Called by Name - Answered by Choice

John Wesley Covenant Service January 13, 2013 Isaiah 43:1-7 Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 “Called by Name, Answered by Choice” Year C Baptism of the Lord Leighton Farrell was the minister of Highland Park Church in Dallas for many years. He tells of a man in the church who once made a covenant with a former pastor to tithe ten percent of their income every year. They were both young and neither of them had much money. But things changed. The layman tithed one thousand dollars the year he earned ten thousand, ten thousand dollars the year he earned one-hundred thousand, and one- hundred thousand dollars the year he earned one million. But the year he earned six million dollars he just could not bring himself to write out that check for six-hundred thousand dollars to the Church. He telephoned the minister, long since having moved to another church, and asked to see him. Walking into the pastor’s office the man begged to be let out of the covenant, saying, "This tithing business has to stop. It was fine when my tithe was one thousand dollars, but I just cannot afford six-hundred thousand dollars. You¡¦ve got to do something, Reverend!" The pastor knelt on the floor and prayed silently for a long time. Eventually the man said, "What are you doing? Are you praying that God will let me out of the covenant to tithe?" "No," said the minister. "I am praying for God to reduce your income back to the level where one thousand dollars will be your tithe!" This is not a sermon about tithing, it is story about moving forward. We should always seek to move forward in our faith, and not backward. Today, as we celebrate covenant Sunday – it is tome for us to move forward in God. A covenant service is time for us to think seriously about our relationship with God. As you begin the new year, I want you to think about what needs to happen in your life in the coming year. What call does God have in your life. What has that little voice inside of you been telling you? What visions of the future do you have? How will you need God to get through this year? Yesterday, Our new member, Ken reminded me that whenever someone felt they were on a mission from God, they had to take a vow. In order to take a vow, they needed to have a time of preparation. There needed to be a time of prayer, fasting and study. You needed to set aside some time in your life to really listen to God in your life. As we follow the life of Jesus, we will go through his time of preparation. And it all starts with his baptism. We may ask, why would Jesus need to be baptized if he was not a sinner. He knew that was the beginning of his public journey. People needed to see that he was on a journey. When we hear God’s voice in our heads, there is always an outward sign for us to see what is inside. The voice inside leads us – but God takes a chance to publicly acknowledge what he is saying to us. 1 Corinthians – many gifts once spirit – we have heard that many times. God is speaking to the community not the person. Spiritual gifts are an outward sign that the holy spirit is present. How do we know that it is God that is really calling us? We look for signs of the Spirit in our midst. That little voice inside of us turns into action. We start to live. Signs of death are all around us – now it is time for us to look for signs of the Holy spirit. It is time to acknowledge those signs, to answer that call, to take a vow. A young boy by the name of James had a desire to be the most famous manufacturer and salesman of cheese in the world. He planned on becoming rich and famous by making and selling cheese and began with a little buggy pulled by a pony named Paddy. After making his cheese, he would load his wagon and he and Paddy would drive down the streets of Chicago to sell the cheese. As the months passed, the young boy began to despair because he was not making any money, in spite of his long hours and hard work. One day he pulled his pony to a stop and began to talk to him. He said, "Paddy, there is something wrong. We are not doing it right. I am afraid we have things turned around and our priorities are not where they ought to be. Maybe we ought to serve God and place him first in our lives." The boy drove home and made a covenant that for the rest of his life he would first serve God and then would work as God directed. Many years after this, the young boy, now a man, stood as Sunday School Superintendent at North Shore Baptist Church in Chicago and said, "I would rather be a layman in the North Shore Baptist Church than to head the greatest corporation in America. My first job is serving Jesus." So, every time you take a take a bite of Philadelphia Cream cheese, sip a cup of Maxwell House, mix a quart of Kool-Aid, slice up a DiGiorno Pizza, cook a pot of Macaroni & Cheese, spread some Grey Poupon, stir a bowl of Cream of Wheat, slurp down some Jell-O, eat the cream out of the middle of an Oreo cookie, or serve some Stove Top, remember a boy, his pony named Paddy, and the promise little James L. Kraft made to serve God and work as He directed. Adapted