Sunday, June 9, 2019
I’ve titled this talk “Where God’s
Promises Come True.” My thought is the church is where God’s promises come
true. That’s rather audacious, and not
exactly accurate.
Whether you think of the church as a
building or as a gathering of people, God should act there. Within the church, among God’s people, God’s
activity should be easy to spot. But
that’s not the only place God acts.
Mark Gabriel, an Egyptian man, was a
Muslim cleric. He got his hands on a
copy of the New Testament. He read it
through it in one evening and by the time he was done, he confessed his sins,
received forgiveness, and gave his life to Jesus. No church.
No pastor. No guidance. Just him in a room, secretly reading the New
Testament; in that place God delivered to him the promise of salvation.
God delivered the same promise to me
in the summer of 1981. I was 11. I went to the Detroit Baptist Camp. There were campfires, new friends, first
crushes, swimming the lake, racing up the hill to the camp store to buy candy;
in that fun, crazy environment, I realized my need for Jesus and God gave me
the promise of salvation.
God speaks everywhere. So any place
can be where God’s promises come true.
The church is where we gather with other believers to understand God,
worship him, and understand how his promises shape our lives. When we gather as his people, united in
Christ, we become one. This oneness is
essential for each individual living out the call of God in their lives. As soon as Mark Gabriel escaped his Muslim father
who wanted to kill him for accepting Jesus, he sought life in the church. As soon as I got home from camp, I had to
tell my church family about my decision to follow Jesus. Church is where people who have received God’s
promise gather.
One important way we hear God is in
listening to young people – 9 & 10-year-olds, teens, and young adults. “Growing Young” is a way of thinking about
church. Today we look at the fifth of
the 6 core commitments exemplified in Growing Young congregations. Already we have discussed shared leadership,
empathy, taking Jesus seriously, and warm relationships. The fifth core commitment is “prioritizing
young people everywhere.”
Prophecy is communication God gives special,
select individuals. No one else can be like Isaiah or Elijah. However, another strand of Biblical teaching shows
that God speaks through many people in the faith community. In the book of Numbers, Moses pines, “Would
that all of the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his
spirit on all of them” (11:29). Moses
hopes for it.
Then the prophet Joel, whose words
were read earlier, predicted it. Speaking
through his prophet, God says, “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh” (Joel
2:28). Then in Acts, after Jesus had
ascended, the Holy Spirit falls on the crowd gathered in Jerusalem for the
observance of Pentecost. They all begin
to prophesy (Acts 2:16ff.) What Moses
long for and Joel predicted is fulfilled at the coming of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost, which churches around the world celebrate today.
Pentecost was a beginning, not a
one-time event. Since then, the Holy
Spirit has continued to speak through people, and especially through people in
the church. This is God’s message to
us. Are we listening? More to the point,
are we listening to everyone who has heard the Spirit, or just some of the
people?
Through
the prophet Joel God says, “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons
and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams and your
young men shall see visions. Even on the
male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit.” Institutions venerate the wise elderly and we
should. But do we know the truth God
wants our sons and daughters to speak?
Have we heard descriptions of the dreams God has given our young
people? We’ve got to prioritize young
people so they know they can speak and will be heard.
It’s not just necessary for their
maturation and spiritual development that we adults quiet ourselves and give
the floor to the younger generation. It
is for our own good. We listen to our
youth so that God’s life-giving, chaos-ordering, exile-resisting,
death-overcoming spirit will be loosed among us.[i] We prioritize young people everywhere so we
can hear God’s message and live in the blessings of God’s promise.
It’s not just about speaking. It’s about trusting young people in vital
areas of church life. One of the
emphasized points in the Growing Young is trust. Don’t just give teens superficial things to
do. Trust them in load-bearing
roles.
For instance, an important but
unseen ministry in our church is the work of volunteers in the sound
booth. They make sure the words are on
the screen for all the songs. They make
sure that the right microphones are turned on or off at the right times. Last Sunday, the only volunteers up there
were a couple of 16-year-olds, Kevin and I__.
