1 YOU ARE A LETTER OF CHRIST Sermon by the Rev. Richard S.

McDermott September 6, 2009 First Presbyterian Church Fort Collins, Colorado PLEASE READ: 2 Corinthians 2:14-3:6; Luke 10:1-12 We are blessed to live in a country that is highly literate, with a literacy rate of about 99%. In undeveloped countries the average is about 56%, and some countries like Mali and Chad have literacy rates of 22 and 26% respectively. Literacy is a key component to the development of nations, and in the last two centuries, teaching people to read has been a high priority for a number of Christian missions throughout the world. Part of the motivation for Christians to teach literacy is the opportunity to read the Bible. The Bible has been an amazing tool in teaching people to read, and includes some of our greatest Americans like John Adams, Daniel Webster, Abraham Lincoln, and several others. Literacy is valued by nearly all who wish to see people progress in life. Many of us got to hear Greg Mortenson speak last Monday for the Monfort lecture at CSU to about 8,500 people. He is the author of the runaway, bestselling book, Three Cups of Tea, which is a story of his vision for planting the seeds of peace in Afghan communities through the establishment of schools, and especially schools for girls. The literacy rate in Afghanistan is 28%, and its future development will very much depend on the education of its population. Of course, there are many barriers to education in Afghanistan. And Mortensons Central Asia Institute is trying to overcome those barriers. His is an inspiring story, and Three Cups of Tea is now on my must-read list. It is now required reading for military officers, elite forces and all who will be dealing with Afghan communities. In many ways, we do not know how blessed we are for most of us to be able to read, to have books to read, and to have the Bible in our own language. Just over 500 years ago, that was not the case. Literacy was for the privileged and the scholars. In the 1300s and 1400s, the few Bibles published were in Latin only and they were primarily used in Roman Catholic worship. There were comparatively very few books to be had or read, and the ones that were available were in churches or universities being read by a relatively small and elite group of people. John Wyclif tried to change that in the year 1380. He and his colleagues at Oxford translated the Latin Vulgate Bible into English, but were severely persecuted for it. Wyclif died only four years after he started his translation and his followers copied by hand as many manuscripts as they could produce and hide. About 180 copies remain today. In the early to mid-1500s William Tyndale translated the English Bible from the original languages, and he was eventually hanged and burned for doing it. It is hard for us to comprehend, but about 75% of the English Bible in our pews this morning, and a large percentage of whatever Bible you may own, has a strong connection to Tyndales English translation, a translation that he died in order to get to us. We owe Wycliffe and Tyndale and many others a great debt of gratitude. Today, books are plentiful, Bibles are everywhere, but unfortunately, many people are not reading them, whether those people are literate or not. Biblical literacy is once again, a huge challenge for the church and the academy. This is the second sermon in our series on Bringing Faith to Life, and this series is designed to help us grow into our calling as a missional church, which is a church that not only understands about sending professionals out to a far away mission field. A missional church understands that 1

2 WE are the ones being sent as missionaries, and we are being sent to HP, to CSU, to Poudre School District, to the soccer fields and the baseball fields and the football fields; to our homes and our recreation. A missional church understands that the 5% of our time that we spend in worship, nurture and service with church community is to prepare us for the 95% of our time that we spend at work, in school, in our volunteer capacities and in our home environment. Every person in a missional church thinks about My95. Our Scripture lessons today will help us further grasp what it means to be a missionary for Jesus. The Bible was never intended to be just another book, simply words on pages, gathering dust as if it were simply another nice story that we could easily forget. It is the Word of God in the words of humans. It is holy Scripture and it is inspired by the Holy Spirit so that the Holy Spirit can in turn be breathed into our lives, and so we can live as Gods inspired people, literally. Inspired literally means breathed into by God or God-breathed. The Scripture is intended to help people to live God-breathed lives, and to discover, embrace, and live out the faith of our mothers and fathers. It requires that we depend upon and trust the Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit, in order to discern the Word of God in Scripture. When that happens, then our very lives become the message of Good News, the gospel that we are to share with a world that longs for it. Indeed, as I am claiming in todays sermon, we are to be a letter of Christ, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Friends: you are a letter of Christ, and as scary as it sounds, you may be the only Bible that some people ever read. Think about that, you may be the only Bible that some people, maybe many people, will ever take the time to read. That is an amazing responsibility that God has given us. But dont feel badly. That was true for the first 1500 years of the existence of the Christian Church as well. The good news of Gods love in Jesus Christ has always been about relationships and not simply about books or documents. The Lord Jesus has initiated a relationship with us by touching our hearts through the Bible and through His Spirit, and through other people, and we respond by faith and trust in Him. God can, by His Spirit, use the good book of the Bible to touch us, to teach us, and to guide us into all the truth. But that truth has to be shared with others in love, in relationship, from living breathing followers of Jesus to those who are lost, those who are seeking, those who are wondering, those who need to know they are loved by God and by us. And most of the time that happens in our 95, that 95% of the time that we spend away from this church building, living life with family, friends, acquaintances and co-workers, and even a few strangers. Does this sound like a heavy responsibility? It is, but listen again to what Paul says from our lesson today: Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. The letter kills, meaning the rules, the laws, the written commands. Not many people come to Christ simply by being told that they cant get drunk, they cant drive too fast, or they cant cheat on their girlfriend or boyfriend. Thats the letter, the rule, the law. Its a necessary fact of life. But the spirit behind those rules can give life, the Holy Spirit who inspires love and respect for others and for ourselves.

