A Future With Hope: 2. Hope for a BOLD Future. A sermon preached by Joanne Miles, Lay Leader. Text: Matthew 28:

Transcription

1 A Future With Hope: 2. Hope for a BOLD Future A sermon preached by Joanne Miles, Lay Leader Copyright 2013 Joanne Miles All rights reserved. Text: Matthew 28: June 30, 2013 Hope United Methodist Church Eagle & Steel Roads, Havertown, PA Phone: Web: Office: HopeUMCHavertown@verizon.net Pastor: HopeUMCPastor@verizon.net 2

2 Matthew 28: Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Soooo being the first speaker in this series has its pros and its cons. Some pros ~ I get to deliver my thoughts first and not have to struggle with someone already having hit on these ideas well other than Pastor last week so you will hear some repetition today!; I get to set the precedent for how this may shape up for the remainder of the summer; and. it s over and I get to sit back and enjoy the remaining messages! Some cons ~ I ve only had a few weeks of notice to prepare and this is coming right on the heels of Vacation Bible School (although as you will learn, that is a pro too!!) and a busy week at work.. so free time to write has been limited AND. A big con. I am the first lay speaker to follow Tim McIntire!! He set the bar VERY high with his Father s Day sermon. I m not sure how or if I can surpass that. When Pastor Jim approached me with his summer series idea and told me the theme, I was excited to have the opportunity to participate and to follow up on my first ever sermon of three years ago titled Hope for the Future. I was also excited to be able to hear from our other speakers, as we chart our course for this new church year and our long rich future. 3 For the last series Summer Fruits: Voices of Hope, we were asked to speak about what Hope meant to each of us. At that time I was settling in to this family following the closing of my growing up and young adult life church; the death of my parents; and taking on the new role of Lay Leader at Hope; so what Hope meant to me was my Future. I ended that message with this statement: No one but God knows what the future looks like, but count on this if you can t count on anything else: God controls the future! When the future is left in God s control, there is only Hope and promise. He will hold us in His hands and he will provide. Be encouraged by these words from God in Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope!" I truly believe that He has blessed us with the means and the talents to invest in His people young and mature and to allow for this church to grow and to remain a bright and shining beacon on the corner of Steel and Eagle Road. Since that time we have taken in 30+ new members with a new group scheduled to join in the next months; have a growing list of regular visitors; confirmed into membership 2 of our youth; baptized 22 children; expanded our one room Sunday School to two classrooms and recruited teaching coverage; formed a children s choir (weren t they amazing today!!!); expanded our acolyte team by 5; created Hope Kidz to expand on children s activities; held three very successful Vacation Bible Schools, 3 Family Night activities; added several new active committees including: Nurture, Justice & Advocacy; and Tech Team; renovated our conference room and our lobby; added enhancements to our worship service to ensure accessibility for all and ability to more easily participate in worship; embarked on a three year Capital Campaign with a goal of $35,000 in year 1, which as of today is at 58% allowing for renovations and updates to Thomas Hall to be well underway, and technology upgrades to 4

