Rev. Richard Smith
| This blog post is a slightly amended version of a sermon I preached yesterday on Pentecost Sunday at First Methodist Frankfort, Ky. |
| Matthew 16:18 Words of Jesus On this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her. |
The question for us this Pentecost 2022 is, What does it mean to be a faithful Church; to be a Church which honors Jesus. Here are four insights.
A Faithful Church Welcomes Everyone
One of my favorite anecdotal stories is the one about the minister inviting the children down to the chancel area for the children’s time. Once all the children had gotten to the front he held up a picture of a frog and said, “Now, children, what is this?” In unison the children joyfully said, “A frog!” Then the minister said, “Now when you see this picture, what does it make you think of?” Immediately one little boy shot up his hand and said, “God!” The minister responded, “Well, son, that’s good; but why does this picture make you think of God?” To which the little boy replied, “Well, I knew you didn’t bring us all the way down here to talk about frogs.”
I like that kid. He got it right. You see, first and foremost worship is about God. It’s not primarily about you and it’s not primarily about me; it’s primarily about God. Worship is about glorifying God; about listening to God; about affirming that God is worthy of our time, our attention, our praise, and our obedience.
A faithful Church understands this!
A Faithful Church Welcomes Everyone
A notable literary conversation takes place in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It happens when Tom explains to Huck Finn why can’t be a part of his gang. The conversation goes like this…
- Tom: Huck, we can’t let you into our gang if you ain’t respectable, you know?
- Huck: Can’t let me in, Tom? Now, Tom, ain’t you always been friendly to me? You wouldn’t shut me out, would you, Tom? You wouldn’t do that, would you, Tom?
- Tom: Huck, I don’t want to. But what would people say? Why they’d say, ‘Hmm, Tom Sawyer’s gang. Pretty low characters in it? They’d mean you, Huck. You wouldn’t like that and I wouldn’t. Huck, we just can’t let you into our gang if you ain’t respectable.”
Those, my friends, are haunting words….We can’t let you if you ain’t respectable. They are haunting because innumerable people in our culture feel like we the Church expect them to be respectable by our standards of respectability before they are welcome.
Now contrast Tom Sawyer’s words with the words of Jesus; with the inviting, hospitable words of Jesus: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.(Matthew 11:28)
God wants a Church where the excluded can feel welcome, can feel included?
Does this mean welcoming those with varied sexual preferences? Yes.
Does this mean welcoming those with morally tainted lives? Yes.
Does this mean welcoming those whose beliefs are fragile or suspect or even non-existent? Yes.
Does this mean welcoming those who don’t fit in culturally and socially with us? Yes.
Does this mean welcoming those who don’t have their spiritual and moral act together? Yes.
God wants a Church which graciously and gladly welcomes everyone!!
A Faithful Church Is Committed To Helping The Hurting
We have now lived in Frankfort, Kentucky for four years. You know something interesting? The primary human hurts in Frankfort are the same as those in Memphis, Tennessee…poverty and hunger, drug addiction, homelessness, educational inequity, and ethnic prejudice.
Practically every community where Christian churches reside has these same problems. And while many, many churches have developed caring outreach ministries, the sad truth is in so many places the needs far outpace the resources. We each can and should step up in our generosity and volunteer commitments toward addressing these very real problems.
A faithful Church will continuously assess its commitment to the hurting and what it should do that it’s not now doing. After all, Jesus said, Be compassionate just as God is compassionate (Luke 6:36). We can’t be true to Jesus and not do all we can to help meet human hurt challenges!
A Faithful Church Will Seek To Share Jesus
Unfortunately, so much bad evangelism has caused many a Jesus follower to be reticent in sharing Jesus’ message and personhood.
Evangelism, of course, is sharing the good news of the person and message of Jesus of Nazareth.
When I speak of bad evangelism, I’m referencing judgmental, insensitive, arrogant ways of letting folks know the name Jesus. It’s evangelism that assumes absolute truth and could care less about the perceptions, feelings, and insights of those not on the same wave length.
But, we can do good evangelism…
- Talking about Jesus without seeking to impose Jesus on others;
- Standing solid in our commitment to Jesus without denigrating other religious traditions and belief systems;
- Articulating why Jesus matters to us while listening to where others are and allowing them their own journey.
After all, God has given none of us the privilege of judging others!
