My last sermon…until the next one

Our last service was this morning, and by “our” I mean the rest of my team has already left to back to school and I had to do this one solo. Despite some pretty intense wind, the service went really well. Leading a couple songs acapella was interesting, but we got through it. It was fun to talk to the guests after the service, one of whom was a pastor. The conversation was very encouraging. Throughout the whole summer I’ve been struck by how Christians from all over the country, and world, can put aside their differences to worship the same God together. This gives me a lot of hope for the future of the church, despite all of the troubles it currently faces. It still hasn’t quite hit me that that was the last service, or that I only have a few days left here. I guess that’s because I feel like there is a lot to be done between now and then. I could definitely use some prayer for guidance in wrapping things up and leaving my new friends with encouraging words of wisdom for the journeys ahead of them.

The Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit

John 14:15-23

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever,

even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.

"I will not leave you desolate; I will come to you.

Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me; because I live, you will live also.

In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."

Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?"

Jesus answered him, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

Since this is the last service here at Mount Rushmore for the summer, I thought it would be appropriate to reflect a bit. As I was thinking over and remembering what my team and I have seen, done and been a part of, one thing stuck out very clearly. That one thing was the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit a lot of this ministry wouldn’t have happened, it just wouldn’t have been possible. The text I read occurs during Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse.” This is given at the Last supper, and is Jesus’ final instructions to the disciples before being crucified. Jesus is teaching them how to follow him and continue his ministry when he is no longer with them in the flesh. He will soon be in Heaven, and accessible only through the Spirit.

That’s one of the key points here, that the Holy Spirit is our direct connection to Christ, who is our direct connection to God the Father. It is through the Spirit that we come to know and love Christ, that we experience his love today and discern his voice and calling. But what I want to focus on is that it is throuh the Spirit that we come to love Christ.

Jesus says three times in this section that those who love him keep his commands. This three-fold repetition means that this is Jesus’ main point, and this is a difficult calling. If we take a look at his ministry we can get a better sense of what those commands are. When someone asked Christ what the greatest commandment was, he said there were two. The first is to love God with all of our heart, soul and mind, and the second is to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matt. 22:34-40). He then demonstrated this in several ways. He showed us that we serve him and love him by caring for the sinner, the prostitute, the sick, the dirty, the outcast, unpopular and those who don’t have the means to care for themselves.

These commands apply to all of us who are Christians. It is almost impossible to do. In fact, by ourselves, it is impossible. But Jesus promises to send us the Advocate, which can also be translated “Helper.” He did not leave us alone and orphaned. Through the Holy Spirit we hear and gain the power to undertake the specific calling Jesus has placed on us.

So how are you being called to carry out Jesus’ ministry today?

For me, for this summer it was this ministry. Before I got here I had no idea what to expect. I was pretty nervous about the Midwest, and South Dakota, because I love the West Coast. I didn’t really know what the ministry would look like, but at the same time I was excited. As I plan to be a pastor one day, I was excited about worshipping from this context, and getting experience delivering sermons. I also had a sense of peace, because I knew that those times when I have the least control is when God has the most control, so I knew big things would come.

And God had a lot bigger plans than just for Sunday morning. It all started when one of our coworkers from China wanted to learn more about Christianity and become a Christian. So we met regularly and he ended up becoming a Christian. Then his roommate did. Then they began shoring with their friends, and we had too many people interested in learning about Christianity to meet with them all individually. So we started organizing and holding meeting where we could all meet together to learn, study, ask and answer questions and pray.

These meetings posed two major problems for me. The first was I was very intimidated by the large amount of information to cover and the short amount of time to do it in. We were starting from very basics, like who God is, what sin is and why we need Christ. I was often at a loss for words for how to faithfully yet simply enough describe and demonstrate Christianity so that they could grasp what it really is. The other problem was our schedules. They often worked mornings, and I worked until 11pm, so we wouldn’t be able to meet until 11:30pm. By this time I was far too tired to be motivated and excited for the meeting. Don’t get me wrong, I loved those meetings, but it took a lot of work of the Spirit to get me there and prepared. But I knew I was commanded to be there and that God would provide me what I needed.

In verse 21 Jesus says that he will love and reveal himself to those who do his commands. During those meetings when I was most tired, most wanted to sleep and most at a loss for words, those were the best meetings. I got to see Christ work the most when I was the weakest and least ready. By relying on the Holy Spirit we can actually carry Jesus’ ministry on. Or rather, when we completely submit to the Holy Spirit, we can see Christ work directly through us.

