As I started to write this sermon, I read a blog in which the following question appeared, (Slide 1) ‘When you think of someone practicing Christianity, what is one of the first things that comes to mind?’
Would someone like Myrtie Howell come to mind?
Pastor Marc Axelrod says that Myrtie quit school at age 10 (this was many years ago) to work in a steel mill for 10 cents per day. She married at 17 but then when her husband died in 1940 she and her three kids lost their house and his income and she had to return to work to support them.
The years passed, notes Axelrod, and Myrtie ended up in a high-rise nursing home due to health and then, while there, went into a depression after her youngest son died. She responded, as many people do, with questions of God.
"Lord, what more can I do for you? I’ve lost everything that ever meant something to me. And now I’m stuck in this dark, dreary room. I have nothing left to live for! I want to die! I’ve had enough of this prison. Take me home."
But God was not through with her, Axelrod notes. He directed her to write to prisoners and she did.
Eventually she teamed with Prison Fellowship and started writing to over 40 prisoners across the county. ‘I thought my life was over,’ she later said. ‘But these past few years have been the most fulfilling years of my life! I thank Prison Fellowship! And most of all, I thank Jesus!’ I think that if you were to ask those prisoners this question they would probably say Grandma Howell comes to mind.
As we begin the final segment of our initial 2009 sermon series, I want us to learn a new word. ‘Missional’
(Slide 2) Missional. Not missionary but missional. What does it mean? Let me give you a short definition based on a statement by Rev. Dr. Clark Cowden of the San Diego, California presbytery. (Slide 2a) ‘adding value to people’s lives in Jesus’ name.’
Here is what he said that caught my attention. (Slide 2b) “The church is the ekklesia: the group of elders who sit at the city gates, discussing how they can add value to their community.”
Now I confirmed Cowden’s definition of ekklesia in another source and I want each one of us to ponder this idea of ‘adding value’ to our community; to people’s lives, in Jesus’ name, over the next three weeks as we consider becoming a missional church and missional believers. This is more Biblical than we think and Myrtie Howell is an illustration of being missional.
Marc Axelrod, after sharing this story goes on to say, ‘Myrtie Howell became a great missionary for God out of a one room apartment.’
‘No matter where you live or what your situation is like, God can still do wonderful things through your life. As long as your heart is still beating and your blood is still pumping, Jesus Christ is not through with you.’
(Slide 3) Our main text for this morning is Acts 1:8 “But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Now this is a very, very familiar verse to us and we have heard it many, many times. But I want us to see it with some new perspective.
And this new perspective is really, I believe, the original one.
This verse has been used to justify (and rightly so) the great missionary movement of the past centuries in which Christianity has truly gone global. This global reach needs to continue.
What I want to do is have us look at what happens after this verse and how the ekklesia operates and ‘adds value,’ to people’s lives. Our first stop is the opening verses of Acts 2. In these verses, we read of the coming of the Holy Spirit that, as Jesus said in 1:8, would bring the power to go and tell. Nothing will happen and nothing can happen until the Holy Spirit empowers it to happen.
With the Holy Spirit coming, a power to ‘tell people about me everywhere’ was brought and as we read the rest of the chapter we see that power manifest in the movement of God. Such power moved Peter to preach boldly the Good News and people came to the Lord.
Here’s the point: (Slide 4) We add value to our community as we allow the Holy Spirit to have His way in us, through us, and with us.
The Holy Spirit must be allowed ‘in’ us to empower us and change us for that, as Jesus pointed out in John 16:8. “And when he comes, he will convince the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.”
The Holy Spirit must also be allowed to work ‘through’ us to do this work because this is the Lord’s plan. We see this happening in Acts 3 as the people spread out through Jerusalem. Obedience, in both the ‘in’ and ‘through’ is important here.
Then the Holy Spirit must work ‘with’ us to accomplish the mission God has called us to do. This is very closely tied in with the ‘through.’ But I separate it out to remind us that we are the Lord’s chosen means to accomplish His work here on earth. Obedience is a part of all of this as well.
Our next stop is at the end of chapter 2 and some very familiar verses. We begin at verse 41, ‘Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church—about three thousand in all. 42 They joined with the other believers and devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, sharing in the Lord’s Supper and in prayer.
43A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. 44And all the believers met together constantly and shared everything they had. 45They sold their possessions and shared the proceeds with those in need. 46 They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved.
Mission is now taking place. There is evangelism, people were added to the church; there was fellowship through sharing the Lord ’s Supper and prayer; there was service, they sold their possessions and shared with those in need.
People’s lives were being changed as the value of the Good News became a transformation influence. There was a developing improvement in their circumstances. The newly emerging church was adding value to life in Jerusalem as they responded to the Holy Spirit and allowed the Holy Spirit to work in, through, and with them.
Our next stop is Acts chapter 3. The chapter opens with Peter and John encountering a lame man as they walked toward the temple for the 3 PM prayer service.
The man was needy and expected some money from those entering to help him in the normal way by giving him money. However, Peter and John saw his situation through a different lens. I believe that they saw his situation as it could be not as it was. I believe they saw it as Jesus did when He was doing the same thing.
I really think that a very important barrier was broken in Peter and John’s actions. Here was a man who had not been, from what we are able to determine in the text, touched by what had been happening. But as Peter and John were headed to pray; to worship, they made a decision to serve; to be missional by healing the man in Jesus’ name.
