October 2021

First Reading

Genesis 32:24-31

24Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 27So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” 29Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” 31The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

Introduction

We are still dreaming with God. Two weeks ago we talked about writing down and committing to God’s dreams. Last week we heard about seeking God’s dreams. And this week we’re going to figure out how to notice when God responds when we want to know his dreams.

As a reminder, we have our dream board out by the elevator in Chandler Hall. And we placed the dream cards in the pew racks in front of you, so hopefully you’ll write down your dreams and pin them to the board. Last week we focused our dreams on the children and youth of the church. This week we are focusing our dreams on mission and service. What are God’s dreams for us in terms of how we bless our community? What are God’s dreams for us as we demonstrate and share our faith around us? What are God’s dreams for our big missions like the Community Dinner, Thanksgiving Deliveries, Whiz Kids, and others? Write down what you sense and pin it on the dream board.

We heard in our first text how God got Jacob’s attention. God had to literally come down and wrestle him all night. While that seems a bit extreme, sometimes I wouldn’t mind it if God were that obvious with me, too. But usually it’s a bit more subtle, and so let’s hear how the early church noticed God’s direction and God’s dreams. In this section, we’re following along with Paul’s missionary journeys after his conversion to following Jesus. Paul has taken up the mantle of spreading the good news about Jesus to Gentiles – Greeks, Romans, anyone who will listen. Let’s hear how they notice God’s dreams for them.

Sermon Text

Acts 16:6-15

6They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; 8so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. 11We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, 12and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. 13On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. 14A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. 15When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.

Noticing Your Spirit

Did you ever play with magnets? Perhaps the better question is, why aren’t you still playing with magnets? Magnets are certifiably fun for any age.

In case you are a bit rusty on your magnetism, remember that magnets have two sides, called poles. If you try to push two bar magnets together, in one direction they will snap together quickly and strongly as their poles attract. If you try to push the two bar magnets together from the other poles, however, they will repel each other and stay apart.

That’s where the phrase “magnetic attraction” comes from – you’re just inexorably drawn to something as if by the unseen force of magnetism.

And by carefully watching those magnets, you can do remarkable things. Magnets can lift trains. Magnets in motion can become electricity in generators. Magnets can provide navigation in compasses. Magnets can contain the forces of the sun in fusion reactors.

But the key to working with magnets and magnetism? You have to pay close attention to little details. A little bit out of balance, and the train is finished, the generator is broken, the compass is useless, or the reactor is down. You must pay careful attention to the magnets.

And the same is true of the spirit within us.

In our text today, Paul had two interesting interactions with his spirit. He paid careful attention to the spiritual magnet within him that was pushing and pulling him along God’s dreams.

The first example was actually a repulsion, not an attraction. Verse 7 says, “When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” Isn’t that surprising? The Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go to Bithynia to spread the good news about him! Isn’t that shocking?!?

And we never get an explanation for that. They just pass on by to Troas. We don’t know exactly why the Spirit of Jesus prevented them from going to that town when Paul wanted to go. But we do know that Paul and his companions picked up on this opposition from the Spirit, and they passed on by.

The second encounter with the spiritual magnet was an attraction. Verse 9 says, “During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”

His spirit was denied in Bithynia, but his spirit was drawn to Macedonia. Noticing this spirit within, Paul and his companions went to Macedonia “immediately,” the text says.

Do you know how to notice the magnetism of your spirit? Do you know how to notice if God is repulsing or attracting you toward something? Paying attention to your inner spiritual compass is one way to notice if God is leading you toward or away from something. Of course, like a compass, it’s best partnered with some other things to make sure it’s not just your own preferences talking.

Noticing Your Purpose

Paul and his companions took their spiritual compasses and partnered them with their sense of purpose. Paul knew he was called to reveal the good news about Jesus to the Gentiles. His ministry was not focused on Jerusalem. It was focused on everywhere beyond Jerusalem. His purpose was about starting new churches.

Armed with that sense of purpose and direction, Paul and his companions could more easily sense God’s dreams. And they could more easily sense when the Spirit of Jesus was telling them something wasn’t part of God’s dreams for them right now. They knew their #1 thing for that season of life.

What’s your #1 thing right now? If you could only have one sentence, one most important thing, one top concept, what would it be?

Does it have something to do with your family? Your grandkids?

Does it have something to do with your inner self? Your spirit?

Does it have something to do with your work? Your school?

Does it have something to do with your community? Or your church?

What’s your #1 thing right now? If you know that, you’ll be better able to notice God’s dreams.

And your purpose can also serve as a companion to the compass of your inner spirit. If you have followed along with Paul’s journeys at all, you know he persistently risked life and limb for his purpose. He probably didn’t look forward to that. In fact, his journey to Jerusalem and his imprisonment is a long-running story arc in the book of Acts. He wept about it. Yet he went anyway.

His inner spirit did not want to go, but he knew it was part of his purpose. That’s how your purpose can partner with your spiritual compass. Because some things are worth some pain. Some things are worth the effort. Some things are worth displeasure and annoyance and hardship and challenge. The right things, God’s things, are worth it.

