"The Only Hope" - by Don Heatley

As a teenager, I saw the first “Star Wars” movie about twenty times. There were no video rental stores in the late seventies, so that meant getting a ride to the movies and seeing it there. In a strange way, the movie changed my life. Like others my age, it inspired me to become a filmmaker and pursue that as a career. Over the years, I have often wondered why this one film had so much power.

One of the pivotal scenes in the “Star Wars” saga is the one where Luke and Obi-Wan view that holographic message from Princess Leia in which she says, “Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.” It is the plot point that sets in motion Luke leaving behind the comfortable life of a simple farmer and fulfilling his destiny. It is also the message that revitalizes Obi-Wan to come out of his exile and be who he once was, a Jedi. He connects with that centuries old tradition of which he is a part. That hologram gives those characters a purpose, a mission. The rest of the movie and its sequels consist of those characters fulfilling their mission.

Can you imagine what the rest of the movie would be like if they didn’t? Picture if instead of risking it all and going to rescue the princess, Obi-Wan and Luke were to just sit back, relax and talk about how much they enjoyed watching the hologram. Or, what if they debated whether or not they believed in holograms? Or, dissected Lea’s message for ways it made them uncomfortable or offended them? Or, argued if the Force was the only was to accomplish their mission? Or, set up criteria for what qualified others to be a part of the rescue mission? Or, traded stories about the hypocrisy of some Jedi knights?

Would people stand in line for days to see such a film? Would my teenage friends and I have gone to see it ten times in one summer? What would the video game be like? Would you get to play the role of Luke and every time you press the triangle button on your controller he makes another lame excuse on why he can’t go on the mission? Or would you be able to make him enter the scene where the Rebels plan the attack on the Death Star and have him talk them out of it? Maybe the game would have levels and you could work your way up from the level of “whiner” to that of “wet blanket.”

On the surface, “Star Wars” appears to be merely space opera adventure, light saber duels, dogfights in space, and explosions. But on another level, the “Star Wars” films allude to deeper themes of rescuing those in trouble, uncovering hidden realities and relationships, and redeeming a lost soul. The appeal of those movies was, and continues to be, taking the audience into a reality of new adventures and new worlds.

Have you ever thought of church in that way? Have you ever imagined the church as a vehicle that rescues the captive prisoners, takes people to new realities, new adventures and creates a new world? How different would church be if we approached it as a mission, like receiving a hologram from a princess? Imagine church as an urgent message. People are in trouble, we need your help or all will be lost.

Actually, we have received a message very similar to that one. It was the last thing Jesus told his followers before he left this earth. His words give us the shape of what the church would look like.

He could have said a lot of things. He didn’t say, “Hey guys, why don’t you all just hang out, give one another back rubs and feel good. All that stuff I’ve been telling you for three years about seeds growing, tress and vines. I didn’t mean it. Just keep to yourselves and get what you can out of this whole church thing. Take some time. Facilitate a few discussions. If it fails. No big deal.”

No. Jesus gave them a simple word GO! Get off your butts and go! Do something! Then he was specific about what to do go and make disciples. Go make students, learners, followers of Jesus. When Jesus said that, he was clearly not establishing an institution but was energizing a movement. Scholars tell us it is more historically correct to refer to Jesus’ early followers as “The Jesus Movement” rather than the “Church.” He was not founding a static organization. He was planting a growing organism. It was and still is an organism that is meant to subvert, transform and renew the world toward the reality that is God.

Jesus entrusted us with a mission, not a religion, not a club. Some of us, when we here the word “mission,” cringe a bit. Through past church experiences, we associate that term with converting people to Christianity. In particular, it connotes converting so-called heathens to our Western religion or converting Jews, Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists to our religion which is the “right” one. We may look at church history and see mission as rich white people going to the countries of dark-skinned people and destroying their beliefs and culture.

Consequently, you may bristle at the idea of joining Jesus’ mission. But friends, that is because you have a distorted idea of what Jesus’ mission is. I do not believe it is my calling or the calling of Vision to convert devout and sincere people who love God in another religious tradition and make them “our kind of Christians.” Neither is it the official position of the United Methodist Church, a church of about seven million members of which we are a part. That is not the kind of mission we are advocating here.

So if you’re hesitating about joining the Jesus mission because you are offended by all these old misconceptions of what mission is, I am telling you lovingly, that’s your baggage. That is not who we are or what the Jesus mission is about. When we allow our misconceptions to keep us from joining the mission, we are acting like Luke Skywalker when he whines that he cannot go on the rescue mission because he has to get home or his Uncle might get mad.

