Christ My King

Ephesians 1:15-23 Matthew 25:31-46 Christ the King Sunday November 20, 2011 Year A “Christ My King” An important invitation Imagine for a moment that tomorrow you go to your mailbox and find nice looking envelope. It looks like an invitation or something. It’s from the white house. You open that envelope before you even start to think about all of the bills, advertisements, and other things we get in the mail. I don’t really get letters anymore from people. Sure enough, it is an invitation. The Obama’s are having a state dinner for the president of Nigeria, and they want you to be a special guest. Now of course you know that in order to get to the dinner, it is going to take some money – a lot of money. You got to pay for airfare to get there, hotel, meals while you are gone., cab fare, then you will have to bring back souvenirs for the family. And this is a formal dinner, which means that you have to have formal attire. All of that is a lot of money. And money is one thing that you don’t have right now. But on the other hand it is not every day that you get an invitation from the president to go to the white house. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. And you are going to do whatever you need to do, and find whatever money you need to find in order to make it happen. Or suppose a close friend calls you and tells you that she has won backstage passes to see Bill Cosby. He will be in Atlanta next weekend. The tickets are for a concert with him, a chance to go backstage and talk with him, and then have dinner with him afterwards. You and your friend will be his personal guest for the night. The evening is all expense paid. But once again, you have to get to Atlanta. You don’t want to disappoint you friend. And once again, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. So you do what you have to do to make it happen. A more important invitation Now suppose you get another invitation. Not from the White house, and not from some famous star. But from someone much more important. You don’t have to travel anywhere, you don’t have to spend no money, and all you have to do is show up. Every day we get an invitation from Jesus Christ – to be in his presence, to be led by his wisdom, to be a part of his inner circle, to follow him. How do we respond? How excited are we about the invitation? How much do we invest to be present? We don’t just get this invitation for Sunday to be here for church – we get the invitation every day. Jesus says that if you want to see me, all you have to do is feed the hungry, take care of the sick, visit the prisoner, and take care of the least of these. Whenever you take care of the least of these, you have taken care of me, you are with me, you have received your invitation – how do you respond? Jesus should be a much bigger celebrity in our lives then the Obama’s or Bill Cosby. An invitation from Jesus is a once in a lifetime event. We say that Jesus is #1 in our lives, and yet we take that invitation for granted. Jesus is the king of kings Jesus has all power and authority on earth. Jesus has greater influence in not just our lives, but the lives of all persons. Jesus has the power to cure all ills, to heal all pain, to provide all resources, to give all hope. Jesus is truly the king of kings and lord of lords. How do we give honor to Jesus in our lives? Who are we? And if Christ is king, then what does that make us? We are not princes and princesses. Because if we are followers of Christ, then he is the first among equals. If Christ is the king of kings, we are his brothers and sisters. We are kings and queens too. We are so important that we are the body of Christ. We are the church. We are the community of hope. Epistle of the Ephesians The epistles are letters that were distributed to the early church to help them understand what it meant to be the body of Christ. Most of the epistles were written to a specific community in order to address a specific situation. I tell you that – because even though our epistle lesson is entitled Ephesians – it was written for everyone. And in it Paul is not talking about a certain situation – he is talking to all who profess to follow Christ – wherever they may be. Paul’s prayer of hop This is a prayer of hope – given to a community of hope. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of your inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness among the saints. Paul’s prayer is for you to have hope, wisdom, riches and power. If we are able to inherit the rich hope that Christ gives us – then we are able to believe in God, believe in ourselves, and to believe in others. Matthew 25 is final teaching Matthew 25 is the final teaching of Jesus. Chapters 26-28 are about the trial, death and resurrection of Jesus. This teaching of the last judgment is the last time that Jesus is able to talk to the disciples and us and give us instruction. This is the last Sunday of the Christian year. Next week is the first Sunday of advent. We have spent all year reading Matthew. Next week we start on Mark. Christ the King Sunday On Christ the king Sunday – we are asked to look at the totality of who Christ is for us. What has Christ done for us this year? What has he taught us? How has he proven that he is indeed king of kings? And lord and savior of our lives? Anna’s hope in the lottery At first I was not going to tell this story – but I think it is fitting. Anna is like a lot of my friends and family. Every Monday she would go the convenience store and buy a lottery ticket. She might spend five dollars, ten dollars, whatever extra money she had – she spent it on lottery tickets. That was her hope for getting out of her situation. One of the legislators said that the lottery bought hope to poor people. My family has calmed down a lot – but there was a time, when every extra dime they had was spent on the lottery. The lottery was a plan. Anna would tell her neighbor that she had it down to a system. She played her birthday plus her address. Every week she would tell her neighbor how she had a feeling that it was going to work this week. She had a winning combination of numbers, and she just knew that she was going to win. She would even