Seven Last Words of the Church

Acts 10:9-23

February 11, 2018 • Mount Pleasant UMC

I grew up in the church. Rossville United Methodist Church, on the corner of Gaddis and Main Streets, and most every time the doors were open, we were there. Sunday School, Bible School, Youth Group, potluck dinners, lock-ins, revival services, and always every Sunday for morning worship. There was a part of that Sunday service that, as a kid, I looked forward to more than any other. I didn’t understand what it was called, but I recognized the word: “Benediction.” I could not have told you what the word actually meant, but here’s how I translated it in my mind: the time when we got to leave and go eat lunch. It was the last word, the pastor’s last chance to remind us of what we should have learned before we went home to gather around the crock pot. I was in seminary before I learned what the word actually means: “a good word” or even sometimes it’s translated as a “grace word.” It’s a blessing, and in the church it has traditionally been used as a sending forth—a reminder that we are sent out into the world. Not just to gather around a crock pot, as I used to think, but to go and actually make a difference. Benediction—a final word, a grace word, a good word.

This morning, though we will end the service itself with a benediction, I want to, in essence, offer a benediction all through this message. This morning, we’re going to talk about Mount Pleasant Church—where we have been, where we are and where God is calling us to go. If this is your first time here this morning, I want you to know this isn’t a typical sort of message, but I do hope you’ll be encouraged by what you hear, because what I have to offer is a good word, a grace word, a hope-filled word. God is up to something here, and I believe, despite how many great things have already happened, that our best days are yet ahead.

So what’s up with that sermon title, then, pastor? “Seven Last Words of the Church.” That sounds pretty depressing. Well, it certainly can, but before we’re done this morning, I hope you’ll also hear those words, which I will share in a bit, in a different light because God is up to something, just as he has been since the beginning of the church. This morning, we look toward the future by starting in the past, and we begin with a story centered around some choices that have to be made by a former fisherman named Simon Peter. Peter, we are told, is staying in Casearea, a city built by King Herod the Great along the coast of the Mediterranean. I’ve been to the ruins of this city several times, and it was a huge place. Every time I go, more ruins have been excavated. Peter is staying with someone who is, apparently, a fellow believer named Simon the Tanner who lives in a house by the sea (10:6). One day, during his stay, Peter finds a spiritual refuge on top of the flat roof; about noon he goes up there to pray. Noon, by the way, is not one of the prescribed Jewish times for prayer, so I wonder if something is troubling Peter, or if he is feeling some call from the Holy Spirit to pray, or if he is just looking for relief from the heat of the day by taking advantage of the sea breezes (Fernando, NIV Application Commentary: Acts, pg. 320). Whatever the cause of his retreat to the roof, Peter quickly finds himself in the presence of God as a vision comes his way.

Three times he sees a sheet lowered down from heaven full of all kinds of animals and he hears a voice that says, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” Now, in my Bible, those words are in red, but there’s nothing in the text that clearly indicates the voice is that of Jesus, except that Peter, in protesting the offered meal, calls the voice “Lord” (10:14). That’s an interesting combination, isn’t it? When we call someone “Lord,” that means they have power over us. We are expected to do what they tell us. Yet Peter puts together the improbable combination of the words “no” and “Lord.” It’s not the first time he’s refused the command of the Lord. In John 13, when Jesus wants to wash his feet, Peter tells him “no” and then, in nearly the same breath, calls him “Lord” as well (John 13:8-9). But here, some time later, Peter’s refusal is related to his revulsion at what is being offered. Peter knows the Jewish dietary laws. He knows there are clear lines between what he can and cannot eat, according to the ancient law. The sheet in this vision is full of all sorts of “unclean” animals, and for a good Jew, which Peter was, eating things God said not to eat was unthinkable. The dietary laws were part of what defined the people of God and set them apart from the rest of the world. There had been a time before when the people of God had slowly given in to the pressures of the world around them and became no different than those around them. After coming back from the Exile, they were determined that would not happen again. They believed that eating a little pork here, pinching a little incense to Caesar there, would obliterate the faith community. They would be no different than anyone else (cf. Willimon, Interpretation: Acts, pg. 96). For a good, first-century Jew, this was a matter of life and death, of their survival as a people or their community’s expiration. Are there any parallels to today? What are the ways we, as people of faith, are tempted to compromise with or capitulate to the culture? Think about those situations and you’ll begin to understand the vehemence of Peter’s reaction. “I will not do that, Lord,” he says, “because I have never eaten anything impure or unclean” (10:14).

