Sharing Our Reasonable Faith Sunday, September 10, 2017

Sharing Our Reasonable Faith Sunday, September 10, 2017 Series: Why We ll Do Testimonies Scripture: (pg. ) Theme: Giving a rationale for testimonies We have a Mission as a church That is, we, Horizon Church, have a reason for our existence. There are probably a dozen reasons for why and how we got started 13 years ago But about a year and a half maybe 2 into our existence we re-visited and then formalized our mission: It is, We exist to help people connect with God and with each other. To help remember that, we changed our name to Horizon.., because the horizon is that place where heaven and earth connect. Very clever of us, I thought. But this means, if we are being faithful to what I believe is our God-given mission, we would be seeing an increasing number of people finding and making and growing a life-long connection with God through Jesus. And we would be developing connections with each other that are growing deeper, more & more genuine, and uniquely loving. And, having listened to many of you talk about Horizon, I don t think we are stellar at that. So, we want to get better. [OFF] -2- We are beginning to address our connectedness in several ways and I want to talk with you about one new adventure we re going to attempt You may have seen the announcement in our bulletins or e-news about this: We want to develop a habit of sharing our stories in our service and elsewhere. We hope that more & more of you will agree to share your story once this becomes our habit. And I d like to tell you why this is important to our connectedness. 1) This is one very, very important way for us to encourage one another. This is Biblical: Jesus, of course, talked about what it is that would mark us as belonging to him and he said it would be our love for each other Not our clothes our musical preferences our position pro- or con- any number of issues But that among all the peoples of the world we ought to be exceptionally driven to love. It s hard to love w/out being encouraging, right? Paul actually got very specific about this: He once wrote very plainly, Encourage each other and build each other up (1 Thessalonians 5:11) So, we shall! There are dozens and dozens of people who volunteer hundreds of hours at Horizon

-3- From teachers to cleaners to bakers to greeters to bulletin stuffers to bible study leaders to tech wizards and band people to grass mowers and gutter cleaners Someone was here at 3 am this morning doing some necessary prep work for our picnic People invest in us. And, if you are not sometimes reminded that your investment matters, it wears very thin. Sometimes you want to quit and sometimes people do, because we think what we do doesn t matter it makes no difference But it does and I know it does. So, by sharing our stories, we hope to encourage each other and build each other up by saying, What you do matters. What Jesus is doing in my life because of Horizon makes a difference it really does matter. So we will grow the habit of sharing our stories hoping, truly, to encourage one another. 2) We hope to show that faith in Jesus, while not always easy and never perfect, faith in Jesus is truly possible for ordinary people. To very ordinary men & women, Jesus said, Follow me Follow me To fishermen, tax accountants, business women, government workers, farmers, builders, and famously, very broken men & women, Jesus said, Follow me, and I will build my church with you. -4- [OFF] Now, I get paid to do this and everyone who walks through those doors and everyone who discovers that I m a pastor knows I get paid to talk about faith Now, I certainly hope that all of you who know me know that my faith is genuine and I go way out of my comfort to talk about my faith in what I hope is an authentic and transparent way Nevertheless, this is still my job. But when you stand up here and talk about faith, this is an ordinary person saying, I follow Jesus. This is why. This is what it means to me. Many of you would rather be anywhere else in the world rather than standing up here, talking But when you do, it will go a long, long way in convincing others that faith in Jesus, while never easy and never perfect, faith is Jesus is truly possible for ordinary people. Now, Reason #3) This is where we re going to park for the rest of our time together: It matters to you. Learning to talk about your faith is important to you. Let me read you 2 verses from a letter Peter wrote to some of his friends who were followers of Jesus 1 Peter 3:15, 16 -- Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who

