May
1999 Sermons
Dr.
Henry E. Roberts
A
Chosen Generation
I Peter
2:2-10
"But you are a chosen
generation, royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light:
Ten which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which
had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."
Among the early memories of childhood were the days when I finally
grew tall enough so that I could play with the big boys in my neighborhood.
After school the neighborhood would choose up teams and my brother would always
be one of the choosers. We played basketball, baseball, chase, rubber-gun
battles. We had all sorts of teams and games. But when you are the little guy,
your fear is that you will not be chosen, that no one will want you on
their team. But my brother a tall and athletic guy, who was a leader of the
neighborhood gang, never let me be the last one chosen. I never knew what he was
doing for me until years later when I was observing a group of junior high
campers choosing up sides and I remembered how he had protected me from that
trauma.
I. In reading the scripture for this morning, my mind easily
imagines a small group of early Christians, somewhere in the Mediterranean
world, gathered in a small unassuming house. We now believe that these letters
were written during a time of persecution and trial for the early Church. He
talks about "a fiery ordeal", "now for a time you may have to
endure and suffer various trials". "Do not return evil for evil, but
cast all your anxieties on him for he cares for you. Be sober, be watchful, Your
adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to
devour. Resist him, be firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of
suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world." These
early believers who are probably suffering, are common workers much as we
are-fishermen, nurses, accountants, teachers. The leader of the group reads them
the letter from Peter. "Once you were nobody, but now you are a chosen
race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." And one by one, they
marvel at the miracle of what has been pointed out to them.
1. A Royal Priesthood
2. A Holy Nation
3. A Chosen people
II. These words once applied to Israel, God's chosen people but now
they apply to all who are baptized. Now each and every one is chosen,
royal, holy. How strange these words must have seemed to those early followers
of Jesus. Royalty? Priests? Chosen? And then the letter goes on to point out
why--"In order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you
out of darkness into his marvelous light"
These mighty acts of our salvation, which they were to share, were
these:
God had chosen a people to be like a
light to all nations.
God had freed the slaves from Egypt
God had sent in the fullness of time
Jesus to teach and preach and heal
God had raised him from the dead
These are the "mighty acts of God that by their lives and
their obedience to the commandments, they would proclaim God's nature and way.
"Once you were nobody but now you are somebody, you are God's own
people." You may be the only person who is available to teach your children
the "mighty acts of God"
Once every President of every nation or corporation were but little
people dependent on their parents to teach them and shape their lives. Once they
were nobody, but now they are somebody.
We have witnessed the tragedy of so many of our leaders whose lives
have not measured up to our expectations. The problem: we have this awful
tendency to forget that once we were nobody and that only by the grace of God,
now we are somebody. It is only by the grace of God that you have what you have,
that you are who you are, never forget it.
I grieve over our leaders who fall from grace because of greed or
abuse of power. In our time it usually is seen in an unhealthy sexuality or
greediness for money or power or something. My disappointment ranges far and
wide from Presidents to preachers and local politicians and so many
others, who betray our trust or abuse their position of moral authority for
selfish ends.
In the news recently there has been the story of Rev. Henry Lyons,
minister and elected leader of the National Baptist Convention, a denomination
that you find scattered sparsely throughout the States. Lyons was convicted of
swindling millions of dollars from his denomination. Racketeering and grand
theft of a minister is behavior unbecoming of our calling and such behaviors
hurt us all who are men and women of the cloth. And although individuals like
Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggert and Henry Lyons are in different Christian traditions
than ours, yet it fuels the criticism of those who do not know us that all are
like this.
The Problem? When you arrive at positions of authority or power or
wealth, there is this tendency to forget where you came from or you forget why
you have been elected or chosen or selected to be in the position of leadership
in which you find yourself. You forget that you are blessed for a purpose, that
you have been saved for a reason. You who are royalty, a chosen people, a holy
generation. It is not because you are really something. It is because of the
grace of God and that God has something to accomplish through you.
Now listen to this: "Once you were nobody but now you are
somebody, chosen so that you can proclaim the marvelous acts of salvation."
The Bible writers always tried to keep the perspective that it was
by the grace of God that they had arrived in the promised land, that they had
been privileged to know Jesus, that the H.S. had come to them. Once you were
nobody, but now you are somebody?
