A Church That Bears Fruit - Lives That Honor God - Colossians 1:9-14 - June 9, 2013

I am not sure when it happened.  There was a time when it seemed God was working among us in a scale that was meaningful but contained.  But somewhere along the way God began to move in such a scale and in such a way that I simply cannot begin to find the words to express it. God is loose among us and moving in a way that humbles and amazes.  I thank God that we have walked this path together and I have see the face of God in your faces as you have served and love others in Jesus’ name. There is a part of me that tempted to come and again and fill this time with stories. But, if we are to be able to sustain the physical and spiritual energy required to complete grand task God has set before us, we must continue to dive in and find strength and encouragement from what God has to say to us through His Word.  So, we continue our look at Colossians and what it means to be A Church that Changes the World.  This morning we look at what it means to bear fruit – or to live a life that pleases God and lets us know God even better.

This morning we hear from Colossians 1:9-14.  We heard it read from the New International Version earlier in our service.  Hear it now in the simpler Contemporary English Version. The first three verses read; ⁹ We have not stopped praying for you since the first day we heard about you. In fact, we always pray that God will show you everything he wants you to do and that you may have all the wisdom and understanding that his Spirit gives. ¹⁰ Then you will live a life that honors the Lord, and you will always please him by doing good deeds. You will come to know God even better. ¹¹ His glorious power will make you patient and strong enough to endure anything, and you will be truly happy. I choose this simpler interpretative translation because I believe it helps us get the best feel for what Paul was trying to communicate. If you listen closely, you heard Paul begin to weave together what it means to both to do and to be a person – and a church family - that lives a life that honors God. 

I think we have begun to master the doing part of the spiritual equation. We are a church that drips with a servant spirit and it has been on grand display over these past two weeks.  The pictures from Wednesday night and the past two Saturdays show all ages of our church working arm-in-arm in service together.  Last summer many of you took part in a congregational survey to identify the heart cry of our church family.  The number item identified as a design to do intentional cross-generational mission and ministry.  CHECK!  I celebrate the fact that across the wide spectrum of our church family you have sought to live a life that pleases God by rolling up your sleeves and diving in.  Well done!

But it is the second half of this proposition that seems more challenging for us. That second half is the call to be. Paul speaks of a way of life where God can show us all the wisdom and understanding that his Spirit gives. Being is hard.  In the flurry of activity that can define us, it can be seem impossible to stop long enough to pause in the presence of God where God can show us all that He has for us to know.  This is made even harder because of our tendency to empower and entrust others to take responsibility for our growth in our understanding of God’s word and way.  If we are not careful we can begin to expect that Sunday school teachers, pastors and Bible study leaders will prepare in a way where we can passively sit back and wait for them to point the way.  Please hear me clearly, I do not want to demean or diminish the role their spiritual leaders play in our lives.  Rather, hear me say that what they bring us should be the beginning of our spiritual quest, rather than its end.  The call to be; the call to invite God to show you everything he wants you to do and that you may have all the wisdom and understanding that his Spirit gives is profoundly personal and intensely corporate.

It is profoundly personal because we must make the individual choice to purposefully engage with God. Authentic discipleship is not a spectator sport.  It is a life a spiritual engagement where diving into God’s word is at the core of who we are.  There is no one else in the world like you. You bring a unique set of life stories and experiences to every encounter with God.  This lets God speak to you and into your life like no other. But so often the voice of God is drowned out with the voices of distraction that surround us.  A vital part of hearing and engaging with God is putting yourself in a position where you invite God to speak through His word and whisper into your soul.  These acts of personal commitment and devotion place us at God’s feet and give us ready ears to hear what God has to teach us.

While personal Bible study and devotion is a cornerstone of our faith walk, it is insufficient alone. The call to be; the call to invite God to show you everything he wants you to do and that you may have all the wisdom and understanding that his Spirit gives is also intensely corporate. In almost every account of God speaking to His people in the New Testament, God speaks into a community context.  Paul addresses his letter to the whole of the Colossian church family. His desire is for them all experience the wisdom and understand that the Spirit gives.  They, and we, need each other to live out authentic discipleship.  As Baptist we embrace the idea of the priesthood of the believer.  This means that we believe that no one stands between us and God – but equally means that we are priests to one another.  Let me put this in terms you might not have considered before.  It is vital that you take the time to prepare for Sunday school or Bible study because the truths that God teaches you may be essential to the one that sits beside you.  You bear responsibility for one another’s spiritual growth.  This invites us into a transformation spiritual engagement with God and one another. It also invites us into spiritual relationships of accountability.  We are to be voices of encouragement, instruction, support and prayer for one another because as we push and encourage each other we invite God to unveil the wisdom and understanding that his Spirit gives.  We learn together. We grow together.  We experience God together. 

Paul tells us that the result of this kind of life is predictable. He says; Then you will live a life that honors the Lord, and you will always please him by doing good deeds. You will come to know God even better.  Over these past two weeks God has shown me that what I thought was a huge vision was only the beginning.  God has shown me what I thought was a deep faith was still young and growing.  I have been humbled by the incredible work of God and stirred by the way I have seen God at work in you and through you.  If we embrace the choice to be in God – to relish in his word – to linger in his way – to invite God to saturate our lives together with his wisdom and understanding then we will draw close to God and get to know God even better.  Why would we settle for an arm’s length love of God when we are invited to draw close and to come to know the way and will of God?

