Igniting Ministries of the United Methodist Church proposes to teach and promote the most effective ways for churches to practice welcoming teams and hospitable ways to greet new visitors into established churches. Today’s gospel lesson gives us three practical instructions about the importance of how Jesus calls His disciples to behave as groups inside and outside the church:
THE CHURCH IS NEEDED TO KEEP THE GOSPEL ALIVE
God uses groups of people that are historically called “the church” to be the body of Christ in the world. God used Joshua’s army to walk around Jericho a single time silently for 6 days then 7 times on the seventh day ending with 7 priests blowing rams horn shofars before the walls came tumbling down. Annemarie, Sandra Lance and I walked 7 times around this church yesterday with specific prayers that were a combination of the Joshua 7th day walk and how Jesus selected the seventy to be sent “before his face” to towns of no greater or lesser importance than Montgomery. Jesus sent out the 12 disciples earlier in Luke 9:1-6 just as Moses sent twelve men to scout out Palestine in Deut. 1:22-23. In Exodus 24:1 and Numbers 11:24-25 Moses sent seventy elders “before his face” to the mountain where the Spirit rested on them and they prophesied. Jesus sends his church like He sent 70 to offer peace and to proclaim the nearness of the kingdom of God. We disciples from the church are sent out as new substitutes for our lost leaders just as Jesus sent those 70 as substitutes for the recently beheaded John the Baptist.
Before you go anywhere for Jesus it will be for the harvest of the Kingdom of God. He tells us to first pray to our Heavenly Father for sufficient help in His harvest for the heavenly kingdom. Then He warns us of how dangerous it will be to begin and to continue to support His church in the secular and non-believing world. You and I are sent like lambs in a wolf pack. We must travel light and make sure we don’t loiter and make small talk with just anyone we meet along the way. Congregations at Dexter Avenue United Methodist Church are used to following Jesus’ instructions. Our harvest is before us. Our workers are few but sufficient. God will always provide for our needs. Abraham had faith that God would provide for the sacrifice and still keep the promise of a son while climbing Mt. Moriah (translated as Lookout Mountain becoming the Temple mount of Jerusalem years later) to sacrifice his only son Issac. We climb our Lookout Mountain of faith while other congregations come and go in our midst. While we make comparisons of Bible stories to Dexter’s situation, remember that our soon to be published directory shows more than 70 and our financial status is far better than those sent traveling light by Jesus into the neighboring Samaritan and Jewish towns.
When you enter a home or a house of God like this one, Jesus says to greet the family with “peace be unto this house.” That’s were we get our common greeting during the Lord’s Supper “Peace be unto you.” When you and I respond with “and also with you” that is exactly what Jesus is looking for in these instructions – “the greeting is received.” This means that the home or this church “is a good place to stay.” So when there is no one in a home who is hospitable enough to return a simple greeting like “peace be unto you” or “I come to enjoy peace with you” or just a simple peaceful greeting of any kind, then we may need to leave. Since I’ve been here had Dexter, I’ve never seen anyone turned away who comes and sits with us. I know that there are some churches who have self appointed guards or ushers to check out the people who enter. We don’t do that – do we? Yes, wolves and wolf packs many come and go, but the lambs who follow Jesus will still be here long after they are gone. The meek shall inherit the earth.
HISTORY CONFIRMS THE NECESSITY OF THE CHURCH
Jesus goes on to say that once you find a church home, stay there and you will also be able to eat your meals there, for a worker deserves meals and ways to survive. Our occasional Sunday lunches, Tuesday breakfasts and Friday lunches fulfill this prophesy, so obey Jesus and “Don’t move from house to house, looking for the best cook in town.”
John Wesley called this “practical theology” when the church and its activities keep the gospel alive. Jesus predicts that there are some who will not receive or share the message of peace from the church and they will equivocate or say, “I believe in Christianity or TV evangelists, but I don’t believe in going to church and participating in the church.” Jesus makes it clear that you cannot realy believe in Him or in Christianity without believing in the Church – that is the fellowship and communion of the saints who share peace through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus predicted that we will feed each other – we will receive others in peace and we will heal the sick. He says we will tell others that ‘God’s kingdom is right on your doorstep!’ Dexter entered Montgomery 120 years ago. Different congregations and fellowships of believers have met here and brought many souls into the kingdom. There have been some who rejected the gospel message, but this is still a hospital for sinners – a place where beggars looking for the bread of life showing others how to get find it in His living word and in the living water of our shared compassion, hope and community.
Paul’s letters comprise more than half of the new testament and they are all testimonials of why the church is the only central group of believers that carry on and nurture others in the gospel and personal relationship with Jesus Christ. John Wesley was not as good a preacher as his contemporary George Whitefield. But John formed Methodist societies we now call churches and George left it all in God’s hands. One promoted and built sturdy houses of God and the other houses on shifting sand of opinion and personal conviction without a supportive society of believers.
OUR HUMAN CONDITION REQUIRES THE CHURCH THAT PRAYS
Let us pray: Heavenly Father You spoke through Your Son Jesus when You said “The one who listens to you, listens to me. The one who rejects you, rejects me. And rejecting me is the same as rejecting God, who sent me.” Father, there are many who would destroy the church – including popular secular forces in our society and culture.
When we come back to You in triumphant with gratitude and thanksgiving “Master, even demons left when we called out Your name.” We do rejoice because You have written our names in the Lambs Book of Life and not only because you have given us victory over Satan and evil forces of the world. You are Master of heaven and earth, You have hidden these things from the know-it-alls and showed them to these innocent church fold throughout the ages up to this time. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way. Your Son chose to introduce You to the church so we can see what plenty of prophets and kings never so much as got a glimpse. We now hear what those great sages of old never got so much as a whisper. Thank you Father for Your sustaining this church congregation and all congregations that meet as part of Your church in the name of Jesus Christ, the bridegroom of His church, Amen.
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