Pass It On
Sermon
Ashes To Ascension
Second Lesson Sermons For Lent/Easter
James Stewart tells the story of two men who had been business partners for over twenty years who met one Sunday morning as they were leaving a restaurant. One of them asked, "Where are you going this morning?" "I am going to play golf, what about you?" he replied. Responding rather apologetically he said, " I am going to church." The other man said, "Why don't you give up that church stuff?" The man replied, "What do you mean?" "Well," he answered, "we have been business partners for twenty years. We have worked together, attended board meetings together, and lunched together, and in all of these twenty years you have never talked to me about going to church with you. Obviously, it doesn't mean that much to you." The logic of this story is irresistible. If Christ is the joy of life and through your contact with him you have a new experience of wonder and light, so that the old, gray, monotonous world has given way to a life of joy, peace, power, and a love for others, then surely you should long to pass it on.
These Sundays following Easter provide us with an opportunity to reflect upon what it means to witness to the resurrection in our day-to-day lives. Resurrection can seem like a remote, otherworldly event that has nothing to do with the mundane realities of our relationships. The challenge for us is to discover how we can communicate the resurrection as a daily reality in our lives. Whenever we experience new life, when life is reborn and love and faith are rekindled, we experience resurrection. When we recognize these experiences as resurrection moments, we then can be witnesses to them. To be witnesses to the resurrection is at the very heart of our ministry to one another.
In 1 John 1, the writer says to his readers that he wants to declare to them what he has heard, what he has seen with his eyes and touched with his own hands "concerning the word of life." He said, "We declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ" (v. 3). Notice that John talks about hearing, seeing, touching -- these are the marks of authentic religion, a religious experience that the writer was anxious to share.
To share one's faith is to enrich one's faith. I enjoy raising flowers. I have discovered through the years that it is important to plant the right flowers at the right time in the right place. For the hot, dry summer months it is important to select the right flowers that can withstand the hot summer sun and the dry conditions of central Florida. One flower that does well in the summer is the zinnia. It thrives in the hot summer and it provides a magnificent array of beautiful colors. There is one variety of zinnia that is called "Cut and Come Again." It is well named. When one flower is cut, three are ready to take its place. The more you cut and give away the more you have. This is exactly what happens when you share your faith. The more you give away the more you have. God has given you this treasure to share, and by sharing your faith your faith is enriched.
We need to remember that Methodism began as a lay movement. For Wesley, preaching and testifying belonged to the whole church. At the beginning of the Wesleyan revival laypeople were utilized to spread the gospel. Wesley felt it was a fatal mistake to leave the task of spreading the gospel to the ordained clergy. He felt it was heresy to turn the ministry of the Christian Church into a clergy-dominated religion. Across the world today, church growth is the greatest where the laity are the most involved. The small group movement, which is lay-centered like early Methodism, is putting vitality, vision, and enthusiasm back into our church.
Leslie Weatherhead, the English pastor and psychologist, told about a young brilliant doctor he met in London who was working on a number of experiments in a laboratory that was attached to the university. He was doing cancer research and his work was supported by some of the most distinguished scientists in London. Weatherhead said that he watched him work in a small, ill-ventilated room in the basement of the university. The doctor told Weatherhead that if these experiments turned out as successfully as he had every right to hope they would, then he would have a new way of treating this particular cancer with some hope of recovery for the patient. Weatherhead asked him, "What will you then do?" With a glow on his face, with enthusiasm in his voice and a shining in his eyes, he exclaimed, "I shall tell the world." We have come to worship with great expectations. With a glow on our faces, enthusiasm in our voices, we too have made a discovery -- that Jesus Christ is Lord and he is among his people. Christ has come to set the captive free. "He breaks the power of cancelled sin. He sets the prisoner free!" What then? We leave to tell the world, to share our discovery, and to pass it on.
In the study of the Book of Acts, the one underlying purpose that reappears over and over again during the early Church's formation is the encouragement to be a witness to the resurrection. The key verse to the entire book is 1:8: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." The following 28 chapters in Acts tell the story of the results of that witness. What had started in the first two chapters, by chapter 28 had spread all the way to Rome, the very center of power and authority. When Peter completed his great sermon at Pentecost, he made this final statement: "This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses" (Acts 2:32). Our New Testament faith is a witnessing faith. D. T. Niles, the bishop of Sri Lanka, defined our witnessing as "one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread."
