Calvary United Methodist Church September 14, 2014 WHY I FAIL Rev. Dr. S. Ronald Parks Children s Sermon Luke 12:35-38 We are Children of God. We welcome the youngest Children of God among us to the front of this worship space to celebrate the gifts God has granted to us. Good morning, Everybody! (good morning) Oh, that was so lame! Good morning! (GOOD MORNING!) Good morning! (GOOD MORNING!) Much better! Last week I talked about the dog that we have in our house now. At 5 weeks old he looked like this and last week he looks like this. Fender has gotten much bigger and as we talked about last week, Fender has gotten much smarter. And I actually, right, had him here so you could see some of the things that he has learned.
He has learned how to do steps. He s learned how to fetch toys. He s learned how to pick up sticks and rocks and cigarette butts on our walk around the neighborhood. He s learned how to make friends, but his all time favorite thing is learning how to get the Wawa iced vanilla coffee out of my cup by licking the straw and I even showed you a video of that last week. That s his favorite lesson so far. And anytime I get in the car with anything that has a straw sticking out of it, he checks it out. Sometimes he likes it. Sometimes he doesn t. But there is another lesson that he is learning which is his hardest thing ever, and that is the lesson of waiting. Waiting is hard to do. In fact, you d think that as we get older since we have to do it more often we would be better at it, but we re not, am I right? For many of us, waiting for things to happen is a very difficult thing, And Fender is learning to wait here in this place and trust that when I say I ll be right back I really will at some point in time come right back. Now the fortunate thing about Fender is he s a dog and doesn t have a wristwatch, so he can t track the passage of time. So, when I say to him I ll be right back he doesn t know how long that s going to be and that s a good thing and it is a bad thing. Watch and I ll show you why.
(Video is shown of Pastor Ron leaving his dog for a brief time. The dog watches over a gate for the Pastor to return.) Now, if you watch for his tail, you ll be able to tell exactly when he sees me again. He likes me? You think? That s because I feed him. Now, I have to confess that earlier this week I was working on something and I kind of just wanted to take a break and he was asleep under my desk, so I got underneath the desk and we were just kind of, you know, I was rubbing him, and somebody snuck down the hallway and stuck their head around the corner of my office door. If you do that, don t scare either of us. Just turn around and walk back a few steps and then come (knock) and do one of those because I felt so embarrassed. I was supposed to be working and I m on the floor with the dog. It is a terrible thing. Waiting for all of us is a test of faith. Now, Fender is not big enough to have fancy ideas about belief and faith, but if you look at this picture, you know how excited he is when the waiting is over, right? Joy is the reward for faithful waiting. And it is not just a joy that you can see in a dog, you can see the joy of Sunday morning at 11:00 o clock showing up in the faces of everybody out here. Just turn around and look at the joy in their faces, because the waiting is over, they are back in church. That wasn t a joke. There are all sorts of waiting that can test our faith and it is one of the things that disciples have to learn time and time again. Here is a story from Luke 12: Jesus says Don t panic. Be patient. Keep the lights on of your faith! In other words, always be ready. Be like the servant waiting for the master to return from a trip. Stay awake. Be ready to open the door when he arrives. What a joy our greeting will be for both of us, for both the one who is coming back and the one who was waiting, and the master will celebrate the faithfulness of his servant with a party. So no matter what time of the day or night the master arrives, blessed, in other words joyous and blessed by God, are the ones who have the faith to be ready in their waiting.
There is all sorts of waiting that you do and that I do that really can test our faith. We sometimes wait for a sign that God is there. When things are really difficult we sometimes expect that God is going to show us something to remind us that God is there and waiting for that sign can be really tough. Sometimes we ask for certain blessings in prayer or we share our needs and sometimes we are waiting for some sort of an answer. Waiting for that answer, that can be equally difficult. Sometimes we are waiting for someone to care about us. We have had something happen to us, it has been a tough week, we ve had something difficult to deal with, and we just need someone to let us know that we are okay and that we are cared for and waiting for that, that can feel like an eternity. And sometimes we are waiting for the chance to care for somebody else, to share our blessings with them. And we are waiting for just the right time or just the right moment and just the right situation and that can be difficult too. Blessed are the ones who have the faith to always wait and be ready because joy is the reward of faithful waiting. Now, you are waiting for me to tell you to go sit down. Now would be the time. Thank you for sharing in our children s sermon this morning. You may be seated. Message Mark 9:17-29 (A scene is shown from the movie, The Empire Strikes Back) Ok, I am confessing right away that is the nerdiest sermon illustration ever perpetrated on a congregation. But they say that you can determine and sense a lot about yourself if you think of the things that you think everybody knows. That was released in 1980. I was a sophomore in seminary, three year program. I was called a Middler and for me, Star Wars was not so much a science fiction epic and a trilogy of movies, it was really the story of discipleship. In the first movie, Luke, the young man, becomes aware of something much bigger than himself and by the end of the first movie, he s a believer.
