The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for March 5, 2006

Texts: Psalm 27/Luke 9:18-27

Title: “Sign up or Sign Out”

              “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”  Uttered without any sort of preamble that might have lessened the force of his words, the disciples of Jesus really didn’t know what to think.  Had they truly heard what they thought they had heard? Still off balance and barely absorbing Jesus’ words, there was more to come: “If any want to become my followers, let them take up their cross daily and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” 

              Though Jesus had left little ambiguity in his message for his disciples to ponder, the minute Jesus left them the twelve immediately began comparing notes.  James approached his brother Peter, “Peter, what do you think the Lord meant?” Though the other disciples deferred to him as “first among equals,” in this instance the special status he enjoyed with Jesus did not confer special insight.  Peter was as much in the dark as the others. 

              The disciples carefully parsed what Jesus said that they might find something, anything, that might blunt the impact of his words.  “Did Jesus really say…”  “What he might have meant was…”  “Well he might have said that, but he could very well change his mind.” “Let’s check back with him tomorrow.”

              We human beings can be very creative in closing ourselves off to what we would rather not see, and Jesus’ disciples were as creative as any.  Yet such defenses we erect against discomforting realities never stand for long.  Like one of our fragile levies, their weakness is ultimately exposed. 

              It may have taken a while but in time Jesus’ twelve disciples reached a consensus.  They could not deny the facts.  Discipleship now meant something quite different than it once had.  The life of this Jesus, whom they now accepted to be the messiah of God, was set on a course they would never have anticipated. Sure, they reasoned that a course correction might well occur at some point, anything was possible, but in time the disciples were worn down, and worn out, by speculation. Resignation having overtaken them, the disciples were at last willing to let Jesus’ words stand on there own.

              Twelve were selected, the basis of the selection for all intents and purposes very casual, so far as we know.  The twelve were not vetted for fitness through a battery of tests, psychological evaluations, or background checks.  There is no way of knowing if the selection process really involved more than Jesus’ simple invitation, “follow me.”

              To their credit the twelve accepted Jesus invitation to follow, and they did so, or so scripture tells us, quite freely without benefit of a contract spelling out terms or compensation.  Give the disciples their due, they left former lives behind on faith and set out with Jesus not knowing specifically what they might be called upon to do, unless Jesus’ statement to Peter and the brothers Zebedee, James and John, should be read as job description.  Approaching the three candidates for discipleship on the shores of  Lake Galilee, he told the three fishermen that they would no longer be catching fish, but instead would be “catching people.” I can’t imagine signing on for such a campaign without more specifics.  How about you?

              But what did the disciples sign up for?  We can only go with the little scripture tells us, and what that amounts to is something we would call evangelization. Jesus called the disciples to carry his message into the regions of Palestine, that is quite clear, but, as our lesson tells us, they were to do so without disclosing one piece of information that might have earned them an immediate hearing. They were not to breathe a word that Jesus was the messiah.

              The motivations of the twelve to join Jesus in his work likely varied from one man to the next, be assured that suffering was not the motivation that drew them to Jesus and kept them at his side.  No, the twelve did not sign up to suffer.

              You best believe that Jesus who traveled and lived with those men knew the score.  Furthermore, we might very well assume that even as he could foretell his arrest, execution and resurrection, he could foretell the betrayal he would suffer at the hands of the disciples he loved as brothers.  Bottom line, Jesus knew going in that any allegiance his disciples could offer him would be provisional, their level of commitment rising or falling with the particular obstacles they faced.

              Jesus was a realist. If provisional allegiance was the best he was likely to get he would have to go with provisional.  After all, he knew very well that he was asking a lot of those who would follow him.  Again, we have every reason to believe that Jesus knew that when the chips were down he could, as it in fact turned out, be standing alone. 

              If provisional is all you have, provisional is what you go with.  The disciples didn’t sign up to suffer and die.  Didn’t they reserve the right to say, “look, Jesus, we’re adult we know how far we are willing to go.”  Sure they did.  If the terms under which they agreed to travel with Jesus were suddenly converted into the radical “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” thing it came to be, can we then fault them for saying, “we didn’t sign up for this.”

