May 20, 2012 (Heritage Sunday)
Note: Heritage Sunday (May 24 or the Sunday preceding) is a Special Sunday celebrated by
United Methodist congregations to reflect on our heritage, to celebrate the church's history, and
look forward to the future. (The Book of Discipline)
Preface to the Word
I don’t know if this church has ever focused on Heritage Sunday, but we’re going to today!
Anyone out there a lover of history? I love history and personally find the stories of the old
circuit riders and Methodist missionaries absolutely remarkable. They seemed so focus on their
purpose, so passionate about their cause. In the early days, these “people of the assurance” (as
they were called) set out to accomplish nothing less than “spreading scriptural holiness and
reforming the nation.”
I can think of no better biblical text for today than the one found in the eleventh chapter of
Hebrews. The whole chapter recounts the epic of faith as captured in the stories of Abel and
Enoch and Noah. The author made a special effort to review the story of Abraham’s faith and
wrote quite a tribute to the faith of Moses and other faithful heroes of Israel. The climax of the
chapter hangs on the faithfulness of Jesus. It’s a rather lengthy chapter, so we won’t read all of
it. But I’m sure you’ll get the point the author is trying to make.
We’re not sure who the author was. It’s attributed to the Apostle Paul, but even those who first
included Hebrews in the New Testament recognized that its language and style were different
than Paul’s other letters. Clement, an early Church Father, thought that Paul wrote the letter in
Hebrew and Luke translated it into Greek, although it’s pretty clear that it was originally written
in Greek. Origen, another church patriarch, believed it was written by one of Paul’s disciples.
Most scholars now agree that this was not a letter that Paul wrote and that it’s not even a letter,
but a treatise or a discourse written by an unknown author. It was written to encourage Jewish
Christians who had undergone some very trying times and were beginning to waver in their faith.
Let’s listen now to portions of Hebrews, chapter 11, otherwise known as “The Faith Chapter.”
Scripture: Hebrews 11: 1-10, 32-38; 12:1-2
Sermon: A Season of Special Sundays… #4: Heritage Sunday
I.
A. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside
every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that
is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of
the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his
seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”
B. Isn’t this what has kept Methodists going all these years? The point of heritage celebrations,
it seems to me, is not to keep us looking backwards, but to inspire us to keep moving
forward. There is a race set before us, a race for the very life and soul of individuals and
communities and creation around us. Our ancestors have done their part and passed the
baton onto us. Their prayers are being answered in our lives. And together with their eyes,
our eyes are set upon the “pioneer and perfecter” of faith.
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C. I can’t help but think of an old video that I used to show at new member orientations. It has
been around since our denomination’s bicentennial in 1984 and is called “From the Word
Go.” Have you seen it? It’s narrated by the now deceased Alex Haley of “Roots” fame.
Haley tells a humorous story from the early frontier days of Methodism. One day, an early
settler was unloading his wagon after having arrived at his new homestead in Mississippi,
when up rode this Methodist circuit rider.
“Another Methodist preacher,” exclaimed the pioneer. “I left Virginia to get away from the
likes of you. And now here you are before I even get my wagon unloaded.”
To which the undaunted circuit rider replied, “My friend, if you go to heaven you’ll find
Methodist preachers there. If you go to hell, I’m afraid you’ll find Methodist preachers there.
And you see how it is here on earth. You might as well make terms with us and be at peace!”
And then Haley says something that haunts me. He says, after a slight chuckle, “Seems like
nothing, once they get going, can stop those Methodists...”
D. But the truth is, there are those today who have aren’t so sure about that. Back in his day,
John Wesley was absolutely convinced that God had raised-up the people called Methodists
for a purpose, that God had a job for us to do. He never worried that as a church we would
disappear from the earth. He did worry, however, that as a spiritual movement we might lose
our power and passion. Clear back in 1786 in his “Thoughts Upon Methodism,” Wesley
wrote:
“I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe
or America. But I am afraid, lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of
religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case, unless they hold fast both
the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.”
E. Maybe there is something that can stop us Methodists... letting go, or forgetting, or no longer
caring about the convictions, spirit and discipline that ignited this movement from the start. I
know… people have mourned and moaned about the Methodist malaise for the last thirty
years. I’ve been one of them. But I’ve decided it’s time to stop mourning and moaning, and
its time to run with perseverance the race set before us...
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with the solid faith of our ancestors,
with our eyes firmly fixed on the pioneer and perfecter of our faith,
with our very hearts beating with God’s love for the world in which we live, move
and have our being.
II.
A. Brothers and Sisters, God is just not done with us yet. As a people of faith with a unique
heritage, we have been entrusted with a story, gifted with a spirit, and summoned to service.
First, you and I have been entrusted with a story.
B. Today of all days we want to remember our story. Looking back reminds us of who we are
and why we’re here. Our roots are sunk into the fertile soil of this history that nourishes us
still today. That’s what the writer of Hebrews discovered. There is inspiration in the story,
this story of faith that is woven into the story of humankind. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham,
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Moses all did their part. Their particular faithfulness contributed to the grand story of faith,
keeping it alive, fresh and relevant.
