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The End of the Beginning

Today I want to spend some time speaking to you about my spiritual journey. Since this is my last Sunday I want to share three key lessons that I have learned thus far in life. They all have to do with change. Changes I have had to make in my thinking. I share these things not because this is what your spiritual journey should look like, but simply to use my life as an example to show how we are a part of a much larger story than our own. That God is continually changing us. Whether we realize it or not we are an actor, we play a role, in the story of God. And the story of God is about drawing us closer to Him. I want to share with you how over the 27 years of my life God has drawn me closer to him. God has provided many beginnings and in each of those opportunities . . . when they come to an end, I have been transformed.

You may have seen the title of this sermon in your bulletin. I named this sermon, “The End of the Beginning.” I chose this for a couple of reasons. First, one of the lectionary texts for today is the very final verses of the book of Revelation, the final verses in the entire Bible. Second, today is the final Sunday of the Easter season in the church calendar. Lastly, today is my last Sunday at Hillcrest. All of these things are ends. But while they are ends, they mark ends to times of transformation. They leave us changed. We are no longer quite the person we were when we began. Maybe there is no more Bible to read. Maybe there is no more Easter season and next week is Pentecost. Maybe I won’t be back here next Sunday. But these ends are not sad. They are momentous. They mark periods of change. They signify, hopefully, that God continues to mold who we are. And there is more to come. More beginnings to encounter. More opportunities to seize.

Maybe you have heard it said, “change or die.” This is applicable to our Christian life. Unless you continuously change, unless we continually allow God to mold us into new creations, into people who more fully exemplify Christ . . . we die inside. Our Christian journey grows stale. We are lukewarm. Change is essential to the Christian life.

John, the writer of Revelation, does not end the book by saying, “well that is it.” God’s Word is done. Nothing more to say. If you want to experience more God you better flip back through the rest of the Bible again. And when I leave Hillcrest, I am not headed to the beach. I am not simply saying, well that wraps up my ministry. I had a great time, but God is done with me.

No, the last verses in the book of revelation and my final Sunday here at Hillcrest are simply the end of a beginning. The Bible and the events it recorded are the beginning of our faith journey, my time here at Hillcrest has been the beginning of my ministry. But we move on. There is more to do.

It is this journey, what we do after we have begun that I want to talk to you about today. I want to connect us to a story that never ends. The story of God molding us into more obedient disciples. The story of how God repeatedly uses our life experiences to teach us more about himself. And since this is my last Sunday, I am going to tell you the three most important things that have changed me thus far in my life.

Speaking broadly the Bible is the story of God. It is the story of how God communicates with the world, what he has been up to in the universe. It is the story of how God loves us and draws us to himself.

But as we know the story does not end there. The Bible is the beginning. Somehow, thousands of years later God is still at work. He is at work here in Hillcrest Covenant Church in DeKalb, Illinois. The book of Revelation is simply the end of the beginning of God’s work.

What I want to encourage us to do today is to understand our role in God’s story. I want us to reexamine our lives, to re-author the story of our life from God’s perspective. What is God teaching us? Where are our beginnings? Where did those beginnings finally end? Do we embrace new beginnings? I want to move us from the small story of our lives, to the enormous story of God’s work in the world, of which we are a part. Of which God is continually renewing us and making us begin again.

I want to talk about my life in three stages . . . I want to tell you about 3 beginnings in my life that eventually came to an end . . . I am going to talk about: the early years (some of you are already thinking this is crazy – the early years, he still looks fifteen), the college years, the Hillcrest time.

So let’s start in a small town in West Central Illinois. I grew up in a Roman Catholic Church and went to 1^st through 8^th grades at a Roman Catholic school . . . and my first grade teacher, Mrs. Teefey just happens to be here today, “hi, mom!”

Anyways, elementary school went fine and I headed off to the public high school. I did really well in my classes and joined the National Honor Society and I played basketball and football, and even managed to become Homecoming King. . . things were going well. I had a great time in high school.

But as I look back on those years, one thing sticks out in my mind. I did not understand the nature of God’s love. I was a good kid, I didn’t do much to get into trouble . . . but I did these things because I wanted to please God. I wanted God to love me. I wanted God to be proud of me. The thing is that I wanted to earn God’s love.