Noticing the Overlooked

The final way Paul and his companions noticed God’s dreams was by intentionally noticing those who others overlook. This was one of their common tactics whenever they were starting new churches. When someone is accustomed to being ignored, giving them attention is attention-grabbing!

In our text today, they found a group of women who had gathered outside the city. Not the halls of the powerful. Not the mayor. Not the college. Not the center of the market. Not the garrison. Not the cathedral or synagogue. Just some overlooked women outside the city.

And that’s where the good news of Jesus found its root. With the people who needed good news and knew they needed good news.

Very often, God works out his dreams among people whom others overlook. So noticing the overlooked is another way to notice God’s dreams. God’s beauty is often found where things aren’t beautiful.

A missionary was preaching in the village market, and some of the people were laughing at him because he was not a very handsome man. He took it for a time, and then he said to the crowd, “It is true that I do not have beautiful hair, for I am almost bald. Nor do I have beautiful teeth, for they are really not mine; they were made by the dentist. I do not have a beautiful face, nor can I afford to wear beautiful clothes. But this I know: I have beautiful feet!”

And he quoted the verse from Isaiah: “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation” (Isa. 52:7).

Do you have beautiful feet? Do you bring good tidings to the overlooked? That’s part of God’s dream.

Dream Focus: Mission

And that’s why today is a good day to focus our dreaming attention to our mission and service.

When we are able to resume the Community Dinner, it will resume our focus on the overlooked. When people can again be noticed and valued and fed and served and welcomed, it will resume our focus on the overlooked.

When you bring in your Operation Christmas Child boxes over the next two Sundays, you’re providing gifts and a Gospel message for a child who would otherwise be overlooked.

Our Thanksgiving meal deliveries provide food on a day when so many other places are closed, serving the overlooked. And remember that our leader, Stacey Ryan, is in her final year and looking for some people to walk with her so we can provide for the overlooked next year. This ministry has been handed from person to person, group to group, so that we can continue to bless people in the name of Jesus. Would you be part of the next hand off? Let’s not drop that baton!

We are also exploring something new and time-sensitive in our community. If you rewind the clock to the years after World War II, First Presbyterian Church of Littleton responded to the massive displacement of people by working with two refugee families from Eastern Europe. Some in our church have felt God stirring them that First Presbyterian Church of Littleton should do the same for Afghan refugees today.

There are now agencies that do this, so we wouldn’t be reinventing the wheel or out on our own. Maybe we can partner with other churches. What we are doing right now is calling for a meeting of any who are interested in exploring the idea. What would it look like for us? We have some contacts, but we need someone to track down the info. Come up with a proposal. And do it quickly.

The letters “p” and “q” might be next to each other in the alphabet, but Presbyterian and “quickly” aren’t usually associated. This would have to be pretty fast, and there would have to be a fair number of people interested, and there would need to be someone to spearhead it just as Lynda Kizer does for the Community Dinner, just as Stacey Ryan is for the Thanksgiving Dinner this year, just as Roberta Wheeler is for Whiz Kids, just as so many others do for other missions.

If you have interest, we’ll gather after church next Sunday on November 7 in Ayers Parlor. We’ll see if there are enough people and the right leadership and the right quickness to make something happen. We’ll see if this is part of God’s dreams for First Pres Littleton today. God moved in our midst after World War II. Is God moving in our midst in a similar way today for Afghans?

Summary

Sisters and brothers, Paul and his companions showed us three ways we can intentionally notice God’s dreams. We can pay attention to the compass of our inner spirits. We can know our purpose, our #1 thing right now, and that can help us know where to go, when to say “no,” and when to push through difficulties. And we can also intentionally notice the overlooked, because God’s dreams often start there.

What God dreams will we notice this week? Amen.

First Reading

Hebrews 10:31-39 – 31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 32But recall those earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting. 35Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward. 36For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. 37For yet “in a very little while, the one who is coming will come and will not delay; 38but my righteous one will live by faith. My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back.” 39But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.

Introduction

We are still in our series about dreaming with God. Last week we talked about the power of writing down and committing to God’s dreams. We moved the brightly-colored pieces of paper into the pew rack in front of you. We hope we can fill up the dream board next to the elevator with God dreams.

This week, we encourage you to think about the children and youth. What dreams do you have for the children and youth of our church? What dreams do you think God has for the children and youth of our church? If the Holy Spirit puts something on your heart, write it down on one of those pieces of paper and tack it to the dream board. Let’s dream together with God.

This week we are seeking God’s dreams with Solomon. Just a reminder of the context here, Solomon was David’s son. He came to power contentiously – and with bloodshed – at a young age. At this point in his story, he knows he is capable but he also knows he is in over his head if God isn’t with him. In our main text today, we get to listen in to a conversation between Solomon and God. We will focus on three ways that Solomon intentionally sought God’s dreams, so see if you can notice these as we go. Solomon used a place, a posture, and a prayer.

