Samuel’s mother, Hanna, had long desired to have a child.  She prayed and prayed and prayed to God…and finally her prayer was answered.  She had a son, and she named him Samuel.  Then in gratitude to God for answering her prayer, she gave her son to God.   After he was weaned, he was raised in the temple by Eli, the priest.

    One night, God called to Samuel, saying, “Samuel, Samuel!”  Samuel thought it was Eli who was calling him, so he ran to the sleeping Eli’s side, awakened him and said, “Here I am, for you called me.”  After this happened about three times, Eli perceived that it was God who was calling the boy.  He instructed Samuel to say, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears.”  And the rest, as they say, is history.

    Of this story, theologian Jack Hayford once said, “The younger generation needs the older generation to help them identify the voice of God, just as Samuel needed Eli to help him know that God was calling him.” Then he added, “Yet the older generation must also realize that God is speaking to the younger generation as well.”  Keep that thought in mind as we move on.      

    You’ve heard me mention the name of David Kinnaman in the past.  He and a man named Gabe Lyons were coauthors of a book called unChristian.  The basic premise of that book is that Christians these days are characterized more by what they stand against than they are by what they stand for, and that’s not a good thing.  Kinnaman’s latest book is entitled You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving the Church and Rethinking Faith.   In it, I believe he raises some rather profound concerns for the modern day church.

    David Kinnaman is currently the president of the Barna Group, which is a private, nonpartisan research and resource company. Though Kinnaman is only 37 years old, in his sixteen years with the Barna Group he has supervised more than 350,000 interviews with people on matters of faith, politics and social dynamics.  In other words, he knows that of which he speaks.

    Let me begin our discussion today by laying out the definitions of a few basic terms that Kinnaman refers to on a regular basis.  People born prior to 1946 are often called America’s Greatest Generation, or Baby Boosters.  Kinnaman refers to these people as Elders.  People born between 1946 and 1964 are called Baby Boomers.  Kinnaman just calls them Boomers.  People born between 1965 and 1983 are often referred to as Generation X.  Kinnaman calls them Busters.  People born between 1984 and 2002 are often times called Generation Y, or, Millennials. Kinnaman calls this group of people Mosaics.  A mosaic, of course, is a unique piece of decorative art.  Now for those of you listening in who were born after the year 2002, I offer my sincere apology. You have not yet been categorized. Rest assured, however, in the knowledge that one day…you will be.

    Okay, so we have Elders, Boomers, Busters and Mosaics. Bob Buford, in a book called Half Time, says that each generation uses about five words or phrases to describe itself.  Elders use words like: World War II and the Great Depression, smarter, honest, work ethic and respectful.  Boomers use words like: work ethic, respectful, values, morals, and smarter. Busters use words like: technology use, work ethic, conservative/traditional, smarter, and respectful.  Mosaics use words like: technology use, music and pop culture, liberal/tolerant, smarter, and clothes.

    For those of you keeping score at home, you will note that each generation refers to itself as being smarter than the previous generation. Yet when it comes to Mosaics, Buford points out, “Where has the word respectful gone? And what happened to the term work ethic?” Those are terms not chosen by Mosaics.  Perhaps this is indicative of the fact that we are dealing with a different kind of generation here.  David Kinnaman calls them discontinuously different.   In other words, there’s never been anything quite like them before, so patterns of behavior from previous generations simply do not apply.

    This is a group that, generally speaking, is missing from the pews of the church today.  Often times Mosaics were raised in the church. In fact, many of them were quite active in the church as teenagers. Yet by the time they reach their early twenties, more often than not, they are no longer active in the institutional church.  The reasons these young people drop out are very real and very personal to those who experience them. Yet the Barna Group, through a diligent research project, has uncovered a pattern to the church dropout problem.  There are three basic ways that Mosaics are lost, when it comes to the church.  David Kinnaman refers to these people as Nomads, Prodigals and Exiles.

    Nomads walk away from church involvement, but still consider themselves to be Christian.  Prodigals, on the other hand, lose their faith…and no longer describe themselves as Christian.  Exiles are still invested in their Christian faith, but they feel stuck or lost between culture and the church.

    Kelly is an example of a Nomad.  She grew up in a Protestant church.  Her father worked for Christian organizations during Kelly’s entire life and regularly teaches Sunday school.  Both of her parents are committed churchgoers. Yet Kelly describes struggling with an anxiety disorder and feeling that she never fit in at church.  As Kelly herself puts it, “The first strike against the church was the youth group where I didn’t fit in and no effort was made to help me.  The second strike was in college when the campus ministry I attended started talking about quotas for getting people saved.  The third strike was the judgments my parents received from their church friends about me. They actually told my parents that they must have done a poor job of raising me.” Yet Kelly fits the profile of a nomad because she claims she prays...and she reads her Bible regularly.  As Kelly herself puts it, “I never lost faith in Christ, but I have lost faith in the church.”  That’s a Nomad.

    Mike fits the profile of a Prodigal.  He grew up in the Catholic Church, but his love for science and razor-sharp wit – which was sometimes perceived as disrespect – often times put him at odds with parish leaders.  After a period of searching and wrestling with his faith, Mike says, “I just stopped believing in all those Christian stories.”  Time will tell if Mike will return to faith later in life, but the mindset of a Prodigal typically rejects that kind of outcome.  In my mind, we need to pray for Prodigals, not argue with them.  They believe what they believe for a reason.

    Nathan fits the profile of an Exile.  Nathan’s parents – like Kelly’s – were fixtures in the church during his childhood years. Then his parents split up.  As Nathan puts it, “I was really volatile toward church and faith for a long time…but way more so toward church than faith.”  In an interview with Relevant magazine he described his enormous cynicism toward all things having to do with institutional Christianity.  He and his friends say they are embarrassed by a lot of the Christian subculture from which they came, but not necessarily embarrassed by their beliefs.  They claim to be searching for something more from their faith.   In other words, they want their faith to make a difference.  Such is the profile of an Exile.

