Pilgrim Reformed in the week of February 27, 2011

Here's what's happening this week:

Tuesday, March 1st ... 7:00 PM Bible Study

8:00 PM Choir Rehersal

Wednesday, March 2nd ... 7:00 PM Pilgrim Circle

Friday, March 4 ... 6:30 PM Cards at the Parsonage

Sunday, March 6th ... 9:15 Sunday School Openinf

9:30 Sunday School

10:30 Worship Service

Birthdays this Week

Wednesday, March 2nd...John Sink, Jr.

Friday, March 4th...Ray Craver

Saturday, March 5th...Amanda Leonard

Sunday, March 6th...Marte Perrell

This Pastors Viewpoint

I remember my father using one of his favorite expressions. I don’t know who first spoke the words, though many, like my father, have over the years made it theirs. “Remember,” he would tell me, “there are more followers of example than of precept.”

People don’t always wait for a cry for help to respond to an obvious need, or instructions on what to do. Others moved to render assistance often do so, as if a part of some invisible voluntary chain reaction. They simply followed the example of the first to take action, and in turn, became examples themselves.

Our Lord, as he began His ministry offered the simple invitation “Come, follow me” (Matt. 4:19 NIV). Soon a total of twelve men, all of whom were employed and some supporting families, left what they were doing and volunteered to follow a stranger who had, what seemed at best, a most uncertain future. In their acceptance of Christ’s call they set the example for others who would follow. Women, as well as men, not only followed but also supported financially the ministry of this carpenter from Nazareth.

Soon Jesus would send seventy out into the surrounding country, all of them volunteers and all of them setting examples. It was but a short few years down the road when the ante would be raised for future volunteers and example setters. Jesus would amend his simple “Follow me” to “And if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24 NIV). Notice that Jesus did first whatever asked of others. He was the great example setter.

Jesus taught us to love the homeless, the poor, the sick, the forsaken and all those who are hurting each and every day in our own community. Loving our neighbors do not require acts that place us in danger, nothing heroic as we often measure heroic acts, but it certainly is an example that others can follow. While it is good for us to talk about Jesus’ precept about loving your neighbor it far better to fill up our truck with food for the needy and thus be an example for others to follow. So, go ahead, deny yourself just a little and follow Jesus. It’s a cross you can easily bear.

Oh yes, one thing more. It seems almost foolish to wonder why so many will go to heroic extremes to save a life or spend money to provide a meal, yet do nothing to save a soul. Saving a soul costs not a cent yet the result is eternal. Here’s an idea…let’s try to do both. Invite a neighbor to church and we’ll provide a healthy meal for the soul. There’s a wonderful example for others to follow.



Sermon for Sunday, February 27, 2011

LIGHT SHINES INTO THE DARKNESS
An Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World, #9
2 Corinthians 4:3-6

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

The choir director selected the 6-year-old boy with the sweetest face in the production for the opening scene of the play. “Now, all you have to do is, when I direct the choir to sing ‘And the angel lit the candle,’ you come onstage and light all the candles.” “I can do it! I can do it!” the little boy said, excited to be the one picked.

Rehearsals came and went, and finally the big night arrived. The choir was in grand voice, the stage was beautifully decorated with dozens of unlit candles all around, awaiting the moment when the cute littlest angel made his entrance.

The director gave the downbeat, the orchestra began to play, and the choir swept into the introductory lines, ending with an expectant “And the angel lit the candle,” and everyone looked stage right for the entrance.

No little boy. The director gave the downbeat again, and gestured for a louder line, to which the choir sang, “And the angel lit the candle,” and again, all eyes looked stage right.

No little boy. The director, beginning to sweat, motioned with great, sweeping gestures, and the choir thundered into the line the curtains swelled slightly from the sound “AND THE ANGEL LIT THE CANDLE!”

And into the silence which followed came a clear, boy-soprano voice floating piercingly from stage right: “And the angel dropped the candle into the john!”

This is the last Sunday in Epiphany. It is also the last sermon in my series, An Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World. The major emphasis in this season of the church year is that into this world of darkness, a bright light has shone. That bright light is Jesus Christ.

I don’t believe that I have to convince you that this is a dark world. Each day I awake and find myself turning on the news and wondering “Will this be the moment I learn we are in another war somewhere?”

They say that the events of September 11, 2001 changed America forever. If it did, it may be because we looked into the face of evil for the first time on our soil. It was horrifying to see those jets crash into the towers of the World Trade Center. But then, it wasn’t really that different than December 7th, 1941, was it.

Did you know that today a grapefruit-sized nuclear bomb, whose basic design may be found on the Internet, would kill everyone within a radius of three miles? Rather than counting our dead in the thousands, we would be counting them in the hundreds of thousands. It is truly a frightening thought.

To say this is a dark world is no overstatement. The last century was the bloodiest century the human race has ever known. Over a hundred million people perished in warfare, and another hundred and seventy million have died through political violence. And so far this century hasn’t made many positive strides toward global peace. Right here at home, every year in the United States alone, twenty thousand people are murdered and almost a million girls and women are assaulted or raped.

It’s a dark world. But there is hope. Light has penetrated the darkness. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:6: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
Don’t give up. Light has penetrated the darkness. But there are some important things we need to see.