              From the time Jesus called his first disciple to this very day the church has had to accept the fact that allegiance to its doctrines, its belief system, its Jesus, its God, is provisional.  Bottom line, you and I didn’t sign up to suffer.  Though some saintly souls have made a full faith commitment to the church and Jesus that torture and threat of death would not alter, the vast majority of the rest of us are not made of such sturdy stuff.  We read the conditions for discipleship but subscribe to no illusions.  We plan to keep our lives, and remain in good standing with Jesus too, conveniently discounting the parts of his message we find to be disagreeable.

              The disciples didn’t sign up to die for their faith. There is a lot about Christian discipleship that we didn’t sign up for, parts of that whole package we believe we can largely ignore without risk of diminishing our standing in the eyes of God. The consistent support of a particular ministry, a church, fits into that category. Likewise, there are certain practices of the church, certain decisions made in the church, that you didn’t sign up for. I could list a whole range of things that fit in that category, from ordination standards to the causes our national church supports.

              Closer to home, you folks from the Carrollton side of this church family, and you folks who call Lakeview Presbyterian home, have not signed up for the mess the storm dumped in our laps.  We might begin with the simple fact that our two congregations are gathered here, not as a result of a decision to merge, but as a matter of mutual convenience. 

              You Carrollton folk did not sign up for the inconvenience of hosting large numbers of visitors to your sanctuary, nor did you sign up for this ministry team who leads Sunday worship.  There are certainly things you valued around here that have been lost since Lakeview came down.

              Lakeview, you didn’t sign up for what you got when our worship space was lost to us. You didn’t sign up to see nearly half of our congregation move away never to return.  You didn’t sign up to see our church virtually barren of children. You didn’t sign up for the shambles the storm made of our Christian Education and other programs, or our choir, or our accustomed ways of observing Advent and the Christmas season. No, you didn’t sign up to worship in another church. You didn’t sign up to be a mission project for churches across the country. You didn’t sign up to watch this ministry disintegrate, nor did you sign up to rebuild a ministry from the remnants that have been left behind. No, Lakeview, you didn’t sign up for any of the frustration, inconvenience, or dislocation that the storm caused.  Lakeview, you know what you signed up for when you joined our church, and what that was is barely discernable today.   

              Lakeview and Carrollton, you didn’t sign up for any of the dislocation our congregations have experienced in the last several months.  I would expect that some of you are reevaluating your commitment to these two churches in their current states.  Many of you are impatient to claim what we had before the storm.  Some of you may be impatient because you see no tangible efforts being made to do what might be done to retrieve what we have lost.             

              None of us, including this minister, signed up for what we experienced with such profound impact at the end of August, nor have we signed up to ride this thing out to its final resolution.  You, Carrollton and Lakeview folks, signed up for something neither I nor Jean Marie or the session can deliver. We can’t justifiably expect that any of you who joined and were active in our ministries before the storm will remain more than provisionally committed to things as they are or likely will be for several months hence.  You didn’t sign up for any of this, and you are certainly free to sign out.     

              Some of you, particularly the younger folk of the church, may feel it is time to sign out.  There are other Presbyterian Churches, and churches of other denominations in this city, whose traditions and belief systems closely resemble ours, who felt the wrath of the storm far less severely than Lakeview.  If you feel it is time to move on, one of those churches might offer a good option.

              However, if you plan to stay you need to sign up for what we are rather than for what we have been.  What we are is what church authorities refer to as a redevelopment ministry, qualifying for that distinction because we have lost important ministry assets.  We have lost members, and with it the gifts those members could commit to our ministry in time, talent, and treasure.  But just as importantly our Lakeview church building is located in an area of the city that has essentially been depopulated, a community in name only whose former residents have needs and aspirations that are very different from those they had before the storm.

              I didn’t sign up for redevelopment ministry when I came to Lakeview nine and a half years ago, and you didn’t sign up for redevelopment ministry when you joined Lakeview Presbyterian Church, whenever that happened to be.  But, friends, redevelopment ministry is the only ministry we’ve got, it’s the only ministry Carrollton’s got. 

              I don’t want to alarm you, but redevelopment ministry is about as difficult a ministry that you will find.  Few redevelopment ministries really succeed, if you sign up to join the enterprise you need to know that going in.

             There is no guarantee that Lakeview’s or Carrollton’s ministry redevelopment efforts will succeed, but they are guaranteed not to succeed if we carry old attitudes and expectations into the redevelopment effort. To be blunt we were a stagnating ministry when the storm hit. We simply weren’t getting the job done. This pastor acknowledges my failure in leadership, leadership that failed to hold myself accountable, leadership that failed to hold the session, staff and other church leaders accountable to higher standards.  These failures may have been tolerable before August 29.  They are no longer tolerable. 

