Sermon from Luke 7:1-10 for October 7

So…

Who are the Gentiles in our world?

This story of Jesus and the Centurion is all about this rather remarkable decision by Jesus to extend the Kingdom of God beyond the typical Jewish boundaries to folks who are not Jewish.

By Luke’s definition, Gentiles in those days are the equivalent to those who do not participate in the church today.

They may be people of faith, strong faith, but who are not part of the regular worshiping community we see on Sunday morning?

Some of them, Luke seems to be suggesting might be willing to become part of the faith community, if there was a pathway in that made sense to them. Not necessarily the ones we normally think of either.

Because for Gentiles, even going to meet Jesus, or having Jesus come to them and their place of work, play, or living can be uncomfortable.

Is it possible, that there are some folks that we are not reaching as the Otisville - Mt. Hope Presbyterian Church, because we don’t know how, haven’t really considered reaching out to them, or, perhaps even worse, haven’t even noticed that they are there?

And then, how could we change our mission strategy so that we could more effectively reach that group, who, though outside the church, are not necessarily outside of the possibility of vibrant faith.

And who is it, that could help us reach across the barriers to do what is likely to be uncomfortable to us, but might create a comfortable environment for them?

It is often said that it is hard for a tiger to change its stripes, and that it can take a battleship five miles of travel before it can come to a dead stop so it can reverse direction.

Churches like our can be tigers; powerful, amazing, really good at what we do. But change is not really our thing. Our tiger stripes make us look cool, especially to other tigers. But we can be invisible to others.

And we can be a bit like battleships, really hard to maneuver once moving in a particular direction. While we like saying we are a “no rules church” even we have habits and ways of doing things that can be quite counterproductive in a new cultural situation.

My father used to say “I don’t drink, and I don’t chew, and I don’t go with girls who do.” Having been born in 1929 that may have made some sense, but I’m not sure it works in 2018.

If reaching a new world of Gentiles is going to happen for the church, it may be that we need to be flexible on methods while being quite clear about the message, much like Jesus was: Centurions were welcome!

Jesus was always interested in those not yet in the community of disciples, and he was always willing to go and make new ones, even of Gentiles.

And mind you, Cornelius was not ordinary Gentile. He was a Roman soldier, a commander of soldiers, who was assigned to Herod Antipas or Pontius Pilate by the Roman government, to be the occupying army.

He was a follower of the Jewish faith at some level. And, he was open to a growing faith. He was respected and loved by Jews and Gentiles alike. And he was concerned that a beloved servant was dying, so much so, he arranged for emissaries to go to Jesus to see if Jesus could heal him!

Jesus tells the disciples in several places that the fields are ready for harvest but they need to get more workers to bring in the harvest, and that they need to go and get the harvest.

Let me make this clear: us too!

It’s interesting that Jesus doesn’t seem to think the harvest is going to be found inside the church, but rather out in the fields. But sometimes we struggle to recognize fields!

Wednesday night  at Bible study, and yes you are welcome to come anytime, we were talking about a later chapter in Luke’s gospel where Jesus sends out 72 disciples on a missionary adventure to  invite people into the Kingdom of God, and I suggested that perhaps that is what our church needs to do, gather up 72 of us and go and make more disciples.

And Derrick asked a really good question, “where do you find these fields ready to harvest if they are spread out into a hundred individual homes?” A great question. Spread out is a problem. But what if they were all in the same place some of the time?

My response was an observation I made the other day, that about noon here in Otisville, the traffic is crazy: people getting their mail, going into the liquor store, into Micks and into the other store.

And going to the nursery school to pick up kids. There are parents and kids all over the place, traffic is tied up, parking is a mess, but most importantly… I don’t recognize any of these kids or their parents.

A whole slew of young parents and kids right across the street from the church, and I don’t recognize anyone.

Not only that, but from the door of the nursery school, the church looks pretty uninteresting. Nothing shouts “open” or “there for you in your time of need” or “bring the kids and they will have fun and so will you.”

Yes, there is the EMPOWERkids sign, but it is small. Yes, there are the service times, but from that venue across the street, the church could be a tiny congregation of twenty people on Sunday morning with an old creaky organ, an old creaky bald pastor with no young kids, and not a person under 80 in attendance.

It turns out there is a field right in our front yard and yet we have not sent the requisite 72 to gather in the harvest.

And what other fields are we missing?

And if we really want any of those folks to follow Jesus, which by the way is the point, what would be willing to do or change to make them comfortable?

We will not change the message. We will not change the teachings of and about Jesus!

But what about worship times and worship styles? What about when we have EMPOWERkids, the day of the week and the time?

What about going all the way to crazyville and raising our giving so we could add an associate pastor for Families and Children?

And what would we have to do to be prepared for folks coming from the other fields we have decide to harvest, maybe even some folks stuck at home for whatever reason?

Could we livestream our church services for folks who can’t get here on Sunday morning, but could watch from home or later in the day? Could we open up for them ways to give so they could be good stewards too?  

And how do we as a church raise up disciples who are willing to look for fields ready to harvest and then also ready to grab a partner or two or three and begin dreaming of ways to get every family that has a kid in fall sports on one of the fields in Otisville and Mt. Hope to worship and children’s time each week, even if that isn’t on Sunday.

Could we start a Bible Study at Devan’s Gate?

When do we take the Legacy lunch on the road?

When do we become like Jesus, ready to go to a Centurion’s house, if that means that an ill man might be healed, and another might experience the Kingdom of God?

Go, Jesus said!

Amen.