Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri

Morning Worship · November 20, 2005

Prayer of the Day

Creator of all that is, everything we are and everything we have is really yours, but placed in our care for a while.  So we come to this hour of worship to acknowledge you, and to honor you with the best that we have.  As we offer our very selves to you, may we receive new power to reach out as we strive to live and teach your way.  Amen.

Scripture

Proverbs 3:9-10; Romans 8:18-25

Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.  For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firs tfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as children, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved.  But hope that is seen is no hope at all.  Who hopes for what he already has?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Message

Profound Respect Mingled with Love, Devotion, and Awe

Rick Frost

I’m so glad to see all of you here today.  This is the day the Scripture says the people are to, “Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth.  Worship the Lord with gladness.  Come into God’s presence with joyful songs.  Know that the Lord is God.  It is God who has made us, and we are his.”

So, let me hear a shout for joy to the Lord.

(The congregation makes a feeble attempt at sounding joyful.)

That was awful.  I heard more shouting at the last six minutes of yesterday’s ballgame.  I’ve heard more shouting when people have had their teeth filled.

“Shout to the Lord for joy, all the earth!”

(The congregation gives a more resounding joyful sound.)

All right!  You’re getting there.  It’s getting better.  Now, granted, we’re not accustomed to doing that in our church.  I understand that.  We just don’t think we have permission to do that kind of thing in church.  We get so serious most of the time.

“Shout to the Lord for joy, all the earth!”

(The congregation does a poorer job of sounding joyful with this shout.)

It’s going down hill quickly.

Today, folks, is the day that 20 per cent of the people of this land – one in five – will go to their houses of worship in a variety of settings, and they will, of course, celebrate Thanksgiving.  They will be called upon, as we are being called upon, to name our various blessings that result from living in the most affluent country on the planet. 

I didn’t say anything to Beverly about this, so let’s do it a cappella.  That’s singing without the organ.  “O Beautiful for Spacious Skies.”  Can we sing that without the instruments?  Let’s do it.

(The congregation singing…)

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

!  !

 God shed his grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

Done like a true Church of Christ congregation – not an instrument in the house.

One in five Americans, folks, will go to their houses of worship where we will be called upon to think about, reflect upon: our health, our freedoms, our choices, our standard of living, the opportunities, the jobs we have, the safety and security we experience, all the things, all the things we possess.

We’re going to be reminded, hopefully, in this hour of all the joy; all the value; all the warmth we receive from friends and from family; all the neat, wonderful, exciting, meaningful, fun things that we’ve yet to do in this life and in this place.  Many of us, I believe, will bow genuinely in a spirit of gratitude to someone or something for being so lucky, for being so fortunate, to be so blessed to live in this place, with this people, and at this particular time in history.  And that’s fine.  That’s wonderful!  An attitude of gratitude is a good thing.  It’s a healthy thing.  Oh, that there were more of it in our world.

William Shakespeare had one of his characters pray this prayer: “Oh, Lord, who lends me life.”  (Isn’t that great: “lends me life.”)  “Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.”

Jeremy Taylor, the old preacher, put it this way: “God is pleased with no music below so much as with the songs of a thankful people.” 

God loves to hear the songs of a thankful people.  Attitude of gratitude!  It’s a wonderful thing.  In today’s world, one in five of our fellow citizens will celebrate Thanksgiving in some form or fashion of worship.

Now, what I want us to hear today is that as wonderful as that is, I want to suggest that what we are about today goes far, far, far beyond that.  Today we celebrate the American tradition of Thanksgiving.  Yes.  But today is also the day that we, in this worship service and in this congregation, are invited to reclaim our biblical heritage.  For some of us, maybe it will be claiming it for the very first time.

What is our biblical heritage?  Our biblical heritage is that we who gather in this place and in places like it throughout this country and around the world are a people who know that we are a people who have been chosen.  We have been chosen!  We’ve been called by the Creator of all that is to be a special people, a unique people, a distinct people, a people the Bible calls “consecrated.” 

