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"A Missionary Heart--Part II"
May 23, 2004
The Rev. Dr. Christopher Carlson
You may have heard last Sunday in the second service we had an interesting morning, to say the least. As I was preaching my sermon, Arnold Kadue had an episode in which his heart stopped and he sort of fell out about on the third row there and thus I was interrupted in my sermon, but that was OK. It was OK. But as I was thinking about it during the week, I felt like I wanted to finish my sermon for the second service, but God had other things for me to say about being a missionary, because that was my message last week: that all of us are missionaries in one way or another. So I want to continue what I started last week, for you and for the second service.
I changed the Scripture readings a little bit. I'm going to read one of the same ones from last week--one from 2 Corinthians. But I want to add Matthew 28 and one from Philippians, chapter 2. Please listen carefully to the Word of God.
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
From 2 Corinthians, Paul writes:
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
And from Philippians chapter 2:
If any of you have encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God!
You are a missionary. Every Christian is a missionary. Part of the reason you are is because of who we are in Jesus Christ and who Jesus Christ is. What is a missionary, after all? It is a person who has a message to say for God and a mission to do for God. Normally, a missionary is one who leaves his or her home and goes somewhere else and becomes involved in that culture, and learns that language, and becomes like those people so that they can communicate this message and do their job. Have you ever thought about Jesus in this way? The Scriptures tell us that Jesus Himself was God. And as we read this morning, that this God became a human being, not counting his "Godness" as anything to be grasped, but He humbled Himself, became a human being like us. And why did He do that? So that we could understand who God is. God wants you, when you think of Him, to think first of Jesus.
Now, there are other images in the Bible of God. God who is all-powerful. God who comes in glory. The God who is so wonderful and so majestic it is hard to even come into His presence. Those are appropriate images of God. But because of Jesus, because of who He is, God wants us to first think of Him when we think of God.
What about us? Did you know that when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior that God moves in, into our very selves? Mysteriously, yet really, God lives through us in the Holy Spirit so that, in a sense, you and I are like little churches running around--like "temples," if you will. The Bible says that. Paul says, "Don't you know that you are the temple of God?" And, indeed, you are. So wherever you go, there is a sense in which God goes with you. Now, of course, God is everywhere. But in a very special way, you bring God with you if you are a Christian.
I want to confess something: I forget that a lot. I know I've been ordained as a Presbyterian minister and I even forget that sometimes. Sometimes I want to forget it. Sometimes I just want to be "normal," to hide somewhere, instead of having someone say, "Hi, Reverend Carlson!" I want to go, "Oh, no, not again." (I'm only kidding. It's OK if you see me to say "hello.") Sometimes in a small town, if you've ever lived in one and you're the Rev, it's hard to even go to WalMart! But, you know, all of us are this way in a sense. Not just those who are ordained. We are all ambassadors. That's what Paul was trying to say. We're missionaries. We carry God with us. All of us are entrusted not only with His presence, but the message. And entrusted with things to do for Him.
Now, most of you here have been in the Presbyterian Church a long time, so you may know the answer to this question--the answer to the first question of the Shorter Catechism: "What is the chief end of man?" It is "To glorify God and enjoy Him forever." That's just simply older language for the same sort of thing as asking, "What's the purpose of life?" "What's the purpose of human beings living on earth?" The answer to that given in the Catechism, and I believe, given in the Scripture, is "to honor God." Or, to put it in even more modern language, it is "to make a difference for God in the world." Your purpose in life is to make a difference for God in this world. And that's part and parcel of being a missionary.
Now, there are many things involved in this making a difference for God, but I think there are two particular things we need to pay attention to, the first of which sort of has a bad reputation in the church these days--and it is evangelism. It's interesting to me that the first command we are given after Jesus' resurrection is, "Go, therefore, . . " not "Stay put." It is, "Go, therefore, . . . make disciples. . ." Part of that making a difference in the world is bringing others to Jesus Christ. Do you know what I believe? I believe that the world's not going to change much in its evil until people's hearts are changed.
