TOUCHING HOME
PLAY BALL
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 9:35-38
AUGUST 21, 2011
This past Wednesday night I went to a Rockies game at Coors Field. The Colorado Rockies were playing the Florida Marlins. This was my first chance to go to a Rockies game this year. I always have a great time. I went with my brother Greg and we also went with Bill Bolstrom, an elder here at the church that is a good friend and Bo Mitchell, one of the founders of our church who is also a wonderful friend. We had a great night. After the first inning the Rockies were ahead five to nothing, and after the third inning the Rockies were ahead eleven to nothing. We noticed something: no matter how far ahead the Rockies got, they didn’t invite fans to come and join in the game. Have you ever wanted to go on the field and be a part of the game? Have you ever wished you could just go out there for a minute or two?
I am 65, and I know that I wasn’t any good when I was 25, but there is this desire I have to have a chance to go up to the plate, grab a bat and see what would happen. I would like to face major league pitching just for a few minutes and see if I could make contact with the ball. I would like to go out on the mound and throw a few and see what happened. I would like to get in the game. But we all know that when you go to professional sports, they don’t let you get in the game. You are paying money for the privilege of being a fan.
The church is not like that. We don’t want you to just come and be a spectator. We don’t want you to just come and be an observer. We want you to get in the game. This new series is called Touching Home. We are using a baseball metaphor to convey a biblical truth that the call of Christ is that we would touch home. This is part of the Great Commission. Jesus said, “You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.” We take God’s gospel everywhere, but we begin in Jerusalem. You have got to touch home. We know in the world of baseball if you don’t touch home you don’t score. We want to make sure that we are being faithful to reach our Jerusalem and that we are touching home. These next few weeks we are going to take a look at how we can do a better job at reaching our community where Christ has placed us. We invite you to get in the game because, unless you join in, unless we all get in the game, we will never fulfill the Great Commission. We will never touch home.
We have this charge from Christ. We have it not only in Matthew chapter nine, but also in Luke chapter ten and in John’s gospel the fourth chapter. Similar words, almost identical words from Christ, where in Matthew nine, Luke ten and John four Christ says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out more laborers into the harvest, into the fields. The fields are white and ready for harvest.” Christ said these words again and again. Here is the interesting thing, if you look at Matthew nine and you look at Luke ten and you look at John four, they are all different settings, different contexts, different times and a different place. Jesus made the statement, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few,’ before he sent out the Twelve two-by-two. Then he made the statement before he sent out the 70, two-by-two. He made the statement in the aftermath of his conversation with the women at the well, “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.”
So, here is the point, this was a statement that Jesus obviously made again and again. That is the evidence from the text of scripture. This is a statement that Jesus made again and again and again. This was much on his mind as he looked at the people, as he saw them as harassed and helpless, sheep without a shepherd, as he was moved with compassion he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” This burden that God would send, the Father would send more laborers out into the field. This is the charge of Christ upon us. If we are to reach our Jerusalem, we need more laborers. This has been the challenge of the church in every generation: to find sufficient laborers to fulfill the charge given to the church, to find workers, to find Christians who were willing to serve.
Barb and I live in Castle Pines North and we moved there many years ago. Part of the reason we moved there is we get to drive Daniels Park Road. We love Daniels Park Road. We get to drive Daniels Park Road every day. I drive it coming to church; I drive it coming home from church. Sometimes I drive it many times a day. I know Daniels Park Road is dirt. I know it ruins your car and I believe it is worth it. So, in the south of Highlands Ranch, you can get on Griggs and you take Griggs to Daniels Park Road and you take Daniels Park Road to Daniels Park. It is just a beautiful drive. You feel like you are away from civilization, you feel like you are out in nature, you feel like there is peace in the world and you can take that drive down Daniels Park Road.
When you go past Daniels Park, Daniels Park Road dips down into the valley. There on the west side of the road there are two log cabins. These log cabins date to the 1860s. They are historic landmark structures. These cabins were once called the Pretty Woman Stagecoach Stop because Daniels Park Road used to be the stagecoach road in the 1860s and 1870s that brought people right here to Denver. The forest that the stagecoach road had to go through was dangerous because there were robbers in the woods and there were burglars and thieves. It is a little slice of western history.
