The Gifts of the Spirit

Pentecost May 27, 2012 Year B Acts 2:1-21 John 15:26-27; 16:4-15 “The Gift of the Spirit” Are you Pentecostal? The well known author and preacher Fred Craddock tells a rather funny story about a lecture he was giving: A few years ago, when he was on the west coast speaking at a seminary, just before the first lecture, one of the students stood up and said, "Before you speak, I need to know if you are Pentecostal." Thoom grew silent. Craddock said he looked around for the Dean of the seminary! He was nowhere to be found. The student continued with his quiz right in front of everybody. Craddock was taken aback, and so he said, "Do you mean do I belong to the Pentecostal Church?" He said, "No, I mean are you Pentecostal?" Craddock said, "Are you asking me if I am charismatic?" the student said, "I am asking you if you are Pentecostal." Craddock said, "Do you want to know if I speak in tongues?" He said, "I want to know if you are Pentecostal." Craddock said, "I don't know what your question is." The student said, "Obviously, you are not Pentecostal." He left. What are we talking about this morning? Is the church supposed to use the word Pentecost only as a noun or can it be used as an adjective? And so I ask you: Are you Pentecostal?... What does it mean to be a Pentecostal? Depends on who you ask. But today is a big day for the church, no matter what denomination. Pentecost The world celebrates Christmas with us, and even celebrate easter, but Pentecost is only for those who are true Christians. And jewish. Last week one of our children asked what does Pentecost mean anyway. Pentecost means 50 – 50 days for us after easter, but for the jews its 50 days after Passover. They are celebrating the first harvest of the season. For the jews the celebrations is from the 26-28th. This is the celebration that the apostles witnessed in the bible. Jews from all over the world were gathered in Jerusalem. And of course, they bought their customs and their languages with them. But as they came together , speaking in their own languages. it seemed that everyone could understand one another. It is important for us to remember, that different people read and interpret and find importance on different parts of the bible. For some the holy spirit was present in the fact that they were speaking in different languages. For others it was that they were understood. Difference in theology I remember my aunt used to always tell me to make sure that when I was baptized- that I was baptized in Jesus name as it stated in acts. But was baptized in Baptist church which uses the gospels, which says be baptized in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit. But today want to talk about the presence of the holy spirit in our ability to understand, in spite of our differences. Our ability to be one body – with different opinions as proof that the holy spirit is here. Church on fire Pentecost is the day that the church was on fire. I remember growing up in Peoria, on sixth street. One of the biggest events of the day – the day the Baptist church down the street caught on fire. The whole neighborhood came to watch. When had to go back in the house, people stopped by to give reports. Two persons were talking together before a large church which was being destroyed by fire. The first man spoke in a voice which could be heard above the voice of the firemen: "This is the first time I ever saw you at church." To this the second responded: "This is the first time I ever saw the church on fire." There are many prophets of doom saying that the age of the Christian Church is over - that it has lost its zeal! We're taking a beating right now in this country and around the world. Our theology is being questioned. Everyone is writing a critical book against the organized church. We have had to take some unpopular r stands on social issues. Magazines are attacking the ministry, and it isn't the thing to do anymore to join the church. John Kelman said, however, "God pity the nation or city whose factory smokestacks rise higher than her church spires." The church can be on fire in may different ways. Way we sing, way the pastor preaches, what we do, in how we hope. We can be Pentecostal in who we are – but also in how we do it. In how we wait in God, but also depend on God. We handle our differences. Five promises of the spirit – comforter, teacher, bear witness to Jesus to the world, prove that sin was wrong, and guide the church. Promise of acts 2 – hold us together. Remember in Genesis 11 – all of the people got together and decided that they were going to build a giant tower to heaven. If they got together there is nothing they can accomplish. Sort of like the NATO summit. Remind them that the emphasis was on we and not on God. Planned everything to the detail and forgot to pray and leave room for God. The punishment was