Sermon: March 18, 2007
March 18, 2007
OFFERING MEDITATION:(9 a.m. – Dr. F. Wayne Bryant) Last Sunday, I forgot my offering envelope. And you have to understand that for me, the act of giving is almost equal to communion when I worship. I don’t pay my church pledge by credit card, I don’t mail it in once a month, we place it in the offering tray on Sunday morning, and I had forgotten my checkbook, or I misplaced it. I even apologized to the deacon as she came by me with the tray. I said, “I don’t have my checkbook.” She looked at me rather strangely, but that’s the way it was. Well, I found my checkbook…last Sunday’s, too. As the deacons wait upon us, may we share in an act of worship as we give our tithes and offerings.
(11 a.m. – Dale Sawyer) Somewhere in our lives, we have been introduced to Miss Manners, or Ms. Manners, or Mr. Manners. Along the way, we’ve run into someone who taught us how to respond to every social situation. We learned which fork to use, how to make introductions, how to respond to a gift, and to take care of awkward situations in mixed environments. So today, I’m inviting you to call up your mental tape of Ms. Manners. How are we to respond when we’ve been given the gift of God’s love and grace? We surely are to respond with the attitude of thanksgiving and a return gift of value, not just the value of monetary gifts, but the value of each one of our individual lives. Today is your opportunity to respond generously as we receive this morning’s offering, for this isn’t just meeting the church budget because we could do that by sending out letters, but it’s giving you the opportunity personally, individually, to give that the church might go forward, today, tomorrow and always, as we seek to serve God through our community and through the things that we are able to do on the basis of God’s love through us to others. May we receive our tithes and offerings as we are waited upon by our deacons at this time.
PRAYER OF DEDICATION:
(9 a.m. – John McComb) Pray with me. Gracious God, make us ever mindful of the words of St. Francis that in giving, we receive. Thank you for sending Your Son, Jesus, our Lord and Savior, into the world. Let his gift of life, showing compassion, understanding and love, be an example for us to be sensitive to, and respond to, the needs of others. Accept and bless these offerings so we may use them to make this world a better place. Amen.
(11 a.m. – Jo Thompson) Lord God, we bring our tithes and offerings to you for blessing, as we join with other churches around the world in the Prayer for Peace movement. Please use us and our gifts to support healing of root causes that lead to war. Help us to overcome despair, greed, bigotry and hate by spreading your truth, hope, generosity, tolerance and love. May we live by Jesus’ example and pray for peace in his name. Amen.
MORNING PRAYER:
(9 a.m. & 11 a.m. – Dr. Bryant) May we lift our hearts to God; shall we pray? God, into Your Presence have we come this morning to seek that peace which passes all understanding, that by your spirit we might be open to the truth in all things. We pray that you would give us hearts of grace that we might share with others out of our abundance, that we might be forgiving and giving in all things. We pray, O God, that as we worship here that we might have that sense that we are but part of a much larger community of your people seeking your will, seeking to walk in your footsteps of peace and righteousness. So as we pray, O God, we ask that you hear these prayers that have been shared with us. Make us instruments of your peace, make us instruments of your blessings as we seek to support and care for one another with not only words of love, but acts of kindness and grace. Hear, then, these prayers that we have made, for we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.
THE SCRIPTURE: Matthew 26:36-39
THE SERMON: “Thy Will Be Done” (Dr. F. Wayne Bryant)
Our journey toward Good Friday and Easter this week takes us to the garden where Jesus prayed, “Let this cup pass from me, and not my will, but thy will be done.” To me, this is one of the most poignant passages of Scripture in all of the Gospels. Certainly here we come face-to-face with both the humanity of Jesus and his divinity. By now, as he tried to make clear to his friends, he knew that death lay ahead of him. No one wants to die at 33 and certainly not on a cross. But we miss the entire meaning of the cross if we think that Jesus was only kind of a supernatural person whose business it was to give himself over to suffering and death. The struggle was real. Sweating in agony, he wrestled within himself. How could death accomplish reconciliation of those who were alienated from God? Could there not be another way? His ministry was going well, certainly. People were responding to the good news he preached. Why could he not continue to preach and teach and heal. God, Father, let this cup pass from me.
One of the early heresies of the church was known as docetism. The docetists believed that Jesus only appeared to be human. His humanity was a façade, which the divine Jesus took upon himself in order to communicate God’s message of grace and forgiveness. The docetists simply refused to believe that Jesus really suffered and died on a cross as a human being. In their mind, it just wasn’t possible. Jesus was superhuman. Suffering and death were not real. It was only a pretense. Unfortunately, docetism exists today. Not under that name, I suppose, perhaps, but it exists in the minds of those that refuse to accept the humanity, the full, total, humanity of Jesus and thereby, in refusing to accept that humanity, diminish the meaning and reality of the cross. On the other hand, the prayer in the garden testifies to the unique relationship of Jesus with God as divine parent. This is the paradox. The two sides of Jesus that the Creeds of the early church attempted to encapsulate in their creedal statement. It is seen even more clearly in the 14th chapter of Mark, for in Mark, Jesus begins his prayer with the words, “Abba!” Abba is not translated from the Aramaic. It’s almost not translatable in a way that would be acceptable in our Bibles, I suppose, but it was a term that a child used to address his father. The nearest English equivalency, I suppose, would be “Daddy.” It was an everyday family word that biblical scholar Joaquim Vieira says no one had ever ventured to use in addressing God, but Jesus did. He spoke to God in a childlike, trustful, intimate way as any one of us might speak to our own parent, regardless of our age.
