Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

1 Peter 1:3-9

“It’s Worth It!”

Rev. Meagan Boozer

This past week I had to travel to Krislund Camp and Conference Center in Madisonburg. To get to Krislund, I go up and around State College since that is such a familiar route for me. For this trip this week, it was raining the whole way there and most of the way home. It reminded me of many other rainy days when John, Katy, and I lived in State College in a trailer on Atherton Street while I finished my bachelor’s degree. While we were there we had a truck and a car that were both held together with body putty. After John would get home from working construction, he would go out and put more putty on our vehicles to hold them together for a little bit longer.

The time came, however, that we had to look for another car. The truck just couldn’t make it any more. So, we looked in the auto locater papers and found a little yellow Toyota station wagon. We paid $250.00 for it, and it worked great… except when it rained. When it rained this little car would sputter, cough, hiccup, and stop. So, I’d pull over to the side, let it dry out a little bit, and then pray while I turned the key that it would start again. Mostly I would pray for a drought, at least until I could get my student teaching requirement done!

When I graduated, John had the promise of a good steady job back in Chambersburg, and so before we left State College we went to the Mazda dealer up there and bought our first new car- a Mazda GLC hatchback- totally a bottom of the line, basic car. The thing that made it possible for us to buy that car was the trade-in value they gave us on our $250.00 Toyota wagon- they gave us $1000.00 trade-in towards the new car! For all the sputtering, coughing, hiccupping, and yes, even the stalling- that car was worth it! It was worth it in spite of the hard times!

Is your church membership worth it! Today we have three young people who are prepared to profess their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and are ready to make a membership commitment to this congregation. For those of you who have been members of this church or perhaps other churches, do you remember when you stood to make your commitment before the congregation? Do you remember what you were thinking, and what you were hoping? Has it been what you hoped it would be? Has it been worth the words you said?

Let’s take a look at several Scriptures that tell us quite a lot about what was going o n within the membership of those very first churches.

Acts 2:43-47, “Awe cam upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Now let’s move about 20 years down the road and look at 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, “Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of your be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me b Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided?”

Wow! What happened to everyone having everything in common, getting along, having glad and generous hearts?

You know that “love chapter” in 1 Corinthians? Love is patient; love is kind, etc. etc… Chapter 13 it is. Well, it wasn’t written because that apostle Paul was praising the people for the love they were showing to each other. Paul wrote it to the congregation to remind the people how they are supposed to be treating one another. They weren’t patient. They weren’t being kind. They weren’t full of hope, and they weren’t bearing well with one another. They were having power struggles, and some were boasting that their ministry was the most important ministry. They weren’t forgiving each other, and they weren’t choosing to hold their tongues; they were choosing to gossip and slander one another.

And then we go to Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia (thought to have been written just a few years after the letter to the Corinthians), and he’s correcting them because they are being lured away from what they know is the truth about Jesus, seemingly because they are so concerned about pleasing people instead of pleasing God. Paul says, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you into the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel- not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and what to pervert the gospel of Christ!” (Gal. 1:6,7)

What happened to everyone having everything in common, getting along, having glad and generous hearts? Do you think those people thought their church membership was worth it?

Now, let’s turn to our reading for today in 1 Peter 1:3-9, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith- being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

We live in the tension of being a people of living hope for what we cannot see and being a people who live in a world that only believes what they can see. When we became part of a church family, we hoped for what we could not see yet- that this would be a place of purpose for us, a place of useful service, a place of spiritual growth for us and for our children, and a place of peace, joy and comfort. Most of us had high expectations for our church membership based on the view that Christians are good people to be around, and working together with other Christians would always be fun and fulfilling. Most of us believed that glad and generous hearts would abound!

But we forgot one important point: Christians are not perfect- we’re called to love one another perfectly as Christ loved us perfectly (Matthew 5:48)- but we are not now, and never will be as perfect as we will be one day in heaven. Working with others in the church can be as frustrating and aggravating as working with anyone anywhere else. So, is it worth it?

Is all the sputtering; coughing, hiccupping, and sometimes coming to a complete halt in the work of the church- is it all worth it?

(The following are portions of the Statements of Faith of our Confirmation students.)

“I, Ashley Baker, believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit! I believe the He is ruler of all things and watches over us at all times! I believe that God was born from the Virgin Mary! God was put on earth to deliver us from our sins and also I believe that one day God the Son entered into the dead and then he rose from the dead. I believe that God created the earth and on the 6^th day God put man and woman on the earth. My favorite part of church is listening to the different sermons. I also believe that every word in the Bible is true because it also came from the Lord’s mouth! I am glad that I have the Lord inside of me because I believe that He died on the cross for my sin. You can always ask the Lord to come inside of you, just ask him! I am glad that Jesus is my Lord and is my ONLY God!!