that they would all speak in different languages and head in different directions. We can all speak English and still not understand. Recently, a judicial friend was presiding over a case in a small, rural county. The defendant was charged with drunk driving and trying to assault the police officer who arrested him. To convict the defendant on the assault on an officer charge, the District Attorney had to proved that the defendant knew the person he was assaulting was a police officer. And the easiest way to do that is to show that the officer was wearing a police uniform, and therefore the defendant knew that this was a police officer. So the District Attorney asked the officer on the witness stand "And how were you attired when you pulled the defendant over?" The witness looked at him blankly. It was clear he didn't know what the District Attorney meant by "attired". Everyone saw this but the District Attorney. "Would you repeat the question, please?" In a slightly irritated voice the District Attorney said, "And how were you attired when you pulled the defendant over?" The witness still was puzzled. "Say that again", he pleaded. "How were you attired when you pulled the defendant over?" barked the District Attorney. My friend said you could suddenly see the light bulb come on in the officer's head, and he proudly proclaimed "I was traveling on standard issue radial tires!" This officer needed an interpreter even within the English language! That's what I'm getting at: We all need our own personal interpreter, full time, 24/7. So much of what we hear, even within the English language, we don't understand. And nowhere is that truth more evident than with people who are new to the church. The problem is not just in language, the problem is in our understanding. We can be in same family, same church, working on the same plan and still disagree. We are prone to misunderstanding. The good news is – that we don’t have to think alike, we have to think together. Know the holy spirit is with us. Understanding comes from god and not us. “How did you get saved.” He was asked. He replied, “God did his part and I did my part.” The man asked, “What was God’s part and what was your part.” The young man replied, “God’s part was saving and my part was sinning. I ran from Him as fast as I could, but He took after me till He ran me down.” When you see people coming to Christ, then you know that God is at work for only God can save souls. We have to let God do his part and we do are part. Our part is to be confused, and to learn to trust in God for understanding and agreement. Acts is a wonderful book to read, last day we read it in worship for awhile. Shows what it means to be Pentecostal. No matter what your denomination. Wait and witness on the holy spirit. Results may not be like to first formation of the church. We can convince people, but only the holy spirit can convict them to be followers of Jesus. You Are in the Spirit It’s like the story of the shark and the whale. Both were swimming in the sea when the shark swam up to the whale to engage in conversation. As they swam along, the shark said to the whale, “You are so much older than I, and wiser too. Could you tell me where the ocean is?” The whale responded, “The ocean is what you are in now.” The shark would not believe it. “Come on, tell me where the ocean is so I may find it!” The whale repeated, “The ocean is here, now; you are in it.” Unbelieving, the shark swam away searching for the ocean. The moral of the story, I believe, is this: don’t spend too much time looking for God because the Spirit of God is here in the now of your life, dwelling within you, within me, within this community. And that truth is nurtured in prayer. Pentecostal is a noun – who you are, verb – what you do, but is is also a adjective – how you do it. Witness and wait in the presence of the spirit. Amen.

Why are you looking up, when you should be looking in?

May 20, 2012 Ascension Sunday Acts 1:1-11 Luke 24:44-53 Why are you looking up when you should be looking in? Year B Read the Apostles Creed The apostle’s creed is written in the hymnal, but I wanted to make copies of it for each of you to keep in your bulletin graveyard. Wherever you put old bulletins – pull this out and read again. This is the ancient creed of the church. Many United Methodist churches read the creed every Sunday as a part of worship, so that people can start to store it in their hearts. Written about 100 years after Jesus was ascended by the church – it is called the apostles creed, because it is said to contain sayings from each of the 12 apostles. It is not everything that we believe – says nothing about Jesus being divine – but it is basic. The basic life of Jesus – Christmas, Easter and last Thursday. Do you remember what you were doing last Thursday – last Thursday was Ascension Day – in the bible – it is