When the Bible uses the word “consecrated” what it means is “to be set apart from, separated out of the herd,” and not only to be separated as a special people, but to be commissioned.  We have a job to do.  We have things to do.  That is what the Bible calls “to be God’s people.”  To be God’s people is to be a holy people.  And when the Bible calls us to be “a holy people” what it means is the people for God and God’s purposes is what our life is all about.  That’s what it means to be a holy people.  “Holy” is a good thing.  It’s not a word we use often around here, but it’s a good thing.

Why?  Some people ask, “Why?”  “Why us?”  “Why chosen?”  “Why not someone else?” 

Well, for us in this room, that’s fairly easy, because we have chosen to be here.  None of us were born into the faith.  Our Jewish brothers and sisters are, were, and will be forever, but we made a choice.  We decided to be part of the chosen people of God. 

According to the Scriptures, we have been chosen, and we’ve been blessed for one reason.  The only reason I can find – only one reason – and this reason is because of our faith.  That’s why anyone is chosen.  It goes all the way back to Abraham.  God makes the call.  Abraham responded in faith.  That’s what faith means, you see, to trust God, to be obedient, to follow God.

It’s not what you believe.  It’s not a set of precepts or a proposition.  That’s not faith.  Faith is responding to God’s call, trusting God, not knowing where it’s going to go, but just being willing to go wherever it is that God leads.

God calls; people respond.  People respond; God blesses.  That’s the tradition of Christian and Hebrew faith.  The purpose of our blessing, as I said, is that we might accomplish some things, that we might be the channels of God’s love and grace to the whole world, to the human family, “to all the nations,” is the way the Scripture calls it.

My goodness.  The deal, folks, is incredibly direct.  It’s very straightforward.  It’s very simple, but I have to tell you, it‘s also very difficult.  It’s very serious.  It’s demanding.  And it’s profound.  God’s call is this:  “I will be your God if you will be my people.  I will be your God if you will be faithful, if you’ll respond, if you’ll be loyal, if you’ll be devoted, committed to me.  If you’re willing to do that, if you’ll love me, trust me, obey me, you will be my treasured possession.”

Isn’t that wonderful!

“You will be holy!  You’ll be totally consecrated, set apart for me.  I will be your life, and you will do life differently than everybody else around you.  What everybody else does is not the issue.  You will do life differently, and your job is to show the rest of the world how to live as I desire.  If you’re willing to do that, if you’re willing to be mine, I will be your God.  I will bless you, and I will love you with a steadfast love, and I will never, ever, ever let you go.  Not now.  Not ever.  Not eternally.  You will be my treasure forever.”

Awesome.  Awesome!  Folks, this goes way, way beyond turkey, and Pilgrims, and football.  This goes way, way beyond an attitude of gratitude.  This goes way, way beyond coming together, and sitting, and contemplating how good we may or may not have it. 

We live in a world of temptation.  We live in a world of self-absorption, a world of incredible greed. 

This is who we are.  This is who we are called to be.  This is huge.  This is foundational.  This is core stuff that we celebrate today.  That’s what today is about, I suggest.  Today is the day the people of the community of faith are invited to come and reclaim our biblical heritage, our spiritual roots, the reasons we believe we are here upon this earth.

Now, of course, everybody knows you can be here, and you can ignore God.  You can be here and avoid the encounter we talk about every Sunday.  We can be here and reject the heritage that has come to you from Scripture.  You can be here and not respond to God’s call.  It’s a free country.  You’re a free person.  That story is as old as humankind, folks.  It’s as old as humankind, but that’s a story for another day. 

Today is the day of celebration for the faithful, the people who have heard God’s call and who are responding to that call in faith, in trust, in obedience.  It’s a day of faithful people unashamedly coming with a spirit of joy down in the depths of our hearts.

This is a day – almost everybody in this room knows this – that culminates for this congregation months and years of listening and responding to what we believe to be God’s call.  Months and years of discussing, talking with each other, trying to receive and discern God’s vision for what God wants this congregation to be doing next.  Months and years of thinking together, and discussing, and praying, and planning, and assessing, and campaigning, and encouraging each other.  What a day to celebrate, to step up and to step out and to do something a little bit different.  You know, not quite business as usual.  To express a sense of satisfaction with a job well done by so many in this room.  Yes.

