Brown's Daily Word 9-19-11

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this new day in His Kingdom. He blessed us with a full weekend of ministry, fellowship, and worship. One of our ministry teams prepared and served meals at the First United Methodist Church, Endicott, Saturday noon. It is always a great blessing to break bread in the Name of our Lord. I performed a wedding for young couple Saturday afternoon and then we gathered for our Saturday Evening worship at 6:30 PM that evening. I use the wedding ceremony and celebration to offer Christ and the way He performs miracles of grace in a marriage where He is invited to be the Lord and Savior. The Good News of marriage is that almost 60% of all marriages last for ever. Thank you Jesus.. Furthermore, statistically, married people live longer than the single people. The death rate among the singles is almost double at earlier ages than that for those who are married. The moral of the story is that it is better wed than dead..
The Gospel Reading for yesterday was taken from Mathew 20:1 ff.. In this parable Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner that went out and hired workers for his vineyard. Some he hired early in the day, telling them that he would pay them the usual daily wage. He went back at various times of the day and found more workers waiting to be hired. Each time he hired those that were there, telling them that he would pay them what was right.
At the end of the day the landowner came to pay the workers. He began with the ones most recently hired and he paid them the usual daily wage. That excited the ones who had been there all day. They thought that surely if he paid the late ones that much he obviously would pay them even more for all their hard work. Their excitement was short lived. In fact, they were pretty upset when they got the same pay working all day as what people got who only worked an hour. When the landowner heard them grumbling, he tried to explain that he wasn’t unfair at all. He gave them what they had agreed upon, but it was his money and he could be generous if that is what he chose to do.
What the landowner did know about is grace. The workers that came at the end of the day didn’t get what they deserved; they got mercy. That is grace. Of course in the parable the landowner is God, the workers are us, and the pay is the kingdom of heaven. As we study this parable, we can quickly see that it is about grace. First of all, the parable indicates that grace is to be received, not deserved. For all of us who are people of faith, we know that we do not deserve God’s grace. Nothing that we can do will put us in a position of deserving God’s grace. All we can do is receive the gift that God offers to us.
David Seamands ( who has entered the Eternal City now) ends his book "Healing Grace" with this story. For more than six hundred years the Hapsburgs exercised political power in Europe. When Emperor Franz-Josef I of Austria died in 1916, his was the last of the extravagant imperial funerals. A processional of dignitaries and elegantly dressed court personages escorted the casket, draped in the black and gold imperial colors. To the accompaniment of a military band’s somber dirges and by the light of torches, the somber group descended the stairs of the Capuchin Monastery in Vienna. At the bottom was a great iron door leading to the Hapsburg family crypt. Behind the door was the Cardinal-Archbishop of Vienna.
The officer in charge followed the prescribed ceremony, established centuries before. “Open!” he cried. “Who goes there?” responded the Cardinal. “We bear the remains of his Imperial and Apostolic Majesty, Franz-Josef I, by the grace of God Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Defender of the faith…” the officer continued to list the Emperor’s thirty-seven titles. “We know him not,” replied the Cardinal. “Who goes there?” The officer spoke again, this time using a much abbreviated and less ostentatious title reserved for times of expediency. “We know him not,” the Cardinal said again. “Who goes there?” The officer tried a third time, stripping the emperor of all but the humblest of titles: “We bear the body of Franz-Josef, our brother, a sinner like us all!” At that the doors swung open, and Franz-Josef was admitted.
No matter who we are, what titles we have, or how much we have, none of it can open the way to God’s grace. Grace is given freely. It is left for us to openly receive that grace.
Second, God’s grace is about mercy, not about fairness. What would have been fair would be to pay the later workers less that the daily wage or pay those who had worked all day more than the daily wage. That would be fair. When we talk about grace, however, it is about something different than fairness. It is about mercy. God loves us and mercifully gives us more than we deserve.
Christian financial consultant and author Larry Burkett ( who has also entered the Eternal City), told in "Business by the Book" about going the extra mile, going beyond fairness. In 1984 he leased an office in a building that proved to be a nightmare. The foundation had not been properly constructed, and the office building was literally sinking several inches a year into the ground. After more than three years of putting up with assorted problems, including power failures and several weeks without water, Burkett moved his business to another location.
Two months later Burkett received a call from his former landlord who demanded that Burkett remodel and repaint his former office space. Burkett said no, feeling he had already been more than fair with the landlord, but the former landlord continued to call with his demands. Burkett consulted an attorney who agreed that Burkett had fulfilled his responsibility and should not do anything further.
Burkett went on to say that his son offered him some different counsel. The son reminded Burkett that the landlord and his wife had lost their only child a few years earlier and still suffered from that tragedy. Burkett had often commented that he would like to help them. The son suggested that this might be an opportunity to do just that by not doing what was fair, but what was merciful. Burkett said he considered that and had to agree with the conclusion. He decided to commit several thousand dollars to restore a virtually non-usable building. That is going beyond fair, to merciful. It is exactly what God’s grace is all about.
Third, God’s grace is for the last as well as the first. It is easy for us to say that we deserve more because we are the people who have been faithful. God doesn’t work that way. Today and everyday God wants a relationship with everyone, from those hired first thing in the morning to those that only managed to put in an hour at the end of the day. That is what Grace is all about.
In His Grace,
Brown


