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LINKS TO THE SERMONS |
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| “Mission Impossible” “To make disciples of Christ and served as Christ served.” I hope you have noticed that this statement has appeared in the past few weeks. It’s on the front of the order of worship and on signs here and there. It’s a sort of working mission statement for our church. It came out of the work of our long range planning committee with the consultant. Rather than press for its official adoption, they decided just to float it around a little and live with it a while. Try it on for size. Run it up the flag pole and see who salutes. The first half of it is the mission statement for our denomination, “To make disciples of Christ.” Then they had to go and add that second part which upped the ante quite a bit. Serving isn’t the issue; that’s what disciples of Christ do. Part of the task of making disciples of Christ is getting them into a servant mode and providing them opportunities to do so. This church does that as well as any I know. We are people who act out our discipleship in service, through programs at the church, community organizations, and in dozens of one on one relationships. The problem isn’t serving; it is that last part – serving as Christ served. I don’t mind serving but I want to go home after work and sleep in my own bed. Jesus didn’t have a place to lay his head. I don’t mind serving but I expect my service to be acknowledged by the society: maybe a plaque for being citizen of the year or my name engraved on some granite wall somewhere. Jesus met mostly ridicule, resistance and rejection – never got on the cover of Time or made “Person of the Week.” I don’t mind serving but I want to serve people who really appreciate my efforts, basically good people like me. Jesus served the lowest of the low: prostitutes, beggars, tax collectors who collaborated with the Romans, cripples and lepers. I don’t mind serving but when I get old I want a comfortable retirement and peace and quiet to reflect back over my years of service. You know how it ended up for Jesus. One of the main subjects of debate at the Annual Conference that concluded last Sunday, was about funding our conference pension program and providing health insurance for retired clergy. These are subjects I care about and so do Fred and Peggy. But, if we served as Christ served, we wouldn’t need to have a pension program because none of us would make it that far. At the beginning of the Methodist Church in America when the circuit riders spread out across the wilderness armed with nothing but a Bible and the fire of the Holy Spirit, the average life expectancy for them was to the age of 28 – and they knew that going in. “To make disciples of Christ and serve as Christ served,” that mission statement would work for them. Maybe we could shorten ours to say, “Make disciples of Christ and serve.” It was after the Easter event. The disciples were frightened, disoriented, directionless. Peter spoke up and said, “When the going gets tough, the tough go fishing.” The rest said, “Me too.” Then Jesus showed up on the beach; he had already made them disciples but now he needed to remind them about the last part of the mission statement. As usual, Peter bore the weight of the rebuke that was aimed at them all. His stomach pleasantly filled with fresh fish, the conversation came that Peter knew was coming. Jesus minced no words but went right to the question that was at the heart of it all, “Peter, do you love me?” That’s what it comes down to for us all. Do you love me? Of course I love you. I left my home and fishing boat in Galilee and followed you around for nearly four years. Do you love me? Of course I love you! I went to Jerusalem with you and risked my life in doing so; I chanted Hosanna on Palm Sunday with the Roman army glairing at me. I sat with you at our last supper, and prayed with you in the garden and raised my sword to defend you when they came to take you away. Do you love me? If you love me, feed my lambs -tend my sheep. If you love Christ, serve as Christ served. Short
of that last part, the mission statement is just another high sounding
slogan. Our mission is to make disciples of Christ and serve as Christ served. If this were Mission Impossible there would be a voice that would say, “This tape will self destruct in five seconds.” But the call to the impossible mission doesn’t go away, in five seconds or five lifetimes. It is the ground upon which we stand and the challenge that gives us life. It’s not so pure and romantic as jumping on your horse with a Bible under your arm and riding off into the wilderness. It’s about mundane things like political and social and economic realities. And this church stands today because you have navigated those complexities as committed disciples of Christ serving as he served and you have the fruit to show for it. Were you here last Sunday when our youth conducted our worship service? Did you see a dozen or fifteen young people in their teens stand up and declare their commitment as disciples of Christ? You watch the news and see the terrible statistics about youth in gangs, involved with drugs and crime. But, last Sunday a dozen or fifteen youth stood up in this place and declared their commitment to the way of Christ. Twenty-five percent of the violent crime in America is committed by teenagers. But, last Sunday, a dozen or fifteen of them stood in this church and committed themselves to the way of the Prince of Peace. About two and a half million teens are arrested every year; there are currently more that 100,000 teens in prison. But, last Sunday a dozen or fifteen… Those dozen or fifteen young people stood and made that affirmation because you invited them to be disciples and nurtured them and they caught the vision of what that might mean and grasped and affirmed that lofty mission. That happened for those young people because this church is here, in this place. And because you understand what it takes to keep the church here, that being the church also involves paying the electric bill and liability insurance, and maintenance of buildings and salaries and a dozen other things that are not awe inspiring but are essential if we are going to own the mission, to make disciples of Christ and serve as Christ served. For both the years I have been here our budget has increased steeply. Ten per cent of the increase has nothing to do with added program. It’s just the increased cost of doing business. This fall we will be presenting a budget with a sizable increase with no knew programs or ministries. The cost of existing in this place is growing faster than the congregation’s ability to pay the tab, especially in these difficulty economic times. The church has to have other sources of income if we are going to see future generations of young people stand up and proclaim Christ in our midst as we did last Sunday. The opportunity is available to us to not only serve Christ for our lifetime but to serve with our means after we have moved on. Today Jan is here to speak to a group of our long term members about planned giving through our estates. We will be offering other opportunities for the rest of you. What I wanted you to see today is the important connection between this bold mission statement and our accumulated wealth – to see it in the practical terms of young lives transformed as we did in this place last Sunday morning. Someone asked me at Annual Conference how I was enjoying my appointment at Covina and I rather flippantly responded that “finally the bishop had appointed me to a church that was worth saving.” But it is this mission statement and your seriousness about acting on it that makes my statement true – and there are those dozen or fifteen young people who stood up here last Sunday and committed their lives to Christ that make me sure that this church needs to be here on this corner where future generations commit themselves to discipleship to Christ and learn the joy of serving as Christ served. “Do you love me?” was the question
Jesus put to Peter. He asked it three times because the song and
dance he was getting from Peter wasn’t what he had in mind.
So he made it simple for Peter and for us in this church; “If
you love me, tend my lambs. If you love me, feed my sheep.” Do you just want to read one of the many great sermons from our wonderful staff? We will keep a few months up here at the site. As always if you would like a DVD of a service please contact the church office. Thank you for visiting us. |
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