March 30, 2008 - "Embrace the World"

Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky
The Second Sunday of Easter
March 30, 2008
W. Gregory Pope

EMBRACE THE WORLD
(A Global Missions Emphasis)
Acts 2:14a, 22-32; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31

I have been a North Carolina Tar Heel fan since I was 12 years old. (I realize that, given the preacher’s context, that may be the worst opening line to a sermon - ever! But give me a shot at redemption.) When I was twelve, it was the day of Dean Smith, Michael Jordan, James Worthy, and Sam Perkins in Tar Heel Nation. And I fell in love with Carolina Blue.

Before last night’s game I was already feeling divided inside. Louisville has been my home team for three years now. And I knew a Louisville win would make many people I love happy. I was still surprised, however, when at the end of the game as North Carolina was cutting down the nets on their way to the Final Four, I felt sadness. Throughout the game I found my loyalty running red.

So perhaps a small conversion took place last night and I’m learning to more fully embrace the world in which I live. (And that line, given today’s theme, may the weakest transition from an introduction to the body of a sermon. But it is offered in love and with an intention to connect with my congregation. So do with it what you will!)

Tools With Which to Embrace the World

This is the Second Sunday of Easter and our Gospel Lesson lets us in on a meeting with Jesus and his disciples on the evening of that first Easter.

For the past three years Jesus has changed their lives in immeasurable ways. Now the transformation is about to go further and deeper and wider. But first he has to meet them where they are. And he does.

.......Peace


The Risen Christ, having been freed from death, appears to the disciples who are behind locked doors, scared to death. And the first word he says to their fearful hearts is “Peace be with you.” Too frightened to participate in the liturgy, they forget to say, “And also with you.” Jesus understands. He will offer the word of peace twice more in their presence. Again, with no response from his frightened congregation.

.......Purpose

In addition to the gift of peace he gives them a calling. Sometimes you need a reason, a higher purpose to come out from behind the locked doors of your life. And so Jesus says to them: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

.......Power and Courage

But you need more than peace and purpose to move beyond your fears and into your calling. You need power and courage. So the Risen Christ who has been freed from death breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Jesus offers them the very presence and power of God to do what he’s calling them to do.

To Be Sent as Jesus Was Sent

“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” That is the Great Commission in the Gospel of John for all followers of Jesus.

But what does it mean to be sent as Jesus was sent?

.......How and Why Was Jesus Sent?

Well, why was Jesus sent? What was the nature of that sending?

Jesus was sent because God had a dream for the world. Throughout history God had revealed that dream to Moses and the prophets, and they preached it as best they could understand it. But people still didn’t seem to get it.

So, as Peter told the crowd in Acts, it was God’s plan to send Jesus into the world to teach us God’s ways. However, instead of listening to him we killed him. But God didn’t allow crucifixion to end the story. God raised Jesus from the dead, vindicating the message Jesus was sent to teach us.

What was that message? What was God’s dream?

Jesus called it the kingdom of God. And in many ways it turned upside down everything we believe about God and love and power and righteousness.

Jesus came to say that God loved the world unconditionally. God does not hate nor despise the world. God loves the world so much it breaks God’s heart into pieces to see the way we treat other. To see the rich and powerful oppress the poor and weak. To see how so many of us live so selfishly.

Jesus came to say that God’s dream for the world is justice and compassion and forgiveness, loving your enemies not killing them, even if they’re nailing you to a cross.

Jesus came to say that God’s kingdom is not about taking over the world. God’s kingdom is about giving yourself for the sake of the world.

Jesus came to say to those in political and religious power that they were to use their power to provide for the needy and to show mercy and to proclaim forgiveness.

Jesus came to say that God’s mercy is greater than God’s holiness. He came to say that God’s heart is made glad by those who hunger and thirst after righteousness and choose to do what is right and just. But he said that nothing causes heaven to throw a party of like someone being lifted up out of their sin and failure and surrounded with God’s mercy and grace.

And that’s why Jesus was killed. When you tell those in power that God is on the side of the weak and the poor, when you tell the religious right (that is religious people who believe themselves always to be right) that God is more about mercy and grace, you threaten the very foundation of their political and religious systems. You are called unpatriotic and labeled soft on sin. You are dangerous and you must be silenced.

And so they silenced Jesus. Or so they thought.

They hung him up on a cross for all the world to say. Their message was this: If this man is your King, you’re going to end up like this. And that’s why the disciples are behind closed doors locked in fear.

But less than three days after his crucifixion, God raised Jesus from the dead to inform those in power that Jesus was God’s Messiah who spoke the truth. And that the greatest power they had at their disposal - the threat of death - was not the greatest power in the world.

Resurrection power was now forever loose in the world.

.......How and Why Are We Sent?

And in the power of resurrection Jesus sends us out into the world just as God had sent him.

I don’t know about you but that makes me more than a little nervous

We are the ones now entrusted with God’s dream for the world.

We are now the Body of Christ sent out into the world to love and embrace the world, not despise it or destroy it. We are sent to call the world to justice, to decrease the gap between the rich and poor, to embrace simplicity and live generously, to shower the world with compassion and forgiveness, even to our enemies as we seek to make them friends and live together in peace, and to find those who have fallen and lift them up in the grace and mercy of God.

And know this: when you do heaven will throw a party and God will weep in joy. But the politically powerful and the religiously righteous will hate you because you threaten the very foundation of their political and religious systems. You will be called unpatriotic and labeled soft on sin. And they will seek to silence you.

And they just might.

But the living hope of Easter, rooted in the resurrection of Jesus, tells us that death is not the final power and doesn’t have the final word. So we need not fear death.

God’s Kingdom will live on. The seeds you plant will flourish long after you’re gone.

Resurrection power is forever loose in the world.

Transition to “Embrace the World” Video

Over the next few weeks you are going to hear the stories of people who have been captured by God’s dream for the world and have chosen to embrace the world where God has sent them. Places like Brooklyn and India, Thailand and Morocco. And you’re gong to hear how you can partner with them.

This calling of Jesus to be sent into the world was not a calling to one person, but to the community of disciples who would become the church. And it’s not just one local church, but all Christians, all followers of Jesus everywhere.

For the past several hundred years Christians have grouped themselves into denominations and partnered together for ministry and mission throughout the world. As we live into a post-denominational era, Christians look for multiple partnerships and networks through and beyond denominational structures. We realize that we can do more with other Christians, other churches, other organizations than we can do alone. And so we look for people and projects where we can partner with others in ministry.

Some of those projects we can participate in ourselves. They are nearby or we can travel. There is also work that needs to be done around the world, places we cannot go. Or if we can go we cannot stay.

God has called people to those places. We are given the opportunity to support them with our prayers and our resources.


As a congregation we have multiples partners in ministry. The one partner we with whom we invest most of our missions money is the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, or CBF. This Spring we will be hearing stories from CBF field personnel and the ways in which they are embracing the world. Through the Embrace the World Offering, you and I can partner with them in the work they are doing.

But more than just giving toward the offering, I want you to pray that God will open your eyes to the ways in which you personally can embrace the world right where you live.

You can embrace the children among us by giving yourself for a day or a week at our Children’s Camp the first week of June.

You can embrace our community one Saturday morning a month as we go out as the hands and feet of Christ to embody God’s love. Two upcoming dates are April 19 and May 17. I invite you to Embrace the World with us.

I want to ask Steven Cole to go ahead and open up this video screen. I want you to hear the story of Nomie Derani and her ministry with the Arab American Friendship House in Brooklyn, New York. You can also read more about her on the insert provided in your bulletin. (VIDEO)