In the old stagecoach era when people bought tickets for the stagecoach you could buy first class, second class or third class. If you have ever seen a stagecoach you have to marvel at that. Have you ever looked in a stagecoach? How can there be first class, second class and third class? The stagecoach is all just hard wood. You can sit on a bench facing backward; you can sit on a bench facing forward. You are crammed in there. It is miserable for everybody. There are no shock absorbers except for you. How can there be first, second and third class? First class, when you bought that ticket, it meant that when the stagecoach came to a steep incline, a tough section of road, you got to stay in the stagecoach. If you bought second class you had to get out and walk to lessen the load on the stagecoach. If you bought third class you agreed to get out and push and you made this agreement when you bought your tickets. As the stage travelled west or east you had made this commitment, first, second and third class.
We are the body of Christ assembled. It says in the book of James, “Show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a rich man in fine clothing and gold rings comes into your assembly and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in and you say to the rich man, ‘Have a seat here, please,’ while you say to the poor man, ‘Have a seat over there or sit here at my feet,’ have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” This is the body of Christ and there is no room for partiality, there is no room for prejudice. We are a community of equals. We are all equal. In the sight of God, we are all first class. He loves us like that. He brought us into his family and we are coheirs in Christ. There is a sense in which we are all third class, if you think of stagecoach imagery; we are all third class because we are all called to chip in. We have all got to get out and push. We’ve got to get in the game otherwise we will never fulfill the call of Christ. We will never be what the church of Jesus Christ was called to be.
I have three simple little teachings. The first one is this: get in the game no matter what your age is. Get in the game whether you are young or whether you are old. I love the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. The parable of the laborers in the vineyard is told in Matthew chapter 20 verses 1-16, told by the Lord Jesus Christ. In this parable, the householder is Jesus himself, so he is telling the parable about himself. The vineyard is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. We are the laborers. In this parable the householder, Jesus, goes into the village square at six a.m. and he hires men to go and work in his vineyard, offering them a denarius for the day. Then at nine a.m. he goes back into the village square and he recruits more laborers saying, “I will pay you what is fair.” Then at noon he recruits more laborers saying, “Go and work in my vineyard and I will pay you what is fair.”
Then at three p.m. he recruits more laborers saying, “I will pay you what is fair.” Then at five p.m., when there is only an hour left in the working day, he recruits more laborers in the village square saying, “I will pay you what is fair.” So, they all go and work in his vineyard.
At the end of the day, he gives them all a denarius. He gives each of them a denarius whether they started at six a.m. or five p.m., they all got a denarius. Those that came at six a.m. began to complain. They said, “Master, we worked all day long and these other guys have worked for one hour and we got the same wage.” He said, “What are you complaining about? Did I not agree with you at six a.m. that I would give you a denarius for the day? Do you begrudge my generosity and my grace?”
This has been a parable that has brought some controversy. It needs to be understood. Let me clarify this, the parable has nothing to do with heavenly rewards. The Bible is very clear, and there are many parables that teach that our heavenly rewards will vary. They will vary in heaven based on faithfulness here on earth. The Bible makes that clear. But, in this parable, the subject is salvation; it is not heavenly rewards but salvation itself. What Jesus is saying is, “Your salvation is by grace and it doesn’t matter whether you come early in the day or late in the day. Everyone who comes, everyone who enters the vineyard, everyone who enters the kingdom of God will be saved.”
So, I came at six a.m. Many of you know that. I have told you that I accepted Christ when I was five years old in our family home in the living room kneeling by my mom. I asked Jesus to come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior. I was five years old. I have been in the vineyard now for 60 years. It has been a long day. I have been, in the course of my ministry, I have been with people in the hospital who were at the end of their day. I have even climbed up onto the bed, held people’s hands, prayed with them when they are dying. I have seen people come to Christ at the last moment when there is one minute left in their life, but they still get a denarius. I tell you; they are saved. That is the teaching of the parable. It doesn’t matter whether you come at age 5 or 95, you get salvation if you receive Christ and you enter his vineyard.
