The Great Ends of the Church: The Exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the World

Sermon text for May 27:
Acts 2:1-19; 4:32-37

The poor disciples! I don’t think they had a clue what was about to happen to them. In the days before he ascended into heaven Jesus made some wonderful promises: “If you ask anything in my name I will do it. In my Father’s house are many rooms and I go to prepare a place for you. When I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you will be also.” These promises gave the disciples the courage to survive a lifetime of terrifying experiences.

But the last promise Jesus made to the disciples was more puzzling than comforting. He promised them that if they stayed in Jerusalem for a few more days they would be baptized by the Holy Spirit. The disciples knew about baptism and they knew about the Holy Spirit, but they didn’t know about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless they stayed in Jerusalem and waited.

But waiting was hard. The disciples had no sense of direction or purpose for their lives. They feared both Jewish and Roman authorities and they longed for the protection of Jesus. For the most part they stayed behind locked doors in the room where they first received communion.

They found strength in one another’s company and the shared memory of the joyful, intimate evening with Jesus, before all the craziness began. They did not know that God had a plan for their lives that would be even crazier than what they had experienced during their three years with Jesus. They did not know that in a matter of hours new life would literally ooze from every pore of their bodies. When God baptized the disciples with the Holy Spirit they suddenly found a new reason for living and a new way of looking at the world. The way the story is told in the second chapter of Acts it sounds as if the Holy Spirit commandeered the disciples’ lives and made them partners of God in God’s work in the world. As God’s partners the disciples became the first people other than Jesus, to exhibit the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. And it was a roll for which they were not prepared.

As fishermen the disciples lived quiet solitary lives, but under the influence of the Holy Spirit they sometimes preached to thousands. The Spirit inspired them to announce the gospel for the salvation of humankind. They worked with others to build communities of faith which provided shelter, nurture, and spiritual welfare for all of God’s children. They maintained divine worship by joining other believers in synagogues and later in each other’s homes. They preserved the truth by sharing stories of Jesus as they broke bread and shared wine in a Christ inspired ritual.

Sometimes these simple uneducated men found themselves standing before the Sanhedrin or the Roman Governor to offer a defense for their preaching and teaching. Inspired by the Spirit they gave the simple answer, “We can only speak what we have seen and heard”. They learned that the story of Jesus could not be contained or controlled, even by the representatives of the most terrifying powers in the world.

Soon whole new communities grew up that were based on living out the principles of Jesus. In these Kingdom Communities the people exhibited the Kingdom of God on earth. No one lacked the basic necessities of life because resources were freely shared. The faithful began to understand that all blessings were given to the community and not to individuals. Rich and poor alike invested in the life of the community. They believed the truth of Psalm 24: “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it; the people and all who live there.”

Neither rich nor poor had to jealously guard that which didn’t really belong to them anyway. Unjust relationships were remedied quickly through a formula given by Christ himself. People on the outside of these Kingdom Communities almost demanded to know what was going on inside. They were intrigued by the idea of living among people who were just, giving, and loving. Surely these communities were a reflection of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Many people even today look at these first century communities as models for modern church life. What would it be like to live and worship where the love of Christ defines our relationships? Where we don’t need to prove who’s strongest? Where believers understand that all that we have actually belongs to God and give freely (without the need of a stewardship campaign)? What would it be like to belong to a community where conflict is rare because each party is centered on Christ and is only interested in exhibiting the Kingdom to the world? The good news is that if you want it, you can create such a community right here.

Like the disciples of old, our calling as a denomination is “The exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world”. It is our reason for being; it is who we are and what we do. So now when someone asks why you are a member of the Presbyterian Church, you can say, “I am part of the Presbyterian Church because we are a Kingdom community created by Jesus Christ to exhibit the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.

Maybe a first step in becoming a Kingdom Community and exhibiting the Kingdom of Heaven to the world is to believe that God wants to be our partner. In the same way that God partnered with the disciples in Jerusalem, God wants to partner with you in the First Presbyterian Church of Lakewood.

Have you ever prayed for the power of the Holy Spirit in your life? Are you ready to say to God, “Lead us wherever you want us to go, even if the journey seems scary”?
One of my favorite characters in the New Testament is identified as a deacon whose name is Philip. Philip was so open to the Holy Spirit that in the story, the Holy Spirit literally picks him up and places him wherever he is needed. Even if there is some poetic license, I am intrigued by Philip, and I believed that amazing things can happen when a congregation gives itself to the Spirit. It might be a wild ride that would send us clapping a laughing into that home prepared for us by Christ himself.

You all have had a bumpy ride the last few years, but if you decide to exhibit the Kingdom of Heaven to the World, you will have to hold onto your chairs as the Spirit propels you into the future.

Proclamation of the gospel, shelter, nurture, spiritual fellowship of the children of God, maintenance of divine worship, preservation of the truth, promotion of social righteousness, exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. They all work together, and the church works best when it is attentive to each. Pray for the Holy Spirit and let God show you something that most people only dream about.

