“Adventures in Discipleship”

    What can you expect from Jesus when you are a disciple? Come find out at 10am on Sunday mornings this month. For the rest of November, we are going to be considering that question during our sermons on Sunday morning. There are three things that we can expect from chapters 3 through 5 in the gospel of Mark, as I see it.

    Sunday's passage is going to be Mark 2: 23 through Mark 3:35 and the adventure in discipleship for that Sunday is Defying All Comers. In the space of 40 verses, Jesus is going to, pardon the expression, piss of the civil authorities, the minions of Satan, and his own family. The response he's going to get are a conspiracy gathering two politically opposed parties, piles and piles of homeless demons (hoo-rah!), and a family trying to commit him to the nuthouse (or whatever the equivalent was back in those days). There is an old saying from the Civil Rights Movement that goes something like, "If they are shooting at you, you must be doing something right." Jesus must be doing something right.

    On November 20, we are sharing Mark 4: 1-34, where Jesus slips into that most annoying of literary forms, the "parable". The adventure in discipleship this Sunday is Confusing the Outsiders. Jesus says it as plain as day in vss. 11 and 12, "To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but no understand; so that they may nhot turn again and be forgiven." If that sounds confusing and very "un-Jesus", come on to church on November 20 and we'll talk about it.

    The last adventure in discipleship on this trek comes on November 27. The scripture passage is Mark 4:35 through the end of chapter 5. This adventure is Overwhelming Creation Itself… In our passage for this Sunday, Jesus stops a storm, casts out a Legion of shackle-busting, chain-breaking demons, drowns a bunch of pigs (let's talk Demon Bacon…), heals a woman who has hemorrhaged for forty years (in non-biblical, real world terms, this woman has had a continuous flow on menstrual blood for 40 years!), and raised a girl from the dead. So no pressure for those of us who seek to follow in his footsteps!

    First Church is on the corner of Market and High Streets in Perth Amboy, we are the stone church across Market Street from City Hall and not the brick church diagonally across the square from City Hall. For more information, check out contact info at www.fpcperthamboy.org.

From the November, 2011 Herald: Anchor Statement 5

Dear Friends,

"I am a member of the church, and I shall take time to share my faith with my neighbor so I see belief grow."

Do you notice anything different in the format of this one? Instead of "Each member shall…", it is "I am a member of the church, and I shall…" Moving from being an abstract 'core value' to becoming a personal vow of membership to our neighborhood is the intent.

This shall be the presentation of the Anchors in "the Dove", as personal statements of intent.

The first four anchor statements are about demonstrating our faith, this last one is about sharing our faith. Each of these Anchors is about how to build our neighborhood in the Kingdom of God.

Sharing our faith with someone is the Great Commission. It is what we are called to do as disciples of Jesus Christ.

    Some may challenge the order of our Anchors. It may be argued that we need to lead with sharing our faith, that building our Neighborhood follows the sharing of the faith. And while we may argue that our Anchors are not in a particular order, sharing our faith is last on the list.

    Our church is about living out the Kingdom of God as it came in with Jesus. It is not complete, but the elements are in place. Our Rabbi, our Teacher, has instructed us on how we are to live with one another. He conducted a ministry of healing and preaching that we carry on in a world full of pain. Most importantly, He took the greatest step, giving His life on the cross that, by the power of His blood, our sins are forgiven and we are made right with God.

This is the life given to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is the life we bear witness to in the world that surrounds us. Not simply by our words, but also by our deeds, by the structures we create, by the way we order our Neighborhood, we are spreading that grace around.

We begin by showing how Jesus has changed us, not just talking about it. May God bless us, may God grow our numbers, may God use us to carry the life-giving message of salvation in Him to a world in need.

In Christ,

Rev. Peter Hofstra

From the September 2011 Herald: Anchor Statement 3

Dear Friends,

 

"Each member of the church shall take time to serve your neighbor, so you may be Jesus' minister."

 

Service is the fourth Anchor to our work as a church. Here it is written out as an individual statement, a portion of what could become a membership covenant.

"Each member of the church shall serve…" There is no way around it. This is what the Session has agreed on, this is what the church professes each week, taking these Anchor Statements into our hands as part of our Worship Folder.

What does it mean to serve our neighbor? I do not believe that states the question correctly. Rather, what needs to our neighbors have? Taking time to know your neighbor, to pray for them, that is how the needs are identified. Once the needs are identified, how we serve our neighbor is how we fulfill those needs.