Now, having said that, I want to make it clear that when you accept Christ, whether you are young or whether you are old, if possible, if any time remains, you are supposed to go into the vineyard. You notice as you read the parable, they all go into the vineyard with whatever time they have, whether it is early in their life or late in their life, whether it is early in the day or late in the day, with whatever time you have, you go into the vineyard. Get in the game. It is just not biblical to say you are a Christian and not enter the vineyard. If humanly possible, enter the vineyard. Get in the game and support the cause of the kingdom and the church.
I love the story of Grandma Moses. Grandma Moses died in 1961, she was 101. She wrote her autobiography in 1952. She simply called it My Life History. If you know anything about Grandma Moses you know that she was an American folk artist and famous. She painted realistic scenes of rural life in America. Some of her paintings are just beautiful. I was looking through some of her paintings just this last week and they are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Did you know that her painting career did not begin until she was in her seventies? She didn’t even start as a painter until she was in her seventies and she lived until she was 101. In those final three decades she was prolific in her painting: a whole new career late in life.
God can call us to a whole new deal late in life. You look at Moses, when Jochebed, his mother, put him in the Nile, in a desperate effort to save his life. That was the beginning of 40 years in Egypt because he was rescued from the Nile by a princess, the daughter of the king, of the Pharaoh. It is useless to try to figure out which daughter or which princess this was. We don’t know. We do know that Ramses II had 100 daughters and that just shows how impossible it is to try to discern who this princess might be. We do not know that the Pharaoh was Ramses II; there is much debate about that. This princess rescued Moses. Moses was raised in Egypt in the royal house. He was taught Egyptian culture and Egyptian ways and became very skilled the first 40 years of his life. Then he fled to Midian where he became a sheep herder and agriculturalist for the next 40 years of his life.
So, when God finally came to him and called him into ministry, he was 80 years old. Eighty years old when God came to him and called him into ministry and said, “You will lead my people to Israel. At age 80, you are going to lead my people, my nation Israel. You will go to the Pharaoh of Egypt and you will say to him, ‘Thus sayeth the Lord, ‘Let my people go.”” He lived another 40 years and died at the age of 120. It doesn’t matter what your age is. It doesn’t matter how old you are and how young you are, we need you. Get in the game.
Secondly, get in the game not only no matter what your age, get in the game whether you think you are going to win or lose. It doesn’t matter whether you think you are going to win or lose, just get in the game and see what God does. I love the parable of the soils. The parable of the soils is told in Matthew 13. Our Lord Jesus Christ explained the parable of the soils in verses 1-23. In this parable the sower goes out to sow and as he sows the seed, some of the seed falls on hard ground, which is the ground of the path and it cannot penetrate the soil. The birds then come and take the seed away. Other seed falls on rocky ground, where there is just a thin layer of soil over rocks and the seeds immediately spring up but they can’t take root because there is no depth to the soil. Eventually the plant withers and the product of the seed withers. The other seed falls on thorny soil and the plant rises up but begins to be choked by weeds and by thorns and loses its life. Finally, some seed falls on good soil and bears fruit, some thirty-fold, sixty-fold and one hundred-fold.
Now Jesus explains the parable to the disciples. The seed is the gospel and the people of Christ are the sowers. We have been called to sow the seed. As we sow the seed it is going to fall on different kinds of soil, different kinds of hearts, and different kinds of people. Sometimes when we share Christ and we serve Christ, the message of Christ will fall on hard hearts, hard ground. Jesus said the seed of the gospel will not penetrate and the evil one will come and snatch the seed away. Other times he said the seed of the gospel will fall on rocky ground, on rocky hearts, where there is no depth to the soil. The seed will spring up instantly, the gospel will be received with joy, but it will not take root and it won’t be able to bear up under times of trouble and persecution. The plant, the product, the fruit of the gospel will just wither and die. Then other seeds will fall on the thorny ground. The plant, as it struggles to grow, the gospel as it struggles to grow in a person’s life will be choked out by the cares of this world, by the worries and anxieties of this world and by the pursuit of wealth and the materialism of this world. Jesus said, some seed, as you get in the game, as you sow the seed, some seed will fall on good soil and bear fruit, some thirty-fold, some sixty-fold, some one hundred-fold, all of it by the providence of God. Just play the game, get in the game and see God work and be willing to take a risk.
