Sermon:
September 30, 2001
Sunday Night Alive!  

Scripture:
Mark 12:28-34

This is the second sermon in a four-part series about "going deep" in your discipleship. Many of us have been splashing in the shallow tide pool of our faith, when right behind us is the vast ocean of God and his love. We’ve been worshipping a god of the tide pool, missing out on the incredible ocean depths of God’s love, and our plunge into it.

For us to live as deeply as possible, we need to live out the passion that John and Charles Wesley discovered in their plunge into Christianity. They founded Methodism, and they drew together a people who are still alive and growing. Those early Methodist people sought to live, as deeply as possible, what it means to be "altogether a Christian," as John Wesley put it. Are you "altogether a Christian"?

In John Wesley’s famous tract, The Character of a Methodist, he says Jesus Christ makes his followers happy, hopeful, praying, loving, gentle, sincere, obedient, growing, witnessing, faithful people. That’s what Wesley means by being "Methodist." He also wrote: "I do not fear that the people called Methodist will ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. I only fear that they shall exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion, but not the power thereof. And that undoubtedly will be the case, unless they hold fast to the doctrine, spirit and discipline with which they first set out." To live the life of a Christian requires doggedness, stubborn perseverance, and standing firm—what John Wesley called "clinging to Christ."

Why should we cling? Because of who God is and what God has already done. The incredible love of God is what we are here for. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). We can do no better than to respond with our worship and our service to all people and to love God with our whole being. Anything less would be inappropriate and absurd.

Last week I spoke of my Uncle Tom. This week, it’s Leigh’s aunties. Half a year after Leigh and I married, we visited her family in Phoenix. During the week, Leigh, her mom, her uncle Jim, and Dot and Vi, her twin aunties from England, and I decided to visit the Grand Canyon. I was thrilled. I’d never been. I knew that, with this group, we wouldn’t be riding donkeys deep into the canyon, but I thought we could walk around a bit and maybe go to the inner-rim. Well, we got in the car mid-morning for the four hour trip…which wound up taking seven or eight hours, because you can’t just drive by all those cute little stores with all the red peppers hanging in the doorways. You have to stop and shop. (Never mind that it was the Grand Canyon we were going to see!) We got there just as the last glow was fading in the west. I thought to myself, "Well, we’ve still got tomorrow." That night we did go to the Imax for "Secrets of the Canyon." The next day we went to a Ranger Station with some artifacts and a beautiful view of the canyon, and after a few minutes of the view someone had the nerve to say, "Well, that’s lovely," and proceed to head to the car! Oh, no! The others were following! My first visit—and the glory and grandeur of one of the seven wonders of the natural world—was slipping away before my very eyes! I looked at Leigh desperately and suggested (in my strongest, most understated way) that I would rather enjoy another view of the Canyon and perhaps a brief jaunt down into it a bit. Well, we went to one more overlook, and then headed to a mall in Flagstaff (rather like Tel-Twelve). It was one of the more depressing days of my life (though now one of the funniest). Were it not for the Imax show, I could have sneezed and might have missed the whole thing!

How absurd to get a glimpse of something like the Grand Canyon and respond in such a way. Yet, how much worse to have a glimpse of God and the depth of his amazing love and respond in the way we typically do. We owe the Lord our devotion. We owe him our praise. We owe him our service. It completes us.

This is the beauty of Methodism. John Wesley sought to have us honor God by rightly dividing our time and response to his Word. Worship and service, both corporate and private, elevate our response and deepen our experience. We respond in four ways. (Corporate) worship, (private) devotion, acts of service (or mercy), and acts of justice help complete our discipleship in a holistic way. We talked last week about corporate worship and praise "completing" our experience (usually involving something more than "Well, that’s lovely"). Today I want to share some thoughts about private devotion.

