WHO is THE MAN? RESCUE MISSION SERMON

June 21, 2009

On the Third and Fourth Sundays of every month a team from Central United Methodist Church leads the Sunday morning worship services at the Atlantic City Rescue Mission. I will be posting the written sermons from the Mission on the blog while admitting that the Holy Spirit frequently leads me to vary from the prepared text.
 

It is my prayer that the message of the sermon blesses you as you read it.
 

There is a song by the group the WHO that goes WHO ARE YOU? WHO? WHO? Now, I don’t know the history of the song that obviously celebrates the group’s own name but there is a question that is out there whenever I hear it played … especially the end that goes “TELL ME WHO ARE YOU?”
 

This morning I have two questions for all of us who are gathered here in worship to think about on this Father’s Day … the first is exactly the question from that song … TELL ME WHO ARE YOU? Really … in this life that we live there are few things that we can truly control and one of them is who we are. My second question and this is directly related to the first is WHO is GOD … WHO is the CREATOR … or as one of my friends likes to call Him … WHO IS THE MAN?
 

My brothers and sisters … I want to tell you something you know … life grabs at you and pulls at you and takes you into it’s living hell all too easily every single day. You and you and me … we can easily slip away from the people God wants us to be and become people of the world almost without thinking. I hate to say this but … I need to say it … if you don’t embrace God … if you don’t take God’s love and make it part of who you are … if you haven’t found the saving grace of Jesus Christ … well then you’re stuck with no option other than being part of this world’s pattern of hate, greed, personal destruction, stress, and misery.
 

The powers and demons of the world do not really care for you in the least … yes, there are some people who will do good deeds and some people who will show compassion and they might not know who God is but if it’s inner peace you want … if you want true happiness … if you so desperately need to experience a changed life even if everything else is beyond your control then it is going to take a decision by you … that decision is to actively and every day become a new person directly tied to God … you have to give up the greed … you have to give up the hate … you have to give up the vices and evil activities that only give you a moment’s pleasure … you cannot be the person the world wants but instead you have to become a reflection of who God wants, which means loving everyone, biting your lip when you want to say something that hurts, forgiving even when you really don’t want to give up the fight … TELL ME WHO ARE YOU?
 

This past week, some one wrote a letter to THE PRESS of Atlantic City. The letter was about the new discoveries of science. Its author said that all of these new discoveries that are beyond what any of us can understand prove that there is no God. The letter writer said it is “nice” to pray to a ghost but that there isn’t anything beyond what man controls.

I had to laugh … and then to cry. I believe that what science is showing us is that there MUST be a master plan … the CREATION and the UNIVERSE is beyond man’s comprehension. If ever it makes sense for God to exist it is now because there is no other way to explain the pattern and immensity of the UNIVERSE except by admitting that a higher power made the creation.
 

I see God every day in the limited parts of creation that I see.
 

In our reading from Job the questions are put out for those who question WHO GOD IS. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” No matter how smart we think we are … my friends we weren’t there.
 

I love God’s challenge to Job, “Who determined earth’s measurements? Surely you know!” And, God continues … “Who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?”
 

This brief section of Job in the midst of all the pressures and challenges that Job was facing in his life gives insight into the power of God, the power of creation and to me is a stronger statement of God’s creative power that is beyond our understanding than the Creation Story from Genesis. Here is God telling Job and telling us … that we just don’t have the minds to really figure it out but when we look around we should be smart enough to ‘get it’ that there is a higher power … a GOD who created it all … and through his Holy Word we can find out that this same God who created it all …

Even though Job was going through his living hell … God wasn’t giving up on him but God was challenging him to realize that he needed to accept God’s reality.

There is an old ‘chicken and egg’ joke that I think tells us the story best …
 

QUESTION – WHICH CAME FIRST, the chicken or the egg?

ANSWER – The chicken, of course. God couldn’t lay an egg.
 

The sad fact my friends … there are a lot of people who brush God the creator off … who think that they know better than God as to making life decisions … for some of them it’s pure arrogance … other’s it might even be fear of losing personal control to another power … some it is ignorance … and I really can’t get into the head of others because they are people like all of us who come to worship services, churches, Sunday Schools and even read the Bible … for some reason these people … and it might be some of you here today … these people have chosen to ignore God’s obvious existence and power … and they are living their lives without having God first and foremost.
 

