Sermon Synopsis for September 28, 2008

“But, We Never Did It That Way!” Mark 2:21-28

Are you an organized person?
Everyone has different ways of organizing their lives.
(You’re organized in your own way - keep away from my desk)

The church is organized – by-laws, commissions, committees, etc.
[Leadership deals with the best way to organize, so we can truly do the work of the church]

DO YOU LIKE CHANGE?
"If you want to make enemies, try to change something" --Woodrow Wilson

I went to Mennonite School this week (EMU Course)

How many Mennonites does it take to change a light bulb?
- Nine - 7 men on the committee, 1 woman to prepare the casserole, 1 to change the bulb.
- Five – one to change the light bulb, and a quartet to sing a lament over the old bulb.
- Six - One to change the bulb and 5 to stand around talking about how good the old bulb was and what fine service it offered to the congregation.
- Six - One to change the bulb and 5 to stand in the parking lot complaining about how it was done.
- Six - One to change the bulb, while 5 review the church lighting policy
- Six – one to change the bulb and 5 to complain that they liked the old bulb better.
- Change? We can’t change. My grandpa put in that lightbulb!
- Change? The darkness will teach us humility.

Seven last (and fatal) words of the church: But we always did it that way

We can get comfortable in our ways when the world around us is changing.

The Same Old Baloney
Two construction workers had taken a lunch break and opened up their lunch boxes. One of them looked inside his box and said, "Not baloney again! I can't believe it. I hate baloney. This is the third time this week I've had baloney. I can't stand baloney!"
The other one said, "Why don't you just ask your wife to make you something different?"
He replied, "I don't have a wife. I made these myself."
The fact is, most of the baloney in our lives we put there ourselves. If we ever want life to be any different from the same old baloney we keep serving ourselves, then we must break out of doing the routine. (Kent Crockett, The 911 Handbook, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003, 65)

Last week we considered our spiritual passion, Characteristic #3 of a healthy church. (Personal spiritual passion leads to a spiritually passionate church

Characteristic #4 – A healthy church has functional structures. We’re not talking about the building.

Some “Spiritual” people tend to be skeptical of structures; they believe that they restrain us, binding the spirit of the Lord.

Traditional people tend to be wary of the word functional – it means change.

The Natural Church Development study showed:
A negative relationship between traditionalism and both growth and quality in the church
Traditionalism – We always did it that way (implying that it is the best way and we should always do it that way)

The organizational structure and rules are made for our benefit.
Jesus challenged some of the rules.

Context of Scripture Passage: Jesus was beginning his ministry and calling his disciples.
Mark 1:14-15 – Kingdom of God is near
Just before our passage today, Jesus calls Levi – a tax collector (the kind of person that good religious men don’t associate with), and he goes to eat at his house (Jesus gets a lot of criticism for that).

Something new is happening … It’s Jesus.

Jesus is in the middle of controversy; how does he respond?

ORDINARY STUFF – EXTRAORDINARY MEANING
Jesus had a way of using ordinary aspects of life to make extraordinary points.
Jesus saw evidence of God in everything.
Insights from common knowledge of the day:

1. Clothing industry – people had to be careful that they didn’t buy new clothing that was made of old (recycled) and new cloth together. Seamstresses knew that you couldn’t put the two together.

2. Winemaking – Before refrigeration, wine was a drink of preference (no coke in Palestine). Winemaking was wisdom passed on from generation to generation. [John 2 – Jesus was a winemaker]

Jesus gives two examples of bringing something new into the world.
New patch of cloth on old clothing
New (freshly squeezed) wine in old containers (wineskins)

SOME OBSERVATIONS
Observation #1 – The difficulty of bringing together new and old is not a new problem.
Cloth – “tearing” / skins – “bursting” – violent and destructive events

In the church – bringing together old and new – can be a violent and destructive thing

Results – cloth – the tear is worse / wine and wineskin is ruined

Many new things brought opposition and conflict
- Maple Grove 1906 – 1st Sunday School in a Mennonite church in Lancaster County (Sadsbury Meeting House) [In some Mennonite Churches it was heard, “Sunday School is of the Devil”]
- 1907 / 08 – the discussion of the idea to build a building
- 1940s – the idea to meet every Sunday
- Mission outreach – starting churches, starting Tel Hai Camp / retirement community,

Q: What does God want us to do that tradition is holding us back?

Our struggle: We have an ancient faith in a modern world = question for us – How do you live it?

Observation #2 - Every new cloth / new skin eventually becomes old. (Is this a message for every generation?)

I’ve heard it said, “It’s unfortunate that the only option to death is getting old”

Every generation needs to live out the Gospel in its own way.
Music – unison moved to 4 part harmony, but with no instruments led to instruments led to hymns led to contemporary songs. Where will it all end? When Jesus comes!

Observation #3 – Each item needs to fulfill its purpose!

