For the Week of May 15th.

Here's what is happening at Pilgrim

Sunday, May 15th 6:00 PM ... Youth Fellowship
Tuesday, May 17th Noon ... Prayer in the Parlor
7:00 ... Bible Study
Thursday, May 19th 7:00 PM ... Choir practice
Friday, May 20th 2:30 - 9:30 PM... Olin Mill Picture taking
Saturday,May 21st 9:30 AM - 5:30 PM ... Olin Mills Picture taking
Sunday, May 22nd 9:15 AM ... Sunday School Opening
9:30 AM ... Sunday School
19:30 AM ...Worship Service


BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK

Sunday, May 15th ... Kaye Everhart
Saturday, May 21st ... John Ray Ward

THIS PASTOR’S VIEWPOINT

There are numerous times in all our lives when we are afraid. Fear is not a stranger to anyone I have ever talked with, well, except with one young boy in a “Time With The Children” a few weeks ago. When I asked if they were ever afraid of anything he stoutly shook his head no.

Still, the truth be told, we all know fear at some point in our lives and it’s sometimes amazing at the number of phobias there are, so many we can’t even begin to appreciate their diversity. I looked up a few and found monophobia (fear of being alone), glossophobia (fear of public speaking), taphephobia (fear of being buried alive). One can suffer from polyphobia (to have more than one fear), or opposite fears such as vestiophobia (fear of clothes) and gymnophobia (fear of nudity). If you are planning to get married you might want to get help if you suffer from pentheraphobia which is, simply put, fear of your mother-in-law.

Some fears are ancient such as brontophobia (fear of thunder and lightening), our dog Sam suffers from this phobia and ophidiophobia (fear of snakes).

There are even modern phobias that have popped up, you know, like when the SARS popped up. Some of these are electrophobia (fear of electricity), motorphobia (fear of automobiles), aviophobia (fear of flying) and in the 1950’s nucleomituphobia (fear of nuclear weapons) came into being. There is also one I suspect that affects more of us who are middle age or so, than our children. It is called cyberphobia (fear of computers) which also applies to ATM’s. I would also like to be so bold as to suggest we might create gasophobia, (fear of rising gas prices) which is a fear that many of us are struggling with today.

Of course there is always an “other side of the coin” and I was terribly relieved to come across it this week in my Bible readings. I discovered it in 1 Samuel 25:29 (NLT). “Even when you are chased by those who seek your life, you are safe in the care of the Lord your God, secure in his treasure pouch.”

If that doesn’t give you the “warm fuzzies” and boot your phobia out into the cold, well, nothing will. Isn’t God great!


Sermon, May 15, 2011

STOP THOSE TWO DEAR WOMEN FROM FIGHTING
Philippians 4:1-9
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Little Jonathan came home from the playground with a bloody nose, black eye, and torn clothing. It was obvious he’d been in a bad fight and lost. While his father was patching him up, he asked Jonathan what happened.

“Well, Dad,” said Jonathan, “You know Eddie -- that boy who’s always giving me a hard time. I challenged him to a duel. And I gave him his choice of weapons.”

His father said, “that seems fair.

“I know,” Jonathan said, “but I never thought he’d choose his big sister!”

Conflict is part of life. People get into arguments. Resentment builds. Controversy erupts. Angry words are spoken. Relationships are broken. Outright fighting may ensue. Conflict happens. Even in church. Some of you are thinking, “Especially in church.”

A cartoon showed this notice on a church bulletin board: “213 days without a split!”
Conflict happens. It even happened in the churches that bore the direct influence of the Apostle Paul. Listen to Paul’s words to the Church at Philippi, as recorded in the Living Bible: “Dear brother Christians, I love you and long to see you, for you are my joy and my reward for my work. My beloved friends, stay true to the Lord. And now I want to plead with those two dear women, Euodias and Syntyche. Please, please, with the Lord’s help, quarrel no more be friends again. And I ask you, my true teammate, to help these women, for they worked side by side with me in telling the Good News to others; and they worked with Clement, too, and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are written in the Book of Life.”

Here are two of Paul’s finest lay people and they are in conflict with each other. You can’t tell in any group of people where anger and resentment may erupt.
You may know about a deadly octopus, whose bite can kill in minutes. The bite of the blue ringedoctopus, causes blurred vision and difficulty in swallowing followed rapidly by paralysis and death. There is no known antidote.

The deadly creature, native to Australia, is only the size of a golf ball. It is a truly beautiful creature in color, but it only displays its true blue ringed colors when it is about to attack. And then it is too late.

Sometimes problems arise in the church quickly and unexpectedly. Someone says something critical. Someone else gets envious. Someone takes an unpopular position, and soon people who had been friends are at each other’s throats. And it is sad.
It broke Paul’s heart to see two of his finest lay people hurting the witness of the church because of their enmity toward one another. And so he asks other members of the church to intervene.

Every pastor has to face this kind of situation sooner or later. It is part of the human condition. The church isn’t a collection of saints, but of sinners redeemed by grace. Still, we should be able to do better.

What causes us to strike out at one another? What causes us to be envious of one another? What causes us to make differences of opinion into personal affronts? Why do we find it so hard to forgive one another?

Could it be because we have never experienced unconditional love in our lives … the unconditional love of God?

Sometime back two women appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Both of the women appeared to be 40ish. They were nice looking. One was blonde and slender. The other was brunette and a little heavier. But there was a strange bond that linked the two women. You see, the brunette, heavier-set lady had killed the blonde lady’s daughter.

This sounds more like Jerry Springer than Oprah, doesn’t it? Do you know what they call guests on the Springer show? Nuts and sluts. These two ladies were neither nuts nor sluts.

The brunette lady is an alcoholic who had finally gotten her life together. But not before she had done some tragic damage to people around her. She’s a mother herself with three children. While alcohol had her in its grip, she tragically neglected her children.

Even worse, she got behind the wheel of a car one day in a drunken state and plowed into a car carrying the other woman’s young daughter and killed her. Sounds like it came off of the evening news … doesn’t it.

How would you feel toward a drunk who had killed your only daughter? How would you feel toward the person whose irresponsibility had robbed you of the one person you loved most in the world? What would you do with the grief, the anger, the rage? I honestly don’t know what you or I would do in this situation, but here is what this lady did: she forgave the woman who had killed her daughter.

She not only forgave her in her mind; she reached out in love to this sad woman who had taken her daughter’s life. She helped this woman deal with her own remorse, helped her break her dependence on alcohol, helped her take control of her life and become a loving mother and a responsible member of the community. And Oprah asked in obvious awe, “How did you do this? How did you forgive this woman who had done you such a terrible wrong?” And this nice-looking blonde lady said, “I had to.” Then she added, “Because Someone once forgave me.”

Then she added, “I have experienced the unconditional love of God in my life,” she said, “and I had to share it with someone else.”

Wow! “I have experienced the unconditional love of God.”
Have you ever experienced unconditional love? Love without strings, love without expectations, love given to you not because of something you’ve done great, but simply and solely because you are you.

This is the deepest need that human creatures have … to experience unconditional love.

You know what happens to people who do not experience unconditional love as children?All their lives they search for that love. And they carry around burning questions within their hearts. Am I worthy? Do I have any value as a human being? Could anybody ever really love me?