So how are you being called to carry on Christ’s ministry? Yes, I’m going to be a pastor, but that doesn’t mean anyone else has a less significant ministry. A successful business person once told me that the difference between a pastor and the laity is just how they are funded. A professor of mine loves to say that if you’re a Christian you have a ministry. God wants to reconcile the whole world to Himself, so how does He want to through you, from where you are now, in the midst of the people around you? As we go out from here, I hope that you and I, and American Christianity in general can take the work of the Holy Spirit a bit more seriously.

Basics are groundbreaking

Well, summer at Mt. Rushmore may be winding down, but nothing else is. All my ministry team members have deserted me in order to go to school, so my last week will be interesting. I have one Sunday service to do on my own, as well as a few more meetings about the basics of Christianity. I’m starting to realize how little I’ve focused on what happens on Sundays, when that had been the majority of what I was looking forward to before I got here. But here, as in any ministry, so little of the actual ministry happens on Sunday morning. It is, and should be, a lot bigger than that. In our late night meetings about what Christianity is, I’m continually struck by how fundamental some of the questions that emerge can be, as well as how hard they can be to answer.

For example, “What is sin?” Think about it. How do you really answer that for someone who doesn’t know? We have to understand it in order to understand what we’re saved from, but where do you begin? If you get too specific and just list specific sins, you limit our faith to a list of do’s and don’ts. However, if you are too ambiguous, the entire concept is lost. After this topic had come up in a couple of meetings I finally arrived at an answer. Sin is literally falling short, or missing the mark of what were called to be and do. But what is it that we are called to? Jesus summed it up with two commands; to Love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and to love our neighbor as our self (Matt 22:37-39). So, sin is any action or thought or state that falls short of this, including a specific list of sins. It hit me right when I said it. If that’s what sin is, then we are all in serious trouble. I think if we all took seriously how great our debt was, and how much we fall short of meeting God on our own, we would live our lives and practice our faith a little differently. At least a little more passionately.

Conversations like these have helped me comprehend my role in ministry a little more clearly. When we talked about the shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to find 1, or the radical forgiveness of the parable of the prodigal son, a lot of things don’t make sense. That one sheep shouldn’t matter and the son might as well be dead. Even people who have never read the Bible catch this and point it out. Yet somehow we are forgiven and called to represent the grace we have been shown. I can only explain what Christianity is, not how it works. I don’t know why I’m saved or so convicted that God is real and loves me. I don’t know how I ended up at Mount Rushmore for a summer. And I really don’t know why I can push through fatigue and my introverted need to be alone after work to facilitate meetings like this. All I know is the God I’ve encountered and how my perspective and hope has shifted from this life to the next. I am using every bit of theology I have learned, and am convinced no amount of study will enable me to answer every basic question. I have to focus on making accessible the things I can, demonstrating Christianity far more than I talk about it, and just let God do the rest. He’s good at that.

The problem with short term ministry

I’m running out of ways to tell you God is working here. Last week was very busy. Aside all the usual work and weekly ministry stuff, I had scheduled a “class” type meeting for late Saturday night. I spent all week trying to develop what I could say to my Asian and Middle Eastern friends that would be there. How do you introduce Christianity to someone who has never interacted with it, or at least very little? They may have seen the joy or voluntary endurance of persecutions and trials by Christians in the past, but how do you explain why? How do I explain why my hope goes beyond the world I can see to one that I have faith in? How do you explain who God is? You get the point.

I ended up breaking it up into basic questions.

- What are Christians?

- Who is God?

- What is/why is sin?

- How do we get to know God?

- How do we develop this faith?

- What else do Christians do?

- How do we become Christians?

We then read some scripture together, and will meet again to read more.

This format actually went really well, because I could go pretty in depth with just these basic questions. Though they may not have much experience with Christianity, they ask a good range of tough questions. After I had talked a while I opened it up for questions, and they kept me on my toes. We would go from “Is God a real being or just a sentimentalized force?” to “If God is good and God’s creation was good and people were good as God created them, why is there evil in the world?” to “How do you pray?” It was quite a range.