It was a sad day for Israel 1240 years ago when Joshua sent twelve
spies into the Promised Land and ten out of twelve reported back "They are
as giants in the land and we as grasshoppers." The heart of God must have
been broken when his chosen people, his redeemed, his free people with whom he
had worked with them for forty years at least two generations, now saw
themselves as grasshoppers.
The same sense of cosmic unhappiness must have once again broken
the heart of God two weeks ago when these trenchcoat vigilantes on Hitler's
birthday, intentionally for weeks purchased guns and built bombs to kill
teachers and students in their hometown school. "They are as giants or
jocks and we like grasshoppers in our eyes and theirs." They projected onto
others what they felt about themselves.
The heart of God must break every day we hang our head and see
ourselves as anything less than a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy
nation." So hold your head up high as you stoop to serve and claim your
life as God's people for you are a chosen generation.
The
Trained Mind and the Warm Heart
Pentecost
Sunday
Acts 2
I
am often asked to characterize the Methodist faith as it compares to other
religious traditions. On such occasions, I will speak of our commitment to
methodical ways of spiritual growth, such as weekly worship, daily prayer, Bible
study, and regular giving of money and time to Christian causes and to others.
Faith without works is dead! Works of kindness verify faith. He who says he
loves God but does not love his fellow man is without truth.
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These are things we can do and do we must.
And secondly I will speak of what
God has done for us in the gift of "the warm heart".
With the converging today of the Church Year's emphasis of
Pentecost Sunday and our honoring of our graduating seniors, I am led to speak
of these historical emphases of our people.
-
The Educated Mind is one trained and
disciplined. I am confident that anyone can achieve success in their daily
chosen work or handle college work if they focus themselves and work hard.
The trained, disciplined mind will be up to you. Do you focus
yourself? Do you say firm no's to opportunities, which dilute your top
priorities? Do you read? Do you claim opportunities for spiritual
instruction? Do you take the time to apply yourself? Do you get to work
early? Do you stay late if you have not completed your assigned tasks?
Regular work produces success and the educated mind is the result of regular
work.
Work hard as though everything depended on you, but believe that everything
depends on God. The educated mind will come as a result of your commitments
and your effort, the warm heart will come as a gift of God, as evidence of
his abundant grace. The first comes and you feel proud of what you have
accomplished. The first has arrived when you experience the affirmation of a
parent, or a friend who says: "I am proud of you. You have done a good
job." Or when your school selects you for an honor or your church
awards you with a scholarship--it is a word of affirmation. The trained mind
we achieve, but the warm heart is a gift. The second has arrived when God
says to you, "I'm proud of you, "Well done good and faithful
servant."
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The Warm Heart
Pentecost is the day some 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus, when God
fulfilled his promise that he would never leave the disciples alone. Jesus
in fact had left and yet had said: "I will come to you, you will never
be alone." "When two or three of you are gathered in my name, I
will be there." We celebrate the fulfillment of God's promise every
Sunday when we gather here in worship, but the first time that it occurred
was in Jerusalem 2000 years ago.
In Acts 2 we read of this unique occurrence:
The Holy Spirit comes to each of us in varying ways, as
comforter, as guide, as teacher. John Wesley founded the Methodist Movement
as a renewal of the old Anglican Church in the 18th century in which Wesley
was a priest. Following his studies at Oxford University, he came to America
as a missionary but Wesley returned to London in his mid 30's having lost
his passion. It was then, on May 24, 1738, that he attended a prayer meeting
on Aldersgate in London, when his heart was strangely warmed.
He writes: "I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt that I did trust
in Christ alone for my salvation and there was given to me an assurance, a
gift of peace."
The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Galatia: (5:22)
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control". John Wesley's Aldersgate experience was the time when he received the gift of peace and
joy.
He would for years preach of that night as a time when "My
heart burned within me." God's Holy Spirit longs to touch you, to fill
you with love and peace and joy. But you must remember that Wesley longed
for God's presence. This came at the end of years of study, and service. He
was 38 years old and he was now a graduate of grade school, high school,
Oxford and graduate studies and years of service. The Holy Spirit comes to
us not because we have worked for it, but preparing our minds and hearts to
receive God, creates an environment in which God most likely comes.
In the movie, The Color Purple, Alice Walker says correctly: "Here's the thing, the thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with
God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And sometimes it just
manifests itself even if you are not looking or don't know what you looking
for."
The educated mind comes at the end of a long road of
disciplined living. The Warm Heart comes as God sees fit to comfort, bless,
guide, and teach. One gives us feelings of pride in accomplishment while the
other gives us feeling of gratitude.