It would be a shame to let that or other distortions of Jesus’ mission keep you from this exciting adventure. It would be tragic to create a new world, what Jesus called the kingdom, and to not be a part of it because of your own baggage and dysfunction. Jesus calls us to mission that is beyond all our preconceived notions.

On the other hand, I realize that some of you may disagree with the idea that mission is not about converting people from other religions. So I ask you to consider this. There are “other religions” right in our own backyard - the religion of nominal Christianity, the religion of materialism, the religion of negativity and depression and the religion of ego. All of these religions lead to a watered-down existence or self-destruction. As Vision Community Church, we are probably better equipped to convert people from those religions than from any of the world’s great religious traditions.

I think that is the kind of mission on which Jesus sent the first disciples. As the church, we are sent to bring more people onboard with this mission.

So what was the Jesus mission? Well, it is too vast and mysterious to cram into a single sermon or checklist. However, you can find the heart of it the Sermon on the Mount. That is found in the Gospel of Matthew chapters 5-7. Many Christians de-emphasize those teachings and focus instead on things like beliefs, the Bible, and getting into heaven. Jesus did not talk a whole lot about those things though.

Read those sayings sometime and see what you discover. Not what you think you will find or want to find. What you will discover his teachings is not some kind of lightweight feel-good ethic. The message of Jesus points to deeper levels of commitment and transformation anger is as bad as murder. Lust as destructive as adultery. A message of internal transformation not just external appearances. A message of fidelity in marriage and in all our relationships, especially our relationship with God. A message of peace, not revenge. A message of generosity not materialism, accumulation and greed. A message of love that extends to every single person, whether religious people think they deserve it or not. A message to make God the number one priority in life.

There are few things in that message that we would disagree with. They all sound like good ideas. But have you ever tried to do them? It is not easy. I fail at them everyday. Yet I know there is a God who is willing to pick me up and set me on my feet on the right path again. I know that, not because it is in the Bible or by a warm fuzzy feeling that comes over me. Ask my wife. I don’t get warm fuzzy feelings. I know about that God because I experience him through his followers, through the body of believers, through this church.

Life is hard. Do not attempt it alone. The world is full of those who feel lost, confused, hurt, excluded, abandoned, and abused. It is populated with people who consistently make choices that bring hurt to themselves and to those around them. Would it help if a six-inch hologram of Jesus appeared and said, “People are in trouble, we need your help or all will be lost.”

We all know this because “those people” are us. We all need a place where we can be accepted as we are and yet held accountable to be someone better. The church, this mission, is like Obi-Wan. The only hope.

We have not been entrusted not with an institution but with a mission. Imagine if there were a huge disaster like hurricane or earthquake and you were part of a mission to go to the disaster site and help. Suppose we brought a truckload of food with us to distribute to refugees. If we were handing out food to starving people, we would not just feed 100 or so people and stop. Especially if we had all this surplus rotting away on a truck.

That would be ridiculous. Instead, we would seek to feed as many starving people as possible. If we became comfortable after feeding just 100 people, how would we turn the others away? Would it be on a first come first serve basis?

The world around us is starving for God. The church can never say, “Sorry, we’re all out.” We cannot fall into the trap of serving people on a first come first serve basis. We cannot allow all the resources God has blessed us with to just go rotting on a truck while the people around us starve. That is not good stewardship of the mission with which Jesus entrusted us. Like Jesus, we are to give ourselves away and empty ourselves out.

That is a mission I want to be a part of. I cannot imagine a more important one. Jesus entrusted with his movement, the movement we call the church. We are called to be stewards of that movement just as we are called to be stewards of the environment, or our talents, or our money. Conversely, for this movement to succeed will require stewardship of our environment, our talents and our money. We will explore that more in the coming weeks.

Like any cosmic adventure, this one is daunting. We are like the last of the Jedi. The Republic is crumbling and people are crying out, “Help us. You are our only hope.” Do we turn our back and retreat to familiar world of comfort and predictability? Or do we go on the adventure, knowing the Force is with us.

We are on a mission and best of all, Jesus said he is with us. Jesus guides us, gives us our power and propels us on this mission. The church is not ours. It is not ours with which to fail or stagnate. The church belongs to Jesus Christ and Jesus never fails. The only thing we can do, is continue this world-changing cosmic adventure..