It is interesting, though, to think about where Peter is when he says this. He’s staying with Simon the Tanner. A tanner does what? He takes animal hides and makes them into things. He works with dead bodies; therefore, according to strict Jewish law (Numbers 19:11-13), he is permanently unclean. In fact, his home was probably along the seashore because it was a place located away from the rest of the population. Wouldn’t you love to have that problem? “I’m sorry, I have to live along the shore!” No good Jew would accept hospitality from a tanner—unless you were a Christian and you had begun to see that these taboos and laws were being abolished. So Peter was able to stay with a tanner, but he wasn’t able to eat animals that were considered unclean (cf. Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles, pg. 80). “Surely not, Lord!” And the voice says back to him, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean” (10:15).

This same vision takes place three times, and Peter is disturbed by the whole thing. Luke (the author of Acts) says he is “wondering about the meaning of the vision” (10:17). This is a word that is only used here in the Bible, and it has a deeper meaning than just thinking or daydreaming about something. It refers to someone who is thinking seriously and thoroughly pondering a subject; sometimes it is translated as “intensity of thought” (cf. Fernando 321). Peter desperately wants to do the right thing, as he thought he had always done. It had never occurred to him that God might be doing a new thing here. Is it possible that those dietary restrictions he has faithfully observed are just as outdated for the Christian as were the laws about who he could stay with? Some have called this story the “second conversion of Peter,” as he wrestles with how he should now live in light of this vision. But something is about to happen that’s going to push Peter to make a decision quickly. God has already set things in motion for a radical change in Peter’s life.

You see, the purpose of this vision was to prepare Peter for the arrival of Cornelius’ men. Cornelius is a centurion in the Roman army, which means he is the commander of a hundred men, no doubt an important person in town. More than that, he is a Gentile, a non-Jew, but Luke points out he is a God-fearer. That means he believed in the Hebrew God but he wasn’t willing to fully convert to Judaism. However, he has had a vision, too, and in is vision, he was told to invite Peter to come and preach about Jesus. Again, remember, Peter is a good Jew, and as such, he doesn’t normally associate or rub elbows with Gentiles, especially those who are part of the occupying force of his country. But the vision has gotten Peter thinking, and when Cornelius’ men arrive, Peter does a very unorthodox thing: he invites them to come in. Then, he gets really radical. The next day, he goes with them to visit Cornelius, and when he enters Cornelius’ house (another crazy thing for him to do), he introduces himself by basically saying, “You know, I’m not supposed to be here. But God has shown me that he is doing a new thing, and so, though it’s hard for me, I’m trying to get on board with what God is up to.” The rest of chapter 10 (which you’ll have a chance to read this week) tells us about their conversation and Peter’s realization that he should not be the one to stand in the way of what God is already doing in Cornelius’ life.

So what does that have to do with us? Well, thank you for asking! Peter’s story of a “second conversion” is the story every church needs to experience in every generation. It has been said that every church, every community of faith, every ministry is only one generation from extinction. Mount Pleasant has been here for 183 years and we’ve not gotten to that age by being complacent. Each generation has had to find ways to share the faith with the next generation, to pass it along to our children and our grandchildren and the wider community. Though we may not have said it this way until recently, the mission of the church has always been “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” If we ever fail to do that, if we fail to see the need in every person around us, we will trade that mission statement for another one, one that has been called the seven last words of the church. Are you ready? Write these down, because they’re words I pray we never find ourselves saying around here. The seven last words of the church are these: “We’ve never done it that way before.” Picture it: if Peter had held onto his old attitudes and his old ways and his own prejudices, if he had said to Cornelius’ men, “We’ve never done it that way before,” Cornelius and his entire family would have been denied the privilege of hearing the Gospel. If Martin Luther had held so tightly to the traditions of the corrupt church he found himself in, if he had not given himself to study of the Scriptures and literally putting his life on the line for the truth, if he had said, “We’ve never done it that way before,” the Protestant Reformation would have died in its infancy and many in his day would never have heard the Gospel. If John Wesley had refused the invitation to preach in the open air, if he had failed to set up small groups for the people called Methodist because they’d never done it that way before, Methodism would have died on the vine, revival would not have come and millions would go without the good news of the Gospel in their lives. And if those who have come before us here at Mount Pleasant had decided to keep the church building over in the graveyard, if they had been afraid to try anything new, if we had not started a Preschool or Celebrate Recovery, if we had not jumped in on Night to Shine and started Upward Sports and reached out to youth and young adults, if we refused to connect with InterVarsity on campus or with missions in Haiti, Costa Rica, Chile and right here at home, if we fail to engage the community and say, “We’ve never done it that way before,” then so many in Terre Haute and Vigo County might never hear the good news of Jesus. The seven last words of the church, words that spell the beginning of the end, are these: “We’ve never done it that way before.”

I was reminded of his last year when I got a chance to hear Adam Weber, pastor of Embrace UMC in South Dakota, speak twice, a two different conferences a week apart. He gave the same talk at both conferences, for which he apologized to me, but I told him I needed to hear it twice! For some of us, things don’t sink in the first time! He said a lot of good things about leadership in his talk, but there was one small piece that really dug deep into my heart. I could tell it to you, but I think it’s more effective to hear Adam share it. It’s a short video clip, from the New Room Conference last fall. Take a listen.