But more than that.  I want to suggest it’s not just patting ourselves on the back for what a wonderful job we have and will do.  Today is the day when, most of all, the people of God in this place, acknowledge honor.

I looked up that word.  Honor: to show profound respect mingled and laced with love, devotion, and awe.

That’s what I want you to consider today, in your heart of hearts, to honor God.  Honor God!  That’s the spirit of the day.  That’s way, way, way beyond, over, and above Thanksgiving.  The focus in this house of worship this day is honor.  We meet to honor God.  How do we do that?  First fruits.  First fruits!  “Honor the Lord your God with your wealth, with your produce, the first fruits of your work, your productivity.”

How many of you have heard of Goodwill Industries?  Everybody’s heard about them.  It’s a marvelous organization.  It’s a great not-for-profit self-help enterprise.  It has “win-win” written absolutely all over it.

First of all, Goodwill Industries provides jobs for people who otherwise would be unemployed.  That’s always a good thing.  Second, as far as the people in this room are concerned, it also provides people like you and me a place where we can discard those things we no longer want or need.  The beauty is, it really makes no difference to Goodwill Industries if the item is in reasonable disrepair, because they have people trained to often be able to fix it, and then put it back on the shelf, and resell it to people who might not be able to have some things otherwise, and to recycle those things.

Does that sound like a “win-win?”  Absolutely!  It’s a great thing.  Everybody wins.  It’s a wonderful thing.  But folks, this is what I want you to hear today.

That is not us.  That is not the people of God.  It’s not the Church of Jesus Christ.  We are a people who understand ourselves to be chosen to be in covenant, by our own choices, with the Creator of all that is – the one who expects, the one who demands, and the one who, in fact, is worthy of our best, our first fruits.  Not our castoffs.  Not our crumbs.  Not our leftovers. 

That is what today is about.  It’s about first fruits, about honoring God with the best – whatever the best is – that you and I have.  That’s the spiritual message today.  The spiritual message that is completely counter-cultural.  We understand that.  It’s a spiritual message that says human beings have been given all creation as a trust.  We’ve been given creation to manage, and to manage it properly, and not just for ourselves.  We’ve been given creation to manage properly for God.  Whatever benefits we receive from that management is, in fact, ours, but God expects, God demands it, if for no other reason than God is worthy.  God, and God alone, is worthy of our first fruits – the first, the very best of our productivity, right off the top, given as an act of worship to be used for certain things.  Those certain things are God’s purposes of reaching out to yet others and proclaiming, and sharing, and being a channel of God’s grace and God’s love.

Now, every Christian in this room ought to see that this is really amazingly easy to understand.  The reason is you and I believe that when God gave Jesus to the world, when God gave Jesus to us, God gave the very best, the very best of himself to each of us.

So, that’s the spirit for today.  I’m going to ask you to come on.  It’s time to celebrate.  I know we’re not used to it, but I’m going to invite you to remember we come from a biblical heritage where people love to dance, and sing.  Where people love to eat and drink.  Where people love to give and receive in the presence of God with a spirit of joy.

Today, that is how I want to ask you to come to the Table with that spirit of joy.  That spirit, we believe, is right here with us this very day.  Right now, in this place, watching over us, loving us, encouraging us, because, you see, when we give our best, it renews the covenant.  That’s what we do.  We renew the covenant, the promise with the Creator.  When we do that, it re-knits together the bonds that hold us together as God’s people.

So, it’s in that spirit I ask you to bring your offering today, whatever that might be, and to remember Jesus who gathers around the Table with his followers, and how he took bread from his Table.  It was a celebration, by the way, of great thanksgiving, a time when the people of God all over that part of the world were celebrating Passover, God’s incredible gift to all the people, the experience that made the people of a people.

Jesus took that loaf of bread from his Passover table with his disciples, lifted it to heaven, gave God thanks and praise, and then broke it, as was tradition, and passed it to those who were present and said, “This is my body, it will be given, offered, broken for you.  Take and eat in remembrance of me.”

Benediction

God of the Harvest!  God of our hearts,

Thanks you, thank you.

And we all say together, Amen.