Oakland Christian Church United Church of Christ

The Rev. Mark L. Burns, Pastor

There is a commercial on the Golf Channel, yes, there is a TV channel just for Golf! This golfer is getting into his car, clubs in hand, and there you see standing before him Bobby Jones. As the two get into the car, then you see Sam Snead, and then further down the road, you come across Ben Hogan, waiting for a ride, the caption then reads, "no one plays alone". This commercial about golf captures what I have said about our faith; there are no solitary Christians; so to paraphrase the commercial, when it comes to our God, no one faiths alone.

Our faith is personal, but it is not private. By our saying "yes" to God, we in turn become a part of a much larger and wider community, by the waters of our baptism, we become a part of the family of God; which often can lead to an internal struggle within our hearts, minds, and spirits. Our faith invites us to expand our horizons, to see the big picture of God’s plans and purposes for all God’s creation, to go beyond ourselves. However the tug, the pull can be to contract, look at only ourselves, and to ask, "What about me?" This give and take, this back and forth goes on all the time. As individuals, we are part of a larger community, and in turn the wider community, of which we are a part, needs to remember and take care of the individuals.

You can see this lived out here at Oakland; on the one hand, our seeking to care for ourselves, our members. We provide Sunday morning worship, Sunday school classes for all ages, fellowships for men and women, young and old; The Oakland ACEs (After Church EaterS), Sweetheart Dinners, Bible Study, Family Fun Night, trips to Busch Gardens with our youth. On the other hand, in responding to the wider world, serve lunch down at the Salvation Army, hosting the Ruritan dinners, Relay for Life, baking pies and raising money in the fight against cancer, March of Dimes, our Fall Fest in November, when all the monies raised in one form or another go back to the community in benevolences, our food pantry, even offering our outside bathroom to the bike riders. It is all about finding a balance, because at one time or another, you will hear the voices, "What about Me?", "What about us?" "What about them?"

What I especially like about the Bible is that at some times you and I are invited into the everyday life of those early believers, those early Followers of the Way. Our lesson for this morning is one such case, as the scriptures say they "were increasing in number." The number of followers of the way was growing. What we are talking about here are Jewish followers. The term "Hellenists" is not referring to Greeks or to Gentiles, but "Hellenists" is probably referring to Greek speaking to Jews of the Diaspora, Jews, who at one time or another had been dispersed across the Mediterranean basin. The word Diaspora refers to this dispersal of the Jewish people; and now these Greek speaking Jews have come back to Jerusalem, and now they have become followers of the way.

So, what would you do in this case? They are Jews, but they are Greek speaking Jews, they are not like us. Let them go back to where they came from, let their own take care of them. Sometimes it is rough being a Christian, or we may know what to do, we just don’t know how to do it. Either way, we come to a crossroads, and where ever you and I may find a crossroads in our lives, at such times, there is no avoiding the cross in the road, since we are followers of the one who died upon a cross. At those crossroad times in our lives, look to the cross, look to our God!

The words translated in our lesson for this morning read, "select from among yourselves", which I chose to interpret, God has already provided the answer for you, and it is right in your very midst, "select from among yourselves". So in this case, seven people of good repute, seven people full of the Spirit are chosen for this duty. It is like the story of the feeding of the five thousand; the answer was already there, it was there all the time. Take, Bless, Break and Give, when it passes through Jesus’ hands, there is always more than enough to go around.

People are hungry; the poor’s needs are not being met. The answer is already in your midst, You are the answer, or another way of putting it would be, as the numbers grow, as the community increasing in size, are there not seven men or women, full of the Spirit, who cannot care for the widow of the Hellenists in our midst. When you put it that way, seven men or women, full of the Spirit, seven would just be the minimum, but you need to start somewhere. We are the answer. God put us here for a reason.

We are not all the same, each of us has different God-given gifts and graces, some preach, some teach, some bake pies, some organize teams that walk, some gather people together for meals, you name it, within the life of the wider community, is there not someone with the gift to step forward and say "Yes! When it gets back to the age old pull at our time, talent, and treasure, "What about me?", "What about them?" Today, like then, the answer will always be select from among yourselves. God has already provided what we need; take, bless, and give, and there will always be enough to go around with plenty left over! Remember, no one faiths alone!

Amen.

The Rev. Mark L. Burns, Pastor

In case I was to lose any of you during this morning’s sermon, the abridged version of this morning’s message goes as follows: The wonderful healing power of God in the hands of God’s people. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Last Sunday being Memorial Sunday, the day we remember and honor those who have sacrificed for freedom’s sake, I talked about ordinary men and women finding themselves within extraordinary times and places; and in such times and places, we find ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Why? Because of the Spirit of love; God’s Spirit poured out upon all flesh because we need to remember that last Sunday was also Pentecost Sunday as well. Extraordinary times bringing forth from ordinary people extraordinary things, however, it left me thinking that the extraordinary is not the norm, that is why we call it extra-ordinary. Most of us, most of the time, we are ordinary people who find themselves living in ordinary times and places, so heh, what about us?

Let us go back two thousand years ago, to the Beautiful Gate in the temple of Jerusalem. I find this story of scripture fascinating, because of its cast of characters. We have the lame man, lame from birth, whose feet and ankles were weak and therefore he was not able to walk. We have the "they" referred to in Verse 2, "and a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the Gate of the temple which is called Beautiful to ask alms of those who entered the temple." And last but not least, we have the two followers of Jesus, the risen Christ, Peter and John; and in all good stories, especially in all good stories of the Bible, we are invited to participate, to find ourselves taking the part of one, if not all three of the cast of characters. This scene before the Beautiful Gate had become normal; it had become ordinary for those involved. Day after day, they had brought the lame man to this time and place with the only new cast of characters were Peter and John. I say new because they were from Galilee, they had only been in Jerusalem since the Passover, just two months before. But I am sure that seeing and being in the presence of the lame, especially during their days with Jesus, this was nothing new to them.

So as I said, this is a case of ordinary people, finding themselves in the midst of ordinary times and places, but in this case, something new did indeed happen; the lame man was healed. If you want, you can think back to my abridged version of the sermon, the wonderful healing power of God in the hands of God’s people. You and I each and every day of our lives, we are confronted by the ordinary, the sick, the lame, the poor, the broken, the hurt. So ordinary, that as a defense mechanism, we call it all normal and we say, "This is the way it is supposed to be." Or, we even become enablers to the normal, as did "they", when they carried the lame man to the Beautiful Gate.

I am reminded of a news article from San Francisco, in the face of the growing homeless problem; their answer was to provide brand new shopping carts to the homeless, since it bothered the store owners that their were always being stolen by the homeless in the first place. So into this ordinary time and place come Peter and John, but something is new. First, it is them. They are now new. How so? God’s Spirit has been poured out upon them; they are new persons in the risen Christ. They have the power! And second, instead of facing the same old, same old, the same old way, they looked the lame man right in the face and said, "I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!" Gold and silver will keep you lame, but the wonderful healing power of God in the hands of God’s people, that can help make you walk again. I say "help" because even after his ankles and feet are made strong, even after being able to walk, he could go back to the way he was and sit at the Gate begging for alms, as was ordinary for him in times past.

The Rev. Mark L. Burns, Pastor