And, I am here to tell you today … that life without God … life without Jesus … life without the Holy Spirit is an empty life … but even worse … unless you have God in your life … unless you have Jesus giving you the directions that you really follow rather than ignore and unless you let the Holy Spirit speak to you … unless that happens you are going to be going through each day at the risk of being tossed into the stormy sea of hate, inner struggle, unhappiness, lack of hope, and a life ripped apart.
 

Now some people can go each day and say ‘Pastor, I am happy and satisfied …’ but brothers and sisters unless you have Jesus in your heart … unless you have taken God’s reality and SAID YES, LORD, YES LORD I believe … then you are at risk of drowning in the stormy seas of this world. But, it takes change … you have to be willing to give it all up to God … it takes faith and surrender … if you don’t surrender and change then my friends I question your claim of faith … as Jesus told Nicodemus, ‘You must be born again.”
 

When that letter writer to THE PRESS talked about praying to a ghost … anyone of faith knew he was referring to what many refer to as the Holy Ghost but who I refer to as the Holy Spirit … I agree with the writer that many are praying to a ghost because if when they pray they do not believe in God … if when they pray they haven’t given up their lives to Jesus … if when they pray they are putting more importance on continuing to live personal lives of superior attitudes that allow them to pick and choose which of God’s rules to follow … well then how in the world do they expect to hear God’s answer? If you do not believe … or if you think you are better than God and can not be changed … then are you even giving God a chance to provide the answer to your life? I know the answer to that question … it’s a simple no.
 

As the boats moved out into the sea and the dark clouds rolled in … Jesus lay back inside the hull … using a cushion for a pillow he closed his eyes. Jesus the Son of God … surrounded by His disciples in the same boat and surrounding boats eased off to sleep. The disciples were looking right at Him … the disciples had been with him every day hearing His message … but then the storm came … the winds blew across the water causing the waves to beat against the hull and flow over it …
 

How many of us have had a day that started with apparent calm and quickly became something else? How many of us were going down the path of life we had chosen when out of nowhere someone … or something … brought chaos and storms into our lives? What should we do … we definitely should be blaming someone … it’s someone else’s fault! It’s someone else’s responsibility … my unhappiness … my sad life … the storms tearing me apart … becoming overwhelmed …
 

The boat Jesus was in was being swamped with water we read and still Jesus slept. The disciples screaming at Him … “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Their faces were wrapped up in horror and fear … they had lost control and didn’t know who to blame … they didn’t know what to do … they just wanted to scream!
 

And, then Jesus woke up … “He rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’” And … then my friends … everything calmed down … the world at that moment was eased back to calm …
 

But at that moment Jesus turned to them … and at this moment Jesus is turning to each of us … God has given us Jesus to hear … Jesus to change us … Jesus to love us … Jesus to take our burdens away … And, there on that sea … once raging and now calm … Jesus said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”
 

Are you afraid to admit to faith this morning … are you so wrapped up in your life and enjoying being the one who you think is in control that you close your mind off from God … or are you trying to mold God into you?
 

I still have my two questions … WHO IS GOD … are you willing to accept that God must exist for creation to be what it is? Who is the Man? But, much more importantly … WHO ARE YOU; why are you afraid of letting go? Have you still no faith in the Creator of all who sent Jesus Christ? Your life is truly lost and you will never experience the living Holy Spirit in your life until and unless you give up you for God. I can’t change you … you have to change and then ask God to make the change in your life for you. Tell me WHO ARE YOU? AMEN

SUMMER in the CITY

June 19, 2009

It’s been a busy few weeks and if you’re paying any attention you will know that SCHOOL’s OUT!!!
 

The arrival of summer vacation time for kids also seems to be a time when kids are feeling that they have gained new freedoms because their teachers aren’t watching over their shoulders all day long. We hear high school graduates talking about their new adult or almost realities but also younger children especially those who are in their teens want to spread their wings and act like they are much older. When you think about these changes in attitudes well as Jimmy Buffet would sing …
 

It’s these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes

Nothing remains quite the same

With all of our running and all of our cunning

If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane
 

Surprisingly, churches decide to take a vacation when it comes to offering services for young people and children once schools close their doors. It’s as if we are telling parents and more importantly kids … that it’s ok to take a ’summer vacation’ from God. To me there is an implicit indicator for young people that churches are saying “you don’t need God or church all year long; God and church only parallel the school year.” Is it any wonder that once kids graduate from high school they ‘dis’ church … we shouldn’t be surprised because ’school’s out’ so the young people can put God away with their autographed yearbooks.
 

