Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church

Things Old and New

by Dave Wilkinson

Matthew 13:52

June 29, 2003

This sermon was preached in a service held in a large tent. The service marked the fifteenth anniversary of the chartering of Moorpark Presbyterian Church

Hasn’t worship been in-tents today?

Get it? In tents.

You have to make allowances for us old people

I received the most disturbing piece of mail a few weeks ago. It was an offer to send me Time magazine for a very god price. There was nothing wrong with that. The problem is that Time was being offered to a Mr. Wilkinson at the low, low senior citizen rate. I Looked around for my dad, but he wasn’t there. And it was addressed to me.

Columnist Bob Green wrote about the pitfalls of turning 50: “I was in a public building during a business trip when I was stopped dead in my tracks by the sound of Muzak.

“Now, a person isn’t supposed to notice Muzak. The whole point of Muzak is that it’s designed to be the ideal soothing piped-in background music. On this particular day, though, the Muzak stopped me as effectively as if it had been an electric prod....The song - I was almost sure of this - was “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love).”

“Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love),” briefly popular in the summer of 1966, was raucous, prototypical bar song recorded by a raucous, prototypical garage band known as the Swingin’ Medallions. “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love)” was the only hit the Swingin’ Medallions ever had - and with good reason. There were only two things you could do while listening to “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love) - drink beer and throw up. That’s what the song was made for.

“And here it was. On Muzak. I looked up toward the ceiling. The orchestral strings were ever so sweetly playing the part of the song in which the Swinging’ Medallions had sung: “It wasn’t wine that I had too much of...”

“ I am a realist. The world changes.

“But the Swingin’ Medallions? “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love)”? I had to know. I called Muzak’s world headquarters in Seattle. An executive named Bruce Funkhouser checked the Muzak computer, which keeps track of all songs played, and said, “Here it is. Yes, yes...we do feature that song. To be precise, it played last Wednesday afternoon at fifty-seven minutes and thirty-one seconds after five o’clock.”

“He told me that Muzak used to feature only songs like “It Might As Well Be Spring” - the kinds of songs performed by Mantovani or the Jackie Gleason Orchestra. But the company had expanded its repertoire. Muzak’s goal, he said, was still “to soothe people and put their minds in a comfort zone.” Thus, he said, every song on Muzak is specially arranged and recorded by Muzak musicians. The lyrics are removed, the sound softened.

“But, I said to Funkhouser, I always thought that the songs on Muzak were supposed to be the traditional tunes that middle-aged Americans remembered from deep in the pasts.

“Yes?” Funkhouser said.

“And I understood.”

We’d better understand too. For getting older is something that happens to all of us. It also happens to churches. We are now officially fifteen years old. That makes us a mere baby as some congregations measure time. Some congregations are hundreds of years old. But this is the oldest our church has even been. And it’s a great time to look at where we’ve come from - and, what is more important, where we’re going.

My scripture this fifteen anniversary morning is one sentence in Matthew 13:52, spoken by Jesus to his disciples. At the end of a long series of statements and parables describing the kingdom of God, Jesus asks his disciples if they understand what He has been saying. When they answer that they do understand, He responds, “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of Heaven is like a head of a household who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”

Jesus’s statement is a little obscure. No one is completely certain what it means. But the words indicate that the “ideal” disciple of the kingdom is a person who is trained in the way of the old (as was the scribe of Israel) and who enriches and fulfills the old with the new. The ideal disciple is a person who is not ashamed of the old - any more than a farmer would be ashamed of seed that came from last year’s harvest. But at the same time he or she is also not afraid of the new - any more than a farmer should be afraid to cast the old seed on newly plowed fields.

You may have heard the story about the boy who looked up at the bronze plaque on the wall of a church and whispered to his mother - asking what was on the plaque. “It lists the names of the men who died in the service,” She answered. After a long moment the shocked little boy whispered his urgent question, “Which one? The 9:30 or the 11:00?”

Well, as we commemorate this fifteenth anniversary of our chartering, part of our purpose is to honor those who have, in a sense “died in service”. But we also want to honor all of those who continue to live in the service and those who will follow us in this place - to celebrate the old and the new.