Sermon Text

1 Kings 3:3-15 – 3Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David; only, he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places. 4The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask what I should give you.” 6And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. 7And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. 9Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?” 10It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. 13I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you. 14If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life.” 15Then Solomon awoke; it had been a dream. He came to Jerusalem where he stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. He offered up burnt offerings and offerings of well-being, and provided a feast for all his servants.

Place

“Under the sea! Under the sea! There’ll be no accusations, just friendly crustaceans. Under the sea!”

That is Homer Simpson’s solution to some troubles in the life of the Simpson family – just move under the sea to escape it! To which his wife, Marge, replies, “Homer that’s your solution to everything to move under the sea. It’s not gonna happen!”

Homer wants to move under the sea because he thinks it will be safe. But joking aside, where do you want to go when you want to feel safe? And where do you want to go when you want to be in God’s presence?

Do you go to church to be in God’s presence? Do you go on a hike? Do you have a place in your house? In the movie “War Room,” Clara converts her closet into a prayer room with Scriptures, a prayer list, and remembrances of all the answered prayers. That’s her prayer war room.

Where do you go to be in the presence of God? What’s your place?

In our text today, Solomon seeks the presence of God at a particular place: Gibeon. Our text says that Gibeon was, “the principal high place,” and that “Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.” High places were essentially places of worship and altars setup on hills and mountains. Before Solomon built the Temple later in his life, these high places were the primary places of worship.

Gibeon had one of the largest high places. It was one of the most famous. And if he offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar, I think we can say that Solomon was considered a regular there. That was Solomon’s place.

And in our text today, Solomon sought God there. Things were happening fast. Solomon needed the confidence that comes with clarity. He needed to seek and know God’s dreams. So he went to Gibeon. He went to his place.

Where is your place? Try to think of a specific place, or a specific room, or a specific hiking trail, or specific music that brings you into the presence of God. Solomon didn’t just go outside to worship, he didn’t just go to some high place, he went to Gibeon, where he had sought God’s presence a thousand times before. Where is your place?

We’re encouraging you to think about the children and youth of the church when you write down God dreams for the dream board. The youth needed a place to seek God, so they decorated the fourth floor main room several years ago. The children needed a place to seek God, and they have the ocean-themed room on the main level before you come up the stairs. Those are places they can seek the presence of God here at this church.

If you don’t know your place, try to pin that down. Because having a particular place can help you intentionally seek God’s dreams.

Posture

In our text today, Solomon also had a posture. The text says, “the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night.” Solomon’s posture was laying down. Have you ever thought about your life while you’re trying to go to sleep? That’s what Solomon was doing. He was at Gibeon – his place – seeking the Lord. And he was laying down – his posture – which helped him think deeply.

A philosopher once said, “all truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.” Lots of people do their best thinking walking. That’s their posture.

But on the other hand, there was an author who wrote, “Find a moment of stillness, give your heart a chance to tell you where you really need to be.” For some people, stillness is the posture that connects them with their deepest and truest thoughts.

Others connect best with God through intense exercise or long runs. Christian author Ruth Haley Barton highlighted this: “Exercise brings mental and physiological changes, including the flood of body-made opiates that induce what’s called the “runner’s high.” This physiological dynamic can create a change in consciousness, a kind of expansiveness in which the runner feels more integrated with his or her surroundings and the Creator himself.”

So for some, exercise in general or running in particular are postures that bring out their best thoughts in the presence of God.

So what posture helps you seek God? For Solomon it was laying down before sleep. For others it’s walking, or running, or exercising. For others it’s stillness or sitting. Do you raise your hands to heaven in praise? Or do you bow your head in respect? What posture helps you seek God?

Prayer

Once Solomon had his place and his posture, he encountered God through prayer.

This is such an interesting scenario. What would you say if God gave you the same opportunity he gave Solomon? How would you reply to God’s command in our text today: “Ask what I should give you.”

As an interesting note, God didn’t say, “I will give you whatever you ask.” God told Solomon he should “ask what I should give you” with no guarantee of the result. That’s a key distinction. God isn’t a genie in a bottle or a magic vending machine in the sky ready to shower us with holy gifts on demand.

So how would you reply? Really think about that. If you had a chance to ask God for one thing – at His request mind you – what would you ask for?

When people win the lottery, there are some common things they buy: luxury vacations, new cars, gifts for families, new homes. Of course, buying those things also leads 70% of lotto winners to run out of money within five years.

What would you want? What would your request be? What would your personal, 1-on-1, face-to-face prayer to God be? Would you want someone healed? Would you want direction? Would you want God to change something within you? Would you want the upcoming winning lotto numbers so you, too, could lose all of the money within five years?

Solomon’s famous prayer in our text today was, “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?”

Most people wouldn’t pray that prayer if they were given the same opportunity that Solomon was. Of course, Solomon himself was only days removed from his first huge mistake – marrying Pharaoh’s daughter, who would lead him further and further away from God. And Solomon’s later life was anything but God-honoring. But here on this day, he had a fabulous prayer for an understanding mind.

What would your prayer be?