    There you have it: Nomads, Prodigals and Exiles.  Truth be told, I think there are Nomads, Prodigals and Exiles in more generations that just the Mosaics.  That aside, the question thus becomes: What can we do about it?  What can the church do about the questions and the cynicism that young people seem to have about the church today?

    David Kinnaman believes that the dropout problem – at its core – is a faith-development problem.  Kinnaman says, and I quote, “The church is not adequately preparing the next generation to follow Christ faithfully in a rapidly changing culture.” Then he adds, “To use religious language, we have a disciple-making problem.”  We have a disciple-making problem?  Now you know why I utilized Kinnaman’s work so extensively.

    Several weeks ago we began a sermon series entitled, “The Seven Covenants of a Disciple of Jesus Christ.”   I began the first sermon by making the case that Christ’s Great Commission, as recorded in the gospel of Matthew, is the reason for the church’s existence in the first place. The church is called to make disciples.  Yet if the church is going to make disciples, then the people who habituate the church must first become disciples themselves.  That’s what the seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ are all about.

    The seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ are as follows: worship regularly; pray daily; study diligently; live faithfully; serve joyously; give generously; and witness boldly. Four weeks ago, we delved a little more deeply into the first covenant: worship regularly. We said in essence that it was Jesus’ custom to worship, and it should be ours as well.  Yet we should come to worship expecting God to speak, to move, and to act.   That’s what keeps our faith from being a mile wide and an inch deep.

    Three weeks ago we examined the second covenant: pray daily.  There we saw that we are called to share our hurts, our sorrows, and our joys with God.  God listens to us in compassion and love, much like we do when our children come to us.  And when we do that…what we discover is that by praying, we learn how to pray.

    Last week we examined the third covenant: study diligently.  We learned that God is responsible for the Scriptures in a revelatory way, not just in an informational way.  The Bible is how God reveals himself to us.  It’s something we never could have come up with on our own.  What’s more, you’ve got to read the textbook…if you’re going to take the class.

    Today we examine the fourth covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ: live faithfully. Our lives should be lived with integrity and holiness.  We strive to live in harmony with the will of God.  We begin by taking to heart that which we read in Scripture, comprehend in worship and sense in prayer.   We aspire to live lives reflecting the faith we profess…looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

    I know the Presbyterian Church failed my generation, in a manner of speaking.  In Sunday school, in the early years, we were taught the basic Bible stories.  Then by the time we reached junior and senior high school – at a time when we could finally begin to comprehend the meaning behind those stories – we were taught how to apply our faith. Do you see what I’m trying to say?  In other words, our junior and senior high school Sunday school teachers were trying to build a house without laying a firm foundation.  We were taught what to do, but we were never taught why.

    In the passage we read from the gospel according to Matthew, Jesus tells a parable about just such a thing.  He says, “Everyone who hears these words of mine – and acts upon them – will be like the wise man who built his house upon a rock.  The rains fell, and the floods came, and beat upon that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act upon them, will be like the foolish man who built his house upon the sand.  The rains fell and the floods came and beat upon that house and it fell…and great was the fall of it.”

    We need a firm foundation.  Jesus Christ provides that firm foundation.  That foundation is built just like we said in the fourth covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ.  We take to heart that which we read in Scripture, comprehend in worship and sense in prayer. In other words, we live what we believe.  It’s a little thing theologians like to call orthopraxis. If orthodoxy means right belief, then orthopraxis means right practice.  Easier said than done though, don’t you think?

    I think the secret to living faithfully is revealed in something a wise man from this church recently said to me.  He said, “When my wife and I got married, we both agreed to follow the rule of sixty/forty.” I said, “What’s the rule of sixty/forty?” He replied, “We agreed to give sixty and expect forty in return.  Most people think marriage is fifty/fifty.  It’s not.  We agreed to the rule of sixty/forty.”  Then with a glint in his eye he leaned forward and said, “Sometimes it’s seventy/ thirty.”  The rule of sixty/forty must work…because Chuck and Janet Koller have now been married for more than 60 years.  

    You know, the people who leave the church generally don’t do so because of the church itself.  They do so because they’ve been upset by people in the church.  They sense an incongruity between the faith people profess and the way they live their lives. We need to learn orthopraxis. We need to learn to live the life of faith we say we believe. 

    I think the rule of sixty/forty just might apply to the discipleship practice of living faithfully as well.  If we think that all of our relationships are going to be fifty/fifty, we’re going to be sorely disappointed and we’re going to feel as if we’ve been mistreated a great deal of the time.  But if we approach our relationships with the attitude of sixty/forty – and are sometimes even willing to give seventy/thirty – then we will likely find ourselves living a whole lot more faithfully than we have in the past.  And we’ll be well on the way…to living out the fourth covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

 

10-9-2011 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

THE SEVEN COVENANTS OF A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST: PART III

    One of my all-time favorite quotes comes from a book that was written by a man named James Allen in 1902.  The title of the book is As a Man Thinketh. That title comes from the King James Version’s rendition of Proverbs 23:7 where it says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”  In any case, here’s the quote:

And you, too, youthful reader will realize the Vision (not the idle wish) of your heart – be it base or beautiful, or a mixture of both – for you will always gravitate toward that which you, secretly, most love. Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own thoughts.  You will receive that which you earn; no more, no less.  Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain, or rise with your thoughts, your Vision, your Ideal.  You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration…The Vision that you glorify in your mind – the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart – this you will build your life by; this you will become.

    That, my friends, is indicative of the power of the mind.  “The Vision that you glorify in your mind – the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart – this you will build your life by…this you will become.”  The problem today is that a lot of advertisers are now well aware of that fact, as well. 

Some of them have even begun to play upon our subconscious minds in an effort to get us to buy more of their products.  Martin Lindstrom is the author of a new book called, Brandwashed.  He begins his book with these words:

Have you ever been primed?   I mean, has anyone ever deliberately influenced your subconscious mind and altered your perception of reality without your knowing it?  Whole Foods Market, and others, are doing it to you right now.

