There's an old joke about Abraham (not the Bible guy). Abraham believed in the power of prayer, so every day for months he prayed to God that he would win the lottery. After zero success, Abraham complained to God ... "I have prayed faithfully for Your help. Why can't you bless me? Doesn't Your word say to pray and it will be given to you?" Abraham waited, and sure enough God responded ... "Abraham ... you gotta buy a ticket!!!"
We pray for lots of things in the church. Better finances ... more children ... better attendance ... some might even pray for a better pastor! But whatever you/we are praying for, we should remember Abraham's story ... "We gotta buy a ticket!"
How do we do this? I will offer three possibilities this morning as I write my blog. But first, a word about investment. The parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) appears in a section of Scripture about God's judgement and what God expects from His people. These expectations relate to our hearts, as we risk, invest and live sacrificially to do God's will. Hearts invested in God and God's people are 'the sheep of His pasture' and these are the people that join God in His kingdom. Hearts that risk, to allow God's investment in us to multiply, are blessed by God's reward and provision. Hearts that are anchored to God (Matthew 24) are not swept away like the evil people in Noah's flood. We invest. We buy a ticket.
The first thing I believe we must do is realize God cares little about our comfort. We love how things were in the good old days. We live our ways of worship, and (I confess) I love many of these things including some of our traditions. But our traditions are not our anchor. I believe we can invest in our worship time by doing a little remembering and a little dreaming. We will be reintroducing corporate reading of the Psalms. My old friend Mildred would love this I think. And we will be doing some minimal restructure of the worship services (we actually have done this in the 1st service with the Apostles Creed, the Lord's Prayer and a more connected time of singing). In doing this we 'buy' a ticket to sharing God's Word and making our worship time flow. Those of you involved in worship will be invited to share in how this worship will unfold. We will buy a ticket!
The second thing will place 'our money where our mouth is.' I hear (frequently) that "we need more children ... they are our future!" I agree, but in today's world we must be willing to invest in ways to make this a reality. I will be inviting some of you to share in some intentional children's time in/during the 2nd service and your willingness to help will decide if this will happen ... we must buy a ticket! All of this will involve some quiet tolerance of little feet and voices in the first part of the second service and those little feet and voices finding some quality children's time with God's helpers after about 20 minutes. Part of our investment will be 'letting the little children come to Jesus (Matthew 19:14).' The 'Jesus' these children (and their parents) will see will be loving, patient, helpful people just like yourself. You will be the Jesus they 'come to.' We invest in the ticket!
Finally, I invite all of you to respond to some of the emails, announcements and texts that have identified needs in the church. If we are to 'buy a ticket' we need what John Ed Mathison called, "Every member in mission." Each of you is a minister, a worker, a servant and a vital cog in the wheel of God's plan here at AUMC. I will tell you ahead of time, these things we must do will be inconvenient, sometimes frustrating, sometimes difficult and sometimes costly. But I think the God we worship has an intimate understanding of costly, as God has invested (inconveniently, sacrificially and expensively) in you ... He has bought and paid for your 'ticket.' And to claim your place in His kingdom, all you need to do is say ... yes, I want Jesus as my Lord (He is in charge) and savior (He is my only way into God's eternal plan). Abraham ... buy a ticket!
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