YOUTH AS OUR AMBASSADORS
Our youth left early this morning for San Marcos, Texas on
their annual summer mission trip. I told
them that they were ambassadors. They truly are. They will represent CAUMC, the UMC,
Manhattan, and Kansas. And, most importantly they are ambassadors for Christ.
I have been to this UM Community center twice before so I
know it is one of the best programs. It
has amazing leaders, great food, and a fine program of house repair. Youth come all summer and repair 30-40 homes
with the constant guidance of carpenters.
One summer a group of youth I was helping repaired stuck windows. One year we worked on windows in a woman’s
house. She had her windows open for
years. She hesitated to let us in
wondering what a bunch of youth might do to her house. She was probably praying…”Lord, please help
them do a good job.”
At the end of the week the youth won her over both with their
ability to talk with her and with the amazing job they did. And she was thrilled at new friends from
United Methodist Church. People this
week will establish relationships with our youth. We know how amazing our youth are. Others will know our youth who love God with
all their hearts and minds and soul and strength….and they came all the way
from Kansas, as ambassadors to show God’s love to persons needing
assistance. I invite you to keep them
and their leaders in prayer this week.
Open windows were so good and even better was the spiritual opening of
hearts.
The Apostle Paul called himself an ambassador.
So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his
appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to
God.” We are all called to be
ambassadors for Christ.
WORDS ARE IMPORTANT
You can see how important messages and words are in this
story to communicate joy an love.
Language is how we communicate, express our needs. Language is where live. Jesus’ words are especially important. I am in total awe of those of you who know
more than one language. And I am in
amazement at God’s creation of a brain able to handle more than one language.
Only two times in the New Testament did Jesus call something
“amazing,” one negative and one positive. The negative
one was the lack of faith in his hometown synagogue. They refused to believe that Jesus, whom they
knew as a kid, could have this authority from God.
The other is a very
positive way: the amazing faith of a
Roman Centurion. People around Jesus and
around Luke when he wrote this book, would not have thought anyone would affirm
a Centurion:
1.
This man represented an oppressive occupying
army.
2.
He might have been one of those who has great
power and privileges and used them just to benefit himself.
3.
Roman soldiers would have been very suspicious
of Jesus having political ambitions.
4.
The Centurion could command those under them to
do anything.
Yet Jesus says this centurion is a great role model for all people of faith. He cared deeply about the world around him,
even his slave who needed help. You can
feel his heart of compassion. His
extravagant generosity was shone in his building a whole building for his
Jewish friends. His humility is evident
as he did not want to bother or overburden Jesus with a personal visit. You can see that he has faith in Jesus. He requested help and just knew it would come
in some form.
THEIR AUTHORITY IS SIMILAR BUT IN DIFFERENT AREAS
Jesus has authority from God. The commander had authority from Rome. The Centurion could say the word and all his
soldiers would do whatever he asked.
Jesus has the same kind of authority, but not over soldiers. Jesus had the same kind of power to inspire
new life and offer healing. A very different
realm responds to Jesus’ authority.
The commander, he had power the power to destroy and
kill. The centurion sees a different
power in Jesus. Military might cannot
heal the sick or raise the dead. His
whole army cannot bring healing to his faithful servant. Imperial power cannot create love from
others….only fear. He knew that Jesus
power was in one sence so much greater than Roman power. Jesus heals communities and people and brings
love. Love brings people down from their
high thrones and lifts up the lowly.
The commander’s power could bring the world down. Jesus can turn the turn the world upside down
or right side up in a spiritual way.
That is the essence of faith.
The centurion could see the possibilities of life through God’s eyes, a
world renewed by God’s grace.
Authority ruled in that place and that time! And yet the Centurion could see another realm
where faith, collective faith, could move hearts. Pope Francis does not care much for all the
fancy trappings of the Pope role. But he
has chose to live simply and to be seen as servant of those who are the most
vulnerable and least powerful. Like
Jesus his has been criticized for stepping outside the bounds of
appropriateness and tradition.
It is interesting that he asked the Jews to contact
Jesus. It shows that Jesus, a Jew, had
great relationships with so many Jewish people.
The Centurion had built a synagogue for the Jews so he asked them to
contact Jesus on his behalf. It was an
honor to Jesus to have such important people ask for him and to have them
mention the Centurion as someone worthy of Jesus’ favor.
Just when the centurion was ready to receive a home visit
from someone who could enhance his prestige and one who had a great reputation
for healing---he sent a message for Jesus not to come confessing his
unworthiness. Second, he asked Jesus not
come to his house. Jesus seemed to see
the gesture as a confession of faith.
LUKE AND JESUS ARE TEACHING US NOT TO MISS IMPORTANT THINGS
Jesus had the authority and power to heal from a
distance. If the centurion’s word could
cause people to do things to do his will, Jesus’ word could restore his slave’s
health just with his word alone. Jesus
did not say anything about his worthiness or unworthiness but he did see his faith as greater than any he
had seen in Israel. This would have been
shocking for the readers of Lune and for the hearers of Jesus.
This man was a foreigner, outsider, a soldier, not a Jew and
he believed in Jesus more than so many
others. He grasped something that
even Jesus’ closest disciples had trouble seeing. Authority is about serving, being last not
first, being the servant and not the one served. Jesus often went to ones with the least
honor….the least, the last, and the lost.
And we can see that Jesus helped the ones with the highest of honor.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE WITH JESUS IN PERSON
Just by hearing about Jesus the centurion came to
faith. He had not met him or heard him
speak. How did he know? Through hearing about Jesus, he came to know
more about him than many. How now can we
doubt the power of words?
None of us have met Jesus face to face or to see him
offering healing to people. But in the
Holy Spirit God is present. That power
was very evident in Jesus and it continues now:
mighty in word, response to our true needs, and compassionate to heal in
many ways.
Crystal Fore from the District Office sent this to all the
churches.
Just wanted to share this little story with you; it was a
reminder for me about a lot of things, but particularly about the importance of
doing all we can as a church to share the gospel message. About a year ago we
upgraded the church's sound system to give us the ability to record the audio
portion of our worship services. This allows us to make the recordings
available to those not able to attend worship services.
I received an email from a church member whose mother has
not been able to attend church for many years. We have been sending a copy of
the bulletin and the recording to her for about six or seven months. The mother
has suffered with Alzheimer's for about 9 years. The daughter has mentioned
several times that her mother enjoys listening to the recordings, even over and
over.
This is a copy of the email the daughter sent to me:
I was in my part of the house and heard Mama talking in a
loud voice. I went to her doorway but didn't open the door… She was shouting
this: "Share yourself! Share your love! Reach out – let the Holy Spirit
move and speak and bring together!! Jesus is alive today! " She had
recorded these words from your sermon.
The daughter said she was so grateful to receive this
message in a way she could understand. Thank you, Pastor!
At times I wonder if my message is going anywhere, and this
was a great reminder for me that God works through the Holy Spirit in many
wonderful unexpected ways. We may think at times that we are not getting
anywhere with a message or with our work in the church, but our trust needs to
be in the work of God, not our own.
At Annual conference, being the culminating conference,
leaders gave several history videos.
During the one on Mission Outreach, a photo of our church was put on the
screen to tell about our starting Ogden Friendship House of Hope. We can in shared life together show the ways
God is working though us. God is always
starting new things!!! And this Lord’s
Supper will give us the strength and healing of God, in order to transform us and the world around
through us.
THANKS BE TO GOD!
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