To what extent are we a Christian community? According to William Willimon, Bishop of the Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, We are Christian to the extent that we conform to and are confronted by the Word of God.
In Romans 12, Paul advises his readers not to be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of their minds. As we look to a new school year we should pause and consider what we are learning and what we’re filling our minds with. Are we conforming to the pattern of or to the pattern of power, privaledge and possessions or to the pattern of generosity, gratitude and grace?
Sermon Notes 09.04.11 United Methodist 2
Worship 09.04.11 Shaped by God
Liturgy for Holy Communion 9.04.11
Shaped by God (September 4, 2011, early Service)
Shaped by God (September 4, 2011, late service)
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My goodness, the number of thoughts, the number of concepts, the number of images, the number of Jesus, thus God, principles that come to mind upon the reading and re-reading and re-reading of Romans 12, because, just like Frito chips, you can’t just read it once; you are drawn back again and again and again to each individual and lone-standing verse as well as the chapter as a whole.
What strikes me, however, in this occasion’s reading of Romans 12 is the reminder of how important and necessary a church’s, and thus a leading and guiding pastor’s, emphasis on these Pauline statements is for the parishoner’s belief in, development of, and practicing such thoughts and teachings in their individual lives and in the world around them, be it inside and/or outside the church.
My church is so blessed with such an emphasis being provided by my pastor.
Romans 12: 4-5 : “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.”
If you enter my church through the doors outside the office, off the parking lot, the instant you open the door you cannot help but see a huge, from-ceiling-to-floor, vertical banner hanging next to the elevator displaying a mosaic cross formed by twenty-one (7 x 3) pieces in various shades and hues of reds, blues, yellows, and greens and affectionately called “Steve’s Cross.” It is not an accident that such a diveristy-displaying-and-emphasizing cross with the word WELCOME under it on the banner was not only selected by the pastor as an unspoken mantra but was purposefully placed to be the first thing seen when someone walks into the church either hanging next to the elevator or painted on the door-facing wall of the church office. In my church, unspoken or spoken, all are invited and all are welcomed.
Chapter 12 Heading: The New Life in Christ
We have it “down pat”; committed to memory, easy to recite as if a prayer…. Every Sunday prior to the beginning of his sermon, my pastor reminds the congregation that “the words of his mouth and the meditations of his heart” are based on God’s most Holy Word by asking each to join with him in “saying the words that are on the screen”: “This is God’s Word for my life in this place and at this time. Today, I am a new creation in Christ. I am God’s very own, and I believe He has a purpose for my life.” Whichever it is, “We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us” [v. 6].
In my church, each is greeted by a mosaic cross and reminded during worship so that we will remember in quiet and prayer times as well as during trips into the world outside of church that we are “…a new creation in Christ,…[that we are] God’s very own,…and…[that] He has a purpose for [our lives.”
Romans 12: 9-21 Heading: Mark of the True Christian
They are called Core Values. At one point, they were referred to as the 5 L’s. They were a labor of love designed to honor and glorify as well as identify God’s personality and character and determined and written by a small group of church members several years ago following a churchwide study. They were devised as a way of succinctly reminding all the individual tiles in my mosaic church that in the midst of its diversity there are those Core Values, which “mark a true Christian,” and must be lived and practiced inside and outside the church in each life daily.
God’s guidance and discernment are obviously apparent in both the Core Values themselves as well as their purposefully-determined prioritized listing:
1. Gratitude
2. Grace
3. Relationships
4. Community
5. Service
Standing as single words, these Core Values, my church’s Core Values, so represent God’s commands to and expectations of each of His children; so represent “…loving God with all our heart and all our mind and all our strength and all our soul and loving our neighbor as ourselves”; so represent love, the love that God deserves and merits, the love that extended to others and Himself will make Him happy, and the love that He shares with each of us.
Add the L’s:
1. Live in gratitude
2. Lead with grace
3. Learn in relationships
4. Link in community
5. Love through service
and an action is envoked supporting the Pauline principles discussed in Romans 12 and giving my mosaic church consisting of those who are “new creations in Christ” and who are searching for the “purpose God has for their lives,” a roadmap for becoming and being God’s “salt and light” inside and outside the church.