Sermons

Go!

Go!

… persecution was just the catalyst the church needed to take the rest of Jesus’ command seriously. Scatter into the entire world proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom.

It’s interesting that they never actually intended to do this. They seemed comfortable in Jerusalem and so long as they were comfortable they had no reason to go elsewhere. They never planned any mission trips to Samaria… they didn’t even send money to help the poor in starving towns around the world. Their fulfillment of the Great Commission came not by planning and sending, but by persecution, fear, and running away.

But in their running, they did not cease to be followers of Christ. Instead they took Christ wherever they went and so the good news began to spread into every tribe, tongue and nation. In Acts 8:4, Luke writes:

Those who had been scattered moved on, preaching the good news along the way.

The pandemic has caused much of the church to scatter once again. Some have gone online. Others have found creative ways to meet in small groups. Still others stood idly by waiting until we could return safely to Jerusalem (AKA - our sanctuaries).

Wherever we may be scattered, let us continue to take the Good News of Christ wherever we may go… to Judea, Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.

Prayers, Presence, Gifts, Service & Witness

Prayers, Presence, Gifts, Service & Witness

We tend to think of membership as something we can take advantage of whenever it suits us and ignore when it is inconvenient. You might be a member of a warehouse store like Costco or Sam’s Club, for example, but if you don’t actually shop there, the only thing you lose is you’re $50 club fee. You might be a member of a gym or athletic group, but no one really cares if you actually go to work out or not, so long as the gym gets their money. The only person you are hurting my not going is yourself. Your use of membership privileges in almost any organization is entirely up to your own desires and convenience.

Membership in the church, however, is something entirely different. In fact, the word “membership” in our modern understanding should not even be used to describe church, for this is not a place we come and pay our dues in order to receive certain privileges and special treatment for ourselves. It’s not about getting a discount on a cemetery plot or use of the fellowship hall for family events. It’s not about making sure I have a pastor available to come keep me company in my home every couple of weeks. It’s not about singing my favorite songs or feeling good about going to a service once a week where I can feel good about myself just because I went.

If we are to be called “members” at all, we are to be considered members not of an organization, but of a living body, as Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 12.

As Christ’s living body on earth, we do not have the same leeway we might have in other clubs or organizations to grow slack in our participation. A hand cannot say it is too tired to help someone when the head tells it to and a foot cannot say it is too busy to walk when the body needs to go out in the community to serve. As members of the body, we do what the head instructs us to do, with no questions asked. There are days when our body part may be sore or tired and not feel like moving, but we must continue to function regardless. If not the whole body will become paralyzed…

We Believe

We Believe

At Pentecost we tend to turn all of our attention toward the Spirit, but the Spirit seeks to turn all of our attention away by shining the spotlight on Jesus instead. The Spirit’s primary purpose is always to magnify the glory of the Christ and to draw all people to the Father through the death, burial and resurrection of the Son.

Peter certainly did not know the “Apostle’s Creed” which was written in final form over 700 years later, nor did he likely expect people across the globe to be reciting his words over 2,000 years after he spoke them. Nevertheless, it is easy to see how such a Creed might come from this Apostle’s bold, Spirit filled proclamation… particularly with regard to what we believe about our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He suffered under wicked men, was killed on a cross and buried. God raised him up from death’s dreadful grip! (vs. 23-24) He was exalted to God’s right side and received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit (vs. 33). He poured out this spirit, and you are now seeing and hearing the results of his having done so…

The Power to Overcome

The Power to Overcome

…If the Holy Spirit truly came into the world, as Jesus promised, surely no form of evil or wickedness could stand in His Holy presence… and more than that… Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to his apostles… to his disciples... to all who believe in him and confess Him as Lord… and so if we are born of the Spirit of God and have his power within us, how then can evil stand in OUR presence, let alone within our own lives?

Salvation has surely come!

So where is this Holy Spirit today?

God’s Holy Fire continues to fall upon the earth in every place and in every age since that day. So how is it that with such a Holy and Purifying power set ablaze in world through the people of God… through the church… that we still experience the overwhelming realities of sin and evil not only in the world beyond our walls, but even within our own lives?….

Fireproof

Fireproof

“I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America, but I am afraid, lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.”

John Wesley

Wesley's fear for Methodism, and for much of the church particularly in the Western world, seems to have come true. Our purifying fire is rapidly burning out, while the destructive and uncontrolled fires of the world rage on.

And so we hide in despair, complaining from behind closed doors how horrible our world has gotten. We have distracted ourselves with fruitless tasks and causes and we are running in so many different directions that we don't even know who we are anymore…

…In short, we in the church today are facing a crisis of distraction. As the late Dr. Ellsworth Kalas writes, "The UM Church tends these days, like the culture in which it lives - to divide its soul between many causes until it no longer recognizes its own soul."

The writer of Hebrews gives us a much different picture of who the church is called to be (Hebrews 10:19-25)…

…In her reflections on Hebrews 10:24, Dr. Susan Eastman of Duke Divinity School describes the church as “a new community of folks whose consciences have been cleansed by God, who are confident in God’s forgiveness and eager to encourage one another “to love and good works.”

The only way to face the destructive fires of the world is to remain in the flame of God’s love….

