Hi everyone! This is Mission Trip week, so I would sure appreciate your prayers as we do God’s work in New Orleans. You can follow along with us at the Mission Trip Blog. Here is this week’s sermon. Have a blessed week!

 SCRIPTURE – Matthew 7:24-27

SERMON

Building a Foundation
Matthew 7:24-27
June 24, 2007

This past week, as I was preparing for our New Orleans trip, I went through some of the pictures from last year, when 22 of us worked to gut houses destroyed by the hurricanes. One of the images that was most striking to me was of a huge shed that was behind one of the houses. The shed sat on cinderblocks, and when the water rose, it lifted up the shed and dropped it on the fence at an angle. Everything inside was ruined.

I thought of that image when I read the passage for today’s sermon, because it reminded me about the importance of a solid foundation. Now, right at the beginning, I want to be clear on something. Jesus says those who hear his words and don’t put them into practice are like the man who built his house on a faulty foundation. When the waters came, the house was destroyed.

I am in no way implying that what happened in the Gulf Coast had anything to do with whether or not the people were putting Christ’s words into practice. The hurricanes were not a punishment from God. Houses were not destroyed and lives were not ruined because people had been disobedient to God. But the Jesus’ words today do have something to say to us about the importance of a strong foundation.

Jesus’ words make more sense when we understand the context, and Jesus, being a carpenter, knew what he was talking about. The area of the world where he lived and did his ministry often experienced dry seasons and rainy seasons. During the dry seasons, dried-up riverbeds seemed to be a great place to build a house. That is, until the rainy season. If a person built a house in the sand of a dry riverbed, when the rains came, even if you had a sump pump and a backup sump pump, the house would be washed away.

So Jesus compares bad choices in residential architecture with the hearing and doing of his words. And the implication we can draw from his words is that if you hear them and put them into practice, you have a solid foundation. If you hear them, but don’t put them into practice, you’ve built your faith on shallow sand, and you are vulnerable to having your faith washed away when a storm comes.

I think it’s interesting that in both cases, the wise and the foolish builder both hear Jesus’ words, but only one of them puts them into practice. The issue isn’t whether or not you listen; it’s whether or not you do what you’ve heard. I find that remarkable in light of what I went through in seminary. In the 90 credit hours I completed for my Master of Divinity degree, I must have read well over 200 books, wrote hundreds of pages of papers, and spent countless hours in discussion.

But what Jesus is telling me here is that his teaching is not meant for only discussion and analysis. Now, granted, you can’t do what he says to do if you don’t know what he says to do, so the reading and study of the Bible is important. But it can’t be left in the classroom, or at the Bible study, or on the bedside table. Jesus’ teachings are only effective if we put into practice what we’ve heard.

There are two kinds of people Jesus is addressing here. One is the person who hears the word, but doesn’t do it. But the other is the person who does the actions, but doesn’t really hear the words. I know a lot of people who do their best to live good lives and give to charities and lend a helping hand and think that’s good enough. But good deeds don’t make sense unless they are grounded in God’s word, unless we understand the reason behind why we are called to live that way. To truly understand what it means to love God and love your neighbor, you have to strive to understand and live out both parts of that command. To only do one or the other is less than who we’re called to be.

That’s what the 26 of us going to New Orleans are striving to do. We’ve heard the call to help those in need, to reach out to the least of these, to offer a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name. We have sought to ground ourselves in the word of God, and will continue to do so on the trip with daily scripture reading and devotions, and then we’ll go and live out that word.

Having been to New Orleans last year, I can’t tell you how important that grounding is, because without some spiritual nourishment, some source of hope, it would be easy to fall into despair. I remember driving through the lower 9^th Ward last year, seeing all the devastation, and thinking, “How in the world do you recover from this? Where do you go from here when all you know has been washed away?”

As I worked at the house on Majestic Oaks, carrying out wedding albums and nice clothes and exercise equipment to be hauled away to a landfill, I tried to put myself in the place of the homeowner, a lady named Iris DiCrispino, who raised seven kids in that house. She had lived in there for decades, and didn’t even have time to take her most precious possessions with her as she fled from the rising waters. Where is the hope there?

A few months after we got back, I got a card from Iris. She was living in another part of Louisiana, and was waiting to find out what was going to happen to her house. But the tone of the letter was one of gratitude, not despair. She was obviously a woman of faith, and her words were grounded in the hope that comes from faith in Christ. This past April, I got an Easter card from her. Iris had a solid foundation, and was living out what she knew to be true.

Building that foundation is not easy work. In ancient times, in order to make a house secure, the builder would have to dig down through the sand until he hit the rock beneath it. Then he would anchor the foundation in the rock, ensuring that the house will stand firm. Getting to the rock was hard work, and it took time. Building on the sand was so much more convenient and a lot less trouble.

