(This is an abridged version of the sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 10/9/11)
"(Jesus) replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”" (Matthew 17:19-21)
It is clear that the primary purpose of the life and ministry of Jesus was to help people see and know the face of God, and to help people come to belief in God. The nature of faith is belief in God – belief that God is the creator of all that is – the belief that God is at work in Christ seeking to save humanity from sinfulness and brokenness, and the belief that the Holy Spirit continues to be at work bringing forth transformation through the work of the church today.
The matter of faith was centermost in the mind of Jesus here in Matthew 17. It’s clear that the problem for Jesus here was the “smallness” of the faith of the people of his day. Maybe the people of the Lord’s day were a lot like many people today - even many religious people – people in the church. It seems that one of the critical dilemmas facing us today is the paucity of faith among people, even among many people of faith.
Jesus begins by reminding those who had gathered they had “so little faith.” The context of the Lord’s comment here is questioning among the disciples as to why they were unable to perform miracles, as Jesus had done, and as Jesus said they would be able to do. And Jesus explicitly attributes the inability of his disciples to perform miracles to the “smallness” – the “littleness” – the “pettiness” - of their faith. And he points out that even a mustard seed's worth of faith would be sufficient to not only cast out demons, but to move mountains.
Jesus speaks of the mustard seed within the context of faith and moving mountains. His encouragement for those who would hear was to understand the power of faith in their lives. And what are we really talking about when we talk about faith?
Too many people in the Lord’s day, and today, seem to have put their faith in too many things that are not God, and too many which are not of God. We tend to put our faith in the stock market and stock portfolios, politicians, celebrities, athletes, and even our jobs.
In Baltimore over the past few years, there has been a preponderance of signs that simply say “Believe.” We see the word “Believe” across the city in virtually every neighborhood on school buildings, on billboards, on buses, and at bus stops. But the signs often beg the question for me, “Believe what”, and “Believe in what?”
As Christians, we are called not simply to believe, but we are called to believe in God. We are called to have faith that God in Christ can change our lives and make a difference in our life and in the world. And what Jesus was pointing those of his day is that with a mustard seed’s worth of faith, they could (we can) move mountains.
What mountains was the Lord talking about? Certainly, we will all encounter the proverbial mountains of life. Situations will confront all of us that will seem insurmountable. Circumstances will enter into our lives to challenge our faith. Mountains in life – sickness and death, disappointments and discouragement, trials and tribulations will show up in our lives. Mountains in life – trouble in our homes, trouble on our jobs, trouble in our communities, even trouble in the church from time-to-time. And the question is ultimately, how do we deal with the mountains that confront us?
The point that the Lord was trying to make was that it took just a modicum of faith for God to begin to move in their lives. It took just a little faith, a mustard seed’s worth of faith, for the Lord to begin to manifest himself in their lives and begin to work on their behalf. And not only that – with a modicum of faith – a mustard seed’s worth of faith – we can move mountains. This is the “faith factor.”
Jesus concludes his teaching on faith here with a declaration that nothing will be impossible for you. Nothing is impossible. This is the faith factor.
The Lord says," nothing is impossible." What a bold declaration, that if we have faith – even as small as a mustard seed - we can move the proverbial mountains in our lives. If we have faith the even as small as a mustard seed, nothing will be impossible for us.
The good news is that with faith in God, nothing is really impossible for us. The faith factor in our lives means that through our belief in God, through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the mountains can (and will) be removed from our lives, and nothing is impossible for us.
We’ve come this far by faith
Leaning on the Lord
Trusting in his holy word
He’s never failed me yet.
Oh, Oh, Oh, can’t turn around
We’ve come this far by faith.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Fred Shuttlesworth
U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) issued the following statement on the death of civil rights leader Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth who passed on October 6, 2011.
“America lost one of its most courageous and tenacious civil rights leaders in the passing of the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. As a pastor, civil rights organizer and one of the four founding ministers of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Rev. Shuttlesworth was a unifying force who brought together his own congregation and others from across the South to stand against segregation and Jim Crow laws that oppressed an entire people.
“In spite of countless arrests, beatings and threats to his life, the Rev. Shuttlesworth never abandoned his fight for civil rights and social justice. Nothing intimidated him. On Christmas night 1956, six sticks of dynamite exploded outside his bedroom as he slept and he did not give in to fear. Instead, he moved forward with determination to put an end to what was then the status quo of separate but inherently unequal. When a court injunction shut down the Alabama chapter of the NAACP, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth led the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights to carry on the work of the shuttered chapter.
