Scripture:  Hebrews 10:19-25

I remember way back when getting ready to be a parent for the first time, we bought and read all the books about being a new parent.  I read a lot and the biggest lesson I learned is that there is a LOT those books left out.  One of the small things I was not prepared for, is just how many times I would end up watching the same movie over, and over, and over again.  For instance, even though my kids are both older now I am fairly sure the lyrics to Let it Go from the Disney movie Frozen will probably be stuck in my memory forever.  While most families with young children end up watching what is popular at the time, I think a lot of young kids also latch onto something more obscure.  A lot of parents end up watching a single episode of an obscure kid’s show or a little-known movie many, many times.  For us one of those movies was Leap.
 
I do not expect you to be familiar with this one.  It was released in 2017 and went really under the radar.  It is an animated kid’s movie about a poor, orphan girl who wants to be a ballerina.  She conned her way into the most prestigious dance school in Paris and then eventually earn her spot.   By and large the plot progresses about like you would expect it to, but there is small detail of the movie that has stuck with me.   The head of the dance school, did not just demand perfection in form, but the most important question he would ask the students is “why do you dance?”   The movie establishes that this teacher is a perfectionist who demands absolute precision from the students, but this question lifts up why they dance is just as important, if not more important, to how they dance.  The importance of the “why” stuck with me from this movie, because I think the similar question can be applied to our faith.  The teacher wanted his students to know their answer for “why do you dance?” and I think we should know the answer to the question, “Why are you a Christian?”  

There are a lot of possible secondary answers to this question.   Perhaps your parents were faithful in bringing you to church and you have never known life where faith was not part of it.  Or perhaps it was not a parent but a grand parent with a faith of deep conviction that made a lifelong impression on you.   Perhaps, someone invited you to church once and you found a community where you felt like you belonged.  Perhaps through Christianity you found a way to serve, to make a difference, and this fueled a greater sense of purpose.  There are all kinds of secondary reasons why we might be a Christian, but for each and everyone of us there should be only one primary reason:  Jesus Christ.     

This morning’s scripture from Hebrews is a reminder of who Jesus truly is.  This morning’s scripture is a reminder that it is because of Jesus that we gather together in the first place.    An obscure children’s movie that I have seen far too many times, elevates the importance of knowing our why, and it comes to being a Christian we should know our why.  We should know why we are a Christian, and we should take the message of Jesus seriously.

Hebrews is one of the harder books of the bible to study.  In part this is because there is quite a bit unknown about it.  The author is not known, the exact time it was written is not known, and the intended audience is not known.  From very early on biblical scholars have done their best to try and fill in these holes and there are a lot of good, educated guesses.  What is known is that both the author of Hebrews as well as the intended audience are from a Jewish background.   Hebrews is also a bit more challenging because it is different than the other books of the New Testament.  Most of the New Testament contains epistles or letters, but Hebrews is not that.  Hebrews is more akin to a 1st century sermon.  It is a sermon that draws deeply from the Old Testament and Jewish tradition to make the argument that Jesus is supreme over everything.  

Hebrews has what theologians and biblical scholars call a “high Christology.” This means it takes Jesus seriously.  This means there is a strong emphasis on the divinity and holy nature of Jesus.  We see that reflected in this morning’s scripture, because this morning’s scripture summarizes a couple of the major points that had been made in Hebrews up to this point.   The author of Hebrews spends a lot of the book making the case that Jesus is the superior and ultimate high priest.  In ancient worship a priest was the mediator between the divine and the people.  It was a priest who was set apart to make sacrifices on the behalf of others, the main connection that people had to the divine was through the priest.    The author of Hebrews puts forth that because Jesus is fully in the complete presence of God the Father forever, there is no one better to be our connection to God than Christ.  This means it is Jesus who gives us the gift of eternal life and lets us draw near to God.

