Calvary United Methodist Church

August 23, 2015

OUR GREATEST EXPECTATIONS

Rev. Dr. S. Ronald Parks

Children’s Sermon: Luke 14:28-30

We thankful for God’s kingdom and power and glory shared for us,

shared with us. We welcome the children to the front of this worship

space to give thanks to God.

Good to see everybody! How are you doing?

Welcome. Glad to see you! Had a chance to watch something I don’t

see very often and you probably don’t see it very often either.

When I was down at the beach there was a Sandcastle Building Con-

test, and I did see the sign in days prior to it, but I forgot all about it, so

on that particular Saturday morning when I went to the boardwalk to

jog and to walk Fender, there were already people there.

There were tents and they had roped off areas on the beach. There

were groups of people who had big tools like shovels and rakes and

garbage cans and all sorts of containers and they were already starting

the process of building their sandcastle. The contest lasted from 8 in

the morning until 4 in the afternoon.

And the really cool thing was you got trophies! Oh, man! These were

good looking trophies and

I thought maybe it would be great to have one, but of course to get the

trophy, you have to enter the competition.

So, I checked back throughout the day

and I looked at the progress that some of the contestants were making

on their various sandcastles.

Now, as you can see, not everything was a sandcastle.

Some of them were like sand sculptures, but the idea was to do some-

thing with just two ingredients: sand and water,

to make something that was kind of neat and cool and they literally

made all sorts of things.

So, I thought to myself at the end of the day “Well, gee, that would

have been fun. Why didn’t I enter?” And then I thought back about

the beginning of the day and what I had going on that day.

First of all, I had no tools with me; I had no rake, had no bucket, had

no shovel, I was really ill-equipped.

I also have no skills. You see, to shape sand that way, you have to

know what you are doing. There are techniques to it. I don’t know the

techniques. I don’t have any real abilities in that field, so I probably

wouldn’t have done very well even if I had the tools.

I had several other things to do that day, so I didn’t have time. They

literally had eight hours to build a sandcastle. I didn’t have eight

hours. I didn’t have that much time.

And, I didn’t have anybody helping me. Fender was with me, but his

idea of building something in the sand is to go like this as fast as he

can. That’s all he can do.

And, more importantly, probably most important of all, I had no idea

what to build. I had no vision. I didn’t have a picture in my mind of

what I wanted to put together.

So, the idea that I might actually be successful, the probability is really

small. I had literally had no hope of willing because I had no tools, I

had no time, I had no skills, I had not help and I had no vision.

Interestingly enough, following Jesus, according to the Gospels, is a

lot like building a sandcastle and here’s how, this is what Jesus had to

say in Luke 14 about the construction project called “discipleship.”

He said this: So, you want to build a house? It’s not enough to just

hope it turns out alright. It’s not enough to just enter the competition

and then just start doing stuff and hope that it works out for you. You

have to think it through before you start. You have to do a lot of prep-

aration. Who’s going to do the work, for example, you have to ask. If

it takes more than one person, who’s going to help you? What tools

and materials will you need? Now, you could only use two materials,

water and sand, but you could use any tool that you wanted. How long

will the job take? You had only eight hours, a very specific period of

time. How much will it cost? Well, it really didn’t cost anything to

enter. It was free to enter. And the really cool thing was everybody

got a trophy! That’s nice. And what will it look like when you are fin-

ished? What’s your vision for the house that you are going to build?

If you are not prepared, the project will become hopeless very quickly

and everyone will know that you have no idea what you are doing.

Nobody likes to be in a position where everybody knows that you

don’t know what you are doing. When school starts, that’s one of the

greatest fears that people have. That is one of the reoccurring night-

mares I have, is that I’m going to walk into a classroom unprepared for

the final exam. Do you have that dream too? Alright, so maybe it’s

not a common dream, but it’s a dream I have. You don’t want anybody

to know that you’re not prepared.

Following Jesus is exactly like building a sandcastle from that point of

view.

Our hope is to build a life that looks like Jesus’ life

so that others will see Jesus by looking at us. In other words, we’re

not Jesus, but we can live the life that Jesus lived so that as people

watch us and talk to us and relate to us, they can get a sense of God’s

presence in us too.

And for that kind of construction, you have all the tools you need.

You have an able body.

You have all sorts of abilities.

You also have the skills. You are learning as time goes by how to use

the tools that God has given you. And that’s called talent and skill.

You have the time. You are young people. The rest of us, not so

much. In fact, one of the more sobering things about hitting the mid-

dle of life and moving forward is that you realize you have less time in

front of you than you have behind you. Now, that should be something

called “inspiration.” It should drive us to do more and to move as

quickly as we can.

And you have help. See all these people here? These are your helpers

in living that life that looks like Christ so others can see him in you.

