June 11, 2017
Stetson Memorial UMC
Trinity Sunday!
Sermon Series:
“Mending
Fences-Healing the Heart…”
“Healing Hold-Out’s”
Adapted from Marcia McPhee’
“On the Mend” Sermon Series
Psalm 8
Mark 10:17-31 MSG
“Let It Go…!”
The Lord be with you
And also with you
Let us pray (Prayer that God’s Word is heard
through me or in-spite of me)
Please stand for the Gospel according to
Mark, chapter 10, verses 17-31 Listen to the word of God from His love letter
to His beloved, you and I…
(Read Scripture from the MSG
Bible)
And
as if her thoughts were heard nurse Faith looked at her and said, “It’s going
to be OK. I just know it is. You and your friends will be ok too. It may take
some time but it will happen.” “How do you know that?” Hope asked. “Well” Faith
said, “you have to have a little faith…no pun intended…” They both laughed a
little. “It is good to hear you laugh” Faith told her “too many people don’t
know how to laugh. They can only concentrate on what has happened in their
lives…or not happened in their lives. They go through their life bitter and
resentful, unable to see the beauty of the day.”
“Well
doesn’t everyone live like that?” Hope asked, “life is tough and there are so
many things that happen in your life it just begins to add up and you kind of
get crushed by the weight of it all.” “Oh, dear Hope, you have it all wrong…it
not the life you have that matters. It’s what you do with that life that does.
You can live your life being crushed by the rock you are pushing up a hill
or…you can let that rock go and roll into the hands of God who can fix
anything” Faith explained. “I wish I knew that for sure. I have pushing a heavy
rock and being crushed in so many ways. I have lived alone so long I don’t
think I can give up and trust anyone…let alone someone or something I can’t
see” Hope explained to Faith. “Well my dear, that’s where faith comes
in…again…no pun intended…”
“How can I know for sure?” Hope asked. “Well
try this…little by little…let something go to God. Maybe only one thing a day,
Eventually I think you are going to just give everything all at once to God and
that rock you’ve been pushing will suddenly become a pebble you can just walk
right over. It won’t happen overnight. But God is able and ready to take our
burdens…if we choose to believe and trust.” Faith told her. Faith put her arm
around Hopes shoulder and said “Give it a shot. What do you have to lose other
than the rock your pushing up hill…” “You have a point” Hope smiled. “Now let’s
go check on your friend. There should be more news about her condition by now”
As they walked down the hall, Hope wondered what was going to happen. She was a
little nervous about seeing her friends but there was something about nurse
Faith that gave her a sense of ease. She knew that this was going to be hard…letting
go the rock, but it was something she needed to do. She didn’t realize how much
she was going to need this new found thought pattern. But it was going to be a
turning point in her life that she never expected.
Good
morning. Happy Trinity Sunday. We celebrate the Trinity …. God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit…our God head three in one. This is what we
believe as Christ followers. This is one of the foundations of our faith. Praise Father, the Son, and Holy
Spirit…Amen.
For
weeks now we have been talking about what ails us. We have had a lot of good
conversation over our ailments as we have been interactive with one another
during our sermon time…so, I need audience participation. In the story that I just shared with you, what stands out for
you? Give time for answers. What
stands out for me is Nurse Faith and how she wanted to help Hope with her inner
issues. Now we have heard a lot about
Hope, Joy, and Grace but we need to realize that it’s not just the situations
around Hope but there are also situations within Hope herself that need a
little mending. She too carries a lot to the table of friendship… Faith had
no issue about talking about her faith…no matter where she was. I consider that
being a bold Christian. You never know
what will happen when we talk about God and our faith outside our church walls…It
is what we do with our faith that helps us make a mole hill out of a
mountain…so to speak…
I
truly believe that we as Christ church…followers of the Way…need to have
conversation of what ails us. What is hurting inside of us. What hold us back
from living the life, individually and collective, that we are offered through
Jesus. We need to heal what ails us to be the relevant Christians. We need to
let go and let God as we move forward as God’s people and take back our
streets…the places where we are called to share the Gospel of Grace, Hope, Joy,
and Faith. Without healing, what ails us we can’t call ourselves Christ
followers because we can’t follow His example in the world. We want to be those
Resurrected people. We can spend the tomb with our comfortable “death cloths” …not
leaving those things behind that bind us… But we need to put on the robe of
righteousness that we receive in and through Christ.
