You Talkin’ Ta Me, Lord?!

You Talkin’ Ta Me, Lord?!

Mount Hope UMC

January 19, 2020

1 Corinthians 1:1-9 New Living Translation (NLT)

Greetings from Paul

1 This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes.

² I am writing to God’s church in Corinth,^[a] to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus,^[b] just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.

³ May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

Paul Gives Thanks to God

⁴ I always thank my God for you and for the gracious gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus. ⁵ Through him, God has enriched your church in every way—with all of your eloquent words and all of your knowledge. ⁶ This confirms that what I told you about Christ is true. ⁷ Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁸ He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. ⁹ God will do this, for he is faithful to do what he says, and he has invited you into partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

         Paul’s greeting to the church at Corinth identifies him as one chosen by God.  He is identifying himself as being called.  We could say, anointed and appointed by God to bring the Good News of the Bible to this church that, in many ways, is struggling with the same thing the United Methodist Church is struggling with today – division, factionalism, and an air of elitism.  So, he starts his letter by establishing is credentials as an apostle, not just a traveling street preacher that has been called by God.  He is doing, not his will, but God’s will, so he’s flexing his authority and giving an example of humility in action.

         After he introduces himself and Sosthenes, he greets the Church in Corinth addressing them as being sanctified, called and together.  Sanctified, not by their own efforts, but by their belief in Jesus and called to be saints to a new way of living and being.  This is a calling much bigger than themselves, their church and bigger than any collection of churches in Corinth, bigger than their egos and their divisions and their attitudes.  He greets them in grace and peace and he acknowledges that they are not lacking in any spiritual gift.

         He is writing to a body that they will fulfill their calling.  It is as a body that they will find their strength and ability to be blameless.  It is a body that they will respond to the faithfulness of God.

         Paul tells the Church in Corinth something I’m going to tell you, Mount Hope.  You are ALL chose by the will – the PERFECT WILL of God.  You did not come to Mount Hope by chance or mistake and you don’t stay here because you have no other options.  You are a chosen people – a royal priesthood – and each of us is imbued with specific spiritual gifts to uplift the Body of Christ to use right here in this mission field!  We don’t all have the same gifts, but we are given different gifts so that together, we are blessed with every spiritual gift in order to enrich our church in every way, as Paul tells the Corinthians.  Like the Corinthians, Mount Hope, you are using your gifts to keep the church going.

         Your parents, grandparents, great grandparents and you have also used your gifts and graces to keep Mount Hope going for 160 years.  You can shout Hallelujah about this.  And because you have been faithful, God has enriched this branch of Zion with many blessings and you’ve been a blessing to this community and each other.

        

         For 160 year God has provided and blessed Mount Hope with loving spirits and plentiful resources that have maintained a constant flow of abundance that has transformed lives with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  That doesn’t mean you can sit on your accolades and accomplishments.  If we look around, there is plenty of work yet to do.  Our youth and young adults, which once were overflowing, are now conspicuously absent.  Mega churches and churches with diverse populations have claimed many of our young families.  Traditional worship has been only one form of worship as contemporary worship, praise bands, flashy videos and a vibrant youth ministry draw our young adult families.  We just have to look behind us at Chesapeake or Bethel to see their parking lots on Sunday mornings.

         But there is still a need for the small family church.  One size does not fit all when it comes to worshipping God!  He has a size and environment for everyone who believes.  God inhabits the praises of his people and it doesn’t matter whether it’s at Chesapeake, Bethel, Mount Harmony, the Lutheran or the Episcopalian church, St. Edmonds or Mount Hope.  There is a place for everyone who seeks the Lord.

         Today we celebrate two occasions.  First, tomorrow is the national holiday honoring the birthday our martyred present day apostle, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  A quote by Dr. King that is relevant today in light of our Installation of our 2020 Church Officers and Leaders is: “Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”  Tomorrow as we recall the life of this great servant leader, this drum major for justice, let us be open to the calling God has on our lives and be faithful servant leaders to live out our calling.  Dr. King also said, “No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.”

            Today we install our 2020 Church Officers and Leaders.  These are the people who have offered their gifts in service to the local church.  We give God thanks for them because of their commitment, dedication and faithfulness.  Because of their gifts and graces, Mount Hope will continue to maintain its footprint and ministries in this community.  As we had read for our hearing earlier from the book of Isaiah:

         The Lord’s Servant Commissioned

49 Listen to me, all you in distant lands!
    Pay attention, you who are far away!
The Lord called me before my birth;
    from within the womb he called me by name.

² He made my words of judgment as sharp as a sword.
    He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand.
    I am like a sharp arrow in his quiver.

³ He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel,
    and you will bring me glory.”

⁴ I replied, “But my work seems so useless!
    I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose.
Yet I leave it all in the Lord’s hand;
    I will trust God for my reward.”

⁵ And now the Lord speaks—
    the one who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant,
    who commissioned me to bring Israel back to him.
The Lord has honored me,
    and my God has given me strength.

⁶ He says, “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me.
    I will make you a light to the Gentiles,
    and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

⁷ The Lord, the Redeemer
    and Holy One of Israel,
says to the one who is despised and rejected by the nations,
    to the one who is the servant of rulers:
“Kings will stand at attention when you pass by.
    Princes will also bow low
because of the Lord, the faithful one,
    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

God has called you out into service in the local church.  This is not a decision to be taken lightly.  It comes with responsibility and accountability.

            As United Methodists our membership vows require that we give of our time, talent and tithe.  Being an Officer or Leader in the local church will be a commitment of your talent (your gifts) and your time.  It is my vision that each member will be engaged in a ministry in this church in some way because God has called you, not to sit in the pew, but to be the hands and the feet on the ground and because we know that many hands make light work.  We don’t want you to just be a seat warmer.  You look real pretty, but we need you to get your feet wet in ministry to those who need us outside the walls of Mount Hope.  We need those who are willing to be a witness to the saving grace of Jesus Christ.  We need you to be disciples who are making other disciples.  We need you to use your voice in the choir, as a worship leader, as an evangelist, as a teacher, as a mentor.  We need you.

            Don’t sit and wonder “You Talkin Ta Me Lord?”  Yes!  He’s talking to you, and you, and you, and me!  It’s 2020 and God is doing a new ting.  We have great plans for this year and beyond and we need you to join the leaders of this church in accomplishing the vision God has given us to be present and effect; to work in harmony and love to reach the masses and to grow in numbers so that Mount Hope will continue for another 160 years.

            Will you be like Isaiah in 6:8 when he heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.”  If God has been calling you and you have not known if he was talking to you, but you feel the urging on your heart to be in service in any way, I invite you to come forward now.  Don’t wonder any longer.  Don’t be a dust protector in the pew.  Don’t fear the unknown of ministry and don’t feel you’re not worthy.  None of us is worthy of the calling on our lives, but Paul appeals to us in Ephesians 4:1 in The Message version, “In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.”

            God will qualify those whom he calls.  He called Moses, a stutterer; he called Rahab, a prostitute; he called Noah who was a drunk; he called Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and he called you.   Will you answer or will you continue to ask “You Talkin Ta Me, Lord?!”

            I ask that all 2020 Church Officers and Leaders, Ushers, Communion Stewards, acolytes, and choir members come to the front at this time to be installed.