I have been wearing one of your varsity
jackets each Sunday during this varsity faith summer focus.
Today, I am wearing Kellen Murphy’s high school varsity jacket. Kellen went to
Centennial High School up in Columbus where he lettered in hockey and tennis.
So, Kellen has not only served tennis balls, he also serves Jesus through many different ways here in our church. Thank you, Kellen for all of the ways you serve.
Today, we focus on the importance of
lettering in living out the Spirit-filled life.
Many years ago, a young family invited
Penny and me to their house for dinner. It was just going to be a time to relax
and get to know each other a little better.
So we arrived at their house and Terry,
the husband, was shooting baskets in his driveway. And so I started shooting baskets with
him.
And after a few minutes of shooting some
baskets, Terry said, “How about a quick game
of horse.” So we played a game of
horse and he beat me. Terry was a pretty
good basketball player. He was about 6’
4” and very athletic.
After our game of horse, Terry says to me,
“Here, shoot around a while, because I
need to go into the house for a minute.
I’ll be right back.”
Terry goes into his house and I continue
to shoot some baskets. Five minutes goes
by and Terry isn’t back. Same thing after ten minutes. Still no Terry. I start wondering what’s
going on. Finally, about 15 minutes
later, Terry emerges from his garage. He
is now wearing gym shorts. He is also
wearing a head band, knee pads, and basketball shoes.
I look over at his wife and she starts
laughing because she knows how competitive her husband can be. And here I was, wearing casual shorts, a polo
shirt, and regular athletic shoes. Throwing the basketball into my chest, he
tells me, “Let’s go to twenty.”
So we start going at it, and that’s when I
realize how good Terry is. He’s blocking my shots. He’s stealing the ball from me. He’s getting just about every rebound.
Terry came out of his house ready to play.
I obviously was not ready or prepared to play.
I wonder if this is what Paul means when
he tells us to be filled with the Spirit.
Maybe we can learn something from Terry. We are to come ready to live
out our faith every single day. We are
to allow God’s Spirit to grab hold of us and strengthen us, and guide us as we
seek to be followers of Jesus Christ.
Paul tells us to sing psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your
hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul
is saying, if you want to be filled with the Spirit, come ready to play. Put on that head band and those knee pads and
allow the Holy Spirit to be at work in your life.
“Be
ready,” Paul says. Don’t rely on
your own strength.
If we want to have a varsity faith, we
need to letter in being filled with the Holy Spirit. We need to practice the
presence of God in our lives.
Baptism reminds us that the Holy Spirit is
always present in our lives. We may not always realize it at the time, but
God’s Spirit is always with us.
This was never made so clear to me than
the time that I was attending a conference event when I was still in
college. It was at a time in my life
when I knew that God had called me to totally change my career plans and
respond to God’s call to enter the pastoral ministry.
It was a scary time for me, because I had
a lot of self-doubts at that time, and I was struggling with this new calling
in my life.
And so, here I was at this large
conference meeting, and I just so happened to sit next to one of the former
pastors of my home church when I was born back in the early 60s. Rev. John
Wesley Stamm was his name.
I was his first baptism at that church. He
had served several other churches since that time, and now in God’s mysterious
way, here we were next to each other at this conference event. And when he found out that I was one of the
McDowell kids from a former church, his eyes lit up and he said to me, “I baptized you!”
Those three words had such an impact on me
that I have never forgotten them. “I baptized you!” he said. His words to me were a reminder that it’s
not about my abilities or strengths for ministry. It’s about what God through his Holy Spirit
can do in and through each one of us.
Rev.
John Wesley Stamm reminded me that God’s Spirit is present in each of our lives
even when we are only a few months old. I went away from that conference
thinking about his comment to me. “I
baptized you.” I felt a renewed confidence in responding to the calling to
enter the pastoral ministry.
Paul tells us to be filled with the
Spirit. That’s what my home pastor’s words helped me to do. They helped me to
realize the untapped potential that is inside each one of us.