First of all, not everyone sees the light of Christ. Wouldn’t it be great if they did? What if the whole world lived by the great commandment, to love God and to love your neighbor as you love yourself?

What if the whole world knew God well enough to call him “Abba,” Daddy? This would be a different world. But not everyone sees Christ. Some people don’t see Christ because of their upbringing. That is obvious.

If you have been brought up in another faith, a faith that knows no personal God, a faith that emphasizes God’s wrath rather than God’s love, a faith that teaches you to hate rather than to embrace the stranger you may never see Christ.

Some people don’t see Christ because they’re too wrapped up in the concerns of this world. Paul says, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

A number of years ago, a Navy jet fighter plane shot itself down over the deserts of Nevada while testing a new cannon mounted on its wing. The plane was flying at supersonic speeds, but the cannon shells were subsonic. The fighter actually ran into the shells it had fired seconds before. The jet was traveling too fast.

That’s happening to a lot of people today, especially among high achievers. They’ve got places to go, worlds to conquer and toys to accumulate. They never give a thought to Christ and his claims on their life.

And some people don’t see the light of Christ because of unresolved sin in their lives. Harlan Weschler, a Jewish writer and teacher, related a helpful story. Every night Levi Yitzhak, an elderly Jewish rabbi, reviews the events of the day just passed. He identifies the evil he has committed in it. Then, before he goes to sleep he pledges, “I shall not do this again.”

Each day he follows the identical pattern. He reviews his day and identifies his sin. He declares, “I shall not do this again.” And, each night he says to himself, “But you promised that last night and the night before.” Each time he responds, “Yes, but this time I mean it.”

That is how many of us respond to sin in our lives. It’s much easier to get into a sinful lifestyle than it is to get out.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Some people don’t see the light of Christ because of unresolved sin in their lives. There are many reasons that we might list. But it is important for us to acknowledge that not everyone sees the light of Christ.
The primary reason not everyone sees the light of Christ is that it is partially hidden. Paul says in verse 4:3: “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.” That is a theme of several passages in Paul’s writings the hidden-ness of God. He is but acknowledging what is obvious to anyone who thinks deeply about the meaning of life believing the Good News of Christ really does require a leap of faith.

We pray and we hear no answer. We suffer and receive no comfort. We dream and fall short in our strivings. This is the human predicament. Not every prayer is answered, at least to our satisfaction. Not every sick saint is healed, at least not in this world. And many of us with “God is my co-pilot” on our bumper sticker, end up taking detours that were not on our flight plan.

And we wonder, why doesn’t God make the life of faith a little easier? Why doesn’t God show God’s self to us a little more clearly? If we could know without any doubt that God is with us, wouldn’t it make an enormous difference in the way we live? On the other hand, perhaps there is method to God’s madness.

Carroll Campbell is an educator. He says, “Try this sometime. Get a group of children in a room with a light fixture hanging just out of their grasp. Then watch what happens: One child will jump to touch it, and before you know it, every kid in the room will be leaping like Michael Jordan. They’re testing their skill, stimulated by the challenge of reaching something beyond their normal grasp. Put the same children in a room where everything is easily in reach, and there will be no jumping, no competition, no challenges.”

Carroll Campbell goes on to say, “The problem with American education is a low ceiling of expectations. We have built schools that demand and teach too little, and the children have stopped jumping.”

Could it be that what is true in education is also true in understanding and knowing God? If the life of faith were too easy, might it not have a deleterious effect on our growth as children of God?
• If I knew for certain that every one of my prayers would be answered
• If I knew that every hurt would be healed
• If I knew without any doubt when I stood beside the coffin of someone I love that they were immediately transported to streets of gold
• If there were no struggle at all to our faith would we develop inwardly the kind of maturity that God desires in creatures with whom God will share eternity?

Besides, if God were to show God’s self to us, in all God’s glory, would we still have our sense of freedom? Would not God’s presence overwhelm us to the point that we would immediately bow our lives before Him?

My guess is that the hidden-ness of God is an essential part of God’s plan for helping us become complete as spiritual beings. I wish it were easier at times. People continually come to me with questions about God that I cannot answer. I can only say with St. Paul: “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

This brings us to the last thing we need to say. Once we have the light of Christ in us, we begin to see more clearly. The more you know about Christ, the more clearly you see him in your everyday life. Paul says that unbelievers cannot see Christ, but once you take that leap of faith, once you put your faith in Christ you begin to see him everywhere.

It is a paradox. The truth of God is veiled. And nothing can lift that veil. Science can’t. Philosophy can’t. Even religion can’t. Only faith in Jesus Christ can lift the veil. But once that veil is lifted, all of life speaks of God.

Sometimes we put aside all the things we have been taught about God and we think the whole matter through from the standpoint of our knowledge, our education, and our observation. We categorized all the knowledge we possess and work out a philosophy that seemingly encompasses it all.

You’re most likely familiar with the phrase, “Plan your work then work your plan.” It sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? You can plan it all out, categorize everything, and come up with a philosophical system that accounts for everything you see, then you take a walk in the country and see a sunset that moves you to the depths of your being in a way for which you cannot account. Your philosophy does not cover it.

Or, someone’s death strikes with shattering force and you are left with nothing but the crumbs of your philosophy.”
• What we need is not a philosophy, but a deep faith.
• What we need is not a system or a plan, but a Savior.
• What we need is not to categorize our beliefs, but to kneel before a cross.

