Flora First Christian Church - Flora, IN

February 3, 2008

John 4: 31-38

Average Joe

When I was growing up in Northeastern Kentucky, I always thought that I was a fairly run-of-the-mill kind of guy, you know, an “Average Joe.” I grew up in a home with two parents who were married until my mother passed on. I grew up going to church and Sunday School each Sunday, like most kids in my school. Like most kids in my high school, I didn’t experiment with drugs and I still haven’t. Out of college and seminary, I met the love of my life and we’re still married almost three decades later. Well . . . the world has changed and I can no longer consider myself an “Average Joe.”
According to the national surveys and statistics only 20%-25% of our American population attend worship services on a regular basis. Between 48%-51% of adults in the U. S. have experienced a divorce. Addiction is at epidemic proportions. Times have changed and what used to be the norm a few decades ago is no longer what most experience.

Gill Randall, is a respected pastor, researcher, and author of numerous books on cultural change. He writes of how this has affected the church’s ministry today. At a conference I attended last year, Randall stated that pastors of my generation were trained to serve a church that no longer exists, in a culture than no longer exists. For most of us adults in the church, the world changed slowly around us, and we didn’t see it change. Now there is a whole sector of people who need Christ, and we may not understand them. Because of this change in culture, how the church does ministry must also change. However, the message must never change.

Same People Jesus Was Speaking of in Samaria

I believe that this is the same world of people that Jesus was referring to the day he talked to the disciples in Samaria. Before this morning’s scripture reading took up, Jesus and the disciples were making their way traveling from Jerusalem back to their home turf in Capernaum. At the noon hour, Jesus decided to stay and rest by a public well outside of town, while the disciples went into town to buy some lunch. A woman came there to get her day’s supply of water. Jesus was there waiting, and asked her for a drink of water. A conversation followed that included relationships, the meaning of true worship, and the afterlife. We examined this conversation back in October. This morning we’re going back to the well, and taking up the conversation Jesus had with the disciples after the woman hightailed it back to town. The disciples are left to ask Jesus, “What in the world were you doing talking to HER in public? She’s a Samaritan. Samaritans are weird, they don’t worship the way we do, they dress differently, and they’re not like us real Jews.”
Interesting comments from the disciples! They then urge Jesus to eat some lunch. So . . . what does Jesus do with their response? He has a little talk to them about . . . FARMING: something that is close to most of us here in Carroll County. I can just visualize Jesus leaning back against that well and saying: “The food I have to eat is to finish the work of the One who sent me here. In four short months the crops will be ready to be harvested. Hey guys, look over there and see how the fields are ready to be harvested now. Even now the reaper is harvesting his crops for eternal life.”

What Does Four Months Mean?

I can just picture the disciple Peter speaking up and saying: “Huh, what’s the deal about four more months until harvest time? What does that have to do with anything?”
Jesus was reminding his disciples that just as the farmer must wait for the months to pass, he can not cultivate his harvest until the right amount of time has elapsed. There is a limit to what can be done to get the crop in early. But in the end, even with fertilizers, chemicals, and irrigation, we must wait for the plant to grow. In farming patience is a virtue.
Some persons think “You can’t hurry things along, there is plenty of time.” A farmer cannot harvest his crop until the right amount of time has elapsed. Like corn . . . if it’s harvested too soon it still contains too much moisture. If it’s harvested way later—it begins to rot. Jesus was saying that the grain in the field nearby is already past ripe. There’s urgency to get it in now! The disciples were totally confused. They didn’t get it that he wasn’t talking to them about farming.
Jesus was comparing the Samaritans, walking up and down those roads in their white robes, to that of grain. The Samaritans were ready to hear the message of salvation and ready to be harvested for eternal life.
Christ wasn’t directing his disciples to the agriculture industry, but to the harvest of souls. In this harvest there is no season for waiting.
Are you catching this? Followers of Jesus must give themselves to the work of the harvest of souls, and not comfort themselves with the idea that there is no hurry, just because a harvest takes time.

James: Something Lasting—Life Over Death

If we are able to bring persons to trust Jesus Christ, then we have accomplished something lasting. As James puts it in his letter, “Whoever turns a sinner back from his wrong way will save that sinner’s soul from death and brings about the forgiveness of many sins.” (Good News Version, James 5:20). That’s blunt, but what a tremendous result.

The work of the church must always be to connect persons to God whether they are like us or not.

The Transition at First Christian

Four months ago, this congregation began a transition in ministerial leadership. During an interim or transition period, it’s easy to say let’s not do anything. It’s easy to say let’s wait until a permanent minister comes. This is a pitfall of many interim periods in congregational life. Fortunately I have not witnessed that here. Regardless of the time of this transition, the work and mission of any church must remain the same: to make disciples. The focus of the church cannot be about the type of worship or music we want or like, or the type of friends we like to have; our job must always be about bringing persons within our reach to know the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ. According to the scriptures there is no other way.
Becoming active in personal evangelism can be a scary thing, but the rewards are eternal. Personal evangelism is where one takes the opportunities that God puts in front of us to listen, to share our personal experiences and blessings, and to give God a plug. It may be inviting someone to worship. It may be establishing a relationship and checking on someone who is going through troubling times. It may be inviting someone to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and praying for them.