You see I funneled my understanding of God through life experience. If I wanted to make a teacher like me, I studied hard, I listened in class, I was nice to other students. And if I wanted to make a coach like me, I hustled, I never missed practice, I listened to criticism and changed accordingly. I knew how to make other people like me and I thought I knew how to make God love me too. I was intense, I worked tirelessly to be “good,” I fretted continuously over what others thought of me, I wanted to be known as nice, I wanted to be a “good guy.” Now these aren’t bad things, it’s good to be a good person, but the root of my desires was not healthy. I was fighting an impossible fight against sin. I was scrambling furiously towards a perfection that could not be reached.

I did not understand God very well. Do you know that God loves you more right now than he will ever love you your entire life? Think about this. I don’t care what you did this morning. I don’t care what you did last night. Right now. As you sit there in your pew, God’s love is overflowing for you. You don’t need to earn God’s love. God already loves you.

Maybe you remember the Youth Sunday skit we did and the role played by Josh Howells. Josh was Bob WorkALot. When I wrote about Bob WorkALot, I was writing about me in my high school years. Bob wanted God’s “golden ticket of love” and Bob believed that he had to work endlessly to earn that golden ticket. One thing Bob thought was that if he stepped out into the aisle here and jumped up and touched the lights and got a few bugs while he was up there that he would earn God’s “golden ticket of love.” So he tried and tried to touch that light. But he couldn’t. He was distraught, all that work for nothing. But if you remember Bob went and began to complain to a friend that earning the ticket was hopeless . . . and then the friend noticed something in Bob’s back pocket. It was the “golden ticket of love.” Bob had had the ticket all along. He was working tirelessly and hopelessly for something he already had.

It is that way with God’s love. You have it. You don’t have to earn it. We do good works not because God needs us to, but because our experience of God’s love is so great, that it overflows from us. Did you get that. We love, we do good, because God first loved us. God enables us to do good. We don’t do good to get God. We get God in order to do good. That is why when broken people come to the church we don’t make them reform their lives first. We want them to be in a relationship with God first. Then God will help them deal with their sin.

The next phase in my life was the college years. Now I can see the high school students laughing. The college years, that is most of your life. The college years are officially over now. After 10 years, yes a decade and over 300 credit hours, I am finally done. Anyways, when I went away to college at the University of Illinois I encountered a far more diverse world than I had ever experienced before. For example, from kindergarten to my senior year in high school the only minorities I had had in my schools were foreign exchange students. I desired and needed to broaden my horizons. So I did.

But with my exposure to ethnic, religious, political and other kinds of diversity came questions. What did I really believe about myself, the world, and especially God? Did I believe what I did simply because that is how I was raised? Was I right? If I was wrong, who was right? For the first time in my life I was confronted daily with others who thought my beliefs were bogus and I wondered whether they were right.

I began to explore. I joined far too many organizations and made countless friends who I stayed up late with talking about life. Ultimately I became involved in a campus church and eventually played a large role in various aspects of its leadership. (actually I am proud to say that Aaron Rasmussen and Jeremy Geidel attend this church – I actually called down to some old friends and had them call Aaron and Jeremy when they got on campus) Another organization I became involved in right away was the fraternity I helped to start. Myself and 5 other guys founded a social fraternity at Illinois. The fraternity grew quickly and by the time we graduated we had 40-50 guys (now they are up to 150). The fraternity was my mission field. It was to be my place of impact on others and the campus.

But my eagerness and simple minded faith did not work well with others that had had very different experiences with God, church and Christianity. You see my approach to ministry in the early years was convert, convert, convert. So I talked regularly with guys in the fraternity and others on campus about hell. I wanted to save them . . . not for Jesus, but from eternal damnation. This surely gave me a sense of urgency. By my sophomore year of college, I would walk up to strangers on the Quad at the school and ask if someone would complete a spiritual interest survey. Many would agree. My first question was, “If you were to die today, would you go to heaven or hell.” I would then try to convince them that they were going to hell and that they must repent now or endure eternal damnation. Not a great approach. You see my eagerness had gotten the best of me. For me faith had become only about heaven or hell. You were in or you were out, and that was all that mattered. My faith was too simple. I tried to scare people into repentance.