    For example, let’s pay a visit to Whole Foods’ Columbus Circle store in New York City.  As you descend the escalator, you enter a realm of freshly cut flowers.  These are what advertisers call symbolics or unconscious suggestions.  In this particular case, they let us know that what is before us is bursting with freshness. Flowers, as everyone knows, are among the freshest, most perishable objects on earth. That’s why flowers are placed right up front; to prime us into thinking of freshness from the moment we enter the store. Then the prices for all the fruits and vegetables are scrawled in chalk on little blackboards.  This is meant to suggest that the prices are subject to change daily, just as they might at a roadside farm stand.  The truth of the matter is, most of the produce was flown in days ago, and the price was set at the home office in Austin, Texas.  Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve just been primed.

    I don’t know about you, but there are few things in this world that offend me more than being referred to as a consumer. To me that suggests that human beings are nothing more than automatons who blow their hard-earned cash on producers’ products rather than precious creatures created in the image of God.  Yet advertisers are well aware of the power of suggestion…well aware of the influence of the mind.  As James Allen put it so well, “The Vision that you glorify in your mind – the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart – this you will build your life by…this you will become.”  I think of the words in that old United Negro College Fund commercial: “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”   Perhaps the question now is, “Are wasting ours?”  Keep that thought in mind as we move on.

    Several weeks ago, we began a sermon series entitled, “The Seven Covenants of a Disciple of Jesus Christ.”  I began the first sermon by making the case that Christ’s Great Commission, as recorded in the gospel according to Matthew, is the reason for the church’s existence in the first place. The church is called to make disciples. Yet if the church is going to make disciples, then the people who habituate the church must first become disciples themselves.  That’s what the seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ are all about.

    The seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ are as follows: worship regularly; pray daily; study diligently; live faithfully; serve joyously; give generously; and witness boldly.  Three weeks ago, we delved a little more deeply into the first covenant: worship regularly.  We said in essence that it was Jesus’ custom to worship and it should be ours as well.  Yet we should come to worship expecting God to speak, to move and to act.  That’s what keeps our faith from being a mile wide and an inch deep. 

    Two weeks ago, we examined the second covenant: pray daily.  There we saw that we are called to share our hurts, our sorrows and our joys with God.  God listens to us in compassion and love, just like we do when our children come to us.  And when we do that…what we discover is that by praying, we learn how to pray.

    Today we examine the third covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ: study diligently.  We study Scripture in an attempt to shape our minds to become more attuned to the will of God. We begin by setting aside a small block of time each day to read the Bible, and participating in at least one group learning experience each week.  We aspire to spend a significant amount of time in Christian study every day, and take part in two or three learning experiences each week.

    Theologian Eugene Peterson would seem to be in agreement with that.  In fact, the Silent Reflection in your bulletins this week is taken from a book by Dr. Peterson entitled, Eat This Book.  Peterson writes:

The challenge – never negligible – regarding the Christian Scriptures is getting them read, but read on their own terms, as God’s revelation.  In this business of living the Christian life, ranking high among the most neglected aspects is one having to do with the reading of the Christian Scriptures. It’s not that Christians don’t own and read their Bibles.  And it’s not that Christians don’t believe that their Bibles are the word of God.  What is neglected, however, is the reading of Scriptures formatively; that is, reading in order to live.

    The question thus becomes: “How do we read in order to live?”  Many people are fascinated by the intellectual challenges of the Bible. Our Seminaries are full of students – and professors – who study their Bibles diligently and dig out some absolutely incredible truths…but they never apply those truths to their own daily lives.  To them, the Bible is nothing more than intellectual fodder.  Some come to the Bible with more practical concerns. They want to live well, and they want their children and neighbors to live well.   The problem here…is that the issue seems to be more about us than it is about God.  Still others come to the Bible for inspiration. In other words, they want their Bibles to make them feel better.  As H. Richard Niebuhr once put it, “Too often we want a God without wrath, who brought men without sin, into a kingdom without judgment, through the minstrations of a Christ without a cross.” Truth be told, reading the Bible formatively is far more likely to keep us up at night wringing our hands in holy horror…than it is to bring us peace and relaxation.

    C. S. Lewis, in the last book he ever wrote, talked about two different kinds of reading.  One is reading in which we use a book for our own purposes, kind of like a self-help book.  The other is reading in which we use a book for the author’s own purposes.  Ladies and gentlemen, there is a significant difference.  C.S. Lewis describes that difference this way:

When we receive it, we exert our senses and imagination and various other powers according to a pattern invented by the artist.  When we use it, we treat it as assistance for our own activities…Using is inferior to reception because art – if used rather than received – merely facilitates, brightens, relieves or palliates our life and does not add to it.

    In other words, when it comes to reading Scripture, we must learn to receive it rather than use it.  We must learn to seek out the author’s purposes, and not merely use it for our own.  And that just might take a little more effort.  Perhaps the Scriptures themselves can show us how.

    In the passage from Ezekiel that Henry read, and in the passage that I read from the book of Revelation, God said to his prophets, “Take this scroll and eat it.” Or, more succinctly put, God was not merely saying to them, “Read your Bible.”  God was actually saying to them, “Eat this book!”  As the one and only Eugene Peterson puts it, “Christians feed on Scripture.  Holy Scripture nourishes the Christian community in the same way that food nourishes the human body.”

    The act of eating a book is not merely looking at the words and trying to ascertain their meaning.  The problem is that we’ve been trained these days to read books with a cool objectivity that attempts to preserve their scientific or theological truths by eliminating any kind of personal participation that could contaminate the true meaning. Yet in order to seek out an author’s purpose – in order to truly “eat this book,” that is exactly the opposite of what we must do.  We must learn to personally participate in what we read in the Bible if we’re ever going to comprehend its deeper meaning…if we’re ever going to be even remotely impacted by what we read.  We should stop and ask ourselves at multiple junctures, “What is God trying to say to me in this passage?”  And if we see the finger of God constantly pointing at someone else, then we’re not reading the book as it was meant to be read.  We’re not receiving it; we’re using it.