by Brett Blair from Michael Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, Baker, p. 331. James Kraft started to put God first in his life. He put God in all parts of his life and in his goals. He gave his total life to God…time, money, feelings, needs. THE COVENANTS Eternal covenant, Heb 13:20—The redemptive covenant before time began, between the Father and the Son. By this covenant we have eternal redemption, an eternal peace from the ‘God of peace’, through the death and resurrection of the Son. Edenic covenant, Gen 1:26-28—The creative covenant between the Triune God, as the first party (Gen 1:26), and newly created man, as the second party, governing man’s creation and life in Edenic innocence. It regulated man’s dominion and subjugation of the earth, and presented a simple test of obedience. The penalty was death. Adamic covenant, Gen 3:14-19—The covenant conditioning fallen man’s life on the earth. Satan’s tool (the serpent) was cursed (Gen 3:14); the first promise of the Redeemer was given (3:15); women’s status was altered (3:16); the earth was cursed (3:17-19); physical and spiritual death resulted (3:19). Noahic covenant, Gen 8:20-9:6—The covenant of human government. Man is to govern his fellowmen for God, indicated by the institution of capital punishment as the supreme judicial power of the state (Gen 9:5-6). Other features included the promise of redemption through the line of Shem (9:26). Abrahamic covenant, Gen 12:1-3; confirmed, 13:14-17; 15:1-7; 17:1-8—The covenant of promise. Abraham’s posterity was to be made a great nation. In him (through Christ) all the families of the earth were to be blessed (Gal 3:16; Jn 8:56-58). Mosaic covenant, Ex 20:1-31:18—The legal covenant, given solely to Israel. It consisted of the commandments (Ex 20:1-26); the judgments (social) - (Ex 21:1; 24:11) and the ordinances (religious); (Ex 24:12-31:18); also called the law. Mosaic covenant, Ex 20:1-31:18—The legal covenant, given solely to Israel. It consisted of the commandments (Ex 20:1-26); the judgments (social) - (Ex 21:1; 24:11) and the ordinances (religious); (Ex 24:12-31:18); also called the law. It was a conditional covenant of works, a ministry of ‘condemnation’ and ‘death’ (2 Cor 3:7-9), designed to lead the transgressor (convicted thereby as a sinner) to Christ. Palestinian covenant, Deut 30:1-10—The covenant regulating Israel’s tenure of the land of Canaan. Its prophetic features include dispersion of disobedience (Deut 30:1), future repentance while in dispersion (30:2), the Lord’s return (30:3), the restoration (30:4-5), national conversion (3:6), judgment of Israel’s foes (30:7), national prosperity (30:9). Its blessings are conditioned upon obedience (30:8, 10), but fulfillment is guaranteed by the new covenant. Davidic covenant, 2 Sam 7:4-17, 1 Chr 17:4-15—The kingdom covenant regulating the temporal and eternal rule of David’s posterity. It secures in perpetuity a Davidic ‘house’ or line, a throne, and a kingdom. It was confirmed by divine oath in Ps 89:30-37 and renewed to Mary in Lk 1:31-33. It is fulfilled in Christ as the World’s Saviour and Israel’s coming King (Acts 1:6; Rev 19:16; 20:4-6). New covenant, Jer 31:31-33; Mt 26:28; Mk 14:24; Lk 22:20; Heb 8:8-12—The covenant of unconditional blessing based upon the finished redemption of Christ. It secures blessing for the church, flowing from the Abrahamic covenant (Gal 3:13-20), and secures all covenant blessings to converted Israel, including those of the Abrahamic, Palestinian, and Davidic covenants. This covenant is unconditional, final and irreversible. The whole bible is the story of covenant. God’s promise to you is to be with you in this moment. He is leading out destiny. Destiny is to be with god eternally. Every year- John Wesley invited us to take this covenant. The covenant it private. But it is also public. We are the people of the covenant – when we all make that covenant – we can support one another and be used by God. This will be the year of stewardship – how do we give our total lives to God? Today we are preparing ourselves to be prepared. You may think that we just got done with a time of preparation. When are we ever ready? All of life is a preparation if you are moving forward. Wheverever you are- you need to go farther. All of life is a preparation for something. Once a Baptist joined a Methodist church – and her Baptist friends started to say to that she was not baptized because she was sprinkled with a little bit of water. The Methodist pastor asked her – one person is married and she get a 2 carat ring, and another is married and she has a ¼ carat ring. Just because one has a bigger ring does that mean she is more married? A ring is an outward sign of an inward promise. Baptism is also an outward sign of an inward grace. It is not about how much water – it is about God’s love. I tell that story however because John Wesley believed that no matter how good we are, we sin every day – we need to take communion every day. The same is with our promise to God. we do it every year, because every year we need to make a new covenant with God. Amen…….

