Let us pray:

Lord, we are here to worship you, and to learn to be better witnesses. Please send your Holy Spirit to direct us.
Amen

A San Diego minister was called by the custodian to come to the front of the sanctuary. There on the altar was a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a pair of boots. Lying on the blood-stained shirt was a note with a phone number.

The minister dialed the number and talked to a 19-year old man who told him this story: He was a runaway, a drifter, had been in all sorts of trouble. The night before, he had hit bottom. There had been a street fight and he almost killed a man.

After making sure the injured man was recovering in the emergency room, the young man came to the church, found an unlocked door and went inside.

He stayed there all night, crying, praying and thinking. He asked God to forgive him and to show him a better way. All at once, he felt the presence of God. He knew he was forgiven. He felt fresh and clean. He was a new man!

To symbolize his new life and new commitment, he put on some clean clothes he had in his backpack and left his old rags on the altar. He told the minister that he walked out the door a new man, with a new vision, new hope, a new life, a new direction. That, dear saints, is why we need the church — to give us a new vision, new hope, a new life and a new direction.
And it’s not just down-and-outers who need to find a new way for a new day. Famous actress Jane Fonda recently found that need in her life. She said “I felt my heart . . . more and more drawn to faith. I felt like an empty chalice” which she has filled with the Spirit. As a born-again Christian she now follows the Jesus whom she sees as a radical, because “what he preached was revolutionary, and it’s totally what we need.” The most revolutionary message anyone can preach, she says, is “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

Give that some serious tho’t. Taken literally, that command is indeed radical!

Conversion stories like that are rare, but exciting, aren’t they? Surely Jesus must be pleased when they happen.

Today I hope to respond to a precious saint in this congregation who asked me to develop a sermon on why we should come to church. Those two stories illustrate how for two people, Jesus and his church provided a new way.

Look at the Gospel for today. Jesus and his disciples were in Caesarea Philippi. As they walked along the road, Jesus asked, “Who do people say I am?”

“Some say John the Baptist, or Elijah, or one of the prophets.”

“But who do you say I am?”

Good ’ole Peter, always on the spot with an answer. “You are the Messiah.”

Then comes a real surprise. Jesus sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him!
Why do you suppose he said that? Was that the same Jesus we quote at the close of worship every week, “You are the light of the world. Let your light so shine that all may see your good works,” the same Jesus who would later tell his followers to preach good news to the world?

Why the secrecy at that time? Obviously, he did not plan secrecy forever. Why, then, at that time? Maybe one reason is that Jesus believed in the Church he would establish, a community of believers to whom he would issue the Great Commission. Jesus taught the masses, helped the needy, healed the sick and confronted the religious leaders of his day.

That was marvelous, but could it be that his primary mission was to model love, and then to create a community of faith, the Church? That’s us! Maybe his central mission was to prepare disciples to reflect his love, do his work, and to prepare others to reflect his love, do his work . . . who in turn would prepare others to reflect his love, do his work . . . on and on until you and I are those prepared to love others and do the work of Jesus, and to prepare still others, until, as Paul said, “every knee shall bow . . . and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” (Romans 14:11)

Well. how about it? Is that enough challenge? With today’s scriptures about education, learning, preparation, surely we have a work to do!

The psalm speaks of the precepts of the Lord, taught both in the home and in the synagogue.
The Old Testament reading chides the ignorant and unlearned. We are told it is wisdom we need, wisdom that comes by learning the ways of God.

James speaks of the importance of teaching and teachers, and warns that teachers will be judged most strictly.

In the Gospel, Jesus is teaching his disciples. Jesus, a “teacher who has come from God,” (John 3:2) is called “Teacher” more frequently than by any other title.

Glenn Frank, president of the University of Wisconsin, says “Education suffers from calendaritis. Diplomas and degrees carry the subtle suggestion that education is finished at a certain point; that learning stops and living begins. “But when all is said and done, learning is a life job. Education is endless. True education registers people at the cradle and graduates them at the grave.”

