Calvary United Methodist Church May 10, 2015

STRINGS ATTACHED Rev. Dr. S. Ronald Parks

Children’s Sermon: Romans 2:12-16 & James 2:15-16

Welcome! Good morning! Nicely done, choir! Good job! Good morning! How’s everybody?

Happy Mother’s Day!

There is some misunderstanding about saying “Mother’s Day”. When somebody says “Happy Mother’s Day” and it happened to be a male, about saying “Happy Mother’s Day” back. Hey, men celebrate today, also. There is just nothing special about us today. This is Mother’s Day!

Speaking of special days, I had a chance to go for a run on the beach with Fender not too long ago.

He came across something that made him stop dead in his tracks. It actually looks just like this:

Do you know what this is? It is a starfish. Now, what do you think Fender wanted to do with this? (Chew on it) Chew on it! That’s ex- actly what he wanted to do. He wanted to pick it up and shake it be- cause that’s what he does with everything that he runs into along the beach. But, it was still alive and I knew that because when I put it in my hand it kind of folded over my hand.

Now, this starfish is not alive and as you can tell, it is pretty brittle and if I were to try to bend it, it would snap. So, I stood there with my live starfish in my hand and I thought to myself, what should I do? What do you think I should do? Go ahead. (Throw it in the ocean) Throw it back into the ocean?

Well, as a matter of fact, that reminded me of a story I read some time ago called “The Star Thrower” about a boy who found some starfish by the side of the shore.

There was an older man who was walking along the beach one morn- ing and up ahead in the distance he could see this little figure doing what he thought was dancing,

so he got closer and closer and he decided to sit off some distance from the figure and he recognized in the motion of this person that they were not dancing at all.

They were actually throwing something.

So he went up next to them to see what it was that they were doing and he looked down and happened to notice that as far as the eye could see, there were starfish, hundreds and thousands of starfish. And the man said to the boy who was throwing them back into the ocean, “Young man, why are you wasting your time? Let’s face it; there are hundreds and thousands of starfish on this beach. What are you hop- ing to accomplish?”

And the boy said “Well, look, this one that I’m holding in my hand is still alive. The tide has washed out and if somebody doesn’t do some- thing, this starfish which is alive now is not going to be alive for much longer.”

So, he threw it into the ocean. And the man said, “But, young man, seriously. There are thousands of miles of beaches all around the world and this has been going on since the beginning of time. Why are you wasting your time picking up a starfish and throwing it back into the water? What possible difference could you make?”

The boy walked over to the nearest starfish and picked it up and he threw it as hard as he could into the ocean. And he turned to the old man and said politely, “Sir, I can’t make a difference to everyone, but I just made a big difference to that one.”

You see, when you and I have the opportunity to do something, to touch somebody else’s life, we have to recognize that the power to make a difference, both in the lives of those close to us and in the lives of those far away from us, is something that God has given us.

God has given us all of the abilities that we have to do the things that we do and God has given us the gift of this glorious day. It is a chance to do something to make a difference.

You want to make a difference in one of the ladies in this room this morning? Go up to them after worship is over, it doesn’t have to be anybody that you even know their name. Walk up to them and give them a big hug and say “God loves you.” And watch the smile on their face. And guys and do this too, it’s not just young ladies that do this, right? Because on the way out every Sunday morning I get to give people a hug and Pastor Jeff gets to give people a hug and hopefully it is a very small thing that makes a very big difference to people, that they know that they are cared for.

And we have the choice to make a difference. We have all of these things that we can do and we have the choice as to whether or not we’re going to do anything to make any kind of a positive difference in people’s lives.

So we have the chance, we have the choice and God has chosen us to be right here, right now so that we can make that choice and change the lives of those around us.