There are people sixty years old who are still seeking some assurance that their lives count for something. Adults with this basic insecurity act it out in different ways. Some are workaholics; some are addicts. All have difficulty with relationships.

Teenagers are not immune. Can you imagine a thirteen-year-old girl driven by this insecurity? Am I worthy? Do I have any value as a human being? Could anybody ever really love me? Can you see how easily she could be manipulated by a boy concerned only with his own needs? Can you imagine a thirteen-year-old boy with these same fears?

Desperate to be accepted, he finds friends who accept him for what he is. But there is a price for admission to the group. He must take on the values of his new comrades. Most young people who get involved with drugs do so because of a need for acceptance.

Now, listen parents. If your children are still toddlers, nothing is more important than taking time to love your children. Nothing is more important. Nothing!
Your own career is not as important. Your time is not as important. Even your own happiness is not as important. If your children are teenagers, it’s probably too late. If they’re still searching for unconditional love, they will probably resist any effort you may make to bridge that gap. Unless, of course, they are among the unfortunate young people who crash and burn. Then it will be time for all the unconditional love you can muster.

Unconditional love is the greatest need human creatures have. If we do not receive that love, we spend the rest of our lives seeking after it and there is always that lingering sense of inadequacy. This is where many of our problems begin; with a sense of inadequacy, a sense that we don’t measure up. This is the curse of people who have never experienced unconditional love.

For example, suppose I hear that you have said something critical about me. It may bother me, but I will be able to handle it, if I am secure in myself, if I have experienced an unconditional love and know myself to be a complete and worthy child of God. But suppose I have this lingering sense of inadequacy. Then the criticism has much more sting and the temptation will be to strike out at you in return.
A sense of inadequacy is the source of all envy. If I know that I am worthy and complete in myself, then I have no reason to be jealous of your accomplishments and rewards.Indeed, I can rejoice with you at the recognition that you receive.

But if I am unsure about myself, any award you win is but a reminder to me of my own personal lack of achievement. And it grates on me and might even cause me to lash out at you even though you have done nothing at all to deserve my anger.

Do you see that the way to solve the problem of conflict in the church is not for us all to take conflict resolution classes and to develop our skills at interpersonal relationships though that would not hurt.

But the greatest thing we could do to have peace and harmony in the church is to focus on the unconditional love of God for each of us and to see that where that love is experienced, there is no need for disharmony and discord, no need for envy or a critical spirit, no need for angry words and smug dismissals. As psychologist Sheldon Kopp says, “All of the significant battles are waged within the self.”

And it’s true. When people have never experienced unconditional love, they have an interesting attitude toward others: Not only can they not accept themselves, they have trouble accepting others. They’re quick to pass judgment. They’re envious. They have trouble forgiving.

It has always interested me that Jesus never called anyone a sinner. Jesus had no need to put anyone else down, condemn them, and criticize them. All of his conflicts were with the people who thrived on putting other people down.

Why was Jesus able to open his heart to all people even those who hung him on the cross? It was because Jesus experienced unconditional love in his own life. He got it from his Heavenly Father and he passed it on to others just like that blonde lady on Oprah did who passed it on to the woman who killed her daughter.

You see, unconditional love is always what God is all about. “In this is love,” says the first letter of John. “Not that we loved God, but that God loved us and gave His son for the expiation of our sins.” (4:10)

The cross is what separates Christians from Buddhists, from Moslems, even from Jews. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believeth in him should not perish . . .” (John 3:16) Unconditional love is what God is all about.

Several years ago, there was a Dennis the Menace cartoon that grabbed my attention. Dennis is walking away from the next-door neighbors’ house, the home of Mr. And Mrs. Wilson, with Joey, his younger friend for whom Dennis served as kind of a mentor.

Both of them have their hands loaded with cookies. Joey asks, “I wonder what we did to deserve this?” And Dennis responds with these words of profound wisdom: “Look, Joey, Mrs. Wilson gives us cookies not because we’re nice, but because she’s nice.”
And that’s the Gospel. God so loved the world . . .

Is your heart filled with anger and hurt today because you have never experienced unconditional love? Are you still questioning in your heart: Am I worthy? Is there any value to my life? Could anybody really love me?

I know Someone who loves you. Could you open your heart this day and receive God’s love? Young person, don’t settle for a cheap substitute. Mom, Dad, you can’t make enough money or win enough applause to fill the emptiness in your heart. You think it’s too late for you? It’s not. It’s never too late for God. Please, stop where you are today, and let God love you.

Paul writes to the church at Philippi, “And now I want to plead with those two dear women, Euodias and Syntyche. Please, please, with the Lord’s help, quarrel no more be friends again.” Here’s what they need.
Here’s what you and I need; to open our hearts to the unconditional love of God.

Amen.

What's Happening At Pilgrim This Week

Tuesday, May 10th, 12:00 Noon ... Prayer in the Parlor
7:00 PM Bible Study - Fellowship Hall
8:00 PM Choir Practice
Wednesday, May 11th... 4:00 - 6:30 Chicken & Dumpling Buffet
Friday, May 13th ... 6:30 PM Cards in the Parsonage
Sunday, May 15th ... 9:15 Sunday School Opening
9:30 Sunday School
10:30 Worship Service


BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK

Sunday, May 8th ... Joe Ward & Jack Shaw
Wednesday, May11th ... Dale Allen

Saturday, May 14th ... Larry Burton


THIS PASTOR’S VIEWPOINT

If you ever have to stand before the bar of justice to face any charge brought against you, from a minor traffic offence to a collection of the worst crimes imaginable, you have to go through one terrifying moment. This is when the charge or charges against you are read out loud to the judge by the prosecutor for all in the courtroom to hear. None of us could help but feel a bit intimidated, especially when we hear something like, “The State of North Carolina against (your name goes here.)” Wow, the whole State is against me?

You’ve got to admit you seem pretty small when being faced by something as big and powerful as the entire state. That, however, can pale into insignificance should you be appearing in a federal court. There you have to face the whole United States of America.

It is somewhat of a quirk, though, that should we stand and quietly listen to all the good things that someone else has done for us, we also feel uncomfortable. Perhaps we sense guilt because we didn’t thank that or those individuals enough, or worse, not even at all.

Imagine, then, that you are with an old, gray-haired man who for years was the foremost leader of your country, both political and spiritual, and he said to you, as did Samuel in 1 Samuel 1:7 (NLT). “Now stand here quietly before the Lord as I remind you of all the great things the Lord has done for you and your ancestors.”

Your first thoughts might something like, “Oh no. I’ll be here forever. I’ll never get home for the race or ballgame.” You know, the kind of thoughts you have when the pastor’s sermon seems to be a bit longer than you like.

But it’s those second thoughts that I think are even more important. The ones that make you feel guilty because you truly have not given much thought to the many blessings given to you by God, never mind going back through all your friends, associates and even ancestors.

We certainly take a lot for granted, don’t we? Good things happen and we pay them no mind as if, we are indeed, simply entitled to them.

Maybe we should spend a moment or two each and every day, quietly before the Lord, and just give thanks for yesterdays blessings while they are fresh in out minds. There really are more than we casually thought, especially if we concentrate thoughtfully and prayerfully upon them. Actually, saying “thank you” is a gift we give back.

