Starting From Square One : Our Mission Through Christ

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Welcome back to another week here on Making Waves! We are thrilled that you are all back with us today for a new addition to this latest sermon series: Starting From Square One. W For those of you who weren’t able to join us last week, let me do a quick recap to get us all on the same page.

After the New Year, I got to thinking about this idea of the “New Year Resolution” and I thought about how such an activity could relate to those of us in the church. How can we apply such an idea to our own yearly cycle? That led to me thinking that in order to know where we are going, we need to know where we’ve been, where did it all start? So, we at Pelham UMC are taking a trip back in time to the roots of our faith and looking deeper at our call and mission as people of Christ.

Last week, we read some of what Paul had to say and found that our mission was to deliver the Word of God through the gift of our Grace. With Jesus’ coming, grace entered our lives and allowed us to be the ones who shared the good news. And now, this week, we are taking a look at another of the ways that Jesus impacted our mission as Christians. So, without any further blathering, let’s dive into the Word.

“13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

-Matthew 3:13-17

Will you pray with me?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together be acceptable in Your sight, O God, for You are our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

I have always loved that passage of scripture. Ever since I was a little kid, I loved the powerful imagery and dramaticism of this scene. And not just because I am a lover of birds (although I am a sucker for any kind of bird imagery). No, I think that what I loved so much about this scripture is that it so directly relates to something that WE can do that Jesus did. Now, granted, a dove didn’t descend out of the sky when I was baptized, but something different and amazing altogether happened.

But even more amazing than the gift of baptism, which is something that we will definitely talk about again, but it would fill up a couple sermons if I tried to discuss it today, is what this incredible event symbolizes and changes. I stumbled upon something familiar when I was reading this passage, let me read it again and see if anything sounds vaguely familiar.

“...on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.”

Wait, that sounds a little different than before, what about this one?

“...and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf…”

Now, wait just a second here, Pastor. I was paying attention earlier and I didn’t hear either of those verses in the gospel you read earlier. And you’re right. What I just read was from the story of the flood. Hear them again in context:

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. … 6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent out the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; 9 but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; 11 and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more.”

-Genesis 7:11-12; 8:6-12

Now, surely you can understand why I said that these two passages sound familiar for me. And, I believe that they are written this way, with their own particular symbolism, for a reason. Let’s look at the passages and see what they mean.

First, chronologically, we have the passage from the book of Genesis, where man has become so irrevocably sinful that God is forced to wipe the slate clean, so to speak, and brings about a great flood to the Earth, sparing only the family of Noah. At the end of this devastation, God makes a promise with Noah, a covenantal promise to the family and ancestors of his people.

Then, we speak forward many generations and we read in the gospel of Matthew where Jesus is now a part of the picture. The author uses the same symbols, the same verbiage, but with different results. Jesus comes to us as a marking of the new covenant of God. All of a sudden, with Jesus, everything changes. The story is turned on it’s head and the message is re-written.

All of a sudden, we become a part of the story. We become more than just a beloved child of God, we become a part of the story. Jesus calls us in what we know as the Great Commission to go out and make disciples of all nations. To go and be “fishers of men.” To go out into the world and be evangelists. And, to top it all off, we have the Holy Spirit guiding us in the journey.

We can’t possibly screw this up, right? RIGHT?!!

Back when I first started to accept my calling into the ministry, I was an active member of a loving, thriving Youth group. I approached my Youth Minister (Hi, Pam!) about my calling and she worked with me during my time in the Youth to really focus and care for that calling: to discern what it was that I was feeling. I would help write lessons for my peers, I would lead the games, play music and lead worship, and occasionally share a short testimony or message with my peers, as well.

Well, one day, I had just gotten back from a mission trip with the group and the Youth leader approached me and asked me if I wanted to share a sermon during “big church” for our Youth Sunday (a service led entirely by the Youth group).

