Sermon 33 Audio

Semon Preached by Rev. Will Rice at Grace United Methodist Church, Corpus Christi, Texas on Sunday, November 26, 2006. The text is John 18:33-37


MP3 File

Will Rice - Sermon #33 - "What King of King?"

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

John 18:33-37

“What Kind of King”

I was hesitant to celebrate Christ the King Sunday today. I can’t imagine that I would have gotten a lot of letters of complaint. Not that people dislike Christ the King Sunday, it is just that they don’t often think about it. I always figured that with a name like Christ the King Sunday, this must be a pretty old celebration. But although it has some ancient roots, it actually only dates back to 1925. It wasn’t until 1969 that it was appointed as a festival for the last Sunday of the Christian year which is today. How odd that a celebration recognizing Christ as a King would have been created in a time when Kings aren’t what they used to be.

What the heck is a king? When we talk about Christ as King, what is our point of reference? Unfortunately for me, a child of the 70s and 80s, when you say king, I hear Burger King. Most of us have some mental image of a king. For kids, it may be the Lion King. Some of our images are of the fairly tale variety. Many of us get our images of royalty from Great Britain where the Queen rules from a historic palace, rich in history and tradition. And from her throne she makes important decisions about… wait, what does the Queen of England do?

Today’s reading picks up sort of mid stream in the narrative that we usually read around Easter. Jesus has been arrested and now he is in front of Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea.

³³Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

We just don’t get what a provocative and inflammatory question this is. This is one of those questions that would have made everyone in the room stop and say, “He did not just ask him if he was the King of the Jews! Did he?”

There are two things that make that question inflammatory. One is political, the other historical. First, politically, this was taking place in a remote part of the Roman Empire, known as Judea. The Israelite people were living under the rule of the Roman Empire, as was just about everyone in this time period. Caesar was the emperor and to this particular area Pontius Pilate had been appointed governor. Rome had once allowed there to be a King of the Jews, Herod the Great, who was only sort of Jewish and a loyal puppet of the empire. But Rome withheld the title “King of the Jews” from his somewhat bumbling heirs. So, there was currently no King of the Jews and to proclaim yourself as King of the Jews would really annoy the Roman Empire and no one needs to annoy the Roman Empire. For you Star Wars fans, it was sort of like making Darth Vader angry. Bad idea.

So the first problem is political, the second, historical. Israel has had kings before.

As I tell my Disciple Bible Study students, we miss so much in the New Testament if we don’t read the Old Testament, and frankly we just don’t read the Old Testament.

There are lots of kings in the Old Testament. However, most of them are from foreign lands and they are always beating up on God’s people Israel.

After the people of Israel escaped Pharaoh’s Egypt, and then received God’s law at Sinai, after they spent forty years wandering around in the wilderness, they crossed over into the promise land. Leaving Egypt and wandering around in the desert God had appointed Moses to lead them. To get them into the land God promised them and to begin settling it, they had Joshua.

But then Joshua dies. Judges 2:7-10:

The people worshiped the Lord all the days of Joshua … Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of one hundred ten years. …another generation grew up after them, who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

They went through this period of Judges. Judges 2:11-16:

Then the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord…and they abandoned the Lord… So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers…and he sold them into the power of their enemies all around, Then the Lord raised up judges, who delivered them out of the power of those who plundered them.

You may have heard of some of these judges, especially Samson, the guy with the hair that got messed up with Delilah. We think of judges as people in black robes who rule in court cases but these judges were men and women raised up to deliver Israel out of the muck that they had created for themselves.

These people of Israel without proper supervision just kept messing up. They wouldn’t listen to God through the prophets or the priests not even the judges God appointed to help them.

Judges 2:17:

¹⁷Yet they did not listen even to their judges; for they lusted after other gods and bowed down to them.

Because of this, they also kept getting beat up by the surrounding nations whose militaries seemed much stronger and more organized. The Philistines in particular were beating the tar out of them.

1 Samuel 4:10-11:

¹⁰So the Philistines fought; Israel was defeated, and they fled, everyone to his home. There was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. ¹¹The ark of God was captured; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

They looked to the other nations around them to see what was keeping them going. They went to Samuel who had been appointed by God to help them and said in 1 Samuel 8:

⁴Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, ⁵and said to him, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.”

They wanted a king of their own. A king of the Jews.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a king, they thought? What a great way to take the problems of the world off our shoulders and place them on someone else’s shoulders. Samuel wasn’t really happy about this and tells God so:

⁶But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the Lord,

But watch what God says:

⁷and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.

And Israel gets a king, the first one was named Saul.

1 Samuel 10:1:

¹⁰Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it on Saul’s head, and kissed him; he said, “The Lord has anointed you ruler over his people Israel. You shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hand of their enemies all around.

Let me point out something real quick that you will need to know later. “The Lord has anointed you.”

anoint = xvm – mashah

Remember that.

Israel gets a king, and I have to tell you, historically, this did not go very well.

This is a very cursory overview. Saul was the first King anointed by Samuel. Saul starts out fine, wins lots of military battles, but gets into a little disagreement with Samuel who anointed him, loses his anointing, and then sort of goes crazy.

At least that never happens with those we elevate to rule over us.

Somewhere in there Samuel anoints another King, David, you may have heard of him. He is the one that killed the giant with a slingshot. But Saul still thinks he is King and David doesn’t really care so he works in the King’s house playing music for Saul until Saul tries to kill him. (Remember Saul is the crazy one.) Fortunately the people we elevate to rule over us never get into power plays. Eventually David really becomes King, but has a scandalous affair of the type that would take up several weeks of coverage on CNN. I tell you, you really ought to read this stuff. David gets things back together with God, has a bunch of trouble with his kids, gets dethroned for a while by one of them. Eventually his son Solomon gets to the throne, decides to build this terribly elaborate temple for God, overtaxes and enslaves his people so much to do it that they revolt splitting the kingdom in two. These two kingdoms have a number of other kings, but things are never quite the same and eventually both Kingdoms get worn down fighting their enemies and are eventually overrun by another kingdom thus forcing the Israelites into a time of captivity we refer to as the exile, perhaps the darkest time in the history of God’s people Israel.

