Generosity: Dreams and Visions Joel 2: A Sermon Preached by Ernest Thompson. First Presbyterian Church Wilmington NC.

Transcription

1 Generosity: Dreams and Visions Joel 2:27 29 A Sermon Preached by Ernest Thompson First Presbyterian Church Wilmington NC November 15, You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the LORD, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame. 28 Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29 Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit. Almost exactly fifteen years ago I preached my first sermon here. The title was Building Big Enough for the Glory of God. I told the story of a group of Christians in a small village in Siberia who wanted to build a church. It was a very poor community, so they worked and saved and worked and saved until they finally had enough to build a small wooden church. They were all very excited, but the day before they were going to dedicate the building, the new church burned down. The Christians there were devastated and wondered how God could allow this to happen. They grieved and they prayed. They thought about giving up. But finally they decided that they knew what happened. They said, Our first church burned down because we did not build it big enough for the glory of God.

2 2 And so they started all over again. They worked and saved and worked and saved. Some other churches heard about what had happened and contributed, and gifts from other countries began to come in. They raised much more than they had raised the first time, and they built a larger, more beautiful brick sanctuary for the glory of God. Now, I said then that I have some questions about their theology. I don t think God causes churches to burn down because they are not big enough. But I admire their faith and I think we can learn something from their vision from their desire to build a church and a mission this is big enough for the glory of God. 1. In our Scripture lesson from Joel, God s people have been through a difficult and challenging time. They are tempted to give up on God and give up on themselves. A plague of locusts has come and devastated their fields. If you re a farming community locusts are about the worst thing that could happen to you. One commentator calls locusts the incarnation of hunger. And so the people wondered why God allowed this to happen. They wondered if God had forgotten about them or abandoned them. And they were tempted to give up. Today our world is suffering from another kind of plague a plague of violence and terrorism that can seem like the incarnation of sin and evil. And so we may also wonder why. And we may wonder if God has abandoned us. In our Scripture lesson God sends his prophet Joel who first calls the people to repent to rededicate themselves to God. And then Joel brings a word of encouragement and comfort and hope. God says to his people through the prophet, You will know that I am in the midst of Israel. That is the good news from Joel and it is the good news of Jesus Christ that God is always in the midst of his people. Even when challenges come, even when we wonder if we can go on, even when we cannot see it or feel it, God is always with us.

3 Joel points to God s presence, but he also points to God s power. God says through the prophet, You shall know that I, the Lord, am your God, and there is no other. There is no one else who can save them and no one else who can redeem them. God alone is their refuge and their strength, an ever present help in trouble. I shared with you recently a favorite prayer from Paul s letter to the Ephesians which speaks of God s power. Paul writes, And now to Him who is able, By the power at work within us, To accomplish abundantly, far more Than all we can ask or imagine, To him be glory in the church and in Jesus Christ, To all generations and forever. Amen. God is with us, God is for us, and God is able to do abundantly, far more than all we can ask or even all we can imagine. And therefore there is always hope. 3 Joel turns to that hope and gives this great promise. God says, Then afterwards, [after the difficulties have passed,] I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit. It s not just that God will be with us and for us but God will also be in us by the power of his Spirit. God will be in all of us not just in the pastors and leaders, not just in the men, not just in the elders. God s Spirit will be poured out on all flesh on men and women, young and old, slave and free. And the Spirit will give God s people vision. The Spirit will allow God s people to dream dreams. When the Spirit comes, there are always dreams and visions.

4 2. We ve done a fair amount of dreaming as a church over these last 15 years. 4 When I first arrived here, there was already a dream to purchase a piece of property next door to the church, the Catherine Kennedy Home. It was not just a dream for a bigger space but a dream for a bigger mission. And that dream has come true. That space is now full of preschool children and Boy Scouts and visiting mission teams and Interfaith Hospitality families and all sorts of classes and mission and ministry. We dreamed of focusing our mission, of finding a few places to focus our time and money and energy and that dream came true. It has happened as we have created the Grandparents Support ministry, and as we have strengthened our connection in China and Haiti. We ve dreamed of having an impact on our downtown community. That dream is happening as we expand our downtown partnerships and help create the Help Hub a new centralized place at the Harrelson Center to offer assistance to individuals and families who are struggling. We ve dreamed of leading our children to faith, and then expanded that dream to leading our families to faith and that dream has come true. We are blessed with a wonderful preschool and children s ministry which teach our children about God s love. We ve started the Wonder and Worship ministry, which has blessed both the children and the leaders. Our youth ministry has changed lives through mission trips and confirmation classes and fun and fellowship. Every year at Youth Sunday our teenagers amaze us with the depth of their faith. We dreamed about expanding our worship, and that dream has come true as well. We ve added a contemporary service that reaches new people. We ve added other occasional services that focus on wholeness and healing. We ve continued and strengthened our traditional services and they also attract new people and inspire all of us. Several years ago we were faced with a challenge when this beautiful sanctuary began to fall apart. Chunks of masonry were falling from the steeple and creating a safety hazard. The first contractors we talked to told us the steeple was structurally unsound and would have to come down, and it would cost 12 million dollars to rebuild it. We asked for a second opinion and found a better way but it was still a daunting challenge.

5 But we remembered how our sanctuary and steeple have been pointing the way for generations, and so we rallied make sure that this church building will continue to stand and point the way for generations to come. 5 We dreamed about a church where people make deep connections and where guests experience our welcome and hospitality. And that dream has come true. In these last 15 years we have welcomed more than 800 new members into our church, and I ve lost track of how many children we have baptized. We ve started a Stephen Ministry program which has grown and been blessing to both care givers and care receivers and to the larger community as well. There is a flower ministry and a visitation team and so many other ways that we love and care for one another. There have certainly been challenges along the way. We ve sometimes had different dreams for our church, and our visions have not always been the same. And so we ve had to listen to each other and be patient with each other and love each other. And we have done that. And we ve continued to dream dreams. These dreams have not simply come from your pastors or elders or deacons. They have come from the Spirit of God at work in and through all of you. And then the Spirit has inspired the generosity to make these dreams come true. You have given your time and your talents. You have given your wisdom and patience and love. You have given your money and given yourselves. And the dreams and visions have become a reality. But the dreaming is not done. One of the first books I read when I got out of seminary 27 years ago was Kennon Callahan s Twelve Keys to an Effective Church. Callahan says that the most important factor for a church s health and vitality is this do you believe that your best days as a church are ahead of you or behind you? Callahan says that healthy vital church will always be a church of hope a church centered on the risen Christ and confident in the presence and power of God s Spirit. A healthy church will always be a church of the Spirit a church with dreams and visions.

6 6 When I arrived here 15 years ago, I knew I was coming to a great church. But I also believed that our best days were ahead of us not because you were getting a new pastor, but because we worship and serve a God of power and hope. And I still believe, that your best days are ahead of you, because the Spirit of God is still at work in this place. And so you will continue to dream dreams and see visions. God s Spirit will continue to work in you and through you to make those visions and dreams come true. We worship and serve a God of hope, and so our best days are ahead of us, and the Spirit will continue to come. And now to Him who is able, By the power at work within us, To accomplish abundantly, far more Than all we can ask or imagine, To him be glory in the church and in Jesus Christ, To all generations and forever. Amen.