Encountering God

2021-04-11 - revival.jpg

Encountering God
Revival - Part 4
Sunday, May 2, 2021
Ephesians 2:1-10, 2 Corinthians 5:13-21

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Ephesians 2:8-10

When John Wesley observed George Whitfield preaching the gospel to 30,000 miners on a hillside, he wrote in his journal,

I could scarce reconcile myself to this strange way of preaching in the fields... having been all my life so tenacious of every point to decency and order that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin if it had not been done in a church... At four in the afternoon I submitted to "be more vile", and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little eminence in a ground adjoining to the city, to about three thousand people.

If there was ever a word for a post-pandemic church, this is it. Before COVID-19 forced churches to close their doors, many felt like Wesley in thinking that “the saving of souls was almost a sin if it had not been done in church.” Maybe not a sin, but there was and often still is a prevailing mindset that expects people to come into the church to hear the message of God’s grace and salvation.

But Wesley’s understanding of grace extended far beyond the walls of the church. Through prevenient grace, Wesley believed that God’s grace was at work in a person’s life long before they were even aware of it. If God is present with a person before that person is present to God, it must imply that God’s grace is it work in homes and workplaces and markets and taverns and even in the fields as it is in the church. If this is true, the question is how we might help those outside the church become more aware of this grace at work in their midst.

It is ironic, perhaps, that Wesley commits to “becoming more vile” by preaching to the common workers in the fields. Some have responded in similar ways to extending the church’s ministry through online platforms. “That’s not church,” some will say. I even had one person tell me that we should shut down our live-stream worship because it made people too lazy and they needed to get back to worship in the building. Yet if it is true that God’s grace extends to everyone where they are at, why would we assume that God’s grace cannot be present in the digital world. There are certainly benefits to in person connection, and face to face, embodied relationship with others is crucial to our Christian faith, but does that require someone to be singing in a crowded sanctuary hoping not to be infected by an invisible disease? Or might it be that the face to face happens on the front porch with a few neighbors or with a few friends over lunch or coffee talking together about the scriptures from the sermon they just watched online from last Sunday?

Church happens wherever God is present with God’s people and God’s people are present with God. Let us then become more present to the God who is present with us in every ordinary moment of our lives, and let us point others to a deeper awareness of God’s presence in the ordinary moments of their lives. God doesn’t wait for people to come to church to meet him. Why should we?

Listen to this week’s sermon here:


For more on the Wesleyan Revival, check out Adam Hamilton’s book, “Revival: Faith as Wesley Lived It”



Successful Failures

Successful Failures

John Wesley records what has become his famous “Aldersgate experience” in his journal on May 24th, 1738.

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading [Martin] Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

What stands out to me the most in this passage is the first line… “I went very unwillingly.”…

… Where is God inviting you to put yourself in the path of grace this week, even if you have to go very unwillingly?

Pursuing Holiness

Pursuing Holiness

Nobody’s perfect.

While this may be a comforting sentiment when we make mistakes, it can also easily become an excuse to live our lives however we choose because we know that God loves us for who we are. “You do you” has become almost a motto of our society. It is a well intentioned expression of tolerance, acceptance, and individual expression, all of which are valuable. We should be comfortable being ourselves without fear of judgement and criticism. We all have unique personalities and gifts that we should freely express and share. But being comfortable with who we are doesn’t mean settling for less than who God intended us to be. God loves us as we are, but the same God loves us far to much to leave us the way we are…

Rekindle the Flame

Rekindle the Flame

… There are many periods in history in which we might identify our own struggles and learn from our ancestors in the faith. For this season, as the United Methodist Church faces it’s own decline and divisions, I believe we may have the most to learn from our own heritage in the Wesleyan Revival which ultimately gave birth to the people called Methodists.

Like many people today, Wesley grew up in a religiously divided home and society. His parents were Anglican and his grandparents were Puritans, but rather than choosing sides, John listened carefully and learned the value of each. He came to realize a middle way, or “via media” in which loving alike was more important than thinking alike. His life was shaped by his mother’s emphasis on caring for the souls of her children and by his father’s perseverance in the face of tremendous suffering.

As we begin this journey through the early Wesleyan revival, we begin with these three themes, the care of souls, listening to one another through our disagreements, and perseverance in the face of suffering and struggle. No matter what conflicts and resistance Wesley and his family faced, these core values kept the flame of Christ’s love alive in their hearts and their home, and shone forth as a beacon of hope to a lost and weary world.

May God rekindle in us the fire of our first love, Jesus Christ, and send us forth with humility the humility to spread that love abroad to friend and enemy alike, that God’s kingdom may be fulfilled on earth as it is in heaven.

Revive us, O Lord! Revive us again!

What Story Does Your Life Tell?

What Story Does Your Life Tell?

…If we are truly in Christ, we do not have the option to crawl back into the womb of our pre-resurrections life, where everything was routine and comfortable and familiar. We must learn to live with an eternal perspective. Our very lives must proclaim the hope of resurrection and the power of Christ over death and the grave.

There are two versions of the resurrection story. One is the story of the disciples, who struggled for weeks and even months with fear and uncertainty as they embraced hope and waited upon the Holy Spirit while trying to figure out the implications of Jesus’ resurrection for their lives. The other is the story of fear and hiding, the story in which we go on with our lives as normal, as if the body was stolen and we just have to move on.

Which story does your life tell?

Subscribe to receive regular blog updates from Craig

* indicates required