February 23, 2014

10th Anniversary of Westwood’s ESL Ministry

Engagement

James 1:22-25; Luke 10:25-28

INTRODUCTION

What a GREAT day! It’s one Mike Cogdill would refer to as a HIGH AND HOLY DAY.

ESL students, we’re so glad you’re here…not just this morning…but all the time. You honor us and inspire us with your presence, with your stories, with your hard work, and your commitment. And thank you for leading our worship this morning in so many beautiful and creative ways. The offering of your talents and gifts pleases God and opens all of us to the movement of his Spirit among us today.

ESL leadership and faculty, thank you for all you do in this ministry. I know it’s a divine calling, a labor of love for you and that’s what I’m most thankful for. Today, we’re thinking about what it means to engage our world relationally with the transformative love of Jesus…and we need look no further than you and your work in this ESL ministry for a beautiful model of what loving engagement looks like. Thank you for being our model, and happy 10th Anniversary!

Surely, this is a high and holy day in God’s Kingdom, and in the life of Westwood.

TEXT

Today is the second of three sermons built on what the Bible has to say about three spiritual concepts foundational to our relationship with God and with each other – Transformation, Engagement, and Community. Last week, we considered God’s beautiful, and often difficult, process of TRANSFORMATION in our lives…what it looks like and how God helps us navigate those sometimes treacherous waters. Today, we’ll think about how, out of lives that are being transformed, we live out our divinely appointed mission to engage our world, even that part of the world that is our neighborhood, with the love of Jesus.

Sujeong and Daniel have offered beautiful readings of our Scriptural texts, so let’s turn our attention to those passages now.

SERMON BODY

James 1:22-25 JUST DO IT

First from James…he doesn’t beat around the bush does he? He get’s right to the point. Don’t just listen to the word…DO IT! James wants us to know that action, doing what God’s word says, engaging people in the name of Jesus…is our only viable response to hearing and receiving God’s word.

Just prior to where our text begins, James used an agricultural phrase to describe how God’s word works in us. He says the word is PLANTED in you. That term is used to describe grafting one species to another. The image is that God grafts his Word in us so that it is firmly and permanently implanted in our hearts; God’s word becomes a part of us and we’re a part of it. And so, doing what God’s word says becomes tangible evidence that the graft has taken; that God’s Word is actually a growing, living, transforming part of who we are…and as that becomes our spiritual living, breathing reality…we naturally engage our world from the perspective of the living word in us.

Think about the implications of that for a moment. Some folks seem to have the idea that hearing a good Sunday School lesson or listening to a Bible study or even paying attention through a whole sermon is what makes them grow spiritually. Some folks carry that a bit further, into personal Bible study…they read God’s word consistently…study it, reflect on it;they don’t settle for what someone else says about God’s word, but discover it for themselves. But James says, while all that’s really good stuff, really important stuff, it isn’t the end; it isn’t the listening but the doing that brings the growth and blessing. ILLUSTRATION: As one pastor bluntly put it…Too many Christians mark their Bibles, but their Bibles never mark them!

James says hearing and not doing is deceptive…a way of kidding ourselves. It’s like looking in a mirror, walking away, and forgetting what you look like…there’s no reference point. On a practical level, that means that we can go to church, quote a lot of Scripture, claim to believe in Jesus and the resurrection…but if all that doesn’t somehow translate into how we engage the world around us; how we treat our neighbor…we’re deceiving ourselves about being followers of Jesus.You know God’s word is making a difference in your life when it causes you engage the world; to get up and DO SOMETHING.

ILLUSTRATION: Albert Schweitzer was a German theologian, a New Testament scholar, and devoted his life to living as a medical missionary to Africa. A reporter visited with Schweitzer in Africa once to interview him as part of a feature story for a German magazine. The reporter asked what it was about his faith that moved him to leave his privileged life in Germany to slave in an obscure hospital buried deep in the jungles of the Belgian Congo. Schweitzer’s reply was simple and direct. I DECIDED TO MAKE MY LIFE MY ARGUMENT.

That’s James’ invitation;Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.That’s how we Christians ENGAGE people for Jesus; by making our lives our argument.So, what does that engagement look like in real life? Well, Jesus had a word about that for a lawyer one day.

Luke 10:25-28 (NIV)

Daniel gave us the background a few moments ago through his reading of Luke 10:25-28. It’s the encounter between Jesus and an inquisitive lawyer; the prelude to the well known parable of the Good Samaritan.

Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem, a place where he eventually was crucified. Along the way, he was approached by a lawyer, more specifically an expert in Mosaic Law, who tested him by asking the question, What must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus responded with a question of his own,What does the law say? The lawyer answered straight from the Torah…love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus, sounding a lot like James, saidGood answer! That means you know it…Now, Do it!