That went well.

³³Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

This is a loaded question.

I would want some clarification. You see to the original audience, there are two questions here. Rome wants to know if Jesus is messing with the political order, i.e. is he a revolutionary. This is how the people who aren’t very fond of Jesus are trying to get him executed, as a revolutionary. But, other people are trying to see if what Jesus’ followers say is true. They are listening to hear if Jesus might be a king to rescue them from the current oppressor, Rome.

The original kings of Israel were anointed king by prophets.

Let me read again a passage I read earlier:

1 Samuel 10:1

Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it on his head, and kissed him; he said, “The Lord has anointed you ruler over his people Israel. You shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hand of their enemies all around.

Remember I already said this - anoint = xvm – mashah

anointed one = x;yvim; - meshiah

meshiah = messiah

x;yvim; = meshiha = messiah translate that into Greek and you get Cristou (Christo) = Christ = anointed one.

³³Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

Two questions. For Rome it is, “Are you here to cause trouble?” For some Jews, it is “Are you here to save us?” Jesus responds as one should when the question being asked is much more complicated the questioner believes it to be, he asks a question back:

³⁴Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?”

Pilate responds as people do when their question has not been answered:

³⁵Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?”

Jesus again does not answer the question, but while seemingly staying on topic, changes the subject completely.

³⁶Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”

This is sort of a yes and no to both questions:

• Yes, I am here to cause trouble, but not like you think.
• Yes, I am here to save you, but not like you think.

This is not the first time this king thing has come up for Jesus. In John, chapter 6:

¹⁴ When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world." ¹⁵When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

But now, Pilate thinks he has him.

³⁷Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

Perhaps, Jesus is simply saying, “Yes I am a king, but not that kind of king.”

As we reflect on this Christ the King Sunday on what we mean when we say Christ is King, as we celebrate the last Sunday of the Christian year and prepare for the season of anticipation called advent, let’s not forget the history of God’s people and what a king has meant for them. Christ has always been King as God has always been King. But we don’t always like the kind of king God is. We do not always like the kind of king that Jesus is.

⁷and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.

On this Christ the King Sunday, oddly, I want to warn us about making Christ our king. The danger is, and I believe that this passage points to it, is that we will make Christ a king in our image of a king. We will place Jesus and God in the role of earthly king, complete with the inherit limitations and failings, complete with our human desires and misunderstandings. Jesus is asking for something much bigger of us. Yes Jesus is sovereign, in that he reigns over all things all places and times. But Jesus is a king that is pointing us to his kingdom, the kingdom of God, which is not a place that we earn admittance to by simply being faithful to the King, but a state of being that we are empowered to help God create. Jesus is a king that requires personal responsibility and requires action. Jesus is the kind of king that won’t let us sit back and let the king take care of it but requires us to serve and be part of the Kingdom of God that he rules over.

And Jesus is also the kind of king who won’t be confused with regular old royalty. Because as King of the kingdom of God, Jesus is about saving us from the enemies that plague us. Not the Philistines, not some national aggressor, not from culture, but the enemies that fight us inside, like despair and hatred and depression and anger.

And Jesus made sure that we understood this by acting like a king of that sort of kingdom would, by living down in the muck with the sick and the outcast and then dying a humiliating death on the cross to say, “I love you more than you could ever hate me.”

On this Christ the King Sunday, oddly, I want to warn us about making Christ our king, because if we choose Christ as the ruler of our lives, he might lead us to some places that we don’t want to go. A king who hangs out with the sick and the outcast, the least, the last and the lost will force us to hang out with the outcast, the least, the last and the lost and ask unpopular questions like who nearly two million children die each year just because they don’t have access to clean water.[1] People always get upset and me when I bring stuff like that up in church, but if Christ is my king, why wouldn’t I?

On this Christ the King Sunday, oddly, I want to warn us about making Christ our king, because if we are not careful, Jesus will not be the kind of king we expect and we will elevate someone else into that role. Will pick a president, congressman, justice, pastor, government, church, philosophy, economic system, or something else and make that king.

⁷and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.

On this Christ the King Sunday, let us celebrate the ruler of the Universe, the sovereign God made very real and present to us in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. As we prepare for advent, let us begin to look for this mighty king, waiting for us, among the lowly animals in the manger.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

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[1] “Clean water, hygiene could save countless lives around the world”, Corpus Christi Caller Times, November 16, 2006. Accessed online at: URL: http://www.caller.com/ccct/editorials/article/0,1641,CCCT_840_5148057,00.html on 25 November 2006; internet.

Will Rice - Sermon #32 - What Do You Want?

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

Every four years here in America we go the polls to elect or reelect a president. In the weeks and months leading up to such an event there are countless opportunities in debates and interviews for those seeking such a high office to be asked deeply pertinent questions like, “What is your favorite book?” I have never heard this answered any other way than, “The Bible.” What a cop out! The Bible is a collection of books. If I were asking the question, I would want a follow up question, “which book of the Bible?”

In case I ever run for such an office, I have my answer ready. “The Gospel according to Mark.” Even if you are not a big Jesus fan like me, this is a cool book. It is more like a Quentin Tarantino movie than part of the Bible. It’s got all the good stuff: demons, lepers, storms, herds of pigs. It is rough and down and dirty and shows a Jesus who lives in a world as harsh and unpredictable as the one we live in. That’s cool. I am preaching from Mark today. I hope, in it, you can see Jesus coming into your life.

Mark 10:46-52

⁴⁶They came to Jericho.

Jericho is the lowest city on Earth in terms of elevation, 750 feet below sea level. Not that it much matters, whatever Jesus and friends did there, Mark left out. You just have to fill in the blanks.

⁴⁶They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho,

Whatever happened there, a large crowd left with them.

As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside.

