01/15/2012 WHAT IF… GOD’S WILL IS DONE ON EARTH AS IN HEAVEN?
WHAT
IF …
… GOD’S WILL IS DONE ON
“Faith today is treated as something
that only should make us different, not that actually does or can make
us different…. Somehow we’ve gotten the
idea that the essence of faith is entirely a mental & inward thing.” ---
Jesus never saw faith as just an
“inward thing,” something for only the spirit, mind, & emotions. He never saw it as something private to keep
to oneself. What Jesus lived &
modeled for us to see & learn & imitate was a public & outward
faith– not done quietly or in secret, but shared openly with others. Loving our neighbor naturally involves others
(Mark
12:31). Going into the world to make disciples is a rather
public endeavor (Matthew 28:19). Jesus’ Father may live & work in the
heart, but the Son, along with you & I, Jesus’ earthly siblings, live &
work in the world.
In
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives & recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Proclamations, by their very definition, are not done privately. One cannot set the oppressed free without someone noticing. Recovery of a blind person’s sight is the opposite of invisible. There was nothing secretive about Jesus’ ministry. Even the lines he just read from Isaiah 58 & 61 were well-known to the active, involved temple “regulars” listening to him.
We are not as well-acquainted with Isaiah’s words as were Jesus’ listeners, so let me provide some background.
After the Jewish people were
released from their 70-plus-year exile in
Sadly, we learn that God’s chosen people were largely just going through the motions once they returned. As important as their worship practices were, they became mere rituals in the people’s lives, something that “good” people do for show to feel good about themselves, rather than something that God’s people live as emblematic of transformation.
Worship rituals are good. After all, God instructed us to do them. It’s doing them without heart, without meaning, without results that’s our problem. The rituals themselves aren’t to blame. Doing them without sincerity is our fault. Have you or I ever been guilty of turning the practices God commands into showy displays that aren’t supported by our actions?
This insincerity went on
years in
We also wonder why God doesn’t answer all of our prayers as we like. Many times, just like with the returned exiles, it’s because we don’t do the things God requires of us. We expect God to do what we want, without our choosing to do what God wants.
Through the prophet, God responds. “Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day…. You fast only to quarrel & to fight…. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high…. Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
“(Instead) is not this the
fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the
yoke, to let the oppressed go free…? Is
it not to share your bread with the hungry, & bring the homeless poor into
your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, & not to hide yourself….? Then you shall call & the Lord will
answer.” When worship is true, it
results in such actions.
Our elected church leaders met in October to set goals for this new year. Many fine ideas & Christian ideals emerged. What predominated, though, was a consensus that the Spirit was leading us to address the needs of people in our community. It’s not that we’ve been ignoring the mission field right outside our doors, but that we could do better. I agreed.
It wasn’t long ago when we measured a successful church by its numbers of baptisms & conversions. As the institutional bureaucracy began to take over, membership numbers became the standard. Then, realizing that we had lots of members on the rolls, but far fewer in worship, we thought it honest to count worship attendance. None of those num-bers, however, measure what Jesus & the scriptures said to do in terms of real, live ministry, namely bringing good news to the poor, releasing cap-tives, healing the blind, setting the oppressed free. Numbers for conver-sion, membership, & attendance don’t accurately portray what we really do in Christ’s name. None of them hold us accountable for our Christian responsibilities. Maybe we should be counting our work that fulfills those responsibilities.
“So, Pastor, tell me about those ‘Christian responsibilities.’ You talk about persons in need. So does Jesus. What does ‘needy’ mean?”
The Poverty & Justice Bible teaches that there are over 2000 verses of scripture that deal with poverty & justice.[1] So, a sign of our transformation in Christ is ministering to need, situations of need, persons in need by using a broad definition of need, not only an economic yardstick.
Our big, congregational goal
in 2012 is to help Manna on
This is not to say that Manna will be our only ministry. We will still adopt families from Community Housing. We’ll still welcome homeless individuals in June. We’ll still have our monthly non-perishable goods collections. We’ll still have the Santa Breakfast for needy families, send volunteers to serve at the Code Blue shelter, organize workdays for Habitat for Humanity, have youth mission trips, & missions of the month.
Not every ministry is for everyone & not everyone can do everything. With 600 men, women, & children who are our “regulars,” with more of us engaging in this holy work, with us inviting others outside the church to help with these endeavors, we’ll be doing what Jesus & the scriptures said & doing them at a level never before achieved by this congregation.
Why is that important?
We have one-third of our active worshipers involved in Christian education. We have one-third of our average worship attendance involved in our music ministries. We collect a lot of money, over 25% of our budget, for needs outside these walls. It’s time to grow our hands-on missions & ministries with persons in need.
As I said, it’s not just economic needs that we assist. There’s the driving to the doctor you do for a friend. There’s the grass you cut for an elderly neighbor. There’s the benefit event you support or the board on which you serve that cares for prisoners or pregnant women or abused spouses. There’s volunteering with special needs children & adults. You could be a volunteer firefighter, a nurse who volunteers at a free clinic, a doctor who provides free medical care, the scout leader who organizes the troop’s annual food collection, a coach who leads a team of underprivileged kids. If you engage in ministry that is motivated by & acknowledged as an expression of faith in Christ, the definition of need is a broad one.
And even if you’re a shut-in or incapacitated in some way, there are prayer ministries & other things you can do that we’ll detail in the weeks ahead.
I’m not suggesting that to be a true, devout follower of Christ you must forsake everything to comfort the poor & correct injustices. Jesus dined with the wealthy & celebrated at weddings & feasts. He had fun teaching in the synagogue & possessed a fine sense of humor. I am saying, however, that a concern “for the least of these” find tangible expression in the pattern of our lives & faith.[2] It’s a real part of us.
We pray every week in worship & oft times during other occasions, too: “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This prayer is not to be a mere ritualistic act of recitation from memory. It’s an earnest prayer for God’s reign on earth to commence, not just in the end times, but now.
Neither is this a prayer for God to come down here & do it all alone. It’s a prayer that we’ll move up to God’s standards. Our task is to bring heaven to earth. That’s what Jesus did. That’s what his disciples did.
I ask you again this week --
not demand, not command, not coerce – but ask:
Will you do this? Will you intentionally
serve persons in need? Will you partner
with Christ, with me, & your siblings here at
What if God’s will is done on
earth as in heaven? Imagine!
In the Name….
Copyright 2012 by G.D.Knerr at
Recommended
reading ---
The Hole in
Our Gospel by
Richard Stearns, 2009
- this book is the basis for the
sermon series; awe-inspiring, quick read
Those People by Tom
Allebach & Victoria Solomon, 2011
-
locally-written
stories that make real the need in our community; written by
the director & youth board
member of Manna on
Un-Christian:
What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity…& Why It
Matters by David
Kinnaman & Gabe Lyons, 2007
-
a
secondary text used for the sermon series, as well as by Richard Stearns;
engaging, disturbing research by
George Barna
Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American
Dream by
David Platt, 2010
- the story of how one large,
affluent, suburban church began serving the needy;
great, hope-filled
reading, but a little too aggressive about evangelism
Deep Justice
in a Broken World: Helping Your Kids Serve Others & Right the
Wrongs
Around Them by
Chap Clark & Kara E. Powell, 2007
- how to serve local & global
needs with your children
Who Really
Cares? America’s Charity Divide: Who Gives, Who Doesn’t, & Why It
Matters
by
Arthur C. Brooks, 2006
-
for
“numbers persons” curious about philanthropy in the
churches, synagogues, mosques & other
501(c)3 charitable organizations