Excommunicated with love

It is an honor to be with you this morning.

You know, there is always a back story when a person is asked to pinch hit on a Sunday morning for the clergy staff.

Back on May 9, in a staff meeting, Brian, Hung Su, Judy, and Aaron figured out that Annual Conference would be a obstacle in trying to prepare a sermon.

And they also reasoned our new associate pastor, Daniel, would have the same challenge. Plus, Daniel doesn’t officially start at Trinity until July.

And after thinking a bit further, they concluded— since old Bill wasn’t at this staff meeting, it made perfect sense for him to be assigned to bring the message on June 18.

So here I am.

Before we start, let me make a disclaimer.

My college degrees are in English and School Administration, not theology.

And before I finish this morning, it is very likely that I’ll be excommunicated from the Methodist Church.

So, you’ve been warned.

Let us pray: Father of us all, help us to know and feel your presence as we ponder the scripture. Amen.

Our Lectionary pals have selected Matthew Chapter 9 beginning at verse 35, pushing into Chapter 10.

At home, when I read my wife’s prehistoric Bible from college, I use a highlighter to mark words, phrases, or sentences that resonate with me.

I think our pew Bibles would be shocked in disbelief if we actually pulled them out, brushed off the dust and cobwebs, and used a highlighter to note words that resonate with us.

If we actually performed that highlighted reading of verses 35-38, you might be drawn to these words: teaching, proclaiming, healing, compassion, harassed, helpless, harvest, workers, few.

Jesus was always teaching and proclaiming.

He had a compassion for the harassed, the helpless, and Jesus offered healing to those in need.

Additionally, Jesus was a keen observer of people. He could sense when people were rudderless— “sheep without a shepherd.”

And he pushes that further by noting, a good harvest needs many workers, not a few.

Nudging a bit further, Jesus encourages his disciples to send out workers into the harvest field.

At this point, Jesus is thinking to himself— these disciples have been hanging around me, watching me work the crowds. They’ve seen me interact with them.

They heard my teaching of parables, and they have witnessed my ability to heal.

I think it is time for me to put them to work.

Jesus calls a staff meeting, a sales meeting, a departmental meeting, a faculty meeting, and says to his disciples: “Hey you guys, I’m giving you the authority to drive out “impure spirits, and to heal every disease and sickness.”

In further defining his orders to the disciples, he specifically tells them: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.”

Again, I’m not a theologian, but in Matthew Chapter 5, Jesus advises his followers to “love your enemies,” and in Matthew Chapter 22 he tells them to “love your neighbors.”

Yet, in his orders to his disciples, his focus is not on loving your enemies or neighbors, his team of twelve is to only focus on those “lost sheep of Israel.”

You don’t want me to sort out overlooking the Gentiles and Samaritans in Jesus’ thinking.

Slackers who miss a staff meeting are only given so much time to attempt to reel in a congregation and make a couple of points.

I’m sure Jesus had very specific reasons to focus his disciples on the “lost sheep of Israel.”

But here is what I’m wondering, are you, me, we, us still like those “lost sheep of Israel”?

Here’s why I’m asking—aren’t we still conflicted in reaching out to love our enemies and our neighbors?

No matter how hard we try, or say we’re going to try to get along, we’re still a mess.

Look at our so called “united” Methodist Church.

Heck, fleas annoying a hound dog under the summer shade of a sycamore tree are more “united” than we Methodist.

Declines in attendance, shrinking financial support, our country’s political divide, human sexuality, our interpretations of the scripture related to human sexuality, the pandemic, and disaffiliation have impacted our Methodist and Trinity “unity”.

Perhaps, you recently saw this headline: The Importance of Religion In The Lives of Americans Is Shrinking. This headline came from a recent survey by the Public Religion Research Institute.

This research collected data from 6,600 adults in all fifty states.

The leading takeaway: “Just 16% of Americans surveyed said religion is the most important thing in their lives, that’s down from 20% a decade ago.”

The CEO for Public Religion Research Institute, Melissa Deckman, stated: “Americans are becoming increasingly likely to become religiously unaffiliated.”

Despite this decline, the researchers also found a strand of hope— “for people who do still attend religious services, they say they’re optimistic about the future of their house of worship.”

How about it Trinity, those of you in the Sanctuary this morning, and those who are watching at home, are you optimistic about our future?

What gave Jesus optimism when he looked into the eyes and souls of his disciples?

Maybe, Rainn Wilson has some insights about what Jesus saw in his disciples and the people they encountered.

I recently watched an interview with actor Rainn Wilson. Mr. Wilson was in the sitcom, The Office, where he portrayed Dwight Schrute.

On May 24, Mr. Wilson was being interviewed about his new book—”Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution.”