If this ministry is botched, it affects the entire worship service. We didn’t entrust this to them because it was
youth Sunday. Last week was a normal
Sunday and they were our tech team and they performed that work without a
hitch.
Of
course you could say, “Well that’s nice, but those high schoolers weren’t
prophesying.” No, but they know they
have a place of high importance in our church. When they have something to say,
they know can. In our church-wide LGBTQ
dialogues several teens shared their thoughts knowing they are fully part of
the community, not lesser members. God
speaks through them and we all need to listen.
We all need to hear what God has to say.
With
that in mind I emailed young people this week and asked them what church would
look like if they could design it. Here
are their responses.
1.
Williams
Suehs – More technology in children’s and youth ministry – maybe individual
PC’s for kids during SS or at least a slide show.
2.
I__ – Put video games around the church, like a Pac Man machine. When I wondered about the seriousness of this
suggestion, the person making it reminded me we had seen this very set-up at a
church we visited together earlier this year.
3.
M__ – We need to keep going to Ethiopia each year, but we should also go on trips
to other places. We need more
activities. And 4th and 5th
graders should be allowed to help out with toddlers.
4.
Jackson
and William A – The church needs a pastor and a Sunday school.
5.
Christopher
H – Age-groups are important; intergenerational is fine, but sometimes young
people want to be with their peers, not with old people.
6.
Tara
S – Fun songs in worship; do at least one song kids would like. Have more potlucks and times where we eat
together; and maybe have music while we are eating. Use different stories to learn about God and
Jesus; sometimes it feels like we hear the same stories all the time.
7.
Have
a suggestion box.
8.
Have
a waterpark – chapel combo with maybe a waterslide leading into the baptism pool.
Anyone
tempted to say those are silly ideas? That’s not prophecy from the Lord. How do we know? If we ignore young people when they say silly
things, when they act, you know, young,
will they be willing to speak when God gives them a word? We have to foster an environment in which
everyone in the church knows he or she matters to God and to the church
family.
Prioritizing
young people everywhere in the church leads us to prioritizing young people
everywhere there are young people. I was
overwhelmed with this call from God as I walked the streets right around here. I walked across the middle school campus and
prayed for teachers, principals, students, janitors, cafeteria workers, and
everyone else there. And it dawned on
me. We love UNC students even as we
recognize the transitory, seasonal nature of university life. But the kids in the elementary, middle, and
high schools are here year-round. We are
called to proclaim God’s love to young people who are around us all the
time.
The
movement in the Bible is clear. Joel is
prophecy. We understand his words to be
fulfilled in Acts. Joel’s vision of
young people speaking divinely inspired words comes to life in the death and
resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn’t just fall on all
those people in gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost. The Spirit sends them back
to their own towns and nations to tell about the salvation we have in
Jesus. We are sent to announce to the
world that all people can have freedom from sin, rescue from death, and new
life in Jesus Christ. Our first stop is
the community right outside our doors.
When
we listen and prioritize young people, we undergo a significant shift. We move from top-down leadership to a community
that listens to everyone. We go from
saying “My opinion is” when we are in discussion to “What I hear God saying
is.” We become conduits through which the Spirit brings God’s message. We go from being settled in quiet,
insignificant lives to living in constant alert awareness that God is doing new
things all the time and we are part of what God is doing.
The
untamed, unrestrained message of the prophet rings in the ears of God’s
people. The call is so poignant, so
compelling that when we hear it life is never again thinkable or livable apart
from relationship with the resurrected one.
Jesus is at the center of our life and life itself does not make any
sense apart from Him.[ii]
We
prioritize young people everywhere so we can hear the full word of
Spirit-inspired prophecy, and we can’t go back to unruffled, domesticated
church life. And we won’t want to. Instead we face the biggest challenges of our
time as Jesus-followers our confidence found in him.
In
elevating young people, we all rise. We
all see more of God. We grow closer to
Him. We more fully walk in His joy.
AMEN
[i] W.
Brueggemann (1997), Theology of the Old
Testament, Augsberg Fortress Press (Minneapolis), p.648.
[ii]
Bruggemann, p.649.
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