And you have the vision. Jesus is the vision that we have of a beauti-

ful, perfect, gracious and loving life and because of the stories in the

scriptures, because of being here together and singing the songs that

we sing,

we already know what that vision is and that vision can be described in

one four letter word that starts with “L”. Do you know what it is?

(Love) Love, exactly right!

Our hope is to build a life that looks like Jesus

so that others will see him in us and you know why we are all here this

morning? Because we are still working on it.

We are working on it together.

I thought maybe you might like a little reminder of how hard it is to be

a disciple, so take in each hand a tool. There are a whole bunch of

beach sand tools here, so just take one in each hand that would be a to-

tal of two, because as far as I know you guys all have two hands. And

this is just a reminder of the work that we share as a disciple of Jesus,

that we are working hard to be Christ to each other.

Thanks for sharing in our time this morning.

Message: Matthew 11:2-6

(VIDEO)

There’s a sign-up sheet on the welcome center, because they are short-

ly going to be taking orders for the Terrafugia TFX.

The delivery date is expected to be some time in 2025. That’s only 10

years from now.

And the price, take a guess. Take a stab. $100,000? You know what

somebody said after the first service this morning? A couple? The

wife turned to the husband and said “You know, if we stop giving to

Calvary, we could afford one of those.” (laughter) Now, I’m not go-

ing to tell you who that was, (cough Regis and Lori Doyle). It’s not

that expensive, is it? And ten years out. The only concern I had was,

I’ve driven on 83, I know how those people drive. Put one of these in

their hands, real difficult.

Is this a reasonable hope? You see, we’ve been talking about flying

cars for decades. You all watch the Jetsons, I sure did. But it goes

back farther than that.

Some of you may remember, although I doubt it because it never really

got publicly recognized with any great distribution, the “Wally Water-

man Aerobile.” It’s hanging in the Smithsonian Institute.

It was built in 1937.

Then there was the Fulton Airphibion, FA 3-101. This was built about

a decade later, in 1946. Isn’t that cool how the whole front of the

plane becomes a separate vehicle and it’s even a convertible. What’s

better than that?

But these things never got off the ground, if you’ll excuse the pun. So,

I keep thinking to myself, “Nah, this really isn’t a reasonable hope.

This can’t possibly fly, as it were.”

But if you go to Terrafugia’s website, here’s the thing that caused me

to be a little bit, well, heartened and hopeful. There is currently availa-

ble the Terrafugia Transition.

It is to be built over the next two years.

There are already six orders that have been placed for them and if you

go to Terrafugia’s website you can place an order for the cost of

$299,000. Jeff and I have done some factoring in terms of our ac-

countable reimbursement for business expenses. It’s probably still out

of our range, but all you need is a $10,000 deposit.

And I want one of these things! Don’t you? I really do want one.

Interesting enough, on the Terrafugia website there is a section that

you can click on that says “Investor Relations.” And you can get a

printout of how you can invest provided that you are an SEC registered

investor.

I checked on the level of investment that I could afford. I can get a t-

shirt for $18.

You see, I have hope. I think it’s a cool idea, but I lack faith. I just

don’t believe it’s viable. I don’t believe it’s feasible and even though

Terrafugia in the development of this particular vehicle and the proto-

types that you saw pictured there, they have conformed to every regu-

lation the Department of Transportation has put before them, whether

it is a regulation for a plane or a regulation for a car. It all works ac-

cording to the government regulations that govern the way we get

around. So, it’s possible, but I just don’t believe it. I got hope, but I’m

lacking in faith.

There are three gifts that will carry us through the journey of life:

Faith, Hope and Love.

But as we talk and think about faith, we talked about faith last week

and hope this week. There is not a whole lot of difference between

faith and hope. It really depends on the semantics that you use to de-

fine the idea.

Last week we talked about faith being that life-defining orientation,

thinking of a pair of glasses perhaps, that you put on your face which

changes how you see everything. And that lift-defining orientation re-

sults in an ongoing commitment of yourself, of who you are as a per-

son, of that individual, of all your time, talents, treasures, all of your

resources are defined by that life orientation. A commitment of your-

self in loyalty and obedience to another. It could be another idea. It

could be another reality. It could be another individual.

As we talked about last week, to be faithful to this idea of discipleship,

to be faithful to Christ, we must be committed, loyal and obedient.

And as Soren Kierkegaard said, we must be a Knight for Christ, one

who is knighted and commissioned to set out to do the King’s will. It

is a life-defining orientation. So, that’s faith. Faith is the lenses

through which we view reality. And as Kierkegaard said, we view life

and understand life looking backward. That’s what faith is about, it

gives us that orientation, but we live life looking forward and therein

lies the difference.

