Sermon 9/15/2019: Turning our lives around for Jesus

Today's lessons:  Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28Psalm 141 Timothy 1:12-17Luke 15:1-10

Note:  I attended the Mixed Methods Preaching Conference offered by Christian Theological Seminary's PhD Program for African American Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric.  The method I spent time learning is called expository preaching.  This is the sermon I wrote and offered to my small group.  I thought it prudent to write it using the lessons for the upcoming Sunday service, so I could also offer this sermon on 9/15/2019.

While I did not get a perfect score, I did well.  I learned a lot, and I'm thankful to Bishop Jennifer for giving us this opportunity to grow and develop in new ways.






As Paul often opens his letters, I begin this message with a note of thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord.  Like Paul wrote in today’s reading from First Timothy, I, too, am thankful because Jesus has given me the strength for my work, for this work, because he knew he could trust me.  I thank you, also, for trusting me with this Word.
           
            I don’t know if Paul realized it, but Paul was the poster child for the lost sheep.  You know the one. We heard about it in today’s Gospel. That one out of 100 sheep who made the shepherd leave the 99 to search for the one missing sheep.
            Paul was the lost coin.  Something so precious to its owner, she got down on her hands and knees and poked in corners and under rugs until she found the coin.
            Paul was lost and he will be the first one to admit it.  “I did not put my faith in Jesus.” He said.
            But he didn’t only lack faith in Jesus, he persecuted, tortured and sometimes even murdered anyone who followed Jesus.
            When he was known as Saul, he was so very lost in the depths and distractions of daily demands he might have seemed like a lost cause.
             He was a very bad man.  But something miraculous happened: God chose him, converted him, turned his world view upside down and transformed this man of the world into a man of God. 
Jesus showed Saul grace.  Jesus showed Saul mercy.  In that flash of light, in those 3 days of fasting, a new man emerged.  Now known as Paul, he was called to transform, convert and turn the world of others upside down, too.
By setting these expectations, Jesus called Paul into ministry and evangelism. 
           He had once been a very bad man.  And he knew it.  He said he was the worst of all people -- not once, but twice -- in today’s second lesson.  You know, it just might take transforming the worst of the worst for some people to recognize Jesus as Lord and Savior.
            It might take a real sinner, a real hate-filled, horrible man’s conversion, his turning his life around, for people to know that if God can change someone like Paul, Jesus can change anyone!
            Now, none of us here is as bad as Paul ever was, but all of us are broken, all of us have sinned, all of us have hurt another, all of us have fallen short.  All of us have dismissed or forgotten or at some time in our lives we may have never known God. 
Yet all of us need the redemptive power of God.   All of us need to stop, take stock, and admit our frailties, our fears and our failures to God.  Only then will we know the power of forgiveness.  Only then can we hear the words of Jesus when he tells us that when the lost sheep or the lost coin or the lost Paul or the lost you or the lost me is found, there will be rejoicing in the heavens and on earth, with a pitch-in and a party to celebrate our return to our rightful owner.
Jesus changed Saul’s miserable, sinful life and look what he did with him!  He changed this man’s heart, his mind and his behavior and turned his life upside down and sent him out into the world to talk about Jesus.
If Jesus could do that with a man like Saul, imagine, just imagine, what God, can do with you!
It’s been about two full years since our consultant Kay first came to St. Alban’s.  We were a mess.  We needed help.  We could not truly show God’s love to the world in a healthy way when we couldn’t share it to one another in a healthy way.
So the Bishop sent Kay to us with tools to help us change and grow and be transformed in ways that would help us see ourselves anew.  She taught us how to identify unhealthy behaviors, how to turn those behaviors upside down so that we might be able to find the mercy and grace God had set aside for us.
She brought us this poster, which we framed and put up in the narthex, a constant reminder of what we need to guard against, so that we won’t fall back into unhealthy and sometimes ugly behaviors. 

Kay might have been that blinding light we needed to illuminate the dark corners where our coin was lost.  What she taught us in those first few months might have been the medicine to remove the scales from our eyes so that we could see the miraculous work of God at St. Alban’s more clearly.
We have been vulnerable, and we have allowed someone to care for us, as Paul did in his blindness and in his recovery.  We have experienced God’s mercy and grace as we have changed and grown.  We are continually recognizing God’s love within our faith community, and as a result, we know hope.
Paul said that Jesus was patient with him.  Well, beloveds, Jesus is patient with us, too.  With God’s grace, with the teaching of Jesus, with the example of Paul, we are transforming.  That seems like something to celebrate.


Let us pray.  Holy One, let us be turned upside down, converted and transformed like Paul, so that we can go out into the world and upend it with God’s love.  Let us be agents of God’s mercy, and givers of God’s grace.  Call us into your service in the world so that we can be messengers of peace.  Amen.