    Listen: however we think that the words of the Bible got written down on paper, the Christian Church has always believed that God is somehow responsible. Yet the Church has also always believed that God is responsible in a revelatory way, and not just in an informational way.  The Bible is revelation, personally revealed to us by God. It’s something we could never have come up with on our own.  In other words, God is actually letting us in on something – telling us person to person – what it means to live our lives as men and women created in the image of God.

Eugene Peterson describes it this way:

This may be the single most important thing to know as we come to read and study and  believe the Holy Scriptures: this rich, alive, personally revealing God we experience as Father, Son and Holy Spirit…is personally addressing us in whatever circumstances we find ourselves – at whatever age we are – and in whatever state we are.

    Yet in my mind, there are two great themes that typify our culture and keep us at arm’s length from God.  The first theme is the Burger King mantra: “Have it your way.”  The second theme is what anyone who was ever in the retail business had drilled into their heads.  And that theme is: “The customer is always right.”  Thus, if culture does a thorough job on us – and it turns out to be awfully effective on most of us – we enter adulthood with the assumption that whatever we want, whatever we feel or whatever we need…has come to form the divine control center of our lives.  And the Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are reduced to a personal trinity of My Wants, My Feelings, and My Needs.  Could we go so far as to say that consumption and acquisition have become the new fruits of the Spirit?

    Yet the fact of the matter is – in spite of all our sophistication, knowledge and self-indulgence – we don’t know how to run our own lives.  The sorry state of affairs in many people’s lives is a tribute to the path of self-reliance. The sorry state of affairs in this country is a tribute to the path of self-reliance.  Where do you suppose we could find the God who loves us – the God who created us in his own image – revealing a better way? 

    Before I end this sermon, however, I’ve got one more thing to tell you.  A man in this church – a man who wishes to remain anonymous – was asked to deliver the eulogy at his brother-in-law’s funeral.  His brother-in-law’s name was Fred.  What follows is a part of what he said.  Listen closely.

Fred was a dedicated Christian with a strong faith.  I remember talking with him on the phone a couple of months ago and telling him about a Bible study class that I was taking at church. I said that I really didn’t know the Bible as well as I should.  He replied, “You have to read the textbook if you’re going to take the course.”

    You have to read the textbook if you’re going to take the course. My friend’s eulogy went on to say, “While living with them on 8^th Street, he encouraged me to join their church – Gloria Dei Lutheran.  I remained a Lutheran, until I married that cute pharmacy student…different denomination, same textbook.”

    The third covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ is Study Diligently!  We study Scripture in an attempt to shape our minds to become more attuned to the will of God. We begin by setting aside a small block of time each day to read the Bible…and participating in at least one group learning experience each week.   We aspire to spend a significant amount of time in Christian study every day and take part in two or three learning experiences each week.  Ladies and gentlemen, you have to read the textbook…if you’re going to take the course.  Amen.

 

 

 

9-25-2011 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

THE SEVEN COVENANTS OF A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST: PARTII

    Back when I was a senior in seminary, I had what was called a student pastorate in a town called Manchester, Kentucky.  One Sunday afternoon I was in the home of one the families in my church.  Fourteen-year-old Ben was busy doing his science homework.  All of a sudden he blurted out, “Mom! Did you know that the sun is 93 million miles away?”  His mother replied, “Of course, Ben.  Everybody knows that.”  Ben scowled and said, “Well, I didn’t know that.  I just thought it came up over here and went down over there!”

    That story brings to mind the seed I want to plant in your minds for you to consider throughout the course of this sermon.  Does the sun revolve around the earth, or does the earth revolve around the sun?  And when we can’t see the sun, is it because the sun has turned away…or because the earth has turned away?  Keep that though in mind as we move on.

    Last week, we began a sermon series entitled, “The Seven Covenants of a Disciple of Jesus Christ.”  I began the sermon by making the case that Christ’s Great Commission, as recorded in the gospel according to Matthew, is the reason for the church’s existence in the first place.  The church is called to make disciples.  Yet if the church is going to make disciples, the people who populate the church must first become disciples themselves. That’s what the seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ are all about.

    The seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ are as follows: worship regularly; pray daily; study diligently; live faithfully; serve joyously; give generously; and witness boldly.  Last week we delved a little more deeply into the first covenant: worship regularly. We said in essence that it was Jesus’ custom to worship and it should be ours as well. Yet we should also come to worship expecting God to speak, to move and to act. That’s what keeps our faith from being a mile wide and an inch deep.  Today, we’re going to delve a little more deeply into the second covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ…the covenant that calls us to pray daily.

    A disciple of Jesus Christ prays every day.  Prayer is communication with God.  It ushers us into communion with God. We begin by setting aside at least one time period each day when we will communicate with God.  We aspire to live lives guided by God through continual prayer.

    We yearn for prayer in our lives these days…yet we seem to hide from it as well.  Why, it’s almost as if we’re drawn to prayer and repelled by it at the very same time.  Deep down in our hearts we believe that prayer is something we should do – even something we want to do – but it seems as if there’s a great that chasm stands between us and God.  Maybe we’re afraid that if we pray we might actually have to change something about ourselves. What happens then is we come to experience the emptiness of prayerlessness. 

    We’re not quite sure what it is that holds us back.  Of course, we’re all busy with work and family obligations, but truth be told…that’s really a smoke screen.  Our busyness seldom keeps us from eating or sleeping or going out on the town.  Perhaps there’s something deeper – something more significant – that keeps us from having an active prayer life.  Perhaps, in reality, the problem is that we don’t really know how to pray.

    Living in a postmodern world as we do, we assume that prayer is something we master, like algebra or economics.   That puts us in a position where we feel competent and in control.  Prayer, however, doesn’t really work like that.  Prayer puts us in a position of not being in control.  In fact, in prayer, we deliberately surrender control.  As Emile Griffin once wrote in a book called The Experience of Prayer, “To pray means being willing to become naïve.” That’s not exactly a feeling with which many of us are terribly comfortable.