If you don’t know, there are some famous prayers that have helped people seek God throughout the ages. One famous prayer is the Serenity Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Another famous prayer is from St. Francis of Assisi:

“Lord, make me an instrument of your 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,
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
seek to be consoled as to console,
not so much to be understood as to understand,
not so much to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we awake to eternal life.”

Another option is St. Patrick’s prayer:

“Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I arise,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every one who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
Salvation is of the Lord.
Salvation is of the Christ.
May your salvation, Lord, be ever with us.”

Of course you could pray the Lord’s Prayer, or Psalm 23.

Or you could do what Pastor Wayne Cordeiro told Pastor Cody at the Hawaii Leadership Practicum: prayer can be thinking deeply about something in the presence of God.

If you truly want to seek God’s dreams, the only way to do that is through intentional prayer. So what’s your prayer?

In fact, that’s another way to fill out the dream cards in the pew racks in front of you. If you don’t have a specific dream for the children and youth of First Pres Littleton, what’s your prayer for them? You can write down your prayer and pin it to the dream board, too.

Summary

Sisters and brothers, Solomon shows us how we can intentionally seek God’s dreams. Solomon went to his spiritual place, he put himself into his spiritual posture, and he focused on his prayer. Do you have a place? Do you have a posture? Do you have a prayer? That’s how we seek God’s dreams intentionally. Amen.

View the Sermon

First Reading

1 Samuel 3:1-11

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. 2At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; 3the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. 4Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” 5and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. 6The Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” 7Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. 8The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. 9Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

11Then the Lord said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.

Introduction

We are starting a new series for the next six weeks. And credit where credit is due – I asked Carol if she had any ideas and this was her excellent idea. So for the next six weeks we will be dreaming with God. What are God’s dreams for this church? What are God’s dreams for your life? What are God’s dreams for this city? And how can we intentionally dream with God?

Today we’re going to talk about committing to God’s dreams. And that’s two different parts. Committing. To God’s dreams. I’ll say that again – committing…to God’s dreams.

Our main text today is from the Old Testament book of Nehemiah. In a curious case of timing, we’ve been using the Life Journal devotional reading plan for Sunday school and my men’s Monday evening Bible study. And anyone using that reading plan just finished going through the book of Nehemiah. And no, I didn’t look that up before picking these texts.

Nehemiah is all about rebuilding – figuratively and literally. This takes place 70 years after Jerusalem and the Temple of God were destroyed by the Babylonians. By this time, the Persians have taken over, and they are more keen on returning the conquered peoples rather than keeping them all in Babylon. So Nehemiah is granted permission and resources to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city wall so people can live there in safety once again.

The first half of Nehemiah is all about the challenges they overcame while rebuilding the wall. And then it turns from “can they build it” to “can they keep it.” And then, in the parts we’ll read today, the text asks, “what’s the next dream after the wall?” What kind of people will they be now that they’re safe? After hearing some of the most important scrolls that would later become what we know as the Old Testament, Nehemiah and the people starting writing down and committing to the things they heard in the scrolls.

Sermon Text

Nehemiah 9:38, 10:28-29, 32, 35-36

9:38Because of all this we make a firm agreement in writing, and on that sealed document are inscribed the names of our officials, our Levites, and our priests.

10:28The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to adhere to the law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, 29join with their kin, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord and his ordinances and his statutes.

10:32We also lay on ourselves the obligation to charge ourselves yearly one-third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God

10:35We obligate ourselves to bring the first fruits of our soil and the first fruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the Lord; 36also to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God, the firstborn of our sons and of our livestock, as it is written in the law, and the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks

God’s Dreams

Ask anyone, “How’s your church doing?” and they’re going to respond with an evaluation of three things. Ask almost any person about almost any church, and these same three things will dominate their evaluation of how the church is doing. Let’s see if you can guess the three things, and here’s a hint: they are the ABC’s. Any guesses on the ABC’s of how your church is doing?

Attendance. Building. Cash. ABC’s – attendance, building, and cash.

Now, I’m not disparaging those three things. Attendance is good! Every person who is attending church is choosing that over a thousand other things they could be doing. Attendance is good!

And the building is good! This building, and this sanctuary in particular, is a witness to God when people from our community come in for the Quilt Show or something else. And this building is used as a gathering place for our community – Boy Scouts, painting groups, AA, and others. When the Arapahoe County family services needed a temporary home while their building was being renovated, we were able to host them. The building is good!

And cash is good, too! Cash pays for the staff who enable our many choirs, pastoral care, leadership, stewardship of the building, discipleship for all ages, technological outreach to the community, and so many other things. Cash is needed to run the Community Dinner, or tutor with Whiz Kids, or the Samaritan’s Purse boxes we’ll be sending around the world in a few weeks. Cash helps ministry happen. A church having cash is good!

But if we’re going to dream…with God…we need to focus – not just on good things like the ABC’s, but on God things. To dream with God, we need to focus on God things, not just good things. And God things are often very different than just the plain old ABC’s.

What do you think? What’s a God thing, not just a good thing, for First Pres Littleton? What is God dreaming for us right now? What is God dreaming for your personal life right now?