Paul had some interesting things to say about how important it is that we take the chance and make the choice, because God has chosen us and given us the power to change: We don’t always know what to do, he said. In fact, when we do the right thing, sometimes it produces the good we intended. Sometimes when you tell somebody that you care for them or that you forgive them or that you love them, you can see the expression on their face change and it does exactly what you’d hoped it would do. But, sometimes things happen that we don’t expect or intend. Sometimes being a caring person is not exactly welcome or maybe it is the not the right time for the expression of care. We don’t really know or expect or intend how people are going to react. We just want to do the right thing. Here’s the point: You always know what God wants. You always know what is right. It is a really simple thing. But knowing what’s right is pointless if you don’t do what’s right. Do- ing is the thing that makes a difference, not just knowing what to do.

And then these words from the Epistle of James give us an example of what that looks like: Here’s an example. You see someone with no food or no clothing and you think, “Wow, that’s a shame.” So you say to them, “You know, I hope you find a way to stay warm and eat well.” Then you walk on by. You made no difference. You did nothing. You changed nothing.

See, God didn’t put us here to watch one another. God put us here to do for one another and God gave us the power to make the difference. And God gives us today this chance to make a difference. And God invites you and me to choose to do the things that make a difference because God has chosen us to do exactly what it is that God asks us to do. Now, what do you think I did with the starfish when I found it? I put it down?

No. I walked over to the edge of the ocean and I hauled off and I threw that thing as hard as I could.

As a matter of fact, you could even hear the think go “Whoaaaaa!” as it went through the air. No, you couldn’t. But, of course, it made a difference to this starfish.

Now, this starfish I got at the seashell shop, let’s not be confused. This one was already gone when I met it, alright. But making a difference to all the people that are here and all the things that we can do, that’s what really matters. And it just so happens that today we have an op- portunity to do something kind of small that makes a really big differ- ence in the lives of the people around us.

Twice a month, our congregation opens what we call the Calvary Cup- board. It is a food bank and it is for the neighboring zip codes around us so that people can come and share in the bounty of God’s grace be- cause we have provided it for them. It is something that we do to make a difference in people’s lives.

Now, right here in the front of the stage are four stacks of grocery bags. Do you see those? Alright, now while you hand out a bag to an- ybody that wants to take one, we are going to sing a song that we all know as “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”, but we’ve change it up a little bit: “We’ve Got a Food Bag in Our Hands”, alright? So you guys grab some of the bags. If you would like to take a food bag, just please stand where you are at as you sing along and the kids will bring them to you and then next week we’ll collect them. So, let’s sing together.

We’ve got an empty food bag in our hands, we’re gonna load it up with jars and cans. We’ll bring it back next Sunday or as soon as we can. We’ve got a food bag in our hands.

We’re heading off to Giant, Karns and Weis. We may go once but maybe we’ll go twice. And we’re not doing it because we’re nice. We’ve got a food bag in our hands.

So grab some beans and carrot, beets and peas. How’ bout some spam and tuna if you please. Let’s take a pass on pickled chicken knees. We’ve got a food bag in our hands.

We need some napkins, tissues, paper towels. Let’s get some shampoo, soap and toothpaste now. Hey check that price on noodles! Golly wow! We’ve got a food bag in our hands.

How ‘bout detergent, jelly, soups and stews, pineapple, pears & peaches; you can choose. “Helping the Cupboard”’s on our list of “Do”s. We’ve got a food bag in our hands.

We’re feeding neighbor’s fam’lies; that God’s plan! We’re caring for His kids in other lands. Why do we do it? Simple! ‘Cause we can! That’s why the food bag’s in our hands.

We’ve got an empty food bag in our hands, we’re gonna load it up with jars and cans. We’ll bring it back next Sunday or as soon as we can. We’ve got a food bag in our hands.

God has the whole world in His hands, but God also has handed it to us.

And God has chosen us to make a difference in the lives of all the peo- ple around us and all the people all over the world.

