Room
for the New Ones to Relax Luke 12:29-34 5th Sunday in Lent Pastor J
Hines March 31, 2019 Youth Sunday
The world is full of lively crowds. We
appreciate seeing families enjoying themselves on sandy beaches. [slide # 1 beaches] Theatres hold crowds of the
mesmerized being entertained. [slide # 2 theatres ] Musicians appreciate a crowd
for concerts. Stadiums and stands are filled with enthusiastic sports fans. [slide # 3 sports fans] Even churches see a greater crowd on Christmas
and Easter. [slide # 4 crowded
churches]
Though fewer and fewer people are going to
church these days, there are so many people lined up to volunteer to so
Christian deeds and show compassionate care as they share their precious time
and unbelievable dollars even to strangers. You may remember in 2012 Karen
Klein the 68-year old suburban Rochester New York school bus monitor who was
verbally abused by four seventh-grade boys. [slide # 5 Karen
Klein] The world was outraged as they witnessed videos of her being
taunting with profanity, insults and threats. Around the globe, people
responded with so much love and compassion as a way of bringing her justice.
She was able to retire with the $700,000 that she received, and the boys were expelled,
sentenced to 50 hours of community service, and they apologized.
People are so amazing and kind and people
want justice. Of course, we humans can be easily tricked. In November of last
year, homeless veteran Johnnie Bobbitt conspired a tear jerker of a scam with couple
Mark D’Amico and Kate McClure. [slide # 6 three scammers] Conscientious people
gave 400,000 dollars which the scammers misused for luxurious cars and such. What
a reminder for us to always do the right thing and to pray about everything, to
keep a conversation going with God, lest we too be tempted. Good news and not
so good news is a reminder for us to respond in ways that are models for the
little lives that watch what we do more than what we say and the little feet
that follow in our footsteps. [slide # 7 footprints]
Fewer people may be going to church but when you
go through King of Prussia we see the casino parking lot is so crowded, [slide # 8 casino] packed from one end to the
other. Now that sports betting is legal in several states, there is 10 billion
dollars in profits to be made. The case for legalization of marijuana also
brings a crowd of profiteers and scammers. New England Patriot’s 77 year old
billionaire owner Robert Kraft [slide # 9 Kraft] was caught in the type of human
trafficking sting that affects women and
girls around the world to the tune of millions. To our shame, the United States
is the number one customer. In the news this week was the story of high school
girls who discovered a list that rated several girls on their looks. Instead of
retaliating, the Bethesda, Maryland high schoolers decided to meet and educate
their peers in ways that can increase their sense of self-worth and dissolve
the demeaning of humans.
As the church, we also have to pay attention
to our values and worth. The Global United Methodist Church is no doubt worth
billions. [slide # 10 stained
glass dollar sign] We crowd
our ways with good and righteous work. Our Eastern Pennsylvania Conference
alone has a budget of about 10 million. Three million dollars was budgeted to
have our special General Conference in Missouri which included Methodists from
around the globe. Our Global Connection is taken very, very seriously. We
invest in healthy, holy, adult dialogue. We believe the treasures of the
kingdom are not just about the worth in dollars. Jesus encourages us to have
real treasures — He says heavenly treasure, holy treasure is a treasure that never
runs out. No thief comes near there, and no moth destroys. Jesus encourages us
to gather to ourselves treasures that do not rot away in a basement, a
building, attic, or storage bin. Treasures that are not thrown away on luxuries
as others suffer.
Our true treasure is in building the family
of God. It is about using our talents and our gifts and our resources and doing
what God calls us to do and trusting that God will provide something good for
us as well as for those to whom God sends us.
Without our relationships with the Central
Conferences outside the United States in Africa and Europe and the Methodist
affiliated churches in South America, Asia and elsewhere, our mission would not
include medical care for babies suffering from the Zika virus in South America,
nets to prevent mosquito bites that cause malaria in sub-Saharan Africa and
Asia, or clean water to prevent blindness cause by polluted water in the Congo,
or trained counselors to help traumatized children in Iraq like 13 year old
Hana who is among 3 million persons displaced and running for their lives
because of Isis. She has been gone from her home since the age of nine.
Methodist churches outside of the United
States [slide # 11 crowd
] may have more members and their
churches may be crowded and growing by leaps and bounds but they may be, as our
Kenyan missionary John has noted, 100 years behind the US in the development of
an infrastructure – that provides the basics of clean water hospitals, schools,
agriculture, military, and roadways.
As we focus on this Lenten season to relax,
slow down, and declutter, we are remembering to make room for quality quiet
time with God. We are remembering to make room for each other, [slide # 12
acceptance – puzzle piece] and especially on this youth Sunday,
we desire to make room for the new ones – the ones who walk in our footsteps.
We want them to lie down in green pastures and find rest for their souls. We
want to help them see that the only way to really rest is to be righteous; the
only way to really relax is to be righteous. Space for new ones makes a
stronger church, makes a growing church, a loving church.
Dr. Marcia Mcfee notes that as a society, Americans on average are now living in three times
more home space than in the 1950’s. And no matter how much more space we live
in, we tend to fill it up. In fact, we now have a 2.2 billion square foot
personal storage industry. Cheap labor, 24/7 access to online ordering and an
attitude that the resources will never run out have contributed to an
insensitivity to the amount of stuff we have and the rate of speed we turn over
the stuff we have. And besides the literal clutter we accumulate, our lives are
weighed down with “shoulds” and expectations that hold us captive to the
frantic pace we live and mounting debt we accumulate. Dr. Mcfee hears God’s
call to come and find a less crowded way to live…
The ones new to the Christian journey, [slide # 13 children on a journey] the young,
need less stuff and more spiritual and emotional space to relax. Spiritual and
physical space lets us be a stronger church, a growing church, a loving church.
A family researcher determined that the average family gets just 34 minutes a
day together ‘undistracted’ – time where they feel they actually bond together
and catch up without gadgets or routines getting in the way. Though that number
rises during the weekend, the general idea is that more space to be
together is needed. Making more time and more connection leaves more
opportunity for the work of the Holy Spirit.
That is why church gatherings can become so
life-giving and so holy, like our Youth Sundays [ slide # 14 let
youth be heard] and our Bethel
Brunches that we have today and special dinners planned for Saturday April 27th.
I close with one of the most marvelous
scriptures that reminds us that our treasure should be in God. Isaiah chapter
30 verse 15 says ‘In returning to God and resting in God, we are saved, and in
quietness and confidence in God, we find strength.’ When we make room in our
lives to be with God, we make room for each other to relax, especially for the
new ones in the journey [slide
# 15 adult and child] They can enjoy God no matter what the state of the
world or the church is. We are then a
stronger church, a growing church, a loving church. Amen.[slide # 16 hands on globe]
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