"Discovering the More"

July 11, 2010

Amos 7:7-17

Luke 10:25-37

Reverend William Nickels

The church I served for twenty years in Virginia had a very fine preschool –

and because I enjoyed both the children and the teachers, I’d often join them for the first ten or fifteen minutes of school as the kids enjoyed a little free play, had their morning assembly and then got into groups for their first rotation.

And it was so interesting to see how the new three-year-old students changed over the course of the first several weeks of school.

They nearly always came in reluctantly at first.   Some of them the teachers actually had to peel off of their parents.

            It wasn’t pretty.  But it got better.

Gradually, as they got used to being at the church and seeing the same people there each day they came, they calmed down and settled in.

I’d sit on the floor with a toy, and they would circle me… at a safe distance… looking my way from time to time.

Finally, though, the day would come, four or five weeks in, when one of those satellites would descend, come in close.

            And then, believing that, she’d sit down right in my lap.

            What people believe and how they behave are closely tied.

When children start believing they’re safe with you, then they often start coming closer.  (So do adults!)

Adults who become convinced that they are not safe in their own homes may leave those homes… or they’ll join a neighborhood watch group… or they’ll have a security system installed.

            What we believe really does affect how we behave.

Now, if a fellow is interested in changing his behavior, one thing he can work on is changing what he believes. 

If, for instance, he wants to lose weight, a belief that it will never happen will need to be transformed into a belief that it can happen and that it will happen as I exercise and eat sensibly.

People can believe their way into new ways of behaving.

It’s also true, however, that people can behave their way into new ways of believing.

I know this personally. 

When I finished my first year of seminary, I had a high regard for what Jesus had done and taught, but I had real intellectual resistance to the idea that Christ was alive in any sense other than “in the thoughts of those who followed his teachings.”

            Still, I was interested in the idea of ministry as a job. 

So, I left seminary, and took a position as a student minister in a church, hoping to practice ministry, to learn what it would be like to be a pastor.

In that church, I led bible studies, visited shut-ins, worked with the youth, preached, shared in all kinds of ways in that church’s life and ministry.

And over the course of a year, I not only learned something about ministry, I came to sense the presence of Jesus Christ among that people… of a living Lord there, at work and at play, in their life and mine.

My experience that year, my practice of ministry, led to a real change in my understandings and beliefs about our Lord.

The practices of faith, the behaviors that go with a Christian life – gathering for worship, living accountably with other disciples, reading scripture, praying regularly, giving of one’s means – these behaviors shape us, form us, enable us to see and understand many things, including ourselves, differently… including what we believe.

Now, let me check out something with you.  I am wondering what you believe about that lawyer who stood up to put Jesus to the test.

            What do I do to inherit eternal life, he asked Jesus.

            What are we told in scripture, Christ asked in response.

            Love God and love neighbor, the lawyer posited.

Then, hoping to justify himself… his behavior?... the lawyer asked, And who is my neighbor?

Jesus told the story of the man attacked by robbers… and then asked, Which of those who saw him injured on the side of the road proved to be his neighbor?

Behaved as a neighbor to him, we could say.  The Samaritan.

            Go and do likewise, Christ told the Samaritan.

So, what do you believe?  Did he?  Did that lawyer go and begin behaving like that Samaritan…

Feeling compassion for others in peril, letting his heart go out to those who were hurting.

Following his heart with himself – going to such persons, personally.

Offering… hands-on… the help he could.

Providing, out of his resources, what was needed.

            Did the lawyer go and do likewise?

Well… we don’t know – scripture doesn’t provide that information.

But… let’s imagine that he did.  Let’s picture the lawyer heading off and trying to be a neighbor to others.

What might that have looked like, and what might the practice have done to him?

Say, he comes upon a woman, a common woman, a peasant, struggling to get a load of baskets to the market.  She trips and it goes everywhere.

His first instinct – sympathy; his second – avoid her – she’s a woman, a lower class woman… no touch, no contact, keep going; his decision – I’ll go over and offer her a hand.

He does.  He talks to the peasant woman personally.  He helps her up, helps her gather her baskets, treats her like a person. 