-5- speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. [OFF] Now, we ll come back to this but I want to show you something I came across two weeks ago when researching what the Bible says about work There s a guy named Randy Kilgore who is kind of a human resources guru and also a Christian and he has devoted his life to figuring out the connection between our work and our faith. Written all kinds of articles, research papers, books, and is a well-known speaker on the subject. This all got started quite a few years ago when Randy sat down next to a woman on a commuter train Somehow they got talking about religion this woman said she was not a Christian, Randy said he was And in their conversation Randy discovered that she had had some rather unpleasant encounters with Christians at work Randy wanted to know more so they agreed to commute together for the next couple weeks and Randy asked her an interesting question: What 5 things would you want from co-workers who claim to be followers of Jesus? She told him --- we ll get to her list in a minute, but this set Randy on his life-long quest he has now asked that question 1000 s of times -6- Randy has compiled very thorough research and he says that over & over thoughtful people will give the same answers to that question: What do people who are not Christians want from us? Here s the list: [5 SLIDES] 1) I wish my Christian co-workers and friends knew more about their faith, what they believe and why. 2) I wish my Christian friends had more hope in hard times. 3) I wish my Christian friends were more curious about the hard questions of life, so that when asked these questions, they would have answers. 4) I wish my Christian friends behaved more honorably. 5) I wish my Christian friends were more compassionate. [KEEP ON] Now, isn t that interesting? Starting with that unnamed women on a commuter train, 1000 s and 1,000 s of people who are on the outside of faith looking in are saying that s what they want from us They re not saying, I wish they d keep their faith to themselves although they do say that when we re obnoxious

-7- They re not saying, I wish they d loosen up and party a little bit more In fact, I ve heard this personally from non- Christians in the work-world: They re actually disappointed in us when we do because they thought our faith mattered more. They re saying that they wish we knew and understood our faith, that we had genuine hope, were serious about our faith, honest about our struggles, and respectful of and caring for, those who disagree. Now, let me show you something fascinating about this list look at one-by-one: [SLIDE-KEEP ON] 1) I wish my Christian co-workers and friends knew more about their faith, what they believe and why. Listen to Peter: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have Do you hear what God is challenging us to do? Our co-workers and friends are saying, I wish my Christians friends knew what they believed and could explain it to me And God is saying, I wish they did, too! They don t want our bumper sticker answers I don t think they re particularly impressed by Facebook posts about having to type AMEN in 7 seconds if you want blessings to fall from heaven -8- Which is nothing more than magical thinking what I think of as rabbit-foot faith and it has no place in a thoughtful, reasonable faith What we are being called to, by God, and challenged to by our friends Is to know what we believe and why And, is it true? So, we are being challenged: Be prepared! How many Boy Scouts are here? That was our motto: Be prepared! I heard Girl Scouts used this same motto did they? Do you remember what it meant to be prepared? You practice you learn you go over it ahead of time you learn the knots you practice putting the bandage on you rehearse CPR you rehearse accidents so you can react more calmly So that when the time comes you re ready. Go home and Google, Boy Scout Saves Life and you will find as recently as 2 days ago a boy scout saved his father s life during a mini-disaster on a hike And then story after story after story from NY, to Houston, to Idaho, to the Maldives Young men were prepared and it paid off.

-9- What we re going to do is, in part, preparation It s more than that but it s at least that. We will prepare ourselves to begin talking about our faith Because it is something we are being challenged to do. [SLIDE-KEEP ON] 2) I wish my Christian friends had more hope in hard times. Again, Peter: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have Do you think this is sometimes a scary world? I do. Wildfires are burning out of control in something like 12 or 13 western states Some of the worst in our country s history The only reason we re not hearing more about it is because the other end of the country is getting blown away and drowned. We know longer know which end is up politically, morally, socially And that s just our country. North Korea is a nuclear power with an incompetent and dysfunctional leadership structure. -10- More than a billion people in our world are functioning on the borderline of survival and it wouldn t take much of a crisis to push them over the edge. And then, of course, there are the problems that are on a much more personal level but they still matter in a huge way when it s you What do I do when the test comes back cancer? Why did my child die? What do I do if my daughter says, Mommy, I don t feel like a girl, I feel like a boy. My marriage is beyond repair I don t know what to do any more. I lost my job and might lose my house. I just found out I tested positive for HIV and I don t know how to tell my wife. Is there any hope? Is there any hope? It couldn t be more clear that the world is asking that question: Is there any hope? As followers of Jesus, I hope you know the answer is, Yes. Yes, there is hope. Hope may be one of the single biggest gifts of our faith God is in the business of hope Hope is what redemption is all about. And our hope isn t just wishful thinking It isn t just optimism