At the same time the author of Hebrews also makes the point that this is possible because of the sacrifice Jesus made for us.   Again, in ancient religious practice the primary role of a priest was to offer sacrifices on behalf of the people.  It was these sacrifices that both reconciled and connected the people to the god they worshipped.  On the cross Jesus made the ultimate and final sacrifice to reconcile and connect people to God. The author of Hebrews writes as much in Hebrews 10:10: “We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”.    So, Jesus is not just the one who gives the gift of eternal life, but through his death and resurrection Jesus is also the gift itself.   As John famously wrote in his gospel, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only sone, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” 

To have a high Christology is to believe that Jesus is both the gift and the giver.  Because of Jesus we are saved.  Because of Jesus we are forever changed.  Because of Jesus, as this morning’s scripture states, we can “draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience.”  If you consider yourself a Christian, then you know just how good of news this is.   You know that through Jesus, the love of God has been proven.   Christ died for us while we still sinners.   The love of God is so great that, we are worth dying for.    If you consider yourself a Christian, you know that the love of God does not fail and does not give up on us.   Because of Jesus we have been given a second chance, or a third chance, or fourth chance, or whatever chance you happen to be on.  God has loved us at worst.  The primary reason why we should be a Christian is because we believe Jesus loves us and we love Jesus.   Because we love Jesus, we should take the message of Jesus seriously.   

 The whole book of Hebrews is dedicated to communicating the premise that Jesus is the main thing.  The author of Hebrews elevates Jesus as the ultimate savior and puts Jesus first on all things.  If Jesus is the reason why we are Christians, then Jesus should be our main thing as well.  The way we talk about our faith, the way we express our faith, and the way we live our faith out should all point to Jesus.  As this morning’s scripture points out, Jesus is the very reason why we gather like this in the first place.  It is only in getting together with other people who love Jesus that we can best keep the main thing the main thing and take the message of Jesus seriously as we encourage one another and spur one another on to be more Christlike. 

This morning’s scripture and all the book of Hebrews holds Jesus in high regard.  It centers Jesus as the most important thing, and we should as well.  Unfortunately, the good news of Jesus Christ that saves us and transforms us, sometimes gets lost in translation by the church.  In 2022 the Episcopal Church conducted an extensive national study called Jesus in America, and the results should be convicting.   This study found that among non-Christians, only 2% report the Christians they know represent the values and teachings of Jesus.   To put it another way 98% of the people who do not follow Jesus, think that we are doing a terrible job at following Jesus.  When people outside of the church think of Christians, they do not think of Jesus.  Instead, this study found results that have been consistent for the past twenty years.  The characteristics that non-Christians are most likely to associate with Christians are hypocrisy, being judgmental, and self-righteousness.  None of that is of Jesus.  None of that is Christlike. 

Collectively, as American Christians we have not let the main thing be the main thing.  The discourse around Christianity has gotten lost in the weeds.  Too much of the rhetoric is caught up in pointless culture wars, too much of the focus is on an us vs. them narrative, and not enough of it is on Jesus.   When the world outsides our walls thinks of us, if they think of us at all, it is because of what they believe we are against and not what we are for.   Friends, this is not how it should be.   We must- we absolutely must- keep the main thing, the main thing.  We must take the message of Jesus seriously, so that it being like Christ guides us.  Jesus should be the reason why we exist as a church.  If Jesus is not our reason for why we are here, then we might as well turn the lights off and go home. 

This morning’s scripture keeps Jesus front and center.  It reminds us that because of Jesus we can have confidence, and we can draw near to God with the full assurance of faith.   We need to keep Jesus the main thing because it is too important not to.  There are too many people who need Jesus.  There are people who need to know that they are worthy of a second chance.   There are people who need to know that no matter what is in their past, they are still loveable.   There are people desperate to draw near to God and people who are desperate for an assurance and faith in something that will not fail them.  People need Jesus, and the only way we can help people find him is by taking his message seriously.  

 If we want to reach people outside our walls, especially younger people, then we must keep the main the main thing.  This is not just a theory I have, it is backed up by research.  In the book Growing Young the authors wrote, “According to our research, churches that communicate the gospel of Jesus as the centerpiece of God’s story are more likely to have young people with greater faith vibrancy and maturity.”   When we take the message of Jesus seriously, we do not focus on abstract beliefs, but we focus on how we are following Jesus in our daily lives.  We focus on sharing and celebrating how Jesus is transforming us.  We commit ourselves to loving others like Jesus loves, and we draw near to God with confidence and the assurance that faith can bring.   

