Blessing the World

A Sermon by Rev. Larry Fry based on I Corinthians 3:1-9

College Avenue UMC

February 16, 2014

This week, Penny and I got a card and letter from a friend.  Through a mutual friend she had just found out that we were grandparents.  She saw and purchased this card years ago and saved it to send us when we became grandparents.  On the cover of the card, it has two potatoes, looking at their new baby.  The card cover says, “Look, he has our eyes!”  The inside of the card reads, “Congratulations on your new small fry.”  How funny!  We are moved by her thoughtfulness.

This new “small fry,” named Toland, is one of the greatest joys of our lives and now another to have the honor to baptize him, a Sacrament of the Church.  A sacrament is something started by Jesus in which the Holy Spirit brings a special blessing.  Baptism is not necessary for salvation, but it is important and a great help.   Toland’s life journey and his faith journey are just beginning.

So many parts of our culture work against the best kind of spiritual growth, and one of those is the desire for a quick fix for everything.  I love the analogy Paul uses.  Paul is reminding us faith education is a lifelong process.  Like a garden, it takes planning and care. While it is true that God can do things quickly in the lives of people and churches, God often uses long-term growth.

To compare it to cooking, many things do not work well in a microwave.  The amazing delicious smell and taste of yeast bread just does not come out right out of a microwave.  The best things in life often take time.

Growing Disciples Takes Time

Deepak, father of our daughter-in-law, has been studying the Japanese language a long time.  He needs it for his work.  For over 10 years he has been taking lessons, and he is still not done with lessons.  In our culture, we want things done NOW.   Not all things happen in the best way NOW.  Deepak, there is an app for your phone called DUOLINGO.  The marketing ad says that you can learn a language in the 34 hours.  Tell that to a language teacher.

Years ago, this church decided that our education program for children needed to be changed.  We adopted a program called “Rotation” which means rotating classrooms and different learning methods.  One week a video will be presented, another week will have the students acting out the story, another week will involve art or science.  And each age level goes deeper into the meaning of each story.   We live in a culture that does not want to wait for anything … we want it now.  But here at College Avenue, we have designed Sunday School curriculum, rooms, furniture, programs to nurture and grow disciples with plans that stretch over years.  Just recently, our children have been studying the story of Zaccheaus.  Our design for growing disciples has each higher age level going deeper into the meaning.  And by the time we get to the youth, the emphasis is on applying it to the world.  You can see in our lower hallway photos of the drama. 

Paul was writing to a church caught in conflict, needing to grow.  This is the church where Forrest Buhler would be needed for mediation and David Proctor for planning.  They had lost sight of their mission with their energies directed into resentments.  Paul was addressing this letter to people who were not being their best.  They were obviously doing things that were not appropriate for the Christian faith. 

A group developed around Paul as a leader and another around Apollos.  And they had each developed negative feelings toward the other group.  The result was they had lost sight of their purpose as a church.  We have all been around organizations where the whole energy of the group was caught up into small groups wanting to get their way.

I am so glad that Toland will grow up learning good things from two faith traditions.

Here is a quote from a Hindu source:

A mature being does not render evil for evil; this is a maxim one should observe; the ornament of virtuous persons is their conduct.

--Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda 115

Obviously Paul and Apollos had followers and they did not always agree.  You can feel that in the church at Corinth, things were not going well.   They had turned mean.   And to offer a healing opportunity, Paul uses two images for teaching … one a garden and other a building. 

Paul is reminding us not to get bogged down in petty rivalries, or lose energy God intended for other purposes, like blessing the world.  Harvest means that a church should be blessing the world around.   If a church is not blessing the world something is very wrong and Paul reminds us that it is God should be LARGE AND IN CHARGE…NOT ANY ONE PERSON.

Our New Building is to be a New Garden Where We Can Bring About New Life

Not many weeks from now, people will be planting their gardens, and soon after that plants spring up and then, a harvest.   Only God can grow a garden, and only God can grow a church.  That knowledge should give us both humility and excitement.  God is growing something unique here and we get to help.

Back to this truth: it is God who creates and creates all things growing.

In my experience, when a church starts a building project, curious people appear in the door, coming to see what is growing here.  They come knowing that building is one sign of growth.  What they really hope to find is a place of spiritual growth that will help their spiritual journey.  Does this faith family invite, nurture, empower, and send people into the world to bless it?  If it does, they will be interested … very interested.

