Let Me Tell You a Story about a Radical and Methodical Teacher
Luke 16: 1-13 NRSV
This is the world of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray.
Well, last Sunday I talked about how through Christ we have meaning in our lives. We are able to be and do so much through Christ. But we have to get pass our own idiosyncrasies and progressively do what we need to do to make our world better. Thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That’s what we say when the pray the Lord’s Prayer.
When we make mistakes we do step out of the will of God. That is a given, but the reality of a situation is that God genuinely has a tendency to be infinite in mercy, but we don’t. When people make mistakes, people don’t run to get to the bottom of a situation, they just begin to condemn. People begin to throw stones. But if you make time to find an adequate and peaceful solution first, then that’s always the better of the two. It’s always better to do that than to cause confusion.
I made a huge mistake a few weeks ago before Women’s Day, and in front of everybody here, I’m going to apologize and tell you about the situation from another point of view. I went through a tragic situation with my mother before coming back to church for choir rehearsal. And if a neighbor hadn’t have intervened my with mom, the situation would have been a disaster. I am being very prayerful because I don’t want my mom to ever be in a nursing home. I have to prevent that as long as possible. You can say that I went through an emotional storm that led me to that moment in time, but needless to say that the situation was not handled in a godly manner on both sides. But when we are quick to condemn and judge people, we do huge disservice to ourselves. When we lie on one another, it breaks God’s heart because we’re supposed to be brothers and sisters united in Christ.
I deeply apologize to the ladies for my indiscretion. And if you do have the forgiveness of God in your hearts, then I am asking for your forgiveness.
This is a new day. This is the day that the Lord has made and we need to rejoice this morning because Lord saw fit for us to see another day. Somebody say thank you Lord. I mean say it like you mean it… from the depths of soul say “Thank you Lord!”, and like Miss Anita always says in her welcome, we only get this day – this moment, and we need to make sure that from this day forward we are the church that is a vision of hope, peace, and spiritual renewal. Rev. Dunn knows that he left a wonderful legacy with that Mission and Vision statement. We should be anticipating the Revival more and more these days. We should allow for the spirit to come and work and move in our lives when we experience this. I believe that it’s gonna be wonderful. The Worship Committee has done a superb job with preparations for the event and the rest of the members of the congregation need to support that. It’s alright if it’s more members from other churches here, but we need to boldly represent who we are at McCabe with a strong membership showing. If you need a ride, call someone. We’ll come and get you. We would hate for you to miss out. Amen! Because I know that it’s gonna be awesome!
And while we are anticipating the blessing that we will receive from the Revival, let’s take a take a look at who we are. I wasn’t sure if Shemar and Turtle was gonna be in church Sunday, but I was determined to do the sermon anyway because from this day forward, I pray that we are a united congregation of Christians that attend a Methodist Church.
There are a lot of wonderful things to be said about our denomination. We empower and ordain women in ministry and I learned at the Wesley Chapel Go Green Tea sponsored by their UMW, the United Methodist Church has always been a congregation that supported ecology and going green ever since the 70’s. The United Methodist Women is the mission arm of the denomination where women from all over the world are advocates of women, youth, and children.
Now, we are here at this moment and time, where we celebrate the two young people that decided to make a commitment to this church with their prayers, presence, and gifts. Because they were led to our doors, we have to continue to be the church family that they need. We have to love them through their mistakes, comfort them in times of distress, strengthen them in times of uncertainty and offer encouragement at all times because it’s a jungle out there. In doing that we are adhering to the early Wesleyan belief that we are to put emphasis on putting our faith and love for God and each other into actions. So in other words, it’s not what we say – it’s what we do that really matters.
This Sunday, we’re gonna do something a little different… We are all gonna do confirmation with Shemar and Sherrell. Sometimes it’s just good to be reminded of who we are as Christians, particularly in a United Methodist Church. There are lot good churches out there, but the Methodist church is a good one to belong to too.
We are a church that states that we have open hearts, open minds, and open doors, but for some reason- our denomination is declining. And the church that is perishing faster than any other United Methodist Church is the black church.
Why are we who we are? What makes us unique? How does worshiping at a United Methodist Church versus any other church bring meaning to our lives to make us better people to where we live beyond ourselves and receive the gift of grace that we receive through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?
We are looking at a passage of text from the bible that teaches two things: A new way of thinking and that you can’t serve both God and money. Now how does that tie in to Confirmation? Well John Wesley basically wants us to make all the money that we can to do all the good that we can. The love of money is evil, not the use of it especially when money is used to improve the quality of life for all of God’s people. That’s not ever a waste of money. God’s people are always worth the investment because God invested in us and made us into something wonderful.
Its funny Christ was not ever a Christian, but he started a radical movement call the body of Christ. John Wesley was an Anglican priest to the day he died. He was not ever a Methodist, but he is the founder of our denomination.
I remember one Sunday I was at the 8:00 service at King Solomon Baptist Church. Pastor Caradine told his members that they need to be methodical in their prayers, methodical in their presence, and methodical with their gifts. I laughed out loud and yelled “Amen!” Because he was telling his congregation to be like Methodist. That’s how we got our name as a denomination. Back in the day when John and his brother Charles were ministering to the community with their friends, and people teased them in the streets and called them Methodists because they were methodical in the their prayers, presence, and gifts. They had a method of doing everything. What started out as an insult ended up being the denomination that we identify ourselves with. God can always make something bad into something wonderful can’t He? Amen! How the song goes the choir be singing: “God is a good God. God’s love never changes. God is a good God, that’s why I ever praise His name.”We need to live the way Miss Anita preached by saying that we will worship God because His love and mercy endures forever, Amen!
That’s right. So when we look at the scripture and we see that Christ is telling us that it was a rich man that got reports about one of his employees in upper management, and he was so mad that he was ready to fire him. He said, “I heard about you. I’m ordering a complete audit of your books. You’re fired!!”
He says, “What am I gonna do?! I’ve lost my job and I don’t have what it takes to work in a factory. And I’m just too proud to beg. I got a plan – here’s what I’ll do… so when I get fired, people will help me out.”
Then he went at it. One after another, he called all the people that he knew still owed his boss. He said, “How much do you owe?”
The man replied, “I owe 100 jugs of olive oil.”
“Ok,” the manager said, “Cool, let’s make it 80.”
The manager said to another man, “How much do you owe?”
“I owe 100 sacks of wheat.”
“Alright make that fifty and we’re even.”
Now here’s the surprise! The owner praised the crooked manager! But why? Because this man knew how to take care of himself. Christ says that street smart people are more highly regarded than people that are educated law abiding citizens in this regard. Christ wants for us to behave the same way –but for what is right. Christ is telling us that we need to use adversity out of those situations to stimulate us to have creative abilities for survival. It becomes a part of the way we live. And we begin to live a more abundant life without complacency but on good behavior (Luke 16:1-19 The Message).
If you’re honest about small things, you’ll be honest with big things. If you’re crooked in small things, you’ll be crooked in big things too. If you’re not honest in a small store, then aint nobody gonna put you in charge. No two workers can serve two bosses. You hate the first and love the second, or you’ll adore the first and despise the second. You can’t serve the God and the bank (Luke 10-13 The Message).
And even when we get to that point, it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and it’s a process. Because the founder of our denomination believed in threefold grace.
prevenient grace
justifying grace
sanctifying grace
Preveinent Grace
Wesley understood grace as God’s active presence in our lives. This presence is not dependent on human actions or human response. It is a gift—a gift that is always available, but that can be refused.
God’s grace stirs up within us a desire to know God and empowers us to respond to God’s invitation to be in relationship with God. God’s grace enables us to discern differences between good and evil and makes it possible for us to choose good….
God takes the initiative in relating to humanity. We do not have to beg and plead for God’s love and grace. God actively seeks us!
Justifying Grace
Paul wrote to the church in Corinth: “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19). And in his letter to the Roman Christians, Paul wrote: “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
These verses demonstrate the justifying grace of God. They point to reconciliation, pardon, and restoration. Through the work of God in Christ our sins are forgiven, and our relationship with God is restored. According to John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, the image of God—which has been distorted by sin—is renewed within us through Christ’s death.
Again, this dimension of God’s grace is a gift. God’s grace alone brings us into relationship with God. There are no hoops through which we have to jump in order to please God and to be loved by God. God has acted in Jesus Christ. We need only to respond in faith.
Sanctifying Grace
Salvation is not a static, one-time event in our lives. It is the ongoing experience of God’s gracious presence transforming us into whom God intends us to be. John Wesley described this dimension of God’s grace as sanctification, or holiness. (Excerpt from What Every Teacher Needs to Know About Theology, p. 32-33)
Through God’s sanctifying grace, we grow and mature in our ability to live as Jesus lived. As we pray, study the Scriptures, fast, worship, and share in fellowship with other Christians, we deepen our knowledge of and love for God. As we respond with compassion to human need and work for justice in our communities, we strengthen our capacity to love neighbor. Our inner thoughts and motives, as well as our outer actions and behavior, are aligned with God’s will and testify to our union with God.
That’s what we believe as united Christians in a Methodist church. That’s awe inspiring in my opinion. That’s what we believe. I’m reading this and I’m saying “That’s alright! I can roll with that! That sound alright with me. I can dig that.”
John Wesley also tells us: We’re to press on, with God’s help, in the path of sanctification toward perfection. By perfection, Wesley did not mean that we would not make mistakes or have weaknesses. Rather, he understood it to be a continual process of being made perfect in our love of God and each other and of removing our desire to sin.
We gone make mistakes, but as a church we know that through our love of God that we can do better. We can overcome any adversity. We can accomplish what we set our minds to do. We can be a vision of hope, peace and spiritual renewal for Dark Hollow and surrounding communities. We can be the Church of alive by the grace of God, transforming lives for Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit! Can I get an Amen! Let me get one one more time….Amen! Can I get one more time? That’s alright! Now let’s praise God for a moment. Clap your hands for God! Let’s give him praise in here today because He’s so worthy of it.
Now Turtle and Shemar I’m gonna need you to come on up here and I’m going to ask you guys a few questions. Mr. Williams will you stand beside turtle, and could one of the ladies stand in for me. And I want all those who are moved to stand with these young people as they become full members of our church.