Vivid, Not Generic

In my household, I am the official designated online researcher. I am skilled at ferreting out the issues with products, so we can then determine if we care about those issues. For instance, we got a good deal on a grill several years ago because reviewers said it was very difficult to assemble. I can handle that! No big deal! Of course, it was over 100 pages of instructions, assumed you had 2-3 people helping, and the wiring diagram was clearly wrong. So yes, it was very difficult to assemble. I wouldn’t want to do it again, but it’s done now and it’s trucking along just fine.

One of the big questions when researching products online is whether you can go generic or if you need the brand name. For example, charging cables. If you just need to get some juice into your phone, you can probably get by with the generics. But if you have a laptop that can be powered with a special type of USB cable, you might want to spring for the brand name and avoid the potential for a fire. Trust me on this. You’ll thank me later.

When Nehemiah proposed his plan to the Persian king, he didn’t give a generic answer. He didn’t say he wanted his people to be safe. He didn’t say he wanted his people to be happy. No, he said he wanted to go to Jerusalem and rebuild its walls. Very specific. Very vivid. Not generic at all. That’s a vision.

Do you want a generic vision? Or a vivid one?

We have two baptisms next week – very exciting! Anyone here ever have kids? Anyone? When they were young, did you think to yourself, “I hope my son or my daughter grows up to be a blandly generic person”? Did you want your kids to grow up to be bland and generic? Probably not.

Do you want this phase of your life to be blandly generic? Or do you want a vivid dream – a God dream?

Almost every church in history has had three things in its mission: love God, love people, serve others. The words might differ, but those three themes are pretty much the same for every church everywhere. So if we’re all trying to love God, love people, and serve others, why do we need First Pres Littleton, Littleton United Methodist, Ascension Lutheran, St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Littleton Baptist Church, and who knows how many others just in our area?

If our church is generic, does Jesus really need this church in this building in this moment?

Will Mancini wrote in his book God Dreams, “The church of God doesn’t have a mission as much as the mission of God has a church.” The mission of God doesn’t change. But it gets lived out in a particular time in particular people in a particular place.

That kind of specific, vivid, Nehemiah rebuilding the walls-style dream? That’s what we need moving forward.

But unlike Nehemiah’s time, I don’t think our dream is about a major, visible project like a wall. I think our God dream needs to be about people. God dreams about people, not bricks and stained glass and cash. The bricks and the stained glass and the cash can help realize God’s dreams about people, but they are rarely the dream itself.

There are some things that I believe are God things, not just good things. Let me know if you think these are God dreams for this place with this people at this time.

My God dream is that you would be inspired to have God dreams. My God dream is that you would be inspired to invest in your faith, in your soul, in your very being. My God dream is that you would be inspired to make this church and this city look a little more like heaven – and that starts with each of us personally.

My God dream is that we – all of us – would see each other as sisters and brothers in Christ even if we can’t stand where someone else gets their news. My God dream is to see relationships grow and flourish across every age and stage in our church.

After church today, I’m going to share some of the big ideas in the budget request. These God things can only happen with some of those ABC’s, so the scale of our ministry is determined by your inspiration and your generosity. To help foster relationships across our whole church, we have some God dreams in the budget for 2022.

We dream of 4-5 all church catered meals in 2022. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but I do believe it needs to be catered so everyone can enjoy it instead of having the same 20 people volunteering to make it happen. And if we get to do that in 2022, I encourage everyone to sit with some people who have at least twenty years of age difference from you. Several of our Sunday school kids would be happy to catch you up on the latest news in Lego land. What can you catch them up on? Start thinking!

We dream of the interim properties manager position becoming permanent. We’ve had a cadre of able volunteers, but that cadre has shrunk too low to keep up with the building. We also spend a lot of our Elders’ energy every Sunday opening and closing the building. What could we accomplish if we had a properties manager handling that, freeing up time and energy for our church leadership? And part of that dream is finishing several projects we’ve had on our back burner for years – creating and then following a full preventative maintenance plan, restarting the renovation team and prioritizing dreams around the building, creating a process where people in the church or even outside groups can easily pass along any issues they see while they’re here, being able to handle a wider variety of room setups. That dream unleashes energy for our leadership and helps us leverage one of those ABC’s for ministry without burning out our volunteers who have been going above and beyond for so long.

I personally dream about this church having a discipleship plan. I’ve been in churches where the plan was small groups. I’ve been in churches where the plan was one day a week where everyone gathered for a meal and Bible studies. I’ve been in churches where Sunday morning had vibrant and extensive options for everyone to invest in their faith. I’ve spent time with church leaders who invested their time and energy in connecting everyone in the church with a devotional and making groups that helped that happen. There are a lot of different plans out there. I created one called Organic Discipleship on my sabbatical that has the basics for everyone and then connects people with a more personalized framework for spiritual direction after that. We have various groups and options, but no plan. Our options are driven by who’s interested in creating or maintaining something, not a plan. I dream about a plan for making deeper and broader and thriving followers of Jesus. We need something more vivid and specific instead of generic.