Happeninga at Pilgrim for the week of May 1, 2011

OUR CALENDAR
Sunday, May 1st 4:30PM ... Golden Age Banquet
Monday, May 2nd. 6:30PM ... Property Committee
7:30PM Finance Committee
Tuesday, May 3rd NoonP{rayer time in Parlor
7:00 PM Bible Study Fellowship Hall
Wednesday, Mar 4th 6:30 PM Pilgrim Circle @ Pattie Leonard's house
Thursday, May 5th, 7:00 PM Choir Practice
Friday, May 6th 9:45 AM Senior Adventure to Victory Junction
Sunday, May 8th 8:00 AM Consistory Meeting
9:15 AMSunday School Assembly
9:30Sunday School
10:30 Worship Service


BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK
Sunday, May 1st ... Johnny Jones
Tuesday, May 2nd ... Ruby Hatley & Christy Peacock
Wednesday, May 4 ...Ray Black,Becky Daley, Margaret Ward & Billy Warner
Saturday, May 7th ... Jessica Hill

THIS PASTOR’S VIEWPOINT

Not so long ago I was looking for some photographs that I have had ever since I was a child. I can’t even remember why I suddenly wanted them, but I did, and it irked me that no matter where I looked, they weren’t there.

What, I wondered, could have happened to them? This kind of thing is not, of course, unique to either old photographs or to me. We all have wondered what ever happened to this or that. Sometimes we are surprised to find the pencil we are seeking is really right behind our ear.
Go to any reunion, perhaps your high school’s twenty-fifth, or better yet, fiftieth, and you will hear “What ever happened to so and so?” “Whatever happened…” becomes a regular reunion litany.

This week my mind was directed upon the path of “whatever happened” wondering while in my daily Bible readings, which included this partial verse from Ruth 1:14 (NLT). “…and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye.” Here, in tis story, we have the two daughters-in-law of Naomi going separate ways. They made different choices.

Ruth chose to go on with Naomi, on to a strange land with different people, a very different single God, different customs and perhaps food. It was a land full of strangers that seemingly offered her little chance of finding a new husband.

Orpah, on the other hand, chose to do the smart thing. She was encouraged by Naomi to return to her people and her gods. There among her many relatives she would find succor and hope. Hope for a new husband and a secure future.

Whatever happened to Orpah? We don’t know. She was never heard of again.

What happened to Ruth, the one who chose the obviously more difficult path, the path advised against by her mother-in-law? Well, all she found was a wonderfully righteous and loving husband and the one true and living God. Her words, "Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God, (v.16b) are repeated in countless wedding ceremonies through the centuries, and she became a direct link in the lineage of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As so, one took the path of self-love and passed into obscurity and the other took the path of selfless love. Now, after thousands of years no one ever needs ask, “Whatever happened to Ruth?”

Perhaps there’s a lesson here.



Sermon for Sunday, May 1, 2011

“WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU KNEW
THERE WAS NOTHING TO FEAR?”

Sermon Text: Luke 24:36b 48

Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.
44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.

Billy Ray and Joe Tom, two men from Tennessee, were still new to flying. But they decided to rent a plane and fly from Knoxville, Tennessee to Asheville, North Carolina. As they crossed over the Smoky Mountains, they discovered there was a problem with one of the engines, and they decided to notify the Asheville airport that they might need to land quickly.

Billy Ray nervously grabbed the microphone and said, "Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving! New Year's! New Year's! Easter! Easter!"

"You're getting there, Billy Ray," said Joe Tom. "Stop when you get to May Day. May Day."
Today is May Day, and it is also the first Sunday in May. It is interesting to note that while we are enjoying our worship service today there are young men and women in Austria running through the mountains of that land carrying torches. They do this every year on the Second after Easter. It’s called the Race of the Four Mountains. They begin with a mass on the top of Magdalensberg mountain. Then, carrying burning torches, they go over the mountains to Saint Lorenze. The race takes twenty four hours. At the end a priest waits to bless them. I can’t help but think that if most of us were to run that race, the priest would be waiting to give the last rites.

We’re told there are sections of this race that are so treacherous that the runners dare not look back. Some people in that part of Austria, are said to believe that to stop this ritual pilgrimage, would be a sign of the end of the world.

Our text for today for the second Sunday of Easter is not about the end of the world. No one’s crying, “May Day. May Day” though the Scripture says the participants were frightened.

But what they were experiencing was a different kind of fear. For the first time in human history a man had returned from the dead. His friends and followers did not know what to think. This had never happened before.

When people are in the grave they are supposed to stay there --- and yet here this man was among them --- a living, breathing person. Luke tells us the disciples were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.

No wonder. The disciples were witnesses to an event that changed the world forever. We said about the events of 9-11, that America would never be the same again. Well, 9-11 was a horrific event, but there have been many horrific events in history. Many of them recently. But there has been only one resurrection of the living Christ.

Jesus says to his disciples, "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. Then Luke adds something interesting. He writes that the disciples “did not believe because of joy.” What a fascinating phrase. It was literally -- in the disciples’ minds -- “too good to be true.” They disbelieved for joy.

I wonder how many of us also regard Easter to be in that category--too good to be true? I wonder how many of us hold back from opening ourselves to the good news of Easter because our rational minds whisper to us that this has got to be mere “wish fulfillment.”

We want so much to believe that life makes sense, that life does have meaning. We long so intensely to believe that the grave does not diminish nor destroy our value as human beings, that death does not separate us forever from those we love. We want to believe that so much, that we are afraid to really think about it too much for fear that we will conclude that it is all an illusion, all a fairy tale, a myth with no basis in history. They “did not believe because of joy.”
The Reuters news agency carried an amusing story a number of years ago. Le Lavandou, a tiny town on the coast of France, had a real problem: they were running out of burial space in their overcrowded cemetery.

So the mayor of Le Lavandou, Gil Bernardi, came up with a novel idea for fixing the problem: he passed a city ordinance making it against the law for any citizens of Le Lavandou to die until they could establish a new cemetery. No matter how sick anyone was, they were forbidden to die. For longer than one would have reasonably expected, the citizens of Le Lavandou were remarkably compliant.

Now why can’t we get our politicians to campaign on a “no-death” platform? We think the economy is important --- it’s small potatoes compared to this issue.

Well, friends, here is the good news for today: death HAS been banned as a permanent flaw in the human condition. Death has been overcome. It has been trampled underfoot. No more does death hold its fearsome tyranny over our lives.

The good news of Easter is such enormous news, such mind-boggling news, that we do not give it the attention it deserves. Why not? Could it be that we, too, disbelieve for joy?

Oh, I don’t mean if I came around to each of you and asked you point blank, “Do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus?” that you would deny that you do. Intellectually, we accept it as fact. There is too much biblical evidence to deny it outright.

Rather, we disbelieve in the sense that what ought to have a critical impact on our life, the truth that life goes on beyond the grave, does not seem to impact us very much at all.

We still fear death. Don’t we? We’re still afraid of dying. And we still fear losing those we love to the tomb.

The Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, wrote a poem as his father lay critically ill. He received the Pulitzer Prize for writing it. It begins like this:
Do not go gentle into the good night.
Old age should burn and rave at the close of day.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

His words may have impressed the Pulitzer Prize committee, but they were of little comfort to his wife Caitlin. When Thomas died in St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City, the staff had to put her in a straitjacket, so unrestrained was her grief; and when she came to write about it, she called her book Leftover Life to Kill.

We may read these comforting stories from scripture each year at Easter time, but still there is that unrelenting fear of the grave. In Woody Allen’s well-known sentiment: “it’s hard to contemplate your own mortality while whistling a tune.” We fear death. Even more importantly, we still fear life.

Sometimes in a seminar, a speaker will ask this profound question, if you knew that you could not fail, what would you do with your life?

If you knew you could not fail . . . then people start dreaming about that business they would start . . . that hobby they would indulge in . . . that long-delayed adventure on which they would embark. If you knew you couldn’t fail, there is no limit to the things you might attempt.

But you can fail. You can fail in a business, you can fail in a marriage, you can fail as a parent, you can fail as an athlete. On and on goes the list of possible failures. There is no use asking, “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?”

However, what if the fear of failure were removed? What if you knew, deep down in your heart of hearts, that failure really doesn’t matter, that it is better to try something great and fail than to live always denying yourself that long-neglected dream?

Then you could walk into your boss’ office and ask for that raise, then you could start that business, then you could begin achieving a multitude of dreams.

Do you understand that to a certain extent this is what separates people who are super-successful from the rest of us? They do not let fear of failure defeat them.

But let’s move beyond the fear of failure for a few moments. What if there were nothing important in life for you to fear?

Nothing at all, whether it be failure or poverty, pain or loss of people you love, declining health or anything else imaginable including death? Think of the kind of person you could be, if all fear were totally and completely removed from your life. That, my friends, is what Easter is about. Easter says to us that all of creation is in God’s hands. Even that ultimate enemy of humanity, death, has been trampled underfoot by the power of Almighty God. You don’t need to fear aging, you don’t need to fear losing loved ones, you don’t need to fear the loss of your home or your source of income.

No matter what experience may come your way, what if you knew that in the end everything will work out to your best good? Wouldn’t that have an impact on the choices you would make?
That is the message of Easter. Jesus says to his disciples, "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself.”

The Taj Mahal in India is one of the most famous and beautiful buildings in all the world. It has been described as “a shimmering, white jewel that seems to float over the hot Indian plain.” Actually the Taj Mahal is a tomb, and it tells one of the greatest love stories of all time.

“A great shah, when he was only nineteen, fell in love with a highborn beauty and married her. She gave the shah many children. She ruled at his side as an equal. He adored her and brought her diamonds and flowers. In the tenth year of their marriage, once again she was with child, but this time, something strange occurred.

She confided that shortly before the baby was born, she heard it cry in her womb--an ill omen. A healthy baby girl was born, but the queen did not recover.

As she lay dying, she whispered a final wish to her grief-stricken husband: ‘Build for me a monument so pure and perfect that anyone who comes to it will feel the great power of love.’ She paused and then added, ‘ . . . and the even greater power of death.’”

It’s a beautiful story, but the queen was wrong. Easter says to us that love is stronger than death. Love has forever conquered death. "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?”

The question is: Isn’t it time you began believing for joy? Most of you have invested many years of your life, much of your time and much of your money, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And yet you have not taken out of the faith the one privilege that every follower of Jesus has rights to --- and that is the life-changing joy of knowing there is nothing in all the world, nothing in all the universe, nothing in all creation that can defeat you if God is with you. All these years you have denied yourself the one gift that Easter has to offer --- and that is the gift of deep and abiding joy.

The movie Black Hawk Down retells the dramatic story of a small group of Army Rangers who flew into Mogadishu, Somalia, to capture a warlord who was stealing American food shipments from the starving Somali citizens.

One of the young men whose life was changed by this brutal battle was Sergeant Jeff Struecker, who now serves as an Army chaplain. Sergeant Struecker claims that as bullets whizzed past his head and grenades exploded all around him, God called him into the ministry.

As he said, “In the middle of that firefight, I had to decide whether I believed what I say I believe. And when I finally answered that question, my faith became so strong it gave me the strength to fight the rest of the night.”

This is ultimately what all of life comes down to. If we believe what we say we believe, that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, and that he now lives at the right hand of the Father, if we really believe that, how can we go from this place and live the same timid, tepid lives that we’ve lived in the past?

So, in the light of Easter, for just a moment, let me be the seminar leader and ask you this question, “What would you do with your life if you knew that there was nothing of which you need to be afraid?”


Amen.

The Happenings at Pilgrim this week

THIS WEEK AT PILGREM REFORMED CHURCH

ALL DAY SUNDAY, April 24th...STUFF THE TRUCK
Tuesday, April 26th...Noon, Prayer in the Parlor
7:00 PM Bible Study (Genesis)
Wednesday, April 27th... 7:00 PM Choir Practice
Sunday, May 1st... 9:15 AM Sunday School opening
9:30 Sunday School
10:30 Wordhip Service

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK
Wednesday, April 27th ... George Clifton/
Saturday, April 30th ... Terry Hege & Sylvis Stafford

THIS PASTOR’S VIEWPOINT

I suspect that we all have had the experience of going to the cupboard or refrigerator only to find that the peanut butter jar or juice carton was empty. It was still on the shelf where it always sits, indeed, right where you put it when you last used it, but empty nonetheless.

We generally feel anger that anyone could do this. We may even feel a righteous indignation of sorts, because we know that it was not empty when we last closed the door upon it.
After the immediate angry and indignant response to the empty container we may dwell more on the “who” or the “how” parts of the question. Who could have done this? Who in my very own home could possibly be so thoughtless as to do this? Who?

It’s so much more comforting to try to blame someone else for such a horrendous deed none the less some of us, who may be a little more open to other possibilities, may consider the “how” question. That question goes something like, “How could I have ever done something like this? How could I forget the jar was empty and put it back?” Well, habit is one answer. It always goes there when we’re through. The other answer, the more frightening one is “How could I forget I just emptied it?”

Whatever the answer, we all hate looking in something we’re sure is full and finding it empty. I thought of this as I was reading some of the Easter stories in the Bible this week and I realized that an empty peanut butter jar is nothing compared to an empty tomb. Luke 24:1,3 (NIV) On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb…but when they entered, they did not find the body of Jesus.
How would have reacted to that kind of situation? John 20:11 (NIV) says Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. But Mary was not weeping out of anger or indignation, she was weeping because of the terrible emptiness of first the tomb and now her heart. Nothing Mary could possibly have imagined could have prepared her this. Jesus was gone, her teacher was gone, her Lord was gone, stolen. All was lost.

Then she heard a voice, even a familiar voice, and the voice spoke her name, “Mary” (John 20:16) and her fear turned to joy and she turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni”

In that moment nothing in the tomb was everything for Mary … and it is for us today.
There’s an expression, “Thanks for nothing” and, indeed, this morning it is most appropriate! Thank you God for this nothing, is everything!




Sermon for Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011
“GOD’S ANSWER TO THE BLUES”

Mark 16:1 8
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”
4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
6 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

Do you know how to sing the Blues? A strange question for Easter Sunday, but bear with me. Back at the turn of the twentieth century, a new form of music came forth from the coal mines and cotton fields of the South. It was a sad, soulful music based on the experiences of people who lived hard lives. And it was called the Blues.

