[Prayer]
Folks,
before we get started, I have got to say this, I don't know if I want to tell
you how much I love you or how much you're killing me! I've been working more
in the last few weeks than any other time in my eighteen years of ministry. In
all honesty, I do love you and I want to thank you for you response to all
that's going on and about to start here at Sunrise. So, please don't lighten up
on it. We're following the vision that God has put out before us and we are
being blessed for it.
As far
as I have been able to gather information, this year is the first time in the
history of Sunrise that our average weekly attendance has not gone down during
the summer months. Normally we lose about 10-20% during the summer, but this
year, we haven't gone down at all. We have maintained our average since the
start of the year. I believe that it's because we are experiencing the
excitement and momentum of following God's vision. I can't wait to see what
God's going to do next. Amen?!
This morning, we are
finishing this series we been going through since the beginning of summer, Our
Heart and Soul in which we are looking in finer detail at out Mission,
Vision, and Value Statements. As we have for several weeks, we are looking in
depth at our Values, which we consider as those non-negotiable principles of
which without, Sunrise would not be who we are or the church that God longs for
us to be. The value that we are taking to heart this morning is: Be a Community
of God.
Have you ever
stopped to think about what makes a community?
Here's how Dictionary.com defines it:
1. A group of people living in the same
place or having a particular characteristic in common.
2. A feeling of fellowship with others,
as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.
This
past week, I discovered that I have become fully integrated as a part of
Sunrise. As people join the church, it often takes a while to become fully assimilated
and know that you are part. Even for pastors, it sometimes takes a while. But
it was this past Wednesday for me that this realization became clear to me as I
was getting ready for work. Most of you probably received word by Phone Tree
that Leigh Anne Shore's grandmother passed away and the funeral was held
Wednesday. So, I was getting ready to go
to it and I started panicking. I was already up early to try and get here to
help out with the Drive-Thru Breakfast, but I was having trouble getting dressed.
After a few minutes of having a slight melt-down, I woke my soundly sleeping
wife up to help me. Why was I panicked? Because I Have Become On of You - and I
Could Not Find a Tie! So, for the first time in my life, I wore a suit without
a necktie. That's how I figured I must really be part of this community now.
It's a good feeling knowing that you are really part of
something. It gives us the sensation of being whole and complete. I believe
that is why God has implanted within each of us the innate need to be in
community.
While most communities help to fulfill that desire, their
are times that it comes with a horrific price. In these instances, communities
aren't just about including people, but also excluding some.
History
is filled with examples of how certain communities have rallied together for
the sole purpose of excluding people, just because they are different.
Differences, even subtle differences have been used as justification to
separate "us" from "them."
Last Wednesday marked the fiftieth anniversary of when one
man publicly proclaimed that such practices are immoral.
You recognized that clip being that of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. delivering his immortal, "I Have a Dream" speech. Here,
fifty years later, it seems almost foreign to many of us that there was a time
in our history, recent at that, where people were treated differently because
of the color of their skin.
Yet, on any given day, we are inundated with news stories of
people who are still harassed and oppressed because of their ethnicity, gender,
social status, wealth, sexual orientation, political alliance, heritage,...the
list is as long as anyone can think of how another is "different."
In the recent couple of weeks, my heart has been broken for
the Canadian family who received a letter from someone in their community - a
hate letter - because their son is autistic.
Here are excerpts from that letter:
- "You have a kid that
is mentally handicapped and you consciously decided that it would be a good idea
to live in close proximity neighborhood like this????"
- "He is a hindrance to everyone
and will always be that way."
- "Do the right thing
and move or euthanize him!!! Either way, we are ALL better off!!!"
Every time I read this letter, or any like that, I become
incensed at the stupidity and lack of love and compassion that is evidenced by
some people. I hope that you join me in my indignant reaction of insisting that
"Something must be done! This has got to change!"
But how? How can we change a world that seems to be bent on
becoming more divisive each day?
The day after the terrorist attack on New York City and the
Pentagon, I sat in my Christian History class at Duke Divinity School. I was
still in shock and still reeling in disbelief of the sheer horror that we had
witnessed. I sat and wondered, just like you did...Why? It made no sense. Now I
cannot tell you what we learned in class that day, but I can still tell you,
almost verbatim, the prayer with which Dr. Wainwright opened class, because he
included a phrase from an old and well-known hymn: This is my Father's world, O
let me ne'er forget, that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the
ruler yet."
Here today, we are still asking that same question,
"Why?" But, this time, we are reminded, that if we are going to begin
working through this problem, we first start with...God. So, let's take a look
at how God has worked through a similar event before as we look at Paul's
letter to the Church at Galatia, chapter 3.
Galatians 3.28 (CEB)
There
is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male
and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
This
passage can serve as a guide for us today because the problem that Paul was
addressing in it was that there were certain people in the church, the Jewish
Christians, who were demand that if the Church was going to insist on including
the Greeks, they being Gentiles or those who are not Jewish, then they had to
also become Jews, in addition to believing in Jesus. For the men, that had to
include circumcision. In essence, they were focusing on what made them
different rather than what had the ability to unite.
But
notice the way Paul puts it. He does not say that are both Jew and Greek; he says there is neither Jew nor Greek. In other words, he is proclaiming that the
age-old distinctions must give way to a greater unity in Jesus.
So, what
can we take away form this? I believe what we can learn is that our conformity
is found not in our worldly identity, not in our race, gender, politics,
occupation,...you name it. Our concordance is found in Christ alone, who gives
us a new identity as children of God.
Of
course, we all know that even if and when we break down our self-constructed
barriers of isolation, we will still be of different mindsets. So what can we
do about that?
There is a quote that is often
attributed to John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, but most Wesleyan scholars
now agree, that it did not originate with him.
While John may not have said these
words, they still capture the essence of our Wesleyan theology. We can come
together on those non-negotiable principles that have been given to us by God. We
can agree to disagree. We can love and respect others, even those with whom we
disagree.
That is why Sunrise has adopted The
Value to be a community of God. Please read it with me:
Being a
Community of God means that we come together as a people broken by different
thoughts, ideologies, preferences, skills, hopes, dreams, social status,
wealth, race, gender, orientation, ethnicities. We come together, united by the
grace and mercy of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who calls us each by
name, to live in the fullness of the Community of God.
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