Copyright © 2007 by Dwight R. Blackstock

The Great Ends of the Church: The Promotion of Social Righteousness

Sermon text for May 20:
Isaiah 58:1-7, Luke 4:16-21

Back in the late 1970’s a small group of us from all over the county gathered in a condominium in Breckenridge. We came together as Presbyterian Christians to address a pressing issue of social righteousness. All around the world children were dying of hunger. From New Mexico to Biafra, mothers and fathers grieved for their hungry children and cursed their helplessness to do anything about it.

We brainstormed how we could encourage the Presbyterian Church to make world hunger a top mission priority. We knew it would entail organizing dozens of presbyteries to overture General Assembly. And that meant mobilizing pastors and elders from all over the country who shared our vision. We felt confident that we would accomplish our goal because the Presbyterian Church exists to promote social righteousness. It is what we do.

When the Assembly convened it was overwhelmed with overtures from all over the United States asking the Church to address the issue of world hunger. The General Assembly listened, and world hunger became the top mission priority of our denomination for the next several years.

Suddenly comfortable Presbyterians who never had to think about hunger began to notice hungry people at home and abroad. Images of starving children with distended bellies were burned into our consciousness. And even in sleep we were haunted by God’s beloved children who went to bed hungry every night.

Presbyterians quickly organized around hunger. Hunger Action Enablers were hired in every presbytery. These people helped us see hunger as a real issue. In response Presbyterians fasted and gave the money we saved to the hunger fund. Some of us initiated food drives to help hungry people in our own neighborhoods. Some of us visited third world countries and came home with heart-wrenching tales of hungry children.

Last year I was the interim pastor of Presbyterian Church of the Covenant in Greenwood Village. This congregation learned that hunger was a real problem for people in the Front Range. They created a food cupboard that has grown into a half a million dollar operation that serves thousands of hungry people every year. In scriptural terms this is one way of “doing justice, and loving mercy.” At Covenant’s food cupboard the clients are made to feel important. When they have gotten the food they need, a volunteer even carries the food to the client’s car and sometimes to the bus stop. By carrying bags of food for the poor the volunteers are literally “walking humbly with the Lord our God.”

What Covenant does is part of the finest tradition of the Presbyterian Church. We exist to promote social righteousness, to see to it that children are fed, the poor have clothing, and the sick are visited. It’s what we do. It’s why God called us into being.

I have chosen examples of social righteousness that are not likely to make too many of us angry. But everyone who has been a part of the Presbyterian Church for very long knows that our biggest fights are about social action. We might wonder why the Church keeps doing things that make people angry. But we can’t help ourselves. Promoting social righteousness is part of our Presbyterian DNA. It is what we were created to do.

Presbyterians have been involved in social action ever since John Calvin was called to reform the social structure of Geneva, back in the sixteenth century. But God’s People have been involved much longer than that. The Prophets spoke of social righteousness as “walking humbly with the Lord our God.”

Presbyterians are haunted by phrases like, “In as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these, you have done it unto me.” And, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord your God.”

We know that it is not enough to just think about social righteousness. The Church is called to live social righteousness in the world. It is that simple and that complex. We accept the internal turmoil that inevitably comes because we take the word of God seriously.

Our uneasiness with social righteousness echoes the uneasiness of God’s ancient people. In Isaiah 58 the people are disappointed with God because God seems silent and distant. They believe they are seeking God faithfully – going to temple, offering sacrifices, in short doing all of the outward things that demonstrated faith. But God saw something different. God saw a people for whom social righteousness had become a stumbling block. Listen to what God says, “Day after day they seek me … as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God.”

This passage was written just after the Jews returned home from the Babylonian captivity. They are doing well in their ritual life. They say the right prayers and offer the right sacrifices, but they have not yet figured out the relationship between worship and social action. As they tried to rebuild their own lives as well as their civilization, justice took a back seat to competition and getting things done. Those with resources wanted more, and the less fortunate became invisible.

God was not impressed, “Day after day they seek me … as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness.” In scripture the words righteous and justice are usually interchangeable. We might catch the meaning of this verse if we paraphrased it like this, “Every day they look for something from me, as if they were a just nation in which everyone shares in the wealth, and no one is taken advantage of.”

It is true that the people fasted and prayed, but from God’s perspective the fasts had no religious meaning because those who fasted were not just and righteous. True worship is irrevocably tied to social action. But Israel forgot that, and they began to stagnate spiritually. So God reminded them of the meaning of worship. He said, “Is this not the fast that I desire, to loose the bonds of injustice? … To let the oppressed go free? …. Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house?” And now paraphrasing, If you remove the yoke from people’s necks, stop pointing fingers at others, stop speaking evil and offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your lives will be fulfilling. From God’s perspective worship and social action are irrevocably linked.