the day that Jesus ascended into heaven. The significance of the Ascension No one saw what actually happened on Easter – it remains between the father and the son. But for 40 days after, Jesus did come back to his disciples to tell them that he was okay. That is actually not a big mystery – a lot of people come back to us after they have passed away to tell us not to worry about them. But what is surprising about this story – is that Jesus made sure that everyone saw him as he ascended into heaven. Not only the disciples, but anyone who happened to be around. There is a famous painting of this event – where the disciples are gathered around, looking up – and all you can see is Jesus feet in the clouds. The word apostle means witness – someone who saw it for themselves, and has the job of telling others what they know. They saw Jesus go up into the sky for themselves, so there is no question about where he is today. Ascension can be a sad day I am sure that the day that their master left them was a sad day for them indeed. The day that Jesus left this earth, and went into heaven. Must have been sad. I get sad when I am reading through the bible, and I finish all of the gospels. No more red letters in the bible, no more words and teachings directly from Jesus. Truth be told I think Ascension Day can be a sad day for all of us – when we realize that Jesus has gone on, we get comfortable with being told what to do, with being able to follow and not having to think or be responsible. To put our lives in Jesus hands, and not have to worry about anything. The days are coming, when we will have to stop sitting in the pews listening, and we will have to start talking. The days are coming when we will have to stop worrying about what would Jesus do, and do for ourselves. When we stop listening to the story – and to be the story for ourselves. We don’t have to change today – we have one more Sunday. One thing Jesus did tell us about ascension – is that we have to wait for the power of the Holy Spirit in order to be true witnesses – but that day is coming soon – next Sunday is Pentecost. Sadness of being left alone It is sort of the sadness that we feel – on our first day of real school when we are away from our families for the first time. My mother was a single parent – so I think by kindergarten I was sort of ready to go to school. I do remember the first time my mother left me with a babysitter, who was not family. I was three, and I remember after a couple of weeks of that mess, I told me mother that she was going to have to find something else to do with her day – because was not going back to that lady. The lady was really mean to me, and all of the kids for that matter, but it was hard being away from my mother all day. She put me in the preschool next door to her job. LEAVING YOU IN GOOD HANDS The story is told of a mum who would take her son to nursery school, kiss him good bye and would always say to him "Darling, I’m leaving you in good hands, OK?" She will do this every day she takes her son to school. When the son was of age and mum was quite old now and experiencing dementia, the son took his dear mum to a care home. As he said good bye, he remembered the words of his mum when he was quite young; he then kissed her and said, "Mum I’m leaving you in good hands." His mum who could hardly remember things now because of dementia held on to his son’s hands and tears started streaming down her eyes; she remembered her own very words years ago. Jesus is just turning the table for us The good news for us is that Jesus is not leaving us alone – he realizes that it is just time to turn the tables. We have been taught, now it is time for us to teach, we have been blessed, now it is time for us to bless others, we have witnessed – now it is time for us to witness, we have been loved, now is it time for us to love. The apostles creed contains the good news for us is that everything that we need to go into an unspoken. Undeveloped future has already been given to us. The whole message of Luke is that Jesus did everything to fulfill the scriptures. He is the messiah spoken of in the scriptures. He suffered, he died, he atoned for our sins, and he has given us the gift of salvation. We have been sitting here all year listening and living the story – we know all we need to know. Jesus has done all he needs to do. We don’t need anything else than what we have to build the kingdom of God around us. Don’t You Believe in Shoes? There is a story by Hugh Price Hughes titled, “The City of Everywhere.” In this story a man arrives in a city one cold morning. As he gets off the train, he sees that the station is like any other station except for one thing everyone is barefoot. No one wears shoes. He notices a barefoot cab driver. “Pardon me,” he asks the driver, “I was just wondering why you don’t wear shoes. Don’t you believe in