The Bible teaches us that the "word became flesh." For the word of God to be communicated, it must become flesh. Phillips Brooks, the great New England preacher of a century ago, maintained that "truth is expressed through personality." Personality is the vehicle for conveying God's truth. Our task is to spread the good news of God's story in light of our own particular story, with the hope that people will respond in faith. The telling of God's story through our own story expresses God's truth and love through human experience that is identifiable to all who hear it. It is through the lives of real people that we see and hear the story of God's redeeming grace. There was a little girl who had a brief line in a Sunday school Christmas program. All she had to say was, "I am the light of the world." She rehearsed it until she knew it. The night of the program arrived and the little girl was confident, but her mother was nervous. When the little girl saw all of the people at the program, she became frightened and forgot her words. She twisted and turned her eyes towards the ceiling, but for the life of her, she could not remember her line. Her mother tried to prompt her from offstage. Carefully and slowly the mother's lips formed the words, "I am the light of the world." The little girl straightened and with a deep breath and loud voice announced, "My mother is the light of the world." In a real sense, so are we all.
We are all called to be disciples. The word "disciple" denotes a call, a commitment (a response to the call) and a discipline (the assuming of a lifestyle). Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book, The Cost of Discipleship, reminds us that discipleship has a cost; it comes with a price tag. How could we ever be a disciple, enter discipleship without discipline? He defines "cheap grace" as seeking discipleship without discipline, faith without commitment, communion without confession, and baptism without repentance. "Cheap grace" produces a Christian witness that is weak and ineffective.
Ron Fraser, who was the baseball coach at the University of Miami, was one of the most successful college baseball coaches of all time. He had numerous opportunities to manage in the major leagues, but he remained at Miami where he established an outstanding record. When asked why he was so successful as a baseball coach, his answer was simply, "I teach my players the fundamentals over and over and over again." For Fraser, the fundamentals were pitching, fielding, and running the bases. His record speaks for itself.
Successful Christian discipleship is mastering the basics. John Wesley brought renewal to the Church of England in the eighteenth century by getting back to the basics. The Church of England had lost sight of the basics of the Christian life and thus became cold and lifeless. Wesley established the class meeting, a small group meeting that followed three basic principles: prayer, study of the scriptures, and witnessing. Every renewal of the Church from then to now has come through the same process. This has become the basis for the phenomenal success of the Church in Africa and in Korea today. For us today, the success of the Christian life will always contain these basic elements: prayer, study, and witness.
Eight-year-old Benny died of AIDS in 1987. CBS made a movie drama about the trauma called Moving Toward the Light. As Benny lies dying in his mother's arms, he asks, "What will it be like?" His mother whispers softly into his ear: "You will see a light, Benny, far away -- a beautiful, shining light at the end of a long tunnel. And your spirit will lift you out of your body and start to travel toward the light. And as you go, a veil will be lifted from your eyes, and suddenly, you will see everything ... But most of all, you will feel a tremendous sense of love." "Will it take long?" Benny asks. "No," his mother answers, "Not long at all. Like the twinkling of an eye."
"This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).
Go and pass it on!
These Sundays following Easter provide us with an opportunity to reflect upon what it means to witness to the resurrection in our day-to-day lives. Resurrection can seem like a remote, otherworldly event that has nothing to do with the mundane realities of our relationships. The challenge for us is to discover how we can communicate the resurrection as a daily reality in our lives. Whenever we experience new life, when life is reborn and love and faith are rekindled, we experience resurrection. When we recognize these experiences as resurrection moments, we then can be witnesses to them. To be witnesses to the resurrection is at the very heart of our ministry to one another.
In 1 John 1, the writer says to his readers that he wants to declare to them what he has heard, what he has seen with his eyes and touched with his own hands "concerning the word of life." He said, "We declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ" (v. 3). Notice that John talks about hearing, seeing, touching -- these are the marks of authentic religion, a religious experience that the writer was anxious to share.
To share one's faith is to enrich one's faith. I enjoy raising flowers. I have discovered through the years that it is important to plant the right flowers at the right time in the right place. For the hot, dry summer months it is important to select the right flowers that can withstand the hot summer sun and the dry conditions of central Florida. One flower that does well in the summer is the zinnia. It thrives in the hot summer and it provides a magnificent array of beautiful colors. There is one variety of zinnia that is called "Cut and Come Again." It is well named. When one flower is cut, three are ready to take its place. The more you cut and give away the more you have. This is exactly what happens when you share your faith. The more you give away the more you have. God has given you this treasure to share, and by sharing your faith your faith is enriched.
We need to remember that Methodism began as a lay movement. For Wesley, preaching and testifying belonged to the whole church. At the beginning of the Wesleyan revival laypeople were utilized to spread the gospel. Wesley felt it was a fatal mistake to leave the task of spreading the gospel to the ordained clergy. He felt it was heresy to turn the ministry of the Christian Church into a clergy-dominated religion. Across the world today, church growth is the greatest where the laity are the most involved. The small group movement, which is lay-centered like early Methodism, is putting vitality, vision, and enthusiasm back into our church.