This past week I was disappointed but not shocked when a new high school graduate with a strong church connection posted “the” curse word to her very public FACEBOOK posting. Obviously, as a pastor I read it but there are also probably younger kids who admire this now high school graduate who read this posting where the word was just blatantly used and who knows how many others read it. Of course, school’s out … God time is over … it’s time to act like “an adult” rather than continuing engagement with God and faith.
 

As individuals who are strong believers in youth ministry and are people of faith, I want to challenge you to consider this dilemma. Pray about it and pray for those young people who are now “out for the summer.” I know that here at our church Sunday School is morphing into Junior Church for the summer months but thankfully our youth groups and activities will be continued. Volunteers are stretched (by the way, THANK YOU SO MUCH for the time you give back to young people!) and we all think about the summer vacation.
 

In Romans 12 (v.1,2, 11, and 12 NSRV), Paul writes … “I appeal to you therefore, my brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect. Do not lage in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.”
 

We need to create examples for children and youth about the expectations that God has for us. Now, kids will be kids … we will hear them use words we don’t like and take actions that shake us up but … you and I can show them that our lives are better for having God’s love alive in us. When we let the Holy Spirit direct us we won’t be taking a summer vacation … To me one of the most wonderful truth’s of what God gives us is the fact that there is always something for us to learn about His purpose for us … so in fact, School’s not out for summer for those who believe!

We are 21st Century!

May 27, 2009

When you pause to think what church is all about … you will discover an interesting timeline dynamic because we, as people of faith, are pulled in two directions.
 

The first obviously being to the Cross and Jesus because that’s where our Salvation originates. So, we have an obligation to look back to those moments when Jesus walked the earth … to when Jesus tried to bring home the message of how to live as radicals whose lives are no longer mirrored images of the world we live in. Yes, we need to look back and we need to hear.
 

But, Jesus reminds us that ministry and mission didn’t stop with His death on the cross for all of us. His ministry and mission didn’t end when he came out of the tomb nor when Thomas touched the wounds. Jesus at Asecension again reminds all who believe, “You will be witnesses to me, not only in Jerusalem, but to the very ends of the earth!”
 

Our look back should only give us more encouragement to look forward. Our reflection of faith can no longer be one dimensional or something frozen in time.
 

If we are to be the radicals … if we are to be the revolutionaries who are bold enough to wrap our arms around the outcasts and criminals … if we are to challenge human thinking by loving even our most hated enemies rather than joining in the cacophonus chorus that celebrates name calling and shrill criticism of those with different opinions.
 

But, my question is … when we focus on today and tomorrow are we choosing to be aligned with our neighbors to insure a comfort zone of existence or do we still hear the message of the one who went to the cross to save us from our sins?
 

Jesus gave His disciples and us a reminder … “I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” Are we on that journey … look back to the cross but then bring the message into this new Century.
 

We who believe can change the world by being radically different, loving all and bringing the message of the Good News into the world!

Hello world!

May 22, 2009

There is something exciting going on … really!
 

Those of us who worship at Central United Methodist Church have heard whispers that “there is always something good going on at Central United Methodist Church” and there is!
 

I have to admit that there is an added level of excitement happening here because this new website is being launched to our church family on PENTECOST SUNDAY.  A day when God’s Word and intent was communicated to all peoples.  It is our prayer that this website will speak to those who worship regularly at the place called Central United Methodist Church but more than that … it is our prayer that this website will also speak to individuals who do not have a church home and to those who are seeking God even if they don’t know that yet.
 

I am personally excited that my daughter whose disability impacts her ability to read will literally be hearing God’s Word every day when she comes to our website and clicks on the daily Bible Study.  This website will be a place for the people of our church to visit regularly to double check calendars, hear our pastors preaching their sermons, discovering what our church and United Methodism is all about, and prayerfully be challenged to change their lives so that God’s message can be taken out into the world.
 

On the Day of Pentecost as people from throughout the world suddenly became able to understand what each other was saying, Peter celebrated how the prophesy from Joel had become a reality, the prophet shared how God had spoken to him “I will pour out my spirit upon all men; Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, and Your old men dream dreams… And, then whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (ACTS 2: 17 and 22 TEV).”
 

Obviously, you have found our site.  We ask that you help us to make it better and that you encourage others to take a look at what Central United Methodist Church is all about.

We are mere men and women striving to hear God’s call because life is meant to be about God’s intent and purposes.
 

Celebrate our excitement with us … share in our joy … praise God for all God has done …