Belonging - as a United Methodist
I am starting a series on the distinctives of United Methodism, and this is the introductory sermon.
You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor.
And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. As the Scriptures say,
When I was in 8th grade, my class was given an assignment – to write letters to ourselves, letters which would be mailed shortly before high school graduation. I mostly wrote about sports, about skateboarding, and about my friends, and then I promptly forgot about the letter for the next four years. Then in May of 1990, a month before graduation, I received in the mail a curious looking envelope. I recognized the handwriting, but from where? When I opened it, I was surprised to get a letter from myself.
As we all got those letters, we started sharing them with one another. One thing we all seemed to have in common was that we wrote down who our friends were. Now, my high school, like many, was full of cliques, but one thing that I found interesting was that everyone seemed to have included me as a part of their group of friends. It was nice to belong!
I know people who have turned to the internet for belonging. Social networking sites are the most recent craze. If you aren’t internet savvy, social networking sites go by names like MySpace and Facebook, and they are a way to keep in touch with people you know or to meet new people. One feature of these sites is the ability to name people as your "friends." You can generally tell how old someone is on Facebook or MySpace by how many "friends" they have – the younger the person, the more friends they have. You can put anyone on your list of friends, and it’s not uncommon to see pages with listsl of hundreds, even thousands of so-called friends..
Belonging seems to be one of our top needs. Whether it is belonging to a group of friends, to a sports team, to an organization, or to a church, it’s important to us to belong.
In the Bible there are all sorts of scriptures relating to belonging. In John 8:31, Jesus said, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples." In John 15:19, Jesus tells his disciples that "I have chosen you out of the world." In Romans 1:6, Paul writes to Gentile believers, who he refers to as those "who are called to belong to Jesus Christ." But when we get to 1 Peter 2, we read that we are "a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession."
This is our identity as Christians. But why are we United Methodists? Over the next several weeks, we will be examining some of what makes the United Methodist Church unique.
We could spend weeks just looking at the Book of Discipline and the Book of Worship – not the most riveting of subjects. But although our rules and liturgies are contained in those books, that’s not our soul. From its inception, Methodism was always a practical movement – concerned primarily with salvation.
This is why, when someone joins the United Methodist Church, we have a full page of belief statements concerning our Christian beliefs, but the practical questions come when we pledge to join the local congregation. We vow that we will faithfully participate in the ministries of the church by our prayers, presence, gifts, and services. Meaning that we will pray for one another and the church as a whole, we will show up for services, we will give our tithes and offerings, and we will serve in areas of our giftedness.
Did you know that the term "Methodist" wasn’t meant to be a kind term? When John and Charles Wesley and several of their friends began their "Holy Club," their goal was (obviously) holiness. They did everything they could to promote holiness – both personal and corporate. They realized that if they had a specific plan and worked steadily on it, that they would have a better chance of reaching their goal.
In today’s scripture, we read Peter’s comments about our identity: you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
"Once you had no identity as a people;now you are God’s people.Once you received no mercy;now you have received God’s mercy."
This is our belonging – as God’s chosen people, as royal priests, as a holy nation, as God’s own possession. Did you note why God chose us? So we can show others God’s goodness. This is a big part of what United Methodism is all about.
You see, there are two sides of holiness, and, just as you cannot separate a coin from its two sides, neither can you do so with holiness. One side of holiness is personal holiness; the other side is social holiness.
We have that identity: we know who we are. That identity, however, comes with a warning as well.
Dear friends, I warn you as "temporary residents and foreigners" to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.
The early Methodists rose up within the Church of England because the Church of England represented dead religion. It encouraged neither personal nor social holiness. A true, living relationship with Jesus Christ encourages, even demands both. We, as United Methodists, as Christians, are called to live this life as temporary residents of this earth, not as lifetime members of a church or a town.
Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors, which will give honor and glory to God.
You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor.
And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. As the Scriptures say,
I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem,chosen for great honor,and anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.Yes, you who trust him recognize the honor God has given him. But for those who reject him,
The stone that the builders rejectedhas now become the cornerstone.And,
He is the stone that makes people stumble,the rock that makes them fall.
