Sermon December 6 2009

Page 1 of 8 The Title of this sermon is “letting love overflow” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This is an exciting day!! It’s exciting for our faith community as this is the first time that we are gathered on a Sunday morning to worship. We’re taught that where two or three are gathered, God is present. Today we’re gathered to worship an extraordinary God. This is an exciting day for our Presbytery. The Presbytery starts churches in the PCUSA. This week I went back and looked at the timeline for establishing this congregation. It was February 2004 that the Church Development Team appointed a visioning group to look at how the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area can start new churches. That was the first of hundreds of meetings that have helped lead to this first Sunday morning worship service. Many people in our past have dreamed about this day. You are the fulfillment of this dream. This day is exciting for me because this is the first time I get to preach a sermon for you on a Sunday morning. Since the middle of August I’ve been on a preaching and speaking tour at different Presbyterian churches on Sunday mornings. Eleven times I went out to share the story of Chain of Lakes Church and to share thoughts about Church Development. I’ve really enjoyed this preaching/speaking tour. But I want to preach for you—the people of Chain of Lakes. This is very exciting for me. We at Chain of Lakes are going to be a powerful church, one that makes a tremendous impact on the world. I want to make sure you hear what I said. We at Chain of Lakes are going to be a powerful church, one that makes a tremendous impact on the world. After hearing me say that, you might think, “Paul that’s a bold statement.” I agree. I made that statement because I believe it in the core in my being. You might wonder, “How can I make such a bold statement?” God has called us into being. If you have some time, sit down with John Ivers and ask him all that took place for our church just to be approved by our Presbytery. Only God and

Page 2 of 8 the persistence of many cold have caused this day to happen. It’s the call and the working of God that gives me confidence that we are going to be a powerful church. I realize that we might not see this power and impact today. At Chain of Lakes we have about 25 families on our directory; we are about ___ people gathered today for worship. Though we can’t see the future we can have confidence that we will be a powerful church who makes a tremendous impact. God wants this to happen. At the Cedar Lake 7 concert this past Tuesday one of the singers of the group encouraged us at Chain of Lakes to be full of faith, patience, and persistence. These are wonderful values to keep in front of us. Our task as a community involves having faith, being patient, and persisting so that we become a powerful church who makes a tremendous impact on the world. As individuals our life of faith is a journey—a journey where we are always becoming the people God desires us to be. It’s an on-going process. We never reach the final destination on earth because here on earth we are always becoming. We mentioned this in our Purpose Statement. Remember—“strangers become friends, friends become disciples, disciples impact the world.” Our task as individuals is to continue to become the people God desires for us to be. Love is the most important value that we carry with us on this journey of becoming. The success of our journey is determined by love. The Scriptures are very clear about this. We can see the priority of love in the second Scripture that Lisa read. We shared part of this Scripture on a bookmark in your bulletin. I would encourage you to get it out. I’m very excited to share this bookmark with you. I was just touched by this reading from Philippians. This could be a Scripture that we frequently go back to in our church. I want to encourage you to keep this bookmark in a special place. Put it in your Bible. If you need a Bible I’ll give one to you for FREE.

Page 3 of 8 I want to take a risk and encourage you to memorize this Scripture this week. Memorizing Scripture is an excellent practice of faith. I tried it this week. Let’s see if I can do it. If this Scripture is a foundational Scripture for our community it makes sense to me to teach a bit about it. Let me take a few minutes to do this. This passage comes from a letter called Philippians. Philippians is in the New Testament. It was written by a man named Paul—we call him the apostle Paul. The New Testament is made up of three sections. The first section is the four gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke & John; the second section is Acts—which we think of as history; the third section is the letters—they actually make up the largest section of the New Testament. Many—not all—of the letters were written by a man named Paul. Paul was a new church development pastor. In the 1st century, he would travel to a town, spend time with people, and establish a church. Then he would leave the community. Later on he would often write letters to these churches. After Paul died these letters were often read in churches. Eventually the church recognized some of these letters as sacred Scripture. What’s remarkable about this book of Philippians is Paul wrote the letter while he was sitting in jail. He wrote this letter not knowing if he was going to live or die. He was under a death sentence Let me ask you a very simple question. When I preach sometimes I’ll ask rhetorical questions. Sometimes I’ll ask questions where I want you to response to the question. For this question I would like you to share some responses. It’s an easy question. The question is this: If you were sitting in jail not knowing if you were going to live or die, what emotions would you most likely be experiencing?

Page 4 of 8 You know what emotion comes forth most in this letter of the Philippians—joy. The word joy appears five times in four chapters. Joy so infuses this letter that some people describe Philippians as the book of joy. I hope this is intriguing to you. It’s a bit bewildering, isn’t it? Paul was in jail; he didn’t know whether he would live or die; the emotions we would expect from him are ____. But instead he was full of joy. How can this be? You see, Paul had something inside of him. What he had is what I want all of us to have. What he had is something I want to have. What he had is what I want my daughter and family to have. What he had is what I want our congregation to share with the community. The natural question, of course, is what did Paul have to be full so full of joy while sitting in jail? Let me respond to this question by sharing a story from the concert the Cedar Lake 7 gave for us. One of the men in the group shared his faith story; it was his process of becoming. I don’t even remember the man’s name. When we get our video projection going, we can directly share stories like his. He shared that ten years ago he and his wife recognized that something was missing in their life. They weren’t going to church and their 5-year old daughter wasn’t baptized. So they went out searching for something. They started going to churches. One day they went to Bryn Mawr Presyterian Church. Though the church was very small, the congregation reached out to him in love. He and his family found something there. Now it is ten years later and he is singing in the Cedar Lake 7, this Men’s Gospel Choir that makes CD’s and sings all over the Twin Cities area. His daughter is now 15 years old and has been baptized. Here he was this past Tuesday night at the Lino Lakes Senior Center sharing

