Preached by: Pastor Rick Pearson
Text: John 10:7-10
Preached at College UMC and North Oxnard UMC
August 6, 2017
Prayer – “May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer.”
“You can’t take it with you.” That’s what they say, “You can’t take it with you.” To which some reply, “If I can’t take it with me, I ain’t going.”
If, however, you were a Pharaoh in ancient Egypt, you didn’t believe that you can’t take it with you. Pharaohs like King Tut filled their burial chambers with incredible wealth so that they could enjoy comfort and ease in the next life.
It is like the story I head about a place where the custom was to sell all the possessions of a deceased person and fill the casket with cash. At the wake for a very wealthy man, the open casket was filled with a huge amount of cash. Just before the casket was to be closed, the man’s business partner went over and began taking the cash out.
The deceased man’s family was aghast and asked the man “What do you think you are doing?” The man replied, “It’s OK. I am going to write him a check.”
Well, the fact that we cannot take it with us, does not keep us from amassing it. You have probably seen the bumper sticker – usually on a huge pick-up truck or SUV – that says, “The one who dies with the most toys, wins.” It never says what the person wins.
I don’t think this kind of hunger after collecting and keeping wealth was what Jesus had in mind when he promised us abundant life. I mean that the stuff that I own – stuff that I think I have got to have just to survive – would have been unimaginable to even the wealthiest people alive at the time of Jesus.
Yet surely no one would suggest that most Americans have achieved the abundant life. I am sure you remember the poem “Richard Cory” written more than a century ago by Edwin Arlington Robinson. It goes like this:
And he was rich – yes, richer than a king –
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
Yes, we have all heard enough sermons on this passage about the abundant life to know that it is not about wealth and possessions. And we know that it is not about health or long life.
In fact, we are very good at saying what the abundant life is NOT, but when it comes to saying what the abundant life is, we are a little like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart. When faced with the question of whether a particular movie was pornographic in 1964 he famously wrote, “[Pornography] is hard to define, but I know it when I see it.”
Well, we may have trouble defining what the abundant life is but we believe that we will know it when we see.
But the bigger question is not what the abundant life is. The question is how many of us – even those of us who have spent a life-time in the Church – how many of us would say that we enjoy an abundant life?
But if Jesus said that he came that we might have abundant life – and if the Church is where we find the followers of Jesus – wouldn’t we think that one of the goals of the Church would be to help people find that abundant life that Jesus promised?
Which brings us back to the book that has given this sermon series its theme – Missional Renaissance, by Reggie McNeal.
I hope you will remember that he said we need to remember that the Church is not a building or an institution but the Church is the people – the collection of faithful followers of Jesus Christ. McNeal says that for the Church to reshape and recapture this vision of itself, it must experience three paradigm shifts – three shifts in its priorities.
Last week I outlined the first of these, that the Church must shift from being internally focused to being externally focused. That we must stop trying to build and maintain an institution and begin living and working in the world outside our doors.
The second is that we must stop being program driven and become more people driven,
Somewhere along the line, we in the Church seem to have decided that the abundant life that Jesus promised was to be found within the walls of the Church building and the Church structure. That the goal of the Church was to convince people to leave the world and enter the Church.
To accomplish that goal we have seen the Church create more and more programs. We added programs for youth and young people – programs for seniors – programs for newly married people and new parents.
Now we started these programs to meet the needs of people, but our standards of success quickly became – not the change in the quality of life of the people – but the number of people involved. We seem to assume that if more people come to the program more people lives are being changed.
So we measure the success of the Church by how many people attend worship events. How many people become members of the Church. How much money do people give to the Church. But we never ask whether people’s lives are being changed. We never ask if people are living more abundantly.
Let me tell you the story of my penny. I know that some of you have heard the story but bear with me.
In his journal, John Wesley tells the story of trying to pay off the debt on the Methodist meeting house in Bristol. There was a congregational meeting and they were trying to figure out how to raise the money.
In the congregation was a Captain Foy. We don’t know much about Captain Foy but he seems to have been a bit of an engineer. Engineers are problem solvers. They look at problems, see where we are and where we need to be and figure out a path from here to there.