Mountain Climbing

April 19, 2009
Mountain Climbing
Hebrews 12: 14-25
Repreached from March 13, 2002
Used for the Second Sunday of Easter

Introduction
One thing that an Associate Pastor has plenty of – are sermons for the second Sunday of Easter. There are two things that you can be certain about in life, no Sr. Pastor is ever going to let anyone else preach on Easter. ( I have lots of Christmas Eve sermons). And the Sr. Pastor is always going to take the Sunday after Easter off.
In looking back at my repertoire of sermons, I must really like to preach on resurrection. Those are some of my most memorable sermons. I have gone for two years now, preaching an old sermon only once. It is not that I have not wanted to preach old sermons, its just that when I wanted to preach – I could never find it. I was able to find enough of my favorite sermons, that the theme for the Sunday’s of Easter will be resurrection. I think that sometime we have a lot of misconceptions about why that is an important theme.
Those sermons will be interspersed with some other special Sundays.

The Story of the Young Lion

One of the things that I treasure the most about college was the stories. Stories used to help us think about our college experience and the impact it would have on our families.
When we first arrived on campus, one of our advisors told us the African tale of the young lion - learning to be king of the jungle.
While he was at home, it seemed that everywhere that he went – the jungle inhabitants showed him respect. He was so sure of himself, that he seemed to have confidence wherever he went. But that was before he had to go through his rite of passage ceremony to become a man. You see his people were from the valley, they knew nothing about the mountains. The rite of passage meant that a young lion had to go up into the mountains for one night and learn to survive. Many of the confident you lions came back from the experienced, changed, much more mature. So when the young lion did not return from his mountain trip the next, day, no one thought anything of it. When he was ready, he would return. Soon another day passed, and another, and another – and no triumphant return.
Finally, they sent an expedition out to find the young lion. And they found him frozen to death at the top of the lion. In a strange place – he had no idea of how to survive.
Our advisors told us that story to remind us to hold on to our roots in a new environment. Like the young lion, at home we were king of the jungle – we knew it all. But going off to college meant encountering many strange things. If we were not careful, we could end up like the young lion stranded – without the proper survival skills.




Mountain Climbing

I think that this is a fitting story also for as Christians, as we enter into the Easter season. A time of transformation and new beginnings for us too. Our spiritual journey is a lot like mountain climbing. During lent, we are climbing the mountain in anticipation of an encounter with God. Easter is our time at the top of the mountain. And post Easter is the time to come down off of the mountain. Mountains pay an important part, not only in rites of passage, but also in spiritual encounters with God. In the bible, the prophet Elijah comes in contact with God by passing God by on the mountain. Moses goes up to the mountain for 40 days in order to talk with God and to get the ten commandments. Martin Luther King, a modern day prophet , preaches his last sermon on going to the mountaintop to see God’s will for our nation in the future. He says that he gets the chance to see the promised land. Mountain are an important part of our faith, so my sermon for today is about instructions for climbing a mountain.
First let me ask, if any of you have ever been on a mountain climbing expedition. Most of us have probably not.
I was fascinated as I did a little research on mountain climbing. You probably realize that mountain climbing is very dangerous – but not for the reasons that you would think. You have to be well trained in order to climb a mountain, and there is a discipline that you have to follow very stringently. The consequence for not following the discipline is death.
The text for today come from the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 12:14-25. The major themes of the book of Hebrews are the understanding that we have a complete picture of who God is in the life of Christ, the teachings of Jesus Christ are all that we need to live by, that faith in confident trust in God, and that we grow in our faith through the tribulations of life. Chapter 12 is on the subject of faith. Our scripture teaches us to live right. And to not take the rules that we have been given on how to treat others lightly. The scripture reminds us that encountering God is never something to be taken lightly. The people were afraid of God, which is why they sent Moses to the mountain to talk on their behalf. It is a reminder that mountain climbing is dangerous, and it too should not be take lightly. The text says that you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire…but you have come to mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem.
I chose this text, because many of us may not take the time to climb physical mountains, but all of us know about climbing spiritual mountains. All of us here have some mountain in our life to climb. It may be a mountain of fear, of lonliness, of need, or even of despair. All of us have a mountain to climb, and all of us need some instructions on the process.