You know, the attitude is if we can just change social structures, if we can just make things better, we can provide more education, things are going to change. Well, those are good things. But until the human heart is changed, nothing's going to change! And the only person who can do that is God. And so evangelism becomes a way to make the world better as well as to save souls. But evangelism does have a bad rap. It's almost as though we have this image of evangelism not simply of Billy Graham preaching to a crusade, but people knocking on doors and grabbing people by the collar and saying, "Do you know Jesus?"
It's kind of like the old story I tell a lot about the Christian barber who is just so concerned about sharing his faith and yet he was nervous, like most Christians. But he had a friend he knew was coming in that day for a shave and a haircut and he knew this guy needed to know Jesus. So he got him in the chair, put the apron around him, lathered him up, tilted him back, got his razor out and said, "Are you ready to die?" (That's something like I would do, I think!)
But evangelism's important. Not everybody has the gift to go out and to street-preach or to knock on doors. And if you don't have the gift, I would suggest not doing it, because you would just make a mess of it. Only a few people can do that kind of thing. But we are all called to share the hope that's within us, to tell about the joy of Jesus, of knowing Him, of having this confidence, of being a missionary.
And another part of making a difference is to do good. Contrary to popular opinion, there is evil in the world. And we know it, don't we? And it begins right here [in our hearts]. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time loving people like I should, not saying things I shouldn't say, even treating my family like they should be treated. But if we look around us, we see it not only in families--we see it in businesses, we see it in government, we see it in the world. It's everywhere. And we are called to go out there. Not necessarily to go to Africa, or Indonesia, or some other place. Not necessarily to leave your home, in a sense. But we are called to go out and wherever we are, whoever we are, whether it be someone pumping gas, or running a store, or if you're a lawyer or a doctor or whatever you are--you're a missionary. And you're called to do good in the world, to change things for the better. And it doesn't always necessarily mean "witnessing," because in some cases, you can't. You're not allowed to. In some cases, it's not appropriate. But people ought to know you're a Christian in those places. And you ought to boldly go out for Jesus Christ. If you're homebound or mostly homebound, praying. You can do something, too. Ask God what He wants you to do. We are all missionaries in this place. To go out and do good.
I'm reminded of the story I heard about a man in an airplane many years ago. Just across from him was one of those passengers you never want to see. He was loud, and boisterous, and rude, and everything you can think of. Even in those days (when you could smoke in an airplane) he was in the nonsmoking section and pulled out a cigar and began to smoke it. The stewardess was just so kind to him and kept reminding him and doing this, that, and the other. The man took note of it and said to the stewardess, "You know, I'm going to write a letter to the person you work for and tell him how well you did." The lady looked at him and said, "Sir, I don't work for American Airlines. I'm employed by them, but I work for Jesus Christ."
Or, I'm thinking of a lady who worked for Enron. You remember Enron, the energy company. Well, you know, Houston took a big hit. Just a couple of years ago there was Enron, there was all these places. We had a lot of people in our church working for Enron. But, you know, there was a lady who was one of the chief whistle-blowers, and she was a member of First Presbyterian Church, a Christian. And she didn't do this just--she thought about it, she prayed about it, but she did it. And she did it in the courage of the Lord because it needed to be done.
Or, I heard another story about a woman who "came forward" at a meeting. She gave her testimony afterward and she said, "I'm not coming forward because of the fine sermon that this preacher preached. I'm coming forward because of a lady who's worked for me for years. She's my house-servant. And all those years she had a simple faith and never an unkind word. And I used to scoff at her faith. But when one of my children was taken away in a terrible, tragic accident, she was the one who had something to say to me."
That's what we need to do. We need to be witnesses for Christ wherever we are and whatever situation. Sometimes it's suffering in silence for years. Sometimes it's taking bold action. Sometimes it's simply being nice to somebody who's a jerk. Sometimes it means sharing Christ with someone who needs to hear it.
