This morning, we begin a new series called, BE the Church. Over the next three weeks, we are going to be looking at three tenets that I see as the crux of what it means to be the church. But before we get started, maybe we need to determine exactly what the church is.The first time this term, church, is found in the Bible is in Matthew 16 when Peter makes his confession about who Jesus is. Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter replies, “You are the Christ [anointed one].” Then Jesus says to Peter, “You are Peter [which loosely means Rock] and on this Rock I will build my Church. Now the Greek word which we get the word church from is ekklesia which means gathering.
In our United Methodist Hymnal, there is a hymn that succinctly states what the church is and isn’t. We Are the Church puts it this way:
The church is not a building,
the church is not a steeple,
the church is not a resting place,
the church is a people.
I am the church! You are the church!
We are the church together!
All who follow Jesus,
all around the world!
Yes, we’re the church together!
Though it reeks of 1970’s campy church song style, the words do attest to the fact that ekklesia, the church is the gathering of God’s people.
A couple of years ago, our denomination, The United Methodist Church launched an advertising campaign that took this a step further by posing this question, “What if church were a verb?” That changes the perspective quite a bit, doesn’t it. That would imply that it not something that you go to, but rather something you do. I think that’s part of it too. But all in all, it has to be more than just a place and a function, it’s what we are. It’s not just doing – it’s being.
That’s what I believe God wants – for us to BE the Church. Not just go to church or do the church thing, but to completely BE the Church.
So, this morning, we kick off this study about Being the Church with this concept: BE the Mouth.
Be the mouth. Does that mean that we need to eat the right things, keep our teeth cleaned and polished so that we can flash those sanctified smiles. No, in this sense, the mouth is the personification of being the Voice for the Church, thus being the voice of the Body of Christ.
For many of us, this scares us considerably, because what it is implying is that we have to be spokesmen(women) for Christ and we don’t like talking about our faith much, if we like talking at all. Some will want to shy away from this aspect of being the church, saying that is not their role in church. I can understand that sentiment, but if you will, please allow me a few moments to help us see this in a different light.
The text is for today comes from Paul’s Letter to Titus, who has been charged with overseeing the churches on the island of Crete. It can be found in the second chapter, verses 11-15
Titus 2:11-15
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. 15 These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.
This passage is one that is normally assigned as a lectionary reading for either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. With that being so, why in the world would I use it for this Sunday in September? Now to be truthful, I do not know why I chose it. I have no recollection of how it came to me and I tried to change it multiple times this week. But it came back each time. Haunting me to dig further into it and see how it relates to Being the Mouth.
After wrestling with it for much more time than I would have chosen for myself, I came to understand something about this text. The people that we are called to BE the Church to aren’t that different from the Cretans that Titus was called to.
Take this for example. Who remembers this song from Hee-Haw?
Gloom, Despair, and Agony
Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Deep, dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all
Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Friends, it does not matter where you are or when you live, you are going to be around people who feel like they have no hope. This song could be their theme song! But, it is not always the people we expect.
When we think of hopelessness, we tend to cast our thoughts on the poor, the sick, the homeless. Sometimes we are right on track about that, but sometimes we are wrong. The hopeless also live in the suburbs, live in gated communities, on farms, drive BMW’s and classic Mustangs. They may work in the factories or they may be CEO’s. The hopeless are that way because they have not found the peace offered in Jesus Christ.
That is the point that our text for today is making. We are living in the in between advents of Jesus. We live in between the epiphany of God’s grace and the epiphany of God’s glory. And this text has the audacity to proclaim hope – salvation for all.
You see friends, our faith is one of the memory of what God has done and what God promises to do.
A professor and friend of mine, Samuel Dansokho, of Hood Theological Seminary is from Senegal. He has told me that one of the cherished images of his country is this
The sankofa depicts a bird running forward while looking behind. It loosely means this, “it is not wrong to go back and get what you forgot.” Brothers and sisters, that’s us! We are a people who are running forward to the future while looking to our past, remembering where we have been.
A preacher at Oxford once remarked that it is the modern temper to cry in despair, “Look at what the world has become!” while the early Christians shouted for joy, “See what has come to the world!”
God has revealed his loving purpose – salvation for everyone. We read Paul saying this same thing in his letter to the Romans
Romans 10:13-14
13 "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
But listen to this next verse…
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
Now before someone, stops me and says to me, “Tim, this is about you…you’re the preacher!” let me give a little insight into that word preach we see there. In the original Greek, the word that we translate as preach is kerusso which simply means “to proclaim.” Friends, that’s not just the roll of clergy – it’s every person who professes their faith in the LORD Jesus Christ.
You see, when we speak of the saving grace of Jesus Christ, the hope we share is not dependent on the human feelings of hopelessness, but on the one in whom hope is invested.
You still may be asking, “But why speak? Why can’t we just do good things and let that show our faith?” Simply put, any good person can do good things, but only a person who loves Jesus will speak of his love.
Back when I was a child, I thought I was the #1 fan of the Dallas Cowboys. I think it was Super Bowl XIII, back in 1979, that I had just about every Cowboy paraphernalia that at thirteen year-old boy could have. I had the coat, the toboggan, the gloves, the bookbag, the notebooks, and I even paid someone $2 for a Cowboy pencil when they got it out of the vending machine for 10 cents. I thought that was what made a real fan. But then, something happened…people started asking me questions, like the stats. I didn’t know. They asked me about the players, but I only knew Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett, but I didn’t know what positions they played. I was a fraud and I knew it. And so did everybody else.
That isn’t how it should be with our faith. Our faith isn’t really proclaimed by us putting ICTHUS (little fishies) on the back of our cars. It is proclaimed though by our actions AND our words. These are grounded in our knowledge of God and in our experience of what God has done in our lives. That has to be genuine. It’s your story.
A few years ago, a friend of mine, a pastor who is now retired, had the opportunity to mesh both his words and actions. Here’s his story:
Don, could have just passed this house by, after all, it was a crack house, who cares about the people who lives there. He could have helped clean it up without ever saying anything about Jesus, after all, they were drug dealers, who cares if they hear of Jesus?. But instead, words and actions came together, because Jesus cares, even for the druggies.
I want to close out this time by reading our text once more, this time though, as it is told by Eugene Peterson’s, The Message
Titus 2:11-14
11 God's readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation's available for everyone! 12 We're being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, 13 and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. 14 He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness. 15 Tell them all this.
Friends, that’s the Good News, Go and Be the Mouth…BE the Church!
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