Experiences of Great Commission     Fifth Sunday of Lent, series B     April 2, 2006

Last Sunday night, a small group of us Lutherans went across the street to Great Commission Baptist. It was a great experience, and I learned a great deal. I was thinking and praying about it all week. The enormous size of their ministry, and the change in our own neighborhood, and our relationship to the African American churches all gave me pause.

As for integration, over the years we’ve seen it happen with the schools and neighborhoods have been integrated. Integration is a good thing, because God truly did create all men and women equal. It is one of the great principals of God and the democracy we cherish as a nation. Now, the only thing that separates the poor from the rich is family income, but that has been changing. Today, African American families have education and jobs that have enabled them to enter the middle class and in some cases upper class. And this is why we have a huge, beautiful church growing right next door to our congregation. Last Sunday, I got to see this first hand.

In their building, the hallways and the were as classy as any bank or world class hotel, but with a definite Christian message. Like us, they have a mural of Jesus, but theirs doesn’t look the one we have in our hallway. That Jesus looked like a light skinned African-American. And you could walk a mile down those marble floors and not pass the same place twice, the place was so big.

When I arrived at the auditorium, I met users. They were two young men, all dressed in white shirts and white gloves, and they paused as they saw me coming. Now I knew I stood out in this crowd, but there looking made me a was little nervous. But then they asked, are you a minister? I had on my clergy shirt and sport coat, like you see me wear every Sunday. I said, “Yes I’m the Pastor at Grace Lutheran, the little white church across the street.” Unfortunately, they didn’t get the joke. Then one of them said, please come with me. Now this man was considerably bigger and younger than me, so I didn’t ask any questions.

He took me down another hall that opened into a large office, the kind the corporate executives have at the Radio Shack building downtown on the top floor. The dark leather furniture smelled new. There was a huge flat screen televison on the wall. Inside were about 25 other men, all but one was Africa American, all dressed to the nines. They all were wearing suits; I felt frumpy and underdressed. The Pastor, Rev. Brown, the guest speaker, and the deacons were in another room. But I found two friends also with the CAPA program for the Fort Worth Police Department, and we were all talking together as one would expect with 25 ministers in a room.

There was a huge flat screen TV on the wall, and we could see on the screen that the service had begun. The choir of about 100 singers, the band and solists were getting the crowd going in songs of praise to God. I believe there were about a thousand people, and the place was not half full.

Finally, they brought in the ministers. Then the deacons, finally the pastor, Dr. Douglas Brown, and then the guest speaker, Dr. Lee. He has a mega -church in Memphis. When the mayor gave his words of welcome, he seemed nervous, out of his element.

The music, prayer and message was filled with praise, praise and more praise for the entire three hours. The sermon was very energetic and powerful. His theme was our faith and trust in God. He talked about the power of praising God in our prayer and in worship.

He said that some of us wonder why God is not answering our prayer times. He said that when we praise God, we make a deposit into our account with God. He went on to say that when we make a request of God, God only grants our request when we have enough in our account. Even more, it’s like writing a check. When God says no to us, he said it’s like we are writing checks without enough funds in our deposits. The check is coming back stamped, insufficient funds.

What do you think? Is that the way God operates? Consider what you know about Jesus, and God’s Grace. Today’s lesson is not even from the New Testament, yet it tells us about God’s for people. It’s from the prophet Jeremiah. At the time, he was in exile in Egypt because the Assyrians (read Iraqis) had taken over Judah, and stole the kingdom. For years, Jeremiah had warned them to trust in God and to live accordingly. But they were corrupt with greed and avarice.

Now in Jeremiah 31:31-32 he tells them, the days are surely coming when God will make a new covenant with Israel and Judah. That new covenant was finally given in Jesus Christ, and extended to all people. In the night he was going to be crucified by the Romans and convicted by his own people. Jesus said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sins. Drink it, all of you.”

In Holy Communion, we receive God’s life changing grace as we participate in Jesus death and resurrection. His death tells us that Jesus became one of us to live, suffer and die. In his resurrection, we know he will come again in a second resurrection for the whole creation, and a new kingdom will emerge with Jesus as its king.

Here are the two principals we must not forget. It’s the first and second of the five principals of our congregation. Does anyone know they are? God’s grace has no limits. And the second, receive God’s life changing grace. The grace of God is all a gift to all people, sinners who come to receive God’s life changing grace. We didn’t do anything to deserve it. The whole Bible was written long before any of us were alive. God made an all sufficient deposit long before we how to write a check. Our account will never run out of funds. It’s a new covenant, a new deal that Jeremiah knew God was going to make with us. was given through the pain, the shame, pain and disdain of the cross. And that’s the reason we should give all honor, praise and glory to God.