“He worked closely with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., helping to win passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. These hallmark civil rights laws are Rev. Shuttlesworth’s legacy to a nation forever indebted to him. The United States still has a long way to go in realizing its goals of equal rights for all, but I am pleased that Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth was able to live to see so many positive changes, especially the election of President Barack Obama.”
“America lost one of its most courageous and tenacious civil rights leaders in the passing of the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. As a pastor, civil rights organizer and one of the four founding ministers of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Rev. Shuttlesworth was a unifying force who brought together his own congregation and others from across the South to stand against segregation and Jim Crow laws that oppressed an entire people.
“In spite of countless arrests, beatings and threats to his life, the Rev. Shuttlesworth never abandoned his fight for civil rights and social justice. Nothing intimidated him. On Christmas night 1956, six sticks of dynamite exploded outside his bedroom as he slept and he did not give in to fear. Instead, he moved forward with determination to put an end to what was then the status quo of separate but inherently unequal. When a court injunction shut down the Alabama chapter of the NAACP, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth led the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights to carry on the work of the shuttered chapter.
“He worked closely with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., helping to win passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. These hallmark civil rights laws are Rev. Shuttlesworth’s legacy to a nation forever indebted to him. The United States still has a long way to go in realizing its goals of equal rights for all, but I am pleased that Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth was able to live to see so many positive changes, especially the election of President Barack Obama.”
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Commissioned to Go!
(This is an abridged version of the sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Blatimore on 10/2/11 on the occasion of World Communion Sunday, and our "Change the World Mission Commissioning Day)
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations (teaching all nations), baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
I believe that most – if not all of us – can affirm that Christian ministry is not easy in this contemporary age. Churches face many challenges to minister prophetically and holistically to a world that - in many ways - seems to be at odds with what the church is all about. Still it is our collective task – our shared commitment and calling - to faithfully offer Christ to the world.
Ours often seems to be a mission impossible – and yet we are called to faithfully persevere and share the love of Christ with those among us who are in need of hope and healing in their lives… hope and healing that only the church can offer.. the least, the lost and the left out among us.
When thinking on the task of the church and its leaders, I’m reminded of the 1960’s and 70’s television show – Mission Impossible. Some of us might be old enough to remember the show where – at the beginning of every episode - a secret agent was given a mission that seemed to be impossible and insurmountable. So difficult and complex (and often dangerous) was the mission that the secret agent was given – that he was offered the choice of whether or not to accept the mission.
If he chose to accept the mission, he would somehow find a way to overcome great odds and obstacles, and find a way to accomplish what seemed to be the impossible task he had been given.
Well, the mission that Christ has given us seems to be impossible at times. It often seems that God has given the church and its people more than we can bear. Too often now it seems that we face the task of making ways out of no way. In these fast-changing, often apathetic times, it seems that ours is often a mission impossible.
I believe Christ had a sense of the difficulty of the mission that was before the church when he offered his disciples what has come to be known as the Great Commission. He said:
“Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations (teaching all nations), baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
This indeed seems to be a tremendous, humongous, huge, impossible, audacious, incredible, insurmountable task that we have been given. The Lord says that we are to go and make disciples of all nations, and baptize everybody, and teach everybody to obey the commandments of the Lord.
But it’s good to know that the Lord did not stop there. For he says, “Remember, I am with you always, even until the end of the age.” It’s good to know that ours is not simply a mission to go, but we have received a commission to go. In other word, we don’t go alone. The Lord said, “I am with you always.” We are commissioned to go.
And as we go, we take our faith in God and the fortification of the Lord with us. We need to know that our faith in God makes us a holy people. Our faith makes us God’s people, called by God to serve God’s people. For Methodists – our faith – our holiness is expressed in both personal holiness and social holiness. John Wesley said that we are to be about the purpose of “reforming the nation and spreading scriptural holiness.”
And furthermore, we know that as we are commissioned to go, we are made strong – fortified in the in the Lord. In the Book of Acts, Jesus expressed the Great Commission another way when he said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) We go to serve the present age with and in the power of God.
Thanks be to God that we are commissioned to go… to help somebody… to love somebody… to serve the world age. And as we are called to go, God goes with us.
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations (teaching all nations), baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
I believe that most – if not all of us – can affirm that Christian ministry is not easy in this contemporary age. Churches face many challenges to minister prophetically and holistically to a world that - in many ways - seems to be at odds with what the church is all about. Still it is our collective task – our shared commitment and calling - to faithfully offer Christ to the world.
