Christ the King Sunday, November 22, 2015. “Made To Be A Kingdom” Jac Whatley speaking
PRAYER
Christ our loving King,
We are mindful of what you said was the greatest commandment, to love you with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind, and the second, which is like it, to love our neighbors as we do ourselves.
You are our standard and our Ruler, and we would have no other. We must continually ask ourselves, do we love you with all our hearts? Do we center our souls on you? Are our minds at your service? We acknowledge you as the sole undisputed Head of the Church, not ministers or members.
Beside us is our neighbor. Around us are our neighbors. They need us, and we need them. The gift of love and grace we have to share cost us nothing, and cost you everything. Let us not withhold it from anyone.
We thank you for that vast cloud of witnesses that serve as reminders of what you have already done; for those beside us who remind us of what you can do and for those to come who will be themselves committed as priests of your Kingdom.
Amen.
ENCOURAGEMENT- Made to Be a Kingdom
Lamento no poder hablar a ustedes completamente en español, pero tu inglés es mejor que mi español!
The good news is that speaking to the congregation during worship is not in my job description. The bad news is that this day is the exception to the rule! As one member to Calvary friends and fellow members, I do have some words of hope I feel compelled to share, and isn’t that the essential nature of the Gospel?
Worship is precious and holy, and part of the way we live out that most important commandment. But the second, loving our neighbor, Jesus said, is not only as important but like unto worship. Calvary exists for both. Christ worshipped in the synagogue on the Sabbath, but he spent his week ministering to neighbors. And sometimes even he had to have a time of renewal, reflection and recommitment to face worship and work again. He was, after all, only one man with a huge task – but he had God on his side.
For over 150 years Calvary has worshiped and worked in this place, in good years and bad. I’m from the North Carolina mountains, and know peaks and valleys when I see them. We have endured (and suffered may be the better Biblical word) times of anxiety, confusion, misunderstandings and fear. We have recently engaged in useful study to find out “who we are,” but may have forgotten “whose we are.” Many, if not all of us, have felt overwhelmed and inadequate by the many tasks before us, and may even have wondered if stepping back or withdrawal from the additional “burden” of church is our answer. Hear me now in all capital letters: CHURCH IS NOT THE PROBLEM; IT IS THE ANSWER, FOR GOD IS HERE.
Church may be work, but our Sovereign shares our load. Church may require patience, but God gives us eternity. Church can be messy because it’s made up of people, but church blogger Rick Henderson reminds us of Proverbs 14:4 – “Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a big harvest.”
Some of you may have realized already that I’m short. For those of you in the back who can’t see me down here, we should have charged you double for your pew. Okay, I’m not short to my five foot daughter, but I am to my six foot son. Even my name is short. I lost the “k” off “Jack” thanks to a story involving an Atlanta laundromat. I’ve been bothered by being short for as long as I can remember (no pun intended). It didn’t help that my best friend is six foot seven. I spent years worrying about this, and still never added, as Matthew warned, a cubit to my stature. Eventually I did discover I could increase my circumference and weight, but that’s another topic. In my case, God clearly made an engineering mistake.
Currently many of us are concerned that we are a small church, and believe that as a result we are somehow lacking, or deficient, or less useful to God. That is wrong in so very many ways! Yes, American consumerism has taught us bigger is always better, and that brought us obesity. Bigger plates mean better food, bigger homes mean great wealth, bigger cars mean luxury and comfort, and it all means bigger debt. It is no surprise that having bought into product branding we’ve bought into church branding. What do we see on religious TV? Megachurches. Instead of churches we have cathedrals. I’m not saying they are bad – I’m asking if they are inherently better, or more essential in God’s kingdom.
Did you know 94% of churches in America have less than 500 members? And that 2/3 of those have less than 100 members? How big were the house churches of Paul? What if those first Christians had said “We must wait until we have 2,000 members, a sanctuary, Christian life center, Starbucks, gift shop and an ATM before we can engage in telling people about Jesus”?
So what are we waiting for? Is it, as our good friend Warren G. Harding promised, a “return to normalcy”? Normalcy is a code word for the good old days that never really were, and they aren’t coming back. Calvary’s biggest attendance days were ten years before I was born, and I’m old as dirt. We make attendance the standard for a church because we can all count. Normal for 1945 is not the norm 60 years later. Everything has changed about church but our measuring stick.