"The job won't get done by going back in time." --Francis Anfuso (Pastor, Rock of Roseville)

"Don't take the fence down until you know the reason it was put up." --G. K. Chesterton
I might add – don’t build a fence just because you want one – it needs to serve a purpose.

The Consequences for Refusing to Change
From 1900 to 1967, the Swiss were the leading watchmakers in the world. In 1967, when digital technology was patented, the Swiss rejected it in favor of the traditional ball bearings, gears, and mainsprings they had been using to make watches for decades. Unfortunately, however, the world was ready for this advance, and Seiko, a Japanese company, picked up the digital patent and became the leading watch manufacturer in the world almost overnight.
Fifty thousand of the 67,000 Swiss watchmakers went out of business because they refused to embrace this new technology. It was not until years later that the Swiss caught up and regained their position in the marketplace with the creation of Swatch watches. --from ACTS Daily Encounter

Traditional watch making lost sight of the purpose: The purpose of a watch is to tell the time.

We must not lose sight of our purpose.

Jesus doesn’t compare the church to good, aged wine that’s ready to drink.
The church is “new wine” that needs to go through the process necessary to be what it should be.

Before it can be useful, it needs to be transformed by aging.
Time will tell if it turns out good – Acts 5:34 Gamaliel, teacher of the law, member of Sanhedrin, “If their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” (vv. 38b-39)

What is the origin of our purpose? Human or Divine?

OUR PLANS – GOD’S PLANS
Proverbs 16:3 “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.”

Our plans cannot go against God’s will, but must be found within God’s will:
Did you hear about the “Christian Brothel” in Nevada?
The owner said he committed it to the Lord and that is why it succeeded. Sure.

Anything committed to God needs to be subject to God’s changing powers:
Our lives (as we are) – are given to God, but God will change them.
In effect – our plans will succeed, only if they can be committed to God … and allow God to form them.

Psalm 37:4 “delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
[this is not a way to get what you want, it’s a way to know what you desire]

THE QUESTION OF THE SABBATH
Begins in Genesis – God rested, so should we.
Laws were made - Defining work / Defining rest
A very regulated rule in the OT – many sub-rules (harvesting grain was one of the 39 things you cannot do on the Sabbath)

The Sabbath became a burden. It was not so enjoyable.

Jesus wants to teach that - Sabbath observation is much more than a ritual
It is something special that God gave us.

We can relate that to the organization of the church.
The Sabbath was made for man – the church is an entity created for us.

Cultural Practices:
Take, for instance, the question of who eats with whom. The polite people of Jesus’ day were scandalized by the fact that he broke bread and drank wine with some very unpopular people.

The bible calls them “sinners.” We might call them criminals. You kids probably have some terms you use to describe people at your school who are just scary, weird, odd.

Jesus not only sits down at the lunch table with people like that, he singles out one of them to be part of his inner circle. Levi, the son of Alphaeus, is known by everyone in town as a sleaze ball.

Yet – when Jesus comes by and suggests that he might want to drop everything, including his criminal activity – and “follow me,” Levi not only follows, no questions asked, he invites the whole group over to his house for dinner.

The cool people, the “in crowd” never offered Jesus that kind of hospitality. Instead they question him, call him out: Why doesn’t he support their causes? Shop at their stores? Play by their rules? His answer is kind of sarcastic. Because they are such good “healthy” people, they don’t need a doctor. Right?

NEW WINE
Then he reaches into his bag of illustrations and pulls one out that everybody will understand.
Old patches don’t work on new cloth.
New wine has trouble in old wine skins.

In Jesus hand, a cup of wine became much more than something to drink. It was a symbol of his love, his sacrificial love. [in two weeks we will celebrate communion]

This week I spent some days in “Mennonite School.” Learning about Mennonite theology and history.

Mennonites challenged the status quo (politely and humbly, of course) – by living as Jesus would have in a world that was very different.
Many died for their faith (Martyr’s Mirror)

They challenged slavery, materialism, and individualism.

Let’s think of why people don’t accept Jesus –
They are afraid of the change.
Jesus changes lives
Jesus changes churches
We need to allow Jesus to work the changes necessary in our lives.

A healthy church has functional structures – organized for ministry – organized to help change lives.

A guiding question for our lives: What do we want to do and be for the Lord?

When we say “We always did it that way” (emphasis on “we”), we are limiting God.
God has great things in store for us.

I showed the children an old LP record album. Some of them knew what it was – from seeing one on TV or at their grandparent’s house.

We listen to music very differently today.
How do you think you will listen to music in the future?
The music changes, the way we listen to it changes, but the message is the same.

There are many ways to learn about Jesus, but Jesus will never change.
We need to trust in Jesus: The only thing that won’t change in an ever changing world.

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

Maybe we’re still playing LPs in an MP3 world.

The bottom line – commit it to the Lord (Proverbs 16:3)
And God will work out our plans, so they will function in an ever changing world.