Placentia Presbyterian Church

Please pray with me: Loving and gracious God, our prayer is simple and to the point: give to each one of us not only a great desire to know Jesus, but an even greater desire to make him known to an estranged, confused, and broken world. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Can any of us even begin to imagine the incredible amount of human expertise present within just this room alone? As you look around this room, as you see in each other such an enormous range of professionalism, as you try to conceive the brain power, the accumulative knowledge, experiences, and expertise present among us, are you as deeply impressed as I am? In case you are not aware, this congregation of believers is among the most talented and gifted I have ever known.

If, for example, you know absolutely nothing about quilting, and for whatever reason you have now suddenly decided that you want to take up quilting, come to me following worship, and I will be more than happy to introduce you to some of the best and most proficient experts in this area. If you are new to the computer world, and let’s say you want to buy a PC desktop computer or perhaps a PC lap top computer, come to me, and I will introduce you to some of the PC experts, yes, right here in our midst. Or, if you have heard that the PC computer world is a more difficult and challenging world and that there is a different computer world out there, a simpler, more user friendly computer world, a world in which the rest of us “live and move and have our being,” come to me and I will introduce you to some of the best experts of the MAC world you will ever hope to meet.

Do you own your own home or condo? If you are in need of, let’s say, a small plumbing repair job in your home, and you want to learn something about basic household plumbing so that you can make those simple repairs yourself and save perhaps a few hundred dollars or more, come to me, because I know of some experts here who will be more than happy to teach you and to help you with some of the basics of plumbing. So, do you want to re-roof your house and you you’d like to do it yourself? Come to me immediately following worship and I will introduce you to one of our members who worked many years as a roofing contractor and company supervisor, and having personally re-roofed our own home here in Placentia a number of years ago, having done so with this individual’s expert advice, I know that he will be more than happy to answer any and all of your roofing questions. And if you’re nice to him, he might even climb the ladder and join you on your roof as you begin! Or, are your questions those which deal with basic household electrical issues? No problem. We have electrical experts right here in our midst. Do you have questions about financial planning or investing? Meet me on the patio following worship, and I will be more than happy to introduce you to one of our experts in those areas.

So, you’re thinking about putting your house on the market and moving and you really don’t know how to get started? Well, come to me right after worship, and if you promise me, with your right hand raised and your left hand on the Bible that you will not be moving out of this area and that will remain an active member of this congregation, I will be more than happy to introduce you to one of the best realtors there is in Orange County. But, if you want to sell your home in order to move out of this area, my response will be, “Good luck and I hope it falls through!”

Just what is the expert advice you need in your life today? Do you want to learn just the basics, the “101’s” of cooking? We’ve got lots and lots of experts in cooking who will absolutely amaze you with their culinary expertise, even in the “101” area. Do you want to go beyond the basics of cooking into what is called “gourmet” cooking? Have no fear and search no further! Right here in our membership we have one of the top chefs in southern California, and he just might begin his response to your quest by sharing with you some of the basics of the four “taste zones” on the tongue (the front, the front sides, the back sides, and the back) and how each of these taste zones respond differently to different seasonings, and how important it is to recognize the ways in which these various taste zones of the tongue interact with each other. Or, if you are interested in being a cook, not in your own kitchen, but let’s say, on Amtrac as it travels across America, just let me know, and I will introduce you to one of Amtrac’s finest chefs.

If you are thinking about going into education as a career, and you want to speak with someone about both the joys and challenges of the classroom, or, the joys and challenges of school administration, we have a whole bunch of the best of the best right here. Do you want to learn about library science? Come to me right after the benediction and I will introduce you to some of the best in this part of the country.

Do you want to learn how to design buildings, or do you want to learn how to manage a music store, or do you want to learn how to operate a train locomotive, or how to pilot a boat from here to Hawaii using GPS? Just let me know. The experts are right here, all around us.

As we are now in this Memorial Weekend, let me ask you this: are there some young people in our midst who are interested in serving our country in the armed services? Just let me know, and I will introduce you to some who have proudly, faithfully, and courageously served our country in these areas. And, if for example, the Marine Corps interests you, but you don’t want to bear arms but would rather learn, let’s say, how to repair Marine helicopters, just let me know, and I will introduce you to one of the finest helicopter mechanics you will ever meet.

Do you want to learn how to speak another language? Do you want to learn how to hable some Español, or parler vous some Français, or sprechen some Deutsch? The experts are right here. Or, would you like to learn a language far less common, an “exotic” language spoken only in the remote mountain village of Sinuda in the middle of the southern island of Mindanao in the Philippines? Just let me know, and I will introduce you to one of our own who speaks the Matigsalug language with great fluency. And, speaking of languages, if you are so intrigued with languages that you are considering doing language research on a more permanent professional level and perhaps in a very remote part of a very remote South Asian country, we’ve got two of the very best right here.

What I’m trying to say to you is this: you don’t need to go online to find the experts. They’re all right here in our midst, most of them right here this very morning, and they’re all around us. Just what is the expert information you need? Do you want to learn how to repair brake calipers on your car, or do you want to learn what’s involved in taking a boy scout troop on a week long high Sierra mountain camp out, or do you want to learn how to oversee a multi-million dollar church construction project? Please see me immediately following worship, and I will introduce you to just one person whose personal experience and expertise in all three of these areas will provide you with more information than you ever knew even existed.

So, you want to learn how to play golf or tennis, or you want to be able to teach your one-year-old how to swim, or you are now suddenly interested in learning how to qualify for the women’s Olympic triathlon event? It will be a joy for me to introduce you to some of our members who are among the very best in each of these areas. If you are having trouble with insects in your lawn or insects in your flower beds or insects in your fruit trees and you just don’t know what to do, we have right here in our midst one of the top entomologists in the nation. He is a walking encyclopedia on insects, and he will give you more information about the insect world than is even in print! Just what is the expert information you need today?