So how do we live today? All we have to do is wait faithfully and patiently, and give thanks and praise to God for sending Jesus. We keep the commandments and all that he has taught us as a gift to help us live together peacefully.

Now what should I do about my disagreement with the guest speaker? Should I rail against him, and tell people they should never listen to him or go to Great Commission? No, absolutely not for two reasons. We would lose the opportunity for a relationship with our brothers and sisters at Great Commission, and the chance to work together with them for the sake of the gospel in this city and neighborhood. This world is polarized and divided by issues of all kinds, black against white, right against left, East against West. Our neighborhood, our city, the world needs us to show them how work through our disagreements with respect and love that comes from God.

Jesus taught that the First commandment is to love God with all our heart, our mind and our strength. And then he said the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. Now if you only love your neighbor when he agrees with you, that’s not love. When we have a disagreement, the best way to love our neighbor is to respectfully tell them abut it, and see what they have to say. I will send this sermon to the speaker at great commission and invite him to talk about this with me. I hope he writes back, and offer comments about this sermon. That’s how it works when neighbors are in the new covenant that Jesus gave us.

It’s a principal that applies to all relationships, especially churches and pastors. It’s the same even with a husband and wife. I don’t always agree with Marilyn, but I love my wife. And she doesn’t always agree with me, but she keeps on loving me. Love means working together for good, even when we disagree.

You see, there is another principle involved here, one named by Dr. Marin Luther King. Dr. King was speaking about the sin of racism, and how to end it. He said that one day all will see that we have to be who we are, so that they can be who they are. And they have to be who they are, so that we can be who we are. It applies to all relationships, between the races, the nationalities, but even between family members.

In a healthy marriage, the wife must be who she is so that husband can be who he is, and visa versa. In fact, why would we want to get married to someone who is just like us in every way? I’ll have more to say about that at the wedding this Thursday.

Now let us give thanks and praise to God for Great Commission Baptist Church. Let them be who they are so that we can be who we are. I pray that we will work with them, and they with us to work for peace and justice. The best of African America preachers, like Dr. King can be prophetic voices for all of us. The strength of his preaching was his vision for something that has not yet come into being. You remember the words? “I have a dream,” he said, and his dream was a world were all people of every color would live in peace with justice for all people. At the same time, he did not capitulate to those who were dividing the world with hate and violence.

We know that God’s covenant was for all people in the whole creation. Let us live and love according to this covenant all the days of our lives, looking forward to the life God is gave us through Jesus Christ. Amen.

I got to thinking about that conversation Jesus might have had with Peter and the apostles near the Sea of Galilee near the end of his life.

Jesus: I'm going to have to go up to Jerusalem and there I'll be nailed to a cross to die; but don't fear, I'll rise again. Peter: Jesus, it'll never happen. It can't happen that way. We're not going to let you die. You have to change your negative thinking into more positive thoughts, Jesus. It'll be okay. After all, we'll be there with you. Jesus: You know, you're right Peter. Thanks for straightening me out. My thinking has been a bit too negative lately. Let's go up to Jerusalem and have a party; a celebration, because God's such a great guy and he's going to make every thing all right. Peter: Now you're thinking more wisely, Jesus. You gotta put Satan behind you and think more positive thoughts.

Lent, Easter, Pentecost Without the Cross are Nothing

Now, I'm not in favor of negative thinking and generally I am in favor of thinking positively about the world, my faith, and what God is doing; but is it the meaning of Lent that we would Eliminate Negative Thinking? I don't think so!

Ask yourself this about your proclamation in this and all seasons of the church year: In our rush to be relevant and upbeat have we kept the cross at the center of our proclamation? As you move through the season of Lent, with Holy Week at the conclusion, I hope you proclaim the centrality of the cross of Christ and not a message of positive thinking. It is the cross that gives meaning to the Resurrection and Ascension; it is the path of suffering that under girds our understanding of God's relationship with us in Christ Jesus. The glory of Easter, the power of the Ascension, the Spirit of Pentecost have no meaning without the cross at the center. God has walked with us in our journeys of struggle and pain; God knows and has experienced our illnesses, our tragedies, even our deaths. This is the source of our proclamation of Good News each and every Sunday. God moves us into a troubled, broken, and dying world with the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord such that we can live with hope and a certainty of our forgiveness and salvation. May this message ring from your lips this season of the church year and throughout the year for it is not the power of positive thinking, but the power of the cross that makes God's creation life changing.