If you stick around after church today, I’ll share more of those big ideas that are in our 2022 budget request, and I’ll field questions as well. Those are some of the God dreams that have surfaced from our church leadership, from our church committees, and from our staff.

Those are some of the God dreams from church leadership, from staff, from me. What God dreams do you have?

The Power of the Pen

In the movie The Replacements, Gene Hackman is going to be hired to coach this football team full of has-been’s and never-was replacement players during a strike by the normal pro players. As he negotiates with the team owner, he says, “I get to do it my way.” The owner replies, “Yes.” “No interference!” “Of course!” Gene Hackman laughs and says, “I’m gonna need that in writing.”

Writing something down makes it a commitment. It’s more real.

Writing things down can also help us see how something is possible. For example, I’m going to give you some verbal directions. And I want you to remember them. OK? Now, I’ve simplified these to make it easier to remember.

So first, you’re going to get on 470 and head toward I-25. Follow I-25 South and US-87S for 379 miles until you reach Ranch to Market Rd 1061 in Boys Ranch. Follow signs to get on I-27 South in Randall County from FM2381 and W Hollywood Rd. Stay on I-27 for 51 miles. Then get on US-84E in Slaton via FM 400 South, and keep going for 56 miles. Now you need to follow signs to Austin for 369 miles until you can take US-183 all the way down to FM 1626 in Hays County. Now you’re only 3.2 miles from my parents’ house. Ready to drive? Or would you like a map and some written directions? Or better yet, a GPS. Or an airplane!

We have to write down directions unless we only want to go where we’ve been many times before. God’s dreams are far more difficult to conceive than mere directions. How much more do we need to write down these dreams and try to create a visual map together? If we can’t drive somewhere new without directions, how can we hope to go in new directions as people, as a church, as a community without writing it down?

I hope you will dream with me for the next six weeks of this sermon series. And I hope you will write down your dreams. You probably saw something new out in Chandler Hall on your way into the Sanctuary today. That’s our Dream Board. The idea is for the congregation to write down your God dreams and post them to that board. Over the next six weeks, I hope we fill it up with vivid, specific God dreams. These dreams can be about what God could do within you. These dreams can be about what God could do in our church. These dreams can be about what God could do in our community. If you have a God dream, write it down. Help us see the map to your God dream!

Here’s what the Israelites did after building the wall in Nehemiah. In our text today, they put pen to paper.

“we make a firm agreement in writing, and on that sealed document are inscribed the names of our officials, our Levites, and our priests…their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, join with their kin, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s law…We also lay on ourselves the obligation to charge ourselves yearly one-third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God…We obligate ourselves to bring the first fruits of our soil and the first fruits of all fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the Lord.”

They had rebuilt the wall. Great job! But now they wanted to become a different kind of people. They wanted to become the people of God once more. So they made a firm agreement in writing. They placed a curse on themselves if they broke their agreement. They obligated themselves to fund this mission. And they put all of it in writing – a commitment to God’s dreams.

Do we want to renew our spirits and become the people of God once more? Let’s dream those God dreams together, and write them down. I wonder what God could do in our midst. Do you wonder? Do you dream? Amen.

View the Sermon

First Reading

Ephesians 4:1-16 – I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. 7But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” 9(When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) 11The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

Introduction

We are still in our series about cultivating gratitude in our lives. Last week we were grateful for music and the impact it has on our lives. I hope we want to be a “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” church rather than an apathetic elevator music church, figuratively speaking.

This week we are grateful for differences. It lines up pretty nicely with today being World Communion Sunday. Churches all across the globe are celebrating the Lord’s Supper today just as we are. Today we can remember that we commune with each other, we commune with Jesus, we commune with Christians across our country, we commune with Christians across our world, and we commune with Christians of the past and present and future. Across all those differences, we commune together in the way Jesus taught us when we come to this table. No matter where or when we live, no matter the finer points of our theology, at this table we are brothers and sisters of Jesus.

Now that sounds all nice and kumbaya. But I don’t think our world feels quite that unified in the name of Christ. Do you? Luckily for us, we get to peek over the shoulder of the church in Corinth in the first century AD. They had some serious tectonic fault lines in their city and in their church. They had people from different countries. They had rich and poor. They had slaves and slave owners singing hymns next to each other. And so the Apostle Paul had to write this letter and this section about being part of the same body. Not because they had this figured out. Not because this was the felt reality in the church. No, he wrote this precisely because they were struggling to see each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. Let’s see if we can learn a few things from them.

Sermon Text

1 Corinthians 12:12-31 – 12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. 27Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

Monoculture

You hear about my kids pretty frequently, but I don’t often talk about my dog. Our beloved lab Stella died tragically right before we moved to Colorado, so after we settled in here we contacted a lab rescue agency. We were hoping for another lab – one of those big, lovable, clumsy, enthusiastic doofuses. Somehow we wound up with a small dog who has just about every other high energy sporty dog mix in her genealogy as well. But she is FABULOUS with the kids! She helps Charlie when he’s having seizures. She’s great with the kids, and she brings a lot of humor to our house even though she is clearly not a purebred labrador retriever and she’s not even particularly close to a purebred.

