For the World

Hebrews 10:19-25

February 7, 2016 • Mount Pleasant UMC

Several years ago, I was visiting a person in the hospital shortly before she was to be taken to a rehab facility. In fact, as we were chatting, the transport arrived and said it was time to go, so I told her I would walk out with her. As we left, she introduced me to the people who were her transport, and when the EMT found out I was a pastor at a Methodist church, the EMT asked, “So, tell me, what makes Methodists different from everyone else?” Now, at that moment, I guessed I had about five minutes from where we were until we got to the door, from the time the question was asked until the patient was loaded into the ambulance. I had five minutes to explain to her what being part of the church—and the Methodist church in particular—was all about. My mind started racing and to this day I don’t know how good a job I did, but I tried to say, as best I could, that Methodists are people who live their lives for the sake of, not ourselves, but for the world.

For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been looking at three critical questions for the church today. We began with what is arguably the most important question: why do people need Jesus? He is the way to salvation, the way we find healing and hope in this broken and weary world. Then last Sunday, we asked the question why do people need the church, and we focused on our need for accountability as well as the reality that this is Jesus’ church (not ours) and he is the one who calls us together. New Testament Christianity is a call to community, to (as Hebrews says) not neglecting gathering together (10:25). This morning, then, we’re going to narrow the focus a bit more to answer the third question: Why do people need this church? Why do people need Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church? I mean, if no one needs this church, if there’s no reason for us to exist, we might as well close up and go home. There are about 210 other churches just within the city limits of Terre Haute; that doesn’t count churches in the surrounding communities. One estimate says there are about 325 churches in the Wabash Valley. Of those 210 places where people can attend weekend worship and where they can serve Jesus in Terre Haute, eight of those are sister United Methodist Churches, with an additional 5 UM Churches in West Terre Haute. Within a ten mile radius of Mount Pleasant, according to our Conference records, there are eighteen United Methodist Churches. So why do people need this church? Is there anything we have to offer that makes Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church worth being a part of? Because if the answer’s “no,” we’re wasting our time here.

Well, obviously this is an example of preaching to the choir, because if you didn’t feel this church was worth being a part of, you would be elsewhere this morning. People tend to vote with their feet. But it’s still an important question for us to be able to answer, because it’s far too easy to just keep doing what we do because that’s what we’ve always done. But that’s not, in my estimation, a good enough reason to keep doing anything. Last fall, I was on my way to Kansas City for Leadership Institute, and as I was driving along Interstate 70, my “check engine” light came on. It had come on and gone off several times in the last year, and one mechanic had told me it was just a faulty sensor, no big deal. So I kept on driving along 70, in a hurry to get to Kansas City. I kept doing what I was doing. When I got to my hotel, as I pulled into the parking lot, I heard a strange sound. “That must be the car over next to me,” I thought, as I drove off in search of dinner. And, what do you know, the sound followed me! It was actually my car, which was in the process of dying a horrible, painful death. Over the course of those three days in Kansas City, I had to face the reality that when I just “kept doing what I had been doing,” it lead to a bad (and expensive) situation. Had I stopped along the way, I might have been able to save the car. But doing what I had been doing led to the death of my car, and I had to find a rental car to drive home. That “check engine” light was important, despite what one mechanic had told me. So consider this message today as our “check engine” light, not because anything is necessarily wrong, but because it’s good to get a tune-up before things go bad. Why do people need this church? What does Mount Pleasant have to offer to Terre Haute? What does this church have to offer for the sake of the world?

Well, we offer worship services. We offer two different times for worship services. And our worship is great. I can tell you that, from the very first Sunday we walked in here, Cathy and I felt at home. We really do worship well; not perfectly, but well, thanks to our talented musicians and song leaders and AV people. But you know what? 209 other churches also offer worship in Terre Haute, and in a wide variety of styles. We have Bible studies, several very good small group studies and LifeGroups, where people can encounter the Biblical text and learn and grow and become mature Christians; but I bet you won’t find a church in Terre Haute that doesn’t offer a Bible study at least sometime during the week. We have Sunday School; so do they. We have committee meetings; I don’t know a church that doesn’t, though most seem to wish they didn’t. So what’s unique about us? Again, I’m asking: why do people need this church? What is it we have to offer this community and our world?

