Then What?: Sermon John :3:1-17

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

Have you ever been watching a football, baseball, basketball game and seen someone holding a sign that says John 3:16? Have you seen a bumper sticker on a car, or someone wearing a t-shirt, or a button or a billboard that says John 3:16? This verse is arguably the most famous Bible verse in Christendom. The reason that these people place this verse in such high esteem is that they believe that this is the central message of the Gospel. If you were to ask Christians to recite a verse by memory I would be willing to bet that this would be a top answer. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” This seems to encapsulate the message we are trying to convey to the world. That God love the world so much that he gave his Son to the world so that the world might be saved through him. There is God and the Son. The language is that of sacrifice, God “gave” his Son to the world, although the word could also be translated into “sent”. And this sacrifice gives those who believe everlasting life. We know this verse and its meaning… or do we?

I want us to look today closely at this encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus. I want us to look at it microscopically looking at three particular phrases within this text and see how it might affect our view of the text as a whole specifically that famous John 3:16. I want us to look at the phrase “born from above”, the phrase “God so loved”, and the phrase “everlasting life”. Perhaps by looking at some of the parts we can gain a greater perspective of the whole, not just in these verse but in the gospel message altogether.

Jesus tells Nicodemus that “one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” The good ole King James Bible uses the words “born again.” This is the version that I think we are most familiar with. This phrase “born again” has become a mainstay in Christianity in the last 25 years. The political news people love to talk about the “born again” Christian constituency and how their vote can sway the elections one way or another. Now when people talk about “born again” Christians they are usually speaking about a specific type of Christian. They are referring to a conservative, sometimes non-denominational, sometimes Pentecostal, evangelical, Christian. These people may or may not fall into the United Methodist denomination. For me this sounds like a needless description, “born again” Christian, it is two descriptions of the same thing, like saying a round wheel or an orange, orange. If we are Christians in the first place then we are born again, or born from above. If we are in Christ then we are reborn by and into the Spirit of God.

This phrase has both soteriological and eschatological meaning. I know that those are two big words and basically what that means is that the phrase born again has something to do with our salvation and our new life after this world is gone. The typical meaning of born again has to do with getting saved, which is another word used a lot in conservative Christianity, and getting saved means entrance into Heaven. This is the formula that some call salvation. In these cases we see being “born again” as something that is a one time thing. It is moment in time when a person might come to the altar or in some denominations it is the moment of baptism and then that is it, it’s done and over with, you’re done, you’ve got your ticket, you get into the big show.

Let’s look a little deeper than that. The Greek word that is used in John is anōthen which does mean reborn or born from above or born by the Spirit. This word does not signify a once in a lifetime moment, but a lifelong journey of renewal. The beginning is the moment that you accept the gift of Christ, but the journey goes on from there for a lifetime. This is what in the Methodist tradition is known as Sanctification, a lifetime of dedication, service, and obedience. It also means that we don’t stay spiritual babies, to use the metaphor that Jesus uses. We must grow in our faith; we must mature in our relationship with God. This is what God desires for us, not to stay babies, wailing and flailing about, but to grow everyday a little deeper and stronger in the Lord by the help and grace of God.

We are born again because of Christ. We are born again through the sacrifice of the cross and the Resurrection. This is the mechanics of our salvation. However, there is a deeper meaning behind this. God so loved the world and this is our next phrase to examine. The Greek word for love used here is agape. This shouldn’t be a new word for you all; it should be something that we are familiar with. We have talked about this before. This love is an eternal love. This love comes from God because it is of God. Remember 1 John 4:7 “God is love.” Agape is the love that God is made of, it is the very essence of God. What an amazing thing. This is a powerful love. This kind of love works miracles. This kind of love caused the blind to see and the deaf to hear. This love raised the dead and healed the sick. This is the love that was embodied in the person of Jesus.

This is a radical, transforming love. This love welcomed the outcast, the sinner, and the prostitute. This love transformed lives and continues to transform lives. This is the love that causes us to drop what we are doing and help a neighbor. This is the love that causes us to drive 100 miles to be by the bedside of someone who does not have anyone else. This is also a sacrificial love. It was this love that chose the cross not for glory, but for you and me. It is the love that came down was born away in a manger and died on an old rugged cross, but that could not really kill it, because three days later it raised Christ from the dead. This love will come back and bring peace and renewal to all things in the world. We need to search for this kind of love in our own lives.