But a conveniently build house was not a sturdily built house, and the same can be said of faith. A convenient, shallow faith is easily washed away, swept up in the latest cultural fad or religious movement. I believe so many people get stirred up over things like “The DaVinci Code” and the “Left Behind” series of books because their faith is not rooted in the word of God, so then it becomes vulnerable to swaying and shifting.

But it’s easy to leave our faith at surface level, because most of the time that’s enough. Most of the time, coming on Sunday morning and hearing God’s word and then going on with our lives is enough. We build our foundation on other things that are less sturdy and reliable. “I can take care of myself. Nothing can rattle me.” When life is good, we actually believe that. When it’s a dry season, we can build our house just about anywhere and not worry about the foundation we’ve built.

But what about when the storms come? The rains come down, the waters rise and sweep our stability out from under us. That’s when the difference between listeners and disciples is most evident. That’s when our foundation is tested. We do not choose whether we will face storms in life; we do choose the foundation on which we stand.

I found it interesting when we were down there last year how little it seems had been done in some areas. A member at the church where we stayed told me that the local and national government had focused almost exclusively on infrastructure issues, meaning there was nothing left to help with the tearing down and rebuilding. I said to him, “Who’s going to do that?” And he said, “You are.” He said, “The work of rebuilding is being done, house by house, by the volunteers who are coming down here. Without them, this doesn’t get done.”

So we go, representing this church as the body of Christ, to help rebuild the foundation, and to bring a message of hope. I know, even though there are 26 of us, the work we do this week will be less than a drop in the bucket of what needs to be done. But it matters. Not just for the tangible, but for the spiritual. I pray that through us, God will be able to help people find a rock-solid foundation on which to rebuild their faith. Because everyone down there knows how quickly all that you have can be washed away.

It’s a lesson we all can learn. It’s worth the time and effort to dig down deep, to ground ourselves in God’s word, to live out what we hear. You can’t do it if you don’t know what it says to do. Ground yourself in God’s word. I’d recommend starting with the gospel of Matthew or the gospel of Luke. Just sit down and read it. It will take you less than an hour, I bet. But you’ll have started the process of laying a foundation that cannot be moved. You will be standing on the solid rock that is Jesus Christ.

QUESTIONS

1 – Have you ever had a flooded basement? Did you lose anything valuable?

2 – When the floods have come in your life, what has given you hope, tangibly and spiritually?

3 – Your mission: Please pray for all of us on the Mission Trip!

Hello, everyone! Here is this Sunday’s sermon. I pray that YOU are able to do great things this week! 

SCRIPTURE

 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

 ”If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

SERMON
Show Me the Father
John 14:8-21
June 10, 2007

I was at a ministers’ meeting last week. One of my colleagues, Bruce Dobyns, was in the first week of his 3-month sabbatical; you could tell because he was the only one in the group wearing shorts and a T-shirt. He passed around a picture that showed his gift to the congregation for his time away: it was a life-size cardboard cutout of himself in his robe. That’s quite a reminder. He said he’s been testing it out. He put it in the pulpit during his sermon time, and it took three weeks for anyone to notice the difference.

But that got me thinking about the things we leave behind to help people remember us. A life-size cardboard cut-out may be a bit extreme, but we leave pictures, letters, tokens of familiarity. What do we leave behind when we go away so that the people who love us can keep on loving us, even when we’re not there?

That’s exactly what Jesus’ disciples are struggling with in today’s passage. It takes place in the Upper Room on Maundy Thursday, the night when Jesus is arrested. He’s told his disciples several times that he is about to leave them, and they are beginning to panic. What will they do when their leader is gone? Who will be their Rabbi? Who will be their guide?

That prompts Philip to make his statement: “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” In other words, “Jesus, if you can just prove to us that God is with us, if you can prove to us God is real, then we’ll be OK. Nothing to worry about.” How often do we make these kinds of statements: “Just show me a sign, God! A lightning bolt, a rainbow, a bag of money dropped on my head, anything!”

But is it ever really enough? Philip says, “If you show me God, then I’ll be satisfied.” But would the demand for proof end there? If God showed up at your door one day and say, “Hi, it’s me, there ya go,” would that be enough for us? Or would we then want to have a conversation, or request a miracle? We think we want to see God, but in the ancient times the belief was that the sight of God was so glorious that anyone who looked upon him would instantly die. Do we really want to see God? A human simply cannot handle God’s presence in its purest form.

That’s why God had to distill himself into human form. Jesus tells Philip that he’s already seen God. He says, “Don’t you know me, Philip? If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen God.” But Philip wasn’t looking for him. God comes to us in a million different ways, but we have to have the eyes to see him.