Cody Crouse wrote: “I believe God is three in one. He is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The God I believe in, answers all prayers that honor him. He pulls us through things and helps us when we are in need. I also believe that He is the Creator of all things. I believe that God put his only Son, Jesus Christ, on earth to bear the burden of sin of all people. He was brutally beaten and hung on a cross to die for us. Then Jesus rose from the dead and lived on the earth for a period of forty days before ascending into heaven. I am thankful for all Jesus went through for you and me so we can be forgiven for our sinful ways. I believe that the only way you can be forgiven for your sins is to ask for forgiveness. First, confess our sins to God and he will forgive. I believe that the only way to get to heaven is to ask God into your heart and confess that you’re a sinner. Once you do that, God lives inside you and you will have eternal life. I believe that God put us on this earth to save as many people as possible. What I mean by this is to spread the word of the Lord to people who are unaware of it. Try to get them to ask God into their hearts so that they too can have everlasting life.”

“I, Laurie Ruby, believe that God is the creator of the earth, life, and everything in between. God is three people in one: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. I believe that they all created this earth and everything on it. What is sin? Sin is what separates you from God. It is like a lure; it grabs your attention and makes you choose a different path from God’s. How did sin enter the world? It came from Adam and Eve. They both ate from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which was exactly what God told them not to do. I believe we are sinners, and fall short of the glory of God. My favorite thing about God is that he is a Counselor to us through the Holy Spirit. Yes, he wrote the rules in the Bible, but to make sure we remember he comes into us as the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the little voice inside us that tells us the difference between right and wrong, and we all need that. It is also what gets us excited about God. It makes us serve others and have a blast doing it. What is the Church? The Church is like a family, except we all get along. We, the people of the Church, all believe that God is King! Sometimes our ideas don’t really match each others’, but we all have the same purpose, to serve God. However, the greatest thing about God is that he loves you no matter what. Plus, he never leaves you and is always there to talk to you.”

(1 Peter 1:3-4) “By his great mercy, he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ form the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.”

Can you hear the living hope in those statements of faith? Can you hear the undefiled expectations in something that will never perish or fade? Can you hear the centerpiece of it all for them?

The centerpiece for them all was Jesus Christ and how he forgives sinners. If Ashley, Cody, and Laurie didn’t get anything else from the confirmation classes, they really seemed to get that- we’re all sinners for whom Jesus died! Because of him, we don’t have to live in judgment, in shame, in anger, in despair, or in bondage to the sin that so easily can tangle us up. Because of him we are forgiven, and because of him we can and must extend his forgiveness to other people- even when the hurt us and do not live up to our expectations.

1 Peter 1:6-7: “Even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trails, these have come so that the genuineness of your faith (which is more precious than gold) may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed!”

When we suffer because of the words and actions of the people in the church, when we disappoint each other, what must we do? Shake our heads and give up?

Should we choose to be a people of living despair and forever assume that it is always a rainy day in the church of imperfect people? Should we allow ourselves to become so frustrated with a sputtering, coughing, hiccupping church that we pull over to the side, get out, and walk away? Will we allow ourselves to be so easily offended that we give up that living hope?

1 Peter 1:8-9: “Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

This is the Body of Christ. Though we do not see it in its perfection, we must choose to love it, and we must choose to believe that God is working on us and molding us to be his ambassador on earth. Though we do not see the perfection of Christ in the church body, we must choose to rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for in our sufferings together, and in our pressing on together, and in our honest conversations with each other, and in our service together, in our praying, singing, laughing, crying, studying the Scriptures, and worshipping together in good times and bad, in our choosing to remain together- we are receiving the outcome of our faith- the salvation of our souls.

I think in this passage Peter isn’t talking about the salvation of our souls for heaven up there- I think Peter is talking about our souls being freed for heavenward living right here.

Ashley, Cody, and Laurie, in 50 years you will be able to say quickly (with an exclamation mark) that your church membership has been worth it, IF you choose to always believe beyond what you can see- that God is at work here. Sometimes it may not look like it, and sometimes it may not feel like it. But this is the Body of Christ. God loves the Church. In spite of its sputtering, coughing, hiccupping, and stalling, God never gives up on the Church. He’s working on you, he’s working on me, he’s working on all of us so that together we can share what God has given us, have glad and generous hearts, praise God together, and have the goodwill of all the community. In my opinion, when you do your part, church membership is definitely worth it! Amen.

Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

11-19-2006