    Then we wonder if what we’re asking for in prayer is proper.  Many years ago, I was leading a confirmation class at the First Presbyterian Church in Luverne, Minnesota. One of the things I like to do at the beginning of every session is to have one of the students lead the class in prayer.  That particular day, a boy named Calvin led the class in prayer.  He said something like, “Let us pray.  Dear God, bless our confirmation class. Bless all the people in this church.  And could you please make Jeanie Gamble like me?  Amen.” 

    Someone immediately blurted out, “You can’t God ask for that in prayer!”  I said, “Why not?  God can take it. God wants to know what’s really on our minds. We are free to bring the deepest, darkest longings of our hearts to God.  That’s what it means to be a child of God.”

    Truth be told, we all come before God with mixed motives.  We come before God feeling generous or selfish, merciful or hateful, loving…or bitter.  Yet Jesus reminds us that prayer is a lot like a child making a request of his or her parents. Oh, we may not be pleased with everything our children ask of us, and sometimes the answer might be no, but aren’t we always glad they came to us, just the same?

    I guess what I’m trying to say is that God receives us just as we are, and accepts our prayers just as they are.  Richard Foster calls this kind of prayer, “Simple Prayer” or, “The Prayer of Beginning Again.” In Simple Prayer we are the focus of our prayers. Our needs, our wants and our concerns tend to dominate the conversation.  And that’s all right…in the beginning.

    What Richard Foster calls Simple Prayer is probably the most common form of prayer in the Bible. I think of Moses in the wilderness when his people grew tired of bread from heaven. They wanted meat.  So Moses cried out to God, “I am not able to carry these people alone. The burden is too heavy for me.  If thou must deal thus with me, kill me at once!”  Then there was the prayer of Elisha after he took over from Elijah. Some little boys made fun of him and called him a baldhead. Elisha cursed them in the name of the Lord, and then two she-bears came out of the woods and mauled the little boys. And in the 137^th Psalm the Israelites were upset with the Babylonians.  They cry out to God against their oppressors: “Happy shall be he who takes your little ones…and dashes them against a rock!” Even some of the most significant biblical exemplars of faith would on occasion let their darker sides get the best of them. 

    The point is, we can bring before God that which lies on our hearts.  Simple prayer involves ordinary people bringing ordinary concerns to a loving and compassionate Father. Thus, it was all right for Calvin to ask God to make Jeanie Gamble like him.  It’s fine if we ask God to help us pass a calculus test.  And there’s nothing wrong with asking God to make us feel better when we don’t feel very good at all. As C.S. Lewis once put it, “We should lay before God that which is really in us, not what we think ought to be in us.”  For when we pray, the real condition of our hearts is revealed…and that is when God can truly begin to work with us.  Again, when we pray, the real condition of our hearts is revealed and that is when God can truly begin to work with us.

    Perhaps the best illustration of this is Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.  He’d look up to the sky and talk about whatever was on his mind.  In the song, “If I Were a Rich Man,” he sings, “Lord, Who made the lion and the lamb, You decreed I should be what I am.  Would it spoil some vast, eternal plan…if I were a wealthy man?  Ya da da da da da da…”  Sorry.

    Don’t worry about proper praying.  Just talk to God.  Share your hurts, your sorrows, and your joys…freely and openly.  God listens in compassion and love, just like we do when our children come to us.  God delights in our presence. And when we do this, perhaps we will discover something of inestimable value. Perhaps we will discover that by praying, we learn how to pray.

    A good way to start is by getting yourself a devotional guide.  I have a devotional guide that I’ve been using for more than 25 years.  It’s called, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants, by Rueben P. Job and Norm Shawchuck. I begin every day with devotions and prayer time.  There’s an opening prayer, a Psalm and a daily Scripture reading.  Then there’s what they call “Readings for Reflection.” Those are typically snippets from spiritual classics like, The God Who Comes, by Carlo Carretto, or, The Wounded Healer, by Henri Nouwen.  And then, there’s a time set aside for prayer.  I like to practice what we call contemplative or listening prayer.

    What is contemplative prayer?  It has to do with listening for God.  Typically, when we pray, we fill the airwaves with our incessant chatter.  Contemplative prayer has to do with giving God a chance to respond.  We actually listen for God in silence.

    Here’s how it works.  Make yourself completely comfortable so that your body doesn’t become a hindrance in any way.  I like to lean back in my chair, put my feet up on my desk, rest my hands in my lap and close my eyes.  That’s why I keep my office door closed.  If someone actually saw me like that, they’d think I was taking a nap.  I’m not taking a nap; I’m praying!

    The next thing to do is to completely clear your mind.  Some people use what we call “The Jesus Prayer.”  They repeat the words, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Repeat those words a number of times, and then just clear your mind.  That’s one way.   

    I like to use a way that was taught by the unknown 14^th century English mystic who wrote a book called, The Cloud of Unknowing.  He – or she – said to do this.  Repeat the words, “God, God, God!” in your mind. Then simply clear your mind.  Allow God an opportunity to communicate with you. Shut out the noise of the world, and just listen. Trust me…you’ll be amazed at the results.

    But let me add what I think just might be the most important thing of all about prayer.  All Christian prayer should be closed in Jesus’ name.  Every prayer you’ve ever heard me say is closed with the words “We pray in Jesus’ name” or “Through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Why?  Because apart from Jesus Christ, we do not have access to God.  We pray in Jesus’ name because it’s through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross…that we have access to God.  God made a covenant with the Hebrew people through Abraham. Jesus Christ fulfilled that covenant and established a new covenant – a covenant of grace and mercy.  We are a part of that covenant of grace and mercy.  And that’s why we pray in Jesus’ name.  Ladies and gentlemen, it’s not just a formality.  It’s a theological reality.

    So let’s go back to our initial analogy of the earth and the sun. The sun is 93 million miles   away from the earth, although Allegheny physics professor Dan Willey tells me that I can’t prove it. It’s just something that we accept. The question was, “Does the sun revolve around    the earth, or does the earth revolve around the sun?  And when we can’t see the sun, is it because the sun has turned away...or because the earth has turned away?”  Science tells us that the earth revolves around the sun.  And when we can’t see the sun, it’s because the earth has turned away…not the other way around.