1. Was. Terrified.

But, of course, I said yes and I agreed to share a message with the congregation. The huge, intimidating congregation. On that morning, I shared with the congregation a message that was entitled, “Keep Your Faith on a Leash.” I’m not going to comment on the cute name or the likely horrific theology behind my sermon, I was young and didn’t have any of my charming cynicism quite yet. But I did want to share with you a story that I told during that sermon, because it illustrates what I thought of evangelists as a 15-year-old teenager with attitude.

For the sermon, I recalled an event from the previous year, where I had gone to the Dixie Classic Fair in Winston-Salem, and had an encounter with an evangelist who was out to save my soul. I was by myself and nervous for this encounter. I attempted to politely ignore him as most uncomfortable 14-year-old introverts do, but he was incredibly invasive and had his sights set on me. His booming voice and loud accusatory words scared me so badly that I ran into the nearest restroom until he found another victim to harass. It left me with such a sour taste in my mouth that I vowed to NEVER be that kind of evangelist, one who scares people.

I shared this story with my congregation and received a mix review of facial expressions, but of course heard nothing but praise after the sermon was over (thank goodness, no one wanted to down the sermon of a kid). Since that day, I’ve had this mentality ruminating inside my head of what it means to be an evangelist. I’ve gone on this mental journey where some days I believe that the scare tactics work, so they must be good, to the next day believing that they are so wrong that they are the ones who need to hear the word. Ultimately, through all my contemplation and thought, here’s what I’ve learned:

We’re all just doing the best that we can.

And that’s totally okay. What I’ve learned about that man who scared me into a restroom (despite me being an active and saved Christian) is that he was more than likely just trying to help me. There is a problem with this line of thinking, though. What he is doing here is what I like to call Wal-Mart theology. One quick fix to save the human soul. In this binary means of thought, evangelism becomes impersonal. It becomes an US versus THEM line of thinking. Are you saved or are you unsaved? And there’s no doubt that these things are important, but it’s not our job to make that call.

Somewhere in our psyche we make this leap into believing that WE are the ones who are actively saving the souls of our fellow children. Not only that, we seem to believe that salvation is a check in the box that you fill out. Neither of these things could be less true.

For starters, grace and salvation is not a one-stop-shop. It’s not a one-and-done, let’s-call-it-a-day-and-go-home. John Wesley presented this idea of grace being a journey that takes place within us. He talked about justifying grace being the point where we acknowledge grace and that’s where some of us in the Wal-Mart theology stop the story. But there’s more to it than that, there’s sanctifying grace: our journey towards perfection and being truly united with the church triumphant in a glorious life with our Father God. It’s a journey, not a check in the to do list.

We can look at the generational gap that took place between the flood and the institution of the old covenant and then the new covenant that came with Christ and see that clearly we are not privy to God’s timing.

Next, we believe that we are the ones who are saving the souls. I’ve heard this theological principle of essentially having a chalkboard where we add a new tally for each soul that we have personally saved. We have this idea that we are the only ones who can plant a seed in the child of God in front of us. When I read this passage of Christ’s baptism, it’s clear that we aren’t the ones doing the planting, at all. It’s already been planted by God and it’s being watered by God. God is doing the active work in the lives of His children through the Holy Spirit.

So, what is our mission then? What is our call? Do we just sit back and cross our legs and let God do the work? Of course not! Our calling is to live out our faith and be the city on a hill. We may not be the leader in this thing called life, but, with the addition of Christ, we are most definitely a part of the journey. Instead of bearing the burden of being the only hope that a person has, we become a light that can show them what it means to be a Christian, what it means to accept that seed inside you and let it grow with the water of the Holy Spirit.

So, that’s my challenge to you as you go throughout this week. Be an evangelist. Spread the good news of Christ. Not through scare tactics, or threats, or any means that make you think that YOU are in charge. But instead invite someone to church… not for the sake of conversion or manipulation. Instead bring them and be the light in the darkness that shows them the grace that is already taking place within them.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.