Today
I want us to continue to talk about some of the things that ail us…that stop us
from living that life in Christ, as we mend fences and heal the heart. Now, there may be no fences that need
mending but we are all broken. What in us needs mending? My hope is that we
will have that conversation that will lead to healing. Conversation is hard but it is vital if we want to be that vital
congregation for Christ.
We
have talked about intentions and the fact that, whether we like it or not,
there are times when our intentions may be not so helpful. We talked about
those times that our inhibitions keep us from being open to others. How there
are many things that cause us to be closed off to the very ones that Jesus came
to save…including ourselves.
Fear
is one of the biggest things that keeps us from being who God would have us be.
Fear immobilizes us and keeps us stuck in the mud…unable to move forward for
Christ and the Good News. fear of the future, fear of finances, fear of those
who may come through this door…Maybe even
the fear of Hope as she is walking through our door…
There
is also the sickness of “pride”. Pride can cause us to do a lot of crazy
things… Now being proud is not really a bad thing…we should take pride in what
we do. But there are times when our pride gets in the way of being that loving
community that the “Hope’s” of the world need.
I
think the most vicious and viral disease in and to the body of Christ is the
disease of division. As we work together…and not just give up and leave…the
most important thing to remember is we need to take our division to the Way
Maker, our Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, He will stand in gap for us as we work our
way back to unity. As we bring our hurts and ailments to the Balm of Gilead, we
are healed from the inside out.
Another
thing that ails us as people and as a church is Miss-Trust. Lady Ms. Trust
loves to come in and stir up a whole lot of nothing and sit back as we begin to
come unglued together because we are suspicious and untrusting each other.
What
about holdouts? Merriam Webster gives us this definition of holdout:
: a person who refuses to
reach an agreement until certain terms are met: a person who holds out
: an act of holding out for
something
: a person who continues to
do or use something after others have stopped doing or using it
We
can all tend to be holdouts at times. Sort of like that rock analogy that Faith
used with Hope. Pushing a rock and being crushed by it because it continues to
roll back on us as we try to push it up a hill…and the hill is usually pretty steep… Why do you think we
holdout…hold on to things that do nothing but crush us? Give time to answer. Do you think that the church is a “holdout” at
times and why? Give time to answer. What
about our church here in Patten…what are we holding out or holding on to? Give time to answer. Do you think we can
be used as fully as God wants to use us if we continue, why or why not? Give time to
answer.
Being
a holdout is a worldly way of living not a Christ centered way of living. In
the scripture this morning, the young man did everything perfect as he followed
all the rules and laws given…but...when asked to give up something that he was
holding onto…his worldly possessions…he refused to do it. He kept holding out
on the life he could have had. A life free of worry…a life of abundance…a life
of joy. We too have those times when we
hold on to things that just don’t really matter in the big scheme of
things…those things that matter most to God. We hold on to grudges, we hold
onto narrow thinking…we hold onto judgment …we hold on to prejudges…we hold
onto…fill in the blank. We become sort of invalid because we are holding onto
things that stop us from being the body of Christ…that stop us from being not
only relevant but actually usable by God. The rich man walked away dejected…how
many times do we walk away because we refuse to heal in the Light of Christ?
Beloved
children of the Most High God. Jesus is calling us out of our tombs and in to
His Glorious Light and be healed of our ailments. What is ailing us…as a church…as
individuals…as one body? How can we be on the mend, of fences and our hearts? I
know that there are things we just don’t want to talk about…there are things
that we just don’t want to hear. But we cannot/will not let fear stop us from healing
what ails us, personally and collectively.
What
are we being holdout’s about? Do we want to be healed or just continue on the
road we are on? I we choose not to heal… there is no miracle or power of the
Holy Spirit in our lives and in the life of the church. Are we, you and I ready
and willing to take Faith’s advice and bring our things we hold on to…those
boulders we are trying to push up a hill…and little by little give them to God
who will make rubble out of them…allowing us to step into His Glorious light of
healing and grace?
Think
about the Hope’s of this world. Do you think we are a place that she would come
and find us letting go instead of holding onto things that stop us from being
the Light of Christ? We call ourselves a Hope Giving Church. Would Hope find
the giving of mercy, of grace, of joy? I ask that we prayerfully come
together…as family…to heal what ails us. I passionately want us to be that
church that Hope would hear about the goodness of God and feel the oneness of
our church as we work through our faith journey together trusting in the One
who knows us best.
Maybe…just
maybe…Hope will come through our doors. What will she find here?
Amen.
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