In the second movie, The Empire Strikes Back, as you can see, he is training under a master named Yoda and the purpose of his training is to move him past simply being a believer. And in the third film, which for most of us was relatively forgettable, he takes yet another step and becomes a master himself. For me, as a seminarian looking at studying for ministry, I heard that little exchange, I don t believe it and That is why you fail as the best description that I have carried with me for what it means to be a Disciple of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, I have found the greatest backpack ever made in order to remind me of that little exchange. I don t believe it and that s why I fail. Ok, now it is the nerdiest sermon illustration you ve ever heard. And just for my own curiosity, how many of you have seen any of the Star Wars movies? Oh, you guys are much more hip than that 8:30 group. (laughter) It was me and two people in the back and that was it. Well, that s a good thing. He becomes more than a believer. As Christians we understand ourselves to be believers and for many of us, we sort of think that, well, that s a good thing. We share this common set of beliefs, we started talking about it last week, called The Apostles Credo, a Latin word that means beliefs or statements of faith. It is a series of theological claims. Theological, by the way, just a big word for God talk. It is a series of God talk claims that we all seem to be able to agree on. And this mutual consent that we have come to, to these ideas, they give us our identity as a community of faith. We are called the church.
As we mentioned last week, each of us experiences God in his or her own special way. So when we say the Apostles Creed, it is clear even though it is the smallest word in the creed, it is the first word in the creed and it is in many instances and for many respects the most important word there is. And the first word of the Apostles Creed is (I) I! Exactly right. What does it mean to say I and who am I and how do I understand God to relate to me? We talked about the many ways that we ve learned about God. We talked about instinct in which, from a very very young age up we learn how small we are. We talked about experience which shows us how fragile we can be. We fall off the bike. We fall down the steps. We are easily skinned up. We bleed easily. And as we get older, you d think we d get tougher, but we re not. We are just as fragile. We are easily wounded. We are easily broken. And then we talk about instruction, they way people have taught us and trained us and because we are able to learn and grow and be bigger than we are right now, we think of ourselves as being capable. We ve also discovered through time all of the gifts and blessings that God has poured out upon us and we see ourselves to be blessed, but we ve also discerned in ourselves that the blessings that we have been given we often turn only to ourselves and that we are inadequate in our following of Christ. And then we confess, as people of every age and station in life have confessed since the very beginning of our tradition, God so loved the world that He gave His only son and we are through him loved. Each of us must understand who we are in front of God and we have to work to understand God in and for our lives and so, while the first word is really huge, the second word is equally important:
I (believe). I believe. That says something very specific about me because to believe is to trust in a truth. Not only just an abstract idea, but the existence of a reality and the reliability of that truth in every aspect and in every circumstance of life, it is to believe in the truth, the existence or the reliability of something without proof that you are right and that is the step of faith. I believe in God. I believe in Christ. I believe in the power of the Spirit. I have no proof of any of it. I only have what I believe. Belief is personal. Belief is internal. You don t know who is a believer and who is not a believer unless you ask them. It is all in here. And it is also rational. You have to choose to believe. That is why our beliefs can be expressed in a creed. It is a statement of reason. It is logical. But the problem is belief is only the first step in knowing Christ. There were a lot of people in Jesus day who believed in him, but very few of them went past belief as the first step in knowing Christ. And this is the story of a many who struggled with that choice between just being a believer and maybe being more than a believer from Mark 9: A man came to Jesus. A disease, he says, has ruled my son s life since birth. I asked your disciples to heal him, but they couldn t do it. Why did they fail? They don t believe it. Jesus replied, Doesn t anyone have any faith? If you are able to help, the father pleaded, Please help my son. If?! I would have loved to have been there to hear the sarcasm in Jesus voice. Yeah, I think he was sarcastic at times. If?! If?! There are no ifs among believers. That s where you know Jesus is in a different place than I am. There are plenty of ifs among these believers. Anything and everything is possible. I believe, cried the father. Help me when my belief runs out! Isn t that a cry that you ve uttered through your heart, through your soul, through your mind? I believe, but here s where my faith stops. It has run out. I ve got nothing from this point forward. Help me when my belief runs out. And Jesus took the boy s hand and he helped him to stand up and he was healed. The disciples, they were incredulous. And borrowing those two lines from that movie that nobody but me has seen, they said I don t believe it! and putting Yoda s words into Jesus mouth, That is why you fail.
