The message I gave at church today.

Who are we?

This is not the message I had intended to share with all y’all.  Our pastor changed my plan two Sundays ago when he asked, and then answered the question:  Why, God?

Two weeks ago from the pulpit our pastor answered that question:  “BECAUSE!”

Well, so much for what I wanted to talk about.  So let’s go where God is leading.

A couple of weeks ago, some of us were blessed with being able to hear some speakers talk about some of the stuff Christian men are facing these days and how to cope with it.  One speaker in particular left a lasting impression on me.  His name is Otto Kelly and he runs a Crisis Pregnancy Care center in Reno, Nevada. 

That’s a tough gig.  But he had tougher stories to tell about where God had taken him.  He described some of the other ministries his church performs, like just showing up outside of night clubs in Reno and just standing there.  Just being outside and being godly men that make sure the ladies don’t have unwanted trouble.  He says they don’t talk much.  They’re not trying to win souls with convincing arguments.  They’re just there, being a presence.  Being the church.  Being those angels Sher talked with us about last week.

I found that interesting.  

When I found out Pastor Kelly is the director of a Crisis Pregnancy Center, it really caught my attention. Some of you know Pastor Karl and I lead a Bible study at the Rescue mission on Wednesdays.  We were looking for some opportunities to reach out to young men and had originally hoped to reach out to some of the young men who unexpectedly find themselves about to be fathers through the Pregnancy Care Center in Ogden.  Pastor Kelly reaches many such young men through the Pregnancy care center in Reno.  Karl and I were hopeful to head in that direction, but God, much like changing the topic of today’s sermon, had other plans.

As I listened to Pastor Kelly’s talk to the group, I was left with several things that I’d like to share with y’all today, and it started with a central question that applies to each of us:

Who are we?

If I asked someone “who is, (and insert your name here)?” the answer I would get would depend on the person I asked.  If I asked your wife, she might say “He’s my husband.”  Your children might reply, “he’s my dad.”  The people you work with might reply with, “He’s my co-worker, or my friend I work with”.  If I asked someone who doesn’t like you, well, the answers might not be very nice. 

Those answers, though, for the most part, don’t answer the question of who as much as they answer the what.  Who we are is complicated.  And honestly, I think sometimes we get so busy being what we are that we forget who we are.

So, who are we?

Paul sheds light on that question in the 2 Corinthians 5.  Andrew read part of the chapter just a minute or two ago, where Paul helps us answer that question.  We are a new creation in Christ.  That’s where God goes to work on us, and works through us to become more like Jesus.  We become angels to others around us as we surrender to self and say yes to the Jesus is Lord part of our lives.

Today is Men’s Sunday, so I want to single out the guys here for a minute.  The Bible has a great deal to say about who a godly man is, but I want to focus on one particular trait.  He’s a man that’s courageous.  Read the first chapter of Joshua.  God tells Joshua more than once in the first chapter to be courageous.  When he goes before the people of Israel, they tell him pretty much the same thing.

Be courageous.  Pastor Kelly shared a story about being courageous, when he was called to minister to a group of Neo-Nazi gang members in prison.  Pastor Kelly is an African-American and was in a room with 40 people who very much hated him and literally would have wanted to kill him.  He was courageous, having faith that God would either protect him, or it was how God would lead him home. 

That’s what I mean by courageous.  Courageous isn’t being stupid.  It’s going where God leads with the assurance that the outcome rests with Him.   I want you to hang on to that thought about being courageous for a bit.  Because I want to take a minute and ask you another question:

Church:  Who are we?

Pastor Karl has talked about what the neighbors think about who occupies the building, what it’s used for, and who we are as a church with us before.  I wonder if we asked people in the community who we are if their answers would come close to who we think we are as a church. 

Are we courageous as a church?

Courageous is tough.  It’s scary sometimes to get out of our comfort zone.  Most of us don’t live in the neighborhood around the church, but those that do can tell you that it’s a rough place sometimes.  Spend a couple of hours outside on a sunny Saturday morning and you’re bound to see some of the neighborhood in action.  Homeless people sleep outside our doors.  When I came down to do some things outside last week, I found a crack pipe.  It’s #2 for this year.  We’ve seen needles.  We’ve seen blankets, clothes, and you name it, left behind by someone who was in a hurry to get going.

Prostitution happens in the neighborhood.  Single parent families abound in the neighborhood.  Jail time happens in our neighborhood.  Domestic violence happens in the neighborhood.  Poverty happens frequently in the neighborhood. People struggle with addictions of all kinds in the neighborhood.  Pastor Karl talked to us about the crime that happens in the neighborhood and to “see something-say something”, and in the midst of all I’ve described, we’re here.

