Dr. Dale Miller, October 22, 2006

Increase the Ownership

Third in a five-part series on taking our church to the next level

John 10:7-18

Wow! The Detroit Tigers are in the Major League Baseball World Series. They swept the Oakland Athletics four straight games to become the 2006 American League Champion. Comerica Park is selling out; the fans are enthusiastic and it is estimated that the businesses and the city will profit $9 million for every game played in Detroit. Amazing, simply amazing.

On Friday, Susan and I were out shopping. Almost every store has Tiger souvenirs and shirts for sale. Susan reached for a t-shirt that she liked and then turned to me and said, "Do you want one, too?" I surprised her by saying, "No." I surprised myself as well. In all honesty, I found myself thinking, "I wouldn't be caught dead in a Tiger t-shirt for the last two decades, so with any personal integrity how could I wear one now?" After all, I have only attended two Tiger ball games in the last three years and although I thoroughly enjoyed myself, I only went because I like baseball and the tickets were a gift.

In my funny, little brain it seemed to me that if I could not claim any ownership in all of the Tiger's bad years, then it wasn't right for me to claim any ownership in their best year. I'm sure that I am over thinking this. After all, it is just a baseball team, although it is a very good baseball team and soon they will be World Champions. All of this nonsense started me thinking about ownership.

What is ownership? There is a story of a man who walked a tightrope across Niagara Falls. He walked back and forth, each time carrying something a little heavier with him. Each time he would ask the crowd, "Do you think I can get over and back carrying this heavy object?" They would shout out their answers, "Yes" or "No." Then the guy pulls up a wheelbarrow and asks the throng, "Do you think I can push this wheelbarrow over and back?" Again they respond, "Yes" or "No." Now during this whole time there is one man in the crowd who is an enthusiastic supporter of the tightrope walker. He is always shouting, "Yes, you can do it!" The guy in the crowd gets more and more excited with each passing trip on the tightrope.

Finally, the walker asks if the crowd thinks he can push a person in the wheelbarrow over and back. The man in the crowd shouts out the same answer as each time before, "Yes, you can do it!" The tightrope walker looks at him and asks, "Will you be that person?" The man quickly lowers his head, turns around and walks away. Apparently, the man had no ownership in any exciting possibility if he had to risk something personally, namely, his life.

In the 10th chapter of the Gospel of John Jesus is on his way to the cross and is speaking to his disciples, trying to prepare them for what is to come, trying to prepare them to take up the torch of his ministry after the Crucifixion and Resurrection. And he says: "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away - and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd…and I lay down my life for the sheep" (verses 11-15).

The hired hand is indifferent; the hired hand couldn't care less; the hired hand thinks only of his self-interest; the hired hand runs away when the wolf comes to threaten the flock (or when his baseball team loses 119 games!). But the good shepherd lays his life on the line for the flock. Why? The hired hand doesn't own the sheep; the good shepherd is acutely aware of his ownership.
Ownership is important. For Jesus, ownership is not possessing something arrogantly, or hoarding something selfishly, or grabbing something greedily. Ownership involves responsibility, passion and commitment.

An architect drove to the construction site where his drawing was becoming a reality. He walked up to one of the workers and asked, "What are you making?" The worker replied, "Twenty-five dollars an hour." The architect then walked over to another and asked the same question, "What are you making?" The worked replied, "Twenty-five dollars an hour." He then spotted another worker who was really into the work. The architect asked yet again, "What are you making?" The worker responded, "A cathedral!"

The last worker felt a sense of commitment, passion and responsibility. He had stock in what he was doing, pride in it, and a sense of mission. This man was committed to a dream. He was building a cathedral! He had ownership in it - a sense of mission and purpose.

What if every person at Nardin Park felt a keen sense of commitment to and responsibility for the ministry of the church? What would that do to this church? What would that do to the world? That is what happened at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit came, and the disciples said, "Hey! We've got to do this!" They took the ministry of Jesus Christ and turned the world upside down.

When we become a part of the Nardin Park faith community we can no longer refer to it as "they." It is now "we." We are all in this together. It is our church to share. That is why we are having a "Ministry Fair" today following the worship service. See what your church is doing in the name of Jesus Christ. How are you going to claim your ownership of this Body of Christ?

We are the people of God, the community of God. We are the ones who carry the faith. We are the ones who make it alive, believable, and real. I am deeply appreciative of the comments that I have been receiving on this current sermon series, "Taking our Church to the Next Level." But guess what? Sermons are never preached until the people preach them with their lives.

There is one thing that strikes me as I think about our claiming ownership of our faith and our church. We cannot claim ownership until we allow God to claim ownership of us. The big question is, "Will we let God have ownership of our lives?"

In the Book of Psalms it is written, "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it." (Psalms 24:1) and it is also written, "For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand" (Psalms 95:7).

