About these Pediatric Prisons of ours…

Posted on July 5, 2019 by patrick h wrisley

July 4, 2019

The Honorable Marco Rubio

284 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Rick Scott 716 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senators Rubio and Scott:

I am compelled to write you both this Independence Day because of the sadness I feel for our country and its behavior expressed to “the other” in our communities. Specifically, I am distressed with our nation’s treatment of migrant children as they are separated from parents and families to be located into “detention centers” throughout our country. Alas, let us call those “detention centers” for what they are: Pediatric prisons. 

The only crime these children are guilty of is following their parents’ instructions to cross our country’s border; for their dream, “these huddled masses yearning to be free,” they were jailed. The treatment  and living conditions of these children and their parents is inhumane according to any standard; would you sit quietly if your children were pulled from you as you crossed into Mexico and they were placed in euphemistic “detention centers” and treated as we are treating our neighbors from the 2/3 World in Homestead, Florida?

I humbly urge you to please lead our nation at a time when it needs leadership.  Please have the testicular fortitude to stand up, voice and vote with justice on matters like the migrant issue. No, our President may not appreciate it but at least you will rise above the fray and show yourselves to be the leaders you are capable of becoming in leading our nation out this political morass. 

Please know I pray for each of you and your families for wisdom, strength and courage.  I am

Sincerely yours,

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.

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Thank a Presbyterian

Posted on July 4, 2019 by patrick h wrisley

This Fourth of July, realize the influence of faith on our freedoms! See https://gentlereformation.com/2019/07/02/enjoy-your-freedom-thank-a-presbyterian/

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Sharing the Story (Evangelism): We begin right where we are!, Luke 8.26-39

Posted on July 3, 2019 by patrick h wrisley

Sermon:        Sharing the Story: We Begin Right Where We Are!
Scripture:     Luke 8:26-39
Preacher:      Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:      First Pres Fort Lauderdale
Date:             June 23, 2019

Jesus is on the move and is stirring things up as he goes. He has been teaching, healing, casting out and traveling all over Galilee.  Today we find Jesus and the disciples on the far eastern side of the Sea of Galilee where the modern Golan Heights are today. Listen to the Word of the Lord!

Luke 8:26-39

26 Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes which is opposite Galilee. 27 As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”— 29 for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. 31 They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

32 Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demonsbegged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

34 When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenesasked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesussent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.[1]

Our Story in Luke is one of the longest single stories in the Gospel. In it, Jesus boldly goes to a place no upstanding Jewish man would ever go! The King James version translates verse 26 as, “Jesus went to the Gerasenes which is over and against the Galilee.”  The point is made:  This is spiritually and culturally polluted Gentile territory. For a good upstanding Jew, there would need to be a very strong reason for you to even go there in the first place.  Why is Jesus even going there in the first place?  The placement of our Story speaks a lot to that issue.

In Luke 8, Jesus has thus far told the parable of a farmer who goes out to sow some seed. Some fell on the path and got trampled down.  Some seed landed on rock but was not able to sustain itself because it could not put down deep roots. Some of the farmer’s seed landed in the thorns and brambles where it could not grow because it was choked out. Yet, some seed falls on good soil where it grows and multiplies a hundredfold. Frankly, in Luke’s Story thus far, Jesus the Sower of the seed has been sowing the Good News of God pretty liberally up to this point but the peoples’ response has been to trample on it, to not stick with it long enough to let the roots of faith grow deep, or the religious officials and those in power have tried to choke Jesus’ message because it challenged the spiritual, economic and political systems. So, Jesus takes a boat ride whereupon you and I are introduced to a foil in the narrative – the water. The water, the abyss, was a scary place for the ancients. Nothing could tame the power of the waves and the water, the very elements of creation but God himself.

So, while on the boat, Jesus falls asleep and a horrible storm blows up and nearly swamps the boat with Jesus and all the disciples. Jesus appears to be sleeping at the wheel and the disciples are getting all frothed up like the storm and wake Jesus up with the news they’re about to perish. Jesus rebukes the wind, the rain, and the sea and everything goes quiet. The disciples are in awe because they realize Jesus has just done what only God can do and that is to bring order to the chaotic waters. “Even the winds and the water obey him!” they mutter (v. 25).  Soon thereafter, Jesus and the others land on the other side of the Sea of Galilee and step out into another country, a country which Luke goes out of the way to describe in very unappealing ways; the grand irony is, however, that this is the unexpected place where the seed the sower throws out lands in good soil and grows.