The scriptures actually say the reason the disciples weren t able to do it is because the sort of illness, the sort of possession that the young man s son was wracked with is something only prayer can heal. What are you praying to? You are praying to God. Only God can heal that. But that s why we fail. We don t believe in what God can do. Believing is only the first step in knowing Christ and for many of us, we think believing is just fine. But there is more. The second step is to be a disciple. You see, all the believers who came to Jesus and who were amazed at his words and his authority and his wondrous deeds and his miracles, they all went home for the most part. They believed. They might have shared it with some folks and then they went back to their lives. But you and I are not called to simply pay lip service to what God has done or might do. No, we are called to be disciples. Disciple comes from a Latin root meaning one who studies under an expert or an apprentice working under a master craftsman. If I could engage Mark to give me guitar lessons, I would be a disciple of his, a student studying his techniques, his understanding, his compositional skills. I would be a better player because I am willing to follow him. A disciple is a believer, who doesn t just believe, but he follows, he gets up and walks after and is willing to sit at the feet of and learn. That s a disciple. That s the next step for all of us. It is not enough to just believe. There is discipleship and there is a step beyond that because there are those who follow Jesus but after Jesus death, after his arrest, after his crucifixion, a lot of them take off, but not all of them. Some of them, they are there. From the Greek word apostolos meaning one who acts as a delegate or a representative sent to carry out the mission of one who is in authority. The Apostles, the Apostles Creed, comes from those believers who are leading others to the master.
There is the believer, who just does it pretty much for themselves. There is the disciple who is willing to follow. And then there is the apostle who is willing to lead, but believing is only the first step. Believer is called to be disciple. Disciple is called to be apostle. And apostle is called to continually grow in their belief. And God always expects that you and I will take the next step. We will always be growing in our faith because our believing leads us to perceiving what is not yet in terms of God s possibilities and God s plan and God s purposes. From the very first moment of faith, Paul says, we saw it with our own eyes. We heard it with our own ears and we verified it with the work of our own hands. The word of life appeared right before our eyes. We saw it, we heard it, and now we are telling you so that you can experience it along with us. This is the communion of the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ, and we rejoice in it. Come and enjoy it with us. The people who are coming of be a part of our congregation this morning, who are bringing their children for baptism, they believe and that changes how you and I see everything. We see them not as parents whom we don t quite know their names yet and we re trying to figure they become brothers and sisters because we believe. We perceive in them the same gift of grace that God has placed in each of us and that s why they are one of us now. They are part of our faith family. So when you make these promises about praying for them and upholding them and setting before them the way of Christ in the way that you live, that s because you see in them your family and that s what
matters about being a church. It is not being part of a role; it is being a role in someone else s life. And that role, brother, sister, guide, mentor, friend, comforter. Believing prepares is for receiving the gifts that enable us to accomplish these great things that we can see in ourselves, the vision God has placed within us. Jesus told the disciples Believe in God and here s one of the toughest passages in all of scripture because we ve tried this and we have failed. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain move out of the way and then you believe that it will happen, it will be done for you. So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. I have failed at this a whole bunch of times. I have prayed for healing, for wholeness, for patience, for strength, for grace beyond measure and the reason that I fail to see it, the reason that I refuse to be a part of it, is because I refuse to let God be in charge. Believing changes who is in charge in my life. Believing changes what I expect to get and from whom I expect to get it. And if my hands are shut and gift can be given, then whose fault is it? Why do I fail? Because I don t believe. And believing equips us not only for seeing and perceiving what God might do and for receiving the gifts to make it happen, but for going forward and implementing those gifts and achieving the great gift of the Kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven. That is not just an idea. That s where God rules. Here and here. It is not in the abstract. Believing won t get you there. You have to do it. You have to be the disciple and the apostle. You have to follow and then lead. That s how the kingdom comes on earth as it is in heave. It is not just words and a thought. It is the action of the believers. If you believe in me and in what I ve done, you will accomplish, says Jesus and achieve even greater things. God will equip you to continue the work that I ve started and I will work with you to do whatever you ask in my name so that the Father may be glorified through the son.
