Nancy and I noticed on the church vans that directly under the name of our church you have written the words, “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors.”  So I asked a few people if you had done the “Igniting Ministries Program.”  No one knew what I was asking.  The national church did a four year advertising campaign, which included commercials trying to introduce who we are as United Methodists to the unchurched in our society.  The end of each commercial expressed these words, “If you are searching for something to believe in (or belong to,) you’re not alone.  “Our Hearts, Our Minds, Our Doors are always open.  The people of the United Methodist Church.”  Here let’s look at one and see.

Run commercial on “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors.”

Obviously, with this message being at the end of every commercial, it is a message that our leadership felt was important to give those who heard the commercial.  It is saying that if you come to a United Methodist Church, if you come to Prescott United Methodist Church, you will find a community of people who have open hearts, open minds and you will find an open door.  So why is this important?    Especially since we make this claim on our vans which travel all over our city, Nancy and I wanted to reflect on these three thoughts over the next few weeks.  Today, we look at “Open Hearts.”

Why open hearts?  What does this mean? And maybe even more so, how would people experience our open hearts if they came to one of our worships?  I believe what an open heart is, is expressed in the passage from Luke where Jesus challenges us to “be compassionate as God is compassionate.”  The translation we read today says merciful, but compassion is also a legitimate translation.  What does it mean to “be compassionate?”  The word is derived from two Latin words.  “”Com” which means “with” and “pati” which means “suffer.”  So compassion from its Latin derivation means “to suffer with.”    Biblically, it means even more than this.  To be compassionate means to enter into another’s life, another’s world so completely that you can feel their feelings in your guts.  Remember my first sermon with you, I made the statement that someone said that the highest number of intimate relationships we can balance at any one time in our lives is 12.  And then I said that I believe that this is often about 8 too many.  This is why.  We can imagine how much time and energy it takes to understand someone and their lives this intimately.  But why is this important?

How many of us feel that one of the great gifts of life is to be understood?  To know that someone can truly have a clear idea of what it is you are experiencing?  It is a gift.  So why is this thought important to someone looking for a community of faith?  Why would we want people who are not affiliated with a church to know we are a people of open hearts?  I have a rule of thumb when I meet first time worshipper’s that has remained pretty accurate for me in my ministry.  If someone comes to worship for the first time and they have just moved to the community, they are probably shopping for a church home.  And what criteria are they seeking?  A community that has people that are like them.  For if there are people like them, then there is a great probability that when they need someone to understand, there will be someone who can and will.  Studies show that a first time worshipper will make the decision to return next week or not within the first five minutes of entering the sanctuary.  Yes, even before the inspiring sermons or wonderful music.  Determining they will find a place where they will fit and be understood is the first criteria for choosing a church family. It is a part of compassion.

If someone comes to worship for the first time and they have lived in the community for awhile, then I know that they are facing a crisis of some kind in their life.  The question is, “Why this Sunday and not last Sunday or next Sunday?”  It is usually because they are needing someplace to find some hope and a word of comfort.  They need to find people of the open heart who may be willing to be open to what they are facing and be encouraging and supportive.

So how do our hearts become open so we can be this community of support? This is where Paul’s progression becomes extremely important.  In it, we find the path to compassion, to being a people of the open heart.  The first step Paul recognizes is that we all face times of suffering.  Scott Peck’s opening sentence in his best selling book, The Road Less Traveled, is ”Life is difficult.”  Life, as wonderful as it is for most of us, is never without its bumps and valleys.  Paul says that in these times of suffering, we develop endurance.  What I believe he means by this is we do not let our suffering, our road-bumps, so to speak, overcome us.  They are not given the last word for how our lives become.  We do not fall into dismay, but know life can and will be whole again.  It is resurrection in its most intimate sense in our lives. The world’s suffering never is the final word, it is God’s grace.  But, Paul is telling us in his progression, whether we receive grace or not is up to us.  The choice is which character we will develop from our suffering.  There is a book, which I have only skimmed, but I love its title.  The title is, We Can Choose To Become Bitter Or Better.  I believe this is what Paul is saying about character.  Who we become is up to what we choose.

To become better is to take a path to a compassionate and open heart.  Henri Nouwen, one of the great spirituality writers of the late 20^th century, calls this decision the path to becoming “The Wounded Healer.”  His premise is by our healed wounds we can become someone who helps another heal.  It is the basis of compassion.  Remember, to be compassionate is to be able to identify with another’s pain, another’s life.  To know their feelings in your guts.  When you have had a similar experience, you know what it is like for the person you are with.  If you are needing to talk with someone about a relational problem or what it is like to face a divorce, would you want to talk with someone who has never experienced it, or someone who has been through it and has found happiness again?

This is Paul’s last step.  Character leads to hope.  It is why our healed wounds lead to hope.  We can stand before another and say, resurrections and new life do happen.  If you persevere, if you choose to endure what is now a part of your life and choose to get better, you will indeed experience God’s grace, and life will become whole and good again.  Hope abounds.  Your present never has to be your future.  But your future is up to you finding someone who can help you, encourage you to choose life.

To be a community of the open heart is not being a group of people who have it all together and who provide the perfect examples of being a follower of Christ.  Since Jesus himself reminds us that only God is good, and perfect.  I believe to be the people of the open heart is to be a community that is able to share our humanity with each other at our deepest level of need and trust. To be a community of the open heart often asks us to be a community of the broken heart.  It is to be open to another’s life in a way that does not exhibit judgment, but says, “I am willing to walk with you to hope.”  I am willing to be open to your feelings and your life and be an understanding support as you seek to choose being better and not bitter.  Many of you have probably heard the old saying, “You can live 7 days without food, 3 days without water, but you cannot live 5 minutes without hope.”

Let’s share again who we seek to be and what we hope people will find when they come to be a part of our community.  We are the people called Prescott United Methodist Church. Our Hearts, Our Minds, Our Doors are always open.

Sermon delived by Rev. George Cushman on September 18, 2005.