Placentia Presbyterian Church

A message by
Rev. F. David Throop, Pastor
March 30, 2008

Please pray with me:

Loving and gracious God, our prayer is very simple: as the result of being together now in worship, help us never to forget that in Your eyes, each life everywhere matters, and each life matters immensely. In the name of Jesus, who died that all might live forever, we pray. Amen.

Several weeks ago I was visiting with Carol Moran, one of our PPC members actively involved in our Praisin’ Partners and Circle of Friendship ministries. She wanted to find a Sunday when we could designate the mission focus time for these two ministries, and on that Sunday, would it be possible to have just a few more minutes than usual, and when would be the best Sunday. I checked the church calendar for Sundays in which we had already made some commitments, and suggested today’s date of March 30th. And so, as you now know, a portion of our worship has been focusing on these two very endearing ministries.

But if you ask me, I would suggest that our focus on the Circle of Friendship with adult developmentally disabled and our focus with the Praisin’ Partners with special needs young people ought to be a lot longer than just a few minutes in the middle of worship. This is why, in case you haven’t noticed, the entire worship service today has been developed with this special focus in mind.

And so, it is because of these two very special ministries that I chose our opening song of praise — “At the Name of Jesus” — one of my favorites and one which is on the quieter side, as a clear reminder that our purpose as followers of Christ is to live out our lives and faith not so that just a few more might come to know of Christ’s redeeming love, but to the end that eventually everyone might come to know of Christ’s redeeming love, and literally that “at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in heaven and in earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

I personally believe that one of the failures of the larger church today is that we sometimes get a bit ingrown. We want to have larger churches with lots more members, but the problem is, we want larger churches with more members who are pretty much like each of us! Oh, we believe that our call is to carry the gospel of Christ to the ends of the earth, but as we look around, especially at the Christian Church across our own country, we are still, by and large, a fairly homogeneous group of people. We like to associate with “our own,” if you know what I mean. We like to worship with “our own,” we like to study with “our own,” and we like to serve with “our own.” Yes, we want the church to grow with lots and lots of new members, just so long as all of these new members are pretty much like us.

That’s why I chose this opening song “At the Name of Jesus,” as a reminder that it’s not about us, and it’s not about being selective in our reaching out, but rather that we are called to reach out in every direction and to all people with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and always to the end that “every knee should bow, in heaven and earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

I chose the second song for worship today, “Above All,” to remind us to do our part to remove any self-made limitations on the God we worship. I chose this song as a reminder that God has not been created in our image, but we have been created in God’s image. You see, the God we worship is One Who is above all powers and kings and thrones, above all nature and all created things, above all wisdom and all the ways of humankind, that the God we worship was here even before the world began. And yet, as we sing this song we are to be reminded that this God, Who is above all that we could ever imagine, has set all of that aside, and has come to us in the person of Jesus who was crucified, laid behind the stone, who took the fall, and in doing so, “thought of you and me, above all.”

From there, we went into a time of personal confession, remembering once again our own falleness, our own failures, what the Bible calls sin. My own sense is that in most of the really large mega-type “seeker friendly” churches, there is probably no extended time designated for the personal confession of sins. Church growth gurus will tell you that you can’t grow a church by reminding people of their sins. I hope I’m wrong in saying these things, but from what I continue to see on television, I have yet to observe any of these large mega-congregations of ten, twenty, and even thirty thousand people in worship being called into an extended time to confess their personal sins.

And yet, when Christ came on the scene and began his public ministry, the first announcement given, both by John the Baptizer and Jesus himself was a call to repentance: “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand,” he declared. The word “repent” in the Greek language of the New Testament is the word “metanoia,” derived from two other words — “meta” meaning “change” and “nous” meaning “mind.” And so the word means quite literally to have a change of mind, that is, to begin thinking differently. Once we begin to think differently, that is, to have the mind of Christ, next in line are changed hearts. To say with our minds that Jesus Christ is Lord is one thing, but to allow this new thinking to change our hearts is something totally different.