Jesus and the others land, not at a lovely ship terminal but at a place where the Chamber of Commerce would rather you not see and experience.  It is the one place in the community people only go to if they absolutely must – the cemetery and tombs.  If you were a spiritually and ceremonially clean Jewish person, you stayed away from all the dead people.

Not only that, the community’s welcoming committee is not a delegation from the likes of the Fort Lauderdale government and Las Olas planning commission, Jesus and his companions are met by the town’s naked, homeless, dirty, unkempt and out of control wild man who spits, yells and attacks people. We  discover that Jesus is met by a guy that has hit as rock bottom as a person can get and who is possessed by a legion of demons and evil spirits. And here is the kicker of the Story!

It is this foreigner, the town’s outcast, it is the community of demons who rightly identify who Jesus is when members of his own Jewish community and establishment cannot. The anti-Jesus immediately recognizes the Son of God in their midst as soon as Jesus demands Legion to leave the poor man. They plead with Jesus not to send them into the watery abyss (for the demons feared the chaos waters of the lake as much as the disciples did) and so Jesus allows them to enter a herd of pigs. Unfortunately, the pigs, being pigs, ran down the bank immediately into the water and drown, killing all the demons with them.

Now the scene slows down and narrows.  It’s Jesus, the disciples and the naked guy who is sitting calmly now in his right mind. Can you think of what was going on in his mind? Can you place yourself into his shoes and just imagine what he is feeling? Thinking? Understanding?  But the healed man’s moment only lasts  briefly because the pig farmers have just seen their livelihood get wiped out. People from the nearby towns hear of this Jesus, this economic killjoy and demand he get the heck out of there!

Never mind the miracle that has just been wrought. Never mind this possessed, ill, naked homeless guy is now healed and whole and can rejoin the community again. Jesus disrupted their economic way of life and they wanted him to immediately leave; nothing else mattered.  So, Jesus obliges.

It’s right at this point, beloved, this Story becomes our Story – the Story of your personal life as well as the Story of this church. The healed man begs to go with Jesus as Jesus gets into the boat. He wants to go with Jesus, to continue hanging around with the One who brought him back to health, who restored him to his people and society again. He pleaded to go with Jesus to the other side but Jesus says, “no.”

Jesus had his work to accomplish and he reminded the healed man he himself had work to do as well. Jesus gives him his evangelistic mandate and marching orders: Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you. Go back to the people you know, your people, and let them see how God has cared even for you, the pariah Gentile who was no good for anybody but who proved to be of great value and concern to God nevertheless.

This Story becomes our Story because we learn that we each have a Story from our life whereupon God in Christ brought us wholeness and helped us reestablish relationship with God, our self, and with others. God is not asking each of us to leave what we are doing and travel to foreign street corners and convert people to follow Christ. Far from it! Remember the lesson from our healed man in scripture today.

He’s to go back home to the people he knows.

He is told to simply tell them what God has done for him. He is not to convert, cajole or convince. He is simply asked to recognize what God has done in his personal life and share that with others. He did not tell others what Jesus could do for them in their lives; the healed man was given the directions to only share what Jesus has done for him personally.  Period. The healed man’s Story and proof of a restored life was all that was necessary. God would do the rest.

Why do we think evangelism is so hard? Our Story today tells us what that scary word evangelism is: It’s to tell our story of  what God has done for us to people we are familiar with in our everyday life here in Broward County. It’s to let the tone and tenor of our transformed life in Jesus show others that we are a different type of person because of our encounter with Jesus.  Why is that so hard?  Why isn’t this church, any church, bursting at the seams clamoring with people who want to praise God with their Story?

Well I suppose, it can mean one of two things.  First, we don’t know our personal Story of healing and restoration to God in Christ. Second, we know our life transforming Story in Jesus but we are not sharing it. People are not seeing in you and me, in our churches, a winsome, refreshing, healing presence of lives transformed by Christ; people instead see American churches as places of stuffy and stiff people, a place of shame, guilt and judgement in lieu of places of grace.

