I would like this morning to hold up a mirror toward the congregation. Not a glass with silver backing dressed up with an ornate gold leafed frame…don’t attempt to adjust your hair or tuck your child’s shirt back in, again. This mirror will not show our beauty nor our flaws nor our choices of stripes or plaid this morning. This mirror will however reflect our convictions in Christ. I would like this service on this day to be a reflection of our congregation.
Sunday after Sunday your attention is focused due North on this four by four area. Sunday after Sunday I wear away at this floor space and Sunday after Sunday you wear away at the smaller space in your pew with your eyes wide open focused intently on the message. This may be wishful thinking as I am sure there are plenty of last minute grocery list, golf club selections, and up coming events being planned on the back of the bulletin. HE says, wherever there are two or more gathered in MY name, then so shall I be also. So, let’s go on now knowing that we are surrounded by perfection in this place. So then in a perfect world every Sunday after Sunday your focus is indeed in-front of you. You are there in your place, I am here in my place and through the text of the gospel, weaved into life’s lessons I relate the word to a group supposedly concerned about more than just themselves. Sunday after Sunday we are expected to connect on a higher spiritual plane from the sound of my voice projected from my place and received by you there in your place. For some this IS your exposure to the gospel. Don’t get me wrong, sharing with like minded folk is one of the strongest bonds we build through worshiping shoulder to shoulder. We’re glad to have ya.
I don’t know of anyone who time over time really makes a strong/ passionate connection with anyone using this format of- you listen while I’ll try to say the right words, interjecting passage and verse along the way. This alone is just not enough. You have no ownership in the communications, no chance to share your agreements or objections on what is delivered to you. There is just no receipt given as you leave today- you cannot take back what is given to you -- as you sit there in your place and I deliver from here in my place.
I know that my wife does not respond to me standing on a stool looking over the den floor, freshly vacuumed as I proclaim in my best pulpit voice- “and it is good”. I cannot assemble the neighborhood kids neatly around a step ladder, ascend to the third step and then call down…lo; I give you now the traits of character that you must pattern your life after. These kids want some action. I better find a way to become one of them if I am to reach to them. I better work a message into a game of dodge ball. I better make His word acceptable in their environment. If we plant the Word in their settings, they WILL grow it. And are we all just children of God.
In Revelations 3:20- it says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock…if anyone hears my voice…I will come in…” The issue here is you gotta hear the knock before you can open the door. It is our responsibility as believers to answer the Great Commission and amplify the knock. This is not a suggestion. This is His will. We have to get through to the person who is on the inside. The person’s inner person. That inner voice that has fear and doubt or worse yet, nothing to fill their open minds and open ears because they live in a world where no one will bring them the Word. You can surely know they are not coming by themselves to this high holy place. This high holy place that we Sunday after Sunday we just call-- home. For gosh sakes, we come Sunday after Sunday, I am here in my place and you are there in your place – but your place, where you sit, looks a whole lot like a big sofa!
We need ownership in the ministering process if we are to be moved to action. Jesus had come for us as one of us. Look around, the folks next to you want to be here. This is the easy part. Shake those hands, smile and be proud you can proclaim Halleluiah with those in church. Can you lift your hands high around the folks next to you at work or on the bus or on the plane or in line at the grocery, can you even whisper His name on their level in their space. If I want to reach the neighbors kids with the Word then I better find a way to get to their level and communicate in ways and in settings they best relate to. If we have heard the knock, then we must amplify his voice and we simply cannot do from here in my place and you there in yours.
In order to become a Doctor you must cut through the flesh of the human body. You must disassemble your fellow man. Med student’s in gross anatomy often give a name to their cadaver and are overwhelmed by the gift of their “subject” to allow impressionable freshmen minds to explore and learn for the benefit of those whom they will treat throughout their life as a physician. This lifeless subject domiciled to a horizontal 36 inch high stainless steel or concrete slab examination table will not be cured. This person has given of himself so that patient after patient may benefit from his passing. Hum, one giving HIS life so that others may not be a victim of the perils of this world. We have heard this before in the story of the crucifixion.
Just as I cannot impress the neighborhood kids to rake my yard in the fall with a front-porch gospel lesson, I also cannot Sunday after Sunday relate to you words that move you to sufficient action in the name of our Lord without us being more hands-on.
Practices after practice, coaches do not stand on the bleachers and bark commands to the team. The coach takes that T-Ball superstar wannabe in hand. He puts the child’s fingers in his as he folds the grip of the bat into the possession of not only that child’s hands but you can know the child’s whole being because they all want to reach for the fence. This coach has what they need to make an impact on game day- so the player will absorb it, locking in that knowledge that they will in turn pass to their own “Babe” later in life. Some day you can bet that the student will become the teacher. The coach works to perfect that swing, that throwing, that fielding, so that Sunday game after Sunday game each player will know the joy in having contributed to a greater cause. And, that their contributions however not-yet perfected were indeed their best efforts during the time they had to give. Are we swing’n for the fence?
