Feb 10, 2019                 Discipleship                                  

This past week, one of the sermons I read, spoke about the confession of faith of one of the most beloved members of his church, which took place at  a revival many years earlier. Now for those who don’t know, a revival is a series of worship services spread out over a four days to a week, where people gather to worship and praise God. The goal of these services is for people to give themselves to Jesus Christ.

Well, the man in the story had family and friends who encouraged him to give his life to Christ, and so he showed up the first night, and he brought a gift of 5 brand new shirts, still in their plastic with him, hoping that it would secure the acceptance of his confession. When he came forward, he offered the shirts to the pastor, but was told, that they weren’t enough.

The second night the man brought the 5 shirts back along with 4 blankets, and offered them to the pastor. Again he was told, that it wasn’t enough. The third night the man brought the 5 shirts, 4 blankets, and offered 3 horses that he had brought with him, and were tied up outside. Again, the pastor told him, it wasn’t enough. Finally, on the last night, the man showed up without any gifts, and when he went up front, he said to the pastor, if nothing I have is good enough for God, the only thing I have left to offer is myself. And the pastor replied, that is all that God requires. And the man made his confession of Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, and was welcomed into the church.  

This morning, we have three stories about people who offered their lives to God. Isaiah serving in the temple, recognizes that the priesthood in which he serves has gone astray. They may carry out all the right rituals, but they do not love God, and do not serve God. The disciples are fishermen, who may believe in God, like any ordinary person on the street, but they have not yet given themselves over to God as the Lord and Savior of their lives. And the last story is about the apostle Paul, who in fact believed he was serving God, by enforcing the Jewish law, but came to realize, that his motivation for making sure people followed the law didn’t come from a love of God, but out of his own sense of moral righteousness, and his own desire for power over others. And to add to these three stories, I would add my own story.

As a seminary student, I came to seminary believing I had a call, and also because being a minister was a long standing family tradition. In my first year, I remember that I kept my grades up but really hadn’t committed myself to the ministry. At the end of the year, at my oral examination, I remember being asked a simple question by one of the professors. “Do you love God?” Now I grew up in the bible belt, and knew there were plenty of people going around bragging about how they loved God, so I didn’t want to be like that, so I gave this answer. “I guess I both love God and hate God,….. I love God because God is all that is beautiful, and powerful and wonderful in this world, …… and I guess I hate God, because God is all that I am not. To which the professor replied, “Well, I guess you have a choice to make, to devote yourself to loving God, or loving yourself.” From that time on, I gave myself to God.

Now I realize that not everyone who gives themselves to God becomes a pastor. Some are teachers, nurses, doctors, housewives, garbage collectors, lawyers, insurance agents, and on and on. Some of these have a greater love and faith than any pastor. They are people who chose to love God, more than they loved themselves, and they showed this love in their compassion, concern, and patience with others, in their worship and work in the church. Many of them have become beloved members of their churches, like the man in our opening story, or maybe just good friends, looking out for one another.  And almost all of them have found ways to make a real difference in the world through their work on behalf of the church of Jesus Christ. This is the step, that each of the people in our scripture lessons this morning took, turning away from self love, to a love for God that made their lives new.

Finally, in our newsletter this month, I told the story of Billy Graham, telling Wheaton College they could keep his tennis trophy, because in the light of God’s love for him, it had very little value to him. As almost everyone knows Billy Graham is considered one of the greatest Evangelists of our time, calling hundred of thousands, if not more, to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And those hundreds of thousands all have remarkably similar stories, how in accepting Jesus Christ, they were freed from the powers of sin and death, from greed, from drug abuse, from abusive relationships, from their desire for power over others. By choosing to love God more than they loved themselves, all the things of this world, all the self-serving rules they once lived by, no longer held power over them, and they were freed to live life anew. And so can you, through your accepting Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of your life. And that’s the good news of Jesus Christ! Amen!