That is why you come to church; that is why you go to Sunday School; because education is not finished at a certain point. Learning is a life-long process.

Some people are wise, and some are otherwise! The wise are those who continue to learn; the otherwise are those who resist learning. They are those who say “We’ve never done things that way,” or “I’ve never heard that before.” Change is basic to learning. No one can accept anything new and still hold on to the old. The new must alter the old! Conversion!

At the annual meeting of the Detroit Metropolitan Association (UCC), our Conference Minister, Kent Ulrey, preached a powerful sermon.
It was based on the theme of the meeting, “A New Way For A New Day! Seeing God’s Call In A New Light.” The scripture was Isaiah 43:19: “For I am about to do a brand-new thing. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway thru the wilderness for my people to come home. I will create rivers for them in the desert!”

Suddenly, Kent got our attention by suggesting we read the preceding verse, Isaiah 43:18: “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.”

I think Kent was telling us we can not exult in new light if we cling to the former things. That, dear saints, is the reason to come to church — to learn “a new way for a new day! Seeing God’s call in a new light.” We can not continually dwell on the “former things, consider the things of old” if we want to adopt a new way. Seems to me that is about as plain as anything can be.

Education is a four-fold development — spiritual, physical, mental and social. It was said of Jesus, when he was 12 years old, that he increased in wisdom (mental), in stature (physical), and in favor with God (spiritual) and man (social).
(Luke 2:52)

Today I propose that the church, the Body of Christ, is God’s answer to what’s wrong with the world. That’s you, friend. YOU. Y-O-U!

At this point in our history, we are in a position to welcome new people to share our new vision for a new day. There are plenty of empty pews, lots of room in our fantastic new Sunday School rooms.
The teachers have marvelous plans, everything to make this a learning and a growing congregation.

I only see one of the teachers in her preparation, of course, but I can tell you Lucille spends many hours a week preparing for her class. I’m sure the others do, too.

We need to remember that the growth of this congregation is not the responsibility of Alvina, who supervises the Sunday School. It s not the job of Larry, who built a fantastic theater for us in the west Sunday School room.

It is not just Debbie, who has made the first room into a learning “sanctuary” for youngsters. It is not just Mary Lou, who has been working there all week.

You and I must fill these pews and those Sunday School rooms with friends and loved ones who need to share our community, as we share the love of Jesus. We can do it. Please make it a matter of earnest prayer.

That, dear saints, is why you need to come to church — to learn, to help others learn, to fulfill our need for unity and togetherness. We are not a complete body of Christ unless we are all here.

There is a challenging fable of a wealthy nobleman in a mountain village in Europe who wanted to leave a legacy for his townspeople. He built them a new church. No one was allowed to see the plans, or the inside, until the church was completed. As you would expect, the people watched the work with eager anticipation.
At the grand opening, people gathered and marveled at the beauty of their new church. It was a masterpiece. Then someone said, “Wait a minute. Where are the lamps? It’s dark in here.”

The man who had built the church then gave each family a lamp, and said, “Notice that there are many brackets on the walls. Each family now has a lamp. When you come to church, bring your lamp and place it on one of the brackets. It will shed light. This is to remind you that if you do not come to church, there will be a dark place in God’s house.”

Friends, when you are not here, there is a dark corner in God’s house! We are lights, a community of lights, charged with the mission to so shine that the world will see Jesus in us. What they see must be what they saw in Jesus — feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, welcoming strangers; loving, serving, helping and healing. Unity here in God’s house, among God’s people, should mean we are never alone, never lonely.

In Ronald Ribman’s play, Cold Storage, Parmigiana, a whimsical, sharp-tongued terminal patient incarnated radical pomposity. Landau, a Jewish art dealer, was discussing life with Parmigiana. He says, “Come to the point.”