                 Lakeview, we are now in the survival mode and your leadership, pastors and session have never before been called upon to cultivate survival skills.  But I have signed up to find some.  I have signed up to give the very best effort I can to redevelop  Lakeview Presbyterian Church. If you sign up to stay with us, each one of you need to know that you are going to be held accountable.  There may be bonafide reasons to excuse an inadequate effort from time to time, but expect the list of bonafide reasons to be greatly compressed. Half an effort is not acceptable.

                 No master plan for redevelopment has been written adequate to the unprecedented challenges we face.  Be that as it me, be assured the Lord has a master plan.  You fit in that master plan whether you stay or whether you leave.  If you stay God may challenge you at a different level than if you leave.  The challenge of redevelopment will require a deeper commitment from all of us, and new strategies that have yet to be designed. Much work lies ahead of us.

                 Much lies ahead, but for today as a first step I will simply each of you to commit to pray for this ministry everyday, calling upon God to grant us direction, courage, and commitment to do the work he in his providence has assigned us.

               Lakeview and Carrollton, you didn’t sign up for the work the storm has left in its wake.  You have the option to sign out, take it if you need to, but if you remain do so with a commitment to do what God has equipped you to do in building back that portion of the kingdom he has assigned us.  We have witnessed devastation, let us witness to the power of God who can convert our church, and each of us, into vessels of hope and recovery.

   PRAYER

                Lord of life, holy is your name, and endless is your reign upon the earth.  Acknowledging your sovereignty, a sovereignty that extents over all things in heaven and on earth, we gather today in prayer and adoration for such is your will. Created to praise and honor you, we use the flawed mediums of words and song to express what you, O God, have placed on our hearts.  Accept what we bring, inadequate as it may be, as our thank offering to you, and may what we offer to you in word and song today be completed in action.

                Lord, many of us reserve prayer and worship for Sunday morning.  Too busy or too overwhelmed by other concerns throughout the week, we attempt to compress into one hour that which requires time and attention.  Even as we fail to make space for you, we live our lives in the space you created. From this narrow aperture through which we view the world we perceive so little of the reality in which we actually live. Help us attain greater breadth of understanding, and sufficient maturity to act on what we learn. 

              Sectarian divisions continue to breed hatred and violence around the world.  In Iraq civil war threatens to erupt as vengeful Shiites and Sunnis lash out in reprisal for the violence to which they have been subjected. In Israel, relations between Jews and Palestinians continue in their downward spiral, each side vigorously justifying their actions as lives and resources are destroyed.  The wealthy and privileged around the world struggle to maintain control of what they have, while the poor petition to be heard.  Waging war, nothing is resolved, nothing is left behind but a legacy of hatred to communicate to future generations. In your mercy, O God, cool our destructive passions lest we destroy the world in our folly.

              O God, grant us courage to accept reality for what it is and move forward.  We are repelled by the destruction so in evidence around us, and we know that only hard work will make it go away, yet the work ahead is daunting and our capacity to change anything quickly is limited. We didn’t sign up for this challenge, but we are not prepared to walk away from it either.  Help us to find strategies that will successfully address the challenges we face.  Be with the leadership team of the church, and all who are committed to the church’s future, as we take up the task ahead of us.

              Abide with those who continue to struggle with the practical issues that come with living in a city and region drastically changed from what it was. Anger, impatience, and frustration afflict us all, and we don’t know what to do with it accept to lash out or complain.  Help us to cope, O God, to accept what must be accepted, and to treat others as we ourselves would wish to be treated.

              Uphold all who experience loss this day.  Attend the mourning, the recently divorced, the lonely who feel isolated and forgotten.  In your grace bring relief to the overwrought and discouraged.  Grant courage and hope to the unemployed or underemployed as they attempt to establish themselves.  Be with those who are struggling in school that they may not succumb to defeatism.  Abide with the sick who feel cut off from life.  Embrace those, O God, who feel isolated from others as a result of physical or emotional impairment.

              The whole world is in your hands, O God, and we are in your hands.  Acknowledging your presence with us today, and sustained by your Holy Spirit, we pray the prayer our Savior Jesus taught us…