Rev. Dr. William F. (Chip) Summers              Pastor

 

Worship Service: 11:00am, Sunday, June 30, 2019 

  Sermon: 

  Scripture:                          

                                                                                                          ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 9, 2019 Sermon
"SPIRITUAL GIFTS"
I Corinthians 12:4-13

  Today is Pentecost Sunday, the fiftieth day after the resurrection, the day when the church was born by the pouring out of God powerful presence. The church becomes the church by virtue of the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is not present, the gathering, no matter how religious, is not the authentic living body of Christ. When we gather to sing our hymns and say our prayers, it is the Holy Spirit that makes them acceptable to God. It is important to know that the Spirit will not accept and respond to any motivation other than the praise and honor of God. John Calvin believed that any good thing that happens in worship is the work of the Holy Spirit.

There is no other doctrine in Christianity that has a wider variety of interpretation that that of the Holy Spirit. In some traditions, the presence of the Holy Spirit is seen in speaking in tongues, shouting and fainting fits. For others, the presence of the spirit is found in a transcendent experience of inwardness, a kind of out-of-body experience. Perhaps the strangest belief concerning the spirit was in the snake-handling churches of eastern Kentucky. The gospel of Luke says that one of the signs given to the disciples is that they will be able to handle poisonous snakes safely. In the 1930’s, a man named George Hensley had a vision that told him he should take the verse literally and subsequently started a new Pentecostal church based on snake-handling. I tell you the truth, if snake handling was a requirement of Christianity, I would be, as we say now, “highly conflicted.” The movement has since died out. (!)

Paul begins by emphasizing that the gifts of the spirit are given for the good of all. If a particular action is not for the greater good of the church, then it is not of the spirit. Television evangelists who claim to be able to heal, but who use the claim for personal aggrandizement are not of the spirit. I got an advertisement the other day for a program that would revitalize the church. It was a couple of CD's and a hand book. I could revitalize the church for the paltry sum of $1,599.00. The Holy Spirit is not given for the benefit of one, but for the good of all. The human spirit can corrupt even the best of gifts. We may become proud of our humility, what appears to be generosity may only be self-serving, and what appears to be spirituality may just be religious arrogance.

What then of Paul's list? It includes those who have wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, speaking in tongues, interpreting tongues, and miracles. The Holy Spirit can manifest itself in any way that brings new life to the church and its members. Have I ever seen the Holy Spirit at work? 0 yes, I think so.

· During 1986 and into 1987, my struggles with depression reached a crescendo. It was the most critical turning-point in my life. There were many who turned away, but a few who drew close and more than once, the right person appeared in my life at just the moment I needed them. I couldn’t see it at the time, but looking back from a distance, I believe the Holy Spirit was providing the people I needed to find the future. They used the gifts the Spirit had given them for my well-being.

· I know several who have been crushed by grief, immobilized by a loss too great to bear. I remember particularly the wife of one of my colleagues whose mother and sister were killed in a car wreck. My friend served a small, country church where relationships were close knit and concern ran deep. The church gathered round and cried with them, prayed with them, fed them, and loved them. Together, they prayed to God for help and he answered their prayers. That is the Holy Spirit at work.

· I had a church member who had COPD and had been put on a ventilator. After weeks of gradually being weaned off the ventilator, he was finally able to breathe on his own. He was getting ready to leave the hospital when his lungs failed. He was forced back on the ventilator and told he would never be off of it. He refused to live that way and, using a yellow pad, he gave us instructions. At an appointed time, his family gathered around his bed. I offered a prayer. The family joined hands with him in a circle of love and sang “Blessed Be the Tie that Binds.” He smiled at his family and nodded to the doctor who turned off the ventilator. Quickly and quietly, he became a member of the church triumphant. I think that was the first time I understood what Paul meant when he said we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. The Holy spirit was part of the circle that day.

I know a church that has the strangest custom of spending months gathering children’s clothing. They act like hoarders as they run in and out and shop sales and fill boxes with socks, underwear, shirts, pants, all kinds of things. They go into worship and wave underwear in the air! They get really excited about all of this and then on a particular day, they call in children from all over and give it all away. What an amazing thing to do. There is so much joy, laughter, and gratitude that day, it must be the presence of the Holy Spirit

.