And so, a few moments ago we sang “Change My Heart, O God,” as a reminder that if we are ever to get out of the dominion of sin, if we are ever to begin looking at all others through the eyes of God, we need to undergo change, and lots of it, beginning with our minds and then a transformation of our hearts. And this change begins with this thing called repentance.

We then sang, “Let All Things Now Living,” a clear reminder, I hope, that no one in this vast world has any exclusive “ownership” of God, that God exists for all whom God has created, and that all who are alive are to be united forever in thanksgiving, singing, “To God in the highest, hosanna and praise!”

And then, in just a few moments from now, we will be singing a song new to most of us, a song entitled, “He Knows My Name.” Not long ago, this was one of the songs our children’s choir sang here in worship. It’s a very quiet song whose words will remind us that the God we worship formed our hearts, and that before time even began, our lives were in His hand, that we have a heavenly Father, Who calls us His own, He’ll never leave us, no matter where we go. And the reason is, as we will be singing, “He knows my name, he knows my every thought, He sees each tear that falls, and He hears me when I call.”

And finally, we will be concluding worship with the song, “Forever,” a song which reminds us that no matter what, God’s love endures forever, and no matter what, God is with His people forever.

And why the three scriptures from Genesis, Psalms, and Galatians? That’s simple. In Genesis, we are reminded so clearly once again that the God of this wondrous and infinite universe chose to create each one of us in His very image, in His very likeness, and in such a manner that each one of us would have the capacity to extend God’s goodness wherever we are.

And from Psalm 8, a passage I often use, we are reminded once again that God has created each one of us, and without any exceptions, just a little less than the heavenly beings. And in doing so, God has crowned each of us with His glory and honor.

And then finally, from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we are reminded that each and every one of us, without any exception, are children of God through faith in Jesus Christ, and in our baptism we have been clothed with Christ. For in this family, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for all of us are now one in Christ.

And it pleases me to no end that the heart of this congregation continues to beat for persons in all directions, and as the heart of this congregation continues to beat toward those who live in all directions, we are simply extending the truths of what we have been reading in scripture and singing in our songs of praise.

And so, the question for today is this: “Does God know you and I even exist?” In all of the inbetween times, the Mondays through Saturdays of our lives, does God know that you and I even exist? In both the best of times as well as the worst of times, does God truly know that you and I even exist? In the midst of a church this size or any size, does God know that you and I even exist?

And then, beyond us, what about our friends in the Circle of Friendship and the Praisin’ Partners or within the Homeless Shelter Ministry or the Soup Kitchen ministry or any other ministry of outreach from this congregation — does God know that any of our extended friends even exist?

I don’t know about you, but there is a part of me which leans strongly in the direction that God’s heart beats maybe a little bit stronger toward these other friends of ours than for anyone else. The reason I believe this is that everywhere we find Jesus in scripture, he seems to spend more of his time with those in whose lives are such overwhelming challenges. He seems to gravitate not to those with everything in place but more so to those with nothing in place, not with the healthy but with those who are sick. Jesus spends his time not with the strong and secure but with the weak and insecure, not with those who seem to have everything but rather with those who seem to have nothing. Don’t you see? The reason God is an awesome God has little to do with those whose lives are on even keel, but more with those whose lives are always getting thrown upside down. At least, this is my take on scripture.

But not everyone believes this way. Mary and I were a bit appalled this past week as we listened for a few moments to one of our nation’s more popular televangelists and head of one of the largest mega churches in existence. As I share with you just a portion of our disturbance, I want to say right up front that I always try to do my best not to judge in order that I not be judged. Every church is different and every pastor is different, but hopefully our differences will remain within some degree of scriptural integrity. But I will say that at times, I am absolutely appalled at what I hear over public television and radio. In fact, late this past week, I was meeting with my good friend, Father Tim, from next door at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, and as I listened to him, I realized how identical his and my thinking is on what I am going to share with you.