"The Only Hope" - by Don Heatley
Matthew 28:16-20
We have been entrusted with a mission, not an institution
As a teenager, I saw the first “Star Wars” movie about twenty times. There were no video rental stores in the late seventies, so that meant getting a ride to the movies and seeing it there. In a strange way, the movie changed my life. Like others my age, it inspired me to become a filmmaker and pursue that as a career. Over the years, I have often wondered why this one film had so much power. One of the pivotal scenes in the “Star Wars” saga is the one where Luke and Obi-Wan view that holographic message from Princess Leia in which she says, “Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.” It is the plot point that sets in motion Luke leaving behind the comfortable life of a simple farmer and fulfilling his destiny. It is also the message that revitalizes Obi-Wan to come out of his exile and be who he once was, a Jedi. He connects with that centuries old tradition of which he is a part. That hologram gives those characters a purpose, a mission. The rest of the movie and its sequels consist of those characters fulfilling their mission. Can you imagine what the rest of the movie would be like if they didn’t? Picture if instead of risking it all and going to rescue the princess, Obi-Wan and Luke were to just sit back, relax and talk about how much they enjoyed watching the hologram. Or, what if they debated whether or not they believed in holograms? Or, dissected Lea’s message for ways it made them uncomfortable or offended them? Or, argued if the Force was the only was to accomplish their mission? Or, set up criteria for what qualified others to be a part of the rescue mission? Or, traded stories about the hypocrisy of some Jedi knights? Would people stand in line for days to see such a film? Would my teenage friends and I have gone to see it ten times in one summer? What would the video game be like? Would you get to play the role of Luke and every time you press the triangle button on your controller he makes another lame excuse on why he can’t go on the mission? Or would you be able to make him enter the scene where the Rebels plan the attack on the Death Star and have him talk them out of it? Maybe the game would have levels and you could work your way up from the level of “whiner” to that of “wet blanket.” On the surface, “Star Wars” appears to be merely space opera adventure, light saber duels, dogfights in space, and explosions. But on another level, the “Star Wars” films allude to deeper themes of rescuing those in trouble, uncovering hidden realities and relationships, and redeeming a lost soul. The appeal of those movies was, and continues to be, taking the audience into a reality of new adventures and new worlds. Have you ever thought of church in that way? Have you ever imagined the church as a vehicle that rescues the captive prisoners, takes people to new realities, new adventures and creates a new world? How different would church be if we approached it as a mission, like receiving a hologram from a princess? Imagine church as an urgent message. People are in trouble, we need your help or all will be lost. Actually, we have received a message very similar to that one. It was the last thing Jesus told his followers before he left this earth. His words give us the shape of what the church would look like. He could have said a lot of things. He didn’t say, “Hey guys, why don’t you all just hang out, give one another back rubs and feel good. All that stuff I’ve been telling you for three years about seeds growing, tress and vines. I didn’t mean it. Just keep to yourselves and get what you can out of this whole church thing. Take some time. Facilitate a few discussions. If it fails. No big deal.” No. Jesus gave them a simple word GO! Get off your butts and go! Do something! Then he was specific about what to do go and make disciples. Go make students, learners, followers of Jesus. When Jesus said that, he was clearly not establishing an institution but was energizing a movement. Scholars tell us it is more historically correct to refer to Jesus’ early followers as “The Jesus Movement” rather than the “Church.” He was not founding a static organization. He was planting a growing organism. It was and still is an organism that is meant to subvert, transform and renew the world toward the reality that is God. Jesus entrusted us with a mission, not a religion, not a club. Some of us, when we here the word “mission,” cringe a bit. Through past church experiences, we associate that term with converting people to Christianity. In particular, it connotes converting so-called heathens to our Western religion or converting Jews, Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists to our religion which is the “right” one. We may look at church history and see mission as rich white people going to the countries of dark-skinned people and destroying their beliefs and culture. Consequently, you may bristle at the idea of joining Jesus’ mission. But friends, that is because you have a distorted idea of what Jesus’ mission is. I do not believe it is my calling or the calling of Vision to convert devout and sincere people who love God in another religious tradition and make them “our kind of Christians.” Neither is it the official position of the United Methodist Church, a church of about seven million members of which we are a part. That is not the kind of mission we are advocating here. So if you’re hesitating about joining the Jesus mission because you are offended by all these old misconceptions of what mission is, I am telling you lovingly, that’s your baggage. That is not who we are or what the Jesus mission is about. When we allow