Before we answer that question specifically, I’d like us to take a look again at what the Bible says church ought to be, and this morning I want to focus on a passage we only briefly mentioned last week. The book of Hebrews was written to a people who were facing significant challenges. They were Jewish Christians, and with the rise of persecution, there were beginning to be questions about why they should continue to worship Jesus. Judaism, you see, was a tolerated religion within the Roman Empire, but as Christianity began to be seen as a separate faith rather than a group within Judaism, there were fewer protections for the believers in Jesus. For much of the early part of the letter, as we discussed last fall in our BOOST adult class, the author is busy reminding people why Jesus is superior to the old system of sacrifices. Even here, in chapter 10, he is reminding them that Jesus gave his life once and for all. All the old sacrifices had to be repeated, over and over again, but Jesus’ sacrifice was perfect and forever takes away the sin of the world.

In light of that, then, the author begins to describe what kind of people the church ought to be. And, remember what we said last week: “church” is not a building, an institution or a denomination. “Church” is you and me, everyone who follows Jesus, the company of the committed. Therefore, he says in verse 22, our first responsibility is to “draw near to God.” One of the things the church ought to be about is helping people get to know and get closer to God. Now, our first responsibility in that is to be actively inviting people to know Jesus, at the very least allowing them to see Jesus living in us so that they are drawn to him. That involves sharing our story, perhaps through one of the weekly Revive Wabash Valley gatherings or even just one-on-one at the coffee shop. It also involves inviting people to come to worship with you, so that they can sense, we pray, the presence of God in the midst of God’s gathered people. Remember our first two words in our vision? “Embrace…and worship.” But, more than that, once we know Jesus, we’re not done. “Draw near to God” involves growing in our faith; that’s our third word, “Grow.” Some of that happens on Sunday morning in worship, but it happens even more in small groups, settings where we can sharpen and encourage and challenge and pray for one another. Next Sunday, we’re going to be starting our all-church study, “24 Hours That Changed the World.” We’ll be covering the major events during that last day of Jesus’ earthly life, but we won’t be able to answer all the questions or explore all the ideas during Sunday worship. So if you’re not already signed up for a LifeGroup or a Sunday School class that is participating, I hope you’ll do so today. It’s in the small group settings where we can best draw near to God.

The next thing Hebrews says to do is this: “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess” (10:23). The word translated “unswervingly” means “will not bend.” Sometimes the word was used of an enduring friendship, and other times it was used to describe someone who will not be swayed from their perspective or thoughts. The author says that’s the attitude, the stance, we should have when it comes to our faith (Guthrie, NIV Application Commentary: Hebrews, pg. 344). In other words, in the face of cultural trends or winds that try to move us one way or the other, we hold on and stand firm. Unswervingly. I once heard Tony Campolo tell about taking a red eye flight home from the west coast to his home in Pennsylvania, and at one point his seat mate wanted to talk. “What do you do?” he asked Dr. Campolo, and when the seat mate found out he was a Christian preacher, he told Dr. Campolo, “Oh, well, I believe there are many ways to God.” As they were preparing to land in Pittsburgh, there was a significant amount of turbulence, and Dr. Campolo’s seat mate began to show some discomfort. Campolo turned to the man and said, “You know, I’m sure glad the pilot of this plane doesn’t share your philosophy.” “Why’s that?” the man asked, gripping the armrests. “Well,” Campolo said, “I’m glad that pilot isn’t up in the cockpit saying, ‘You know, there are many ways into Pittsburgh, I can just choose to go whatever way I want to go.’ No, I’m glad he’s up there in the cockpit saying, ‘There is only really one right and safe way to land this plane. I’m going to stay on beam and listen to the air traffic controllers.’ If he’s going to land this plane successfully, he must stand firm on the conviction that there is only one way for us all to get there safely.” The seat mate got the point. Stand firm. Stay true. Hold unswervingly. In the face of hostility or challenges to our faith, the answer is not to bend and bow, but to stand firm.

