SETTING THE CONTEXT

After Jesus’ resurrection, according to the Gospel of John, he appeared to his disciples many times. This passage describes their final meeting on earth. They are back home on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. They have been out all night doing what was familiar, part of their “old” life, fishing. Jesus appears on the shore and shares one final time with them.  

READ John 21:15-17

The Book of Deuteronomy is a book of laws. In fact, the word Deuteronomy means 2^nd law; the first law being the Ten Commandments. It is meant to help the future kings maintain the covenant between God and the people of God. This section of the book deals with the laws concerning tithes and offerings. Very few people had cash money; their tithes were from their herds and crops. So their offerings came in the form of seed, wine, olive oil, and animals. Every seventh year all debts were to be forgiven, slaves were to be freed if they wanted to be freed. As you can imagine someone might be hesitant to lend to someone or help someone in year six, but even then the people are called to being generous.

READ Deuteronomy 15:7-11

THE SERMON

Today is “Make a Difference Day.” All across the nation, people have been encouraged to volunteer somewhere. The thing is that as followers of Christ every day is “Make a Difference Day.” Every day we are called to go MAD, go Make A Difference.

The last words Jesus shares with Peter are very clear. It even sounds like he’s trying to drill the message into Peter’s head. If you love me, you will care for my disciples. Jesus uses the metaphor of shepherding. Shepherding is not an easy task. If you want to really understand the extent of Jesus’ call to feeding and tending his sheep read a book by Phillip Keller called A Shepherd Looks At Psalm 23.^[i] The shepherd spends long hours with the sheep sometimes placing himself or herself at risk to ensure their well-being. The shepherd and sheep come to know each other intimately and the sheep come to trust the faithful shepherd. It is a powerful image. This is the image Jesus leaves with all of us who are his disciples. We express our love of Jesus by caring for each other, by helping each other grow in our knowledge and love of Christ so that we “feed on him in our hearts with thanksgiving.”

Our second Scripture helps us see though that our concern cannot only be for other disciples of Christ. Deuteronomy says “Do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor.” (Deut 15:7) Jesus in the famous parable of the Good Samaritan defined neighbor for us. Our neighbor is anyone. So we as followers of Christ and people of the Covenant with God must strike a balance between caring for Jesus’ disciples and helping those in need beyond our walls. So often we think of things as “either-or”, either we care for our own or we help those beyond our walls, but this commandment is “both-and.” We are to do both, feed and tend Jesus’ flock and help our needy neighbors outside the flock.

Over the last month we have been looking at G-R-O-Wing. The G is for Giving. The R is for Reflecting or praying. The O is for Offering ourselves. And today we’re talking about the W for Working. Today we put it all together; we give, we pray and we offer ourselves so that the Work of Christ might be accomplished and through this work we Make a Difference in each other’s lives and in the world in His name. If you look down at the seats you are sitting on, they are individual seats, but you will notice that they all interlock. Each of us gives, prays and offers ourselves individually, but we are joined together interlocked as one body through Christ and so our efforts work together. I don’t want to just talk about this, I want to show it to you; so here is how we, Prescott United Methodist Church, have worked together over the last three months or so to Make a Difference through Christ.

BEGIN MINISTRY REPORT OF JULY-SEPTEMBER 2006. Click here to view the report.

Sermon delived by Rev. Nancy Cushman on October 29, 2006.