5th Sunday after Pentecost

Anniversary Sunday

“For the Sake of Christ”

On days like today, my heart always wants to say more than my mind or my speech can deliver.

Usually, I’m the one around here to hype the anniversary of our beginning. I made such a big deal of it at 3, and then 5, and then 6 and 7. This year, I thought I’d tone things down a little, and then in choir the other night, Dr. Mike spoke up and said, “Eight years – who’d a thunk it!!”

Too many things took me in other directions early in the week, so it was actually late Wednesday afternoon before I took a look at the scriptures for today. Boy, I couldn’t have picked better scriptures if you’d have paid me. This morning, I want to comment on the psalm for a minute, then the epistle, and then end up with the gospel. This may turn out to be three different sermons, but I’ll try to get us out of here before your stomachs start growling.

As a congregation, our testimony sounds like the testimony of David in our psalm for today. Did you hear the words when J.D. read them for us to start the service? “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God.” When I think about what we’ve accomplished as a church over the last eight years, this verse jumps out at me.

They say that churches are known for one or two important ministries they perform in their community. We are known for a couple of things. Most folks that know us know that we do some measure of benevolence work in our community. We have a heart for those who need help. But beyond that, I think the thing we do the best is our worship. You know how to worship. Certainly there is always room for improvement, but you know what worship means – showing worth to God – and you do that as well as any group I’ve ever known. This is our testimony – “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.” This is what we do. This is who we are. We offer our praise to God.

Did you hear what else the psalmist said? Down there in verse 9 – “We ponder your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple.” As a church, we’ve kept this at the forefront of who we are and what we do. When we gather in this place – week in and week out – and as of today more than 400 times without missing a beat – we remember the love of God. This room is our refuge. We know that whatever else happens to us of a week, that we can find God and find others who know God in this place on a Sunday morning. We can find others who know about the love of God.

Listen, Cornerstone. If you don’t remember another thing I say today or ever, remember this – our message to this community is God’s love. We talk about sin. We don’t cut corners on that one – we talk about our sin. And we talk about living moral lives. We talk about service, we talk about missions, we talk about the importance of church in the world today – we talk about a lot of things, and we believe many things. But God’s love is our message. We look a sinner in the eye and in the heart, and we want to let them know – we want to let ourselves know – that the love of God is the most powerful force we’ve ever known or experienced. That’s our message – the love of God.

And a third thought from the psalm – did you hear the way the psalmist ended this psalm? – “that you may tell the next generation that this is God our God forever and ever. He will be our guide forever.” Our message becomes our proclamation. The God of our fathers and mothers has become our God, and it is our job to make sure that our God becomes the God of our children. I have a word for us, Cornerstone. We must work. We must work diligently to see that the faith we have is multiplied in our children. They say that this next generation is likely to be the first generation in American history to have a lower standard of living than their parents. I don’t know about that, but I do have a word for us. We must work to make sure that the faith standard in our children is not less than it is in our own lives. We want to develop children who have a greater faith than we have. We want our children to know our God in ways that we don’t know God. We want our children’s faith to be extraordinary.

Eight years ago today, we baptized Jon Pontious. This church has been his church for nearly half his life. Have we done well by him? There are others in this room this morning who have been a part of this congregation for much of the last eight years. Have we done well by them? Is their faith stronger for the experience they have had here in our sanctuary – here in our midst – here in the presence of God?

As much as I love the psalm this day, I resonate with the words Paul had for the Corinthians. “I know a man in Christ who eight years ago was caught up to the third heaven.” That would be the way I would tell of our eight years together. But Paul knew a great truth – that kind of thinking can lead to boasting. I’m the chief of sinners on that count. Paul rather spoke of his weaknesses. He spoke of his trials. You and I have experienced trials during the last eight years. We’ve walked through dark hours with one another. We’ve asked for deliverance, and we’ve been introduced to the hardest part of the Christian faith – “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” That phrase represents much of our experience.

Week in and week out, people walk into this room, and they are hurting. They have been knocked down by life’s realities. They are hanging on with all they have, and wondering where the strength will come from to hang on just a little longer. Then they look at us – and they see that we’re doing the same thing. We’re hanging on, and it is our faith which sustains us. You have helped me so much over these eight years with this truth. In my weakness, Christ’s power is made perfect. We know this truth. So, I resonate with Paul. We resonate with Paul – “Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”

I captured that little phrase – “for the sake of Christ” – as the title for today. I want to say another word about that. There are so many motivations for coming to this place. We’ve been open more than 400 Sundays, and there are a lot of reasons people come to this place. Do they know why we do what we do? Do they know why we give our money, and give our time, and give our talents to this ministry? It is for the sake of Christ. We do what do for the sake of Christ. Jesus did so much for us – we do what little we can do for His sake. For the sake of Christ.

And finally, the gospel for today. From Mark, we hear some questions - questions we’ve heard a million times from those who listen to our message. They are questions about our Jesus. “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands!”

In a way, we understand their questions. We’ve asked them ourselves. We’ve looked at Jesus as He works in our lives, and we’ve been astonished at His wisdom. How can He know our hearts with such completeness? How can He speak to our hearts with such assurance and authority, both at the same time? And His power? We are even more astonished at His power. His power to comfort. His power to gently discipline. His power to direct our lives. His power to save us – even us – from our sinfulness. We are astonished. We don’t know this kind of power. We certainly don’t possess this kind of power – and yet He wields His divine power with grace and truth and freedom of a measure that we can only dream.

We would almost take offense when others ask these questions about our Jesus. How can they ask such questions? Don’t they know of His love? Don’t they know of His compassion? Don’t they know of His never changing love for us?

Listen, Cornerstone. Several years ago, our friend Daniel Vestal visited with us for a weekend. He said something about our church – He said that we were to be “Jesus kind of people.” I remember his words. They were words of identity. And it is still our identity. We are to be Jesus people. Every day, and in every way, we are to become more and more like Jesus as we seek to serve Him by serving those He sends our way. We are to be Jesus people. I think it’s happening in this place.

I’ll tell you this. I may have shared this illustration before – I don’t remember. I watch way, way too much television. I love to watch the comedians. I’ve noticed over the last 20 years that the comedians have gotten bolder in their disdain for God. They give God a hard time, to say the least. But for the most part, they don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to Jesus. They may “diss” Him – but it’s for His gentleness, His compassion, His love – and in the long run, they know they don’t really have a case.

We need to be Jesus people. Jesus is our best bet. We need to be Jesus people.

Eight years. Where do we go from here? It’s the question we must ask ourselves. The latter part of this passage gives us our marching orders for coming days. Verse 7 and following; “He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.”

These are our marching orders. We take this authority that Jesus possesses, and has given to us, and we share His power, His love, His message with everyone we come into contact with. We don’t need a lot of tools. We have everything in our arsenal that we need – we have our faith, we have our Christian heritage, we have our promise, we have our hope – and we have our Jesus. We need to work diligently with those whom Jesus gives to us, and we need to be slow to give up on them – shaking the dust off only as a last resort.

I want to share a personal word with you this morning. (you should have been here)

Richard W. Dunn, PhD.