Paul describes this kind of love in 1 Corinthians 13. He says that this “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” This is the love that God has for us and that God wants us to have for him and for each other. God did not send his Son only to die upon the Cross, but to be an embodiment of this love. Jesus shows us how to live this kind of love everyday.

The final phrase is “everlasting life”. We all know what this means right, it means getting into heaven and living with Christ for all eternity. I am not going to tell you that this is not the meaning, because I believe that does mean this. However, this is not the only meaning. The Greek word used here is aionion which can also mean life in this age. So this phrase can also mean that God gave his Son so that we can have a renewal in this life as well as the promise of the life to come. What does that mean for us Christians? It means that our everlasting life does begin when we die. It begins now; when we are reborn we gain everlasting life through Christ. We gain blessings from God now in this life as well as the life to come. Remember that when Jesus died on the cross the curtain in the Temple was torn. This symbolizes the fact that we can have a person relationship with God through Christ now and in the life to come. We should not place our faith in a bottle only to be opened on Sunday morning and when we get to Heaven. It means that our lives are blessed beyond words we gain everything through Christ. Everlasting life means that we live in the eternal presence of God now and forever.

Our journey with God has already begun. We have been reborn in the Spirit and if you have not there is no better time that today. We are born again in the Spirit by the love of God and through that love we have everlasting life that doesn’t just start when we die, but is going on right now. When we follow the teachings of Christ, when we do work for the kingdom, when we love others as God loves us, then we will have the everlasting life.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

That what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

And that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Where Are You Going?: Sermon Matthew 4:1-11

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

Have you ever gotten lost? I mean really lost, like you don’t know what state you’re in lost. Usually, you start out on a designated path to a designated destination. You know where you want to get to and you basically know how to get there, but you get distracted. Maybe you were changing the station on your radio or looking at the scenery and you miss and exit or a turn. Maybe you fell prey to the dreaded, “shortcut” distraction. Whatever the reason, you look around and the fear begins to crawl up your spine and you realize that you have messed up.

We talked last week about Jesus having a particular path to follow. We talked about how the Transfiguration was an important crossroads in Jesus path and how Jesus had a choice to make. The path that God laid out for him ended at the cross. This week we see Jesus much earlier in his journey, actually before Jesus even begins his journey. We are familiar with this story. Jesus is lead out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. He is preparing for the beginning of his ministry. He fasts for 40 days, he prays constantly, he breaks down to his weakest human point. Now if this regiment was a prerequisite for ministry there would be even less people entering the clergy, but Jesus follows the direction of God. He is at his weakest point which is the point when lure of distraction is the greatest.

Then who should arrive, of course it is the devil himself. Many people in the modern Church and in modern theology don’t want to talk about the devil. They want to believe that the devil does not exist and they call the belief in the devil archaic and superstitious. We if you are looking for the dude with horns, in the red suit, with a pointy tail, and a pitch fork in his hand then you might be out of luck. But if you are referring to a source of evil in the world and an entity that wishes to put you off track from your journey with God then the devil is completely real. Make one notice here that the devil tempts Jesus at his weakest point and he does the same with us. When we least expect temptation that is when it rears its ugly head.

The devil tries to tempt Jesus in three different ways, physically, spiritually, and politically. The devil says to Jesus, who is famished, starving, and hungrier than most of us have ever been, turn the stones into bread. In other words, use your powers to satisfy your needs, who is it going to hurt. This was not just a temptation to satisfy Jesus’ own personal hunger, but a distraction to change the path that God had put Jesus on. One loaf of bread would have been enough to satisfy one man’s hunger, but the devil tempts Jesus to make many loaves from many rocks. Jesus could have fed many people with those loaves. This was not just a temptation for a personal hunger, not just a selfish request, but a temptation to get Jesus off track by tempting him to do something good. This sounds like a good thing to do, feed the hungry, help the poor. However, this was not Jesus’ purpose; this was not the path that God had placed Jesus on. Jesus wasn’t supposed to be a baker, but a savior.

We are tempted to physical distraction, just like Jesus. These temptations are not just limited to the advertisements for junk food and sugary soda. We are distracted from the paths that God has put us on. We might be tempted to think that work or leisure are more important that church. We might be tempted to think that little league or big league sports are more important than supporting the church. I’m not saying that taking a vacation or playing sports is a sin. However, these things can become distraction if we let them. Anything in our lives that can take precedence over God is an idol and sinful. One physical thing that get a lot of people into trouble is money, or the love of money. I believe that greed is the root behind lot of the evil that humans do to one another. Murder, robbery, drug selling, slavery, genocide, many of these things can be traced back to greed. People will do terrible things to one another over money and material things. We must be aware of the physical things that can distract us from the path God has place before us.