VIDEO: Adam Weber

“You’re the hope of the world, church! Start acting like it.” Do we live like we’re the hope of the world? The question Peter’s story puts before me, and I hope the question that’s being buried in your heart, is this: could God do a new thing here? Is God doing a new thing here? Could we take those seven last words and turn them around? Rather than a depressive and judgmental, “We’ve never done it that way before,” what if we thought of those words as not an invitation to an end but to a new beginning? “We’ve never done it that way before!” Our God is the God of re-creation, after all. The prophet Isaiah put it this way: “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19). The God who does new things is the same now as he was then, so let me ask you: is God doing a new thing here?

To look forward, you have to know where you’re standing currently. One of the things that was revealed in the congregational assessments that the District asked us to do last week was that, while most of us are on the same page, there are a lot of different perceptions about the church in terms of vision, outreach, finances and worship. We all tend to see only the slice of the church’s ministry that we are involved in. So I want to share some information you may not be aware of. A “state of the church” sketch, of sorts, but don’t worry, it won’t take as long as the “state of the union.” Thom Rainer, a Christian researcher who focuses on church life, wrote a book a few years ago called Autopsy of a Deceased Church in which he points out ten signs that a church is unhealthy and on its way to death. I commend the book to you, because we don’t have time this morning to cover everything he says, but there are a few things I want to highlight against the backdrop of Mount Pleasant.

One indicator that a church is struggling with its health is found in its prayer life. One sign of a deceased church, Rainer says, is “the church rarely prayed together.” Now, we’re not talking about the pastoral prayer on Sunday mornings. We’re talking about times when the body of Christ comes together to pray for the church, the community, and the world. We do that every month on the second Sunday in the chapel. In fact, as you heard earlier, tonight is the night for this month. We’ve had some wonderful prayer times in the past year, but there is always room for more people to join in. Without praying together, everything else is in vain. Churches that close are those who have quit praying together. Sue Nilsen Kibbey, in her book Floodgates, reminds us that prayer is one of the key foundations that enables churches to move from “here” to “there.” So while I do believe this is a praying church, and I know that many of you pray every day for this church for our staff (thank you!), there is something unique that happens when God’s people come together to pray. Every significant revival in history has begun when God’s people come together to pray. One of my hopes and dreams for this year is that we will, more than ever, be people of prayer, for without that foundation, everything else we do is in vain.

Another sign of an unhealthy church is this: “the church had no clear purpose.” Since I arrived in July 2015, I’ve been regularly reminding you of our mission: to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. As a staff and as a Leadership Council, we try to run everything we do through that filter. How will this help us make disciples of Jesus Christ? How will this help us transform the world? I get excited when I walk through the preschool during the week, when I eat dinner with the youth on Wednesdays, when I have the chance to pray with the kids every Sunday morning because I think, “These are folks who are going to transform the world for Jesus.” It’s hard for me to admit, because I still think of myself as one of the young guys, though my LifeGroup regularly reminds me that I’m not, and I’m realizing at almost 51 years old, I’ve likely got fewer years ahead of me than I have behind me. I certainly have fewer years of active pastoral ministry ahead of me than I have behind me. So my quest for the last few years has become this: how can I invest in the next generation? Who can I mentor, disciple, help shape in some way for the transformation of the world? I hope that’s a question we’re all asking, because it’s the Biblical model. Barnabas invested in Paul, and Paul invested in Timothy—and the Gospel was spread. So that’s why we invest resources heavily in children’s and youth ministries—not because they’re more important than anything else but because we want to reach the next generation and transform the world for Christ’s sake. Someone invested in you; now it’s our turn to purposefully invest in them. It’s our responsibility because the faith and the church are always just one generation from extinction.