Pilots are not given the keys to even small planes until they have had 40 hours plus of training with a flight instructor in the co-pilot seat, in motion, in the sky. If we applied what we do here Sunday after Sunday, the pilot’s radio would not need a microphone to speak back to air traffic control. Air traffic control could simply speak to the pilot or groups of pilots over a public address system from the lofty tower on the North side of the air field. Just like we do in our cars, they could just tune the dial to “learn to fly 101”. But, that’s not the case. There is a prescribed course of study for anyone wanting their pilot’s license. Keep in mind that not only do you want your take offs to equal your landing but for us folks on the ground we would rather not have a head ache because you could not dialogue with your instructor and fell from the sky. Let’s not give Chicken Little’s story any evidence. During this pilot’s course of study, you have several books written by several folks covering weather, mechanics, physics and such. Beyond the required reading you have a flight instructor to guide you through take offs, maneuvers, and landings. You also have a medical doctor, an FAA on board observer, and in the end you gotta solo. It takes all of these things in concert to lift off. We could do all these things to fly around in the heavens but we cannot go all the way up until our faith is practiced indeed as much as our avionics.
Now, I don’t think for a moment that we would see a doctor who has hung his shingle out without having first gone through gross anatomy. We want him to know what makes us tick but we don’t want to be his first watch. I don’t think we would find the magic in our youth’s sense of personal pride or could fully appreciate the confident strut of our children when they alone have conquered their impossible task in a time where we could not come to their rescue. Hitch’n a ride with a barn stormer, that cowboy that learned to fly by the seat of his pants- no thanks. When I board each flight I look toward the cockpit and look for a crew with gray hair and at least three chevrons on their sleeves before I ease back and enjoy the flight. I will not let a youthful pilot deter me from flying… However I do tend to sit closer to the exits and nearer to the edge of my seat.
So, let’s look this morning in the mirror. Maybe I’ve gone the long way home here but keep in mind, the pilot’s mirror is the plane, the coach’s mirror is the player, the doctor’s mirror is good health! Our mirror as we sit in this place Sunday after Sunday should be as obvious and at least as important as any of these. Let’s just find out if it is…
This morning I have with me the wireless microphone which we use during certain events outside of the pulpit. (Begin to move from the pulpit using the microphone- begin to show that it works) I have this so that I can walk pew after pew this morning and we can share with our neighbors very personal stories in our witness for Jesus Christ. We’ll do this in popcorn fashion. We’ll start here and then move around with no particular order. Just feel free to share with the congregation what’s in your heart (pacing from row to row). (Begin to move a bit faster in your walk and voice pace sell it that something is emanate) As you are called upon to share, place less emphasis on passage and verse, we’re not all bible scholars. Just give it to us straight! Tell us how you have called upon him to walk with you in your daily life and how he did not walk with you always but carried you from time to time. Tell us how prayer has influenced maybe business deals that you are working on. Any thing at all so that your neighbors in this holy place may relate to your witness. Share with us your coaching which has lead people to know Jesus Christ through you. Share with us how you have cut through the flesh of this world to connect with peoples souls. Share with us anything, anything at all which resembles actions of soaring with Jesus Christ. (Pausing and holding the look- retreat to the pulpit).
Okay, you can relax now or maybe you can’t…? I invaded your space-- down from mine to hold a mirror up to you, up close and personal. Did you like what you saw…? For that brief moment when I walked into your space down from mine, only two thoughts went through every head in here; either oh boy (with excitement) or oh God (with dread and long pause). Some of you were ready to roll. Some of you would have talked us right past lunch and on into dinner. Some heart rates quickened with excitement to share the opportunities of witness after witness. Some hearts just stopped…… you found that you could not dislodge the fear wedged between your brain and your mouth. The fear from the questions, what do I say, how do I say it and what will my neighbor think of me when I defend Christ this day in his father’s house. But, then pass this same fellow week after week living in my world and not that of Jesus’ that I proclaimed yesterday. The fear of being unprepared gets us each time. When we are asked for homework we did not do because it has never been taken up before, when we are asked for project status at work on issues which we have removed from our radar screens, when Sunday after Sunday we may think we are sitting here in our pew… right side… so many rows from the front or from the back, between he and she/ him and her….and we are not prepared to concisely recognize that we may really be sitting…on the fence with our faith. It’s safe down there. I’ve been there. I was not taken home from the hospital in this robe. You are comfortable. Comfortable is easy. “Who do you say I am…?” Say it to yourself. (pause) Now, picture yourself not in front of that mirror this morning saying “Who do you say I am”, but rather visualize yourself at the end of that fence you may be setting on- there is no more to sit on, see yourself at the end of your time in front of your God. Before you get there ask him now God- who do you say I am? Worried about the answer? Good.
Just one. Let me hear YOU say it. “just one” back to you “just one” Again, “just one”. back to you “just one”. Lord, we are asking for your help this morning in bringing Your word to just one person this week. Give us comfort in telling your Word to just one because we know that that one will have an impact ten fold. HE is here and HE has heard us. We have asked for His help and he will answer. If you try you will be successful. He will not let you fail. He will be with you so that your refection will be His. Let us together say Amen, “Amen”.