This extremely wealthy televangelist, who is currently involved in litigation and who refuses to allow even the courts to know his personal wealth, was going on and on about his inward dilemma on whether or not to purchase an additional two-acre piece of land in order to build a new home for himself and his family. And he then went on to share with his national audience how he reconciled his dilemma and thus soothed his conscience. He shared how “God spoke to him” — I don’t know about you, but I’m always a bit dubious when I hear that phrase “God spoke to me.” Anyway, God spoke to him while he was in a commercial airline flying at about 35,000 feet looking down, trying to imagine what that parcel of two acres of land looked like from 35,000 feet in the air. And what “God said to him” was something along these lines, “Do you think that I am at all concerned about a measly two-acre piece of land which is about the size of a pinhead from where you are at 35,000 feet, and is not even noticed from where I am? Do you really think that getting all wound up about purchasing something as insignificant as this is even an issue with me?!”

I’ll be honest with you, Mary and I were a bit outraged at his rationalization at this point, a rationalization which could encourage any of us to purchase whatever we wanted, justifying our decision that from where God is, such a purchase can’t even be noticed. And Mary and I both sort of said to each other, “But what about the homeless and the disadvantaged and all of the other people the world over who have greater hurts and heartbreaks and injustices than we could even begin to imagine? If God can’t even see a two-acre piece of land, what about just one seemingly insignificant nameless individual who is homeless or disadvantaged? With this kind of so-called God view, do persons such as these even exist? And what about you and me: if you and I probably don’t even exist looking down from an altitude of 35,000 feet, do we even exist in the eyes of God?

As you can see, I’ve got problems with any whose platform of preaching has little to do with the hurting people of the world, but almost everything to do with building up personal prosperity. I have great difficulty with preachers who will quote from Psalm 37:4, as this televangelist did, “Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart,” as a means of purchasing greater and greater personal wealth.

Don’t you see how it’s supposed to work? For us to “delight ourselves in the Lord” means to commit ourselves to the Lord with such conviction that we will allow the Lord to change our minds and then our hearts, to change them from such inward personal greed, outwardly toward those in whose lives there continues to be such great hurt and hunger and confusion and injustice. If God is willing to change our hearts in the direction of the hungry and homeless, He will then give to us the desires of our newly changed hearts, that is, the desire to feed hungry people and to help disadvantaged people, thus removing from us the desire to continue to accumulate more and more tangible wealth for ourselves. And yet, some will say, “Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart,” including all the personal wealth you can even begin to imagine.

My theology, my understanding of scripture, is that God lives not at 35,000 feet and higher but with His people. “God’s dwelling is with His people,” as John the Apostle declares so plainly in the Book of Revelation. God may be the Creator of the ends of the earth, and God may be the Creator of the outer boundaries of both the visible and invisible universe, but that is not where God spends His time. “God’s dwelling is with His people,” all of His people, with you and with me, but perhaps especially with those like our friends in the Circle of Friendship and Praisin’ Partners, and our hungry and homeless friends and guests in the Thursday Soup Kitchen and in the Homeless Intervention Shelter next door. Isn’t it sad how even we Christian people can twist scripture to soothe our thinking in order to justify for ourselves the purchase of something more, something larger, something much more lavish, but which we really don’t need? Isn’t it sad?

And so, God created every last one of us in His very image and likeness, to be the very extensions of God’s righteousness in every manner possible.

And in doing so, God crowned every last one of us with His own glory and honor, in order that everywhere you and I go we might always be the very extensions of God’s glory and honor.

And God created every last one of us to be His through faith in Jesus Christ, and in our baptism to become clothed with Christ. For in this family, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, neither normal or unusual, or handicapped or special or regular or otherwise. For all of us, of whatever condition, have been made one in Jesus Christ.

Does God know you and I and our Praisin’ Partners and Circle of Friendship and homeless and hungry friends even exist? You bet! For God’s dwelling is not at 35,000 feet and higher, but always with His people.

Copyright © 2008 by Rev. F. David Throop.  All rights reserved.  No part of this sermon may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, except in the case of a very brief quotation, which will acknowledge the source.