We belong to God. Jesus seeks to redeem us from ourselves. If we would look up the word redeem in Webster's dictionary, we would find - "Redeem: to regain possession of." The hired hand loved only himself, and he deserted the flock, but the Good Shepherd so loved all the sheep that he put his life on the line for them. That is the good news of our faith. We belong to God, and God will never desert us, no matter what!

When we understand and accept God's ownership then our ability to climb into the wheelbarrow and claim ownership of our faith becomes easier. What we also discover is the more we claim our ownership, the more we live into the ownership of God over our lives. In other words, the more we serve, the more we receive.

In connecting and working with other people through ministry and service, we break out of the awful prison of loneliness. Working together, in ministry to others, is a God-powered artesian energy bubbling up within us. If we cap that well, we begin to die of emotional thirst.

That truth is at the core of what Jesus meant when he said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). His list of beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-11) affirms the same principle. Giving, not getting (and certainly not taking) brings a state of blessed meaning to our lives.

Allow me to suggest three questions we might ask ourselves to check to see if we are allowing God to claim ownership over our lives and if we are claiming ownership of our faith.

1. Is our ownership of faith a service to Christ, or is it a service to our own self-satisfaction?

If we claim only enough ownership for self-satisfaction, our faith lacks stamina. Without a high commitment to a cause higher than ourselves, we are inclined to go home for a nap when the invitation to ride in the wheelbarrow comes around.

2. Is our ownership of faith action oriented or merely public image oriented?

Someone asked a farmer how his wheat crop was looking. "They look good," responded the farmer. "The stalks are tall and thick and they look good. But the heads are small, the grains in them are scrawny, and the yield will be low." This farmer was in the wheat business, not the wheat stalk business. He could not take a good-looking stalk to the bank; he could only take the wheat head.

Because we wish others to think well of us, we are prone to substitute image for action. But fruit is the objective of our ownership of faith, not recognition. The ultimate aim of Christian life is not to look good but to do good. God calls us to serve, not just to shine.

3. Is our ownership of faith sufficient to counterbalance our natural tendency toward self-interest and getting?

Recently in a Gallup poll the majority of college students said they picked their major based on how marketable it would make them upon graduation. This is a subtle change over the last thirty years when the majority of college students use to say they were getting a higher education in order to be able to make more money. Now they are just hoping to make some kind of money. Money still seems to be the objective.

Yet the percentage of adults in the United States who contribute money and volunteer hours to humanitarian efforts has almost doubled in the last twenty-five years. Somehow, people are coming to understand that life, in order to have full meaning, must have a higher motive than getting.

Life has far greater possibilities than merely being alive, loving our families, doing our work, and enjoying our leisure. Life has a spiritual dimension, which Jesus called the Kingdom of God. When we claim the ownership of our faith, we reach out in service to others and find that life overflows with meaning. When we do not enter it, we find that meaning drains away through the holes in our self-serving.

Mention the word stewardship and people think of money. The discussion usually turns to matters such as tithing, pledging to the church, and "how much is enough?" Years of using the word stewardship in a limited way naturally leads us toward defining religious selfishness as not contributing enough money to the church. When Jesus speaks of self-giving, he is talking about much more than money. For Jesus, stewardship involves the way we spend ten-tenths of our life, not just one-tenth.

One of the first "dates" I had with Susan was to take a walk with her in her neighborhood. The walk took us through a cemetery that included a section of old tombstones dating back to the Civil War. This was not exactly my idea of romance. On the tombstones we could see their names followed by the words "Born 1832 - Died 1885."

Have we ever stopped to think how much the little dash between the dates means? There is an entire life wrapped up in one little straight line between two numbers. It is in that dash where we claim ownership of our faith. When we look at our life dash, what do we see? What do we want to see? Can you we see a wheelbarrow? Are we ready to go with God on a tightrope, claiming ownership of our faith and allowing God to claim ownership of us?

I believe that if Nardin Park is not a better place because of us, then we have let down Jesus Christ. If our community is not a better place because of us, then we have let down Jesus Christ. If our world is not a better place because of us, then we have let down Jesus Christ.

Jesus called his twelve disciples together, filled them with his power and his love not simply for their own personal inspiration but to send them out to transform the lives of those around them. Christ still calls us together, and fills us full to overflowing with his power and his love, not so that we can boast of his presence in our lives, but so that he can use us in the transformation of the world. Amen? Amen!

I believe that every person here has been given a gift and a passion by God to be a transforming presence in this community. I believe that each and every one of you is willing to get into the wheelbarrow. As you can see, here is the wheelbarrow. In your worship bulletin there is something called a "Time and Talent Survey." I'm going to wheel this wheelbarrow out to Mercer Hall and I invite you to fill out your Survey and to place it in the wheelbarrow. Make a dash to claim your ownership!

Go Tigers! Go God!