Calvary United Methodist Church May 17, 2015 DO SOMETHING Rev. Dr. S. Ronald Parks Children s Sermon: Psalm 91:14-16 The family of Grace comes together to celebrate what God has given to us. Everyone has something to share. We welcome the children to the front of this worship space to share God s Good News with them. Good morning, everybody! Good to see you this morning! Wow! Sedate! Do you like to ride in the car? You know who really loves to ride in the car? This guy does. This guy loves to ride in the car. All you have to do is open the door and BOOM he s in it! The problem is that since Fender was about six months old he has been heavy enough to cause the emergency seatbelt reminder system to go off in the passenger seat. So, I start the car and it s ding, ding, ding for about a minute because he doesn t fasten his seatbelt. It is really hard for him to hold that buckle in his paw. So every now and then I try to reach over and help him out, but he gives me that look like Hey, Dad, what s the deal with the seatbelt? What s the big deal? Now, you guys don t know of a time when seatbelts were something special, but many of you do. How many of you remember a time when seatbelts were not found as standard equipment on every car? Yeah, I figured a good deal of us probably are in that category. So, let me give you a little seatbelt quiz to help us remember kind of some of the history about seatbelts and why we even care.
What was the first car to have a seatbelt? Anyone want to take a guess? It was a 1949 Nash. Ever drive one of those? They passed out of existence before I was born. Seatbelts were an option that you could order on the 49 Nash. Here s one that you guys probably can do though. Think about this. Complete the sentence: Click it or: Spigot Cricket Frigate Ticket Which one is it? (Ticket!) You are right! Good job. We all got that one right. When was the seatbelt invented? Hmmm.Seatbelt invented? Was it before Jesus or after? (After!) It was probably after, good call! The first patent was issued to Edward Claghorn in 1885. That s going back a few years. That s even before I was born.
What year was the seatbelt reminder system made mandatory? What year did your car start dinging whenever you put your grocery bags in the passenger seat? Take a guess. It was in 1974 that Congress passed a law that made the seatbelt reminder system mandatory. Here s one: Which state has no law requiring the use of seatbelts? Is it North Dakota, New Hampshire, Montana or Hawaii? And all God s children said: (Hawaii! New Hampshire! Laughter) You guys don t know any more about seatbelts than I do! So we got probably one right. But here s the only question that you really need to know the answer to: Do the really work? They absolutely really work.
In fact, not long ago I was down in a place called Rehoboth and they had a big community safety day. And in the parking lot of one of the big outlets they had all sorts of displays from the State Police and the various ways in which they work to keep us safe. There was a display there from the Department of Natural Resources and Recreation that showed you how to hunt safely. There were fire trucks. There were SWAT vehicles. And then I came across this thing that just riveted me. It was called the Seatbelt Demonstration Unit and what it is is the middle third of a car. If you take away the front third where the hood is and the back third where the trunk is, it s the part you sit in.
And the cool thing about this was it simulates what happens to a car in an accident. I asked the two officers if they would let me ride in it and try it out and they told me to get lost, which they should have. But here s how it works. Inside that particular cabin of a car is Manny, which is short for Mannequin. It is a160 pound life sized human being. And right next to Manny is a little car seat with a child in it and what they did was, they started up a motor and it actually turned the car upside down. And by the way, one of the facts that really stuck with me: for every ten miles you are traveling if you get in an accident, you can expect the car to do one roll. Most of us drive down the highway at somewhere between 60 and 190 miles an hour. You can do the math, alright? So, what they did was they said Step back. They put Manny in with the seatbelt on and this is what it looked like: (video) See, he s strapped in, both he and the child mannequin in the car seat. Yeah, I m glad I wasn t in that. I d have lost my breakfast right about there. Ok, now, if you notice, Manny is still in there, isn t he? In fact, he s strapped in and he hasn t moved all that much, right? In fact, they went up and let me take a look at it. In fact, I got a photograph of Manny afterwards and he looked pretty much the same he did as before, right?
