Sermon Video: "Always be prepared" - I Peter 3:15

How did you come to have faith in Jesus Christ?  For the majority of Christians, the answer involves the influence of a family member, friend, co-worker, or neighbor, in other words, a personal relationship with someone who was already a Christian.  In I Peter 3:15, we find Peter’s instructions for the preparation necessary for Christians in order to be ready to answer questions about their faith.  For his original audience, the situation involved persecution, for many Christians around the world that holds true today, but for Americans it is often complacency or apathy that stand in the way of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

                For Peter, step one in sharing the Gospel is ensuring that our own hearts and minds are ready.  Our hearts need to recognize that Jesus is Lord, an attitude that influences our priorities and how we live, and we need to prepare our minds by understanding our faith, what it means and how it saved us, for how else can we share that critical information?

                Once our own house is in order, Peter encourages us to be prepared to answer questions, which is the opposite of most approaches to evangelism which focus upon the Christian initiating the conversation.  Peter anticipates these questions because he knows that the hope that Christians have within them will prompt questions from people living in a world without it.  Hope is a rare commodity, and a valuable one, so when Christians live without despair, because they know who holds the future, and they live for tomorrow by investing in others, because they are servants of God, it gets noticed by others.

                When the question is asked, whatever form it ends up taking, how are we to respond?  Peter makes it clear that the sharing of the Gospel must be with gentleness and respect, which seems to be an area that we as Christians have failed often enough to live up to.  How can we ensure that we have the right attitude as we share the Gospel?  Before thinking about how you will respond, try listening to the person asking the question first, when you dignify the person asking the question by taking that question seriously, rather than itching to give a pre-determined response, the results will follow.  We must be prepared, we must be ready, and we must have hope overflowing in our lives so that others will ask us that all important question.

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Christmas Eve Sermon Video: "the true light that gives light to every man" - John 1:9

It is fitting that we surround our celebration of Christmas with light, there was much light at the original Christmas, from the brightness of the angles speaking to the shepherds, to the star which guided the magi.  The prologue of the Gospel of John also speaks of the light of Christmas, John calls Jesus, “the true light that gives light to every man”.  Humanity was living in darkness, Jesus brought the light with him because he was the light.  During his lifetime, the light of Jesus was clearly visible to those who knew him, but after his departure back to the Father, what light was left among men?  The light of Christ now shines forth through his people, with the power of the Holy Spirit, to likewise illuminate a dark world and let the truth of God’s love be known.  It is indeed fitting to celebrate light at Christmas, that is a light everyone needs, and the people of God must share.

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Sermon Video: "The Word became flesh" - John 1:14

“The Word became flesh”, those words begin John 1:14 and themselves are filled to overflowing with meaning.  The incarnation of Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God now joined together with human flesh and blood in a Bethlehem manger, becomes the pivot point of history as divinity is combined with humanity in God’s all-out effort to restore humanity to fellowship with him.  This dual nature of Jesus, far from being just an interested fact, is an essential element in the Gospel message itself that cannot be watered-down because the essence of the Good News is that our faith is IN Jesus Christ, the God-man.  What he accomplished while here on earth is entirely connected with who he was.

                The phrase after that first one is equally full of implications, “and made his dwelling among us.”  To Jewish readers, this harkens back to the term used to describe God’s portable dwelling with his people, the Tabernacle.  God tabernacled with his people, dwelling among them, but in a very unapproachable way, within the Holy of Holies, only accessible once per year on the Day of Atonement, and only by the High Priest.  Now, with the incarnation, God through Jesus is reaching out, letting the children sit on his lap, talking with people, having lunch with “sinners”, and even reaching out his hand to touch the untouchable lepers.  God is “with us” in a far more dramatic way, a step that paves the way for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to dwell within those who follow Jesus.

                The last third of the verse speaks of the glory of Jesus, an example of the unique glory of God, and the grace and truth that he brought with him.  The glory revealed within Jesus is another reminder of how far short humanity has fallen from that of our Creator, the coming of the Christ was an act of grace designed to rectify that deficit, and the truth preached by Jesus is that he himself is the way through which we can be saved.  Thus Christmas is indeed a time for celebration, a time to commemorate the coming of the Way, the Truth, and the Life to dwell among us, to be one of us, and to save us.

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Sermon Video: "to become children of God", John 1:10-13

As the prologue to the Gospel of John continues, John writes of the lack of reception of the Word of God by first his own creation, which did not recognize him, and then his own people, who did not receive him.  This rejection, both baffling and ironic, could have been a disaster for humanity, but God’s mercy triumphed over man’s obstinacy to extend God’s grace to “all who received him” regardless of who they might be.  That God would continue to work to forgive humanity despite the difficulties that effort continues to encounter is certainly a testament to the mercy of God, but John’s explanation of God’s actions doesn’t stop at his mercy, it continues to and showcases God’s grace.  Those who do receive the Word, the Christ, are not only forgiven, but far beyond that they are also given the “right to become children of God”.  God is not only willing to forgive, and avert the wrath we had earned through rebellion, but also desires to reconcile humanity to himself by making those who accept him part of his family.  This spiritual adoption is a blessing unlooked for, and certainly one that is not capable of being earned, a true act of Amazing Grace from God to us.  What does it mean to be a “child of God”?  There are rights and privileges that come with it, but in the end the most important thing may be the knowledge that God chose you as his own, he loved you enough to seek you out, and that is certainly a reason to know joy at Christmas.

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"No Earthly Good", in defense of Ecumenism

I recently experienced my first significant resistance to our efforts through Mustard Seed Missions to work ecumenically to help the needy.  Thankfully, this opposition did not come from anyone in my church, or even anyone here in our community or in one of the forty churches we partner with.  The objection to the work of Mustard Seed Missions came from people who had no direct knowledge of our work, but rather only an objection to the principle of ecumenism, in most of its forms, regardless of its application in our case and without any first-hand, or even second-hand knowledge of what it is that we actually do for people here in Venango County in the name of Christ.

It did of course bother me somewhat, and sadden me, to know that sincere Christians would object to a ministry that has brought so much hope and brotherly love not only to our clients but to our churches, but it didn’t really surprise me.  There is a long standing tradition in Church history of choosing principles over people in the sense that the people involved are considered to be casualties of the need to hold on tightly to principles and therefore such casualties are regrettable but not avoidable.  As I pondered this situation this morning I was reminded of a song that I knew as a kid that was covered by the Oak Ridge Boys but originally written and sung by Johnny Cash, “No earthly good”.  A portion of the third verse speaks to this point: “If you're holdin' heaven then spread it around, There are hungry hands reaching up here from the ground, Move over and share the high ground where you stood, So heavenly minded and you're no earthly good”.

Principles are an important thing, the fundamentals of the Christian faith are an essential part of what defines us that we cannot afford to lose.  That being said, the fractured and varied Church that exists today is the reality with which we must work.  In an ideal world, there would only be one Church, all in doctrinal agreement and all correctly following the Word of God.  In case you haven’t noticed, this isn’t an ideal world.  We have two primary choices then as we face the reality of the divisions within the Church of Jesus Christ: #1 Build a wall around our church to avoid the “corrupting” influence of the theology of churches that we object to and only work with completely like-minded people for the kingdom of God #2 Work with all of our sister churches for the sake of the lost even though we have important differences in our theology.

As someone who grew up enjoying the hard-nosed theology of the Apostle Paul, I can see the appeal of taking a stand on principle, but the words of Jesus Christ compel me forward, “whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”  In a world of darkness, I choose to seek out other lights that shine besides my own, together we will shine brighter as we share the light of Jesus Christ.