Ours often seems to be a mission impossible – and yet we are called to faithfully persevere and share the love of Christ with those among us who are in need of hope and healing in their lives… hope and healing that only the church can offer.. the least, the lost and the left out among us.
When thinking on the task of the church and its leaders, I’m reminded of the 1960’s and 70’s television show – Mission Impossible. Some of us might be old enough to remember the show where – at the beginning of every episode - a secret agent was given a mission that seemed to be impossible and insurmountable. So difficult and complex (and often dangerous) was the mission that the secret agent was given – that he was offered the choice of whether or not to accept the mission.
If he chose to accept the mission, he would somehow find a way to overcome great odds and obstacles, and find a way to accomplish what seemed to be the impossible task he had been given.
Well, the mission that Christ has given us seems to be impossible at times. It often seems that God has given the church and its people more than we can bear. Too often now it seems that we face the task of making ways out of no way. In these fast-changing, often apathetic times, it seems that ours is often a mission impossible.
I believe Christ had a sense of the difficulty of the mission that was before the church when he offered his disciples what has come to be known as the Great Commission. He said:
“Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations (teaching all nations), baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
This indeed seems to be a tremendous, humongous, huge, impossible, audacious, incredible, insurmountable task that we have been given. The Lord says that we are to go and make disciples of all nations, and baptize everybody, and teach everybody to obey the commandments of the Lord.
But it’s good to know that the Lord did not stop there. For he says, “Remember, I am with you always, even until the end of the age.” It’s good to know that ours is not simply a mission to go, but we have received a commission to go. In other word, we don’t go alone. The Lord said, “I am with you always.” We are commissioned to go.
And as we go, we take our faith in God and the fortification of the Lord with us. We need to know that our faith in God makes us a holy people. Our faith makes us God’s people, called by God to serve God’s people. For Methodists – our faith – our holiness is expressed in both personal holiness and social holiness. John Wesley said that we are to be about the purpose of “reforming the nation and spreading scriptural holiness.”
And furthermore, we know that as we are commissioned to go, we are made strong – fortified in the in the Lord. In the Book of Acts, Jesus expressed the Great Commission another way when he said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) We go to serve the present age with and in the power of God.
Thanks be to God that we are commissioned to go… to help somebody… to love somebody… to serve the world age. And as we are called to go, God goes with us.
Living Lives Seasoned with Salt
(This is an abridged version of the sermon preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 9/18/11)
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” (Matthew 5:13)
In what has come to be known as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus offers his followers a series of lessons for how they are to live their lives. It is very apparent that those who gathered to hear the Lord were searching for meaning in their lives, and seeking alternatives to the status quo that had become the way of life for their day. These followers of the Lord were hungering and thirsting for something more, yearning for something different in their lives.
Perhaps many of these followers of Christ had been regular attendees in the synagogue, religious people in some way, but now realized that they were in need of a real relationship with God. Maybe, some of them were leaders in their communities, having attained some level of success and notoriety, but now they needed a word that would add new perspective for the living of their day.
Whatever the reasons, the crowd flocked to Jesus. And so, over the course of three chapters, from Matthew chapters 5-7, Jesus gathers the people on the Mount of Olives and he offers them lessons for the living of their lives. Interestingly, throughout the sermon, Jesus uses several everyday, common examples to get his point across as to how the people are to live. Here, he says that you are the salt of the earth, and later he declares that "you are the light of the world."
Even in the Lord’s day, as it is today, salt was an element of the earth that was commonly known to the people. So Jesus uses as his talking point here, salt – something that all the people who had gathered could relate to. He says, “You are the salt of the earth.” What was the Lord really trying to convey?
If we were to evaporate a ton of water from the Pacific Ocean, we would get approximately seventy-nine pounds of salt. A ton of Atlantic Ocean water would yield eighty-one pounds of salt. And from the Dead Sea we would get almost five hundred pounds.
As the statistics demonstrate, the earth’s bodies of water vary greatly in their degree of saltiness. And so do we as Christians have varying degrees of saltiness. Jesus reminded us that we are “the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). But we all have different levels of “salt content.”
In light of this, each of us in beckoned from time-to-time to check our salt content. What is your salt content? How salty are you? Are you the kind of person who adds flavor to the lives of those around you? Is your conversation pure? Do you keep promises? Is your life characterized by goodness?