Not everyone sees the light of Christ. God has deliberately veiled God’s self from us that we might never take life or faith for granted. Only faith in Christ allows us to lift that veil.

An upbeat word for a downbeat world!
Amen

Pilgrim Reformed Church , Week of February 20, 2011

Happenings and opportunities for the coming week

Sunday, Feb. 20th 4:00 PM ... Golden Age Meeting - Library

6:00 PM ... Youth Fellowship

Tuesday, Feb 22nd 7:00 PM... Bible Study

Thursday, Feb. 24th 7:00 PM ... Choir Practice

Sunday, Feb. 27th 9:15 AM ... Sunday School Opening

9:30 AM ...Sunday School

10:30 AM...Worship Service

ALL DAY SUNDAY ...STUFF THE TRUCK

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK

Monday, Feb. 21st ... Michelle Burton

Wednesday, Feb. 23rd ... Dalton Spurrier & Jonathon Neese

Saturdat, Feb. 26th...Charlie Black & Suzanne Clodfelter

THIS PASTOR’S VIEWPOINT
For the week of February 20, 2011

It is not at all unusual for athletes to do some boasting before the competition. I imagine that it’s a very natural thing, even though some, perhaps, go to extremes. We are all aware of some boxers who have almost made their bragging and bravado into an art form. Some are even as well known for their bragging outside the ring, as they are for their success in the ring. Who can ever forget Mohammed Ali’s “I dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee!”

Sports announcers love to have guests, whether boxers, quarterbacks, NASCAR racers, coaches or team owners on their show, sometimes weeks in advance of an event, to sort of “pump-up” the audience. It not only gets the competitors juices going, it gets our juices going as well. We love it.

Soldiers frequently face combat with the same attitude, the same feeling of invincibility. We would worry if our young men went off to battle feeling already defeated even though they must all, surely, dread combat.

And the Christian is likewise challenged to sing praises to the Lord as we go, each day, to do battle with Satan. Often times we pledge, sometimes for all to hear and sometimes for only God’s ears, to be victorious in some contest we are having with temptation, perhaps it is eating less, eating better or getting more exercise. Maybe, hopefully, we have declared that this year we are going read the entire Bible, really read it, and not just turn the pages.

These are things for which we are both physically and spiritually rewarded, but, only if we do them. You are, perhaps, familiar with the saying, “If you can’t do the walk, don’t do the talk.”
I thought of this as I read Jesus quoting Isaiah 29:13 in Mark 7:7 (NLT), "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. Their worship is a farce...”

If our worship is to be demonstrated in our service to God then it must, at the very least, be equal to our boasting. Your Christian walk must match your Christian talk.



Sermon for Sunday, February 20, 2011

LEAVING THE “CITY OF REGRET”

An Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World, #8
Sermon Text: Mark 2:1-12
“A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins....” He said to the paralytic, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

It’s one of those stories you see circulating on the Internet. The author is unknown, but the sentiments are universal. It’s titled The City of Regret:

“I had not really planned to take a trip this year, yet I found myself packing anyway. And off I went, dreading it. I was on another guilt trip. I booked my reservation on “Wish I Had” airlines. I didn’t check my bags, everyone carries their baggage on this airline. I had to drag them for what seemed like miles in the Regret City airport.

I could see that people from all over the world were there with me, limping along under the weight of bags they had packed themselves. I caught a cab to Last Resort Hotel, the driver taking the whole trip backward, looking over his shoulder.

Once there I found the ballroom where my event would be held: the Annual Pity Party. As I checked in, I saw that all my old colleagues were on the guest list:
• The Done family -Woulda, Coulda, and Shoulda
• Both of the members of the Opportunity family were there, Missed and Lost
• All the Yesterdays were there, too. There were too many to count, but all would have sad stories to share
• Shattered Dreams and Broken Promises would be there, too, along with their friends Don’t Blame Me and Couldn’t Help It.
• And of course, hours and hours of entertainment would be provided by that renowned storyteller, It’s Their Fault.

As I prepared to settle in for a really long night, I realized that one person had the power to send all those people home and break up the party… me. All I had to do was return to the present and welcome the new day! The City of Regret. Have you ever been there?

I wonder if the paralyzed man in today’s story from the Gospel of Mark was living in the City of Regret before he met Jesus. When we pick up the story, Jesus is preaching in Capernaum.
Hearing that he was in town, so many people gathered at the house where he was staying that there was no room left, not even outside the door. Some men came, bringing to Jesus a man who was paralyzed. Since they could not get the man to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” What an interesting thing to say to a paralyzed man: “Your sins are forgiven.” Could it be that this man’s physical condition was in part a product of a spiritual need? Could it be that his paralysis was due in part to his having taken up residence in the City of Regret?

We know that the way we think and the way we feel can have a paralyzing effect on us. People have had their bodies shut down because of powerful emotions. “Psychosomatic” we call it. It doesn’t mean that the pain or paralysis is imagined. It means that it originates from a hurt not to the body, but to the psyche.

Dr. Bernard Lown tells about a former patient who suffered from congestive heart failure. In spite of her condition, this woman led a relatively full life.

