Coming Home: A New Journey Begins

Matthew intro:
Every one of the four gospels ends with a challenge from Jesus called the “Great Commission.” Why do biblical scholars give these words this title? The word translated “commission” is also the same word translated “commandment.” To receive a commandment in Jesus’ day meant to receive and order, but it also means “to be appointed to.” Jesus appoints his first disciples to continue his mission by living this commandment, a commandment that is still ours today. Let us read from the Gospel of Matthew and see what Jesus calls us to do if we truly want to live as a follower of him.

Read Matthew 28:16-20

It is a tremendous responsibility Jesus assigns to his followers, both then and to us today. We are thankful those who came before us honored this commandment, or else we would not be here today, receiving the hope and promise of God’s good news in Jesus the Christ. Yet, we heard that there was not an immediate ground swell of enthusiasm from all who received Jesus’ commissioning. Matthew tells us that there were some who doubted. Matthew does not tell us why they doubted, only that they were doubting. Were they doubting that the resurrected Lord stood before them? Were they doubting their own ability to carry out their appointed calling? Were they doubting that they could make a difference in this world that Jesus was sending them into? Were they doubting that their ministry was to go beyond their own people, their own kind and into the world? Doubt is an expression of a lack of trust. What were they, what are we afraid of? What were they, what do we not trust in that prevents us from fulfilling this commission?

Our next reading is from the Book of Ephesians. It is a prayer by the Apostle Paul for the church, the people of God. Let’s hear Paul’s prayer for each of us today.

Read Ephesians 3:14-21

It is a prayer for love, again reflecting the message of the Great Commandment of Christ that we have addressed these past weeks by looking at the travelers on the Yellow Brick Road. As we close our sermon series and take our final journey with the characters from the movie today, we will see expressions of Paul’s prayer for us. A prayer that asks for our own inner strengthening by God’s Holy Spirit that we all may be grounded and rooted in love. A love that surpasses knowledge, so that we are filled with the fullness of God, a fullness seen in our characters that embraces not only our hearts and compassion, but also our wisdom and our courage. Let us hear again, the faith of Paul, “To the God, who can accomplish more than we can even imagine, even conceive in our own thinking and understanding, to this God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

SERMON:
If you were asked to describe yourself to another, what would you say? How do you perceive yourself? What strengths do you believe you have? What are some of your perceived weaknesses? How did you learn this? Who influenced this self-image that you have? Was it a parent? A teacher? Your culture? Your life-experiences. Probably all of the above and more. Maybe we do not know for sure who influenced our self-talk the most, for as I stated in my first sermon in this series “Starting Out Right”, according to the psychologists I read, our personalities, our characters, our values and mores, and I believe our self-images are formed by the time we are 5-6 years old. Who remembers that far back?

Our start in life influences the whole rest of our life’s journey. It is a start that continues to interpret life for us for the rest of our journey. Or it is a start that can cause us to spend years trying to unlearn and replace our self-images with others. Hence why starting a life out right is so important. I remember hearing about a study that involved little Afro-American girls about five or six years old. They were shown two identical dolls except that one was black and the other white. They were then asked which one was the prettiest. A significant majority, 70-80% of the little girls, chose the white doll. The study reinforced how ingrained their own negative self-image already was at this early age.

The other side of this that shows our call as the church and providing a good start is shown by Mahatma Gandhi. In the schools that Gandhi sponsored, he insisted that all the children would have to do something in front of their classmates, even if it was reading a poem or book. The reason being, Gandhi said, was how can we expect our children to grow up fighting for human rights and taking stands for justice, if they are afraid to even be in front of people. Many of you love our children’s time for you love watching the kids and find our sharing with them to be our best sermons. But, did you ever stop for a moment and realize that these children are before hundreds of people, and that they are learning that this is a safe and affirming thing to do. Hopefully being in front of crowds will not be so intimidating. It helps build a perception and confidence for them. How many of you would like to be a liturgist, but do not pursue it because you are intimidated by the rest of us?