But then they took the seatbelt off and they had everybody stand way back. Can you guess why you had to stand way back? (Because when they would spin it he might fly out and hit somebody) That s exactly right! Because when you spin it without a seatbelt, most times you fly out of the car. They even had big steel bars; you see those steel bars in the front window there? Because most of the time you fly out through the front windshield and they would have to replace it every time they did the demonstration. This is what it looked like when they took the seatbelt off. Pay close attention; it s not all that easy to see. (video) Where did he go? Yeah, he s flying around inside. Oh! There he is! Yeah! Now, if your body is flying around inside of a car, is there a pretty good chance you are going to get hurt? Yeah! Is there a pretty good chance that the people in the car with you are going to get hurt? You are darn right! In fact, a lot of times what hurts and injures people is not the accident; it s the fact that they are not tied down. Seatbelts save lives, but there are some conditions. You have to have one, right? You have to have a seatbelt in your car and almost every car made in the world now has seatbelts.
Seatbelts save lives if it fits you. You ll notice when you get in and you put the seatbelt on you have to adjust it because seatbelts fit around big people and they fit around little people. Yes, sir! (If the guy would fall out on the grass, he would hurt himself) If the guy falls out of the car while it s spinning around, yes, he will in fact hurt himself. Good observation. That s why it is important. That s why you have to make sure the seatbelt fits around you. And seatbelts save lives if you use them, if you click it or (ticket). I wasn t really talking to you folks. If you click it or (TICKET), ticket, exactly right. Now, interestingly enough, you know how a seatbelt works, you use it every day. Faith works a lot of times in exactly the same way. Here s what the Psalmists has to say about that: Hold on to me for dear life, God says. I ll always be there to keep you safe and secure. No one knows you like I do. No one cares for you like I do. Now, think about that: no one knows you like God does. Isn t that an interesting thing? You can trust me to do what s best. If you ve got a problem, let me know. Life spinning out of control? Ask for help! Not only will I save you: we ll celebrate the goodness of your life together. And what a great life it is!
Our faith in God is the sort of thing that holds us firm when things get really difficult. And faith keeps us safe in God s hands if we have faith, just like a seatbelt. If you don t have one, it s not going to do you any good. Just like that, our faith holds us in God s hands if we have faith, if we trust in God s love. That same faith keeps us safe in God s hands if we are thankful for the blessings that are fit for us. Everything that you can do has been specially made and given to you as a gift from God. And they fit you. That s why everybody can do something but nobody can do everything. Everybody s blessings are fit just for them. And, faith keeps us safe in God s hands if we use those same gifts not only to keep ourselves safe, but to keep others safe too. Everything that we have been given we have to do something with it. We have to use those gifts.
So, God says Hold on to me for dear life and I ll always be there to keep you safe and secure. Think of that the next time you get in your car. There are four words that are really helpful: Have faith and stay safe. Thanks for sharing in our time this morning. Message: Luke 24:36-53 (selected) We live in between times. Most people think of themselves as living in between the two dates on the tombstone that will rest above them, but there are all sorts of other ways to think of living between the beginning of something and the end of something. In this particular Sunday, which is the last Sunday of the Pentecost season, we are living between the time of the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ. That reality for us is not something that we think about often, not like Wesley did. Wesley awoke each day and said Maybe today, Lord in thinking about the time when Christ would come again. On Thursday of this past week, the church marked the day of the Ascension, the time when Jesus departs into heaven after sharing the time since the resurrection with his disciples. And it is a time during which the disciples are without his guidance, without his presence and without the gifts of the Spirit. Next week, which is Pentecost, is a time of celebration, it is the birthday of the church. It s when the sending of God s Spirit calls the people of Christ together and grants them all the
gifts and graces they will need to do the work assigned to them. But right now, from the disciples point of view between the time that he leaves and the time that he returns, they are between the times. And this is how Luke records that particular event: On Easter evening, Jesus stood among his disciples: Peace be with you. Everything I told you, All the promises of God, they are must be fulfilled. That fulfillment begins with my death and resurrection. But there is more to do. Starting here and now, you must invite everyone to experience new life; a new beginning through the forgiveness of sins. I will send what my Father has promised. Throughout the Gospels Jesus makes reference to an advocate, one who was to come after him, who would empower them. We refer to that, at least in our Trinitarian belief, as the Holy Spirit. So, he says, you shall be equipped with power from above. And then he led them out of this city to Bethany. He raised his hands and he blessed them and then he left them and he ascended into heaven. He left them and they watched him go. No one doubted any longer that he was the Christ, but I m sure there were a lot of questions. From that moment on, the disciples, they worshipped and they waiting. And in the midst of all that, they never ceased praising God. The disciples worshipped and they waiting. Unfortunately in many instances and for many of us a lot of the time, this is a great description of what the church is. It is a bunch of disciples who are worshipping and waiting. We re not even quite sure what we re waiting for. We know that when people talk about Christ coming again and the Second Coming, we re not sure what to make of that because there is a lot of, well, there s a lot of special effects kind of stuff involved with that, the end of human history, the cessation of all creation. But of this we can be sure: Christ has promised when he leaves that he will see us again and our hearts will rejoice and no one will take that joy from you. So whether you think of the Second Coming of Christ as something that is trans-historical and universal in its impact or whether you think of meeting Christ again as the time that your life here ends, we can be sure of this: He came once and there will come a time when we will see him again. But in the meantime, that s where we live right now and when we look around at what s going on around us, we often think to ourselves, You