This morning’s scripture from Hebrews centers Jesus and elevates Jesus.   May we do the same, may we not give up on meeting together but may we gather regularly so that we can encourage one another and push each other to keep Jesus the main thing.  May Jesus be the reason why you are a Christian.   May Jesus be the first thing that people associate with you, and may you take the message of Jesus Christ seriously. May your hope be found in Christ and may that hope draw others to Jesus.  In a world of shifting and sinking sand may Christ be the solid rock upon which your life is built.  May your words, your actions and your very life glorify Christ above all else.  

Scripture:  Acts 8:26-39

In Detroit Michigan on a mostly unassuming day in 1937 the most amazing thing happened.  A man by the name of Joseph Figlock was dutifully doing his job as a street sweeper and he was cleaning the alleyway between two buildings.  Meanwhile, four stories up a young mother experienced every parent’s worst nightmare when she accidentally dropped her baby out the window.  The child plummeted for almost 40 feet, but the fall was broken when the baby happened to hit the head of Joseph Figlock.   While both Figlock and the baby did sustain injuries, amazingly the baby survived the fall because Figlock happened to be in the right place at the right time.   The story does not end there.  Right at a year later, the baby was now a toddler.  In an unsupervised moment, the little tyke wandered over to the same open window and accidentally tumbled right out of it.  Once again, the child survived because someone just happened to be in that alleyway at the right place at the right time to be hit by a falling child.  This person who happened to be there to save the day the second time was named Joseph Figlock!  Math is not my strong suit but the odds of the same man saving the same falling child twice must be astronomical.  It is truly the most amazing of coincidences. 

 A coincidence implies random chance.  In 1777 English Author Horace Walpole wrote, “Chance is the instrument of Providence.”  In the 20th century this thought got upgraded to modern English as “coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”  While random chance and extraordinary events lining up can still happen, it seems like when God is involved there are a lot of coincidences.  When a one in a million chance keeps happening over and over, I am not sure it is chance anymore.   We worship a God that is deeply involved in the world that God created.   Our God is not some distant clockmaker who set the universe in motion and lets it run like a well-oiled machine.  God is a God of coincidences, a God of miracles.   There are so many testimonies of when God has provided the right person or the right situation at the right time.   This morning’s scripture is a reminder of the opposite side of that coin, because sometimes we are the right person and the right place for someone else.  Just like Joseph Figlock was in the right place at the right time twice, there are instances where by God’s design we are in the right place at the right time.   This morning’s scripture is a reminder that the best way that we can be the right person for someone at the right time, the way that we can make an eternal difference is to have empathy with them. 

When we hear this morning’s scripture being read, we might naturally assume that Phillip is one of the apostles, one of Jesus’ original twelve disciples.  This is an understandable assumption to make, especially because in the gospels a Phillip is listed as one of the disciples.  However, that Phillip is not the same Phillip that is featured in this morning’s scripture.  The Phillip we are focused on is first introduced in Acts 6.  At this time the apostles tell the growing church to choose seven people to oversee the distribution of food to the widows.  Among these seven servants or “deacons” is Phillip.   In Acts the narrative then spends some time focusing on these deacons, first Stephen and then Phillip.  After persecution scattered the church, Philip found himself in Samaria, north of Jerusalem, where he successfully preached and healed.  After an encounter with a sorcerer earlier in chapter eight we get to this morning’s scripture. 

