Installation Sermon for John Glasscock

John Glasscock Installation Sermon

Iowa River Church of the Brethren — May 6, 2012

Partners in God’s Mission (Luke 10:1-11, Philippians 1:3-6)

By Tim Button-Harrison, Northern Plains District Executive

I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel. – Philippians 1:4-5

I first of all want to bring you the warmest greetings from the wider church.  On this special day of Pastor John’s installation, know that your sister churches, both near and far, are with you in prayer.

The title of my message this morning is Partners in God’s Mission.  Let me give some introductory comments before I read the scriptures for today.

To be a partner is to be joined and united with someone for a common purpose.  Business partners join for the purpose of common work.  Marriage partners join to create a home and family.  To be a pastor or a church, you can’t do that alone.  You have to join with others.  There’s no such thing as a go it alone pastor.  And no such thing as a church where the members all do their own thing.  But the partnership we’re talking about is even greater than something between a pastor and a congregation.

Whose work or mission joins us in partnership?  Your mission?  Mine?  John’s?  God’s!  God’s mission.  Our partnership, our work, starts with God – comes from God – belongs to God.  God the Creator.  God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and all his kin.  God who heard the Israelites in slavery crying for freedom and who sent Moses to deliver them.  God of covenant and law, wisdom and truth.  God of the prophets demanding justice.  God who sent Jesus to proclaim good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, forgiveness of debts, letting the oppressed go free.  And God who, when Jesus was nailed to the cross and sealed in the tomb, wouldn’t let death have the final word, but raised Jesus from the dead and whose love was poured into our hearts and whose Spirit provides gifts to the church.

Partners in God’s Mission.

Luke 10:1-11 -- After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ (NRSV)

Philippians 1:3-6 – I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (NIV) 

Now the way I see it – today isn’t only about officially installing John as your pastor.  (By the way, that word installing sounds like putting in a new furnace or air-conditioner and making sure all the wires are hooked up correctly.)  Today is also a day of re-commissioning this congregation.  So everything I’m going to talk about – it’s about John but it’s also about each one of you who are part of the ministry of this church.

To be in God’s mission – we need to first of all be partners with God.  But we also need to be partners with each other.  And beyond that, we need to be partners with our neighbors – with people in the world around us.

So let think about this threefold partnership — partnership with God – partnership with each other – and partnership with those in the world around us.

Somewhere along the way, God got through to me, and I answered “Here I am God – use me.”  After that, nothing was the same.  And I know somewhere along the way, God also got through to John and he answered “Here I am God – use me.”  Maybe he’s shared some of that story with you already.

And somewhere along the way, for many of you, God got through – and you answered – “Here I am God.  Use me.”

To be a pastor or to be a disciple – to be a follower of Jesus – means somewhere, sometime, somehow, we opened our lives to God.  We said, God, shape me.  Mold me.  Fill me.  Use me.  And this opening to God is something we have to choose and renew each day.

The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 3:14-19 about what happens through this inward change… “I pray that God may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through the Spirit and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.”  This is what happens to us when we decide to work with God – strength starts growing within us — God comes alive in our hearts and begins to fill us – and now we start to experience love within and all around us.

But to keep that fire burning – Prayer is needed.  And worship.  And study of the scriptures.  And all these things with a humble spirit – a listening spirit – a spirit yielded and open to change.  Open to being changed by God from the inside out.  And that’s going to mean more humility and less pride.  More patience and less worry.  More waiting, less striving.  More gentleness, less forcefulness.  More love, less fear.  More of God and less of ourselves.

Partnership with God.

And then comes partnership or working with one another – with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  You remember the sending of the seventy?  The mission wasn’t for go-it-aloners.  Jesus sends his followers in pairs.  Where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them, says Jesus.  God’s mission isn’t accomplished through lone rangers.  It’s accomplished through teams.  By people working together.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul speaks of the church as being a body.  Like a body, there are different members, each with unique gifts, yet all work together in unity.  Then Paul says “The 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.”  All are needed.  All are worthy of respect.  And if one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”

Working in partnership with our brothers and sisters means, above all, loving one another.  And what is love?  Again Paul, from 1 Corinthians 13 — Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 13, Jesus kneels down and washes his disciples’ feet.  And then he says, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Love is the way we work together.

And finally – partnership with the people in the world around us.

I’m going to put this bluntly.  We in the church spend a lot of energy focusing on ourselves, our problems, our disagreements.  That’s not all bad but these things can consume us if that’s all we think about – and it’s like being self-centered.  So what if we turn our attention in a more outward direction – with a generous and selfless concern for those who are beyond the church community – especially the poor, the marginalized, victims of greed, fear and injustice, the hurting, the lonely and the lost.

God did not make the church for its own sake.  God made the church for the world’s sake.  Just as Jesus came because God so loved the world – and came not to be served but to serve – so likewise the church exists because God so loved the world and the Body of Christ, we the church, are called to reach out to the world like Jesus did.

Jesus taught, if you seek your life, you will lose it.  If you lose your life for my sake and for the gospel, you will find it.

To work with those outside our church, is to recognize God is out there and working within the world – so if we only focus here, inside the church, safe and secure, we’re going to miss out on a lot of what God is doing, and we might even miss our very purpose and calling –to discover what God is doing in people’s lives – out there in the world.

Also, did you notice when Jesus sends out the seventy in Luke 10 – he says don’t take a lot of stuff.  Just go.  And let the people you meet out there take you in.  Eat what they give you.  Find out what life is like for them.  Listen to them.  Hear their story.  Then you will know better how to reach, how to help, how to heal, how to share the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ.

Jesus says go, listen and learn.  And when you go, listen and learn, you’ll be surprised by what you discover.   That God is very much alive and at work beyond these walls.

Be partners with God.  Be partners with each other.  Be partners with God’s world.  This is my threefold charge to you, John, and to you, brothers and sisters of Iowa River Church of the Brethren.  Be partners in God’s Mission together.

Amen