I believe this morning that this is an important event in the mission of the church because of what this act of healing caused to happen afterwards. Let us look at Acts 3:12 and following: ‘Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. “People of Israel,” he said, “what is so astounding about this? And why look at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power and godliness? 13 For it is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of all our ancestors who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate’s decision to release him. 14You rejected this holy, righteous one and instead demanded the release of a murderer. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him to life. And we are witnesses of this fact!’ Peter saw his opportunity… and He went beyond the act of physical healing to proclaim spiritual healing. The Good News now begins to spread out into Jerusalem with many in the audience repenting of their sins and change begins to take place.
What does this mean about being missional? It means that while the core of our mission is spiritual, i.e. a right relationship with God through Christ, our mission is also many sided or multi-dimensional. (Slide 4a) We add value by demonstrating the Christian faith in our everyday lives.
Peter and Paul were not going to a special prayer service on a special day. They were going to a 3 PM service. Jewish tradition specified prayer at 9 AM, 3 PM and sunset. They were doing what was normal and everyday.
And in the process of doing what was normal and everyday they saw and, very critical here, took advantage of opportunities to move from the daily to the spiritual. In this case the miraculous healing of a man.
Now, I don’t think I have the gift of healing. You might but I don’t. Being missional, being and doing ‘the church’ is eminently practical.
Let me give you a personal illustration. A few years ago, I coached Daniel’s soccer team. I enjoyed it and I had a lot of fun.
I asked a dad that I knew if he would coach with me. He agreed.
After one of the practices one night, he turned the conversation to church and asked me all sorts of questions about our church. I answered him honestly as I could without overwhelming him and invited him and his family to come.
I was being missional as a soccer coach and as one man talking to another man about spiritual matters. But being missional as a coach by respecting the players, using appropriate language, and acting appropriately during games, gave me credibility with him. Now we do not see one another like we did but I look forward to seeing him at school functions and who knows what might happen next.
People today don’t care how much you know about the Bible and the church and the hymn book until… until they know how much you care about them where they are at in their lives.
Now to our final stop at Mark chapter 4 and verses 3 through 8 that is a familiar parable to us. “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed. 4As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it. 5Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The plant sprang up quickly, 6but it soon wilted beneath the hot sun and died because the roots had no nourishment in the shallow soil. 7Other seed fell among thorns that shot up and choked out the tender blades so that it produced no grain. 8Still other seed fell on fertile soil and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted.”
Now as Jesus goes onto say in verses 14-20, the seed is God’s message and the various types of ground represent the heart conditions of those who hear the word and, due to the conditions of their heart, either they accept or reject what has been given.
Now who is the farmer in this story? We are the farmers. (Mark 4:14 says, “The farmer I talked about is the one who brings God’s message to others.”) God has given us the seed to sow and remember that Jesus said that the farmer went out to the field. He did not stay indoors to do it.
Each one of us has a field in which to sow the Good News of Christ. That field is the field of our lives and in our field we eat, sleep, work, learn, and serve with a whole variety of people… all of whom matter to God and we are the sowers of Good News.
(Slide 5) We add value by sowing the Good News in our fields through acts of faithfulness, kindness, and love.
I can best describe it this way. (Slide 6)
I am in the center and the boxes represent current areas of work/involvement. There is the boys’ school, the community work that I do, I am reconnecting with some of my cousins and they have spiritual needs as well so family, there is the church, too.
Notice there are other lines going off from the various areas to other pale blue boxes. That represents other persons who Jesus cares about but also represents others on mission for God as well! This is Kingdom building as well.
These areas move in and out of our lives. For example, next year both boys will be middle school students. Eventually school will no longer be a part of my field. Family will change over the years as well as there is death and there is marriage and birth.
But I will, as you will, always have a field of mission until the day we die or the Lord returns. (Remember what Marc Axelrod said. ‘As long as your heart is still beating and your blood is still pumping, Jesus Christ is not through with you.’)
As we conclude this morning, here is a blank chart of the previous slide. (Slide 7) In your mind right now put your name in the middle and fill in the colored boxes. What are, what have been, your fields? What have you done in those fields? What tasks? What events?
How do you add value for God in your fields?
You have added value, in Jesus’ name, by your acts of service, faithfulness, and kindness.
Some of us here have been ball coaches like me. Some of us have taught or served in our schools. Some of us have served in the community in some way. How have we added value to the lives we have touched in these areas for God’s honor and blessing?
We have done so in ways seen and unseen and we continue to do so by our caring.
Now I want us to close our eyes for a few moments. Relax and take a breath…
Now envision some fine, very fine wire, emanating from you. Now, picture yourself leaving here this morning and going through the rest of this day and discovering that some of those wires are attached to a person at home, at work, in the neighborhood. Who are those people and what is their faith status? What are their needs that are the doors to their hearts and souls?
Now, let’s move to Monday morning and for some here, work. Are you seeing some of those wires connecting your to your fellow employees and even your boss? What is their faith status? What are their needs that are the doors to their hearts and souls?
Then there is school. Are you seeing the wires connect to your classmates? To your teachers? To your principal? To other parents?
What is their faith status? What are their needs that are the doors to their hearts and souls?
Now head home from school and work, are you finding that wire connecting to neighbors? What about your extended family and friends? What is their faith status? What are their needs that are the doors to their hearts and souls?
Now, let’s come back to church and take the roof off of the building. Look in and see all of the wires coming off of each of us and look at where they are headed. They are headed in many different directions, aren’t they?
This network is our mission field. We are missionaries and our church is a mission church.
We are no longer consumers of religious goods and services. We are sowers of the God’s Good News through acts of faithfulness, kindness, and love.
Now, take a deep breath and slowly open your eyes and again consider this question (Slide 8) ‘When you think of someone practicing Christianity, what is one of the first things that comes to mind?’
Amen.
Sources:
Slide 1 question is from http://goodwordediting.com/spiritual-disciplines-highcallingblogs.com/677/