    Is this a good analogy for us and God?  Could we be so bold as to say that God is the center of the universe and that we are not? And could we also say that when we can’t sense God in the day-to-day events of our lives that it’s we who have turned away, and not the other way around?  I think we could say that.  I think we could say that…and we’d be right.

    The second covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ is: pray daily.  Prayer is communication with God.  It ushers us into communion with God. We begin by setting aside at least one time period each day when we will communicate with God.  We aspire to live lives guided by God through continual prayer.  Do that…and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

 

9-18-2011 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

THE SEVEN COVENANTS OF A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST: PART I

    Artemus Ward was the pen name of a man named Charles Farrar Browne.  He was an early American humorist who once was called America’s first standup comic.  He lived from 1834 until 1867…and profoundly influenced another American humorist who went by the name of Mark Twain.  Anyway, in one of his routines Artemus Ward tried to describe the South Platte River in northeast Colorado.  He said it was a mile wide and an inch deep. “It would be a considerable river,” he added, “if it were turned on its side!”

    A mile wide and an inch deep…a little research reveals that that particular phrase has been used to describe politicians, writers, consultants and T.V. newscasters.  The question I have for you today however, is this: Does that statement also apply to the modern day Christian Church?  Is the Christian Church in America today…a mile wide and an inch deep?

    Recent surveys lead us to believe that 80 to 85% percent of Americans today identify themselves as Christian. One particular survey went so far as to say that 90% of Americans surveyed believe they have a personal relationship with God.   One might naturally assume, then, that the battle is won. Oh, there may be a few stragglers, but America would appear – statistically speaking – to be a Christian nation.   That’s the mile wide part.   The question now is: How deep does that river run?

    Obviously, that’s a very difficult question to answer.  There is no way anyone can get inside a person’s head and measure the depth of his or her faith.  However, a woman by the name of Yvonne Reeves-Chong has an intriguing story to tell on the subject.  She writes:

My son is a wonderful young man with an amazing love for the Lord. As a teenager he was blessed to go on two high school mission trips: one to Zambia and the other to Los Angeles.  He made a rather astute observation.  In Africa, Christianity is rare. Evangelism is simple and direct, and the fruits of conversion are very evident.  In Los Angeles, however, while almost everyone claims to be Christian…the fruit is nearly nonexistent.  Los Angelians knew the language of Christ, but they did not know the love of Christ.

    The question was: Is the Christian Church in America today a mile wide and an inch deep?  A good scientist would tell me that I haven’t proved my point because I don’t have a broad enough sample, and that scientist would be right. So let me throw in a little something else. Loren Mead is the founder and President of The Alban Institute…which might be defined as a Christian think tank.  In a book called The Once and Future Church, Loren Mead has this to say:

All the uncertainties and changes of the emerging age of ministry come to a head in the life of the local congregation.  The church was once the stable center and foundation of community and family life.  It witnessed to the deep values and commitments that made life coherent and whole. Today the local church has become merely one institution along-side all the others – competing for time and energy – and often less sure than the others… about its basic reason for being. 

    Do you understand what Loren Mead is saying? He’s saying that the church has become one institution alongside all the others.  The church is an institution like the Masons, or the Rotary Club, or the Lion’s Club or Kiwanis.  And like those other organizations, the church competes for the time and the energy – and dare we say the money – of its members.  Yet often times in our society today the church is less certain than those other organizations about its basic reason for being. 

    Perhaps fifty years ago people were aware of the church’s basic reason for existence. Or maybe they weren’t.  After all, fifty years ago it was a societal expectation that upstanding members of a community would naturally belong to a church. That is not the case today. Today people will not belong to an organization or an institution unless they have a good reason for belonging.  Thus, we need to discern the church’s basic reason for existence. The church can no longer afford to be a mile wide and an inch deep.  Its members have to know exactly why it’s here; or they won’t be.

    I think that reason is revealed in the passage Howie read a moment ago.  The church was established by none other than Jesus Christ.  He said to his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”  They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and some say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.” Jesus then asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” It was Peter who spoke up first.  He said, “You are the Christ, Son of the living God.”

    Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah!  For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.  I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.”  The church was built on the Apostle Peter’s confession of faith. The disciples were comfortable with that…but then Jesus went and died.   As you know, they gave up on him for a time.   They gave up on Jesus, and they gave up on his dream. Then Jesus made several post-resurrection appearances to them.  In the passage Howie read, he gave them a charge as to what they should become.  He gave them a commission that still serves as the mission of the church today.  Jesus said to his disciples:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always…to the close of the age.

    There you have it in a nutshell: the mission of the church. That, my friends, is the reason for our existence.  We are to make disciples of all nations.  We are to baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  And we are to teach them to observe all that Christ commanded. Why? Because Jesus said so.

    You know, my mother used to say that to me all the time. She’d tell me to do something and   I’d say, “Why?”  She’d say, “Because I said so.”  That reason never carried much weight with me when I was a child, but as an adult I found myself saying it to my kids on occasion as well. The church does what Christ commanded…because Jesus said so.

    Here at the First Presbyterian Church, we were certain that Christ’s Great Commission is, in fact, the reason for our existence.  But we were also convinced that in order for us to make disciples, we would first have to become disciples ourselves. That’s why we spent a great deal of time and energy composing our own covenant of discipleship. We call it The Seven Covenants of a Disciple of Jesus Christ.

    Each individual covenant has three separate components. The first component is what we call   a Discipleship Practice.  That is essentially a spiritual discipline.  The second component begins with the words, We Begin By.  In other words, this is where you start.  The final component begins with the words, We Aspire To. In other words, this is your ultimate goal. Are you ready?  I present to you now, “The Seven Covenants of a Disciple of Jesus Christ of the First Presbyterian Church of Meadville.”

    The first discipleship practice is: Worship regularly!  Worship is integral to the life of faith.  It was Jesus’ custom to worship and it should be ours as well.  Communal worship is the primary way Christians connect with God and with each other. We Begin By: Worshipping with a congregation on a weekly basis. We Aspire To: Worship God in every moment of life and join with God’s people as often as possible.