Hope is looking forward with anticipation and confidence to a future

good, to a reality that does not yet exist, but a reality that you believe

is possible and reasonable. One that you can contribute to; one that

you can move forward to, and that’s what hope is all about.

So to be hopeful as disciples, we must expect one certain and specific

thing:

for the Kingdom of God to be created on earth as it is in heaven.

We use that phrase every week when we say the Lord’s Prayer: Thy

Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. But so

seldom do we stop to think about what it is that we expect when we

pray to God to establish His will and His kingdom on earth as it is in

heaven.

Here’s the shortest definition of the Kingdom of God that I can think

of: God’s goodness, God’s grace and God’s generosity rules in my

life, in your life, in our relationships, in the world. That’s the King-

dom of God on earth and in heaven and if we can see that coming, if

we could ask the question “When, O Lord, when will it come?” we

would know so much and our hope would be strengthened. But, like

John the Baptist in jail, we have to keep asking questions. We want to

know what God is up to and therefore John’s question is still our ques-

tion, even though we are people of hope.

John had been locked up in prison. When he got wind of what Jesus

was doing, John sent his own disciples hopefully to ask one question,

“Are you the One we’ve been hoping for, are you the one to bring

God’s rule, God’s reign of goodness and grace and generosity? Are

you the one in whom the very presence and power of God will be

made manifest, or should we be waiting for someone else?” Jesus did-

n’t exactly answer that question, but he suggested to them that they put

their hope in action. He told them, “Go and tell John what’s happen-

ing. The blind see. The lame walk. Lepers are cleansed. The deaf

hear. The lifeless, they are reborn. And people no one cares about

learn that God is on their side. If this is your hope, if your hope and

God’s promise are the same thing, you are already blessed. You al-

ready know the power of that hope and you already know the presence

of God’s kingdom. God is already is already fulfilling your greatest

expectation in life.”

The greatest thing we can hope for, the greatest thing in faith to which

we step is the rule and reign of God’s goodness, grace and generosity,

not only in my life, but in every life.

The Kingdom’s reign, the goodness of God, the grace of God, the gen-

erosity of God, on earth as it is in heaven.

This is what we work for, this is what defines us as the church, this is

what we hope for. It is the greatest purpose, the greatest calling, the

greatest hope of our discipleship.

And why do we have that hope? What does it sound reasonable even

though there is no evidence in the world when you pick up the paper or

turn on the TV, there is no evidence in the world that things are mov-

ing in any direction that would be positive in any way? How do we

still bear that hope? Because we have faith in what Christ has done for

me. When Christ lived and died and rose from the dead 2000 years

ago, God has said, “This is the life that matters. This is the life that’s

held up in eternity. This is the life that every one of my children, every

person, every place should know what this life is, because they should

experience it and I’m going to give it to you. That’s what Christ did

for me. But the hope continues to be bolstered, the joy that I continue

to feel comes not form only what I have received but what I have the

opportunity to give. My hope is in Christ, putting that life in front of

other people by using me, imperfect, flawed, faulty, finite, less time

before than behind. That’s the hope, what God can do through me.

My faith enables me to perceive God’s goodness. It gives me the ori-

entation. The eyes of faith enable me to see the positive power of God

moving in my life, in your life, in this church. All of the time that I

have lived, all of the memories that I have, my faith enables me to look

back and find the power and presence of God in even the most dark

times, but my hope drives me to display it.

It’s not enough just for me to be satisfied that Christ is alive and Christ

is in me and Christ is in us. My hope drives me to step past faith to

work, to display it, to bring it right up in front of the face of other peo-

ple.

John sends his disciples to Jesus because he wants to get the answers

straight from him and Jesus dodges the question. Look around you:

it’s on display everywhere you look. People who are diminished in

any way imaginable can know the wholeness and fullness of life in the

power and presence of Christ. That’s faith in Christ for me and the

hope in Christ through me.

My faith allows me to receive God’s grace. It’s an amazing grace, is-

n’t it? It’s the grace that allows us to live this day, breathe in, serious-

ly, breathe in and breathe out. That’s all grace. You did nothing for

that. You don’t deserve it. You’re not worthy of it and when you use it

and you let it go, it’s gone and yet there’s another breath and another

one after that because God’s grace is sufficient for all of our needs.

But my hope requires that I offer that breath of life to all. It’s not just

a matter to display it. “Look at me! I’m Jesus! My nametag says so.”

I have to offer it to all. Now, I can’t make people receive it. I can’t

make people the benefactors of my hope if they reject the hope that

I’m offering. But my hope doesn’t suggest, doesn’t invite, doesn’t ca-

jole, doesn’t push. It requires that I offer it to all. It’s not an option to

just enjoy what Jesus has done for me without allowing Christ to work

through me. That’s the essence of hope. Not what was, but what can

be.