We're missionaries--all of us. Every one of us. Not only that. As missionaries we not only know what our purpose is, but we know that we are not the point. We are not the point in life. Paul says that when he's talking about being ambassadors. He says in another place, "I am a slave to all that I may win some." You know, so often, even in church, we tend to think of church as something that's there for us. We tend to get upset if the routines change, or something changes in church, because it inconveniences us. A poll was taken several years ago--a nationwide poll of church members. And over 80% of church members said the reason the church existed was to take care of them and their families.
Well, you know, the church is there for that. And I want you to know I was so proud of this church last week in the second service. (You didn't have the opportunity.) But it was amazing to watch. I got to see it all and hear about it as well. I was up here preaching and Mr. Kadue kind of falls over. (I hope that doesn't say anything about my preaching.) I walked down and just before I could do anything or say anything, two of our members are right there getting ready to do CPR. And that wasn't the only thing that happened. Another person went out to find their granddaughter, who had stepped out to go to the restroom--to minister to her. Another person went out and called 911. Still another person went and called their son. Two other people went outside to direct the police because they were sure that the police and the fire department would come to the wrong building (and they did). So many things happened that people just thought of what to do. It was the body of Christ in action. Then everyone else just sat there and didn't panic. That's something, too. And Mr. Kadue is doing very well. He is doing very well. No one really knows what happened to him. They did a lot of tests and they didn't find anything. He's just 89 years old. But his heart is strong, even though it took a rest for a little while.
The church is here to take care of us, but that's not it. The purpose is always to be outward-focused, asking what we can do rather than what other people can do for us. How we can serve rather than be served? The church is a mission organization. And as missionaries, we ought to know that, and we ought to live it and not be afraid. I think that's where a lot of people are in many cases. They're afraid, or they just can't believe that God can use them. "Who, me?" "God can use me?" But if you read the Bible very long at all, you'll find very clearly that God used very ordinary people, sometimes very sinful people, to do His will. Sometimes people who had no business doing anything. And doesn't that describe us? God uses those kinds of people to do His will.
We do not need to be afraid. Yet, we spend so much time running from discomfort, even running from death, and there's no point. The Bible says over and over again, if we live, we live to the Lord and if we die, we die to the Lord. But whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. We belong to God, whatever happens.
There are people today being killed all over the earth because they are Christians. And the tide seems to be rising. Every day I read something about some people being martyred or persecuted somewhere in the world. And I think, even in the United States, things are changing and the attitude toward Christians is getting a little bit worse all the time. I hope it doesn't come to that. I hope it doesn't come to persecution even in the United States. But in some cases, it doesn't matter. We belong to God and we are to be His witnesses. And whether we live here or live in heaven--actually, heaven sounds like a better place--we need to have courage, we need to be missionaries, we need to go out and be what God has called us to be, because that's what we are. We don't need to be afraid. God will use us if we just say, "Lord, use me." One way or another, big or small, great or little. We will be used.
So I want to encourage you this morning, and witness to you, and say that the church did well last week. We really did. God has blessed us and blessed Mr. Kadue. He is still alive and still with us. But if he had gone, we could still celebrate because he would be the Lord's. We could celebrate what the church did. And I want to challenge you to ask God how you could be his missionary where you are right now, what He would have you do and what he would have you be.
Let us pray. Father, thank you for loving us so much that we have the wonderful privilege of serving you, the God of the entire universe, who has chosen us--insignificant as we are--to be your servants. We pray that you would help us not get so wrapped up in this life that all we're thinking about is how to get through the next day, but that we can seek to serve you and what you would have us do as missionaries in this place for as long as we're here. We do pray these things, and we pray them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Christopher Carlson Senior Pastor Faith Presbyterian Church Minnetonka, Minnesota
[Transcribed from an audiotape of the 9:00 a.m. worship service on May 23, 2004.] |
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