The third thing, then, Hebrews calls us to is found in verse 24: “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,” and then don’t miss how he says we should do this: “not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another” (10:24-25). We touched on this verse briefly last week, and what the author is describing here is more than just showing up for worship. He reminds his readers—and us, 2,000 years later—that showing up is the smallest part of why we gather. We gather to encourage one another, to help each other move toward good deeds, to learn to love each other better. To not gather, to not show up, he says, is the same as forsaking Jesus. In fact, the word that is translated “giving up” is the same word Jesus uses on the cross when he prays, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Guthrie 345; Evans, Communicator’s Commentary: Hebrews, pg. 187). To not gather in worship is to “forsake” your brothers and sisters, and in the time that Hebrews was written, that was a big deal. It was dangerous to gather for worship, for communion as we do today. But they did it, and largely out in the open. When I was in Rome, we got a chance to tour some catacombs, which I had always had in mind as secret places for worship. But archaeology has revealed that wasn’t what they were used for. They were places for buying the dead. Since most Christians didn’t own land, they were buried in these caves, an underground multi-level cemetery. And there were occasional times of worship and remembrance held there, but mostly what we think of as regular worship was held in homes. There is archaeological evidence in several places where families would tear down walls between their houses to make an area large enough for a group to worship in. They worshipped out in the open, at risk of their lives. We didn’t risk our lives to come here and worship today, so these original readers would wonder why we find it so easy to bow out of gathering together. “Don’t forsake the fellowship,” they would tell us. “Don’t bow out of the body of Christ.”

So, if we’re going to be the church for the world, Hebrews reminds us we’re called to draw near to God, hold onto the truth we know, and be sure to gather for worship. Only then can we be fully equipped to make a lasting difference in our community and in the larger world, which is the final word in our vision: “Go.” So, why do people need this church? Are we in the community the way we need to be? Are we making a difference? Or, to put it another way, consider this: about ten or twelve years ago, there was a group of churches in the midwest that began to ask this question: if we suddenly closed our doors, would the community even miss us? Would they know if we were gone? That’s a good question for any church to ask. Would Terre Haute notice if Mount Pleasant was closed? For those other churches, their response prompted them to begin to work more in the community, reaching out beyond their own walls and inspire other churches to do so as well.