Here I had been focusing on my doubts and
insecurities as I wrestled with God’s calling to enter the ministry, not realizing
that the Holy Spirit was already active and present in my life.
I have noticed it really doesn’t matter
how long we have been followers of Christ or how long we have been part of the
church, all of us have a tendency to forget that God’s Spirit is present in our
lives. But when we do remember, it’s the greatest thing.
This reminds me of the story of the man
who was at a revival service. This man was out in the congregation and he
shouted out for everyone to hear, “Lord,
fill me with your Spirit! Lord, fill me!”
A couple of minutes later, this man stood
up again and shouted, “Lord, fill me with
your Holy Spirit! Fill me!” He did this several more times during the
service. “Lord, fill me with your Spirit!
Fill me!”
Finally, another man had heard
enough, and he stood up and said, “Don’t
do it Lord. He leaks!”
Well, truth be told, we all leak, don’t
we? We are all leaky Christians. That’s why Paul is reminding us that if we
want to have a growing and vital faith, a varsity level kind of faith, we need
to remember to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Remember, that it’s not about our
abilities or strengths. It’s about God’s empowering and indwelling Holy Spirit
that has always been there. We just forget about this from time to time.
Laurence Hull Stookey says that we all
suffer from what he calls, “spiritual amnesia.” We forget that God is present
in our lives in any given moment and situation through the power of the Holy
Spirit.
Several years ago, I was asked to preach
at a church where a friend of mine was serving. She had always wanted me to
preach at her church, and it just so happened that the best date for me to preach
there was on Baptism of the Lord Sunday, which always falls in the beginning of
January.
As I prepared for that Sunday, I felt led
to offer a baptism renewal where I would invite the people in the church to
come forward and I would place water on each person’s forehead and say the
words, “Remember your baptism and be
thankful.”
As that Sunday approached, I remember
feeling anxious about leading this baptism renewal as a guest preacher.
I mean, this congregation didn’t know me
and I didn’t know if anybody would respond and come forward for the renewal. I
was beginning to second guess myself.
The Sunday finally came and I preached a stirring sermon about
baptism and the Holy Spirit. I ended the sermon by offering an invitation for
people to come forward for this baptism renewal.
As I was giving the instructions, I
noticed this great big burly guy in the back pew. He looked kind of
intimidating and his arms were crossed. I thought to myself, “This ought to be interesting.”
I then picked up a bowl of
warm water that I had prepared ahead of time and took my place there in the
middle of the front of the sanctuary. I said to the congregation, “Come forward as you feel led and remember
your baptism.”
Inside I was praying, “Lord, please have at least a couple of
people come forward, even one person, Lord.” Yes, these are the things
pastors think about at such times, just in case you were wondering. Sometimes,
we leak!
To my delight, several people got out of
their pews and began coming forward. I was very surprised. As each person came
to me, I said, “Remember your baptism and
be thankful.” “Remember your baptism and be thankful.”
I glanced to the back of the sanctuary and
didn’t see that big burly man in the back pew. Did he leave? Where did he go?
Did I scare him off?
The people continued to come forward. “Remember your baptism and be thankful.”
“Remember your baptism and be thankful.”
The people of that church were
really responding. It was so moving to see so many people come forward. Some
even knelt at the chancel rail to pray before returning to their pew.
But God saved the best for last. Lo and
behold, that big tough guy brought up the end of the line. I was shocked! “Ye of little faith,” I thought to
myself.
The last person in the line, this giant of
a man with huge arms and an incredibly thick neck, was one of the last persons
to come forward. I dipped my fingers in the bowl of water and reached up to put
the sign of the cross on his forehead.
That’s when I noticed that tears were
streaming down his face, obviously moved by that holy moment. I said the words,
“Remember your baptism and be thankful.”
And this giant teddy bear of a man said back to me while choking back the
tears, “God bless you, Pastor.”
I
can’t totally explain why people, even tough looking guys are that moved by
this simple reminder that God’s spirit is present in our lives, but I’ve
experienced this time and time again. Whenever we are reminded that we are not
alone and that God is with us, it makes all the difference in the world.