The Crazy Episode on Visitation

Pastor William Goodin had his congregation go out in teams to visit people without a church relationship. He wrote about one of the more interesting evangelism visits that began badly and ended worse. He said his team visited one family, and opened the front gate of the house. A small and very fast dog ran by them, and disappeared down the street. The woman of the house ran by also, explaining that the dog was new, quite expensive, and not used to its new home.

The man of the house met them on the porch. He stepped back to let in the team, and somehow they shoved the doorknob through the front of a fifty-gallon aquarium. I’m not sure any of us can imagine how much water fifty gallons is until we spend the evening on our knees, picking up tiny little fish and trying to save them, like Pastor William and his friends did. When the wife finally returned, empty-handed, without her dog, they took their leave from that house. You can imagine how amazed William Goodin was to see the couple in worship at their church the next Sunday. When he asked about them being there after all that happened, the couple responded, “You cared, and you were there.” (William Goodin)
Friends, we’re all in this ministry together. Often we get caught up in thinking our work is all about church membership. It’s not—it’s about introducing people to Jesus Christ.
Ministry is all about caring! Caring that people know Christ, caring enough about folks to take the risk to invite them to worship, and caring enough to get to know people that are way different than us to make a lifetime of difference.

Puccini’s Opera

Giacomo Puccini was one of the greatest composers of Italian opera. He began his last opera, “Turandot”, as he was dying of cancer, and he died before it was completed. It’s fairly familiar and used as background music in a lot of movies and it was popular with high school bands in the 1990’s. The opera is the story of a Persian princess whose suitors must answer three riddles from her father the king if they are to marry her. If they try and fail—they die.

There is a legend that among Puccini’s last words to one of his students was “Remember Turandot.” After his death, the opera was completed. Its premiere performance was on April 25, 1926, in Milan, Italy. The great conductor, Arthur Toscanini, one of Puccini’s students, was on the podium to lead the orchestra. At the end of the first scene in the third act, Toscanini abruptly halted the performance, laid down his baton, turned to the audience with tears streaming down his face, and said, “At this point the maestro died.” There was a moment of stunned silence. Then, triumphantly, he picked up the baton and said, “But his students have completed his work.” And the opera went on. In a sense Puccini lived! (”You Are What You Believe: A Son Among Us,” by C. Thomas Hilton, The Clergy Journal, Feb. 1999, p. 28.)

WE are Modern Day Disciples

As our Lord’s modern day disciples, we have been given the privilege of carrying on our Lord’s mission work out in the ripened fields, not because we must, but because we believe everyone should receive the gift that we have received.
This morning I challenge you to be Christ’ workers wherever you work, and where you live. A professor of mine once said that a sermon is not a sermon until we take the message and take some action. As Christ’s workers, I have a series of challenges to put to you this morning.
Lent begins this Wednesday. Lent is a time of spiritual examination, discovery and commitment, and is to lead to spiritual growth. Lent is also a wonderful time to commit ourselves to our Lord’s work. I personally ask you to come to the Ash Wednesday service. This service is going to allow each of us to do a personal inventory, approach the Lord’s Table and to receive the sign of Christ.
At this moment I’m going to ask each person here to lower your head and to close your eyes. If you will take action to any of these challenges, I would like you to stand. I don’t expect everyone to stand right away, but I want you to be true to God, and to stand only as you will respond affirmatively. Christ is asking his people today: “Will you follow me? Can I depend on you? Will you put aside your hesitation and work for me?”

Challenge and Commitment
1. Christ Jesus, as a worker in your world, I commit myself to You that in the coming week I will invite someone to attend worship with me who is not connected to the church.

2. Lord Jesus, there is someone pictured in my mind that I work with or live near who doesn’t know You. This week I will intentionally reach out to them.

3. Lord, there is someone I know that is separated from God, that I will pray for this week, that they will come to know God’s love. I will commit myself to being used in whatever way God chooses.

4. Lord Jesus, I commit myself to serving You here at First Christian and will find a place to serve that we may be a congregation that cares for those are disenchanted, separated or lost in their direction.

Let’s us unite ourselves to Christ in prayer and commitment.

This is our time of Decision and Commitment. The question is put before us by our Lord, what will our decision be: to surrender to Christ? To commit to serving Him more fully? To uniting with God’s people in worship, study, and service? The invitation belongs to Christ and the decision belongs to each of us. To anyone who would respond please come forward as we stand and sing our Hymn of Commitment.