Library
Sunday, November 21, 2010
This is What Fifty Looks Like
By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz
Matthew 11:28 Common English Bible
28 Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.
Well, how does it feel to be turning fifty years old today?
We are celebrating this milestone weekend on the second Sunday in our new ministry space. We are standing on the shoulders of faithful members and leaders of the past fifty years, and we are following our inaugural weekend that fitted 2,300 people into our new sanctuary. This is a story that has a relationship with how Christ used seemingly small resources, two fish and five loaves of pita bread, to nourish several thousand persons in the gospel of John.
By the way, do you remember the name of the disciple in the Gospel of John who brought to Christ the boy who shared his lunch? His name was Andrew, for whom we are so delightfully named. We were named, on purpose, by the founders of this congregation fifty years ago because Andrew, to his credit, kept inviting and introducing people to this charismatic Nazarene teacher and prophet whom God later showed to be God’s messiah.
Andrew not only invited this child who shared his lunch, setting the standard for the extravagant generosity in our vision statement, but Andrew invited lots of others to come and meet Christ and decide for themselves. He invited some Greeks, that is, “pagans” as they were seen then. Perhaps most importantly, Andrew invited his own brother, saying, We think we have found the messiah, God’s messenger for the best life possible, come and see for yourself!
And, thank you God, that this congregation named after Andrew, has been doing the same work that our namesake was doing, telling people that we believe we find life at its best as we follow Christ and as we follow the way of Christ, the way of kindness, compassion, service, generosity, risk taking mission, humility, justice, and welcome for all people.
The details of our history are in your bulletin. Under Ron Hamilton’s leadership, we built our first building and soon outgrew it. We built another building and soon outgrew that. Under Russ Brown’s leadership, St, Andrew became one of the fastest growing, most vital and missional churches in our denomination and we received national recognition for that vitality.
We continued to expand space and when we had reached our limit on our small, former site, you made one of the boldest and pioneering decisions a congregation can make, to relocate and have more space available to do what Andrew did, to be able to invite others, as many as possible, to consider Christ as Lord and mentor and teacher, and to take up his mission of service and justice and kindness.
Since we have been in this location, we have welcomed 1,106 new members including 236 confirmation students such as the 57 who joined us last Sunday. We built three Habitat for Humanity homes including one for a Muslim family. We sent several hundred youth and adults on mission trips to Guatemala, Ethiopia, Detroit, Alamosa, the Pine Ridge Reservation and other sites. We have adopted, in the past few months, East Elementary School in old Littleton where 80% of the kids are on free or reduced lunch, and we have provided for that school over 1500 extra books and over 20 volunteers. We host homeless families in our building every 12 weeks in a program designed to create independence and self sufficiency in those families.
You and I have nurtured 2,200 persons through our very demanding Disciple Bible study classes and our Just Faith Curriculum. We have welcomed leaders and scholars such as David Beckman from Bread for the World, Father Richard Rohr, scholar and teacher Dr. Marcus Borg, and Bishop Richard Wilke, coauthor and co-creator of the most widely used Bible study curriculum in the world.
We have been doing our work together as proud United Methodist Christians who take a both/and approach to the life in the Spirit. We want to engage both heart and head in the life of faith. We emphasize both spoken word and sacramental act and we believe in both reason and experience, prayer and social justice. In addition, we involve both women and men in leadership as Paul and Jesus did.
Right now we are working on a list of fifty reasons to be United Methodist Christians and some of those reasons are:
- We start with Grace and not judgment – the God we see in Christ is first a God of Grace and compassion and forgiveness.
- We believe, with our founder, that we do not have to think alike in order to love alike.
- When you enter a United Methodist congregation, you do not have to check your brain at the door.
- We believe that God is not responsible for tragedies and accidents but that God is at work for good. The bad things that happen are NOT the will of God.
- We believe, male and female God created them, and male and female, we ordain them
- We believe we can take the Bible seriously without taking it literally.
- As Methodist Christians you can believe that God is the creator and you can also believe in dinosaurs.
- And as Methodist Christians, you do not have to be able to swim to be baptized.
There is more to celebrate and to identify with, but we will move on to the words of Jesus from Matthew’s gospel.
We have done this inviting and these ministries of service to all God’s children, and when we say all, we really mean all as our welcome statement says. We have done this out of our desire to introduce persons to the Nazarene prophet and teacher whose Hebrew name was Yeshua, meaning God will save and God will deliver us from a shallow and selfish life. We have desired to fulfill his words:
COME TO ME ALL OF YOU WHO ARE STRUGGLING HARD AND CARRYING HEAVY LOADS, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST.
Does that promise from Christ speak to your heart this morning? Do you want to be following a savior and mentor and life coach who invites us to bring our burdens and our heavy loads, and allow him to give us meaning and renewal and peace and true contentment? Do you have any friends and neighbors who need to hear those words and need to rest in that promise?
I need that. And I think most of us need that peace and calmness. It is the same image that Psalm 23 promises to us with a God who leads us beside the still waters and who restores, gives rest to, our souls.
We are able to be here because for fifty years faithful members and leaders have extended that invitation and promise to each of us. And perhaps that is our mission and our calling for the next fifty, to first of all offer those words of hope and renewal to all the others who are struggling hard and who are carrying a heavy load. Come to this teacher and prophet and savior because he is the one who can give us peace and meaning and life with all its fullness as we follow him and as we live in his ways.
Come to Christ all who are struggling hard and are carrying heavy burdens. This is where you will find hope and healing and forgiveness and solace and rest.
Will you join me as we offer that invitation to those whom God is asking us to serve? Amen.