A Preview of Coming Attractions

June 12, 2008 in Worth's Sermons by WNG

Before I speak about the future of our church, and the future of the church in society, let me say a word about my future (based on my past). I have now been at NPMC for 20 years. I came when I was 38. I suspect I was a little to young for this church when I started, because I lacked some necessary experience. Unlike John and Dave I had never even served in a large church. I tried to make up for that with energy—and by taking advantage of the experience of others, like Ruby Bumgardner who was the church secretary when I came, and many more. I am now 58. I suspect I am a little old for this church, now. Yet, I hope to make up for that with experience and by utilizing the youth and energy others. And I don’t mean Just Dave, and John, and Paula. I am always looking to the congregation for help, to keep our church strong and able.

I have entitled this sermon “A Preview of Coming Attractions.” It is my attempt to predict a little of the future.

I also take encouragement from the 40th chapter of Isaiah:

31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

People ask me how long I will stay at New Philadelphia. I intend to stay as long as I can somehow muster the right balance of energy and experience to get the job done. When I can no longer get the job done, I hope the Lord will find me another place, so that I can move on to other things. I don’t want to hold you back.

William Blake once wrote:

He who binds to himself a joy;
Does its winged life destroy;
He who kisses the joy as it flies;
Lives in Eternities Sunrise.

New Philadelphia has been a joy for me. I have enjoyed it more each year. I hope never to do destroy the joy by binding it too closely.

Now let me say a word about the future of New Philadelphia Moravian Church. I am going to use the same language used by our Visioning Task Force. I want to speak of our assets and our liabilities.

Our biggest liability is that we are a Moravian Church. Let me explain that. As a Moravian Church it will never be as easy for New Philadelphia to attract new members or to maintain its size as it is for churches that belong to the big denominations. There are lots of Baptist, Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodist, Pentecostals, and Presbyterians who move into Winston-Salem every single week. When they do, they usually go to a church that belongs to their denomination. By contrast, though we have benefited from an influx of Mt. Airy Moravians, there are very few Moravians who move into Winston-Salem. When a Moravian does move into the city they have a dozen Moravian Churches to choose from. Let me say it again. It will never be easy for New Philadelphia Moravian Church to maintain and grow it is for churches that belong to the larger denominations. We have done some great things. We have achieved some remarkable growth. Yet we can never think that we have somehow arrived. The moment we think we have arrived, we will be on the downhill slope.

That said, New Philadelphia has three very important assets. 1) We have the right location. Real Estate agents say to consider three things when buying a house: Location, Location, and Location. We have it! Though a drive-in church, we are near the fastest growing areas of Forsyth Country. And we are on a major thoroughfare. 2) We are the right size. Small churches are getting smaller, and many are disappearing. Many larger churches are declining, too. But many large churches are getting bigger, and many are becoming mega-churches. These mega-churches do a lot of good, but I have no desire to pastor one, or to be a member of one. I think we are just the right size. I always want to grow, but I hope that we can always be, “small enough to care, and big enough to help.” 3) We are a Moravian Church. Yes! Our greatest liability is also our greatest asset. Being Moravian means having a great foundation upon which to build. Think of all the Moravian first. We belong to the domination that: First preached the gospel in the language of the people, made the first translation of the Bible from into the common tongue, and published the first hymnbook. One of our Bishops, John Amos Comenius, has long been called the Father of Modern Education. He was named by Life as the originating force behind of one of the 100 Most Important Events of the last millennium: “The Invention of Childhood.” Meaning, he understood that children could learn sophisticated concepts three hundred years before Dr. Spock! (Note: When I preached this sermon I just tossed this into the mix and erroneously reported that Comenius was on the Time-Life list as one of the top 100 People of the last Millennium. That is not so. He is the prime mover in one of the top 100 Events not one of the top 100 People.) Moravians have always valued education. And Moravians were the first to value the education of women and girls just as much as we valued the education of men and boys. We did it from the beginning. And what about Zinzendorf, the founder of the Renewed Church? Zinzendorf was called the Ecumenical Pioneer. In a time when John Wesley thought the Pope was the antichrist, Zinzendorf belonged to a prayer circle that included a Catholic archbishop. When asked if he thought a Catholic could be saved, he responded, “Yes, and he who thinks otherwise has not ventured far outside his own small cabin door.” Zinzendorf and the Moravians also started the modern Protestant mission movement. When William Cary urged the Baptist in Great Britain into missions, he produced a copy of a Moravian missions magazine and said, “See what these Moravians have done, why can’t we do likewise?” At its best the Moravian Church has been colorblind. Those old Germans were the first to take the gospel to the African slaves in the Caribbean. Today, in that area, we are still hailed as a denomination for that. Today, there are 800,000 Moravians around the world and only about 75,000 of us are of European extraction. The rest are people of color. I hope we remain color-blind. We have a great foundation, if only we will build up on it. Finally, and this comes from a member, we are a great “bridge church.” Couples frequently come to us from two different backgrounds because each can find something about the Moravian Church that reminds them from the denomination they already know. I believe that we are probably closer to many other denominations than any other denomination.