know in this time of waiting, God, why don t you do something? Why don t you do something about all of the hunger and the poverty and the travesty of justice? Why don t you make a stand? Why don t you come down, step down from heaven, and do something substantial; do something undeniable; do something earth shattering? Well, here s a song that answers what God is going to do: Do Something by Matthew West I woke up this morning saw a world full of trouble now, Thought, how d we ever get so far down? How s it ever gonna turn around? So I turned my eyes to Heaven & thought, God, why don t You do something? Well, I just couldn t bear the thought of people living in poverty, Children sold into slavery, The thought disgusted me. So, I shook my fist at Heaven and said, God, why don t you do something? He said, I did. I created you. Chorus: If not us, then who? If not me and you? Right now, it s time for us to do something. If not now, then when will we see an end to all this pain? It s not enough to do nothing. It s time for us to do something. I m so tired of talking about how we are God s hands and feet, But it s easier to say than to be. Live like angels of apathy who tell ourselves It s alright, somebody else will do something. Well, I don t know about you but I m sick and tired of life with no desire. I don t want a flame, I want a fire I wanna be the one who stands up and says, I m gonna do something!
Chorus: If not us, then who? If not me and you? Right now, it s time for us to do something. If not now, then when will we see an end to all this pain? It s not enough to do nothing. It s time for us to do something. We are the salt of the earth. We are a city on the hill (shine shine, shine shine) But we re never gonna change the world By standing still. No, we won t stand still. Chorus: If not us, then who? If not me and you? Right now, it s time for us to do something. If not now, then when will we see an end to all this pain? It s not enough to do nothing. It s time for us to do something. Matthew West says it all. The best sermon in four minutes I think I ve ever heard. God, why don t you do something? God said I did. I created you to do something. Now, the words to that song are found on an insert to the bulletin and on the back of that is a blank sheet. So, I want you to think over the next ten minutes of what verbs you could write on that sheet, and take a pen, take a pencil, and just jot down some of the verbs, some of the things that you could do right now in order to make a change in somebody s life. Because God has made us to do something, not to do nothing, which is what this blank sheet symbolizes. But here s the problem: God hasn t told us what exactly to do. You have to figure it out. You have to in prayer and in study and in talking
and in sharing with others, you have to figure out exactly what it is that you should do because if Christ is right and Pentecost has already happened, then we know that we are all equipped with the Power of God, the power from above in order to do something to bring about the experience of new life. You have already been gifted with all you need to bring about that experience of new life. One of the things that you have been gifted with is the promise of liberty, the freedom to do whatever you can and whatever you choose to do to serve God. And that liberty came at a high price. Christ got it for you. Since we are free by the Grace of God, are we at liberty to do anything that we want? No, not just anything that we want, that s hardly the Gospel. If we choose to sin, we give our freedom away, but when we offer ourselves to God, then we are free to do anything driven out of love. If there is love in our hearts, and that s what guides our actions, then do whatever you want, do whatever you can. All you lives you ve let sin tell you what to do, but now, you and I are listening to a new master with a different message,
one whose commands set you and me at liberty to live openly in His freedom and to do whatever you want in His love. We are free to do it; we just have to figure out what it is. Doing something to bring about the experience of new life is not only found in the freedom to be able to do things, it is found in the presence of the opportunity to do things all around us. There isn t a moment in a day when you don t have the opportunity to do something redemptive in the lives of others. And a lot of times we get caught up with the idea that Well, timing is everything and I want to make sure I don t overstep my bounds. Yeah, but not everything requires you to preach a sermon. Sometimes a cup of water; sometimes a kind word; sometimes a phone call, that s all it is and those opportunities, they never leave us. So we need to use your head as you live and as you work among those who don t know the way, who have never heard the truth, who have never seen the life. You are the life, you re the salt, you re the city on the hill. You can show them that, so stay focused and don t miss a trick, but make the most of every opportunity. Be gracious in our thoughts, in your speech and in your action, because the impact of your presence and my presence is to show other people God s best in you. And then, to do something to bring out God s best in them. You are here to do it, you re free to do it and you ve been put in exactly the right place to do what it is that God asks you to do.