What we want most is for our church to grow spiritually and through a relationship with God out of which mission and ministry bloom like blossoms and fruit.  The Holy Spirit continues to breathe life into our church.

Disciples Are All Unique and Not Everyone Has to Fit Into a Mold

In Paul’s day, groups were taking sides by defining a disciple in one way.  God never defines disciples in only one way any more than he defines only one size and style of strawberry.   This is a hard time of the year for strawberries.  Several people have mentioned this recently.  The groceries stores have these giant berries … just a few in a box and white on the inside and taste like plastic.  I think these berries make us long for the small berries, each a bit different in size and shape, but so, so good.  We especially love the ones grown in local gardens and sold at the farmer’s market.

It Takes Time to Grow a Church Because God is the One Who Grows It

I can see many ways a new fellowship hall will benefit our children.  It will be a place of fellowship around potlucks, the excitement of games, the joy of dance, a large community forum or a concert or an art exhibit showing what our church children have shown in exhibits.

I know that those on our Building Committee feel that this has been a long, long process.  Yet, every thought, every suggestion, every question, every idea was considered.  Some of the ideas were included and then subtracted. 

The vision is something that will be usable 50 years from now, not by us but by God for those who come after us.  Temples, churches, synagogues, and mosques are places where we both honor God and pass on to those who follow us, our best traditions and our faith.  God has been working on College Avenue only 60 years.  And look what God has done with us!  Within these walls what God has grown is faith and discipleship, and that is what God wants us to expand. 

We will soon be deciding about a building expansion project.  We all know that what is more important than any building is what happens in the building.   A bigger facility is an opportunity to bless the world with the activities in that space.

As we can see all over town, any group can build a building … only God can grow a church.   The moment we decide that we are doing this all by ourselves, we have already shut out the One who builds our spiritual home.

From Christmas to Epiphany

What Brings us to Our Knees, Prompts Us to Give, and Helps us Return to our Work

A sermon by Rev. Larry Fry, Based on Matthew 12:1-12

College Avenue United Methodist Church •  January 5, 2014

Christmas is an invitation to set aside our regular tasks in order to go and see what God has done in the birth of Jesus Christ.  To celebrate the birth, many events take place.  There are programs and concerts and a community meal on Christmas Day.  For many of us Christmas includes worship, family gatherings, time with friends, prayer, and eating together.  It is a time of wonder and joy and fellowship.  Pondering what God does brings me to my knees as a prayer of gratitude.  Christmas is the announcement of a birth.  Epiphany is the baby shower!

Prompted by light and angels, the shepherds set aside their regular tasks in the fields and made their way to the manger to see this thing that had come to pass.  They found the Christ Child, and they were on their knees.  After their visit, they returned to their lives changed, recharged.  Prompted by a star and angels, the Magi came to the Christ Child to celebrate this amazing new gift to the world in Jesus.  They brought gifts to represent Jesus’ royalty, his life of prayer, and his death for our salvation.  The Magi had, in the giving of gifts, been given a greater spiritual gift that brought them to their knees. They knew who Jesus was.  This is not a child who will steal Herod’s throne and crown.  This is not a person who will take advantage of people for his own benefit.  In the manger is the One upon whom God’s Spirit rests.  After their visit, they returned to their lives by another way because they knew that King Herod, or any king, did want to go worship another king.  Herod had other evil plans.  They found what brought them to their knees and it prompted them to give generously, and they returned to their regular jobs praising God.

What do we take away from Christmas?  Hopefully we are renewed, having gone to Bethlehem in our hearts to visit the One who brings us to our knees.  What new loving purpose came into focus that would prompt you to give generously?  What did Christmas change in you that helped you go to your regular life in a better, stronger way?

For many, with children out of school, it was a time for celebrating family: some sledding, some time with grandparents which gave the parents a break, time with relatives you do not see very often.  For others, it was a time to read a new book, time to play with something you bought for yourself for Christmas, time to do a bit a travel, time to go to a bowl game, and to watch some traditional Christmas movies. 

Epiphany is the transition time, as we look to a new year, getting back into gear.  Epiphany is a time of resolutions, new goals, and new classes.  Our Church life begins a new year with new church officers and a new church treasurer.  Our Early Learning Center has been redesigned to make it possible for us to care for more children and help our budget.  Our building committee is active again revising the designs for new addition and remodeling.

