This morning I begin by acknowledging two mothers who were and have been very important shapers and influencers of my life. The first is my Grandmother Kane. Though she has been dead for over 3 decades, her influence, especially concerning her deep and long-lasting faith and deep and legendary prayer life, stays with me to this day. (Overhead 1)
She was born to an immigrant family from Wales in the late 1800’s. Her father, my great-grandfather was a Welsh coal miner who moved to Pennsylvania due to health problems. She raised 5 children, 2 girls and 3 boys all of whom saw military action in World War 2 and Korea. Her constant prayer for her sons on the battlefield I believe deepened her prayer life just like many mothers of today.
The second mother is my own. (Overhead 2) She is a woman of great faith and has been a faithful servant of God in the churches that have been a part of her life. She was born and raised in the hills and “hollers” of Tennessee and has been the only member of her immediately family to attend college in, of all places, the great white north of Minnesota. She is here this morning and I am glad to have her here!
One of things that I think this day should do is to help us reflect on the importance and value of moms and motherhood. Have you ever stop to consider, “Where would the world be without mothers?” One answer is, “there wouldn’t be a world without mothers!”
Have you ever wondered what would could happen if moms went on strike? Dirty clothes would create health hazards as they piled up in the hampers, room corners, and on the backs of chairs in our homes. The EPA would demand immediate action.
Grocery stores would see their profits dramatically drop because moms, their most important customers, would not be buying food! Men and children would line the streets and intersections of our fair city wearing T-shirts or holding up signs that would say, “Will pick up room for food!” or “Will get it in the hamper for a meal!”
ISTEP scores, which are tied to federal funds for our schools, would dramatically drop because children would not be doing the homework necessary to pass the test because mom would not be making them do the homework! Or if they did, it would be lost on the way back to school because backpacks would contain a mumbo-jumbo of stuff that would be disorganized because mom had not gone through them! Field trips would become recipes for disaster! (Can you imagine a trip to a zoo with out moms there to help make sure things went smoothly?)
Future musicians of all skill levels and music types would be far less skilled in their craft because their mothers would not make them practice or keep them at their instruments literally tied to them with string or ribbon. (I know about this one, it happened to me.)
What about the church? Sunday school classes would stop! VBS would suffer! Many musical instruments would sit silent! Those tremendous Monday night meals would feature pizza, pizza, and more pizza! Fundraisers that feature wonderful foods and beautiful crafts would stop!
Mom! We salute you and honor you this day! The work that you do and the role that you have is a valuable role. Thank you!
The work that mothers do is varied and important. It is demanding and, at times, hard. It requires lifting. It requires pushing. It requires dexterity. And because it does mom’s body sometimes needs some TLC. That’s where our gift to you comes in today. Tausha ______, a wonderful mom in her own right, comes to present it!
(Tausha’s presentation is given at this point.)
Mothers are people. Mothers are as important to our faith as dads. Mothers are major shapers of values and beliefs.
In a study done several years ago of over 3,500 adults in six major Christian denominations by the Search Institute of Minneapolis, 65% of them ranked mom number one as the most positive faith influence. Spouses were ranked second at 52% and dads were considered a positive faith influence by 32% of the adults. For the 3,100 teens, grade 6 – 12, that were surveyed moms were ranked number one by 73% of them with dads coming in second at 53%. “So mom, you do have a great deal of influence on us regarding spiritual matters!”
This morning we celebrate moms and mothers and in a larger and very important context as we celebrate and embrace God’s people. Who are God’s people? Some say, “only those who are saved.” Others say, “All of us are God’s children.” Who’s right? Really both groups are right.
The church has long been called the people of God and important passages of scripture such as John 1:12, “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God,” back up this view. However, as we read in Genesis 1:27, “So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created” we are made aware that all of us are created by God the Father and all of us matter to God.
But this morning as we continue to celebrate our past and embrace our future in Christ we celebrate and embrace God’s people – the Church! We celebrate and embrace God’s people – moms and dads, kids and teens, young and old in all of their wonderful diversity and strength!
I like what Bill Hybels says about the local church, “There is nothing like the local church when it’s working right.” Isn’t that true? And what is the church and who is it about? People! You and me! Moms! Dads! The church is about God and people.
Here are a couple of things to celebrate about the church, God’s people, this morning.
First, the church is God’s number one tool for helping people find life and hope in Christ!
Remember the story I shared last week about the conversation between the angel Gabriel and Jesus after Christ’s return to heaven? Gabriel was questioning Jesus on how He was going to insure that humanity knew of His love and salvation and Jesus said that through people would His love and salvation be made known.
And in reply to Gabriel’s questions, “What if way down through the centuries people just don’t tell others about you? Haven’t you made any other plans?" Jesus said, “I haven’t made any other plans. I’m counting on them."
As followers of Jesus Christ, as members of this local church who believe in salvation by faith, we are God’s number one tool for helping people find life and hope in Christ! He expects us, people, His people, to help bring people to Christ.
He set it up that way and we see it in the opening chapters of the book of Acts . For as we read 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” we understand that Jesus is talking to the disciples, people, like you and me !
Jesus uses a pronoun, you, a word that describes and defines people and not objects. And He says that you will tell people about me. God did not choose to rely on creation, as beautiful as it is, to have its testimony ready or ask animals, as great as they are, to get ready to preach. Jesus came to save people, human beings, from sin and death and He chose to use other people to tell them that!
A second thing to celebrate this morning is the church is made of many individuals who have a different mix of gifts, skills, and passion for God because it takes all kinds of people to do God’s work.
Let’s look at a picture that I have been recently given by one of you. (Overhead 3) This is our church in the mid 1940’s with the first pastor, Grover Asbury on the far left. As you look at that picture what do you see? People!
There are kids, teens, young adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults in this picture. There are moms and dads in this picture. There have been many people affiliated with this church and its ministry over the years. Lives have been changed as we have faithfully told and faithfully lived out the story that Jesus has given to us.
Our work is all about people and the truth that Jesus deeply loves them and offers them the liberation from sin with its guilt and shame. The church is in the people business because people are God’s business and God has chosen and created the church to tell the story of God’s grace and forgiveness.
Think about the people of our congregation who have served the Lord throughout our history. People like Joyce Guisinger, Roberta Cummins, Sister Jennings, Phyllis Haslup, Grace Gillespie, Harry Balzer, Dale Neace, and others who have been faithful to God’s call while being who they were and still are! These people and others as well, were and are people of different personalities, passions, gifts and skills who were committed to the Lord and the work of this kingdom and ministry. They had places of ministry that fit who they were and our church and God’s kingdom benefited by their unique and important places of service because that is how the Lord created them and shaped them.
In 1 Corinthians 12, we note that Paul told the church in the ancient city of Corinth, that all of you matter in God’s work. “All of you together” (verse 27) “are Christ’s body, and each and every one of you is a separate and necessary part of it.” The persons just mentioned illustrate this verse. Each one of them had and has a separate and necessary part of it in the ministry of our church. They are individuals whose uniqueness has been an asset to our ministry.
When a sports team celebrates, it is usually celebrates a win. When an army celebrates, it usually celebrates a victory. When a school celebrates, it usually means the end of school! When the church celebrates, it usually means a person is right with God!
We are in the people business. We are concerned about people. Much goes into that concern – budgets, programs, and buildings. But, our ministry and mission is about helping people come home to God through Jesus Christ and live for Him! That is what we celebrate!
This past Friday I did a funeral for a young man who lost a battle with cancer. It was standing room only at the funeral home. Probably 150 people were there. I would say the majority of those were under 21.
As we concluded the graveside service, it seemed that no one moved for a couple of minutes. They stood silent and in deep grief and thought. As I left the cemetery, I thought, “God how many of them have no idea who you are or what you want to do for them? They need you! What needs to be done to help them know and experience your love and grace and forgiveness?”
This is what we need to embrace, the future of our ministry. We must embrace people who have little or no idea of what Christianity really means. We live in a society in which the Christian faith means little or nothing.
Last night on Jeopardy, there was this statement, (something to the effect of,) “This teaching of Christianity is done for catechumens in a question and answer format.” Does anybody know the answer? (What is catechism?) These contestants were 30 years old, very intelligent, (I had no idea what some of the answers were to the various categories) and were racking in the money and they paused on this one until one of them hesitatingly answered, “What is catechism?”
We live in a spiritually interested but biblically illiterate society. Chris Armstrong started a recent article on Christianity today.com with this statement, “I don’t remember a time when the realm of popular culture has seemed more alive with divine purpose.”
He goes onto ask, “During the past year or two, how often have we been publicly reminded—through movies, books, and events—of vital truths about who we are and who God is?” Moreover, he cites among other things, The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson as one way, as Armstrong sees it, of reminding “us that the common portrayal of Jesus as a Nice Man with a moralistic message is a hollow fiction. The Nice-Man Jesus crumbles before the truth of who he actually was and what he did for us.”
People need to know the truth of not just John 3:16 but also 3:17, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it!” And we need to remember that the term world refers to people: kids, teens, and adults; moms and dads; aunts and uncles; teachers and students.
Our future is in here and out there! And we are embracing it! We have a good kids ministry with Faith Weaver Friends, VBS, and Sunday School. Our youth ministry has gotten back on its feet with the caring leadership and help of Ellen _________ and team of 14 other people. But we need to do more and we need to have more space to do it in. With God’s help we can do it! There are dads, there are grandparents, there are kids, there are teens, and there are moms, who need Jesus and God wants this church to be one to bring them home to Him!
We are not going to reach everybody. We can’t. It’s not possible. But we can reach somebody and we must.
Like Bill Hybels, I believe that there is nothing like the local church when it is working right. In addition, I agree with what he says after that sentence:
“Its beauty is indescribable. Its power is breathtaking. Its potential is unlimited. It comforts the grieving and heals the broken in the context of community. It builds bridges to seekers and offers truth to the confused. It provides resources for those in need and opens its arms to the forgotten, the downtrodden, the disillusioned. It breaks the chains of addictions, frees the oppressed, and offers belong to the marginalized of this world. Whatever the capacity for human suffering, the church has a greater capacity for healing and wholeness.” Hybels concludes, “Still to this day, the potential of the local church is almost more than I can grasp. No other organization on earth is like the church. Nothing even comes close.”
May our future ministry be so characterized by this servant of God’s description for God’s glory and honor. Amen.
Hybels quotes are from Courageous Leadership. Search Institute study is found in the book Christian Education on the Center Stage