Paul also tells us that this kind of life will make you patient and strong enough to endure anything, and you will be truly happy. Beth observed that so many came into the Furniture Bank on Saturday with an air of frustration or helplessness but left with laughter and smiles.  When we encounter God together we find the patience and strength we need and the kind of patience and strength that lets us minister to others in Jesus’ name.  If we are going to minister to hundreds upon hundreds of families we will need the physical, emotional, and spiritual strength and endurance found only at the feet of God.  This is not optional in this moment; it is our spiritual necessity. The fruit of our faithfulness is strength for living and a joy that is sustaining.

Our passage concludes; ¹² I pray that you will be grateful to God for letting you have part in what he has promised his people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ God rescued us from the dark power of Satan and brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son, ¹⁴ who forgives our sins and sets us free. I am grateful for God letting us have a part in what he has promised to do to those that are facing broken homes, broken hearts and broken lives.  But it is essential that we remember that all we do we do thought God’s power and in the name of God’s grace.  What makes us different than the Red Cross or the United Way is that it is our faith that calls us to God’s feet and then sends us out as God’s hands and feet.  We go not out of charity or benevolence, but out of a desire to honor God.

If we are dream to be a church that changes the world and people that God uses to change the lives of others then we must find that healthy balance between doing what God calls us to and being in God’s presence where he can teach us, renew us, and strengthen us.  If you dare to dream of living lives that honor God we must draw close and listen to all that God has for us to learn and to hear.  I pray that God will show you everything he wants you to do and that you may have all the wisdom and understanding that his Spirit gives. ¹⁰ Then you will live a life that honors the Lord, and you will always please him by doing good deeds. You will come to know God even better. ¹¹ His glorious power will make you patient and strong enough to endure anything, and you will be truly happy.  Amen.

 

A Church that Changes the World - A Church of Prayer a Defining Faith - Colossians 1:3-8 - June 2, 2013

Most of you are probably aware that I do sermon planning months in advance of the date for any specific sermon.  I do that because it helps Bruce and Kim in our music and worship planning and it aids me in coming to a passage in an unhurried pace.  When I planned the sermon series that will encompass the next four weeks I could not begin to imagine how right it would be for this moment.  But clearly God knew.  The sermon series is entitled “A Church that Changes the World.”  It was designed to help challenge us to take the next steps in our missions and ministries.  That was before the tornadoes struck our state just shy of two weeks ago and God began to work in our church and through our church in ways that I could hardly have begun to imagine.  So today, I invite you to begin a journey of faith and discover with me, looking and listening to where God is at work in our midst and where God might be leading us in the days ahead.  I invite you to begin a journey of faith and discovery with me that will lead us to become the kind of church that has a transformational impact on our community and the world – the kind of church that changes the world.  I invite you to come with me over these next four weeks as we look at Paul’s letter to the Colossians and what it can mean for us right here, right now. There are words from Scripture to hear and stories to tell.  God is at work leading out in front of us. Come go with me.  We begin with the first eight verses of Colossians and hear the story and the call of a church of prayer and defining faith.

Nikki Edward read our passage as a whole earlier in our worship service, but I invite you to now look at it more closely with us.  In verses 3 we hear Paul write; We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.  Paul understood the power and the necessity of prayer. Long before Paul wrote the Colossian church he was praying for them. Almost two years ago I led the deacons and our staff through a book entitled The Transformational Church.  It looks at the markers demonstrated by churches that were having a transformation impact.  Our church measured well, until we came to the marker on prayer.  At that time it was a weakness in our congregational life. We stopped reading when we came to that marker and went to work to address it.  We knew we needed it to be a priority, but had not found the right way to engage you.  Since that time we have launched the subversive prayer ministry, PrayFirst, engaging over 100 of you as a part of an email based prayer structure. LaJuanda Speegle leads this effort and keeps critical prayer concerns in front of us.  Last summer, as a response to my sabbatical, we held eleven summer house prayer meetings. By all accounts these had a profound impact on all that participated.  We will offer a new series of house prayer meeting throughout the month of July.  This past March we held a prayer focused worship event letting the prayers you have for our church rise in our midst. We will hold another similar worship experience in the fall.  Beth Ogburn helped launch, CRAVE, a mission focused prayer ministry, and Brian McAtee has now stepped in to provide long term leadership for it.  Recently Brian began providing a regular e-update on critical missions focused prayer needs.  What was once on of our congregational weakness has become the foundation on which we now see God at work in our midst.

Our passage continues and the story unfolds. Paul writes, We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you  ⁴ because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people.  This week I have watched this passage come to life in the way so many of you have responded to the needs of those impacted by our state’s recent tornadoes.  It has been interesting because the list of those we often think that we minister to became the front line of our response.  Our 20 and 30somethings have taken the lead, diving in to help unload trucks sometimes in a moment’s notice.  Betsy Stewart handled the volunteer hotline that Beth has been managing so that Beth and I could step away to be a part of Aaron’s wedding.  Alex Dooley, Corey Miles, Nate Rogers, Cole Rankin, Hattie Wagonseller, Caroline Hicks, Kimberly Anthony, and a host of others from within our church and from Life Church and Frontline dove in and did whatever we asked in receiving and preparing vitally needs resources received at our Feed the Children trailer drop off point.  Our young adults are leading us.  But they were not alone. When the members of the Sudanese Christian Fellowship arrived for their worship service last Sunday a huge delivery truck arrived loaded with supplies. They decided that their act of worship for the day would be to roll up their sleeves and help out.  The Chin congregations were not able to give time because of their work commitments, but together gave $7000 in disaster relief dollars to help us secure truck loads of furniture for families that will be rebuilding their homes and lives.  Still others like Jamie and Susan Stephenson, Randy Johnson, Shari Hawkins, Laurie Ashford, Paxman Boadu and a diversity of others of you have also stepped up and stepped in to help manage the trailer drop off site and still others have given generously to the disaster relief efforts. Brian and Cathy have also risen to provide timely and essential missional leadership. At every turn I have seen the power of your prayers, the depth of your love for God and the love you have for all God’s people. 