As a little reminder of that, if you look at your bulletin, just to the right of the fold, you will see a little tiny starfish stuck to your bulletin. Now, I realize that if you look at it you may have a leg or two that’s broken off because they are really fragile. It’s okay. But what we would like you to is to take a little knife or a credit card for something really think and slide it up underneath there and peel the glue dot and the starfish off the page and stick it some place in your house where you’ll remember and will see it periodically and remember the story of the star thrower.

Now, those things are a little bit too tiny for you guys, so I’ve gotten you a little bit bigger ones and I’ve left the paper on the back of the glue dot so all you have to do is kind of work the paper off and then gently just stick the starfish someplace and put it where you’ll see it… be careful, be careful, they are very fragile and they are all different colors and they are all different sizes, it’s okay. They are all great, they are all good and they’ll all work to remind you how important it is that we all make a difference, ok? So, reach in there and get one of those. Got one? And thanks for sharing in our time this morning.

Message: Matthew 12:46-50

Liza and Jeremy, the twins, were asleep one calm and quiet night. Suddenly it began to rain very hard, thunder rumbled until it got so loud that it woke them up. “Mommy, Mommy!” they cried out as they ran to her. “Don’t worry you two! It’s just the storm making all that noise. Go back to bed.” “We want to stay close to you,” said Jeremy. “We’re scared!”

Mom said, “You know we’re always together, no matter what.” “But how can we be together when you’re out here and we’re in bed?” said Liza. Mom held something right in front of them and said, “This is how.”

Rubbing their sleepy eyes, the twins came closer to see what Mom was holding. “I was about your age when my Mommy first told me about the INVISIBLE STRING.” “I don’t see a string,” said Jeremy. “You don’t need to see the Invisi- ble String. People who love each other are always connected by a very special String made of love.” “But if you can’t see it, how do you know it’s there?” asked Liza.

“Even though you can’t see it with your eyes, you can feel it with your heart and know that you are always connected to everyone you love. When you’re at school and you miss me, your love travels all the way along the String until I feel it tug on my heart.” “And when your tug it right back, we feel it in our hearts,” said Jeremy . “Does Jasper the cat have an Invisible String?” Liza asked. “She sure does, “said Mom. “And best friends like me and Lucy?” asked Liza. “Best friends too!” “How far can the String reach?” “Anywhere and everywhere,” Mom said.

“Would it reach me even if I were a submarine captain deep in the ocean?” asked Jeremy. “Yes,” Mom said, “Even there.”

“Or a mountain-climber?” “Even there.”

“A ballerina in France?” “Even there.”

“ A jungle-explorer?” “Even there.”

“How about an astronaut out in space?” “Yes, even there.”

Then Jeremy quietly asked, “Can my string reach all the way to Daddy and Uncle Brian in Heaven?” “Yes…especially there. That’s where all the strings begin”

“Does the String break or go away when you get mad at us?”

“Never,” said Mom. “Love is stronger than anger, and as long as love is in your heart, the String will always be there.

Even when your get older and can’t agree about things like what mov- ie to see…

or who gets to ride in the front seat…

or what time to go to bed. Bed? Oh! That’s right! You two should be in bed!” And with that, they all laughed as Mom chased the twins back to their beds.

But before she turned out the lights, she shared with them a poem that she learned when she was very young. It was taken from a song about all of God’s Invisible Strings:

Blest be the tie that binds Our hearts in Christian Love.

The fellowship of kindred minds Is like to that above.

Within a few minutes, they were asleep even though the storm was still making the same loud noised outside. As they slept, they started dreaming of all the Invisible Strings that were wrapped around their hearts and all the Strings their friends have, And that their friends have, And their friends have, And then they realized that everyone in the world was connected by Invisible Strings to everyone else in the world. And deep in their heart they knew that we are all connected to God and to each other with ties that could never be broken, for as long as there is love in our hearts…no one is ever alone.

The Invisible String by Patrice Karst is a beautiful metaphor for what it is that binds us together.

