Special Note
The weekend of February 8-10, our church will engage in a week of reflection and study called, “First Things.”  Dr. Jim Baucom, pastor of the Rivermont Avenue Baptist Church in Lynchburg, VA, will be our guest facilitator.  Rivermont is a church very similar to Cliff Temple.  For years it was a declining congregation in a transitional inner-city neighborhood.  Under Jim’s leadership, the church has reclaimed its identity and embraced a new dream for its future.

The purpose of “First Things” will be to create a process by which our church defines the non-negotiable core values upon which we can all agree as essential to our church’s life and out of which we will do our ministry.  These “values” will be intended to help us redefine our mission and give unified focus and purpose to all that we do.

This sermon is the fourth in a series intended to provide the necessary focus in preparation for February 8-10.  Much of what is said in these sermons will assume what is only being communicated orally in our worship services at Cliff Temple.  The purpose of this special note was to provide a better context for understanding the sermon.

Thank you.

When Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963 and delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, he helped ignite the most significant reform in American human rights since the Civil War.  What gave his speech its power was not just the fact that he was telling the truth and telling it eloquently but the fact that his dream was also the dream of the 250,000 people gathered there that day and millions of other oppressed people who had quietly harbored that dream for decades.  King was telling the truth about racial injustice; he was also giving voice to a larger dream. 

We all have dreams.  For our families, our careers, our children.  We have a dream for this church.  Some of us have shared those dreams with others.  Some have not.  Some of you have seen your dreams for this church dashed over and over again by forces over which you had no control.  But, you kept dreaming and hoping and believing.  Some who had other dreams have moved on to other places.  Others have come to join with us because they have sensed that we have a dream in common with theirs.  A dream about what a church should believe and how a church should work. 

Next weekend, we will give our common dream a voice.  We will verbalize what so many of us have been hoping, believing, dreaming and praying for, some for decades.  It is a monumental task we face.  And, because I believe God has called me to be your pastor, I believe it is important for you to hear from me what I dream for this church.  My dream is gathered around three words.  I will use three objects to help visualize those words.

Boundaries.  (Object lesson: an 1862 map of Texas).  When Moses died, God transferred the mantle of leadership for his people to Joshua’s shoulders.  Then, he called Joshua to lead his people to a new land, one outside the boundaries of any place he’d ever known with these words.  “‘Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.’”  People of faith often describe their experience with God in terms of a pilgrimage through unknown territory.  They keep moving forward, unintimidated by fear or failure, because they know that there is no place they can go where God will not be with them.  They draw strength and courage from the promise of his presence, even if they find themselves in the “valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4, NIV).”  This church is at a point, as never before, where we are being asked to consider whether we’re now willing to move on toward a place we’ve never gone before.  Whether this is a thrilling possibility or a threatening one depends on what our boundaries mean to us. 

In ancient cartography, boundaries not only denoted the limitation of territory, they also denoted the limitation of knowledge.  Mapmakers drew the boundary lines at the edge of the world that was known at that time.  Outside those boundaries, beyond dark forests or wide oceans or impassable mountains, they simply wrote, “Here Be Dragons.”  Along comes a 19^th century artic explorer, Sir John Franklin, a man driven by a sense of adventure about the places where knowledge stopped and speculation started.  His world was not limited by the boundaries others drew for him.  He was even known to take out his pen and, where the mapmaker had written, “Here Be Dragons,” cross out “Dragons” and write, “God.”  “Here be God,” where most people feared to tread. Franklin went exploring there because he believed there was no place he could go that he would not find God.  (Thanks to James Lamkin, “Here Be God,” The Pinnacle, Northside Drive Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA, January 15, 2002)  Will we believe that, too?

This 1862 map of Texas was a gift to me upon graduation from seminary.  It is one of my most prized possessions.  Interesting is the fact that, on this map, the place I was raised doesn’t even exist yet.  Out there, the cartographer simply wrote, “Land without wood or water.”  Sounds like “Here Be Dragons.”  What was it that attracted someone to that country?  The closest thing to civilization and safety was hundreds of miles away.  What made them go there and build a life?  I don’t know for sure.  What I do know is that had someone not seen new hope where others only saw dragons, my life would not be what it is today.  Someone explored for me the place that became my home.  I dream of a church that will do the same.  If next weekend is going to be everything we’ve prayed it would be, we’re going to have to ask and answer some tough questions about boundaries.  We’ll have to go to the edge of boundaries others have drawn for us and step across them if we’re going to discover God’s future for us. 

That’s because boundaries can be good unless they become barriers, especially to faith.  There are all kinds of boundaries we need to reconsider, some we’ll need to cross.  Boundaries of architecture, programming, worship, mission and ministry partnership.  With rare exception, we live and minister within the confines of boundaries others have drawn for us in a time when cultural, social, economic and scientific transformations have made ours a world without borders.  Boundaries that defined the limits of their knowledge and faith experience but not our higher calling.  Whether our boundaries will be fences that hold us in or lines that distinguish new opportunities for faith is up to us. 

It is important to remember that God warned Joshua not to forget crucial moral and spiritual boundaries.  Be “‘careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you,” God told Joshua.  There are those who, like a wild horse, kick at every boundary simply because it’s there.  They live in a perpetual state of spiritual adolescence.  They don’t appreciate that adolescence is a good thing as long as you keep moving on through it to something else.  It’s dangerous to cross every boundary just for the sake of crossing it.  It’s also dangerous to stay confined by any boundary because of the notion that any man-made boundary is sacred, just because it’s there.

