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I’LL FLY AWAY
Reverend Kip
R. Gilts
Matthew 25:1-46
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It’s hard to believe that
it is almost over. June and July seemed to fly by so quickly and as for
August, we just turned the page on the calendar and now on Tuesday it’s
all over. Of course, I’m talking about our summer sermon series, “We
Believe”. Some of you look surprised. What were you expecting me to talk
about - the school year? It is true that they both come to an end this
week. To all you despairing teachers and students I have good news – only
284 days til summer! As for our “We Believe” series I have enjoyed
preaching and hearing sermons on some of the essential elements of our
faith. If you want a more in depth look at these beliefs about God,
humanity, salvation, the Bible, grace and the ultimate triumph of God’s
kingdom, you’re probably ready for Christian Believer which I will be
leading this Fall on Wednesday evenings at the home of Steve & DeEsta
Garrett. Be sure to sign up today, because their home can only accommodate
so many folks.
What We Believe is found on the back of our
Vision Path on the Information Table. Please make sure you pick up a
copy of this important document if you haven’t already. It is a guiding
document for the ministries of this church. The very last belief in our
list of eight core beliefs is what we believe about Final Victory, “The
future return and ultimate reign of Jesus Christ, who will judge all
people with justice and mercy, honoring the choices we have made.”
My first belief about Final Victory did not come from
theology books or belief statements. It came through the songs that I sang
when I was young. One that continues to echo through my soul was written
in the 1930’s by a man named Albert Brumley during a summer of picking
cotton in Eastern Oklahoma, where his daddy was a tenant farmer. You may
already know the words:
Some glad morning, when this life is o'er,
I'll fly away,
To that home on God's celestial shore, I'll fly away.
I'll fly away, O glory, I'll fly away; When I die,
Hallelujah bye and bye, I'll fly away.
When the shadows of this life have gone, I'll fly away.
Like a bird from prison bars has flown, I'll fly away.
I'll fly away, O glory, I'll fly away; When I die,
Hallelujah bye and bye, I'll fly away.
Just a few more weary days and then, I'll fly away.
To a land where joys shall never end, I'll fly away.
I'll fly away, O glory, I'll fly away; When I die,
Hallelujah bye and bye, I'll fly away.
The disciples were beginning to get the picture that
Jesus would come again. In Matthew 24:3 they asked him, “What will be
the sign of your coming and of the end of the age.” This must of been
a subject that touched Jesus, because he spoke at length about that which
we all wonder, “What will it be like when Christ comes in final victory?”
Jesus did not speak of celestial shores, flying birds and endless joys.
Instead he spoke of wars and rumors of wars, pestilence and famine, love
grown cold and deceit. It will get much worse before it gets better he
told his followers. Then in Matthew 24:44 he said, “Therefore you must
be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”
Then he launched into a series of parables, or perhaps two parables and a
prediction. Time does not allow me to read the entire passage, though it
would be worth your while this afternoon to read all of Matthew 25. Let me
lift up only two verses from this chapter. The good news and the bad news.
The good news passage is found in Matthew 25:21. 'Well done, good and
faithful servant…Come and share your master's happiness!'
The bad news scripture also comes from Matthew 25,
verse 41, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels.” This is the Word of God for
the people of God. Thanks be to God.
I’m just guessing, but I would guess that everyone here
prefers the first scripture, “Come and share your master’s happiness” over
“you are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his
angels.” One of those promises I look forward to flying away to, but the
other promise I think I’ll pass on. What about you? Jesus told his
disciples to do three things in these three stories in order for the first
promise to be fulfilled.
I’ll fly away, O glory, but is there
something I ought to be doing in the meantime? Yes.
PREPARE YOURSELF.
Jesus instructed his disciples to be ready, to be on the look out, to be
alert. He told them a story about ten bridesmaids whose job it was to
escort the bride to the bridegroom via the lighted torches for the wedding
ceremony and great party. For some reason the bridegroom did not show up
as early as they had hoped or expected. Perhaps he was on Kip Standard
Time. In fact, he was so late that all the bridesmaids fell asleep. They
were awakened by the announcement that the bridegroom was on his way.