Bartimaeus is an interesting name in that it literally means, “Son of Timaeus.” So this actually says, son of Timaeus, son of Timaeus. Anyway, Bart is a blind beggar and here he is, talk about low, sitting on the side of the road, in the dust, outside the lowest city in the world, blind and begging. You ever been there?

⁴⁷When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

I wonder what Bart knew about Jesus? Jesus had been making quite a bit of noise as he traveled throughout the countryside healing and stirring up trouble. Maybe Bart didn’t know much about Jesus, but what did he have to lose?

“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

And the crowd reacts to all this yelling just like fine church folks do when someone disrupts their religious type activities just because they need God for something, they tell him to shut up!

⁴⁸Many sternly ordered him to be quiet,

But Bart doesn’t care. He’s got nothing to lose.

⁴⁸Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

And Jesus stops.

⁴⁹Jesus stood still

Now I grew up on television and movies, so I like to see this as a very dramatic moment. I see Jesus and the crowd scurrying along down the road making a bunch of noise and kicking up a bunch of dust. Then, I see Jesus stopping dead in his tracks, standing totally still and everyone around him, noticing that he isn’t moving, stops. And they all stand there for what seems like an eternity. Even Bart is like, “Oh crap!” And everyone is wondering what the heck Jesus is about to do.

In case you haven’t read the rest of Mark, it was just about five chapters ago that this Jesus character cast a bunch of demons into some pigs and watched as the pigs ran over a cliff to their death. Even Jesus’ friends have no idea what he might do.

The pause seems eternal and they all stand there outside the lowest city on earth in the dust until Jesus speaks:

⁴⁹Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.”

I think it may be very important to notice what Jesus says here. He actually says, “you call him.” He doesn’t say, “Bart, come here!” He tells the people around him, “You call him.” Bart is blind. He might need a little help getting through the crowd to Jesus. I wonder if other people ever have trouble finding their way to Jesus. I wonder if Jesus might still say, “You call him?”

Anyway, all those people who were just telling Bart to shut up have radically changed their tune.

And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.”

They say, “cheer up, don’t be afraid, Jesus is calling you. Jesus wants to see you.” Bart doesn’t need much encouragement.

⁵⁰So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.

It is interesting that Mark, the author of the shortest gospel, felt the need to tell us about Bart’s wardrobe choices when going to see Jesus. I wonder if Mark is making a point about the stuff we are carrying around and what we might need to do with it if we are really ready to have an encounter with Jesus.

⁵⁰So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.

My television and movie brain still sees this as a moment of high drama. Blind Bart is standing there, without his cloak, vulnerable, in the dust, just outside the lowest city on earth and everyone is waiting to see what Jesus will do.

⁵¹Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

I wonder if blind Bart, standing there, without his cloak, in the dust, just outside the lowest city on earth, got the impact of what was happening, God himself was asking him,

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Imagine you were Bart and here is God asking you:

“What do you want me to do for you?”

There is another way to translate this phrase.

ti, soi qe,leij poih,sw

”What are you ready for?”

Image you were Bart and here is God asking you:

“What do you want me to do for you?” “What are you actually ready for me to for you?”

Maybe Bart doesn’t realize the enormity of his situation because he doesn’t stumble all over himself. He was asked a question and he has an answer:

The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.”

The word for blind tuflo,j is used something like 50 times in the New Testament. I don’t think that means that blindness was the biggest problem in New Testament times. I think that blindness becomes representative of all those things that ail us, that hurt us, that burden us. But blindness in the New Testament also becomes representative of all those things that keep us from seeing, keep us from seeing the possibilities of life with God.

Jesus asks,

“What do you want me to do for you?” “What are you actually ready for me to for you?”

What do you say? What are you carrying around? What ails you, hurts you, burdens you? What keeps you from seeing the possibilities of living as a loved, healed and forgiven child of God?

I hazard a guess, and I am pretty sure I am right on with this one, that we are all carrying around a lot of stuff. Many of us have a lot of pain in us and, for some reason, this (the church) is the last place we think to bring it.

Where do you need Jesus’ healing?

I fear that as church people, we sit on the side of the road and watch Jesus walk by. I fear that something stops us from saying, “Jesus! Have Mercy on me!” Or of we do and Jesus stops, we are afraid to throw off the cloak the holds us back from going to him. Maybe it is a cloak of pride, or shame, or fear, or doubt. And if we do manage to throw off that cloak, and we get to Jesus and hear him say,

“What do you want me to do for you?”

We just aren’t bold enough to say,

Heal my marriage.

Help me get over the death of my parent.

Take away the shame of my past.

Help me stop taking drugs, drinking too much, smoking too much.

Take away my fear.

Take away my greed.

Help me not be angry.

Notice what happens when Bart trusts in Jesus and takes him up on his offer?

⁵¹Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” ⁵²Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

Your faith has made you well. One again, we miss something in the translation. It says your faith has sw,zw. Sozo is a wonderful word that means save in a physical sense and a spiritual sense. It conveys a lot more than just “make well.” It conveys healing, wholeness, redemption and connection with one’s creator. You faith has healed you physically and spiritually and reconnected you with the possibility of life with God. Your faith has indeed made you well

Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

And that healing of more than just his sight enabled him to see where he was going. Unburdened from what was holding him down, he was able to truly follow God.

I mentioned earlier the first thing Bart said,

“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

The word he uses here, in Greek is evle,hso,n. (Elayson) If you hang around church much, you may have heard the Kyrie Eleison, Lord, have mercy or The church often sings this as a sort of a plea for forgiveness, but today, we are going to call out together, asking Christ to stop and ask us,

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Kyrie, Kyrie, Eleison
Kyrie, Kyrie, Eleison

We believe that Christ is very real and present to us at The Lord’s Table. As you come today, throw off your cloak and as you meet Christ in the bread and the wine, tell him. Tell him what you want him to do for you.

