Giving Christianity a shot

Ever wonder how the early church grew? There weren’t churches on every corner or access to the activities and sermons via web pages or webcasts. There certainly were not amphitheaters streaming 1st century Billy Graham’s gospel messages about Christ across the globe.

With the tools of communication and outreach today, one could easily paint a rational picture of why the church was blossoming.

After all, we have churches offering just about every flavor and style of worship you can imagine. Here at Royston First, we have distinctive traditional and contemporary worship styles to choose from. You and your neighbor can attend a different style of worship, still go to the same Sunday School class, and never move your car. How cool is that?

On the surface it’s mind boggling to comprehend how the Christian church blossomed without the communication tools we have today. But you know what else is mind boggling? Even with all the tools and multiple-service offerings we have today in America, churches aren’t growing like they did 2,000 years ago.

Why? You and I could write several opinions on that question. Some would say the answer lies in having more programs and “fun” activities, or perhaps a different location. Others might say our children are moving away after high school and  college to areas where there are more jobs.

We could make lists of possibilities till the cows come home. There are always lists.

But all that is overlooking the real reason the early church grew. I believe the people of the early church felt a need for a God whose love, power, and presence would not fail to stand with them in times of difficulty.

Maybe they had learned the “gods” of a early retirement and a lake house on the Sea of Galilee were empty promises. Perhaps they had seen their miracle healers disappear when it counted most. So when the Good News of Jesus Christ came their way, they gave Christianity a shot.

As commanded by Jesus, they intentionally met together regularly, talked about what Jesus had said and done, and in prayer found that this God hung in there with them, thick and thin. In Jesus, they found hope in hopeless situations, and strength when they were at the end of their rope.

They passed it on. And the church grew and grew!

My hope and vision for our church family in 2010 is to get back to basics — that we would intentionally make prayer and meeting together our priority. The early Christians gave Jesus’ command a shot, and the church grew.

We can do the same!

Legacy

After church Sunday I went home to grab a quick bite before a 2 o’clock memorial service  for one of our member’s Mom. As I waited for the oven to heat up, I thought about the tension between my morning sermon and the service of remembrance that was just ahead.

The sermon was a reminder of how, like it or not, we are all creating legacy — for our children, our family, and our friends. The service of remembrance before me was a reminder that one day someone will probably be reflecting about my legacy, about what my life witnessed to.

It’s that kind of tension Paul places before the Ephesian church as he reflects upon parent-and-children relationships. His words cause us to pause and consider what absolutes we are passing on.

He was trying to point out that whatever we hold absolute in our lives can’t be hidden from our children, or even their children’s children. If it’s pleasures and riches and power, it will be seen in how we spent our time and talent and our money to attain them. If it’s God, it will be seen in how we spent our most precious resources to glorify and honor Him.

Paul’s reminder of how my children are watching my every move serves as a wake-up call. It causes me to pause and consider what I am teaching and passing on to my children and others.

I know the legacy I hope to leave as a pastor. Yet to leave such a legacy I must keep my focus on God. I mustn’t give in to the idea that I can, on my own, stay away from the apple tree. I must keep before me the fact that my mind and heart, like it or not, are inclined to secure this body of mine in the pleasures and power of the world around me.

If I can just shoot for staying focused on God, that might be the best legacy of all to leave to my children, and their children’s children.

This Sunday we will look at a legacy that promises to breed hope and security into every circumstance. It’s called the Gift of Membership — made possible in Jesus Christ.

This is not a membership in a particular church necessarily, but membership in His holy church. It is absolute, unfailing, and will not fade according to St. Peter.

I pray, no, I beg you to come this Sunday (Feb. 7) and again on Feb. 21 as I share my testimony. I beg you because God is calling us to consider what we are passing on to our children and our children’s children.

As I mentioned in last week’s letter (that also contained my Pastor’s Report for 2009), now is the time for you and me to fight the fight of faith. Come, let me tell you how we can do that.

