Sermon: "To Search and Rescue"

Second in the "Why the Church?" series.
Delivered September 18, 2005 by Rev. John Schmidt.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3

Theme: What are we looking for when we come to church? We bring a lot of different expectations to church. But it's really not that important what we expect of the church. What's important is what Christ expects. What is he looking for? Thankfully we don't have to guess what Jesus thought; he has told us. By far the most famous time he tells us is the Great Commission that we find in the Gospel of Matthew.

The audio file of this sermon is available for download and listening in MP3 format.

Click to Download & Listen (2.9MB)

Sermon Notes are at the end.

The first reading of scripture today comes from the gospel of John, Chapter 20, Verses 19 to 23.

"On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

The second reading is from the gospel of Matthew, the 28th Chapter, very familiar verses. I am going to begin at Verse 18 of the 28th Chapter.

"Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

This is the word of the Lord, thanks be to God.

Okay, we have all come to church today. There are a few of us who aren't here. Some men are at a retreat this morning and there are some families who are out camping. The rest of us are here, but what are we looking for when we come to church? What do you expect when you come to church? Now I have been parts of all kinds of churches in several countries and I have seen a lot of different expectations and we bring a lot of different expectations to church. Some people when they come to church are really looking for something like a country club. You know what a country club is like. The best ones have tennis courts, a pool and a golf course. You pay a fee and other people work to create a place that meets our social and recreational needs. It meets the needs of our family. And some people come to church looking for a place where other people are going to make something happen that meets our needs. It meets the needs of our family. We want to meet people who are just like us and we don't want anything to interfere with that.

I know a man in Baton Rouge whose mother went to a church in a small town of Norwood, Louisiana. One day she met some loggers who were visiting her church on one Sunday. This was a Presbyterian church. She met them at the door of the church and told them this. "I think you would feel better going somewhere else." Later she gave her reasons to her friends. It was because they weren't of good Presbyterian stock. Not like us. And so some people have this kind of idea when they come to church. They want something that is meeting their needs and meeting the needs of people just like them.

Now, some people come to church looking for a concert. Think about what it's like to go to a concert. It doesn't matter whether we are talking about the symphony or Eric Clapton or Nine Inch Nails. Whenever we go to a concert, we are going there to be entertained. We are just the audience here to enjoy ourselves. We want a good performance and we, of course, are always ready to judge it to see if it meets our standards.

Other people go to church looking at it as if it were a museum, like people who go to Williamsburg. You go to enjoy the traditions and to hear a message from the past and to see something that's attractive and interesting, but you never expect it actually to be of any use outside in the real world. Some view it as a social service organization. They love the fact that the church is engaged helping people all over the world, but let's not mess that up with this message about Jesus Christ. And some view it as a building. They want to go to a place that meets their taste and it's beautiful and it raises their spirits because of the architecture and the windows and things like that. I think all of us in some way or another have been guilty of that at one time or another.

But you know it's really not that important what we expect of the church. What's important is what Christ expects. So what does Christ expect of the church? What is he looking for? This is of utmost importance for us because he died to save the church. He was resurrected from the dead to create the church and the church is a critical part of what God is doing in a broken a world; in a world off target. Now thankfully we don't have to guess what Jesus thought, because five times in the New Testament we have a message from Jesus about the purpose of the church. It comes really more than these five times, but there are five times right at the end of his ministry where he says words to the church that describe the focus of what we are to be about as the church. We read two of them today.

By far the most famous is the great commission; that passage from the Gospel of Matthew. This great commission begins by saying all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Visible creation, invisible creation, all powers, all societies, all political units answer to Jesus. Jesus is the boss. And so when he says what the church is to be about, we need to listen. It's not just the words of some idealist, but the words of someone who holds the power over life and death or has the power to turn darkness to light, can turn people from the power of Satan to the power of God; world changing power. And so this Jesus who has this authority tells us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you; everything I have commanded you. It's a command. This is not the great suggestion. It's a command for God and he talks about baptism here and to every Jew listening that would have meant that there is a conversion involved; that we are to preach a message that has people actually turn from one way of life and head in a new way and there is a ritual of baptism, a symbol, a sign of just how deep that life change is and how deep the work is that God is going to do in our lives.