That is why I love the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 and the parable of the pounds in Luke 19. These two parables are very similar. In both cases you have this guy, unwilling to get in the game. You have this one guy called the wicked servant, unwilling to get in the game, unwilling to take a risk. In the parable of the talents, this guy buries his talent, not willing to invest it, not willing to win or lose, he just buries it. When the master comes, he is upset. In the other parable, the parable of the pounds, the wicked servant takes his pound and just wraps it up in a napkin and sets it aside, unwilling to play the game, unwilling to risk, unwilling to venture, unwilling to risk winning or losing. You see the message is clearly the master would rather have you try and fail than to not have you try at all. The master would rather have you risk and lose than to just sit on your talent. Get in the game; that is call of Christ upon his people everywhere, in every nation, in every generation. Get in the game. When you get in the game, he does amazing things.
Some of you have known me for many years. Some of you hardly know me at all. Some of you have been coming to our church for a long time; some of you have just come for the last few weeks. Some of you know that when I started my ministry it was at Faith Presbyterian Church out in Aurora, Colorado. I served there for eight and a half years. I was minister of education. I was in charge of adult education there and I was in charge of our youth ministry. Most of all I was in charge of our Sunday school ministries and I loved it. I worked with the children’s ministry. So, for eight and a half years I was in charge of our Sunday school programs, recruited our teachers, I tried to train them, encourage them and bless our kids.
I thought I would do that my whole life. I was really kind of stunned when God called me to be a senior pastor. I think I could have ministered as a minister of education with joy all the days of my life. On Sunday mornings, I would always have teacher meetings. Teachers had to be there for Sunday school anyway, so we had an early morning Sunday meeting at seven a.m. over breakfast. I would teach the teachers how to use visual aids. Back then, we didn’t have the cool stuff we have today. We used chalkboards, flannel graphs, we had slide projectors, and we were just beginning to use overhead projectors, which were considered so radical and so cool. They have already become obsolete. We had film projectors and movie projectors. We tried to take the Bible and make it fun, take the Bible and make it interesting to teach the kids in a fun way.
Part of my job was recruiting teachers. For years I sought to recruit teachers. Children’s ministry was my life. In addition to being the minister of education at Faith Presbyterian in Aurora I was a representative of Gospel Light Publications and I went all over the country teaching churches how to use Gospel Light curriculum and how to implement it in their Sunday schools. I look out on you and some of you were there at Faith Aurora all those years ago with me. I recognize some of you as teachers from my past. I marvel that you are still here and that we are all still alive, but I thank God for your faithfulness. Some of you were there at those seven a.m. meetings. Some of you remember the moment I came up to you and asked you to teach Sunday school, or when I called you and asked you to teach. I noticed as I would walk around the church people would try to avoid me. They would think, “Oh, no! Here comes Jim. He is going to ask me to teach Sunday school. I don’t want to be rude, I don’t want to disappoint him, but I don’t want to do it.” I would see people run into the bathrooms when they didn’t even have to go.
I have a real heart today for those who work with Sunday school. I thank God for Sheila Robinson. What an incredible servant of Christ she is. I thank God for her whole team, the whole team that serves in the Family Ministry Department. Do you realize it takes 1000 people every year, 1000 volunteers to make this ministry to kids work? One thousand volunteers. That is why we say, “Get in the game. We are dead without you. We are never going to touch home base; we are never going to touch any base without you.” It is just desperately important that we get in the game. I hope you know that Christ is watching.
I will tell you a little story. This took place in 1839 just outside of St. Petersburg in Russia. There was this married couple and they were living in relative poverty. They were relatively poor in 1839. They lived on the outskirts of St. Petersburg in a very poor section of town. They weren’t starving. They had food but they were very, very poor. One day they were in their house and they were approaching the evening meal. The day was getting later and cooler. They went outside the house before the evening meal just to get some fresh air. They went outside the house; they noticed a beggar coming down the street. A beggar was coming down the street and he was wearing rags; his clothes were torn, his hair all disheveled and his face was just kind of grimy. they noticed that people were avoiding this guy as the beggar went down the street; people were going back into their houses or just avoiding him.
