you don't need to be protected from god

 

 

Final Discipleship Sermon:

This is the final Discipleship Sermon, next we will transition to another area of discipleship - Stewardship.

For this last Discipleship Sermon, though, it felt fitting to move from the stories of the Bible to part of the continued story of God; to Trinity's story – to our story...

It is interesting, though, how our history stops well before the present -about 40 years ago; and how the history somewhat focuses on the building...

I can explain why the history has such a particular emphasis and why it stops when it does by noting some moments in the lives of folks gathered here, of you all:

When many of you grew up there was no question that you would be a Christian...

In fact, the biggest threat was that some cute Lutheran would come around and bat her eyelashes at one of those Catholics - and then one Catholic would go over to the dark-side.

(Now hear me clearly, I am not condemning this method! In fact, it worked on me when I thought I was an atheist. Her name was Johanna Neibuhr (just the name brings back memories of her kissing ability) - So for you singles out there, if that's how you want to convert folks, you have my full blessing!)

You see my point, though; when many of ya'll grew up, it was just taken for granted that you'd be Christian...

That isn't the case anymore, though...

In fact, when I grew up it wasn't scandalous or odd to know people who didn't go to church, and who didn't even know about God.

Furthermore, when I was in college, there were no consequences, other than upsetting my loving family, to stating that, not only did I not believe, but that I was an atheist.

(that was before Johanna started dragging me to Lutheran services...)

That was over ten years ago!

In just that short amount of time there has been so much change.

The youth we have here, they are the minority - or they will be... if they even stick with this faith.

It is becoming less and less common to be Christian.

I am not trying to scare us, I am just trying to point out, how in less than a lifetime, everything has changed so quickly.

I've been reading, and it seems the Lutheran church in North America stopped growing when we stopped starting new churches.

Research has shown that the most important factor in determining when we stopped growing, is when we stopped starting new churches.

It is speculated that once we stopped starting these new communities -which obviously, Trinity was once a new church- once we stopped starting new churches, we stopped growing because we stopped focusing on growth and shifted to maintenance...

A bit ago we stopped building new churches, and even less long ago we assumed everyone was Christian;

that assumption isn't true any longer...

Here, let me make the point a bit more starkly.

At this conference I was just at, one of the presenters was talking about sermon lengths...

The presenter was saying that those sermons right in the middle - 15 to 20 minute sermons (that's right! 15 to 20 minutes, that is a middle length sermon...), that those sermons are disappearing; sermons are either getting longer or shorter.

Then the presenter said something interesting, the most important factor in determining how long a sermon is, is the average age of the congregation...

Now, when the presenter said this, an older pastor next to me mumbled, "kids today, they have no attention span, except for the five minutes between commercials."

"The younger the average age of the congregation," the presenter stated, "the longer the sermon."

That pastor who was complaining to himself looked up a bit surprised.

"You see," the presenter went on, "young people know they don't know - they're willing to listen to this Gospel. It's the folks who think they know this stuff, who want the sermons shorter."

*Okay, I'll stop lobbying to have longer sermons, but you see my point...

No longer do we live in a culture where it is just assumed everyone is a Christian. In fact, now it is somewhat of an oddity for folks to be Christian - just by your presence here, in the world we now live in, you're putting yourself in the minority, the minority of people who gather to worship...

Now, it is worth noting that the person saying this is someone who didn't grow up Lutheran. I am someone who knows what we have to offer is something good, something that needs, that is begging to be declared.

That is why when I look around and watch the Lutheran church decline, Christianity decline - all while the only Christian representatives to grow are Pentecostals and the like, I worry...

I worry...

More on that later, but suffice it to say, this message we all take for granted, is one the world isn't hearing anymore.

We can tell the world isn’t hearing this message by noting the attendance that is declining at Lutheran church after Lutheran church.

Here's the tragedy, though; this message we take for granted and the world isn't hearing, is a message folks are, literally, dying to hear.

That's why younger folks are willing to sit for longer sermons, they know they need to hear this stuff...

Here's an example of how the world longs for this message:

There is a Guinness commercial that is pretty popular. It features sweaty guys playing basketball pretty intensely.

Slowly the camera pans and we notice the players are all in wheelchairs. For a few more seconds we watch these players sweat it out, all while music builds in the background.

Finally the buzzer sounds, and all of the characters stand from their wheelchairs, except for one. Then the narrator says, “Dedication. Loyalty. Friendship. The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character.”

Then the camera cuts to all the players our getting a drink, Guinness of course…

 

After watching the commercial I thought, Guinness is a spirit, but it is not the Holy Spirit!

I mean, c’mon drinking a brand of beer can’t make us into people of good character.

Only God can do that…

Here's the tragic irony, though, We Give This Promise Away For Free!

And it isn't beer that once it's used up its gone that we give, we give the real-deal here!

We give grace!

 

We declare the promise, the promise that God loves you No Matter What. We give away the promise the world longs for, the promise than can change everything, that can soften these hearts of stone!

Each week this promise is proclaimed, it is given to be chewed and swallowed, it is given to be taken by people who can and can't afford that brand of soap.