Leslie Weatherhead, the English pastor and psychologist, told about a young brilliant doctor he met in London who was working on a number of experiments in a laboratory that was attached to the university. He was doing cancer research and his work was supported by some of the most distinguished scientists in London. Weatherhead said that he watched him work in a small, ill-ventilated room in the basement of the university. The doctor told Weatherhead that if these experiments turned out as successfully as he had every right to hope they would, then he would have a new way of treating this particular cancer with some hope of recovery for the patient. Weatherhead asked him, "What will you then do?" With a glow on his face, with enthusiasm in his voice and a shining in his eyes, he exclaimed, "I shall tell the world." We have come to worship with great expectations. With a glow on our faces, enthusiasm in our voices, we too have made a discovery -- that Jesus Christ is Lord and he is among his people. Christ has come to set the captive free. "He breaks the power of cancelled sin. He sets the prisoner free!" What then? We leave to tell the world, to share our discovery, and to pass it on.
In the study of the Book of Acts, the one underlying purpose that reappears over and over again during the early Church's formation is the encouragement to be a witness to the resurrection. The key verse to the entire book is 1:8: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." The following 28 chapters in Acts tell the story of the results of that witness. What had started in the first two chapters, by chapter 28 had spread all the way to Rome, the very center of power and authority. When Peter completed his great sermon at Pentecost, he made this final statement: "This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses" (Acts 2:32). Our New Testament faith is a witnessing faith. D. T. Niles, the bishop of Sri Lanka, defined our witnessing as "one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread."
The Bible teaches us that the "word became flesh." For the word of God to be communicated, it must become flesh. Phillips Brooks, the great New England preacher of a century ago, maintained that "truth is expressed through personality." Personality is the vehicle for conveying God's truth. Our task is to spread the good news of God's story in light of our own particular story, with the hope that people will respond in faith. The telling of God's story through our own story expresses God's truth and love through human experience that is identifiable to all who hear it. It is through the lives of real people that we see and hear the story of God's redeeming grace. There was a little girl who had a brief line in a Sunday school Christmas program. All she had to say was, "I am the light of the world." She rehearsed it until she knew it. The night of the program arrived and the little girl was confident, but her mother was nervous. When the little girl saw all of the people at the program, she became frightened and forgot her words. She twisted and turned her eyes towards the ceiling, but for the life of her, she could not remember her line. Her mother tried to prompt her from offstage. Carefully and slowly the mother's lips formed the words, "I am the light of the world." The little girl straightened and with a deep breath and loud voice announced, "My mother is the light of the world." In a real sense, so are we all.
We are all called to be disciples. The word "disciple" denotes a call, a commitment (a response to the call) and a discipline (the assuming of a lifestyle). Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book, The Cost of Discipleship, reminds us that discipleship has a cost; it comes with a price tag. How could we ever be a disciple, enter discipleship without discipline? He defines "cheap grace" as seeking discipleship without discipline, faith without commitment, communion without confession, and baptism without repentance. "Cheap grace" produces a Christian witness that is weak and ineffective.
Ron Fraser, who was the baseball coach at the University of Miami, was one of the most successful college baseball coaches of all time. He had numerous opportunities to manage in the major leagues, but he remained at Miami where he established an outstanding record. When asked why he was so successful as a baseball coach, his answer was simply, "I teach my players the fundamentals over and over and over again." For Fraser, the fundamentals were pitching, fielding, and running the bases. His record speaks for itself.
Successful Christian discipleship is mastering the basics. John Wesley brought renewal to the Church of England in the eighteenth century by getting back to the basics. The Church of England had lost sight of the basics of the Christian life and thus became cold and lifeless. Wesley established the class meeting, a small group meeting that followed three basic principles: prayer, study of the scriptures, and witnessing. Every renewal of the Church from then to now has come through the same process. This has become the basis for the phenomenal success of the Church in Africa and in Korea today. For us today, the success of the Christian life will always contain these basic elements: prayer, study, and witness.
Eight-year-old Benny died of AIDS in 1987. CBS made a movie drama about the trauma called Moving Toward the Light. As Benny lies dying in his mother's arms, he asks, "What will it be like?" His mother whispers softly into his ear: "You will see a light, Benny, far away -- a beautiful, shining light at the end of a long tunnel. And your spirit will lift you out of your body and start to travel toward the light. And as you go, a veil will be lifted from your eyes, and suddenly, you will see everything ... But most of all, you will feel a tremendous sense of love." "Will it take long?" Benny asks. "No," his mother answers, "Not long at all. Like the twinkling of an eye."
"This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).
Go and pass it on!
