wpc
Westminster Presbyterian Church
Bradenton, Florida
Sermons
Footprints
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Footprints
1 Corinthians 9:19-23
The Reverend Chris Adams
January 31, 2010
I have something here I want to show you this morning. Can you see what this is from out there? That’s right it’s a footprint.
Now this one is on paper, so I can hold it up and show you. You might have noticed some of these scattered around up here, on the pulpit and on the stage. I am a little surprised that nobody really has asked me about them.
I guess you figured out I would tell you when you needed to know. That’s a good thing really. I am very impressed that our congregation is not easily disturbed by things being a little different or strange; especially your pastor.
Now I want you to use your imaginations for a moment this morning. You can close your eyes for a moment, if that will help your mind get a picture. I want you to imagine this as a real footprint, somewhere in the midst of the places you go. It can be your footprint, or it can be another person’s.
Can you imagine that? Can you see a time when you remember seeing footprints?
Once you have that image in your mind, I want you to imagine whether those footprints in your mind are a good thing, or are they a scary thing. Do they bring happy thoughts to you, or are they images of sadness or pain.
You see, it all depends on the context doesn’t it. The context for those footprints is what makes all the difference.
You see, maybe you saw footprints in the sand out at the beach. Do you remember that poem about footprints in the sand?
Now for most of us, that’s a happy image of the times when God was walking with us. Even if you don’t know that poem, for me footprints in the sand remind me of the times when Paula and I walk together on Anna Maria Island. No matter what else is happening in our lives, a few minutes walking down the beach seems to make it all better.
But even footprints in the sand are dependent on the context. Suppose you have lost someone very special to you, and the image in your mind is two sets of footprints, one representing that lost love. That could be a very painful image. It’s all about context.
What if you are all alone in the woods, at night in the dark? What if your flashlight suddenly catches the shape of a footprint in the mud? That sounds pretty scary to me, what about for you? Again, I would suggest it’s all about the context.
If this were a real footprint, the context we see it in would make all the difference.
You know one of the reasons I admire the Apostle Paul so much is that his ministry to the Gentiles was all about context. Look again at his words to the Corinthian church, our scripture lesson this morning. This is what I mean.
If Paul were talking to a group of Jews, his message was all about ancient prophesy and how Jesus was the promised Messiah. That was the context they would understand, so that was the way Paul preached the message.
But, if Paul were then talking to the Gentiles he changed his approach. He didn’t talk about ancient prophesy, because Gentiles wouldn’t have a clue what he was talking about. He would put it in the words and the experiences they most understood.
The scripture explains it as those under the law, and those not under the law. Paul says he became both just so he could preach the gospel to both. He even goes so far to say, that he became weak in order to preach to the weak. For Paul, it was all about context.
Many people forget that Paul was not a full time preacher like I am. In fact, he was a tent maker and spent everyday in the marketplace sewing his tents and selling them. You can imagine, in Paul’s day how important the manufacture of tents would have been.
But for Paul, it was that context that provided him the means to share the gospel. He would work with his hands, but that left his mouth free to share the good news. As people walked by and talked to Paul about his business, Paul had the chance to share his message. Maybe it was just to invite them to come to the next place he would preach.
Paul used his context for ministry and the things that were important to the audience he wanted to share the gospel with. That’s how this whole church thing got started and began to spread.
I wonder though, if we have forgotten at times about our context for ministry and how important that is to our sharing the gospel.
I have told this story before, so forgive me if you know it. Several years ago, at another church I was helping to clean out the choir loft of the sanctuary. I moved a big piece of recording equipment and beneath it was a bulletin. It had fallen back behind the equipment and nobody knew it was there.
When I first looked at it, I thought it was a fairly recent bulletin, because at first glance it looked exactly the same as the one we were using. But then I noticed the date. It was from 1973, thirty years before the date I found it.
Now here’s the thing. When I examined the bulletin more carefully it was amazing in that it was almost exactly the same. We could have used that bulletin that very Sunday and nobody would have even hiccupped.
Now the question I would ask would be about context. Do we really believe that the world had not changed in the last thirty years? Do we really believe that the context that church was conducting worship in for 2003 was the same as 1973? No way. The church had forgotten about the context. They failed to follow Paul’s example of how to share the gospel in an effective and relevant way.