Saturday had already been quite a day too. After several of us had planned on going to church together Saturday evening, only two of us ended up being able to go. This was only his third church service ever. I had been taking people to several different churches so they could get a feel for things that various churches do differently and what we all do the same. This time we were going to a Lutheran church. It was their contemporary service, meaning the pastor didn’t wear his suit jacket and Amazing Grace was added alongside the hymns. I found the service kind of dull and almost fell asleep. However, the sermon was quite good, and talked about true “vision”, and how our faith gives us vision for the things we hope for and trust in. Overall, it was an ok service. But on the way home my friend told me how much he loved it. I talked with him a bit about faith, and he said he now had it. He asked me how he could become a Christian and as soon as we got back we prayed together. Though I found it to be an average service, he found the Holy Spirit there. How much we could all use a little more “vision” for the Spirit’s presence. It was so wonderful to talk about this experience in that meeting we had later, I think some of our friends are close to being ready to pray that prayer too.

This is where I want more time. Most of them go back to China soon, and communication will be much more difficult. There are Christians and churches in China they can connect with, but not that I can. We have talked a little about how the church in China is different, and how it has to be since it is proclaiming Christ to very different people, but I have to hope and pray and trust that as they seek those churches out they prove to be fruitful land to grow in.

July 1st Update and Sermon

Well, things are moving ahead at full speed. There are now so many people interested in reading the Bible and learning about Christianity that I cannot keep up with them all individually. I’m going to have to start some type of meeting in order to be able to teach everyone the information they are seeking. What a wonderful problem to have! On Saturday night we went to another church service, this time with three of our international coworkers, and some of our American friends who have grown distant from the church too. There is quite the snowball effect going on! Thank you all for your prayers and support of this ministry. It is clear that a lot of prayer and a very big God are working here.

On another note, I preached today! It felt like it had been such a long time since I had preached, I really missed it. Lately I’ve been reading about the early Methodist movements, and I’m pretty sure my message was shaped by how evangelical they were. This struck me when I realized I was really stressing repentance. Anyways, despite clouds and intermittent rain showers the service went well. I cracked a couple jokes about Seattle to get started and finished just in time for it to really pour. Except for being cut a little short by the rain, the service went very well. Afterward our team took a road trip to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. I’ll post pictures of that later.

This message was another one of those texts that was laid on my heart for no particular reason. No matter how much I scoured the Bible I could not find another message that I was meant to give. As I prepared, I was wondering if God’s reasoning would be evident during the service. Little did I know that the concept of God continually welcoming us back would be a very important topic for the new and almost Christians in the days that have followed. The story of the prodigal son is one of the most beautiful and hopeful texts we have, and serves as an excellent example of how deliberate our sin is, as well as how God is waiting to embrace us.

The Prodigal Son, Luke 15:11-40

Luke Ch 15, NIV

Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him.

But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." Then Jesus told them this parable: "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

"Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins [fn] and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.'In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons.

The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

"When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' So he got up and went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

"The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'

"But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate.

For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.

"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.

So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'

"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.

But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!' " 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.

But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "

Looking at this parable this morning, I want to talk about how God looks for us when we are lost, finds us when we repent and celebrates our return to Him. This parable is an excellent example of how deliberate our sin is, how deliberate God’s pursuit of us is and what our repentance is supposed to look like. I realize that most of us who make it to Mt. Rushmore at 8:30am for worship (during the rain!) are likely to already be Christians. But, this message is just as important for us as it is for those who haven’t yet heard it for the first time. As much as we sin, we should turn back to God. In fact, that’s what the literal meaning of the term “repentance” means. It means to turn around and change direction, back towards God. Even those of us who profess Christianity have sinned and turned away, and God is actively seeking us and waiting to celebrate our return.

This theme of God’s seeking us and celebrating our return is a very important one in the gospel, and we see this in the emphasis the two parables that directly precede this one add to it. In the beginning of chapter 15, Jesus tells us about the shepherd who lost one of his one hundred sheep. He secures the ninety-nine in an area and sets out to find the lost one. When he finds it, he lays it on his shoulders, carries it back, and celebrates its return with his friends. Directly after this is the parable of the woman who lost one of her ten silver coins, each representing a day’s worth of wages. This is heightened by the fact that as a woman, she wouldn’t have had access to the same economic resources or employment opportunities as a man would have. She was likely dependant on the generosity of her family. So she lights a lamp and sweeps the house until she finds it. She then calls on her neighbors and rejoices with them. Together, these parables show us that though we are one out of far more than a hundred, God seeks us out as if we’re the only one.