A third sign of an unhealthy church, according to Rainer, is this: “the budget moved inwardly.” By that he means most of the resources are used to take care of those of us who are already here. First of all, let me give you the financial picture of Mount Pleasant in a nutshell: we’re doing well. There are weeks where giving is better than others, and there are times when it can look bleak (that’s why online regular giving is so very helpful to those who manage such things), but 2017 was in reality a good year financially. Yes, our budget is now in part focused on paying off our debt, and while I wish that weren’t the case, I do want to say a couple of quick things about that. First of all, as we wrapped up the ReBuild campaign at the end of last year, we came to one conclusion: you all did what you said you would do. You did more than many thought you were capable of, raising 2.2 times the operating budget of the year we began the campaign. Most fundraisers say that simply doesn’t happen. And, in all that time, you continued to support the budget that funds the various ministries and outreaches here. You not only funded the budget, you increased your giving. Last year, giving was up 3.1%, due in part to 31 of you who were “new givers” in 2017. God is good, you have been, also—thank you! But let me also remind you why we built this building. It’s not for us. It’s not for you and me. The building, as we said many times during the ReBuild campaign, is only a tool. It’s a launching pad from which ministry can happen. If you weren’t here on Friday evening, you missed a chance to see in living color what that means. Friday evening, we had 170 guests come through this space on the “red carpet,” people who have not always had things easy, and they were cheered and celebrated and got to bask in the love of God. It was an exciting time, and a reminder of why we built this space. In addition to events like that, our budget and your giving funds outreach opportunities like the upcoming Easter Eggstravaganza, Vacation Bible School, Trunk or Treat, Celebrate Recovery, Preschool and many other opportunities. Your missions giving helps our missionaries do what God has called them to do to reach people locally and in other parts of the world. Andrew & Kelly Wheaton, Jessie Oliver, Deb Williams, and Mckenzie Barber are all part of our extended outreach and you are all part of their ministries. Because of your faithful giving, the ministry of Mount Pleasant truly goes around the world, making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Certainly we have the normal bills to pay, but we want to always maintain an outward focus when we design our budget.

I only have time to talk about one more sign of an unhealthy church, and that is, in Rainer’s words, “slow erosion.” You know how it works in life: if things erode or die slowly, you often don’t notice. That plant in the corner of your family room—every time you walk by it, you think, “I should water that,” but you don’t, and it slowly dies. But you don’t notice because it turns brown slowly, until one day you see it’s completely dead and you think, “Didn’t that used to be green?” Or maybe that’s just me. If we’re not vigilant, if we’re not paying attention, “slow erosion” can happen anywhere—a few down here, a few down there, until you arrive at the point where ministry is no longer sustainable. It’s happened all over, and as a staff and as leadership, we’re always seeking to be diligent to keep that from happening here because we believe God is not done with us yet. This is why we track numbers. It’s not because numbers are the “be all and end all” or even tell everything about a church ministry, but numbers are one of the few trackable indicators of what’s going on in the life of the church. So we track attendance, for instance, and from 2016 to 2017, worship attendance was steady, some would say “flat.” 2016 was up over 2015, and we’re continuing to watch that number and ask what we should do to help it grow. We don’t look for growth for our own glory or just so that we continue to be the largest UM church in the West District. My first District Superintendent would always say, “We count people because people count.” Each number represents a soul, a person, a life that can be transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s why we count and why we monitor. But when we do that, we’re also asking, “Is God wanting to do a new thing?” Is there something here we need to learn, something we need to approach in a new way? The Worship Design Team takes their responsibility very seriously, seeking to create worship services that are engaging, relevant and meaningful.

Some other thoughts, just briefly, from Rainer. Churches, he says, are in trouble, when the past becomes the hero, when we become driven only by our own preferences, and when we become overly focused on our facilities. Our Leadership team here at Mount Pleasant is well aware that there are things we need to be doing better, in areas like hospitality and discipleship, in clearly articulating vision and in doing better in our communication. But I can tell you we are moving forward with confidence, even if we don’t know exactly what the future looks like. Why? Because the same God who calls us to new things in Isaiah 43, the same God who called Peter to a new way of thinking and living with Gentiles in Acts 10, is the same God who promises to go with us into all the unknowns and all the futures of life. In Isaiah, we hear these beautiful words from God, some of my favorite in all of Scripture: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your savior…” (Isaiah 43:1-3). Centuries later, Jesus made the same promise to those he sent into all the earth to declare the good news: “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). He is with us, to the end. That’s a promise we can count on, even when he calls us into new things.

Just as a sort of postscript, I want to say a word about our denomination. It’s not a secret that the United Methodist Church is facing a lot of challenges these days and a lot of conversation around the issues of human sexuality. I don’t believe those conversations are really the problem, but they are the most noticeable symptom of challenges in our church these days. And there are people talking about a church split, or at the very least some drastically new form of Methodism. I don’t know what will happen, to be honest, but I refuse to spend much time, like some of my colleagues, in wringing my hands and worrying about it because I know God is faithful, and no matter what happens to the larger United Methodist Church, God will still be faithful and he will still be with us. The calling for us, in these days of confusion and change, is to remember who we are and why we do what we do: to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. I appreciate the words of Pastor Shane Bishop, pastor of Christ Church in Illinois, this past week. He said this: “If our local churches are dead it doesn’t matter what happens with the denomination. So let’s talk about the mission of the church. Don’t waste time talking about dumb crap.” Here at Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church, I can tell you that our attention is focused on Jesus and what he is calling us to do. We’re making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, and that is who we will be until he calls us home. And we will continue to do whatever it takes to reach people for his sake. And when you hear the words, “We’ve never done it that way before!”, I hope you’ll respond, “How cool is that!” Let’s pray.