Nancy’s mother received a phone call this week from some broken-hearted missionaries in Europe.  They received notice that, in order to stay on the field, they now have to sign the Southern Baptist Convention’s 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.  It is a doctrinal statement that, among other things, insists that women are subservient to men and that women are prohibited from serving in certain positions of ministry just because they are women.  All these years these missionaries have served Jesus based on their gifts and calling.  Now, that’s not good enough.  Now, they are being asked to live within doctrinal boundaries that mark out what they believe to be nothing more than a creed.  They won’t sign.  Neither would I.  It will cost them far more to act than it will me to speak.  But, those who choose to be people of faith will always face the danger allowing or making man-made physical, social and denominational boundaries sacred.  Of making permanently sacred what is only temporary and human.  I have a dream that this church will see the old boundaries others have drawn for us as lines that distinguish new opportunities for faith.  I’m so anxious to explore new frontiers of the gospel I’ve never before seen.  Anyone here want to go with me?

Gifts.  (Object lesson: A set of golf clubs)  The apostle Paul encouraged the early church with these words (see 1 Corinthians 12:4-5, 7, 12).  What identifies each member of the church as valuable is that they are part of a larger body and gifted in some way meant to benefit it.  Our value is not determined by how our gift compares to another’s.  We are valuable because we are loved, redeemed and gifted, all of us, for God’s work in this world. 

I’ve come far enough in golf to learn that there are certain clubs you use to do certain things.  The driver is for long distances.  Irons are mostly for the middle of the fairway.  There is even a club for when you get in trouble, the sand wedge.  No one club gets the job done.  The driver is the biggest and most powerful club, but, without the quiet little putter, it would never be part of a winning set.  Every club has potential; no club matters more than another.  Scripture teaches us that, in church, there are big drivers and quiet putters.  By God’s design, we need both.

Interestingly, there is even a broken club here.  It’s broken because Nancy backed over my golf bag on the way out of the garage one day recently.  It proved to be a good opportunity for us to affirm our love for each other.  But, I left the club in the bag this morning because it represents those who are gifted but broken among us and those who are broken who yet need to feel welcomed, too.  This church has been very good at making room for broken people, even in who you called as your pastor.  I dream of a church that is willing to push the boundaries a little further and opens it doors a little wider so that this becomes more and more a place where people who are bruised and battered and broken can come and find hope.  Martin Luther King pushed the boundaries of justice and brotherhood further than any in his generation to make room for those bruised by incomprehensible prejudice.  He’s gone now.  The mantle of leadership has been transferred to us.  What will we do with it?  By the way, everyone in this room has been broken, is broken now or will be broken.  We will all be run over.  If this church became all that you dream it would be, would it still be a place you could call home when you are broken?

Common Ground.  (Object lesson:  Communion Table)  Speaking of brokenness, we can only gather around this Table because of a struggle Jesus settled with his heavenly Father before he was crucified.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, just before he was arrested, Jesus was so overwhelmed by what it would take to be obedient that “he threw himself on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want (Matthew 26:39).”  We have life and hope because Jesus was willing to lay everything, even his very human dream for a safer life, on the altar for us. 

This last Tuesday, Griffin and I were in Waco and met with Julie Pennington-Russell.  Julie has been the pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church in Waco about as long as I have been your pastor.  She was thrilled to be called by a church that would not allow boundaries others had drawn to limit their understanding of God’s calling and gifts that have nothing to do with a person’s sex.   But, it has not been easy.  When the church called her, seventy families left the church.  Just one year ago she grew so discouraged that she considered leaving the church and the ministry.  Instead, on a day much like this one, she just laid her heart bare before her people.  And, she asked them one question.  She asked them if they would be willing to lay everything on the table for the sake of the one main thing that mattered most.  Every idea.  Every committee.  Every dollar.  Every program.  Every staff position.  Everything.  On the table.  And, do you know what happened?  They did it.  And, it has begun to reshape that church’s life.  They decided that nothing, not one dollar, one committee, one program, one staff position, that nothing was sacred except the Lordship of Jesus. 

We met in a coffee shop, Common Grounds, just off the Baylor campus.  I remembered the directions but forgot the name.  So, I was really confused when I discovered that there was no sign on the place.  It’s just an old house.  So, I asked a young lady sitting on the front porch, “Is this the Coffee Grounds?”  She looked at me like, “you poor confused middle-aged person” and graciously said, “No, this is the Common Grounds.”  That’s where Julie, Griffin and I met.  Not just for coffee, but on the common ground of hope that God is not through with us or our churches yet.  That God is not into sexism anymore than he is racism.  That if we are willing to trust him, to go into places where others have warned, “Here Be Dragons,” we can find hope and freedom.  The common ground of hoping that, in each of our churches, folks will believe and declare that there is nothing sacred but the Lordship of Jesus and lay everything, everything, on the altar, no matter what it costs. 

Now, it’s mine turn to ask.  Will we lay everything on this Table for him?  Out of the conviction that the only thing that is ultimately sacred is the Lordship of Jesus, will we bring everything to this Table and lay it here?  Every program?  Every dollar?  Every committee?  Every idea?  Every Sunday School class?  Everything?  Let’s take it even further.  We will, like Jesus, bring even our dreams to this altar and say to the Jesus who died for us, “not our will but yours be done?” 

We have a dream.  But, more than that, we have a calling.  A calling to look beyond the boundaries others have drawn for us.  To embrace our giftedness and the giftedness of the most broken among us.  To lay everything on his altar for the sake of his kingdom.