Which brings us to today. Here’s my question. What is our context for ministry? How might we understand the world in which we are called as Westminster Presbyterian Church to share the gospel?
Well without question, we have to recognize that it’s 2010. Sometimes people say they wish they could go back to the way the church was in the “old days.” Did you know that in 1965 there were more paid subscriptions for Presbyterians Today than for Life magazine? But that’s not our context anymore.
The truth is, the world has changed, and if we are going to be able to share the gospel today, we have to understand who it is we are talking to.
But I would suggest there is more to it than just the date. I would suggest, and we spent a great deal of time talking about this as a Dream Team, that the place we live also has a huge effect on our context. I mean we live in Southwest Florida. What is it we say, “Another Day in Paradise.”
People come here and live here with the traffic, and the hurricanes, and the high cost of living because this is paradise. We have the weather and the water. We can be outside playing golf or tennis twelve months out of the year. I ride my motorcycle all year, and I don’t even own a cold weather jacket.
Now, in the spirit of the Apostle Paul, we better realize that context will greatly affect our ability to share the gospel.
We make a joke about it, but in reality, when someone tells us how they did it up north, what they are telling us is exactly how not to do it here. What I mean is, up north the context for ministry is different than it is in Southwest Florida. Right?
If we do ministry here just like we did it up north, then we are ignoring the context in which we serve. If we just pretend it is 1965 in the church, we ignore the context we are called to serve in, and I would suggest we become irrelevant.
But, if we hear the gospel as Paul preached. If we understand that context too is a gift of God’s grace, then we are truly partnering with God in meeting people where they are. We can then build relationships with people and with our community, and can share the gospel with them in a way that is truly relevant and meaningful to them.
What does that mean? It means our ministry had better be just as recreational as it is reverent. It means we better recognize the Florida that is in us, rather than the fact that we are in Florida.
What is that department store ad that says, “Live the Florida Lifestyle!” Well if we want to share the gospel in a way that is relevant and in context, then we had better remember that the same people that shop at that store come to this church.
The good news friends, is that God is truly relevant and so is his ministry. We believe our new mission statement, Loving God, Loving Life, and Loving our Neighbors is also relevant and the ministry we do with it in that context will be too.
Many of you told me last Sunday you like it’s simplicity and how short and to the point the statement is. Well the context is why. For people living the Florida lifestyle, it has to be short and sweet. That is if you want people to remember it.
Friends, this is just the beginning of this conversation. The idea of context, by definition, means it has to be a continuing conversation. That is if we truly want to remain in context with our community, and our time. So let this be the beginning of God’s gift of context.
And to help you remember, I have a gift for you today. The Deacons are going to hand each of you a little magnet on your way out today. Printed there on it is our new mission statement, Loving God, Loving Life, and Loving our Neighbors. But printed there also is our new church logo.
What does that look like you ask? Well it’s a footprint! It’s a reminder that each of us are walking with God, in the context of our lives, and the church too is leaving its mark.
In fact, that mark is the reason we chose that logo. When we do ministry in context, when we preach the gospel in the way Paul did, and when we truly live out Loving God, Loving Life and Loving our Neighbors, then we leave our mark on the lives we touch.
I have this image in my mind. I close my eyes and I can picture it. In the years to come, you and I are living here in Bradenton and all of a sudden we see these black footprints all over our town.
They are downtown at Family Promise, and out in the country at Hope Seeds. These footprints show up in our schools and in the communities where our seniors live. But more than that...
All of a sudden we are seeing footprints in yards in this neighborhood and out at the beach. We begin to hear stories of footprints in places like Haiti, and Africa and other parts of our world. Footprints just show up like they have here in our sanctuary these past few weeks.
Most importantly, footprints show up in the context of peoples everyday lives. When I use my imagination, I see footprints everywhere and in that moment I know that we have been successful.
People have been asking me about wearing the t-shirt in the past couple Sundays. Well, I can tell you we will have some t-shirts to wear. That is for us.
But when we see footprints. When we begin to see others wearing not just our t-shirts but wearing our footprints, then we will know that we are truly Loving God, Loving Life and Loving our Neighbors. Can you imagine that... with God’s help!
Amen.
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