We need both. We need both roots and wings. That’s why I love the message of the fifteenth anniversary banner. It shows us with firm roots — and reaching ever upward for the call of God.

Much more than the legacy of any pastor or presbytery, Moorpark Presbyterian is the legacy of its people ministering together under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Nothing that has been here, presently is or will be, has come by chance without work or without God’s grace. You have partnered with God in the building of a ministry that is strong and getting stronger.

During the 1863 Chancellorsville campaign of the Civil War, Confederate general Stonewall Jackson (who, by the way, was a Presbyterian Elder) observed his soldiers as they marched around the Union flank. Long columns of men were strung out. The General rode back watching the men and saw one limping. He boomed, “Do you think you’ll make it, soldier?” The weary one answered, “Guess I’ll make it, But Ah hope to God I never love another country!”

I am sure that you, the foundation of this church during these building years have sometimes felt like this tired soldier and even, perhaps, wish his wish. But our hard work is producing great fruit.

The history of our church is recorded in a very factual way in the minutes of the session. But there are also so many other things that are recorded nowhere on our records but which are certainly recorded in the records of God -- the loving acts of service without thought of public recognition that have long characterized this congregation, the touch of gentle caring from one person in our church family to another, the unspectacular but truly sacrificial gifts like the widow’s small offering that Jesus declared was so very great.

In a sense, our life as a church today is a carrying on of the original vision. But in our Christian life, we cannot be content only with the old, any more that we should discard the old as something of no value. We must be prepared to take the old seed and plant it in newly plowed land.

We need to move toward the greater realization of a community of faith which reflects its faith as a community of caring - caring for each other and caring for the world outside of our fellowship. We need to be open to ways in which we can magnify Jesus Christ through the bold proclamation of the gospel and through the acts of healing which will make our community and world a better place to live for all of its people. We need to continue to build the kind of education program and atmosphere that encourages children and adults to bring both their Bible and their brains - and never the one without the other. We need to provide a community for the nurture of youth and also children - to give them a stable, caring, very human place in an increasingly unstable, cold, dehumanizing world. We need to affirm the worth of human life - not as a half-baked human potential movement, but because human life is worth so much to its creator.

I was excited by what Bill Gratke had to share about the next phase of our building plans and the forming of a new committee. It is an exciting opportunity. Please pray that it all comes to past Please pray for committee

But the real issue this morning is what are we to do as a church that makes the buildings worthwhile? Where do we go from here? Where does faithfulness lead us?

I believe that the call of Jesus - not only to this church but to all of His church - may be summed up in the two verses called “The Great Commandment” and “The Great Commission.”

Jesus’ Great Commandment is found in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you should also love one another.”

Do you hear what Jesus calls us to do? He calls us to love one another - not in a conditional “world love” way but “as He has loved us.” This is a way that makes us vulnerable and accountable. It is a love that is very personal. For Jesus doesn’t just love us as a group. He loves us as individuals. He knows us and He calls us by name.

For us, this means that it is not enough for us to love the people of God in some sort of universal sense. Love is only made real down in the local church relationship trenches where we express love in specific way to specific people.

For our church, that kind of love means two things. It first of all means real knowledge. We need to be involved with the people of God beyond Sunday morning attendance. It’s pretty easy to “love” people who make no more demands on us than an occasional request to share a hymnal. It’s not that simple. It is in true relationships that Christian love is both learned and demonstrated. To love as Jesus loves means to give and to expect accountability for our shared Christian growth and our walk with the Lord. This kind of thing can only be done in an atmosphere of tremendous grace and care. But they can be the honest relationships that add to life.

It is fitting that our banner features a tree. Trees are a great model for what we are to be with one another.

According to an article in Reader’s Digest a few years ago titled “What Good is a Tree?”, when the roots of trees touch, there is a substance present that reduces competition. In fact, this unknown fungus helps link the roots of different trees - even of different species. A whole forest may be linked together. If one tree has access to water, another to nutrients, and a third to sunlight, the trees have the means to share with one another. Like trees in a forest, Christians in the church need to be linked to each other so they can support one another.