This young couple was a Christian couple in 1839 St. Petersburg. They thought, “We should help this guy.” They walked out in their front yard to their gate and they stopped the beggar. They said, “We are about to have the evening meal. You look like you could use some food. Why don’t you come in and have dinner with us tonight and sit at the table with us?” The beggar was so thankful. As he came in and they had dinner together, they said to the beggar, “Why don’t you take a few days, maybe a week, and just stay with us, so you can experience the comforts of home for a while and get a little bit healthier.”
The next morning when the couple got up, they expected to see the beggar in their house but he had left. He left very early. They just assumed that they were never going to see the guy again. “I hope God blesses him.” Later in the day, the same day, they are approaching the evening meal again and they are in their house and they hear this commotion outside. They go outside the house and as they look down the street, they see a group of soldiers from the royal house coming down with the royal carriage. It is coming right down their street in a part of St. Petersburg where the royal family never went. People were coming out of their houses to see this thing, this royal carriage coming down their street in their neighborhood.
This young Christian couple, as they stood out there just marveling at what was happening, was stunned when the royal carriage stopped right in front of their house. Out of the royal carriage steps Tsar Nicholas I, who for 30 years was the tsar of Russia. He stepped out of the carriage, and when this young Christian couple looked at him, their jaws just dropped. They were stunned that this was the beggar. This was the beggar who had eaten dinner with them the night before and had spent the night at their house, who had appeared in rags and whose hair was all disheveled.
I want to acknowledge that Tsar Nicholas I was a Christian tsar. He is called by historians the Defender of the Orthodox Church, the Defender of the Orthodox Faith. He was devout in his way, but he was a mixed bag. He at times was brutal and at times he was kind and he pretty much started the Crimean war, so I don’t want to white-wash this guy. I will acknowledge, historically, that he had times of incredible kindness. He liked to go out amongst his people and check their lives, their lifestyles, their hearts, their needs and that is what he had done. Now he had come in appreciation to this couple and he brought some great wealth from his royal treasury and gave it to this Christian couple. It is one of many stories about Tsar Nicholas I.
Here is the deal; I want you to understand there is a little bit of Christ in this story of Tsar Nicholas I. You get a little glimpse of what Christ is like because he is among us. You understand that Christ is among us. He is watching everything. Before him nothing is hidden, all is open and lay bare to the eyes of him. Someday he is going to say to some of us, “I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me to drink, I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and imprisoned and you came to me. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. In as much as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me. Come, o blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom.” If there is nothing that would make you want to get in the game, surely, that would. Just the fact that he is watching and that he cares so much, that he blesses the faithful and rewards them, surely, if you realize that his power is with you when you are willing to get in the game. When you are willing to volunteer his power is with you.
I want you to hear another little story. It is about Dr. Charles Goff. I know that most of you have never heard of Dr. Charles Goff, but I really like this guy. As I look at some of Christian history I think, “This is one of the really good guys.” Dr. Charles Goff was a Methodist minister. As a young man, he went through Methodist seminary and received the equivalency of a Master of Divinity degree. After seminary, as a young man, before he was ordained, he went to teach at a YMCA camp. He was offered a position as a teacher at a YMCA camp for the whole week. He was the teacher for seven days. He would teach every morning and every evening. There he was, he was so excited, just out of seminary, he had so much he wanted to say, he was so excited about this chance to tell these kids about Jesus Christ.
He shows up at the camp and he starts out teaching that first morning and he notices that the kids aren’t paying a lot of attention. That evening, he teaches again and he notices that there are fewer kids. The next morning, he teaches again and he notices that there are fewer kids still and they are not paying attention. At the evening lesson, less kids and the following day even less and so on. This is a Christian YMCA camp; the kids were required to go to these meetings and they were playing hooky. By the end of the week, Dr. Charles Goff felt like just a complete failure. He just felt so broken. He felt like, “Lord, I lack talent, I have failed. I couldn’t communicate the beauty of your gospel to these kids. I just feel so sorry.”
