Lancaster First United Methodist Church
February 14, 2010
Exodus 34:29-35 & Luke 9:28-43a
Rev. Robert McDowell

“A Heart for Lancaster”

Well, let me begin this message today by first telling my beautiful wife of twenty-four years, “Happy Valentines Day!” We have a very romantic story of how we met.

We were students at Temple University in Philadelphia and happened to be in the same dorm. She was on the 2nd floor and I was on the 1st floor and my room just so happened to be next to the stairwell.

And one day when I was in my room, probably studying very intently for a test, this very attractive young lady opened my dorm room without even knocking. She quickly apologized and then she made up some story that she thought my door was really the door to the stairwell.

Now, the stairwell door was clearly marked as a stair well door and my dorm room door looked just like a typical dorm room door, so I’ll let you decide. I think she knew what she was doing, let’s just leave it at that.

Now, for those of you who might not know this, I happen to be a very gifted poet and every four or five years or so, I like to write Penny a romantic poem. And with today being Valentine’s Day, I’d like to share this very intimate and private poem that I have written just for Penny with all of you.

The name of my poem is, “On Our 26th Valentine’s Day Together, Counting the First Two Before We Were Married,” by Robert Vincent McDowell. I wrote this poem in about thirty minutes, so it should be one of my better ones. Here it is.
Twenty-six. Some would say that sounds like a lot.
But trust me when I say, that she is really hot.
At Temple U., she opened a door that changed my life,
For twenty-four Valentine Days, she has been my loving wife.

She loves me with all her heart and even unconditionally,
I rank right up there with Trotter, Lillie, and Lulu, our three westies.
One year she gave me a souvenir when she visited D.C.
It was a picture of Richard Nixon shaking hands with Elvis Presley.

Our birthdays are only separated by a mere fourteen days,
And our social security numbers are pretty close, we’re amazed.
We both love Jesus and grew up as United Methodists,
She knows how to make a house a home and take care of us.

Twenty-six. Some would say that sounds like a lot.
But trust me when I say, that I love her a lot.
I pledge my love even though this poem has tarried,
On our 26th Valentine’s Day together, counting the two before we were married.

You know, that’s just really good poetry. Some of you are thinking, “Thank goodness he only writes these things every four or five years!”

Well, for what it’s worth, this can’t be any worse than a love letter that a woman wrote to her ex-fiancé with whom she had recently ended their relationship. She writes,
“Dear Jimmy,
No words could ever express the great unhappiness I’ve felt since I broke off our engagement. Please say you’ll take me back. No one could ever take your place in my heart, so please forgive me. I love you. I love you. I love you.
Yours forever,
Marie.
P.S. And congratulations on winning the state lottery.”

That was pretty bad, I know!

But isn’t it great to know that God loves you and me with a genuine love, a love that comes with no strings attached? A love that accepts us for who we are and a love that saves us from our sins and helps us to be the people we were created to be?

This is the love that the bible talks about again and again. And really, the bible is one huge love poem or love letter in which God is expressing to us in a number of different ways how much he loves us, cares about us, and wants us to be the people we were created to be, people who were created in the image of God.

Whenever I meet with a couple for pre-marital counseling, we go over the wedding ceremony together. And one of the things that I point out to them is that the love that they share together as a couple is also meant to overflow into the lives of the people around them. And to help them think about this important point, I have the couple look at the benediction that I will be offering at the end of the wedding ceremony.

This is one of the most beautifully crafted benedictions I have ever read. Just listen to these words and how they are meant to encourage the couple to share their love with the people around them. Here’s the wedding service benediction:
“Bear witness to the love of God in this world, so that those to whom love is a stranger will find in you generous friends. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”

This wedding benediction reminds us that the whole point of Christian marriage is so that the couple will extends the love they have for each other to the people around them and to those to whom love is a stranger. You can only stare into each other’s eyes for so long. At some point, true love is meant to spill over into the lives of the people around us.

And this principle is true for the church as well. The purpose of the love we share together here in our church family isn’t for us to keep to ourselves, but to extend to the people around us, into the streets and the neighborhoods of our community. This is the whole reason why we exist as a church.

In addition to Valentine’s Day, today is also known as Transfiguration Sunday. The gospel writer, Luke, tells us about the time when Jesus took three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John up a mountain and while they were on this mountain, Jesus was transfigured before them and Moses and Elijah, biblical figures from the Old Testament, surprisingly appeared with Jesus in that moment.

And of course, the disciples are amazed at what they are seeing. It’s the most incredible thing they have ever seen, Jesus and these two great heroes of faith shining radiantly on that mountain. I’m sure that Peter, James, and John would have loved to have sent out facebook updates of this incredible event to all of their friends.

But they do the next best thing and offer to build three dwelling places for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah because they didn’t want this incredible moment to end. But then a cloud comes upon them, a voice speaks, and just like that, this spectacular moment ends.

And before we know it, the disciples are already coming down the mountain and no sooner are they at the bottom of the mountain than they are faced with a man needing to be healed as well as the other demands of being followers of Jesus. It’s tough to have to come down from the mountain. Wouldn’t it be nice to just stay up there and continue to enjoy God’s glory being revealed?