The late Archbishop Oscar Romero preached, “God’s best microphone is Christ, and Christ’s best microphone is the church, and the church is all of you.  Let each one of you, in your own job, in your own vocation, married person (or single)…priest, (elder or deacon), high school or university student, day laborer, wage earner, business woman – each one in your own place live the faith intensely and feel that in your surroundings you are a true microphone of God our Lord.”[2]

Beloved, let this Church, let each of us, be that microphone that shares the love of God demonstrated and proven in each of our lives. Evangelism is not rocket-science my friends.  Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Pres Fort Lauderdale
401 SE 15thAvenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 3330
Wrisley@outlook.com

© 2019 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1]The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2]Oscar Romero, The Violence of Love. Compiled and translated by James R. Brockman, S.J. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988), 187.

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What really guides us? Truth or Truthiness?, John 16.12-15

Posted on July 3, 2019 by patrick h wrisley

Sermon:           What really guides us? Truth or Truthiness?
Scripture:         John 16:12-15
Preacher:         Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:         First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Date:                 June 16, 2019, Trinity Sunday

Last week we celebrated Pentecost, the birthday of the Church when God breathed the Holy Spirit upon the disciples gathered in Jerusalem. We noted how the Spirit was not given for the sole purpose of exalting any one person but was given to the entire community for the purpose of declaring through Word and deed the mighty acts of God.  As the Spirit distinctly gifts each member of the Church with a gift or charism, those individual gifts are to be woven together into a beautiful tapestry for everyone’s benefit. Whereas last week we looked at the Holy Spirit, this week in the church calendar is the day we pause and look at the Spirit in relationship to the full Trinity of God.  Today is called Trinity Sunday.

The Trinity is one of the most difficult concepts for all people to grasp. Like the Jews, we believe there is one God and yet we believe this one God has three distinct characteristics that manifest themselves uniquely. The main thing to remember is that the three persons of God – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – are each involved in the biblical  Creation and salvation Story.

In our text today, we find Jesus and the disciples in an extended scene that runs from John 13 to John 17. The author, John, gives twenty-percent of his entire Gospel narrative over to this one scene with Jesus and the disciples in the Upper Room the night before he dies. In other words, when a writer slows down the action in his or her story, they want us to slow down and pay attention to what is going on in the Story.

In this scene, Jesus has washed the disciples’ feet, he has reinterpreted the Passover Seder into what we call the Lord’s Supper, but he spends a lot of time explaining to them what is about to happen and they are not to be scared.  He tells them he is leaving them and this causes incredible grief among the disciples.

We each know the pain of loss that comes our way when those we deeply love go away. Whether through school, job relocation, illness or even death, the sense of emptiness a person feels can be tremendous; indeed, their very physical absence leaves a very tangible presence of loss in our lives.

The disciples knew something was up with Jesus but they were not entirely sure what “it” was; they simply knew Jesus was leaving them and that they would feel alone.  It’s in the midst of this conversation Jesus speaks words of assurance and comfort. He is telling his friends that though he will no longer be physically present, he will be with them in another dynamic, time-less way: through the Presence of the Advocate, the Counselor, or Holy Spirit. This is where we are picking up in the Story. Listen to the Word of the Lord.

John 16:12-15

12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.[1]

Jesus is giving us a wonderful example of how you do pastoral care with others. He knows that he has to shape his words to the disciples in such a way they can hear what he is saying and understand. He is mindful that he cannot dump everything they need to know out at once; that would be overwhelming to them. A person can only bear so much hard information at one time he tells them. To ‘bear’ something means to be able to carry it, look at it, process it and make sense of it. Jesus knows that nothing that is about to happen will make sense to his beloved; they just will not get it. So, he tells them what they can handle. He tells them, “Yes, I am leaving, BUT, I am not leaving you alone orphaned, unexposed and uncared for in this world.” It’s at this point Jesus uses a phrase that is not used elsewhere in the Gospels. He reminds them of the coming of the Spirit of truth.

The Spirit of Truth. We might think he would encourage them by saying he’s going to send the Spirit of Gentle Hugs and Encouragement or something along those lines but he does not.  He is going to send the Spirit of Truth. I’m not sure I would want the Spirit of Truth.  Jesus is talking wild stuff about leaving and death.  The crowds and leaders are getting antsy and belligerent. You go outside and you really don’t know who you can trust anymore. I don’t want truth to make me feel better; I want to feel loved and cared for by God. I want the equivalent of a heaven-sent My Little Pony Unicorn from heaven that I can hug on and love and stroke its mane to feel better. I want to be able to rub the unicorn’s horn and make wishes that will make me feel good. After all, I’m scared. You’re scared. My Little Pony Unicorn will make us feel better.

