Rev. David Holwick ZC
First Baptist Church [not part of original series]
Ledgewood, New Jersey (a newer version is A Child Shall Lead Them)
September 5, 1999
Isaiah 11:1-9
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SERMON SUMMARY: We live in a dangerous world but God promises it will be
better. The millennial kingdom of Jesus will be perfect, and
Christians are called to live by kingdom principles right now.
Specific application to a community-wide anti-violence campaign in
Roxbury Township, New Jersey.
I. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my.
A. Famous primitive American painting.
Setting looks like autumn in Hudson Valley, New York.
Boy stands with ox and lion and wolf.
Everyone is getting along just fine.
B. What your perfect world be like?
In my perfect world people who are 43 would feel as good as
they did when they were 16.
In my perfect world I could eat as much Haagan Daz ice cream
as we wanted, and still lose weight.
In my perfect world I would get a nice fat tax refund,
even though I didn't pay any taxes.
In my perfect world there would be no cancer, poverty, or wars.
Every family would be happy, and the future would hold no fear.
#4787
II. We aren't quite there.
A. Natural world hasn't arrived.
1) After hiking in Yellowstone's backcountry, Celeste reads
a book in the car on the way home.
It is about people who camp like we did, where we did.
And grizzly bears ate them.
All we had for protection was Daniel's imitation
Swiss Army knife.
2) Even tamed animals often turn on their owners.
3) Nature remains cruel, "red in tooth and claw."
Sir Richard Burton, famous explorer of Africa and the Middle East,
was made the British consul in Damascus and moved there with his
wife Isabel in 1869. They made their home in the Kurdish village
of Salahiyyeh and collected a menagerie. Their biographer Edward
Rice writes:
The Burtons had stables filled with horses. "I know everything
they say, and think, and feel; and they know also what I say to
them," said Isabel. Her special forte was rescuing animals and
also trying to convert the natives, of whatever religion, to her
kind of Roman Catholicism. She had donkeys and a camel, turkeys,
bull terriers, pye-dogs (once as many as fifty), lambs, pigeons and
goats, a white Persian cat, a pet lamb, chickens, geese, guinea
fowl, a panther so tame it would eat from one's hand, and, as
Burton remarked, "other notions."
Isabel spent many hours trying to train natural enemies to love
each other, but the panther ate the lamb and chased the goats, one
of which jumped into the river and drowned; the fowl ate the seeds
and flowers in the garden, the cat killed the birds, and the dogs
worried the cat, but Isabel noted that the survivors of the
menagerie became "a really harmonious family."
#4800
[not used in original sermon]
B. Human world isn't there, either.
1) Current tragedies are shaking up America.
a) Littleton massacre.
1> Kids in our Roxbury schools are afraid in the halls.
2> One asks, will daily fights lead to something worse?
b) Stockbroker shootings.
2) "Our group" is more important than the whole.
C. Can it change?
1) We approach a new millennium, we wonder about possibilities.
a) A horrible, hate-filled future of social decay?
b) A time of peace, harmony and prosperity?
2) Can churches make harmony happen?
a) Evangelicals are saddled with a pessimistic worldview.
1> We secretly want world to go to heck in a handbasket.
2> All have sinned - especially those other people.
3> Only Jesus can straighten it out.
b) Yet Jesus gives another side.
1> We are to be salt, peacemakers.
2> Paul says in Romans 12:18 -
"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you,
live at peace with everyone."
c) We can't bring millennium, but we can make a difference.
1> We should be part of solution, not a cynical
portion of the problem.
3) What must we do?
III. "Stand Up For Roxbury" program.
A. Transformation in Littleton, Colorado.
1) Community, schools, churches have banded together.
a) Churches especially are having a revival.
b) Schools can't do it by themselves.
2) It is making an impact after the tragedy.
a) Could such an effort avert a tragedy here?
B. Roxbury wants to make a better environment for its citizens.
1) We have had our share of rage situations.
2) Growth and congestion put people on edge.
3) It takes great effort to keep things peaceable.
IV. Our Community Covenant.
A. Principles.
1) Peace depends on the whole community, not just some.
2) Life is sacred - God wants us to be better.
3) Harsh words can lead to violent action.
4) Treating people as outsiders can turn them against us.
5) Social peace requires positive action.
B. Promised actions.
1) Enhance life.
2) Reach out to alienated.
3) Be positive and affirming.
4) Challenge violence and hate.
C. Public commitment.
1) Everyone asked to sign.
2) Everyone to encourage others to sign.
3) We need to be community-minded.
a) Harder today than 30 or even 20 years ago.
b) We can't know everyone in town anymore.
c) Can we get along with them anyway?
V. We have the dream.
A. Christians can make a difference.
1) Yancey's question.
Christian journalist Philip Yancey has been asking a
question of strangers -- for example, seatmates on an
airplane -- whenever he strikes up a conversation:
When he says the words EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN, what comes to
their mind?