    The second discipleship practice is: Pray daily!  Prayer is communication with God.  It   ushers us into communion with God.  We Begin By: Setting aside at least one time period each day when we will communicate with God.  We Aspire To: Live lives guided by God through continual prayer.

    The third discipleship practice is: Study diligently!  We study Scripture in an attempt to    shape our minds to become more attuned to the will of God.  We Begin By: Setting aside a   small block of time each day to read the Bible and participating in at least one group learning experience each week. We Aspire To: Spend a significant amount of time in Christian study every day and take part in two or three learning experiences each week.

    The fourth discipleship practice is: Live faithfully!  Our lives should be lived with integrity and holiness. We strive to live in harmony with the will of God. We Begin By: Taking to heart that which we read in Scripture, comprehend in worship, and sense in prayer.   We Aspire To: Live lives reflecting the faith we profess, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

    The fifth discipleship practice is: Serve joyously!  Each of us is called to ministry.  We seek the field of ministry most closely aligned with the call of God on our lives…that hauntingly stirs our deepest passion. We Begin By: Engaging in some form of ministry with others.  We Aspire To: Create ministries in which we engage others as partners in ministry with us.

    The sixth discipleship practice is: Give generously!  The way we give of ourselves and our resources should reflect the self-giving love of God in Christ.   We Begin By:  Committing to giving a set proportion of our time, talents and financial resources to God. We Aspire To: Live lives in which our giving is sacrificial.

    The seventh discipleship practice is: Witness boldly!  In his Great Commission, Christ challenged his disciples to make disciples of all nations.   To make disciples of all nations, one must spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. We Begin By: Sharing our faith and values with family, friends and neighbors. We Aspire To: Fearlessly encounter situations where we have   the courage to speak, and our Christian witness can truly make a difference.

    There you have it: The Seven Covenants of a Disciple of Jesus Christ.  Today we’re going to explore in a little more depth the first discipleship covenant: Worship regularly. Why do we worship regularly? I think the answer is revealed in the passage I read from the gospel according to Luke. That passage is famous for what Jesus said. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.”  This passage, of course, marks the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.  It was from here that everything began, and that’s what preachers generally talk about when they preach on this passage.

    Yet there’s something else in this passage that’s really quite easy to overlook.  Jesus had just been baptized and shortly thereafter he went to his home town of Nazareth.  In verse 16 it reads, “…and he went to the synagogue, as was his custom, on the Sabbath day.” Jesus went to worship God on the Sabbath day AS WAS HIS CUSTOM.  Thus, why do we make the worship of God a habit?  We make it a habit because Jesus made it a habit.  There is no answer that could be more clear-cut than that.

    Yet still people say, “I don’t need a church to worship God.  I can worship God far, far better   in nature than I can in a building.”  To that I say, “That may be, but do you?”  And then there’s the old, “I’m spiritual but not religious,” routine.  To that I say, “Spiritual but not religious generally means that one turns to God when one wants something from him, but for the most part… one is pretty much content to leave God alone.” Of course, that brings to mind what has become my new favorite question of late. That question is this: Does God exist to serve us, or do we exist to serve God? I think you know the answer. We need to remember that worship is about God, not about us. 

    Craig Satterlee is the author of a book entitled, When God Speaks through Worship.  In it I think he really puts a finger on why we come before God in worship. He talks about a minister who was struggling with what God was trying to say and do in worship.  The minister says, “I have been to the mountaintop; those experiences don’t last. I’ve worked hard on the plain, and come away empty and exhausted.  I want to get wet in the river. How do I get in…and how do    I know when I’m there?”  Satterlee answers that minister’s question this way:

Simply stated, we get into the river by worshipping.  Though the extent in intensity of God’s transformation of our lives and our congregations may remind us more of a lazy river than a rapid stream, God works in worship over time to shape us and move us, as surely as flowing water smooths stones and carries them to the sea.  Even when the current of God’s reconciling love does not knock us over and sweep us away, we can worship with the expectation that God is present, speaking, and acting.   Expecting God to speak and act in worship makes us actively engaged.

    That, my friends, is how we get into the river. Perhaps that’s also how we keep it from being a mile wide and an inch deep. The first covenant of a disciple of Jesus Christ is worship regularly. If we come to worship expecting God to speak, move, and act…then we will have taken the first step to becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

 

9-11-2011 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

THINGS WE DON’T UNDERSTAND

    Where were you on September 11^th, 2001? That’s a question that I suspect a lot of us could answer with a great deal of accuracy. What happened on that day defined a generation, much   like the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963…or the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.  Where were you on September 11^th, 2001?

    I was serving the First Presbyterian Church of Salem, Ohio at the time. That night we held a prayer service in our sanctuary.  I remember standing up and saying, “I don’t know what to say.  Let’s just spend some time in prayer.  Let’s just let the Holy Spirit intercede for us, as the Apostle Paul says, ‘in groans that words cannot express.’”  And that’s exactly what we did.  We sat there in stunned silence, not knowing what to say.  Some sat for close to an hour.

    About six months later, my family and I took a trip to New York City.  While we were there, we went on a bus tour of the city. We sat in the open top of a double-decker bus. Our tour guide told us that we were going to be the first tour bus allowed to go past the original site of the Twin Towers. I remember the tour guide saying, “We would appreciate it if people would give the site the reverence that it is due.”  

    We then went by the original site of the Twin Towers.  It was nothing but a pair of gaping holes filled with rubble.  And everyone on the bus was completely silent.  No one could bring themselves to say a word.  In a manner of speaking, we found ourselves on holy ground.

    The events of nine-eleven shook up our nation.  It seemed as if everyone’s faith was impacted…one way or another.  On the one hand, the Sunday after nine-eleven, churches all across this great nation of ours were packed to the rafters.  It was a spiritual revival that lasted for nearly a week. For many others, however, faith was impacted in a negative way. The question was asked time and time again, “How could a God of love have allowed this to happen?”

