METHODISM IN A NEW MILLENNIUM

OFFER THEM CHRIST

Laurie Haller - First UMC -Grand Rapids, MI., USA April 23, 2000 (Easter)

Text: Matthew 28:1-10

One day a nun went out onto a native American reservation to do some mission work. Lo and behold, right out there in the middle of nowhere, her car ran out of gas. At first, she didn’t know what to do. Then she realized that she had passed a service station a few miles back. She took a deep breath and headed for the gas station. When she got there, the attendant said he’d be happy to get her some gas, but he didn’t know what he’d put in it. He didn’t have a gas can there, for someone had take his last one and hadn’t returned it. So he went out back and scrounged around a bit and finally found something that would at least work. It was a bed pan!

Some would say that faith means to believe the impossible; faith means to believe that something that cannot be done can indeed be done after all; faith means to believe in miracles in the sense of supernatural wonders. Those are the folks who say, "A man rose from the dead? Jesus laid in the tomb three days, then just got up and started walking again? You’ve got to have faith to believe in that stuff!" But there’s another way to look at faith that goes right to the core of the Easter message. Faith is the belief that through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God takes away our fears, grants us new life and empowers us to offer Christ to the rest of the world.

It was about three o’clock on that Friday afternoon when Jesus died on the cross. The observance of the sabbath was to begin three hours later at 6 P.M., so quick action was called for. A person who was crucified could not remain on his cross over the sabbath. Normally, bodies of crucified victims were simply thrown on the city garbage heap and left to be the prey of vultures, crows and dogs.

Fortunately, the followers of Jesus had an influential friend, Joseph of Arimathea, a devout Jew and secret follower of Jesus. He went to Pilate and requested permission to give Jesus a decent burial. He laid the body of Jesus in his own new tomb and went away. And guess who was sitting there watching? Mary Magdalene and the other Mary.

Meanwhile, the temple authorities were uneasy. Even though they had seen Jesus die, they were nervous. They went to Pilate and asked that special precautions be taken to guard the body. On Saturday, there were no visitors to the grave because it was the sabbath.

Then came Sunday morning, early Sunday morning. While it was still dark, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb. When they arrived, a mighty earthquake shook the land. Then an angel of the Lord appeared, rolled back the huge stone covering the entrance and sat on it. The guards were terrified and were shaking in their boots. But the angel said to the women, "Don’t be afraid. I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised. Come, see the place where he lay. Then, go, tell the disciples."

That’s exactly what they did. The two Mary’s left the tomb with great fear and great joy. As they were running, though, suddenly, Jesus met them and said, "Greetings. Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me." At that point, the fear departed, and the women were left only with joy as they went to share the good news.

Faith is the belief that through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God takes away our fears, grants us new life and empowers us to offer Christ to the rest of the world. If it weren’t for the resurrection, we would have nothing to share. If it weren’t for the empty tomb, we would have no good news to proclaim. If it weren’t for the joy of that Easter morning, we would have no new life ourselves, no hope, no faith, no love and no reason to shout hallelujah.

Did you know that many times the aftershock of an earthquake exhibits as much energy as the earthquake itself? Tapping into the resurrection energy of the aftershock, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary became the first evangelists, didn’t they? Empowered by that simple word of Jesus, "Greetings," they went to tell the disciples, who in turn told others, who told others, who told others. And look where we are today! The church is alive because of those who had enough faith to shed their graveclothes of fear, experience the joy of resurrection now and offer Christ to the world.

We United Methodists have a wonderful heritage of offering Christ to the world. When John Wesley trained and sent lay preachers from England here to America, he was said to have told them three simple words, "Offer them Christ." Wesley told his preachers, "You have nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work." In our first Book of Discipline of the Methodist Church, written in 1785 in the form of questions and answers, there is the following question: What may we reasonably believe to be God’s Design in raising up the Preachers called Methodists? And the answer: to reform the Continent, and to spread scriptural Holiness over these Lands.

Friends, we have nothing to do but save souls. We have nothing to do but offer new life through Christ. That’s our calling, whoever we are. That’s our response of faith to the joy of Christ’s resurrection. But how do we offer Christ to a world which is often cynical, hurting and skeptical? First, we offer Christ with compassion and love. As the old saying goes, you cannot force the heart. Have you seen the Peanuts comic strip where Lucy is talking to Linus about evangelism? She says, "You know, Linus, I would have made a good evangelist." "What makes you think that?" responds Linus. "Well," Lucy says, "do you know that kid who sits behind me at school? I convinced him that my religion is better than his religion." "How did you do that?" Linus asks. Lucy replies, "I hit him with my lunch box!"

Some people are like Lucy. They come on strong. They are heavy-handed in their evangelism techniques. Even to this day, some people try to convert others with coercion, intimidation, fear, force, guilt, shame, threats and even violence. But that is not the spirit of Christ. That is not the way Christ chose. He chose the way of sacrificial love that went right up on the cross. By freely giving up his life, Jesus made plain the message. Jesus does not force us into faith, Jesus loves us into faith.

John Wesley understood that approach, for he once advised his preachers, "Abhor every approach, in any kind or degree, to the spirit of persecution. If you cannot reason or persuade a man into the truth, never attempt to force him into it. If love will not compel him to come in, leave him to God, the Judge of all." (Works, Vol. 12, p. 201.)