While some of our members become angry over the Church’s response to social issues (and sometimes the church gets it wrong) we can’t stop responding to injustice. The Bible won’t let us. When we hear Jesus say, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me … to set at liberty those who are oppressed” we feel called into service. And when he says, “In as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these you have done it unto me” we want to be first in line to serve. These passages are a part of who we are as Presbyterians. It is what we do. It’s who we are. It is what it means to be a Presbyterian.

Copyright © 2007 by Dwight R. Blackstock

The Great Ends of the Church: The Preservation of the Truth

Sermon Text for May 6:
John 8:31-33, and 18:33-38

A fifty dollar bill was missing from the envelope that had money from the church garage sale, and I had a pretty good idea where it had gone. My eldest son, the one who is not the pastor, always had trouble discerning right from wrong, truth from a lie. I could not prove it, but I knew he had taken the money. When I confronted him and told him how important the money was to the church. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “I didn’t take it, Dad.” I assured him that this one time it was okay, all that he had to do was return the money and we would forget the whole thing. But he assured me again that he hadn’t taken it and asked if I was sure it had been there.

I could feel the anger welling up within me. I knew he had the money but I had no proof. I let him go back to whatever he was doing and I spent the rest of the day getting angrier and angrier, until I was seething inside. And when I found the money in one of his drawers it took all of my self discipline to not hurt him. I ordered him to go to another room and what I didn’t say was that it was for his own safety.

I am an adult child of an alcoholic and I pretty much demand honesty from myself and those around me. It’s what adult children of alcoholics do. In general we either become very accomplished liars or we become almost obsessed with the truth. So the lie my son told took on dimensions that I don’t think I can begin to describe for you. When one lives with an alcoholic the world revolves around deception, and I learned at a very early age that truth was literally a lifeline to sanity. That is probably why Christianity has been part of my life since my earliest memory. The timeless truth of Jesus is life giving, and provides us a safe place when all around us the world is going mad.

It is when we embrace the truth of Jesus Christ, that something happens inside of us and we become new people. Jesus says, “When you know the truth the truth shall set you free.” So from the perspective of Jesus, truth and freedom are a part of each other. And the Presbyterian Church is here to make certain that the Truth is preserved. It is what we do. It’s in our collective DNA. The problem with trying to preserve THE TRUTH is that we live in a world with many competing voices, each one claiming to be the truth.

So what is the truth that we have been called to preserve? Quite simply we are called to preserve the truth of Jesus Christ. But before we speak specifically about the truth of Jesus, it might be helpful to speak more generally about truth and how we use it. Truth is a set of assumptions about life which give us a sense of security, and on which we base our lives. Some of these truths are universal and help us frame our society, and our political system. So for example the Declaration of Independence tells us “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Belief in these assumptions gave the American Colonists a sense of security as they moved toward revolution. They had right on their side by virtue of the truth expressed in natural law. Later belief in these truths allowed the framers of our Constitution to create a document based on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Beyond these universal truths there are other truths which impact us in a more personal way. For example, spouses are always faithful to one another. Mothers and fathers never hurt their children. Schools provide a safe space for our children. Love conquers all.

Most of us go through life accepting these truths, but then a best friend’s spouse has an affair, a mother in Texas drowns her five babies, a troubled young man in Virginia takes a gun and kills more than thirty of his classmates. And here is a tough one for Christians, all of the love in the world can’t make a loved one whole. When we are confronted with these counter-truths, our lives go into a tail spin. We no longer feel secure in our own skin and our lives become rudderless. Then we look for new truths – truths that we can depend on. This timeless, dependable truth is what the Presbyterian Church is here to preserve.

As Jesus was preparing his disciples for his impending death, he made them promises which are universally reliable and on which we can base our lives. Here are some of them: “In my Fathers house are many rooms and I go to prepare a place for you.” “If you love me you will keep my commandments and I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of Truth.” This Spirit of Truth lives within us and gives us the courage of our convictions, and enables us to speak the Truth so that others might hear.

When Jesus was on trial before the Governor, Pilate asked, “Are you the King of the Jews? Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?” It is a question that we ask also, and this is how Jesus answers,

“For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.” So truth is found in the life and teaching of Jesus. He embodies within himself, “The way, the truth, and the life.” In his life we discover the truth of a compassionate and ever loving God. We discover a God who forgives even when we think the sin is unforgivable.

In Jesus’ life we discover that God wants to be in relationship with us and will go to outrageous extremes to make the relationship happen. The Presbyterian Church is called to preserve the truth that God was “In Christ reconciling the world to himself, and not counting trespasses against us”. Friends, these are timeless truths that are worthy of being the basis of your life and mine. These truths have withstood the test of time and are worthy of being preserved. The Presbyterian Church exists in the world as guardians and preservers of the Truth. It is what we do and who we are.

Copyright © 2007 by Dwight R. Blackstock