Now it is good that we have these advantages because I think we have some real challenges just around the corner. I would mention three.

I think Christians are in for increased persecution.

In the United States it will not be governmental persecution. I think it will at the hands of the entertainment industry. Now don’t get me wrong. I love movies and televisions, and they can do a lot of good, but we must always remember that media is a powerful force in shaping the society in which we live. Religion is under fire, and our faith is no exception. Just this week I channel surfed my way over to a re-run of Law & Order. I hear it is a good show. I know lots of people like it. Yet, this particular episode carried a disturbing message. A man was on trial because he murdered his daughter’s teacher. The father killed the teacher to protect his daughter from the kind of liberal thought that he was sure would lead her right down the primrose path to hell. When placed on the witness stand, he did not deny the killing. Instead he boasted about it, quoting chapter and verse about how God would slay the wicked. The DA tried to cut the man a little slack. He was willing to stipulate that the man was mentally ill. The man would have none of that. In response to the DA’s questions about his sanity, the man said, “I am not insane; I am a Christian.”

The message is plain: Christians aren’t insane we are just committed to a faith that is itself insane, and makes some of us so. Some people actually believe that.

This represents an escalation in the media’s war against Christians. I remember that when the worst we got was when the church lady beat up on a young pregnant woman with an umbrella because she made a mistake of getting pregnant without a husband.

There is only one answer to this kind of attack: We have got to be more Christian, not less. The Master sets a higher standard for those who would carry his name.

Are Christians really programmed to violence as per the court room scene I just mentioned? I think not. Consider what he had to say about dealing with our enemies. In Matthew 5:43-45 Jesus said:

43 “You have heard that it was said, `You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

And what about the church lady’s attitude? It was foreign to Jesus. According to a snippet of the tradition preserved in the 4th Gospel, when they brought a woman taken in the very act of adultery to Jesus, saying, “Moses (our Bible) said we should stone such. What do you say?” Jesus stooped and wrote in the sand. Then he stood and said, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” Then he stooped again. When he stood up he asked the woman, “Where are your accusers?” She responded, “There are none.” He said, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” (John 8:1-11) Jesus set a higher standard than Moses. Jesus set a standard of love and forgiveness. We have got to get that message out by living it.

My daughter used to watch a show called Seventh Heaven. It was about a preacher and his family, and she liked it because this particular preacher was charismatic, intelligent, and kind. I never watched Seventh Heaven. I am not in favor of a rash of shows about preachers—we have enough preachers on television. However, I do wish more television shows and movies would portray Christians as really are. I wish they would show Christians building hospitals, and founding colleges and universities that have become great seats of learning. I wish they would show us feeding the hungry, binding up the broken hearted, being friends to the friendless, and enjoying the kind of fellowship and community we have here at New Philadelphia.

If we Christians are going to hang on to a place of respect in the present age, then we must be more Christian, not less.

According to John 17 Jesus prayed that those who follow him might be one, so that the world would see our unity, and know that he had come from the Father. In spite of that prayer, division has come to the church, and I fear it is coming, more and more.

Some of this division has to do with politics. I myself am chagrin to think how many Christians vilify each other because of differing political opinions. I was relieved to see that a group of prominent Evangelical leaders recently signed an Evangelical Manifesto in which they plead with the Church to focus on the gospel of Christ, rather than on politics. The signers included Jack Hayford, pastor of the Foursquare Gospel Church; Max Lucado, best selling author; Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary; and Jim Wallis, founder and editor of Sojourners magazine. I don’t know if Billy Graham signed, but the president of Wheaton College where one of his major centers is located did. The signers argue simply that our nations need of the gospel is far greater than its need for any political agenda regardless of how positive it might be. They argue that the Kingdom of God is not even to be identified with the church, much less any one nation or political party. They say discuss the issues; but do it with dignity. God has the ends in his control; God trusts us with the means. The world is watching to see how we will treat one another.

The 2008 Presidential Election is of historic significance. It now appears that Senator Barack Obama the Democratic Nomination, the first African American to run for president on the ticket of a major party. This is a fulfillment of the Spirit of 1776. African Americans are justly proud. Obama is a hero to them, and to many. Senator John McCain is a hero of another sort. A Vietnam veteran and former Prisoner of War. He is making history, too. No matter who wins and looses, both candidates in this election will be under the scrutiny of history for hundreds of years, provided the Lord tarries. I believe both these men possess character. I hope this election will be about character, and the issues, and not about character assassination. Left to the candidates themselves, I believe this will be the case. I hope their supporters act with equal reserve. The world is watching. Let us give them something to believe in. We are making history. Let it be an inspirational episode in the history of our great democracy.

