Final Sermon at FBC Colorado Springs: Be A Reciever

Will you be my
Will you be my
Will you be my
Will you be….my neighbor?

Generations of us were raised hearing those words sung by the Presbyterian minister who loved children. He wore a sweater vest nearly every day. He spoke in hushed tones to us as he changed his shoes. Then he went on to follow model trains through his house, talk to puppets, and visit with the mailman. Mr. Rogers was a calming influence who taught children about tolerance and never got angry or frustrated. My mother-in-law thought he was child molester like and creepy, and refused to let Jennifer watch him. However, many of us watched him with children and grandchildren, and have good feelings about the things he taught, the characters he introduced us to, and the authenticity he had in real life with the character on television. Mr. Rogers was a good man.

I liked Mr. Rogers.

I like Jesus more.

When we read this passage about Jesus with the children our first instinct is to think Jesus is a lot like Mr. Rogers. He is sitting on a little stump in an olive grove somewhere, with a sweater-vest over his flowing white robe. He wants the children to sit around him, and he wants to speak to them in hushed tones about how it will be good for them to be kind to one another and do what their synagogue teachers told them. He gets out his flannel graph and tells them some age appropriate story from the Old Testament, and then prays for each of them and sends them on their way. As they leave he sprinkles glitter in all of their hair. The children’s lives are never the same again.

This image may be a good image. It may even be the image of a faithful disciple of Jesus. It is not, however, the picture of Jesus that we have in this passage. Jesus is much more angry, forceful, and driven to teach people a point about the kingdom.

He wasn’t a member of the sweater vest crowd speaking in hushed tones hoping people would listen.

He was directly asserting the gospel is not a managed and controlled program. No matter how much we try to force it to be just that. The gospel is Christ’s gospel, not ours. We come to him on his terms.

The last month I have been teaching the CHOW Bible Study group how to do word study, and identify important words in a text of Scripture. It has been fun. We have learned a lot. The key to this passage is a few key words.

In this passage, there is a very important word that shows up to describe Jesus’ emotions. That word is “indignant”.

The Bible says that as Jesus was INDIGNANT. That is pretty strong language. It certainly is not Mr. Roger’s behavior.

Why was Jesus indignant?

The Scripture says that Jesus was indignant because little children were being brought to him so that he could place his hands on them and bless them, and the disciples were rebuking people for making this imposition on Jesus.

The disciples thought that Jesus had more important things to do. They thought he had a more important agenda to pay attention to.

The disciples were missing the point.

The disciples believe that the kingdom of God is theirs for the taking. They believe that if they manage things right and control things right, if they get things figured out right, if they find the right system, if they play their politics just right, then they will be able to claim a position of power in the Christian movement.

If we look at the context of this conflict, we can see this back and forth goes on for chapters. In chapters 8, 9, and 10 Jesus predicts his rejection and death 3 times. Jesus tells the disciples to beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod. In other words, after feeding the five thousand don’t get puffed up with ideas of power and popularity. They don’t get it. They can’t control it.
He tells people not to tell others about who he is and what he has done. Following Jesus is not about riding his coattails to success.

A man says, I believe, but lord help my unbelief. He comes to Jesus needy and incomplete. He receives health for his son. He receives it.

The disciples get angry that other people are casting out miracles and doing wonders on Jesus’ behalf. They think they are losing. Jesus is happy, and says that whoever does these things are on the same team. People are receiving the grace of the kingdom. The kingdom is winning.
Eventually we come to Jesus with the children. The disciples are still trying to manage and control Jesus’ agenda for their benefit.

Jesus will have none of this pettiness. He is indignant. He lets the disciples know. Looks a little more messy and feisty than a Mister Roger’s show.

He is indignant because of the other key word that shows up in the passage. RECEIVE.

The kingdom of God isn’t something we take. It is something we receive.

The grace of God isn’t something we attain to. It is something we receive as a gift.
The power of God isn’t something we control through doing or saying the right thing. It isn’t something we earn or are entitled to. It is something we receive as needy people open to have whenever and however God wants to give it to us.

At the risk of sounding arrogant, I want to share with you how this receiving has worked in our lives lately.

One of the reasons that Jen and I trust that God is calling us to Fowler is because it is not a ladder climbing move. It does not pay more. It is not a position with higher status. The total church budget is about 1/6 of First Baptist Colorado Springs. You open up guides for travelers to Colorado Springs, and it does not even show up on the map! Right now we are living in a parsonage where the shower does not even work yet, and the computer in the pastor’s study is over 10 years old.