God’s joyful reception of us in the state we’re in is shown in detail in this parable. It starts with the point at which we all start, our sin. When the son asks for his inheritance, he is basically saying to his father, “I could care less whether or not you’re dead, give me my share on the inheritance so I can leave you.” This is a very deliberate turning away, and we do the same every time we sin. Every time we sin, when we know that that sin separates us from God, we are deliberately turning away from God.

It doesn’t take long for the son’s lifestyle, and living under his own means to prove destructive. He is so humiliated and desperate that he resorts to feeding pigs. This would have been an especially humiliating position, because as a Jew he would have considered pigs unclean. He is now at rock-bottom. He is completely alienated from his father, family and nation, and has disowned them. It is in this state where he is utterly ashamed and torn-down that he is confronted with remorse.

But, as much as the son’s turning away perfectly captures what we do when we sin, his remorse and repentance are a perfect example for us. He realizes how good he had it in his father’s house. He realizes that complete submission to his father is better than running his life in the way he has been. Let me read for you what he plans to say to his father. “I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” Luke 15:18-19. This is a great example for us, that we will go into in a bit.

First let’s notice that he LEAVES the land of his sin and sets out toward his father’s house. The father sees him from a distance, has compassion for him, and runs to embrace his son. This indicates that the father wasn’t carrying on his normal business, he was waiting and watching for the return of his son, regardless of the state he returned in. Here he repeats his confession of guilt, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” Luke 15:21 This exact repetition does not occur by accident. It means that this is central to the meaning of the parable. This confession is to be what we focus on, because it is what we are to do.

Now let’s look at the father’s response to this complete submission. He responds with four very symbolical items. The first is the robe. This shows the father’s favor for the son. We can remember the story of Joseph and his eleven brothers, where their father showed how much he favored Joseph by giving him a similar robe. God favors us when we return to him. Next is the ring. This means he isn’t a hired man, or a slave, but he has responsibility and authority. When we come back to God we acknowledge that He has a plan for us. The sandals indicate that he is a member of the family. He isn’t just another manager, he is welcomed back as the father’s son. Last is the calf. The fatted calf was reserved only for the most special celebration and occasion, which God considers this to be.

We go on to see that the brother completely misses the point. None of us deserve to be in the presence of the father, so when a sinner is welcomed in, we should celebrate as much as the father does. The brother says he has never been given as much as a goat, but he has dined with the father for every meal and has everything that the father possesses (v. 31).

So why don’t we repent more often? God wants to favor us, show us the plan He has for us, welcome us as His child and celebrate our return. Repenting and confession should be a part of our lives daily. I have two reasons why we don’t. The first is that sin just is not preached enough anymore. We need to hear about the full weight and consequences of our sin. We hear a lot about grace, and what Christ did for us by dying on the cross, but we’re missing the first half of that. It was our sin that made that necessary in order to be reunited with God. We simply aren’t reminded enough.

At the opposite extreme, we are too ashamed by what we have done, the extent to which we have turned away, or the number of times we have turned away. If we look at the verse that goes immediately before these three parables, Luke 15:1, we see that it was the “tax collectors and sinners” that were gathering around Jesus, and who Jesus was speaking to. There was no more ashamed people than the tax collectors. They weren’t just working for the IRS, but they were taking advantage of their own people on behalf of an occupying government. It is those who are ashamed that God is seeking, because only by His power will we overcome our sin and grow closer to Him. To try and stop sinning first is to try and save ourselves. We can’t do it without God, so in our shame we must turn to Him and ask for that grace. It’s called grace because none of us deserve it.

So let’s look at the son’s example of repentance. He starts by admitting, “I have sinned”. We have to acknowledge and admit our sin to God. We say, “God, I knew what was wrong, and I did it. I knew it would separate me from you, so by doing it I deliberately turned away.” Because of this, we admit that, “I am not worthy.” Because we turned away from our father, we are not worthy to be called His child. We then go on and say to God that we completely submit to his will and plan for us.

God is waiting to forgive us, get closer to us and move past our sins. So, whether you’re Christian or not, please consider how God is seeking you, and start to seek Him. Confess and repent, and turn back to Him, whether it is for the first time or the hundredth time. Then, celebrate with Him and your brothers and sisters in Christ.