Right in the middle of “those people”.  Those people who don’t look, smell, act, or dress like us.  “Those people” sometimes are scary looking; inked up, gauges in their ears, holding the leash of a pit-bull.  Those people, though, are God’s creation and if we believe that nothing happens by accident, then they’re right where God put them.  And so are we.

In my NIV translation of the Bible, the heading for the Scriptures Andrew read this morning is called “the ministry of reconciliation”.

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the what we are in life, bombarded by what we see and read about in the community, in our culture, in our politics, and in our day-to-day existence, it’s easy to overlook verse 16, which says:

“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.  Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.”

That takes courage, because we find ourselves, as that new creation in Christ, very much at enmity with the world.  As Paul talks about, a zealous, exuberant Christian, very much on fire for the Lord, looks like a nutjob in the eyes of the world.  Pastor Karl has a friend who is very much on fire for the Lord….and in a worldly point of view, he is out of his mind for God.  I’ve met him a few times, but seen him around a street corner in Ogden on Saturday with a group of folks holding up cardboard signs, waving and telling people about Jesus.  He’s taking that ministry of reconciliation to the streets!

Often, the people in our neighborhood don’t want to hear the Good News about Jesus, even though they’re very much in need of it.  I met a young lady this summer who asked me for a ride on the corner of 25^th and Washington.  I was turning right and stopped to let pedestrians cross the street.  The windows were down in the truck and she hollered at me.  I told her I was only going to go to just by the library and she said she was going there too.  I had about a split second to try and figure out how much trouble I could get in…after all it was only a block and a half.  What happened in the next three minutes was like watching a police sting on an episode of Cops. Before we hit the first stop light at Adams, I kind of figured out that she was interested in a little bit more than a lift. However, when I pulled into the church parking lot and explained why I was here, things got a little bit different. 

When she asked me for a ride, she was expecting something else.  What she got was what she needed; the ride she asked for, taken to a church, told that God loves her, and sent on her way. 

I had to be willing to take that step of courage; being willing to take a chance to help someone out, and getting WAY out of my comfort zone.  Had I been married or involved with someone, that ride would have never happened.  I will never know this side of heaven what I kept that woman from that afternoon, if anything.  Maybe the next person to offer her a ride would have been less than what God made me.  All I know is that she had a divine appointment set by the Creator, and I was the one delivering that message.  She didn’t get what she wanted.  She got what she needed.  The last thing I thought about was what she was looking for.  I only saw someone who needed a ride.

So how do we see the people in our neighborhood?   Do we see them as equals, as people who need to hear the Good news, and if they don’t want to hear it, at least see it?

Are we willing to step outside the walls of our comfort zone and be a presence in our community?  Don’t get me wrong….I think we do a good job and are involved in many ministries that fit our congregations’ gifts and talents.  I mean that.  We do what we can to address hunger.  We help keep people warm.  Young kids get a badly needed stuffed animal friend from a police officer who is called to deal with a difficult situation, because we care.  Children we will never meet this side of glory are touched by what we do at Christmas time.  And who knows how many we touch with a hot dog and a smile.

Maybe we’re not quite ready for standing outside Brewski’s on a Friday night wearing a tee-shirt with a cross on it.  There is a need for that in Reno.  Pastor Kelly and the churches he partners with, they meet that need.

There is a need for us in Ogden.  God planted us here, on the corner of 25^th and Jefferson.  We’re here because this is where God needs us.  For more than just an hour on Sunday.  And I see a shift in what God is having us do. We’re talking about small groups, which is important to us as we grow as those new creations.  I see that as God moving in our midst, preparing us for what He has next for us as a church.

And I get that it’s scary to step out of our comfort zones.  The first time I walked into the Rescue Mission, I was scared to death.  “Those people” down there frightened me.  That lasted all of about five minutes.  Those people down there are hurting children of the living God, who need us.  Not all of them want to hear what’s said on Wednesdays, much like some of the people in the neighborhood won’t,  but they do get to hear it. 

As we move forward as a church, Paul gives us some insight into the question “who are we?”  Our challenge is to find ways to demonstrate that we are those new creations in Christ;  to take on that ministry of reconciliation.  With God’s help, it’s my prayer that we become to the neighborhood the church we see ourselves as when we answer that question?

Who are we?

And help the lost in our neighborhood come to know Jesus by seeing His love for them expressed through us, as individuals, and as His Church.