This morning’s scripture is centered on Philip, but if we consider it from the Ethiopian Official’s perspective it is an amazing coincidence.   He was returning to his home country after a visit to Jerusalem.  He was returning with Jewish scripture and was puzzled by what he was reading.  Then this random dude just starts running beside his chariot, and he just happens to have all the answers to the questions he had been asking.   For the Ethiopian it had to all feel too amazing to be a coincidence which is why it ends with him going on his way rejoicing.   Of course, this morning’s scripture makes it clear that it was not just a coincidence.  God placed Philip right where he needed to be to make an eternal difference. 
While Philip being in the right place at the right time is amazing enough, there are some cultural considerations that make this morning’s scripture even more remarkable. This morning’s scripture describes the Ethiopian as in important official.   This does somewhat obscure the fact that he likely did not have much choice in this or any aspect of his condition.  In the ancient world, eunuchs were often enslaved, and they often did not have much choice in being eunuchs.  As one who served a foreign queen, that is likely the case for this man.

 Even so, He had risen to a position of responsibility and importance, but that did not change how this Ethiopian man was marginalized.   In the ancient world a slave in a role of importance was still a slave, and in the ancient world eunuchs were viewed as “less than”.   This scripture makes it unclear if the Ethiopian is of Jewish descent, which is why he was going to the temple to worship God or if he was a gentile who was drawn to the God of Israel.  Whichever it was he made the long journey from south of Egypt to Jerusalem to worship God, but he was only able to do so from afar.  Because of his condition and circumstances, a rule found in Deuteronomy 23 excluded him from the temple, so the outer court is as close as he would have been allowed.  It is clear from the scripture that the Ethiopian desperately wanted to know God, but he was an outsider.  He literally, was not permitted to come close enough to fully worship God.  

Philip and the Ethiopian could not have been more different.  Yet, following the Spirit’s leading Philip literally comes alongside this man.   He sits with him as an equal.  He does not look down on him, he does not try to ensure the Ethiopian knows his place.  Philip met the Ethiopian where he was at.  Again, by the leading of the Holy Spirit he did this physically, but he also met him where he was at spiritually.  Philip had compassion for and empathy with the Ethiopian, because of this Philip was able to share the good news with him. Because of Jesus, God did not have to be distant to the Ethiopian.  He was not shut out and forced to stay in the outer courts, but that because of Jesus that he too could be saved.   To prove he did not have to be an outsider any longer, he was fully included in the family of God and was baptized right there along the side of the road. 

For the Ethiopian this might have all felt like the most amazing of coincidences, but it did not happen by chance.  It was the work of God, and Philip being open to and obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  In the same way, there are people that we encounter, and it is no accident.  It is not a coincidence.  The Holy Spirit still leads, and there are times when we can be the one who brings hope and good news to someone else.  There are times when God has placed in the right spot to be the person who makes an eternal difference in the life of someone else.  I am confident that we are more likely to realize those moments and act on them when we regularly have compassion for and empathy with other people. 

Author and public speaker Brene Brown defines empathy as feeling with people.  Like Philip did in this morning’s scripture, Empathy is when we come alongside someone else.   Nursing scholar Theresa Wiseman sought to define empathy in her academic work.  To do so she identified four attributes of empathy. 

The first attribute is taking someone else’s perspective.   This means we listen and we try to put ourselves in the shoes of someone else.  We do not center ourselves in their story, because when we do this, we end up saying stuff like “If I were you, here is what I would do. . .“and we offer what makes sense to us and for us, not to the other person.   Instead, of centering ourselves in their story, we seek to understand their story from their perspective.  

The second attribute is not to be judgmental.  No one and I mean absolutely no one likes it when some evaluates them with a judgmental attitude.  You don’t like it when someone is being judgy of you, so we really should be judgmental of others.   However, we can communicate with a judgmental attitude even when we do not mean to.  Too often our impulse is not to come along side someone else, but to treat them as a problem that needs fixing.   Our motivation might even be that we want to be helpful, but when we tell people what they should do or should not do, we come across as judgmental not helpful.    Being non-judgmental does not mean we blindly affirm the choices and views of someone else, but it does mean that we make the intentional choice to try and understand the perspective that led to their choices and view in the first place. 

The third attribute of empathy is that it recognizes someone else’s emotion or seek to understand their feelings.   This is another area where, in trying to be helpful, we fall short.  When someone is going through something hard, our reaction can sometimes be to redirect people to a silver lining.   We unhelpfully tell people “It could be worse” or “at least you can be grateful for what you do have.”   In most of the cases these “at least” platitudes do not help.  

