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Sunday, November 14, 2010
Still Under Construction
By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz
Acts 2:46 – 47 New Revised Standard Version
46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
What an exciting morning! We are in new space that will serve us well and will let us serve God and the people God will send for us to care for and nurture. It is a very “green” building, environmentally responsible and economical. And it is not finished yet. Like every one of us in the room, it is, still under construction.
We had a scary reminder of that last Thursday night when all of the electricity in this building suddenly went out completely! The technical term that Kenny, our building engineer, used was, “It was fried.” Chuck Curtis and others leapt to the rescue taking us out of the meeting we were in and getting us back on track. It was a dramatic reminder that, once we think we have done something, we are always able to make progress and improve on what we have done. The Japanese concept is kaizen, constant improvement!
It is the exact same theme we heard in the book of Acts when that large group said yes to Christ for the first time in the Bible. They were baptized, they joined the Jesus movement, just as fifty four young people will today, and from now on, they will still be under construction just as each of us is still under construction with Christ as our architect helping us to look at areas of strength and areas of getting better.
The way the scripture described this is that, once we say yes to Christ, we are still being saved. We have not yet arrived, but we are on the way and, we hope, we are becoming more like Christ, our teacher and mentor.
The attitude of humility and constant learning is found in some of your heroes from the past and the present.
Renaissance artist and sculptor Michelangelo said in his 80’s, having made one masterpiece after another, “I am still learning.” He was still learning how to express and fulfill God’s gifts in himself. It is a line for these young persons and for each of us to remember when we fail or mess up.
World renowned cellist, Pablo Casals, who lived to be 97, used to practice several hours every day and once told a reporter at age 93, “I think I am making progress”!
A more contemporary hero for us, New Orleans Saint quarterback Drew Brees, had to almost start his football career over entirely after receiving a devastating shoulder injury a few years back. His commitment to relearning and to stay on his God given path is another example of living a life that is still under construction and being formed by God. He talks about his faith and his journey in his new book, Coming Back Stronger.
When these people affirm their faith in Christ, they are joining millions of others, like Drew Brees and like Captain Sully Sullenberger, who learned about integrity and duty and giving your best to God, not only from his family but in the United Methodist youth group he was active in just like each of our youth.
I am very inspired by our confirmation class today, not only because it is the largest group we have every confirmed, but because a record number of parents of these youth will be joining our church as well in December. If their parents will be kneeling here to say yes to Christ as Lord, perhaps their church member, young person, will be placing a hand on the shoulder of the parent just as parents will do that with each youth today.
What we are all doing this morning is turning over as much as we know about ourselves to as much as we know about Christ, and then starting a life of constant improvement and progress letting Christ be our architect.
We are choosing a path that will let us practice kindness, tolerance of differences, and compassion, particularly for the most vulnerable, as well as forgiveness of others and forgiveness of ourselves. We are saying we will stand for what is right and ethical even when it goes against the crowd. We are choosing to use our God given talents and strengths so that others can benefit. We are choosing to have the heart of a servant because we are following one who said he had also been sent to serve.
What if all Christians were known for that? Are we? I am disturbed by what too many people think about what church folk are like. Some people think church folks are prejudiced, judgmental, narrow minded, literalistic, anti women, and anti science. Novelist Ann Rice said she has now left her church because it seems that is what her church stands for.
Our community is working to be different, working to be as welcoming and as open and as compassionate as Christ. We are working on that.
We have taken great care in choosing the verses and quotes around the walls in our new space. We have made good choices so far. One of my favorites is close to the new kitchen down the hall, a quote from author Ann Lamott. GOD ACCEPTS US RIGHT WHERE WE ARE AND LOVES US TOO MUCH TO LEAVE US WHERE WE ARE.
There is a new one in the new fellowship hall that many of us like very much from the founder of Methodism. WE DO NOT HAVE TO THINK ALIKE IN ORDER TO LOVE ALIKE.
There is one more that will be placed in a few weeks, and there is a story behind it. About fifty years ago there were a couple of twelve year old boys in a little country town that had a Methodist church in the center of town. It was a small church and was not open much during the week, just on Sundays. The boys learned that in the lower level of the church there was a pool table, and they also found a way to break into the building on the way home from school and spend a while each day playing pool. One day, they heard someone else in the building, and were frightened. It was the pastor who discovered them and said he had never met anyone else who seemed to want to get into that church as badly as those two boys seemed to want to every day!
In fact, he recognized how important it seemed to be for them to be there every day and he wanted to help them. He reached into his pocket and gave each one of them a key to the front door of the church. That was the beginning of their journey. Because of his kindness and welcoming spirit, each of the boy’s families began to attend that Methodist church. One boy’s father was able to get help from the pastor and from a twelve step group in dealing with his alcoholism.
When that boy applied to college, the first one in his family to do so, it was his church that helped him have enough money to attend, and then the same thing happened when the young man felt a nudge toward ordained ministry. Some of you may hear that as one of our youth group has heard that in her last year of college and is applying to Iliff School of Theology right now.
The young man, the pool playing, teenaged church break in artist, became a United Methodist pastor who just a few years ago thought up and gave us one of the most important verses that will be on our wall in a few days. OPEN HEARTS. OPEN MINDS. OPEN DOORS. THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH.
That is the kind of community, and we all need community, that these youth are joining this morning. And as they join, they will help us continue to be a community of OPEN HEARTS, OPEN MINDS, AND OPEN DOORS.
I hope each person here will help us continue on that path of openness to God and also to others.