I presented the Gospel as if Jesus was corralling cattle into a pasture with a cattle prod. And we better get into that pasture or Jesus’ is going to electrocute us. But that is not the Gospel. The Gospel is what it says in verse 17 of the 22^nd chapter in Revelation: “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let anyone who hears this say, “Come.” Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life.” We are not being chased by fire, but welcomed with open arms. We are invited by Christ to experience his love and goodness.

I learned that people are not brought into a relationship with Jesus Christ through fear or intimidation but through relationship. The fraternity gave me an opportunity to live this out. By my junior and senior years of college I was holding both a spiritual discussion group and a Bible study in the fraternity. And my approach was to develop relationships with the guys. In the spiritual discussion group I had no agenda. I came up with some very general questions like does God exist? Or is there such a thing as altruism? But if someone had something else they wanted to discuss I went with it.

What had changed was that I was no longer God’s sole avenue of salvation. No longer was I responsible for someone’s eternal destiny. I was God’s instrument. My experience of God, one of love, one of peace, one of kindness, one of understanding, compassion . . . that experience was to characterize how I treated the lost. And a remarkable thing began to happen . . . God began to change people’s hearts, not because of something I said, not because of fear, not because of some apologetic proof . . . but simply because through me others had seen a glimpse of God.

You see your evangelism, your ministry (yes you all have ministries whether you know it or not – your work place, your friends, your social networks – those are your mission fields) is about how you reflect your experience of God to others. When you talk, do others see God in what you say? When you act, do others see God in what you do? When you make decisions, do others see God in how you deliberate? People are scared of evangelism because they don’t know what to say. That is ridiculous, it has nothing to do with what you say. It has to do with who you are, not who you act to be (people can see right through that), but who you are. And if you are a child of God, if you are a recipient of God’s love and you are, then all you have to do is be yourself. Let God do the work. You are the light of the world, because God is your light. You are the salt of the earth, because God is your salt. It’s not you, it’s God. Others will know you are Christians by your love . . . by a love that was given to you by God.

The last significant period in my life I want to talk to you about is the Hillcrest years. Now those come to end today after 5 years, 30,000 miles, one dead car, and countless experiences that will forever shape who I am as a pastor and a person.

Take for instance, a particular tough day when I had just started my internship. I had stayed up until 2AM or so to finish a paper, got up at 5AM to play basketball at the seminary, went to class all day, and then drove from Chicago to DeKalb to spend time with Pastor Todd and lead Senior High fellowship. I got to DeKalb around 4:30PM and was working in the Senior High room. Pastor Todd came in to chat . . . but I was sound asleep with my head on the Senior High table and drool pouring out of my mouth. Pastor Todd tapped me on the shoulder and said, “uhh, Dan . . .” I jumped to attention immediately and panicked I was about to be fired. I tried to act like I was praying, but Pastor Todd wasn’t buying it. I was so embarrassed, but Pastor Todd graciously acted like he didn’t notice. And I acted like the drenched table was just spilt water.

Or how about the first time that I assisted Pastor Todd with the communion service. The bread had been distributed to the congregation and Pastor Todd looked to me and said, “go ahead.” I said, “what?” He said, “Go ahead.” Pastor Todd wanted me to go ahead and say, “Take and eat the body of Christ.” Confused, I just ate the bread. Pastor Todd laughed and said the words himself.

I have done other embarrassing things too. I jumped into the frozen Lake Geneva at Covenant Harbor Bible Camp. I danced ridiculous dances to entertain the Senior High. I tripped over my stole walking up to make announcements. But things haven’t all been embarrassing. I had the honor of marrying Gene and Sharalynn Kowitz. Dana and I were able to have Pastor Bernie baptize Adelaide here. My memories of Hillcrest are plentiful.

And God has taught me something valuable during my time here as well. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not about ideas. It’s not about thoughts. It is not about theories. Or Greek or Hebrew . . . ultimately the Gospel of Jesus Christ is about people. People, all of us, who are participants in a story much larger than Hillcrest Covenant Church, much larger than DeKalb, much larger than the United States, we are a part of a story that started well before all of that. We are apart of a story that began with God.