What often does help is the fourth attribute of empathy which Theresa Wiseman stated is communicating your understanding of a person’s feelings.   This is where the idea of empathy being feeling with people comes into.  This is where empathy is coming alongside someone else and sitting with them throughout whatever it is they are going through in life.  

 Ultimately empathy is about how we make connections with other people.   Empathy is not just saying “reach out if you need anything”, empathy is being beside someone even if, especially if, you can not fix it.  Empathy is the actions we take that communicate to someone else I am here for you and I am not giving up on you.   Friends, for most people no matter what they are going through in life, to have someone communicate that to us is good news.  

There is an old saying often attributed to President Theodore Roosevelt: “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”  As followers of Jesus, we do have the ultimate good news of the forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation.  However, no one is going to care what we have to say about how to save their souls until they know we care about them, until they know and believe that we see them, we hear them, we will sit with them through whatever they are going through, and we are not giving up on them.   The way that we introduce people to the love of Christ is not by treating them as projects that need to be fixed and saved, but as people with sacred worth who deserve to be loved.  We first must empathize with people and share with them the good news that I am here for you and not giving up on you, before we can share with them the good new of Jesus Christ. 

This is true for all people, across all ages.   Yet it might be especially true for young people. In their research the Fuller Youth Institute found that empathizing with young people is an essential strategy for churches that want to grow young.   It is one of the necessary things a church must do if it wants to be a place that young people want to come to.  Empathy requires effort no matter what, and for many empathy with young people requires additional effort.  It seems to be a generational rite of passage for older generations to complain about younger generations.  If our starting point though is to complain about “kids these days” or begin conversations with young people by saying “back in my day” then we are not being very emphatic.  In their book Growing Young the Fuller Youth Institute researchers define what an emphatic adult looks like.  They wrote, “Its sitting on the curb of a young person’s life, celebrating their dreams and grieving over their despair.”

In this morning’s scripture Philip came along side and sat with the Ethiopian.  He did not judge, but he radically accepted him as someone seeking God.  It led to the life of the Ethiopian changed eternally and he went on his way rejoicing.   None of this was an accident.  It was more than a coincidence.  In the same way, it may not be a coincidence or accident when we keep encountering people.   May we be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit.   May we not treat people like projects who need to be fixed or saved.   Instead, may we have empathy with others.  May we truly seek to understand their perspective, and may we be willing to come alongside them and sit on the curb with them.   In doing so, we will love them and it is through how we love others that we best share the good news.   So may we have empathy with the people around us, and because we do by the grace of God and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit may we make an eternal difference.     
           
 

Scripture: John 21:15-19

God has a sense of humor, and I am convinced that the thing that God finds the funniest is irony.  Here is why I believe this is true.   The vast majority of times when someone says, God has a sense of humor they then tell a story about they ended up doing the one thing that they said they never would do.  I know that is my story.    In our culture we do this crazy thing where we expect a teenager to pick a career path for their whole life, and I remember doing that in high school.  While I had a couple of different options I was interested in before settling on history teacher, I did have a starting point.   I absolutely did not want to be a preacher.   As many of you know my dad is a pastor, and I was emphatic that I absolutely was not going to follow in his footsteps.   God has a sense of humor.  

Throughout the bible we see God’s sense of humor on display as people find themselves in situations they never imagined.  Moses went from softspoken exile to leading all of the Israelites out of Egypt and through the wilderness.   Jonah was a prophet of God who took a message of repentance to Nineveh, the one place he did not want to go.   Paul went from trying to destroy the church to planting churches all across the Roman empire.   And in this morning’s scripture Peter moves from a fisherman who was full of shame and who thought he had blown his chance to being a shepherd for Christ.   It does seem when it comes to living out our faith, it is perilous to say “I’ll never do that” because there is a long track record going all the way back to the bible of people doing what they said they would never do or people doing what they thought they could never do.    We see that dynamic in this morning’s scripture, and it should lead us to reflect on two vital questions:  What might God be calling us to do and who might God be calling us to encourage, lead, or mentor into doing more than they ever thought possible? 