And while that sounds so simple, this lawyer was smart enough to understand that knowing what to do and doing it are two very different things. You see, like you and me, he knew the RIGHT WORDS, he gave the right Sunday School answer, but in his heart he didn’t want to do it. ILLUSTRATION: The Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard said that we Christians are a bunch of swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand the Bible because we know very well that the minute we understand it, we’re obligated to act accordingly. You see, engagement is hard, risky work, because it involves our acting on God’s revelation of himself in our lives…and that frightens and disturbs us.

The disturbing nature of actually engaging people as part of God’s work is reflected in the lawyer’s response to Jesus. In his own words, he’d acknowledged the requirement to love God and love neighbor, but now he wants clarification about that…uh Jesus, exactly who IS my neighbor?

Truth be known, there were some people and people groups in the lawyer’s world that he just simply didn’t want to love…for personal reasons, for ethnic reasons, for religious reasons…he didn’t want to love them as the Torah required. So, in asking the question, he was looking for a loophole, a way to narrow the definition of neighbor; looking for a way to exclude those he didn’t want to love.

I’m so much like this guy it makes me ashamed. Luke says he wanted to justify himself, which is another way of saying he wanted to do what he wanted to do…not what he knew God wanted him to do…and that’s how I act too. Instead of simply doing the next right thing, what I know God calls and wills me to do; instead of relationally engaging people in the name of Jesus, I use delay tactics, make excuses, I spin my spiritual wheels in the name of discernment…finding God’s will. If this guy had been sincere in seeking truth from Jesus, maybe a better response than who is my neighbor might have been, Jesus, how can I do this; how can I love God with all I am and then translate that love into sincere caring for other folks? Or, Jesus, this is hard. I know what I’m supposed to do, but I can’t do it on my own…I need help!And maybe that needs to be my response…or your response as well.

But the good news is Jesus didn’t give up on this lawyer, and he doesn’t give up on you and me. And so he told a story…a messy story about what loving your neighbor looks like…a hard story about relational engagement as an expression of that love…a shocking story that cast a Samaritan of all people in the role of doing the right thing…and he said to this Jewish lawyer, now you go act like that Samaritan. And it’s in that answer that Jesus challenged the lawyer to move beyond the right words, the pat religious answers. He challenged him, and he challenges us, to face what it means to not just KNOW about the love of Jesus, but engage the world…ALL the world…with the good news of that love in action.

And so, if we take Jesus’ words seriously, it means we have to face and name our own Samaritans. Those people or groups of people we don’t want to associate with, and so, like the lawyer, we seek to justify ourselvesand our disassociation on personal or religious or ethnic or moral grounds. But our problem is that Jesus won’t let us off the hook...if we take him seriously, we have to respond to God’s missional call to engage those people we’d prefer to avoid.

What if we did that? What if you and I began to practice this simple truth in our daily lives? What if we, like the Samaritan in Jesus’ story, began to show basic human kindness to people…all people. My goodness, we could begin with each other…simply showing kindness to our brothers and sisters right here. And then, assuming we could practice that in our relationships inside the church, what if it spread outside the walls? What if we became so accustomed to practicing kindness, that even in our encounters with those to whom we find it difficult to be kind; those who aren’t like us in any way; those who aren’t even kind to us…we began to hear God’s voice whispering in our ears…For God’s sake, you’re a Christian, be kind! And we responded by doing it!

And that can happen. Because when God transforms us and our thinking and our attitude like that, then, loving our neighbor becomes defined by engagement rather than by simply saying the right words…and oh how practicing that truth could change the world…oh how it could change us…if only we will not only hear, but obey the words of Jesus…do this, and you will live.

CONCLUSION

Jesus said the greatest commandment is the one stated by the lawyer in Luke 10…to love God with all we are and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Through transformed lives, you and I live out that commandment through engagement…being agents of God’s love in our world. That’s the essence of what it means to call ourselves followers of Jesus…experiencing God’s love for us…and our expressing our love for God by loving our neighbor.

God’s ability and willingness to love isn’t restricted by our prejudice, pre-conceived ideas, grudges, hurt feelings, or bigotry. God’s love doesn’t depend on our knowing and saying the right words, but in demonstrating that love as we engage others. Here at Westwood, we’re blessed with marvelous examples of that engagement up close and personal. And one of those is in the ministry we celebrate today…the relational teaching of English as a Second Language.

But I challenge each of us to make the question personal. How will you respond, how will I respond to God’s call to engagement? What does it look like for me? Will you allow the Holy Spirit to move you in the direction God desires – the way of love and kindness toward the OTHER in your life…whomever that OTHER might be? Growing out of the transforming power of God’s love in your life…will you engage your neighbor with the transformative love of Jesus?

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