This was certainly one of the best sermons I've heard at New Hope in recent times. I managed to pull 6 pages of notes out of our associate pastor's, Todd Stewart, (albeit hasty) sermon. I would have liked it if he could have given the same message, but taken one-and-a-half times as long to give it. Oh well.
The message itself was based upon Hebrews 11:7-10, though I wouldn't have called a sermon based upon this passage "Embracing Change," it wasn't a stretch to address this theme with this passage. This topic is also a pretty common one for this time of year in a University town, or so this theme has been mentioned at least a couple times before at New Hope and other churches I have attended in town since I've lived here.
(Holy crap! I have lived in Manhattan for NINE years now. In another six months I'll have lived here longer than I've lived anywhere else. A random and ironic fact for you: my longest prior home was in Lawrence, our intrastate rival's home town. :)
The major point being that change is a natural part of life and especially of the life of the believer. Someone who is a Christian is a person who has been changed by God and has had his originally sinful nature altered and renewed with a new spiritual nature. This is essential Christian doctrine. I am not exactly the same person I was when I was naturally born, I have been "born again" as a child of God. This change is generally associated with the act we commonly call "justification."
However, as a secondary factor of this change, God works through our lives to continually improve us through the act of "sanctification." Thus, God is constantly working on us to improve us in this life through our new spiritual nature even though we won't really see the completion of these revisions until after we die. As such, it is a basic factor of Christianity that we must face and endure change whether we happen to enjoy it or not.
This wasn't really the thrust of Todd's message, but it is the main thought that goes through my head first. His first really significant point was to quote a couple passages from Richard Lamb's book Following Jesus in the Real World where the church was described as being either a commisary or a caravan. If the church is a commisary, then it is a place to go and purchase stuff we need. If the church is a caraan, then it is a place to work together with others toward a common goal. I like this metaphor, especially as it coincides with my loathing for the term "church shopping." If you're "shopping" for a church, bugger off. I don't really want to talk to you. If you are, rather, looking for a place you can serve within a church, great! That's the difference.
The rest of Todd's message was to present exemplars as presented in Hebrews 11. The passage covers just two cases, that of Noah and Abraham. The wider context actually hits a few others. In Noah's case, he built an ark. This despite the fact that it wasn't raining. If the Biblical creationist scientists have their hypothesis correct in assuming that a pre-flood earth didn't even have oceans, but just a few landlocked seas, Noah was doing something that would have seemed not only weird, but totally insane. Todd explained that Noah pursued this "change" because he knew what God was going to do and believed it completely, he thought God's statement was worth listening to over the statements of those ridiculing him, and he wanted to save his family and knew that following God's plan was the way to do that. (His explaination following the exegesis of the passage.)
In the case of Abraham, he was called out to live in a place that was promised as his inheritance, but which neither he nor his son nor his grandson nor his great-grandsons nor any of his children for another several hundred years. Yet, he followed God through all of it anyway because he was called by God, he trusted God's promises, and he had his heart set on the kingdom of heaven.
Todd's challenge was then to ask what we thought others would perceive as really important in this life of us. Specifically, what things do we make special time for? How do we spend our money? Do we speak of godly things? Do we behave as Christians or as something else?
Then, he asked us how we should embrace change in order to improve our relationship with God or familial interaction, our use of resources, our career and other plans, our engagement in small group, and how we reach out to "those far from God."
<rant>I do want to make a very small rant here. At New Hope we have tended to ridicule the use of "Christianese," but have invented (or perhaps adopted, not being as well read in current pop-Christian books) some of the worst "weasel words" I've heard. One of which is "missional communities," which is meant to put emphasis on Christian groups reaching out to non-Christians. Another is "those far from God," which I suppose is supposed to be a new non-offensive term for "pagans." I'm don't think the heathens will be fooled. Even if we don't say out loud, "Pagans will go to hell," they still know we believe it. Okay, I'm done.</rant>
Overall, it was a pretty challenging message. I know I'm not up to scratch in these areas. I doubt many people really know my convictions very well (unless they read things here). I know where I spend my money and while I am confident I do prioritize charitable giving pretty highly, I could definitely give more. I know I prioritize spending time with God more than perhaps some, but I don't have any illusions about doing that well.
On the other hand, I really don't think I have it in me to "embrace God's change agenda in..." any of the areas he mentioned. I believe that only through the power of the Spirit can I have any hope of doing any of this and only if I let God do it for me. To rephrase Yoda, "Try not, there is only let go and let God." Prayer and communion with God and meditation upon God's precepts are the only true way to real change, in my opinion. Any effort one makes himself will be mere striving and fall short of the glory of God.
I think this fact can't be overstated. It is my opinion that American Christians think too highly of their own ability to better themselves. I think we need a good, solid, baseball bat wack in the knees over this prideful opinion. This should be a painful truth that we should be reminded of, not something I could miss in my furious scribbling.
For anyone reading this, quit striving and know God. Give up trying to impress Him and start trying to know Him. That's what I consider to be the true secret of Christianity. You can't impress God by trying to improve your relationships or spending habits for the better. He can see right through that stuff as the hollow offering it is. God seeks obedience, not sacrifice.
If I get anything across in this blog its that anyone who calls himself or herself Christian and doesn't see his or her first priority in life to know God better isn't pleasing God as they could be. I say this knowing that that really isn't my first priority and I need to work on it. Okay, I think I've made my point. Cheers.
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