The following is the text of the sermon preached Tuesday, July 1, by David Wine. The text was submitted to the Annual Conference Office in mid-June and may have been modified for the actual presentation. David Wine Focus: Count Well the Cost Title: "Count Well the Cost" Scripture: Luke 14:25-35 1997 Church of the Brethren Annual Conference Long Beach, California July 1, 1997 The prognosis is in. The Church of the Brethren is running a fever. It is not a fatal fever ....yet! But, if left unchecked it will grow worse and we could die! But, more importantly, even the fever we are running is reducing the effectiveness of our ministries in continuing the work of Jesus and living out the call to be the body of Christ. Here are the symptoms: 1. We are being dominated by issues and labels rather than faithfulness! It seems at times that it is more important to be liberal, conservative, right, left, Republican, Democrat, inclusive supporting, or evangelical than it is to be Brethren and, more importantly to be a disciple of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! 2. We have become distrustful of one another and often dominated by negativity! We used to turn to church leadership in order to seek the truth in the midst of so many secular voices. Now we too often listen to secular voices and try and turn Brethren leadership towards those voices. 3. We are a church that has forgotten the gift of communication and Matthew 18. We too often talk past each other than to each other! Too many persons try to use Annual Conference as the place to gain identity or gain recognition over and against who they perceive their antagonists to be rather than following the teachings of Matthew 18 which challenges us to go directly to those who we have a grieviance towards. 4. We have become a people terribly ignorant of our church structure. That has caused too many to write to the wrong persons or body within the church expressing their concerns. It is very important we understand who is responsible for what as that makes our communication much more effective and helpful. We owe it to our ministry to take the necessary time and make the necessary effort to learn these basic structures. 5. Most important of all - we are become a people of faith prone to one of the deadliest sins of all - SLOTH - or laziness towards those things of the faith. The early church leaders always listed this in their deadly sins and often it was listed first! We are not counting the cost of our faith - a hundred and one other things are crowding out our commitment to Christ. Complacency has set in. The average American spends over three hours a day watching TV, over thirty hours a week is spent on sports and recreation. Are Brethren any different? A recent study showed a little over 17% of Americans turn to their Bibles on a daily basis. Brethren were only a fraction of one percent better. Yet we call ourselves a people of the book whose creed is the New Testament!! Labels, issues, definitive answers, distrust, individualism, and sloth have led to our fever. We must count the cost of our faith again. The words of William Barclay ring out: "It is a Christian's first duty to count the cost of following Christ." Here's my prescription for greatness in our faith again - the same four things I have been saying to you throughout the church all year. I. Have to Count the Cost of Our Spiritual Fitness This is job one and is the foundation for our faith walk with Christ. All that we are and all that we do as Christians is built upon our spiritual foundation. I love to garden and farm. But it is not the easiest thing to do in the heavy clay soils of Kansas where I live. The last thing I can do is just throw out some seed and hope it grows. No, if I’m to have an abundant harvest I have to prepare a seed bed (and sometimes that means working with the soil for several years to break up the hard clay), I have to water, fertilize, weed, mulch. Only then, after all that preparation and work can I begin to expect results and fruit. Spiritual fitness is spiritual gardening!!!! -prepare a seed bed -fertilize and water -plant seeds -weed -nurture Our spiritual lives are like a delicate garden, that if not properly maintained will be quickly overrun by weeds and disorder. And God does not often walk in disordered gardens!!! It is the difference in KNOWING GOD, NOT JUST KNOWING ABOUT GOD!!!! A few years ago I was driving along one of the large "beltways" that circle our large cities in the East on my way to the airport, still some 22 miles away. It was ten lanes of bumper to bumper traffic barely moving when a buzzer alarm went off in my car. I looked all around to see what was the matter and then noticed it was my LOW FUEL LIGHT! It's interesting,( at least now it's interesting!), to reflect on my emotions: First, I was in disbelief that this could be happening. But disbelief soon gave way to panic and frustration. But quickly that turned to blaming and anger -first at myself that I could be so foolish and forgetful. But I also soon began to blame the church I had just come from, "If only they wouldn't have asked those last few questions, I would have had more time, and I would have remembered to fuel up. It's their fault!" I would suggest to us that these same emotions happen to us and rule us when our spiritual tanks are on empty. We become disbelieving, angry, frustrated, blaming people! Only when our tanks are full can we be the persons God calls us to be - forgiving, loving, searching out the best for one another. Have to make sure our spiritual tanks are full. It's our first order of business!! II. Have to Count the Cost of Keeping the Spiritual and Service components of our faith interwoven together And that is what has been so right with the Brethren faith!!! We believe in a cross and a resurrection; two great commandments; anabaptism and pietism!! strong inner devotional life coupled with service let’s now lose that vision. It is more needed in our world than ever before!!! A few years ago I was flying from Kansas City to Manhattan, KS in a small commuter plane. We had a young pilot - looked to be barely eighteen in my eyes! I was in the co-pilot's seat and four other passengers were in the twin engine craft as well. On the way to Manhattan one of the two engines quit! It was a very windy day in Kansas (yes, sometimes it's not windy!!) and I knew without both engines a landing could be "fun!" The pilot never said a word but as I looked at him I noticed he was covered with sweat and I knew this wasn't good! Even with the strong side wind and one engine the pilot did a masterful job of hitting the runway as desired. But with only one engine's power we hit the runway as much sideways as we did forward. As such, we bounced hard and the next time we hit ground we were in the grass, we bounced again and went over a chain link fence and ended up in the parking lot area for cars!! The pilot never said a word and let us out on the automobile side of the terminal!! You see, the plane could not fly a true and accurate course and could not account for the difficulties