Sermon May 5, 2002

SERMON: OUR MISSION

A Sermon Delivered at First Christian Church Stockton
May 5, 2002

To set the stage for this mornings reading from Acts, the story begins sometime in the sixth century before Christ, with the city of Athens was being decimated by a mysterious plague. When no explanation for the plague could be found, and no cure was in sight, the approach was to assume that one of the city’s many gods had been offended. The leaders of the city sought to determine which of the gods it was and then determine a way of appeasing that god. This was no easy task since the city of Athens had literally hundreds of gods and was known as the “god capital of the world.” When all efforts failed to discern which god had been offended, and which had brought the plague upon the city, an outside “consultant” was brought in from the Island of Cyprus, whose name was Epimenides. Epimenides concluded that it was none of the known gods of Athens which had been offended, but some, as yet, unknown god. He proposed a course of action which, if it worked, would at least provide a possible remedy for the plague. He had a flock of choice sheep, of various colors, kept from food until they were hungry. On the given day, he had these sheep turned loose on Mars Hill, on what was a very succulent pasture. For any sheep not to have eaten his fill would have been unexplainable. He had the sheep turned loose and watched carefully, to see if any sheep would lie down and not eat, even though hungry and in prime grazing. Several sheep, to the amazement of those watching, did lie down. Altars were erected at each spot where a sheep lay down, dedicated to an “unknown god.” On those altars, the sheep which lay in that spot was sacrificed. Almost immediately, we are told, the plague began to subside.

The people of Athens were well educated and were deeply spiritual. They sat around for hours on end talking about the philosophies of Aristotle and others. What they didn’t understand was the new religion on the block, Christianity.

Acts 17:22-31

Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, "Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him--though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we too are his offspring.' Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

Recently I went into a health club in Southern California where my nephew works. He is young, single, and attractive, as were nearly all the people coming in the doors that Friday evening. The workout rooms were full, and there were people lifting weights, doing aerobics, practicing yoga, buying juices and herbal supplements, and some folks just laughing and mingling. They were there to fine tune their bodies, improve their physiques and health, as well as to socialize. And when they left the health club, they were energized and ready to tackle the weekend.

Wouldn’t it be great if folks like that flocked to our church on Sunday morning? Young people, college people, Starbucks Coffee drinking people, young professionals, people with children, teenagers, people with spiked hair and tattoos and piercings, seekers and sojourners, all coming to church to worship with us old timers. Wouldn’t it be great to see this church full of people on a spiritual journey? Why don’t they come?

Not since the days of the Apostle Paul and the Roman Empire has the church had such a great opportunity to reach the world with the gospel. People today are in search for answers, yearning to have their spiritual needs met, and they are looking for the answers everywhere except in churches like ours. They are pursuing eastern religions, Pentecostal and other Fundamentalist churches, Mormonism, Evangelical churches, and Islam, but very few of our mainline churches are experiencing growth. It is time, my friends, for us to get serious about growing this church here in Weston Ranch. The opportunity is right outside of our doors waiting for us.

A couple of weeks ago I probably upset a few of you when I said that the reason most people don’t come to church is because we are boring! It may not be boring to some of you, but it is boring to most people under the age of 50. Look around! It isn’t boring to me because I’ve been doing this all of my life. But the fact is most people under 50 have not been coming to church, and there are many reasons why. Let me list just a few:

· Most people in Weston Ranch and the surrounding community don’t have a clue as to what we are doing here. It is as if we speak a foreign language they are unable to understand. Have you ever been to a non-English speaking movie? Even with English subtitles it can be difficult to know what is going on. Do you think it may be possible to tell the gospel in ways that non-churched folks could understand, and do it without watering down the gospel? I believe that we can and we must.
Another reason they are not coming here is because they have heard some unflattering stories about the church in general, and some of them are true. They hear we argue and fight over the silliest things imaginable. They hear that we spend more time fussing about the color of the room or the tablecloths than we do trying to do mission work. They have heard that we are open to new ideas, but when those ideas are proposed they are quickly shot down. They have heard that we don’t always treat each other with love and respect. They have been told that their style of music is not appropriate for worship. They have heard that we are hypocrites because we talk a lot about love and inclusion, yet we are prone to exclude those who think and act differently than we do. They have heard that Jesus cared for the poor and the needy, but they have also seen and heard that we are more likely to sit in judgment of the poor instead of ministering with and for them. Did they hear correctly? Are the rumors about us valid?
We have the most important message to tell the community, but how many of us are guilty of not inviting others to come and hear the gospel? Unless we invite them they will not come, and if they come and what we are doing is not relevant they will not come back. What we do here on Sunday morning needs to meet the needs of those who are coming if we are to expect them to come back.

People out there are searching for answers to life’s most difficult questions, and we have the opportunity to help them find some answers. People out there are looking for meaning and hope in a world full of despair, and we have the challenge to help them find what they are looking for. What are we doing as a church to bring meaning and hope, and answers to life’s questions? How far are we willing to go, and how much are we willing to change? If it were to cost us some of our time, some of our money, or some of our own sacred cows, would we be willing to make sacrifices? I believe the answer is yes!

In a few weeks we will be starting a new worship service on Saturday nights called Fusion Worship. Our goal is to reach out to the wider community through a worship format that is fresh and modern, multiage and multicultural, driven by modern music and drama, meeting the needs of families and individuals who are unfamiliar to the message of Christ. I hope we can do some things that are new and creative, such as using multimedia in worship. One of our primary aims is to enable people from all walks of life to experience that transforming power of God in their lives, moving them to become disciples of Christ.

That is our mission, is it not? To go into the world and make disciples. Listen to our own mission statement at FCC:

Church Mission Statement

Our mission is to be a servant church,
presenting the Good News of Christ to all
through our thoughts, words and deeds.

We fulfill our mission by:

being unified in Christ,
pursuing deep spirituality,
fostering true community,
cherishing unity in diversity,
and working for justice.

We need to present the Good News of Christ to all in a way that can be understood and experienced. This will require new and creative ways of worshipping. I have calling for a special board meeting for next Monday to ask this church to commit the money, talent, and resources necessary for us to fulfill our own mission statement. On Wednesday evenings I will be laying out a plan and a vision to help us fulfill our mission.

We are God’s offspring, and we are living in a community that is searching for God. Let us proclaim the Good News to them and be faithful to God’s mission for our church.

Michael Malone
May 5, 2002

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