The Scripture speak again; ⁵ the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel ⁶ that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.  Paul sees of picture of the church where the hope and gospel, a defining faith, overflows, bears fruit and is set loose in the world.  We are becoming this kind of church.  Stories of lives changed forever because of the ministry of this church are becoming commonplace again.  The light in the lighthouse on the corner burns brightly and people are again finding our church a beacon of hope and faith.  But over the last two weeks we have seen this lived out in ways beyond my wildest imagination. Two years ago we launched the Furniture Bank of OKC.  Ray and Yvonne York provided us a 6000 sq ft facility to serve as its home.  To date we have touched over 75 families through this ministry.  While this is significant, in wake of the recent storms and tornadoes, God is changing its scale.  The Furniture Bank is becoming a tool that God is setting the stage to use to impact the lives of hundreds.  Last week a local realtor provided us an additional 11,000 sq ft storage facility in Moore.  Yesterday 15,000 pounds of furniture arrived from Ft. Sill.  Another 15,000 pounds will arrive on Monday. On Tuesday an eighteen wheeler loaded will arrive from Massachusetts, and two others will follow on Wednesday night.  Claire McAtee, Anna Ellis, Scott Feree and David Canning have been the historic core of our furniture bank ministry, but now people like Mike and Pam Wanzer, Gene Stewart, Jim and Michelle Rosado and many others from our church have now joined their ranks.  In addition, people across the metro are offering furniture and a small army of volunteers from our church and others have fanned out to pick it up.  This furniture will become the core for what we will be able to provide countless families that lost everything in the recent storms and tornadoes.  You also need to know that our partnership with Life Church has helped to change the story of this ministry and has let us touch even more lives.

But there is more to the story. Yesterday a series of rock concerts were held in three venues across our city. All of the proceeds from these concerts are going to help support the work of the Furniture Bank.  This week Beth got a sweet word from the small private school she attended in NC.  The seventh grade class there held a bake sale and auction and raised $1000 to help support this vital ministry. Feed the Children is providing us boxes of food, toiletries, and Avon products that we are delivering as a starter kit for each household where we provide needed furniture.  Feed the Children is also working with us to secure new mattresses for every bed we deliver.  But there is more to the story. If you parked in the north parking lot you may have noticed a large Isuzu box truck parked in our parking lot.  On Tuesday I met with a group of pastors and we talked about what God was doing and would do through the Furniture Bank. I told them that while volunteers could deliver a couch or a table and chairs on the back of a pickup truck, if we were going deliver whole homes we had to have a box truck.  I told them that God was going to have to provide it because we were trying to use all disaster relief dollars to help secure additional resources for the families in need. I told them that I believed that God was either going to have to prompt someone to loan us a truck, give us a truck, or provide $10,000 for us to buy one.  We made it a point of prayer. As soon as the meeting wrapped up I walked into the work room in the office and got my mail for the day.  I sat at my desk and began to go through each letter, and in one I was shocked to find a check for exactly $10,000 to help us in our disaster relief effort. God had answered the prayer before we had even spoken it. The check was sent by someone that had has a history with this church and for whom Jacquita and I had assisted doing a funeral for his aunt.  When he watched the news he wanted to stand with us in this critical moment. God worked through this man and his wife to answer our heart cry. God has taken the seed of our faithfulness and is now using it to bear fruit of hope and redemption.  I truly believe that this is only the start of how God will work in and among us. 

Our passage for the morning concludes, You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.  Paul reminds them of the one that encouraged and taught them and that could celebrate their love of God’s presence and power at work in their midst.  Who are the voices that speak into your life, calling you to grow in your walk with God?  Who are the ones that you are encouraging in their walk with God?  If we are to become a church that changes the world we must continue to strive to learn from one another and to encourage each other in our quest to live as God’s people.  We must point to God-sightings; those places and moments where we see the presence and power of God on display in our midst. We have a grand history, but I truly believe that God is shaping us into being a church that can change the world. Our heart of prayer and our faith must define us. God is going ahead us. Let’s go boldly go to the place where God is leading us and never settle for less.

FBCOKC Response UPDATE #1

Our partnership with Feed the Children is now fully in place. They are dropping a trailer in our parking lot this afternoon.  Please let your friends, family, and neighbors know that the need is for canned foods, diapers, bottled water, and Gatorade type drinks.  Please bring your donated items to the North Parking Lot between 9am and 6pm M-F and throughout the day Saturday. Volunteers will be here to assist you. 