But life doesn’t work that way. There are times when we are on the mountain top and we are blown away at God’s glory and how much God loves us, but there always comes that time when we need to come back down the mountain and offer God’s love to those around us.

Today, February 14, Valentine’s Day, Transfiguration Sunday, is a day that God is calling upon First United Methodist Church to come down from the mountain and take on a new ministry initiative that is part of a vision that is bigger than any one person or group of people will be able to pull off.

A little over two months ago, as we were beginning our Advent Season leading up to Christmas, I shared with you that 2010 was going to be our best year of ministry ever. Three years ago, our new Crossroads facility opened up allowing us to provide a new location in our city to help us reach more people for Jesus Christ. From bible studies, to a mid-week worship service, to our weekly Wednesday dinners, to concerts, recreation activities, hosting various church youth groups to do mission work in our area, children’s plays, Christmas Eve services, and a place for community groups to hold their events, we are blessed to have such an incredible resource to be used for ministry in the name of Jesus Christ.

In my short amount of time with you as your pastor, I have been amazed at the generous outpouring of your financial gifts that have made the Crossroads facility a reality for our congregation. We are currently in the middle of our 2nd financial campaign and to my new church family, I say, “thank you.” Because it’s through your gifts, that you are making these ministries and outreach opportunities possible.

I am overjoyed to share with you that we are only one month away from the beginning of another incredible ministry outreach which will be operated out of our Crossroads facility. It’s called “Second Saturday.” On the second Saturday of each month beginning in March, from 8:30 in the morning until noon, we are inviting our congregation and the people of our community to join us in gathering at Crossroads and spending that morning time offering the love of Jesus Christ in tangible ways to our community and world.

Our local missions team has been busy making plans to have a lot of different serving ministry opportunities for us to do for each of our second Saturdays. Some examples include assembling Haiti Health kits, visiting residents of a nearby nursing home, doing home repair work for people in need here in Lancaster, preparing meals to be served at a soup kitchen, working in a garden that provides food to our local food pantries, cleaning up litter along our roads.

These are just some of the ways that our new Second Saturday ministry initiative will help us offer our hearts to the people of Lancaster and our surrounding area. Regardless of our age or skill level, there will be something for everyone to do as part of our new Second Saturday ministry initiative.

For our Second Saturday gathering in the month of July, one of our serving ministry opportunities on that day will be organizing and distributing Christmas gifts to people who are in need here in Lancaster as part of our Christmas in July celebration. Since July 25 falls on a Sunday this year, we have decided to celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus Christ in the middle of the summer.

Since churches including our own typically have lower offering amounts in the middle of the summer, just imagine what a blessing it will be to the needy families of our community when our church will have this mid-year collection of Christmas gifts for people in need. The same generous Christmas spirit we have every December will be duplicated in the month of July!

And the really good news in all of this is that when we distribute these gifts during our Second Saturday in July, the temperature will be well above the freezing mark!

The Second Saturday ministry initiative is going to be a great way to offer our hearts for Lancaster.

Speaking of Crossroads, one of my goals as your pastor is to eventually see an additional worship service begin out at our Crossroads facility that will be designed to reach folks who have little or no church affiliation in our community. Before we even think of launching a new worship service at Crossroads, God is first calling us to begin building relationships with the people of that surrounding area of our city.

Demographic studies show that in communities like Lancaster, at least half of the population is not connected to any particular church. Couple that thought with the high percentage of people who perceive church buildings to be intimidating like the one we worship in today, our Crossroads facility with its modern day look becomes an even greater resource in helping us to offer our hearts to the people of Lancaster.

While a new worship service launch at Crossroads will most likely be something that will be well into the future, God is giving us plenty of opportunities right now to offer God’s love to the people of our community through word and deed.

Through the new Second Saturday ministry outreach, through our Christmas in July celebration this year, and through the many wonderful ministries that are already taking place in the life of our congregation, God is calling us to offer our hearts to the people of our community.

Friends, this is going to be our best year of ministry ever. By offering ourselves to the people of our community, more people will come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and more people will find a church home that will help them grow in their faith.

A couple of months ago, I attended a community church dinner here in Lancaster and I was able to get to know a really nice couple who are part of another church in our community. And in the course of our introductions, this couple shared with me that about a year ago, they were able to adopt a 3 and a half year old little boy from Ethiopia.

Well, everyone at our dinner table wanted to hear more about their adoption. And the couple went on to explain the adoption process and then they said, and I’ll never forget this. They were very specific to say that it was on Valentine’s Day, February 14th last year when they flew from the United States to go to Ethiopia to meet the little boy they were about to adopt.

With that information, they shared with us a picture of their adorable son who they’ve had now for a full year. As this couple told this remarkable story, you couldn’t help but share in their joy. I remember thinking about how they went through all of that effort and expense all because they wanted the love they had for each other as a couple to overflow into the life of this little child who was in need of a loving mother and father.

I wonder if this time next year, we too, will be saying, “Do you remember the day in worship when we launched our new ministry initiative?” “Yeah, it was on Valentine’s Day, February 14.”

This is an exciting time for First United Methodist Church. And yes, I still believe with all my heart, that this is going to be our best year of ministry ever.

Happy Valentine’s Day!