But that got me thinking about other purebred dogs. Have you seen a Chow Chow? Very interesting looking dog. You, too, could have one for the low price of $11,000. But you had better save up because purebred Chow Chows suffer from hip dysplasia, improper thyroid function, eye issues, AND they’re a notoriously stubborn breed that’s hard to train.

If that’s too rich for your blood, how about an English Bulldog? For a bargain basement price of $4,300 you can begin your English Bulldog journey. But that unique bulldog face also makes it susceptible to a host of breathing issues and trouble regulating temperature. They are also known for various skin issues and bone and joint diseases and eye problems.

So people pay gobs of money to get purebred dogs that look cool, even though they also buy into health issues caused by narrow breeding. Labrador Retrievers are also known for some health issues like hip dysplasia. And do you know what our vet said about our obviously mixed-heritage Scout? “At least you shouldn’t have to worry about the typical lab health issues.”

A purebred dog probably looks good. A purebred dog probably makes you feel good. But a purebred dog also contains its own genetic problems that undermine its health. Good looks traded for bad genetics.

In agriculture, this trade off comes with monoculture. It’s more economical and more efficient to run a business that only grows one type of banana. So the Gros Michel banana, a large, flavorful banana, became the cultivar du jour until the 1950’s. That’s when a fungus called Fusarium wilt basically wiped out the Gros Michel bananas around the world. The Cavendish banana resisted the wilt, so that’s what we eat today.

Of course, now there’s a new variant of the wilt. And it’s wiping out the Cavendish everywhere it finds a toehold. So when humans had to start worrying about new variants of COVID emerging, bananas were like, welcome to my world, dude! You’re just playing second banana, here!

Bananas have the monoculture problem even worse than purebred dogs. Have you ever wondered why bananas don’t have seeds? Plants can’t reproduce without seeds, right? Well bananas are actually clones. The bananas we eat are all genetically identical clones of one banana from long ago. Cloning bananas makes for good business. But it also lays the seeds of its own demise. Pun intended on that one.

It is not healthy to have everything the same. It might look good. It might make you feel good. But it’s not healthy. It works until something comes along that wipes out all the cloned bananas.

It’s not healthy for purebred dogs. It’s not healthy for cloned bananas. Even the company that we used to rehabilitate our lawn a few years ago went with a blend of 80% Kentucky Bluegrass and 20% rye. It’s not even healthy for my grass to be 100% the same type! In the same way, it’s not healthy for human communities to be 100% the same. It’s not healthy for churches for everything to be the same. For everyone to be the same.

What would this church look like if we were all Cody clones? There would be some advantages. We’d probably have the most technologically advanced ministry in the world. We could have meetings not just by Zoom, but inside the virtual reality metaverse!

But it would also get weird in a hurry. With the number of Star Wars and space references I could make in my sermons, we’d probably be sponsored by Lucasfilm and Lockheed Martin. I’m notoriously Scrooge-ish about Christmas decorations, so who knows what Advent would look like around here. Or I shared last week that I’ve had many different musical phases in my life. What if we were a bunch of Cody clones and I was still in my rap phase? We’d have some phat beats coming out of that organ! And yes, that would be a terrible idea.

Purebred dogs give you good looks, but the trade off is bad health. Banana clones give you tasty fruit and good business, but the trade off is a risk that the whole species can be wiped out quickly. Human monocultures give you a tremendous feeling of affirmation and belonging. We all want that! That feels good! But the trade off is that human monocultures can’t distinguish between good and bad ideas.

My dad used to say this joke about my mom – which got him in trouble, by the way. So, sorry Dad, Mom’s gonna watch this and you’ll be in trouble again thanks to the memory of this joke. My dad used to joke that my mom had ten ideas a week. Eight of them were pretty good. One of them was brilliant. One would land you in jail. And the trouble was that she couldn’t distinguish between them.

That is a fabulous summary of the problem of having a group of people who all think alike. There are some great ideas in that group. There are some horrid ideas in that group. No one can distinguish between them because no one has a different enough perspective. There’s no one to tell you that hip hop on the organ is a terrible idea!

Now, I use that as a joking example. But there are equally bad ideas in probably every human monoculture on the planet. They just can’t see it. I’ve seen it in conservative monocultures I’ve been around. I’ve seen it in liberal monocultures I’ve been around. I was even in a church where free-thinking was the core concept. Everyone thought differently, but they all agreed that everyone should be a free thinker. That was their monoculture. And it got weird there, too. Turns out they liked being the one free thinker rather than everyone free thinking. It didn’t feel as special.

Every group. Every country. Every race. Every philosophy. Every religion. If you only spend time with people who think like you, you’ll have some great ideas and some terrible ideas, and no one in your group will be able to tell the difference.

Grateful for Differences…through the Primacy of Christ

Our text today was written to the church in Corinth. Now, Corinth was a melting pot. It was a Greek city that was rebuilt as a Roman city. It was re-settled by Roman freed slaves, but ruled by Roman elite. It was a place where cultures from across the Mediterranean mingled. And the early church had all of those different groups. The early church had all of those potential divisions.