http://youtu.be/SHBG7NfZF0w

http://youtu.be/UvYIjFtPQEk



Please pray for our upcoming ministry events:


We will be back to our Wednesday schedule, including Bible study, fellowship, and prayer, starting September 14, 2011. We meet with a meal at 6 PM, with the Bible study beginning at 6:30 PM. We began a 4 week study on the theme, "Why? Making Sense of God's Will", by Adam Hamilton. Topics include, "Why Do the Innocent Suffer?", Why Do My Prayers Go Unanswered?", "Why Can't I See God's Will for My Life?", and "Why God's Love Prevails". Following the completion of this study we will be using Rick Warren's study, "Forty Days of Love". This will lead us to the beginning of the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. More information will follow in the church newsletter.

Please mark your calendar for our prayer conference, which will begin on Friday, October 14 and continue through Sunday morning, October 16.
The Keynote Speaker: Kelly Johnson from Memphis, TN.
The Prayer Team will include: Sunita and Andy, Rob and Jenn, and Meredith from Washington, DC.

The tentative schedule follows:
Friday, October 14 at 6 PM - opening session at Union Center UMC
Saturday, October 15, 9 AM - noon - concert of prayer at UCUMC
The Prayer teams will be available to pray for people for salvation, restoration, healing, deliverance...
Saturday, 5:30 PM - banquet at First UMC, 53 McKinley Ave., Endicott
6:30 PM worship service, including an open invitation to pray at the altar following the worship service. I invite you to be a part of the prayer team during that time.
Sunday morning worship at 8:30 and 11 AM. at UCUMC Kelly Johnson will be preaching. There will be a time for prayer / a concert of prayer

Saturday, September 24 at 6:30 PM (Coffee Fellowship at 6 PM) at First United Methodist Church, 53 McKinley Avenue in Endicott.
Our youth will be attending the Word of Life Superbowl at the arena and other sites on November 4 & 5.
Our annual Thanksgiving Banquet will be held on Saturday, November 19.
The Russian Men's Ensemble will be in concert on December 3.
We are planning for a trip to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Extravaganza on December 6, leaving here at 6 AM, spending the day in NYC, and attending the show at 5 PM. There are optional sites to visit, including the Ground Zero 9/11 Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. The trip costs $90 per person, including the bus ticket and a ticket to the show. Anyone who wants to reserve a spot on the bus should make their check payable to Union Center United Methodist Church, memo "Radio City Christmas Extravaganza".
September 18, we will go back onto the regular schedule with services at both 8:30 and 11 AM and Sunday School at 9:50 AM. Wesley will resume meeting at 9:30 AM.
Here at Union Center- Wesley- Endicott, we focus on " World as our Parish"., We remind ourselves that we serve under a captain who has never lost a battle. Jesus Christ the Head of the Church is Faithful. We are invited to embrace 7 holy habits of Christian faithfulness. We are called to FOCUS on our prayer life, our relationship with Christ, reading the Bible, faithful worship attendance, financial gifts to Christ and His Church,, serving Jesus with our hands, and sharing the good news of His Great Redemption,with others. May Christ be praised.