Sermon@elizabeth river dist training (i), lk

Sermon@Elizabeth River District Training Day January 16, 2016Luke 5: 1- 11 “Going Deeper”Good morning! This is a beautiful day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. It is my great joy to be here and to worship our God with you. I am deeply grateful to your DS Rev. Wayne Snead for his gracious invitation. I think Rev. Snead was wise in choosing the place where we gather today because my sermon title this morning is “Going Deeper.”

The Elizabeth River District has been working hard in supporting our connectional mission. I know your paying the apportionments is not perfect yet, but, is in the process of sanctification. On behalf of the conference, I appreciate all of your efforts supporting missions beyond our local churches. “Imagine No Malaria” is a good example. As many of you know, we have passed the goal of saving 100,000+ lives.

One of the great joys in this initiative is we have reached the goal without major donors. All contributions came from grass roots. I am deeply grateful for your support for this life-saving mission.

I This morning we listened to a Scripture lesson from the Gospel of Luke. This story tells us how Jesus called Peter and his friends, James and John, as his disciples.

When Jesus finished speaking to the people on the shore of Galilee, he said to Peter, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” When Peter followed what Jesus said, he caught such a large number of fish that the nets were about to break. They motioned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats so full of fish that the boats were about to sink. It was a great experience of fruitfulness.

This morning I would like to pay attention to Jesus’ word to Peter, “Go to the deep water and put down your net.” As Richard Foster says, today we are living in an age of superficiality. This is the curse of our age. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.

This is also true in our churches today. Once John Stott, well-known Anglican theologian, summarized our churches in today’s world with three words, “growth without depth.” Even though some churches show numerical growth, their discipleship has no depth. I think this is true of most of our churches. Today we need deeper Christians.

The time has come for us to move from members to disciples. This is the reason I set the theme for our 2015 Annual Conference as “From Members to Disciples.” This theme was also the theme for Charge Conferences last year.

Going deeper is also important for our fruitful future. Since we adopted “All Things New” in 2008, we have been working to change the culture of our churches from maintenance to fruitfulness. Fruitfulness has been a catch phrase for our conference ministries. So, ministry as usual has no longer been an option because if we repeat the same things, we will get the same result of maintenance or declining.

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I believe that fruitfulness is not possible without going deeper. In today’s lesson Peter listened to Jesus and went to deep water and put out his net. He caught a large number of fish, more than he could handle. I think this is also true in our churches and ministries today. To bear much fruit we need to go deeper. Without going deeper, we cannot become fruitful churches.

Let me talk more about going deeper.

II

(1) First of all, in this time of challenges and confusions, we need to ask a deeper question about the church. When we talk about how to respond to the challenges we face today, we easily think of new programs or plans. I think new plans and programs may help the districts and the churches to some degree. But in this kind of challenging situation today, just putting on bandages with some new programs will not work. Just working harder will not solve our problems either.

This is the time to rethink our churches. This is the time for us to find a way to turn this crisis of divisions and struggles into an opportunity to go back to the basics of our faith and rediscover the vitality of an authentic United Methodist Church.

This is the reason I say that our efforts to turn around our churches should be more than a reactive plan to save our denomination. It should be a movement to restore an authentic, biblical and vital church. This is the reason I say that the issue we face today is more than a lack of programs or initiatives or restructuring the general boards and agencies. This is the reason I say that the fundamental issue of our churches today is a spiritual issue and a faith issue.

So, the deeper question is about the nature of the church. What is the church? Who is the Lord of our churches? What is the church led by?

The Scripture provides a clear answer to this question. The early church was led by our risen Lord through the Holy Spirit. The church belonged to our Lord, and the Spirit of the risen Christ was in charge of the mission and ministries of the church.

Their mission and ministries was built upon prayerful discernment on the direction of the Holy Spirit.

The entire book of Acts confirms this truth. This book talks about the mission work of the apostles, but actually, it is about the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the spirit of the risen Christ, empowered the disciples and sent them to Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit initiated and guided the mission of the apostles.

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This is a biblical and authentic church. But what about our churches today? Is our church led by the Holy Spirit? Do we truly honor the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our planning and developing ministries?

Someone said that many United Methodists have pneuma (Holy Spirit) phobia. If we talk about the Holy Spirit, they show a kind of allergic response. No, we are not Pentecostal church. We are educated people and believe in God gently with dignity.

But without the help of the Holy Spirit, we can neither go deeper in our faith nor become a fruitful church.

Jason Vickers talks about today’s churches in his book, Minding the Good Ground:

Indeed, to live in the postmodern West is to take charge of our lives, to take action, to take ownership and responsibility, and to get on with things. We pride ourselves on being independent and self-sufficient, on not having to wait on anyone or anythingincluding God- to get the job done…

However, most of all, we forget that our resolve to be in control has devastating consequences. As Richard John Neuhouse once put it, “It is our determination to be independent by being in control that makes us unavailable to God.” Dr. Vickers makes it clear that because the church is a charismatic community brought into being and sustained each day by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, we need to take time to recall not simply what we are but whose we are before we take any actions, devise any plans, or buy into any program.

The church we are in charge of is not a biblical church. This is not an authentic church. We are not in charge. Jesus Christ is in charge. We are not the head of the church. Jesus Christ is the head of the church. The church is not our body, but Christ’s body. In this time of challenges, our understanding of the church should go deeper.

(2) In this time of crossroads our ministries are to go deeper. We are good in planning many activities and plans, but are we really taking part in Christ’s ministry? Are our activities based upon prayerful discernment of the will of God?