So, what verbs have you written so far? What exactly are you going to do? You are free to do anything and you re going to be in exactly the right place to do whatever it is that God would have you to do. Doing something to bring about the experience of new life found not only in the freedom to do it and in the opportunity to do it, we experience the apportioning of our abilities. United Methodists, when they hear the word apportion, they kind of get a little twitchy. Apportionment is the old word for that thing, those monies that we pay into the conference to go to other places to support ministries. It has to do with doing your share. Well, God has apportioned to us our abilities, given us our fair share of all the gifts and all the graces that God has in God s arsenal, in God s glorious treasury and you and I have been apportioned the appropriate gifts that we need. Not every gift. I didn t get the gift of height. I didn t get the gift of speed. I didn t get the gift of being, well, let s just stop right there. You can tell I don t have a lot of those gifts, but I do have some gifts. And God s various gifts have been handed to me and they have been handed out everywhere and no matter how differently they look, no matter how diverse the gift, we recognize that it all comes from the same place. It all comes in God s Spirit. God s various expressions of power are seen in the diversity of the abilities we see in everyone; all the different things that everybody around you can do, including the people you don t know, including the people you don t like, yet it s the same God that is at work in all of them. Each person has the ability to do something that shows who God is. Everyone gets in on it and everyone benefits. So we are able to do something. We are free to do it; we are here to do it, we are in the right place at the right time; and we have the ability to do it.
But there is one thing yet that we sometimes don t trust in or feel that perhaps it s not our responsibility. Doing something to bring about the experience of new life is also found in the purpose of something called ministry. Ministry s what we are about here in this place. Yes, we are about worship. Yes, we are about service. Yes, we re about fellowship. But you didn t come here to get a cheap snack after a worship service. You didn t come here to get a performance or be entertained. I hope not. I m not that entertaining, I know. My kids have told me. You didn t come here for anything but to be reminded of the ministry that we share and if you expect me to tell you what that means for you, I m out of line and you are out of line. I would never tell you what to do, but I will tell you that you d better do something because this is the sheet of paper that will tell you and remind you of doing nothing. If anyone is in Christ, the New Creation has come upon you. The old is gone. This is God s gift to us through Christ. So with Grace and forgiveness He reconciled the world to Himself. Now He s given the same message and ministry to us. We represent Christ. No, it s not that we re familiar with Christ, not that we ve heard the name of Christ, not that we somehow bear the name of Christ, we represent Christ. For some people, the only experience they ve ever had with the Living God is meeting you, so do something. We bear God s invitation to all people: Come home and know His love and compassion.
We re called to do it. Called to do it and thanks be to God, we are equipped. We are all equipped with the power that God grants us from above to do something to bring about the experience of new life. You and I, we are free to do it; free to do anything you want: free to serve, free to do ministry any way that you can imagine, anyway that you feel gifted. We are not only free to do it; we ve been put in exactly the right place to make it happen. Think about that in terms of the people that you know, in terms of the lives that you touch, in terms of the verbs you write. Think about how it is that those connections, those relationships, have put you in exactly the right place to do something for them. You are able to do it. Don t wait for me, don t wait for Pastor Jeff, don t wait for a phone call from church to start writing verbs down in your life of the stuff that you can do. You are able to do it. You are free to do it and you are in exactly the right place to do it. And more importantly, you are called to do it. You may not be ordained; you may not have sat through three years of seminary training; you may not be appointed by the Bishop. No you ve got a higher calling. You ve been appointed by Christ. You re called to do it. So, what is it? What did you write down? What verbs occur to you? What is it that you can do today, big things, little things, simple things, cheap things, costly things, things that you can almost do without thinking and things that take a lot of work? What exactly is it that
you re called to do? I have no idea, but, brothers and sisters, like you, I was called to do something. Thanks be to God for the invitation and for the gifts to make it happen. Let us present our tithes and offerings. Benediction: In between the time of the First and the Second Coming of Christ you and I live and when we are frustrated with the world around us and with ourselves and we cry out God, why don t you do something? God responds, I did. I created you to do something. This might be today, nothing. But God didn t create us to do nothing. God created us to do something. You decide what it is. In His name. Amen.