    Theologian Serene Jones describes trauma as something that happens not just to those who directly experience violence. She says our minds are like offices. They store incoming information in one of the thousands of files we have created to make sense of the world.  When trauma occurs, the incoming information is so overwhelming…that we don’t know where to store it.  It fits none of our categories and we are left stunned and confused.

    Traumatic events then come to affect our faith.  They affect our faith…one way or another.  In times of crisis, some will turn to God with renewed fervor. Others will turn away from God, disgusted with the way they perceive God operates.  Along those lines, I have a story I want to tell you now.  It’s called, Potatoes, Eggs and Coffee Beans.  I think it’s really quite pertinent to the subject matter at hand.

    A number of years ago a woman was going through some very difficult times.  She complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she just didn’t know how she was going to make it.  She was tired of constantly struggling just to keep her head above water.  It seemed to her as if – just as one problem was solved – another one cropped up to take its place. 

    Her father listened, nodded, and said, “Come with me.” They went into the kitchen where he filled three pots with water.  He put them on the stove and turned the flames up high. Once the pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in the first pot, eggs in the second pot…and coffee beans in the third.  He let them sit and simmer without saying a word to his daughter.

    The woman waited impatiently, crossing her arms and tapping her foot, wondering what on earth her father was doing.  After twenty minutes or so, he turned the burners off on the stove. He took the potatoes out of the first pot and placed them in a bowl. He took the eggs out of the second pot and placed them in a bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out of the third pot and placed   it in a cup.  Turning to her, he said, “My dear, sweet daughter, what do you see?”

    “I see potatoes, eggs and coffee,” she snorted.  “Look closer,” he said, “and touch the potatoes.”  She did so, and noted that they were now very soft.   He then told her to take an egg and break it.  When she did so, she observed a hard-boiled egg.  Then he told her to take a sip of the coffee.  The coffee was good, and its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.  “But Daddy,” she said, “what has this got to do with all my problems?”

    He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and the coffee beans had each faced the same adversity.  Each had been placed in boiling water. The difference, however, is that each one reacted differently.  The potato went in strong, hard and unrelenting…but in boiling water it became soft and weak.   The egg was fragile, with a thin outer shell protecting its soft interior, until it was put in the boiling water.  Then the inside of the egg became hard and unyielding.

    The coffee beans, however, were different.  After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and became something new. “Which are you?” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks upon your door, how do you respond?   Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?”  In this journey we call life, many things will happen all around us, and many things will happen to us.  Perhaps the thing that matters most is what happens inside us.

    Back in 1978, M. Scott Peck catapulted onto the American literary scene with his best-selling book, The Road Less Travelled.  The book was labeled, “A new psychology of love, traditional values, and spiritual growth.”  Yet perhaps the key to its success was embodied in the very first sentence.  The book began with these words: “Life is difficult.”

    Life is difficult.  Traumatic events will occur in our lifetimes that will make us or break us.  I think of something Billy Graham said at The National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. immediately after the events of nine-eleven.   He said, “God is sovereign…even in things we don’t understand.”  God is sovereign, even in things we don’t understand.  With those words as the foundation of our faith, we are far more likely to persevere in the face of adversity. We are far more likely to be a coffee bean than we are an egg or a potato.  The question is, how do we get there?

    The answer is simple, but the process is complex.  I think the answer just might be something that a friend of mine in this church recently said to me.  He believes he received a message from God.  And frankly, to me, it sounds exactly like something God would say.  He said, “Read your Bible, and pray to Jesus every day.”  Read your Bible…and pray to Jesus every day. 

   When we read our Bibles, it will come to shape our minds in accordance with the will of God.  We will read the ancient stories of faith. We will see how God was active in the lives of faithful people who went before us.  And we will begin to comprehend the way God works in the world.

    When we pray every day, we will come to be in communion with God.  As someone once said, “Prayer doesn’t change God.  Prayer changes us.”  And that might be the best part of all.  Perhaps we will come to be transformed into a man or a woman of God.

    Like I said, I think the answer is simple but the process is a bit complex.  Let me try to explain.  Fourteen years ago my wife was diagnosed with Sartoli-Leydig cell cancer…a particularly deadly form of ovarian cancer.  Every woman over the age of 40 diagnosed with this particular cancer had died.  She was 35 at the time.

    It was the summer of 1997.  Our oldest son Rob was eight, our daughter Mariah was five, and our baby Travis was three.  I was faced with the prospect of having to raise three children   all by myself.  She was faced with the prospect of not seeing them grow up at all. It was a particularly trying time in our life of faith.

    Back then, I was just learning about what we call contemplative prayer.  Contemplative prayer is listening prayer.  In other words, instead of filling the airwaves with my incessant babble, I actually took the time to listen for God.  During one of those periods of contemplative prayer – thinking about my wife’s situation – I sensed four distinct words. I did not hear voices; I wasn’t losing my mind.  I sensed four distinct words.  Those words were, “She will be fine.”  My immediate response was to ask, “Does that mean she’s going to live?” And again I sensed those four distinct words: “She will be fine.”  Then suddenly I knew – that whether she lived or whether she died – she would be fine.  And if she would be fine…then perhaps the kids and I would be fine, too.

    That was the singularly most profound spiritual thing I have ever experienced.  My faith literally moved from my head to my heart as I came to realize that the promises of God are true. We call that the move from secondary faith to primary faith. We move from secondary faith to primary faith – in other words, our faith moves from our heads to our hearts – when we come to realize that the promises of God are true because we have experienced the grace of God for ourselves.  And in light of such an event, we come to develop a spiritual memory.  When we have a spiritual memory, we come to believe that…if God was faithful in the past, then why would we think God might not be faithful in the future as well?  Again, if God was faithful in the past, then why would we think God might not be faithful in the future as well?

    Perhaps M. Scott Peck put it best when he said, “Life is difficult.”  Life is difficult.  Yet if we read our Bibles and pray to Jesus every day, perhaps we will manage to persevere.  Perhaps our faith will move from our heads to our hearts as we come to realize that the promises of God are true.  Then, as Billy Graham put it so well, we will know in our hearts that God is sovereign…even in things we don’t understand.  Amen.