What Dr. Graham Standish says in his book, Becoming a Blessed Church makes us rethink our ministries: I have been frustrated over the years that a vast majority of the congregations in the mainstream denominations, and the denominations themselves, have adopted a functional style of church that cuts off their spiritual cores. What I mean is that too many churches focus only on function, on doing activities of church, and not on the fact that at their hearts churches are meant to be spiritual communities in which people form a relationship with and experience God. In these churches there is little expectation that members will experience and encounter God, or connect what they do

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to God’s purpose, presence, and power.

The problem in many of these churches is not so much what they do, but the spirit in which they do it. They worship, but not necessarily with an eye toward leading people to an encounter with God. They meet to do God’s work, but not necessarily in ways that include prayerfully seeking God’s will and way in their work. They offer prayers, but not with the expectation that prayer will do much more than offer comfort and consolation….Many churches simply are not open to God. Many activities to help the people are good, but the question is whether these activities are planned and executed following the will of our Lord. In Acts 16 we find a good example. Paul planned to proclaim the Gospel in Asia Minor. This was not a bad plan. There was, in fact, nothing wrong with this plan. Paul wanted to carry out his mission faithfully in Asia Minor. But the Holy Spirit did not allow him to do that. The Spirit of the risen Christ wanted him to preach the Gospel in Europe.

We may face a similar situation. Our vision and plan may not be bad. All the suggestions for the new future of the district and the churches may be good. But first and foremost, we need to listen and follow what the Lord wants us to do because Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Elizabeth River District and the churches on this district.

(3) Let me share one more message with you. The first step to go deeper should begin with our praying knees. We need to go deeper in our prayer. Prayer is the foundation in going deeper in our mission and ministries. Prayer is the way to lead us to our faithful and fruitful future. As Jesus said, apart from the Lord, we can do nothing.

If there is one person in human history who needed prayer least, that person would be Jesus. He said, “I am in my Father and my Father is in me.” He also said, “What I said are not my words, but the words my Father has given me.” Jesus had the most intimate relationship with His Father. However, Jesus prayed day and night. How can we do our ministry effectively without praying deeper and harder?

All of us are busy and live very demanding lives. But are we busier than Jesus was?

Probably, not. Although Jesus was much busier than we, He never ignored or skipped praying in His busy schedule. Day and night, He prayed. I am not sure Jesus was good in self-care.

Are we more capable than Jesus? No way! Although Jesus was absolutely more able than we are, He humbly prayed and relied on His Father, our God. How can we do our ministry faithfully and fruitfully without humble and deeper prayer?

Today we are in a desperate need of the transformation of our churches. However, if we, the leaders, are not transformed first, how can we ask the churches to be 4

transformed? Without humble and earnest prayer, how can we be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit?

Today we are facing serious challenges. Our beloved church is at a crossroads. In this critical situation, how can we not humbly pray and rely on the guidance of the Holy Spirit? Do we truly believe in the power of prayer? Do we have the assurance of God’s answer to our prayer? The time has come for us to pray deeper and harder.

A deeper prayer is more than asking God to give us something we need. A deeper prayer is intimate fellowship with our living God. A deeper prayer is opening ourselves to God and listening to God. A deeper prayer is not a monologue, but a dialogue. A deeper prayer is seeking for God’s will to be done in our life, in our family, in our church and in our world, as it is in heaven.

In this deeper prayer we will be changed. We, our family and the church, will be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. In this deeper prayer the world will be changed.

This is the reason I say wherever I go, we need to pray harder and deeper. This is the reason I challenge the clergy and laity to dedicate at least one hour daily for our spiritual disciplines. This is the reason I invite the churches to become prayer covenant congregations.

Henry Nouwen shared this story in his book, Here and Now: Once he had a chance to meet Mother Teresa. At that time he was struggling with many things and decided to use the occasion to ask Mother Teresa’s advice. As soon as he sat down with Mother Teresa, he started explaining all his problems and difficulties- trying to convince her how complicated it was. When, after ten minutes of elaborate explanation, he finally became silent, Mother Teresa looked at him quietly and said, “Well, when you spend one hour a day adoring your Lord and never do anything which you know is wrong… you will be fine!”

When she said this, Henry Nouwen realized, suddenly, that she had punctuated his big balloon of complex self-complaints and pointed him far beyond himself to the place of real healing. Her few words became engraved on his heart and mind and remained in his life.

III

Now, we are facing the final question. The Lord calls us to go deeper as he did to Peter. Are we going to listen to our Lord? Are we willing to go deeper as Peter did?

I think Peter had many good reasons to ignore what Jesus said. He could say, “Master, fishing has been my job for many years. If you teach me about the Kingdom of God, I will listen. But I don’t think fishing is your gift and grace. Please let me do 5

my job.” Or Peter could say, “Master, today is a bad day. On this kind of bad day we cannot catch fish though we worked hard. I understand what you said, but I will not go into deep water now.” Or Peter could say, “Master, I appreciate what you said.

But I worked all night and am very tired. I will go into deep water tomorrow.”

Peter did not say any of these reasonable excuses. He said, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. But, if you say so, I will let down the nets.”

Peter honored and obeyed what Jesus said and put down his nets into the deep water.

Are we willing to listen and obey what the Lord says today? Are we willing to go deeper in our understanding the church, in our ministries and in our prayer? Of course, we are busy and tired. We have many reasons to ignore our Lord’s calling.

But if we say, “Because you say to us to go deeper, I will obey you,” then, we will have a new future.

We will have a more faithful and fruitful future. We will share our abundant blessings with our neighbors as Peter did.

The time has come for us to listen to our Lord. The time has come to trust and obey to the Lord. This is the time to go deeper. This is the time to surrender all of ourselves to the Lord. This is the time to pray to the Lord to melt us, mold us, fill us and use us that we may go deeper.

I’d like to invite you again to join me in singing hymn #393 together prayerfully: Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.

Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me.

Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Amen.

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