shoes?” “Sure we do,” says the driver. “Why don’t you wear them?” asks the man. “Ah, that’s the question,” the driver replies. “Why don’t we wear shoes? Why don’t we?” At the hotel it is the same. The clerk, bell boys, everybody is barefoot. In the coffee shop he notices a nice looking gentleman at a table opposite him. He says, “I notice you aren’t wearing any shoes. I wonder why? Don’t you know about shoes?” The man replies, “Of course I know about shoes.” “Then why don’t you wear them?” asks the stranger. “Ah, that’s the question,” says the man. “Why don’t we? Why don’t we?” After breakfast he walks out on the street in the snow but every person he sees is barefoot. He asks another man about it, and points out how shoes protect the feet from cold. The man says, “We know about shoes. See that building yonder? That is a shoe manufacturing plant. We are proud of that plant and every week we gather there to hear the man in charge tell about shoes and how wonderful they are.” “Then why don’t you wear shoes?” asks the stranger. “Ah, that’s the question,” says the man. Dr. Robert E. Goodrich told this story in his book, What’s It All About? Then he asks, “Don’t we believe in prayer? Don’t we know what prayer could mean to our lives? . . . Of course we do; we know about prayer. Then, why don’t we pray? Ah, that’s the question. Why don’t we pray? . . . Why don’t we?” Robert E. Goodrich, What’s It All About, adapted by King Duncan We have heard the story, we know the story, and we even say that we believe the story – so what is stopping us from living the story? What is stopping us from witnessing about what Christ has done for us in a way that not only changes our lives, but the lives around us? You live in Christ, but does Christ live in you? I came across an interesting question while preparing for this sermon. We all know that we live in Christ – but does Christ live in you? In your actions? Your thoughts? Your feelings? Most important your deeds? How do you know that Christ lives in you? When you know that Christ leaving is not a sad day – but a day of celebration. Jesus is not leaving you, he is just stepping out of the way so that you can have the power to live your life in the spirit of Christ. That the power of the holy spirit is going to work, in spite of my doubts, my fears, my sadness. I have told this story before, but it works here too… NO OTHER PLAN An old legend imagines Jesus arriving in heaven right after the Ascension, welcomed by all the angels. Then the angel Gabriel asks Jesus, "You suffered much, dying for the sins of mankind. Does everyone down on earth know it?" "Oh, no," replied the Savior, "just a handful of folks in Jerusalem and Galilee know about it." "Well, Master," continued Gabriel, "what is your plan for everyone to know of your great love?" The Master replies, "I asked all my apostles to carry the message into all the world. I told them to tell others, who will in turn tell others until the last person in the farthest corner has heard the story." Gabriel’s face clouds, for he spots a flaw in the plan. "What if after awhile Peter forgets, and goes back to his fishing on Galilee, also James and John and Andrew? Suppose Matthew returns to his tax booth in Capernaum, and all the others lose their zeal and just don’t tell others. What then?" After a pause comes the calm voice of the Lord Jesus, "Gabriel, I have no other plan." You are not just a part of the plan – you are the plan. You are blessed by God The most important message of the gospel lesson comes at the end. It says that Jesus walked with them as far as Bethany, and then he realized that he must depart. As he left, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And they were so happy to receive his blessing, that he went praising God forever in the temple. The word in the old testament for bless most often is baruk – but that word is used for a blessing for God. How do we bless God? Through praise and worship. The new testament adds a new element of spirituality to the meaning of blessing. The Greek use the word marakus – which means to be as happy and well as the gods in heaven. The one thing I can say about the Greek gods – they were very well indulged – they had everything. And the one thing they loved to do – was party and have a good time. Every day that Christ lives in us – is a party. When we know that we are truly blessed by God – we have an abundance of joy. That does not mean that we will not have sorrow, pain, loneliness, or sadness. It means that we have joy in our hearts and souls to get us through. We are never alone, and we can act in courage, we can witness to our hearts content. Jesus is not above us – Jesus is in us. We live in Christ and Christ lives in us. Pentecost – next Sunday is the day we receive our power – today Ascension is the day we receive our joy, our confidence, our blessing. Let us pray.