One day, a group of medical students visited this woman’s doctor during her checkup. The doctor mentioned to the students that this woman had T.S., or tricuspid stenosis, the technical term for her heart condition. Upon hearing the doctor’s words, the woman descended into a complete panic. She insisted that T.S. meant “terminal situation.” In her mind, the doctor had just announced that she was dying. Nothing the doctor said could convince her that he had meant otherwise. In a matter of hours, the woman died.

How we think and feel can have a crippling effect on us. That is not only true physically, but socially and professionally.

How many people live in the City of Regret today, looking back over their lives, and counting the times when they had the opportunity to better their lives, but failed to do so because they were paralyzed mentally and emotionally?

Dr. Edward Chinn tells about a Navy man who dreamed of writing stories for the movies. He wrote a screenplay about the naval hero John Paul Jones. He sent the screenplay to Julia West, who was then the story editor of Paramount Pictures. She rejected it. Later, this writer told Julia West how disappointed he felt from the rejection. He came to see that fear could be a paralyzer. He also learned that the best way to overcome the fear of failure was to go on with the determination to succeed.

In March 1933, this writer spoke to our nation. He was newly-elected President Franklin Roosevelt who said: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

Fear can cripple us. Millions of people these past two years watched their retirements shrivel as the stock market sank, perhaps you are part of that group. Many of these people were in 401k plans. Their stock was in their own companies and they were helpless to do anything but watch. There were millions of others, however, who could have acted to minimize their losses, but did nothing. They watched the market sink and they seemed powerless to even pick up a phone and say the magic word, “Sell.” They were like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights. Today they are living in the City of Regret because they could not respond to a changing market environment. How we think and feel can have a devastating effect on us.

Here’s the second thing we need to see: Guilt is one of the most destructive forceses in people’s lives.
In our permissive society, we may not feel the weight of sin our fathers and mothers felt. Still, we need to recognize that many lives have been wrecked by the power of guilt. Guilt has the power to destroy. That is why confession and forgiveness have played such an important role in the history of Christian faith.

Have you ever wrestled with the guilt of having done something wrong and done nothing to correct that wrong? Perhaps there is the guilt of simply not forgiving another who has wronged you.

This man, brought to Jesus by his friends, lay on his bed paralyzed until he heard the Master say, “Your sins are forgiven.”

There are doubtless some of us who need to hear those same words of deliverance and peace. May I speak them to you this day in Christ’s name? You are forgiven. You are forgiven. No matter where your feet have taken you, you are forgiven. No matter whom you’ve hurt, you are forgiven. No matter how scarlet your sins, you are forgiven.

And that brings us to the last thing to be said: One of the keys to emotional, physical and mental health ia a commitment of your life to Jesus.

This is what salvation is: it is wholeness, wholeness of mind, body and spirit. It is a new beginning, a new beginning without the guilt, without the despair, without the complications of a life of sin.
Some of you may know the story of retail genius, J. C. Penney. In the early years of the Great Depression Penney lost a large part of his fortune and the fruits of thirty years of hard work.
He suffered a nervous breakdown. In the hospital, which he could ill afford, the 58-year-old businessman confronted his deepest fears and questioned his most dearly held values. He described later the turning point: “One night I became possessed of the strange idea that the end of life had come for me, and that before morning I would be gone. I took a sedative, and went to sleep at nine o’clock.

After an hour I awoke, still with the conviction that this was the last night on earth for me. I got up, wrote farewell letters to my family, returned to bed, and again fell asleep.

“To my surprise I was still alive the following morning. Feeling restless and apprehensive, I dressed and went downstairs to the dining room, intending to have breakfast.

The place had not yet been opened. I wandered disconsolately down the corridor. Presently the sound of singing led me to the chapel, where a small group of people was engaged in an early morning prayer meeting.
They were singing the old, familiar hymn: ‘Be not dismayed whate’er betide, God will take care of you.’

“Slipping inside, I sat down in one of the back seats. Someone read a passage of Scripture, which was followed by a prayer. Silently, yet in agony of spirit, I cried: ‘Lord I can do nothing! Will You take care of me?’

“Something I can only explain as a miracle happened to me in that quiet chapel. An appalling weight was lifted from my spirit, and I passed from darkness to light. I had entered the room paralyzed in spirit, and helplessly adrift. I left it with an exhilarating sense of relief from the thought of impending death and a reborn hope in life.”

J. C. Penney had walked out of the City of Regret, not of his own power, but by the grace of God. Like the man who was lowered through a roof long ago, Penney found deliverance and a new life.
That new life is available today to all who would trust in Jesus. Our emotions can cripple us. Guilt is one of the most destructive of emotions. Hear the words of Jesus to the paralyzed man: “Your sins are forgiven.”

An Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World

Amen

The Happenings at our church this week

Oppotunities for Worship and Study

Tuesday, Feb. 15th... 7:00 PM Bible Study

Thursday, Feb. 17th... 7:00 PM Choir Practice

Friday, Feb. 18th ... 6:30 PM Chards in the Parsonage

Sunday, Feb. 20th... 9:15 AM Sunday School Opening

9:30 AM Sunday School

10:30 AM Worship Service

4:00 PM Golden Age Meeting - Library

6:00 PM Youth Fellowship

Birthdays this Week

Monday, Feb. 14th... Pattie Leonard, Margret Truell & Weston Miller

Wednesday, Feb. 16th ...Melinda Burton & Lena Shaw

Thursday, Feb. 17th ...Jessica Morris & Ellie Hepler

Saturday, Feb. 19th... Jane Hege

With great sadness we morn the passing of Joe Hege on Monday, February 14, 2011. He will be deeply missed.