Let’s tackle two more tired words – “the interim” and “transitioning.” Can we confess, just in here, just between us, that we’re a little sick of them? We’ve been in the interim since God was a child, and we’re tired of waiting. “Are we there yet?” we cry as children from the back seat, and we lose patience and fuss with each other. Those behind the wheel must continue looking in the rearview mirror instead of looking forward. And aren’t we tempted to use that term “interim” to excuse inaction and defer hard choices? “Pardon us, we’re in the interim.” It’s like the hold button on a telephone. Some early disciples said we shouldn’t attempt anything till Jesus comes again. Substitute “senior pastor” and see if that sounds like us. As for “transitioning”, I picture some slow painful, evolutionary reptilian crawl out of the primeval ooze. From what to what? The only transitioning with which we should be concerned is moving, each and every day, from a good church to a better church.
So Calvary is small. Then as some current thought says, be “strategically small.” Use it while you have it to be more agile, more intimate, more flexible, more experimental, more loving. Just don’t use it as an excuse anymore. We’re smaller than some, larger than others, and as long as we have a dozen members we’re keeping up with Jesus. Let it be said of Calvary as Shakespeare said of his heroine Helena, “though she be but little, she is fierce!” Let us be fierce in the cause of Christ! Small or not, we are part of a great Kingdom.
It’s possible, especially in this place, to feel like a “too small” church. I know you look around and see empty seats, and you may feel diminished. Let me tell you about the view from the choir. As a member of only two years, my memory can’t go back as far as my imagination, but I can see a Civil War veteran helped up those stairs every Sunday, his body broken but his faith intact. I can see Associate Justice Charles Evans Hughes and Won Lee, a Chinese laundryman who joined Calvary the same November day, this, my friends, in 1911. Members who started the American Baptist Convention in this very place. Servicemen from WWI who saw a foreign country for the first time, and realized what the Great Commission was all about. Scores of typists from all the offices surrounding us during World War II, putting in fifty or sixty hours a week at work and then coming to Calvary to create aid packages before going home to start it all again. Calvary members in the ‘60s who worked for civil rights and justice. Members who make up that “vast cloud of witnesses” we recently celebrated, saints that built our foundation and surround us still, and make us not just who we were, but who we are and who we can be.
Then I look again around this sanctuary, and I see today’s saints. Salima and John, who have been fighting for justice long before it became as buzzword. Allyson, who really is the road warrior princess going to every corner of the country, saving lives and healing souls. Harold, the spirit of love and friendliness. Tim and Amy, inspirational leaders immersed in the church. Betty, who at 93, does more than I can think about at 59. Daniel and Lu, who make me want to do my life over and get it right this time. Carol, who has made committee service an art form. Gretchen and Claudia, for whom Sunday seems like every day because they’re at Calvary so much. Pastor Edgar, and Elijah and Erica and Cheryl and Paul.
Look around, dear people, and then try to tell God that before we attempt anything we need still more leadership, and wisdom, and vision, and energy, and money and faith and hope and love. We should be thoroughly embarrassed at the abundance of riches already provided to a “small” church, not dismayed by our ideas of poverty. I will spare you the old story of the drowning man in the rising river who passed up the log, the boat, the helicopter all while waiting for God to save him, but you know it.
What we need, friends, are commitment and action. Our Sovereign God has made us to be part of a Kingdom, and has ordered us to work. You have your gift, whether you even know what it is or not, but you must begin to use it. Can you call Christ your King and deny his call for help? The saying I learned as a boy was, Christ is Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all. He is not just Head of the church, but of the individual members
During the time between now and Advent, and that time is short, we encourage everyone, and I mean everyone, to consider their commitment to Calvary Baptist Church. We know you’ve made your financial commitment, and we are grateful. But that is only a part of what dedication to God and his church demands. We need your prayers, your faith, your ideas, your active participation, and your gifts.
It is time to stop wringing our hands and asking “What is our church going to do?” We are the church, Christ’s kingdom on earth, and we must act like it. The Ministerial Search Committee awaits your blessing and is ready to work. Members of our six different study teams have already begun meeting. Some are already making recommendations. We are moving forward. Come on along.
In my first work meeting with Pastor Edgar, he said, “I don’t understand why the name of Calvary Baptist Church isn’t on every member’s lips.” I don’t know either, Edgar, but I pray it soon will be, and for all the right reasons.
Let our work be planned by faith, defined by love and carried out with joy. Thank our King this week for Calvary and for your many, many other blessings. Then pray for yourself and about the part you will take in our work. After that, you can enter Advent with Peace, Joy, Hope and Love, and the high expectations that should accompany Emmanuel, God With Us. To Him be the glory and dominion for ever and ever,
Amen.