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    Oct 09, 2016

    What if we offer healing in Christ's Name?

    Passage: Acts 3:1-10

    Speaker: Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor

    Series: What If?

    Category: Stewardship

    In Acts 3, Peter and John offer healing to a man the whole community knew who sat by one of the main gates every day looking for alms. What he received was an amazing gift! Through our faithful stewardship of our time and financial resources, God can do amazing things! What if the church offered healing where the people in the community needed it?

    What if? Is a powerful question – powerful enough to get us stuck or to propel us forward as individuals as well as community.

    What if I can’t? What if it doesn’t work? What if it makes someone uncomfortable – or even angry?

    To be honest, when What If? was suggested as the theme for our stewardship campaign, I asked myself: What if people misunderstand and get stuck in the negative? What if the congregation thinks we are telling them that we can’t do ministries because we don’t have money? What if the congregation thinks we are announcing the end to some of our highly effective missions? We can “what if” ourselves to death, can’t we?

    On the other hand, What if? is a powerful question that can lead to amazing things.

    What if we can make a difference? What if I design an app so anybody could instantly get directions on their cell phones? What if there were a way to cool a huge room when it’s 95 degrees outside? What if we offer a ministry where people could get medical and dental care? What if we offer ministries that build relationships and heal our community?

    Just last week we pondered having even a little bit of faith which Jesus said is enough to accomplish amazing things – faith the size of a mustard seed. Now that’s a powerful what if: what if I – what if we actually had enough faith to do what God is calling us to do? What if we had enough faith to give generously and cheerfully?

    Over the next 4 weeks we will be exploring both “the what if we can't or won’t or don’t” and the “what if we can, will or do” of being RUMC, sharing the good news of our ministries and how they affect the lives of people within the congregation and in the Reisterstown community – how people would be affected if those ministries were no longer offered, and what we might do if there were the resources – faith and people and money – to move in some new directions. In some cases, the “what if we can” will offer an example of what another church has done; in other examples, the “what if we can” will come from one of our own members, sharing from their hearts about a ministry to which they feel called. Hear today’s scripture reading:

    One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, ‘Look at us.’ And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, ‘I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.’ And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

    Your church has been engaged in a ministry of healing for over 20 years. We don't literally do the healing, but we supply the space and the facility for a ministry to those in our area who cannot afford health care or dental care, and a hot, nourishing lunch is provided by 2 teams of RUMC worshipers. For less time, but with similar impact, your church has also been engaged in serving lunch on the first Saturday of the month. The Community Kitchen offers a lovely hot meal every month, serving a wide variety of people who come to the tables. Some are just looking for company. Others need to eat. On a recent Saturday afternoon, we asked some of the guests and 1 volunteer at the Community Kitchen and some of the volunteers on the Mission of Mercy Health Team to share their thoughts with us:  (You may watch the video here at https://youtu.be/sGvJcoXEmh0) 

    Building community is a growing need in our neighborhood. As the community becomes more diverse, neighbors don't know each other, and there are areas where we view neighbors with suspicion. Some -- not all -- of our schools are struggling, parent groups lining up on opposite sides of questions and students getting in trouble because they are looking for something to do. What if we do something to bring the community together rather than just watching people pull against each other?

    A church in Southern Maryland faced a similar reality about 10 years ago.

    Neighborhood kids were skateboarding in the church parking lot. The church folks were very upset – understandable from a “what if they get hurt?” standpoint – and it wasn’t a very big leap to the kids being seen as being rowdy and different from “our” kids. From the skaters’ point of view, the church people were disrespecting them. Though I don’t know how tense things got, I can imagine. The youth pastor and some others began to ask “What if we provide the means to develop a real skateboard ministry on our parking lot?” And that’s what they did. I can imagine the kids coming to the church the first time. Like the man healed at the beautiful gate, they must have been very careful – walking onto a lot where they had been hotly criticized and ordered to leave. I can imagine the adults with trepidation, too, wondering if the ministry could possibly succeed. It wasn’t long before those young people were literally leaping all over the church’s lot, practicing their moves, building strength and confidence – and the church folks finding that those kids weren’t so much different from the kids they called their own. 

    In our own community, we, along with several other churches, are in the beginning stages of developing a ministry with the young people, parents and staff in one of our schools. The first step will be a potluck and game night in November. What if we can begin building the kind of community where families connect and share food and fellowship and we are able to listen to their needs and the desires of their hearts? Maybe, just maybe our community will experience healing of relationships. Maybe, just maybe sharing the love of God in Christ will heal in such a way that those who are not yet even testing the strength of their feet and ankles will find that they, too, are leaping for joy – the joy of finding community.

    Today you have seen just a glimpse of how our church’s ministry budget impacts our community and one dream taking shape for a ministry with the families in one of our schools. RUMC has been faithful, and God is still speaking!

    In our call to worship today, we asked God to help us live out our mission: Growing together in Christ through worship, fellowship, witness and service. Growing together. Our mission statement does not mention stewardship. However, we all know that it has been the faithful financial stewardship of countless RUMC worshipers to make ministry a reality. For generations, the people of this congregation have given – some have given sacrificially – so that God would be praised and people would be healed.

    Have you seen those ads on TV about retirement where Professor Dan Gilbert asks people how much money they have in their pockets? Then he asks them if they think that whatever they have would have any real effect on their retirement. He shows them that even a small amount spread over a long period of time can have a big impact.

    Over these next few weeks, I invite you to join me in searching for how God is asking us to grow:
    • Am I growing in my worship, fellowship, witness and service?
    • Am I growing in my stewardship?

    Let's close our meditation time by singing a prayer:

    Breathe on me, breath of God, till I am wholly thine.  Till all this earthly part of me glows with thy fire divine.