Preaching notes from July 19, 2020

specific Bulletin pieces for

SUNDAY, JULY 19, 2020

Introduction to the Prayer of Confession... a teaching moment - why we do what we do.

            Scripture says that, “If we claim that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, but if we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:8,9).  Repentance is an integral part of our relationship with God for it is sin that separates us from the one who created us and loves us beyond measure.  We ask God to forgive us not just at a singular point in our lives (Baptism, conversion, etc…) but as an ongoing means of the Holy Spirit convicting us, drawing us closer to God, renewing us, and transforming us into the likeness of Christ (II Corinthians 3:18).

            The unison prayer of confession is a means of recognizing that, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  More than just for ourselves or specific individuals, this prayer confesses that human nature (the ways of the flesh/world, in Biblical language) is itself sinful without God’s redeeming presence in our lives.  A time for silent prayers (30-60 seconds) is provided to reflect on our relationship with God and how we might draw closer.  Some will use this time to confess specific transgressions.  All can use this time to acknowledge our need of a Savior – the Lord Jesus Christ. 

            The Assurance of Pardon is a means of accepting the love and grace God offers.  “If anyone sins we have someone who pleads with the Father on our behalf- Jesus Christ the righteous one.  And Christ himself is the means by which our sins are forgiven, and not our sins only, but also the sins of everyone” (I John 2:1-2).  We respond to this process of confession (prayer) and forgiveness with praise.  Since the “wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23) we celebrate with a short song or ascription of praise.  This response could be any means of praise.

We typically use the Gloria Patri as our means of returning praise to God. 

Glory be to the Father,

And to the Son,

And to the Holy Ghost,

As it was in the beginning,

Is now and ever shall be,

World without End

Amen.  Amen. 

The Gloria Patri was used by the early church (2^nd century) as an ascription of praise during worship.  The name is actually the first line of the song as sung in Latin (Glory be to the Father = Gloria Patri). 

            All this being true and right, today I want to approach our Prayer of Confession and assurance of God's Pardon from a different angle the fits with our Scripture and message.  As Christians, we need to come to faith (ourselves), grow in faith, and share the faith. All God's children have a mission and ministry to call others into repentance and to know the goodness of God's grace and God's plan for them. After all, Romans 10:9-13 says,

⁹ If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. ¹¹ As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” ¹² For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, ¹³ for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

            This is what we want others to do. It's very hard to start a loving relationship where outsiders will listen if your first words and only words are, "Repent! You are a sinner!" Even if this is true, as it is of a of us, people aren't listening after that point.

            As "Insiders," those who have already come to faith and are growing in faith, we are encouraged to make our confession because we know the grace of God already. As an "Outsider" (and this is Paul's term from today's reading in Colossians), wouldn't you be encouraged to repent if you first heard and were assured of your pardon?  How much easier  is it to approach God if you knew His nature is that of Grace?!

            To help us think about this, just for today we are starting with the Assurance of Pardon, our confession/repentance will follow in the form of Silent Prayer... Romans 8 outlines beautifully the problem of sin and God's desire for us to forgiven of sin...

Assurance of Pardon (Romans 8:1-4, 5, 6-8, 12-15, 16-17, 31-34)

One: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

All: Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

One: The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation--but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."

All: The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

(Silent Prayer and Reflection)

One: What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Faith in Christ and Love for the Saints

Colossians 4:2-6

"Salt and Grace"

Introduction: The Invisible Sweater

            Kathy lived in a sad and angry world. Her experience with legalism as a child had left her with painful scars of guilt, self-doubt, and the hatred of pastors. Kathy knew all about pastors. In her mind they were the self-righteous dispensers of legalism which left her with jagged scars of guilt and remorse. In time, her entire demeanor had become a projection of those old wounds. Her life, her words, and her gestures had become one sustained cry for help. Only those of us who loved her could hear her calling out in pain.

            I remember the day when Kathy attended my Communicator's Workshop (Ken Davis). Those seminars, of course, are magnets for ministerial types. Kathy knew that. That's why she stood by the door, taking the measure of the auditorium. "I hate pastors," she said, adding a curse for an extra flourish of defiance. She fixed her glare on a tall, distinguished gentleman with snow-white hair and murmured, "Typical preacher!" Keep him away from me – I will not be responsible for what I do if he gets too close. She wasn't kidding.

            I wondered for years how I could break through into Kathy's world. For that matter, I wondered if it could even be done. My own universe was brightly illumined by God's healing of broken lives. I lived out the blessing of seeing despair transformed to hope on a regular basis. But for Kathy, real hope seemed unavailable at any price.

            Being sensitive to her 'clerical aversion,' I tried to accommodate Kathy by keeping her segregated from the pastors she loathed. But I could never rearrange enough chairs to block the shrewd, gracious, marvelous maneuvering of God. Kathy wandered into her room filled nearly to capacity. At that point, only two adjoining seats were unfilled. She'd at least have a one-seat pastor-free zone. She made her choice and settled into her place. And as she did so, the distinguished, white-haired pastor she had loathed appeared and claimed the other chair. Her seating assignment was sealed for the duration, yoking her with the living embodiment of ministers everywhere – the "Arch-pastor" himself! The full horror of this dawned on her. I saw the expression that came across her face, but the situation was out of my hands. I watched curiously as the days and sessions played out. Kathy was a captive audience for dozens of presentations proclaiming the power of God. She heard the stories of lives changed forever by forgiveness.