The Furniture Bank of OKC will be open extended hours, 8am – 4pm, on Saturday to help receive donated furniture. This furniture will help to meet the need of those that were living in apartments and rental homes whose insurance coverage might not be adequate to replace their home furnishings.  Check your spare room, look in your garage, and tell your friends that this is the time to share their furniture for the sake of others.

If you would like to volunteer, we now have a number of options for you.  Good Shepherd Ministries has freed Beth Ogburn to help facilitate volunteer needs for our congregation and our community.  She has a growing list of times and locations where you can be involved.  You can contact her at bogburn@goodshepherdokc.org or at  (405) 537-6629.

Know that we are working with a wide diversity of local churches in a collaborative effort to help touch the lives of those dealing with broken homes, hearts and lives.  We also continue in dialogue with CBFO and others on partnering with them in additional relief efforts.

Please remember our special time of prayer and worship tomorrow night in the Chapel at 6pm.

Keep checking the church website at www.fbcokc.org for the latest information on what we are doing as a congregation and how you can volunteer to help make a difference.

Grace and Peace, Tom

First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City Initial Response Plan

As you would anticipate, many are asking how our church plans to be involved in the response to the wake of pain and damage left by yesterday’s tornados.  Since minutes after the tornados struck we have been working on putting together a plan with our ministry partners.  While other options and opportunities will emerge over the next 24 hours, these are ways where we can respond right now.
 
Effective 9:00 am this morning – We will serve as the downtown/Midtown drop off point for canned foods for Feed the Children.  This food will be used in provide food resources to families as a part of the larger relief efforts.  We will operate the drop off point from 9am to 6pm for the next several weeks. We can use volunteers to assist in covering the collection box.  Please contact Beth Ogburn at bogburn@goodshepherd.com or on her cell phone at (405)537-6629 to volunteer for a one or two hour shift. Good Shepherd is freeing Beth to assist in volunteer coordination with multiple partners working together in the relief efforts.

In addition, we anticipate Feed the Children will be letting us know about the need for additional volunteers at their warehouse on Meridian here in Oklahoma City. The warehouse will also serve as a drop off point and the packaging point for food that will be distributed to those in need as a result of the tornados.

We are in communication with CBFO and have agreed to serve as a host site for teams that will come from out of state to assist in the relief efforts.  When the teams begin to arrive on site we will need hosts and kitchen volunteers to assist facilitating them.  CBFO will also be putting together local relief teams and we will advise you as they post volunteer needs and opportunities.

We are in communication with The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association related to chaplaincy care and Samaritan’s Purse as a large scale disaster relief organization.  We have offered to serve as their host site for their engagement in our community.  If they accept our offer we will need hosts and kitchen volunteers to aid them in the work. 

By the close of the day we will have an announcement related to the scaling up of The Furniture Bank of OKC to collect furniture for those that lost everything.  We anticipate partnering with others to help serve as a central resource in providing furniture for those who will need it in the weeks and months ahead.  If you are willing to serve as a volunteer to help pick up furniture or help receive it at the Furniture Bank site on 10^th Street please contact Brian McAtee at brianmcatee@fbcokc.org.  We are freeing Brian up to serve as the lead point in our relief response efforts through the Furniture Bank and as a host site for relief teams.

You can also give through the church to help provided needed resources for our response to this disaster.  First, your giving to the budget is essential right now.  We will be stretching our resources thin to help meet the various needs and opportunities placed before us.  Please give faithfully and strongly to our budget right now.  In addition, you can give online through the church to provide funding to our relief partners.  If you want to give to the relief efforts through our partners please note disaster relief in the comment section of the online giving form. 

We will also defer our Wednesday night Bible study and move into the Chapel from 6-6:45 pm for a prayer service for those dealing with broken homes, hearts and lives in our community.  Please feel free to invite your friends and neighbors to join us for this time of reflection and prayer.

I will update you in the days ahead with other options and opportunities to make a difference.  Thank you for your heart for God, for others, and for our community.

Grace and Peace,  Tom

"What Does This Mean?" - Acts 2:1-12 - Pentecost Sunday - May 19, 2013

To be honest, most Baptist are not celebrating or even acknowledging Pentecost Sunday.  Part of it is that many Baptist have struggled with the idea of the Church Calendar that marks the spiritual movement of the year. The second reason is that more than fair share of Baptist, particularly in the last century, have struggled with what to do with the Holy Spirit.  The Charismatic movement and an almost irrational fear of the potential of someone speaking in tongues or breaking out in expressive worship seems to have caused too many to try to push the conversation about the Holy Spirit to our congregational edges.  We can handle the grand story of the creative Father and the redemptive Son, but there is something uncontrollable about the movement of the Holy Spirit that can make those of us that desire control recoil and push back.  But in our desire for control, we can miss experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit alive and at work in our lives.  Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit is the deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.[i] If the Spirit is one of God’s great gifts, we must not miss what God intends for us.  Come with me and look at the story of stories, where the power and presence of the Holy Spirit came to life in the midst of the first disciples and hear what their story can mean for us.

We join the Biblical narrative in the moments after the Holy Spirit has been poured out on the disciples gathered in the Upper Room. When we experience something that we have never seen before we struggle to describe with the words and images we know. If you had never seen a porcupine before how might you describe it to some else?  If you had never seen a baseball game or played golf before how comical might it be to hear you try to explain these games to others?  In the first few verse of Acts 2 we read the description of a violent wind coming from heaven, of tongues of fire floating above each of those gathered in the room. These strange and otherworldly images are Luke’s best attempt to explain what happens when the very presence of the Spirit of God fills the room and empowers God’s people. Should we be surprised that something dramatic happens when the Spirit of God moves? 

