Scripture Readings:
Genesis 12:1-3 - The Call of Abram
1Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Mark 12:28-31 - The First Commandment
28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Sermon: “Blessed to Be a Blessing”
Our Church PURPOSE STATEMENT reads like this: Franklin Federated Church is a Community of Abundant Welcome to All, Growing Together in Christ and Serving with Love.
Our Church Vision Statement expands on that and describes what we will seek to be and do in the next few years, starting now.
Following Christ and led by the Holy Spirit, we articulated that “We will be both inward and outward focused--taking care of the needs of people who are already part of the congregation in order to equip ourselves to reach out and connect with new people and partner with others to meet the needs of the wider community.”
It is a wonderful Vision Statement, very much in line with the teachings of Christ and the Hebrew Scriptures. (And, just to review, a Transition Team put together this Statement based on a series of meetings held in 2020 and 2021 where the congregation reviewed your history, articulated hopes and dreams, and discerned what God was calling you to do and be. The Vision was edited by Council and presented to the congregation for feedback.)
Last month I met with a few volunteers from your Church Council to put together an Implementation Plan, so you could put your wonderful Vision into action. As we reviewed the Vision and the activities that groups in the church are doing this year, the volunteers noticed a couple things. Let me share them with you:
1. Most of our current church activities are more inward focused than outward focused.
2. To fulfill the Vision God is calling us to, we need a better balance of inward and outward focus. In other words, we need to stretch ourselves to be more outward focused. We need to think intentionally about it.
Then someone who was part of the group of volunteers working with me to put the Vision into action said something like this, “I think we may need some sort of training regarding how to be more outward focused. We each may need to learn how to better articulate what our own faith is, why faith is important, and how to communicate that respectfully to others.” And the other volunteers from council, working with me, agreed.
And, then, being even more specific, someone said, ”A sermon series on ’How would you invite your neighbor to church and why would you want to?‘ might be helpful.“
That last bit sounded like a hint to me.... So I made the mistake of praying about it—I mean, I joyfully lifted it up to God in prayer. I prayed something to the effect of, “Lord, I’ve never preached a sermon series like this before; I’m going to need your help. But, no rush, Lord. I’ve got other things to preach about.” Wouldn’t you know it, a few weeks later, my husband –a church consultant--is reading this book called, “B.L.E.S.S.: 5 Everyday Ways To Love Your Neighbor and Change the World.” I pick up the book and read the back cover that says, and I quote:
When you’ve been transformed by God’s love, you can’t help but want others to experience the same grace and freedom. But how do you share it without scaring them away or offending them?
…what if there were an organic, authentic way to share your faith with your friends, neighbors, and coworkers?
Dave and Jon Ferguson have found five simple, straightforward practices that will allow any believer to do just that. And by consistently living them out, you can affect not just individual lives but your entire neighborhood and community—one person at a time.
Wow! The book sounded like it was EXACTLY what the volunteers from Church Council were asking for in a sermon series!! What an incredible answer to prayer!! (God is good—all the time.)
So I read the book, and I loved it! (I hope that those of you who are reading it will love it too. ) It’s all about how we are all blessed by God to BE a blessing to others.
Everything the book says is based on the foundational Scriptures of our faith, two of which we’ve read today. These Scriptures make clear that God wants us to have an outward focus—to care for our neighbors as much as we care for ourselves.
In our reading from Mark, Jesus sums up what the most important commandments are in all of Scripture. I bet we know this reading by heart. Basically, it’s this: “Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Today, I want to focus on the “love your neighbor” part. The authors of this book—brothers Dave and Jon Ferguson, who are pastors of a church-- point out that the commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself” appears in the Bible 8 times. And then, focusing on the fact that it is written as an imperative, they say, “Jesus knew that if he didn’t make it a command, we’d treat it as optional.” Which would be very human of us. I know I prioritize commands above suggestions, and I bet I’m not the only one…
Their point? Loving our neighbors is not optional. Jesus makes clear that we need to “find time, make sacrifices, and be intentional” about loving our neighbors as ourselves. (B.L.E.S.S., p. xx) Or, to use words from our Purpose Statement, we—each and all-- need to work at having an outward focus as well as an inward one—because that’s what God wants.
And having an outward focus involves sharing God’s Love through both deeds and words.
Most of us are probably fairly comfortable sharing God’s love through good deeds. In fact, we may even quote the old line, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.” That quote has been attributed to St. Frances of Assisi, but there’s no evidence Francis actually said it. However, I’d say that attributing it is beside the point, because, most of the time--at least, speaking for myself—when we quote it, we do so because we are looking for an excuse not to talk about our faith.
The authors of this book don’t let us off the hook. Using words to express how God’s grace, healing, joy, forgiveness, strength (whatever word you might choose at any given time) makes a difference in our lives is an important part of how we love our neighbors. In fact, we do our neighbors a disservice if we don’t let them know that our grace, healing, joy, forgiveness and strength come from God and theirs can too.
The good news found in the pages of this book is that sharing our faith through words doesn’t have to be pushy, scary, difficult, or awkward. In case we have doubts about that, the authors reassure us by referring to data from studies that have been done. Research—in this case, done by Gallup--shows 87% of Americans believe in God. Further, 1 in 4 non-Christians are curious about what Christianity might mean in their lives. And--I love this statistic—79% of unreligious people agreed with the statement, “I don’t mind talking to a friend about their faith if they value it.” (B.L.E.S.S., p. 8)
The book then goes on to make the case that people are actually looking for friends with whom they can explore spiritual matters. Isn’t that good news?! People are looking for friends who can listen without judgment, allow them to draw their own conclusions, and confidently share their own perspective. [REPEAT] Wow! I think we can all vouch for the fact that when WE find friends like this in our own lives, it is one of God’s greatest blessings!
And, speaking of blessings, this brings us to our other scripture reading, the one from Genesis chapter 12, The Call of Abram. Abram-- whom God later renamed Abraham--is the patriarch of 3 religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. God makes clear to Abraham that he is blessed—not so that he can hoard God’s blessings to himself or just enjoy them with the small circle of his own family—no. God blesses Abraham so that he can share his blessings abundantly--with the whole world. In verses 2 and 3, God says, “I will bless you so that you will be a blessing…in you, ALL the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Wow! Talk about a Vision of abundant welcome!
But back to this book. The authors—brothers and pastors Dave and John Ferguson identify 5 every day ways we –people who love God and don’t want to be pushy or disrespectful--can love our neighbors and change the world.
They’ve made the 5 ways easy to remember, because each one starts with a letter that spells out the acronym B.L.E.S.S.
Begin with Prayer
Listen
Eat
Serve
Story
In this sermon series, I’ll be looking at one each week. Next week’s topic will be “Begin with Prayer.”
And let me make another plug for the book here. At the end of each chapter, there are a series of discussion questions. I’ll be in the faith development room each week after worship, and we’ll discuss the sermon and a question or two per chapter. Even if your schedule or geographic location doesn’t allow you to join that discussion, you can still answer the questions if you want as a way of putting your faith into action. (And if there’s enough interest, we can even have one or two on-line discussions. Let me know.)
So, may God be working in us this week to both look inward and notice the ways God has blessed us—and then to begin to look outward to be aware of the people around us whom God might be calling us to bless…
Rev. Dr. Marlayna Schmidt
Franklin Federated Church
Franklin, MA