Second, we offer Christ with power. I believe that the very same power that raised Jesus from the dead enables you and me to offer Christ to others with authority, conviction and persuasion. You’ve seen these aftershocks of resurrection energy at work, haven’t you? How often have we done or said something that helps another person draw close to God, and we wonder later, "Now where did that come from?" Or we see someone share their faith with an eloquence that they never display otherwise, and we wonder, "How could he or she do that?" Or we’ll see a child witness to their faith with a maturity far beyond their years, and we just shake our heads at God’s awesome power.

I’ve seen that power at work. A few months ago, a young woman from First Church came into the church distraught because her niece had just been diagnosed with leukemia. She said she didn’t know where else to come except the church. Neither Gary nor I were there at first, so the receptionist at the desk just took her over to the couch, listened to her and then gently shared a prayer with her. She didn’t apologize for not being a pastor. She simply claimed her power and went to work. And it made all the difference to that young woman. Aftershocks of resurrection energy!

A few weeks ago Edward Simmons became critically ill. Edward is our eleven year old boy in a wheelchair, the child of Dawn and Steve Cole. Edward had been in pediatric intensive care for several days and was unresponsive. He was in a coma, and it was very serious. Someone from the church found out about Edward and began praying for healing. At 6 A.M. one morning, this person called Dawn at the hospital and said, "I’m sorry to call you so early, but I just woke up from a vivid dream where Edward was healed. I wanted you to know that." Funny thing was, Edward had just woken up ten minutes before she called and said his first words in three days. Coincidence? No. Aftershocks of resurrection energy yes. Power? Yes.

Last Sunday when I went to church in Newton, Massachusetts with Christina Keller, the pastor told the congregation that one of their members was going to have surgery this week to remove a lung because of cancer. This relatively young man came forward and knelt at the communion rail. The pastor invited anyone who felt led to come forward and lay hands on him. About fifteen of us surrounded him while the pastor prayed. The others were praying out loud, too, and one woman even sang her prayer. Aftershocks of creative energy moved through our hands as the pastor said, "This is what the church is all about. When one person suffers, all suffer. We’re expecting a miracle!" Power? Yes.

Every week I witness people at First Church caring for others, praying for others, doing heroic things for others, things they could never do on their own. With the power of the risen Christ in your hearts, you can do anything!

Remember, friends, you are all ministers. And you are all full-time ministers. Gary and I may be the appointed pastors, but you are the ministers. Are you a child? You’re a minister. Are you a teenager? You’re a minister. Are you a schoolteacher? You’re a minister. Are you a clerk? You’re a minister. Are you an engineer? You’re a minister. Each one of you has the power of the risen Christ within you. Claim your power and get to work!

Third, we offer Christ by word and example. An old couple lived out in the sticks of Arkansas all of their married life. They were about as different as two people could be. What she liked, he didn’t like, and what he liked, she didn’t like. That’s just the way it was all those years and years and years.

Easter is a high Sunday - a Sunday for leaping up and down and praising God and sharing the good news that Christ is risen! But in the end it doesn’t matter how loud the organ plays today. It doesn’t matter how well the choir does or how eloquent the prayers are or how graceful the dancers are. What matters is what we do tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day. What matters is how we witness to the resurrection every day of our lives.

You see, we don’t measure this church by how many people are inside the building. We measure our church by how many people are outside the building waiting to be invited into a life-changing relationship with Christ. It’s not who goes to this church that matters. It’s where this church goes that matters. And until we have offered Christ to every last person inside and outside this building, our job is not done. For some reason, God has placed you and me living in and around Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the year 2000. God has us in this church for a purpose. God has hand-picked us for this time in this place. God is saying that the hope of Grand Rapids and the hope of the world lies in the resurrected Christ which we, the church, proclaim to all whose lives are broken, who live in constant fear, and who can’t even begin to think about spiritual matters until their stomachs are full and they have shelter over their heads.

Have any of you kids ever played the game Marco Polo? Raise your hands! Our children often play it in the swimming pool. We’re not sure how Marco Polo and this game of hide and seek fit together. Perhaps the connection is that Marco Polo was an explorer and a sailor. Marco Polo was born in 1254 and lived about 70 years. But a significant part of his life he lived in China - and when he came home from China, the stories he told!!! The stories he told sent the Portuguese risking their lives trying to get to China! His stories sent the Spanish and the French and the English risking their lives trying to find the best way to China because he told them of buildings with golden roofs, of spices they had never tasted, of the finest silks they had never seen.

But there is a story that when Marco Polo was an old man and dying, one of his closest friends was sitting beside his bed. And he said, "I know what you told when you were a young man. I know all those stories! But now you can tell me the truth; what was it really like?" And Marco Polo said, "Friend, I never told the half of it."

Have you ever told even half of what you know about the goodness of God? Have you ever told even one person about what Jesus Christ has done in your life? Have you ever told but a fraction of how God’s amazing grace has changed you? Have you told anyone what it is that brings you back to this holy place week after week after week? Have you ever told anyone how God gives you the strength to live each day? Have you ever told anyone how God empowers you to offer Christ?

How do we offer Christ? Use your imagination. Use a bed pan. Leap up in the air. Share your lunch box. Replace fear with joy. Be compassionate. Claim your power. Tap into resurrection aftershocks. Set an example. Tell more than half of what you know in your heart - tell it all. The possibilities are limitless. For you are all called to be full-time ministers, and you have nothing to do but save souls. You have nothing to do but save souls. Hallelujah! Christ is risen!