“Yikes!” half of the bridesmaids exclaimed, “We are all out of oil. We had
no idea it would take this long. Give us some of yours!” they said to the
other bridesmaids. The other bridesmaids explained that if they did that
all of them could run out of oil half way to the place of the ceremony and
that would be a terrible thing - to be stumbling around in the dark on
such an important day. They told the silly bridesmaids as Eugene
Peterson refers to them in The Message, to go buy some. They
hurried to the merchants, but by the time they woke the oil salesman and
purchased the oil, the procession had already left them and entered the
house. Latecomers were not allowed so they missed out.
“Be prepared!” Jesus said.
Isn’t that always how it goes? I used to love to go
fishing at night down on the Texas City Dike. It was a blast. We’d catch
all kinds of fish; redfish, drum, croakers, speckled trout, sand trout and
even sharks and eels. However, as fishing goes, it wasn’t always exciting.
Some nights there would be long stretches between strikes. It was boring,
even for a fisherman. So one night I stood up and stretched, walked a few
feet down the pier to see how everyone else was doing and I heard the
unmistakable sound of my fishing rod being dragged over rocks. I looked
back just in time to see my rod disappear in the dark water, never to be
found again. I don’t know a lot about bridesmaids carrying tiki torches
from the bride’s house to the groom’s house in the middle of the night,
but I understand the need to be prepared. That was my favorite fishing rod
and reel (a Penn 9 for those who are interested).
Jesus pretty much said that’s when he will show up.
When we stand up, stretch and walk away. “Don’t walk away,” Jesus was
saying, “Don’t ever walk away!” You know what that means. You know exactly
what it means. There are times when we are tempted to relax our commitment
to Christ, stretch, walk away.
I’ll fly away, O glory, but is there
something I ought to be doing in the meantime? Yes. Prepare Yourself.
PRODUCE SOMETHING.
Jesus knew that disciples are not always quick studies, so he tried
another approach. “It’ll be like this,” he said, “a certain man was going
on a journey and he gave some of his stuff to each of his servants
instructing them to take care of it while he was gone.” All of his stuff
in this story was money. $10,000 to one, $5,000 to another and $1,000 to
the third. Now it is important to note that each servant was given
something, because we all are. The time came for the man to come back and
he asked the servants what they did with his stuff. The first two did
something and returned a 100% profit. The man was so pleased that he said
beautiful words that we all long to hear, “Well done. Good job. You did
great. I’m proud of you. Come and share my happiness.”
The third guy did not do so well. He didn’t squander
the man’s stuff. He simply buried it. He did nothing with it. The master
was so mad he commanded that the lazy servant be thrown into utter
darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Bill Hybels,
the pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, spoke to this phrase just
yesterday in a conference that the Core Leadership Team of this church
attended. He described “gnashing of teeth” as “intense regret”. You know
how you are when you regret something that you just said or did? “Uh”,
teeth are gnashed and tears sometimes well up. This man would forever
regret that he did nothing with the stuff entrusted to him. Doing nothing
with what has been entrusted to you, will not wind up well. Intense and
eternal regret, alone in the darkness is not a good picture.
Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great was
asked why he has spent so much time in developing leaders around the
world. He said that he had learned a long time ago that the real goal of
life is not to achieve, but to contribute - to do something with the stuff
over which he had been entrusted.
What is the stuff over which the Master has entrusted you? Is it the
ability to make people feel comfortable and welcome when you greet them?
Don’t bury that. Is it the ability to teach children, connect with youth
or mentor college students? Don’t bury that. Is it to operate this sound
equipment, run the projector or sing in the choir? Don’t bury that. Let’s
take it outside of the walls of this church. Can you build houses? Do you
like to hammer nails, lay roofing material and get sweaty from hard work?
Don’t bury that. Habitat for Humanity needs your help. Can you organize
food on shelves, have a heart for the needy or have been in an abusive
situation in the past and know how to comfort the abused? Don’t bury that.
Scotty’s House and Brazos Food Pantry could put you to work. Everyone in
the story was given something. So have you. Don’t bury that. Produce
something.
I’ll fly away, O glory, but is there
something I ought to be doing in the meantime? Yes. Prepare yourself.
Produce something.
PASTOR SOMEONE.
