Strait And Narrow Sermon Ix: Christians Keep Getting It Right And Growing In Christ Series

TOGETHER WE KEEP ON GETTING IT RIGHT AND GROWING IN CHRIST

Two hundred years ago, Francis Scott Key stood watch on behalf of American captives being held beneath the deck of a British ship off the shore of Maryland, while British warships pounded a US Fort with rockets in a vain attempt to pummel the Americans inside the fortress to lower the flag that was flying o’er the ramparts. To take down the flag would be to surrender. The outcome of that “show of force” by the British vs the “show of patriotism” by the Americans who held the fort is dramatically told in our National Anthem:

“O, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,

O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there.

O say, does that star spangled banner yet wave,

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!”

Two thousand years ago, the Apostle Paul sat in that Roman prison cell composing a heartfelt masterpiece to express his conviction that only a United Church of Jesus Christ could persevere to keep the proclamation of the Gospel safe from enemy bombardment and forevermore to spread the Good News of freedom in Christ all over the world.

The guidelines laid down by Paul to the early church have stood the test of time for two millennia, so why would anyone want to redefine or restructure the basics of our Christian Faith – one Body, one Spirit, one Hope, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all?

Why not just get it right and get it done by getting everyone to keep on growing unto maturity as measured by the moral and spiritual stature of Christ? God’s people come and go; some get it right and some do not, some get it done the right way while others fail in attempts to get it done the wrong way.

Surely we all know that the key to success in any endeavor is leadership that inspires and involves the people who constitute the whole body to achieve the highest attainable goals associated with whatever the cause may be.

The Body of Christ has to be inspired by the Head of the Body, Christ the Son of God, then, guided by the Holy Spirit of God, working together with God, in unity with the People of God, to accomplish the Purpose of God, in keeping with the Plan of God – Ephesians 4:11-13 . . .

Whereas all of us have been “called” out of sin into salvation, and all believers have been “called” to serve God, there had to be those, at least in the beginning, who took the lead in teaching the Word and establishing the Church – the task of apostles.

During the years leading up to and immediately following the ushering in of God’s Kingdom by the coming of Christ, there were holy men of God whose pronouncements were obviously the direct result of revelations and instructions engraved on hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit of God – the task of prophets.

As important as these folks were, once they established the Church as a dynamic institution charged with the responsibility of spreading the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth, the continuing effectiveness of reaching out to the lost and “bringing them in” had to be carried out by nameless individuals whose conversions had transformed them into witnesses whose burning desire was to see others come to know Him whom to know is life eternal – the task of evangelists.

People were being saved, but practically all of them were coming out of heathenism and therefore knew absolutely nothing about Christianity except that Christ had laid hold of them in a strangely mysterious, spiritual experience. They had to be nurtured . . . brought along gently . . . taught sincerely the great truths of the Christian Faith – the task of pastor-teachers.

Whatever your role in the Church might be – whether you’re the bearer of a title or the bearer of good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people – you are a very important part of the Christian aim which is to keep on growing toward maturity so that there may be unity of purpose and plan . . . we build up not disrupt . . . we lift each other up . . . our lives reflect the Christ who loved us and gave himself for us.