As I stated, our start is something that empowers us, or puts a barrier in our lives that we must overcome through a lot of hard work and energy and time, as we seek to become more alive and whole. We see this work is a major component of our own faith journeys. Jesus, himself said, “You must be born again to enter into the kingdom of God.” You must become a new creation. It is the thrust of the message we heard in Ephesians that we are called to change and strengthen our inner selves so we may more fully love. We must be open to God’s Holy Spirit, and if we are we will become more and be able to accomplish more than we can even imagine.

The question now becomes, “How?” The characters in the Wizard of Oz show us glimpses of and insights as to how. We can see they all felt a deep need in their lives to be more than they believed themselves to be. They felt a genuine sense of emptiness inside that caused them to believe they were less than who they were suppose to be. That they were lacking something that would help them be more fully alive, and whole. These feelings of lack caused them to diminish themselves. These feelings were so overwhelming they were willing to take a journey that maybe for the first time gave them some hope that they may find an answer, that they may receive what they lacked. They were, “Off to see the Wizard” who they believed would make everything ok.

This week, a person came up to me and said, “I am going to be away for a couple of weeks and I want to know how you are going to end this series when the ending has the characters finding a fraud?” This wizard that the characters are seeking is nothing more than a charlatan and a liar. For me, this is the whole point. These characters, searching for wholeness and wellbeing, took a journey seeking someone or something outside themselves that would save them. They all believed that the Wizard was going to be their savior, that some how he could magically make all their problems, all their disappointments go away. We hear this all the time in our life’s journey. You need this product to be whole. You need to follow this diet and you will be saved. You need t climb this social ladder to feel good and be important. The reality s, they are all false beliefs and a false perception of life and authority. We call the following of these false gods idolatry. The character’s reality proved to only be a person in which they placed false hopes. So what happened, and what did they learn? What does the ending of the movie really show us?

Show clip where Glenda tells Dorothy that she already has the ability to go home.

Glenda’s words are so important. You always had the ability, you always possessed the gifts. And the answer to the question, “Well why didn’t you just tell her?” is so insightful. “You would not have believed me. You had to discover it for yourself.” Paul’s words in Ephesians says, “I pray that you will be strengthened in your inner being with power through God’s Spirit. The spiritual journey is about discovering ourselves, the core of our own being. People used to make fun of the old cliché, “I must find myself.” Actually it is true when you take a spiritual journey. It is one of finding your true self, the self God created you to be.

When we think of education and learning, at least I, and I believe most of us, think about pouring information into another’s head. It is like lifting the scalp and pouring knowledge into the brain. But actually the Latin word, educare, which is translated education means to draw out or draw forth from another. The Yellow Brick Road is a metaphor for all of our spiritual journeys. It is a road of self-discovery, finding what is already within, finding and discovering the beautifully made, beautifully gifted people God has already created us to be. But no one can simply tell us, we have to discover it and reinforce it in our own lives.

The message to us as the church is also there. The journey and the travelers helped each other to discover the deeper parts of their own humanity, or creation. Dorothy discovered she did not have to run away from her problems, but had the ability to face them and deal with them. The Scarecrow discovered his wisdom, The Tin Man his deep compassion, and the Lion his deep courage and strength. These pilgrims on the road helped each other, helped draw out of each other those very hopes and dreams and desires they had. I Thessalonians 5:11 reminds us this is the very purpose of being the church. Paul says in this first written book of the New Testament, “Encourage one another and build each other up.”

I want to share that we are in process of designing a Yellow Brick Road journey for the church, one that seeks to encourage and build each other up. We are designing a nurturing process that will help us all discover at a personal level, the gifts and talents God has already placed within each and every one of us. Why? It is sort of the understanding I shared about Gandhi. Not only does it help us feel whole and alive, but how can we live our commissioning, practice Jesus’ commandment, live our appointed mission, unless we have the strength, courage, wisdom and compassion to do so. And I do encourage all of you to travel this road and take this journey. As someone said, “There are no such people as vicarious Christians, and there is no such thing as a vicarious faith.” You cannot live another’s experience, feel another’s feelings, trust another’s trust. You can only have your own. No one can tell you about it and have you experience it. Only your own journey can give you this experience. So I encourage you to take the journey, so you may learn what a wonderfully created, beautifully gifted person you already are. My suspicion is, it will be a discovery beyond your imagination.

Sermon delived by Rev. George Cushman on August 24, 2008.