start planning what to do with the money. Her friend would just shake her head and say that she needed to have hope in something more powerful than the right numbers. She said - maybe I am being old fashioned, but there is only person strong enough for me to put my hope in. One person who has the power to do all things, to give me all things, and to help me in all things. Can you guess who that person is?.......... Jesus Christ.. The king of kings. Jesus Christ is the only power to give us hope out of our Situation. Where can we find Jesus? And where can we find Jesus? If we know what we are looking for you can find Jesus everywhere, in everybody. The face of Jesus is imprinted on all of us. That invitation to interact with Jesus can come at anytime. The invitation of Jesus One man was walking into one of the finest restaurants in Chicago. And at the entrance was a homeless man, who asked for some money to get some food. As most of us do – he said no and went in. As he was ordering his food it occurred to him – that was Jesus – that was his invitation to interact with Jesus, and he had turned it down. He went back out to give the man money – and he was gone. After he and his friends were done eating, he looked for the man hoping to find him and help – and he was gone. You never know when Jesus is going to extend an invitation to you – but it is not always an open invitation. It won’t wait for you – if you miss it – it’s gone. The final judgment That is the hard lesson in Matthew 25. Jesus draws the line in the sand. He is a king, but he has also been given the power to be a judge. Some of his followers are sheep, and some are goats. Some are deemed worthy and some are deemed worthless. Some inherit eternal life. Some damnation. Those who helped the least of these go to the right side. And those who did not – go to the left. When was the last time you received in invitation to interact with Christ? Did you help or walk on by? Not about being good or bad The thing that separates us according to Jesus is not whether we are good or bad. But whether we are willing to help others. There are lots of good people – who do feel the need to help the least of these. And there are some bad people who will give all that they have. If Christ is king of your life, which are you? Are you a sheep or a goat? The good news is that Christ extends that invitation to us each and every day, with each and every person. We just have to be willing to love others, just as Christ has loved us. Let us pray…..Amen.

Press On, Move Forward

Englewood UMC “Press on, Move Forward” Galatians 5:13-16, 22-26 Galatians 6:2-9 Philippians 3:12-14 138th Anniversary Celebration November 13, 2011 Story of 3 sisters who didn’t know if they were coming of going 3 sisters lived together. One was 96, one 95, and one 94. The oldest sister ran some bath water, began to step in the tub but she got confused, she couldn’t remember if she was getting in the tub, or out of the tub. Her middle sister decided to come up the steps to help her. But she had to stop halfway up the stairway. She couldn’t remember if she was going up the steps table eating breakfast. All she could do was shaker her head and knock on wood. Thank God her memory was not as bad as her sisters. I will be there to help you two figure out what is going on, just as soon as I see who it is that is knocking at the door. I want to ask you – are we coming or going? A church anniversary – is it time for us to look back at what the church used to be, or is it time to press on and move forward? A church anniversary is indeed a good time to reminisce. To look at pictures, to remember old relationships. It is not a time to rest on our laurels, to stay stuck on what we used to be, too just sit on our butts. It is time to Press on and move forward. Biblical referenced for Press on Move Forward Press on move forward – that is a good message for us this morning. The bad news is that it is not biblical. I spent all weekend looking for a biblical reference to those powerful words. Paul didn’t say those words, Jesus didn’t say those words, and the prophets didn’t say those words. The good news is they didn’t have to because the concept is everywhere throughout the bible. For instance in 1 Corinthians 9:24 Paul says to run in such a way as to win the prize – that means to run forward – running backward won’t get you anywhere. In Philippians 3:13-14 Paul says But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward. In Luke 9:62 Jesus says no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. In Genesis 19:17 an angel tells Abrahams cousin Lot to flee for your lives, don’t look back and don’t stop until you reach the plains. Message is to move forward and don’t look back In all of these verses the message is not just to move forward, but don’t look back. No matter what the past may hold, leave it behind and move forward. In order to move forward there is something that we have to let go of. Something on our list that we have to forget about, something that we have to prioritize. The religion of the Jews is a religion that places a priority on history, on ancestors, on wisdom of the past. The religion of Jesus does not take away from that past- it just reminds us that our hope is in what lies ahead. People of faith are those who are moving forward. The logical reason – we face forward not backward And when you think about it that makes sense. When a baby is learning to walk – you don’t stand behind her and encourage her to walk backwards. You stand in front of her and encourage her to walk forward. You tell her to come here – God does the same for us. God calls us forward in everything. Our feet, are in front of us. Our face in front, our eyes in front. An interesting fact that I learned this year, If you pull aside the feathers on an owls face, you will discover that the owl has two totally different shaped ears. An owl has superior hearing because those two different ears are oriented in two different directions. An owl has superior hearing because he can hear what is in front of him, and what is in back of him at the same time. But humans, we don’t have eyes in the back of our head, and those big lobes on the side of our