June 2, 2019 Sermon
"The Burden of Self"
Matthew 11:28-30

On most Sundays I try to arrive at this moment with some part of the gospel in hand that has relevance to our lives. The process is to spend some hours studying scripture, reading current news, and reviewing recent events in the life of the church. The goal is to combine those three elements, discover what is on our collective mind, and then let the gospel speak to that issue. This morning is the exception to that rule. When we speak about the behavior and concerns of others, it is often autobiographical. So, I begin this morning by acknowledging that this one's for me. There is a lesson that it seems I must learn again and again, and it has to do with the burden of self. It is the sin of feeling like we are more important than we are. If by chance this shoe fits you, then so much the better.

It is our human nature to make ourselves more important than we are. We fall into the trap of thinking we can control things that happen around us. The result is that we become anxious when the world goes to heck in a handcart. When we feel responsible for the results of things beyond our control, we are constantly confronted by our failure. The feeling of failure is increased when people tell us, “You should have done this…,” or “Why didn’t you do that?” or “This is all your fault.”

• For children's success - if they get a poor grade, we have failed.

• For a spouse's mood- if husband or wife is out of sorts, it must have been something we have done and we have to change their mood.

• For business success - if things don't go well, we think if we had just worked a little harder or been a little smarter we could have made it.

• For the future - unless we plan and think and anticipate and worry- something unexpected might happen.

As a young pastor, I thought if I could say and do just the right things, I could make people’s hurt go away. Whether they were feeling grief, or rejection, or frustration, if I could just find the right words and actions, I could heal their wound. Believing that, I soon found myself massively depressed and went to a counselor colleague for help. I told him of my failure to heal people. He jumped up, acted astonished, and said, “My goodness, it’s the second coming. You must be the Christ!” He adjusted my expectations.

Why do we do it? Why do we feel so responsible for everything that happens around us? Because it makes us feel important. It's an ego trip. It's a way of saying, "Look how important I am. Look at all of the things that depend on me." Like Chanticleer the rooster, we are quite sure that it is our crowing that makes the sun rise in the morning. We need to pretend that we are in control as a way of reassuring ourselves that we have dignity and worth. The greatest burden of all is the burden of self, the burden of having to prove again and again how important we are. It is our insecurity that drives us into pretending to be more than we are with the result that we become less than we could be. Too often, we find ourselves, like Elijah in the cave, moaning “Oh poor me! Oh Lord, just make it all go away.” We load ourselves up with unrealistic responsibilities until we stagger forward with barely enough strength to face the day, much less any sense joy or anticipation.

In the verses I just read, Jesus is making us an offer. In its original meaning, the word burden simply meant responsibility. We speak of the burden of proof, the responsibility of demonstrating a thing is true. There is the burden of time, the responsibility of using the hours and days well. Jesus then is saying to us, accept responsibility the way I understand it (my yoke) and I will take away the feelings of false responsibility that are dragging you down. Let's swap. If you feel your life is a failure, accept my way of understanding responsibility and you will find rest for your soul.

"Come to me, all you that are weary from carrying the burden of your ego, and I will give you rest. Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

Jesus is not concerned about self-importance. His worth and personal dignity come from God the Father. Jesus relationship with the father is his identity, his security, and his confidence that things are under control. His daily business is to do what God would have him do, not more, not less.

The difference is one of the motivation for acting responsibility. Jesus reaches out to those around him as a manifestation of God’s love. His gifts are freely given because he is not responsible for results. He doesn’t worry about what has happened or what is going to happen, only about using the day as God would have him use it. His desire is to do the will of God in every moment.

Notice the words, “gentle and humble.” His security in the love of God removes any need for ego building. His confidence that God is in control of all things gives him freedom to act in a truly responsible way.

Two quick quotes and I’m done.

I have a friend who says, “God’s job is to take care of me. My job is to do God’s will. I can’t do his job for him, and he won’t do my job for me.” I have studied many theologians over the years and learned from them. The most personally important theologian was Grandmother Allen, a perceptive student of scripture and of God. She would say, “If you take care of the needs of others, you will discover that your own needs have been met.”

                                        

                                       

Easter

                                             

Pentecost at YPPC