That is, after all, a huge part of our heritage as Methodists, to have a constant impact on the community. John Wesley guided his preachers to visit in the prisons, as he did himself, as well as to help the poor, sick and dying. In Wesley’s day, people who were poor were generally considered to be that way because they were idle or lazy, but Wesley called that a “wickedly, devilishly false” idea. From the beginning, the Methodists were people who believed it was not enough to save someone’s soul; the gospel insists that we must also seek to redeem society. Dr. Ellsworth Kalas put it this way: “They understood that if one follows the Christ who condemned the rich man for ignoring the needs of poor, sick, hungry Lazarus on his doorstep, then one needs to do something about one’s own generation of the poor, sick, and hungry” (Being United Methodist, pgs. 75-76). So Wesley and his fellow workers wrote letters to the current publications, spoke against social evils, and got involved at every level of society. Wesley’s last letter was written to William Wilberforce, who was working in Parliament to end the slave trade in England. Wesley wrote these words: “O be not weary of well-doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of His might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.” And Wesley’s spiritual descendants have established schools and hospitals and worked for women’s rights and in the civil rights movement and nearly anywhere there is injustice. We believe our faith is meant to not just make a difference in our own lives, but to redeem society. Evangelism and justice are forever linked (cf. Hamilton, Revival, pg. 114). We are here for the sake of the world We really mean it when we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Mount Pleasant was planted here in 1835 in order to reach the families who were moving rapidly into Vigo County. For 180-plus years, this church has sought to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ here in this area. God has done and continues to do amazing things here. For the last seven months, I’ve been gathering information on the many and varied ministries that happen here, ministries that stretch from reaching out to care for those who are ill and shut-in to those that seek to reach the youth and children in our community. We are partnered with many food pantries throughout the community to help those who are hungry, and we collect food in the barrel by the entryway to give to 14th and Chestnut. We have many folks who are involved in sharing the good news through the Emmaus and Chrysalis movements, and we have folks who go around the world on mission projects. We’ve sent teams to Guatemala and Costa Rica and very soon, two more of our own will be leaving to live and serve in Chile; I would anticipate there might be a trip to that country in our future. This summer, we’re trying a new mission venture called the “812 Project,” doing mission right here in neighborhoods of need. We have small groups that seek to help us grow in our faith by providing fellowship, care, Bible study and good food! (Never let it be said that food is not a discipleship tool—Jesus is found most often dining with others!) And we have other individuals who make a difference in the places they work, shining the light of Christ into some very dark places. What I’m trying to draw a picture of here is the fact that Mount Pleasant folks are everywhere—trying to make a difference for the sake of Jesus Christ. I believe that if our church were to suddenly close, the community would, in fact, miss us. We are a church that believes in personal holiness and social holiness and we hold those two things in tension. We believe a person needs to know Christ, and we believe that the world needs to be redeemed. Not either/or; both/and. It’s not an easy tension to hold, but on our best days, we do it well. We are a church with a passion for the world.

That doesn’t mean, though, that we’re done. There is much to do, and as many wonderful things as God has done in the past, I believe our best days are still ahead. God is not done with this church yet. And I’m not just talking about the new building we’re going to be opening in seven weeks. As I’ve been saying all along, the building God is blessing us with is just a tool. It’s not our goal, nor is it a stopping point. It’s a beautiful tool, but it’s still only a tool God is giving us so that we can reach others for Jesus. Nowhere in that passage from Hebrews are the believers told to build a building; they are told to draw near to God, hold tight to their faith and continue meeting together. The building is one way we can do that, one way we can reach people, but it’s not the only way. Our children’s and youth ministries will be continuing to improve and expand to reach more kids; this grant that Jess shared about last week is aimed at youth ministry but it will benefit all of us. Our preschool will be reopening this fall, and will be five days a week with before- and after-care available. Upward is larger than it’s ever been before, and we’re having the opportunity each and every week to touch people with the truths contained in the Bible. Celebrate Recovery continues to impact lives and bring people closer to Jesus. Mount Pleasant, this is a time to be excited. God is up to something and we get to be in the middle of it! And that’s why I believe our best days continue to be ahead of us. What, can you imagine, might God do if we become the church he really wants us to be?

So that EMT that I spoke to in the hospital? In just a few moments, I tried to describe this way of life that Methodists embrace that holds personal and social holiness together. I shared with her that we share our belief in Jesus as savior with all other Christian churches, and that we seek in sometimes unique ways to live out our faith in the world. That, I said, is why Methodists are still needed in this world—and I still believe that. Why do people need this church? Because it’s been our goal from the start to integrate faith and life, to spread Scriptural holiness across the land, as Wesley said, not just in personal life but in our culture. And that’s a calling that can still shape and change our world. We are in this not for ourselves but to (can you say it with me yet?) “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”

And we long for the day when that becomes a reality, when all gather at the table of the Lord as we do today. We gather not just in remembrance, but in anticipation of that day when we gather with him in the kingdom of heaven. This sacrament is a foretaste of that day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11). But until that day, we gather here at this table and we take simple bread and simple grape juice as reminders of all he did to make that possible. This bread, this cup, these symbols that are given to you and to me are ultimately not about us. Jesus died for the sake of the world. He gave his live for the sake of the world and calls us to do the same. Will you join me as we prepare our hearts to receive this sacrament?