The disciples move from the Upper Room into the streets and begin to speak to the masses gathered from all over the world in Jerusalem for a religious festival. This band of fishermen, tax collectors, and other assorted followers were a part of something incredible. They had spoken Aramaic their whole lives. Now, empowered by the Holy Spirit, they listened as other languages tumbled from their lips. The crowd was bewildered – confused – even shocked – because they saw these simple Galileans speaking to them in their own language. How could these folks know all of these languages?  What was happening?  Scripture tells us that they were amazed and perplexed and they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Some nickered from the sidelines and speculated these followers of Jesus must be drunk. Peter claimed center stage and tried to explain what is going on. He started with an obvious observation, but one that was directly to the point, folks, he argues, it is only 9 in the morning; it’s simply too early for them to be drunk.  But then he takes a moment of mockery and turns it into a pronouncement on what God was up to in their midst.

He cites the prophetic pronouncement of Joel.  "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'^”  For Peter, the moment that they had been waiting for is not being realized. This is not the promise of the beginning of the end, but rather is the promise of the beginning of the beginning of the Kingdom of God. Those gathered in the streets would have heard this prophetic promise in synagogue schools when they gathered around the rabbi for instruction.  This prophet Joel described a coming climatic moment in history when the very presence of the Spirit of God would be poured out in their midst.  In the time of the prophets and even in the rabbinical teaching of that era they understood that God poured out his Spirit on a select few, prophets and priests who would speak to God for the people and speak for God to the people. The prophet promised a moment when God would no long speak to and through a select few – a mere handful – and would begin to speak through all of the people.

The Baptist Old Testament scholar J. Hardee Kennedy describes it this way; “The intimacy with God which hitherto had been confined to exceptional individuals will be shared by all of his people. Not scantily, but in abundant measure, the Lord will pour out his illumination and power.”[ii]  It was an incredible prophetic pronouncement because it meant that the mission of God in the world would then be invested in all of God’s people. In essence of what Peter wanted the crowd to understand is that the incredible – remarkable – almost unexplainable scene that they are witnessing is the promise of the pour out of God’s Spirit upon the people fulfilled. The moment they have been waiting for was here!

Joel was clear, and Peter was equally clear by citing the prophet Joel, that in this new era when the Spirit of God is poured out on all people and everyone would become a part of the story of the coming of the Kingdom of God.  There was going to be no room for boundaries. The Scripture proclaims that both the sons and the daughters will prophesy. In old fashioned Southern, “your sons and your daughters, they are goin’ to preach!” I recognize that some across the conservative Christian landscape would argue with me and would try to leverage Paul’s instruction to young congregations to justify the boundaries. But Paul was speaking into specific situations where cultural abuses triggered a need for direction and situational correction. But Paul’s instructions cannot undermine the power and significant of this grand declaration that the Spirit of God has come and all the old boundaries are to fade away. If we believe we are living in the last days, as most of my conservative brethren contend, or if we are living in the beginning in the beginning of the Kingdom of God as I believe, then we must together embrace the fulfillment of Joel’s prophetic promise. If we take the Bible at its word then we must cheer when Peter invokes the these prophetic words from Joel and makes clear that a new kind of Kingdom has been born and the Spirit of God has been set loose not on a select few, but in lives of all believers. The boundary of gender is shattered and the expectation is that God will use both men and women to proclaim God’s word.

But this breaking of boundaries is not just about gender, Joel sees that young and old will both be empowered by the Spirit for ministry. The young will see visions, and the old will dream dreams –both ways we see God speak with authority throughout the breadth of the Old Testament. Today we recognize those in our midst that are graduating from high school, college and graduate school. For far too often we quietly devalue our young adults telling them that they must wait until they are fully grown living in the midst of the “real world” to find their place in ministry.   We have been wrong. We must remember that the great prophet Elisha was called to begin his work in his youth. King David was called when he was hardly more than a boy. Deborah and Ester were in their teens when God called them to action.  There was no waiting until – the expectation was that God would speak to and through his people even in their youth. We need to be attentive to creating opportunities for our young to lift their voices and let us hear God speak to us through them. We see this lived out as David Paul begins his journey into ministry.  We see it lived in the plans to send Betsy Stewart to Canada to spend a season working as a part of the Matthew House staff.  We see it lived out as Ashton Adams and Ariel Hawkins return home as summer interns to explore their unique senses of call. We see it lived out as Corey Miles continues forward in the Peace Corp process.  God is loosed and at work in the lives of our youth and young adults.  Likewise Joel does not envision a retirement age for faithfulness. Our culture sometimes devalues those who are in the December of their lives. It is our loss. Those who claim hair of grey have much to teach us.  Without apology God speaks to and through those both in their youth and in their maturity.  Let’s destroy any boundary of age that devalues people and might limit how anyone might be used an instrument of God’s Spirit.