Wonder how? Matthew 25: 31 to the end of the chapter provide a good biblical baseline of needs that we can respond to. 1 Corinthians 12:4 begins a passage on the gifts we may have from the Holy Spirit to use in service of our neighbors. Indeed, pick a gospel, any gospel, and read about how Jesus served.

When we serve our neighbor in the name of Jesus, when we are a minister of Jesus Christ, then we have done a little more to build up our Neighborhood, our Community in the Kingdom of God.

When we serve our neighbor, looking out for their needs, instead of in at our own desires, we have modeled ourselves on Jesus, we are in imitation of Christ.

When we serve our neighbor, we are taking our church life to the next level. In that moment, we have dared to let the Spirit push through to the forefront of who we are and what we are doing.

This Program Year is a year where we will face real change in how we 'do church'. These are 'the rules of the road'. Frankly, it may offend some people, daring to put demands on people who have attended this church maybe for a lifetime.

But attending church is not enough. To claim Jesus as Lord and Savior means putting our lives into His hands. It means obeying His command. And our Anchors, our Core Values, are how we at First Church have agreed we will do that.

 

In Christ,

Rev. Peter Hofstra

From the Summer Herald 2011: Anchor Statement 2

Dear Friends,

 

Take time to pray for your neighbor, that you may surround them in God's love.

 

This is the second of our Anchor Statements, those things that anchor us to the life we believe Jesus is calling us to.

 

Notice how each Anchor statement is phrased, what we shall do for our neighbor, and the expected result. What frustrated me about so many Core Value statements is that they just list the word, in this case Prayer, with a short reason why, in the abstract, it is important.

 

For our church, to achieve the vision of our Ships, the application of prayer, as an anchor, is very specific. Pray for your neighbor, to surround them with God's love.

 

Prayer is our communication with God, but not simply the sharing of information. Prayer is joyful celebration, prayer is painful lamentation, prayer is coming in the heights of our wonder to thank God, prayer is coming in the depths of our despair when there does not appear to be anything else to do.

 

Prayer is not between equals. Prayer is what we offer to the One who created the heavens and the earth, who has the power to do ANYTHING. Scripture says that God is love (1 John 4:8). To surround our neighbor with God's love is to surround them with God. And this is all done by prayer.

 

Prayer is the foundation for all our work in Jesus. Surrounding our neighbor with God's love is not simply a means of protecting them. Asking for that love means asking for God's movement in their hearts to accept the time and the service we offer, to hear the message that we offer, to come into this community of faith that we rejoice in.

 

To proceed without prayer is quite simply to proceed without the presence of the Living God. To do that and dare to call ourselves God's church assumes that we do not desire God's care or God's guidance in what we do. Then we shall surely fail. Without prayer, we shall surely fail.

 

But with prayer, God's leading will never fail. I am your servant,

 

In Christ,

Rev. Peter Hofstra

 

 

From the May, 2011 Herald: Our Anchor Statements

Dear Friends,

 

What anchors our work as a church? What do we value? What things define our congregation as we seek to grow and reach out into the community that surrounds us? If our what we intend to do is defined by our purpose, what defines the means by which we accomplish those ends?

 

In keeping with the theme of our Purpose, our Three Ships, we are going to define these as our Anchors, values that anchor our work as the church of Jesus.

 

That are that each member of the church shall . . .

1. Take time for your neighbor, so you may grow closer to them.
   
2. Take time to pray for your neighbor, that you may surround them in God's love.
   
3. Take time to know your neighbor so you may create community.
   
4. Take time to serve your neighbor so you may be Jesus' minister.
   
5. Take time to share your faith with your neighbor so you see belief grow.
   

 

 

Step One: TAKE TIME.

 

Our Anchors are set up in the structure of the Great Commandment: Love God with heart, soul, body, and mind. Love your neighbor as yourself.

 

Each Anchor is built around the assumption that we love God. If we did not, why would we do this?

 

Then, each Anchor explicitly lays out our work in relation to our neighbor.

 

Step one is to take time for our neighbor. If we want to get theological, we might call it "intentional ministry" or "deliberate outreach". Those are fine terms where they are used, but they don't describe us.

 

Ours is a community in action, taking a message of hope and service into the world. Our values, our anchors, reflect that.

 

This is how we will accomplish our purpose of Worship, Discipleship, and Apostleship. I am your servant,

In Christ,

Rev. Peter Hofstra