A Mother's Love

I John 5:1-6 John 15: 9-17 May 13, 2012 “A Mother’s Love” Sixth Sunday of Easter Mother’s Day Year B When God Created Mothers – Erma Bombeck When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into his sixth day of “overtime” when an angel appeared and said, “You’re doing a lot of fiddling around on this one.” And the Lord said, “Have you read the specs on this order? • She has to be completely washable, but not plastic; • Have 180 movable parts... all replaceable; • Run on black coffee and leftovers; • Have a lap that disappears when she stands up; • A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair; • And six pairs of hands.” The angel shook her head slowly and said, “Six pairs of hands... no way.” “It’s not the hands that are causing me problems,” said the Lord. “It’s the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have.” “That’s on the standard model?” asked the angel. The Lord nodded. “One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, ’What are you kids doing in there?’ when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn’t but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say, ’I understand and I love you’ without so much as uttering a word.” “Lord,” said the angel, touching His sleeve gently, “Go to bed. Tomorrow...” “I can’t,” said the Lord, “I’m so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick... can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger... and can get a nine-year-old to stand under a shower.” The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. “It’s too soft,” she sighed. “But she’s tough!” said the Lord excitedly. “You cannot imagine what this mother can do or endure.” “Can it think?” “Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise,” said the Creator. Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek. “There’s a leak,” she pronounced. “I told You You were trying to push too much into this model.” “It’s not a leak,” said the Lord. “It’s a tear.” “What’s it for?” “It’s for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride.” “You are a genius,” said the angel. The Lord looked somber. “I didn’t put it there,” He said. Mother’s Love a divine love What better way to talk about love, than to talk about our mothers. Mothers show a special kind of love. Mother is not just a person, a divine function, more importantly it is a divine relationship That is the lessons of these two books – I John and John 15. Love is a divine relationship- that comes only from God. Like grapes, God clings to us and we cling to God. These books teach us to abide in God, love only comes from God. Today the lesson that Jesus gives us is to love as I have loved you. Because of love I no longer call you a servant, I call you a friend. What it means to be a friend Mother is not a friend, has to discipline us, but in the true understanding of Jesus idea of friend, she is. Jewish understanding of compassion is the same word as womb. Place of love and nurturing. A friend is someone who is loved. The old English word friend mean someone who is beloved. A special relationship – a clinging. A mothers clings to her son During the holocaust whole families were taken and put in prison camps. Families would worry about mothers and fathers, because knew that the older people who couldn’t be productive would be the first to be killed. The Russel family knew that also their young son Frank would also be killed – he was frail and couldn’t work. One day the father came home from work and found his older son in a corner crying. Frank couldn’t do his work today – and they took him away. Where is your mother – when Frank started to cry – she assured him that he would be okay – she held his hand and walked away with him. She clung to him no matter what. A mother’s love is like Jesus love, like God’s love for us – clings to us and our situations – no matter what. Jesus says what greater love does one have for a friend then to lay down his life. Hold our hand to death – but leads us to resurrection life. Hank Aaron’s mother In the 1970’s in the south, a baseball player, Hank aaron was scheduled to break babe ruth’s record of most home runs. Many white people were really upset, and the closer he got the the record, he got death threats. The day he broke the record, two white males stormed onto the field. Security rushed to stop them. Along with the security guards – they looked around and found a 65 year old African American women – his mother. Mom what are you doing here – anyone who tries to get you – has to get me first. In some way – our mother is our first relationship, our primary relationship. The relationship where we learn how to receive love, but most importantly how to receive love. How to care for others – how to care for all of God’s children. 1870 call to peace Mothers day started out in 1870 as a call to peace. Julia Ward Howe gave a proclamation to all mothers. Arise, the women of this day Arise, all women who have heart, who have been baptized with water or with tears. She called all women to unite, to from groups and to stop the violence and war that plagues our nation. What would the world be like if women ruled the world? Te capital building would probably have more curtains and tablecloths. But each of our children killed by violence and war would be remembered by name. they would be children, not numbers. And we would have a mandate to make the world safe for them. Love one another as god loves us – is an important message. I John adds to that message. If we are able to love the son, we are able to love the father. Love is a commandment that we are called to obey. If we just obey that commandment – we can overcome the world. Transform the world and overcome our troubles. Love transforms the world Mother’s day story that is going viral - story of a