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Will Rice - Sermon #31 - Audio

"Deep Casting, Abundant Sowing" Sermon Preached on 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 at Grace United Methodist Church, Corpus Christi, Texas on October 15, 2006


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Will Rice - Sermon #31 - Deep Casting, Abundant Sowing

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

2 Corinthians 9:6-15

“Deep Casting, Abundant Sowing"

I spent last week in South Padre Island with my wife Alisha and our foster son Joshua and the dogs. I got a chance to do some fishing as I always like to do when I have time. Here is the thing about where I was fishing: As I stood on the beach there was the water line, and then a little ways out a sandbar, and then a little further out another sandbar. The fish were on the other side of the second sandbar. So, I had two choices. I could stand on the beach and cast my line out to the spot between the two sandbars and catch no fish. Or, I could wade out chest deep, getting pounded by the waves, until I reached the second sandbar cast my line out and catch fish. Now I spent a lot of time on the beach, because I was on vacation and I didn’t want to work that hard. But when I waded out, got slammed in the face with some waves, got knocked over and swallowed some sea water, I caught fish.

⁶The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

I realize that as a church, we sow sparingly. I think many of us know that if we really put all of our heart and mind, more of our time and money into spreading the message of the gospel, it would have an amazing impact, but we don’t do that.

When we talk about stewardship here at Grace, throughout the year, we talk about our prayers, presence, gifts and service. But, sometimes we forget to talk about what is at the core of all this, our stewardship of our knowledge of the love of God through Jesus Christ. If we got that and thought about stewardship as our responsibility to share that message of Grace with the world, I think we would be more excited about stewardship. I think we would start to realize and be ok with the fact that sharing the message requires us to be generous with our material possessions.

I take the way the church gives personally, because I feel that when we are not giving as we ought, then perhaps I have failed to cast a vision. I know so many people who don’t give faithfully to the church who do give faithfully to the Sierra Club, the Ronald McDonald House, the Boys and Girls Club, The Republican Party, The Democratic Party, The Lions Club. I think people should give to organizations they believe in. I just take it to heart when they don’t give as faithfully to the church because I haven’t cast a vision, I haven’t given a reason to believe in the church. Yes, you can believe in God, but not believe in the church.

People believe in and therefore give financial support to The Lions Club and the Sierra Club, etc. because they have shown people how they can use their money to change lives. Just $1 a day can help save the spotted owl from extinction. Just the price of a cup of coffee a day can help a poor child in Africa get the medication she needs, your one time gift of $100 can help us get another kid off the streets and into an after school program.

Here at the church, I think we get part of it right, when we talk about our need to give to God to remind ourselves that all of life is a gift from God, but then we have trouble following through with what that generous giving can do.

I remember one year my Dad getting a phone call from the Salvation Army in Buffalo. “Mr. Rice, if you send us $50, five homeless people will get a nice hot Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings.” Now Thanksgiving in Buffalo is very cold. It snows sometimes. So the idea of five people getting to go inside and have a nice hot meal is a nice thought. Of course, he wrote a check and stuck it in the mail.

⁷Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Talk about a cheerful giver. He was happy to write that check. He probably would have written it for four times that if they had asked.

How about this, “Mr. Rice, I am calling from Grace United Methodist Church and we would like you to give some unspecified amount of money to help us pay our apportionments.” Or “Mr. Rice, we are having trouble meeting our budget this year. You see, while 55% of our pledged givers are current or ahead on their pledges, 65% are behind and although actual expenditures are below budgeted expenditures, we still anticipate a 13% shortfall. Could you help us out?”

I think Pastor John has done and continues to do an amazing job of helping us see why we give. We give because everything we have, every last thing, is a gift from an outrageously generous God who doesn’t owe us a thing, but lavishes gift upon gift on us. We give out of a grateful response to the generosity of God.

But his brilliant, authentic and heartfelt thoughts on the matter might not answer another question we might have. Why give to the church? We know why to give, but why give to the church? That is the question we do not answer very well. As a church, we are likely to show you a chart. We are likely to talk about fixed costs and apportionment dollars and payroll taxes. All that stuff is very important to keep the church running, but that is not the right answer.

We have all seen the television commercials for organizations like world vision or feed the children. These people know how to help us understand what they are doing. They don’t ever show pie charts or talk about operational expenditures or budget shortfalls. They say, “look at this child. She is hungry. Send us $100 and she can eat.” They say “We are in the life changing business and we need your help.”

A few months back Astria Smith from the Methodist Children’s Home in Waco came and spoke to us on a Sunday morning. She brought with her one of the girls from the home who, through the Children’s Home’s programs was able to leave a bad life situation, get back on track, and was ready to attend college. Astria told us of kids who left lives of poverty and drugs and were now successful college students. She told stories or changing lives and then asked for money, and you all gave her a lot of money. Of course you did, who doesn’t want to be a part of making someone’s life better?

I think what we fail to say enough at the church is that we are in the life changing business as well. Remember, I said at the beginning that at the core of our stewardship is our stewardship of our knowledge of the love of God through Jesus Christ and that is powerful, life changing stuff!

At Grace, God changes lives. And it happens in so many ways. Every Sunday, in worship, there is the opportunity for someone, for the first time to hear a message about how the creator of the universe wants nothing more than to be in relationship with them. Every Sunday, in worship, there is the opportunity for someone has heard that their whole lives finally go “Aha!” to finally really feel in their heart that God does love them, God does forgive them, God does accept them.

At Grace, God changes lives. Every Sunday, in Sunday school, patient and loving teachers begin to build the foundation of faith in our children, passing on the stories of scripture and beginning to help children see the love of God that surrounds them. Their lives are being changed even as they being formed as they are given an alternative to the world which tells them that their value is based on how they look or where they go to school or how much money they make. They have a place that tells them that their value is based solely on the fact that they are God’s children.

At Grace, God changes lives. Every Sunday, in Sunday school, the lives of our youth are touched as they have a place to come and be surrounded by love and support and scriptural teaching that can help them face the really trying, life changing decisions that they have to face every day that will affect every aspect of their future.

