Sermon for CATM - September 9, 2007
Answering the Call to Go
Jonah 1:1-3; John 20: 24-28; Matthew 26:30-33
It was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. It was my first week at Evergreen in May of 1985.
There was a huge summer team who had signed on for the summer missionary program at the mission. Our purpose was to connect with youth on the streets and to gain some experience in missions.
A senior staff member, who shall remain nameless gave us our first assignment: “Go out onto the streets and find someone...a stranger...to share the gospel with”.
As soon as the words left his mouth my hands got clammy. The hair on the back of my neck was standing at attention. My mouth went dry. I started to sweat. A lot.
I whispered to myself: “He’s kidding right? He’s gotta be kidding. There’s no way...” The group dispersed. I noticed some of my colleagues were pumped. They had always wanted to be given the freedom and license to go and do this. A few of them behaved like they were happy with the assignment, but it was something they’d done a hundred times so they were looking for a real challenge. Most others, like myself, were very quiet and had a look in their eyes that I could identify with. That look, of course, was sheer terror.
So, I gathered my courage and went out on to the street by myself. I looked around. As I walked down the street I tried to imagine myself walking up to a complete stranger, starting a conversation and then finding a way to witness to them about Jesus.
Problem was, I couldn’t actually imagine anything at all other than running away in the opposite direction.
So I went into a restaurant, ordered a ginger ale, and sat there, by myself, until it was time to go back to Evergreen with my head hung low. Now it might seem like I’m bragging...but I assure you, I’m not.
I say this to illustrate three things:
1. Reaching out to others will stretch us, sometimes beyond our comfort zones
2. Trying to do something you were not made to do is next to impossible
From that experience I learned that I need to get to know people first before I can share faith with them. That works for me.
Another story. Another response to God’s call.
Jonah: God sent Jonah to Ninevah. Nineveh was an enemy of Jonah’s country, Israel. So, Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh.
Jonah tried to escape God. He tried to travel elsewhere, by ship. But there was a terrible storm. Jonah knew that God had caused the storm. So, he asked the sailors to throw him into the sea.
But Jonah did not drown, because God sent a whale (large fish) to swallow Jonah. Then, Jonah prayed to God again. He thanked God, who had rescued him (Jonah 2). And God caused the fish to return Jonah to the dry land.
So, Jonah went to Nineveh. He warned the people that they must confess their evil deeds to God. Otherwise, God would destroy their nation.
The people obeyed Jonah. So, God forgave the people in Nineveh. God did not destroy Nineveh at this time.
But Jonah was sad, because Nineveh was his enemy. Jonah wanted God to destroy Nineveh. But God told Jonah that God cares about the people from every nation.
So, the Jonah Approach to God’s call to go and be a blessing to the people is this: Run Screaming in the Opposite Direction
The flight impulse can be a strong impulse. Of course impulses are caused by something. There’s a reason why we run.
Perhaps we feel inadequate. It may be that some of us here, if you’ve been here for the past few weeks as we’ve been looking at the subject of reaching out to our community; it may be that some of us find the challenge too difficult because we struggle with our self-esteem.
The image we have of ourselves, the self-concept we carry with us may permit us to feel o.k. being in church and part of a faith community such as CATM. But when we compare ourselves to others, particularly, we just cannot for the life of us bridge the gap between the challenge of being used by God for good and the way we’ve always understood ourselves.
Looking at it that way, Jesus’ very command of “Go and make disciples” doesn’t really seem to recognize the fact that many of us feel like there’s just no way we can go.
Maybe we feel that we’re actually in our own way, and in order to be obedient we’d have to stumble over ourselves
to get to where He wants us to go .
Nevertheless Jesus implies in His command that no matter how we see ourselves or how broken or impaired we may feel...no matter any of that, Jesus will make a way. It’s more about Him than it is about us.
It’s much more about his sufficiency than our inadequacy. It’s much more about His faithfulness than it is our struggles to be faithful to God. It’s more about His power than our weakness. What does Scripture say about that: “My power is made perfect in weakness”.
That suggests that my fears about being too old or too young in the faith, or too immature, or too raw for God...maybe those fears aren’t so well founded. Maybe God wants my rawness to reach others who are also raw.