Jesus is also tempted spiritually. The devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the Temple in Jerusalem and says that if you are the Son of God throw yourself off and God will protect you. In other words the devil is telling Jesus to put his wants and needs above and beyond that of God. This kind of temptation cuts to the heart of Jesus relationship with God. The devil is tempting Jesus to doubt his trust of God by getting Jesus to demand proof of God’s protection. Do you trust God enough Jesus? Jesus trust God enough not to do it. Jesus does not need proof because he has faith that God is with him always. The devil is tempting Jesus into selfishness; put God to the test so that he will bless you.

We become tempted like this as well. We are always tempted to place our needs and wants above what God wants for us. We have our laundry list of prayers for God. We need this and this and that and we want this and that and this and oh yeah if you have time help those people in Africa. This kind of mentality has hit the pulpit. We have preachers who preach a gospel of prosperity. God wants you to be rich. God wants you to drive a Mercedes Benz and wear $10,000 dollar suits and live in a multi-million dollar house. All you gotta do is send a little cash my way. Buy my book, buy my prayer cloth, or my special oil for $19.95 and God will bless you into wealth. This is a temptation of selfishness, of putting your needs and wants above and beyond others. This temptation goes against everything the gospel says. The least among you on earth will be the greatest in Heaven. The greatest will be the servant of all. This spiritual distraction goes against the prayer we say every week, “thy will be done”. The devil will try to tempt us with selfishness. He’ll tell us that we deserve God’s blessing and everything that we get is just what we are due.

Now we are blessed people. We drive cars, maybe not a Benz or a beamer, but we are among the wealthiest people in the world. God blesses us according to his plan not ours. We are blessed not because God loves us more than he does those who are poor, but because God has given us the responsibly, the stewardship to help those who don’t have enough. We have a responsibly to help those who don’t have enough. We have to remember that to those much is given, much responsibly is required.

Finally, Jesus is tempted politically. What I mean is Jesus is tempted to distraction with a promise of power. The devil takes Jesus to the highest mountain and in a feat of special effects shows him all the kingdoms of the world and says all this can be yours if the price is right. What was the price? All you have to do Jesus is worship me, show me a little love and I will give you the world. Now the thing about it is Jesus will eventually receive dominion over world according to Revelation, but it would be in God’s time and it God’s way. It meant, like we said last week, going through Calvary. The devil was giving Jesus an easy way out.

We are also distracted with easy ways out. We become tempted when the path that God has for us becomes bumpy and difficult, when tragedies and heartaches shadow over us. We want to take the easy, smooth road. We have our own ambitions, our own goals to fulfill. I have know people who will come to church every time the door is open and be the last person to leave and yet the rest of the time they are working toward their own agendas and often at the expense of other people. We have to stay on the straight and narrow, even when it gets dark and bumpy.
Jesus broke through these distractions, he overcame these temptations. The way that Jesus did is the same way that we can. How can we, like Jesus stay on God’s path? First, we need a road map that is our Bible. Each temptation that the devil threw at Jesus was met with a Scriptural reply. We need keep up our Spiritual armor. This is our road map, this is our guide. We also have to look at the road signs. When we have problems at work, problems at home with our families, when we have that feeling of guilt that let’s us know that we are following the wrong path. We also need to be willing to ask for directions when we are lost. That is we need to be in constant prayer. Prayer is crucial to a good life along God’s path. We remember that Jesus was constantly in prayer, asking for direction from God. We shouldn’t we ashamed or embarrassed to ask, because we all make mistakes and God knows this. We all take wrong turns and fall to the temptation of distraction.

I have good news. As many times as we mess up, God’s grace is even more abundant. God’s grace is more abundant than we can possible imagine. Wherever we kind ourselves, even it is lost in the wilderness, God is with us. Let us walk together down the pathway of God and keep our eyes on the destination.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Be Transformed!: Sermon Matthew 17:1-9

Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the Scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today. Amen.