But we are not promised that.  Jesus promises us the Spirit of Truth. I only wished it sounded more comforting and cozier. “The Spirit of Truth?” we say. Frankly, it doesn’t feel all warm and fuzzy to me.  I want My Little Unicorn Pony and a blanket and Jesus promises the Spirit of Truth instead. Really?

Yes. Really. Jesus knows what he is doing. He knows that when a person is depressed, sad, and confused, they will be suckers to fall for all types of manipulation and lies.  In their places of spiritual and emotional vulnerability, people are apt to give up what they hold dear and grasp at anything that promises to bring comfort or consolation.  Jesus knows this and that’s why he spends so much time in these five chapters of John reminding his disciples that the Holy Spirit of Truth will come to guide them through the minefields, listen to the whispers of God and speak them with the disciples, will declare truth about the Way of Jesus and will glorify God in the process.

If we remember our Story correctly, we know that when Jesus is crucified and buried, the disciples did not know what to make of it all and they went into hiding for fear of persecution. Jesus knew this would happen. He knew it was  vital for them to remember his words and to remember his teachings correctly. Jesus knew that in the midst of their spiritual, physical and emotional vulnerability the disciples would be easy prey for those who fabricated lies or twisted the truth about him and the events of his ministry.  The disciples didn’t need a cozy, bright heavenly My Little Pony; the disciples, the Church, needed a Spirit of Truth that would speak clearly in an emotionally and spiritually swirly time.

Early this morning, Betty Grant was driving south on I-95 near Oakland Park when she was involved in a crash that flipped her care upside down and it was engulfed in flames. Two men observed what was going on and were confronted with a dilemma: Should they stand there bemoaning the fact the car was flipped over and on fire, feeling sorry for the person trapped inside saying to each, “What a shame”; or, do they assess the truth of the scene and respond? They assessed the truth and responded and Betty Grant’s life is saved because they responded to the truth of the dire situation![2]

Like the first disciples, we need the Spirit of Truth in our physically, spiritually, and emotionally swirly world. We desperately need to know what Truth is and how to see it and know it when we experience it. Sadly, today, our culture and nation is more apt to believe in truthiness instead of truth. Dictionary.com defines truthiness as a belief or assertion that a particular statement is true based, not on facts but on the intuition or perceptions of some individual without regard for evidence, logic or intellectual examination.[3]It was a word coined by late-night talk show host, Stephen Colbert, as he discussed how politicians will often spin facts to make themselves look better than they really are. Truthiness is killing this nation, beloved, not just from our politicians but from our educational systems to churches and synagogues as well. How do we stem the tide?

Well, beloved, we remember that Jesus refers to himself as the Way and the Truth and the Life (Jn 14.6). He is the one who defines what truth is for Christ-Followers. Jesus’ words, actions, and ministry define what truth is. How? Dr. Eugene Bay says, truth “corresponds morally and ethically with (who and what) Jesus (is), cares about the things Jesus cares about, and carries out the kind of ministry that reflects Jesus’ ministry (among the people he lived with).[4] Jesus is the norming norm. Jesus’ morals, ethics, passions for life and people and how we are to love God and one another is the ruler by which we measure truth. Truth is not measured by our individual opinions, political, economic, or spiritual beliefs; truth is measured against Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, by how he lived among all types of disparate broken people, by how he defined neighbor beyond the cultural norms, and how he loved the blessed and the biased, the sinner and the saint and invited them all into the realm of the Almighty.

That’s the truth I want to live in and experience.  How about you?

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Presbyterian Church
401 SE 15thAvenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

© 2019 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1]New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2]Andrew Dymburt, https://wsvn.com/news/local/good-samaritans-come-to-womans-rescue-after-i-95-crash-in-fort-lauderdale/. Accessed 6/16/19.

[3]See https://wsvn.com/news/local/good-samaritans-come-to-womans-rescue-after-i-95-crash-in-fort-lauderdale/. Accessed on 6/15/19.