That is not to say we did not try to push our agenda, and make a call of God what we wanted it to be. I interviewed at churches closer to Jennifer ‘s family and my own. We interviewed with churches that had more attendees , larger budgets, and better salaries and more status. Sometimes the door slammed shut on their end. Sometimes we had a deep, mystical sense that God was not leading us in that direction.

When we visited with the folks down in Fowler, we both had a sense that this was where God was leading us. We asked for God to give us open doors, and to point the way. In situation after situation, before and after we accepted the call to go there, we have received confirmation after confirmation that God has led us to Fowler.

God’s call to a new ministry in Fowler was something we received by grace, not something we controlled (in spite of my best efforts), or something we claimed by force.

Receiving is hard. We want to be strong. We want to be in control. We want to earn what we have. We want solutions and answers.

Jesus says to receive like little children.

When Jesus says this, he is not adopting our modern sensibility that children are innocent. Any one who has raised children knows that they are adorable, at times sweet, but far from innocent.
What Jesus is saying is that we need to come to him with nothing in our hands, nothing to claim, no negotiations to make, and simply receive the blessing that he is offering.

The other day, in the last word study we did with our CHOW group, we looked at the actions of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. One thing that really stuck out to each of us was the the discussion of the action of the Holy Spirit filling people. Filling, we discussed, is a receiving kind of action. And it seemed that the people who were most receptive were filled up. Once they were able to receive to the point of being full, then their filling resulted in ministries of grace and renewal around them.

So often we think God wants us to do stuff for him. Run errands for him. Attend meetings for him. Lead church activities for him. We think that our busyness and our activity level makes God happy. We think that we are good because we give more than we have to, or because we make a really special effort as forgiving someone who hurts us. We may not think that God grades on a curve, or that he demands that we get everything right. But we do think that God has a report card like I did in elementary school and middle school, where there was a grade for achievement and a grade for effort. And that God is really assessing us by our effort grade, so we must look very busy and try really, really extra hard.

What if we stopped trying so hard and just started to honestly receive from God? What would that look like?

What if instead of trying to control all of our life circumstances, we received the situations we are in and used them as opportunities to seek and discover God’s grace? What might God be trying to teach us that we are missing?

What if instead of trying to cover up and fix our mistakes we acknowledged them, and were conscious about completely receiving grace and forgiveness? Maybe forgiving those who hurt us might be a little bit easier.

What if we looked at what we do in service of the church as an opportunity to be received as well? What might God have to teach us as we prepare lessons? How might God grow us as we work with people we have never gotten to know?

What if instead of coming to worship to see what we can “get out of it”, we came to worship receptive to whatever God may be doing, even if God is not necessarily doing it specifically for us?

What if instead of thinking we have to earn God’s salvation and approval, we soaked in the fact that he wants to love us, grow us, mold us, and shape us. And that what he wants from us is to be receptive to him as he lays his hands upon us and begins to mold us and make us anew?
First Baptist Church, this will be the last Sunday that I get to share with you as one of your pastors. As I go, this is my prayer for you:


My prayer for you is that you will be receivers.
My prayer for you is that you will drop any hopes you have of earning God’s approval.
My prayer is that you will set aside any guilt or shame or sense of obligation you have with your faith.
My prayer is that you will come to Jesus like little children
That have no wealth
That have no achievements.
That have no power.
That have no control over much of anything in their lives.
My prayer is that you will be brought to Jesus.
And you will allow him to set his hands on your shoulders
And let him look in to your eyes
And that you will let him bless you
That you will receive that blessing from Jesus you need
That blessing of approval.
That blessing of acceptance.
That blessing of hope.
That blessing of empathy.
And that when you receive from Jesus,
This hope
This grace
This love
Then you will experience
This compassion
This love
This power
This flood of God-life in you
That will not simply fill you up
Like you have never been filled before
But that will overflow from you
To one another
And this church will be so full
From being open enough
To receive from God
That this God-life we received from Jesus
Will overflow
In a stream of grace
Into a thirst world around
You.
This is what I pray for you.
That today
At this table
And each day as we are parted
That you will receive
New hope
New truth
New Grace
And
New Life
From the God
Who is the same
Yesterday
Today
And Tommrrow
And the God
Who is always
Flowing out
And flooding forward
In an unpredictable
Torrent of
Amazing love.