our misconceptions to keep us from joining the mission, we are acting like Luke Skywalker when he whines that he cannot go on the rescue mission because he has to get home or his Uncle might get mad. It would be a shame to let that or other distortions of Jesus’ mission keep you from this exciting adventure. It would be tragic to create a new world, what Jesus called the kingdom, and to not be a part of it because of your own baggage and dysfunction. Jesus calls us to mission that is beyond all our preconceived notions. On the other hand, I realize that some of you may disagree with the idea that mission is not about converting people from other religions. So I ask you to consider this. There are “other religions” right in our own backyard - the religion of nominal Christianity, the religion of materialism, the religion of negativity and depression and the religion of ego. All of these religions lead to a watered-down existence or self-destruction. As Vision Community Church, we are probably better equipped to convert people from those religions than from any of the world’s great religious traditions. I think that is the kind of mission on which Jesus sent the first disciples. As the church, we are sent to bring more people onboard with this mission. So what was the Jesus mission? Well, it is too vast and mysterious to cram into a single sermon or checklist. However, you can find the heart of it the Sermon on the Mount. That is found in the Gospel of Matthew chapters 5-7. Many Christians de-emphasize those teachings and focus instead on things like beliefs, the Bible, and getting into heaven. Jesus did not talk a whole lot about those things though. Read those sayings sometime and see what you discover. Not what you think you will find or want to find. What you will discover his teachings is not some kind of lightweight feel-good ethic. The message of Jesus points to deeper levels of commitment and transformation anger is as bad as murder. Lust as destructive as adultery. A message of internal transformation not just external appearances. A message of fidelity in marriage and in all our relationships, especially our relationship with God. A message of peace, not revenge. A message of generosity not materialism, accumulation and greed. A message of love that extends to every single person, whether religious people think they deserve it or not. A message to make God the number one priority in life. There are few things in that message that we would disagree with. They all sound like good ideas. But have you ever tried to do them? It is not easy. I fail at them everyday. Yet I know there is a God who is willing to pick me up and set me on my feet on the right path again. I know that, not because it is in the Bible or by a warm fuzzy feeling that comes over me. Ask my wife. I don’t get warm fuzzy feelings. I know about that God because I experience him through his followers, through the body of believers, through this church. Life is hard. Do not attempt it alone. The world is full of those who feel lost, confused, hurt, excluded, abandoned, and abused. It is populated with people who consistently make choices that bring hurt to themselves and to those around them. Would it help if a six-inch hologram of Jesus appeared and said, “People are in trouble, we need your help or all will be lost.” We all know this because “those people” are us. We all need a place where we can be accepted as we are and yet held accountable to be someone better. The church, this mission, is like Obi-Wan. The only hope. We have not been entrusted not with an institution but with a mission. Imagine if there were a huge disaster like hurricane or earthquake and you were part of a mission to go to the disaster site and help. Suppose we brought a truckload of food with us to distribute to refugees. If we were handing out food to starving people, we would not just feed 100 or so people and stop. Especially if we had all this surplus rotting away on a truck. That would be ridiculous. Instead, we would seek to feed as many starving people as possible. If we became comfortable after feeding just 100 people, how would we turn the others away? Would it be on a first come first serve basis? The world around us is starving for God. The church can never say, “Sorry, we’re all out.” We cannot fall into the trap of serving people on a first come first serve basis. We cannot allow all the resources God has blessed us with to just go rotting on a truck while the people around us starve. That is not good stewardship of the mission with which Jesus entrusted us. Like Jesus, we are to give ourselves away and empty ourselves out. That is a mission I want to be a part of. I cannot imagine a more important one. Jesus entrusted with his movement, the movement we call the church. We are called to be stewards of that movement just as we are called to be stewards of the environment, or our talents, or our money. Conversely, for this movement to succeed will require stewardship of our environment, our talents and our money. We will explore that more in the coming weeks. Like any cosmic adventure, this one is daunting. We are like the last of the Jedi. The Republic is crumbling and people are crying out, “Help us. You are our only hope.” Do we turn our back and retreat to familiar world of comfort and predictability? Or do we go on the adventure, knowing the Force is with us. We are on a mission and best of all, Jesus said he is with us. Jesus guides us, gives us our power and propels us on this mission. The church is not ours. It is not ours with which to fail or stagnate. The church belongs to Jesus Christ and Jesus never fails. The only thing we can do, is continue this world-changing cosmic adventure..