“Vital Signs”

November 3, 2024

“Vital Signs”

John 3:1-10

Heart of the Rockies Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

David A. Shirey

First of all, Thank you, Heart of the Rockies, for inviting Jennie and me to come alongside you during this interim period. It’s an honor and I know it’s going to be a pleasure.  I’m counting on that and you can count on my giving you my all during these months.

And thank you, I guess, for telling me several weeks ago what I should preach on my first two weeks: stewardship. It’s every preacher’s dream to have their first two sermons bookend a contentious presidential election and the topic be stewardship! Thanks a lot. In all seriousness, though, I welcome the opportunity to speak on stewardship. I know Melissa did and now she’s our Disciples of Christ Minister for Faith and Giving. We’re blessed to be a blessing, invited to give of our time, talent, and treasure to join in God’s redeeming purposes in this world. So, count Jennie and me in for a tithe of our compensation in these months with you. I can’t invite you to do something I’m not doing.  

You told me to preach on stewardship and added, “On your first Sunday, preach on the theme of vitality.” I’m happy to do that. Vitality is the reason I’m here. Your vitality. You’re known as a vital congregation. I want to be part of a congregation that is alive.

You’d expect vitality from a church that has Heart in the middle of its name. So how do you measure a heart’s vitality? We speak of vital signs – Body temperature. Pulse rate. Respiration rate. Blood pressure. But how do you measure a church’s vitality? Can’t stick a thermometer into Heart of the Rockies. Can’t put a blood pressure cuff around your upper arm and two fingers on your wrist to check your heart. How do you measure a congregation’s vitality? One way is to measure worship attendance, budget, baptisms, new members. But I think those numbers are but fruits of much deeper sources of vitality.  If the deeper vital signs are there, all the numbers will take care of themselves. 

So, what are those vital signs? I think a few of them are evidenced in Nicodemus’ visit with Jesus. For instance, one sure sign of a congregation’s vitality is its being a place where lives are changed. Transformed. Jesus said to Nicodemus “I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Some translations have “born anew.” The KJV translates it “You must be born again.” The Greek word, the language the NT came to us in, is ἄνωθεν (an'-o-then) and it means… well, nobody’s quite sure: born again/anew/from above? I think Jesus was telling Nicodemus that if someone comes to the living God as revealed in Jesus Christ with an open heart, mind, and soul, they will over time be changed. For the better. For the good. A sign of a vital congregation is it’s a place where lives are changed.  

Is this that kind of place? You say you are. It says on your website that your vision is Loving God. Serving others. Changing lives (and hey, if it’s on the internet, it must be true). You’re all about Changing lives, huh? To the point you painted it above your doors for all to see as you head out into this world of God’s creating and redeeming. You’re all about Changing lives?

I ask because we’re skeptical about just how much people can be changed. Think about it. We say: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” “She’s set in her ways.” “He’s hard-headed. You’re wasting your time trying to get through to him.” “It's just the way I am. I'm too old to change.” Jesus told Nicodemus he must be born anothen/anew/again/from above and you’ve painted Changing lives on the internet and above your doors, but many people harbor doubts that deep-seated attitudes, habits, dispositions, worldviews – hearts – can be changed.   

In his book The Life You've Always Wanted, John Ortberg tells of a member of a church he served named Hank. "Hank," he writes, "was a cranky guy. He was once a cranky young guy, and he grew up to be a cranky old man.” Ortberg wrote:

But even more troubling than his lack of change was the fact that nobody was surprised by it…  No church consultants were called in.  No emergency meetings were held to probe the strange case of this person who had lived his entire life as part of a church and yet was nontransformed.  No one was surprised that over time he had not become more and more like Jesus.  No one assumed that each year would find him a more compassionate, joyful, gracious, winsome personality. No one anticipated that Hank was on his way to becoming a source of delight and courtesy who overflowed with "rivers of living water."  So we weren't at all surprised when it didn't happen.  We would have been surprised if it did.  (John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted)

Would Hank’s life have been changed if he’d been a member of Heart of the Rockies?  Has your life been changed here? Could you provide a witness that could testify on your behalf, who could say, “I’ve known so-and-so for years and I can tell you, she’s a different woman, he’s a different man today, than s/he was. His life/her life has been changed as a result of following Jesus, Loving God, and Serving Others at Heart of the Rockies.” I’ll take you at your word that lives are changed here and trust that my life, which is still on the potter’s wheel fifty-two years after the day of my baptism, will be changed for the good and for God during these months with you. One sign of a vital congregation is its capacity to change lives.       