3 the Sanctuary to begin shortly. Our busy Wesleyan Circle ladies have forged an identity in our community through their outside events and have raised more than $8,000 which they generously reinvest in Hope and in support of the community and marginalized people. PHEW.. this is just SOME highlights!! I would say we are a bright and shining beacon.. would you agree??? Three years later I still stand by my closing statement --- God has plans for us! Exciting plans of and for Hope!!! I am happy that I get to pick up with this series A Future With Hope: Where are we Going? with this piece of scripture again, this same verse that is at the top of each Church Council agenda as a constant reminder to our church leaders as we discern and forge agreement on the business of Hope UMC. As followers of Jesus Christ, we have been commissioned to participate in a great assignment, an assignment to go and make disciples. This assignment through the years has been called the Great Commission.today s scripture from Matthew: And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Jesus commands that the Great Commission be a priority for us. It should be the core of our personal ministry and the mission and vision of our church ministry. So, in reviewing our rich history to date we need to ask the question, have we met the challenge of Jesus s commission to us? As we move forward and ponder our direction and plan and vision for the future, we have to ask ourselves, are we best positioned to 5 meet the challenge? Are we open to and flexible enough to adjust to the environment and changing world around us? The place where the disciples we need to bring to God, look different, think differently, worship differently, have differing priorities? Can we break those chains that Pastor talked about last week, that bind us to the typical church mantra this is how we have always done it? Are we willing and bold enough to adapt? Are we bold enough to have the great faith in God s promise to us His promise to not harm us and of a future of hope?.to trust that God will provide for all of our needs, if we are fulfilling our commission? If you think about it, this is a perpetual question, a question that has been faced from generation to generation. This week in Vacation Bible School we had five neighbor themes.. help me anyone who was here... Neighbors are Friendly; Neighbors are Giving; Neighbors are Bold; Neighbors are Forgiving; Neighbors are Welcoming!! We learned about several characters from the Bible during our lessons. Two stories in particular struck me as I pondered my sermon for this week. Elijah and the Widow. Elijah is sent by God to Zarephath (ZAIR- UH-FATH) and told he will find a widow and her son who will take care of him. He arrives and asks for a drink and food. She tells him, that she has only enough flour and oil to make a loaf of bread for herself and her son. Elijah tells her not to be afraid, to go and bake the loaf, and then to bake one for him. For God has told me that your jar of flour will not run out and your bottle of oil will not go empty. You will have enough to make bread until the rains come. She goes off and bakes the bread for her son, herself, and Elijah. She does so every day until the rain comes. Wow. What faith, trust, living the Jeremiah passage on her part. Trusting in the words Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope This story struck me. The widow is who we need to study and model ourselves after, as we plan for and determine our future resources at Hope to allow for us to 6

4 remain in a good position to continue to fulfill our commission to make disciples of all nations!! The second lesson that struck me was our day learning about The Good Samaritan. With this Bible story we spent time learning and talking about being BOLD. What BOLD means and what the Samaritan s life might have been like if he had not been BOLD. I m going to highlight some of the learning statements and questions posed to our class for you to think about: What do you think it means to be bold? You can act boldly by trying new foods, going new places, or meeting new people. Being bold can mean doing the right thing, even when doing that right thing is hard to do. Being a bold neighbor might be tough to do sometimes, but God encourages us to be bold when it can help others. Sometimes being bold is hard. If you break a rule or make a bad decision, the bold thing would be to tell the truth, even if the truth might get you in trouble. Remember that God is always with us, and wants us to choose to be bold for the right reasons. Sometimes, being bold can be fun and exciting, other times, being bold can be difficult. Our gesture for bold this week was to show muscles. Merriam- Webster provides these two definitions: 1~fearless before danger, 2~ showing or requiring a fearless daring spirit. As I prepared that night s lesson and listened to the children s responses, I couldn t help but see the parallel to pondering the future. BOLD = trying something new, requiring a fearless daring spirit, sometimes bold can fun and exciting, other times difficult. It took boldness for me to answer God s Call. BOLD ~ for me to give up 7 ALL control to God. This was fearless and daring NO control is not my comfort zone. Imagine the possibilities for us as a collective group! Our summer brochure cover s quote from Joseph Campbell requires BOLD and is a statement that we as a congregation need to live in to as we ponder our future: We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us. We need to be willing to allow for God s plans to happen, his plan to prosper us and not harm us to give us a future and a hope! Have faith the confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. As we ponder our future and where we are going as we move along our journey to fulfill God s Great Commission, I ask: Are we bold enough to sing new songs? to different beats and rhythms, perhaps even RAP one Sunday? Bold enough to try new ways of communication and technology?..this is the only way our youth know the world today and the way our young adults and families function in their busy lives! Bold enough to try new and different ways to worship? Are we bold enough to publicly declare ourselves a Reconciling Congregation? Acknowledge publicly to the local community and to the world, who we already are today? a welcoming, accepting, open, loving, congregation, to ALL of God s people? Bold enough to put our faith in God, to be willing to use the resources both financial and people that He has given us, knowing that He WILL provide for us much like He did for the widow? having the necessary faith to believe that His plans will include future resources much like the flour and oil that did not run out. 8

5 Together, I believe we can take BOLD steps and count on God s plan for us, plans for us to prosper and not harm us, and go out and be STRONG to forge our path to a BOLD, STRONG future of Hope and for Hope! Let us Pray: Lord, thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts today. Please help our hearts to be bold as we works together to fulfill your great commission. Help us to trust the plans You have for us - plans to prosper us and to give us a future filled with abundant and BOLD hope! Please continue to pour your blessings on the Hope family as we journey to the future. I hope that I have made a difference today and that you will use me to make a difference for our future. Amen. 9