face – they are specifically designed to catch the sound in front of us, not in back. Why is it that all of our senses are in the front of us and not in back of us, who do we not have special tools to look behind us – because we are not headed in that direction. We don’t need to look back – there is nothing for us. There is nothing wrong with the past; we are just not headed in that direction. Press on, move forward. In Christ we are a new creation, we have a new life, our eternity is in the kingdom to come. The command is forward march – not backward march. The story of Alexander’s army Alexander the great was known for commanding his army to march upon a village and just taking over everything around him. Most kings were intimidated by the sheer number of his army. Once he met a king who resisted – why should I just surrender and give you control of my kingdom just because you asked for it. Alexander the great told him because he had a powerful army. The king was still not convinced. So Alexander had to give him an example. He gave the order forward march. On the army marched onward. They continued to follow the command of their leader, and marched on. They were near a cliff, but had not received the command to stop. It has been a long time since I was in marching band, so I forget the command to stop. But Alexander finally gave the command to stop. But it was not until 3 or 4 rows of the army had marched off the end of the cliff. Alexander turned to the king, what makes my army so powerful – they will do whatever I tell them to do. The king immediately surrendered. Alexander had an army that was willing to press on and move forward. Don’t we feel that we are falling off a cliff sometime? Just as in that story, do we sometimes think that moving forward is like falling off of a cliff for God. After all – move forward – move forward into what. Where are we headed as a church? What does the future hold for us? how can we look forward to a future that we can’t see? Who are the people coming behind us? what do we have to look forward to when there are more funerals than baptisms? What do we look forward to, when we can look back and see better days behind us? We can be tempted to think of a church anniversary as a time to look back and remember the good times. The cemetery with a church Okay I was going to save this story for another sermon, but I can’t resist. I have been looking online all weekend for sermons on church anniversaries, trying to find exactly what you say at a time like this. And I came upon the story of a pastor who like me, did an internet search and found a story that he was very interested in. It was preached at St. Matthew church, somewhere in England. He was really taken with the anniversary sermon and wanted to learn more about the church. What ministries did they have that warranted such a good sermon? What did they do for the community? He did an internet search, not only did they not have a website; he could find nothing about the church. The pastor, pastor Johnson had a website, but funny thing it didn’t say anything about the church. It was time for him to preach his sermon – and he was frustrated that he couldn’t find anything. So in desperation he decided that he would just look up pastor Johnson and call him personally. Pastor Johnson was in total shock. St. Matthew church had not been an independent church for 5 years now. They had merged with 3 other churches, and it had been 10 years since they were able to afford anything other than a student pastor. The only reason the name St. Matthew was still known was because the cemetery attached to the church was still open. The building was only used once a year. That sermon for the annual church anniversary – a fundraiser to keep the cemetery open. So much for a church anniversary sermon focused on the past. Galatians 6:9 Speaking of falling off cliffs, I thought that my sermon had fallen off a cliff this weekend, as I continued to do my planning for today. I picked this theme of press on move forward last month or so. But didn’t read Galatians 6:9 until Friday. The verse says “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” It is a great message - but doesn’t have anything to do with press on move forward. Somewhere along the way – I got my signals messed up. But I truly do believe that when it comes to the message of God – there are no mistakes. There is always a reason that a word is revealed. And for some reason God wanted those too messages to come together. I am I am not just saying that because I didn’t look at this text until Friday, and realized that I needed to have to say something that made sense on Sunday. Our faith is grounded in obedience If we look back at our story about the army of Alexander – it is an example of what it means to press on and move forward. But that is not the point of the story. The point of the story is obedience. Obedience to press on and move forward no matter what. God calls the church to be focused, and unwavering in our obedience to God. To press on and not look back, to trust God into an unknown future. To never grow weary in doing what is Good – because that is what God tells us to do. The harvest comes for us in the future, not in the past. The harvest is God’s and not ours. Our faith is grounded in hope The faith of the followers of Christ is grounded in hope. Hope in new life, hope in new creation, hope in things to come, not times gone by. Religions of the past got their meaning from where they come from, what they did, who their ancestors were. The religion of Christ is a religion of the future. We get our meaning from the future no the past. We walk toward where are going, no where we have been. We press on move forward, never growing tired of our task to do what is good, in world obsessed with what is wrong. The greeting of keep moving forward One man noted that whenever he visits the church that he grew up in, the usher always notices him. Mr. Cotton Jones always says to him – it is good to see you, keep on moving forward. His greeting - keep moving forward is a challenge. A challenge to learn more, to grow more, to achieve more, to live more fully. Press on Englewood – move forward! Let us pray….

