2014 11 16 All Together – Today & Tomorrow, The Body of Christ from John Knox Kirk on Vimeo.
A sermon preached at John Knox Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on November 16, 2014.
Genesis 1:27-31
and 1 Corinthians 12:4-27
(Click above link for the Scripture texts upon which this sermon is based)
Editorial note: I’m working on correcting spacing issues. Thank you for your patience in the meantime.
Sometimes the stories I come across make me pause for a minute.
Take, for instance, this story from Tony Campolo I read this week:
Tony tells about the time when his son, Bart, was nine years old,
and Tony took Bart to Disneyland in California.
“Nowadays, there’s a huge general admission…” Tony explains…
“But back in the old days
you bought tickets for the rides you wanted to enjoy.
At the end of the day, as we were leaving,
little Bart turned to me and said,
“I want one more ride on Space Mountain!”
I told him we were out of tickets, you see,
and out of time too…
Bart responded, “But, but, Jesus wants me to go!”
Intrigued by his theological claim to be able to read the mind of God,
I asked where he got such an idea.
He responded, “From you!
Sunday, when you were preaching, you said that whenever we cry,
Jesus cries.
You said that He feels everything we feel.
Well, if that’s true,
then when I’m having a really happy time on the roller coaster,
He’s really enjoying Himself too!
So I KNOW He wants me to have one more ride on space mountain…!”
///
I know you might get a chuckle out of that, but it is a big CAUTION sign to me,
reading that this week,
particularly as my kids start getting older, wiser,
more nuanced with their arguments with their mommy and their daddy.
I’ll have to be more careful in what I say.
Compolo, however, seems to think that this is good theology:
“I am convinced…” he says, pondering this a little bit….
“…that God so empathizes with us
that our emotions are experienced by Him.
One of the reasons God sent His Son into the world was because,
in feeling the pain and sorrow of our lives so acutely,
[God] wanted us to be relieved of them,
so that [God] could be relieved of them…
No wonder Jesus said, “I have come that my Joy might be in you,
and that your Joy might be full…”
“And by the way,” he concludes,
“Bart did get another ride on Space Mountain…”[i]
///
I marvel at the God who is at the heart of our faith:
this gift giving
love seeking
heart opening God.
This God who challenges and nurtures and creates and heals.
That God. The God of rollercoasters and of incarnation.
Sure, this is Pledge Dedication Sunday, or Community Celebration Day
if you want another way to think about it,
the day we wrap up our specific focus on Stewardship
and begin to get our heads around Thanksgiving
and even Advent.
But if there’s anything that I hope you’ve heard during this stewardship season
its that stewardship isn’t a season specific thing.
Stewardship isn’t about money. Not Really.
Financial gifts are important, sure, essential even,
if we’re going to have a place to call church and some funds to work with
But Stewardship isn’t ABOUT that.
This isn’t a NPR pitch week where we’re seeking matching grants.
The church isn’t a good cause that seeks a few dollars of support
and then invites you to go on your merry way.
Stewardship is all about our relationship with God.
That God: the gift giving, love seeking, heart opening God.
The God who loves you. You.
The God who created you with the image of God inside of you,
who filled you with the very breath of God, the ruach of God
and set you free to care for all things God created.
Lest we get hung up with the reading from Genesis
with its language of dominion over and subdue
just a few short words later,
God clarifies that: the earth creature is to till the creation
to keep it, to tend and to care.
And it is from THAT language, keeping and tending all that God has created
the world God has blessed us with
that we get our idea of stewardship.
Stewardship: all about our relationship with God.
[Read more…]