Through interactions I have had with members of this church, with the youth . . . I have learned that theological ideals can only take me so far . . . ultimately my theological understandings must have a practical application. I now believe that my role is to connect us with God’s story. Where we fit in God’s plan for the world. My task is not just to impart knowledge, but to increase participation with God.

Have you ever turned on a movie about half way through it? You know the feeling. You feel disinterested. You’re a little confused about what is going on. Well our lives are that way when we start our stories in the wrong place. Our stories don’t start with our birth, but begin with human creation. If all that you understand about your beginning is your mother, you are missing something. Your beginning is as a creature created in the image of God. We must broaden our perspectives. We are not the stars of our own stories, but are role-players in the same big story.

The book of Revelation is the final book of the Bible. And chapter 22 is the final chapter of the book. But the Bible is not an ending. In verse 13 of chapter 22, it says in the words of Jesus, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” God is everything. Our movement in God’s story is a bunch of beginnings and endings. And as we move through God’s story we are continuously being changed.

This conflicts with our modern culture. Our world tell us . . . believe in you . . . don’t change. Stay true to you . . . but Christians have different understanding. Change. Change. Change. Find sin in your life. Find areas of pride. Find growing edges. And change. Become more Christ-like. We become more Christ-like by connecting with God’s story. By understanding who he created us to be and by using his Word to refine who we are.

I put a quote by Henri Nouwen at the top of today’s bulletin. It says, “Spirituality is the journey out of the microcosm into the macrocasm.” Our faith, our spirituality is a movement from the small story of our life into the profound story of God. The profound story of God has no permanent end . . . only new beginnings that draw to a close. The end is not something that despairs us, but gives us hope. We are not said at endings, but grateful that through them we have been changed. We continue to be a new person. We continue to grow in understanding of the profoundly “good” God that we worship.

Are We Known For Love?

The scripture I am going to talk about this morning is the lectionary text for this week and it’s a little peculiar. The passage falls in the lectionary a month after Easter while we are still in the Easter season of the church calendar, but falls in history in the context of the Last Supper and Jesus’ preparation for his death. It doesn’t quite fit, why study a piece of scripture that occurred before Jesus’ death soon after Easter . . . Well, we do this because of what Jesus is doing in this passage to prepare his disciples and us for when he is gone. Jesus’ instructions are meant to guide his disciples and us once Jesus is no longer physically present. The lessons of the passage apply to post-Easter, when we are all left to continue Jesus’ work on earth. This passage answers the question, “what now?”

So what does Jesus tell his disciples that they ought to do . . . 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.”

The 1^st thing that sticks out in these verses is that Jesus says that this is a new commandment, but this does not seem to be a new commandment, we have heard it before. What is new, however, is not the message itself, but the way in which the message can and should be lived out. What is new is that Jesus has now set himself as the model for the love that is commanded. Jesus is our example. Jesus says, “Just as I have loved you, you should love one another.” No longer is the command to love one another simply words, but it has been embodied by Jesus. To love is to do what Jesus has done and is about to do.

Jesus’ command for the disciples to love one another falls just after Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. Even in that act, Jesus points to himself as the example that his disciples should follow. Jesus says in the beginning of chapter 13, “so if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” Jesus is showing them how to love.

Jesus did not stand up behind a pulpit and say to his disciples . . . do this and this and this twice and you will love. No, what Jesus said was “watch me! Did you see what I did, do that.” Jesus did not seek simply to tell his disciples how to love, Jesus was love. “As I have loved you, you also should love one another.” Jesus instructs us to love by his example. And Jesus’ example is service and sacrifice.

Even a cursory look at Jesus’ life reveals what love is. Jesus calls all people to himself . . . he welcomes them. Jesus washes the feet of his disciples . . . he serves them. Jesus dies for all of us . . . he sacrifices of himself for us. Jesus’ love is not some special affection, it is not some fuzzy feeling, but a willingness to place the well being of others before himself.

It is that love which is to characterize who we are as followers of Christ. The church is to be refuge of this love. And to love for Jesus is to serve. To love is to humble oneself before others.