Of course, the church is divided along other lines, too. Some of these divisions are trivial. I have told you before about trying to buy a typewriter I saw in the window of a shop in Lexington, Kentucky. The salesman asked me why I needed a typewriter. I told him I was a student in the Methodist Seminary. He then said, “You and I cannot walk together.” I said, “Say what?” He responded, “You and I cannot walk together, for you belong to one denomination, and I belong to another, and the Bible says, ‘How can two walk together unless they agree?” I did not want to walk anywhere with this man. I just wanted to buy a typewriter. Before I could tell him that, the owner of the shop identified himself as a Jew, and said, “You Christians. You want to teach us Jews, and you can’t even agree among yourselves.”

In Mark 9 the disciples of Jesus complain about some one who is casting out demons in Jesus’ name, even though he is not a disciple. They forbade him, and wanted to know if they did right. Jesus said, “Do not forbid him; for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon after to speak evil of me.” He continued, “For he that is not against us is for us.”

I fear that in the not too distant future Christians are going to be so much under the gun that we will appreciate all fellow travelers. Let us remember, “He who is not against us is for us.”

Moravians have a great tradition on accepting others. As, our motto proclaims:

In Essentials Unity;
In Non-Essentials Charity;
In All things Love.

And what is Essential? The earliest confession of the church was, “Jesus is Lord.” According the Luke of Prague, a theologian of the Ancient Unity, the one essential is a heart relationship with the one God who reveals himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That is a great, large, net.

Finally, I think that hard times are just around the corner for more and more people.

Unemployment is almost 6 percent. Gasoline is $4.00 a gallon. An economist recently described the state our economy like this. He said that the economy resembles a group of people boarding an airplane. They expect a six-hour flight, but the plane only has fuel for four hours of flying time. Everything will appear normal until the fuel runs out two hours before destination. From that point, all heck breaks lose and sheer terror overwhelms the passengers. I like to think he is wrong, but I know some people who think he is right.

I have a friend who is almost 60. He has been a hard worker his whole life. He is a Vietnam Vet and won a Bronze Star for Valor. Yet he has been out of work for almost 9 months. He wants to work. He just can’t get a job. He is not alone. If a man or woman gets downsized or laid off at 55, it is tough to land another job

The young are affected, too. Just a last week a young man said to me, “I sense change is coming, and it won’t be good. My generation will not have the opportunities of your generation. Our world is smaller, and increasingly crowded, and more and more qualified people are competing for a slice of a pie that is growing smaller everyday. He finished by telling me that he was downsizing his house and his car, and, more importantly, he was downsizing his dreams!”

I told him I he could survive downsizing his house and car. I told him that he might just discover that “less is more.” I told him I was concerned about him downsizing his dreams. The thing that makes this country great is our freedom to dream great dreams. I am foolish enough to believe that if you can realistically dream a thing, then you can do it. And if you can do it, then we can all do it. I believe God is calling upon us to dream some big dreams, not for the sake of self, but for the sake of others.

Then there are the real problems, the problems that get our attention, right now. Last week, the President of Moravian College spoke in this pulpit. With tears in his voice—if not in his eyes, I could not tell, he touched upon some real problems: Aging parents, hurting children, broken marriages, unrealized dreams for someone to love, unemployment, serious illness. How are people going to cope?

On Saturday I heard a marvelous story on National Public Radio. It was about Melanie Roach, a pretty, girly, 117-pound, 33-year-old weightlifter who can clean and jerk over twice her body weight. She has already made the U.S. Olympic Team. She is on top of the world. It was not always so good. Melanie had a serious back injury that kept her off previous Olympic teams. More than that, she has an autistic son. At one point, he became the central focus and the central hardship of her life. She asked God to heal her son, and no healing came. Melanie is a devout Mormon. Frustrated she went to her Bishop. She said, “Bishop, I did not sign up for this.” Her Bishop responded, “Yes, you did. It is precisely what you signed up for.” He then told her that God had trusted her with her son, and that she would be a blessing to him, and he to her. He communicated to her that “God is able.” Melanie Roach said it was a turning point for her. It is since that time that her son has become her biggest supporter and her constant inspiration. Melanie’s cross has lifted her, all the way to the Olympics.

I am embarrassed when people confuse Moravian with Mormons. They ask questions like, “Worth, how many wives do you have?” I tell them that we are not cousins to the Mormons. We Moravians are the first and oldest protestant denomination, and belong to the magnificent middle of historic Christianity. And we have never practice polygamy! But we do have the New Testament in common with the Mormons and Melanie’s Bishop sounded a lot like the New Testament when he asked her to remember that she can do what she is called upon to do because God is able. Here are a few examples:

8 And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8

Consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25

My favorite is from Ephesians chapter 3:

20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21

The language is a little different but I particularly like it when St. Paul said:

For I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content. 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. 13 I can do all things in him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:11-13

In that same chapter, St. Paul makes another promise to Christians who are hurting. In Philippians 4:19, he says:

And my God will supply every need of yours, according to his riches in Glory in Christ Jesus.

And where does that leave us? What are we to do to be more Christian in the world? Well, I would like to leave you this morning with the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

Finis