[4]Bartlett, David L.; Barbara Brown Taylor. Feasting on the Word: Year C, Volume 3: Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1(Propers 3-16) (Kindle Locations 1776-1778). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.

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Pentecost: Why does this church exist?, Acts 2.1-15

Posted on July 3, 2019 by patrick h wrisley

Sermon:           Why does this church exist?
Scripture:        Acts 2.1-15
Preacher:         Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Location:         First Pres Fort Lauderdale
Date:               June 9, 2019, Pentecost

Today is the Church’s birthday; not our particular church mind you but the Church of Jesus Christ throughout the world. Pentecost is the day we pause to remember how and when the Church came into being; it’s also a day we learn to see why it even exists.

The resurrected Jesus has ascended and returned to the Father’s side in heaven; so as not to leave us alone, Jesus sends his holy breath, the very Spirit of God present during Creation of the cosmos and the world. The Spirit is not just given to individual people but is first given to the whole community of gathered disciples in the church. The Spirit gives Church it meaning, purpose, and power.  Listen to our Story in Acts 2; I’ll be reading from The Message version of scripture. Hear the Word of the Lord!

Acts 2.1-15

2.1-4 When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.

5-11 There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were thunderstruck. They couldn’t for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, “Aren’t these all Galileans? How come we’re hearing them talk in our various mother tongues?

Parthians, Medes, and Elamites;
Visitors from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene;
Immigrants from Rome, both Jews and proselytes;
Even Cretans and Arabs!

“They’re speaking our languages, describing God’s mighty works!”

12 Their heads were spinning; they couldn’t make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused: “What’s going on here?”

13 Others joked, “They’re drunk on cheap wine.”

14-15 That’s when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency: “Fellow Jews, all of you who are visiting Jerusalem, listen carefully and get this story straight. These people aren’t drunk as some of you suspect. They haven’t had time to get drunk—it’s only nine o’clock in the morning. [1]

We find a group of disciples gathered together during the Jewish Festival of Pentecost which occurs from fifty days after Passover. It was one of the major Jewish festivals during the year and good observant Jews made the effort to go to Jerusalem to celebrate. Our text indicates the Jews gathered in Jerusalem came from all the known major parts of the world from the north, east, south, and west. Jesus’ disciples were there as well. Though all were Jews, they came bearing the cultural reflections of the place they came from; i.e. Jews coming Italy will have speak in their language as those who came from modern day Iran would speak with a different language.

Add to this international group our band of Jesus’ disciples from Galilee.  They are a group of what we would call simple country folk who worked the land or their first century blue collar job. They were good people, strong people but perhaps not the best or well-educated folks in the city at the time.  Think of it like going to Disney during Christmas break. You’ve got people from Hong Kong, Tokyo, Moscow, Rome, Egypt, London, Toronto, Brazil and then there’s this group of Clewiston, Florida.  The disciples were from Galilee, a Clewiston of sorts of the first century.

I bring this all up because we often misunderstand what happened on that first Pentecost. We hear this text and we are tempted to think the first disciples began to talk in what our Pentecostal friends describe as ‘tongues’ – an ecstatic unrecognizable form of speech but this was not the case at all.  Our scripture tells us that in effect, the gathered church composed of folks from the backwater town Clewiston, i.e. Galilee, began to declare the mighty works of God in other people’s languages like Italian, Egyptian, Asian or Arabic. Our text says the disciples began to speak in the specific languages and dialects of those guests who were visiting Jerusalem at the time from all over the known world. Those first disciples were not speaking gibberish; they were describing what God has done and is doing in ways those in the culture could hear and understand.

The result from culture was at first total shock and bewilderment! Aren’t these guys and gals from Clewiston? How is it they are speaking perfect French, Italian and Arabic?  This doesn’t make sense!  Surely they’ve been hitting the sauce a bit early and are drunk!  There is no other way to explain this! Peter finally speaks up and declares, “It’s not yet time for the 9:30 service; these people are not drunk on cheap wine but are full of the words of God that seem amazing to you!”  Peter reminds them in verses 14 and 15, “Y’all listen carefully and get the story straight!”

Did you hear that? Peter tells them, he’s telling you and me, “Y’all listen carefully and get the story straight.” So do we hear it? Do we get it?