Page 5 of 8 his faith with us. Look at where he is compared to ten years ago. Wow! He’s becoming the person God desires for him to be. As I listened to his story this past Tuesday night I thought how his story is so familiar to many people’s stories that I have heard over the past eight and a half months. One of the reasons I love my job so much is I so enjoy listening to people’s stories. I could spend my entire day listening to people’s faith stories. Since this past February I’ve heard many stories. I’ve learned quite a lot about this community. I’ve learned a lot about the suburban lifestyle I’m guessing all of us know what I mean—many of us are living the suburban lifestyle. If someone asks us how we are doing, the word we most likely share is “busy.” Suburban lifestyle—we probably have a home, it’s a home that that we’ve always wanted. We’re probably stretched to make a payment on that home. If we have kids, our kids are ____? They’re busy. They’re busy because we as their parents put them in the good programs that the suburbs offer. The suburban lifestyle is a good lifestyle. I’m living the Suburban lifestyle. But this lifestyle can’t give us everything. It can’t give us what Paul had. This lifestyle might give us satisfaction, but I don’t think it can give us joy. I don’t think it can give us the peace that passes all understanding. I don’t think our lifestyle can give us the capacity to hope no matter what is taking place around us. What Paul had can’t be found in the suburbs. It can be found in church; it’s found in here —in faith; it’s found in God. Could we respond with joy if we didn’t know if we would live or die? If we were beaten with rods like Paul was could we sing praises to God? I think we can. But we can’t if our wellbeing is tied into a suburban lifestyle.

Page 6 of 8 This week the newspapers carried a story of what can happen when the suburban lifestyle goes terribly wrong. Did you read about the Tom Petters case this week? I never knew much about Tom Petters until his story broke a year ago. I can’t say that I followed his trial that closely. His story is fascinating. Here was a man who enjoyed the best of what the suburbs offered. He pulled himself up by his boot straps and created this empire. He was a man who by suburban standards had it all—money, drive, looks, family, positions on corporate boards, a foundation that gave millions to good charities. He had it all. Except—it was a fraud.

Paul was in prison—full of joy. Tom Petters is going to go

to prison—I don’t think he has joy. What did Paul have? “And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ … Paul had this love. It was overflowing. This love overflowed no matter what circumstance in which he found himself. He had satisfaction, contentment, and serenity—even if his external world was falling apart. He had love—from God. I want you to have this love. I’m willing to commit the rest of my work life to Chain of Lakes Church to help people experience this love. This is what I want for you, this is what I want for myself, this is what I want for my family. This love will overflow out of us more and more and more and more. That deep within our spirits we will find contentment, serenity, and joy, no matter what is happening in our external circumstances. This is the dream—that God’s love will overflow. How do we get there. Let me wrap up this sermon with a practical suggestion A metaphor that is helpful for me is one of a well. Imagine that our spirit is a well. When we were baptized our well was infused with water, with grace, love. We never have to wonder if we have this love. We were given it at baptism.

Page 7 of 8 But to let this love overflow—this takes participation on our behalf. It’s really easy for this water in our spirit to grow stale. Think of what happens when water doesn’t move; when it sits in a dark place. It gets moldy and murky and smelly. God doesn’t force this water to come out of us. God encourages us, partners with us. Our task is to let the water—which is already in our spirits—overflow. Let it overflow. Not force it or cause it or make it. We let it overflow. You’ll hear me say often that worship is the most important ministry of the church. You might wonder, “what does it mean to be involved in a church?” Being involved means we worship—every week. Unless we’re sick of course. I will ask you to worship every Sunday; if you’re out of town I encourage you to find a place to worship. This is the basic commitment of our involvement—coming to worship. I realize there will be days that we won’t want to worship. It’s easier to stay home. Come anyways. I realize there will be days that we might have to work on a Sunday morning. I would encourage you to ask your boss to give you Sunday off. I realize that your kids might have an activity on a Sunday morning. I would encourage you to tell the group that Sunday morning for your family is for worship. The reason that worship is so important is worship is the best way for this water to overflow. When we’re connected to a community, when we sense God’s presence, when we worship an extraordinary God, then something happens deep inside of us. When we miss a Sunday the water in our spirit grows stale. How long does it take for sitting water to grow stale? Seven days. I want to close with a challenge. In your bulletin is two index cards. On the cards I want you to write one thing you can do this week to let this love overflow. What can you do this week

Page 8 of 8 to let. Obviously I can’t tell you how you can let you let this love overflow out of you. I can give some ideas. Maybe you can pray for ten minutes every day; maybe you can read the book of Philippians; maybe you carry this book mark with you and share it with a friend; maybe you can commit to coming to worship every Sunday; maybe you can volunteer to ring bells at the Salvation army. This week I went into a Cub Food. A woman was ringing the bell and singing Christmas carols. That was love overflowing. You might have some ideas of your own. This is what we’re going to do. As Amy is playing music write down one thing you can do this week to let this love overflow. Write this one thing down on both cards. After she is done playing we’re all going to gather around the Communion table. We’ll put one of the cards on the table and keep one for ourselves. Then I’ll share a prayer over our cards and we’ll all say the Lord’s prayer. Letting love overflow. This is who we’re going to be at Chain of Lakes Church. We’re called to be an authentic, Christian community where strangers become friends, friends become disciples, and disciples impact the world. A place where joyful love is a foundational value of our community. A place where people find what’s missing in the suburban lifestyle. A play where love overflows.