Every Sunday, in Sunday school, adult lives are changed as well, as adults have the opportunity to encounter God through scripture and through the lives and stories of each other.

Every weekday, Grace’s facilities become a place of safety and learning for children through the Early Childhood Development program, giving children a loving and nurturing environment that reflects the love of God that begins to teach them of their value and giving parents piece of mind that their children are in good hands so that they can concentrate on their jobs in a world where it is sometimes impossible for one parent to stay home with the children.

During the week, during the day and the evening, Grace’s facilities and staff are put to use teaching and leading, opening up the words of scripture to adults, children and youth.

I have told the stories in another sermon of Disciple Bible Study, where people start out in the fall, sometimes with no knowledge of the Bible and come out in the spring as different people, changed by the encounter with God through scripture.

At Grace, God changes lives. Every Wednesday evening, this church bursts at the seams with confirmation which teaches about our faith so that young adults can make the commitment to profess their faith for themselves plus Bible studies for younger and older youth, plus Bible studies for older children.

And the rest of the building is full with our mentoring program where children from our community have a chance to have a one on one relationship with an adult mentor who can give them love and support and a role model. Talking about God changing lives – some of these kids have no real stability in their lives, maybe no role model or someone who really has time to pay attention to them. Ask any of our mentors, you can see a change in these kids from the time they first come to mentoring and the end of the school year. This isn’t just a program, or a budget line, or a church thing, this is a way of spreading the love of God by positively affecting the lives of children in our community.

At Grace, God changes lives. We don’t always see it, but the changes that take place within the walls of the church affect the world outside the church. Children, youth and adults that are nurtured within the community of faith begin to sense God’s call on their lives and live that out in the world. Let me give you an example. Val Borhauer, a member of this congregation had her life changed by the grace of God and has taken that out into the world to Laverne, California where she serves as a United Methodist Missionary, using her education to teach girls who have been removed from their homes due to abuse and neglect.

At Grace, God changes lives. Val is just one example. There are a number of people who throughout the year, either in organized groups, or are their own head off to Mexico, Mississippi, downtown Corpus Christi and use their skills and their hands to listen to the call of God on their lives to share the Gospel by bringing some amount of comfort to people who need their home repaired, replaced, or even built for the first time. If you don’t think the church changes lives, you haven’t seen the look on the face who roof has just been repaired by a bunch of kids and volunteer adults in the middle of summer for no other reason than they just wanted to help.

At Grace, God changes lives. Sometimes in ways that we don’t even think much about. The monies that we give to the district and the conference and the national church, both through planned giving and special offerings change lives in ways we will never truly know, building churches in Russia, responding to worldwide disasters through The United Methodist Committee of Relief, try to give at risk children a shot at life through Methodist Children’s home, starting new churches here in the Southwest Texas Conference so that more lives may be changed through the Grace of God.

I think we have trouble sometimes because maybe sometimes we can’t see the change.

I think we have trouble sometimes because we don’t sit down and quantify things. Perhaps if I figured out how much it cost to change one life. I was adding up my conversion the other day, financed by committed Christians who sowed abundantly. How long did I go to church before I ever put something in an offering plate? How much did that cost the church in electricity and mortgage and interest and salary and benefits for pastors and staff? What was the expense that others undertook that there was a sanctuary and bibles and beautiful music and a thought-provoking sermon. What was the cost of that cup of coffee I was offered while I waited around? What was the cost of the classroom space where I started going to Sunday school?

⁶The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

It cost a pretty good chunk of change to take me from a place of not knowing God to a place to understanding God’s grace and claim on my life and committing my heart and life to God’s service. I don’t know how much it cost. But I know that most people who know me and know the change in my life that occurred through a relationship with God, if I could figure out the cost and duplicate it on someone else, would gladly write that check.

And that is what we do. We help God change lives. We are in the life changing business. When we think of ourselves as being in the church business we think about cutting costs. Is there a way to do this cheaper? When we are in the life-changing business, we just want to know how we can do more!

⁷Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.

A survey published this month in Time Magazine reports that 61% of American Christians believe that God wants them to be financially prosperous.[1] So, I am officially again in the minority. I believe that God wants us to be just and compassionate. I don’t think God wants us to be rich if it is at the expense of the rest of the world, including many other Christians who are living in poverty.

But, let’s face it, on a global scale, just be being Americans, we are rich. Even the poorest among us have electricity and microwave ovens and plenty to eat. Whether or not God has willed us to be rich, the fact of the matter is we are. And we have a chance to do some kingdom building with that wealth.

the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

We can sow bountifully with our prayer, our presence, our service, and our financial gifts. John has challenged us this year to take the 1% challenge, upping our giving to the church by 1%. The more I have thought about this over the last few weeks, the more excited I got about it.

If every household in the church did that, if those who already give just added 1% and those who haven’t made that commitment to give just started at 1%, I cannot even begin to imagine what God could do with that. I get excited because I do begin to imagine the number of lives that could be changed in this church, in this community and eventually around the world. Instead of spending the year thinking, “How can we get by, how can we keep these great programs going.” We could ask, “what else can we do to spread the Grace and love of God to the world?”

¹⁰He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; ¹²for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God.

Back to my fishing story. It was nice sitting on the beach with my fishing pole secured in its holder in the sand. I could sit and watch the waves and my pole swaying in the wind all day. But, to catch fish, I had to go deeper. I had to risk getting wet, falling down.

We have a gift. We know about something that can change lives, can change with world. We watch it every day in our children, youth and adults. We see lives changing. We see people changed in such a way that they go out to change the world.

We should be wading out into the deep water, casting far out, we should be sowing bountifully, that the harvest, those touched and moved and changed by the grace of God, may be bountiful.