God wants to accomplish great things in and through each of us
but it will take great effort and discipline by each person and then
ultimately the blessings of the Holy Spirit. God waits our commitment as
Jesus told the disciples: "Wait in Jerusalem until you are clothed with
power from on high."
Recently, I read of an old Arabian legend. The King decided
that he wanted the finest of horses on the planet and developed this plan.
He searched all over the world for 100 striking mares and trained them to
respond to the commands of the sounds of the bugle. He corralled them on the
top of the mountain and down below was a cool mountain stream, which they
could only see and smell. As the days wore on, the mares became terribly
thirsty and some begin to go wild in the corral. They couldn't wait to get
out and go thundering down the side of the mountain to drink from the
stream. Finally the day came and the gate was lifted and down the side of
the hill they flew toward the stream of water. Their tails were flying and
their necks were arched. Their nostrils were flaring and their mouths were
foaming. And just before they reached the water, the King did an unusual
thing. He pulled out his bugle and blew with all of his might. And what
happened was this: Only four of the horses stopped dead in their tracks!
Their mouths were still foaming and their necks were trembling, but they
froze in their tracks and waited for the next command. The King said:
"These four mares will bear the next generation of horses and I will
call them Arabians.!"
The world will test your mettle. God who has given you your
life and now unbelievable opportunity will allow your character to be
tested, to see where your commitments lie. When our character is tested, he
will determine how much he can give us and what new doors he can open
through you. Discipline your lives and listen for the commands of the
trumpeter.
The Trinity--God as User Friendly
Matthew 28:16-20
I speak to you of God, the divine
mystery. In one of the many gifts, which God has given to the church, is the
concept of the Trinity, which is attributed to Jesus in the gospel, reading for
today. "Go and baptize new converts in the name of the Father, Son, And
Holy Spirit". In the language of the computer age, this concept makes God
"user friendly".
God in three distinctive persons as Father, who creates, Son
who has redeemed, and Holy Spirit which is ever present. Does this mean do
we worship three gods? Most certainly not. We like our Jewish and Islamic
cousins, are children of Abraham and Moses and Jesus and Mohammed--The
Lord Our God is One.
All ancient men worshipped many gods. There were "gods in
every grove and fountain, and on every mountain summit, gods breathing in the
winds and flashing in the lightning, or the ray of sun and star, heaving in the
earthquake or the November storm in the Aegean, watching over every society of
men congregated for any purpose, guarding the solitary hunter or traveler in the
Alps or the Sahara." But Jesus clarified for us the essence of the divine
and the church has carefully guarded through our creeds and teaching, the
Trinity as our understanding of God. So let us on this Trinity Sunday consider
the benefits of understanding God in this way.
I. First we see God as the creative power
behind the universe. The majesty of the mountains, the immensity of sea and
space, the structure of the leaves of the tree and the intricacies of the
human body, all speaks of intelligence and beauty and purpose. Creation
awakens in us feelings of gratitude and instinctively we give thanks to the
Creator-to the Father or Mother of the Universe. People who do not believe in
a Creator God are faced with a great temptation-to be their own God which is
short sighted.
Tom Wolfe's novel, Bonfire of the Vanities, has this
main character who is a young investment banker named Sherman McCoy. Sherman
psychs himself up daily for the challenge of seeking his fortune by repeating
to himself the words, "I am the master of the universe. I am master of
the universe." It is an inevitable tendency of those of us who are
successful at some dimension of our life, that we develop this invincible
attitude about how smart we are or how indestructible we are.--And illusion, a
vanity of all vanities. As the story develops--Bonfire of the Vanities
the name gives away the grand movement of the story-vanity leads to a bonfire.
The main character's life unravels when he and his mistress are involved in a
hit and run accident. McCoy is left confused and scared. The master of the
universe ends up neither being a master nor having a universe. Such is the
fate of those who live without God at the center of their life. Thus Jesus
said "Seek first the kingdom of God or the rule of God in your
life."
There is a Master of the Universe,
but You and I are not He! There is one who is creator and
sustainer of all that lives and moves and has its being. There is one who is
greater than our minds can even imagine. When we seek to understand God, we
begin with God as the creative Power behind what we see all about us.