You had Jews who felt superior because Jesus was a Jew. You had Greeks who felt superior because the Gospel was spreading in greater numbers among them instead of Jews. You had descendants of the freed slave settlers who felt superior because their family had roots in Corinth. You had slave owners who felt superior because of their economic clout. And you had current slaves…who probably didn’t feel superior, but in this church they felt hope. And they weren’t going to let anyone take that hope from them.

So we see that the earliest churches had people who seemed diametrically opposed to each other in almost every way. ALMOST every way. In fact, maybe they seemed opposed in all but ONE way. But that ONE way was the most important.

If Jesus is the most important thing, the most important person, the most important idea, the most important philosophy, the most important EVERYTHING, then it’s possible to get such a wide range of people to be together. But that’s the ONLY way it’s possible.

If Jesus isn’t #1, this, the church, isn’t possible. Jesus being the clear #1 in our lives is the only way we can be grateful that our differences make us healthier rather than angry that people differ from us. Jesus being the clear #1 in our lives is the only way we can have Greek and Jew, slave and free, rich and poor, blessed and cursed, Republican and Democrat, Colorado native and those pesky people moving in like me, early morning people and sleep in people, clapping people and no clapping people, young and old, and everything in between. This, the church, only works if there’s something more important than all of that. And the only thing that can be more important than all of that is placing Jesus as the #1 thing, person, idea, philosophy, and guiding light in our lives.

Over the years, I’ve asked our church leadership a few different times if they want to pick a side – be a more clearly conservative church or be a more clearly liberal church. The church would immediately shrink, but then would probably have an opportunity to grow. It’s easier to grow because a monoculture feels better. It’s not healthier, but it feels better.

And while some have wanted that clarity, so far every time I’ve asked, the church leadership has wanted to be the kind of place that can focus on Jesus and our relationships as more important than the things that could divide us. That’s not easier. It’s harder. But it’s healthier. Now if it’s going to be a reality, it’s up to all of us to choose to focus on Jesus and choose to focus on the value of our relationships. It’s up to all of us to decide to be OK with, or even value, being around people who aren’t clones of our own bananas. People who aren’t part of our own purebred dog lineage.

This is actually something I am a bit of an expert in. I figured out at an early age that no one around me was thinking about the same things I was thinking about. So I learned to seek out people who thought about some of the same things I did. Not everything. But some of the same things. One of my friends texted me a couple of years ago. He texted that he wanted to get together for a meal because he wanted to talk about nuclear reactor designs and he thought I might actually have thoughts on that. And I texted back, “I’ve been waiting for someone to ask me about that for 15 years! Do you want to talk Gen 3 reactors? Gen 3+? Thorium? Small reactors? Waste disposal? I’m ready to go!”

My brain is weird. I know it. You know it. If you came to my sabbatical presentation today, you saw it. And I’m training up my younger son in my weirdness, too! May the world tremble at the thought!

The Gospel of Jesus Christ gives us the opportunity to hang our hats on Jesus as the most important thing, the most important person, the most important philosophy, the most important guiding light in our lives. If we place Jesus as #1, we can actually be grateful for our differences instead of angered and annoyed by them. But if anything else is #1, this, the church, won’t work.

Our Sunday worship plan this Fall has been a great example of the potential and the pitfalls of this approach. To reinvest in our relationships, our church leadership really felt strongly that we needed to have a single worship service. As I talked with early worshipers, most could go as late as 9:30am for worship, but 10 was the absolute latest. As I talked with late worshipers, most could go as early as 10:30 for worship, but 10 was the absolute earliest. So 9am Sunday school and 10am worship was the ultimate compromise – no one’s first choice, but most people could tolerate it for the sake of being one church together.

Having kids in worship is another example. Lots of people were nervous about that, though I think just about everyone can admit it hasn’t been as disruptive as they feared. Melissa is doing great back there. And my younger son tells me multiple times per week, “I wish today were Sunday.” I overheard a boy whose family joined us for worship recently telling his mom as they left, “I want to come back here!”

But having kids in worship who can’t be vaccinated yet also led me to ask everyone to wear masks if you’re able. If we have 85-90% masking, families can feel safe about having their kids in worship. And I know many who are wearing masks right now hate it. I also know many who think it’s dumb or fearful. But my family has unlikely medical stuff happen all the time – even the doctors make comments about our paradoxical reactions to things. I’m sensitive to the unlikely. So even if you’re just humoring me, I appreciate it.

Those are examples of what it looks like to be the church together. Being willing to stretch away from our preferences so that we can be together in the name of Christ. The more we do that, the more we show that Jesus is #1 in our lives. We do things we don’t prefer for the sake of work or a paycheck. We do things we don’t prefer for the sake of family. We do things we don’t prefer when there’s a higher value at stake.

So who, or what, will be #1 in your life? Who, or what, will be worth stretching away from your preferences? That might be the most important decision you can make. Amen.