Anyone can memorize God’s command to love others, but to actually do as Jesus did is much more profound and difficult. Anybody that is in any kind of committed relationship with someone else knows this. If love were just a feeling we would constantly be in and out of love . . . some days we would love, some days we wouldn’t. Love takes commitment . . . take my relationship with my wife, Dana . . . I know I love her not because I wake up with some giddy feeling every morning . . . actually some mornings we wake up quite annoyed with one another . . . I know I love Dana because I am fully committed to her even when I don’t feel like it. I love her because I am willing to sacrifice for her. I love her because I am willing to serve her. And how do I know this is love, because that is what God shows us love is.

Love is indeed a fascinating thing. It is seemingly unexplainable. Often it is just a 10 cent word that we toss around freely. I love my dog. I love Coldstone Creamery. I love take home exams. I love free lunches. If you listened to the way we talked you would think love is pretty easy. Love is just really liking something. But love is a lot more. The Bible says, “God is love.” This means much more than “God really likes everything.” God cares so deeply about us that God is willing to put himself on the line for our benefit. Love is action.

So if love is not a feeling, but an action, you might want to ask what actions constitute love? The Bible is full of various commandments and so are our churches. If we just do those things, do we love? If I get coffee for my friends, do I really love them? If I give money to the poor, do I love them? If I advocate for justice, do I love the oppressed? If I go on mission trips, do I love the native people? Maybe . . . but maybe not. That is just the thing about love, there is no prescription for it. We can go through the supposed motions of love, but deep down we know it is not the real thing. It is not authentic. Our attempts at love are often about us and not about God. There is no specific set of things you can do that make your actions love. You can’t exactly teach someone to love.

Ultimately, we love not by ourselves, but by funneling God’s love for us, to others. We love by experiencing God’s love for us and then modeling that love to others. We become a window through which others see a glimpse of God. We can’t create love on our own. God’s redemptive work makes it possible for us to love. We can love others because Christ first loved us. It is God through us that love is done. We, as God’s church, are God’s instruments of love to each other. By passing on the love God has given us to each other, we not only increase our personal experience of God’s love but we perpetuate it. Through our love, others experience the love of God.

This leads to a second aspect of what Jesus says in John 13. Jesus says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” How do we love? How as a church do we serve and sacrifice for one another? Not how are we friendly to one another, but how do we wash each other’s feet, how do we show that we care as much about the well being of the person in the pew next to us as ourselves . . . How well do we love not just the people we like, but each person in our congregations? Remember that Jesus washed the feet of all his disciples, including Judas. Are our churches known for such love? Are we known for love?

Today’s churches are known for many things . . . some are known for there building, some for their dynamic preachers, some are known for their enormous congregations, some are known for their fancy technology . . . but how many churches can you name only because you have heard about their love?

If we want to reach our communities and ultimately the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ we will do it through our love not just for outsiders, but for each other. I think you may increase the number of attendees in your church without love, but you will not increase the number of disciples in your church without love. Creating disciples takes love. As Christ modeled for us what love is, we must model love for the world. Unless we have fully experienced God’s love for us and by God’s love, love each other in the church community, no one outside the church will ever expect that we could love them.

Love is central to who the church is. Any organization can do good works. Any organization can be nice to people. Any organization can have great potlucks, feed the poor and clothe the naked. What makes the church unique, however, is that not only can we do all of these things, but we can do them with love. The body of Christ has a unique gift that it can give. All Christians have experienced first hand the love of God. Each of us have partaken of the immense love that God showed us by sacrificing Jesus Christ on our behalf. We have experienced profound love. And when we seek to love others as Christ loved us, we are channels of God’s love to others. By observing our love for one another, others receive, however imperfect, a glimpse of the divine. When we serve, when we sacrifice, when we put others before ourselves . . . we are channels of God’s love.

Most of us are extremely privileged people. We live in an environment where we have access to virtually unlimited educational opportunities. We have ministry skills. We have thoroughly researched ecclesial strategies. We have hundreds of books. We have a toolbox full of practical tools. And all of this is great . . . but all of our tools and all or our gifts are entirely worthless without love. Love must be the foundation of all that we do. Love must be the cornerstone upon which we build our ministry. We must be willing to serve each other. We must be willing to sacrifice of ourselves for each other. We must be willing to give without any expectation of receiving anything in return. We must desire above all us to be known for love.