For many decades the celebration of Mother’s Day in the tradition of the United Methodist Church has been called “The Festival of the Christian Home.” It is a recognition not only of the importance of the women of faith who have shaped us through our lives, but it is also an acknowledgement that no single individual has a monopoly on sharing the Love of God and that all of us together, who make up the great family of faith, that we all have the same responsibilities to one anoth- er. The Invisible Strings that bind us to God and to each other are pret- ty simply spoken.

Paul in 1st Corinthians 12 talked about three things that last throughout our lives.

The first is Faith. We are bound together by the Invisible Strings of our belief, in the O\one who has come into this world through the gift of a mother named Mary in order to teach us what it means to be to- gether and how to be people obedient to the Will of God and connected to one another in covenant. And that faith grants to us a hope, a vision of what might be, a vision of who we might be, a vision of how we might be to one another, how we might seek forgiveness, how we might grant forgiveness. The hope that carries us and binds us is the hope that we do not define. God defines it. We have to figure out, as we discover and discern it, how to put it into our hearts and into our lives.

But Paul said the greatest of all the strings that wrap around us and bind us together is the gift of Love. It is God’s greatest gift to us. It is a person, it is not a sentiment, and that person’s name is Christ. But Christ binds us to all as a family, not just to those whom you know or those whom you’ve met or those who are in your neighborhood or those who sit near your selected seats on Sunday morning.

Christ binds all of us together as family, not just the people that are easy to think of as those to whom we have some responsibility.

And he shares these words in Matthew 12 as a rather provocative state- ment about what exactly family is, and by the way, Jesus was not terri- ble PC. If he had said this to his mom on Mother’s Day, there would have been a thrashing to be had. Matthew 12:46-50: While Jesus was talking to the crowd, his biological mother and his biological brothers, they stood by. This was his family. They were waiting because they wanted to speak with him. And someone came and told him “Jesus, your family is waiting for they want to speak to you.” Now, the Gos- pel writer doesn’t bother to tell us why this was such a significant meeting or what important business they had to share with this particu- lar individual. They just showed up and what Jesus says next is shock- ing. “Who is my mother?” She is standing right there, Jesus. She was the one next to you at the cradle in Bethlehem. She is the one who watched you grow and walk and talk and take up carpentry and move out into the wilderness and study and wonder and be baptized and teach and heal and proclaim God’s kingdom. She’s the one who would then be there, at the bottom of the cross, when they crucified him and she is one who will announce to the world, “I have seen the Risen Lord.” And Jesus has the audacity to say to her, “Who is my mother? Who is my family?” Pointing to his disciples, “Here is my mother. Here are my brothers. Whoever does, does, the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. They are my family.”

What we do, according to Christ, is what binds us to God and to each other. What we do is what makes us a family. Faith, hope and love are great, but they are highly personal and they are very individual and you can be a person of faith and have a vision of hope and feel love in your heart and do NOTHING! Do you want to know how that’s possi- ble? That’s how most people live. Well, I’m a person of faith. Yes, I’d like to see the world get better. I have a hope about that. And yes, I understand the concept of love, it’s like respect and tolerance and all that. But don’t ask me to take love as a verb. Don’t ask me to do something with love.

We do together the things that make us a family, the things that bring us together, as brothers and sisters, as parents and children. We do the message. We have heard what God has told us. We have heard the word proclaimed and revealed. We understand exactly what God asks. These “What would Jesus do?” questions that float around among us and within us from time to time, you know, that’s kind of a cop out. You know what Jesus would do. He would forgive, he would heal, he would reconcile, he would love, he would touch and a hundred other things that would make a difference in somebody’s life. He would do something, and that’s the message: Look at what God has done, not what God thought or felt or wanted. This is what God has done and if you are in Christ as I am in Christ, you and I, we are new creations. Everything old has passed away. The new has begun. And this is God’s gift to us and so it is therefore our gift to you.

We have been given a message of reconciliation. God is appealing to the world. God is appealing to every person you know through you and that’s how God can invite everyone, everywhere, on behalf of Christ, to come home, to come into the embrace of a Loving God who wants nothing more than to reconnect and retie the Invisible Strings around the hearts, around the souls and the lives of every one of His children. That’s the message.