In our family, we put a new wall calendar in the kitchen, with all the family birthdays and anniversaries joyfully transferred from last year’s calendar.  Our calendar is one provided by our daughter-in-law, Leena, and every month has a picture that includes our new grandson.  In a yearly transition we shredded a whole bunch old records and we had one of those little tiny shredders that you are supposed put in one paper every three months for it to keep running.  We wore it out completely.  So it is time to start the New Year with a new shredder.

Epiphany is proof that with God, energy and purpose for a new year grow into ever-greater goodness.  Did you notice that the Good News starts with God?  Mary says yes to God’s good news that she is pregnant and then Joseph, then the shepherds, then the whole world knows through the Magi.  Great news for us and the world spreads in ever widening circles.  Each part of the story expands the goodness into more lives.  And the reason that you and I are here today is that the good news came to us.  And we are to spread it.

Kaitlyn is a new person in our church family.   She has been involved in our New Adult Class.   Having enjoyed the church, she arrived last Sunday bringing her whole family.  You see Good News is something you go and tell about.  That is why we send out Christmas cards.  The one thing that is certain: when all the Christmas decorations are put away, we do not put away Christmas in our hearts or minds or souls. It is something that spreads to the world around.

This is a great story….these royal scientists have to go check it out.  They go for the hard evidence.  And the amazing thing of it is that they discover something that brings them to their knees.  That is reason for many of our life journeys.   We are seeking something that will bring us to our knees.  They discovered that the God’s love, large enough for the universe of stars and planets, was close enough to include them and you and me.  That is what happens at Christmas: we find again and again, something of God that brings us to our knees.

This story also reminds me that the Christmas story eliminates the possibility of our thinking that the Good News is for one country, our country alone.  It cannot be for one group of people over another, one time over another.  This is “forever” good news. Epiphany is a great celebration of light because God offers divine love and guidance through the Holy Spirit to all people, in all places, at all times.   Light goes out in all directions.  And that expansion of the Good News extended to you and me and then asks us to reflect that light somewhere else.  Students and faculty and staff, scientists and artists, farmers and town people, rich and poor are all included. 

When God created you and called you good….that did not mean that it was for good.  When God created you, that did not end God’s activity in your life.  God does not sign off until you get to heaven.  We get to be God’s project all of our lives and beyond. 

Rosemary Carroll fell recently and has had quite a struggle.  I told her that when I fell off my front porch and broke my ankle, that the pain of the broken bones, was not as great as the pain of my kicking myself for falling.  She agreed.  There are moments when we have a hard time seeing that we are part of God’s work.  In painful we might forget that we are God’s creation.  And with the help of the Holy Spirit we get to be some new manifestation of God Epiphany….a new appearance of God’s light.

One church I know of turns every Epiphany into a baby shower for the Christ child.  They bring baby gifts which are taken to a local emergency shelter.  They send out notices before the their Epiphany service that are invitations to a baby shower.  The bulletin that Sunday has a few silly baby games, the entrance is decorated with baby shower things, and after worship there is punch and cookies.  It is similar to what we are doing with the tree of warmth for the students of our public schools in transition and Odgen Friendship House.

God comes with new beginnings in the midst of difficult times and our world is often a fearful place at times.  Herod, with the cooperation of some of the religious people, will soon figure out how to get rid of Jesus.  They do not succeed this time.  Jesus was born into a world of fear and hatred and war.

What does fear to do to us?  More gates, more guns, more wars, and more prisons.  This is not what God has in mind.  We live in a world full of fear; Jesus came into a world of fear.  Jesus is God’s promise that God chooses again and again to enter into our lives.  He chose to become like us, to live and die for us, as we are.  And he chose to give us the Holy Spirit which helps become all we can become.  And some day God’s purposes will be fulfilled in this world.

Some of you return to difficult jobs caring for a family member.

Some of your return to work knowing that you face very difficult projects.

Some of you are facing surgery soon. 

So let’s begin in prayer as we transition back to a new year of work, bringing our talents and gifts and interests and skills to join God’s promise that fear will not win.  Let’s follow the light of God’s love and purpose with extravagant generosity.