We are reminded that God has claimed us
and knows us by name. The fears, the insecurities, and the doubts fade away. We
realize that we have everything we need. God’s spirit dwells within us.
I’m sure there are a many people who could
use a little reminder that the Holy Spirit is with them, especially as a new
year of school is about to begin. It’s a time of preparing for new classes,
meeting new teachers and professors, and making new friends.
The
Apostle Paul is reminding us in our scripture reading this morning, that we
will not be alone as we face these changes in life. The Holy Spirit will be with
those students as they walk into the lecture hall on their first day of class,
as teachers prepare those lesson plans, as a little girl gets on the school bus
for the first time, and as the new pastor is still trying to get adjusted in a
new setting.
The Holy Spirit is already present in each
of our lives, guiding and directing us. We just need to remind each other of
this good news of our faith.
An elderly church member from my previous
church told me how difficult it’s been since her husband’s death several years
ago. She said that when he passed away, she felt all alone. Everything changed
when he died.
She said that her husband would always
drive them places, but now she was in the driver’s seat. She said that since
his death, when she gets in the car to go somewhere and puts her hands on the
steering wheel, she has a little conversation with God. She prays, “Well, Lord, it’s just you and me now. I
know you are with me. Guide and direct me in all that I do.”
Isn’t that incredible? It was her way of
reminding herself that she wasn’t alone. The Holy Spirit has been guiding her every
step of the way even in the driver's seat, literally, the driver's seat.
This is what the Apostle Paul is telling
us to do if we want to have a varsity level kind of faith. Be filled with the
Spirit. Remember that you are never alone. God is right there guiding,
directing, and empowering us to live out our faith.
I was reading an article this past spring
about what helps churches to grow. One of the top reasons why a church grows is
because there is a lot of excitement within the congregation about what God is
about to do next. And this excitement is because the people are open to how the
Holy Spirit is at work in and through the church.
What if we have the same openness to the
Holy Spirit as the elderly woman who I just shared with you? What if every time
we enter these church doors, we would adapt her prayer ever so slightly and
say,
“Lord,
I know you are with us. Guide and direct us in all that we do. Help us to be a
Spirit-filled church.”
You’ll find this little Holy
Spirit prayer in your bulletin this morning. I invite us to pray this prayer
together.
Let us pray: “Lord, I know you are with us. Guide and direct us in all that we do.
Help us to be a Spirit-filled church. Amen”
Today is a special Sunday. Later in our
worship service, I am going to invite you to come forward for a baptism
renewal. If you haven’t been baptized, that’s OK, you’re still invited come forward
and know that the Holy Spirit is present in your life in every situation you
face.
This is not going to be a typical baptism
renewal service. Usually, I would place a little water on each person’s
forehead in the form of the cross, but since we will be blessing five hundred
water bottles which will be given away to college students this Saturday, I’m
going to invite you to come forward to receive a bottle of water so you can
take back with you to your seat.
When you come forward, I will hand you a
bottle of water and say to you, “Remember your baptism, and be thankful.”
Today’s baptism renewal service reminds us that we are a Spirit filled people who
are seeking to be a blessing to our community by giving out these water bottles
to college students.
After everyone comes forward to receive a
water bottle and return to their seat, we will all have an opportunity to bless
these bottles together. You will notice that the bottles have labels on them
that include a welcome message, our church name, and our worship times.
This Saturday, from 11 in the morning
until 5 in the afternoon, volunteers in our church will be handing out these
water bottles to students and folks walking by our church building. We want our
community to know that the Spirit is alive and well here at First United
Methodist Church!
I can tell that the Holy Spirit is alive in
this church because I can sense an excitement and openness to new ways to share
God’s love right here in this university setting. The Holy Spirit is in this
place!
As we have being going through Paul’s letter
to the Ephesians, we have been discovering what it means to have a growing and
varsity level type of faith. Paul says we need to letter in worship, Christian
unity, growth, spiritual gifts, kindness, and a Spirit-Filled life.
Next Sunday, we’ll focus on one more
letter for a varsity faith, prayer.