Visitation @ Davidson Funeral Home Wednesday Evening, February 16th 6-8

Funeral at Pilgrim Reformed Church Thursday 2 PM

THIS PASTOR’S VIEWPOINT
I am astounded every week at the number of people who are suddenly cast into the role of hero. Some may be driving their children to school or on the way home from work. Some may be standing in line at a teller’s window, sitting in a fast food restaurant or listening to their Congresswoman in Tucson, Arizona Any of us may be called upon to perform some act we would never consider if given time or opportunity for thought. Many later consider themselves to have simply been at the wrong place at the right time. Maybe it’s simply that, wrong place, right time and no time to think about it that turns many ordinary people into heroes. Some, perhaps in an effort to be humble, will later say, “I’m no hero. I just did what anybody would have done in my shoes,” or in the case of the man I came across in last weeks Bible reading, “I really didn’t have any choice.”

Well, maybe or maybe not. A man named Simon, perhaps just as ordinary as you or I, found himself standing by the side of a Jerusalem road when an event that would forever change world history was passing by. In Matthew 27:32 (NLT) we read, "As they [the soldiers] were on the way, they came across a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, and they forced him to carry Jesus’ cross.”

We have no idea how Simon felt about this task that was forced upon him although I suspect that he was somewhat less than pleased. The burden of a cross was not a light one. It wasn’t for Simon then and it isn’t for us today.

It’s interesting, isn’t it, that each one of us today, everyday, is really standing by the roadside with a cross. We aren’t forced to carry it, as was Simon, but, we are challenged to do so and it is not Christ’s cross, it’s ours.

Jesus said in Matthew 16:24 (NLT), “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me”.

You may or may not become a hero but you can’t say “I didn’t have a choice.” You do! Are you going to follow Jesus or not?


Sermon for Sunday, February 13, 2011

WILLING AND ABLE
An Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World, #7
Mark 1:40-45
40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
41 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. 43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

Did you know that a few years ago a former Mouseketeer, Billie Jean Matay, 52, sued Disneyland? It’s a fascinating story.

It seems that Mrs. Matay sued her former employers in the Disney organization after being robbed in the parking lot of Disney’s Anaheim amusement park. She says that she and her three grandchildren were held for hours by security officers.

She was asking damages because her three grandchildren saw some famous Disney characters getting out of their costumes. The children were allegedly traumatized to discover that the Disney characters weren’t real, but simply human beings in disguises.

Now forget the lawsuit. I don’t even know how it was resolved. Focus instead on the three children. They were forced to come to grips with what they believed about Mickey and Goofy and all the rest of the Disney characters.

Our text for today calls us to come to grips about what we really believe about God.
A man with leprosy came to Jesus. He knelt in front of the Master and pleaded, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

This man knew Jesus was able. He had seen him heal others. Jesus’ reputation was soaring. People were discovering that here was a man who could still storms, tame demons and restore sight to the blind. Surely he was able to cleanse this poor man from leprosy. The man knew Christ was able.

I wonder if many of us understand that Christ is able? Many modern, secular men and women have a small God, a God who is captive to His own creation. It’s true. The onward march of science and technology has robbed many people of their sense of wonder about the Holy and the Transcendent.

It’s not that these people don’t believe in God. It’s that they feel they don’t have much need of God. They have modern medicine to deal with their physical distresses. They have the supermarket to provide their daily bread. And, unless they are trying to cope with something unmanageable like a fatal illness they really don’t see much use in taking time for God.
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote of a concept which he called the Last Man. It is a philosophy that cuts a little too close to home for citizens of affluent “First World” countries like ours.

According to Nietzsche, the Last Man is the man who, lulled by too much comfort and affluence, becomes apathetic to the world around him. He has no passion or compassion.
He rejects “religion, transcendent ideals, or (any) causes larger than his own self-interest.” In fact, the Last Man’s life consists of nothing more than sitting in his easy chair and watching the world go by.

Nietzsche may be describing some of us. Have you lost that fervor you once had for God? Do you have a sense of God’s presence in your daily life?

We love the 23rd Psalm, especially that part that says, “Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives.”

Well, just who, do you imagine that “goodness and mercy” is? The Good Fairy? And yet we still often wonder if Christ is able to help us with any problem we have today?

And God is able, writes Paul in Ephesians 3:20, “to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us”.

The problem is not with God. Something in our modern world has robbed US of a sense of both God’s presence and God’s power. A man with leprosy came to Jesus because he knew that Jesus was able to cure him. Can you say that?

Can you say that Christ is able to help you with any problem you have today? The man with leprosy knew Jesus was able. What he wanted to know was if Jesus was willing. Mark tells us that “he knelt in front of the Master and pleaded, If you are willing, you can make me clean.’” If you are willing.

Think about it for a moment and it makes perfect sense. Sure Christ was able, but did the Master really care about his suffering? After all, there were so many others who also had great needs. Would Jesus take time for him?

In his novel, A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens tells about two very different men Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. Darnay was an innocent Frenchman, and yet he ended up a victim of the excesses of the French Revolution. He has been sentenced to die by the guillotine.

