"Moved By God Beyond Our Comfort Zone "Dr.
James Mayfield May 25, 2003 Text: Acts 10:44-48, Genesis 12:1-4a I suppose we have all known persons who cannot stand success. When life presents them with opportunities to succeed, they will take advantage of them for a while, but then they seem to sabotage themselves so that once again they fail. They are so accustomed to living as a failure, they are uncomfortable when they begin to experience success. Change does not come easy, even when it is obviously change for the better. When we are accustomed to a certain perception of ourselves and our life situation, even if it is a hellish situation, we are uncomfortable moving beyond it. And we humans not only have difficulty changing our perception of ourselves; it is also not easy for us to change our perception of others. For example: it is not only the alcoholic trying to recover who has problems moving beyond old habits of living, so do his or her family and friends. Even though the addiction caused chaos and pain in their relationships, the family and friends became accustomed to the dysfunction. They had developed ways of dealing with it, even though the ways were neither helpful nor healing. But it was a familiar pattern of living. In a way, they were comfortable in their painful mess. When an addict or alcoholic begins recovery and begins living a life of sobriety, it is not unusual for the people around that recovering addict to be so uncomfortable that they react in ways that undercut the recovery. We humans like to keep things the way we are familiar with -- even when the way things have been is obviously not the way things ought to be. I think the basic theological issue is we do not place our trust in God. Lacking faith, we resist anything that brings change. When I was a young person, I remember complaining the adults in our church were unwilling to make necessary changes. And in hindsight, I was correct. But I was also inappropriately self-righteous, believing it was only adults of resisted change. Then, into the midst of my church world, came some recommended changes in the way we did things in our M.Y.F. I was a leader of the pack in saying no to the suggested changes -- even though they had a certain merit. My reason was, we liked the way we had always done it. It was what we were accustomed to. Who knows what dire results might happen if we changed things in our M.Y.F. It was then, someone laughing, pointed to the painful truth that I was just resistant to change as the adults I had complained about. Change always seems good and welcome when it is other people who have to do the changing. But changing what we are accustomed to, changing what is comfortably familiar is not easy for any us human critters. We humans prefer to stay in our comfort zones. One of the major themes in the Bible is the theme of change. Sometimes change is called repentance -- the changing of our behavior from doing only what we want to striving to do what God wants. Changing our usual way of behaving is not easy. Sometimes change in the Bible is called conversion -- the changing of our priorities, the changing of what we really worship. Changing from being self-centered in our living to having our living centered in Christ. Conversion of opinion may come relatively easy; but conversion of habits of living does not. Sometimes the change presented in the Bible is like the change illustrated in the passage we read from Genesis. Abraham became aware he was to do something very different with his life. He and Sarah were to leave all that was familiar and trust God to lead them to a new place in life, a promised land; and if they did take their lives the direction God wanted, they would be given a future (that is, more descendents than they could count) and their lives would really make a difference (their having lived would be a blessing to all the nations.) But Abraham and Sarah would have to leave their old life behind, and move out in a new direction -- the direction God intended them to go. It is not easy to leave the familiar behind and go in a new direction in our living. The verses we read from Acts, point toward another type of change. Those verses are the climax of a longer story. A Roman army officer named Cornelius who was stationed in Caesarea had become what was then called "a God-fearer." That is, he was a Gentile who had been led to God through the Jewish faith, but he had not become a Jew because he baulked at circumcision or at dietary laws or at both. We are told Cornelius and his family were devout; they were very generous in giving money to help those in need, and they prayed constantly to God. One day, Cornelius had a vision in which he was told to send for Peter who was in Joppa, and so he did. While the messengers were on their way, Peter also had a vision or dream. A sheet was lowered from heaven and on it were all sorts of animals, reptiles and birds that were forbidden by Jewish dietary laws. God said to Peter: "Rise, kill and eat." But Peter refused because according to Jewish law these creatures were unclean. Then God said to Peter: "What God has cleansed, you must not call common or unclean." This vision was repeated three times. When the messengers from Cornelius arrived with their invitation for Peter, a Jew, to come visit and teach a bunch of Gentiles, Peter agreed to go with them. Undoubtedly the words God spoke in the vision were still ringing in his ears: "What God has cleansed, you dare not call or treat as unclean." Peter went; he preached; and the response of the Cornelius, his family and friends was such, that Peter and the other Jews who went with him were convinced the Holy Spirit was at work among them. And so, Peter baptized these Gentiles into the church which, up to that time, had no Gentile members. The great change illustrated in this story is not the change in the life of Cornelius, his family and friends who were baptized. The great change was in Peter and his friends in their willingness to accept and welcome Gentiles into the church -- Gentiles who did not follow all of the religious rules of the Jews. Much of the remainder of the Book of Acts reveals, this change was not an easy one for the early church to accept. Whether the change has to do with changing our view of ourselves, changing our view of others, changing our habits of behavior, or changing established traditions -- real change, more often than not, is uncomfortable. Real change moves us outside and beyond our familiar comfort zones. Across the centuries, we who call ourselves Christians have been called pilgrims, wayfarers. We are always on the move. We sing "We are climbing Jacob's ladder." We are not meant to become stationary but to continue climbing. We sing: "I am a poor wayfaring stranger." We are not settlers who nest in one place. We are on a faith journey through life. We sing: "We're marching to Zion." We are moving through life; we are continually marching, "marching to Zion" as the song declares. We talk about following Jesus. Jesus is moving on through life, and we are to move on following him. The Gospel is not a blessing of where we are as much as the Gospel is a calling, beckoning us to beyond where we are, to move on with our living, and to keep moving in the direction Christ intends us to go. We have just completed a significant expansion of our church facilities. But we have not arrived. We are still on our faith journey, following Christ. We have merely added tools to help us continue moving on. As illustrated in the story of Abraham and in the story of Peter, God is always moving us on. The way it was 10 years ago, 10 weeks ago, even 10 minutes ago, is not the way it is to be. God is continually offering us new life -- calling us to move beyond our comfort zone again and again and again. God, help us have such faith, such confident trust in you that we are willing to move on with our lives, going the direction you intend us to go. Amen. Pastoral prayer: Let us thank God for our blessings. God, on this Memorial Day weekend we remember those men and women who died serving this nation. And we also pay tribute to those who are yet alive but carry physical and emotional scars of battle. We also remember the burden their sacrifice has placed on members of their families. Today we pray for all these women and men and their families. Give them comfort, strength and healing of body and soul. We also pray for all those who continue to be willing to go in harms way on our behalf. Enable them to be sensitive to your presence. Grant them the faith needed to draw upon all the resources your grace has to offer as they face what they alone must face. And God, we pray for our President and his advisors. Help them be open to your guidance so that they will make wise decisions. Teach our leaders and the leaders of all nations how to solve conflicts without the use of military force. Rescue the leaders of all nations from the illusion that revenge is way to lasting peace. Show them how to put into action, your justice and your mercy. Show them the way to peace with justice. All this we pray in the name of the Prince of Peace who taught us to pray: "Our Father ...."
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