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[1] David Van Biema, Jeff Chu, ”Does God Want You To Be Rich”, Time Magazine, September 10, 2006

Will Rice - Sermon #30 - One Body

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

1 Corinthians 11:17-29

“One Body”

On this Sunday, while we were still sleeping, Christians in the Democratic Republic of Congo left their homes for places of worship to see their pastors take bread in their hands and declare, “This is my body.” In the Church of the Holy Resurrection in Jerusalem were heard the words, “This is my body.” In Saint Paul’s in London a hush fell across the congregation as the pastor declared, “This is my body.” In churches and cathedrals across the United States today pastors take bread into their hands and declare, “This is my body.” In thatched-roof mission stations across the islands of the Pacific this afternoon will be uttered, “This is my body.”

This is World Communion Sunday. Throughout the world churches of all denominations, in all nations, in many languages, are celebrating the Lord’s Supper. Today, as I lift the bread and say these words,

“Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

we are reminded that I don’t just mean “we” all of us in the room, but “we” all of us in the body of Christ, in this body that we call Grace United Methodist Church, in this community of Annaville and CalAllen and Corpus Christi, in this state we call Texas, in this country we call America, and around this great a varied world.

At least, in the moment that we break the bread and in that wondrous time when we file forward to receive the Holy Mystery, we can get that part that “we” in the room are one. I think that, at least for the moment we are able to put aside our differences and celebrate our oneness in Christ.

I was personally challenged on this the other day. I was at a clergy gathering and serving this particular day was a member of the clergy that I honestly don’t much like. I think she is mean. However there she was holding the cup. And I am hearing Paul screaming in my head:

²⁷Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.

Now I had three choices, especially remembering some guidance from Matthew’s Gospel:

²³So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.

So, first, I could have just left. But that would not have really fixed anything. So, choice two, I could have asked everyone to hold on a moment while I had a chat with my sister there holding the cup. Which, being a clergy gathering, may have worked, had it not been just before lunch. Or three, which I went with, I could take the chance to ask God to work on my heart so that I could truly see that moment and a moment of reconciliation and see our oneness through the sharing of the bread and cup.

Now, my clergy sister and I are still not chummy, but I cannot help but see her in a different light, the light of Christ.

That should and does happen all the time in the church. We come here from so many different backgrounds with different understandings and different calls and claim on our lives. If we are really true, authentic people of God, we will annoy, perturb, frustrate and generally get on each other’s nerves sometimes. Here at the table we are called to remember our oneness in Christ and God’s abundant, healing grace helps make that happen. At the Lord ’s Table our differences can be reconciled or at least softened in the warm light of Christ.

“Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

But, especially on this World Communion Sunday, we remember that the “we” carries far beyond the walls of this church, past the safe community of people, who although we differ with in background, and political affiliation and other details, we hold much in common. But outside these walls in sometimes a different story.

I may be the luckiest person on the planet, because nearly every day, I get to stare into the eyes of a reminder of vastness of our oneness. In my house lives a little boy who looks nothing like me, a little boy who wasn’t, like me born, to two loving parents in a sleepy little Western New York town. The very presence of our foster child reminds me of our oneness in Christ and what a struggle that is for us. I am reminded that it wasn’t too many years ago that had I brought that little black boy to church with me, it would have been scandalous!

I can look in the crib at my home and see a glimpse of the body of Christ, but even that is limited.

“Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

Especially on this World Communion Sunday, we remember that the “we” carries far beyond the walls of this church, beyond Annaville, beyond CalAllen, beyond Texas, beyond The United States of America. We, who are very many, and seemingly so different, are one.

The hands that are held open to receive the loaf this morning will all look very similar, but the hands that will partake of the one body of Christ around the world will look very different. As we reconcile with each other, the limited “we” of this congregation, so does God call for the reconciliation of all the world as we all share from the one loaf, as we are truly one body.

²⁷Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.

Paul’s words are harsh when I think how short I have fallen in being truly reconciled with my brothers and sisters here in the church and even in the community; they downright sting when I think of how unaware I even am of those other hands open to receive the bread this day.

2^nd Corinthians5 ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

When we come to the table of Grace it is just a little snapshot of the kingdom that God has in mind for us. I am not talking about the heavenly kingdom we all seek at our death. I am talking about the kingdom of God that God is working to make present in this world. That kingdom we get a glimpse of at the Lord’s Table. As our differences are reconciled or softened, at least for the moment as we share together at this table, so is God leading us to a broader reconciliation, not just in this room, but around the world.

¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

If World Communion Sunday is nothing else, it is a reminder of the global nature of our oneness in Christ. It is a day that, when we receive the bread in our hands, we can close our eyes and picture a deeply dark, black woman in sub Saharan Africa dressed in a hand made, tattered gown, a woman who didn’t have any breakfast so that she might have enough to feed her children, a woman who walked ten miles to a place that we would hardly call a church. We can picture her kneeling, holding our her hands to receive from the same body we receive, trembling at the promise of love and transformation contained in those simple grains and the juice of the fruit of God’s creation.

Today is a day that, when we receive the bread in our hands, we can close our eyes and picture a tiny gathering of believers in China who are actually risking arrest by gathering in an “unregistered” group. We can picture a Chinese man sitting in a small room, holding out his hands to receive the same body we receive, trembling at the power of the sacrament and perhaps the fear of being discovered.

“Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

Today as we receive the bread on our hands and dip it in the cup we can close our eyes and picture our brothers and sisters in Iraq, who although the look so different are very much one in the body of Christ. Maybe they are only with us in thought today as it the tiny minority of Christians there (around 3%) take their lives into their hands just going outside, let alone trying to be Christian while rival Muslim factions struggle for control.

When I come to the tables with these brothers and sisters can we still feel that transcendent love of God that binds us together. Are we all truly one in the body of Christ?

²⁷Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.

When I think of how little I even know about my brothers and sisters around the world, their struggles, their joys, how some of their lives are actually affected simply by the food I choose to buy or where I shop or who I vote for, when I think of how little attention I pay, I instantly feel like I did sitting in that clergy gathering getting ready to receive communion from someone I didn’t much like.

Here is the good news of the communion table. None of us are worthy, but all of us are welcome. However, that doesn’t let us off the hook. As I invite you to the table, I invite you to think about all of our brothers and sister around this room, around town and around the globe. They are truly at this table with you.

“Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

Will Rice - Sermon #29 - Audio

Sermon on Mark 7:31-37 preached on September 17, 2006 at Grace United Methodist Church, Corpus Christi, Texas

The text of this sermon can be found below.


MP3 File

Will Rice - Sermon #29 - Passion and Compassion

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

Mark 7:31-37 New Revised Standard Version

“Passion and Compassion”

One of my favorite movie quotes of all times comes from the 1980s hit Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with Matthew Broderick. The line is this, “Yup, life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and take a look around once in a while, you might miss it”

That so well expresses the truth about Mark’s gospel. It is so fast paced and packed with things that tell us about God and Jesus and ourselves, that if we are not careful, we might miss the whole thing.

³²They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him.

If we don’t stop and look around in Mark’s gospel, we miss lots of stuff. All the words here are very carefully selected. The word for deaf here, in Greek, is kwfo,j (kophos.) That could either mean deaf or mute and is translated both ways in the New Testament. Here in Mark kwfo,j is deaf.

³²They brought to him a deaf (kwfo,j) man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him.

In a different healing account in Matthew’s Gospel the same word is translated as mute. 12:22:

²²Then they brought to him a demoniac who was blind and mute (kwfo,j) and he cured him, so that the one who had been mute could speak and see.

So the word can mean deaf and mute. And practically speaking, at least in the time when this was written when medical science wasn’t what it is today, those two things go together. But Mark doesn’t say deaf and mute. Mark writes that the man was deaf (kwfo,j) and then uses another, very particular wording “had an impediment in his speech.” The word Mark uses here is mogila,loj (mogilalos.)

³²They brought to him a deaf (kophos) man who had an impediment in his speech (mogilalos); and they begged him to lay his hand on him.

What is interesting about this word is that it is not used anywhere else in the entire New Testament. The only other place you can find this word is in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint.[1] I don’t want to make anyone’s eyes glaze over, but let me point out that the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek. At some point the Old Testament was translated into Greek and that is what we call the

Septuagint. This word mogila,loj (mogilalos) is found in Isaiah, 35:6:

⁶then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless mogila,loj (mogilalos) sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;

Alright, so you might be asking, what does all this mean? Why did the author of Mark’s gospel choose this very odd word to describe the man’s condition? And, why is Pastor Will telling me way more than I wanted to know about this. Well just hold onto to that thought for a moment and let’s continue on in Mark:

³²They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. ³³He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue.

Jesus has done this before in Mark’s gospel, healed in private, where the crowd can’t see. Is this just a move of compassion? We all like a little privacy when we are trying to get better. Or is there more going on here?

Then Jesus does something interesting. He put his fingers in the man’s ears and then spat and touched the man’s tongue.

Alright, this is a little odd. If I walked up to someone, put my fingers in their ears, then spat and touched their tongue, someone would try to have me fired. Some of us have trouble sharing from the same loaf of bread during communion, this is over the top!

But, we have to remember our context. In Greco-Roman writings, these seem to be some fairly common healing practices. Spit was considered to have healing properties. Which still makes it a little odd for Jesus to use these practices, his power to heal comes from above. However, this man is deaf and can’t hear what Jesus is saying, so perhaps, Jesus is trying to show him what is going on. I mean really, this is the Son of God. He could and scripture supports this, he could have healed him from the other side of town.[2] But he stopped and touched him, and healed him. That is compassion.

³⁴Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." ³⁵And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

I don’t really get why Jesus sighed, and I don’t know why sometimes Mark’s author uses the Aramaic word and immediately translates it as in:

"Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."

It does, however, remind us that Jesus spoke Aramaic, not Greek and certainly not King James English. Jesus never said “thou.” Whatever the reason, the man’s ears were open, literally, “the bond was released from his tongue and he spoke the right way.”

It is so tempting to stop here. This is a story of the powerfully compassionate Jesus Christ. I think it is a huge thing when people get this part. I love it when Christians reach a point in their journey when they really start emulating the compassion of Christ. There is a ton of healing and world changing that happens when people just care enough to share the pain of others around them, when people turn outward and seek to truly love as Jesus loves.

But, I have to tell you, we as individual Christians and as the church are missing out if we don’t keep reading.

³⁶Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.

This happens elsewhere in Mark’s gospel including in chapter 1, Jesus heals a leper and then says:

⁴³After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, ⁴⁴saying to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."

Now volumes have been written about why Jesus says “don’t tell anybody.” But let me give my quick answer to what is going on here. While Jesus had the power and compassion to heal, his mission on the earth was larger than that. If the word got out too much about his healings, all he would be doing is healings. The healings were not his mission, but they spoke to, gave witness to his mission and to who he was and is.

This is more than just compassion.

³⁷They were astounded beyond measure, saying, "He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

Alright, you remember a few minutes ago when I tried to make your eyes glaze over by explaining how the word the author used in this passage for speech impediment was only used here and in Isaiah 35:6? Well guess what? This looks like a quote from Isaiah 35:5:

⁵Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the
deaf unstopped;

The Isaiah passage is a prophecy that dealt, in its own context, with the redemption of the Israelite people and their return from exile. It is being referenced now to show the coming of God’s kingdom into the world in Jesus Christ.

You see, we can so easily miss it if we don’t stop and look carefully. This healing, is about way more than just healing. This amazing act of compassion is about way more than compassion. It is about God’s breaking into our world, it is about the coming of the kingdom of God, it is about a radical change that is taking place.

And now this line makes even more sense:

³⁶Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.

When a passionate pastor gets to a new church and sees an amazing amount of untapped, world-changing potential, if that pastor is smart, she begins by just being a good chaplain. She starts by showing that she is compassionate. At some point she starts to share her vision for the church, a vision that usually includes lots of change. When she starts sharing that vision and people start getting excited about it, the pastor often has to say, “don’t tell anybody, yet.”