II. But as we consider the God of creation, we realize that such a being is
remote from us, unreachable, beyond touch, and so God came among us. In a
manger in a stable in Bethlehem of Judea, a baby was born and the world would
never again be the same. Seeing that we could not reach him dwelling so far
above us, he reached down in the life of Jesus and became one of us and taught
us and showed us the length and breadth of his loving nature.
In Jesus, God became user friendly.
Tomorrow is Memorial Day when we remember those who have given
themselves in service to our nation over long years.
Recently I stood in a small chapel behind the great alter at St.
Paul's Cathedral in London where there is a memorial book remembering the
American soldiers who died on European soil in World War II. There were 44,000
names of America soldiers listed
This weekend we honor those who have given and are giving
themselves in military service. Reading Tom Brokaw's book, The Greatest
Generation in which he lifts up Veterans in World War II, one
of which describes the joy of being a part of a liberating squad in an
American uniform in Europe in l945. The GI's presence meant candy, cigarettes,
C- rations, freedom, laughter and dancing in the streets. When they walked
into a village, unlike German squads, they had come not to conquer but to
liberate, not to terrorize but to help.
I can remember when as little boys we watched soldiers get
off of the Greyhound bus in our little town in Marengo County having returned
from the War, and we never failed to come to attention and to salute them, for
the military uniform meant that they were the liberators.
Every other military squad in our crazy world would come to
pillage, rape and destroy and conquer. For example there were the German
squads in Holland, the Red Army squad in Berlin, a Japanese squad in Manila, a
Kosovo army squad in villages outside of Belgrade, a military squad meant
rape, pillage, looting, wanton destruction, senseless killing, and separation
of families, but not the American foot soldier squads-- They brought joy and
hope.
Just as the GI's took the terror out of encountering young men in
uniform, so Jesus took away humanity's fear of God. Jesus taught us that God
is love. More over, Jesus showed us in his suffering and death how far
God's love will go—God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.
III. When we as Christians speak of God, we are speaking of a creative power
behind our universe, but we are also speaking of a loving person who has
entered our universe and become incarnated in human flesh which leads me to
the third and final manifestation of the Triune God. God is with us. He is
incarnated into human flesh as Holy Presence.
Other great writers have sought to explain this truth over the
long years of human history. Epiticus was a Greek philosopher and writes,
"You are a distinct portion of the essence of God". He reminds us
that we often forget that we contain this divine nature. Says he, God is
everywhere and thus there is no place where he is not, which means that he is
in you and me. Rather than seeing yourself as separate from the miraculous
power of God, you claim your divinity and reclaim all the potency that God is.
When you are eating you are replenishing God. When you are sleeping you allow
God to rest. When you exercise you strengthen God at the same time that you
strengthen yourself. When you are kind to someone else, you are kind to God.
It doesn't honor our Creator and Redeemer when we fail to stand up to the best
that we can be. God is before us and in us seeking to accomplish His divine
will.
I love the story of the young atheist who said to an old Jewish
Rabbi, "I'll give you an orange if you can tell me where God is."
And the old man replied: "I'll give you two oranges if you can tell me
where God is not!" The moral: God is everywhere. When you pray to God,
you pray to a silent and powerful eternal presence that is a part of your own
essence and something which is far more than the total sum of yourself.
Such a perspective of God within each human being and in
creation leads to a holy respect of the environment in which we live,
the people who live beside us, and our own unique selves as a unique creation
of God. Holiness is all around us, which leads us to respect, humility,
gratitude, an excitement about being alive with God all about us and within
us.
Most of us grew up with an image of God as one who sat above or
somewhere on a great throne in the sky, white bearded older gentleman
whom you begged through prayers for special gifts. This limited God to being
somewhere else rather than being right here. And it usually led to an
understanding that we were nothing but sinful creatures devoid of the
knowledge of God or His presence. Sinners are we all. But to see God in this
Trinitarian way, opens the floodgate of a new appreciation of the Creator, the
Redeemer, the Ever present spirit. And it leads to a new appreciation of
ourselves as a vessel of the Divine mystery. Most of us haven't realized our
potential because we haven't appreciated the fact that God is with us. Yes you
are a sinner, because you too often think you are the master of the universe
and there is a master but you are not he. Yes you are a sinner because you
have failed to stand tall as God's child.
Summary:
You are God's child, made by the Creator, redeemed by Jesus, and equipped.
First United Methodist Church Pensacola
FL
E-mail
Phone:
850.432.1434 Fax: 850.432.5749