Private devotion is "in" today, yet there is a starvation of the spirit, and it happens whenever men and women are abused and their self-worth decays. It also happens in the spiritual life when people’s faith begins to die for lack of inner nourishment. Growing spiritually is like moving from infancy to old age. No one is born into the Kingdom of God as a full-fledged spiritual adult. Going deep takes time and desire. Our growth in Christ is the result of trial and error, dedication to the goal of being like Christ, and struggling with adversity. We begin our descent by coming to faith. That involves repenting of our sin and everything that separates us from God. We leave an old life and enter into a new one. We begin a new relationship with Christ. We learn about the faith and allow God to reshape our lives to conform to the new. The Scriptures come alive in a new way. We go through dry spells and trials and learn to trust God when we have no religious feelings. Joy in our faith deepens over time, and death becomes less of a threat. God’s love gradually takes over more and more of our lives. The theological term for that growth is sanctification. We grow deeper and deeper in love with Christ, relying on him more and more, and as we do, there is less and less room for sin in our lives.

Jesus tells us in his Word that we are to respond by "loving the Lord with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and loving our neighbor as ourselves." Everyone can succeed at this. Our truest identity and future are wrapped up in God. John Wesley calls this "grace." In the Bible, grace connects with words like "mercy, love, forgiveness, goodness, kindness and justice." God floods us with his grace, calling us to it.

Now if we are to grow in grace, we need to develop a regular devotional life. The word "Methodist" was a slam on those early followers of Wesley. Why? Because they were so methodical in their worship and work. By having prayers at a set time and by visiting the sick, the poor and the prisoners regularly, the Wesleys and their friends were saying that holy routine is important to growth in God. This Methodist insult is not magic; rather these are things our Lord urges us to do.

John Wesley viewed three major ways that God’s grace comes to transform us. He calls them "the means of grace," as normal ways that God’s Spirit brings our lives under his control. Prayer, scripture and the Lord’s Supper lead us deeper and deeper into our new life with Christ.

Prayer is first. It is simply conversation with God. It is not just our words, it is our attitude. It is being "with" God all the time. It is the Lord’s Prayer. To go deep we must form a habit of conversing with God about everything. Prayer is a way of living. Don’t wait until you turn your light off in bed to talk to him. Imagine if your best friend called only when he or she had absolutely nothing else to do and always fell asleep while talking to you! (When Leigh and I were dating long distance, I fell asleep on the phone once. I don’t recommend it.) Fortunately God never tires of us. There will always be other things to do; don’t wait until there’s nothing left before you pray.

Scripture is next. We can’t overestimate its importance. If you and I want to find out what faith is all about, if you and I want to dive deep, we need to devote our time to studying the Bible. New insights constantly come to us, no matter how familiar the story may be. John Wesley said: "Scripture is the fountain of holy wisdom from which we drink." Do you have a favorite book? John Wesley’s was Matthew. When did you last read one of the four Gospels about Jesus’ life, words and teachings? Pray for God to help you understand and act out the truths therein. Take the initiative to read it yourself. Join a class if that will help. Realize that by reading Scripture we open up God’s most faithful ways of giving us what we need.

The Lord’s Supper is another way God reaches out to us. It is more than just remembering Jesus. By remembering Jesus in Holy Communion, God puts in our hearts his marvelous love. It is a wonderful expression of genuine faith. It causes us to think about Jesus’ sacrifice and his coming to us again. In every age and tradition, Christians have come together to celebrate this sacrament. Although it is a mystery, Jesus calls us to it, every time in remembrance of Him.

When we take the time to realize the depth of God’s love for us by looking at all he has done on our behalf, we must respond. When we realize that we are the ones who miss out if we don’t respond, we take time in our lives for him. We seek to love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, loving our neighbor as ourselves. As we take our private time for our Lord Jesus Christ, opening ourselves to prayer, scripture and communion, may God continue to help us dive deeper and deeper in love with him, in every area: heart, soul, mind, and strength. Let us begin right now with some silent time for prayer, that his grace may come to us anew. Amen.