I want us to do a little mental exercise this morning. I want you to remember that perfect spot. A place you might have seen on vacation, perhaps at the beach or in the mountains. Perhaps it is a special place on your own property that is sacred to you. I want you to close your eyes and place yourself there. That perfect spot. There are no bills to pay, no doctor’s appointments, no stress. The sun is softly kissing your face and warm breeze brushes your hair. We all have this place. This is a place that you feel at one with nature, at peace with yourself, and somehow closer to God. Are you there? Do you remember? When you where in that place, perhaps it was only for a moment, did you want to leave? Did you want to stay there forever, locked in that perfect place in that perfect moment?

This is where Peter, James, and John found themselves in our story from Matthew this morning. They climbed a mountain with Jesus and sat with him on the mountaintop. This was already a privilege for them because Jesus had chosen them for his inner circle, his VIP entourage so to speak. They were already excited and they were in anticipation of what was to come. Then it happened. Jesus was transfigured; the Greek might be better translated to metamorphosed in to something glorious. His face shone like the Sun, his clothes were a dazzling, brilliant white, and he stood there in his glory that was to come. Peter, James, and John had to shade their eyes from the brilliance. Then Moses and Elijah, the two biggest people in the Hebrew Bible stood with him and were discussing something with Jesus. Peter wanted to stay in that moment; it was like nothing he had ever seen before. He told Jesus that it was good for them to be there and that he would build three shelters for him, Moses, and Elijah. Peter wanted to stay there on the mountaintop, but he couldn’t just as we cannot stay in our perfect place.

These perfect moments in time are just that…moments. This glimpse that these three inner circle disciples saw was only temporary. We don’t know exactly how long it was, but we might assume that it was only a few minutes and then it was over, back to reality. It was in the past, but Peter wanted to stay there in the past, it was safe, it was beautiful, it was perfect. Peter, James, and John could not stay in on the mountain and we cannot stay in our perfect place for too long. We cannot dwell in the past no matter how perfect and beautiful the moment. That doesn’t seem like good news, it is disappointing. There is good news that just as those perfect beautiful moments pass temporarily, so to do the ugly, hurtful moments. The moments that we or someone we love are in physical or emotional pain only last temporarily. We cannot dwell on the past no matter how beautiful or how ugly they might be. Jesus tried to teach this to the disciples as they were coming down the mountain. We must not dwell on the past, but be mindful of the present and hopeful for future.

Why? Why is this, why can’t we live in the past? One reason is because there is work to be done here in the present. Let’s go back to our story from Matthew. Jesus was speaking with Moses and Elijah; we don’t know what they were talking about. Perhaps they were laying out the plan for Jesus. Perhaps, they were telling Jesus what he must do in order to receive glory. This might be the case, but probably not because earlier in Matthew Jesus reveals to the disciples what must take place. That he must be arrested, beaten, and killed and on the third day be raised. It does not seem that this is what Moses and Elijah are talking about.

Perhaps Elijah and Moses were offering Jesus encouragement for the hard road ahead. Jesus knew what had to happen, Jesus knew God’s plan and we can only imagine what was going through Jesus’ mind. Is this what I really have to do? Is there not other way? In this moment, Jesus got a taste of future glory along with the three disciples. This was the reward at the end of the path, but Jesus path went through Calvary. If Jesus was to follow God’s path then it meant going to the cross, to that place called Calvary, Golgotha, the place of the skull, outside Jerusalem. However, this was not the only path to glory that was offered to Jesus. Remember earlier in Matthew, Jesus was in the wilderness and was tempted by Satan. Satan offered him all the power and glory in the world, for what? All Jesus had to do was to worship him. Jesus had a choice, the easy path or the path of God which was anything but easy.

We don’t want to think about Jesus having a choice. We want to believe that Jesus came down and followed the pathway of God without pause or question. But if we believe that Jesus was fully man as well as fully divine then we must believe that Jesus had a choice and a difficult choice at that. He could take the easy path or he could take the difficult path of God. Jesus could have said, “I can’t do it, it is too hard, too painful.” But the love that he had for us, all of us, trumped the difficulty of the path of God that went through Calvary. That is the good news of the gospel, that Jesus had a choice and he chose us. He chose the cross, not for himself and his own glory, but for us so that we could share in his glory. God so loved the world that he sent his son and the son so loved the world that he chose the cross. That is powerful love, that is the kind of love that breaks the heart of stone, that is the kind of love that transform. It is the kind of love that can transform the most hardened criminal to the most powerful preacher of love. Feel that love flowing from the cross and be transformed by it. Let it carry you to places that you have never dreamed of.