            And inevitably, she was called on to interact with those around her. On these occasions she was loved and treated kindly, time after time. The whole experience amounted to a leisurely demolition of her long-held and deeply held stereotypes of God and the Christian faith.

            None of this is to say that she surrendered without a struggle. On the contrary, she clung tenaciously, willfully, to the fortifications of her biases. But I came to understand the reason God hadn't allowed me to shelter Kathy from the presence of the dreaded white-haired pastor, whose name happened to be Gordon. She sat – fully disarmed – beside one of the kindest, gentlest spirits I'd ever met. Kathy persisted in treating him coldly. He would retaliate just as stubbornly with warmth and kindness. Something had to give. The X-factor turned out to be Kathy's chain-smoking habit. She was coping with an added layer of tension because the building was smoke-free. With every break in the sessions, she inevitably bolted for the door in a cold sweat. One day we were finishing a very quick 'stand and stretch' break when Kathy burst into the building. Short of breath and trailing a cloud of smoke, she ran right into Gordon. "What are you doing?" he asked.

            Quite predictably, Kathy fired back a retort fueled by all the criticism and judgment she'd endured over the years. "I was smoking a cigarette," she snapped. "What's it to you?"

            Taking her vehemence in stride, the pastor glanced at his watch. "You couldn't have done it justice," he drawled, a huge smile creeping across his face. "You should take a little more time."

            Who could have predicted it? This was a nondescript moment, a trivial bit of small talk. Some deep, entrenched barrier within Kathy's heart chose that particular moment to begin to give way. In the face of her rude behavior, Gordon's simple goodness prevailed. Without even trying, he broke through to her world by accepting her just the way she was – loving her despite her inability to love back.

            Gordon's goodwill punched a small hole in the great dam she'd been constructing, at tremendous emotional expense, for decades. The dam held back the rivers of God's care for her. It had pushed back the currents of concerns that flowed from those who loved her. Most of all, Kathy's dam had stifled her magnificent potential to love others. And now the dam was breached, once and for all.

            The hole in the dam only grew in the aftermath. When her turn came to give a speech on the topic of her choice, Kathy offered up a heart-rending exercise in vulnerability titled, "Snake or Savior?" She laid bare her terror of reaching out to God for fear of being bitten one more time. Her soul, she explained, could bear no further scars.

            The floodgates fully opened. Kathy finally did what had seemed unthinkable just a day or two earlier, she placed her trust in the only One who could heal her bruised heart. She faced her Maker honestly, willingly, and without reservation.

            The transformation was instantaneous and dramatic. When she returned to her job, her coworkers didn't recognize her. She looked younger and carried herself more lightly. Anger, bitterness, had been erased from her face. Kathy was at peace, but that was only the beginning. Her marriage flourished and grew.

            Today Kathy has become what she most dreaded. She is the pastor of a small church on the East Coast. She teaches at the same workshop for God's love that finally in broke through in her life. Among those fortunate enough to enter the realm of her ministry, she demonstrates an uncanny gift of reaching beyond the aching defenses of life's walking wounded. The embittered Kathy who hurled stones at every Christian in sight is gone forever. The Kathy of today is a joyful spirit who lavishes time and love on the elderly and dying. She speaks passionately to audiences about the power of reaching people by loving them where they are, the adventure of entering the world of people like Helen:

            "I met Helen," Kathy begins, "when she was 101 years old. She was my hospice patient for months. They finally kicked her out of the program when she turned 102 because she was doing too well to qualify. That's Helen all over. The last I heard, she was celebrating her 103rd birthday. Helen was one of the most joyful people I've ever known. This elderly saint had a gentle, laughing spirit. She was alert and conversant, delighting in our visits. But Helen's reality was not our reality, she lived in a world of her own. The people who populated her days were people I couldn't see or hear. They were ghosts from her past – old memories would come to life again for Helen. I knew I had both feet in the real world. I asked myself how I could somehow meet Helen in the special place in which she lived. I had to learn how to step through the portal into her world.

            One day, as my son and I were visiting with Helen, she picked up some cloth that was invisible to us. She straightened her needle and thread, neither of which we could see – she began to sew a phantom sweater with meticulously perfect stitches. She smiled brightly as we discussed the delicacy of the fabric and the neat rows of thread. But her hands apparently became clumsy. She dropped the sewing needle. Then my son and I were down on the floor on our hands and knees, peering under tables and chairs. We found ourselves joining in the search for a needle that existed only in Helen's mind. Helen's world had indeed become ours.

            That's why I'm wearing tonight, in Helen's honor, the sweater she made me…"

            At this point, Kathy turns slowly, 360°, to show us a sweater that doesn't exist.

There's no thread or cloth, no buttons or color. But it's a mantle of salt and grace... just as Paul asks of Believers, 6"Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone."  Two examples in that story of "outsiders" touched by God, through unlikely opportunities and the witness of two of his children.