Jesus knew what he was up to and he knew it was going to get him into trouble, real trouble. Not just a dirty looks from the church elders or a nasty letter in one’s file trouble, but real Roman punishment kind of trouble.

Jesus’ overabundant compassion was already raising questions with the authorities, but being overly compassionate will never lead you to the gallows. It is that other thing, that passion for God’s mission.

Mark’s not so subtle illusion to the prophecies of Isaiah, and Jesus’ constant attempt to keep people quiet about it, show us the revolutionary and dangerous thing that is going here. Those who choose to follow aren’t just taking on the happy task of healing; they are stepping into the midst of a revolution.

As Christians, as a church, we need to be radically compassionate, but we cannot stop there.

Jesus message, Jesus purpose is about much more than that.

It sounds kind of strange, but compassion can stop us dead in our tracks if it is compassion only. It can leave us as a church of well meaning, polite friendly folks, too afraid of ever hurting anyone’s feelings to ever take a chance at creating world changing ministries.

I cannot tell you the number of stories I hear from other pastors and leaders of other churches. They are stories that always start with bright eyes and excited tones. They are stories that talk of ideas of revolutionary ministries that spread the gospel, feed the poor, change oppressive systems, but then, eyes turn downward, voices lower and I hear why this ministry isn’t occurring. “Well Mrs. Smith is in charge of that area and she doesn’t want us to do anything else and no one wants to offend her.” or “We would have to replace Mr. Phelps to do that and he is such a nice person.”

We cannot going trotting roughshod over peoples emotions, hopes, loves and dreams as though our savior is someone other than the deeply compassionate healer Jesus Christ, but we cannot let that compassion stand blindly in the way of changing the world.

When we practice compassion only, without a willingness to embrace the prophetic world changing ministry that Jesus is with us to create, there actually becomes a limit to how compassionate we really are. Take a peek at your morning paper or turn on CNN. In between all the entertainment news, you may hear of the millions dying from poverty and war. Look around you neighborhood and see all the people who have never had a chance to really, I mean really hear the good news of God.

Compassion can stop us dead in our tracks if it is compassion only. It can leave us as a church of well meaning, polite, friendly folks, too afraid of ever hurting anyone’s feelings to ever take a chance at creating world changing ministries.

We can be so afraid to offend anyone that we never move forward and we can also be so afraid to offend anyone that we won’t truly challenge anyone to deepen their own relationship with God. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago how skittish pastors have become. Years ago, if you were a member of a church and didn’t come for a while, the pastor would show up at your house. Now, and I am probably more guilty of this than anyone, we are afraid to even call and say, “how come you aren’t coming to church?” We are certainly afraid to ask “Are you praying every day? Are you giving back to God out of your abundance? Are you reading scripture? What are you doing to deepen your discipleship?” Can you imagine if we started doing that? What if it wasn’t even just the pastor that asked those questions, what if we asked each other? We might offend someone. Or, maybe, we would start fanning the flames of ministry in the church and move from just being compassionate to being revolutionary.

We become afraid to challenge people to deepen their discipleship because we are afraid to “offend them.” We end up with a bunch of, yes very compassionate, people going through the dull motions of being church, taking care of each other while millions never even hear about Christ, while millions die of hunger, while the only message of Christianity that really gets spread is that of an angry, hateful, vengeful God.

So often we are stuck on being only compassionate. It gets in the way of our ministry and it is not really following the whole message of Jesus. Jesus, being the Son of God was more powerfully compassionate than I can ever hope to be. Jesus also had a larger mission, to bring redemption, to bring justice, to bring the Kingdom of God and when Jesus saw things that opposed that mission, he didn’t ignore them in the name of compassion.

A little later on in Mark, we find a passage that makes us nervous:

11:15 Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves; ¹⁶and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. ¹⁷He was teaching and saying, ‘Is it not written,
“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”?
But you have made it a den of robbers.’

Jesus doesn’t say “I am terribly sorry, and I don’t mean to offend you but…” Or, “These people need to stop doing this, but I don’t want to make them mad.” Instead passion, fire for the work of God.

You know, this you might not like, but there should be a large number of agitated people in the church. There is a man that you may have heard of. It not, you will. His name is Don Nations and he was in the Corpus Christi District this week to visit our churches and begin a process of transforming our congregations, so many of which are barely maintaining or even slowly dying. Not everybody likes Rev. Nations. He is constantly offending people. He is so bold as to walk into a church that is barely maintaining itself and in the midst of decline and say to them, “You are going to have to change.” He has been known to talk about sacred church traditions and furniture and programs as things that just need to be thrown away. He makes people angry and I bet he has made people cry. You would think that he has not one ounce of compassion. But he is loaded with it, along with a dose of passion for the Gospel that means he will do whatever he can to let more people be touched by the revolutionary message of the Gospel, even if that ruffles a few feathers.

We should be agitated. Agitated enough to truly seek out our calling, our part in the larger mission of Jesus, even if that means change or discomfort, or we will just end up being polite. Polite is nice, the Gospel is revolutionary.

Let me end with this. Please don’t go home and say, “Will said we don’t have to be nice anymore.” Be radically compassionate, Jesus was, God is, we are called to be. But don’t let compassion be the end all, let the passion for God’s message drive you farther.

Where that will be, I don’t know, but I will risk offending you to help you get there. Pray more, worship more, read more scripture, join a small group, talk to your Christian brothers and sister about what they think is next for you. Be more open to where God is leading you and where God is leading this church, even if that leading seems to be toward a place that you personally don’t like.

And be aware that our compassionate God is with you for the journey, transforming you baby steps into giant leaps, consoling you when you step backwards and catching you when you fall.

³⁶Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.

One last thing. If you are really getting this, if you really understand that this is about revolution, not just religion. If you see that is about compassion and passion, if you are ready to let God transform you, the church and the world, shhh, don’t tell anybody.

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[1] There is a nice little article on Wikipedia about the Septuagint - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint

[2] See the healing the centurion’s slave, Luke, chapter 7 or Matthew, chapter 8