A Professor of Blues, in Memphis, Tennessee has written a comprehensive and humorous guide called “How to Write the Blues.” He says that not everyone can sing the blues. He says that blues is not a color thing.

Blues is about luck. The winner of this years Masters Charl Schwartzel can’t sing the blues. Tiger Woods on the other hand probably can

Breaking your leg while skiing in Aspen is not the blues. Losing your leg to an alligator in a Louisiana swamp is. You cannot wear a suit and sing the blues -- unless you happen to be an 80 year-old black man and you slept in it. Dying in a bar fight is a blues death; dying while having liposuction isn’t.

Also, no matter how tragic your life, if you own a laptop computer, you cannot sing the blues, says the professor. Maybe your big ol’ mean woman done sat down on it. It doesn’t matter. It’s not the blues.

It’s all right to sing the Blues if you drive a Chevy or a Ford -- but forget it if you drive a Volvo, BMW or any kind of SUV. Even better yet, take a Greyhound bus or a southbound train if you want to sing the blues.

Do you have the right to sing the blues? Yes, say folks who know about the Blues. You have a right to sing the Blues, if your first name is a southern state - like Georgia, if you’re older than dirt, if you’re blind or if you shot a man in Memphis.

However, you can’t sing the Blues if you have all your own teeth, no matter how old you are, or if you once were blind, but now you can see, or, if when you shot that man in Memphis, it turned out to be just a flesh wound.

Most blues begin "woke up this morning." If you didn’t wake up this morning, you will have difficulty singing the blues.

So, can you sing the Blues? By the Professor’s definitions I believe Mary Magdalene could sing the blues. After all, she was a woman of the streets. She was no society babe. Life had been hard. She had been used, abused, now she was confused. She had met a man who turned her life around. He gave her hope, dignity, love.

But now he was gone. Crucified like a common criminal. Now Mary could do nothing but moan, nothing but sob, nothing but sing the Blues. Mary Magdalene could sing the Blues.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, could sing the Blues. After all, she had lost her boy to the lynch mob. It seemed like only yesterday when he was lying in a manger, looking up at her with helpless and loving eyes. She had nursed him, changed him, taught him to walk and play.

Saw how, even as a boy, he impressed the wise men in the Temple with his knowledge of the scriptures. She saw him become a man--and what a man he was. Gentle with little children, a spellbinding communicator when he was in front of the masses who was able to reach out and heal people with his touch.

Mary’s heart had once burst with pride over her son but then the crowd turned against him and instead of allowing him to live a respectable life like other men of talent and ability were allowed to live . . . they put him before Pontius Pilate for a mockery of a trial.

They yelled, “Crucify him . . . crucify him.” And Mary’s heart broke as she looked up at him hanging like a common criminal on the cross. Surely, if any woman who ever lived had the right to sing the Blues, it was Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Simon Peter could sing the Blues. He let down his best friend, the one man in all the world who believed in him. Did Simon believe in Jesus? Yes, but even more important, Jesus believed in Simon. The Master called him a Rock and said he would build his church on him.
Simon Peter couldn’t believe his ears. Yet for all Jesus’ kind words, Simon knew he wasn’t really that strong.

The Master knew it too. It was he who foretold that Simon would deny him three times before the cock crew. Someday Simon Peter would be a rock for the early church, but right now he knows he’s come up short. He let down the one man who truly loved him, and Simon Peter’s weeping his heart out so there was nothing for this would-be rock to do but sing the Blues.

And none of the people who knew Jesus could sing the Blues like Judas Iscariot. He didn’t shoot a man in Memphis. No, he did worse than that. He betrayed the very Son of God.And he did it with a kiss. Heaven help Judas Iscariot. But Judas won’t accept heaven’s help. He takes the coward’s way out. He hangs himself.

On the two nights preceding that first Easter morn, it was a time for singing the Blues. If a Blues singer had been present, he might have sung, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Oh-oh-oh-oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble . . . Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”

All the earth was covered with darkness. Denial, betrayal, broken hearts and broken dreams. “We thought he was the one who would deliver us.” But they had seen him with their own eyes, with nails in his hands and feet, and a spear thrust in his side. As befitting a Blues death, their Master had been laid in a borrowed grave. And those who followed him were now in hiding. “Let your light so shine before men . . .” he had taught, but his frightened followers were content to hide their light under a bushel. Their grief and confusion weighed heavily upon them, and all they could do was sing the Blues.

But then, just before daybreak, the women made their way to the tomb. The reports are a little jumbled. Just like the reports we got out of Egypt or Libya as those wars recently unfolded.You can expect that. The memories of eyewitnesses are frequently jumbled. This was an emotional day. The writer of the Gospel of John mentions only Mary Magdalene.

The writer of Mark says that Mary the mother of James, and Salome were with her. It makes no difference. The important thing is that when they reached the tomb, they found it empty.
Even though the authorities had placed guards at the tomb to guard against his disciples stealing his body, the stone was rolled away and the body was gone. Vanished. Only the grave clothes were left behind.

And then the Lord began making appearances to his followers. John tells us he began with Mary Magdalene. Isn’t it just like God, this gracious God who takes our sins and buries them into the deepest parts of the sea never to surface again?

Isn’t it just like God to have the risen Christ appear, first of all, to a person who had once been a woman of the streets? If you can’t see the irony and at the same time the beauty of the risen Christ appearing first of all to a woman who was perhaps a converted prostitute, you have never experienced grace.

Then Christ started appearing to those who believed in him. Peter, John, those gathered in the upper room on Easter evening, and many others, and last of all, after his ascension, to the apostle Paul.

Christ appeared to those who believed in him and he stole something from them.He stole from them the ability to ever again sing the Blues.

• Because, you see, you can’t sing the Blues, if you were once blind, but now you see.
• You can’t sing the Blues when hope is restored.
• You can’t sing the Blues when your first love is in your arms once more.
• You can sing the Blues beside the grave, but not if it’s empty. And it was empty.

The followers of Jesus could no longer sing the Blues. Now, all they could do was shout for joy.
Journalist Bill Keller wrote of Mandela’s inauguration after becoming president of South Africa. “Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a man who had also spent his life opposing apartheid, danced up to the podium and shouted into the microphone, ‘We are free today! We are free today!’” Desmond Tutu could no longer sing the Blues. His reality had been altered. The people danced for joy and they shouted, “We are free today! We are free today!”

That’s been the cry of Christians for 2,000 years. “We are free today!” Free people can’t sing the Blues. And we are free.

• Free from the pain of death.
• Free from the pain of separation.
• Free from the darkness of despair and desperation. “We are free today!”

Maybe you came to church this morning singing the Blues. It’s possible. Life can deal with us brutally at times and we can forget our faith, forget our hope and even forget our God. Maybe that’s your condition today. I want to tell you not to give up.

Because of that empty tomb, we know that love conquers hate, life conquers death, light conquers darkness. Because of that empty tomb we know that no situation can be written off as hopeless. Just when we think we have reached the end of our rope, God reaches down a hand of support.

Many years ago, Rev. Robert Barnes was serving at a church in Philadelphia. The church had just bought a nearby lot on which to expand their parking lot. A small patch of Easter lilies had been growing in the lot for the last few years. The paving company came in and bulldozed the lilies. Next, they poured the asphalt. Soon, the congregation was using the new parking lot.

But the following spring, they began to notice something strange going on. The pavement in the new parking lot was starting to buckle and crack. Sure enough, the Easter lilies were poking up through the asphalt. And that’s what Easter is about. Life is stronger than death. You can bury life in the ground, but sooner or later it will spring up once again. If that’s not good news, I would like to know what is. Surely if an Easter lily can overcome its circumstances, so can you and I.

The followers of Jesus were singing the Blues. But soon they were singing “Hallelujah. Hallelujah. For the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Hallelujah.” And that’s why you and I are here today, in hopes that we can trade in our Blues, too, for Hallelujahs.

The most famous clock in the world is London's Big Ben. It stands by the Houses of Parliament and towers above Westminster Abbey. It is a familiar landmark. Did you know that the chimes of Big Ben play a tune? No, it’s not a Blues tune. Do you know what it is? It’s the tune of a hymn. The hymn is "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth."

"I Know That My Redeemer Liveth." And if you know that, really know that in your heart of hearts, then you can’t sing the Blues anymore.

Amen.

What's happening at Pilgrim this week.

CALENDAR FOR THE WEEK

Sunday, April 17th ... 6:00 PM Youth Fellowship

7:00 PM VBS Planning Meeting

Tuesday, April 19th ...Noon Prayers in the Parlor

7:00 PM Bible Study - Genesis

8:00 PM Choir Practice

Thursday, April 21st ... Maundy Thursday Service

Saturday, April 23rd ... 2:30 Easter Egg Hunt

Sunday, April 24th EASTER SUNDAY ... Stuff the Truck all day

7:30 AM Sunrise Service

9:15AM Sunday School opening

9:30 Sunday School 10:30 Worship Serce

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK

Sunday, April 24th ... Pastor John Tuesday,

April 26th ... George Clifton

Saturday, April 30 ... Terry Hege Sr. & Sylvia Stafford

THIS PASTORS VIEWPOINTFor the week of April 17, 2011

“Son, weren’t you listening to me when I told you to weed the garden before you went off to play?” My father’s words may have been phrased as a question but they really weren’t a question. There was no upward inflection usually found at the end of a question.

“Now children, I want you to pay close attention while I explain this.” We all remember a teacher that would introduce a subject or task with those words.
I can remember as if it were yesterday a jump school cadre in the service get his face right in mine and shout, “Bigelow! You don’t look like you’re listening! Gimme fifty!” (Fifty rapid but perfect pushups were always required for minor lapses in good judgment.)

The times our wives or husbands can tell tales about their spouse not listening are probably legion. I suspect that not listening is something endemic to the human condition .

My mind was set to thinking about this condition when I read in Psalm 95:6-7 (NLT) in my Bible reading this week. “Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the sheep under his care. Oh, that you would listen to his voice today!.”

Oh, that we would, indeed, listen to God’s voice today…every day as a matter of fact. I believe that if there is any complaining that can be done about our not listening it could be done by God about his people.

Almost all Christians pray sometimes, many pray frequently and some with determined regularity. I’m not talking about praying in church when the pastor announces “Let’s pray.” I’m talking about the rest of our lives. The everyday part. What concerns me, and I’m sure it concerns God even more, is how much of our prayer time is spent in listening.

It is one thing to ask God to do something for us, yet something altogether different to ask what God may want us to do for him. That requires listening.
And so, as with so very much of God’s word found in the Bible, “Oh, that you would listen to his voice today,” speaks to each us. Without pausing to listen, how can we ever know what God wants? How can we obey the call to “follow me [ today]” unless we listen to today’s instructions. It seems, then, we should wake up each morning…listening, listening to God.

Sermon for Palm Sunday, April 17, 2011
Choosing Christ at The Crossroads, #6
SERVANT LEADERSHIP
Philippians 2:6 11

“…then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Former vice president Walter Mondale told this story on himself. When he was campaigning in Lewiston, Maine. A huge crowd came out to see him off.
"I'm really very, very flattered," Mondale said as he was about to board his plane. "There must be about two thousand people here!"

“Yes,” he was told by one of the natives. Then the citizen of Maine added, “But, to be perfectly truthful, we've never had a 747 land or take off at our airport before. Everyone turned out to see if it'll take off okay or crash."

Some of you are old enough to remember Alfred Hitchcock. You know, the man who mastered mystery and suspense in his movies. Hitchcock always managed to make a brief appearance in his films. This was one of his signatures as a director.

However, for the film LIFEBOAT (1944), he was faced with a difficult problem … the entire movie was set in a lifeboat out at sea, and there were only a few characters in the boat. His ingenious solution was to place a photograph of himself in a newspaper one of the characters reads during the course of the film. He can be seen in the "before" portion of a before and after ad for a diet product.

Pride. Ego. Hunger for status and recognition. Hollywood and Washington are famous for people with enormous egos… as does any great center of accomplishment. It’s difficult to be successful in life and maintain a healthy perspective about your own place in the grand scheme of things.

Psychiatrist Robert B. Millman has studied celebrities from a variety of fields, and he has concluded that sudden fame often results in a psychological disorder that he calls Acquired Situational Narcissism.

Imagine how you would react if tomorrow you woke up as a celebrity. People stared at you, called out your name, cheered for you as you walked down the street. Reporters begged you for interviews. Stores began sending you their best merchandise free. You got only the best tables at the best restaurants. Strangers asked for your autograph.

Sounds great to most of us. But it is difficult to live in that kind of world without having your psyche permanently changed. This is what happens to many celebrities according to Dr. Millman. They begin to think the world revolves around their needs.

So it comes as no surprise that Acquired Situational Narcissism is marked by an intense self-centeredness and outrageous behavior, like drug-taking and affairs which we see and hear about all to frequently these days. It could happen to almost anyone -- unless they are very, very special.

Here comes Jesus into Jerusalem. And the people shout, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

And children wave palm branches. And people throw down their cloaks before him. That would be enough to turn anyone’s head, wouldn’t it? Anyone except Jesus. It’s ironic, is it not? There has lived only one man around whom the world really does revolve … and he was the humblest man who ever lived.

Watch him welcome the leper, the blind man, the outcast. See him cradle little children in his arms. Observe as he washes his disciples’ feet. Marvel as he kneels in a garden and prays, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.” (Mark 14:36)

That is why more than a billion people on this planet bow at the name of Jesus. The greatest of all became the servant of all, just as he instructed his followers: “He who would be greatest among you must be the servant of all.”

The phrase has become a catchword in business today, and yet
it sounds like an oxymoron. The phrase is SERVANT LEADERSHIP.

Servant Leadership is what Jesus was all about. It is what Palm Sunday is all about. It is what Holy Week is all about.

Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, “humbled himself unto death--even the death of the cross,” says St. Paul. “Therefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow . . .” Servant Leadership is strong leadership.

When Jesus told his followers to humble themselves, he was not telling them to be wimps. He was not telling them to be spineless. Who among us could admire a coward?
Jesus was no coward, and he would not want his followers to be cowards either. Only a brave man or brave woman gives his or her life for something noble, something lasting.