And so we are out to proclaim a message that draws people out of one kind of life and brings them into a new life with God. But he doesn't leave it with just baptism, he says make them disciples, learners, followers of Christ; teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded us. And so that means that with all the nations we are supposed to be calling people to follow Jesus. Not just the people of Israel, not just people like us, but people in all the nations and that would have been a stark thing for those disciples to hear standing on that mountain that Jesus' vision is not just for Israel, but for the people that had been ignored for centuries by Israel. All around us there is people that are wounded, broken people, destructive people, the people that aren't like us, people who are looking for happiness and meaning in all the wrong places and we are called to love these people, to search for them and seek them out and not just wait for them to come to us. We are to make more than converts, but to make disciples and so that means that we need more than just evangelists. We need teachers; people who lead in worship, people who have the gift of hospitality. All kinds of gifts, but all of those gifts coming together in one selfless mission that together we can reach the world and together to teach them to obey everything Christ has commanded us.

We are drawn into this mission because God is on a search and rescue mission. Luke 19, Verse 10 says this:

"For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost."

Mark 10, Verse 45:

"For even the Son of Man didn't come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

This is what Jesus said about himself. This is what is dear to the heart of God and this is why Jesus came. And so then Jesus says in one of the passages we read today, "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." What that means is that we the church are a search and rescue team. That's why I've got this liturgical aid here for the sake of the choir, right here. You know we always have something draped here that reminds us of our identify as a church, well here we go. It's not very attractive, but it's useful. We are a search and rescue team. Now think about all the search and rescue stuff that we have been seeing lately. Some things are done well and some things are not done so well. We have this picture of someone dangling on a cable, hanging down from a helicopter, going down to someone trapped on a roof or someone who is in deep water. Some people are making sure that the cable rises and drops correctly. Someone else is handling the floodlights. Someone else is steering the helicopter. All of them are working together to save this person, to rescue this person that is in dire need.

And one of the saddest things that we have ever experienced is to see that not done well. Think about all the people that have spoken across the last few weeks. We don't have to worry about who to blame, its just when it doesn't happen in a timely fashion, with the right sense of urgency, when people aren't flexible enough and aren't willing to take the risks, we know that there is something wrong, that they haven't extended themselves.

I can remember when I was in Japan, some people got lost in the Japanese Alps and for a few days no one went out to rescue them because the weather was too bad. And then when the weather got better, they would only go during the day because it was too dangerous to go out at night and I remember my sense of outrage if they don't take the risk, who will? Anyone on God's search and rescue team needs God's sense of urgency. A missionary not that long ago was explaining the message of salvation in Jesus Christ to the leaders of a small tribal group, explaining how there was this gigantic gap between God and humanity and how people were saved out of God's compassion. He did something. He gave us a sacrifice so that they could come back in to God's family and the relationship could be right and people would no longer have to live away, apart from God and bear God's anger against sin. And so the leader of this tribe said, "This is incredibly important stuff. What took you so long to get to us?" Do we have a sense of urgency? We need a sense of urgency if we are a part of God's search and rescue team.

If we are a part of that team we also have to take risks. Think of the people standing on that hill when Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations." Every single person on that mountain never lived the same life again. Many of them were martyred for their faith. Many of them went to other parts of the world to live in places where people spoke other languages to proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ. Life was never the same again. Now I am not a natural risk taker. In fact, on some levels, I hate risks. I like this element of risk. I like roller-coasters, but not the first year they are built. I want them to have a track record and I want them inspected regularly. I am the sort of person that when a lot of people crowd in an elevator I look at that little thing on the side that says how many can be inside. But natural risk taker or not an obedience to my call as a Christian I have had to take risks.

I went to Japan without knowing what my salary would actually buy and I didn't know what the meaning of salary was. I knew the numbers, but not if they would work. I didn't know the size of the house and I didn't know the schools our children would go to. I didn't like that, but I was called to that. The disciples left their homes to preach the gospel. Moses had to take a risk when God said, "Go talk to Pharaoh, the most powerful person in the world. Go tell them that God is not pleased. Let my people go." It was an enormous risk. Joshua had to take a risk when God said, "Take the land. I have given it to you." In my way of viewing the world, the land should have been empty; just cows, and lambs and sheep that needed people to help. And so you would walk in and just kind of take care of what's there. But it was filled with people; people who didn't want to give up their land and God said "Go and take it in battle." Joshua had to take a risk. Gideon couldn't even use all of the people who were there and ready and armed. God said, "No, I just want a subset, a small group to serve me", and Gideon had to take that risk. The life of faith is full of risks being on God's search and rescue team means we have to take risks. Are you willing to take some of those risks?