Sydney Carton, on the other hand, lived life without much thought to conscience. But, he and Darnay had become friends. Knowing of Darnay’s fate, Carton decided upon a scheme to save his friend. He decided to exchange places with Darnay, to sacrifice himself for the life of a man he knew to be innocent.The night before the execution, Carton enters the prison for a final visit with Darnay. He drugs him, changes clothes with him, and ushers him out of the prison. The inattentive guards notice nothing.

The next day, Carton faces the guillotine. A frightened young girl looks into his face, searching for bravery. She recognizes he’s not Darnay. Astonished, she asks, “Are you dying for him?”

Carton answers, “And for his wife and child.” And thus Sydney Carton climbed the stairs to his death. He died thinking, “It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done.”

Is it possible for one person to care that much for another? Yes, throughout history people have laid down their lives for others. But notice this: Sydney Carton laid down his life for someone whom he knew to be innocent. When Jesus mounted the cross of Calvary in our behalf, he knew us to be guilty.

On the one hand, we ask, is he able? But on the other, we ask, is he willing? And the answer is always a resounding, “Yes!”

A man with leprosy knelt in front of Jesus and pleaded, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Mark tells us that, “Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ “Immediately,” Mark tells us, “the leprosy left him and he was cured.”

What an upbeat word for a downbeat world. Christ is able and he is willing. But there is a question we need to ask: How about us? Are we willing? Are we able? Notice the ending to our story: After healing this man with leprosy Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”

But this man ignores Jesus’ admonition. “Instead,” Mark tells us, “he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.”

Surely Jesus knew he was asking the impossible from this man. Don’t tell anybody? He had been healed from leprosy. Leprosy was one of the worse diseases ever to plague humankind. Lepers were exiled to the deserts and trash heaps outside the city. No well person could touch, or even stand near, a leper for fear of becoming unclean. The threat of uncleanness from lepers was so great that we even read in Leviticus 14 that lepers’ houses were taken apart and destroyed. Don’t tell anybody? You’re kidding, right?

You’ve got to be kidding. He was telling everybody. He became one of the Lord’s first evangelists. He couldn’t help himself. He had been healed. His world had been turned right side up. And that’s what we need in the church today, people willing to tell others what God has done in their lives. How else can we deal with this Last Man syndrome that Nietzsche warned us about?

There is something about modern life that will rob us of our sense of God’s presence and God’s power if we are not careful.

One way we can guard against that is if we will share with the people we meet what God means in our life. That is why each of us needs to be involved in some form of ministry to others. Not for the sake of others, but for ourselves.
A man named S. R. Morris writes about a ministry in which he is involved. He says that in July 2000 at the urging of what he believed to be the Holy Spirit, his wife and he decided they could no longer wait until God erected a billboard with their names on it detailing exactly what God wanted them to do in the area of ministry for others.

A friend had been distributing cold bottled water to homeless people for some time, and they had accompanied her once to see first hand what it was like. They decided to begin a similar ministry. They decided to take cold water bottles to a park near their old home, a place they knew was a hangout for the homeless.
They talked about it, and even though they both understood that they really didn’t know how to begin or what to say or what they would actually encounter, they decided just to do it. What began with a case of bottled water and a bag of ice in a cooler has steadily grown. Within a couple of weeks they added lunch sacks filled with sandwiches, fruit, and cookies.

A few weeks later, as they discussed the needs of the homeless, they decided to cook an entire meal, just as if they were having a family picnic. They unloaded their picnic meal and invited the park’s homeless to join them. It now takes several of the homeless to help carry the coolers, thermoses, pots, pans, and other containers they unload from their pickup each Sunday afternoon.

In less than a year their original group of about 10 to 15 has nearly doubled. On an average Sunday they cook about 20 pounds of potatoes, make a half gallon of gravy, go through several loaves of bread and a large pot of beans or other vegetables, and feed two to three dozen people.

How can they afford it? S. R. Morris says that at one time he would’ve told you that they couldn’t. However, they have claimed the promise from Proverbs 19:17: “He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done.” Their annual income has increased by nearly $10,000, much more than they spend in feeding the homeless. “God is indeed faithful,” says S. R. Morris.

Their lives have changed in other ways since they made the decision to begin helping the homeless. Whereas S. R. once argued that homeless people were that way because of their own bad choices, he knows now that this is not always the case.

While it’s true that many are homeless because of drug and alcohol addictions or because of various other wrong choices they have made in life, some have simply been victims of abuse, divorce, poverty, and other circumstances we’ll never understand.

Life is good for S. R. Morris and his wife. They discovered the power and presence of God in their life. They discovered that God is able and willing to meet their every need. They have experienced the presence of God because they, too, are willing and able to serve the needs of other.

Indeed, an upbeat word for a downbeat world!

Amen.

Our cemetary at sunset

When the sun sets, and darkness settles over the land, an angel
watches over those at rest

The happenings at Pilgrim this week.

From the calendar...