In reply he hears about scandal-plagued televangelists and
strident pro-life activists, or opposition to gay rights.
Not once -- not once! -- has he heard a positive description.
As a journalist, though, Yancey has had the privilege of
seeing many wonderful examples of Christians who make a
positive difference.
Although this group does not often make the newspapers,
its members serve faithfully, seasoning our culture with
the preservative of the gospel.
Yancey once interviewed Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern
hospice movement.
A social worker and nurse, she was appalled at the way medical
staff treated people who were about to die.
In essence, they ignoring them, as tokens of failure.
This attitude offended Saunders as a Christian, for she knew
that care for the dying was traditionally one of the
church's seven works of mercy.
Since no one would listen to a nurse, she returned to medical
school in middle age and became a doctor.
Then she founded a place where people could come to die with
dignity and without pain.
Now there are 2,000 hospices in the United States alone, about
half of which have a Christian base.
Saunders believed from the beginning that Christians offer the
best combination of physical, emotional, and spiritual care
for those facing death.
Then there's Millard Fuller, a millionaire businessman from
Alabama, who still speaks with a cotton-fields twang.
Rich but miserable, his marriage on the rocks, he headed to
Americus, Georgia, and got involved in a Christian commune.
Before long, Fuller had given away his personal fortune and
founded an organization on the simple premise that every
person on the planet deserves a decent place to live.
Today Habitat for Humanity organizes hundreds of thousands of
volunteers to build houses all over the world, including
Morris County.
Yancey once heard Fuller attacked by an elderly Jewish lady
who was scandalized to learn that her money was going to
support a Christian mission.
Fuller patiently explained, "Ma'am, we don't try to evangelize.
"You don't have to be a Christian to live in one of our
houses, or to help us build one.
"But the reason I do what I do, and so many of our volunteers
do what they do, is that we're being obedient to Jesus."
The artist Rousseau is known for his paintings of paradise set
in Pacific island surroundings.
He said the church set up an irresolvable loyalty dilemma.
How can Christians be good citizens of this world if they are
primarily concerned about the next world?
The people I have mentioned, and millions like them, disprove
his argument.
As C. S. Lewis has noted, people most conscious of another
world have made the most effective Christians in this one.
"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in.
Aim at earth and you get neither."
#4612
B. The dream will remain a dream - for a while.
1) We can make the world better, but not perfect.
a) We can make mice smarter, but cats will still
eat them!
2) Isaiah points to the one who will make the dream come true.
a) The "little child" who leads the animals is the Messiah.
b) Jesus will come back and make the world new.
3) Do you know this Jesus?
a) Before he can change the world, he must change you.
b) Ask him to give you a new heart and a new compassion.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#4612 "My Gallery Of Saints: Examples Of Christians Who Dispense Grace,"
by Philip Yancey, Christianity Today magazine, February 3,
1997, page 136.
#4787 "The Perfect World!" sermon by Pastor Vince Gerhardy, St. Luke's
Lutheran Church, Nambour, Queensland, Australia, preached on
December 6, 1998. [modified from his original]
#4800 "Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton," by Edward Rice, 1990,
page 409.
These and 4,700 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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"Stand Up For Roxbury (New Jersey)" Community Covenant, inspired by events
in Littleton, Colorado, in 1999. Distributed to entire town. Ledgewood
is a neighborhood in Roxbury.
WE ACCEPT THE FOLLOWING BASIC PRINCIPLES...
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1. It takes all of us working together, to create the school
community that we want and deserve.
2. Every person's life is sacred.
3. Every person is deserving of respect and dignity.
4. Our community has the responsibility to take care of its members
and to create a safe, nurturing environment for all, free of
fear, threats and intimidation.
5. The words we speak can cause harm and can lead to hurtful and
dangerous actions.
6. Weapons of any kind have no place in our schools and should not
be easily accessible to our children.
7. Ostracizing others and making them feel like outsiders is wrong.
8. Anti-social statements and actions must not be ignored.
9. Hate literature and symbols, as well as other destructive
behavior, must be challenged.
10. Friendship and a sense of social responsibility require us to
get help for those who are angry or in pain.
THEREFORE, WE PROMISE OURSELVES TO TAKE THE FOLLOWING ACTIONS:
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1. Identify ourselves as members of STAND UP FOR R0XBURY and
encourage others to join us.
2. Acknowledge and encourage those actions that enhance the value
of every person's life.
3. Create programs to increase sensitivity and understanding among
different groups.
4. Provide additional services to those young people who are
alienated or on the periphery of their peer group.
5. Speak to each other in a more positive or affirming way.
6. Report the presence of guns, knives, or anything in our schools
that could be used to harm people.
7. Reach out to those who are put down or cast aside for being
different.
8. Speak openly against those who threaten others even in a casual
way.
9. Challenge those who slander others or display offensive symbols.
10. Try to be more inclusive in our friendships and group activities.
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