And what we do with that message amongst one another? We call that ministry. Ministry are the things that get done around here that remind us of the message of Christ. Ministry are the actions that are taken, the things that are accomplished, the things that are attempted in order to draw us together as a family of faith. It’s God’s love made known in- side the walls of this place.

And the family of faith has one heart and one mind. There is no con- cern about what’s mine and what’s yours.

For all things are God’s. And so the early church sold whatever they didn’t need and they shared with those who were in need and day by day, they worshipped and they worked together. Their ministry to one another was gracious and joyous.

They praised God for the wonders and signs that he revealed to them and day by day, God welcomed home, day by day, adding to their numbers those who followed the way.

The ministry that we share with one another is not just for you and it’s not just for me. It is the open heart, the open mind, the open door that allows us to bring others in, to have them celebrate what God has done for us. And then when we take that ministry and we turn it inside out and we push it outside the walls of this place. We call that mission. It is a simple concept. Message is what gives us our direction. Ministry is what we do with each other. Mission is what we do in the world. What we do. Not what we hope for, not what we hope for, not the faith that we have individually that makes us Christians, it is the love of Christ turned outward into action that enables all people to hear what God has done.

Jesus sent the eleven disciples onto Galilee and then he met them and he said “All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to me,

so go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Teach them everything I share with you, but always remember this: I am with you every step of the way all the way to the end. Don’t be afraid.”

What we do together binds us to God and to each other and it’s im- portant to recognize that on this Festival of the Christian Home or Mother’s Day, because for a brief moment, we are all here together. But soon that ends and soon it ends for someone who has spent the last three months with us.

When Jhan came to us in February, she came as an intern, someone who has worked with Pastor Jeff over the years; someone who is vest- ed in ministry; someone who is committed to serving Christ and mak- ing a difference in the lives of those she meets. And for the last three months she’s been sharing her gifts and graces, her time and talents in a variety of ways, both with this congregation in ministry to us and in mission outside the walls of this place.

This week is her last few days here. She will be leaving in the middle of the week and in a few weeks she will graduate from seminary. And what happens after that, well, she’s not really sure. And that’s okay, because none of us are really sure what happens after this moment.

Jahn, where are you? Could you get any further away? She’s all the way back…stand up, please. (applause) Now, I don’t know…thank you…I have no idea in twenty years what she’ll remember about Cal- vary Church, if anything besides maybe the two handsome clergy she worked with. (laughter) But look. If you’ve listened to her, if you’ve spoken to her, you know, she’s heard the Word.

She has the message and as she goes forth to begin her own ministry, we know that Vaya Con Dios, she will go with God and whatever that missional presence is in the world, we know that just like us; God has created her and gifted her to make a difference. Thank God for the ties that have bound us together in the last three months and for the ties that will keep us connected no matter where she goes, no matter where you go, no matter where I go.

That’s what it means to be family. Who are my brothers? My sister? My mother? My father? My parents? My children? Those who do the will of God are the blessings on the ties that bind us in our Lord Jesus Christ. And thank God for them, the ties that bind.

Singing of Blest Be the Tie that Bind Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love; the fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. Before our Father’s throne we pour our ardent prayers; our fears, our hopes, our aims are one, our comfort and our cares. We share each other’s woes, our mutual burdens bear; and often for each other flows, the sympathizing tear. When we asunder part, it gives us inward pain; but we shall still be joined in heart, and hope to meet again.

Thank God for the gift of family, for the Invisible Strings that bind us and for the ties that cause us to be one in His name.

Let us present our tithes and offerings.

Benediction:

God has called us in this day to be star-throwers, for He has given us the power to make a difference.

He has given us the chance to make a difference.

We have the freedom to choose how it is that we will make a differ- ence

and God has chosen us to make a difference in this time and in this place.

Thanks be to God. Just do it! Amen