We have a job to do

·         This is not just Paul's mission - to do evangelism. It is our mission as a Church and as followers of Christ - to share the Good news! To help, to encourage, to instruct, to model, to lead, others into a saving knowledge of who Jesus Christ is - so that they will repent, believe, and, and know God's grace and salvation.  Right?!

·         Colossians 4:5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

·         "Be Wise." Wisdom comes from God, of course.  I still say it, it used to be kind of my motto, "Wisdom is not just what to do, but how to do it."  We need to call all the world to repent, but they will listen if how we say it is full of salt and grace.  This is God's plan and way of doing things,  mine sounds more like, "Duh..." "Uhm..."

·         The Colossian's speech is to be Salty.  In our idiom, salty language is something replete with profanities, but obviously that is not Paul's meaning. 'Seasoned with salt' was used to refer to witty, amusing, clever, humorous speech. Their saltiness will prevent them from being ignored as irrelevant bores, or legalistic preachers. Because as believers we live in a hostile context, we need to have our answers ready for those who challenge or curious about their faith.

·         "Witty, amusing, clever..." salty speech - no pressure there. In the last week I've tried to get junior hires to tell jokes. I printed off all kinds of jokes. It was such a fail. If there internal batteries were not on 5%, making them punchy and silly, there would have been no laughs at all. They were simply laughing that my jokes were such a joke. "You call these jokes?" Actually, come to think of it - they were probably laughing at me... I was the joke. But how can I compare to Youtube, Tiktok and a culture that thrives on being coarse, etc. And I'm not a cute kitten loop either.  I can't compete. Nor should I.

·         To succeed in making them laugh like they do with other forms of media, means that I must rise or in this case, descend, to that level.  And this is my first critique of typical Christian Witness - we just blend in.  And if we just blend in - we are not witnessing/saying anything... we are just more noise.  Understand?  WE HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY. Or at least we should.

·         Thumbing through a book that had gathered dust in my office, I came across a friend's business card. She is a photographer. Right now, actually, she's about 95% wife and mother, but every once in a while she gets to be a photographer. I was struck by how handsome her business card was/is. It has a headshot of her looking off over the Mexican countryside, but it wasn't a glamour shot. They look very natural and looked very much her, the wind causing strands of hair to cover her face in places. It's a picture so I'm already fond of it, but since I hadn't seen it in a long time I looked at it more objectively and just thought it was, well, perfect. And it needs to be, it is for photographer. I'm just gonna say, if it had been a 'selfie' with her arm stretched out in front of her, half in the picture, I would've been disappointed and thought that I can be just as good a photographer as her. What does a Christian's business card look like?

·         My second critique of Christian Witness is this, far too often Christians have a reputation for being judgmental.  Especially since politics is our currency these days and the silent majority has been whittled down to a silent minority with both the left and the right becoming quite noisy!

·         A Christian's business card should look like GRACE.  This is the Good News, right?! Some will say, "Repent! And God will love you." Or, we can tell them some Good News, "God loves you, would you willingly now give your life to God?"  This is the whole idea behind us playing with our Worship order and saying the Assurance of our Pardon first in order to encourage repentance.  Our Worship order is geared toward "Insiders" and not "Outsiders," so we aren't going to change it... probably, though we can, of course.  The point is that our business card needs to be Grace... It will be heard, it will sound nothing like the world around us, it will not be just more noise... and  it will not be boring, it is not legalistic, it is truth, it embodies the word and work of our Savior.

·         Romans 2:4 "Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?"

Conclusion

·         I'm actually going backwards through our scripture for the day... here are the first verses we read,

2Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.

So just a word, in conclusion, about Paul's starting place in all this - Prayer.

·         My usual soapbox when it comes to prayer, is the say that, "Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but laying hold of God's willingness."  This is how Christians tend to pray, as if they are trying to coerce God to act. As if they have to plead their case and convince God to answer their prayer. Or, I'll say out loud what is implied, to convince God to answer their prayer in the manner in which they want it answered. But, now that I snuck that in there - got to say it again... this is what I want you to understand today...

My natural inclination is to want an Apple, I don't want seeds.

·         When it comes to evangelism, we can be so timid. We just want answers to our prayers, and it's a different thing to yield to the answers God would give us. It's hard for us to speak of Christian things to outsiders, it's hard for us to stand out, it's hard for us to endure ridicule, it can be hard for us to defend our faith. And so we are hesitant to do it. Sure, we know we are to do evangelism, but we want to be there when the Apple is fully ripe and falls from the tree. I volunteer to catch it - Woo hoo! But for most of the life of that apple, they all start as a seed and it has to grow and be watered and grow and be watered and see the sunshine and grow and be watered until the final point when that outsider has ripened and matured gives their life over to the creator. Pray for the Harvest, but pray also for the laborers and seed planters.

As fellow Christian, as a co-laborers with Christ, I see that beautiful invisible sweater.  The world does not, cannot, without faith, but I know you are on a mission.  We are all on a mission. 4"Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should"...  and I will pray that you "may proclaim it clearly, as you should."