I'm sharing a sermon series at Cana Lutheran, the faith community I'm serving at titled, "Walking in the Way of Jesus... 6 Values of Discipleship" as a way to highlight congregational core values. This effort is part of the transition process the congregation is journeying through towards calling a new pastoral leader.
So... the next 6 posts on Reverend DAM, I will share those sermon thoughts and ideas of what I believe are 6 fundamental values faith communities need to embrace for 21st century ministry. More importantly, for the faith community to grow in its faith and love and devotion to Jesus. The early church wasn't about making members of another Jewish religious movement, but about making followers of Jesus. The future of faith communities (the church) is tied to her efforts to make followers/ disciples of Jesus. This series is intended to help the congregation discover her core values and begin to "Walk in the Way of Jesus."
Prayer
Matthew 16:21-28
So… we begin this journey of discovery today
with the theme of “WALK ON”
To get us started
thinking about Values we’re going to watch a video… Phil Hansen is an artist who developed a shake in his hand which prevented him from doing his art. Or so he thought. This is not a religious video, however, I want you to watch this video from the perspective of the church. You will also see how it applies to your life, but for our purposes today look for the applications to Cana Lutheran.
How does this get you thinking? What shake does Cana need to embrace?
How might you need to look at Cana's limitations? What Values might Cana need to consider?
More importantly... Can Cana embrace her shake?
Our bible story
today Jesus is shaking his friends understanding about his purpose. Jesus is
talking about his journey towards death. Peter didn’t like hearing that… he
says “Stop talking like that Jesus.” You can’t go anywhere… you need to stay
with us. This can never happen… Jesus says, “Get Behind Me Satan.” Jesus then
tells them Vs 24, “If you want to follow
me you must forget about yourselves, take up your cross and follow me.”
Jesus challenges
Peter & friends to change their focus. To value what I, Jesus values. Walking
in the way of Jesus means you need to let go of self interest and walking
towards Jesus’ values. 6 days later,
Jesus takes Peter, James and John up the mountain, from which they have this
God moment, from which begins to open up their understanding… but like most
mountain top experiences… they don’t last. You have to come down the mountain.
However, at the
core… Jesus uses these two experiences to move his friends from where they
currently are to a place where God wants them to be. In other words… Jesus
wants them to embrace their shake. And…
God wants us to move too, to be followers of his son, to have the same values
& focus, and to place these values at the core of our being.
What does this mean for us in the Faith
Community?
First…it means we
have to think differently about what it means to in the faith community. For
many of us… the church has confused being a disciple/follower with that of being
a member. For many of us membership is about Voting… Marriages… Baptisms…
Funerals… Friendships… and a Safety-Net for the After-Life. Essentially… the
church has been about member “Privileges.” Not about following Jesus. The time
has come to change this notion.
Lutheran Pr. Mike Foss in his book, “Power
Surge” says, “Membership is about Getting, Being a Follower… about Giving, Membership…Dues,
Follower… about Sharing, Member… belonging to a select group, Follower… about
changing & shaping life by the Grace of God”.
Being a follower of
Jesus means we must focus on and have the values of Jesus. Vs 24… take up you cross… forget about self. We need to be willing to give up your
materialized & commercialized life for a new life. This means… if you and
Cana want to have life… you and Cana must become Disciples/Followers of Jesus. That
means you must follow in the ways of Jesus. You must integrate Jesus’ Values
into your life. Had Peter & friends had the Values of Jesus… Jesus would
never have invoked Satan.
There is a great story about what God Values
in Acts 10.
The story of Peter
& Cornelius is a great example of how God challenged Peter to greater
kingdom understanding and the values of God. Peter had a set of cultural and
familial values that were limiting and God wanted to open his eyes to the
greater values & mission of God wanted to do. You see… Peter had rules to
live by. As a good Jew he couldn’t associate with non Jews, and he certainly
could not meet with a Roman soldier. In his dream God told him to eat things
that were off limits. These were unclean animals. This would have gone against
everything he knew. These were values that kept the Jewish people healthy and
well. But God tells him to eat and to associate with Cornelius and this
stretched Peter’s understanding tremendously. Peter needed to embrace his
shake… Peter needed to adapt new and different values… God’s values…. To love
and value all people.
Peter needed to look
at his limitations as opportunities to be creative. And I’m challenging you to
do the same… to open your eyes to see what God sees.
Over the next 6
weeks we will reflect on 6 of what I believe are God’s Values for the Faith
Community. If fact… these 6 fundamental values should be the
“modus operand” of every church community. They are: PRAYER…. WORSHIP… LEARNING… SERVING…
RELATIONSHIP BUILDING… GENEROSITY
Closing:
The video had a key
piece… at least it is for me… when Phil talked about thinking outside the box. He
came to the conclusion thinking outside the box stifled his creativity. Rather he
suggests since we live mostly in the box it is our limitations that spark
creativity. Now… I’m an outside the box thinker and I still believe it’s
necessary to do this. However… I think there is something to embracing our
limitations that can drive creativity. For example: Cana is an older
congregation and I see a lot of GranMa’s and GramPa’s sitting here… what might
it be if one Friday evening a month Cana Lutheran had a community “Date Night
Child Care Service” at the church so that young Mom’s & Dad’s could have an
evening out? And that it would be free!
o
Games,
Music, Movies, Some of you have connections with the zoo… maybe the zoo could
bring in some animals so that kids could gain a better appreciation for
animals.
What about having a
once a month community dinner… where the whole community can come for a free
meal and conversation.
What might it look
like if you were engaged with the community rather than whining about what you
don’t have? Being stymied by your limitations? According to Hansen… “We must be limited to become limitless.”
We, the church need
to learn the art of letting go… letting go of Our Personal Preferences… letting
go of Our Failures….
Our Imperfections…
Our We Never did it This Way Before attitudes… And learn to embrace Following
in the Way of Jesus.
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