He almost quit the ministry, but he loved Christ. He went ahead with his ordination and continued to serve. He served as a pastor of a small Methodist church and then he began to be anointed by Christ. He felt the power of the spirit of God. Charles Goff went on to receive his doctorate. He went on to become the pastor of the Chicago Temple. The Chicago Temple was one of the great churches in America. It still stands today. We have a picture of the Chicago Temple, First United Methodist Church. Dr. Charles Goff was the pastor there and that church is still there today. You see the tower on the top of the temple building. The tower had the sky chapel, which was billed as the highest chapel in the world. In terms of buildings and heights of rooms in buildings, it was the highest. He had his parsonage, Charles Goff did, up in that tower; that was his home where he lived and his offices were up there. Down at the street level was the main worship center and sanctuary. That is still there today.
Here is the deal; in 1935, Charles Goff wanted to have a mural painted on one of the great walls in the Chicago Temple. He thought, “Who would I like to paint this?” He thought, “Warner Sallman could paint this.” It was Warner Sallman who painted the Head of Christ, which is the most popular portrait of Christ in the world today. It has sold more copies than any other picture of Christ on the planet today. You have all seen that picture, the Head of Christ by Warner Sallman. He painted that in 1924. In 1933 at McCormick Theological Seminary, the students were asked their favorite portrait of Christ and they said Warner Sallman’s portrait. That word spread everywhere, all over the world. People began to buy this image of Christ. Warner Sallman was famous.
Dr. Charles Goff invited him to come and do this mural, to paint a biblical scene on the wall of the Chicago Chapel. He didn’t believe Warner Sallman would ever say yes, that he would ever come or that he would be willing to do it. He was stunned when Warner Salman said, “Yes, I would love to come and paint this painting for you at the Chicago Temple.” Warner Salman came and he did a beautiful, masterful job painting a scene from the Bible. When he was done, Dr. Charles Goff said, “Wow! This is so beautiful. It is just what I wanted. It is going to serve the church for generations. Thank you. When I asked you, I just didn’t believe you would possibly come and do this for us. I want to thank you.” Warner Sallman said, “I would do anything for you, Dr. Goff.” Charles Goff said, “What do you mean?” He said, “You see, when I was a kid, I accepted Christ at a YMCA camp when you were the speaker. One night as you spoke, I asked Jesus into my heart and I accepted him as my Lord and Savior. Later in the week when I was going back to my cabin, I had this vision of Christ. That is the picture, the Head of Christ. I will always thank God for you.”
The reason I love that story is you see the power of Christ. Charles Goff thought that was the biggest failure of his life, that week at the YMCA camp. He just felt like a total failure, a big zero and look what Christ did. You never know what Christ is going to do. If you agreed to teach Sunday School this morning, you don’t know who will be in your class, you don’t know what God might do, you don’t know who might someday come back to you and say, “Thank you.” You don’t know the power of Christ. It is not whether you think you are going to win or lose, just get in the game. Give him a chance. See what he can do, because God is amazing.
One final thought. Get in the game whether you feel like it or not. I think of this little parable in Matthew chapter 21, the parable of the two sons. It is kind of a strange parable. Jesus says to the multitudes, “There is a man who has two sons. He says to them, ‘Two sons go and work in my field.’ The first son says, ‘No,’ but later goes. The second son says ‘yes,’ but doesn’t go. Which son did the will of his father?” The crowd said, “The first” Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.” You understand even if you really don’t feel like it, go into the field. Get in the game. Out in the lobby today, in the Atrium today, we have opportunities for you to get into the game. You can sign up there and be a Sunday School teacher. We need hundreds of you. You might want to sing in The Choir. We are starting up our adult choir and anyone 14 years of age or older can get in the adult choir. Our kids’ choir is from age 5 to age 12. If you are 13, we don’t want you. Get in the game. We have got opportunities for you to be in small groups, for you to go and work in the inner city. There are so many chances for you to get in the game and make a difference. Give God a chance and see what Christ might do with this church if we would all get in the game. We would touch home; we would reach our Jerusalem when we reach out with the power of Christ to the world by his grace and power. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.