On August 17, 1944, American forces flew a desperate mission over the French city of Toulouse. Their objective: to free the city from occupying German forces. Citizens of the town remember one brave young pilot in particular. After his plane was blasted by enemy fire, he ejected from the craft; unfortunately, his parachute didn't open in time. The young pilot died in the fall, and German soldiers took his body away. Toulouse was liberated from its German captors only days later.
For over 50 years, no one knew the identity of this brave young pilot, but the people of Toulouse commemorated him as a hero anyway, and erected a plaque in their town to honor the Unknown American.

In 1994, a journalist for a Toulouse newspaper, aided by a retired French pilot, began delving into the mystery of the unknown pilot. Together, they discovered his identity: 2nd Lt. Daniel Haley, a twenty year old from Chicago who was engaged to be married when he went off to fight in the Second World War.

For years, the Haley family had grieved for him, and the grief was made all the more difficult because they didn't know the circumstances of his death. As a result, the town of Toulouse had another ceremony to honor the memory of the brave pilot, now known to all as 2nd Lt. Daniel Haley. Daniel's sister, Mary, was there to receive her brother's honors. She had cried when told that her brother had died a hero. Now the Haley family and the city of Toulouse can find closure in honoring the memory of this one brave man.

When we celebrate Christ’s passion, we do it in the same spirit that the citizens of Toulouse celebrated the life and death of this young soldier who gave of himself in their behalf. The call to servant leadership is a call to strength, a call to service.

Even more important, it is a call to sacrifice. It is a call to lay down something important, not for your own gain, but for the gain of all.
When a weak person answers the call to sacrifice, we can attribute it to a multitude of motives.

* Perhaps it was the pressure of the crowd.
* Perhaps it was a situational thing.
* Perhaps at that moment it was less stressful for the weak person to
say yes than to say no.

Ultimately, however, there is no virtue in the sacrifice of the weak. But when a strong person says, “Here is my life. Take it and use it as you would,” we know this is important.

When Dave Maurer was about seven years old, a strange man moved into his neighborhood. The man had a disfigured hand and a lame leg. His physical differences caused quite a stir among the neighborhood children. They came up with all kinds of stories about how he had injured his hand and leg. At all costs, they tried to avoid their new neighbor.

But one day, the lame man came by and invited the kids to his house. Not wanting to appear “chicken,” Dave and his friends accepted.

Maurer says “The man brought out some pictures to show the boys. They were glossy photos of a dashing young Navy pilot posing in front of a shiny, silver jet. He told them the story of his Navy career, and how it was cut short by a horrible crash landing during a storm.

From that day on, Dave reports, the neighborhood boys treated this man as a hero. They brought their friends to see him. And they never tired of his story.” As he writes, “The wounds and injuries we once shunned took on an entirely new dimension once we understood the story behind the scars.”

They were the scars of a strong man who had made a heroic sacrifice. The same kind of sacrifice that Christ made on the cross of Calvary.

Here is the point of all this: Today, in this room, Christ is looking for people who will live strong, sacrificial lives. Christ is looking in this congregation for people who will be servant leaders in our community, in our city, in our nation. Not weak people. Not spineless people. But people willing to live heroically and at the same time sacrificially.

That is what the cross is all about. Many of us have such a pathetic understanding of the cross. Here is your cross:

• Jesus is calling you to stand up and be counted for justice and righteousness.
• Jesus is calling you to do the decent thing, the loving thing, even when it might make you unpopular.
• Jesus is calling you to give, to share, to sacrifice--even though we live in a me-first society.
• Jesus is calling you to be a servant leader in a world where there are far too few heroes.

Will you heed his call? Are you strong enough to say “Yes” today at this crossroad with Christ?

Amen

THIS PASTOR’S VIEWPOINT

I have seen it from young children in school and I have heard it from grown-ups in adult studies. Although, I can’t remember ever voicing the feeling myself, however, in honesty, I admit that I have often submitted to it. What is this seemingly universal human failing?

It’s our reluctance to persist in asking questions until we fully comprehend the answer. Almost all of us reach some point where we just quit asking, even though we still don’t really get it.

I clearly remember one occasion ten years ago, after having chased all over two counties for some material to finish a lawn project, I finely had a lead on the place that had what I required. Only one store had just what I needed and it was in an unfamiliar part of Charlotte and even further from home.

It was getting late in the day and I was anxious to complete the job before the promised rain storms hit, so as the directions were given I tried very hard to get them right. I even asked the person to repeat it so I was sure I had it right. I hate being lost in an unfamiliar area…especially when I’m in a hurry. I also hate pulling into gas stations and asking again. Hey, I’m a man.

I rushed out to the car, started it up and it hit me! Was I to take a left and then a right or was it a right and then a left? Go on or get clarification? Pretend I’m smart and get lost (not smart) or admit I’m not sure and don’t get lost (smart)? Boy, was I glad I asked again, and after apologizing for bothering the patient direction-giver I left, and was able to go right to the place I sought.

A line in my Bible reading this week brought this all back to mind. In Psalm 86:3 (NLT) David beseeches God, “Be merciful, O Lord, for I am calling on you constantly.” David did, indeed, call upon the Lord constantly and he did so because he wanted to get it right.

Given, then, our natural propensity for not asking until we fully understand, do we also quit asking God for directions. Do we blunder off seeking to find our own way, because we were too ashamed to ask, “Lord, will you give me those directions again, please?”

However, if we do ask again of God, perhaps then, we can also say as did David in verse five, “O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask your aid.”

The God who would send his Son to die for us is surely not bothered by our prayer questions. Lost? Ask away! Confused? Ask away! Ask, ask, ask…but then, pause to listen.


Sermon for Sunday, April 10, 2011



A GREEN COUCH FOR GOD
Choosing Christ at The Crossroads, #5

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Former boxer Muhammad Ali has charmed the world with his swaggering self-confidence. But he is quick to admit that he wasn’t always so sure of himself. In the book The Entertainers by Timothy White, Ali recalls a particularly humbling moment from his teen years. He had a crush on a girl named Areatha Swint. Seventeen-year-old Ali sometimes walked Areatha home from school.

One day, as they reached the top stair of her apartment house, Ali worked up the courage to turn around and kiss her. And then he promptly fainted. When he came to at the bottom of the steps, Ali was so upset that he ran all the way home. The champ was K.O.’d by his fear of kissing a girl. That’s a surprising story to hear about the boxer who claimed to be invincible.
But we all have experiences like that from our past, memories that make us cringe, even years after the fact.

In the June 2002 issue of Biography Magazine, a number of celebrities shared embarrassing memories from their school proms.

Actor Matt LeBlanc recalls that he stuck out like a sore thumb at his junior-high prom in a powder-blue tuxedo.

Lorenzo Lamas’ date walked out on him when she saw his tux: it was made of yellow polyester.

Anchorwoman Katie Couric looks back at her prom picture, in which she and her date wore all-white outfits, and inwardly cries.

Actress Lauren Holly went to her prom with the most popular boy in school. She had a great time. But when she got home, Lauren’s parents informed her that she had a piece of broccoli stuck in her teeth.