Believing changes what we cherish, what we are willing to give ourselves over to, what we are willing to invest in, how we are willing to spend our lives and pour ourselves out. When we put God s vision out in front of what we do this day, then it changes who we are and where we are headed. It changes everything that we value. Believing, that s what binds us together, but it is only the first step in knowing Christ. There are others: discipleship, apostleship, and even greater faith. And God asks us to take the next step. These people who are coming before you at this time to be a part of this congregation and to have their children baptized, they are taking a step of faith with you and God will lead all of us in greater faithfulness in our faith and in our following and in our leading. To the Family of Faith Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are the church. As members of the body of Christ, we are chosen to bear the Good News. We are commissioned to bring the power of God s grace into the hearts and lives of all people of every age and station. As a family of faith, we rejoice in the gift of new life. Children are a blessing born of God s love and given to parents and the human community. In baptism, we acknowledge that each of us belongs to God, and that we bear a responsibility to nurture and instruct one another in the love of the Lord. In welcoming new members, we affirm our common call to embrace all people in the love of the Lord. We confirm our commitment to making disciples. These questions urge all of us to rejoice in the power of the Spirit that makes us One in Christ. To the Parents of Those Who are to be Baptized: Do you believe that God alone is perfect? Do you appreciate our need
to acknowledge that we are imperfect in our obedience? (I do.) Do you appreciate the value and weight of our freedom? Do you accept the challenge of choosing daily to follow Christ? (I do.) Do you confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God? Do you trust in his sacrifice and God s unfailing grace? Do you affirm your commitment to walking with him all the days of your life? (I do.) Will you dedicate your life to teaching your child how to walk in the footsteps of Jesus? Will you lift high the light of His love to illuminate the Way, the Truth and the Life? Will you allow us to share in this labor of love? (I will.) The symbol of water is used to recall the baptism of Jesus and to mark the beginning of the process by which children prepare to become disciples. To Those Who Are to be Received into Our Fellowship Do you profess and affirm your commitment to loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? (I do.) Will you dedicate your life to sharing and celebrating the love of Jesus as members of Calvary United Methodist Church? Will you allow us the privilege of consoling, challenging, and encouraging you as you walk with us along the path of righteousness? (I will.) Will you freely and joyously share your time, talents, and treasures as we work to bring people to God and God to our community? (I will.) To the Body of Christ Called Calvary Do you, as the body of Christ called Calvary, reaffirm your commitment to our Lord and one another? (We do.) Will you include these children and their parents in your caring embrace as they grows in knowledge and grace? Will you rejoice and mourn with them, challenge and console them, receive and respect them as brothers and sisters in Christ? By the grace of God, we promise to love and support these families. We will pray for them, that their homes may be havens of blessing and places of peace. Will you receive these new members as disciples who join us in the great work of the Kingdom? Will you value their gifts, affirm their witness, and encourage them to embody the love that binds us into
a fellowship of faith? With God s help, we will be the Church for one another. We will walk with you in the footsteps of Christ. We will surround you with love and pray for you that God may equip each of us to be faithful all our days. A Unison Prayer Let us ask God to affirm our covenant and bless our church family and its work as we join in a moment of prayer: We rejoice in the presence of Christ, the light of our lives. As disciples of Jesus, we ask God to bless our fellowship, both those who have called Calvary their spiritual home and those who come now to share in its ministry. Make our love for one another perfect in service and compassion. Recreate and perfect us in your divine image. Drive pride and prejudice from our hearts. Equip us to offer the Good News of God s love to our neighbors. Bless our words and deeds with your grace, until Christ returns in glory to claim us as his own. Amen. A Blessing May God grant us every good gift, that we may be faithful and loving in our ministry to one another and passionate and generous in our mission to bring people to God and God to our community. Amen.