Maybe God can use the fact that I am very young to reach people who won’t listen to older folks, or visa versa Maybe God can use the fact that I feel weak, that I AM weak so that all the good that he produces in my life can’t ever be mistaken as MY good.
Rather people will have to concede that “It must be God”, which is the best possible conclusion people can reach, because that conclusion uniquely opens people up to God. Food for thought? Let’s move on.
Now looking at Jonah, his particular problem was that he didn’t feel any particular concern for the people out there who need God. It’s very rare that, without reason, we wouldn’t care. Humans are naturally social beings.
We feel empathy and connection to others. We want to feel that. We need to feel that.
Now it’s possible to not feel any particular concern because we just don’t see the problem. We don’t really get that people are separated from God due to sin. Maybe we don’t understand sin. If we don’t get that God is completely holy and cannot live with sin in His midst, we’re going to be very fuzzy on the reason Jesus came in the first place.
Maybe we’re not convinced of the power of the cross to actually heal and save folks. Hopefully, that suggests a learning curve...we simply need to spend more time in the Scriptures and we need to ask the Holy Spirit to speak clearly the truth of scripture to our hearts.
Jonah’s odd situation was that he believed God would save Nineveh, but he didn’t want it to happen because Nineveh was an enemy to Israel and he let that reality block his compassion for the people.
All kinds of things can block or numb our compassion. Sometimes anger blocks our compassion. Sometimes TV blocks our compassion. We flip past the news that telling us about the hurt going on in the world so we can get to our sit-com. Hmm.
Another story, Another response to God’s call: Thomas
Now Thomas was a thinker. An analyser of situations. At one point Jesus tells the disciples in John chapter 14 this: “4 You know the way to the place where I am going."
Thomas expresses what the rest of the disciples are thinking: He says:5 "Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Thomas’ open and honest question opens up a world of understanding to anyone with ears to hear.
Jesus answers him: “ "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”.
That’s why people who ask questions with open hearts are so needed in the church. Thomas’ honest question leads to an amazing revelation that steers the church for 2000 years.
Thomas wouldn’t have asked the question if he didn’t wonder. If he didn’t think about the situation, recognize his lack of understanding...you and I likely wouldn’t be able to be so clear on this vital truth about who Jesus is.
So, the Thomas Approach to God’s call to go and be a blessing to the people is this: “Mmmm...if I could see that it’s working, maybe I’ll join in”.
Now there are difficulties being a Thomas. Doubt can be a pretty destabilizing thing. Thomas couldn’t share the joy of Jesus’ resurrection until he was able to stick his hand inside Jesus’ wounds.
He went for a week stuck in despair due to the crucifixion of Jesus because he doubted.
But because he was sincere, his response to Jesus when the evidence was presented to him, when Jesus stood in front of him, was as simple as it was profound: He simply said to Jesus: “My Lord and my God”.
The doubter says, “Unless I know for sure, I can’t overcome the mental obstacles”. The challenge for the Thomases in our midst is to come to Jesus really wanting to know if He is who He said He is. That’s because when we really mean it, Jesus will always walk with us through the mental obstacles that can trip us up.
The natural thing for the doubter to do when we’re thinking about outreach is to resist joining in the challenge to connect with the community until there’s some evidence that it’s working. To delay involvement for lack of conviction about the likelihood of succeeding.
Another story, Another response to God’s call: Peter. As we read earlier today, Peter was a fellow who had some confidence in his strengths.
As Jesus is talking about the things that will happen to himself, and states that all who follow Him will fall away, Peter, with characteristic hutzpuh, states boldly: “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will”.
34 "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." 35 But Peter declared, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you."
I think many of us have experienced something similar to Peter, and Peter may in fact be the most helpful example to us of what following Jesus is really like.
If you are like me, you’ve had times of being so sure of God’s goodness and love and faithfulness that you couldn’t imagine yourself ever questioning God, or you couldn’t imagine yourself failing God, or walking away from Him, ever.
Genuine faith often does produce such confidence in the early stages. I think what happens is that our faith and confidence in God somehow morphs into an inflated trust in ourselves. Peter felt that. Peter had been the one to identify Jesus as the Messiah.