Jesus says to us, “Love one another as I have loved you.” And He then says that this is the way that the people of the world will recognize that we belong to Him. “By this all people will know that you are my disciples - that you love one another.” There needs to be something different about our community - something that will be attractive to people who are looking for answers. “Love one another as I have loved you.” That’s our first marching order.

Our second marching order, “The Great Commission,” is found in Matthew 28:18. Jesus says to us, “ All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

In our staff meetings and in Session, we have talked on a regular basis about our mission as a congregation - the priorities we want to reflect in our use of money and time. These conversations are very helpful.

But overshadowing all of our discussions about missions and priorities is the awareness that our primary mission has already been put in place by Jesus Christ. We are to help people become disciples of Jesus Christ in a life-changing relationship. We are to fold them into the life of the local church - for that is a key aspect of baptism.

We don’t do this for the sake of Moorpark Presbyterian Church or for the sake of anybody’s ego. We do this for Jesus Christ - under the authority He has been given - because there are people in this area that He loves and is calling to be a part of His forever family.

As best as we can tell, at the present time, about twenty percent of the people in this area are involved in any Christian church - Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant. That means that there are more than twenty-three thousand people just in Moorpark who need to hear our witness. And we don’t minister or live just in Moorpark. The need is as great or greater in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, and Camarillo. We need to witness to two things - that Jesus Christ has made a difference in our lives and that we are part of a church family that teaches His word, where truth is told, and where love is learned and shown. We want Moorpark Presbyterian Church to be a place that you will invite people to investigate for themselves. And remember, some of the most effective persons in this vital outreach are young Christians and people who are themselves quite new to the life of this church.

Jesus said in Matthew 9, “See how the fields are ripe and ready to harvest. Pray to the Lord of the harvest that He will send laborers into the harvest.” I am praying that prayer - that many of you will be among those laborers.

The final aspect of Jesus’ Great Commission is for us to provide on-going growth for adults and children. God has no desire for us to stay spiritual infants. Paul writes that our goal is to present every person mature in Christ Jesus. Jesus says that we are to teach people to observe all “the things that He has commanded us” - all of the love, all of the forgiveness, all of the mission involvement, all of the humility, all of the moral uprightness, all of the sacrificial self-giving - along with a profound awareness of the very powerful and personal love God has for each us.

“Teaching all” means that we need to help men and women think and live as Biblical people. That’s a tremendous challenge in this day and age.

Chuck Colson writes in The Body, “While the church may seem to be experiencing a season of growth and prosperity, it is failing to move people to commitment and sacrifice. The hard truth is that we have substituted an institutionalized religion for the life-changing dynamics of a living faith. For most of us, the church is the building where we assemble to worship, its ministries are the programs we get involved in, its mission is to meet the needs of its parishioners, and its servants are the professional clergy we hire to shepherd us. Church growth has come to refer more to such things as location, marketing, architecture, programs, and head counts than to maturity in the body of Christ.”

In the face of this, Jesus gives us our marching orders: “Love one another, even as I have loved you, you should also love one another” - “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”

That’s what we’re called to do. How do we do it? We can’t do it in ourselves. And we don’t need to. For Jesus promises His presence, “Remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

I want to ask you to do something very specific as a first response to God’s call. I’m going to ask you to bow your head and raise your hand. That’s what people do in tent services. There will be notes in the newsletter and bulletin to remind you of your commitment. The Tuesday evening prayer gathering is a place to do this together. You can also do this is your small groups or before dinner with your family.

I’m going to ask you to commit yourself to praying three times a week, for the next month, for at least ten minutes, for two things. First, for the increased penetration and progress of the gospel of Jesus into the larger community through our church. And second, for the increased discipleship maturity of the people of our church, including ourselves - a maturity that will show itself in Biblical action and, above all, in love for each other.

Please bow your head everyone - this is between you and God. If you will commit yourselves to those prayers please raise your hand.

As you leave this morning, on the back tables, you will find sheets of paper which have this prayer commitment printed out. Please take one and put it where you’ll see it.