So, what does mean? It means that we must to be clear that Joel’s prophesy, and Peter’s sermon, were not design to serve as political rhetoric or social commentary on the nature of relationships and the desire for an equality for all. It was much more than that.  It means that the core pronouncement of this prophetic utterance was that in the last days – and in these first days - God will empower everyone for to participate in God’s redemptive purpose. The redemptive mission of God that was born in creation and fulfilled in Jesus now becomes the mission of the Church  God’s agenda is so big that there can be no boundaries that hold anyone back from offering their voice, the visions, and their dreams as instruments of God. The mission is young and old, male and female to join God in making it clear to everyone that there is a way to restoration, redemption, and a right relationship with God. Peter cries out, the day is here, the Spirit of God is poured out on everyone who is a child of God, regardless of their age, or their gender, or their social statues, so that the whole of the people of God will lift their voices in witness so that all who call on the name of the Lord might be saved. It means you have a place in the work of God. The Spirit of God is poured out for you. God stands ready to make us a part of his redemptive plan is we are willing – available – open for God to work in us and through us. The prophetic promise of Joel and the power of Peter’s first sermon are fulfilled in you! It means that the Holy Spirit has come that we might live in God’s power and do all that he calls us to do- and to become all he calls us to become – so that the world might see the testimony of God alive in our lives and that all that call on his name will be saved. Why would we settle for anything less?

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[i] 2 Corinthians 5:5 NIV

[ii] J Hardee Kennedy, “Joel,” The Broadman Bible Commentary, Volume 7, (Broadman Press: Nashville, 1972), pp.75-76.

The Power of Love - I Corinthians 13 NIV - May 12, 2013

I have a confession to make.  I hate buying Mother’s Day cards, Father’s Day cards, birthday cards, anniversary cards, in fact almost any kind of holiday or relationship based cards.  It is not that I am opposed to giving card; I actually really enjoy finding a simple card and then taking the time to write what I want that specific person on that specific day to hear.  I believe the reason I cringe at the mere thought of the card search process is that enviably I find myself standing in the aisle reading card after card desperately trying to find one that does not rhyme like Dr. Sues or drip with over the top honey laced insincere emotion. Someone somewhere must love these kinds of cards because it seems that they are produce in endless numbers. Our culture had made love a noun, designed to describe an emotional feeling or attachment we hold someone one or something.  It has become human emotion that seems to fall somewhere between feeling warm and fuzzy to feeling a swell of romantic passion. For too many it is something one feels for a season; until something or someone else comes along.  We hear across the breadth of Scripture that God intends us for something more.

This morning we come to one of the great “love” passages found in Scripture. You have heard it shared in song by our sanctuary choir in two very different pieces.  I am sure you recognized it right way. Our passage for this morning is I Corinthians 13.  There is an unmistakable beauty and poetry to this passage.  We have often heard this passage read in wedding ceremonies or seen it framed and presented to a young couple as a wedding gift. If we are not careful, in our desire to tie this passage to the notion of a romantic love it can lose its power and we can miss its intended word for us.  In this passage Paul” is speaking not about some human virtue but about love that is rooted in God’s love in Christ.”[i]  This is more than the contrast of the two Greek words for love. Paul speaks to a way of life.

Soon enough we will get to the great poetic images found in verses 4 through 8, but we cannot overlook the first three verses.  They are not a prelude for the poetry that follows. They set the tone for all we will hear. Listen to how Paul writes in first person, a reflection of his deep seated fervor for the words and teaching we now hear. There first three verses read: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ² And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Paul speaks first to the issue that he has addressed across the breadth of his letter to the church in Corinth. He speaks to the way of worship that has caused so much angst in their body, the speaking of tongues.  He uses two images that speak to their daily experience.  Our translation reads “sounding brass” but a better way to understand this “echoing bronze” which they would have recognized as the hollow bronze sound devises used in theaters of the day to help project a speaker’s voice.  Without the spoke voice they were useless.  Likewise the second image, the “clanging symbol” was lifted from their streets where the single cymbal acted as the tool to call people to an ecstatic worship of a locally deity.  It was a call to worship a meaningless lifeless god.[ii]  Paul wanted them to understand that no matter how spiritually connected they might feel by speaking in the tongues of men or angels, no matter how profoundly they or we might experience worship, it was and is meaningless without love rooted in God’s love in Christ. 

Paul now speaks to his own heart issue, preaching and teaching. He is speaking directly to the leaders of the church and to those that would have claimed a special spiritual knowledge.  All of their knowledge and wisdom is nothing and they are of no value without love.  He then goes a step farther.  He tells them, and us, that even if you had a faith so strong that it could move a mountain, it was and is meaningless without love rooted in God’s love in Christ.  

Paul now turns to those that would claim a place of pride because of the nature of their service or sacrifice.  He tells them if they give away all of their wealth, all of their time, and even their bodies for the sake of the church, but do not have love rooted in God’s love in Christ, then they are wasting their time and wasting their lives.  Without love born in the heart of God, their, and our, sacrifice is meaningless.

It is clear that the church in Corinth thought it was self-sufficient.  They had assembled an all star leadership team, embraced those that they thought could speak with the language of the angels, had soft ears for those with convincing spiritual arguments, and thought that their own service and sacrifice was a defining witness for everyone to see.  They were proud of who they were and who they had become.  But somewhere along the way they had forgotten to whom they belong and whose way was to define them.  The kind of love of which Paul speaks is not an emotional expression but a way of life born at the heart of God.  If who we are and all that we do is not centered in the way that God calls us to love Him, to love one another, to love our community and to love our world, it is of no value.  Any act of spirituality that is not dripping with God’s love is meaningless. These are hard words that must have stung that early church. They are also words that should sting us when we find ourselves defined by our pride, our own spirituality, our own reputation rather than by living in complete dependence in God and shaped and defined by a love rooted in God’s love in Christ.