Beloved, Pentecost, the Church’s birthday, commemorates the moment in time when God instigates the birth of the Church.  In a culture today that ignores the Church and its importance, in a culture today that if a person goes to church once a month and they considerate that faithful church attendance and service to God, we may be in real danger of missing the point of Church and why Pentecost is so important. Sporting events, beach trips, fishing trips or yard work take precedence over gathering in community to worship and serve God these days. America’s churches are dying because Christians have lost the understanding of what Church is about and what it’s for in the first place.  “I don’t need the Church to have a relationship with God; I can do that by myself.” I hear that all the time and then am reminded why our world is as whacky as it is! How dare I say that, you think? You bet! The Church was birthed by God to bring life to a community, to a social structure, and a movement that seeks to tell others through word and deed about God’s mighty works in our collective life! It’s not solely about what God has done or is doing for ‘me’ but it’s about how the Spirit of God brings to life all our collective ‘selfs’ and weaves them into a powerful source of cultural leverage and community influence in the world through the power of the Church. Facebook and Instagram are just two examples of how we are making the story about ‘me’ as opposed to ‘us.’  It’s hard to change the world when we are snapping pictures of ourselves and stepping over those ignored or abused in our culture.

Beloved, why does the Church of Jesus Christ exist? Why did God breathe it into existence in the first place? God created the Church to be the living community of God in the world calling for and effecting grace, justice and humility for others.  The Church exists to declare the mighty acts of God in our world in ways that our culture can hear and understand; the church exists when you and I join our individual spiritual giftedness for the mutual benefit for those around us. I will go so far as to say that for most American churches, we have lost our identity because it has been subsumed into the identity of the larger culture.

We have confused meaningful worship for Christotainment, and friends, let’s not forget that it can happen in both traditional and contemporary worship settings.  We have confused Church growth with the size of church membership and budgets instead of the community’s commitment to grow in their knowledge of meaningful biblical study that is transformed into dynamic Christian service in the world.  We have confused faithfulness to God with political affiliations and nationalism. It’s time for the Church to reclaim her identity given to her at her birth!

First, it’s an identity rooted and grounded in God first.

Second, it is an identity that shares the mighty works of God in a way that makes the world around us sit up and notice something is going on.

Third, it is an identity that takes on the characteristics of the Holy Spirit which is life-giving, unifying, wild, unpredictable and flipping status quo on its head while it lives out of a love for others that is intentional, willful, inconvenient, and Jesus-centered.  It is a church who wraps it identity up in learning new cultural dialects in order to better speak and serve in a fast changing world.  It’s a Church whose identity is not wrapped up in doing the things we have always done it but is searching for ways to get off the seat and out onto the streets!

Friends, what the identity of this Church, First Pres in Fort Lauderdale? Is our identity wrapped up in the perceived glory days of the past?  Is our identity wrapped up in our buildings or property? Is our identity wrapped up in our worship and music ministries?  Is our identity wrapped up in our pastors or leadership? God-forbid, no.

The last few months the Session has been wrestling with our church’s identity because it realizes our identity shapes who we are and what we will end up doing in the world. The Session wants this church to be known in the community for three spiritually driven personality traits. Called by God, we share the Good news, are an inspiring Christ-centered presence in this community, and we are about transforming our local community and beyond for Christ.

When I first moved here some 16 months ago, I would walk around the community and ask people, “What do you know about First Presbyterian?”  Let me break it to you that what I heard was that we are known for putting on the big Christmas pageant with camels and all each year (no, that’s First Baptist) or for our preschool. It simply tells me we have some work to do. So the Session outlined for us this Spring what it hopes people will know us as from now on as we seek to develop our personality in this new swirly world.  It’s printed in your bulleting and I want us to say what our identity is together.  Five years from now when you and I walk around the town and ask people on the street, “What can you tell me about First Presbyterian Church?,” we will hear them say:

First Pres is a church called by God to SHARE the Good News, to be an INSPIRING Christ-centered presence in Fort Lauderdale by TRANSFORMING our local community and beyond

This is the identity given to the church at Pentecost centuries ago; it’s an identity we need to re-embrace. Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
First Pres Fort Lauderdale
401 SE 15thAvenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
Wrisley@outlook.com

© 2019 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1]The Message (MSG)Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

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