Parmigiana answers, “The point is that there is no point. That, my Jewish friend, is the secret of the universe. I, Joseph Parmigiana, have solved the problem 5,000 rabbis with 5,000 beards working 5,000 years could not solve — there is no point to life!”
But later, his bravado gives way to a pathetic cry, “Landau, please don’t leave me. Stay with me for a little while. I don’t want to be alone!”

Loneliness hurts. Human beings are sociable by nature. We need the love of others. If we go too far with that, it becomes egotism. But we do need each other. And that need is what unconditional love fulfills. That is why Jesus commanded love. “Love each another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34)

Sociableness does not come easy to everyone. When I was a kid, I was a loner. I didn’t want to be around other people. It was a fetish, so much so that my parents sought help for me. When I became an adult, and became Christian, I had to overcome that.

A minister wanted to implement a program to show visitors how friendly they could be.

He announced that the new program would start the next Sunday. One man was so enthusiastic that he grabbed the hand of a woman sitting next to him and greeted her. She gave him an icy stare and said in no uncertain terms, “That friendship business doesn’t start until next week!” Our new vision should start now.

Jesus came to die because of evil and sin. But Jesus came also to be a light to the world; and to found a community of lights. That’s why we close our worship each week, as the altar candles are extinguished and the acolyte carries out the flame: “Jesus said, ‘I am the light of the world.’ He also said, ‘You are the light of the world.’ Now, as the light goes back into the world, let us go and let our lights shine.”
Learning is the responsibility of each of us.

Erma Bombeck wrote At Wits End. “The beginning of the school year seems a good time to tell young people what education is all about. Going to school isn’t necessarily fun. It won’t guarantee you a good job. It may not make you smart or rich. So what are you doing here and why should you stay? The wheel of blame spins daily, coming to rest on teachers who don’t make it interesting enough, parents who don’t care, school boards who don’t provide enough money. That’s garbage. It all comes down to you . . .”

Her emphasis, of course, was that we must take responsibility to learn, even if the learning environment is imperfect.

Remember where our UCC motto comes from, John 17. “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me because of their testimony. My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father — that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us.”
Then comes the point of the gospel, the result of our congregational love and unity — “and the world will believe you sent me . . . Then the world will know that you sent me . . .” (John 17:20-23)

Can anything be more clear than that? The passion of Jesus was that we might live in unity, because when we do, we will influence the world, that they also may believe. That is evangelism, true incarnational evangelism, Jesus-style evangelism.
Dear saints, unity is what Jesus prayed for, and he made clear that unity is our proof to the world that Jesus is who he said he was. Unity can only be fully accomplished when we are here. It isn’t easy. It isn’t simple. Someone wrote, “To live above with the saints I love, O, that will be glory! But to dwell below with the saints I know, now that’s a different story!”

Unity is not easy. We are different persons, with different personalities, different priorities, different values, very different opinions. Last week I urged you to deliberately develop particularities, idiosyncrasies. The challenge of Jesus is unity, not uniformity. Think what a boring world this would be if we were all alike! Unless, of course, everyone were like me!!!! Wow . . . perish the thought!

I should tell you that I do believe this congregation is a good example of unity. With all our differences, we live together as one Body of Christ.

So, the church isn’t always what it should be. We aren’t always what we should be. I hope you have seen the framed quote in my office, which is said to be the prayer of a slave:

“Lord, I ain’t what I oughta be.
Lord, I ain’t what I wanna be.
But thank you, Lord,
I ain’t what I used to be.”

Let me summarize the reasons I believe you should come to church:

1. For fellowship. When we’re all here, we can best example true love for God and for each other.

2. To learn. If anyone is satisfied with what he knows/believes, then the Holy Spirit has no more to do. I don’t think anyone here is so arrogant as to say, “I don’t need the Holy Spirit.” Yet, by implication, that’s exactly what we say if we are unwilling to learn, to grow, to learn a new way for a new day, to change. Remember Paul’s counsel: “Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” (Romans 12:2)

3. To share your gifts, your talents. This is closely related to fellowship.

Come to church each week. We need you. And you need us.

Let us pray: