Armageddon Intro
Last week I watched the movie Armageddon, for about the 1000th time.
In the movie Armageddon the world is faced with an impending disaster. In fact an asteroid the size of Texas threatens to hit the planet earth and wipe out everything on the planet. As our heroes are about to blast off into outer space and save the world the President gives them a send off speech, and in the speech he says something that I haven’t been able to get out of my head.
“for the first time in the history of the planet, a species has the technology to prevent its own extinction.”
Preventing our own extinction.
Extinction usually doesn’t happen over-night, usually it is a gradual process. For one reason or another a species of animal simply cannot maintain its population, and so it begins to decline in overall numbers, until finally there are no more left. Throughout the years there have been many species that have become extinct. As of late many of these animals go on the protected species list and are helped by scientists so that they can begin to replenish their numbers. Without this intervention the species probably would have “gone the way of the dodo”. One prime example of a successful intervention is with the American Bald Eagle, once it was on the verge of extinction, and only recently has it actually been taken off the endangered species list.
The Hebrew word for extinction actually refers more to a candle going out than it does the elimination of an animal species. Imagine how that happens. You never quite know the moment when the candle started to go out, it just begins to slowly shrink, and its light begins to fade, the flame shrinks ever so slowly, until at last its death is marked by a single wisp of smoke.
Every day in our country churches are closing their doors, they simply cannot stay open any longer. Churches that were once full to capacity, life giving, nurturing, caring, loving churches are now struggling to make it from Sunday to Sunday.
I served as pastor of a church like this once. Years ago there used to be a hundred or more in service every week, today they struggle to have 10 on Sunday. All they can think about is how it used to be. None of them ever dreamed that their church would end up like this. They could never imagine that they would regularly talk about what was going to happen when they closed the doors for good. Their thoughts center on how things used to be, how many families used to come now there are 4 families; how the sanctuary used to be full now they meet in the fellowship hall. Now the church sits like a used up candle, a flicker of light that is barely hanging on to the wick.
I can guarantee you that if you asked them 20 years ago if they believed they would soon be a congregation of less than 10, they would have denied it. You probably would have heard people saying, “We’ll be fine, we’re just a smaller church now” or “This church has been open for a hundred years and it will be open for a hundred more.” But, quietly people would be asking themselves where all the people went.
There are many reasons that churches close nowadays, population centers can move away, church fights can divide people, there are probably a hundred other reasons that I haven’t even thought of. But, one thing is sure, many of these churches could have prevented their own closing. Just as our heroes blasted off into space to save the planet, we have the ability to prevent our own extinction. We can intervene, churches today do not have to sit idly by and watch them-selves shrink one person at a time.
In the passage the gardener intervened to save the tree, and to help it out, which would also help the landowner.
Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.
The tree needed to be tended to, it had gotten to the point where it was no longer able to grow and produce fruit, and without the intervention of the gardener it would have gone on the brush heap.
People have done studies on churches, and have found that many have a very predictable life span, and if that life span is not interrupted then that church will eventually close its doors. The most interesting thing about this research is that it applies to all churches, not simply small churches, but large churches face this same reality. But, there is hope we can intervene in this process, just like the gardener helped the tree people can help their churches.
We don’t dig around our church or spread manure on it, but we can cultivate our church much the same way a gardener cultivates a tree.
Commitment
Before the gardener ever touched the tree, he became committed to the tree. He realized that he needed to spend time, money and effort on the tree or else it was going to be gone, and with it all the fruit that it had the potential to bear.
We too need to be committed to our church, we need to realize that without time, money and effort this thing that we love will one day become an empty shell, full of memories.
Our commitment needs to begin with a commitment to spiritual growth and maturity. We need to study our Bibles, pray, learn with others about the scripture and about Christ. We need to realize all that God wants us to be. There is no need for us to become a withered fig tree, we can flourish and grow if we commit ourselves.
We need to be committed to each other, and to the body of believers here, when we became members we were each asked;
As members of this congregation,
will you faithfully participate in its ministries
by your prayers, your presence,
your gifts, and your service?
Today I ask this question again…
Not only do we need to be committed to our own personal growth and to the health of the church body, but we also need to be committed to those in our community. If there was one thing that I heard repeatedly in the homework I assigned, it was that we are supposed to help people in our community.
Relevancy
We must be relevant to the lives that we live and to the lives that are being lived around us. Jesus ministered to the people where they were at not where he wanted them to be. He ministered to them in a way that met their needs, not simply in the way that he wanted to, or had enough time for. This means doing things that serve others even if there aren’t exactly what we want to do.
The most prime example of this is in the garden of Gethsemane…Not my will but thine…I wish this cup should be taken from me. He didn’t want to be crucified, but he was committed to what was best for us, even though it cost him something, everything.
Activity
Galatians 5:22
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
Just as the fig tree was able to bear fruit so are we able to bear spiritual fruit
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, these are the figs that we are to bear, these things are what make us what we are supposed to be.
Olympic Torch
Over the last week my attention has been turned to the preparations for the summer Olympics. The Olympics have a wonderful tradition that is enjoyed by many people before the actual Olympics even start. The Olympic torch is carried around the world by volunteers, who to run the torch a certain distance, and then hand it off to someone else, who does the same thing. It’s amazing to see how far the torch travels. This year the torch has been carried across 6 of the 7 continents, hundreds of people have carried the torch at one time or another.
As I thought about the torch, something occurred to me; what if there the torch got halfway around the world and then the runner decided that he didn’t want to run anymore? What if everyone around the torch runner had some reason why they could not carry the torch, what if the spectators refused to carry it because they all had other plans? What if there was nobody to carry the torch?
A long time ago a race was started, and through every generation since, the torch has been passed and each generation carried the torch for a certain amount of time and then handed it off to the next generation who did the same. Some time ago the torch was passed to us and for our lifetime we must carry this torch, we must stay committed to the task, we must not give up. Many churches that close their doors, decided at some point that they did not want to carry the torch any more. Each generation has its own struggles and trials that it must overcome, and surely we have ours but we must stay committed to each other, and to the task at hand.