You see what I am saying?

The world is literally dying for this promise!

The world is so longing for this promise that some have found a way to make money on it, without actually giving the promise.

And it is a promise we all too often take for granted...

 

Here, let me tell you a little about myself...

I grew up Pentecostal, strict, conservative.

In middle school I had regular nightmare that I was going to die and in those dream as my fate fell upon me, I knew I was going to go to hell...

I WAS 14!

14...

So, when I randomly ended up at an ELCA college, taking my required religion class about Martin Luther, I couldn't believe there were Christians who said, "God saves you, regardless of how good or bad you are, that God saves you just because God loves you!"

In fact, you want to know something, when I found out there were people in that class who had gone to catechism and learned this stuff in middle-school, I was mad!

I couldn't believe there were people who heard this promise all their life and were just sitting there like it didn't mean anything; like it didn't change everything!

 

My mother has a similar story, too.

She grew up Catholic and then found her way into a Pentecostal church. So it took a while for her to end up in a Lutheran church, but one day she told me that she wished she had shared more grace with all of us growing up.

 

I am simply making the point that this promise we hear week in and week out really is good news, it literally saves lives!

If Dr. Jones hadn't been there to tell me that Jesus died with all of my sins, I hate to imagine what would have happened to me....

 

See, I can tell you first-hand how the world is dying to hear this promise, this promise we all too often take for granted, the promise Jesus literally died for...

I believe I can tell you first-hand how this promise changes everything.

You know, I never wanted to be a pastor because it seemed like a job I would like.

I am a pastor because I know the world needs to hear the message we have, and I just pray God can use me.

 

I am just trying to make the point that I am someone who knows what good news this Lutheran doctrine is because I am something of an outsider to your tradition, and I worry as "Lutheran" church after church decline...

Now, after spending time with Lutherans, I think I've put my finger on a big reason why we're declining:

We're not good at sharing this good news, it isn't easy for us...

In fact, we really haven't been trained for it...

As we noted at the start of this sermon, when many of us were born it was assumed everyone was Christian, all we had to do was make sure our house was in order, and then those Christians would find their way in.

I mean, we didn't need or have to go out and reach to -ew! pagans!

You see what I mean, though?

Trinity's history focused on buildings because it was assumed that everyone was a Christian. To do mission with that assumption simply meant building gathering places for all those Christians waiting to come in...

Everyone was Christian!

Or so we thought!

So to do "evangelism," all we had to do was create a place for people to worship at, to come in to...

But now everything has changed.

Mission is completely the reverse of those old assumptions!

Just having a beautiful place to worship isn't enough anymore. In fact, when we start to think our place is all we need to worry about, this place becomes a hindrance to mission...

 

What we are be called to today, is to go out to a world longing for our message and declare that promise.

As Saint Paul quipped in Romans, "how are they to believe if they have not heard? And how are they to hear unless someone proclaims?"

How is the world, how are our neighbors going to believe if we're not telling them?

As we noted, though, we're not good at this whole sharing business, it's uncomfortable to us.

I can tell how most of us are uncomfortable with this, when I ask us all to contemplate and maybe even, heaven forbid, share where we hope the Holy Spirit will show up here.

Here's the thing, though, if we can't say in church, next to the folks we regularly worship with, where we hope the Holy Spirit will show up, we'll never share this life-giving news, we'll never invite someone here.

There is a method to the madness!

I am asking us all to practice this so we can get good at something that is new to us, something we haven't needed to do in the past; most importantly something the world is longing for us to do!

Now I worry I am being a little bit rough…

As I've said before, though; I don't believe God needs me to protect you, I think God intends to make disciples out of folks like you, and me, out of us.

You know, once I heard that good news fall from the lips of that Lutheran pastor, everything changed;

and I believe with every ounce of me that promise can change everything here, too;

and I believe that we can be the messengers sharing a promise that will change other's lives!

You want to know what I really think, I really think Trinity is Burlington's best kept secret.

(All too often when I tell people I am the pastor at Trinity, they have no idea what I am talking about…)

And you know, that is tragic!

Not long ago I was dying for a place like this.

For a place like Trinity.

This place, what we have to offer, should NOT be a secret.

This place, what we have to offer, needs to be proclaimed.

As Father Paul said last week, "we are the envy of many congregations."

Have we thought of ourselves like that lately?

Have we gone to our neighborhood, to our neighbors and confidently stated, "Come and See,' you want to be a part of this"?

As Jesus proclaims to us in today's Gospel, we who trust will do greater things than Jesus ever did. We will do this because Jesus has given us the same work to do that he did, proclaim the good news.

And that is a promise we can count on...

 

 

Let's end this sermon with a comission, proclaiming that indeed we are sent to do this work. When we feel we're not up to the job we can remember this comission that was declared over all of us.

Commission:

O God, you sent our Savior Jesus to call all people to faith. First to the house of Israel and then to all the world, your word was preached and your love proclaimed in deed. Strengthen and bless all gathered here in the ministry of witness and service, that they may boldly proclaim the good news of salvation and reconciliation through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Amen.