Our paths are before us as well. Beware the easy path because it might end up being a trap. Often the path that God has for us is rocky and difficult, just as it was for Jesus. We can’t stand still we have to follow a path. We can’t just come to the safety and sanctuary of this church to talk about God. We have to follow God’s path, go out into the world and spread the love of God. It is the same path that Jesus followed. We have to tell the people we meet along the path that Jesus loved us so much that he chose the path that went through Calvary. This also means that we have to take risks for the gospel. We have to come down from the safety of our mountaintops and go speak truth to power. When we see things wrong in the world we need to speak out about it, write letters to our leaders, and write letters to the editors of our newspapers. If we are to follow that same path of Jesus then we must do for the least of these. We have to give to those who need out of our abundance. We should give without expectation of return or reward because our reward is not in this world, but in the next. We must embrace those who have been considered outcasts by society. This is that path that we must choose if we are to end up at the same place with Christ. This is not to say that our path might not get dark. This is not to say our path won’t be dangerous in places, but just like Jesus, God is with us every step of the way. God is with us on our paths of righteousness.

This Transfiguration was just a taste of what is to come. It was a sample of the goodness of what we can expect. If you have ever been to Costco, Sam’s Club, or sometimes even Wal-Mart they have these stations giving out free samples of things they are trying to sell. We have a taste in this story of our glory as well as Jesus’ glory this is because when Jesus went to the cross of us we get to share in his glory. We get to share in the glory of Christ.

The Transfiguration put Jesus on a new path. Moses and Elijah were encouraging Jesus to follow the plan that God had made for him. As he came down from that mountain he was more resolute and determined than ever. He entered into Jerusalem with confidence, even though he knew what was to come. We do not have to be afraid in our own paths because Jesus has walked them before us and Jesus is there with us every step of the way.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Gospel According to Gilligan: Sermon Matthew 18:19-20

Prepare our hearts, O God, to accept you Word. Silence in us any voices but your own, so that we may hear your Word and also do it; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.

The mate was a mighty sailing man,
The skipper brave and sure.
Five passengers set sail that day
For a three hour tour, a three hour tour.

The weather started getting rough,
The tiny ship was tossed,
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The minnow would be lost, the minnow would be lost.

The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle
With Gilligan
The Skipper too,
The millionaire and his wife,
The movie star
The professor and Mary Ann,
Here on Gilligan’s Isle.

Just to answer the question that might be going on in your mind right now, no, I haven’t lost my mind. School isn’t too tough and I haven’t got too many irons in the fire. And just so you know, you’re not crazy either, that is the theme song to the TV show Gilligan’s Island. This must seem unusual to you, but believe it or not there is a lesson to the learned from this show and it is the same lesson we read about in our Scripture readings this morning. Most of us know Gilligan’s Island, even those of us who are a little young to have seen it in its original broadcast thanks to cable TV and the TV Land channel. The original series aired on CBS for only three seasons from 1964-67, but in that time it became a cultural landmark. Everybody knows about Gilligan’s Island and a lot of people probably sing the theme song. I won’t make you do that. We know the story a couple of old naval buddies are running a charter boat company and 5 people from every walk of life imaginable decide to take a three hour tour. The ship was caught in a storm and wrecked on a deserted island. The hilarity begins. And although comedy was the main aim of the writers, if we look a little deeper we can find a lesson to be taken from this show. This lesson is the importance of togetherness and community especially in times of trouble. So this morning I want to explore the importance of friendship, fellowship, community, and togetherness with our friends on Gilligan’s Isle in the background and I also want to look at how creating and maintaining this relationships can be hard.

Why do we need friends, community, fellowship, togetherness? This seems like a simple enough question, but there are some deep spiritual answers. First, we need other people in our lives. We, as humans, have a deep need to be with other people. One of our deepest fears is being left alone. This need for companionship is divinely ordained. In the creation of humanity, God looked at Adam and said that it was not good for man to be alone and so God created Eve and divinely ordained the relationship between two people. But more than this God said that humans will be together, they will form families, communities, friendships, and fellowships. We have been united together as spouses, friends, and companions from the very beginning. If you look from the beginning throughout the Bible all the stories that have been collected, there are very few instances where a man is completely alone and those instances where due to the person’s mistakes. God wants us to be together, this is why we have the church so that a group of believer’s can come and worship God collectively, not to say that individual worship and time spent with God is not right or important it is, however there is something special that happens when a group of people gather to worship.

