Transforming Church

I hate to get us going on such a negative note, but like I said, “The church is just beginning to wakeup.” You and I need to ask, “Are we as church attendees part of the problem, or are we part of the solution?”

Years ago, a woman was admitted to a psychological hospital. Three months later she made an unusual request. She asked for a larger room, a huge art canvas, and lots of paint. She had made little progress to that point, so they gave her everything she asked for. Six months later, nine months after she arrived, she invited the entire staff to her room for the unveiling of what she called her "life's work." After everyone was seated she pulled back the sheet that covered her masterpiece. To everyone’s shock the canvas was bare. There was not a single stroke of paint was on it.

Everyone sat there, politely "admiring" the painting, until the administrator asked, "Can you tell us about your painting."
She responded enthusiastically, "It's the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea."
Someone asked, "Where’s the sea?"
She quickly replied, "It’s parted. Half of it is off this side of the canvas, and the other half is off that side."
"Well, where are the children of Israel?”
"Oh, they’ve already gone through."
"So where is the Egyptian Army?"
"They haven't arrived yet."
Some people live their entire lives and never make a mark on their canvas.

You see, there’s a lot of people who think the whole purpose of being a Christian is to simply be a member of the church and attend worship. Truth is Jesus never asked a single person to be a member of the church. What He did call each of us to is being His disciple, and that’s something completely different from being a member.

As a member we volunteer for things, plug into this or that, give some part of ourselves to this or that. As a disciple we are not just a follower of Jesus; we are a servant who belongs totally to Him 24/7. I could talk about this all morning long, but discipleship also means giving up personal interest voting.

Most are members and that’s able to carry a lot of people part way. They give up a lot of bad habits. They may go to church every Sunday, begin to read the Bible, even pray more often, but they may never become a disciple. Some go all their lives that way. But for a great many that lasts only so long. The day comes without warning where they stop coming and no one knows what happened to them. When I have had the chance later to tell them they are missed, what I often hear is, "Pastor, I really gave it a try." They were not the first people to lose interest because they had only become church members, and they won’t be the last.

Let's face it, I blame the church. The church has not done a very good job helping us become disciples of Jesus. I personally believe the reason Jesus never asked anyone to be a member of the church is because He knew that when they became voting members they would start to think that this was their church instead of His, and the wheels of the church would start to come off.

Not completely the same as we have been talking about it, but this same concern is in the Gospel today. Most of the time there were huge crowds around Jesus. They came to hear what He had to say and what He had to offer. He was a celebrity. But after a lot of those people heard what He had to offer, they walked away. They weren’t interested in what they could do for Jesus, only what He could do for them. Others were following Jesus because of the unbelievable things He did, but not because they were in need of a deeply personal Savior.

In our Gospel last week we had the feeding of the 5,000 with loaves and fishes. Remember how it said people were so impressed they wanted to take Jesus by force and make Him king! And to avoid that Jesus slipped off by Himself while the apostles got back in their boat and sailed across the lake.

When the crowd woke up the next morning to discover Jesus was gone, they started looking for Him. Eventually they caught up to Him and made their demands which got Jesus to reply in anger, "The only reason you were looking for me was because you saw signs, because you got a free lunch." He had them pegged that all they wanted was something with little or no effort. They were not coming for the right reasons.

A lot of people look to Jesus, and to the church for that matter, for a free whatever, which makes my first point this morning, A LOT OF PEOPLE COME TO JESUS FOR THE WRONG REASONS. They want to see what Jesus can do for them with no interest in what they can do for Him. They join the church for what they can get out of it. Today the word is on the street that the church doesn’t have anything worthwhile to offer; so we don’t even have the number of visitors we used to.

There are absolutely tons of ways people can come to Jesus for the wrong reason, and just being here is not all that counts. There will always be a percentage of newcomers to church who will drop out. Either they didn’t find anything of interest or they didn’t find what they were looking for. People will ask, “What are we supposed to get?” Unless they become open to Jesus calling them to meaningful ministry as disciples, there’s nothing to keep them coming.

Do not let yourselves think that Jesus is just offering you a way to follow Him. He’s not. He’s offering you a way to belong to Him and you won’t find that through confirmation and voting membership, only through Baptism and discipleship. That’s where you’ll find a complete makeover of your life and food for eternity.

So the good news this morning is that if you are willing to give your life to Jesus THE HOLY SPIRIT IS WILLING TO MAKE THESE CHANGES HAPPEN FOR YOU. The people in the Bible today were arguing with Jesus, wanting Him like Moses to give them what they wanted. He tried to get them to see it wasn’t Moses who gave them those things but God, and now God wants to give them the bread that gives life, not the bread that simply gives way to getting hungry for more.

They still misunderstood. They knew what they got the day before and they wanted it again, and so they ended up missing what Jesus was offering both days. Most of the 5,000 walked away.

Whoever comes for the bread Jesus offers will never be hungry, and whoever puts their entire life in His hands will never be thirsty." Jesus offers all of us at St. James the food we need for the journey and He wants to provide the power needed to bring about a complete change in us as well as others.

Maybe you are one who has done this all of your life, but you may also be one who has been here pretty much all of your life and never surrendered to Jesus. When you truly, deeply invite Jesus into your heart and mind, what you get is a complete makeover. Your life is completely changed. You will never be just a volunteer again. You belong to Him. You are His disciple, ...24/7. AMEN

Let us know if this has been helpful to you.