SERMON BY THE REV WAYMAN HENRY
September 16, 2007
Gospel Text: Luke 15:1-10
The
Scribes and Pharisees and others who heard Jesus tell the story of the one lost
sheep and the one lost coin understood what he was saying. Jesus was saying that God cares as much for
the lost as he does for the ones not lost.
He was saying that there was no need to feel threatened because there
was joy when the lost was found. They
heard – they understood – they just didn’t agree.
One
of the hardest things for me to do is to listen to something I don’t agree
with. I’ll bet that’s true for you also.
Perhaps
that’s why it’s so hard for God to talk to us.
What he wants us to hear may not be what we want to hear. So we don’t listen – and God – thru his
church – has little or no effect on our lives.
We
hear the story of the lost sheep and we say – leave 99 valuable sheep in the
desert and go off looking for one? We
just don’t understand.
We,
the church, the people of God, are called to be a redeeming fellowship
to the world around us. We are called to
challenge the world – to redeem the world.
We do not seem to be doing too good a job.
We
are called to reach out to the world around us – reach out to people who are
separated from God – many of them as near to us as next door.
It’s
no secret that we are not reaching the unchurched. We’re not reaching half the people who claim
to be members of the church. Maybe we
don’t understand what a redeeming fellowship is – or what redemption is.
Redemption
takes place when a fellowship exists, in which the unredeemed can come into
contact and relationship with the redeemed.
When that happens the power of God can reach out to change and redeem.
We,
the people of God, must know, above all else, the mission of the church is
to change the world. And
we can only change the world as the world hears our message – by our
lips and in our lives – Where ever we are – whatever we do –
The
church today is not so different from the rest of the world. Christian and non-Christian live by the
standard of the world. As long as the
church accepts the standard of the world, the church will never be a fellowship
of the redeemed. The church can never
expect to change the world until it is willing to reject it in love and call it
to repentance.
The
church must also be a redeeming fellowship to its own membership. Those of us who make up the church sometimes
seem awfully unwilling to accept the sinner in our midst. For some reason, each of us wants to be the
only sinner.
The
church too often is more willing to criticize and condemn than it is to help.
When will we learn that we come together as the
church – not to justify ourselves – we come together to worship God and
ask his forgiveness. And the church will never be a forgiving
fellowship until it learns to forgive each other.
We
learn forgiveness just like we learn love.
We can’t love until we are loved – we can’t forgive until we are
forgiven.
That’s
the responsibility of this church – or any other Christian church – to provide
a fellowship that a person can feel free to trust while asking God’s
forgiveness.
That’s
the standard by which the church must live – the love of God revealed in Jesus
the Messiah.
It’s
time that we Christians become concerned about our failure to be the
church. It’s time we asked ourselves
some hard questions. Are we satisfied
with our church as it is?
Or
are we ready to start listening to the voice of God – and start fulfilling our
purpose as a fellowship of the redeemed?