Here’s another one: Is this a place where seekers are welcome? Where it’s okay to ask questions? The Scripture says Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a teacher, a respected leader of the Jewish people “came to Jesus by night” (vs. 2) with some questions. I point this out because in some churches the word question is a four-letter word, as if it’s some kind of sin to ask a question. Questions = doubt.  Doubt = bad.  Therefore, questions = bad. I had a friend I grew up with from 7th grade through high school. I saw Eric years ago at a reunion. We got caught up on what we were doing and Eric said, “Dave, I haven’t been to church for a long time.”

“What happened?”

“Well, I was going through confirmation class. We were being taught all kinds of things about the Bible, about faith, about what Christians believe. For the first time in my life I got to thinking, really thinking about everything they were saying, and I had some questions. So I asked them.” 

“And?”  

“And after one of the classes I was told, ‘You ask too many questions.’ And when I got home, I told my mother and she said, ‘Why don’t you just believe what you’re told?’”

Maybe that's why Nicodemus “came to Jesus by night" (John 3:1).  He had questions and somewhere along the line somebody made him feel ashamed to ask them. But he was drawn to the rabbi from Galilee. So, he waited until the sun went down, looked both ways to make sure nobody was looking, and set off to see Jesus and ask him some questions.

Please note: when Nicodemus had a question, he didn’t walk away from Jesus but to him. As if he sensed that Jesus wouldn’t chastise him for asking a question but rather would spend time with him discussing and answering it. Which is precisely what Jesus did. So, don't ever let anybody tell you it's wrong to ask questions. Big questions. Good questions. God questions. Our Risen Lord wants to be known by us. And if our coming to know Jesus better and believe in him more fully requires our asking probing, prodding, pointed questions, bring 'em on. "Go ahead," Jesus says, "Ask whatever you want." It seems to me you know that at Heart of the Rockies. This is a Questions Welcome Zone. It seems to me Nicodemus could come here in broad daylight on a Sunday or any day mid-week to ask questions without fear of being shushed or shamed. Being a safe and welcoming place for seekers with questions is a vital sign of a congregation.  

And I hasten to add one more vital sign I see in Nicodemus’ visit to Jesus: Do you have a healthy sense of holy curiosity? Do you endlessly wonder what God may be up to in your life, in this church, in Fort Collins, in the United States of America, in this world of God’s making and redeeming? Nicodemus, bless his heart, went to Jesus because he felt deep down in the depths of his soul that God was up to something in this carpenter’s son from Nazareth. He was curious. So, he went to take a look for himself. Do you have that kind of holy curiosity wondering what God’s up to and how you can join in? Twenty plus years ago, Jennie and I were planting a new church in Phoenix. We met in an elementary school for eight years. Every Sunday, we’d set up the elementary school cafeteria, then we’d go back into the art room and pray for the day’s worship. As we left, just as we crossed the threshold of the classroom and entered our makeshift sanctuary, my dear brother in Christ, Eph Calbert, whose stature was about a foot shorter than mine and whose complexion was deeper, would say “Pastor, what’s God gonna do today?”

I ask you: is Heart of the Rockies a place where lives can be changed, questions are welcomed, and its members wake up each day with a holy curiosity born of the belief that God is gonna do something today for the good, the better, the best? If so, then your vital signs are good and the annual stewardship campaign means we’re all given the privilege and pleasure of being part of a congregation whose ministry and mission enhances the vitality of its members as well it neighbors from Heartside Hill to the ends of the earth. 

As I drove down this morning to worship with you for the first time, I heard an echo of Eph’s voice, “What’s God gonna do in these interim months, Pastor?” I don’t know Eph, but I’m blessed to be here. To the point I brought with me a gift my youngest daughter gave me upon my retirement two years ago. It’s a coffee cup. The sentiment printed on it fits my prayer for this Sunday as we commence striving together to be good stewards of a vital congregation committed to changing lives, inviting questions, and living with a holy curiosity. It reads: Let the adventure begin. 

Let all God’s people say AMEN