They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.
But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
Once you had no identity as a people;now you are God’s people.Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.
Dear friends, I warn you as "temporary residents and foreigners" to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.
1 Peter 2:4-12
When I was in 8th grade, my class was given an assignment – to write letters to ourselves, letters which would be mailed shortly before high school graduation. I mostly wrote about sports, about skateboarding, and about my friends, and then I promptly forgot about the letter for the next four years. Then in May of 1990, a month before graduation, I received in the mail a curious looking envelope. I recognized the handwriting, but from where? When I opened it, I was surprised to get a letter from myself.
As we all got those letters, we started sharing them with one another. One thing we all seemed to have in common was that we wrote down who our friends were. Now, my high school, like many, was full of cliques, but one thing that I found interesting was that everyone seemed to have included me as a part of their group of friends. It was nice to belong!
I know people who have turned to the internet for belonging. Social networking sites are the most recent craze. If you aren’t internet savvy, social networking sites go by names like MySpace and Facebook, and they are a way to keep in touch with people you know or to meet new people. One feature of these sites is the ability to name people as your "friends." You can generally tell how old someone is on Facebook or MySpace by how many "friends" they have – the younger the person, the more friends they have. You can put anyone on your list of friends, and it’s not uncommon to see pages with listsl of hundreds, even thousands of so-called friends..
Belonging seems to be one of our top needs. Whether it is belonging to a group of friends, to a sports team, to an organization, or to a church, it’s important to us to belong.
In the Bible there are all sorts of scriptures relating to belonging. In John 8:31, Jesus said, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples." In John 15:19, Jesus tells his disciples that "I have chosen you out of the world." In Romans 1:6, Paul writes to Gentile believers, who he refers to as those "who are called to belong to Jesus Christ." But when we get to 1 Peter 2, we read that we are "a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession."
This is our identity as Christians. But why are we United Methodists? Over the next several weeks, we will be examining some of what makes the United Methodist Church unique.
We could spend weeks just looking at the Book of Discipline and the Book of Worship – not the most riveting of subjects. But although our rules and liturgies are contained in those books, that’s not our soul. From its inception, Methodism was always a practical movement – concerned primarily with salvation.
This is why, when someone joins the United Methodist Church, we have a full page of belief statements concerning our Christian beliefs, but the practical questions come when we pledge to join the local congregation. We vow that we will faithfully participate in the ministries of the church by our prayers, presence, gifts, and services. Meaning that we will pray for one another and the church as a whole, we will show up for services, we will give our tithes and offerings, and we will serve in areas of our giftedness.
Did you know that the term "Methodist" wasn’t meant to be a kind term? When John and Charles Wesley and several of their friends began their "Holy Club," their goal was (obviously) holiness. They did everything they could to promote holiness – both personal and corporate. They realized that if they had a specific plan and worked steadily on it, that they would have a better chance of reaching their goal.
In today’s scripture, we read Peter’s comments about our identity: you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
"Once you had no identity as a people;now you are God’s people.Once you received no mercy;now you have received God’s mercy."
This is our belonging – as God’s chosen people, as royal priests, as a holy nation, as God’s own possession. Did you note why God chose us? So we can show others God’s goodness. This is a big part of what United Methodism is all about.
You see, there are two sides of holiness, and, just as you cannot separate a coin from its two sides, neither can you do so with holiness. One side of holiness is personal holiness; the other side is social holiness.
We have that identity: we know who we are. That identity, however, comes with a warning as well.
Dear friends, I warn you as "temporary residents and foreigners" to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.
The early Methodists rose up within the Church of England because the Church of England represented dead religion. It encouraged neither personal nor social holiness. A true, living relationship with Jesus Christ encourages, even demands both. We, as United Methodists, as Christians, are called to live this life as temporary residents of this earth, not as lifetime members of a church or a town.
Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors, which will give honor and glory to God.
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