And my faith encouraged me to release God’s gift. I have been gifted.

Sometimes I’m not sure if the gifts are of much value to anybody, but I

know I’m gifted because God tells me so.

And the grace that continues to gift me, continues to be poured on at

me, so I’m to release my gifts and here’s the hope I have: That I will

find joy in living by finding the joy in giving.

Sondra Matter who is over in the Congo right now was petrified to

leave. I would be too. And there is a reason why she and she alone is

over there and not the rest of us. It is her calling. She heard that voice

and in faith she went. And her hope is not only that she will be able to

give herself and her witness to those women and children who have

been so tragically and so brutally abused, it is also her hope that in

sharing their experience, she will be able to share the joy of being

there.

You see, that’s why faith in Christ has done for me and that’s what my

hope Christ will do through me. It creates God’s goodness and grace

and generosity.

Where? On earth as it is in heaven.

Many of you got an email blast from the office on Friday afternoon. It

was an invitation for you to be a voice of hope in a situation which is

tragic. A week ago yesterday I visited Nancy Beatty in the hospital.

She had yet to be diagnosed, but she was having a lot of difficulty with

mobility and with mental process, with focusing, with communicating.

This had been evolving slowly over the last couple of months, but it

got to the point where she could no longer walk and so they immedi-

ately took her to the hospital. I saw her five days later, on Thursday.

The change in her was stunning. She could only sit, she could speak,

her eyes would move and we had a brief conversation.

The next day, when they brought her home, the change was even more

shocking. It is a degenerative neurological condition that only moves

in one direction and it moves fast. Now where is the hope?

What does hope look like? What is hope about? When you go on

Wikipedia and you research the name of the condition that she has, the

phrase “invariably terminal” is in the first sentence. There are only

300 people in the United States out of 300 million that have this condi-

tion and the reason there are only 300 is because there is nobody with

history who has it. Once it becomes evident it moves fast, so where’s

the hope?

I got a call Friday afternoon from a friend of hers at worked names

“Pat” who had seen firsthand the need that Ron was laboring under

once he got his wife home. He needed help. And he mentioned the

church and she called and by the grace of God I happened to be here

on Friday afternoon about 3:45. There was nobody else here and I

picked up the phone and she told me what was going and I called Kris-

ti and I said “We’ve got to figure out how to get some people from

Calvary there.” And she went to a site as these young whipper-

snappers can do and she generated the sign-up sheet and we immedi-

ately sent it to you and you know what? Within 24 hours you had

filled every space except for the last two on Tuesday evening, hint,

hint, hint. That’s what hope looks. You are not going to change Nan-

cy’s condition. You are not going to change the arch of her disease.

This is not a reasonable hope. But the second she was diagnosed and

you put on the glasses of faith and you see now what the situation is,

you know what to do. You know we are going to pray for her, that’s

part of what that message was all about. Start praying for them. They

have no idea of what lied ahead. They have no idea how ugly it can

get, but they are going to find out and they are going to find out soon.

Pray for them. Be with them, either in spirit, by writing to them, or if

we need to extend the sign-up sheets over the next few days or the next

few weeks or the next few months, we’ll let you know when we have

to change it and we’ll let you know that we’ve added days and addi-

tional opportunities. Somebody said “Well, I signed up, but I am kind

of nervous. I don’t know what I’m going to have to do.” You are not

going to have to do anything that makes you uncomfortable. What you

are going to do is be present next to the bedside of someone who is in

effect watching their life leave them. And if it means that you can talk

with them or read the scripture to them or simply sit there and watch

them sleep, more than likely you can help Ron too. Don’t worry about

“What am I going to have to do?” Where’s the faith? If you’ve got

the faith, and you feel the hope, you don’t need to worry about a thing.

You’ve got everything you need. Just sit there and extend the hand of

Christ.

That’s what this place is for. If we’re not doing that, we got no reason

to exist and certainly no reason to be here this morning. You’ve got

1000 other places you could be and if this isn’t the greatest hope of

your life, if this isn’t the greatest expectation of you spending your

time, I’m not sure why you are here. This is what we do. This is the

hope that we bring. And it’s a prayer, a prayer that’s familiar to all of

you, but this is my prayer for them:

And God will raise you up on eagles’ wings, bear you on the breath of

dawn, make you to shine like the sun, and hold you in the palm of His

hand.

May our hope be our offering to the Master.

Benediction:

The grace that God has given us is the grace of faith. What Christ has

done for us is the gift of new life. What Christ does through us is the

gift of hope.

We share a benediction. It is a prayer of hope:

And God will raise you up on eagles’ wings, bear you on the breath of

dawn, make you to shine like the sun, and hold you in the palm of His

hand.

Amen.