He discovers that she is a person… and that he can help her… and that it didn’t feel too bad.

He goes on.  There’s a group of foreigners on the edge of town.  Immigrants.  He sees his nephew and a few of his friends making trouble for the gentiles.

            This is my problem, he asks himself?  No. 

But then he wades in.  Goes to the gentiles, speaks to them, puts himself between them and the boys, turns and upbraids the boys for their behavior.  They slink off, mumbling about him as well as the gentiles.

But he feels better and more alive than he has in a long time.

Jesus’ disciples come into town then, and recognizing him, they invite him to join them for lunch.

He follows as they buy a few things and head back out to where Jesus was teaching. 

Going along, they talk, tell him stories, ask about his life, his family, his hopes. 

Sitting down then to eat, they pray.  And their praying moves him in ways he didn’t expect. 

Honestly, we don’t know what actually became of the lawyer.  We don’t have a clue about whether or not he went and did likewise.

But, I believe that if in any way he tried to be a neighbor to the people he encountered, something of the love of God would have been set loose in the world through him… would have been unleashed in his life because of it.

And if he got… even a taste of it… it surely would have left him hungering for more.

If he felt even a bit more alive because of it, he surely would have known that there was more, much more life in store… and that he was meant to inherit it.

And so are you and I, friends!           

Now, if you were to believe that… if you were convinced that God has more love and life in store for you than you could ever experience in a lifetime… do you think it wouldn’t affect the way you act?

Can you imagine it not showing up in your behavior?

            Flowing forth in words of gratitude, in prayers?

Being expressed in enthusiastic service, and reflected in your resilience when times are hard?

Showing up in your compassion for those suffering and in your willingness to follow when your heart goes out?

Being reflected in the hope you feel even when standing at the grave?

Believers here in Kinston are behaving in ways that are making profound differences in others’ lives. 

Knowing themselves to be sent by Christ, they are going out and doing likewise.  They are going:

To package thousands of meals for victims of earthquakes and refuges from war…

                        To serve as advocates for children in families at risk…

To accompany and help stressed-out patients at the hospital…

To challenge legislators, councilmen and business leaders not to neglect the community’s most vulnerable…

To build bridges of relationship with people of other faiths and races…

To teach young people and tender people and jaded people what the love of God’s about…

                        To put themselves in the places God needs them to be.

Believers here in Kinston are behaving bravely and quite boldly!

And if you don’t believe… if you have some doubt about whether any of that more life is meant for you… I suggest… with some urgency… that you try behaving a bit differently… that you also go out… that you go and do likewise…

And then see if it doesn’t affect what you believe about God, yourself and others.

            See if you don’t find some of that more life opening up for you.

Finally, I want to put this question to you – Do you believe that God has more life in store for this church?

Not just more years – you know you’ve got at least a few more years in you – but more life… more ministry… more transformation for Christ to initiate and bring about in Kinston through you?

Maybe, you think, you do.   Or maybe you’re not so sure.

Frankly, among some of you, I sense there is not a lot of conviction that First Church has much of a vital future. 

I sense that a crisis of confidence… a crisis of faith, actually, is infecting some of this congregation.

Well, in the end, God alone knows what God intends for First Church.

            And in time God will make it clear.

But, I am fairly convinced… I believe… that First Presbyterian will certainly not find the more by hanging around waiting for it to come present itself to the church…

that if you want to see if the more is what’s intended for you, you will need to go… and prove yourselves neighbors to those who need neighbors in the community beyond you.

You’ll need to set aside what seem almost natural and reasonable hesitations to express your compassion and offer yourselves to others. 

You’ll need to give what you’re capable of giving. 

You’ll need to be not the church you’ve been, perhaps, but certainly the church God needs you to be now…  here in Kinston.

                        It’s all there – behaving and believing. 

Sharing love and developing in your faith.   

You can behave your way into a new way of believing;

you can believe your way into a new way of behaving.

Either way you get there, I am sure that there is more… so much more in store for you… through the grace of the Lord of possibility – Jesus Christ, our Lord.