Listen as Paul now describes what that way of love looks like and with equal passion tells them, and us, what it does not look like.  He begins: ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. These are attributes Paul uses elsewhere in this letter and across his other teachings as attributes of God. It is a love that is enduring, sustaining and embracing. It is the kind of love we heard in the testimony earlier in our service. The kind of love that is rooted in God’s love in Christ does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  This list should sound familiar.  Many are accusations Paul has made about the church in Corinth already.  But, we cannot hear them, point at that early church in Corinth way and simply pass by.  Paul could have easily been speaking to you and me. Be clear, Paul is contrasting a love born in God to the kinds of way we twist that love in our relationships with one another Envy, jealously, pride, and self-centeredness are so easy to slide into without even realizing it is happening to us.  We can be like frogs thrown into a kettle of cool water.  We settle in and do not even realize that the temperature is increasing until it has reached the boiling point and it is too late. Our culture sparks the desire to want more and more regardless of the price. Our culture sparks our desire to get what we think we have coming to us, regardless of the price.  Our culture sparks our desire to stand us and to get angry at any perceived offense to our way of living.  Our culture sparks our desire to catalog every wrong we believe anyone had done to us.  The sparks become a burning flame that burns the bounds of our relationship with those around us, often even those closest to us. 

Paul continues; ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  I wish I could let these words linger in the air in front of us. Hear it again; Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  I have met with too many who have had their heart’ broken, their bodies broken, their spirit broken and their dreams shattered because they have been manipulated and exploited in the name of love. For too many a love born in the heart of God has been perverted and truth has been replaced with lies.  Listen as Paul proclaims that love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ⁸ Love never fails. A love rooted in God’s love in Christ has no room for selfishness, self-centeredness, manipulation, distortions and lies.  It demands truth – that truth that forgives, redeems, and restores. It is a truth, a love, that build each other up and a love that brings us to the feet of hope and a future. It is a love we can depend on.  It is a love born in the truth on display in God’s love for us through Jesus Christ.  This is the love we saw played out in the testimony of baptism this morning. 

Paul doubles back to where he began to make sure that they were clear; But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ^…13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. Instead of a grand passage on romantic love, we hear from Paul the picture of a transformational love that must shape how we engage with God, one another, our community and the world.   There is a power in this love born in the heart of God that calls us from the corrupted versions of love we see played out every day in front of us and compels us to love one another in a way that draws us toward God and one another.  It is a love that pushes us beyond ourselves and toward a way of life of redemptive love that can impact everyone around us.  This kind of life of love is that only thing that matters and the one thing we can do in the name of God that is sustaining.  How are you living out love in your relationship with God and others?  How are others touched by your love?  Embrace the kind of love God demonstrates in His love for you in Jesus Christ. Come and embrace a love affair with God, with one another, and our community; a love affair born in the heart and nature of God.

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[i] David E. Garland, I Corinthians, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, (Baker Academics: Grand Rapids, MI, 2003), p. 606.

[ii] Richard B. Hays, First Corinthians, Interpretation: A Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, (John Knox Press: Louisville, 1997), p. 223.

Beyond Our Walls - Matthew 28:16-20 - May 5, 2013

This morning we come to the passage that has been named “The Great Commission.”  It is a passage I have heard preached since my childhood by every well intended missionary that wondered into the walls of the church.  I imagine that many of your can recite this passage from memory.  But, while its gift is its familiarity, that too may be its curse.  We are so accustomed to hearing pastors uses this passage to plea for money related to a missions offering and to missionaries use it as a launching pad to tell us stories of people far away, we are tempted to tune out and turn away, expecting only more of the same. But there is more to this passage than we have heard before.  It is a call that is at one moment intensely personal and profoundly corporate.  It speaks to us all where we are and points us toward the way of life that God intends for us individually and together. Come and take a fresh look at this familiar passage and discover what God might have to say to us in this place this morning. 

Our passage begins with the disciples gathered on a hillside in Galilee, exactly where Jesus had directed them to go. It is pretty apparent that Matthew was not on a public relations contract with the disciples.  Throughout his gospel he reports their questions and their squabbles.  He shows them as real people dealing with the raw emotions and faith discoveries born in their walk with Jesus. His take on this moment is no different. Verse 17 reports; When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  First the response we expect – “when they saw him, they worshiped him.” But, then he adds a haunting tagline “but some doubted.”  What?  Here on the mountainside in the shadows of the cross and the resurrection, in the wake of his post-resurrection appearances, doubt still lingers.

Our temptation is to meet those who doubt with questions or condemnation.  In these last hours on earth you might imagine Jesus becoming outraged by their doubt, but he does not. He does not rebuke them, he reaches out to them. He responds to their deep seated questioning the same way he does ours, with grace. This grace response brings them together and sets the foundation for a gospel that will touch the four corners of the earth. 