mom who was told that something wrong with baby in the womb. Decided that she would love her baby no matter what. Born with no eyes, cleft palate so bad he could close his mouth. Try to take the baby out – people would ask what’s wrong with your baby. Girl said that she was wrong for not aborting her baby. Hurt by all of the comments. Baby Christian continued to grow and respond to love. Learned to laugh and smile – as he laugh, everyone else started to love with him. The rest of the world started to laugh and smile with him and call him and his mother blessed. When we understand love, we are beloved, learn to give life, and have the power to change toworld. – God gave us mothers so that we could know a mother’s love. Mother’s love is the best bible Four scholars were arguing over Bible translations. One said he preferred the King James Version because of its beauty and eloquent old English. Another said he liked the New American Standard Version for its literalism and how it moves the reader from passage to passage with confident feelings of accuracy from the original text. The third scholar was sold on the New Living Translation for its use of contemporary phrases and idioms that capture the meaning of difficult ideas. After being quiet for a moment, the fourth scholar admitted: “I have personally preferred my mother’s translation.” When the other scholars started laughing, he said, “Yes, she translated the Scriptures. My mom translated each page of the Bible into life. It is the most convincing translation I have ever read.” Let us pray…

Connected to the Vine

I John 4:7-21 John 15:1-8 Year B Fifth Sunday of Easter “Connected to the Vine” The importance of love in John I have not been preaching in awhile, haven’t had to do my sermon prep in awhile. Looked for an old sermon to preach, but couldn’t find one to talk about the scriptures for today. I John is important to our faith – lots of sayings about love and about being the church – the community of Christ. “Love one another because love is from God. God is love and those who abide in love abide in God. Those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love god whom they have not seen. We love because he first loved us. Abide in Christ The most important saying for today is that if you abide in love, you abide in God and God abides in you. The key word for you to take with you from today is abided. In Greek, the word for abide is meno in English it means to dwell, to tarry, to stay , not to perish, to endure, to survive, to remain. Abide in God means to be in union with God. To have a relationship with god. To pray, to worship, but most importantly – to live in community with the people of God. The vineyard If you look in the Hebrew Scriptures, you will see that the vineyard is an old old metaphor for the people of God. If you look at a grapes, grapes always grow in bunches, not alone. The people are the vineyard and God is the farmer. The people grow and God gives the increase. God tends and if we obey we are the fruit. Jesus turns that whole metaphor around, and says the he is the true vine, and the Father is the vine grower. Christ is the true nature of God. If we have seen Christ, you have seen God. A man was asked if he had ever seen God – no never seen God, but I have seen a few Jesus’ in my life. We have none ever seen or talked to God. But if we have experienced love in some way – we have experienced the reason Jesus died on the cross for us. In the book of John, Jesus gives seven I am statements – I am the true vine is the last. That means that everything that we need in life is present in Christ. In the Hebrew scripture – the vineyard is a symbol for living in union. In the New Testament the vineyard is a symbol for living in communion. Union is living together; communion is about living together, abiding in the love of God. Union is about us as the people, communion is about what God did for us in the presence of Jesus Christ. I stayed up all night to write a new sermon – because this is the most important scripture for our faith. Abide in me as I abide in you. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. If you read the whole verse again carefully it is saying that without Jesus the church is wordless, prayerless, hopeless, powerless, and most important fruitless. Jesus is our word, our prayer, our hope, our power and our fruit. Without Jesus we are a union, with Jesus the church is a communion. General Conference Report For the last few days I have been struggling with coming back to church after General Conference. I was not for sure of what I was going to tell you. It is sort of like before GC we were all headed down 94 going south. And during it was like we were kept on 94 on the bishop ford, and I think the church decided to take 57 – and all that we could hope was that somewhere further down the road I was hoping we would meet back up again, and all would be well. General Conference was a perfect example of what it means to be the church. Is it a union of people, or a communion of faith? What does it mean to abide in Christ? What does it mean to love one another as God loves you? The issues are always the same, and the drama is always present. On my way home I sat next to a UMW president from Indiana. It was her first time attending general conference – she asked is it always this crazy? GC is always crazy, but this one was a little over the top. They voted to get rid of guaranteed appointments, they eliminated the structure of the church, in the process the eliminated the organizational structures that protected the rights of women and minorities, and they voted that homosexuality is still a sin, so gays cannot get married in the church and they cannot serve as clergy. The intervention at the end There were many of us present who were prepared to