Honoring the Saints of God

November 6, 2011 All Saints Day Revelation 7:9-17 Matthew 5:1-12 Year A “Honoring the Saints of God” What does the word Saint mean? The word Saint means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To some – we think of the great saints of the bible – Paul, Peter, Matthew, Luke. To some we think of the great saints of time – of Ghandi, Martin Luther King, to some we think of the great people of our lives, our grandparents, our favorite uncle, our parents, our first Sunday school teacher. We might even think of a stranger along the way – someone who we know did something really important. An unlikely saint I am pretty sure that in thinking of the meaning of a saint, we would never think of a young man of about twenty years old, in a sailor’s uniform, sitting in the bottom of a ship, looking at silk – checking it meticulously for holes and other faults. Ironing it out, and them folding it in just the right way. But to Charles Plumb, he was a saint. Because he was the person who packed his parachute. Who packed your parachute story Every now and then someone sends you something on the email which is worth Keeping. Some years ago a friend, and I can't remember who it was now, sent An email entitled "who packed your parachute". I was interested to see Recently that it is doing the rounds again. It was one of those you are meant to send on to people who have a special Place in your life. It is the story of a US fighter pilot from the Vietnam War, called Charles Plumb. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air Missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and Spent 6 years in a Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now Lectures on lessons learned from that experience. One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!" "How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today." Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. He says, "I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform, a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said, "Good morning, how are you?" or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor. Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't even know. "Now," Plumb asks his audience, "who's packing your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory --- he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety. Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. The email finished with the suggestion that "As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachute." [1] A saint is someone who packed your parachute. Before you even thought of venturing out into life, before you thought of doing whatever it is that you do. Saints are those who packed our parachute There was someone who packed your parachute. Someone who prayed that you would be safe, someone who thought of the obstacles that you would face, and someone who sacrificed their life and their safety, so that you could have more. Some of those people we know and we value very well. Others – like the young sailor – we may never know. All we know is that we would not be here without them. This church would not be standing here; our lives would not be the same. Saints could have done big things or little things, a saint could be here with us now, or they could be gone. They could have passed this year, a thousand years ago. A saint could be a boy or a girl, a saint could live next door, or on the other side of the road. Saints come in all sizes and shapes. That is the point that revelation is trying to make. Our text starts out by saying – I looked and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb. 12 is the number of completeness Chapter 7 also says that they were numbered 144,000. The book of revelation is written in code. That does not mean that there are only 144,000 in heaven. 12 is the number of completeness. There were 12 tribes of Israel, Jesus had twelve disciples. 144,000 is 12 X 12000. That is twelve – over a thousand times. A number that is beyond complete. Everyone who is supposed to be there is there. Everyone is there – before the throne of God worshipping and praising God. Who are these people and what are they doing here One of the elder angels of heaven asks – who are all of these people dressed in white – and what are they doing there. They are the saints of God – those who have been made holy by the blood of Jesus – those who remained faithful to God no matter what- those who lived their lives in relationship with Jesus Christ. ASD not about us We remember the saints on this day – because God is calling us to think beyond ourselves and beyond our comfort zones of what makes sense. Life is not just about us. Life is about everybody. God knows no boundaries in life. For God, life and death are doors to pass through. And for today – we are called to remember that we are part of a much bigger picture. All saints day is to remind in a world we are prone to forget the past and to be afraid of the future – that God’s world is eternal. That there are multitudes in our lives – who have made the world what it is, and that now it is our turn to act. Our turn to prepare a parachute for those who are coming behind us. Come beyond the deadness of our lives One pastor said that All Saint day calls us to come out from behind the wheels of our dead lives – and to know that Christ has given us new life. Not just the resuscitation of the normal life – but a new life. Sometimes I feel out of kilter – and I wish that I could just return to normal. And I have to be reminded that in this life, there is on normal – there is only what is before me. And the strength to go on. How did they get here? Jesus Christ, the lamb of God is my strength to go on. The elder angel asks another good question – he asks not only who are the saint – but how did they get here. All saint day reminds us that we get to the throne room of God through our suffering. We have suffered failure, rejection, injustice, and loss. Those before the throne are there because they have suffered death. 1 Corinthians 15:26 says that death is the last enemy to be conquered. All Saints day reminds us that Jesus Christ has conquered that enemy – for us and for those whom we love who are faithful. We struggle, we are still struggling – but the good news is that God has not forgotten our struggle. Why they there dressed in white – worshipping God – scripture are says because they will hunger no more, nor any scorching heat and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. All saints day reminds us – that we are not in the throne room yet – there is still struggle ahead for our lives – and yet we can share in their joy. We can be comforted by the lamb of God – right here and now. In order to go forward In order for us to go forward, we have to remember where we came from. In order for us to go forward we have to remember those who got us here, in order for us to go forward – we have to remember who packed our parachute – and why we need to pack for others. I want to leave you with the words of psalm 34 - bless the lord at all time, in all places, in honor of all people. Amen.