Monday, Feb. 7th ...6:00 PM Property Meeting

Tuesday, Feb 8th ... 7:00 PM Bible Study

Wednesday, Feb. 9th ... 7:00 PM Finance Meeting

Thursday, Feb 10th ... 7:00 PM Choir Practice

Friday, Feb. 11th ... 6:30 PM Cards in the Parsonage

Saturday, Feb. 12th ... 6:00 PM Valentine Pot Luck meal

Sunday, Feb. 13th ... 8:00 AM Consistory Meeting

9:15 Sunday School Assembly

9:30 Sunday School

10:30 Worship

Birthdays this week

Monday, Feb. 7th ... Nicholas Everhart & Charles Hatley, Jr.

Wednesday, Feb. 9th ... Madison P. Knight

Thursday, Feb 10th ... Daniel Vidal

Friday, Feb. 11th ... Jennifer Morris

Sayurday, Feb 12th ... Tristen Fuller

THIS PASTOR’S VIEWPOINT

I’m sure I was not the only grade school student who ever heard those dreaded words, “Report to the principal’s office.” Throughout my public school years these words seldom were the precursor of something good. In fact, they usually followed something I had done that was bad.
Likewise, in the Army when I was told the first sergeant wanted to see me “on the double” I knew I wasn’t on my way to get an unexpected three-day pass.

Or when an envelope was received in the mail with no stamp, a green “Certified Receipt Required” sticker on the front and the IRS address on the upper left hand corner I knew it also spelled trouble.

One thing these all have in common is that the people to whom I had to give an accounting were all figures of authority. They represented a much higher authority, one to which I was always submissive. There was never the thought of my suggesting that they come to me.

Therefore, it was interesting to read this week in Psalm 31:2a (NLT), where David is speaking to the Lord, the Creator, the Almighty, say “Bend down and listen to me”. Rather than prostrating himself before God, David asked that God, not simply come to him, but also bend down, get on his level and listen to what he had to say.

But then, that’s the kind of God we have, and those who really get to know him realize that. What David didn’t know, however, couldn’t possibly know, and would have never even imagined, was that God was not only willing to bend down and listen, he was willing to come down and die for us.

I wonder what David’s psalms would have sounded like had he known that? Perhaps he might have written Amazing Grace or The Old Rugged Cross for his choir director instead of Psalm 31. But he didn’t, and so for a God who would simply bend down and listen, David wrote Psalm 31 and lived a life praising God.

But we know, don’t we. We know the rest of the story, the whole story, a story of God’s sacrificial love for us. It the story of the God who loves us even though we sin…even as we sin. So, why then, don’t we live a life of praise?

By now you should be at least humming Amazing Grace.


Sermon for Sunday, February 6, 2011


WHY HE CAME
An Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World, #6

Mark 1:29 -39
29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. 31 So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door, 34 and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.


Three middle-aged men, Joe, Fred and Tom, were discussing the possibility of sudden death.
“What would you do if you knew you only had 4 weeks of life remaining?” Joe asked.

“First of all,” Fred said, “I would quit my job and for those 4 weeks I would do nothing but fish.”

“Not me,” Tom said somberly. “For those 4 weeks, I would spend as much time as possible with my children and let them know how much I love them.”

Joe thought for a few moments and then said, “I’ll tell you what I would do. For those 4 weeks, I would travel throughout the United States with my wife and my mother-in-law in a tiny compact car, and stay in a cheap motel every night.”

Fred and Tom were puzzled by his answer. “Why would you do that?” they asked.

“Because,” Joe smiled sarcastically, “it would be the longest 4 weeks of my life.”

Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law. We hope this was something Simon was enthusiastic about. It probably was. We don’t hear mother-in-law jokes now like we used to …. and that’s a step forward. After all, most of us have mothers-in-law that we cherish. I know I did.

Mark tells us that Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever. When they told Jesus about her, he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

Poor lady. No opportunity to recuperate. No opportunity for a little pampering by her family.
I know what some of you women are thinking. Typical male behavior. This poor lady has been sick. Jesus healed her affliction, so immediately it was back to work looking after the household.
It’s like a “Wizard of Id” comic strip that appeared in the papers years ago..

In the first frame, a peasant is shown approaching the wizard in his workshop. The peasant asks, “Are you familiar with curses?”

The wizard replies, “What’s the problem?”

“A witch turned my wife into a frog,” responds the peasant.

The wizard asks, “What do you want me to do?”

The peasant answers, “Teach it how to cook.”

Typical male chauvinism.

Of course, Jesus had the same problem as Simon’s mother-in-law. He didn’t have any down time either. When people find you can heal their diseases they start lining up outside your door. Jesus’ ministry was a success from the beginning.

“To be a success,” a doctor once said, “find a need and fill it; find a hurt and heal it.” Jesus was certainly doing that. Nearly every family is touched by one sickness or another, and so people were bringing their loved ones to Jesus in droves. After all, there were no hospitals, no twenty-four hour medical clinics. Where else could they turn except to Jesus? Wouldn’t you? If you knew that someone was hurting and Jesus could help them, wouldn’t you bring them to Jesus?
Mark tells us, “The whole town gathered at the door . . .” Like Simon’s mother-in law, there was no down time for Jesus. But, here’s what’s important. Jesus took time to pray. We read, “The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases . . .” And then Mark tells us, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

Jesus prayed. In his book, Ordering Your Private World, Gordon MacDonald says prayer was such a priority to Christ that there are more than 20 words in the New Testament to describe his prayer life.