-11- Hope is the shape our faith takes when we are in trouble of any kind and it s real. But we need to learn how to talk about it in ways that are genuine and truthful. [SLIDE-KEEP] 3) I wish my Christian friends were more curious about the hard questions of life, so that when asked these questions, they would have answers. One more time, from Peter: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have There s an interesting lesson in that phrase to give an answer The word used in the Bible there is the word, apologia which looks like our word, apologize - Which of course is something we do when we re wrong and need to make it right But that really isn t what the word, apologia means. We have another English word, less well known; Apologetics I have 2 whole shelves of books labeled Apologetics it is the practice of giving a reasoned, rational explanation of our faith. Some of those books on that shelf, by the way, are what you might call atheist apologetics They re books written by guys like Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins -12- All guys who have devoted their lives to proving God does not exist and faith is actually harmful and bad for humankind. I ve read these reasoned defenses of atheism and although some are more challenging than others None have pushed me over the edge Made me think, for sure Stretched my faith made me uncomfortable But I ve always found satisfying, satisfactory, well-reasoned answers to their objections. In fact, I would say that today, I m a Christian, frankly, because it makes the most rational sense We can t run from the hard questions in fact, we have to run to them And by sharing our stories, we ll begin to learn how to give answers to some of the hard questions of life. [SLIDE-KEEP ON] 4) I wish my Christian friends behaved more honorably. Peter:...keeping a clear conscience Long ago, Walt Disney recognized that what separates a real boy from a puppet was a conscience. So, since Pinocchio was not a real boy, Disney had to give him a cricket for a conscience. But we re real boys and girls and we have one Jesus tells us it his spirit that is our conscience. And to keep a clear conscience means to behave honorably.

-13- It doesn t mean we re perfect, obviously It does mean that your friends and my friends Your coworkers and my coworkers ought to see & recognize that your faith matters That it s real. Some of the saddest & most heartbreaking moments of my life as a pastor have been when I get a phone call from someone who works with a person from my church Are you Pastor Bud? Does So-and-so go to your church? Well you oughta know what he s doing at work or what kind of shenanigans she s involved in Yes I ve gotten those phone calls And if your starting to sweat wondering, Oh my gosh, was that phone call about me??? Does he know?? Like my momma always said, If you have to wonder On the other hand, some of my proudest moments have been I get phone calls and yes, I ve gotten more of these than the other Or I meet a boss or a coworker and they say, So you re So&So s pastor! I gotta tell you, I wish I could find 20 more like him or she is priceless to us. We love her here he makes us proud. It s unforgettable, those moments of discovering how you are truly living your faith, and it matters. -14- Finally: 5) I wish my Christian friends were more compassionate. One more time from Peter: do this with gentleness and respect. I think that s rather self-explanatory, isn t it? We re known by our love or our lack thereof. So: Separated by 2000 years Our coworkers and friends are asking for exactly what Peter challenged us to do and be: Be prepared To give authentic, reasonable, answers For the hope we have And do it gently, with respect And w/ a clear conscience. This is our challenge and it is why learning to talk about our faith: Because it matters to you. [OFF THAT S IT! THANK YOU!] So, we ll practice we ll tell our stories: To encourage each other To show that faith, while not easy nor perfect, faith is possible for ordinary people. And because it matters to you to be prepared. Those of a certain age remember the name, Madalyn Murray O Hair

-15- Madalyn was an outspoken atheist She is considered to be the founder of modern-day atheism She is the woman responsible for the Supreme Court Case in 1963 that took Bible reading and public prayer out of our schools And this led, in 1964, to Life magazine putting her on the cover and calling her The Most Hated Woman in America. Christians loved to hate Madalyn Murray O Hair I remember it well she was enemy #1. In 1995, Madalyn, along w/ a son and granddaughter, disappeared from Austin Texas --- It wasn t until 2005 that the mystery was solved The three were murdered in a failed kidnapping for ransom attempt. However, in 1999 4 years after she disappeared, Madalyn s family auctioned off her diaries to raise money to pay a tax debt to the IRS And sprinkled thru her diaries over & over & over again was a very simple phrase: Somebody, somewhere, please love me. Makes wonder doesn t it what if? What if?