3 While it has its limitations as an illustration, I sometimes think of the law as a traffic light. It is helpful, it is necessary, but it is not inspiring. It enforces what our mothers taught us and what we already know from childhood: we should take turns crossing the intersection. Duh! Think about what it took the place of: our local policeman or policewoman. They represent the spirit of traffic control. If you came to the intersection at ten at night and no one else was there, they would wave you through! You knew their name and you wanted to do as they asked you because you knew they were looking out for everyone. The traffic cop was inspiring, doing a difficult and dangerous and sometimes boring job in order to keep the community safe. The traffic light was without life, but the traffic cop gives life. And you know, the Ten Commandments are great. They give us clear direction for the basics of life, and they have a broader application when one prayerfully thinks about them. But if they just remain rules written in stone, they seem like a fence that is a temptation to get around. Only when Israel trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, do the commandments take on life. When the people begin to obey a person full of steadfast love and not a code, then the Ten Commandments have the power and the authority that they need to be effective. So from the very beginning, it is about relationship to our loving God, and learning to love our neighbors, that the Spirit helps us discern. Paul uses the image of a triumphal procession of a conquering hero in Roman times, when they used pleasant smelling incense that spread everywhere among the crowd, that reminds him of the altar of incense in the Jewish temple, when they believed that the smells were pleasing to the Lord, the God of Israel. He says, But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being save and among those who are perishing; . So to some we will smell like life, and to others we will smell like death. This is confirmed by the passage we read from Luke 10, where Jesus prepares and sends out the seventy disciples, two by two. This is the only place that we read about Jesus sending seventy, a group much larger than the twelve, and it is reminiscent also of Moses gathering the seventy elders of Israel in Numbers chapter eleven. He tells them that he is sending them out like lambs among wolves. They are to eat what they are given and they are not to take extra clothes or accessories and, since the message is urgent, they are not to stop and talk to people on the road. They should offer Gods shalom or peace to all whom they meet, and tell all people that Gods Kingdom has come near to you, but they should be prepared for rejection on both counts. The key passage for us today is what Jesus says first. He says, The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See I am sending you out. On this Labor Day weekend, when the laborers truly are few, we should indeed ask the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Yes, we should pray for the laborers at HP and all the high tech industries, the laborers at CSU and all our school systems, the laborers and volunteers in our non-profits, and the laborers for the gospel working in our churches and in our community. The harvest is ready, this we can see. There is great need and people do not know to whom they may turn. They do not know that Gods effective will, Gods kingdom, Gods reign has come near to them. But can they smell the

4 fragrance that comes from those who knowing Jesus, the aroma that accompanies his followers? Is it spreading to every place in our community? Friends: We are to be letters of Christ written with the Spirit of the living God on tablets of human hearts. What kind of letter of Christ are you? Are you like a brief e-mail to which very few pay attention? Are you a personal invitation that people are anxious to open? Are you a form letter that feels cold and without nuance? Or are you a love letter from God, rich with the fragrance of an expensive cologne? The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send you.