This morning’s scripture takes place after the resurrection.  According to the gospel of John, this morning’s events on the seashore are the third time that Jesus appeared to his disciples.   In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus gives the message to his disciples to meet him in Galilee, and that is presumably what Peter and the rest of them went to do.  We do not know exactly when this was.  We know they waited at least a week in Jerusalem, and it is about a four-day journey to Galilee.   So, it is likely this event takes place roughly two weeks after the resurrection.

 I imagine for Peter this was a rough two weeks, filled with anxiety.   On the one hand he had to be filled with joy, hope, and expectation.   He had taken a huge risk three years prior to follow Jesus.   He had given up everything to follow something he believed was greater than himself.   Along the way, he had come to believe.  He was the first disciple after all to profess that Jesus was the Messiah.   He had to be elated that the grave was empty.   He had to have a lot of joy from when Jesus appeared to all the disciples and showed his wounded hands, to prove that it was him resurrected from the dead.   The impossible had happened, and it must have left him with wonder and awe.  

However, Peter had to also have a sense of dread and a gnawing anxiety.   When Jesus was in the most need, Peter had completely ghosted him.  Worse, just like Jesus said he would Peter denied Jesus three times.   Not only did Peter deny following Jesus, but he also denied knowing even knowing Jesus.   Peter went as far as swearing to God, “I don’t know the man” before the rooster crowed the third time.   As Jesus went to the cross this is where Peter stood in his relationship with Jesus.   Even after his grief gave way to hope, Peter had to be absolutely wracked with shame and guilt.  Even though Jesus had appeared to the disciples twice before, Peter still had some unresolved stuff to work out between them. 
            This finally happens in this morning’s scripture, and I cannot help but wonder what Peter felt.  I imagine he had the feeling of nervous energy, that tight ball in the pit of your stomach.  I imagine Peter’s breaths were shallow, too on edge to even take a deeper breath.   Peter was human just like us, so I am sure the worst-case scenarios were playing through his head all while he was trying to convince himself the best case scenario was possible.  It does not take much to imagine how Peter felt, because we have all been there haven’t we?   We have had moments of reckoning where we had to face the music for our failures, shortcomings, or mistakes.  All of us have been in the spot where Peter is and we were unsure if the hammer was going to drop.
It is possible that Peter thought he had messed up for good.  That he did not belong, that he was not worthy to follow a risen savior, and there was no place for him in the future. Jesus and Peter have their long coming heart to heart, and Jesus does not cast Peter out.   He does not yell out Peter, and he does not treat Peter to some sort of putative measures.   Jesus offers Peter a re-do.   Three times, Peter denied Jesus so three times Peter is offered the chance to affirm his love of Jesus, and that is it.   There is no warning to not do it again, there is no demotion, and there is no letter placed in his permanent file.  Jesus simply ends with the same request, that started this all for Peter:  follow me.  
Even though Peter did not have a perfect track record, Jesus still invites Peter to join in on the work of feeding the sheep.  As a lifelong fisherman, Peter probably never thought of himself as a shepherd but that is what Jesus is inviting him to do.  While Jesus is the good shepherd, he metaphorically hands over the keys, he entrusts Peter to do the job.  Despite Peter messing up, despite Peter not delivering when it mattered, and despite Peter being imperfect Jesus still trust Peter to lead.  Jesus does not back down from the statement that he is the rock upon which the church of Jesus Christ is going to be built.   By the end of this scripture Peter finds himself being not only forgiven and reinstated by the savior he betrayed, but he is entrusted with important, kingdom-building work.  
In the same way, it does not matter our past.   It does not matter how many times we have fallen short, it does not matter how many times we stepped up to the plate only to strike out.   God can and will use us.  There is a theological concept called the Missio Dei, which is Latin for the mission of God.   This is the understanding that the saving of souls, the redemption of all creation, the building of God’s holy kingdom is all the mission and the work of God.  Yet God, invites, empowers, and entrusts the church to be part of making God’s mission a reality.   Just like Jesus shared the keys with Peter and invited him to care for the sheep, God invites all of us and shares the keys to the kingdom with us so that we can build for it.  This means that all of us, that you can make an eternal difference in the life of someone else or a meaningful change in making this world a kinder and more loving place.  As testimony after testimony attests to, often the way that God can best use us is in a way we thought would not be possible.  We do not have to have it all together, because often God does call the equipped, God equips the called. 
I celebrate that many of you are already doing that.   You give of yourself to lead in the church whether it be serving on a vital work team in the church.   Many of you use your talents to serve and bless others by helping with funeral dinners or serving in the community at the food pantry, the school food bags, or many of the other ways you volunteer to make a difference.   Even if it was not vocational ministry, many of you have lived out your calling through your job where you used the gifts and graces that God provided you to make the world a better place. 
 I celebrate that many of you have accepted the divine invitation to join the Missio Dei, but that also gets us to the second question we should consider this morning.  Peter did just lead the early church and feed the flock of Christ by happenstance.  He did so because Jesus invited him and shared the keys.   So who are you inviting to make a difference in this world?  Who are you intentionally mentoring and who are you sharing your leadership keys with? 