Jesus summons them to let them know that they could let go of their doubt, that the task they are about to be assigned is based on divine authority. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Jesus comes to them, comforts them, and lets them know that the commission that awaits them is founded in the very authority of God. Authority is a term that seems to make people nervous.  Most of the time, it seems, we hear this term “authority” being leveraged by people exerting power over others – commanding, demanding their way.  Most of us can quickly recall a boss, a coach, or a teacher who seem to relish in their use – and sometimes abuse – of their authority.  Jesus turns the image of authority on its head.  It is a power given by God that is demonstrated in humility and service. Rather than authority expressed in the symbols of power of soldiers and shields, Jesus expresses it through broken bread and a broken body – palaces given way to mangers – the trappings of royalty given way to a ministry to blind beggars and tax collectors. Jesus wants the disciples to know that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him, but his demonstration of authority would be radically different than the vulgar displays common by the Romans and the religious leadership of the day and some of the religious leaders of our days. The Great Commission is founded in a divine authority, but we must be careful which model of authority we claim.  There is room for no masters, rulers, or powerbrokers – only servants.

As servants we are called to shake the world at its very foundation.  We listen as Jesus teaches; Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. If this had come from anyone but Jesus it would have sounded ridiculous.  There before Jesus stood a rag-tag semi-literate bunch of fishermen, tax collectors and assorted other religious misfits.  Their journey with Jesus is littered with stories of doubt and failure, confusion and frustration.  They struggled over and over again to get it right, only to stumble, bumble and fall again.  How could a commission so grand in scale ever be entrusted to this group?  It was and is because they belonged to Jesus.

Jesus told them that they would go and impact all the peoples of the world with the gospel.  In Acts we listen as Jesus tells them that they are to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost ends of the earth.  I can only imagine how vast this assignment must have seemed to them.  It is probable that the farthest they had ever been from their homes was 100 miles.  It is hard to realize that to that moment their whole world was confined the distance between Oklahoma City and Ardmore.  In a breath Jesus was transforming the scale of their world and of what it meant to serve and follow God.  His was and is a call to see the world beyond race and place, language and culture and to serve together as God’s witnesses in the world.

This morning we are the living embodiment of this Great Commission.  Together we are from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Ghana, Cameroon, the Sudan, the Chin and Karen Mountains in Myanmar, and more. Together we speak English, Spanish, Burmese, Zo Tung, Arabic, French, Matupi, Fallam, Karen, Asante Twi, Yemba and probably still others unknown to me. It fascinates me that with so many languages and cultures worshipping together none of us speak the language of those gathered on that hillside and none of us would call Galilee home.  Together we are the grand demonstration of God’s great work in the world. We are a product of a God who loves and a God who sends. John 3:16 reminds us that “For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son.”  Jesus tells us in John 20:20 that “As I was sent, so I send you.” Followers of Jesus Christ were sent that each of us might hear the good news of salvation and now we are sent together, side by side, commissioned by Jesus to live out of his call to our community and the world. The question is not whether we are sent, but it is instead to whom and where we are sent.

Some churches talk about finding their place in the world.  For our church family it has become at the very center of who we are as a people of God. It is no secret that we offer platforms for service in the midst of our city, across the nation, and across the globe. We have embrace partners of missional significance and found venues that allow us to engage in God’s work in the world hands-on.  The unique challenge for our church family is to learn how to do missions together across the congregational, cultural and linguistic boundaries.  Each congregation: First Baptist Church, United Myanmar Baptist Church, Oklahoma Zo Tung Baptist Church, All Africa Baptist Church, and the Sudanese Christian Fellowship bring something unique and valuable to the table.  We can learn much from one another and can learn to work and serve together.  It will challenge each of us to push beyond our cultural comfort zone but together we can become a shining light of faith for our community and our world.  Where they see boundaries we will choose to be family with one another and servants living out our call side-by-side. This kind of mission vision will impact us all and can help us change the world in the name of Jesus.

Jesus closes the Great Commission with one of the most reassuring words found in scripture. Jesus says, And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." The great news is that this grand task invites us into partnership with God. Whoever we are, wherever we are from, whatever language we may speak, and whatever role we are called to play in the Great Commission story, we can be sure we go with Jesus Christ.  We will never be strong enough on our own to fulfill this grand global endeavor given by God and that is exactly how God intends it. The Great Commission that was offered on that hillside in Galilee, and that we hear challenge us today, is an impossibility short of the power of God at work in us and through us. We are called to go together and to go in the power and the presence of God.  Where is God calling you?  Where is God calling us as a church family? How will we respond?

Know that your answer – know that our answer – will impact us as much as we seek to impact others. William Dooley shared a story with me that emerged from the new Catholic Pope’s challenge to new priests during Holy Week.  While I do not often quote the Pope, I think he was right on target with this challenge.  He told these young priests “’to go look for the lost sheep’ and added that when they came back, they ’better smell like those sheep. ‘He wants them amid the people in the muck of life.’”[i]  The Great Commission calls us into the heart of our community and into the world together.  There are still so many lost sheep without a shepherd.  There are still so many living in brokenness that need hope and healing.  There are so many that need forgiveness and grace.  We are called to go – to go together-and to go with God.  It is time to once again go beyond our walls – the walls of this building and the walls of comfort and culture that hem us in, and go out into the muck of life as witnesses of the one who loves us and sends us. Let nothing stand in our way.

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[i] Emanuell Grinberg, “In his first Easter as pope, Francis calls for peace in his own style,” found online at www.edition.cnn.com/2013/03/31/world/europe/vatican-pope-easter/index.html  pm 4/2/2013.