Peter had experienced the presence of Jesus, had seen his share of miracles. He knew that he knew that he knew that Jesus was who he said he was. Peter was willing to go anywhere, do anything, and even die for Jesus as the last man standing.
Can you relate to Peter? Have you known times of such great confidence in God that absolutely nothing, you thought, could derail you? Me too.
As we look further into the Scriptures we discover that very shortly after Peter’s bold statement of faith in Christ, he...under pressure of being associated with Jesus who was by then arrested...under pressure, Peter caved.
In fact he so completely caves that he swears with an oath that he doesn’t even know Jesus. He actually starts calling down curses on himself and swears to those who have identified him that he does not know Jesus. That’s caving in on steroids.
How can that happen? How can Peter go from being so bold about his faith in Jesus to regretting and denying that he ever knew Jesus? This was not years later. It wasn’t months later.
Peter had had no time to reflect on things and change his mind about his convictions about Jesus. It was hours later. Just hours.
Peter is, I believe, the most useful example to us of what it means to be a sent-one. Peter learned through his failure that his beliefs and his actions could very easily not line up. And he learned one of the key lessons of the spiritual life, not from his failure, but from Jesus.
After the crucifixion, Jesus appeared to Peter and to the other disciples. In one of the most touching and intense scenes in all of Scripture, Jesus asks Peter three times: “Do you love me?”
Each time Peter, who has the memory of his failure fresh in his mind, each time, Peter says with increasing urgency or desperation: “You know that love you”. “Yes, you know that I love you”. “Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you”.
Jesus responds with words that Peter perhaps wasn’t expecting: “Feed my sheep”. “What?!? I imagine Peter thinking to himself.
“But I blew it. Most severely. I really let you down”
But Jesus is telling him: “Fulfill your calling in the Kingdom of God. Never mind your weakness? You think I’m surprised that you failed your expectations? Never mind that. Pursue and fulfill your purpose.
Are you shocked that you’ve failed in the past? Never mind that. God knows. He knows and He understands.
And He wants you and I to do exactly what he told Peter to do once Peter knew that he knew that he knew two things: a) that he couldn’t trust himself as far as he could throw himself, and b) that he could only ever get anywhere by putting his whole life and all of his trust in Jesus.
Jesus says: “Follow me”. No matter what you’ve done. No matter how you’ve failed. No matter any of that, just follow me. Don’t look back. Don’t go back. You do that and you just hurt yourself. Waste a lot of time and energy.
So when we consider the call to connect with our community, to, as Jesus commanded us, “Go and make disciples, we have three approaches to consider:
The Jonah approach: Run Screaming in the Opposite Direction
The Thomas approach: I’ll think about it and get back to you once I’m sure. And we have the Peter approach: Well, we haven’t actually talked about how Peter approached the calling on his life after his reinstatement by Jesus.
We know how Peter got to a place of being ready to serve: He was forgiven, and he embraced that forgiveness.
Peter lived the rest of life still with a lot of hutzpuh, but his eyes were on Jesus. He preached the gospel to untold thousands of people. Planted churches. Catholics consider Peter the first pope.
Peter rose through the ashes of his failure to become a stellar servant of the most high God. He was never perfect. He remained raw in a lot of ways, the Scriptures suggest. But he knew.
He knew his God. And he chose to love God and spent his life making sure the others had the chance to know the same Jesus who had loved him, who had forgiven him.
How might we summarize the Peter approach? Be yourself. Make mistakes. Cleave to the grace of the risen Christ who lifts us out of the miry clay, loves us, cleans us up, watches us fall back into the miry clay...and repeats the process, all the while summoning us to our holy purpose:
Love God, Love our neighbour, and go...and make disciples of all nations. Let’s pray.
God, I admit that Peter seems like a kindred spirit to me. Too often I mess up. Too often I fall short of the freedom your grace offers me everyday. But like Peter I, and perhaps we as a congregation come to you and say, despite the sin and failure that still stings our consciences, despite all of that...we love you O God. You know that we love you. And you know that we want to serve you in this community. You know all things. And so we come to you and ask you to pick us up once again. Wash us off. And set our hearts fresh on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. In His name we pray.