My oldest daughter is in her mid-50s. She lives in the midwest. She’s the senior minister of a very fine congregation in Illinois. We don’t visit very often, obviously, but we talk on the telephone, which she usually begins with, “Hey, hi, dad,” and inevitably ends, as she signs off, saying, “I love you, Daddy.” I once heard, in my youth, a guest minister at a youth rally begin his prayer with the words, “Dear Daddy.” I was somewhat put off by it. It seemed to me presumptuous for this man to address God in that kind of intimate way. But for Jesus, it was a natural expression of an intimate relationship, that of parent and child.
Thy will be done. We pray it every Sunday when we pray or sing The Lord’s Prayer. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But what is the meaning for us? How does that play out in our experience day by day? Surely this translates into more than just our choice of education or marriage or profession. The will of God is a question that I suspect we do not consider with sufficient importance as we regard the issues of our day. With many of these issues, as we consider them, it should be a very intense and personal struggle to come to a conclusion of what is really the truth, and if we’re not comfortable with that kind of religious language, thy will be done, I would suggest that you simply substitute the phrase, “what is right,” instead of thy will be done. Let what is right be done, then ask yourself, is it right that some people should live in abject poverty while others enjoy abundance? Or is it right that all people might enjoy the fruits of honest labor, are able to provide for their own families the privileges of education and healthcare and the necessities of life, which the rest of us enjoy, and if this latter is right and the will of God, then we ought to move with deliberate haste to affect such equality of citizenship and justice for all through the wise use of the political processes that are available to us. Is it right that 143,000 children in Oregon should be denied insurance for healthcare or risk the danger of going hungry at night? Or is it right that every child should have access to adequate healthcare and proper nutrition. You see, if this is God’s will, then surely we can see our way to providing such care, if we have the political will.
When I was a boy, my mother used to talk about Armageddon. I didn’t know what it meant, but it evidently meant in her mind that there would be a war one day between good and evil, that it would start in the Mideast and after the war of Armageddon had been fought, the world would come to an end. She believed it. Some people today believe it also, that’s obvious. So is it God’s will that the war of Armageddon be fought, or is it God’s will that we engage in a dialogue of honest diplomacy in the pursuit of peace? You see, we tend often to equate the will of God with the way things are, and the way things are in the Middle East is a very volatile situation, that’s the way things are. Is that necessarily the will of God? The Muslims have a word for it, inshallah, which means “as God wills.” Is it? Or do you suppose it might be that we can seek a different will that God would have us to follow.
The question, of course, is how are we to know what is right? That is, how are we to know what is God’s will? Four things come to my mind, very quickly. The first is to open our minds and hearts and rid ourselves of the dogmatic certainties with which we protect ourselves from uncertainty and in humility approach the question honestly. It seems to me that one of the problems with those on the far left and those on the far right is that they are gripped in ideologies and certainties that they cannot release. They cannot see any other means, any other way, but through the narrow prism of their own very narrow eyesight. I’ve long argued with fundamentalists, because it seems to me that while they provide answers to difficult questions, answers are easier to accept than are the questions we ought to have. We need to rid ourselves of dogmatic certainties simply because we are afraid of not knowing, of not having an answer. Secondly is to listen instead of blustering. Have you ever thought that most of our prayers consist of our telling God the way things are and what we want, when the necessary part of prayer is to listen to the still small voice within; that is, the urging of our own conscience sometimes. Third is the willingness to act upon what we know or at least to suspect is right, even when such action may be contrary to our own inclination or may be unpopular. I have a very good friend, I was his pastor for 10 years. We played softball on the same softball team, and we have been sharing together as board members at Northwest Christian College, we’ve been good friends for a long time. His name is Senator Frank Morse. Last week, Frank went against his own party and, with one other Republican, voted for the establishing of the Rainy Day Fund by eliminating the corporate kicker tax because he believed that was the right thing to do. Finally, when we are not sure where a new direction will lead us, we really need to believe that further knowledge will come as we are ready to receive it. That doors will open, courage will come, and the way will be made clear. “For I do not ask to understand Thy way to see, better to trust and to follow Thee.
INVITATION TO COMMITMENT:
(9 a.m. & 11 a.m. – Dr. Bryant) Our invitation that we make every Sunday here at First Christian Church is to join with us in this community of faith by confessing Jesus as Lord or transferring membership. If you’d like to make that decision, come and stand beside me now. I Want Jesus to Walk With Me…9 a.m.; What Wondrous Love is This…11 a.m.)
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:
(11 a.m. – Carolyn Fennern) Loving Lord, we gather around our communion table, seeking your blessings. Life is difficult and it was very difficult for Jesus and it is for us today. Before Christ died, he asked, “God, the Father, if possible, take this cup from me,” then continued saying, “Not as I will, but as you will.” We truly grieve for Jesus and all he endured. He gave his life for each one of us. Somewhere in all of our hearts are feelings of sadness and grief that need to be healed. We ask you for courage to come into our pain so we can face it, deal with it, and if possible, move on. As we eat the bread and drink the cup, asking your blessing, may we be comforted feeling your presence and your love. Amen.
