sermon October 18, 2015
Laity Sunday
Genesis 12:1-4 Abraham – Go to a distant land
Matthew 4:18-20 1st
Disciples – Come, follow me
Ephesians 4:1-16 -
Ephesians 2:8-10 – saved
for good works
Matthew 28:18-20 – the
Great Commission
Matthew 25:31-46 – the sheep
and the goats
John 13:34-35
Ruth 1:16-18
John Wesley’s Covenantal
Prayer
“Feet to Our Faith”
Raymond A. Foss
Feet to Our Faith
The Call of Abram
12 The Lord had said to
Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the
land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a
great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name
great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who
bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram went, as the
Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when
he set out from Harran.
The calling of the first disciples
18 As Jesus was walking
beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his
brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.
19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
Have you ever felt God
calling you to change your path, to go a different direction? How have you
responded? Have you gone? Have you resisted God’s calling? Are you using the
gifts God has given you? Have you prayed in the night, “Lord, give me the
courage to do whatever it is You would have me do?” Do you embrace John Wesley’s Covenantal
Prayer.
Pastor Ruth’s summer sermon
series, and in some ways the messages of Sally and Cecily, and definitely the
message Terry shared last Sunday, all talk about how we move from our place of
comfort, from our sitting here in these pews, within “the walls of the Temple”
to a place of mission, of calling, maybe doing something we haven’t done
before, maybe going somewhere we haven’t been, maybe moving to use the gifts
God has called us to do, to lift up the body of Christ, to just be open to
God’s calling in the first place, to help the least, the last, the lost, to
make a difference here on earth and to bring a harvest before God. This coming together of these messages isn’t a
happenstance.
As a believer I no longer
believe in coincidence. Somehow we are supposed to learn something, to change,
to grow, from each step of the journey, both alone and collectively. For some
reason, that God knows, we have come to this place, this moment. What do we as
laity, especially today on Laity Sunday, need to do differently, what is God
calling us to do and to be, in ministry together? These are the questioning of the heart that
we should be pondering.
These are questions that
each of us is called to answer for ourselves. It isn’t for me to tell you what
to do. Each of us is gifted by God differently.
Each of us is called by
God to do work that is ours to do, with the specific gifts we are given.
Each of us is to pick up
the stones that God gives us and we are not to pick up the stones of others.
Yes, it is okay to say no
to even important things if they are not yours to do. Instead of “jumping right
in”, it is good to slow down and pray about it, to listen to the Spirit within
each of us. God has a plan.
How do we put feet to our
faith? How do we answer God’s calling? How can we go forward with confidence?
How can we persevere in spite of our fears? We each do it differently and, as
Terry said, that is a good thing.
One great way to start is
to look at a few of the people in the bible who have given us examples of what
this looks like.
Abraham is known as the
father of our faith, because he was before the Law of Moses and he went when
God spoke directly to him and said go.
The first disciples had no
idea what they were getting into when the living Christ said, “Come, Follow
Me”, but they went.
Ruth is a wonderful
example of loyalty, of taking the bold step of following, of risking all by
following Naomi, of trusting in that unknown, unseen God (which is a bigger
leap than Abraham and the first disciples in a way) to provide all she needed.
Paul’s letter to the
Ephesians talks about how we are saved to do good works, to not sit quietly and
say, “I’m good right here sitting in my pew.” He called all of us, both in
Ephesus and around the world, to go out there and use our God-given gifts for
the glory of God.
And in the Ephesians from
last week, that calling is separate and unique for each of us, but the goal is
the same, to lift up our neighbors and to build up the body of Christ, as we
are each gifted, to love God and to love others as Christ has commanded.
Jesus, in the sheep and
the goats story from Matthew 25, was and is calling us to care for others; but
even Jesus didn’t say how we were to do these things. There was no proscribed
way. He gave a list of what the kinds of things were that faithful sheep did.
How we want to be the
sheep in that story, to hear these words, “from verse 34, “‘Come, you who are
blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since
the creation of the world.”
Jesus said this is how the
sheep had acted… “35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was
thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me
in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me,
I was in prison and you came to visit me.’”
Well, I know I haven’t
visited anyone in the county jail, that the only time I visited anyone in a
real prison was when I was an attorney many years ago when I visited a client
who was in jail. And, trust me; that was no fun.”
Heck, besides this
scripture, Jesus raised the bar even higher when He gave the Great Commission
in Matthew 28:18-20.
“18 Then Jesus came to
them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you.”
Well, I really know I
haven’t baptized anyone, ever, in my whole life. And I am pretty sure that I
haven’t made anyone do anything in my whole life, unless you mean my kids when
I scream and yell at them.
I know I haven’t ever MADE
anyone become a disciple of Christ. To my understanding of human nature and
God’s gift of free will, none of us on our own can MAKE disciples.
If these are the
yardsticks we hold up in front of ourselves, we will always fail. We will never
be good enough. We can even end up giving up.
I really am drawn to John Wesley’s Covenantal Prayer,
partially because it is hard to do and partially because it speaks to the state
of our hearts. This is the way we become servants, open fully to God’s calling
to us.
I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing, put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you,
exalted for you, or brought low for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty,
let me have all things,
let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified
in heaven.
I think it goes back to
the words of John 13:34-35 that Sally read. Jesus pushed us from the “Golden
Rule” of loving each other as we would wish to be loved, to loving as Christ
loved us.
It is that simple. That is
the mark of a Christian, that we love God and we love each other as Christ
loved us.
We are to use the gifts we
have been given, not as anyone else would, to honor and worship God and to lift
up our neighbors, whether they are our family, in this congregation, in Patten,
or those fighting in Syria, or those fleeing for their lives.
There is no one right
answer. It is what God calls each of us to do. Will we answer God’s call with
our feet. It is as simple as that…
Amen
October 18, 2015
Laity Sunday
Genesis 12:1-4
Abraham – Go to a distant land
Matthew 4:18-20 1st Disciples – Come, follow me
Ephesians 4:1-16 -
Ephesians 2:8-10 – saved for good works
Matthew 28:18-20 – the Great Commission
Matthew 25:31-46 – the sheep and the goats
John 13:34-35
Ruth 1:16-20
John Wesley’s Covenantal Prayer
message: “Feet to Our Faith
text
video
by Raymond A. Foss
&
Pastor Ruth Foss
sermon blog
meditation blog
“God’s Whisper” blog
Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church
October 18, 2015
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