I know what some of you are thinking, “Wait a minute! You’re the pastor.
Don’t try putting that role on my shoulders.” I’m using the term in its
agricultural image. Shepherd someone. Tend God’s sheep, care for God’s
lambs. I don’t know much about lambs, but they seem awfully vulnerable.
When I pastored in Pattison, one of the parishioners said she had the
hardest time keeping lambs because the coyotes and feral dogs would get to
them almost as quickly as they had been born. Now some people believe that
Jesus was telling a parable about sheep and goats in Matthew 25:31-46, but
he never used the formulaic introduction, “The kingdom will be like”
as he did in verses 1 and 14. He launched into a picture of judgment and
did some name-calling: sheep were good, goats were bad. Sheep were those
who pastored other sheep: they fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty,
clothed the naked, visited the sick and confined. Goats were those who
neglected the needy. Jesus said what he had been saying throughout this
chapter of the Bible, “I will return at the most unlikely of times and
in the most unlikely of places. When you cared for them, you cared for me
– good news. When you neglected them, you neglected me – bad news.”
Let me tell you a little about this conference where
ten leaders from this church spent the last three days. It was a satellite
conference, which meant we drove to Baylor Campus in Waco to join hundreds
of others who watched a conference being held in Chicago. We got to hear
some of the greatest speakers on leadership in the country and did not
have to navigate the streets and hotels of Chicago to do it. I knew the
names and reputation of almost everyone on the program: Bill Hybels pastor
for 31 years at Willow Creek which averages about 20,000 worshippers a
weekend, James Meeks pastor of Salem Baptist Church in Chicago who
received over 9,000 members in the last year, Andy Stanley who pastors
Northpoint Community Church in Atlanta who has perfected clear vision
properly employed and Wayne Cordeiro pastor of New Hope Christian
Fellowship in Honolulu which has grown to 11,000 worshipers in 11 years.
There were best-selling authors in the business world; Harvard Professor
Ashish Nanda, Patrick Lencioni, Jim Collins and Peg Neuhauser. Then there
was Bono, the lead singer for U2, who said at the beginning of his
session, “I’ve always been suspicious of Christians.” He went on to
say, “I’ve never had a problem with Christ, but I never really trusted
Christians.” I’ve heard that before. In truth, I was not looking forward
to this session. I don’t even own a single U2 album, 8-track, cassette, CD
or track on an IPod. But as he spoke of a trip he made to Africa over 20
years ago and how it changed his life, I was grabbed by the Holy Spirit
who spoke quite plainly to me, “You better listen to this!”
This singer quoted more scripture than any other
speaker of the seminar. He even quoted the scripture to which I am
referring this morning. He said only once in the gospels did Jesus speak
of himself as a judge and this was it. He said the disciples must have sat
up straight, tuned their ears to hear what he would say. This was going to
be the question on the final exam. You remember how it was back when you
were in school - months ago. You sit through the lesson and when the
teacher who has poured heart and soul into the presentation of the last 45
minutes asks if there are any questions, someone always raises a hand and
asks, “Is this going to be on the test?”
This is going to be on the test. Did you pastor
someone? Did you tend to the needs of the vulnerable? Did you learn
something about the AIDS crisis in the world that claims 8,000 lives a day
and then do something about it? Did you discover that for twenty cents a
child could be inoculated against malaria and do something about it? Did
you support an orphan through Compassion International or supply the food
bank in your own community?
When asked why Bono was so skeptical of Christians he
said we tend to be too disinterested in human suffering and too judgmental
about symptoms of brokenness. I could not get my eyes to quit leaking as
he spoke about the church I love. We must be relevant. The world is
watching us. Christ is watching us.
I’ll fly away, O glory, but is there something I
ought to be doing in the meantime? Yes.
PREPARE YOURSELF – BE READY, DON’T WALK AWAY.
PRODUCE SOMETHING – USE THAT OVER WHICH YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN OVERSIGHT.
PASTOR SOMEONE – TEND TO THE NEEDS OF THE VULNERABLE.
Doing nothing is not an option. Then when we fly away
it will indeed be to glory. Not because of what we’ve done, but because of
what Christ has done in us and through us. Amen.
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