leave and come home feeling very disempowered and left out of the whole process. You may have seen on the news that those fighting for gay rights go to great lengths to get attention. And many of them left hurt and wounded. People of color were wounded for another reason. They had voted to develop this committee on inclusiveness. Many were trying to explain that inclusiveness is a very broad term. And women’s rights, minority rights and gay rights are different things, and cannot be defined by one committee. A friend of mine defined the conference as the day the white man took back his church, and left everyone else outside. After that decision, I checked out and stopped paying attention to any of their decisions. I just didn’t care anymore. I was only present because I loved God, wasn’t quite sure about the Methodist church. As a matter of fact, at 5 o’clock Friday I went to dinner, prepared to come back for the closing worship – and go home frustrated and confused. Only to come back and learn that the judicial council had ruled the new structure unconstitutional. Everything that the conference had debated and voted on for the last two weeks was null and void, and could not be put into effect. At that late hour, the only thing the church could do was put the old structure back in place, the individual commissions were saved. The united Methodist church is divided like the us government. The bishops are the executive branch like the president, the general conference is the legislative section life like the senate, and the judicial council is the Supreme Court. The judicial council has the task of checking church law to make sure that any new decisions honor our present constitution. So the decision was that the new plan did not honor present church law. We are still awaiting a decision of whether the vote on guaranteed appointments is in keeping with the constitution. Many people felt that 11th hour decision from the judicial council was like the Holy Spirit intervening on behalf of those who didn’t have a voice. It was sort of reminding us that even in our best moments –the church is still just a union- a group of imperfect humans working together. And it takes a fresh voice of God – the Holy Spirit to make us a communion – God’s vineyard – being tended by God. Cutting and pruning If you look at John 15 – you will see that God’s way of tending the vine is by cutting and pruning. You cut what is dead and you prune or cleanse what is alive in order for it to grow out more fully. In fairness that was all the church was trying to do in developing a new structure. If the united Methodist church continues in its present structure, it will go bankrupt. On the surface, they want to get rid of guaranteed appointments in order to get rid ineffective pastors. They want to get rid of what some define s dead weight. And before you think that is a good thing- the vital congregation process is designed to do the same for churches. That is why I am trying to spend so much time making sure that you understand it. They want to get rid of churches that they deem as not bearing fruit. The problem comes along when you wonder who it is that determines what it means to bear fruit. In the united Methodist church the southern white churches are the ones with control of all of the money, and the African churches are the ones who claim to be growing in leaps and bounds. And if the proposed structure would have passed – everyone else would be defined as dead weight. Individual pruning The lesson for us is that pruning is not just about the church as a whole, it is about us as people. We live in a world where we are being cut back in all different places. Being pruned, cut back to almost nothing is not a good feeling. It is not just about finances, but about our spiritual life also. Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback was the youngest to ever win the super bowl – he was on top of the world doing what he wanted. Once he was asked why he didn’t wear a helmet when driving his motorcycle. He replied that he did not have to. And that if there was ever a law against it, he would change his mind. What changed his mind was not the law – it was an accident. He had motorcycle accident where he endured several facial injuries and a fractures skull. He extended an apology to his fans, saying that he understood why he needed a helmet, and if he ever recovered – he would have one all of the time. That was his pruning experience. A time of struggle, that would help him make better decisions, live a better life, be a better person. Are we being cut or pruned? Pruning is painful. But how do you know whether you are being cut as dead weight, or cleansed for a better life? It all depends on whether you abide in Christ. Whether you realize that apart from Christ you can’t do or be anything. Are you in union with the church or in communion with God. Are you still able to love to give love and receive love in spite of what you are going through? Are you determined to live, to endure, to survive, to stand firm, to wait on God? Or have you just given up? Abide in Christ John 15 is that chapter, which say in my father’s house, there are many mansions – the Greek really means in my father’s house there are many places to abide. – To dwell – to live in God. In my Father's house there are many places to live in Christ. Are you being cut or pruned? Where is God in your life? Where are you? What is going on in your life that needs an intervention from God himself to change – because there is nothing else for you to do – but to abide. To stand in the place, in that need- and depend on God. Apart from Christ – apart from inside of Christ – we can do nothing. In communion with Christ – we can do all that is within God’s will. May The Holy Spirit be with you. Let us pray….. Amen.