​Often the way that someone responds to God’s calling, the way that someone begins to live in the greater purpose that God has for them, is because someone else nudges them to do it.  Again, this is my story.  I did respond to God’s calling on my life, but I still did not want to be a preacher.   I saw myself serving in the capacity of youth ministry and only youth ministry for the long term.  I served in that capacity at Avon UMC with Karen Devaisher as the senior pastor.   She saw something in me that I did not see.  She was convinced that I should preach.  I went back and looked at those early sermons, I cannot say what she saw-but she was unwavering.   She regularly shared her pulpit with me, giving me opportunity after opportunity to preach.   She was gentle mentor and a constant encourager.   I had convinced myself that being a preacher was not right for me, but Pastor Karen did not see it that way.   I can say with all confidence that if it was not for her pushing me and for her sharing her keys of leadership with me, then I would not be here today.  

Research from the Fuller Youth Institute has found one of the essential strategies for churches that grow young, that is churches that attract and keep younger people, are churches that share the keys of leadership with young people.  The research has shown that people ages 15-29 especially are looking for a role to play right now in the church.  This does not mean that we find younger people and have them do all the grunt work while we sit back and tell them what to do.   Leadership in a church should not require paying your dues and working your way up.  It should be about equipping the called, and those who have the experience are in the best position to pass on what they have learned.

Keychain leadership is what Jesus demonstrates in this morning’s scripture.   It is sharing the keys of responsibility, authority, influence, and access.  The way this is best done is not just handing over responsibility and saying good luck, but it is inviting someone to come along side, and then walking with them, encouraging them, and entrusting them.   Because remember the work of the church, the work of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, is God’s work.  It is God’s mission.  If we are engaged in the work of the church it is because we have been invited by God, and we have a responsibility to invite others.  

I realize right about now you might be thinking, that sounds great but we do not have a ton of 15-29 year olds that we can engage in keychain leadership.  That may be true . . . for now.   However, if we collectively decide and strive to make sharing leadership, encouraging one another, and inviting others to join us in the work of the church of the church-then we will be working to create a church culture that the research strongly shows young people want to be a part of.   This is because this creates a church culture where the words of Jesus from this morning’s scripture can be felt and experienced- Follow me. 

This morning’s scripture is a reminder that no matter what our past is, God can still and will use us.  If you still feel like you are searching for how you can make a true and eternal difference, then may you know that there is a standing invitation from Jesus where he says “follow me”.  You are invited to join in the mission of God.   If you feel like you are using your gifts and graces in a way that can serve God and build for God’s kingdom, then may you be willing to invite others to join you in the work.   May you be aware of the keys you hold, may you be willing to use them to open doors for some while training and entrusting others.  Wherever we are in our own faith journey, may we all seek to follow Christ even when it leads us to doing things we never thought we might do.   In doing so, may we help build God’s kingdom here on earth.