One of my favorite memories of Boy Scout Camp was lying out in a field one night looking up at the cloudless sky. When I first looked up, all I saw was a random scattering of stars. But then our leader pointed out Orion, and the Big Dipper, and Cassiopeia. And suddenly, this random scattering of stars became patterns and images.

We can only see what we are trained to see. An astronomer will see far more in the sky than an untrained eye. I look at a plant and I see something to be mowed over; a botanist looks at a plant and sees an intricate lifeform. You might look at one of my children’s paintings and see a mess of lines and colors. I look at it and see fine art.

The point is we can only see what we’re looking to see. Philip wasn’t looking for God when he looked at Jesus, and yet there he was, right in front of his face. Is God right in front of our face? Are we looking for something else instead of looking for God? Could those coincidences, those lucky breaks, those unexplainable things be more than just a random scattering?

This divine eyesight was crucial for the disciples, because they were about to be on their own. The only way the disciples would be able to be transformed from a rag-tag bunch of wishy-washy followers into confident, bold leaders was if Jesus isn’t there. As long as Jesus is there, there’s no reason for them to step up. But once he’s gone, it’s up to them.

That reminds me of one of my favorite movies, “Hoosiers.” Gene Hackman is Norman Dale, the controversial coach of an Indiana high school basketball team, and his assistant is Shooter, an alcoholic good-for-nothing played by Dennis Hopper. Coach Dale knows Shooter is a basketball mastermind, but has hid behind his addiction. So, during a game, Dale conspires with the referee to get thrown out, meaning that Shooter has to take over the team. He does, and using the ol’ Picket Fence play, leads the team to victory.

Jesus sees potential in his disciples, and he knows they can become so much more. He tells them, “If you have faith in me, you’re going to do even greater things than I did.” But he also knows they’re going to need help. I mean, they’re still human, right?

So Jesus tells them, “If you keep the faith, I’m going to ask my Father to send you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth.” We know that Counselor to be the Holy Spirit, which is poured out on the disciples at Pentecost and which truly does empower them to do great things.

The word used for “Counselor” here is the Greek word “parakletos.” It’s translated a number of different ways in different translations of the Bible – Counselor, Comforter, and some translations leave it in the original, calling it the Paraclete. The Greek word was used to describe someone who stood in for another person, like someone testifying in a courtroom on behalf of someone else. A “parakletos” would stand by your side when you needed it, and would stand in your place when you couldn’t.

That’s why I think the best translation of “parakletos” is “advocate.” I think of an advocate as someone who offers support and encouragement, someone who defends another person, someone who will step up to help, no matter the cost. That’s what the Holy Spirit does for us; it advocates for us.

It is this Advocate that will empower the disciples to do great things. It might sound a bit strange at first when Jesus tells the disciples that they will do even greater things than him. We look at his miraculous healings and resurrections and food multiplying and think there’s no way we could do that. But don’t forget what else Jesus did. He showed compassion to a widow, he stood up for a woman about to be stoned to death, and he bent down to wash the feet of the disciples.

We are called to do even greater things than these. Jesus was only one person, so his disciples were able to do 12 times the good deeds that he was. Through the giving of the Holy Spirit, we are then called to do even more in Jesus’ name. We aren’t called merely to reproduce the work of Jesus; we are called to represent him in this world. There’s a natural progression here. As Jesus embodied the Father’s presence in this world, so now the Spirit works through us to embody Jesus’ presence into this world. Every pronoun Jesus uses in this passage is plural, not singular. We are, in every sense of the term, the body of Christ.

I hope you realize the profound implications of what Jesus is saying here. He invokes nothing less than the power of the Trinity and places it at our disposal. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all mentioned in these verses, and then Jesus says, “Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” There’s a web of connectivity here, an intrinsic harmony between God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and us. We are in them and they are in us.

But is there room? Is there room for them to dwell in us? Or do some things need to be cleaned out to make space? Is there room for prayer and scripture reading? Do we make church a priority instead of just one of many choices in our social and cultural buffet? Have we left room in our lives? The power of the Holy Trinity is at our disposal to help us live lives of meaning and significance and purpose – is there room?

Show us the Father. Do we really want to see God? Look around. God is in each of us. Sure, some of us may cover it up more than others. Some of us may have crowded Him out. But realize that the world is looking to us, those who call themselves believers, to see God. We have to make room.

What does God look like today? He looks like nurses and missionaries and teachers and Little League coaches. He looks like me. He looks like you. Go now to do even greater things than Jesus – not miracles and signs, but deeds of humility, and service, and love. You are the body of Christ. You may never have to face the decision whether or not to die for your faith, but every day you face the decision whether or not to live for it. Show us the Father.

QUESTIONS
1 – What mementos do you have of those who have gone away that helps remind you of them?

2 – Where have you seen God in this world?

3 – What is your favorite way of embodying Christ? In other words, if you could spent the entire day serving God in some way, how would you choose to do it?