C. Our ancestors, defined both by family and faith, have written some of those chapters with
their lives. John Wesley’s story is central to ours still today – a heart strangely warmed, a
vision caught, a driving passion to share God’s good news even if it meant disobeying the
ecclesiastical authorities and going into the fields to preach it. His story was of God’s grace
that moved from his head to his heart, of faith not just thought but actually experienced, of
salvation personally and powerfully known. It’s a story of pulling people together to work
out their salvation together, of organizing a methodical spiritual organism that gospeled
people from the richest to the poorest, from the most powerful to the outcast. It’s a story of
making life better, always striving for improvement, whether as steward, parent, citizen,
church member, or human being.
D. Ours is a story of hope and grace that caught like wildfire. Evils were assaulted, injustice
was confronted – liquor, slavery, luxury, poverty, slothfulness – all fell under the spotlight of
God’s judgment and Christ’s grace.
E. But most importantly of all, in this story people were not simply labeled sinners then written
off. They were loved as human beings and saved by the good news of sheer grace. For
Methodists, there was no hesitation here, no embarrassment about the calling, no hiding from
who we were. There was a race to be run with perseverance, souls to save, systems to
redeem, holiness to spread, nations to reform.
F. That’s why the story includes four Native Americans: Flatheads that traveled cross-country
from the Western wilderness, appearing in St. Louis in the early 1800’s searching for the
“Book of Heaven.” They created quite a stir, and the first to respond to them were the
Methodists who sent Jason Lee and a small group of Methodist missionaries to the
Willamette Valley. The story has almost become legend, hard to separate fact from fiction.
And our twenty-first century sensibilities are often troubled by the notion of white folk
setting off to save the red heathen. There is plenty in the years that followed that demand an
apology from European Americans, as well as repentance. But let us not totally overlook the
genuine passion to share a gospel of grace, and the sure trust that these misunderstood
people, considered hopeless savages by many, were seen by the Methodist missionaries as
human beings loved by God. And let us pause for a moment to consider the significant
sacrifice of those who blazed the trail to Oregon, saying goodbye to homeland and country,
and setting off as the servants Jesus Christ to a country wild and unknown.
G. The story continued to unfold with James H. Wilbur appointed to the sparse population of
Umpqua Mission which was organized in 1852 and included what is now Douglas, Jackson,
Josephine, Coos and Curry Counties. There were six Methodist clergy assigned to this vast
area. As Ray Sims points out in his book, Methodist Spirit Lives:
“Circuits for preacher seem to have been created by appointing a man to a very indefinite
territory with the understanding that he would visit the people from place to place and house
to house, or cabin to cabin, and preach where he could get a handful of people together, and
then go on a few miles to another place where he could find lodging and a handful of people.
He was to continue until he had covered as much territory as possible in a month or six
weeks, perhaps, telling people at each place that he would be back at a certain time to
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preach again. The primitive conditions endured would undoubtedly seem discouraging to
any group of ministers in any age. The amazing thing is not that a few were unable to stand
the strain, but that so many were!”
H. Haven’t Methodists of years gone by been those people willing to enter unfamiliar terrain for
the sake of gospel?
I. So now I’m wondering... Were they fools? Was it all for nothing? Is the story over? Is it no
longer meaningful or redemptive in our day? It occurs to me that our spiritual ancestors put
their faith not only in Christ and the Gospel, but also in us. It is our turn to contribute to the
story, to write the epic of faith with the sweat of our efforts, the passion of our hearts, and the
assurance of our souls. The story has been entrusted to you and me, my friends.
III.
Besides that, we’ve been gifted with the Spirit!
A. Isn’t it fascinating that over two hundred years ago Wesley expressed his concern that
Methodism would have the form of religion without the power? It’s almost as if he was
worried that the Methodist movement would slowly mutate into the institutional church he
was trying to revive. It happens when we try to run the race without looking to Jesus. If we
try to run the race set before us without focusing on the pioneer and perfecter of faith, we’re
going to get hung up on things that don’t really matter that much – like rearranging church
structures, developing programs that serve nobody but ourselves, obsessing over buildings,
meeting budgets. Living in the Spirit gives us a different set of priorities and a different
point of view. We see that it’s not about us at all, but about us helping bring to life the Spirit
that God has planted in every human being.
B. This truth just begs for our attention. Are we paying attention?
a. I’m talking here about the gospel of Jesus as Methodists have known it. That gospel
starts with honesty. We all fall short of the glory of God. Human nature, by nature, is
self-focused and self-serving. For Wesley and his people, this whole notion of salvation
makes no sense without the assumption that human beings are in fundamental need of
salvation. Are we paying attention?
b. But the gospel as we know it does not write off human beings as hopeless and helpless.