Do you want to go into nursing or do you want to get into the world of aeronautical engineering or do you want to become a machinist turning out parts for commercial jet airplanes, or do you want to become a hair stylist or maybe just sell the equipment hairstylists and barbers use? Just let me know. The experts are right here.

Do you want to learn how to play a musical instrument? Do you want to begin taking piano or organ lessons, or would you like to learn how to play the banjo? Just let me know. The best of the best are right here among us. Are you interested in becoming a missionary or an attorney or do you want to learn how to deliver a baby and work in a neo-natal unit of a hospital? No problem. We’ve got the experts right here.

Do you want to learn how to deal in commodities such as cooking oils, or do you want to learn the ropes of running an amusement park, or do you want to learn how to sell insurance, or do you want to learn what’s involved in becoming a veterinarian, or are you interested in even becoming an ordained minister of word and sacrament? The experts are all here. Or, perhaps, just perhaps you would like to learn how to shut down a nuclear power plant. No problem. That’s exactly what one of our members does for a living. Please speak to me right after worship, and I will introduce you to him. And if you are a bit on the eccentric side, or if you’ve really gone off the deep end on the eccentric side of life, and you suddenly have this desire to learn all about . . . well, all about antique tractors, just let me know! We’ve got one of those crazies right here, as well!

But finally, and most importantly, if you have a need to know Jesus Christ, if your life is teetering on the edge, if you are in the midst of irreconcilable differences with someone, if you are in need of hope, if your life seems empty, if you want to live a life more grace-infused, if you want to learn to be far less greedy and much more giving, if you want to learn how to tithe, if you want to have a greater sense of joy than despair, if you want to learn how to pray, to really pray with a purpose, if you want to know God’s will for your life, if your life is simply falling apart and you want Christ to help you pull it back together, if you want to relinquish the throne of your life to none other than Jesus Christ as Lord, please let me know. Or better yet, to save lots of time, don’t let me know. Just look around this room, and choose anyone you see in this room, for I know these people, and I know them well. I mean, after worshipping and praying and studying and serving with these people for just over thirty-one years, you get to know them pretty well. I know these people, and I have no doubt that whoever you choose will be more than happy to sit down with you immediately following this time of worship. They will even set aside their own plans for this noon, and at the very least they will listen to you, and then pray with you, and then share with you in a very simple and kind manner a reassurance of the good news of God’s amazingly wonderful, loving embrace for you in Jesus Christ.

Please reassure me — am I right in saying this? Would each of you who claim to be followers of Christ be willing to sit down at a moment’s notice with someone trying desperately to know Jesus? As followers of Jesus Christ, if you and I are where we ought to be in our Christian walk, and if you and I have been walking with our Lord for a number of years, I believe, then, that you and I are also the best ones equipped, at the very least, simply to listen to and then to pray with anyone burdened with some of life’s deepest questions and painful hurts. And if anyone with questions or hurts or emptiness should come to us, you and I should certainly welcome an opportunity and count it a great privilege to be an ambassador of Jesus Christ in their lives. At least, this is the way it ought to be.

Two weeks ago as we began this series of eight reflections, I shared with you my realistic expectations that very little if anything would be remembered for very long following my words that day. And I said that if there is anything to remember about how to pray with purpose — which was our focus on that Sunday — we should at the very least remember that the first fourteen verses of this letter to the Colossians outline the basics on how to pray with purpose. I will now say the same thing in light of today’s message: I do not expect any of us who are present here today to remember much of anything of the specifics of these words for very long. By the middle of this afternoon, most of these words which were prepared and fine-tuned over most of a day and half will have been forgotten. But I would ask, at the very least, that you remember that in these short nine verses of fifteen through twenty-three of chapter one of Colossians, we have the basics of who Jesus Christ is for us. And just who is this Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. In other words, if you don’t know the specifics of God, you will find those specifics spelled out in the person of Jesus. When you read the words of Jesus, it’s God speaking. When you follow the footprints of Jesus’ travels as he seeks out all kinds of needy people, this is where God travels, seeking needy people wherever they are, even today. And if you want to know the depth of God’s love, just look at the cross.

You see, in Jesus Christ, God loved all there are and ever have been, and in Jesus, God has given all He has to give. Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. And I believe that if Jesus Christ is our Savior and Lord, you and I also continue to extend the image of God from our lives wherever we are. Just who is Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is the firstborn over all creation. He is the first and the last, the alpha and the omega, the A and the Z. Jesus Christ is the one through whom all things have been created. Just who is Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is the one who holds everything together. He is the head of the Church, holding not only the Church together, but the one wanting to hold our lives together, and doing so by holding the highest position in our lives. If any of you want to know how this is possible, just look around, and speak to anyone you see. It should not take you very long to find an expert in the area of knowing Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is the supreme reconciler, the one who sealed his ministry through his death on the cross, and thus the one who wants to present every last one of us — including you and me — holy and without blemish to Almighty God.

And so, if you want to speak to someone whose life has been sealed in Jesus Christ, if you want to speak to someone who knows what it is like to be an agent of reconciliation, just turn and speak to anyone you see here today. I am confident they will be more than happy to visit with you. And so, dear friends, given an opportunity, will each of you be willing to speak to others about, well, you know . . . about Jesus, and who he is for you , and who he wants to be for all of us? Well? You’re the experts. You’ve been following Jesus now for a long, long time. Beyond the particular expertise you may have in specialized areas of your own life, would you be willing to share with others something about the Jesus you know?

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.