My mornings are now filled with watching the Today Show as I get ready for work. It is great way to get a heads up on the world events before I start my day. To be honest, I also listen to the 6 a.m. news briefings on my phone from NPR, BBC, FOX, and ABC. That way I have a wide variety of news sources.
But I want to share with you an interesting bit of information that came, not from a news source, but from one of my fellow clergy members as we met for coffee. He shared a study that if a church wants to grow it needs to answer three questions: Why do people need Jesus? Why do people need church? And why do people need this church? We are to answer them as a way of claiming who we are. If we can’t answer these, then we have lost our reason for being. I hope you will reflect on these questions: Why do people need Jesus, Why do people need church and why do people need this church, and share with me your thoughts, in person or email.
Today we are starting a sermon series on 1 Timothy as we try to struggle with the first question: Why do people need Jesus. 1 Timothy is one of the Pastoral Letters that is attributed to Paul but that scholars doubt he actually penned. Yet we hear very personal revelations about Paul, consistent with Paul’s own account in Gal. 1:13 when he “violently persecuted the church” and reports from Acts documenting his “threats and murder against the disciples” (9:1). Acts even records Paul’s “severe persecution” against the church in Jerusalem (8:1). So when the author describes Paul as, “formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence” those are not exaggerations; but facts known in the early church. I imagine Paul at gatherings, at rallies really, giving testimony to the power of his transformation through Christ. It might be almost a stump speech because of how often he told his story. But his speech changed lives introducing people to the power of Christ’s love. He was standing up in front of people, people wondering about Jesus, and transfixing them with the blinding light, his loss of sight, his three day fast, and meeting the risen Lord (Acts 9). You can almost hear his bravado about this in his statement, “as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (Phil. 3:5-6).
Paul powerfully told his conversion story over and over again for two reasons. First, it is compelling to people seeking and coming to faith. Meeting Jesus changes lives. We hear the hope in that no matter what we have done in our past, Jesus is here to welcome us home. The 180 degree turnaround of Paul’s life from persecutor to preacher demonstrates the power of Christ’s love.
The real reason Paul told the story is that it proves that Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He didn’t come to start a country club church. He didn’t come to share moral teachings. He didn’t come to make us feel good about ourselves. “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (15).
Charles H. Featherstone told his faith story in the article Saved from Islam on September 11 (Christianity Today, 8.18.15). Seeing how this is the 15th anniversary of that tragedy I thought it apropos to share. Charles was abused by his father and wondered if anyone would ever love him. Nominally raised Lutheran, in college Charles discovered Islam, finding there both meaning and belonging. He writes, “Islam also provided religious and political fuel for my anger.” Charles was seriously contemplating joining the jihadist. But the love of his girlfriend Jennifer, a preacher’s daughter, kept him grounded. They were both living in New York on that fateful day. Charles writes, “In the chaos and terror of the streets below, as I looked up at the burning twin towers and watched people tumble to their deaths, life-changing words came to me, words I suddenly heard inside my head: My love is all that matters, and this is who I am. I knew then that everything I understood about God, about sin and redemption, about the whole human condition, had changed. I had no idea, in that moment or the days that immediately followed, who had “spoken” to me or what those words meant. I just knew the world was now a different place.” Charles later joins a Lutheran church writing about his discovery “that it was the risen Jesus Christ who had spoken to me. In word, song, and deed, (this church) taught me the gospel, the story of God walking among us, proclaiming the forgiveness of sins for the entire world and calling his disciples to continue to proclaim that good new in the midst of terror and death, I met Jesus Christ assuring me that his love is all that matters.”
On Sept. 11 I was living on Long Island, an hour outside the city, and the struggles with faith were palpable. Many people wondered where God was and whether God even existed in the face of such tragedy. Much like the fools the psalmist speak of that say “There is no God.” Yet I also heard amazing stories of how people found their faith in the midst of that crisis. How God’s grace and loved poured over them; people coming together in their grief, strangers caring for neighbors, truly feeling the love of community. In their darkest moment they felt the love of Christ overflowing for them with faith. Because there IS a God, an awesome God, and Jesus is God’s son, our savior and Lord. We do good, share kindnesses, and minister in Christ’s name to share that love to overflowing. That is why we Walked4Water yesterday and raised $11,600 for compostable latrines in El Salvador. That is why we are staffing the showers for the homeless next week, so that people, real people will know the real life changing love of Jesus Christ.
The Today Show aired a human interest story about Merrill Powers a Captain in the Salvation Army in Chicago. His wife Nancy approached NBC wanting to honor her husband for all the work he did through homeless shelter, drug center, and Meals on Wheels. Captain Power’s real passion is Barbequing and he has cooked for the people in his community for years; sometimes providing the only meal they have that day. He is also a big fan of the cooking shows. So they flew in celebrity chief Bobby Flay to surprise him at a BBQ he organized and cooked for, but that turned out to be honoring him.
Now that was all great but what made this story speak to me was hearing some of the people Captain Merrill helped say how their lives had changed. They did not say because of his work in the name of Jesus Christ but you and I know that is the truth. Each man came in carrying a handmade sign with how their lives had changed, through the work done in Christ’s name. One sign read, “15 years sober,” another “4 years sober and I own my own business,” the third said going to college. Now these were people living on the streets. A homeless man relived Captain Merrill telling him, “You are somebody- God has you here for a reason.” Captain Merrill was showing him the love of Christ. Love of Jesus pouring over him. And his life changed. Captain Merrill said “we see miracles everyday”
The real news is the good news – that Jesus Saves Sinner! Jesus saves you & me. Jesus changes lives and that the reason people need Jesus! AMEN.