These stories are humorous, but they’re also painful. That’s part of the humor. We can empathize with the horrible situation of looking like a fool. We’ve all done it at some point in our lives. Sometimes, we can laugh at the situation. Sometimes, we can’t. But there is something in every human being that cringes at the thought of looking foolish. We want to fit in. And that’s one of the reasons that it’s hard to be a follower of Christ.

Listen to our Bible passage for today:
“For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’

“Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.

“For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.”

For the last few weeks, we have been following the theme Choosing Christ at the Crossroads. In today’s Bible passage, the apostle Paul reminds us of one more difficult choice followers of Christ are called to make: the choice to join the “Fellowship of Fools.”

Paul wrote these words to the Christian church in Corinth, a wealthy and famously immoral city. Corinth was a center of learning and philosophy. It was also famous for its many temples celebrating many different religions. Among these was the Temple of Aphrodite, where 1,000 male and female prostitutes serviced their clients as part of their worship ceremonies.

Money and exotic goods flowed through Corinth’s major trade routes, making it a wealthy and materialistic society. To a Corinthian citizen, learning, money, and physical pleasures were the reason for living. Does that sound like contemporary America? So imagine how the Corinthians responded when a new church appeared in their city. This one didn’t have temple prostitutes. It didn’t feature learned scholars holding debates in the courtyard. It didn’t use magical incantations or promises of wealth and power to draw people in. In fact, this new church accepted rich and poor, men and women, slaves and free men, educated and uneducated persons on an equal basis.

Its followers didn’t value money and material possessions; they shared their wealth with one another equally. They didn’t exalt the body by offering sexual pleasures, nor did they exalt the mind by stimulating philosophical debates. Instead, this new church emphasized the Spirit of God living in each believer.

And who was this new church’s god? An all-powerful Spirit who chose to reside in a human body. Not the body of a king or a warrior. The body of a humble carpenter. A body which experienced sunburned skin and chapped hands and aching muscles.
And once this god manifested himself in human form, what did he do? Did he establish a powerful kingdom? No, he allowed himself to be arrested, tortured, and killed by the ruling authorities. And his death wasn’t just an ordinary punishment. Crucifixion was the most shameful form of death. It was reserved for the lowest criminals.

So imagine how these words from Paul affected the Corinthian church: “For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.”

Paul was not preaching the cross and other stuff. He was preaching the cross--Jesus Christ crucified. As Porky Pig would say, “Th-th-th-that’s all, folks!”

Our God, the Creator of all things and the Ultimate Power in all the Universe, suffered humiliation and rejection and death. No need to water it down or dress it up. No wonder the surrounding society rejected the Christians. No wonder the Corinthian church tried to alter the message, to make it more acceptable, to divert people’s attention from Jesus and his death. No religion on earth had ever made such a horrifying, mystifying, amazing claim about its god. And Paul claims that this horrifying, mystifying, amazing idea is the absolute truth and the central foundation of knowing God.

No wonder others called them fools. No wonder society still calls us fools today.
The message of Jesus is no less radical today than it was then. It has never lost its power to change lives or to draw fire.

Turn to the book of John, chapter six. In verses 25 through 65, Jesus says that he is the bread of life, and that no one can enter God’s kingdom unless they eat of his flesh and drink of his blood. Of course, he is referring to his crucifixion, but not all of Jesus’ listeners understand this. Many of them think he is speaking blasphemy or nonsense. Verse 66 records, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” Jesus turns to his original twelve apostles and asks, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” And Peter answers for all of them when he says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

Jesus’ life and his message leave us no room for hedging. He is not just another god, another side dish in the Corinthian buffet of religions. Either he is the one true God, or he is not. And Jesus’ crucifixion is either the pivotal moment of all time, or it is an insignificant blip on the radar screen of history.

So what about us? Are we willing to proclaim this message as the central truth of life?
Are we willing to identify ourselves with the Fellowship of Fools? Are we willing to bet our lives on it?

Pastor Tommy Barnett shares a story of his friend, Jack Wallace, who is leading a successful ministry at an inner-city church in Detroit. Jack Wallace once lived on the streets.
Through Pastor Barnett’s ministry to the homeless, Jack gave his life to Christ. He went on to get his degree and become a pastor.

He was then sent to a dying church in a rough neighborhood in Detroit. Through prayer, commitment, and visionary leadership, Jack Wallace and the people of his congregation turned their church around. The church is thriving, and it offers many vital ministries in the surrounding community.

One side note to this story is that in the few years that Jack Wallace has led this church, he has been stabbed eighteen separate times. You’d think Jack Wallace would change his mind after the third or fourth assault. You’d think he would pack his bags and move to a quieter neighborhood, get a cushy corporate job, and settle down into comfortable anonymity. Start looking out for number one. Why not? Everybody else is doing it. Our society would call Jack Wallace a fool. What do you call him? A fool --- or simply a follower of Christ?

A young woman was walking around with a T-shirt that read, “I Am a Green Couch.” Underneath this odd statement was a Scripture reference. Occasionally, people would walk up to her and ask about her shirt. She would direct them to look up the Bible verse. Yet the Bible verse had nothing to do with green couches; it was about salvation through Christ.

When someone asked the young woman why her shirt read, “I Am a Green Couch,” she replied, “If I had something about being a Christian on my shirt, would you have bothered to ask me about it? Or would you have ignored it?

I just put that there so people will ask me about it and look up the Bible verse. It sounds stupid, but it causes people to come up to me. Then, I can share my faith with them.”

This young lady earns an honorable mention in the Fellowship of Fools. She is willing to make herself look foolish to spread the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. She and the apostle Paul are kindred spirits.

God could use any method God chooses to communicate God’s truth to us. God could create a spectacular light show of falling stars and exploding volcanoes. God could write God’s message in the clouds for all the world to see. Jesus could have called down fire from heaven. He could have set up an earthly kingdom that rivaled the riches and power of King Solomon. And Jesus’ followers could have used signs and miracles and philosophical debates to prove their points.

Instead, they chose to tell the truth. The plain, unadorned truth: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) It may be foolishness to the world, but to those who believe it is the power and wisdom of God.

Just before being named President of the United States in 1976, Jimmy Carter spoke at the Southern Baptist Convention. He was on the schedule with the Rev. Billy Graham and another man, a truck driver.

Rev. Graham spoke first. Of course, his message was powerful and inspiring. Carter spoke next, and delivered a fine talk. And then the truck driver stood up to speak.
He was visibly nervous, and barely spoke above a mumble. He had once been an alcoholic, he said. After he became a Christian, this man still hung out in bars. It was the only place he felt comfortable. He began talking to the other bar customers about Jesus. At first, they made fun of him.

After a while, they began to ask him questions. The man ended his talk by saying that he had brought fourteen of his friends to Christ.

Jimmy Carter claims that no one remembered his or Billy Graham’s talk from that night, but people are still talking about the truck driver’s testimony.
The pull to conform is so strong. Don’t we all want to fit in? Won’t our life be easier if we don’t rock the boat? --- Sure, it will.

But how can we believe in an earth-shaking message and NOT rock the boat? Are you willing to identify yourself with the Fellowship of Fools? Are you willing to be a green couch for God?

It may not earn you respect at the office, but it will grant you eternal life with God.

Amen