I have the feeling that Captain Foy sat in that meeting – looked at the size of the debt – looked at the size of the congregation – did some calculations on the back of an envelope – smart phones hadn’t been invented yet so he didn’t have a calculator readily available – and determined that a penny a week per person would do it. So he stood up and said let each person give a penny a week.
I told that story in a sermon once and got the expected reaction. Any Church that asked just a penny a week would have no problem raising the money.
But the next day a retired minister from the congregation came by my office and gave me a penny – the penny in the picture – this penny.
At the time of John Wesley, the penny was not the least valuable coin. There was the ha’ penny – and the farthing – and the mite – the coin from the parable about the widow’s mite.
The penny was a significant portion of a day’s wages for a worker.
Now apparently a penny a week was well within the means of Captain Foy, but others quickly pointed out that the majority of the members of that Methodist society were poor factory workers for whom a penny a week would have been a sizable contribution – well beyond the means of many.
Captain Foy saw the validity of this argument and quickly amended his plan. “Put the twelve poorest with me – let each give what they can – and I will make up the difference.”
Now the suggestion of a dozen in the group might bring to mind the twelve disciples or the twelve tribes of Israel, but I think it more likely that Captain Foy was driven by the British monetary system in which twelve pennies made a shilling. Captain Foy was publicly pledging a shilling a week to the Debt Retirement Fund.
Others made the same offer and the plan was quickly adopted by the body.
Now if that was the end of the story it would just be an example of a successful capital campaign. But there is a serendipitous ending to the story.
Because they still had to work out the details of how the contributions would be collected. Initially, Captain Foy went to each of his dozen teammates each week and collected their individual donations. Others did the same.
But this proved too time-consuming so they switched to a system where the people each brought their gifts to Captain Foy.
But the people needed to know when Captain Foy would be available to receive each of their donations so they set a single time when Captain Foy would be available to receive their donation.
When they all came together the actual handing in of their gifts took about 30 seconds but since they were together they began to talk. They would ask one another how their week had been and over time they began to share their concerns and their hurts.
And Wesley saw that these meeting had potential far beyond the paying of the debt on the meeting house. Remember these people were all Methodists. That meant that they had responded to the love of God that the early Methodists were preaching – the love of God that was greater than anything these people had done or thought that distanced them from God.
And in response, the people were called and challenged to follow Jesus – to change their behavior – to change their behavior not to earn God’s love but in response to God’s love.
And these weekly meetings became an opportunity to share with likeminded people the struggles and temptations that they had experienced in the preceding week in trying to live out this new life in the world.
In short, they were seeking ways to live life more abundantly right here and right now.
And so this idea that had begun as a way to raise money to pay off a debt quickly became a way to encourage people to grow in their discipleship to Jesus.
Wesley began to introduce this concept in places where there was no debt to pay.
And people, being people, grumbled because they saw this as a new obligation rather than a new opportunity to grow in their discipleship. In his writings, Wesley addressed these grumblings. He said, “Some of you say, ‘we didn’t have to go to these extra meetings when we first became Methodists.’ I say, it is too bad we didn’t have them then. We all would have benefited. But now, thanks be to God, we do have them and they will help you in your attempts to follow Jesus faithfully.
So here was a program of the Church – instituted strictly for practical, financial reasons – which had the result of leading people to a more abundant life.
The mission statement of the United Methodist Church is this: The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Local churches and extension ministries of the Church provide the most significant arenas through which disciple-making occurs.
I am really happy to be with you. I am enjoying the ongoing programs of this congregation – the Thursday morning Bible study – the Tuesday afternoon Inquirers group – Family to Family – the new Bone Builders group – and, of course, our time together for worship. The fellowship – the service – the praise – these are vital to the vitality of the congregation. But we need to be sure that the intention – the focus – of all our programs and activities is to future our mission. To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
A disciple of Jesus Christ is one who – out of response to the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ – follows the commands of Jesus – to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
When we live our lives out of these twin motivations – love of God and love of neighbor, we will indeed live more abundant lives – we are going to be faithful followers of Jesus – we will find ways to move beyond programs that will increase the size and stature of the institution to ways to change the lives of people. We will move from program development to people development. We will indeed have life – and have it abundantly.
Amen.
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