The Dangers of Mountain Climbing

The real danger of mountain climbing is not from slipping and falling. The real danger of mountain climbing comes from the change in the atmosphere the higher you go up. I bet you also didn’t know that your goal in mountain climbing is not reaching the top of the mountain. You mountain climb is not complete until you get back down safely.
Every day – mountain climbers are given a certain course to follow. You are given strict instructions to follow that course, no matter how physically fit you are, and no matter how determined you are to complete your journey. You are to stop at a designated spot, and to wait until further instructions. The air gets thinner the higher you go up, and there is more stress put on your body. As you go up, if your body has not adjusted to those changes, you won’t realize it, but you are destroying your body internally. So you have to take the proper time to give you body a chance to adjust to those changes before you climb higher.
That is why the goal of mountain climbing is not to get to the top of the mountain. It is getting down the other side safely, and having the strength to climb again.
There are many stories who, just like the young lion got to the summit of the mountain – and never made it down. They did not realize that the closer you get to the top, the thinner the air gets, the less oxygen that gets to the brain, the narrower your vision becomes. It is as if the closer you get to your goal, all you see is that goal. You lose sight of the fact that making it to the top is only a small part of a much larger goal. Your real goal is to live to tell about the experience, not the experience.
That is a good lesson for us this Easter Season. We have come to Easter, but now we are called to move on to something different. During the Lenten season we took a journey to the cross. And yet the cross means nothing with the resurrection. Resurrection means nothing without transformation. If we cant take that transformation into our everyday lives, then Easter means nothing. If we don’t live as witnesses to Christ, then why are we Christians? There is a saying, that today is the first day of the rest of your life. Easter is the first day of the rest of our lives.

The story of the Three People in the Throne Room of God

I learned another story in college, I was told that it was from the jewish tradition. But Paul also uses this story in his teachings. It’s the story of three people who went up to the throne room of God. The first went to the throne room to see God, and was dazzled by all that he saw. He wanted to stay with God for the rest of his life, but God reminded him that his life was not over and that he had to return home. When he got home he was never quite the same. He couldn’t function, because nothing in life compared to his experience with God. He was depressed for the rest of his life.
The second person had all of these expectations of what God would do and what would change in his life as a result of seeing God. When he got to the throne room he was disappointed – he told God that God was not real. Because God was so different from his expectations. He lived out his life as a very bitter, critical disappointed man. He told people that there was no God. The third man was totally elated by his time with God, it was amazing and he savored every moment that he spent with God. Like the other two men, God told him that it was time for his to return to his normal life, because his life was not over yet. He always treasured his time with God, but he also loved his life, his work, his family. When he lived his life he adjusted well- and he went on in total service to the will of God.
We all have a mountain to climb. But our goal in life is not to get to the top of the mountain – it is to get back down in a healthy state of mind, with the strength to go climbing again.
What was the difference between these three people? They all had the same experience, but a very different mind set. The first person was like our young lion, over focused on a goal and couldn’t see anything else, the second was disillusioned when he met that goal.
The third man was just an ordinary person in partnership with an extraordinary God. That man had a clear sense of what it means to be human and what it means to be divine.
He knew that the same God that was with him at the top of the mountain is the same God with him in the valley. He knew that the same God who whispered in his ear and gave him the strength to climb, was the same God who led him along the journey, was the same God who helped hi reach to top of the mountain, was the same God who gave him the peace of mind to get back down the mountain and to resume his everyday task.

The importance of our Faith in our journey

Mountain climbing is a discipline. Just as in mountain climbing, you are given strict instructions before you start on your journey, and you know that your life depends on following those instructions, no matter what you encounter while you are up there. We too, as Christians must follow a strict discipline on our spiritual journey.
We have to read the scriptures to make sure that we live our lives according to what it tells us, we have to listen to God in our prayer life, we have to see God no only our friends, but in the face of all people.
It is important that we not get to Easter Sunday with our new clothes on, the ham in the oven, hunting for Easter eggs, and not know how we got there. Hebrews 12 says “You have come to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to Jesus the mediator. We have to remember that the point is not who we are on Easter Sunday – but who we are on Easter Monday. If we believe that the summit of our faith is Easter, we end up frozen on top of the mountain life the young lion. There are a lot of people in the world frozen at a certain point in time, unable to just get over it and move on. But as the Easter people. We have to remember that God has given us a safety rope to get through the rest of our lives. That is our faith.
We can be sure that Christ is the complete revelation of God. As long as we have Christ on our journey – we have all that we need. Christ always intercede with fate on our behalf. If we believe in Christ, our sins are forgiven, the door has been opened for our transformation. If we truly have faith that Christ will transform our lives, our lives will be transformed. Faith is confident trust that Jesus is working it all out- and that it all will be worked out. Finally, life is a challenge. Whether you climb to top of the mountain, or you walk down the block. Tribulations are going to meet you. Tribulations are in ever life. But if you have faith, then tribulations are not our enemies, but your chance to see the face of God. A chance to grow in faith, a challenge to endure to the end. A chance for us as ordinary people to be in partnership with an extraordinary God.
What about you? Where are you on your journey this Easter season? Are you focused on your goal, or are you are you focused on God? Are you trying to make it to the top, or are you getting back down to the reality of life? All questions for us to ponder this Easter season. Amen.