Let’s look at our friends in the island. There were 7 people on that island. The survived mainly because they had one other to rely on. They grew to depend on one other not only for survive, but also for comfort. When they had problems they could count on one another, when they were hurt both physically and mentally they had a shoulder to lean on. Gilligan was always the Skipper’s “little buddy”; these 7 people from diverse backgrounds came together because of the need for community. They were stuck on an island with no where else to go and no one else to turn to and so they relied on one another to survive.

Our reading from Ecclesiastes comments on the importance of friendship. One importance is for mental and physical survival. In biblical times and it some cases today it is much safer to travel together than it is to travel alone. One of the first things a personal safety trainer will tell you is not to be alone at night, especially in a strange place. The writer of Ecclesiastes says “And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.” We hold on to one another for security’s sake. However, we have relationships for our mental stability as well. We need other people, be it friends, spouses, or family, to tell our dreams to, to share our fears with, and to tell our worries with. We need relationships with people who will listen and gives that shoulder to lean on and sometimes cry on.

We also need community, fellowship, and friendship especially Christian friendship in order to maintain accountability. As Christians we must hold each other accountable and aid each other in our Christian walks. This is not to be done in judgment or in malice nor is it to be done through gossip and behind the back dealings, but in love and in compassion for one another. We are a family in the church, we love together, we grow together, and we support one another. We support each other through our trials and temptations. There is a reason that AA, NA, and other 12 step programs are done in groups. It is done this way because a group offers support to the individual members. Remember a threefold cord is not easily broken. This is why community is so important we support one another we keep each other safe not only physically, but mentally and spiritually as well.

Jesus said in Matthew 18 that when two or more are there his presence will be with them. It is not that Jesus is not with us when we are alone, but there is something special that happens when two or more gather in the name of Christ. When a group of believers get together to worship it is an amazing feeling the Holy Spirit really gets moving in those kinds of situations. We need more of that type of community in the church. The Church almost seems lifeless as if we are just simple going through the motions when we come to church. I feel like that sometimes that is when I need my companions in Christ and the movement of the Holy Spirit to jumpstart me back into life. The Church needs a jumpstart to shock us and move us back into action.

So we see how community is important and we see how these things work together. But how should a community look? Diversity is vital to community. How boring would life be if everyone thought, and acted, and believed, and lived exactly how you did? We would never learn anything from each other, we would never be challenged in our faith and beliefs, and this would be a sad thing indeed. We need to learn for those who believe differently, not reject them. We all have a small piece of the truth; none of us have it all and so we must join together in order to gain new ideas and new perspectives.

There were 7 people on that island and each of them were unique in their one way. The only two who were anything alike was Thurston Howell III and his wife “Lovey” and even they were different. Each person had a unique personality and unique gifts. The group benefited from the diversity. Where one’s gifts and talents ran out another would step in and solve the problem, although they could never get that boat fixed. The same is true for the Church we all have gifts and talents and we all have to work together. Where one lacks another picks up and where one is tired another comes in for support. We don’t all have the same gifts and none of us have all the gifts so we need one another.

As much as diversity is a blessing it can also cause problems. As different people work together there is bound to be friction. Sometimes that friction causes hurt feelings and anger. These feelings can lead to divisions in the Church. One group with one person and another group with the other then the two come out fighting. This can destroy a Church as quickly as a match and gasoline can destroy the building. How can we avoid this? We avoid it by following what Jesus told us. Peter asks Jesus how many times should a church member forgive another 7 times, and Jesus’ response is short and to the point, not 7 times, but 7 times 70. It is not the number that is the point, but it is the meaning behind it, we should forgive each other numerous times. However, many times it takes. This is not saying we do not hold each other accountable, but we always forgive and forget. There has to be love. If there is a person in this room that you don’t love or a person you have a problem with, offer forgiveness, be the first one, no matter who started it, you be the one who finishes it.

I hope you have enjoyed our trip to Gilligan’s Island. I hope that you see the importance of community, friendship, and fellowship. We might not be on a deserted island in the south Pacific, but we are in a world filled with temptation and danger. We need one other now more than ever. Let us reach out as a community and show the people around here how much we love each other. Let us be known by our love. The world will try and break us apart, but we have to stay strong together. Remember what the Bible says and remember the lesson from Gilligan.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.