Wesley took the approach of grace. The God he clung to, the God we worship, is a God
of love who wants to be in relationship with all of us. In each human soul, implanted by
God to work against our human nature, is the Holy Spirit. That Spirit is given to
everyone - not just good people, not just religious people, but everyone. That Spirit is
God, working in us and on us to draw us closer to the divine, to conquer our impulse to
selfishness, to connect us to Christ with a faith that has “assurance of things hoped for
and the conviction of things unseen.”
c. But according to the gospel as we have known it, we human beings must be awakened to
the Spirit before we can be delivered from ourselves and transformed into love. That was
the greatest ambition of the Methodists. That was the hope that pushed them on: Human
beings, all of creation, awakened and renewed by the gift of salvation lovingly offered by
God through Christ. In the dawning of this awareness new Christians are born, disciples
are called, apostles are sent, and we run with perseverance the race set before us.
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C. Freed through repentance, birthed from above, Methodists made themselves available to the
Spirit by practicing the “means of grace” – Bible study, prayer, fasting, worship, Christian
conferencing and service. These “means” were not used as the way for us to get to God, but
the means by which God got to us, and grabbed us, and filled us! Grace by grace, day by
day, we hold onto the hope of the Holy Spirit taking over our hearts and defining us. We
believe that the very power of God’s grace enables us to love as truly as God loves, to love as
fully as God loves, to love as perfectly as God loves. Methodists call this “Christian
perfection” – it gets not better than this: God shaped love in a Christ formed heart. It’s
possible, the Methodists insist. It’s the race we run with perseverance.
D. We are gifted with the Spirit, my friends and my greatest prayer is that the Spirit will reclaim
us, for without it we are truly a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. If
our churches are going to concentrate on anything, let it be this first. We need to get replugged into the power source.
IV.
We people called Methodists have been entrusted with the story, gifted with the Spirit.
One more thing: We have been summoned to serve.
A. How do we keep from becoming a dead sect, of having the form of religion without the
power? We serve. We do what we do best. We put the love of God into action. We move
out with the pulse of the Spirit. We run the race, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter
of faith.
B. This is what we Methodists are trying to relearn today. I’m convinced we will rediscover
this powerful truth once again... we are at our best when we are serving.
C. I often like to quote the church consultant, Kennon Callahan, because I believe he’s worth
paying attention to as he rattles the church from its insomnia and wakes us up to our mission.
Listen to this:
“The day of the local church is over. The day of the mission outpost has come… I do not
mean to suggest, obviously, that there will no longer be local churches... we will discover a
hundred years hence that there are many, many local churches continuing in existence...
“What I am suggesting is that the way in which local churches have done business,
conducted leadership, and developed administration is no longer functional for our time...
As a way of illustrating this, think of yourself right now as [part] of a mission outpost.
Imagine you are in mission work somewhere – in southern China, central India, northern
Africa or somewhere in Central or South America. Consider the radically different setting in
which you find yourself. Consider how many of the practices and principles that used to
work in local churches during the 1940s and 1950s in the United States would not work on
that foreign mission field.
“Recall your earlier longings and yearnings to be a missionary somewhere on our planet.
Relive the spirit of affinity and kinship you once felt with the missionaries who have gone out
to strange, new places.
Now see your present community as your mission field. Do well here the same mission work
you would do somewhere else on the planet.... Mission outposts may be of any size – small,
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medium, or large. What counts is not their size but their spirit. The spirit of a mission
outpost is one of mission, whereas the spirit of a churched-culture local church is one of
maintenance...
“I am convinced, (Callahan continues), the church is at its best on a mission field. Do not
long for the return of a churched culture. The peace and tranquility, the pleasant programs
and endless committee meetings of a churched-culture church is not where the church is at
its best...
“On a mission field the church is lean and strong and focused, has courage and vision. In a
churched culture, the church becomes lazy and weak, timid and cautious, bloated and
bureaucratic. The understanding of the nature of leadership is reduced to the principle of
coordination. And coordination becomes the front – the code word – for caution.
“On a mission field the church is at its blazing best. God has blessed us greatly by planting
us on a mission field.”
V.
A. I can’t help but imagine a group of worshippers gathered here in 2112. Will they remember
the story; the story entrusted to us? Will the Spirit be strong in them, producing the fruit of
love, happiness, and hope, or will the power be lost, smothered by institutional concerns and
survival? And what about the mission? Did we finally figure it out or were we unable to
adapt, unwilling to let go of our old familiar ways?
B. The answers are here in this place, right now, in you and me. Only you and I know the
answers to these questions.
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I pray to God that as United Methodists today, we will run with perseverance the race
set before us, always looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
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I pray to God that Wesley’s worse fears about his movement will not come to pass in
us and in our congregation; that we will exist only as a dead sect, having the form of
religion without the power.
C. It could happen unless we * hold fast the story, * live in the Spirit, and * take to heart our
summons to serve as we did when we first set out. It’s time to be who we are. Brothers and
sisters in Christ, there’s a race to be run.
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