Having described earlier in the Sermon on the Mount the appropriate lifestyle of disciples, Jesus now explains that true disciples are those who live salty lives. And the Lord warns us against being saltless and tasteless in our walk. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”
We are reminded that – similar to the Lord’s day - an unbelieving and needy world is watching and listening to us as Christians, and even though they might not know it, others are depending on you and me to make a difference in their lives. There are even those who come to church who might be depending you and me to add some flavor – to enhance their lives. We who are Christians are to be the salt of the earth. It is written in Colossians 4:6 that we are to live “lives seasoned with salt.”
One of the saltiest people I’ve encountered in my reading and study is Mohandas k. Gandhi. Gandhi by birth was an East Indian and Hindu. But he sought throughout his life to live out – and help others live out - the principles and teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Gandhi led the nonviolent struggle of the people of India for freedom against British imperialism and oppression. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote that although Gandhi wasn’t a Christian, Gandhi was perhaps the most Christ-like person he had ever read about. Mohandas Gandhi lived a "salty life."
And Gandhi encouraged those of his day, and inspires us today, to be the change that you want to see in the world. Gandhi was encouraging folks to live salty lives.
Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth." May God grant each of us the faith, strength and wisdom to live "salty lives" (lives seasoned salt) in this present age.
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” (Matthew 5:13)
In what has come to be known as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus offers his followers a series of lessons for how they are to live their lives. It is very apparent that those who gathered to hear the Lord were searching for meaning in their lives, and seeking alternatives to the status quo that had become the way of life for their day. These followers of the Lord were hungering and thirsting for something more, yearning for something different in their lives.
Perhaps many of these followers of Christ had been regular attendees in the synagogue, religious people in some way, but now realized that they were in need of a real relationship with God. Maybe, some of them were leaders in their communities, having attained some level of success and notoriety, but now they needed a word that would add new perspective for the living of their day.
Whatever the reasons, the crowd flocked to Jesus. And so, over the course of three chapters, from Matthew chapters 5-7, Jesus gathers the people on the Mount of Olives and he offers them lessons for the living of their lives. Interestingly, throughout the sermon, Jesus uses several everyday, common examples to get his point across as to how the people are to live. Here, he says that you are the salt of the earth, and later he declares that "you are the light of the world."
Even in the Lord’s day, as it is today, salt was an element of the earth that was commonly known to the people. So Jesus uses as his talking point here, salt – something that all the people who had gathered could relate to. He says, “You are the salt of the earth.” What was the Lord really trying to convey?
If we were to evaporate a ton of water from the Pacific Ocean, we would get approximately seventy-nine pounds of salt. A ton of Atlantic Ocean water would yield eighty-one pounds of salt. And from the Dead Sea we would get almost five hundred pounds.
As the statistics demonstrate, the earth’s bodies of water vary greatly in their degree of saltiness. And so do we as Christians have varying degrees of saltiness. Jesus reminded us that we are “the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). But we all have different levels of “salt content.”
In light of this, each of us in beckoned from time-to-time to check our salt content. What is your salt content? How salty are you? Are you the kind of person who adds flavor to the lives of those around you? Is your conversation pure? Do you keep promises? Is your life characterized by goodness?
Having described earlier in the Sermon on the Mount the appropriate lifestyle of disciples, Jesus now explains that true disciples are those who live salty lives. And the Lord warns us against being saltless and tasteless in our walk. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”
We are reminded that – similar to the Lord’s day - an unbelieving and needy world is watching and listening to us as Christians, and even though they might not know it, others are depending on you and me to make a difference in their lives. There are even those who come to church who might be depending you and me to add some flavor – to enhance their lives. We who are Christians are to be the salt of the earth. It is written in Colossians 4:6 that we are to live “lives seasoned with salt.”
One of the saltiest people I’ve encountered in my reading and study is Mohandas k. Gandhi. Gandhi by birth was an East Indian and Hindu. But he sought throughout his life to live out – and help others live out - the principles and teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Gandhi led the nonviolent struggle of the people of India for freedom against British imperialism and oppression. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote that although Gandhi wasn’t a Christian, Gandhi was perhaps the most Christ-like person he had ever read about. Mohandas Gandhi lived a "salty life."
And Gandhi encouraged those of his day, and inspires us today, to be the change that you want to see in the world. Gandhi was encouraging folks to live salty lives.
Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth." May God grant each of us the faith, strength and wisdom to live "salty lives" (lives seasoned salt) in this present age.
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