From his book, the interviewer noted, Mr. Wilson writes that as a culture, we have “discounted spirituality, moved away from faith, and moved away from the sacred.”

Mmm, might Mr. Wilson be describing the “lost sheep of Israel”?

I’m not sure. But, Mr. Wilson also suggest that we need to return to those common threads found in religion.

Mr. Wilson understands why people have left religion and the church.

However, he stated the following: “But there are spiritual tools at the foundation of all of the world’s great faith traditions that we can draw from that can transform our lives, and, more importantly, that we can use to help transform our society.”

In our scripture reading this morning, isn’t that what Jesus is hoping will take place from his teachings, and the work of his disciples—the transformation of our lives and our society?

Is this what the optimistic churchgoers see in the future from the survey conducted—an opportunity to transform lives and society?

Today being Father’s Day, I wonder how much time fathers spend dreaming into the future and contemplating if their daughters and sons will have an opportunity to transform lives and society?

When I served as principal at Lakeside Elementary School, I have never forgotten the day in the cafeteria when a young man looked up at me, and stated, “my daddy is in jail.”

The sting of those words made me wonder how different my life might have been if my father had been incarcerated.

My father was a high school graduate and a Veteran. He was one of ten children in a family who worked as tenant farmers in Alamance and Guilford counties in North Carolina.

In that setting, my father learned quickly the merits of hard work and sacrifice. Those attributes allowed him to become a very successful life and health insurance salesman.

And there was something else stirring my father’s heart and soul—an unwavering faith and trust in God.

Despite losing his oldest brother in WWII, losing his job when a new opportunity failed, and losing his wife to cancer, he never lost his faith and trust.

How about Trinity, when you cast a glance at Trinity do you see opportunities in our future?

Is there a harvest, a rebound, a redemption, a comeback for this church?

What does our Senior Pastor, Brian, see when he looks at us?

If we are going to continue to move Trinity forward, we need to restore our faith and trust in God, but we also need to reestablish our faith and trust in each other.

Rightly or wrongly, Jesus trusted his disciples to go out into that field and harvest the lost sheep.

I’m sure that was a tough assignment, and it continues to be an even tougher assignment for churches today.

So how do churches, how does Trinity survive and move forward?

I’m no expert on anything. But during the last twelve years, the following thoughts keep pinging in my old noggin’:

What might we learn from Brian Shallcross, the General Manager of the Bowie Baysox about “discretionary time” and its impact on young families?

We must be aware of the “under forty barrier.” What do we offer to people at Trinity and in our community who are under forty years old?

How can Trinity become better at sharing and telling its congregational stories?

Getting to know a person’s story shouldn’t happen by reading the person’s obituary.

How do we know if our forms of communication are efficient and effective?

Are we listening and communicating with the people who watch our Sunday worship services on-line?

No matter how creatively a church staff works to develop a program or an event, the success of that event depends upon one essential element—volunteers. How do we recruit volunteers without pestering them to death?

Anne Sullivan once stated: “We are afraid of ideas, of experimenting, of change. We shrink from thinking a problem through to a logical conclusion.”

Churches must stop fearing and shrinking from our need to change.

Sam Jones in reflecting about his Boston Celtic teammate, John Havlicek, said this: “The one thing that got to me, he, Havlicek, never got tired.”

Coming out of the pandemic, Trinity can’t afford to get tired. We must nudge and inspire each other to keep moving, keep working. We can’t stop.

Long time Trinity member, Mary Ann Robins, says that our building has “good bones.” I agree.

But, to protect those “good bones,” we are obligated to take care of all interior and exterior surfaces linked to those bones.

And I’ll stop with this, Trinity to die, we must erase from our minds these words: “ Because that’s the way we have always done it.” Churches with that mentality—die.

One of the best things about this Sanctuary is how sunlight filters through the shutters.

That sunlight makes me think about our congregation.

How many times in your lifetime has your heart been a source of light for the person sitting behind you this morning, a weary neighbor, an estranged relative, a lost stranger, and even the harassed and helpless?

In today’s scripture, I highlighted the words compassion, harassed, and helpless.

Why?

Well, it’s really pretty simple, I need to improve my compassion, my love for the harassed and helpless.

But, I also need to be better at welcoming all and judging less.

Isn’t that at the heart of what Jesus really needs from you, me, we, us?

He needs us to love.

Songwriters Graham Lyle and Terry Britten framed the right question in Tina Turner’s performance of their song—“What’s love got to do with it?”

We know the answer, love has everything to do with it.

I hope I can find the courage and the compassion of my light, my love to the harassed and helpless.

How about you?

Author’s note: Today, I had the privilege of delivering the sermon at both of our worship services at Trinity UMC in Richmond, Virginia. I appreciate the opportunity and the support.

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