Community Church Sermons

Year B

July 26, 2009

The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost Sunday

“More Than We Can Imagine…”

Ephesians 3:14-21

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III, Senior Pastor

My nephew dropped out of school when he was 16.

We weren’t really sure of the reasons, but it was obvious that school and my nephew did not get along. He fought his parents every morning as they desperately tried to pry him out of bed to get going. If they did get him up and out the door, he did not always make it to class. He despised schoolwork, did no homework, and his grades tanked. His parents tried everything in their power to help him find a niche in the educational system. They moved him from one school to another when he complained that there was something wrong with the other kids, or the teachers, or pointed out some other institutional problem. They tried their best, but he would not budge. When he hit 16, he dropped out.

Have you ever had that kind of experience? No matter how hard you work at trying to help someone, they won’t accept the help and end up collapsing into failure. Or maybe you’ve been on the failure side yourself – facing a problem that’s too big to handle, making a mistake that’s too big to solve, and you finally just give up.

The Bible contains a lot of stories about people who hit the wall of human failure. Adam and Eve whose disobedience got them thrown out of the Garden, and fractured their relationship with God. Cain, who killed his brother Abel and went on the lam to get away from the consequences of what he had done. Jacob, who stole his brother’s rightful inheritance and spent years running away from Esau. King David, who not only committed adultery, but arranged for the soldier husband of Bathsheba to be sent to the front lines where he was killed.

The Bible is full of stories of people who “dropped out”, “tuned out”, “zoned out”, or just plain “copped out.”

But before we get into judgment mode and start pointing fingers at all of “them”, let’s be clear about something.

Failure is in all of us.

Some of the great “success” stories in the world all around us are stories built on the wreckage of broken relationships with spouses, children, friends. We human beings go to incredible lengths to achieve success and often sacrifice our values and responsibilities along the way.

And we are all vulnerable to even little mistakes that throw disaster upon us. I remember reading an article about Christopher Reeve who played Superman in the movies. He was competing in a horse riding event in Culpeper, Virginia in 1995 when he lost his balance and was thrown from the horse. He lost his balance! The result was a catastrophic spinal cord injury. He died 9 years later of complications resulting from that mistake. He was 52 years old. Can you imagine that? Superman dead at 52!

And we are vulnerable to the harmful things inflicted upon us by other people and external forces beyond our control. Last week 554,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits. But we cannot even measure the number of women beaten up by boyfriends or husbands. There are no running statistics for children who are abused.

Failure – in one form or another - touches us all. It is part of the human condition. Even if we could experience fail-safe perfection through every day of our life – which we can’t – we still all end up in the grave.

You’ve heard the story of the rancher who wanted to be buried with his pickup truck. He said, “There ain’t no hole she ain’t got me out of yet!”

Well, he was wrong. There ARE some holes too deep to get out of.

But listen to this from today’s scripture: “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

The victory over life’s failures is won through the power of God who loves us! And the greatest tool there is for overcoming failure is faith!

Now I’m not talking about religion, or doctrines, or theology. Faith is not about believing abstract ideas.

Let me give you a simple Marty Singley definition of faith. Faith is godly imagination, and then actively living toward what you imagine!

The Bible says that we human beings were created in the image of God. Sometimes we don’t go deep enough into understanding what that means. Not only does humanity reflect the image of God, we were created out of the IMAGINATION of God! Genesis tells us God got an idea! “Let’s make people!” God said. And in that moment at the very dawn of creation, YOU were formed in the mind of God, and eons later, when your mother and father supplied the GLEAM, God provided the DREAM, and the result was YOU!

That’s how God’s world works! Every scientific discovery, every great achievement, every marvel of engineering, every great painting, every musical masterpiece, every wonderful thing that human beings achieve is born in someone’s imagination.

Long before our church was here, Bob Puckett imagined it. So he wrote a letter to Cooper Communities proposing his idea for a Community Church.

What a great imagination Bob has! But listen to the scripture: God is able to do far MORE than we can imagine! And that has been proved out in the 20-year history of our church! Who could have imagined that 11 people at a home worship service would grow into almost 1400 of us today? Who could have imagined that the one original scholarship awarded to a Loudon High School student would become 22 scholarships given to young people in all our high schools? Back when there were just a handful of people, who could have imagined the kind of community outreach that our church has become known for?

Well, God imagined it.

And God is still imagining all that we can become and do through faith in Jesus Christ.

The question is: “Do we dare imagine becoming more than what we are, and doing more than what we do for others? Do we dare imagine 100 scholarships given to students instead of 22? Do we dare imagine serving twice as many people through our Friendship kitchen? Do we dare imagine building a Habitat for Humanity house every year instead of every other year? Do we dare imagine doubling the number of people who pass through our Sunday worship each week on their way to serving our neighbors out in the community?”

What do we dare imagine?

My sister Karen imagined more than failure for her son, my nephew, who dropped out of school. Even when others of us pretty much gave up, she never gave up. Even when there was nothing left to do but pray, she prayed.

Andrew had a hard time finding a job without a high school diploma. He enrolled in a GED program at a local Community College. When it was over and he had his high school credentials, he thought, “That wasn’t so bad.” So he enrolled in an Associate’s Degree program. Who would’ve imagined that?

When he finished that program, Andrew thought, “That wasn’t so bad!” And he got into a Bachelor’s program at a local college. Two years later, he got his degree in Philosophy! Who would’ve imagined that?

And then there was the Masters in Philosophy from Boston College. And a PhD from the University of South Carolina. And today that little high school drop-out is a University professor in California.

Who could possibly have imagined that?

Well, God imagined it, along with my sister, although I’m sure she had NO IDEA how big an imagination God had for her son!

God imagines, and then goes to work to make it happen! And that’s what faith is. God almost dares us to try to imagine what God imagines, and then challenges us to do whatever is needed to make it come true!

And God promises to supply the power to do it – the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us.

So today I call upon you to imagine!

Imagine great things for yourself – that you CAN overcome the addiction, that you CAN be set free from that fear that paralyzes you, that you CAN be forgiven for that terrible sin, that you CAN forgive the one who sinned against you and become free to move on with your life, that you CAN reconcile your side of that broken relationship, that you CAN love that unlovable family member or friend.

What do you think GOD imagines for you and your life?

And imagine great things for the world around you – that we CAN overcome racial prejudice and injustice, that we CAN find our way to peace, that we CAN overcome the effects of a bad economy, that we CAN feed the hungry, and give a hand up to those who are down, and love others as Jesus loves us.

What do you think GOD imagines for our world?

And imagine great things for our church – 100 scholarships a year? – a Habitat home every year instead of every other? – a thousand meals a month out of our Friendship Kitchen? – twice as many volunteers in the community? – can you imagine all the godly good we can do as a church together?

No.

No we can’t. Because the scripture says that God is able to do far MORE than we can EVER imagine! No matter how big our imagination is, God’s imagination is bigger!

So “…to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or IMAGINE, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.