Jesus took time to recharge his spiritual batteries. That is important for us to see. You think you’re too busy to pray? Imagine if there were sick and dying people lined up outside your door each morning waiting for you to open up for business. Imagine that when you went to bed each evening there was still a line. Wouldn’t you think you could legitimately skip over your prayer time? Why that even sounds like a good excuse for sleeping in on the Sunday.

Surely if you were helping all those people, God would understand if you skipped worship or Bible study. Yet Jesus took time to pray and he took time to study and he took time for worship.
J. Hudson Taylor once put it like this: “Do not have your concert first and tune your instruments afterward. Begin the day with God.” That’s exactly what Jesus did. He tuned his instrument first.

Stephen Covey used the metaphor of an axe. “Take time to sharpen your axe,” says Covey in his Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, “before you begin cutting. That’s practical advice. If we spend time with God before we begin the activity of our day, we will be better prepared for what might come our way.

Felicity Cunningham, wife of former Minnesota Viking quarterback Randall Cunningham had this to say about her husband: “He doesn’t even stand up first. He rolls out of bed and he goes on his knees and he prays. He makes that decision every day, to humble himself in prayer.”

This is true of many successful people in many fields. Before they begin their demanding schedules, they get their heads straight and their hearts straight by spending time before the throne of God. And the busier they are, the more urgent it is that they take time to pray. Jesus took time to pray.

Notice that Jesus took time for people. He was no ascetic who shut himself off from others in his desire to commune with God. He was “a man for others,” as he has been so aptly described.
He may have preferred to stay in the garden, or on the mountaintop, or in the home of a friend, but there were people who needed him and so he was out doing the work of his Father.

In his memoirs about surviving the World War II concentration camps, Elie Wiesel claims that he and his father motivated each other to survive. Wiesel needed to stay alive to take care of his elderly father. That became his motivation for surviving the concentration camps. He knew that if he died, his father would give up hope and die also.

Weisel wrote, “(The Germans) tried to get the inmates to think only of themselves, to forget relatives and friends, to tend only to their own needs. But what happened was just the reverse. Those who retreated to a universe limited to their own bodies had less chance of getting out alive, while to live for a brother, a friend, an ideal, helped you hold out longer.”

“People, who need people,” says the song of the sixties, “Are the luckiest people in the world.” We know it’s true. When we live only for ourselves, our lives are sterile and unfulfilling. When we give ourselves in service to others, our lives have meaning and purpose.

Jesus took time for prayer and Jesus took time for people. And still Jesus found time to fulfill the purpose for which he had come.

We might think Jesus was fulfilling his purpose when he healed the sick and cast out demons. Those were important tasks obviously, but they were not the primary reason Jesus came.
Listen as Mark concludes this brief narrative: “Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: ‘Everyone is looking for you!’

“Jesus replied, ‘Let us go somewhere else to the nearby villages so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.’ So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues . . .” Here is why Christ came, to preach the Good News of the reign of God in human life.

There is much confusion in the world today about why Jesus came. Some of our social prophets would tell us that the reason Christ came was to change social systems. There certainly are systems that need to be changed systems that oppress the poor and perpetuate injustice but that was not why Jesus came.

There are those who believe Jesus came primarily to bind up the wounds of the sick and the hurting. And, yes, that was an important part of Jesus’ work. Jesus’ heart was always going out to those in distress.

But our lesson is clear. The primary reason Jesus came was to preach the Good News of the Kingdom.

Healing and helping were important to Jesus, but his primary task was to witness to the truth of God. Now why do I make this point? There are always people who are down on the institutional church.

If we install a new stained-glass window, they will protest that the money should have gone to help the poor.

If a church builds a family life center with basketball courts and social halls, people will say the church is straying from its mission the money ought to go to help missionaries overseas.

It’s not even rare for politicians nowadays to jump on us: “If the churches would take in the homeless,” they huff, “then we wouldn’t have to raise taxes.”

All of the criticisms have a measure of truth. We cannot follow the man from Nazareth and ignore the needs of the poor, the hurting, and the desperate at our doorstep and around the world.

But what is the primary responsibility of the church? It is to provide a witness to God in our community. Sure, we could sell our church buildings, and spread the proceeds to the poor, but in a short time the funds would be gone and who would be left to proclaim the good news of the love of Jesus Christ?

The politicians are poor examples of that love, the schools are forbidden to even talk about God. Who would tell people that they are loved if the church didn’t?

It may sound like a rationalization, but it is also true: The greatest need the poor have is not a handout. The greatest need the poor have is to be reminded of their dignity as human beings because Christ died for them and Christ’s Spirit is available to them.

We build our buildings and conduct our programs and utilize the best resources available for our worship services not out of some misguided sense of pride. These activities are designed to ensure that after you and I are long gone from this world, the church of Christ will still be shining a beacon in this world of darkness. That is our primary purpose. That is why you and I bring our tithes and offerings into this building each week, to witness to the truth of God in our lives.

I am so glad that Jesus believed in prayer, because I need prayer. I’m so glad that Jesus cared about people, because I’m a person and you are a person…and even though we are imperfect people…it is life-changing to know that the Son of God gave his life for us.

But I’m also glad that Jesus held to his primary purpose of preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God. For 2,000 years this Gospel has been proclaimed and because it has been proclaimed the hungry have been fed, the sick have been ministered to, the world has been made more humane.

Another upbeat word for a downbeat world.

Amen.