Advent, Christmas, Epiphany

Most of us have been taught to believe that the Christmas season starts in a flurry of shopping as we rush to the stores on the Friday after Thanksgiving (the most high and holy shopping day of the year). The trouble is, this sacred holiday season becomes a blur, and occasionally a burden, as we move from place to place, store to store, and gathering to gathering.

What should be refreshing, leaves us totally exhausted. I can’t tell you how many people apologized for not being in church this past Sunday after Christmas saying, “Pastor, we were just wiped out!”

Now that you’ve caught your breath, I want you to look back with me at the Christian calendar and remember its intent. Our spiritual journey needs seasons — it needs an alternative by which we may both mark the passage of the season and celebrate the meaning of Christ in our lives.

Advent, the true beginning of our church year, offers us a season of four weeks (including the four Sundays before Christmas). As a proclamation of the coming of Christ, Advent is a time of hope, anticipation and celebration.

We celebrate and remember Jesus’ birth and also anticipate his victorious return. We mark each Sunday by the lighting of the Advent wreath, reminding us that we are drawing ever nearer the day when Christ will come again.

The Christmas season is probably the most popular and widely celebrated throughout all of Western Christianity. The season begins on Christmas Eve or Day and continues until Epiphany (Jan. 6), which recalls the Magi’s journey to pay homage to the Christ child. Epiphany is a time of praise and thanksgiving for the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. It is this event of recognizing the promised Messiah by the Gentiles, when the names of God’s people were changed to “Christian.”

As I mentioned in my sermon recently this event changed my name, my identity as a follower of God. True, my identity is still found in the name my parents gave to me, “Mac” — yet on another level, it’s more important that you would know me by my “real” name, “Christian.” This is why the early church claimed Epiphany as holding a much greater value and importance than either Advent or Christmas.

The word Epiphany comes from the Greek word epiphania, which means “manifestation.” Epiphany calls us to fully realize how Christ’s identity and life illustrates the depth of God’s love for us. As with the Magi, Epiphany calls”Christians to pay homage to our Lord and Savior and to actively witness to our eternal hope by offering our most prized possessions of time, talent, and possessions back to God.

As we conclude the cycle of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany for another year, may we learn to live in expectation, celebrating Christ in our hearts and acknowledging him as our Savior and Lord.

We will do that this Sunday as we hear the story of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. We will look at what baptism means and what it doesn’t — and affirm God’s way of pouring out His grace and mercy into our lives.

Happy New Year

Last week’s sermon built around John 3:1-17 is important for us to hold onto as we enter a new year. St. John gives voice to the nature of humanity when it comes to our understanding of the human-divine relationship.

A closer reading of these verses will help you to rediscover the difference between our love of God, and God’s love of us.

Nicodemus in this story is cautious, careful in his seeking a relationship with God; not to put himself out there too far, just in case. God, however, holds nothing back in seeking a relationship with the human creature. God in our story puts Himself in our shoes without regard to possible failure. Nicodemus was looking at what he might lose, God only looked at what He might gain.

It’s important at this time of year to look at how we love God and each other. It’s important for you and me to inspect the ways in which we can be more like our creator, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

How? One way is not to shelve the Christmas story quiet yet. Set it in the lap of your heart and mind, and hold it there for a while. Pull out your Bible and keep reflecting upon John’s words about human beings in tension with Matthew’s and Luke’s picture of God’s eternal and everlasting love.

Notice that God’s love was birthed in the NICU of a nasty stable and rested in a feed trough. No midwives or no clean bed linens to protect him from the immediate dangers — only a piece of cloth and a mom and dad way out of their league.

Why? True love works only when it’s willing to be vulnerable. You can’t really love if you aren’t willing to give up something of yourself for another.

What does it mean that God loves you and me like that? Here at the beginning of a New Year, I invite you dig into this question by making a New Year’s resolution to spend time looking at the picture of God’s love painted by Luke and Matthew. Then turn the page, and listen to how John gives voice to it in John 3:15-17. Ask the question again: What does my love look like? Does it contain the essential ingredient of vulnerability?

I challenge you to become more vulnerable in 2010 to attending to the vows you made to God when you were either baptized or joined the church. I pray that you will grow in these areas — and become all God has intended.