of wind with only one engine. It takes both. It also takes both, a strong inner devotional life and an outer, service life to be Christ's disciples. Brethren have always been the strongest when they have kept these two pieces together in a both/and context not an either/or. It is not one against the other! Is both together and made stronger by their interwovenness! Mother Teresa has said several times, "Pray for me that I not loosen my grip on the hands of Jesus even under the guise of ministering to the poor." he understands how difficult it can be to achieve the balance we are calling for! III. Count the Cost of Being Vulnerable Third, we must count the cost of being vulnerable with one another. VULNERABILITY is a great virtue - similar to humility but it goes even deeper. It means listening; learning; partnership; seeing things through the lenses of others. Letting ourselves be vulnerable is often tied up in life's most embarrassing moments - and we all have them, don't we?!! Early in my ministry I was invited to give the prayers at our school's commencement. The first thing I did was say, "let's stand for the benediction.". I was known early on as a person who likes to quickly get to the bottom line!! Our local newspaper editor was the speaker that day and he wrote a ramblings column -yes, I made the news. Later that year, I was asked to give the Christmas message at the local Rotary Club. This was a big deal with all the business leaders of the community in attendance. I gave the address and thought it went well. Jana, my wife, decided she would be helpful to me and move my chair at the table when I was done so that I could get in easier. I didn't notice and you can guess the rest of the story. I missed the chair as I sat down and literally lay on the floor with everyone looking at me. And whose eyes were looking down at me at the next chair -the local editor's!! Yes, I made his ramblings column again!! You and I know that at first those experiences were NOT funny - they were painful!! But you know what, it really feels good to laugh at oneself - to allow oneself to be vulnerable and realize one's imperfections! Have you ever considered the world we live in - how diverse it is!! No two snowflakes are alike! No sand pebble is exactly the same yet there are billions! And now astronomers tell us there may be as many stars as their are grains of sand and not one exactly like the other!! I don't know about you but for over forty years I've been looking and, you know what, I’ve never yet found someone exactly like me - who believed just the way I do!! Could it be God's plan to have such diversity? This would make a tremendous difference! Instead of spending so much time and energy trying to mold one another into likeness - we could celebrate diversity and spend more time searching out what God is revealing about the divine through that person!! Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not suggesting an "anything goes" mentality towards our faith. I think we need to be extremely clear whose we are and who it is we serve - Our Lord Jesus Christ. But beyond that, wouldn't it be nice if we could learn to grow from our differences rather than letting them divide us! It think today I DON’T KNOW!!!! are three of the most beautiful words in our vocabulary and we all ought to learn to say them more. We ought to allow ourselves to be a church of questions as well as answers! THE BIG SURPRISE IN THE BIBLE.... is that those who thought they knew the answer didn’t and those who didn’t think they did had the answer. IV. Count the cost of being A COMMUNITY! In the Bible, immorality goes far beyond just lust or immoral living. It involves the very core of our relationship with God. Immorality is any issue in which we are tempted to "do it my way!" Brethren way IS to see that each individual might not have the Truth! To get at the truth TAKES A GROUP PROCESS Our Brethren belief is: 1. Tested first by each individual but if questions still exist it is 2. Confirmed by the congregation, and then 3. Confirmed by the district, and finally (which is why we're here) 4. Confirmed by Annual Conference This process and structure is not put into place for structure's sake. It is there for us as Brethren because it embodies what we believe about ourselves, our relationship to one another, and our relationship to God. We believe the Holy Spirit speaks more accurately through a group than through only one or a few individuals. I attend many business seminars. At a recent seminar the trainer drew a line down the middle of the room and asked us to line up face to face with one person on each side of the line. He gave us instructions that the purpose of the exercise was to get the persons across from each other to convince the other, without force, to cross over to their side of the line. Boy, you should have heard our threats and promises. We promised dinners, money, theater tickets, you name it! But after a few minutes none of us had succeeded in moving the other to our side of the line. Our instructor sent us back to our seats and then made the observation that in some countries he does this exercise in, participants catch on quickly and simply say, "If you'll cross the line, so will I." They exchange places and both win! But we are so used to winning/losing, being number one that we can't think in both/and or win/win language. We are at our best when we help all parties win, when we are centered on each other rather than ourselves!! CONCLUDING THOUGHTS: We have a fever! More importantly, we have a cost crisis - although we have heard alot about cost crisis from a money point of few - my analysis says our greatest cost crisis is found in what possesses us. In the scripture Jesus says we must give up all our possessions in order to be his follower. A deeper reading of that scripture would challenge us to give up all that possesses us, other than Christ. What is it that stands in the way of giving our whole self to Christ Jesus? Is it power, money, sports, recreation, TV, labels, issues? I challenge us as Brethren to count the cost of our faith again!! Let's have passion, enthusiasm and zeal for our faith. Let's give up all that possesses us other than Christ Jesus! Let's have a fire in our bellies but get rid of the fever in our bodies! Hear again the words of our early Brethren. Hear again the words of our early church leaders who called persons away from SLOTH. Jesus said we are like salt - but if it loses it taste (read runs a fever) it is no longer good for anything but to be thrown onto the manure pile and trodden under foot (read die). May we as Brethren count the cost of our faith again and become some of the saltiest Christians this world has ever known!!! David Wine is serving as 1997 Annual Conference moderator. He is president of Mutual Aid Association of the Church of the Brethren, Abilene, Kan. To order an audio tape ($4.95) or video tape ($15.95) of this sermon, contact Brethren Press at 800 441-3712 or Brethren.Press.parti@Ecunet.Org. 1997 Church of the Brethren Annual Conference, Long Beach, Calif. July 1, 1997